Tongji-Microsoft 2005 Windows Embedded Seminar
On June 25th and 26th, the 2005 Microsoft Embedded Systems Teaching Seminar, jointly organized by our School of Software Engineering and Microsoft Research Asia, was successfully held at our university. (Omitted several hundred words — original text on Tongji University website: http://www.tongji.edu.cn/news/20050627162954.htm)
Postponed from February to April, and from April to June — finally, the seminar was over. I could finally breathe a long sigh of relief. A stone that had been pressing on my chest for half a year could finally be put down. Looking back, I have mixed feelings.
I first learned about this conference at the end of 2004. Professor Wan told me that Microsoft was holding an embedded teaching seminar, with MS高层 (executives) like Zhang Yaqin attending. I was asked to share my teaching methods and content experience for the “Windows CE Embedded Systems” course — speaking to professors from top universities nationwide.
I spent the entire winter break anxiously thinking about how to make the PPT and what to say. After the semester started, the first news was that the conference was postponed. Around March, I heard it was postponed again to late June. And Dr. Zhang Yaqin probably wouldn’t attend due to prior commitments. As the conference date approached,实质性 (substantive) preparations began. Two more tasks were added to my plate: “hands-on labs” — teaching professors to do Windows CE application development and kernel customization. I was also responsible for creating a training-related website (though all static HTML, I experienced some non-technical issues — like communication with certain people…).
Two days before the conference, I was told yet another task: give an English presentation to a foreigner about the course… Not difficult. After preparing the PPT, I found a grad student majoring in English on the evening of the 24th, bribed her with two cups of coffee to help replace some awkward phrasing. I was confident in my spoken English. Done!
The 25th was a weekend. Got up early and rushed to Jiading with my heavy laptop. But the Bei’an bus line let me down — traffic jam. The conference started at 9, and I arrived 20 minutes late. Burst into the venue to see MS’s Zhang Gao giving a report. Couldn’t listen — I had work to do. Went with Song Lei and MS ATC’s Zhang Zewen to set up machines in the training building. That machine had Platform Builder 5.0, Visual Studio 2005 beta, Windows Mobile SDK 5.0 — a Windows CE development dream machine. Also had the chance to see MS-internal, market-unavailable Windows Mobile 5.0 PDAs and the legendary Pocket PC ARM Emulator running on a PC. But spent the whole morning debugging — the Emulator still couldn’t connect. Apparently no DHCP server…
Had lunch at Xietong Hotel. Afternoon was group discussion. I joined John Eldridge’s advanced development group. John is a Windows CE architect with 10 years of Windows CE development experience (he develops Windows CE, not develops on Windows CE…). John covered Windows CE kernel architecture, Boot Loader and OAL porting. All in English, but easy to understand — extremely精彩 (brilliant). Understood some困扰 (puzzling) issues I’d had for a long time, like PSL function calls, Native Device Drivers. But from my observation, 90% of the professors in the room weren’t listening — they were fully enjoying the Software Institute’s 802.11 network ^_^
Evening was my first hands-on lab. Didn’t expect so many professors — the 30-person Windows CE lab was packed. Luckily the first night’s lab didn’t need dev boards; we put some professors in other computer rooms. The lab went smoothly. Most professors fell into my “trap” — they hit the “Image Too Large” Error when building the OS. When they asked me questions, that was the best time for交流 (exchange), hehe. The project demo on the other side also went very well — many professors were very interested in our “Vehicle Information System” project. Professor Wan told me to also explain the project to the foreigner tomorrow. Song Lei wasn’t confident in his English, so the task fell on me again.
Slept at Xietong, sharing a room with Professor Wan. Claimed to be three-star, but felt less comfortable than a负三星 (sub-three-star) dorm room… Reviewed the next day’s material before bed. Only climbed into bed after confirming everything was ready — by then it was already the next day ^_^ Professor Wan works so hard — he didn’t return to the hotel until 2 AM, when I was already asleep.
Woke up at 7:30 AM and went directly to the demo location. The foreigner was Ivan, the head of Windows Embedded Challenge — I’d heard of him long ago. Dr. Xu Fengxiong was also present. Ivan seemed to have some Indian accent. Fortunately, I practiced Indian English last summer, so it sounded familiar. First, I presented the course situation to him. He asked a few questions in between — I felt I answered decently. Then the project demo. After the demo, I chatted with Ivan for a while. Ivan asked what Support I needed from MS. I said Windows CE Source Code. Ivan said that might be a Business issue. Should have said “let me go to Seattle Redmond to meet Bill Gates”…
My second presentation was at 10:40, so I skipped the later talks and went straight to the lecture hall. A professor from Taiwan University was speaking before me. The Q&A was very lively, so I decided to add a Q&A after my own presentation too. Professor Wan kept telling me: don’t be nervous, be bold. Actually, after communicating with professors the night before, I felt quite familiar with many of them. Standing on stage, I didn’t feel like I was lecturing — more like exchanging ideas. The presentation went smoothly — no stuttering, no wrong words. The 20-minute Q&A was quite active. Many professors were very interested in Learning by Doing. I felt the weight on my shoulders.
At noon, I had lunch with CB and Ivan in the VIP room. Afternoon was group discussion. Out of technical interest, I joined John’s group again. After it ended, I was fortunate to take a photo with John as a souvenir.
Evening was my second hands-on lab. Only one comment: “Huanheng’s dev board — terrible!” Many downloads failed. Kept me busy. Afterwards, I accompanied some professors on a tour of the IBM mainframe and the Software Institute’s offices. Seeing our environment, some professors wanted to跳槽 (change jobs)…
When the lab ended, the conference was over. My biggest takeaway: Tongji University’s Software Engineering Institute is truly ahead of the curve in many aspects. Many professors praised our software and hardware设施 (facilities) (rumor has it Tsinghua’s computer lab still uses CRT monitors). In teaching and curriculum design, we also have significant advantages (better than某些 (certain) schools that admit one to two thousand undergrads per year).
I heard MS was very happy. The consequences are serious — they plan to hold these conferences regularly. Heaven help me!