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Post CSA elections last semester, we at the Department of Journalism and Media Affairs (DoJMA) have re-initiated one of our primary means of delivering on campus events-The Campus Watch. Since the BITSian memory is supposedly short lived, owing to our globally known and overrated schedules, certain events and happenings go usually unnoticed. These happenings have us inconspicuous inconspicuously ly on the center stage and therefore yearn for our attention. Therefore, through this initiative we wish to reach out to the campus crowd so that the opportunities offered are never left unexplored. The Campus watches on our Facebook page till date has reported several several major events on campus and reviewed them along with. In this section we encapsulate all of the campus watches done this semester. Like most of the initiatives of the campus, our work was well – received received for which we are grateful to all. We hope to continue this endeavor of being vigorous and would expect your continued support with this initiative as it signifies pure journalism for us. We appreciate your reviews over it and we w e welcome any constructive criticism criticism in future over the same. Kudos to the new beginning!!
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August 2, 2013
Life at BITS, contrary to the popular perception, is not easy. One often finds herself/himself in a constant state of emotional flux. Even though we face hardships like low CGPAs, pricey mess food, fungus filled rooms on arrival, ridiculously high course averages and the daunting number of class hours in a week, being a BITSian is still a privilege. It‟s quite unlikely to find any pass out who wouldn‟t want to relive those days. When most of us on campus are breaking their heads over the ERP system and finding cheaper avenues to eat - ones devoid of Moms, Dads, and SIM card salesmen, BITSians across the world are celebrating today as a mark of their resplendent journey at the four campuses of BITS. Over the past few weeks, we eks, there‟s been a lot of talk on the “BITSian Spirit” among friends and ex -classmates on various various social networking networking websites. websites. So, what defines the “BITSian Spirit”?
The BITSian spirit, according to us, is about having varied
opinions with intense bouts of self- respect attached to one opinion‟s correctness and yet respecting another opinion contrary to it. It is about helping a fellow BITSian out to the best of our ability in any situation, much like a close knit family, about giving back to the college – the – the one which gave so much to you, about terribly wanting to go back to college in-spite of a horrible set of comprehensive exams just two weeks earlier, about learning about failures through academics and then mustering the courage and enthusiasm again to bounce back from them. This spirit is what made m ade most of us politically and socially conscious, conscious, even though none of it is seriously taught in BITS. This spirit is what enables us to learn from our surroundings, helping others and not being ashamed in asking for help. It is what sets us apart from the rest, and this day is to celebrate the so-called common BITSian which which is not at a t all close to an ordinary engineer, her/his achievements, and to look forward to what she/he is going to achieve.
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August 7, 2013
MATRIX, one of the persistent clubs on campus, has managed to begin the semester with a bang. Unlike suggested by its name, the club is not a movie club but one that deals in discussions, mostly about books and current events. MATRIX had its first event of the semester today, August 7th, 2013, by the title „Short Film Festival‟. The event started at 6 pm, screened eight short films, each followed by an open discussion. The film festival saw a satisfying audience and unlike the usual trend, had participation from second and third year students too. The short films that were screened are:
The Crush, Crush, a 2010 Oscar nominated film by Michael Creagh. Thought for You, You, a 2D animated film that deals with expectations, by Ryan Woodward. 10 Minutes. Minutes. The film showed the importance of the same 10 minutes in the lives of two different people – a Japanese tourist visiting Rome and a boy in the war torn Bosnia of 1994. Boundin,, a Pixar 3D animated film that talks about the importance of Boundin what one thinks of oneself. French Roast, Roast, another 3D animated film, portrays how appearances can be deceivin deceiving. g. Black Button, Button, one of MATRIX‟s favorites, involves a man who is willing to kill a random person by the press of a button for the temptation temptation of 10 million dollars. Validation,, by Kurt Kuenne depicts the role and impact of Validation appreciation in people‟s lives. The Last Bookshop shows a world, so deep into technology that the last bookshop is all that remains of the written medium.
For those who took part in the event, it was sure entertainment with lots of contemplation to follow.
August 11, 2013
An Open JAM session was conducted on the 10th of August by LDC. The event was billed as a promotional event with a large number of first yearites and a few seniors as well. The event started off a little later than the scheduled time in typical LDC fashion, but the attendees were kept entertained by the tunes of Pink Floyd, Oasis and Porcupine Tree. The
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event kicked off with an introduction to the basic rules of JAM, followed by a demonstration JAM by the seniors. The first years were enthusiastic in their participation, taking to the format of the JAM like ducks to water. The seniors then took turns in moderating the JAM sessions, culminating in a mammoth 10 minute 'disconnect' JAM session with rolling topics. The coordinator, Kshitij Bedekar and sub-coordinator, Ashwin Krishnan were extremely happy with the quality of participation, with the coordinator even remarking that the LDC had successfully attracted the right kind of crowd. The success of the JAM session adds to the increasing buzz around the 4-day induction process, dubbed 'Origins', starting the 16th of August.
