From my childhood days, I remember one of our teachers telling us that success is ninety-nine percent perspiration and one percent inspiration. No doubt, hard work is essential in any field to become successful. But I feel the role played by inspiration is under-rated in this statement.
A few days back I attended the annual event 2013 of IEEE Bangalore Section. In that event, Prof Jayant Haritsa of Computer Science & Automation Department of IISc Bangalore was felicitated for being elevated to IEEE Fellow. Prof Jayant Haritsa gave a brief speech while accepting the felicitation. He attributed the honor to his team at IISc and some of his professors. He also touched upon how he was inspired by two other famous persons named Jayant right from his under-graduate days in IIT Madras.
When Prof Jayant Haritsa was doing his B.Tech in IIT Madras in the early 1980s, there were two famous engineers by the same name - Jayant - in US. Both of them are professors in US universities and they published influential research papers. Both of them were famous in the academic community because of their work. Their works inspired young Jayant Haritsa and he always wanted to be like them when he grew up. Both of the famous Jayant were from Karnataka. Jayant Haritsa too was from Karnataka. One of them is Prof Jayant Baliga of ECE Department of North Carolina State University. (In 2010 he was awarded National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest award for an engineer in USA by US President Barack Obama. Amongst many other accolades of Prof Jayant Baliga, he became IEEE Fellow at the age of 35!).
Today Prof Jayant Haritsa is very well in the area of Database Systems. He is an IEEE Fellow, Distinguished Scientist of the ACM, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award winner (2009) etc.
A few days back I attended the annual event 2013 of IEEE Bangalore Section. In that event, Prof Jayant Haritsa of Computer Science & Automation Department of IISc Bangalore was felicitated for being elevated to IEEE Fellow. Prof Jayant Haritsa gave a brief speech while accepting the felicitation. He attributed the honor to his team at IISc and some of his professors. He also touched upon how he was inspired by two other famous persons named Jayant right from his under-graduate days in IIT Madras.
When Prof Jayant Haritsa was doing his B.Tech in IIT Madras in the early 1980s, there were two famous engineers by the same name - Jayant - in US. Both of them are professors in US universities and they published influential research papers. Both of them were famous in the academic community because of their work. Their works inspired young Jayant Haritsa and he always wanted to be like them when he grew up. Both of the famous Jayant were from Karnataka. Jayant Haritsa too was from Karnataka. One of them is Prof Jayant Baliga of ECE Department of North Carolina State University. (In 2010 he was awarded National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest award for an engineer in USA by US President Barack Obama. Amongst many other accolades of Prof Jayant Baliga, he became IEEE Fellow at the age of 35!).
Today Prof Jayant Haritsa is very well in the area of Database Systems. He is an IEEE Fellow, Distinguished Scientist of the ACM, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award winner (2009) etc.
