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chess-club
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@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ defaults:
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layout: category
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name: Watch Out, IIT Roorkee
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url: http://watchout.iitr.ac.in
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url: http://wona.co.in
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gems: [jekyll-paginate]
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description: The official news magazine of IIT Roorkee.
|
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paginate: 10
|
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|
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@ -43,5 +43,3 @@
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title: Summer 2016
|
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- name: summer2017
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title: Summer 2017
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- name: summer2018
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title: Summer 2018
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@ -16,4 +16,3 @@ sports: Sports
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internblogs: Intern Blogs
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summer2016: Summer 2016
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summer2017: Summer 2017
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summer2018: Summer 2018
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@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
|
||||
<div class="col-md-8 tinted cover-image center-fill-container">
|
||||
{% if post.image != nil %}
|
||||
<div class="img-container">
|
||||
<img class="center-both img-center-fill" src="/images/posts/{{ post.image }}" alt="">
|
||||
<img class="center-both img-center-fill" src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/posts/{{ post.image }}" alt="">
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
{% endif %}
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
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||||
<footer class="container-fluid">
|
||||
<div class="pre-footer container">
|
||||
<div class="brand pull-left">
|
||||
<img class="logo" src="/images/logo-black.png">
|
||||
<img class="logo" src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/logo-black.png">
|
||||
<div class="name-container">
|
||||
<div class="name">Watch Out!</div>
|
||||
<div class="desc">Official Media<br>Body of IITR</div>
|
||||
<div class="desc">Official News<br>Body of IITR</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="social pull-right">
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@ -12,14 +12,14 @@
|
||||
<a href="/about">About</a>
|
||||
<a href="/guide">Guide</a>
|
||||
<a href="/getinvolved">Get Involved</a>
|
||||
<a href="http://fb.com/watchoutiitr"><img src="/images/fb-logo.svg"></a>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCthZ7tKOzy4EJpuVxtdcp1A"><img src="/images/youtube-play.svg"></a>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13290672/"><img src="/images/linkedin.png"></a>
|
||||
<a href="http://fb.com/watchoutiitr"><img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/fb-logo.svg"></a>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCthZ7tKOzy4EJpuVxtdcp1A"><img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/youtube-play.svg"></a>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13290672/"><img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/linkedin.png"></a>
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</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
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|
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<div class="container copyright">
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<p>© Copyright 2018 — Watch Out! News Agency</p>
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||||
<p>© Copyright 2016 — Watch Out! News Agency</p>
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</div>
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</footer>
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@ -24,7 +24,7 @@
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||||
<meta property="og:title" content="{{ title | xml_escape }}" />
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||||
<meta property="og:type" content="{% if page.excerpt %}article{% else %}website{% endif %}" />
|
||||
<meta property="og:url" content="{{ site.url }}{{ page.url }}" />
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<meta property="og:image" content="{{ site.url }}/images/{% if page.image %}posts/{{page.image}}{% else %}posts/main-building.jpg{% endif %}" />
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<meta property="og:image" content="{{ site.url }}http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/{% if page.image %}posts/{{page.image}}{% else %}posts/main-building.jpg{% endif %}" />
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{% if page.description != null %}
|
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<meta property="og:description" content="{{ page.description }}" />
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{% else %}
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@ -47,7 +47,6 @@
|
||||
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" href="/atom.xml" />
|
||||
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/base.css" type="text/css" media="screen, projection" />
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/table.css" type="text/css" media="screen, projection" />
|
||||
|
||||
<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/jquery-2.1.3.min.js"></script>
|
||||
<script type="text/javascript" src="/js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
|
||||
{% if post.image != nil %}
|
||||
<div class="col-md-8 tinted cover-image center-fill-container">
|
||||
<div class="img-container">
|
||||
<img class="center-both img-center-fill" src="/images/posts/{{ post.image }}" alt="">
|
||||
<img class="center-both img-center-fill" src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/posts/{{ post.image }}" alt="">
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
{% endif %}
|
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@ -36,37 +36,32 @@
|
||||
<div class="container-title">New Articles</div>
|
||||
<section>
|
||||
<div class="row outer-row">
|
||||
|
||||
{% assign counter = 0 %} <!-- Count of articles rendered under new articles -->
|
||||
|
||||
{% for post in site.posts limit: 10 %}
|
||||
{% if post.category == "coverstory" %}
|
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{% continue %}
|
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{% for post in site.posts limit: 5 %}
|
||||
|
||||
{% if forloop.index == 3 %}
|
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</div>
|
||||
<div class="row outer-row">
|
||||
{% endif %}
|
||||
{% assign counter = counter | plus:1 %}
|
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{% if counter > 5 %}
|
||||
{% break %}
|
||||
{% else %}
|
||||
<div class="col-sm-{% if counter < 3 %}6{% else %}4{% endif %} article-col">
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="col-sm-{% if forloop.index < 3 %}6{% else %}4{% endif %} article-col">
|
||||
<a href="{{ post.url }}">
|
||||
<div class="article">
|
||||
<div class="center-fill-container img-container tinted">
|
||||
<img src="/images/posts/{{post.image}}" alt="" class="img-center-fill center-both {% if post.image == null %}hidden{% endif %}">
|
||||
<img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/posts/{{post.image}}" alt="" class="img-center-fill center-both {% if post.image == null %}hidden{% endif %}">
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="details">
|
||||
<div class="head">
|
||||
<h3 class="title"><a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title }}</a></h3>
|
||||
<h3 class="title"><a href="{{ post.url }}">{{ post.title }}</a></h3>
|
||||
<div class="tag"><a href="/category/{{ post.category }}/">{{ site.data.categories_name[post.category] }}</a></div>
|
||||
<span class="date">{{ post.date | date: "%b %e, %Y" | upcase }}</span>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
{% if counter < 3 %}
|
||||
{% if forloop.index < 3 %}
|
||||
<div class="excerpt">{% if post.excerpt != null %}{{ post.excerpt | markdownify }}{% endif %}</div>
|
||||
{% endif %}
|
||||
</div> <!-- details -->
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
{% endif %}
|
||||
{% endfor %}
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</section>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
|
||||
{% assign post = include.post %}
|
||||
<div class="row article article-horiozntal">
|
||||
<div class="col-md-4 center-fill-container img-container">
|
||||
<img src="/images/posts/{{post.image}}" alt="" class="img-center-fill center-both {% if post.image == null %}hidden{% endif %}">
|
||||
<img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/posts/{{post.image}}" alt="" class="img-center-fill center-both {% if post.image == null %}hidden{% endif %}">
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="details-container col-md-8">
|
||||
<div class="details">
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
|
||||
<div class="pre-nav container">
|
||||
<a href="/">
|
||||
<div class="brand pull-left">
|
||||
<img class="logo" src="/images/logo-black.png">
|
||||
<img class="logo" src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/logo-black.png">
|
||||
<div class="name-container">
|
||||
<div class="name">Watch Out!</div>
|
||||
<div class="desc">Official Media<br>Body of IITR</div>
|
||||
<div class="desc">Official News<br>Body of IITR</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
@ -12,9 +12,9 @@
|
||||
<a href="/about">About</a>
|
||||
<a href="/guide">Guide</a>
|
||||
<a href="/getinvolved">Get Involved</a>
|
||||
<a href="http://fb.com/watchoutiitr"><img src="/images/fb-logo.svg"></a>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCthZ7tKOzy4EJpuVxtdcp1A"><img src="/images/youtube-play.svg"></a>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13290672/"><img src="/images/linkedin.png"></a>
|
||||
<a href="http://fb.com/watchoutiitr"><img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/fb-logo.svg"></a>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCthZ7tKOzy4EJpuVxtdcp1A"><img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/youtube-play.svg"></a>
|
||||
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/13290672/"><img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/linkedin.png"></a>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -27,10 +27,10 @@
|
||||
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
|
||||
<span class="icon-bar"></span>
|
||||
</button>
|
||||
<!-- <a class="navbar-brand" href="/">Watch Out!</a> -->
|
||||
<a class="navbar-brand" href="/">Watch Out!</a>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div id="navbar" class="navbar-collapse collapse">
|
||||
<ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-right hacky-css">
|
||||
<ul class="nav navbar-nav navbar-right">
|
||||
{% for cat in site.data.categories %}
|
||||
{% if cat.subcategories != nil %}
|
||||
<li class = "dropdown">
|
||||
|
||||
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ layout: layout
|
||||
{% if page.image != null %}
|
||||
<div class="center-fill-container cover-img" style="height:{{page.height}}">
|
||||
<div class="img-container">
|
||||
<img class="center-both img-center-fill" src="/images/posts/{{ page.image }}" alt="">
|
||||
<img class="center-both img-center-fill" src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/posts/{{ page.image }}" alt="">
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
{% endif %}
|
||||
@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ layout: layout
|
||||
<div class="article col-sm-3">
|
||||
<a href="{{ post.url }}">
|
||||
<div class="center-fill-container img-container tinted">
|
||||
<img src="/images/posts/{{post.image}}" alt="" class="img-center-fill center-both {% if post.image == null %}hidden{% endif %}">
|
||||
<img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/posts/{{post.image}}" alt="" class="img-center-fill center-both {% if post.image == null %}hidden{% endif %}">
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
<div class="details">
|
||||
<h3 class="title">{{ post.title | truncatewords: 7}}</h3>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ Audegn, a word one had never heard before is now being emerging as the most succ
|
||||
It all started with a freelance project done for a Bangalore firm from his hostel room in college when one of the Sonesh’s design was spotted by a friend’s friend who offered him a project which was done under the name of Design Desk. With time it evolved into Audegn and began its operations from March 2, 2011.
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="img right">
|
||||
<img src="/images/posts/edc/audegn/raonak.jpg" alt="">
|
||||
<img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/posts/edc/audegn/raonak.jpg" alt="">
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
##The Roller-Coaster Ride
|
||||
@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ The initial members were individually perfect but their combination wasn't. They
|
||||
There was a brief time recntly during which operations of Audegn stopped. But with a new vigour, the team has bounced back and did so with a boom.The current team includes Aman Awasthy, Rishab Garodia, Anirudh Mittal and Amlan Mishra, all from third year Architecture with Sonesh leading them.
|
||||
|
||||
<div class="img right">
|
||||
<img src="/images/posts/edc/audegn/kratos.jpg" alt="">
|
||||
<img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/posts/edc/audegn/kratos.jpg" alt="">
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
|
||||
##What does 'Audegn' exactly do?
|
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|
||||
@ -9,4 +9,4 @@ IIT Roorkee students’ fraternity mourns the unfortunate demise of Dr. APJ Abdu
|
||||
|
||||
To honour the life of this great visionary, students of IIT Roorkee under the aegis of the Student Affairs Council and the DoSW, united in a silent prayer on the UG floor on Tuesday, 28th July.
|
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|
||||
 The campus hosted a candle march proceeding from HEC office, going through Kasturba Bhawan, Saraswati Mandir, Central library and finally culminating on the UG floor. The march witnessed a turnout of over 250 students.
|
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 The campus hosted a candle march proceeding from HEC office, going through Kasturba Bhawan, Saraswati Mandir, Central library and finally culminating on the UG floor. The march witnessed a turnout of over 250 students.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ At the Bhawan level we now have six positions, discarding the constituency syste
|
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|
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Along with the wardens, the elected students constitute the Bhawan Council. A member secretary responsible for the convening of meetings of Bhawan council will be nominated out of the elected Bhawan council members.
|
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|
||||
|
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At the institute level, there are seven positions out of which five will be elected and two nominated-
|
||||
|
||||
@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ At the institute level, there are seven positions out of which five will be elec
|
||||
|
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The aforementioned students will constitute the executive committee of SAC and will nominate one among themselves to be the General Secretary of SAC.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
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|
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For the uninitiated, the force driving these sweeping reforms in the election procedures is to be done away with the ‘murkier’ side of student politics by encouraging manifesto based elections. Whether or not these are on a par with the objective originally intended, is a story yet to unfold. In the third and the last of the series, ‘Of Pacts and Facts’, Watch Out! will scrutinize the reforms at a microscopic level and paint the bigger picture.
|
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Stay tuned!
|
||||
|
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@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ From my personal experience there are two things that matter the most in your ap
|
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|
||||
|
||||
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||||
|
||||
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*The place: Inria Research Centre, Saclay, Paris*
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{: style="text-align: center"}
|
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|
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@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ Talking about the working culture of the team, there was an optimum balance betw
|
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|
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### What’s to love about the place?
|
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|
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{: style="height: 500px;"}
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{: style="height: 500px;"}
|
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*Return gift from one of my friends, for a wholesome meal of daal*
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{: style="text-align: center"}
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|
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@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ by an HR round. Both of these rounds are pretty easy to crack. They mainly judge
|
||||
Citi likes to call itself “An IT firm with a banking licence”. So evidently the company puts a lot of focus on the quality of its software infrastructure, all the software that the company uses over the world is developed internally. Something that is equally putting off and fascinating, depending on how you look at it, is that the firm is extremely concerned by the security of its network, meaning that you are not allowed to install anything on your system that is not
|
||||
approved by the IT team. Sometimes the approval process takes weeks to complete.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
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*Sex and the Citi*
|
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{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
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@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ As far as the workload is concerned, it is not really taxing. You might even fee
|
||||
to work except on fridays.
|
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|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
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*The workplace*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
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|
||||
@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ The office is located at Pune’s most beautiful IT park, other giants around ci
|
||||
|
||||
Pune offers you all the luxuries of a metropolitan while subtly maintaining its rustic feel. Depending on how you like to spend your evenings, the city has everything on display, be it nightlife or just a pleasant walk around the park. Locals say that if you drive towards any direction for about 50 kilometers you are bound to find yourself amidst hills.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
*Kyunki second saturday bank holiday hota hai*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ _Parag Nandi is a 5th year student in the Department of Earth Sciences. Read on
|
||||
|
||||
As an engineering student I was always intrigued by the scope of IoT and connected devices. And the designer in me screamed to explore the less travelled roads of UX Design for IoT, to create a tranquil synergy with home environments.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Samsung Research Institute Bangalore (SRIB) is one of the few R&D Centres in the world which focuses extensively on UX Research for IoT and connected devices. And the fact that Samsung is the market leader in consumer products amplifies the scope of the entire project.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -23,14 +23,14 @@ I applied at Samsung R&D Bangalore off-campus, through the company’s website i
|
||||
I completed two major projects at SRIB. One was on Samsung Smart Hub/Smart TV and the other was on Tizen OS. In the Smart TV project, initially I had to propose 15 unique problem statements focusing on daily home scenarios with suitable solutions for them. Then out of the 15 problem statements, I had to choose one and create multiple models of solutions for it and finally present the best possible solution. To understand the pain points of users pertaining to TV viewing experience,
|
||||
perception and comfort of IoT, use of smart devices & wearables I had to conduct quantitative and qualitative UX Research. Based on the data acquired from the research, I chose to design a system to automatically detect when a user falls asleep while watching TV using wearables/smart watch and turn off the TV to save electricity and allow sound sleep.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
*Understanding user behaviour through surveys*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
As part of the Tizen OS project, I had to propose USP ideas for the Tizen phones to be released in July, 2017. As these phones are mainly targeted towards people shifting from feature phones to smartphones for the first time, this project demanded the creation and extensive study of different user personas who will be using this phone on daily basis. Based on the user needs derived from the interviews and other research findings, I proposed a few ideas. Finally, 2 of my ideas were
|
||||
selected and proposed to the Korea HQ and hopefully will translate as USP of the next generation Tizen phones. Apart from the major projects I had participated in UX Research for S-Voice and had conducted User Surveys to understand the Indian mobile market.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The overall work experience was good. The work hours are generally flexible and depend on the team you work with. The UX Design team had the privilege of the pilot program where we had to complete 45 hours weekly and there was no issue of daily work hours.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ Bangalore pub was enough to feel the motivation oozing from Srivatsan.
|
||||
|
||||
Another fruitful meeting was through UXProject — Masterclass where I got to meet with some of the most awesome designers from UrbanLadder, Zeta and Pensaar. The folks at Razorpay had called for IIT Roorkee Bangalore meetup with a focus on promoting entrepreneurship among IIT-R students.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%;"}
|
||||
*Razorpay IIT Roorkee meetup*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ category: editorial
|
||||
Albert Camus once said, “Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is”. I guess he simply felt that our need to be acceptable takes away a part of us that was meant to define our individuality and instead leaves behind something alien in its place. What some call transformation and self-actualization could be a futile and miniscule attempt to make ourselves a little similar to that which we deem worthy of existence. How does one decide what is worth existing or fighting for?
|
||||
Is it what makes us happy?
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
Albert Camus, the man behind __absurdism.__
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ direct us on a path giving us someplace to begin figuring out this vast ocean of
|
||||
|
||||
This also begs the question: could it all be a part of the natural order of things? Is it possible to experience cognitive changes without inducing thoughts? This could also mean that animals might have the ability to extract emotional content from the most extreme of their experiences in whatever minute way they can. Maybe we don’t see it because it’s not the way we do it.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Maybe philosophy doesn’t possess the power to mold our cognition in the absence of an initial thought in the same direction, latent but natural and strong. After all, philosophy itself comes from the ‘scientific’ treatment of some emotion (and bear in mind, I say ‘scientific treatment’ only to prevent myself from transgressing into a completely irrelevant domain). But then maybe this is just an idea you fall upon one day that ceases to make sense the next. Nevertheless,
|
||||
the comparison to animals, though, important is not absolute. One could find some idea about it in the novel, The Time Machine by H.G. Wells where the author explains a futuristic world devoid of technology that has turned into one, way more backward than the history we’ve developed out of. Interestingly psychology is the only science where we are free to make sense out of every idea the way we want to. And if that philosophy is unfathomable to you, you’re probably
|
||||
|
||||
@ -21,14 +21,14 @@ Aptitude test is followed by a group discussion on a current affairs topic. Make
|
||||
|
||||
Induction day at Tata Steel is where they give you a sneak peak into the reach and working of the company. It is followed by a safety training and then projects are allotted based on your personal preferences. Projects vary from highly research focused to extensive experimental analysis which requires frequent plant visits.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Tata Steel Jamshedpur division is an integrated steel plant where right from the raw material processing to rolling out steel coils is done at the same place. So as an intern, you have the opportunity to work in plants ranging from Pellet plant, Coke Plant to Hot Strip Mill. I was assigned a project in the furnace area of Hot Strip Mill. The aim of the project was to increase the reliability of the Induced Draft( ID ) Fan in one of the three furnaces. It revolved around Vibration
|
||||
Analysis and bearing temperature reduction. I was able to decrease the delay time to close to 50% during my 2 months stint as an intern. Your work experience heavily relies on the guide and plant allotted to you.Working hours are from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, 5 days a week which is subjected to change depending on the attitude of the guide allotted to you. All the workers are very co-operative to the extent that they might consider giving a thought about leaving their work to help you do
|
||||
your own. Work is not very hectic and is easily manageable.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 75%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 75%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The company provides 3rd AC return tickets from Jamshedpur to respective institutes. The accommodation is also provided in its Graduate Trainee hostels with a double sharing and a single room if you are lucky enough. The food expenses are not covered, though there is a mess in the hostel that can get you through 2 months time. However, Jamshedpur does have good eating options to say the most. Anand, Madrasi, Moti Mahal, Novelty are the places to soothe your taste buds if you are not
|
||||
satisfied with the mess food. There are a lot of street food options available around the hostel area.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ For the summer internship program the projects could be targeted at a specific p
|
||||
The project could conform to your specialisation or it may lie somewhere outside your sphere of study like the one I dealt with in the paper boards and speciality paper division of ITC. The wood required for the manufacturing of paper is stored in the unsheltered wood yards. Due to large standing time it lost most of its moisture content which negatively affected the pulp yield. The job was to devise a method to retain the moisture in wood. I had to dwell into fields alien to me, like the morphology of wood as I am a student of mechanical engineering.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*This is one stack of wood containing 2500 tonnes of wood. 60 such stacks were maintained at all times in the inventory*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ This review was particularly important as it provided some inquisitive opinion a
|
||||
Irrespective of the outcome, the project is always enriching in terms of value added. The factories deploy advanced management practices which are inexcusably adhered to. The organisational setup would not fail to escape your notice. Witnessing the colossal industrial setup at Bhadrachalam was most certainly amusing.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*The blue pill*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ Benchmark your solutions with the other producers in the industry. Try to find r
|
||||
|
||||
It might take you a while to scale you thinking up to their intimidating level of production. Thus, try to quantify the benefits of the proposed solution because ultimately it’s the crispy green stash that moves things.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*Avoid doing things like this in the factory*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ PS: Although RB did not select any intern from BT in 2016, they do have openings
|
||||
|
||||
Location: Summer interns from IITs are sent to the Gurgaon R&D facility. This is among only 7 global R&D category centres for RB handling R&D for a 8.8 Billion GBP company so trust me when I say this that work here does make a lot of difference.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
*The workplace*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ The first 1 or 2 weeks were invested into getting acquainted with the internal t
|
||||
|
||||
The mentorship program at MS is really nice. Every intern is assigned to a mentor and a manager.Specifically talking, my mentor was like my project partner. Not only we discussed every idea thoroughly before taking it in front of the manager, but he also guided me through all the major or minor block points during the entire internship period. Again my manager was also very helpful, we used to have a weekly meeting specifically for my project .
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The work culture at MS is really cool and relaxed , there is no restriction as such.
|
||||
Weekly sync meetings make sure that the work is not delayed and the rest is all upto you ,how you want to work , at what hours etc. Although the nature of work depends mostly on the project at hand, most of the time life is easy.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ For personal interviews, there’s one thing that Schlumberger does differently
|
||||
|
||||
<b>Day to day work:</b> Our first few days of the intern went in knowing about the base and learning about the different labs that the segment had. By the end of the week we were assigned our intern projects and we majorly worked on that for the next 3 weeks. Apart from the projects, Schlumberger has introduced a new online learning system known as the e-mentor. It has full 4 week study material and task sheets that were supposed to be done alongside the project.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 30%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 30%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
<b>Work culture at the firm:</b> The working hours of the intern depended highly on the segment we were assigned to. For Wireline Segment, it was from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. Since, I my intern was at the base and not on the rig, the nature of work was relaxed for me, but that’s definitely not the case for a field interns. People at the place were very friendly and helpful. Many a times they had stepped aside form their own work to help us out. There was no buddy system rather we all were reporting directly to the Field Segment Managers.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ _Tathagata Sengupta is a 5th year student in the Department of Mathematics. Read
|
||||
|
||||
To begin with, yes, CGPA did matter while applying it on campus (actually it is your department rank which gets you shortlisted for the company). As a matter of fact, I never found a single person below the 8.5 mark in the research team, so it’s safe to assume the cut-off to be the same. However, I’m not exactly sure about the product team which was mainly based in Noida.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
There was a first round of online test asking you simple questions on probability, ad-hoc algorithms, a short essay on how to make the world a smarter place. This was followed by a telephonic interview which is generally taken by junior members of the research / product team. You can expect questions from basic data structures and algorithms, probability theory, discrete mathematics etc. I was asked questions from Real Analysis for which I gave a proof from Walter Rudin’s book on the same. I’ll advise against it though. For tips regarding the interviews, chill. They are statistically random.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Prior to the initiation, a team of three is formed taking into consideration the
|
||||
|
||||
The entire internship programme was divided into three parts. In the first three weeks, of our internship, we were asked to delve into the problem domain related to our broad topic. We have to come up with some what 80+ problem statements and ideas. These ideas must be well posed and should be backed by some literature. In order to do this, we were provided free access to various conferences and journals of the likes of ACM, IEEE etc along with marketing journals like Forrester, etc. My team’s broad topic was “Persuasive Online Content”, hence our ideas mainly focussed on the different technical and marketing aspects leading to persuasion. This included ideas in the domain of UX, image processing, language processing, social media analytics, art theory etc. During this time, we interacted with multiple mentors whose specialization involves any one of our idea cluster. We interacted with the people from UX team as well. Focus is mainly on this aspect as in corporate research, coming up with a problem is equally important as finding its solution.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
*Team Coax*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ As I write my experience of Schlumberger, I recollect the days when I also was v
|
||||
|
||||
### Work
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<b>Details about the firm:</b> As you might be aware of the fact that Schlumberger is the world’s largest oilfield services company. Schlumberger is a fortune 500 company with a revenue of over 35 billion dollars and approx. 95,000 employees. So, Schlumberger actually is one of the rare companies of this stature hiring from IIT’s.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Apart from that we were given different projects. My project was to manage their
|
||||
|
||||
### Life@Schlumberger
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The company provided a sumptuous accommodation. We stayed in a resort with almost all the luxuries we could imagine. All our travel expenses were also borne by the company. Because of the nature of work, Schlum pampers its employees heavily. People at Schlum are really helpful but at the same time they’re very busy so most of the problems you need to tackle on your own. Now coming to the point of locations, the condition at Barmer is very harsh with an average temperature of about 45 degrees. So if you are not mentally and physically fit, it would be very challenging to survive in those conditions and that’s why Schlumberger choose its candidates accordingly. Almost every location be it India or outside has its own limitations. Talking about leaves, you work for 8 weeks continuously (even Sunday) and then take a three weeks break (for permanent employees).
|
||||
|
||||
@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ The company provided a sumptuous accommodation. We stayed in a resort with almos
|
||||
|
||||
The work that is assigned to an intern at Schlum is very rudimentary. You won’t require any prerequisite knowledge, mostly you’ll observe how a field engineer works. You’ll find IITians at the top positions at Schlumberger. Schlum feels that IITians can handle difficult situations better than others and this is the only quality for which it hires from IITs and offer handsome salaries. Now a word of caution, as oil prices plummeted recently, Schlum is continuously firing its employees. In one year it has fired more than 30,000 employees. The situation is not cheerful presently because of the insecurity of the job but people predict that this is going to end soon.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Technologically, Schlum is way ahead of its competitors and it is a very good company if one likes the kind of work. For the initial one year they’ll send you to places like Thailand, Singapore or Middle East to complete your pre-school, school and post school in Schlum.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ _The Music Section, IIT Roorkee has a reputation of delivering wondrous performa
|
||||
|
||||
I feel that people listen to very limited genres of music and being a part of the section changes that the most. You meet people who are into different kinds of music; Indian Classical, <b>Ragas</b> and <b>Qawwalis</b>, Bollywood (yes, there's some good music here too), Folk Pop, Blues, Jazz (and Fusion), Psychedelic, Progressive and you start listening to all kinds of stuff. You have access to frets almost all the time and when you try to tap your way across the fingerboard, you start learning about music theory, scales, and keeping up with time signatures. Listening to so much at once trains your ears to focus on distinct elements in harmonies and various techniques utilised in a piece. You learn the art of improvisation and jam with people who have different approaches to music. It’s a great and fun learning experience with some of the most talented people you’ll ever meet.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
*Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” at Dhun’16*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ A person’s skill level develops significantly after being part of the Music Se
|
||||
|
||||
There's no defined structure of the Music Section, though we try to maintain proportion between the number of guitarists, percussionists, keyboard players, vocalists and other instrumentalists that we take. We usually recruit around 10-15 people across all years and branches (even M.Tech). The roles vary from year to year; the most experienced members are responsible for ensuring smooth practice sessions, audio setups, pointing out mistakes and getting them corrected. Some of them accountable for figuring out various technicalities of songs and passing on that information to everyone involved. The youngest and new recruits are more involved in the music and are generally asked to suggest good numbers, figure out their parts and are guided in the process. Apart from this, everyone has the responsibility of perfecting what they play and are free to get involved in any role that they like.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
*“Stairway to heaven” at Dhun’16*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ My recruitment was pretty straightforward. I dedicated about a week to prepare 2
|
||||
|
||||
It’s the best feeling when you go up and walk on stage to your set, and the crowd starts cheering. It brings a little smile on your face and gives you a shot of confidence. At Swaranjali ‘14, I had invited all my friends to watch the show and when I went onstage, they started shouting <b>“Lamba! Lamba!”</b>, with the crowd joining instantaneously and this was not part of some scripted act, so I started looking at the audience following the whooping, trying to locate them (believe me, you can’t see a thing down the stage with all those lights glaring in your face), I smiled and gave my sticks a spin. That has been the most memorable moment of every show since then, and I thank my audience for that.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
*Post Swaranjali’15*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ We have one secretary, which is the post I serve, and there are two additional s
|
||||
There are basically three levels in the recruitment process. First, is you prepare your own dance sequence with your own choice of songs. The second stage is when we pick our own songs, the most random and challenging music, and you have to dance to that! This stage tests the ability of the dancer to adapt to various beats on the spot. The third is the interview round, where we end up talking to you to see that sense of group dynamics that I was talking about. This process of recruitments
|
||||
has been this way since the very start and the only element of mystery is the song in the second round.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**Can you share some hacks for the recruitment process?**
|
||||
We are looking for a friendly person. One who can gel with the group dynamics. What we see in the interviews is how would he be able to mingle with the people of the section. Some people come for the centre stage and the limelight, which may cause problems in the group, so to avoid all of that we look for a selfless, friendly person. And of course, bakchodi toh aani hi chahiye!
|
||||
@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Thomso ‘15. Anyday.
|
||||
|
||||
Towards the end of our performance in Thomso’15, I was supposed to be lying down, and as the song ended, the whole convocation hall audience rose with me, and every single one of us was overwhelmed with happiness, so I think that was one of the best moments on campus. And we did end up winning the Footloose event of Thomso ‘15.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
**Some recent glories and achievements of the section.**
|
||||
When I was in the first year, that was the year when Thomso came back after being discontinued for a while, and ever since then, we have been winning the Footloose event of Thomso, so it has been three consecutive wins for us! Last year, we participated in the IITK’s cult fest and ended up being the second runner ups. This trend of participation outside the campus started last year, so we hope we continue winning accolades for IITR!
|
||||
|
||||
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ This has to be a tie
|
||||
|
||||
All that and also you can always get away with anything by saying “I was rehearsing a dialogue, of course it was a line!” .
