Bio-wise and otherwise

STC conference in Goa

I just returned from the sunny beaches of Goa after presenting a paper titled: 'The truth about blogging' at the STC India chapter. Boy, did it elicit a lot of discussion! I showed the audience Jonathan's blog entry on 'Going Bollywood' and I could see jaws drop with amazement. Well, that's how we are made at Sun- tell it, show it, and watch the community grow. I love the Phil-osophy (the hyphen in between is coz' I love Dr Phil too). Here are a few pictures from Goa:

Jus'  a liltin' melody...the Goan way

Paradise on Earth!

The wondrous St Francis Xavier's Church in Goa soaked in sunlight

The beautiful interiors of an old museum  

That said, I gotta move now with my knapsack on my back. Coz' nothing in this world is permanent, and yet, the love, the friendship, the support I got from folks out here at Sun will keep me going to the end of a lifetime- or is there an end at all? Ha ha. Here I go again. 
 

My other blog site is: http://yourstrulymanju.blogspot.com/

Will we meet again? The answer, my friends, is  blowin' bloggin' in the wind...  

Posted at 08:51PM Nov 02, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[0]

GlassFish V2 launch

GlassFish V2 is out and has received a much deserving praise. The emails are still pouring in.

GlassFish is reputed to be the fastest Open Source Application Server beating BEA and IBM in SpecJ2004 Benchmark!!

It does me proud to note that Chinmayee and Rajeev Jayarajan have been part of Alan Sommerer's and my team in producing the documentation. I really admire their passion and drive to evangelize this stunning product.

For a curtain-raiser and a sneak preview, check out this article in InfoWorld.
 

Posted at 10:59PM Sep 17, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Cybrids for cure?

It's rather intriguing to note that the UK which once frowned upon its cattle for causing mad cow disease, is now using them for serving mankind in the making of  'cybrids'. Cybrid technology is said to be of great value in finding therapy for neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Cybrids are prepared by injecting the nucleus from a human cell into an empty cell taken from another animal.  Because these cybrids contain about 99.9 per cent human material and 0.1 per cent animal, their use is being frowned upon by many ethical and religious organizations. However, one of the chief advantages of using them is that  they are a substitute for human eggs which are more difficult to obtain in such large quantities. Use of hybrid embryos is also questioned by many for a variety of ethical reasons.

The cybrid technology offers a way to derive embryonic stem cells corresponding to individual patients suffering from a genetic disease, such that the disease or potential therapies can be studied on cells in the lab - rather than on the patients themselves.

The principle of cybrid technology is to take a stem cell (of a cow, in this case), empty its contents, inject it with adult human DNA and culture the cell in the lab. It will multiply from 2 to four to eight to sixteen cells and so on. After around 6 days,  these cells are harvested and observed under circumstances akin to diseases such as Alzheimer's. If a cybrid is implanted, it can grow into a freak 'chimera'.

However, the legal proposal clearly states that such cybrid cells be destroyed in 14 days' time, beyond which they cannot survive an  implantation.

Chimera concept?

Posted at 05:06AM Sep 07, 2007 by Manju in Sun  | 

Chak De India leads the way

Hockey coach Kabir Khan was once disgraced for having allegedly mismanaged the men's hockey team.

After a few years of going underground, he resurfaces to attend an interview for coaching the Girls' National Hockey team. In the interview session, he is warned by the 'Hockey Committee',  about the 'thankless' job of coaching girls. "They should be baking bread at home. You know how it is with these girls...hyuk hyuk." they remarked, with an all- knowing wink.

But Khan stood ground. The Committee sighed and shrugged. "Ok, they're your problem now." they said and handed him the job.

The team then marched into the hockey field with 'Attitude'. They came from all corners of India. With eyes only on the World cup. They were queen players in their own zones. So they casually shrugged off their jackets  to indulge in what they thought would be just a lil' bit o' training.

Then they met coach, who was clearly in a mood to have it his way.

At crack of dawn it was time for some rigorous training. Some didn't mind this, and some positively hated it. Some shouted, some cried. But coach Khan persisted and was determined to bring out  the best in each player.

This movie portrays some of the best forms of coaching. The take home lesson was that with strong  interpersonal skills and constant communication you can have a winning team. You need not have the most knowledgeable team, but if you persist in coaching, you can mold your team to compete with the best of breed.

