The Scholars' Avenue April 23, 2009 Issue

THE SCHOLARS’ AVENUEIIT KHARAGPURAPRIL 23 2009

1

Outgoing Gsecs - ReviewPage 4

Exclusive

The Scholars’ Avenue spoke to Shubham Matah, TSG’s newly elected VP, about his plans for the institute for the coming academic session. The transcript follows.

TSA: How do you intend to continue the work that Arnav initiated?

SM: Arnav took many new initiatives during his tenure such as efforts to open a CCD on campus and the hosting of a Gymkhana web-site. I will ensure that the website is revamped and made more user interactive by July or latest by August. Student forums and polls will be put up so as to enable students to interact with Gymkhana office-bearers. As far as the laptop deal is concerned, student opinions and feedback will be taken through the website in deciding the configuration of the system that will be ordered.

TSA: Could you elaborate on some of your own proposals?

SM: Work on the Alternate Career Groups catering to the needs of students preparing for various competitive exams will begin in July. Many individuals have raised doubts over my Big-Bazaar proposal, but once the initiative kicks off, it will definitely be of immense utility. I had sent proposals to Big Bazaar for a duty-free hostel delivery system even before my SOP. One of my proposals was to increase t h e n u m b e r o f P G representatives in the placement committee and in all possibility, we will be taking in 3 such representatives. Apart from this, I had also proposed that we should have Departmental representatives in the Placement Committee in the month of January. In the beginning, all the companies that the PlaceCom

contacts are very general companies and are open to all departments. When January comes around and all the big c o m p a n i e s h a v e b e e n exhausted, department specific companies can be contacted. I a lso plan to have mock interview sessions and GDs before the placement season starts for all those who will be applying for placements sometime in the months of September, Oc tober and November. Communique will be organising it. We'll also be collecting advertisements p o s t e d b y v a r i o u s companies(which do not recruit directly, but have walk in interviews) in employment newspapers and websites, group them department-wise and list them on departmental pages. Amongst other things, we ' r e p l a n n i n g t o h a ve department brochures of student profiles(though it was done this year to an extent), a meeting place for all societies in the institute, whether or not they are affiliated to the Gymkhana and a l so ge t s p o n s o r e d p r o j e c t s a n d problems from companies for B.Tech and M.Tech students. I have talked to the TTG about this and they want this task to be handed over to them.

TSA: This year saw a lot of changes with Illumination and Rangoli not taking place? What are your plans for next year?

SM: I have talked to all the Hall Presidents and many seniors. They are of the opinion that these events are traditions that are long-remembered. The alumni of this institute have many memories attached to Illumination and Rangoli and I think they should happen.

TSA: How do you intend to bridge the gap between students and the administration?

SM: There are a lot of things that the administration does for the good of the students that the students are not aware of. When a student comes to the campus, he finds that the mess food is not up to the mark, his room is not very good and develops a dislike for the administration. Students need to be made aware

of the steps that are taken by the

management for their benefit through Open House sessions, Hall representatives and other o f f i ce -bearers who must disseminate information to the students. Open-house sessions will be a regular feature during my tenure.

TSA: Other issues that you will be taking up.

SM: It was agreed at the Open House to make an online complaint system available to students for the BC Roy Technology Hospital. We plan to ask the administration to extend this to other services like food, water and electricity. The institute does plan to have a centralized laundry and mess. What we’ve heard from the establishment is that once this proposal has been put into action, the hall canteens and washer men will be asked to vacate the place. But as of now the proposal is not finalized and a lot of work is still to be done. To cater to the water-needs of an increased student population in the coming years, new pipelines are being laid. Sweeping contracts were a welcome move by the administration during Arnav's tenure and the minor glitches that are present will be sorted out by the end of this year when the contracts are reviewed.

the year ahead

Making waves

A team from the Department of OENA, IIT Kharagpur comprising Ashish Kumar Jha, Gyanendu Sahoo, Prabhakar Tiwari, Saurabh Singh and Vivek Kumar Gupta secured second place (beating 6 other entries from the likes of Texas A&M University and NUS, Singapore) in the prestigious International Student Offshore Design Competition, an annual competition organized by the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) and other international technical societies for the purpose of encouraging engineer ing students in developing creative designs for offshore projects. Under the able guidance of Prof. S.C. Misra, the team had designed a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO)

vessel for oil extraction from the Usan field in Niger. The team will be awarded a cash prize of 750 USD apart from travel subsidides to attend the award ceremony at the SNAME Reception held on the evening

thof May 4 2009, in Houston, Texas, during the Offshore Technology Conference. The Scholars’ Avenue congratulates them on this achievement and wishes them all the best.

www.scholarsavenue.org

thAt 6.30 pm on April 12 the basketball court for the first time ever was host to a fine exhibition of relatively mellow rock music , titled WTMS Unplugged, by the talented members of the WTMS. With a setlist cleverly chosen to appeal to a wide audience while still covering a wide range of

rock artists, from Nirvana to the B e a t l e s , i t wa s q u a l i t y e n t e r t a i n m e n t f o r t h e substantial crowd that had turned up at the venue. Highlights of the evening were the renditions of I Will Follow You Into The Dark (Death Cab for Cutie) and Babe I'm Gonna Leave You (Led Zeppelin).

