SYNC I

Mechanical Engineering Students Association, IITG

Volu

me

I, N

ovem

ber 2

008

S Y NC

Olympics 2008

Prof. U.S. Dixit InterviewInside

CoverStory

From the Faculty Advisor

common platform MESA. I congratulate all the members of

MESA, especially the publication committee for this great

achievement. I express my sincere thanks to Prof. U.S. Dixit

(HOD) and my colleagues in the department for their valuable

comments. Suggestions for improvement of this E-magazine

are most welcome. My best wishes to all the members of

MESA for years to come

Dr. Niranjan Sahoo

Faculty Advisor, MESA

It gives me a great pleasure about the

inaugural issue of E-magazine published

by the Mechanical Department as a

success note for the New Year 2009. It is a

great eort and initiative taken up by the

students of Mechanical Engineering for

expressing thoughts and ideas on a

From the President, MESA IITG

The magazine shares knowledge of dierent technical and

non-technical articles of general interest like experiences

from faculties and students of Mechanical Engineering

Department. In addition to publishing our annual magazine

Mechanika, we will be publishing an edition of SYNC.

I congratulate all the members of MESA especially authors,

editors for adding this achievement to our hat. I would like to

express my sincere thanks to our faculty advisor, Dr. Niranjan

Sahoo for his valuable inputs to our eorts. I would also like

to express my due regards to Professor U.S. Dixit, HOD and

the faculty members for their kind support, and involvement

in the activities of MESA.

I am condent that MESA, with this pace and desire, will soon

realize its entire goals. I wish that SYNC may receive the love

of the readers and further suggestions for improvement of

this magazine are most welcome to make the coming

editions of magazine more useful to everyone.

Finally, I wish MESA all the best for its forwarding steps

towards strengthening the integrity among future mechani-

cal engineers through its activities.

Lokesh Saini

President, MESA IITG

From the Publication Secretary, MESA

"If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts;

but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in

certainties". As Sir Francis Bacon had aptly remarked, we all

might have doubts initially but something new is always

more challenging and appealing. The same can be said for

our e-magazine.

It is quite satisfying for the publication committee to nally

bring out the rst edition of our e-magazine 'SYNC'. The

journey from conception of an idea to its materialisation is

one of the most fascinating ones and it was so in this case as

well.

I hope that the readers will like the content of our

e-magazine. It was important for the content of 'SYNC' to be

dierent from that of 'MECHANIKA'. As this is our rst edition,

I know that there will be numerous ways in which we can

further improve SYNC.

Lastly, I would like to thank our HOD, Professor U.S. Dixit, our

faculty advisor, Dr. Niranjan Sahoo, the president of MESA and

all the members of the publication committee.

Nished Singhal

Publication Secretary, MESA

MESSAGE BOARD

It is a matter of immense pleasure to

me that Mechanical Engineering

Students Association is publishing its

rst edition of e-magazine SYNC in

IITG.

Kick Kat Thinking about MBA. THINK AGAIN!

Know your faculty Professor Uday Shanker Dixit HOD, Mechanical Engineering Department

Man on MARS What stops man?

Behind the OLYMPICS ame BIRDS NEST CLOUD SEEDINGS MICHAEL PHELPS UNVEILED

Peoples Car : TATA NANO Great things come in small packages!

GOURAMI Business Challenge Vedang Singh scores again for IITG!

Dog Day Afternoon A journey heading towards a new race

Mech Masti

[Cover Story]

Contents

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1617

No wonder, in contemporary educational fraternity, the term IIM has unfairly yet unarguably become synony-

mous to money. You cannot turn a paralyzed response to the

fact that the degree of B.Tech only would never make a

millionaire out of you, unless you are someone like Sabeer

Bhatia. With the slope of proportionality between your CAT

percentile and the number of zeros in your paycheck getting

steeper, many aspirants are forced into losing a meal every

other day. The written examination, CAT becomes the most

proverbial and talked about three-letter word for them. Such

is the goal-intensifying mind enormity of the so believed

strong aspirants, that they can't help unjumbling the word

ACT, read the newspaper from head to toe everyday

(including matrimonial section), buy 10 dierent books on Vedic mathematics although all teach the same old 16 sutras or do not use a calculator to nd the cube root of a 4-digit

number.

So in the following blog, I'll refer all my pronouns to those

geeks, pursuing undergraduate studies in some hyped up

institute of our nation, who have dollared-retina and dream

of someday parking their butt on a lecture-hall-seat at IIM

Shillong, if ever asked for the least.

Being a student of IIT Guwahati, we have enough reasons to

feel optimistic with our similar career endeavours. Anoop.G

the CAT 2005 topper was a computer science student of our

college. We have produced 100 percentiles twice before in 1997 and 2001. The ever increasing number of calls from the

elite IIMs every year boasts our condence.

But every competitive examination demands a dierent bag

of rocks to be carried along. CAT is far more dicult and scrutinizing than JEE. It sizes you up on the fronts you might not be familiar with before. The IITians might be high on

aptitude, as most of the part of their CV "screams" out. But

Maths is not the only ticket to the world of IIMs. The boarding

pass lies in the hands of the language-English. Not to

mention the Security Check during GD-PI which also

demands showcasing your English Skills at audible levels.

Last year in spite of getting an overall aggregate of 99+ in CAT Rohan(name-changed) couldn't earn a single call,

courtesy his 30-something percentile in English section.

Another hindrance is created by the CPI-CGPA thing. IIM

Bangalore allows only academic toppers and 9-pointers to

breathe in their campus air. So the self-proclaimed cool Six

and Seven pointers tend to delete the word Bangalore from

their dictionary long before expecting any calls.

