Dr. Renu Vig

It gives me great pleasure in unfolding this issue of QUIET. This edition is the 14th in the series of the campus magazine which harbors the valued thoughts and opinions of the students and further sets a benchmark for the forthcoming editions. The magazine facilitates and boosts the exuberance that bursts forth from every corner of the campus by providing a platform for students to showcase their creativity. It acts as a medium to put forward their opinion about vari-ous topics that concern them and promotes them to share their knowledge with peers. I congratulate team Magboard for their efforts.Enjoy reading.

Ms. Nisha Tayal

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge”, said Albert Einstein. As another issue of QUIET unfolds the creative endeavours of the Magboard Team come to the fore. If Creativity be the art of making new connections (which Electrically speaking may glow or blast), taking a fresh perspec-tive or viewing from an unprecedented angle, this edition of QUIET is certainly a creative ensemble. As a teacher I am happy that the UIET students have not just been awakened but are well on their path to awaken the nation or is it the generation!My best wishes to them.

A message from the Director

Faculty In-Charge, Magboard

QUIET facilitates andboosts the exuberancethat bursts forthfrom every corner ofthe campus.

If Creativity be the art of making new connections, taking a fresh perspective or viewing from an unprecedented angle this edition of QUIET is certainly a creative ensemble.

2

Ashit Sharma

So we finally launch this year’s annual college magazine QUIET ’14.

Team Magboard in this edition of ‘QUIET’ try to give you a glimpse of all the activities that happen around in the college throughout the year and a flashback of events that have already taken place.

Continuing with our aim of providing a platform for the stu-dents with a proclivity for writing and other literary activities we have included poems, artwork and articles that cover a vast array of topics in this edition. The content in our magazine gives a sense of the individuality and creativity that the stu-dents from over 6 different streams and all the 4 years have to offer.

This task is of great significance as it is a legacy that is to be left behind for the juniors to be followed. In my opinion it is not just about having a magazine to print pictures and puzzles and poems and some sci-fi articles. It also should present an interactive view point of students that can bring to notice all the positives and negatives about the student fraternity, the existing student forums and the need for new initiatives to be taken. The onus of this is on the upcoming students of UIET to keep this culture alive and through the official editorial board of UIET, make QUIET edition something to look forward to each year by the students. It’s a magazine by the students, for the students.

I would like to thank Team Magboard for their concerned efforts in the creation of this issue of QUIET.

Convener, Magboard

QUIET presents an interac-tive view point of students that can bring to notice all the positives and negatives about the student fraternity, the existing student forums and the need for new initia-tives to be taken.

3

Chirag Puri

UIET as an engineering institute has been the perfect platform for us students to showcase our talent. QUIET` 14, one of those platforms is made for the creative, the poetic and the ‘techie’ amongst us.

QUIET `14 gives its readers an amazing insight to such topics as cloud computing, open source tools, ios8 etc. Not limited to this, the magazine is a compilation of the profuse activities and events in our college this year, various committees, fests are well documented to give the reader an idea of the vibrant college life.QUIET has something for all its readers. Well documented notes about how our college committees work, our much awaited fests, a little about your previous year’s department representatives. And not to underestimate the insightful arti-cles, the vivid poetry, a little something for the artist to admire/critique, and of course being an engineering college we have something called techila for our techies to see. We got a lot of entries from our fellow students but we could only choose a handful. I would like to thank all for sending in their entries and made this year’s QUIET possible. I feel honored to be a part of this great tradition and hope this legacy is carried for-ward for years.

I would like to thank our wonderful teachers in charge who have guided us well and to our Magboard teams who have assisted us well and made QUIET` 14 possible.I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed presenting it.

Co-Convener & Editor

Quiet has something for all its readers. Well documented notes about how our college committees work, our much awaited fests, a little about your previous year’s depart-ment representatives.

4

Shivam Miglani

Karat Sidhu

QUIET saw an overwhelming number of entries this year and it was a joy and an honor to go through and (hopefully) select the best out of the lot. Most of you would have hoped for the magazine to come out earlier than this but certain restrictions forbade us from doing so. To say that this magazine and the very nature of articles/poems received have evolved overtime would be an understatement.

Our team whilst in the process of compilation saw new bench-marks set in the level of maturity in some of the pieces. Let there be no doubts that shortlisting the final draft was a daunt-ing task.

Let me not bore you though; I’ll conclude it while its short and sweet. Well, at least short.

It is always a pleasure to work for MagBoard, as a designer, as you get all the perks of attending the interesting meet-ings which enhance your personality, and get to know all the Magazine’s insights that they publish before hand. For me, QUIET’ 14 was a daunting task to design in my final year of MBA, but at the same time it was a lot of fun and what kept me going was the fact that it was for my own friends and college. For the geeky & creative guys out there, i used Adobe InDesign © CS 6 for desining this magazine, some special edit-ing of photographs was done using Adobe Photoshop© CS 6.Special Thanks to Mr. Pujit Singh Juneja, as his design of pre-vious year’s Quiet helped me get the inspiration when i was stuck.

Co-Convener

Designer

To say that this magazine and the very nature of articles/poems received, have evolved overtime would be an understatement.

5

TEAM MAGBOARD

Akshi Amneet Anika Saxena

Anisha Ashit Sharma Chirag Puri

Dilmil Singh Esha Pal Himanshu Goel

6

TEAM MAGBOARD

Kanwar Abhay Singh Karat Sidhu Ketika Gupta

Kushal Walia Mahima Sood Mehak Beri

Priyanka Pathania Pujit Singh Shivam Miglani

7

ARTICLES

10 Ch-Ch-Changes 12 The Grass is greener, where you water it

14 Delete the Dal, Download the Rajmah

16 The Twin Sides of Internet Activism

18 Can Panjab University become Asia’s #1 University?

20 Top 10 video games of all times

22 An Interesting Conversation 24 Life of a Grammar Nazi 26 Me, Right Now

28 Probability and large numbers

POETRY

31 Meaning of Life 32 Independent 33 My Story

34 The Ball 35 Mirth in Breach

36 Light Prevails

37 Leave it

38 To lose all but the child within 39 The Apple & the checkmate

ARTBEAT ..................... 40

COMMITTEES ............. 44

8

TECHILA

51 4K The next Big Thing 52 Argus 2 Retinal Prosthesis System

53 Could glow in the dark plants, light up our lives in the future?

54 Honda’s New i-DTEC engine

55 Dye and quantum dots sensitized Solar Cell

56 Meet iOS 8

58 Contributing to Open Source Community Software 59 3D Printing Will change the World 60 Cloud Computing

CROSSWORD .............. 62

9

Change is inevitable. Change is the next step to transformation. People are always in an uncomfortable position whenever they have to change. Be it the change for themselves, or the change that is necessary for the betterment of their friends and society.A need for Change always runs down a chill in the spine. It belea-guers the human mind, shudders the human spirit. Humans always have a tendency to sit back comfortably and refrain from change as far as possible, little knowing that it is the change which will unlock their next level, which will tap them into a zone they could never envisage to enter.Every-time people are closer to facing a changing situation, they

CH-CH-CHANGES

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN

WHO YOU ARE AND

WHO YOU WANT TO BE

IS WHAT YOU DO

“You don’t set out to build a wall. You just need to place the first brick as properly as possible. And you do it each day.”

-Will Smith

10

Dream Big, Start Small, And Act Now.”

procrastinate. Inside their heart, they know that they fear change and start to convince fellows as to why they evaded a particu-lar situation. The energy spent in citing the reasons for not being adaptable is much greater than the beginning would have requested.So why do people fear change so horrendously? The belief sys-tem one has formed over the years in his mind influences his actions. Most people think and view change as an effusive one time effort. This scares them to the core of their heart, and the

result is that either they never gather the courage to take a step, or try to achieve something mammoth in a single day fail-ing which they start feeling sub-verted ,marooned and as is the indigenous human habit ,quit in a jiffy. Imagine how variant the picture could have been if the change had been viewed as collection of small-small goals completed and acts performed each day.Will Smith once said: “You don’t set out to build a wall. You just need to place the first brick as properly as possible.

And you do it each day.” Each day, commit yourself to performing a small act, taking a small step that will take you closer to your goal. For the best starting, you can just write down the change you want to bring or the goal you want to achieve. Compliment yourself by saying you have completed the start-ing step. Again, what comes as the indispensable quality one needs to have, is the persistence. Little goals performed each day ,mark it - EACH DAY will definite-ly bring your biggest dreams and desires to life , which once you could have contemplated as something ominous and impos-sible. And I say this so concrete-ly because, I have myself got tempted into thinking to achiev-ing everything in a spur of a moment. Where and how I am different today, is that now I understand the importance of what I just wrote about - per-forming in little chunks, but per-sisting and doing each day. I end this article with a famous quote: Dream Big, Start Small, And Act Now.

-Sahil GargCSE 3rd year

11

It starts with a dream.Add faith,And it becomes a belief.Add action,And it becomes a part of life.Add perseverance,And it becomes a goal in sight.Add patience and time,And it ends with a dream come true.

-Doe Zantamata

12

“India’s youngest CEO’s: Shravan (10) and Sanjay Kumaran (12), two brothers from Chennai have cre-ated mobile phone applications that have witnessed over 10,000 downloads across the world already. Two tech savvy brothers Shravan and Sanjay Kumaran from Chennai have not yet completed school but are already co-founders and President (Shravan)/CEO (Sanjay) of Go Dimensions, a mobile applications firm. Studying in sixth and eighth grades, the Kumaran brothers have created mobile phone applications that have witnessed over 10,000 downloads across the world already. The duo has already designed four applications for the Apple store that have been down-loaded in over 20 countries.”Inspiring… Isn’t it? Most people dream about achiev-ing success but stay mediocre all their lives. There might be many justifications that people offer for their respective present conditions; their pasts, their obli-gations towards others, their destinies and so on. Yes, I agree you cannot always alter what destiny has in store for you; but I am of a strong belief that no matter what the situation might be, there is ALWAYS a choice. The onus is upon us how to react to whatever dear luck offers us. If you give your best and put in sincere efforts to achieve something, there’s nothing that can stop you from flying. As Robin Sharma says:“You were born into genius. Do not settle for mediocrity.”An old proverb says “the grass always seems greener on the other side” ; well I think the scenario rather is, that, the grass will be greener where you water it. It might always seem that others have got more opportunities to succeed, that they have an easier life, perhaps God was more kind to them. I don’t think so! Firstly, there is no point comparing your life to others, you have absolutely no idea what their journey in life has been all about. Secondly, it must always be kept in mind that the more efforts you put, the luckier you get. The more you water the blossoms of your dreams with your sweat, the more they shall bloom.Having said all of this, I am aware that these things are not as easy as they sound. It does take a lot of convic-

tion to follow what you dream, and fear does take over the initial enthusiasm to succeed. But then again, it is your life, and it is you who has to decide when to act and where to direct your life. Instead of sitting back and letting fear overcome your zeal to succeed, why not get up and try to reach for your dreams? No miracle is going to happen and you will have to work for your goals. Start small, make short term goals, and once you start achieving those short term goals, the big picture will soon form, just like you wanted it to be. As they say: “if you cannot run, walk. If you cannot walk, crawl. But always keep moving towards your goal.” Don’t you think life would be better once you know what you are aiming for? A life of purpose will transform every morning into a sea of opportunity to learn and move another inch closer to your dream!

