THE

BITS

HERALD
SUMMER ISSUE

A different face of the shore

Editorial
Choosing a college for your undergrad studies is bizarre. You get to see only what the college wants you to see, hear about the college from others, talk to students or alumni from that college, and you take a blind leap of faith, hoping that itll end well. It oddly reminds of the Indian arranged marriage philosophy. So all worldly advices from envious aunts and other distant relatives (appearing once in a lifetime) on college boils down to the million dollar question- What draws a line between a great college and a mediocre one? From the answers we got, there are plentiful. It would be imprudent for anyone to judge a college solely by its placements or course structure today as overall development attains the centre stage over theoretical charm required in any student earlier. level of healthy scepticism. It should have a good balanced course structure, never putting too much pressure on the student, and never putting too less. It should be supportive of the students need for extra-curricular activities, giving him plenty of time and resources at hand to pursue his passions, both academic and non-academic. There are very few sources from which you get a fair idea of a college and the sphere of activities that surround it. So we, a bunch of students from BITS Goa came out with this issue to give you an unbiased opinion about our college and for you to make a genuine and informed choice. In this issue, we will elaborate on the course structure, the famous dual degree program, campus life and some noteworthy student projects of our college. In a nutshell, we have tried to cover all common queries, for those which weve missed, you could use Facebook groups and of course BITS360. Were sure that well get a great crop of fresh faces this year as students. We just hope you come in too! BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus had its humble beginnings in 2004, as the third campus of BITS Pilani University. The campus was renamed to commemorate Late Dr. K. K. Birla in 2010. It must have drawn out a large number of gasps and questions because of the word Goa in the name, but it surely has proved to be a respectable and disciplined institution. It has attracted and nurtured sincere students in the past and continues to do so in the present with state of art amenities for them to chase their dreams, both A good college is a one which instills academic and non-academic. curiosity in a student coupled with a

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Programmes Offered
IN GOA CAMPUS
BITS Pilani as a university has for long been known for academic excellence. BITS Pilanis undergraduate curriculum offers core engineering and science courses allowing specialization at a more mature stage. The first year of every undergrad Bitsian is spent acquiring general information about the various sciences and engineering fields. The remaining years (three for single degree students and four for dual degree students), indulge the students in discipline subjective study (both compulsory and course electives) along with certain compulsory humanities courses. Goa Campus offers most of the core engineering branches. Chemical engineering is an extensive branch, with many laboratory courses giving students a hands-on experience. Computer Science and Information Systems are two computer oriented branches with almost no difference. Like elsewhere in India, both these disciplines have great future prospects and placements. Computer Science manages to be the most desired branch at BITS. Electrical and Electronics and Electronics and Instrumentation are two core engineering branches with an extremely bright future and nearly the same curriculum with equivalent placements. Mechanical engineering, the branch for physical world enthusiasts, is an extremely fun to learn branch. Due to the diversity of the subject, a Masters degree is often required to work extensively in the discipline. BITS Pilani has since long understood the importance that science plays in the world of engineering. Hence, M.Sc. courses are offered to undergrad students which they can later combine with an engineering discipline based on their on-campus performance. The five science disciplines offered are Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Economics, Mathematics and Physics. Each branch goes into the depths of the respective science, helping students better connect the worlds of application and research. CS, IS, EEE and EnI are the disciplines that majorly employ students in their branch of study. Many students from other disciplines comfortably pick up skills in these subjects thereby finding jobs in the same. BITS alumni when asked for their views on BITS products said that BITS produces the best Techno-managers in the world with the environment offered instilling qualities of leadership and responsibility.

s ie it il ib x e l F ic m e d Aca
A lot of engineering aspirants find themselves distressed over the possibility of a hike in cutoffs, or how a bad day led to a score lower than anticipated. Their concerns are justified as they stem from the anxiety of whether or not they will make the cut for their desired branch. That is where horizontal and vertical transfers come into picture. While they are enticing and extremely beneficial for those who choose to avail it, understanding how it works is equally imperative to make the most out of it. Also, for those who wish to continue to delve deeper into sciences after high school meanwhile not giving up their obvious wishes as engineering aspirants, the Dual Degree academic flexibility comes into play.

So, on the whole, what are the types of duals and transfers offered at BITS?
To put it simply, all the possible combinations of B.E. and M.Sc. degrees. Let us break it down Dual Degree Combinations1) MSc. + B.E. 2) MSc. + MSc. 3) B.E. + MSc. 4) B.E. + B.E. Vertical Transfers1) MSc. --> B.E. 2) MSc. --> MSc. 3) B.E --> B.E. 4) B.E. --> MSc.

M.Sc.

