Named after the immortal horse-like creature in Greek mythol-ogy, Pegasus ’11, the cultural fest of Christian Medical College, Vellore was flying high. The stage was set for an epic showdown. In spite of all-pervasive com-petition in the air, SASTRA University, true to its reputation, entered the record books; the various teams from the Uni-versity clearly swept away all the awards during the competitions, held from 21st-23rd July, 2011.

Right from the first event, “Acoustics”, our mark was made in the fest. An indelible one at that. It was inter-esting to note that the JAM team, which had easily won the competition, had all its members filling in the posts of the final six. This dominating form continued well into the first day, with the Eastern Dance Troupe winning their event, and the Western Dance Team (aka SDT) finishing third. The Arts Team chipped in by winning the “Collage” on Day 1. A host of one-two finishes in Pictionary and “What’s the Good Word” ensured that the trophy for the Best Overall Per-formance was coming back home!

Day 2 started off with Quiz, in which our boys overcame challenging rounds, to finish first and third respec-tively. Dumb Charades followed, which was by far the most competitive event, with over 25 teams taking part. Four teams from SASTRA managed to qualify for the finals. It was customary to see SASTRA winning. Ultimately, the result – 3-1. SASTRA also produced a third place at Turncoat, which cemented our position at the top.

The final day was ruled by the Arts and English Literary teams, which always managed to earn places in the finalists’ lists. A special mention must be made at this juncture, about Vignesh Vijaykumar, IV Year CSE, who won the award for Best Performing Artiste. Thus SASTRA made its mark as a powerhouse of winning performers. Personally speak-ing, these were my first cultural events to which I’ve made my outings. To sum-marise in a sentence, I would say it was an experience that I shall never forget.

PEGASUS’11- A New High

Adios Amigos!

The convocation for the batch of 2007-2011 was held on the 6th of August. This being SASTRA’s 25th year, the graduates received their degree from none other than The Former President Bharat Ratna Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam himself. The Ph.D. candidates kicked off the convocation with the academic pro-

cession from Jiva Chaitanya to the hall, led by Dr.Kalam, our chancellor, vice chancellor, Dr.Vaidhyasubramaniyam carrying the flag of SASTRA and Dr.Swaminathan carrying the Indian flag as the sounds of Nadaswaram invited them to the arena. Dr.Kalam is a symbol of knowl-edge and thirst for knowledge and it is only befitting to invite him to our very special silver jubilee convocation. Dr.Kalam spent time in the SASTRA HUB FOR RESEARCH AND INNO-VATION BUILDING(SHRI), looking at every aspect with keen interest. In his address to the Ph.D. scholars, the graduates and their beaming parents, he praised the research work going on at SASTRA and was also very pleased with the high work ethics present here and the quality of students. He also said that he hoped that in a span of two years, SASTRA would find a nanotech based cure for cancer and aids. He also eluci-

dated about his VISION 2020. Dr.Kalam said that he has spoken to nearly 17 million students and by answering their insightful and thought provoking ques-tions, he came up with the VISION 2020. Dr.Kalam also stressed on the importance of individuality, that we must not be flow with the crowd and that we should carve a name for ourselves. Dr.Kalam also said he was delighted to receive his honorary doctorate which was awarded by SAS-TRA and that it was more special to him than the honorary doctorates awarded to him by universities abroad. Due to time constraints, Dr.Kalam distributed the certificates and awards only to the rank holders from ev-ery department and to the Ph.D. scholars, some of whom were our very own lectur-ers and the rest were given away by our Vice Chancellor. The graduates seemed to be in high spirits, after all, they received their degree from a man revered, loved and

respected and there is no greater honour than that. Well, we sure do hope that every batch to come is as lucky as the 2007-2011 batch! We, from imprint, would like to congratulate the Ph.D. scholars and we wish our seniors the very best in life. Here’s wishing that you guys succeed in all your endeavours!

M HarshiniIII EIE

Niranjan MIII EEE

THE CONVOCATION

PLACE-MENTS!!!!

2010-2011

P3

END OF A MAGICAL

SAGA...P8

LEND A HAND...

P6

inTERnSPEAK

P7

SASTRA UNPLUGGEDP2

GRE CORNERAfroz Zain is a 4th year civil engineering student in SASTRA with the highest score in GRE exams in 2011 with a total of 1530 out of 1600. She also scored a total of 118 out of 120 in her TOEFEL IBT. An extremely talented and incredibly spirited person who is interested in theatre acts, doing projects on green buildings and bio mimicry. She says “the secret to excel in something is to pas-sionately do the things you love doing”

Those who are planning to write GRE or TOEFEL, Do read this. Her answers are bound to inspire you.

1) First we would love to know, what drives you? All your friends say you are busy all the time. Do you never get ex-hausted?

I know my friends complain a lot, but they told you I’m too busy for them?? Sheesh . .I must talk to them about boundaries. I only do the things I really like to. I’m incredibly lazy when it comes to cleaning my room or doing assignments. But if the bait is green buildings or drama, I’d get off my bed in a second! So the secret is to fiercely and pas-sionately do those things that you absolutely love doing. Strike the rest right off your to-do list. That’ll carve out an action plan and send exhaustion to oblivion.

2) How did you manage to get such a high score without undertaking any coaching classes for GRE? What gave you the con-fidence to believe that you can ace the test on your own?

I made it as fun as possible. I had to make sure I wouldn’t get bored of the preparations. So I took books to class and used the GRE-Guru and EasyWords applications on my phone. I sent rhyming GRE Word-messages to my friends till they threatened to block/murder me. For example “He had to pay a reparation for their separation, and also for her vacation, although you whine and repine, you are still my sunshine”. I read the Hindu editorial, did crosswords and used fancy lan-guage to talk about it to anyone who would listen. I created and played ridiculously com-plicated word-games with other GRE takers. I had a lot of support from my friends. They seemed to know I would ace it even before I did. We all went out to celebrate the day I finished my wordlists. Little things like that added up.

3) How do you manage to multitask? Such a high CGPA, an amazing GRE score plus you take part in extracurricular, culturals and also organise technical competitions.

I don’t multitask! I do one thing at a time be-cause otherwise it makes me giddy. The trick is to use time bubbles effectively. You know, the stray half hours in your days that just go by unnoticed? 11.10 And 2p.m breaks are the best. Try to squeeze your wordlists, team meetings and phone calls/gossip sessions over samosas into this time slot and you’ll start getting a lot of work done in much lesser time than you usually would. Racing against a deadline works for me.

4) You must have done a lot of research on the admission process of universities like Harvard, Stanford and MIT, What do you have to say to the students who would like to apply?

Five words. Go through the university web-sites! Know them inside out. Pick a course

that really interests you, because that’s what ultimately matters. Start university hunting at least two years in advance, unless you are already dead sure about what you want to do and where you want to do it. Check out the student profiles and do whatever you can to match up to them. Look for professors whose research interests match your own. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but hey, you had a fair warning.

5) How is your typical day like? Did it change much during the preparations?

I wake up at 5a.m, do a bit of power yoga and go jogging; sometimes I double that up with strength training, read a new book, get ready and then head to class. I wish. My mornings are usually spent in utter chaos. A mad rush to the bathroom followed by running back and hunting for my toothbrush, grabbing my kajal and getting to class with-out looking like a train wreck. (Here I mul-titask!) I’m not your regular organized high scorer, my time bubbles are my only hope.

Although during my GRE prep, I did manage to tame myself and have study sessions in the mornings and evenings. It helped to take breaks every now and then to go crash in other people’s rooms and make impossible bets on how much you’re going to finish that night. Basically, I made sure I did a fixed amount of preparation everyday and every week, but I had a very flexible schedule.

6) There is a popular belief that marks are very important to succeed in life. How far do you think it is true?

Ah! Tricky question. I believe marks are important. Mostly because they make life easier for you. Good marks give you a head start and make you feel confident about your dreams. There are numerous examples of people who’ve made a difference in the world without a single “S” grade, but they did have to face a lot of resistance. A good score card is like an entry pass that the world recognizes. But it isn’t the only way to get past security.

