World Book and Copyright Day 2012

By celebrating this Day throughout the world, UNESCO seeks to promote reading, publishing and the protection of intellectual property through copyright.
23 April is a symbolic date for world literature, since 23 April 1616 was the date of death of Cervantes, Shakespeare and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. 23 April is also the date of birth or death of other prominent authors such as Maurice Druon, K.Laxness, Vladimir Nabokov, Josep Pla and Manuel Mejía Vallejo.

Translation is the first step towards the rapprochement of peoples, and is also a decentralizing experience, teaching diversity and dialogue. Translation is one of the driving principles of our creative diversity, which enriches each language through contact with all the others. 

Irina Bokova, Director General
Message for World Book and Copyright Day 2012

This is why UNESCO chose this date to pay a worldwide tribute to books and their authors on this date, encouraging everyone, and in particular young people, to discover the pleasure of reading and to gain a renewed respect for the extraordinary contributions of those who have furthered the social and cultural progress of humanity.
The idea for this celebration originated in Catalonia (Spain) where it has become a tradition to give a rose as a gift for each book purchased.
The success of the World Book and Copyright Day will depend primarily on the support received from all parties concerned: authors, publishers, teachers, librarians, public and private institutions, humanitarian NGOs and the mass media.

Source: http://www.unesco.org

AICTE to power desi FB for tech students

AICTE to power desi FB for tech students
Himanshi Dhawan TNN

New Delhi: It’s our desi facebook. All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Microsoft have collaborated to host acommunication service that offers e-mail, instant messaging, Microsoft Office web apps, and 0GB inbox for 7.5 million engineering students and 5 lakh faculty members spread over 10,000 technical institutes across the country.
Live@edu — to be up and running in the next three months — will use cloud deployment to expand students’ access to highquality technical education. This will allow students to interact and share content both for work and social networking, and even initiate collaborative research projects.
HRD minister Kapil Sibal said, “This is an era of collaboration and we hope to empower 7.5 million students and 5 lakh teachers. It is the first project of its kind.’’ Live@edu will be a social networking site linked to its portal, allowing engineering students to interact with each other about their projects. It will also provide a communication and collaboration platform for both institutes and students.

Source: The Times of India dated 13/04/2012

Airtel's 4G service to be launched in Bangalore in 30 days

Airtel's 4G service to be launched in Bangalore in 30 days

PTI |Apr 11, 2012, 10.51AMIST

NEWDELHI:

Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it will be ready to launch 4G service in Bangalore

in the next 30 days.

"We will be ready for launching it (4G service) in Bangalore in 30 day s time. We have selected Huawei (as network equipment vendor) for Bangalore,"Bharti Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor told reporters during a conference call.

The company today announced launch of fourth generation (4G) telecom service using TD-LTE technology in Kolkata. It has selected Chinese telecom equipment company ZTE for providing technology and equipments for the service.

The company has not got approval to provide voice and sms service to users on 4G network, Kapoor said.

Airtel has selected Nokia Siemens Network for its launch in Maharashtra and is y et to finalise telecom equipment vendor for Punjab circle. Airtel has

selected Pune and Chandigarh to start 4G service in Maharashtra and Punjab respectively .

The company expects that consumer will get 10 times higher broadband speed compared to the speed that people get on 3G network.

"No one can tell exact speed that can be delivered on a wireless network because various factors govern it. However, we have seen data speed of around 1 .2 to 2 mbps on 3G network. The 4G data speed should be 10 times higher,"Kapoor said.

Bharti Airtel's President for Consumer Business K Srinivas said the network has potential to provide download speed of 100 megabits per second and the present speed can be upgraded based on the demand from market.

The company has announced 2 different USB dongles for accessing 4G service priced at Rs 7 ,7 50 and Rs 7 ,999 and three data plans ranging between Rs 999

and Rs 1 ,999.

The lesser priced device is meant for indoor access of the service while the higher priced dongle is for using broadband on the move.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Airtels-4G-service-to-be-launched-in-Bangalore-in-30-days/articleshow/12620049.cms

Project Glass

Google Glass revealed

By Joshua Ostrer in Sci/Tech | April 12, 2012 | Views: 116

On April 4, Google released a teaser video entitled “Project Glass: One day…” The video, which has already gained over 10 million views, showcases Google’s new product: Project Glass.

Project Glass is Google’s attempt at integrating your entire life with social media using their prototype glasses. The glasses, as shown in the video, employ the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in a transparent display in front of the user’s very eyes. Google intends to integrate Google Maps, Google+ and voice recognition technology to allow users to live their life through a Google-guide. “We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of the way when you don’t,” says the Project Glass Google+ page.

