This is the last blog of mine on this chronicle of sessions organized in the Careerz '05 (the first time ever Career Fest in the history of IIT Kharagpur). It is really a commendable start-up, so to speak. The last session was on the 'Research Oppotunities in India'. Mr. Manu Kuchhal, Software professional from IBM Software Group and Prof. Soumitro Bannerjee (faculty in the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, IIT-KGP, who was honoured with Shantiswarup Bhatnagar Award in 2003) chaired the session. The former talked about the "SOA(Service Oriented Architecture)". That was highly technical and audience was supposedky from Computer Science background. The other one was on 'IT career opportunities in IBM'. He mainly talked about the scopes of a software professional in the Indian silicon arena. Be it hardware or software. It was good indeed to listen to him...but under the belt there was feeling of uneasiness. May be because of the technical jargons which we normally like to keep off from.
In the following interactive discussion with Prof. Bannerjee, he talked about the pros and cons of going to abroad, and his personal experiences in top universities in USA. He made it a point that IITs are far better than most of the US universities except a few, may be except top rung consisting of 25 univs. Yes that is true, as per as senior feedback and usnews go. But he also mentioned that we lack the 'research-group' culture here and we have other monetary constraints. However, research is much more enjoyable and fulfilling in India as there is ample freedom in IITs compared to US prof.s who are more busy in collecting their funds themselves there. Prof. Bannerjee talked about involving undergraduates in the research programs currently practised by univs in abroad.(cited example of UROP-Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program, in MIT) In the end he clarified the role of a good research supervisor and how can he help in aligning his student searching for a solution of a feasible problem, in the desired track.
Overall, it was a good experience to listen to multi-faceted people from different walks of life. I think this workshop will definitely help us in broadenning our views and understanding our career goals and aspirations with more clarity. My personal vote of thanks to Arindam, Sisir and all other organizers who untiringly worked for this workshop and made it a grand success!
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Ohh, a grand series of illuminating and enlightening lectures here. Hey, arnab da, ever thought of becoming a counselor?? Not a bad job. anyway, I can tell you one thing I did not attend any of these lectures, but this blog seems to be the repository of the essence. Thanks a lot fot all the pain you took, at least I am getting a lot educated. But, if u do not follow the technical jargon, who does??
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