7) The Four important tips you would give for anyone who is going to write GRE/TOEFEL?

I’m not very familiar with the new syl-labus, but from my experience quant may seem easy, but don’t be fooled. Practise like crazy. Like your life depended on it.Revise wordlists. Use Kaplan for RC. Don’t under-estimate your ets PowerPrep cd. Get GRE-Guru.

And for all those who are planning to take TOEFEL iBT, have a look at the speaking and writing videos by NoteFull.com on you-tube. They’re really simple, yet effective.

Forget what I said in point 1. Your life doesn’t depend on it. It’s not the end of the world and it doesn’t completely decide your future. There’s life beyond the GRE! Make sure you have time for fun and friends and that you have a practical schedule. Yes that means don’t swear to finish 3 wordlists a day, just give yourself enough time and be true to yourself.

The imprint team wishes good luck to Afroz Zain and her future plans.

Mowshimkka Renganathan

III IT

MUSIC INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Music lovers, this might just be your dream come true! Turns out, composing is not just about sitting by your lone self and strumming out your heart anymore! Music Information Technology, the newest open elective, is finally here to bring you up to speed. The enthusiastic teacher of this open elective teaches you not just the physics of sound- tone, pitch and amplitude and all that jazz but also helps you get accustomed to software that will give your song the pizzazz it needs! Classes interspersed with music samples that help get everything into your head; it looks like an open elective that’s come to stay!

Aishwarya H.S.III CSE

A stunning new addition to SASTRA’s Thanjavur campus which has been built using ideas of modern architecture blended with scientific aroma, this building adds fragrance to the 25 year old legacy of SAS-TRA. Right from its design, location, rea-son for existence and etcetera, everything seems to fit exactly right into the puzzle. The magnum opus project incorporates a number of sustainable design strategies and environmentally compelling features that are visually arresting. It’s unique architec-tural design and intricate interior works that include a DNA double helix staircase, black granite flooring that encompasses the floor till the walls, and the huge cartoon at the entrance that adds mescaline to the minds of the worn out PhD scholars and takes them to a intellectually higher state of mind.Housing world class research facilities under the banner “Centre for Nanotech-nology and Advanced Biomaterials”, this permutation and combination of bricks and cement is Aladdin’s lamp for high impact factor papers!If it’s SJMSOM for IIT Bombay or Joslin Diabetes centre for Harvard, then it’s definitely ASK for SASTRA! It’s a pow-erhouse of tremendous significance and adds a totally different dimension to the current ongoing research at SASTRA. It houses labs working in various fields from electrophysiology to biosensors. The fol-lowing labs are present at ASK : Molecular Biophysics , Genetic Engineering, Tissue culture, Quorum sensing, Structural biol-ogy, Material Electrochemistry, Electro-physiology, Functional Nano devices, CARISM, Nano sensors, Nano fluids,

Material characterization facility ,FE- TEM and FE-SEM lab .The unique and expensive experimental and computational capabilities provide the researchers with some of the best tools available to tap the potential of nano tech-nology. It is difficult to classify the work going on in the block into a particular area. The aggressive flames of research burn through a diverse span of fuel that includes Electrochemistry, Bioelectronics, Tissue engineering, Phytochemistry, Molecular Dynamics and etcetera.Cold Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope, Atomic Force Microscope, X-ray Diffractometer, Thin Film Deposi-tion Unit, Nano Lithography Tools.etc are some of the instrumentation facilities available within the walls of the supreme structure that makes it a potential hub for high quality research and helps it compete with the likes of Brookhaven national lab and EMBL.The flame’s bright hue reveals what the slime contains. I guess the chemists out there get what I’m trying to say. Analog to that, a university’s strength not only comes from the number of 10 pointers or place-ments, it fundamentally depends on the research work going on which in turn is measured by the kind of papers published. When you walk through the corridors of MIT or Stanford, every other guy next to you would probably have a publication in Nature or cell or JACS etcetera and it’s not surprising because they work their lives off for their research. The reason they are able to do it is the environment in which they work in. With the availability of a bundle of new facilities in ASK and a chemically modified research environment , SASTRA does not find itself far away from the much desired dreams of Nature or JACS. It just takes some time, sweat and many sleepless nights. Majestically facing the widespread fields of Vallam, She adds salt and mint to the life of the research scholars. From watch-ing the sun set across the fields as one waits for the DNA to run across a gel, to rushing to Chota for the evening coffee, to anxious moments before one submits the monthly progress report, life at SHRI is a mirage of colors! The moments of surren-der in the labs reincarnates you into a bet-ter individual. Because that’s what research is about! It’s more than just the hours spent in the lab; it’s about things that are much more valuable. One cannot be but grate-ful towards the management for giving us such a wonderful opportunity in this form to make our lives better.When love and skill work together, you can expect a masterpiece! This has just started to take form in SASTRA. “What is, is and what aint, aint! Come join my dance!”Enough!

Anantha Narayanan III IBT

Romancing the pipettes

P3SASTRA UNPLUGGED

UNFOLDING THE PLACEMENTS

Recently seen a final year pour over an aptitude book?? Wonder not, because the placements are round the corner. We have our first company coming to our campus this month. This month!! That’s right!! That is all in between the final years and their dreams and aspirations. This is an article full of facts for those people who are neck deep in all kinds of myths regarding placements. Wish you all the very best!

•The recruitments will start in the 7th semester unlike the previous years.

•Few core companies and IT MNC’s will be visiting us in August.

•Recruitment process for the IT compa-nies is likely to start from October 2011.

•CoCubes is an online portal in which the interested students have to register for any company.

•Department of training and placement is planning to conduct an online screening test in C, C++ and general aptitude for an hour in August.

•“Anukul Sikshan” special classes will be held during the months of August & September for low scorers and also for interested candidates.

•NASSCOM is planning to conduct Na-tional level Assessment of Competence Test (NAC-Tech) for candidates to be employed in IT companies. IT Compa-nies will consider the NAC-Tech score as one of the eligible criteria from this year. The score requirements would vary from

company to company.

•A special 3 days free Pre-Placement training program is being conducted for the benefit of the students. •The students are advised to check their mails frequents to get more updated about placements.Wish you all the very best!

Swetha RIII ECE

SASTRA that has taken a beautiful shape in the form of ASK.The 30-minute presentation ended with some brain-drilling questions from dig-nitaries like Dr. Shridharan, Dean, SCBT and Dr.K Thiyagarajan, Dean, Research. In fact Dr. K. Thiyagarajan sir’s speech on “Sunday’s being working days” ap-pealed to a lot to people in the hall. In my opinion, when people in the labs of Cornell, Brookhaven or Cold Spring Harbor can make use of the precious hours of a sunday, why not us at SAS-TRA? Anuradha madam’s final words where she was expressing her gratitude to Swami sir, indeed shows us that a PhD. teaches us much more things than just science. Finally Swami sir winded up the session by telling us about how Anuradha ma’am had been a key player in setting up the labs at CeNTAB right from its inception in the year 2006 when sir had just returned from the USA. As I walked out of the seminar hall descend-ing the staircase of life, I realized that I had been in one of the most important occasions in the history of SASTRA and the lesson learnt was that a PhD. is like walking on a rope, you either work your brain off or else get kicked badly. Con-gratulations to Dr. Anuradha for being the first PhD. student of Swami Sir.

