ReNews February 2013

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ReNEWS is an independent publication brought out by the Research Affairs Secretary, IIT Madras

Transcript of ReNews February 2013

ReNews

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Photo credits:

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Playing with fire14th February, 2013

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Coming to the modern day architecture where art scores over strength of the building, Prof. José pointed out that new office oors are more prone to re risks than the older office rooms. To prove his point he showed a couple of pictures in which he showed a re accident in an older style office and how since it was compartmentalized the re was localized and did not spread much. But on the other hand in the present day offices which have an open oor plan and lled with many low weight but highly inammable material and are highly susceptible to large damage by a re. To ratify his point he mementioned that a multi-storied Beijing Television center was completely engulfed in ames within minutes of it catching re.

D. S. Mohan VarmaMechanical EngineeringPh. D Councillor

TThrough an ex-phd councilor, I came to know that there is such a post and i can do something for the research scholar community. I was aware of the duties and it felt do-able. So, i took it up.

TTwo main points were (1) Helping with placements for research scholars (2) Helping RAC with the research affairs - in improving the research atmosphere in the institute.

'+'+ points : 1) Made good friends from various departments. 2) Enjoyed the change from routine work. 3) Got to know about issues that many research scholars face (not just placements). -- points : 1) Had to bear the responsibility for things gone wrong and face the frus-tration of both the students and admin.

Placements

Yes. Given that there are 9 PhD Councilor posts, it would have been good to have some company.

As far as placements is concerned -1)1) Unlike the B.Tech councilors, the MS/PhD councilors are NOT branch councilors. They are the councilors for the entire research scholar community of the institute. 2) DO NOT force some-one to become a departmental rep for placements or for any other work, unless he/shehe/she really wants to do it. 3) Clear in-structions are to be given to the reps. about their responsibilities.

Patel Akshar . POcean EngineeringM. S Councillor

Always like to participate in different things and learn about different areas.

TThere were many points in my manifesto which needed to be implemented, but i could not do most of them.

It was nice experience to work with different people

PG Conuence Day, Placements

PPlacements work load was huge. As Ishita started different groups working in different areas, Councillor left with placements work. Thanks to Ishita for her effort.AAs I worked in placements and PG conuence day, So following matters need special attention. PG Conuence Day: 1) Need to be highly pub-lished. 2)Change of Agenda and format

PPlacements: 1)Every company should provide there Director/GM/CEO/Technical Leader Contact details. 2)Steps taken by RAS need to be carried out coming year as well. 3) Revamp of MS program or Change of name.

SomasundaramMechanical EngineeringM. S Councillor

As a student of IIT I like to help out junta

Opening all the companies for M. S. Raising the stipend for M. S.

CCame to know how our system works

Placements

Not some much

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He ended his talk by mentioning the recent boom in high rises and the need to have proper re safety arrange-ments. This was followed by a lively discussion with the audience.

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Shivaprasad . SMechanical EngineeringM. S Councillor

AA Senior who was in the previous council as MS Councillor inspired me to contest for the post. I was totally unaware of the actual problems per-taining to the research life in the institute when i stood for the election last year.It was my enthusiasm and eagerness to dig deep into those issues and x them motivated me to contest for the elections.

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Journey being a Councillor was indeed amazing.

Placements

I found it very difficult to manage time with my research, courses and works in the placement office.I hardly slept during rst few days of the Placements season. Apart from this things were more peaceful.

Newly elected Councillors should spend some time with the existing council members just to know how things are happening.

Rahul KumarElectrical EngineeringM. S Councillor

Dismal placement opportunities for MS/PhD. Lack of proper platform for re-search scholars to share their views and discuss their problems.

Work towards increasing the placement opportunities for PG scholars especial-ly in their expertise elds. Work in synchronization with Academic and Research affairs secretaries to ensure smooth placement proceedings. Create and main-tain an active forum of past and present PG students where they can share and discuss their ideas and problems. Promote interdisciplinary research work by in-creasing communication between scholars of different departments.

Nice.You get lots of opportunity to talk to lot of key people in industry if you are working in placement. This will help in knowing what are their expectations from PG students. Apart from this you get experience of conducting various events, handling people, taking on-spot decisions to bring given task at suc-cessful conclusion.

Placements

No. Only rst week of December will bit hectic. At that time you will not be ale to go to your lab, so better to take your guide into your condence.

