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Passion, Purpose, Precog
I joined Precog as an honours student at the end of my second year of college (summer 2020). I worked on Computational Social Science related research problems, under PK’s purview. My journey has been meaningful and rewarding in many ways! Through this blog, I will share my experiences and detail the aspects I valued the most. Here are some things I loved about being at Precog: Purposeful Work The research done at Precog is very applied and practical in nature. I worked on analysing the spread of Islamophobic hate-speech online and identifying malicious actors. I appreciated that we worked on a current-world problem which made the research timely and pertinent…
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Excerpts from “Will” by Will Smith with Mark Manson
Thanks to a book stalls in airports 🙂 Was browsing through books, was looking for something else, did not find it, but stumbled on the book Will, thanks to the colourful cover I guess! [Page 42] I trust God. And I am so thankful for his grace in my life. I know that every single breath I take is a gift. And it’s impossible to be unhappy when you’re grateful. [43] Some combination of hard work, education, and God would topple any and all obstacles and enemies. The only variable was the level of my commitment to the fight. [64] Truly intelligent people do not have to use language like…
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Excerpts from “The Alchemist: A Fabble About Following Your Deam” by Paulo Coelho
While reading the book Will by Will Smith, he mentions [my blog on excerpts from the book] one of the influential books for him was The Alchemist. I decided to read it. Keeping the recent tradition of buying one book per travel [not sure how long will I be able to continue doing this :)], bought this book. It was a fantastic decision, I am going to rate this book very high in my reading list recommendations. [Page 10] It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting. [14] It’s the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to…
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Learn, Bond, Grow @ Precog!
Back in 2020, I was as perplexed as any other second year student when I had to make a choice for a lab and an advisor to pursue my honours. My interests lay in working on applied NLP and real world problems that could have a direct impact on people’s lives and society. After elaborate considerations and weighing my options amongst the many brilliant labs at IIITH, I decided to work WITH Prof. PK at Precog. I’m sincerely thankful to my really cool seniors at Precog who introduced me to the lab, explained to me about the spectrum of work that happens, and guided me in making the right choice.…
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Precog: a low risk, high return investment
Precog has been a constant throughout my college life. Having spent three-plus years at Precog, it is much more than a work experience or research experience on my resume. It is what has defined me and my work interests. In this blog, I will take a shot at the impossible task of summarizing my experience, learnings, and the indelible effect PK and Precog have left on me. Before joining my college, I was very well aware that there existed this majestic lab headed by this mystical professor. My first introduction to Precog was through my brother when I was still in 12th grade. He had applied to Precog but got…
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Precog : A Journey to Remember
Ahh, the precog journey is reaching a logical conclusion with this blog. The blog is going to be a thank you letter, a thank you letter for three beautiful years at Precog, working with PK and fellow precoggers, learning and growing from the wonderful experiences. I will highlight the different projects and experiences at Precog and focus on how they shaped and taught me. Before I begin a piece of advice to anyone thinking about joining/knowing more about Precog culture and work, read these blogs !! (At least that’s what I did while deciding, all of these are experiences straight from the horse’s mouth and will give you excellent insights).…
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Precog: Where Magic Happens
During the end of my 5th semester, I started searching for professors to do an independent study under. The reason for this search was simple – I needed an LoR as I planned on going for higher studies. After talking to seniors and batchmates, it became very clear that Precog was the best place for this purpose. As I sit now, 1.5 years later, recollecting my journey in Precog, I realize I have gained so much more than an LoR – in fact, I realize that I have gained more than I could have ever imagined in December 2020. My first interaction with PK was in the last round of…
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Why working at Precog is totally different!
My journey with Precog started right after my second year. PK wasn’t a full-time IIIT-H prof at that time, but I had already heard a lot about him. I was pretty excited to have got the opportunity to work with him, but looking back I had no clue how unique and life-changing my two years with Precog would be. I use the word “unique” because my experience at the lab was totally different, in many special ways that make me proud to be a #Precogger! Q: Give reasons why your journey with Precog was so different: Reason 1: Freedom That’s right, freedom. Probably my favourite thing to talk about when…
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Midpoint Melodrama: UP Political Twitter Halfway through Polling Phases
We examined the use of Twitter by 10426 politicians from Uttar Pradesh, across all levels of seniority, midway into the phases of polling in the Uttar Pradesh elections of 2022, starting January 1, 2022, and up until March 1, 2022. We summarize here our key findings by examining four key questions. How does Twitter relate to Urbanization and Literacy? To address the first question, we examined the number of urban residents by location, and levels of literacy, and find there is a statistically significant relationship between both the number (and percentage) or urban residents and the likelihood that politicians in that area use Twitter, as well as with the level…
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Excerpts from “My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future” by Indra K. Nooyi
As I was reading Blackstone / Steve’s story (my blog), I got stumbled on Indra Nooyi’s story; such books instantly strike a cord with me. Book was so engaging, that I finished the book in Jan itself, i.e. 2 books in a month, not very common these days 😛 Was fascinating to read the book that has reference to Chennai a lot, my hometown too! My last book with so much of Chennai reference was Biography of A R Rahman (my blog), there is something lovely about reading books / personalities that has roots to Chennai! I loved the reference to Thata (grandfather in Tamil language) in the book. Book…