Newsletter

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Kerala SectionJuly-September 2011

Volume: 20 #3 July-September 2011

A House Journal of IEEE Kerala Section http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r10/kerala

ComSoc, GOLD Activities | Diary of Events | Global News | SB Activities

In 2011 the IEEE Educational Activities Board in collaboration with volunteers of the IEEE Uruguay Section hosted a two-and-a-half-day (6th to 8th July, 2011) Symposium in Montevideo, Uruguay to explore how informal learning environments, specifically science and technology centers could be leveraged to reach the pre-university audience. The objective of the E-Scientia Around the World Symposium was to discuss and plan the expansion of a hands-on museum exhibit called E-Scientia to science and technology museums in IEEE Regions globally. Activities included a demonstration of the E-Scientia exhibit, discussions on the refinement of educational materials and planning for expansion of the exhibit through partnerships with local science and technology museums. The nearly 40 participants in attendance included teams of IEEE volunteers and museum professionals representing eight countries, local educators, and IEEE Educational Activities Department professional staff. Funding for the Symposium was provided by the IEEE Foundation Life Members Fund and the IEEE Educational Activities Board.

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Kerala Section July-September 2011

‘We are our own masterWe make our own future.’

The quote states that ‘if we must know for ourselves, directly, the truth of ourselves and that cannot be realized through another person, however great he

may be’. There is no authority other than we who can reveal this truth in us. The moment we acknowledge another as a master and ourselves as a pupil, we are denying this truth. We are very clear and we know the fact, then there is no need to follow anyone. No one can force us to transform our minds. We must do so voluntarily. Its usefulness is indispensable in living a more meaningful and happy life. Always we are responsible for the quality of our lives, happiness and resources. Accordingly for achieving a meaningful life we need to transform our own emotions. This is the most effective way to bring about future happiness for ourselves and for all others. So, as mentioned, ‘we are our own master’.

In our life, generally, we are developing within ourselves our own belief system. Also we set by our own goals, driven by the direction from our insight. At the same time occasionally we are influenced by our friends or others from our own surroundings. This is because we must learn for ourselves through others from their thought, speech and action. It is normal to watch and understand what others are doing even though it may not be of much benefit to us. Naturally each of us is at a different learning curve and place. So we have to practice at following others and learn from them and achieve more needed for our life. This is not a blind acceptance of others or as a result of their compulsion. Perhaps our friends are stepping back in order to give us room to grow and move along our own personal path. Always we need the capability to recognize what we find for ourselves what we need.

Then, how to become our own master? See, if we don’t love ourselves, we cannot love others. We cannot expect others to love us. At the same time the ‘happiness is not something ready-made.

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Kerala SectionJuly-September 2011 Kerala Section

Contents

IEEE Kerala Section, ThiruvananthapuramOffice: ‘Harmonieee’, 2695-5, Ambujavilasom Road, Thiruvananthapuram - 695 001

Chairman Vice Chairman Secretary Treasurer Satish Babu Srinivasan R K.B. Senthilkumar Sarada Jayakrishnan [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Home page: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r10/kerala | e-mail: [email protected]: [email protected] | Phone: +91-471-2473515

IEEE India Office: Prestige Meridian-11, Unit No. S-306, Block-2, Level-3, MG Road, Bangalore - 560 001

International Headquarters: The Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, Inc.3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, New York - 10016-5997, USA.

02 Editorial04 Chairman’s Message

05 Malabar Subsection News

07 Kochi Subsection News

09 NT’s ColumnComputational Photography

11 Sections Congress 2011

13 RAICS18 ComSoc Report

Volume: 20 #3July-September 2011

A House Journal of IEEE Kerala Section

21 E-Scientia Symposium

22 TISP Workshop

24 CEC - 2011 26 CS Online Session

28 CMS Workshop

30 Diary of Events

32 All India Student Congress-2011

37 FRIZBEE 2011

39 Student Branch ActivitiesSIST, Vellanad TKMCE, Kollam MCET, Anad

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As decided earlier by the ExeCom, Kerala Section convened its 6th ExeCom on Saturday, 15 October 2011, at Kozhikode. About 20 ExeCom members and other IEEE volunteers took part in the meeting. With this meeting being held at Kozhikode and the previous one held at Cochin, Kerala Section has met its internal objective of convening ExeCom meetings in different parts of the state of Kerala during 2011. The decision to hold meetings across the state is consistent with Kerala section’s stated preference for a decentralized model of operation, a position that also influenced our decision to start subsections in Malabar and Cochin.

Decentralized operations also bring in some new challenges: the lines of communication between different societies, affinity groups, and organizational entities such as LINK & GOLD with the parent section become more complex with the addition of two subsections, especially since the former units are not divided along subsection lines. Another issue--which was also raised during the recent ExeCom--related to the apportioning of financial resources for subsection activities. These issues will need to be resolved as we get going in earnest in the current mode of Section-subsection operations.

Kerala Section successfully hosted its first international conference, RAICS 2011. A large team of volunteers led by the Conference Chair, Mr. EE Rajakumar, worked very hard to realize this event. The event was well conducted and we have positive feedback from participants. This is indeed a milestone, and has inspired several other international events that are forthcoming during this year and the next. A report of RAICS is available in this issue of the Chapter Newsletter.

The Kerala Section Computer Society Chapter hosted an online session for the top leaders of the IEEE Computer Society, namely the IEEE CS President, Dr. Sorel Reisman, President-elect Mr. John Walz and Vice President, MGAB, Dr. Kasturi Rangachar. Dr. Kasturi was physically present at the venue which was Amphitheater, while the others joined the online session from different parts of the world. A report of the event is provided in this issue.

Finally, the Section participated in the IEEE Sections Congress held in San Francisco in August 2011. This was a good opportunity to meet

Chairman’s MessageChairman’s Message

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fellow professionals from other parts of the global IEEE fraternity as well as colleagues from the India Council. A report of the Sections Congress is also provided in this issue.

My best wishes to all members for the Festive Season.Satish Babu

Chair, Kerala Section

Malabar Subsection News

Workshop on Smart Grid Engineering at NITC

The two day national workshop on SMART GRID ENGINEERING, organized by IEEE Malabar Sub-section and the Department of Electrical Engineering, NIT Calicut in association with Institution of Engineers (India), Kozhikode Chapter was held on 29th and 30th July 2011.

V.P. Joy IAS (Chairman, KSEB) inaugurated the workshop and gave the keynote address. He highlighted the major challenges in energy sector and the potentials of SMART GRID engineering and listed the initiatives by KSEB in

this regard. K Prabhakaran Nair (Director in charge, NIT Calicut) presided over the function and A Achuthan (Former President Institution of Engineers), K.P. Mo-handas, Chair, IEEE Malabar sub-section and Sreeramkumar, Head Electrical Engg, NIT Calicut gave felicitations. Ashok, Coordinator of the programme gave the welcome address and Sameer Secretary IEEE Malabar subsection proposed vote of thanks. Following the inaugu-ration, there were three technical presentations on 29th and four on 30th July.

The technical presentations on the first day were by S.S.Ashok, (Professor, EED, NIT Calicut) on a “Introduction to Smart Grid”, by Sreeramkumar, Professor & Head, EE on “Wide Area Measurement (WAM) and Phase Measuring Units (PMUs)” by Rajesh Kumar P, Associate Head & Senior Program Manager NEST Thiruvanantha-puram on “Smart Energy Meter” and by Muhammed Shameem

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recommendation that: Research on Smart Grid Engineering should be focus at the institution level, jointly with utility companies, research organizations and industries. Utility companies should come forward for field and trial testing of prototypes developed through research.

Reported by: K.P. Mohandas, Chair, IEEE Malabar Sub-section, Calicut.

P.V., from Kalki Communication Technologies Ltd, Bangaolre on “Protocol Security”.

Second day of the workshop started with a presentation of “Integration of distributed sources in Smart Grid” by Aby Joseph, Sci-entist, CDAC Thiruvananthapuram, followed by S Kumaravel, Assistant Professor, (EED, NIT Calicut) on “Hybrid Energy System’, and by Biju, Kalki Communication Tech-nologies Ltd, Bangalore on “Dis-tributed Management Systems”. Seventy practising engineers and academicians from all over the country, including delegates from KSEB, CDAC, CIT(Coimbatore), Mathrubhumi, MIT (Chennai) College of Engg Trivandrum and other institutions participated. Workshop concluded with a

It comes from our own actions’. Generally we are chasing happiness in our life. Difficulties and painful experiences are not uncommon. In such situations usually we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster. If we have fear on some pain or suffering, we should examine whether there is anything we can do about it. If we can, there is no need to worry about it. If we cannot do anything; even then there is also no need to worry. There exists happiness. If we have no compassion for ourselves then we are not able to develop compassion for others. This is the essence of the preaching of our predecessors. Now a question arises, can it be achieved by everyone? Of course, everyone can!

Ultimately, we have to recognize the great diversity in the mental inclinations and dispositions of human beings. Consider the talent, genius, education, persistence, etc in a person. Out of these, nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Consider one by one. Think about talent, which will not, as nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Similarly genius will not, as unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. What about education? It will not, since

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Kochi Subsection News

General Body Meeting & Technical TalkActivity-1: General Body Meeting of Kochi Subsection Date: 3rd of August 2011 at 17:30 hrs.Venue: NPOL DROMI (Mess)

Around 40 members including professional and student members attended the meeting. The meeting started by reading out the IEEE Code of Ethics by Unnikrishnan, Chair of Kochi Subsection. An Overview of IEEE, Geographical Divisions, Societies, Affinity groups, etc were given by Shahim Baker, Secretary of Kochi Subsection. The meeting discussed the future plans of the subsection. There was an interac-tive session between students of various colleges and professional. The students briefed about how they are carrying out their SB activities. The execom members of subsection offered their full support to the student branches.

Activity-2: Monthly Evening TalkDate: 7th September 2011 on 17:45 hrs.Venue: PWD Rest House Kunnum-puram, Kakkanadu, Kochi.Topic: “Smart Grid Concepts and the Indian Perspective”Speaker: Simon Akkara, Joint Director, KSEB Regional IT Unit, Kochi.

The speaker gave a detailed idea about Smart Grids, their implemen-tation, challenges, etc. Smart Grid is a conceptual change that has happened in power system transmis-sion and distribution since its inven-tion. Even though the Smart Grid evolution is happening in developed countries and is some of the lesser known countries as well, the Indian scenario is slightly different. The talk also discussed the Indian scenario and how the Indian Smart Grid will probably evolve.

Reported by: Shahim Baker,Secretary, Kochi Subsection

the world is full of educated derelicts. (You may differ in these views – ok, let it be). At the same time persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. These help us to shape our future and elevate us to greater heights of achievements. We must understand it and go into it. Then examine it by all means to find out a way of living differently. That depends on us, and not on someone else. Where, we can find in each one of us a teacher and the pupil.

Here, we are the Master; and we are the leader. Yes, “men are masters of their fate”.

- K.Gopalan Nair

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IEEE members can stay current in their chosen

technology profession and keep connected to peers

by joining an IEEE Society in their

area of interest.

Celebrate IEEE Day On 6th October 2011, IEEE will celebrate the 2nd annual IEEE Day. The goal of this event is to generate awareness for IEEE. This year’s theme is ‘Empowering Members to Create the Future’, and based on the experience from last year, the organizers have prepared a new website with new features and enhancements to support this theme. Information is also being posted on facebook, twitter and linkedin.

