As The New Sem Begins

We meet to create memories,
We part to cherish them.

And so the campus bade an official farewell to the graduating and post-graduating students last Saturday. With the last add/drop day over today, the campus seems to be back where it was eight months ago. But yes, there has been a huge change altogether. Old familiar faces can be seen no more and new unfamiliar faces spread all over the campus.

A festive mood prevailed over the weekend with loads of cheerful passout students gathering for their Convocation ceremony on Saturday. The rain failed to dampen the spirit of bonhomie and fun for which UG2K2 is so very well know for. It was good to see old students meeting faculty members, friends from junior batches and even the guards. One could not miss the satisfaction common among all graduating and post-graduating students.

Here's IIIT Buzz wishing them Good Luck for all their future endeavours! As far as the Freshers' Welcome Party is considered there is no official news about the same till date. May be there is still some time for the ice to melt.

About IIIT Buzz

We have received innumerable queries regarding IIIT Buzz. So, we thought we'd rather answer some frequently asked questions to everyone.

What is IIIT Buzz?
IIIT Buzz like a diary, for IIIT. Everything under the umbrella of "things that matter" can be posted here. It's a place to record the most buzzing things concerning IIIT. IIIT Buzz is _not_ IIIT's official blog.

Who are the authors?
Studs, like you. We are a loosely knit team of bloggers. Faculty members don't post on this blog. (Some) faculty members do read the blog, though (and comment too).

How can I become an author?
Invitation for authorship is 100% referral-based. You'll have to wait until you get invited. We invite people who we find interesting and are able to write/blog well. If you want to become one, SMR's blogroll is a nice place to start. If you think you are qualified already, send a mail to cmdrbuzz@gmail.com. We don't promise we'll extend you an invitation, but we'll consider it.

How do authors get added?
After an invitation is sent, a new author submits his/her first story. This has to be approved by us before he/she is added as an author. So, the first post from an author is posted as from CmdrBuzz. The later ones are posted directly, but can be edited by CmdrBuzz.

I have an article. What do I do?
Send it over to cmdrbuzz@gmail.com. If we find it interesting, we'll post it. You have the option of remaining anonymous.

Are there any guidelines/rule-book you abide by?
We don't intend to be prohibitive. We just want our posts to be true and decent. We don't allow posts which are: 1) against IIIT's interests, 2) abusing a faculty, etc.
As a policy, we don't comment-back to readers' comments.

I liked your post on ..XYZ..
Thanks.

Your post on ...XYZ.. was indecent.
Maybe. But we are adults, and we expect you to behave like one too. And this is a college, not a nursery school. So, don't expect only rhymes-like posts here. Our authors are responsible enough and we know that we don't cross boundaries.

The post on ..XYZ.. should not be posted on IIIT Buzz.
It's disappointing sometimes that people discuss whether an article should be posted or not. Instead, we want you to discuss the issue, not the validity of the post. Remember, WE get to decide whether a post is valid or not -- it's a privilege we authors grant ourselves.

We'd be happy and pleased to see some discussion going on the issue at hand, rather than mere flaming the authors. Anonymous flames, we feel, are no more than dog-barks. Offer solutions instead of noise.

Who is CmdrBuzz?
This is the most popular question. Unfortunately, we cannot answer this (yet). Who is John Galt?
We know that some authors are not undisclosed, but it's their call.

I have another question. What do I do?
Write in the question as a comment. We'll try to answer.

HSSM and a UG2 gal

(Based on a true account of a UG2 gal)

With a song on lips and jump in feet, I, now a senior [;-)], entered the campus on 14th after a heartful break. My lips turned blue and my feet failed to move when somebody remarked "Hey! you are pretty late.. better fill in your choices for HSSM". My mom had told me never to lose temper and dad wanted me to take wise decisions. Here I was with seemingly infinite options but all seemed to be equally confusing. So, I rushed to my forever-trusted seniors for guiding me. I was told to fill in choices and that we could later add/drop the course after having a short brush with the course. I again started reading those dreadful names: ahh English Literature -- I know what it is! Thank God...'click' ..followed by some more clicks..which still echo in my heart. Do i need to say anything more? I was awarded and my wish fulfilled. I must confess I am a die-hard optimist. After being in queue for add/drop session for 1 hr and 40 mins, I was relieved to see Appaji. But he had no solutions to my misery. I am shock-resistant now.

While I was still trying to find out what HSSM meant (my seniors failed to tell me!!) ...BANG!! came in the 'final list' of alloted courses, a completely new one, and a random one. My heart again went mmm... when i heard most of the students were shifted. "Make wise decisions," my father's words echoed in my mind.

