Snapshots from MIT

My undergraduate experiences at Madras Institute of Technology, 1996-2000

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Instrument Society of America

Instrument Society of America is the world-wide association for Instrumentation Engineers. Nowadays, it has been renamed as International Society for Measurement & Control. But in our days, it was called ISA, and we had to become compulsory student members of this association in the first year by paying Rs.750. We got a very glossy certificate proclaiming that we were student members of this prestigious association and a one-year subscription for a technical magazine called InTech. This magazine used to have many product features and reports on modern trends in the industry. But in the first year, none of that would make any sense to us and so it was just a space occupier in one of our cupboards. It was not entirely useless, I must admit. It came in very handy when I went for collage competitions later.

But the main advantage of being a member of ISA came when some technical talks and seminars were organised in Chennai city by the South Indian chapter. Professor S.Renganathan was an influential member of the Indian chapter, so it was customary to source some audience from the student community of MIT Instrumentation department. These meetings were typically conducted in a star hotel and entry was free for members like us. If only you can tolerate the talk for about 2 hours or so, then it will be a field day for the food enthusiasts like me during the lunch or dinner buffet. Sometimes, if you are lucky enough, the speaker will also give an interesting speech.

I attended two such meetings and there are no regrets about the same. I still remember the first one organised at Hotel Residency in T.Nagar. I think about 20 of us attended the meeting. We were extended a warm welcome and were given a complimentary pack containing pen, notpad, some brochures, etc. Who'll say no to that? Then we had a talk by a senior member of the ISA chapter. It was not so bad as we had feared. He was able to finish it without anybody dozing off. He even said a few jokes in the beginning.

After serious food for thought, we adjourned to enjoy the food for stomach. Bingo, it was terrific food for stomach. We launched a no-holds barred attack on the buffet table and enjoyed every bit of it. The highlight of the dinner that day was "carrot halwa". It was not just carrot halwa. It was a cup full of heavenly ecstasy. I am still enchanted by the way it would melt in my mouth. It was among the tastiest food I had ever eaten, and this includes all the three-syllable named Thai delicacies (eg. Tom Yum Kung) I have eaten since then.

After my description of the buffet and halwa, many more students turned up at the next meeting. The professional members of ISA were excited to see so much interest from the student community in learning new things. Little did they know. Ultimately we gave them a lot of halwa. er.. I mean, we ate a lot of halwa.

(Posted on 14-Aug-2003)

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