Well first of all, BITS is the only institute in our country that has such a flexible academic system which gives us a chance to pursue both Science and Engineering together. We can get a taste of what both offer, and then make an The integrated nature of the MSc. and Engineering informed choice to finalize our career stream later. Also, programmes with their analytical and engineering it equips us with a broader knowledge scope which is science contents gives students an added professional what universities and industries abroad are looking for character and equips them with the skills and problem nowadays, says Vishakha Gupta a 2011 batch student solving abilities to participate usefully in industrial jobs. pursuing Physics and EEE (Electrical and Electronics). A student admitted with a MSc. degree is assured of an engineering degree unless their C.G.P.A. is below 4 (roughly) or they themselves wish to continue with only The expanse of opportunities for Dualites is no lesser their science degree (Yes, we have quite a few passionate than that of a single-degree student and on the contrary students doing that). The branch allotment is done as many a times its even more. Dual degrees provide per a fair competition among all dualites based on the incessant opportunities to learn from a wide spectrum C.G.P.A. obtained at the end of their first year. of courses and help to expand our knowledge base in the 4 \ SUMMER ISSUE \ BITS HERALD \ BITS PILANI K K BIRLA GOA CAMPUS

While the administration does not explicitly release cut-offs, for the 2011 Batch the cut-offs were roughly as listed on the left.

mutually dependent fields of Science and Engineering. For instance, those interested in research earn themselves a huge advantage in upcoming disciplines such as Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, a degree in Biology along with Computer Science will only be an added advantage and fields such as solid-state Physics require a good understanding of both Physics and EEE. While you might have heard that certain dual combinations such as Math + Computer Science are better than others, there is no criteria better than your interest which can help you decide your choice of dual.

to help those who avail them.

Humanities
The study of humanities helps an engineer understand the impact that science and technology has had on the society and what the society expects from science in the future. Acknowledging this very need, Bits Pilani has introduced the concept of humanities electives in the curriculum. Electives such as Introductory Psychology, Development Economics, Modern Political Concepts, Contemporary India, Public Administration and Professional ethics help students fulfil their civic and cultural responsibilities. While introducing students to great minds and venerable personalities outside science and technology, electives such as literary criticism offer them a window of understanding of human nature and society. Therefore, their study makes them more imaginative and ethically responsible. It is evident that knowledge needs constant updating or else it risks obsoleteness and communication is the most effective tool to avoid such a state of oblivion. Humanities through its facets represented by courses such as Effective Public speaking, Aesthetics and Technology, Applied Communication and Technical Report writing strengthen the communication skills of any individual thereby supporting his ever-present curiosity to learn, innovate and work in teams.

Vertical Transfers
Vertical and horizontal transfers provides the unique chance to pursue a course that a student is passionate about rather than being forced to settle with a course that doesnt intrigue him/her. Nasrin Jaleel, a 2011 batch student was admitted with a degree in Chemical Engineering took a transfer to Computer Science as she knew that coding was her true calling. Kushagra Nigam had been admitted to EEE, but he made an unconventional choice of opting for a Physics degree at the end of his first year. Those who want to pursue higher studies in prestigious Universities such as MIT ought to know that the multidisciplinary work there requires the analytical skills of an engineer along with clarity of concepts found in Science student, says Kushagra. Such transfers epitomize and therefore require academic excellence for one to avail them. The academic flexibilities that BITS offers have proved to be a boon for a generation of BITSians and will continue

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Placement Scenario
It is encouraging to know that since its establishment a decade ago, Goa campus has built its strong alumninetwork in the corporate world and has created its own brand value among the top-notch recruiters. The academic year 2012-2013 saw 93 distinct companies visit the campus. With a dedicated Placement Unit, we had a great placement season with recruiters from IT, Telecom, Electronics, Manufacturing, Business Analytics and Consulting sector. Google, D.E. Shaw and Amazon were the top recruiters in the CS/IS Department. EEE and EnI saw recruitments being done by NVidia, Qualcomm and CISCO to name a few. Tata Motors, SKF, FIAT and Honda two-wheelers picked up students from the Mechanical department and companies hiring Chemical engineering students included Shell and Samsung Heavy Industries. BITS curriculum also gives you an edge over other university students in the field of Consultancy, Analytics, Banking and Finance with firms such as Deloitte, TCS Analytics, Morgan Stanley and ZS Associates coming on campus for recruitments. Sandeep Murisetty, the Placement team Co-ordinator for the Academic year 20122013 was pleased to say, So far the Placement Scenario of the Goa Campus has been progressive and especially this year, it has taken a positive leap despite the downturn in the job market. He also appraised that a few top-recruiters such as JP Morgan Investment Banking, Qualcomm, Cisco, Wal-Mart labs, Amazon are really impressed with the student quality this year and have promised to visit Goa campus for every Placement Season. One remarkable feature of the placement process is that before the start of each campus recruitment season, students are asked to submit their wish list (a list of 7 companies they would want to be placed at) and a lot of time is dedicated to rope in those companies. Harshali Raka, the 6 \ SUMMER ISSUE \ BITS HERALD \ BITS PILANI K K BIRLA GOA CAMPUS new placement coordinator for the first semester says, Over the years there has been a drift from mass recruiting companies (like Infosys & TCS) to the Dream companies in which students would love to work. For the coming year we also hope to get even more companies and most of them would be based on students choice. With more companies interested in recruiting from Goa Campus, challenging job profiles being offered and increasing pay packages, the placement graph for BITS Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus is surely on the rise.

