Vox Populi: Spring Edition, April'16

VOX POPULI Student Journalism Body of IIT Kanpur

Spring Edition: April 2016

www.voxiitk.com

Joint Counselling Algorithm

www.fb.com/voxpopuli.iitk

Senate Explained

page 4

GENERAL CHAMPIONSHIP

page 2

Highway Restaurant page 2

Shiksha Sopan

page 6

by Mayank Chauhan, Megha Agarwal, Pratyush Rai and Simrat Singh

Towards an Accessible Campus page 3

Food Wastage on Campus page 3

HC: A Reality Check page 4

The General Championship, fondly known as GC, is the highlight of the stay of manystudents at IIT Kanpur. Each year’s GC is unique but this time it was historic because of many reasons. From the introduction of the new pool, Veeras, to the Galaxy trophy almost slipping from the hands of Mauryans, this GC witnessed many landmark events.

Read on to find out the story of the whole championship.

TAKNEEK

Jorge Cham’s Interview page 6

The Fountaindead

page 8

Flipped Classrooms

page 7

event in terms of points. The case study competition, a part of Green Opus Phase I, brought the students face to face with some real life environmental problems. E­Cell held 5 events, namely Jugaad, Rapidea, Entrepreneurship quiz and Be a CEO.

Takneek, the inter hall Science and Technology championship was the first major event for the pools in pursuit of the General Championship. Although the freshers had already gotten a glimpse of the competitive fervour of the inter hall competitions in Freshers’ Inferno, this was the first time they saw the force of an entire pool working towards a common goal.

The beginning of this coveted championship was marked by the SnT Code, a night long event which saw the enthusiastic freshers and the experienced seniors working together to crack brain wracking puzzles. There were several filler events conducted by various clubs under SnT council which were preludes to the main events that were going ther the events ‘Block It’ and ‘Crypto’ were scrapped to be conducted in the coming four days. All the pools bat- following the issues raised by the pool captains before tled it out till the wee hours in the morning and after a the Student Grievance Redressal Committee (SGRC). close fight, Marathas won the SnT Code.

Veeras participated in 860 of 1300 points and hence The formal club events started from 3rd September and their points were extrapolated by 66.15% to declare the next four days saw the 5 pools contesting for 10 tro- the final results. They showed commendable perforphies in 45 events. This year Takneek included 8 new mances in Astrophotography and Marketing Villa.Out events including the flagship ‘Writer’s Digest’, a writing of the ten trophies up for grabs, Mauryans won four, event which comprised of science fiction blog writing. A followed by Rajputs who won three and Marathas and new category of design and maneuverability event ‘Tech- Mughals winning two and one respectively. The overall champions of Takneek were Marathas and Mauryans novate’ was also introduced. The latter brought a lot of were the runners up by a margin of 98 points. interesting subevents ­ Design­o­Flare, an event based on CAD designing, Rube Goldberg, Hover Rugby and Gearloose, in which students designed simple launch vehicles.

A new competition, Mélange was introduced under the The events were mostly conducted smoothly, barring a few Presidential Council which contributed 12% to the total issues like dimension tolerance of bots in ‘robotriks’. Furpoints in GC. The event started with a splendid night at OAT with the screening of the nostalgic movie Andaz Apna Apna and a wonderful New Year’s Party at the same venue. The newly formed wing of Community Welfare Cell, Unmukt, organised a film gala in association with FMC with a motive to spread awareness among campus junta about gender issues. Green Opus, the energy conservation competition, which used to be a standalone competition, was included in Mélange. It comprised three parts, Phase I, conducted from 6th October to 6th November, Case Study, and Phase II, from 1st to 31st January. Melange also consisted of events of Community Welfare Cell, E­Cell, Vivekananda Samiti and Gymkhana Library. Green Opus was conducted from 1st January to 29th February and was the biggest

MELANGE

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Finally a heritage quiz by Vivekananda Samiti and a couple of writing events were conducted by Gymkhana Library to bring the writing skills of the junta to the fore. A book barter was also organised which saw an amazing turnout from the reading enthusiasts of the campus.Capping all the great events was Envirathon, a mini marathon, organised to raise awareness for a greener and cleaner campus.

SPECTRUM

Spectrum, the inter hall Films and Media championship, held from 8th to 11th October, 2015, presented variety of events from the 7 major clubs of the Council. The Veeras participated in 430 points (72.8%) which were extrapolated to 590. Competitions were organised under the heads of Photography, Vox Populi, Film, Animation, Design, Student Film Society and Radio. There was a tough fight between Marathas and Mughals with a total score of 374.75 and 335.00 respectively, and Veeras gave Mauryans a run for their money with a score of 188.27 and 208.5 respectively. The spotlight of Spectrum was the exceptional performance by Marathas, securing clear wins in the events conducted by Photography Club, Radio club, Student Film Society and Vox Populi. Out of 28 events, Marathas stood first in 11 events and second in 11 events, clearly showing that they had come prepared and were determined to win.

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JEE Joint Counselling Algorithm: A Success Story

by Manuj Narang, Soumyadeep Datta and Trishank Singh Baghel

IIT JEE, probably the most coveted examination, brought us to this temple of knowledge. Fortunately, our part was limited only to the preparation for the D-day. All the remaining work was to be done by the concerned bodies, we just had to poke fun at the so-called “clumsiness” of the procedure involved. But only some paid heed to the fact that it was for the first time all the 15 lakh students were to be allocated seats at the same time.

The algorithm for the Joint Seat Allocation for the last year(2015) was actually developed by a Technical team comprising prof. Surender Baswana and professors from IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur and the herculean task of implementing it was done by two final year (then 4th year) CSE students, Utkarsh Patange and Ashok Kumar.

The main motive behind the introduction of the Joint Seat Allocation Procedure was to minimize the number of vacancies caused by independent counselling procedures conducted by the IITs and NITs/IIITs. Earlier, a student could have been assigned seats at an IIT and an NIT/IIIT simultaneously, so if he/she rejected one of the seats at the last moment, it would remain vacant. The Joint Counselling Procedure ensured that every student got just a single seat, whether in an IIT or an NIT/IIIT/ CFTI. Thus the problem of vacancies were significantly reduced- a great success.

