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Showing posts from July 7, 2013

‘IITs need a vibrant system involving academia and industry’

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We need to create a good eco-system for more Ph.Ds and research work to come out of our institute. Bhaskar Ramamurthi graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, in 1980 with a B.Tech in Electronics Engineering. He would not have dreamt then that three decades later he would be the Director of the institute. After his doctorate from the University of California, he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories, US. In 1986, he returned to IIT Madras as a faculty at the Department of Electrical Engineering. He became a Dean of the department before taking over as director of the institute in September 2011. The soft spoken Ramamurthi says that in the last few years the IITs have transformed themselves from being strong undergraduate-focused institutions to now focusing more on post-graduate education such as Ph.Ds and research. “If we are a pure undergraduate institution, we are dead. We need to create a good eco-system for more Ph.Ds and research work to

JEE high-fliers see nest in IIT Bombay

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IIT Bombay has emerged the first choice of top-rankers in this year’s JEE, in keeping with a trend seen over the past few years. Of the 100 top-rankers, 67 have preferred and got admission offers from IIT Bombay during the first-round counselling that got over today for admission to BTech courses. IIT Delhi was next, picked by 29 of the remaining others. Four have chosen IIT Madras. In courses, computer science continues to be the most sought-after, followed by electrical and mechanical engineering. “Most toppers have preferred IIT Bombay,” H.C. Gupta, the chairman of JEE-Advanced, told. He said of the 67 top rankers who rooted for IIT Bombay, 50 want computer science. K. Narashiman, president of the IIT Faculty Federation and a teacher at the Mumbai institute, said the preference was “not a new trend”. “IIT Bombay has always been the first choice for most toppers. The institute provide

More to Kota than IIT coaching: All the 'seven wonders'

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Kota, so far famous for its IIT-JEE coaching classes, is set to get its very own "seven wonders of the world". Over 150 workers — traditional stone artisans from across the state and some drawn from Agra — have been working at feverish pace for the last eight months, sculpting replicas of the Taj Mahal, Great Pyramid of Giza and other architectural marvels. The Rs 20-crore project is being implemented by the local wing of the Urban Development Department, the Urban Improvement Trust of Kota. Urban Development and Housing Minister Shanti Dhariwal is the local MLA. "We are developing a park that will exhibit the seven wonders of the world. Not only will it be educative for the locals, but we also hope to draw in more tourists with this initiative," said R D Meena, Secretary, UIT. The replicas of the "seven wonders" are being set up in a park in Vallabh Bari, in the heart of the town. Besides the Taj Mahal and the Great Pyramid of Giza, Kota

IIT-M scholar invents sensor to check milk

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With the Supreme Court raising its concern about adulteration of milk, a research scholar from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M) has developed a colour-based sensor (membrane), which changes colour whe­n the milk gets spoilt.   Concerned over how people get fooled by milk traders who sell spoilt mi­lk to people, Anshika Aga­r­wal, a research scholar in the department of biotechnology at IIT-M decided to come up with a solution to help people buy good quality milk.   She started to work a year ago to solve the problem as part of her Ph.D research. “Milk often gets spoilt before the expiry date printed on the sachet. Keeping this in mind, I developed a sensor which is sensitive enough to dete­ct milk spoilage at anea­rly stag­e,” said Ag­arwal, do­i­n­g research in elec­trospinning (electrical ch­a­­r­g­e draws very fine fib­res from a liquid.).    The m­e­­mb­­rane (sensor) would be pri­n­ted on the external wall conne­cted by a small pie­c

IIT-Gandhinagar students develop search apps

Three students of IIT Gandhinagar have applied for patents for three different innovations. Working in the R&D division of an international company, the students developed visual search applications during their summer internship in Bangalore. Electrical engineering student Ekta Prashnani helped design a visual search application for mobile phones. This app can recognize text with random orientations in an image. The apps that are available now in the market can read the text only from left to right in an image, but Prashnani's app can read text in any form at any angle. She has applied for a patent along with her mentor Dr Kaushik Pavani, a research scientist. "We wanted to enhance the accuracy and robustness of image recognition for visual search applications on mobile devices. The idea was to provide an enhanced experience for users," said Prashnani. Two other final year students of IITGN, Adit Gupta and Tarkeshwar Singh, are co-inventors of an

