UPTU Watch - the voice of UPTUians by UPTU Watch

www.uptuwatch.com

February 2010 | Contribution Rs. 10.00

Can UPTUians become

the Brand Ambassador of

Uttar Pradesh

Cover Story Can UPTUians become the Brand

Ambassador of Uttar Pradesh Brand UP The Promise of UPTU

Employment Watch

Unabated UPites

GATE 2010 News from India Inc. NAC - Tech

Tech. Watch Nanotechnology

Project Watch Importance of B-Tech projects for

placements

Trend Watch Social Networking Portals caged by

college administrators Teaching the Facebook generation Communicate in the Internet Era

Celebrating the spirit of Uttar Pradesh Celebrating the decadal anniversary of UPTU UNABATED UPTU Campaign

Academic Session Planner

Unabated UPites Celebrating the spirit of Uttar Pradesh Celebrating the decadal anniversary of UPTU UNABATED UPTU campaign ... Starting: May 8th, 2010

K. P. Singh

R. K. Pachauri

Amitabh Bachchan

Born August 15, 1931, Bulandshahar Chairman, DLF

Born August 20, 1940, Nainital Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Nobel Peace Prize 2007

Born: October 11, 1942, Allahabad Film Actor, Producer, Singer, Television Presenter

Vinod Gupta

Renu Khator

Born: 4 July 1946, Saharanpur Chairman InfoUSA Founder Vinod Gupta School of Management IIT Kharagpur

Born: 19 June 1955, Farrukhabad President of the University of Houston, Texas, USA

If you know about some UPTUian who has done big and deserves the wider acclamation, send in his/her details to unabated@uptuwatch.com

Can UPTUians continue this glorious tradition? In the Look Out for UNABATED UPTUians !!! If you know about some UPTUian who has done big and deserves the wider acclamation, send in his/her details to: unabated@uptuwatch.com

BOARD OF PATRONS Prof. Kripa Shanker, Vice-Chancellor UPTU Prof. Prem Vrat, Former Vice-Chancellor UPTU Michel Danino, Convener, IFIH, Coimbatore Renu Malhotra, Seed the World Inc, USA Vineet Narain, Senior Journalist, New Delhi Prof. Veena Bansal, IIT Kanpur Prof. V Desai, IIT Kharagpur Prof. Makrand Paranjape, JNU Madhav Sharan Agarwala, Sr. Advocate Pawan Gupta, SIDH, Mussorrie Prof. Arunabha Mitra, IIT Kharagpur

BOARD OF ADVISORS Cmd. Veerendra K Jaitly, President AstroWix, Noida Som Gupta, Regional Manager, Network 18, New Delhi P. K. Goyal, Sr. Manager, HPCL, New Delhi Kishore Agrawal, Braj Chikitsa Sansthan, Mathura P. B. Gupta, BPN Enterprises, New Delhi Vipin Jain, Standing Counsel, Govt. of India, Bareilly Abhishek Tripathi, LLB (NLSUI Bangalore) Prof. Charul Bhatnagar, Mathura Anant Mohan Sharma, Mathura Ranjan Singh, FMSME, New Delhi Prodyut Bora, PGP (IIM Ahmedabad) Brij Khandelwal, Journalist (IANS), Agra TEAM UPTU WATCH Editor & Managing Director Raghav Mittal, B.Tech + M.Tech (IIT Kharagpur) Associate Editor & Director Finance Gaurav Mittal, B.Tech (IIT Roorkee) Publisher & Director Marketing Anuj Goyal, MBA (Amity University) Director Operations Sachin Jain, B.Tech (UPTU), M.Tech (IIT Roorkee) Director Creative Visualization Shruti Goyal, PG Visual Communication Design (MIT, Pune) Director Technology Ishvinder Singh, B.Tech (UPTU) Corporate Relationship Development Shivam Singh, B.Tech (UPTU), MBA (ICFAI Bangalore) Creative Visualization Deep Yellow, Ghaziabad Dazzle Art, Mathura / The Pretentious, Agra Production & Circulation Sandeep Sharma, Anand Khandelwal, Saket Soni, Gaurav Srivastava, Sachin Jaiswal, Hari Mohan Agarwal, Alok Chauhan, Vivek Bharagava, Ravi Shanker Garg

EDITORIAL BOARD M. Pramod Kumar B.Tech (IIT Madras) Assistant Professor, Amrita University, Coimbatore

Srijan Bhatnagar, B.Tech (IIT Kharagpur) Sr. Associate, Cognizant, USA

Ashutosh Gupta, MSc (IIT Kharagpur) PhD University of Maryland, College Park, USA

Hitashi Lomash, PhD (IIT Roorkee) Assistant Professor, Thapar University, Patiala

Nikhil Pant, B.E (MNIT Allahabad), Member Secretary, REACHA, Ghaziabad

Amarendra Trivedi, B.Tech (UPTU) Anant Asthana LLB (AMU) Law Officer, HRLN, New Delhi

Meera Mittal (NIFT Delhi) Fashion Designer & Consultant, Mumbai

Anshul Gupta PGP (IIM Bangalore), B.Tech (IIT Kharagpur) Consultant, Wipro Consulting Services, Gurgaon

Anshul Agrawal, M.Sc Bio Technology, Gujrat University Anirban Ganguly, PhD (Jadavpur University) Priyanka Telang, B.Tech (UPTU) Vipul Agrawal, B.Tech (UPTU), MBA (XIMB, ESC France) Amit Gupta, B.Tech (IIT Roorkee) Sudhanshu Jain, B.Tech (IIT Roorkee) Printed & Published by Anuj Goyal on behalf of Extra Edge Info Media Pvt. Ltd Published from 551 Kanungo Apartments, 71 IP Extension, Patparganj, New Delhi – 110092 Printed at Nitin Printers, 219 Patparganj Industrial Area, New Delhi Editor: Raghav Mittal Editorial Office: A3/05 (Tower-7), Silver City, Greater Noida For editorial queries: editor@uptuwatch.com Design, Development & Circulation Office: Extra Edge Info Media Pvt. Ltd. JSSATE-STEP, C-20/1, Sector-62, Noida, Uttar Pradesh Tel: 0120-2401516, 9540847051, 9540847061 , 9540847071 For advertisement & other queries write to info@uptuwatch.com Distribution Offices: Paarth House, Sri Krishna Janmasthan, Mathura. Tel: 0565-2420204 1 Ashok Nagar, Guru Govind Singh Marg, Opp. Board of Technical Education, Charbagh, Lucknow. Tel: 0522 - 2637772 405, Maimaran, Beharipur, Bareilly. Tel: 0581 - 2575523

Visit us at:

www.uptuwatch.com

Cover Story

Can UPTUians become the Brand Ambassador of

Uttar Pradesh the way IITians have for India !