(Debut post by Ms Margaret, a new authoress)

The new sports calendar and related stuff

The new sports calendar (for all those who are not aware even now ) is out !
It was sent to your 200 mail accounts and also on display at the PEC notice board

Since the interactions with the freshers reached a historical phase (absolute ZILCH stage) one wonders how the talented personalities among the 1st years will come out into the sports arena :(

Of course there's a bright side.There are two new talented chaps already discovered ..one guy who plays real good cricket and another fellow who suposedly is a very good athlete. The ittefaqhere is that both of them belong to Agni (oh no!Not the Agnians again)

Mr.kamalakar (for those who are reclusive enough not to know ..he's IIIT'S PD ) decided to send a team of athletes to Inter-University Athletic Championships in Bangalore in November.And also,other inter-college championships in other sports.But too bad the good athletes and sportsmen in the final year can't participate owing to CAT,placements,GRE,etc.,

Hoping these Inter-house sports events bring out the new crop of sports icons ...the next generation !!

Rain Rain Go Away

Rain rain go away
Come again another day
IIIT's convo is two-days away

With the monsoon hitting back the city in full might this time, speculations are rife as to what will happen on convocation-day. The main-ground is damp and soggy with numerous puddles of water all over. The sheds laid over the poles served no purpose in the face of last evening's torrential downpour. Wonder how the to-be-graduate students, would react to this arrangement when they arrive in a day or so? At this point we can only hope the Sun God shines bright and strong.

Meanwhile, a few basket-ball players enjoyed the heavy rains yesterday on the court. They were seen dribbling the ball with ease despite the chill. Just a note of caution, though: better take proper care than face shortage of attendance at semester-end.

(Debut post by Arwen, a new authoress)

IIIT+CMU for MSSD

Today's ET carries an article on IIIT's collaboration with CMU to offer executive programme in management of software systems and development (MSSD). Talking to ET, Lynn Robert Carter, principal fellow, Institute for Software Research International, School of Computer Sciences, CMU, said that the programme was designed to target the issues that the global best practices such as CMM, CMMI, P-CMM could not address. Therefore, the programme helps to address issues hampering a software manager’s ability to deliver a quality product in the most profitable manner. The programme is intended for people with 8-10 years of work-experience.

Naming IIIT and its Corners

That IIIT is visible from google earth is no secret. Several of its places are tagged on wikimapia. But what is unnoticed is that apart from tagging the buildings, grounds, coffee shop, etc, some interesting spots are marked too. Have you checked IIIT's Cupid's Corner or Piya Milan Chowk on Wikimapia?

Convocation Invitation for Graduating Studs

The institute website has been updated with an invitation for graduating students for the convocation. The convocation will be held on 29th July (Sat). AP chief minister YSR will be the chief guest and F C Kohli, former deputy chairman of TCS will give the convocation address.

The distribution of certificates will begin at 9:30 AM and the convocation ceremony will be performed at 11:30 AM. All graduating students are supposed to report on the 28th to collect the convocation gown and participate in the rehearsal.

Starting today, preparations are visible in the main-ground, which is where the convocation will be held this time. Hope it doesn't rain.

Ragging in 2010 AD

It's 15th July, 2010 AD.

The new academic session is about to start. Freshers have arrived in the campus. Freshers, the very idea sends chill down the spine of all seniors. In fact, they are terrified. One even had a mild heart-attack (he's alright now).

There was a time, not quite long ago, when it was the other way round and the sun used to set in west. Seniors used to interact with the freshers, tried to talk to them, make then comfortable, taught them things and even trained them to face the world which is undoubtedly rough. Unfortunately, the govt of India and therefore the institute faculty didn't like the idea. They treated all such measures under a unified banner called ragging. Circulars to this effect were attached to every notice board. Special task forces and detective mechanisms were put in place to nab the germination of all such activities. It began with seniors being suspended in a frenzy. In subsequent years, they were handcuffed, tortured 3rd degree, capital punishment. And one fine day, Charlie, a second-year stud, looked directly into a fresher's eyes. His eye-balls were plucked out.

So, things have changed remarkably over the few years. The sun doesn't set in west anymore. Seniors dread juniors. They gasp for breath in case one passes by. Freshers summon seniors to their rooms to shine their shoes. All such defensive mechanisms have been accepted as combat weapons against ragging. The more senior one gets, the more vulnerable one is. Only yesterday, a 2nd year PhD student was seen moving around with a dog-tail, which had been planted by freshers. He dare not remove it lest he should be accused of ragging. A 3rd-year B.Tech girl was seen roaming around in lingerie, as per strict instruction from fresher girls.

