Showing posts with label MIT. Show all posts

Showing posts with label MIT. Show all posts

Cricket at MIT

Interestingly, this is something I had not done while going to school at MIT. This weekend, we played Cricket on MIT's huge football field. Playing with 'taped' tennis balls on Astro-turf was a unique experience.

The pitch had a high bounce and it took getting used to. I played with the team, I sometimes play for, Killadi(A Hindi word that approximately translates to 'star-player') against a team of MIT students, well versed in the ways of the Astro Turf surface. (Yes, I played against one of my alma maters.)

It was a lot of fun and we expect to play a few more times there his summer. Maybe we'll have a 'day and night' game soon. A special thanks to my SDM classmate Ankur Sinha for organizing the game.

The Grand Finale

Its finally over! We had our commencement on the 8th, an awesome occasion if one could overlook the searing heat. Dressed in balck with a suit underneath, I perspired with my fellow cohorts all the way from the indoor stadium all the way to Killian's court. But, Hell! it was worth it. It was great to see many of my classmates from 05 and 06 after a long time.

Charles West a former president of MIT delivered the commencement speech. Many felt that MIT could have done better. As Charles himself put it, Harvard had the two Bills (Gates and Clinton) deliver its commencement speech but all MIT got was one 'Chuck'.

West served for 14 years as MIT's president. He reminised about two emails he received while he worked in Ann Arbor, one a rejection to his application for his application for a Prof's job and another an unsolicited email from MIT asking him to be President. This was a good reason for us, aluminus to continue our MIT email, he said.

I was impressed by the two announcers who read out our names as we made our way to the podium. They made little pronuciation blunders on the most difficult of names(mine included). I was also impressed with how the organizers managed our processions to the podiums.

We had an SDM reception at the Marriot later in the day, with delicious sushi and snacks.
What a year and a half it has been. As my classmate Fernando put it, it was almost yesterday when we were all huddled in a large room in the Sloan building anxiously awaiting our turns to introduce ourselves. (Actually, it was 2006 Jan.)

The experience has been rich and rewarding. I expect that many of the friendships and professional relationships built during the SDM program will last atleast my lifetime. West and others also promised us that we will continue to reap benefits from our MIT experience. I do not doubt them.

The Harvard Experience

This was one of the highlights of this term. While the MIT buildings have their own charm, the Harvard 'experience' was a surreal experience. I cross registered for two courses this term, 'Operation Strategy' taught by Professor Huckman and 'Marketing and Innovation' taught by Professor Ofek. Both classes were awesome and deserve their own blog entry in my copious free time.

Back to the Harvard experience. The buildings are so well furnished, displaying splendid artwork, and study areas furnished with fine leather upholstery. Seen here is the Spangler study area. It's decor somewhere between an museum and the excutive suite. The $10 parking fee was almost worth it as one could spend all his time here after classes. Indeed this was another 'once-in-a-lifetime' experience. I have had several of those since I joined the SDM program.

The Hingham Public Library

This is one of the most beautiful public libraries in the Boston area. I spent numerous days and evenings here working on my thesis.

End of an Era

So my thesis is turned in and its curtains for my SDM experience. This semester I took a couple of courses at Harvard and boy, was that an experience in itself! Like the wise ones who went before me, I too will be back to make a concluding post or two when time and tide permit. At this point I would like to thank all those who made this such a memorable time in my life. I am ever so grateful for it.
Best wishes

There's no free lunch in Physics

Mike Lazaridis, president and CEO of Research in Motion(RIM) kicked off this year's Sloan Speaker sereies with a scintilating presentation. With his silevr hair and thin rimmed spectacles, he could have passed off for a MIT professor but his leather jacket and T-shirt gave him a unique appearance. Lazardis is the creator of the Blackberry, and is a innovator, scientist and engineer.

He began by asking if there is a connection between education and success. Research has to be relevant for success he stressed. If it was not for research, we would still ride horses, go to puppet theatres and communicate be shouting. It is a 100% certainity that research has to transform the world.

Email only became a business tool in corporate America after 1995. It became mission critical in the 2000s. However, Lazaris added that Email had existed in the university since he went to college.

Everything found in the Blackberry, he said, he had been exposed to, when he attended the University of Waterloo. He assumed then, that Email was the norm. When he put his email address on his business card, many asked him what it was! ('What is a telex?,' he responded.)

Here are my takeaways:

Universities expose us to the future today. Spreadsheets, email, scripts and GUIs have existed since the early 80s. Later, they came to Xerox park and only then invaded corporate America.

Many big breakthroughs and wealth creators today have been experienced by students, almost 20 years ago. To get a glimps of the future, look at the reserach labs in University, not the ones in industry.

If you design chips, don't try to design today's chips with today's technology. Predict the technology 20 years from now and then begin to design chips based on that technology.

Moore's law states that chip geometries are shirnking every 18 months to 2 years. It ends when size hits zero. Intel is well aware of this. This implies that the IT revolution will end in less than 20 years.

In Waterloo, research teams try to predict the sciences of the future. Lazaridis views it as Academic Mecca in Canada.

Wiresss Communication

Basic research at the quantemic level reveals the limitations of wireless communication for spectrum and battery life. Moore's law has ended for both these attributes.

Moore's law does not apply to battery life. We saw the move to lithium to cadmium in battery technologies.Lithium is the lightest metal, more environment friendly and is recyclable. With these limits, coupled with customer demands we can predict the future.

NASA Field trip Concluded

MIT SDM's tribute to NASA

We are thankful to all Shawn and all the NASA staff that made this experience most memorable.

