IEEE Kerala

Volume: 20 #4 October-December 2011

A House Journal of IEEE Kerala Section

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http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r10/kerala

Dr. Peter Staecker, IEEE President 2013, is launching SIGHT on 15th December at Amphitheatre, C-DAC, Thiruvananthapuram, India 2011 at 06:00 PM IST. Building on the IEEE theme of Advancing Technology for Humanity, the Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology will endeavor to promote activities which use sustainable technologies to benefit the most vulnerable sections of humanity. Special Interest Groups on Humanitarian Technology are be the IEEE entities targeted and dedicated towards humanitarian activities. They will serve the purpose of identification, categorization and inventory of all IEEE Humanitarian Activities.

SIGHT is an inclusive programme to involve IEEE membership in the efforts to fulfil the IEEE’s tagline “Advancing Technology for the benefit of Humanity.” Based on leveraging Web 2.0 technologies SIGHTs provide a virtual and elastic mechanism for the creation of groups of interest within the IEEE without geographical barriers and administrative overheads.

October-December 2011 Kerala Section

GOLD & SB Awards | Diary of Events | Global News | SB Activities

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“Earth provides enough to satisfy everyman’s need but not everyman’s greed”.

- Mahatma Gandhi “Dear 2011, soon it will be time to say good bye...I am glad I could meet you. I am thankful for all you gave me. There are many special memories which I owe to you. Hope your friend 2012 will be as good as you”.

Yes, 2011 has gone parting diverse memories and the New Year 2012 came, anticipating new hopes and aspirations … We wish our friends, family and colleagues hoping for their well being, success, prosperity and good health in the coming days of the New Year. Let our dreams and aspirations all come true.

Now it is time to think of ourselves and our surroundings. We live in a God’s Own Country. It is often abbreviated to ‘Godzone’ or ‘Godzown’, is a phrase that has been used for more than 100 years

by New Zealanders to describe their homeland. Recently the phrase has been adopted as a slogan by the tourism department of Kerala as ‘Kerala - God’s Own Country’. We are fortunate being the citizens of this wonderland.

Even though we are fortunate, currently the population of our State is increasing steadily, apart from the development in all spheres of our life. Thereby the consumption of resources is more, resulting the generation of more waste. All types of waste including solid, hazardous and biomedical waste generation in the state are more compared to the other states in India. Of this the solid waste generation is mainly due to the industrial and domestic activities.

The waste generated due to the industrial activities is of hazardous as well as non-hazardous nature. The solid waste generation due to domestic sources, the garbage, is very high. Similarly a large quantum of biomedical wastes is generated from all health care institutions. The segregated collection, transportation, treatment and the disposal of all types of wastes result in a hazardous condition in our State, especially in the capital city.

5 Kerala Section

October-December 2011

3 Volume: 20 #4 October-December 2011

A House Journal of IEEE Kerala Section

Contents 02 Editorial 04 Chairman’s Message 07 Malabar Subsection News

27 SYMBIOSIS 28 Visit of Dr. Peter Staecker 09 Kochi Subsection News 12 GOLD - Awards 13 NT’s Column The Maker Movement 15 Annual General Meeting 17 WIE Activities 21 INDICON 2011 22 Society Reports

30 SB Reports 37 Link Camp 46 Continuing Education Congress

IEEE Kerala Section, Thiruvananthapuram

Office: ‘Harmonieee’, 2695-5, Ambujavilasom Road, Thiruvananthapuram - 695 001

Chairman Satish Babu

sbabu@ieee.org

Vice Chairman Srinivasan R

Secretary K.B. Senthilkumar

Treasurer Sarada Jayakrishnan

srinitvm@ieee.org kbsenthilkumar@ieee.org sarada.jk@ieee.org

Home page: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/r10/kerala | e-mail: ieeek@vsnl.com e-group: ieeekerala@yahoogroups.com | Phone: +91-471-2473515 IEEE India Office: Prestige Meridian-11, Unit No. S-306, Block-2, Level-3, MG Road, Bangalore - 560 001 International Headquarters: The Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers, Inc. 3 Park Avenue, 17th Floor, New York - 10016-5997, USA. October-December 2011

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Chairman’s Message The year 2011 - a very eventful year for IEEE Kerala Section - is now drawing to a close. At the outset, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all members of Kerala Section a very productive and satisfying New Year 2012.

A remarkable achievement of this year, although perhaps not directly connected with the activities at the Section level, is the significant number of positions for which various Kerala Section volunteers were selected at the national, R10 and global levels. The current year seems to have brought out an impressive, and hitherto unmatched, set of achievements in this regard. Even while not directly connected with Section - level activities, these recognitions actually reflect upon the quality and magnitude of work done by these volunteers at all levels including at the Section level, for which the Section can be legitimately proud of. Congratulations to everyone who have been nominated!

In December, we had an important visit from several IEEE Dignitaries, including the 2013 President, Dr. Peter Staecker, and also Ms. Tara Wisiewski and Noha El-Ghobashy of Engineering for Change.

Our ExeCom members met with Dr. Staecker during his visit. Dr. Staecker also interacted with students and the Section leadership at the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, where several presentations were made to him on the different humanitarian projects that were being implemented by the student members of the Section.

The most important event that Dr. Staecker took part was the inauguration of the IEEE Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technologies (SIGHT) at the CDAC Amphitheatre on 15 Dec 2011.

This is indeed a milestone for Kerala Section. The event was webcast live to audiences around the world. Besides Dr. Staecker, Ms. Tara Wisniewski and Ms. Noha El-Ghobashy, both working with the Engineering for Change project of IEEE, also spoke on the occasion.

Mr. Amarnath Raja, Chair of IEEE’s Global Ad-hoc Committee on Humanitarian Activities, chaired the session. Overall, the visit of Dr. Peter Staecker was a high note with which to close the year’s activities.

Kerala Section had volunteered to host the IEEE India Conference, Indicon 2012, at Kochi, jointly with IEEE India Council and IEEE Cochin Subsection in December 2012. After having attended the 2011 event at Hyderabad, it is clear to me that this event is perhaps the

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2 - Editorial

The problems of high volumes of waste, the disposal technologies and methodologies and the impact of wastes on the environment are the new grappling problems we face nowadays. Over the years we used to put our ‘waste’ out for someone else to deal with that we have become a ‘throwaway society’. Throwing bundles of wastes on the road sides or dumping in the empty plots or even in the stream channels are the simple techniques we used in practice to dispose of in late hours of the day. This always attracted rodents, flies, etc., apart from creating an unhygienic and environmentally unsound condition. When this technique is abnormally increased, the environmental problems further aggravated uncontrollably. The contamination of soil, in turn, led to the contamination of ground water also. Once the ground water is polluted it will take decades to attain the normal condition. The open dumping areas will result in the generation of anaerobic gases, which leads to atmospheric pollution primarily resulting in a variety of diseases. Constant complaints arise from the people residing near such areas leading to agitations as what we witness at ‘Vilappilsala’ near Trivandrum. Such schemes in other locations also will face the same fate as the residents are persistently aware of the aftereffects.

The waste generated is suitable for land filling, but the lack of sufficient landfill sites is another problem for the deep burial. Similarly the method of incineration will also cause pollution problems as well as contamination of soil and water with the ashes. Thus the simple

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largest IEEE Conference in India, and that we need to be well prepared to do justice to an event of this magnitude. Besides showing off the Section’s competencies, it would also be an opportunity for our student members to see and participate in an International event, and perhaps also to recruit new members. I request co-operation from all members in ensuring that we have a truly world-class event in twelve months’ time. The theme, tracks and other details are being finalized, and the website should be up and running by this month end.

Overall, 2011 has been a very active year for the Section, and it is with a sense of accomplishment that the present leadership team closes the year. Thanks to all members once again for the splendid team work and co-operation...

I hope that the Section will do even better in 2012!

Satish Babu

Chair, Kerala Section October-December 2011

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5 - Editorial

Awards & Nominations

methods of dumping, filling and incineration always aggravate the environmental problems by depleting and polluting natural resources.

A rational utilization of natural resources and their protection from toxic releases is vital for sustainable socio-economic development. An excellent transformation is as in the slogans: ‘WASTE to become WEALTH RE-USE to become RESOURCE TRASH to become CASH’ Being professionals how we could deal with this situation? Our members are always been in the forefront and keenly interested in humanitarian activities. Now we are in the verge of organizing different conferences with humanitarian topics as the theme. We have to look into the matter and be a role model in dealing the threat of waste disposal, a major issue prevailing in our society. Modern recycling plants and resource recovery centres are also lacking in our locations. Then how to dispose of the ever-increasing amount of waste we generate is a diabolic problem. We are now under enormous pressure to minimize these waste products. Every single one of us can help in making a difference if we take some responsibility in the waste that we produce. Disposing of these unwanted items in the generating point itself is a better solution. Suitable biological method can be adopted for the decomposition of organic matter into composted manure for vegetables and plants and bio-gas for cooking. This can be a habit to be developed from the micro-level of household and neighborhood to the macro levels of city to nation.

Considering the present unscientific disposal of hazardous wastes posing serious threat to human, animal and plant life, we have to be a part in developing new habits in the New Year. Also, ‘many people look forward to the New Year for a new start on old habits’. But always the old give way to the young or new!

Let us celebrate the New Year for a new start on new habits - that too - for the benefit of humanity!!

- K.Gopalan Nair S. Gopakumar: Nominated as a member in 2012 MGA Awards and Nominations Committee.

Sasi P.M: Bagged IEEE Communications Society Award for Public Service in the field of Telecommunications. He received the award at IEEE GLOBECOM in Houston, Texas on Dec 6, 2011 containing a plaque, certificate and a $1000 honourarium.

Satish Babu: Nominated to IEEE CS Nominations Committee Member for 2012.

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Malabar Subsection News M E S College of Engineering, Kuttippuram

Workshop on ‘Research Methodology’ A one day workshop on ‘Research Methodology’ was held on 19th November in M E S College of Engineering (MESCE), Kuttipuram organized jointly

by MESCE and IEEE Malabar Subsection.

