Visit to University of Notre Dame

Yesterday (Dec. 29, 2006) I visited University of Notre Dame, the place where I previously worked as a Visiting Asst Prof of Electrical and Computer Engineering some 20 years ago. It was a casual visit to Notre Dame which brought back those good old memories. I had a good informal meeting with my then supervisor Prof (Dr) Anthony Michel who is currently Dean Emeritus of Engineering. Here are some photos.

Notre Dame Dome

Church on Campus

Office that I used to occupy during my stay at Notre Dame

At Lunch with Dean of Engg. and Family

ETG Launch

Considering the large gap between academics and the industry requirements, I decided to create a group and named it Emerging Technologies Group. I intend to deliver seminars, lectures and courses to this group on a regular basis. This should benefit both academicians and professionals working in the industry. As a result, the first event was conducted on Dec. 16th, 2006. In spite of the fact that we had only two days to advertise the event, a whopping number (about 50) attended the event. My many thanks to my student Abhijeet Gole whose unprecedented efforts made this possible. The first talk was on Java and was well accepted by the audience. The next event is scheduled on Jan 13, 2007. I look forward to recieve much larger audience for this event.

What initiated this blogging?

On Dec 11, 2006, I delivered a speech entitled "Bridging the Gap between Academics and Industry" to more than 50 invited teachers of Mumbai University in a one-day event organized by Dept of Computer Science and Mathematics of Univ. of Mumbai, India. During the speech, I realized that there are many professors who are seriously interested in improving the quality of education but were not able to do so for some reasons which may not be publicly disclosed. After the speech, few professors approached me and suggested that I take the lead in helping the university raise its standards in Computer Science and IT by improving the course curriculum. Incidentally, I am member of the adhoc board of studies in Computer Science and is currently heading the syllabus committe for creating the syllabus of M.Sc. Computer Science. Thus, I decided to create a blog where people can post their views.