Campus Life
The students of BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa campus are a patient bunch. Years of awkward questions and thinly veiled digs about spending our academic life at Indias best holiday spot have made us realize the value of silence. Contrary to popular perception, we like to take our academics seriously. The fact that the Goa campus had the highest number of GSOC selections amongst all the colleges in India itself is a testimonial, in addition to the large list of academic accolades. The facilities are top notch, with the campus boasting of an excellent library and one of Asias largest auditoriums. The campus intranet (popularly called DC) is also one of the largest in the country. DC is a colossal network (of total data exceeding 200TB) which ensures that any data in the world is only a click away. The most exciting times of the year are during the three main fests, Waves, the cultural festival, Quark, the technical festival and Spree, the sports festival. With performances from world class artists to exciting events, fests give us a full entertainment package. In the following pages well try capturing the essence of what it is like to be a student here.

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Club Cult ure

Amidst all the academic proclivities which are naturally abundant on campus, a lot of importance is given to the various clubs present here. They are completely student-run and comprise of likeminded people with a common interest or hobby and a load of skills. They can be categorised into Performing and Non-Performing Clubs. related talks and quizzes are organised by them apart from the regular night time star observation sessions with their telescope. Then there is Matrix which holds discussions about current affairs, book reviews, movie critiques etc. We also have the CG club who seek to use Computer Graphic softwares for making videos/posters for campus events. Quiz club has some of the best quizzers in Goa, and probably India. If you are an information junkie, it is surely the place to be. EPAC or the Environmental Protection and Awareness Club is engaged in initiating environmental programming on campus to set BITS Goa as a model for promoting the idea of environmental sustainability for the common benefit. The fine arts club, called Kala is one of the most active and talented club on campus. From origami and sculpting to painting and extravagant art shows, they do it all! LDC or the Literary and Debating club is a group of cheery people whose main objective is to have fun with the Queens language. We also have CEL or Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership which is a group of students who avidly discuss about entrepreneurship and related skills. The enthusiasts of Economics can also be found in the Wall Street Club which holds lectures on various financial principles. Lastly, we have the ERC or Electronics and Robotics Club, which, as the name suggests, comprises of non-aerial gizmo lovers. Organizations like AIESEC, EWB, Enactus etc have also opened up chapters in campus The clubs mentioned above have, to a great extent, gathered plaudits for their work, making passion their sole guide and motivator. Therefore, for any individual who becomes their part, the club culture in the Goa Campus hones the overall development of an individual.

Performing Clubs
Starting with Mime Club, whose performances in the audi usually face a full house, comprise of muted actors portraying various emotions of life using shadow techniques, LED lightings, slides and much more. Next, we have the Dance Club who surprise everyone with their stunning flexibility and agile performances. Then we have the Music Society which is a basket of talented singers and instrumentalists. The Music Nite, where they showcase a plethora of musical brilliances, is well attended by everyone on campus. FashP provides you the opportunity to not only design your mind on fabric along with the passionate but also a chance to add dimensions to your confidence on stage. Last but not least the Drama club is one which surprises everyone with stupendous acting skills by hosting various plays and acts in both English and Hindi.

Non-Performing Clubs
The Aerodynamics Club (AeroD for short), who flaunt model aeroplanes and multicopters can be often seen in the cricket grounds attempting to fly their latest gizmo. Celestia is a club comprising of a bunch of enthusiastic sky gazers. All Astronomy

