I am back in the UK after a 10+ hour uneventful flight from Male' to London Gatwick on Monday. I even managed to pass through immigration and customs without any problems despite the presence of the large number of electronics components and circuit boards - items that had caused me much trouble at Indian and Sri Lankan airports recently.

However, things managed to kick up into storm thereafter and I had to forego rest and sleep till early morning on Tuesday! Disaster continued on as I ended up oversleeping, then going through the hassle of catching two trains to land me in Reading city in time before the end of working hours. The next task of moving into my (new) home for the year also had me shuttling between the city center and the letting agent on a mix of travel on bus and foot. It took a while before paperwork was over with and I could move my old stuff in and finally set my butt down.

The place isn't too far from the university and is quite cozy. It is still in the process of being whipped into liveable shape but I reckon that will take a teeny bit more time 'coz I'll probably be in deep slumber out this sheer exhaustion that is setting on me!

Toodles.

Easter holidays went off quite quickly - the five weeks off university that I got surely seemed to whizz past anyway. I attended the MSA Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) 2006 in Bristol from 14th-17th April. The new website for MSA that I worked on got launched at the meeting. The EGM event, which was filled with various activities and spread over 4 days, was quite fun!

It is back to university now and exams are looming right around the corner - starts end of May to be more precise. Grrr. I have got a load of assignments and project works to hand in over the next few weeks as well. Wish me luck

A few photos from past weeks...

Holy Gawka Moly! I had my first cybernetics lecture today and guess who the lecturer is? It is none other than Professor Kevin Warwick! I was totally stunned. I sure am glad that he is going to be taking the next 10 weeks of lectures on "Machine Intelligence". I've obsessed about cybernetics ever since I read about his cybernetic implant that got him titled Cyborg 1.0, back in 1998.

I can't say much on cybernetics for now but I surely am impressed by Prof. Kevin. He certainly is a brilliant lecturer. His lecture today just flew past - it was totally engaging, enjoyable and thought provoking. He also made more than enough jokes that made the entire lecture theatre erupt into laughter. My favourite one was one on bees. He was talking about the differences in "intelligence" displayed in animals and humans. Bees, he said, have intelligence of their own sorts and we shouldn't be human-centric in going off comparing it with human intelligence as a reference. Bees do not need to have the same capabilities as a human, for it has its own abilities - like flying - which is not something humans can do - except for those who take certain drugs. Hehe. Not funny? Well, it made me laugh out loud!

Cybernetics at Reading University is quite big. The University cybernetics department is well stocked with skilled staff and the research being carried out is numerous and walks the bleeding-edges of science and technology. The department also got a 5 out of 5 at the latest UK government Research Assessment Exercise.

I hope everything continues on to be atleast on the same par as these first impressions...