The workshop was formally inaugurated by A C Mathai, Former Professor Training & Placement and Dean Academic of Regional Engineering College (National Institute of Technology - NITC) Calicut and Former Director Rajagiri Institute of Engineering & Technology in a simple function at 9:30hrs. In his inaugural address, he stated that unless a teacher is creative, he cannot stimulate creativity in his students. In this age of information explosion and rapid developments in

science and technology, only active researchers can keep themselves up to date in the developments in their fields of interest. Career promotions are nowadays heavily linked to research capabilities of a teacher.

V H Abdul Salam, Principal of MESCE. presided over the function. K.P Mohandas, Coordinator and Dean (Electrical Sciences), MESCE gave the welcome address. S M Sameer, Secretary IEEE Malabar Subsection gave a felicitation address in which he listed the major activities of IEEE in this region.

Kusum K, Asst Professor MESCE proposed a vote of thanks.

The workshop was held in four sessions. In session one, Radha Ramanan Mechanical

Audience

Inauguration Address

October-December 2011

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IEEE members can stay current in their chosen technology profession and keep connected to peers by joining an IEEE Society in their area of interest.

Engg Department, NITC presented ‘Processes in Research’ in which he explained in detail the principles and processes behind choosing a problem for research.

This was followed by a lecture on ‘Literature Survey in Modern Times’ by K P Mohandas, former Dean (Post Graduate Studies & Research NITC) and currently Dean (Electrical sciences) MESCE and Coordinator of the Workshop.

He gave an exposition on how the internet can be used to collect information useful for research. A variety of internet tools and links of web pages for easy collection, organization, retrieval and updating of information for research from the internet were listed. The first session in the afternoon was

by R Sridhar, Professor and Head Mechanical Engineering and Kerala Section

Chairman School of Management Studies, N I T Calicut. He nicely explained how a research paper can be written by going through all aspects of technical writing.

He explained how a beginner can go about publishing results of his research in a concise form as publications which very often are the outcome of research. The last session was by Ramesh A, Asst Professor Mechanical Engg NITC who demonstrated how the statistical data analysis package SPSS can be used to analyze a set of data collected for research.

The workshop was attended by nearly 150 teachers mostly from M E S College of Engineering and nearby Engineering Colleges.

Reported by K P Mohandas, Chair, IEEE Malabar Subsection October-December 2011

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Kochi Subsection News

Calendar of Events IEEE @ Cochin-2011 29 Jan 2011: The first meeting of 2011 Kerala Section executive committee (Execom–I) meeting held at Hotel Windsor Palace, Thiruvananthapuram mentioned that formation of Kochi Subsection is one of the major targets of the Kerala Section for the year 2011.

17 Feb 2011: 30 Professional members of IEEE from Cochin area got together at IETE house at Ernakulam to sign a petition to start a subsection at Kochi for the benefit of members from Ernakulam, Idukki, Kottayam, Alappey, Thrissur districts.

The gathering unanimously selected A. Unnikrishnan as the Organizer for the proposed subsection.

20 Feb 2011: During the Kerala Section’s Execom II held at Section office at Thiruvanathapuram, Shahim Baker handed over the petition signed by 30 members to the Section Chair, Satish Babu.

Execom approved and agreed to forward the petition to IEEE HQ. 11 May 2011: A Meeting between Paulose Jacob(Director, Dept of Computer Science, October-December 2011

CUSAT), Jayakrishnan (Chair, CS Chapter, IEEE Kerala section), Shahim Baker (Secretary, CS Chapter, IEEE Kerala section), Mini Ulanatt(Lecturer, Dept of Computer science CUSAT, Member Execom IEEE Kerala Section) and Santhosh Kumar (Associate Professor, Dept of Computer Science, CUSAT) was held to discuss the possible methods of association possible between IEEE CS - Kerala Section and CUSAT towards organizing an International conference on data Engineering at CUSAT. 11 May 2011: On 11 May 2011, the National Technology Day, a talk on ‘The World of Sensor Networks’ was handled by Santhosh Kumar, Associate Professor, Cochin University.

The event was organized by IEEE-CS Kerala Section at CSI Hall, Kaloor, Cochin. The speaker explained various latest technologies related to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). He described various topologies and challenges related to the implementation of WSNs. Various applications of WSNs were discussed. He also demonstrated different types of sensor ‘motes’.

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17 May 2011: On 17 May 2011, the World Telecommunication & Information Society Day, IEEE organized a talk on the topic ‘Better Life in Rural Communities with ICTs’, as suggested by the international Telecommunication Union ITU). Paulose Jacob, DirectorDepartment of Computer Science, CUSAT gave a very informative lecture on the topic, mainly focussing on various plans & schemes introduced by the Central and State Governments to make the life in Rural areas better.

He discussed current as well as future plans of the Govt. on this aspect.

18 Jun 2011: IEEE GOLD and LINK of Kerala Section along with TKMCE, Kollam and TocH IST, organised a Student Transition Elevation Partnership 2011(STEP 2011) event at Hotel Harbor View Residency, Cochin. STEP was a membership event aimed at helping membership retention among student members while they graduate. Speakers like Varghese Paul and S. Gopakumar handled sessions along with the GOLD and LINK volunteers.

19 Jun 2011: Kerala Section IEEE GOLD organized ‘Pan India IEEE GOLD Officers Meet’ (PIIGOM 2011) at Hotel GrandSeasons Cochin.

Kerala Section

This was a milestone event in the history or R10 GOLD. GOLD Execom members from Bombay, Madras, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kerala Sections attended the event.

25 Jun 2011: The formation of Kochi Subsection was approved by the IEEE Member and Geographic Activities Board.

7 Jul 2011: A General Body Meeting of the IEEE members from Ernakulam, Kottayam, Alappey, Idukki and Thrissur districts was held at Officer’s Mess of NPOL at Kochi.

The meeting elected the office bearers and execom members of the subsection.

Chair: Unnikrishnan A, Vice Chair: Suresh Nair, Secretary: Shahim Baker, Treasurer: M.V. Rajesh. Execom Members: C.M. Varughese, Samuel Varghese, Mini Ulanatt, Suresh Narayanan, Simon. A. Akkara, Shenoi V.S 14 Jul 2011: IEEE CS – Organised a talk on ERP/SAP, by Suresh Kumar, CTO, Marikar Motors Ltd. He discussed about various popular ERP systems.

He explained the various aspects related with deploying a SAP ERP at an enterprise level and the challenges of implementing it.

31 Jul 2011: Kerala Section’s 5th Execom Meeting of 2011 was held at Hotel Grand October-December 2011

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seasons, Cochin. Along with the section execom members, several execom members from Cochin Subsection also attended the meeting.

3 Aug 2011: A General Body Meeting of the IEEE members from Ernakulam, Kottayam, Alappey, Idukki and Thrissur districts was held at Officer’s Mess of NPOL at Kochi.

An overview of the IEEE organisational structure was explained to the members.

The meeting discussed various plans for Kochi subsection.

Various student branches explained their modes of operations.

7 Sep 2011: A technical talk on ‘SMART GRIDS- Concept & Indian Perspective’ was organized by the Kochi Subsection at PWD Rest House Kakkanadu. The speaker, Simon Akkara, Executive Engineer/ Joint Director, Regional IT Unit, KSEB, Cochin explained the concepts of Smart Grids and the implementation possibilities and challenges in the Indian Scenario.

30 Sep 2011 & 1 Oct 2011: IEEE Kerala Section GOLD, in Association with R10 EAB and TocH Institute of Technology, with the support from Kochi Subsection conducted a Continuing Education Congress for the Teachers of Engineering Colleges across Kerala. The 2 October-December 2011

day workshop covered theoretical and practical aspects of DSP along with Hands-on workshop on MATLAB. 30 Sep 2011: IEEE CS, organized a technical talk on “Next Generation Infotainment” by Suresh Narayanan, Technical Head – Reliance Communications, Kerala Section, at IETE House Cochin. He explained various communication and information technologies that are going to revolutionize the field of infotainment in the coming years.

6 Oct 2011: As part of celebrating the IEEE Day, Kochi Subsection Execom Members visited a Government Old Age home at Kochi and spend some time with the inmates.

21 Oct 2011: An execom meeting of the Kochi Subsection was held at the office of Grey Technolabs, at Edappally . The primary aim of the meeting was to discuss decide on the initial steps regarding INDICON 2012, which will be hosted by Kerala Section in 2012 at Cochin. The meeting also decided to conduct a Membership drive at Cochin, in association with IEEE GOLD. 17 Nov 2011: IEEE Kochi Subsection Organized an evening talk on ‘Solar Hybrid UPS’

by CM Varughese - Founder Chairman & M.D, IGA TECH Kerala Section

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Industrial Electronics Pvt. Ltd. He discussed the concepts behind Solar Hybrid UPS and the importance of such hybrid systems and energy harvesting from renewable energy sources in the current scenario where the fossil fuels are getting depleted at an alarmingly high rate.

17, 18 Dec 2011: To familiarize with the INDICON proceedings, on behalf of M.V. Rajesh attended INDICON 2011 held at Hyderabad.

26 Nov 2011: IEEE Kerala Section Communication Society conducted a one day seminar on Wireless Communications at Hotel Park Central, Kochi.

Various sessions like World of Wireless Communications, 3G Wireless Technology and

22 Dec 2011: As a combined effort by Kochi Subsection and IEEE Kerala Section GOLD, a membership drive event for IT professionals was conducted at NeST R&D Division at CSEZ Cochin. The speaker of the event was S. Gopakumar.

