The IEEE - VESIT Student Branch formally concluded it’s activities for the year 1998 – 99 with the IEEE Technical Week. The “IEEE Week”, was conducted from 15 February 1999 to 20 February 1999, and was concentrated with activities for all the students, members and non-members alike.
To make the week an interesting one, we had a blend of activities ranging from Video Lectures and workshops to quizzes and panel discussions. The week consisted concluded with a two day Symposium on emerging and emergent technologies, titled “Beyond 2000” and was followed by a two-day Student Professional Awareness Conference. A one-day Internet Symposium was also conducted during the course of the week.
Student turnout was overwhelming at 230 students, of which 165 were members. The symposium materialized due to the support of the college management, The IEEE Bombay Section, and our sponsors Messieurs Libra Systems, and Adonics Ltd.
DAY 1 (15th February 1999):
Day one of the IEEE week comprised two video sessions. Session one began at 1:00 pm sharp, and consisted of an hour’s talk on Digital Loop Carrier Systems. This was followed by a forty – five minute technical film on ISDN.
THREE DAY, ANNUAL TECHNICAL AND INTERNET SYMPOSIUM
DAY 2 (16th February 1999):
Day two comprised the Annual Symposium on Emerging and Emergent Technologies, titled “Beyond 2000”. Among those who attended the Symposium were notable dignitaries like:
1. Mr. Harish Mehta, Chairman, Onward Technologies Ltd., Vice – Chairman, Onward Novell Ltd.
2. Padmashree Prof. P V S Rao, Advisor, Tata Infotech Ltd.
3. Dr. V K Madan, Treasurer, IEEE Bombay Section.
Mr. Harish Mehta, Chairman, Onward Technologies Ltd. Inaugurated the symposium at 11:00 am sharp, by giving a five – minute talk on the future trends of the electronics and computers field in the next millennium. This was followed the keynote address on Emerging and Emergent Trends in the field of Electrical and Computer Engineering and related fields, by Padmashree Prof. P V S Rao. Dr. Rao, talked for an hour and fifteen minutes tracing the exponential growth of the electronics and computer field, and gave the students an insight into the areas that we as students, and engineers to be, should concentrate on in the next millennium. Dr. Madan, Treasurer, IEEE Bombay Section, then gave a 15 minute presentation on the long term benefits of an IEEE Student Membership, which was directed at members to be.
The first session for the day commenced at 12:30 pm - a talk on “Business Computing in the next Millennium”, by Mr. Vinesh Paperwala, Architecture Marketing Manager, Intel Asia Electronics. Mr. Paperwala spoke about the future of business computing with the Internet revolution, and how Intel will cope with it in India. Besides this, he also gave the students a sneak peek into the computing power that we can harness using the PentiumÔ III Processor, and spoke briefly about the Merced and other 64-bit processors that Intel plans to introduce in the next millennium.
Day one was concluded with the second, post lunch session on “Medical Imaging” by Dr. Nair, of TATA Hospital. He enthralled the audience with some breathtaking slides of MRI, PET and Nuclear Imaging pictures, and went on to explain the fundamental concepts behind medical imaging. He also covered the role of electronics and computers in modern medicine. Dr. Nair stressed on nuclear imaging being a modality that would emerge in the 21st Century, and explained the role of nuclear imaging in detection of diseases that were previously untraceable through other imaging techniques.
DAY 3 (17th February 1999)
Four sessions were planned for Day 3. The first session began at 1:00 pm, and was an extremely interesting talk on “Satellite Telephones and the Technology behind them” by Mr. Rajeev Yadav, Senior Manager Motorola India Ltd., and Mr. C K Das, Vice President, Iridium India Telecom Ltd. They started from the fundamentals behind satellite telephony, and went on the explain the concepts behind the Iridium Satellite telephone network, satellite footprints, and the revolution that further developments in this technology will cause in the way that people communicate and do business in the next millennium.
The Second session for the day, at 2:00pm, was a talk on “Digital Signal Processing” by Dr. Gadre, EE Department, IIT Bombay. He gave a brief talk on the fundamentals of DSP, and then went on to demonstrate the applications of a DSP chip (the 320CX Series). The demonstration had the audience listening with rapt attention and on the whole, it was an extremely informative lecture.
