The UVCEianVoice of the UVCE Community | Bi-monthly Newsletter

Volume 1, No 4 October 2014

Is IT taking over all forms of core Engineering.

CONTENTSSTUDENTSTheme Article- Rahul K Raghu

Art - Urmila A Koti

SAE_UVCE Updates

FACULTYChalk & Talk A delightful column by Prof. Krishna Vinayak Sharma that talks about a variety of interesting topics .

THEME OF THE MONTHIS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TAKING OVER ALL FORMS OF CORE ENGINEERING?

Societal Information Systems- Sanjay M

Kabe

They shoot horses, don’t they? - Rajesh Joshi

A Happy Marriage! -Sagar Moudgal

QUIZ-TRON

Is Pure Engineering Dying.. -Mayank Kamboj

UVCE FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP UPDATE

Sundara Swapna - Invitation to

Musical Concert in Bay Area, USA

"Howdy @MarsCuriosity? Keep in touch. I'll be around", tweeted our Mars Orbiter in

response to Curiosity Rover’s tweet,   "Namaste, @MarsOrbiter! Congratulations to

@ISRO and India's first interplanetary mission upon achieving Mars orbit."

A jubilant science fraternity celebrated the success of Mangyalyaan a few weeks

ago – a culmination of the steadfast efforts of thousands of hands and superior

technology. The event was telecast live, with the twitteratti proudly trending the

launch in no time.  What a change from when Aryabhatta was launched in 1975!

All that we had was an announcement in the All India Radio and headlines in the

newspapers only 24 hours later!

This change is a testimony to the giant leap of technology in the last few decades.

The rapid growth in the field of hardware led to great acceleration and evolution

2 The UVCEian, October 2014

The emergence of

Information

Technology has seen

unprecedented

transformation in the

world, more

specifically in

traditional science

and engineering

fields.

WE WOULD LOVE TO FEATURE YOU IN The UVCEian !

We welcome articles and photographs of alumni, current students, current and former faculty. Anything UVCE !

Do share your slice of nostalgia and help us feature it online and in print. Write to us at newsletter@uvcefoundation.org

Editorial Board of The UVCEian

Dr. Alice Abraham ( 1991 E&E)Ragini H S (1991 E&C) Kshama Jayanth (1991 E&E) Suresh Chivukula (2002, E&C) Sagar Moudgal, (2008, Mech) Chinmayee Nagaraju ( 2008, IS)Gayathri S (2008, IS)Veeresh K (2014, Mech)

Advisors

Dr. B R Niranjan, Dr. Vinayak Sharma Professor, Dept. Civil Engg. Professor, Dept. of Mech Engg.Dr. Narendra Kumar G Dr. E G Shivakumar Professor. Department of E&C Professor, Department of EE Prof. Dilip

Professor, Department Computer Science

in the realm of software. The emergence of Information Technology has seen unprecedented

transformation in the world, more specifically in traditional science and engineering fields. The

advancement of IT has contributed to an unending permutation and combination of

development in so many fields, that the human race is now so heavily dependent on science

and technology.  

In this edition of the UVCEian we explore the impact of IT on core engineering. Articles from

seasoned seniors to young students make a very interesting mix of facts, experience and

perceptions - “Has information technology completely taken over core engineering?” “The

impact of IT on core engineering.” “Information Technology – defining new paradigms for 

pure engineering” etc. etc.!  We are indeed happy to share that the participation from  our

Alumni and students is gaining strength with every edition of the UVCEian.

UVCE Foundation hosted the Scholarship selection interviews for the year 2014-15. Over 130

students were shortlisted for the interviews from almost 450 applicants. Alumni who were part

of the panel of judges were overwhelmed to see the aspiring youngsters, their need and their

urge to work hard and prove themselves. It is our humble appeal that our UVCE family across

the globe participate in this noble cause and give a new dimension to our youngsters who will

inherit the mantle from us.

As we progress with great speed in this world of technological advances, we have to

understand that the aim of technology should be to contribute to a better world - that which

complements nature and not harm it; that which offers mankind better options of a

meaningful living.  

A very Happy Diwali to you!

The UVCEian

Cover art by

Urmila A Koti,

II year B.Arch

3

Rahul

ART

The UVCEian, October 2014

IS IT TAKING OVER CORE ENGINEERING???

RAHUL K. RAGHU5th Semester ECE

Apparently the IT

industry is rapidly

taking over core

engineering. Various

studies support this notion.

Due to the IT boom, the grass

appears greener on the

other hand for core

engineering students. The

number of IT are far greater

in number when compared

to the number of core

companies for each branch

of core engineering. Also,

due to the boom, these

companies require a massive

workforce due to which the

employment opportunities are way

higher in the IT industry. The IT industry

generally requires less effort and the

salary is relatively higher. Hence,

graduates are increasingly choosing IT

over core companies. The new  

graduates prefer to walk their senior’s

footsteps and choose to opt for IT

companies.

