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THE TIMES OF INDIA, PUNE | THURSDAY, JUNE 23, 2016

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With Swayam in space, CoEP gains ground

Full Data Gathering To Begin
At Ground Station In 10 Days
Ardhra.Nair@timesgroup.com

Pune: When Swayam, one of

the two satellites built by Indian
students, was successfully launched from Sriharikota on Wednesday at 9.26am, a crowd that
had gathered inside College of
Engineering Punes auditorium clapped and hugged each
other.
But it was not until 11am
when the first beacon (transmitted signal) was received by
the ground station built in the
college confirming that all the
systems were up and running,
that waves of joy washed over
the students behind Swayam
and the multitude of their supporters. The satellite was conceptualized and built by the students of the college with Rs 50
lakh funding.
It is a great achievement
for our college. We get a marginal amount of funds when compared with the national institutes. Yet Swayam is a lesson about how dedicated students, who
worked on it for eight years, and
a committed faculty can do
wonders. Now that we have made a mark, we hope companies
will help students and colleges
take up such projects by routing
their corporate social responsibility funds, Bhalchandra
Chaudhari, deputy director, CoEP said on Wednesday.
The college was represented
by M Y Khaladkar, faculty incharge, B B Ahuja, director of
CoEP and three students, Dhaval Waghulde, Abdul Sangarwala and Saurabh Barve at Sriharikota for the launch.
The entire atmosphere inside the college was one of a victory celebration with students
who had gone home for the vacation and those who had graduated turning up for the telecast.
It was emotional and electrifying for all of us. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience and
I am very happy that I was there
along with the students. We were thrilled when the launch vehicle lifted off with all 20 satellites. But only when Swayam
ejected from the launch vehicle
and when it was announced, did

we start dancing with happiness. We will organize a celebration for all students who were a
part of the project soon, Khaladkar added.
The landlines in the college
have not stopped ringing. We
have been getting calls since
morning. The WhatsApp messages are pouring in from various quarters. This was possible
only because of the students.
Anil Sahasrabudhe had tears in
his eyes when he heard of the
launch. It was under his leadership at CoEP that the project
was approved eight years ago,
Sandeep Meshram, a faculty
member at CoEP, said.
Sahasrabudhe, the current
chairman of All India Council
for Technical Education, was
the director of CoEP.
The satellite has a revolution period of 90 minutes and
will pass over Pune four times.
Twice, the strength to transmit
and receive the signal will be good and it will be average for the
other two times.
Acustomized hardware and
protocol have been designed by
the students to send and receive
signals via Swayam. It has been
given to 10 people in different countries. The ground station will
be monitored continuously by
the students during every pass.
Girish Baj, a student who is
part of the project, said, The
first pass over Pune was at around 11am. The satellite has been
programmed to send a signal
every 90 seconds. We got about
six signals from the satellite
which is the maximum that can
happen during a particular
pass. The first six bytes of data
said SWAYAM and the next six
bytes gave us the parameters of
the satellite. Everything is fine
as of now.
It will take another 10-15 days for the satellite to stabilize
and reliably act as a point-to-point messenger. We will be starting the trials from the pass at
9.30pm on Wednesday. But whatever information we receive
will not be considered reliable.
It will happen only after 10-15 days after which uploading and
downloading of data will happen, added Baj.

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
The satellite is a 10cm
by 10cm by10cm cube

Model pictures courtesy: http://www.coep.org.in/csat/qualification-model-photos/

to all the systems

Can correct errors up to three
bytes in uplink and 16 bytes in the
downlink packet

It weighs less than 1kg

and uses 2W power
Has an expected life
of six months
Frequency to communicate
with Swayam will be 437.025 MHz
in Morse code
Uses passive attitude control
system where a pair of hysteresis
rods and a magnet are used to
stabilize the satellite. It is lighter
and consumes very little energy
as opposed to magnetorquers
Five sub-systems deal with
attitude control system,
communication, on-board
computer, power and structure
CoEP has also devised a
noise cancellation software