All in all, WTMS Unplugged was one rocking evening which started with Megadeth’s A Tout Le Monde and ended with a fun-filled introduction of each member of the society before closing with the Beatles hit While My Guitar Gently Weeps. With plans for a better sound system next year, one can say that this new chapter in Kgp's music scene can only get bigger and better.

WTMS Unplugged

The winning team, form left to

right: Vivek Gupta, Saurabh

S i n g h , P r a b h a k a r Ti w a r i ,

Gyanendu Sahoo and Ashish Jha

h e a n n u a l t e c h n i c a l symposium on Industrial T

E n g i n e e r i n g ( O p t i m a ) organized by the department of Industrial Engineering and Management was held from 3rd - 5 th Apr i l ’09 . Wi th an outstation participation of around 190 from as far as Chennai, Bangalore and Jaipur, Optima’09 was staggeringly more successful than its earlier versions. Organized with a heavy budget of approximately Rs. 4 lacs, this edition staged a total of six competitive events and three workshops.

The most popular event was Finans, a financial modeling game having to do with the current economic recession. The technical paper presentation event (Sigma) was also found to be very informative and educative.

The event was Sponsored by Industry biggies such as GE Healthcare, Tata Motors, Springer, etc. Many Industry personages such as the CEOs and MDs of Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, Tata technologies, Flakts I n t e r n a t i o n a l m a d e a n appearance. A team of four second year students were thrilled beyond measure when, after their presentation for the event ‘Ergonomica’, they were offered summer internships at Tata Steel. The workshop on “ E c o n o m i c R e c e s s i o n &

designing Off-shore wind farms (Zephyr). The total prize money was Rs. 40,000. A discussion session (Drishti) and a project presentation (Jigyasa) too were part of the agenda.

Mr. A K Ghosh (General Secretary, Institute of Marine Engineers, India) was the chief gues t . Other d igni tar ies i n c l u d e d M r . P r o b o d h Majumder (Retd. Deputy Chief Surveyor, MMD), Mr. B N Das (Director, Maritime Studies SEACOM Engg. College), Mr. Bijit Sarkar (Vice President Marine, Manaksia Ltd., Kolkata) and Mr. Parimal Bhattacharya ( Vi c e P r e s i d e n t , I n d i a n O i l t a n k i n g D e s i g n a n d Engineering), who offered their insight on topics related to the ship-building and marine industry.

The events Finding Nemo and Oil Rush were both well-received. Slated for the next edition of the fest is a National Ship and Offshore Structure Design Competition, to be organised in collaboration with SNAME. There are talks to facilitate the direct entry of the winners of this competition to the finals of the prestigious International Student Offshore Design Competition, organised by SNAME. OENA department is certainly upbeat about Samudra Manthan and is optimistic that it will grow bigger and better in future.

i s c a r b o n c a p t u r e , t r a n s p o r t a t i o n a n d H

storage technology christened 'Carbon Clean Solutions' has won multiple Business Plan competitions including the “Business Plan Conclave” organised by Pan-IIT at IIT Chennai, Concipio by E-Cell, IIT Kharagpur and the B-Plan competition organised by Kshitij. It was acclaimed as the runner up at Ideaz '08 by Entrepreneurship Cell, IIT Bombay and it also represented India at CleanTech Forum XXI at San Francisco, USA. The Scholars' Avenue caught up with Prateek Bumb (Co-founder and President), a 4th year Dual D e g r e e s t u d e n t o f t h e D e p a r t m e n t o f M i n i n g Engineering who is being partnered in his venture by Aniruddha Sharma (4th Year, Department of Mathematics) and enquired about his exploits.

TSA- Can you give a brief description of your product?

Battelle (Department of Energy, US), IIT Kharagpur and IIT Bombay towards validating my results. At Clean Tech forum in San Francisco, I met a number of top VCs and industrialists including those from Khosla Ventures (Vinod Khosla), Sequoia Capital as well as Chevron, British Petroleum and Qatar Petroleum who have agreed to finance my project after the results are validated. I have also been offered three years of free usage of any software from Microsoft. I wo u l d s i n c e r e l y l i k e t o encourage each and every student to make the maximum out of his or her summer in ternship and cont inue working on it passionately after coming back to Kharagpur till a tangible outcome comes forth.

The Scholars’ Avenue wishes Prateek the very best in all his future endeavours.

professors in my department. At Pan-IIT, I met a certain Prof. Dr. Mart in Haemmig, Senior Advisor in Venture Capital, Stanford Universi ty who overhauled my entire B-Plan filtering each and every minor detail. The Tatas and the South Asian Director of NASDAQ have also taken a deep interest and assured me of full support and co-operation in whatever way possible.

TSA- What about issues like VC funding and patent-filing? Do you have any advice for your fellow KGPians?