August 13, 2013
The Quark 2014 team organized a campus treasure hunt yesterday yesterday which kicked off from in front of the B-dome. The participation was extremely good with a footfall of around 350 people divided into approximately approximately 75 teams. The atmosphere outside, outside, at the starting point, was ecstatic. The start had a few hiccups as the Quark team hadn‟t expected so many people to show up and became under-staffed. But they were still able to manage it. The event started at around 5:50 and went on till 8:30. Participants were given clues which led them to different parts of the campus where images depicting various scientists were put up. Guessing the name of the scientist earned the team the clue to the next location. Students, especially the freshmen got a good opportunity to explore campus by going off to far off places like the VGH and Tennis courts. The only major problem the event faced was the tearing away of a few clues by participants. It was quickly handled by the control team who had spare clue posters on stand-by for that very eventuality. The event was won by the team named “The Sitting Ducks” and a total of 5 teams were successful in deciphering all clues. Quark tees were given to the top four team members. It was a good event overall with many people noting the unusual excitement in people running around campus.
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August 15, 2013
A department orientation orientation for the 2013 batch was held on 14th at the auditorium. auditorium. The event started at 5:30 PM sharp (BITS standard time IST -1:00 Hrs and GMT +4:30 Hrs) owing to the legacy of all BITS events being ISO accredited for their delay. First was a brief introduction about departments and their utmost significance in a BITSian‟s life by the treasurer, Nitish Myneni. This was followed by presentations by all Departments on campus, some being verbose whereas others being concise and effusive. A total of 16 presentations by departments beginning with DoFAM received a large, receptive and an inexplicably silent first year audience. The session ended with a special presentation by Quark Controls of 3 Robots fighting in Robokombat and a brief explanation about Raspberry Pi, a credit card sized computer.
August 16, 2013
Every year on the Indian Independence day, BITSGian freshmen are given a stage to show of their skills in music, dance and drama. Yesterday was no different with “The Big Break” starting at a few minutes after 10 with the music society freshmen starting the event. This was followed by the Drama club giving a play which was incoherent to say the very least. Even though they tried their level best to perform, the seniors, especially those in their sophomore year showed no mercy and kept a constant banter of jovial comments going on. The vuvuzela was also brought into play, literally making it impossible for the dialogues to be heard. This was followed by a performance by the dance club. As their performance was coming to an end, seniors started to dance right in front of the stage, showing total disregard to the director who was inconspicuously sitting in the front row with a few colleagues. The next event, The Fashion Parade was a total nightmare for the performers. With the exit of the director and other faculty members, the seniors started taking fun to a whole new
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dimension by climbing up on the stage and dancing in the middle of the models. A drum was also played to elevate the already enthusiastic mood. The show was stopped two times after which everyone was begged to let the event take place properly the third time. To cap it all, a fresher‟s party was organized in the evening by Waves 2013, Department of Publicity and Public Relations and the Department of Creative Works. Seniors were exposed to a humorous sight as juniors came dressed in formal attire worthy of a multinational company‟s compa ny‟s General Body Meeting. The evening was entertaining ending with a tug of war between freshmen of various departments.
August 17, 2013
A talk was given on the topic “Cell Mediated Nanoencapsulated (CMN) Drug Delivery into deep lungs” in LC 101 by Dr. Arun Kumar, University of Delaware. The talk started at 12pm and went on for about an hour. A major problem faced by scientists is that the lung expels any foreign matter as quickly as it can and doesn‟t differentiate between pathogens and medicines. Hence there is no effective means of drug delivery to the deeper parts of the lungs. This new technology aims to send medicines to the lower part of the lungs to treat pulmonary diseases, particularly those affecting the alveoli. This is not possible at present. Most inhalants are highly inefficient with respect to actual delivery of the medicine. In fact, only 10-20% of the inhalant medicine reaches the lungs and a staggering 60% goes to into our digestive system, which is definitely not the target of the medicine. So the proposition is to use nanoparticles as medicines after loading them in Sertoli cells. Sertoli cells are abundant in the human testes. When inserted into the body intravenously, it is observed that the Sertoli cells get concentrated in the lower part of the lungs and are able to stay there for quite some time due to their size. This technology has been successfully tested on lab mice and DR. Kumar now aims to take the research forward to clinical trials. If that is successful, he is confident that many untreatable lung diseases will become curable.
