An hour with a superstar!!

The news was flashed on the website for this years TECHFEST 2010 at IIT Bombay. The man who had been on the ads of Intel was coming to deliver a lecture.....yes, Mr. Ajay Bhatt, the co-founder of the USB.He has been instrumental in driving definition of AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port), PCI Express, Platform Power management architecture and various chipset enhancements. Waiting for an hour in the line for the lecture i was fortunate enough to get a good seat for the lecture. The man was introduced and then he appeared on the dais,and what surprise, this was not the man from the advertisement of Intel but someone else. He clarified the fact that the person in the ad was an actor and the great person himself was standing in front of us. He introduced us to the world we knew about....mobile computing, but still I say 'introduced' because the facts and technology he spoke about were completely unknown. imagine a power saving core of a computer, or a laptop which cools itself based on the jet cooling principle used in the planes. The man standing there delivering the lecture was the kind of a suave technocrat, a man with achievement which changed the world, but so humble in his approach for this illiterate(i call myself that...in front of this man) crowd. The impact of mobile computing on the lives of people and the strength of the technology was explained briefly about. He also touched the issues of processors for mobile computing with the relative normal computer processors, the research for imbibing the powerful processor like the atom, duo core etc in the mobile world and its problems. The best part of the lecture was the comparison of the various types of data on the net. We find it hard to believe that the impact of social networking websites has been contributing at least 45% of the data on net today. As for the dream of an electronics engineering major, the lecture took course to the temperature and heat dissipation in small devices like pda's. The small size to heat compensation techniques and the more sustainable batteries was a topic of great interest. The Li-ion battery to the liquid polymer battery(used in iPod) and various aspect of battery were discussed. This led an argument to battery charging; a concept of 'on the go charging' or the wireless power is a hot research topic, charging based on induction,and concept of having centers like 'Charging hotspots' on the lines of the 'Wi-Fi hotspot'. His explanation about the power management in processors, use of mobile computing and its future gave way for various discussions on 3d-movie making tools, and other applications which were considered magic in the recent past. Mr. Bhatt in his lecture gave the minds sitting there a vision, a vision to achieve something big in technology which can change the world ,like his USB port, a hole in the wall concept for the computer by which the common man could plug his favorite devices and just sit back and enjoy.

Just looking around after the lecture we could surely say than there were more than 150 odd people present inside the theater and more waiting outside just to catch a glimpse of the person. Why was this person, middle-aged , non-macho, but still suave respected so much? We Indians love to flock around our superstars who fight in the movies and romance beautiful girls...something we cannot achieve. But we are never able to carry their work with us, but Mr. Bhatt's work is still in our pocket as a Mp3 player, a pendrive, a digital camera...and what not!!! He is a role model and surely a perfect example of how a geek can become a SUPERSTAR!!!