P.I.N.G. 11.1

Dr. Rajesh B. Ingle

Branch Counsellor

Dear Readers,

I am delighted to write this message for the latest Issue of P.I.N.G. This Issue is important and valuable, as it is published alongside PISB’s flagship event, Credenz 2015. This newsletter provides a platform for all including student members to showcase their talent and views, which further strengthens IEEE activities. Response received for all the editions of P.I.N.G. is encouraging. Electronic as well as printed versions are well received and appreciated by the readers.

The PICT IEEE Student Branch (PISB) was established in Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT) in 1988, and holds the caliber of being one of the largest IEEE Student branches in IEEE Region 10.

Credenz ’15, the showcase event of PISB, brings with it the ardour that is showcased through a number of events which provide an impartial platform for all the participants, with ‘Contraption’ being a newest addition to its plethora of events.

PICT IEEE Newsletter Group (P.I.N.G.) is the official bi-annual gazette of PISB, published to commensurate two of the most appreciated events hosted by PISB, Credenz and Credenz Tech Dayz. P.I.N.G. 11.1, like its previous issues, is an effort to bring rich and intriguing writings to its readers. Our new feature has Mr. Navin Kabra of Reliscore.com giving valuable guidance to our young readers.

It is a great pleasure to serve PICT IEEE Student Branch as a Counsellor. It is a really interesting and valuable experience to work at various levels in IEEE. As a Counsellor at PICT IEEE Student Branch; as a Chair, Conference Committee at IEEE Pune Section; Member, IEEE India Council, IEEE region 10 Students Activity Coordinator; and Member, MGA SAC. I am thankful to all the members of PICT IEEE Student Branch for their active support. In July 2015, I had the opportunity to organise and attend IEEE R10 Student|Young Professionals|WIE Congress at Colombo, Sri Lanka. In March 2015, I also contributed in R10 Meeting at Dhaka, Bangladesh. I also participated in IEEE MGA SAC meeting at Charlotte, USA from 30th July to 2nd August, 2015. Various important issues including Funding and Rebate model, and Section support to Student Branches were discussed and new proposals were submitted to MGA accordingly.

We try our level best to create an environment where students keep themselves updated with the emerging trends, technology and innovations. At PISB many events are conducted throughout the year, which are widely appreciated by students, acclaimed academicians and industry professionals alike. The events include IEEE Day, workshops, Special Interest Group (SIG) activities, Credenz and Credenz Tech Days.

Credenz is the annual technical event held in September each year.

I thank all the authors for their contributions and interest. On behalf of IEEE Pune Section, I wish PISB as well this Newsletter all success. I congratulate the P.I.N.G. team for their commendable efforts.

We thank our contributing authors for their enthralling articles, and hope to welcome them at Credenz ’15.

We would like to thank our seniors who have been a continual support, and without whom the culmination of this Issue would not have been possible. A special mention to our junior volunteers for their diligent aid and persistence to make P.I.N.G. 11.1 a success.

1

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

2

Flashback Vikrant Agarwal, Founder, P.I.N.G.

Homes of Future Microsoft’s next generation housing

M

everything on our own. By sourcing articles from student members, we ended up printing Six A3 sized pages in blue from a regular photocopy shop and stapled them together from the centre - that became our first newsletter!

icrosoft has a knack of surprising the world in every domain it chooses to enter. Recently Microsoft Home created a lot of hype by making its website public and everyone in the Energy industry is looking at this newest energy saving tool.

Although Home Energy Saver (HES) appears as if it is not an unbelievable technology, Microsoft has created a buzz because of its goal to provide users with live data. The Home Energy Saver and other models based on this tool, developed by the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, are fed with manual data.

The other challenge was coming up with an interesting name, which would be an acronym having the elements of IEEE, PICT, Newsletter and something that suggested Technology.

While brainstorming with the team, we simply named it “PICT IEEE Newsletter Group”, and thus P.I.N.G. was born.

reminiscence

The first event I led in 2005, the newly christened “Credenz”, was made larger and marketed on a national level and a web domain was bought - giving birth to www.credenz.info. In order to increase overall student participation, a Business Plan and a Quiz competition were added to the Technical Paper Presentation event. Since IEEE members got a significant discount and prioritized attendance, we more than doubled our membership. Through some tough negotiations with vendors, we managed to accumulate adequate funds for this event.

On pondering about how we could add value to the considerable funds we had generated, I came up with the concept of an informative, enjoyable and tangible Newsletter, portraying the benefits of PISB.

To publish P.I.N.G. biannually, we needed a bigger budget. On becoming the PISB Chairman, I decided to hold another big technical event in February/March resembling a “Tech Day”. To this day PISB holds this event under the name ‘Credenz Tech Dayz’.

The last big initiative that I was a part of was to start SIGs (Special Interest Groups) to facilitate more conversation amongst students, around common topics of interest. The first SIGs were themed around Programming, Technical Artistry, Electronics and the Environment.

It is gratifying to see that all the hard work the team and I put in over ten years ago, is still paying dividends. That Credenz and Tech Dayz are going strong, new SIGs have been created and best of all, that the President of the IEEE Computer Society appreciated and recognized P.I.N.G. at an International Congress!

I wish the current PISB and P.I.N.G. team the very best of luck!

(Vikrant belongs to the Class of 2008 and currently works as a

Due to budget restrictions, we decided to do 3

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

Monetization Product Manager at Electronic Arts in California)

WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

maven

W

hen I joined PICT in 2004, I remember the first big event I was a part of - The IEEE All India Student Congress, which was being held at PICT for the very first time. Because of my love for technology, I immediately volunteered for it.

While contributing to this event and many others as an IEEE Member, I was fortunate enough to get voted as the Vice Chairman (2005-06) and Chairman (2006-07) of the PICT IEEE Student Branch (PISB).

The first edition was released with great fanfare, creating a lot of excitement and interest amongst students and helped with member renewals.

I was determined to make this a permanent feature of the Student Branch.

Users are provided with a list of questions to fill up and based on the information provided, the recommendations are then calculated.

Because a lot of users either do not have the time to complete the list of questions, or stop cold with the huge list and too technical terms, energy reports are only around 53% accurate.

This is still better than nothing at all, but with the advent of Microsoft Home and the promise of real-time data from smart power meter, accuracy can be greatly increased. Therefore the consumers will benefit more and in a much bigger way. This is especially true for people who are trying to find ways to automate their homes.

WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

The reason is that once the energy sectors are pushed to improve their systems and adopt changes we will see more and more companies opening their doors to products and appliances that can be controlled remotely.

This technology has given the people a license to dream big and dream about automation in their homes. The future that a lot of people are seeing with this newest technology is the capacity of this model to control home appliances and gadgets depending on its recommendations. Think about programming this tool for your particular needs and setting all your home appliances to turn off during peak hours. If this becomes a reality, it will push the other sectors to consider making their products compatible for automatic handling. What we see in the future are fully automated homes connected with devices like the Microsoft Home where we can program it to accept recommendations, to help us cut back on energy use by creating intelligent homes.

There will be no wasted consumption, as this tool will prompt us with tips for the day on how to save energy and provide us with real time data. It will also give us recommendations on how to program our appliances.

Microsoft’s goal is something to look forward to as it points to a brighter future. The ripple effect that it will create will somehow come together and provide us with better choices, better information and better services. In short, a better life. Our homes will be more efficient and resources will no longer be wasted. The dream to reduce the effect of global warming can also be realized as more companies will be creating efficient products. Today it brings us nearer to the goal of efficient homes. Thanks to the new technologies being developed by Microsoft, the future of our next generations is becoming brighter once again.

- Shrirang Pachkhande Sr. SEO

Future link AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

4

HS Remote Sensing A new eye watching the Earth

T

ill date, the most familiar and the most widely used remote sensor has been the human eye, which itself sowed the seeds of motivation for many applications that have become reality. One such application is Remote Sensing (RS) systems. American Society of Photogrammetric and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) defines it as “the art, science, and technology for obtaining reliable information about physical objects and the environment, through the process of recording, measuring and interpreting imagery and digital representations of energy patterns derived from non-contact sensor systems”. Loosely, it can be said that it is the acquisition of information about an object without making physical contact. RS follows the three fundamental steps viz. data collection (eye), transmission (optic nerve) and storage/ processing (brain).

However the spectral sensitivity of human eye is restricted only to visible light wavelength range of Electro-Magnetic spectrum. But, the physical objects on and inside earth like vegetation, water bodies, ice, minerals etc. have spectral response which is beyond visible spectrum, and is also unique and diagnostic for each object.

Hence there was a need to develop sensors that could see beyond visible region of the spectrum.

RS enables us to see what our eyes cannot see, thus facilitating us to explore and examine the hidden secrets of our beautiful world.

5

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

MicroBooNE, a 170 ton liquid-argon time projection chamber recorded

images of the tracks of cosmic muons, the particles that shower down on the Earth when cosmic rays collide with nuclei in our atmosphere.

Remote Sensing: On the basis of data collection techniques, RS systems are classified as Multi-spectral (MS) and Hyper-spectral (HS). In MS systems the number of sensors used is in the range 7-20, which means the data is collected in 7-20 wavelength bands, whereas we have more than 200 sensors mounted on a HS system. But, the main difference between two systems is not the number of bands; rather it is the narrowness and contiguous nature of bands. The main advantage of narrow spectral bandwidth and large number of contiguous bands is that we receive spectral information at a very fine resolution, allowing a more detailed analysis of spectral characteristics of the object under study. Many surface materials have unique absorption and reflectance characteristics that are only 10-20 nm wide; the detailed spectrum offered by HS systems allows us to identify and distinguish the object under study multiple times better than advanced MS systems.

Hyper-spectral Remote Sensing: Hyper-spectral Remote Sensing (HRS) is an advanced technology where images of a scene are taken into large number of narrow contiguous wavelength bands. HRS technology paved its way from Spectroscopy, the study of interaction between matter and EM radiations, where spectroscopy has been used in laboratory for over 100 years for identification of materials and their composition. With recent advances in sensor technology and remote sensing research, the concept of “Imaging Spectroscopy” got a resurgence of interest among scientists and researchers giving rise to HRS technology.

Thus HRS is a combination of Imaging and Spectroscopy into a single system, including data collection, processing and interpretation on a large scale.

Hyper-spectral data sets are generally composed of more than 200 spectral bands of relatively narrow bandwidths (5-10 nm). These measurements make it possible to derive a continuous spectrum for each image cell. HS WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

sensors collect information as a set of images.

These images are then combined and formed into a three-dimensional hyper-spectral data cube for processing and analysis.