In the video, the wearer of the glasses is able to look outside and instantly check the weather and see his schedule for the day, respond to text messages he views through the glasses by voice, view step-by-step directions anywhere he wants to go and is able to take a photograph by simply commanding the headset to “take a photo of this” and instantly share it to his Google+ circles. The video concludes with the user sharing his own view with his girlfriend while overlooking a sunset. While the device has excited many users over its futuristic ability to essentially merge a smartphone with your own eyes, it has also stirred up a lot of controversy.

Google says that the glasses could be available for a late 2012 release, but others insist that the technology featured in the video is unrealistic and would not be available for another two years. “In one simple fake video, Google has created a level of over-hype and over-expectation that their hardware cannot possibly live up to,” said Director of the Augmented Environments Lab at Georgia Tech Blair MacIntyre.

Since the video’s release, a Google spokesperson has indicated that it is unlikely the glasses will be available by the end of 2012. However, the price of the glasses has been announced, and is expected to range from $250 to $600. Despite the technical debate of whether or not Google Glass is actually possible today, the glasses have sparked an argument about whether they are positive or negative project. Many have spoken up in opposition to a world where everyone who is wearing a computer is constantly aware of your personalized data and most likely feeding all of that information back to Google’s servers.

For more information regarding the development and release of Google Glass, go to the Google Glass Google+ page online or check out the preview through Youtube.

Source: http://www.concordy.com/article/science-and-technology/april-12-2012/google-glass-revealed/4398/

Active Users - March 2012

ACTIVE USERS OF THE LIRC

(Period: 01/03/2012 to 31/03/2012)

CATEGORY: STUDENTS

Sr. No.	Member	No. of transactions
1	MERIN SHAILA MANIDURAI PACKIALET	20
2	SAWANT SAISH UMAKANT SHRADDHA	20
3	ISHA D. SHAH	16
4	KOTIAN HARSHITA MOTILAL	16
5	PAIS NIGEL	16
6	DESAI GOURI S.	15
7	JHAWAR SHRIMOHAN	13
8	YOGESH PUSARLA	13
9	ROSE JOYCE JOSEPH	13
10	PAWAR VIVEK	12
11	YADAV JAGDISH H.	12

CATEGORY: FACULTY

Sr. No.	Member	No. of transactions
1	Asso. Prof. NAZNEEN ANSARI	10
2	Asst. Prof. PRACHI RAUT	10
3	Asso. Prof. BIDISHA ROY	05
4	Asst. Prof. NITIKA RAI	05

CATEGORY: NON-TEACHING STAFF

Sr. No.	Member	No. of transactions
1	Ms. YASHADA AGHARKAR (Lab. Asst. – ExTC)	02
2	Ms. SEEMA JADHAV (Lab. Asst. – ExTC)	02
3	Shri. AMANAT PATHAN	02

The above “Active Users” are entitled to one extra book till 30^th. April, 2012.

Typing A to Z in a blink

Breaking the records of Jayasimha, Mohammed Khursheed Hussain, Pothireddy Krishna Teja and Sridhar Raju, B V A Manoj Varma, a junior analyst at the Wordworks Apex ITES (India) Pvt Ltd set a new record.This confirmed his entry into the India Book of Records for typing all the 26 English alphabets in just 2.16 seconds without any space in between the letters, and 3.90 seconds with space between the letters.However, he has his dreams, set high.A native of West Godavari district, BVA Manoj Varma Penmetsa pursued his masters in computer applications from Karimnagar and is also an expert with the lower hand in typewriting.“I have been practicing this for almost two years and it is my dream is to become a Guinness World Record holder.” His stint at the India Book of records, Varma says, is his first step to the Guinness Books of Records.“Two years ago, when I saw Jayasimha breaking the world record, I have been working on it. And this is very important to me as people get recognised for their talents in different fields and being one among them would be a great feeling.”Evidently excited Manoj, flanked by his friends and teachers cheering him up, did have to struggle a bit with the second task where he had to type each letter with a space.And he was successful after quite some attempts.He used a Dell key board for typing the alphabets without space, while he used a Logitech one for typing with space.He says, “The type of keys on the keyboard are very important and spacing your fingers between them is also vital. Keys on laptops are surely placed close to each other, but are really soft, hence they reduce the speed of typing.”Guests who were judging this attempt were DSP G Nageshwar Rao, Krishnaiah Goud, dept of commerce, AV College and R Ramchandhar Rao, head master, ZPHS, Miyapur
Source: http://ibnlive.in.com/news/typing-a-to-z-in-a-blink/243453-60-121.html