Achievements of Kerala

Internet, Tablet & Mobility Convergence, Wireless Sensor Networks, Mobile Ad hoc Networks an WiFi Mesh & hotspots were covered.

during 2011

� First

to conduct TISP Workshop for teachers in India after the Volunteer training workshop at Hyderabad � First to conduct IEEE hosted Continuing Education Congress in India with R10 EAC Funding � GOLD Rush profiled group - December issue (expecting the issue soon) � GOLD Website launched by IEEE President Elect, Dr. Peter Staecker � R10 GOLD Award 2011 - Rayees Amar Nishad � South Asia GOLD Coordinator 2011- 2012 - Rayees Amar Nishad � TISP India Ad Hoc Committee Treasurer - Namith Najeeb � TISP India Ad Hoc Committee - Kerala Head - Sabarinath Pillai � India GOLD Representative, South Asia GOLD Committee - Ranjit R Nair � Represented during R10 GOLD Congress - Rayees Amar Nishad � Ambassadors of IEEE E-Scientia from Kerala Section - Nitin Padmanabhan and Ranjit R Nair � TISP Co-Champions - Ranjit R Nair, Namith Najeeb, Shahim Baker, Nitin Padmanabhan � Continuing Education Congress report covered in Region 10 Newsletter � GOLD Kerala Reports frequently published in the GOLD Rush Newsletter.

Reported by: Nitin Padmanabhan, Secretary, GOLD

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NT’s Column

The Maker Movement

Likely to Herald a New Industrial Revolution Compiled by: N T Nair, Former Chair, IEEE India Council & Chief Editor, Executive Knowledge Lines monthly

During the decades that passed by, we moved from a physical world to digital era, living more and more in a virtual environment. It is predominantly noticed among the children who sit glued to computers playing games or engaged in such other chores, most of the time. For many adults also, now fully into technology, childhood was an alienating experience. But, in most of us, there is a natural desire to create physical things.

Unfortunately, we have moved further and further away from that, towards what people call "knowledge work" as opposed to producing something physical, which urge is starting to make a come back. It is the Maker Movement that is now paving way for this transition back to the physical world, of course drawing on the new capabilities presented by electronics, computers and a host of other technologies, including material science. The Maker Movement may even herald a new industrial revolution, many experts believe.

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The Maker Movement is an outcome of digital culture, employing new tools and electronic components which let people integrate the physical and digital worlds simply and cheaply. Online services and design software make it easy to develop and share digital blueprints. And many people who spend all day manipulating bits on computer screens are rediscovering the pleasure of making physical objects and interacting with other enthusiasts in person, rather than online.

Currently, the Maker Movement is the preserve of hobbyists, but it’s impact is being felt in a much wider scale.

The recent Maker Faire held at New York’s Hall of Science in September, 2011, is billed as the “World’s Largest Kerala Section

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DIY (Do It Yourself) festival”, a friendly Faire that “has something for everyone – a showcase of invention, creativity and resourcefulness and a celebration of the Maker mindset. This show being held since 2006, and its mini versions being held in other parts around the globe, are the most visible manifestations of what has come to be called ‘The Maker Movement’.

A pavilion labelled “Arduino” (meaning “strong friend”) in the Faire attracted special attention. They displayed credit-cardsized circuit boards - Arduino micro-controllers, simple computers that make it easy to build all kinds of strange products: plants that send Twitter messages when they need watering, a microphone that serves as a breathalyser, or a vest that displays your speed when riding a bike.

Arduino boards are affordable (basic boards cost $20), can easily be extended using add-ons called “shields” to add new functions and has a simple open source programming system that almost anyone can use. This openness has helped to integrate add-ons easily - a touch-screen, an illuminated display and support for Wi-Fi networking. Another hardware that has been featured everywhere at the Maker Faire is 3D printers. These machines are another way to connect the digital and the physical realms: Kerala Section

they take a digital model of an object and print it out by building it up, one layer at a time, using plastic extruded from a nozzle.

3D printers, though not a new entrant, have been made cheap enough for consumers - MakerBot Industries, a start-up Co., selling it for $1,300.

These hardware activities have been made possible with a second set of powerful drivers: open-source software, standards and online communities.

As for online communities, Arduino has an active forum on its website, while MakerBot runs a website called Thingiverse, which lets people share 3D designs. YouTube and other video-sharing sites offer howto clips for almost everything.

On Instructables, users post and discuss recipes to make and do all kinds of things. And then there is Etsy, an online marketplace for handmade goods, say, 3Dprinted jewellery.

The third driver, sharing, enables designs for physical things to be shared digitally, among the maker community. Physical space and tools are being shared, too, in the form of common workshops, with some 400 such “hacker spaces” already operating worldwide, where even nonmembers can come and tinker.

The maker movement has already made a wider impact, mainly in schools in America.

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IEEE Kerala Section News

Annual General Meeting Dear Member, It is proposed to hold the Annual General Meeting of IEEE Kerala Section on Saturday, 14 January 2012 at Hotel Classic Avenue, Manjalikulam Road, Thiruvananthapuram. You are cordially invited, along with your spouse, to attend the Annual General Meeting and the Dinner thereafter.

Agenda 17:30 hrs to 19:30 hrs

1. Annual General Meeting 2. Welcome – Vice Chair 3. Pledge – Code of ethics 4. Annual Report - Secretary 5. Financial Report - Treasurer 6. Student Branch Reports - SAC 7. Address by Chairman

8. Election of Officers for 2012 9. Address by the Newly Elected Chair 10. Felicitations 11. Future Activities 12. General Discussion 13. Vote of Thanks 14. Dinner

Kindly confirm your attendance on the website www.ieee.org/ kerala or by email to ieeeks.keralasection@gmail.com or over phone to 94958-31863 (Mr. John) Yours sincerely, K B Senthilkumar

Secretary, IEEE Kerala Section

Students are using 3D printers and Arduino boards to make their science and technology classes more hands-on.

All this will boost innovation, predicts Dale Dougherty, considered father of Maker Movement and also the founder of Make magazine, a central organ of the maker movement.

The Maker Faire in New York was October-December 2011

sponsored by technology companies including HP and Cognizant.

It may appear silly to assume that hobbyists with 3D printers will change the world. But the original industrial revolution grew out of piecework done at homes. Likewise, The Maker Movement may pave way for another industrial revolution.

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IEEE Kerala Section News

Slate for 2012 Important Announcement: The Nomination Committee of the IEEE Kerala Section has finalized the slate of office bearers for 2012.

Position

Name

Affiliation

Chairman

Satish Babu

IC-FOSS

Vice Chairman Sreenivasan R

CellApp Technologies

Secretary

K.B. Senthilkumar

CDAC

Treasurer

Sarada Jayakrishnan

Terumo Penpol

If there are any additional nominations by petition, it may be submitted to Nomination Committee, IEEE Kerala Section, P.O. Box 77, GPO, (Harmonieee, Ambujavilasom Road), Thiruvananthapuram695 001. Kindly note that five or more voting members or 2% of Section membership, whichever is fewer, must sign the petition. If additional nominations are made, election will be held during the Annual General Meeting on Saturday, 14 January 2012.

Important Date: Close nominations by petition : 06 January 2012 Sasi P M, Amarnath Raja, A.K.Unnikrishnan

Awards & Nominations

(Nomination Committee Members)

Aby Kurian: Aby Kurian of Vimal Jyothi College of Engineering has been selected as R10 Student Representative for the year 2012.

Richard E Merwin Scholarship: Richard E Merwin Scholarship from IEEE Computer Society has been awarded to two Student members of Kerala.

Nithin George from RIT, Kottayam Deepthi Anna George from MBCET, Tvpm.

Each will be awarded a Scholarship of USD 2500.

IEEE Awards Programme announces

Call for 2013 Nominations Submission will be accepted through January 31, 2012.

For more details: IEEE Technical Field Awards Kerala Section

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WIE Activities SCTCE, Thiruvananthapuram

Workshop on Research Methodology A Workshop on Research Methodology was organised by the WIE affinity group IEEE Kerala section in association with the IEEE Student Branch of Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering during 19-21 December 2011.

The Workshop was organized to encourage the teaching faculty to pursue higher up in their field of interest and also to provide specific guidelines through expert talks. Nearly 15 staff members and 50 postgraduate students attended the workshop.

The topics covered are: Research an Overview: Premlet B, introduced to the delegates the crucial steps one must follow for a systematic and successful research.

IPR: Ajit Prabhu enlightened the audience on the need to apply for patent and protect one’s innovation and then to publish the paper. The value of patent and the issues related to patent were discussed in detail.

Technical Writing: KA Navas shared the skills of Journal writing and sugOctober-December 2011

gested the audience to take up a course on Technical writing. He also gave hands on experience for the participants on LaTex and the participants were editing the IEEE paper Templates in LaTex.

Data Sampling and Data Analysis: Anil Lal S covered the importance of Data Sampling and analysis.

He described in detail some of the common data distribution which the researchers could use to quantify the performance of their result.

The workshop proved to be very fruitful providing the much needed guidance for the young and aspiring researchers.

Reported by: Shanthi K J, Chair, WIE, IEEE Kerala section Kerala Section

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WIE Activities

Quarterly WIE Student Activity Report October- December 2011

HUB 1 October 4th: The WIE affinity group of the College Of Engineering Karunagappally organized an industrial visit to the Kerala Minerals and Metals Ltd. (KMML) situated in Chavara, Kollam as part of HUB 1 WIE Initiative.

The event marked a participation of more than 40 students from across the HUB. The main motto of this program was to visit the industrial plant and see the manufacturing process of the end product Titanium dioxide (TiO2).

The was highly informative and the students were able to see the actually manufacturing process.

November 28th: WIE STAR ’11-A group of six students of S3 of College of Engineering, Trivandrum went to provide a general awareness

Kerala Section

programme about engineering for the 9th standard students of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Pattom.

The programme was aimed at imparting an idea to them as to what to expect when it comes to engineering. The event consisted of several general awareness sessions, display of video my famous personalities, inspiring presentations and lot of fun games.