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Sports

@BitsGoa
With some of the best college sports facilities in the country, BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus is definitely paradise for anyone with a passion for sports. The Football ground is maintained by Salgaocar Football Club in Goa, one of the best teams in the Indian football league. The Cricket ground is BCCI approved, and is a prime venue for first-class matches in Goa. So if you suddenly see Dinesh Karthik or Robin Uthappa playing in our ground, dont be surprised. We also have first class facilities for Badminton, Volleyball, Tennis, Basketball, and indoor sports room with carom and chess, a Table Tennis room, a pool table, a very well equipped gym, and for people who enjoy running, our campus cannot be more picturesque for an early morning or late evening run. In each hostel, there is a carom board, a table tennis table and a cemented badminton court for people who are too lazy to walk all the way to the Student Activity Centre (SAC) for some exercise. Moreover, a swimming pool is on the cards too. Our campus sports teams are pretty successful too. The Cricket plays in the A Division leagues in Goa, the most competitive league for clubs. The Football team is the only college team in the B Division, which amidst the cash strapped clubs in Goa is a huge deal. Our badminton team has a handful of players who played nationals and we also have a Table Tennis player who represented India in the junior level. And if youre only into watching sports, our campus plays host to arguably the biggest sports festival in the country, Spree. A myriad of intra-college sporting events like Slam, BPL (BITS Premier League), BFL (BITS Futsal League) keep students occupied for most of the academic year. If you believe sport to be an important part of college culture, it surely wont disappoint you.

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Cultural Festival

waves
Being the fastest growing cultural festival with euphoric entertainment, captivating events, vibrant crowd and the appeal of a festive atmosphere unique only to Goa, Waves prides at being a social and cultural phenomenon, setting it apart from every other festival in the country. Last year we were the proud hosts of the official preSunburn Event, the electro-dance music festival that has been creating a rage all over the country. We were also blown away by Australias foremost Alternative Rock band- Dead Letter Circus and Strings, the much acclaimed pop-duo as they performed their heart out for us. Other entertainment heavyweights who have floored us with their performances include KK, Kailash Kher, Parikrama, Indian Ocean, Junkyard Groove, the Fictitious Dance Group, the Goa State Symphony (featuring musicians from Europe) and the likes. Waves has also been graced by illustrious personalities such as Vidya Balan, Mani Shankar (Bollywood director), Chandni Sahgal (MTV India ex-Country Head), VJ Bani (MTV host), Tarla Dalal (international chef),Ashish Shakaya, Rohan Joshi and Tanmay Bhat(Stand-up comedians). The Big 3 events of the fest are-Natyanjali: the art of dance, Mr. And Ms. Waves: the eternal search for the X-factor and FashP: the fashion parade where models stride right into your heart with fiery elegance and panache. Sea Rock, one of Indias largest semi-professional rock band competitions is the flagship event of Waves. Sea Rock went National in 2011 and since then eliminations are being held at Bangalore, Pune, Delhi and other parts of the country to bring together the best bands. Along with the Big 3, other equally enticing events include Dance Duo, Nukkad Natak, JAM, Blind Art, Silence of the Amps, Quizzes and so much more. The stage for Waves 2013 Hit The Rewind is set with the launch of the initiative, I.A.M.-Intervene into the grave situation, Act to Inspire and Motivate the thousands who look to follow. This initiative is targeted towards promoting self defence classes for girls. With the exceptional talent that embraces our fest, Waves 2013 will surely provide you with entertainment galore!

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quark |
Q

Techno-Management festival

uark, the annual techno-managerial and innovation festival of BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus is an essential contributor to breaking the monotonous life cycle of any BITSian. The fest has grown manifold since its humble inception in 2006 achieving a cult status on the national level with its 2008 iteration and made a quantum leap in 2010, when it went international for the first time. With a plethora of events, workshops and guest lectures in place, ones expertise and inquisitiveness is bound to be challenged. Quark sets the stage for face-offs between the best minds in the disciplines of engineering, science and management. Quark has organized events like Google Hackathon, Paper Presentation and Open Showcase offering a platform to budding innovators to exchange ideas and showcase cutting edge research. The fest has been graced by the presence of distinguished personalities like former president Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, Noble laureates Sir Harry Kroto (Chemistry, 1996) and Prof. Douglas Osheroff (Physics, 1996), the father of Wifi - Mr Vic Hayes, industrialist Baba Kalyani, Nokia 888 designer Tamer Nakisci and Chris Philips, the invisible man. In case you are baffled at the mention of these dignitaries, its time to hit Google search, yet again. In addition, Quark caters to gaming enthusiasts via MATKA, a three day gaming extravaganza where gamers fight out for the glory of being crowned the God-like Gamer. Also, to inculcate the belief that technology is the answer to chronic problems plaguing modern society, Quark presents several unique initiatives such as GoGreen, Eco Architect and Bhagirath. Also, we have Graviton, an off-campus initiative, which aims at promoting innovation through events, talks and workshops held across India. Quark also sets the playful tone of technology with the Aurora Nights. Having witnessed heavyweights like Feeding the Fish (performers at the Athens Olympics) in 2008 and a 3-D Mapping Show by DreamPoint Animations, Aurora Nights have always been lauded for their grandeur and electrifying atmosphere.