OBH is silent. Most seniors have gone on a 1-month leave (after the summer hols) to avoid the high-steam period. Some have refused to come out of their rooms in days. It's heard that the 4th year guy in Room #520 (OBH-extn) has dug a bunker and is hiding there. Freshers rule the campus. They move about merrily. Freshers can't make out the difference between a TV and a computer monitor. One just burnt a computer monitor, thinking that it was useless since it wasn't showing ESPN. Of course, seniors can't dare enlighten them. One fresher doesn't know how to open a bank account. He lands up depositing all his money in some random mutual fund with some random bank, thinking that it was a safe deposit. Of course, no senior can dare guide him. Mr Tim, a fresher, has never had enough courage to talk to a girl. He still wets his pants. Yesterday, he was mugged by an auto-walla opposite the main-gate. Of course, no senior dare volunteer words of wisdom / tips to be stronger -- it might constitute ragging.

The faculty is pretty content. And why not. The measures they initiated a few years ago to combat ragging have worked. Who cares about equilibrium anyway? Who cares that no batch talks with any other batch? Who cares that the only interaction possible is that of freshers ordering their seniors to carry out odd errands for them? Who cares, as long as the campus is a ragging-free zone!

The latest news

The latest is apocalypse writing an interesting article on the state of affairs at campus.

Also nirnimesh posts on another tragedy in the server room.

CVIT Party today

CVIT has a party today. They're going to Dhola-ri-dhani resort. As per an invitation sent to CVITians (over 100 of them!), they'll leave by bus at 2:00 in the noon and return by 11:00 PM.

In a situation where batch parties/picnics are getting rare, it's intriguing to see a research lab going for one. And dhola-ri-dhani has its Monsoon discount offer (20%) going on these days.

Update: The party in pics.

UG2 Woes

The current UG2 have been an unfortunate lot. They had to begin with sharing hostel rooms and they continue to do so even in their 2nd year. Then due to some traitors UG2 danced before DISCO for you-know-what. The dance is ongoing.

This batch had to buy laptops and have now been deprived of PCs in labs. The concept of workspace, introduced to them in their 1st year, still continues, except that they don't have any PCs. (Where will they learn Age/CZ/Quake?) People are expected to bring their laptops and sit in the workspace/lab. God knows why. Can someone explain the concept of workspaces, by the way?

With the ever-increasing fees, it's natural to feel that the facilities provided have gone down. What will happen with the lab PCs anyway?

(story submitted by Himank; edited)

Freshmen Tone

This is the time of the year when many freshers are introduced to the world of emails & mailing lists and some of them get a very picturesque idea, particularly of the students mailing list. A series of such anecdotes landed into the mailboxes of all the students.

[Students] I want to be enrolled
[Students] yes i will join

-- Both genuinely innocent

[Students] (no subject): my id is manish_a.i want your mailing list. have a nice day. bye bye.
[Students] (no subject): mine is chaitanya_gsk
[Students] mailing list: please send mailing list

-- Want to exchange mailing lists (for some reason)

[Students] Mailing list: plz send me the mailing list..

-- Wants to have the mailing list

[Students] mailing list: if u get all the mail IDs i can show u the way contact me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-- No idea what he wants so show

[Students] mailing list: hi mine is chaitanya_gsk send me mail yaar
[Students] mailing list: plzzzzzzzz mail me

-- True IIITians. Already desperate for mails

[Students] Mailing list: hi mine is chaitanya_gsk send me u shall be friends
[Students] hi: Hi welcome to everyone. Iwant to make friendship with everyone.

-- Terrific friendliness

Internet B/W Increased

The instt's internet bandwidth has been increased to 4 Mbps. Earlier it was 3 Mbps. This is synchronous with the change in the ISP to STPI. The figure below illustrates a rather fluctuating performance. But let's hope it's just the initial hiccups and that things will smoothen over (finite) time.

A 1v1 for "Healthy-Interaction"

Suryakant posts an exciting duel with Sugandh on the issue of you-know-what with the freshers. An anti you-know-what has been setup to protect the freshers. In the post, Suryakant corrects Sugandh to make him understand that interaction is quite necessary to develop worth-anything relationship between batches, "Almost everything in life is a continuous function and same is with Ragging and believe me we get a 0.1 on the scale of 0-1 for ragging". Whereas Sugandh admits that IIIT never really had any physical you-know-what, he equates it with seniors' ego.