So then, what is the purpose of writing a blog on CAT? Don't

expect this to be a preparation or survival guide. Going by the

extent to which I've shifted my focus on Engineering Studies

to negative extremes, I would probably be among the least

eligible people to comment on that. This blog is just the

opposite. It exposes the otherwise unseen, unheard, cumber-

some circumstances one is forced to live in, once they reach

an IIM. They realize that the greenery of the grass pales out as

they come closer to their dream destination. Thanks to some

of the alumnis who happen to be my close friends and

relatives. They have given me enough information about life

after CAT.

Imagine this life: 7:45 am You wake up, rush to the bathroom and half-hazardly run the toothbrush between your teeth caring

little about which part of your mouth is getting cleaned up.

Now you have to choose between either taking a shower or

have breakfast. But eventually end up failing to do both.

8:00 am FinanzzzZZZZ... 9:00 am Marketing 10:00 am Blah snore...Taxation 11:00 am Blah..macroeconomics... snore 1-8 pm Discussions, Presentations, Submissions, Group Studies.. blah blah

10-12 pm Assignments or reports to be submitted the next day, carrying a lion's share in the overall aggregate of that

course. Cannot be copied or faked as you'll be asked to give a

presentation on the same.

1:00 am You check your webmail and guess what, Finance re-quiz waiting for you, in an hour in the lecture hall. Reason

for the re-quiz: Class average was below profs expectation,

i.e. 15/20. Your DU semi-girlfriend SMSs you "Goodnight".

2:00 am Finance quiz. 3:00 am After screwing up the quiz you head for your room, looking like a pick-pocket who has just been taken care by

the crowd. You switch on the computer, log into orkut and get

a scrap from your once Ghissu friend working at Google:

"Hey dude! lyfe's kewl here, infact had never been better. On a

company tour to Goa right now, irting with hot female

colleagues, neways wat's up wid u dese days? How is IIM treating

you? Hope ur having a blast too. Cya tc."

KICK KAT- Adarsh Saikia

A long silence of digestion followed. You slam down your

lappy cover hard enough to wake your neighbour up. You let

the bed take care of the remaining working parts of your

body.

Now this is what you call.. a normal day of an

IIMian months before choking under the dark clouds of

midsem or endsem, although it's more or less the same

through out the semester. There's only one dierence in the

midsem-endsem days, you can't aord to check your friend's

scrap. (Youd rather start hating to do so)

I can feel some of you chuckle out there, wearing that 'what-

ever!' attitude of yours. Trust me when i say this, unlike our

B.Tech days, bunking classes or 50-under attendance is not a

solution to eternal pleasure and would no longer make a style

statement, as attendance carry marks.

"You can't even ask your friend to mark your proxy, as your seat

is designated with your full name written in front of your desk.

There is little chance of you being able to sneak past, foxing the

prof on the way and sit on your friend's place to mark him

present." Mayank an IIM A passout was quoted as saying. And

yes no paper-signing, the names are called loud enough to

unnerve even the once proxy kings.

No class = No marks = Bad Grade = Bad job = Less Money = you

are screwed. The whole purpose of joining an IIM melts down

and I am sure you wouldn't like that to happen. You need to

tread your ground very carefully and reassert what is truly

important. And don't think joining the institute only, would

concrete your MBA degree at the end of the two years. The

IIMs have denied degrees to many a student for their over-

casual attitude and academic dishonesty.

"You'll be gobbled up by the system, if you try to act smart."

another pass out from IIM Indore warned. So chosen

ve-point-something shall no longer be cool. By the time you

realize overplaying your cards, it'd be too late. The highest

salary might be 1.5 Crore p.a, but the lowest is 0.

The only time of the year when you start believing that you

are still alive and movable, are the two or three days of

cultural or sports festival, like chaosIIMA, carpediumIIMC,

unmadIIMB or the hostel nites. Rest of the semester is spent

in gruesome mugging.

Each year more than 80% of our fourth yearites sit for CAT, GMAT or GRE. In the management eld, Very few go abroad,

15-20 of them get calls from the IIMs, most of them are converted. Only a couple of them get to join the Temple of

Business studies in India, IIM Ahmedabad. The rest get the

consolation prizes FMS, IIFT, XLRI or Symbiosis. But the smart-

est lot is the remaining 20%. They tend to consign this pued

up aphorism of "Go CAT, Go GRE" to the dustbin from the rst day of joining IITG. It's actually wise on their part to

simply mug through out the 8 semesters, get a satisfactory

job, end their academic career just after B.Tech, marry, have

kids and live happily ever after. As rightly said- to go with the

ow doesn't always guarantee success.

So think thrice before giving any thought to the thought of

appearing in CAT. Tapping into your conscience might give

away a contradictory reply. Hopefully I am left with fewer

competitors now [:P]

But the smartest lot is the remain-ing 20%. They tend to consign this pued up aphorism of "Go CAT, Go GRE" to the dustbin from the rst

day of joining IITG.

Apples, not caeine, are more ecient at waking you up in the morning.

We caught up with our HOD one afternoon and this is what he had to say..

1. Tell us something that we as students do not know about you.I do not exactly know what the students know about me. My

life is like an open book. I discuss everything with my

students. The students can approach me any time. I do not

distinguish between students and faculty members. One

unique thing about me is that I am a life bachelor.