The Types: HRS systems are of two types: Airborne – where HS sensors are mounted on aircrafts, and Space borne – where sensors are on board a satellite.

Unlike the sensors on aircraft, sensors on satellites have the capacity to provide global coverage at regular intervals, which also makes them a key research area in HRS. The currently working space borne HRS is NASA’s Hyperion (220 sensors), while airborne HRS that is currently out in the field is NASA/JPL’s Aviris.

Applications: • Atmosphere - water vapour, cloud properties, aerosols, climatic studies, ozone • Environment - Forest cover mapping, disaster studies • Geology - mineral identification and mapping, rock and soil types • Coastal waters - chlorophyll, dissolved organic materials, suspended sediments • Snow/Ice - snow cover fraction, avalanche detection, ice melting • Commercial - mineral exploration, agriculture, surveillance Challenges and Scope in HRS research: The inherent difficulty in HRS is the low spatial resolution which arises due to a trade-off with high spectral resolution. To achieve a reasonable WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

signal to noise ratio at the sensor, and with a very narrow spectral BW of about 10nm, the spatial area to be covered on ground to achieve significant reflected energy must be high of about 30 square metres. 30 x 30 m2 pixel area on ground very often covers a mixture of objects like grass, soil, water, land, vegetation which results into a reflectance curve that is a mixed signal of all the individual curves. This problem is referred to as spectral mixing and requires advanced image processing techniques to analyze the actual composition of observed area.

The other challenges in HRS are cost and complexity.

Fast computers, sensitive detectors, and large data storage capacities are needed for analyzing HS data.

Another big challenge, due to huge amount of hidden information in a HS image is the requirement of advanced image processing and analysis techniques.

Dimensionality Reduction, Sub-pixel Mapping, Spectral Matching, Atmospheric Correction are some of the main research areas where we have a tremendous amount of future scope and a compelling need to make optimal use of HRS, in the study of earth and other planets. HRS is thus, one of the many technologies just waiting to get fully explored and to get exploited to its potential in revealing perhaps the unexplored, the unseen, and the untouched and never thought of wonders around us.

- Rajan Pangul Associate Cognizant Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

6

NASA’s ARM Grabbing an asteroid

A

the editorial

s Armstrong stepped onto the Moon’s surface, in the Sea of Tranquility, he declared: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Little did he know that winning the moon race, often seen as one of the pinnacles of human accomplishment, was just the beginning of something unforeseen by mankind. Today we are actually thinking of capturing an asteroid and make it submit to our whim!

Inception Asteroids, these small and airless rocks, have always intrigued scientists and astronomers.

Thus the idea of retrieving an asteroid was received by the scientific community with great avidity. The primordial plan, proposed by NASA in 2012, was sending a large 50 feet capture bag which would commensurate an asteroid of up to 26 feet in diameter. Further, they improvised the project by putting forward the idea to land a vehicle on the asteroid and deploy a robotic arm to seize a boulder from its crust. Both the plans included redirecting the asteroid into the lunar orbit. This is NASA’s dream project - Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM)!

What is the purpose?

The vision of ARM is to bring near-Earth asteroids into lunar orbit to lay the groundwork for human introduction to the Martian system in the 2030s.

Moreover, it will help Earth improve its defenses against future asteroid attacks. The mighty robotic arm will deflect any potentially hazardous asteroid away from the Earth’s vicinity. Further, ARM will assess the competence of our existing technologies and improvements needed for future space expeditions. An example of the same is Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP), a concept which will be implemented in the future.

The Plan NASA’s Option A, the idea to capture the asteroid with a bag, was dependant mainly on 7

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

Hall Effect thrusters. These are the engines which give moderate thrust but last enough to reach the required acceleration. The capture bag is deployed upon reaching the target asteroid which is a two step-process. The bag is first expanded enough to capture the asteroid, which once enclosed is stabilized to be towed away.

Having pondered on this particular solution for a while, NASA engineers revamped their approach completely. The earlier option was limited only to the study of small asteroids. This gave birth to Option B. To generalise the approach, the researchers of NASA decided to pluck a boulder off the asteroid instead of capturing the whole asteroid. This will also include some of the larger asteroids which would have been impossible to capture using Option A. In Option B, the scientists will send a robotic probe out in the year 2020. On reaching the chosen asteroid, the robotic probe will assess the boulders and select the appropriate one.

The selected boulder will be plucked out from the surface by the robotic arm. It will be sent to the lunar orbit for further research by a team of distinguished astronauts. The robotic arm is designed in such a way that the boulder will always be in the centre and will be perfectly placed in the lunar orbit.

Option A or Option B? Option A is based on the principle that accuracy would only be achieved when the whole asteroid is under observation. This gives it an edge over WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

the second option. Nevertheless, Option B overcomes the risk factor posed by the earlier option since it depends on the approximate size of asteroids gauged from afar. Faulty calculations could cause failure to capture the asteroid, once it reaches two years later.

This makes Option B much more safer and dependable. Yet, Option B demands for a much higher amount of resources as compared to Option A. Due to the high quality of technology involved in the robotic probe as compared to Option A’s humble capture bag, the latter seems a more cost-effective approach. However, the fact that Option B can target larger asteroids might make more substantial ripples in the continuum that is the relationship of Earth and its neighboring asteroids. In fact, it could also help prevent serious damage by comparatively larger asteroids. Each approach outweighs the other in different aspects and even though NASA has decided to go ahead with Option B the matter remains open for discussion.

The Controversy Despite the revolutionary “stepping stone to Mars” that the Asteroid Capture mission promises, it is surrounded by a tremendous controversy. Rumour has it that the actual intent of the initiation of this mission isn’t even remotely related to space exploration and research.

If one would go back to the news of NASA’s earlier renowned project which was mysteriously unfunded and cancelled during the government change, there seems to be an obscure pattern almost too tempting to believe. Although this is only a theory not being backed by any evidence, the ongoing project seems to be an alternative option set up in effect of political propaganda.

When the “Constellation” program was terminated abruptly after the change of Parliamentary strategy, the people whose jobs WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

solely depended on it obviously raised a voice.

Although the project wasn’t restarted, a few of its features skimmed out of the nominal head’s disapproval. One of those features was the implementation of the alternative to the erstwhile Orion capsule, namely the SLS rocket.

The SLS rocket could be easily actualized but there seemed to be no obvious purpose for it.

That is approximately the time when NASA conveniently came up with the “stepping stone to Mars” concept. However, the former plan of using the SLS rocket to transport a bunch of astronauts onto a reachable asteroid also turned out to be unfeasible. Hence, a second plan of transporting an unmanned probe onto the asteroid was consummated wherein the probe was meant to reach a manned ship full of astronauts where they could observe and analyze the data. Finally, even this option was making them run out of money and they came up with the concept of towing it back home and only then leisurely contributing their part to the “stepping stone to Mars”.

What is the future?

Since the beginning of the Space Age which is believed to have started in the 1960’s, mankind is going further and further in its astounding journey of the outer-space. Even though this incredible mission isn’t set to launch till the 2020’s, NASA has already shortlisted potential candidates for this mission - Itokawa, Bennu, and 2008 EV5. The revelations learnt from this mission may probably change the future of space exploration. This manoeuvre will definitely help humankind understand the enigma of the colossal universe in which we live in! All we can do is wait and watch where this ‘stepping-stone’ to Mars takes us!

-The Editorial Team AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

8

Anecdote A Story of an Achiever

T

startup

o take a company ahead is a task which requires patience and diligence as it includes following a course to reach predefined destinations. Whereas, to build one’s own company from a small idea, one needs to wage wars with the course and create new destinations to reach. When one has likeminded people working by their side, the journey becomes more exciting than the destination.

“I was very fortunate that I had co-founders who were similarly excited by technology and wanted to figure out how to run a business by what excites us,” Mr. Umeed Kothavala says gratefully. They began by addressing what they wanted to work with depending on which kind of technologies they were interested in. Then they had to figure out how to hire people and find customers while doing that in a reasonable, profitable and sustainable manner. Both these major tasks were accompanied with their scalable set of challenges.

“None of that is easy. Every aspect of that in the early days as well as later days is an ongoing challenge.”, Mr. Kothavala adds.

In order to grow as a business from such a small group to gain an international status, Extentia was bound to have their cuppa of mistakes.

The passionate co-founder believes that there is no better way to learn than to make mistakes.

“Making mistakes is just a part of evolution,” he enlightens us. “Mistakes take place in any sector of an organisation. It may include incorrect strategies, incorrect priorities, investments that one makes in the wrong direction, hiring less dependable people, working with inefficient technology, engaging with the wrong customer and many more.”

He encourages the youth of today and emphasizes how important failure is to eventually succeed in one’s endeavours. Being accustomed to failures is a very good trait as there are bound to be several failures in life as one progresses in one’s course. Mr. Kothavala 9

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

simply learning opportunities. With time, one learns that without committing mistakes there cannot be any progress. The challenges that were faced by Extentia have only hardened Mr. Kothavala’s patience to deal with Success and Failure equally like the imposters that Rudyard Kipling describes them to be in his renowned poem- If.

Mr. Umeed Kothavala, CEO, Extentia

“There

is neither embarrassment nor regret in making mistakes.

Embarrassment and regrets should infact arise when one does not learn from these mistakes.” goes by the work mantra “Fail fast” which he goes on to explain, “You’re going to make mistakes, it is inevitable. Make them quickly so you learn quickly and get on the right course.

Fail fast.”

“There is neither embarrassment nor regret in making mistakes. Embarrassment and regrets should infact arise when one does not learn from these mistakes,” he advises all the budding startup enthusiasts. To think of them as mistakes, in itself is an error because they are WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

Besides the ability of tackling obstacles, a company’s overall success can be measured by the vision which moulds its journey into a specific course. This vision works to produce strategies to reach certain destinations in a desired amount of time. Extentia’s idea of success is based on a very honest understanding of what drives a company and its workers to ultimate success. The rate at which the technological world changes and has newer, better versions of electronics and software than some which were perfectly applicable even a few days ago provokes Extentia to have a more short-notice planning strategy. “Every year, we decide what technologies to work with, what customers to work with, what directions to invest in and which ones to ignore,” he explains. He goes on to tell us about the recent meeting of Extentia board members where they decided which technologies they hoped they would be working on in the next five years including 3D printing, neuroscience, wearables, IOT among other revolutionary technologies that will be defining the future that we all live in. He approaches the crux of the idea behind their approach stating,”I don’t know where we will be five years from now but we’re going to make sure that the journey to get there is an exciting one.”