Newer councillors should learn from of mistakes of older councillors. We should to get things done. We propose lot of things but end up implementing one or two.Major example of this is our Institute placement brochure where we pro-posed some amendments to highlight MS/PhD but in the end none of them was reected.

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“Wide differences of opinion in matters of religious, political, and social belief must exist if conscience and intellect alike are not to be stunted, if there is to be room for healthy growth.” - Roosevelt

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Movie Review by a ResearcherI was thinking, “I am writing too much serious stuff and too much complicated stuff. It is time to write something light.” Now, what to write? Whatever I write reects my thoughts, even if I see light stuff, I will make it serious!

SuddenlSuddenly, I remembered the movie I saw last night, “English Vinglish.” I was sick as shit and was cough-ing my heart out through my mouth! To take my mind off from this misery, I decided to watch this movie, and decided to write a review, to compare this with the review from lm-critics for whom this is their bread and butter. The movie started nicely, nice background score and a good feel at the begin-ning. Scenes started by showing the morning routine of a typical Indian household woman - getting up early in the morning, making coffee/tea, and preparing her kids for school. Since it was known that this is a comeback movie for Sridevi, there was no surprise to see that this woman was Sridevi. Yester-year’s best coming back on the silver screen. She hasn't changed much, the same vibrant personality, the same charisma. Her voice has become a bit weak and maybe broken, but a wonderful performance. Also, a very rare phenomenon in Bollywood, this is a woman centric movie, a pure Sridevi movie from start to the end. There is a main story line, and lots of small incidents woven into it.

Let us stay away from the usual process of analyzing the quality of the script, performance of artist, etc. Instead, let us look at things that caught my attention in the movie. First of all, the household that it ini-tially portrayed was very casual and it showed equality among all the members of the family (let us keep ourselves away from the nasty disrespect scenes between the daughter and mom). I am not too sure if this is a general phenomenon nowadays, but from what I have seen, yes, this is the way Indian households function these days. It has moved away from the old tradition of parents, formalities, re-spect towards parents, respect between parents, etc. I am not too sure whether the old way is correct or the way towards which Indian families are moving now is better. But as of now, let us just acknowl-edge the fact that there is a shift, which I believe is mostly inuenced by US and European culture.

Now, going back to the movie. The next important thing that I noticed is the bloody war between differ-ent characters in the movie. They are literally wounding each other with their words, for no reason! People get hurt, they hurt back, a bloody war of words. Sometimes it is done unknowingly, sometimes it is part of a person's character, but, it is always wrong! I will make another attempt to go back to the movie!

TThe second half of the movie shows the determination of Sridevi to learn to speak English and dipped in emotional drama, Sridevi manages to do so! Movie over. Before winding up, one more interesting point that the director weaves into the movie is the slipping of mind and a person involved in a relation-ship getting attracted to another person! This part portrays a huge contrast between the conservative Indian mentality and a very open European/US mentality. Since Indian families are moving more to-wards European/US families, it will not be very long before the average span of Indian marriages will become shorter and shorter!

A very good part of the movie is the way that a woman is portrayed in the movie, with dignity, and at the same level as her male counterpart, if not more. Hats off to the effort of the director and to Sridevi, in addition to the cast, in projecting such a wonderful image of womanhood and bringing them to the forefront. It is high time that women came out of the image of being the reason for selling a commodi-ty, and become the source of the commodity itself. What is the point? I miserably failed in writing some-thing light!

Another Take on the World

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Mind the Men behind the CurtainToday is a golden age for technology. A new gadget release gets as much attention as a celebrity would. Discussions on the latest features have entered into office, coffee shops and even train journeys. But do all technological feats get as much attention as the electronics and computer innovations get?

HHow many of us appreciate the amount of engineering that goes into the design of the vehicles that make our journey safe? Have we ever wondered how smooth the pages of our note books have become? How durable the plastic cups and utensils have become? How well polished the glasses and the doors are? Each of the technological feats listed above has the efforts of hundreds and thousands of engineers. They have worked meticulously to ensure better living standards for us. These are the unsung heroes of the gadget-frenzy, luxury-driven modern world.

II see it as a common problem in every aspect of our life. We do not value the persons who do the real work. We have posters of cine celebrities where we should have posters of our parents. I do not wish to delve into other issues but the problems caused by undermining the importance of these essential en-gineers are to be resolved soon.