PB- All my data and results are simulatory inferences and unless and until they are authenticated in laboratory conditions, I cannot go in for a patent. This process is expected to be completed within one year and there are teams working simultaneously in Stanford

PB- Carbon Clean Solutions is an engineering that provides the technical expertise in mitigating green house gases. It aims to achieve an enhanced efficiency of 97% of carbon-dioxide extraction as compared to 78% in present day technology. It also improves the hydrogen sulphide extractability to 92% compared to current extraction efficiency of 60%. The extraction process is based on the principle of physical absorption by m u l t i p l e s o l ve n t s b e i n g favoured at high acid gas partial pressures.

TSA- What has been your major inspiration and have you received any assistance in your attempts?

PB-The idea occurred to me during my 3rd year summer internship at the University of Perugia, Italy after which I continued the research back here at IIT Kharagpur with

KGPian makes inroads in the field of carbon credits

EXPLORING NEW SEASOptima: Forging Ahead

Global

Economic Meltdown” and the one on “Green Supply Chain Management” were held by Tata Motors while the one on “Recent Developments in Information Systems” was held by Sun Microsystems and were all received well.

The chairman, Professor J Maiti, was appreciative of the work done by the students of the department, in the absence of which he asserts that the success

of the symposium wouldn’t have been possible . The participants had no complaints and maintained that the confluence was enjoyable as well as educative. All in all, the visibility of the department in industrial as well as academic fields was given a major boost. Through the various events, the usage of Industrial Engineering t o o l s , t e c h n i q u e s a n d approaches to help companies sustain and take control of the market were portrayed. The organizing team is hoping to build on this success to organize an even more booming meet next year.

he Department of Ocean TE n g i n e e r i n g a n d N a v a l Architecture (OENA) became the latest addition to the 'Dept-Fest' bandwagon as it celebrated t h e p r e m i e r e e d i t i o n o f 'Samudra Manthan' on April 4 and 5. Drawing its name from a famous episode in Hindu mythology, this event was launched to serve as an interactive forum for those engaged in the fields of

shipping, ship-building and off-shore industry. Organised in collaboration with the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME) at a decent budget of approx. 1.1 lacs, it was sponsored by Noble Denton India, with some support from alumni. Participants, including s t u d e n t s f r o m r e l a t e d departments in institutes such as Cochin University, Andhra University and IISER, Kolkata, exercised their creative and technical skills in 4 events based on Remotely Operated Vehicles ( R O V s ) a n d u n d e r wa t e r Robotics (Finding Nemo and T u g a t h o n ) , D r i l l S h i p technology (Oil Rush) and

Department Fests unplugged

N E W S A V E N U E THE SCHOLARS’ AVENUE ² THURSDAY , APRIL 23RD 20092

FE A T U R E S A V E N U ETHE SCHOLARS’ AVENUE ²THURSDAY , 23RD APRIL 2009 3

iving in KGP is like living in a giant time machine. May L

be, a time machine with occasional bad weather, but a time machine nonetheless. It fast-forwards you through four years of your life in time of the order of a few days. This has a few interesting consequences. Firstly, it is really difficult to have a bath here – by the time you decide that you should have a bath, you realize that you are already in the future. Secondly, at times such as the present, when your four years are almost over, you feel as if it was only a few days ago that you came in.

Obviously, l iving four complete years in only a few days is a little tricky - it gives you the illusion that a lot is happening all at once. Neither is it possible to ignore it all, nor is it possible to not miss anything. It gets difficult to make any kinds of plans, or even if you do, it's barely possible to follow them. You can't even decide in the morning, what you will do in the evening. This state of affairs

worries us initially, but that's when us being the cream of the n a t i o n c o m e s i n h a n d y. Sometimes we use the hard earned skills of the JEE days and sometimes we acquire new ones, but finally, we learn how to deal with such problems fairly quickly.

A few miscellaneous skills we acquire here are – surviving for several weeks on Maggi alone, not caring about the loud music being played all around and in fact, working (or sleeping) in it, sitting at GolC for hours and doing nothing, being deep in slumberland at 8:25 and magically appearing at the classroom at 8:35, finishing all 6-7 seasons of Scrubs during the endsems, inviting famous people for guest lectures, attending lectures by famous people, and so on. We learn all of the above, and more, in a very short amount of time, and surprisingly, manage to take some time out to chill at Veggies as well.

Another interesting thing about KGP is that it is one of the very few places in the world where every other person you meet on the streets is an IITian. As a result, incidences that would have been unbelievable otherwise, become a common occurence. To take an example, the huge plethora of extra-curricular activities people get involved in and in fact, become professionals at, is always mind-blowing for an outsider, or even a newcomer. It is hard to imagine that these are the same people who beat almost all of the country's population in P h y s i c s , C h e m i s t r y a n d Mathematics, in an exam which is well known to be one of the toughest in the world. It's only with the passage of time, when you realize that now even you have started becoming one of them, that it becomes possible to get used to it.

It is often fascinating to realize while walking on the 2.2

that there is a large possibility that you could be sharing it with a future celebrity. It is even more fascinating to realize that the celebrity could be you.