But, on the brighter side, interested

and enthusiastic students still choose

to pursue core engineering in spite of

the hardships. But, there are thorns to

such pursuits. Lesser demand for

workers, requirement of extra hard

work, taking away most of their time,

relatively lower salary and lesser

opportunities make the students think

twice. But the scope of research is

higher in the case of core

engineering. Also, the students will be

really contented that there are

working in the field of interest that they

have in the first place chosen to study

in.

Though, there is apparent takeover by

IT companies, hardworking and

interested students will still pursue core

engineering in large numbers. Let’s

not forget “CORE IS ALWAYS CORE”.

ART

Urmilla A Koti

II year B.Arch

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MPU

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THEME OF THE MONTH

SAE

The UVCEian, October 2014

SAE UVCE UPDATES

UVCE Foundation is proud to have sponsored

the GO-Karting team of SAE-UVCE Having

been placed 7th in the all India semi-finals,

the Team competed at the finals held in

Coimbatore on October 19, 2014

represented by 20 SAE members.

Amidst fierce competition from 80 plus go-

Karts, UVCE’s eMPOWER was placed SIXTH in

the finals!!! Kudos to team SAE-UVCE!

GO SAE-UVCE! GO UVCE!

Dear UVCE Foundation,

We have successfully built our Go Kart and also

raced it in Kari Motor Speed Way in Coimbatore

from 17th-19th October 2014. It was a proud

moment for our team and our College. We would

not have achieved the success and recognition

of making our Go Kart and  racing the little

machine in one of the finest racing tracks in India

without your help and support. Thank you for

providing us Financial Assistance for procuring

various crucial parts in the Go Kart without which

it would not have been a success.

The Ranking of the contestants will be shortly be

put up in the ISNEE website. We will also put up a

detailed article about our Go Kart and the event

in the magazine soon.

Thank you for all the Financial and Moral Support

from UVCE Foundation, for the spending your

crucial time and money for our humble project.

Regards,Mohammed Aamir VTTeam Captain,Team eMpowerUVCESAE_INDIAUVCE

FRO

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Chalk and talk

The UVCEian, October 2014

Chalk and Talk

Prof. Krishna Vinayak SharmaDept. of Mechanical Engineering, UVCE

T h e f l o o d s i n

J a m m u a n d

Kashmir and its

d e v a s t a t i o n i s

something that should

have all of us worried. It’s

most definitely Not an Act

of God. Such flooding’s

have been happening very

frequently the past few

years in India. The massive

deforestation of the trees in

the Himalayas

by the forest thekedars and

their well-wishers which

were reported extensively in the media sometime in the 1980

is one of the culprits. Encroachers have reduced the original

size of the Dal lake to 15 % of its original size Were it not for

Sundar Lal Bahuguna and his Chipko movement, who knows

what the extent of depredation and its consequences would

have been.

Sometime during the past 2 months, I was invited to a

networking dinner hosted by the State Government of

Victoria and the University of Melbourne (UoM), Victoria in

Australia. The theme was - India Science, Education and

Research Partnership. The invitation came to me from the

Govt of Victoria. The food was excellent, this being held in Taj

West End and the Mutton Biryani, Baigan ka Bharta and the Firni

would have had many discerning Khansamas from Oudh nod in

appreciation. Coming to the nub (food apart!!) of the matter,

the University of Melbourne has entered into an agreement with

IISc and IIT (Kanpur and Chennai) in what is being referred to as

the Melbourne-India Postgraduate Program (MIPP). The

University of Melbourne has contributed AUD 3 million to this

effort. MIPP aims at creating the next generation of Indian and

Australian researchers, innovators and entrepreneurs access the

best research and training opportunities available in both

countries. The Regional Director-Education, State Government

of Victoria, Australia who works from Bangalore was very

informative and helpful. She has also been associated with

other projects (notably in the area of Vocational Training). The

professors who were well represented from UoM were very

informative about the prospects for our students in various

colleges in Vic, Aus. The areas that were of topical interest

were Sciences, Chemistry (Advanced and Functional

Materials, Transient Spectroscopy of Photovoltaic Materials),

Optometry and Neurosciences, Neural Science and Neural

Engineering, Polymer Chemistry and Engineering, Polymeric

Soft Nanoparticles for targeted applications and Big Data -

Codes for Distributed Data Storage that Supports Big Data, Big

Data Computing Environments, Analyticals etc. For anyone

interested in exploring options in Victoria they usually

recommend that they v is i t thei r websi te -  http://

www.studymelbourne.v ic.gov.au/.Further, extens ive

information regarding the scholarships and endowments are

available on the following websites:

