Research Beckons

Aishwarya Parasuram

The field of research may seem extremely horrid to an undergraduate intern, when the usual stories

going around about research guides are that they are dismissive, disinterested, never seem to turn

up for meetings and treat interns like they are illiterates. However, I must thank my lucky stars for

the day that Dr Sudarshan Iyengar came to give a talk at my college, for knowing a professor like

him is really like seeing the light at the end of a tunnel for a research hopeful like me. He defies all

general perceptions, and is truly a gen-next prof.

Sudarshan Sir not only makes sure he gets to know each of his interns as his friends, but also makes

sure that everyone is associated with a project that is best suited to them. He has the ability to

notice talent even in the most rarest of places. No intern ever feels out of place around him, and he

makes sure every single person is actively involved in any conversation taking place. He also makes it

a point to meet us very frequently and keep talking to us about our project, just so that nobody loses

interest.

Sir was extra supportive during our trip to Ropar. He made it a point to never miss out on a promised

appointment. During our visit, he spent far more time with us than is expected of any guide, and

because of his interest and enthusiasm, the project progressed to great heights. He also treats

everything we say with great importance, and makes us feel like we also have as good a chance

at coming up with good research results as other experienced research scholars. This kind of

motivation is hard to find even in the best universities across the world.

While I was there, Sir gave me the opportunity to come and sit through his lectures, with the other

IIT students. I was very lucky to get this kind of exposure. He also gave me the opportunity to make

presentations and give talks about my research work to other PhD students. This gave me a lot of

confidence, and it was also a great learning opportunity. Through discussion with a wide variety of

people, we were able to gather different viewpoints and enrich the quality of our paper. Also, he

takes great responsibility towards any research paper and takes on a great deal of work himself,

leaving a very bare minimum to his interns.

Sir does not withhold his proficiency to academic research alone. He is extremely worldly wise

and tech-savvy. His pep-talks are brilliant morale boosters, and we all go to him for advice about

practically everything, be it career or opinion on a new phone we want to buy.

All in all, Sudarshan Sir is an extremely helpful guide and mentor, who is very committed and

enthusiastic, and motivates everyone around him. Over and above this, he is a great friend to have,

and I would like to thank him profusely for providing me with the opportunity of pursuing a research

internship at IIT Ropar.

My Best Birthday Gift Ever!

Nothing can match the quality of a birthday gift as much as this does! Swarup, (now a master's student at University of Texas, Austin) has narrated his experience as a student, starting from his first year B.Tech days as my student to the days when he spent as a semi-intern at IISc with me. He embellishingly spills his droplets of memories of his association with me. A thematic picture to remember :-). The best part is the paper that he talks about at the end, silently conveying with a lot of pride and regards with a tone "Drona, look at me! here's your Arjuna..... All set to conquer!". Made my day? Nope! made my year!!!!! 

I have very joyously turned 30 as of today in the comradeship of  bright and intellectually curious souls like Swarup!

Am proud of you boy!!!

Thank you for the best birthday wish ever!

From: Swarup <swarup.chandra@gmail.com>

Date: Sat, Nov 5, 2011 at 8:45 AM

Subject: Happy Birthday !!!

To: Sudarshan Iyengar <sudarshaniisc@gmail.com>

Hi Sir,

How are you doing? Many Many happy returns of the day.

    Incidentally, I was looking at all the notes that I had from the times when we used to meet at 7:30 a.m at PESIT to learn vector spaces, and the meetings that we had every weekend (almost) at IISc. I was completely filled with those thoughts where we used to sit at the student council building (photo attached :) ) and learn about proofs on primality testing, finite field theorems galois fields etc. I remembered how we used to take a long walk across the main entrance to the coffee house .... discussing proofs like characteristic of a finite field a prime, understanding miller-rabin primality tests etc :) .... walking towards the hostel mess and discuss proofs of multiplicative groups, order of subfields etc over lunch.

      

    These were awesome times and I was missing that a lot. Thank you very much for all that. I am sure everyone in the group enjoyed every moment of it ... the moment not only to cherish but to indulge in whenever one feels like .... and get all those and much more back and enjoy more !!! :)

        

    I was working on a problem of location estimation on social networks .... and got a very small paper published out of it. This is my first paper ... was accepted at SocialCom 2011 as a poster paper ... just wanted to share with you sir. I have attached the paper. I would be extremely happy if you could review it and give your comments.

Have a very nice day!!!

swarup

Ok.. Wait, what just happened here?

DSCE.. Just a normal student.. Bellow average I thought I was.. not so brilliant marks.. Even lesser motivation.. Suddenly we lose a graph theory teacher and another one shows up.. Big deal right? WRONG!..

Now this guy shows up in class, looks just like one of us and starts the most terrible lecture ever! and all hell breaks loose in class.. For the first five minutes that is.. Sir then spoke like a teacher I never had.. The passion, the charisma.. For the first time since 10th boards, I smiled in a classroom..

We learnt the subject by actually doing it, actually got inspired in it, I've always been interested in CSE but for once I actually transformed into an engineer.. A scientist.. I was actually getting off my lazy behind and doing something for a change.. and it feels oh so good..

Sir's arrival changed my life, suddenly people are recognizing me and im hungry for even more! Problems stay in my head all day and night.. A solution must be found! I was actually learning something for the first time in my education and being appreciated for it.. Code starts flowing soo much more easily from my hands.. I discover technologies i never knew existed.. Suddenly I need apps on my phone to recap the days events and tell me what ideas I thought off.. me! Who was always considered a bad student because of  my marks..

My main point: To tell people that marks aren't everything.. You have the potential in you, regardless of who you are, as a human, to achieve milestones in your field of interest. You just need the motivation.. Are you a student scoring bad marks? Are you a student acing your exams but still feel you are not in your area of interest? Are you extremely low on confidence?  Not sure what you are doing? All these things don't mean that you are useless, or not good enough.. It just means you havent been motivated yet.. I found my motivation in a certain Sudarshan Iyengar.. You just haven't found your Sudarshan yet.. :p

It began... it just did!

PES IT... The first day at an undergraduate class... Everyone was extremely excited - excited to make new friends, excited to discover what really was in store for the next four years... And at the same time, everyone was a little but visibly disappointed to see no seniors "welcome" us (PES IT is known for stringent anti-ragging rules). But just then, a guy in his mid 20s swarms in from the back door towards the black board, takes the chalk with a steady pace, at which everyone falls totally silent. And he starts writing:
"1-sin^2(\theta) = cos^2(\theta)
cot(180-\theta) = -cot(\theta)
.
.
"
(I was almost sure it was some senior and I was curious how he would use those formulae in ragging us!) He writes a bunch of 4 more trigonometric formulae, suddenly turns at the class, and says with a high-pitched voice, "Do you want a teacher to be like THIS?" I join everyone to say the resounding "NO!". It didn't take me a minute more to realize that I was wrong in suspecting that he was a senior and it didn't take me even a week to realize that this Math lecturer was the one who I would be working with for the next four years. The daily (unofficial) morning classes of Math discussions were the ones I really looked forward to. The classes that changed the course of my life...

I will elaborate on the rest of the story in the next blog, but let me just mention, although I loved Math since childhood, the proof of infinitude of primes was the real love-at-first-sight with Math! Now I am making a huge leap of 5 years ahead: UCLA, my dream university, here I am, doing PhD in the subject that I love the most, Cryptography, the very subject this confoundingly-senior-looking best friend of mine, my superman-without-superman-costumes had taught me!
Sudarshan, you rock! Just 'pearl'ed to be writing here :-)