From the Editors’ Desk

A literal comeback. After a long hiatus of about a year and a half, this is the eleventh edition of the G-Newsletter making a tentative and timorous entry into the IITG community. It’s true that the G-Newsletter hasn’t exactly had the kind of past we’d term glorious, but we believe there’s got to be some reason why it survived ten long editions. Which, for us, was motivation enough to try and bring out the next one. And thus, once again for your perusal, is our much beloved G. This time around, the newsletter comes with so much more than before. To start with, the newsletter looks back at the three days of Techniche that just went by. Apart from subjective takes on issues that concern our lives here the most – be it the placements or the internships or the security issues in Subansiri, we bring to you a whole lot of different perspective in the form of a fresher article on what it felt like to enter and get used to college. We wanted to give as much space as possible for contributions from interested members of the community, and as intended, this edition is especially high on literary articles, poems, photographs et al. It is indeed an eye opener to learn about the depths of talents that lurk in the nooks of our campus, and we’re glad we’ve been able to give them a platform for recognition.

Since ours is a technical institute and houses a lot of potential path breaking researches within its very confines, we believe it makes sense that we all be aware of them. This edition therefore includes an introduction and synopses of a couple of such projects. We hope to make this feature a regular in the coming issues of the newsletter. And of course, it is common knowledge that our institute now houses a celebrity of sorts. While journalists trod back and forth for an interview with the man himself, we at G thought it was our birthright to do the same – given that he’s our very own faculty now. We bring to you a rendezvous with Dr. Udaya Kumar – on the symbol of the rupee and life after that.

As mentioned before, it wasn’t an easy task trying to revive G. But if there’s at least a part of the community that appreciates the effort, we shall consider ourselves vindicated. So, we urge you to sit back with a cup of coffee and leaf through the G at your leisure. And do let us know what you feel about us. Mail your feedback to psc@iitg.ernet.in.

04. Fresher Speak

04. Pan IIT Conclave 2010

05. Summer Internships

06. Interview

08. Research at IIT Guwahati

09. WordsWorth

10. A word on Placements

12. Security Issues at Subansiri

12. Bus Route at IITG

14. Poems

13. What college teaches you

11. Crime and Cricket

03. Techniche Review

organizers, and the fact that they did pull off some heavy disaster manage-ment, is utterly commendable. In some places, however, such as the quizzing event “Search Strings”, things seemed to go a little askew on the organization side.

Anyway, on another note, the work-shops held included FOSSilize (the free and open source software camp), the hacking workshop, Autonomous robotics workshop and the INTEL workshop among others. Students turned out in huge numbers to attend these workshops, which they could not have learnt as part of their curriculum. Also the NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) presented a demonstration and lecture on earthquake response besides other natural and man made calamities. This engrossing demon-stration trained the students on how to act in case of an earthquake and the necessary safety measures. Students also participated in the Blood donation camp, organized as a part of WE Care, IIT Guwahati’s social initiative.

The prizes were distributed by the Dean of Student Affairs Professor Arup Kumar Sarma and the Dean of Technical Board, Dr. H. B. Nemade in the prize distribution ceremony, where the hard work and dedication of the participating teams, and also the organizers were highly appreci-ated. We’ve saved the description of the nights in Techniche for the last. Breathtaking laser and fire shows, and a spectacular act by a quick change artist pretty much sums up how we spent our evenings during the fest. And then of course, there were the irresistible food stalls as always.

Although there were a lot of things that “could have been done” by our students, we still stand by the fact that Techniche ’2010 was an amazing feast of pure, unadulterated fun and learning!

Rev

iew

G-Newsletter

September 2010 03

............................... got over on 5th of September 2010 which ended a journey that left us with a blizzard of experiences. This year Techniche witnessed a huge participation of over 6000 people, from over 170 colleges across the nation. It all started off with a super successful Half Marathon in the city, and ended with a bang on campus.

Many high profile dignitaries from industry, academic and the corporate world visited the campus not only to give lectures in their respective fields of expertise but also to interact and share their experiences with the students.

It was for the first time this year that a Nobel laureate delivered a lecture in the IIT Guwahati campus. Dr Ferid Murad, Nobel winner in the field of medicine (1998), spoke on “Discov-ery of nitric oxide and cyclic GMP in cell signalling and their role in drug development”. Also in focus were the speeches given by Air Marshal P. K. Borbora, Vice Chief of the Air Staff of the Indian Air Force and Mr. Richard Stallman, the founder of the GNU project and free software foundation - the former telling us about the evolu-tion and glory of the Indian Air Force, while the latter informed us about the importance of free software and how LINUX is actually GNU (not Unix).

The other lectures were by Mark Toorock, founder of the American stunt group American Parkour; Pre eminent strategist Mr Gopal ‘GD’ Srikanth, Mr. Kiran Karnik - former president of NASSCOM; Mr Georgio Metta - father of the humanoid baby robot and Mr Jeff Libberman, the host of the Discovery Channel program 'Time Warp'. These were highly appreciated by both the student and faculty community of IIT Guwahati,and the visitors. Thus, the high points of Techniche ’10 were most definitely the many inspiring and intellectually stimulating lectures - not to mention, some enthralling exhibi-tions and engrossing workshops.

