These first few days have been fun at CSIO Chandigarh. Even though its a government organization, you get to hear some really futuristic terms all around the facility. Here are a few examples… carbon nanotubes, electron microscopes, temperature sensing using optic fibres (yes you read it right… temperature… using optic fibres), holograpy, DNA computing, and lots of other things. And we’re free to pick up an ongoing project and use these machines to contribute to these projects. Sounds fun if you enjoy the technical side of things.

And these labs remind me of laboratories in the game Halflife. Lasers being reflected off mirrors, weird looking massive machinery, gigantic workshops, chambers for laser gases, plasma flowing around like water, etc

There is nothing other than labs inside the CSIO campus. The “mess” or rather the “canteen” serves lunch… They try serving tandoori roti, but end up with concrete crisp, incinerated rotis. That, and the 50 minute delay if you don’t get in line before 1pm, make it one of the not-so-good places to eat. But the price: a mere Rs. 10 makes up for it.

All the research is organized into multiple DUs, or departments. The department I’m interested in is the Image Processing department. I didn’t know they had one here. And they’re working on some cutting edge projects, a handheld book-reader for the blind, an automatic dental x-ray landmarking system, and also something related to cancer radiation treatment. Seems like somehow things went random with the PS list and I got the ideal station for me. Now that’s some seriousiously good fortune. Lets see how things unfurl here at CSIO, Chandigarh

My first Google WebToolkit App Image processing + Magic!