My Experience at ACM Summer School at KARE

How It All Started

Attending ACM Summer School was never really in my plans. I was just vibing with my friends on the freshblood chat of Pointblank when the ACM India Summer School registration form dropped. Everyone was talking about signing up, so I hopped in too. That’s when I noticed something strange, there was no option for 1st year students. The dropdown only listed 2nd year, 3rd year, 4th year, and Other, I went ahead, chose Other, typed in “1st year,” and casually paid the ₹175 entry fee without expecting much. Most of my seniors got selected for summer schools at places like IIT Bombay and IIT Gandhinagar. I was sure my application was rejected. But on the very last day of my seniors’ summer school, I got the email. That’s when the real story began.

The Struggles Before Leaving

It wasn’t easy. Our semester internals and final lab exams were going on at the same time. Getting permission from lecturers was another hassle, most of them flat out denied it. Somehow, with barely any attendance left and a lot of courage, I set off to Madurai with my closest friend. We were the only two from our college selected for KARE. We booked a Bangalore-Tenkasi sleeper bus and reached KARE just at dawn.

First Impressions of KARE

Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education (KARE) is located about 70 km from Madurai city, in Krishnankoil. The landscape was dry, open, and savanna like because it lies in the rain shadow of the Western Ghats. The backdrop of the Periyar National Reserve hills gave the whole place a dramatic vibe. The college campus itself was massive. Lined with neem trees, the campus stretched across the horizon, dotted with departments and hostels. Even the auto drivers in Madurai knew where we were headed and asked us which hostel number we’d be staying in!
The classeses were held on the Srinivasa Ramanujan block, where the ACM member club of that college is also situated.

The Summer School Sessions

At first, the theory sessions felt like regular classroom lectures. Interesting, but not too special. Things got exciting in the afternoons when we had the hands on practical sessions.

• IoT Kickoff: We formed teams of six with students from different colleges. Each group got a kit with sensors, microcontrollers, and even a Raspberry Pi. Booting it up and connecting via SSH was chaotic: network overload, router issues, IP mismatches; but we eventually made it.
• 5G Network Simulation: The next sessions focused on 5G and IoT networking. We used simulation stacks like RATSim and CN5G to understand how 5G works with IoT devices.
• IoT Protocols & MQTT: We dove into protocols like Bluetooth, WiFi, and especially MQTT. Using Mosquitto, we built a basic publisher/subscriber model.
• Sensors & ESP32: With Arduino and ESP32, we worked on integrating sensors. Our group made a tiny weather node using a light sensor, soil moisture sensor, and humidity sensor.
• End to End IoT Stack (My Favorite Session):
  This was the most comprehensive and fun session. We integrated everything:
  - Raspberry Pi running an MQTT server
  - ESP32 with sensors as the publisher
  - Laptop with InfluxDB as the subscriber
  - Node-RED as the integration framework
  - Grafana for visualization
  - Ngrok to make the data public
  - The session went on till 7 PM, but it was worth every minute.

AI & Prompt Engineering:

Later sessions touched upon AI and prompt engineering like how to frame good prompts for LLMs like ChatGPT.

Mobile App Integration:

On the final days, we learned how to connect our IoT stack to a mobile application.

Life at KARE

Life on campus was its own adventure. The college was like a mini city: shops, juice stalls, ice cream parlors, even a tattoo/massage center inside! The hostels were huge with classic Indian three story verandas around a courtyard and, of course, a grumpy old warden. At night, my friends and I would sneak out at 3 AM and play hide and seek around the pillars of the hostel, and continue playing UNO till dawn. Lunch was simple, mostly sambhar, idly, and dosa, though the variety wore thin after a week.
The staff and volunteers made the experience memorable too. Shoutout to Koustav Mondal and Raju Imandi, who handled the practical sessions with patience and dedication. Without them, the sessions would’ve felt like dull college lectures.

Exploring Around Madurai

Though Kodaikanal, Meghamalai, and Munnar were nearby, we could only manage a short trip to Madurai. The Meenakshi Amman Temple and a Mahal palace were the highlights.
Oh, and if you ever visit Madurai, do not miss Jigarthanda. I don’t know what it’s made of, but it was the best drink I’ve ever had. I had three glasses in one go.

Final Thoughts

The ACM Summer School at KARE turned out to be an unforgettable experience. From struggling with permissions to late night hostel adventures, from debugging IoT networks to sipping Jigarthanda in a random shop at Madurai it was all worth it. If you ever get the chance, I’d highly recommend attending. Go with an open mind, ready to learn, and don’t worry if you’re “just” a first year. Sometimes, taking a small leap, like I did when I clicked Other on that form can land you in an experience of a lifetime.