When we happened to meet God !

Yes!! Its not an exaggeration “calling him the Chemical Engineering God”, this legendary professor of Chemical Engineering for which the department of Wisconsin will always boast. I am talking once again about Prof Biron Bird.

Incidentally, we happened to invite him to a dinner with us. It was Kenji doing this as he wanted to go from Madison after his PhD with this fantastic memory of interacting with Prof Bird once again on ‘dinner table’. We took some pictures as well. Prof Bird gave 4 of us (Kenji, Santosh, Manan and myself ) a ride to Hong Kong café. In the end he dropped us to the department.

He speaks many different languages just for fun and he usually interacts with Chinese people in their language, with dutch people in their language and so on. He was doing the same here. There was a waitress in the restaurant. She was talking in English, but prof. Bird kept talking in Chinese and then she was amazed and impressed !!

She could figure out that we were students and he was a teacher, but she asked what his subject was. I just wanted to say “ Hey ! You are talking with someone who is legendary, who is the biggest professor in Madison, and to talk with him, I had to wait till this moment. He is the so called author of so many books which are the best in their class. If there is a God of Chemical Engineering, here he is!!!!!! If he happens to take the 620 course again, I am sure there will be maximum enrollment in the course.”

But Kenji is funny! He said “He is our Chinese language teacher.” The gal was surprised this time. She could not believe. She started laughing this time.
It was prof Bird who told her in Chinese that he was a prof of Chemical Engineering.

Some of the stories that he told to us yesterday.
Food: Chinese is his favourate food. He did not like the Indian food because it had flavours. L Sad, we wanted him to invite for an Indian Dinner.

Languages: He can speak, read and write as many a 8-9 different languages, most of which he has learnt on his own. He learnt Chinese on his own and then learnt from a teacher while he was in Japan for some time. However he used to teach in English only.

World War: He was fighting in the world war and was using the mortar firing cannons a lot and which took toll on his hearing capability. He was in Germany during the world war.

Book: They printed the first edition of BSL the most famous book in transport- phenomena way back and sent it for reviews to different universities. These reviews were harsh but then after these reviews, these people took real hard pains to correct and improve each and every section to get the second edition. There are a few secrets in the book which I think a few Chemical Engineers know. He wanted to print a dutch saying in the preface but he was not allowed to and then he kept that in the book in a secret hidden way.
Kenji asked him if he had mismatch of concepts, or things like that with the other authors. He said “ So many that he was himself surprised how they talk till date J They took all pains to type everything in word, and then the publishers changed the software to print it leaving so many errors in the book that there is supposedly a person in Puorto Rico who sends him a 20 page review of errata every month or so and Prof Bird still takes all efforts for the improvement.

Work/ office: He comes at 6:30 in the office. To have an idea what it takes to wake up at 6:30, I put my alarm today at 6:30. Sadly, I switched it off and slept again L. He works till around 4:00 and then leaves for home.

Puzzles: He likes to solve very tricky puzzles. One typical which he could not solve since many days was a Japanese puzzle in which there are three rings, which loop into each other and can be separated apart with some really difficult tricks. He could not solve it though. One of my seniors looked up the solution at web but did not tell him. He expressed his disappointment in that “saying why did not he come to me to share the solution ?’

Climate: I myself can’t believe it was such a mild winter this year in Madison which has surprised almost everyone here. Prof Bird told that he has witnessed – 40 deg C in Madison. This wasn’t cold enough and was in fact disappointing for him.

History book: Prof Bird is writing the history of department of Chemical Engineering since many years and a book has been published recently.

He has so many qualities and is such a ‘down to earth’ person. I once again salute to this legendary professor.
~ R

On education in US

On being asked by a friend to comment on the difference in the systems of education which has been adopted in India after Britisher left, how it evolved, how is it today and how does it compare with that in the USA, I am writing this review.

Those of you who are reading this and have taken / or are taking their education in USA would have felt that personally. Those who would take later would realize too :)

Before comparing education systems, I quote here the same thing which my cousin and senior from ITBHU quoted once "A professional career is like riding waves. You ride with a sail-board on the water peak, which is going to fall, and before that, you jump on to the next peak. Education is like a surf-board, the better you are trained, the better you can sail."

Its only a semester that I have spent here and I have learnt a lot of things! Be it a subject, computers, presentation skills, documentation, group projects, down to cooking my and my friends' food.