Leaving home to come to IIT was a major event of our lives. It was major because our lives before and after the event were completely different. As it turns out, there is another major event lined up in the queue. We are going to have to step out of the time machine, into the real world. Several people have stepped out of this time machine into the real world in the past, and many of them have played extremely important roles in it. As a result, the real world is full of people who are proud of us. This, together with the kind of training we have gone through in the previous few years seems to make for an ideal setting to m a k e s o m e a w e s o m e contribution to the world on behalf of our lives, or, as Mr. S from the movie School of Rock would have put it, to kick some ass.

eLitWit.com is a unique concept which combines creativity, fun a n d blogging/networking, all at one place. It is an effort to get together everyone who wanted to “Do something”! The startup is run by a team of five - Pramod Rao, Aneesh Jain, Shishir Dash, Vishal Kumar (all ex-KGPians, 2007 pass-outs) and Prothit Sen (St. Stephen’s alumnus)

The what?

4 main categories – Quiz (e-Quizine), Other literary games – e.g. Mad ads, Puzzles (Fourplay), D e b a t e ( G o d s p e a k ) a n d Movie/book reviews (Utter Crap-o-meter). At 1 event a day, there is always something happening on the website. Weekly contests, leader board and monthly prizes are a few features that we have just added.

To connect with similar enthusiasts, you can also have a blog, form communities and network at eLitWit.

The Why?

We were living a very happy life. Just the kind of life every individual would dream of. Working hard, earning lots and then partying hard with the hard earned money. In a nut shell we were what any layman would call decently successful and that should have been enough to not let the feeling of discontent creep into our lives. Ironically, we on the contrary were extremely frust and that wasn’t entirely due to the lack of hot chicks around us although their presence might have been mighty helpful in helping us maintain our sanity.

T h a t i s w h e n t h e unthinkable happened… We felt like doing something! Anything, as long as it kept us sane, as long as it didn’t result in the death of the spark that made us feel like we were God’s gift to

h u m a n i t y. A n d we ended up buying this domain name (pardon us for the sheer lack to creativity in the same),

and decided to get together everyone who wanted to do “do something”.

Till now…

Since our launch on April 1, 2009, we’ve had an amazing response from all over the world (yes we are a global company!). Averaging about 160-180 visits every day, we’ve had 50 registrations on our website and we don’t even know some of the users! Our Facebook group has grown to 67 members in just 10 days. If the good response continues for a sufficient amount of time, we will soon go beyond being an online startup and start conducting events on ground.

Never been able to answer the question - Have you ever done something? Now you c a n … J o i n u s a t http://elitwit.com and Do something!

TEAM SCHOLSAVE

Executive Editors :

Arish Inam, Robin Anil ,

Sheekha Verma, Sreeja Nag,

Suvrat Bafna

Editors: Anup Bishnoi, Deepak

Cherian, JS Deepthi, Mithun

M a d h u s u d a n , P r a n e s h

Chaudhary, Srinath Sinha,

Vinayak Pathak

Asst. Editors: AVN Murthy,

Bharat Bhat, Dheeraj Golla,

M a y a n k K e d i a , P a l l a v i

Jayannavar, Siddharth Prabhu,

Siddharth Singh, Suyash Bire

Reporters: Abhirajika A, Amiya

Adwitiya,Arvind Sowmyan,

Ratan J S, Tiyasa Mitra, Vijay,

Sumeet Mohanty

Junior Reporters: Achyut

Bihani, Deepesh Kumar, Indra

Saha, Mahtab Soin, Parth Govil

Anuj Dayal,

Send letters to the editor at:

[email protected]

ONLINE NEWS

To read these articles online and to

give your feedback on them,

please visit our website at

www.scholarsavenue.org. The

website provides the latest campus news through our coverage of events as they happen.

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Coming soon on our website...We go one on one with the newly appointed Dean of Students’ Affairs, Prof. Shouvik Bhattacharya

AND

Outgoing VP, TSG Arnav looks back at what can only be called an epic year. Bike ban, 11 PM ban, Illumination, Open houses, Dismal placements, 22nd March - Hear from the man at the centre of it all.

To All Final Years

PROPOSAL IMPLEMENTED? REMARKS

To start a Spring Fest

Championship

NIT Durgapur was the winner, and this

will be continued in the upcoming

editions of the fest. The sole purpose was

to get participant teams from colleges

rather than people who come to just

enjoy the fest. We were able to get the

best from different colleges thus

improving the fest with better quality

participation.

To promote cultural diversity

by inviting international

artistes in Spring Fest

Indian Jazz Suites and Sanskruti

showcased regional and international

dance forms. My only regret is that not

everyone could be accommodated in the

Kalidas Auditorium.

To have an information

system for awareness of

Gymkhana events

A website is in place thanks to the efforts

of the PR Chair, Gymkhana. M.Tech

halls have participated in interhall events

this time. Having 10 teams in most of the

events was an achievement in itself.

PROPOSAL IMPLEMENTED? REMARKS

To induct a fine arts society

under the Gymkhana

Spectra was established for this purpose

and it has been very active since its

inception. The Gymkhana provided

initial financial aid. Depending on the

performance of the society in the coming

years, its induction into the Gymkhana

will be decided.