It starts with a dream.Add faith,

And it becomes a belief.Add action,

And it becomes a part of life.Add perseverance,

And it becomes a goal in sight.Add patience and time,

And it ends with a dream come true.-Doe Zantamata

Do not be afraid anymore, wake up from your slumber of mediocrity and rise up to be the best versions of yourself. If you wouldn’t believe in yourself, then who else will? Work hard, because no hard work ever goes waste. The universe is kind and it always rewards you with excellent results if you put in excellent efforts. Always remember, what you give to the world, it will mirror it back to you. If you project an enthusiasm to succeed, you will attract all the resources and the opportunities to do so and will eventually soar. You have one life, so make every second count, because you are much more capable than you think!

Mehak Beri

THE GRASS IS GREENER WHERE YOU WATER IT

13

rudence of most people would certainly make a mockery of the statement. So I give you a moment of

astonishment. The phrase is quoted by a five year old kid of the sales man-ager of Dassault Systems, North India Division.Well, this is what ‘Technology’ can do to you!

What is the average download speed of a song at your place- 200kbps? 250kbps? Or more perhaps!

Your girlfriend puts up her status- “In

love with ROLLING IN THE DEEP”. You download at once the first torrent that pops up on torrentz.com only to find its remix version. As it is said in the language of ‘facebook status’ feeling exasperated aye? What next? Before you utter a single word and the file would be deleted by mere shift + delete and you’d download the next torrent with maximum seeds. NO BIG DEAL!

Only, a five year old wouldn’t realize that the same is not true for the food her mummy cooks for her.A hundred and fifty words down and

I’m clueless what this article is exactly about that I’ve chosen to pen down. (I literally wrote it in ink on a sheet of paper before making a .docx file of the same). Perhaps the only reason why I am PENNING IT DOWN is that I forgot my laptop charger in hostel cupboard, TV is not working (for I was careless enough to forget installing Set-Top Box post black out), it is a black out day for S.M.S and data pack validity is over & hence no WHATSAPP for me. Putting myself into my dad’s shoes, also an alumnus of PU, perhaps he would have been enjoying a game

DELETE THE DAL,

DOWNLOAD THE RAJMAH!

P

“When struggle begins twixt prudence and ego, prudence wins.” -Ogden Nash

14

of chess in Student Centre common room or maybe driving his wooden door Chevy Station Wagon on ‘Gerhi Route’.The difference between the two Walias is that those were his pass times with the limited resources he had. (Though, unlike me, his dad had given him a hot drive to woo the girls of Chandigarh.) And mine now are entirely different. Wonder what life would have been without HIS MAJESTY SIR GOOGLE! Or maybe, how would have one witnessed videos on a myriad of topics had You Tube not been any different from U-tube, then an omnipresent term in the brains of mechanical engineers.

We live in an era where we’ve ceased to look upon trains or cars, electricity or computers as marvels of science. Long back I read an article citing that the world had changed way more in past 150 years from the day of article being published than in prior 4000 years. It wouldn’t be a proliferation stating that world has changed all the

more from the date of the publication of article some ten fifteen years back. Such is the scenario that even before news of a technology spreads and goes into mass production its succes-sor is ready to hit the market.

The challenge today is not to invent something or develop a new technol-ogy but to develop the one which will sustain in the market. When the world says THAT IS THE ZENITH OF TECHNOLOGY! Prudence may agree to it but the ego of a 21st Century stu-dent would not. Hence, I’d end up by manipulating excessively the words of Ogden Nash :

I HOPE that when struggle beginsTwixt prudence and ego, Ego wins.

-KUSHAL WALIA (MECHANICAL-MBA 5th Year)

We live in an era where we’ve ceased to look upon trains or cars, electricity or computers as marvels of science. “

15

Internet activism is defined (by our trusty and all knowing friend wikipedia) as “the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, YouTube, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster communications by citizen movements and the delivery of local information to a large audience”.Sounds like a good thought doesn’t it , people cutting across social, religious and cultural divisions coming together to express their opinion , thoughts, dissatisfaction or admiration of a particular event but alas the truth isn’t as simple as this . Through the course of this article I intent to provide readers with an unbiased view of both sides of this phenomenon, bad and good. So let’s begin

I would like to end on a positive note so the bad firstThe most common negative so as to speak about internet activism is its ineffectiveness or rather its inability to translate into any real action , now don’t jump the gun and start thinking about the Arab spring, I will come to that in a minute. For the most part media campaigns don’t really translate into anything concrete and some of them are just for show .But if they were so useless why would anyone be involved in them???The answer to that is they provide us a simple easy way to bypass our guilty conscience, that is even if an event infuri-ates us, tugs at our heart string, actually makes a sit up and start to think ,what do we do ? We go online do a bit of rudi-

mentary research and then ‘like’ it in facebook, or retweet it on twitter, end of problem we think we have done our part , increased awareness and expressed ourselves all with one click of the button. Well we haven’t, what we have done is fooled ourselves into believing that we all of done the above. It might seem judgmental to you so let me give you an example; All of you might be aware of the Delhi gang rape incident, well post the crime a very common trend was seen that people changed their profile pictures on various social media to a black dot as a mark of protest, now most people did this to show their frustration at the ghastly state of affairs and to show solidarity with the victim, so they swapped their edited self clicks for the black dot, and there ends their protest, they move on with their daily life. This doesn’t

happen immediately but occurs right after the story had stopped playing on prime time news. These couch potato activists ‘like’ all the pages, ‘like’ all the pictures of protest events but did nothing in real life. There is a good chance that these hypocrites might have done the aforemen-tioned and then gone

back to their regular objectification of women. This is where the problems lie and as things stand these people are in large numbers.The other issue to deal with is content , in the course of a protest conversations get heated up , people tend to say stuff they wouldn’t otherwise , in the real world you can see a person’s reaction to your comment and can quickly determine if you have offended him , no such thing exists

THE TWIN SIDES OF

INTERNET ACTIVISMGOOD AND BAD SIDES OF THE INTERNET

16

in the virtual world. Also talking to someone face to face you are able to empathies with them get a better understanding of their point of view and key points that they are worried about by their tone of voice , not something that can easily be done by using our trusted social media.Also here I would like to mention that the inherent problem of the internet also plague internet activism, many times people tend to use it in ways to attack a specific community or religion or social group, alienating various groups and polarizing the opinions of people and thus undermining the very idea of bring people together which is the backbone of internet activism.The last and perhaps most worrying problem is the lack of a solution, it has been seen that in many campaign there is a protest against something but with absolutely no concrete alternative plan .This sort of protest is of no consequence and eventually fizzle out but not before grabbing their share of the headlines.

Now the flip side: There is no arguing in the sheer ability of the internet to pull people together , mass mobilization of crowds have never been so easy and due the vast amount of data on the net there is barely any topic on which informa-tion cannot be obtained .Given these conditions internet activism takes a whole new meaning. If utilized properly the internet can provide a platform for discussion that would be unparallel in both size and variety of opinion, it can be used to filter ideas and to refine them

resulting in a far more organized and focused protest, that takes into account the opinion of a large section of society and also considers their apprehensions .If this is done before taking the movement to the streets and to the government it exponentially increases the chances of success.It is also worth mentioning that the ability of the social media to spread a message is unmatched and more impor-tantly unbiased. It has been seen that regular printing and digital media tend take sides (voluntarily or not) on many issues and at times distort the actual event. Through the social media you can ideally get “the story straight from the horse’s mouth”. This is particularly important were governments or other large organizations try to choke the free flow of information for petty gain or to hide their own incompetence.There is no better example for this than the Arab spring (told you I would get back to it), in which multiple protest against autocratic rulers and governments, erupted across the Middle Eastern countries.

I would like to conclude by saying that the above are broad-ly the various points in favor and against internet activism. Consider each point on its merit , weigh the pros and cons ,then come a logical decision about where you stand on the topic , but most importantly readers ‘Be aware’.

-Abhay Singh(Biotech- 4th Year)

17

eaving behind the premier Indian Institutes of Technology, which have so far represent-ed India in the global academic rankings, Panjab University has once again emerged

as the topmost institution of higher education in the country in the Times Higher Education World Rankings 2014-15. The university has shared this ranking with the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), which is a deemed university. The University, spread over 550 acres in the heart of the city beautiful, is a wonderful assortment of cours-es of all hues and fields, viz. Law, Sciences, Applied Sciences, Engineering, Management, Medicine, Arts, Fine Arts, Languages, etc. The facilities include the AC Joshi Library, WiMax, PU ground, Olympic size pool,

and Student Center. The amalgamation of various fields into one, makes it such a wonderful campus. This said and stated, there are several barriers that hold back the performance of students and discour-age students from entering various other avenues that one tries to develop and nurture in the college days, the chief barrier being the Student Elections. It is not, the elections , per se, that are a bane, but the involvement of politics in every stage of University life- from the allotment of hostels to participating in events to organizing fests. In a place with facilities that the students can avail themselves of, the lack of information and interest in students diminishes their chances of succeeding. To add to the woos of students; is a stringent and slow

CAN PANJAB UNIVERSITY

BECOME ASIA’S #1 UNIVERSITY

L

(A part of the article featured in The Times of Chandigarh)

18

administrative work going on in the university, with too much of paper work still in use. The stu-dents have to travel all across the 550 acres (disadvantage of the big size) to get their work done. The problem specially arises for stu-dents who study in departments present in sector 25 and do not have a vehicle for commuting. The procurement of hostel and college admission, library I-card, DMCs, transcripts, etc. is something PU can work upon.Similarly, just as departments of

Physics, Chemistry, etc. are open all around the clock, the Engineering departments, their labs & library facilities too must be provided in off-schedule timings so that stu-dents can make most of their time at the University.The aforesaid points are only a few of those which could only help PU become the Varsity that every student of alumni of PU dreamed of to be.

Kushal Walia(MECHANICAL-MBA 5th Year)

Panjab University has

once again emerged

as the topmost institu-

tion of higher educa-

tion in the country

in the Times Higher

Education World

Rankings 2014-15.”

STUDENT ELECTIONS STUDENT CENTRE CANTEEN

19

Mortal Kombat: Mortal Kombat has

been synonymous with fighting games.