Expected
ected height of orbit is
500km
m with 97-98
97 9 degree
inclination

Signal can be heard using

a commercial radio (Kenwood
TS2000, ICOM etc.)
Rs 50 lakh is the budget for
building Swayam
Called Swayam (self in
Sanskrit) since CoEP students
made the entire satellite

Tolerance of the satellites

dimensions and weight is less
than 0.1mm
Solar panels on all six faces
store charge in the lithium-ion
battery, providing power

Ardhra.Nair@timesgroup.com

Swayams beacon (signal

transmitted) broadcasts critical
health parameters of the satellite
Beacon starts with the call sign
SWAYAM followed by beacon
data (parameters about the
satellite like the temperature,
orientation, stability)

(SOURCE: COEP WEBSITE)

The qualification model of the satellite built by the students

l Devendra Fadnavis@Dev_Fadnavis

And this fete is even more special for Maharashtra

asCoEP students pico-satelliteSWAYAM too is a part
of this launch! Elated & Proud! @isro
l Supriya Sule@supriya_sule

Congratulations team @isro Record launch 20 satellites.

#COEP Pune students part of this mission. So proud
l Narendra Modi@narendramodi

Saw with immense joy that students from institutions in Pune & Chennai
played a role in the making of satellites. This touched me
l Prakash Javadekar@PrakashJavdekar

Kill switch
OC Card

Congratulations to CoEP (College of Engineering Pune) for making satellite

Swayam & @isro for launching successfully #TransformingIndia

Communication
card

Pic: Mandar Deshpande

Power
card

Antenna
holder

Dipole
antenna

VIEW

Magnet
holder
Battery
pack

Deployment
switches

Students celebrate the successful launch of the satellite in the college on Wednesday

SECOND SATELLITE PLANS

The College of Engineering Pune (CoEP) is already
on its way to making its second satellite which will
do radiation monitoring in higher altitudes using
orbit manoeuvring employing solar sail. The
project will be built by students and funded by
ISRO. The new satellite will be a cuboid structure.

The satellite will be put by the launch vehicle at

1,000km above earth and will act like a kite to
ascend to 2000km altitude. This will monitor
different types of radiation and its level at different
heights. Students have already started work. The
project is in its design phase, CoEP officials said.

Swayam is very important in the sense that

it encourages innovation by the younger
generation. This achievement should be lauded. I
hope it will also encourage ISRO and other
agencies to tap into the vast talent pool of
students in the country
Jayant Narlikar | EMINENT ASTROPHYSICIST

Colleges 30-year-old Ham Club fashions antenna for satellite

Ardhra.Nair@timesgroup.com

Pune: The College of Engineering

Punes Ham Club, among the oldest
in the country, can also take pride in
Swayams success.
The satellites antenna was designed by the full-fledged amateur radio
club. Now that Swayam is up there
and functioning, it will provide point-to-point communication for the
Ham radio community.
The club was established in 1986
in the college. Over the years, it has
seen technology change from vacuum tubes to advanced transmitter-

receivers. Students, who are taught

to communicate in Morse code, have
also communicated with an international space station.
I was in my second year when
the club made the antenna for Swayam. First, the parameters were decided and designed, and then, using a
software, the design was simulated
to check if the result matched the needs. The club then constructed the
antenna and decided on which frequency Swayam will communicate
with the ground station, current head of the club Priyanka Zambre said.
Anybody who can operate a wal-

kie-talkie can receive and hear messages if tuned into the messages frequency level, but certification is required to transmit it to someone. The
licence must be obtained from the
Amateur Station Operators Certificate (ASOC) examination conducted
by the Wireless and Planning and Coordination Wing (WPC) of the ministry of communications and information technology.
The radio communication channel is useful during emergencies, students said. During the Nepal earthquake, none of the cell towers were
working. Hence, all communication