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
*Mid play inebriation during “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940”*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ You don’t need to prepare anything before coming for the audition, it is a sim
|
||||
Basically, don’t fake anything, just enjoy the process.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
*“Aavirbhav” - The street play during Autumn’15*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ This was in the last semester in the english long length play we did, **The Musi
|
||||
My favourite role has to be Roger Hopewell, the character I played in the aforementioned Musical Comedy Murders of 1940!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
*“Ant Nahin” by Badal Sircar*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ __WONA: How do you plan to provide such a platform for entrepreneurship in this
|
||||
|
||||
__Prasoon__: My basic idea is to give the students a place, an environment and provide support, all the rest can be done by the students themselves, we’ve got very smart people in IITR. We would soon be launching a membership program but at this point, we’re selecting people and offering them membership. As I posted earlier, whoever in IITR feels that they have some specific talent, whatever it may be, they should come and share their ideas. We will try to connect them with the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs. Once things start happening, we can get the process more organized. The cafe also comes with a conference room, a TV with internet connectivity to facilitate video conferencing and a discussion room
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
__WONA: Is the administration involved in these ideas of incubation and mentorship ?__
|
||||
|
||||
@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ __Take us back to how and why the group started.__
|
||||
|
||||
Back in 2009, Team Robocon IITR was founded with the sole purpose of gaining an edge over the technological advancements surfacing in this tech savvy era. And to apply our knowledge to the test by competing with others that share the same enthusiasm and passion for robotic advancements in India. Our alumni collaborated with Models Section of Hobbies club and transformed it to Models and Robotics Section (MARS in short).
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
__Tell us about your recent performance in the competition.__
|
||||
|
||||
@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ __How does the team function to get the bot ready?__
|
||||
|
||||
The team is divided into 2 parts - Design & Fabrication, Controls & Algorithm. As the names suggest, the Design team works on the 3D model and multi body dynamic analysis of the bot while the Controls team focuses on the navigation and actuation of the bot. The team works like a startup, focusing on R&D all year round and with the help of rapid prototyping, able to implement the research on the bot effectively.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
__What support do you receive from alumni and faculty?__
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ __Take us back to how and why the group started.__
|
||||
|
||||
Back in 2009, Team Robocon IITR was founded with the sole purpose of gaining an edge over the technological advancements surfacing in this tech savvy era. And to apply our knowledge to the test by competing with others that share the same enthusiasm and passion for robotic advancements in India. Our alumni collaborated with Models Section of Hobbies club and transformed it to Models and Robotics Section (MARS in short).
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
__Tell us about your recent performance in the competition.__
|
||||
|
||||
@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ __How does the team function to get the bot ready?__
|
||||
|
||||
The team is divided into 2 parts - Design & Fabrication, Controls & Algorithm. As the names suggest, the Design team works on the 3D model and multi body dynamic analysis of the bot while the Controls team focuses on the navigation and actuation of the bot. The team works like a startup, focusing on R&D all year round and with the help of rapid prototyping, able to implement the research on the bot effectively.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
__What support do you receive from alumni and faculty?__
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ __Take us back to how and why the group started.__
|
||||
|
||||
Back in 2009, Team Robocon IITR was founded with the sole purpose of gaining an edge over the technological advancements surfacing in this tech savvy era. And to apply our knowledge to the test by competing with others that share the same enthusiasm and passion for robotic advancements in India. Our alumni collaborated with Models Section of Hobbies club and transformed it to Models and Robotics Section (MARS in short).
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
__Tell us about your recent performance in the competition.__
|
||||
|
||||
@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ __How does the team function to get the bot ready?__
|
||||
|
||||
The team is divided into 2 parts - Design & Fabrication, Controls & Algorithm. As the names suggest, the Design team works on the 3D model and multi body dynamic analysis of the bot while the Controls team focuses on the navigation and actuation of the bot. The team works like a startup, focusing on R&D all year round and with the help of rapid prototyping, able to implement the research on the bot effectively.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
__What support do you receive from alumni and faculty?__
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -12,5 +12,5 @@ Are you stuck choosing between the elective which has your crush and the one whi
|
||||
|
||||
Fear not, ladies and gentlemen of IITR. Watch Out! News Agency proudly presents the solution to all your problems (which you must have, as always, left for the last minute): The Elective Selection Algorithm.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ __The National Digital Library is a project initiated by IIT Kharagpur with the
|
||||
|
||||
Recently, IIT Kharagpur put forth a proposal to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) seeking the creation of a national online educational asset for students interested in research and innovation. The National Digital Library (NDL) is an all-digital library that will integrate all existing digitized and digital contents across various Institutions of the nation to provide a single-window access to different groups of users ranging from primary level to higher education level and even life-long learners of our country. Except for copyrighted content, digital data of about 110 institutions at the primary level will mostly be available for free, although access to the materials will be determined by the policy of respective institutions and their access rules. Educational materials are available for users ranging from primary to postgraduate levels and in all types of specialisations. It will provide vernacular content in all disciplines and in varied forms of access devices including video lectures and provisions of learning to cater to a diverse and wide ranging audience.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
#### <b>How do you use it?</b>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ Security being out of the jurisdiction of the SAC, the last SAC worked towards p
|
||||
prerogative of universities to provide for the security that enables women to exercise as much freedom as is guaranteed by the constitution. While one can’t help acknowledge the gravity of the obstacles to absolute security on campus, locking up adults well into their 20s seems rather short-sighted and primitive, as far as solutions go. “We’re not questioning the students’ judgement”, says Prof. D.K.Nauriyal, “Our only concern is their safety. There have been times when we’ve
|
||||
personally roamed around the campus and found lots of eve teasers. We rounded them up and took them to authorities. The moment we’re sure that our girls are safe, we’ll open it for 24x7 as we’ve no problem with that.”
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The proposal acknowledges the porosity of the campus as one of the primary bottlenecks in achieving better security. This is in part to the fact that there are various public offices within the campus and partly due to unauthorised and unaccounted residents inside the campus. Proper documentation of vehicles as well as institute residents is suggested as a way to counter this challenge. The in place scheme of dependent cards is a sufficient measure if implemented thoroughly and
|
||||
documented comprehensively. This needs to be complemented with a similar scheme for vehicles. The proposal suggests defining “authorised vehicles” as a vehicle belonging to a faculty or employee of the institute and accompanied by a dependent card. Unauthorised vehicles would require the submission of ID Cards/Driving Licences before entering the institute.
|
||||
@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ structure and do not resort to pursuing a complaint actively. To quote the DOSW
|
||||
|
||||
## The October Revolution:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
*The gathering in front of the main building*
|
||||
{: style="text-align: center"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ He added that they agree with the views of the students, in principle, but their
|
||||
|
||||
## Hospital Inadequacy:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 65%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
As is the norm in Roorkee, many a critical issue is brought forth only after serious mishap. The unfortunate and tragic death of Anurag Sharma owing to an injury on the squash courts last year, opened the can of worms regarding the health care issues on campus. The mumbles of discontent have burst forth after this freak disaster. As unanimously agreed upon, it’s high time the medical facilities on campus were revamped to meet the standards one comes to expect of a premier
|
||||
institution. Following the incident, a special meeting of the SAC was called for, wherein myriad problems were brought forth regarding the institute hospital and the counselling cell.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ The meeting started off with an information dissemination session, with all the
|
||||
The meet was started by the GS Hostel Affairs and Convenor of the SAC, who updated the attendees on various future projects like the provision of Wi-Fi in the Lecture Hall Complex. Taking inspiration from other IITs in developing a strong Bhawan culture, IITR will be holding Inter Bhawan Cultural, Sports and Technical trophies. Adding to that, a proposal regarding the entry of boys in the girls’ hostels till the canteen and the garden had been approved, subject to the condition that a maximum of three boys can be accompanied by a girl in the bhawan. In further developments, talks were in place for an extended break during Holi and Diwali. An interesting insight was the breakup of the Rs. 6000 charged by the institute towards extracurricular activities. It was clarified that this is the only fund at the DoSW’s disposal and it is divided in the following fashion:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 90%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 90%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Some changes relating to technical, academic and alumni affairs were intimated by the respective secretaries. To the relief of many students, an update on the attendance rule was given, stating that the proposal to increase the attendance to 90% was rejected by 14 of the 21 head of departments, with 3 HOD’s still undecided. Talks for a Q&A BOT, that can answer any question any student has, are ongoing. To ease the process of sharing current institute affairs, a Media Cell in association with Watch Out! and a Broadcasting Channel are to be set up. A temporary Alumni Connect on Request portal will be set up which will enable crowdfunding by multiple alumni along with internship opportunities, all through a single channel.
|
||||
@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ Some changes relating to technical, academic and alumni affairs were intimated b
|
||||
|
||||
### Question and Answer session:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 50%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 50%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The meeting was then opened up for the general populace, who spoke up about their concerns regarding the biggest issues plaguing the campus, specifically the unpleasant experiences of students at the institute hospital, the nonchalance of the administration to address the issue of the girls timings, and the difficulties arising due to cultural gap faced by the international students during their stay on campus. Here are some issues covered in the meeting :
|
||||
|
||||
@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ The meeting was then opened up for the general populace, who spoke up about thei
|
||||
|
||||
### Our two cents:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
The sister IITs are no stranger to such General Body Meetings. IIT Bombay has a very organized idea of GBMs where the Gymkhana President - a faculty-in charge of the Student’s Gymkhana - chairs the meeting, and aims at reviewing the performance of the Office Bearers. All students can attend the meeting but only members of the General Body present can vote. The meeting is conducted once a semester and the quorum is 50% of the members.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ The earlier system of elections at IITR required for a two level voting system t
|
||||
|
||||
## The Jawahar fiasco:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Political “factions” in the campus often run the risk of being taken a little too seriously. It does not take time for members to take personal disputes in a collectivist sense and act accordingly. With this as the case, disputes such as these often tend to boil over and snowball into full blown clashes, violent in their nature and immature with their logic. This aptly sums up the Jawahar fiasco.
|
||||
This has led to the DOSW cancelling the elections and in constituting an interim SAC to carry on the workings till the next elections, prophesised to take place in March’17. This step may look reasonable, but has its own flaws. _When we asked the DOSW on what basis the student representatives would be selected, there was no specific answer but vague mentions to analysing career plans and listening to ideas proposed by the candidates._ The question here is not that of the competency of the candidates, but rather of checks and balances to ensure it. No election will be perfect. However, it needs to be fair and transparent.
|
||||
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ This has led to the DOSW cancelling the elections and in constituting an interim
|
||||
|
||||
Even though the system has been revamped and the atmosphere seems to favour competent candidates but there still remain some grave issues that need to be addressed, before we move onto the next election. Looking at the new election system, we spotted a few anomalies, and a multitude of illogical clauses making up our Election’s code of conduct that insidiously hinder meritocratic politics. We approach these, one at a time and offer a few solutions to them.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 90%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 90%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
## Drawbacks of the current system:
|
||||
|
||||
@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ The code of conduct strictly prohibits online campaigning of any sort since it c
|
||||
|
||||
#### Unequal footing for the female candidates :
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Since the girls have to be back in their own hostel by 11 pm, as well as cannot enter other hostels for campaigning as easily as the male candidates, they enter the ring with a handicap. The roots of this can be found in the age old issue surrounding the curfew on girls. With that in place, a female candidate can barely match the reach of a male one.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ Certain posts at the hostel as well as the institutional level are viewed as red
|
||||
|
||||
## Solutions:
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 40%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
They say learning never stops, and it shouldn’t in this case either. We take this opportunity to examine our procedures to see where we lack, and how we can improve.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ After getting all these signatures you have to breathe and congratulate yourself
|
||||
|
||||
### The Fall of 2016
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
We (me, Deovrat and Kshitij) applied together for Hochschule Luzern, Switzerland and were ecstatic to get our acceptance e-mail on 18th May, 2016 for the coming Fall Semester. (September ’16 – February ‘17). The dogs of CS-169, Rajendra Bhawan had been unleashed to waggle tails for European blondes, hike along scenic Alps, bootleg through Roman alleys, and growl Grützi at every other firang dog that passed through.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ The classes begun from 21st September and hence came forward the clear picture o
|
||||
|
||||
### Hochshule Luzern
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
30 ECTS meant 8 courses - 2 Major modules (12), 2 Related Modules (6), 3 Minor Modules (9), and a language course(3).
|
||||
|
||||
@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ The other six modules were all in the domain of architecture. The related module
|
||||
|
||||
### The Swiss Deal
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 50%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 50%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
|
||||
Swiss folks, like their climate, are usually very cold. They have evolved confined to each other in small communities that thrived in valleys and lake sides surrounded by mountains. Being a major tourist destination, the locals have seen a lot of foreigners all their lives and somehow have grown indifferent to their presence. While serving the visitors with all hospitality and services, they remain closely knit in their own inner circles. A greeting in Swiss German is the password to get
|
||||
them talking, but don’t try to get too friendly. They take time to absorb a newbie in their life.
|
||||
@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ Swiss folks, like their climate, are usually very cold. They have evolved confin
|
||||
Although the popular notion of being a honeymoon destination still holds, it is a very narrow view for a country overshadowing major global players in technology, economy and environment preservation. A landlocked small country between major powers like France, Germany, Italy and Austria, it is with great resilience and determination that they have been able to hold on to their idea of Swiss conservatism and national identity. Swiss German is a very different dialect from
|
||||
German that even the Germans find difficult understanding. Being in the center of Europe and being filthy rich courtesy to the Jews that developed the banking system to rope in all the gold, the country has had a rich past in art, architecture and medieval towns. Moreover, their neutral stand and powerful defense has been able to preserve these treasuries through the dark ages of World War.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
In spite of being conceited and snobbish like a goblin, the Swiss have sentiments. And all their emotional nerves are attached to some pounding heart in their wrists. The people have an OCD with time skills. Being late was never accepted. Being an Indian was a major joy for the fun we can have in recklessness. The food they eat is no food at all. Cheese, chocolate and bread are supplements for us, main course for them. ‘Swiss Watching’ by Diccon Bewes is much recommended book to know about
|
||||
Switzerland and its people.
|
||||
@ -67,4 +67,4 @@ Now, I am much excited for my last year in R-land. The campus has a different vi
|
||||
|
||||
__Ciao.__
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -11,14 +11,14 @@ The last few months have seen a rise in the cases of dog bites in and around the
|
||||
|
||||
### Our hands are tied
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 45%; float: left; margin-right: 4%;"}
|
||||
*Ref: [http://www.awbi.org/awbi-pdf/circular_abc_cantonmentboards.pdf](http://www.awbi.org/awbi-pdf/circular_abc_cantonmentboards.pdf)*
|
||||
|
||||
According to a circular [1] issued by the Animal Welfare Board of India, stray dogs cannot be beaten or driven away from their localities. They can however, be sterilised, immunized, and released back into the same area in accordance with the Animal Birth Control programme; which happens once every two years in the campus. According to K.P. Singh, Chief Security Officer, these sterilised dogs (whose right ears have been notched) are often displaced due to aggressiveness, which leads to
|
||||
other fertile and territorial dogs from outside the campus taking their place. What follows is a perpetual cycle wherein these dogs that have now entered the campus are sterilised and then again released into the wild on account of aggressiveness, and so on and so forth. The end to this is the utopian ideal of having every dog in the country sterilised and immunized, through the IIT Roorkee campus or otherwise.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
{: style="width: 55%;"}
|
||||
*Ref: [https://jaagrutiindia.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/public-grievances-circular-pg-1.jpg](https://jaagrutiindia.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/public-grievances-circular-pg-1.jpg)*
|
||||
|
||||
Furthermore, a memorandum issued by the Department of Personnel and Training [2] states that in all problems relating to stray animals, “no association, recognised or unrecognised, shall take recourse to action on their own, either themselves, or through any person employed by them like Security Guards.”
|
||||
|
||||
@ -11,6 +11,6 @@ It goes without saying that placements are a serious business for the student co
|
||||
<div class="infogram-embed" data-id="placements-983578" data-type="interactive" data-title="Placements"></div><script>!function(e,t,s,i){var n="InfogramEmbeds",o=e.getElementsByTagName("script"),r=o[0],d=/^http:/.test(e.location)?"http:":"https:";if(/^\/{2}/.test(i)&&(i=d+i),window[n]&&window[n].initialized)window[n].process&&window[n].process();else if(!e.getElementById(s)){var
|
||||
a=e.createElement("script");a.async=1,a.id=s,a.src=i,r.parentNode.insertBefore(a,r)}}(document,"script","infogram-async","//e.infogr.am/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js");</script><div style="padding:8px 0;font-family:Arial!important;font-size:13px!important;line-height:15px!important;text-align:center;border-top:1px solid #dadada;margin:0 30px"></div>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ A month after the breaking of the metaphorical “pinjra”, IITR has seen a pal
|
||||
|
||||
The security of the campus can be broadly analysed through the lens of the Human Resource employed and the technology accompanying them. As a first and warranted step, there has been a significant increase in the number of guards patrolling the campus. However, incredulity kicked in when we came across the plan to employ a group of three female and two males to observe vigilance across certain hotspots. The move bears an uncanny resemblance to a policing tactic employed in a neighbouring state. Referred by an uncalled smearing of one of Shakespeare’s chief protagonists, that move has seen considerable flak from various sections of the society for it aims at outright moral policing and privacy breach. We can only hope that this likeness in implementation is not driven by a likeness in vision and aims.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Our mild incredulity grew stronger upon learning the technological upgrades planned under this security overhaul. We would like to start by outlining the planned purchase of TASER guns and Heat Vision goggles for the security guards. This is accompanied by the acceptable aim of ramping up CCTV surveillance, in and around uncharted territories such as the dark corners of the Civil Department and places where students usually visit in groups of two. The increased security measures would cost the administration Rs 3 cr per year along with a onetime cost of Rs 4 cr for equipments and installation. One can get a decent idea of what this means by comparing with the institute’s annual medical expenses of Rs 3.5 cr and academic scholarship/fellowship spending of Rs 8.5 crore.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ The newly installed, “Early Warning Earthquake Alarm System,” nicknamed EAS,
|
||||
|
||||
Earthquakes, under their current level of understanding, are quite indeterministic in their nature, i.e. one cannot pinpoint the place of origin, time of occurrence, or the intensity of an earthquake. However, EAS, post-analyzing real-time data (shown in the image,) from certain selected earthquake-prone regions, calculates the time that shall be required for the secondary seismic wave to travel between the epicentre and the location under observation. This is known as the “Lead Time.”
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Earthquakes begin with primary waves, which move at an average speed of 6 km/s, and are followed by secondary waves, which move at 3 km/s. Ground particles vibrating in the direction of propagation do not tend to cause any damage, however, for the case of secondary waves, one observes particles vibrating perpendicular to the direction of wave propagation. Perpendicular vibrations allow for damage of humongous orders.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ A magnitude 7 earthquake, analytically, releases approximately 32 times more ene
|
||||
|
||||
To explain the methodology in a brief, seismic sensors have been deployed in tectonically-active areas, and regions which have had a past record of earthquakes. Himalayas, due to the folding and faulting between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, tend to be tectonically-active region. As repercussions of the same, adjacent regions - such as Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Nepal - have had an earthquake-fling of their own, with earthquakes of magnitude greater than 8, on richter scale, being observed in the past. Currently, collisions which can lead to disastrous earthquakes, in the aforementioned regions, are being anticipated. This is why, with EAS as a weapon, Seismologists in the state of Uttarakhand have been on a “night watch.”
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
The biggest highlight of EAS is the algorithm that estimates the magnitude of the earthquake in real time simulation, in a matter of 3 seconds, only. Roorkee, being about 120 kms away from the Himalayas, can observe an S-wave in about 40 seconds, if the epicentre of the earthquake lies in Himalayas. After estimation of intensity within 3 seconds, and an additional 10 seconds for an alert to be issued, EAS provides Roorkee with a lead time of about 25-30 seconds. Additionally, warnings shall be issued, only if the magnitude of earthquake exceeds a 6 on the richter scale. Four or more sensors should back the notification, else, no warning is issued. Within the inevitable 10 seconds required for the issuing of warning, the S-wave moves ahead by about 30 km - making this region the blindspot. However, the epicentre is usually a teeny bit into the depths of Himalayas, and, hence, the corresponding blindspot turns out to be a sparsely populated region. Still, an earthquake of magnitude more than 8 can cause some serious havoc in regions reaching upto Delhi.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ __W: Recently you have been dilating to other cities as well. What were the chal
|
||||
|
||||
__P__: As far as establishing the market in Roorkee is concerned we didn't face many difficulties given the fact that our team wholly consists of undergrads. Expanding to Dehradun was an uneasy task. Commuting to Dehradun from Roorkee and then back to Roorkee was quite hectic. Gaining the local restaurant owners' confidence wasn't a cake walk. However, the most challenging thing was building a team in Dehradun, because it's difficult to manage a team when none of your core team members is actually present there at all times. The good thing is that even after these challenges we've managed to come this far.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
__W: What sets you apart from your competitors?__
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
100
_posts/2017-06-11-architecture-at-iit-roorkee.md
Normal file
100
_posts/2017-06-11-architecture-at-iit-roorkee.md
Normal file
@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Architecture at IIT Roorkee"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
category: academics
|
||||
image: archi-q2_p2.jpg
|
||||
excerpt: "What is architecture? This question shall haunt you like a stubborn ghost for the initial 3 semesters of study – asked by professors to gauge your understanding of it – so it pays to know."
|
||||
height: 540px
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
### What is Architecture?
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
This question shall haunt you like a stubborn ghost for the initial 3 semesters of study – asked by professors to gauge your understanding of it – so it pays to know.
|
||||
|
||||
The standard definition – offered by a number of dictionaries – proclaims architecture to be “the art and science of designing buildings, open spaces and physical structures”; however, to fully appreciate the definition, one needs to understand the keywords better.
|
||||
|
||||
**Art**: As most people reading this would expect, architecture has several aesthetic considerations, “space” being the central one. Space is perhaps a very abstract concept, but it can be understood as the enclosure within which one is positioned. Your bedroom, living room, the dormitories you will come to live in – all – are spaces, although of differing quality. This quality is ascertained by the way the light filters in, the way the wind blows across the room, the sounds and smells that can be heard or smelled within a space, and myriad other factors. An architect’s duty is to make them more liveable and enjoyable to offset the mundanity of everyday life, or to elevate its loftiness.
|
||||
|
||||
**Science**: The science component only slightly resembles the kind you have been exposed to thus far. In architecture, science is a combination of principles and quantitative problems (numericals), with the former predominating. Architecture has several logical considerations, some of which are climate, cost (of construction, of running), making sure the structure/ building does not collapse and actually constructing whatever has been designed. Details shall follow in the next question.
|
||||
|
||||
**Design**: Design consists of juggling aesthetic, practical and several other parallel considerations to arrive at the best possible solution. In the case of architecture, one has to consider the sequence of spaces/rooms (their connectivity with each other), the climate, the cost, the materials that ought to be employed, the aesthetics, etc. and produce a design that pacifies each need. It is best learnt by practice.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Architecture as a course
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
The study of architecture requires one to be a generalist rather than a specialist. The constituent courses of the bachelor degree, as ascribed by the Council of Architecture, are centred around “Architectural Design”, which will be found in all semesters except the first (1.1) and the last three (4.2, 5.1, 5.2). In the fifth year, one works on their Thesis, a culmination of all skills acquired during the last four years, where he/she designs a building from start to finish, just as one would for an actual project. Other courses impart necessary skills and information required in order to design and actually construct a building. These include climatology, structures, building construction, architectural graphics, visual art, building codes and regulations, etc. A full list of courses – and details about them – can be found <span style="color:#72C5EB">[here](https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwI7Ki_XnyhmcURVd3FULW10azg)</span>
|
||||
|
||||
Each year has its own studio, a large room where they do most of their drafting; it comes equipped with an anthropometrically sound furniture set comprising a drafting table and a stool. A standard set of equipment comprises a parallel bar (a 100-something cm long scale that draws parallel lines), an adjustable set square, a sheet holder, A1, A2 or A3 sized cartridge sheets, a great number of pencils, an eraser, a cutter (to sharpen pencils with; sharpeners are for amateurs), and a fine-liner, although only the first and third are exposed.
|
||||
|
||||
To evaluate designs, a jury is conducted, where professors – and sometimes peers – criticize each design while the designer attempts to justify his decisions. Juries may severely damage egos or ignorance, depending on how one takes the criticism. Nevertheless, juries are the primary means of progress for any architectural design course.
|
||||
|
||||
Contrary to popular belief, architecture is not all about drawing, painting, and the like; although these are helpful skills during the course, they play a very preliminary role in design, and can nevertheless be picked up after joining the course. One does not need to be creative in the visual sense to take up architecture as a profession.
|
||||
|
||||
The course as a whole is rather challenging. It involves the longest contact hours of all courses and a great load of assignments, both of which – thankfully – eventually decrease. Good grades call for a mastery of all courses and fields – most importantly architectural design, which has the highest number of credits in any given semester. Architecture involves solving the biggest problems as well as the most minute. All these manifest as a great degree of frustration and a considerable number of late nights. For people who have studied the sciences all their lives – presumably with much interest and love – this will be a very different ball game.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Architecture @ IITR: Cons – where we lag behind other colleges
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
If architecture is what you are interested in, IITR is perhaps not the best place to pursue it. A list of reasons are given below:
|
||||
|
||||
1. **Lack of competition**: Out of the thirty-something classmates that will constitute your class (most colleges have at least 70), very few will actually be interested in architecture. A great number of them shall turn in a very poor quality of assignments – if they do – aiming at just keeping their heads above the water. There is a tendency for the “good students” to become too self-sure and swim in seas of mediocrity.
|
||||
|
||||
2. **Focus of the professors**: Unlike other colleges of architecture, the primary focus of professors in IITR is their body of research. All professors are highly qualified (holding at least a M. Arch degree; most have a PhD), although in their specific fields of interest. Only a handful of professors actually put in effort to keep the class interesting and impart relevant and sufficient knowledge. At present, there are only two visiting professors (practicing architects), who are infrequent with their visits. At top architectural schools such as SPA Delhi, this ratio is almost reversed; the design studio and juries are held and evaluated by practicing architects, who have an idea of the real world, of what really works and what doesn’t.
|
||||
|
||||
3. **Not enough emphasis on design** : Architectural design, as stated earlier, is central to the entire curriculum. However, there are only 9 hours allotted to it per week, far less than any other good architectural school in the country. Design is a reiterative process, and requires constant feedback and work to be done right; 9 hours a week hardly ensures that.
|
||||
|
||||
4. **Lack of studio culture**: “Studio culture” is an important part of the architecture degree (to know more, watch <span style="color:#72C5EB">[this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62r3UPrOS9k&t=1294s) </span>). All schools (almost without exception, including our sister IIT Kharagpur) leave their studios open during the night in order for the students to work on their assignments. It keeps one away from all the distractions of the hostel and ensures that those willing to work get a conducive environment to do it in. However, IITR chooses to be different in this rather inconvenient way.
|
||||
|
||||
5. **Skewed sex-ratio**: The sex-ratio varies across all years, depending on the collective luck of the incoming freshmen. However, it is much lower than other colleges, where the sex ratio is 1:1 or better (with girls predominating).