Anantha NarayananIII IBT

It was a warm and lazy Sunday morning on the 31st of July, just another day for all SASTRA students. However there was one person for whom it was sup-posed to be one of the best moments of their life. Clad in traditional attire, with face glowing with enthusiasm and emo-tions of all kind was Anuradha ma’am of CenTAB. Sorry! Dr. Anuradha of CeNTAB who had her final viva, for the fulfillment of her PhD., under the super-vision of Dr. Swaminathan. S, Director of CenTAB. The first floor seminar hall of ASK housed some of the respected names in the research arena of SASTRA. The magnificently furnished room filled up with the sweet fragrance of air freshener added aroma to the mood. Dr. Anuradha gave a stunning presentation of her PhD work in the presence of an external ex-aminer from NIT Rourkela. The presen-tation was enough to certify the amount of work that had been put into the research. It was a work of sheer involve-ment and tremendous significance. Espe-cially in India where tissue engineering is still in its early stages, CeNTAB is proving to be a powerful organisation under the gracious guidance of Swami Sir. The Thesis defence was just another example of the growing research fever in

First PhD from CeNTAB

Canopy in its initial days had the stu-dents craving for more. One successful year later, that’s still what they’re doing. Every day, students flock to Canopy either to catch up or chill out with one of their delicacies. The founding members of Canopy, Dr.Vaidhyasubramaniam included, felt that the spirit of entrepre-neurship should be carried on by select students each year. We had a chance to meet and speak with one of the current owners of Canopy - Sridhar Ganapathy, a Final Year student of Information Tech-nology. Excerpts from the interview…

Tell us a little about how Canopy started…Canopy began as a practical application of three Open Elective courses - User Friendly Market Research, Business Analysis for Engineers and Finance for Engineers which were taught by Vaidhy sir. Sir felt that such a project would give students a real look at the business world and give them a hands-on experience. So, he suggested that each of the 13 stu-dents (and himself) put in an equal sum of money for the start-up. And in August 2010, Canopy began its journey.Who are the current owners of Canopy for the duration of this academic year?There are seven of us, all of whom have completed all three neces-sary courses and are in the final year of our engineering course - Jyoti

Subramaniam,Vivekananda,Anand S,rakesh K,Divya,Ramprakash and me , Sridhar Ganapathy.

What do you have in store for the stu-dents this year?Well, we are definitely revamping Can-opy this year. You will see a new look- a

refreshed Canopy in a few months. Also, a few new items here and there can be expected. A change in the menu implies a change in the prices as well.

Could you elaborate?Certainly. We are planning on including filter coffee in the menu, as well as cater more to the diversity on the campus.

Since we also want to cater to the day scholars, we plan on bringing Breakfast items to our menu.

The first years haven’t warmed up to the idea of Canopy yet. How do you plan on doing this?We have a few schemes on the cards.

We’re planning to put them out when we feel the time is right.

You have already branched out to laundry, retail (Gurunath) and pho-tocopying (Abirami Xerox). Is there more expansion to be expected?We are looking at putting up a travel desk so that students can pre-book their

tickets for open holidays etc. Also, we are planning on implementing a food delivery system for the hostellers espe-cially those who can’t make it to Canopy by closing time. The girls are unable to utilize our dinner menu to the fullest due to their in-time, so, this system will benefit them the most.

There is some vacant space adjacent to the present coupon counter. What do you intend to do with it?The idea is to keep the space exclusively for staff members, so that they can enjoy the variety without having to struggle through crowds and meet a few col-leagues. This will also validate the need for filter coffee on our menu.

Do you plan on increasing your work-ing hours?As of now, we would like to keep it the same. But in the future, sure, we are looking to start around 7.30 AM and stay open till 8.15 or 8.30 PM, like we did when the first years had just arrived on campus.

Well, congratulations on your stellar suc-cess so far and TEAM IMPRINT wishes you the very best for a bright future ahead.

CANOPY - Looking ahead!

Niranjan MIII EEE

P4

After the Boards, and a couple of entrance exams came the ennui and anxiety of waiting. Then came the flurry of activity, with results being out one after another. The D-Day arrived sooner than expected. With the announcement of counselling by SASTRA being amongst the first, it was a quick journey from Bangalore to Trichy, and then to the cam-pus. The first impression was “WOW!! What a campus in the middle of nowhere, bang on NH67!”. ‘Will I make it here?’ was the foremost among the multitude of questions running in my mind. After systematic rounds of counselling and seat selection, I knew I made it to SAS-TRA. As compared to other engineer-ing colleges, the classes for freshers at SASTRA were the earliest to begin, i.e., 14th July 2011. So, here I was, flanked by my parents in the hallowed portals of SASTRA, awaiting the next phase of

my life enroute to becoming an engineer. Coming from a family of engineers, I always wanted to be one. Left home for the first time, to call my room my new abode . My four co- inhabitors , i.e. my roomies, all strangers to each other and pretty much in the same boat. The next few days involved getting to know one another better, getting used to the classes, timetables, assignments and deadlines. Things fell in place pretty easily and it has been a smooth transition from school to college on the academic front, thanks to the excellent faculty here at SASTRA, it is the non-academic activities that I’m yet to get used to, which is a completely new experience from home and school. It’s been a transition from reel life to real life, living the 3 Idiots way. I’m eagerly looking forward to the next few fun-filled years here.

A FACCHA’S TAKE!!

FACCHA’S @sastra

Carpe Diem literally means seize the day. But in SASTRA, Carpe Diem means seize the opportunities. Talented people can be brought out to light only when they are given a chance to show themselves and in SASTRA, Carpe is the name for it. Are you good in Arts? Dance? Lits? Drama? Vocals? Instru-ments? Well then, CARPE provides a platform to enter the college team. CARPE has been really success-ful in all these years and people who dis-play outstanding talent have won a ticket into the college team with no regard of which year he/she is in. For amateurs who think they are not qualified enough, CARPE can boost confidence and give a taste of a stage performance. This year, CARPE(9th-11th Sept) is headed by Rohit Subramanian(Cultural coordinator) of the final year. He has loads of plans and has promised to make this CARPE a special one. The teams include 1)Fine arts 2)Dance 3)Drama 4)Music 5) English lits 6)Tamil lits 7)Telugu lits 8)Hindi lits 9)Fotohub. First comes The Arts team. It is headed by Shilpa Murali of final year. For this CARPE, the arts team has adapted the theme: ‘Cartoons’. We all really miss the cartoons that we grew up watching in the 90’s. The Arts team has decided to bring it back. It has events like sketching, ad poster designing, car-toon strip, carving, collage, etc. all with a delicious flavor of cartoons. The Dance team has events for both eastern and western dance. The overall dance team coordinator is Gayathri who also heads the eastern team. The western team is headed by Vaishali. The dance event includes group dance. If you are interested in scor-ing some bonus points, try using props. There are two awards for the CARPE, the best male dancer and the best female dancer. The people, who really perform well, will get a chance to enter SDT (SASTRA Dance Team) which is just a dream for many dancers here. So You Think You Can Dance? Then what are you waiting for? Take the floor! Are you an aspiring filmmaker? A freelance photographer? Or you have a camera and keep wondering what to do? Here is your trump card to get into the SASTRA FOTOHUB. The Hub is a group of filmmaking enthusiasts who excel in different fields of filmmaking techniques. It’s currently headed by Srikanth, Ragvendar and Dinesh. For this Carpe, they have tentatively decided upon 3 events, which will include both videography and photography contests. Added, there will also be Photoshop event which is currently headed by Sha-shank. The events will be finalized soon. Winning participants will set the bars high to get into the Hub. So clean your lenses and thoughts people, because its SHOWTIME!! For the budding actors, direc-