2. Why did you choose teaching profession after initially opting for an industrial job?Just after my B.Tech, I joined the industry as I wanted to apply

my knowledge to industry. My teachers wanted me to go for

research and higher studies. I had a 4 years stint at HMT

where I learned many things. Then I went for my higher

studies. After doing my M.Tech I joined Indogmag Steel

Technology, New Delhi. I felt that the society needs me as an

academician. I laid more emphasis on the application aspect

in the eld of engineering.

3. Your book was released recently. How do you feel about that?In spite of the time constraint, I could do it. The book has

been launched in international market. It all happened when

one of my B.Tech students published his paper with me which

became very popular mainly due to its well written unique

style, supported with owchart. It was on the prediction of

surface roughness using neural network. The editor

contacted me. One of the professors from IIT Kanpur worked

with me. It took us about two and half years to complete the

book. The book is helpful for research students and senior

B.Tech students.

4. How has your stay at IIT Guwahati been?I have been here since April98 i.e., for more than ten years.

Sometimes I sit reminiscing and I realize that my stay here has

been very fascinating. First, I came here as a lecturer, then I

became an assistant professor, then an associate professor,

then HOD and nally a professor. Meanwhile I stayed in the

city, Transit Complex, D-type quarters, E- type quarters. I have

experienced a lot of changes. There used to be batch of 16

students and now we have about 55 students in one batch.

5. Being an HOD, what are the major dierences you experience?There are a lot of dierences. Initially, I used to think in terms

of my own work, my students. Now, I think for the well being

of my entire department. When other faculty members or

students achieve something, it makes me happy. Recently, I

gave a presentation about our department to generate more

funds. I felt proud to mention that 163 papers have been

published by the M.Tech and Ph.D. students of our depart-

ment. There has been a change in my mentality and I have

become busier after being an HOD.

6. How will the emergence of several new IITs and the departure of senior professors like Dr. P.S.Robi aect our department in the future?All these changes showcase new challenges for the faculty as

well as the students which call for putting an extra eort. Also

due to the infrastructure of Guwahati, getting laboratory

equipment for research in elds like Mechatronics is not easy.

Nevertheless, we have the advantage of not having too many

distractions, good climate and a faster growth rate due to the

fact that we are a developing IIT. Over the years I have

observed that one out of two M.Tech students publishes his

paper in IITG to prove his credentials as at the moment we do

not have a big legacy. Such type of feeling should pass on to

everyone. All three factions administration, faculty and

students have to combine to deal with this problem.

I felt that the society needs me as an academician.

FACULTY TalkU.S. DIXIT, HOD, ME

7. What research activity are you currently involved in?My research work is in the eld of metal forming, mechatron-

ics and application of soft computing and nite element

analysis. Of late, my research activity has been directed

towards improving the quality of manufacturing in the tea

sector in north-east. I have been thinking about coordinating

a team of faculty and students for this purpose. It would be a

unique type of research as it would directly benet the tea

industry of Assam.

8. What is your image of an ideal student?A student should be good in all aspects. He should be good in

studies as well as have a sound health and character. The

academic activities are only a part of your stay; you must

learn during your entire stay the value of sports and cultural

activities. Our ex-President Mr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had aptly

said, A good student can learn even from a bad teacher but a

bad student can never learn even from a good teacher. The

student should have a positive attitude. I look for people with

overall balanced personalities.

9. How much important is CPI while judging a student?The CPI is just one aspect. The companies judge the students

on their overall performance. We should neither underesti-mate nor overestimate the importance of CPI. If a student does not have good communication skills, good health but

has a good CPI, then it shows that at least the student has got

something. I was among the top ve out of about fty

students but I never bothered about being the topper.

Instead, I devoted my time to activities like being the editor

of the Hindi section of the magazines, solar energy projects,

writing poems etc. We should not be one dimensional. If a

person is active in other things then it somewhat compen-

sates for a bit lower CPI but still one should not fall below a

certain level. I do not just go by CPI, I see whether the student

has a good aptitude. Sometimes a student may have high CPI

but due to his introvert nature may not be able to get the

work done.

10. Moving on to the mechanical laboratories, the equipment in most of the labs are out of date, especially the CAD lab computers. What is your view on that?In every meeting I emphasize that lab teaching should be

given full importance. The lab instruction should be given

same importance as theory instruction. Sometimes, there are

fund constraints. Regarding the CAD lab, some students may

also be responsible for misuse. The funds allotted depend on

the recommendations of the person in charge of the particu-

lar lab. May be there is no proper utilization! Sometimes, the

computers are empty as most of the students have laptops

and computers of their own and prefer to work in the hostel.

Therefore, some solution has to be found in which there will

be optimal usage of the resources.

11. Some people are of the view that the curriculum is very monotonous and that there needs to be some amount of exibility in the course structure. What do you have to say?I think that the way of presenting can be monotonous and

not the curriculum. For example, lets take Fluid Mechanics,

we could talk about the numerous equations and focus on

the mathematical aspect. While at the same time one could

also talk about its creative application. Curriculum may move

towards being more application based like top down

approach where you look at the product and then see what

the academic requirements for achieving it are. In each

course the instructor can give term projects but in a big class

that is not always feasible. From our part, we are bringing

occasional changes and introducing new elective courses.

The subjects can be made more interesting if the students are

more interactive. Creativity is one aspect in which many

students of our country are lacking in.

We should neither underes-timate nor overestimate the

importance of CPI.

12. Sometimes the voice of student fraternity is not given its due importance. Your views.Sometimes it appears to students that they are not being

heard. Students have spent much time in the world; have

their dreams and their own understanding of issues.

