The PhD Journey

Another year that was...

2008-07-18T11:02:00.000-05:00

So, almost another year has gone by before I could blog about it! I dont know if this is because of how fast life is moving or because of how tardy I am in making blog posts; I guess it will always be an unsolved mystery :-) Nevertheless the time has now come for me to blog about another year that was, so brace yourself for the torrent of posts!

The year that was.......On The Rocks!

2007-07-09T15:02:00.004-05:00

For those of you who didn't know already, UIUC is home to the Krannert Center for Performing Arts, one of the best performing arts centers in the world! What is even better is that the Krannert Center has a completely student run association called the Krannert Center Student Association through which students can volunteer as ushers for all the performances at Krannert and hence watch them for free!! So ofcourse, I had to become a member of the association! :) Other than ushering, the association also organizes other things like guided tours and various student run events. One such event is "On the Rocks" a series of one act plays! Sometime in February there was a call for auditions for On the Rocks and I decided to try it out just for fun since I had never done it before! So I went to the auditions and read/acted out a few lines from a few plays in front of the directors (also students)! I also had to act like I was a dragon and a teapot! haha I personally thought I had done a horrible job and had a good laugh about it with my friends, some of whom had come to watch me audition!! Here are some pics from the audition!

After a couple of days, to my great surprise I got an email saying that I had been selected to play Mike the page boy who turns out to be the surprise hero in a play called "The Business of Dragons"! So after a couple of months of practicing two to three times a week and complete stage rehearsals for a week, we performed before reasonably sized audiences at the Krannert Center amphitheatre! It was a great experience! (Including the cast parties after the performances ;) ) Here are some pictures of the cast for The Business of Dragons!:

The year that was.......Google Games!

2007-07-09T14:33:00.001-05:00

In April Google held the first ever Google Games! The first games were ofcourse held at UIUC :) Kevin sent me and and a couple of guys from Daniels hall an email asking us whether we would be interested in forming a team and participating in the contest. Enough of us were interested and we formed our team "4 Normal Guys and the Nerd"!! It was a very diverse team consisting of Kevin (ECE PhD), Dimitris (Math PhD), Jessie (Math PhD), Lothar (Physics Grad) and me! There were three sections in the contest puzzles, wii athletics and a lego bridge building contest. We dominated the puzzle section and were the only team to solve all the puzzles! We were average in the wii athletics section and ended up 5th! The lego bridge building section was a lot of fun and we surprisingly managed to do pretty well due to a very clever design decision! Overall we ended up 2nd losing out by a whisker to "Legs Are Just Wheels with No Rims and Only One Spoke"! We received a sweatshirt, sweatband, lego watch and t-shirt for our efforts! We had a lot of fun during the games and will definitely do it again next year even though we will unfortunately be missing Lothar! Here are some pics from the games:

Doing the team dance at the opening ceremony!

Our team sign

Building the bridge! Lothar et al came up with the cleverest idea for the main columns!

Our bridge! The other teams did not appretiate the Google sign! So the judges did not consider it for the best looking section :(

Starting to load the bridge for the strongest bridge section

Our bridge remains unbroken even as the covering plates fall off!

At the closing/awards ceremony

The year that was.......Vancouver!

2007-07-09T14:10:00.001-05:00

Not very long after the snow started melting, it was time for Spring Break! Wooohoooh! A bunch of us decided to buck the trend of going south to warmer climes and went to Vancouver instead! Navi had been praising Vancouver (his hometown) all year long, so it was time to put his words to test! He was great host to us and even accommodated all of us in his home for the whole week! Thanks again Navi! In the end he was more than proven correct! Vancouver is the most beautiful city I have seen and the trip was amazing. The high point for me was skiing at Whistler (venue for the 2010 Winter Olympics)! Here are some of the pics from the trip:

Arrival terminal at the Vancouver airport

Bhangra at Navi's cousin's wedding! Balle, Balle!

At the Capilano Suspension Bridge

Amazing views....