tors, script writers the Drama team has a lot to offer! This CARPE, they have an event where the participants must put up a play for 30 min on any genre. The team headed by Ashwin and Sneha promised us that there will be some won-derful variations in the event and some on spot acting events. So this time, we can expect a different kind of dramatics and they are expecting many first years to be a part of Carpe drama this year. So dreaming of becoming next Marlon Brando or Martin Scorcese? The stage is all yours. The Music team in SASTRA is at its best in the recent years. The team is headed by Vijay Krishnan and Hari Prashanth this year. It includes events like light group music, solo instrumental (percussion and non-percussion) and the exciting ‘SASTRA super singer’. They are also planning to include western group music for this CARPE. Let’s see who the next Yanni in SASTRA is. The ELS (English Literary club in SASTRA) is headed by Sridhar and Srinath this year. For this CARPE they have around 12 events planned, mainly focused on quizzes and speaking events. The team heads expect the first years to make use of ELS in CARPE to explore the non-academic competitions and have fun. Sastra Tamizh Sangam is headed by Vharoon and it brings you the fun factor for those crazy about Tamil. They have a plethora of events like cine quiz, dumb c, anthakshari, crossword, kathai, kavithai, tamizhattam, mime, drama, therukoothu and kalaka povadu yaaru. Tamizh Sangam has a lot to offer in terms of prizes also. So ‘Vaanga. Kalan-dukonga. Kalakunga.’ In this era of modernization, to keep the flame of our national lan-guage glowing is the sole mission of HLC@S(Hindi Literary Club @ Sastra). HLC@S for this CARPE is headed by Nijesh. Regular clubs are conducted on Wednesdays and Fridays of every week to enhance the knowledge about our mother land through INDIA QUIZ. Events like Debate, Just a min, etc sharp-ens the soft skills while the elite club of events like DUMB C, ANTAKSHARI etc adds freshness to your daily life. Telugu literary club is headed by Vamsi and Chandrika this year. Although a recent addition to carpe, the telugu lits events have drawn huge crowds. This carpe will will be no different with 8 events including dramatics, debate, dumb c and also variety events like “sarda sarda ga” which promise lots of fun. Whoa. So CARPE has something to cater to each and every person. Prepare yourself, tell your friends, form a team and ignite the lamp on the road to the college team via CARPE’11.

Ashwin Bharathwaj KIII ICT

CARPE DIEM

Tejas Kinger I EIE

Believe it or not: the following is an ex-tract from my English II boards answer sheet where I was asked to write an essay on ‘what I want to be’. Funny how all creative juices flow only during exams!

I want to be a person…- whose name is respected and whose word is true.- whose self respect and dignity cannot be measured by material wealth.- who loves the world not out of consid-eration for its imperfections but out of respect for its achievements.- who judges people not on hear-say but after sharing a mile of life with them.

- who values relationships not as duty but as life itself.

WHAT I WANT TO BE

P5

THE TIMELINEHow many times in your life do you ex-pect to come out during the 11:10 break and experience a highly spiritual envi-ronment while eating samosa and meetha chutney? That is exactly what happened when we came to college. We kick started the year with the Kumbhabishek-am of The Jaya Ganapathy Temple. Just that instead of the samosa and meetha chutney, we gorged ourselves on yummy ladoos given as prasadam. Hopefully, our grades will shoot sky high!

We see you, first years, walk all the way to VKJ in the scorching sun but how many of you know anything about the adjacent building? The temple wasn’t the only thing that had a grand inaugura-tion; the hub for research and innovation a.k.a SHRI was also given an opening worth its noble aims. This research build-ing has state of the art infrastructure for

high tech research, a must visit for every SASTRAite!

What could be more fun than being a part of a team that almost always wins? As we near the end of July, a flurry of preparations begins in anticipation of the Eastern Dance Team Auditions. First years have a very good chance of making it because, if not this time, you still have three more years to try!!

Colosseum (26th to 28th August)-The Battle for the Best

Colosseum is one of the most awaited Inter-University events of SASTRA. This event sees universities competing to be the best in various sports like football, basketball, volleyball, cricket, table ten-nis, badminton, chess, and best physique and with the new football ground, being a sportsperson has become more fun!

The events witness students of various colleges trying to outdo each other to emerge victorious. Colosseum has carved a niche for itself in the milieu of sports fests.

Vinayak Chathurthi(Sept 1st ) – In our college, we celebrate Vinayak Chathurthi with kozhukkattais in the mess and pooja in the temple. As it’s your first Vinayak Chathurthi away from home, trust us, you won’t miss out on anything!

What makes a college calendar year awe-some is the memories that you associate with it. The college calendar need not be the only one; you could have your own personal calendar filled with Sundays of doing drama and the evenings on week-days with jamming or doing ship wreck or if you’re a techie, GLOSS or TECS or RCS is the place to be!

CARPEDIEM- The Intra College cultural. –

This is the perfect platform for the first years to hone their skills and get rid of that thing they call stage fear! One really popular event is the music auditions. The winners of the Carpe Diem music event get a direct ticket into the music team. With a really supportive audience and awesome events, this could just be your stepping stone to make it to the cultural team.

Before you know it, your exams arrive and you are caught up in a whirlwind of Engineering Chemistry and Mechanics and by the end of it all, you’ll just want Diwali to come and cheer you up!

Diwali – 5 DAYS OFF. PERIOD. What more can we say?Third CIA – The unbelievable rush for marks and the season of cramming.

Just when you think life can’t get any worse, the end semesters arrive with the horrors of facing an exam where you have low internals. But fear not, oh brave one! The holiday season is on its way and after that, the two biggest events of SASTRA – Daksh and Kuruksastra!

FUERA- What can be more exciting than a well-played game amidst fierce but healthy competition with your best friends? This is exactly what Fuera offers you, not to mention the chance to rep-resent the college as a part of the home team in various other colleges.

Daksh – The perfect opportunity to Get Dakshified.

This is THE moment to experience engineering! Fun events, a plethora of food stalls and the best brains at SAS-TRA battling it out. And there are a lot of events for the freshers too. The events held last time were Small Wonder, Cer-ebrate, Electraption, Grandmaster, and MCOP apart from the usual events like Contraptions, Robot Cars etc. The cricket match was telecast last time and it drew crowds in large numbers! Daksh is given its fitting finale every year with a grand event – The Laser Show. Daksh is full of surprises, so don’t miss it!

Kuruksastra- It’s the time of fun, food and frolic.

Before you get out of the Daksh hang-over, Kuruksastra hits you harder and better, with a wide range of events like dance events, music events and the liter-ary events. With mesmerizing voices like Shankar Mahadevan, Karthik and Benny Dayal performing in our pro-nites, KS is a festival on its own!! The two other pro-nites are the music and dance nights and they really get the audience groov-ing! So, go ahead, participate and make the best of these few years!

But at the end of the day, if you are a native of the kingdom of geeks, worry not cause you will be welcomed and surprised by the diverse array of tech fests conducted by various departments. In fact the Biots might be the first one to conduct the much awaited Samhita.

So get ready for exciting year ahead!!!

Shruti Srinivasan III BioEHarshini Mohan III EIE

faccha’s @sastra

ECO BRIGADE

Earth warriors! Behold - the Eco Brigade. The club is back with a whole new set of tactics to help fresh warriors win their battles. The sessions plan to start off with an orientation for fresh-ers followed by a list of events that will fire you up to save the planet. The list of events include- presentation on e-waste management, screening of short films based on environment, carbon footprints, sustainability challenge and many more fun events all through the semester. So buckle up fellow earthlings and join the Eco Brigade.

ICON- Breaking Barriers Icon provides an excellent platform to bring out the hidden talents in all. Innovative ideas are unleashed in every session with a perfect blend of talent and creativity. The aspirations, perspectives and cherished ideas in your head are brought to light in ICON. Break the barriers, showcase your talents, spend an hour of fun, frolic and fiesta every week and bring out the NEW YOU. If you ask the ICONITES, “ why ICON??” they say, ”There is a difference between having to say something and saying it”. Come attend ICON. A bright new world is here to bring out the many I’s in YOU.

CELERITAS

Welcome aboard on a jour-ney through the realm of physics. The journey is never ending and so is the discussion at every session of Celeritas. From the secrets of the universe to the unexplained quantum theory, Celeritas has in store a bunch of splendid sessions where you get to unravel the hidden facts about physics. Have some new ideas that can turn over the whole Newtonian theo-ries?? Express it @ Celeritas and make a difference. So come rendezvous with Celeritas.

