The ordeal is over.

Yes, my exam is over. Atlast! An exam, for which I was so bored to study for. And with IPL going on, it was always going to be difficult. Yet, I enjoyed every moment doing time pass during the exam and I must confess, studying for some papers! The reality will strike me tomorrow only when I would have usually sat to study…

But tomorrow comes with its own good promise. I will be traveling to the DY Patil Stadium to watch the Mumbai Indians take on the Deccan Chargers. I could not have chosen a right time. Both are yet to open their points account! Hopefully, tomorrow will be a real cliffhanger, maybe even end in a bowl out [:P]

A World Record of a different kind!

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch the PSLV-9 on 28th April, at 9.20 am IST from Sriharikota. It will carry 10 satellites bettering the earlier world record of 8. It will carry CARTOSAT-2A, a remote sensing satellite for mapping and a micro satellite IMS -1. It will also carry 8 ‘nano’ satellites for various foreign countries.

Read all about it here on ISRO’s official press release. Also some pics there…

With this the number of satellites launched by India exceeds 50!

CHAK DE!

For more info on the pic and PSLV data sheet, click here

UPDATE:

As expected the launch was highly successful, with all ten satellites placed into orbit. ISRO has already begun to put the focus on the Chandrayaan mission coming up in July. I was a bit miffed at the media for not giving adequate coverage on this. They seem to have hours on hand for crimes n accidents (read Prince & Vandana ‘pitfalls’ which went on for 24 hrs+), but not much to achievements that every Indian should be proud of.

Good going ISRO. And all the best for the next mission!

Entrepreneurship Development

I gave one of the silliest papers in my entire life today. It was titled EDCS - Entrepreneurship Development and Communication skills, a compulsory subject. Yes, as you will agree the notion of a written paper is itself pointless. Who became good at both of them by writing papers?!

Some sample questions:

1) Out of total message to be communicated, Words contribute ___%, tone of voice contributes ___%, and body gestures contribute ___%.

Ridiculous! Answers are not: less, more & most but 7, 38 & 55%!

2) Name ten “Time wasters” in your daily life.

I mean Come ON! First of all its a relative term. And i had half a mind to put in “studying for stupid EDCS over there.

3) For 10 marks, develop and present a Business Plan.

How can anyone come up with a B-Plan in an exam? If we could do that why become engineers?! Check out Aditya’s creativity in response to it.

4) Name three records to be kept under Factories Act, 1948.

^&$^%*$#$^&

5) Please List four possible outcomes to a negotiation.

Ans: LOSE-LOSE, LOSE-WIN, WIN-LOSE, WIN-WIN.

I did very badly as expected. We had to study from photocopies of 10 units going over 500 pgs and costing over Rs. 350. The matter was really good, but it was not taught completely (partly due to lack of students initiative in attending the lectures)

Thankfully, from next year this subject is being floated as an elective. Please nobody take it up. If anyone really wants to be an entrepreneur, please find another way to get the know-how. This subject aint helping anybody…

This post by Aditya sums it up for me too.

Heat Transfer: Done and Dusted.

“I, like God, do not play with dice and do not believe in Coincidence.”

Yet in today’s heat transfer paper I had to use the same formula which I uploaded yesterday (see below). Also the paper turned out to be ridiculously short.  It was a solve 5 out of 7 questions, and I could finish solving the whole paper and check my calculations. In the end, I attempted 75 marks for a maximum possible 50. Hopefully, it will be enough…

Heat Transfer Paper

Its heat tranfer tomorrow and i am already bugged after attempting to learn the formulas.

Here’s an epitome of the seemingly endless and illogical ones we have:

For the record, it is for heat transfer coefficient for boiling over a cylinder surface. The whole bracket is raised to 0.25.

Quote 4 de day

” For some ‘Life is Mechancal’, for us, MECHANICAL IS LIFE! “

- The quote behind the sweatshirt designed by my senior batch!

