Fly Colorful!

A Butterfly Innovations blog on education, technology and start-ups

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Drops of Water – Sanjeev’s Story

An ocean is made up of drops of water, just like knowledge is enriched by drops of experience. Passion is the rudder that guides every ship through the ocean of possibilities. I’m Sanjeev Gupta, I work as a Senior Graphics and UI Designer at Butterfly Innovations. Design is more than just a passion for me, and this is my story.

Stop 1: Bokaro Steel City, Jharkhand

I hail from Bokaro Steel City, Jharkhand and my beginnings were very humble. The concept of moving into another city was alien to me while growing up. I was never a serious student and vested my time more in sketching and drawing. The realisation of having my passion as a career option came only after a few friends suggested I apply to Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and study arts and design there. After 12th grade, I took monthly courses on ‘Still Life’ and ‘Human Sketching’ to better my art capabilities. I had my application to BHU accepted as I prepared myself mentally to take the next step. Just the thought of leaving town and the ‘government-job-only’ mentality behind with very less idea about art and design itself; seemed a daunting task.

Stop 2: Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

At BHU, I pursued BFA in Applied Arts for 4 years and graduated with first division. The opportunity to study Graphics was the major reason for choosing Applied Arts. I realized the importance of attention to detail at BHU. As the course drew to a close, the career options were rather curbed. Not wanting to teach, I appeared for a few exams to pursue my master's further.

After trips to places like Gujarat to appear for exams, I ended up opting for MFA in Illustration back at BHU. Whilst I came back to BHU, another friend got through to National Institute of Design (NID), Gandhinagar. Familiar with my work, he suggested I try and opt for Lifestyle Accessories after my masters. Although my ultimate aim was to get a job after MFA, I had an eye on NID ever since. The idea of engaging myself into a third degree without working professionally for even a day seemed farfetched, but my family stood strong behind me and supported throughout.

By the end of MFA, I had 2 corporate job offers in hand and an opportunity to finally realise my dream of being a design professional. But then, the chance to learn from an institute of worldly repute like NID seemed equally if not more lucrative.

Stop 3: National Institute of Design, Gandhinagar

I took a decision to take up M.Des in Lifestyle Accessories Design from NID. The decision in itself was a tough one because it meant giving up a long-time dream of starting work as a design professional. And that decision changed my life! The freedom to attend classes even other than one’s own course broadened my horizons of thought. I learned the value of research and mind mapping in design. The realization that I can achieve anything I wanted slowly dawned in, as I found myself getting engrossed into material handwork other than just visual design. I had a new-found love of studying material properties and putting it to life in the form of craft. As a designer, craft meant I could see my ideas in motion.

 Stop 4: Mumbai

If you thought ‘diversity’ was just a word for me, think again! After graduating from NID, I got involved with Jewellery Design and shifted to Mumbai. My world shrunk to the little details, finiteness and lustre of ornaments and I excelled at it. Freedom was what I yearned for, and having seen my work not make a greater impact on the upper scale, I left a year and a half to freelance as a graphic designer for websites for a while.

 Stop 5: Bangalore

A few months into freelancing, the opportunity to join Butterfly Innovations came up. It was a spur of the moment decision, and I found myself taking the very next bus to Bangalore to join the company! User Interface (UI) Design was still an unknown thing to me. I wasn’t familiar that there is coding behind each design element and the coding mattered on an application. At Butterfly Innovations, I got the chance to paint my career on a new technological canvas altogether! I’ve always felt a perfect balance between motivation because of the friendly work atmosphere; and improvement because of active feedback and critique here. No matter how much or where all you work in life, adapting to your work environment is essential to succeed. I’ve adapted in my own way, putting research-work and mind-mapping to work whilst starting every design from scratch. With an ambitious start-up like Butterfly Innovations, with so many teams working in tandem; there are many ideas flying around. It becomes imperative for a designer to capture the right ideas and channel them to user and application needs for design. That is the most important lesson and ability I’ve acquired. Reminiscing about my design work prior to joining Butterfly Innovations and what I do today; I really feel like I’ve applied my experience to great use here- learning and growing with the company. And the satisfaction of seeing your creativity break barriers, push through perceptions and achieve recognition is something a designer only dreams of. And I can say I’m living my dreams!

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Musings of an Android Dev - Karthik Balakrishnan

During the onset of programming, the command-line interface (CLI) was the trendiest tool to use. The notion of directing output of one command into another using pipes- strikes satisfaction and awe into veteran and uninitiated programmers alike and I’m not here to say otherwise. The command-line is the coolest thing about *nix operating systems. Sorry, Windows fans after 10 years of Windows and 4 years with Cygwin, I just could not get the same feel that I get while using a Linux PC or a Macintosh. CLI truly is not for everyone.

