Surprise Presentation at Manipal

It has been 6 years since I graduated from Manipal. I studied at the School of Information Science where I did my Masters in Embedded and Wireless Technologies. Suddenly One day I got a call checking my availability for a guest lecture. As I interacted more with the lecturer there, I learnt that I would be addressing Masters students in cloud computing department.

I have been back to college several times after graduation. One time I have even gone back and given a live presentation on USB Device drivers in Linux. But this time it would be different because I was taking my wife along who had not seen Manipal college before.

I asked an intern in my department who used to frequently run his workloads on the cloud, so that he would serve 2 purpose:

1.       As he was an intern from another college, he could relate better with the students
2.       As he had used cloud infrastructure, he could talk about topics more relevant t the students

However, when there was just 2 more weeks for the presentation, I learnt from him that he had an online exam on the day just after the presentation and since his grades depended on it, he would not be able to come with me to Manipal.

Fortunately, by this time we had got the syllabus copy of the cloud computing department which had lot of elements of DevOps and Cloud Infrastructure setup.

I approached a colleague Vijay from my department who had 13 years of experience in DevOps and infrastructure development. He gladly agreed to the opportunity and accompanied me to Manipal.

Our faculty were happy that there was 2 of us coming form the industry to talk to the students.

As roads had been damaged due to rains, our bus reached Manipal at 8:45, instead of 6:10 as booked with the travels. We quickly got ready and reached college around 9:30 and began the presentation.

For the 2 weeks of preparation, we had believed that we would have to share the 3 hours allotted on that day among ourselves. But just before departure, we learnt that each of us were presenting to a different set of students, so we carried separate slides to our sessions.

[Day 1]:

My presentation was to a batch of Embedded System and Automotive Embedded Systems Engineers and my class contained 86 students. 

The presentation topics were:

    1)     How to score more marks
    2)     Difference between MNCs and Startups
    3)     How to go about a job search
    4)     How to be a more effective software professional

In the middle of the presentation, I planned a Notepad++ Macro feature demo. The demo got a good response.

I gave 1 minute gap between topics and then once my slot was over, opened the floor to Q&A. It was a good learning experience. Since Vijay’s time slot was slightly more, I went to the same room as Vijay to hear his presentation.

Both me and Vijay were given mementos for presenting at the college. We collected feedback regarding our presentations and spent some time talking to different lecturers who had taught me.

From the college we went to Pai Tiffin for lunch. 

From there we went to Manipal’s Anatomy and Physiology museum. Then we went to the adjacent Manipal canteen to enjoy some waffles in the evening.

When we were about to leave the canteen, a procession of students participating in the Keli fest also arrived at the venue. We joined their procession till Syndicate Bank Golden Jubilee Auditorium. The Keli fest is organized by the Malayali community at Manipal. 

It was a good experience to watch students perform all their stage acts, dances, dramas, standups, musicals, beat-boxing, instruments and other performances. The whole fest was filled with lot of energy and we absolutely enjoyed the whole show. We stayed there from 5:30 to 10:30. Then we had dinner at Dollops Restaurant and went back to our Room from there.

[Day 2]:

We got up early in the morning and walked to Manipal Lake. Our stay was arranged in NBQ Valley View flat. The flat had an amazing view from the balcony, where we could see greenery till the horizon among which fog could be seen raising from underneath.

Then we walked around the lake for 2 rounds and walked back to the Hotel.

After having breakfast, there was some time left, so I joined the students playing basketball.

As there was some free time till lunch, I took my wife around Manipal college and showed her around. I took her to the architecture department where we saw different designs of staircases, ramps, balconies and other architectural shapes.

From there I took her to Manipal College Library building, then to the Innovation building. From there I took her to the Chemical Engineering Department where my brother had previously studied. From the Chemical engineering department, I took her to the campus central cafeteria, which has a very appealing design. There used to be a basketball court in front of the cafeteria, but now there is a circular open air theater surrounded by shops on the semicircular periphery.

As we had to take a night bus back to Bangalore, we slept in our hotels in the afternoon.

In the evening we had snacks at the NBQ mess and went to Manipal endpoint. We had an amazing sunset viewing experience at the end point.

Later we gathered all our belongings and walked to Tiger Circle across Kasturba medical College’s entrance. We had dinner at Pangala restaurant and left back to Bangalore.

We hope that the presentation in Manipal has helped the students and Faculty.