The Revival Story (IEEE-A Turning Point in My Life-Part 5)

Recap: A certain person, Sanjay had won the Tech Quiz on IEEE Day. But Fate had something else in store for him and the SB.

Seeds of Renaissance:

The revival had begun once we attended AISYC 2015. It gathered momentum with the Membership Awareness Program and the IEEE Day Tech Quiz. By November 2015, we had the exams, and once it ended, I set about collecting the membership database from IEEE Website, and contacted all the members. There were some, who had joined IEEE, but hadn’t contacted the SB or had no idea about the existence of the SB.

Over the holidays, many responded and were on board. A few hadn’t. One of that few was Sanjay. One fine day (Dec 19th, 2015), at around 11 in the morning, I called him up. Unassuming of the impending change in his life, he was having juice at home (he says so, even now, when we recall our first conversation that day). He met me a couple of days later in college, and was on board too. It still remains an unsolved mystery, how despite being an IEEE Member for 9 months, and despite having participated and won the tech quiz contest conducted by the IEEE Student Branch, he had managed to forget to get involved with IEEE Activities at SASTRA. But somehow, he was on board, when it really mattered (It didn’t matter before, since there was nothing, literally nothing going on in the SB).

The even semester started. Sanjay met me, we discussed about what to do next. Ganesh and Ashvanth (the two winners of our Paper Presentation Contest in Sankalp’15 and had been promised of IEEE Membership as Prize) were also on board, by then. We pulled off another MAP (this time for first years in Late December). Soon after, rest of the Execom was formed through Personal Interviews for all members. Sanjay was appointed the vice chair, my deputy, a role in which he would go on to be fairly successful, despite a fairly large ‘blooper collection’.

Something big again!!!

It was time for us to spring into action. We collaborated with ASCIEE, yet again to deliver a PCB Design Workshop on Feb 28, 2016. That was reasonably successful. The Membership Development Activities were now organic. This approach paid dividends, as the strength rose rapidly. Having attained some stability, it was time for us to deliver something big, really big. We aimed for a Hub Congress (An IEEE Event, where all the IEEE Members from a Hub (Geographical region) come together, discuss and share ideas). But lack of time, proved to be a stumbling block. We, then decided to do SPAC, Yes you heard it right!! Student Professional Awareness Conference, all over again…SPAC-2016 started taking shape. I had gone to Bangalore for an internship in February. Despite this limitation, our team went on with the preparation. SPAC-2016 was going to be the most important IEEE Event in my career, so far!!! And that deserves a full post…see you soon!!

More to follow…

 

The Rise from the Ashes (IEEE-A Turning Point in My Life-Part 4)

In the last article, I had spoken about the reversal in fortunes of my SB and how it had gone inactive. It ended with a prelude to the AISYC-2015 at Kochi…

The Second Student Congress..AISYC 2015:

I and Srinivas, embarked on that most memorable trip to Kochi, on Aug 6th, 2015. This was a second All India Student Congress for me…but that didn’t matter, what mattered was the future of the Student Branch…Someone else, Some Junior needed to have the exposure to the world of IEEE….The Objective was realised as Srinivas had got the chance.

We reached the venue RSET Kochi on the first day morning and got ready for the event. I had already met a few familiar faces like Aravindhan (SMIT SB) and Vijay Srinivas (JIT SB) by then. Then, we got a chance to meet a huge contingent of Volunteers from Madras Section. Got so many new friends from IEEE…Vinod Sharma, Deepak Yeleshetty, Asvini, Rajesh Kannan, GK Vignesh, Jamal Mohamed, Chelliah to name a few…. Meanwhile, the sessions were great as usual. It was a sort of “deja vu” all over again for me to be attending another AISC, while it was a valuable experience and exposure for Srinivas.

We visited the Marine Drive in Kochi, and took this epic Group Picture…we call it the IEEE Arc.

No IEEE Event is complete without fun and networking. We had good cultural program and enough time for networking with IEEE Members from across India Council. Also got a chance to meet couple of delegates from Sri Lanka.

As the Congress wound down, we were served the traditional Kerala Meal “Sadya” on the last day for lunch. And it was time to pack up.

The IEEE AISYC 2015 T-SHIRT

We had the train booked that night, but others from Madras Section had planned a day of sight seeing the next day. We went with them to their accommodation to spend that evening.

We roamed around the streets of Kochi, having fun-filled and fruitful discussions. I still remember the long walk, speaking about random stuff, IEEE, Higher Education, Indian Mythology etc. with Vinod Sharma (SMIT SB, REM Scholar, IEEE CS Regional Student Ambassador).

