Semester V of Computer Science

Ah. Another semester gone by and another treasure trove of knowledge discovered and assimilated.
This was semester V and what a semester it was. We finally dove right into core Computer Science and Engineering with the following awesome sujects:

• Algorithm Analysis and Design
• Microprocessor Interfacing Techniques
• Principles of Programming Languages
• Computer Networks
• Computer Graphics

Truly great subjects for a Computer Science major to undertake. So let’s dissect them and see what it meant to study these topics.

1. Principles Of Programming Languages
A subject which involves the study of various programming paradigms so that one understands what are the benefits of the multitude of features being introduced in Programming Languages on a daily basis, so that we can understand the motivation behind it as well as better use it in our program design. Sadly, marred by not-so-good teachers who decided they would teach us C++ and Prolog programming rather than cool concepts like the Liskov Substitution Principle.

2. Microprocessor Interfacing Techniques
A fundamental and challenging subject, it made us truly think about the Simplicity vs. Efficiency Model of programming. Learning about the underlying hardware that controls our machines and lets you see this text here, was simply great. Read about the PS3 Cell Broadband Engine after taking this course and found that I was really able to understand all the hardware jargon on the page. All in all, 8085 and 8086 coding was FUN!

3. Computer Networks
A genuine rote subject made interesting by the fervour and enthusiasm of the faculty, this subject stands as a fine example of how great education can be undertaken provided the teacher has the motivation for it. Initially not a fan of Computer Networks due to the mugging tendency of the subject, was thrilled to see how succinctly all the various protocols and their algorithms were presented in a manner that was perfectly logical. Doubts were effortlessly quelled and the various abstractions used just made the learning curve gentler. Coupled with some great laboratory sessions (the teacher actually wanted to do a lot more), this subject became one of my learning high-points this semester.

4. Computer Graphics
A subject with a bad reputation for having outdated curriculum, I took it because the faculty in charge of it was going to revamp the topics and introduce us to OpenGL. Started great, awesome practical submissions and fun classes. Got a little drab in the middle because of redundant topics like Matrices and Vector Geometry as these had already been taught in High-School Maths. In the end, it was a good introductory class to the magical world of Computer Graphics.

5. Algorithm Analysis and Design
Saved the best for the last. My favourite subject of the semester as it coupled pure Computer Science and Mathematics to form a foundation for Computing everywhere. I already had good algorithm skills thanks to all those hours poured in Project Euler and UVa Toolkit, but this course really cleared my head and gave me the tools to really understand just what the heck I was coming up with. Intuitive solutions were given names and ideas were presented as theorems. Various problem-solving approaches helped me understand how to better analyze and tackle problems and applications were given as much importance as the concepts themselves. Someone once famously sayed, “To be a great coder, you can either write codes for ten years or take a semester-worth course on Algorithms”. Guess I saved myself 9 years of pain. 😛

Thus, great semester, lots of nice topics, finally got some Computer Science and Engineering done. Let’s hope the new semester is as much enthralling as this one.

Eviva!

Soothsayer

I and a bunch of guys at my college decided to take part in the Atos IT Challenge and try to win ourselves a trip to the UK for the 2012 London Olympics, the theme being Smart Mobility.

Our college was one of the lucky ones to have been selected to participate in this contest and I can see the competition from my institute itself, if not the entire world, is pretty nerve-wracking.

My team consists of Arth “Vyarth” Patel, Nimit “Lame-it” Shah, Sunny “Not Funny” Shah, Jigar “The Dafda” Dafda and Yours truly.

Having vetoed the original idea for a mobile disaster management system, I suggested a smart app that can mine and learn from the User’s history, match that with the current trends in the world and filter it with his/her geo-location to give the User some truly meaningful information that is highly relevant to their current situation, with all the data-crunching taking place on the Cloud.

This competition gives us a great opportunity to learn about a new field, Mobile Computing, a new platform, and also a chance to practice some of the AI techniques we’ve picked up in the past few months. But the biggest plan is to possibly Patent our idea. That would be TOTALLY COOL :-D.