Students demands may not be in their interest. There needs

to be optimization between giving freedom and maintaining

discipline. I would like to make my point more apt by giving a

vivid example from a Shiv Kheras book.

A boy was flying a kite with his father and asked him what kept

the kite up. His Dad replied, "The string." The boy said, "Dad, it is

the string that is holding the kite down." The father asked his son

to watch as he broke the string. Guess what happened to the

kite? It came down. Isn't that true in life? Sometimes the very

things that we think are holding us down are the things that are

helping us fly. That is what discipline is all about.

13. Tell us about any memorable incident of your life.The incident goes back to my rst class in IITG. I was teaching

the third batch at IITG comprising of about 22 students. My

pronunciation was not that good and one of the bright

looking students who could not understand one of the words

which I spoke asked me to write the word on the board. My

handwriting was also not that good and hence, the student

could not understand the word. So, he started looking

towards his friends in amazement that the lecturer can

neither write nor speak properly [Sir Laughs!]. After that I

taught about six courses to that student and he considered

me as his favourite teacher. The student also did his BTP

under me. Its very important to have students like him who

can even rectify their teachers.

14. Why you did not marry?I was inspired by personalities like Vinoba Bhave and Atal

Bihari Vajpayee. Vajpayees speaking ability in Hindi language

and his appeal to a wider audience impressed me. I knew that

life can be very small and therefore, took more interest in

other activities. Not everyone can be a bachelor as it is not

easy to live alone and enjoy. I can go in that path because of

the love and support of my students and colleagues.

15. The interview would be incomplete without one of your poems.The lines are from the poem which I wrote to my maternal

uncle when he had called me to visit his village to which I had

not been since the past 20 years.

16. What is your message to the students?We should try to achieve world class perfection in our activi-

ties. There should not be any waste of time. We need to work

towards improving our health, communication skills and

ethical values. Our country needs inventors; we need to put

our heads together and strive for innovation and creativity.

The young brains are the future and I look forward to a more

innovative youth who are much better than their forefathers.

Our country needs inventors; we need to put our heads together and strive for inno-vation and creativity.

Interview by: Nished Singhal and Yash Dalmia.

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In the end I get emotional and say,

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Mars has always been a fantasy for humans: earlier, as a demon god and in modern space age, as a destination for

many astronauts and scientists. But the mission is not as easy

as it sounds. Many engineering challenges are there, acting as

a big potential barrier, between us and the red planet.

Lets talk about the challenges one by one.

The deep space between us and the red planet is virtually empty. That is, it has nothing to support the travellers, no

oxygen, no water, no food and last but not the least, no

gravity.

It will be real problem for mechanical engineers to build a spaceship, strong and compact enough, to carry all these

things. The payload will be so large that even the best rocket

boosters available today; will not be sucient to throw the

space ship out of Earths gravitational sphere. Newer technol-

ogy will mean more delay and more expense. Decreasing the

weight may help, but many necessary instruments may need

to be sacriced for that. In other way round, decreasing the

weight of instruments may help a little bit, but the real

problem will not be solved by only this.

For the zero gravity part, we can plan for articial gravity, but then it will require newer technologies and more skills,

including the risks involved.

Now, the space does have something that we will not need: cosmic rays and deep space radiation. On Earth, we are

protected by these types of radiations by the help of electro-

magnetic belts around us, called van Allen Belts, which will be

absent in the deep space. Building a spaceship which will be

protected from these radiations, for such a long time, will be

a good challenge for astronomical engineers, and a battle for

travellers to remain alive, during journey.

Finally, the distance between us and the planet is so huge, that it will take at least 18 months for one way journey, and

that too when Mars will be at closest. And no one will like to

be out there for three years, doing almost nothing, except

star gazing and similar experiments.

These were the few engineering problems that a manned

mission to Mars will have to take care of. There are many more

biological and psychological problems, which need to be

encountered too.

Take o, for now.

If you attempted to count to stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every secondit would take around 3,000 years to count them all.

Man on Mars

REFEERNCES: http://www.wikipedia.org/

- Shivam Mishra

In the centre of Beijing lies a daring new design - 42000 tonnes of steel beams moving together in the shape of a birds

nest. It is the stunning vision of an international team of

architects and engineers and it took centre stage in one of

the biggest event of this decade-The 2008 Olympian Games.

The steel roof is 320 meters long and 297 meters wide and

has a massive capacity of 91000 spectators. It is the largest

stadium ever built in china. But even more impressive than its

sheer size is its unprecedented design. It is an ambitious plan

that calls for giant curving beam crisscrossing in an intricate

pattern of woven steel.

To t this green mandate the steel roof is skinned with high

tech membranes which let in sunlight to conserve energy,

keep the noise in and protection from rain and wind. State of

the art systems conserve energy, water and regulate heat. The

structures facade is open allowing natural ventilation.

The steel structure - The rst set of beams was on the outside,

24 pillars encircling the concrete bowl. Just like the backbone

of human body these pillars prevented the structure from

falling down. A second set of beams lls in the empty space

between the beams and the rst set just like the tendons in

the body that hold the bones of the skeleton together they

link all the beams forming a covered structure. A third set of

beams support the stairways that connect the multiple levels

and provides a frame for the roof membrane covering.

Salient featuresThe ambitious design came with a hefty price tag of 260 million pounds.

The city designated 3000 acres of land for the Olympic park surrounding the birds nest.

The team created brand new steel for the Birds Nest which was never used before in the history of china. It was called the Q 460.

The steel frame was designed as a separate structure without touching the concrete

During the welding a few seams were left open to release stress caused by dierent temperatures during construc-tion.