(Couldn’t think of a more appropriate name for my blog :))

Jet Engines: Go beyond text book limits.

To all my fellow classmates, (especially to those who are interested in reading more about their subjects), just go through the matter on jet engines on Wiki. Some really good stuff here with a nice chart with all types’ advantages and disadvantages. Also go trough the individual engines (if you still want to read more). It is tremendously helpful for the experiment to be written on it in Energy conversions ( In case you have not copied it from someone else already… or the less probable done it yourself by copying from local author books). Some brilliant diagrams, animations here to resolve all doubts.

For all you lazy ones , here’s where you can start.

Machine Design paper

Well I got my Machine Design - II paper for mid-semester exam today and i got 27/30. After claiming it be one of my worse written papers, I recieved some criticism about it, naturally. Well thinking over it, I believed I had written the paper that bad. It was a bit relative! With people comparing the answers at the end of the paper, I felt I had screwed up 2-3 problems in a “I should have got full” paper. It turned out, fortunately, only my last step was wrong so I did not lose many marks. Also a 6 mark problem whose answers were not matching with anyone, turned out to be correct. So was the case with a cheeky 2 marks theory question which i got correct, based purely on logic. Overall I got 4-5 marks over what I expected making it a good result! Of course the shock of the exam was Energy Conversion with me trailing the topper by 6 marks…

Chennai Visit: Bosch On-Track

Well I have been sort of putting off writing about this visit for quite some time now and here it rolls out at last:

Firstly, about the event. Bosch had organized this huge event called Bosch On-Track. They had invited students from third year from mechanical, electronics, production mainly. They had set-up about 12-15 stalls divided into two sections. On one side we had the actual components along with charts and on the right were the vehicles with the systems actually mounted and in operation. Each vehicle was connected to a data acquisition system on which we could see the test being carried out and the system working.

The various systems that were covered were:

ABS: Antilock Braking system.

ESP: Electronic stability program which included ABS and TCS (Traction Control System)

LIGov: (Low Idle Governing): To avoid stalling of vehicles in low gear, it decided appropriate idling speed as per conditions and set and maintain it. One can move in traffic with just clutch control, climb in second with just clutch. A helpful tool for beginners and professional drivers alike.

SG: Starters and Generators from Bosch which were again electronically controlled to turn off the engine after preset time of idling (10 sec) and start the car just on pressing any of the pedals. A real innovation for bringing down emissions and fuel consumption which I felt should be made compulsory for all cars in India.

Cruise Control: A system to maintain constant pre-set speed. It is really common in western countries and making its way into India through Bosch and Mahindra.

Common Rail Diesel system: With Injection pressures upto 1800 bar.

Direct Injection Gasoline Engine with Turbocharging

Multiple Injection Systems. (Not official name): It uses multiple injections in the same stroke. i.e. a couple of pilot injections, a main injection and a post injection. It controlled the sudden pressure rise traditionally associated with diesel engines and reduces vibrations and sound levels. This was actually demonstrated.

Fuel Control: The friction loss in system was calculated and fuel supply adjusted to each cylinder in such a way so as constant speed was given to crankshaft.

Hybrid systems: A reva car to run on battery n bio-diesel.

BlauPunkt Music and GPS systems

The Bosch Rally Car.

The Bosch Racing Car

Baja Car

Power Tools Stall.

And any other which I may have forgotten! (Btw all are potential Paper PPT topics)

But the main highlight of course was that we were given actual demos of cars with ABS, LIGOV and Cruise Control. ABS was off course was the crowd favorite. Bosch had prepared a sand bed in the middle of which a dummy obstacle was placed. Then the car without ABS came zooming at about 70kmph and tried to steer after it ran on the the sand. Obviously it could not. One could see the wheels locked by the stickers pasted on them. Then the car with Abs came and steered brilliantly out of the way. One could easily see the wheel motion being modulated. It was a greater experience from inside the car. You could see the obstacle approaching, a jerk when the car hit the sand, the pulsating motion of the car and ease to steer clear of the obstacle. It was just brilliant!