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August 21, 2013
Dr. Kiran Bedi, the first woman IPS officer of India, interacted with around four hundred BITSians from all three campuses yesterday as part of the BITSAA Embryo Lecture Series. The lecture which was screened in the Telepresence room here in BITS Goa, was on leadership and how one should nurture it. Dr. Bedi explained to the BITSian crowd that everyone are leaders from birth and it is only a matter of realizing it and nurturing it, and the only way one can nurture this leadership is by doing a thorough SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis on oneself regularly. She said that one who shows people the way is not a leader unless she/he listens to her/his conscience. “Leadership with conscience is the need of the hour”, she said. “In any interview, only intellectual testing is practiced. It is not enough. Ethics, courage, conscience should be tested too, as true leaders will have plenty of all of them. The biggest thing which is missing in our education system is the education of conscience” Crane Bedi, as she is fondly known around the country then proceeded to give suggestions on how to educate your conscience. She suggested students to form small groups to practice scenarios and study how conscience plays a part in your decisions. “You can call them conscience groups”, she said. She then went on to address questions asked by the students and professors. She concluded her talk with a series of quotes about leadership, and received a great round of applause from the BITSian junta.
August 22, 2013
The Quark 2014 team is organizing a 10 day workshop for all the people on campus. It will be conducted by Inventrom who piloted the Invent O Pi and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSI) workshops during Quark 2013 both of which received very good reviews and great participation. participatio n. The workshop is named “The Robolife” and aims at a t teaching a wide variety of technical skills staring from basic line-following bots to things as advanced as the Raspberry
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Pi which is a Linux based pocket sized computer. This also includes a hands-on session of Robokombat in which participants will engage in complete disassembly and assembly of robots like “Fireblaze” which were featured in the Robokombat event held during Quark 2013. The price of the workshop is Rs.2500per participant. The payment can be made by floppy posting which will be done by the Quark team in each hostel. Upon successful completion of the workshop, participants get a certificate certific ate by “Inventrom” and Quark. The workshop is scheduled to start on the 26 th of August and will go on till the 5 thSeptember with a break on the 31 st. This is a great opportunity for BITSGians to have some extratechnical know-how on these subjects. For those who‟ve already done such workshops, many advanced aspects will also be covered. For more information, contact: 1. Sarang Agarwal +919405137320 2. Sanskriti Dawle +919975789142
August 23, 2013
MATRIX through its second event this semester, Alohomora, managed yet again to entertain the audience. The event was a fruitful stroll down memory lane for all Potter-heads. The event started 20 minutes past the scheduled time, 5:30 PM. Due to the unavailab unavailability ility of lecture theaters the event took place in A-508. The nostalgia saw approximate approximately ly 55 participants, participant s, a crowd far larger than anticipated causing a completely packed venue. The quiz cum discussion, hosted by Janvi Palan and Deepika Ghodki, both senior members of the MATRIX club, consisted of 26 questions which were meticulous meticulously ly picked from all the seven books. The questions were intersper interspersed sed with interesting 'Chocolate Frog Facts', facts that baffled even the biggest of Potter-heads. There was a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm in the room with even MATRIX members taking part in the quiz. The quiz results were announced shortly after the event and the prizes for which are to be distributed towards the
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end of the semester. The event was followed by inductions for the club which unfortunately did not witness the same enthusiasm.
August 24, 2013
Astronomy signifies humanity‟s constant thirst for wonder. In line with the long -running tradition of conducting lectures on subjects of astronomical importance, Celestia organized its first lecture for this semester on Thursday evening at 7:30 PM, at A-503. A-503. The topic, for the very first lecture, was „Introduction to Observational Astronomy‟ conducted by Kartik Sreedhar. With a turnout o f thirtyplus excited freshmen, the lecture series couldn‟t have had a better start. The topics discussed included the equatorial co-ordinate system, the nomenclature of stars and celestial bodies, and stellar magnitude. Besides these, there was also an informal discussion on the life cycle of stars, the formation of black holes and supernovae explosions, and a short discourse on the philosophical satisfaction of knowing mankind‟s place in the universe. Perhaps the best thing that could be taken home from this session, both for those who attended and the Celestia team, is the optimism that comes from seeing a number of people taking a healthy interest in the larger universe out there.