Victorian International Research Scholarship  -  http://

www.studymelbourne.vic.gov.au/study-options/scholarships/

victorian-international-research-scholarships 

Joint Academic Scholarship Online Network  -  http://

www.jason.edu.au/browse/browse.html 

Victor ian Internat ional Education Awards -  http://

www.studymelbourne.vic.gov.au/study-options/scholarships/

victorian-international-education-awards 

Endeavour Awards  -  https://aei.gov.au/Scholarships-and-

Fellowships/Pages/default.aspx 

My experience of students is that they usually head out to

USA and then UK for their studies. Since recently Germany,

Netherlands and France are being looked into by the

students. It might be worth their while if students have a

FRO

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MPU

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look at the options in Australia. By all accounts, Sir

Robert Menzies and his White Australia policy as has

been junked a long time back. Besides, you don’t

HAVE to be a convict to qualify to go to Australia,

anymore .Recently, when their PM was here; there

was an agreement between the GOI and GOA

regarding vocational training. Now, with the nuclear

deal done, things seem to be moving forward. After

everything is said and done you must remember you

are not moving to a country to study.You are moving

to a continent which has so much more resources

than a country. The standard of education and living

is comfortable and the pace of life is said to be much

more relaxed than in USA and Europe. Over to you

guys for whatever you decide….

5

6

I

Invitation to Scholarship Award Ceremony

THEME OF THE MONTH

The UVCEian, October 2014

Sometime, during the past few two months, one of the

world’s most iconic magazine shut shop. MAD Magazine,

started by Harvey Kurtzman and William Gaines in 1956

was an iconic magazine in satire on both political and

day to day events.You could say it was perhaps the

comic magazine version of today’s TV show “Simpsons”

which seeks to spoof on various things that is happening

around us. It had reached a peak circulation of about 2

million copies in the 1970’s and its extremely talented

artist writers like Sergio Aragones, Don Martin and Al Jaffe

were regular contributors. Its iconic “face”, Alfred E

Neumann with his “What, me worry” was one of the most

well recognised face during those times. In fact, one of

its writer artistes was at the Comic.Com show in

Bangalore recently. He used to power the Spy Vs Spy

page in the magazine. It finally gave up its ghost

sometime the past 2 months.

For lady students with an attitude I suggest a read of the

book “The Mists of Avalon “written by Marion Zimmer

Bradley. It retells the story of the legendary English King

Arthur, Merlin and Excalibur with the emphasis being on

the Pre Christian Celtic religion that was being practiced

at that time, witch (pun intended!) may have been the

forerunner of the Wiccan religion. This book retells the

story from the point of view of his (Arthur’s) half-sister

Morgainne. Quite simply put, it seeks to tell the story of

the Arthurian legend from the point of view of women

and the two most important women in his life were his

wife Guinevere and his half-sister Morgaine of the

Faeries.Worth a read but be warned the number of

pages runs well past 850. It is published by Random

House Publishing Company.

The most gratifying event the past 2 months occurred in

K R Circle. I was in the Department for the Sunday

evening class a few weeks back and a group of students

(Not from UVCE) invited me to a guitar and meet the

press show inside the underpass connecting both the

buildings. I could not go but did venture into the under

pass later. What the students had done was quite

astounding. They had cleaned the entire passage which

was once filled with urine and excrement. They had

cleaned it perfectly and it was probably the cleanest

underpass I had seen in Bangalore. I suggest students to

use them to go back and forth to the main building.

Apart from being safe it will discourage people from

We cordially invite our dear alumni to participate and grace the occasion of

UVCE FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP AWARD CEREMONY 2014-15

Scheduled on

Sunday, November 9, 2014 11.30 AM

Venue

JNANA JYOTHI AUDITORIUMCentral College Campus, Palace Road, Bangalore – 560001

______________

Program includes interacting and networking with alumni from different batches, meeting over 100 bright young scholars from UVCE.

Click here for RSVPFor information write to: info@uvcefoundation.org, or call -9448270489 /

9900141970

UVCE FOUNDATION&

ROTARY BANGALORE SOUTHRI Dist 3190

polluting the under pass if it is used regularly because of the

people passing through it.

Suggest you all see the movie “Finding Fanny”. It is funny, nice

movie with beautiful shots of Goa and gives a good look at the

leisure pace of life in an obscure Goan village, Pocolim or

something. Nasiruddin Shah and D. Kapadia are outstanding in

their acting prowess as is Pankaj Kapoor. Depeeka Padukone is

as wooden as the specimens you find in the carpentry section. I

frankly think the lady should have been a constitutional lawyer

or a neurosurgeon or something. She is a fish out of water in this

profession. See it at the Rex theatre. There is no other better

place to see it. And while at it have your lunch at the Thai

Dhabha @ the 5th Avenue. More about this place in the next

issue

Take care…and be seeing you around.