President to address convocations at Central University, IIT

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President Pranab Mukherjee will address convocations of the Central University of Rajasthan and the IIT Jodhpur during his two-day visit to the state from Tuesday. After arriving here, the President will leave for Bandarasindri in Kishangarh, 105-km from Rajasthan, to address the IInd convocation of the Central University of Rajasthan, an official said. Later in the evening, he will go to Ajmer to pay obeisance at the Khawaja Moinudeen Chisti's Dargarh, he said. On July 10, the President will address the 8th convocation of the Malviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) in Jaipur. In the evening, he will address the first convocation of IIT Jodhpur, the official said. President to address convocations at Central University, IIT

Entering IIT-Bombay gets tougher this year

With more toppers choosing computer science and engineering ( CSE ) at IIT-Bombay , getting a seat at the premier institute has got tougher this year. Admissions to CSE there closed at the 57th rank in the first round of allotments. Last year, it closed at 75{+t}{+h} rank in the final round. Though three more rounds are yet to go, it is unlikely the closing rank will drop much in subsequent rounds. This year, students with higher ranks have chosen computer science, electrical and mechanical engineering, in that order, across IITs. Post-round one, the courses have seen higher closing ranks among sought-after IITs, with IIT-Bombay registering the highest for all courses. A higher closing rank means more top rankers opted for the stream. At IIT-Delhi, the closing rank was 107 and at IIT-Madras it was 212. The secret behind students' preferences lies in placements and research opportunities. After completing undergraduate courses in CSE or electrical engineering, stu

IIT-BHU's first convocation to honour meritorious students

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam would give away medals to the meritorious students at the first convocation of Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU) on July 10. Former president would also deliver convocation address at Swatantrata Bhawan. Talking to reporters on Monday, IIT-BHU director Rajeev Sangal said that students who took admission in 2006-2007 onwards would get their degrees. All the degrees will have the new graphic logo and logo type of the institute, Sangal added. The convocation was the much-awaited event for the institute as the graduates who passed out in 2010, 2011 and 2012 did not receive degrees because IIT status was awaited, which was received in 2012. It may be noted that traditional dhoti kurta and sarees would replace the colonial academic gowns and caps in the convocation ceremony. More than 2,300 graduates would receive degrees. As many as 1,288 degrees of BTech/BPharm, 649 degrees of MTech/MPharma, 287 degree

Denied IIT admission, Andhra students fight it out in HC

Justice Ramesh Ranganathan of the AP High Court on Monday directed the authorities of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) not to fill four seats which were offered to four AP students who were later denied on the ground of poor percentile upon. The judge termed the actions of the authorities as violation of article 14 of constitution. The judge was dealing with the writ petition filed by Anudeep Pendyala and three others. They contended that they appeared in the JEE (Advanced) -2013 after qualifying in JEE Mains. They told the court that they got good ranks in the JEE (Advance) and that they were issued call letters and asked to go to Chennai for completing the admission formalities. Gandra Mohan Rao, counsel for the petitioners, lamented that now the students were told that they would not get admissions. He said the authorities were playing havoc with the future of bright students in the name of percentile. He said that the petitioners were called for counseling and o

Denied IIT seats, dozens of rankers return home

Dozens of JEE (Advanced) rankers from the state, whose IIT seat allotments have been cancelled as they did not figure in the top 20 percentile of Intermediate  marks, returned home from Chennai on Sunday. After the online counselling, candidates those who were allotted seats had to go to IIT-Madras, the southern vice-chairman of JEE Advanced examination office, for registration but dozens of candidates from Andhra Pradesh were sent home on Sunday, denying them seats saying that they did not figure in top percentile. Speaking to Express, I Sandeep, who has got 3,695th rank and seat was allotted in IIT-H, said that he was denied seat as he got only 481 marks in Intermediate second year against the top 20 percentile mark from state 487/530. But they have already drawn a demand draft for Rs 60,000 and reached IIT-Madras along with their parents to take admission where he was denied admission saying that he did not figure in the list of top 20 percentile of Intermediate B