Conduct the star nights in

Jnan Ghosh stadium

We received quotations ranging from

27L to 40L from various event

management groups. We negotiated till

November last year and managed to

bring down the price to 13.5L. But on

account of recession, the financial status

of Spring Fest vas very bleak at that time.

The Institute did not help either and we

had to forego our plan.

Conduct workshops on

different dance forms based

on feedback from students

Workshops of Hip Hop and Merengue (a

Latin American dance form) were

conducted during Spring Fest

A b h i s h e k

Mishra, G. Sec.,

Soc. and Cult.

Highs and Lows

Appreciation from students and professors for one of the best conducted Sf’s ever was the high point of my tenure. A low point was when adamant behavior of a few halls and immature decision of the literary secretary hurt a particular judge’s feelings.

Highs and Lows

Conducting Bengali Dramatics with 10 teams which went on for four days was a high point. The low point was when one of my secretaries had to send off a judge because one of the participating halls had a problem.

Prateek Kumar

Jain, G. Sec.,

Soc. and Cult.

Word of Advice for the new office bearers

All the halls of residence put up a lot of effort, labor and time in coming up with a good show; and its our responsibility as an organizer that it is judged properly and a hall doesn't get penalised for an inadvertent mistake. It is our responsibility to get good judges and make sure that the spirit of the Soc-cult GC is not lost.

Word of Advice for the new office bearers

Secretaries should have a feeling of responsibility while making arrangements for an event, inviting judges or while conducting an event. The secretary has to preserve his integrity towards the Gymkhana at all circumstances. I would also request the student fraternity to stop bringing in funny and pitiable excuses and reasons in the sub-committee meetings.

PROPOSAL IMPLEMENTED? REMARKS

To organize an inter-collegiate

sports tournament at IIT

Kharagpur prior to Inter IIT

sports meet

Implemented in the form of Shaurya ’08,

conducted from 31st October to

3rd November, 2008

To start boating facility in

Chilka Lake behind the new

gymkhana

The DOSA was quite enthusiastic about this

proposal in the initial stages. But this had to

be scrapped because several higher priority

issues like hostels are consuming most of the

construction resources of the institute.

To form a bridge club

Ground work has been completed including

talks with the instructors. Lack of student

response and time constraints were major

hindrances. The club can be started in no

time even if 50 students come forward and

support this plan.

PROPOSAL IMPLEMENTED? REMARKS

Metallic Halide lighting

facilities in TSC and

renovations in Jnan Ghosh

Stadium

Repairing the stairs, changing the asbestos and increasing the number

of tracks has been done in Jnan Ghosh Stadium. Lighting was provided

on a contractual basis at TSC for Inter IIT

practice.

To increase the number of

slots and to keep the

Gymnasium open on

holidays.

Implemented.

To set up dressing rooms in

Jnan Ghosh Stadium and

lawn tennis courts

Work from the Gymkhana side is

complete but civil work from the

institute side remains.

Bipul Kumar, G.

Sec., Sports and

Games

Highs and Lows

No particular high point. Low was when we came to know that there was no break in placements during Inter-IIT sports meet. Still we managed to grab third position with many inexperienced players in our team.

Word of Advice for the new office bearers

Get started on the probables list long before Inter-IIT commences for an improved performance. I am trying to put up a hockey ground in the empty space within Gnan Ghosh Stadium and it is upto my successors to continue the work

Highs and Lows

The high point would be the four days of Shaurya. The low point was when the Aquatics team had to perform at the Inter IIT Aquatics Meet without IIT Kharagpur tracksuits despite our best efforts.

Word of Advice for the new office bearers

Never forget that you are the representatives of the entire student community of IIT Kharagpur. Right from day one you have to ensure that no student of IIT Kharagpur faces any kind of predicament at all.

Neelabh Tiwari,

G. Sec., Sports.

and Games.

PROPOSAL IMPLEMENTED? REMARKS

To implement an Online Payment

System for Kshitij participants to

reduce the queuing in the arena

during the fest.

Partially

Implemented for alumni but not for participants due to

high transaction fees involved. Multiple counters were

instead put up in V1 to prevent crowding.

To conduct an Inter-collegiate

quiz competition under the aegis

of the Quiz Club

This couldn't happen due to budget constraints of the

Gymkhana. Funding for this proposal had to be

scrapped due to some last minute unforeseen expenses

of the Gymkhana

To increase participation of first

years in Tech GC events

First year participation in almost all the events of the

Tech GC.

PROPOSAL IMPLEMENTED? REMARKS

To groom first years in the fields

of designing pertaining to

website design and Photoshop

Partially

Implemented by inducting interested students in

the web and design teams of Kshitij before the

summers and mentoring them via tutorials

thereafter To include PGs as technical advisors for various events in Kshitij

Implemented in three events namely Senate

(RGSIOPL), Kryotech and Exemplar (Organized

by VGSOM).

To open a case study club Not successful due to budget constraints of the

Gymkhana.