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Spree

Sports Fest

rue to its motto Pure Sport, Spree the sports fest of BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus, is a celebration of one of lifes greatest and purest thrills sport. Nothing quite captures the emotions and essence of life in a nutshell as effectively as sports and Spree provides the perfect platform for sport to take center stage. Held annually in the first week of March, Spree ranks among the top sports fests across the country, attracting the very best sports teams from top colleges across the country. Like all fests of our campus, Spree is organized from start to finish completely by students. With state of the art badminton and tennis courts, a BCCI maintained cricket ground and a football pitch maintained by Salgaocar FC, BITS Goa has had all the necessary facilities to hold many successful editions of Spree. In keeping with the ever changing nature of sport however, Spree too has evolved and taken steps to go beyond the usual definitions of sport. Spree now also boasts of a wide range of offbeat and special events such as anti-chess, keepy uppy, 3v3 volleyball and tug of war. When it comes to entertainment, Spree again leads the way with a rich history of star performers. Shalmali Kholgade, Benny Dayal, Aditi Rao Hydari and Raghu Dixit have all served up fantastic entertainment at Spree. We have also hosted some great names from the world of sport such as Shadab Jakati, Swapnil Asnodkar and Shirish Nadkarni. Spree has also closely supported several noble social causes over the years, most recently with the Act to Inspire campaign which consisted of a multitude of social initiatives. Spree has been associated with several NGOs such as Special Olympics Bharat, El Shaddai and Habitat for Humanity in order to serve. Spree has already established itself as one of the big names among sports fests in India, and evidence suggests that it is only going to continue growing from strength to strength.

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BITSGoa
ideas worth spreading
TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is an international organization which holds conferences at places around the world every year to help spread ideas worth spreading. Tabla virtuoso Anuradha Pal, reformed convict Laxman Gole, musician Benny Prasad, adventurist Peter van Geit, passionate handicapped dancer Kamlesh Patel, Livemint.com editor Sidin Vadukut, founder of Ecolibrium Energy Harit Soni and the To reach out to more people, and to get more inspiring talented singer Kavita Seth. Moreover, three speakers ideas to the fore, TED started its TEDx program, from the conference were selected to be TED fellows. where x stands for Independently organized TED event. But thats not it. TEDxBITSGoa provides a platform to students of BITS Goa to share their ideas and BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus was one of the first innovations through the TEDxBITSGoa Ambassadors colleges in India to get a TEDx license and is one of Program, where selected students get some time on the only colleges to retain it for 4 consecutive years. It the stage with the videos uploaded on the web. This is handled by a small team of 25 members, all being is a huge opportunity for students and some of them students. Called TEDxBITSGoa, this conference have reaped great rewards from it. plays host to a cornucopia of new ideas, stories and innovations by speakers from both India and abroad. TEDxBITSGoa 2014 promises to take on even higher Lately, TEDxBITSGoa played host to speakers like dimensions by expanding and reaching out to the the first woman IPS officer of India Dr. Kiran Bedi local community. All in all, its not an event to be , ad-guru Prahlad Kakkar, pioneer of Open-Source missed if you are at Goa campus. software in India Atul Chitnis, toy maker Arvind Gupta, stand-up comedian Ashish Shakya, Rubiks Cube whizkid Brennet Orlando, innovators at the MIT Media Labs Anirudh Sharma and Chris Csikszentmihalyi, fractal scientist Jonathan Wolfe,

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INTRODUCTION

HISTORY

RESPONSIBILITY

CSA

HARGUN OBEROI

S L NARAYAN

NITISH MYENENI

ANMOL SHRIVASTAVA

The fact that many major administrative responsibilities such as placements are handled by the students is a testimonial to the maturity of the student community at BITS Pilani. The mark of a mature society is the democratic election of its leaders, and the system at BITS stays true to this principle by democratically electing the Council for Student Affairs (CSA), comprising of the General Secretary, the President, the Treasurer and the Vice- President every year. Ever since its inception in 2004, the student body elections have become better-behaved and organized. The elections this year, for instance, saw no fervent latenight campaigning and academic activity seemed to take precedence for the most. However, what was no different was the recycling and regurgitation of previous years agendas. The voter turn-out was in agreement with usual national level turnouts (~ 60%). If one takes into account that it was a holiday, the voting booth (computer centre) was 300m away at the farthest, there was no ideological polarization to have dissuaded anyone and that there was certainly no imminent threat to their lives, the poor turn-out does raise some questions. We did see a very enthusiastic Council taking over with Hargun Singh Oberoi as the President, S L Narayan as the vice-president, Nitish Myeni as the treasurer and Anmol Srivatsava as the General Secretary. It is to be seen if they can somehow make the student body take note of the student council and participate in an active student democracy, something that has happened only in brief spurts in the

