A Rookies' Experience with PBS

It all started one day in May 2008, when one of my friends Manish M. apprised me of IBM's announcement of The Great Mind Challenge. Looking at the opportunity, I called up Amit, one of my would be team partner, if at all we decided to participate. Dont exactly remember if it was a call, or we talked online, but am sure that we didn't take more than a minute to reject the idea right away, after having a look at the long dreaded list of tools and technologies to be learnt to participate in the same.

Fast forward to the first week of August..This was the day, when another friend in college, Manish P. expressed the desire to participate in something other than the normal curriculum. The idea was bolstered by one of my seniors Ankitkumar, when he informed us about TGMC. What gave our otherwise indolent minds some impetus is the very fact that one of our senior's group had made it to the top 20 all over India in the same contest the year before. And we seriously started considering the idea of participating in. We approached one of our professors, Mrs. AA Pandit who agreed upon mentoring us for the project. Finally, we registered our team 'Rookies' (the name may not have come as a surprise to anyone; it suggested what we are!) for making a Patient Billing Software on August 20, which was the last day for registering. stupidcomp4 comprised of manish001_1989, kevalvora, hokage and kartik1507. Pandit Ma'am helped us in all our decisions when we seeked help from her.

We then started with some research, analysis and design for PBS. As soon as the deadline of 15th Septemeber for submitting SRS drew near, we were inundated with plenty of work. A few other teams like 'vbn2008', 'snss' and 'heroes' from our batch joined in after the deadline for registrations were extended. We successfully submitted the SRS on the last day. The first few days on the tools were not good for me, as I hardly had any knowledge of setting them up for building the software. Spent more than 4 days on synchronizing them with no success. The training session conducted by IBM finally helped us. Amongst the technologies to be studied, our aim was to learn enough to achieve the minimal; to filter the huge ocean of data available and constrain ourselves to what was required to make a working application. 1st November was the deadline for the submission in the first round and our final exams would start on the 5th of the same month, which meant we had to keep up the pace with the college studies as well. Our discussions during the lunch time, in the breaks and in between lectures augmented. After 8th October, our aberrant schedules then consisted of college lectures in the morning and afternoon, and rest of the day, even midnight sometimes, implementing PBS. I used to find team members of snss online at those times, as even they were going through a similar phase. There were times we felt languorous and it looked like a fatuous decision for fledgling neophytes (rightly called Rookies!) like us to pick up the arduous task. I particularly remember 23rd October, when we had our usual discussion in the train about the part to be implemented that day, and after coming back home I checked tgmc.in to only find that the deadlines had been extended. I experienced a sense of ambivalence towards the announcement as we had done enough to submit the product.

After our college exams, two of us took a break for a week and we were back with a bang after that. From 3rd to the 16th December, we had 8-10 hour days of work. It wasn't work exactly, after all we enjoyed doing it. We finally submitted the CD, after more than an hour long search for a reliable courier service provider who could deliver an electronic item to the destination, with little hopes of qualifying for the face to face presentation.

Fast forward to the fourth week of January.. when we surprisingly heard that we've been selected for the face to face round on 11th February. What was even better was that, heroes, vbn2008 and snss too qualified. From 1st Feb. to the 10th, we worked hard again trying to improve on the features and the UI. We successfully presented our software to the judges who looked satisfied with our work. Pandit Ma'am was particularly happy with our effort. The day ended on a good note as the three groups enjoyed a never-to-be-forgotten chocolate butterscotch (with nuts) treat from snss.

Congratulations to DRAM, a group of our seniors, for making it to the top 20 all over India. We were enthralled to be in the first 50. To end it up, its not a revolutionary change that we brought to the world, but I can aver that its an experience, a Rookie would not forget. A small decision did play a big role in converting our otherwise mundane and insipid college life to something interesting.