Contents

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Busting The Goa Myth

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3 4 5 9 10 13 14 19 16 17 18 23 22

Programmes offered at Goa Campus

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Dual Degree

Course Structure

Dual Degree / A Talk on IS and Goa Campus

6
Placements

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Campus Life

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Campus Fests
BITSAA NVC

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Waves/Quark/Spree

8
Getting High... Legally

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An evening with Lord Meghnad Desai Interview - Shantanu Garg

Hexapod Humanoid
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20
Hazy Eyed Memories

CIMA
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GSoC

Wikilive

21

2 | BITS HERALD | BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

Busting The GOA Myth

The Editorial

The mere name of our campusBITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campusleads to a multitude of questions. Post-BITSAT, most would know that BITS stands for Birla Institute of Technology and Science. Pilani happens to be a small hamlet in Rajasthan-on the educational map of India for being home to the countrys top private Engineering College, BITS Pilani, Pilani campus. In 2004, the BITS Pilani University expanded to include a second campus in Goa- a campus that pays tribute to our late Chancellor -renowned industrialist Dr. K.K Birla. This nomenclature being fully explained, readers will be in a place to digest more facts about the college itself.

academics here are top-class. Sincere students will always find the means to make great engineers and great citizens of themselvesa claim that has been strengthened by the achievements of the students of this campus.

Going back to the early history of our young campus, many in the 2004 batch chose Goa over Pilani owing to the proximity of Goa to their homes. And they were not disappointed. It seemed they had taken a big risk, but what they did instead was create a legacy. By 2007 BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus boasted of a first rate tuition and accommodation system, great campus life and three national-level college fests BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus while keeping intact the revered shares its academic structure Pilani image. with the 50-year-old BITS Pilani university, so its a given that the One aspect that assumes monu-

mental importance while discussing the credibility of BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus is that the institute boasts of an admission procedure that is completely meritbased. There isnt a single student here who does not belong here, who hasnt set his priorities right and worked hard to get here. As alumni from any premiere institute will tell you, the connections you forge in college will help you through the years. Other forums will tell you about our curfews and our security measures to keep the students safe. We aim to provide readers with an insiders view of BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus, dispel some of the common myths surrounding the campus and highlight some of our recent achievements.

BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus | BITS HERALD | 3

Programmes offered at Goa Campus

B.E. Programmes
B.E. (Hons.) Chemical B.E. (Hons.) Computer Science B.E. (Hons.) Electrical and Electronics B.E. (Hons.) Electronics and Instrumentation B.E. (Hons.) Mechanical

M.Sc. Programmes

M.Sc. (Hons.) Biological Sciences M.Sc. (Hons.) Chemistry M.Sc. (Hons.) Economics M.Sc. (Hons.) Mathematics M.Sc. (Hons.) Physics M.Sc. (Tech.) Information Systems (4 year Course)

4 | BITS HERALD | BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

Course Structure
BITS is one of the few Indian universities to provide a unique academic structure and flexibilities in the same inspired by the structure of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. The freshman year at BITS focuses on exposing one to Elementary Science courses and Introductory courses to certain domains of Engineering. Courses like Engineering Graphics and Workshop Practice introduce students to the basics of Mechanical Engineering, while Computer Programming courses equip students with knowledge of basic Structure Oriented Programming. The new curriculum introduced in the academic year 2011-12 focuses on branch specialization, while retaining the focus on soft skills and overall development. The number of Compulsory Disciplinary Courses (branch related courses) has increased. Besides the CDCs, the BITS academic infrastructure provides an array of Elective Courses -courses from various engineering, humanities, science and management fields to add versatility to a BITSians academic profile. For instance, the BITS system permits a Chemical Engineering student to pursue a fully fledged course in Cryptography, which is a disciplinary subject of Computer Science engineering.

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Course Structure

Dual Degree
The most popular (and often, least understood) of the flexibilities at BITS is the Dual Degree Course. BITS offers a MSc. (Hons.) in five disciplines- Biological Sciences, Chemistry, Economics, Maths and Physics. The rationale behind the Programme is to incentivise Academia and Research careers for the Science students. Under the Dual Degree Programme, a student receives admission into one of the five MSc. (Hons.) courses. At the end of the first year, Dualites apply for a B.E degree by giving their preference order for all B.E. degrees offered at their campus. On the basis of CGPA and preference order, the student receives admission into a B.E. programme. All Dualites are assured of receiving admission into a B.E. (Hons.) programme, except in rare cases where CGPA at the end of the first year is less than 4.5. Though the BITSAT score cutoffs for dual courses are usually lower than those for single degree courses, the Dualites are on par (sometimes even better off, courtesy an extra Masters degree) with single degree students in terms of academic structure and placements. A Dual Programme does not mean twice the number of courses/ working hours per semester. Rather, Dualites who have opted for a B.E. degree have a course structure spanning over 11 semesters (single degree students have 8), including a compulsory thesis semester. However, students may finish their degree in 10 semesters by taking up a summer term on campus.

