Monthly Archives: July 2010

Do a do-it-yourself Masters degree in CS with Parag Shah

July 30, 2010In Depth, Miscellaneouseducation, engineering, studentsNavin Kabra

(This article is a guest post by Parag Shah and first appeared on his blog. It is reproduced here with permission. Parag is a senior software engineer, who has his own one-person software company. In addition, he is also very interested in utilizing new media technologies such as blogs, podcasts, and screencasts to create a personalized, self paced, learning environment. He is in the process of creating mentoring services that use new media technologies, for helping software developers improve their programming skills. In this article he talks about how you can get for free the same education that a student of a Masters degree in the US could get. He is planning on going through it himself, and hopes you will join him.)

Click on this icon to see all PuneTech articles related to tech education in Pune

Since my formal education, a lot of advances have taken place in software development. I have been able to keep up with a few with regular reading and practice. But a lot of this learning has been a bit random, and as a result a bit dissipated as well. I feel like I want to engage in continuous learning, in a more organized manner.

Over the years there are several core concepts which I have forgotten because I have not been able to use them in my regular work. I feel like relearning those concepts.

I think the volume and content of both these can constitute a masters course in Computer Science. But I do not want to go back to school. Not because there is anything wrong with school – I had a great time in grad school. But here’s why…

I don’t want to go back to school because I want to define the courses I want to learn, and not pick up from what’s offered.

I don’t want to go back to school because I want to be able to learn at my own pace, which at times may be slower than 1 course per semester.

I don’t want to go back to school because I do not want to spend a fortune learning stuff which I can learn myself using free resources.

I don’t want to go back to school because I would rather create online/social credentials than get a school certificate.

I don’t want to go back to school because I want to demonstrate that a person can not only get knowledge but also credentials if they engage in disciplined self-study and leave learning trails on the Internet.

So this time I am doing a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) masters in Computer Science. so I can refresh things I have forgotten and learn new technologies and concepts which have gained importance in recent times, in an organized way.

I did a Masters in Computer Science more than a decade back. Since then, Internet, communication technologies, and social networking, have made it possible for someone to do a similar program all by themselves, using open courseware, and social learning.

By doing this program, I am not only planning to enhance my own knowledge, but am also hoping to show how one can get a Master’s education worth of knowledge, and credentials, by self learning, and without spending a fortune. Here’s a very brief statement of purpose.

My DIY Learning Process:

I have created a learning plan which outlines at a high level the topics I want to learn. I will study one or two topics at a time, and at a manageable pace, given other work commitments.

Once the topics to learn have been identified, I will identify learning resources, forums, and mentors for that topic.

A very basic study plan is to study the material, and make notes of my understanding, as well as questions and thoughts, I get in my mind as I am learning. I will make these notes available on a special blog. This blog will serve as a personal knowledge base (I can refer to it in the future), as well as a learning trail (for proof of study and understanding).

All the homework I do while I am taking a course will be made available in the public domain. I will either post it on my blog, or if the homework involves coding, on a public open source repository such as Github. I will also do one or more projects to practice the entire body of knowledge as a whole and publish that too in the public domain.

I will also create presentations of what I learn, and make them available in the public domain.

I will connect with mentors who are experts in the topic I am learning. Depending on their time availability I will request them to help me identify gaps in my understanding, and validate my knowledge.

When I have doubts, I will ask questions on Internet forums. If my questions are not answered satisfactorily on the forums, I will refer them to my mentors.

Please visit my learning plan for further details.

Establishing Credentials:

A person can have several reasons for learning. One is for the knowledge (either for the joy of knowing something, or for more practical application of the knowledge), and another for establishing credentials, so someone else may entrust us with work which requires such knowledge. A self learned person may have the knowledge, but may lack credentials to prove it. It is also possible for a person studying in a silo to think he has grokked what he just learned, when in reality he may not have understood the matter properly. To be able to provide proof of knowledge as well as to validate my learning with other practitioners, I plan to engage in what can be loosely classified as social learning.