The general perception rules supreme that despite a rich history and its glorious role in India's independent struggle, Uttar Pradesh, finds itself in a mess today. As far as indices of human development - literacy, per capita income, infant mortality, female education are concerned the state stands almost at the bottom vis-a-vis other states in India. It woefully lacks basic infrastructure and is shorn of industrial dynamism.

as a 'Republic', it would be the sixth largest nation in the world. Yet, given its history and size, Uttar Pradesh cannot be separated from India and the futures of the two are bound together.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Rabble rousers like Raj Thackeray of the Maharashtra Nav Nirman Sena easily carry out his tirades against the UPites considering them to be a gullible majority. Writers like Rashmi Bansal mock at the state of techno-managerial education of Uttar Pradesh by rendering the UPTU as a Technical University full of flaws and the engineering education in UP as nothing less than a gamble. Remarks like these can be attributed to the fact that Uttar Pradesh has failed to develop an identity and a positive self image of its own. Its public life has been marked by a lack of cohesiveness. The state's successive political leadership has failed to develop a regional agenda. The state's political life lacks a common focus and is deeply fragmented along affiliations of class, caste, religion, faction and region. Its representative and civic institutions are in disarray. Nevertheless scholars like Gyanesh Kudaisya still express their hope for Uttar Pradesh. They are categorical that 'With a population of 166 million, if Uttar Pradesh were to secede from India and declare itself

The Rashtriya Lok Dal MP Jayant Chaudhary who made his political debut from Mathura seems to have his political ambitions limited to the creation of a Harit Pradesh in the western part of UP. He would have to go beyond the political implications of crafting out such a territory and would have to delve deeper into the grass root realities and issues of his political turf. He can at least leverage upon the strength of the bulk of techno-managerial institutions of higher learning falling within his constituency of political influence. Innovative programmes linking the technomanagerial education to that of the developmental process can naturally be expected from this London School of Economics graduate. The vitriolic BJP MP from Pilibhit Varun Gandhi transgresses the confines of

The Vision of

Young Politicos Politicos like Rahul Gandhi have their own visions and dreams to restore the glory of the state. His public recognition that Uttar P ra d e s h h a s b e e n t h e c ra d l e o f development and all good things that have happened to the country including the independence struggle gives a sigh of relief that the stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s identity is at least being acknowledged in the political arena.

regional issues altogether and graduates directly on the national turf. On his recent American tour he preached the audience on the need of Skill based education and vociferously brought out the stark comparison between the statistics of skilled Indian workforce with that of Korea and Japan. However, he completely forgot the fact that his very constituency doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a single techno-managerial institution which could impart skills at least to the citizens of his area. His sweet affable personality blurred by vitriolic political misdeme-anors can charm his voters if he at least works for the establishment of skill development institutions in his constituency.

UPTU Watch | February 2010

Cover Story

Uttar Pradesh has always been India's heartland. The country's most populous state and one that has produced most of its prime ministers. Its history has been glorious by all counts and its present has been all the more dismal and noticeable. The visions about its future are myriad and complex. Jawaharlal Nehru Lal Bahadur Shastri Indira Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi Choudhary Charan Singh Vishwanath Pratap Singh Chandra Shekhar Atal Behari Vajpayee

“Akhilesh would have to sincerely work hard on the perception of his party mis-directing the youth for political reasons. The ideals he propounds would need a sincere approach for practice.” adds Amarendra. The current Chief Minister of the state

Ms. Mayawati created history by getting a clear majority in the Uttar Pradesh assembly. Her social engineering bore fruit and she could give a stable government to the state ending the decade long confusion. “Her political criticism of developing magnanimous memorials can be discounted considering the fact that these structures have at least improved upon the landscape of State’s Capital significantly,” says Sunil Singh an ex-student leader of Lucknow University.

The young scion of another major political party of the state Samajwadi Party Akhilesh Yadav takes pride in getting him referred to as a son of the soil. He preaches a lofty 14 point agenda to the educated youth of the state as he acknowledges the fact that youth represents the idealistic part of a nation and it is their innate idealism that would lead them to feel they are members of one great fraternity. Representing the Kannauj constituency which was once the center of power and prestige, Akhilesh is seen to be pitted against Rahul in battle for Uttar Pradesh.

“Haven’t these memorials given the State Capital a fresh identity the way Akshardham Temple gave it to the National Capital? Good efforts need to be appreciated despite their political colors” asserts Sunil.

“His party which vogues by socialistic ideals, has the maximum number of corporate bigwigs and cine-stars with unimaginable wealth, something which stands in stark contrast to socialist ideas. The party had tried to create a brand UP using its high profile Bollywood connections, but the same backfired for various reasons”, comments Amarendra, an alumnus of IET Lucknow and an IAS aspirant.

“The memorials are eventually dedicated to those who have had dedicated their lives for the emancipation of the most downtrodden segment of Indian society. These monuments are after all not furthering the name of a particular political dynasty” commented Yugantar Shukla, a student of CMS Lucknow. UPTU Watch | February 2010

brand increases consumer confidence and enhance the desirability of the offered products and services. A strong positive UP brand would give the necessary confidence, courage and selfrespect to every UPite to make it big on the national as well as international forefronts. A typical UPite refrains from identifying with his UP roots. He would rather dodge his identity to be accepted in the coterie of the suave, sophisticated and shrewd. The terms “UPwallah” or “Bhaiya” are largely used with contempt and satire. The way a nation's identity is important to keep up the confidence and morale of its citizens dealing on international platforms, a region's positive self-image is imperative for its citizenry on the national canvas. Building a pan-Indian UP brand can be a solution to the multifarious woes of Uttar Pradesh. A regional identity based on a profound understanding of its innate potential backed by performance would probably be the only solution to enable Uttar Pradesh to lead from the front.

An all-encompassing

branding exercise In order to build a strong Brand UP, a coherent, consistent and all pervasive branding exercise would be warranted for. Such a gigantic effort would require the positive participation of one and all. The politicians and their parties by retorting to competition in excellence and a watchdog of the actions and policies of ruling party. The ruling government and its various institutions to faithfully carry out the campaign as per its political mandate.

accessories and personal philosophies”. A strong and a clear

oing g On

Branding

Ef fo r

“Uttar Pradesh :2020, Disha va Dasha”

A brand is a name or trademark connected with a product or producer. Brands have become increasingly important components of culture and the economy, now being described as "cultural

Cover Story

The recently convened symposium by Dainik Hindustan is a welcome move. It converged a galaxy of people ranging from the political turf to the creative & intellectual ones. The opinions expressed were diverse and wide, but at least reinstilled a fresh hope that the intellectual and emotional under- current to reinvigorate UP is still present. There is still hope.

The current Uttar Pradesh government too has taken cognizance of the need and importance of a positive brand of Uttar Pradesh. The very day politicos and intellectuals were deliberating over the future vision of Uttar Pradesh at Lucknow, a team of about 15 senior state officials led by Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh were wooing the corporate worlds in Mumbai. The conclave titled ‘Invest UP’ was intended to showcase the ‘Brand UP’ before galaxy of industry captains and top investors.

Jamshedji Tata come up and take on The members of the media to critically review and objectively analyze & report the actions and results. The various civil society institutions and organizations to contribute ideas & suggestions and to implement smaller limited facets in their very own domains and jurisdictions. The business world to come over cynicism and contribute through their excellence in production and services. Last but not the least the academia by training and shaping world class excellent intellect. Almost everyone and anyone would have a say and contribution in this brand building exercise.

Can a politician from UP do what a Kuan Yew did for Singapore?