The competitions, however, we believe were a not-too-close second. The events were broadly classified into six categories, the Robotics module, Pre-defined events, Funniche, Spin the web, Rush hour and Management – which included Flight 3.4, the glider making competi-tion, Junkyard wars, Parliamentary Debate, Robostunts, Fun-niche, Crime Scene Investigation, Smart design, Techscribe and many other interesting names. The grapevine has it though, that some of these events saw a severe lack of worthy partici-pants and had to make do with only a minimal number of teams registering. Even so, the efforts put in by the

Techniche’10

The Pan I IT Conclave for the year 2010 is all set to be held at Noida, during the period 29th-31st October. The event is a leading tech-nology summit that brings together alumni of all seven IITs, and provides a unique opportunity to interact with and learn from recognized thought leaders and successful IIT old timers. The PanIIT 2010 Global Conference addresses the imperatives of an emerging New India. The Conclave is entitled Sustainable Transformation - Our New India, and provides invitees the opportunity to validate their views on different methods of ensuring sustainable and equitable use of human and natural resources in India.

This year around, IITG shall also put up a stall at the congregation so as to enable sharing of information related to the present developments in the institute with concerned alumni and other attendees. Consequently, an IIT Guwahati student contingent is scheduled to visit the conclave. The contingent includes members of the IITG rock band as well – given that the rock bands of all IITs are required to perform as part of recreation during the period of the summit. Other repre-sentatives mainly include final year undergraduate and postgraduate students. We wish the delegates an enjoyable and fruitful visit at the conclave, and hope that this will help in strengthening the institute’s alumni connections by a good measure.

G-Newsletter

04 September 2010

I am now well into my first semester at IITG, and up until now, I have only good things to say about the place. Most of all, I’d like to acknowledge something I think most contributed to me being able to settle into this place with the ease of a rabbit in its burrow. I speak here of the efforts being put in by the various boards to welcome the fresh entrants, the Student Welfare Board in particu-lar. We did not fail to notice how our seniors have given so much of their time - nearly 8 to 10 hours per day – for three consecutive days – in welcoming the arriving students into their hostels, and putting the anxious parents at ease. Be it the waiting in hot buses scheduled every hour from Pan Bazar for students and parents, or the setting up of the anytime-helpdesks, these guys left no stone unturned in making us comfortable here.

Several events that would help break the ice were planned out by the Welfare Board well in advance (in the month of April). The events scheduled were as follows: 28th July: Screening of the movie “Pursuit of Happiness” in the audito-rium, followed by a parent-student-gymkhana interaction session.29th July: A guided tour of the SAC, followed by a football match with on the spot registrations. 30th July: The Texhibit, where we were given glimpses of the robotics culture in IITG, the astronomy

Fresher SpeakFresher Speak

sessions and other clubs in the tech board.31st July: The Scavenger Hunt, that helped us learn the inside-outs of our campus. We were given a map of the campus followed by various clues, using which there were a list of places we had to reach to shove our score upwards!1st Aug: The very first Coffee House Session. This resulted in a healthy exchange of viewpoints between our seniors and ourselves, and brought us closer to them!

2nd Aug: The Gymkhana Orienta-tion, and the end of the Fresher’s week. We were given introductions to the various clubs and an idea of the role that the Gymkhana will play in our four years of stay here.The efforts put in by our seniors and the administration to make us feel feel at home here have been commend-able, and left us overwhelmed. Thank you for such a warm welcome! I now look forward to my four years of stay here, and hope I can be of similar help to my juniors as well! --- Prannay

Hello...

Pan IITSustainable TransformationConclave 2010

it does need some getting used to. You’ve got to dress up all formal- there are people in suits and boots running frantically through the floors and heavy accents are flung around the workplace all day. Plus, you know you’re working on something that cannot afford to go wrong and you are bound by stringent deadlines. Board meetings become a weekly routine. Free teas and coffees are the highest points and weekends seem akin to salvation. Not to mention the office parties in five star restos ! On a more serious note, you get to catch a firsthand glimpse of where you shall most probably be ending up an year or two from now. Industrial interns give you loads to learn from.

Which brings us to their anti-thesis, the Universities. More prominently, projects in European Universities. As we have come to hear, this is a totally out-of-the-world, once-in-a- lifetime experience. Getting to explore a whole new culture with a backpack and a map, all on your own, is stuff dreams are made of. Europe, espe-cially, is so rich in culture and history that those who’ve come back cannot get enough of gushing about it. Not to mention, uploading hundreds of pictures on various social networking sites!

On the work front too, things are a lot different there. The Work hard-Play hard culture called out loud. So while on one hand, they were strictly asked to make regular weekly presentations regarding their work and their prog-ress, there were also these regular barbeques and professor-student cricket matches and informal chat sessions that ensured appropriate bonding among work place associ-ates. The research catered to real time problems, along with theoretical musings. As told to one of our report-ers, when freak oil spilling occurred in one of the universities there, they immediately redirected funds to open new research that would ensure the

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September 2010 05

at IITG are always filled with reminiscences and “this happened to me”s. Needless to say, mainly because we’ve all just returned from a three month hiatus from college, and that too most of us with internship experiences to die for. For the majority of us, this meant going out there in the real world on our own for the first time ever – hunt-ing for places to stay and eat, making do with matchbox sized rooms for the underprivileged and boisterous land-ladies.