To guarantee an exciting journey for their employees, Extentia promises to provide a flexible work culture. Mr. Kothavala believes that among the contemporary companies there seems to be no technical classification, in the terms that technical prowess worldwide have more or less the same ability to expand and progress.

“Differentiation only exists in the work culture that an organisation provides and we work to WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

provide a culture that reflects what we find important, and then we want to engage with people who are similarly aligned.”

Extentia’s success is also visible in its widespread effect on the youth of today. The company, being one of the most pioneering attempts in the startup sector, has made startups a trend, to which many next generation enthusiasts turn to with an undeterred passion, to make one’s own mark in the technological world.

“The fact that we have finally created an environment that is conducive to encourage youngsters to take those risks, to allow them to fail, is spectacular,” Mr. Kothavala says proudly.

He compares today’s free times to the earlier times when doing something other than your job, even if it was to create something unique and of one’s own, was looked down upon.

Startups were considered risky and a bizarre concept to such an extent that they were rarely taken up.

Discussing the state of the technological world in India, Mr. Kothavala believes that although the maturity, infrastructure as well as organisational support is at a point which proves that we have a long way to go, it is a healthy start and he believes that we’re moving in the right direction. He encourages one and all who have doubts in their minds as a result of several obstacles in their path to establish their startup to go ahead and take a risk because the journey is worth their time and efforts.

“Irrespective of what an individual experiences in his/her startup, whether you succeed or fail, whatever you learn in that journey is going to be incredibly valuable.”

We thank Mr. Umeed Kothavala for his time and contribution to P.I.N.G.

-The Editorial Team AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

10

Life on Mars Possibility of a likely alien life

literati

“A

Lantern is an anonymous portable library that constantly receives free data in the form of radio waves broadcasted by Outernet from space. It turns the signal into digital files and stores them. To view the content stored, connect to Lantern with any Wi-Fi enabled device.

re we alone in the Universe?” or “Does life exist on other planets?”

These curiosities have intrigued humans for ages. Up until recent years, our limited knowledge had confined us to believe that Earth is the only place in our Solar System where life exists because the environment of Earth supported life. Lately, many claims have been made by scientists regarding the presence of life in the Martian System.

may exist in some places of Mars where NASA rovers are not able to reach.

only for a couple of hours at a time, according to a new study.

Some astronomers and planetary scientists are convinced that there could be life on Mars because in similar type of places on Earth, life is present. There is evidence that Mars used to look like Earth billions of years ago. It was probably covered by a huge ocean just similar to Earth’s own ocean.

Although there has been much speculation, but to date, there has never been any absolute proof of life existing on Mars, at present or past. However, cumulative evidence is now building that Mars once was habitable b i l l i o n years ago or may also harbour life at present.

No human has ever set foot on Mars till date, but the United States and other countries have been sending spacecrafts to orbit or land there since the 1960s, and each mission teaches us more about this fascinating planet.

These robotic spacecrafts have given us valuable insights into the Red planet.

Evidence suggesting life on Mars: There’s evidence that Mars was probably much warmer in the past than it is now. Warm and watersoaked salt are two big prerequisites for life to begin. So it’s possible that life existed on ancient Mars and then died off. Or it could have taken a much different evolutionary path than life on Earth and it’s hiding somewhere we haven’t uncovered yet.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have found that despite Mars’ sub-zero temperatures, small amounts of water gets formed on the planet’s surface at the right temperature. This water, along with the presence of salts furthers the idea that the planet can support life. In 2008, Dr. Nilton Renno discovered water beads on the leg of the Phoenix Mars Land, one of NASA’s Mars rovers, just after it had landed on the planet’s surface.

Similarities between Earth and Mars: Our Earth is swaddled in a nice atmospheric blanket that protects us from dangerous blasts of radiation that permeate space. Mars barely has any atmosphere and its surface is constantly bombarded with radiation. Earth is a thriving haven of life. Mars is a frozen, barren wasteland.

We have learned that Mars is more similar to Earth than any other planet in the Solar system, and therefore is a good place to look for life.

Some scientists believe that extra terrestrial life 11

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

Scientists have already found some of the essential ingredients for life on Mars, including fixed nitrogen (a critical part of amino acids), carbon monoxide (an energy source for some microbes), and there’s evidence that liquid, salt water is flowing beneath the surface. Methane is regularly cycled into the planet’s atmosphere but scientists have no idea where it’s coming from.

If the gas is coming from living microbes then it would mark one of the biggest discoveries in history. On Earth, 95% of methane comes from microbial organisms, but there are many nonbiological processes that can also generate the gas. Water in its liquid form can exist on Mars but only during the spring and summer and WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

After already finding evidence of water on Mars, NASA’s Curiosity rover has discovered another key element necessary for life on the Red Planet.

NASA said that the robotic rover has, for the first time, detected nitrogen on the Martian surface.

The nitrogen, found in the form of nitric oxide, could be released during the natural breakdown of nitrates, which are molecules that contain the type of nitrogen that can be used by living organisms. The discovery however does not mean there is life on Mars. NASA scientists don’t believe the nitrogen discovered was created by life on Mars. The nitrogen is likely ancient and could have been deposited there by meteorite impacts and lightning. The discovery provides scientists with another piece of the puzzle suggesting that ancient Mars was once capable of supporting life.

Space programmes conducted to support this theory: Exo Mars is a European-led multi-spacecraft programme currently under development by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Federal Space Agency for launch in 2016 and 2018. Its primary scientific mission will be to search for possible biosignatures on Mars, in past or at present. A rover with a 2 metres (6.6 ft) core drill will be used to sample various depths beneath the surface where liquid water may be found and where microorganisms might survive.

The Mars 2020 is a Mars planetary rover WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

mission concept under study by NASA, with a possible launch in 2020. It is intended to investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars, investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability and potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials.

Inference: Scientists are working to obtain a better cognizance of the Red Planet. We cannot conclude whether life is existing on Mars at present or was present in the past. The future is unforeseen by us, thus it is not possible to get closure on this discussion. Human curiosity and innovations have always led to the greatest discoveries which have brought about phenomenal improvements in our lifestyles.

This prospect of life on Mars, if found to be true, will undoubtedly change the future of humanity!

- Dr. K.C. Nandi Professor in Physics Pune Institute of Computer Technology Pune AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

12

Fate of Big Data Future or Fad?

Stretchable Loudspeakers are made of coils of liquid metals

like Galinstan. A syringe is used to inject the metal into a spiral channel, thus charging the coil. It pushes off the neodymium magnet and detects or emits sound.

‘B

ig Data’ has become a buzz word nowadays. In this exigent world, it is crucial to understand the present technology trends and adapt to those. ‘Big Data’, which often baffles students and professionals alike is actually quite simple, if understood correctly.

sought by companies. Also, enthusiasts can explore machine learning tools like R, Weka, Mahoot. Currently any person having potential solution to one or all of Big Data challenges is a “hot pick” for companies.

First let us get a much deeper understanding of what this apparently perplexing term is!

Big Data Basics: The formal definition given by Gartner IT Glossary states, “Big data is high-volume, highvelocity and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making”.

Although general understanding of Big Data is just in terms of huge volume, any data which has too many varieties from data analytics- point of view or any data which is real time (needs processing within deadline) is also Big Data!

In this context, people have coined a new term, ‘Fast Data’, which means Big Data requiring real time handling.

For illustration let us consider data on Twitter.

Tweets pouring in from all over the world have all three distinct characteristics of Big Data.

1. Huge Number (Volume): there are trillions of tweets 2. Speed (Velocity): Thousands and millions of tweets each minute 3. Multi-lingual (Variety): People from different region, background and society use different languages & acronyms.

Another example is, if we consider only the volume aspect then collection of English news text from all over the world will be huge in volume. Similarly, Facebook data of the last ten minutes will be big data in terms of variety, These posts will contain images, multi-lingual texts, links etc. Here volume is small but due 13

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

to variety it is big data with many challenges to handle. Additionally, an example of velocity can be data of online shopping transactions. Here, within fraction of seconds data needs to be analyzed for its authenticity, genuineness and security.

Challenges in Big Data: Wikipedia defines Challenges of Big Data. They include analysis, capture, data curation, search, sharing, storage, transfer, visualization and information privacy. Most of the techniques discussed today are about either analysis or storage. But even security and privacy are important issues in big data. Sharing, data curation, capturing and transfer have hardly been explored.

Requirements of Recruiters: “Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of an intelligent effort.” Thus if you really want to prove your mettle by securing a good placement, you have to put intelligent efforts in your studies. Not only marks but also quality of technical understanding and communication are major factors in recruitment. Logical thinking, clear understanding of basics and a few communication skills sail you through!

Most importantly, knowledge of latest programming languages and technology trends gives you the extra edge. Specific to Big Data, skills in machine learning, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and working on Hadoop are WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

Career Scope in the domain of Big Data: Big giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon use Big Data analytics as a tool for advertising and marketing. Secure storage providers like Symantec are working on Big Data storage challenges. Revenue of Big Data related companies had reached $26 billion in 2014.

Also, top ten revenue generators from Big Data services and hardware include Accenture, IBM, SaaS and Oracle.

From researcher’s perspective “Department of Science and Technology (DST)” under Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, has sponsored research projects of significant amount (few crores) this year in field of Big Data.

Even now, entries for innovative research ideas in Big Data are sought by them. Starting your own venture is also not a bad idea. Pune itself is a home to more than 50 start-ups providing data analytics solutions on a small scale.

Now, let us try to get answers to some really profound questions which have been bugging us for quite some time: • Is Big Data fact or fad ?

To a software engineer, it is a fact. For many people in less touch with technology, it may seem like a fad or fantasy. Many critique philosophers claim it is not the ultimate solution to all problems. For us, we have to identify in which category we belong and get the answer.

• Is Big Data field really a promising future? How will it affect the job profile of a software engineer ?

Yes, this is future of technology. Every decision made will be based on data analytics. And the data to be analysed is Big Data. Now programmers are supposed to produce smart programs which will learn and adopt on their WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

own. Such programs should support decision making than just fixed tasks.

• Is Big Data really unsurpassable or something more is coming?

Yes, there are technologies which are in budding phase, called “beyond Big Data”. Big Data giants like Amazon and Google are working on them.

• How to prepare for this change?

Know the basics and challenges in the field of Big Data. Know the requirements of recruiters. Finally, work towards meeting these requirements. That’s it!

Conclusion: Big Data is an upcoming field in computer science. It has changed the role of a software engineer to a significant extent. Even though critics may point to its faults and shortcomings, Big Data is a reality, which an intelligent software engineer should imbibe and mould to flourish and succeed!