past but never as a roaring agent of change. But signs are encouraging, with both the General Secretary and the President having spoken at length about their vision to dissolve the difficulties in communication between the student body and the CSA. The CSA of 2012-13 was unprecedented of all sorts; especially in the amount of work it got done. The defining factor perhaps was the monetary resources that the CSA finally had access to. This ensured timely settlement of bills, hiked budgets and a unique gift of sorts to all clubs. At the end of their term however, the disbursement of these gifts was staggered across clubs, confused with general bill settlements, much to the dismay of -the general public. In conclusion, the monetary efforts of the previous year were seen by most as a welcome step with improved transparency and shout-out-loud advertisement of the same (ref. GenSec, now CSA times). We saw both an active student inquisition and an equally spirited response by the CSA, which is a very heartening thing to note in a democratic setup.

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GSoC which stands for Google Summer of Code, is a global program organized Google annually to provide stipends to selected candidates to write code in an open source environment over a three month period. This year, out of the total accepted 1192 students from 70 countries wholl receive a stipend of 5000 USD to create and release open source software, BITS-Pilani gave a record 37 of its students for the elite program out of which 21 are from Goa campus. As of GSoC 2012, Goa Campus ranked 5th in the world with 14 selections out of the 1,212 proposals accepted worldwide. Few projects that are to be accompalished this summer through vigorous open source coding include Improved ODE Solver in SymPy (Manoj Kumar), scikit-image: Image Inpainting for Restoration (Chintak Sheth) and Addition of electromagnetism features to sympy.physics (Sachin Joglekar). The following is the approximate list of students that weve gathered:-

Abhiraj Tomar Mudit Raj Gupta Nitin Pasumarthy Selvam Palanimalai Aniket Panse Ritisha Laungani Shivam Verma Chintak Sheth Jay Rambhia Raghu Nayyar Anant Kamath

Manoj Kumar Rajat Kapoor Sachin Joglekar Sahil Nagpal Abhiroop Sarkar Shruti Gupta Abhinav Misra Jimmy Morzaria Nihanth Subramanya Faizan Shaikh

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Hexapod Project & Salil Kapurs Paper Presentation

The never-ending desire to understand How stuff works? is all one needs to exploit campus resources and thus, showcase their work here at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus. One such project that was made possible due to the combined efforts of the ERC and IEEE Student Branch is the Hexapod. The bot uses an algorithm that makes the system capable of analysing, classifying and representing terrain accurately and then, navigating through a terrain map optimally. For the former, a technique that compresses 3D data without losing essential information is employed and the latter is achieved by complex computations on the terrain representation. 3D range data used for characterisation of terrain in robot navigation is tough to deal with which makes the take on the problem all the more inventive. The complete system finds huge scope in areas such as robotic rescue, reconnaissance and mapping. Built from the ground up, with integrated systems from the sensor input stage to the final navigation stage, the robot analyses the information of its surroundings and makes an intelligent choice subsequently. Driven and like-minded students, Rohit Sant, Ninad Kulkarni, Ainesh Bakshi, Kratarth Goel and Salil Kapur took forward the dream of the ex-ERC coordinator, Avinash Kumar (2008 batch) and the IEEE branch provided them a lab to work in. Apart from this, they have also acquired the support of faculty (CS/IS Department) in both financial and administrative aspects of this project. Selected for presentation and publication at International Conferences such as ICVS 2013 ( International Council on Computer Vision Systems) and IPCV 2013 (The International Conference on Image Processing, Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition) , the hexapod project has received external sponsorship from the DRDO (The Defence Research and Development Organisation, Government of India). With overflowing awards, acclaim and praise, The endeavour does not end here and work is on-going to make the system more robust and self-sufficient by using techniques from Machine Learning, says Salil.

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Dome Observatory Project

Members of the Physics Society and Celestia, under the guidance of the Physics Department, with the support of BITSAAD and the CSA, are working towards setting up a research grade astronomical observatory on campus. The aim of its establishment is to promote study in observation astronomy; data processing and allied fields across sister campuses. The set-up has the potential to put us at the top in research at the undergraduate level. Moreover, collaborations with various research institutes, national and international, are being sought. An initiative like this would inevitably crumble if there was not enough support; therefore INR 20 lakhs has been sanctioned by the administration itself to the Physics Department which is still looking for other sources to meet their remaining financial requirements. Assuming that they attain sufficient funds, the equipment that the campus shall have acquired is a 20 Planewave CDK Optical Tube assembly, a Paramount ME II mount, SBIG STXL 6303E CCD camera with imaging filters and other accessories. This impressive ensemble will be fully computerized and remote-operated. Projects that can be undertaken once we get our hands on the equipment are numerous. For instance, Supernovae detection and follow-up, Observation of exoplanetary transits (i.e. planets around other stars) and development of better algorithms for the same, astrophotography and image processing, variable star observation and photometry and spectroscopic analysis of supernovae, stars. According to Raj, an active member of the programme, The observatory will definitely result in better facilities for Ph. D scholars and increase scope for on campus thesis. The project is interdisciplinary and would include every branch on campus from the designing to automation and image processing aspects. All in all, the project is highly ambitious and very promising with a lot of effort been put in already by its members.