Plan an event at your IEEE Student Branch and help share the excitement, visions and joy about IEEE. To register your event, go to the online form at http://www.ieeeday.org/local-event/submit-your-event/

We look forward to your involvement.

My best regards, Laura

Laura J. Durrett Manager - Student Activities IEEE Member and Geographic Activities Department 445 Hoes Lane Piscataway, NJ 08854

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NT’s Column

Computational PhotographyNew digital cameras don’t just capture

photons; they compute pictures

A classic example of disruptive technology (Courtesy: Prof. Clay-ton M. Christensen of Harvard B School) is the digital camera which sent into oblivion a number of products and services ruling the photographic scene for several decades. With the arrival of digital cameras the film based photog-raphy had to recede and almost vanish from the scene.

A digital camera has a silicon sensor in the place of the film and a small display screen on the back. However, the lens, shutter, the rest of the optical components and most of the controls work are as in the film cameras. The images that come out of the camera also look much the same - at least until you examine them microscopically.

Compiled by: N T Nair, Former Chair, IEEE India Council &Chief Editor, Executive Knowledge Lines monthly

Now a novel approach to photographic imaging is making its way into these cameras - Computational Photography. A sub-discipline of computer graphics, it refers broadly to sensing strategies and algorithmic techniques that enhance the capabilities of digital photography. The output of these techniques looks like an ordinary photograph, but one that could not have been taken by a traditional camera. The basic premise is to use multiple exposures, and even multiple lenses, to capture information from which a photograph is created. These data containing a host of potential pictures are converted by specialized software into what looks like a conventional photo.

The best known example of computational photography is high-dynamic-range (HDR) imag-ing, which combines multiple photos shot in rapid succession, and at different exposures, into one picture of superior quality. So, where a single snap may miss out on detail in the lightest and darkest areas, an HDR image of the same scene looks well lit. HDR, once a specialised technique employed

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mostly by professionals, changed when Apple added it as an option in its iPhone 4. HDR is just one way to splice together different images of the same subject, says Marc Levoy of Stanford University, who kick started the field in 1996. Since then, aspects of computa-tional photography have moved from academia into commercial products.

Focusing images well has been difficult since the beginnings of photography in 1839. Three chal-lenges faced by photo-enthusiasts are: the difficulty in having to choose what to focus on before clicking the shutter, the awkward coupling between aperture size and depth of field, and the high optical complexity of lenses re-quired to produce aberration-free images.

These problems arise because conventional cameras record only the sum of all light rays striking each pixel on the image plane. The unified solution proposed to the above problems by researchers is to record the light field inside

the camera: not just the position but also the direction of light rays striking the image plane. The basic idea is to use an array of micro-lenses in front of the photosensor in a regular digital camera. The extra ray directional information enables unprecedented capabili-ties after exposure. For example, it is possible to compute final photographs that are refocused at different depths, or that have extended depth of field, by re-sorting the recorded light rays appropriately. Theory predicts, and experiments corroborate, that blur due to incorrect focus can be reduced by a factor approximately equal to the directional resolu-tion of the recorded light rays. Similarly, digital correction of lens aberrations re-sorts aberrant light rays to where they should ideally have converged, improving image contrast and resolution. Future cameras based on these principles will be physically simpler, capture light more quickly, and provide greater flexibility in finishing pho-tographs.

IEEE Awards Programme Announces Call for 2013 Nominations

For almost a century, IEEE has bestowed technical field awards on individuals in recognition of their contributions and leadership in specific fields of interest to the IEEE.

Nominations for the 2013 IEEE Technical Field Awards can be initiated by any individual who can clearly describe the work of the nominee and its significance. An award candidate need not be an IEEE member, but the nomination must meet specific criteria and describe an important contribution to the field of interest covered by the award. Submissions will be accepted through 31 January 2012. To learn more about the IEEE Technical Field Awards, visit: http://www.ieee.org/awards.

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IEEE Sections Congress 2011

The 2011 IEEE Sections Congress was held during 19-22 August 2011 at Hotel Marriot, San Francisco. Sections Congresses are held once every three years, and all Section Chairs are expected to attend this meeting. The Kerala Section Chair, Satish Babu, attended the Congress as the primary delegate from Kerala Section. Amarnath Raja from Kerala Section also attended the Congress in the capacity of R10 Executive Committee member.

The Sections Congress was a vast event with numerous plenary and breakout sessions such as IEEE Honors Ceremony, R10 ExeCom Meeting, India Council meeting. The former President of India,

“Empowering Members to Create the Future”19-22 August 2011, Hotel Marriot, San Francisco

His Excellency Dr. Abdul Kalam, was awarded the 2011 Honorary Membership of IEEE at the Honors Ceremony for providing “... the Technological Vision to Improve Quality of Life While Developing the Country”.

IEEE Kerala Section was short-listed for the Poster Session, which was presented by Satish Babu, Chair, IEEE Kerala Section. The poster attracted quite a bit of attention and discussions.

In addition, the Section Chair also made a presentation (details available at http://goo.gl/VJMaq) in the breakout session on “Development and Promotion of Section-driven Humanitarian

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Technology Projects”. The session was chaired by Amarnath Raja, and attendees included the Peter Staecker who was a candidate for IEEE President’s elections for 2013 (he has been declared elected since).

All primary delegates from Sections voted to choose the five top recommendations during the closing ceremony of the Congress (more details available at http://goo.gl/6xD6c). The following emerged as the top five recommendations:1. IEEE to develop a comprehensive

long-term strategy to increase the number of next generation youth pursuing science and engineering careers.

2. As members maintain their IEEE membership over their years, IEEE must reward them for their loyalty. Rewards ought to be tangible and useful and can be done simply and inexpen-sively. Create Global Fidelity Programs including: (a) Continue membership Recognition 5-10-15-20 years of membership (b) Bonus for specific Benefits (e.g.,

reduced fee, IEEE merchandise, etc).

3. IEEE membership (including e-Membership) should include a Society membership as part of the basic membership fee.http://www.ieee.org/societies_communities/geo_activities/sections_congress/2011/sc2011_recommendations.html

4. Increased support to students in technical activities with grants to attend conferences and organization of technical competitions.

5. To encourage interest in pre-university students in engineering careers, IEEE to publish a subscription periodical (paper or electronic) targeted to high school students that highlights engineering activities of interest to those students. The periodical should also have articles promoting the benefits of an engineering career and what the students can do in college to get involved with IEEE.

Reported by: Sathish BabuSection Chair, IEEE Kerala

Microsoft Targets $400 Million From India Microsoft is targeting revenue of $400 million from its Indian operations in its FY2011-12 (August to July), a 30 percent growth over the last fiscal.The software major expects one-third of the revenue to come from the cloud business which in the past 12 months contributed only around 5 per-cent to its overall revenue.Microsoft has laid out an aggressive strategy which includes restructuring its entire partner organization by making it more linear and creating dedicated account management teams to drive its cloud business.

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Being a first of its kind confer-ence, RAICS-2011 is a milestone in the annals of IEEE Kerala Section. The co-organizers were Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering, Tvpm, College of Engineering, Trivandrum and Government Engineering College, Barton Hill, Tvpm. IEEE Region 10 was a tech-nical co-sponsor.

The conference received 511 submissions from 13 different countries. The wide reach of the conference was facilitated by the IEEE Conference Service System and the dedicated conference website www.raics.org.

All the submissions were peer reviewed as per the IEEE Confer-ence Policy. We are thankful to the Technical Program Committee Members and the experts from academia and industry who final-ized the 251 Papers for Oral and Poster sessions for the excellent job done. All the presented papers will be published in the IEEE Xplore, the online IEEE Digital Library.

Authors of about 180+ papers registered for the conference. There were very few absentees and most

A Report on the IEEE International Conference on Recent Advances in Intelligent Computational Systems [RAICS-2011]

held during September 22-24 at Hotel Mascot, Thiruvananthapuram

of the registrants being actually present contributed significantly to the quality of the conference.

The conference took off with the two pre-conference Tutorials on Day1 which were well attended and were highly interactive.

The tutorial on Technologies for next generation wireless networks was led by S. Srikanth, AU-KBC Research Centre, Chennai. He addressed the cellular evolution leading to the popular 4G tech-nology. Multiple antenna based techniques popularly known as MIMO along with MAC features were discussed. The architecture

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and radio technology relevant to the 4G were discussed.

The tutorial on 2-D Demodu-lation led by S. Chandra Sekhar, IISc Bangalore addressed the signal demodulation problem, which the radio communication engineers have been facing over several decades. The talk specifically focused on Hilbert transform for 1D and 2D.

The conference was inaugu-rated by V.M. Gopala Menon IAS, Secretary (cooperation), Govern-ment of Kerala and Former Director of Census Operations during the evening of Day 1.

The main conference was on Day 2 and Day 3. The delegates had opportunities to listen to key note talks by eminent personalities during the four scheduled plenary sessions.

M.K. Radhakrishnan NanoRel- Technical Consul-tants, Singapore spoke on “Interfaces and Fault Loca-lization Challenges in Nanoscale Devices” As technology advances in the nanometer regime, under-

standing the physical phenomenon becomes more difficult. Devices

mal-functions pose higher diffi-culty in understanding the failure mechanisms and solving them for better reliable performance. Chal-lenges in such an analysis using various analysis tools in nanometer structures and their limitations were discussed.

Manish Gupta Director, IBM Research India talked about Chal-lenges and Oppor-tunities for Innova-tions in IT based

Services. IT based Services are sometimes viewed as mundane, less challenging than IT product development. The talk described the tremendous inefficiencies, estimated to be about $15 Trillion, in how the world operates today (e.g. in industries like transporta-tion and healthcare). He discussed several opportunities for improving efficiency, quality and value from delivering various kinds of services globally - an area of unique strength for India, and the inter-esting computer science and multi-disciplinary problems that arise in the context of pursuing those opportunities.

Subhas Chandra Mukho-padhyay, Massey University, New Zealand spoke on “Wireless Sensors Network Based Safe Home to Care Elderly People” He presented the design intricacies and implementa-tion details of a wireless sensors

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network based home monitoring system targeted for the elderly people to provide them a safe and secure living environment in the society. He described the architec-ture of the sensors network, sensor design, communication protocol, optimum number of sensors and their locations to make a home safe for elderly people.

Achuthsankar S Nair, University of Kerala spoke on “An R-C Circuit in the Living Cell” An engineer is concerned with the designing and building of systems whereas a biologist

concentrates on systems that are already in existence everywhere. The talk enlightened the listeners on the massive and complex nanostructures inside the cell, the extremely efficient communication systems that could be described as a super-internet, and real-time control systems with response time of a flash of a second, to sluggish control systems that takes years to settle, all far ahead of their engi-neered counter parts.

There were around 200 researchers participating and inter-

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acting during the various sessions. The papers were presented and discussed in four parallel tracks in different conference halls totaling altogether 22 Oral Presentation sessions and 2 Poster sessions. The sessions were chaired by experts in the respective areas. The sessions were lively with questions and

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discussions. The spirit of participa-tion was evident in all the sessions till the conference concluded.