The basic idea behind this implementation was the standard Stable Marriage Problem( the problem of finding a stable matching between two sets of elements given an ordering of preferences for each element) to ensure fair and optimal allocation of seats.The main challenges in the implementation were the issues of multiple merit lists for JEE Mains and Advanced, various Category Lists and numerous nuances of the Business Rules such as dereservation of category seats to general category students.

A Technical Committee comprising professors from IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras and Prof. Baswana from IIT Kanpur came with a algorithm, verified its correctness and gave it to a software firm, NIC, to do

the implementation part. However Prof. Baswana was doubtful if NIC could tackle the subtleties of optimisation and tricky issues such as Defense Services quota. He then floated this as a B.Tech. project, the criterion for selection being that the submitted code should work perfectly on 2014 IIT counselling data. What started out as a 4th year departmental project for Utkarsh and Ashok transformed into probably one of the most challenging and intriguing tasks they had done till date, so much that Utkarsh decided to drop his internship offer and stay back for the summers to complete the back-end code for the counselling procedure.

Prof. Baswana gleamed with joy when he said, “We ran two different codes on the same JEE 2015 counselling data and saw a 50% reduction in vacancies. 1890 students had been allotted a better programme through the Joint Counselling process!”

The IITK implementation turned out to be far better than the NIC implementation! The NIC implementation had an approximate run time of 4 hours on standard data sets, while the IITK implementation took just 40 minutes! Utkarsh, an IITK 4th year CSE student, outdid a trusted company of expert software engineers! Thus, finally the code was approved by the MHRD. Convincing the Joint Allocation Board(JAB), IIT Bombay(the organising IIT) and the Ministry of Human Resource Development officials was quite a difficult task too. There was a lot of skepticism and IIT Bombay, in fact, recommended trying this out the next year. Thus for the first time different validation data sets were prepared to verify the accuracy of the code. IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur and IIT Guwahati prepared these testing

modules and thus, it was ensured that the code adhered to all the business rules.

So how successful was the procedure in its aim? Prof.

Baswana gleamed with joy when he said, “We ran two different codes on the same JEE 2015 counselling data - the earlier independent counselling method and the present joint counselling method. We saw a 50% reduction in vacancies. 1890 students had been allotted a better programme through the Joint Counselling process!”.

This Joint Allocation has not only reduced the vacancy, has also motivated the undergraduate students to take on such projects.

One criticism of this procedure was the lack of a refundable withdrawal option. Thus, if a student accepted his/ her seat in an IIT/NIT after the first round of counselling and then decided in favour of a better offer in some other institution which was not a part of the Joint Counselling procedure, he/she would have to leave his/her seat with no refund and the seat would remain vacant. This led to a significant number of vacancies. A withdrawal option was proposed by the aforementioned Technical Committee(comprising Prof. Baswana and others) but it was not accepted. From 2016 onwards, this withdrawal option will be introduced and Prof. Baswana hopes this will further reduce the number of vacancies.

The magnitude of this achievement is easily lost in translation. What this managed to do, stripping it of all jargon is, solve the counselling problem for over 15 lakh people. Among talks that IITK research never affects the common man, this is an good example emphasizing the opposite.The algorithm is only going to get better by time as more research goes into it and will address issues that lakhs of students that have gone unaddressed over years.

Though JCA has been criticized by some and lauded by others, it can not be denied that it stands as one of IITK’s many success stories.

Definitely your way: The Highway Restaurant

by Naman Gupta, Pratyush Garg, Pratyush Rai , Rishabh Tamhane

It has quickly become the goto option for the campus junta. From fine dine to good ambience and a student‐ friendly atmosphere. It’s proximity to the campus reduces the headaches people get about going into the city. Situated just outside the campus gates, Highway Restaurant was a solution to this very problem. In fact, it was founded by Mr. Vaibhav Gautam, an alumnus of the institute. Mr. Gautam did his B‐Tech and M‐Tech in Chemical Engineering from IITK. During his stay, he felt that there was a marked lack of a good restaurant in and around the campus. The ones that were available were not up to the desired level and a whole group of people were leaving dissatisfied.

Having served as the Marketing Head for Antaragni in 2008, he knew some nuances of management. He decided to put them to use for the campus community by building Highway. “If the rest of Kanpur can have it.

Why not IITK which is the intellectual heart of the city?”.

Highway’s relationship with IITK runs even deeper. Their associated acts put up shacks and served hookahs back in 2007 when Antaragni was still held at Old SAC. In fact,

Highway was launched in Antaragni via a lounge titled “Food Sac”. They held performances throughout the four days and sponsored a mimicry artist, Jai Vijay, to perform. More recently they joined hands with the students to become the Official Hospitality Partner of Antaragni 15.

“

We want to run the restaurant according to you people. You tell us what you need and we will provide.

“

It is the year‐ending time and as always IITK junta trudges to restaurants for treats and celebrations. These are the special moments to be enjoyed and remembered for a long time. What is crucial though, is the location.

Good food and good atmosphere is much appreciated.

And such destinations usually require a long journey of almost 10 kms into the city. The mushrooming of various restaurants around the campus is a nod towards the huge market that is to be captured. But the one that has become the most popular, and by far, is Highway.

They have now reached a position of strength by gaining a place in the hearts of the campus junta. But it has not been plain sailing. Right from the very beginning. To build a restaurant away from the city requires effort in arranging for labour, technicians and raw materials. The time when students move out because of holidays causes the profits to go down. A restaurant of this calibre has fixed expenses and without their main client base, some losses are inevitable.

The clientele from the campus also makes it difficult for them to get other customers. And that whenever there is a clash of interest, “We prefer that the others go. We do not want to offend the professors by serving some junta hookah right next to them.” After all, their primary aim was to serve the campus. And he says that these meagre losses don’t really matter to him. They are an

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integral part of what he signed up for. In their tryst to serve the campus better, they adhere to strict norms.

They do not permit liquor and try their best to maintain the decorum of the place. Also, they have created a specific white themed non‐smoking zone where they don’t serve hookahs.

Being an alumni, Mr. Gautam empathizes with the campus students. He is now looking ahead towards an even better relationship with the campus community. Providing concessions to the campus junta was but a natural step. During his stay, he noticed a marked lack of options for students at night. OAT was perhaps the only refuge apart from the canteens. He is thinking of floating a survey and subsequently starting midnight restaurant services by delivering food at night for the students in the campus. “We want to run the restaurant according to you people. You tell us what you need and we will provide.”

