Berkeley Professor Eric Brewer is ACM Infosys Foundation 2009 Award winner

ACM announced  today (March 15, 2010) ACM Infosys Foundation Award (next only to Turing Award, considered the Nobel Prize in Computing) for the year 2009 and named Professor Eric Brewer as the award winner.

Professor Brewer is best known as the Founder of Inktomi search engine (acquired by Yahoo); his academic contributions include the CAP Theorem concept, and “Wireless Hypothesis”

What I like most about his work is that he is able to

• work on cutting edge computer science that too of fundamental nature (CAP Theorem – Consistency, Availability and Partition tolerance incompatibility, like Arrow’s Impossibility Theorem) ,
• build solid real-world engineering experimental infrastructure (like Network of Workstations (NoW), and,
• contribute enormously through his societal initiatives (Wireless Hypothesis and his TIER Network that has helped thousands of patients to benefit through Tele-medicine from experts in Aravind Eye Hospital in India)

He visited IIIT-B in the year 2008 on an invitation from Professor Balaji Parthasarathy

Infosys has done India proud through the endowment of this Award that identifies outstanding young (around 40 years of age) computer scientists;

Professor Daphne Koller of Stanford for the year 2007,

Professor Jon Kleinberg of Cornell for the year 2008,  and,

Professor Eric Brewer of UC Berkeley for the year 2009

This was part of the contribution of Infosys towards a larger cause in the Silver Jubilee Year (25th year of Infosys. that was founded in 1982)

This is what Kris said as part of the Press Release

“S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris), CEO and Managing Director, Infosys Technologies said, “We are especially proud to honor Eric Brewer for contributions to computer science research and his demonstration of the use of IT for the benefit of disadvantaged populations in many regions, especially in developing nations.”

Theater @ Campus in IIIT-B on Feb 13, 2010

It was truly amazing to see YoursTrulyTheater Group an interesting form of Theater that involves the audience!

Their ability to “in situ” create scenes out of just a few words from the audience that too relating to the particular campus was touching

We were proud to have our own alumnus (Sumit Acharya of the Class of 2004 who works for Oracle) as part of TAC Group

I do hope one day we can teach Software Engineering through such form of Theater!

Felicitations to Professor V Rajaraman

Indian Institute of Science had organized a Felicitation Ceremony on October 31, 2009 to honor Professor V Rajaraman who served IISc as Professor (and Chair of SERC) from 1982 onwards. Professor Rajaraman turned 75 some time back.

It was nice to see Prof Rajaraman and Mrs Dharma Rajaraman seated in the dais along with IISc Director P Balaram and Associate Director N Balakrishnan

There were a number of his former students (Prof Somnath Biswas and Rajat Moona of IIT Kanpur, Prof Govindarajulu of IIIT Hyderabad, Dr Om Vikas of DoE, for example), colleagues (Prof H Krishnamoorthy, Prof Govindarajan of IISc (SERC) and Prof HN Mahabala of IIIT-B, for example)

I had interacted with Prof Rajaraman briefly during the 3 years we were together at IIT Kanpur. He was of immense help in the early days of IIIT-Bangalore; he was also the first External Member of IIIT-B Senate.

I wish Prof Rajaraman & Dharma many long happy days ahead

US continues to bag a major share of Nobel prizes

October is the month for Nobel prize announcements. Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economics Nobel prizes announced one after another had 11 out of 13 winners from USA. Isreal in Chemistry Nobel and Germany in Literature Nobel were the only countries outside USA. Of course one of the Chemistry Nobel prize winner (Venky Ramakrishnan) is of Indian origin (in fact from my part of the country!). The surprise this time surely was the Peace Nobel for President Obama when he has not even completed nine full months in his office!

Prof Venky Ramakrishnan of Cambridge gets 2009 Chemistry Nobel

Prof Venky Ramakrishnan of Cambridge University gets the Chemistry Nobel for 2009 for the structure and function of Ribosome

He is the fifth India-born scientist to win Nobel Prize. Other than Sir CV Raman who won the Nobel Prize in 1930 for molecular splitting of light and Raman Effect, the other winners are naturalized citizens of USA

• Prof Hargobind Khorana won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in the year 1968; he was a molecular biologist at the University of Wisconsin – Madison then
• Prof Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for the theoretical structure and evolution of stars; he was at the University of Chicago then
• Prof Amartya Sen won Nobel Prize in Economics in 1998 for his contribution to welfare economics; he was at Harvard University then

Interestingly, just in the afternoon Prof PK Ghosh (Retd) of IITK gave a talk in IIIT-B about biological molecules and mass spectrometry where he talked about Ribosome (I heard it for the first time!)

Another coincidence; Dr Venky Ramakrishnan happens to be the cousin of Professor SV Sankaran’s wife; Prof Sankaran currently with SAP is an active IEEE Office-bearer in Bangalore; he spent 3 years at IIIT-B!

Jayant Haritsa gets Bhatnagar Award

In today’s announcement of 11 Bhatnagar awardees, there is one Computer Science person, Prof Jayant Haritsa of IISc well-known for his key contributions to database research. He does proud to the IT community in India

Kite, Arrow and Memristor: Breakthroughs of 125 Years of IEEE

It was heartening to see IEEE President Dr John Vig releasing this book today morning (August 29, 2009) in Bangalore. The book is authored by 7th Grade kid Mr. Anshul Roy of Ahmedabad, India!

Using a simple style of 1-page for every one of the 125 years, the book is tastefully done.

I was so thrilled to see the unassuming author and his proud mother; got the book autographed by the author. Hope to see him as M Tech student ten years from now!

Phatak gets “Water Prize”

Dr Bindeshwar Phatak famous for his “Sulabh Movement” and “Sulabh Souchalay” was named the winner of Stockholm Water Prize for the year 2009. The announcement was made today (aug 17, 2009)

Hailing from Patna, Dr Phatak demonstrates the fact that one can innovate even in unusual places like “dirty toilets”

The water efficient Sulabh toilets numbering more than 1.2 million across India truly changed rural sanitation; His 7,500 strong “pay and use” toilets serve nearly 10 million users every year; by using just 1.5 liters in place of 10 liters of water for every flush, Dr Phathak’s toilets save a lot of water too

Bill Gates receives Indira Gandhi Peace Prize 2007

On Saturday July 25, 2009, Indian President Pratibha Patil handed over the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace (2007) to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation at an impressive ceremony in Delhi.

The prize was received by the  Chairman of the Foundation Mr Bill Gates, the legendary Chairman of the hugely successful Microsoft Corporation. 

Speaking on the occassion, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh mentioned that among the 23 receipients of the Prize, it is the first time a business leader is receiving the prize; he also talked of the transition the visionary leader has undergone –  from a CEO of a hugely profitable company (currently with an annual turnover in excess of $ 60 billion) to a leader with a missionary zeal to wipe out the poverty particularly among under-developed countries; and, the goal of the Foundation - to provide equal opportunities to the children of the under-developed countries at the same level that children in developing countries enjoy – something as futuristic as the vision of Mr Bill Gates way back in 1976 when he co-founded Microsoft – to put a computer in every desktop!

Nandan Nilekani takes charge as Chairman, UID Authority of India

July 23, 2009 is a special day. Nandan Nilekani assumed charge on that day. This is truly a transformational project; Nandan is an outstanding “doer” who can get many people to work together.

We all look forward to the unfolding of this exciting project over the years

Interestingly July 20/21, 1969 is the day that Apollo 11 team accomplished the “man landing on the Moon” milestone.