The conference concluded with the valedictory address by Kankan Das Gupta Director, IIST, Tvpm who expressed his view that more of such conferences are the need of the day as they provide the students and researchers a platform to learn and widen their horizon. The chief guest gave away the Awards to the

Best Papers under the Oral and Poster categories.

We fervently hope that the spirit of team work in RAICS-2011 will continue to reflect in the forthcoming technical conferences also and take IEEE Kerala Section to greater heights, stimulating also the research activities in the region.

Reported by: E.E. Rajakumar, Conference Chair &

Shanthi K.J., Programme Committe Co-Chair

GLOBECOMGlobal Communications Conference

Advancing Real - World Telecommunications, Engineering Methods & IT Business Systems

Registration - To receive concessional rates, register by Friday, 4 November at www.ieee-globecom.org/2011/registration.html.

For more information on IEEE GLOBECOM 2011 including regular conference updates, visit www.ieee-globecom.org.

INDICON 2011 IEEE Hyderabad Section is organizing INDICON 2011

IEEE INDICON is the prestigious annual conference of the IEEE India Council that is being held since 2004. INDICON covers the fields of Computer Sciences and Engineering, Electrical Engineering, electronics and Communication Engineering, Bio-medical Engineering, Life Sciences, Technology Management among other areas of discipline of the IEEE. Indicon 2011 will be organized during 16-18 December 2011. Indicon 2011 has received overwhelming response for its call for papers, which (papers) are being reviewed to announce the selected papers for presentation by 15th October onwards.INDICON 2011 is launching a video contest for engineering students with this notice. The theme of the video should match the Indicon 2011 conference theme “Engineering Sustainable Solutions”. If interested, please follow the link http://bit.ly/oDufiU. Website: http://indicon2011.org/

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IEEE Communications Society - ComSocThe report of the ComSoc for the last quarter

Society Reports

Activity 1 (Talk on Network Simulation using NS2)

ComSoc, Kerala chapter con-ducted a talk on “Network simu-lation using NS-2” on 18th July 2011 at Mascot Hotel, Thiruva-nanthapuram. The talk was deliv-ered by Mohit P. Tahiliani of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, National Institute of Technology(N.I.T), Surathkal, Karnataka, India. The event was attended by 26 delegates.

The speaker gave an overview of the main techniques for ana-lyzing the performance of wired and wireless networks such as analytical modeling, computer simulation and real time physical measurements. He stressed the importance of optimal selection of the model topology in approxi-mating the real world problem. He also emphasized the special importance of computer simula-

tion and its potential for analyz-ing the performance of wired and wireless networks.

The main components of Net-work Simulator (NS-2) architec-ture, such as high level program-ming language support, discrete event scheduler and data network components were discussed. The various problem solving steps using NS-2 approach were also dealt with. Speaker explained the functionalities of NS-2 compo-nents such as NS (Network Simu-lator), NAM (Network AniMator), preprocessing unit (handwritten TCL or topology generator) and post analysis (trace analysis using PERL/AWK/MATLAB).Activity 2 (Talk on Cognitive Wireless Sensor networks)

ComSoc, IEEE Kerala section conducted a technical talk on the topic “Cognitive wireless sensor networks” on 20th July 2011 at Centre for Development of Advanced Computing(C-DAC), Trivandrum. The speaker was Rama Murthy, Faculty at the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad. The talk covered subjects like routing, fusion and localization algorithms for Cognitive sensor networks. The event was at-Mohit.P.Tahiliani delivering the talk

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tended by 22 participants includ-ing members from R&D, industry and academia.Activity 3 (Talk on the world of wireless communications)

ComSoc, IEEE Kerala section organised a talk on “The world of wireless communications”, on 6th August 2011 at Sarabhai Institute of Science and Technol-ogy, Trivandrum. The talk was delivered by Sasi P Meethal, As-sociate Director, C-DAC, Tvpm. Around 60 members from the IEEE student branch of the college participated in the event.

The talk was on the differ-ent communication protocols, standards, technologies and implementations. Starting with the spectrum allocation to the HF/VHF/UHF communications, the speaker talked about the evolution of wireless communi-cation technologies. He gave a brief introduction to communica-tions standards like IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.16, IEEE802.15.1, IEEE802.15.4 and IEEE802.15.4a.

He also gave an overview of Satellite communications, Infra-

red communications and RFID. Fundamentals of GSM, GPRS, EDGE, 3G and 4G were also discussed. Other areas covered include Software Defined Radio, Cognitive Radio, Mobile Ad Hoc Networks and Wireless sensor network.Activity 4 (Student Project contest)

ComSoc Kerala chapter initi-ated a student project contest by inviting proposals from the 4000+ student community of IEEE/Comsoc in Kerala on innova-tive project proposals in commu-nication technologies or applica-tions, which would be of mass /rural public / humanitarian use. Comsoc Kerala chapter would provide technical and financial support for selected projects. The activity is being supported by IEEE Humanitarian Technology Special Interest Group (SIG).1. The objective of this initia-

tive was toprovide support technical support for the IEEE/Comsoc students in imple-menting major projects in Communications technology.

2. encourage the students to become socially-responsible engineers.

3. motivate non-members to become members of Comsoc.

This program is intended to be a participatory model for project development and management, involving both the academia and industry.

The chapter received a total of 13 project proposals from the

Sasi P. Meethal delivering the talk

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IEEE/Comsoc student community across Kerala. Preliminary evalu-ation of project proposals was done by domain experts based on the following metrics:• Innovation content• Technology content• Potential for mass utilization• Feasibility of product realiza-

tion• Scalability• Advantage over similar

products/ technologies, if any• Humanitarian value addition• Cost estimate for final product• Cost estimate for system

developmentNine projects were selected

after the first level screening. These projects were presented before the Steering committee on 3rd September 2011. Com-mittee selected eight projects for technical and funding support by Comsoc. The total funding support committed is ` 87000. Maximum duration of project development is 12 months. The selected projects are:4. Walking aid for blind people

based on mobile phones5. Intelligent text editor for the

blind

6. Mobcards – financial transac-tions using SIMcards

7. Mobile phone charging from human foot motion

8. Automated online bloodbank database

9. Multi-patient monitoring us-ing mobile telemetry for rural areas

10. Trauma assist network for ambulances

11. Automated control for street lightsTo support the project de-

velopment activity, an online discussion forum for posting issues and solutions is being set up. This forum will be supported by an interdisciplinary team in-volving experts from technology, application and project manage-ment domains. It is planned to have periodic project review and guidance to monitor the progress in terms of the projected deliver-ables and also to guide the teams in proper directions. Completed projects shall be showcased by ComSoc, which may be useful to the people all over the world.

Reported by: Pradeep Balachandran,Secretary, ComSoc

Webinar – Online Education Programme An on-line ‘Webinar’ was organized by IEEE on 25th August 2011 from 15:00 to 16:00 hrs on “High Performance Computing” by Achindra Bhatnagar, Microsoft India.

Student members of various Student Branches accessed the programme through their computer using the personal id and availed of this facility to enhance their technical knowledge.

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‘E-Scientia Symposium’ and UAE Trip

GOLD Activities

Greetings from GOLD to all members. It is with utmost pride and happiness I wish to inform you all about the recent success Kerala GOLD has encountered – the participation in the ‘E-Scientia symposium organized from 6th to 8th July 2011 at Laboratorio Tecnologico del Uruguay (LATU), Montevideo, Uruguay. It was a combined effort of the IEEE Educational Activities Board and IEEE Uruguay Section with funding from the IEEE Foundation Life Members Fund.

The participation in the ‘E Scientia Symposium’ was a great achievement. Three members from Kerala attended the meeting, myself, Nitin Padmanabhan and Arul Prakash (Director, Thiruvanantha-puram Science Museum). The inputs and leads obtained from the symposium for setting up of the exhibit was really positive and fruitful for us.

We were able to meet with some of the stalwarts of IEEE, especially in the area of educational activities and were able to network with them and get their support for our activities. We were able to meet Moshe Kam, IEEE President, who appreciated and supported our

trend setting and vibrant activities. He has conveyed his special regards to the Kerala GOLD for its activities.

On the way back, I had a stopover in Dubai and had a two meetings with the UAE IEEE Section Officials and the GOLD Members. It was really exciting to see and hear about the vibrant activities of UAE section. I met with the Section Chair, Secretary and the WIE Chair. We discussed on our best practices and on collaborative efforts between both sections. They were more than happy to get associated with Kerala section and agreed in primary to sign a MoU between the two sections on collaborative efforts in the area of Technical activities, GOLD and WIE. It was really heartwarming to understand the respect and reputation Kerala Section has outside India.

Altogether the trip was a real success and happy to convey that the GOLD team has flown their flags high, keeping in mind that we have lot of backup works to do to make these ventures a reality. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Arul Prakash, Section Officials and my GOLD team for their support in making our venture a success.

Reported by: Ranjit R NairGOLD IEEE Kerala Section

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Teacher in Service Programme (TISP)Workshop #1 2011

GOLD Activities

A TISP Workshop was organized on 16th July from 09:30 hrs to 16:30 hrs at TKM College of Engineering, Kollam by GOLD Affinity Group and EAC, IEEE Kerala Section. The workshop was really a

grand success by the participation of 48 School teachers from 30 schools spread over 100kms. As the challenge taken up by the teachers in all seriousness, the time required

for a session was reduced drastically from 90 min to 45 min and the participants were able to come out with solutions quickly. Each teams consisted of 2 Student Volunteers and 2 Teachers. All the participants wanted the down stream school workshops to commence without further delay.Schools Represented were the following:• GHSS, Kazhakuttam• Govt. HSS, Kuzhivathicadu,

Kollam • Govt. GHSS, Cottonhill,

Thiruvananthapuram

• Govt. HSS, Keralapuram • Govt. MHS, Nadayara • Govt. MHSS, Varkala• GUPS, Nilakkamukku • GV Raja Sports School, Mylam • HS, Balaramapuram • Indian Public School, Kizhavoor

Prof. Viswanatha Rao, TISP Co-Champion, addressing the participants

Participants at work in the Wind Energy Session

Participants at the Venue

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Some of the Wind Mill models on display Robotic Arm Session

• KNNM VHSS, Pavithreswaram • Mar Basalias Public School,

Kaithacode • Meaem HSS, Karicode• MRMKMM HSS, Edava • MSM HSS, Chathinamkulam• NSS HS, Madavoor, Trivandrum • NSS HSS, Prakulam • RRVG HSS, Kilimanoor • SCVB HS, Chirayinkeezhu • Sivaram NSS HSS, Karicode • SNCS, Nedumgolam, Paravur • St. Antony’s HSS, Kanjiracode • St. Joseph’s HSS, Padappakara • St. Margaret’s GHS, Kanjiracode• TKM CPS, Karicode • TKM HSS, Karicode • Trinity Lyceum, Nanthirickal • Vimala Central School,

Chathannoor

• YMM Central School, Karunagappally

Future Plans for TISP in KeralaThe follow up in schools through

formation of ‘School Technology Club’.Observations for the upcoming TISP Workshops are the following:i. All on the same day at different

districts or in successions of one week after each other

ii. Provide sufficient time for effective school interactions during the current academic year

iii. GOLD to mobilize TISP Ambassadors to work continu-ously with Schools.Reported by: Rayees Amar Nishad

GOLD Affinity Group

(For more details see Page 51)

Emerging Applications of ICT in Utilities Annual Symposium on ‘Emerging Applications of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in Utilities’ will be organized by the IEEE Bangalore Session on 5th and 6th November 2011 at The Atria Hotel, Bangalore.