 Chak De India

Great leaders move us. We've known that from time immemorial.  They ignite passion and inspire the best in us. When we try to explain why they are so effective, we speak of strategy, vision and powerful ideas. But according to Daniel Goldman (co-author of Primal Leadership- Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence), the reality is much more primal: Great leadership works through the emotions.

When leaders drive emotions positively, they bring out the team's best. Some of the attributes of emotional intelligence are:

• Impulse control: separating feelings from actions
• Anxiety control: ability to moderate worry and fear
•  Hope and optimism: the belief you have the will and the way to accomplish your goals, despite the set-backs
• Flow: the ability to reach a state of peak performance free of emotional static
• Empathy: ability to read emotional cues, to listen and to hear other perspectives
• Authentic response: the ability to synchronize with and influence the emotional states of other people while staying true to one’s own self.

Why do our emotions relate to our performance? For this we need to take a peek into how our brain is organized. At a gross level, scientists have organized the brain into the primitive brain (self-preservation), the rational brain (the intellectual seat) and the intermediate brain (emotions).

The intermediate brain comprises the limbic system (structures like amygdala and hippocampus are part of this system). Recent studies of the brain reveal the neurological mechanisms for primal leadership and explain why emotional intelligence abilities are so crucial. Scientists refer to the open-loop nature of the limbic system, our emotional centers.  The open loop design of the limbic system means that other people can change our very physiology and so our emotions.

Therefore, a leader's emotions are contagious.

Organizations tend to provide trainings in managerial and organizing skills, while steering clear of the more difficult waters such as influencing the emotional state of our teams. Thus companies tend to teach public speaking more than listening. A lot of such training actually begins from childhood.

Backtrack a bit to the reel scene.

Khan proves that great coaches are also great leaders for they show the way, by becoming role models to their teams. Khan skillfully switches emotions in tune to the needs of the players. In a game like hockey, one cannot be too soft and the situation called for tough training methods. Nevertheless, he is sensitive to the girls' background and was empathetic to their own emotional states. He switches tactics, sometimes opting for an All-hands, sometimes one-on-ones and sometimes chatting up two players at a time. He is all 'tuned into' the players, the game and the tremendous challenge ahead of them.

I'm glad I watched this movie. Come to think of it, Sun Microsytems India has a hockey field right next door. One of these days, I'll certainly go and watch a match.

Reference: Primal Leadership : Realizing the Power of Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee

Acknowledgement- Pic downloaded from the Rediff.com.

Posted at 09:46PM Sep 01, 2007 by Manju in Sun  | 

IEC folks have fun!

 

Welcome to the Sun Safari!

The day: August 17.

The morning: uneventful. The IECians ambled in to the office as usual with their lunchboxes. Logged onto their machines.

Come afternoon:  Uh, uh, still nothing. The average IECian continued to peer at the computer screen, commenting, emailing and drumming their favorite I-tunes on the tables.

Come evening: Something was definitely hip-hop happening! It all started with a the sound of footsteps marching out the door.  Then a thundering sound of the accelerating motorbikes. A crunch of car wheels on freshly laid gravel.

Cut to the swank Chancery Pavilion hotel. The IECians quickly donned their coolest ever attitude to attend the IEC Annual Event. Thereafter, there was no stopping them!

And the award goes to: 

The celebration began with Anil, saying some good things about our yearly performance. The audience nodded in benign acknowledgement. KNR took over with some straight open source talking. And then Sumitha and Srini showed some great chemistry while announcing the honors with the awards. Solaris folks had a windfall of trophies to tow home while the Quality team carried  a shield back proudly. The IEC IPG team had great moments when Sunil Bhaskaran was awarded for his technical competence and Pallavi Madhusudhan got the 'Rookie of the Year' award.

 

 

Glowing Trophies 'n Rolling Shields

So far so good, we thought. We sat in our chairs with the anticipation that the rest of the show was going to be um, some tame fun, some tame food then homeward bound.

But nothing, nothing prepared us for the blast that followed. No matter how much our Bacardis cooled us off, by the end of the show, we were sweating it out shouting for more.

Anil goes poetic

Anil dazzles with his Urdu poetry  

First of all, Anil Gupta took us by complete surprise. Whod've ever thought that the man of numbers had a romantic streak as well? So here's the punchline. The poetry he chose did a somersault at the end, with words. He portrayed a hapless lover with a statutory warning up front- it's ONLY the man in love, so watch the fun.