(The views expressed in this work are the personal views of the

author. They do not represent the views of UVCE or Bangalore

University or any other organization)

7

Societal Information

Systems

THEME OF THE MONTH

The UVCEian, October 2014

The revolution has started. Long live the

revolution! We are talking of the

Information revolution engulfing the

entire society. Information Technology

is now part and parcel of everyday life

– yes, every moment of our life and it

has pervaded in all walks of life and

profession. We have reached the

strategic inflection point and may well

have reached the tipping point. A new

breed of Information Systems, what I

call, -Societal Information Systems –

where companies, teams, individuals

are now designing information systems

for the entire society – local, regional

and global, are taking shape. And

society is embracing these new

information systems – hardware and

software - in all its avatars – from apps

to mobile phones to internet of things.

Examples are Google, Facebook,

Amazon, Smart Cities, UID, etc.

What are Societal Information

Systems?

Societal Information Systems is a new

and evolving field. There is no clear cut

definition of what it means. Broadly

speaking, Societal Information Systems

is a socio-technical information eco-

system comprising of hardware, data

centers, information infrastructures,

software, applications, apps – all

architected together as an Information

System that serve the society – local,

regional and global – at large. They

are both technical and social in nature

and involve a lot of interaction with

millions of people. These systems are

also ubiquitous in nature in both

physical and time dimensions. That is,

you can find it everywhere in the day

of a life of a person in the form of

mobiles, tablets, embedded in

gadgets, etc.; and, we start our day

with these and end our nights with

these and they are in action almost all

the time. They cater to the various

needs of the society – be it

automating, educating, governing,

informating, socializing, empowering,

entertaining, buying and selling, etc.

Evolution of Information Systems and

how we got here

As the famous adage goes – Rome

was not built in a day. Similarly, this

revolution has happened due to a series

of interdependent and interplay of

discontinuities – in semiconductors,

hardware, software past several

decades. One can model these

discontinuities/(r)evolutions of the

Information Systems by using the

sigmoid curve. The “S”, sigmoid curve is

a good way of explaining these series of

(r)evolutions. Many natural processes,

such as those of complex system

learning and adoption curves, exhibit a

progression from small beginnings that

accelerates and approaches a

saturation/maturity over time.

At the core are the tremendous

discontinuities in semiconductor

technology and its ability to produce

silicon chips in a broad variety of access

devices – from mobiles, tablets. Next,

these access devices have been

innovatively married, and popularized

by Apple, into hand-held smart mobiles

which has shrunk the PC into a mobile.

This has been backed by the continuous

improvement and reach of global

information infrastructures/networking. A

synergy of all this has resulted in new

innovative companies to be spawned

past this decade with applications and

apps that have resulted in people at

large and from all walks of life,

irrespective of their color, creed, age,

sex and economic status embracing

the new gadgets and accessing/using

information like never before.

The evolution of the application of the

Information systems started with military

applications and scientific applications

and it remained so for several decades.

Later, information systems for businesses

were built. Initially, and for many years,

these information systems were localized

in a separate Computer Department. As

the technology progressed, and the

applications evolved, a new breed of

Information systems called

Management Information Systems

evolved. These included, Decision

Support Systems, which helped

executives to take informed decisions

based on the information of the

markets/business/organization modeled

by computers. Slowly and steadily,

again driven by the technology trends,

the information system spread across

the entire organization and Enterprise

Information systems, involving almost all

employees, was born. These were also

“informating” systems and were also

getting a bit more social – in the form of

email systems – where employees would

exchange information, chat, etc. As

competition became fierce and

globalization became a reality,

Strategic Information Systems evolved.

These systems were explicitly supporting

executives to formulate, shape and

execute their corporate strategies

Societal Information Systems

Sanjay M KabeBatch of ’84, E&C

Founder, Techniche Consulting

The UVCEian, October 2014

through the design and implementation of information

systems. Meanwhile, due to continuous innovations and

discontinuities coming out of military labs, networking and

the internet slowly moved out of the military, R&D realm into

the open world in the form of the internet. The

development of the browser was a revolution in access

technology. The continuous interplay between the

evolution of semiconductor technology and software led to

the smart mobile revolution and was a game changer. With

the growth of the internet and the Web browser, Access

devices and Information Infrastructures there was no

stopping of Information systems being slowly embraced by

more number of users in the society and gave birth to

Societal Information Systems

Characteristics of Societal Information Systems

Large user base- One of the distinguishing characteristics of

Societal Information Systems is its wide and varied user

base. Literally, the user base may runs to hundred millions of

users of all age groups, sex, languages, and so forth.