- Shantanu Pathak Assistant Professor Pune Institute of Computer Technology Pune AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

14

Phylter Monitoring Focus

The Grid is your personal AI website builder. It allows users to create AI

websites that not only design themselves but also evolve adapting to changing needs. It harnesses the power of artificial intelligence to incorporate all your videos, images, text, url etc. to automatically shape your own custom website.

featured article

workload, you are not going to take a huge list of notifications very well. It waits and detects a relatively unoccupied mind, and only then puts forth all the notifications collected over time, adapting to the user by delivering new updates and notifications to the device only at times when it wouldn’t be a distraction.

The scientists are working towards prioritizing all the emails and social networking messages such that the most important ones are shown to the user first, while the others are deferred until the user has spare time. Also, very high priority and urgent messages are to bypass the filter and be presented to the user, irrespective of his/her mental state.

U

p until recently, the Google glasses had taken the technical community by storm. The past few years witnessed elaborate discussions and arguments over the Google Glass. The Google Glass, an effort to develop augmented reality glasses, promised to notify users of important notifications and updates as soon as it received those. The technical fraternity considered it to be the paramount invention of all times. However, this proved to be extremely hazardous when the user was trying to focus on an important task. Continuous notifications would distract the user from the work at hand, resulting in lower efficiency. To combat this issue, a “Brain Scanning” software, Phylter was developed.

Phylter is a software tool developed by computer scientists at Tufts University that uses physiological input to schedule the delivery of notifications. In its paper, Phylter is introduced as ‘a system for modulating notifications in wearables using physiological sensing’. Put simply, this software helps you to concentrate on your work without disrupting your attention by showing you notifications you aren’t in the state of receiving. A simple example could be of when you’ve just reached the climax of this amazing thriller book you recently laid your hands on, and bang! This fancy selfie of 15

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

your fancy friend at a fancy place pops up! Of course, you’re interested in the photo but not now! Phylter tries to determine if you are in the cognitive state to accept the notification or not.

So how does this seemingly magical technology work to make your life super productive?

Phylter relies on functional Near-InfRared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) technology to gauge your current brain activity. A band with a monitor is attached to the user’s head and the monitor beams light into the user’s brain, revealing the change in blood flow in the prefrontal cortex which is highly dependent on the amount of concentration devoted to the task at hand. fNIRS measures blood oxygenation levels in neural tissue as deep as 3cm. The optical properties of oxygenated and deoxygenated haemoglobin differ, and thus the relative proportion of the two can be deduced and returned to the detector. The system receives streaming data about the cognitive state of the user and using multiple machine learning algorithms - trained to distinguish instances of high cognitive load from low cognitive workload - it is able to decide the most opportune moments for delivering information.

Phylter understands that under immense WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

Phylter incorporates three major components: 1) subscribing or receiving passive sensor information 2) accumulating or holding implicit input, and 3) interpreting the wearer’s state The core functionality of Phylter relies on the client-server architecture, with Phylter acting as a server interacting with its clients delivering the packets of data. Phylter bases its decision of displaying the message based on its importance, estimated by examining the text contained in it, and the current physiological state of the user.

Phylter handles three levels of notifications: • never send (only useful when the message is to be stored in the log file without being displayed to the user), • always send(for high-priority notifications) and • adaptively send (for physiological-based filtering).

It can accept email notifications, social networking notifications and custom application notifications too, as long as they are all in the compatible XML format with the packet containing a header which specifies the level of notification.

Phylter stores a detailed, timestamped log of WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

its activity in plain text. It saves a record of all of the physiological input, as well as a list of notifications and what messages were ultimately sent to the user. This allows an operator to see the efficacy of a system and what information a user did and did not receive.

But is this tool that Godly after all?

Well, no. If you noticed, this tool has a terribly striking error!

As soon as it detects a slump in attentiveness, it floods the user with all the notifications accumulated over the “concentration” time span. Now imagine a scenario where your perfect concentration is interrupted by a tiny distraction. Noticing a slack in your concentration levels, Phylter will display all of the notifications infront of your eyes. You weren’t done yet, but any loss of concentration leads to Phylter assuming it to be your spare time. And that is a grave disadvantage. Because to constantly redirect all your attention to the current task is problematic and especially so with the surge of notifications every time you slacken even a little bit.

Phylter is a brilliant combination of highend gear and sophisticated algorithms to enhance the quality of our work. A very thoughtful step taken by the scientists of Tufts University to reduce unnecessary and wasteful multitasking , helping us to overcome the typical human tendency of checking our notifications every few minutes or seconds, often overlooking the much more important matters at hand.

With further developments, the combination of the Glass plus Phylter will attain the sweet spot of being actively informative without being overly obtrusive.

- Aneesha Mathur Pune Institute of Computer Technology Pune AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

16

Nano-generators Power source in your pocket

Warp Drives To the stars in a hurry

I

S

technocrats

sn’t it annoying when your phone gets discharged on a trip and the power bank is also dead? Did it ever occur to you that it can be charged when you go about the mundane activities of your life? Although in the predevelopment stages, such a power generator is all set to get real, with a size as small as a biological virus.

A potential source of the next non-conventional energy, nano-generators, as the name suggests are very tiny. It is not only their size, but also the amount of power they generate that is pivotal.

Recent studies at Georgia State Institute, USA made observations that after stimulation, the generator has a capacity of generating a power of 0.8pW per cycle.

Nano-generators basically work on two ideas piezo and tribo. Piezo is a Greek word for press, and as the name suggests it works on pressure.

There exist some crystals that generate electricity when they are subjected to pressure. This effect is called Piezo-electric effect. For instance, if a piezo-electric crystal bar is taken and deformed by bending, then the part with negative strain will have negative charge and the part with positive strain will have positive charge, thus generating electric field in the material and will have potential difference. Assembling such a circuit will give you your own generator!

The next, tribo is a Greek word for friction.

It works on the principle of friction, and can definitely be considered as a promising concept along with nanotechnology. Sheets of materials with specific layout are made to increase the contact between the surfaces, and on contact, there is displacement of charges, resulting in creation of a potential difference which can be harnessed.

A massive amount of research is still going on in this field. Researchers at Princeton University and University of Pennsylvania are already experimenting with the use of Lead zirconate titanate, or PZT as a Piezo-electric material. In 17

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

fact they have already powered a LED, a laser display and a liquid crystal display (LCD) using nano-generated power exclusively. Meanwhile there have been others who are involved in playing with the idea of friction. One such group is that of researchers at University of Wisconsin-Madison. They have come up with the idea of using friction caused by tyres of vehicles. Almost 10 percent fuel is wasted due to friction between tyres and the road, which can instead be utilized for generating power. The nano-generator used here relies on an electrode integrated into a segment of tyre. It was found that the amount of energy that can be harnessed is directly related to the weight of the car and its speed. This was also tested successfully on a remote-controlled toy car.

With a lot of groups of researchers turning towards this innovative concept for experimentation, and with the drive to reclaim what is being wasted, it can be said that the nano-generators will soon replace the way we traditionally charge our phones.

- Sumeet Londhe Tel Aviv University Israel WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

cience fiction writers have given us many images of interstellar travel, but traveling at the speed of light is simply imaginary at present. Experiments are continuously being conducted by scientists to make this a reality.

One such experiment is “The Warp Drive”.

and energy will be used. Though the energy required would be still in range from the mass of Voyager 1 to the mass of the observable universe, or many orders of magnitude greater than anything currently possible by modern technology.

Warp drive is a technology which could be used in spacecrafts to make them travel faster than light. In reality something similar is being done. A theoretical solution for warp drive was supposed by physicist Miguel Alcubierre in 1994 called the Alcubierre drive.

The velocity of warp drive is given by “warp velocity”. Warp velocity is given by V=w3 x c, where w is warp factor and c is speed of light.

Warp drive starts from warp factor “1”, which allows you to travel at the speed of light. Thus “warp 1” is equivalent to speed of light, “warp 2” is equivalent to 8 times speed of light, “warp 3” is equivalent to 27 times speed of light.

When the warp factor will cross “warp 9”, the warp velocities will absurdly direct itself to indetermination, and at “warp 10” it will become infinity. Thus again limiting all of this to theoretical canvas.

Alcubierre drive is a concept based on negative mass and theory of relativity by Einstein, by which a spacecraft could achieve faster-thanlight travel if a configurable energy-density field lower than that of vacuum can be created.

It uses prohibitive amounts of negative mass.

Still in the hypothetical stage, with every scientist arguing about its existence, Warp Drive has equal number of supporters and critiques. We have one physicist, David Pares who claims to have invented a warp drive which compresses the fabric of spacing in his garage, thus supporting the idea of faster-than-light travel. On the other hand, we have noted physicist Sean Carroll, a theoretical cosmologist, specializing in dark energy and general relativity, appreciating the thought experiments being carried out to understand general relativity quantum field theory, but warned not to be optimistic about the idea of building a spaceship one day.

Empty space itself has a negative energy density.

The problem lies in mining and shaping it. If we manage to do so, we would basically create a Warp Drive there and then. The obstacle lies in its possibility.

NASA engineers started a research in this field and found a slightly better solution for this.

They found that if we change the shape of warp drive then much less amount of negative mass WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

There have been many ‘absurd’ theories that have become a reality over years of scientific research. As great as this new technology is, the only thing we can do now is wait and hope for it to become an actuality.

- Gaurav Agarwal Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

18

Project Soli At the swivel of your fingers

S

ince time immemorial, mankind has always strived on developing things that will make life more comfortable in every manner possible. Adding to that arsenal is the new technology that will ameliorate mankind’s way of doing mundane things in a different way altogether. Gone are the days when man used physical touch to carry out tasks like increasing the volume of music player or even setting the time of his watch. You can achieve all of this and more by simply the motion of your hand!

Yes, Project Soli is the next big thing in the technological world.

Inception: Project Soli is developed by Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP), which is the Google’s wing for advanced research and development in the field of technology. Project Soli is a virtual gadget control technology that works entirely on the basis of the movements of the hands in thin air. Ivan Poupyrov, the founder of Project Soli, says that he has always been interested in the study of the mechanics of the human hand, as he considers it the ultimate input device that is not only extremely precise but also fast. Capturing those possibilities of the human hand has been one of his passions.

19

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

Ring’s Video Door Bell brings the peephole to your smartphone.

It allows user to see and speak with visitors to their home via a mobile device, no matter where they are. It connects to a home Wi-Fi network, to stream a two way audio and video feed to a user’s smart phone or tablet.

