The campus of IIT Kanpur has a lot of peacocks (IITM campus has deers). One was walking just in front of my guest house room. It appears to pose for the photo!
The sponsors
venue of the school: outreach auditorium
One of the invited speakers, Dr. Jiri Navratil from IBM, is about to begin his first lecture on spoken language recognition
A chat during the tea break
Dr. S Umesh, IITK (convenor of the school); Dr. V Ramasubramanian, Siemens; Dr. J Navratil, Dr. A Stolke, SRI; Dr. Samudravijaya K, TIFR
Dr. T V Sreenivas, IISc with others.
Dr. Frederic Bimbot, CNRS France
A glimpse of informal discussion among participants during tea break
Tea+biscuits were served in the lounge. The registration desk cum demonstration table is visible near the top of the photo.
Dr. Navratil explaining the concept of "Nuisance Attribute Projection" and its use to ignore channel/session variations for language recognition
GMM Log Likelihood Ratio score
Fusion of multiple sub-systems for language recognition
Dr. Stolke appreciating a token of appreciation presented by the convenor, Dr. Umesh
Dr. Bimbot, after receiving a token of appreciation
Dr. Navratil receiving a token of appreciation
Dr. V Ramasubramanian walks down after accepting a token of appreciation for his tutorial talk
Dr. Hema Murthy, IITM
Dr. Samudravijaya, TIFR
Dr. Umesh acknowledging the contribution of his students who organized the event by calling them on stage; the audience gave them a huge applause.
A last minute discussion among the members of the technical programme committee, just before the last session
Dr Umesh gave an introduction to the last session in which all the invited speakers (seated on the podium) talked.
A closeup of the invited speakers
The final words
A 'management' event was being held at IITK at the same time WiSSAP was being hosted. This event was much more visible and vociferous. There were colourful banners all around the place. The banner shown above was particularly attractive. I happen to view it in the night and tried to capture it on my camera. The banner was put near a junction and there was this traffic sign. The phosphorescent circular disk (on right) emits zillions of photos (the writing is not visible) in response to camera flash. So, the traffic message is not visible.
A close up
This is without camera flash. Now, one can see the speed limit for a bull run!
The next day morning, I came back to this site and clicked another photo in natural light.
The long lived bull run of the Indian stock market (sensex rose from from 3000 to 20000) and a traditional one in India. If you want to see the race of the latter type, visit my hometown; there is a dedicated bull-race track! In this photo, a traditional Indian (notice the tilak on his forehead) seem to point out at the speed limit sign errected by IITK authorities. Now, I know why our stock market is not running (rather limping); the speed limit is to be blamed!
An amused Kishore Prahlad, IIIT Hyderabad. He has just now returned from a shopping trip; notice the pink bag full of Kanpur goodies.
Umesh and his wife invited technical programme committee members to their home for a tête-à-tête .
Umesh played the role of a good host
Umesh and his daughter (she had a plenty of curious questions to ask the guests).
The technical programme concluded by lunchtime of 12th. Some of us used the free afternoon to do some sight seeing. We wanted to visit Ganges and pay tribute to "Ganga ma". The place to go was "bramhaavarth ghaat" in bithoor. This was the capital of tatya tope (nana saheb), the place where the first sparks of the first independence movement were seen. According to Wikipedia, "In May 1857, when the political storm was gaining momentum, he won over the Indian troops of the East India Company, stationed at Kanpur (Cawnpore), established Nana Sahib's authority and became the Commander-in-Chief of his forces".
Boats are docked near the brahmaavart ghat.
Monkeys are in plenty; this monkey is more interested in a potential food article that a devotee might bring to the temple than the boats on the river.
Boatsmen are relaxing (it is about 4pm). These boats are used by tourists to have a round in Ganges. A pontoon bridge serves the need of the locals. A modern bridge is under construction.
'Janta' is watching birds.
The pontoon bridge across Ganga
An ancient tree reaches over the river; it is tenaciously holding on to the bank.
Brahmeshwar mandir
A monkey has managed to snatch (or receive) a coconut submitted by devotees to the lord.
Each of the two monkeys seem to have one half of a coconut.
Not far from the ghats, there was a temple dedicated to Valmiki who wrote 'Ramayana'.
A rear view of Valmiki temple and the lamp post (far end).
Statue of Valmiki(?) in an adjacent temple.
Valmiki
According to legends, Sita is supposed to have gone underground at this place - so says the writing on this tower.
A close up of the panel at the base of the tower.
Luva kusha temple
Sita and her twin sons: lav and kush
