I still remember the last day in office. ZS Associates, Magarpatta, the corner table. With 3 monitors extended out, my Sennheiser laying besides for my ear-bug music and a raised table as per my liking. Sort of emotional day, leaving my people and comfort zone. Never had I thought that my notion of technology and embedded systems would be completely razed, and re-built from the footing in my (ongoing) duration at my college. The city is as beautiful as it could get, along with the puny campus of my university.
Well I came here to learn about embedded systems with my limited knowledge of the same. "Just initialize and run 'things' it in a tight loop" is what I can conceive (in layman's terms). Entering undergrad without any knowledge of computer programming and beyond, I was already struggling (read suffering) amidst the avid programmers, some carrying with the dream of making a mark in the field. The world of networking seemed to be magic to me; compilers were nightmare. I found solace in building devices using my slaves (read micro-controllers) that continued to amaze me. Only to realize that it's all prehistoric now.
I encountered people doing embedded systems in the ECE dept. (of course). But then, a prof. from CS into hard core embedded (ok, that's encouraging for a CS ugrad). Oh, ISR's director too is into it. Wait, HCI? ML too? And even penetrating into the Physics dept!!! Whoa, what are they doing in embedded systems?
Turns out, it's much larger than what this fish out of the pond knows. It's the ocean of systems engineering, consuming all the existing fields of technology with it's wave of "I need this to solve that". Creating new marks in the unfazed sands of future innovations. Even more, it's not only about devices. Not limited to languages or algorithms. Even resources matter little, while concepts matter more. Simple solutions to fundamental problems, dating back to the days of the Computing Dinosaurs (read IBM 360). Complex solutions to really critical problems of safety, reliability and privacy. Classical Physics, Human Computer Interaction, Human Psychology, Business Administration to name a few are things that are integral part of systems engineering.
It was enlightening to know about the way world is gearing towards making systems a global phenomenon. It's no longer a subset to specialize in the field of computer science or computer engineering, it is the field of systems engineering.
Well I came here to learn about embedded systems with my limited knowledge of the same. "Just initialize and run 'things' it in a tight loop" is what I can conceive (in layman's terms). Entering undergrad without any knowledge of computer programming and beyond, I was already struggling (read suffering) amidst the avid programmers, some carrying with the dream of making a mark in the field. The world of networking seemed to be magic to me; compilers were nightmare. I found solace in building devices using my slaves (read micro-controllers) that continued to amaze me. Only to realize that it's all prehistoric now.
I encountered people doing embedded systems in the ECE dept. (of course). But then, a prof. from CS into hard core embedded (ok, that's encouraging for a CS ugrad). Oh, ISR's director too is into it. Wait, HCI? ML too? And even penetrating into the Physics dept!!! Whoa, what are they doing in embedded systems?
Turns out, it's much larger than what this fish out of the pond knows. It's the ocean of systems engineering, consuming all the existing fields of technology with it's wave of "I need this to solve that". Creating new marks in the unfazed sands of future innovations. Even more, it's not only about devices. Not limited to languages or algorithms. Even resources matter little, while concepts matter more. Simple solutions to fundamental problems, dating back to the days of the Computing Dinosaurs (read IBM 360). Complex solutions to really critical problems of safety, reliability and privacy. Classical Physics, Human Computer Interaction, Human Psychology, Business Administration to name a few are things that are integral part of systems engineering.
It was enlightening to know about the way world is gearing towards making systems a global phenomenon. It's no longer a subset to specialize in the field of computer science or computer engineering, it is the field of systems engineering.