Why is the CLI not for everyone? Simply because not everyone is wired the way programmers are. While I may prefer opening MySQL in iTerm, my colleagues prefer using MySQL Workbench with its fancy UI and horizontal scrollbars that allow for the all the columns in a table to be seen. If you’d asked me what I thought of this a few years back, I’d have quoted Bruce Lee “It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.” But after publishing applications on a worldwide market such as the Google Play Store, one tends to realize that “inessential” is a very subjective term.

One of my applications that removes duplicate media on Android phones had a bare UI during its early versions. With the passage of time and improvement to the algorithms that were being used, the number of downloads increased albeit slightly. With more passage of time and a few grays in my hair (I’m still in my twenties, sarcasm is hard to convey in writing) and some work on the UI; the number of downloads pushed past half a million. What caused this sudden burst of downloads? An intuitive UI which painted the application as useful from the user’s perspective.

And why did the UI have this big an impact? I’m not Socrates but I’d venture a guess that humans are shallow creatures and like pretty things and also because we are big on “I do not really care how it works, but as long as it does I’m happy.” This is why you don’t see an LED screen in cars which read “Generating high voltage from the battery, generated high voltage. Igniting fuel-air mixture in the engine’s combustion chambers ignited the mixture. Your car has been turned on. Feel free to switch to the first gear and drive around.” when you press the ignition button. Instead you see the dashboard light up and the needle in the speedometer perform a 270-degree sweep and wiggle a little to indicate that it’s ready to burn some fuel. This is an excellent example for software engineers because the end users don’t really care about how the application works as long as it does. So, please don’t bore them with details and abstract away things they don’t need to or care to know.

                                            Functionality in UI

 Transitioning from a software engineer to a product engineer is hard work. It takes time and effort to move away from prompting for values on CLI to having a textbox with the hint “Enter the number of rasagullas you would like to purchase” (I would not recommend using such a long hint). If you’re developing for a brand new ecosystem stick to the existing design guidelines so that users do not feel lost and once you think you’ve achieved Senpai status you may do as you please. Another tip would be to not develop anything from scratch, make sure nothing similar already exists before you put on your code goggles. If you find something close enough, just edit that and as Aleph One says “Read the source, d00d.”

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The Spice of Diversity - Ananda’s Story

I’m Ananda Verma, and I work as a Senior Product Engineer with Butterfly Innovations. Speaking of diversity, my background is so diverse that you’d probably need tough thinking to phase out the directions I took and treaded back on!

I hail from Budhawar, a small village in Uttar Pradesh. The village has a few hundred families, and life is still very primitive there. While I was growing up, ‘programming’ was an alien word and a television programme meant a village-wide gathering. I have fond memories of my father describing what a computer does and how, many systems and companies all over the country function on computers. What felt exciting was the scope of technology and of how it changed lives. Trips to banks and offices where computers were being used were always full of inquisitiveness. I still recollect the time when I bought my first workstation, and could operate it only for an hour or two every day because of electricity shortage. But I value those hours in gold today, because the time I spent on them instigated my interest in computers and programming. Armed with a will to learn, I bought and read through uncountable books on programming. What once seemed like learning foreign language soon became the apple of my eye.

However, we all have this one relative who thinks he’s the best career counsellor in the country, don’t we? This ‘relative’ was an uncle who described engineers to be ones working in Radio and TV repair shops. Naivety was prominent, and I actually got convinced enough to choose Biology instead of Mathematics after my 10th (I have always been a Maths guy). Following suit, I ended up spending 4 months studying Biology in Kanpur and then returning home to a changed decision and a changed man. That’s when I heard of VIT, a friend’s dream college.

This friend described the infrastructure at VIT to be of international standards and often compared the campus to Singapore! Needless to say, it became a dream destination for me too. I then toiled hard for the VIT entrance exam and made it through to Biomedical Engineering. I built an EMR software in my 3rd year at VIT, and eventually lost all the code to a hard-disk crash. Life taught me an important lesson of version control then, and the word ‘Github’ has never meant the same to me again! I graduated from VIT to work as a software engineer with a consultancy firm for 3-4 months. Unable to find a common passion, I left the company to look for something that’d satiate my coding taste-buds.

Acting on my passion for software and writing code, I secured admission into IIIT-B. While pursuing a major in Software Engineering there, I corresponded with Hemant Sahal; the Founder of Butterfly Innovations. I was inspired by his passion to create ripples of change in the education sector. My initial impression about CollPoll was that it was an ERP software for institutes. When I got to know what CollPoll actually is, and the time that had been invested in just researching for and designing the product; I was smitten. The prospect of building a system that creates change rather than being a part of a defined framework in a company; felt like a breath of fresh air to me. I worked at a product company for a year and a half after IIIT-B. That’s when I got an opportunity to work for Butterfly Innovations; I grabbed it with both hands! It felt like the boy from Budhawar had finally found a platform to feed his love for programming.

