SFIT - IRIS 2012 TIME CAPSULE

Time capsule planned at Borivli college fest

TNN Feb 24, 2012, 03.03AM IST

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• Time capsule|
• St Francis Institute of Technology

MUMBAI: Burying your problems and worries now seems possible with the help of a time capsule. Designed by two third-year engineering students of St Francis Institute of Technology, Borivli, as part of their college fest, Iris 2012, the idea behind the project is to invite people's suggestions on things they want to see in 10 years.

"A leather-bound book will be kept on the day of the festival for comments. We will place the book along with pictures and other memorable items in the time capsule and bury it," said Shelton Nazareth, one of the designers.

The capsule will be unearthed in 2022 at the same fest by the students. "We will place a Google Maps picture and an environmental report of Mumbai from 2012, photos of prominent locations of Mumbai among other things," said Prathamesh Chodankar. The capsule will have a report on the present and future expectations for the city that will be written by three of the institute's professors. The event will be held at the institute on February 26.

SFIT - IRIS 2012 - TIME CAPSULE

A time capsule with hopes for 2022

An empty Virar local train, a Hindi version of the Hollywood blockbuster Inception and a corruption-free government – these are a few of the dreams of students of St Francis Institute of Technology, Borivli, which they have stored in a time capsule, for the year 2022.

As part of the institute’s annual festival, Iris 2012, students on Wednesday consigned a written list of their hopes, memories and wishes to a time capsule, decorated with graffiti. The capsule will be uncovered during the college festival in 2022.

“The Bollywood version of Inception will include love songs and a lot of melodrama,” said Tushar Karia, 19, a first year engineering student of the institute.

Initially scheduled for February 26, the event was shifted to February 29 to mark the leap year and to accommodate 500 envelopes filled with personal messages in the time capsule. “We had more than 500 people who penned personal messages. Organising it on February 29 also added to the enthusiasm levels,” said Shelton Nazareth, 20, who designed the capsule.

Besides personal notes, the time capsule also includes an environment report, a map of the city, photos of prominent locations and a 16 GB flash drive with chart-topping videos and songs.

For students, the time capsule presented a way to preserve special moments, to look back on a decade later. “We made a photo collage of all our birthday parties and included a note describing each of our qualities and habits,” said Sherin Gilson, 20, a third-year student. “Ten years from now, these note will take us back in time and help us trace how we’ve changed,” she added.

Surprisingly, for most of the budding engineers, seeing Mumbai turn into the next Shanghai was not part of their vision for the city.

“The infrastructure boom will cost us green pockets and clean air. A pollution-free city is my dream for the city in 2022,” said Melinda Gomes, 20, a resident of Vasai. “I am also hoping that Mumbaiites get de-addicted from social networking sites and and make time to meet each other in person instead,” she added.

Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/819108.aspx

Open Access

Know how you fared in NET, instantly

Know how you fared in NET, instantly

Chetan chauhan, Hindustan Times

Students appearing for the National Eligibility Test (NET), 2012 will be able to evaluate their performance immediately after appearing for the much-simplified test. The University Grants Commission (UGC), which conducts the test for around 2.5 lakh students twice a year, on Thursday decided that candidates can take carbon prints of their optical reader answer sheets with them.

This will enable students to know instantly how they have fared in the test, said UGC chairperson Ved Prakash.

In another decision, the UGC has decided that all the question papers for the test will be objective type.

Till now, two papers were objective and the third one subjective. This has led to delay in declaration of the results, sometimes forcing students to appear again.

Students had earlier expressed their unhappiness over evaluation in the subjective type paper.

Now, we will be able to declare the results much before next NET and to the satisfaction of students, Prakash said. The format will be applicable for the June 2012 exam and results will be announced by October before the next exam in December 2012.

Only those who clear the NET are eligible for junior research fellowship and for appointment in colleges and universities.

Sourced from: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/Know-how-you-fared-in-NET-instantly/Article1-786360.aspx

PM Declares 2012 as Natiional Mathematics Year

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday expressed concern that young minds with a natural ability for mathematics were not pursuing the disciple at an advanced level, resulting in a "decline in the quality of maths teachers at the school and college levels". In his inaugural speech at a function to mark the 125th birth anniversary of eminent mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, the Prime Minister said there was a "general perception that pursuit of maths does not lead to attractive career possibilities".

He declared 2012 as the National Mathematics Year and Dec 22, the day Ramanujan was born, as Mathematics Day.

"The mathematical community has the duty to find ways and means to address the shortage of top quality mathematicians in the country. It must reach out to the public, especially in the modern context where mathematics has tremendous influence on every kind of human endeavours," he said.

Sourced from: http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Chennai/Young-minds-not-pursuing-maths-PM/Article1-787270

Open Access to select publications from Springer

Hi,

Springer is providing Open Access to select publications at the following URL:
Open Access - Engineering

E-LEARNING Free English CDs for class 10 students

Mumbai: In a first-of-itskind move, the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education will distribute free elearning CDs with English textbooks for students of class 10. While in the first year, from June 2012, CDs will be available only with English textbooks designed for second and third languages, the board plans to extend the facility to other subjects in future.
The audio-visual CDs will not only have content from the textbook, but will also have the pronunciations of words with their meanings. “They will be aimed at helping students who find it difficult to learn and comprehend English,” said board chairman Ujjwala Patil.

Patil said that officials are also working on making available similar CDs for other subjects.

“Many firms have approached us with proposals on learning technologies. However, all come at a price. We cannot incur a huge expense. So we are looking at cheaper options. Several schools do not have laboratory facilities. Students are unable to conduct experiments or even see them. We are trying to make these experiments in science subjects available to the students. We plan to compile a list of useful links in sciences and social sciences and put them on our website for students,” Patil said.

This is the first time the board is planning to make use of technology on such a scale. From June 2012, information and communications technology will be introduced from class 10 and later to higher classes. Under the curriculum, the board intends to teach students how to create e-mail IDs and to send mails.

The curriculum guides you to create blogs and make use of online tools or Wikipedia. “The teacher training programme for information and communications technology (ICT) will begin from December 15. Teachers will come to training centres once a week and will be practising in their schools for the rest of the week,” said the chairman. The Maharashtra government is also working out ways to provide computers to every school in the state.
Source Times of India 12 December 2011