Karmarkar to build fastest supercomputer
Karmarkar to build fastest supercomputer
2007-06-22T09:32:00
One of the good things about an IIT education, even if you don't plan for a career in academia, is that you get exposed to the highest end of the Indian tech industry. It seems that there are a few Indian companies which are aiming high - and these companies may be accessible only through the IIT route. An example is Computational Research Labs, founded by Narendra Karmarkar, of Linear Programming fame. This Pune based company plans to build the world's fastest supercomputer on the basis of a mathematical technique invented by Karmarkar himself (check out the Hindu report). I saw the profiles of a few other firms at the tech incubator at IITB which were, atleast on paper, doing interesting work. On the flip side, Bestin told me that some multinational financial and `consulting' firms are visiting the campus and recruiting students from all branches with promises of astronomical salaries. These bright students will then go and do stock market analysis or,as a former student put it, sell soap and shampoo (which might be better than copy-paste at our own dear Infys and Satyams). Are our most prestigious tech instituitions going to become a training ground for future salesmen?