Lee

Can some official from the Government of Uttar Pradesh do what an Amitabh Kant did for India? Can a Big-B be able to transcend political confines and stand for the state of Uttar Pradesh and its 166 million population? Can a missionary Industrialist like

the mission of empowering the industrial development of Uttar Pradesh? Can an eminent Intellectual and Academic like

Gyanesh Kudaisya take up the

cause of Uttar Pradesh and keep on advocating its identity on the national forefront? The success of a wide based participatory

Branding Uttar Pradesh campaign something in tune with the “Incredible

India” campaign would certainly depend on the answers to the aforementioned questions. UPTU WATCH has taken up its call and has decided to roll out an

Unabated UPTU

campaign starting May 08, 2010 which also happens to be the 10th anniversary of t h e U tt a r P ra d e s h Te c h n i c a l University. UPTU Watch | February 2010

Cover Story 7.6% in foreign exchange earnings over 2000. Hotels in India had gone down to 25-30% occupancy, international tour operators had removed India from their sales brochures and inbound Indian tour operators had, on account of lack of business, switched to outbound operations. The common refrain was that there was no consumer demand in the key source markets of India.

The Remarkable Recovery “How do you bring a magnificently diverse country - with 28 states, 7 union territories, 18 official languages and 1.12 billion people - under 1 brand?"

In just 5 years Indian Tourism made a remarkable comeback. From the difficult days of 2002, to the International Tourismus Bourse (ITB) Berlin in March 2007, the world's largest travel and tourism show where India participated as a partner country, the transformation has been nothing less than that of a miracle. The campaign used the

entire city as a canvas, decorating it with large billboards, vibrant graphic art and 3D installations, with even taxis and buses being covered with advertisements. Signaling a new level of sophistication in India's branding strategy, the ITB campaign overwhelmed the international media and trade. The Indian Pavilion did unprecedented business and the Indian hotels were virtually sold out. In October

EXPERIENCE

He rejuvenated the Indian Identity globally through the famous Incredible India campaign which was initiated amidst a severe crisis of global and national terrorism.

India was down in the dumps - in the wake of the destruction of the World Trade Center, the war on Afghanistan and the attack on Indian Parliament - the 'Incredible India' campaign triggered a takeoff of Indian tourism.” - Amitabh Kant

The Magic Factor

THE

In a recently released book “Branding India, An Incredible Story” authored by the celebrity IAS officer Amitabh Kant the need, relevance and impact of such a branding exercise are vividly described. Being the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, he single handedly catapulted the entire positioning of India.

“Launched in 2002 when travel to

2007, Indian tourism, in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry ( C I I ) , o r g a n i ze d I n c r e d i b l e India@60 in New York. The event coincided with the United Nations General Assembly meeting and Brand India was unleashed in New York with all its 'incredible' colors, while the world sat up to welcome India in what was a dazzling display of its culture, tourism wealth and intellectual power. As Fortune magazine put it, “the bullishness of India's business Brahmans was in display in New York city… It presented the picture of a confident nation ready to engage with the world.'

What had changed so radically between 2002 and 2007? The lack of consumer demand in 2002 had revealed that Indian tourism lacked a meaningful identity in the global market place, which meant that there was an imperative need to position and brand India as an attractive destination. A strong and clear image could increase consumer confidence and enhance the desirability of its tourist products.

The Dismal State As a consequence of several disastrous events, one after the other the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, the war in Afghanistan, the attack on Parliament House in Delhi, the troop mobilization at the Indian border and travel advisories leading to withdrawal of schedules by airlines from India, the year 2002 had seen a decline of 6% in tourist arrivals and 3% in foreign exchange earnings in US$ terms as compared to 2001, which itself had witnessed a fall of 4.2 % in arrivals and UPTU Watch | February 2010

Cover Story

The

The brand UP can be created by a similar set of silent but very powerful segment of UPites. The budding techno-managers getting nurtured in over 600 colleges spread over 50 districts of the state have the potential to create a sustainable brand of UP. Majority of these colleges are affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Technical University which administers techno-managerial education to around 5 lakh students at any given point of time.

of UPTU UPTU needs a ‘brand’ course, says new V-C on 1st office day

The incumbent Vice-Chancellor of the University has already called upon that the university would identify one course, improve it and make it the ‘brand’ course of UPTU.

College Management

More than creating a ‘brand’ course of UPTU, Prof. Shanker would like to create the Brand UPTU the way Amitabh Kant went ahead in creating the Brand India from a tourism perspective. The Uttar Pradesh Technical University has been there for almost a decade by now. The techno-managers graduated from this university have acquired respectable positions all over. The need is to simply build on their accomplishments and create an all round environment of excellence whereby the entire University reverberates with innovation. A magnanimous infrastructure for technomanagerial education has come up in the state with a majestic private investment. The lucrative commercial side of technomanagerial education has already reaped considerable dividends to the investors. The need and emphasis should now be to augment the quality of techno-managerial education by enriching the intellectual capital and empowering the multi-faceted interface with industry, government, developmental agencies, other premiere educational institutions, polytechnics etc.

This emphasis on enhancing the quality of techno-managerial education in the state should become integrated to the larger vision of creating a strong UP brand. The prevalent practice on the part of premiere performing institutions to opt out of the UPTU fraternity and establish their independent identity is partly due to the rusted UP brand. Nevertheless, a collective brand building exercise if accentuated can reap more dividends than individualized efforts.

Prof. Kripa Shanker (Vice-Chancellor UPTU)

The Blue - Print A brand building exercise of such a mammoth scale would require much more than administrative injunctions on the part of UPTU officials. A pro-active involvement of all the stakeholders would be warranted for striking out this multi-level branding exercise.

UPTU Administration The UPTU administration is already trying hard to impress upon the need for quality improvement through a number of interventions like accreditations and innovations like the Excellence Award Model which makes a paradigm shift from inspection-driven, compliance-centric approach to that of excellence driven and holistic one with empowered and role model faculty who will look at education as a process of nation building rather than just making profits.

“The quality of students we get from UP Technical University (UPTU) is very poor. Almost 85 per cent of our students come through the university. Earlier, the qualifying percentage was 40 per cent, which has now been reduced to 25 per cent. Students who have failed in core subjects such as Maths and Physics get passed. It is very difficult to train such students. Besides, there is a severe crunch of quality faculty in the state. The government should take immediate steps for the university-level education.” The college management has the most vital role to play in the entire exercise of brand building through the improvement of educational standards. They have to take upon themselves the task of creating an enabling environment for educational excellence as this alone would ensure future profitability in times to come. A stage has already been reached when a large number of seats in engineering and management have remained vacant. The colleges have the economics and they have the requisite autonomy and free will to accentuate all this. The crores of rupees they spend every year to woo the students to their respective colleges can be strategically invested to created a unified UPTU brand which would attract students not only from the Indian heartland but from other parts as well.

Why pass the buck entirely on the University and the Government? UPTU Watch | February 2010

Cover Story

Faculty

Students

Faculty is the most important stakeholder in the entire process of imparting education. The UPTU regulators and the College Management are just the enablers for the entire process of teaching.

You need not be a rocket scientist to find the loop-holes in UPTU. All you need to be is an outsider, the course, the syllabi, the exams all structured to feed a mediocre mind now don't blame me if I face difficulties in coping this so-called “mediocre syllabi” Critical Observations like these cannot be done away with. They need their due redressal at appropriate platforms. However, it’s often quoted that IITs are IITs not just

because of IITs alone. IITs are IITs because of IITians. The same applies to the UPTUians as well. It’s after all the UPTUians who would retain this affiliation all through their careers. A positive favorable UPTU brand would supplant their chances everywhere. The students would therefore have to develop a positive mind-set towards their respective colleges and the concerned faculty members. It would be all the more striking for them that in the year 1996 there were a mere 12 engineering colleges in the entire state, the figure which has now risen to more than 250. Engineering education has in a way got accessible to one and all. Shishir Mittal B.Tech, IIT Bombay Founder, Insight - IITJEE Kota.