Even so, not really caring about all of this much, because there were more important things happening to you – working on real time hands on projects at some of the most amazing institutes in the world, exploring awesome new places with your best friends at college (yes, we tend to end up in groups wherever we go. Be it our good old Bangalore or the mysti-cal Nijmegen), to name a few. There are different ways in which these numerous internship experiences can be categorized. Firstly, there is the most obvious difference between the kinds of projects most second yearites choose to do – Indian, and those that are generally reserved for the third yearites - foreign. Although, the number of the former making grabs at European and US opportuni-ties is steadily on the rise.

The other, probably more meaningful classification is where we have University internships and Industrial internships. The university i nterns

generally tend to be more research oriented, while the ones in industries are usually development projects, where you are expected to build tools that has important real time applica-tions. To us, however, they have both come to mean different things. Universities mean foreign lands, adventures and travels, and a least importantly – a little work on the side. While industrial projects mostly mean having to stay within the confines of our country, but with those little thingscalled PPOs easily compensating all

the travelling you might have missed out on.

And thus, among our lot here, we have folks who’ve lived through all of the above experiences and come back with panache. G-Newsletter brings to you some snippets of what their summers were like :

As mentioned before, Bangalore in India is a major intern haven. With universities like IISc., and of course all industries burgeoning in there, it is the place to be. It helps that Banga-lore is surrounded by tourist places you can easily make weekend trips to, and that it is blessed with a weather that spells awesomeness. No wonder you can hear only good things from people who’ve been there. As for the project experiences, people who’ve returned from working in industries have a lot of good things to say about life in college. The culture in industries is something entirely and refres hingly new, though

Odd semesters

Intern hipfunde-baazi

direct dil se.......

ummer

hiring. There are also certain compa-nies that are open to off-campus applications, so you might want to sniff around a little there as well. Companies on campus mainly decide on the basis of aptitude tests and technical interviews, so make sure you’re brushed up in that area. Appear presentable in the interviews.

4. Fourthly, There’re some organi- zations like DAAD etc., that offer funding for foreign internships. Their deadlines are usually well before December, and they require a lot of paperwork to be done – essays, recommendations et al. Get a head start on those. Once again, your seniors are going to be most helpful here.

5. Lastly, just remember that in the end it is not where you go, but what you do that matters most. So, no matter where you end up, make sure you work hard and try and learn something new about your subject. Who knows, you might just end up publishing a research paper or two. And that little known place you interned at becomes the biggest catch among your junior batch !

G-Newsletter

06 September 2010

avoidance of such occurring hence-forth. Unlike the changing, yet preva-lent perceptions of most Indians who think PhDs are mainly for the eccen-trics, people there seemed to view it as nothing out of the ordinary, and enjoyed it thoroughly.

All said and done, thegeneral percep-tion is something we have all been hearing for ages – people who are interested in higher education – best opt for research internships. While for those who want to start earning, interning in industries is the best bet. We, however, would like to stress on something different. We think it makes much more sense to view these projects as an end in them-selves, rather than a stepping stone to something else. They are indeed priceless experiences. So choose your destinations wisely, and while you’re there – have the time of your life.

For the guys who’re looking to intern the following summer, here’s some funde-baazi from the G-team, direct dil se. We know it seems like a long way off. Still, certain stuff, the sooner you know the better.

1. Don’t wait for the anxieties to settle in before you get a start on the appli-cation process. It’s best if you start researching on your topics of interest and the universities you want to apply to right from the odd semester itself. Keep your CVs ready, spend time going through the profile of the professor, frame a good cover letter, and start sending them mails!

In our experience, bagging an intern in the odd semester itself keeps a lot of stress off the even semester, and also avoids unnecessary spamming applications to foreign professors. The spamming is something that majorly puts them off, and this may hamper your juniors’ chances too!

2. It is a fact that there is a greater probability of getting offered an intern-ship at a place one of your seniors might have done good work at the previous year. So, talk to your seniors and try and collect their contacts. This is by far the most useful advice anyone could probably give you.

3. People looking for industrial intern-ships, keep your eyes and ears open for companies that might come for

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InterView

Uda

ya K

umar

Dha

rmal

inga

m The hype behind India’s announcement of a new rupee symbol is starting to fade, but the designer behind it has been receiving praise from around the world. The government hopes the distinctive new symbol will help separate its fast-growing economy from others that also refer to their currencies as “rupees.” He earlier liked the Yen symbol the most because of its similarity to the japanese script form, and has today carved a unique niche for himself globally. Our reporters Minal and Rishika bring to you a rendezvous with the man himself. Read on…

Q: Your design was selected by a jury headed by the RBI deputy governor from among 3,000 entries. What is the feeling like?Kumar: I’m extremely happy and thrilled. It was a very proud moment for me. It’s a great honour to be a part of the Indian history.Q: The magnitude of your achieve-ment is humungous. How much life altering has it been for you?Kumar: After the results, I’ve earned an amazingly large network of well wishers all across the world. I’m lucky to have lots of exposure and interac-tionwith people and professionals spread

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September 2010 07

across the globe now. It’s been a wonderful experience. At personal level, I’m just the same as I was before. I hope and pray to god that pride doesn’t get into my mind.