Our idea page is here. If you liked our idea, please don’t hesitate to click on the FaceBook Like Button.

Now let’s hope the judges deem our idea worthy of selection so we can make it into the next round and begin the development stage.

Eviva!

Cloud Conclave 2011

The weekend of 18-20th November was awesome!!! I had taken part in this contest called “What’s Your Cloud Idea” conducted by Amazon (Yes, the Amazon.com Amazon) and YourStory.in. The contest was for students from all over India and it involved coming up with an innovative idea to use Cloud Computing. Now being a Computer Science Major, I took part and even though the idea was pretty lame in my eyes, apparently, the guys at Amazon loved it and I was thus invited to Cloud Conclave 2011 at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore where I was to be felicitated by the CTO of Amazon, Dr. Werner Vogels himself! 😀

Now for why the weekend was awesome. For starters, this was going to be my first technical conference ever since I started College . Secondly, I was travelling to a place which was more than 1000 kms away from my current location, all alone. And finally, I was going to meet my cousin brother Shobhit (who’s studying in IIM-B) and some of my friends from college who were working in Bangalore.

The journey was brilliant! I had to skip a day of college in order to make it there. I caught a train on the eve of the 17th and was at home in Mumbai by nightfall. Next day, frantic packing and prep for the flight to Bangalore. By 1:00, I was at the domestic terminal, making my way to security check, and enjoying every moment of it! The flight was full of people who looked like they were returning from some form of business meeting. Heck, even the guy on the seat next to mine was working on his laptop before take-off (I am suspicious he worked for Renault).

I made it to Bangalore by around 5. Thanks to my father, a vehicle and accommodation had been arranged for. And thank God for that! Bangalore is a complete and utter mess when it comes to traffic. It took me a good 2 hours just to cover 20-25 kms!!

The climate was great however. It was pleasantly cool and seeing the tech capital of India was an adventure in itself.

Now about Cloud Conclave: The morning before it started, I met up with an old friend, Sanchit Suman and we had lunch together at KFC and relived the old times we had when we were both in college. After that, I picked up a great senior and friend, Prakhar Gupta (who is an engineer at Microsoft!), and we made our way to the Conference.

We made it to IIM-B with plenty of time to spare and I was awestruck at its beautiful campus. I rang up my brother and met up with him. He was kind of busy due to an Alumni meet, and thus asked to call him after I was done. We made our way to the Auditorium, where tonnes of others in suits were registering themselves. After a little chat with one of them, turns out most of the people there were professionals and I was seemingly the youngest there.

The conference started late (Dr. Werner was stuck at traffic :–P), but once it did, it was really brilliant! The keynotes by Dr. Werner and Dr. Vaidya Nathan really showed us how leveraging Cloud Computing could really carry forward our projects and businesses, how we could minimize error costs and how Cloud provided a level of ease in scaling and security that was tough to achieve anywhere else. The Q&A was the best part as the crowd asked some really interesting questions which were answered adeptly by Dr. Werner, Dr. Nathan and Shailendra Singh of Sequoia Capitals. Really informative and mind-expanding stuff here!! Here‘s a great piece that summarizes the keynote in a very crisp manner.

Finally, once it was over, I met Rutayan Patro and Tapan Deka, more friends from college and with brother Shobhit, we went for a guided tour of the campus where one of my favourite movies, “3 Idiots” was shot. We took some great snaps at the landmarks of the institute and had a great little evening walk.

Finally, the day had come to an end. We bid our goodbyes, promised to do something like this again, and made our way to our respective destinations.

The next morning was again frantic, in the sense that I had an 8:00 flight, so I had to leave the guest house by 6:30. Left in time, made it on time, boarded my flight, reached home, caught the evening train to Surat, and was greeted with cheers from my friends!

The weekend really was one of the best! 😀

P.s. For more about my idea, please go here.