IISc AANA National Conference 2010
Peering into the Technologies of the Next Decade
August 13-15, 2010 Warren Conference Service Center, University of California, San Diego, CA
We are happy to inform you all that we had a very successful National Conference organized by the Southern California chapter during August 13-15, 2010. Dr. Arkal Shenoy and his local team members deserve kudos for the fine execution of this exceptional event.
The Aug 13th Friday evening reception at the Neurosciences Institute was attended by about 45 alumni and this was a harbinger of the excellent attendance we were about to witness the following day. Everyone got a chance to introduce themselves and made the most of the opportunity to get to know each other, along with some hot dinner and access to the cultural program going on at the site.
On Aug 14th Saturday, the day began early with some of us on site at the Atkinson Hall by about 7.00am. It was an overcast and cool morning, but by 8.15am about 30-40 alumni had already registered, had breakfast with some hot chai and were seated in the auditorium. After a brief welcome address by Dr. Arkal Shenoy and Dr. Yashraj Bhatnagar, Prof. Balaram and Prof. Balakrishnan inaugurated the meeting at 8.30am with their words of encouragement and support.
The morning's keynote addresses started with Dr. Shrinivas Kulkarni taking us on a ride from within a whisker of the big bang to the universe we see today. By mid-morning the audience had swelled to more than 100, most of whom stayed through to the end. The keynotes were so well received that one of the younger alumni commented that he was cancelling his plan to leave at noon and would stay for the rest of the program! Another observation was that at every Q&A opportunity, there were so many questions from the audience that the moderators found it tough to keep to the time. Each session held its own sway over the audience.
In the late afternoon, an address by Prof. Mohan and Dr. Srinivasan followed by an excellent cultural program organized by Dr. Malini Rajagopalan rounded off the day's activities. Dr. Gajanan Birur and Dr. Eri Srivatsan explained their philanthropic initiatives over dinner. Finally, at about 10.30pm, IISc ties were presented to the oldest and the youngest (by year of graduation) alumni present in the gathering -- they covered a half century between them!
Arkal Shenoy and his wife hosted an informal breakfast in the UCSD guest house on Sunday Aug 15th morning which provided another great opportunity for all the alumni present to talk about the event in a relaxed setting. Thus, a very well conceived and delivered meeting came to an end.
Please check out the photos from Day 1 and Day 2 from the conference.
Below are some of the presentations from the conference. The rest will be uploaded as they become available.