The first post tea session at 3:00pm, the third session of the day, was a talk on “IT in the next millennium, by Mr. Desai, Manager from Onward Technologies Ltd., and the focus of his talk was mainly E-Commerce centric. He explained the concepts behind Internet banking and why we should focus on Internet and Network related operations in the 21st Century. The most interesting session, by far, was the concluding session for the day – This was a talk on “DNA Computing” by Prof. J A Gokhale, Head, Department of Computer Engineering at our college. He went on to give a very interesting and enthralling talk on the origins and the computational powers of DNA Computing. He also demonstrated that DNA Computing actually works, by explaining how DNA Computing is used to solve the famous Hamiltonian Path Problem, a problem classified as “NP – Hard”, in Theoretical Computer Science.
The fourth session for Day three was followed by the Technical Quiz Contest Eliminations, which concluded the Second Annual Symposium of the IEEE – VESIT Student Branch.
DAY 4 (18th February 1999):
The one – day Internet Symposium was conducted on Day four of the IEEE Week. One intensive two-hour session on “Web Animation and Multimedia” was scheduled for Day four, from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. The talk was an extremely interesting and innovative presentation on Web Animation Tools and the need for dynamic Web pages, by Mr. Vishal Gondal, a member of the Macromedia User Group, in Bombay. Mr. Gondal gave a brief introduction to the various web animation packages that are available, and then proceeded for hands on demonstration – tutorial in using Director 7 and Shockwave Flash.
Mr. Gondal concluded the Internet Symposium with a small concluding note on media formats such as Quicktime that are used to store multimedia.
This was followed by a technical Quiz Contest, the eliminations for which had already been conducted on day three. The students who had qualified in the eliminations had to pit their wits against some challenging questions that the branch members had come up with. The Quiz Contest was thoroughly enjoyed by the students and audience alike.
TWO DAY STUDENT’S PROFESSIONAL AWARENESS CONFERENCE (S – PAC)
DAY 5 (19th February 1999):
Days Five and Six were scheduled as having speakers for topics on professional awareness. This SPAC was conducted in association with the Debating Society in the college. The first session for the day began at 1:00 pm, and was a talk on “Personal Excellence: The Key to Success”, by Dr. Suryanarayan, Corporate Training Manager for Glaxo (India) Ltd.
Prior to this, there was a small welcoming speech for the audience given by the Professor – in – charge for the debating society. Dr. Suryanarayan gave a motivating talk, for an hour, on the need for personal excellence and discipline in every day life and how a positive attitude assists in the making of a more productive worker, and a more productive individual. He stressed on the “want to work” attitude to be inculcated rather than the “have to work” attitude.
The second session for day five was a talk – counseling session on “Study Opportunities in the USA and UK”, by Mrs. Shivani Manchanda, who is a successful career counselor. She used the opportunity to tell the student members, who were interested in graduate education abroad, about the methods and the procedures to go about the application and the examination processes. She gave a brief talk for about a half – hour and used the remaining time to entertain a barrage of questions from the enthusiastic, 230 plus strong audience.
The final session for the day was a talk on “Technology Management”, by Dr. Korgaonkar, Director of the School of Management at IIT Bombay. He introduced the students to the need for management of technology in this millennium and the next. Dr. Korgaonkar concluded the first day of the SPAC, with an introduction to the course contents of the two-year intensive course in technology management at the school of management at IIT Bombay.
DAY 6 (20th February 1999):
Day Six, was the concluding day of the IEEE Week, and the concluding day of the SPAC as well. The first session for the day, was an hour – long panel discussion on “The need for Graduate Education, and the benefits of having a graduate degree from abroad”. The panel was a diverse one having eminent people such as Mr. Walter Vieira, who has served on the faculties of Kellogg’s and The Wharton Business School, as well as on all the faculties of the Indian Institutes of Management. Besides him, there were Mr. N Rao, the Chairman of the Ornate Group, Ms. Bajoria, who is the Senior Manager at DSP MERRILL Lynch, among others. The panel entertained questions from the audience and stressed the importance of graduate education, to the students.
The concluding session for the week was an extremely interesting and a motivating talk on “Entreprenuership in Engineers” by Mr. Ashank Desai, Chairman and Managing Director of Mastek, Limited. Mr. Desai started this highly successful multinational software company from scratch, and the audience was thrilled to hear his experiences, and advice. Mr. Desai concluded the session, with the prize distribution ceremony where all the student members who were successful the year around in the activities organized by the branch, were honored with certificates and prizes.