Posts

Showing posts from November 24, 2013

Team from IIT Kharagpur wins Nobel Memorial Quiz

Image
The Sweden-India Nobel Memorial Quiz held as part of the week-long Sweden-India Nobel Memorial Week focusing on India�s first Nobel Laureate Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore in the Centenary of his Nobel Prize. It brought together quizzers from esteemed colleges and technical Institutes for an Inter-Collegiate Quiz in a battle where minds prevail over muscles. Quiz master was the quizzing icon, Mr. Adittya Nath Mubayi. At stake was an all-expenses paid trip to Sweden with special visits to some of the Sweden-India Nobel Memorial Week partner companies, as well as chances for internships with these prestigious companies. In September and October preliminary rounds were held in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi. The teams that made it through to the grand finale, which was held in Delhi on November 16, were: ITM University, IIT Madras, Osmania Medical College, IIT Kharagpur, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Sinhgad College

How to get rank 14 in IIT JEE ??

Image
This is a tale of a student who secured rank 14 in IIT JEE 1998. I managed to get a rank of 14 in JEE (1988) in a very unconventional way. I will first give a conventional answer about how I studied (or rather did not study), and in the latter part of the answer, I will speculate on why I think I did well. The things I did NOT do: No classes : I did not join any JEE coaching classes – for the simple reason that I lived in Nashik, and at that time, there were no JEE classes in Nashik. In fact, few people had even heard of JEE or IITs. (I did join coaching classes for 11th/12th board studies, and my performance in board exams is directly attributable to those classes. (Thank you Gadgil and Vanzari Sir.)) No skipping college:  I attended all the lectures and all the labs and my classes in my 11th/12th. No other exams:  I did not appear for any entrance exams other than my 12th std board exams, and JEE. No losing sleep:  I used to sleep for 8 hours every day. No sacrificing

Cheated in IIT JEE and became IITian

Image
When the question arises of future of new generation then they can do anything to secure it, This story is of an IITian , who remained anonymous: I’ll be writing down exactly what happened. Whether to believe or not is your decision. I am doing this for myself, not for you or your question or your belief. Honestly, I did not go in the exam center with the intention of doing what I did nor did I have even the faintest idea what I was gonna do. If anything, before going in I talked to my dad and told him to expect a score in the negatives. Let’s just say, there was a lot riding on the stakes of my selection. I won’t say more. So I went in, sat down, and saw that there were 8 people around me in different angles. Since I had gone in early, I had the chance to observe each and every one of them come and take their respective places or talk to an acquaintance though that was rare. One boy, he struck out completely different to me. In his manner, in his behavior, he was what you’

IIT-JEE 2013: CBSE approves for 3 more new centres for the exam

Image
JEE(Main) CBSE has approved for 3 more new centres - Bhawanipatna, Angul and Jeypore - for JEE(Main) in Odisha. With this three centres total number of centres in Odisha for JEE increased to 9. Earlier the state Government writes to CBSE seeking 12 exam centres across State for conduct of JEE Main exam on April 6, 2014 for engineering admission Earlier the state government of Odisha has decided replace the Odisha Joint Entrance Exam (OJEE) with the all-India Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main for the 2014 - 2015 academic session.  The selection of students for admission to engineering courses in the institutes in Odisha will be done through JEE (Mains) 2014 only.   Gujarat, Maharashtra and Odisha have joined the Joint Entrance Examination (Main) system that was introduced from this year for admission to premier technical institutes in the country.     