Information Eco-system - First of all, Societal Information

Systems are veritably an Information eco-system. They

consist of huge information infrastructures – server farms,

huge data centers, backed by networking infrastructure -,

supported by an eco-system of applications that cater to

an eco-system of access devices. For example, Google has

its own data centers spread across USA, Europe and APAC

and a variety of applications that together cater to the

needs of the global customers. Google works on PCs,

mobiles, tablets, laptops and a wide range of devices.

Vertical Integration - More often than not, the information

infrastructures and applications are all vertically integrated

and are built in-house. For example, Google designs its own

hardware, has its own operating system, owns and runs its

own data centers, has developed most of its applications and

software in-house. Similarly too with Facebook. Even in India, UID

runs its own data centers, although the hardware and the

infrastructural software is third party, and has developed its own

architecture.

Glocalisation - Another characteristic of these Information Systems

are that they are “Glocal” in nature. That is they, are Global in

scope and Local to specific regions. For example, Google

application runs on the same core algorithm but it can search

contents in languages local to a certain region – US, Europe, Asia,

etc.

Big Data and Unstructured Data - Due to the large reach of these

information systems, they are huge data guzzlers and data

generators. Enter, Big Data revolution here. Capturing all the

information transactions and needs of millions of customers’ needs

huge amount of data and these data are not necessarily relational

data. They can be huge unstructured data.

Ubiquitous and Pervasive- These information systems are ubiquitous

– in time and space. These applications are used all the time, at any

time of the day, and manifest in various forms and form factors.

Socio-Technical systems- Societal Information Systems are socio-

technical systems. They have elements of technology, computing

blended with social uses and social contexts. For example,

hundreds of millions use these systems, and ease-of-use of the UX

( User Experience ) and the interactions with each other makes

these applications very social. The conventional technical/

computing perspective has thus to be expanded to embrace the

social uses of technology.

Conclusion

Societal Information Systems are the new building blocks of the

Information Society. Designing these systems needs a combination

of mind-sets, as Howard Gardner suggests, – a disciplined mind, a

synthesizing mind and a creating mind. The disciplined mind should

marry Eco-system thinking with the conventional Information System

design thinking that we have followed so far. The synthesizing mind

should integrate rich information from a variety of disciplines

ranging from Electronics, Pure Sciences, Design, Social sciences,

etc. As always, the sky is the limit, and the creative mind has to get

more creative to come up and reach out the systems to more and

more people in an ethical and responsible manner. Just as

discontinuities in technology have contributed to the evolution of

the Societal Information System, a discontinuity in Design Thinking

and Systems Methodology will drive the future of designing Societal

Information Systems.

( The author welcomes feedback on this article by email at smkabe@gmail.com )

Figure summarizes the evolution of Information Systems and how we have got to Societal Information systems now.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? 

The UVCEian, October 2014

“Take me to your

leader”, said the green

extraterrestrial clad in silver

suits, as the shocked human stared

at his UFO in confusion. That was

childhood to us. Star Wars and Star

Trek made monotonous voice

synonymous with alien invasion.

Fast forward to the twenty first

century, the phone in our hands is

smarter than the biggest

computer of the seventies, and

the gadgets we saw in Science

Fiction are a part of our lives. We

wake up to the monotonous voice

of Siri, and have a good laugh

when we accidentally try to touch

a screen to operate. Information

Technology has changed the

world. But with that comes the

new fear. Is Information

Technology taking over the world?

Is core engineering dying?

What is Core Engineering? It is an

implementation of science,

supported by the power of all

mathematics. Sometimes

expressed in the form of

mathematical equations,

sometimes as theorems as proof

to their scientific findings. Although

engineering seems to be

independent, each discipline has

direct or indirect impact on other

disciplines of engineering, and society.

History has it that before the advent of

IT, these effects were minor, or

happened over the course of time,

thereby delaying progress.

Michael Faraday. For us Electrical

Engineers, this is a discovery close to

our heart. In 1821, Michael Faraday

with very little formal education

discovered the Principle of Magnetism.

He continued his work with other

inventions such as the effect of

magnetism on light, electromagnetic

induction, and the law of electrolysis.

But, his mathematical abilities were

limited. He couldn’t express his

inventions into quantifiable

achievement that could cause

excitement in related engineering

fields. It was a good concept, but it

didn’t become a great concept until

1861. James Clerk Maxwell was

probably born with a purpose when he

was born on the same day as Faraday

announced the discovery of

Electromagnetic induction. He

quantified Faraday’s discovery into a

series of differential equations. All it took

was a set of twenty equations with

twenty variables to express the ideas of

electromagnetism.

And that redefined core engineering.

