iNationat I

Volume i '09 Edition

It is a moment of great pleasure and pride for everyone in the NIT Durgapur family to welcome the first issue of the technical magazine of

the institute. The publication of a technical magazine for the institute was long overdue and finally it is a reality. The timing of its publication is symbolic of a new era in NIT Durgapur. The institute has made new breakthroughs and the students are going places (literally!). Four students are set to go to CERN, Geneva on projects. A sizeable no. of third year students have been invited to Germany under the DAAD scholarship scheme to undertake projects there.

The past few months have seen a flurry of activity. A number of Winter Schools have been conducted, by the various Departments of study, under the Faculty Development program of AICTE. The even semester also happens to be a busy time for the students with a number of fests lined up. The successful completion of Mukti'09 & Aarohan'09 with enthusiastic student participation is something to be rejoiced, This year's initiatives Mathematics Week, Motor Zundung & Conoscenza were also held in high spirits. These vibrant student activities provide a platform for them to display their technical prowess and also give a reflection of standards attained by the institute.

I do congratulate our students for taking the initiative in publication of the technical magazine and hope that it will be an annual event with regular periodicity hereafter.

Prof. Swapan Bhattacharya, Director NIT-Durgapur

Early man produced fire even before coining the term fiction. That is because EXPLORING is in his blood. Even as a 6 year old, a child will prefer to travel the diagonal route to the horizontal + vertical route. Has anybody taught him the Pythagoras theorem? Did anybody tell him that when a' -b' = c' then (c-b) > c. He simply chooses that way. And he has conquered a lot since then. In 1903, when the Wright Brothers tested their models for the first time, no one expected that flying would be such a common experience by 2003.

Coming to ourselves, how updated are we on the technical grounds. We know William Harvey discovered blood circulation but do we know why the noble prize for medicine is given. We know Thomas Edison invented the electric bulb but do we know how our touch screen cell phone screen works? With a view to update our knowledge and throw light on time- tested topics, the Maths 'N' Tech Club Team brings you the college's annual technical

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Dr. Seema :Mond'a{

magazine. We hope this venture fills this gap to a certain extent. It is now up to the students to take advantage of this venture and put itto their best use.

Remember, Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right,

Very few things come perfectly in the first attempt and we have tried really hard to avoid any discrepancy in the printing or the language. This magazine wouldn't have been possible without the patronage of our director, Dr. Swapan Bhattacharya, the able support of the faculty editorial board and the dedication of Maths 'N' Tech Club Team with valuable inputs from the student community.

We are very pleased to issue the first edition of Anweshan We encourage the readers to submit original research notes, opinions or other general ideas that are within the scope of the magazine to help us build the tradition of having the college's Annual Technical Magazine year after year.

The soft copy of the magazine is available on the college website. Suggestions to improve the content are weJcomeand can bemailedtomathsntech.nitdgp@gmail.com

Editorial Board

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NIT Durqetpur

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"I Came, I Saw and I Won". Will we be fortunate enough to listen this from Mr. Barack Obama when he will, hopefully, campaign in his favour for the next Presidential election of U.S.? That is the million dollar question i.e. will he succeed in lifting the US economy and thereby the world economy from its deep depression? Will he be remembered and honoured in the same breath with the then President Mr. Roosevelt when he lifted the US economy from the deep depression of 1930s, by virtue of Keynesian Prescription?

The spectre of depression is once again here, more acute, multi-directional and rather, a globalization of crisis, initiated from the proponents of globalization, leaving people disillusioned and struck with discontent; a phenomenal crisis which has metamorphosed the 'sacred' term of global ization into a word of controversial, a word of hatred, a word of caution. But,should it be blamed, where is the wrong? Is it a new phenomenon, unprecedented, never heard of? Is the process or the focus or orientation of gloabalization to be blamed?

The human civilization has proceeded through the process of globalization. But the scenario changed dramatically with the advent of New Internal Economic Order, following the Breeton Woods Conference of 1948, which started its daring attempt to monopolize the World Economy, through the three new born babies; IMP, World Bank and GATT. When the curtain of cold war was pulled down, the attempt towards universal, unipolar system of World trade was intensified and there came WTO in 1995, established to become omnipotent, omniscient. Series of liberalization programme initiated, WTO forced others to intensify the process of liberalization of everything; from manufacturing sector to service sector. The balloon of boom getting inflated, stock-index crossed unprecedented marks, prices of intangible assets rose by leaps and bounds, financial, capital migrating with electrifying speed, salary of corporate executives gathered cream, jobs outsourced to developing countries, IT and financial sector

were zoomed to an unimaginable scale, Wall Street, MNCs vied with each other to net the talents of IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs and other reputed professional institutes. The middle class Indian fresh graduates and their parents saw their heads reeled with never-heard packages; a section of middle class zoomed up through the socio-economic ladder.

Suddenly, (obviously, to most, but not to others who watch everything cautiously), the Sub-prime crisis started playing havoc; capital market, real state, manufacturing sector, service sector (inclusive of everything) got topsy-turvy; morning dailies flashing the newS of job cut epidemic. Mr. Bush (already devastated with Mr. Laden, Mr. Saddam and Mr. SHOE) started the rescue operation, i.e., the colossus Bailout package; here came Mr. Barack Obama with the same package but, fortunately with the more realistic one, resembling Roosevelt's New Deal Programme of Govt backed infrastructural programme.

But, to what extent he will be American and to what extent global in this unipolar regime is what we are looking forward. He has asked the US companies to stop outsourcing. Whether US MNCs will listen or forced to listen and what will happen to our export based service sector and to our young graduates? These are the issues to be tossed. The 27'" Feb, 2009 edition of The Telegraph prints, "US intention face criticism", India expressed concern over the US Govt's effort to restrict the outsourcing of jobs and it could be examined whether this move violated the World Trade pact. Our union minister has justifiably reacted by saying that, "whether this move is WTO compliant, whether and how US companies react". The Govt has appealed to the corporate not to cut jobs, TCS opts for salary freeze, not cut the jobs ; all these may heave a sigh of relief to our young job aspirants. Obama has cautioned US Firms shipping jobs overseas would no longer get tax breaks. US Companies (operating in a free market, democratic set up) would certainly evaluate the difference of additional revenue generated from

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Boiled grape juice was the fluid used as a lubricant for

the first contact lenses. Eugene Flick, who invented contact lenses in 1887, chose boiled grape juice over sugar water to lubricate

the thick glass lenses that covered the entire eye.

Dr. P.P.Sengupta

Dept. of Humanities, NIT Durgapur

outsourcing and the additional burden of tax, vis-e-vis. the quality of jobs serviced from Indian talents. Our Govt is also cautious; country's service sector export was at $ 88 billion in 2007-08, soft-ware companies contributing $ 40.03 billion, i.e., IT Companies or the soft-ware sector has contributed more than merchandise export.

While our government and companies have followed (or have been forced to follow), quite justifiably, a controlled" liberalization programme"; it is for that you/we are safe, our deposits and Financial sectors are safe. While a section creates pressure on pumping money into hot sector (i.e. the financial / stock market), others preferred to pump the money into real sector, from textile to garments, to iron steel, cement, car etc. - Which is obviously a sign of good economics. Our govt's recent step to boost up the companies through different sops has been wooed by the corporate with due warmth. So, if Obamanomics is focused towards restricting US outsourcing, only belling out the financial market, then future will prove its credibility. And if, Monomohanomics - Pronobonomics is focused towards rejuvenating the core sector, along with gUiding the capital market and service sector in the required direction, it will certainly be a positive move. Finance capital blossom through industrial capital, not the other way round.

Financial market liberalization without an appropriate regulatory device will add fuel to the fire. "It is important not only to look at what the IMF puts on its agenda but, what it leaves off. Stabilization is on the agenda; job creation is off. Taxation and its adverse effect are on the agenda; land reform is off. There is money to bell out banks, but, not to pay for improved education and health service; let alone to bell out workers who are thrown out of their jobs as a result of IMF's macroeconomic mismanagement." (J.Stijlitz, Nobel Laureate, Chief Economist, World Bank till Jan. 2000 and Chairman of Clinton's Council of Economic Advisor).

So, Mr. Obama came, he will see and he can win if he can tur-n the face of job-ruining globalization to job-creating globalization. That should be the real face of Obamanomics.

Recently there is a surge of interest amongst us to know about the European Organization for Nuclear Research, CERN and its activities, It has attracted attention of a pool of intellects including those of engineering and technology. Here, in this article we shall try to find out the reason why we shall be interested to participate in the activities, those are undertaken at CERN.

As mentioned before

that CERN is an European Organization for Nuclear Research and its activities started in the year 1954 with the aim to make a nucleus of European Phvsrcis+ and to engage them in a activity which can't be solved individually and so they will be confined together to find a solution of it and no more race for atom bomb preparation will be there and peace process is put forwarded in this manner. However, CERN is now not an European Organization in its activities but it has become the Laboratory of the Whole World and it is open to everybody who wants to contribute academically.

CERN scientist and technologist have built a world largest and biggest particle accelerator, Large Hadron Collider (LHC), in search of answers of some basic questions. It is called Large due to its size, -27 km in circumference. The word Hadron is used because lHC accelerates protons or ions, which are hadrons and Collider because these particles form two beams moving in opposite directions, which collide at four points where the two rings of the machine intersect. LHC will allow exploration of the

energy frontier above 1 TeV per elementary constituent, by providing proton-proton collisions at the unprecedented centre-ofmass energy of 14 TeV and luminosity of 10" cms=tc two large multi-purpose detectors, ATLAS & CMS, and two more specialized experiments ALICE and LHCb.

"Hadrons are particles composed of quarks. The protons and neutrons that

atomic nuclei are made of belong to Hadron family. On the other hand, Electrons and muons are called leptons that are not made of quarks. A summary of atomic particles are shown." showing no interna structure and no involvement with the strong forces. Electrons and neutrinos are among the particles classified as leptons.

Standard Model and Main Goals of LHC:

All the particles observed in the past 100 years have now been catalogued in a theory called the Standard Model. The standard model is a theoretical framework whose basic idea is that all the visible matter in the universe can be described in terms of

the elementary particles leptons and quarks and the forces acting between them. Leptons are a class of point I ike fundamental particles showing no internal structure and no involvement with the strong forces. Electrons and neutrinos are among

Dr. P. Kumbhakar

Dept. of Physics, NIT Durgapur pathik.kumbhakar@nitdgp.ac.in

the particles classified as leptons. (See Fig. in the adjacent page)

The strong force (nuclear strong force) is one of the four fundamental forces: the gravitational force, the electromagnetic. force, the nuclear strong force, and the nuclear weak force: the strong force approximately one hundred times stronger than the electromagnetic force. A quark is a

hypothetical fundamental particle having charges whose magnitudes are t e or t e. where e is the electronic charge. At the present time, ongoing experimental projects in particle p h v s i c s are expected to permit a completion of the standard model, but a unified theory of all forces known to physics does not yet exist.

The standard model defines fundamental subatomic particles (e.g., quarks and several other particles) and describes hawaII other atomic entities are constituted from these fundamental

particles. The model contains 24 fundamental particles (plus corresponding antiparticles-47 species of elementary particles including particles and antiparticles) that are the constituents of matter. Some of these species can combine to form composite particles, accounting for the hundreds of other species of particles discovered since 19605. The standard model has been found to agree with almost all the experiments conducted to the present time. However, most particle physicists believe that it is an incomplete description, more fundamental theory awaits future discovery.

The Standard Model does not explain the origin of mass, nor why some particles are very heavy while others have no mass at all. The answer may be the so-called Higgs mechanism. According to the theory of Higgs mechanism, the whole space is filled with a 'Higgs field', and by interacting with this

that interact intensely with the Higgs field are heavy, while those that have feeble interactions are I ight. The Higgs field has at least one new particle associated with it, the Higgs boson. If such a particle exists, experiments at the LHC will be able to detect

The Standard Model does not offer a description of all the fundamental forces, as it remains difficult to construct a theory of gravity similar to those for the other forces. Supersymmetry - a theory that hypothesizes the existence of more massive partners of the standard particles we knowcould facilitate the unification of fundamental forces. If supersymmetry is right, then the lightest supersymmetric particles should be found atthe LHC.