The consultancy firm I previously worked for was also a new company. With Butterfly Innovations, I had expected a young and energetic team working to build a product from scratch; to build something that’d benefit a wide audience in the future. And that is exactly what I got here. We truly are a team of professionals from wildly diverse backgrounds, working with a common passion towards a common goal – to rejuvenate education with the help of technology. The work that I do every day fulfils my interest and in turn nourishes my mind. I relish the prospect of one day being able to connect the most rudimentary of regions in the country with technology. Maybe then, programming won’t be an alien word and a smart television won’t be a dream in Budhawar!

Ananda in a candid discussion with Butterfly Innovations’ Content Creator, Saurav

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A Journey of Sorts – Siddharth’s Travelogue Post

I’m a wanderer in a new city. I get down from the train and use my Google knowledge to remember that Vijayawada has India’s 4th largest Bus Stand. I think it’ll be fun and adventurous, but I’m not familiar at all with Telugu. So I trod to a Bus and ask them about a ride to Chennai; what they tell me is there’s a waitlist. How did I come here? Let’s begin.

I had gone home to Bhubaneswar for Durga Puja for a few days last month. I had to return to Bangalore once the vacation was done with, but tickets weren’t available on short notice. So I thought, ‘let’s travel without a reservation. It’ll be a soul searching and soul enlightening experience’. Travel blogs and movies had messed up my head. So, I took a bus to Vizag the next day. From Vizag I needed to get to Vijayawada, and that’s where the fun began.

I got onto the General Compartment of an express train. This particular compartment was crowded to the brim. Just to manoeuvre through the assortment of feet and sandals was a task. And before I knew it, my clumsiness came to bite me. I had stepped on a kid’s toes, and his father in his colorful Telugu vocabulary let me know what he thought of me. The man was well-built, so I didn't participate and moved on.

                               Que for a General Compartment

                              Source: www.indianexpress.com

That’s when I learnt an important life lesson. ‘In a mysterious land, temporary alliances help you survive difficult situations’. My ally was sitting on the luggage berth with his feet hinged on the opposite berth. He was a student from Guntur. Something really odd to see was how a person sitting right below him took immense offense to his way of sitting. All of a sudden, the person in the lower seat held the student’s legs and moved them away. Not to be outdone, the student put his legs back on the seat. With shock and amusement, everybody around looked at them as they started repeating the same action again and again, until things got ugly and the student almost fell off the perch. That’s when a mediator stepped in to form a truce. The student got to keep his feet exactly where he wanted and his opponent was left sulking in his seat, wishing hell upon him. I struck up a conversation with the student. It turned out he wasn't as horrible a person as the sulking man thought. As we talked, his destination approached. That’s when he offered me his seat as he left. I eventually got down at Vijayawada Railway Station, and headed to the Bus Stand there.

                              Pandit Nehru Bus Stand, Vijayawada

                        Source: www.panoramio.com/photo/27009567

That’s when I found out about the Bus Waiting lists. Not wanting to put myself in a wait-list for a bus ticket, my only option was to travel back to Vijayawada Railway Station and rest for a while before the next train to Chennai arrived. As I got into the even more crowded Chennai bound General Compartment, two of the funniest people I have seen caught my attention.

Exhibit A was this person who thought it would be funny to clap from time to time to see people roll over their wallets to hide their money from an apparent eunuch-invasion. This, as he giggled his smug face in one corner of the compartment.

Exhibit B was a creature even more inhuman. He sat in another corner, hidden from the crowd. In the heat that can sap even your sweat dry, he would shout ‘Water Bottle’, mimicking the train vendors. He would then grin sadistically as the entire compartment looked around for the vendor.

And then there were the eunuchs who coordinated with vendors to tip toe in the ant like space of the compartment; and weave their hand-magic on passengers there. It really was a sight to behold. Making positive use of ostracization is one thing, but developing a B-Plan out of it in train compartments by coordinating with vendors is another.

I then put my earlier learnt life-skill to good use to strike up small talk with people in adjacent seats in the train which took me safe and sound to Chennai from where I got on a bus to Bangalore. Through this entire journey, seeing people from diverse walks of life coexisting, wriggling and grappling for space; I was reminded of a quote by Gregory David Roberts from his book ‘Shantaram’, “India is about six times the size of France but it has almost twenty times the population. Twenty times! Believe me, if there were a billion Frenchmen living in such a crowded space, there would be rivers of blood. Rivers of blood! And as everyone knows, we are the most civilized people in Europe.”