Q: Can you please explain what the symbol actually means?Kumar: The symbol represents a lot of things. It has a Devanagri ‘ra’ and Roman script ‘R’ which expands to the rupiya and rupee. Both denote the currency of our country. It represents our tricolor flag flying high at the top. It also represents the arithmetic sign “equal to.”

Q: What is your perspective on the significance of this new symbol for the Indian rupee?Kumar: It has given a visual recogni-tion and also has differentiated itself from other countries such as Paki-stan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, etc., which share the same currency name.

Q: What has been your journey in the academic front since childhood ?Kumar: I belong to Tamil Nadu. I did my schooling from Junior College Boarding School, Chennai. I received my bachelor’s degree in architecture from the School of Architecture and Planning ( SAP ) at Anna University, Chennai and MDes in Visual Commu-nication from IDC, IIT Bombay (2003). I pursued my doctoral studies at IDC, IIT Bombay (2010). I brought out a thesis on transformation of tamil letter form from palm leaf manuscripts to early letter press printing.

Q: What brought you to teaching profession ?Kumar: I had always wanted to be a teacher. It’s a noble profession and I want to get my ideologies and principles across to students. I want to nurture students and encourage them for their future endeavours.

Q: You did Bachelors in Architecture

and your Masters in Design . Why this change from architecture to design ? Kumar: Since my childhood I had a lot of interest in designing. In school also, I used to design posters, certifi-cates etc. This immense interest in this field drove me to where I am today.

Q: What brought you to IITG ? And now that you are here, what do you feel about the place ?Kumar: I had always wanted to get into IIT as a faculty. IITG has a huge scope for graphic design and I have a tremendous amount of interest in that. Hence, I decided to join it. Now that I am here, I am completely mes-merised by the scenic beauty of the place. It is extremely pleasant and serene here. I feel it provides an ideal environment to the students to evolve themselves as individuals.

Q: Do you follow any specific teach-ing methodology or do you harbour any particular vision for the teaching profession ?Kumar: I don’t follow any paricular teaching method. I teach the way my teachers had taught me. I am still new in this field so I am trying to experi-ment and come up with new and inno

vative ways for teaching. As for design, I don’t feel that design is a subject that can be taught. It’s an application oriented branch in which the learning process is continuous. There are no precise formulae in design. There are just a few thumb rules which students develop upon. We, as teachers, guide and nurture the students. We help them in harnessing their creative abilities and in coming out with their best.

Q: What are the activities you like to pursue in your spare time ? Kumar: I love to play all kinds of games, be it volleyball, basketball, football, table tennis etc. I also love gardening . And I am planning to do quite a lot of that here as soon as possible. Q: What would you like to say to the students presently studying here?Kumar: For them I have a few advice. First, they must be very disciplined because discipline is a prerequisite for proper learning. They must be precise and understanding in their work. And in the end I’d just like to tell everyone that moral values are the most important part of an individual. One must never compromise with them and that’s what I expect from my IIT students.

Q: What message would you like to give to the first years in design?Kumar: I just want to tell them that they are different people , more creative than the others. They just need to have faith in themselves and must put in their best of efforts. One just need to have motivation and conviction within oneself.

concentrations and current densities were determined.

The findings of the present study might be useful in order to treat thefluoride contaminated water for the drinking purpose effectively and further advancement in designing an electro coagulation unit for the treat-ment of fluoride rich ground water.

2. Removal and Recovery of Heavy Metals from Wastewaters by Biosorption using Live Immobi-lized Fungal Biomass of Phanero-chaete chrysosporium in Packed Bed Columns (Dr. Pakshirajan, Dept. of Biotech)

Dr. Pakshirajan was bestowed with the "NASI Young Scientist Platinum Jubilee Award” from the National Academy of Sciences, India, in the year 2008 for his work on this project.

Project Synopsis:

Under the public and media pressure, governments introduce and enforce stricter regulations with regard to discharge of industrial wastewaters containing heavy metals. The use of microorganisms as sorbents for removal of heavy metals offers a potential alternative to existing meth-ods for detoxification of toxic metals and/or recovery of valuable metals from the aqueous environment. This process generally called biosorption has been tested with respect to both several metals and many types of biomass such as bacteria, fungi, yeast, alga, etc. Fungi in particular, have demonstrated unique metal sorption characteristic and are easy to cultivate. Phanerochaete chrys-osporium is a well-known white-rot fungus and a strong degrader of various toxic compounds. The pres-ent study focused on the evaluation of P. chrysosporium in the uptake of metals from aqueous systems both in batch and continuous modes.

HCRAESERat IIT Guwahati

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September 2010 08

is a premier technical institute in the country, and it is true that a lot of potentially path breaking researches in various fields are going on within the very confines of our campus itself. As future technocrats, and as simply members of the IIT fraternity, we at G thought that it makes sense that we be aware of at least a gist of some of the projects of general interest.

In order to facilitate this, we decided to include a regular feature in the forth-coming issues of the newsletter, start-ing from this one, that talks briefly about some award winning research projects on campus.