“Why is it that the parents always want their children to become a doctor, an engineer or a high-profile officer. They never expect; in fact, they never even dream of their son or daughter becoming a teacher!” Good education is Impossible without good Teachers and Teachers can’t become better until or unless they start valuing Teaching. The challenge of poor faculty quality can be addressed by the faculty members themselves. With the attractive pay scales and service conditions, teaching should no longer remain a profession out of compulsion but rather that of choice.

They say that it’s all in the mind. As soon as a positive constructive mind-set is dawned upon the students would be able to make the best use of the avenues available to them. The poem authored by one extremely talented UPTUian Ms. Priyanka Telang exhibits similar sentiments.

Priyanka Telang B.Tech, Hindustan College of Science and Technology, Mathura.

Teaching, although not regarded socially as a high profile job today in India, is not just one of the core but probably the core activity which decides the fate of an individual, a society and a nation. In order to ensure growth and development of human mind, body and society; in order to ensure the development of a healthy, powerful and a strong nation and in order to shape good, competent, satisfied and evolutionoriented individuals, good education is a prerequisite.

"Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility to restore and Regain the lost glory of Uttar Pradesh”

UNABATED UPTUians... UPTU Watch | February 2010

News

The VOICE of UPTU Fraternity fresh and true!

News

w w w. u p t u w a t c h . c o m

Free Copy with UPTU WATCH

I was given the responsibility of system design and system integration by integrating the team members. Also, I was responsible for aerodynamic and structural design of the project. The other five of my team took up the design of propulsion, control, guidance, avionics and instrumentation of the aircraft.

Excerpts from his speech on the 7th Convocation of UPTU delivered on 22nd December, 2009

“Technology is the foundation for the sustained development of the nation”. Te c h n o l o g y i s t h e n o n l i n e a r t o o l f o r accelerated economic growth A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

“What I will be remembered for?” Dear youth, as you come out of the University with basic knowledge in whatever field you have taken, be it Engineering, Technology, Architecture, Town Planning, Pharmacy, Management or whatever be your stage of your education – graduate, post-graduate or doctoral – let me assure you the country has plenty of opportunities.

Research Teaching Research Good teaching emanates from Research. The teachers' love for research and their experience in research are vital for the growth of the institution. Any University is judged by the level and extent of the research work it accomplishes. This sets in a regenerative cycle of excellence. Experience of research leads to quality teaching and quality teaching imparted to the young in turn enriches the research.

Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas The first is transforming India into a economically developed and societally inclusive nation. For that every one of you will get involve 7000 PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) connecting 600,000 village where 700 million people live.

Technology is the non-linear tool available to humanity, which can affect fundamental changes in the ground rules of economic competitiveness. Science is linked to technology through applications. Technology is linked to economy and environment through manufacture of knowledge products. Economy and environment are linked to technology, which promotes prosperity to the society. We have to use innovation to generate high value added products for becoming a global player. The foundation of academic research is creativity.

Energy Independence Another opportunity is that of climate change and global warming, due to excessive usage of fossil fuels, which is a challenge in front of our global society. We have to work for energy independence and every one of you should look at, how you can evolve such a mission using green sources like solar power, wind power, hydro power and bio fuel. Such a mission should also take into consideration the environmental sustainability of our nation and the world.

Engineering education has to lead system design, system integration and system management While I was studying aeronautical engineering in MIT, Chennai, (1954-57) during the third year of my course, I was assigned a project to design a low-level attack aircraft together with six other colleagues.

My design teacher Prof. Srinivasan, the then Director of MIT, was our guide. He reviewed the project and declared my work to be gloomy and disappointing. He didn't lend an ear to my difficulties in bringing together data base from multiple designers. I asked for a month's time to complete the task, since I had to get the inputs from five of my colleagues without which I cannot complete the system design. Prof. Srinivasan told me "Look, young man, today is Friday afternoon. I give you three days time. If by Monday morning I don't get the configuration design, your scholarship will be stopped." I had a jolt in my life, as scholarship was my lifeline, without which I cannot continue with my studies. There was no other way out but to finish the task. My team felt the need for working together round the clock. We didn't sleep that night, working on the drawing board skipping our dinner. On Saturday, I took just an hour's break. On Sunday morning, I was near completion, when I felt someone's presence in my laboratory. It was Prof. Srinivasan studying my progress. After looking at my work, he patted and hugged me affectionately. He had words of appreciation: "I knew I was putting you under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline. You have done great job in system design”. Through this review mechanism Prof Srinivasan, really injected the necessity of understanding the value of time by each team member and brought out engineering education has to lead system design, system integration and system management. I realized that if something is at stake, the human minds get ignited and the working capacity gets enhanced manifold. The message is that young in the organization, whatever is their specialization, be trained in system design, system integration and system management which will prepare them for competitiveness wherever they take-up work in developing new products, innovation and undertaking higher organizational responsibilities. UPTU Watch | February 2010

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 CHETICHAND

HOLI

Last days for examination form late fee submission @ Rs. 1000 per student

MARCH

Summer Training Begins

End Semester practical examination ends

JUNE

For - II, IV, VI, VIII & X Semester

End Semester practical examination begins

End Semester theory examination

Last date for submitting Session marks to University

BUDHHA PURNIMA

For - I, III, V, VII & IX Semester

APRIL

MAHAVIR JAYANTI

GOOD FRIDAY EASTER SATURDAY EASTER MONDAY

MAY

Planner as per academic session 2010

Last days for examination form and semester fee submission

CHELLUM

SANT RAVIDAS JAYANTI

FEBRUARY

the voice of UPTUians

JANUARY NEW YEAR'S DAY

MOHARRUM

Semester Practical Examination Begins

MAKAR SANKRANTI Semester Practical Examination Ends

Winter Vacation Starts

Winter Vacation Ends

REPUBLIC DAY

BASANT PANCHAMI

Get Associated Want to accomplish something meaningful beyond Want to get

your regular Academics

a taste of Professional Work before getting placed

Want to Hone your Technical, Managerial & Inter-Personal Skills to Industry Want to take-on a Challenge & Groom yourself Want to Get

Standards

Known and Networked

the voice of UPTUians

Represent Your Campus Applications Invited for : (IMG) Information Management Group, (KRG) Knowledge Resource Group, (NDG) Network Development Group, ( EMG) Event Management Group

For details log on to www.uptuwatch.com/campus-associate

Contact: 9540847051

Subscribe now and get a cool Table WATCH from UPTU WATCH Absolutely free!! world of opportunities

FREE

Media Excellence Table WATCH

Vision College

Jobs

management Relationship & entertainment

empower Career Growth

Please fill the subscription form in BLOCK LETTERS Tick

Term

No. of Issue

Cover Price

You Pay

1 Year

Rs. 120

Rs. 100

Number of Subscription Copies per year: (For Institutional and Group subscriptions)

Subscribe now and get a cool table WATCH from UPTU WATCH Absolutely free!! Name: Address: City:

State:

Pin code:

Tel (Off / Res.):

Mobile:

Email Id:

DOB:

/ 19

I am enclosing Cheque / DD No.

