As with most things in life, this one too does not seem to have a single correct answer. Looking from the student's perspective several things would count. Many students pursuing an M.S. degree would have accumulated substantial amount of debt to deal with (especially true for international students); with a general funding crunch at universities, majority of M.S. programs do not give financial assistance to students these days. For them getting a high-paying job sooner would definitely seem a more attractive option to pay off their loans or recover their family's savings. Staying in graduate school with a meager stipend during a Ph.D. would be economically unattractive. On the other hand - for some students the immense joy and satisfaction of doing and achieving the unknown through research, the pleasure of extending their field of study or joining academia and teaching and guiding future generations of students is paramount.  The subsequent respect one commands as a Ph.D. helps them in making their mind up towards a Ph.D. and also sees them through these difficult times. Undoubtedly, for those who are undecided, it is not an enviable position to be in.

An M.S. is more job-oriented and perhaps solely gears one for the industry, while a Ph.D. is more research oriented and prepares one for a career in academia or a research position in the industry. In these situations doing an internship (while one is still in the middle of an M.S. program or even at the undergrad level) in a premier company is one of the best things you can do to help you in making an informed choice. You have still not made that decision as to which way you want to go, you can have a sneak peek at what life in the industry would be and whether this is something you wanted to do or if going the other way and doing a Ph.D. is the way forward for you. And of course, you see the link between academia and industry -are they in sync? Is education imparted at graduate school relevant in the business context?  Alternatively, one can take up an internship with a research organization to test the waters on the other side too! This would help you find out if you are kind of a 'research oriented' individual and what is in store for you in the world of technology research.

Today I would like to give a brief overview on a topic that is clearly changing the way our society behaves and the way people engages with computers and other human beings. This phenomenon is of great interest to Infosys and is related to two of the Strategic Themes: Pervasive Computing and Digital Consumers. I have got involved with this subject during my two month internship with Instep and I would like to share some of my thoughts on it.

What does a typical day in our life looks like?

I wake up in the morning and read the news on my kindle. After ten minutes reading I feel like having breakfast so I go and pick some stuff from the fridge. Whenever my fridge detects that I am running out of cereals or milk it automatically launches the Supermarket App and orders food for me. After breakfast I always spend some time playing with my third generation console. Ever since consoles are providing access to the internet I feel totally in touch with my friends, especially with those who live far away from home. When gaming time is over I get dressed and leave to work. From times to times I lose my keys or some other stuff. Fortunately with the new “locate my objects” system I can easily SMS my personal belongings and they usually answer something like: “Dude! You drop me under the bed”. After checking where the train is using my mobile with GPS integration I finally leave home. Of course, I never leave without my gaming handset. I usually…..

Wait a second, what is going on here? Every single action I perform in my everyday life involves the use of some electronic device, gadget or network. What is this new way of living?

It has been called Pervasive Computing and it is a new way of Human Computer Interaction in which information processing has been completely integrated into everyday life. Sometimes we do not even realize about it and sometimes we even become overwhelmed by these gadgets.

Why we do have the need to be connected sharing information at all the time is a philosophical question that I will not try to answer. Nevertheless, I will point out why we should care about this phenomenon and how we can take these theoretical concepts into practice.

First of all, is it worth investing?

It can be clearly seen that lots of business opportunities can be generated on top of this new concepts. All different kinds of application providing services to users and companies can be created, from a simple friend finder to a complex object locator or location based task management system for employees of a certain company.

Furthermore, big firms are increasingly spending more time and money around on pervasive technologies. For example the giant of web Google has now moved to the mobile industry with its new Nexus One phone and companies like Ford and GM are planning to work together with Google to release the first car using Android Operating System.

On the other hand people are crazily consuming all kind of data and social services either from the internet, their mobiles or whatever device they can acquire. Two different examples of this are Facebook, nowadays having more than 400 million active users and the mobile market itself, with more than 174.2 million mobiles shipped during year 2009 and expecting a 39% growth for 2010. Apart from smart phones, other devices are also slowly becoming famous. One of them is Amazon´s kindle, having more than 300.000 products sold.

The most interesting part about this is that these devices and networks are integrated working together to provide better user experiences. Moreover, digital consumers are desperately looking for new ways to spend time with these gadgets.

At first glance it seems that any businessman should be interested about this new trend and should at least invest some brainstorming on know how his or her business can be adapted to deal with this new paradigm.

How to make it happen? Getting to know the right technologies.

There are some technical issues that need to be addressed in order to make this really possible. Applications should be responsive, efficient, eye candy, secure and fault tolerant. And most important of all, they should add value users.

In this article I would not like to go into technical details. However, I would like to point out that even though this sounds to be a hard technical challenge, new technologies such as Cloud Computing and Restful Web Services are out there waiting to be exploded. Anyone familiar with Web Development could easily use its knowledge to start developing Pervasive Applications. At Infosys we have already developed and deployed a working prototype of a complete system for the cycling community as part of my internship. We have used Google App Engine cloud computing technology and Google Android Operating System, for building a smart phone application. I would like to write about it in detail on future posts.