The Fuel: Project Soli uses a Radio Detection and Ranging (RADAR) technology to sense the motion of the human hand. This is the single major feature that powers the project. Soli’s team wanted a sensor which would be able to recognize the motion of fingers that were overlapped in 3D space. The sensor was required to sense these hand movements through obstacles as they wanted to embed it into electronic devices. It needed to have the working capability of 24 hours and should have been able to be enclosed in a hand-held device. RADAR and camera sensors were their primary choices but RADAR outplayed the latter as it gave higher positional accuracy.

Modus Operandi: When the work for Project Soli began in June 2014, the RADAR size was comparable to a study table but the latest RADAR sensor has been integrated in a chip which is only slightly larger than a standard SD card. What’s more unimaginable is that this transformation took place within a mere 10 months of the project’s inception! The Soli chip works within 60 GHz RADAR spectrum at the rate of 10,000 frames per second. RADAR transmits radio waves towards a target, the reflected energy of which is then intercepted by the receiver of the RADAR. The intensity of the electrical signals, which are produced by the RADAR’s receiver, depends upon the velocity and the distance of the objects in motion, which in this case is the human hand. The data extraction through the electrical signals takes place in the ‘full gesture recognition pipeline’, which can be thought of as an assembly line in a manufacturing company that extracts information periodically with respect to different stages of the pipeline.

This information is then converted to graphical representations also called as the Doppler images generated by specialized RADARs, which in this case is the Soli’s chip, that use Doppler effect to produce velocity data related to the objects that are at distance. The features of the motion and the Doppler images are fed WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

to the machine learning algorithms where the system learns more about the motion pattern of the hand for a particular task and trains itself with each occurrence and the resultant data is then embedded into a circuit of any gesture controlled device thus giving the corresponding final output.

Trends: With the design of the new RADAR chip of the size of millimeters, the Project Soli team has pushed the processing power of electronics beyond limits to implement enhanced sensing.

The technology is extremely reliable as it contains no moving parts thus nothing to break, no lenses, just a piece of chemically reengineered sand. In the I/O 2015 Google demonstrated some key features such as changing smartwatch time, changing the station on a radio etc. These demonstrations created ripples of excitement worldwide. The team is currently working to make the Soli chip so self-sufficient that it would be used as a plug and play device. It can become a part of furniture, wearable devices or even cars in the near future! The team has also announced that after giving the finishing touch to the chip, it will be made available to the developers worldwide along with its Application Program Interface (API) so that they can use it to create their own gesture controlled devices.

Project Soli’s largest effect would probably be seen in Android Wear, since it had seen WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

insubstantial sales due to battery life when it was first introduced. The enhanced display applications of Soli would probably re-energize these sales. In case of the Apple Watch, however, this would affect in the reverse manner as the watch’s digital crown would be very tedious as compared to a watch powered by Soli as it would only need a simple movement of fingers as compared to pressing the digital crown of the Apple Watch on every such occurrence.

Regardless of the various implications of this project, the Google I/O saw a lot of applications in the visualization spectrum based on the hand gestures. Such visualization gestures would not only help beautify functionally sufficient devices but also have certain visualization-based applications. For instance, 3-D or 2-D modeling in case of architecture or chemical structure based applications. Project Soli can prove to be the harbinger of many world-changing innovations in the near future. Despite being in the development phase, it will be worth looking where the project goes further. In all, Project Soli has set a stage for a new chapter in the human life by introducing virtual reality in the physical world.

- Pranjal Bhor Pune Institute of Computer Technology Pune AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

20

An Intel Matter Programming your creation

The Strati is the world’s first 3D-printed electric car that can be built

in 24 hours, and contains only 49 parts. The idea is to use one material for manufacturing majority of the parts, thus reducing the total number of parts.

W

ouldn’t it be interesting to see any desired object emerging from pool of ‘smart sand’ like a sandman emerging off the ground? This idea can be thought of from a single-celled bacterium Dictyostelium discoideum; it aggregates into a multi cellular body without any central brain to plan its coordinated movements. This concept inspired a group of researchers to make something unforeseen by the young generation. The fact that anything can be prepared from anything seems to be a very interesting idea. To mimic this phenomenon, scientists from Carnegie Mellon University under the guidance of Prof.

Seth Goldstein, in collaboration with others at Intel Research Laboratory, were among the first to put together the prototypes. They will explore this new field called ‘Claytronics’ which might bring huge changes in upcoming technological advancements.

Claytronics is a concept which combines nanoscale robotics and Computer Science to create individual nanometre-scale computers called as claytrons or catoms. They have a unique property of interacting with each other to form tangible 3D objects. These 3D objects are helpful for a person who intends to use the final product.

The user can actually interact with these objects and make its optimum use. Current objective for Goldstein and his colleagues is to develop a simpler software to govern the complex movements of catoms, the small yet extremely powerful computer systems. Up till now, the scientists have succeeded to synthesize these catoms up to the range of millimetres which rearranged themselves to form a cylindrical prototype. The cylinders are 44 mm in diameter and are formed by interacting with each other via electromagnetic attraction. Firstly, catoms need to be moved in three dimensions with respect to each other and adhere to each other.

Secondly, they need to efficiently communicate with each other in order to realign with respect to each other.

Catom comprises of a CPU (central processing 21

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

unit), a communicating device along with onboard sensors as per requirement, a power source on which the whole system depends, a single pixel display, and finally a way to adhere them together. The initial objective of the software to be developed is organising short to distant communications in millions of catoms.

This important breakthrough will be achieved with the help of advanced algorithms and programming languages.

Apart from catoms, cubes could also be used.

Cubes are 22 cubic centimetre which are built in such a way so as to provide latching for adhesion.

The difference between the catoms and cubes is the fact that cubes have moving parts. These moving parts are very closely related to the worm-drive assembly. This assembly basically consists of a gear including a spirally threaded shaft and a wheel with perpendicularly nonintersecting axis having marginal teeth that mesh into this shaft. Thus, when two star-shaped faces of neighbouring cubes interact with each other, they form a capacitor and form an instant electrostatic couple. This electrostatic couple is strong enough to latch the neighbouring cubes onto each other while this process continues recursively thus causing adhesion among all the cubes.

The important classes of Claytronics algorithms are shape sculpting and localization algorithms.

WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

Sculpting algorithms gives necessary structure to catoms to give structural strength. It also provides the necessary fluidic movement required for an ensemble. On the other hand, localization algorithms enable catoms to constrain their positions in an ensemble. In order to develop a software, research scientists have created two new programming languages namely: Meld and LDP (Locally Distributed Predicates). Meld is a declarative programming language which was originally developed for overlay networks and helping a programmer to concentrate on overall matrix of catoms rather than focussing on a single catom. LDP is a high level reactive programming language which is used for MRRS. MRRS are Modular Reconfigurable Robot Systems. It provides the developer a larger set of variables to address with Boolean logic. These variables contribute in monitoring and controlling activity of modules and also the behaviour among the group of modules.

The scientists should now ponder about what to do next. They should try to achieve something which can test the limit of human imagination. Future approach of scientists should be developing nano-scale catoms with no moving parts with mass manufacturability.

These micro bots should be capable of emitting various colour and intensity of light. The design goal will be making the whole system a multi utility entity instead of advancing each singular micro bot. As the multi functioning increases, the power need also increases for an individual catom which drives in the concept of alternative and more efficient energy source or in turn reducing power consumption by using efficient systems. Future research can definitely decide the utility of nano fibres in adherence of catoms.

WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

The implications of programmable matter are exceptionally wonderous. Each and every field can use it in the sense of instant creation of structures or performance of specific tasks.

For instance, it can be very helpful in reducing the time required for building structures or its components required in architecture. Another example would be creating vessels for instant heating, cooling, changes in conductivity, light or gas producing capability in order to create favourable conditions for certain chemical reactions. The light producing catoms could also be used in the design sector profitably as it would give better results with lesser cost and fuel.

The field is huge and has no limit for further research and has huge potential of changing the current lifestyle and technology. It has the capability of bringing reality and imagination in every aspect of life closer and would be one more step closer to ideal technology. The most benefitting area would be automation. The best example for a person can be using a same place for multi tasking. The person can use his home place alternatively as his workplace, entertainment area, a library, or even a swimming pool! Let’s hope that the researchers are able to fulfil the dreams , the seeds of which they have sown in the minds and hearts of the common people.

- Pranjal Chopade College of Engineering Pune AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

22

Singularity Can machines surpass us?

W

ith science fiction broadening our imagination about the post apocalyptic society where mankind struggles to survive an army of computers and robots, it is bound to happen that a thought arises in mind of a possibility of such scientific and technological advancements. This popular plot from the realm of fiction might just become the next big thing.

The question that still needs to be answered is whether machines can replace humans as the dominant force on planet. Some might argue that we have already reached that point. After all, we use computers from communication to controlling the most dangerous weapons.

Fairylights are tactual plasma display which does not require any medium

for projection. Researchers in Japan have found a way to use high speed laser called femtosecond laser for creation of the plasma. or later; what if the equilibrium of human civilization is the technological singularity? We cannot oversee evolution either. Evolution has enabled us to grow from single celled organism to dominant species on earth. Though the process is slow, every few millennia, evolution leaps forward. Maybe the next evolution is singularity. So what are we actually heading to?

Now let us have a better understanding of what technological singularity is.

The technological singularity is the hypothetical advent of artificial general intelligence (also known as “strong AI”). Such a computer, computer network, or robot would theoretically be capable of recursive selfimprovement i.e. redesigning itself, or of designing and building computers or robots better than itself. Singularity can be thought of as a point of no definition.

Simply put, it is the taking over of the Earth by machines of human level intelligence.

We know that efforts are being made to make machines literate to a level where they can take their own decisions. So what is going to stop them once they are able to understand the difference between themselves and other species? According to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, “Mightiest shall survive.” Humans are no match for speed and accuracy of machines. The outcome can be understood by a common man.

In addition, robots have made automation a reality. But right now, these machines answer to humans. They lack the ability to decide for themselves. They work according to their programming.

The other point to think on is that the law of every system tries to acquire equilibrium sooner 23

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

The question still remains - is technological singularity even possible? There has been a race for intellectual supremacy from the times human civilization was born. Also as stated above, Singularity is analogous to evolution.

Evolution of Mankind has been happening from 5 million years and humans have evolved WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

just three fold in this long span of time. On the contrary, Computing power is just 50 years old and yet has evolved a million fold. This is enough to show that machines are developing at exponential rate and human evolution stands nowhere when machine evolution is considered.