I will do the following to document my learning and to engage with the community of practitioners, in the hope of validating my knowledge and establishing credentials for what I learn:

Answer questions on forums
Blog my study notes, and clearly articulate my takeaway from all the lectures I view, or text I read
Create presentations and post them on YOUTube, or other video sharing services
Publish homework on open source code repositories such as GitHub, etc
Request my mentors to quiz me to help me find gaps in my understanding of a topic. I will publish the quiz as audio/video and request the mentor to post their feedback in the public domain
Take quizzes and tests wherever possible and economical

So I am leaving these learning crumbs on various places on the Internet, but I need something to bring everything together. Something which can serve as the focal point, or a lens into all my learning. I created a wiki site to serve as the focal point.

Have you been meaning to learn something yourself? Perhaps you can do your own DIY course in whatever interests you. Here is a lens into my DIY experiment.

About the Author – Parag Shah

Parag has an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and over 12 years of industry experience developing software and several years experience training developers in Java, and software design principles. Parag’s current obsession is to show that it is possible to do a DIY masters in Computer Science using open courseware and social learning principles. Check out his experiment at http://opencs.wikidot.com.

Pune-based Innovize Tech Launches Productivity Measurement Software

July 30, 2010Featured, Overviewsenterprise, entrepreneurs, funding, ian, productivity, products, startupsNavin Kabra

Last week, Pune-based product startup Innovize Tech announced that it has received funding of $350k from the Indian Angel Network. (Note: Indian Angel Network had also invested in another Pune-based startup Druva.)

InnovizeTech is a Pune-based startup that builds employee productivity measurement software. Click on the logo to go to Innovize Tech's website.

Innovize Tech has built a software product, called Sapience, that helps companies measure the exact amount of time spent by employees in various work related activities.

LiveMint has a nice article explaining the Sapience product:

For example, an investment banker working on a deal will use several applications, such as MS Excel to do financial analysis and modelling of companies, and MS PowerPoint and various in-house databases to obtain information and do analysis.

Sapience will be customized to register these applications as work applications, and will calculate how much time the banker spent on them at the end of the day.

This would help his managers know how many hours the investment banker actually spent working, out of the time he was in office. They can also find out if the banker was spending too much time on some aspects of the work.

The article further points out that:

The software can be installed at company data centres. Smaller firms without a data centre can operate it from a so-called cloud server managed by InnovizeTech.

Its target consumers are software firms, banks, insurance firms and other firms whose employees use computers to deliver their output.

The key USP of Sapience is that it is a highly automated method of accounting for time spent by employees on different software packages (and hence different activities). While information can be manually fed, Sapience has an API that encouranges programmatic sourcing of this information. Further, nit uses learning and rules based intelligence, to increasingly automate this activity. Further, it can handle various difficult cases, like different employees sharing the same PC, or the same employee using different machines, or an employee logging in remotely to a server. They have applied for a global patent on their technology.

It then aggregates the per-employee information at team, project, and other company levels and locations. The product’s analytics and trend engine then provides insightful information that helps senior management to enhance overall business efficiency, and individual and teams to improve their own productivity.

Sapience is priced on per-user basis. The per-user permanent license fee is equivalent to a few hours of average per-employee cost to company. They point out, on their website that they demonstrate savings of several hours of productivity within the first 30 days of deployment. Therefore, Return on Investment (ROI) period is typically one month.

Innovize tech was started last year by Swati Deodhar, Shirish Deodhar, Hemant Joshi and Madhukar Bhatia. The Pune startup community will remember that Shirish, Hemant and Madhukar were also the people behind nFactorial software, the Startup Mentoring company. nFactorial has not been accepting any new mentorship engagements for a while now, and the founders are now primarily focusing on Innovize Tech. For more details on the executive team of Innovize Tech is on their About Us page.

Product Camp Pune: A free (un-)conference for Product Management & Marketing – 1 Aug

July 29, 2010Eventsbarcamp, domestic market, Events, marketing, product-management, unconferencesNavin Kabra

What: Product Camp Pune – A Collaborative, User-Organized, Conference (i.e. a barcamp) on Product Management and Marketing
When: Sunday, August 1st, 10am-4pm
Where: Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research, Atur Centre, Model Colony. Map.
Registration and Fees: This event is free for all. Register here

ProductCamp Pune is a free event that will give you an opportunity to meet people involved in product management and marketing. Click on the logo to be taken to the registration page.