Though they do not have any plans of opening at the OAT, occasionally, a food truck may venture inside the walls of the campus. They are in the process of setting up food trucks in Delhi, Lucknow and of course, Kanpur.

Also taking heed from this success, they are planning to open a chain of such restaurants near other educational institutes, e.g. IIT’s and IIM’s. This is evidently, just the beginning of the journey for Mr. Gautam and Mr. Aman Rajawat, his younger brother and manager. But whatever happens, Highway is here to stay and treat us with their delicacies, mocktails and hookahs for a long time.

(Wasted!) Food for Thought

by Harshit Bhalla and Pratyush Garg

Our campus being a residential facility provides students’ with messing facilities at highly subsidized rates.

There is no restriction in the quantity of food one can take and when such level of trust is put into someone, they’re expected to be sensible and sensitive. Nevertheless, seeing food wasted in our messes is surely not an uncommon sight.

Food wastage in IIT Kanpur messes can be broadly divided into two categories namely­ ‘Plate Wastage’ and ‘Counter Food Wastage’. Counter Food wastage refers to the food left untouched. Plate wastage is the food thrown away by us uneaten. It was reported by the mess secretaries, mess managers and workers that the ‘Counter Food Wastage’ is negligible and hence no record is maintained for the same. The real problem lies where it shouldn’t. The food that we waste from our plates. The data shows exorbitant amounts of food being thrown away by the students.

IITK can serve around 1.6 lakh meals to the more needy.

This is a problem. If 10-­15% of the food is wasted, there is a lot of room for improvement. And the fact that we waste over 1.5 lakh meals in a semester, emphasizes that we need solutions.

It is not as if the student community is unconcerned.

The mess secretaries of Hall 4 have started keeping food on individual tables citing the fact that students may be too lazy to refill and hence take too much the first time.

The mess secretaries of Hall 1 have put up a lot of post-

These measures will set the ball rolling but there is only one intelligible solution. We must individually strive to neither waste food nor let anyone waste. Ultimately it is a test of our sensitivity towards the issue.

It surely is unfair that we get to throw away food while one in every four Indian child is malnourished. We must learn to respect food as much as they do.

Belonging to a community which is considered to be the intellectual pillar of the nation, it is our responsibility to take this seriously. In many institutes of India, the mess system isn’t as liberal as it is here. There the students are given fixed quantities of food by the workers. We have been considered mature enough to be given the right to take our own portion. We must not misuse it.

Adjoining is the graph showing the data of food wastage by UG and PG halls for a particular period of time. At first glance, the data seems to not be that grave. But when we begin to talk in percentages, the underbelly of the full belly is exposed.

According to NCERT textbooks and the WHO, the average requirement of food in a day for an adult is around 510 grams. After doing some number crunching, it was found that if this is the food they do eat, then a UG hall resident wastes around 11% while a PG hall resident wastes 13% of food. One semester comprises of 120 days, if, hypothetically, we reduce this wastage to zero,

This would have an impact for the good. Also there’s a spike in the chart on 23rd January which may possibly be explained by it being a weekend close to a national holiday, when students usually go on treats. To reduce wastage due to wing treats, the mess secretary can be informed of the same. He can then convey the information to the mess workers.

ers on the wall of the messes to spread awareness about the issue.Also, there’s a proposal to have a mini­biogas plant at one of the hostels. Bio­gas generated from waste food can then be utilised in the mess of that hostel.

It would be a good practise to have updated whiteboards with the wastage of the day written in huge bold letters.

To climb the ladder, we must begin at the bottom. A little effort is all that is required.

Take only as much as you can eat. As there is no restriction on the number of times it is offered to us, it is advisable to take small portions. Encourage those around you to do the same. It would be a small task then to diminish this wastage to a harmless number. We can then hold our heads high and say, “I neither waste food nor let it be wasted.”

Moving towards an accessible IITK

by Ayushya Agarwal and Karandeep Sharma

India has forever been the proponent of providing equal opportunities to all its citizens and in order to put all classes of people on an equal footing, the concept of reservation was introduced. In accordance with this etho, The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995 received the assent of the President on 1st January, 1996 which reserved seats for people with disabilities in centrally funded establishments like IITs. But simply securing seats in coveted institutions does not suffice and it is equally necessary to ensure that these students do not become the victims of half measures. It is not only important to provide students with an opportunity to study at an elite educational institution but also to empower them to make the most of it.

This year, ramps have been built that provide easy access to the LHC, Library and DOSA office. The new toilets in the Library and Faculty Building are disabled friendly while those under the LHC are expected to be upgraded soon.These steps will make Library, LHC and the faculty building free of most of the barriers the differently abled students have been facing for years. The NCL building was the first building in the campus that was built keeping in mind the guidelines for a barrier free environment issued by the Central Public Works Department of the Ministry of Urban Affairs and Employment. New buildings coming up in the campus are also expected to be disabled friendly and according to the same guidelines.

The Rajeev Motwani building, new LHC (L18,19,20) and GHT also have these amenities.

ous other considerations such as being in suitable locations, having support rods and being adaptable for use by wheel­chair users.Apart from the residential areas, the list of buildings that still need a lot of infrastructural changes to be made more accessible includes New SAC, Computer Centre, Southern Labs and Core Labs. The classrooms also need to be equipped with tools and aids required by visually impaired students. Assistive technology devices do exist which help in making the slides or board work more legible. Differently abled students are allocated halls closest to the academic area so that their daily commute can be minimised and are permitted by the Institute to use two­wheelers.However no financial assistance is provided resulting in problems for those who are not able to afford the vehicles.

IIT Kanpur has 3% seats reserved in every category of UG students, viz, GEN, OBC­NCL,SC and ST for differently abled students (benefit is given to those who have at least 40% impairment irrespective of the type of disability i.e. locomotor, visual or dyslexic )

The Institute Works Department (IWD) said that it had been directed by the Institute to prepare a list of the measures that can be taken to remove the physical barriers in the campus. This list has been prepared and items are being crossed off as and when the IWD receives funds for the same from the institute.

The collaboration of the Institute with the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment can lead to the provision of aids to incoming students, released through the ministry’s various schemes.The institute can also collaborate with various social organizations working in this area.This process can be started before the orientation starts to ensure that the special needs of the students can be met from the first day itself.This could be a major relief for the students who face difficulty in walking but have to travel a lot within the institute during the orientation for completing official formalities.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted in the United Nations General Assembly on 13th December, 2006. India is one of the 160 signatory states and is herefore required to promote, protect, and ensure the full enjoyment of human rights by persons with disabilities and guarantee that they enjoy full equality under the law.