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Architecture @ IITR: Pros – how IIT is better/different from other colleges
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
You have now managed to read past all the faults and misdeeds of architecture, so pat yourself on the back for a bit.
|
||||
|
||||
Architecture at IITR has many unique advantages. These are:
|
||||
|
||||
1. **A chance to make another field/skill your profession**: Even if one discovers that architecture isn’t their cup of tea, there are many alternate options available, unlike any other college of architecture. Related fields such as product design, graphic design and industrial design exist. Fields bearing little resemblance to architecture include coding, finance, consultancy and start-ups, to name a few. Self-interest and effort are primary requirements in such an undertaking, but campus groups and seniors help greatly. One can build his CV by interning in capacities closely related to the profession he/she wishes to pursue. Interns are much easier to come by with the help of the IIT tag. This is a good point in time to reiterate that very few people in any given batch choose architecture as their profession; the rest go into non-core jobs.
|
||||
|
||||
2. **The “Family system”** : All first years are inducted into one or more families within the initial two weeks of joining IITR. A family may choose to adopt you based on any number of criteria, or even at random (by chit-picking). Once in the family, the very first responsibility is helping the fifth year with their thesis; here one picks up preliminary model-making skills, and even software skills, should their baap allow it. This duty is renewed every year, but its formal nature is not. In return, it is any baap’s duty to give chaapos and advice on how to weather the storm that is architecture.
|
||||
|
||||
3. **Societies, groups and sports**: Although architecture constitutes a very small number of the total intake, archi wale log can be found in most groups on campus. The reasons behind joining societies and groups stand as two polar opposites: some see them as opportunities to counter frustration, while others see them as opportunities to learn relevant skills, having discovered their disinterest in architecture. Either way, the number of groups and societies on campus is astronomical, with new ones cropping up every year. Chances are there is a group for each interest or intrigue you possess (an exhaustive list with brief information can be found <span style="color:#72C5EB"> [here](http://guide.wona.co.in/section/campus-groups)</span> ). Similarly, facilities for all major sports can be found here, with exceptional coaching staff that bring out the best in you. The standard of sports are much higher than one would expect for a sorry bunch of nerds. More information can be found <span style="color:#72C5EB">[here](http://guide.wona.co.in/section/sports)</span>
|
||||
|
||||
4. **Semester Exchange** : A semester exchange is available for students having a decent CGPA (>7.5); up to three students can be accepted as exchange students in Hochschule Luzern (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts), Switzerland, in their 7th semester (4.1). This is an opportunity to learn how our western counterparts perceive and approach architecture, as well as to travel Europe, experiencing all that it has to offer. Here is an account of the experience, as recalled by a senior who visited Hochschule Luzern this year:<span style="color:#72C5EB"> [exchange diary switzerland](http://wona.co.in/2017/03/exchange-diaries-switzerland)</span>
|
||||
|
||||
5. **Research opportunities** : Perhaps one characteristic that sets IITR apart from all other colleges is the emphasis it lays on research. Any student interested in research may approach a professor, consult him/her about the area/matter he wishes to investigate – and once he/she has the blessing of the professor – pursue it. In addition to the above, a program called SURA (Summer Undergraduate Research Awards) is also in place. Here, however, the approval is given by the central administration (Dean, SRIC) following a detailed presentation explaining the area of study and specifying the deliverables each week. A student who is shown the green light stays back during the summer, and submits a report at the end, after which he is given a partial refund and a stipend. For students of architecture, an additional opportunity lies in the form of the CBRI (Central Building Research Institute), which, although an autonomous body, abuts our campus. The CBRI develops new materials and ways of building and assists with problems of planning, designing and disaster mitigation. The CBRI is very welcoming of IITR students wishing to research such areas; two seniors (to the author’s knowledge) have written research papers under the CBRI.
|
||||
|
||||
6. **On-campus placements** : Reportedly (that is, with questionable certainty), other architectural colleges do not have placements, or any sort of arrangements wherein graduates can find firms to employ them. At IITR, such a system does exist, but the number of firms and companies that recruit architects are just sufficient. However, when it comes to other fields such as the ones mentioned earlier, it is a level playing field, and architecture graduates can get non-core jobs provided they are meritorious. More information can be found <span style="color:#72C5EB">[here](http://guide.wona.co.in/section/placements)</span>
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Terms and Conditions for doing well in architecture
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
If, after carefully considering all the above information, you still want to pursue architecture at IITR, here are a few pointers that might help you.
|
||||
|
||||
1. **Give architecture a fair chance**. A considerable number do, but their effort does not sustain, and their enthusiasm dampens within the first two months. Giving architecture a chance entails doing all assignments conscientiously, at least for the first semester (which, in itself, forms an image of architecture that is far from reality).
|
||||
|
||||
2. **Read**. Whether its articles on archdaily, or books on architecture, the more information you accumulate, the better. Some of the knowledge thus collected will be employed in your designs at one point or another.
|
||||
|
||||
3. **Work on improving your visual communication skills** , i.e. drafting and sketching. A good (technical) drawing or sketch is worth a thousand words. Competitions organised by NASA (National Association of Students of Architecture) are the best way to do this.
|
||||
|
||||
4. **Learn to take criticism objectively**. Any professor criticising you or your design is only doing so for your benefit, not to make himself/ herself feel big.
|
||||
|
||||
5. **Perseverance is key**. There will be classmates better than you at sketching and artistic pursuits, but the belief that hard work can at least equal talent needs to be cultivated and acted upon. Similarly, a lot of your initial work and ideas may be shot down in the jury. Push yourself to do better. Sadly, results are what finally matter, the effort that one puts in merely accounts for consolation.
|
||||
|
||||
### Contact details
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
In case you have any doubts regarding the course that you wish to get clarified, feel free to call any of the people listed below:
|
||||
|
||||
**Divyang Purrkayastha (2nd year)**: +91 9560588732<br>
|
||||
**Ramachandra Reddy (3rd year)**: +91 9557902784<br>
|
||||
**Lanka Adarsh (3rd year)**: +91 9410577752/ +91 8218618294<br>
|
||||
**Anshul Rathore (4th year)**: +91 9917026076<br>
|
||||
**Deovrat Dwivedi (5th year)**: +91 7895473473<br>
|
||||
**Kshitij Joshi (5th year)**: +91 7895475628
|
||||
|
||||
Illustration Credits: Leewardists
|
||||
@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ To begin with, the device is basically a multispectral imaging tool, which image
|
||||
__W: Tell us something about the Ericsson Innovation Awards.__
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
__TS__: The Ericsson Innovation Awards, which were started in 2009, tend to promote innovation amongst university-students, motivating them to come up with original ideas. Thinking that we were original enough, we submitted our project. I had looped in others, the current team as you know, to participate in the competition. However, it was Ankit Bagaria, who led the ante further in terms of everything not-tech. I had one job: getting the product ready, i.e. a working and presentable prototype.
|
||||
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Though we did apply for the competition, I wouldn’t be lying if I said that we
|
||||
With a great presentation, and some great pilot runs coming our way, we realized that we could actually make it. And we actually got into the top 13 out of 907 teams, across the globe. WE were shocked with the selection, frankly. Hell, there was a team from Stanford! Last year’s top 3 had included a team from MIT, so, I wouldn’t be over-extrapolating if I said that we had actually beat teams from all the biggies.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
__W: Must have been pretty overwhelming!__
|
||||
@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ ttacks when you get to this place. Linear Technology, Xilinx - the ones you use
|
||||
We were supposed to record a 45 second pitch, the very next day, in the morning. Not much of a big deal, since it had been months that we had been practicing our pitching skills. I must say, though, the Ericsson Studio was beautiful!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
These guys, they have projects from 5G to virtual reality to predictive transport network systems to whatever-you-want-to-get-anxious-about. We also got to click ourselves with an emmy award - certainly won’t win one, ever, in my life, but, at least, I shall always have a click to back my bluff with.
|
||||
@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ __TS__: THE RADIOHEAD CONCERT. It was something that had us overwhelmingly excit
|
||||
If you want to witness transcendence, go watch these guys live. I have been a fanatic of Radiohead, for an year now. Going there, I got to know why. The stripped down versions, the little flings they’d play with their instruments and vocals, it was too much for me to bare. I swear, if someone hugged me, I’d have sobbed hard.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I’ll give you this - when I retire, Sweden it’ll be. The people, the place, the atmosphere - it was all so satisfying.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ The first round was the online test containing 10 basic aptitude questions, 10 s
|
||||
For the interview, two panels, one for the technical interview and one for the HR interview, were created and the two interviews were carried out in different rooms. In the technical interview, difficult questions were asked on coding and probability and we were grilled based on our technical knowledge. On the other hand, the HR interview was based on an interaction with the panel with discussions that revolved around our resume. Some basic C++ programming, Object Oriented questions, and a few puzzles were also asked. If you can interact well, explain properly what you have done throughout your college life and present your achievements, your work here is done!
|
||||
A total of 8 people were selected for the internship after the interview round.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Work
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ The work culture at Fuzzy Logix is quite cool and similar to that of a startup.
|
||||
**Experience gained:**
|
||||
I learned a lot about various languages used specifically for Data Science and also got an insight of the important functions used. We are also allowed to attend various team meetings so that we could get an insight of how the work is carried out in an IT firm. Overall, it was a great experience for a person like me, who had no background in coding. The mentors and people around helped me from scratch and cleared the silliest of my doubts.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
**Advice to people gunning for it:**
|
||||
Though the work at the internship might get redundant after a while, it’s the foundation of the work done at Fuzzy Logix that you learn during your internship. You learn the basics of Data Science and see how various functions work.The work for interns basically revolves around the development, testing, debugging and documentation in various data analytics platforms. Work done at Fuzzy Logix is quite different from that at a conventional IT firm and that’s what makes it more interesting. You may be expecting that there would be a lot of Data Science, so you may get upset on this front as most of the interns are made to work mainly on development projects. But since it’s more of a startup, you can work closely with the team and also get to know about the work being done in other projects. Overall, there is a great learning atmosphere. If you’re willing to go for it, build a strong resume, present your work in the right way and get it proofread by your seniors and friends. As for the interview, prepare well about the things you’ve mentioned in your resume, your projects or earlier internships and be confident. Also, a good command over coding would definitely give you an edge.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ I worked in the WLAN Software Team and my project was to add a feature to record
|
||||
|
||||
The work hours depend on your project and the team assigned. I used to stay in the office from 10 am to 6 pm while a few of my co-interns used to work in slots – 11 am to 4 pm and then after dinner – 9 pm to 12 midnight. The project is assigned considering that you are a two-month intern which means that the work is not very pressurizing. All that expected of you the completion of the project by the end of the internship. Apart from work, there are team lunches and outings organized weekly/monthly depending upon the team.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Perks and fun:
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ Qualcomm takes very good care of its interns providing the best of facilities. A
|
||||
|
||||
Qualcomm also organizes many competitions and fun events. During my internship, there was a photography competition and a singing event organized for the employees and interns. A major part of a Qualcomm internship is the Qualcomm Idea Quest whereby all the two month interns have to submit a new idea related to the domains in which Qualcomm works and if the idea is selected, teams are made and funding is provided to execute the idea in not more than 15 days at the end of which, a winning team is announced. Also, there are various days celebrated by the company – Qliving day, in which we were taken to WonderLa, Qsocial day and many more.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Key takeaways
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ There are three other ways to bag the internship:
|
||||
|
||||
3. Word-of-mouth recommendations (a.k.a “contacts”), although this directly implies that a PPO cannot be secured.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Work culture:
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ The stipend is a humble Rs. 10,000, in addition to reimbursement of 3-tier A/C t
|
||||
|
||||
My project was on “The Crystallographic and Texture Analysis of Ti+Nb+Mo HS 800 Steel”, under the Flat Product Technology Group (it is scarcely as dangerous as it sounds). A few days of study on the topic at hand fosters an interest for it. Moreover, I was fortunate enough to be appointed a guide who kept in constant touch through weekly updates, and also helped me with experiments. Sincere work can result in the publication of a research paper within the stipulated period of two months; many students have done so in the past.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
TATA Steel possess a variety of equipment: the Coke plant, Pellet plant, Blast furnace and LD furnace, to name a few. One gets to see, in real time, all that they have studied and – at long last – an answer to why we study the course.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -50,4 +50,4 @@ The weather here is mostly hot and humid, interspersed by frequent rain (once ev
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
TATA Steel is best for those in metallurgy wishing to pursue a “core” job, or explore its possibilities. It is a rather secure job, and the probability of being laid off is very low, provided one sticks to the ethical code of the corporation. Chances of bagging a PPO, as well as of publishing a research paper are good. Its work culture makes it a good company to start with.<br>
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ It is then followed by an online test which has some really easy questions. I wa
|
||||
|
||||
Wipro is a name that needs no introduction. It was, however, an exciting time to join the firm as it recently launched a new logo and unveiled its new brand identity. The new identity would mark Wipro's emergence as a trusted digital transformation partner to clients, delivering at global scale with increasingly localized capabilities, and leveraging hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics, cognitive and emerging technologies. The new logo, "connects the dots" for its clients integrating deep technology and domain expertise, applying insights from across industries, and consistently delivering world-class integrated, end-to-end capabilities and services, it also highlights the company's strong technology heritage and reflects capabilities for the future.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
**Internship experience**
|
||||
|
||||
@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ It’s safe to say that a major part of your internship depends on your mentor,
|
||||
|
||||
The office hours were typical, as we were asked to work from 10 am to 5 pm on weekdays. This left weekends free for us to visit all the nearby places. Moreover, the workload was also flexible, depending on the kind of mentor you get. (I’d like to reiterate here by mentioning how your mentors are really cool people who will treat you as a younger brother during your whole internship period.) You get free snacks and beverages, daily, and a personal cubicle to work in. In a company of close to two lakh employees, the fact that an intern would get a personal working space seemed pretty cool to me! The office had a pretty free culture, as we enjoyed occasional games of pool and table tennis. Our mentor too joined us some time, but would often, in a friendly way, taunt us for wasting time here rather than working!
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Summing Up
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ The research internship takes place at the Big Data Experience Lab of Adobe Rese
|
||||
|
||||
Each team consists of 2-3 interns and two mentors. The mentors are friendly, there are team outings and meetings are also usually very interesting.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
On a more serious note, the internship is divided into three stages, which loosely translate into choosing a problem (problem defense), thinking of a solution (solution defense) and a demo (final presentation). The first stage goes a long way in improving your presentation and analytical skills and the next two stages, your technical skills.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -27,13 +27,13 @@ The timings are flexible, which means you can work for as much as you can, there
|
||||
|
||||
Adobe tries its best to keep work lively for its interns and employees by organizing fun activities like volleyball tournaments, chess competitions, Friends quiz, and stand up comedy shows. Apart from that, one can find interesting things to do in Bangalore using apps like LBB and Insider.in.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:80%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Key Takeaways and Advice
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
One of the goals of the internship is to publish research papers and file patents, which is a useful addition in case one plans to pursue research in the future or make more money on the side. As for the structure of the internship, one of my mentors fondly referred to the internship program as a mini-PhD program. To be fair, I couldn't have agreed more! The prospect of a research internship had always appealed to me from the start of my second year. An internship at Adobe Research seemed like the best of both, the industry and the research world when I had accepted the internship offer. As my internship progresses, I believe that I made the right judgement.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
As mentioned previously, a ‘wild-card’ way of getting this internship is on the basis of your CGPA. To the smug readers falling in the aforementioned category, here’s a warning! Unless you are the DR1, or have a secret contact in the TPO who can reassure you otherwise, do not live in the bubble of comfort of having already scored an internship, as Adobe’s intake policies could change every internship season.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ excerpt: "As an Electrical Engineering student, I tried my hand at core engineer
|
||||
Well, I wanted to get an internship as soon as possible, so that I wouldn’t have to rush to the TPO in borrowed formals for a whole semester, or possibly two. At the same time, I didn’t want to compromise on my interest areas. I became choosy and PwC was only the 4th company I applied to, after a long hiatus of two months following American Express, Goldman Sachs and ITC, three of which I botched on the 1st day itself after getting shortlisted. The company requires you to submit your CV (did I forget passport size photographs?) via the TPO and conducts a written test that is pretty “CAT-like”, consisting of Aptitude, Reasoning, and Verbal Sections. Thereafter, selected candidates are called for an interview. The main point is to focus on your CV. They will grill you on your CV, much like Gordon Ramsey in Hell’s Kitchen, and you need to justify everything that’s on it. Your interests are another area of focus as the field of work that will be assigned to you will depend on it. After this technical interview, there will be an HR interview, in which you just have to be yourself for some questions and lie with a straight face for others.
|
||||
As they recruit through official channels, you are not allowed to apply off campus. BUT, PwC does allow, in fact, encourages its employees to refer persons known to them. So if you have relatives in PwC, it’s probably time to renew old family ties. At the same time, do look for opportunities on their official website (https://www.pwc.in/).
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Work
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ I was assigned to Enterprising Applications division. My work was to develop a m
|
||||
|
||||
A big misconception that people carry about working in a corporate world is the monotonous nature of the work. But believe me, with the right company and work culture you do not need to fear about that. The daily working hours were fixed and there were no rigid timings unless you had to face a client. My Project Manager was a chilled-out person and gave me a free hand on imagining and designing my app. Colleagues were super awesome with no air of superiority and you could even stroll into a Partner’s cabin for a small chat. So yes, the work environment was relaxed and you could seek anyone’s help without hesitation. Apart from regular work, you could participate in CSR initiatives to gain a broader perspective on life. Or you could just spend a day at the gym or challenge anyone for a game of table tennis or football. We also had a buddy attached to us who was supposed to take care of our daily problems and most importantly, take us out on a grand lunch. We had a CCD Coffee machine and unlimited snacks on each floor, so you would probably be caffeine addicted by the time you leave the internship. All in all, if you are looking forward to challenging yourself, you wouldn’t regret interning at PwC.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### What’s to love about the place?
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ This round was meant to test Mathematic and Analytic Aptitude. At first, we had
|
||||
**HR Round:**
|
||||
This was like a generic HR interview. There were usual questions regarding previous internships, projects, interests, background, ambitions, strengths etc. The best way to tackle these questions is to be brutally honest.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Work
|
||||
|
||||
@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ Interns are generally given the projects that would have otherwise be given to r
|
||||
|
||||
The AmEx office is in Koramangala area of Bangalore. Koramangala is an absolute paradise for foodies. It has a range of restaurants, cafes, bistros and clubs. There are exquisite English Cafes, Pizza Places, Theme Restaurants, Buffets, Continental Bistros and Fast food places. You name it, they have it. The weather is great if it isn’t raining. There are many places to visit in and around Bangalore. You can checkout Wonderla, take a trek to the Nandi hills or spend your weekends in Pondicherry, Coorg or Ooty.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Summing Up and Key Takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ The five of us were assigned four projects based on ML, NLP and also a little fr
|
||||
|
||||
The projects required us to be able to learn quickly and be flexible and adept at programming tools. We did not, however, have any senior subject expert guiding us or working with us; where we lacked, we had to educate ourselves, which is not new to DS enthusiasts for whom the internet is the biggest boon and perhaps the only resource, for the field is new and under development. It was thrilling to be part of a team that was working on solutions to be deployed at a global level. Imagine finding out that your team’s work is being verified and prepared for deployment in Ireland. After this, the ordeal of having to subject ourselves to extensive and invasive pre-employment medical checkups almost seems worth it.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Key Takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ I was assigned to the FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) Inventory Experience Team. Thi
|
||||
|
||||
I did work a lot, but we had a ton of fun too. My whole team was extremely friendly and we had our quarterly outing at a resort! In our office there’s pool, table-tennis, carroms, foosball. A couple of other interns and I used to play pool everyday in the evening. My internship was at Bangalore which had beautiful weather but horrific traffic. Now when i say horrific I mean it. I’ve never experienced such horrible traffic, haha. But it doesn’t really matter, you kind of get used to it after a while. Every weekend I used to go somewhere or the other, sometimes with the other interns, sometimes with my friends from Roorkee interning here as well, and sometimes with my team! There was never a dull moment in my time here. Work was exciting, I was learning how to write clean and concise code and learning a bunch of new things. My peers always gave me helpful tips and helped me out when I was in a bind.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Summing Up!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Big cities are more expensive than smaller ones, so finding cheap accommodation
|
||||
|
||||
I started completing the remaining process for DAAD application. It includes providing your passport details, making a German VISA, hunting for accommodation and cheap currency exchange rates and most importantly booking flights. Booking flights in advance and also for the return journey is a good idea as prices increase dynamically. I booked my flights in February when the rates were quite low. If direct flights to your destination is not cheap, then flying to either Munich or Frankfurt is better. The cities are well connected by bus and train services. You can also find some domestic flights having rates comparable to trains and buses. Flixbus is the most economical option one has in Germany and many other European countries.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
Getting a visa is not difficult. If you have your passport already ready, which you must in January, the visa application hardly takes 20 days. The process is simple: there is a short term visa available for a short (less than 3 months) stay in Germany which is called Schengen visa, which is valid for most countries in the European Union. All you have to do is book an appointment at the visa application centre near you, fill in the online or offline form and take the printout to the centre on the appointment day. It takes 2-3 hours for biometric scanning and verifying your details. Visa application is free for DAAD students but still you have to pay the convenience fee of ~1500₹.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ One of the toughest parts of the DAAD process is to find accommodation in German
|
||||
I did my currency exchange beforehand from buyforex.in. You should carry enough money for at least two weeks worth of expenses because the monthly scholarship starts only after you make your bank account in Germany, which takes at least a week. A international travel card is a good option if you don’t want to take money in cash. It is an easy, fast and reliable means of exchange, and can be issued from any nationalised bank.
|
||||
Note: Learning German is not required as you will find English speakers in your institute and in the worst case you have your Google translate app.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Work
|
||||
|
||||
@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ The bus service in Germany and other countries in Europe are very comfortable an
|
||||
|
||||
Almost all the countries of Europe have great travel attractions. Even Germany itself consists of many beautiful places to see. The north coast of Germany (the Baltic and the North sea) has many wonderful cities with very beautiful beaches. In south Germany, there are many beautiful forests in Bavaria. Even cities like Berlin, Munich, Hamburg and Leipzig contain many attractions. And if you are in Germany, it is easy for you to go anywhere being right at the centre of Europe. Major German cities are well connected to other countries of Europe by road, railways and planes. Weekend trips are best because you don’t need to worry about work.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
If you are a fan of football, then this country is for you, but the time is not suitable since the league ends in May. However, you can always visit football grounds for a minimal entrance fee.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ excerpt: "Jindal Stainless Ltd, a part of the O.P Jindal group is India’s larg
|
||||
|
||||
Jindal Stainless Ltd, a part of the O.P Jindal group is India’s largest stainless steel company. They have stainless steel plants located at Hisar in Haryana, Jajpur in Odissa, Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, and also in Indonesia. The Hisar plant where I interned, is spread over a few hundred acres and has a turnover of Rs. 140 billion and produces hot rolled and cold rolled coils and sheets, coin blanks, razor and precision strips etc.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ JSL came for recruiting interns early in October with openings for Metallurgy, M
|
||||
|
||||
Together we were 19 interns at the Hisar plant from IIT Roorkee, IIT Kanpur and a few NITs. Some were placed at their corporate office in Gurgaon. The internship began with a 3 day orientation session through which we were acquainted with the manufacturing processes and facilities here. For mechanical and P&I students, the projects were related to increasing productivity of mills, improving efficiency of processes, logistics planning, procurement planning, waste heat treatment etc. For those with metallurgy background, the projects dealt with improving the quality of stainless steel, enhancing efficiency of steel-making processes etc. Monthly review meetings were held with the plant head and other members of the senior management.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
I worked on two projects here. The first one was in the finishing section of the Hot Rolling Division where I was given the task of enhancing the productivity of the line. We used time motion study, delay analysis etc. to find the bottlenecks in production. The second one was with the Production Planning & Control Dept. where I worked on optimizing the logistics planning of the company. The aim of the project was to reduce dead freight on trucks using algorithms for truck utilization.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ Personnel safety is given utmost importance inside the plant and you would be al
|
||||
|
||||
The city doesn’t have much to boast about except the legacy of colossal industries and manufacturing plants. Nevertheless, it’s got almost all celebrated food chains and a few local attractions too. Delhi, Shimla, Mcleodganj etc. are also possible weekend getaways.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Summing Up
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ The HR interview round follows the technical round. Most of the discussion in my
|
||||
The result came in around 4 hours. An internship offer letter was later delivered to us along with a starters kit consisting of a pen, an Intex fitrist and a T-Shirt.
|
||||
Texas Instruments is a dream company for many electrical and electronics engineers. If you keep your logic and concepts clear, (with a bit of luck) you can easily make it through the selection process. Moreover, TI does not believe much in any CGPA criteria and anyone having CG > 7 can sit in the online test.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Work
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ I was a part of the backplane MCU (Microcontroller Unit) team, particularly the
|
||||
Depending on your project, you may find the work interesting or boring. But the upside is one can always ask the mentor to modify the work according to his interests. Also, since there are so many experienced people around, you can learn a lot just by interacting with them. Everyone is quite humble and always willing to help.
|
||||
During the internship, TI organises a workshop on ‘Presentations with finesse’ in which they teach presentation skills like maintaining the correct body language, introducing yourself effectively, among other skills. Apart from this, we attended an IEEE conference, had power lunch with one of the most senior members of the team, and went out for team outings. I also went to a government school on the outskirts of Bangalore when I volunteered in the Back to School campaign.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
TI gives its interns free access to its entertainment and sports facility area - Texin. It offers a plethora of recreational activities like music, carrom, snooker, TT, badminton, meditation, etc. It’s quite fun to go there and relax for some time when you get tired of your work.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Schlumberger Ltd. is the world’s largest oilfield services company employing a
|
||||
In my sophomore year, I was quite akin to most of my colleagues who didn't have any particular field of direction but had wee bits of experience in all fields. For people in similar situations,Schlumberger is a considerable option as it keeps you open to other career options.
|
||||
As with most companies, the recruitment process starts with shortlisting of resumes. Schlumberger recruits from almost all branches and as such, there is no CGPA bar. But Schlum pays heed to your leadership qualities, so a CGPA of above 7 along with past instances of leading and working in teams can give you an edge. This is followed by a Group Discussion round where you are judged on your leadership skills and your ability to drive the conversation. The last round is a generic HR interview round where questions regarding your life and related to the company are asked. Your interview is likely to conclude with the usual “Do you have any questions for us? ”, so make sure you have a good question prepared beforehand as this can have a big impact on the interviewer’s mind.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Life at Schlumberger
|
||||
|
||||
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ At schlum, interns are given huge responsibilities and the same goes for the fre
|
||||
|
||||
This internship is a complete package of learning, starting with a brief understanding of the Oil and Gas industry. From there, it moves quickly to the field work wherein you are expected to put in long hours in remote locations.But it ends well with mind-boggling projects in corporate offices. Since it is only a month long intern, it gives you an entire free month which can be utilized for management, consultancy or other similar internships.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Summing up and advice to people gunning for it
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ Schlumberger is the world’s largest oilfield service sector company which is d
|
||||
|
||||
Schlumberger generally comes in the month of August and there are 3 rounds an aspirant has to go through before he/she can make it as an intern there. The first round is basically resume based shortlisting. The chances of making it to the list increase, for people who are involved in various extracurricular activities ( Sports, Groups, Fests etc. ) and the chances further increase if you have certain Position of Responsibility ( POR’s) under your belt.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
The second round involves a group discussion in which the Schlum people gauge you on your ability to drive a conversation, your speaking skills and how valid and supported your points are. The GD involves abstract topics (tick mark, parallel lines, a dot etc.), so as such no preparation is required for the GD. Just go in with an open mind!
|
||||
|
||||
@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ Apart from the Base projects, we also have Rig visits/ Field Visits (Rigless Job
|
||||
|
||||
Food, accommodation, travel and other facilities are provided for by Schlumberger and you’ll not have any complaints with the basic necessities. Apart from that, throughout your intern, you’ll be travelling a lot, and exploring new places which you’ll probably never visit during your lifetime.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Takeaways and Advice
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -40,14 +40,14 @@ I was part of the design lab, which is into spatial design, setting guidelines,
|
||||
|
||||
**Work Ethics:** Quite an enriching place to be in. The work load is nominal with flexible and customized schedules. Team leads and colleagues are very supportive and take time to help you with your work hands on.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Location:** Located in the quiet and elite suburb of Sadashivanagar, you get to experience the old charm of the city – with lakes, silent lanes, street food, concert halls, vibrant markets, various malls; all within a short distance. The transport networks are also quite approachable – with the metro, bus other public modes. The institute has 5 branches currently – Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Trichy.
|
||||
|
||||
**Office infra:** A adequately large setup with latest tech, flexible work zones, well stocked library, state of the art research labs, multiple meeting and conference rooms, recreation facilities, a terrace garden and some great coffee!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
**Summing up:** The entire internship was a unique experience, which I am sure would be difficult to match elsewhere. The work the institute does is especially prestigious, big and necessary for today’s urban communities. The continuous process of learning and re-learning was very exciting too. I would encourage interested students to be a part of this paradigm, to broaden his/her horizons.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ To begin with, I’d like to mention that I’ve travelled a lot in my time here
|
||||
|
||||
For the next 5 weeks a fellow intern from IIT BHU and I ventured to the beautiful shores of Ratnagiri to work on our project. Our consultancy project aimed at reducing costs incurred for JSW through research and analysis of data to optimize and reduce costs, thus providing a solution.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
#### Here at Ratnagiri
|
||||
|
||||
@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Out internship also entailed a trip to the Vijaynagar Plant near Bangalore. We w
|
||||
#### Back to Bombay!
|
||||
Following our trip to Vijaynagar we went back to Ratnagiri, where we prepared presentations to summarize all that we had done; the seniors there helped us make modifications to the same. We headed back to Bombay where we presented these to the associates of JSW. Yet another party marked the end of our internship.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Summing Up
|
||||
It was a wonderful experience! I learnt much about how the corporate world works, how industries and consultancies work. From parties to presentations the internship really was the whole package. The internship is not just for undergraduates of Chemical Engineering; a lot of the work also included non-core fields. A balanced resume with a blend of extracurricular activities, positions of responsibilities, a decent cgpa and good communication skills is capable of bagging the internship.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ S&P DJI defines the way people measure and trade the markets. They provide essen
|
||||
I worked in the sector of ESG Indices, wherein my job profile was that of a Research Analyst. There were 2 divisions in the ESG sector – the “Corporate Ratings team” and the “Financial Institutions team”. I worked in the former.