Dance, baby dance! 

And the fun did not stop after that. I for one never knew that my neighbor in my Sun cube could don leather pants and jive to the music! Well, see for yourself!

 

     

 Shakalaka shake a leg!

Skit-ty Party!

Sun managers usually have a hard time as work gets piled on in their homes, er, sorry, office. The wannabe managers land up from all over the globe at any odd time. The average US -returned aspiring manager has to be gently 'broken in', sorry, 'taken in'. He or she needs to learn what it means to really 'kick butt and have fun'. This skit managed to teach SAM, the new joinee manager who made a long journey from Indiana to IEC.  By the end of the skit, he had a lot of food. Sorry, that should be: food for thought. These are butt a few frames caught here for your happy viewing:

 

HMT or............................................................ .............SMT?

And the winner is... 

Bollywood bites

For those of you who do not know the Indian filmscape, Bollywood is the equivalent of Hollywood. IEC folks decided to sprinkle some stardust into the glittering occasion. And how!

We had our very own 'apan' Munna Bhai who compered the show with his sidekick, Circuit. Bollywood movies cover the entire spectrum of human feelings- from the lovelorn hero, the lovesick heroine,  the angry man, the macho dude, the bad girls and the not so good boys. They had them all out here, to entertain us. Will the real actors somewhere in Mumbai please stand up and take a walk?

Apan bole to- Munna and Circuit

 

         Piya bole- hero meets heroine                             Let's play, says A dot Khan

I'm a macho man- Says Sunny Salman 

 

Hallo, who's this? The KNR Effect 

Walk the ramp

You gotta have a fashion show to complete an event like this. So, under the kaleidoscope hues and the smoky aura, guys and gals sashayed on the ramp, to rocking numbers. From demure saris to chic skirts, it was time for East to meet the West. They had it all- the looks, the moves and the clothes to sizzle.

 

 

Gimme hot, hot, hot! 

Karate Kids 

There were some pensive moments too, as the audience watched a IECian Karate master and his lady student demonstrate some Karate moves. A few of the frontbenchers moved a bit back to avoid any, er, mishaps.

Take a deep breath and... there you are! 

Lilting moments

The audience had to take a breather, after all this activity! So out came the guitars and a bunch of folks got together belted out our very own favorite tunes- a wide repertoire of Hindi, Kannada and Tamil numbers. The oldies to the latest, we enjoyed it all.

We are family!

Shadowtunes

What with Sun shining so brightly, the shadows had to be around. The lights went out, all was quiet and we were treated to some brilliant play of shadows. Looks like when the night descends the alter egos come out to play...

 

 

IPG framed!

Some snaps of my IPG family...

   

                           Ready, aim... write!                               No writers' block here!

Those brave men- Credits for all these great photos go to Vasanth Vaidyanathan and Hariharasudhan Reghuraman.

For more photos of the IEC employees event, click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/vasanth.vaidya/AfricanSafari?authkey=L1A7JRCPo8k

http://picasaweb.google.com/rhariharasudhan/SunSafari?authkey=wx6xgBA4gtY

 

Posted at 09:14AM Aug 19, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[6]

From I-Pods to I-Day

 Probably in keeping with the growing popularity of the IT era, the Indian people have gone and lovingly recoined 'Independence' Day as I- Day.

No, I'm not kidding. I saw dozens of I-mails (Indiatimes mails) freely dotted with this word. All to celebrate 60 years of India's Independence from the British empire.

Sixty has a very significant meaning in India. Men and women consider their 60th birthday with great reverence and spiritual value.

I -Day today seemed to have the same significance. It was the day when the Prime Minister of India  announced the growth of several I-nstitutions- namely, IISc (Indian Institute of Science ), IIT (Indian Institute of Technology- Dilbert's favorite) and IIM (Indian Institute of Management).

'Twas the day for many lilting I-tunes- from the National anthem to Irrational pop. I heard my all-time favourite patriotic song 'Sara Jahan se accha' in a vibrant rendition by the music group Euphoria. (was surprised the name wasn't changed to I-phoria to suit the day).

The telly beamed out so many smiling faces- of farmers, budding musicians, actors and freedom fighters- all through the day. It was also time to see many I-competitions. I checked out the new band Yodhaka with Subhiksha, a young lady singing a patriotic song in chaste Tamil. They used a percussion instrument called Darbuka- it seemed a bit noisy but still, it was novel. Check out  an interesting rendition of Darbuka on the Youtube.