The administration of IIT Kanpur has started proactively taking up projects that promote universal accessibility to the facilities offered by the campus in recent years.

‘Accessibility’ here refers to the inclusive practice of removing barriers that prevent interaction with, or access to facilities and opportunities, by people with disabilities.

In spite of all these measures, there are still areas which lack this accessibility. The toilets in the hall are not constructed keeping all the norms and guidelines laid down

by CPWD in mind. A common misconception among the students is that western seats imply disabled friendly commodes. The western design is just a small step in this direction. Fully accessible toilets also include vari-

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Problems have been faced by differently abled students for a period of half a century in the institute and the recent efforts from the institute’s side are commendable.

We hope that soon all the infrastructural facilities offered

by IIT­Kanpur will be enjoyed by all and sundry. With all this said, it is also extremely important that apart from aiding their lives to overcome the physical barriers they have, we be sensitive enough to empathise with them and help them in all other ways possible. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Ailments of Health Centre: A Reality Check

by Rishabh Anand and Samanwita Samal

In the very first week of their stay on campus, students are issued a health booklet which allows them to avail the facilities of the Health Centre, an institution perceived to be the institute’s hospital in the student community. Health Centre is the official health facility for our residential campus but sadly the discontent towards HC is not, by any means, latent. Ask campus residents about their views on HC, and you’ll be in for whining and incessant criticism.

The complaints from students’ end include the likes of lack of thorough check­ups, cold demeanour, wrong ailment diagnosis, admitting students on trivial issues, wrong drug administration and referring to city hospitals as soon as things go a little out of hand. Also, instances of severe neglect by the staff have been reported in the past. But a major reason for the huge discontent towards HC is a misconception about what purpose it is supposed to serve!

Also, given that our campus is in Kanpur, which is a decent city in terms of health facilities, unlike institutes located in remote locations where the town/village has literally nothing to offer in terms of medical facilities, HC being just a primary­go­to institution makes sense.

And HC is not at all frugal in recommending cases to external well established hospitals like Regency, which if thought about, is ostensibly a good solution for the pickle in hand considering that the charges incurred in the process get reimbursed.

As odd as it may sound, not many know that our Health Centre is not a “hospital” and in fact, was never meant to

Another fact about HC is that it cannot have certain departments and specialists catering exclusively to them because that would be an utter wastage of resources. Consider this, HC sets up an ICU with all necessary equipments like a ventilator, IV lines and pumps, a monitoring system, a set of doctors ensuring round the clock presence and all this for what? Statistically speaking, for no more than 5 patients a year. Given fund crunches that the institute is facing, this extravagance cannot be afforded.

be one. The HC, so as to quote Dr. R.K. Jais (Ex­In charge, Health Centre), is a primary health facility that provides free of cost healthcare service to the campus community. It is aimed at giving prompt first aid to students, diagnose and treat them for minor maladies and do a limited number of pathological tests contrary to a hospital, which is a full­fledged, self­sufficient health facility.

With this being said, Dr. Mamta Vyas (Incharge, HC) asserts that HC’s facilities are “more than enough” for the kind of problems that they’re meant to tackle.Also, a large number of initiatives have been taken to improve the Health Centre in the recent past. Two round-theclock ambulances, automation of OPD services, sensitization/training program for HC staff, speciality clinics

are some of the many steps that have been taken to bring about improvement. Here are some of the other facilities our HC has to offer: Allopathy OPD; Homeopathy; Dental and Ophthalmology OPD; X­Ray facility; ECG; Pathology; Physiotherapy; 24 hour Ambulance and Emergency Services, skin speciality OPD and an orthodontist. In addition to the existing pharmacy at HC, an outsourced pharmacy dispensing the non­available reimbursable medicines has been operational on the HC premise since 1st September, 2014.

Also, a dedicated Women’s Healthcare Program is already in the pipeline.

Dr. Vyas urged students to actively participate in changing HC for the good instead of simply cribbing about it. Health Centre Users’ Committee (HCUC) has been formed for this very purpose. A student representative puts forth any concern raised by the student community in front of the HC administration in meetings that are held monthly and quick steps are taken to resolve it.

Considering all this, it is rational to say that HC seems sub­standard not for the want of functionalities or facili-

ties but for we expect more than it is supposed to offer.

It is meant to be primary health facility and is doing a decent job in being one. Of course, there are certain lacunae that need to be filled in, the ultrasound testing facility being one of them. Hopefully these will be brought to the table in the near future.

Senate Explained-FAQtually

by Simrat Singh

How is the Students’ Senate organised?

Who are the members of the Students’ Senate?

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General Championship’15-’16 INFERNO

Fresher’s Inferno, the inter hostel sports championship for the fresher batch, marked the start of General Championship, 2015 ­16. The aim of this event, as always, was to encourage participation of new students in sports and give them the exposure to the spirit of sporting in IIT Kanpur. Freshers’ inferno constituted 25 % of total points of Inferno and had 16 events including both card and board games and field sports. Even though some disputes arose during the award distribution ceremony of cricket and wall climbing, the event ended well with Mughals being the overall winners closely followed by Marathas and Mauryans.

This was just the start of inferno and the equations turned completely after the conduction of the main Inferno. It contributed 75% to Inferno as a whole. Veeras being first time participants, participated in five of the fifteen sports namely badminton, lawn tennis, table tennis, volleyball and squash. Mauryans, learnt from their

past mistakes and outperformed the Mughals, winning the inferno trophy. This contributed vital points to their tally and gave a boost to their GC campaign.

GALAXY

The various pools marched in unity as part of the Galaxy parade to mark the beginning of the most awaited event of the general championship, Galaxy. All the pools welcomed Veeras , the new contender for the galaxy trophy, but at the same time the Rajputs were missed who were barred from participation due to the disciplinary action taken by the Senate.

Winning the six day long championship , as always, was a matter of prestige for the Mauryans, the defending champions. It was also a chance for the Marathas to take their GC campaign closer to a successful finish. Further, the Veeras had to prove that in spite of their small work-

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force, their determination was enough to justify their contention for the trophy.

ghals who also pulled off a clean sweep. They also took the Dramatics, Fine Arts and Miscellaneous Events trophies. Veeras won the events of Mime, Dance Battle, Mughals started their campaign on a winning note by Live Sketching , Slam Jam and Parliamentary Debate. The coming first in galaxy parade and pool flag. The lead Mauryans, winning the Dance, ELS and DebSoc trophies, earned by Mughals continued till the last day and added continued their streak, winning their 8th galaxy in a row. the much needed element of thrill to the fierce battle.

