The Great Precog Expedition

It all began with searching for opportunities to work in the summer of 2016. I had heard endlessly about the work culture at IIIT Delhi, the research groups and the out of this world faculty. After researching through the site, I stumbled upon Professor PK’s profile. As I read further about him, I was awestruck and amongst the many who would want to work with PK.

My first meeting with him lasted for roughly 15 minutes but I went back home with a bag full of riveting information about what it takes to be a Precog-er. This was also the first time I got to know about Randy Pausch. At home, I watched ‘The Last Lecture’ and understood why the walls of the Precog area are adorned with his quotes.

Soon after I took part in the OSMpalooza Hackathon and witnessed firsthand how quick progress is made by students here. My team came up with whatever best solution we could think of, for the problem statements given. Sadly, my team didn’t win a position but I witnessed some amazing solutions by other teams and most importantly I saw myself serious and engrossed in a project in Social Media Analysis. This was the time I was further sure of wanting to work in Precog since majority of the work is done on analysing social media content. This incident would be incomplete without quoting the following:

“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.” –Randy Pausch

Very soon, I applied for the internship. After an intricate interview process, I received my offer letter. My first day at Precog was a Brainstorming session (which is another bonus point of this internship). Before the internship, how I went through research papers was basic skimming. And in the first session itself, I witnessed the dissection of a paper and not only deriving the entire methodology, but also discussing elaborate ideas about extending the current paper and implementing those as well. This is just one example of how working at Precog means legit serious work.

I was lucky to have Prateek Dewan as my mentor during the internship period. I started working closely with Prateek and soon after there were series of things I learnt that I apply till date. Before the internship the only language I worked in was Java and by the end of it, I had another language i.e. Python, to add to my skill set. Each little doubt regarding my project was cleared by him and he promptly replied to any query I had at any odd hour. I was a little apprehensive in the beginning since the progress made at Precog is super quick but I learned it all in my own time.

The most incredible characteristics of this group are the levels of sincerity and passion shared by each Precog-er when it comes to work. Apart from the respective projects carried out by each group, the regular Brainstorming sessions covered the latest research topics extensively. Several new ideas and information about the tech world were discussed in the mailing list and very soon I got the hang of it. One particular email comprised of PK discussing his latest choice of book to read, “Eat That Frog!” By Brian Tracy. Being an avid reader, I bought it the next day itself and the book has had phenomenal influences on my life. (amazing book suggestions!; another bonus of the internship). Striking a balance between working and having fun is another take away. The binding force of Precog is PK and the smart-working researchers, known as Precog-ers, make this group what it is.

Why I chose such a heavy sounding title for this post is because Precog can’t be defined by anything less. It is indeed a great expedition and I am fortunate to have experienced it.

I would like to end by quoting my favourite Randy Pausch saying that has now adorned my room’s wall as well:

“The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.” 

Below is a picture from one of the group photo sessions!(Missing in the picture: PK)