IIT profs re-think building techniques

Image
How about living in a house where you don’t need to switch on lights during daytime or you don’t need a plumbing or a wiring job done ever? These are some features of the futuristic houses being designed by some of the finest brains of the country in an endeavour to bring down the cost of construction by 20-40 per cent. Some 20 IIT professors, in collaboration with the Ministry of Housing, are working on a pilot project that will not only bring down the cost, but also reduce the time required to build a house. The Government has given the IITs the mandate to develop a model with flat size in the range of 21-27 square metres (approximately 210-270 sq ft). B. K. Chakravarthy, Head, Industrial Design Centre at IIT-Bombay, said the main idea behind the project is to create an integrated solution for energy efficient and eco-friendly houses and high-quality mass production of building materials that can bring down the cost of construction by 10-20 per cent in the urban areas and by 40-

GES 2014 from Jan 10 at IIT Kharagpur

Image
The global entrepreneurship summit (GES), the annual flagship event of the entrepreneurship cell of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur will be held from January 10 to 12, 2014. The global entrepreneurship summit 2014 The summit plays host to India’s only global conference which provides a platform to discuss promotion of entrepreneurship with a global perspective. It is one of the biggest entrepreneurial platforms for academicians, new age entrepreneurs, eminent business personalities, venture capitalists and students to gather at one place and share their endeavours and experiences. The video conferencing session will serve as a conclave for discussion of opportunities and programmes aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in various universities across the world. The conference will be followed by a discussion among the entrepreneurship cells in different institutions in the country about the scenario and how to promote entrepreneurship in respective campuses.

IIT-JEE 2014: 5 things to know about the exam

Image
Candidates interested in appearing for Architecture Aptitude Test (AAT) can check the frequently asked questions here... Will the examination structure for JEE (Advanced)-2015 remain the same as that of 2014? The examination structure for JEE (Advanced) – 2015 and beyond may change. Details regarding this will be made available at a later date. A candidate is interested in pursuing B. Arch. in IIT. What procedure does the candidate have to follow to appear in the Architecture Aptitude Test? First, the candidate has to give B. Arch (available in IIT Kharagpur and Roorkee) as the choice while filling the choice sheet online at the JEE (Advanced) portal. Additionally, the page on which the candidate will view the result of JEE (Advanced) – 2014, will have a link to follow in case they are interested to write Architecture Aptitude Test (AAT). The link will take you to a page where you will be asked to registered for AAT.  The registration has to be done from June 20-

IIT-Kharagpur on Nasa radar

Image
Expertise in radar technology and its successful association with the Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) over the years may soon make the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, eligible for a partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) for a collaborative research. The presence of two scientists from the premier space research agency in Kharagpur on Monday fanned speculations that IIT-Kharagpur has evolved as the front-runner for the coveted tie-up. After the success of Chandrayaan, Mangalayaan and the four-year partnership for an oceanic wind measuring radar - Scatterometer - the next most talked about futuristic collaborative project would be the NI-SAR, or the Nasa-Isro radar mission. The radar, which is yet to receive final clearance from the respective governments, is one of the most discussed scientific projects in the country at present, specially because of the precision with which it promises to pre-empt natural calamities. IIT

Tips to tackle Negative Marking in IIT JEE

Image
Handle Negative Marking in IIT JEE Negative marking scenario adopted by the CBSE Boards for IIT JEE entrance exam has put the IIT aspirants in deep thoughts as to how would they be able to make it to the top.Negative Marking is the way IIT has chosen to evaluate the entrance examination to filter majority of the unprepared students.This is to check that only the deserving students are taken in and yes, it is hard to know that this evaluation process deducts marks gained by marking the right answers on a whole if a wrong answer is marked out of the given options. To tackle Negative Marking is a challenge to bet, and it starts when you are 90%- 70% sure of an answer to be marked out of the given options. The beauty of these multiple choice questions are that all the choices look very similar to each other.This makes it even more challenging.The initial step to deal with this evaluation process of IIT JEE is to be extra cautious while preparing for the IIT JEE entrance exams.