The hard work put in by all the participants made sure This time galaxy saw the introduction of a new event­ this galaxy was an enjoyable as well as memorable one.

Mr/Ms Galaxy. This event was introduced to find students who showed excellence in all the genres of culaintaining a hall’s legacy is difficult, but creating it tural events like dance, dramatics, musicals, fine arts, from scratch, is really challenging. It requires lot of quizzing and literary jousting. The coveted title was won hard work and great leadership qualities to lead a hall by a member of Mauryans after a close fought battle. towards victory, especially when the rivals have a formidable history of victorious campaigns. Marathas did As the days were passing by, the Mughals continued to a splendid performance by facing all the challenges and lead the points tally and posed a serious threat to the giving an outstanding performance at all the events.

Mauryans’ legacy of consecutive galaxy wins. Some events were shrouded in controversy which created a The induction of Veeras as a pool was met with sceptilot of buzz during Galaxy. There were some allegations cism but their exceptional performance and dedication levelled on the judging of Dance Battle and Mime. They showed everybody that they had it in themselves to upwere sorted out by the SGRC and the results remained hold the competitive spirit of the GC. The enthusiasm invariant. shown by the entire pool was praiseworthy and their efforts were visible in all the events. A large part of the On the last day, Mauryans were adjudged first in East- excitement of this Galaxy can be attributed to the upsets ern Band which was upturned by the GRC in favour of Veeras pulled off in many events.

Mughals after an uproar by the Mughals who received a time penalty in Eastern Band. Even this could not stop The ban on Rajputs was certainly the most talked about the Mauryans from retaining their titles of Galaxy win- issue this Galaxy, even before the event commenced. It ners since they clinched Group Dance and other events was debated whether the freshmen of Hall 2, who were on the last day. not even present at the time of the incident, be subjected to this punishment. To show solidarity with Rajputs, Mughals, who had Mauryans on the ropes till the last Mughals initiated the returning of trophies during the day, came a close second with a margin of 130 points. Galaxy award ceremony which was shadowed by other This made this year’s galaxy one of the most competi- pools. It gave some much needed support to Rajputs tive ones, and the Mughals ensured that it was far from who were feeling left out of such a thrilling Galaxy. a one sided contest. Marathas too proved their mettle by clinching the trophies of Quiz and HSS which were a At the end of it all, some people raised issues about stronghold of Mauryans, proving themselves as a strong the conduction of some events. These issues were disside even though they had lesser experience. cussed in the Senate meeting on 7th April and though there were concerns raised about other events, the maThe musicals trophy , which was won by the Mauryans jor bone of contention was Melange. People were not in the previous galaxy , after a clean sweep, went to Mu- happy with the formula used in Green Opus and hence it was proposed that it should be scrapped. Since it constituted half of the total points of Melange and some other events could not be conducted, it was further suggested that Melange be discarded. Hall 10 residents were vehemently opposed to this proposal since it would take the GC away from them. The next day, a meeting of Hall presidents and representatives was called where it was decided that the score of each pool in Green Opus would be multiplied by the crunch factor and Academics would no longer be a part of the GC. Due to the complicated nature of the matter, the result of the GC has been postponed till a consensus can be reached among the stakeholders.

M

A Fresher’s Perspective

by Nikita Yadav

“The limit of an integral and the algorithm of duckie involve use of recursion which slides towards the x axis whenever an excited particle moves under the influence of b in acetyl salicylic acid, whose melting point is 136 degrees Celsius.” This made more sense before the midsems.

The first week post mid sem was nightmarish for many of us. But we recovered. Then they called us for morning PE, again. I’ll never be able to recover from that. And so the day begins. Every day is same as the day before and by the end of the week you are as clueless as you were when it started. It has been more than a semester since we came here all excited, only to find out that IITK is nothing but 1055 acres of heterogeneous madness.

‘Hugna’ doesn’t refer to your bowel movements. The domestic animals here, other than us, are civilized and cultured. This place bottles you up and pretends that

you are as free as one can be. After all, you spend your entire day within a radius of half a mile.

“Lord I’m one, lord I’m two, lord I’m three, Lord I’m four, Lord I’m five hundred miles away from home”. Literally.

I take no responsibility of myself so my freedom is not regulated. Sense of absolute freedom corrupts. But I’m sure consequences or time, whichever, will bring about a sense of accountability and we’ll be less careless.

Rumor mongering is not something that should interest brilliant minds. But it’s fun so we do it nevertheless.

We’re a small community with unlimited entertainment at our disposal and we gossip. There’s a theory, the Benjamin Franklin effect, that says our actions design our impressions and beliefs. For example, you don’t do nice things for people you like. You grow to like people once you start doing nice things for them.

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Your reactions now might be different from what they used to be to a similar stimulus, for various reasons.

We’re here and we want to impress. Your beliefs, as less in number as they may be, can be altered. Choices never mattered more. Your discretion might fail you. In four years’ time, you can either ruin yourself or you can get a PPO. There’s another way how this can end. You get out of here as you came, which I think is the worst way to go.

Dreams charred back, with hammer ringing overhead, for better prospects, Let this route be turned and tuned, to go past outbursts, perceptions, love And desperation, and with that, all those who stuck unlikely chords with me, Farewell.

The Merits of Procrastination- With Jorge Cham

Interviewed by Pratyush Garg and Preetham Paul Sunkari Roboticist and Cartoonist. These words don’t usually go together.

But we had the opportunity to chat with the one guy who has this very job description, Jorge Cham (creator, PhD Piled Higher and Deeper Comics). Dr. Cham got his PhD in robotics from Stanford University and also worked as Instructor at Caltech before deciding to focus fully on PhD Comics. These comics describe the life (or lack of it) in Academia and how students ‘survive’ grad school. Jorge was on campus to give a talk (titled­“The Power of Procrastination”) during Techkriti’16. Excerpts.

VOX POPULI: How was your experience here at IITK and what do you feel about Techkriti?