Archana RIII ECE

CLUB UPDATES- whose happiness is not for anyone to grant or refuse but their highest moral code.- who believes that man’s ability and productivity is what runs the motor of the world.- whose love for an individual arises from admiration for the person’s ideolo-gies and principles.- for whom no goal is too far, no dream too high.- for whom with trust in one’s ability and in the Almighty above, nothing is impos-sible!

Asma Afreen SAIII ECE

P6spotlight

Alumni of our university, namely Raja Raman of the 2007-2011 batch has diversified into the music field as his major. He was in the EIE department

and a guitarist for our college band. He is pursuing MS in Music Engineering which is also called as Music Technology in other colleges .Various Universities offer this course – USA: University of Miami, Georgia Tech., Rochester, UCal Santa Barbara For England: Queens Mary, U of Edin-burgh Finland - Univ. of Jyvaskyla (Music, Mind and Technology- really a good and innovative course), NYU offers a Master in Music (MM) degree in the same but the course is strong!

The scope for the music, media and entertainment industry to get into medi-

cal, plant growth, music therapy, indus-trial electronics and software applications and solutions for audio related things is very high . Sky is the limit I’d say!Examples: - There was an article re-cently I read in newspaper that a French winemaker used to play a few of his own recorded songs for his grape plants by putting up speakers throughout his vineyard. He found the grapes grew 5X bigger than usual, were of better quality and the wine produced from them was better too! He also noticed it kept away the insects! A group of scientists studied these grapes and his music by using mi-cro sensors over these plants. They found that certain frequencies of the music kept away the insects, certain frequen-cies influenced the growth, but the major discovery was when the plants were cut they would notice a sudden spike in the sensor reading. When they would just about to be cut again, the plants would know the blade is about to cut them and a warning pulse was detected before they were cut the next time. This actually proves that plants do sense, have feelings and recognize the environment they are around and what is going to happen! Another is a famous applica-tion for iPhone called Ladida, in which basically one can sing to the phone and the software would accompany the singer by listening, learning, adapting and improvising - a literal jam session like a human would! (contd.. P7)

DIVERSIFIED PASSIONS

Vishal Patwari, IVth year EEE is the student coordinator of the 6th edition of Daksh, the international technical festival of SASTRA University. We caught up with him to find out what is in store this time around! On being asked whether Daksh is actually happening this year; He enthusiastically replies saying, “Daksh, being an international tech-fest, which is in fact the sec-ond largest tech festival in south India. An event of its stature can’t be stopped”. He promises that the 6th edition will consist of excit-ing events to look forward to. The number of events will be less; more emphasis for events has been made on quality and not quantity. He confides that his motivation to lead Daksh came from his previous batches who did the same. They set standards and bench marks, which in fact make the next batch to take it is a challenge, and organize it

better than before. He emphasizes that his main aim is to stick to the basics, carry forward in a simple manner without any high funda-stuff and make sure their motive is achieved.On being questioned about the workshops, he says that there are a few people who’ve approached them regarding the workshops; one very interesting one was by an alumni of IIT-Madras who’s built a gadget similar to the one shown in the movie ‘3 idiots’ resembling a helicopter. Workshops will be final-ized by September at the latest.He talks about his experience in the previous years, observing that each year has been a transition for him, not in terms of workload but in terms of thinking. Compara-tively, the first year had more zeal and enthusiasm, Second year had a healthy balance of enthusiasm and responsibility; but in the third year, responsibility takes a much

larger step. He is looking forward to a new experience in this final year. He strongly feels that, being in a technical college, one should participate more in tech festivals. The problem statements this year are designed in such a way that whatever we have learnt in class has been implemented in an in-dustry related manner which give better understanding and boost an individual’s technical skills. He is happily surprised at the posi-tive response received till date. It’s been amazing, he says! The Daksh student co-ordinator is hoping this streak continues with the sponsors as well when the marketing team starts work, which is soon.Imprint wishes the entire Daksh team good luck in making our tech-nical festival a grand one!

As told to Asma Afreen S AIII ECE

How will you get ‘Dakshified’ this year?

For those interested in joining the team; enclosed below are the contact numbers of the few core team mem-bers:

Vishal Patwari-9003250756 Aditya R.-9944123219 Kiran Kumar B.-9003329208 Saraswathi Devi-9047320589

Nagarjuna -9790292089

Anirudh N.-9790270323

It is not every day that one gets to meet some kind souls who put in significant portions of their time for the service of not-so-fortunate strangers. When I was asked to write about an NGO started by a group of students from SASTRA, I was given their contact numbers and quickly enough, a meeting was held with the founders in the usual spot - the ditch behind Gnana Vihar.Founded by Mowshimkka Rengana-than and co-founded by Shankar Ganesh (IIIrd year students from the IT department), the non-governmental organization, “Bhojan Atews”, started off on September 23rd, 2010. It all began with a visit to Anbagam in Thirunedun-gulam, a village 10 kms from Thuvakadi, in the outskirts of Trichy. The members spent from their pockets, to buy for the children, stationery articles and snacks. In the words of founder Mowshimkka, “We realized how a small thing like a wooden pencil can light up the brightest smile ever”.Since then, Bhojan Atews Foundation has grown to become an organization consisting of a large number of members and volunteers not just from SASTRA, but also from a number of other colleges in Trichy. Students from as far as Chen-nai have volunteered, with a few from Madras Institute of Technology. On a typical weekend, members of Bhojan leave for orphanages and government (contd.. P7)

STUDENTS INITIATIVE FOR KIDS

P7coffee table

Vidya Sagar Sankaranarayanan is a 4th year computer science student at SASTRA. Sagar is passionate about coding and solving problems in gen-eral. He’s served as Mozilla’s campus representative. He’s also the guy behind AstroLogic, an application for Symbian mobiles that has garnered a huge num-ber of downloads in the Ovi store.Sagar recently interned at the Facebook Head-quarters in Palo Alto. In this interview, Sagar talks about everything ranging from his passion for coding, and the road to the internship at Facebook. He also talks about life at Facebook and how his typical day as an intern was like.

1) First, tell us a bit about yourself. How did it all start off? When did you decide that coding is _the_ thing that you wanted to do for life?

These are the only two types of coding that I’ve done in my life so far:

[1] Data structures, and algorithmic prob-lems solving.[2] Developing a product, meant to be used by an end-user

I entirely focused on the former during my high school days. During that period, TopCoder contests were the only, and the most important events in my calen-dar. What made these contests addicting the most was that I could learn from the world’s best coders.With a lot of guid-ance from my brother, a stroke of bless-ing and a bit of a skill by not missing a single contest for two years, I managed to be a world finalist in the TopCoder High School Tournament, 2008.That trip defined my life. After I met the world’s top 50 high school programmers dur-ing the finals at Purdue University at Indianapolis, I knew there was nothing I enjoyed more than coding, yet.Our stu-dent club GLOSS played a pivotal role in helping me get started in the second category. This was during the good old days of Sun Microsystems when we had a great campus ambassador named J. Dwarakanath. Watching him build a lot of software that made the lives of a lot of people easier in the campus was a great source of inspiration for me. I built a game in JavaFX called “Shoot ‘em up” thanks to a tech talk on JavaFX given by an engineer, Praveen Mohan during a GLOSS session. Praveen was then work-ing on building JavaFX itself.All the encouragement from Praveen, Dwarak, and the whole JavaFX team got me kick started during my first year, and I landed #3 in India in the “Code JavaFX” contest conducted by Sun Microsystems (and a honorable mention in the international fi-nal round). Since then, it’s been a joyous ride in the second category. Honestly, I still believe one should focus more on [1] during his/her college days, and less on [2] until he/she enters a job. I’ve decided to focus only on [1] during the last year of my student life.

2) You’re ranked as one of India’s top programmers on TopCoder. What makes you tick? Do you code every day?

DIVERSIFIED PASSIONS(contd..)