All the Bosch staff present there were really helpful and most of them better than many professors I know! They took a keen interest in making sure we understood everything and welcomed even the childish of all doubts, always welcoming all with a smile. One of the most important things I was pointed to was that “All Automotive system development was propelled by the stringent emission norms coming day”

The ON track experience was just one part of the trip. The other part was the excellent hospitality and accommodations provided by Bosch. We were accommodated in a 3 star resort with fantastic rooms with AC, bathtub and the sorts. Plus the resort had a well kept swimming pool which we enjoyed in for a couple of hours. The food was excellent with soup, both veg n non-veg main course, and dessert ( gajar halwa with ice cream once and then fruit plate with ice cream). The train journey was as always full enjoyment and time pass.

‘Thank you Bosch for taking automotive experience to a fantastic level.’, was my parting message to Bosch! All the students got a cool ‘Team Bosch’ jerkin and a cap as a souvenir.

The Lecture by Nobel Laureate George Smoot!

The 2006 Nobel Laureate for Physics, Dr. George Smoot was in college for a couple of days as a part of the Nobel Initiative by Honeywell and it was a really wonderful experience listening to his lecture on “The History and Fate of the Universe“. The members of the Astro Club at Coep did have a nice time with him. However I did not get much of a chance to interact with him.

There were two group discussion sessions on “Instrumentation for Astronomy” and “Data acquisition” which were reported excellent. Considering my limited interest and consequently my knowledge in that field , I did not go! But I was present for the lunch, which was plentiful to say the least! There Dr. Smoot gathered us all around and shared with us his thoughts about this particular visit to India. It brought a smile to hear him, and his nice gesture of “Namaste” and bowing down, drew warm applause from the crowd!

Then in the afternoon came the big lecture. It was in the college Auditorium, specially decorated for the occasion. During the course of his lecture Dr. Smoot first introduced us to the theories proposed by some of the greatest minds in the field, starting obviously from Einstein and moving on to those who had solved the equations of his theory if relativity. He explained the expanding nature of the universe by showing some galaxies on the surface of an expanding balloon. He also showed slides of the instruments used to measure cosmic background radiation, while also telling some anecdotes of his research.

Another great analogy which he told was regarding the necessity of a very large mass at very large distance to manipulate a cluster of galaxies without disturbing their mutual positions. Mr. Smoot explained how it was analogous to trying to change the motion of a group of feathers in air without disturbing their mutual velocities! It was brilliant.

Then there was the excellent 3D video of the galaxies plotted with earth as center. It was followed by data proofs of how “Though the earth was round but the universe had to be flat.” Dr. Smoot also pointed out the problem of the “fluctuations in the cosmic wave patterns being not the same amplitude as expected if the big bang had taken place“, which I must admit , I could understand only in principle. Then there was the video of the universe with dark matter shown in white, and progressively increasing density of visible matter whenever enough dark matter congregated most. He later presented some graphs which were related to quantum mechanics.

Dr. Smoot was asked about the assumption of “light speed = constant” and also about the problem of we knowing about the space only in our solar system and just beyond whether our hypothesis was valid. To which Dr. Smoot replied that the big bang theory and other recent hypothesis have been able to satisfactorily explain all events after about 10^(-30) seconds of the big bang. However he also emphasized the attitude to be open to other theories provided they can explain things in a more effective way.

Overall, it was a wonderful one of a kind lecture. One got the feeling that there is lots to be done in order to achieve something as special as the Nobel Prize and that our current mundane technical subjects, though important now, could not be called as the basis of that special something. The achievement of something original and rightly ‘out of the world’ was something truly incomparable!

There was also a career fair and an exhibition of Honeywell products where the company interacted with the students. A Flight Simulator was the happening place at the exhibition. The ongoing quiz and slogan competition also drew large participation. Giveaway bags and other prizes were a hit with the students!