The LHC will also help us to investigate the mystery of antimatter. Matter and antimatter must have been produced in the same amounts at the time of the Big Bang, but from what we have observed so far, our Universe is made only of matter. Why?

The LHC could help to provide an answer.

In addition to the studies of proton-proton collisions, heavy ion collisions at the LHC will provide a window onto the state of matter that would have existed in the early Universe, called 'qucrk-qluon plasma'. When heavy ions collide at high energies they form, for an instant a "fireball" of hot, dense matter that can be studied by the experiments.

Technological Challenges at CERN:

For the LHC to provide particle physics with proton-proton collisions at the centre of mass energy of 14 TeV with a luminosity of 10" cmis', the machine will

operate with high-field dipole magnets using Nb Ti superconductors cooled to -271.3"C. In order to reach design performance, the LHC requires both, the use of existing technologies pushed to the limits as well as the application of novel technologies. The construction follows a decade of intensive R&D; and technical validation of major collider sub-systems. The Large Hadron Collider is one of the most complex technological creations ever built. CERN needed to produce a vast quantity of components, through many manufacturers around the world, and to incredibly exacting specifications.

Some challenges at LHC are:

PhysicS of the LHC accelerator and implications on hardware Superconducting magnets for the LHC The LHC cryogenic system

Power converter for the LHC

Getting the current into the cold

LHC operation and machine protection Grid computing

Control system and security Grid Computing:

The LHC Computing Grid comprises three "tiers" Tier-O, Tier-I, Tier-2 and 32 countries are formally involved including India in Tier-2. There are several challenges of developing the LHC Computing Grid; (i) managing the sheer volume of data that has to be moved reliably around the grid, (ii) administering the storage space at each of the sites, (iii) keeping track of the tens of millions of files generated by 9000 physicists as they analyse the data, (iv) ensuring adequate network bandwidth: optical links between the major sites, but

also good reliable links to the most remote locations, (v) guaranteeing security across a large number of independent sites while minimizing red-tape and ensuring easy access by authenticated users, (vi) maintaining coherence of software versions installed in various locations, (vii) coping with heterogeneous hardware, and (viii) providinq accounting mechanisms so that different groups have fair access, based on their needs and contributions to the infrastructure.

Grids are useful not only for analyzing LHC data: Grids are being used in the fight against disease, climate change, air pollution and more. Any science that requires intensive simulation or calculation can benefit from Grid computing.

CERN management confirms new LHC restart schedule:

CERN management confirmed on 9th February 2009, the restart schedule for LHC at the end of September of this year, with collisions follOWing in late October. The LHC will then run through to autumn next year, and will have results to announce in 2010.

References;

For further details please visit at www.cern.ch

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1 . INTRODUCTION

'Ecology' is a branch of biology which deals with all the mutual relations between living organisms and their environment taken collectively. Thus ecology can be considered to mean the global ecosystem. It may be noted that the aforesaid relationships are reciprocal and poised delicately in such a way that a disturbance by the actions of man kind may disturb the natural balance between the living beings and their surroundings in such a way that existence of some species is threatened. This leads to an ecological crisis by maSS degradation and unlawful encroachment upon environment.. The ecological crisis can be illustrated by green house effect due to which the temperature of earth 's atmosphere has been increasing on account of the increase of carbon dioxide by more than 75ppm during last 150 years. If the Same trend continues. this figure could rise from 340 ppm as today to 600 ppm by middle of the twenty first century making the earth much warmer than now. This may cause a temperature rise of about 7 degree Celsius leading to the melting of polar ice-caps and thus raise the water level in oceans by 5 to 7 meters submerging the large part of earth's land surface under water. Another illustration of this crisis is due to increasing use of pesticides to increase the agricultural outputs and human recreation. These pesticides are toxic in nature and do not get degraded after their use because there are no enzymes avcilnble in earth system to decompose these chemicals and render them hcrrnless. Consequently they get accumulated in organic matter everywhere viz. residues of pesticides in United States have been found in milk of nursing mothers. These are also found in the bodies of penguins living close to the South Pole. Similarly, the wastes of nuclecr power plants r-eleased by the Nuclear Fuel Ltd. into the Irish Sec are known to be radioactive and cancer causing but are continuously moving to the Baltic Sea.

Keeping the above ecological crisis in view, it is essential to find out the rates of changes in the mutual relationships of the I iving species and changing environment. The precesses of the interactions among the species and

chemicals have

to be understood and quantified to access the stresses on the ecosystem for both short and long term survival of the species. This can be achieved by mathematical modeling of the ecological processes and is known as Ecological Modeling. Mathematical equations including several processes are based on the conservation principle of species concentration in their habitat are given in Appendix-A.

The Central theme of ecological modeling is the stability/vulnerability analysis of the model ecosystems having competition, mutualistic (symbiotic), prey-predator, commensal and ammensal type of interactions by means of eigen value and Liapunov methods for assessing the long term assessment of persistence of the species in the changed environment.

2. METHODOLOGY AND PROCEDURE

Ecosystem analysis for prediction of persistence is performed by means of Eigen value and Liapunov methods. The former requires the eigen values of matrix of linearized interaction coefficients. The Liapunov method, however, provides the real picture of asymptotic stability of the equilibrium state because the governing equations are not linearized in this ccse.

In order to compute the species concentration, a numerical model based on the discretization of the ecosystem domain by any of the approximate methods as finite difference, finite element, finite volume and boundary element methods or a combination of these would be required. Therefore, efforts have been made to develop reachwise analytical (semi-analytical) models introducing minimum error. and used for studying the salt intrusion, sediment and pollutants-transport-dispersion in alluvial estuaries and).

3. SIGINIFICANT ASPECTS IN

MODELLING

i) Species Response Function: Although general response functions can be considered for stability cnolvsis). proper identification of functional response of interaction both qualitatively and

quantitatively is essential. At first sight one may observe the Volterra interaction, Monad (Holling's) response and Gompertz type interaction to be the same qualitatively.

Dr. Vidya Prasad Shukla

Professor, Department of Mathematics NIT Durgapur

ii) Complexity of interactions: For a model to be applicable to a real ecosystem, all relevant interactions with functional response to be incorporated appropriately, e.g. a model to study the biodegradation in the river Sambre (in Belgium) for the region of minimum discharge. It is analyzed for gaining insight in the overall effect of any perturbation to the equilibrium state by nutrient/speciesenrichment and dispersion.

iii) Time delay in interactions: Another drawback of the prevalent mathematical models is that the interactions are usually assumed to be instantaneous. It is true in general for micro-organisms but not for the species of higher trophic levels in the natural ecosystem. The micro-organism interactions can be incorporated in the model by the nonlinear Lotka-Volterra and Monod's response terms.

iv) Cross-convection and cross-dispersion. The effects of cross-convection and crossdispersion processes such as predator chasing preys or competitive dispersion for common food resources have not been studied in depth.

4 . RESULTS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE

Generally a food-chain model with LotkaVolterra interactions with every predator having only one prey and falling prey to a higher predator has a persistent and stable equilibrium state. But. even a three species food-chain with Holling's (Monod) response may require stringent condition for persistence failing to which one of the species may be extinct.

In past, effects of both discrete and distributed time lags have been generally found to destabilize. This may have been the reason why mathematical modelers have avoided time lag in their models. That the time lags are not necessarily destabilizing has, however. been al ready demonstrated by some authors.

Roles of self-convection and self-dispersion of ecosystem-components are stabilizing under Dirichlet or Robin boundary conditions (Shukla and Shukla, 1982; Shukla, 1984) However, effects of cross-convection and cross-dispersion depend upon the nature and complexity of interactions in ecosystemcomponents.

The eigen value and Liapunov methods.

menti oned in section 3 above can be adopted for analyzing water-quality as well as ecosystem models, Condition(s) for asymptotic stability (resiliency) of the solutions of the models can give an idea of what parameters should be controlled for the growth/decay of particular systemcomponents, The region for stability in this analysis yields a range of initial concentrations of the nutrients/pollutants and the species, for which persistence is possible in the long run, Much of the field data are not needed for such analysis. Nevertheless, the results are of much practical importance for studying contaminant transport, water-quality variation, biodegradation and eutrophication in water bodies.

APPENDIX -A

MATHEMATICAL

t) be the spatial density of i-th species in the region Vat time' t' and location x = (x, y, z) in V. Let V be any fixed finite subregion and 8 the surface boundary of V. Then, transport-dispersion-interaction equation for Ni,i=I,2, .. ,m is written as

m

',2: Dij V2Nj' i=l, 2, .. ,m (AI)

J~l

where "t stands for partial differentiation with respect to t; denotes gradient in threedimensions; is unit outward drawn normal vector; is three-dimensional Laplace operator: Uj; is known as self-convective veracity fori= j, and cross-convective velocity for i'* j relates the effect of convective migration of j-rh species on the evolution of ith species and D,,, is dispersion coefficient to account for the effect of dispersion of j-th species on the evolution of i-th species, the sign of both V'l and D" depends on the nature of the interactions between l-f-h and j-th species (Table 1),

The function f, (x, ,t) on right hand side of Eq. (Al) takes into account the intrinsic change in the population caused by processes of birth, death and interactions of i-th species and is qenernllv qiven in the form:

m fi(x,t)~Ni[ai-2:aij Nj- j~l

m

2: boo NJ' (x,t-T) j e L ~J

m t

.2: J kij (x, T) Nj (x, t -T) dTj J ~1-00

i~1,2, .. ,m

where first term on the right hand side involving a, and a" terms is known as Lotka-Volterra function for spontaneous interactions; second and third summation terms yield the contributions due to discrete time delay T and continuous time delay respectively with k'j as time delay kernel describing the nature of delay in the interaction of i-th species with j-rh species, Another general form which is a generalization of competitive interaction considered by some ecologists, is given as

m m

fi (x, t) =,Ni {ai ~j~l aijlnNj - j~l b'ijlnNj (x, t-T)

m t _

- ;~1 _In kij ex, T)lnNj (x, t -T) dT], i=l, 2, .. ,m

(A3)

In order to make the problem well-posed the following condition are required:

(i) The initial population distributions in space V and at the surface boundary S of V N,(x, 0) = p,(x), XE VuS when only instantaneous interaction is included or

N,(x, 0) = pAx, 0) (= p, (x. t)), XEVUS (A4)

when time delay is included, T being finite ortending to 00.

(ii) The spatial boundary conditions for (x, y, z) on the surface boundary S of the region V in either of following two forms

(a) -D'j'VN,(x,O).n = q,(X),XE VuS, t >0 (b) N,(x, 0),;; = r,(x),x E VuS, t >0 where the functions p,(,)' q,(.) and r. (.) are prescribed according to the given initial and boundary condition(s),

(A5) (A6)

TABLE 1

Sign convention for Dij and Uij related to ai'

Model

Nature of interaction

Sign of

No interaction i and j do aij~aji=o Dij~Dji~O Uij~Uj i ~o
not interact
Prey-predator i falls prey aij>O>aji D">O>D,, Uij~O~Uj i
to j predator l.J- - Jl
Competition i competes aij>o<aji Dij~OSDj i Uij~OSUji
with j
Symbiosis i has mutualism aij<O>aji DijSO~Dji UijSO~Uji
with j
Commensal j lives on aij~o>aji Dij~O~Dji Uij ~O~Uj i
waste of i
Ammensal j is inhibited aij~o<aji Dij~ O<D, , Uij=OSUji
of i - )~ Zanals Paradox

Karn Kaul IT (2"' year)

Zenos paradoxes are a set of problems generally thought to have been devised by Zeno of Elea to support Parmenides' doctrine that "all is one" and that, contrary to the evidence of our senses, the belief in plurality and change is mistaken, and in particular that motion is nothing butan illusion, You must have read about the frog being a particular distance

away from a well and jumping exactly half the distance remaining each time, and hence never really reaching the well, Well, this paradox arrives from looking at the same scenario from a different angle, Say a car is travelling, and has to reach a checkpoint at a distance of 100 metres (for our convenience, there are markings at regular intervals)_ Let us assume that the car reaches its destination in a finite time. But to reach it, the car must first recch the 50-

metre mark, and to reach that, it must first travel 25 metres, and in turn, to do that, it must first reach the 25-metre mark,

Since space is infinitely divisible, we can repeat these

'requirements' forever. Thus the runner has to

(A2)' reach an infinite number of' midpoints' in a finite time. This is impossible, so the

runner can never reach his goal. In general, anyone who wants to move from one point to another must meet these requirements, and so motion is impossible, and what we perceive as motion is merely an illusion.

