Some of the Speakers at this year's Shaastra

Second after second, minute after minute, hour after hour. Time does not fly when you’re not having a ball. Each second seems like an eternity. Listening to people speak on and on with no apparent point. It’s absolutely the worst possible thing you can imagine. And yet, it is amazing when the opposite happens, when people know what they are talking about, keep it concise and witty, and keep the audience on the edge of their seats. Yes, that’s what it’s like at Shaastra. We only pull in the best of the best and we promise you that it will be anything but boring.

How do we work that one out? Well, we’ve pulled together a crew for that. Obligatory, yes, but still a crew all the same and the collective intention is to relate. What’s the point of ‘yesterday’ if it’s not going to be relived, right? Well, we’ve tried ‘contemporary’ as always cause that’s what’s really important. This isn’t a list of ‘ten reasons why you’ve got to be there’, by the way. We’ve definitely got more than that.

We’ve managed to hit a fair bit of a high on our pop-references, fought to bring the ‘in thing’ in. We figure our very own ‘Chandrayaan’ missions ought to be top three material in what’s being talked about in the scientific and technological front in India, and hence we’ve got its project director and renowned speaker Mylswamy Annadurai to give us some first-hand insight into what the mission actually means, being the breakthrough it is. And if you could brand Dan Brown as the official hype-rider, then the ‘Large Hadron Collider’ found some heavy advertisement, what with ‘Angels and Demons’ usurping the box-office for quite a while last year. But Dr. Lyndon Evans (project leader, CERN) wouldn’t want to talk about that, not in that exact sense anyway. Face it guys! Maybe it’s time to learn for real what the experiment involves, a chance for you to tell round-table study groups that you actually have an idea about it. Why would you want to miss that?! And if you can’t wait till Shaastra, then we’ve got a treat for you. He’ll be giving a talk entitled “Back to the Big Bang: the Large Hadron Collider” on the 15th of September. That’s right folks. You heard correctly. Shaastra starts early this year, and it’s going to start with a bang…a BIG bang! Don’t miss it, or you’ll be sorry.

Though we tried hard, Einstein cited ‘availability’ issues and can’t make it, but we did find a contemporary. Gerardus ‘t Hooft has a Science Fiction novel out (‘Playing with Planets’, 2008) in addition to his timeline of medals, and this Nobel Prize winner (Physics, 1999) would be the one to watch out for if in case you think of things at the sub-atomic level. Or if you’re just about ‘molecular’ or perhaps at a higher ‘cellular’ level, there’s Dr. Arup Chakraborthy (Biochemist, MIT) who said he’s only too glad to tell you about how you ‘fall, only to learn to pick yourself up’, is an analogy to the sickness that the world calls ‘Adaptive Immunity’. We do hope he thrusts some of his HIV research details into this so as to keep the world informed! And Siddhartha Srinivasa (Senior Research Scientist, Intel Labs) could probably say “Why not let a robot do it for you instead?”, our local boy (an alumnus of IIT Madras) who probably grew up with a little too much of Rosie and Irona intends to make them a reality. Dr. Vishy Poosala (CTO, Bell Labs) would only agree with him on how the world would be better off being completely ‘mobile’, probably quoting John Lennon as he says that!

All respects to Dr. B.N. Suresh, recipient of the Padma Shri (2002) and current director of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, who’d be another cherry on our Aerospace cake, having consented to take us along for a while on his epic journey, from Koppa to beyond ‘beyond’, and then we have our lineup of non-Engineering expertise. Raj Chetty, the Indian dazzler on Harvard premise (a Ben Campbell equivalent, except that he’d probably hold on to his money better!) could probably disagree on that, given he intends to sell Economics to engineering minds, with Richard B. Freeman (Labour Economist, Harvard) too, strengthening our Harvard stronghold. Alex Tabarrok competes from George Mason University, Virginia, although he’s already our official blogger of the year with his (alongside Tyler Cowen, his colleague) e-journal ‘Marginal Revolution’, a touch of inspiration at having bloggers and wannabe economists convene together. But then, once past those who teach, there’re the ones who do and do it good at that. Meet Steve Blank, retired entrepreneur and founder of the Silicon Valley in California, who isn’t just content with his success, working now to launch brighter minds to get where he is now, or maybe even beyond. And lastly, we have Nikhil Velpanur, who promises to be as daring as his website picture (see for yourself!) on his multiple endeavours in profit as well as non-profit departments.

Well, that’s about all we have to say about what we have in store for you, although they’d be telling you a whole lot more than that. And if you still think twice, if the question of ‘Why do I have to be doing this?’ is still found to be lingering on in your mind, it only means you haven’t read it right so I suggest you read this all over again. Period. If you still want more info, then check out the official page.

Pune Edition

Sampark, Pune

Shaastrarth: For the uninitiated, can you tell us what Sampark is?
Publicity: Sampark is a pre-Shaastra initiative with a bi-fold objective:
- Reaching out to students across the country and providing them with a taste of Shaastra.
- Selecting quality participants and providing them direct entry into various main events.

Shaastrarth: The first of the Sampark ’10 happened at Pune, right? Can you give us a few details?
Publicity: Yes, the first Sampark happened on 22nd August ['as promised in my application', he boasts] at the College of Engineering, Pune. We had a footfall of well over 400.

Shaastrarth: Can you tell us what events were a part of it?
Publicity: We had FOSS Conference, Shaastra Main Quiz, Aerobotics, Project-X and Robotics. All the events had plenty of enthusiastic participation.

Shaastrarth: How difficult was it to organize an event of such magnitude in a foreign city?
Publicity: Oh, honestly, it was not easy at all. COEP was chosen because of its central location and the fact that IIT Bombay used to hold its pre-TechFest event there. The management of the institute and the student working body were helpful and except a few issues (on sponsorship, arrangements and collaboration which were ironed out easily through discussions) the process was pretty smooth.
There were a few other hiccups though. Getting the Robotics arena built within the budget limits, in time, was a pain (and thanks to one M/s Shivashakti Bikes because of whom we managed to roam around Pune at night looking for a carpenter). And the Core had to work like a Vol under his own Coord. That should also tell you the manpower at our hands.

Shaastrarth:  Sounds like you had some memorable time there, painful or otherwise. Tell us more about such odd events.
Publicity: Unfortunately, we can’t recall most of the slips. Here are some we can: The problem statement of Project-X being changed from a cantilever bridge to a windmill by the sponsors without any prior intimation was a surprise to the participants and the coords alike. A tiff between the Robotics coord and another Robocon participant was ridiculous. Oh, yeah, and the way the same Robotics coord offered to help out the underprepared female team was hilarious but is understandable in hindsight. Several participants were amused to see the event coordinators crashing on the floor of the auditorium during the Vestas workshop. The dinner conundrum was a high point in itself. We divided ourselves into three groups, boarded three autos and headed to the same destination but ended up in three different parts of the city! We did manage to catch the train in time somehow.

Shaastrarth:  One thing more, why did you choose Pune and Bangalore, specifically?
Publicity: [Scratches chin for a moment] Chicks da!

Shaastrarth: Oh and yeah, stopping next at Bangalore?
Publicity: Yes! The second edition will be held in Bangalore at the Dayanand Sagar College on 19th September. We are confident of pulling off a success story there too. To the readers, we say, be there!

The Shaastrarth team thanks Pramod and Sagar, from the Publicity team, for actually answering the questions asked frankly and for trying hard to remember all the goof-ups that happened. Oh, and for organizing the event at Pune (and Bangalore), thereby making insti junta dream about a better sex-ratio at Shaastra ’10.

Overview, Pune Sampark