My take on MindSpark

I presented a paper at Axlerate’08 in MIT. Did not get a prize but it was a good experience. After the presentation I was told that the certificates were misplaced and I will get them later. I said great! Another effort to improve my CV gone fruitless. Because I had a same experience from my college itself at MindSpark’07. I participated in the idea presentation competition ‘Save the World’ and I got a certificate that was not even signed. No participant of Save the World had got 1. It was as good as ‘Raddi’. So I went to the MindSpark office to see what I can do. They took that certi and and told me to come after a week. I dont know why, but a teeny-tiny part of my brain believed that I would get it back. But, not surprisingly, I still haven’t got it. I tried a couple of times a month later and now I have given up. So I thought that Axlerate effort was also vain. But to my surprise, I received a call from the organizer, two weeks later who told me that my certificate was ready. She apologised for the delay and was even ready to deliver it to my place. I said you kept your promise, thats good enough and I collected it myself.

I dont care that I didnt get the MindSpark certificate. The point is..that MIT people kept their promise and accepted that it was their mistake. In case of MindSpark, nobody was accountable for the blunder. I think the reason why this happened is because MindSpark was introduced by scrapping all the departmental events. Mechanical department had a well established technical event ‘Fervor’ organised by MESA. I had worked for Fervor team for 2 years, and I was very dejected when MindSpark was announced. Our director had his reason for introducing MindSpark. But it was not fair for mechanical department. So there was hardly any response to MindSpark organizing committee from mech dept. MindSpark supporters pointed out that single event for a college is a universal thing, like in IITs. But those people are accustomed to that from the start itself. That was not the case in my college due to departmental differences.

I worked hard for Fervor to establish my position in the MESA managing committee and I just didnt feel like doing so for MindSpark. I think there will be a few people from my department who will agree with me. In couple of years MindSpark will be well established as people who had worked for departmental events would have passed on. But a few like me suffered the indifference of the first outcome.

Long live MIT

This MIT refers to the 1 in Pune. My paper has been selected in 1 of their events…aXlerate. This would be my second paper in aXlerate( Ye!!!!). So thank u MIT!
Last year my partner was Aniket Khasgiwale(See Khasgi). Last year we did the presentation just bcoz the topic was Pit-stop technologies.(Long live F1!) We had great fun, but the judges were not satisfied at all. They couldn’t understand the gravity of saving 1 sec in pits. Anyway, so that was great! That experience helped me a lot in my 2nd presentation, again on F1 (Safety in Formula-1) at MindSpark in COEP.

This time my partner is the gr8 Avnish! Our topic is Magnetic Refrigeration (Sounds very techie, doesn’t it! But the tech part was covered by Avnish. I did what I m best at- advantages, disadvantages, applications future prospects and decorating the paper!). We are looking forward to a great Sunday!