To implement Enterprise

Resource Planning (ERP)

solutions for Kshitij

Partially

A version of the complete local website is ready

and was used during the fest. This will be

improved upon in the coming year.

.

Udit Kejriwal,

G. Sec,

Technology

Highs and Lows

The high point would be a well-conducted Case Study event just 10 days before Kshitij. Another high point would be the collaboration with ASME which is now providing internships to a large number of students.

Word of Advice for the new office bearers

They can take further the collaborations with International societies and Universities.

Ashish Sogani,

G. Sec, Tech.

Highs and Lows

High point would be selection of secretaries to the Technology subcommittee. Low point was the sponsorship crisis that hit Kshitij due to recession.

Word of Advice for the new office bearers

Increasing outstation participation and solution to the accommodation crisis in Kshitij should be major priorities.

4 N E W S A V E N U E THE SCHOLARS’ AVENUE ² THURSDAY , APRIL 23RD 2009

Outgoing general secretaries A review

“

correctness. There have been instances when our films have caused

countries to shutdown certain trades to prevent international

stigma."

Journalism has to carefully tread the grounds of political

I N T E R V I E W A V E N U ETHE SCHOLARS’ AVENUE ²THURSDAY , 23RD APRIL 2009 5

The Scholars’ Avenue catches documentaries - to make the means to life ( "Life springs out up with eminent producer, boring interesting without of death" ). It is very similar to director and journalist Jeremy exaggerating. I remember t h e I n d i a n t h e o r y o f Bristow on his colourful life D a v i d A t t e n b o r o u g h ' s reincarnation and Karma. I did experiences. insistence on including graphs not visit the Galapagos when

in one of his films. It had never filming, but we had plenty of been done until then and material on the same.Q: You studied Economics from everyone at BBC was pretty London School of Economics (LSE) certain that our audience and then began your career as a Q : Any messages for our wouldn't understand them. stockbroker. How did your path take generation?David, however, had his way this route?and the idea was a huge success.

A: I think the problem with most One should never overestimate A: I studied economics because people nowadays is that they the knowledge of people, and my family owns an ancestral think everything is on the never never underestimate their law firm and I did not want to do internet. That is a very big intelligence.the same. I was determined to misconception. All my life, do anything but law. But I soon whenever I picked up a book, I'd

Q: Any difficult situations that you realized that Accountancy was read some of it, turn back to the faced in the course of your career?not my cup of tea. In 1984, a referenced people and read

the release it turned out that the friend of suggested that I should about their lives and influences. El Niño brought the best rains in try film making and that A: BBC is banned in countries Many a time, I'd call them up in the continent!London Scientific Films was like Myanmar and Zimbabwe. order to discuss the ideas and

hiring. I was initially employed One can't really just rely on sometimes even meet them. The to research subjects after which I c o m m e n t s w i t h o u t quality of learning by talking to Q: How do you choose your was hired by BBC as an assistant substantiating. Our reporters a n d m e e t i n g p e o p l e i s projects?director. My first documentary have to enter such countries as invaluable, and cannot be was on factory ball bearings! tourists in order to get facts in substituted by simply being a

A: I have varying interests in And it's been a variety ever person. Journalism has to bookworm or an internet nerd.

h is tory, sc ience and the since… carefully tread the grounds of You have to go out into the

environment. It is important political correctness. There have world and ask questions – what

that I be interested in the subject you get in return will astound Q: Are there any favorites among you.the topics you've worked on?

A: I have been very focused on the subject of Global Warming of late. I have two major projects "Are we changing Planet Earth?" and "Can we save Planet Earth?" on the topic, as you saw in my after reading in detail about it,

been instances when our films presentation at Kshitij. It is because only then can I make it have caused countries to essential that everyone realizes interesting for you. Not being shutdown certain trades to the devastating effects on from a science background prevent international stigma. I wildlife and environment. The helps me relate science in a have often wondered, later, if Arctic ice is fast receding and simple way, although I always that was the best thing to do polar bears could become seek scientists' confirmation in given the unemployment the e x t i n c t . A l G o r e ' s " A n all my steps. The film has to action caused. Morality is very Inconvenient Truth" could have connotate the clause, "Let me tell subjective. On the lighter note, it d r a m a t i z e d t h e t r u t h you a story…" because that's is also difficult to find women considerably, but it did shake what people want. I travel, I scientists or scientists without the world enough to wake up to read, I listen and I learn a lot. But the stereotypical beard for a plausible reality. With BBC, I if I can't describe a subject in one interviewing in our films have shifted from wars to sentence, the story is not worth (laughs).politics to planetary issues. doing.