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Sales- a Technique to Convince and Close

Sales is a game of mind-sets. It involves thinking with vision to get ahead and sell your product. I’m Umraz Mohd Gous Shaikh, I work as a Sales Manager at Butterfly Innovations and this piece is about what I feel about my profession and the company. I strongly believe that sales is the tact to gracefully persuade more than manipulate a person across the table. It can be termed to be a precursor for definite success and an ever important source of revenue. Are old methods and ideas regarding sales still at play? I think so. The crux is still to build and nourish strong customer relationships, done by understanding what the customer needs and what the seller can offer. The vital trick here rests in selling promises more than the product itself. I think opening a relationship and maintaining mutual trust is important to close a sale. A salesman must rely on some core values to be successful apart from trustworthiness and perseverance. A positive self-belief is essential, but what takes the cut is an in-depth knowledge of what the product is. Such knowledge spurs confidence and in turn advocates passion about the product in itself. The biggest enemies to the idea of this profession are trust breaches and fake promises, again pointing towards credibility. At present, we are reliant on the use of services over products more than ever. Since services can’t always be tried or taken on trial, trust becomes an indispensable virtue.

           Something important to ponder though is the weightage you provide as a salesman or sales manager to suspects and prospects. I think smartness lies in investing your effort in identifying and closing one prospect rather than pursuing ten suspects. This smartness comes from experience, because there are enough imposters in every market who show interest but don’t follow up. In more than a year’s experience of working sales in the education sector, I’ve had instances of senior level sales targets who show definite interest and yet don’t walk the talk eventually. So, investment of time with a concrete vision for the future and on the right people is of astute importance.

           The Butterfly Innovations workplace shows perfectly how sales is vital for any startup. The focus laid on building a strong company network (which I personally advocate) and brand, interacting and taking valuable advice from people of diverse professional backgrounds, equal authority and responsibility vested in every employee and a golden opportunity to personally grind ahead one’s learning curve; is something that I cherish. Every employee is a salesman at one phase or the other, who thinks about the selling point of the product i.e. CollPoll. As a product, CollPoll is new and is focusing on a niche market. To be involved with a startup where I get to learn several things at once from scratch even about sales, the vibrant and positive work culture and finding a common passion in every colleague’s eye – to succeed; is something that is very exciting to me. My aim of working with Butterfly Innovations for CollPoll is to drive the company to a competitive level where we are able to pull or attract customers more than getting involved in pushing or convincing them. I believe that with purpose and diligence shown by the team, we will get there with time.

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My first month at Butterfly Innovations - Karthik Balakrishnan

A Bangalorean at heart, soul and mind, my educational sojourn took me through an Electronics and Telecommunication degree at PESIT, Bangalore. Graduating in July 2015, I started pursuing Online Masters in Computer Science at Georgia Tech. My primary personal motive to join a startup like Butterfly Innovations was twofold. I wanted to embark on a learning or growth curve journey with a company with equally if not more motivated professionals. Secondly, I wanted to create an impact in the all-important educational sector in India through a company which looks set to carve a niche in the education technology market.

I anticipated a fast growing, changing and learning atmosphere which focuses on quality of work more than quantity. I expected the start-up environment to be more personable than the corporate sector. As a recent graduate and this being my first work experience and company, I wanted to diversify my own knowledge base and learn often. All these expectations were gleefully and completely met in my first month working here. To think, my experience has been a hugely positive one in accordance with my expectations and I stutter to find reasons else-wise.

What set apart working here is the equal, brotherly and friendly treatment meted out to everybody involved with the company. I saw myself learning about the managerial turf of happenings in the startup world and can today visualise how systems and groups in major companies evolve from the initial work put in. Coordination with different departments of work and specializing in multiple work roles is something one connects to when he thinks of a startup. I found and still find myself learning more about different roles and the work partaken within. Technically, one of the most important arenas I’ve come to learn and continue to learn about is the structuring of code.

Casually speaking, the highlight of my experience with Butterfly Innovations in my first month was learning to make ‘Chai’. And without self-endorsing, speaking only by reviews; I turned out to be pretty good at making Tea! The added pleasure of making Tea at an office near Silk Board, a skill which was first developed at one end of Silk Road (China) is one that can be spoken about only after you experience it! Another highlight I’d love to speak about would be the team lunch I was a part of for Diwali and a team dinner before that. I felt they both provided a wonderful opportunity to socialise and get on a common contemplation wavelength with the rest of the team.