Last date of registration: 31st October 2011Website: http://www.ieeebangalore.org

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CONTINUING EDUCATION CONGRESS

GOLD Activities

The first of the two Continuing Education Congresses (CEC), CEC-1, was organized at ToC H Institute of Science and Technology on 30th September and 1st October, 2011. The program was aimed at boost-ing the technical knowledge of academia and to make them aware

of IEEE and the plethora of opportu-nities available to them. The event targeted the academic fraternity of engineering colleges across Kerala and was conducted with the support of IEEE R10 Educational Activities,

Held from 30th September to 1st October, 2011 at TocH Institute of Science and Technology, Cochin,

in Association with IEEE Kerala Section Education Activities and IEEE Kerala GOLD

IEEE Kerala Section and GOLD. The workshop was attended by around 40 delegates from various engineer-ing colleges.AIM: CEC was an event which aimed at aiding the academia in keeping themselves updated with the latest and the most happening

areas of engineering. It also aimed at making them aware of the plethora of opportunities made available to them through IEEE professional membership. DAY 1: The first day of CEC began with a colorful inaugural ceremony. Suresh Nair, Chief Technology Of-ficer (CTO), NeST group, delivered the keynote address. It was followed by an engaging session on Digital Signal Processing Fundamentals by M.V.Rajesh, Head of Dept. of Electronics Engineering, College of Engineering, Cherthala. The intri-

Presidential Address by P.J.Joseph, President, Toch Group of Instituions

Keynote Address by Suresh Nair Vice Chair, Kochi Subsection

Inaugration of CEC 2011

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cate details and physical aspects of signal sampling and time, frequency domain were discussed in the ses-sion. An IEEE awareness session and membership drive was conducted by Ranjith R. Nair, Treaurer, IEEE GOLD, during the course of which, participants showed a keen interest in joining IEEE. The participants were introduced to IEEE and benefits of IEEE membership. Furthermore, a Hands On session on MATLAB was conducted. The basics of MATLAB programming and Image/Sound manipulation functions, Matrix operations, plotting etc were taught in detail by Mohankumar. K, Director(R&D),Grey Technolabs. DAY 2: The second day of the program began with a hands-on ses-sion on MATLAB. The participants were introduced to the advanced concepts of latest simulation soft-wares by Mohankumar. A session

on 3D Visualisation followed. Rajeev, Principal Research Engi-neer of NeST handled the session which dealt with the principles of 3D reconstruction, processing and rendering. This very informative session was then followed by a Panel Discussion on the problems faced by the teachers and the need for improvement in the current educational system. The panel consisted of K. Vasudevan (Dean, Faculty of Technology & Profes-sor, Dept of Electronics, CUSAT), Rajeev K, (Principal Research En-gineer, NeST, Technopark), Suresh Narayanan (Reliance Communica-tions, IEEE COMSOC Vice Chair, Kerala Section), Job V Kuruvila (Director, TIST), Mini Ulanatt (CU-SAT, (Execom Member, IEEE; MC Member, CSI) and was moderated by Nitin Padmanabhan, Secretary, IEEE GOLD. Many questions were

IEEE Awareness Session by Ranjit R Nair, Treasurer, IEEE Kerala GOLD

MATLAB Hands-on led by by Mohankumar.K

Session on Digital Signal Processing Fundamentals by M.V. Rajesh

Panel Discussion

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IEEE CS Online Technical / Organizational Session

Society Reports

The IEEE Computer Society of Kerala Section, together with IEEE Kerala Section and CDAC, Thiruva-nanthapuram, organized an online Technical / Organizational event on 15th September 2011.

The event had a live audience located at the Amphitheatre at CDAC, Thiruvananthapuram. Addi-tional participants joined in from

different CS Chapters and Student Branch Chapters in different parts of India.

The event had the primary ob-jective of providing an opportunity for the IEEE CS top leadership-IEEE CS President, Sorel Reisman, IEEE CS President-elect, John Walz, and Rangachar Kasturi, VP, IEEE CS MGAB, to address the IEEE CS

raised in the discussion and were analyzed by the participants and the distinguished panel. The two day long education congress was concluded with a valedictory func-tion where the participants were awarded with certificates. CONCLUSION: Continuing Educa-tion Congress-1 was attended by 30 delegates from engineering colleges across Kerala. The event was much appreciated for the quality of ses-

sions and for providing a platform for the academic fraternity to learn, interact and get motivated. The participants expressed a keen inter-est in joining IEEE and in making their colleagues and students aware about IEEE. The memberships from academia have increased and the existing members decided to get actively involved in the activities of IEEE. Thus the objectives of CEC-1 were met.

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community in India. It had the secondary objective of gaining ex-perience and expertise in using the online tool, Blackboard Elluminate, to convene an IEEE session with dispersed participants and medium-to-low bandwidth scenarios.

The moderators of the event were Amarnath Raja (Program Moderator) and Nithin George (Technical Moderator). Nithin George was assisted with a team of student volunteers. About 27 teams of volunteers logged in into the online tool; some of these were groups of students where the online sessions was viewed by a group using a projector.

Satish Babu, Chair, IEEE Kerala Section, and R10 Co-ordinator, GUOC, IEEE CS, joined the confer-ence from Delhi, and provided a brief Welcome, after which Amar-nath Raja took over as the Program Moderator. Sorel Reisman and John

Walz addressed the participants from Israel and New York respec-tively. Rangachar Kasturi delivered a brief talk on “Biometrics: The Technology behind India’s Unique ID Project”. The presentations were shared through the whiteboard sharing features of the tool. There was a lively Question & Answer session that followed. The ques-tions were taken on chat rather than voice, but the answers were delivered on voice.

The event proved that, with a little bit of preparation, Elluminate could work with all communication options: voice/audio, video, chat, and whiteboard sharing. Some participants found the Elluminate user interface a bit daunting (they are in the process of revamping it). All feedback was passed on to IEEE CS HQ.

Overall, the event was use-ful to everyone, and was much appreciated, especially by the IEEE CS Headquarters. The IEEE CS team -especially the student volunteers- did a great job of managing the technical side of the event.

Reported by: Sathish BabuSection Chair, IEEE Kerala

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Society Reports

Content Management System (CMS) Workshop(An Initiative from IEEE LINK and IEEE Kerala Section

Electronic Communication Committee, held on 24th July 2011 at College of Engineering Chengannur – AKSC 2011)

The IEEE LINK Web Team 2011 conducted a workshop on Content Management System (CMS) for All Kerala Student Congress (AKSC) 2011 at College of Engineering Chengannur (CEC). The workshop was vibrant with a participation of 25 enthusiastic students, which included non-IEEE members. The vision of the workshop was to train more competent web-masters for the Student Branches (SB). This was the only workshop handled by the IEEE student volunteers, among the 6 workshops. The workshop lasted for 6-hours, during this period the participants learned the various aspects of web-development and earned hands on experience by developing and deploying a web-site using local host.

The workshop began at 9:30 hrs with an ice-breaking session

by Nithin George. He divided the members into 7 groups and each group was given the name of a CMS. He then gave a brief introduction to the CMS and discussed it in various perspectives of stake-holders of an SB. During the concluding session of the fore-noon session, Farish C.V introduced to the students about various web-tools provided to the SBs by the IEEE. The session was dispersed for lunch by 12:30 hrs.

As the workshop resumed at 13:30 hrs, the team was lead by Farish C.V and Nithin R.S and shown installation and running of a CMS. Later Ajmal Salim taught the students various aspects of a CMS. The team shown the participants the back-end of IEEE LINK website and gave a live show on deployment of a website in a remote server. The students were involved in

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various social activities and group skills were fostered. By the end of the workshop by 16:30 hrs, every group shown the team the website they developed and deployed in local host. During the workshop, the team took care to explain every aspects of the CMS personally to each groups and to clear the doubts.

The team took the feedback and Gokul Krishnan from College of Engineering Chengannur gave

vote of thanks. Shahul Hameed, IEEE Volunteer of CEC helped the team by providing timely assistance and ensured smooth conduct of the workshop. The session was ended with a photography session. The compiled figures and comments given by the participants was a real inspiration to the team. Many colleges also proposed an idea of having similar workshop in their SBs.

IEEE Annual Election 2011 - Tally of Votes Released The information provided below is the tally of votes of the 2011 IEEE Tellers Committee. These results are unofficial until the Tellers Committee Report is

accepted by the IEEE Board of Directors at the 20-21 November 2011 meeting. IEEE President-Elect, 2012: Peter W. Staecker

IEEE Technical Activities Vice President-Elect, 2012: Robert E. Hebner, Jr.IEEE Division Delegate-Elect/Director-Elect, 2012: Divison X: Stephen Yurkovich

IEEE Standards Association - President-Elect, 2012: Karen Bartleson

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Feedback

Page 4 30 July 2011

Participant’s List

Sl No. Participant Name College

1 Ajesh A V Mount Zion College 2 Akhil C M KMCT College Of Engineering 3 Alias Kevin Kunju Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology 4 Allan Augustine St. Joseph’s College of Engineering and Technology 5 Alljin Joseph College Of Engineering Kidangoor 6 Anoop Jose Vimal Jyothi Engineering College Kannur 7 Ashi Susn JAMES College of Engineering Chengannur 8 Bastin Pol RIT Kottayam 9 Indu Prasad College of Engineering Kottarakkara

10 Jikku Alex College Of Engineering Kidangoor 11 Milly Wilson College of Engineering Chengannur 12 Mohamed V A IES Thrissur 13 Neenu K Sahrdaya College of Engineering Kodakara 14 Neethu Ninan College of Engineering Chengannur 15 Premraj V College of Engineering Poonjar 16 Ravi Shankar.P Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology 17 Ravi Shankar.R College of Engineering Kallupara 18 Riya Susan Oommen College of Engineering Chengannur 19 Safal Azeez Govt. Engineering College ,Thrissur 20 Sanju Sony Kurian College of Engineering Munnar 21 Sonia Sara Suresh Saintgits College of Engineering 22 Swathy P V Govt. Engineering ,Kannur 23 Syedsuhail Ahmed MES College of Engineering Kuttipurum 24 Yathy Mohan Potty RIT Kottayam 25 Biswas.H College of Engineering Chengannur

Feedback

Overall Presentation

Content of Workshop

Understanding

Expectation

Overall

Participant’s List Sl

No. Participant College

1 Ajesh A V Mount Zion College 2 Akhil C M KMCT College of Engg.

3 Alias Kevin Kunju

Adi Shankara Institute of Engg. and Technology

4 Allan Augustine

St. Joseph’s College of Engg. and Technology

5 Alljin Joseph College of Engg. Kidangoor

6 Anoop Jose Vimal Jyothi Engg. College Kannur

7 Ashi Susn JAMES College of Engg. Chengannur

8 Bastin Pol RIT Kottayam 9 Indu Prasad College of Engg. Kottarakkara 10 Jikku Alex College of Engg. Kidangoor 11 Milly Wilson College of Engg. Chengannur

12 Mohamed V A IES Thrissur

13 Neenu K Sahrdaya College of Engg. Kodakara

14 Neethu Ninan College of Engg. Chengannur

15 Premraj V College of Engg. Poonjar

16 Ravi Shankar.P

Adi Shankara Institute of Engg. and Technology

17 Ravi Shankar.R College of Engg. Kallupara

18 Riya Susan Oommen College of Engg. Chengannur

19 Safal Azeez Govt. Engg. College ,Thrissur

20 Sanju Sony Kurian College of Engg. Munnar

21 Sonia Sara Suresh Saintgits College of Engg.

22 Swathy P V Govt. Engg., Kannur

23 Syedsuhail Ahmed

MES College of Engg. Kuttipurum

24 Yathy Mohan Potty RIT Kottayam

25 Biswas.H College of Engg. Chengannur

Diary of Events

JuLY06 Talk on ‘Corrosion of Material and its

Prevention’ by T.G.K.Namboodhiri, Professor (Retd), Metallurgical Engineer-ing, Banaras Hindu University at IE Hall.

