Screening of Dr.Randy Pauch's last lecture  at CMU
The evening of 29th October 2007 will remain etched in the annals of Amrita University events for ever because it turned out to be an evening that redefined a few things and revivified many lives. It is for the first time the video of a lecture was screened for the university community. This is the very hall where all the major events of the university take place – from cultural shows to convocation, screenings of documentaries and movies as well. This time it was none of the previous sort , It was Dr. Randy Pausch’s last lecture at Carnegie Mellon University that was screened for which the majority of the audience was the first years (freshman). All the 19 year olds sat through the entire screening in pin drop silence, absorbed and excited watching Prof.Randy deliver his one of a kind lecture of a life time.

ASTHA – The Amrita Science and Technology Action forum organized the screening of Prof. Randy’s lecture for the entire university community on 29th October 2007. Before the screening there was a 30 minutes audience quiz on “Virtual Reality and Computer Graphics” . It looked as if the audience came well prepared for the quiz knowing that every correct answer will fetch them a DVD of the entire collection of Prof.Randy Pauch’s various lectures, ALICE software with complete documentation and a full archive of writings on/ by Prof.Randy Pausch. When the guy who won 2 DVDs was asked what is he going to do with the second DVD ,he did not have to think much to reply that he will gift it to his school. The stage was set and the signs were clear – this screening of Randy’s lecture is going to redefine screening itself , such was the solemn silence in which the audience watched the whole lecture.

None of the restlessness of the First year students surfaced all through the screening of the lecture…all through the 2 hours the entire audience sat bewitched hardly even moving from their seat. This is despite the fact that there were all indications of a heavy rain and it did rain heavily till 3pm and then the weather was clear dispelling all the fears that rain might stop many from coming for the screening. It was as if nature too set the stage for the screening to go on unhindered.

After the lecture got over, unlike all the events before in this hall the crowd did not rush out for dinner. They waited in silence hardly bothered about the heavy drizzle outside, patiently queued up to write their impressions on Randy’s lecture in the note book kept just outside the Amriteshwari Hall. We intend to collect as much reflections as possible and send it to Prof. Randy Pausch as a token of the deep reverence Amrita University students have for him. Going through their writings in the notebook it appears as if they have found their role model in prof. Randy Pausch. We plan to scan these pages and put a readable picture archive of what they wrote. This page will soon have a link to that archive as well.

The next day we had to deal with an unusual situation – A large number of students demanded a re-screening of the Prof. Randy Pausch Lecture video. Such a thing is happening for the first time ever. We had no other option than to try for another screening and we decided to go for a second screening of the lecture within a week of the first screening. The second screening was scheduled for Sept 5th 2007. As soon as we announced the date for the second screening, a team of first year students came forward with a suggestion to subtitle the entire video. Considering the limitations of technicalities involved and time available, that sounded like Herculean task , more so when we had just a weekend to spare ( when students love to go to the city). What happened next is surely a clear exemplification of team spirit, leadership and the result of which is nothing less than a labor of love – nothing else could prove better how much they were inspired by Dr.Randy Pausch. They did it – the first year students (with limited exposure to video editing tools ) led by Mr. Suggu Santhosh Kumar of B.Tech Second Year Mechanical Engg and Mr.Rajesh Rajan of B.Tech Final year Mech Engg achieved incredible feat of subtitling the entire video. The group was divided into 20 groups and each handled a slice of the video split into 20 parts. Over the weekend they subtitled the slices and integrated it later into a single video ready for re-screening. The second screening of Dr.Randy Pausch’s lecture was preceded by a clip from the Oprah Winfrey interview with Randy Pausch.

Screening of Prof. Randy’s lecture and the way the entire Amrita University community reacted to it with such overwhelming acceptance did not only redefine teaching, learning, integrity and reaching out, It was also another learning experience for us all for, it redefined Immortality of the most lasting kind as well !

Click here for the photo gallery of both the screenings.

Click here to read the messages from Amrita Fraternity to Dr.Randy Pausch

Report by Ajai Narendran