The Importance of Product Management and Marketing

Have you ever wondered why some really cool products fail in the market, and some products that seem really stupid succeed? Have you ever noticed that some of the best features of the products you’re working on are hardly used by anybody? Have you ever completely failed to understand the roadmap of your product?

If you have experienced any of the above, you’re not alone. Most people, especially techies, and especially Indian techies, have a very poor understanding of what customers really want, what they need, and what they would be willing to pay for. This is the job of Product Management and Marketing. Most people’s career would improve significantly if they spent some time acquiring this skill, or at least understanding the basics.

Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of the incredibly successful Zynga Games (the creators of FarmVille), has this to say about what skills you should focus on acquiring for career advancement:

If you can be a product manager, you can acquire the experience of acting as a CEO. The skills gained in product roadmapping, prioritizing tasks, interoffice communications, customer understanding, and product marketing are absolute necessities for being an effective enterprise lead.

Similarly, Marc Andreessen, the creator of Netscape, successful serial entrepreneur, and investor points out that “the only thing that matters” for success of a startup is product/market fit. Product/market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market. If you don’t have product/market fit, then you’re bound to fail, no matter how great your product is, and no matter how great your team is. With a bad product/market fit, you’ll struggle for years trying to find customers who don’t exist for your marvelous product, and your wonderful team will eventually get demoralized and quit, and your startup will die.

This is a new area for techies in India

For obvious reasons. Most of the work in the software technology sector in India has either been software services for companies abroad (in which case your company has no control over the product roadmap), or product development for companies whose main markets are in the US/Europe (in which case, the people doing product management/marketing are in US/Europe).

However, as the tech industry in India slowly matures, more and more product management and marketing roles are becoming available.

Here’s your opportunity to get started along this path

ProductCamp Pune is a collaborative, user organized unconference, focused on Product Management and Marketing topics. ProductCamp is a great opportunity for you to learn from, teach to, and network with professionals involved in the Product Management, Marketing, and Development process.

And it’s free.

Just register here and show up.

PuneCleanTech Event: Ecological Restoration of Abandoned Mines

July 28, 2010External Visitorscleantech, environment, punecleantechNavin Kabra

What: PuneCleanTech talk on Ecological Restoration of Abandoned Mines by Kaustubh Moghe
When: Saturday, 31 July, 11am
Where: Venture Center, NCL Innovation Park, Pashan Road. Map: http://bit.ly/VenCen (To reach Venture Center, go past NCL towards Pashan, pass the cricket ground adjacent to NCL and then you’ll find NCL Innovation Park / Venture Center on the right hand side.)
Registration and Fees: This event is free for all to attend. Free seating on First Come, First Seated basis only
Further Info: Contact Harshad Nanal (harshadnanal@gmail.com), Anil Paranjape (amparanjape@gmail.com)

Mine Restoration Image — The next PuneCleanTech talk will cover the issue of restoring the ecological balance of dead mines. PuneCleanTech is a special interest group (SIG) of PuneTech focusing on clean tech. Click on the image to go to the PuneCleanTech website for more details

Ecological Restoration of Abandoned Mines

There are supposedly heaven and hell for dead people. But dead mines (abandoned mines) continue to just sit where they are. Their owners have exploited them for all they are worth and then they are just left there. The problem is that unlike dead animals or vegetation, these mines don’t just decay. They are a big hazard for all of us. Apart from being an eyesore, they pose significant physical hazards (people fall into them) and they have a tremendous environmental hazard by leaching dangerous chemicals into the ground water.

Word over, this is a big problem with millions (yes, millions) of mines abandoned. India is no exception. A few responsible owners take steps to return the abandoned mine land back to nature. But how do you return deep holes stretching miles and miles in diameters and highly denuded earth around them back to nature? How do you restore the biodiversity and flora and fauna?

PuneCleanTech presents a rare talk on this fascinating subject by a practicing conservation biologist, Mr. Kaustubh Moghe, on 31st July at 11:00am at the NCL Venture Center.