|
||||
S&P Global Ratings’ ESG team provides intelligent analysis to global institutions, worldwide, that are in need to assess the impact of their ESG risks and opportunities - presented by ESG climate change, resource constraints, demographic shifts, innovation and technology, politics, regulation, etc. - and that aim to capitalize on the transition to a greener and more social economy.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
The intern was duly divided into 3 parts. The first week comprised solely of the training sessions to get me acquainted to indexing, the importance of ESG while calculating the market capitalization index, and some concepts related to carbon-footprinting and equity markets. The training sessions went on till the end of the intern, and were organised on a weekly basis after the first week. For the initial 4 weeks, I worked on the E-part of the ESG sector, which involved monetizing the environmental aspect to check compliance with the Paris Treaty and calculate the carbon-footprint of the companies that were traded in S&P DJI. For the remaining 3 weeks, I worked upon a very different project which aimed at quantifying the S-LCA ( Social Life Cycle Assessment). Apart from these, I also worked on a few sales support tasks that involved a bit of market research using “FactSet.”
|
||||
|
||||
@ -47,4 +47,4 @@ To the people in non-circuital branches, I would advise them not to be too obses
|
||||
|
||||
For S&P, it’s an amazing place to intern if you have your interests vested in domains of equity markets, commodity pricing, energy economics, bond calculations, indexing, or other finance related fields that you might be intrigued by. S&P shall provide you with the opportunity to understand and implement the latest index products, conceptualized by the clients, along with liaising with key stakeholders in the business - internally and externally - with exposure to the clients, by working with them. The people are amiable and always ready to help, in case you encounter any difficulty.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ Students forget that the internet can be used for other things as well. If you h
|
||||
12. Fly!
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Life at UoM
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -16,13 +16,13 @@ There are many companies like Cisco, Morgan Stanley, and Codenation, that conduc
|
||||
|
||||
For this year, however, Visa is planning to come to the IIT Roorkee campus for hiring interns. The campus hiring process would probably be similar to the other companies, that is, one coding/aptitude round followed by a series of interviews.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### The Work and Culture
|
||||
|
||||
Visa genuinely cares about its employees, which is something that was evident with the way I was treated throughout my tenure here.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
As far as the projects go, it all depends on the team you are assigned to. There are real time projects related to the work going on in the teams. Interns usually work the same way as a regular employee does, apart from the ton of guidance regarding their work. I worked on an individual project, but there were other projects which had people working in teams of two or three.The working hours are flexible, but most of the interns work from 9 am to 5 pm. Most of the teams have daily standups which help keeping the work on track.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ Apart from all the serious work in the team, our two months were full of team ou
|
||||
|
||||
Moreover, every year, Visa has a Global Intern Summit (it was in San Francisco, USA this year) where we had a chance to meet Visa’s interns from more than 14 other countries, the CEO (Al Kelly), and the CTO (Rajat Taneja) of Visa, along with the other great people working at this company.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Words of Advice
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ NIG also accepts undergraduate research enthusiasts via a separate one-month lon
|
||||
I chose to take up a core part of the ongoing forward-genetics research in Danio rerio (zebrafish). My job was to rough-map/locate a chemically-induced novel heterozygous mutation in the zebrafish germline that manifests a direct impact upon spermatogenesis, for a better understanding of the shift from mitosis to meiosis in vertebrates. The job required precise liquid-handling techniques and electrophoretic data-analysis skills, and a hands-on training experience in the first week helped me get through it. The project required me to conduct multiple PCR reactions, an idea that was initially intimidating.
|
||||
The first day at the lab wasn’t really great. The DNA extraction experiment went wrong and I ended up with a dead specimen.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
I received considerable technical support from my Professor (Sensei) and the Assistant Professor that made project details lucid, along with other numerous concepts that I had previously read but forgotten.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ Added to that, I was lucky enough to attend the NIG Retreat: an institute-level
|
||||
During the second month of the internship, lab visits were organized for all the visiting interns. The experience was indeed very enriching.
|
||||
There doesn’t exist a discrete “buddy” system there, but people in my lab were very thoughtful to send me details about the Indian researchers at NIG. Moreover, my sensei gave me a ladies’ bicycle (called “Mamachari” in Japanese) to travel around conveniently in Mishima. NIG is located on top of a hill, and it was always overwhelming, cycling down the descent with the view of Mt. Fuji.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
The first few weeks were pretty challenging. One of the main reasons being the language barrier. I couldn’t really make the best use of my rudimentary Japanese acquired by a two-week long self-learning program. NIG, being very receptive to foreign students was luckily very sensitive towards this issue, with all seminars conducted in English. Despite that, there were underlying issues in explanation of concepts, doubt sessions, troubleshooting etc; stemming from lingual differences. Especially outside the campus, problems were very visible. Google translate came in handy, though it does translate many words in a wrong way. Sign-language was my last resort in worst-case scenarios. The locals helped me a lot to cross this language divide.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -57,9 +57,9 @@ After my project was complete, I got the chance to attend an international resea
|
||||
|
||||
Everything!
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
After five hectic days of work, I would always save up time to travel during the weekends. Japan is a country that can boast about the best of scenic landscapes. Be it volcanoes/mountains (oh yes, I climbed to the summit of Mt. Fuji in a very bad weather, covering a significant portion of the ascent all alone. Yay!), hot sulphur springs and black hard-boiled eggs (Hakone), sandy beaches (Atami and Numazu being closest to my prefecture; though rich Honshu-dwellers head straightaway to Okinawa), high-rise concrete jungles with clean air with lots of places to shop and party (Tokyo: Akihabara, Shibuya, Shinjuku; Osaka, Fukuoka etc.), shrines and monuments of cultural and historic importance (Kyoto, Hiroshima), Disneyland and Universal Studios, thrilling roller-coasters at FujiQ highlands, the very popular Shinkansen (bullet train)... And the list goes on and on.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ The technical interview is to check your conceptual understanding of the subject
|
||||
|
||||
The HR round begins with a series of clichéd questions such as, “Tell us about yourself”, “Strengths and Weaknesses” and then gradually moves onto the tricky ones like say the implications of working in a tobacco factory or about working in remote locations (Munger for example).
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Workplace
|
||||
|
||||
@ -35,7 +35,7 @@ As for the offer, the intern-PPO conversion rate at ITC is around 45-50% and it
|
||||
|
||||
ITC has a dynamic work culture. It demands you to be on-the-go. One day you are at a factory and the next day at another (which is in a different city altogether) and since the company is expanding its FMCG market, the current scenario is intense. Every project being undertaken is critical to the company’s future and is the reason why when interns work on a project, it attracts the entire team’s attention.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
As for an intern’s week, I had a 6-day job since my project demanded that the majority of my time be spent at the factory. The factories have strong management practices such as the 5S’ which are carefully adhered to. Everyone at ITC is always pumped about work and always come up with innovative stuff. During my internship tenure, I also had the opportunity to visit Life Sciences and Technology Center (LSTC), Bangalore, the R&D HQ of ITC which has state-of-the-art facilities.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ The most awesome and motivating part about ITC is the way they treat their inter
|
||||
|
||||
At the start of the tenure we were summoned to the head office of the division we had been allocated and I had a chance to interact with the senior members including the CEO of the division (in my case Foods). Then since my base location was Bangalore, I could commence work the same day. I was made familiar with all the departments and incorporated into the factory dynamics. Although difficult to roam around during the internship tenure, Bangalore is a pretty happening place especially throughout the weekends and enough places to chill out. The weather in Bangalore is admirable with cool breezy winds and rain showers almost every day. All in all, it was a remarkable journey to cherish throughout.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Summing up and key takeaways
|
||||
The two-month tenure at ITC is a huge value-addition to any intern. Irrespective of the outcome, there is a lot to learn and apply within these 2 months. It might be difficult to scale your thinking but solutions presented with impacts to the business are always commendable. Life will be a bit difficult during these two months and sometimes you might feel demotivated but perseverance is the key to everything.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -49,5 +49,5 @@ One problem that still remains that the admin often doesn’t understand the kin
|
||||
|
||||
That aside, our biggest concern remains with the need for a room. A room is the fundamental thing you require for conducive debates. We are a rare college whose debating society still decides its schedule at the mercy of the weather and debate under the open sky, often among dogs*. The explanation of the admin is that they don’t have rooms to give, or want us to inform them of a debate before the debate is scheduled, but our problem still stays. We need a dedicated space to debate whenever we want.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
<center><i>*Proof of our canine company</i><center>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ Step 6: __Get selected__ in the team of your choice. Yes, they listen to you if
|
||||
|
||||
### Work, place?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I always thought a good satisfying corporate job was a myth I had to believe. Well, my internship proved me wrong. Being called a 35-year-old startup, Intuit believes in reinventing itself time and again, making it one of the most innovative companies in tech right now.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ The interns are regarded on the same level as the employees and granted all the
|
||||
|
||||
After a tedious orientation day, you get to meet your team and mentor, the ones you’ll be working with for the coming months. The people there, way too friendly (thanks to the silent judgement of ethics during the hiring process), help you around and get you acquainted in no time. You are allotted a spacious desk among other employees, mostly of your team, equipped with a desk phone and any number of accessories which you ask for; monitors, keyboards, mice, headsets and the like.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The workload depends on how much you take upon yourself and there are no restricted working hours. I personally took up two main projects and usually worked from 11 to 6, but stayed back a little longer (for the food, fun and games).
|
||||
|
||||
@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ In the last week, you present and demonstrate your work before the Architects wh
|
||||
|
||||
### Location, location, location
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Intuit has three buildings in the RMZ Ecospace tech-park in Bellandur, Bangalore. You already know about Bangalore, right?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Team quizzing hands down, I suck at lone-wolf quizzing.
|
||||
Renju and I complement well in a team.
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:100%;height:auto"}
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### Glories and achievements of the group (both before and after you’ve been a part of the group)
|
||||
|
||||
@ -14,11 +14,11 @@ In immediate response to what happened and on further notifying the Chief Warden
|
||||
|
||||
Supposedly, the same person, on the very next day, stole 2 more laptops from Azad Bhawan, from two rooms in the first wing. An eagle-eyed resident of Azad Bhawan identified the culprit, who was on a bike, and tried to stop him by following him on his own bike. On being unable to successfully catch the accused, he, along with some more people who had joined him in the chase, started shouting at the security at the main gates to stop him, but the security guards didn’t (or couldn’t) stop the bike, because the fugitive had a staff sticker on his bike.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The very disappointed group of chasers soon turned into a group of irate protesters, and, very soon, no less than 60 people from Azad Bhawan were protesting in front of the Main Gate. Until then, the General Secretary, PG Academics was updated, who further notified the remaining members of the SAC - namely the GS Cultural Affairs, the GS Alumni Affairs, and the GS Hostel Affairs - who reached the spot as soon as they were informed. Also, some people from the horde even called the media which was present near the campus on account of the Independence Day celebrations. The Dean of Students Welfare, Prof. Anand Joshi, soon joined in to pacify the mob, which began to demand the resignation of the residential warden of Azad Bhawan.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The unsatisfied crowd, despite having a document with a stamp of the police, protested in front of the Director’s Residence, later in the night, demanding his appearance and his address on the issue. Very soon, the Dean of Students Welfare, ADOSW Bhawan, ADOSW Student Activities, Dean of Academics, the Security Head, and various other professors gathered there to monitor the crowd.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ Gathered by his friends’ accounts, Aman appeared to be suffering from depressi
|
||||
|
||||
His roommate had gone to Delhi two days ago, and, thus, wasn’t present during the incident. At around 3:30pm, we witnessed the student’s body being transferred to the hospital via the ambulance.The Uttrakhand Police took the relevant evidence from his room. Later, we followed the Deans and professors to Rajendra Bhawan’s office where we waited for a statement.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Certain excerpts from the conversation that we had with the Deans
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ I have been a volunteer of RHA in Greater Noida since my junior college, and whe
|
||||
I discussed this idea with Tanmay Bichu, my classmate, on the last bench of our classroom during one of our boring lectures. We both devised the team structure and thought our operations out. Really soon, we began our hunt to gather a team and a volunteer base. We conducted our first drive in Jalalpur on 9th August, with the surplus food from one of our messes. We fed over 70 people on our first drive. Then soon after that, we conducted a drive on the occasion of Independence Day with the surplus breakfast from the same mess.
|
||||
Since then we have conducted over 10 drives in a span of just 20 days with help of a volunteer base of 40, feeding over 1200 needy citizens of Roorkee.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Which group of people does this initiative seek to help?
|
||||
|
||||
@ -26,13 +26,13 @@ Mainly children. There’s a lot of temporary labour working on our campus near
|
||||
|
||||
We majorly operate on Saturdays and Sundays, but we have also have had drives on regular weekdays. So far we have been taking excess food from our messes, who prepare a tad bit of extra food keeping in mind the variable influx of students eating there. No doubt, sometimes we have to return empty handed from the messes as well when they had no excess food for the day, but we choose to see the bright side to it, which is no food wastage in that particular mess for the day. We transport the food in rectangular containers of our messes in an e-rickshaws taking utmost care of the quality of the food. What’s heartening is that the drivers of the e-rickshaws are very kind as well, offering to carry for free, but we always make sure to give them a fair fare for their services.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Which places have received the benefits of this initiative so far?
|
||||
|
||||
Just before our first drive, Tanmay and I roamed in the outskirts of Roorkee to locate slums. We talked with the elders of the slums about the food availability there. So far we have expanded to 3 locations namely Jalalpur, Bhangedi and the slums near the Army Cantonment Area.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### What was the response elicited by the student fraternity of the institute towards this initiative?
|
||||
|
||||
@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ A major chunk of the volunteer base belongs to RKB. Also, there is an active par
|
||||
|
||||
As is the case in other cities, we are piloting tie-ups with the restaurants of Roorkee to give us their excess food. We have also made a WhatsApp group of all the generous housewives in and around the campus who volunteer to prepare food for the needy on a rotational basis. We are also working on expanding our volunteer base by encouraging the professors to participate as well. Also, we don't want to limit ourselves just to our campus, and hence, we are also working on involving the citizens of Roorkee outside of the institute. We have also talked to the families of army personnel regarding the same.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### What is your vision for this initiative?
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ The general practice currently followed is that the students subjected to sexual
|
||||
|
||||
If the complaint does make it through to the DOSW, a committee is set up which comprises the DOSW himself, the faculty-advisors of the Cultural Council, the Sports Council, and HEC, ADOSW (Bhawan and Mess), ADOSW (International Students), the Chief Wardens of Jawahar Bhawan and Sarojini Bhawan, the Member Secretary of Kasturba Bhawan, the General Secretary of Alumni Affairs, the General Secretary of Academic Affairs (UG), and the Convenor of SAC. This committee, upon listening to both the parties involved, takes action on the basis of their sound judgement. The complexity of this procedure makes for a delayed and possibly tedious sequence of steps, that, in some cases, the victims might shy away from.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
#### __Obsolete Systems in Place__
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ Etymologically, the word ‘passion’ is derived from the Latin word, _“pati
|
||||
|
||||
If passion were a binary entity, its existence can be proved via an elaborate argument involving biology: our DNA is a specific, unique combination of four proteins (Adenine, Guanine, Thymine and Cytosine). An individual’s DNA is a code written in these four variables. We are the program that it produces, by virtue of the nature and sequence of linkages constituting it. Although not provable conclusively, it isn’t irrational to assume that every part of us – in some proportion – involves our genes; the same can be extended to one’s passion(s). There ought to be certain activities that give us the requisite pleasure as we perform them.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
To argue for the non-existence of passion, one may bring to the fore the prevalence of innumerable potential activities. Discovery of a singular activity may consume the better part of our lives, perhaps even elude us till death. What, then, is the point of such an activity? It is in the best interest of our happiness to make do with what we have and not wander wildly, searching for what we do not possess.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ Another major issue that came to light was that of food; residents of Rajiv and
|
||||
|
||||
Moreover, accommodation for majority of the new international entrants are given in Azad or Ganga Bhawan and later in KIH. When asked which bhawan they preferred, almost everyone approved KIH as more comforting. They could invite their families to stay in KIH, which they can’t in Azad Bhawan; living around other international students alleviated their loneliness, and made them feel more comfortable.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
In conversation with one of the senators representing Cautley Bhawan, we were informed that although each Bhawan level event (aimed at all students, Native and International) is well publicized, the international students rarely participate, and the reason for this remains unknown. This was further confirmed when the “Burpp and Slurpp Competition”, organized by the Culinary Club in association with the SAC, was met with only one participant from the international students community.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -48,15 +48,15 @@ Both the wars had a devastating effect on the Institute, particularly the first
|
||||
|
||||
### POST INDEPENDENCE ERA
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="float:left;width:40%;margin-right:2%" }
|
||||
{: style="float:left;width:40%;margin-right:2%" }
|
||||
|
||||
This flag, flying high over the Main building lawns is often an object of curiosity for guests and newcomers to the campus. It was adopted as the University flag in 1949 at the inauguration of the University on 25th November, 1949, known thereafter as Charter Day, celebrated with much pomp till a few years ago. Now, it is marked by a lit-up main building. The college had, by then, expanded its field of teaching to include courses like Electrical and Mechanical engineering; the old engineering and overseer courses of Civil engineering also remained.
|
||||
|
||||
The upcoming period was marked in both the physical and intellectual development of the institute. In 1954, AN Khosla, arrived as the Vice Chancellor, and brought with him a forward thinking attitude, and a desire to bring change to the stagnating campus. He believed in Shramdaan and students were encouraged to help out the masons in construction of new buildings and structures. If done today, this stunt would obviously be seen by the angsty junta as forced labour or slavery. Between 1955-1961 Govind, Ravindra and Azad bhawans were built. Some years later, Jawahar was built for PG students. A 50*15*5 m swimming pool was constructed and an open air theater was made out front.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="float:left;clear:left;width:40%;margin-right:4%" }
|
||||
{: style="float:left;clear:left;width:40%;margin-right:4%" }
|
||||
|
||||
A temple, now dubbed the Saraswati Mandir, was constructed along with a yoga hall. It played host to an annual fair on Nagapanchami. The place has various tales associated with it: it is believed to be the site of two Satis in the past. It also served as some sort of memorial to a Pehelwan Baba (wrestling coach). The University dealt with this by constructing two chhatris as memorials for the satis and a spot as the pehelwan babas memorial. This mandir still serves the needs of the professors’ families and the God-fearing junta during exam time. The wedding feasts held regularly in the temple grounds attract quite a few disguised students seeking somewhat-edible food.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ The app was conceptualised after two students from the third year took up a proj
|
||||
|
||||
The app shall come with real-time notifications of the upcoming lectures, display of your weekly schedule and a flagship feature which lets you skip any hour of your time-table you are not excited about. The amount you are entitled to for every week shall be cumulatively deposited directly into your bank account every Friday night. For this very purpose, students shall now have to link their Institute ID Card to their bank account. Every student can, nonetheless, avail rebates only for 25% of the total classes for every course, which, some believe, might encourage the students to attend the 75% of the classes they have to pay for no matter what.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Despite this minor snag, the students were understandably overjoyed at the announcement. A resident of Jawahar Bhawan was quoted saying, “We really like sandwiches. However, our pocket money has never been enough to get us through the month. We have either been sleeping hungry, or filling up on the substandard sandwiches from the sandwich-guy across the bridge in Roorkee. Now, we simply miss a couple of lectures and get enough money to buy a couple of really good sandwiches to unwind after a long day.”
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ As far as the rankings are concerned, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University
|
||||
As shall be sanely argued, the quality of publications matters more than quantity, Roorkee boasts of approximately 16,330 citations for the period 2010-14, a far cry when compared to IITB’s 26,991 citations. As the exhaustive review suggested, IITB also had 85 publications in the top 1% most cited papers for all IITs; IITR achieved only 39 publications.
|
||||
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
<img src="/images/posts/research-3.png" alt="citations graph">
|
||||
<img src="http://ketangupta.in/wona-images/posts/research-3.png" alt="citations graph">
|
||||
<em><font size="-1">Credits : The Wire</font></em>
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ The department policies are also not very student-friendly either; QIP (Quality
|
||||
|
||||
In addition to the above, one also has to deal with issues that plague most of the Indian labs, especially in regards to the inadequacy and obsoleteness of instruments. All the expenses incurred for sending samples to lab testing are borne by the student himself/herself; more often than not, the students are on the receiving end of the professor's whims and are saddled with the personal tasks of the professors; doctoral research is funded by the MHRD for only 7 years, so, if a student is forced to confront the unfortunate event of being forced to delay his PhD, due to some unforeseen circumstances, he/she is at the mercy of the institute and the professors - most rant by students are not baseless.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Professors' views on research here and abroad
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ Still, IIT Roorkee affords all of us a beautiful environment with few distractio
|
||||
|
||||
Let me first say that I will not really be leaving Roorkee – in fact, I will continue to be working with many junior colleagues and a few senior ones to continue advancing the Institute’s stakes throughout the world. I will, in other words, be working from the outside in! Next Spring, a co-authored book titled Migration from Garhwal: Gender and Home Economics in Rural North India and co-authored with Professor D.K. Nauriyal will be published by Lexington Books. I am also working on my second monograph with Routledge/ Taylor & Francis Group which is tentatively titled Digital Homes: Identity & Agency in Postmillennial India. Both of these book projects are collaborative efforts which have been and will continue to be shaped by a number of my colleagues here at IIT Roorkee. I am also working on a book project with Professor Rashmi Gaur, and we hope to finalise the Call for Papers (CFP) by late December so that I can distribute it and spread the news at the largest annual convention in the world for teachers and scholars of language and literature – the annual convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA) in New York City this coming January.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
I am moreover working with a wonderful group of junior colleagues to institute a campus-wide Institute Faculty Interdisciplinary Lecture Series (IFILS), and I will continue to work with this team once I formally join my new academic post. I will be seeking approval to serve three of my students as an international co-supervisor, and I will be working with our Professor S.P. Singh in his capacity as HOD of HSS over the next year to secure external collaborative funding to support a Centre for Uttarakhand Development Studies. My stakes in IIT Roorkee are as deep as my ancestral roots, and I will always be there for the students and faculty members who have been kind, helpful, and supportive to me. I will also continue to mentor a number of BTech, MSc, and PhD students with whom I have developed a good rapport, and will help them as much as possible to write compelling Statement of Purposes, grant and fellowship applications, and job letters. Finally, I hope to be able to visit this beautiful campus when I am back in India, and hopefully would be able to give a guest lecture or international workshop. The fact is that the avenues and possibilities for international collaboration are limitless, and as the Institute’s first U.S. citizen faculty member I must lead the way.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ It came to the notice of the administration that students were wary of taking is
|
||||
The Ombudsman is authorized to conduct inquiries as he deems appropriate. A directive has been issued asking all departments and faculty to cooperate with him. However, he only has advisory powers. Based on his inquiries, he submits a report to the Director, suggesting appropriate actions and/or policy changes, who then takes it into consideration.
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto"}
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto"}
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### How is this post different from already existing bodies like Dean of Students’ Welfare or Counselling Cell?
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,72 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Entrepreneurship at R: In conversation with Azam Ali Khan (CEO, TIDES IIT Roorkee)"
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
credits: "Dhruv Singh and Ekdeep Singh Lubana"
|
||||
image: entreatr.jpg
|
||||
excerpt: "It’s great to be back here, but I think being on the other side of the table brings with it tonnes of challenges. When I started my journey here in 1998, it was a completely different place. It wasn’t even an IIT"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
### To begin with, welcome back to IIT Roorkee. How does it feel to be back as an alumnus and handle a job that might play a salient role in Roorkee’s prosperity as a top ranked institute?
|
||||
|
||||
It’s great to be back here, but I think being on the other side of the table brings with it tonnes of challenges. When I started my journey here in 1998, it was a completely different place. It wasn’t even an IIT; however, by the time I graduated, the transition from UoR to IIT was in full swing.
|
||||
|
||||
A plethora of things have changed; a plethora have not. I reckon we used to have much deeper interaction with seniors, back then. Probably the hostels’ condition and infrastructure has changed for better. In our case, they weren’t particularly apt for survival! Jokes apart, I think a lot of things have changed in regards to students and their perspective about college. Students have become far more ambitious and zealous. However, still, when I compare Roorkee with other major institutions, I think Roorkee is still lacking in growing out of its self-imposed shackles. I don't get the "we're still not a full fledged IIT" mindset and other sorts of frequent comments. These thoughts merely stop us from unleashing our full potential. Case in point, we had calls from IIMs, for the first time, in 2000 - one from Ahmedabad and two from Calcutta - but once we broke that glass ceiling, we started getting multiple calls from thereon. So, probably, all that was necessary was to let go of the self designed limitations and create some awareness.
|
||||
|
||||
Thus, things have changed a lot over the last 15 years. I was surprised that this is the same Roorkee I left in 2002; however, if the change leads to progress, it is definitely welcome. For example, about the startup revolution, this is something which was lacking in Roorkee then. Now, with a place such as TIDES in motion, we can cater to and promote a lot more entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship enthusiasts. This will end up generating employment in and out of R.
|
||||
|
||||
### Do you think that startups are a taboo at R? Unconventional paths, such as entrepreneurship, are considered alternatives than palpable career choices?
|
||||
|
||||
I think taboo would be tad harsh a word; but, definitely, there is a limitation, and it is put by the society at large. Students, being at the receiving end of it, have just been following the unsaid laws. Parents uphold apprehensions and have a hard time accepting entrepreneurship as a way of life. Entrepreneurship is usually considered as akin to “Shylockism”, which is not at all the case You are convincing people to buy your products; not forcing them - it takes actual skills and efforts, and, alas, should be given its much deserved accreditation. However, I believe, with initiatives like "Startup India", this limitation is bound to change; and, more so, is something that has to change. Also, if we do not pass the message from the top-most branches of the chain, the message that students can - and should - take up their innovations and ideas as tangible career choices, not a lot will happen. While working for Scandinavian countries, which are known for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, I saw some important traits. The difference, as I am very vividly witnessing, is that they embrace failures, rather than brush them under the carpet. This culture is missing in general in India and more so in Roorkee, I think. Coming back to your question of startups being a "taboo", I must admit that most of my interactions have been with people who said that they couldn’t get a job, and, thus, opted to start-up. This mindset is totally a put-down for me. Believe me, getting a job is far, far easier than doing a startup. We really need to appreciate people who are taking a plunge into entrepreneurships. This appreciation should come from both - the society and the management of the institute - who should promote entrepreneurship as a leading activity. We need to ensure that students understand, "if you fail early, you learn early".
|
||||
|
||||
### Do you think that the entrepreneurial culture has changed since your time here as a student?
|
||||
|
||||
To be very frank, in those days, there was no entrepreneurial culture. We used to think about jobs and companies' schedule, only. From day 1, we were acquainted with the fact that we, the Chemical and Metallurgy folks, are not going to get a job in core; of course, because of minimal "core" companies showing up for placements. So, everybody was programming in C, C++, Java.
|
||||
|
||||
### So we have this thing happening since 20 years now?
|
||||
|
||||
Yeah. Unfortunately, may be we haven’t changed this culture in 20 years now. Probably, even the books you are reading today would be the same as we had. I mean, the world has gone leaps and bounds. If we are not making you employment ready, we are not making you entrepreneurship ready. These go hand-in-hand.If we are not teaching you Machine Learning, AI, and all the latest technology - believe it or not - you are not ready for the world.
|
||||
|
||||
So, we do have a long way to go. I still see students from circuital branches refraining from entrepreneurship as a career, for, probably, they are acquainted with the fact that they have a better chance at scoring a placement offer. It's the non-circuital branches' students who indulge in such ventures, mostly. These trends say lengths about how much needs to be done.
|
||||
The thing is, whenever you think there is a safe option, the urge to succeed dies out. The cultural mindset needs to change and we have the potential to do it. A new mentality of "learning from failures" needs to be promoted.
|
||||
|
||||
### Talking about TIDES, where do you (or an incubation center, in general) receive your funding to support startups from?
|
||||
|
||||
We get our funding from various government agencies, like Department of Science & Technology (DST), NSTEDB, DEITY, etc. IIT Roorkee has been gracious to support us in our ventures, too. They have provided us with infrastructure and access to all the labs and faculty for mentorship. Frankly, the only reason TIDES is working as an independent entity is because we want to make the process faster for our incubatees and deliver according to their needs. Time is viciously crucial for startups, for they are in a make or break situation. We are also in the process of undergoing tie-ups with a few corporates, so that we can jointly access startups via a co-investment model. Further, a few PSUs are being approached, so that we can have sector focused startups under TIDES.