August 24, 2013
A talk was given on the topic “Microbiological Aspects of Radiation Processing” in the library conference room by DR. J. R. Bandekar, Food Technology Division of the Baba Atomic Research Centre. The talk started a few minutes after 12 pm and went on for about 70 7 0 minutes. The talk started with a brief discussion about the various research projects that take place at BARC. The Food Technology Division undertakes research in Agriculture, Food Technology and Radiation Medicine. Radiation processing of food involves exposure of food to short wave radiation energy to achieve a specific purpose such as extension of shelf-life, insect disinfestation and elimination of food borne pathogens and parasites. The ugly truth is that although India produces sufficient food, almost 30% of the produce gets destroyed by rodents, pests, insects, fungi etc. Cobalt 60 and Caesium 137 are used to elicit gamma irradiation in
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which food is exposed for a particular amount of time. This procedure is mandatory before exporting food stuffs from India, especially to countries like America and Australia where the Quarantine trade barriers are extremely strict. Hence it has a tremendous scope for commercial usage, for example at costs like Rs.25-50 per carton of mangoes; you can get food articles sterilized and increase their shelf life.
August 28, 2013
As a part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations, the maiden talk under "Game Changers" took place in the Telepresence room yesterday. The talk was by Professor Venkatesh Narayanamurti, Benjamin Peirce Professor of Technology and Public Policy & Professor of Physics at Harvard. He talked about "Globalization, Engineering Education and the Public Good." The basic essence of the talk was to encourage the intertwining of engineering, science and societal values. Prof Venky, as he is popularly known, said that it is important to think of Engineering as a liberal art and not just an applied science. He talked of the importance of appreciating the fact that engineering is as important in research as theoretical science is. Prof Venky said that the epitome of an engineer or scientist is a person who has extensive theoretical knowledge and is innovative as well as flexible. Professor Venkatesh summed up his talk by encouraging the students of BITS Pilani to be unafraid of walking down paths that are less trodden on and to take research and technology to new levels.
August 30, 2013
Hargun Singh Oberoi steps down as the president of the CSA, 2013-14. Vice President S L Narayan will step up to the President post, with other rearrangements in responsibilities, in the CSA structure. The Treasurer shall take up the additional responsibilities of the Vice President. Re-elections shall not be conducted.
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August 30, 2013
Following many discussions and meetings with the Contracts Committee, the exorbitant prices of the new on-campus on- campus eatery „Piratess Grill‟ were finally slashed down to more or less affordable rates some days back. This is the full story of the information exchange exchange between the two parties. The functioning of the previous on- campus restaurant „Shahi Darbar‟ was terminated on accounts of lack of hygiene at the end of the previous semester. Following this move, the contracts committee called for other restaurants around Goa to come up and replace Shahi Durbar in the Shopping Complex. But, owing to the general opinion regarding the same from relevant parties, that the particular space was not suitable for a full-fledged quality restaurant, restaurant, the idea of a fast food joint was put up, which is how „Piratess Grill‟ came into the picture. The Contracts Committee and officials from Piratess Grill went in talks and decided upon a contract, which contained all the food items which were to be sold, inclusive of the prices at which they were to be sold. However, once the facility started functioning, it was seen that „Piratess Grill‟ was selling the f ood items at highly unreasonable ones, different from those mentioned in the contract. In addition, they were also seen to be selling food items which were not mentioned in the contract, again at an unacceptable pricing. The “lack of food on campus” scenar io io which was expected to be solved by the arrival of Piratess Grill turned rather more severe with their advent. The Contracts Committee took this issue up seriously and held many discussions and meetings with the „Piratess Grill‟ officials, following whic h prices were brought down and the terms and conditions of the contract were enforced again. The email sent by our General Secretary, Anmol Shrivastava, on behalf of the CSA to authorities Nikhil Dixit and Debasis Gupta, Gupt a, regarding „Piratess Grill‟ can be v iewed on the DoJMA facebook page.
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The Team
Aabir Abubaker
Meghana Gupta
Aarzoo Siddiqui
Pallavi Verma
Abhijith Asok
Prasoon Mehta
Akshay Surendra
Rahul Hardikar
Ambareesh Sr Ja
Rutuja Surve
Amrita Suresh
Sanchita Porwal
Anirudh Thukral
Sathya Anurag
Ankita Kar
Seerat Bindra
Anshul Jain
Siddharth A.S.N.
Arathi Krishna S.
Soumya Chauhan
Deepika Ghodki
Sourayan Basu
Geethika Nelluveli
Srijani Biswas
Harsha Koneru
Surabhi Ranjan
Karthik Srinivasan
Vedangi Pathak
Kartik Sreedhar
Vishnu Nair
Lakhshya Bansal
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