06 Seminar on ‘How to conduct a Seminar’ by B. Roshan Kumar organized by PES Student Chapter of TKM CE, Kollam.

06-08 TISP Workshop at TKM College of Engineering, Kollam.

08 The first Exe-com meeting of SIST SB at the Seminar Hall of SIST, Vellanad.

13 Talk on ‘Application of Dowsing for Multi facette Analysis’ by P.S. Anil Kumar,Sr.Geologist, Geological Survey of India, (Ministry of Mines), Govt: of India, Kerala Unit at IE Hall.

16 TISP-2011 at TKM College of Engineer-ing, Kollam.

20 Talk on ‘Right to Information Act’ V.V.Giri, Retd. State Chief Information Commissioner, Govt: of Kerala at IE Hall.

20 Seminar on ‘How to write Technical Pa-pers’ by C Usha Devi organized by PES Student Chapter of TKM CE, Kollam.

24 ‘Content Management System’ (CMS) Workshop at College of Engg, Chengan-nur (AKSC2011).

27 Talk on ‘Guided Inquiry for Science, Technology Engg and Mathematics Education’ by .Cliffon .L. Kussmaul As-sociate Professor of Computer Science, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, P.A., USA at IE Hall.

29 Talk on ‘Energy Conservation’ by TKM CE SB, Kollam.

29,30 National workshop on ‘Smart Grid Engineering’ at NIT Calicut by Malabar Subsection.

AuGuST03 General Body meeting of Kochi Sub-

section at NPOL DROMI, Kochi.03 Talk on ‘Mind Mastery’ by P.P.Vijayan,

Life Line Foundation, Tvpm at IE Hall.06 Inauguration of SIST SB, Vellanad by

Satish Babu, Chair Kerala Section fol-lowed by a talk on ‘Free & Open Source Software’ and another talk by Sasi P M on ‘Wireless Neworking’.

10 Talk on ‘Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing’ by Shaju Cherian, Sr. Pro-ject Manager, Infosys, TVPM at IE Hall.

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Forthcoming Events

17 Talk on ‘Technical Education in Kerala and Role of Technological University’ by P.R.Sreemahadevan Pillai, Principal, PAACET, TVPM at IE Hall.

18 An IEEE awareness programme organi-zed by the SB, MCET, Anad.

19 A presentation by G. Gopalakrishnan & team on ‘IEEE– a Novel Aacronym – Guess it’ at the SIST Seminar Hall by the SB.

19-22 IEEE Sections Congress 2011 at Hotel Marriot, San Fransisco.

23 TKMCE SB, Kollam organized ‘Onam’ cebrations.

24 Talk on ‘Solar Control and Energy Efficiency in Building’ by Pratap Naick, Chief Technical Officer, ECO Product, LLC, Royal Oak, Michigan, USA at IE Hall.

27 A team from SIST SB visited RCC, Tvpm & donated fund as a part of charity work.

30 SIST SB, Vellanad participated in the Quiz competition at IE Hall for Engg College students.

31 Talk on ‘Innovation in Management’ by E.J. Francis, Retd. Scientist, VSSC, Tvpm.

SEPTEMBER03 SIST SB, Vellanad organized the ‘Onam’

cebrations.07 Talk on ‘Smart Grid Concepts and

the Indian Perspective’ by Simon Akkara, JD KSEB, Kochi at PWD Rest House Kakkanad organized by Kochi Subsection.

07 Talk on ‘Status of Solid Waste Manage-ment in Kerala’ by M. Dileep Kumar, Director, Suchitwa Mission Local Self Government Department, Government of Kerala at IE Hall.

15 Online Technical/Organizational event by IEEE CS with C-DAC, Tvpm.

21 One day workshop on ‘Android App Development’ by SB MBCET, Tvpm.

21 Talk on ‘Evolution of Aviation’ by Jeyakumar Thomas, Retd. Group Head, Quality and Reliability Assurance, LPSC, ISRO, Tvpm at IE Hall.

22-24 International Conference on Recent Advances in Intelligent Computational Systems – RAICS 2011 at Hotel Mascot, Tvpm by Kerala Section sponsored by IEEE R10.

23 SIST SB, Vellanad co-sponsored a semi-nar on ‘Linux Operating System’ with CGPU, SIST.

24,25 FRIZBEE – LINK Fest 2011 at MES College of Engineering, Kuttippuram.

28 Talk on ‘Technical Standards and Stan-dardization Process’ by S.Viswanatha Rao, Professor and the Head EC, MB-CET, Tvpm at IE Hall.

29-1 Oct All India Student Congress 2011 at New Delhi.

30 Talk on ‘Green Computing’ at IETE House, Kochi by IEEE CS with other bodies.

30, 01 Oct - Continuing Education Congress at TocH Institute – Seminar on ‘Digital Signal Processing’.

OCTOBER06 2nd Annual IEEE Day – theme ‘Empow-

ering Members to Create the Future’.12 Talk on “Lawns as Badge of Willful

Waste” by SS Kaimal, at IE Hall.15 6th Execom of IEEE Kerala Section at

Kozhikode.18 Talk on “RFID Wireless Sensors & In-

ternet of Things” by Deepak Dinesan, UMass, US at C-DAC Amphitheatre.

23 Talk on ‘Fundamentals and Advances in MIMO Communication Systems and Networks’ by Marco Chiani, University of Bologna, USA at 16:30 at Amphi The-atre, C-DAC, Tvpm organized by IEEE Communications Society & C-DAC.

29 ‘SYMBIOSIS’ - an awareness programme for first year Engineering students organized by SIST, MBCET and TKMCE in association with LINK, hosted by SIST, Vellanad.

NOvEMBER2 Talk on ‘Cognition in Future Networks’

by B.S Manoj, Associate Pofessor, IISST, Tvpm.

12,13 National Workshop on ‘CMOS Analog Circuit Design’ at NIT Calicut organized by IEEE Malabar Subsection.

DECEMBER16-18 INDICON 2011 - The Annual Con-

ference of the India Council of IEEE at Hyderabad.

JANuARY 20123-6 International Conference – ‘EPSICON

2012’ at Vidya Academy of Science & Technology, Thrissur.

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All India Student Congress, 2011Reported by: Aravind S Nair, Student Member, SIST Vellanad

Student Branch Activities

The All India Student Congress was held this year at Jamia Mil-lia Islamia, New Delhi form 29th September to 1st October of 2011. The Event had overall participants of around 120 students from differ-ent Student Branches from all over the country. Two students Parvathy S R, Chairperson, and Aravind S Nair, Student Member, represented SIST SB on this congress.

The Congress commenced on September 29th.The opening cere-mony was attended by RPN Singh, Union Minister for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Company Affairs, S M Rashid Vice Chancellor JMI, S K Koul, IEEE Delhi Section Chair, R

G Gupta, IEEE India Council Chair and Mini S Thomas, MGA Vice-Chair and Branch Counsellor of IEEE JMI. The address of RPN Singh was thought provoking and inspir-ing.

After the registration process and breakfast, delegates were asked to assemble at Ansari audi-torium for the first session. The Ice Breaker, the first session was fol-lowed by a talk on 'Structure of IEEE' by Mini S Thomas, IEEE MGA Vice-Chair. Talk dealt with the pur-pose of IEEE, why it exists and the activities of Student Branches. She asked the students to prepare some points/ideas on different topics like

33


how IEEE can give back to society, IEEE and Networking, Awards and Recognition on IEEE SB activities etc for the next day. The afternoon session began with a workshop by Mr. Jason Abey Sabu on the topic 'Leadership Training'. It dealt with how volunteers can improve their managerial abilities. He talked about the different positions in the Executive Committee and the du-ties of each Execom member. Ses-sion was more like a discussion rather than a lecture which made it much more interesting. The last talk in the afternoon session was by Mini S Thomas on 'IEEE Member Benefits and Some Indian Data'. She talked about her own experi-ences on being an IEEE member which was obviously the perfect way to explain the benefits of be-ing an IEEE member. She talked about the numerous resources that is available for the members and most importantly the network he/she can make from IEEE. She also shared some important and excit-

ing data on India regarding IEEE. One main point which needs to be mentioned is even though India is second in the total number of IEEE members, the retention rate of In-dia is very poor. This is the major problem faced by India in front of Global IEEE community. After tea, the evening session began with a talk on 'Introduction to GINI' by the GINI members. Global Inte-grated Network of India or GINI is an upgraded version of highly successful LINK (Local Integrated Network of Kerala IEEE members) in a R10 level. LINK was successful in maintaining a good active net-work among the 59 SBs in Kerala. The necessity of such a network is explained by Jason Abey Sabu. The Sections included in GINI are Kerala, which is the mentor, Delhi, Madras, Hyderabad, New Zealand and Pakistan. GINI aims at improv-ing the connection between differ-ent SB's, both in national and R10 level, thus improving communica-tion and student activities in the re-

34


spective SB's. GINI aims at improv-ing the membership value of IEEE. After a busy day, for entertainment we had couple of events, first as a skit prepared by the students of the host JMI showing the different lives of different people in Delhi. The skit showed us what Delhi is more than we could see ourselves in our 3 days there. The effort of the students was much appreciated by the audience. The skit was fol-lowed by a Ghazal, which was a beautiful experience.