To flag this off, we first spoke with Prof. P. S. Robi, Dean of R&D, IIT Guwahati, to gain a general back-ground relating to these researches. According to what he had to say, we could mainly classify the projects into the following categories -

1. Academic researches2. Industrial projects3. Strategic projects4. Social development projects

In this issue, we bring to you descrip-tions of two projects that have won accolades:

1. Treatment of fluoride containing drinking water by electrocoagula-tion using monopolar and bipolar electrode connections (Dr. M K Purkait, Department of Chemical Engineering)

Dr. Purkait was honoured with the INSA Young Scientist Award in 2009 as an acknowledgement of his contri-butions towards the development of novel waste water treatment, mem-brane separation technologies and enhanced oil recovery technology. He is currently working on regulation of Fluoride content in drinking water.

Project Synopsis:

Groundwater contamination has been a major issue due to the presence of various pollutants such as fluoride, pesticides, heavy metals etc. Fluoride contamination is a serious problem in several parts of India as well as in different parts of the world. Its adequate presence (>4 mg L_1) in the ground water causes serious

damage to the teeth and bones in the form of a disease called fluorosis. Most techniques to limit the fluoride content in water concentrate mainly on parameters such as current density, conductivity, pH and inter electrode distance for the electro coagulation (EC) process.

However, there are certain other factors like number of electrodes and electrode connection mode (monopolar and bipolar) that may also play an important role in the EC process. In order to achieve the cost-effective fluoride removal from drink-ing water, a techno-economical comparative analysis is undoubtedly essential. In his work, Dr. Purkait investigated the two different electrode connections (monopolar and bipolar) for choosing the better alternative in order to intensify the performance of the process.

Different initial concentration (4-10 mg L_1) of fluoride was considered for the experiment that had duration of 45 min. Experiments were carried out with different current densities. Corrosion of electrodes as well as the sludge formation during the experi-ments for both electrode connections were estimated. Variation of film thick-ness deposited over the electrode surfaces with change in initial fluoride

Ours

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September 2010 09

the hillock mocked him. it stood there, lush, unmoving, oft foreboding, and yet, inviting. for three years, he resisted it. urges, buried under mounds of excuses, false convictions, and unre-alistic aspirations. and after three years, it took a sketchbook to set them urges free.

it had only just ceased drizzling. ‘twas nine in the morn; a rainbow still hung about, only barely out of reach. and that forest was damp. he walked up the steps cut into the ground, heading up the hillock. down and behind him, the campus rolled out, and further on, drowned into the bramhaputra. the river meandered off into a horizon each time he turned to look back from a higher vantage.

there was a tank at the top of the hillock. men oft came here, but none ventured to look beyond the afforded steps. a tree’d recently fallen there, and stooped to block the entrance to the tank compound. he didn’t care. he just stood there, and turned back to look at the steps he’d left behind. carved steps, mudded and moist, covered in foliage and trodden on.and that was when his eyes lit up.

the foxes had followed him; shy, they kept their distance, but stood not a hundred metres in his wake. he couldn’t move up, and he wouldn’t want to move back down. those shy ones would have scurried away if hedid. so he chose his spot, and lay

himself down. the foxes stood there, pranced about, and went about their usual business, for, they didn’t mind him. careful, yet playful.

so he pulled out his sketchbook, and that wooden pencil. he plugged-in those headphones of his, and soon got lost. he was sylvan for the morn,

seated there. bent over a book, ears drowned, and eyes gazing about. he drew the leaves that were around him – lain below, perched above, scattered about, and utterly every-where.

he realised that he indeed couldn’t draw well, and he realised that mos-quitoes there had yellow eyes. he noticed them ants, and them pink dragonflies. the wasp that flew aound, and the hum that never died. what he didn’t notice was the foxes; they soon went forth, unto another part of the forest – it was small, but it was theirs, and they knew it well. over the years, he’d seen them often, but they’d always run off into the trees when he tried chasing them on his bicycle.

an hour and a half later he stood up, and walked back down. the forest felt him leave. a feeling, that he couldn’t mirror. for, he’d never even felt himself arrive. how could he have? he’d always been there. in his heart. in all his heart. and he could never leave. --- Shobhan Shah B Des IV

Cam

pus

Wor

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orth

on

Three heavy metals of serious environmental impact, lead, copper and cadmium were selected after a screening procedure based on the adsorption capacity of P.chrysosporium

The effects of various factors such as initial metal concentration, biosorbent dose and pH on metal uptake by P. chrysosporium were studied and optimized using statistically designed experiment and response surface methodology. The values of determi-nation coefficient (R2) for lead and cadmium (0.912 and 0.863 respec-tively) suggested that the regression models were able to satisfactorily predict the behavior of lead and cadmium biosorption systems with reasonable accuracy. Optimization studies indicated that statistically designed experiment using response surface methodology could be effec-tively adopted for optimization of process variables.

Batch biosorption equilibrium and kinetics in the uptake of metals by P. chrysosporium was studied and mod-eled using suitable equilibrium and kinetic models from the literature. Regeneration and reuse of the biomass for metal biosorption was investigated over a number of sorp-tion / desorption cycles, which indicated that the live biomass can be reused after acid regeneration for at least four cycles without any signifi-cant change in metal uptake capacity. For all the metals, more than 70–80% recovery of the metals could be achieved after each cycle of elution with acid.

Thus, the use of live P. chrysospo-rium, instead of the killed or inacti-vated biomass, in fixed bed columns is suggested for removal and recov-ery of heavy metals from wastewa-ters, which would also permit easy regeneration and reuse of the fungus for subsequent operations in the same column.