World·s First leT enabled

HIGH VOLTAGf LABORAlORY

at NIT Durgapur

The rapid advancement in Information and Communicc'tion Technologies (ICT), availability of quality infrastructure and low cost services have led to exponential expansion of applications of ICT in all the fields of engineering and technology. The education has also been greatly by advancements in ICT It has enabled a variety of new avenues and methodologies for enhancing the experience of learning and teaching.

The traditional laboratories have some limitations associated with them in achieving their objectives efficiently and economically. Efforts are being made around the world to overcome these limitations by using ICT A comparison has been made between different methods to augment the traditional lab on parameters by several laboratory specialists which reflect pedagogical objectives, student centric-ness, reSource utilization and lab work management. At present more than thousand institutes provide engineering education in India, among them cpproxirncrely four hundred of them offer undergraduate programs in Electrical and Electronic Engineering that includes High Voltage (HV) Engineering. It is mandatory as per the gUidelines of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) that the laboratory facilities are to be provided for all the programs which are offered by the institutes. However, very few colleges have High Voltage Laboratory facilities due to the involvement of huge costs and availability of specialised faculty members and staffs.

In view of the above, a ICT enabled HV Laboratory have been developed at NIT, Durapur to facilitate the ICT enabled facilities to the institutes as well as utilities

Availability of High Speed internet facility in most of the institutes/colleges are the prime advantage to formulate a network of Digital e learning environment for recently developed ICT enabled HV laboratory at NIT, Durgapur. It is equipped with traditional laboratory equipment with ICT enabled operation which are the integral part of ICT enabled HV Laboratory and it is

shown in Figures. The following equipments are housed in the laboratory:

1. Impulse voltage generator - 800 kV, 40 kJ

2. 500 mm sphere gap for HV measurement

3. Impulse voltage divider (damped capacitive type)-800 kV

4. Digital impulse oscilloscope with software

5. AC power frequency HV testing

Dr. N.K. Roy

Dept. of Electrical Engg., NIT Ogp. roy_nk2003@yahoo.co.in

6. AC Divider 300KV

7. Partial Discharge Measuring System up to

300KV

8. Coupling Capacitor

9. Vessel for Vacuum and Pressure

10. RIV Measuring Instrument

11. Capacitance and tan delta measurement

12. Resistivitymeter

13. Leakage current tester

14. Limited remote facility of Impulse and AC HVsystems

The Laboratory will help the students as well as faculty members to perform High Voltage experiments and tests online, in real time on real equipment by sitting at their own place. This ICT enabled HV laboratory will be a cost effective solution in the field of High voltage engineering as setting up of a high voltage laboratory at different places involves huqe costs. It can enhance laboratory experience by three generic methods such as ICT aided Experiments in Real Labs, Experiments by Simulation Programs and Experimentation in Remote Laboratories. The ICT enabled HV laboratory will be networked for digital e learning towards fulfilling the dream of the nation as a smart Information Communication Technology (rCT) user. This rCT enabled HV Laboratory facility

at NIT, Durgapur has been introduced for the first time in the World.

Author:

Professor N. K. Roy is the coordinator of ICT enabled High Voltage Laboratory. He obtained his PhD in Electrical Engineering from UniverSity of South Australia, Adelaide. He is presently working as Professor in Department of Electrical of Technology,

In this industrial world the technical dependency of fossil fuels is increasing at an alarming rate. So, it is quite evident that the fossil fuels are steadily waning from the Earth's environment. In such circumstances there is a tremendous necessity for an alternative energy source. One of the most valuable and environmentally-friendly sources of energy is solar power. Solar Energy is better for the environment than traditional forms of energy.

What a marvelous idea! Catch the Sun's radiant I ight energy and convert it into electrical energy. It's nothing newof course. Nature has been capturing the energy in light for millions of years. Each leaf is a form of solar cell, producing energy for plants and trees to grow in a chemical process known as Photosynthesis.

Getting the idea is not all. Putting the idea into practical purposes is appreciable and worth noticing. In 1839, a French physicist, Antoine-Cesar Becquerellaid a stepping stone for the development of Solar cell technology. Becquerel observed the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with a solid electrode in an electrolyte solution when he saw a voltage

- The Stentorian Energy

develop when light fell upon the electrode. This observation has lead to the discovery of the solar cells.

A solar cell is any device that directly converts the energy in light into electrical energy through the process of photovoltaics. Solar cells, also known as Photo Voltaic Cells, were rapidly developed to provide electrical energy for space missions. The beauty of solar cells is that provided the Sun shines. they keep on producing free electricity. Well, sort of free. Solar panels are still expensive to manufacture. It is the high purchase price and installation cost that effectively limits their use.

A solar panel or battery converts the sun's energy to electricity. The inventors created an array of several strips of silicon (each about the size of a razorblade), placed them in sunlight, captured the free electrons and turned them into electrical current. A Solar panel is basically a collection of solar cells. Although each solar cell provides a relatively small amount of power, many solar cells spread over a large area can provide enough power to be useful. Solar

NIT Durc;lopur

PVS. Manaswini Electrical (2M Year)

panels are very hardy. Compared to ahernative power sources I they wear out very slowly.

Technology and development always go hand in hand. With the rise in the standards of the technology 3D solar cells are developed which boost efficiency while reducing size, weight and complexity of Photo voltaic arrays. The largest solar panel in the world is under construction in the south of Portugal. A 52,000 photovoltaic module, ll-megawatt facility covering a 60-hectare south-facing hillside in the southern Alentejo region and it will produce electricity for 21,000 households.

Solar panels typically find use in residential, commercial, institutional, and light industrial applications. Solar panels are best applied in space. NASA .Jet Propulsion Laboratory reports that crystalline silicon and gallium arsenide are typical choices of materials for solar panels for deep-space missions.

Solar Energy is becoming more and more popular. The worldwide demand for Solar Energy is currently greater than that of the supply.

brightly shining sun from one side and rain coming from the other direction. When you look at a rainbow, you would see that the sun is behind you. There is a

fixed critical angle where

the light from the sun IS reflected back to you If there is a water droplet 1M the right place and at the time of a rem. there will always be raindrops in the right place because drops falling behind will replace the earlier ones. A rainbow with the brightest colors is seen when the sun is quite Iowan a clear sky just behind us, and a heavy rain just in front of us.

Why should the rainbow be curved? Why can·t it be. a straight line across the two horizons?

A rainbow is always curved just for the reason that all the angles of the water droplet have to be just right for it to reflect some light back to you, standing

on the ground. 50 when there is sunlight behind a viewer, only those water droplets that have the same angle formed by the viewer, the droplet, and the sun (which is approximately 42 degrees) will produce the rainbow effect. Other droplets send their

What is a Rainbow?

A rainbow is a colorful bow

appearing in the sky when it suddenly rains on a bright sunny day. Sunlight is composed of light of varying wavelengths. When this sunl ight posses through a raindrop in the air, it takes a complicated path. Initially light splits into the 'VIBGYOR' colors. This light then reflects off the back surface of the raindrop and then goes back to the other side in which the light first passed, forming an arch. The light thus emerging from several of the raindrops creates a rainbow.

Can we have a rainbow every time it

It is not always that every time it rains we can witness this colorful rainbow in the sky. The prerequisite for rainbow formation is a

light somewhere else, and if the person moves to a different location, a few more droplets are needed to form another rainbow that the viewer witnesses in the new place.

A rainbow may look like a half circle when it is formed at sunrise or sunset because the light at that time travels almost horizontally towards the earth. However, as the sun rises high in the sky, the shape of the rainbow would be like an arch rather than a half circle.

II Interestingly. from an airplane a rainbow is seen as a full circle! "

Meenakshi Didharia ECE (3m Year)

This year's Nobel Prize-winning research focused on two viruses that take many years to cause damage. The Nobel Prize in Medicine 2008 was awarded to three European scientists who discovered the viruses between two devastating illnesses, AIDS and cervical ccncer.

Half of the $1.4 million prize goes to Harald zur Hausen who established that most cervical cancer is caused by two types of human papilloma viruses (HPV). The other half goes to Luc Montagnier and Francoise Barr:::eSinoussi for their identification of the AIt'>5 virus (human immunodeficiency virus or HIV) in 1983.

The global public health burden attributed to HPV is considerable. Of more than 100 HPV now known, about 40 infect the genital tract and 15 of them put women at high risk for cervical cancer. Papilloma viruses account for more than 5 percent of all cancers worldwide including vulval, penile, pral and other cancers. HPV can be derecred in 99.7':'0 of women with histologically confirmed cervical cancer, affecting some 500,000 women per year thus making it the second most common cancer amongst women. An estimated 250,000 women die of. cervical cancer each year, mostly in poor countcies,

The demonstration of the novel properties of HPV led to an understanding of mechanisms for papilloma virus-induced carcinogenesis and characterization of the natural history of HPV infection through predisposing factors for viral persistence and

~l\\lS q)ioc<W~

(Nobel Prize for Medicine)

cellular transformation. Ultimately two prophylactic vaccines were designed that have a high efficiency (> 95'7"0) to protect against HPV acquisition of the high risk strains HPV16 and 18. The vaccines may also reduce the need for surgery and hence the global burden of cervical ccncer.

The United States Food and Drug Administration has approved one papilloma virus vaccine, Gardasil, for girls and women aged 9 to 26 and with advice that they get immunized before sexual activity begins.

Since its discovery in 1981, AIDS has rivaled the worst epidemics in history. An estimated 25 million have died, and 33 million more are living with HIV.

In 1983, Montagnier and BarreSinoussi, a member of his lab at the Pasteur In'i,titute in Paris, published their report of a newly identif ied virus.

The French scientists had isolated and cultured a virus they called LA V (now known as HIV) which was produced in lymphocytes of patients with enlarged lymph nodes chcrocter-istic of the early stages of fhe acquired immunodeficiency infection, and in blood from patients with late stage disease. 'rhe activity they had detected was that of the retroviral enzyme reverse transcriptase. However in contrast with previously characterized human oncogenic retroviruses, HIV did not induce uncontrolled cell growth. Instead the virus required cell activation for massive replication and cell fusion, and subsequent

Avishek Basu Mallick Biotech (2nd Year)

damage, of T -lymphocytes. This partly explains how HIV impairs the immune system since the T cells are essential for immune

defence.

Soon after the discovery of the virus, several groups contributed to the definitive demonstration of HIV as the couse of acquired human immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).The combination of prevention and treatment has substantially decreased spread of the disease and dramatically prolonged life expectancy among treated patients. Identification of virus-host interae ions has provided more information on how HIV evades the host's immune system by impairing lymphocyte function, by constantly changing and hiding its genome in the host lymphocyte DNA, making its eradication in the infected host difficult even after long-term antiviral treatment. Extensive knowledge about these unique viral host interactions has, however, generated results for future vaccine development and therapeutic approaches targeting viral latency.

Successful anti-retroviral therapy now results in life expectancies for persons with HIV infections now reaching levels similar to those of uninfected people. However for Montagnier, who is presently working at the World Foundation for AIDS Research and Prevention in Paris on a way to eradicate HIV in those already infected, the fight is not yet finished.