What does it take to get in? The colleges prefer an electronics/computer science background, a person who’s also a music enthusiast ... not necessarily know how to play any instru-ment. A good background of DSP and knowhow of MATLAB will help. Also a background in Neural Networks might come to be a greater advantage. There are job opportunities in SONY, Apple, Microsoft, Audio Precision, Cakewalk, Protools, VOX, Marshal, Gibson, Ibanez, etc. Now, Apple does need Music Techs for building their new version of Garage Band wouldn’t they? Even Firefox needs such developers! There’s no end to ap-plications in this field!

College: University of MiamiWhy? Well, these guys are the pioneers in this field in U.S.A. They were the first to introduce such a course and set the standards by which other such courses were accredited throughout the country. They started the Bachelor’s course in 1975! And MS in 1986! So, their course is well equipped to support the interests of different individuals and this is the one with the highest experience in this field.

STUDENTS INITIATIVE FOR KIDS (contd..)

schools here in the Trichy region to teach students basic english and basic comput-er applications. They also provide some training to the teachers, who unfortu-nately are not so relatively qualified as opposed to other institutions in cities. All this apart, they distribute combs, tooth-pastes, among other items to girls. Not to forget, snacks for everyone in general, and sometimes, all this is accompanied by a generous donation to the headmas-ter.Look at the picture of the boy here. He is Senthurmurugan, a native of Kerala. Son of a washer man, he was diagnosed with eye cancer. He required an eye removal surgery, the cost of which his family could not bear. Bhojan spent weeks col-lecting donations from people, besides contributing from their own reserves to garner Rs. 15,000 to pay for the surgery. The surgery was performed on the 3rd of December 2010 at Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai. Recently, Bhojan has launched a work-shop called ‘One Step Ahead’ on the 26th of last June at Anbagam. Bhojan also conducted a workshop at Mary Martha Higher Secondary School, near Paganur, last weekend. This was attended by over 130 kids from grades six to ten; sessions

ranging from basic banking, first aid to computer applications were conducted. Their work was specially lauded by the founder of the nation-wide NGO Bhumi, Dr. Prahalathan, who was also present at the workshop.On being asked about Bhojan’s vision for the future, Shankar said that they are in the process of creating a formal syllabus to be taught in the schools they visit. It is currently in review. He said that their primary goal is to make an impact in kids’ lives by imparting valuable life-related skills that are usually not taught in school.While Santhosh, a 3rd year IT student, designs certificates that are awarded to kids, other volunteers Aarthi, Abhinav, Ajay, Aravindan, Dhivya R, Divya T.M., Krupesh, Narasimman, Nikhil, Sofiya, Shanthini, Sukanya, Suraj Bhooshan, Tharun contribute in their own little way by teaching and organizing the work-shops.(Bhojan has plans for its first anniver-sary, due this 23rd of September. Wish to volunteer? Get more information on their fan page - http://www.facebook.com/bhojan.atews or email them at contact@bhojanatews.org)

Sai Sharad. II Mech.

Intern Speak - Interview With Vidya Sagar, Facebook Intern

Arvind ViswanathanIII CSE

The one hour 15 minutes of the online coding round in TopCoder has always been an adrenaline rush for me. The fact that you are going to compete with the world’s best coders makes it so much more. I learnt everything about compet-ing in such contests from the algorithm tutorials at TopCoder. What also helped was constant practice every day and guidance from my brother. And yes, I be-lieve coding everyday is a must for me, to stay in good shape for such contests. I tend to fall in code quality if don’t code for a week or two.

3) Tell us about the road to Facebook. How did you manage to secure an intern position there? Was the process tough? Or was it just a piece of cake for you?

I got my resume forwarded to Facebook HQ through a referral from my brother, Prasanna Sankaranarayanan, who is the co-founder and CTO of LikeALittle. For-tunately, this whole mix-up of achieve-ments in the two coding categories that I mentioned earlier was recognized, and appreciated by Facebook.The entire process happened in just 2 weeks dur-ing which I had 3 interviews. The first one was mainly focused on my software development skills/achievements, with more focus on how I got AstroLogic to scale step by step, from a few users to about a million. It ended with me talk-ing about a bunch of other stuff that I had built, and a brief coding round in data structures.The other two rounds of interviews were purely coding rounds,

with stress on writing good quality, and efficient algorithmic code. The first one was a tad easier, while the other two were intense.

4) What’s your internship at Facebook like? How is a typical work day?

The internship at Facebook has been my life’s best learning curve, yet. I love the fact that I got to work with the world’s best engineers everyday, at the world’s #1 ranked tech company. The intern group there consisted of students from MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Harvard, etc.The work culture (again ‘hack’ cul-ture - trust me, we have entire buildings painted with “Hack” on the outside) helped me bring out my best, and I com-pletely felt at home. Case in point: my mentor, Jan Jezabek, was from Poland, and is in the ~ 99.5th percentile among all the coders in the world. This is how my typical work schedule was like:

●Wake up at 11:20 A.M. and reach the office at around 12.

●Get the work for the day laid out. Have lunch, if needed and discuss with others in the team. This was usually followed by some light coding and code check-ins of what I wrote the previous night. I usu-ally got back home quite early, at around 4 P.M.

●A sweet nap from 5 P.M. to 8 P.M. :)

●Hack into the night, from 8:30 PM till about 5:30 in the morning.

I just loved it, especially because of the fact that no one told me when to do what, and as a result, I chose the most produc-tive schedule that suited me the best.

5) It is common belief that the top in-

ternet companies let you work autono-mously, and that employees are given a lot of liberty to work on things they like. How far is that true?

That is very true. I enjoyed complete freedom and liberty to do only the proj-ects that excited me the most. Especially at Facebook, every engineer is given a lot more responsibility and freedom (again, as a consequence of its “hack” culture). Interestingly, at Facebook, there is no Q&A phase at all - the author of the code is responsible for its quality, scalability, and maintainability over time.

6) How much of an impact has the internship created on you? What are the two most important lessons you’ve learned at Facebook?

Not a single day passed without me learning a bunch of (contd... P8)

P8

(1)Background on Teach For India Teach For India is a nation-wide movement that aims to bridge the educational gap in India by placing high potential college graduates and young professionals in low-income schools to teach full-time for 2 years. The organiza-tion’s mission is to build the movement of leaders who will eliminate inequity in education. Hence, Teach For India’s Fel-lows are provided with intensive training and support throughout the two years, and are supported to enter the corporate, public and social sectors after their Fel-lowship so that they become life-long leaders, across sectors, advocating for educational equity.

The model is based on an organi-zation called Teach For America, that be-gan close to 20 years ago in the US. The first batch of 80 Fellows began teaching in June 2009, the second batch of 135 Fellows began teaching in 2010 and the third batch of 250 Fellows started teach-ing in 2011. The movement is focused on a common vision, that ‘One day, all children will have access to an excellent education.’

Components of the Teach For India Model:•recruiting the highest quality univer-sity graduates and young professionals through a rigorous selection process•providing Fellows with intensive train-ing and leadership development prior to and during the fellowship•placing Fellows to teach full-time for two-years in under-resourced schools•building partnerships to ensure Fellows have a clear pathway to leadership after the fellowship•setting up systems to drive and measure short-term impact on student achieve-ment and long-term development of leaders

(2)Teach For India messagingHaving a uniquely ambitious and com-plex vision, a few critical components of our message are:•We look for high-performing students and professionals from all academic streams•We are not a volunteer opportunity but a fully paid fellowship•We are not just for people interested in

social work•We are not just for people interested in teaching long-term•We are a movement, not an NGO•We are a leadership development oppor-tunity, not a two-year career break•We are extremely selective but we have no specific cut-offs

(3)Highlights of the Teach For India movement so far Growth: Teach For India is currently in its third year of operation. We are thrilled to see a continuous and growing inter-est in the Fellowship program. From a cohort of 80 Fellows who joined us in May 2009, we now have a total of 385 Fellows who will be teaching around 13,500 children, in 130 classrooms, across Mumbai, Pune & Delhi. Fellow-ship program 2012 will mark the addi-tion of Hyderabad in our list of cities. We further plan to expand to all the nation’s major metros within the next 5 years.