The characters of Mortal Kombat like

Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Kitana, Raiden etc

haven’t been changed. Their produc-

ers at Netherrealm Studios have always

played up to its strengths. The twisted ways of inflicting damage

to your opponent through normal gameplay or the vivid fatali-

ties makes it perhaps the most well known fighting game ever.

TOP 10 VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME

10.

Assassins Creed: Assassins Creed is what

you get when you combine a stealth

based open world game with a lesson

in global history. Ubisoft’s best-selling

franchise runs over 8 games long with

Assassins Creed Unity expected to release

soon. Although my favorite will still be the first Assassins Creed,

it has paved the way for a variety of other stealth oriented open

world games the most recent one being Watch dogs.

9.Video games have become every guy’s best friend and their parents arch neme-sis in a surprisingly short period of time. But by examining the trend with which popularity in gaming is growing it is in-evitable to consider it a force to reckon with. Out of hundreds of gaming titles which I have played over the years here are the ten that affected me the most.

20

Need For Speed- Most Wanted: Released

long back in 2005, this was the game that

set the bar for all future street-racing

games to be made along with Burnout

Paradise. The game featured intense

police chases and a challenging black list

while testing all aspects of your in-game driving.

Call of Duty - Black Ops: One in many of

the Call of Duty franchise, this game’s

story was perhaps the only thing more

remarkable than the glitch-free game-

play for that time. This game stays true

to its first person shooter format and

features a variety of different environmental and technical chal-

lenges which you have to master to beat the game.

7.

8.

2.

6.Pokemon: A favourite as a game as well

as a TV show, the game features an origi-

nal rpg gameplay where you train your

pokemon, traverse the forests and gyms

and the whole pokemon world and battle

with a variety of trainers. The combat

system is all about strategy and the game keeps you busy for a

long time.

5.Contra: An old-classic and the game that

lead to a whole lot of 2d sidescrollers,

this was everyone’s favorite game as a

kid. There wasn’t much of a story but the

game-play and the excitement that one

felt playing that game at that age is too

much for words to express.

FIFA: Every football an’s go-to game,

FIFA has been around for a long time and

with each year it improves its game-play

even more. FIFA is the best game to play

with a friend, it does not have a story to

interest you in but just serves as a test of

your strategy in football and how much time you are willing to

devote to playing it.

4.

3.GTA San Andreas: GTA San Andreas was

the game to play 5 years ago and even

now it’s one of the best games to play. CJ

and Grove Street kind of grow on you and

whether you are chasing after missions

or just blowing up civilians it was and

continues to remain one of the most fun games ever.

Halo: Featuring a rich story-line, amazing

graphics and a receptive and engaging

game-play, this game is the reason why

many people bought an Xbox. Halo is

perhaps the best first person shooter

game there is although I’m sure some

people may disagree with me but the game is almost perfect

in all ways.

1.GTA 5: For a moment lets forget about

GTA 5’s missions, it’s story and it’s

game-play. If you just look at the game

it is like watching a movie where you

get to control the characters. The GTA

5 universe has everything whether you

want to customize your dog’s leash or play golf or jump on a

train on a dirt-bike, this game will blow your mind with what it

has manged toi achieve every single time you play it. Everything

inside the game has been so carefully thought of, this game will

stay on top of my list for a while.

CHIRAG PURIMAGBAORD

21

AN INTERESTINGCONVERSATION

n atheist professor of philosophy once spoke to his class on the problem science has with GOD The Almighty. He asks on of his new students to stand, and see what happened.....

Professor: So you believe in GOD?Student: Absolutely, Sir.Professor: Is GOD good?Student: Sure.Professor: GOD all powerful?Student: Yes.Professor: My brother died of cancer even though he prayed to GOD to heal him. Most of us would attempt to help others who are ill. But GOD did not. How is this GOD good then? Hmm? (The student is silent.)Professor: You can’t answer, can you? Let’s start again, young fellow. Is GOD good?Student: Yes.Professor: Is Satan good?Student: No.Professor: Where does Satan come from?Student: From...GOD...Professor: That’s right. Tell me son, is there evil in this world?Student: Yes.Professor: Evil is everywhere, isn’t it? And GOD did make everything. Correct?Student: Yes.Professor: So who created evil?(The Student does not answer) Professor: Is there sickness? Immortality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things exist in the world, don’t they?Student: Yes, sir.Professor: So who created them?(The Student still has no answer)Professor: Science says you have 5 senses you use to identify and observe the world around u? Tell me, son......Have you ever seen GOD?Student: No, sir.Professor: Tell us if you have ever heard GOD?

A

THIS IS A TRUE

STORY, AND THE

STUDENT WAS NONE

OTHER THAN A.P.J.

ABDUL KALAM, THE

FORMER PRESIDENT

OF INDIA.

22

Student: No, sir.Professor: Have you ever felt your GOD, tasted your GOD, smell GOD? Have you ever had any sensory perception of GOD for that matter?Student: No, sir? I’m afraid I haven’t?Professor: Yet you still believe in Him?Student: Yes.Professor: According to empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?Student: Nothing, I only have my faith.Professor: Yes. Faith. And that is the problem sci-ence has...Student: Professor, is there such a thing as heat?Professor: Yes.Student: And is there such a thing as cold?Professor: Yes.Student: No sir. There isn’t (The lecture theatre becomes very quiet with turn of events).Student: Sir, you can have lots of heat, even more heat, super heat, mega heat, white heat, a little or no heat. But we don’t have anything called cold. We can hit 458 degrees below zero which is no heat, but we can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold. Cold is only a word we use to describe absence of heat. We can’t mea-sure cold. Heat is energy. Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it(There is pin-drop silence in the lecture theatre).Student: What about darkness Professor? Is there such a thing as darkness?Professor: Yes. What is night if there isn’t dark-ness?Student: Your wrong again, sir. Darkness is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal light, bright light, flashing light....But if you have no light constantly, you have nothing and it is called darkness, isn’t it? In reality dark-ness isn’t real. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?Professor: So what is the point your making, young man?Student: Sir, my point is your philosophical prem-ise is flawed.Professor: Flawed? Can you explain how?Student: Sir you’re working on the premise of

duality. You argue there is life and then there is death, a good GOD and a bad GOD. You’re view-ing the concept of GOD as something finite, something we can measure. Science can’t even explain a thought. It uses electricity and magne-tism, but has never seen much less fully under-stood each one. To view death as the opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death can’t exist as a substantive thing. Death is not the opposite of life: just the absence of it. Now tell me, Professor do you teach your STUDENTS that they have evolved from a monkey?Professor: If you are referring to the natural evo-lutionary process, yes, of course, I do.Student: Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?(The Professor shakes his head with a smile, beginning to realize where the argu-ment is going.)Student: So no one has ever observed the pro-cess of evolution at work and can’t even prove this process is an ongoing endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you not a scientist but a preacher? (The class is in uproar.)Student: Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen Professor’s brain? (The class breaks out in laughter.)Student: Is there anyone here who has ever heard Professor’s brain, felt it, touched or smelt it? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable, demon-strable protocol, science says you have no brain, with all due respect, sir, how do we then trust your lectures, sir.(The room is silent. The professor stares at the STUDENT, his face unfathomable). Professor: I guess you will have to take them on faith, son.Student: That is it sir....The link between man and GOD is FAITH. That is all that keeps things moving and alive.

Jasneet Singh(IT 4th Year)

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rammar Nazi has taken upon his/her shoulders the responsibility of bringing about a grammatical revolution in the lives of friends,

acquaintances, anonymous people on the internet, emails, text messages, sign boards, newspapers, magazines, exam papers and almost every other typographic or handwrit-ten piece of evidence found guilty of threat to the usage of the English language. Even though a Grammar Nazi’s presence is annoy-ing (especially over the internet), it is not easy to be honoured as one.

Since society is starting to come to terms with Grammar Nazis, they are extensively mocked by being used as proofreaders in situations as simple as writing status updates or send-ing tweets. Help a friend with spellings once and he will treat you as his dictionary since you happen to know everything. Did you notice how the use of since in the previous sentence is wrong because because and since cannot be used interchangeably? You may be uninterested in reading this and knowing more but you’re not disinterested in know-ing that which and that are supposed to be used differently in qualifying using which and restricting using that. “I will ensure that I read

books that increase my grammatical under-standing which I can buy cheaply from the second hand book shop in sector 15”

As technology played its role (not it’s role) in shortening our sentences by enforcing unnecessary abbreviations, acronyms and ini-tialisms (yes they are all different) the duties of a Grammar Nazi grew manifold and oppor-tunities to flaunt were reduced to irritation by ‘seeing ppl tlk lik dis’. All the grammatical edu-cation that they had had, had had little effect on them at all. Yes, English is so marvelous that four consecutive ‘had’s make complete sense but affect is a verb and effect is the noun that should have been there instead.

You have fewer chances of making mistakes if you knew that few is used in quantifiable quantities and less is to be used in hypotheti-cal situations like chances, success, hatred etc. Remember anyone who says that you might have a chance is kidding you with a sarcastic prediction to your failure, the correct word to imply possibility is may. The month May should always have a capital M and so should names of all months and weekdays.

There is yet another hindrance in the life of a

LIFE OF A GRAMMAR NAZI

G

AS TECHNOLOGY SHORTENED OUR

SENTENCES, DUTIES OF GRAMMAR NAZI GREW MANIFOLD

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Grammar Nazi and that is the Muphry’s Law. As the name suggests, Muphry’s is a typo for Murphy’s and so is the thing the law is based on: “If you write anything criticis-ing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have writ-ten”

This whole article has been criticising anonymous read-ers and a mistake or two will be spotted in the spirit of Muphry’s Law, so apologies for that. Let us not dig the unspoken grave of obnox-ious spellings and illegible

pronunciations and leave it for another day and focus on grammar for now.

Grammar Nazis neither con-sider themselves superior to others nor do they correct anyone for seeking plea-sure in the induced insult. Then again the pleasure of pointing out the difference between your rubbish and you’re rubbish cannot be compared to any other.

-Vaibhav NanchahalIT 3rd year

If you write any-thing criticising editing or proof-reading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written”

[According to Murphy’s Law]

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India is growing at a fast pace and we all can see its effects all around us. Over the years since our independence we have reached this state with immense hard work and sacrifices on the part of billions who have made all this possible. In fact we should be thankful for we can enjoy the life we are living. Precisely this is the point of this article; to appreciate our life and use it for betterment of others around us.

Wherever you might be reading this piece just have a look around your-self for a second. I am sure you don’t see pristine cleanliness, but in fact wrappers strewn here and there. So what to do now ? Most people, like me earlier, would just walk past it because it has become a part of our

ME, RIGHT NOW !!

If not me, then who ? If not now, then when ?”