NASA Field trip Day 2 12:15-2:30

Appolo/Saturn Center

NASA Field trip Day 2-2 8:35-1050

Delta in Pad 37

NASA Field trip Day 2 8:35-1050

Atlas Spaceflight Operations Control Center and Pad 4
NASA has launched about 70-80 un-manned vehicles in space, only a couple of which have failed. 30-40 launches are planned for the future.

NASA Field trip Day1 3:30-4:10

Orbiter Launch Facility

NASA Field trip Day1 2:40-3:10

Crawler Transporter: Mobile launch platform
These beauties carry the shuttle to the launch site. they travel a maximum of 2 miles per hour. Carrying masses on them, they crush the gravel under them. They look like they were straight out from a Star Wars film. (They would be stuck in the mud if they were to travel anywhere else) The gravel is specially imported from Arkansas

NASA Field trip Day1 2:00-2:20

Vehicle Assembly Building
Shown here is the belly of Atlantis, built from Aluminium tiles. Each tile is unique and is made from strict specifications. We were amazed to see how light each of these tiles are!

NASA Field trip Day 1 12:50-2:00

Launch Complex 39B
This facility was used in the Appolo and shuttle missions (Photos from those missions are displayed below.)

NASA Field trip Day 1 11:20-12:35

The KSC Conference Center or the 'Beach House'
This cosy little house was used by astraunauts and their families on the eve of their launch. The basement has a showcase of wine bottles- souveniers from many trips. Each bottle displays a logo from its respective trip

NASA Field trip Day 1 10:35-11:05

The Lauch Control Center
The wall of the lobby (Top,left) display mementos from every launch from NASA. The lobby also has some artwork, (Top, right), The picture on the left displays the old control center.

NASA Field trip Day 1 9:20-10:15

The Space Station Processing Facility(SSPF)

The ISS(International Space Station) is the brightest object in the night sky, second only to the moon. The SSPF was built in 1995 and is for supporting the ground operations of the ISS.

NASA Field trip Day 1

Thanks the Shawn Qwinn, we had a 'once in a lifetime' experience to get a NASA experience few others get. It was, pardon the cliche, an 'out-of-the-world experience. The day began early, with Shawn's informative overview of our agenda and NASA.

NASA is divided into four mission directorates,

Aeronautics
Space Operations (Shuttle)
Science (Mars Rover, Hubble, Explorer)
Exploration System(Next Space craft)

In 2004 Pres. Bush announced the new Space Exploration Vision.This includes

Completion of the space station
Safely fly the shuttle
Moon landing by 2010
Mars landing by 2020

The Kennedy Space Center

140,000 acres
15000 employees
1.6B budget
National wildlife refuge

Notes from the 'Pitch and Polish' Workshop from MIT's Entrepreneurship Forum

The following are my takeaways from the pitch and polish workshop held a few weeks ago.

Making The Elevator Speech

Who are you? Are you a crank or are you for real?
What is the industry? What is the problem or pain?
Identify a category
Connect with the person in some way. Get a referral if the person says 'no'.
What is the market size? Get a dollar figure.
Hint at the value proposition.
Be focused. Mention the market you are going after.
"Cool product" is the 'Kiss of death'.
If you have an exclusive licence, then and only then mention it.
Give an instant picture of the product.
Hint on its working.
Sizing the competition

The worst answer "No other company is doing ..."

Second worst: "30 others are doing the same thing..."

The right answer:

"Several are doing it, but ours is three times faster..."

Market Size : Anything less than 1/2 a billion is usually bad.
Most people are unwilling to say 'No'. Expect a lot of 'Maybes'.
Passion is a huge part of your pitch.
Its about Money: Business value, competitive advantage and market size.
"A warm introduction is better than a cold call"
Be kind to your network
Dont get into details unless you have a clue as to whether the person undestands your product.
Use touch points: Contacts in the real world, people you can call, how you have guaged the market.
Tell her, what business you are in.
Build credibility: "One person in our team..."
Give the person a taxonomy of the business space." This market is broken into..."
Do not promise the impossible.
Be clear as to what the business does.
Who is the target customer?
Don't identify yourself in a category stuffed with startups.
Make eye contact.-Guage your audience.
Throw in a story/anecdote to engage your audience. The VC must be able to repeat parts of your pitch.
Consumer products usually don't have an economic value proposition.
How do you deal with the gatekeeper? Talk about interoperability challenges if applicable.
Be clear about your pricing model.
Tell them why Google can't buy you.
Two months to search for funding is a rule of thumb. Try to make the pitch real-life expandable. You must be able to flip the deck and extend beyond 10 months.
Remember, you must "throw in as many hooks, as if harpooning a whale".
Try to minimise the number of open issues.
Get away from areas littered with dead bodies. Figure out why they died. Learn about the incumbents and their failures.
Next, talk about why you are different in the eco-system.
Remember, there are no new ideas. They have all existed before in some form.
Try to convince the person that the world has changed.
Clue the person on the following:

How are you solving the problem?

Your entry strategy into the market. How will you get there?

Mention money raised if any.
Get your assets out early in your pitch.
Lead with imagery
Get a natural flow: What points do you need expressed? What is expandable? Shirnkable?
Value creation and value capture.
Remember, life is not fair.
Show poise, confidence and maturity
Are you a geek or a business person? Where do you fit in your team?
It it a product or service? hardware or software?
Watch your pronouns: I, we they.
What are they missing?

Ending the blogging drought and SDM Pulse

Like most other SDMers, I have falled victim to the semester and abandonded blogging. Here is my first attempt to get back on the saddle.

Our first release of the SDM newletter, SDM pulse is out. It features articles from my classmates and even one by me! The goal of this newsletter is to raise awareness of this program in industry and in the business community. We are in the process of conevening for a meeting to bring out the next release of the newsletter. Hopefully the ones who come to SDM after us, will continue this tradition. Finally I want to thank all my cohorts who contributed great articles.

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