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PAPER PRESENTATION

Priyans Murarka SmartPlug Project

He was also one of those 600 students who entered BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa campus in 2010 who really had no different thought till he discovered a whole new world of hardware. With the help of seniors from IEEE association of Goa campus Priyans Murarka saw small ideas of his mind manifest into working models. One of the projects he started working on, with the help of his college seniors was the SmartPlug project. A home automation system integrates electrical devices in a house with each other. The present automation systems need manual operations for building automation and control of various domestic activities such as home entertainment systems, house plant and yard watering. Priyans and his group started working on a project that would develop house automation through auto-device detection. The project aims at power consumption optimization at houses and a detailed data of power consumption which is to be achieved by building of an interface between individual houses and electric grid. The above idea was also put in for development of applications for safety automation and context based home automation. He was awarded with BITSAA Travel Scholarship and BITSAA Paper Publication Assistance for travelling to iThings (Internet of Things) conference in France in November 2012 for a paper presentation on the above mentioned project. After this France feat of Priyans he went on to attend a five day Design Innovation workshop conducted by MIT Media Labs at PESIT, Bangalore. Currently he is working at IISc, Bangalore as a bachelor thesis student on an open inertial navigation system called Openshoe. Although the article ends here, Priyanss innovations have just have just begun and have a lot to deliver to the campus, country and the world.

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Intern at

IISC Arnav Goel

Known by many as a profoundly research oriented person, Arnav Goel (2010 batch-EEE) recently added himself to the achievers list of Goa Campus by earning the prestigious summer internship to IISc, Bangalore. Presently, hes working at CEDTs (Centre for Electronic Design and Technology) CAD lab (Computer Aided Design Lab) on the generic topic Massively Parallel Reconfigurable Platforms. He was selected amongst the 12 meritorious interns under the Morphing Machines Summer of Code 2013 conducted by the CAD division. He also has two research papers to his name (first official published paper in IEEE Xplore on Content Base Image Retrieval). A meritorious student in academics too, he finds his inspiration to be the urge to innovate and his seniors- Abhinav Gupta, Adwait Gandhe and Varad Gunjal who as he says, made him strive in an environment comprising of like-minded people. He continues - I received my first success as a co-author on a research paper in the field of Wireless Networks at the end of my first year and the credit goes to the seniors at IEEE who guided me through the project. In his second year, he tried choosing a topic from Core Disciplinary Courses (or CDCs) that intrigued him the most like Digital Electronics and Computer Organization and then pursued small projects on the same. For extracurricular activities, he was a core member of Quark Controls which pretty much gave me the insight to how a tech fest works. He was also the Coordinator of Celestia, the Astronomy Club on Campus,Celestia has taught me how to pursue my hobby (Astrophysics) alongside my research inclination and IEEE, as mentioned previously. Also, he was instructor-in-charge for the course Advanced Image Processing at the Centre for Technical Education or CTE, a technical initiative by senior students to usher technical culture. He plans on pursuing a career in research in the domain of Signal Processing and Network on Chip for Embedded systems by pursuing a Masters Degree. Later, he plans on becoming an academic researcher. He advises all current and future aspirants to put in their 100 percent into anything that they do. With an excellent record in place and zero lack of dedication, the future surely looks bright for Arnav.

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Solar Car Project

BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campuss first ever solar car project is an ambitious venture under the aegis of SAE international. The project is a brainchild of Maneesh Maharana, Vice-Chairperson of SAE BITS Goa and now consists of about 40 other people from both Mechanical and Electrical disciplines. The team is divided into many groups, each working on different components. The main aim of the project is to design, simulate and fabricate an efficient, smart Solar-Electric Vehicle which would be a prototype of a vehicle running on stored energy in batteries supplemented by solar energy. Unlike most college level projects which focus on a fast single-seater solar car for the Solar Challenge (an international solar car race), the team is building a four-seater car with a respectable top speed which potentially could be used to supplement other forms of conveyance in industrial zones, small townships and large college campuses. The importance of alternative fuel sources is growing day by day. This is a major motivation for the team who are working to develop the huge advantages of Solar Power and cope with whatever limitations it has. The enormity of the project was realised early on due to valuable inputs from Dr. M.K Deshmukh, who concurrently became the projects mentor. This led to dividing the project into the following phases: Research, Design & Simulation, Sponsorship & Procurement, Fabrication and Testing. The idea was conceptualised towards the end of Semester I, work began in January 2013 after the team recruited more people from the junior batches. They are currently finishing with the designing phase and are about to start running simulations. Next up is the pitching phase for getting sponsors to help with the needed components. They hope to finish up with the fabricating and testing phase by January 2014.