I see Butterfly Innovations evolve into an organisation handling an ever increasing user base and the opportunity to interact with them is what excites me the most. Learning from people more skilled and experienced than me i.e. my fellow colleagues and advisors is a golden opportunity for me. I’d love to keep on gaining insights while working for Butterfly Innovations and hone my entrepreneurial skills and instincts like communication, presentation and technical-managerial capabilities. Here’s to the common ambitions that I and Butterfly Innovations hold and keep in high regards and the wonderful times ahead!

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Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Remember when you were young? You had so many dreams! You wanted to make a million dollars and marry a supermodel. Or you may have wanted to bring about a big change and help millions of people. You may even have wanted to leave everything and settle down in the quiet and peaceful countryside. What happened to all those dreams? How many of you can say today that those dreams have come true? In fact, how many of you can say, without a doubt, that you actually worked on your dreams?

Many of the most amazing inventions started as dreams. The Wright brothers dreamt of flying. It was Steve Jobs’ dream to see computers in every household. These guys had dreams and they worked day and night to achieve their dreams. The Wright Brothers, Steve Jobs, Nikolas Tesla; they were some of the greatest innovators ever. However, very few of are able to replicate their success. Most of us fail to cross the ‘Big Hurdle’.

The ‘Big Hurdle’ isn’t a lack of ideas. It's a lack of willingness to work upon those ideas! We have all had great ideas some time or the other; hardly any of us have worked upon those ideas! The fact is that most people would rather choose a secure lifestyle over doing something different and taking a risk. Getting a job is secure while being an entrepreneur is risky. It is safer to opt for engineering instead of pursuing your dream to be a photographer. It is safer to follow the trodden path instead of running into the woods and creating your own path. Who knows what dangers might be lurking in the jungles!

Let me ask you a question. If you have a great idea, will you leave your secure job or drop out of college to work upon it? Would you choose a start-up over a regular job? Start-ups are volatile, and in the initial phase the salary might not match your expectations. People may even call you foolish!

Thankfully there are some foolish people who choose ‘the path less travelled by’, and it is because of them that we have access to hundreds of products which make our lives simpler every day. Many successful innovators were laughed upon before they ultimately achieved success. Spend half an hour on Google or Wikipedia and you will get stories of various ‘foolish people’ who are world famous today. What will happen if you decided to be like them? What if you left your secure job to be an entrepreneur and then things don’t work out according to plan! What if you fail?

If you fail, try again! We've all been taught since childhood that failure is the stepping stone to success and that if you persevere you will ultimately succeed. These were not childhood fables, these were true stories and they do work, if only you have courage. Courage is what it takes to believe in you when no one else does. Only a brave person can stand alone, stick to his ideas and work upon them until he succeeds.

So do you want to make a change? Do you think you can stop worrying about your neighbour’s new car to work on your world changing idea? Are you ready to fight for your rightful place in the world? Your dreams are waiting for you. The gods smile down upon courageous people who are ready to push the limits. It is only a matter of time before you ultimately succeed. Spend some time thinking about everything around you. Find simple solutions to the problems you face every day. When you have a good idea, talk to the people around you and see what their opinion is. And then, take the leap. If you fail, get up and try again.

Keep trying until you succeed; this is the way of life that I had been taught since childhood. Somewhere along the path, life made me forget this childhood lesson. I’ve been an Intern at Butterfly Innovations for the past two months, and during my stay at Bangalore, I have re-learned these childhood lessons. I’ve learnt that things don’t always work out right at the first attempt. The design you make or the code you’ve written, you may have to work upon it over and over again till it is good enough. Even this blog, it wasn’t very good when I first wrote it, but every time I read through it, I found new mistakes and made some improvements. You’ve got to have the hunger if you want success. Another important part of my internship experience was that I never felt like an intern. I don’t know of this is the case with all start-ups or it is something special in Butterfly’s culture, but even the previous intern who worked here had the same opinion. She never felt like an intern either! I participated in all team meetings, and had the freedom to put forward my suggestions and ideas. I was never treated as an outsider to the team; I was a part of it! Today is my last day at Butterfly Innovations and I’ll be leaving for home with the spirit to Always Stay Hungry, Always Stay Foolish. 

-- The Author

Mridul Kothari was an intern at Butterfly Innovations and is a student of first year at IIT Kharagpur.

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5 Reasons to Never do Yoga Again

It is a proud moment for India. The world will be observing the first ever International Yoga Day tomorrow, 21st of June 2015. While everyone around you is busy shopping for yoga mats and track pants, you are making up excuses so that you don’t have to attend a yoga session and spoil your Sunday by waking up early. Your school, office, neighbours and even your family! Everyone seems to have caught the yoga fever. For you, nothing could be worse than having to wake up early on a Sunday!  This post is dedicated to all those people who feel that their Sunday has been ruined. Here’s a list of reasons why you shouldn’t do yoga.