/ / 2010 Drawn on (specify bank) Dated: favoring Extra Edge Infomedia Pvt Ltd. and mail it to the address mentioned below.

M u l t i f a c e t e d i n t e r f a c e

Intellectual capital

DAY | TIME | ALARM

UPTU WATCH, JSSATE STEP, C -20 / 1, Sector 62, NOIDA â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 201301 For further details contact: 0120-2401516, 9540847051, 9540847061 or E-mail us at subscription@uptuwatch.com Please Note: Subscription price valued on cover price of Rs.10/-. Rates valid in India. The offer is for limited time period and therefore requests that gifts and prizes will not be entertained beyond the deadline. Please allow 2-3 weeks for us to process your subscription. Please place your name and address on the reverse of the cheque / DD. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi only. Conditions Apply.

I agree to the terms and conditions.

Signature

Employment Watch

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s in

GATE 2010 ? By Aditya Reddy, PGDM, IIM Kolkata Director, Gateforum

Salient Facts about Gate 2010 Organizing institute: IIT Guwahati Date of Results: 15th March, 2010

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), administered by the IITs and IISc, is the qualifying test for admission to ME, M.Tech and MS courses in India. There are 21 different papers (one for each stream) in GATE including engineering streams such as ECE, CSE, EE and pure sciences such as Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. For each of the streams, the syllabus is different and therefore the question paper is different as well. The syllabus for engineering streams includes four years of engineering syllabus and general aptitude.

Aptitude Questions in GATE 2010 GATE is an objective type test with multiple choice questions with total time duration of 3 hours. There are 65 questions for a total of 100 marks. There is a 33 % negative marking for every wrong answer. The question wise distribution is as follows Q. 1 to Q. 25 : One mark Technical Questions Q. 26 to Q. 55 : Two mark Technical Questions Q. 56 to Q. 60 : One mark Aptitude Questions Q. 61 to Q. 65 : Two mark Aptitude Questions The aptitude part of the syllabus in GATE has been added from GATE 2010. Till last year, the syllabus of GATE contained only technical aspects but from this year numerical and verbal aptitude questions have been added. In GATE 2010, there will be 10 aptitude questions carrying 15 marks out of total 100 marks. The verbal aptitude part includes questions on English grammar, sentence completion, verbal analogies, word groups, instructions, critical reasoning and verbal deduction. The numerical aptitude part includes questions on numerical computation, numerical estimation, numerical reasoning and data interpretation. It will be very important to prepare and do well in these aptitude questions because they can make a difference in qualifying GATE or not.

GATE 2010 Scores to be valid for 2 years

G AT E 2 0 0 9 C u t o f f s

Stream

No. of Students Appeared

Computer Science

Cut Off Qualification In General Category Marks (out of 100)

Percentile

AIR

42,383

86.88

5491

Electronic and Communication

42,943

85.55

6112

26.67

Electrical

21,056

94.39

1173

Mechanical

22,965

85.68

3291

Instrumental

5,557

98.93

Civil

8,534

85.75

1233

As can be seen from the above table, the percentile cutoff for qualifying GATE 2009 was a minimum of 85 for the six papers mentioned. The minimum marks required for qualification was 25 out of 100. In GATE 2010, it is expected that the minimum marks for qualification will be closer to 30 and the percentile cutoff will be almost 90 for most of the streams.

GATE 2010 is ONLINE For the first time two papers - Textile Engineering & Fibre Science and Mining Engineering will have a computer based online test. These tests will be conducted at the IIT and IISc campuses one week before the date of other papers i.e. on 7th February, 2010. This is the first time that any paper of GATE is being conducted as computer based test and given the fact the CAT is also going to be conducted as a computer based test this year, it could be that IITs are experimenting with the online test format. Based on the success of this idea, they could make all streams computer based test next year. Out of the 21 papers in GATE, the remaining 19 will be conducted in the paper based format.

a scarcity of software and other jobs for fresh engineering graduates. This is leading to more students applying for M.Tech and GATE. It is all the more attractive due to the Rs. 8000 per month stipend for all GATE qualified students during the masters program. Second, the validity of GATE score has been increased to two years, which means pre-final year students can also take up the exam. Third, lot of new engineering colleges have been set up in the last few years which means the number of engineering graduates passing out every year is always increasing.

Due to these factors, the number of applicants for GATE is likely to increase to 3 Lakhs in GATE 2010. In GATE 2009, there were 2 lakh candidates. This means there will be increased Over 3 lakh candidates likely to competition especially in the streams of Computer Science and Electronics and appear GATE 2010 Communication. First, due to the economic slowdown there is

Apart from adding aptitude questions in the syllabus, GATE 2010 has some other important changes. The GATE 2010 score will be valid for two years while the GATE 2009 score was valid only for one year. Due to the increase in validity to two years, third year engineering students can also take GATE and use the score obtained for applying for masters programs after one year.

Date of Exam: 14th February, 2010

AIR

IISc

IITs

NITs

University Colleges

Upto AIR 200

Upto AIR 500

Upto AIR 1500

Upto AIR 3000

For admission to any M.Tech, M.E. or M.S. program in India, the candidate needs to qualify in GATE first. The cutoff for admission to IITs and IISc Bangalore is in the range of 98 percentile. The exact cut off will depend on many factors such as the stream & specialization, the course (M.Tech / M.E. / M.S.), the institute and the admission procedure.

UPTU Watch | February 2010

Employment Watch

News from

India Inc. Employers lift freeze, start hiring Jobs are slowly returning. Employers have started coming out of their bunkers after a long hibernation and lifting the freeze on hiring. A recovery was visible in July and it became more pronounced during AugustSeptember. Ashok Reddy, MD of staffing firm Team Lease, says the rise in the stock market, the improvement in FII and FDI flows and the improvement in the monsoon situation have positively impacted sentiments in industry. Many employers are now back in touch with their third party headhunters.

HP, Cisco, Sapient, IBM, Convergys BPO and Symphony Services plan to hire in a big way. At BMS College of Engineering, Bangalore 100 of the 800-900 students, who will pass out in January 2010, have already got placed and they have been offered salaries ranging between Rs 3 lakh and Rs 4.5 lakh per annum. “I am confident that even in difficult situation, there will be over 50% placement,” BMS placement officer HS

There is also a slight improvement in the recruitment ad space. The active job position numbers in Team Lease t o o a r e indicative: the firm used to handle as m a ny a s 10,000 active jobs a month b e fo r e t h e market crash last year. By June this year, it had dropped to 800 non-active positions. But now again it is up at 3,500 active positions. Zubin Shroff, MD of Talent Management Group, says that a comparison of hiring figures for June and August done by his company on behalf of others shows a 200% increase. Tier I tech firms TCS, Infosys and Wipro, who had frozen hiring, have started hiring in small numbers. Hiring is also picking up among IBM, HP, Accenture and at Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Amazon. Hiring for the domestic market seems to be bouncing back faster than in other categories. BPOs are yet to get back to the hiring mode.