First cancer encyclopedia ups hope for new drugs

London: The first “book of cancer knowledge” detailing how hundreds of cancer cells respond to anti-cancer agents has been published, which scientists say will speed up the search for new cancer drugs.
The cancer “encyclopedia” is a step towards tailoring cancer medicine to a patient’s genetic profile.
In the field of cancer research, scientists have so far grown a number of cancer cells in the lab that allowed them to study the effect of new cancer drugs on humans. Now, a team at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute near Cambridge and various cancer institutes around the world have released two papers cataloguing data on hundreds of cancer cell lines, the BBC reported.
The team screened more than 600 cancer cell lines with 130 drugs, identifying genetic signatures linked with drug sensitivity. Already clues are emerging that could be of benefit to patients, including the discovery that a rare bone cancer in children.
Mathew Garnett of the Sanger Institute, lead author of one paper, said, “It’s bringing together very large and powerful data sets and asking which cell line is the most sensitive and what is behind that sensitivity.” PTI
Source: Times of India dated 30 March 2012

Scholar's Card Facility now available

First three toppers of the odd semester examinations from FE to BE are requested to avail the Scholar's Card Facility. Kindly contact the library for more details.

SFIT - IRIS 2012 TIME CAPSULE

Time capsule planned at Borivli college fest

TNN Feb 24, 2012, 03.03AM IST

Tags:

• 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

Library Membership Cards - Permanent

Students of First Year and Direct Second Year (enrolled in July to September 2011) are requested to contact the LIRC for permanent library cards with the following:
Three (3) stamp-size photos (Size: 1.7 cms x 1.7 cms)
One (1) pass-port size photo
You are also requested to fill-up the Library Membership Form available with the LIRC.

LIRC timings on 16th and 19th December 2011

The LIRC would be open between 10.00 am to 6.00 pm on 16th and 19th December 2011.

Active Users of the LIRC - November 2011

ACTIVE USERS OF THE LIRC

(Period: 01/11/2011 to 30/11/2011)

CATEGORY: STUDENTS*

Sr. No.	Member	No. of transactions
1	ISHA D. SHAH	22
2	SHETTY DHEERAJ MUDDHU	16
3	YADAV JAGDISH H.	14
4	NACHIKET VIJAY AYIR	13
5	NIKHIT BHALACHANDRA SANKHE	13
6	HEGDE SHREYA DAYANAND	12
7	SAWANT SAISH UMAKANT SHRADDHA	12
8	SMRITI DEEPAK PARWANI	12
9	SHANU PRAKASH SALUNKE	12
10	NIDHI D.PANCHAL	12

CATEGORY: FACULTY**

Sr. No.	Member	No. of transactions
1	Asst. Prof. SANTOSH CHAPANERI	19
3	Asst. Prof. VINCY ELIZABETH	07

CATEGORY: NON-TEACHING**

Sr. No.	Member	No. of transactions
1	Ms. VRISHALI JADHAV	05
2	Shri. JOHNSON PEN	02

*Students are entitled to one extra card which will be valid till December 31, 2011.

**Faculty and non-teaching staff members are entitled to borrow one extra book till December 31, 2011.

Edublog Award Nominations

Its time again for the Edublog Awards. These awards are one of finest and efficient initiatives to promote the use of social networking platforms for educational purposes.

I, being a Librarian, am much into reading and evaluating (for self study) library-related blogs. I would like to suggest the following blog under the category of Best Librarian / Library Blog:

http://sfitlibrary.blogspot.com

Active Users of LIRC - October

The following Active LIRC Users are entitled to one extra library card till November 30, 2011.
Category: Students
No. of transactions = 19
ISHA D. SHAH
SANGHAVI NIKUNJ

No. of transactions = 13
SHETTY DHEERAJ MUDDHU

No. of transactions = 10
DAWARE TUSHAR
FERNANDES SONIA
MERIN SHAILA
GOMES SNEAL
SHANU SALUNKE
SAWANT SAISH

No. of transactions = 9

ALMEIDA DONILA DOMINIC
LEWIS WORRELL RICHARD
SMRITI DEEPAK PARWANI
SURAJ PRADEEP KUMAR SINGH
RUSSEL ROBIN GONSALVES
JHA SHANKAR

No. of transactions = 8

DALE ASHNA MARTIS
TUSCANO MACQUINA GONSALO
TANYA JAMES
SHUKLA SANTOSH RAMMURTI
SHIRWAIKAR PUSHKAR GURUPRASAD
SANIA LINUS GONSALVES
ROSE JOYCE JOSEPH
ROGER D D'MELLO
RODRIGUES OLIVIA
MITHIL VASANI
NIKHIT BHALACHANDRA SANKHE
RAMACHANDRA PAI
REBECCA ALMEIDA
RAMNIKLAL MOTA
FERNANDES MERWYN
The following Active LIRC Users are entitled to one extra library book till November 30, 2011.
Category: Faculty
No. of transactions = 4
Asst. Prof. Nidhi Gaur
No. of transactions = 3
Asst. Prof. Prachi Raut
Asst. Prof. Minal Lopes
Asst. Prof. Baby Sushma

Category: Non-Teaching
Lab. Asst. Meenakshi Surve