As always this talk is free for everyone. For more information, please visit PuneCleanTech. We don’t really know where dead people go but at least here’s a chance to learn about what happens (or should happen) to dead mines! It’s a problem created by our consumption machine, so let’s at least be aware of this. Well, here’s your rare chance to learn about it.

Global Innovation Challenges & its Impact on Academia & Industry – Dr. Shevgaonkar, VC UoP – July 9

July 7, 2010Eventsacademia, csi, industry, UoPNavin Kabra

What: CSI Pune event on “Global Innovation Challenges and its Impact on Academia and Industry” with Dr. Shevgaonkar, VC, University of Pune
When: Friday 9th July, 2010, 6pm-8pm
Where: Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent Systems, SB Road, Pune
Registration and Fees: This event is free for all to attend. No registration required

Computer Society of India, Pune Chapter, is one of the oldest technology user groups that is still active. Click on the logo to see all PuneTech posts about CSI Pune

Global Innovation Challenges and its Impact on Academia and Industry

The Computer Society of India – Pune Chapter (CSI-Pune), the Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), Persistent Systems and the Board of Studies of Computer Engineering, Pune University, present a lecture on the impact of global trends in technology on academia and Industry.

The keynote address is by Dr. Raghunath Shevgaonkar, the new Vice Chancellor of Pune University. Until recently Dr. Shevgaonkar was a Professor at IIT-Bombay. He played many roles there, including HoD of the Electrical Engineering Department, Dean of Resource Mobilization, and all of this was in addition to the research that resulted in over 130 conference publications and journals. He has also written two books. For more information about Dr. Shevgaonkar’s background, see his profile page on the IIT-Bombay website.

Given his background, I am hoping for good things from the lecture, and from him, for University of Pune.

Other people expected at this event are: Anand Deshpande, CEO of Persistent, M.D. Agarwal, VP, CSI and CIO BPCL, and Deepak Shikarpur.

Materials, mechanics, thermals, speed, power – Overview of Integrated Circuit Packaging – PuneChips 10th July

July 6, 2010Events, punechipsmaterials, punechips, semiconductor, sig, vlsiNavin Kabra

What: Overview of the field of electronics packaging – by Dr. Sandeep Sane, Intel Corp, (Ph.D. CalTech)
When: Saturday, 10 July, 10:30am to 12:30pm
Where: Venture Center, NCL Innovation Park, Pashan Road. To reach Venture Center, go past NCL towards Pashan, pass the cricket ground adjacent to NCL and then you’ll find NCL Innovation Park / Venture Center on the right hand side. Map
Registration and fees: This event is free for all to attend. No registration required.

PuneChips is a PuneTech special interest group on semiconductors, VLSI, embedded, and EDA. Click on the Logo to see all PuneTech articles about PuneChips

Electronic Packaging – Materials and Mechanics Challenges

Electronic packaging has typically been defined as providing an enabling function and a space transformer between the IC feature sizes and the board & system level interconnects and over years it has grown to become a ubiquitous part of the overall electronic assembly. In certain market segments, such as flash memories, the package has evolved to become a key product differentiator and performance enabler. The scope of electronic packaging is very broad across multiple application areas such as CPUâs and Chipsets for the desktop, mobile and server segments, hand-held and wireless devices, telecom components & network processors, and memory devices; with each segment potentially having its unique set of demands and constraints such as the form factor, function, cost, reliability requirements, thermal and electrical performance.

To ensure that right technical and cost-effective solutions are defined, developed and deployed across the different market segments, electronic packaging provides significant research and development challenges and opportunities across multiple disciplines including materials, mechanics, reliability, thermals, high speed interconnects, power delivery and manufacturing.

This presentation will first provide an overview of current and future package technologies and associated demands in the different market segments, followed by focusing on some of the recent progress made in addressing some of the mechanics and materials challenges and highlight opportunities in future packaging technology development.

About the speaker – Dr. Sandeep Sane

Sandeep Sane received his Ph.D. from California Institute of Technology, Pasadena in Aerospace Engineering with major in Solid Mechanics. He holds M.S. in Aeronautics, California Institute of Technology and B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (Mumbai).