The notion of an “intelligence explosion” is key to the singularity. It was first described by Good as, “ Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.”

Neuroscience and Nano-science is already being dependent on machine world. The things not visible and possible to understand for normal human brain have been taken over by machines long ago. This consists of functioning of organs like heart, lungs and sometimes even the brain. Research is going on in understanding conscious and sub conscious mind using machines.

Human Computer Interfaces and Networks have developed to a great extent and are still developing. Human intelligence is taken as a base to build an interface of commonly used machines like ovens, toasters, fridges, cell phones and others - the so called smart devices.

The possible consequences of technological singularity: Dominance of a single entity is the basic definition of technological singularity. If this happens, it will leads to global technological unemployment. The reason being, there will be no need of controlling the machines as they will be self-controlled. There will be retro gradation WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

of human race and the physical extinction will be inevitable once the machines will think of humans as a possible threat.

Now every coin has two sides. So it’s certain that there is an optimistic side to this topic.

Better, possibly unimaginable technologies will be generated as performance of machines will be to a greater extent. Advancement in medical sciences will become quite helpful in curing of diseases which are incurable today and in the near future. Enhancement of mental faculties may help us in finding the secrets of human origin and even the origin of universe. It can also help us to utilize our brain to more than we do now.

Singularity, if feasible, is bound to happen sooner or later. Are we smart enough to divert this happening to our advancement? Only time can give these answers. For a random thought, what if technological singularity has already been reached and whatever we see is just a digital image being shown to us from whoever controls us?

- Parth Chopade Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute Mumbai AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

24

Ghost Technology Future of interactive devices

T

echnologies which seemed impossible in the past are now becoming a reality.

Our personal life is highly dependent on various technologies and gadgets that have been developed. Technological advancements are changing our way of life! Smart phones, tablets and laptops have become an integral part of our lives. Users of such devices demand more functionality, which has forced the manufactures to develop computer minded devices, which are not only so easy to use, but also they come with more functionality compared to the type of devices we used to have in the past.

As people’s demands and life styles change, the hunger for betterment increases the need for innovations and developments. Our interaction with gadgets is increasing day by day, and our lives are intertwined with technologies. It is this thought which lead the innovators to think about and develop a technology through which our gadgets become friendlier-Shape Changing Screens.

What exactly is the Ghost technology?

GHOST (Generic, Highly-Organic ShapeChanging Interfaces) is an EU-supported research project designed to tap humans’ ability to reason and manipulate physical objects through the interfaces of computers and mobile devices. Through this technology, efforts are being made to revolutionize human interactions with the computers. This technology will literally make it possible to pull data and objects from the flat screens into mid-air. We can project the display out of the flat screen and with the help of deformable screens we can plunge our fingers into it.

Various prototypes have been created for the plethora of different shape-changing technologies. ‘Emerge’ and ‘Morphees’ are the two shape changing displays to mention as such. The former lets you extract the information from a bar chart whereas the latter are the flexible devices that can change shape according to the requirement.

25

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

Lexus Hoverboard

uses the the concept of magnetic leviation to enable it to float and withstand weight. As soon as the superconductor placed on the permanent magnet beneath the board is cooled by pouring liquid nitrogen, it starts moving.

Why Ghost technology?

Till date, we have come across the devices that display anything and everything just on a flat screen. But to get an exact picture of the world around us, we need to provide a third dimension to the flat screen. As an example let us consider our brain. Imagine there’s a patient suffering from some brain damage. What the doctors do is take the X-rays, study those and arrive at a conclusion. But what if the doctor could reach out to the brain and explore its different areas virtually? It will save time, improve health care and also our educational environment. This project will help doctors and medical students to develop advanced medical treatments which can prove to be a boon for humanity.

Again for an example, think about an ATM adjusting around your fingers when you enter the pin so that it is not visible to others thus improving the safety of our account. Also when an architect designs some structures, instead of representing the design on 2D as a 3D design, why not directly show it up as a 3D model on screen itself? We could actually produce the topography of a region. That’s exactly what is tried to make possible in the Ghost Project.

How do we make this possible?

Our traditional screens are made out of glass which is why we cannot bend or stretch or WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

press them. Hence, instead of having glass displays we use deformable material like lycra similar material as they use to make swimsuits from; which will make it pretty stretchy and deformable. Also, there is no fear of the screens getting broken or damaged as now we use the deformable ones.

But the biggest question is how would such a screen be made to detect touch?

When we use our iPads, we place our fingers in a particular posture. But all that the iPad detects is our fingertip touching the glass display i.e. it tries to find where we place our finger. So we can actually think of the screen as a grid (coordinate system). When we touch anywhere on the screen, it first scans top to bottom and then from left to right and eventually arrives at a point where we did actually touch and perform the respective function. But in the Ghost technology, the approach needs to be different or else we would lose all the information of how we actually touched the screen since the scanning would be done only in the two ways and the depth of touch would remain unknown.

To project the display out of the flat screen, ultrasonic levitation technique could be used.

Although harder to control, but even nonconducting materials can be used using this method unlike other methods of container-less processing like electromagnetic levitation.

In Ghost technology instead of using the iPad WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

approach or the capacitive touch approach, a 3D depth detecting camera is used which would tell us the depth or the third co-ordinate of our touch that will explain how the touch actually was.

Implications for the future This enchanting technology will change the future of interactive devices. The days of smartphones and other interactive devices to look like bricks are coming to an end. Now, we are entering an era where these devices not only respond dynamically but are also malleable and can transform to arbitrary shapes according to requirement. This technology will enhance the interaction between the physical and the digital world. It promises to make the digital devices more handy-physically as well as technologically. It combines the 3D modelling and presentations, resulting into less efforts for explaining and understanding things. No more spending time just staring at the screen. The Ghost project will make it possible for the users to play with the screens so that the things reach out their minds in a better way. As we envision a world where machines become more and more dynamic, this technology will definitely take us a step further into the digital era!

- Devyani Parate Pune Institute of Computer Technology Pune AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

26

Liquid Armour The smart defensive gear

Swift Transfer Transfer at a lightning speed

S

T

ince the Stone Age, wars have always been playing a very crucial role in the evolution of prismatic era. There have been many great leaders who actually thought of inventing a bulletproof vest, but its actual effectiveness was controversial at that time. In today’s world, it is possible to create a bulletproof vest namely ‘Liquid Armour’ because of the incredible visionary of BAE Systems and United States Army Research Laboratory (ARL). Researchers in Poland have developed a liquid that is super flexible and light in weight.

Principle: It is a liquid under low or normal pressure and solid under high pressure. This liquid is made with polyethylene glycol and the solid part is made of nano-particles of silica. This liquid is soaked into all the layers of a Kevlar vest. Fluids involved for this purpose shear thickening fluids (or STF). In this, the relation between the shear stress and the shear rate is non-linear and can even be time-dependent. Therefore, a constant coefficient of viscosity cannot be defined. They are created by the Moratex Institute of Security Technologies which contribute brilliantly in the working of liquid armour.

Working: When any high-speed projectile hits the armour, the shear thickening fluid hardens instantly at any temperature, causing usually massive energy to be dispersed away from the wearer’s internal organs. The particles in the fluid repel each other to some extent, so they float easily throughout the liquid without clumping together. But a sudden stroke of a bullet overwhelms them to stick together and form masses called hydroclusters. In this way, STF expands by forming hydroclusters ensuring the protection of internal body organs. After the energy of impact is dissipated, the particles begin to repel one another. The hydroclusters get separated and apparently the solidified fluid returns to a liquid state.

27

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

he world is full of data and we always need to transfer it from one point to another. But to transfer a large amount of data in scales of terabytes, what we need is speed. Yet having high speed at the cost of more space is totally not acceptable as we are trying to decrease the space requirement as well.

Advantages: Liquid armour can stop highly equipped bullets and also promote unprecedented protection against any other high-speed projectiles. It is very surprising to know that it has capability of stopping bullets fired at 450 metres per second.

Because of its light weight and compatible nature, liquid armour has made it possible for humans to increase their motor skills and increase the effectiveness of their decision process during the mission. It can be widely used in military applications as there is great potential for soldiers to carry the lightweight maneuverability along with protection.

Liquid Armour is more like a magic material among all the trivial technologies. Its riveting features have posed an exclusive impression in the engineering of technological world. In a famous Hollywood movie, there is a robot from the future which is entirely made of liquid metal. But liquid body armour may be less fiction, more reality for modern soldiers. It is a promising armour for the welfare of mankind because it is a classic package with all facilities.

- Mrunal Bhokare Pune Institute of Computer Technology Pune WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

Thunderbolt: Thunderbolt is simply a hardware interface that is used to connect various devices to your computer. Designed by Intel, it consists of conventional copper wiring to get data transfer speed of 10 gigabit per second, at a low cost.

Thunderbolt was released in two versions. In the first version - Thunderbolt, it contains two channels of 10 gigabit per second each. In the second version, Thunderbolt 2, the two channels have been combined to get a single channel of 20 gigabit per second.

Thunderbolt 3: Thunderbolt 3 is the latest version of Thunderbolt released by Intel. In this version, Intel is going to double the bandwidth to 40 gigabit per second with half the power consumption.

The most remarkable advantage of Thunderbolt3 is that you can transfer data, video, audio, Ethernet through a single port, which normally require separate ports. Also you can charge the peripheral device through the same port. It can support daisy chaining upto six devices. This tremendous speed could be understood from the fact that one can copy a year’s worth of continuous mp3 music playback in just 5 minutes.

The technology involved in giving Thunderbolt 3 such a large amount of data transfer speed is due to the full use of the bandwidth. Thunderbolt 3 contains two full duplex channels, with each channel providing 10 gigabit per second bidirectional data transfer without bandwidth sharing. The information is always sent in packets, which contains overhead and payload.

Overhead is the additional data you need to WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

send your payload, and is overall a waste of bandwidth. In Thunderbolt 3, a highly efficient, low overhead packet format is prepared to reduce the waste of bandwidth, thereby increasing transfer speed.

There are certain parts where the technology still lacks. For instance, the ease of connecting Thunderbolt devices to computers makes it ideal for malicious software attacks. Also the Thunderbolt 3 technology is heavily

concentrated on Macintosh OS and is yet to be released for Windows OS. There are other anomalies that allow very low-level access to a computer system, and cause security problems like DMA (Dynamic Memory Access) attacks.