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culture. Isn’t it ? Yes it has...let us face the harsh reality and accept this fact. Take another example, you must have seen small little children working in construction or in your canteen at the hos-tel. Here too we overlook them and just move on with our nor-mal life. And then whenever the question of development crops up in any debate among our friends ‘educating children’ is the first point which we come up with, and that too with innu-merous examples. There are so many other problems that our country is struggling with

but all of us have become bla-tantly immune to all of this.

I am sure all of us want to change but want someone else to lead us. Why wait for someone ? Why don’t you and I become the torch bearers for others ? Let us begin. Right now. Pick up any wrapper you see around you and put it in a dustbin. Teach a small under privileged child a small little chapter. Just make a start ! You will see that there is nothing to be ashamed about in picking up a wrapper and teach-ing a child will not waste your

time. In fact others will see you and get inspired. And the sat-isfaction that comes with it is absolutely free !! Try it once, you will feel the difference.

We are the future of India and it is our responsibility that we make our country the next superpower. For it to become a reality we all have to join hands and lead each other towards excellence. Just make a small contribution to the society around you in any way you want to because you, my dear friend, must appreciate the life you are living. We can afford the movies, the Pizzas and much more but most in India can’t ! Can you give up your luxuries for some hours and share them with those who can’t even dream about the beautiful life you are living. Just ask this question to your-self: “If not me, then who ? If not now, then when ?” I believe you will have your answer.

Dilmil Singh Soach(IT 4th Year)

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et this article take you on a journey of the marvelous statistical figures derived from a pack of cards. Yes, it

is going to take you back to the much dreaded concept of probability which haunted us during IIT/AIEEE prepara-tions. Oh and the fundamental prin-ciple of counting along with a little bit of permutations and combinations too, watch out.

Let us assume that we have in our possession a well shuffled deck of playing cards. What is the most dif-ficult combination to come across? Inspired by Bollywood gamblers, some would say three aces. When we look at it, the probability of drawing three aces from a deck of 52 cards is just 1 in 5525 which equates to 0.018

% of the times. Seems difficult doesn’t it? But wait. What if I told you that since the inception of playing cards, a well shuffles deck of cards has never repeated itself. Go on, shuffle it now. Well, this has never happened in his-tory and will never happen again in another random arrangement. Here’s why:

Going back to the fundamental prin-ciple of counting, for 52 distinct cards, the number of arrangements comes out to a very large number. Denoted by 52! the number is in fact larger than you can imagine:

80,658,175,170,943,878,571,660,636,856,403,766,975,289,505,440,883,277,824,000,000,000,000

The number of atoms on this earth is less than this number, and so is the number of stars in the observable and non-observable universe. Not even close.

You hold in your hand such a gigan-tic number which has left Avogadro’s number jealous. Just to give you an idea of why a deck of card will never repeat, let us take the age of the uni-verse since the big bang in seconds, multiply it with the current popula-tion of the world, and assume that each individual is shuffling a deck of cards every second. How many differ-ent combinations do we get?

3,026,309,202,000,000,000,000,000,000Since the Big Bang to this very

PROBABILITY AND

LARGE NUMBERS

L

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moment, 7 billion individuals shuffling different deck of cards will never even get close to reproducing arrange-ments in this simple deck of cards. If every star in our galaxy had a trillion planets, each with a trillion people living on them, and each of these people has a trillion packs of cards and somehow they manage to make unique shuffles 1,000 times per second, and they’d been doing that since the Big Bang, they’d only just now be starting to repeat shuffles.

The same can be said about a classroom of 52 students. Yes there are 8x10^67 different ways in which you can sit in the classroom and yet you always choose the backbenches!

A classroom reminds me of the birthday paradox which in simple words states that: In a group of people there exists at least one pair of individuals with the same birthday. This statement holds true for a minimum of 23 students constituting a group ( with 50% probability of a repeating birth-date) and obviously attains a 100% when dealing with groups larger than 365. Let us assume the case of 50 students in a class. The probability of at least two students having the same birthday can be calculated by first calcu-lating the probability of NO two people sharing the same birthday:

365! / ((365-n)! * 365^n)substituting n for 50 we get the answer: 0.029 i.e. just a 2.9% chance of getting all distinct birthdays in a class of 50.

Therefore the chance of getting at least one pair of match-ing birthdays rises to 97.1% which is almost always true and this probability climbs exponentially to 100 as we approach 366 days. Try it in your class and you will know that is in fact more difficult to have distinct birthdays than have repeat-ing ones!

The science of probability which I thought was useless can actually predict everything based on numbers. Even the most vaguely distributed and random phenomenon have a pattern and probability deals with finding order in chaos. Even things like guessing on a true false test has its own probability of getting all answers matching to the answer key of the teacher (1/2n ) where n is the number of ques-tions.

This does not mean that we will always follow a set of rules on which the universe works, which would make the test a lot boring. There is one thing which affects probability in a test apart from actual preparation and that is intuition. The feeling that we get, “Dude! This is the answer, I can feel it!”. Since science cannot explain this, no ‘dude’ should ever delve into unexplained phenomenon that is beyond the scope of our understanding.

Vaibhav NanchahalIT 3rd year

Even the most vaguely distributed and random phenomenon have a pattern and probability deals with finding order in chaos.”

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P O E T R Y

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The meaning of life is hard to find

The curiosity of knowing it is in every mind

Life is not a play or a show

This is something only a few can know

Sometimes it feels like a bed of roses

But its loss is worst than all losses

Sometimes it feels like a colourless painting

Every second seems so hard you feel like fainting

Sometimes it feels like an ocean of troubles frozen over me

No matter how far I swim its end I can’t see

Sometimes it feels like the bad dream has ended

But then I realise another one has landed

I’m in a dilemma .I’m so confused

Nothing turns out to be what I presume

I keep searching for the answer that I can’t find

I sometimes wonder if this confusion is in every mind…

Shivani Dhingra

IT 3rd Year

P O E T R YMeaning of life

31

Independent doesn’t mean alone.

Independent is a mindset, a focus, it’s working to stand on your own legs without having to lean. No one is an island, we are all partially a

product of the environment, and the people we’re around.

Independent doesn’t mean selfish.

Putting yourself first isn’t selfish either, taking care of yourself puts you in the best position to help others. You can only be support for

others once you can support yourself.

Independent doesn’t mean separate.

Even the pillars that hold up a ceiling, though work together, need distance between them. As part of a collective & community, your individual strengths are what you contribute to the larger cause, whether it be for a population, or your relationship with another.

Independent is not threatening.

Don’t look for people to depend on you, and don’t depend on oth-ers, connect with people & grow together, and if those seasons end, be

strong enough to move on.

Independent means you’re expecting no one but yourself to create the world you want, and who better to build it, than the architect, you.

Aman RanaMechanical 4th year

INDEPENDENT My Story

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With the dreams in my eyes,With the desires brimming high.

It started 20 months back I surmise. Once upon a midnight dreary,

fingers cramped and vision bleary,system manuals piled high

and wasted paper on the floor,longing for the warmth of bed sheets,still I sat there, doing spreadsheets.

With fingers pale and eyes attending, slowly toward the keyboard bending

Longing for a happy ending,There I sat, distraught, exhausted,

by my own machine accostedDeep into the dark screen peering,

long I sat there wondering, fearing doubtingAnd then I saw a glorious insight,

Opportunities come through the nightA gasp of Joy enlightened to the very core

Because it was about rising passion and more.

Lovejot singhIT 3rd year

My Story

33

The Ball Mirth in BreachRed is the color of life? she thoughtAs she looked down at her gown,Flowing graciously in her parlourAs the mirror shared her frown;

“Time to celebrate this success of mine”Giving one last look into the mirror,

Before she walked down;The guests are here already

“My friends waiting to celebrate me”And as she stood at the dais on the stairs beneath her,

A realisation dawned;She looked at the figures standing in her hall,

And it did not take a mentalist’s mind to crack them down;Some echoed of jealousy,

While others were ostentatious,Many reeked of strong desires, and many of desperationBut a face with admiration was nowhere to be found;

No face; everyone wore a mask to her ball,She anxiously scanned those masks

To find a face in the crowd;She stood at the top

Shining beneath the moonlight,Thinking to herself

“I might as well dance with the ghosts beneath the ground”;She never went down that night

Never exchanged greetings,Her eyes,

Scared and moist till dawn;And with the first ray of golden light

That illuminated her gown,She heard herself say

“Red is the color of fire, blood and passionWhich I’ll wear everyday

And have a ball till its ambers light up every square inch of the ground”;And now, even after she is gone, her halls echo with music

One can see her floating down the stairsTo celebrate her success every night

To the mellifluous ghost sounds;She walks under the moonlit sky

And celebrates her eternityIn her alluring red gown.

Namrata KashyapCSE(3rd year)

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Ominous looked the weathered gapWaiting for even the most gentle tap

It seemed the soul was fast asleepDrifting further down that inconsolable

Slope at a distance appears steeperThan a transvestite creep

Humourous, maybe, to some it may seemThere feels no juice in life

And milk looks deprived of creamGloomy days are fast approaching

But no silver lining isVisible in the clouds encroaching

Bereft love, care, and lust I standWaiting for life’s final nail in theCoffin that already looks so grand

Little hope will anyone foreseeJust a tiniest of sign is all I ask

Is it not virtuous of even bestowing that to me?

Karat SidhuBiotech(4th Year)

Mirth in Breach

35

Entangled in the dark,Shunning the resistance of the devil’s own ark.

Comes a tale of a worthy manWho hoped to bring peace to his clan.

Never had someone heard of a swordLike the one he bore,

Never has a tale come any closeTo the one just being told

Conflicts, bloodsheds aroseLike petals on a beautiful white rose

Devil himself was afraidLike a toddler is from a sour marmalade

And thus the Great War beganThe fate of the world solely in courage’s hand

And the view from where I stood wasOne that was hard to narrate,

Appearing as if a leechHad opened hell’s very own gate

Blood, venom, spit and sweatLay on every few inches of soilThe dead lay peaceful; injured

Moaning after years of war and toil.

It was time for war to endBoth the good and the devil began their final descend

Matching each other with every blowUntil the goodness finally began to glow

With every blunt thud a huge cheer was heard untilThe mighty sword struck last time

To put dark behind the cheerful chime.

The usual routine followed andEverything was cheerful and gay

Well folks, I hate to do this But that’s all for today!!!!

Karat SidhuBiotech 4th Year

Light Prevails

36

Light Prevails

They said I could not and then I thought what I got

by finding it impossibleI found no light in the gulliblesoul of false fears and the day haunted me for the worst may

meet to call me a failureThey gripped my usual leisureBut one fine day I woke upTo get ready for the jump

into the fantasy of triumph and shineI took the chance more ‘mine’

I gave my full and threw ‘those’out of my soul of ‘rose’

Now, they say “You did it”So when ‘they’ say, just leave it.