The main structure shrinked 26.5 centimetres into itself after removal of the 78 supporting columns that supported the 42000 tonnes of steel temporarily.

The lling of the spaces between the beams was done by a special transparent membrane called ETFA (Ethylene Tetra-Fluoro Ethylene) membrane.

The birds nest also provided a network of green systems like the geothermal heating and rainwater capturing system to feed the grass on the eld.

State of the art electronics to broadcast the live action of the event to every part of the world.

There were cutting edge lighting systems with dierent settings for dierent occasions.

But the stadium faces some

unique challenges. It is set

right in the middle of a

seismic region. So the

fragile looking design must

be strong enough to

withstand dangerous

earthquakes. Also it must

be eco-friendly. In a city

with massive air pollution

the ocials mandated that

this Olympics must be the

Green Olympics.

bowl so that if the concrete were to crack then the steel frame would be unaected.The concrete bowl was divided into six isolated section that can move independently. There were exible ends between them, exible joints between them and there was quite a large gap between each of those sections.Over 1000 skilled welders were appointed for holding together the steel structure in space.

YASH DALMIA

BIRDS NEST- Yash Dalmia

REFERENCESNational geographic channelhttp://www.thebeijingguide.comhttp://www.travelchinaguide.com

China had started ring rockets and canons into the sky few

months ago from Olympics 08. This technique used is called

CLOUD SEEDING. They had been trying to manipulate the

weather and hoping they could do a good enough job to get

the rain out of the way before the start of the Olympics.

CLOUD SEEDING a form of weather modication, is the attempt to change the amount or type of

precipitation that falls from clouds, by dispersing substances

into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei,

which alter the microphysical processes within the cloud. The

usual intent is to increase precipitation (rain or snow), but hail

and fog suppression are also widely practiced in airports.

Thousands of scientists and experts have been engaged in

cloud seeding for the last few decades around the world.

They got desired weather in the targeted areas. They got both

rain and snow at will; the cloud seeding reduced the fog at

airports for the ights. But the modied weather brought

some wild storms, heavy rainfall, oods and wild tidal waves

and increased average sea level as well

China is probably the world's largest practitioner of cloud

seeding, spending about $90 million a year. Last April, it

claimed a major weather victory after seeded clouds depos-

ited a centimetre of snow on the Tibetan mountains. And

then, eager to ensure rain comes before -- not during -- the

Olympics, the Beijing Weather Modication Oce planned to

seed the clouds that oat by beforehand, hoping to wash the

pollution from the air and wring out any event-delaying

precipitation.

But then also, on Friday 8th august 2008, 29th Olympic open-

ing ceremony in Beijing, the humidity was rising toward 90%

and rain clouds had been tracked since 7:20am approaching

Beijing.

Under these conditions, scientists felt for certain that rain

would pour over the opening ceremony. So they decided

cloud seeding was the only option. Sounding like a military

operation, the Chinese government authorized the use of

1,110 cloud seeding missile launches from 4:00-11:39pm on

Friday night to remove the threat of rain ahead of the 29th

Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing. This was the rst time

the weather manipulation technique was used during any

Olympic event in the history of the games.

The rockets were red from 21 sites in the city, intercepting a

potentially disruptive rain belt and triggering premature

showers before they reached the capital. Baoding city,

south-west of Beijing, received about 100mm (4in) of precipi-

tation on Friday night but in the capital the rain held o, even

though August is the rainy season in normally tinder-dry

Beijing.

Sounding more like a terror threat than a rain warning, the

Beijing Municipal Meteorological Bureau issued a third

highest "Yellow Alert" for a thunderstorm at 9:35pm, with

heavy rain hitting downtown Beijing soon after. At 10:42pm,

the clouds had been dispersed and the opening ceremony

remained storm-free. They also stated that other areas

surrounding Beijing recorded heavy rain, possibly indicating

that the focused cloud seeding campaign worked.

The deputy director of the Beijing Weather Modica-

tion Oce, Mr. Zhang Qiang, insisted there was no environ-

mental danger from using silver iodide to disperse rain and

clouds, as only one gram of the chemical was released per

square kilometer, a level safe for humans.

It has become a tradition in Beijing to seed the clouds

before public holidays, such as National Day on 1 October, to

make rain, disperse pollution and ensure clear skies on the

day. But for the opening ceremony, the purpose was simply

rain dispersal bringing on a downpour but not on the Olym-

pic stadium. In China, according to statistics, precipitation

last year has increased by 25 per cent.

cloud seeding- Hitesh Parwani

REFERENCES: http://www.signonsandiego.com/

The recent Olympic Games held at Beijing witnessed one of the breathtaking performances from Michael Phelps, the

swimmer who won 8 Gold Medals in the recently concluded

Olympics, thus creating a new Olympic record which was

previously held by Mark Spitz, who had won 7 Gold medals in

the 1972 Munich Olympics Games.

Mr. Rajat Mittal, IIT Kanpur alum and George Washington

University researcher who is an expert on water mechanics

and uid dynamics has been enthusiastic and gung ho about

Michael Phelps and his prowess of swimming.

Mr. Mittal, in collaboration with US swimming , conducted a

series of experiments with around 50 swimmers and found

among them, Phelps was able to tune his body the most, just

like the dolphins who are known as one of the fast swimmers.