IT Biggies to hire from mid-tier college too Te chnology companies, which are recovering from the downturn hangover, are now knocking at the doors of not just premier engineering colleges but mid-tier ones as well. Officials from several colleges say that firms such as TCS, Wipro, Infosys,

because of their experience,” said Abdul Hameed SA, administrator at HKBK. RV College of Engineering director for placement NS Narahari says that they have sent invitations to 100 companies. Firms like HP and Informatica have already visited the campus, while Wipro and Infosys have promised to visit in January 2010. According to R Nalini, principal at AVC College of Engineering, TCS, Infosys and Wipro have informed them that they will visit their campus in January 2010 to recruit freshers from their batch of 500 students and it expects more than 50% placement. RVS Engineering College, which saw less hiring in 2009, expects better placements this time. “ The situation was so bad that even BPOs had stopped visiting the campus,” an official s a i d . H o w e v e r, students are aware of the weak dollar and the impact of the credit crisis, and are ready to get placed with salaries r a n g i n g between Rs 1.8 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.

“IT firms are hiring in large numbers, but you may not get the desired position or salary,” said a techie, who was waiting in a long queue for a job interview on Diwali day. GC Jayaprakash, principal consultant at Stanton Chase International, said firms have started expanding their operations in India over the past two quarters and there is a surge in outsourcing contracts. “These companies do not want to lose out any more business due to the non-availability of human resources,” he said. To make students industry-ready and save time on training, firms are collaborating with colleges and universities, to teach technical skills.“Some engineering colleges are even offering to send their students to onsite locations of various firms,” said Mr Jayaprakash. Jagadeesh said. He said NetApp, HP, Aricent, Goldman Sachs, Infosys, Wipro, MindTree, and public sector units like HAL and BEML are expected to hire from the college. HKBK College of Engineering, Bangalore expects companies, such as Infosys and Wipro, and a host of smaller companies to hire from its batch of 380 students. “IT companies now prefer to recruit final year students. However, there are many engineering students sitting on the bench and companies prefer to place them first,

HP Khincha, vice-chancellor of VTU, said: “To increase employability of the students, we are making efforts to bring the industry and academia together.” Engineering graduates who were unable to find jobs have started to opt for higher education and core subjects such as mechanical, electronic and civil engineering.

UPTU Watch | February 2010

Employment Watch

Assessment of Competence-Technology (NAC-Tech) - The Road to Employability Assessing present skills and enhancing ‘employability for engineering students’

NAC-Tech has been conceived as an industry standard assessment and certification program to ensure the transformation of a "trainable" workforce into an "employable" workforce, hence creating a robust and continuous pipeline of talent for the IT/Engineering Industry. It is targeted at final year and pre-final year students, who will be seeking employment opportunities in the IT sector. The intent behind assessing these students is to identify the level of talent which is available across India, especially in Tier II and Tier III cities and provide feedback to them on areas they need to work on to improve their employability.

About NAC – Tech The Indian IT industry is growing at a t re m e n d o u s p a c e . I n d i a ' s b i g ge st competitive advantage is the educated English-speaking talent pool, and hence it is also imperative that we have sustainable workforce development initiatives in place for the longer term. The industry, under the aegis of NASSCOM, is looking at ways and means to ensure that the future of this industry is even brighter. Proactive workforce development is becoming a major requirement for the Indian Engineering sector, specifically the IT. NASSCOM is following a multi-pronged a p p ro a c h to fa c i l i tate m a n p o we r development for the short and long term. It is aiming to build a base of IT manpower by targeting various apex bodies and campuses across the country, which will be certified, in tune with the needs of the industry and geared up for the future requirements of the sector. In this initiative, NASSCOM is looking at creating an Assessment and Certification program which becomes an industry standard and ensures the transformation of a "trainable" workforce into an "employable workforce. This program will be offered to all students who aspire to get into Technology / Engineering industry. A part of its focus on evolving such a certification program is to provide a credible assessment solution which is integrated into the existing engineering program framework. NASSCOM also wants to conduct a "pilot run" administered across

the country, run to calibrate the test so that it could be benchmarked against national and international expectations and requirements.

NAC-Tech - Benefits: Benefits for Students A common, transparent process across

companies in the IT/Engineering Sector. Ability to identify their strengths and areas of improvement and self-assess training needs.

For Colleges This assessment will help enable the colleges to generate a quantifiable picture of the knowledge and skill level of its students. Based on this feedback, it can approach various IT companies and companies in other verticals aggressively for placement opportunities.

Companies endorsing Nac Tech

Features of the diagnostic tests Diagnostic test will be distinct from Final Certification in terms of sections. Students interested in taking Diagnostic Test will be issued user id & password. Diagnostic Test will not be a proctored test. Diagnostic test will be conducted Online. Diagnostic test will consist of only PART A. Programming Fundamentals in PART A will not be administered to the interested engineering students of 1st year Students will get a feedback report after taking the test, which will be available for print on website

Stage 2-Training Institutions/Organizations will administer internally their Employment Enhancement Program/Finishing School.

Stage 3-Final Certification Test

and many more.

NAC-Tech - Program Flow Stage 1-Diagnostic Test Test takers will attempt diagnostic tests before a final test is administered. This has to be done 6 months before the Final certification test. The test will comprise questions from PART A only. A Training Input report will be generated after the end of the diagnostic test. This report can be used as feedback by the test taker to improve upon gap areas.

Candidates will be given user id & password for registration and print out of hall ticket through NASSCOM website. Upon registration candidates will be issued NAC-Tech id, which will have to be used to take the test. The Final Test will be taken by candidates in batches on dates that will be pre-scheduled by NASSCOM. Mode of administration will be either online or offline, depending on the infrastructure of the college. Final Score card will be issued to the students, which can be downloaded from NASSCOM website.

Stage 4-Facilitate Placement NASSCOM, via its member companies, will help facilitate the placement scenario.

Stage 5-Analysis Report NASSCOM, on request, will provide an analysis report (region wise and nation wide) on the cost basis to the concerned stakeholder. UPTU Watch | February 2010

Tech. Watch

Future Lies Here

In recent future, trained nanotechnology personnel will be in high demand for industrial research, professional teaching and scientific work. M.Tech degree holder in Nanotechnology can get an offer in Government sector also with high starting salary. There are immense opportunities for students to take-up higher studies in the field of Nanotechnology and Nanoscience both in India and overseas. Thus elementary and later in-depth exposure to Nanotechnology is utmost necessary for undergraduate and post-graduate students. India is all set to become a superpower with the advent of Nanotechnology R&D missions the Indian Government is planning and executing.

In his convocation address to the UPTU students, former president Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam made a significant reference ot the convergence of Technologies

Nanotechnology and Nanoscience is the future and kind of opportunities it possesses will revolutionize the way industry will work from 5-10 years from now. Nanotechnology is an enabling technology. It turns some long held principles of physics upside-down . We canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t apply the established rules of science to atoms and sub-atomic particles. They don't behave the same way. When we go to nano-sized dimensions matter acts differently. So, they really need a special treatment. Nanotechnology is no-more a scientific fiction. Customer can witness more than thousand products related to Nanotechnology and Nanoscience in market. There is exponential growth in number of consumer goods and high-end equipments influenced by Nanotechnology which are coming to market. Understanding of nanoparticles and their self-assembly and chemical properties has enabled the recipe for novel material such as carbon nanotubes, nanocomposite structures, nanoparticles etc. In their ongoing quest to improve existing products by creating smaller components and better performance materials, all at a lower cost, the number of companies that will manufacture â&#x20AC;&#x153;nanoproductsâ&#x20AC;? (by this definition) will grow very fast and soon make up the majority of all companies across many industries. Nanotechnology is not simply dedicated to one sole discipline. Scientists from all disciplines (Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Medical and computation) need to have exposure to Nanoscience development to keep up with the development in their own fields. Nanotechnology is converging technology, where all domains of science are interlinked. Take an example of Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, who got 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Venki (as he is known more commonly) got Nobel price in chemistry for his work which is mostly biology ("for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome"). He employed techniques which require immense knowledge of smart algorithms and computing ............(computer science background) and of course Nanotechnology.