IIT-Bombay connection

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The corridors of power may have many Stephanians crossing paths, but the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, (IIT-Bombay) is now emerging as having been the alma mater of many key people in governance. The institute that has produced big names in the field of technology, business and entrepreneurship, also has its fair share of people who are the brains behind many innovative governance initiatives, and political strategists. Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh , believed to be one of the main influencers of the strategies of both Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi, is one such. Many in the Congress believe Ramesh was the first person that both the Gandhis thought of when they decided to push the land acquisition bill, which is now in its final stages. After Rahul Gandhi took up the issue of the farmers at Bhatta Parsaul who had been protesting against the acquisition of land for highways, he was insistent that the bill be mad

Naidu backs IIT aspirants

Taking serious view of the ‘injustice’ meted out to IIT aspirants from the state, Telugu Desam party chief N Chandrababu Naidu requested Union human resource development minister MM Pallam Raju to resolve the issue and redress the grievances of the students. In the letter to Pallam Raju, Chandrababu said JEE was introduced for admission into various higher educational institutions with a view to eliminating regional biases and neutralise the lack of uniformity in standards adopted by different boards of examination/universities at the eligibility level course

HC tests IIT focus on 12th marks

Court seeks govt, CBSE's justification for 40% weightage to board exams grades for engineering college admissions. The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Centre and CBSE over a plea challenging the government’s new assessment process for admission to undergraduate engineering programmes in top institutes including IIT and NIT. The Centre and the CBSE have been given time till July 12 to respond to the plea filed by a student Arnav Ohri who appeared in the IIT-JEE Mains 2013. Ohri, through his counsel Aritra Das, has challenged the new normalisation procedure that gives 40 per cent weightage to the XII Board marks while deciding the All India Rank for admissions to top engineering colleges. The petition argues that while adopting the procedure, the government has ignored the vital fact that students appear for the JEE from several boards like the CBSE, ICSE, and state boards like Bihar board, UP boa

Top 20 percentile eligibility norm adds to IIT admissions confusion

Even as normalization of percentile of JEE (Main) and class XII marks continues to create confusion for students seeking admission to NITs, admission to prestigious IITs is beset with its own problems. The basis for admission to 16 IITs is performance in JEE (Advanced). The other crucial condition is that those who have done well in JEE (Advanced) should be in the top 20 percentile of successful candidates in class XII examination conducted by various school Boards. There are 10,000 seats in IITs — around 5,000 for general candidates and rest for reserved category students. While the JEE (Advanced) score came late June, on Sunday top 20 percentile eligibility cutoffs for this academic session was announced. This created a peculiar situation. After the JEE (Advanced) score came along with the All India Rank, online counseling of students began and many were offered seat in IITs based on their rank. Then came top 20 percentile eligibility cutoff and many students fo

Revised IIT eligibility criteria baffles students

Eighty students have been denied admission to IITs after eligibility criteria for students was revised to their mandatory inclusion in the top 20 percentile of their respective boards. Till last year the minimum eligibility was pegged at 60% marks in board exams. The maximum number of rejections are from IIT Madras (35) followed by IIT Kharagpur (17). Sources said admission denials could have been higher considering that nearly 40,000 students did not appear in the exam even after qualifying. “They may have decided not to appear because they were not in 20 percentile bracket.” Several students of the Andhra Pradesh board, who were denied admission under the new criteria, have decided to fight it out in the high court. The AP high court had on Monday directed the IIT authorities not to fill four seats which were offered to Andhra students and then withdrawn. The court  then gave a directive for reserving seats for 9 more st

IIT seats go vacant as 769 refuse to join

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The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), where gaining admission is said to be more difficult than entering some Ivy League colleges in the US, have had to go through the ignominy of a second round of allotments to fill up all the seats. A total of 769 students, who got an opportunity to study in the premier institutes, did the unthinkable this year: They refused to study in an IIT. It's a rare situation where even general category seats in various IITs across the country have remained vacant after the first round of admission. Previously, only seats meant for reserved categories used to go vacant, but this time there is hope for general category students too as seats are up for grabs. The reasons for not joining the prestigious institutions varied from "not having confidence in the new IITs" to "getting allotments in not-so-popular streams". The second round, which starts on Wednesday, offers hope to aspirants to get into top engineering