For years I have been celebrating 14 (3/14) as Pi Day, which I have always considered the mathematical holiday of the highest importance - I mean, come on, it's Albert Einstein's birthday! - and never thought about commemorating any other day for its numerical beauty.

But today, I have been out-geeked. it turns out, is Square Root Day. That's because it's 3/3/09, and 3 x 3 = 9, 3 -

SUN

1. 8

squared equals 9. I had never considered that this relationship between month, day, and year occurs so rarely. In fact, this

square root" coincidence in dates only happens nine times every century - the last one being 2/2/04.

How should you celebrate Square Root Day? According to CNET, a teacher in Redwood City, California, has organized a contest. Apparently, people will cut root vegetables into squares or make foods into the square root symbol shape.

Compiled by :

G. Praveen Ku mar CSE (3' Year)

Passion fo~f.

r

Half of this year's Nobel Prize has been awarded to Yoichiro Nambu for his work on spontaneous symmetry breaking, the other half to Kobayashi and Maskawa for the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix as an explanation for the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of three families of quarks in nature.

Spontaneous symmetry breaking or SSB in physics takes place when a system that is symmetric with respect to some symmetry group goes into a vacuum state that is not symmetric. The symmetry group can be discrete, such as the space group of a crystal, or continuous, such as the rotational symmetry of space. The concept of SSB thus explains the behavior of sub-atomic particles and their movement which shapes modern physics theory.

Physicists believe that fundamental models of physics should be simple and elegant with symmetry built into it but Nambu realized that in natural mechanisms, some of the symmetries turn out to be broken. It took him two years to realize that SSB contributes to the explanation how superconductivity works but once he had developed that theory, he quickly turned it around and applied it to particle physics to explain how particles shift from one state to the next. His analogy likened the changes to when one dinner guest uses the wrong plate, f orcinq all the other guests at a round table to change as well.

Nambu soon formulated his mathematical description of SSB in elementary particle physics. He proved that SSB conceals nature's order under an apparently jumbled surface, a theory which proved to be extremely useful and which permeated the Standard Model of elementary particle physrcs. Nambu's theories form an essential cornerstone of the Model which unifies the smallest building

blocks of all matter and explains in an unified way three of the four forces in nature; strong nuclear, weak nuclear and magnetic. He also proposed the "colour charge" of quantum chromodynamics, which describes some interactions between protons and neutrons and the quarks. He is also accounted as one of the founders of string theory and discovered that the dual resonance model could be explained as a quantum mechanical theory of strings.

Ncmbus theories are being tested today at some of the world's leading research facilities, including the new particle accelerator at CERN, Geneva, where scientists hope to discover occurrences of symmetry breaking. The general feeling is that there may even be a theory beyond the Standard Model, a true theory of everything that can unify all forces. It's called string theory.

While the three men's work, done in the 1950s through the 1970s predicted the behavior of quarks and underlining the Standard Model, the spontaneous broken symmetries that Nambu studied differ from the broken symmetries described by Makoto Kobayashi and Tosihide Maskawa.

In the early mid-60s, starting with work by Nicola Cabibbo, it had been shown that there were two families of quarks and hence the CKM matrix, which determines the mixing parameters in quarks. is governed by a Single angle known as the Cabibbo angle. Kobayashi and Maskawa, in 1972, predicted that there were three families of quarks, instead of the two then known. Their calculations played out as predicted in highenergy particle physics experiments and there are now six known types of quarks - up, down, strange, charm, bottom and top. Hence the matrix (as derived mathematically from conditions of 3x3 unitary matrices) is

(Nobel Prize in Physics)

Avishek Basu Mallick Biotech (2nd Year)

determined by three angles and a complex phase. It is only in recent years that scientists have come to fully confirm the explanations given by Kobayashi and Maskawa in 1972.Their explanation of broken symmetry is within the framework of the Standard Model and these predicted hypothetical, new quarks of the third family have recently appeared in p h y s i c s experiments. As late as 2001, the two particle detectors BaBar at Stanford, USA and Belle at Tsukubc, Japan both detected broken symmetries independently of each other. The quark mixing matrix embodies most of the unknown parameters of the Standard Model, and as such is a crucial object for experimental studies in particle physics. Because of this the KM paper is the third most cited paper in high-energy particle physics and hence the decision to award them the Nobel Prize.

A hitherto unexplained broken symmetry of the same kind lies behind the very origin of the cosmos in the Big Bang some 13.7 billion years ago. If equal amounts of matter and anti-matter had been created they would have annihilated each other. But this did not happen as there waS a tiny deviation of one extra particle for every 10 billion antimatter particles. It is these broken symmetries that seemed to have caused our cosmos to survive and it shows that the universe is made up of mostly matter and not anti-matter.

Physicists are now searching for the broken symmetry, the Higgs mechanism, which threw the universe into imbalance during the time of the Big Bang. Scientists at CERN will be looking for the Higgs particle when they restart the collider in spring 2009. Perhaps this will unravel some of the mysteries and onswer the questions which continue to puzzle us.

Travian is an award-winning rncssivelv multiplayer online browser-based strategy game. It begins with an empty village and some resource tiles. Starting from this tiny step, you can end up with scores of villages and massive armies at your command! The game excels among strategy games due to its sirnplicity. It can be played anywhere with a browser. One can interact with thousands of players in the world of Travian, whether in a friendly manner by bartering reSourCes or

aggressively by raiding their villages. Be warned though, the game is highlyaddictivel

Gokul Panigrahi CSE (3· Year)

December 22, 1887 witnessed the birth of arguably India's greatest mathematician of all time, in Erode, Tamil Nadu. Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar - one of the famous names in the 20th century mathematics, if not of all time. Born in poverty he had but one passion in life-an all consuming obsession with the properties of numbers, one of the most esoteric branches of mathematics.

Ramanujan entered the primary school in Kumbakonam at the age of five and consequently the high school where he showed himself as an able all round scholar. At the age of 12, he began to work on his own on mathematics by summing geometric and arithmetic series. Ramanujan came across a mathematics book by G S Carr called Synopsis of elementary results in pure mathematics which with its very concise style, allowed Ramanujan to teach himself mathematics. By 1904 Ramanujan had begun to undertake deep research. He investigated the series L (1/n) and calculated Euler's constant to 15 decimal places. He began to study the Bernoulli numbers, although this waS entirely his own independent discovery.

Ramanujan, on the strength of his good school work, was given a scholarship to the Government College in Kumbakonam which he entered in 1904. He continued his mathematical work on hyper geometric series. In 1906 Ramanujan went to Madras where he entered Pachaiyappa's College. His aim was to pass the First Arts examination which would allow him to be admitted to the University of Madras. He became ill after three months of study, took the First Arts examination after and passed in mathematics but failed all his other subjects. This meant that he could not enter the University of Madras. In the following years he worked on mathematics developing his own ideas without

The Man Who Knew

Infinity

any help and without any real idea of the then current research topics other than that provi ded by Carr's boo k.

Since paper was expensive.

Ramanujan would do most of his work on slate, and then transfer the results to paper. Ramanujan studied continued fractions and divergent series in 1908 and began to pose

problems and solve problems in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society. After publication of a brilliant research paper on Bernoulli numbers in 1911 in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society he gained recognition for his work. Despite his lack of a university education, he waS becoming well known in the Madras area as a mathematical genius.

Although his talent waS recognized early, he had very little opportunities in India. So, in January 1913, he wrote a letter to G H Hardy asking the pre-eminent English mathematician's opinion on several results he had obtained about numbers. In 1914, Hardy brought Ramanujan to Trinity College, Cambridge, to begin an extraordinary collaboration. On 16 March 1916 Ramanujan

,

Compi/edby:

G. Praveen Kumar

CSE (3" Year)

graduated from Cambridge with a Bachelor of Science by Research (the degree waS called a Ph.D. from 1920). He waS allowed to enroll in June 1914 despite not having the proper qualifications.

Recognitions followed. Ramanujan confounded the European mathematicians, often coming up with results, based on nothing more than pure intuition. On 18 February 1918 Ramanujan was elected a fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and then fellow of the Royal Society was and consequently as a Fellow of Trinity College Cambridge. Ramanujan sailed back to India on 27 February 1919. However his health was very poor and, despite medical treatment, he died there the following year (on April 26, 1920) at the age of 33, due to tuberculosis.

Ramanujan worked out the Riemann series, the elliptic integrals, hyper geometric series and functional equations of the zeta function .... the list continues to 4000 original theorems, despite lack of formal education. He left a number of

unpublished notebooks filled with theorems that mathematicians have continued to study. G N Watson, Mason Professor of Pure Mathematics at Birmingham from 1918 to 1951 published 14 papers under the general title Theorems stated by Ramanujan. A stamp picturing Ramanujan waS released by the Government of India in 1962 - the 75" anniversary of Ramanujan's birth - cammemorating his achievements in the field of number theory. The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan is a famous biography by Robert Kanigel .

Richard Askey says, "We would admire any mathematician whose life's work was half of what Ramanujan found in the last year of his life while he was dying I"

•

Intelligent Traffic Control System using RFID

ABSTRACT

In this paper we propose a novel architecture for creating Intelligent Traffic Control Systems (ITCS) using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) [1]. This

can be used in places where RFID tagging of vehicles is compulsory. The efficiency of our proposed system lies in the fact that this system operates traffic signals based on the current situation of vehicular volume in different directions of a road crossing and not on pre-assigned times.

For more details contact: anuran_nitdgp@yahoo.co.in, meetsaumyabansal@gmail.com

Merging Roads: BIOINFORMATICS

Atesh Koul Biotech (Final Year)

Biology and computers,

mathematical analysis has always been computers and biology some time back the most famous Perl created by Larry Wall.

considered as two far distinct poles. So what considered remotely related are now Perl is a popular programming language that's

is there that brings them under I roof??? We merging to form an important branch of extenSively used in areas such as

all know that the biological data is proliferating rapidly. Every day we get a huge

bioinformatics.

So what exactly is bioinformatics??

Bioinformatics is a rapidly

l~~i~~~~ii~~~~~~~~~~~~~~a evolving discipline. It's the

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~_ fiiI ... _~_ 01_. - application of computation.al

tools and techniques to the management and cnclvsis of biological data. The term

bioinformatics is relatively new. For example, the determination of 3D protein structure from X-ray crystallographic data has long relied on computer analysis. In particular,

';;;;:================:::li===~dl bioinformatics is often the term used when referring to

the data and the

Testing a Fos-m

amount of data based on sequence analysis (finding the alphabets of human genome), mass spectrophotometer (finding what constitutes a material). X-ray crystallographic data (looking into the bones of a substance) and other experimental data. Some of the Public databases (reposrtories of information) such as GenBank and the Protein Data Bank have been growing exponentially. With the advent of the World Wide Web (www) and fast Internet connections, the data contained in these databases and a great many special-purpose programs can be accessed quickly, easily, and cheaply from any location in the world. As a consequence, computer-based tools are now playing an increasingly critical role in the advancement of biological research. In fact

bioinformatics and web programming. Perl has become popular with biologists because it's so well-suited to several bioinformatics tasks.

Apart from Perl, a huge amount of information can be obtained from internet. Websites like www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, www.ebi.ac.uk , www.expasy.ch/sprot provide a large no. of resources free of cost. You can access research papers, DNA, c-DNA sequences, protein sequences, protein structures and a lot of useful information.

To see a demo of how cgi and perl work. We can host a cgi server using apache. This website was hosted on my local server http://1O.0.2.48. What it does it takes user sequence in form of a DNA sequence and tells how much A, T, G and C is present in "10 in the input sequence in form of a bar graph. This

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techniques used in large-scale sequencing and analysis of entire genomes.

What it all means is that some where far in an area cut off from rest world ... in a biotech lab, a mad scientist does his

experiments and finds

out the DNA sequence

of a unique trait

(ability) of a person.