At the waterfront in downtown Vancouver

Reuniting with the Pacific after 8 months!

Trying out absinthe!

From Stanely Park

Driving to Whistler!

All ready for some breathtaking skiing!

One of the many, many times I fell......

.......and woke up to continue until my next fall! haha

Bunny ears !?!?

Looking up a black diamond! (not me ofcourse! I restricted myself to the beginner/intermediate slopes!)

The year that was.......

2007-06-26T04:21:00.001-05:00

It has been a long time since my last post. Lots of things that I would like to write about have happened since then. So I have decided to write this one big summary post that covers the interesting happenings during the time that my blog was dormant. After this post I hope to make small and regular posts. So bear with me for this one massive post; a blast from the not so distant past if you will!

During my undergraduate studies in NZ, my friends and me would often think of going on a joint trip to India; but it never worked out. As we all completed our degrees, started working and followed our different paths, the idea started being proposed as a sort of reunion! It finally came to fruition (sort of) when three of my friends (Sunil, Vinod and Krish) decided to have a Thailand/India holiday! Four good friends having a great time traveling around India was too good for me to miss. So I decided to join them in India since I was going to go to India for the winter break anyway! We started off in Bangalore and Mysore, spent a couple of days in Goa (including New Years eve), after which we went to Delhi, Agra and Jaipur! It was a great trip with many classic moments which I will remember forever. Here are a few pictures from the trip:

Dusk at the KRS dam in Mysore (Vinod and Sunil L-R)

Calangute and Baga beaches (Goa) during peak season

Sunset at Baga beach

All of us on the banks of the Mandovi river in Panaji (Goa) (Sunil, Random Guy, Krish and Vinod L-R)

Road to the Rashtrapathi Bhavan (President's Residence) in New Delhi

The same road goes to India Gate in the opposite direction.

Prime Minister's Office (PMO)

India Gate

Going towards Delhi Stock Exchange (DSE)

Chandni Chowk, the hub of Old Delhi.

Red Fort

Agra Fort

One of the many palaces inside the Agra Fort

A small segmet of the Agra Fort wall.

Looking towards the Taj Mahal from Agra Fort

Inside Agra Fort

Taj Mahal

Taj Mahal and its reflection in its fountain

In front of the Taj Mahal

The stage where Tansen used to deliver is magical ragas (Fatehput Sikri)

The central column in the Diwan i Khas (hall of private audience) where Akbar held meetings with his ministers.

The elephant graveyard where Akbar's favorite elephant was buried

One of the wall columns at the astrologer's seat

Panch Mahal

Driving through Jaipur

One of the many camel carts in Rajastan

Firing the cannons in the City Fort of Jaipur

The summer door inside the City Fort

Inside the City Fort

One of the marble elephants inside the City Fort

Snake Charmer inside the City Fort

Amber Fort

Inside Amber Fort

Pigeons flying above Amber Fort

At the base of Amber Fort

When I got back to Chambana (short for Urbana-Champaign), it was peak winter and boy was it cold!! Its not too bad though, you just start wearing lots of layers when you go outside and all the buildings are centrally heated. The best part of freezing cold weather is snowfall! I just love it because I have not experienced much of it. My love for snow grew even greater when we had record snowfall and all classes were canceled for two days (for the first time in 30 something years)! Of course no one heeded to the 'stay indoors' advice. So there were quite a few snoball fights etc basically lots of fun in the snow! Here are a few pics (courtesy Kevin):

Well, this summary post is getting a bit too long so I am going to abandon the thought of making it one post and distribute it over a couple of posts. So watch out for Vancouver, Google Games and On the Rocks in the coming posts!

Random Photos from Random Activities!

2006-11-11T19:42:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone,
Since I am too buzy/lazy :-) to make a real post, I am putting up these random photos of me from random "non studying" activities that I have been upto (captions are below the photos).

At a halloween party (I am dressed as a ________ Sailor; you can put anything you want in the blank lol).

