Virtual conferences

With technical conferences going virtual during the current COVID-19 situation, it would bring many benefits and would pave the way for wider participation. I registered for a top conference which is conducted in virtual mode this year and liked the experience. Just penning some of my thoughts on its advantages and possible challenges.

Advantages of virtual conferences:

1. One can watch videos of all papers and need not be limited to attending only one track at a time.

2. No hassles of visa/travel which saves a lot of time and money. It should significantly benefit institutions that do not have generous funding. Even in many reputed MNCs, employees have to literally beg their managers to approve conference travel. All such hassles would go off and it would encourage more people to submit papers.

3. It reduces the cost significantly - conferences charge an exorbitant registration fee ranging from $500-$1000, primarily because of the cost of the premium hotels used as the venue. Virtual conferences should bring down the cost.

4. Saving the overhead of organizers - Organizing a physical conference is a significant burden on the organizing team. There are always unexpected logistic issues that arrive. With virtual conferences, such a burden would be lessened. Even the organizers would get an opportunity to participate in the sessions.

5. No disruption to a regular routine - a professor can take classes, a researcher can continue his research while engaging in the conference. No jetlags.

6. It will improve inclusivity: specially-abled people who are not able to travel or people who have to attend other commitments like child-care or elderly-care or those who fell ill close to the travel dates could also participate from the comfort of their homes.
7. In some emerging fields, registrations reach a very high number and participation has to be limited due to the capacity of the venue. Such restrictions would go away and a larger audience could be accommodated. 
8. If you miss out some important concept during the presentation, then you can go back and watch it again to understand better.

However, in my opinion, some of the experiences of a physical conference like networking could not be replicated as it is. Many-times such networking translates to job offers or collaboration. It would be challenging to support such networking in virtual mode. The exhibitor booths are interesting and provide information about the latest developments in the industry. Though there are attempts to support them in virtual mode, it would be difficult to match the physical booth experience. Contrary to the advantage that I mentioned earlier, some of the interesting travel experiences would be missed.

Overall, it would be interesting to see how conferences evolve as the pandemic subsides.

Transitioning from Corporate to Academia

During my recent visit (on 15-Feb-2020) to MNIT Jaipur (my alma mater) for ECE department research conclave, I was approached by many young students who wanted to listen about my transition from an industry job at TI to a Ph.D. student at IIT Delhi. Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I could not talk to them much and promised them to share details through a blog. This blog is a response to them.

First of all, what motivated me to do a Ph.D.? Frankly speaking, even after joining the Ph.D. programme, I was not aware of what a Ph.D. exactly entails. My primary motivation for doing a Ph.D. was it being a mandatory requirement for a faculty position in an IIT, where I could live my passion for teaching and sharing knowledge and learn from others.

Why so late in career and not early? My interest and passion for teaching developed during my undergraduate studies from various technical discussions with my classmates. Since then, I had decided to do Ph.D. at some point in time. However, once I joined corporate life, I was learning a lot about the practical aspects of designing chips which kept me motivated to continue. Still, the inner self would regularly remind me of Ph.D. With more time spent in the company, it became difficult to join IITs as I did not have a Masters degree and they wanted a high GATE score. Getting a high GATE score was becoming difficult with increasing experience as I lost touch with many topics and this delayed my joining of Ph.D.

How did I prepare for Ph.D. admission? I was able to convince my wife to support me on this journey. With her support, I started preparing for the GATE exam. After lots of deliberation between CS and ECE, I decided to prepare for GATE in CS. Fortunately, there was a lean workload at the office during those days as we had just finished a three-year-long project. I would spend 2 hours every day in my office and 2 hours at home watching course videos from NPTEL/reading lecture notes. While some of the subjects were familiar to me, some were completely new and required more time. I chose to skip some subjects which required too much preparation. With regular preparation, I was able to get a decent score in GATE 2014, though not very high. Fortunately, the government announced a GATE waiver for high CGPA holders from IITs/NITs/etc. for Ph.D. admission. This brought another ray of hope for me. I interacted with various faculty members of IIT Delhi and they suggested the topics to prepare, as well as guided me about the application procedure. I have captured the interview details in another blog (link).

Who all helped make the decision? The first and foremost help was the determination and will to do it. BTW, I have a long list to acknowledge in my thesis :) There were friends who were doing Ph.D., colleagues who wanted to study, family members, professors from IIT Delhi, and some senior colleagues at TI -- all have played an important role in this decision making. 

What about finances? With a handsome salary, wasn't it difficult to make such a decision? Absolutely NOT. Since I always knew that I would eventually pursue Ph.D., I never created any liabilities for myself. No EMI commitments, for housing or car, was a significant support in making this decision. I had built savings with our simple lifestyle that could support my regular expenses for quite some time during Ph.D. Fortunately, there was a revision to stipend by the government just after I started Ph.D. and we were able to manage with the stipend itself.

How smooth was the transition? I would call it difficult. Relocating with a 6-month-old kid during Delhi winters is not easy. Searching for a house in the vicinity of the campus while still getting accustomed to the IIT culture and attending the classes was challenging. For the first month, it had been a stressful time with a lot of running around. Support from near and dear ones as well as maintaining patience proved to be very helpful.

Should I have joined Ph.D. earlier? This is one aspect that I regret at times. Being late at the start of Ph.D. has hurt me in some aspects. Many of our fellowship schemes (INSPIRE, post-doc, TCS fellowship, etc.) have certain upper age limits (30-32 years) and I could not avail them. Recently, IITs are insisting on an upper age limit of 35 years for a fresh faculty position, which might make it difficult for me to join as a faculty member. However, a long stint in the industry has helped me grow as a mature, ethical, and responsible engineer, as well as helped me realize the importance of automation which has been significantly useful during the research. As someone rightly said, better late than never!

Looking back, did I make the right decision? Undoubtedly, YES! Ph.D. journey has taught me that top institutions have much more to offer than just teaching experience. The entire culture of academia with open thoughts and discussions, a holistic experience of learning from reputed faculty, research, seminars, teaching duties, etc. have been very influential in my growth as an individual as well as an engineer/researcher. I significantly improved my writing skills and analytical ability during this time. I could also get a bird's eye view of how government institutions function and lifestyle/culture inside a top institution like IIT. I have shared detailed experiences and views here.

Two key things in life that I learned from this journey are:
1. Strong determination, with the right support from near ones, can help fulfill any dream.
2. There is no end to learning. The more you learn, the desire to learn increases further.

I would be happy to help/respond to anyone who wants to join the Ph.D./research programme in India and needs the advice to make the decision.