1. You are not against yoga, you simply believe that it will take the fun out of pakoras and samosas. True Yogis practice yoga every second of the day. Yoga isn’t just an exercise; it’s a way of life. And if you adopt that way of life, you’ll have to give up pakoras, samosas, deep fried patties and all the other unhealthy junk you put inside your body every day. It will be a healthy lifestyle switch and you will be calmer and happier, but you will not be able to enjoy junk food without having guilt pangs. Quite a big trade-off I’d say.

2. It will spoil your fun late night parties. The average yogi wakes up one and a half hours before other people. Early morning is the best time for him to meditate, relax and breathe in fresh air. Almost all people, both yogis and non-yogis agree that this helps you to stay focused and perform better the rest of the day. The only issue is that if you sleep late, you probably won’t be able to wake up for yoga. You’ll be forced to give up late night parties and television programs.

3. You enjoy looking older than you really am. It gets you respect. Research has shown that people who do just three 60 minute sessions of semi-vigorous yoga per week look, on an average, 9 years younger than non-exercisers. According to the research article, yoga detoxifies the body more efficiently than other regular exercises, and stimulates and balances the endocrine system, which among other things regulates ageing, healing, metabolism and immunity. So, it’s a proven scientific fact that yoga helps people look younger! However its completely your choice if you want to do yoga every day, or use artificial, and potentially harmful, beauty products.

4. You think of hospitals as nice places to relax. Being hospitalised is in some ways similar to taking a week off to stay at a hotel. In a study of health insurance statistics, yogis and meditators showed hospitalization rates that were 87% less than non-yogis for heart disease, 55% less for benign and malignant tumors, 30% less for infectious diseases, and 50% less for out-patient doctor visits.

5. You are satisfied with your present health and feel that there is nothing to improve upon. If you really think so then there surely is nothing that I or anyone else can do. You’ve got to want to improve from within, otherwise a one day yoga session will do you no good. And no matter how healthy you think you are, there are always areas that you can improve upon. Waking up early, exercising in the calm and fresh air, relieving yourself from all the stress around you and being fit both mentally and physically is what yoga is all about.

-- The Author

Mridul Kothari is interning at Butterfly Innovations and is a student of IIT Kharagpur.

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10 Things Every Engineer Remembers About College

1. When a teacher suddenly asked you a question in class

2. When you have to stay up all night to prepare for the exam next day

3. Having a crush on the only girl in a batch of 100 (For guys)

Or

3. When guys approach you and you're the only girl in a batch of 100 (For girls)

4. Friends who were always there to beat you up on your birthday

5. Eating food at midnight in the hostel

6. When parents got to know your marks from last semester

8. The entire class having the same answers in an assignment

9. Giving proxy for your friends in class

10. When you didn't get a campus placement

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My First Week at Butterfly Innovations

After relocating to Bangalore with a gap of 3 years and with the anxiety of joining a start-up, I began my day early this Monday. I had no expectation in terms of how my first day will go as all my previous work experiences were with well structured, big organizations.

The first day came as a pleasant surprise! As Butterfly is an education technology start-up that is trying to solve key issues in the higher education space, I was made to think how I would solve the current set of problems existing in our country's higher education strata. Starting from a very unstructured solution, I was made to come up with a clean sets of problems, the solutions for the same and identify the stakeholders in this system.

This was a very impressive way of learning for me, a well thought out training base for a new member to become acquainted with the goal of the organization. This was very similar to my previous experience in terms of the training structure, so my myth that a start-up might not be as organized was subtly busted. The whole day was structured in terms of what, when and a how to-do list.

Getting along with the team was fun with a movie in the middle of the week, super awesome lunch and carom sessions everyday.

I spent the next few days of the week getting familiar with the magical product the company's working on, understanding the existing framework of databases, structures, functions and how the system works.

And finally, the week ended with a 2-day hackathon at VIT University. We traveled through an amazing route from Bangalore to Vellore with hills and a picturesque sky. It was great to see such wonderful ideas being implemented by students in such a short time and I had fun mentoring and interacting with them. It was a perfect end to a week which brought me closer to the team.

--

The Author

Swati Upadhyaya recently joined Butterfly Innovations as Senior Data Researcher. 

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Filmy Wednesdays at Butterfly Innovations

We recently started a monthly team movie tradition at Butterfly Innovations. Yesterday evening, we went out to see the much-talked-about film Mary Kom. A lot of the praise and criticism that came its way is true and even though it is not the best directed biopic, the actual superwoman's story is inspiring, to say the least. 