IITs aiming to increase PhD enrolment

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are making various attempts to increase the number of PhD enrolments, including increasing the number of scholarships. The Kakodhar Committee report had earlier recommended that the number of PhD scholars produced by IITs per year should be increased to 10,000 over the course of the next decade. The new IITs will also play a pivotal role in increasing the numbers. The IITs are presently producing around 1,000 PhD scholars per year, in engineering and technology. "This figure is not adequate for a country of our size. Without an adequate number of researchers we will not be able to advance in the sphere of technology," an IIT professor said. Dean (academic research), IIT Madras, Saritkumar Das said that this year the number of PhD enrolments in the institute had increased to 550 from 363 last year. This year, 156 PhD scholars graduated from the institute. In fact, the institute is expecting the enrolments to triple

SASTRA now gives weightage to JEE marks

Image
SASTRA University in Thanjavur has changed its admission policy of 10 years to admit more students using JEE (Main) scores instead of only Class 12 board exam marks. A release from the university said from the 2014-15 academic year, 70% of the students will be admitted to BTech and a five-year integrated programmes based on their performance in the JEE(Main) 2014 and their Class 12 board exam marks. The applicant's rank will be calculated by giving 75% weightage to the Class 12 board exam normalised aggregate and 25% weightage to the JEE (Main) scores. The remaining 30% of the students will be admitted based on the normalised aggregate Class 12 board exam marks. The university has a seat intake of 1,530 in BTech courses, and 120 in the five-year integrated courses. The university has said that their existing system of reserving seats for students from Trichy and Thanjavur will continue. The application process will begin by the end of March, and counseling will begin from

Chennai students forced to travel long distances for JEE (main)

Thousands of students from Chennai and some other cities in TN have to travel hundreds of kilometers to Puducherry, Coimbatore or Madurai to take the JEE (main) exam this year. This is because these students will not be able to take the offline version of the test in their hometown, as the centres here only support the computer-based test. Students aspiring for a BE / BTech seat have to take Paper 1 of JEE (main), while those aspiring for BArch/ BPlanning have to take Paper 2. Paper 1 can be taken on pen-and-paper or online, but Paper 2 is only available offline. The Central Board of Secondary Education, which conducts the JEE (main) has made arrangements for students in Chennai, Cuddalore, Dindigul, Kanyakumari, Karur, Namakkal, Salem, Thanjavur, Tiruvannamalai, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Trichy, Vellore, Villupuram and Virudhunagar to take the test only through online mode. Centres in Coimbatore and Madurai have both options. Students from Chennai and other cities who want to take Pape

JEE (main) online gets bigger, to be offered in 235 locations for 5 lakh candidates

Joint Entrance Examination (main) conducted by Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for admission to engineering/ architecture programmes could turn out to be the biggest online exam of the country surpassing Common Admission Test conducted by the Indian Institutes of Management.  CBSE is offering the online (computer-based exam) in 235 cities/ towns this year with a capacity of 5 lakh students in four days. Earlier it was known as AIEEE, which used to be the world's largest single day entrance test.  CBSE experimented with the online mode in 2011 when over 1.25 lakh candidates registered for online. In the second year the number increased to 1.75 lakh. More than 14 lakh aspirants are expected to register for the test. CAT conducts the online test for around 2 lakh candidates over a period of 20 days.  As per the plans, according to chairman of CBSE, Vineet Joshi, one out of every three urban centres will have an exam centre for the online mode of the JEE (main) 2014. &qu

6 Ways Tech Will Change Education Forever

Tensions were high Wednesday at New York University's Stern School of Business, as a group of academics, venture capitalists, and entrepreneurs faced off during a panel discussion on the future of higher education. The panelists, including NYU President John Sexton, Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, and Codecademy CEO Zach Sims, among others, were charged with predicting the future of the traditional university. Will emerging technology and online learning dismantle the notion of "college" as we know it? Predictably, the academics took a markedly more conservative view than their start-up counterparts, but there was one thing everyone in the room could agree on. As Sexton put it, "The status quo is not an option. We're in for what I call a radical restructuring of higher education today." Here are six big ideas about how tech incumbents are about to drastically change the face of education: 1. Technology can help universities d