December 12th: ’Dyothi ’11 ‘WIE Star: As a part of the sustainability action of WIE Affinity group of TKMCE, WIE STAR ‘DYOTHI’ is organised at Govt. Higher secondary school, Anchalumoodu on Dec 12, 2011 in which around 25 active volunteers of

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the student branch were participated. The event started with an introduction to the world of technology and its amazing facts. A very informative interactive session was then followed. he entire session was concluded with imparting the idea “Engineering is not a job, nor a degree. It’s a way of thinking, a way of turning your ideas into reality.

HUB 2 December 15th: PARIVARTHAN ’11 a unique IEEE program, with a record participation of 248 members was conducted at College of Engineering, Adoor. The

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event highlighted the importance of Industrial Collaboration. The event was packed with various sessions on IEEE Awareness & details about Microsoft University outreach program, Dream spark , managerial & technical activities inparallel. The technical activity was a Govt. of India initiative.

The event was a spoken tutorial workshop of Python Language. A live communication link was setup. The event was well accepted by all the participants.

HUB 3 October 1st - 2nd: HUB 3 WIE Congress- ‘Nova Domina ’11‘ was

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successful in providing awareness on WIE to the fellow IEEEians from 8 sbs in the HUB. It had a participation of 55 students.An open forum with Shantha Devi (Social activist and retired scientist from NPOL) was held where

students discussed the need of more women in technical fields .The other highlights of the event wasa CMS(ContentManagement System)workshop, a discussion forum on “spirit of volunteering�, a wie awareness session, a management workshop by Dinu Sam Babu (exgold chair).The workshop was followed by a SB presentations by various wie branches. The event was in total a huge success.

HUB 4 October 20th: The IEEE SB of Vidya Academy of Science And Technology conducted and hosted this year's HUB 4 WIE STAR Kerala Section

program Xpose'11 .It was aimed to instil the spirit of engineering into school students, particularly those from higher secondary schools, as they are preparing for the upcoming entrance examinations. As a response to our call and influence, over 40 students from 6 schools around the district participated in the program.

The inauguration session was followed by a talk from K.B.M Namboothirippad. The talk was truly inspiring and it provided awareness to the children and also inculcated a passion among students.

There were three different and interesting competitions for the participants.

1. Quiz 2. Crisis Management 3. Junkyard War

Reported by Alka Isac, Hub1 WIE Coordinator College of Engineering Trivandrum October-December 2011

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INDICON 2011

“Engineering Sustainable Solutions” Letter from the General Chair

Dear authors, delegates, speakers, invited guests at Indicon 2011 and IEEE Members, At the outset, my heartfelt thanks to you all for being with us and participating in the proceedings of the conference, 1618th December at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus. We had wonderful settings at the campus wherein lot of intellectual exchanges took place, be it in tutorials, workshops, technical sessions, key note addresses, plenary talks or invited talks, special sessions and panel discussions.

I all, we conducted 37 technical oral sessions and two large dialogue sessions in all covering around 300 paper presentations in two days. All the sessions were well attended.

The precision with which all the programs are performed is amazing. As a matter of fact we received excellent compliment from the Governor’s office on the clockwork precision demonstrated during the inaugural wherein HIS EXCELLENCY GOVERNOR of AP, presided. By the valedictory time, we were ready with best papers in each of the 4 tracks; one for oral and the other for diaOctober-December 2011

logue in each track.

This shows great team work by our track chairs and session chairs with able support from organizing committee and volunteers.

I am personally happy to note that the theme we chose for the conference, “Engineering Sustainable Solutions” attracted lot of attention and discussions among the delegates and am sure that it will result in a dialogue that will continue forever. Another front I am glad is that we had participation from three distinguished guests from IEEE head quarters who are President-Elects of IEEE (which includes President Elect from IEEE CS besides IEEE President-Elects for 2011 & 2012) and who have had participated in all the conference proceedings from day one, a sign of growing importance that our region is getting in terms of contributions in the engineering field for sustainable solutions.

Best Wishes for the year ahead, Regards M.G.P.L. Narayana General Chair, INDICON 2011 http://www.indicon2011.org indicon2011@ieeehyd.org Kerala Section

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Society Reports

IEEE Computer Society: Calendar of Events -2011

20 Apr 2011: A talk on ‘Malayalam Wikipedia Awareness’ was organized by IEEE at Tvpm. The session was handled by Fuad Jaleel who is a Wiki Volunteer Editor, who has written lots of articles in Malayalam wiki.

11 May 2011: A Meeting between Paulose Jacob (Director, Dept of Computer Science, CUSAT), Jayakrishnan (Chair, CS Chapter, IEEE Kerala Section), Shahim Baker (Secretary, CS Chapter, IEEE Kerala Section), Mini Ulanatt (Lecturer, Dept of Computer science CUSAT; Member, Execom,IEEE Kerala section)and Santhosh Kumar (Associate Professor, Dept of Computer Science, CUSAT) was held to discuss the possible methods of association possible between IEEE CS- Kerala Section and CUSAT towards organizing an International conference on data Engineering at CUSAT. 11 May 2011: On 11 May 2011, the National Technology Day, a talk on ‘The World of Sensor Networks’ was handled by Santhosh Kumar, Associate Professor, Cochin University.

The event was organized by IEEE-CS Kerala Section at CSI Kerala Section

Hall, Kaloor, Cochin. The speaker explained various latest technologies related to Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). He described various topologies and challenges related to the implementation of WSNs. Various applications of WSNs were discussed. He also demonstrated different types of sensor ‘motes’.

17 May 2011: On 17 May 2011, the World Telecommunication & Information Society Day, IEEE organized a talk on the topic ‘Better Life in Rural Communities with ICTs’, as suggested by the international Telecommunication Union ITU). Paulose Jacob, Director, Department of Computer Science, CUSAT gave a very informative lecture on the topic, mainly focussing on various plans & schemes introduced by the Central and State Governments to make the life in Rural areas better.

He discussed current as well as future plans of the Govt. on this aspect.

8 Jun 2011: A talk on ‘Human Aspects of Project Management’ was organized by IEEE at Tvpm. The session was October-December 2011

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Awards & Nominations

handled by Vikram Kumar B.T., Director (Training), UST Global, Technopark, Tvpm. & Vice-President, PMI Tvpm., Kerala Chapter.

15 Jun 2011: A talk on ‘Information and Communication Technologies for Common Man - Engineering Challenges’ was organised by IEEE at Tvpm.

The session was handled by N.T. Nair, Chief Editor, Executive Knowledge Lines monthly, Tvpm.

14 Jul 2011: IEEE CS - Organized a talk on ERP /SAP, by Suresh Kumar, CTO, Marikar Motors Ltd. He discussed about various popular ERP systems. He explained the various aspects related with deploying a SAP ERP at an enterprise level and the challenges of implementing it.

10 Aug 2011: A talk on ‘Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing’ was organized

by IEEE at Tvpm. The session was handled by Shaju Cherian

Sr. Project Manager, Infosys, Tvpm.

30 Sep 2011: IEEE CS, organized a technical talk on ‘Next Generation Infotainment’ by Suresh Narayanan, Technical Head – Reliance Communications, Kerala Section, at IETE House Cochin. He explained various communication and information technologies that are going to revolutionize the field of infotainment in the coming years.

26 Oct 2011: A talk on ‘Role of Technology in Advertising’ was organized by IEEE at Tvpm.

The session was handled by V.S.S Nair, Consultant, Hospital Engineering, Tvpm.

9 Nov 2011: A talk on ‘Steve Jobs-A true Leader & Innovator (A flashback)’ was organised

by IEEE at Tvpm. The session was handled by Ranjit Karunakaran Nair, Founder/CEO, ProBiz Knowledge Center, MD, Centriq Academy for Training & Mentoring Pvt Ltd, Tvpm.

IEEE R10 Student Awards: i. First Place in R10 Website Contest - CET ii. Second Place in R10 Paper Presentation Contest - Amrita iii. Third Place in R10 Exemplary SB award - TKMCE Namith Najeeb: Won 2011 Outstanding Branch Counsellor Award. He is the Vice Chair of GOLD Affinity Group, Kerala Section and Assistant Professor, MESCE, Calicut.

Jaison Abey Sabu: Nominated to author the online training package for IEEE Centre for Leadership Excellence (CLE). He is the chair of Student Activities of Kerala Section. http://ieee-elearning.org/CLE/

October-December 2011

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Society Reports

IA/IE/PEL JOINT CHAPTER Calendar of Events -2011

Background The IES/IAS Chapter was formed in 1989 and later it is converted into IES/IAS/PELS Joint chapter in 2008.

Chapter has been acting as a facilitator in the area of Power Electronics, Control and Electric Drives in Kerala, promoting communication within the Power Electronics community in India.

Every year the chapter organises number of programmes.

8 Feb 2011: Power Electronics Technology based on Experience from Gazi University, Turkey - organized by IE/IA/PEL Joint Chapter IEEE Kerala and CDAC Tvpm

Kerala Section

at CDAC, Tvpm. There were 35 members participated.

Resource Person: Mehmet Timur Aydemir, Gazi University, Ankara, Turkey.

Topics: The seminar was about the recent research activities performed by Aydemir at Gazi University. Major topics covered are: • Parallel Operation of DC-DC converters • Flywheel Energy Storage System for Satellites • Real Time Digital Simulation and Hardware in the Loop Tests of a Satellite Attitude Control System • Welding Inverters” and “Static

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Transfer Switch for UPSs • Parallel Operation of DC-DC converters 26 July 2011: Smart Grid Implementations and Emerging Scenarios - organized at IE Hall, Tvpm.

There were 45 participants.

Resource Person: Rajesh T Nair, Swissgrid, Switzerland Topic: The speaker provided an overview of the major technical and security challenges in smart grids and the approach taken by Swissgrid to address these challenges from an European and Swiss perspective.

12,13 Dec 2011: Two day Workshop - EspiRITo’12 - organized

by IEEE IA/IE/PEL Chapter Kerala and, IEEE IAS Student Chapter, RIT Kottayam, at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology (RIT) Kottayam on 12-13 December 2011.