For three years,

advised the students to take advan-tage of such sessions. Speaking about the postgraduates, he said they’re technically much stronger than B.Tech. The only reason lesser number of PGs than UGs are able to get placed are communication and HR skills. So, now we know what we need to work on the most!

We have all heard scary stories about the placement ambience in here– about how companies favour some departments over others, about how there is always that friend who is yet to be placed, about how the rat race manifests itself in uncomfortable conversations at the dinner table. And yet, it passes, and the celebrations do happen in the end.

This year, companies have insisted on being able to take the written tests along with their PPTs itself. This means that we’re experiencing the placement anxieties and blues much earlier than we’d have liked. But the initial protests and grumblings later, we all did rummage through the old books we’d shoved up the almirah, and sat down to pore over them. So here’s to all the guys who’re sitting for placements this year. God bless us all ! The details of placement 2009-10 can be seen on this site: http://shilloi.iitg.ernet.in/~placement/ intra/job-2009-10.html.

Quotes:

“You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird. So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the differ-ence between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”

-- Richard Feynman

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September 2010 10

Placements are always an anxious time on campus, and under-standably so. After all, it is sort of a culmination of all that we had hoped for when we’d chosen engineering at IITG over the other millions of things we could’ve done with our lives.

And so, after three years and a bounty of experiences – more amaz-ing than anything we could’ve asked for, we have arrived at the day of The Last Judgment - this time much earlier than we’d all expected actually. At this point, we bring to you a gist of the love-hate relationship that IITG and the recruiting biggies have been in for eternity. A glimpse of the have beens and will-be’s:

A couple of years ago, the Great Economic Recession was the only thing that sustained conversations. Indeed, it had hit the whole world hard. We weren’t spared either. It was not really the best time for getting placed. Although things have gotten a lot better in the following years, the repercussions are still being felt. Especially in an institute such as ours, which has been victim to various other problems - for instance, companies have forever chickened out from visiting our campus due to security reasons. Then there is this company that has blacklisted our campus simply because all those who get into it ultimately do not fulfill the joining formalities. However, the Placement Cell agrees that this is inevitable since it is no fault of the students if they decide to choose another career path for themselves- such as deciding to get an MS or an MBA degree.

In such a scenario, it really falls upon the placement in-charges to make sure companies visit us, and upon us to make sure we do well so that com-panies go back with an incentive to keep visiting us in the coming years. Sure enough, the Placement Cell has been working hard this year–the most

notable initiative being the introduc-tion of online profiles for students, that is eventually expected to be robust enough to serve as a portal for the healthy interaction of the compa-nies with the student community even before they arrive on campus.

But if we go by what the Placement Cell has to say about the students’ attitude towards placements, then it’s not all that great. They say there’ve been cases where students have asked to keep the panel waiting because they were out in the city ! But we figure such extremities are only the rarest of cases, and by and large we are in fact extremely concerned about how the placements go by. Which is why we asked our Place-ment Secretary to give us some gyan on the secret formula to crack the biggies. And this is what we got – at IITG, most of us lose out mainly on the grounds of unsatisfactory soft skills. The Placement Cell says that the companies repeatedly give a feedback that points a finger at our non technical aspects. To resolve this issue, lot of departments and student groups take up initiatives where mock GDs are conducted and shortcom-ings discussed. However, the number of students who actually attend these sessions is shamefully low. The Placement Secretary strongly

PL C

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match after being penalized. The drug abuse scandals of Mohammed Asif & Shoaib Akhtar rocked the cricketing fraternity. The tainted duo were detained in England for many days & faced enquiry. Imagine the supposed murder of the late Pakistan coach Bob Woomer, which rocked the world during the World Cup’2007, in the Caribbean. The video evidence which showed the ball tampering by Captain Shahid Afridi, using his teeth to damage the ball in a match against Australia was indeed shocking. How-ever, the most recent match fixing scandal is the most shameful offence of all which has thrown cricket to jeop-ardy. This time, in the form of three tainted cricketers- Salman Butt, Mohammed Aamer and Mohammed Asif.

However, as an irony of fact, each time except the last one (the spot fixing verdict is yet pending), the Paki-stan Cricket Board clears its players with some mere fines. Most cricketers commit crimes repeatedly, as they know that they are ultimately going to be cleared. This is indeed a very serious matter. The ICC must take steps to bring the guilty cricketers to book or else the great game itself will run in to jeopardy.

However, as an irony of fact, each time except the last one (the spot fixing verdict is yet pending), the Paki-stan Cricket Board clears its players with some mere fines. Most cricketers commit crimes repeatedly, as they know that they are ultimately going to be cleared. This is indeed a very serious matter. The ICC must take steps to bring the guilty cricketers to book or else the great game itself will run in to jeopardy. Crime cannot be confined to one country, even Mohammed Azharud-din, Ajay Jadeja, Nikhil Chopra of India and Hansie Cronje of South Africa faced life bans for their alleged involvement in match fixing scandals which rocked the world at the start of the new millennium. Because of all these wrong reasons, people have lost all their love for the game. There has been serious exodus of specta-tors & supporters to other sports like football or tennis. People now do not understand whether what they are watching is for real, or just put-on. Unless and until, the International Cricket Council (ICC) takes adequate steps in rooting out this evil menace with the help of its Anti corruption agency, the confidence of people cannot be brought back to cricket. And to sum up - I, being a true cricket fan and addict, do absolutely agree as pointed out by the master blaster, Sachin Tendulkar, “The ICC should make a thorough probe in whatever had happened in England & take appropriate action if the players are found guilty. If the allegations are true, they will certainly bring disrepute to the game.” Let’s hope that the game will be able to overcome this great crisis and withstand the onslaughts of time. Long Live Cricket, Long Live The Spirit.