|
||||
|
||||
### Could you tell us about the startups budding at TIDES?
|
||||
|
||||
We have 10 startups, as of now, which are incubated; around 6-7 are in the pre-incubation phase; and 10-12, which we still need to access. They are from a variety of sectors - from IoT to FinTech. Fintech is a sector which has been explored a lot over the years, and, thus, you have to come up with a really innovative product/service to be incubated anywhere. We are trying to come up with more sector specific startups, too. We have been in talks with a few PSUs for a startup on smart construction activities, for we have a strong civil department. Venturing into biotech is also on the cards.
|
||||
|
||||
### How would you categorize the startups at TIDES - product based, service oriented, etc.?
|
||||
|
||||
We have startups which are mainly product based, as of yet. We have been promoting B2B startups, recently. Students are easily swayed by B2C, app-based startups; however, that model has gotten quite obsolete in terms of innovation. Thus, we promote B2B startups, all the while welcoming B2C startups too. We have the tinkering lab now in the same premises and are coming up with an IoT lab.
|
||||
|
||||
### A "junta wants to know" question - do you consider Roorkee’s location to be ideal, at all, for a startup?
|
||||
|
||||
An ideal location is highly relative and people really need to understand this. A location might be ideal for one startup, whilst not at all ideal for another.
|
||||
|
||||
For an agritech or pharmaceutical startup, Roorkee is a highly apt location; same goes for a biotech startup. However, if we talk about an FMCG startup, Roorkee might not be an ideal location. So, it sorta depends.
|
||||
|
||||
I accept that we struggle a bit because of transportation and the unavailability of a nearby airport, though. Even the government agencies and corporates we approach, they have to travel from Delhi to Roorkee; the nearest airport is in Dehradun, which, again, is 2-3 hours from here.
|
||||
This is one of the reasons why we are planning to open an extension arm in Greater Noida. It will be a feed for this center at Roorkee and gives us a uniqueness amongst IITs too, for we will have presence in 3 cities after Roorkee and Saharanpur.
|
||||
|
||||
### How do you think the current academic curriculum can be changed by the administration for getting students industry-ready?
|
||||
|
||||
If you want to improve student employability, I believe we must make it easy for the industries so that they don’t have to spend on training fresh recruits. I think summer and winter internships are helping to support this model well, but it has to be more interesting to the students and industries alike. Like, a crazy, yet sane, idea would be to rope in some well known corporates and teach their actual manuals to some specific machines. Industries, thereby, will recruit with a mindset that these students are already well acquainted with our products, machines, and designs, and, thus, almost good-to-go.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### How accessible and supportive has the administration been? How can they help further?
|
||||
|
||||
Oh, they have been extremely accessible. I can talk to the Director whenever I want to; all the Deans respond on mail, too. Accessibility is not an issue, at all. We have a lot of support and resources.
|
||||
|
||||
However, TIDES cannot function in a silo. Things need to work in tandem. It is the joint responsibility of TIDES and the institute management to create an ecosystem supporting entrepreneurial ventures for students.
|
||||
|
||||
I reckon a curriculum centered around entrepreneurship will help loads. Innovative thinking needs to be promoted, only then entrepreneurship will become sustainable. As per my knowledge, there is no dedicated place to guide the students about the design part of product development, etc. To run a company, an overall understanding needs to be inculcated. TIDES rests at the end of this pipeline; wherein, when a person is ready with an idea, we provide him/her the platform and mentorship for getting to the consumers.
|
||||
|
||||
I also believe that administration - especially, faculty - should look into the humongous communication gap amongst B.Tech, M.Tech., and Ph.D. students. Whilst B.Tech. students are full of energy and creativity, PhDs have actual experience with technology. Marry these two together, and you shall have fantastic startups in the campus. And only the faculty can do that, for they are the bridge. Alas, I reckon TIDES, indeed, is a synergistic initiative - both, for the management as well as the students.
|
||||
|
||||
### Where do you see TIDES 3-4 years from now?
|
||||
|
||||
We want to make TIDES one of the top 5 incubators in India, and, in this regard, we need to go very fast. We are looking for great startups from across the country, and are intent on providing a nurturing ground to the incubatees - where they can cultivate their ideas and think/target globally. Hopefully, in the time span of 3-4 years, we can have 10-15 good startups. One must understand that getting a couple of good startups from a bunch of 50-100 is an achievement of highest orders.
|
||||
@ -1,38 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Unnat Bharat Abhiyan"
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
image: unnatbharat.jpeg
|
||||
excerpt: "Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, a program running under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, was launched in November 2014 with an aim to use the skills of the students of the premier"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
*Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, a program running under the aegis of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, was launched in November 2014 with an aim to use the skills of the students of the premier colleges in the country for innovative ideas to tackle the problems at the grassroots and work towards other aspects of development in villages. Under the same, the student chapter of UBA IIT Roorkee has adopted 8 villages of Dehradun, and Haridwar district. We speak to Sagar Gupta, the Student Coordinator of UBA IIT Roorkee, to understand the mechanics behind this initiative.*
|
||||
|
||||
### What is the major work that UBA targets?
|
||||
|
||||
Over the course of three years that UBA has functioned, the work done has mostly contributed significantly to the socio-economic upliftment of the villages. Some of the other major initiatives have been the cleaning of a local pond, an attempt to tackle education problems and the reconstruction of a vital trade route bridge.
|
||||
|
||||
### How does your team structure look like currently?
|
||||
|
||||
Our team structure has two levels, currently, a ‘village’ level and a central team.
|
||||
We have five teams working in eight villages, and each team has two village coordinators one documentation coordinator and a finance coordinator. In the central team, we have six members, one each for documentation and finance, and three theme leaders for ‘Technology Intervention’, ‘Education’, and ‘Outreach’, and one overall team leader.
|
||||
|
||||
### Could you give us an example of any one of your important initiatives?
|
||||
|
||||
An initiative that heavily changed the daily facets of the residents’ of village Meerpur was the Biogas initiative. To encourage the use of renewable energy amongst the villagers, an awareness and registration drive of Biogas plant was organised by UBA in the village Meerpur-Muwazarpur in October 2015. Almost every household here is involved in animal husbandry and farming, hence producing cow-dung and other wastes that rot in open. These then become breeding grounds for pathogens, and add to the waste disposal problem. With the help of the biogas plants, these wastes have now been turned into viable sources of renewable energy. I’m proud to mention that this event for registration witnessed amazing participation, resulting in the installation of 33 biogas plants over time.
|
||||
|
||||
### What has been the overall impact of this initiative?
|
||||
|
||||
The consumption of LPG has gone down to one-fourth of what was used earlier, and many houses have found a sustainable alternative to firewood. The slurry produced as a by-product is a nutritious manure for the farms. The money invested has been recovered, saving Rs. 4000 per month of each household, achieving the economic break-even point in less than 14 months. In addition to this, there have been many positive impacts on health and household economy.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:90%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### Couple of years ago, you also initiated the ‘Polyhouse’ initiative that has garnered a lot of praise, including a feature in recent headlines. Could you tell us about that?
|
||||
|
||||
A polyhouse is a structure providing a protective environment for the crops to grow. It incorporates the modern farming ideas and uses the concept of varying heat and moisture input to control the crop production. The protective environment helps specific types of plants to grow faster and increase the yield. The farms have seen multi-fold rise in production. The lower requirement of labour, electricity and fertilizers has been observed. This has been one of the first steps for modernising the farming industry. The Uttarakhand state government encourages the use of Polyhouses by providing a high amount of subsidy to farmers for installation of Polyhouses.
|
||||
|
||||
On observing the interest of the farmers in polyhouses, an awareness campaign was organised somewhere in April 2016, which resulted in the installation of 3 polyhouses with 6 more in the pipeline in Meerpur village. The turnover has been Rs. 4 Lacs per annum per 1000 sq. feet. The farmers will be able to break-even in just 4 years!
|
||||
|
||||
### What do you have in mind for the immediate future?
|
||||
|
||||
We are focusing on the technical interventions that our students can take up, to solve the basic problems and needs of the people of the village. We are putting in work towards building a water filter for iron removal, and we have started the ecological restoration of a nearby pond. We’re also helping the village’s Pradhan to make an effective Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP).
|
||||
@ -1,39 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: Spoilt with Choice
|
||||
category: editorial
|
||||
image: spoilt-choice.png
|
||||
author: "Sanjana Srivastava, Sanat Bhargava, Manan Jain, Utkarsh Mujumdar, Agrim Patodia"
|
||||
excerpt: "That classmate you have been crushing on for the longest of times has finally agreed to go out with you. You know you have one shot at this. You also know that they like Chinese food, but if you picked an Italian place, you wouldn’t have to risk embarrassing yourself by trying to use chopsticks. What would you do?"
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
While it might be impudent of us to declare that the control humans seem to hold over the ‘choices’ they face is more of a handicap than a power, our claim might not be completely unfounded. Our life is littered with choices, and while we don’t seem to mind some of them, a majority of these choices find a way to annoy us by creeping into our daily decision-making, just when they’re uncalled for.
|
||||
|
||||
Surely enough, all the choices you’re going to have to face won’t always be plagued by an inherent difficulty in judging the merits of the alternatives offered. For instance, it probably wouldn’t be a burden to choose between two not-so-equal alternatives, like if boiled eggs were pitted against a slice of pizza, or if you had to choose between an hour of reading your favourite book, or an hour of talking to one of your relatives about what you (don’t) have planned for your future. These choices don’t seem to demand a lot of attention from you, probably because they bring with them a more favourable and a more obvious selection.
|
||||
|
||||
However, consider these three cases.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
- It’s 8:00 a.m. You’ve pulled an all-nighter ~~studying for the big quiz you have in a couple of days~~ trying to finish that TV series everyone has been talking about so that you can fit in. Now that you’re done with the series finale, you can finally tend to your hunger, which you had been shrugging off as the plot thickened. Additionally, you’re too sleep-deprived to walk too far. Consequently, the only option you have left is to drag yourself to the mess and eat whatever is offered to you, or just go to bed hungry. _**What do you do?**_
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
- That classmate you have been crushing on for the longest of times has finally agreed to go out with you. You know you have one shot at this. You also know that they like Chinese food, but if you picked an Italian place, you wouldn’t have to risk embarrassing yourself by trying to use chopsticks. _**What do you do?**_
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
- You have to vote for one of the two students contesting for the college elections. One of them cut in front of you a month ago while you were obediently waiting in line for taking sweets in the mess. The other did not post a message on your timeline on your birthday. _**What do you do?**_
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
While all three of the aforementioned hypotheticals represent a choice, they’re all not the same. The first is a classic case of what is referred to as a _Hobson’s Choice_. In this situation, you are in a ‘take it or leave it’ situation, where you either have to settle for the only alternative available, which, for all you know, is not worth taking a shot at; or just end up empty-handed. The latter two situations, on the other hand, are each an example of a _Morton’s Fork_. Often used interchangeably with the concept of a _dilemma_, a Morton’s Fork is a case where you have two or more equally appealing (or unappealing) choices to pick from, which is where it gets tricky. All of these situations highlight how perceived luxury of having choices becomes too rich for our blood. Weighing the pros and cons and delving into quick mental analyses for these choices in terms of the implications they may have is too tedious an exercise to consider, mostly because the circumstances are too trivial to demand your attention.
|
||||
|
||||
But what if we raise the stakes here, just enough to make you worry? What if you were to choose between two college majors, or you were at the point in your life where you had to decide a career?
|
||||
|
||||
Our brain tends to attach gravity to every choice it faces by ruminating on the possible repercussions of a bad choice. It plays out all the probable outcomes, considering them, and agonizing you enough to keep you up at night, maybe even frustrating you to a point where you resign yourself to a belief that you’d be better off constricted in an alternate dimension, devoid of choice. To add to our misery, our ever-so-sadistic brain appends some kind of responsibility with every choice it faces. It bestows upon us an authority to take a call, an authority that amplifies mutually with the perceived importance of a decision.
|
||||
|
||||
What is this authority, really?
|
||||
|
||||
Given that one doesn’t control the consequences in the aftermath of a decision, it would be safe to assume that the power we speak of is merely apparent, imminent to be rendered worthless in the grander scheme of things. You could never know what the other paths would have been like, because you didn’t get a chance to experience them. One of the physical models of the universe (or the multiverse, to be precise) makes an attempt at explaining this notion through the collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanics. It proposes that every possible alternate timeline for the universe is real and they all happen in an ever-larger, ever-branching way. To put it in simpler words, it means that at whichever point we have to make a choice among the possible options, our life splits into multiple universes, entailing the path we choose. So theoretically, all the possible stories do take place, but we happen to experience only one of them. Life is the best simulation video game there is, where your choices form your story. No matter what you choose, the other options quickly evanesce as you don't know what they had to offer. Hence, there is no right or wrong in choice, and that explains the power we talked about earlier. The fact that you _have a_ choice, therein lies this apparent power.
|
||||
|
||||
This romanticised delineation, however, pokes fun at the human emotion of regret. If no one knows where the other path would have taken oneself, then why does one lament his decision? Sure, the other path might have suited someone else, but that does not really mean that it would have turned out to be the same way for you. Maybe the outcome isn't what we thought it would be, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we made the inapt decision. Maybe the outcome in the other situation might have been worse. Ultimately, it doesn't matter, since now, it’s something that you just can't change. Every choice, whether tiny or huge, is immensely important at the moment you face it, and it loses all of its importance the second you make it.
|
||||
|
||||
The feigned presence of meaning to our decisions is perplexing enough to lead us to a futile search for a scapegoat, which finds its distressing comfort in regret. The powerlessness over the circumstances we might face unsettles us. And this, unfortunately, is enough to send us into a cycle of self-reproach and ‘what-ifs’.
|
||||
@ -1,52 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "IITR's Exploits at NASA"
|
||||
category: bigstory
|
||||
image: nasa-cover.jpg
|
||||
excerpt: "The National Association of Students of Architecture (abbreviated as NASA) is a student organization with over 200 member colleges from India and neighbouring countries."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The **National Association of Students of Architecture** (abbreviated as **NASA**) is a student organization with over 200 member colleges from India and neighbouring countries. It was established in 1957 by seven colleges (one of which was IIT Roorkee), with the “common aim and objective to provide the students a platform for interaction, a platform where students from varied cultural backgrounds would learn and share their knowledge”.
|
||||
|
||||
To this effect, NASA India holds the Annual NASA Convention where the work of the students is displayed and evaluated, mostly through the medium of competitions. This year, IIT Roorkee (with a team of 46 students) took part in 7 competitions:
|
||||
|
||||
<ol start="1">
|
||||
<li> <b>The Louis I Kahn Trophy</b> : The LIK trophy aims to “improve the quality of architectural education in the context of the historic environment, and the legacy of knowledge, skills and training required to better protect and conserve this heritage”.</li>
|
||||
</ol>
|
||||
|
||||
This year, IIT Roorkee documented the **District Collectorate, Nainital** for the same. They stood amongst the **Top 10** colleges within the competition.
|
||||
|
||||
<ol start="2">
|
||||
<li> <b>HUDCO Trophy</b> : This trophy aims at “designing for the informal sector and give design alternatives for the issues pertaining to the solutions to Sustainable Urban Development”.</li>
|
||||
</ol>
|
||||
|
||||
The brief called for “affordable housing using green and emerging technology” into an otherwise standard housing project (with a specified ratio of EWS/LIG/MIG). The IIT Roorkee team chose a site in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, and proposed a design within the specified parameters. They finished in the **Top 4** colleges within the competition.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<ol start="3">
|
||||
<li> <b>Laurie Baker Trophy</b> : The trophy “gives attention towards the cost effective building techniques, materials and execution of the same”.</li>
|
||||
</ol>
|
||||
|
||||
The problem posed in this years’ brief was to devise a Master Plan for a Government Primary School (meeting a list of certain specified criteria). The IIT Roorkee team chose a school in the nearby village of Safarpur, and – through a participatory process – synthesized a plan for a period of 10 years. The team finished in the **Top 11** out of 56 colleges.
|
||||
|
||||
<ol start="4">
|
||||
<li> <b>Writing Architecture Trophy</b> : The aim of the trophy is to “inculcate the intrinsic observation capabilities of students to be aware of the real World around them, and make propositions and express their thoughts in the form of written matter in line with a particular theme”.</li>
|
||||
</ol>
|
||||
|
||||
This year’s brief called for a revaluation of “heritage” (in light of the demolition of The Hall of Nations), and posed a few other pertinent questions regarding India’s “modern heritage”. The IIT Roorkee team finished **1<sup>st</sup>** in a pool of about 150 entries.
|
||||
|
||||
<ol start="5">
|
||||
<li> <b>GRIHA Trophy</b> : The trophy is a collaborative initiative between NASA India and GRIHA, aiming “to expose students to Green and Sustainable Architecture.”</li>
|
||||
</ol>
|
||||
|
||||
This year’s problem was to propose a design for the “Milestone Experion Centre” in Gurgaon, comprising an office complex, a banquet hall, and multi-cuisine restaurants, in line with the GRIHA rating system. The IIT Roorkee team could not, unfortunately, make the shortlist.
|
||||
|
||||
<ol start="6">
|
||||
<li> <b>DesTech Challenge</b> : The trophy aims to be “a unique design competition that brings together creative thinking and digital advancements in the built environment sector. It challenges creative thinkers to explore opportunities within ‘Smart City’ systems, processes and engagement strategies.”</li>
|
||||
</ol>
|
||||
|
||||
The brief encouraged the participants to envision a smart city which satisfied a set of “scenarios”, asking them, also, to explain their thought process behind this envisioned future. The team stood 1st in the competition.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The team was also shortlisted **(Top 10)** for the **Le Corbusier Trophy**, awarded for overall performance across all trophies held by NASA India. This marks IIT Roorkee’s best ever performance in the Annual NASA Convention thus far, and is – in good hope – indicative of better things to come.
|
||||
@ -1,57 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Entrepreneurship at R: In conversation with EDC and Enactus"
|
||||
category: verbatim
|
||||
image: enactus.jpg
|
||||
excerpt: "Following up on our conversation with Azam Ali Khan, the CEO of TIDES business Incubator, we caught up with Ankit Bagaria, the head of Enactus, and Aayush Gupta, a member of the Entrepreneurship Development Cell of IIT Roorkee to chat about the role of student bodies in fostering and encouraging the entrepreneurial culture at R. Here are some excerpts from our conversation."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
_Following up on our conversation with Mr. Azam Ali Khan, the CEO of TIDES business Incubator, we caught up with Ankit Bagaria, the head of Enactus, and Aayush Gupta, a member of the Entrepreneurship Development Cell of IIT Roorkee to chat about the role of student bodies in fostering and encouraging the entrepreneurial culture at R. Here are some excerpts from our conversation._
|
||||
|
||||
### As students, what do you think the importance of a culture of entrepreneurship is at IIT Roorkee?
|
||||
|
||||
_**Aayush:**_ When it comes to students of an IIT, I have a belief that we are expected to generate jobs instead of following other people or joining other companies. We want to use this opportunity of studying at a premier institute to make lives easier by coming up with new and better products and services, and entrepreneurship is an exciting way of doing just that. The role of EDC, in any campus, is to generally promote entrepreneurship and to make people aware of what entrepreneurship exactly is. In essence, we want to develop an environment where innovation and new ideas are celebrated.
|
||||
|
||||
### How exactly does EDC promote the ‘spirit of entrepreneurship’ as you say?
|
||||
|
||||
_**Aayush:**_ So basically, we organise a couple of major events in the campus, like TEDx, or the upcoming eSummit; apart from which we have initiatives like the Startup Internship Program. I believe that bringing in more and more people working in startups to our campus to tell us how a startup actually works will encourage students here to start their own thing in the future. Apart from the events we are also working on a portal through which we want people to engage in fruitful networking. Through these events and initiatives we create a huge amount of resources for people to rely on. We have a huge network of experts, too, so that whenever a student needs any kind of help, you know, if he wants to connect to some alumni or someone else, to talk about his questions related to entrepreneurship, he can openly come to EDC, and we'll get him connected!
|
||||
|
||||
### So how does Enactus come into the picture?
|
||||
|
||||
_**Ankit:**_ So basically when you talk about entrepreneurship in general, there is no set way of learning the concepts, you know? There has to be a certain practice, in a way, of dealing with and actually ‘doing’ what entrepreneurship entails. Enactus, which is short for ‘Entrepreneurial Action for Us’, is a global organization that promotes social entrepreneurship among students all over the world, by giving the students the opportunity to perform in live projects. That, I believe, is where Enactus has a huge role to play.
|
||||
|
||||
### About that, how would you define social entrepreneurship?
|
||||
|
||||
_**Ankit:**_ Social entrepreneurship, in a general sense, includes the business-oriented or entrepreneurial activities that focus on the impact on the sustainability of the commercial ecosystem, before revenues or profits.
|
||||
|
||||
_**Aayush:**_ One important example that comes to my mind is of Tesla. Tesla made its first car- an electric car- and they had this vision that they wanted more and electric cars in the world. Now they could've easily made a lot more money out of being a monopoly, but they openly shared their design so that they could have this ‘movement’ on a big scale so that people from other companies can also start building electric cars!
|
||||
|
||||
_**Ankit:**_ Exactly! We don't want to compromise the chance of having a healthy competition for our own profits.
|
||||
|
||||
### We recently had an interview with the CEO of TIDES and I understand that TIDES, EDC, Enactus and all of these similar campus organisations have to maintain a certain synergy for entrepreneurship to thrive in a campus like ours. As a student, how exactly do you think TIDES can help in this dynamic?
|
||||
|
||||
_**Aayush:**_ Entrepreneurship, to be frank, is basically a journey. I think the role of EDC is to get a person from zero to one, and that of TIDES is to get him from one to a hundred! For example, if a person is interested in starting up but is, for the lack of a better word, clueless, EDC's role is to tell him about entrepreneurship, to help him realise his ideas, to connect him to potential mentors, and to help him build a team. Once he has an idea and wants to legitimately materialize it, he can then go to TIDES, because TIDES has a tremendous amount of resources. They can get funds, a great office space, and subsequent mentorship from TIDES, while we supplement their role by making the initial rudimentary steps a little easier.
|
||||
|
||||
_**Ankit:**_ In addition to what Aayush says, campus groups like ours are catering to a different idea altogether. Say I have an idea but I don't know how that idea needs to be developed, EDC needs to come into the picture when someone is trying to develop on that idea. In addition to this, even if students don’t have ideas, groups like Enactus, or even ShARE, for that matter, can help them by giving them live projects and case studies to try their hand at real life problems.
|
||||
|
||||
### What kind of real-life problems?
|
||||
|
||||
_**Ankit:**_ Currently, we at Enactus have a few live projects, one of which is to empower the farmers, another deals with waste paper management and creating employment out of it, yet another deals with the social inclusion of the specially-abled, and so on. So as you can see the horizon for a social entrepreneurship venture is huge and Enactus gives the students that horizon to explore, along with a chance to actually see how actual problems can be solved. Enactus also hosts a national and an international competition each year for its University chapters, giving students a chance to showcase their projects to business leaders and investors.
|
||||
|
||||
### And about the working spaces, how big of an issue is it?
|
||||
|
||||
_**Ankit:**_ Actually, very recently, while we were working for one of our flagship projects: ‘Kaagaz’, we faced the same issue. In the ideation phase and the prototyping phase, we had to do everything from our rooms and that creates a lot of mess because you cannot work with a huge team in small rooms. A coworking space definitely helps.
|
||||
|
||||
_**Aayush:**_ Yeah, in the absence of good facilities, people generally work from their rooms or other random places they find, which is a huge reason why I really believe we need coworking spaces. We have a lot of spaces in terms of TV Rooms or Common Rooms in hostels which are heavily underutilised. Converting them to coworking spaces would certainly help our cause. Additionally, the highly diminished female involvement due to this dorm-room work culture is an issue that we really should be considering!
|
||||
|
||||
### In order for you to thrive as a student body, how do you think EDC or Enactus needs to evolve, and where do you see yourselves fitting into the campus setups?
|
||||
|
||||
_**Aayush:**_ We envision EDC turning into something like the eCells in our sister IITs. As an eCell, we could ensure our promotion among the faculty, too, since the name is actually very well known. We are merely a student group right now, and we are trying to be a ‘program’ or an ‘organisation’.
|
||||
|
||||
_**Ankit:**_ On similar lines, Enactus is based on social entrepreneurship. We are not doing things for profit, and being a campus group and under the given organization guidelines, we have regulations that we need to follow. We cannot be a profitable venture inside the campus so we believe that the CSR funds that our institute and the alumni funds might have could help us in tremendous ways. Also, speaking of our global guidelines, we cannot be a part of any other group. Hence, wherever we come in, we must function independently and effectively.
|
||||
|
||||
### Closing notes, then. I’m pretty sure that as parts of EDC and Enactus, you must have compared and contrasted the similar organizations in various other institutes. Where do you see a chance for us to grow?
|
||||
|
||||
_**Aayush:**_ I have been talking to a couple of people on IIT Bombay, IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur, and the one thing I observed was that they have a more open culture for working on their initiatives. They have fifty-odd people from different years, and even from the M. Tech and PhD community, volunteering for their projects and initiatives. I really want IIT Roorkee to focus on this as well. We have this big event, eSummit, coming up, and organising eSummit only with a bunch of core team members from EDC is not possible. Apart from that IITs hold a responsibility of fostering entrepreneurship not only inside our own institutes but also in the state, and I look forward to taking up such mentoring initiatives as a part of IIT Roorkee!
|
||||
|
||||
_**Ankit:**_ Enactus has got 1800 chapters around the world, and out of those 160 are in India. However, most of these chapters are in commerce colleges. One thing that we as a technical institute can bring in to Enactus is the technical penetration into a social venture. Until now, I believe that we’re on the right track, and we’re trying to go as deep as we can here. Another thing about which my views resonate with Aayush’s is that the number of students volunteering for such activities and ventures is quite high in other colleges and in other Enactus chapters. That, I guess, would be my appeal to the students at IIT Roorkee. We’re sure that through this, it’ll be easier for entrepreneurial culture to develop in our institute!
|
||||
@ -1,635 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: Funding Your Extracurriculars
|
||||
category: bigstory
|
||||
image: funding.jpg
|
||||
author: "Uday Shinghal, Yash Singh, Muskaan Bhambri"
|
||||
excerpt: "Every semester, every student of IIT Roorkee each pays a certain amount towards the ‘Gymkhana Activities’ of the institute. This amount, which sums up to Rs. 6000 every academic year (Rs. 3000 every semester), is meant to cover the expenditure of all the extracurricular activities in the campus. With an approximate strength of students at IIT Roorkee being close to seven thousand, an amount of Rs. 6000 per student translates to an annual budget of over Rs. 4 crores."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
Every semester, every student of IIT Roorkee each pays a certain amount towards the ‘Gymkhana Activities’ of the institute. This amount, which sums up to Rs. 6000 every academic year (Rs. 3000 every semester), is meant to cover the expenditure of all the extracurricular activities in the campus. With an approximate strength of students at IIT Roorkee being close to seven thousand, an amount of Rs. 6000 per student translates to an annual budget of over Rs. 4 crores.
|
||||
|
||||
As substantial as the amount might seem, a perfect testimony to the importance of such an extensive budget was given by the former Director of IIT Roorkee, Dr. Pradipta Banerjee. During the orientation ceremony of the batch of 2016-17, he said, “Students, when you go out in public, you wear a suit to create an impression. Similarly, your academics might be your trousers and your shirt, but your extracurriculars play the role of your blazer and your tie.”
|
||||
|
||||
With the dissolution of the Hobbies Club in the previous academic year, a Students’ Technical Council (organized along the lines of the Cultural Council and the Sports Council) emerged to cater to the demands of students involved in multiple technical clubs and groups. The Gymkhana fees, apart from the needs of the cultural, sports, and technical councils, also fulfils the requirements of various other campus activities that are pivotal to students’ everyday lives. For the very first time, a well-structured breakdown of the Gymkhana fees was released publicly last year by the former Convenor of SAC, Mr. Apurwa Sarwajit. While there have been some changes to the erstwhile allocation, the breakdown, in our belief, is still immensely convoluted and volatile in nature.
|
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|
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|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### Bhawans
|
||||
|
||||
**Bhawan Replacement & Purchase (BRP): ₹1700/- per student per year**
|
||||
|
||||
**All Bachelors’ Bhawans: ₹400/- per student per year**
|
||||
|
||||
_Note: A majority of our gymkhana fees (28%) goes to the DOSW for Bhawan Replacement & Purchase (BRP) Fund. In addition to the BRP fund, an amount of ₹400/- is also paid to the respective bhawans for promoting cultural activities, paying salaries to temporary employees, and taking care of all miscellaneous activities in the bhawans._
|
||||
|
||||
A conversation with Mr. Aniket Jaiswal, the Cultural Secretary of Rajiv Bhawan, brought to the forefront that a major chunk of the allocated fund is consistently spent on the salaries of the temporary staff, and hence, little is left for bhawan activities. In addition to this, exorbitant expenses were incurred for Rajiv Bhawan’s last bhawan day, with food costing ₹650/- per plate (paid through the CCB account) and approximately ₹1,00,000 spent on decorations, tents, etc. Apart from bhawan inmates, only deans, institute guests, and the student senators are invited to such days.