Here are the 5 things that we took back from her story:

                                        It doesn't matter where you start from, but what matters is that you start. 

It's never a one-man show. Many people, whether visible or not, play a critical role in your journey. It's important to have the right people who bring the best in you. To bring the best out of you, you have to lose control, be ready to face criticism and fight the odds of society. The best you can give back to such people is unparalleled focus and commitment.

There is a place for everything in life - ambitions, love, family, among others. We don't have to fail at other things in life to win at one.

You don't lose until you quit fighting. 

What differentiates the crazy ones is their fearlessness. If you let your rational self take control, you have lost the battle already.

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Who’s Your Favorite Teacher?

This Teacher’s day, we did a little exercise with our team at Butterfly Innovations. We asked each of our team mates about their favorite teachers – fictional or real – who had a lasting impact on them.

We got some really interesting answers. 

1. Professor McGonagall, Dewey Finn and Master Yoda

 "It is a tough fight between Professor Mcgonagall from the Harry Potter series, Master Yoda from Star Wars and Dewey Finn from the movie School of Rock. I loved Professor Mcgonagall's sarcasm because who wouldn't like a teacher with that sense of humor! Master Yoda is on my list because of that one phenomenal line: "Do or do not. There is no try." And finally, Dewey Finn is an ideal teacher for me because he actually made the effort to talk and get to know his students better, spotted their individual talents and encouraged them to explore those." -- Siddharth Das, the product engineer

2. Dr Murli Nagasundaram

                                      "I have had many teachers in my life who have taught me a lot of things. but Dr Murli Nagasundaram is that one teacher who taught me how to learn. I was lucky enough to meet him at a conference in 2009 and he has been my mentor since!" -- Hemant Sahal, the CEO 

   3. Erin Gruwell and Professor Dumbledore

"My favorite teacher from fiction is Erin Gruwell (played by Hilary Swank) from the movie Freedom Writers. That movie is based on the real life story of an American teacher by the same name. Gruwell is an English teacher who inspires and completely transforms a class full of victims of racial violence. These are children who didn't give a damn about education and felt they they didn't matter to anyone. But Gruwell understood their pain and used unconventional methods of teaching to change all that and...succeeded! All her students became graduates -- many of them were the first in their families to have completed school! 

Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter series also deserves a special mention for his wit and wisdom and that ability to always help you find answers to your questions, without ever telling you the answer right away. He was like an all-knowing grandfather and a saviour who always has your back." -- Ira Swasti, the growth hacker

4. My brother

"The greatest teacher in my life is my brother, Subodh Gupta. He told me if nothing good is happening in your life, it means a lot of good is about to happen soon!" -- Sanjeev Gupta, the artist 

5. My kindergarten teacher

"My favorite teacher would be my kindergarten teacher from playschool: Ms Krishnaveni. She was my first school teacher so she's really special to me. I still remember the Ganpathi slogans that she taught us in Tamil. Here's one dedicated to her." -- Poorani S, our other product engineer

Paalum Theli Thenum Paagum Parupum (Milk, clear honey, caramel and lentil)

Ivai Naangum Kalandunaku Naan Tharuven (I offer you the four mixed – beautiful)

Kolam Sei Thunga Kari Mugathu Thoomaniye (Teacher with Elephant face the precious gem)

Nee Enaku Sanga Thamizh Moondrum Thaa (Teach me Sangam Tamil in its triple form.)" 

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We Are Looking for a Senior Android Developer

Who are we?

Butterfly Innovations is a year old user-centric, research driven, education technology product start-up with a strong team, stellar advisory board and a robust product.

We have a great culture and a big dream.

Our product is now being privately tested and will be released in the market later this year.

What's your Role?

You will be a part of the Technology Team, which is responsible for building the main product. You will be deeply involved in defining mobile app architecture, the user experience and expanding the Tech team.

What specific skills should you have?

You should have ideally built atleast one Android app that we can review. You should also have:

A good knowledge of Java and MySQL

A good understanding of Android SDK

Working knowledge of git

A good knowledge of object-oriented programming

Working knowledge of REST API

Knowledge of information architecture, human computer interaction and usability design principles will be a plus

You should be self-starter, driven, enthusiastic, detail oriented, multi-tasker, quick learner, adaptive and be able to work in a dynamic environment.

What do you get?

Company stock options + a good salary

An open culture that thrives on passion and excellence

Lifelong friends with whom you will create technologies that transform higher education globally

A chance to interact and get mentored by industry stalwarts

If this looks interesting to you, write to us at [email protected]. We are hiring!

