profpartha
Hello,I am a teacher of Computer Science, from India.
Wake up call
Today I had the pleasure of visiting IIIT - International
Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. What a great
inspiration it was !
I met some very bright people : Prof. Raj Reddy, winner of the
ACM Turing Award (the "Nobel prize" for Computer Science), and a
youngster -- D Santosh Kumar. Santosh Kumar is the winner of IIIT
Gold Medal for academic excellence. What a great experience it
was, talking to these people. There were also many others with
excellent reputation in their respective fields. It was a real galaxy. All
of them were Indians, like me, and most of them were from our
very own state of Andhra Pradesh.
This, sadly brought me to the inevitable question -- why is it
that I never meet people like this, in my own college ? Why don't
I have any student who could stand intellectually, at least half
as tall as Santosh Kumar ? The answer came to me by itself,
when I realised that in that big tent, I could not see any one of
my colleagues from my college. I could not meet any one of my own
students. Which explains everything. I work with people and teach
people who seem to have no urge for learning or for doing
anything exceptionally great. All this activity in a great
research institution means nothing to them. My colleagues and my
students couldn't care lesser for events like this. They would
never come out of their cocoons or look at what people can
achieve by hard work and initiative. How sad ! I dont expect
every one I know, to be a Turing award winner. All I say is that
you dont have to be a Turing award winner, to recognise a Turing
Award winner and talk to him and learn from him. At least try.
Maybe some of that intellectual genius will rub on you and give
you just a little more urge to learn and perform. Is it so hard
to find some time, to meet gurus like this ? Why do we lack this
academic intitiative ?
When will we change ? Or will we change at all ?
We cannot achieve academic brilliance by just staying closed
inour office and not looking at the world outside. We need to
interact and learn from people who have done better than us.
partha
PS I hope some of my colleagues and some of my students will see
this, and wake up at least now.
Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. What a great
inspiration it was !
I met some very bright people : Prof. Raj Reddy, winner of the
ACM Turing Award (the "Nobel prize" for Computer Science), and a
youngster -- D Santosh Kumar. Santosh Kumar is the winner of IIIT
Gold Medal for academic excellence. What a great experience it
was, talking to these people. There were also many others with
excellent reputation in their respective fields. It was a real galaxy. All
of them were Indians, like me, and most of them were from our
very own state of Andhra Pradesh.
This, sadly brought me to the inevitable question -- why is it
that I never meet people like this, in my own college ? Why don't
I have any student who could stand intellectually, at least half
as tall as Santosh Kumar ? The answer came to me by itself,
when I realised that in that big tent, I could not see any one of
my colleagues from my college. I could not meet any one of my own
students. Which explains everything. I work with people and teach
people who seem to have no urge for learning or for doing
anything exceptionally great. All this activity in a great
research institution means nothing to them. My colleagues and my
students couldn't care lesser for events like this. They would
never come out of their cocoons or look at what people can
achieve by hard work and initiative. How sad ! I dont expect
every one I know, to be a Turing award winner. All I say is that
you dont have to be a Turing award winner, to recognise a Turing
Award winner and talk to him and learn from him. At least try.
Maybe some of that intellectual genius will rub on you and give
you just a little more urge to learn and perform. Is it so hard
to find some time, to meet gurus like this ? Why do we lack this
academic intitiative ?
When will we change ? Or will we change at all ?
We cannot achieve academic brilliance by just staying closed
inour office and not looking at the world outside. We need to
interact and learn from people who have done better than us.
partha
PS I hope some of my colleagues and some of my students will see
this, and wake up at least now.
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