At an American Football Game (It was -2 degrees and to make things worse, UIUC lost that game in the last minute!)

At Murphy's, a campustown Irish pub where all the international students meet every Thursday!

Ice-skating during Halloween weekend. The three of us won the 'Most Original Costume' contest. We were the 'Drunken Sailors'!

At Clybournes, a campustown club (we are all doing the Japanese tourist "V" thing!).

Another year has wizzzed past!

2006-10-09T00:18:00.000-05:00

As most of you know, my birthday was last Tuesday (Oct 3rd). I turned 24 this year! I would like to say thank you again to everyone who wished me :-) and, Cara, thanks again for the chocolates :-)

I didn't do much on my birthday, I just went to classes as usual in the morning. In the afternoon, I went to volunteer at this dinner organized by an Indian student charity organization here called Asha. I expected to get out of it by around 7, but it took much longer and it was 10:30 when I went back to my hostel! When I went back to my hostel, a few of my hostel mates surprised me by organizing a cake for my birthday! So I had a mini cake cutting party! I felt bad that I had kept them waiting for so long. Thanks again guys for organising it and waiting for so long, Bei Na, thanks again for the cake, Kevin, thanks for taking the photos :-) Here are the pictures:

The cake. It was an ice-cream cake with vanilla ice-cream and a chocolate base (yummm).

(L-R) Navi, Simon, Lothar, Denise.

(L-R) Bei Na, some guy gate crashing the party :-), Shaun, Kenneth.

(L-R) Kenneth, Bei Na, Shaun, Shaun, Navi, that guy again, Kevin, Lothar, Simon, Denise.

That guy decided to cut the cake as well!

Illini Union and Main Quad

2006-09-15T00:10:00.000-05:00

The Illini Union which is the main administrative building:

The main quad which is behind the Illini Union:

Thomas M Siebel Centre

2006-09-14T23:35:00.000-05:00

The Thomas M Siebel Centre where I study/work:

A plaque in the centre:

One of the classrooms in the centre:

Inside the centre; the entrance floor:

One of the people/room locators on the wall:

A balcony/sitout on the fourth floor:

Looking down from the fourth floor:

The open door is the entrance to my office which is on the second floor (I share it with many RAs):

My office space/desk:

Engineering Quad and Library

2006-09-14T23:28:00.000-05:00

The Engineering Quad and Library: The lawn with paths cutting across is the Engineering (Bardeen) Quad and the Building you see is the Engineering (Grainger) Library.

The quad from the other end. This building is the main Engineering Building.

The plaque commemorating the naming of the quad:

Farewell

2006-09-09T15:30:00.000-05:00

The Farewell

The last couple of days before I flew out of Auckland were very emotional and hectic. I was feeling very nostalgic and melancholic. I would not be able to play squash and cricket as much anymore! There was also the small matter of living away from my family for the first time and missing all the great friends :-). The farewell officially started off when I went to 'Shilpa's Birthday' at La Porchetta. It would have helped if I knew that it was in the Parnell one and not the one in downtown lol. Somehow I manged to get there (around 25 mins late as usual) to see the biggest gathering of my Kiwiplan buddies waiting for me! It was a true surprise; I had no idea that it was coming! Thanks again guys for organising the surprise farewell party and for the awesome headphones! I use them everyday!

After some days Asheesh was in town for the Russell Peters jig and I got to say bye to him and Husain then. The taxi picture was taken that day! By the way, all thanks to Rob for the pictures in this post :-) We had lunch at Nandos and then went to Asheesh's house to watch Husain's wedding video. We also managed to fit in a game of foosball!

My last day at work was a very eventful day. They had a farewell presentation during the monthly lunch which was very nice. I got woolen gloves and thermals which I am sure I will need in a month or so when it starts snowing here! I said goodbye to everyone at work and left at around 6:30pm. Then I got my last takeaway from Punjabhi Dhaba. Thejas and me always got takeaway from there every Friday. I got a drop from Sanjev that day because I had already sold my car. So I said goodbye to Sanjev and told him not to break TSS :-). Then Thejas and me had our last Friday Punjabi Dhaba takeaway dinner. After that I dropped Thejas to the busstop and part two of that day started at 9pm (!) when we went to Sunil's house for his birthday dinner.

