Unforgettable IISC - The Final year project.

All Engineering students have to do a final year project, and mine just happened at IISC-Bangalore.

8th semester engineering is the best part of engineering. And what makes it really special is the final year project. Most of you reading this might be wondering, whats so special about dedicating a blog to our project, or wondering whats so special about IISC, or some even might be looking into the details of my project, while other might be looking for something to read on the web. Let me tell you, i have not included any details of our project over here.

I consider myself extremely fortunate that I got to do the project at IISC. IISC Bangalore is one of the most beautiful places in Bangalore. When the question of the project team came, it was decided that I do the project with my friends Abhilash and Gopinath. Since Abhilash's uncle knew people over there, we got an opportunity to do a project at the Micro-electronics laboratory at IISC.

Our project was on MEMS pressure sensor design for wide range application. MEMS => Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. The term Electro-Mechanical says that its part, electronic, part mechanical, since we were from electronics background "technically", we had to report to totally 4 guides at IISC.

The guide heirarchy was a follows. At the top was Prof. Jagadeesh, who was incharge of us submitting the sensor design to IISC as they were making the sensors for ISRO, testing it there. Then there was Prof. Gopal Hegde, who was the head of the nano science department, and was responsible for the micro scaled experiments. Though we were supposed to be mentored by him, we were supposed to learn whatever required from Vamsi sir, but since MEMS devices were modelled using a software of mechanical background (CoventorWARE) we were mentored all the way by Jayaprakash sir.

In short, first we report to Jayaprakash sir, then Vamsi sir, then Hegde sir, then Jagadeesh sir. But the funny part was, it was not as complicated as it might seem.

We needed to go to IISC only once or twice a week. Our teacher Jayaprakash sir was so co-operative, and foresighted and had done his Masters in IISC itself and was a 2008 passout, he made us learn the complete theoretical background needed for the project in lots of mini-assignments. Infact, we had so much material toward the end, that we did not have to worry about getting our reports done at the end of the project. While my friends doing the project at college had to go and report every day at college, spending their time on chitchat, and worrying about last minute report making.

Our Project was very very simple, infact we could have done the whole project in 2 hours looking at the manual. But the real catche was that it was a new field to us, something that was a thing of the cutting edge in technology. Our teachers had no idea about MEMS at college (he he he he). And we did not spend a Ruppee (Indian Currency). OH, YA, we had to spend on the report but thats not worth mentioning (^_~).

In short, we learnt a lot, had a lot of fun got to see a beautiful place, met a lot of intelligent people. And got through a semester as if it was a piece of cake. And got to eat delicious Pav Bhaji every now and then.

So What are the advantages of doing project at IISC apart from the above, well there are plenty and here are some:

1) You will be prepared for what ever viva questions your teachers can come up with, because you actually put a lot of effort once you are there, the environment is very conducive for learning.

2) You will get to know a lot about current sciences, for instance, when i did my project over there:

    i) It was the inaugural event of the particle physics department on the centenary of IISC, if not for the event, I might have never got the opportunity to attend the seminar on 'Asymptotic String Theory', by David Gross, the teacher of Ed Witten and Michael Green.

        ii) I might have never got to know about 'IISC Open Day', the day on which, all departments are open to common public, and it is traditional for various departments to exhibit several areas of their research.

(TY): If anyone wants details of any kind please feel free to post below...

Locked away ideas.

I believe that the mind is a maze. We sometimes are absolutely sure that we know where things are and this mind being a maze, we most often cant associate the exact thing that we are looking for. I like moments when i can be spontaneous and express exactly what i mean when i get an idea. But its almost an every day experience that we dont get to do that (-_-).

For as long as i can remember, i have had an ambition of becoming a world famous inventor some day. Quite often i find that people around me don't quite look at things the way i do. Unfortunately, when ever i get a cool idea, I find myself in the middle of something. I have never made an entry of any of my ideas, and even if the onlooker does not find it cool or to his interest, i still wish that I had made an entry some where or the other , just to get back to it later on.

When i was about 4th standard, I remember having a bottle in which i had added what ever powder i knew of just to see what it would finally look like it. I used to call it the Formula, a name inspired from watching "Swat Kats". 

When the other day i look at a guy selling the balloon, trying to blow the whole lot of toy balloon, i suddenly got a design idea in mind to automate the whole process. Also when i see a guy pushing the vegetable cart all the way up the Post office hill in Mahalakshmi Layout, I wonder why not add that thing a motor, you know... only to make the upward journey way lot easier.

I will share a whole lot more when i find more time... (TY)

An Eccentric's look into reality of time machine.

What if i Invented the Time Machine one day!

I have heard a lot of my friends ask this question. In most cases they have either had a really bad experience and in some cases they want to change an event of the past. In rare cases, they want to go the future in anticipation of betterment. 

Now sit back and listen to what i am going to say, because if you are not ready for this then you might as well back out. Its crazy to invent a time machine (and by time machine i don't mean that thing you have wrapped around your arm, or hung up on the wall). 

Suppose i invent a time machine, lets look at some of the paradoxes that seem to arise:

1) Suppose I went back into the past, in hopes of getting fame by stealing someones discovery, or to prevent a disaster.

     a) HELLO! "reality check!" if those events would never happen, what motive would we have to invent the time machine in the first place.

     b) We wont have the same facilities, like FM or internet, and you can never be sure that you will get to live there, because we have adapted to a way of life in the present, which would have seemed really impossible in the past.

     c) What about the effect it would have on the organisms of the past. It would be violating nature by taking an organism of higher evolution into the past, and we will have to deal with a totally different environment of micro-organisms, which we can only imagine.

    d) It would be like you wake up today go back to the past and shoot yourself yesterday night! where does that leave you?

     e) And it is a violation of the law of conservation of mass-energy.

2) Suppose you Invent a machine that takes you to the future...

    a) come on, lets be frank, we can never be sure that we have a future, there is lots of global warming, ozone hole problem, we are due of an apocalypse, all sorts of pollution.

     b) why would a lesser evolved organism go to the future, where you have very little hope of coping up with technology.

     c) not only violates Law of Conservation of mass-energy, it defies logic (^_~)

Despite all my claims, why then should there be so much talk about the time machine...

     a) from a long time, movies have seemed to make it look as if we already have a time machine under operation, here is an image of how time machines have been displayed in movies.

      b) The arrow like behaviour of time is much less understood than actually thought, and not much is known abut time in the first place! though every now and then a jack-ass comes along trying to explain to us how he thinks that time is the fourth dimension.

To read more on what i have found on time, you can go to my post, "Significance of time".

In the world of Albert Einstein 'the reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen all at once' (^_^)