--- Basab Bhattacharjee

G-Newsletter

September 2010 11

, once known as “The Gentlemen’s Game” is now the home of cheats, bookies and goons. People have lost their love for the game with the passage of time. While once thou-sands of people did throng the stadi-ums to support their cricketers playing for national pride, now - after the advent of the Twenty-20 format one can hardly find capacity seat occupancy in 50 over formats let alone the tests. Society now has become fast paced. People cannot find time to waste in 50 over or test matches.

When the game is itself in this hour of crisis, a handful of crooks in the uniform of cricketers are hell bent upon to auction the last remaining pride the game has earned for itself over the years. In fact the bottom line is that cricket is no more “A Gentleman’s Game”. Gone are the days of the Bradmans, the Laras, the Gavaskars, the Richards’s - who donned their bats as a classic sword whose glitter used to over whelm the bowlers in dismay. Or, the Hadlees, the Walshs, the McGraths & the Warnes, whose balls seemed like a hissing cobra to the eyes of the bats-men. But now cricketers pay more attention to advertisements, endorsements, shopping and parties rather than concentrating on the game itself, which was what earned them the status which they are enjoying today in the first place. Cricket loses its shine every time a crime engulfs it. Be it ball tampering, drug abuse, pitch invasion, or even match fixing. Even among the crimes, one nation has stood itself over others for the wrong reasons – Pakistan.

Almost every year, we can find the names of Pakistan cricketers in news-papers for reasons outside cricket. Imagine the ball tempering scandal by Inzamam–Ul –Haq and his boys in England. They even walked out of the

CRIME and CRICKET

Cricket

initial fidgeting and qualms of the administration to look into the matter, what followed was the submission of a proposal on behalf of all residents of Subansiri. The proposal stated clearly the need for appropriate action to be taken as soon as possible. It described the status quo regarding the insufficient number of security guards that are presently assigned to the hostel, and broken fencing around the hostel among others. That all the workers stay right behind the hostel with no barricading that can partition their area from the hostel, was stated as a major inconvenience.

Once this was done, the necessary approvals were passed by the admin-istration considerably quickly, and work has already begun to realize them. Some of the major measures that are being implemented include having the workers removed from the proximity of the hostel building, grills fitted to the windows and fences are being repaired and heightened. The SAC guards have been asked to patrol the side of the hostel adjacent to the SAC area.

We hope that these measures shall fulfill their purpose, and Subansiri will soon go back to being the safe haven that it once was. And the permanent locking of doors that the residents have been asked to implement will eventually cease to be a necessity.

during the later part of the previous semester, the IITG administration introduced certain changes in the routes followed by the external buses on campus, and this did not go down very well with the student community in general. The

change meant that the buses would no longer stop at some of the earlier halting points, most of which were those closest to the boys’ hostels. Instead, we would now have to come all the way to the guest house in order to board the bus.The new bus route is equally inconve-nient for the faculty and staff commu-nities as well. Buses that earlier went around the faculty/staff quarters now have to be boarded, once again, from either the guest house or the Admin circle.

When the Students’ Gymkhana raised this issue with the Dean of Administration, Prof. S. Dandapat, he kindly agreed to address the senate and provide justifications for this change in route. We present to you a gist of the above discussion, and a couple of points about the introduc-tion of the internal buses as well, towards the end of this piece:

Firstly, the Dean said that there is a government policy in place which does not allow government organiza-tions to purchase vehicles. As a result, we are left with no other option but to outsource our travel needs. This, he said, introduces a major financial constraint. With this status quo, it falls upon the institute to think of ways to cut down the costs. One of the ways this can be done is by choosing judiciously the intra-campus route – a huge amount, he said, could be saved in this manner.

G-Newsletter

September 2010 12

the past few weeks, the secu-rity at Subansiri hostel has grown to be a major concern for its residents as well as the IITG administration. Over the summer and during this semester, there have been repeated reportings of thefts, which have resulted in the loss of residents’ possessions such as phones, cameras and cash. The final blow due to which the situation embraced a whole new level of seriousness came when a laptop was stolen from one of the rooms when its resident was asleep. Moreover, the culprit latched the room from outside before he made his exit. G brings to you details of these occurrences and what happened next –

It all began during the summer of 2010, when the construction work for adding a new wing to the building was on in full swing. Residents who had stayed back on campus began to notice that several of their posses-sions had gone missing. A group of postgraduate students of the hostel approached the institute Director with this issue, after which Subansiri witnessed certain amount of action to avoid such happenings in future – such as the provision of latches to the ventilators in the rooms.

But to no avail. Once the semester began and all its residents returned, more such incidents were reported. With the most recent occurrence of the theft of the laptop , the gravity of the issue sky-rocketed. After some

What the security cell has to say on the issue ?