It was found out that Phelps can straighten his body (about

15 degrees) better than any other swimmer and his long, thin

torso provides low drag thus giving the eect of ippers

which helps him to whip his feet like ns to extract the

maximum thrust from water. The strength of his legs can be

harked back to an accident in October 2007; Phelps slipped

on a patch of ice and fell while getting into a friend's car in

Michigan, breaking his right wrist. Coach Bowman recalled

that Phelps was in despair over the injury. For a few weeks

after the surgery, he was conned to kicking in the pool with

a kickboard giving him more time to strengthen his legs.

But foot isnt the only contributing factor for his success, his

powerful lungs can hold out much longer underwater than

other swimmers, thus eradicating the water resistance to a

great extent and the splash and drag for a longer time. If the

body is moving on the surface, it creates waves (resistance),

so if you can move underwater instead you can eliminate

some resistance.'' Mittal explained.

'His Dolphin Kick known as the Berko Blasto after the

Harvard Backstroker David Charles Berko who rst invented

it. Charles Berko, a backstroke swimmer from the United

States, gured this out rst around 20 years ago and went on

to eectively to win 4 Gold Medals. Many swimmers started

copying it, hence ocials imposed a limit of 15 meters under-

water, a threshold Phelps exploits better and faster than

anyone else.

Mittal, described the start of this research when he had

involved with the US Navy Project to study the dolphins who

were thought to be the ultimate swimmers. ''We were asked

to understand how sh swim so eciently,'' Mittal recalled in

an interview, ''and it seemed like a natural extension to apply

this to human swimming.'

Michael Phelps

Unveiled- Pankaj Sahu

Rajat Mittal

Ques: What is the one thing Wall St and the Olympics have in common?

Ans: Synchronised diving [:P]

When Ratan Tata was interviewed by the Financial Times at Geneva Motors Show in 2005 about the future &

cost of the low cost cars, he said, it would cost around 1 lakh

and the next day when the Financial Times had a headline

Tatas to produce 2500$ car, Ratan Tatas immediate reaction was to issue a rebuttal clarifying that it was not

exactly what he had said .But, when he gave it a second

thought, why not take it just as a challenge; people were

aghast but Tatas had their goal; common peoples dream:

TATA NANO & after unrevealing NANO at the 9th auto expo,

on 10th Jan 2008 in New Delhi , TATA showed why they are the

largest & the leading automobile company in India & why the

Indians look up to them .

However, the vision of Ratan Tata was so not easily realized, it

took almost 3 years under the guidance & management of

Girish Wagh, the brain behind Nano, to give TATA NANO, the

shape & the specications which make other cars envy of it.

Now, let us look for the technical details which make TATA NANO a way ahead of the other cars. A 623 cc, 2 cylinder engine made up of aluminium uses petrol as fuel to give a power of 33 BHP. 33 hp engine peaks out at 5500 rpm while a torque of 48 N-m is supplied at meager 2500 rpm helping the drivability of the car. A top speed of 95-100 kmph & fuel consumption of 20-25 kmph are more than expected for such a low cost car. It is for the rst time that a 2cylinder gasoline engine is being used in a car with a single balance shaft so as to minimize weight & to maximize performance per unit of energy delivering high fuel eciency.

TATA NANO has been designed at ITALYS INSTITUTE OF

DEVELOPMENT IN AUTOMOBILE ENGINEERING with some

changes like having only one windscreen wipers instead of

commonly used 2 wipers. NANO has 21% larger interior & 8%

smaller exterior as compared to its closest rival Maruti 800.

With the length of 3.1m, width of 1.5m & height of 1.6m it has

comfortable sitting for 4-persons & even for a tall person

like Ratan Tata himself. Curved dashboard has been

introduced to increase storage space.

Extensive use of aluminium instead of mostly used cast iron

in the light-weighted engine allowed more cost savings. The

engine & the battery have been placed at the rear end,

putting less pressure at the steering system. 2-piece steel rod

of the steering system has been redesigned as the tubular as

to save machining & assembly cost.

As for now, it has cable operated manual gearbox soon to be

replaced by the automated one. Use of tubeless tyres & multi

point fuel injection (MPFI) system also adds to the perfor-

mance of NANO while cutting down the production cost.

For the drive shaft, the component that transfers power from

engine to the wheel, it was redesigned with the input from

French & Italian designers. For the NANOs rear wheel drive

system small diameter shaft was designed to make it lighter &

cheaper.

Tata has experimented with engineering plastics & new mate-

rial using alongwith new technology like aerospace

adhesives instead of welding. All these technalities are

testimony of the Indians innovative mind. Also, 40 patents registered during development process, are more than

enough to signify development process the amount of hard

work & innovation needed to design Nano.

However, the interior of the Nano is not as beautiful as its

elegant exterior, as plastics have been extensively used to

reduce the cost to the minimal level. For the safety, it has

crumple zones & intrusion resistant doors & has also passed

front crash tests. But, still the safety is to be taken care of. Yes,

it is much safer for a four-member family to travel in a nano,

than to ride on a two-wheeler, for whom Tata Nano is liking a

dream come true.

Earlier, it was being thought that Nano would be a low end

rural car without doors or windows, with plastic curtains- a

4-wheeled version of the Indian auto-rickshaw. On this

criticism, Ratan Tata exclaimed-It is not a car with plastic

curtains or no roof, its a real car!

For the environmentalist concern of increased air pollution &

already overloaded Indian trac, Tata already has an answer

as E-Nano, an eco-friendly initiative to use compressed-air as fuel, to be launched in the next summer.

Even before its launch, Nano has established India as emerg-

ing global hub for small car production. While the arrival of

Tata Nano on the Indian roads is around the corner, not only

the Indians but, also the international automobile commu-

nity has kept its nger crossed. And, nally when Tata Motors

Chief Executive Ravi Kant says The innovation wasnt in

technology, it was a mindset change , he is simply trying to be

too modest.