...Requirement & Opportunity

Dr. Anish Priyadarshi B.Tech, IIT Kanpur; PhD NTU Singapore Co-Founder Carlsys Technologies, Singapore www.nanotechtraining.com

Master level program provides a strong foundation in the emerging areas of nanoengineering in preparation for the workforce or for further graduate study and research. Four key areas of research strengths have been identified: nanomaterials, nano-electronics design and fabrication, nano-instruments and devices, and nano-biosystems. For Undergraduate level (B.Tech or B.Sc.), Nanotechnology can be introduced in prefinal and final year. It will be helpful for students who are interested in doing further study or research work to take project in nanotechnology area.

The information technology and communication technology have already converged leading to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Information Technology combined with bio-technology has led to bio-informatics. Now, Nano-technology is knocking at our doors. It is the field of the future that will replace microelectronics and many fields with tremendous application potential in the areas of medicine, electronics and material science. When Nano technology and ICT meet, integrated silicon electronics, photonics are born and it can be said that material conver-gence will happen. With m a t e r i a l convergence and biotechnology linked, a new science called Intelligent Bioscience will be born which would lead to a disease free, happy and more intelligent human habitat with longevity and high human capabilities. Convergence of bio-nano-info technologies can lead to the development of nano robots that may results revolution in healthcare system. Nano robots when they are injected into a patient, my expert friends say, it will diagnose and deliver the treatment exclusively in the affected area and then the nano-robot gets digested as it is a DNA based product. Convergence of ICT, aerospace and Nano technologies will emerge and revolutionize the aerospace industry and electronics leading to nano computing systems. This technological convergence will enable building of cost effective, low weight, high payload and highly reliable aerospace systems, which can be used for inter-planetary transportation.

UPTU Watch | February 2010

Project Watch

Importance of

B.Tech for Placements The world has become a global village. The barriers of boundaries have been practically bulldozed for the transfer of information from any part of the world to any other part. Distances have also become irrelevant and the trade barriers are also being reduced or removed completely. Globalization of trade and economy are taking deep roots in most developing countries also. There is a requirement of quality human resources, which can respond to the emerging global environment. The knowledge workforce in particular has a vital role to play in the emergence of the global digital economy. There is a growing demand of BPOs (Business Process Outsourcing), KPOs (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) and ESOs (Engineering Services Outsourcing). Demand in the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors has also increased. IITs in India may be getting the cream as input and producing equally good engineers and technologists but as per a NASCOMM study, 75% of the engineers coming from other colleges are not employable. The demand for world-class quality professionals far exceeds the supply. The temporary lull in the recruitment market is not likely to continue for a long time. Indian Economy is likely to bounce back to plus 9% growth of GDP within next 2 years, There will be a growing need of technical manpower that will not only get absorbed by the domestic market but will also be welcomed globally.

Commander Veerendra K Jaitly is one of the very few IITians who chose to join the Indian Navy. He had an illustrious career of over 22 years in the Indian Navy when he sought premature retirement as a Commander. He proved his Veerendra K Jaitly leadership as the Founder Dean of Jaypee University of Information Technology, Distt Solan and put it on a strong footing. He worked as a Defense Consultant of Cisco Systems, the President of STG International Ltd and is a mentor, advisor and director of www.papam.in, a start up. Presently, he is the President of AstroWix, a pioneer in the field of Project Management training and consultancy. He has created a network of Project Management professionals through a monthly PM Insight lecture series. He is also the Chief Editor of â&#x20AC;&#x153;PM Xpressionsâ&#x20AC;? a monthly on Project Management. He had been a mentor for entrepreneurs at a session organized by TiE and PanIIT. He has been instrumental in the creation of PanIIT India as its Founder Board Member.

Industrial charge

A ny g o o d a c a d e m i c council of an institution can ensure following six academic essential inputs: Excellent Faculty, Motivated Students, Good Academic and Physical Infrastructure, Modern a n d U p - To - D ate C u r r i c u l a , Interactive Teaching /Learning Processes and Purposeful and Supportive Environment. The one thing that the institute can't do is the exposure of industrial live projects to its students. Institute also can't give the shop floor experience to its students despite having the best laboratories. The best of the faculty members in colleges normally lack the industrial experience.

Options For a Student to Develop their Project

NITEE

pre-final year. The students can start working on the industrial projects while still in college and may use the 6 month's industrial attachment period to further give final shape to their project. These projects should be relevant to the industry and based on the practical problems the unit is having or to improve upon the existing processes/methodology. Colleges can follow the concept of two guides for every project: One from the college and the other from the industry. Weekly/monthly progress meetings between the two guides and the team of students should be carried out. These could be through audio/video conferences which is very common these days in the industry. Minutes of these meetings should be recorded and progress should be monitored as we do in the industry. Colleges must encourage their students to use Project Management tools to Plan, Execute and Monitor their projects. All this will create a paradigm shift in which projects are handled at the college level and the industry level. A seriousness about the quality of the projects is a must to ensure that all the stakeholders namely the students, college and the industry gain. Only then the so called gap between the requirements of the industry and the output from the colleges can be reduced. Industry will not have to wait for a minimum of six months for these fresh graduates to become productive. They shall become employable from the Day One, the day they join industry. The way ahead is that engineering colleges and the industry should join hands. Organizations like CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and State level industrial bodies can play a great role in this direction. Engineering colleges should create a close liaison with their alumni and seek their help for these industrial projects. Senior alumni can play the role of industry mentors for the students who are still in college and take the responsibility of guiding them for their projects. So a multipronged approach will have to be taken to ensure that majority of the B.Tech projects do achieve what they are supposed to accomplish. A system like this will produce graduates who are confident when they leave the portals of their college/university and enter the harsh and unforgiving industrial environment.

Engineering Colleges

These inadequacies in the academic system result into the gap that exists between what the industry expects from the young professionals and what the colleges produce. The only way this gap can be reduced is by h av i n g a meaningful, long term partnership between the industry and the academic institutions. This will create an institutionalized mechanism for continuously reviewing and upgrading curricula also to remain abreast with new knowledge; technology and skills that are required by the industry and this will enable institutions to stay globally competitive. The Final Year B.Tech project should entirely be a responsibility of the industry and it should be directly related to a live actual industrial scenario. The guide for the project could be the prospective immediate boss of the student. The industry should tentatively select the B.Tech students for employment during the last two months of the

ideal passout for the industry

UPTU Watch | February 2010

Trend Watch

Soc al Media

The future of Techno-managerial Education IT Administrators all across the UPTU colleges are facing the grave problem of students' overload on social networking websites choking down their precious bandwidth. College administration takes the modern hobbies of orkutting and tweeting to be a waste of time, energy and resources. They try to redress the challenge by blocking these sites on college network. The students are even better. They find out their own ways by using proxy re-directors. This tug of war does no good to any camp. The authorities have immense power and they retort to coercive measures like blocking. The students in their adolescence turn into rebels and they take pride and pain in finding out way and means to flout the bans and blocks. Their creative resistance leads to frictions and tears the fabric of trust and mutual self-respect, much needed within a learning academic environment.