Every year, I -Day is always a very happening day in India. For sixty years we have proudly celebrated our gaining freedom from the British empire. We pay homage to Gandhiji, the grand old man who envisioned a free India. A simple yet dynamic man who spun his own cloth and lived in an ashram. As recent as this year, a new film ('Gandhi, my father') has been released with a theme based on Gandhiji. For more details, check out famous Indian actor (and director of 'Gandhi, my father') Anil Kapoor's blog.

Famed for being a powerful statement of rebellion against the use of British cloth during pre-independence days, Khadi (home-spun cotton) has now become a fashion statement in India (probably many parts of the world as well).

 Gandhiji spinning yarn using a wheel known as a Charkha

I watched the cleaners drop by early in the morning to sweep the I-ndian streets. And kids in wh-I-ite uniforms walk eagerly to their schools, to participate in all those I- Day programs. It was an exciting day, for them.

I watched at least I (read: One) movie on the famous freedom struggle with ardent zeal. I distributed sweets in the morning to show that I too cared for my country.

And so, in keeping with the spirit of I-day, here's a toast to all my fellow Indians who I-dentify themselves with their motherland.  Come, soak in the I-feeling.

Jai Hind.

NOTE:  Sun Microsystems India celebrated I-day by releasing Code for Freedom for students in India.

 

Posted at 09:25AM Aug 16, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Diann Olden chats up women@IEC

At a time when us women were sipping endless coffee and pondering over our questionable future, Diann Olden came along and did some good ol' straight talkin'.

Her message was so simple and yet so meaningful. "Draw that 'T' and chalk out what you need to do and what you don't want to do. But go for your dreams and aspirations." she insisted.

When Diann  got married, she stitched and baked and played 'home 'n hearth'.  She brought up her kids like any mommy should, or as any mommy-in-law would think appropriate.

But no matter how hard she tried to push her aspirations into the background and wear her apron steadfastly, she continued to dream of taking up a job. And so one day, she got herself a job. There was no looking back, thereafter.

At some point of time Diann joined Xerox. Where she was hired to play secretary. And that role, she flatly refused. A few boring assignments later, she found herself in a field position which was definitely in her line. Then on, she planned her career one step at a time.

Diann advised us to always follow our interest and keep re-assessing our occupation to see if we still felt passionate about pursuing it. People, according to Diann, often change their aspirations in different stages of their lives, and therefore, must be open to any corresponding change that has to be made in career.

It was a great meeting and we enjoyed watching Diann's expressive face, as she unfolded the story of her career and family. She has two great kids, an 87 year old dad, and a sister. Life has given her a bundle of experiences and strangely, many of them match with those in the knapsacks that we ferry along in our own lives.

If there's one thing we want to say, that is: Diann, you ROCK! 

A picture is worth a thousand words and I decided to  write 4000 more... 

 The ladies smile as Diann shares a joke

The clocks kept ticking but who's keeping tabs?

 In case you wanted numbers...and switches (the white squares up front!)

Then the grand female, er sorry,  finale!

Posted at 11:02AM Aug 09, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[1]

Tree's Company!

Sun is an eco-friendly place. We car-pool, bike, walk, jog to the office. We diligently switch off our monitors at the end of the day or whenever. We recycle office paper- and doodle on the back of meeting minutes pages. Sometimes folks only read the doodles, but that's another matter.

We even bring our own gigantic ceramic mugs for coffee and carry them all around the office in an eco-friendly wheelbarrow.

So when we saw this very green sign recently put up in our office...

...we said to ourselves (in our own eco-friendly vernacular languages): "Ha, this is the way to go and we're goin' that way!"

A few days later, we were walking down to a food center close by, quietly towing our mugs along, when we saw this tree. Something drew us to the trunk- it was a tiny ad pasted in a cozy corner:

Talk of tapping 'Solar' energy!

Here's a toast to all  'recruitrees'!

Posted at 08:30AM Aug 01, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Say 'Cheese'...and blog!

Blogs and dental hygiene? What's the connection? Aren't they both (s)miles apart?

Apparently not! In the online world, anything is possible! Or maybe you are guaranteed a brighter smile if you have a good blog! 

