Mid-Tenure Review: General Secretary Technical Affairs

Link to the Mid-Term report : GSTA Mid-Term Work Report ’24-25′

Link to the GS-Meter : Click Here

General Body Meet : General Secretary of Technical Affair Hardi Desai

The GBM began with the mid term work report being presented by the GSTA Hardi Desai.

Inter IIT Tech Open House:-

The GSTA mentioned that turnout at the open house was very low. Students from the third year and above as well as PGs, who have expertise in very niche domains need to be included, so informal sessions are being planned to be conducted in hostels.

QnA

1. Why was the GC orientation delayed this year?

Ans – The election for technical councillors was delayed in many hostels, without them there was no one to lead and coordinate. If the orientation had happened before midsems, there would not have been proper problem statements and lesser participation.

Followup: How many tech councillors were selected by the time of the orientation?

Ans – A lot of technical councillors were selected in July and August, only two more were selected after the midsems. Since by then there had been too much delay, so we planned to continue without the rest.

Followup: Why were the technical councillors informed about the orientation just 1 day before?

Ans – This is the norm about any insti event in general, when they are usually informed 1 or 2 days before.

2. Cramming of GCs is expected due to delay, how does the council plan to complete them before the end of the tenure to prevent a potential cancellation?

Ans – The first GC was held last year on 10th October, so it is not delayed in any sense. This year we have proposed a set of new GCs, and we have planned out and released the calendars as well. There are three categories of problem statements – high, mid and low prep. We are planning to have a balance of all three, in the same way to prevent flowing the GCs into March.

Followup: Have the Problem statements been curated in such a way so as to help students for Inter IIT?

Usually, the problem statements are very different from what is expected in Inter IIT. For example, we typically have documentation GCs, wherein all the tech councillors submit documentation of all the projects that the hostel residents have done to identify potential participants. Inter-IIT level problem statements may create resistance among the participants, as they may not be comfortable with the level. However, quant, blockchain, and game development problem statements will have similar levels to Inter-IIT.

Followup: Is the council scheduling these GCs in a way so as to help for Inter-IIT preparation?

It will depend on the problem statements we receive this year; for example, product development and game development GCs are to happen next semester, quant and AI GCs are to be done this semester

Followup: During the compilation of the GS Meter, it was mentioned that these are not scheduled yet, are these now?

Half of the GCs are to be shifted to the next semester.

3. It was observed that there were multiple clashes in ITC events, for example on the 27th, when the orientations of WnCC, MRT and TL were being conducted at the same time. This can potentially limit the exposure to ITC, what was the reason for this?

This year the usual blackout period was much longer than expected, and we have many events planned for freshers throughout the semester. Eventually, we had to make the choice of doing it at the same time

Followup: What are future plans to avoid such clashes?

We did notice this problem, so we have prepared a tentative common calendar, where each club will put the time and locations for their sessions.

4. A lot of organisational issues were observed at the Tech R&D Expo, where people complained about the heat, ill-managed crowd, etc. Since we are also hosting the pan-IIT meet this year, how will this be changed?

Last year the Tech R&D Expo was conducted in SAC. This year it might get shifted to some outdoor venue, like PPL. The issue of heat will not be there as the meeting is in December. Techfest conducts its TechConnect at PPL and the vendors have also agreed that it is big enough to accommodate these many stalls.

5. Tech teams are yet to be allocated funds through the Nandan Nilekani funds, however there is a lack of clarity on this. Any reason for the same?

Any funding through any of the foundations takes up a lot of time. The proposal was given 1-1.5 months back, and I haven’t received any update from the office handling it. I can only pass on the information whenever I receive an update, other than that I can’t do much here. I wouldn’t say exactly that this is a problem from the administration as such a process takes time. We gave a proposal of a huge amount,  spread over some 70-80 slides. If they have a specified budget, then they may also have to cut down a lot of things/demands, and this decision making takes time.

Followup: How is transparency being maintained?

As and when I receive any sort of communication, I pass it on, since I have no written documentation, I can’t share anything at the moment.

6. There has been a change in cabinet structure, the tech team nominee position used to be held by 2 people, now it is only 1. What has been the reason for the reduction in team size?

The first time 2 people were nominated was only 2 tenures back, before that only 1 person used to hold this position. We believe that we have been at par and there have been no difficulties in managing with only one nominee.

7. Has Inter IIT Tech Meet Overall Coordinators (OCs) been selected?

Yes, the OCs have been selected

Followup: What about the rest of the organising team?

The design and web portfolios have been filled, rest of the interviews are yet to happen.

Followup: What is the work update on releasing the problem statements?

We have nominated an OC, I however, have no participation in Inter-IIT tech organising apart from that, and I’m purely a part of the contingent so I cannot answer this.

8. Your manifesto point mentioned a Tech forum on InstiApp, why is a separate forum needed and how will it ensure accountability?