Setting aside the shift in people's interest in ignoring other elds and trying to be an engineer, there are a few elds within engineering which receive more attention. What sort of impact it will have, you may ask. First of all, because of the lack of encouragement, the efficiency of the personnel may reduce. Further, the next generation will have fewer persons who would opt for these elds, which would even-tually result in the loss of the art so diligently mastered over the years.

IIt is not a new phenomenon. It has been happening throughout our existence. Men were initially hunt-ers. We moved onto agriculture. From there today we have the corporate life. We do not go hunting or grow food but we procure them from shops. Is this change for the better? Engineering, two decades before meant building things. Today it is all about computers and electronic gadgets. Tomorrow it could be about just planning and delegating.

The solution to the problem is fairly simple though. The art needs to be preserved. To do this, the artist must be encouraged to work. Just by appreciating the different kinds of innovations that people do within our insti can make a whole lot of difference. So I conclude this article by asking you all to please mind the men behind the curtain.

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There was this guy, can't articulate his physique, though inspite,

Giving dreams, is the prole he holds by.

'To become rich', 'get fame', etc. was on top of his list,

the dreams given so far to 100’s of 1000's, for his concern wasn't it.

Observing keenly, to my amazement!, "being Happy", to trade off, wasn't in the list at all,

he smiled, "Being happy?", I can't give, "To rejoice!, i gave you life already with it".

''Rediscovering it', you have to do it on your own, that’s the way it has been,

I said, "How?, Ponder?" , "Do you need to?", he replied,

Giving dreams wasn't apparently my job at rst, right to say,

Earning it all, making it to happiness, that’s what denes 'Life', as for it is.

I stood still, shook my shoulders, as if i didn't understand,

Spoke again he, "Feel, Fall, Familiarize", happy, will he be.

Feel the numbness, other's pain, feel the care others give to you,

FFall the fret, the arrogance,

Familiarize to love, the empathy, & embrace the simplicity.

Still confused, stood I, nodded my head, thought, "Maybe, Sure I'll understand for the years to come by".

"Giving Him a Dream", A person has, for losing all yourself, it's the best emit, you can shred for,

but you don't sell here, don't praise the deed,

You reach a martyr in a sheer base beside,

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Where is the ‘I” in IIT?

Almost every guy I know here has an insti t-shirt with him. While most of them wear them with pride outside insti, for all the admiration and respect one gets, some are just free souls who basically don’t care what they are wearing. It is the former that have made me ponder over a few things.

II was indeed one of the few unlucky guys whose share of attention and stature grew in family circles, the day I got a seat here. People who never bothered to talk except for a few formalities were asking my opinion on their kids’ career choices! What makes people outside insti take notice of IITians (currently studying at insti) in whatever they do? I have even heard junta say, I deserve X pay-packet or X Post Doc position or faculty position at X as I am at IIT! Really?!

IsIs topping a fairly competitive exam all it takes to start demanding from life? I have time and again felt it’s the other way around. We are made more responsible; there are more hopes on us, the kind of privi-leges we have (however small compared to the privileges at the institute you are targeting for a Ph. D., Post Doc, etc.) are still miles ahead of the reality outside the campus. There are more demands.

I believe a major role in this regard is due to the kind of things that the alumni have created, lead or even overcome. Success, a generation or two ago, meant an IITian! While outside the insti, we absorb all kinds of attention, inside it, it seems like we don’t give two hoots to it. We are either unhealthily focused on a few things or cultivate focus on unhealthy things. The participation of scholars in stuff, the (dis)regard for TA/RA or any form of work given to justify the stipends given, the enthu or the lack of it all point towards a disturbing trend. We seem to set out to negate the good work and good will created by the alumni.

II may appear a bit obsessed with the name but a deep thought into it would reveal that all of us are here due to the good name the insti has in the rst place!

Isn’t it time we bother about the ‘I’ in IIT? What am I doing to make this place better? What am I doing here to make my life better? What initiatives am I taking to make the best use of my time here? Where is the ‘I’ in IIT ?