The security cell agrees that the introduction of the construction

workers near the girls’ hostel has led to certain compromises in the safety of its residents. They have to also say, however, that it is not appropriate on the part of the girls to stay out until late in the night, and have asked the residents to

maintain a level of decency. How-ever, we are yet to figure out how this is in any way relevant to the

theft incidents in the hostel.

Over

Routeat I ITG

Sometime

Issues at Subansiri

G-Newsletter

September 2010 13

Also, he stated that the fast increas-ing population on campus calls invari-ably for the increase in the number of external campus buses in the near future. Presently, every point on campus is visited by one bus per twenty minutes. In such a case, if buses are allowed to ply through the entire older route, we would turn into nothing less than a township. This is not what we want in an academic campus, said the dean. The administration is, in any case, still pretty open to hearing our views on the matter, and we request you all to share your concerns, and contribute valuable feedback to the gymkhana. Once valid concerns are identified - those which the above justifications fall short of explaining, the issue will be taken forward through a proper channel by the Students’ Gymkhana. The dean also mentioned that the admin would take certain other mea-sures such as the survey and improvement of the shuttle buses and incorporation of low board buses with larger capacities with an intention to remove the inconveniences being presently faced by the community. There are also extra buses being plied on weekends, and on special occasions such as the beginning of the semesters and college level festivals.

As for the internal buses, their final schedule has been pretty much worked out. This has been done so as to synchronize them with the timings of the city buses. In the case that you observe this is not happening, we encourage you to bring this point to notice, so that the admin is able to monitor the buses more stringently and resolve this matter as well, as early as possible.

The task at hand - we had to jump a gap of a hundred feet and land on one foot which would hopefully remain unbroken ( No guarantee though !! ). Okay well not exactly that, but pretty similar. We had to shift from the safe protected environment of our lovely schools to this crazed place called IIT. A place where we were to learn a couple of lessons :

1. Time management is essentially the ability to manage without any time.

2. Lectures are actually faculties obsessed with their computers and power point presentations , very conveniently forgetting the presence of the 300 member crowd seated patiently before them , waiting eagerly ( okay well maybe not all that eagerly, but waiting anyway ) for the wise words of wisdom that never drop from their lips.

3. Labs are actually a routine check to see whether you have been taking P.T. seriously. If you are able to stand hunched over complicated sets of apparatus for 3 hours at a stretch, you are most definitely pretty physically fit and mentally healthy.

4. Club meetings are these things you attend to remind you to forget how terrible labs and lectures sometimes are !

5. Club workshops are these things you attend when you haven’t joined the club, because you have just remembered that you had forgotten about how terrible labs and lectures sometimes are !!

6. The concept of quizzes was intro-duced to give students a feel of what Doomsday is like, or what it is like to die a slow painful death, so that they’re not caught unaware or by surprise if they find themselves in either of the 2 situations. Well at least they would have already rehearsed it a few times by then.

7. It is inevitably only the night before a test that you will finally understand what you have to study, how you have to study and why you have to study. Sadly however this enlightenment will serve no purpose since now there is no time to study!!

What College Teaches You???

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- MüuÉseÉÏiÉ MüÉæU

G-Newsletter

September 2010 14

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G-Newsletter

September 2010 15

Sudhanshu Mittal

Prabaham Shakya

Tushar Chandra

Apurba Shakti Boro

Nature’s Lessons Unlearnt

Tug at a thing in Nature, and you will find the whole world connected,Amongst us the filled pockets overflow, poor, like trash remain rejected.Suppressing even the tiniest of phytoplanktons, this nature doesn’t allow,Its holding hands together that all natural things grow.The mighty oceans gently kiss and welcome the lesser river with gratificationThe vast skies with no boundaries- something beyond human imagination.

Step by step, nothing deters their determinationBit by bit, they build their awe inspiring creation.The bird’s nest- Nature’s beautiful lesson, unparalleled inspiration-Patiently put the pieces together- you will reach your destination.

The river gallops forth eroding obstacles of rocks and mighty stoneDead end nonexistent, they fabricate a path of their ownWhereas, even the tiniest of tests results in human’s groan.

The unpretentious tree pours mercy sans expectationWe move not an inch towards kindness without apprehension.

Don’t sacrifice your being, it aint necessary to be carried along,To be lured into acts of Judas Kiss, to take the beaten wrong path, a temptation mighty strong.Stand out, be the lotus, free yourself from burdens of repentance,Don’t deceive to achieve, sweat along and enjoy the satisfaction.

A ladder case to heavens, gateways to paradise, no materialistic can manufacture,The active yet dormant calmness of the lake, the rejuvenating freshness of the gardenJust the gentle connection of conscience with natureLike the heavenly skies bow down and merge with the land of commons at the horizon.

Let humans not be the cancer of the planet,Nature is teaching us, it might later not give a chance to repent.Its time to lift the black curtains of pseudo advancement,Nature is teaching us, its time to implement.

--- Harshit.

Editor Editorial Board

Design

: Sadhwi Srinivas: Minal Jain, Rishika Jain, Prannay, Prateek Jain, Raunak, Sanjana Gupta, Kartikeya Mohan Sahai, Srishti Bhutani: Vikash Kumar, Kheni Dhaval

G newsletter is a publication meant for public circulation only. The views expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of Students Gymkhana, IIT Guwahati.