In About.com, the left navigation bar has a lot on understanding the HTML lingo, the centerpiece has an FAQ on blogging, and the top right hand corner is all about getting those dazzling teeth!

Posted at 05:10AM Jul 14, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Font-ly speaking

Earlier on, while working as a science editor in a newspaper, I used to come across many interesting personalities. From this rather long list, Ramu’s name deserves a special mention.

Ramu was our office attendant, who was always in a hurry to absorb gigabytes of jargon, like a well-used sponge. But there were a few bugs in his neural wiring, and it showed on occasion.

When we started a syndicated column written by Bill Gates  in our IT page, the readers’ feedback came pouring in through boxes, doors…even windows! The Gates-ian era was at its peak, which was probably why an awestruck Ramu would actually place these letters reverently on my table, lest they get crumpled in a rather unwholesome manner.

One morning, a nattily dressed American gentleman entered the office. A visibly excited Ramu clumsily dropped a few postcards and stared unabashedly at the gentleman, who was ambling towards my desk. Actually, the American gentleman had dropped by to pass on an invitation to a conference. But no sooner had the gentleman turned his back, than did Ramu rush to my side, eyes wide with amazement. Pointing to the receding figure with shaking fingers, he asked hoarsely, “Madam, was that Bill Gates?”

Thanks to the power of print technology, Ramu had actually heard of the ‘soft man with the hard business drive.

Once again a while later, Life did a barn dance in our newspaper office, when Quark Express was installed to make pages. Earlier on, Ramu often lent a helping hand to the old production workers who used to manually insert photographs between reams of text. By the end of the day, a minister may have half his beard snipped out of his photograph, but at least he was lovingly displayed on the page, thanks to these old-timers.

Then suddenly Quark software came along, doing all the cutting and pasting needed for a lifetime. It beveled, trimmed, earmarked, and watermarked to perfection! Ramu was thrilled by this new technology.

"Quack can paste in seconds!" he gushed.  "But it cannot squeeze a photo into gutter space, can it?" retorted the old helpers. For a moment Ramu was at a loss for words. He needed to figure out what ‘gutter space’ was first, before coming up with a befitting answer.

One day, Ramu trudged into the office and announced the birth of yet another newfangled technology. News was going online, he said. We all groaned in unison. It only meant fewer papers and more computers. A few days later, the entire editorial staff was summoned for a high-level meeting and instructed to learn ‘Hyper Text Markup Language’. “Like English and Kannada, no?” asked an enthused voice from the front row. It was Ramu’s.

Soon modern technology invaded every nook and cranny of our idyllic publishing world, ‘cutting’ some of us out of the print ‘n paper era and ‘pasting’ us into those ‘winsome virtual vistas’. We learnt that ‘bugs’ weren’t merely crawly creatures. ‘Fifo’ wasn’t the name of a pet poodle. And ‘Framemaker’ just didn’t give you an hour- glass figure.

With growing Web 2.0 technology, will this scene slowly fade away? 

After having joined the software industry, I lost touch with the print industry. Now I was floating in a world of manuals, guides, wikis and white papers. I didn't really bother to think of how the newspaper industry was coping with the social networking, bookmarking and all that other jazz going on.

Until recently, when I met Ramu once again in a shop. He stood there standing agape, like a woefully confused member of the Piscean order. Then he asked with no preamble:

'Madam, what is 'blog' ?”

NOTE: Stories apart, here's an interesting blog on how many British newspapers got Web 2.0'd. Also check out Jonathan's recent blog entry which has a video of a panel discussion- topic is 'how integration of technology, media and society impact culture'.

Posted at 02:32AM Jul 11, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[2]

It's SOA Cool!

In case y'all haven't seen it yet, check out this link:

http://soa.sys-con.com

It clearly belongs to the 'trail-blazer' class of links. 

Congrats to Sun's App Server and Portal Server for having made the Reader's Choice award!

On the healthcare front, an interesting case study on Medicalert demonstrates how SOA architecture enables business agility and increases value of IT. Medicalert is a non-profit organization which is better known for its bracelets which, when worn by patients, alert doctors about conditions like allergy during crucial times like an emergency operation. 

Today, Medicalert has also ably adopted healthcare information services.

The MedicAlert repository relies on Web Service interfaces to support standard Personal Health Records (PHR), including electronic drug prescriptions and for patient record interoperability. The repository of personal health information facilitates the delivery of critical medical information between patients, providers, payers, and emergency responders around the clock and across the world.