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Prof. Suresh Ramaswamy Memorial Award

Awarded annually to a student team demonstrating exceptional innovation and creativity in the fields of Science / Engineering
The award is to honour the memory and lasting impact of Prof. Ramaswamy in the lives of students he mentored. Prof. Suresh Ramaswamy, or SuRa as he was fondly called, was an integral part of the BITS family for the last three decades. A student of the 1980 Physics batch at Pilani, he later re-joined BITS as a faculty-member of the Physics department. As the HOD of the Physics Department, he played a major role in shaping the department at Goa campus. He went on to shoulder the responsibilities of Chief Warden and later, Dean of Administration. A group of students, very close to Prof. Ramaswamy realized that the best way continue his legacy is to initiate an award that encapsulates his vision. A prize of Rs. 40,000 is awarded every year to a team of students (from any department of Goa Campus) by a competitive peer-review process in the preceding semester and is judged on their innovation and feasibility by a faculty referee. The team of 3rd year Chemical Engineering students, Geetansh Gupta(top picture) and Aditya Shah(bottom picture), were the winners of the inaugural 2012-13 edition for their work on Furniture-Integrated Workspace Cooling System. Their project aims to develop a compact heat exchanger for front-end, furniture integrated desktop cooling system for workstations. The current cooling solutions involve centralized cooling with complex air-ducts, incurring major energy losses. A desktop cooling system at a low cost of operation would provide the user with personalized-comfort cooling which centralized systems do not. Another application, other than cyber cafes and laptop stations at airports for this cooling system is in the field of electronic devices. Successful development of this heat exchanger at an even more compact scale can have far reaching impact in the IT sector from the standpoint of solving the Thermal Brick Wall problem (which currently limits CPU clocks to ~ 3 GHz), a cause of concern for IT companies.

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NVC

NEW VENTURE CREATION

Entrepreneurship is that creative field of work that is endowed by people who dare to put their finance, business and intellectual acumen to transform innovations and ideas into economic goods In order to foster managerial and entrepreneurial qualities among students and help them dominate their domain, BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa campus in association with the Department of Information Technology, Government of India has established a Technology Business Incubator under the TIDE scheme in the area of Electronics and ICT. The campus also has a Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) to give a specific boost and emphasis to entrepreneurship development. The TBI incubator along with efforts by CEL shall promote entrepreneurial leadership in the state of Goa, facilitate entrepreneurial activity amongst students, faculty and alumni and also invite entrepreneurs to use TBI services so as to develop end products for commercialization. It aims to give a solid backing to the terrific ideas of students that metamorphose into amazing startups. TBI has put together in the incubator the entire infrastructure that these startups/entrepreneurs would need to develop their businesses. These include - Physical Infrastructure: Office space, Internet connection, Telephone lines, Common/Shared infrastructure: File Serve, stationary tools like Fax machine and Teleconferencing facilities. Faculty mentoring is also available. Apart from this, TBI also caters to the students services and support which includes corporate and legal assistance to the incubate, organizing events to help companies in networking and showcasing their technologies, advertising, building effective contacts, etc. Keeping in purview, the endeavors of the students to bring their ideas alive and financial bootstrapping, the management launched a New Venture Creation course, popularly known as NVC. The purpose of this course is not only to study entrepreneurship but also to practice it. Student teams are expected to create a technology or products based startup and launch their startup by creating all the essential building blocks. In order to create a successful startup, student entrepreneurs will be required to address various issues in startup creation like product development, market research, team formation, marketing and sales strategy. The course features guestlectures from prestigious entrepreneurs, investors and academicians. Each team will be assigned an experienced entrepreneur mentor who will guide them through the semester and beyond. The teams will compete with each other and the top teams will be awarded seed funding to pursue the business idea for incubation after the completion of the course and eventually launch the business. In a nutshell, the objective that they pursue is to belch out achievers who believe that the best way to predict the future is by creating one.

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THE TEAM BEHIND THIS SUMMER ISSUE

Department of Journalism and Media Affairs

Abhijith Asok Harsha Koneru Prasoon Mehta Bhavul Gauri Soumya Chauhan Seerat Bindra Anshul Jain Akshay Surendra Lakshya Bansal Karthik Srinivasan Pallavi Verma Sanchita Porwal Anirudh Thukral Vishnu Nair Aarzoo Siddiqui Ankita Kar
Help us by sharing the isue if you think it contains important information. Special Thanks to Sarath Menon for Photographs.

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