We bid farewell to Kochi that night, and I still remember rushing for Microsoft Placement Process, scheduled at my University from Trichy Junction the next morning. Finally, the time was ripe to seriously pursue the revamp of SASTRA SB.

The Revival Begins

Few Days Later, I met my counsellor and impressed upon him the need to revive the SB immediately. He extended his support, but within a few days, he stepped down as the counsellor, owing to personal reasons. Good that we got a new counsellor soon, and he was supportive. With much difficulty and with virtually no manpower, we managed to pull off a Membership Awareness Program for second year students. That helped us with getting new members. A few people joined. That was my first public talk at SASTRA as well, I jointly delivered the talk with my SB chair Lakshman. But soon after, Lakshman stepped down, as he had to proceed for an internship at Rockwell Collins, where he had got placed.

We managed to complete the transition in terms of reporting, handing over of documents etc in time. Now it was time to further enhance the membership strength and start conducting events. We celebrated IEEE Day with a tech quiz contest, jointly organised with the departmental student association ASCIEE. I must thank them, they provided us with lots of support and manpower when we were down. We could remain barely visible, because of them. It was with their help, we were gaining visibility. A certain person, named Sanjay, won the Tech quiz on IEEE Day. Fate had something else in store for the Student Branch as well as Sanjay.

More to Follow….

The Reversal of Fortunes and then…. (IEEE-A Turning Point in My Life-Part 3)

SPAC 2014-The Big Day

Let me begin this with a large overlap with the previous part. It’s worth to describe the climax of one of the best periods at SASTRA SB.

March 8th, 2014. We had 2nd CIA exams. We also had SPAC 2014. One of the most memorable days at an IEEE SASTRA event. I prepared for exams sitting in the auditorium where SPAC was going on. Went off to write exams and came back. I got a chance to meet some of my AISC-13 friends again, during SPAC.

The Big Exposure…Chance to interact with resource persons from IEEE. Chance to do it in my SB, right at SASTRA. Was a tremendous experience.

The Big Challenge and  how we fared in it?

Well, I had concluded the last article with our elevation into the ExeCom Roles and our initial days in it. Being new to big roles, we did commit mistakes and quickly learnt from them. But as I already had quoted, Convincing the members to renew was always going to be much more difficult than attracting a new member. And that’s the precise cause for a rapid reversal of fortunes. Retention stats were pathetic, and a delayed membership awareness program in 2014 (late December, it was) didn’t help us either. A Student Branch with a membership of of over 50, stumbled to single digits. Attempts to hold events in early 2015 proved futile, and one complete semester had passed without a single event.

We had fared very poorly in the biggest challenge we had faced. Amid all the chaos, We managed to hold a Paper Presentation event during Sankalp 2015, an inter departmental tech fest in SASTRA. While that event didn’t improve our membership stats, it did help us gain some visibility.

The Path towards Revival….

It was going to be a difficult ride to reinvigorate a SB which had fallen so rapidly. The swift fall was a painful affair. Now, the next task for us was to revive the SB. The fact that nobody went to Ahmedabad for the All India Student Congress (2014) was another reason, we failed to inspire the members to renew. Understandable, given the fact how our journey to AISC 2013 had inspired many of our friends to join IEEE. Something of that sort had to be done again, so as to inspire new members to join. I and Lakshman had now moved on to our final year, and there was no junior to succeed us and take the SB forward, once we would eventually graduate. It was then, somehow, I got the contact of Srinivas J, who has joined IEEE following the MAP held in 2014 (December). He was the only one to join IEEE following that MAP. I encouraged him to do the Phase 1 registration for the All India Students and Young Professionals Congress (AISYC-2015) at Kochi. Both of us got selected to attend the Congress…. An event which was going to give me many more friends from IEEE Madras Section, and valuable exposure to Srinivas, an event which was to play a major role towards the revival of the SASTRA Student Branch..

More to follow….

IEEE-A Turning Point in My Life – Part 2

 

“Golden Days at IEEE-SASTRA”

I had talked about how I joined IEEE and how it fascinated me in the early days. AISC-2013, had been the most memorable Days of IEEE journey. I got quite a few good friends from the IEEE Family, especially Aravindhan A (SMIT SB), who had also joined IEEE, and would go on to become an inspiration for IEEE Volunteers from the Madras Section.