Sandeep is currently a Technology Development manager in the Assembly and Test Technology Development (ATTD) organization, Intel Corp., Chandler. He manages a technical team of 30 engineers including an experimental mechanics laboratory; equipped with start of art analysis and validation metrologies. His team is chartered to deliver fundamental understanding of various mechanical issues in electronic packaging, establish roadmaps for ATTD and work directly with Intelâs customers (OEM/ODMs) and suppliers to resolve mechanical issues. He is also responsible for delivering novel mechanical analysis, material characterization and validation techniques to help optimize design, material and process changes to deliver reliable and cost effective solutions for Intelâs packaging technologies. Sandeep has led and participated in numerous taskforces and management review boards to resolve critical issues in a timely manner impacting Intelâs bottom-line. Prior to joining Intel, he was a Development Staff Engineer with IBM, Endicott, NY, working in Mechanical & Thermal Analysis group.

Sandeep has filed for more than 15 patents and have published several technical articles in various conferences and journal proceedings. He is also a recipient of numerous awards across Intel for his technical contributions. He is a member of ASME, IEEE and an active member of organizing committees for ASME and IEEE conferences. He also serves on Industrial Advisory Board for Mechanical Engineering at University of Colorado, Boulder and NSF review committee.

About Venture Center

Entrepreneurship Development Center (Venture Center) – a CSIR initiative – is a not-for-profit company hosted by the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune. Venture Center strives to nucleate and nurture technology and knowledge-based enterprises by leveraging the scientific and engineering competencies of the institutions in the Pune region in India. The Venture Center is a technology business incubator specializing in technology enterprises offering products and services exploiting scientific expertise in the areas of materials, chemicals and biological sciences & engineering.

About PuneChips

PuneChips is a special interest group on semiconductor design and applications. PuneChips was formed to foster an environment for growth of companies in the semiconductor design and applications segment in the Pune area. Our goal is to build an ecosystem similar to PuneTech for companies in this field, where they can exchange information, consult with experts, and start and grow their businesses.

PuneChips has been started by Abhijit Athavale, president and CEO of Markonix, and a high-tech marketing consultant. He has 16+ years of high-technology industry experience. Prior to Markonix, Abhijit spent over 11 years at Xilinx, Inc. in various engineering, applications and marketing roles. In his role as a marketing consultant, he has held executive management positions at several companies. He has a masters degree in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University and a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from University of Pune. He is an accomplished speaker and author of several publications including a book.

For more information, see the PuneTech wiki profile of PuneChips, and/or join the PuneChips mailing list.

Please forward this mail to anybody in Pune who is interested in semiconductors, chip design, VLSI design, chip testing, and embedded applications.

Beanbags, wi-fi, and founders hanging out: The Startup Centre is coming to Pune

July 5, 2010Featuredentrepreneurs, startupsNavin Kabra

Update:: The startup center website points out: Launching on May 2011 in Chennai. Entity Structuring in Progress. If interested, do get in touch. Pune plans tentatively by end of 2011.

The Name Vijay Anand, also known as The Startup Guy, is familiar to most startups in the country as the creator of India’s best known startup showcase event proto.in. Vijay is now working hard on his next initiative: The Startup Centre. For a description of the startup centre, we turn to http://thestartupcentre.ning.com the social network for the startup centre, and we find the following overview:

So What Can you Expect out of the Startup Centre?

The Startup Centre, would be a community space for Entrepreneurs, and everyone who has a spark of imagination (artists, designers, hackers), ideas and the talent and ability to execute it. If you are a one man team, or the founding team of a concept or startup, you can drop by the centre to use the facilities at a nominal fee every month – or if you are visiting from out of town – or want to check out the place, take a 24 hour access pass and use the facility. The centre will have facilities such as conference rooms, brainstorming rooms, and will also be a regular host to barcamps, and other technology/entrepreneurship/design workshops that will benefit the community. Dont be surprised if you walk in and do see a jamming session going on – by the musically inclined.The Centre also aims to play host for the other players of the ecosystem such as Accountants, lawyers, PR professionals, Venture Capitalists and Industry Mentors on a regular basis (supported on Patronage by these groups), to strengthen the support system around entrepreneurs and startups.