was through radio. Similarly, during

floods and other natural calamities,
radio communication is used. Even
during terrorist attacks, if cellphone
towers are jammed, Ham is used by
authorities, Zambre added.
However, if encrypted signals are
not used, conversations can be heard
and understood clearly, she said.
People who have a licence are called Hams while those without one
but able to listen to the messages are
called short-wave listeners. More
than regular language, Q codes and
phonetics are used in communication. For example, if I have to send a

message, I say CQ CQ CQ This is

VU2COE. The VU2COE is our call
sign while CQ means hello, said
Akshay Pampatwar, another HAM
club member. In case of bad signals,
Morse codes are used for communication, he added.
The club has many enthusiasts.
We have a WhatsApp group of the
members in Pune. We come online at
8am. Rules and regulations for communication as laid down by the International Telecommunication Union
are followed. We do not talk politics,
do not give any promotional content
and do not advertise, member DaShyam Sonar

Three held for

theft in traffic
branch office
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Pune: The Hadapsar police

have arrested three persons
for allegedly stealing a computer CPU and some discarded papers from the Hadapsar
traffic divisions office in Magarpatta area in the night intervening Monday and Tuesday.
Earlier this month, a fire
had destroyed several documents and computers in the
office on the ground floor of
the building. The same building also houses the office of
the crime branch (Unit V) on
the first floor.
Traffic constable Dilip Pote, posted with the Hadapsar
traffic division, lodged a
complaint after the theft came
to light around 5am on Tuesday. It stated that unidentified
persons had broken the locks
of the office and stolen a computer CPU valued at Rs 2,000.
The CPU had been partially
damaged in the fire incident.
After receiving the information about the theft, officials of the crime branch investigated the matter and arrested the three suspects. The suspects have been identified as
Sarang Bhausaheb Pawar
(23), and two women aged 45
years and 28 years.
Police said the suspects
are wastepickers. They managed to break open the locks of
the office after they realized
that no one guarded the premises at night.

nish Mohammad said.

The communication with an international space station happened
last year, recalled Zambre. They were sending photographs of their astronauts. We tuned into that frequency and got the signal which was decoded using a computer software and
got the photographs, Zambre said.
Ham radio enthusiasts also collect QSL cards.
When we talk for the first time to
someone, we send them a card which
has our call sign, name and other details. We have around 300 such QSL
cards, added Pampatwar.

CM promises final
location for new
airport in 4 weeks
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

WAIT NOT OVER: Youngsters watch the overcast sky near Khadakwasla reservoir. The monsoon clouds did not bring much rain to the city
on Wednesday

Cyclonic circulation to boost showers

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Pune: Brace for a wet weekend.

The city is set to receive
good showers on Friday and
Saturday after a rather subdued start to the monsoon.
Sunitha Devi, the director in
the weather section at the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Pune, said, A cyclonic circulation has developed over the central Bay of

Bengal. An increase in rainfall can be expected in the city

on June 24 and June 25 because of it.
The citys maximum temperature in the coming days
would be around 33C. The
minimum would hover around 22C.
Generally cloudy sky
with moderate rain has been
predicted for the city for the
next few days. The rain will
again pick up pace on June 27

and June 28, according to the

government weather forecasting agency.
The average rainfall in
Pune in June is 98.5mm. But
the city has received only
41.2mm showers in the month
this year so far, leading to a
deficit of 57.3mm.
Mumbai received good rainfall in the past two days after the onset of southwest
monsoon in the city.
On the current status of

Pune: Getting a membership to

the Swayam club in College of
Engineering Pune (CoEP) is tougher than getting a job after four years of studying there.
Students claimed that the entire process was divided into
three stages and the number of
vacancies was almost equivalent to the number of students
from the club graduating each
year. The group has about 35-40
students, this year.
First, there is an entrance
test to understand technical
skills, followed by a personal interview conducted by a board of
students. An individual task will
follow in which the candidate
has to show his or her problemsolving capability in a particular time-frame, Swayam member Girish Baj said.
The selected students then
attend an orientation session. A
well-documented soft copy of
the process over the years is given to the students.
They have to read and understand what they are getting
into. There is no lecture or any
other help, especially for the new
members, he said.

