Interviewtimes 
The World is evolving with the advent of technologies, thus helping us in many ways to make our work easier and faster and Computer Science has played a major role in pioneering the technological innovations. Recently Interview Times got a chance to initiate a Conversation with Prof. S Abinash, who is currently heading the Computer Science and Engineering branch of a renowned engineering college of Odisha. Prof. S Abinash has qualified the UGC NET and Completed his MTech, currently he is continuing with his PhD. By profession he is a teacher, by heart a farmer, born as a dedicated son, a loving husband, a caring brother and a responsible father. He joined Synergy Institute of Engineering and Technology in the year 2004 and currently he is the Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering there. He is a life member of OITS, ISTE and sometimes ago he started some research on his favorite Machine Learning and Machine Vision. Below are the answers he responded to Interview Times Questionnaire :-
Q1- What motivated you choose computer science as subject to teach?
Answer- I was an early 80’s kid born in my village, you know what technology means for us at that time? was only radio, television and the telephones in our post office with a number of towers and long wires. We grown up watching Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan and B R Chopra’s Mahabarata greatest serial ever and our cricketing Hero’s Gavaskar, Kapil and later Sachin joined the row. We spent majority of our time in our cricket field with Vicky cork ball and some times orange sponge balls. Since I started reading, I was a regular reader of The Samaj Odia daily. I was in class six I got a news in The Samaj that in the USA all the vehicles are going to be connected with telephone(mobile) phones, so that any time any where the status of the passengers can be accessed. I was surprised at that time how is it possible and how the wires will move with the vehicle, two years later in the year 1990 perhaps I had a visit to Kapilash with my friends and family and for the fist time I had visited the hill top of Kapilash Hill, I found there was a wireless center and to my goodness the operator who belongs to Odisha police wireless division gave us a clear understanding how it works, I was so much impressed on that day I had decided I will learn technology. Computer was the latest technology at that time and I had chosen it. I had learned the art of Teaching from my parents, who both were teachers. From my child hood I was fascinated about teaching. Initially I started working in Industry but latter came back home and started teaching as my career. As a student of computer science started teaching it. Apart from computer Science I like to teach Mathematics and Physics.
Q2- Can you please brief us about the latest technologies that we use in computer science now-a-days?
Answer- Currently we are in the era of Industry Version 4.0 which means automation. Automation of machines in every sector not only in Industry but also in starting from Agriculture, Health, Communication, Energy, Commerce, Military, Avionics everywhere. If I will only mention Computer Science, I don’t think I will justify it properly. Computers are in every domain. Without computers means simply a machine is blind. In the abstract level if you will see the Computer Science is dominating every domain. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, giving intelligence to a machine can you imagine a machine will operated and serve your commands and when required the machine can be operated with its own command based on its past experience and a machine can view natural scenes and can analyze like humans. IBM Watson is one of the dominated engines, I hope a person trained in IBM Watson can be an expert in data Analytics which is now trending in e commerce. In coming future, we are expecting a million of jobs as data scientists, data analyst and statistical analyst. Microsoft’s Azure, Amazons AWS and Googles Cloud can able to process huge data using the grid of computers and providing cloud computing services. For office automation SAP and Oracle providing various ERP solutions.
Q3- What difficulties you faced during your time while studying and how did you overcome them?
Answer- It was the year 1997, December 15, I represented the NIC (National Integration Camp) as a cadet of 12th Orissa BN NCC with my friend at Allahabad BTC Ground. Though it was an Army Attachment Camp but almost every afternoon we were allowed to visit the near by places guided by our Troop command. In one afternoon, me and my friend were near Prayag, a gentleman with his family came to us and asked me in English “Where we will get the road for Hanuman vatika?” I pulled my friend to front who is now a senior IAS officer in Haryana Cadre and asked him to answer though I know. You will be surprised I was confused how to answer in English. I passed matriculation from vernacular medium, and I have seen many like me feeling nervous to answer in English. That day changed my life and I tried hard and it took me nearly three years to communicate in English properly. Now a days students are getting study materials from Internet very easily, I remember we have used internet paying around 80 rupees per hour. We basically depended upon books and magazines for our study, today you will also find some old Data Quests and Computers in my bookshelf. Now data is available under our fingertip.
Q4- What message you want to share with people who are interested to choose computer science in their education?
Answer- I had already mentioned it earlier, If you will take an abstract view of technologies, you will find it is Computer Science which is above all, it is dominating every domain starting from Agriculture, health, navigation, energy, education, Industry and Military. Not a single domain we will find without computers. Yes, it is true if you want to excel in any domain you have to work hard and you must be ready for lifelong learning.