The Blame Game The administration harps about the uncanny in-disciplined attitude of students, their poor quality of school education and manners. The st u d ent s o n t h eir s id e b la m e t h e management for rationing each and every

component of academic expenditure, Engineer from a premiere institution, the bandwidth being a direct hit as a onetime diversity and rate of growth baffles me. It can therefore be well appreciated that the annual payment has to be given to the ISP. members of the management who belong to This unequivocal response of a senior generation would have a tough time students regarding the social media internalizing the power and potential of technologies leaves only one solution social media.

in front of the College Management, T h e f u t u r e o f e d u c a t i o n , “TO GET ENGAGED”. This engagement marketing and all walks of human

should however be broad based towards finding out ways and means to promote the responsible use of social media and minimizing its innocent abuse. Internet has revolutionized the human communities like never before and has given the power to grow individual networks faster than even the nuclear fission reaction.

life is being on the verge of a massive restructuring d ete r m i n e d s o l e l y by t h e phenomenal growth of Social Media powered by Internet

Mind Boggling Growth of Internet

There is only one choice

From the Dot Com Era to the Era of webbased Email Systems to E-Groups to Instant Messaging to Social Networking Technologies, the growth of the Web has been mind-boggling. I have seen and witnessed this stupendous growth closely since 1999, the year I entered into IIT. Even being a Computer Science

Either get Involved or be Left Behind

Christopher D. Sessums, an assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of Florida in a recent Twitter quiz posed the following question to his students :

In what ways are we at a tipping point with social media? Some of the sample answers from the students were: “Too much of our daily life is consumed by the internet (i.e. facebook, twitter...)” “It has consumed the lives of many kids so it seems that it should in some way we should incorporate it in the classroom” “The teachers are becoming less knowledgeable than the students with technology” “Social media has taken over the world...either you get involved or be left behind!” “Much of our lives are spent on the wire and most new information comes to us through the computer instead of through the TV or newspaper”

“We are at a point where students are becoming

more and more technologically savvy yet teachers are choosing not to incorporate it” “Students are starting to have the upper hand when it comes to new technologies. Teachers must adapt to this new realization.” “Social media is considered the center of primarily everything...google, twitter, facebook, and more” “Graduates are expected to take part in the global economy so schools need to take advantage of all possible technologies.” “We are at a tipping point because social media has the potential to dramatically alter the way we learn”

“cause to tilt”, a point of transformation

Admin.

students

UPTU Watch | February 2010

Trend Watch

News Feed Status Updates

Home

Profile

News & Views on Social Media in Education

Teaching the Facebook Generation

Dr. Elaine Young.

For Full Story Visit:

Inbox

Live Feed

Associate Professor of Marketing at Champlain College

http://www.businessweek.com/ bschools/content/nov2009/ bs2009115_016982.htm

Friends

Our goal as college professors is to open students' minds to new experiences so they can grow intellectually while they mature through the traditional four-year process. But we are also challenged to give students the immediate skills they will need once they graduate so that they can begin their professional careers and move away from the fry-o-later to the cubicle and beyond.

A Lot to Know Today, marketing students also need to know basic HTML, design software such as the Adobe Suite, how to run a Google adwords campaign, how to optimize a Web site for search engines, how to analyze Web analytics data, develop a keyword strategy, and manage e-mail marketing campaigns. A basic knowledge of how social media including sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Twitter can be used to leverage a marketing message isn't optional—it's a requirement.

A Leg Up for Students Why is all this important? Because the businesses that don't know how to respond to

and use social media are filling knowledge gaps in staff by hiring students with these skills fresh from college. In the lean organizations of 2009, students will not simply learn on the job; they will be asked to implement these tools strategically because no one else knows how.

Australia's Griffith University makes Twitter education part of the mandatory course load for journalism students. The University officials cited increasing demand from employers for new hires wellversed in social media, and Twitter's importance in global events like the Iran elections earlier this year.

If we can bring social media into existing curricula, our students will learn not only how but why they should be used within an overall communication strategy. Our mission hasn't changed, but we must bring these tools into the classroom and show our students how they are used in business today and will be used tomorrow. Professors need to lead students by example by knowing the mechanics of social media and showing our students how to use them strategically for the good of their employers.

Remember the Shashi Tharoor's Tweet on CATTLE CLASS Travel!

According to a senior lecturer at the University, “Some students' tweets are not as in depth as you might like. Too many tweets are mere pointless babble”. The solution? Make Twitter writing practice a compulsory part of the course curriculum for would-be journalists.

Twitter for Journalism UPTU Watch | February 2010

Fw :

ct:

Re Sub : je

http://

am Sp

Op Atta k ch Jun x ve Sa nt: Inbo @ www.

To :

Dr af t

.cenomDeleted

From : Send

C mmunicate

in the Internet Era

EMAIL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS ON INSTITUTIONAL DOMAIN NAME Ishvinder Singh B.Tech, BSA College of Engineering & Technology, Mathura ishvinder@bsacet.org

Recently, we sent e-mails to all the colleges associated with the UPTU seeking their expression of interest to participate in the upcoming Unabated UPTU campaign which would run through the calendar year 2010 commemorating the decadal anniversary of UPTU. Compiling the email ids of these colleges was a tough task. Ideally, the UPTU website would have carried the list of all email ids in a .CSV format and would have made it available for easier intercollege communication Nevertheless, to our utter astonishment, half of the mails bounced back. A bounced email is however a bounced opportunity. It also showcases the lack of seriousness and sincerity on the part of college management to interact with the external world.

<college-acronym>@<service-provider>

the receipt of your mails.

The third most important aspect is the absence of college's identity on internet (its domain name) in its email ids. Now when services like Microsoft Live@Edu and Google Apps are available for free for educational institutions, the colleges should take advantage of empowering their external as well as internal email communication systems. Comparison between The colleges can easily Microsoft Live@Edu and Google Apps configure their email ids on their domain names in t h e f o r m a t Microsoft Google Service <name/designation>@< Live@Edu Apps college domain name>.

Different colleges use different mail service providers and they have distinctly different internal communication protocols. For an outsider, it always remains a concern whether his communication has reached to the intended person or not. A very few colleges have the protocol to acknowledge

Mail inbox space

10 GB

7 GB

Online Storage Space

25 GB

Outlook Live

Google Calendar

Yes

(per user account to upload)

Calendar Alert Notification via mobile messaging

E-Mailers are being Desktop Sharing NA Yes with multiple people frequently used all across the corporate world to save time and cost of communication. It also brings in a lot of efficiency and ease. HR If the colleges adopt to such services, (which are being provided for free as well), the entire spectrum of Managers look for email lists to which they communications would get empowered phenomenally can shoot their requirements and post their and would be the first founding step towards bringing in recruitment schedules. excellence in the entire UPTU framework and adding to the identity of each individual college. The other annoying facet is the lack of digital identity in email communications. Almost all mail ids have the structure :

BSA College of Engineering & Technology, Mathura has championed the use of these services and has provided life-long email ids on its domain name to all its stakeholders â&#x20AC;&#x201C; management, faculty, students and alumni. For example I have been allotted the mail id: Ishvinder@bsacet.org. A full-fledged Information M a n a g e m e n t G ro u p (IMG) has been created to oversee the management and implementation of this r o b u s t e m a i l communication system.

UPTU Watch | February 2010