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Insight into Aaron Swartz DeathMy day started as usual as I browsed through the Yahoo news website, scrolling and read-ing the latest updates around the globe. Suddenly like a blitzkrieg, I saw a charming guy’s image on Yahoo news. I scrolled back. To my disappointment, it was a suicide case report-ed in Yahoo news captioned “Aaron Swartz commits suicide”. My curiosity profusely in-creased to know why this young guy aged 26 was forced to commit suicide. To know more about him I searched in Wikipedia and came to know that Aaron Swartz was an American computer programmer,writer,political organizer and internet activist. Swartz was involved in the development of web feed format RSS and the social news site Reddit. Swartz was also focused on sociology, civic awareness and critic activism. He was a re-search fellow at Harvard University’s Safre Centre for ethics. On January 6, 2011 Swartz was arrested by federal authorities in connection with systematic downloading of aca-demic journal articles from JSTOR (JAY-STOR, short form for journal storage). Beginning in the fall of 2010, Swartz incessantly made unauthorized entries into MIT’s campus net-work and used an automated script to download nearly 3 million articles from JSTOR, one of the largest digital archives of scholarly journals in the world. Federal prosecutors charged Swartz with four felony counts, including wire fraud, computer fraud, and theft-of information from computer. These charges made him liable for an imprisonment of maximum 50 years and $1 million in nes. He took his life in despair on the overzealous prosecution by the justice department. I resumed my research work since I could unfold the story that lead to this bloke’s suicide.

Later on, stories came pouring out in websites, newspapers and all kind of media stuffs related to his suicide. I felt something “enigmatic”.I started to read these stories voracious-ly and came to know that he was working for a noble cause. Aaron believed that informa-tion, especially scholarly information should be freely available around the globe and not for prerogative people. In Aaron’s word “The world’s entire scientic and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals is increasingly digitized and locked up in the hands of private corporations blinded by greed”. He was ingenious and used his plethora of skills as a programmer and technologist to make information easily accessi-ble. He played an instrumental role in defeating the internet censorship bill. We scholars in IITM are privileged and fortunate enough to access any information. But, do think about people doing research who cannot afford and don’t haveany kind of institutional tie-up. For them it’s denitely an arduous task to avail scholarly informationto be success-ful in their eld of research. In that perspective Aaron played an imperative role, though morally wrong. He thought that the knowledge conned in it (JSTOR) had to be made available free to everyone. He just ran a script called keepgrabbing.py, which liberated 4.8m articles at almost dangerous speed. He was not at all remorseful for what he did. You people do think whether hounding of this young man was idiotic and needlessly cruel. Whether his expedition to make the information freely available can be justied?

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Who Is She

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Jaya Lakshmi TalkiesBefore the advent of the multiplexes, which seem to be budding everywhere now, a town could brag at length if it had possessed three cinema theatres. Every town is not Kakinada which is known for its Cinema Road with myriad number of theatres, that too back in 90's itself. Though Multiplexes bring a good ambi-ance and ease of booking I miss the ceremonial way the movie experience used to be back then. My town, a modest one, had three theatres, Jaya Lakshmi Talkies being the best then. Going to a movie was always a ceremony mainly because there weren't so many movies & a movie used to be played in a theatre for such a long time. Going to a movie on the rst day was so unorthodox and un-thinkable and was only for the yo-yo youth but never a family thing until so and so happens to offer tickets to whole family for the rst day (this usually happens only for those Socio-Fantasy movies which as a rule of thumb were always hit among the orthodox ‘class’ people and were avoided by these yo-yo youth as they feel that the news that one watched these movies will disgrace their machismo). TThe elaborate ceremony begins with a promise from father who always insisted on going only to the rst show at 6 pm (morning show - 11:00 am, matinee - 2:30 pm, 2nd show - 9:30 pm) which meant that we all are eagerly waiting and totally dependent on his timely arrival. By the time he comes we are already fully dressed and waiting while my mother checks if I've put on the correct clothes suitable to our social status, and in case the shirt was not ironed or I was wearing pants which I like but which she thinks are cheap, that means I should do the ramp walk with other clothes till she is satised with my appearance. So nally when fafather arrives he washes his face and has a quick tea (and Bournvita for kids, though I always begged for tea) and then we set off for the theatre Jaya Lakshmi Talkies.

Most times it’s the same fellow giving the tickets and from years of acquaintance he immediately gives 4 balcony tickets, the highest fare, with a big smile on his face. When I asked my mother once why we can’t try a chair this time, I was mildly chided for talking very improperly. Balcony, Chair and Bench are descend-ing order in theatres (once when I went to a movie with friends and opted for a chair to get some black money, somehow news got leaked and my movie rights were revoked).

