Invitation to Guru's PhD Defense...

Dear Friends,

After all the treks, travels and blogs in Leuven, it’s time for me to defend PhD. The details of the event are as follows:

PhD Title: Characterization and Modeling of Through Silicon Via (TSV) and its impact on 3D Circuits and Systems

Language: English

Date: 18^th Nov. 2011 (Friday)

Time: 10.30AM – 1PM

Venue: Thermotechnisch Instituut-

Kasteelpark Arenberg 41,

3001 Heverlee

Link To the map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Thermotechnisch+Instituut-++Kasteelpark+Arenberg+41,++3001+Heverlee&hl=en&ll=50.861065,4.684929&spn=0.004815,0.009645&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=49.089956,79.013672&vpsrc=6&hq=Thermotechnisch+Instituut-+Kasteelpark+Arenberg+41,&hnear=Heverlee,+Flemish+Brabant,+Flemish+Region,+Belgium&t=m&z=17

Guru’s Contact No.: +32 16 288724 (Off.); +32 486 746 064 (GSM)

The defense will be followed by reception and for logistic reasons, it would greatly help if you let me know your attendance in advance.

Please feel free to forward it to all those who may be interested.

Look forward to see you all there…

Thanks and regards,

Guru

Lage Raho ANNA BHAI

Recent success of Anna movement for Jan Lokpal bill to build zero corruption (a theoretical impossibility) India has been exemplary providing hope to the millions of us for the better future. In my opinion, the movement not only provided a nascent display of the maturity of Indian democratic system nurturing tons of non violent debates, it also demonstrated that coming together India (and more so an Indian) can make herself heard. Anna's fight for one and all, adherence and insistence of his demands and persistence to the cause not only galvanized the entire nation but produced hilarious literature to bring an epidemic laugh on everybody's face.

Here is an e-mail doing the rounds on the internet. A society that can laugh on itself will always improve and progress. All we have to cheer is "Lage Raho ANNA BHAI..."

Demographic Salary Estimation & Analysis: An Indian View

The irony of passing out as a PhD is that you still have to look for a Job :-(

What are the existing options available? Which are the places to go? What would be my likely salary package? What's the merited savings potential? What will the work like? What will be the lifestyle? These are only a few perennial questions. Here is an effort analyzing salaries and work/life styles across demographics. Before you proceed with the analysis, beware of the disclaimers towards the end.

Obviously, your insights/critiques/suggestions are welcome as they will only throw more light enabling professionals to make an educated decision. So, all views are welcome...

Salary, Potential savings Estimation (Click to Enlarge):



Strengths and weaknesses across demographics(Click to Enlarge):


Disclaimers:
* Any resemblance of the presented data with the salary package of an individual (alive or dead) is purely coincidental...LOL
* These are not academic salaries but general salaries of a PhD fresher aspiring an industrial job.
* All figures are tentative. The idea is to have min, typ and max approximations providing (only and only) tentative estimation. No estimation should be treated as exact.
* The taxation and expense figures are approximate and to author's knowledge approximately valid in the demographic zone (data obtained by hearsay) and should not be treated as exact.
* Bonus and other fringe benefits are not considered in the analysis.
* Analysis is done as an Indian, by an Indian and for an Indian. Strongly based on the hypothesis that provided with infinite money (?) and a lovable job, he/she would prefer India as an option.
* Only four places (USA, Singapore, Mainland Europe and India) are considered for analysis. UK and other places are not considered as they provide very limited semiconductor opportunities.

Innovative Innocentive Challenge

There are so many instances during our careers/jobs or in daily lives that we starve for a challenging assignment. The work at hand is not aptly cerebral (specially if it's writing PhD Thesis*) and that makes you look for distractions that would send your mind to horizons...

Innovative Innocentive is one such platform offering you plenty of open challenges and who knows you may grow to fame, make worthwhile contributions while bagging lucrative sum in the process. I was informed about it by one of its contest winners - Manish Pande and have been following it quite closely. While not all the problems fall in your area of expertize and hence are difficult to contribute to, the recent challenge The Economist-InnoCentive Human Potential Index Challenge has caught my attention:

The objective of this Challenge is for you to come up with your own metric or index that will capture an important element of society. The metric or index should be relevant to the conference’s main theme of enabling human potential; defined as: how successfully individuals, organizations, and societies are able to unleash intellectual energy and capitalize on it for social and economic progress. While you may not be able to start quantifying your metric or index yet, you should be able to reasonably explain where you would be able to locate the data that you need both now and in the future. You can assume that the creation of some reasonable data collection infrastructure would be possible, though that is beyond the scope of the Challenge. Even though a metric or index could be used to quantify local trends of human potential, it’s more interesting to the Economist to learn about metrics or indices that measure trends at least at the country or regional level, if not at the global level.
Deadline: June 20, 2011
Reward: $10,000

For one, I have recently been curious about economics/Finance as a Technology/micro finance etc. and secondly this is a problem where (in my opinion) everyone can always make a case for himself. What he/she believes as the best for his/her own life and how the world (Governments, Institutions etc.) should conspire to achieve what they believe as most important for their own betterment.

I am sure there would be plenty of mind shattering ideas and although with the uphill task of meeting the Thesis deadline, I hope to brainstorm and come up with one I think as most important for me. If you do...Do not let this opportunity go...Go for It...Good Luck!!!

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* Like it or not, it is one of those necessary evils, you have to accomplish as a PhD candidate and the reason why I would prefer an honorary PhD any day...LoL

Glimpses of Bombay

A lot happens over Coffee and in Bombay a lot happens under the lights. Bombay - a city feeding thousands with a lively hood and millions with hope to make it Big, Bigger and Brighter. A vibrant place to say the least, has been viewed, portrayed and crafted by many many photographers, writers and artists with aplomb.

Here is me, capturing a few famous spots in my city with my viewfinder under the lights.

Mahim-Dadar region: Photo taken from Bandra Worli Sea link

The famous neck-less captured from Nariman point

Cuffe parade/Backbay region captured from Nariman point

The New Taj

The Victoria Terminus/Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus - Central Railway Train station

Bombay Muncipal corporation - A gathering place of rogues
deliberating how to loot to perfection :-)

The Gateway of India