Can speak now, says Govt

Deptt of Telecommunications instructed the ISPs to unblock unduly blocked blog sites, as per its earlier order. This comes as a breather for all the bloggers.

Now, after the hols, even iiitbuzz can come back to life.

Shut up, says Govt

The Department of Telecommunications, Govt of India, has issued notices to several ISPs in the country instructing them to block several sites, particularly blog sites. This includes blogspot.com, typepad.com and geocities.com. Interestingly, wordpress has been spared.

In the age where India is being seen as a major in Information Technology, such gagging acts go a step further in purporting the mindless rhetoric of the government. There's an ongoing discussion of the censorship on GoogleGroups.

What IIIT did this Summer

A brief recap of events at IIIT during this summer hols:

• Solid discussion on mailing lists and then IIITians participate in Anti-Reservation Protest March
• Cultural camps organized
  
• Stationary shop gets robbed.
• DC++ stopped and restarted.
• Labs closed during summers.
• DataQuest survey ranks IIIT at 10, while Outlook ranks it at 24
• 3 Faculty join the institute.
• Workshop on Research Focus organized
  
• IIIT signs MoU with Andhra Bank to provide edu loans at concessional rates
• ISP changed. Internet situation worsens. blogspot sites (among others) become inaccessible
  

Outlook ranks IIIT at 24

The cover story of the July edition of Outlook has ranked IIIT at an abysmal 24th position, in its list of Top 100 Engineering Colleges in India. From TFA,

We asked the most informed group—senior faculty members in different engineering and medical colleges across the country—to rate the institutes they were familiar with against various parameters: intellectual capital, pedagogic systems, infrastructure, industry interface and placements.

While it is interesting to see colleges like Jadavpur University, ISM Dhanbad, PSG College and MANIT ranked above our institute, IIIT figures just above this Harcourt Butler Technological Institute (??). IITs maintain their stronghold even in the Top 5 as per specialization.

NIT Warangal, an institute with barely browseable internet access has been ranked above IIIT in infrastructure. Well, if the recent state of internet in IIIT is any indication, they might not be entirely wrong.

new Faculty[3];

dynamic_cast < IIIT_Faculty* > (new Faculty[3]);

As per Dr Kamal's mail, 3 faculty members have joined IIIT, beginning the upcoming semester.

• Prof B. Yegnanarayana, (yegna 'at' iiit.ac.in) did his BE (1964), ME (1966) and PhD (1974) all from IISc, Bangalore. The focus of his research activity is to address issues in the development of speech systems for Indian languages with particular reference to speech-to-text and text-to-speech systems for Hindi. He'll teach Speech Tech along with S P Kishore. His office is located in CDE faculty, adjacent to Vikram Pudi's.
• Dr. Kishore Kothapalli (kkishore 'at' iiit.ac.in) just completed his PhD (2006) from John Hopkins University. Earlier, he did M.Tech from IIT, Kanpur (1998) and B.Tech from NIT, Warangal (1996). He's interested in Theory of Network Communication, Overlay Networks (esp Peer-to-Peer Networks, Wireless Networks), Distributed Algorithms. He worked as software engineer at D E Shaw, Hyderabad (1998-1999) and as Software Consultant for American International Group, New York (1999-2001) before opting for PhD at JHU. His office is located in Room #109.
  
• Prof. P. R. K. Rao (prkrao 'at' iiit.ac.in) did his PhD from IIT Kanpur. He has interests in Probability Theory, Random Processes, Communication. He'll be teaching Signal Detection & Estimation Theory and Probability and Random Processes.

Unfortunately, the IIIT faculty information page has not been updated since long. It still shows Sashikumar as a research associate at CVIT. Worse, it still shows Ramkanta Bal as a guest faculty.

Freshers are here

The 3-month long emptiness of the campus is now coming to an end.
Freshers have arrived in campus. Parents and new students are visible
strolling around since the 8th, even at nights. Some parents are often
seen inquiring things from students passing by.

While any real "interaction" won't begin until the hols get over, any
movement in campus is welcome.

MoU for edu Loans

IIIT entered into an MoU with Andhra Bank for extending educational loans at concessional rates of interest (9.5% for males and 9% for females). CMD of Andhra Bank and IIIT director exchanged the MoU today.

Convocation on 29th July

IIIT's fifth convocation will be held on 29th July. Shri F C Kohli, vice
chairman of TCS, will be the keynote speaker, while the CM, Y S
Rajasekhara Reddy, will be the chief guest (yet again).