Filming in Cambodia after Vietnam War was a brilliant Q: What is your present project on?Q: In factual journalism, a key experience. We actually filmed

factor could be to mix monotone of the tanks crossing the border A: We follow Darwin's life based deltas and epsilons in equations and then helped address the on his letters and works. Darwin with the possible incredulity of illegal trade which eventually was an introvert, very close to extrapolations from available data l e d t o t h e s t o p p a g e o f his children and wrote them in order to make the layman see deforestation. A similar project beautiful letters. It took him 21 some sense. How do you handle the w a s t h e a n t i c l i m a x years to consol idate his balance in your films?documentary of the El Nino in inferences into 'On the Origin of A u s t r a l i a . E v e r y b o d y Species' after Natural selection A: That is what we call the grey interviewed in fear mode before first dawned upon him. It was line in filmmaking. It is the t h e e ve n t a s t h e y we r e beautiful to follow his ideas - u l t i m a t e c h a l l e n g e o f predicting drought, and after observing death, death as a

Face To Face With Jeremy Bristow

Bristow at Kshitij ‘09

Help The Needy

Making IIT Kharagpur proud these days is a small group of students who, collaborating with NGO 'Goonj' have been actively involved in the collection of unwanted but usable things such as clothes, footwear and stationery items. This noble venture is aimed at providing relief to the f lood-affected victims in Bihar. Co-ordinated primarily by a few students, the first p h a s e o f c o l l e c t i o n s targetted the final year s t u d e n t s a n d wa s a pleasant success. Started earlier in March, it is hoped that the entire operation will complete by the first week of May. Thereafter all t h e i t e m s w i l l b e transported to the affected regions in Bihar where Goonj is active currently. For more information, visit www.goonj.info

6 T E C H A V E N U E THE SCHOLARS’ AVENUE ² THURSDAY , APRIL 23RD 2009

?Heart disease is the single beat ing of the hear t by limitations of leading cause of death in the synchronizing the electrical t h e h u m a n developed world today. signals to it, a ventricular assist heart. The TAH ?Nearly 1 in every 3 people die device(VAD) such as a seminal combines the of heart disease. Jarvik 7 aids the weakened peristaltic aortic ?WHO estimates that 60% of the ventricles with the pumping of p u m p w i t h world's cardiac patients will be blood to all parts of the body. So heart pumping Indian by 2010. in which category does this and its multi

product fall? It’s called the TAH staged actuated (Total Artificial Heart) and it p u m p These statistics are certainly probably comes closest to the guarantees step alarming and cardio-vascular working of an actual biological wise supply of medicine as we know it today heart. It seeks to replace the b l o o d . T h e requires a major innovation if ventricular functions of the m u l t i - s t a g e d the stats are to change in the heart completely and up till now n a t u r e a l s o near future. Most cardio-

transplantation of the heart has been used only in extreme guarantees that vascular diseases involve heart from some donor. What does medical complications. the build-up of pressure is failure, cardiac arrest or a heart this mean? Due to acute alleviated hence reducing the attack leading to a heart failure shortage of human donors, it is power required. Much like which leave no other option Technical Overviewnot always possible to procure walking up a set of stairs takes than to replace the heart. Now, The product developed at IIT the donor heart at the right place much less effort than jumping here are the truly frightening Kharagpur makes use of two at the right time. The artificial the same height. The valves statistics. Donor hearts are identical ventricular pumps heart then comes into play and between the chambers are sufficient for only about 30% of e a c h c o n s i s t i n g o f a temporari ly executes the magnetically controlled and the

miniaturized, functions of the heart. In diaphragm membranes utilise a

staged, multi-addition to this the CardioWest motor having a variable

actuated pump TAH took 10 years to be e lec t romagnet i c a rm for

system with a approved and all current compression. This innovation

s e r i e s o f projects are required to meet solves a significant problem

interconnected stringent norms for human with previous versions of the

c h a m b e r s trials which are quite a long and TAH, namely, that of thrombosis

under a single cumbersome process. So its due to fatigue of blood cells

h o u s i n g . I t s commercial reality seems a experienced during the opening

unique design distinct possibility as of now. of the heart valves.

is based on the R e g a r d l e s s , t h e r e c e n t

13 chambered successful animal trials and the The Bare Realityh e a r t o f a great economic affordability are

cockroach. This Although most of the artificial reasons to cheer about.

e n s u r e s heart projects have been survival even in developed to completely

How big an innovation is this?case of failure of one of its replace the defective biological the patients. 10 – 20% of heart Artificial heart transplant dates c h a m b e r s , a s i g n i f i c a n t heart, till now it is mainly being patients die annually on the back to as early as 1969. Dr. i m p r o v e m e n t o v e r t h e used as a bridge to the waiting list. In the light of the Denton A. Cooley and Dr. bleak picture these stats paint, it Domingo Liotta of Houston had is heartening to know that IIT performed a remarkable Kharagpur is at the forefront of surgery and had managed to the solution to this problem. keep alive a patient for nearly a Prof. S.K. Guha of the School of week. Recent products in this M e d i c a l S c i e n c e s a n d field include the CardioWest Technology along with his team temporary Total Artificial Heart working on the Artificial Heart which got FDA approval only Development Program have after 10 years of rigorous developed an indigenous clinical study and trials. The alternative to a biological heart. AbioCor Replacement Heart is What really makes this project also available. However it has stand out is the economic not yet achieved its purpose of viability of the product, which simulating the human heart in will be available for a fraction of totality. The latest parallel in the cost of the imported this segment is being developed alternatives. by EADS (makers of the AIR

BUS) in collaboration with Dr. Alain Carpentier and they are What exactly is an Artificial attempting to develop a Heart ?physiological feedback capacity As the name clearly suggests, it which would increase viability is a scientific device aimed at of the product manifold. The e m u l a t i n g t h e e s s e n t i a l product developed by Prof S.K functions of the heart. But to Guha and his team is the first of what extent? Well, that depends its kind in India and has on the exigency and the considerably pushed the structural make of the product. b o u n d s o f l o n g e v i t y , There are many variations affordability and efficiency.available in the market. While a

pacemaker just regulates the

Why the hype ?