Although there are multiple loop-holes in this novel technology, there is a need of tremendous work in this domain of lightning-fast speeds of data transfer. In the near future, this technology will definitely transform the conventional I/O protocols into an unmatched high-speed, dual protocol I/O, for a better, high-speed data transfer experience.

- Sammyak S Sangai Pune Institute of Computer Technology Pune & - Malhar D Tidke Vishwakarma Institute of Technology Pune AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

28

Smart Computing

Micro-resonators

which can transmit 40 communication channels with one laser have been created by researchers at Purdue University. The beam from a single wavelength laser feeds into a microresonator that creates a bundle of new laser beams with different wavelengths.

Using Quantum Algorithms

F

aster, smaller, less expensive - that’s what we want our computers to be. No matter how good a computer chip is, it is never good enough. The digital logic behind today’s computers is an array of 0’s and 1’s representing a number. A logic that is easy to store, manipulate and to handle with our present level of technology. Today, this digital logic is implemented using transistors. Much time and money is being invested in developing new, smaller versions of transistors. However, what is being done is merely a change of technology or a change of techniques. They are only adjustments in the manufacturing or

design procedure of semiconductors that may result in better transistors, giving rise to better chips.

It is high time we think of better ways to achieve optimum efficiency. An alternative to this approach to advancing technology would be to think about the basic philosophy behind our computers, that is, the digital logic they are based on. A simple run through suggests an interesting solution - as we want our computers to get smaller, we eventually would want the smallest unit of these computers, the bit, to be the smallest possible unit of matter-the atom.

However, using atoms as digital bits will start a 29

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

completely new era in computer design. Atoms cannot be simply manipulated and used like the bits built with transistors. The physical theory dealing with such behaviour is called quantum mechanics. It is used in the computer industry will most probably cause a revolution in the way we use and understand computers. This will be an important landmark in the evolution of computer systems.

Coming back to the logic of today’s computers, it consist of 0’s and 1’s as its fundamental units called bits. In quantum computing the fundamental units are called qubits. A classical binary bit is always in one of two states- 0 or 1- while a qubit exist in both of its possible states at once. This unique condition is known as superposition. An operation on qubits thus exploits its quantum weirdness by allowing many computations to perform in parallel. A two qubit system would perform the operations on 4 values, a 3 qubit system would perform on 8 and so on, which means if ‘n’ number of qubits are used then they will perform operation on 2n values! This allows the computer to test every possible solution simultaneously and to perform certain complex calculations exponentially faster than a classic computer.

Qubits can be manipulated to realize the counterparts of algorithms and programs—as we know them now—on a quantum computer.

They are treated as vectors. Therefore, all we have to do is carry out some kind of transformation on the vector. The operation should be carried on the qubit represented by the vector. The transformation should increase the possibility of the appearance of the correct answer depending on what the calculation is and what answer is correct for that calculation.

Keep in mind, that this qubit is just one in a series of qubits carrying some information, a so-called quantum register. A series of such transforms carried out on a qubit is then called a quantum algorithm. Several quantum algorithms have already been designed and even tested on tiny WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

classical one, especially at large numbers of entries in the database. In a database with N entries, a classical search algorithm would normally need N/2 tries for finding the desired item, where as Grover’s algorithm needs only a number on the order of the square root of N, which is much faster.

quantum computers with a small set of qubits.

The results have been tremendous - quantum algorithms show the potential of being much faster than their classical counterparts.

A good example is Shor’s algorithm for factoring integer numbers. Actually, the ability of classical computers to factor numbers is so restricted that it is widely relied upon developing secure codes.

In contrast, quantum computers using Shor’s algorithm would be fast enough to crack almost any security system, based on this principle.

That is certainly one of the main reasons why military research institutions have been attracted by the field and are funding research programs to discover its potential. Ironically, quantum computation theory itself delivers a unique, completely safe way of encoding data.

Only the person who is intended to receive the message will actually receive it, other people trying to figure out the code will get only one try. This is based on the uncertainty principle and the collapsing of quantum bits upon measurement. If the first try is not a hit (and it usually isn’t), they will destroy the message, they will not be able to try any alternatives.

Another one is the Grover’s Algorithm. This is an algorithm for searching through lists, to find someone’s phone-number for example. Grover’s algorithm is also considerably faster than any WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

Although all this is true, there is a flaw. Many quantum algorithms are non-deterministic, they find many different solutions in parallel, only one of which can be measured, so they provide a correct solution with only a certain known probability. Running the calculations several times will increase the probability of finding the correct answer but it will reduce the speed of quantum computer.

The current quantum algorithms pose no substantial risk to security worldwide as they can’t yet come close to factoring numbers huge enough. Nevertheless, if someday quantum computers were no longer a theoretical concept, a number of futuristic applications would surface, one of which was mentioned by Peter Shor himself a few years ago. He suggested using quantum effects to calculate chemical formulae of drugs for increasing the efficiency of the calculation system by using much faster technology than the existing one.

So far nobody has managed to perform more than a few quantum logical operations on a handful of qubits before hitting the coherence time wall. However, it is definitely a promising technology and if we are able to conquer it then the result will be a completely different era of computers!

- Shounak Kulkarni Pune Institute of Computer Technology Pune AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

30

Project Jacquard

Bridging the rift With Padmashree Mrs. Lila Poonawalla

D

T

Technology woven into textile

The idea lies in using conductive yarn to create fabric panels that can be used to interact with a device. To create the yarn, conductive metal alloys are braided together with fabric fibers like cotton or silk to make a product that is strong, but still feels like yarn. Using conductive yarns, custom-made touch and gesture-sensitive areas can be woven at precise locations, anywhere on the surface of the textile. Jacquard yarns can either have prominent stitching - isolated patterns that make it clear to wear which part of their shirt doubles as a controller - or woven seamlessly i.e. invisibly into textile as a whole.

The team has engineered the electronic components to be as discrete as possible.

They have developed innovative techniques to connect the conductive yarns to miniature electronic components. Touch interactions are captured by these components and various gestures can be inferred using machine learning algorithms. Captured touch and gesture data is wirelessly transmitted to cell phones or other devices helping the users connect to a number of utilities and apps.

Jacquard components are cost-efficient and the yarns and standard equipments in mills are sufficient to produce the fabric. One loom that could inspire varieties of textile designs can now weave in interactivity, which I feel is phenomenal. Connected clothes offer new possibilities for interacting with services, devices, and environments. These interactions 31

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

interview

id you ever consider the possibility of swiping your jeans and making a call via a cell-phone, placed on a table right beside you? Google just did that. The Ivan Poyupyrev pioneered Project Jacquard converted this possibility into reality. Google, in partnership with the Levi’s fashion brand created smart clothing using Project Jacquard, a conductive textile material that can be woven into any fabric. Project Jacquard makes it possible to weave touch and gesture interactivity into any textile using standard industrial looms.

can be configured as per the needs of a user.

Developers have a competitive brain-rattling challenge in front of them to make the platform more creative. Developers should be able to connect existing apps and services to Jacquardenabled clothes and create new features specifically for the platform. The fashion industry has a plethora of opportunities to use Jacquard developed products in the emerging market imparting alluring designs into fabrics.

Currently, Project Jacquard is a blank canvas for designers and developers. Google is already woven into the fabric of our daily lives in ways we can’t even imagine. Now it seems that Google will be woven into the fabric of our clothing and accessories as well!

- Ankit Choudhury Pune Institute of Computer Technology Pune WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

he first Lady Mechanical Engineer of India, Padmashree Mrs. Lila Poonawalla has achieved the pinnacle of human achievement.

A corporate Tycoon, she is also the first Lady Managing Director of a multinational company.

After her extraordinary feat in the corporate world, Mrs. Poonawalla has immersed herself in social work. She has helped thousands of girls to carve a niche for themselves in the world and transformed their lives.

Q

You have come a long way from a family having a humble background to become the first woman Mechanical Engineer of India.

But we want to know why you chose Mechanical Engineering over the other fields which girls of those times used to opt for?

A

To be the only one! I like to do things differently, otherwise you wouldn’t have come to interview me. I like challenges. I like to do things which others have not done, because then you can set a path, rather than follow a path.

Q

Being the only girl in your family, how much support did you get from your family at that time?

Padmashree Mrs. Lila Poonawalla

“The

best helping hand is at the end of your own arm.”

In my family, boys did not study. Not that they didn’t want to, but they had to start working when they were very young because we needed money. They were very supportive about me studying. So I got a really good support from my family.

A

workforce will be. Maybe they did not know how the other managers will be, how a woman will behave on the shop floor. So it made it difficult to get a good job, until I came across a multinational company which was willing to give it a try.

Q

You completed your graduation from COEP with flying colors. In the male dominated field of those times, how difficult was it for you to get a secured job even after completing your education?

Q

A

A

Engineering was never just for boys. But yes, industry was not accustomed to have a woman on the shop floor. That made it difficult to get a job. Not because they didn’t want to give it, but because they did not know how the

WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

You strived so hard in completing your education. But when you got the task of housekeeping at Vulcan Laval, was there a thought that all your efforts were wasted? What made you stick to the task and not give up?

My first job at Vulcan Laval was as an apprentice, a Trainee Engineer till confirmation. After confirmation, I was in the Planning Department. One fine morning, the person who looked after maintenance left his AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

32

All-photonic Quantum Repeaters

Lila Poonawalla Foundation

which keeps data secure by sending series of entangled photons-encoded with encryption keys, have been devised by researchers at University of Toronto and NTT, Japan. Data can be sent using quantum networks by polarizing photons.

Leading Indian Ladies Ahead

job. So the Managing Director called me and asked me if I would like to do it. I, of course said no, because I was a mechanical engineer.

How could I look after painting and gardens?

But he insisted that it is a good job which would give me a better opportunity to grow and that I should give it a try.

I went back home and talked to my husband.

He said it is already difficult for you to get a job.

If you like it, you take it or else say no. But be ready to take the risk. I thought a lot about it and decided that I’ll give it try. At that time I felt as if I was being punished, but I think it helped me a lot, particularly in developing an overall attitude towards my company and keeping it clean.

We talk about ‘Swachh Bharat’ now, I was talking about ‘Swachh Alfa Laval’ in those days. That is the reason why I could appreciate the neccesity to keep everything clean, when I became the Managing Director. In fact, I took rounds of the toilets. As the staff knew I would, they would always keep it clean. Looking backwards, I think it was a good thing that I took the job. It brought me up in a better way. I understood about plants and gardens. My supervisor taught me a lot about different plants, something which I would have never known. I actually became more intelligent after that.