JORGE CHAM: Oh, fantastic! I mean, the festival was splendid and the fact that it is organized only by students is impressive. You guys take care of us. It must have been a great experience to organize it and bring all these fantastic people and events. So yeah! Very impressed with the attention to the detail. It’s amazing that it is driven by students who want this to happen and who want to celebrate technology.

VP: What were your experiences working in the field of robotics? And what advice do you want to give budding roboticists here at IITK? JC: I loved it. I loved working in robotics. I think that there is this very fundamental urge in humans to put life into things and inanimate objects. So robotics is about creating awesome things that are fun to watch and are useful. I had a great experience in robotics. What happened was that the comics became more popular than the project I was working on in robotics (laughs) so I decided to do that. But yeah, if I wasn’t doing cartoons, I would probably be still doing robotics.

VP: Were you passionate about robotics?

JC: Yes, very. Robotics has a really great potential to help in situations that are too dangerous for humans or tedious for humans.

VP: Your area of research was neural prosthetics. Is there any particular incident or experience that stirred you to take this particular field?

JC: Yes, I did cockroach robots for my PhD. So, for my postdoc I wanted to diversify, I knew that neuroscience was a very hot topic. One of the frontiers of science. So I became interested in ways that robotics could fit with neuroscience. So that was one of the various reasons.

VP: You were working in the field of robotics, what inspired you to become a cartoonist?

JC: I got my graduate degree in robotics and it was such an interesting experience to go from undergraduate to graduate school. To sign up with a professor, and figure out what you’re gonna research on and learning about these rules of academia and the PhD programme.t I just thought that it was a really interesting experience and there was a lot of humour in it. And a lot of times I saw people stressed out and thought that what was needed was a comic strip or something that captures that life.

VP: How did you find time to make these awesome comics while you were researching?

JC: Oh very easy! (laughs) You know, I would procrastinate on my research by drawing comics. And because they came out in the newspaper with a deadline, I would procrastinate on doing comics by doing research. So I stayed pretty productive.

VP: Is there any advice you would like to give to the students here who love to procrastinate? Is there any way to procrastinate right?

JC : Oh, I think that there is a way to procrastinate wrong.

Which is that you feel very guilty about it and end up not getting the relaxation that you need or the break from your normal work. Procrastinate, enjoy it and then you can get back to your work.

VP: Do you think that Piled Higher and Deeper has affected the way undergrads see grad school?

JC: I hope not ! (laughs) But I think that I hear from both things. I hear people say that “I read your comics and it made me not wanna go to grad school”. But I also hear, almost the same

amount, people who say that “I read your comics and it made me want to go to grad school.” It made it seem fun and it made it seem accessible or human or made it seem interesting. So, I think that it’s good that people can read the comics and get a sense of what they are getting into so that they can make a better decision.

VP: PhD comics has expanded into a huge franchise now, with books and movies and also the PhDTV. How were you able to do it? Taking it from the level of a college comic strip?

JC: Mostly just time. I mean, it started a long time ago and so over time it just kind of grew little by little. The biggest thing is to keep doing it and learn what you are doing right and what you were doing wrong. Just keep doing it and eventually things will grow.

VP: What are your future plans for PhD comics?

JC: Future plans! Well the second movie just came out.

And as for plans... I don’t have any! (laughs) I kind of make it up as I go along.

VP: Did you ever suffer from writer’s block? If so, what did you do about it?

JC: Yeah, everyday of my life. (laughs) In the beginning it helped that I had a deadline. So the best way to get something done that you find hard to do is promise somebody else that you will do it by a certain date and if you don’t fulfill it, you feel bad. So it’s helpful to have a deadline. Which I had because of the newspaper, so that just kept me doing it and then after a while you get used to it and get comfortable with not knowing what’s it gonna be and that eventually you gonna come up with something.

VP: Had you heard of IITK or Techkriti before?

JC: Yeah, I had heard of the IITs . They’re well known in the United States. Usually in graduate schools and all over America there are students from IITs getting their PhDs. They’re well known.

You can read PhD Comics for free at www.phdcomics. com and you can reach Jorge at jorge@phdcomics.com.

A Glimpse into Shiksha Sopan

by Soumyadeep Datta

L

ord Tennyson, in his poem “The Brook”, famously wrote, “Men will come and men will go, but I go on forever.”. Every year, the entrance exam machinery brings in fresh products like us into this institution. We come, we go but the institution goes on.

What’s strange is that, we hardly get to know about many aspects of the institution in all our years of stay!

We bring out such little­known aspects, one of which is definitely Shiksha Sopan.

Shiksha Sopan is a registered NGO (Non­governmental Organization) which seeks to bridge the gap between conventional education and the real needs of the students, with the motto ­ “अंधकार को क्योंt धिक्कारें, अच्छा है एक दीप जलाएं”. Its guiding philosophy can be summed in three words – Shiksha (Education), Sanskar (Values) and Swavalamban (Self sufficiency). Prof. Sameer Khandekar is the President, Prof. HC Verma is the Secretary and there are several other student volunteers, local volunteers and other enthusiastic individuals such as Mr. Anurag Pandey in the Science Cell contributing immensely to this noble cause.

It all began in 2001 when a group of about 20 fourth year students felt the need to provide a platform so that IITK students can face the harsh realities of the nation and shape up into responsible citizens. An evening school was set up in the premises of a school in Barasirohi (a village close to the IITK campus) that existed only on official registers but had essentially become

non­functional. It immediately got an encouraging response and started off with 60­70 students. Presently around 300 students are active beneficiaries of Shiksha Sopan, either as students of morning/evening schools or recipients of scholarships.

(

Many students at the Sopan school and evening centers aspire to study beyond class twelfth and do professional courses.

(

The Shiksha Sopan Anaupcharik Shikshan Kendra (SASK) in Barasirohi is presently a morning school (Principal­ Ms Seema Verma), having around 75 students. Shiksha Sopan takes care of all needs of the childrten, starting from providing bags, books, portable desks to even providing lunch! The students are extremely enthusiastic in academics, sports, co­curricular activities et al. The school premises double as an evening learning center which is primarily a tutorial to overcome the appalling shortcomings of government run institutions.

Teachers in both the morning school and the evening learning center are mostly NSS students, other student volunteers and local volunteers like Seema Ma’am herself. The evening center has a special focus on character development as well. Every class

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ends with singing “Vande Mataram” and a thought for the day!

The Pratibha Poshan Yojana Senior (PPYS) for students of class 8 is another fantastic initiative of Shiksha Sopan.