Michael Faraday’s inventions were

communicated to the society in the

form of radio, telephone, telegraph,

microwaves, x-rays, televisions and a

plethora of devices that have in turn,

redefined the way we live. It was all

possible thanks to the mathematical

equations of Maxwell that helped us

predict the behavior of electricity and

magnetism under different

circumstances. The differential

equations that Maxwell wrote were

the means to represent the findings of

Faraday. They were never an end. By

quantifying the findings into simple

equations, he did not curb new

inventions. He provided a foundation

to build future inventions on. He

opened a whole new world of

possibilities. There were clashes

between theorists and

mathematicians then, and theorists

were threatened by mathematicians

just as core engineering today feels

threatened by information

technology.

These equations represented findings.

They quantified the discoveries and if

anything helped validate finding,

analyze the behavior under different

conditions. And what did the person

doing this analysis miss? The

mechanical setup, the cost incurred

to configure the apparatus. Imagine

the convenience of penning down

They Shoot Horses, Don't They? 

Rajesh Joshi

( Batch of 1991, EE)Senior Principal,  Software Development, Tyco Retail

Solutions

9

THEME OF THE MONTH

The UVCEian, October 2014

the cause-effect on a piece of paper vs. setting the

apparatus. And cut to the modern times, we the lucky ones

of this century have taken it a step further, computerized

the calculations. From the laptop of your kitchen table, you

can fire Wolfram Alpha, feed any equation to the system

and check out the behavior – graph it, analyze it and draw

your conclusion. We have the discoveries, analysis, findings

at out finger tips. Not only has the computerization

eliminated the setup cost, it has eliminated the repetitive

actions/jobs. This may seem as taking over the world, but,

no! In reality it has made the field more efficient and error

free.

If Faraday and Maxwell dominated the 19th century,

Einstein dominated the 20th century. His Theory of Relativity,

E=mc2. His findings changed our views of gravity, light

diffraction, time, matter and space. A new age the

“nuclear age” came into existence. Till date his explanation

of time relativity guides our GPS. Our computers and their

gigabyte speeds are nothing but accelerated applications

of his findings.

Often discoveries and inventions lead us to a path that is

quite different from what it is intended to. The discovery of

Higgs Boson particle led to (fostered) the world of Cloud

Computing and Big Data crunching. The 3 billon DNA

sequences can be crunched and fit into a computer

memory. A new world of intelligent software has evolved;

one that can teach itself, and evolve. It can upgrade it’s

knowledge-base with every problem it solves. This leads to

new and more fantastic discoveries in the world of

medicine and DNA. This is yet another example of

computers influencing your decision making, never over

powering the core engineering of Biology. Understanding

and digesting this big a discrete data is beyond human

comprehension, and computers, computer Algorithms

help us in understanding the data.

What is overwhelming in the above context is the speed

at which software changes. The speed is phenomenal for

anyone to understand and grasp the change. This makes

us mute followers of Technology, and increases the fear or

technology. Fear breeds a blind belief. What should you

do under this situation? Back to the basics, rely on your

math, keep the kid in you curious, and plan your course.

Information Technology and Core Engineering simulate

one another. Core engineering has changed the world;

Information Technology has guided it, and will continue to

do so in the ages to come.

On a lighter note, Sir M Vishweswaraiah gave the society

KRS with an idea to conserve and harvest water, and

thought of Brindavan as a side effect. Raj Kumar pranced

around with beautiful women around the colorful

fountains of Brindavan and gave the society memorable

romantic songs!

!Good Old UVCE

A cyclostyled μP test paper from the IEEE UVCE Chapter, 1990!

A course completion certificate from 1927!!

10

Sagar Moudgal

Quiz

The UVCEian, October 2014

There could be several

definitions of

Engineering. I would love to

put it as  “Engineering is

COMMON SENSE in a highly

advanced format with a

structured and probable and

repeatable entities”.

Engineering is a confluence - a

beautiful mix of science, maths

and philosophy

Engineering exists from the stone

age or even before, right up to

the invention of wheel.  Further

inventions not only  made   life

simpler and comfortable but it

started the want for more.

For many many years now  Civil,

Electrical, Mechanical enjoyed

importance  The branches of

engineering but of late there are

engineering and technological

branches for or many disciplines as

you can think of. Of the more recent

introductions, one of the biggest

glam up and a catalyst branch of all

engineering is the Information

Technology (IT) or Information

Science  or more simply the

Computer Science branch..

The way IT  has transformed every

branch of engineering is amazing.

There used be days when the khakhi

clad mechanical guys used this

contraption called “Drafter”This

used be an iconic weapon for

drawing the fundamentals of any

designs. For the present day kids this

seems to be a vintage product, as IT

has gifted them Autocad,

Unigraphics, Pro E, Solidworks.. The

same has been the case with the

civil and architecture sectors.

