On the Evening of 20th August 2023, we Aryaanites were extremely blessed to interact with his excellency Mr. Prajyot Mainkar, popularly known as the Android Man of Goa. He provided us with a brief yet insightful preview into the ocean that is Computer Science.
He beautifully split his session into two parts, the first being with regard to Storytelling and the Effectiveness of Conversation and the second being the applications of technology and How companies Harvest our Data in Daily Life.
He started off by showing us an article on how people without a pre-requisite qualification are selling products, the important thing being that the product has its weightage but the people would be able to see that weightage by how you package or market your product. He said, that storytelling needs clarity, no matter the field you’re in, you need to have a clear mindset about what the product is going to be like. Next, he showed us an image of Steve Jobs and told us how the Apple Stores are built to engineer people’s minds to buy products. Then, he showed us a Frank Lloyd house design and had one of our students to correlate that with Apple’s Design Mindset. He also showed us an Eicher Home and said that the transparent glass and frame corresponds to the iPhone Design. Furthermore, he showed us a glimpse of a paper by C.V. Raman on Musical Drums and Overtones which shows how when a mridangam is cut in half, it resonates the sound of a Tabla or Drum. Then, he showed us some AI-Generated Model of an old-man without a background which showed us Nicola Tesla & Alexander Grandhome. He said all of these are very interesting imaginative powers which Artificial Intelligence has brought in with the help of the internet. When Artificial Intelligence is combined with Data Compiled with the help of Machine Learning, it can do wonders. Then he asked us to read a Hindi Alphabet Chart and how it changes the Position of the Tongue which resonates with how each letter tells a Story.
Then, we moved onto the second part of his session which he started by telling us how amazon has patented the Two-step Checkout Process and how it doesn’t distract us from purchasing that one product we chose unlike a regular retail store where we see multiple products which causes distracts us from what we were originally supposed to buy. He also told us, about how the User choses to Interact with the Interface, impacts on what Products which he/she are likely to buy and how AI uses that data to recommend you those products. Then he talked about Spotify’s recommendations and Payment Modules which he further elaborated on by explaining the Concepts of Artificial Intelligence and how tools like ChatGPT are learning from your own inputs and uses that data to train itself. Then, showed us an image of the first smart watch from 1982 which was patented by Seiko, it had six devices, A smartwatch, a radio receiver, a battery pack etc. which are nowadays combined into one sleek device. Furthermore, he talked about companies like Swiggy/Zomato how it gathers data on how many people from a certain location order food, based on which they reduce delivery time.
He went on to say that “Today we are living in a multi-dimensional Social Universe where you are connected to Everyone and how it automatically connects you to the companies which harvest that data”. Then he talked about NamaYatri, which was created by the Auto & Rickshawalas in Bangalore. This clan of people recognized the number of cancellations which come with the taxi services like Ola or Uber, so with this data they created this application and effectively changed the way people use Paid Transport Services. Then he talked about the Rameswaram Café in Bangalore which beautifully uses the Placebo Effect, which is basically how when you see a crowd, you are curious about it and end up going to the place and how they have setup an assembly line which is self-sufficient and reliable with the help of standardization. He talked about how companies like Oppo and Vivo who have mastered the Budget Industry as they have identified the buying price of the Indian Population and used that data to optimize their phone pricing. Next, He talked about Digital Well-Being and how we use Fitness Trackers and how we rely on them for exercise and sometimes, exercise because of them. Next, he talked about Consumption Hunger and said that we don’t use most of the apps but we still keep them which are constantly sending us notifications and absorbing our data. In addition to that, he talked about how we are going into the World of Freedom and Social Interfaces, how we download an app just to compete with Certain People. Lastly, He talked about ChatGPT and Advancements in AI, he created a simple website right in front of us by writing a simple prompt to ChatGPT and pasting the code into an online code editor and the website’s ready. He also talked about Thunkable, how you can create Apps with Simple Drag and Drop and using a simple table-based Data Source. Then he showed us a scratch like building block-based Data Structure and how it merges with your application’s User Interface.
To Conclude, this session beautifully showed us the intermixing between the User Experience Design and the Data Analytics and Management part of technology and also showed us the practical applications in daily life of the same.
Thank You Sir, this session made us realize that we had just scratched the surface and made us dive deeper into the subject. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Sir VPD for organizing this session, thank you sir for constantly exposing us to personalities who are experts in their respective fields.
Finally, the following quote by Albert Einstein beautifully summarizes this session:
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”
~ Albert Einstein
Written by,
Shreyas Kamat
(12th Reg)