Participation: 56 Course Summary: The programme was organised on the occasion of the visit of Peter Magyar, CMD Chair, Industry Application Society, IEEE. The two day programme was aimed to campaign for membership development and New Student Chapter Development in

17 Nov 2011: Talk on “DC Distribution” - organized by IEEE Kerala Section, IEEE IA/IE/PEL Chapter Kerala, and Sister Societies at IE Hall, Tvpm.

Resource Person: Madhumangal, Former VP, Emerson India Participation: 50 Talk Summary: Introduction to DC Transmission system in industries and distribution system.

October-December 2011

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Kerala. Totally 1 professional and 4 technical talks were presented.

Technical talks were organised in the following topics: 1.

Power Electronics Devices for Power System Application by Unnikrishnan A K, CDAC Tvpm.

2.

Digital Control System by

Dinesh Pai, RIT. 3.

RISC Controllers by Johson Mathew, RIT. 4. Electric Vehicle and Renewable Energy Sources by Peter Magyar.

Report by: Unnikrishnan A Keloth, Chair, IES/IAS/PELS Chapter

The Nano of IT

When India’s largest IT company, TCS, launched its most ambitious cloud computing project, iON, some people dubbed it the Nano of IT. It was expected to transform the IT landscape (just the way the Nano was expected to change the car industry) by making IT affordable to SMBs. TCS also said that it would garner $1 billion from iON in five years.

But just like the Nano, iON too has had a rough beginning. As was the case with the Nano, iON is a great transformative concept but the on-ground execution has been an issue. With iON, TCS has faced issues regarding service delivery and assurance. In fact a few of the 90+ partners who were initially very bullish about iON eventually distanced themselves as TCS was unable to provide services to customers. The issues pertained to bandwidth, customizing and deploying iON services at the customer’s place, and service delivery lags.

To TCS’ credit the iON team has been working hard to address these issues and to a large extent has resolved many of them. However, looking at the initial hiccups, many partners have reduced their business exposure to iON and seem less bullish now.

It is expected that iON will be a 100 percent channel-driven business and hence in 2012 its main challenge would be to win back channel confidence and deliver on the promise of the Tata brand. It’s yesterday once more.

Kerala Section

October-December 2011

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Student Branch Activities

SYMBIOSIS Under the auspicious of the student branches of the largest International professional body – IEEE, an all Kerala event, the ‘SYMBIOSIS’ was organized on 29th Oct 2011. The event was hosted by Sarabhai Institute of Science & Technology, Vellanadu, Tvpm along with MBCET, Tvpm and TKMCE, Kollam. The event aimed to create awareness to the first year students about IEEE and to promote their personal skills. A total of 218 students from over 26 Engineering Colleges attended.

The event was inaugurated by honourable chief guest V.K Damodaran. K Karunakaran, President Space Engineers Society, K.R Kaimal, Director SIST, M.K Jana, Principal SIST, K Gopalan Nair, Branch Counsellor of IEEE addressed the gathering with their inspirational speeches. Akshay

October-December 2011

Menon (Student Representative, IEEE Kerala Section) presented an informative idea about the aim of SYMBIOSIS. The seminar followed by a workshop on ‘Activity Based Management’.

The event proved to be very effective as much of students showed their interest to join IEEE and work collectively to promote advancing technology for the humanity. To an extent the workshop helped to promote the participants personal and presentation proficiency.

Reported by: Bhagyalakshmi V S, Secretary, SIST SB

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Student Branch Activities An Evening with 2012 IEEE President Elect-

Dr. Peter Staecker An Evening with 2012 IEEE President Elect Dr. Peter Staecker was an initiative to interact with the student members on 14 Dec 2011 at College of Engineering, Trivandrum. More than 90 members participated.

The students of IEEE LINK had the rare opportunity to spend an evening with IEEE President Elect 2012 Peter Staeckaer at College of Engineering, Trivandrum on 14th Dec 2011.

The session began by delivering the IEEE Code of Ethics. Sasi P.M, Chair, IEEE Communication Society, Kerala Chapter and Past Chair of IEEE Kerala Section proposed the welcome address by greeting Dr. Peter Staecker and the other delegates to the event.

Satish Babu, Chair Kerala Section gave the audience a brief insight into the IEEE Kerala Section and its activities. He focussed mainly on Humanitarian Technology, an area of wide relevance today.

Citing examples like the Tsunami disaster of 2004 where the maps prepared by the Government were in fact unavailable during the evacuation and disaster management stage, Kerala Section

he highlighted the need to bridge the gap with technology and humanitarian needs. In situations like this, technology, though advanced, fail to serve the humanity. He was however delighted to note that IEEE could make a huge difference in India in comparison to other nations.

He felt the need for technology to reach millions and thereby be of value to everyone. He threw light on how Student Humanitarian Technology Challenge (HTC) projects are being funded by IEEE. Next were the humanitarian project presentations by students where two important projects that have won various accolades were showcased. First, Ramesh N Nair, Technical Coordinator, IEEE LINK, Amrita College of Engineering, Kollam presented his project on Intelligent Home Navigation System (IHNS) for the Elderly and Physically Challenged. The second one was

by Sreevas S, LINK Technical Wing, College of Engineering, Trivandrum on LINK HTC Project October-December 2011

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where numerous volunteers of LINK took up the initiative and electrified a village in Kollam hitherto living under darkness.

Amarnath Raja, Chair IEEE Humanitarian Technology Committee stressed on Humanitarian Challenges as the core area engineers should be focussing on.

The key elements, according to him, while taking up such a challenge are supporting the needy with appropriate technology, sustaining it and enlightening all the engineers that ‘Your work is this!’ Such an endeavour would require a tie up with NGOs and funding agencies. The activities of Special Interest Group on Humanitarian Technology (SIGHT), C-DAC all focus on this.v The Guest of Honour, Peter Staecker, began the address by recalling the close bond he shared with his fellow competitor late Roger Pollard. He plans to do more of listening than talking during his initial part of tenure, he stated. With regard to his connection with IEEE, he said that the technical benefits of being an

October-December 2011

IEEEian made him continue in the organisation from the time he was a sophomore in 1963 to this day. The greatest experience he gained from the organisation is the opportunity to share the same platform with like-minded people from various cultural backgrounds. Throwing light on the research sector, he wondered if research should be restricted to a 9 to 5 job. He wanted every one of us to join hands in serving humanity for there is a massive increase in the people who need our service. He was delighted to answer queries from the participants.

Peter Staecker, then gave away the R10 awards to the winners. The web team of College of Engineering, Trivandrum received the 1st prize in the R10 Student Branch website contest.

Ramesh Nair and team received the 2nd prize for the R10 paper contest.

Gopakumar, Principal,College of Engineering, Trivandrum addressed the gathering. He expressed his pride on being a

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Student Branch Activities

Sarabhai Institute of Science & Technology Vellanad

Gandhi Jayanthi Celebration: As a part of the humanitarian activities, Student Branch of SIST IEEE organized social work (cleaning and beautifying activities) in the SIST campus on ‘Gandhi Jayanthi Day’ – the 2nd October 2011 from 9:00 hrs.

IEEE members and non-members were participated in the cleaning and other constructive activities.

This was a collective movement of staff and students of SIST. In addition to the cleaning activities, planting seedlings was another major event. In front of the new main block of SIST, in

member of the IEEE family and conveyed his interest in bringing more faculty members to this organisation. He also spoke on how keen the students were to take up humanitarian projects, which is indeed a positive trend.

Suresh, Branch Counsellor, CET proposed the vote of thanks.

Kerala Section

two proper locations seedlings of two sacred trees – a Banyan Tree (Ficus Bengalensis) and a Peepal Tree (Ficus Religiosa) were planted. This is a remarkable milestone in the history of SIST IEEE SB. All participants were actively involved themselves and the function was a grand success.

The work completed at 13:00 hrs. As a whole the celebration helped to enhance discipline and promoted volunteerism among all, for which the IEEE members are always in forefront.

The day was no ordinary for the participants for it was an evening with the President of that large organisation that promises to the world an innovative scientific tomorrow.

Reported by: Harsha S IEEE SBCET, LINK Volunteer Pool (Documentation) October-December 2011

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IEEE Day Celebrations: October 6, 2011, IEEE SB of SIST celebrated the 2nd annual IEEE Day as a ‘Tech-fest’ with colourful programme in the afternoon from 14:00 to 17:30 Hrs at ‘Bodhi’ Hall at Ambalamukku, Tvpm with two sessions. The celebrations started with cutting a cake inscribed ‘IEEE Day’ by the Student branch Counsellor, K Gopalan Nair in the presence of Anil Jayamohan and other office bearers and members of the SB. This was followed by two different sessions, a general body meeting of members and a public meeting.

Session-1 General body meeting (members only) 1. Discussion on the performance of the members attended the events, FRIZBEE and AISC. Bhagyalakshmi presented the report on FRISBEE held at MES College of Engineering, Kuttippuram.

Parvathy S R and Aravind S Nair, presented the report on AISC held at New Delhi.

The session was interesting and interactive. All the participants appreciated the performance of the members who represented

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the SB and requested to keep the vibrancy in feature also.

2. Discussion on upcoming events in October and its approval. Entrusted the following members to nominate members and proceed with the schedule: • STAC - Parvathy S R (the event is postponed to 20-10-2011) • IEEEXtreme - Aravind S Nair • Industrial Visit - Bhagyalakshmi • Website design - Ravi • Modification of Group-id Aravind S Nair • Membership campaign - Anil Jayamohan • Fund mobilizing - first programme, College level Quiz competition - Arun • Medical Camp - Parvathy S R • Visit & study on Mitraniketan, an experimental non-profit social and educational project, near Vellanad - K. Gopalan Nair Session-2 Awareness Programme (for members and public) The public meeting commenced at 16:00 hrs with the welcome speech by Parvathy S.R addressing the participants including members and non-members from different walks of life. K. Goplan Nair (Professor SIST & SM IEEE) explained the importance of IEEE Day and the current year’s theme ‘Empowering Members to Create the Future’. This was followed by the speech by Anil Jayamohan (AP, SIST & Member IEEE) on ‘Technology and Common Man’.

