Spoo!
Feels great when I have come back to blog after a long long time. And this time its after a great refreshing experience :) Well, Blogger has been too kind to me to show whats new in it and remind me that I can use these great features! Not bad at all!

That apart, let me share what my experience was. To put it as a one liner it could just be said that I had been to Infosys for an academic talk...but it was much more than just that!  Its been two months since I have started visiting Infosys but today was special. All the excitement started when I received a mail from Mr. Narayana Murthy Sir about a talk in Infosys from the Chancellor of a university. That was just enough to make me wait for this day!

And today was right here! To start with, the security person who gives me a "Visitor Pass" everyday at the gate, called me and said "You have a special pass today!". Great hospitality I must say. And then I was lead into a beautifully decorated banquet hall and an auditorium. The facilities were mesmerizing. By the time I stood on my feet and recovered from the amazement, the talk began.

It was given by Dr. Robert Easter, Chancellor and Provost at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The topic of the talk was "Information Technology and the 21st Century Food and Agriculture System". Here are some of the interesting points thrown at us:

  • The big challenge of this century, Do we have enough food? (Food for thought indeed!)
  • The shift in the eating habits of people in the developing countries...gradual shift from staples and cereals to vegetables and meat.
  • If green revolution revolutionized the world in the 1960s, its the turn of biology and Information Technology to do it now!
  •  How IT can help agriculture in terms of guidance, prediction, management of resources and energy and also the logistics of the farm produce. (Kind of Supply Chain Management problem)
  • IT for Animal welfare in agriculture.
  • Bare necessities of micro farmers which IT can help with, like production technology, market information and fertilizers.
The talk was followed by a Q/A session which was interesting and informative. On the whole it was a great learning experience to know what we could do for the society!

Talking about the dignitaries at the event, it was a small gathering of around 50 including industry experts and academia. We represented the latter part when a whole bunch of students and faculty were there. Industry experts included SETLab heads at Infosys and research heads from other organizations. We could meet a few of them too! And not to forget the dinner was also great!

The most memorable event for the day was when our Director Sir came to me and said "Did you look at the first slide about the University of Illinois? We are not even a speck in front of that!" Well he actually made that comment after watching the slide that said there were 23 Nobel laureates fro U of I. I would like to tell him, Sir, we would be there sometime soon!