Chair's Pendown
Karn Nopany, Chairperson
(May’03 – May’04)
As I yawned over coffee on a lazy Friday morning, this mail from IEEE-ASET with another exciting opportunity
to contribute to the IEEE –ASET community once again tipped me over, and I begin with a BIG thanks! Congratulations to every member on the successful launch of this e-journal that I believe will become yet another manifestation of our vision for this branch - to be the leading platform to network, bridge ideas and open exciting opportunities for the entire ASET community.
It seems like yesterday when Ani (Aniruddha Pathak, CSE04) and I walked into Sunita mam's office with a proposal to set up this branch, begging for her support to get the director's approval. Having gotten our initial nod (after a lot of sweat and blood), we put up our first poster in late September of 2002 and started a class to class campaign; our mission - to elicit a response from 25 souls willing to put their trust in us and part with a fortune of $25 membership fee (which to our bad luck had been doubled just a few months before). We assembled together the "IEEE-ASET – Inaugural Season" star cast – Nick(Piyush ECE'03), Sandy (Sandeep ECE'03), Kunal (IT'05), Reenu (IT'05)et. al. and convinced Sujata ma'am and Rekha ma'am to become our faculty leads. To our great relief we were received by a packed house at our first info session in October. November saw a hurricane of activities – declaration of the IEEE student body, signing of the constitution, opening the bank account and finally sending across our formal application to be recognized as an official IEEE student branch. Everything turned real in February of 2003 with the official inauguration of the branch. Beyond that everything is history! IEEE – ASET branch gave me the first hand experience of creating, working in and leading a team. It helped me to learn from my peers, sharpen my communication and task management skills and learn to meet tight deadlines. It taught me to respect every moment and extract the maximum out of myself – things that I consider my critical success factors today. These in my opinion are also the true differentiators in the industry. I sincerely hope that each one of you will find a way to enrich yourself beyond regular academicswhile being a member of IEEE-ASET.
Cheers and Best Wishes!
Sidhant Gupta, Chairperson
(May’06 – May’07)
When I first came to ASET, I was told that IEEE should only be joined after 2nd year as it is technically oriented and hence first year students would not understand. I did not join.
At the same time, there was an IBM project that IEEE-ASET was involved into. Motivated by the the Chairperson, my friends and I joined IEEE just to make a fun project hoping that we could add an IBM project on our resume. (We made a home automation system).
Today I believe that was one of the wisest decisions that I took. By taking up a project and having its deadline near, we were really pushed to complete it. The best part was that we chose a project which was difficult. A project for which we had no idea at all, and it included software and hardware, and frankly we knew nothing of any technology we were going to use. We completed that project start to finish in 10 days, learning everything that was required and working day and night, and fortunately it was one of the best projects.
The day we completed the project, I realized what IEEE ASET taught me. It was the fact that anything is possible, as long as you have the will to take up something unknown and then simply believe that you can do it. That is what I have been doing ever since. I make it a point to choose projects that I know nothing about or very little and then simply remain optimistic that I can do it.
I can not put into words how much working for our IEEE branch has paid me. I can certainly attribute my admission into such a top class graduate school to our branch. Organizing events, taking initiatives, doing project and learning new technologies gave me a huge advantage. What ever was taught in classes, I could apply it directly to projects, and this gave me a much better understanding of the 'boring' subjects, and amazingly I would then perform really good at our exams. One last point I would want to highlight is that just joining IEEE won’t do wonders for you. The branch is a platform where you get a chance to prove yourself. If you want to really tap into the benefits, you have to work selflessly, take initiatives and never expect to be spoon fed. If you make even small efforts of taking initiatives, handling adversities yourself and taking even small projects seriously then no one could stop you from being famous and successful! :)
In total I have no certificates for the work and effort I put in for my IEEE Branch. They are not required, because my experience speaks for it. Just do what you enjoy, may it be doingwhacky projects, organizing quizzes or some cool events or just anything! and it WILL pay you back in kind.
Lastly, IEEE gave me lots and lots of friends for life. I miss all the trips, lunches, events and nonstop fun we all had together. It was one of the best times.
Have fun and work hard for what you enjoy!
(May’07-May’08)
I now sometimes wonder, had I not joined IEEE-ASET what all would have I missed – well a big deal of exposure, experience and loads of fun!! The past three and a half years with IEEE-ASET family has been the most rewarding time of my college life till now. I had become its member in my very first year and since then it has helped me tremendously in enhancing my technical knowledge and aided in moulding my personality. Working with other member, organizing events in college, attending workshops & biannual meets in other colleges and participating in other such activities has enabled me in polishing my professional and as well as social skills besides giving me opportunities to network with the members of other student branches. Encouragement from the senior members instilled a deep sense of dedication and commitment to work hard and serve my best not just to IEEE but also to other on-going activities of the college.
In high hopes that IEEE-ASET shall continue to polish and fine tune the talented minds, I strongly believe that it will continue its legacy of producing the best professionals – the ones with the "Xtra edge"
With regards
Maryam Husain