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Teachers Are Not An Important Part Of College Life For Indian Students

We at Butterfly Innovations recently conducted a research survey among 349 college students from 50 plus colleges across India to understand the student-teacher relationship in colleges. And here's what we found:

Not many students considered their college teachers to be a very important part of their journeys in college. That might be an obvious conclusion to draw if you talk to a lot of college students in India today but we wanted research to do the talking. 

When asked the question “What is the most important part of college life for you?”, only 1% of students responded with the answer “teachers”. While the majority (68%) of students said they thought “the whole experience” was important , about 23% said it was “friends” and another 8% of students said it was the “learning”. 

We think one of the major reasons for the above results is the lack of interaction among students and teachers in our colleges. Read our previous post to find out how students and teachers are barely talking to each other in college.

And sadly, even when they are interacting, students do not seem to report a very healthy relationship with their teachers (See infographic below).

When asked how students defined their relationship with their teachers, only a minority (35%) of students reported that their teachers were “very helpful, approachable and understanding”. More than half (54%) of the students said their teachers were “somewhat helpful” and another 11% of students said their teachers were “remote, discouraging or unsympathetic”. 

Students also claimed that teachers do not understand their life after college. When presented with the statement “my teachers don’t understand my life outside of college”, a whopping 81% of students agreed. While 42% of students said they “somewhat agree”, 39% said they “strongly agree”. (See infographic below).

Something's certainly going wrong in our higher education system. We need the two main agents of change in a college -- its students and faculty to interact with each other and build better bonds to help each other grow.

How important were teachers in your college life?

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College Students and Teachers in India Are Not Talking To Each Other

It is said that a good teacher can inspire hope, ignite the imagination, and instill a love of learning in a student. But for that to happen in reality, students and teachers need to understand each other well, interact and share a strong bond.

However, according to a research survey our team at Butterfly Innovations conducted recently, student-teacher relationship in Indian colleges seems to be far from ideal!

349 college students from 50 plus colleges across India participated in this research survey. According to the research findings, interaction among students and teachers in Indian colleges appears to be quite low. (See Infographic below).

A mere 11% of students responded that they interacted the most with their teachers  Not surprisingly, the majority (65%) of respondents said they interacted the most with “friends”. Thirteen per cent of the respondents said it was their “parents”, 5% said it was the college alumni and 3% each said they interacted the most with college management and the college administration.

That’s not all. On being asked how much one-on-one attention do students get from their teachers in college, more than half (56%) of the students said “a little” and another 13% said “not at all” taking the total to 69%. While about 18% of the respondents said they got “a lot” of attention, only 12% of students reported it was “not required”. (See infographic below).

Clearly, there is something amiss in our higher education institutions for not considering student-teacher interaction a significant part of college life. Teachers are a vault of experience and knowledge in their fields of expertise as well as individuals and this sharing of knowledge and experience with students can guide students to make better decisions about their college, education and life.

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My 5 favorite things about Butterfly Innovations

With two months to spare before I flew to Canada for my Masters, I was looking for a useful learning experience in an edtech start-up. That’s how I landed an internship with Butterfly Innovations. But my experience didn’t turn out to be as I thought it would. It wasn’t just useful. It was inspiring and fun! 

So here are my favorite things about working at BI:       1. Getting things done fast!

My work mainly involved extensive coding to develop the product. And given the tight deadlines for the product release, I could rarely take my feet off the gas pedal. As clichéd as this may sound, this is the most important lesson I learnt at this startup: "getting things done"!

2. Emphasis on user experience Generally, in a bigger company, you just contribute to a huge code base and ignore aspects like usability and user experience as a backend developer. But here, I learnt to be very careful of these aspects even while writing the code.  

3. Not being just another intern I was involved in the interview process of expanding the start-up’s tech team -- proof that I was not expected to be a mere spectator who was just there to do his job and go home. I was expected to proactively contribute and grow the company.

4. Having fun I spent some valuable time learning how to brew awesome tea, helping with cooking, eating (nay, devouring), playing flawless (yeah, right!) carom.

5. Inspiring conversations CEO Hemant Sahal has this ability that one enthusiastic interaction with him could reverse a bad day for me. I can still vividly recall his inspirational speech in one of the team meetings - it lasted for more than two hours, probably the longest time I've survived an official meeting without looking at my watch! Apart from all the technical learnings I gathered here that would be really useful in my future research in educational technology, I also take back life lessons and awesome memories with an awesome team that hopes to disrupt the higher education landscape for the better! Best wishes to BI for a colorful flight!

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The Author

Krish Perumal is currently pursuing his Masters in Computer Science from the University of Toronto. He worked with Butterfly Innovations as Technical Intern for two months this June and August.