What the Startup Centre is Not

The Startup Centre is not a co-working space for startups to come and run their entire operations out of. This is probably only going to make sense till the stage where you are no more than just the founding team, you can afford to work in a room with nothing more than bean bags, wifi and whiteboards and to crank out the initial prototype.

Obviously, since Vijay is based in Chennai, the first edition of The Startup Centre will come up in Chennai, and the deadline for that is September. However, the most interesting thing we learned was that the second startup centre, slated for the end of 2010 is Pune. This obviously piqued the interest of PuneTech and we contacted Vijay to find out more about The Startup Centre.

Here is a short interview with Vijay about the thought process behind The Startup Centre:

Can you explain the idea behind The Startup Centre?

The notion of the startup centre came from three things:

People need a space where they can bounce their ideas off a group of people – like a barcamp setting – get feedback and iterate on it. There is no such space like that today, and we thought we should have one.
Everytime people from very different fields come together, some brilliant things happen. And for a startup environment – it would be sad not to tap into the diversity of population that places like Chennai and Pune have – to bring together hackers, designers, entrepreneurs, artists etc under one roof.
There is a need for a physical space where people can “hang out’, learn about starting up – cause most of us in someway or the other found such a space – for me literally it was the Entrepreneurship centre in Canada where I dropped by whenever i had questions, used the resources etc. Here’s hoping we do such things here in India.

“Startup” can mean many different things – it could be a person with a full-time job who has a startup idea in his head, or a couple of guys working out of their homes, or it could be a small team that has a make-shift office in a flat, or even a 20 to 50 person company with a decent office space. Which of these will The Startup Centre target?

We are not an incubation centre. In the words of Alok Mittal, one of the advisors for The Startup Centre, “Its a fun place where creativity is initiated.” Its also a great place as long as its just the founding time looking to connect with such people, get a bit of confidence and finalize on their idea and maybe build out a prototype. Once you are ready to go beyond just the founding team and take on team members, you are probably better off in a incubation centre or on a space of your own – you should focus on your product and company and not get distracted. We mean startup quite literally, where idea becomes something tangible.

How would you define “success” for The Startup Centre? What kind of impact are you hoping to achieve, and how do you plan to measure it?

30 odd starting up teams working out of the space, being the host for events like Open Coffee Club, DevCamps, Barcamps, etc, and getting enough diversity of people – apart from just IT – that’d be the success of the centre in the first phase of its life. I have a feeling that a space like this will democratize entrepreneurship, new ideas, movements to people outside the tech sector and to those outside incubation centres. The momentum of the volunteering that goes into making this space successful, all of that will contribute to how much people gain out of association.

You’ve picked Pune and Chennai as the first two cities where The Startup Centre starts? Can you shed some light on the thinking process behind that decision?

I think Pune is the hottest space for startups in the country today. And it would be great if i talk less about it and keep it a secret cause what makes Bangalore a bit on the high maintenance side for startups is because of the hype around it.

I think a space where startups can thrive need students – quality students, people from diverse backgrounds, low cost of living, close proximity to a bigger metro. I think Chennai and Pune fit the bill quite well. The reason behind these two cities is also cause its not bangalore – where you necessarily dont need a centre to bring together people – there is lots of things happening as it is.

Presumably, you’re looking for an appropriate space in Pune for The Startup Centre. Can you give us an idea about what kind of a space you’re looking for? How big? Have you short-listed any specific areas of the city for this?

We are really figuring this bit out. Chennai will give a lot of insights onto this – so in a way Pune will have a much better centre than Chennai for sure – because the learnings from here will go into that. For Chennai, we are looking for roughly around 2000 – 3000 sq feet of space, preferably a hall type setting, close enough to coffee places and access and not in an IT Park. There is something about IT parks that seems to sober everyone up – the centre should ideally do the reverse of that. For Chennai we are thinking close enough to the IT corridor – in Pune, would very much like the support of the folks there to help out.