This information would

be of no use to him

unless he compares it

with that of a normal person, unless he finds

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"'11,-,-" I' ability, what exactly is the

!'Ie <lit - ._eo 1_ "'I> BI'1!a ~.~_.o,_. ~ structure of that protein and

other stuff.

Here is when bioinformatics comes in to play. Once he has decoded the sequence, he can find a lot of information based on just that thing!!! Such is the power of bioinformatics.

There are a no. of means by which you can use bioinformatics. Programming is one way, Web is another. Programming languages include

Testing a Form

data can be inputted from any where in the same LAN (or internet if posted there) and anyone can get the result.

Conclusively, its an undeniable fact that computers and biology are the next big thing and no one would like miSSing out on cashing out on this gold mine.

What IS wrong with these GNU/linux Users' Group peaple? Why can't they just BecauseitssaGaddamnpowe~ul.Justfewkey-strokesandyourcomputerbehavesexactlyasyou

stop droning about GNU/linux? Please, notanather lecture an whyGNU/linux is better that wont it to behave. No, you don't need to learnstuff to do that Just search the Internet for what

Windows! Please, we have hadenoughl Well you are right! You have had enough,enoughof youneedtotypeinforwhot. And ,tsthml DooCopy-Paste ...

Windows .... [:D[ I'll try not to make this boring, but here ar< the TOP Five reo.sOM I use Help I WhICk brings us to the 5th most Important reason. looking for and getting help.

GNu/llnux(yesIhavemore) Just because GNU/lmux is so fleXible, there are a lot of things you can do to tweak It to your

Freedom I It's plain and Simple. GNU/llnux gives you freedom. GNu/linux is Free. preferences. And Just because its so flexible, help is always available at hand. Be it gaogle

free nat just as in free Beer, but as in free speech So you have the freedom to do whatever searches, mailing lists _ if its a bit uncommon problem or InternetRelay Chat(IRC) _ if ItS a bit too

you like with your operating system. You can obtain itfar free. You can check out what code urgent.Askforhelp,andyauwillreceiveitl

mode your softwore work. You can chonge it as you • I FewpaintsIwanttogetacrass

want You can give aut caples to you friends. And ItS OL /mOf1 f10t 1f1"ltf1 GNU/linUX.Isuser.Frlen.dIY. It's. just nat Idbt-

all sa legaL ~ '" "J tn 'J ~~ 'r Friendly or Ignoront-Friendly And just because some

So no more crac~. No mare serlOls. Its just free systems IreadMlCasaft Wmdaws)are deSigned to keep you

Andusingitmakesyaufeelsafreel from using your braiMtoo much and thinking out of the box,

No ViMes : A very important reaSon. No mare right clicking flash drives to check it con't be termed 'user-friendly'. If something does nat work an GNU/lmux ... The fault IS not

whether its got anything bod in it or nat II meon virus). No mare Avast hooting" A virus has from the Side of GNU/linux. So if your webcam does nat wark becauselts driver is nat available,

been detectedl".No moreheavyCPU-and-memory-eatmganti-vlCuses.Just becausewindows you should be asking why didn't the manufacturer ship its GNU/llnux version In the driver CD.

vlCusesjustdan't wark an GNU/llnux. Of course Viruses can be made for GNU/linuxtoo. But Also If you cannot use certain proprietary software an GNU/llnux, you should be asking why IS the

that's just too damn taughl And guess why the peaple who made the Windows viruses made software proprietary in the first place. And don't worry gamers, we will soan have a lot of games

theminthefirstplace1 anGNU/linux.Andgoadanesassuch.

Add/Remove Software: It's like the fastest. Just search for the saftwares you P_S.: Why IS It called GNU/linux mstead of linux, because linuXis justthe kernel [the Inner part

want to iMtall. Check thecheck-boX€Syauwant to check. And apply. Voila! ,hlChcommunlCates with the hardware ),ond GNU [GNU IS Nat Unix] is the rest of what IS 10 use

Shell I Shell ,stne GNU/linux command Ime. Now why use the command line when P_P.S_'Special than~ta VarshaiOlkumarfarherawesame Ideas

youhavetheGUIIGraphicalUserInterfacel'WhytypethmgsdawnwhenyouconJustcllCk?

BUILdlng'k BElllir EJlr1ih EJlr1ihqUJlkE RE~ISrJlnrBulLdlngs

Everyone has heard of an move 20 inches (51 cm) in any direction. The earthquakes.MRfluid isa liquid that changes

M.R.K. Bharadwaj Civil (2nd Year)

earthquake. But how many have actually experienced one? An earthquake shook NIT Durgapur some time last year. We experienced a tremor and were lucky enough notto have any buildings damaged.

An earthquake is a sudden, rapid shaking of the Earth caused by the breaking and shifting of rock beneath the Earth's

columns that rest on the balls move somewhat less than this as they roll around in their bases, which helps isolate the building from the motion of the ground. When the earthquake is over, gravity pulls the columns back to the center of their bases.

A BUILDING CAN BE MADE

surface. Ground shaking from earthquakes EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT BY USING:

can collapse buildings and bridges: disrupt gas, electric, and phone services; and sometimes

Bulldll1g Support --+_Columl1

trigger landslides, avalanches, flash floods, and huge, destructive ocean waves (tsunamis). Buildings with foundations resting on unstable soil, and trailers and homes not tied to their

foundations are at risk because they can be shaken off their mountings during an earthquake. The dynamic response of building to earthquake ground motion is the most important cause of earthquake-induced damage to buildings. It is often said "Earthquakes don't kill people buildings do"

It is possible to make every building earthquake proof but it is too expensive. It is possible to make modifications to a building to make it earthquake resistant. The cost of making a building earthquake resistant is a fraction of making a building earthquake proof. The "Transamerica Pyramid Building" in San Francisco is "earthquake-proof". It swayed more than one foot in the 1989 earthquake but wasn't damaged.

The basic method of making a building earth quake resistant can be illustrated by the followinq picture. The ball rests in a concave base that is connected to the ground. In the event of an earthquake,

the ground can

Building

Support -----il'Co'lumn

Base

1) BASE ISOLATORS: A nine layer overlapped building with a cross brace inside was made and a roof was attached using plasticine. The building was built on a marble base isolator on the earthquake machine. The handles of the earthquake machine were pulled back to the line then let go. When the machine had stopped shaking, the handles were pulled again and again until the building collapsed. The nine layer overlapped cubic building with cross braces, a roof and a marble base isolator waS 226~o more stable then a plain nine layer building.

2) MR FLUID: Magnetorheological

to a near-solid when exposed to a magnetic force, then back to liquid once the magnetic force is removed.

3) MAGNETIC BEARINGS: Some very high-speed devices, like advanced flywheel energy storage systems, use magnet bearings. These bearings allow the flywheel to float on a magnetic field created by the bearing. Some of the flywheels run at speeds in excess of 5 0 0 0 0 revolutions per minute (rpm). Normal bearings with rollers or balls would melt down or explode at these speeds. The magnetic beari ng has no

moving parts, so it can handle these incredible speeds.

4) BALL BEARINGS: Ball bearings are the most common type of bearings. These bearings can handle both radial and thrust loads, and are usually found in applications where the load is relatively small. In a ball bearing, the load is transmitted from the outer race to the ball, and from the ball to the inner race. Since the ball is a sphere, it only contacts the inner and outer race at a very small point, which helps it spin very smoothly. But it also meanS that there is not very much contact area holding that load, so if the

fluid (MR fluid), which is being used inside bearing is overloaded, the balls can deform or

large dampers to stabilized buildings during squish, ruining the bearing.

The term perpetual motion, taken literally, refers to movement that goes on forever. However, the term more generally refers to any closed system that produces more energy than it consumes. Such a device or system would be in violation of the law of conservation of energy, which states that energy can never be created or destroyed. The most conventional type of perpetual motion machine is a mechanical system which (supposedly) sustains motion despite losing energy to friction and air resistance, or while avoiding losing energy to friction and air resistance.

"Rise in average temperature", "Carbon dioxide level increase" - these are terms one expreSSeS only with reference to global warming. Well, before you might think this article is the same of its kind, allow me to tell you that this article does not deal with the conventional idea behind the extremely sought after problem - THE GLOBAL WARMING.

The majority of climate scientists agree that global warming is primarily caused by human activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation. The conclusion that global warming is mainly caused by human activity and will continue if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced has been endorsed by more than 50 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries.

Scientists opposing the mainstream scientific assessment of globalwarming express varied opinions concerning the cause of global warming. Some say only that it has not yet been ascertained whether humans are the primary cause of global warming. Others attribute global warming to natural variation (e.g., Soon and Baliunas), ocean currents (e.g., Gray), increased solar activity (e.g., Shaviv and Veizer). cosmic rays (e.g., Svensmark), or unknown natural causes (e.g., Leroux).

A few studies claim that the present level of solar activity is historically high as determined by sunspot activity and other

factors. Solar activity could affect climate either by variation in the Sun's output or, more speculatively, by an indirect effect on the amount of cloud formation. Solanki and co-workers suggest that solar activity for the last 60 to 70 years may be at its highest level in 8,000 years; Muscheler et 01. disagree, suggesting that other comparably high levels of activity have occurred several times in the last few thousand years. Both Muscheler et al. and Solanki et 01. conclude that "solar activity reconstructions tell us that only a minor fraction of the recent global warming can be explained by the variable Sun."

Another point of controversy is the correlation of temperature with solar variation.

Roger A. Pielke, is a climatologist claims melting Arctic Sea ice is a result of regional warming and not global warming.

"However, in terms of relating to

the global average lower temperature changes in the troposphere, in June 2007 (which is the latest data posted), the global average anomaly is +0.22 after being as high recently as +0.51'C in January. Thus, it is regional warming, not "global warming" that appears to be the reason for this melting (Indeed, if it were global warming, we should See a similar reduction in Antarctic Sea ice coverage, which, however, is not occurring)."

As more evidence has become

Priyadarsini Sarda Nanda Mechanical (3rd Year)

available over the existence of global warming, the debate has moved to further controversial issues, including the social and environmental impacts, the appropriate response to climate change and whether decisions require less uncertainty.

Even Dr. Peter Tsiqcris.un economist at Thompson Rivers University, says that taking steps to curb global warming makes sense from both an environmental and an economic standpoint. He estimates that addressing global warming by changing our dependency on fossil fuels and other behavior would cost an estimated one percent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per year, while taking no action could cost 5 percent of global GDP each year. Extreme climate change could result in a cost of 20 percent GDP or greater. [Source: Science Daily].

Environmental groups, many governmental reports, and the non-U.S. media often state that there is Virtually unanimous agreement in the scientific community in support of human-caused global warming, although there is less agreement on the specific consequences of this warming. Opponents either maintain that most scientists consider global warming "unproved," dismiss it altogether, or highlight the dangers of focusing on only one viewpoint in the context of unsettled science. Others maintain that either proponents or opponents have been stifled or driven underground!! REFERENCES:

http:// en.wi kipedia.org/wiki/ Global_warm ing _controversy http://science.howstuffworks.com/globalwarming7.htm http://www.cfact.org/site/view_article.asp? idCategory=4&idarticle=838 http://www.rightsidenews.comI2008122731 III e ne rgy-and -e nvir on me nt / a-g I irnp seinside-the-global-warming-controversy.html

&teg8fiography

A-a c{ 1)4A H~

Introduction:

As time passes, human needs keep on changing along with the demand of security and confidentiality on the rise. From the ancient times, there have been many methods for implementing the security and confidentiality. One of such methods is Steganography.

The word "Steganography" originates from the two Greek words 'steganos' (covered) and 'graptos'(writing) thus means "covered writing". Its main purpose is covert communications between two parties without being detected by any third party. It has evolved from the invisible inks, null ciphers, wax tablets and microdots of the past to high-tech digital hiding methods in the present. Like in ancient times, if you want to send some secret message to other person then shave off someone' s head and embark the message on his head. Then allow his hairs to grow. After that send him to the second person. That person will shave off his head again and read that message without anybody' s intervention. [Kahn, 1967; Johnson and Jajodia, 1998; Kipper, 2004].

