I was on a panel about AI
The talk wasn't recorded, and I don't really remember too much of what I spoke, but here are a few pertinent observations
Yesterday afternoon, I took a break from work to meet an old friend, and in the process, was part of a panel discussion (that also involved him).
A few pertinent observations from the experience.
The panel (including the moderator) had a pair of classmates (Prasad and I), a pair of siblings (Chaitra and Prasad) and a pair of cousins-in-law (Ranga and Chaitra)
I had indicated that I’d be driving to the venue (BNMIT). There were three students stationed at the gate to greet me as soon as I went there by car, and they showed me where to park. All of them greeted me with “hello, Sir”. I had completely forgotten about the “Sir / Madam” culture in colleges
Chaitra met me and took me into the principal’s office (this is when I realised this event was a big deal), where the other speakers were also gathered. We had coffee and snacks, and spoke about random stuff. We were also joined by the Dean, who is a trustee from the family that runs the institution.
At the appointed time, we made our way to the venue, a seminar hall in the electronics department. The first thing I noticed was a pile of shoes outside. Soon I realised that only students were required to be barefoot in the hall. Us guests, faculty and staff were allowed to be shod inside. I don’t get the concept, but I assume there is a reason to this.
The moment we entered the hall, the gathered students (the hall was about half full) all stood up - again a part of Indian college culture that I had completely forgotten about. Again I don’t remember doing this when I was in college. If any of my classmates are reading this, and we actually did stand up when teachers came in, please correct me.
This is possibly the point where I decided I’ll write this blogpost - the standard greeting at this college seems to be “happy afternoon” (rather than “good afternoon”). That’s what the students told us when we entered. That’s what the dean told them in reply. That’s how the compere started off the event.
We had been asked to send in our bios for purpose of intros. However, it appears as if it was passed through ChatGPT before being read out. In my intro they said I was “former Vice Senior President at Delhivery”.
The panel discussion was good. There was a bunch of pre-prepared questions that Chaitra asked us in turn, and we answered. I remember feeling mild imposter syndrome a couple of times, wondering if I was bullshitting, but I think I spoke satisfactorily.
I don’t remember much of what I spoke - except that I know that I made the audience laugh quite a few times. Thankfully, Chaitra has summarised the discussion here on LinkedIn.
There was half an hour for questions and answers. The questions were first rate. I remember being stumped by a couple of questions directed to me, and I said they were “out of syllabus” and asked Prasad to answer them instead.
I was pleasantly surprised by the level of enthusiasm displayed by the students. The last time I’d given a speech in a college was perhaps at IISc in 2021, and there was not even a single question there. Here, we had to stop the Q&A because we ran out of time, and not because we ran out of questions. The students were also fairly happy to ask follow-up questions (and even “cross question” a few times).
There was an official photographer designated for the event, and at the end of it, lots of photos were taken. Students only. Speakers only. Speakers and students. Speakers receiving mementos. And so on.
They had arranged for snacks after the event, but Prasad and I had already made plans to decamp to SLV after the event. And that is what we did, and had a long general discussion over idli-vade and coffee.
Overall I enjoyed the experience. In general, what makes or breaks such lectures / discussions is the quality of audience interaction, and that was top notch here, both in quality and quantity. And of course, it helped that the college was a 10-15 minute drive from home, and so the whole thing got done with a minimum of transaction cost.