About Databased

This is the story of a club that was built from scratch by seniors just as fresh and clueless as our newest freshers. These seniors had enjoyed exploring new courses and actively participated in recreational activities, sports, and non-academic clubs when they first joined. But there was one major gap that became evident after some time — the coding culture at IISc was still in its infancy, and there was no platform for students to gain exposure to advanced areas of Computer Science and Mathematics. “It all started with a small group of students gathering in CSA 112 every evening to solve Competitive Programming problems and present their solutions,” recalls one of the founding members. As time passed and logistics grew more complex, the need for a formal club emerged to streamline the process.

This was when a group of enthusiastic and responsible peers decided to sow the seeds of an environment that would cultivate a passion for exploring ideas beyond the curriculum. The team was humbly supported by the then CSA chair, Prof. Chiranjib Bhattacharyya, affectionately called Prof. Chiru, alongside Prof. Pandurangan from the same department, a man who lived for the pure joy of teaching. Prof. Chiru always emphasized the importance of applying the learned theory to real-life experiments — this quite shaped the direction of the club. Prof. Pandu was willing to share his vast experience by giving students exposure to the broad domains of Computer Science and always believed in a research-driven approach to solving problems. His influence immensely guided the direction of the club towards holding lectures on advanced topics with a simple philosophy in mind — “This club should be that platform where students are provided a foundation exposure to explore deeper (concepts), empowering them to pick up any book or research paper and confidently dive into its realms.”

As the club grew, the passionate postgraduate students supported the initiatives by hosting talks on advanced topics, which really helped students get a fair idea of the courses they would eventually pick as electives. This club gradually nurtured an environment that allowed learning to grow beyond the classrooms. The vision was passed on to each new batch right in their first year to develop new ideas and organize events. Each batch of club coordinators took responsibility for addressing emerging needs and improving the scale of events and the organization’s structure. The small circle of student discussions transformed into well-organized events.

The club has played a significant role in strengthening the coding culture at IISc while giving students greater exposure through technical talks and discussions. The club has also expanded its outreach through collaborations with major organizations such as GitHub, WorldQuant, Ubuntu, and a few IITs. This has helped increase IISc’s visibility, strengthen connections with industry, and encourage and support students in participating in major competitions across the country.

Today, this space has grown like a large tree, with sturdy branches providing curious minds with shade to calmly discover their interests. This club has become more of a community and is now a vital cog in the IISc ecosystem. It has gradually become the bridge between the advanced courses taught and their application in industry and, equally, in research.

We are thrilled to welcome you to DATABASED, the undergraduate Computer Science club of IISc, with a rich legacy, and the most exciting chapters are yet to come. This club is now your tree as much as it is ours, and we hope you add your own branch to its story.