The highlight of the day two was meeting Darrel Chong, MGA SAC Chair. We saw him first during our breakfast and were excited to attend his session. The first Session on day two was by Darrel Chong on 'Global Student Activities'. He discussed the major student activi-ties which has underwent in the global way. He also revealed the low student retention rate in In-dia, achievements by R10 and the problems faced by SBs all over the world. Following session had stu-dent participation also. Delegates were made to groups depending

on the color markings and each group was given one topic from those which Mrs. Thomas asked us to think about the day before. I was in 'pink' group and got the topic how IEEE can give back to the so-ciety. We discussed about various activities already done by Kerala section (a HTC project which pro-vided electricity for a remote vil-lage in Kollam) and Bangalore sec-tion (free computer education and providing used computers to vil-lage children). We also discussed how as Engineers we can solve dif-ferent problems faced by Society and people (like handicapped peo-ple) effectively. These ideas were presented in the Congress. It was a very innovative session where a lot of ideas were exchanged. The tea break was followed by a talk by Kshitij Sharma form Agilent Technologies on topic '5 Myths of Leadership qualities'. He revealed about the usual assumptions on great leaders by the people and how most of them are wrong and viewed that a great leader should have honesty and humility. The

35


session was followed by a group photograph session. The entire AISC participants along with Chong and Thomas gathered for the pho-tograph. After the lunch, delegates were shown the selected presenta-tions from different sections. We got to see the various activities done under a vacation project by Bangalore Section and problems faced by Madras and Hyderabad sections. The session was very in-teractive and a delegate discussed about the common problems. This session was followed by Breakout session. It had 2 major topics. Hu-manitarian Technology Challenge and Student retention and Effective membership drive. Students were given an option to attend either one of the sessions as both were about to run parallel. Parvathy S R attended HTC session and I attend-ed the retention and membership dive session. Our session was tak-en by Chong who wanted to make

it an interactive session. He gave us three questions: What are the methods adopted for membership drive by your SB; why your sec-tion have good/poor retention rate; what can be done to improve that condition. It was a brilliant session where we learned about the differ-ent methods and ways to improve our student branch. Delegates were made to share their ideas and what they have discussed. The ses-sion was also attended by Thomas and Sabu. They discussed us how some of these problems can be solved with an active network like GINI. The entertainment for that evening was the multi cultural per-formances by different sections. Chong wore the Kerala’s traditional ‘mundu’ and joined the Kerala Sec-tion. We did karaoke performance of some Malayalam film songs. The other Sections like Gujarat, Madras and Delhi also did wonderful per-formances and the night proved to be an amazing one.

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The last and final day of the congress began an interesting sales man who boarded our bus to show his product, a device to get juice form frits easily without the effort of squeezing. It was funny and interesting to see different ideas that people had to sell their prod-uct these days. After breakfast, we had a session on 'Corporate World: Expectation and Realities' by Gautham Prasad, who works for Microsoft and is the IEEE Xtreme Leader. The talk showed us how tough the present Corporate world is and how one must prepare to be a part of it and also to sustain in it. He advised students to learn the job for the first couple of years, its tactics and ways to survive in that world. Once you master it money will come after you. I found this advice very worthwhile. He then talked another 15 minutes about the IEEE Xtreme competition. IEEE Xtreme is a 24 hour online Interna-tional Coding competition which is to be held 22nd of October. This is its 5th year and it always a number of teams participating from univer-sities all over the world. Consider-ing the experience and opportunity it can offer two teams from SIST SB has been registered for the compe-tition. We then had another ses-sion on 'Sustainable Development’ by Daman Dev Sood from Conti-nuity Resilience. He talked about how harmful the e waste generated are and methods to reduce carbon printing. He also talked about the

importance of going green and how successful business opportu-nities are present in this field. Mrs. Thomas acknowledged him by say-ing how important it is in the pres-ent world to go green. After our last tea break of the congress, del-egates were assembled to decide the action plan for the SB activi-ties. Groups were made depend-ing upon the success of sections in a steady network among their SBs and those which needed help to begin. Since Kerala, Hyderabad and Bangalore have good network-ing they were addressed by Gau-tam Prasad. We discussed about what more we can do. Prasad suggested we do more technical events and encourage more inac-tive members to take part in differ-ent events like paper presentations and project work. The Congress came to an end by noon of 1st Oc-tober. Rahul Chauhan, chairperson of IEEE JMI, addressed and thanked every delegate. The vibrant volun-teers of JMI who worked hard from January 2011 for the success of this event were greeted with a standing ovation.

The Congress as a whole was an amazing experience. The par-ticipants got ample chance to learn a lot and mingle with people of dif-ferent culture and creed. We hope to implement the different ideas we learned there to improve the stu-dent branch activities all over the country.

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Well, FRIZBEE 2011 is over, everything is put away, the crowds have gone home, but the happy-smiley-buzzy-feeling still remains. Over hundreds of people shared their praise, teaching, learning, dreams, joys, prayers, and more- and went home having considered how the enjoyable the event was.

Our team enjoyed being given a seminar stream at the beginning, which aimed to help us know about today’s technological advancements and revealed us the trailers of soft-wares like ever-note, slide shares, fusion charts etc. which influences the modern world around us today.

The very noted edition “cultural presentation” was a huge success with various talents of Kerala show-casing their skills on singing, danc-ing, painting etc.; FRIZBEE promis-

FRIZBEE 2011

ing to be bigger and better in future! An array of events like “adaptune”, “fusion dance”, “karaoke”, etc were lined up for the event. It was a great pleasure to be a part of the winning team - Sarabhai Institute of Science and Technology, who bagged the prize for the best cultural presenta-tion at FRIZBEE. Undoubtedly, the credit goes to Anil Jayamohan, who played a heroic role in the presentation and to girl members of the event (Parvathy S R, Meneka S, Arunima S N ), who took great pain to train up their other members, for the presentation.

Treasure hunt - another attrac-tion of the event, was an inexhaust-ibly enjoyable experience. It was a delightful package full of surprising and contrasting tasks, building team spirit and friendship among us, as


38


we were split random. Obviously, “Rock-band Gala”, was an over-whelming experience, which soon began after the treasure hunt. It was really amiable to watch everyone dancing to their tunes, making the band sprightly special one. I take great pleasure to say that, each one among us interacted well enough, to strew off from laziness and join the party.

Next day witnessed the connection between management and engineering, emerging as an effective seminar, which made our doubts on running a personal firm, being a CEO, etc. Before getting bored, we were diverted to interactive activities of creativity, talent and imagination splitting ourselves into a team of 2- one for “nirvana”(creativity contest) and second one for ad making.

Well, we preferred to join add-making, and the subject was “FRISBEE”. We made a cool promotion add, which seemed fine. I appreciate other teams, who made it look even more attractive. Thus we had a healthy compe-tition promoting harmony and encouragement. The team lined for “nirvana”, had a similar experience. They were tested to build a bridge using ice-cream sticks and fevicol, which was taken as a challenge by all the teams who shed their imagi-nation and creativity to be the best.

More fun was awaiting us outside as we had so many stalls to visit, play games and grab prizes. Our gang enjoyed the crazy-cat walking,

riding a toy-car seeing the mirror, throwing balls to claim coke cans etc. We too had a heavy purchase from the handicraft shopping stalls arranged there. Our chair and link representative attended the feedback session soon after enjoying their gaming experiences. Friz-Bee’ian, was a longing title to be bagged. Our member Arun, outsmarted us to join the competition, where one from each college were allowed to partake.

We, as a team encouraged each one of them, in-spite of Arun’s elimination in the first round. It was really surprising, when we got 2nd runner up prize in photography, which added to our points to be college winning the title of the year. Thanks to Parvathy S R (Chairperson-SIST), for capturing wonderful, flowering scenery. Cheers reached its glory when we came third for the overall event. I must admit that, it was all a team effort.

Then, it was the time for a group photo. We collected our certificates to align ourselves for a final smile up after the conclusion ceremony.

Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who made this year’s event possible; you know who you are – a small army of people who worked tirelessly before, during and after the event. We couldn’t do it without you. Let’s pray for next year’s event – that God might pour out his blessing - big time.

Reported by: Sriram S. Ayyar,

Vice Chair, SIST SB, Vellanad

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Sarabhai Institute of Science & Technology (SIST) is named after the legendary scientist Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai and is privileged to initiate an IEEE student branch at this college. The student branch got the approval on 16th June 2011 from the Headquarters of IEEE. This SB is the 55th Student Branch under Kerala Section.

Within this short span of time SIST SB achieved its vibrancy and reputation in the Section. We are proud enough to mention that we have Student Counsellor, K Gopalan Nair, Professor, SIST- a senior member of IEEE and Publications in charge of the Section for more than last 15 years. His valuable and dedicated guidance and services are the covert of our success. 24, June 2011 The first meet-ing of the SB in the history of this prestigious college was held and started the functioning of the SB. Discussed and approved an action plan for 2011 including the official inauguration of the SB on 06-08-2011 and other important events for the current year. 30, June 2011 The first event held at the Seminar hall of SIST. The agenda included distribution of the Student Membership Cards, election / nomination of the executive committee members


Sarabhai Institute of Science & Technology, Vellanad

Summary of Activitiesand an awareness presentation on IEEE to familiarize with IEEE for the new members. The function was attended by the Hon Director, the Principal, HOD’s of various departments, senior and faculty members and student members. 1. Membership card distribution by Hon Director, Principal & HOD’s.2. First General Body meeting & nomination of Executive Members & other officials.3. Awareness programme on ‘IEEE & Benefits’ for the new members- PowerPoint presentation by K Gopalan Nair, SMIEEE.The event marked an ideal flag off for the vibrant activities expected to come out in the forthcoming days. 08-07-2011 At the Seminar Hall- 1st Executive Committee Meeting- decided to conduct technical talks on every Friday noon time, de-pending on the availability of the Seminar Hall and named this event as ‘Friday Talk’ similar to Wednes-day talk by professional bodies in Thiruvananthapuram at IE Hall. The Chairperson and the Secretary were entrusted to enquire the pos-sibility of co-sponsoring Friday talk with the Placement Cell (CGPU) and other Departmental organi-zations. Finalized the schedule of events for 2011. Also formed various committees for the smooth

40


conductance of the inauguration of SB on 6th August 2011.06-08-2011 Inauguration of the SB with technical seminars at the Seminar Hall – comprising four sessions:1. Inauguration of the SB by Satish Babu, Chair Kerala Section.2. Technical Session talk by Satish Babu on ‘Free & Open Source Soft-ware’ and by Sasi PM on ‘Wireless Networking’3. Awareness Session by LINK HUB 1 Representatives - attended 6 stu-dents from MBCET, College of Engg Kottarakkara & TKMCET Kollam.4. Parallel Session by LINK HUB 1 Representatives with Execom members of SIST SB on ‘General Guidance for the Activities of a SB’ 19-08-2011: A presentation on ‘IEEE – A Novel Acronym – Guess it’ by G Gopalakrishnan, Pearly Ka-run and Vineetha V Nair of the Dept of Technical Communica-tions, SIST. 4th Executive Com-mittee meeting was held after the seminar at the Seminar Hall. Dis-cussed the programme at CET & Bartonhill on 20th and selected the panel of members to attend those events. Also decided to participate in the charity work organized by the HUB-1 on 27th August - a visit to RCC and console the patients in the Children’s ward and to donate generously. 20-08-2011: SIST representa-tives participated in the following events.1. Two student members attend-

ed Torque- Automobile Wok-

shop held at the College of En-gineering, Trivandrum .

2. Eleven student members par-ticipated in the STAC event - Automation in Industrial Processes, at Barton Hill Engi-neering College, Thiruvanan-thapuram.

