ORSI conf IIT Bombay Dec 2018

Self, (ext L) Sundaravalli PhD-IIMA (centre), Mangesh PhD-IITB 
(2nd from L)
and Jayan PhD-IITB (ext right) with GURU Prof. Narayan Rangaraj 
PhD-Johns Hopkins (red shirt)
- Meeting after 18 years ,...

The student volunteers

Slowly I trekked to the main building in IITB from the Main gate, carrying with me loads of expectations. Memories of 20 years came gushing back.

On the morning of 16 Dec 2018 here I was coming straight from Mumbai airport to IITB classroom for the pre-conference tutorials. Fresh air and great expectations. True as the standards of IITB are and were, the pre-conf tutorials were excellent.  

It was great to be back at my alma mater during 16-19 December 2018 for an ORSI conf. Met my M Tech friends Sundaravally (now faculty in IIMA) and Mangesh with TCS .. Both have completed their PhD too.. Jayan Moorkanat, my 2 years PhD senior has transformed into an entrepreneur and I wish him all the best in his career. 

It was great meeting my thesis Supervisors Prof. Narayan Rangaraj (NR) and Prof. N. Hemachandra. 

 As feedback is an important aspect for growth and development, here is my brief feedback about the conference. 

Prof. Rangaraj leading the final panel discussion

1. The conf was very well managed in terms of high quality content delivery, 

2. Great heavy discussions and 

3. Very effective and proper time management. 

4. Kudos to the students cultural team for a memorable cultural evening too.

Good show by Prof. Jayendran and team for smoothly managing this conference. Wishing Jayendran more applause for future events too. Food quality and variety was great !! 

The student cultural events presentation was a class by itself. Reminded me of my IITB around '98  when we used to run around organising events and cultural evenings for the RSF.. 

With my Supervisors Prof. NR(l) and N Hemachandra (c)

There were interesting topics which I wanted to attend but happened in parallel with other sessions and hence had to miss it. 

Yes, guilty of doing OR !! (late realisaton !!)

Can we think of some strategy whereby participants could benefit from the parallel presentations, which he/she could not attend.? Some brainstorming could be done about it. 

Also one thing IITB really needs to be grateful to its alumni, is the well maintained and managed Victor Menezes Convention Centre (click here for more info on VMCC). 

Very comfortable and a perfect setting for high quality International Conferences.  

Victor Menezes, '70 Electrical engg BTech, after graduating from IITB went to MIT and retired as the Sr. VP for Citibank. He made a generous $3 million, (app INR 20 crores) which made the VMCC facility possible. Were it not for his magnanimity, VMCC would not have come up at all..   

Victor Menezes  (IITB '70) will be remembered forever ..
Thank you Sir !!

One thing that caught my attention as different from earlier times was the stress on reducing wastage. I was specifically asked beforehand through a google doc which all food sessions I will be taking, so that food waste could be minimised. Also our badges after the conference were collected so that we would not throw it around and cause an ecological problem. 

Overall the conference was well managed, had lot of high quality discussions and presentations, talks etc from experts from the field. 

Time well spent.. 

George..