Being well known has its disadvantages as someone surely accosts you and starts palavering. Although I was always wondered how many people my dad knows I secretly worried that the movie may start and we might miss the starting scenes (it happened a good number of times). I try to convey the same to my mother by making some eye gestures. And 'he' suddenly rubs my hair and asks, “Hey little one do you re-member me?” for which I say without further ado, “Of course uncle”, though it's not true most of the times.

You know you are in the theatre when you notice the overwhelming aroma of fried groundnuts while you can see their shells in many corners. First thing to do after entering is to search for a suitable place; suitable = directly below a fan, as theatres were not equipped with AC in those days. Latest movie songs are played in the background (other than the movie that’s going to be played) before the movie starts and suddenly the screen lights up and there comes the rst ad: Chandana Brothers.

All my childhood I lived seeing that ad and wondering why it’s always the same bride and bridegroom. They had an ad especially for theatres which was not played in TVs, which had soothing music and used to ll us with anticipation for the movie. There were never any ads on men's

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apparel but always on silks and jewellery of women. This is followed by the famous Margadarsi ad, with the tag line “I too joined Margadarsi and bought a scooter.” Then the theatre proudly displays that it’s equipped with Digital DTS Dolby sounds. SSome people are so curious that its very detrimental sitting beside them while watching movies. If they already know the story they will tell you everything beforehand and spoil the experience or if they don’t know they keep asking or rather pestering you with questions related to the movie knowing fully that these questions will eventually be answered in the movie. Nothing has changed much regarding this, and the only solution: Don’t sit next to them. MMovie means father will be little extra friendly and we are free to make any wishes for the junk we are craving for, but the criterion of patriarchy families require you that you present your requests to your mother who will pass it on to his highness. We should all personally thank the fella who discovered the experience of movie + popcorn combo. We owe him/her. Once the interval begins One will continually hear a clang, the sound made by steel being hit on a series of glass soft drink bottles.

MMovie theatres and railway stations have these peculiar species of samosas which are made of onion curry instead of potatoes, which smell and taste ridiculously awesome but are always considered unhy-gienic and low quality and thus are generally off limits. I always a hard time convincing my parents that these Samosas are not bad by any standards, but who will listen to a kid in shorts. I've never mentioned about the restroom. No, if you are the orthodox upper middle class family, don’t even think about using the restrooms at a theatre. You should be well aware of this fact and should take care before you come to the theatre. The movies always got over with the last scene freezing coupled with the text ‘Shubham’ on it and we are off as there was never any post credits scene in the regional movies since there weren't any sequels. And we follow the untold custom of going to a restaurant after the movie. After all, any ceremony should end with a pompous supper.

OnOn the return journey my father always used to tell us his experiences of movies in his childhood and how it was always his brother who took charge of his battalion of siblings, which he said to us like a mil-lion times but we hear uncomplainingly.

When we come back home, mother brings a stful of rock-salt with red chillies and revolves it around me and my brother’s head asking us to spit on it, to ward off the effects of evil eyes (disti in Telugu, kan-nupatturichi in Tamil), i.e., the jealous stares of people, which is said to bring misery. And when asked about it she says, “You're such a good boy and wearing wonderful dress which doubles the threat of covetous looks, beware everyone seems innocuous but we don't know what their intentions are.” I always thought of asking why bother with the trouble of choosing good clothes and the pain of this ritual again, but thought better of it. An unsaid pact requires us, the children, to go to bed immediately while father watched the news head-lines, which I never liked as a child. Then I go to sleep looking forward to my next movie which most probably would not be in the same month.

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Homeo Pathos

Sweet cyclone anda serious clown

Second mom to hold my handsSecond dad to rest my head

A masterpiece from GodTo master me in yard

PPicks me from tear poolThen kicks me to cool

An angel on smile, a fairy in lookAnd a doctor to heal my eternal pain

Her sugar smile and a honey “Hi”Says my worries, a good bye

Caring cry with a bitter guard ghtKeeps me Keeps me awake a whole night

Lovely reply “hmm” on a talkMakes me to hum, the day walk

The melody voice, to cal me loosethat’s the place I certainly loose

Mathematics got the concept innitewhen Romans measured my love for her

My Sister

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