The test, conducted at around 40­50 centers, some even as far as 100 km from IITK, screens around 20­30 students from over 4500 candidates. They attend an annual 4­6 weeks long summer camp comprising lectures by IITK faculty and students; sessions and workshops by various Science and Technology clubs like Robotics Club, Electronics Club and Astronomy Club (planetarium shows). They also receive guidance for scholarship examinations like NTSE, KVPY, etc.

Many students at the Sopan school and evening centers aspire to study beyond class 12 and do professional courses such as B.Sc., B.B.A, M.C.A. and even B.Tech.

Shiksha Sopan’s Higher Education Cell provides financial help and loans to ensure that these bright talents don’t fade away. Assistances given are as high as Rs. 30,000 per year.

So how well are the beneficiaries faring in life? Exceedingly well one would say. Ragi, daughter of a Dosa Idli vendor, pursued her MCA from Gorakhpur University and presently works for WIPRO in Bengaluru. She received a total assistance of Rs. 1,20,000. Vikas, a resident of servant quarters of IITK, benefited from PPYS and cleared JEE. He is presently pursuing B.Tech at NIT continued on page 8...

Bringing Classrooms to your Rooms!

by Nishit Asnani

Introduction

Flipped Classroom is a novel teaching paradigm, where the traditional locations of the classwork and homework have been reversed. ‘Flipped’ here is used to emphasize that contrary to traditional coaching, information delivery and basic understanding are shifted outside the classroom, while content assimilation and further exploration are given a place inside the class. This was recently adopted in IIT Kanpur in the UG course on Probability and Statistics which was taught by DOAA, Prof. Neeraj Misra.

What exactly is a Flipped Classroom?

In the traditional way of teaching, the teacher is the centre for information dissemination, while the students try to incorporate new concepts on the fly, as the teacher is speaking. Homework assignments further help to strengthen those concepts, while activities, if held, promote inter-student interaction.

In the model of flipped classrooms, information is made available to the students in the form of video lectures prepared and posted by the instructor, to be used by the students whenever and wherever they wish to. Regular discussion or activity hours are held, wherein the students are expected to have a fair idea of the content of the lectures. These hours promote interactions on a larger scale, ideally leading to a better understanding of the concepts. The video lectures are generally kept short, but packed with content.

What led to the onset of Flipped classroom?

In the recent years, blended learning has been gaining momentum as a popular way of teaching in academic institutes. Harvard professor Eric Mazur played a significant role in the development of concepts influencing flipped teaching through the development of an instructional strategy which he called ‘peer instruction’

(source: Wikipedia). The method was made popular by Salman Khan, founder of Khan academy, who efficiently used videos to spread learning among the masses. His contributions have greatly inspired the rapid onset of flipped classroom in formal teaching.

First Hand Experience: MSO201

This semester, it was finally decided by the Academic Senate to try out the model for a MSO201. Lecture videos ranging from 10 to 25 minutes in duration were made available every week for the students to watch at their convenience, while one discussion hours and a tutorial facilitated the problem solving and concept strengthening aspects of the course. Lectures were taught via slides, and all the slides were available for the students as a reference.

There were many benefits that this new pedagogy generated but at the same time students felt that there were some shortcomings in the model.

Positives to take home:

1. The delivery of lectures as short videos has an underlying flexibility in terms of time, place and pace of consumption. This is a great help to students who find the course tougher to grasp, or who have problems in comprehending content delivered in English, as they can pause, reflect, internalise and then resume.

2. Videos shift the prerogative to the students who have to decide a time and place for watching them. This makes the students more responsible, as they actively take part in deciding the mode of learning, rather than just being passive listeners during classroom lectures.

3. Forums turned out to be a highly effective means of doubt clearance. People who have watched a lecture earlier are usually ready to provide answers to queries

Senate Explained FAQtually Q. How can I make my voice heard in the Senate?

Ans. The Senators of each batch are the link between the Students’ Senate and the general body. They are required to present the opinion of their electorate on the floor of the Senate. Students can also contact the Senators of their batch to table an agenda in a Senate meeting. The students can also send the agenda directly to the Chairperson and have him include it in the list of agendas for the meeting. And lastly, the doors of the Senate are always open to the members of the General body.

Q. When and how can I become a part of the Senate?

Ans. The senators are elected from their respective batches during the General Elections and the Mid Term elections. Senators elected through general election have a one year­term while those elected in the by­ elections have a term from September to March. Senators for the incoming batches of various programmes are elected in the by­elections which are conducted approximately a month after the first semester starts. All Undergraduate, Post Graduate and PhD students elect one senator for every 150 students of their batch. The Chairperson, through a call for nominations to the junta, appoints Seretary(s) who assist him in carrying out his functions.

Recently, a new policy was adopted by the senate which allowed any general body member to stand for the elected posts of the Senate e.g. Chairperson, Finance Convener, etc. To ensure that the student has a bare minimum support from the elected representatives, he has to be proposed by one and seconded by two senators to be able to stand for elections within the senate. Through a call for nomination to the general body, the Chairperson nominates Secretary(s) under the Office of Students’ Senate, the number and responsibilities of whom may

of other students. This provides a common room for discussion among the large number of students who are taking the course.

What didn’t work out that well:

1. True to the ‘cliche’, ‘with great freedom comes great responsibility’ the enormous flexibility provided to the students, also leads to mishandling of that freedom due to procrastination, and many students end up binge­ watching the lecture videos a night before the exams.

The assurance of their availability at all times breeds laziness and lack of incentive, which ends up affecting the performance of students, who might otherwise have been regular with the content due to daily lectures.

2. This also leads to fewer students attending the discussion hour and the tutorial. Only a few students are up to date with all the videos and the rest feel that any discussion is pointless if they have little clarity over the concepts. This defeats the purpose of the other side of the flip, wherein the classroom is the place for interactive learning.

3. The flipped classroom methodology reduces the direct contact hours of the students with the instructor, taking away a vital human interaction component, especially for those who are not very regular for classes.

The way ahead:

Whether people like it or not, flipped classrooms are here to stay. They are definitely more suited for certain courses than the traditional classrooms, and leverage technology for effective teaching. If a few bottlenecks can be promptly addressed, courses following the flipped way can run as smoothly as the other courses, if not better. Flipped classrooms have already created a buzz in the campus. The flipped way might just be the way ahead.