While personal medical records are updated by members in a secure and private environment, the growing integration between departments and hospital personnel has necessitated more interoperability among systems. This would also entail getting data from partners and updating existing medical records. This means building more web services into the main system.

Such a scalable system has to also be able to wrap custom policies around the services that are produced. Medicalert's new policy engine allows for executing different policies to accomplish a vast array of tasks in a scalable and secure way.

SOA in healthcare is very important to ensure business agility and scalability. Particularly because there can be many applications that need to be interoperable in a unique governance model and also a secure environment. The user must get an integrated view of all these systems, and data needs to be retrieved at the click of a button.

With each new requirement in the healthcare front, small wonder then that the IT gurus are finding more and more reasons to sing  the SOA-ng.

Posted at 09:43AM Jul 08, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Tech One series

Check out this interesting space- Techone

This particular video features chalk talk by Andy Bechtolsheim on Sun's new supercomputer, the Constellation System.

Posted by Steve Gillmor.

Posted at 10:04AM Jul 06, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[0]

Dial 108 for Help

 In India, there is no single number like 9-1-1, no single agency to coordinate emergency responses, and no specific standards existing for ambulances. Eighty six thousand people are killed due to accidents, since the time taken for an accident victim to arrive at the hospital often exceeds 30-40 minutes.

Only fifty percent of ambulances are said to be possess acute care facilities to keep an accident victim alive while being transported to a hospital.

This was probably why Mr. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd., decided to start the EMRI, a non-profit organization.

The Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) has aspired to provide comprehensive emergency management services in India (in the state of Andhra Pradesh) using 108- a single, toll-free number.

The system is designed for handling upto 200,000 emergency calls per day.

The number 108 is used as the centralized helpline for Medical, Police and Fire emergencies and is accessible from both fixed and mobile phones.

Emergency Management requires the integration of three cardinal pillars: Sense, Reach and Care. The Sense paradigm of Emergency Management involves  receiving information regarding the emergency. The 108 call is received by a Communication Officer who collects and records all facts regarding the emergency. Technology plays an important role in the 'sense' wing of the Emergency Management by providing state of the art CTI (Computer Telephony Integration) solutions for receiving 108 calls and recording the information.

In the Reach paradigm, reaching a victim in case of medical emergency is crucial. The Advanced Life Saving (ALS) ambulances are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities that can help save many a life. They are reputed to be  as good, if not better than the 911 ambulances of the US Care. Each ambulance is accompanied by a trained EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) who is responsible for pre-hospital care while transporting the patient to the appropriate hospital. An EMT can also conference (via cellphone) with an Emergency Response Care Physician.

 The Emergency Response System was created using the Microsoft .Net technology. It is a complex software that integrates with many third-party systems involved in emergency services. A shared third party mail server with SMTP service provides the gateway for sending email messages for the core application.

The dispatching system uses the help of GIS and AVLT (a system that tracks the ambulance as it moves) for dispatching the service. The EMRI Call Center handles over 13,000 calls a day of which at least 500 are emergency cases.

One of the goals of the EMRI is conducting applied research and publish research papers for prevention and better management of emergencies.The Institute also wants to maintain a Knowledge Management Portal and regularly bring out the Indian Emergency Journal.

Currently, the EMRI has deployed 380 state- of -the- art ambulances in 50 towns completely, and has saved more than 11,500 lives.

Taking the technology a step further to bridge the digital divide, the ambulances will also be modified to suit the rural needs by including emergency care for snake bites, pregnancies and accidents.

Here is one splendid example of technology coming to the aid of the common man. And what better way is there to be of service to mankind, than caring for the health of the masses?

Satyam Computer Services Ltd. is a strategic partner to EMRI and contributes to Technology, Processes and Knowledge Management. The Institute is also looking for partners, to promote a spirit of cooperation, collaboration, and networking among NGOs, Corporate Houses, Governments and like-minded individuals who will help drive the cause.

Posted at 09:18AM Jul 04, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[0]

GeneSim- a step into knowledge-based IT

Want to see how intelligent search tools are becoming on the healthcare front?

Here's a peep into the world of GeneSim, a novel, futuristic tool for mining medical data.

Currently, there are several public databases for molecular medicine all over the world which help doctors mine information on crucial genes linked with diseases such as cancer. For example, ArrayExpress and PubMed portals maintain at least forty databases with various search and service functions.

