Pages from a chapter called Precog

Back in 2014, when I came to know about Dr. PK, he was associated with Backpack, FindAWay, IDEA and other cool things that were going around the campus. It was very intriguing because I did not know much about him except that and the courses that he took. Little later, I found out about Precog, the research group that he has at IIITD. For me, Precog was this intimidating elite group that I would never be able to be a part of. But oh! how wrong was I and so are you if you ever felt that. Trust me, I am an insider. 😛

Fast forward to 2015, I saw many of my seniors going for HCI and very soon after that I realised the direction I wanted to do something in or be closely related to. Ever since, I fell in love more with the field so there was no question when DHCS was offered by Dr.PK in Winter 2016! I was more than excited, and that followed all through the course! Dr. PK is such an amazing professor. He makes sure that lectures are interactive, interesting, and there are surprise activities too – so giving you plenty of reasons to get up in the morning out of your bed. He builds up your assignments to your final project, and helps students get feedback from each other through critiques and himself too! He makes a lot of efforts to make sure students are learning hands on, which is commendable. It was one-of-a-kind course at IIITD for me, at least before I graduated.

I really wanted to work on a HCID project in my summers, and I started interacting with PK time to time regarding that. What is great about Dr. PK is that he is so helpful – he will guide you about interests and tell you about resources where you could find opportunities to even offering you to apply for an internship at Precog. I could not believe when he did that but a task and conversation later when I was in, I really could.

Being a part of Precog gives you a sense of belonging and the pillars (the scholars of the lab) help Dr.PK provide a learning ground for everyone in the lab! It is always fascinating to listen to him and if you can decide to implement on anything you learn from him, it has the potential to work wonders! There are several good things that are a part of the Precog culture. One of them is the mailing lists! Even though it has the potential of overshadowing all your other emails on some days, I think those discussions and looking at everything from a ‘what can I do with this’ eye makes you critical of the things that are going on around you. It is just one of the really helpful things I have learnt and I take forward from Precog to everywhere I go.

On certain days, the lab feels like a festival while on others you’ll see people working hard on their desks and in the CERC lounge – where even a peep will sound like screaming in a crowd. 😛 Now, I know I have painted a certain picture here, but believe me it is not all that rosy. Being a part of Precog is certainly an adventure in itself. You get to have a lot of fun but the people here, work so hard – sometimes it amazed me. I have had a stretch of time where I was afraid of working on a certain thing and I procrastinated. It only lead to guilt because I could not contribute to WhatsUp (the weekly update meetings of the whole group), which pushes you to finally try what you fear and get better.

If you have known Dr. PK for even a little time, you’ll know he loves to be vague 😛 To be honest, I felt off with that approach at first and I got intimidated but with time I have not only accepted that methodology but I am trying to apply it to my life currently. There are so many little things that you will learn from PK if you become a part of Precog or interact with him ever, little things that will go a long way if you closely listen. Precog is not just this but a lot more, something that can not be put to words in this post. The best part about all this is – for you precog will be totally different, it will be what you make of it.