At the end it is how we look at our life and how much we take out of it. Here I learnt something else apart from engineering. So in hindsight, I think it was a good thing. At that time I was angry with the management for giving me this job just because I am a woman. But probably the management saw that I could be able to multitask more effectively than a male. I think they also took the right decision.

Q

You have contributed a lot to the growth of exports from India, and were awarded Padmashree for the same. What was your experience during your tenure as an export head?

33

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

A

Best! Actually better than my experience as the Managing Director! In exports you go out in other countries and cultures, but you go by yourself.

More challenging, and providing better opportunities! You get to understand different cultures. I enjoyed the job most because when I went out to sell those products, I was not only representing my company but also my country and the womanhood of the country. And I felt really good because I made a good impact on the people because of my sincerity, with my technical knowledge and with my overall upbringing.

Planning helped me a lot because when you go into the international market to sell, you have to be able to assimilate things and make decisions.

I enjoyed those challenges very much. I felt I was more successful because I could take quick decisions on the spot because of my trainings in various departments. I think that’s when I really realized that everything is linked. All these helped me become more effective in my decision making.

Q

You transformed Vulcan Laval, a company beset with labor problems and low turnover to a highly profitable Alfa Laval. What was the unique strategy applied by you to do so?

A

Treat people like people, as human beings.

Place yourself in their shoes to understand their issues, their problems, before you give them any orders. The industrial situation in those times was quite different as compared to now. Now we don’t have much problems but during those times there was always mistrust between management and labour which led to friction. There were always ego clashes between them. I felt this was all just a waste of time. I wanted to get over this and I exactly did that.

I dealt with the crisis. I told them to see each other and place yourself in each other’s shoes and be reasonable in your demands so that we can move ahead. There is no point in us WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

arguing because you are working here for your livelihood, and so am I. We are working for our families. That time it was not as easy to find jobs like it is now. I said I am educated, I may still find another job, but for you it will be very difficult. So let’s sit down and be practical about it. And that worked. The demands reduced, we understood each other better and we started to trust each other better. And that turned the company towards betterment!

Q A

Please can you tell us about the motivation behind Lila Poonawalla Foundation?

The motivation was to help girls. Actually, the motivation came from the fact that when I was getting educated, we had financial problems. I realized that for higher education, girls from lower income group still face a problem. I realized that it is still difficult for the girl child to get proper education. It was this reason that I started this foundation to support higher education of girls. For the first 12-13 years, we supported only post graduation.

Then some companies came forward and supported Engineering graduates and that’s how engineering got introduced in 2010. And then we didn’t look back- Diploma, Nursing and Vocational Courses got included.

Later, donors came forward and supported the school program, ‘Tomorrow Together’, which is a 10 year program where we take girls in the 7th standard and sign a bond to educate them right up till their graduation. This year, my first batch finished the 10th standard and I am very happy that we got 100% result and that 100% have joined the 11th.

confidence in the women to stand up for themselves. We definitely can contribute a lot to the economic development of our country, to the scientific research.

So many of my Lila fellows are working in research. They are doing tremendous work.

They are doing PhDs. I have about 44 doctorates and I am so pleased. Quite a few of them are working in the really advanced researches for countries like USA, Germany, UK. Some are working in NASA while some are working in various universities doing research.

Q A

What mantra would you like to give our readers?

The mantra will be - Help yourself. That is the best help. The best helping hand is at the end of your own arm. Give in your best efforts and accept yourself. Help yourself, motivate yourself. Don’t depend on other people for motivation and appreciation. Learn to appreciate yourself. Set small goals, achieve them and celebrate. That’s the kind of attitude which you should have. We forget to celebrate.

Learn to appreciate the small joys that life gives you. Stop of looking at the rainbow, instead realize that there is a little colour right here!

Bring joy into your life. Bring life into your life.

Your life can be as dull as you want it to be or it can be as colourful as you want it to be. It is all up to you!

We thank Mrs. Lila Poonawalla for her time and contribution to P.I.N.G.

Q

You have worked under Late Dr.APJ Abdul Kalam. According to you, what role should Indian women play to make his dream of Vision 2020 a reality?

A

The very fact that they should be educated and get self employed and stand on their own feet. Only education can bring the self

WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

- The Editorial Team AUGUST 2015 P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1

34

direction

The Road Ahead Preparing for an Unpredictable Future

T

he P.I.N.G. team decided to collaborate with Mr. Navin Kabra in order to connect students with cognoscenti. In order to bridge the gap, the students were allowed to ask their questions to Mr. Kabra which he would answer through P.I.N.G. The questions reflect the curiosity of the students about what will be the situation in the future and what should they do for it.

Here is what he writes: “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future,” said Neils Bohr once.

Twenty years ago, Facebook and how important it would become was nearly unpredictable.

Ten years ago, nobody had predicted that most of the software industry would soon be writing smartphone applications. Of all the leaders of the industry and the futurists, no one had predicted the rise of C2C companies like AirBnB, which is converting individual homeowners into micro-hotel owners, or Uber which is converting housewives and students into part-time taxi drivers. Reality is always stranger than anyone’s imagination. When I was in Engineering College, the World Wide Web did not really exist, and nobody at that time would have predicted that it would take over the software industry so thoroughly.

Does this mean that you should not be ready for the future? Absolutely not. What it means is that you need to prepare yourself for a future that is unforeseen. You should adapt your skills and your career strategy in such a way that you are positioned to take advantage of whatever happens next.

PISB Office Bearers 2015-16 Branch Counsellor : Dr. Rajesh B. Ingle

algorithms, good software engineering practices will never go out of style. They were important when I studied 25 years ago, they are important today, and they will continue to be important 25 years from now. Instead of focusing on what is hot, and what has “scope”, focus on the basics.

If you have only learned Java and C, and you don’t really understand pointers or hashtables, sooner or later you will be at a disadvantage. If you don’t have a favourite data structure, and an algorithm that you find beautiful, then your computer science education is incomplete.

Be willing to learn and adapt Just because something is “out of syllabus” does not mean that you should not study it. Getting out of college does not give you a reason to stop learning. Becoming a manager does not justify aborting your technical study.

Anand Deshpande of Persistent has recently been saying that most mid-level managers in the Indian Software Industry have really not bothered to keep their skills updated, and currently the only core competency they have is “sending emails”. Do not let that happen to you.

Instead of trying to predict what will be popular in the future, keep track of what is popular now, and try to learn at least a little bit about it. If you get really interested in it, you can even switch into that as a career.

Imagine that you are Sachin Tendulkar. What is better, trying to predict where each and every ball is going to pitch and what kind of a ball it will be, or trying to perfect your batting skills and your reflexes so that you can face any ball that comes along?

Here are some of the ways in which you can do that: Learn things that will always be important For example, Java and Android are hot today.

Five years from now that will not be the case.

Something else will take over. But computer science fundamentals like data structures, 35

P.I.N.G. ISSUE 11.1 AUGUST 2015

P.I.N.G. thanks Mr. Navin Kabra for guiding its young readers for the road ahead in their careers and a better future.

-The Editorial Team WWW.CREDENZ.INFO

Chairperson: Vice Chairperson:

Shivam Gupta Rishabh Patil

Treasurer: Vice Treasurer:

Tejas Mehta Vaishnavi Dongre

Secretary:

Akshay Bhole Richa Yadav Sayali Magar Angadsingh Kalra Shubhankar Panse Tanmayan Pande

Joint Secretary:

Secretary of Finance: Joint Secretary of Finance:

Ankit Ahuja Rajas Kapure

VNL Head:

Abhishek Marathe Shubham Khedekar

VNL Team:

Akshit Pasrija Rahul Tickoo Tansmay Deshpande

PRO Head: Anmol Agarwal Soutri Mukherjee PRO Team: Atharva Jaiswal Madhura Rathi Saloni Takawale Creative Head:

Siddhant Patil

Senior Designer: Akshay Agrawal Chinmay Gangurde Design Team: Abhishek Ghorpade Akriti Goyal Devraj Baheti Shriya Hardikar

P.I.N.G. Head: Advait Kulkarni Manasi Godse Vrushada Tawar P.I.N.G. Team: Priyanka Bhagat Rohan Chandavarkar Shamli Singh Webmaster:

Meghraj Bendre

Web Team: Ambarish Pande Faizaan Shaikh Sharayu Amritkar Programming Team: Anuj Godase

Jainesh Patel Pooja Patil Pranjal Bhor Rudra Lande Shivani Firodiya Shweta Singh

Swapnil Khandekar WIE Secretary: Radhika Shouche Shrunoti Karpe Trupti Katariya Senior Council: Aditya Sarode Akshay Khonde Ankita Malani Avanti Kulkarni Himani Deshpande Leena Damle Pranav Gaikwad Pratik Waghmare Pushkar Badgujar Raunaq Kochar Rucha Sial Shivee Gupta Shruti Shetty

Shubham Chintalwar

Shubham Khandelwal Siddha Karkare Sonal Joshi Vaibhav Tulsyan

PISB Office Bearers 2015-16 Junior Council:

Abhishek Shirgaonkar Priya Heda Aditya Rukadikar Priyanka Bhosale Aishwarya Mohite Radhika Lakhkar Amit Gupta Renu Tapdiya Amruta Ranade Sahil Sharma Anagha Akole Saikiran Yamajala Anandraj Shah Saurabha Dhongade Anurag Agrawal Sejal Abhangrao Bulbule Vitthal Shabbir Bawaji Chaitali Joshi Shirley Kotian Chetan Wankhede Shraddha Basantwani Ketaki Udipi Shraddha Raut Kirti Menon Shubhada Sonar Malvika Savkar Shubham Chakrawar Mayank Gupta Shubham Chandak Mrunmayi Kinare Shubham Gupta Naman Mandlik Shubham Pampattiwar Neeraj Auti Shubham Panpalia Nikita Tupe Shweta Shinde Nishant Jadhav Simran Keshari Nivedita Vekhande Somesh Sakriya Owais Kazi Urjeeta Tule Pawan Wagh Utsav Mundada Piyush Gaikwad Vishal Ghuge Piyush Kothari Vinaya Chinti Pooja Patel Yashgiri Goswami Pranav Amlekar Yash Gandhi Pranav Havanurkar Yash Kale Pratiksha Nagare Yash Lahoti Pritish Uplavikar

Story of PISB Logo The resilient nature of PISB is aptly portrayed by the ternion of triangles. Each triangle represents the three streams of engineering in PICT. Their interwined nature is a testament to the symbiosis that exists between the three departments. There by, unveiling the covert reason behind the strength, PISB has always been exhibiting. The three departments in togetherness act as the mitochondrion of PISB, so to speak.