Post AISC-2013, was the golden period of IEEE SASTRA SB. We organised an Internship Guidance Program which had a very good turnout. An event, which many of my friends say even today, was the only useful event by IEEE SASTRA SB (although there were many other good events). But then, this acted as a boost for all of us. Several Members-Only Events followed. We learnt MATLAB, Photoshop, we visited the research labs in SASTRA and so on. There was a workshop on Microcontrollers.

Amid all this routine stuff, behind the scenes, something big was taking shape. Something that would be the climax of a highly successful year, in which the IEEE SB at SASTRA grew manifold. Something, SASTRA SB dreamt of. The Student Professional Awareness Conference (SPAC)-2014.

“The D-Day (March 8th, 2014)”

Months of planning, had to bear fruit. Lead by the then chairman Hemesh Anna, SPAC took shape. With full support from the University, SPAC-2014 was held on March 8th, 2014. With 220 participants from SASTRA and various institutions, and four eminent speakers, SPAC-2014 was a success. The big twist, though was we all had exams on that day and that couldn’t be changed for the sake of SPAC. So Most of the organisers had to switch between being at the Auditorium and exam hall, that was immense fun, in its own right. But then, that being in March, also drew curtains to the IEEE Activities at SASTRA for the academic year.

“My First tryst with SB Administration”

Following up on a hugely successful year was always difficult. Just as how difficult it is for someone to fill into Sachin’s shoes, that difficult it was going to be for us, to fill in the shoes of the previous execom. But then, we had to do it. Lakshman took over as the chairman. I found a place in the execom as Head (Media & Publicity). Well, how difficult role it was going to be, I had no idea. Attracting participants for the event is some art. We settled into the roles rather quickly, as a couple of successful talks and a workshop followed. Ask anyone in IEEE SB Administration, they would say Membership Retention is the most difficult thing. Rather more difficult than getting new members. Convincing someone to renew was always going to be more difficult than convincing someone to join IEEE. Little did we know that, we were going to experience this phenomenon, and that too in unimaginable magnitude. Unimaginable, because we were fairly doing good.

More to follow….

IEEE-A Turning Point in My Life

“Before IEEE”

Engineering was my choice!! Just because I wasn’t interested in Medicine!! Being a person who was actively involved in extra curricular activities in School, the first year of my college was nothing more than boring. I tried getting myself involved in different clubs at SASTRA, but nothing could hold me there for more than a day.

  “The Initial Days”

Time flied past, as I entered my second year. I still hadn’t found anything interesting. It was one of those days in August 2013, my friend, Lakshman introduced IEEE to me. I was impressed by what he told. Soon after one of my favorite professors made a mention of IEEE in class. I couldn’t resist. I took THAT DECISION, which was going to be a turning point in my life. Fast forward a few days, I was an IEEE Student Member. When I participated in my first Student Branch Meeting, I got a feel that I had found what i was searching for. The then Student Branch Chairman, Avireddy Hemesh, inspired me. I worked for IEEE Membership Awareness Camp. I was announcing in classes about that, Wow!! I couldn’t resist my enthusiasm.

IEEE MAP 2013 was a huge success. The auditorium was filled to capacity and the number of members in the SB went from 10 odd to nearly 60. We had regular meetings to discuss plans for more events at the SB. The way the seniors heard everyone’s opinion before deciding, taught me how a leader should be.

 IEEE MAP 2013 at my Student Branch

 “The First Major IEEE event”

The event which convinced me that the decision to join IEEE was the best decision I had ever made. The event which was the real turning point in my Engineering Life. IEEE All India Student Congress, 2013 at Amrita University, Coimbatore. 

I, along with Lakshman and my then SB Chairman Avireddy Hemesh (two years senior to me), got the chance to participate in that event. We reached the venue a day in advance. We had the ice-breaking session on the evening before the event, when we were given simple tasks. We came to know many of other delegates from various parts of the country.Organised by IEEE Madras Section, it was one of the best events I have ever been a part of. The event itself was huge. Inspiring Sessions, Late evening fun in cultural night in traditional dress, Awards night in professional attire, Numerous Networking Teas, Breaks, Nights, Days, Evenings and what not!!

At the end of the three day event, most of the delegates bid farewell and started leaving. But we had another day. Many people still had stayed on for PES-India Council Student Congress and CS-India Council Student Congress, also held for a day after AISC.

Five Fun Filled Days at Amrita University finally came to a close. But Memories Still remain fresh. Getting to know numerous benefits of IEEE, and getting to create such a great professional network still remains one of the best takeaways from my IEEE membership.

First Time in Professional Attire-AISC 2013

to be continued…..