PreetiIT 3rd year

Leave It

37

As years pass by; people growNot just in height and weightOr in capabilities and earnings

But also from innocent kids to ‘adults’I do not know if that is a good thing

But the world wants so & so does natureAnd nature never did betray

The heart that loved herIf it is a good thing to grow

Why do we miss our childhoodWhy do we wish to get rid of the complexity

And yet, why do we, in thirst of success,Lose the every bit of innocence left

The questions are not to be answeredJust ones to be pondered upon

As I am no one to change you or natureIn this quest for life that you have embarked upon

I am merely the voice of a soulAnd I seek the truth and also speak it

So I, who never really lost it, ask myselfHas the world really forgotten itLife is the noun for the verb live

To love, care, enjoy, err, & forgiveTo be the children of God that he sent us to be

To lose all but the child within

-Kushal WaliaMechanical-MBA(5th year)

To Lose all but the Child within

The Apple and Checkmate

38

To Lose all but the Child within

The battle is lost ,And soon will be the war ,

It was just a bite ,But now its a deep scar,

She lies fallen ,There is no one to save her today,No dwarfs that are pure ,

No prince so sure,The apple lies besides her,

She couldn’t resist,Just a bite,

And Innocence lost the war,Amongst the corrupted ,She stands true but poisoned,

She is Waiting ,For death or her saviour,

Its all the same,Just end the game ,

Check and mate.

Himanshu Goel IT(2nd Year)

The Apple and Checkmate

39

ARTBEAT

SHIVAM MIGLANI (CSE-MBA 5TH YEAR) SATYA VRAT SHUKLA (CSE 4TH YEAR)

PRIYANKA PATHANIA (BIOTECH 4TH YEAR) PRIYANKA PATHANIA (BIOTECH 4TH YEAR)

40

SATYA VRAT SHUKLA (CSE 4TH YEAR)

SHIVAM MIGLANI (CSE-MBA 5TH YEAR)

KARAN VEER KOHLI (BIOTECH 4TH YEAR)

KARAN VEER KOHLI (BIOTECH 4TH YEAR)

YOSHITA DAWAR (IT 2ND YEAR)

PRIYANKA PATHANIA (BIOTECH 4TH YEAR)

ARTBEAT

41

SATYA VRAT SHUKLA (CSE 4TH YEAR)

SHIVAM MIGLANI (CSE-MBA 5TH YEAR)

DAMANBIR SHEKHON (ECE 4TH YEAR)

ANSHIKA PARASHAR (BIOTECH 4TH YEAR)

ARTBEAT

42

CHIRAG PURI(IT 4TH YEAR)

MANMEET KALSI (IT 4TH YEAR)

KARAN VEER KOHLI (BIOTECH 4TH YEAR)

AMAN RANA (MECHANICAL 4TH YEAR)

ARTBEAT

43

The Alumni Affairs Office was set up in March, 2013 under the able guidance of the Director, Prof Renu Vig. In just a couple of weeks of its inception, the office was operational with its first newsletter already sent out to the alumni through the database collected from UIET’s office. To attain complete and correct details of each and every graduate from the college, a survey was launched. Through this survey, the office has been able to attain the data-base of over 1000 alumni who once walked the campus.Physically, the office occupies a small space next to the old library but it has played a substantial role in building relations with alumni and getting them back to the campus for further growth and development of the college.The Alumni Affairs Office is run and maintained by a 25 member student team led by Mr. Viresh Goyal and Mr. Sahil Gupta, the team leaders of the Student Team for Alumni Relations (STARs), under the guidance of 2 external consultants- Mr. Sahil Dewan and Mr. Deepit Gupta of FuturEd Consulting. A 10 member faculty team supervises alumni events and activities through their pragmatic assistance.

Brand Promotion Committee popularly called BPC was officially founded in 2011. BPC is 10th and youngest UTECHNOS Committee of UIET, Panjab University. Around 2 years ago, some spirited young minds got together with a sole aim in mind, i.e. to create a group that will be able to help UIET develop and build its name and grow as a BRAND. The Branding group was formed because there is a lot of potential in UIET and a lot of scope to improve. We believe we could actually make a difference.We believe we could make students develop a belief in them and in UIET, give them an alternative to undesirable means like cribbing, politics. We believe, we understand the genuine problems of the students and can provide them

solutions by proper official means.BPC help, encourages and coordinates with student initiatives in UIET. The core responsibilities of BPC include the full-fledged management of publicity campaigns of prestigious events (like GOONJ, AAVISHKAR, NATIONAL CONCLAVE, etc.) being held in UIET; developing healthy external relations with Media/Companies; mobilizing Alumni Relations; filling surveys of international college rankings. BPC recently created a new branch named campus enhancement which is responsible for cleanliness in college premises and enhancement of campus beauty by drawing Graffiti on the walls of campus. Another cause that has been a major driving force is the need to provide students and faculty with eas-ily accessible and relevant information about latest news, events, official announcements, reminders of conference deadlines & notices of upcoming seminars in UIET through innovative online and offline platforms like Facebook, Twitter, One-Stop Bulletino, YouTube, etc. in a timely manner. We do NOT CURSE the system we CHANGE the system accordingly..!!

Committees

ALUMNI AFFAIRS

BRAND PROMOTION COMMITTEE

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Committees

TRAINING AND PLACEMENT CELL

The training and placement cell of UIET has now evolved to become one of the most instrumental com-mittees in guiding the future of the students towards the right direction. The initiatives taken by the TPC and a dedicated team of students have taken the placement scenario to new heights in past two years. With some of the topmost organisations like Deloitte, ZS Associates, ZScaler, Mu-Sigma, Nagarro and many other organisations have been recruiting on campus. The placement cell has always sup-ported the students in their overall personality development so that the students can handle the pres-sure not only in academics but also during the time of their placements by instilling confidence and self belief. Various kinds of workshops and seminars by the students of TPC are regularly held throughout the session giving a lot of exposure to the students about the trends and working knowhow of the professional world. The committee is headed by the training and placement officer Dr.Sarabjeet Singh whose experience has come to the fore in organising successful placements drives in the recent times, and guidance by him has come of a great benefit for the students to make right choices about their future. With one of the best working hierarchies and exposure to students in many aspects of manag-ing the committee gives a fair deal of idea, what to expect once you are in the industry. T.P.C could be an instrumental component in the learning of the students.

The UIET chapter of IEEE is an exemplary organisation, which connects and spreads the word about all the latest technological developments concerned to electronics and electrical engineering, and gives a platform to the students to put forth their bright ideas and inculcate innovative spirit. Originally associ-ated to the IEEE organisation based in NEW YORK, U.S.A, the IEEE chapter of UIET is well managed by the current students of senior years, as there are com-petitions and workshops held on regular basis to promote greater awareness and knowledge among the students. A range of events organised by the IEEE also feature presentation of ideas, research work and projects that have taken the organisation forward and is providing one of the most creative platforms for the students to be in sync with a plethora of issues and challenges faced in the field of Electronics and Electrical Engineering. An ideal platform for students looking forward to learning anything and everything beyond their course work.

I EEE

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The Society of biological engineers is an AICHE (American institute of chemical engineers) community with multiple chapters spread around the world. SBE UIET hold the distinction of being the first Asian chapter of SBE.SBE UIET was founded in 2009 and is a semi autonomous organization which financially dependent on the funds collected during membership drive.It also perhaps the only college committee to boast of an exclusive web-site which was launched last year and one of the only two committees to actually have two annual publication .

It is involved at almost every major college fest at some level or another .The organization also conducts are variety of event around the year, including trips to various research institutes around the city and an annual educational trip out of station. They conduct a variety of events with varying themes ranging from forensic to bioprocess technology to general aptitude and logic reasoning; for example flagship event “Moblie quiz” which was a witnessed participation over 1500 participants last year. Due to the nature of the organization students are involved in a diverse array of task ranging marketing to publicity to event management as well as allowing them to better understand the true depth of their field. This exposure of students to various aspects of work has allowed the organization to grow tremendously over the years and is reflected in the fact that the alumni are present in a wide array of institutes ranging from scientific university and institutes such as IIT Delhi, New York university, UC Irvine to management institutes such as IIFT ( Indian institute of foreign trade) Delhi as well corporate giants such as Infosys.

MagBOARD is the official magazine board of UIET. We publish the two most widely awaited magazines in the college, i.e. QUIET and VINE (the annual college yearbook). But in truth MagBOARD is so much more; it’s a family; a coming together of likeminded individuals on a common platform of mutual learning.From holding debates to quizzes to treasure hunts, this committee has it all. One of the most integral components of MagBOARD is the compila-tion and publication of VINE each year wherein the final year students get to cherish this final piece of their memorable college experience. The other journal i.e.

Committees

SOC IETY OF B IOLOGICAL ENGINEERS

MAGBOARD

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Public Relations and Tours Committee, an integral part of the UTECHNOS, is committed to engage students of our college in active participation with our surroundings to promote UIET and establish our college’s name in the society. PRT Committee organizes various social activities such as blood donation camps, eco-drives, awareness initiatives, etc which have been hugely successful over the last years. Our another major work is to give the students a flavour of college life by organizing tours and trips to various locations throughout India. PRT Committee’s UIET Adventure Club has been started with a vision to promote the spirit of adventure, love for nature and thrill of exlor-ing something new around us. Apart from social activities and tours,

the committee aims to create a buzzing environment in the college by organizing various fun activities throughout the year in the campus. We believe that youth of our college has tremen-dous potential so PRT has many new activities lined up for the upcoming year which are aimed at making our college a fun, creative, enthralling and enriching experience for all our fellow mates !

Committees

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND TOUR COMMITTEE

QUIET (and TEQUILA) consists of entries (articles, poems, paintings, etc.) both technical and non-technical from the entire college. The committee initiates some of the most popular events during the annual college fest ‘GOONJ’ like the mindboggling ‘Word-Mole’ to the highly competitive ‘INQUIZZITIVE’ to the much talked-about debate ‘SPEAK-OUT’. One of the most heavily participated events during the fest, ‘3-IDIOTS-The treasure hunt’ is also conducted by us. These events garner the most participation and hype during the fest and the attendees range from places in and around the tri-city as well as other top universities in the area.In the recent past MagBOARD has been integral in organizing debating sessions open to non-members as well; like most of its activities. MagBOARD envisions to create an environment to foster and promote intelligent conversations without being too pedantic. To realize this, there are regular updates on the wordpress blog maintained by its members.

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We need an alternate to the polluting, noisy and inconvenient engines and thus we have the annual inter-collegiate design-cum-fabrication automotive competition, EFFI-CYCLE. It is an acronym for Efficient-Cycle and serves justice to its name. Participating team have to make a three-wheeled, two-seated, hybrid vehicle which is capable of running simul-taneously and alternatively on human power (pedal) and electric power (from a battery). EFFI-CYCLE has successfully been conducted for 4 years by the Society of Automotive Engineers Northern India Section (SAE NIS) and why should 2014 be any different?