1. What is the etymology of the word "Engineering"?2. Who produced the first cellular phone and when?3. What type of signals does the microphone capture?4. When is Engineer's Day celebrated in India?5. Which was the first Engineering College established in India?6. Who is India's first women chief engineer?7. What does GigaFLOPS measure?8. Name the co-founder who along with Bill Gates founded Microsoft. 9. Which was the first car manufactured in India?10. Name the Indian who created the world's first web based email.Answers:1. Cleverness in Latin 2. Ericsson, 1979 3. Compression Waves 4. Sep 15th 5. IIT Roorkee, 1847 6.  P K Tresia Nangeeli 7. Floating point operations 8. Paul Allen 9. Hindustan 10 (Morris 10) 10. Sabeer Bhatia

QUIZ-TRON Sagar Moudgal

Batch of 2008, Mech

Managing DIrector, Tetrad India Ltd

On the other hand,  the IT sector gained a

whole lot from these engineering branches

as it added  onc whole vertical and a

product line to itself!

Is IT therefore completely taking over all

forms of pure engineering?  Or should we

say that pure engineering actually gave a

breather to the IT companies? Yes it’s a

fact!

Both the forms of engineering do have

space for each other and coexist on the

same platform at the same time. They

compliment each other very well.

A good collaboration is what is going to

make life simpler, comfortable and

enjoyable.

11

A Happy Marriage!

Sagar MoudgalBatch of 2008, Mech

Managing Director , Tetrad India Ltd

THEME OF THE MONTH

Mayank Kamboj

The UVCEian, October 2014

“Somebody rightly said

that in India we become

Software engineers first and

then think what we really wanted to

do”

What is the first thing that comes in your

mind when somebody tells that he/she is

an Engineer? Which company/Domain/

language? Why doesn’t anybody think of

anything apart from Software

companies? Well that is the condition

today even after 200 various forms of

engineering existing in this world and at

least in more than 30 of them you can

get a degree from reputed institutions.

Way back in late 90s and towards the big

millennium year when the whole scenario

changed and the trend of shifting

towards IT companies came into picture.

But did we ever think why suddenly the

maximum percentage of students turned

towards Information Technology and

Computer Science courses to fetch Jobs

in the so called IT Industry and to be

known as a “techie” going forward. What

about their original interest in those

scintillating physics facts, interesting

chemical reactions and mind boggling

mathematical puzzles. I personally know

so many people who are mad behind

physics or are even teaching

mathematics then why didn’t they

choose it as their career option. All their

interests and likings convert to their

hobbies and apart from working for a

living they pursue those in their left over

time to please themselves. What if the

case was otherwise?

I remember in my times during 2005 the

most possible options in the science

field were first to choose between

Engineering and medical and those in

Engineering chose the branches like

Electronic, Computer science etc. Well

there were exceptions as some of them

exclusively wanted Electricals,

Electronics or Mechanical Engineering

branches but the general trend was to

choose the best branch available as

per the campus placements

possibilities to get a Job. Earning a

Handsome salary at a young age of 22

unlike your commerce and other pure

science counterparts was also one

added factor to this sudden change in

trend. I as a Computer science

graduate used to think why take some

other engineering branch to again

come back to IT and unlearn what you

learnt all the four years of engineering.

Well the answer was when you see 10

software companies coming to college

against one mechanical or pure

electronics/electrical for placements

then under the family pressure to get a

Job you had to choose the former to

be safe of not landing out of the

engineering college in this big IT world

with just a degree and not a Job. But

will things change?

The answer lies within ourselves, how

much we believe in ourselves to let us

chase our dreams. Make career out of

our likings and just not let them be our

hobbies. Above scenario is the case

way back in first decade of this century

and now I see suddenly other career

options have come up and the

percentage of people choosing

Information technology has come

down. Let it be due to the social media

or the existence of Jobs and Money in

other fields as well but people are

thinking about their likings before

jumping on to software engineering. I

see people choose Music, Journalism,

Fashion designing and pure sciences to

become what they really had dreamt

to become. The support from family

and society is tremendous and most

importantly there are enough

opportunities for all to be part of this

big world and not just get carried

away in the rat race. I see many of my

friends opting to choose higher studies

abroad in pure or applied sciences in

continuation with their bachelor

degrees to follow their instinct. So here

is the time as you have the platform

and opportunity. Let those physics

concepts still surprise you, let those

chemical reactions still excite you and

let those mathematics facts and

formulas still amaze you. Wouldn’t it be

fun if are doing what you really like to

do and not forced to and upon that

getting paid for it. My piece of advice

to all the young guns will be to turn

towards your interests and likings and

make a career out of it. Turn towards

pure science and let your dreams be

just not dreams as somebody rightly

said...“Do what you like or else Like

what you do”

Has Information Technology taken over all forms of Engineering?