Will The Startup Centre focus on any particular sector or type of startups (e.g. IT startups), or will it welcome all types?

We are initially focusing on Internet, Mobile and Software. Cause it seems we have the capacity to guide and its known territory. We have been getting quite a bit of enquiries from artists in Chennai who want to figure out new ways of distributing music and trying out models around it, so I think local flavors will very quickly add into it.

How can the Pune startup community help with this initiative?

Very much so. I have already been getting a lot of support from Santosh and Anjali of Lipikaar / Dubzer on this regard. I plan to visit Pune sometime. We would like for the local community to in a way run it and which city other than Pune in India today has that strong a startup community to run it? We launch the centre in Chennai in Sept, give till Nov, to start work in Pune. If all goes well, hopefully we’ll see the new year with one in Pune as well.

6 events in next 4 days: science, maths, cleantech, IP and open source

July 2, 2010EventsEvents, mathematics, open source, Pune City, science, TechnologyNavin Kabra

The events in Pune in the next four days are a great example of the diversity of Pune in the “science and technology” sector. Far too often, we assume that technology means software technology, but Pune does have much more. NCL is one of the top institutes in the country for chemical technology, and has a history of coming up with chemical science breakthroughs that make it into commercial products. Today, a scientist from NCL will give a talk on the patent and other intellectual property issues that scientists and small businesses should know about. The Bhaskaracharya Pratishthana is a great institute of Mathematics, and it regularly schedules very interesting talks for people interested in Mathematics. (And if you’re a software engineer who is not interested in Mathematics, you should be ashamed of yourself.) Monday will have a talk on probiotics – the use of bacteria and other micro-organisms in industrial waste treatements and other cleantech. And by the way, if you’re interested in finding out what other world-class institutions Pune has, (and it’s a huge number!), check out PuneTech’s top ranked websites of Pune page.

Click on the logo to get all PuneTech articles about events in Pune

And all of this is in addition to our usual talks on open source (the Pune Linux Users Group), issues for small startups (the Pune Open Coffee Club), and Microsoft Technologies (the Pune User Group).

This weekend – try to get exposure to a different science & technology community than the one you normally hang out with.

Here are the details:

Jul 5, 2010: PuneCleanTech event: Probiotic applications in CleanTech at Venture Center, NCL Innovation Park

Jul 3, 2010: Ancient Indian Combinatorial Methods – by Prof Sridharan CMI at Bhaskaracharya Pratisthan

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 11:08 PM PDT

Professor Sridharan, Chennai Mathematical Institute, Chennai, will
give a lecture at Bhaskaracharya Pratishthana.

Topic: Differences in Style but not in Substance: Ancient Indian
Combinatorial Methods

This lecture is free for all to attend. No registration required.

Jul 5, 2010: PuneCleanTech event: Probiotic applications in CleanTech at Venture Center, NCL Innovation Park

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 09:21 PM PDT

PuneCleanTech is proud to present an enlightening talk on ‘Probiotics in CleanTech’ on July 5th, 2010 at 4:00pm at the NCL Innovation Center. The talk will be presented by Dr. Pillai, a renowned authority on the subject. This event is supported by Fusiontech Ventures and NCL Venture Center.

As you know, Probiotics is the use of beneficial micro-organisms to increase the health, vitality and efficiency of various animal processes. The same techniques can be applied to Industrial activity in areas such as soil remediation, effluent treatment, waste management etc. The talk will focus on such applications of Probiotics.

The talk will be suitable for all entities that are actively dealing with such technologies (such as Praj) or might benefit from their applications to industrial and municipal waste management. As a result, institutions such as MCCIA and Pune Municipal Corporation might benefit from this talk. If you agree, please canvass it within your or affiliated organizations.

This broad-ranging talk should be interesting also for concerned citizenry (such as ecological society) and the scientific/technological elites (such as NCL), as well as, educational and research institutes.