In Modern Steganography, some digital file (called as Carrier file) is used to hide the data which may be encrypted (to make the data unreadable for more protection) by using the encryption key (coding method esp. RSA algorithm). The carrier file after hiding the data becomes Cover medium. Thus, it is noted that Cover medium contains hidden message, carrier file and encryption key.

Methods:

The two main modern methods of Stegnography are:- 1. Least Significant Bit (LSB) Substitution method

It consists of the overwriting of LSBs of a carrier file with the bits of the Secret data. (Explained later).

2. Injection

It simply involves the directly injecting the secret information into the sections of a carrier file that are ignored by the processing application like as comments in the code of a program. The main problem with this method is that it significantly increases the carrier file size which makes it suspicious [Mangarae, 2006].

Before we explain about the LSB Substitution Method, a brief look into the image representation is necessary. Representation of an image:

In an image file, the color intensity of each pixel is represented by binary values and this color intensity is defined by either 8-bit or 24-bit, the former using the static color palette of 256 different shades (2'=256) and the latter providing a better set of colors without using any color palette (2" different true shades). In the 24 bit image, each pixel is represented by three bytes, each byte representing the intensity of three primary colors red, green, and blue (RGB), shown in [Kessler, Gary C (2004)].

Again in the following 24-bit bmp image (Fig.2), a

Nimit Goenka CSE (Final Year)

the second picture) and it can be eosilv seen (in the third image) that the particular shade of the pixel has its own RGB values which are defined by 8 binary bits.

9' 120 45

97 01100001 128 10000000 45 00101101

Red-Green-51 ue verues

Figure 2. RGB values of a pixel Least Significant Bit Substitution Method :

This is the most common Steganography method in digital image files. The least significant bit term comes from the numeric significance of the bit in a byte. Each number is stored as eight bits (zeros and ones), with a one worth 128 in the most significant bit (on the left), then 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, and 1 in the least Significant bit (on

the righti):;_._"T"_-r_--,r-_T""_-r_-r_-. ..... ---,

1110111110111011

Figure 3. Least Significant Bit ina byte

A difference of one or two units in the color intensities of a pixel is imperceptible. A digitized picture can still look good even if the least significant four bits of pixel's color intensity are altered (a change of up to 2' - 1 = 15 in the color's value). This gives plenty of space to hide a secret message. The LSB method works best in the image file that have a high resolution like 24 bit bmp image. The reaSon is that such an image is normally of the highest quality and of the largest size. The LSB method does not increase the file size, but depending on the size of concealable information inside the carrier file, the image can become noticeably distorted.

As an example of least significant bit substitution, we imagine "hiding" the character 'G' across the following eight bytes of a carrier file (the LSB are underlined):

1101100111010011101011010011010Q 1011100110110101000101111111100Q

A 'G' is represented in the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) as the binary string 01000111. These eight bits can be "overwritten" to the LSB of each of the eight carrier bytes as follows:

11011000110100111010110000110100 10111000101101010001011111111001

In the sample above, only half of the LSBs were actually changed (shown above in italics and coloured). Thus by overwriting the LSBs, the numeric value of the byte changes very little and is least likely to be detected by human eye in case of colors.

Modern Applications [Kay, Russell (2002)] :

The sequence of 3 bytes (24 bits) has been shown in the follOWing figure (Fig. 4) where each represented the color intenSity of a Single pixel in an image (Fig.5).

B~81- Red 000001000

B~e2 - Green 00000000

BytaS- Blue 00000000

Figure 4. RGB ValueofaGiven Shade (dark green)

Figure 5. Pixels before(left) and after(right) embedding data

In this process, eleven pixels have been taken that represent, say, part of a solid-dark green background (Unaltered, Fig.5). All these eleven pixels have same pixel color value of FigA. Assume that we want to hide a text message of the four characters "Aha!" in these eleven pixels. The ASCII binary code of which is shown in Fig. 6.

A

OOOOOOOD

o 000000

h

0lU80uo 00' 010_00000

a

Figure 6. Binary Values of "Aha!"

In Fig. 7, the binary values of those altered eleven pixels are given because the LSB of each byte of these given pixels (unaltered image in Fig, 5) has been overwritten bit by bit (as in previous example) with the binary values of our secret message "Aha!" The hidden message has occupied 32 (4*8=32) of those 264 (11*3*8=264) bits (i.e.12'1.) but only 150f 264 bits (less than 6%) has been changed and only eight of the 11 pixels are altered. Each maroon or gold box represents a bit that has been changed to hide the message.

Pilei Bytel- Red
000000010
2 000000010
3 000000010
4 uOOO
5
6
00000000 B,te2-Gr ...

Byte 3- Blue

ODOOOOOO i 00 o ODOO 0 00000000 iOOOODOOO 00000000 i 00000000 OOOODOOO!OOOOOOOO

::::::~: I ODD 0

10 ! 00000000 . 0 i 0 0 000000

The two images in Fig. 5 representing the 11 colored pixels with and without above manipulations hardly show any perceptible difference.

If instead of 11 pixels a 300KB bitmap file is there, then a text message of 36KB could be accommodated, or about 6,000 words. Fig.8 is the result of embedding data across the limits.

Figure 8, Result of Over-Embedding Data

In addition, we can also apply some compression techniques on secret data so that distortion in carrier file is minimized or capacity of data hiding is increased to the extent possible.

As we have seen the difference is imperceptible after hiding the data in an image file. Think, how much it wil be difficult to detect hidden data in such files. This process is known as Steganalysis. It can be done by looking actively for the repetitive patterns or distortions in the suspected images by comparing with original images. It can also be done by applying filters or by statistical analysis of LSB. Applications:

Some very useful and commercially important functions of Steganography in today' s digital world of image processing and other fields are:

1. In the applications as Digital watermarking, one can embed a hidden message in one's file (digital audio, video, or image Signal and document files) so that ownership of intellectual property can later be asserted to ensure the integrity of the content.

2. It can be used to maintain the confidentiality of valuable information, to protect the data from possible sabotage, theft, or unauthorized viewing.

3. It has effective appl ication in peer-to-peer private communications.

Unfortunately, steganography can also be used for illegitimate purposes. All of the methods mentioned above can also be used to hide illicit, unauthorized or unwanted activity. As there were rumors that the terrorists are using it for covert communications. Also, serious problems concerning the protection of the intellectual and production rights have come into the picture because nowadays, a number of perfect copies of digital information (text, audio and video etc.) are very easily produced and distributed either legally or illegally.

References;

Johnson Neil F. and Jajodia, Sushi] "Steganography: Seeing the Unseen", IEEE Computer, February 1998 '26-34.

Kahn, David "The Codebreakers- The Story of Secret Writing". New York:

Scribner, 1967.

Kay, Russell "How Steganogrnphy Works", Computer-wor-ld, 2002 .

Kessler. Gary C. "An Overview of Steganogrophy for the Computer Forensics Examiner", An edited version of this paper appears in the July 2004 issue of Forensic Science Communications.

Krenn, J.R. "Steganography and Steganalys IS" J 2004. Mangarae, Aelphaels "Steganography FAQ", Zane-H.Org, 2006.

7he JmplemeotAtioo of '1/e.tie cAlsorithms io .z,isitAI ~isoAI tJroeessios

INTRODUCTION

Digital signal processing (DSP) is the technology that is present in almost every engineering discipline. It is also the fastest growing technology of this century and therefore, it poses tremendous challenges to the engineering community. Faster additions and multiplications are of extreme importance in DSP for convolution, discrete Fourier transforms, digital filters, etc. The core computing process is always a multiplication routine; therefore, DSP engineers are constantly looking for new algorithms and hardware to implement them. Vedic mathematics is the name given to the ancient system of mathematics which is based on 16 sutras (word formulae) and manifests a unified structure of mathematics. I want to highlight the use of multiplication process based on Vedic algorithms and its implementations on 8085 and 8086 microprocessors, resulting in appreciable savings in processing time.

THE VEDIC MUL TIPLICA TION METHOD The multiplication of two- or three-digit numbers utilising conventional mathematical methods (successive additions when used on computers) needs no explanation. Alternatively, the Vedic method is illustrated in the example below. The digits on the two sides of line are multiplied and the result is added in the previous carry. When more than one line is in the step, all the results are added with the previous carry and the process is thus continued. Initially, the previous carry is equal to zero. A unit place digit of addition result is one of the digits in the answer; this is derived from full multiplication, while the remaining digits act as a carry. If the numbers of the digits are not same in the multiplier and multiplicand, then the bigger number has to be determined. The number of digits then needs to be counted. The smaller number should be pre-pended with Os so that both numbers will be of the same digits.

e.g., 54 X 48 is shown below r-

Step 1: 5

x

4

1

4

2

Step 2:

5 4

4~8

x

9 2

Prey Carry =3 New Carry=5 40

16

--59--

Step 3:

x

Answer:

Prey Carry=5

20 ""25"

For 3 digit numbers, the I ine diagram is represented as fo lIows:

a 0 I :X
1) o 0 2)
3) >l< 4) X:
5) I 0 0
o 0 COMPARATIVE PROCESSING CONVENTIONAL

STUDY OF

TIMES OF

AND VEDIC

MULTIPLICATIONS FOR 8085/8086 MICROPROCESSORS

By using the above-mentioned Vedic methods for two- and three-digit multiplications, assembly programs on B085/8086 microprocessors were written, along with the number of clock states (T states) per instruction, in order to evaluate the total processing time for each of the methods. Similar exercises have been completed for twoand three-digit multiplications utilising conventional mathematics methods.

A 3 MHz clock used in 8085 Microprocessor gives one T state equal to 0.33 microseconds. Therefore, the total processing time is the product of total number of T states and the time period of one T state (ie 0.33 microseconds). A comparison of the processing times for Vedic and conventional mathematical methods in the case of two- and three-digit multiplications reveals the details listed in the following rcble i-

Nitesh Tripathi Electrical (3'0 Year)

Two-digit multiplication yields the results shown in Table 1. As evident from Table 1, a time saving of cpproximct elv 59% can be achieved using the Vedic method.

Total

tecHkNow ... #4

One T Total
Me.thod of ReQuiired
State in No, of T
mult ipl teet ion Time
mtcr-csec. States
imiUisec.)
Conventional 0,33 2.417 0.810
MeThod
Vedic Method 0.33 1.440 0.480 Table 1: Two-digit multiplication.

Three-digit multiplication gives the results shawn in Table 2. In the case of three-digit multiplication, apprOXimately 42Y, of the processing time is saved. Similar results can be obtained on other processors as well

*Total
Time of Tot~
Method of ReQuired
One T State No. of T
multiuliootion Time
(microsec) State
(mm:sec)
Conventional 0.33 7.506 2.502
Method
Veclc Method 0.33 3.128 1.042 Table 2: Three-digit multiplication.

The above results are extremely encouraging so far as applications in digital Signal processing (DSP) are concerned. Most of the important DSP algorithms, such as convolution, discrete Fourier transforms, fast Fourier transforms, digital filters, etc, incorporate multiply-accumulate computations. The 8085/8086 microprocessors used so far have standard INTEL architecture that is suitable for conventional mathematical methods. Even then, Vedic mathematical methods have achieved substantial time savings. If processor architectures that are convenient for Vedic methods are designed. then one can further reduce the processing time.

Since Vedic algorithms utilise decimal digits directly for their operations, it is considered appropriate to use binary coded decimal (BCD) architectures in place of the binary architecture presently used all over the world. VLSI technology can provide the necessary design and simulation tools to develop processors based on BCD architecture.

REFERENCES:

Gaurav Tekriwal

founder President. Vedic Moths Forum, India.

