DC Meeting Over

Doctoral Committee was meeting to review my progress after two years. So there was a lot of thigs to be shared. I tried to make the presentation as concise as possible. It was quite well received by committee members. They have given advised me to wind up my work by July 2006. Looking at the things I want to do it seems pretty difficult. But they say that one can not do too many things and I may even continue with research after getting degree. Their appreciation of the work is quite encouraging.

Dr Syam Sunder's EML

It was an extraordinary EML. We had the chief of investigation team for WTC attack. It was a great learning experience. The brief talk with him before the lecture in the guest house also was quite pleasant. Like most of the people to who I am introduced as SGS, he also asked me in which year I was studying. My patent answer was "the fourth year!". But this time I went ahead and informed him that it was fourth year of my doctoral research! We had a pretty well interaction.. and a pretty long time.. as we want to delay our entry to CLT as late as possible as CLT had not even 100 students!

Progress Report Submitted

Progress report copies are given to all Doctoral Committee members except one. That job I can do tomorrow. The review is on the day after tomorrow. I have to work on the presentation now.

Naresh Gets His Wheelchair

After waiting for long three weeks finally Naresh got his wheelchair today. It must be a very happy day today. We requested Hon'ble Director to hand over the chair to Naresh. It was a very low profile function that took place near Admin Block. It was over within 10 minutes. DoS, DoP and some students also were present there. The chair is funded from Students Welfare Fund.

We have made 75% advance payment and in a day or two should pay the balance. That means I still have some more work to do.

Green Peace Exhibition on 2nd and 3rd Sept

Most of us know about Green Peace. If some body does not he or she can do a search on net. They will be in the campus on 2nd and 3rd Sept for an exhibition about there history of their evolution as an international organisation. We will provide them mostly HSB113/114 and CLT.

Doctoral Commitee Meets on 31st August

Doctoral Committee (DC) meeting is scheduled on 31st of August. It is an annual review of my reserch. I need to write a report and give copies to six DC members and departmental office. So mostly I will not be convening any meeting from today as I need to concentrate on analysis of the results, report and presentation preparation. Eventhough I will take care of EMLs scheduled during this period. I will try to attend some meetings if necessary.

But naturally, I will complete my responsibility over this weekend in the Tsunami Challenge BPlan Competition.

First EML Videographed

We had the first EML of the season. It went exceedingly well. I am completely impressed by politeness and simplicity of Prof Krishnan Balasubramanian. All the arrangements were made well. I must congratulate Harshit and all members of EML team for their excellent job.

This lecture was unique in one aspect. EML team started videographying the lecture series by its own camera which is just twenty six hours old as of now. These lectures will be put in library and also on a streaming server for future use.

First extramural lecture of the year

Today evening we will have the first extramural lecture of this year. We have invited Prof K Balasubramanian of University of California Davis, Livermore for the talk. He will talk on Computational and Mathematical Methods in Arts and Science.

Servers for Message Board and websites of Shaastra/Saarang

I again gave the desired specifications for the computers to DoS. One computer will be used for the Institute Students Message Board and the other will be used to host the websites of Shaastra and Saarang. The approval for these computers is already taken. Also the software for the message board is already purchased.

Action Taken and Action to be Taken for Improved Internet Access

I received email from Prof TAG just sometime back. The mail goes like this.
============================
Prasad,

Earlier, 3 proxies were being used for the Academic Zone and only one for the Hostel Zone. Sreekumar (with help from Dinil of DONlab) discovered that part of the problem was that the Hostel Proxy was overloaded and hence delaying/losing requests. This caused access to even local websites and smail to be slow. He then reconfigured the proxies so that the Hostel zone shares 2-3 proxies. This would have caused the improvement that you experienced.

In the next day or two, Sreekumar will configure the proxies to change the Internet bandwidth allocation as follows:

Academic zone:
7 a.m. - midnight: 3x2 Mb/s
midnight - 7 a.m: 1x2 Mb/s + 2x2Mb/s shared
Hostel zone:
7 a.m. - midnight: 1x2 Mb/s
midnight - 7 a.m: 1x2 Mb/s + 2x2Mb/s shared

This should further improve the download speed for external websites during the late night hours. One of the Shastra coords from EE Department had met me last week regarding their website access. If he is still having a problem after these changes, ask him to meet me again.

Regards
TAG

Internet access in the hostel zone improves today

Today morning I experienced improvement in internet access in hostel zone. I have asked for the information from Prof TAG about the action taken for the same.

Some days back I had informed DoP about the clogging in the hostel zone. This report was well received by him. He asked Prof TAG to look into the matter. After studying the situatition for a day Prof TAG made some observations and shared with me. It seems that some action must have been taken. It's good thing for all of us.

Tsnunami Challenge BPlan Competition - First Leg

Second day of the competition concludes. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were completely busy with the competition. This was some thing that I consider myself fortunate for being involved in my capacity both as the students representative and as an individual. Total 128 teams from varius collages in Tamil Nadu had registered. This itself talks about the kind of response the competition recieved. From our institute 21 teams had registered but after screening only six were allowed to participate. I think there was no alternative for us other than this.

There are so many things to write about the experiences during the time organising this event. I will certainly do that if time permits.

The finals for this competition are scheduled on the next weekend. Only 8 teams will make to the finals. Results of screening will be announced at 6 pm tomorrow.

Many thanks to the volunteer who were exemplary in their contribution.

Meeting of Members of All Hostel Councils and EW

We had a meeting with members of all hostel councils, executive wing, GCU, Council of Wardons and DoS. The purpose was to take a proactive action in order to curb ragging. Overall it was a very essential step towards addressing this problem.

As a followup of that I have started visiting hostels. After dinner I had a round of Godavari and Ganga hostels.