He pinpointed the effective applications of the technology Kerala Section

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for the day-to-day activities of the rural inhabitants with simple examples. The session motivated the layman present in the meeting and all of them were interactive with the questions.

They were eager to know more about the inventions of science and technology useful for them.

Then the student members continued the lively session sharing their experiences. The IEEE Day celebrations concluded at 17:30 hrs with vote of thanks by Bhagyalakshmi SR, the Secretary of SB. Engineering in Medicine: The STAC (Students Technical Awareness Congress) was organized by IEEE SB, Sarabhai Institute of Science and Technology, Tvpm on 20-102011. The event was conducted at the seminar hall of the SIST campus with a participation of 60+ students from different SB’s of Tvpm. The dignitaries who were invited for the event were Koruth P Varughese, Biomedical Engineer, Sree Chitra Thirunal

Kerala Section

Institute of Medical Science and Technology, Tvpm, K R Kaimal, Director, SIST, M K Jana, Principal, SIST. The inaugural session commenced with the welcome speech by Parvathy S R, Chair person, IEEE SB, SIST followed by the presidential address

by K. Gopalan Nair, Student Counselor, IEEE SB, SIST. The session was inaugurated by the chief guest, Koruth P Varughese.

The Director and the Principal of SIST delivered their felicitations.

Vote of thanks was given by the LINK representative, Vaibhav Hemant Waiker. He thanked all the dignitaries and mentioned special thanks to the execom without the team, he said IEEE SB at SIST would not have been possible. Vote of thanks was followed by a tea break.

After the inaugural session the SIST IEEE SB witnessed the interesting seminar on the topic ‘Engineering in Medicine’ by the chief guest Koruth P Varughese.

At the introductory section he conveyed a message that ‘behind every great medical advance there is a great engineer’. Then he moved to the core topic of biomedical engineering defining October-December 2011

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various latest engineering contributions in medical treatment.

He thoroughly explained about Imaging, X-ray film processor, Fluoroscopy, Angiogram, MRI Scan, CT Scan, Functional MRI Scan (FMRI) etc. He concluded the session by telling the importance of HIFU (High Intensity Focused Ultra sound). The three hours seminar was enchanting and very much interesting.

The technical session was followed by a quiz competition organized by Sriram S Ayyar, Vice chair, SIST SB and Vivek Pillai, Treasurer, SIST SB which included general questions and questions based on ‘Engineering in Medicine’. The students were grouped randomly irrespective of their branches. The students were very much active in this session.

It was a great pleasure to be a part of the winning team, who

October-December 2011

bagged the prize. Special gifts and certificates were distributed to the winners.

After the quiz, K. Gopalan Nair gave away the memento to Koruth P Varughese and he distributed the certificates for all the participants.

The function came to an end with a concluding speech by Vivek Pillai (Treasurer, SIST SB).

He thanked one and all for the co-operation and hard work to make this event a grand success.

After that the students were lead to the mess hall for lunch break.

Training Session for S7 Students: The IEEE SB of SIST in association with CGPU of SIST organized a training programme on 15th November at the Seminar Hall in the MSB of SIST for the S7 students. The session was organized with two presentations, one on ‘Fundamentals of Software Engineering’ by K. Babu and the other on ‘How to face Interviews’ by Jayan Sam, both Senior Professors of SIST, aiming to update and encourage the senior students who are preparing for recruitment processes by Global companies by providing clear solutions to many of their Kerala Section

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common apprehensions. There were forty eight participants from various branches, the creamy layer from the S7 after preliminary tests and interviews.

The uniqueness of the presentations created a matchless vision and confidence in the participants to conquer the hurdles before them in the upcoming placement opportunities.

Industrial Visit: On receiving the permission from William Goodare & Sons Limited, Alappuzha, IEEE students members of SIST, with four faculty members (Deepa V T, Prasanth S, Anil Jayamohan and K Gopalan Nair) went on an industrial visit to the coir factory and RKK Memorial Museum on 10-12-2011 at Alappuzha.

The members assembled at the College at 04:00 hrs and left the college in a bus. The team reached the spot at 10 o’clock after a delicious breakfast on the way. The in-charge of production received us at the entrance and gave a brief introduction to us about their firm.

Backed with more than 100

Kerala Section

years of experience in the Coir industry, Karan group has been recognized as the indisputable industry leader. Starting as Coir yarn spinners in the late 1800’s, they presently own the largest integrated factory in Asia for weaving natural fiber floor coverings. Their factories are equipped with the latest yarn preparation and dyeing equipment, imported automatic shaft/jacquard looms and finishing equipment.

They recruit and train the best weaving talents available. Their collection of woven Coir, Sisal & Jute floor coverings is exported to more than 100 countries.

They are also the pioneers in Asia for the manufacture of Vinyl backed Coir mats/rolls.

The company has successfully maintained the balance between traditional craftsmanship and latest technology throughout our journey. It still have the best craftsmen in the handloom industry working for them, helping them to be the largest exporters of traditional, handwoven coir mats, matting & rugs

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from India.

The students felt great interest in interacting with the workers, mechanics, craftsmen, etc; making the visit more lively and synergic. We were diverted to various departments witnessing processes like harvesting and husking, retting, defibering and finishing. The visit came to an end before a grand lunch at KTDC Hotel, Alappuzha.

Excitement continued as the team proceeded to Revi Karuna Karan Memorial Museum - a symbol of tradition and prestige. Revi, who dedicated his life for modernization of coir industry was the Chairman and Managing Director of Karan

October-December 2011

group of companies - the largest exporter of coir products - and served as the Director of many reputed companies. He received “Lifetime Achievement Award� from coir board, Govt. of India, for the outstanding services he rendered to the coir industry.

Museum highlighted his interests, coin collections, showcase articles, etc, leaving the team wonderstruck. It was time for the group to depart. Half-heartedly, we had to. Before getting back to Thiruvananthapuram, the team members had a small time pass at Alappuzha Beach, the historic port of old Travancore.

Last but not the least, the members are greatly indebted

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Diary of Events October 29,30 Sept & 1 Oct All India Student Congress 2011 at New Delhi.

30 Sept & 1 IEEE Continuing Education Congress and Seminar on ‘Digital Signal Processing’ 02 SIST SB organized ‘Gandhi Jayanti’ celebrations in the campus with social works concluded with cultural competitions.

06 IEEE Day Celebrations – organized different programmes in various SBs. SIST SB organized ‘Tech-fest’ 19 SIST SB published a brochure ‘Introduction to IEEE & its Benefits’ & a calendar of activities performed by the SIST SB. 20 ‘Engineering in Medicine’, a STAC event – seminar cum presentation by Koruth P Varughese, Biomedical Engineer, SCTIMS&T, Tvpm at SIST, Vellanad.

22 IEEE Xtreme Online programming competition. Teams from different SBs participated. Two teams from SIST Vellanad attended.

29 Symbiosis – an awareness programme for first year students on all Kerala basis, hosted by Sarabhai Institute of Science & Technology, Vellanad, organized

by Hub-1. 218 students from over 26 Engineering Colleges participated.

Chief guest: V.K Damodaran.

November 24 Visit to Mitraniketan, Vellanad by SIST SB students.

26 Visit to Sree Chitra Home by a team of SIST SB students as a part of their charity work.

to Bhagyalekshmi VS, Secretary, IEEE-SB, SIST, for her single handed effort in arranging the trip with a very short time notice.

The participants also express their sincere thanks to the College authorities of SIST for permitting them for the visit, the SB Counsellor and other faculty members who accompanied Kerala Section

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One day seminar on Wireless Communica-tion and Networking by IEEE Comsoc Kerala Chapter organized at Kochi.

26 & 27 Ar-duino and Android workshop at Technopark by ICFOSS along with IEEE. December 10 One day Industrial Visit by SIST SB members & staff to William Goodacre Pvt Ltd & RKK Museum at Alappuzha.

14 IEEE President Peter Staecker’s Visit at CET & evening with Student members.

14 Execom Meeting of IEEE Kerala Section at Kovalam. Lanching of Kerala GOLD Website by President Peter Staecker at Kovala.

15 Launching of SIGHT at C-DAC by President Peter Staecker.

15 AGM at SIST SB and election/nomination of new Office Bearers at Kovalam.

17-18 IEEE LINK Camp at Thrissur (VAST & IES CE) 17 IEEE INDICON 2011 28 Talk by N Narayana Pillai, Professor Emeritus, Amritha Viswavidyapeedom on ‘New Defenses Against Coastal Erosion’ at IE Hall, Tvpm.

Forthcoming Events 11 Jan 2012: Talk on ‘Computation of Electricity Loss’ by K. Madhavan Pillai, former Chief Electrical Inspector, Tvpm at IE Hall, Tvpm.

14 AGM of IEEE Kerala Section at Hotel Classic Avenue, Tvpm 22-24 Feb: International Conference on Computing, Communication & Applications

the team and the officials of William Goodacre who narrated the functioning of various departments and the cooperation of the employees in dealing the group amidst of their dedicated routine activities.

Reported by Sriram S Ayyar, Vice-Chair & Bhagyalakshmi, Secretary, SIST IEEE October-December 2011

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Link Camp - 2011 The IEEE LINK Camp, the annual and the final event of IEEE LINK for the year 2011, was conducted on 17th and 18th December 2011.

For the first time the event was hosted by two Engineering colleges, IES College of Engineering, Chittilapally and Vidya Academy of Science and Technology, Thrissur. The event witnessed a participation of more than 300 members from SB’s all over Kerala.

The Camp was named ‘U & I’, as token of respect and appreciation to Late Dennis Ritchie and Late Steve Jobs (Dennis Ritchie was the co-creator of Unix so “U” and Mac OS by Steve Jobs was derived from Unix and is the basis for his personal best the i OS so “I”) by Atul A Pillai.

