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Welcome to
Electronics and Communication Engg Dept.
Swami Vivekananda Institute of
Technology
Mahbub College
Campus, Patny Center, Secunderabad – 500 003
Phone: 2771 17629, 9866544437 Fax: 040-27802469
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Varun Pawar
Back-bencher on a
roll
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Mr. Varun Pawar
2 / 4 B. Tech (ECE)
Section B
Varun Pawar wins the first prize for the “Online Science Fiction “writing
at Shaastra-2008 ,IIT – Chennai.
Well done Varun ! We know that iit is only the beginning of the beginning….
Share the joy with him………
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Shaastra
is the annual technical festival of IIT Madras.
The first
ISO 9001:2000 certified student festival in the world, it is known for its
exceptional organization, stunning range of activities and a growing legacy
of honing the engineering talent in India.
This year
Shaastra commemorates the 50th year of IIT Madras's establishment.
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02nd
October, 2008
I write to
you from iit chennai sir. You probably have already been here but i must say
this is a truly magical place(minus the weather).
The entire
students engineering community is here and it is in all its glory. It still
is day one and i am totally blown over.
I
participated in an event called junkyard wars, it required a thorugh
understanding of the internal combustion engine though. We blew the event.
Tomorrow is
a big dAY with two main quiz prelims. They are what we hope to score in. The
surprising part is there were many students with knowledge in more than one
fields of engineering. There were electronics students who spoke of the
working of a brake like they learnt it yesterday. Very astonishing. There are
3 more days of engineering and science to go. Events in all the fields, some
fun ones too. We hope to bring something back, hope is too small a word. We
want to bring something back, a victory and i can smell it, i hope my sense
of smell does not ditch me. You should have been here sir, it is a place you
will really cherish. But as the boards here go, no teachers participate in
the events. There are very few electronics events here though, the proceedings
are dominated by mechanical and computer events. And a plethora of general
events basically testing our science fundamentals. some events are way too
hard, they require good teamwork(You always emphasise on teamwork) and great
co ordination. Unfortunately HPS, you may think i am lying, the school where
i study, always encouraged individuality and teamwork was for people who are
not strong enough. A federer was always greater than a aussie cricket team.
Here seeing how important and useful teamwork is makes me realise the power
of a team where each does not interfere but adds to the sum total of work
done and its quality.And yes sir the students here truly live up to their
name academically, the iit boys do know their stuff.The gap between me and
them in the academic field is gaping. Maybe if i practice a few problems on
fourier transform as i ought to, i can cover some of it up.
Your bewildered and excited and frightened and eternally hopeful student,
Varun Pawar.
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05th
October, 2008
Respected
sir,
I write to you from chennai. I won my first event here coming first in the
science fiction writing event, winning rs 2500. Since it is a tech fest the
writing competiton too deals with science. There was an event called tech
trek which basically required improvised thinking to make a sort of
contraption to solve a short physical situation. My other friends got 2nd
place in it. There is so much i have to tell you sir, but then i cant write
much sir as this computer is up grabs.
your enlightened student,
varun pawar.
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07th
October, 2008
good
morning sir,
Finally made it back to our city, despite everything there is no place like
home.Our overall winnings of the college included my science fiction writing
prize and a third prize in an event called tech trek by two other boys. The
events not surprisingly were dominated by the boys from iit madras although
VIT and NIT trichy did pretty well too. The colleges from our state fared
rather poorly. There was something in the air there that brought out the best
of the technical person within a student. There are many lessons learnt at
the end of the tripa few of which i would like to share,
1. To compete with the best one should have a basic sense of all fields of
engineering(we went to an event and lost horribly as it required a perfect
understanding of an internal combustion engine).
2.Always be on your toes when it comes to learning something, i tried my best
to attend every ppt, seminar and lecture possible and ended attending most,
sometimes going on to late in the night. I learnt a lot about
engineering, management and pure science in these 5 days.
3.always interact with the students of the best colleges, i learnt how things
work in the better ones and how much efficiently the academic systems are.I
took special time to converse with as many students about their colleges and
work schedules as possible. It was very enlightening.
4.the biggest thing i learnt there was OBSERVE. there was an event called how
things work, and as the name goes it dealt with how the day to day thingswork.
I was bamboozled when they aked me what is the purpose of those little black
boxes on the train side, about why time readings change in a digital clock
when you switch on a nearby tubelight, about how to capture a photographic
image on a field of grass. and many more. All reqiured nothing more than a
strong idea of physics and a sense inquisitiveness about day to day phenomena
and devices. I guess i never in my life stopped by and asked why??
5.One positive though from the entire learning experience was that I,
speaking solely about myself, was on par with the students of the big college
with regards to the computer world. Guess my obsession for wikipedia and all
payed off when i could tackle questions regarding the turing test, capchas,
esoteric programming languages, google doodles and all such absurdities.
6.one lesson i learnt is science and tech can be made beautiful by focussing
on the oddities and absurdities of phenomena.The students who conducted the
evnets were people who loved such oddities, the quizzes dealt with mysterious
phenomena in science, and odd easter eggs and little nuggets of surprising
trivia in tech.
7. There too the events are mainly coordinated by a small group.i stayed in
the dorms there for 3 days and found about three fifth of the students lazing
around, most not even participating in what was going on. So to get something
done a small active group is enough.
8. Theory is theory. Practical is practical. Doing things physically is very
hard, i was very interested in seeing the proceedings of events that required
a great deal of application. All my life i have shied away frrom labs and
doing things practically under the excuse that if anything has to be done it
can be done on a desk with a pen and paper. The greatest science is all on
paper. But then technology is different from science. To improve as an
engineer one must be ready to get his hands dirty.
9.Even the iits make mistakes.although most events went very smoothly, there
still were quite a few which had major glitches. Some events did not take
off, some were poorly conducted. Eveyone is human, just because someone got
through the JEE does not mean he cannot make mistakes.
10.Always dress lightly in chennai,it is the devils backyard with regards to
climate. I must have lost 5 kgs walking around the campus in that weather.
There are more but these are lessons i guess i wont forget.
Your 5 kgs lighter student,
Varun Pawar.
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