Q5- Can you please share us some Simple tips for safety while using computer and internet?
Answer- Do you know, my generation is known for Yahoo Messenger, now this popular application is obsolete. It was like the social media of our time. Text Chatting and video was very amazing experience, like others I had developed many friends from west and east, till today also I have many great friends from that time. It was the year 2002, I don’t remember the date exactly and I was working in Asian Power Control Limited (APCL, Pune) at that time, after office work in the evening I was busy in chatting and received a very interesting message from a person unknown to me, out of curiosity I clicked on the link and for next few minutes I was mesmerized by watching the images felt like in heaven, cloudy mountains then image of Jesus Christ and after that my computer beeps and shutdown. I was afraid and came back to our mess. In the next day morning when we reached the office, we found our system admin was very worried as our server is dead entire network is dead, then we called the PC Doctor and we found it was “imli” (Nimda) a deadly worm eaten all our memory by replicating in a geometric progression. Thanks to McAfee we got rid of that worm. It was my first experience with a virus. After that I have worked a lot on these viruses, created many and destroyed many and till date I am using McFee Antivirus software in my systems. I will advice while working on smart phones, computers and internet first you must have a legitimate updated antivirus software is running, never accept or acknowledge to any messages, links, invitations, rewards and files from unknown sources, it may contain virus can be harmful for you. Precaution is prevention. Keep your device password protected and never give your device to others.
Q6- According to you, how important is Computer literacy in our country?
Answer- The computer was introduced by the then Prime Minister of India Shri Rajiv Gandhi Ji in the 1984 and you know at that time the Opposition opposed it as it will affect the employment in our country, but during the 90s it has been proved that it generates huge employment and basically after liberalization (Globalization) in 1992 our foreign reserve increased tremendously where in 1990s our country suffered a lot in paucity of foreign fund during the Government of Shri Chandrashekhar Ji. Success of e Governance is depending upon the computer literacy. When maximum people will be computer literate can participate in e Governance and social media that will be the actual democracy. Our current Government both Centre and State working very positively. You see now during Covid-19 entire education is depending on computers and internet, as a teacher in Technology I observed the average attendance in our online classes is still 50%. There are a number of constraints to achieve 100% literacy in computer, there are still many villages in our country deprived of electricity either no electricity or continuous power cut. In many rural areas the computer and internet are still unreachable. I hope in next 3 to 5 years every village in our country will have good internet bandwidth and the computers will reach every home.
Q7- What are your hobbies? And what do you like to do in your free time?
Answer- With time progressed my hobbies changed accordingly. As a child I was a dog lover, my hobby was playing with dogs. When I went to school and started reading, my hobby became reading Children Magazines. I have read many books during my childhood, “Janhna Mamu”, “Pancha Tantra”, “Jataka Katha”, R.L Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Arabian Nights, H. B. Stowe’s Uncle Toms cabin, Tale of two Cities by Charles Dickens and to name a few. Many of these books are still in my personal library. Now I have only two hobbies when I get some leisure I travel to my village and working in our garden and some time teaching my kids. Above all my everyday morning starts with “The Samaj” newspaper.
Q8- According to you what will be the future of computer science?
Answer- This question reminds me of a story by Grady Booch, one of the eminent Computer Scientist. I am changing it to our Indian version. One day three friends were chit chatting in a park. Out of the friends one is a doctor, another one is a civil engineer and the last one is a Software Engineer (Computer Scientist). Their topic of discussion was “which branch of science was the oldest branch in this Universe?”. The Civil Engineer told its Civil Engineering because before creating everything “God Brahma “constructed the Universe, the planets, stars, on the planet rivers, mountains everything, without civil Engineering how is it possible, so civil engineering is the oldest branch of this universe. The doctor opposed it and told before creating the universe God Brahma might have created many Gods and Demi Gods like “Vishwakarma” who constructed everything. That means God Brahma must have used some life sciences and medical sciences to create other Gods. So medical Science is the oldest branch of this universe. At that time the computer scientist started smiling at them and told you forget before creating everything God Brahma must have created the Algorithm, I mean the step-by-step procedure to solve the problems and it is the basis of computer science, so Computer Science is the oldest branch. So everywhere there is computer science and I have already discussed with you earlier that at the abstract level if you will analyse you will find computer science is above all the domains. The future of computer science is bright. For last two decades the computer science is dominating by providing all most 70 % of the total employment in our country and will continue providing employment in future.
Image Courtesy : Prof. S Abinash
