Sunday 31 May 2009

First Day in to class - 31st May 2009

Its true that you do not relize the importance of a person or material as long as its with you. I experianced and realised the importance of such thing over last 15 days and still not able to forget it. Truth is somebody picked up my bike few days back, hope he is enjoying it :) as I did. Now, bike is not with me thigs are getting tougher now. I started to think office is much far away than usual, days are getting smaller and some things are really eating up my usual time. This may be my way of thinking or perception or too much dependent on bike commute, whatever it is but it's true.

I have to catch the Banashankari bus to reach Jayanagar east end and from there walk for 500 metres to reach SAN IT solutions near Tilaknagar main road, this is where our MS classes will be held. But that 500 metre turned out to be 2KM, so next time better to catch one more bus from east end. Today, i was late by 20 minutes to class. Class was already started, just entered the hall realised the whole class is full and all the seats were occupied except the first row. I never like to sit in the first bench, even during my college/school days. Thats because I dont like to show my sleepy face to the Prof. But today no options except the first bench.

Dr Shivanand Handigund was taking the software engineering class, but it took almost 2hrs to realise its a OOSD subject, I got confused with Project Management and OOSD. Even friend of mine who was sitting side by, after the lecturer was over about 3-4 hours he asked me "Is it OOSD or Project Management subject? Do you know?" No surprise he asked me that question. It happens when somebody hate those two subjects, I did hate them even during BE final semester. But still managed to top the subject in the class :).

Dr Shivanand Handigund did his Mtech and Phd from IIT Bombay (its now Mumbai, but prof or most still like to call Bombay). His teaching methodology (oosd term) is quite good, and most probabably he explains each term by giving example and thos example most likely related to the current education system rather than software engineering. So, we can learn much more about how the education system works :) But, he is really goood in giving examples and accepting the fault so we can call him self more reliable (he just took this example to exaplain what is realiability?) :).

After this OOSD class from 9Am to 12:30 PM, now comes the one more most interesting subject :) Software Project Management. This was conducted by Prof Priya, who got almost 9 years industry experience as project manager and 5 years in teaching. This is the second batch in Manipal she is handling similiar subject. (by the way mine is 5th A batch). The way she puts up the examples, use cases and software terms one can easily say she has got enough work experiance in the software field. She is really good in communicating the subject and making sure they understand it. She normally takes her previous experiances and puts them as example to understand the current topic.

So final class and more fun oriented was Data structure from Prof Keshav Murthy, who works for BIT. He is more interactive, enthu and sense of humour. Prof even cracked few jokes and I guess that was necessary if you are handling last class of the day that too during sunday.

There is always a learning, during my GATE classes I have learnt many new things and even understood more clearly the known matters. But, now in MS classes also I can realise that its the new learning curve.

"You never stop learning. If you have a teacher, you never stop being a student." - Elisabeth Rohm.

Sunday 24 May 2009

Orientation Program - 24th May 2009

After waiting or better to say wasting 3 years to start my higher education, finally got admission in to Manipal University for MS in Computer Science program. First thing one could ask me, why did u choose MS from Manipal and why not BITS?? My answer is simple, since i want to obtain Phd at some point in later (may be 5 years...or even 10 y down the line) subjects covered in Manipal are much suited and gives proper credits to your Phd program or else even after finishing ur MS, u might have to get extra credits in case if you choose BITS. Its totally from my view point....i would put extra **conditions apply on top of these statements :) Here is the link to program details - http://www.corporateprograms.manipal.edu/index.htm

Day I got mail from Mavis DCruz to attend the orientation program on sunday 24th May 2009, it was bit surprise...no body expected that the orientation program would be held in Hospital :) When I reached Manipal Hospital around 10:05 AM, i could see few students waiting outside the hospital compound, so surprised to enter the hospital premises. I just went to a near by SBI ATM and withdrew some money since you never now when the private institutes demand :) not true in all cases. Mail from Mavis DCruz mentioned about the security measures in manipal hospital and once i entered the mail gate and even the reception no body even cares who you are. What you are carrying? except a small metal detecter near the entrance. I am nost sure why one would require such security arrangements even for Hospitals?? May be due to recent Mumbai attack. They even didnt spare hospitals....thats ****.

Its true that the world is small, u tend to meet same people over the time even though departed long time. Near the entrance I could see a person in surpised emotions and wondering to find the conference hall. I just got a hint and asked him.."searching for conference hall??" and Yes was the answer. We just had a small introduction and his name is Harsha. And on the way to find the conference hall in the ground floor we just had extended introduction and finally we zeroed down to same college :) that is BEC - we both studied in the same college except he is 3 years junior to me and he said there were around 5 students from my college got admission to MS program in Manipal, that will be really nice to see my college friends around along with new faces.

We reached the conference hall and there it is around 100-120 students. Mr Rajendra Joshi and Mavis DCruz welcoming students and handing over the welcome kit. I just sat near to a young man who looked serious and studios. He took almost 10 minutes to start the conversation, since even i didnt wanted to disturb his study. Other two guys sitting on the right side were bit surprised about the orientation program being held in Hospital. I too had small chat with all the three guys and Mr Ravindra was the guys i was talking about...serious and studios.

Orientation program was introduced by Mavis DCruz and followed by Mr S Bhat who gave extended introduction about Manipal University, history, its verious programs and state of the art facilities. One more professior(just trying to recollect his name) gave introduction to the MS program and its evaluation systems. One this is done, there was a Qustion and answer session as usual. Few guys asked some basic questions like - what is the difference between MS and Mtech? science and Technology? Prof Bhat gave few examples and got there questions cleared. He said "Technology involves process and not the science, so we have civil engineering and not the civil technology....." here is the wiki answer for the same question
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_science_and_technology_and_engineering

somebody asked "Does this course UGC aproved?" I am not sure why somebody should ask this question at this stage since he should have done that simple research before joining this course.

And finally one girl had a doubt and she even said its a simple question - "Why do we call Manipal university as MAHE?"

After all these questions we had a small hospitallity in hospital of tea and snacks. Me and Ravindra had a extended chat about current work, why would we choose this program? etc etc etc. So, by the time we finished chatting every one started leaving the conference hall. I had few doubts about the credit system and got it cleared from one of the professor. And finally left the conference hall to catch the bus back to home.....and by this my first day was over and to summarise got a feeling of going back to college, chit chatting........I hope to get more fun as we go further in to class rooms :) Bye for now.