Our Fellows: Fellows include high po-tential young leaders - including gradu-ates from renowned institutions acrossthe country and abroad, such as the IITs, IIMs, BITS Pilani, St. Stephen’s, St. Xavier’s and Brown University and dynamic professionals from corpo-rates such as McKinsey, Schlumberger, HDFC, Accenture, Thermax, ICICI, Tata and Godrej Industries.

Our impact: •From 33 schools, in 2009-2010, Teach For India Fellows will be operating in 130 schools in 2011-12. •Our children have shown a growth of 1.2 school years in just 1 year in their writing skills, and have doubled in their reading fluency (27 to 62 words per minute). •Our Fellows have also built relation-ships beyond the classroom with parents, principals and teachers in their schools. Through their efforts, student attendance has increased from 81% to 89%. •In the coming years, we aim for an aver-age of 1.5 years of skills-growth from students’ incoming skill level in read-ing comprehension, math, grammar and writing. (4)Educational equity – towards sys-temic change:

Teach For India believes that in order for all the children to achieve an excellent education, we need a move-ment of leaders, across sectors, who are committed to and will work toward achieving this vision. A range of issues must be ad-dressed in concert for this change to come about, from improved teacher training to increased accountability for school performance to alignment from the media. Action Curriculum The Action Curriculum consists of 5 optional courses which Fellows pursue in the second year, to learn about

how to effect change from within any given sector of interest: Social enterprise, CSR, Government, Education or Advo-cacy.

(5)Profile of the Teach For India Fel-lowsAge range: 20 to 35 yearsExamples of leadership positions that our Fellows holdOur Fellows have demonstrated lead-ership in a variety of ways – College festival coordinators, Editors of college magazines, Leaders of diverse college clubs and societies, Managers of depart-ments and projects at work, Heads of sports teams and clubs, Corporate team leaders, leaders of youth groups such as AISEC and Rotaract.

Examples of academic achievement:Over half our cohort scored 80% or higher in their 12th grade, with 1 in 4 scoring above 90%.

Examples of commitment to the com-munity:Participants of Corporate CSR initiatives, NSS members, volunteers at low-income schools and communities, volunteers at animal shelters, leaders and members of social initiatives and projects, writers on matters of social concern.

To know more about Teach For India, please visit:•Our website – http://www.teachforindia.org•Our Facebook page – http://www.face-book.com/teachforindia•Our Twitter page – http://www.twitter.com/TeachForIndia•Our Fellows’ blogs – http://www.Teach4india.wordpress.com

TEACH FOR INDIA

INSIGHT

Science and Music, a truly unique combination and the students who had assembled on July 30th at the Jvc auditorium got a glimpse of this. The lecture, demonstration and presenta-tion was given by Dr Umayalapuram K.Sivaraman (renown mrudangam Vid-van), Dr Ramasami(Secratary Depart-ment of Science and Technology , Govt of India) and Dr Naresh(CLRI , Chennai) on “Science for Musical Excellence of Mrudangam”.

Dr Sivaraman began with giving a brief introduction about his musical career and then explained the different parts of the mrudangam and how they were made. He demonstrated the modern “Telescopic Mrudangam” which can be assembled and re-assembled accord-ing to the musician’s wish, reducing the difficulties they face while travelling. With Mr. Ritvik Raja on the vocals Mr Sivaraman went to on to show why the Mrudangam is called “The king of Percussion” leaving the audience spell-bound. */ His sense of humour also had the audience in splits as he explained the nuances of playing the mrudangam/*. This was followed by a presentation by Dr Ramasami about their project to demystify the mystery of the Mru-

dangam, which began as collaboration between Dr.Sivaraman, Dr Ramasami and Dr Naresh and a few other scien-tists when Dr Sivaraman had wondered whether “Nadham” could be better understood using scientific principles even beyond those discovered already by Sir C.V.Raman , a pioneer in this field. The different materials used to make the mrudangam like-- wood, parchment; cow and goat skin and their properties were discussed in detail. Dr. Naresh then went on to explain about the sound and tonal qualities of the instrument and how each part of the mrudangam contributes to it. Such a potent combination of Music and Science left many students in awe of the work of the scientists and were inspired to take this up as an area of research.

Girish.G.KoundinyaIII ICT

SCIENCE AND MUSIC

P9

Tamil Nadu’s intellectual and industrial strength can provide a win-ning combination to position itself as the academic research capital of India. Like Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra, the State has clear policies in promot-ing industry clusters — automobile, biotechnology, IT and agriculture. It needs a sound policy aimed at promoting academic research in educational insti-tutions with industry collaboration and the present State government is capable of providing this policy leadership fully leveraging the presence of reputed higher educational institutions — public and private — and industry leaders.India spends only 1% of its GDP on research compared to 2.7% and 3.4% by the U.S. and Japan. This is just 3.7% of the global R&D expenditure and has re-mained constant at this level for the past five years, while China has increased it from 13% to 18% in the same period. Only 4% of the total R&D expenditure in our country is from higher educational institutions, putting India the lowest amongst its global peers — China (10%), Japan (14%), the U.S. (17%) and Canada (35%).

In terms of research productivity, the picture is not encouraging enough. India has 7.8 scientists per 1,000 popu-lation compared to 180.66 in Canada, 139.16 in the Russian Federation, 53.13 in Korea and 21.15 in the U.S. Though the number of institutions participating in research in India increased in the last 10 years, 80% of the publications come only from 10% of the institutions. In terms of publication output measured by the number of papers published in

journals indexed by Web of Science, the Indian share has remained flat under 3% for the last 10 years. The share of Brazil, South Korea and China has substantially increased during the same period, putting India in the 13 {+t} {+h} position.India’s research papers were cited on average 3.2 times, putting it in the 119 {+t} {+h} position out of 149 countries, a little ahead of China (2.9). Among developing countries, India ranks first in publication outputs in four areas — Agri-culture, Energy & Environment, Biology & Biochemistry and Plant & Animal Sciences. Though patent filing in India is increasing, it is still behind its Asian peers and significantly less than that of leading international players.

Many countries have undertaken crucial reforms to rejuvenate research in higher education. The inspirational Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 enacted in America unlocked laboratory research in U.S. universities to create an economic impact and the well-being of Americans through the creation of new innovations, companies and products. The average number of annual university patents was 200 before 1980 and jumped to 1,600 during the next decade, out of which 80% came from federal-funded research projects and universities became the eco-nomic growth engine. Campuses began to script success stories that saw the birth of the Internet, Google, pharma products, software and engineering solutions, revo-lutionising corporate America.

China’s spending on research and development has steadily increased to 1.5% of its GDP and is higher than

that of most other developing countries. Since 2000, the number of papers by scholars based in China published in Sci-ence Citation Index (SCI)-listed journals has quadrupled. China has outperformed every other nation, with a 64-fold in-crease in peer-reviewed scientific papers since 1981, with the focus on chemistry and materials science. The Chinese gov-ernment has urged scientists to publish in reputable English-language journals, offering promotions and other rewards as incentive. China’s enormous invest-ment, at a rate above the rate of inflation, at all levels of the system — schools to postgraduate research, has been the spine of such a resurgent research boom.

The Indian academic research story needs to be rewritten. There are inherent systemic problems that plague the research environment. Less than 1% of the total students enrolled in higher education are pursuing Ph.D. and this is not in pace with the overall growth of students in higher education. The overall quality of doctoral studies in many insti-tutes is questionable. With large faculty vacancies and a poorly qualified faculty, the quality of research in higher educa-tion institutes, including the IITs, which have a 20% vacancy, is diluted.