|
||||
|
||||
Upon being asked about the significance of bhawan days, which usually prove to be quite an expense to the institute, Ms. Pragya Choudhary, the current Technical Secretary of Kasturba Bhawan, said, _“It is a way to make unresponsive people responsive and imbibe a sense of belongingness in the bhawan inmates.” She further termed the usage of the bhawan funds as “confidential”._
|
||||
|
||||
When asked about the usage of the BRP fund, Mr. Sambhav Jain (GS: Hostel Affairs), responded, _“The BRP funds are being used judiciously—but not uniformly—by the various bhawans, because the funds are controlled centrally and are allocated to a particular bhawan only on the request of the concerned council. This, in a sense, means that if a bhawan council is sufficiently proactive, they can access a huge portion of the funds and use it as per the bhawan’s needs.”_
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|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
On the condition of anonymity, one of the current senators clearly vouched for the need of an alternate channel for the distribution of BRP funds since the current mode (through the DOSW office) usually ‘causes delays’.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Students’ Activities
|
||||
|
||||
**Misc. Students’ Activities (DOSW): ₹1200/- per student per year<br>
|
||||
Students’ Activities (ADOSW): ₹50/- per student per year**
|
||||
|
||||
The funds act as buffer in cases where unanticipated disbursement has to be made. The activities falling under this section remain very motley and unpredictable. For instance, the fee for YourDost, the online counselling and emotional wellness platform, was paid from these funds. Also, in case a student seeks monetary help from college, if deemed worthy, these funds are used. If RFID-enabled cards, for example, are ever issued to the students, they shall be paid for through this channel.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Sports Council
|
||||
|
||||
**Sports Council: ₹850/- per student per year**
|
||||
|
||||
While IITR boasts of one of the best sports facilities in the country, that there is a ‘preference’ for the NSO-registered students and those selected for institute teams is the complaint of a majority of the students. To counter this, Mr. Shubham Vij (GS: Sports Affairs) has promised the establishment of ‘beginners’ camps’ for every student, as each student pays the sports fee. He also urges students to participate in the intra-bhawan and inter-bhawan sports competitions and contribute to developing a healthy sporting culture at IITR. However, for students who want to try their hands at a new sport, lack of adequate equipment and support infrastructure still remain a major concern.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
_Note: The breakdown varies with time and from sport to sport; therefore, we were unable to get a more detailed deconstruction of the funds. This will be covered in greater detail in a Watch Out article in the works, which will assess the intricacies of the sports culture at IITR._
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Students’ Club
|
||||
|
||||
**Students’ Club: ₹450/- per student per year**
|
||||
|
||||
The Students’ Club accounts for 7.5% of the gymkhana fees. This is used in its entirety for the functioning and maintenance of the three units of the Students’ Club, namely, the Main Unit, the Alaknanda Unit and the Jawahar Unit, (which is soon to be transferred under Jawahar Bhawan Council’s jurisdiction as per Mr. Arpit Agrawal, the current Technical Secretary of Jawahar Bhawan). It has ample infrastructure in all its units, with the maximum obviously being in the Main Unit.
|
||||
|
||||
The Students’ Club has a total of 5 permanent employees, 6 temporary employees, and 1 part-time accountant. The permanent employees, of which 2 will be retiring soon, have _‘pretty high salaries’_, as stated by Mr. Suyash Vishnoi (Secretary: Students’ Club). The data obtained from the Annual Account Statement seems to support his claims, revealing that nearly 72% of the allocated funds go into paying salaries to the employees. Even after said retirement of personnel, this will remain the single largest guzzler of Students’ Club’s funds.
|
||||
|
||||
The second largest chunk of the expenditure is on billiard games, comprising maintenance of the pool and snooker tables, and all other related equipment. It accounts for a mere 7.5%, however, in monetary terms, this translates to Rs. 3,17,000. At the same time, these games contribute to the income of the Students’ Club through the _‘coupons and bookings’_ which bring in about Rs. 3,75,000, and hence, they comfortably compensate for their expenditures.
|
||||
|
||||
The previous year saw the first time that the Students’ Club ran in deficit. Therefore, corpus funds from the last ten years were used to compensate for the same. This put pressure on these coffers and in the words of the Secretary, they will soon be exhausted. Mr. Vishnoi adds that the Club has been advised by the SAC to exhaust these before an increase in the share of Students’ Club in the Gymkhana fees can be considered. Additionally, there has been a consistent decrease in the said share from Rs. 550 to Rs. 500, and finally to Rs. 450 in the past 3 years. With the Chess team now regularly representing (and bringing in laurels) in various competitions like the Inter-IIT Sports Meet, we believe that the reconsideration of this fund is imminent.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The Students’ Club has been proactive in increasing the usage of its paraphernalia by the student community. It has organised snooker workshops to increase participation by non-players as well as hired a chess coach to help the teams with their Inter-IIT sports meet preparations. The club also spends approximately Rs. 4,50,000 on the Annual Club Day and other activities, including the tournaments it holds round the year.
|
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|
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<br>
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### Students’ Technical Council
|
||||
|
||||
**Students’ Technical Council**: ₹400/- per student per year
|
||||
|
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|
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|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
_“STC currently gets Rs. 400 per student of the total gymkhana fees. In the past years, the Council has had a splendid record, winning national and international competitions, and organizing workshops/lectures which have been a great source of technical knowledge in the campus. Given the promising potential of the Council, there is still scope for more efficient usage of increased funds, if provided. Also, in an effort to make groups more open, and for students to be able to bear the fruits of their gymkhana fees, the STC [had] launched an initiative that [sic] all STC groups will be listing all the resources/equipment purchased by them through STC Funds publicly. Any student can issue that resource/equipment just by writing an application to the respective group's secretary [sic]. If available, that resource or equipment can be issued to her/him.”_
|
||||
|
||||
**_-Mr. Punit Dhoot, (GS: Technical Affairs)_**
|
||||
|
||||
(Footnote: <span style="color:#0645AD">[Resources of STC](https://www.facebook.com/stciitr/posts/1580009178747703)</span>)
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
While Tinkering Lab and TIDES do not receive finances from the Gymkhana fees, SAE—in addition to the funds allocated from the gymkhana fees—receives monetary help from the Director’s Endowment Funds. The funds (shown in the graph above) were allocated at the request of the respective groups based on their judgements and needs. The breakdown, clearly, does not represent the institute’s or SAC’s perspective on the requirement of council groups.
|
||||
<br><br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Cultural Council
|
||||
|
||||
**Cultural Council**: ₹350/- per student per year
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
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|
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<br>
|
||||
{: style="width:65%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
_Note: Inter-IIT funds (₹8,50,000) have been removed from the complete budget to get a better visualisation of the graph._
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The debate of making groups under the Cultural Council open to the entire campus populace has gained much momentum since its initiation; and has been able to garner the SAC’s attention as well. This is meant to make the resources purchased by the Cultural Council available to every campus resident fair and square.
|
||||
|
||||
This year, the SAC took multiple initiatives to increase the participation of the student community in cultural activities. All the groups came together to recruit again in the spring semester to provide another chance to students who might have missed it. The participation for the Inter-IIT Cultural Meet too was made open and transparent, and not limited to the respective groups.
|
||||
|
||||
Despite all the steps taken, the analysis made by Watch Out clearly shows that the money spent on open house activities remains a mere fraction (< 4%) of the total expenditure till date. Also, with over 30% of the fund being outlaid through disbursements for the Inter-IIT Cultural Meet, little is left for professional workshops and in-house events, says Mr. Prajwal Bhatt, (GS: Cultural Affairs). He added that in the autumn semester, a large share of the funds spent were spent on repairs and purchases as a lot of the requirements of the Music Section, in terms of instruments and others, had been pending for quite some time and were promptly approved in the previous semester. All leftover funds, for the spring semester, will be used on 50-50 basis for purchases/repairs and open house events.
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
_“Budget is not really the constraint behind organising workshops for helping people perform better in FoS; building a personal bond is something which is extremely important. Like, people who performed in FoS brought gifts for the people in choreo section who helped them. That was a beautiful gesture, and moreover, building a personal bond helps pull off a better performance.”_ <br>
|
||||
**_–Mr. Siddhant Bharadwaj, Dramatics Society_**
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
Traditionally, the clubs/groups tend to spend a disproportionately large amount on in-house events but are reluctant to spend on open house events, such as the FoS, and this has continued into the current academic year. However, opening up of the sections’ resources to the campus junta was a bold move. Now, any student can use any resource of the Cultural Council by following the official channel and writing an application to the Faculty Advisor.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
_“Music Section organised JAM-DAY a couple of weeks ago to see how many people actually show up; participation was approximately null. The issue being [that] on providing help and support, not everyone comes forward. When it comes to making instruments available to 8000 students, it’s a matter of concern when a student is a newbie. For example, repairing of a synthesizer key costs ₹3,000 approximately, so, at least some prior knowledge is extremely necessary. Maybe, the classes arranged by SAC will be useful. Also, IIT Bombay has got its own music room in every hostel—this is a great initiative which the bhawan councils should look forward to implementing.”_ <br>
|
||||
**_–Mr. Rutuj Bhayani, Ad. Secretary, Music Section_**
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
The efforts of the current council should not go unrecognised as it has taken a number of initiatives to promote the “cult” in the campus, including initiation of music and dance classes; and due to significant participation, it seems that there is a requirement of additional instructors with the monthly salary of each being Rs. 15,000 and Rs. 20,000 respectively. The groups have opened recruitments in both the semesters and resources have been made available to the masses. The open selections for the Inter-IIT Cultural Meet, we believe, was another bold move that was appreciated by the IITR community.
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### SAC
|
||||
|
||||
**SAC: ₹90/- per student per year**
|
||||
|
||||
The SAC fund is meant to pay for the celebrations of various festivals (Diwali, Holi, to name a few), as well as other activities under its prerogative—such as the organisation of the Freshers’ Week (and ensuing activities)—and the organisation of certain lectures by the SAC. Any added cost such as the publicity of the aforementioned activities through posters and flex printing is also included in this. Miscellaneous expenses under this comprise setting up water pots for the dogs in the campus to, in a way, avert them from drinking from water coolers meant for students. In simpler terms, it is upto the SAC to judiciously use the allocated funds as per their discretion.
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Students’ Wellness
|
||||
|
||||
**Students’ Wellness: ₹80/- per student per year**
|
||||
|
||||
To ensure that the stay at IITR be a pleasant one, a specific office for issues related to the ‘wellness’ of students was established at the end of the last academic year. This, in essence, was a huge step taken to address issues of mental health at an institute like ours. SMP, SSP, and the Counselling Cell fall under the jurisdiction of this office, the one of ADOSW: Students’ Wellness. The office also takes care of the orientation ceremony of the freshman batch every year; and a separate budget for the ceremony is to be approved by an ‘adequate’ authority. With the establishment of this new office, we certainly expect some bold renovation and refinement of the existing system.
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Others
|
||||
|
||||
**Cinema Club:** ₹150/- per student per year<br>
|
||||
**HEC:** ₹150/- per student per year<br>
|
||||
**SPIC MACAY:** ₹100/- per student per year<br>
|
||||
**NSS:** ₹30/- per student per year<br>
|
||||
|
||||
Individual initiatives like these take up the leftover fraction of the gymkhana fund for their own activities. Cinema Club, for example, uses its fund to showcase movies in the convocation hall for the students, while SPIC MACAY uses the money to organise events like Virasat to promote classical performing arts. Mr. Adarsh Goyal, a member of SPIC MACAY, says that these funds help them invite with a minimum recognition of Sangeet Natak Academy Award, preferably recipients of Padma Awards, and various international awards, for periodic events and workshops in IIT Campus and nearby education centres. He adds, _“Most of our money goes in the arrangement of these events and workshops, like artist payments, travel, accommodation, logistics, venue setup and audience outreach. All this is done to make students more aware about Indian and world heritage. This initiative is making education more holistic and meaningful as it is highlighting all that is abstract, subtle, inspiring and mystical in the world teaching one to look within oneself.”_
|
||||
|
||||
Speaking for the Himalayan Explorers’ Club, Mr. Manish Gupta, the secretary, says, _“HEC organises close to 30 short and long treks throughout the year with an average participation of 40 students. Registration of these treks is open-to-all, and a subsidy of around 500/- is given to each of the participants. Some expeditions are more extensive than the others, the recent one to Kalindikhal (at a height of 6000 metres) being an example, and take up more funds than the others. HEC also organises two skating camps in a year, along with a cycle-race, CAT (Confidence Assault Training) course, certain guest lectures and an annual Plantation Day. Winners of the cycle-race, the CAT course and for different adventurous categories are awarded during the Annual Club Day of the group. Funds are also used in buying and repairing the trekking equipments like tents, sleeping bags, mats, torches, cooking equipments, and skates. Other expenditures include refreshments for on-campus events, hospitality costs for the guests, and the printing costs of an annual magazine of the group. HEC also has three salaried-employees to look after the funds, the park, and the store of the club, and they are also being paid from the same funds.”_ He also cited the need for additional money, mentioning that HEC has taken a social initiative under rural development cell of ‘Mountain Cleaning Drive’, and it is looking for more funds to make this initiative successful.
|
||||
|
||||
As far as NSS is concerned, Mr. Tejas Khadilkar, the current Secretary, mentions that most of their budget goes into the organisation of events like National Social Summit and Blood Donation Camps. In addition to these, he says that initiatives like cloth distribution drives, cleanliness drives, teaching classes, and various guest lectures take up a major chunk of their budget. He further adds, _“The constraint of budget keeps us from inviting high profile guests as we are barely able to fund their correspondingly high travel and hospitality expenses.”_
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Our Two Cents
|
||||
|
||||
The gymkhana funds shape the direction in which our institute performs in the extracurricular vertical, and is a central piece in determining the overall character development and the completeness that the students graduating from here possess. With a few much-needed changes to the allocation of these funds, the gymkhana funds can adequately and appropriately address the needs of the upcoming batches of students. After careful consideration and elaborate conversations with a lot of people involved in the process, we’d humbly like to suggest the following improvements to the allocation.
|
||||
|
||||
First things first, we all are living in an era where justifying a virtual platform would be nothing but naive, and the Institute Gymkhana should definitely have a website of its own where all the activities centric to campus should be updated. Also, to ensure accountability and credibility, a more ‘human friendly’ annual report should be published by the SAC every academic year.
|
||||
|
||||
Using the extracurricular fee to promote new technological advancements and a thriving culture of performing arts and fine arts should be the foremost priority of the institute. The current breakdown, however, does not reflect this notion. With 35% of the gymkhana fees being contributed to the repairs, purchases and operational activities of bhawan, aspiring for major reforms seems justified. Though a provision of making use of the cultural sections' resources is put into effect, the process seems latent because of the protocol involved. Also, with only handful students being the members of the performing sections, a large fraction of students who are willing to get involved in cultural activities is neglected; and to cater to their aspirations and interests, facilities shall (and need to) be setup in individual bhawans under the jurisdiction of the Cultural Secretary of that bhawan (Cautley Bhawan, for example, has set up their own Music Room recently).
|
||||
|
||||
Another major issue was that 35% of the Cultural Council Budget and 14% of the Technical Council Budget went into reimbursements of respective Inter IIT Meets. While expenditures of this nature are extremely necessary, whether these be done at the expense of the gymkhana funds allocated to these societies is a question worth considering. The Inter IIT Sports Meet, in contrast, is funded by the MHRD completely. While it is still early days to expect the same for the former two, steps in this direction shall certainly free up funds for promotion of better facilities in-house for these councils.
|
||||
|
||||
As a closing note, we also firmly believe that hiring an expert who could analyse the needs of the various sections and societies in the campus would help us allocate the extracurricular fees more effectively. Unarguably, this breakdown is extremely important to the student community, and a judicious use of this amount shall certainly help our cause.
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
_Notes:_ <br>
|
||||
1. _Watch Out gathered all the data and statements after meeting the respective secretaries of various bhawans or the councils involved. In case of any discrepancies, please reach out to us so that we can rectify the same._ <br>
|
||||
2. _The official notice for the gymkhana fee breakdown can be found <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D3VWG2uFI7B6GwqIR9GCRukuFenuQxOY/view)</span>._
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,27 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: The 2nd IIT SPAN Meeting
|
||||
category: sac
|
||||
image: span-meet-2.jpg
|
||||
author: "Agrim Patodia, Uday Shinghal, Nikhil Arora"
|
||||
excerpt: "The second IIT SPAN meet of 2017-18 session was held at IIT Roorkee on 2nd-3rd March 2018 which was attended by the student senate representatives of IIT Roorkee, Bilai, BHU, Delhi, Indore, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Palakkad, Patna, and Ropar. Watch Out covered the events that unfolded at the same."
|
||||
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The IIT SPAN, or Indian Institutes of Technology Students’ Presence Across Nation, is a self governed body composed of the elected student representatives of the respective IITs, with the intent to serve as an advisory body and as a platform to hear and address the various grievances of its members. The IIT SPAN constitution was adopted in April 2016, citing its various responsibilities, sub-committees and bylaws. The second IIT SPAN meet of 2017-18 session was held at IIT Roorkee on 2nd-3rd March 2018 which was attended by the student senate representatives of IIT Roorkee, Bilai, BHU, Delhi, Indore, Jodhpur, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Palakkad, Patna, and Ropar. Watch Out covered the events that unfolded at the same.
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
The agendas for the second IIT SPAN meet were decided beforehand and submitted by the member IITs’ representatives. The first few agendas looked at confirming and ratifying the resolutions passed in the first meet held at IIT Kanpur. These included resolutions passed for IIT BHU and IIT Indore after the IIT Kanpur SPAN meet vide proper channels. In IIT Indore, the Student Gymkhana was dissolved and disciplinary action taken against protesting students. In IIT BHU, several students faced harassment and threats. It was suggested that the IIT SPAN would forward a letter to the MHRD through the directors of the respective institutes, to address the issues.
|
||||
|
||||
Another decision was made regarding the Inter IIT Cultural Meet. IIT Kanpur, the host of the 2017 Cultural Meet briefly summarised the happenings, the expenses incurred and suggestions for the future. This was followed by the house initiating a bid for deciding the next host. IIT Roorkee proposed holding the next Cultural Meet. According to Prajwal Bhatt (General Secretary: Cultural Affairs), since IIT Roorkee is trying to reduce its closed group culture, this will be a wonderful opportunity to encourage the students to participate in cultural activities. Moreover, with the construction of the new Students’ Activity Center, IITR has the required venues for hosting the events.
|
||||
|
||||
The penultimate agenda of the meet aimed at getting official recognition for the IIT SPAN organisation. Currently, it is not officially recognised by the MHRD or the IIT Council. Thus, it was suggested that the they send a letter to the MHRD and a short document on the functioning and scope of IIT SPAN through the directors of the respective institutes. It is important that the organisation receives formal recognition if its decisions are to be recognised across the pan IIT community.
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
In conclusion, it was decided that IIT Delhi will host the next IIT SPAN meet, with an overall consensus to increase the frequency of meetings to at least twice a year.
|
||||
|
||||
As we go forward, an increased interaction between the student communities of various IITs shall certainly go a long way. The IIT SPAN serves as an important platform to bring the issues of the student community forwards in a formal, democratically elected way.
|
||||
<br><br>
|
||||
|
||||
_The detailed minutes of the meeting, as compiled by Watch Out, can be found on this <span style="color:#0645AD">[link](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dQks8HCgGtiigDm1rYO6eVmkluzF-_04/view)</span>. You can also find the constitution of IIT SPAN <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TCU_ncbKKBQE83cY03aMtB3dvETWfgcO/view)</span>._
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,47 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: Highlights of the Students’ Senate Meeting (held on 17/3/18)
|
||||
category: sac
|
||||
image: students_senate_meet.jpg
|
||||
author:
|
||||
excerpt: "The Students’ Senate is the most important instrument for the dissemination of students’ opinion to the administration and to allow the senators to collectively reach a consensus on essential developments affecting students’ campus experience. However, on March 17th 2018, a mockery of this entire system could be witnessed in the Senate Hall with ruckus and confusion ruling the hall."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
The Students’ Senate is the most important instrument for the dissemination of students’ opinion to the administration and to allow the senators to collectively reach a consensus on essential developments affecting students’ campus experience. However, on March 17th 2018, a mockery of this entire system could be witnessed in the Senate Hall with ruckus and confusion ruling the hall. In the words of the DOSW himself, the senators were unable to maintain ‘decorum’, while the senators claimed that the SAC was trying to impose its agendas on the Senate, by resorting to ‘yelling into the mic’. The fact that things even got to this point explains the sheer absurdity with which the discussions were being conducted.
|
||||
|
||||
This particular Senate Meeting was conducted with the express purpose of discussing the regulations for the annual student elections for the 2018-19 session. The electoral procedure involved in the selection of the Students’ Affairs Council (SAC) is an extremely integral decision that the student community takes, and the state of the student-administration relations, along with the progress made by the institute depends heavily on this process. As you might have correctly inferred, all the agendas are potentially crucial changes to the election setup, and hence, invited a healthy discussion before being passed in the Students’ Senate. While there was a discussion alright, we would not, however, in any sense of the word, term it as ‘healthy’.
|
||||
|
||||
Prof. Joshi (the Dean of Students’ Welfare) emphasized multiple times in the Senate that as students, our main motive is to study here in college and not mimic the Indian democracy. Although Prof. Joshi is extremely right in his concerns and we respect his opinion, but if the changes that are going to impact the entire student community and their progress are being discussed, we expect at least a quorum to be present in the senate. Additionally, it was disheartening to witness arguments by the senators which were heavily injected with personal bias, and had no substantial arguments to back their stance in most cases.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
As attendees of the Senate Meeting, we made some observations and had some views on the agendas that we’d be remiss not to share with our audience.
|
||||
|
||||
_Note:_
|
||||
|
||||
1. _The ‘SAC’ here means the General Secretaries._
|
||||
|
||||
2. _The ‘Bench’ refers to the representatives of the Main Building, i.e. DOSW, ADOSW (B&M), ADOSW (SA) and ADOSW (International Relations)_
|
||||
|
||||
3. _The Students’ Senate is attended by the elected representatives of every bhawan (referred henceforth as ‘senators’), along with the elected representatives of the SAC, among other people (as relevant)._
|
||||
|
||||
4. _All the decisions have been passed by the Students’ Senate in the presence of the bench. However, final decisions will be incorporated in the regulations which shall be released soon, prior to the elections, post some more due diligence by relevant authorities._
|
||||
|
||||
| Agenda | Highlights | Our Two Cents |
|
||||
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|
||||
| A General Secretary shall resign from all other positions of responsibility once elected. | Questions raised regarding the vacuum that would be created by such resignation. GS Technical Affairs suggested that reappointments to those posts would be done post resignation. | Watch Out suggests it be left at the discretion of the group/sections/clubs involved to decide judiciously and also, at the discretion of person who takes charge of the office. If, at all, there are any concerns with his performance in either of his capacities, decisions with respect to his leftover tenure can be taken up as the case may be. |
|
||||
| In case of a single candidate contesting for an institute level position, the candidate shall be voted for ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. | This was suggested as a validation by public vote so that in case of an undeserving candidate, an alternative could be chosen by nomination. On nominations being opposed by the senators, the SAC agreed to discuss re-elections. However, it was pointed out that this could be tedious and taxing. A ‘neutral’ option was suggested which could be used to demand more option for the post. Prof. Barua stated that they weren’t the election committee and shouldn’t overcomplicate procedures. | Watch Out agrees to the point, but doesn’t support re-elections over nominations, as conducting elections again would be tedious and taxing as mentioned in the highlights. If, however, there is a possibility of conducting elections for the unelected posts along with the bhawan level elections in the Autumn Semester (as discussed over Agenda 6), this can be thought of as an alternative. |
|
||||
| Any candidate for the position of General Secretary Cultural Affairs should be a part of Cultural Council. | The SAC wanted to institute this agenda so as to ensure a smoother transition to an open group culture which would be made possible by a representative who understands the ins and outs of the council. The senators were not in agreement as this would mean a loss of opportunity for a large number of students and they pointed out that managerial proficiency should not be confused with the possession of a particular skill set. The bench advised the senators to not to look at a post as an opportunity but a responsibility and a compromise was finally reached wherein the rule is applicable only for a certain period of time. There was also a parallel discussion initiated by the SAC about how the decision to have an elected GS Cultural Affairs was ‘unconstitutional’, as it wasn’t discussed in the appropriate channels last year. Hence, to actually make the prior decision, it would be necessary to first resolve this matter. No conclusion, however, was made about this particular point. Additionally, certain students vouched for the inclusion of the members of the team behind Thomso in the eligibility criteria, which was opposed by the SAC. | With over seven thousand students paying the Gymkhana Fees, out of which, only a fraction of students make into the Cultural Council including only a handful of PG students, limiting candidature to Council Members seems unjust to an extremely large section of the student community. Competency in a particular cultural section isn’t necessarily a proof of someone’s leadership and management skills which are the key requirements to represent the entire student populace. Watch Out suggests that the position of the GS be contested by anyone irrespective of his/her membership in the Cultural Council, and to facilitate the smooth functioning of the Cultural Council’s activities, the Deputy GS shall be nominated/elected from the council. Also, to cater the larger section of the student community, Bhawan Secy shall be given responsibility to promote cultural activities at Bhawan Level (as advocated by us in the earlier article, ‘Funding Your Extracurriculars’). GS Cultural Affairs shall have a council comprising of Bhawan Secy (Cultural Affairs) to ensure the same. |
|
||||
| Any candidate for the position of General Secretary Technical Affairs should be a part of Students’ Technical Council. | No discussion took place in this particular regard, since the debate was similar to that of the previous point. | Same as above. |
|
||||
| The post ‘General Secretary Alumni Affairs’ shall be changed to ‘General Secretary Professional Development’, with modified roles and responsibilities for this position. | The point was put forward to ensure that the synergies of the TPO and the newly allotted post would match. The main responsibility of the elected representative would be to make sure that the students become technically competent to sit for placements, in a way helping in terms of career development. A large number of concerns regarding the minute details were raised, which the convenor assured would be raised and cleared in a later discussion after the establishment of the CDC. The CGPA criteria for this post is still unclear. The administration has, however, made it clear that they would vouch for a higher bar for this particular post, with Prof. Barua suggesting a CGPA cutoff of 8.5 for this post. | This agenda envisions a Career Development Cell, which shall act as an umbrella organisation for sections like a finance club, a consulting club, etc, and shall have a student representative at the helm. This, ideally, should give our campus a huge boost in terms of our placements. This idea is in an incredibly nascent stage, and invites lot of questions. For example: “Who is eligible to run for this post?”. Or: “What roles and responsibilities should be given to the person in this office?”. Or, most importantly: “Isn’t it very hasty to have such an office without a legitimate finance club or a consulting club even present in the campus?” The suggestions for this agenda from the senators were extremely sarcastic and borderline insincere. The stance of some of the senators compelled one of the members of the SAC to claim that an attempt was being made to make a mockery of the proceedings. |
|
||||
| To report the senate that institute-level elections and bhawan-level election shall be conducted on different timelines this year. | No discussion took place. | Conducting bhawan-level elections (start of the autumn semester) and institute-level elections (end of the spring semester) at two different times seems like the only way to address the fact that students in their first year, for example, find it difficult to contest the elections currently. Additionally, there still is a certain level of obscurity with the bhawan allotment policies, which shall only be resolved later in the semester. While we understand that elections at two different timelines are extremely necessary, we hope that IITR doesn’t get stuck in a vicious cycle of elections, which can prove to be extremely time-consuming. |
|
||||
| Only one position of Maintenance Secretary shall be elected, and the Bhawan Secretary shall now be a (separately) elected position. | The discussion deviated entirely from the agenda and unrelated (albeit important) points such as the responsibilities of technical and cultural secretary (at the bhawan-level) were deliberated upon. | There has been a question about the relevance of two maintenance secretaries for a bhawan, which, we believe, would be addressed to a great extent now that this decision has been taken. Additionally, nominating a Bhawan Secretary out of the elected 7 students merely meant that additional tasks were given on the nominated student. A separate Bhawan Secretary can now deal with administrative functions, while one Maintenance Secretary is more than sufficient to handle the tasks for one bhawan. |
|
||||
| The three Deputy General Secretaries under GS Hostel Affairs shall now be elected instead of being nominated. | The SAC suggested that the three secretaries be divided as follows: UG Boys, PG Boys and Girls. This would ensure more PG representation and elimination of the communication discomfort between the General Secretary and the girl-community. The post for UG: Boys would be elected among UG students and similar eligibilities would be applicable for the other two posts. No prior experience would be required for this post. Upon being asked as to why the Deputy GSs were not being nominated from amongst the senators, it was clearly stated that multiple responsibilities would not be suitable for a single senator and elected representatives are more approachable than nominated ones. Mr. Karan Desai requested that it be ensured by the SAC that the position of the General Secretary is not diluted to which assurance of proper allocation of responsibilities was given. | The very idea of having Deputy General Secretary under any domain, is to offload the unmountable work from the shoulders of the General Secretary and to increase efficiency of outputs. To ensure the same, General Secretary, chooses people with whom he/she is compatible with and he relies on for getting the work done. Because of the aforementioned reason, Watch Out, with its unfortunate and humble lack of knowledge in this domain, believes that the mentioned posts should be nominated by the General Secretary himself. |
|
||||
| To relax the CGPA criteria to 6.5 for institute level position except General Secretary Academics (UG/PG both). | The senators as well as some members of SAC were in agreement that the CG criteria be relaxed to 6.5. Senators put up the reason that students are involved in multiple activities and CG isn’t an exhaustive measure to decide the calibre of a representative. This was further supported by the SAC which stated that in the transition phase, the criteria should be relaxed. While the bench agreed that imposing such a restriction on GS Tech, GS Cult and GS Sports was unnecessary, considering the pre-existing restrictions on eligible candidates, it found itself in a difficult position for GSHA. The amount of workload for this particular post was, in the view of the DOSW, too high to not affect a student’s grade adversely, which is a problem if they have someone with a low CGPA to begin with. Finally a compromise was reached wherein the criteria is applicable only for a period of 1 year. The bench strictly mentioned that if there is a further drop in the elected GSHA’s CGPA, this rule shall be reconsidered next year. | In an institute where CGPA is (fortunately or unfortunately) a measure of excellence, we firmly believe that the students who represent the institute and its students should have at least the grades offered at average scores (i.e. 7). Also, reiterating what the bench said in this matter, the workload shall certainly adversely affect the students’ grades, which is a concern of the administration. Additionally, the final conclusion, we believe, is in no way sustainable. We must mention here that there was an extremely indecent uproar when the rule to allow the students with a grade of more than 6.5 (and not only more than 7) to run for office. Students who wanted this agenda to be passed got up from the seats as soon as they had their way, and did not even wait for the Senate to be officially dispersed. |
|
||||
{:.mbtablestyle}
|
||||
|
||||
### Closing Notes
|
||||
|
||||
Please vote sincerely and seriously. The representatives you send, even through your bhawans, have a huge role to play in the Senate. Look at their credentials. Look at their manifestos. Look at how credible they seem. Take an informed decision.
|
||||
|
||||
Also, ‘hope’ is best of all the things. Imposing restrictions on candidatures is a mere proof of lack of hope among the senate that neither the voters, nor the contestants are wise enough to make an informed choice. Progress is gradual but it only happens when people trust in the system and try to change it by taking wise choices. These closing notes might seem utopian and extremely idealistic, but we believe moving in the right direction is extremely crucial for an institute like ours.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,53 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: The Story of Phalbee
|
||||
category: career
|
||||
image: phalbee2.jpg
|
||||
author: "Dhawal Pagay"
|
||||
excerpt: "At Phalbee, we lay emphasis on the taste, cleanliness and the quality of smoothies and juices we put forward to our customers. We are trying to create a brand that specifically caters to providing smoothies and juices, effectively becoming household names in the market. We are not categorically seeking out to gain customers, rather, we are trying to introduce the culture of smoothies and juices into our society, thereby revolutionizing it"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
### Before any further questions, can you tell us more about Phalbee and what drove you to its conceptualisation?
|
||||
**Yashwant Singh**: At Phalbee, we are essentially trying to capture the culture of smoothies and juices that is already prevalent in the West, by adapting it to the Indian context. The shift in the mindsets of the society to adopt a healthier lifestyle is trying to be harnessed by the whole concept of Phalbee. <br>
|
||||
**Ashish Kaushik**: As a first yearite at college, I used to miss various meals which had repercussions like ill-health, fatigue and a drastic loss in weight. Since the canteens weren’t up to the mark, the only option I was left with was to head outside campus and eat at the roadside vendors. During this process, I realised that not only was it unhealthy, it was unhygienic as well, and that was the driving force behind Phalbee- to create a brand that catered healthy alternatives, particularly fruit smoothies and juices to the public.
