VLSID 2020 at Bengalaru

VLSID Conference has always provided me with opportunities to travel to different parts of the country. Starting with Hyderabad in 2017, then Pune in 2018, New Delhi in 2019, and now Bengaluru in 2020 - I have been attending the conference for all the years consecutively. Thanks to their fellowship programme which covers the registration, travel, and accommodation costs for students.

There was a different level of excitement in my mind to attend VLSID in Bengaluru - the venue being Leela Palace, close to the locality where I spent my entire job life. Going back to visit Bangalore after 5 years was truly something that I have sought for a long time. While attending the interesting technical sessions and the opportunity to meet and network with experts at the conference was the first priority, meeting old colleagues, friends, relatives, etc. was indispensable.

It was a great opportunity to attend the tutorials and keynotes from leading experts at the conference - Luca Carloni, Sri Parameswaran, Jacob Abraham, Jan Rabaey to name a few. Also, it was nice to hear from the youngest MP - Mr. Tejasvi Surya about the vision of the government regarding digital India and the future of VLSI. Panel discussion moderated by Prof. PPC from IITKGP brought up many interesting aspects of VLSID startups in India. The industry forum had many interesting talks that show the active participation of industry in conferences. As always, I got to meet some of the regular attendees of VLSID - some have become acquaintances due to regular participation in the conference. The volunteering experience during 2019 at VLSID made many connections with the people and helped initiate useful discussions with a few of them.

Being in the IT capital of India, VLSID could attract a lot more participation. I could meet many of my old colleagues - Atul, Lakshmanan, Bharath, Ramesh, Khushboo, etc. at the conference itself. Meeting some of them was really unexpected and surprising. Further, I visited the TI office after 5 years. Having worked there for more than 8 years, and going back after 5 years was a feeling which cannot be described in words. Many of the colleagues are still working in the same team and it was nice to catch up with so many of them. All were very welcoming. Thanks to Anand, Shalini, Malav, Pervez, Nikhil, Parag, Rakesh, Rubin, Ashwini, Abhijeet, Rama, and all others for your time. I also met Prasanth, my ex-colleague from TI, and we could exchange our Ph.D. experiences. We started our Ph.D. journey almost together - he took the part-time option and I traveled the full-time path.

I could meet my B.Tech. friends from MNIT, graduated friends from IIT Delhi, my relatives from the in-laws side, my cousins, and other extended family members during this visit. During the first few days of the trip, I was hosted by Malav, a close friend, neighbor, and ex-colleague from TI. The hospitality from him and his family was truly enjoyable. We could discuss a lot about office life, academic life, career plans, family, kids, etc. during some of the night-outs. In the last two days, I stayed with my cousins where we recalled many of our childhood memories and spent quality time together. All were very welcoming and it feels great to have such friends and family members when visiting a different city.

We could cherish many of the earlier memories - Andhra meals in Plaintain leaf, other south Indian delicacies, visiting the New Thippasandra and Indira Nagar locality where I stayed for 8 years, going on a night drive on the old airport road, etc. I look forward to visiting Bangalore (Bengaluru) again soon.

VLSID 2018 at Pune

Last week (6th-10th Jan. 2018) was an exciting time spent at VLSID 2018 in Pune. The first 2 days comprised of some very good tutorials and deciding to choose one out of the four parallel tracks was really difficult. The tutorial participation was overwhelming and the rooms were running almost full. My research work summary was presented by my supervisor (M. Balakrishnan) as a part of one of the tutorials and it was really nice to see how nicely the slides prepared by me could be presented. Tutorial by Kaushik Roy (Purdue) clearly shows the immense knowledge of the speaker ranging from devices to applications. Subhasish Mitra (Stanford) presented the relevant industry-specific challenge for post-silicon debug and how his group is addressing the challenge.

Coming to the main conference, there was a variety of areas from which papers were presented. The concept of embedded tutorials was a very nice addition to the conference which presented a crisp summary of recent advancements in related areas. Many eminent VLSI researchers from India and abroad were present at the conference and it was a very nice platform for interaction. It is really nice to see the humility with which they interact. I was fortunate to have had good discussions with Joerg Henkel, Jacob Abraham, Virendra Singh, and others. I could also spend a good time with faculty from my undergraduate institute - Vineet Sahula and Lava Bhargava. We discussed the current state at the college and how interested alumni could contribute to the betterment. I met some of the old colleagues from TI and also some friends from other institutes in India.

Another good part of attending such a conference is that you get to visit a different place. I stayed with and had quality time with my relatives in Pune whom I visited after many years. My wife and kid enjoyed the stay a lot. I couldn’t get much time for sightseeing due to full-day schedule of the conference. However, could make to Aga Khan palace and Dagrusheth Ganapati temple. I tried some of the local street foods as well.

My conference trip ended with a 2-day personal visit to Mumbai and spending a good time with my cousins and going around Mumbai.

Thanks to VLSID for the fellowship and the 5-day conference which provides us such an opportunity to network, see different places and learn the recent technological advancements.