- Ashish Kumar

Peoples CarTATA NANO

A Brief Introduction of Shell

Ranked among the world's major chemicals companies, Shell produced more than 3% of global gas and nearly 3% of the world's oil in 2005. Besides, they have an interest in almost 50 refineries, and a network of some 45,000 service stations. Shell has the broadest portfolio of hydro-gen, bio-fuels, wind and solar power activities amongst major energy companies. Shell Technology India is a part of the Royal Dutch Shell based in Hague, Netherlands. Located in Bangalore, it is the third Shell global centre for technology after Houston, USA and Amsterdam, Holland.

3 Routes into Shell There are three alternative routes into Shell for any student to choose from. Any one of these can lead to a permanent job offer. First is through campus interviews also known as the Shell Recruitment Day (SRD), the second through internships and the last being through the Shell Gourami Business Challenge.

Gourami Business Challenge

A week long residential event, the Gourami Business Challenge takes place around the world at various times of the year and in various locations.

Throughout their time in Gourami, Shell assesses the candidates performance and development. After the review, if the student demonstrates all the qualities that they are looking for, he is offered a full-time position upon graduation.

The Gourami Business Challenge basically targets under-

graduates in Mechanical, Electrical, Petroleum and Chemical

Engineering. There is a denite criterion for getting into Shell

which they dene as the CART criteria.

Capacity (C) is dened as the ability to analyze data quickly and learn fast, basing judgments on fact not

sentiment and the creativity to propose innovative solutions

and manage uncertainty within complex environments to

produce workable solutions i.e. basically whether a candidate

is able to think out of the box and come up with solutions.

Achievement (A) is dened as the drive and enthusi-asm to set for oneself and others challenging unambiguous

targets, the resilience to deliver, the courage and

self-condence to tackle unfamiliar problems and go against

the crowd when necessary i.e. the ability to get things done!

Relationship (R) is ability to have genuine respect and concern for people and valuing everyone regardless of

culture or status, demonstrating honesty and integrity at all

times and creating trust by open and direct communications

i.e. being able to work eectively in a diverse team.

Technical (T) skills are only applicable to those apply-ing for technical positions, and refer to the ability to identify

and overcome technical challenges. However, for the

Gourami Business Challenge, shell focused more on the CAR

attributes while the technical aspect was limited to CV

screening (a part of which is done in IITG itself by the Place-

ment Cell) and a brief relatively technical interview at the end

of the challenge in which questions related to a project,

details of which we are supposed to submit beforehand, were

asked.

It should also be noted that Candidates who are not success-

ful at Gourami are not be eligible to participate in the Shell

Recruitment Day (on- Campus /o-campus) for the next 2 yrs,

from the date of application, hence the decision to apply

should be taken after some thought about the future as well.

GOURAMI BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Shell Technology India recruits students for a variety of job profiles from many engineering disciplines which include (from IIT, Guwahati) Mechanical, Civil, Chemical and Electrical to name a few.

Successful candidates are offered a place on a Gourami in their region of study subject to place availability. This year, the Gourami Business Chal-lenge was held at Lang-kawi, Malaysia and the next year, itll probably be held at Bali, Indonesia.

G

- Vedang Singh

The selections for Gourami in India were done by telephonic interviews for those candidates whose names were forwarded by their respective departments of their colleges in numbers specified. In IIT Guwahati, four students (from mechanical & a few others from chemical) were shortlisted for the interviews by the Department. The final selections from India comprised of a student each from IIT Guwahati, KGP, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, ISM Dhanbad, NIT Surathkal, MIT Pune and 2 students from IIT Bombay. Its to be noted here that Shell tries to take in students from all the IITs uniformly, hence the Gourami Business Challenge is a golden opportunity for all IIT-Guwahtians to successfully get through into one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world!

During the challenge, 48 students from Australia, China, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singa-pore were split into different project teams and asked to come up with a unified strategic business plan for Shells operations in the fictional island of Gourami.In simple terms, we were given the chance to put in a request for millions of dollars from investors, and then invited to sit down and negotiate a deal with the local sultan.And when that was done, we had to examine potential sites for setting up an operations base and come up with a proposal for a five-year business plan!

Once in Gourami, we had to work in one of five teams, with 9-10 members in each team each of which was responsible for a specific project development of offshore oil & gas discoveries (EP North and South), making strategic decisions about the refinery (Gas and Power), or planning the sale and marketing of products to customers(Marketing and Finance). We had to deal with issues inherent geological and engineering problems, economics and finance, political sensitivities, competitors, customers and partners and find solutions that work for all of them.

As a member of EP South (Exploration & Production South group) the job of my team was to explore and estimate the oil and gas reserves, make a production plan for a constant supply to the refinery and power group and taking care of the financial aspects for a profitable business.

The planning went forward through discussions within my own team, with adjoining teams, by negotiations with representatives of the state of Gourami over tax rebates, land equity and collaborations by way of discussions wit contemporary organizations. Then there were presenta-tions at various stages to the project heads and the project was concluded by a presentation to the sharehold-ers of the shell. Finally there was an interview one half of which was technical as previously explained and the other half was based on my contribution to the project develop-ment plan.

Every team had a coach to assist details. Alongside there were datasheets and information booklets for each candi-date as per his/her background and the job assigned. There was also a library to supplement any information alongside the local area network where effective informa-tion transfer took place. For the sake of evaluation every group had a floating assessor who never interacted but made notes on performance of each candidate.