THREE STAGES

Hysteresis
holder

INSIDE

Arduous
screening
for students
to join group

the southwest monsoon, IMD

in its recent bulletin said it
had advanced into remaining
parts of central Maharashtra, east Madhya Pradesh
and Bihar. Most parts of
west Madhya Pradesh, east
Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand
and Himachal Pradesh, entire Jammu and Kashmir and
some parts of west Uttar Pradesh are also under the influence of the southwest monsoon, an IMD official said.

Pune: The proposal for an international airport for Pune is

set to get a boost with chief minister Devendra Fadnavis
announcing on Wednesday
the government would finalize its location within four weeks.
The director of Airports
Authority of India will visit
the three locations around Pune listed for the proposed international airport in the next
one week. Following the inspections, one location
will be finalized within three weeks,
Fadnavis said at a
round table conference at Chakan, in
which the representatives of US-based companies
and top officials from the state
administration were present.
A source in the administration said three locations
were under consideration and
would require clearance from
technical teams. The new airport proposal has been under
consideration for a long time
but has not moved forward because of various reasons. A
strong opposition from local
farmers to land acquisition for
the project has been a prime
reason for the delay.
Fadnavis has been assu-

ring that the government was

positive about implementing
the project at the earliest. He
said there was also a plan to increase the strength of the existing one at Lohegaon.
The chief minister said
the government was initiating
various steps to ensure hasslefree permission to investors
and provide good infrastructure facilities. He said the
number of permissions required to set up industrial units
had been brought down considerably. Besides, the
government had set
up a single-window
system to avoid delays, he said, appealing to companies
from the US to invest
in the state.
Fadnavis said
Maharashtra was on the fast
track of development. He claimed that many international
industrial houses had expressed willingness to start units
here and that the state had decided to follow industry-centric policy.
He said the state had skilled manpower and better infrastructure. He promised the
industries would not face any
delay in allotment of land.
Fadnavis said the local police had been instructed to act
tough against those creating
nuisance in industrial areas.

Only the first and second-year students can apply. Hence, if

you are unable to clear the procedure in the first two years, you
are out of the race. The project
is huge. A lot of time is spent learning what has happened and
what is required to be done. We
need members to be there to help
in the actual building of the satellite and other technical problems. If we take a final year student, by the time he or she is ready to do some work, that student
will have graduated, Baj said.
Dhaval Waghulde, project
manager of Swayam, will soon
pass the baton to the next project
manager Umair Daimi.
There is an admin team for
the project which consists of a
project manager, an admin leader and heads of all sub-systems. The current team for
Swayam has seven members.
They decide who will go in the
next team and who will be the
project manager. The next admin team will have eight members as there is an additional
sub-system for payload. The exams for induction are conducted
once every semester, Daimi, a
fourth-year, computer engineering student, said.
About 176 students were involved in the Swayam project
over the last eight years.
The faculty in charge was M
Khaladkar. Member students
have already started designing
the second satellite.

Man booked
for raping
woman
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Pune: A 32-year-old man from

Sadashiv Peth was booked on
Tuesday for allegedly raping a
33-year-old woman on multiple
occasions between 2012 and June 2016 after threatening to
upload a video clip of hers on
the internet.
Police said the complainant, who separated from her
alcoholic husband in 2012,
works with a city-based garment shop. She came in contact with the suspect at the
shop, an officer from the Vishrambaug police station said.
The duo became friends
over a period of time, after
which he promised to help her
in finding a better job. Thereafter, he took her to a lodge in the
city and raped her, the officer
said, adding that the suspect also recorded the act.
He raped the women on
multiple occasions between
2012 and 2016 at different lodges
in the city after threatening to
upload her clip on the internet,
he said. As per the complainant, he even forced her to indulge in unnatural sex, the officer said.
Frustrated by the constant
harassment, the woman lodged
the complaint against the suspect on Tuesday.
We will arrest him soon,
the officer said, adding that the
suspect has been booked under
section 376 (rape) and 377 (unnatural offences) of the Indian
Penal Code.