27-08-2011: A preliminary compe-tition of the Technical Essay Writ-ing was conducted and two mem-bers were selected to attend the final competition to be organized with STAC event by HUB-1.Charity work – RCC Visit: Four rep-resentatives (Parvathy S R, Sriram S Ayyar, Harikrishnan & Vivek Pillai) with Elizabeth Scaria (WIE Vice-Chair, MBCET representing HUB-1) visited RCC as a part of the char-ity activities and donated a fund mobilized from SIST for the benefit of the patients in RCC.30-08-2011: SIST SB team (Vaib-hav H Waiker S5 EC & Sapna S K S3 CS) attended the Quiz Compe-tition conducted for the Engg Col-lege Students in connection with the All India Seminar on Recent Trends in Agricultural Mechaniza-tion for Efficiency Improvement at The Institution of Engineers Hall and won Second Prize. 03-09-2011: Actively participated in the Onam celebrations – ‘pook-kalam’ competitions, cultural ac-tivities, etc organized at SIST.15-09-2011: A team consisting of 38 members including staff attend-ed 44th Engineers Day celebrations organized by The Institution of En-gineers (I) at the State Centre, Vel-

41


layambalam, Thiruvananthapuram from 13:00 to 17:00 hrs. There was an interactive session on various schemes for Projects of Engineering Students. A student member won prize in the open quiz conducted at the end of the session. The ses-sion followed by a public meeting incorporating various dignitaries including State Minister.21-09-2011 Eleven members of SIST attended one day workshop on ‘Android App Development’ organized by SB MBCET at Mar Baselios College of Engineering & Technology, Tvpm.23-09-2011: i) Arranged a member-ship campaign by a team lead by Chairperson, Vice-Chair and Secre-tary among S3 and S5 students.ii)Given directions to the members in the team as a preparation about their performance in Frizbee & AISC.iii) Co-sponsored seminar on ‘LINUX Operating System from 13:30 to16:00 hrs at Seminar Hall in association with the CGP Unit of SIST. 24 & 25-09-2011: ‘FRIZBEE 2011’ – IEEE Students Fest at MES College of Engineering, Kuttippuram. 16 members including two staff mem-bers from SIST attended the fest. In Cultural competitions – SIST mem-bers won first prize, Photography - third place and overall champi-onship – third place. 29, 30 & 1st Oct – ‘All India Stu-dent Congress 2011’ at New Delhi. Parvathy SR (Chairperson, SIST IEEE SB) & Aravind S Nair (Exe

Member, SIST IEEE SB) attended the conference. 30 & 1 Oct: Seminar on ‘Digital Signal Processing’ in the IEEE Con-tinuing Education Congress at Ko-chi – deputed Prasanth S, Asst Prof of EEE Department (Staff Coordina-tor, SIST IEEE SB) and attended the programme. upcoming Events in the last quarter of 2011• 02-10-2011: ‘Gandhi Jayanti’ cel-

ebrations – Social work – clean-ing and beautifying the campus of College, planting seedlings & trees, cultural competitions, etc.

• 06-10-2011: IEEE Day celebra-tions – ‘Empowering Members to Create the Future’ including a ‘Tech-fest’ of the SB, public meeting with talk on ‘Technol-ogy & Common man’, cultural presentations, Open Quiz, etc.

• 20-10-2011: i) Seminar cum presentation on ‘Engineering in Medicine’ by Koruth P Var-ughese, Biomedical Engineer, SCTIMS&T, Trivandrum. Discus-sion. A Quiz competition on the Seminar.

ii) Visit to an orphanage – all Student members.

• 29-10-2011 Symbiosis at SIST.• Visit to Mithranikethan (an

educational institution at par with Santhiniketan, West Bengal) – by all Student members – aiming at a study on Open School System for the Tribals and to interact with the inmates.

• Quiz Competition – College Level – open to all students.

42


• Technical talk by Prasanth S, Asst Prof, SIST (IEEE member - Friday talk).

• Technical Talk by Deepa V T, Asst Prof, SIST(IEEE member - Friday talk).

• Competitions on design of Poster, Logo, etc.

• In December – along with CGPU the SIST SB is planned to associate in conducting two days

workshop on “ROROTRYST’12” NATIONAL Robotic Champion-ship in association with Robo-sapiens & E-cell, IIT Kharakpur along with CGPU of SIST.

• Free Medical Camp • Industrial visit• AGM

Reported by: Parvathy SR, Chairperson & Bhagyalekshi VK, Secretary

Enhanced IEEE Senior Member Application Launched

Effective 29 July 2011, IEEE Admission and Advancement launched a new Senior Member Application. The new application includes numerous enhancements, based on feedback from volunteers and members, including:

• New user friendly format / design• Secure environment (need IEEE Web account)• Ability to save application in “draft” form• Ability to upload resume or Curriculum Vitae (up to 3 MB)• Applicant can view application online• Applicant can view status of requested reference forms• References will be notified by email to provide applicant

reference• References will have the ability to view their completed

reference form(s)• Real time application status

The goal is to provide prospective Senior Members with an easy to use and intuitive interface, while streamlining internal operations at the same time. View the new Senior Member application.

Members - Renew your membership

43


Inauguration of SIST IEEE Student Branch- A Report


The inauguration ceremony of IEEE Student Branch of Sarabhai Institute of Science and Technol-ogy (SIST), Vellanad, Thiruvanan-thapuram, was successfully held at the College on 6-8-2011 with a gathering of the student members and faculty members including non-IEEE members. The dignitaries who were invited for the inaugura-tion were Satish Babu (Chair, IEEE Kerala Section, Vice President and President-elect, Computer Society of India; Director, International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram), Sasi P M (Immediate past Chair IEEE Kerala

Section and Associate Director, C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram). Our institution was really honoured as well as blessed with the presence of these two dignitaries on this auspi-cious day. They are the backbones of IEEE activities not only in the State level but also in the national and international levels especially for the advancement of technology for humanity. They were invited to the dais with a warm welcome by our anchors Sriram S Ayyar (Vice Chair, SB) and Vivek Pillai (Trea-surer, SB).

The inaugural session com-menced with a prayer by Neeraja (S5 EEE). Blessed by the almighty,

44


we started the main session by tak-ing a pledge of IEEE Code of Ethics lead by Bhagyalakshmi V S (Secre-tary, SB).

K Gopalan Nair, the IEEE student Branch counsellor (Exe-com member and Chair Publications, IEEE Kerala Section) introduced the SIST Student Branch and the attempts he made for its formation in the past few years. He is the key person behind all the activities including the formation of our SB. He spoke about the key attributes of SIST IEEE student branch. He also stressed on the benefits of being an IEEE

member. Then he introduced the student branch committee members and thanked the management for their encouragement by providing the facilities as well as full support to start a student branch of IEEE in the college. Parvathy S.R (Chair,SB) delivered the presidential address. In her speech, she promised to continue the present vibrant motion of the members in the forthcoming activities also.

Lighting the divine lamps, Satish Babu inaugurated the function. This was followed by an inaugural speech by him. As expected by us

Inauguration Audience

Technical Session - Seminars

45


he stressed on the benefit of doing hard work and improving the basic skills. He also enlightened us with many factual statements. He said that even though there were lakhs of engineers passing out of campus, efficient engineers are scarce. He also mentioned that the challenges and opportunities of the youth are numerous. They have ideas, skills and energy to contribute and tre-mendous capacity to learn, to serve and to lead. He advised to develop many other skills to be an efficient and qualified engineer other than getting a good percentage.

The anchors enthusiastically thanked Satish Babu for his moti-vating speech.

The session was followed by the felicitation speeches by our Hon: Director, Principal and Sasi PM. The Director, K R Kaimal ex-pressed his undeterred interest in IEEE activities and offered all kind of assistance and support for this noble venture. Then our Principal M K Jana encouraged the members of the student branch to partici-pate in IEEE student congress and events. He wanted us to be active in future by conducting many tech-

Inaugural Session - Addresses

Concluding Session

46


nical events and promised to en-courage us in that way.

Then Sasi P M started with in-spiring words. He guided us how to utilize the membership and ac-cess all the websites to get infor-mation. He added that IEEE mem-bership while being a student is very beneficial because when we complete our graduation we will be already acquainted with pres-ent technologies. He encouraged us to go on well with the IEEE stu-dent branch and organize more and more events to enhance and induce knowledge to the aspiring intellectuals.

Vote of thanks was given by our LINK representative Vaib-hav Hemant Waiker (S5 EC). He thanked all dignitaries and men-tioned special thanks to the exe-com and other student members, without whom, he said IEEE SB of SIST would not have been a reality.

Vote of thanks was followed by a tea break.

In parallel with the function the exe-com and the LINK HUB1 representatives had a group discus-sion. The meeting discussed vari-ous activities to be undertaken by the SB in the near future, includ-ing technical talks, industrial visits, seminars, awareness etc.

Anchoring handled over to Neethu (S3 EEE) and Praseeda (S3 EEE).Then the technical session started by half past eleven. The first talk was about the ‘Use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) by the Hon: Chairman of IEEE, Kerala Section, Satish Babu.

At the introductory section he explained about individual and personnel freedom. Then he moved to the core topic of soft-ware freedom. Free software does not mean it is free of cost, on the contrary it is mainly concerned with the right to modify and use the source code. Also he warned the student members about the ill effects of proprietary software and its end user license agreement in social networking area. He thor-oughly explained about the salient features and the security provided by the FOSS. The advantages and disadvantages are also covered in his talk. The structures of GNU/LINUX OS and various other op-erating systems can be debugged by any techie and can be modi-fied. He concluded the session tell-Concluding Session

47


ing about the superiority of FOSS and the security that provided by the software and invoked students about the incoming modern era of free software.

The second talk was about wireless communication by Sasi P.M Associate Director, C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram. He made awareness about wireless com-munication among members. He started with different types of wire communication ranging from low frequency bulky systems to ultra extreme high frequency tiny sys-tems. He explained about wire-less fidelity (Wi-Fi) and Bluetooth connectivity to the audience. The graphical representations about different spectra of wireless com-munications and the problem of unavailability of frequencies were also discussed and as a remedial measure cognitive communica-tion is introduced. The different generation of mobile communica-tion history and the present condi-tion in India is also glanced by his talk. An unambiguous explanation about wireless techniques such as 5G and internet of things was made through the students by his talk and concepts like EPC and RFID and intercommunications among the home appliances under the light of them is encapsulated by him. The advantages of the wireless commu-nication over ordinary communi-cation strategies and data security issues are discussed.

After the technical talks an awareness presentation on ‘IEEE and Student Members’ was conducted by LINK HUB1 student representatives, Vishnu Nair M.T, Thomas Sabu, Fredy Thomas, Davood Thajudeen, Dainy Daynesious and Elizabeth Scaria.

Vishnu Nair M.T gave a descrip-tion, what a student branch is all about. He also stressed on what all are the benefits of being a member of IEEE. They gave us many valu-able instructions; we became more active and vibrant to hear more. They wanted us to be active in the future IEEE events and promised to encourage us. They shared their ex-periences with us. Interactive ses-sion came to an end by showing us an inspiring video clip. It included great personalities and great profes-sionals.

K. Gopalan Nair, student coun-sellor gave away the mementos to the guests, Satish Babu, Sasi P M and LINK representatives - Vishnu Nair M T, Freddy Thomas, Thomas Sabu, Davood Thajudeen, Dainy Daynesious and Elizabeth Scaria.

The function ended with a concluding speech by Vivek Pillai (Treasurer, SB). He thanked one and all for the co-operation and hard work to make this event a grand success. All members are dynamic and vigorous and are ready to do a lot under the banner of IEEE.

Reported by: Bhagyalakshmi VS, Secretary, SIST SB

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Quiz Competition at IE(I)In connection with the ‘All

India Seminar on Recent Trends in Agricultural Mechanization for Efficiency Improvement’ a Quiz competition was organized at The Institution of Engineers (India), Kerala State Centre, Thiruvananthapuram for Engineering College students on 30-08-2011.