...continued from page 4

be ascertained by the Senate from time to time based on the recommendation of the Chairperson, Students’ Senate. The name(s) of the person(s) for the post(s) shall be proposed by the Chairperson to the Senate for ratification.

Q. How do I know if my representative is doing his job?

Can he be penalised if he is not?

Ans. The students senate is required to meet at least once in a month. The Chairperson, before each such meeting circulates the agenda to the members of the senate and the general body. Half of the total members of the students senate constitute the quorum, which is the technical term for the minimum attendance for the Chairperson to call a meeting to order. If a senate member is unable to attend, he or she should communicate their reason to the Chairperson before hand. If a senator is absent without permission for 3 or more meetings during his entire tenure, he/she shall cease to be a Senator. Further, if the senator misses 5 or more meetings (with/without permission), he/she shall cease to be a Senator. If you want to keep a tab on the dedication of your representative before he/she ends up facing these dire consequences, you can check the attendance records on the Senate website.

Q. What if I want to attend a meeting?

Ans. Normally the senate holds open door sessions, i.e., open to general body members. But through a simple majority, the senate may resolve to convert it to a closed door meeting. General body members must obey certain rules otherwise they may be asked to leave. Members of the general body must address the Chairperson of the senate during the course of discussion and take the Chairperson’s permission before expressing a viewpoint.

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Q. If I do not want to attend, do I still get to know what goes on in those Hallowed Chambers?

Ans. The Chairperson, with the help of the Steering Committee is responsible for the maintenance of minutes, which are the records of the proceedings of the sessions of the senate. After the completion of a session, the minutes must be circulated amongst the entire general body. Without this step, further sessions of senate can be adjourned on the demand of even a single senate member. This is necessary to maintain transparency on the proceedings of the senate.

Q. How can I set up my own hobby group or club? How are these two different?

Ans. Technically speaking, a hobby group consists of 10 or more people interested in a common activity. First, they need to receive the consent of the General Secretary of the Council in which they believe the Hobby Group belongs. Subsequently, the General Secretary proposes the formation of the group in the Senate where it is finally decided whether it will come into existence or not. Hobby groups that see healthy participation from the junta and are excelling in their activities they conduct can be promoted to a Club. So, essentially every club has to start as a Hobby group first.

We hope that knowledge about the body will help in creating awareness and respect for it among everybody.

Senate is the symbol of democratic values upheld by the students of IIT Kanpur and the means through which students deliberate on issues affecting them. Senate in it’s current form is the manifestation of years of cultural evolution and represents a proud tradition and heritage of the students of IIT Kanpur and we hope that it will continue to do so.

The Fountaindead

by Harshit Bhalla and Rishabh Anand

The above photograph of the P.K. Kelkar Library has been the defining photograph of IIT Kanpur for years, the ubiquity of the picture on the web being one of the reasons. But starting 2012, the list of disappointments for incoming batches has been featuring the “Fountaindead”: the fountain against the library that works no more. The fountain was constructed in the year 1963 and the photograph of the fountain against P.K. Kelkar library has since been the primary visual identity of our campus. But the fountain had to be discontinued 4 years back and has since been dysfunctional.

Not many are aware of the fact that other than the usual aesthetic purpose of a fountain, it was an ingenious contraption.

The fountain constituted an integral part of the air conditioning system of the PKK library.The actual central air conditioning at IIT-K involved two such cycles – one involving refrigerant and the other involving water. The fountain did the job of a condenser in the refrigeration cycle routing water. The water gushing out of the nozzles increased the surface area of water and this resulted in a temperature drop of about 5 to 7 degrees in water. The air conditioning system was upgraded and consequently the fountain was shut down. This revelation also puts to rest several rumours that have been afloat on the campus about the dead fountain. The reasons cited are hilarious and range from displaying the lack of funds of IIT-K to the government to a symbolic rebellion against the US (as the fountain allegedly resembles a bald eagle). Dr Nitin Saxena, associate professor in the department of computer science and engineering shared with us his experience of the years when he was an undergraduate student of CSE department at IIT Kanpur. He states that the PK Kelkar library was a central location and the fountain held a pivotal position back when he was a student here. He feels the absence of fountain and is hopeful to see it again. Today, we only see a pit, weeds and the rusted remains of fountain which marked the glory of IIT Kanpur for nearly half a century. The fountain is only used by the graduating batch to click photographs for memories. Proposals to renovate the fountain spot have been mooted by IWD but financial constraints are acting as a barrier to any development in this regard. The recent cut of funds by MHRD may further delay the renovation. Considering the current situation it seems that the erstwhile spurts of the Adam’s ale that used to adorn our iconic library once, might not be seen in the near future.

“Is it true that you feel very strongly about the eviction of ‘neel gais’?”

“I feel strongly about a lot of things on campus and eviction of ‘neel gais’ is one of them. I strictly believe that they shouldn’t be evicted. Instead, UGs should be evicted.”

“Why do you feel so?”

“UGs these days lack focus. I taught a course wherein the mid-sem was an open notes exam and had a question worth 35 marks. The question was there in the class notes itself and guess what, the average was below 35!”

#voxwalks

#voxreacts Veeras Pool formation Ramps built in Academic Area Lecture Hall 18 & 19 Inter IIT sports meet2015 cancelled Pre-registration period

A Glimpse into Shiksha Sopan ...continued from page 6 Hamirpur, starting from 2012. Ritosh, a student of evening center from the 10th standard, got selected as SSR in the Indian Navy and is presently posted at Goa.

videos of lectures and experimental demonstrations etc. ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ With such elaborate plans in place, Shiksha Sopan is in serious need of funds.

Donations can be in cash (Indian rupees and/or foreign currency) or even kind!

For further details, visit http://www.shiksha-sopan.org/contribution.php

Shiksha Sopan is headed for a future ever brighter. Prof. HC Verma informs us that Shiksha Sopan is presently working on content creation to bring innovations in pedagogy at school level. A center is being set up at Nankari (another village close to the IITK campus) dedicated for this cause. Content that will be created include handbooks for teachers, planned workshops and presentations,

Route your valuable feedback and queries regarding this print edition to voxiitk@gmail.com 8

Chief Editors:

Karandeep Sharma Rishabh Anand Editors: Naman Kumar Gupta Simrat Singh Design Lead: Debangana Roy Special Thanks: BPST Manuj Narang Samarth Bansal