Internship experiences presently are documented by the departments, as well as Insight. ITC thinks that many of its seniors might also be willing to share their experiences and hence, they should not be held back.
Regarding the types of discussions we are planning over the forum, a lot of freshies are overwhelmed by the complex structure of ITC, and confused about differences between team, communities, Tech teams, clubs and questions like if I’m interested in X domain who should I approach, what kind of sessions or event should I attend or even if somebody is participating in ITSP they can ask the guidance about their ideas. The Forum might be able to connect them to someone who might mentor them.
Accountability will be measured by having a platform where outside of the gbm the public can ask any questions.

9. Update regarding the GPU cluster manifesto point

We have connected with the GSHA for space – a GPU has special requirements, which include a cooling system and power supply. They will notify us whenever there is space, meanwhile, we are also looking for it independently. If this is not resolved by the end of tenure, we would request the computer centre for a small space to set this up.

Audience QnA

Question by DoSA to the GSTA and all the attendees-

What needs to be done to ensure more people participate in tech GBM and there is more engagement of respective hostels in tech?

DoSA remarked, that funding is never an issue at IITB, and budgets were never slashed. Regarding the Nandan Nilekani funds, they haven’t received any funds so far.

Even faculty have applied for Nandan Nilekani funds, but haven’t heard back.

Concerns from the audience-

1. A point was raised to make PGs more aware of the ITC activities because as of now, PGs are often neglected. More PhDs and masters students should be included in tech because they have a niche in some fields to which they can contribute to.

The hostel website is not up to date over the past few years. Students are facing issues in receiving news or highlights. 

GSTA remarked-

Last year, Krittika arranged stargazing sessions in every hostel; similarly, the aeromodelling club arranged workshops.

A major issue is that a lot of hostel councils are formed in June-July and by the time they are acclimatised, it is a bit too late.

The Technical Councillor in H11 has been ongoing for the past two years. The previous general secretaries have been notified to speed up, which is resulting in less participation.

2. Hostels should have a tech room and have prepared guidelines for minimum inventory in each hostel which was there in pre-covid culture.

GSTA reply-

We feel PGs are an untapped resource and we are indeed lacking there. We are

planning open lab visits for PGs in the Tinkerer’s Lab for them to explore outside their domains. About 50 people have shown interest but it could’ve been better.

ITSP had 100+ teams, most of them were UGs, we felt PGs would be well set to mentor them and we tried to get more PGs but couldn’t. For this year’s ITSP, we floated the mentors form to all depts, collaborating with PGAC, getting in touch with every dept representative but got a very few responses.

3. Tech councillor catches 2-3 people and asks them to participate in GCs.
   

GSTA replied that people are reluctant because of the scope which is the level of the tech GCs, for PGs there is no sense of attachment to hostels or no incentive to participate just for an extracurricular.

The summary is to have a timeline and reduce the difficulty slope, i.e., the barrier which prevents people from participating because of unfamiliarity with problem statements.

Chairperson, Tech Affairs-

“I would like to interact with the clubs more and understand them, as a new person I have no clue where to find out information, and expecting only GSecs to do this is not fair. We need all clubs to step up and disseminate information about your club for easy understanding of everyone. You may have excellent presence in social media but those are all shortlived. Also, there is not much tech activity in the hostels and the tech culture is declining over the years, and these activities should be encouraged, especially intra-hostel.”

4. What are the names of the contingent leader, PMTT, and OC?

Contingent Leader- Arhaan Ahmed and Aryan Mishra

Overall Coordinator- Manas Agarwal

PMTT- Manas Agarwal

Arhaan Ahmed and Aryan Mishra are Inter-IIT Contingent Leaders

The same person is the OC and PNTT as we did not find enough good candidates.

5. The GC Opening Ceremony was conducted during academic hours and had maximum participation points, why was that so?

We had a bunch of events planned, so the delay was not called for.

Participation in GC OC earned 50 points, whereas low prep GCs earned 100 points, so it would not make that much of a difference in the points tally.

6. Why were there very few managers during the GC Opening Ceremony the there was no proper arrangement?

Only 2-3 managers are in charge of a particular event.

These 2-3 managers along with cabinet members and the GSTA were present during the event. I do not see the relevance of the entire 25-manager being present during the event.

Why the overall trophies were not given during GC OC?

Overall trophies were not handed as they were broken during shifting by managers.

Last year genre cups were introduced, and 5 new trophies were made for GCs.

Why is there only 1 PG POR in a 25-member team?

We floated out forms for PG convenors, there is no exclusion for PGs, and they are open to apply.

However we didn’t receive responses from PGs for the convenor position for half of the clubs, we are consciously putting in efforts, but it is difficult to bridge the gap when there is little response from the PG community.

There is a tendency in PGs to think that they will be dominated by UGs while working together, should it go more hand-in-hand?

The most difficult thing is to change the mindset of people. UGs take PoRs as they have an incentive for a career, it doesn’t affect PGs, so we don’t blame them.

Why were genre results declared one day before GCs?

The GC results were updated on the GC portal.

Non-core genre trophies were not given, as there is only 1 GC in non-core.

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