The idea of education starts from the fact that the environment is conducive for activities like research and development and that these activities happen in "Cutting Edge Technologies. One would typically come to US for Masters and subsequent PhD. I am not sure about everyone, but I found a sudden big gap between the under-graduation studies and graduate studies, not because the inherent knowledge was not there, but it was only sufficient to understand that the processes in research were typically very sofisticated and we never did such activities in
undergraduate curriculum.

Research is typically different from taking a fixed number of courses, taking a fixed number of exams, passing them with grades to the best of your capabilities (your desires sometimes) which is the usual case in Under-graduation in India. The ultimate aim can be to get a job, or get
into higher education.

I have little idea about the under-graduation studies in USA, however I am sure they are given a lot more opportunities of doing small projects, shaping their education "the way they want"; they are made ethically stronger and are provided with better platforms to perform, logically think and coherently produce ideas !

Education in USA is flexible. You study what you like and you think is important for your research. You take courses which are relevant to your research. You work hard, produce good results and become the doctors of philosophy.

My guide once quoted " When you complete your PhD, consider yourself world leader in that field " He was right ! The learning curve is such that I can imagine someone working on a problem for 5 years. Damn ! He has to be a world-leader in that.

Education in India is too competitive and those who come here do well usually. I am proud about the system in India because of the competitiveness though there is always scope of improvements and at the same time there are a good number of qualities which the US education has and which we should adopt.

Comments from IITians those in US appreciated :) ~ R

Feynman's vision

Look at the vision this man had in 1960 !!

I am talking about Richard Feynman and I reproduce his quote here.

" As soon as I mention this, people tell me about miniaturization and how far it has progressed today. They tell me about electric motors that are the size of ht nail on your small finger. And there is a device in the market they tell me by which you can write the lord's Prayer on the head of a pin. But that's nothing. thats the most primitive, halting step in the direction I intend to discuss. It is staggeringly small world that is below. In the year 2000, when they look back at this age, they will wonder why it was not untill 1960s that anybody began seriously to move in this direction. "

In 2000, the MOSFET size was 100 nm, its predicted 50 nm pretty soon.

I am impressed with the vision he had then !

All elctronics industries target on reducing the size of the transistors and hence all this nano technology. The laptops are doubled in their conputational power each year. Moors law holds good till now since many years...

More to come up on nano tech soon :)

Madison Rocks !!!

So folks !! There are mixed feelings associated with that pic. Most of my local friends had gone home, only Sunil, Vishal, Gagan and Santosh were here. It was december month 04. We were preparing for qualifiers which were held in Jan first week. It reminded me of late night studies done long back. By 25th december, Madison was empty as if everyone was dead. My schedules were crazy, no people to look around, though awesome food being prepared daily by gagan and vishal - Thanks to them for feeding me ! Sunil often used to join in late night studies. Manan returned on 29th and fed with sweets. India ki yaad aa gayi :) khane se hi sahi...

We took the tests, did pretty well I guess though I wasn't much satisfied with the performance. The day papers ended Patty, Santosh, Vijay and I went to a movie. Manan joined us. This pic was taken then. It was a deep intoxication. I remember I was caried home by Sunil, piyush and Manan. Entire way, I was uttering some crap and these guys were somehow tolerating me.

Next day we had an executive lunch at Sunil's place. Awesome Sunil !! Then we watched some movies at Santosh's house, had pizza in the night. Went to loitre on the State Street, came back home.

Next day, Murali gave us a drive to the temple in Piwaukee. Temple was great!! Awesome architechture, and interiors. Prayed for passing and general development :) Yes I am religious ! Thanks boss !! First long car drive after coming to Madison. Yaad rahega rubic cube genious !!

After that, days passed by, I started reading stuff given by Prof de Pablo. He alloted me a nice office with Manan. Anxiety was piling up.

Two days before results were due, he came to my office as Manan had already predicted, and told me about my excellent performance. It was surprizing though. I din't tell Sunil- tried to give him a surprize the first time and I really wanted to let him check his and my results in the mail box.

He came back from Cleaveland, and opened the mail boxes. He had passed too. Great job ! He checked mine. I had passed. He called home, but I was asleep. Classes started the next day. This time with even more excitement and enthusiasm.

No resolutions though but am spending more amount on studies and more time in office now. 2:00 am is usual returning time. Started the gym again. Its nice !

Overall !! Madison rocks and we all are enjoying...:)

For those who think I am involved in technical activities :D Here is how Shrodingers' wave equation is solved !