Still, if a doctor wants to find out more specific insights into a particular patient's condition, it would be hard to do so from among the humongous amount of data out there. It would be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

However, GeneSim is a new knowledge portal on the internet which would serve as a ready reckoner in molecular medicine. GeneSim will host information on a patient's case history, a description of his/her tumor, and results. GeneSim networks with a host of other medical databases on the internet and this helps doctors get critical information on a patient's aberrant gene profile which causes disease. It also helps them in their search for the right drug regime and therapy for a patient.

The GeneSim platform interfaces with syngo, Siemens' software for the operation of imaging processes such as MR and CT with a link to a PAC system.

GeneSim performs several tasks such as collecting knowledge, creating links between data with the help of mathematical processes and also determining which genes and proteins are directly connected with a disease. GeneSim can also compare gene profiles between individuals to determine which genes differ most in terms of gene activity. Through statistical analysis and image display, a doctor is able to compare gene activities on the screen at the click of a button. Also, if the user clicks on a specific gene, the tool retrieves all correlated information on this specific gene from databases all over the world.

The program is self-learning and remembers in which databases relevant information can be found. It is not merely a search tool but can also assess the information it retrieves. It can match data retrieved with the patient's profile (age, sex, etc) and throw up relevant and meaningful data.

GeneSim is a knowledge management tool catering to the needs of personalized medicine. A tool which can help a doctor understand the patient's problem and plan a drug regime going forward.

So now we're talking intelligent diagnosis.

With the machine.

Hopefully, sound intuitive diagnosis will still have its grand old place.

With the doc.

Posted at 08:27AM Jul 02, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[0]

IISc global conference

The recently concluded IISc. (Indian Institute of Science) global conference held in Marriott hotel, Santa Clara, provided a forum for collaborative interaction among the Institute, its alumni, academic institutions and industry. The main objective of this conference was to build a  long-term  partnership between Institute and its alumni and to  usher in the next phase of the IISc. The conference turned out to be a pleasant melee of  ex- IIScians turned enterpreneurs, professors, industry leaders and technology evangelists.

Being a proud member of the IISc alumni, it was a pleasant coincidence for me to be at Santa Clara and participate in the conference.

Several talks by eminent professors and industry leaders echoed high energy and enthusiasm to collaborate and  usher in new innovations.

 Prof P Balaram, Director, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

In his opening note, Professor P Balaram created a powerful bridge between the institute's illustrious  past and the dynamic future. In his color-filled presentation (where the natural habitat of the IISc was so beautifully portrayed), he showed glimpses of the roadmap for this prestigious institute. He spoke about the importance of forging collaboration between research in pure science and applied science- one example being biotechnology and research in medicine. He urged the alumni gathered to give back to the IISc, because the most important stakeholders were not the venture capitalists, academicians, or philanthropists but actually the people of India. 

Prof APJ Abdul Kalam, President of India delivered the inaugural note live via satellite. He visualizes an increased focus on  vaccinology, nutrition and application of traditional knowledge for holistic medicine. The Institute must also intensify translational research, according to Prof Kalam. He visualizes biomedical research as a leading area for the future in IISc and feels that education and research in this area has to be taken up in partnership with medical institutions. He also mooted the idea of the Institute establishing a school of medicine. 

Some of the directions that the president saw IISc growing towards are:

• Creating an undergraduate eduction at IISc which will enrich teaching and research.
• Being eminent in at least 5 areas of S&T
• Being a partner in the World Knowledge Platform to promote world class knowledge creation, knowledge  sharing and knowledge dissemination among all partner countries.

What the occasion really could have done with more of was showcasing the younger generation of scientists  and having them share their dreams with the audience. After all, if IISc were to attract young talent, this would have been an ideal forum for them to voice their aspirations.

Nevertheless, the conference turned out to be a grand success. Kudos to all the volunteers who worked night and day and did a splendid job of making it all happen.

'Twas clearly an occasion when academia met industry over crumpets and tea.

And I met my friends over drinks and dinner. :-)

 L>R: Kabs (Phillips), Kals (Five Prime Therapeutics), me (Sun), Usha (Five Prime Therapeutics), Gayathri (Amgen)

Posted at 10:21PM Jun 30, 2007 by Manju in Sun  |  Comments[0]