Conclusion

To sum up, it can be seen that more and more users are willing to use Pervasive Services and Applications. New knowledge is needed to deal with this subject in order to provide real solutions.

From big companies to young entrepreneurs, we should work hard and invest money and time in order to learn how to take the most of this new trend. We should start thinking of the many ways to do business and be prepared for the boom that has already started and that will become stronger in the years to come.

References

   ·         Pervasive Computing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubiquitous_computing

   ·         Facebook Statistics: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

   ·         Android Car: http://phandroid.com/2009/04/01/ford-gm-announce-android-car/

      ·    Kindle Shipments: http://techcrunch.com/2010/01/28/amazon-4q09-earnings-kindle-millions/

Rajaram Pai, Global Academic Relations

"Well, students seem a little less desperate this year. They're more thoughtful in their internship and job searches, and won't necessarily throw themselves at anything and everything."

This is good news! While their might be fewer applications, the students who do apply for internships with Infosys will have thought through the decision, and have consciously decided that they want to be here.

This brings up another question: how should employers screen for candidates who are simply desperate to find a job, and will jump ship once the economy picks up? Take advantage of hot talent but not to the company's detriment.

Over the past couple weeks, there's been a lot of buzz over the latest development book Half the Sky. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, the book focuses on how investing in women can lift communities out of poverty. The title comes from a Chinese proverb, "Women hold up half the sky" and illustrates how empowering women creates opportunity for communities.

Last year, The Girl Effect illustrated the theory that women are the key to ending poverty in their viral video.  A woman is more likely to spend her money on education, health and improving her family's status. Hopefully, Half the Sky will reach out to an even larger audience to support women around the world by telling the stories of women trapped in oppressive conditions and the few success stories. For example, Sheryl WuDunn, in a TV interview, shared the story of the woman in Pakistan who went from getting beaten by her unemployed husband to receiving a US $65 and started an embroidery business employing thirty families in the village including her husband.

The book goes beyond narrative and encourages readers to participate online. Kristof regularly blogs on the topic and has created the hashtag on Twitter for #HalfTheSkyTuesday to spread the word. Readers can also help finance microloans to women through Kiva.org, Pro Mujer or any number of organizations listed on the Half the Sky Movement page. It's easy to make a difference too. From my dorm room in the United States, I was able to donate money to a female poultry farmer in Tanzania to buy food and treatment for chickens in about fifteen minutes.

As I said during the panel discussion, I think that talented people are attracted to any opportunity that lets them apply their best skills and talents to make a difference in the business. Having a chance to do that is exciting and is what everyone is looking for as they go through the recruiting process. Everything else, including where in the world such an opportunity might be located or the home base of the company in question, can be managed if the opportunity fits the profile well enough. However, I think a growth path must also be present. For example, taking on a project with a great chance to showcase one’s skills is a lot less attractive if there is no chance to continue to grow and develop.

Second, Indian companies that compete for global talent already tend to be global companies that do business in a variety of places. This not only helps give good perspective on what it takes to succeed in winning talent within various markets, but also means a wider variety of possible opportunities to offer talented people in contrast to a company that does business primarily in only one country or region.

Of course, these two strategic advantages do not guarantee anything. Indian companies, like other companies, not only need a good business model, but also need to design their recruitment, retention and reward systems appropriately if they expect to win over the long term.

The final key ingredient, in my view, is a company culture that values diversity of thought, respects people of various backgrounds and does a good job of defining and living up to its stated values. Putting it all together, I see a lot of reasons why tomorrow’s best careers could be launched with an Indian company.

Regarding the still very few who recognize the trend and see the importance of a future global career, what can or rather must they do? They must be different! Don’t go with the stream. Risk a difference and experience as much as you can. A Spanish studying in France, doing exchange semesters in Singapore, Mexico and Tunisia, completing internships at major companies also at international locations and eventually starting the career in one of those countries. It sure sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Not only that! This is what a student’s future looks like.

Studying hard, completing as many stays abroad as possible, as much work experience as you can and not to forget, the language and social capabilities, which should also be there. Deciding to achieve higher education is a full-time job! Those who realize this will be among the most successful. Future, here we come!

This experience has not only provided me with a deeper appreciation for the integration of culture and work, but more importantly, has equipped me with the knowledge of how to work more positively and effectively in a foreign environment.  Rather than simply acknowledging differences in working styles, it is important to know that these differences can be a tremendous insight into the underlying values and cultures of that society and can serve as an invaluable learning experience in itself. 

This experience has certainly given me a new perspective into cross-cultural collaborations and will definitely serve me well in my future work situations, wherever they may be!

(1) energy,

(2) water,

(3) food,

(4) environment,

(5) poverty,

(6) terrorism & war,

(7) disease,

(8) education,

(9) democracy, and (10) population.

Addressing these requires collaborative worldwide efforts.

My mission is to bring physical/social scientists, engineers, and business leaders together to address the global grand challenges. I would like to promote global quality of life and economic well-being by facilitating exchanges among the best and brightest scientists and engineers. The worldwide exchange of ideas already fuels economic growth in advanced economies and will increasingly enable less developed nations to participate in the global economy.