My Story with Powerset

Ever heard of Powerset? It is a private startup I have been following for several months now. It has come up with potentially disruptive search technology based on natural language processing. This basically means that their search engine has more advanced capabilities to actually unlock the meaning encoded in ordinary human language. This seems several steps ahead of mere keyword search which Google offers. In fact, recently Powerset launched a test drive of their search technology based on Wikipedia articles. Check it out at www.powerset.com.

Anyways, in addition to Powerset's technological innovations, its team has captured my interest as well, namely its Founder & CTO, Barney Pell. I have managed to schedule a meeting with him in mid-August 2008 to discuss the future of Powerset and any advice he has for students like me planning to enter the business & technology industry. Ever since, I have been counting down days to the meeting with great anticipation. I can't wait!!

And, TODAY, I learned something that seriously made me fall of my chair. Microsoft just acquired Powerset. Wow! A company that I have been following for months with excitement has, within a day, transformed from an independent self-sustaining entity to another division within the Microsoft Live Search team...though I can definitely see advantages of making this acquisition (the abundance of resources Live Search offers, for one) I am afraid that Powerset's dynamic start-up culture and independent thinking may be compromised in the process.

More fascinating to me, however, is how fast things can change in the world of business, especially in the business of technology where the tech governs the marketplace! I will continue to follow Powerset and am keen to see how it progresses from today onwards. Plus, this will provide me with interesting talking points with Mr. Pell in August :)

IPTV and Consumer-Controlled Advertising

Recently, I came across a video where I saw Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, talk about the future of IPTV and consumer-controlled advertising. I was intrigued to learn what he had to say.



Essentially, the whole idea of consumers initiating the entire advertising experience and the technology automatically being there to facilitate consumer's curiosity about a product they see is something new. Today, we are bombarded with links, banners, and all sorts of ads that don't really apply to our lives. We have habitually learned to ignore them, so even when they MIGHT help us find what we are looking for, we subconsciously choose to ignore them based on past experience. So the first step is to make ads seem as either relevant or not-clutter in the eyes of consumers. Product placement achieves this by embedding the ads INTO what we consider "important" and as a result, the ads were no longer seen as mere clutter. This way, we don't simply ignore them. Cerf's insights go one step further: in addition to us not ignoring them, we will also see these product placement ads as reliable entry points into the consumer shopping realm. We will be able to take our initial reactions of "Oh that laptop is nice..." or "Cool mp3 player" to the next level by seeing the specs, price ranges, and customer reviews, etc... simply with a press of a button (or touch to the screen!) And the best part is WE will initiate the entire process, and in the future, technology will be set in place to facilitate this.

With technologies like TIVO and consumers simply fast-forwarding through ads in online videos, product placement is becoming more and more popular. Fusing this concept with the seamless touch-screen based human-computer interaction could completely change the way consumers interact with advertising.

Connecting Mind and Machine

I was browsing through the web today, and came across this fascinating article by Forbes.

[Link to article]

I genuinely believe this is the next big advancement in human computer interaction, impacting our day-to-day lives at a very large scale. As we immerse our lives with technology each day, there is a constantly growing need to make all the clutter more manageable and easier to use!

As a prospective for an Electrical Engr/Computer Sci and Brain/Cognitive Sci major combination at MIT, seeing this kind of exciting research being done in this area really inspires me to learn as much as I can about the field.

Presentation at Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 16 Conference, Long Beach, CA

Presenting at MMVR was an awesome experience. I got an opportunity to meet scientists, engineers, and business executives from all across the world and from different industries. In the process, I exchanged business cards, and collected numerous opinions and comments on my research. And of course, being the only high school student at the conference, I had to explain my personal story several times of how I ended up getting an opportunity to present at this conference.

More than showcasing my work, I enjoyed looking at neat stuff others had been working on. One particular project that was especially interesting was a new method to simulate blood clotting and bleeding in intensive surgeries. Simulating bleeding accurately has been a challenge for years and it was very exciting to observe the ‘particle’ method of simulating the same.

I loved the energetic atmosphere, the ecosystem of knowledge constantly being improved, and the warm reception I received, being a high school senior.

I had realized the future potential of virtual reality and digitizing the five human senses back in 2005, when I came across several online articles revolving around these issues. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was browsing through the Medicine Meets Virtual Reality (MMVR) 14 conference proceedings when I came across a name that continues to resonate in my mind today – Stanford University SUMMIT. Apparently, they seemed to have quite a popular showing at the annual MMVR conferences. Completely blown away with their work on surgical robotics and realizing that they had their research labs only a few miles away from my home, I reached out to them immediately and voiced my interests in implementing some ideas I had been entertaining in my mind.

Before I knew it, I was selected as a high school intern in February of 2007 and have been actively conducting research in augmented user-learning systems and surgical feedback interfaces since. I have just returned from Long Beach, CA where I presented my research at the same conference which originally plunged me into this adventure – Medicine Meets Virtual Reality 16.

I cannot wait till next year’s conference and am eagerly looking forward to it!

Help the Needy in Our Community!

Cupertino is a wonderful community. Let us support the needy in our community…

Cupertino Community Services’ Food Pantry needs non-perishable food, including cereal and tuna, and fresh fruits and vegetables - especially potatoes; new winter jackets; unwrapped teen gifts; gift cards, especially for grocery stores; and holiday wrapping paper. Volunteers also needed. Donations may be dropped off at 10104 Vista Drive, Cupertino, 8 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m. weekdays, except Thursdays, when the agency is open until 8 p.m. (408) 255-8033, www.cupertinocommunityservices.org.

Google Is Great!

I am so excited to hear Google’s announcement yesterday inviting high schoolers like me to participate in this. See details here - http://code.google.com/opensource/ghop/2007-8/

Having self-learnt LAMP architecture during my 9th grade, I wish Google had initiated this contest three years back. Nevertheless, I am going to submit some very exciting stuff I’ve done recently.

Though I wish that Google gave rewards in the form of their stock rather than cash.

This is just awesome!

Why are top US schools not increasing their admitted student pool?

I am applying to most top schools this winter and have also attended receptions by all these schools in the bay area over the last 4 months. As I absorbed their great presentations and networked with the admission officers, it became clear to me that the volume of applicants to these schools has been steadily increasing over the past few years. In addition to US applicants, it appears that the rapid increase in economies in India and China is also driving significant increases in international applicants as well. Bottom line – it is increasingly getting more competitive for anyone to get into these colleges. With many colleges opting for the common app, this situation is likely to worsen further.

But what is not clear to me at all is whether it is smart for all these colleges to maintain the similar size of incoming student pool with negligible increases over the years. In my wisdom, business 101 has taught me that a greater demand (number of students applying) for a particular service warrants expansion in supply (number of students admitted).

I am noticing that this unmet demand is being accommodated by fresh investments into the education sector in developing economies like India and China – over there, government and private sectors are funding new universities every day. Recently, I met a friend of mine who has decided to pursue medicine in India because he feels that quality of education there is comparable to that in US while being less expensive. If this trend continues unchecked, I fear that today’s top schools could potentially get marginalized 15-20 years down the line.

I wish that the top US schools get more creative by satisfying the increased demands of applications. While increasing the enrollment of students (like Princeton has done this year) will be the simplest, I can understand that many schools have their own constraints. But still, there exist many other creative options. I have many ideas and would welcome inputs from others as well.

Though I know that this thought process would not benefit me as I am entering college next year, but I definitely wish that this chain of thoughts helps the incoming classes over the next few years.