_$.,W!phdwan i:J'tve:ntea the fisht liulli in 187Y, one year Ii+re Yhonra.s kdJ.5o:J1 dIet: "¥-Ec-we-ver, clU"an d1d:n rt ?«tent the idea ancf -was wideij accu.sed if co;ryi~ kd1.J(m - Who dJJ;J'utent the iaea a11£ "Waof tlierifore rec~nize£ aa itof inventer, ~"Wan continued to lie climiea rec~l1ition ul1tilofome tlme later 1fI'hel1 it W'u.5'.5'ho·wn th'atlioth'lbhtliufli.5'1¥erepTOduced Usl.:1'!!J d'#eTentj'ToCe.5'.5'e.5'.1!d1.5'O:1'I an~1¥anfaterfon"ed:aJcintcc,.~anyu.n7!Ytr,efie.5'tiffiothtech11c/o.s';eor.

Doomsda.';J clod!

gs diamond rea[r~ the ~ hardest.

Diamond will always be a girl's best friend, but it may soon lose favour with industrial drillers. The gemstone lost its title of the "world's hardest mcter.cl" to manmade nanamaterials. Now a rare natural substance looks likely to leave them all far behind - at 58"/0 harder than diamond.

Zicheng Pan at Shanghai Jiao Tong University simulated how atoms in two substances believed to have promise as very hard materials would respond to the stress of a finely tipped prabe pushing down on them.

The first, wurtzite boron nitride has a similar structure to diamond, but is made up of different atams. The second, the mineral lonsdaleite, or hexagonal diamond is made from carbon atoms just like diamond, but they are arranged in a different shape.

If tested and confirmed, however, wurtzite boron nitr-ide may turn out to be very useful because it is stable in oxygen at higher temperatures than diamond. This makes it ideal to place on the tips of cutting and drilling tools operating at high temperatures, or as corrosion resistant films on the surface of a space vehicle.

uek\olitior) Tech

Saurabh Audichya Mechanical (Z" Year)

In congested cities like Tokyo, there's barely room to swing a wrecking ball, and neighbors hate the caustic dust that implosions kick up. So the Japanese construction company Kajima developed a tidier technique, which it first used this past

spring to take down a 17 -story and a 20-story office tower: Knack out the ground floor, lower the building on computer-controlled hydraul ic jacks, and repeat. Keeping deconstruction on the ground is safer for workers, and the orderly disassembly makes it easier to contain asbestos and other toxic materials. Kojima recycled 99 percent of the steel and concrete and 92 percent of the interior materials-55 percent is standard-and cut demolition time bya fifth.

~rrafugia, a Woburn based private company deSigned a "Personal Aviation vehicle" which can be uniquely used for general aviation and traditional road transport. It is using automated folding wings technology while using it on road. It can carry two people and operates on a single tank of regular unleaded gas. The two-place Transition will be a certified Light Sport Aircraft eLSA) expected to have its first customer delivery in 2010.

Performance:

Cruise: 100 kts (115 mph) Rotate: 70 kts (SO mph)

Stall: 45 kts (51 mph)

Range: 400nm (460 mi) Takeoffover 50' obstacle: 1700'

Fuel bum: 5 gph Fuel tank: 20 gallons Useful Load: 430 lbs

On road: 30 mpg, 65 mph Light Snort Aircraft (LSA)

knots(kts or kt) is a unit of speed - one nautical mile per hour

Dimensians :

~

6' 9" tall 80" wide 18' 9" long

Airplane' 6' 3" tall 19' 2" long Wingspan" 27' 6"

~

51" at the shoulder

- P.V. Santhosh Kiran ECE (Final Year)

imagine a decked out dashboard and some futuristic chairs. It's currently being shown off at the Geneva Motor Show.

We're pretty comfortable with the idea of open source software running on computers and mobile phone -- heck, even guitars -- but cars? That one we're still warmjng up to, but this concept vehicle from EDAG definitely helps. As its name impl ies I the Light Car - Open Source lets developers modify and / or improve upon the auto's technologies -- or at least put a SNES

emulator on the back. The lithium ionpowered bubble car also sports an OLEDinfused exterior for lights and Signals that are supposedly useful both to the driver and other nearby motorists, but in actuality we suspect it'd just scare anyone tailing behind. No information on the interior, but we

-- Abhishek Gupta NIT,Durgapur

My BOOMERANG WI'LL FLY .

Do you remember the days when you watched Mowgl i and wondered whether the boomerang actually comes back? Probably you must have convinced yourself that it is not possible to do that with a piece of wood. But it is very much possible. Let's discover the complex law of physics behind it.

Boomerang is a curved piece of wood that returns to you in a circular path when you throw it. If you throw a straight piece of wood, it will simply keep going in one direction, turning end over end, until gravity pulls it to the ground. Then what happens in a boomerang?

The first thing that makes a boomerang different from a regular piece of wood is that it has at least two component parts for its two wings, whereas a straight piece of wood is only one unit. This makes the boomerang spin about a central point, stabilizing its motion as it travels through the air. The wings are set at a slight tilt and they have an airfoil design -- they are rounded on

airplane wing. This design gives a lift to the wing. When you throw a boomerang while it is held vertically, it has a forward motion and a spinning motion about an imaginary axis. Due to this spinning motion, the wing which is at the top of the spin adds a tangential veloci+y component to forward motion. But the bottom wing's spinning action opposes the forward motion. So the top wing has a higher velocity as compared to the bottom wing and this different velocities result a pressure difference which causes a constant lifting force at the top of the spin.

When you push a spinning wheel on its top, it reacts to the force as if you pushed it at a point 90 degrees off from when where you actually pushed it. This is because with a spinning object, the point you push isn't stationary, it's rotating around an cxisl You applied the force to a point at the top of the wheel, but that point immediately moved

Causing the boomerang

to turn slightly

I. ;1.

Bir-lc Industrial and Technological museum (BITM) conducts an Engineering Fair every year in the month of January. In the Engineering Fair, research oriented projects on various avenues of science & technology are displayed. I was lucky enough to be present at one of these fairs in Jan. 07. We presented a model of • A PC based path finder', which acts according to a code written purely in 'c' language, and directs it to explore the maze containing random obstacles. The robot is interfaced with a computer, using Parallel Port (for connecting printer).

tuugiu££riug ~ air at BITM

It lived up to its name of Eastern India's biggest science fair with participation from more than 200 engineering colleges and schools. All the models presented there were working models of various innovations. The first prize was won by a team which converted a regular monitor into a touch screen monitor by using infra-red sensors. The second prize waS won by a team which

made a model of a floating bridge that could split to allow a steamer to pass

underneath. There were others on a self desiqned scientific calculator, desalination of sea water, a nebulator to diagnose asthma, a home security system etc:

••••

Salish Kumar Panda Mechanical (Final year)

around to the front of the wheel while it was still feeling the force you applied. There's a sort of delayed reaction, and the force actually has the strongest effect on the object about 90 degrees off from where it was first applied.

This kind of thing happens in a boomerang. The uneven force caused by the difference in speed between the two wings applies a constant force at the top of the spinning boomerang, which is actually felt at the leading side of the spin. So the boomerang constantly turns to the left or right and it travels in a circle and comes back to its starting point.

For a boomerang to actually travel in a circle and come back to its starting point, all kind of forces have to be balanced in just the right way. To accomplish this one need a well-designed boomerang and a correct throw. The correct way to hold a boomerang is at a slight angle, say 15 to 20 degrees, from vertical. This will aim the force of the propeller up just enough to balance the force of gravity so that the boomerang isn't pulled to the ground before it can make a complete circle.

Force from lift (weakest)

I urge the students of the college to participate in Engineering Fair 2010 as it is one of those places where NIT Durgapur hasn't made a mark yet. It is a week long fair and food and accommodation of all out-station participants is taken care of. I do not wish to discourage other years but fourth semester is the ideal time to be at BITM, Kolkata. A certification from BITM is also regarded very highly.

- Zah id Hussain Mechanical (final year)

NIT Durqcpur

Large Numbers

How large is large? Many of you would sayan elephant is large, or perhaps the number of people on earth is large. That's true, since an elephant weighs a whopping 10' grams and there are over 6.7*10' people on earth. But actually, when compared to many physical quantities ,not so frequently encountered in our daily life, these numbers appear negligibly small. For example the number of molecules in 12 gram of Carbon is 6.023*10".That's just 1000000000000000 the so-called "Large" population of

Among other gigantic numbers are many which budding engineers like us are possibly aware of: such as the age of the universe(4.3*10" seconds) .its size (4.65*10" metres ), the number of bits on a hard disk(IO")or the number of cells in a single human body(IO"'.

A really large number is mentioned in the story of the "The King and the Beggar". A beggar came to the court of a maharaja who was' an Emperor so rich that if he wanted he could buy the entire world'. The king however refused to give the beggar any more than a handful of wheat. The beggar replied "Your Majesty, I do not beg even that much wheat from you. All I beg from you is just 1 grain of wheat for today. Tomorrow you shall give me

2grains,4 the next daY,8 on the next and in this manner just keep on doubling the number of grains. I shall go away after 2 months. The king felt it waS too good a bargain and thought he would hardly have to give anything away at all. The truth is that if the number of grains is doubled like this everyday, on the final day the king would have to pay 2" or 5*10" grains of wheat, for more than the entire wheat production of Earth!! .Of course the maharaja failed in his promise and had to give away his kingdom to the beggar as a compromise and live in his court as a common servant, so the legend goes.

Possibly the largest number ever mentioned in literature is that of "The Omniscient Printing Press". Imagine a printing press having 56 rotating disks attached side by side and cocxicllv mounted on a revolvinq rod (56 is the usual number of letters in a sentence).Each disk has all possible Engl ish characters written on it .This includes 26 small letters, 26 capital letters,10 digits (from 0 to 9) and 18 special characters commonly used in English(such as

, ! ? ; : () , " blank space etc.),i.e. 80 characters in all. By rotating each disk, one at a time, you can possibly imagine that we shall get all possible combinations of such

Sayantan Guha ECE (2"' year)

characters. Obviously most would be meaningless jumble of letters such as aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa or ase gdertty kijuo, fgjyhskoiu (gtyhbjhlkjljl" s 1573' he455fgbf.

Amidst this jumble of nonsense will lie meaningful sentences which when combined can give us the entire work of Shakespeare, Barack Obama's speeches, tomorrow's newspaper and stories of future technological innovations, in fact ,all sentences that can ever be written.So why aren't we making such a press for it can solve all our problems for the sentences will also contain solutions to any problem that may ever befall man.? Actually the trouble is that USing such a press we shall get no less than 80" or 3*10,"0 in all, i.e. 3 followed byl06 zeros!!!!! Of course it is really impossible to make a selection out of such a large number of sentences.

Ancient Indians mathematicians were very interested in large numbers. Vedic mathematics has provision for notation of more large numbers than any other number system ever has had.The number Asankheya refers to I014Q while Dhvajagranishamini

to believe it or not .10421.

Footnote: Do you guys know where the name Google comes from? It is actually a variation of the word googol, which means 10'''.

Karn Kaul IT (2"' year)

This one is interesting, and really simple, you might even wonder why you didn't think of it earlier!

One can classify sets into one of two categories. The first category is sets that are not members of themselves. This contains most of the sets we run into in "real life". For example, the set of all penguins falls in the first category, because the set of all penguins is a set, not a penguin. On the other hand, some sets are members of themselves. The set of all non-penguins, for example, is a member of itself. So is the set of all sets.

In which category would we find the set of all sets that are not members of themselves? If this set is not a member of itself, then it is a member of itself. If it is, then it isn't. So, this set is a member of itself if and only if it is not a member of itself, which is the paradox. Confused?

UoW can We say that

Any number by zero

We should remember that while multiplication is repeated addition, division is repeated subtraction. So 2)(3 means repeatedly add 2, 3 times. Where as 6/3 means how many times I repeatedly subtract 3 from 6 till I run out of everything in 6?

So when we say 3-0=0, we mean dont add 3, not even once, which means there will be nothing left which is Zero.