Teams from fourteen Engineering Colleges participated (two each). Vaibhav Hemant Waiker (S5 EC) and Sapna SK (S3 CS) representing SIST SB bagged the Second Prize.

SYMBIOSISA joint venture of IEEE Student Branches of SIST, MBCET, TKMCE in association with LINK for First Year Engineering

Students across Kerala.One day programme on IEEE Orientation &

an Activity Based Management Workshopon 29th October 2011.

Hosted by: Sarabhai Institute of Science and Technology, Vellanad

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"IEEE - A New Novel Acronym - Guess it"


The presentation organized by the IEEE SB of SIST on Friday the 19th Aug 2011, was an overwhelm-ing experience for the ones who at-tended it. The presentation led by a team of IEEE members from Tech-

nical Communication Department of SIST, Pearly Karun and Vinitha V Nair headed by G Gopalakrishnan, was a new of its kind, revealing the traits of personality development among the youth.

The session started with a warm welcome by Parvathy S R, IEEE

Chairperson of the SB, who greeted the people, on and off the dais.

Soon, the showers of enjoyment commenced, as G Gopalakrishnan, Professor Department of Technical Communication, made a short but sweet presentation about one's "Attitude" - the hundred percent word, attracting the students through his charming stories and the delightful wisdom.

Following up, Vinitha V Nair emphasized the importance of English in the present scenario, highlighting public speaking and about the commonly made errors while handling the language.

Interaction came to its peak when students were directed to an activity, of forming an aesthetic IEEE expansion. With a discrepan-cy of expansions, the best one was chosen as "International English for Entertainment and Education".

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Onam Celebrations by SIST SB

As a part of the social and cultural activities, SIST Student Branch participated in the ‘Onam’ celebrations, the Kerala’s festival on 03-09-2011. It was an entertaining day for the students especially SB members. The college was enchanted with the vibrant Onam activities of its students. Pookkalam competitions, Pulikali, Vadamvali, Onam songs by the teachers and students were the different entertainments. SB members made an attractive Pookkalam which received many appreciations. They also bagged the prizes for other competitions.

The final session was carried on by Pearly Karun. She inspired the students by enlightening thoughts of leadership qualities and social awareness among today's youth.

The presentation came to an end soon after the vote of thanks by Sriram S Ayyar, IEEE Vice Chair of the SB.

(Reported by: Bhagyalakshmi V S, Secretary, SIST IEEE SB)


The Architects and their Pookkalam.

Group song by Staff - IEEE Members in the forefront.

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TKM College of Engineering, KollamREPORT (JuNE-SEPTEMBER) 2011

TISP 2011 - 16th July, 2011 “A teacher is like a candle, it

consumes itself to light the way for others”. And, IEEE has taken up an initiative to ignite the spark-with TISP 2011. By ‘advancing technology for humanity’, IEEE has put up the latest milestone in its journey to inspire the young generation to adopt this dictum. Teacher-In-Service-Program is a unique project which is aimed at encouraging school teachers to instigate an engineering mindset in their students. TISP-2011 is a first of its kind venture in Kerala and IEEE is all set to widen its possibilities. The IEEE Kerala Section, GOLD-Kerala Section and the IEEE Student Branch of TKM College of Engineering in association with Educational Activities Kerala Section, have organized TISP 2011 on 16th July, 2011 at TKM College of Engineering. TISP 2011 had the honour of being the second-of-its kind in the whole of India. Inauguration

The programme was inaugurated by the Hon. Minister for Labour and Rehabilitation, Kerala, Shibu Baby John, who is an alumnus of the college. The minister appreciated the effort by the student branch and also talked about the need for such undertakings in

shaping a self-sufficient society. He also emphasized that technology should be used to cater the simple needs of people. The occasion also marked the handing-over of the prestigious award to the student branch, which received the third position for the Region 10 Exemplary Student Branch Award 2011 by Satish Babu, Chairman, IEEE Kerala Section. The ceremony was presided over by S. Suresh Babu, Principal, TKM College of Engineering. Our SB Counselor, Sunitha Beevi.K addressed the gathering. Felicitations were carried out by V K Damodaran, Director, INGCORE, Satish Babu,


52


and Mohammed Kasim, Chairman, PES, Kerala Section. Pre-lunch session

Innovation is the key to new technology. And, TKM College of Engineering has set up a venue to fire up the mind-boggling innovations. In the first technical session, the participants were given a challenge to lift a tea bag using a suitable model of wind mill, which they had to design by themselves. All the teachers were divided into pairs and each pair was assisted by two volunteers. The participants were given a timeslot of 2 hours within which they were supposed to design their model.

Assisted by the volunteers, the teachers came up with impressive and novel ideas for making the windmill frames. A majority of the frames used PVC pipes and

cardboards. The teachers lauded this endeavour by the student branch and expressed their excitement in implementing this in their schools. The session came to an end with the exhibition of exemplary models, each one unique in itself. The group dispersed for lunch by 14:00 hrs. Post-lunch session

The afternoon session gave another challenge to each group. This time, it was to construct a robotic arm to pick a given “weight” placed at a distance. Again, the teachers exhibited their intellect by employing creative ideas to build the robotic arm. Each group tested the functionality of their model of the robotic arm by picking up a half filled water bottle placed at a distance of 65 cm.

A brainstorming session, which followed the technical session, sought the feedback and analysis of theactivities from each group. Many of the teachers requested more programmes like TISP and wanted toinclude electronics and content-based practical to be included in the forthcoming events. The feedback to the event was excellent and everyone agreed that the hands-on activities would increase their students’ level of technological literacy. The teachers were keyed up for implementing in their classrooms, the technical trials that they have carried out during TISP.

Through TISP, IEEE has started off an expedition to carve out a

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technically literate society. The exclusive event created a matchless vision of a younger generation ready to conquer the universe using technical ingenuity. TISP 2011 has surely marked the beginning of progress of technology to its pinnacle of glory. KuDOS TO TKMCE STuDENT BRANCH

The IEEE Student Branch of TKM College of Engineering came into news once again by winning the Region10 Exemplary Student Branch Award 2010 for the third best student branch in the Asia-Pacific Region. The award was announced during the R10 Conference 2011 held at New Zealand and there Mr. Rayees Amar Nishad, GOLD Chair, Kerala Section, received the award. Mr.Satheesh Babu, Chairman, IEEE

Kerala Section handed over the award to student branch, on 16th

July during TISP. TALK ON “ENERGY CONSERvATION” - 29th July

The IEEE Student Branch of TKM College of Engineering conducted a talk on “Energy Conservation” on 29th July. The talk was delivered by Dr.B. Premlet, the staff advisor of the Student Branch and a faculty member of the college. The presentation started with an introduction on energy conservation from an engineer’s point of view and shifted to the advantages of LED over other sources of light in spite of its higher cost. He gave us an insight on the factors that must be considered while selecting the apt lighting equipment. The uniqueness of his presentation was that he started with the construction of a simple diode and moved on to complex thermal effects. ONAM CELEBRATION 2011 - 23rd August, 2011

The IEEE Student Branch of TKM College of Engineering celebrated the festival of Onam on 23rd August 2011. It was a moment of fun and joy for the student members as they

54


laid the “pookkalam” (floral carpet) at the college central portico. They exhibited togetherness in the celebrating the true spirit of Onam. PES STuDENT CHAPTER REPORT TALKS ON “SEMINAR AND TECHNICAL PAPERS”

The Power and Energy Society TKMCE organized a talk on the topic of prime importance to engineering students especially the final years.

“How to conduct a seminar” by Dr.B.Roshan Kumar, department of mechanical engineering on July 6th. It was conducted to provide a general overview to the students regarding the main aspects to be taken care of while preparing for a seminar. The talk greatly boosted the confidence of the students regarding the seminar presentation and provided clear solutions to many of their common apprehensions.

“How to write a technical paper” by C. Usha Devi on July 20th . It was conducted to provide the students the general guidelines

for writing a technical paper and to clarify the doubts of the students about technical paper presentation and publication. The talk spanned a duration of about one and a half hours and all the aspects regarding the topic were discussed. The talk gave us an idea regarding technical paper writing and its preparation.

55


Sudoku

3 6 8 7 4 2 1 9 5

5 1 2 3 8 9 7 6 4

9 7 4 1 6 5 3 8 2

7 3 1 4 2 6 9 5 8

2 4 5 9 3 8 6 1 7

6 8 9 5 7 1 4 2 3

1 9 7 8 5 4 2 3 6

8 2 3 6 1 7 5 4 9

4 5 6 2 9 3 8 7 1

6 5 4 2

7

2 8 6

7 5 9 2

3 6

1 8 4 3

8 5 1

5

9 4 2 8

Solution to Sudoku in the last issue (vol - 20 #2)

Use reasoning and fill each grid with digits from 1 to 9 without repeating the digits in the same row or column.

Mohandas College of Engineering & Technology, AnadThe student branch activities for

the current year were started with the formation of new executive members. The table below shows the details of the Office bearers.

An IEEE awareness program was organized on 18th August. The resource person was Ranjith R Nair, GOLD Affinity Group Champion, (TISP, IEEE Kerala Section) and was attended by students from Electrical, Electronics & Computer

Science departments. The program had a good response with an outcome of the increase in membership number to fifty.

The revival of the IEEE student branch was due to the support from the Institution by a partial sponsorship for the new membership account for which the SB is greatly indebted with the authorities.

1 Prof. in charge Sobha Manakkal Professor in EEE & Dean (Admn)

2 Branch Counselor Rahul (Lecturer, EEE)3 Tech.Advisor Jayapradha (Lecturer ECE)4 Web Manager Biju G R (CSE)5 Student Chair Tinson Thomas-S7EEE6 Vice-Chair Liji R S - S7 EEE 7 Treasurer Ananthu Nanoo Udayanan -S7EEE8 Secretary Manu Krishnan - S7ECE9 Joint secretary Sudheesh.S. - S7ECE

10 Link Rep Anita Bhattacharya - S7 CSE11 Hub Rep Vineed Vijoy – S7EEE

56

Kerala Section July-September 2011Printed and published by K. Gopalan Nair, ‘Kaivalyam’, TC 10/1368(2), Vattiyoorkavu, Tvpm - 695 013on behalf of IEEE, Kerala Section. Printing: Akshara Offset, Tvpm. Ph: 2471174.

Editor: K. Gopalan Nair, E-mail: [email protected], Ph: 2363232, 9446323230

Copy to Member: M.No:

National Workshopon

CMOS Analog Circuit DesignTheme : Fundamentals &

Hands-on for CMOS Analog Circuit Design for VLSI

12-13 November, 2011 NIT Calicut

Organized by

IEEE Malabar Subsection(Under IEEE Kerala Section)

In association with

Special Manpower Development Programme (SMDP-II), DIT, MCIT, Govt. of India &

Department of ECE, NIT Calicut

Contact: Ph: 09495575325, 09446500650E-mail: [email protected]

International Conference

EPSCICON 2012From 3rd to 6th Jan 2012

at Vidya Academy of Science and Technology, Thrissur, Kerala

For more details:Sudha Balagopalan, (0091 9349196440)

Institutional Coordinator, Vidya Academy of Science and Technology, Thrissur, Kerala

Documents

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