Posted in November 2014

“Life is one big transition.”
-Willie Stargell

When I arrived in the Netherlands, there were few new experiences that I was expecting. But, knowing is different from the true experience. First up is the weather. The transition from a place where the temperature hardly ever drops below 25°C to a place where the temperature hardly ever goes as high as the same temperature was seamless. I do need to wear an extra layer of clothing though.

The University gave the international students a warm welcome in the Introduction week where many intercultural activities were planned. I must admit that it was an enriching experience to know people from different parts of the world. I would have preferred if the Dutch students were also part of the Introduction week. The introduction week was followed by the Master kick-off to Soest organized by the faculty of EEMCS. The three-day programme was filled with introduction lectures and other interactive activities. For me the visit to Soestduinen was the highlight.

The beginning of lectures in Quarter 1 was my first experience in a Quarter system. My undergraduate programme had a Semester system, so this was a new experience. I enrolled in two compulsory (Statistical Digital Signal Processing and Pattern Recognition) and two specialization (Security and Cryptography and Seminar Advanced Image Processing) courses. Statistical Signal Processing course was intense and required regular study on my part to understand the topics covered. Pattern Recognition course is spread over two quarters and has a laboratory session which accompanies the two-hour lecture session. At the end of the course we will do a project on handwritten number recognition. Advanced Digital Image Processing is also spread over two quarters. The first quarter introduced many Image Processing techniques and in the second quarter we need do a project wherein we implement one of the techniques. Security and Cryptography was the most interesting course of the quarter. It initially covered the basic Cryptography topics and mechanisms before introducing advanced topics and present day applications.

The most important aspect of my learning curve has been the manner in which the Professors present themselves and the lack-of-ego in their behaviour. They value theirs as well as the students’ time. This is best exemplified by a story that a friend of mine, who is currently doing his PhD here, told me. When he was working on his Master thesis in his home country, his supervisor would command him to meet him at moment’s notice, even if he was in a different city, miles away. As a punishment, he will be humiliated by the Professor in front of his colleagues. On the contrary, his PhD supervisor sends him an email asking him what time will be convenient for him to meet.

When I arrived in August, the library had a sculpture exhibition of Eveline van Duyl’s work ‘Islands of thought’. From late September till early November, TE[CH]X(T)ILES exhibition was on in the library. These exhibitions, especially the TE[CH]X(T)ILES exhibition, give me an opportunity to think about new things which I might have done otherwise. Apart from the exhibitions, library is also the place where I join VOX discussions every Monday night. We have weekly discussion on different topics. Here is a link to the facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/voxdelft/.

I am Kris Shrishak, a thinker, an explorer, an engineer, a movie enthusiast, a quizzer and a lot more. I am currently pursuing my Masters in Electrical Engineering (Signals and Systems track) at the Delft University of Technology. I will be posting blogs about my master programme, the courses and in general my time in Delft.

So who am I? I grew up in Chennai (earlier known as Madras), a temple city on the eastern coast of southern India. Here is the location (http://tinyurl.com/mbhdbmq) if you haven’t heard of the place. As a child I grew up playing cricket (the most followed sport in India) and reading a number of books. Books have been my companions for life. Over the past few years my interest in cinema has grown leaps and bounds. Having watched “entertainment” oriented movies in my childhood, movies of Ingmar Bergman and Frederico Fellini changed my outlook towards cinema. I realized there is more to cinema than just “entertainment”.

Before leaving for the Netherlands, I was told that the Dutch are very straight forward and it is possible that I might find them to be rude. With this at the back of my mind, I entered the Netherlands only to be overwhelmed by the friendly nature of my Dutch buddies. I can’t recollect from my past if any stranger has gone an extra mile (literally) to help me with the directions to a new place. But it happens in Delft. With practically no knowledge of Dutch (except Hallo), I have had no issues in communicating with locals and that says a lot about hospitality.

I will keep you posted with my life in Delft. I hope you enjoy reading my blog.