The first day of the camp was at IESCE, Chittillapally. The day had events which included technical talks

and leadership training. The launch of IEEE LINK etools beta by Farish and web team. The etools is aimed to assist the student members and volunteers of LINK in member development and will help to reduce the time spent on other managerial activities. The day also had the open forum which was attended by the members of all SBs. There was a session by Jason Abey Sabu, SAC Chair and discussed the events of LINK in 2011. The first day ended with the cultural events organized by the students of IESCE and VAST which turned out to be great.

The second day of the Camp was hosted by Vidya Academy of Science and Technology. Mementos were awarded to four outstanding volunteers of LINK, Farish C V, Deepthy Anna George, Ramesh Nair and Nithin George. A Q & A session between the LINK Execom

(ICCCA) at Dindigal, T/Nadu. Sponsored

by IC Education Chapte. For details: http:// www.panacet.edu.in /iccca2012 3-4 Mar: IEEE R10 Meet at Swisotel, Kolkotta.

16-18 Mar: 2012 Students Conference on Engg & Systems (SCES). For details: http://www.mnnit.ac.in/sces2012

30-31 Mar: International Conference on Advances in Engg, Science & Management (ICAESM) at Nagapattinam, T/Nadu

by Madras Section. For details: http:// www/.icaesm.egspec.org 28-31 Oct: IEEE Sensots 2012 in Taiwan.

For details: www.ieee-sensors.org

LINK Execom

October-December 2011

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Student Branch Activities

Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering Pappanamcode, Thiruvananthapuram

SCTCE Student Branch hosted a General Quiz Competition for the first years of the college. The prelims were conducted on November 21st and had a participation of over 34 students from all branches. The finals were held on November 22nd with 6 teams.

There was also a grand Christmas celebration for all members on 22nd of December. The main highlight was an orientation session for the new members of 2012 and also had several fun-filled games and activities.

and the members were organised and turned out to be really interesting. The session dealt with Industrial and Technical queries along with IEEE activities. The day also had another session on ‘Time management’ and ‘Reporting and Documentation’.

The demonstration of the four selected projects for the final stage of All Kerala Humanitarian Technology Contest (AKHTC) 2011, an initiative by LINK Team in 2011 was also arranged at the campus.

The students interacted with pro-

ject team members and they did their best to answer any queries.

Sabarinath Pillai, Vice President LINK, conducted the last session of the Camp which introduced the members to duties of the executive committee members.

The IEEE LINK Camp 2011 was a immense success, especially since it was organized by two collages. The dedication and hard work of volunteers from both the collages were appreciated by everyone.

Kerala Section

Reported by: Nandagopal Secretary IEEE SCTCE SB

Reported by: Aravind S. Nair, SIST October-December 2011

39

Student Branch Activities

Vimal Jyothi Engineering College Phase 1 2011 [March – December] The IEEE student branch of VJEC is gifted with the vibrant and talented members existing within it and it is proud to exclaim that they are the greatest achievement of IEEE VJEC SB. 1. Election and Plan of Action by New Execom: • The election of the new execom was held on 3 march 2011 and after the annual general body meeting on 10 march 2011.

• After execom meeting, it was decided that the programmes of the student branch will be divided into two phases-phase 1 [March December] and phase 2 [January – March].

• Phase 1 will consist of mini and fruitful events inside the campus as well with the participation of members of only our student branch.

The aim of phase 1 events would be to boost the morale of the new members and encourage more involvement from the members. Eg: Technical Talks, Debate Groups, Group Discussion, Video shows etc.

• Phase 2 will consists of mega events including guest lecturers and seminars from resource persons from National Distinguished Lecture Pool, Student Professional Awareness Conference and Ventures as well as other technical events. Here the main aim is to October-December 2011

give the members an exposure to the events outside the boundaries of the student branch.

2. Technical Talks and Webinars • During the phase-1, 2011, the SB conducted technical talks of topics ranging from ‘Odometers in CPU’, ‘Portable Document formats’, ‘Next Generation Memories’, to ‘Cloud Computing’ to even ‘Google plus Vs Facebook’.

• Two webinars were conducted and organized exclusively for IEEE members and one for NonIEEE members. The topics of these webinars include – ‘High Performance Computing for solutions for Complex problems’(Sponsored

by Microsoft), ‘Future Data storage systems’ (Sponsored by IBM & ThinkFriday University) and ‘Exploring the IEEE Xplore’ by IEEE Client Services Manger.

3. Non Technical Events • On the Non technical side of events conducted by the student branch, we conducted a visit to an orphanage at Chempanthoti, as a part of Charity event organized by the Women in Engineering group of IEEE SB VJEC. The day was spent with the inmates and various programmes were carried out over there. Solutions regarding various technical aspects were also provided.

Kerala Section

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• For the first time, a friendship day was celebrated by the IEEE Members for foster the bond friendship among the members, along with the professional relationship maintained by them.

4. Participation in Inter-College Events: Participation of our members in inter-college events at Kerala level was highly encouraged by the student branch. Even though sudden announce of university examinations forced the members to opt out of various events in the last moment, the enthusiastic volunteers participated for • HUB 5 Congress held at MES Engineering College.

• All Kerala Students Congress 2011 at College of Engineering Chengannur. The team secured third place for the paper presentation held over there.

• There were also a good number of participants for the All Kerala Essay Competition from the student branch.

5. Workshops Organized: The student branch jointly organized two workshops: • Ethical Hacking and Information Security Workshop with CSE Dept.

• PIC Microcontroller workshop and training with ECE Dept.

Both workshops were grand success this year with the college.

6. New Initiatives: New initiatives of the student branch include a Medical-Engineering project TechJeeva which is in its incubation stage. The active Kerala Section

volunteers of the student branch are aspiring to make the project a national level.

The student branch for the first time has given nomination for Student enterprise award for a live project on “Bore well Rescue Robot” by IEEE members of 4th year.

7. Administration and Membership Enhancement: On the Administration and Profe ssional Development side workshops on: • Membership Quality Enhancement – for creating awareness on untapped potentials of IEEE Membership including awareness on awards, scholarships, continued education grants, email alias etc.

• Branch Administration-For grooming the new office bearers and volunteers with specific duties to perform according to IEEE Standards.

8. Jobs & Career Awareness session: We also had special sessions on jobs and placement.

• One of the sessions was by Renjith Keshav, CEO, Insight jobs guru, who interacted with IEEE Members giving them tips on GD, aptitude tests and common barriers faced during placement programme.

• Other session was handled by Mr.Edwin Paul and Ms.Varsha Jimmy, final year IEEE members, who had been placed through the collage placement cell. Experiences of these people enlightened the students on the aspects of jobs and placement.

October-December 2011

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Student Branch Activities

Mohandas College of Engineering & Technology, Anad The exe-com for the year 2011-12 of the SB was formed (details available at http:// www.amcetonline.com ). In the last quarter of the year 2011, it is decided to conduct the following events in 2012.

1. To co-sponsor a national level technical symposium, the ‘Colloquium-12’, planned to organize as a part of Decennial Celebrations of Mohandas College of Engineering & Technology. It is also decided to took active participation in coordinating Colloquium -12 a national level technical fest which include paper presentation, project exhibition, technical quiz and various other technical competition providing a dynamic

platform for students to exhibit and widen their scientific proficiency. The fest is to inaugurate by Prahlad Vadakkepat, Professor, National University of Singapore and a Senior Member of IEEE. He is also the Secretary, Technical Activity Coordinator, IEEE Region 10 (Asia-Pacific), 2001–02. He is delivering the keynote address on the topic ‘Making man out of machines’.

2. Forwarding petition for formation of WIE 3. Commencement of IEEE spectrum talk 4. Two day workshop on Robotics by E-CEll IIT-Kharagpur and Robosapiens Technologies Pvt Ltd with MCET at zonal centre.

9. Statistics: Event Types Technical Administration Jobs & Career

Non Technical Membership Quality Enhancement Workshops

Taking into view the achievement of the student branch on an overall 360o which includes technical, non-technical, professional and career development, the phase 1 of the student branch has been successfully completed and now moving on to the phase 2 for October-December 2011

Membership Active

Applicant

Arrears

Inactive

achieving higher goals and would solemnly apply full fledged effort and volunteering spirit for taking the student branch as heights as never seen before.

Reported by: Muhammed Rajeef MK, Chairman, SB VJEC) Kerala Section

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Student Branch Activities

TKM COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, KOLLAM Report for October-December-2011

• Talk on Global Energy Crisis 17th Nov 2011: A technical talk on Innovative Solution to Global Energy Crisis was organized by the IEEE Student Branch of TKMCE on 17th November 2011. The session was handled by M Jayaraju, PES Staff Advisor, TKMCE. It was conducted to provide a general overview regarding the global energy crisis. The presentation was so effective that session saw a prolonged and interesting interaction among the speaker and the audience • ISGT INDIA-ISGT Logo Release: The official release of logo of ISGT, The International Conference on Innovative Smart Grid Technologies was conducted on 23rd November 2011 at TKMCE. The logo was released by Janab Shahal Hassan Musaliar. The event also witnessed the official release of theme music for the conference.

Kerala Section

• International Conference on Innovative Smart Grid Technologies (ISGT) - on Dec 1-3, 2011: The Innovative Smart Grid Technologies Conference (ISGT - INDIA) was sponsored by the IEEE Power and Energy Society - Hosted

by IEEE student branch TKM College of Engg and conducted in amalgamation with the IEEE Kerala Section, the PES chapter of Kerala Section and the PES Chapter of the Student Branch.

With an aim to provide a broader outlook on smart grid, the conference was held on December 01 to 03, 2011 at the Quilon Beach Hotel, Kollam.

With distributed renewable sources on the rise, there is a demand for real-time info and their intelligent integration.

State-of-the-art innovations in smart grid technologies were discussed in this new conference series, started in 2010 along with a new IEEE Transaction on Smart Grid.