As always, the talk is free but the seating is limited to first 60 people. There is no RSVP and the seating will be on a ‘first at the door gets the first chair’ basis 🙂

Jul 2, 2010: Venture Center’s IP Center Event: IP overview by Dr. Tiwari of NCL IP Gropu at Venture Center, NCL Innovation Park

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 09:18 PM PDT

Dr. Nitin Tiwari, a scientist with NCL and part of the NCL IP Group will talk about Intellectual Property. The focus will be general awareness of IP for small and medium enterprises.

This is a free event . It is open to all

Jul 3, 2010: POCC Meet: “Contracts and Intellectual Property” at GrubShup

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 09:15 PM PDT

Are the following significant problem areas for your startup?
* Non-payment from clients who have already taken delivery (ITES, other domains)
* Intellectual Property (trademark violations, copyright enforcement)
* Industry Ethics, price cutting by competitors (who then don’t deliver quality)

Our next meetup is focused on how entrepreneurs deal with these issues.

Attending Counsels:
Kaushik Kute http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kaushik-kute/8/b26/1bb

This is a free event. Anybody can attend. Register here: http://punestartups.ning.com/events/event/show?id=1988582%3AEvent%3A35767&xg_source=msg_invite_event

Jul 3, 2010: Pune Linux Users Group – Monthly Meeting at Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 09:11 PM PDT

PLUG meeting for July is scheduled on Saturday 3rd July, 4 pm @ SICSR

These are the details:
Location: SICSR, Atur Centre, Model Colony.
Room No 704. 7th floor ( room no. may change )
Time: 4 pm

Agenda:

1. We will have a talk on distributed version control and TeamGit by
Abhijit Bhopatkar. Abhijit Bhopatkar is the author of TeamGit
(http://www.devslashzero.com/teamgit).
Audience: Anyone interested in version control
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control), TeamGit, and/or
contributing to an interesting Qt project.
2. Open discussion and QA session

This event is free for all to attend. No registration required.

Jul 3, 2010: Microsoft Community Tech Day at Shekhar Natu Hall

Posted: 29 Jun 2010 07:24 PM PDT

Agenda:
9:00am – 9:30am Registration
9.30am – 9.45am Tea Break
09.45am – 10.00am Keynote
10:00am – 11:00am What’s new in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP 1 – Aviraj Ajgekar
11.00am – 12.00pm Setting Up Remote Access Service on Windows Server 2008 R2 for VPN – Dev Chaudhari
12.00pm – 01.00pm Lunch
01.00pm – 02.00pm Introduction to Forefront Identity Manager 2010 – Mayur Deshpande
02.00pm – 03.00pm Deploying application using Application Virtualization (App-V) – Ninad Doshi
03:00pm – 04:00pm Tea Break & Networking

This event is free for all to attend. Register here: http://www.communitytechdays.com/Registration1.aspx?Status=NotFound&login=offline

Using bacteria in cleaning up our Industry – PuneCleanTech event on Probiotics – July 5

July 1, 2010Eventscleantech, punecleantechNavin Kabra

What: Probiotics in CleanTech by Dr. Sivaramakrishna Pillai
When: Monday, July 5, 4pm
Where: Venture Center, NCL Innovation Park, Pashan Road. Map: http://bit.ly/VenCen (To reach Venture Center, go past NCL towards Pashan, pass the cricket ground adjacent to NCL and then you’ll find NCL Innovation Park / Venture Center on the right hand side.)
Registration and Fees: This event is free for all to attend. Free seating on First Come, First Seated basis only
Further Info: Contact Harshad Nanal (harshadnanal@gmail.com), Anil Paranjape (amparanjape@gmail.com)

Probiotics in CleanTech

Did you know that we have discovered a number of bacteria and other micro-organisms that can help improve our digestion, prevent colon cancer, lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, improve immune function, prevent infections, and a whole bunch of other health benefits?

This same “technology” can also be used to clean up our Industry. They can be used to treat industrial waste, and clean it up in a “clean” manner. They can help restore ecological disasters brought upon by our consumption.

Probiotics is the use of beneficial micro-organisms to increase the health, vitality and efficiency of various animal processes. The same techniques can be applied to Industrial activity in areas such as soil remediation, effluent treatment, waste management etc. Dr. Sivaramakrishna Pillai, an expert in this area, will give a talk on such applications of probiotics.