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### Having measured the initial responses, what is going to be Phalbee’s further methodology of working? Is this venture going to be localised to Roorkee or will we see Phalbee branching out in the coming months?
|
||||
|
||||
**Yashwant Singh**: The initial responses have been tremendous, surpassing everyone’s expectations. Initially, we will try to cater the students at IITR, and if everything pans out as per schedule, the first Phalbee outlet will be set up here in the campus itself in the following weeks and in the longer run, we hope to establish a chain of outlets pan-India. <br>
|
||||
**Ashish Kaushik**: Our major focus is to build the brand of Phalbee initially, so that it becomes a part of people’s daily life. Another aspect that we’re focusing on is that we want to ensure that quality is not compromised for quantity, which we lay emphasis on. Acting on this philosophy, we procure fruits from various fruit capitals of the country, so as to provide a wider array of the best products that are available from the different parts of the country.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### What is the USP that sets Phalbee apart from its competitors?
|
||||
|
||||
**Rajat Jain**: We are building the Café Coffee Day of fruit juices and smoothies, a brand which people can trust. Our USPs are freshly made juices and smoothies, sourcing fruits from fruit capitals of the country, and building the culture of juices and smoothies through hundreds of varieties. We are not categorically seeking out to gain customers, rather, we are trying to introduce the culture of smoothies and juices into our society, thereby revolutionizing it.
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### In this field, there are already various companies that have gained a lot of name and reputation. How do you plan to hold fort against these giants?
|
||||
|
||||
**Bibhudatta Sa**: Actually, there are only 3-4 startups in this fresh juices and smoothies industry. This industry is 75% unorganized and there lies huge potential of growth. India is a developing country and more and more people are becoming health conscious. So, there is need of a brand which can cater to the demand of these people, who would enjoy such smoothies and juices.
|
||||
|
||||
**Rajat Jain**: I personally think that the diversity and flexibility in the menu that we have to offer shall eventually be positively received by the customer, which in turn would stimulate the ingress of others into our doors.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### What advice would you like to give other aspiring entrepreneurs on campus?
|
||||
|
||||
**Yashwant Singh**: I feel that as a student one should try and question everything, not only that, one should constantly try and come up with both rational and innovative solutions. Once this habit is developed, the student will naturally incline towards an analytical solution, ultimately reaching the ‘sweet spot’. <br>
|
||||
**Rajat Jain**: One misconception that I would like to clear is that the chances of the occurrence of an ‘Eureka’ moment are slim and as aspiring entrepreneurs, we should definitely refrain from indulging in such follies. The development of the idea is gradual, building upon continual trial and errors and input from real life scenarios.
|
||||
Bibhudatta Sa: So to sum up, the student must not be disheartened by the initial failure of his idea and should keep in mind that the best startups arise from the most number of interventions and refining measures.
|
||||
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### How do you think that the administration can help promote entrepreneurship on campus?
|
||||
|
||||
**Ashish Kaushik**: The major problem that we faced was to receive funding from the various business incubators on campus, particularly Tides, since it majorly supports startups that have their roots in the technological or software industry. However, student based communities like EDC helped us a lot in connecting to various people. We are now operational at Sattviko Idea Cafe only with the help of our alumni, Mr. Prasoon Gupta. <br>
|
||||
**Yashwant Singh**: A suggestion which I would like to pitch in is that there should be a central fund allocated towards startups of all kinds. The funds which are now reserved towards the development of technologies like the ‘Tinkering Lab’ or the 3-D printers, which aren’t excessively used by the students on campus, those can be redirected towards this cause and in the future I feel that this could benefit students who are aspiring entrepreneurs.
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,68 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "The Alumni Effect"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
author: "Agrim Patodia, Manya Singh, Muskaan Bhambri, Jeyashree Venkatesan"
|
||||
image: alumni-effect-1.png
|
||||
category: coverstory
|
||||
excerpt: " An institute’s alumni help shape the current students of an institute, nurturing their juniors towards even bigger dreams, and guiding them to reach greater heights. This is done via career counseling sessions, or via funds that they donate to the institute for the setting up of new labs and facilities."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
It is no secret that an institute’s alumni are the key to its growth. They represent the guiding philosophies and mindset with which the institute’s founders intended their protegees to flourish. They raise the bar of the achievement with their extraordinary accomplishments, and with it the prestige of the institute. An institute’s alumni also help shape the current students of an institute, nurturing their juniors towards even bigger dreams, and guiding them to reach greater heights. This is done via career counseling sessions, or via funds that they donate to the institute for the setting up of new labs and facilities.
|
||||
|
||||
The current state of the alumni relations at IIT Roorkee shows great scope for improvement. A few of the issues that we will deliberate on in the following paragraphs are the limited transparency in the usage of the donations that various alumni have donated to our institute, and the arduous process one has to go through in order to connect with an alumnus. We will also cover recent developments, like the initiation of the student alumni mentorship program (SAMP) and the creation of an online portal, geared towards solving these problems.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### MoUs
|
||||
|
||||
Universities and educational institutions sign Memorandums of Understanding (or MoUs) with other universities in order to exchange students, ensure mutual curriculum development, as well as provide research grants. Having MoUs with reputed universities around the globe exposes students to a plethora of exclusive opportunities. In terms of quality and quantity of formalised MoUs, however, IIT Roorkee lags behind many other IITs.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
Most of IIT Roorkee’s MoUs are relatively new, since the earlier administrative setups did not prioritise maintaining university connects using alumni relations. The official procedure of establishing an MoU involves the presence of at least two nodal officers, one in each university. Any professor, dean, or even the director can act as a nodal officer. While it is easier to identify a nodal officer here, it is much more difficult to contact a professor who would be interested in being a nodal officer at the institute with which the MoU is to be signed. To overcome this problem, the Institute Alumni Relations Cell (IARC) is assimilating information from students who have gone for foreign internships under a professor as well as contacting Roorkee alumni currently studying in foreign universities. This will enable the DoRA office to establish contact with university professors who would be familiar with IITR and willing to become a nodal officer for that university. In this manner, IARC aims to become the missing channel between students and the administration.
|
||||
|
||||
Our current administration recognises these issues and is continuously working to improve IITR’s international image. According to the Dean of Resources and Alumni Affairs, Dr. B.R. Gurjar, IIT Roorkee has many informal MoUs with international universities with an active exchange of students taking place, but these are not formalised yet. The documentation of these MoUs is in process.
|
||||
|
||||
### Alumni Donations
|
||||
|
||||
Hitherto, there was an incomplete transparency in the usage and channelising of funds that were being donated by the alumni, due to improper documentation. In the view of dealing with this, initiatives such as an online payment gateway and crowdfunding platforms are in progress. Once the donations are made online, displaying the amount of money, mode of donations and utilization of the donated funds would be plain sailing. There also are plans to set up a committee in order to monitor the donations, and to ensure proper utilization. These initiatives also have the potential of resolving the difficulties faced by campus groups such as MARS/Robocon, etc., in obtaining these donations to represent IITR at competitions held worldwide. It seems that IITR is witnessing burgeoning donations this year, including, Rs. 1.1 crore donated by the 1982 pass out batch in their recent silver jubilee meet. “Within the last six months, one huge individual donation came from an alumnus who donated USD 92,000. He would also be donating USD 8,000 this January. So, a sum total of USD 100,000 will have been donated by him alone,” quoted the Dean of Resources and Alumni Affairs.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### External Alumni Bodies and Chapters
|
||||
|
||||
IITR has many active national as well as international alumni chapters. These, in the past, have tended to perform activities only within themselves, and now have been trying contact with the current students in campus. They make donations to the institution, but do not have much knowledge about the happenings back at their alma mater. IARC, being a fairly recent student initiative, suffers from a different problem: the fact that it does not have sufficient data of the older alumni. On the other hand, IARC’s alumni counterpart, the IIT Roorkee Alumni Association, is an established body that includes many older alumni as its members, but have little or no active student involvement. The IIT Roorkee Alumni Association, in collaboration with the Dean of Resources and Alumni Affairs (DoRA), organises commemorative jubilee meets of batches and chapters. Apart from these bodies, an umbrella organisation called the Students’ Pan-IIT Alumni Relations Cell (SPARC) exists to keep track of the initiatives and accomplishments of the alumni relations bodies in different IITs. This body has a limited role, and it organises an annual meet for alumni as well as student representatives of the IITs. SPARC includes representatives from IIT Madras, Bombay, Kharagpur, and Guwahati, with IIT Roorkee and IIT BHU joining the cell in 2017.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### IARC's Structure
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
IARC, a student body under the Dean Of Resources and Alumni Affairs, has around thirty student members, with Manik Verma, (General Secretary, Alumni Affairs) as its student representative. The body is headed by its Secretary, Arpit Mishra. However, the role of both these positions seems consubstantial without any substratal difference. Owing to an inchoate IARC, the post of student secretary had to be appended to preside over the group activities alongside alumni activities and administration. Eventually, as IARC becomes entrenched, the post of GS Alumni Affairs would become superfluous. Manik, when asked for, regarding the same, remarked, _“In future it (the existence of both posts) is redundant. Only a person who has worked in IARC and who shares such a vision with all other members should lead IARC. GS Alumni Affairs serves as a point of contact for Alumni and the institute and therefore a new person can’t come and simply take over.” “However, in case the GS Alumni Affairs does not get removed, then whosoever gets nominated for GS Alumni Affairs should be a member of IARC or should have worked in coordination with IARC so as to have some prior experience,”_ added Arpit.
|
||||
|
||||
### Our Two Cents
|
||||
|
||||
IIT Roorkee has an honorable heritage, spanning almost 200 years, and we have come a long way since our establishment. Ranging from the times of Shri Ganga Ram, the founder of modern Lahore, to the more recent Amit Singhal, Jaiprakash Gaur, and Sanjiv Singh, our alumni have played a very important role in shaping our reputation. Having a strong alumni network does not only lead to the development of an institute in terms of donations and grants, but it also leads to the advancement of the students studying there. IIT Roorkee alumni are everywhere- managing senior roles of multinational companies, building successful startups, and even occupying the most exclusive positions in the Indian Government.
|
||||
|
||||
We have, however, realised how a strong and a positive relationship with alumni can benefit us socially, academically and professionally. Now, a cooperative administration, along with a hard-working student body are actively reaching out to alumni, contacting them for support as well as helping them with all their campus-related issues. Despite a few organisational flaws, failures, and setbacks, the overall impact is positive. We are seeing an unprecedented growth in alumni involvement. In the words of Dr. B.R. Gurjar, “Our condition is improving by leaps and bounds, and in the time to come, we will have more alumni involvement in campus activities, higher donations, and most importantly, better networking among all the IIT-R alumni in the world.”
|
||||
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
### In conversation with Dr. B.R. Gurjar
|
||||
|
||||
Dr. Gurjar, Dean of Resources and Alumni Affairs, took out some time to talk to us about the state of alumni relations at our institute. Here is an excerpt of our interview with Dr. Gurjar.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
__Watch Out:__ Why is the number of MoUs that IIT Roorkee has much less in comparison to the other IITs?<br>
|
||||
__DoRA:__ There are many informal MoUs which aren’t signed yet. They are collaborations of the faculty members for supervision of PhD students, thesis studies, exchange of faculty and students. The only problem is that they haven’t been documented yet like the other IITs have. The documentation is still in process, and it is being done with the help of IARC members and the other staff members hired for the same. So, collaborations of IITR are no less than the other IITs. There is just a lack of proper documentation, which is under process.
|
||||
|
||||
__Watch Out:__ Do you think there is a lack of transparency in alumni donations? Why is it difficult to get donations from the alumni?<br>
|
||||
__DoRA:__ The Online donation portal wasn’t present earlier but now it has been established. The alumni connections exist and they are coming forward to donate more and more. We are now accelerating the donation process, so more donations are coming up. Another issue is that the older Roorkee alumni are usually doing administrative jobs in the public or the private sectors and are not well-established industrialists. However, the recent graduates are more into entrepreneurship. So when they are financially strong themselves, only then they can afford to donate. Organisations like the IIT Roorkee Heritage foundation, situated in the USA, help us receive donations from international donors.
|
||||
|
||||
__Watch Out:__ What are the connections we have established with the different alumni chapters? Also, what responsibilities and activities does the alumni association have that differentiates it from the IARC?<br>
|
||||
__DoRA:__ Basically, the IARC is not that well established as of now and they are trying to connect with the recent alumni, whereas, the IITR Alumni Association is very old and hence has a larger database of the older alumni. They keep on organizing various activities and jubilee meets for our older alumni.
|
||||
|
||||
__Watch Out:__ What are your views on the apparent redundancy of two separate posts, i.e. GS Alumni Affairs, and the head of the IARC? Aren’t their functions the same?<br>
|
||||
__DoRA:__ It is better if a member of the group itself takes the post of secretary. Having a nominated, competent final-year member of the IARC handling all the responsibilities of alumni relations will be much more conducive than having someone from open elections, since alumni connections is a specialized activity that needs years of experience. Doing justice to these responsibilities is not everyone’s cup of tea.
|
||||
<hr>
|
||||
@ -1,43 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Why are you?"
|
||||
image: whyareyou.jpg
|
||||
category: editorial
|
||||
excerpt: "“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is”. The predominant intention behind writing this editorial was its being read; to gain appreciation from as many people as possible. Because that is what defines the success of an article."
|
||||
author: "Komal Maheshwari, Vishal Goddu"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
#### **_“Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.”_** - Albert Camus
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
The predominant intention behind writing this editorial was its being read; to gain appreciation from as many people as possible. Because that is what defines the *“success”* of an article.
|
||||
|
||||
Success: A rather familiar concept, isn’t it?
|
||||
|
||||
But consider this: The average human being is a 1.75 m tall living organism with an expected life span of about 80 years, probably sitting on a chair somewhere on a planet that is over 4.6 billion years old and has a radius of approximately 6371 km in a “solar system”. This solar system is organized around the “sun” – an entity 1.3 million times larger than our planet – which is basically just an average sized star among more than a 100 billion stars in a galaxy that’s just one among 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe.
|
||||
|
||||
Just the *observable* universe.
|
||||
|
||||
In the (literally) larger picture, anyone – including you, dear reader – is just like a speck of dust that crosses one's path in life for but a fraction of a second and doesn’t alter anything.
|
||||
|
||||
*“How does this even matter?”* you may ask. It is here on earth that there is life. All life is tiny. All life is short-lived. Should being able to make a difference in the cosmic scheme of things really be our concern? Should we not aspire to create a more immediate, localized difference, which is far more plausible?
|
||||
|
||||
Thousands of species have walked our planet through time; they have come and gone, in a manner similar to the passing of each day. We scarcely remember the people responsible for the progress of our civilization; fire is an indispensable phenomenon that sustains our civilization – electricity, a majority of chemical processes and vehicles, all involve the use of fire. But do we really care enough to enquire who discovered it?
|
||||
|
||||
After – or perhaps even before – the human race is wiped out, no one will know about what you did, or how exceptionally talented you were. The chronicle of your life – however magnificent – will be lost in the sands of time.
|
||||
|
||||
A billion years from now, the Earth may stay where it is, governed by another species, circling the sun in a galaxy among a lot of galaxies, and no one would care about how many Jews Hitler had killed.
|
||||
|
||||
*Change is permanent*, they say; *transience, the unwritten law of the universe.* Why then, should we bother at all? Why should we even care to make a difference sitting on this tiny little rock in the universe? What does success come to mean, given that we know the entire logistics of how the world works may change a few hundred thousand years down the line?
|
||||
|
||||
There are a lot of erroneous assumptions underlying these quiet musings, primarily that the question of life can be condensed and objectified into a given combination of words: It cannot be.
|
||||
|
||||
What if one doesn’t mind the transience at all? What if they simply want to live in the now? And what if they don't?
|
||||
|
||||
The answers to this eternal question of life can be many. They can all be correct and they can all be wrong. The relevance of the answers – and of the question itself – depends solely on your perspective. There can be as many perspectives as there have been humans; perhaps more.
|
||||
|
||||
Figuring out yours is a battle that you have to fight alone.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,42 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Whither Do We Go?"
|
||||
tags: [wona, column]
|
||||
author: "Surya Raman, Sudhang Varshney"
|
||||
image: dowego.png
|
||||
category: editorial
|
||||
excerpt: " In the dystopian world of George Orwell’s classic 1984, the readers are introduced to a fictitious language christened ‘Newspeak’, an ingenious mechanism to curb the proliferation of rebellious thought by meticulously eliminating the essence of language: words"
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
In the dystopian world of George Orwell’s classic 1984, the readers are introduced to a fictitious language christened ‘Newspeak’, an ingenious mechanism to curb the proliferation of rebellious thought by meticulously eliminating the essence of language: words; words that could potentially serve as petri dishes to culture and transmit/communicate mutinous thoughts.
|
||||
|
||||
If thought about for a bit longer than usual, the effects of imposing such a curb on words are far-reaching and enormous; a world without words like “love” and “joy” would be incredibly sullen and morbid. Like the drowning man - hastily beating about, looking for a straw to clutch at - humans would flutter in vain. This gives birth to a bigger, more disturbing question: would people even be able to perceive a particular feeling as _jubilation_ or _grief_?
|
||||
|
||||
Similarly, the people of Oceania couldn’t _feel_ mutinous, thus illustrating that limited resources lead to limited scope of thought. Aren’t we being exceedingly ambitious, then, when we attempt to comprehend the biggest infinities of all – the universe - with our limited scope of rational thought?
|
||||
|
||||
In his short work on melancholia and philosophy - A Confession - Tolstoy comes to the very same conclusion. Stricken by a deep existential crisis, he sought to answer the same question that this editorial poses: what do we do once we’ve discovered that there is no profound meaning to life? Why should we continue to live? He found that people within his social circle dealt with this in one out of these four ways :
|
||||
|
||||
1. Choosing not to think about the question (ignorance)
|
||||
2. Choosing to enjoy the small things in life whilst acknowledging the absurdity of it all (epicureanism)
|
||||
3. Choosing to kill oneself (“strength”) - and
|
||||
4. Choosing to labour on, petrified by the thought of death (“weakness”).
|
||||
|
||||
After pacing up and down for a while (in a figurative sense), he realizes that he had unwittingly excluded another category of people: the ones who had faith. Despite being a staunch advocate of rational thought, Tolstoy realizes its confining nature.
|
||||
|
||||
The question we have been dealing with is : what is the purpose of our finite existence in this ever expanding, infinite universe? Therein lies our mistake, Tolstoy says.
|
||||
|
||||
To answer a question that deals with the infinite, one must have an answer armed with reasoning that encompasses the infinite. Rational thought is largely limited by factors like starvation and death; they are characteristics of the finite, mortal world we live in. Tolstoy admits that while faith is irrational, the answers it gives always possess the ability to connect the finite with the infinite - which is the essence of what we are looking for. No one captures this better than Tolstoy : _“For man to be able to live he must either not see the infinite, or have such an explanation of the meaning of life as will connect the finite with the infinite.”_
|
||||
|
||||
The pioneer of Absurdism, Albert Camus, was Epicurean at heart. In his masterpiece, The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus discusses at length the underlying concepts of absurdism. Like Tolstoy, he acknowledges the insignificance of human life in the grander scheme of things, but unlike Tolstoy, doesn’t find solace in faith. He calls the act of giving into faith (i.e. ceasing to be skeptical) “philosophical suicide”. However, he does not disregard human life completely and submit to Nihilism; Camus presents us with a third option rooted in reality, which is largely Epicurean at heart. To illustrate his outlook on life, he mentions the mythological story of Sisyphus.
|
||||
|
||||
Sisyphus was a king cursed by the Gods to roll a boulder on to the top of a mountain, only to watch it roll down again - in perpetuity. Camus draws a parallel between our finite, inconsequential existence and Sisyphus’ curse and asks us to “think of Sisyphus as happy”. Camus writes _“If there is a sin against this life, it consists perhaps not so much into sparing of life, as in hoping for another life and eluding the quiet grandeurs of this one”._
|
||||
|
||||
Camus, as is clear, was an emphatic advocate of living in the moment and enjoying the everyday pleasures of life. It is these pleasures that Camus cites as reasons for enduring life.
|
||||
|
||||
Over the years, countless philosophers have put forth innumerable theories trying to answer the same question that this editorial has been dealing with. It seems logical, then, to believe in the subjectivity of the meaning of life. A preordained meaning will perhaps never be found, but all of us may (or may not) have our own reasons for enduring life. Perhaps ignorance truly is bliss. Perhaps it is best to believe in these supposedly “inconsequential” perceptions of the meaning of human life.
|
||||
|
||||
Or - perhaps - all life is inconsequential, much like this editorial.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
Illustration Credits: <span style="color:#0645AD">[Kiril Gornishki](https://dribbble.com/KirilGornishki)</span>
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,84 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Feedback For Feedback Forms"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
category: academics
|
||||
author: "Aman Nayak, Nikhil Arora, Sudhang Varshney"
|
||||
image: feedback.jpg
|
||||
excerpt: "For the average student, the course feedback form is something that connotes rapid, indiscriminate clicking of arbitrarily chosen checkboxes, arising out of the impending deadline that looms over a his/her head."
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
For the average student, the course feedback form is something that connotes rapid, indiscriminate clicking of arbitrarily chosen checkboxes, arising out of the impending deadline that looms over a his/her head. It gives rise to some creative patterns of filling in the MCQ reminiscent of an academically-broke student randomly attempting a subject he doesn’t know anything about. This casual attitude exhibited by a majority of the Roorkee populus is indicative of the ineffectiveness of the feedback system, and how it doesn’t have the required impact.
|
||||
|
||||
Given how the system isn’t high on transparency and has a lot of uncertainties associated with it, we spoke to Professor B. K. Mishra, Dean of Faculty Affairs, to gain insight on how it functions and how its inadequacies can be rectified.
|
||||
|
||||
### The current picture
|
||||
|
||||
Before the existence of the college intranet, the feedback exercise was carried out by the professors in the class itself, at the end of the semester. Several years ago, the form moved online with a revised set of questions and categories. From the vantage point of a student, the feedback form consists of two parts: a course evaluation form and a professor/instructor evaluation form. The two sections contain a set of related statements with the student having to align with them, along various degrees, via selecting the appropriate response. An optional text box is provided for additional comments for the same. The format remains consistent across all courses and the respective professors. Submission of the form is mandatory as the subject registration portal becomes available only after its completion. While being an important mechanism for the professor to get the occasional, valuable feedback and ways in which he can improve, a cross sectional analysis of the system reveals several inadequacies and areas in which the process can improve in.
|
||||
|
||||
### Situation in other institutes
|
||||
|
||||
From the information we could gather, the tedious nature of the feedback form in common in several other IITs. However, significant professor accountability is associated with the feedback. In IIT Delhi, the feedback form is very comprehensive and can take upto two hours to fill, for all courses. Some professors use a mid semester evaluation too. There have been cases in the past where a professor has been forced to drop a course as a result of negative feedback. This results in both the students and the professor taking the entire mechanism extremely seriously. In IIT Bombay too, the form is lengthy and time consuming.
|
||||
|
||||
_(Insight IITB, the student media body of IIT Bombay, wrote an article on the same issue, which can be found on this <span style="color:#72C5EB">[link](http://www.insightiitb.org/some-feedback-on-course-feedback/)</span>.)_
|
||||
|
||||
### Where does the feedback go?
|
||||
|
||||
Due to the absence of any information regarding the fate of these forms, the hazy situation poses a lot of questions. Where does the data end up? Who scrutinizes it? Are our feedbacks incognito? The answer to the question “What impact does my feedback have?” is the paramount metric governing the attitude of a student during the process.
|
||||
|
||||
Once the form is filled in by the students, it is sent to the professor teaching the course. The forms and reviews are also accessible by the HoD and the Dean of Academics, but the system is currently only intended as a means for the professor to assess themselves, which means that there is no carrot or stick involved in the process. Until last year, The Institute Best Teacher Award was given to the professor with the highest rating on these forms, but this practice has now been discontinued.
|
||||
|
||||
Suggestions such as making the form responses public or having a minimum rating requirement to teach courses are unlikely to be accepted.
|
||||
|
||||
> **It is worth emphasising that the anonymity of the forms is maintained throughout; no authority can find out who has filled any particular form.**
|
||||
|
||||
After our conversation with Prof. Mishra, it was evident that without any ramifications of a positive or negative response of the process, the utility of the current structure is debatable. A concrete process to measure a professor’s teaching performance in some quantifiable way is non-existent, preventing them for being held accountable for their teaching. Any instructor is not accountable for overwhelmingly negative responses in the absence of any negative ramifications put in place by the administration. It is a common observance that many professors who are rated poorly year after year, continue teaching the course. This lack of incentivisation to improve performance anulls any significance of a student’s submission and practically renders the feedback system obsolete.
|
||||
|
||||
However, another aspect that needs to be addressed is the fact that students who don’t attend the classes are also compulsorily asked to fill the feedback forms. These responses, in all probability, do not hold the same merit as the ones which come from students who are fairly regular in their attendance, and might skew the results in an unfair manner.
|
||||
|
||||
### Ambit of the questions is questionable-
|
||||
|
||||
The questionnaire itself has some inherent weaknesses and flaws, the most glaring of which is the complete omission of the evaluation of the practical labs and the lab instructors associated with a course. Practical aspects of a course are where a student exercises the knowledge they gain from it, and hence should be incorporated in the feedback mechanism. For example, in a course like Engineering Drawing, which is a compulsory course for most students, a majority of the contact hours are spent in the Drawing Hall. These omissions result in the stagnation of the course components which go unevaluated by the students in the feedback form.