The seed for EFFI-CYCLE 2014 was laid in February when registration lines were opened to welcome teams to compete for this much coveted green-engineering competition. In no time at all, registrations started flowing in from all over India and a record-breaking figure of more than 250 willing

teams was reached. The first evaluation of the designs took place at the two different venues (North and South India) in the Virtual Rounds. The designs of all participating teams were examined to qualify the vehicles for fab-rication of the ideas displayed by the designs. Another record was broken as 90 teams were selected to realise their models and were invited to Chandigarh for the main event.This was a monumental challenge for the organisers, both at SAE NIS and University Institute of Engineering and Technology, Panjab University, the host institute at Chandigarh. The preparations for the main event had already begun and an excellent co-ordination between envision and implementation lead to the much-awaited 4-day competition to facilitate 90 teams at the Main Event.As the sun rose on Day 1, vehicles who were technically ‘OK’ were allowed to proceed to static tests. All aspects of design and innovation were examined along with a cost report and marketing presentation for understanding the feasibility of bringing effi-cycles to the market and the roads as the future of all vehicular locomotion. After lunch on Day 1, it was time to begin with dynamic tests which were to judge the moving vehicles on real-life simulated situations. It is only through dynamic evaluations that the implementation of the ideas can be tested.Day 2 saw teams competing to complete the given set of tests and prepare themselves for the much-awaited Endurance Run the next day.

The morning of Day 3 brought all teams on the racetrack for funneling their vehicles in the anticipation of com-mencement of the race. The environment at the venue was awe-inspiring with teams making final changes to their effi-cycles, with advisers and visitors giving last minute advice, with each team member biting nails in anxi-ety of the outcome. More than 9 months of preparation had all come down to this final race to test the durability of their skills and efforts in a realistic track.

The race lasted for 2 hours which saw the breakdowns and minor failures of almost all the vehicles in one way or another but none of the teams gave up; and in the end it all came down to the test of nerves.The event concluded with the valediction ceremony where teams got their corresponding awards for excelling in various avenues or categories. After the announcement of the overall 3rd, 2nd and 1st winners, teams went back home with a lot more experience than they had come with. Each year EFFI-CYCLE takes a special place in the lives of people associated with it. To them, it is not just an annual inter-collegiate design and fabrication competition but an essential part of the future.

CommitteesEFF I -CYCLE 20 14

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The annual literary-cultural fest of the institute is held every year in the even semester around February with full zeal and fervour. The entire college comes together at this time of the year to work as a unit instrumental in the organization of a wide array of events. GOONJ marks the cornerstone for the successful work that various committees perform during the entire acedemic year. The atmo-sphere in the days leading up to as well as during the entire fest is un-parallel to anything that goes on during the whole year.This college fest marks the working together for hundreds of stu-dents and teachers together,irrespective of the committee or the branch they may be in. GOONJ has rapidly become one of the most talked about as well as the most successful college fests in the tri-city area. This upward ascent could undoubtedly be credited to the

painstaking efforts put in by faculty and students alike in ensuring that the infrastructure of this event is top-notch.

The Cultural Committee which works for the fest throughout has recently made GOONJ one of the very successful fests of the colleges of the region. The laborious efforts made by the BRAND PROMOTION COMMITTEE to support the aspect of publicity and media relations helps the event to reach out in the region. These two along with a handful of other student organizations active inside UIET are respon-sible for the behind-the-scenes work and effort that bears fruit in the weekend of the fest. The sheer number of volunteers and enthusiasts working in the entire process every year is simply put; astound-ing.A plethora of Cultural events including dance competitions that observe participation from teams throughout the region and other dance forms, the fest hosts a very colourful extravaganza. Apart from this, music events like Jango-the solo instrumental, Aandholika-singing and the rock band competi-tion are also held. The night events are marked by star night and rock band performances. The star nights feature some of the most prominent folk and local singers and entertainers in the state of Punjab and are witnessed by an overwhelming audience.The success and popularity of such events can be measured by the fact that every year dozens of teams travel hundreds(perhaps even thousands of miles) for the sole honor of being a participant in the mighty GOONJ.The literary events like debates, group discussions, quizzes and many other events draw huge partici-pation. Events like the annual UIET treasure hunt,the IQ Quiz and the group debate are held in high regards and the winning in such events an achievement by some of the other top colleges in the region.These events undoubtedly see one of the highest participation out of all the events in the cultural fest.The best part of GOONJ or rather the most important one too is working in the organising committee, where students get to work in teams and various aspects like marketing, publicity, event co-ordination. The complete involvement of all the years of college to make the fest a success marks a spirit of team-work and dedication towards the progress of the institute and the fest itself.

CommitteesGOONJ

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50

e thought full HD (High Definition) was enough and BAM! , here comes the resolution that makes 1080p look like a

low quality YouTUBE video you watch on your 2G connection….

In the simplest terms , 4K technology( part of the Ultra HD standards ) is a resolution of the order of 2160p. Even with the high standards we see, 4K is the minimum accepted resolution to be qualified as an UHD( Ultra High Definition ) video. The resolution in case of 4K is a minimum of 3840 x 2160 with an aspect ratio of 16:9 which is the same as in the case normal HD viewing. It is definitely being targeted as the next big thing out there with most of the major electronic giants like SONY, Panasonic, LG, Toshiba either working on or rapidly releasing some impressive screens which showcase this level of clarity.

Even though the content in such a high level of clarity has been far and few still there has been a massive increase in the number of 4K TVs avail-able in 2013 with an increase in this trend in 2K14. UHD-TVs have been gaining serious popularity and experts suggest they would be the norm by 2017. Streaming services like the NETFLIX has also taken initiative by promising to provide some of the upcoming content in 4K. One of the major steps taken by NETFLIX was the stream-ing of ‘House of Cards Season 2’ in 4K starting in February 2014. The 4K images are composed of nearly 8.3 million pixels compared to around 2 million in case of 1080p HD.

The 4K technology has paved way for the discus-

sion and development of future technologies like the 8K U-HD videos which are believed to be of the order of a minimum of 4320p ( 7680 x 4320 pixels ) resolution but the sheer amount of playback devices for such 8K viewing is not yet available.

Karat Biotech 4th year

4K -THE NEXT BIG THING

W

4K TV

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rgus 2 Retinal prosthesis SystemThe Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System (“Argus II”) is the world’s first approved

device intended to restore some functional vision for people suffering from blindness. Authorized by Federal (U.S.) law to provide electrical stimu-lation of the retina to induce visual perception in blind patients with severe to profound reti-nitis pigmentosa and bare light or no light per-ception in both eyes. The effectiveness of this device for this use has not been demonstrated.The Argus II is approved as a humanitarian-use device, so it’s for an orphan indication; this is because even though RP(retinitis pigmentosa) has an incidence of about 1 in 4000, the number of patients who end up with this severe loss is smaller—there are probably 10,000 such patients today, with an annual incidence of a few hundred patients. That’s whom it is planned for initially.

The patient wears glasses with an attached video camera that captures images of the surrounding area. These images become an electrical signal which is processed by the video processing unit. The signal is then wirelessly delivered to the eye stimulating the retina. This electrical stimulation of the retina is recognized by the brain as spots of light.In the study, independent observers evaluated a host of activities of daily living. Being able to distinguish light from dark, and identify door-ways and curbs and even alphabetic charac-ters, are the ones that make the headlines, but there are a number of other things. Laundry sorting—being able to identify and sort black, gray, and white socks—was one such objective. Argus II helps improve orientation and mobility; it tells you where the large objects are, where the windows and doors are, and allows you to see sidewalks and curb sides. It helps you to see people, determine where they are, and see how

they are moving. It then allows you to do certain chores like sorting laundry. Those are the kinds of things that are reasonable to discuss with any patient thinking about getting this implant. This work represents a scientific tour de force, as the researchers had to solve many bioengineer-ing problems to create a functioning implant that would allow the transmission of signals from an external camera to the neurosensory retina. The chip implanted on the retina also had to be well tolerated, and the electrical signals not damage the retina with long-term use. The studies with the Argus II implant showed improved quality of life for patients with profound vision loss prior to surgery.The Argus II milestone has important implications for many people with visual impairment. Designs of retinal prostheses will continue to evolve over the next decade as more sophisticated software is developed and more electrodes can be fit-ted onto the chip, allowing better visual acuity.

Jasneet SinghIT 4th year

ARGUS 2 RETINAL PROSTHESIS SYSTEM

A

WORKING OF ARGUS 2

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lowing plants—as seen in the seemingly fantastical flora of the 2009 film Avatar—are no longer just a special effect. Molecular

biologist Alexander Krichevsky of St. Louis–based biotech company BIOGLOW has developed the Starlight Avatar, a genetically modified tobacco plant that glows in the dark, as a first step toward a world in which one day our highways and homes might be illuminated not with electricity but with the luminescent glow of plant life.

There are no naturally occurring glowing/bio-luminescent plants in nature. While there are a number of various glowing species—fireflies, glowworms, glowing fish, etc.—there are no glowing plants. Starlight Avatar is the first one.Many “bioluminescent” plants have existed for about 20 years, mostly for research purposes. These plants, however, needed to be sprayed with chemicals to achieve a temporary and very weak glowing effect, or be illuminated by UV lights. The light emitted by such plants is often not visible to the human eye and must be observed with special cameras. Starlight Avatar—the first auto-luminescent plant—glows on its own (no chemicals or UV lights needed) and is visible to a human eye with minimal adaptation time. The light emission is integral and natural to the plant, same as it is for fireflies, and will continue through plant’s life cycle and from generation to generation.

The Starlight Avatar was developed from an orna-mental species of tobacco plant that, when modi-fied using genetic material from glowing marine bacteria, autonomously produces a dim ambient glow that is reminiscent of starlight (although its bluish-green hue is not the most flattering to the human complexion). Bioglow’s website says while the plant took years of research, the com-pany plans to continue working to increase light

output and hopes to develop warmer yellow and red-toned light that would ostensibly be more suitable for home use, as well as perhaps one day creating flowers whose petals would glow in different colors than the plant’s leaves, or plants that could light up to signal changes in pollution levels or other environmental stressors.

Bioglow is not the only company developing this kind of technology. A recent Kickstarter campaign that inspired backers with the poetic promise of glow-in-the-dark greenery raised $484,000 (sub-stantially more than its $65,000 goal) to develop seeds for glow-in-the-dark plants, sparking a controversial debate about the risks of dispersing genetically modified seeds to the public at large. To make the long story short, I would just like to say that everything new comes with a price but it is upto our discretion if the price is worth paying for what it offers in return.

Anika SaxenaBiotech (4th year)

COULD GLOW IN THE DARK PLANTS LIGHT UP OUR LIVES IN THE FUTURE??

