Lifelong learning with Dr. Asoke Talukder

In this conversation, Dr Asoke Talukder shares his experience and perspectives related to 

• His aspiration to be in performing arts, when he was young
• Winning in a detective story writing competition, getting into puppetry and becoming a leading shadow puppeteer in Kolkata 
• Wanting to get into a teaching role, attracted by the vacation periods, to pursue his other performing arts interests
• Starting his programming as a research scholar at Jadavpur university
• Then joining the National Informatics Centre (NIC) before moving on to ICL India (ICIM)
• Taking on challenges when others had given up and this beginning the inception of his interest in multiple areas
• The regulations, restrictions and other technical constraints as well a customer expectations required him to design and implement solutions that were somewhat unprecedented in the Indian context
• A tricky issue caused by unstable connectivity over low speed lines in reverse emulation of terminals in India 
• Delays caused by satellite link latency that had to be overcome through an innovative setup, in a matter of a couple of days, to make things work for an important customer event
• Getting new customers by taking on problems that have been lying on their plates for a long time and solving them
• His getting into genomics and startups
• His passion for teaching, to ignite young minds to get into academics and research
• Writing a syllabus making book based on his entrepreneurial experience with mobile computing
• The importance of security aspects to be treated as functional requirements
• Converting a mis-use case into a functional requirement when it comes to security
• His current interest areas of AI, machine learning and deep learning
• Being still hands on and writing code in R, Python, C/C++ or javascript, node.js, to create proofs of concept that can be enhanced by others
• How his width of knowledge and experience helps him solve or relate a problem to something he might have seen elsewhere
• Synthetic systems and the challenges in understanding and solving healthcare related problems and there is no one-size-fits all
• The need for horizontal knowledge, to be a successful solutioning architect
• His approach and process for quickly leveraging existing knowledge and experience to build more complex solutions
• His career advice, in particular about being a lifelong learner and possibly getting into academics / research

Asoke Talukder is a creative individual with expertise from Compilers to Cancer and Puppetry to Precision Medicine. He worked in India, USA, UK, and Singapore in technology domains for companies like ICL, Fujitsu-ICIM, Microsoft, Oracle, Informix, Digital, Hewlett Packard, Sequoia, Northern Telecom, NEC, KredietBank, iGate, SRIT etc. He cofounded companies like Cellnext and InterpretOmics. He Internet enabled Microsoft PowerPoint. He engineered the first 64-bit database (Informix) in the world for Digital DEC Alpha. He engineered Oracle Parallel Server for Fault Tolerant computer Sequoia, and developed many killer technologies and products. He engineered the first secured international communication network for Hong and Shanghai Bank Bombay and British Bank of Middle East, Dubai. He setup the first X.25 network in India for Department of Telecommunications (currently BSNL & MTNL), and the first Java Competency Centre in India.

He engineered the Network Management System for Queen’s Award winning PDMX. He is recipient of many international awards for innovation and professional excellence including ICIM Professional Excellence Award, ICL Excellence Award, IBM Solutions Excellence Award, Simagine GSMWorld Award, All India Radio/Doordarshan Award etcetera. Asoke has been listed in “Who’s Who in the World”, “Who’s Who in Science and Engineering”, and “Outstanding Scientists of 21st Century”. He authored many research articles, book chapters, and textbooks. Two of his books have been translated in Chinese language. Asoke did M.Sc (Physics) with Bio-physics major and Ph.D (Computer Engineering). He was the DaimlerChrysler Chair Professor at IIIT-Bangalore, Visiting Professor at VIT University Vellore, Adjunct Faculty at ABV Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management, Gwalior and Adjunct Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, NIT Warangal. Currently he is an Adjunct Faculty Department of Computer Science & Engineering, NITK Surathkal teaching Machine Learning, and Chief Science & Technology Officer at SRIT India.