The TAH being developed at IIT Kharagpur has certainly got some commendable features.

1. The Cost - Our indigenous TAH is being developed with the target price of Rs. 1 Lac which is peanuts compared to the going rate of about Rs. 30 lac. In a country like India, this key factor widens its scope exponentially. A major cost saving factor is the fact that it is indigenous it-self as a large portion of the exorbitant price tag on the foreign TAHs is due to import duties.

2. The Design - The concept is based on the heart of cockroach which has 13 chambers and it is supposed to increase its efficiency considerably.

3. The Durability - Its distinctive placement of series of diaphragms divides the load of the pump uniformly which in turn increases its longevity substantially.

4. The Progress - The trials on small animals have yielded encouraging results. The team has recently secured permission from Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals (CPCSEA) for doing experiments on larger animals like goats taking the artificial heart a step forward.

Keeps You TickingWhen man is serene, the pulse of the heart flows and connects, just as pearls are joined together or like a string of red jade, then one can talk about a

healthy heart.

- The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Internal Medicine, 2500 B.C.

Schematic For the Artificial Heart

21 ways to climb a tree.

1. Try climbing it.

2. Call Superman.

3. Fall from a height more than

that of the tree.

4. Make sure you fall from

directly above the tree.

5. Whisper like you're saying

something to it and jump

when it bends to listen.

6. Use The Force.

7. Say it aloud like you mean it.

8. Believe in Barack Obama. Ho sakta

bhaaya.

9. Wear pants as long as the tree and stand

straight.

10. Concentrate. There is no Tree.

11. Take a lift.

12. Look at a snake on the ground, get

startled, jump with fear, hang from a

branch shaking.

13. Stare the tree down. Then climb.

14. Bribe it.

15. Threaten to piss on it.

16. Disguise like a monkey

so it would let you.

17. Hit the iron when it's hot.

18. Grow smaller trees

near it and climb them in

order of height.

19. List out 21 ways to climb a tree.

20. Cheater, you never got

here!

21. Oh damn, Loop Counter!

7 THE SCHOLARS’ AVENUE ² THURSDAY , APRIL 23RD 2009 BHAAT A V E N U E

Did You Know? 22. Get high.

Ouch.

Ouch indeed.

'Twas an ancient and

v e n e r a b l e t i t l e

bestowed 'pon myne

soul by The Greate Olde

O n e s - o n e t h a t

resonates amidst the

deepest causeways of

the mortal mynde.

Out-zche.

'Tis a lordship of no diminutive estate - 'twas my

realmme of reckoning to preside over a basest

emotionne - Painne. For I was, am and wille be

Out-zche,

Lorde and Godde of Injurie. And so 'twas ordained

that pitiful mortalles shalt whisper myne name

whilst grasped in the black clenche of Deathe as they

laye fallen on battlefieldes, that I maye assuage their

anguish in their laste moments.

Millenia pass'd, and the folly of Mankinde is cleare to

behold - they pervert myne Name in their pedestrian

ways - a Name wrought by the Olde Ones at the Forge

of The Beginning !

Bah! I say to humannes and their obsession with

contractions! For now it is "ouch" this and "ouch"

that. Humanne hits his head looking under a table.

"Ouch," he summons, casual as one hails a taxi driver

in NYC (another Godde and a Cousin of the Olde

Family, I might adde, but that is a Story for later). I

tarry forth to nurse bump on skull. Humanne rubs

divinely-nurtured headbump and proceeds with his

moribund existence without so much as an

Acknowledgement to the Powers That Be. I asketh

thou!

And Hark! a child bruises toe after futilely chasing a

balle in a parke. And kicking balle into a nette. The

Foolish whelp knowest not the Powers he invoketh

with his frail cries, nor receptive to the presence of a

Godde, yet myne Contracte binds me to apply a

Band-Aid. Do these inconsequential gnats, these

hedonists and atheists and even these balefully

indecisive Agnostics deserve myne Glorious

Touche? 'Tis not easy being a Godde (and this awful

archaic accent is gosh-darned hard to maintain,

believe me!)

Yet, Godde I am, and myne duties I shalt acquit

myneself of.

Olde Hag pricks finger with a pin whilst stabbing a

cloth. Woman drops grindstone on foote. Boy bites

tongue. 'Tis a busy hour, and I must away.

Another band-aid? Kids these days...

8 A D A V E N U E THE SCHOLARS’ AVENUE ² THURSDAY , APRIL 23RD 2009