G

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INTRODUCTIONHonda Cars India Limited’s (HCIL) decision to stay away from introducing a diesel option in the Indian market posed several questions on the consumers’ mind. From the company’s perspective, it just had one 2.2 l diesel option in Europe, and that made no business sense to be introduced. The market scenario, however, changed rapidly over the past few years globally, instigating a mass adoption of diesel across markets. In India, the demand for diesel vehicles in particular was driven by the significant difference in retail price of diesel vis-à-vis petrol, and also higher fuel efficiency that diesels offered.Distancing itself from diesel resulted in a declining mar-ket share over the years as petrol prices rapidly went up. Honda found a similar situation in many European mar-kets too and quickly sought to develop a diesel engine platform. The result was a 1.6 l i-DTEC engine, which was also one of the first technologies from the Earth Dreams portfolio to be commercially launched.

i-DTECThe 1.5 l i-DTEC engine develops a peak power of 98.5 hp and offers a class-leading claimed fuel economy of 25.8 km/l. Key benefits of the engine arecompactness, lightness, reduced mechanical friction and lower engine coolingsystem losses. Unlike other diesel engines, an all alumini-um construction has been used for the cylinder head and open deck block. Using advanced computer simulation, the block was designed to be lightweight and compact. A new high strength nitride crankshaft is designed to deliver higher strength, while lowering weight. In order to make the main journal and pin journal material thinner, high-strength surface treatment with nitride has been used. This combination reduces losses due to mechanical friction.The piston skirt has been redesigned to be shorter and narrower and the smallersurface area makes the engine lighter. It also helps further reduce mechanicalfriction losses. While optimizing the piston shape, the con-necting rods too werelightened. Owing to the combined weight reduction achieved by the measures listed above, Honda claims a better acceleration in addition to higher fuel-efficiency.

The overall reduction in mechanical friction is to such an extent that Honda claims the diesel unit to be at par with petrol engines of similar displacement on this parameter.!The common rail injection system can deliver an injection pressure of up to 1,600 bar. Coupled with solenoid injec-tors and finely controlled injection timing, the combus-tion process is more efficient than the earlier 2.2 l i-DTEC unit. The cooling system too has been modified to offer better cooling despite a smaller size.In order to complement the raft of engineering touches, Honda also developed new ultra low viscosity engine oil. The specially developed oil is claimed to enhance fuel efficiency and improve engine reliability. Keeping in mind the dust content in various regions of the world, the design of the oil seal of the crankshaft has been changed.

CONCLUSIONAt a time when consumer sentiment isn’t particularly good and fiscal measures are falling short of putting the auto-motive industry on a growth track, Honda couldn’t have had a better entrant than the i-DTEC. That the technol-ogy has been integrated cleverly into a compact vehicle with competitive pricing, further improves its commercial prospects. The next obvious step for the company would be to add more diesel models to its line-up. The i-DTEC engine platform is flexible and scalable. This will provide the company with the option of deriving multiple versions for use in different vehicles. With that happening, Honda could very well be on track to not just regain its lost mar-ket share but gain new ground.

-Aman RanaMechanical(4th Year)

HONDA’s new i-DTEC engineUNCONVENTIONAL AND FUTIRISTIC

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Even before the industrial revolutions human life quality is greatly affected by the availability of energy. The escalated and savage consumption of conventional sources of energy are leading to forecasted energy and environmental crises. Renewable energy sources such as solar energy are consid-ered as a feasible alternative because “More energy from sunlight strikes Earth in 1 hour than all of the energy con-sumed by humans in an entire year.”(Lewis, 2007).A solar cell is a photonic device that converts photons with specific wavelengths to electricity. First and second genera-tions photovoltaic cells are mainly constructed from semi-conductors including crystalline silicon, III-V compounds, cadmium telluride, and copper indium selenide/sulphide (Hara & Arakawa, 2003; Hoffert, 1998; Zhao et al., 1999). Low cost solar cells have been the subject of intensive research work for the last three decades. Amorphous semiconductors were announced as one of the most promising materials for low cost energy production. However, dye sensitized solar cells DSSCs emerged as a new class of low cost energy con-version devices with simple manufacturing procedures. Dye Sensitized (DSSC) and Quantum dots Sensitized (QDSSC) are the latest generation solar cells. Incorporation of dye mol-ecules in some wide bandgap semiconductor electrodes was a key factor in developing photoelecrochemical solar cells. These dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) imitate pho-tosynthesis the natural processes plants convert sunlight into energy- by sensitizing a nanocrystalline TiO2 film using novel Ru bipyridl complex. In dye sensitized solar cell DSSC charge separation is accomplished by kinetic competition like in photosynthesis leading to photovoltaic action. In fact, in semiconductor p-n junction solar cell charge separation is taken care by the junction built in electric field, while in dye sensitizes solar cell charge separation is by kinetic competi-tion as in photosynthesis The organic dye monolayer in the photo electrochemical or dye sensitized solar cell replaces light absorbing pigments (chlorophylls), the wide band-gap nanostructured semiconductor layer replaces oxidized dihydro-nicotinamide-adenine-dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH), and carbon dioxide acts as the electron acceptor. Moreover, the electrolyte replacesthe water while oxygen as the electron donor and oxidation product, respectively. The overall cell efficiency of dye sen-sitized solar cell is found to be proportional to the electron injection efficiency in the wide bandgap nanostructured semiconductors.

The simplicity of the synthetic procedure, tunability of light absorption, sensitivity to diffused light, and ability to design flexible solar panels make the semiconductor nano-structure an important candidate as a light absorber. The proper assembly and ordering of semiconductor QDs in a mesoscopic oxide film is an essential criterion for design-ing QDSSC. The mesoscopic TiO2 and ZnO films (5−10 μm thick) are cast on optically transparent electrodes (OTE). These electrodes are modified with QDs so that they serves as light energy harvesters and convert incident photons to electricity. Quantum-dot-sensitized solar cells (QDSCs) are a promising low-cost alternative to existing photovoltaic technologies such as crystalline silicon and thininorganic films. The absorption spectrum of quantum dots (QDs) can be tailored by controlling their size, and QDs can be produced by low-cost methods. Nanostructures such as mesoporous films, nanorods, nanowires, nanotubes and nanosheets with high microscopic surface area, redox electrolytes and solid-state hole conductors are borrowed from standard dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) to fabricate electronconductor/QD monolayer/hole conductor junctions with high optical absorbance. Stability issues are addressed, coating methods are presented, performance is reviewed and special emphasis is given to the importance of energy-level alignment to increase the light to electric power con-version efficiency. The common feature of QD-based solar cells is quantum confinement of the exciton in the absorber material leading to a size-dependent absorption spectrum. Nanostructured wide-bandgap semiconductor films pro-vide a microscopic surface area, orders of magnitude larger than their geometric area, which can be sensitized with a thin absorber layer of low absorbance. The low optical den-sity of a QD monolayer is compensated by a light path that passes through tens to hundreds of QD monolayers. Dye-sensitized solar cells and ETA cells make use of the same concept, and light to electric power conversion efficiencies above 10% have been reached with DSCs.

Siddharth GhaiElectrical and Electronics, 4th Year

DYE AND QUANTUM DOTS SENSITIZED SOLAR CELL

BIOLOGICALLY INSPIRED PHOTOVOLTAIC

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Meet iOS 8 Yeah, yeah, those huge beautiful screens, cameras will surely make you look like the next Kubrick and the curved edges will make your hands tremble to touch them. It’s clear, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus are the best and the biggest phone yet.What about those of us who can’t justify an upgrade or aren’t eligible for one right now? For these people, all of this sweet iPhone 6 talk will sounds worse than a neighbour bragging about his new BMW.This will bring a smile to the face of iPhone 4S, 5, 5S and 5C owners, who will end up with basically a new phone when they upgrade to iOS 8, free of cost. I actually tested this new software the older iPhones and I can say that it is not the size of the screen, but what’s on it that is pushing the iPhone ahead.This is the biggest iOS feature release ever by Apple, but this fact is not visible on the surface. Underneath the translucent menus and bright icons, many new functions have been added to the apps you use the most, and some of the basic iPhone issues have been fixed. (Annoyingly, few are still left unattended.NEW & IMPROVED BEASTThe iOS 8 is focuses on making Apple’s core apps better and getting them to play well with others.When it comes to operating-system fixes, one of the most welcome addresses a pet peeve I had with the Mail app. Instead of breaking into a sweat every time I have to copy and paste text between two email messages, I can now easily drag my new message to the bottom of the screen, glance at my inbox or another message and then jump back to the draft message.Apple’s iMessage is now packed with features that take direct aim at popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and Google’s Hangouts. You can share your location, easily leave and mute a group iMessage chain and send quick audio and video messages, which expire two minutes after they’re played. It’s added more spontaneity to my communica-tion, though Apple should make it clearer that the messages go away. (For media you want to save, there is a “keep” button.)Of all the iOS 8 fixes, I’m downright giddy about what’s happening to the keyboard. For years, the iPhone keyboard was stuck in the past, while Android allowed for alternative layouts and speed-typing tricks.Apple’s fresh QuickType keyboard suggests the next word you might type based on the context of your conversation, the person you are messaging and what application you are in. For me, it has replaced autocorrect. While predictive typing speeds things up, I’ve gotten even faster using third-party keyboards that Apple now lets you download from the App Store. I’ve been testing SwiftKey and Swype, both of which guess what word you want to type as you drag your finger around the keyboard. So far, SwiftKey seems to have learned my typing behaviour better.Even the iPhone’s Touch ID thumbprint reader now talks with other apps. I tested a beta version of my favourite password manager, Dashlane that can use my thumbprint as a master password and fills

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in usernames and passwords in the mobile Web browser automatically. Cool isn’t it?FOR FITNESS FREAKSApple finally gets into the field of fitness tracking with iOS 8. Everyone who updates gets the Health app. It’s meant to be a central dashboard of all your fitness and health data, so you no longer have to look in one app to see calories consumed and another to see calories burned. It’s all a part of iOS 8 by default now.Counting steps was a nice feature but what actually caught my attention was this new ‘Counting the stairs as I climb’, thanx to the new Motion co-processor clearly a step ahead.Apple’s Health app feels more like a medical report than a daily destination. It has the potential to be incredibly pow-erful, especially once it links up with the Apple Watch and third-party apps to analyse the collective data, but for now it’s slightly unfriendly and confusing.While an iPhone running iOS 8 connects with more devices than ever, I’m most excited about how it connects to my computer. The next Mac operating system, called OS X Yosemite, enables you to accept iPhone calls right on your Mac and “hand off” emails, webpages and messages to your computer or phone. Oh yes, that is possible now.Even more useful was the email hand-off. I began an email to my colleague in Apple’s iPhone Mail app, then finished it on my laptop by clicking a small icon on my MacBook’s screen. It worked the other way, too: When I pulled up a restaurant website on my laptop, a Safari icon popped up on the lock screen of my iPhone. With a swipe, the website loaded on my phone.SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENTAll these features make iOS 8 more mature than ever, yet still there are places where it continues to lag behind Google’s Android and even Microsoft’s Windows Phone.