On the other hand, 6/0 means how many times can I remove Nothing from 6 till I run out of everything in 6? Well, as many times as we want, because no matter how many 'nothing's we remove from 6, the 6 still remains!! So any number divided by zero is infinity, because you can remove infinite nothings out of something!

Now what about zero divided by something? For instance 0/67 Well, here it means how many sixes I remove from Zero? The answer is none! Because zero is Nothing, there is nothing you can remove from zero. So zero divided by a number is Zero.

Zahid Hussain Mechanical {Final year}

Finally what about zero divided by zero (O/O)? What it means is, how many nothings can I remove from nothing till nothing is left?

Well, 'Undefined' is a polite mathematical way of saying, the question is stupid

tecHkNow ... #6

::rile p(fT«cllute WYloF inventecII()1!!} liefire tile creation if the ab;pfane. Ieuis L:norma-nd, a he:nchman, cCesiJneait in 17~? zc save J'ec:J'k Who Ilacf tOJU7'!J' from bu-ntm!J liuildi1t!J,r.

Pee;p~13ey~

The Touch-techno Gizmo

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K. Viswa Kiran Electrical (3" Year)

Ever wonderedll! How a simple touch of your finger does the job which formerly was done by a hectic process of scrolling, clicking and moreover with the support of an external device?? This article would take you beyond the screen you touch with intent of exploring the splendid technology enshrouded in it. We will use the iPod touch by Apple to unveil the enigma.

The iPod touch employs a layer of capacitive material under a protective covering to execute the process. The bask idea is based on the electrical properties of the human body. When you touch the

capacitive layer the amount of charge associated with the layer changes. This is the key reason why you should touch the screen with bare skin rather than insulating material. The layer uses either self or mutual capacitance to detect the touch. In either of the cases you change the electrical properties of the screen every time you touch it. The iPod records this change as data, and it uses mathematical algorithms to translate the data into an understanding of where your fingers are.

The next big thing is the processor, which keeps track of where you put your fingers and where they move once you've placed them on the screen. The iPod touch determines the shape, size and location of your finger (or fingers) on the screen. The device uses gesture software in its memory to claSSify your touch. It takes into account whether your fingers move and

what your iPod is doing at the time. The processor sends instructions to the iPod touch's display, software and hardware based on the data your fingers create.

- New Active Contact Lens

The new bio battery can generate electricity from a sugar solution and will be used to run the Sony Wal kman. The bio battery incorporates an anode consisting of sugar-digesting enzymes and mediator, and a cathode comprising oxygen-reducing enzymes and mediator, either side of a cellophane separator. Through a process of electrochemical reaction, electricity will be generated.

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Inventor, Babak Parviz has invented a contact lens embeded with solar-powered leds and a radio-frequency receiver. Intially, Babak Parviz developed the contact lens to wirelessly communicate medical information about the health of the eye and wearer.

However, other applications were soon realized. According to Parviz, "There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle's speed projected onto the windshield. Video-game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see."

In collaboration with engineers from Given Imaging, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering have developed the first-ever control system for the camera pill. The camera pill can be swallowed by a patient. A doctor can move the camera pill by a magnetic remote control. The steerable

camera pi II consists of a camera, a transm itter that sends the images to the receiver, a battery and several coldlight diodes which briefly flare up like a

flashlight every time a picture is taken.

Z\ Camero for the Blind

Paradoxical as it sounds, the Touch Sight camera makes it possible for the visually impaired to take pictures. The photographer holds the camera up to his or her forehead, and a Braille-like Screen on the back makes a raised image of whatever the lens sees.

Saurabh Sharma E.C.E. (3'" Year)

NIT Durqc::3pur

Sony's new DSC·T300 smile detection camera and what's behind it

Most of us are famil iar with face detection technology, which is used in digital cameras to automatically set the focus on the face of the person(s) being photographed. But technology has taken a leap and now we are ready to detect not just the face but also the emotions on it.

Mood recognition has been a very happening field of research in recent times. It is an amalgamation of biological sciences, electronics and soft computing techniques. Let's first take a brief look at how mood recognition can be achieved through speech analysis.

Speech analysis techniques can be extended to detect emotions. Voice streams can be analyzed to determine juxtaposition of words, which through statistical analysis can reveal emotional state. Properties of the speaker's voice such as frequency, jitter, intensity and tremor can be used to determine the emotion the speaker is undergoing. A neural network is trained to use these parameters to recogni ze emotional state from voice, similar to how neural networks can be trained for speech or handwriting recognition, Thus, as people speak, their

emotional state can be analyzed and detected,

Another approach in mood detect ian is the use of computer vision, While this requires the availability of a video camera, it has the advantage of constantly providing feedback, as opposed to voice where emotion can be detected only when the person is speaking,

While face detection has

become a common feature in modern digital cameras, Sony took one step ahead and developed the first camera with smile detection, the DSC- T300,

The main attraction of this camera is certainly Sony's new smile detection technology, So how does this new feature work? When the camera is set to smile detection mode, a user can select one out of the three preset smile detection levels (i.e. smile, grin, and great grin), After the shutter button is pressed, the camera will detect the target's face and shoot the photo automatically once the chosen smile level is reached.

Let us explore how the technology works,

The smile detection camera baSically works on the principle of Digital Image Processing. There is a set of images of smiling faces (corresponding to the three different levels, i.e. smile, grin, and great grin) available in a database, Certain features are extracted from these images using advanced soft computational tools like Fuzzy Logic, Artificial Neural Networks or Genetic Algorithm. Statistical tools are used to model these features and they are stored

Neelkantha Mukherjee ECE 13" Year)

in the form of matrices in the digital memory,

In the digital format every image is a grid composed of pixels, The focus is on the features of a face which change when it smiles. The features such as the orientation of the lips, dimples etc change when a face smiles, These changes in the digital image are modeled using complex statistical tools to extract patterns in a smiling face as opposed to the patterns in a normal face,

So when we have a face posing in front of a camera, the image is continuously being scanned, and being compared with the patterns available in the comprehensive database in the camera. When the pattern of the face being a bserved by the camera matches the pattern of a smiling face as per the database of the camera, it clicks automatically,

Besides the smile detection feature, Sony also implemented the newly developed iSCN "random scene recognition" feature, iSCN's main goal is to minimize exposure failure in five modes: night scene portrait, night scene, night Scene with tripod, backlit portrait and backlit,

Sony DSC- T300, which comes in three color options: gray, red and black, features 5x optical zoom with 10.1 mega-pixel resolution, 3,5" LCD, ISO range from 80 to 3200, and 15 MB internal memory with a 128 MB Memory Stick Duo included,

References : www.portablegadgets.net with invaluable inputs from Prof. Aurpan Majumder Deptt, of ECE, NIT Durgapur

Robotics is the science & technology of robots-which are virtual or mechanical Tecminator' have made this concept hugely artificial agents, The world's first robDt pOp'ular amongst common folk, Robotics is dates back to the first century A,D" but with-J.:at spark which leaves no one untouched by

the advent of technology robotics is being '~tS aura, .

evolved in leaps and bounds. R'obotics ca!} ~<l.W , The robotics club of the college

be described as the current pinnacfe ~f t t .'S ROBOCELL IS an energetic and technol.ogieal development, For some, t~ mbltlou~club which IS on the track In Its

romanticism of robotics brings forth an pursuit of raising the bar of robotics in the

almost magical curiosity of the world eading cC1llegezyound the year it is engaged in

to creation of amazing machines, They are organising competitions to bring out the

used for a variety of jobs ranging from minute mettle in the students, It provides

surgeries to space exploration. BaSically platform to the students to design robots

there are two types of robots--mechanical in and out of the college, It organises

and autonomous, Mechanical bats are workshops and seminars to keep the students upto date with the happenings in this field,

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manually controlled while autonomous ones

are proqrcmmnble and work on their own.

Now, some robots are being augmented with artificial intelligence--the science which makes them 'think' and display an array of emotions, Films like 'I Robot' and 'The

Robocell NIT Durgapur

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Jh'fl first computer, the steam-driven calcufati7l,j macCine, W"a5 built in 182.,3 ~ 7;harfe.s J3«fih"!Se. :It fa-ilea to -weT£ due tCJ ;/,(')or W'or/i;manJhfp i11 the intricate ;raFt.!. liWlUm rebuilt liy the IC11don ::Al'u,seU1n if

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Connect poison and sulphuric acid.

What is the significance of" ... a guy removing his glasses and then putting them on again, then blowing a smoke rings"? If Aristotle started the search for the explanation of this, who finally explained it after 20 years of research? Con.nect: A electron micr-oscope.n toy train, a bird and "complete rnessoqe." Hint: Do not support piracy!

Connect viruses, infections, spyware, Trojans and ad ware (apart from all being serious computer-related problems)

"How many pairs of rabbits will be produced in a year, beginning with a single pair, if in every month each pair bears a new pair which becomes productive from the second month or so?" What are we talking about?

Connect: A female animal used for breeding, the uterus/womb, the intercellular substance of a tissue, the natural material surrounding a metal or gem or fossil embedded in the earth. Hint: You cannot be told the answer to this question!

Why would most Indians know about Methyl Iso-Cyanate?

Connect: Philips, Grundig, Yamaha, Sony, Bach and Janis Joplin.

He has written a book which is widely used in skyscraper design and to study the aerodynamics of high frames. However we know him for something he designed. Name him or his creation.

What was started in 1996 as a Ph.D project in Stanford University but has far-reaching repercussions amongst today' s netizens?

The entropy S of an isolated system at thermodynamiC equilibrium is defined as the natural logarithm of W, the number of distinct microscopic states available to the system given the macroscopic constraints. On whose tombstone is an inscription regarding this? When it waS invented it weighed 130 kg and cost Rs BO,OOO. Today it has a weight of around 10 grams and costs around Rs 200-2000. What are we talking about?

After nearly 400 years, the Pope formally accepted that the Church had erred thus clearing the controversy over this issue. Which issue?

What is the Roman numeral for zero?

Connect: chondrites, ataxites and hexahedrites.

A meteorologist was working on a weather prediction problem using 12 basic equations. Once he tried to see the sequence by starting out in the middle rather than the beginning. The sequence evolved differently because he had entered only 3 decimal places rather than the normal 6, causing a divergence. How do we know this divergence?

Connect economics with 1969.

The universe is divided into various zones. A spacial zone in the universe which is neither too hot nor too cold is known as? With which condition can we associate the term "deep sleep"?

This medal is first awarded every four years at the International Congress of thiS field to two to four recipients under the age of 40. Name the field and the medal.

What was originally the distance between your nose and thumb if you stuck your arm out at a right angle with your thumb pointed up? Connect: Neon, Lyric,Paper and Silk.

Connect: radioactivity, pure radium, hybrid orbital theory, nuclear test ban treaty, trcnsis+or. superconductivity, insulin and virus nucleotide sequencing.

From which book (the first to use a certain technology) is this taken? (See Picture) What is the significance of 920 Disc Drive in the world of technology?

The main mechanism of the machine consists of two heavy wheels, between 30 and 50 cm in diameter, shod with solid or pneumatic rubber tyres, each driven by its own electric motor. These are mounted in a frame such that the wheels are in the same plane, about 7 cm apart. A j.Qjn! allows the machine a wide range of movement. The whole assembly is mounted on a sturdy tripod or other frame, The motors are typically powered by a car battery, and turn in opposite directions. A controller allows variation of the speed of each wheel, allowing the machine to be slowed down or when the motors are not running at the same speed. What are we talking about?

This technology was marketed as the "new papyrus". What are we talking about?

Known as the Indian X man, he was among the first Indians to conduct systematic X surveys in India and his books have contributed enormously to the development of pr-ofessroncls and amateurs in his field in India. Identify him

and his field of research. (See Picture)

Which invention was supposedly named as an anagram of the day of the week on which it waS discovered?

Send in your answers to mathsntech.nitdgp@gmail.com

The first three correct entries will get attractive gift vouchers.