Researchers, practitioners and professionals in various sectors of power system came together at this Asia focused ISGT 2011 India meet. The Conference featured invited presentations, October-December 2011

43

special sessions and tutorials by international experts on smart grid applications.

Inauguration: The inaugural session, held on Dec. 01, 2011 commenced at 16:00 hrs. The function was enriched with the presence of several pioneers from the field Engineering.

The welcome address was delivered by Sasi P.M, Organizing Committee Chair of ISGT India 2011.

Subsequently an overview of the conference was given by Bijuna Kunju K, the Technical Program Chair and Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, TKM College of Engineering. It was a moment of honor when Lalit Goel, PES R10 representative, conveyed a personal message from Alan C Rotz, President, IEEE Power and Energy Society. V K Damodaran, Senior Life Member of IEEE, Conference General Chair and the Director General, INGCORE, Vice-Chair of Energy Management Centre, also the past Chairman of IEEE Kerala Section, delivered the presidential address. The event was officially inaugurated by H P Khincha, who is currently a Professor at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He is the former Vice Chancellor of Vishwaraya Technical University, Karnataka.

Felicitations were offered by Fareed M Zedan, T K Jalaludin Musaliar (Treasurer, TKM Trust) October-December 2011

and N. Prathapachandran (Head of the Dept of Electrical and Electronics Engg, TKM College of Engg).The vote of thanks was proposed by Sunitha Beevi, Student Branch Counselor of IEEE Student Branch of TKM College of Engg.

Day - 2 Conference: The Conference proceedings were the highlight of the second day of ISGT. About 126 papers dealing with a wide spectrum of topics in power system based on innovative concepts were presented. The presentations were held in 3 halls – Desinganadu, Quilon and Venad scheduled from 09:00 hrs to 16:00 hrs. The papers were distributed among 4 sessions.

In Desinganadu & Quilon and 3 sessions in Venad, each session comprising of papers related with specific areas.

Day - 3 Utility Meet: To study the opportunities set forth by the Kerala Section

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upcoming smart grid technology in India to the professionals and practitioners working in the power sector, a Utility Meet was conducted at the Thangal Kunju Musaliar College of Engineering, Kollam. Rahul Tongia, Program Director of the Centre for study of Science Technology and Policy (CSTEP) addressed the gathering via video conference, wholeheartedly responding to the queries of the audience. It was followed by presentations on ‘A cloud computing approach for power management of micro grids’ by Rajeev T and ‘Preliminary Design Considerations towards building of a hybrid electric Bicycle’. The meeting brought together many students and officials from reputed and established institutions including the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), Energy Management Centre, ANERT and Blue Harp Technologies to name a few

Valedictory Function: The Utility Meet was followed by the Valedictory function, which was held at the TKM College of Engg auditorium in the presence of distinguished dignitaries.

V.K Damodaran, thumbed up the initiative and successful Kerala Section

conduct of ISGT-INDIA 2011.

Senthil Kumar, Secretary, IEEE Kerala Section, expressed his appreciation on behalf of IEEE Kerala Section to the organizing team for the effort undertaken in coordinating the event. Lalit Goel and Suresh Babu commented upon different aspects regarding the conference, Goel giving a special mention of the cultural fiesta on the 2nd day. Bijuna Kunju proposed the vote of thanks.

• WIE Star- Dyothi As a part of the sustainability action of WIE Affinity group of TKMCE, WIE STAR ‘DYOTHI’ was organised at Govt.

Higher Secondary School, Anchalumoodu on Dec 12, 2011 in which 25 volunteers from the student branch participated actively.

The event started with an introduction to the world of technology and its amazing facts. A very informative interactive session was then followed. The interesting observation that we were able to make is that even though many among the audience opted engineering as their future, they didn’t know what engineering is.

When they were asked to define engineers the most interesting answer which came up was that “engineers are those people who sit under a fan and do something in a computer.” The students were enlightened about various engineering streams such as civil, October-December 2011

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electrical, mechanical with very descriptive PowerPoint presentations.

First and foremost the aspects of mechanical engineering were discussed. The future prospects of mechanical engineering were demonstrated through an interesting video. This video included the emerging field of automobiles and cellular phone technology.

Students were then introduced to the wonders of the “touch world” including the latest iphones and ipads.

The significance of robotics and its potential as a key engineering field was received with much enthusiasm by the students.

Mirroring their spirit, we were able to clear all the queries and doubts posed by them. They were also given chance to express and share their ideas and views on this topic.

After the session on robotics, the significance of electrical engineering was conveyed. With a quote “man returns to stone age without electricity” and through various images the hardships of life without electricity, we were able to convey the message easily.

The fields where electrical engineers work such as the generation, distribution, conversion, instrumentation and research were also discussed. A mini tour on different power plants such as hydro, thermal, wind, nuclear, and tidal was given which turned out to be very informative. A debate on the importance of substations was held in which students came up with interesting conclusions.

A questionnaire was held on the important contributions of various scientists in the field of electrical engineering.

The students were then presented with the concepts of another core branch of engineering, better known as the creator of all creations - Civil Engineering. Their contributions to the development of the world infrastructure were debated in detail.

The entire session was concluded with imparting the idea “Engineering is not a job, nor a degree. It’s a way of thinking, a way of turning your ideas into reality.” A feedback was collected from the students which were expressively filled with their positive opinions and valuable suggestions.

The program was one of the most remarkable ventures as from the perspective of IEEE student branch of TKMCE as it was able to pursue the noble goal promoting the world of engineering to the next generation of brilliant minds.

October-December 2011

Reported by: Sunitha Beevi, Counsellor, TKMCE SB Kerala Section

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Student Branch Activities ToC H Institute of Science and Technology

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

The event targeted the academic fraternity of engineering colleges across Kerala and was conducted with the support of IEEE RIO Educational Activities, IEEE Kerala Section and GOLD. The workshop was attended by around 40 delegates from various engineering colleges.

The first day of CEC began with a colourful inaugural ceremony.

Suresh Nair, Chief Technology Officer of NeST Group, delivered die keynote address. It was followed by an engaging session on Digital Signal Processing Fundamentals by M. V. Rajesh, Head of Department of Electronics Engineering, College of Engineering. Cherthala, in which the intricate details and physical aspects of signal sampling in time and frequency domain were discussed.

An IEEE awareness session and membership drive was conducted Kerala Section

by Ranjith. R. Nair, Treasurer IEEE GOLD, during the course of which, participants showed a keen interest in joining IEEE. The participants were introduced to IEEE and benefits of IEEE membership. Fm’thennore, a hands-on session on MATLAB was conducted. The basics of MATLAB programming and image/ sound manipulation functions, matrix operations, plotting etc were taught in detail by Mohankumar. K, Director (R&D), Grey Technolabs.

The second day of the program began with a hands-on session on MATLAB. The participants were introduced to the advanced concepts of latest simulation softwares by Mohankumar followed by a session on 3D Visualisation.

Rajeev, Principal Research Engineer ofNeST dealt with the principles of 3D reconstruction, processing and rendering. This very informative session was then followed by a panel discussion on the problems faced by tlie teachers and the need for improvement in tlie current educational system. Tlie panel consisted of K. Vasudevan (Dean, Faculty of Technology & Professor Dept of Electronics, CUSAT), Rajeev K. (NeST, Technopark).

Suresh Narayanan (Reliance October-December 2011

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Communications.

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

Vice Chair IEEE COMSOC Kerala Section). Job V Kuruvila (Director, TIST), Mini Ulanatt (CUSAT) and was moderated by Nitin Padmanablian, Secretary of IEEE Kerala GOLD. Many questions were raised and analyzed by the participants and the distinguished panel. The two day long education congress was concluded with a valedictory function where the participants were awarded wilh certificates.

Conclusion - The Continuing Education

Congress-1 was attended by 40 delegates from engineering colleges across Kerala. The event was much appreciated for the quality of sessions and for providing a platform for the academic fraternity to leam, interact and get motivated. The participants expressed a keen interest in joining IEEE and in making their colleagues and students aware about IEEE.

Ranjit R Nair speaking the IEEE Awareness session

The memberships from academia have increased and the existing members decided to get actively involved in the activities of IEEE. Thus the objectives ofCEC-1 were met.

Sudoku

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Solution to Sudoku in the last issue (Vol - 20 #3) 6

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3 9 Kerala Section

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2011 IEEE Awards Honorary Membership to APJ Abdul Kalam The first scientist to be elected president of India, APJ Abdul Kalam is a leader whose vision and commitment to improve society through technology have helped India's overall development. Prior to become India's 11th president, Dr. Abdul Kalam had already influenced India's path to become a developed nation by providing both technological innovations and leadership to improve the lives of India's population.

Kerala State Energy Conservation Award 2011 Best Performance Award to PS Chandramohanan

PS Chandramohanan has been conferred the award ‘Kerala State Energy Conservation Award 2011’ considering his research in “drainage power recovery scheme from distribution transformers”. This is a technique to recover and utilize the power usually wasted as heat in the distribution transformers due to the harmonics present in the modern power system as a result of growing share of non-linear loads. This technique provides better energy efficiency and improved power factor for the power network. It also reduces the harmonics and harmonics related losses in the power grid. The proposed scheme can improve the energy efficiency and the life of the distribution transformers.

P.S.Chandramohan is the Professor & Chairman of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in the Amritapuri campus of Amrita University. He was Professor of Electrical Engineering at College of Engineering Trivandrum, Principal, Govt. Engineering College, Barton Hill and Sri Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering, Tvpm and also Former Director of ANERT (Agency for Nonconventional Engery and Rural Technology). He is a Senior Member of IEEE, currently the Chair of Educational Activities of Kerala Section.

The award comes under the category of the best performance in ‘Research and Innovations’. He received the Award from Aryadan Mohammed, Hon. Minister for Power, Kerala at the Energy Conservation Award ceremony held in Thiruvananthapuram under the aegis of Energy Management Centre - Kerala.

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

Editor: K. Gopalan Nair, E-mail: kgnair@ieee.org, Ph: 2363232, 9446323230