Mayank KambojComputer Science, 2009

Consultant Engineer at Ariba

12

THEME OF THE MONTH

UVCE SCHOLARSHIPS 2014 - UPDATE AND EARNEST APPEAL

The UVCEian, October 2014

Dear UVCE Alumni,

We are in the final stages of awarding 2014 scholarships to UVCE students. This year, we had over 500 applicants and based on merit and financial needs we invited 150 students for interview. Each candidate was interviewed by 3 Judges, most of whom were alums  of UVCE from 1962 batch through 2013. This year, a team of volunteers led by Ram Vasantharam also conducted field visits to homes of few students to further ascertain their eligibility for scholarships. We are sharing with you some of their stories.These students are distinction students at UVCE and got  90+% in their SSLC and PUC. 

Mala Shree lives with her mother and younger sister in a 1 one bedroom <200 sq ft apartment neighboring a steel cutting operation and a scrap processing facility. Her dad, a bus conductor, died in an accident last year.  Mom supports the family working as a tailor in a garment factory.  

Varun Kumar lives with his mother and younger sister in a  very small 1 bedroom apartment. They moved from Chennai to Bangalore after his dad died. Mother supports the family by doing tailoring job. Varun Kumar is the top student in his class at UVCE. 

Chandrakala, a student at UVCE, earns little money by teaching neighborhood kids . Her father is very ill and brother dropped out of Commerce College to work and support the family.

Having met and interviewed many of the students personally we are even more convinced about our commitment to help our juniors. One could see the determination in their eyes to succeed. Their parent (s) or guardians are willing to sacrifice everything to make sure their children get ahead in their careers. And it works!. We are starting to see that, scholarship awardees graduating from UVCE, and working for companies like Goldman Sachs, are already coming back to support this cause.  

For 2014,  we have shortlisted a total of 125 highly deserving students like those mentioned above. These students would benefit from a Full ( Rs 15000 ) or  Half (Rs. 7500)  or Quarter (Rs 4000) scholarship. 

We have received approx. Rs 9 Lakhs ($16,000) through various fund raising activities and donations from you. However, we are short of Rs.5 lakhs ($8K) in order to meet our aspiration to support 125 students. We urge you to come together and donate generously so we do not have to turn these students away. 

Our goal to is to reach our vision of meeting the financial needs of 150 students, sustainably, for years to come.  This year, by distributing scholarships to 125 students, we are one step closer to realizing that vision. Please contribute either towards this year's scholarship awards or towards the Endowment Fund.

You may send your donations either in INR or USD. We are a registered non profit organization in US [Tax ID : 73-1651482] and India. 

We thank you for your support. Let us provide this important help to another deserving UVCEian. 

Sincerely, B. V JagadeeshBatch of 1978

UVCE SCHOLARSHIPS 2014 - UPDATE AND EARNEST APPEAL

The UVCEian, October 2014

We are appealing to all our alumni to support these UVCE students full of promise by helping us raise the funds to sustain the program. We are grateful for your support by way of donation, of any amount.

All contributions are tax deductible under 80G of Income Tax act in India, and is 501C registered in the US.

Pay by Credit Card or PayPal     

Go to http://konnectme.org/groups/profile/47109/uvce-foundation. Select from one of the listed donation   amounts or enter an amount of your choice. Click on Donate and follow the steps to complete your payments on PayPal. A confirmation email will be sent to the email id provided in contact details

Pay by CheckMail your checks to UVCE Foundation USA, P O Box 0455, Cupertino  CA - 95014 USA

Or if donating in INR, mail your cheques favoring of UVCE Foundation, to 

UVCE Foundation, #17,2nd Main, Basaveswara Layout, 2nd Stage, Chandra Layout,Bengaluru 560040, India

Online transferAccount number: 17571450000026 Bank Name: HDFC BankIFSC Code: HDFC0001757Account Name: UVCE Foundation

Photographs of the judging process held in two rounds by UVCE alumni in partnership with Rotary at UVCE Alumni Hall, KR Circle on September 20th and October 11th, 2014.

Invitation to Scholarship Award Ceremony

UVCE SCHOLARSHIPS 2014 - UPDATE AND EARNEST APPEAL

14

Musical ConcertUVCE Foundation

Cordially invites you

to join

UVCE Alumni

and friends

in the Bay Area , California USA

for a Special Musical Concert

benefitting

UVCE Foundation Scholarship Fund

http://uvcefoundation.org In US; UVCE Foundation US, PO Box 0455, Cupertino, California – 95014, USA, Ph: +1 408 996 1022 |In India: UVCE Foundation,#17, 2nd Main, Basaveswara Layout,   2nd Stage, Chandra Layout, Bengaluru 560040, India | Ph: 0091 94482 70489.

Like our page on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/UVCEAlumni

UVCE Foundation US is a 501 (C) organization in USA. In India, UVCE Foundation is 80G certified. Registered in 2002.15