|
||||
|
||||
The courses a student undertakes vary a lot, from the Communication Skills and department-specific Introductory courses in the first year to core departmental courses in later years. Yet the feedback form does not reflect this, instead barraging the student with the same questions for all courses. While it is necessary to keep some questions the same for the purpose of assessing different courses, and statistical analysis of all student responses; the current format induces a sense of monotony in a student who has to fill several such forms all at once.
|
||||
|
||||
### Authenticity of data
|
||||
|
||||
A major chunk of students delay the submission until the very last days of the deadline. In a majority of the cases, the response is a set of rapid clicks on a computer without any real thought on their part. This dwindles the credibility of their input and greatly decreases the overall validity of the data so collected. The anonymity of responses grant the student free will to approach the form without the trepidation of any backlash. Although this sounds reasonable, in principle, a sizeable number of responders take advantage of it to vent frustrations which pollute the database. The unreliable responses somewhat invalidate the entire dataset and it is difficult to evaluate the course or the professor on the basis of these responses. In view of this, professors not taking these comments seriously is not surprising.
|
||||
|
||||
### Our two cents
|
||||
|
||||
While the feedback form is certainly facing some issues, it is an irreplaceable asset to both the student community as well as the professors. With a few improvements to the form and the procedure, we are optimistic about the results this improved procedure brings about.
|
||||
|
||||
We hereby suggest the following changes towards helping these forms actualize their potential :
|
||||
|
||||
* **Overhauling the form**
|
||||
|
||||
The first line of reform should be of the form itself. Omission of vague questions and admission of specific and clear questions would not only enhance the readability of the form, it would also be conducive to genuine responses. A collection of questions in different formats-some eliciting a score, some MCQ’s and some demanding subjective responses can contribute to the same. Analysis of these forms can unearth revealing data about the cause of negative feedback(if any): an ineffective teaching mechanism or a flawed course structure.
|
||||
|
||||
While some common questions are required to grade the professor statistically, perhaps some personalised questions, specific to the course, need to be included. Not only will this elicit greater engagement from the student, it will also provide more effective feedback.
|
||||
|
||||
* **Statistically differentiating individual feedback**
|
||||
|
||||
In our discussion we came up with a way to validate the authenticity of the feedback from different students, based on their GPA or attendance in the particular course. Although the formula for the same might involve whimsical approaches, this method or other statistical models could be used to weed out the extreme responses, both positive and negative.
|
||||
|
||||
* **Introducing a mid-semester feedback**
|
||||
|
||||
Apart from an End-Term feedback, a post mid-term feedback should also be introduced. Slightly less comprehensive than the final questionnaire, it can contain suggestions and criticisms of the flow of the course without any impact on the final score an instructor gets. What this would do is provide wiggle room to the professor to make amends if required and get critical information about how their delivery is perceived. Students would also be able to see tangible impacts of their submissions during the span of the course, indicating that their responses did indeed carry weight. Consequential increase in the authenticity of their replies and decrease in the volume of retorts would follow.
|
||||
|
||||
* **Making some feedback for elective courses public**
|
||||
|
||||
While making course feedback public is not considered appropriate, the institute may find it more palatable to make elective course feedback public. If this feedback is taken over several years, so that course feedback cannot be inferred from it. This will prove helpful to students making deciding which course to pick.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Epilogue
|
||||
|
||||
There shall be a committee meeting in the Main Building soon to discuss the future of the response form and the appropriate way to select the ‘Best Teacher’ award. However, from our talk with Prof. B. K. Mishra, we realised that the best suggestions could only come from the student populace. We encourage the reader to send us their suggestions to <span style="color:#72C5EB">_watchout.iitr@gmail.com_</span> so we could forward the same to the concerned authorities.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
@ -1,11 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Watch Out's Guide to the Branches at IIT Roorkee"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
category: academics
|
||||
image: branch-guide.jpg
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
It is pretty difficult to choose a field of study that you might have to stick with for four (or five) years. We know because we've all been there. Hence, to make the process a little bit easier, we came up with this rather elaborate and painstakingly devised guide to the various branches at IIT Roorkee. With an analysis of the various specialisations available, including an overview of the syllabus, future prospects, and some inside information from IIT Roorkee, we hope to give you a perspective of what you might be getting into!
|
||||
|
||||
<a href="/WatchOutsGuidetoBranches-IITR-18.pdf" style="text-align: center"><button type="button" class="btn btn-primary btn-block btn-lg">Download the Guide Here!</button></a>
|
||||
@ -1,127 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Architecture at IIT Roorkee"
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
category: academics
|
||||
image: archi-q2_p2.jpg
|
||||
excerpt: "What is architecture? This question shall haunt you like a stubborn ghost for the initial 3 semesters of study – asked by professors to gauge your understanding of it – so it pays to know."
|
||||
height: 540px
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
# ARCHITECTURE @ IITR
|
||||
|
||||
### THE OBJECTIVE
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
When each of us chose to pursue architecture at IITR, we lacked adequate information about all that the course would entail. This article is an attempt to consolidate and present relevant information in the interest of the incoming freshmen.
|
||||
|
||||
This piece shall answer two important questions:
|
||||
|
||||
How to get into the Bachelor of Architecture (B. Arch) program? <br>
|
||||
What to expect once you’re here?
|
||||
|
||||
### GETTING IN
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
In order to be eligible for the B. Arch program, one has to <br>
|
||||
|
||||
(i) Have obtained a rank in the JEE Advanced (no other rank is considered for admission).<br>
|
||||
(ii) Appear for the Architectural Aptitude Test (AAT).
|
||||
|
||||
One may appear for the AAT at any of the 7 “zonal” IITs (Delhi, Kanpur, Bombay, Roorkee, Kharagpur, Madras or Guwahati). The test will be held on 14th June 2018. The syllabus can be found <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Z09E3uiEIVi6Ilt8ImqIbT_hMyTP6uTU)</span>.
|
||||
|
||||
**Things you need**: JEE Advanced Admit card, Pencils (2H, HB, 2B), Eraser, Pen, Colours (crayons, colour pencils).
|
||||
|
||||
**Disclaimer**: Allotment of seats is done purely on the basis of one's AIR in the JEE Advanced; one is only required to “pass” the AAT. Your score in the AAT has no bearing whatsoever.
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
|
||||
### WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE?
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
The standard definition – offered by a number of dictionaries – proclaims architecture as “the art and science of designing buildings, open spaces and physical structures”; however, to fully appreciate the definition, one needs to understand the keywords better.
|
||||
|
||||
**Art**: Space is the central aesthetic consideration in architecture. Although an abstract concept, it can be understood as the enclosure within which one is positioned. The architect’s duty is to design this void to make it beautiful (the best he/she can), for external beauty is the surest way of establishing a connect with the layman.
|
||||
|
||||
**Science**: The scientific component of architecture comprises a combination of principles and quantitative problems (numericals), with the former predominating. Architecture has several logical considerations, some of which are climate, cost (of construction, of running), making sure the structure/ building does not collapse and constructing whatever has been designed.
|
||||
|
||||
**Design**: Design consists of juggling aesthetic, practical and several other parallel considerations to arrive at the best possible solution. To design is to solve a problem by reaching an optimum trade-off between conflicting factors.
|
||||
For example, in architecture, one has to consider the sequence of spaces/rooms (their connectivity with each other), the climate, the cost, the materials that ought to be employed, the quality of spaces, etc. and produce a design that pacifies each need sufficiently.
|
||||
|
||||
Note: The question itself is subjective. Perhaps when you are further along in your journey of becoming an architect, you shall have formed your own unique opinions about it; the definition offered above is (intended to be) a very crude one.
|
||||
|
||||
**MYTHBUSTER**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
Contrary to popular belief, architecture is not all about drawing, painting, and the like; although these are helpful skills during the course, they play a very preliminary role in design, and can nevertheless be picked up after joining the course. One does not need to be creative in the visual sense to take up architecture as a profession.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### ARCHITECTURE AS A COURSE
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
The study of architecture requires one to be a skilled generalist; a jack of all trades, who can combine knowledge from diverse fields and translate it into thoughtful spaces which speak to the people. The course is therefore designed in a manner to expose us to a vast variety of topics.
|
||||
|
||||
The constituent courses of the bachelor degree (as ascribed by the Council of Architecture) are centred around “Architectural Design”, which will be found in all semesters except 1.1, 4.2 and 5.2. In the fifth year, one works on their Thesis, a culmination of all skills acquired during the last four years, where he/she designs a building from start to finish, just as one would for an actual project. Other courses impart necessary skills and information required in order to design and actually construct a building. A full list of courses – and details about them – can be found <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BwI7Ki_XnyhmcURVd3FULW10azg)</span>.
|
||||
|
||||
Architectural Design has the highest number of credits in any given semester. Designing - in general - involves solving the biggest of problems while paying attention to the minutest of details. A design needs to work and serve its purpose, preferably having an edge over conventional designs. An attempt to arrive at such a solution entails a great deal of thought. While thinking, brainstorming and conceptualising are extremely pleasurable, there will often be problems in each design, resulting in patches of frustration; in architecture, passion and frustration are inseparable.
|
||||
|
||||
Designs are evaluated through/by a jury, where professors – and sometimes peers – criticize each design while the designer attempts to justify his decisions. Juries may severely damage egos or ignorance, depending on how one takes the criticism. Juries are the primary means of progress for any architectural design course.
|
||||
|
||||
The course as a whole is rather challenging. It involves the longest contact hours of all courses and a great load of assignments (resulting in a number of late nights), both of which eventually decrease. Good grades call for a great deal of consistency in submissions above anything else.
|
||||
|
||||
For people who have studied the sciences all their lives – presumably with much interest and love – this shall be a very different ball game. While this transition may make for a refreshing change, it does pose its fair share of challenges in its initial stages.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### TRIVIA
|
||||
|
||||
1. **The “Family” system:** All first years are inducted into one or more families within the initial two weeks of joining IITR. A family consists (mostly) of one student from each year. One can be adopted on any number of criteria, or even at random (by chit-picking). Your family is your first point of contact should you fall into any kind of trouble. It is a “baap’s” duty to give chaapos and advice on things from career options and dating tips to surviving architecture and life in general .
|
||||
|
||||
2. **The Studio:** Each year has its own studio which is essentially a large room where they do their drafting and other classwork. This room (and the Department of Architecture and Planning) is open 24x7, and it steadily becomes a second home for the class. This where we host midnight birthday parties and work for hours at an end.
|
||||
|
||||
3. **Curious Columns:** The spring semester of 2018 saw the birth of “Curious Columns”, a department group that aims to bring passionate students together for discussions and workshops, and aims to provide a platform to share knowledge, ideas and opportunities to work with each other. A detailed manifesto can be found <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ika5se3POBtjh1uJgI57GetLqxOyLiVr)</span>.
|
||||
|
||||
4. **Togetherness:** Each batch is a closely knit unit. This can be attributed to their small size, as well as numerous, recurring group assignments. Archi waale are almost always seen together at different spots on the campus; by the end of the second year or so, one establishes a deep familiarity with the rest of the batch, something that is peculiar only to Architecture.
|
||||
|
||||
### PROS: REASONS TO BE PROUD
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
Architecture at IITR has many unique advantages. These are:
|
||||
|
||||
1. **A chance to make another field/skill your profession**: Even if one discovers that architecture isn’t their cup of tea, many alternate options present themselves. Related fields include product design, graphic design and industrial design exist; those bearing little resemblance to architecture include coding, finance, consultancy and start-ups, to name a few. Self-interest and effort are primary requirements in such an undertaking, but campus groups and seniors help greatly. One can build his CV by interning in capacities closely related to the profession he/she wishes to pursue. Interns are much easier to come by with the help of the IIT tag. This is a good point in time to reiterate that very few people in any given batch choose architecture as their profession; the rest go into non-core jobs (we even happen to know people who want to pursue filmmaking after they graduate).
|
||||
|
||||
2. **Societies, groups and sports**: Although architecture constitutes a very small number of the total intake, archi waale log can be found in most groups on campus. The reasons behind joining societies and groups stand as two polar opposites: some see them as opportunities to counter frustration, while others see them as opportunities to learn relevant skills, having discovered their disinterest in architecture. Either way, the number of groups and societies on campus is astronomical, with new ones cropping up every year. Chances are there is a group for each interest or intrigue you possess (an exhaustive list with brief information can be found <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](http://guide.wona.co.in/section/campus-groups)</span>). Similarly, facilities for all major sports are available, along with exceptional coaching staff that bring out the best in you. More information can be found <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](http://guide.wona.co.in/section/sports)</span>.
|
||||
|
||||
3. **A diverse friend circle and chances to collaborate**: By virtue of having a wide array of departments, IITR will bestow upon you a phenomenally diverse set of friends and acquaintances over the course of five years, resulting in interesting, insightful conversations. One has the opportunity to meet and interact with people involved in pursuits ranging from artificial intelligence to music to research to finance to consultancy. There is, therefore, a chance to collaborate with any of the above people for interdisciplinary projects.
|
||||
|
||||
4. **Tinkering Lab**: The tinkering lab, as the name suggests, is a lab where students can work on projects. it is equipped with state of the art tools, for example, industrial 3d printers. More information is available <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](https://www.iitr.ac.in/tinkeringlab/#home)</span>.
|
||||
|
||||
5. **The TIDES Business Incubator**: The tides business incubator aims to help young start-ups grow. If you have a business idea, you can go to these guys and they’ll provide you with a workspace, mentorship and even help you get funds. More information is available <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](http://tides.iitr.ac.in/)</span>.
|
||||
|
||||
6. **Semester Exchange**: A semester exchange is available for students having a decent CGPA (>7.5) with Hochschule Luzern (Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts), Switzerland, in their 7th semester (4.1). This is an opportunity to learn how our western counterparts perceive and approach architecture, as well as to travel Europe and experiencing what it has to offer. <span style="color:#0645AD">[Here](http://wona.co.in/2017/03/exchange-diaries-switzerland)</span> is an account of the experience, as recalled by a senior who visited Hochschule Luzern the year before last.
|
||||
|
||||
7. **Research opportunities**: Perhaps one characteristic that sets IITR apart from all other colleges is the emphasis it lays on research. Any student interested in research may approach a professor, consult him/her about the area/matter he wishes to investigate (not necessarily architecture) – and once he/she has the blessing of the professor – pursue it. A program called SURA (Summer Undergraduate Research Awards) is also in place (which has a somewhat drawn-out application process). For students of architecture, an additional opportunity lies in the form of the CBRI (Central Building Research Institute), which, although an autonomous body, abuts our campus, and is very welcoming of IITR students wishing to undertake research; three seniors to our knowledge have written research papers under the CBRI.
|
||||
|
||||
8. **On-campus placements**: Reportedly (that is, with questionable certainty), other architectural colleges do not have placements, or any sort of arrangements wherein graduates can find firms to employ them. At IITR, such a system does exist, but the number of firms and companies that recruit architects are just sufficient. However, when it comes to other fields such as the ones mentioned earlier, it is a level playing field, and architecture graduates can get non-core jobs provided they are meritorious. More information can be found <span style="color:#0645AD">[here](http://guide.wona.co.in/section/placements)</span>.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
### CONS: WHY WE AREN’T ALL THAT PROUD
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
If pure, unadulterated architecture is what you are interested in, IITR is perhaps not the best place to pursue it. A list of reasons are given below:
|
||||
|
||||
1. **Lack of competition**: Out of the thirty-something classmates that will constitute your class (most colleges have at least 70), very few will actually be interested in architecture. A great number of them shall turn in a very poor quality of assignments – if they do – aiming at just keeping their heads above the water. There is a tendency for the “good students” to become too self-sure and become mediocre.
|
||||
|
||||
2. **Focus of the professors**: Unlike other colleges of architecture, the primary focus of professors in IITR is their body of research. All professors are highly qualified (holding at least a M. Arch degree; most have a PhD), albeit in their specific fields of interest. Only a handful of professors actually put in effort to keep the class interesting and impart relevant and sufficient knowledge. At present, there are only two visiting professors (practicing architects), who are infrequent with their visits. At top architecture schools such as SPA Delhi, this ratio is almost reversed; the design studio and juries are held and evaluated by practicing architects, who have an idea of the real world, of what really works and what doesn’t.
|
||||
|
||||
3. **Not enough emphasis on design**: Architectural design, as stated earlier, is central to the entire curriculum. However, there are only 9 hours allotted to it per week (less than any top architecture school in the country). Such a setup requires that the designing be done after class-hours, keeping the 9 hours only for discussions (on ongoing design iterations). This is hardly the case; most students procrastinate, resulting in collective underachievement.
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:60%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### CONTACT DETAILS
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
In case you have any doubts regarding the course that you wish to get clarified, feel free to call any of the people listed below:
|
||||
|
||||
**Komal Maheshwari (2nd year)**: +91 9330949212<br>
|
||||
**Divyang Purrkayastha (3rd year)**: +91 9560588732<br>
|
||||
**Ramachandra Reddy (4th year)**: +91 9557902784<br>
|
||||
**Lanka Adarsh (4th year)**: +91 9410577752<br>
|
||||
**Anshul Rathore (5th year)**: +91 9917026076<br>
|
||||
|
||||
Illustration Credits: Leewardists
|
||||
@ -1,79 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Technical University of Munich"
|
||||
image: arpitSummerDiaries1.jpg
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Arpit Agrawal"
|
||||
excerpt: "The Technical University of Munich (TUM) combines top-class facilities for cutting-edge research with unique learning opportunities for students."
|
||||
category: summer2018
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
### Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
To be frank, I was not sure about my area of interest until the start of the internship season, which typically happens at the start of the third year. Having secured a decent CGPA and gained some lab experience in my department, I planned to apply for a research internship. Although there are many programs for research internships and scholarships like DAAD, Mitacs, NTU-India Connect et cetera, I restricted myself to DAAD and Mitacs Program. However, the two scholarship/internship programs have a completely different application process.
|
||||
|
||||
In Mitacs, you are asked to select projects that are offered by different universities of Canada and assign them a priority number. You are also asked to submit transcripts, Curriculum Vitae and the Statement of Purpose. While there is ambiguity in the selection criteria, to the best of my understanding it all depends on the Professor who offered the project. Interviews are held in December and the final list of selected candidates is announced in January.
|
||||
|
||||
DAAD chiefly is a scholarship program funded by the German government. Therefore you’ll need to get an offer letter from a German institute. The application requires you to upload your offer letter, the Statement of Purpose, transcripts, NOC from your parent institute along with general personal information. Selection is mostly on the basis of CGPA and your past projects. The most difficult part of DAAD application is to get an offer letter from a German institute. The result of this program is also announced in the month of January.
|
||||
|
||||
With luck on my side, I got selected in both the programs. This, however, tossed me into a dilemma. It was tough, but I chose the German university, the Technical University of Munich, as it’s ranked among the best in the world. Moreover, the offered project suited me more.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Few tips and tricks that I would like to share:
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
1. The new semester usually starts from September in Germany so that’s when the professors are looking for kick-starting new and interesting research projects. Start mailing immediately so that you get time for replies and follow-ups.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
2. Avoid mailing more than two professors who are from the same chair or department as there are chair meetings fortnightly and they often discuss these things.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
3. SOP (Statement of Purpose) is the most important part of the application. Make your SOP short and to the point i.e. related to your research area. Make it interesting but not dramatic.
|
||||
|
||||
4. Cover letter (in case of DAAD) plays a crucial role in your selection process. Avoid spamming and always edit to be more professor interest specific while writing it. Mention your past projects and lab experience, preferably in one or two short paragraphs.
|
||||
|
||||
5. Collect a few good SOPs and cover letters from your seniors for reference.
|
||||
|
||||
6. Be careful while writing a CV, it is not a resume. Avoid mentioning extra-curricular activities and awards unrelated to academics.
|
||||
|
||||
7. Prepare a few frequently asked HR questions (about your motivation for research, etc.) for your confidence.
|
||||
|
||||
8. When applying for a foreign internship, always keep your passport ready. You need to apply for VISA after getting selected, which takes time.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Exploring the country(s)
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
**Life in Munich**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
Obviously, this is the most interesting part of a foreign internship. Talking particularly about Munich, it is the most expensive city in Germany and finding an affordable accommodation is almost impossible. There are some websites like WG.de, where you can search but you need to be cautious: frauds and scams are pretty common. A good way to stay away from such scams is to never pay anything in advance. The best accommodation there is studentenwerk hostels. Many students go on vacations during this period, so they sublet their rooms and luckily I found one. It was similar to a hostel and students from almost every part of the globe resided there. The initial days were troublesome as getting vegetarian food at cheap rates was a herculean task. So I resorted to cooking myself. There were a few Indian students who helped me with it. A piece of advice for all: carry Indian spices from home, it’s very expensive in Germany for obvious reasons. We used to have parties on weekends and looking at Chinese people dancing to Bollywood songs was so much fun. When you are in Europe, you can’t be untouched by football and especially when the World Cup is going on. I stayed at Olympiapark and it is considered the party destination of Munich. Unfortunately, Germany was eliminated at the first round of World Cup and the excitement ended in a few days and so did the parties.
|
||||
|
||||
**Travelling around**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
The best part of living in Europe is its free borders and you can visit most of the countries on a single visa. There was no work on weekends so it was the best time to explore a new world. Connectivity and public transport in Europe are second to none and you can easily move from one country to another by bus/train. Trekking in the Alps, drinking wine at the top of the Eiffel Tower and roaming in the streets of Amsterdam made some lifetime memories for me. You will see the effect of war if you visit Germany or Vienna whereas you will see an entirely different world in Prague. When you are in Europe, always try the local dishes, especially waffles in Brussels and chocolates in Switzerland. The only problem you will face there is drinking water. You need to fill bottles from bathrooms. Though the water is clean and potable but at times it’s weird to do so, yet way better than spend two euros for a half litre bottle of water.
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
**About the people**
|
||||
<br>
|
||||
People there are very polite and helpful. You will always find someone to help you to find ways or addresses. Walking through the streets of Paris (considered one of the least safe cities in western Europe) felt safer than walking in Delhi. Most of the time, you won’t face any language problem as people living in the cities can speak or understand English but if you are living far from the city center, where you’d find cheaper apartments, communication becomes difficult. However, Google translate will help you a lot there. Always keep an offline version of a German and French dictionary in your phones and buy a local sim as soon as you settle there.
|
||||
Another common problem for interns is about bank accounts. You will need a German account to get your stipend and most of the banks there don’t open accounts for such a short period. Around 5-6 banks refused to open an account for me. Eventually, I had to lie to open an account: I told the bank that I was considering pursuing a masters there. Overall, it was a great experience for me and I would definitely like to revisit.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Work
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
The work culture in Germany is remarkably different from that in India.
|
||||
People there take research professionally, and readily detest any childish behaviour during the working hours. The attitude is quite the opposite on weekends when they have parties and night outs. Since I was in a university as an intern, there were no fixed work hours. I worked variably, ranging from 6 to 10 hours. TUM is one of the best universities for research because of the fantastic work culture there. There was no work pressure, and I was primarily observed and graded on the level of dedication and enthusiasm for the work I did. One thing that I liked the most about the place was the interaction between students and professors. I used to have lunch with my guide who also took me to bars and restaurants. These type of informal meetings ultimately helped me in getting familiar with the system, and had a good impact on my work. They also organise biweekly chair meetings, where every professor, lecturer, and research scholar meet and discuss their ongoing work. In short, it was a pleasant and comfortable environment to work in.
|
||||
My project was a part of the HiOS project of TUM, which is related to the flood modeling of southern Germany. I was asked to prepare a model to correlate the surface run-off with different factors like roughness, slope, elevation etc. First, I had to collect all the data and prepare maps and land use charts for the cities involved and then use python programming in ArcGIS to automate the entire process and run it for 2-D Dynamic wave model. Although I was not expected to run the model but seeing my progress at work, they upgraded my work. Collectively it was a great learning experience. I had to give a presentation at the end which got approved by the chair of TUM.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Summing up and Key Takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
So if you are interested in research and want to go for a fully paid foreign internship, start mailing right after mid-term examinations of the autumn semester and be ready with all documents like NOC, SOP etc. Put maximum effort into writing the SOP and cover letter. Refrain from mass mailing and always send edited and personalised cover letters to different professors. It is a great experience to improve yourself academically and develop a better personality. You will witness a new culture, meet new people and learn a lot. These programs also help you obtain scholarships for masters or Ph.D. in future, so don’t miss the chance. The last piece of advice, if you are selected, remember that when you visit a foreign land, you are not only representing your institute but also your country. Always keep a balance between amusement and work, and while you are there get praise for yourself and for India.
|
||||
@ -1,55 +0,0 @@
|
||||
---
|
||||
layout: post
|
||||
title: "Summer Diaries: Schlumberger Asia Services Ltd."
|
||||
image: PrateekJha1.jpg
|
||||
tags: [wona]
|
||||
author: "Prateek Jha"
|
||||
excerpt: "Schlumberger is the world’s largest oilfield service company. It is spread all over the world, with employees representing more than 140 nationalities working in more than 85 countries. Today Schlumberger provides services to the petroleum industry, such as seismic acquisition and processing, formation evaluation, drilling, cementing, well completions, and software and information management."
|
||||
category: summer2018
|
||||
---
|
||||
|
||||
### Making it there
|
||||
|
||||
Schlumberger selects interns annually through on-campus recruitments. The recruitment process for my batch ended up getting delayed due to some technical difficulties, following which the process was reduced to only two rounds. The first round was that of resume shortlisting. Students from the Earth Science department (Geophysical Technology and Geological Technology) are eligible for the Petro-Technical Engineer (PTE) profile and are shortlisted based on their resume. The second round was that of Personal Interview which was held later in the month of January.
|
||||
|
||||
The interview is quite rigorous and tests your subject knowledge as well as who you are as an individual. The questions asked are very specific so one should not beat around the bush with the answers. I was asked numerous questions to test my understanding of the subject and each of these questions, although simple, was extremely concept based and required in-depth knowledge of the subject.
|
||||
If your previous internships are relevant to the profile you are applying for, you must be completely thorough with the entire work which you had done over there otherwise it could reflect poorly on you.
|
||||
|
||||
A lot of questions were also asked about my activities around the campus, my roles of responsibility and my general daily lifestyle. Apart from these, one should be prepared with the classic interview questions (‘about yourself’, ‘strengths and weaknesses’, ‘why should we choose you?’, ‘why Schlumberger?’).
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Workplace
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
All interns are introduced to the company, its policies and safety measures through a 3-days induction program after which each intern is sent to their allotted locations and segments. I was allotted segment Data Services (DS) Hub at Schlumberger’s Nerul base in Navi Mumbai. DS Hub is further divided into teams such as Geophysics, Petrophysics, Geology, Production and Reservoir. I was introduced to my team which was Petrophysics, met with my mentor and was briefed about my project.
|
||||
|
||||
DS Hub Navi Mumbai serves as the headquarters of data servicing for Schlumberger and hence receives data from all across the globe. For Earth Science enthusiasts, my project was focused around NMR Logging data. To interpret NMR data, an accurate T2 cutoff is required to be obtained from core but in my case, core was not present and I was to devise a method and verify whether an accurate T2 cutoff could be obtained through it, without core.
|
||||
|
||||
My project was planned very efficiently through discussions with my mentor as we decided on short goals for each day of the entire internship period, in the beginning itself. This allowed me to keep a good pace and complete my project on time in a period of 3 weeks. In the final week, I was to present my work through a presentation in front of all of the managers and my colleagues, where I was assessed on my presentation skills as well as my work.
|
||||
|
||||
### Work culture
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
Schlumberger functions like a relentless well-oiled machine. The job is not restricted to a traditional 9 to 5 scenario and employees work around the clock as and when a task is assigned. There is little room for slack and error. However, the entire segment working as a whole gives a very positive vibe to the workplace. The atmosphere is very collaborative where everyone takes care and guides each fellow employee. The teams also go out regularly for meals and parties which is always a fun experience!
|
||||
|
||||
Apart from work, there are ample facilities for leisure activities such as table tennis, gym, video games or just bean bags for those like me who are willing to relax! Accommodation, meals and travel are all taken care of very efficiently and as per requirements. Navi Mumbai has a pleasant weather at all times and makes for a good stay.
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
### Key Takeaways
|
||||
|
||||
{: style="width:70%;height:auto"}
|
||||
|
||||
My experience remained amazing throughout. I was especially excited to be surrounded by people who were actually working on techniques and concepts I had only studied on paper in classrooms. As an intern, I was guided at each step and I gained further confidence when I realized that my project was not going to be restricted to my internship but would be beneficial to the company in the future.
|
||||
|
||||
Despite the seemingly short duration of a one-month internship, it is an intensive learning process. It gives interns a lot of scope for professional and personal growth as it demands work at a regular pace along with excellent communication skills. Getting here is tough and persisting here is tougher but making the ride fun is all up to you.
|
||||
|
||||
For interviews, my only advice is that you be thorough with the subject matter and your resume. Be calm and confident and always remember that it is you who drives the interview and not the interviewer.
|
||||
Feel free to contact me for any further questions!
|
||||
|
||||
Some files were not shown because too many files have changed in this diff Show More
Reference in New Issue
Block a user