The dinner at Sunil's place was great (thanks to Sunil's Mom :-)). A bunch of us got together there and had a good time. Then we all decided to leave because it was getting late (everyone was going to come to the airport the next day). When we were about to leave, we got the crazy idea of me going downtown one last time! So we called Sunil and headed out to downtown. We finally ended up at a coffee place in downtown which is open 24 hours and chatted for hours and hours about almost everything! It was great, there were flashbacks from engineering, philosophical discussions about the meaning of life and the list goes on and on! We finally decided to leave at 4am!

So I got home at 5am and like always I had left things to be done at the last moment! By the time I finished up all those things it was already 10am. Thejas came home at around 8am and we had some of the Punjabi Dhaba stuff from the previous night for breakfast! Rob, Cara, Sunil, Prasanthan, Anand and Vinod arrived at 10am to take me to the airport. So we loaded the suitcases into the cars and headed to the airport. Asheesh and Sanja called while we were on the way to the airport. Once we got there I got into the long queue for checking in. I had 30kgs in my suitcase and was worried whether they would accept it because the maximum allowed was 25kgs! Finally we got to the counter and as feared, the lady asked me to reduce it to 25kgs! So I removed my long snow jacket, sandals and woolen blanket to get it down to 25kgs and finally managed to finish the check in. I managed to stuff the sandals into my hand baggage and decided to carry the snow jacket with me, but I had to leave my favorite blanket behind! Now that I think about it, I should have carried the blanket and left the snow jacket behind because I have another snow jacket anyway.

After checking in, we went upstairs and had some coffee/juice/snacks and also took the photos that are shown below. Then it was time for me to go :-( I very sadly said my goodbyes and then went in. After getting in, I could still see everyone because they were standing at the higher level, so I waved them goodbye till I could no longer see them and then went in to my gate. I reached my gate exaclty on time because almost everyone had already gone in. So I hurriedly got in then the next phase of the journey started! Auckland to KL. It was mostly eventless, I watched a couple of moives and played some chess! That is it for this post. I will post some pictures of my university in the next few posts and then fill in the rest of the things that have been happening in the posts following those. So watch out for those posts :-)

Procrastination :-)

2006-09-01T21:52:00.000-05:00

Hey all, sorry to keep you all waiting. As promised I will be making posts to fill in the gaps soon. In the meantime I just wanted to let you all know that I have now decided to maintain two blogs, one personal blog (this one) and another technical blog. I will continue the discussions related to my courses in the technical blog.

First Post

2006-08-25T14:57:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone. Welcome to my blog about my PhD journey. Its already been around 28 days since the journey started when I flew out from Auckland. Many interesting things have happened since then. I will be making many posts in the near future to fill in the gaps for those 28 days. I have been postponing making posts on the blog since I still dont have my own computer (I should hopefully have one in the next couple of days), but I have now been sort of pushed into starting off this blog because one of the courses that I have taken up requires maintaining a blog. The rest of this post will be about my views about the introductory lecture of that course. All of you Kiwiplan and Software Engineering buddies might be interested in reading the rest of this post. For the rest, just give it a try anyways! :-)

So, the name of the course is Advanced Topics In Software Engineering (CS 527) and it is taught by none other than Prof Ralph Johnson who is one of the Gang of Four who authored Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. The introductory lecture was an introduction to Patterns and Software Architecture in general.

During the first lecture, there were some references to a parallel between building architecture and software architecture. That is something that I have always wondered about. Will software architects ever be able to comprehensively specify the architecture of a software system and be sure that the specified system will definitely work, in the same way as building architects specify building plans? I guess that is a debatable topic. Some people may say that software architects can already achieve that and others may say that software architects should not even try to emulate building architects since the two areas are not comparable!