Apple’s Maps is still missing transit directions and many points of interest. As of date, downloading Google Maps so I could figure out which train to take back home.Siri is still stuck in elementary school, while Google Now and Cortana continue to graduate upwards. Apple’s per-sonal assistant now identifies songs playing around you and will soon help turn on the lights or adjust the thermo-stat, but you have to prompt her. The other two anticipate what I need to know (traffic on the way to my next meet-ing, my favourite teams’ scores) before I ask.The operating system’s organization feels stale, too. The information and apps I need the most are buried some-where inside and asks for some effort. While the Today screen will soon support third-party widgets, I wasn’t able to test it and besides, it feels a little out of the way. There’s no easy way to just peek into an app from the home screen, or personalize a device, like Android and Windows Phone.Speaking of personalization, why can’t I personalize iOS’s pop-up Control Centre with tools I need the most, or at least provide a link straight to my settings?I’ll probably always have gripes, but iOS 8 pulls out ahead of the competition by leveraging the greatest strengths of the iPhone: its apps and ecosystem. After you tap the Update button, those small perks and fixes will make the most difference.

Ikjyot SinghIT 4th year

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Open source software- Open source software are the soft-ware whose source code is made available to the users .These software are generally released under GNU General Public License which is most widely used copyleft license .The copyleft license offers the rights to distribute the cop-ies and the modified version of software under the same license terms .People often think open source software is free which is not always right. Generally most of these software are free but not all of them . Some software are paid and some are free for personal usage but you have to pay for commercial use. Some of the most popular open source software are WordPress , Mozilla Firefox , Audacity , GIMP , VLC , 7-Zip , OpenOffice , Amarok etc .

Open source software community: The open source com-munities develop the open source softwares and these softwares are released under the license specified by the community policies. These communities manage the soft-ware releases and new features Some free and open source communities like KDE, Mozilla etc. have variety of products to start with .One can contribute as an artist, designer, translator , user , manager or writer . One need not to be an expert to contribute, with some basic knowledge and will to cooperate, one can contribute and improve his/her skills while doing so.

Where to start - Choose the product which matches your interests and get some information about the community. • First , you have to get familiar with some open source soft-ware and platforms on which these software run . Various linux distros are available like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, openSUSE, Red Hat Enterprise Linux , Arch Linux ,FreeBSD etc.• There are many online tutorials on how to install and use linux and forums to ask questions if you face problems.• Install the product which you selected and use it for some-time to get an idea about its features and flaws.• Each community has different methods to communicate, so go to the website and see how you can contact them , then contact them , tell your interest and skills and ask them to give you some job to start with .• Try to complete the given job . It is always a good approach

to give feedback even when you have not accomplished it . • Know the communication channel that your community uses to discuss like mailing lists , irc , websites , wikis etc.

Etiquette in community-• Be concise - The members are busy with their personal life or work . They take some time out of their work to help .It makes their work more difficult if you will not get to the point .So , do not write unnecessary things while posting your question .• Do your homework- Before asking anything , check wheth-er you have done it correctly , make sure that the settings are right and collect the relevant data .Make it a habit to google your problem first as it may be possible that your query has been answered already.• Be polite- Always interact with people politely .Don’t be rude to the people and be ready to help others as this will help to make new friends .• Avoid top-posting - Top-posting is replying to a mail such that your reply is added to top reply email .This disrupts the order and it becomes very annoying to follow the thread . • Don’t ping people on irc whom you do not know as they may be working and it also creates a bad impression .• Don’t use capital letters while interacting as it seems to be shouting which is rude .• Don’t hijack other’s thread .Do not post your problems in other’s thread .Use your own thread to post .

Benefits-Working in the open source community not only helps to make the products better , but it also gives the contributer a chance to work with experts and to gain knowledge .It improves skills and gives valuable experience which may not be possible from one’s daily job .As the project is chosen by the contributer , he/she will also enjoy working with the project .

Abhay IT 4th Year

CONTRIBUTING TO OPEN SOURCE

SOFTWARE COMMUNITY

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To anyone who hasn’t seen it demonstrated,

3-D printing sounds futuristic—like the meals

that materialized in the Jetsons’ oven at the

touch of a keypad. But the technology is quite

straightforward: It is a small evolutionary step

from spraying toner on paper to putting down

layers of something more substantial (such

as plastic resin) until the layers add up to an

object. And yet, by enabling a machine to pro-

duce objects of any shape, on the spot and as

needed, 3-D printing really is ushering in a new

era. As applications of the technology expand

and prices drop, the first big implication is that

more goods will be manufactured at or close

to their point of purchase or consumption. This

might even mean household-level production

of some things. (You’ll pay for raw materials and

the IP—the software files for any designs you

can’t find free on the web.) Short of that, many

goods that have relied on the scale efficiencies

of large, centralized plants will be produced

locally. Even if the per-unit production cost is

higher, it will be more than offset by the elimi-

nation of shipping and of buffer inventories.

Whereas cars today are made by just a few hun-

dred factories around the world, they might

one day be made in every metropolitan area.

Parts could be made at dealerships and repair

shops, and assembly plants could eliminate the

need for supply chain management by making

components as needed.

Another implication is that goods will be infi-

nitely more customized, because altering them

won’t require retooling, only tweaking the

instructions in the software. Creativity in meet-

ing individuals’ needs will come to the fore, just

as quality control did in the age of rolling out

sameness.

These first-order implications will cause busi-

nesses all along the supply, manufacturing, and

retailing chains to rethink their strategies and

operations. And a second-order implication

will have even greater impact. As 3-D printing

takes hold, the factors that have made China

the workshop of the world will lose much of

their force.

China has grabbed outsourced-manufacturing

contracts from every mature economy by push-

ing the mass-manufacturing model to its limit.

It not only aggregates enough demand to

create unprecedented efficiencies of scale but

also minimizes a key cost: labor. Chinese gov-

ernment interventions have been pro-producer

at every turn, favoring the growth of the 1 of 2

country’s manufacturers over the purchasing

power and living standards of its consumers.

Under a model of widely distributed, high-

ly flexible, small-scale manufacturing, these

daunting advantages become liabilities. No

workforce can be paid little enough to make

up for the cost of shipping across oceans. And

few managers raised in a pro-producer climate

have the consumer instincts to compete on

customization.

It seems that the United States and other

Western countries, almost in spite of them-

selves, will pull off the old judo technique of

exploiting a competitor’s lack of balance and

making its own massive weight instrumental in

its fall. China won’t be a loser in the new era; like

every nation, it will have a domestic market to

serve on a local basis, and its domestic market

is huge.

And not all products lend themselves to 3-D

printing. But China will have to give up on

being the mass-manufacturing powerhouse of

the world. The strategy that has given it such

political heft won’t serve it in the future.

The great transfer of wealth and jobs to the East

over the past two decades may have seemed a

decisive tipping point. But this new technology

will again change how the world leans.

-Aman Rana

Mechanical (4th Year)

3D PRINTINGwill change the world

Sample of a 3D model generated by a 3D printer

A 3d printer

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The cloud computing trend sounds nebulous, but it’s not so fuzzy when you view the value proposition from the perspective of IT professionals.In simple words, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer’s hard drive. The cloud is just a meta-phor for the Internet.

NIST definition for cloud computing is pretty straight forward and it defines Cloud Computing as “ a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction”.The usage of the term “cloud computing” is interest-ing: it’s a widespread buzz word, yet its true meaning is rather ill-defined for the average person.Back in the old days, if you wanted to create a web application and deploy it to the web, you would need to purchase a hardware server. A server is necessary for running your web pages on the world wide web, so that when someone accesses your site from their computer using a browser (the client), a request can be sent to your server and return the web page back

to the user’s client. However, purchasing these serv-ers were expensive and inefficient, because if, for example, you only needed the computing power pro-vided by one and a half servers, you would still need to purchase two servers. These costs were prohibitively expensive for most people who now have access to cheap computing power via cloud services.

Cloud computing has various Service Models.Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as a web browser (e.g., web-based email). The consumer does not man-age or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including the network, servers, operating systems, storage, or even the individual application capabili-ties, with the possible exception of limited user-spe-cific application configuration settings.Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to deploy onto the cloud infrastructure consumer-created or acquired applica-tions created using programming languages and tools supported by the provider. The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure

CLOUD COMPUTING

SHARING RESOURCES OVER THE CLOUD

THE CLOUD IS A METAPHOR FOR THE INTERNET

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including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and pos-sibly application hosting environment configurations.Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The capability provided to the consumer is to provision processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources where the consumer is able to deploy and run arbitrary software, which can include operating systems and applications. The consumer does not man-age or control the underlying cloud infrastructure but has control over operating systems, storage, deployed applica-tions, and possibly limited control of select networking components (e.g., host firewalls).What cloud computing is not about is your hard drive. When you store data on--or run programs from the hard drive, that’s called local storage and computing. Everything you need is physically close to you, which means accessing your data is fast and easy (for that one computer, or others on the local network). Working off your hard drive is how the computer industry functioned for decades and some argue it’s still superior to cloud computing.For it to be considered cloud computing, you need to access your data or your programs over the Internet, or at the very least, have that data synchronized with other infor-mation over the Net. In a big business, you may know all there is to know about what’s on the other side of the con-

nection; as an individual user, you may never have any idea what kind of massive data-processing is happening on the other end. The end result is the same: with an online con-nection, cloud computing can be done anywhere, anytime. Hence increases the functionality as compared to working with hard drives.In a cloud computing system, there’s a significant workload shift. Local computers no longer have to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to running applications. The net-work of computers that make up the cloud handles them instead. Hardware and software demands on the user’s side decrease. The only thing the user’s computer needs to be able to run is the cloud computing systems interface software, which can be as simple as a Web browser, and the cloud’s network takes care of the rest. There’s a good chance you’ve already used some form of cloud comput-ing. If you have an e-mail account with a Web-based e-mail service like Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail or Gmail, then you’ve had some experience with cloud computing. Instead of run-ning an e-mail program on your computer, you log in to a Web e-mail account remotely. The software and storage for your account doesn’t exist on your computer -- it’s on the service’s computer cloud.

Abhinav AroraIT 4th Year

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CROSSWORD

62

KEY

63

Quiet - Team MagboardU N I V E R S I T Y I N S T I T U T E O F E N G I N E E R I N G A N D T E C H N O L O G Y

P A N J A B U N I V E R S I T Y , C H A N D I G A R H

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