A survey conducted by the UGC shows that a quarter of the faculty in In-dian higher education institutions spends less than five hours per week on research. The quantum of extramural support given by Indian agencies to higher edu-cation institutes is insignificant compared to the funding received by other leading institutes abroad. The research budget of

Harvard University for the year 2008 was Rs.250 billion. During this period, the total extramural grant disbursed for R&D projects to Indian academia was Rs.12 billion and by the UGC alone was Rs.1.3 billion. Look at the contrast! There is need for an enabling environment for the corporate sector to work with universities on research/commercialisation.TN can take the lead

Tamil Nadu can take the first-mover initiative in formulating a Univer-sity Research Policy aimed at addressing these four major lacunae in the academic research landscape of India and improve the State’s research scorecard. Such a policy will not only catapult higher edu-cation in the State to greater heights but also fuel its economic engine. In doing so, the State should also rope in private providers who are an integral part of the higher education system. There are miles to go in the research race but thankfully there is a favourable track for Tamil Nadu to win the race due to its political leadership with a visionary foresight.

(The writer is Indian Overseas Bank Chair Professor, School of Management, Dean - Planning & Development, SAS-TRA University, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. His email is vaidhya@sastra.edu)

Editorial Team:Apoorva Dasari, IVth year, ECE.Asma Afreen S. A., IIIrd year, ECE.A. Vamsi Krishna, IVth year, ECE.Anantha Narayanan, IIIrd year, Bio-Tech.Archana Rajan, IIIrd year, ECE.Aishwarya H.S., IIIrd year, CSE.Arvind Viswanathan, IIIrd year, CSE.Ashwin Bharathwaj, IIIrd year, ICT.Deepak Bharathi, IIIrd year, ICT.Girish.G.Koundinya, IIIrd year, ICT.Harshini Mohan, IIIrd year, EIE.Mowshimkka Renganathan, IIIrd year, IT.Nikhil Agarwal, IIIrd year, Civil.Niranjan Murali, IIIrd year, EEE.Oishee Sarkar, IIIrd year, ECE.Sai Sharad Raj, IInd year, Mech.Shankar Ganesh, IIIrd year, IT.Shruthi Srinivasan, IIIrd year, BioE.Swetha R, IIIrd year ECE.Tara Narayanan, IInd year, Mecha-tronics.

Design and Illustrations:Arthika K.U., IIIrd year, ECE.Vikram Raju, IIIrd year, Civil.

Write to us:-news.sastra@gmail.com

INSIGHT

lessons - on code quality, maintainability, and problem solving, on the “hacker” approach, work culture and life style, and the personality traits that are essential.The most important lessons that I learnt:

[1] The only way to learn things quickly and effectively is to have it in our minds 24x7. I literally slept with problems that I had to solve, and woke up to code the solutions the next day. In my opinion, this only comes without complete dedi-cation (learnt it from my brother).

[2] Not all great coders are nerds. People and communication skills, and a strong personality are in fact almost equally important in life. Please allow me to quote Petr Mitrichev’s advice on life and personality: (If competitive coding is a religion, Petr is God -- World’s #1 coder in TopCoder).“Don’t spend all your time on training or studying - this way you’ll probably become very exhausted and unwilling to compete more. What-ever you do - have fun. Once you find programming is no fun anymore - drop

it. Play soccer, find a girlfriend, study something not related to programming, just live a life. Programming contests are only programming contests, and nothing more. Don’t let them become your life - for your life is much more interesting and colorful.”

7) Finally, what advice would you give to someone who’s aspiring for a career in game-changing companies like Fa-cebook, Google and the like?

World’s top companies like Facebook, and Google look for pure passion, with strong fundamentals in writing efficient code the algorithmic way. They also look for the ability to quickly analyze

and solve problems, and learn things on the fly. So, to summarize, a very strong foundation in the core aspects of comput-ing, such as, algorithmic efficiency, data structures, and the ability to write quality code is a must. I believe this only comes with constant practice, and a lot of par-ticipation in world class coding contests.

Team Imprint wishes Sagar good luck with all his endeavours! You can connect with him at

https://www.facebook.com/s4sagar

Shankar Ganesh

III IT

INTERN SPEAK(contd...)

IT IS TIME WE REWROTE INDIA’S RESEARCH STORY

P10potpourri

As a tribute to the decade old Harry Potter saga, one of our writers reminisces on her journey of being a fan. Here’s what she has to say:

I remember being an innocent little kid and… wait a second; you know I’m kidding right? I used to be one of the mean kids who used to mock other kids for believing in Santa Claus ( bearded old guy who rides in a lame carriage drawn by reindeers) and the tooth fairy (why someone would pay for a six year old’s cavity ridden tooth was beyond me!). But all that changed on my eleventh birthday. It was ten in the morn-ing when the courier guy delivered all four hardbacks to my doorstep.

From being the evil skeptic little girl, I became a credulous little thing constantly waiting for a letter from Hog-warts not unlike Petunia Dursley. It was only a matter of time before I became a hardcore fan. Thus Harry Potter placed the “imperius” curse on me.

The Harry Potter phenomenon is nothing but a series of books so well written and exquisitely plotted that they surpass every other book I have read. The books were a respite from the deep despair of physics and chemistry MCQs. Amidst our own rigourous schedule we couldn’t help hoping that Dumbledore would be somewhere in the rooms invis-ible, wearing Harry’s Invisibility cloak. Not to mention the countless crushes that we had on Ron and Sirius. How many of us haven’t tried out the “Accio” and “Alohomora” charm at least once hoping it would work?

The Harry potter books are a miracle of plotting and take continuity to a whole new level. However, the biggest contri-bution by these books has been the com-

plex and important messages it conveys in the most subtle manner possible. The concept of “mudbloods” being perse-cuted by the “purebloods” is reminiscent of the not so distant memory of the Jews being persecuted by the Nazis. Whole generations of kids who have grown up reading these books are bound to reflect upon these thoughts and get inspired by it. The ideals that J.K.Rowling purports through Harry as a protagonist are price-less.

If you Harry potter freaks out there have anything else to add about your own Harry Potter experience, mail it to us at news.sastra@gmail.com

Shruti Srinivasan.

III BIOE.

INTO THE PENSIEVE! Defence of the Ancients (DotA) is a custom scenario for a real time strategy video game based on “Aeon of Strife” map. DotA comprises of two teams Sentinel and Scourge on south-west and northeast corners of the map respectively. This game has got about 103 heroes to choose from (My personal fav. is Vol’Jin, The Witch Doctor) each with different abilities & tactical advan-tages and four adaptive contrasting skills to master for each hero. Each hero has a primary attribute of Strength, Agility or Intelligence. Added to that is 25 major items a hero can buy using the gold he acquires in various ways during the course of the game. The basic objective of the game is to defend our own base and guide our units to the opponents base and sabotage the building “Ancient” that is located in the centre of the each base. By virtue of gaining experience points and levelling up early in the game gives you a major advantage in the game over your opponents. Yester years, we used to hear people crying out Fire in the Hole, Team fall back etc at game rooms but DotA took the world by a storm and now you find people discussing strategies, items & heroes like Abaddon, Blade Mail etc. To me, DotA is addictive because of the new heroes, new items, never ending strate-gies and also numerous possibilities to win the game. Despite losing, but as long as the battle between two sides is tough and interesting, it serves as an addiction. You feel like doing better the next round and the next round and the next round until you feel GODLIKE. But still some people who’ve never played DotA term this game as a “waste of time or money” & for those guys I kindly request them to have a look at this link http://www.

DotA – Destiny of the Addicts

Vikram Raju III Civil

ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html. This game is a strategic game which of course can help enhance the thinking of the players, forming strategies to com-plete the task and to make exceptional teamwork and cooperation to win. The characteristics that the players build and develop in playing this game can also be very much useful even in real life. I myself am quite a DotA Addict. So, if you ever overheard youngsters talking, laughing and shouting words like OWN-ING and GODLIKE, you’ll know that they are DotA Freaks.

Mohan Vijay Adusumilli,a.k.a T]-[!4F™.

IV Mech

For queries/suggestions/feedback, write to us @

news.sastra@gmail.comWe would even love to publish some of

your works!So bring out the writer within

you!

SPONSORED BY CANOPY