Check for advance payment for wheel chair handed over to Naga Naresh

I handed over the cheque to Naga Naresh for paying 75% advance to Callidai Motors to buy the electric wheelchair. At that time Harshit, Bhushan and some other secretaries and also some students from Sarayu were present. This amount is sanctioned by DoS from the Students Welfare Fund. Tommorow we will make actual payment to the Callidai.

Microsoft Exchange Server as a platform to the email for students

At around 1045h I received phone call from DoP about Microsoft Exchange Server as a platform to the email account for students. He also informed that the interface was same as the Hotmail interface. He wanted my opinion about its usefulness. I told him that if the interface was going to be same as Hotmail then usefulness wise MES would be welcome. The price for the required number of licenses was being negotiated and DoP had found that the proposed price was ‘not bad’. Already 2000 licenses are given free for faculty accounts.

Estimate of expeses for availing Educational Loan for students

Some new girls from MSc class have applied for educational loan. They wanted to get an estimate of academic expenses from the institute in order to submit it to the bank. AR-Acad has clarified saying that this estimate can be sent by academic section directly to the concerned bank. The bank has to contact the Acad Section.

General Secretary’s Address - Welcome to 1st Year Students of MSc, MBA, MTech, MS and PhD Programme

Good morning to all. I am Prasad Dudhgaonkar, the General Secretary of student body of IIT Madras. On behalf of all students, I welcome all new students of MSc, MBA, MTech, MS and PhD.

I will briefly tell about myself. I’ve done Bachelor of Engineering from Shivaji Vidyapeeth Kolhapur in Maharastra, then Masters from IIT Bombay, then have worked in engines R&D of an automotive manufacturing company. And in last three years I am persuing here at IIT Madras, my doctorate in the area of spray atomization and its application in the aviation gas turbine engines.

Having said that I would like to mention one thing, which is like any other world class institution IIT Madras also demands academic excellence. At the same time we should take enough care of ourselves so that we stay fit, both physically and mentally. To help us do that life in IIT Madras has a lot to offer you. Here I will mention briefly a few things in the student life at this campus.
We will have extramural lectures by eminent personalities from all corners of the world, encompassing various aspects of life, which include science and technology, sports, social work, politics, business and entrepreneurship, culture and entertainment. These lectures provide us excellent opportunities to interact with great persons and to draw inspiration to become one like them. We will also have intra-hostel and inter-hostel events, departmental technical festivals, national level annual technical festival, which is popularly known as Shaastra, annual cultural festival - Saarang, many exhibitions, seminars, conferences and what not!

I should not forget to mention the Hobby Club and its activities. Here you get opportunity not only to pursue your current hobby but also to develop interest in new hobbies. We have here a photography club, robotics club, astronomy club, aero-modeling and some more clubs. You may also come with suggestions of other hobbies. Your suggestions will be certainly appreciated. Being a member of Hobby Club will not cost you a single rupee.

It is essential here to mention that all these activities are conducted by students, under able guidance of honorable Director, Dean of Student Activities and faculty advisers for sports, co-curricular and cultural activities. I look forward for your enthusiastic participation in these activities.

Another information… sports talent search will begin immediately. So start practicing your favorite games. In our campus, you can practically play every game except golf and formula one racing… Don’t forget this is only university campus which is situated in a beautiful reserved area of a national park. So please appreciate this identity. You can do it by participating in various activities of Prakriti. Prakriti is and organization for conservation of environment in our campus. Dr Manu Santhanam will talk in detail about Prakriti at a later stage.

I would like to conclude by wishing you a very pleasant, healthy and a successful stay at IIT Madras.

Thank you.

PG Chief Coordinator for GCU

We selected Jignesh Sutaria (MS – Aero) as the Chief Coordinator (PG). Selection of his deputy will take place soon.

General Secretary's Address - Welcome Function for 1st Students of BTech/DualDegree Programme

A very good morning to all. I am Prasad Dudhgaonkar, the General Secretary of student body of IIT Madras. Basically I am a PhD Research Scholar from Department of Mechanical Engineering.

I welcome all new students of BTech and Dual Degree programme and their parents on behalf student community of IIT Madras. We also congratulate new students for making into IIT Madras through a tough competition.

You may already have become aware of the life in our institute through the wep-portal and earlier speeches... not to forget the beautiful brochure made by Guidance and Counselling Unit.

Like every other world class institution, our institution also demands academic excellence. Thus our first priority should be academics. At the same time, we should never forget to take enough care of our own development as a good person with an excellent character and also our development as a good citizen of the nation.

To help us achieve this goal, student life in this institute will provide you many many opportunities in various forms. We will have extramural lectures by eminent personalities from all corners of the world encompassing various aspects of life which include arts, culture, science and technology, business and entrepreneurship, entertainment, social work and also politics... and remember your attendance for these lectures is compulsory!

We also will have intra-hostel and inter-hostel sports events and cultural events, departmental technical festivals, national level annual technical festival, popularly known as Shaastra, annual cultural festival Saarang and many more events. These all events will be conducted by students under able guidance of honourable Director, Dean of Student Activities and Faculty Advisers for Sports, Co-curricular and Cultural activities. So prepare yourself to conduct at least one of the modules of these events some day... of course, without compromising academics.

Finally a word about ragging. Most of you know using internet and many of you use cellphones. If you face ragging or notice ragging, you should immediately report to your hostel warden, or to me, or to any student secretary. You should note our cellular phone numbers from the telephone directory. These directories are kept in all hostels, departments and also on internet. But I appeal you not to be oversensitive as it is quite likely that the other guy may be trying honestly to introduce himself to you.

I conclude by wishing you a very pleasant and a fruitful stay at IIT Madras/

Thank you.