With so many personalities from various backgrounds working together, the challenge was not without its fair share of conflict. Having to come up with the proposal, and then integrate all our ideas into one plan was definitely not easy. Initially, we did have conflict. However, putting ourselves in each others shoes helped a lot. We had to learn skills not only help us bridge our cultural differences, but also help us to resolve inter-disciplinary conflict.

Since the last 2 years, India has been sending 10 candi-dates from certain select campuses after rigorous short listing. And out of these 10 candidates, 7 have emerged successfully and gone on to join Shell or will be joining Shell in the near future. Its remarkable to note in Gourami that all candidates need to understand that they are not in competition with each other. There is no limit for a cut-off number limit for selection. People who fit the bill are taken on board. Shell looks at the bigger picture and not at just the technical capabilities of a candidate when it recruits. I would also like to add that Indians do tend to lose out when it comes to selecting all-rounded candidates because most candidates have excellent academic achievements but their minds are not open enough. Also, its noteworthy that the candidates selected from IITG in the last 2 years have made it successfully into Shell. Thus, all it needs is a little presence of mind during the interviews, a smart makeover of ones personality and constant alertness during the Gourami Challenge to get through! I truly hope that Ill get to see my juniors working with (or hopefully under) me in the future!

Happy Gouramiing!

JEE exam was over!According to some conded sources (like FIITJEE.), my paper

had gone somewhat average! I was eagerly waiting for results

and meanwhile gave other exams like AIEEE, BITSAT etc.

Before JEE, time was racing ahead of us, and we felt we need

some more time! But after JEE, time looked still! I was not able

to bear the anxiety and eagerness of knowing my AIR and was

incessantly thinking about it!

Finally the cat was out of the bag! I got AIR 2324 and was invited for councelling. The whole world looked under my

feet! I felt relieved that my hard work really paid o! In

councelling, on checking OR-CR data, I had literally no chance

of getting core branches (cs, ece, me) in IIT-Delhi, Madras,

Bombay et al. But since branch was dearer to me & I saw a ray

of light in dark cloud in form of mech at IITG, I lled it as my

top priority! And before I could think about it, IITG was calling

me!!

It was a day of happiness as well as a little apprehension too!

Many of my friends, relatives & family members opposed my

decision of coming to IITG citing reasons of far ung area,

high insurgency and language dierence. I absentmindedly

neglected all those lectures. I was pretty sure that security

would be stepped up in IITG. At last I was coming! That day, I

felt like crying as well as walking on sunshine! I was

perplexed!

Anyway, coming to IITG was pure fun! It seemed for some

time that I was just visiting a holiday resort! Life seemed

beautiful &free of bounds! IITG hypnotized me! The whole

infra, student culture, hygiene, natural landscapes all seemed

perfect.

No doubt my few days stay was quite good and attended a

barrage of orientations! This club-that club, this activity-that

activity; intro with seniors, roaming in library searching for

appropriate course books, orkuting whole night in CC!!! Life

seemed easy and tension free!

Then there came havoc in life!

Classes got started at full pace! Tutorials where nothing

seemed right had to be attended! And lectures where every

concept by Profs became a contradiction no matter how

simple it was! Anyway lecture halls became our sleeping den!

And no idea why, I started hating academics! Real analysis in

maths, quantum mechanics& whole strata of ED looked like a

hot potato! No doubt my performance was below par in all of

these! And what more, Proxy making was becoming normal

except in Mahanta mams classes! And HSS 106! That was a

real test for English rather than psychological analysis! All sort

of words and vocabs were always popping out from our Profs

Mouth & they either became bouncers or could not really

reach our brain via ears!

Literally all Profs were making us dance to their tunes!! Life

became dogged!

After a break for lunch, we entered hell (Read Labs!). The

afternoon remained already hot & our lab work (particularly

ED and Workshop) made us hot baked! The whole A, B, C,

D.......had to be written again! We felt like pushed into nursery

classes! On asking why RHSV is necessary when only two

views can explain the whole nature and position of

line/plane! Quick came the reply Do it now guy! You will

know it later! I felt like being dogged upon& it all seemed a

dog life for marks, marks and marks! No other aim.

Quizzes came and went but I could not improve my perfor-

mance! Life went like a cycle with a predetermined path! No

one can alter course of its action!

Then came midsems and everyone started putting up his/her

best in academics! Night outs in CC studying up to 1 am

became regular.CC became our 2nd home! Anyway except

maths and ED, as expected, my overall papers had gone just

average! Finally after the paper of HSS on the last day, life

again looked cheerful! The very same day we all friends went

to city for soiree, saw lots of movies on seniors compu &most

of us started preparing for going home/shillong.

The hot days were over!

Life became cool for a while!

Everywhere, everyone, everything looked cheerful!!!

I was going home, my true home.....

But since branch was dearer to me & I saw a ray of light in dark cloud in form of mech at IITG, I lled it as my top priority!

- Ravish Vasan

Dog Day Afternoon

2324

Lokesh SainiRohit Koolwal

Nished SinghalYash Dalmia

Peehoo DewanDebendra DharuaNaresh Nallamala

Aakash GoliaAshish Kumar

Hitesh ParwaniPankaj Sahu

Anand KarthaPrateek Kumar

Ravish VasanRishi Garg

SYNCTEAM

www.iitg.ernet.in/mesa

(Publication Secretary, Mesa)

DESIGNERS

Ayush Bajaj

Punit Mathur

www..geocities.com/ayush029

(Vice President, Mesa)

(President, Mesa)

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