To B.E. or not to B.E. ?

6 | BITS HERALD | BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

Harsha Konduri...
Speaks on IS and Goa Campus
The M.Sc. (Tech) Information Systems (IS) programme at BITS Pilani has always been a cause of major confusion amongst engineering aspirants. Questions on whether it constitutes an Engineering degree, industry recognition and its link with the Computer Science programme are bound to arise in applicants. We speak to Harsha Konduri of the 2004 IS Batch who has the answers to the questions on the recognition IS and the Goa Campus as well as the Placement scenario.

His Success Story

Harsha passed out of the Goa campus with a very average CGPA in 2007 and a host of non-technical electives, one of which (Supply Chain Management) that landed him a job at Oracle. Most of the 2004 Batch received amazing placements and PG admissions- putting an end to all doubts on the quality of the Goa campus. Harsha, has later gone on to create Vipashyin Labs, that has featured on Outlook Magazines list of 25 Start-ups under an investment of 10 lakh.

On taking up Information Systems

Harsha was eligible for a Dual Degree and Pilani and many Single Degrees in Goa. Why IS, one might ask? For him the decision was fairly simple. IS offers a programme fairly distinct from the others that focuses on various aspects of software engineering and programming. In terms of course structure, this focus is greater than that of the Computer Science B.E. programme. The placement record is just as good. After 5 years of experience in the industry, he assures us that the nomenclature of the degree does not make a difference, for jobs and college applications. Given all this, he is surprised at the low cut-offs for IS and cites lack of awareness among applicants as the major cause.

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Placements

Placements
Every BITS applicant will wonder about the Placement scene at the sister campuses of the revered Pilani campus. While there are talks of having centralized placements for all BITS campuses, the Goa campus has fared well on its own (despite being a relatively young campus). And with a dedicated Placement Unit ( a studentrun body that co-ordinates all aspects of the Placement process) in place, we witness the Placement scenario getting better with each passing semester.

BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus because the team there was very impressed with a Goa campus student who was at Yatra.com for his PS2, Vivek Jha, the former Placement Unit coordinator tells us.

Sought after companies like Yahoo Inc., Oracle and Morgan Stanley have been recruiting BITSGians for the last few years. While the most lucrative pay-packages are still received by Computer Science /Information Systems students; While we are yet to realize our candidates from other branches full potential in terms of Placefare well with branch-specific ments, whats reassuring is that Last semester, 48 companies came firms such as MRF, CEAT and Tata the graph has always displayed a to BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Cam- Motors (for Mechanical students) positive trend. With more compus, and 21 of these were first- and Nokia-Siemens, Deloitte and panies, fatter pay-checks and intime recruiters. Yatra.com visited Sun Microsystems (for Electronics creased recruitment, ****college campus for the first time and took students) recruiting from campus. name, whatever it may be**** 3 students (the most from any For a full list of past recruiter at continues to surpass itself on the campus so far, as told by them). BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus, Placements front. They decided to recruit from refer to the link below. http://www.bits-goa.ac.in/pu/PU/Resources/Past Recruiters List.pdf 8 | BITS HERALD | BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

Dualites are eligible to sit for placements in their fifth year when most of them are doing PS-2 in different cities, leaving a small window for visiting the campus for placements. Hence,Dualites rely on PPOs (Pre-placement offers) from their PS-2 stations. The last semester saw Dualites receiving cushy PPOs from the likes of Texas Instruments and Amazon.

Campus Life
The four years you spend at BITS will have a lot more than just academics and job interviews. With three top-notch festivals to host, we have a number of Departments to look into different aspects of each festival- be it overall control, Sponsorship &Marketing, Publicity, Arts & Decoration or Journalism & Media Affairs, amongst others. A majority of the undergrad population is involved in Department activities, which are headed by third-year students. Besides the Departments, a number of special-interest clubs function actively on campus- performing clubs such as the Dance Club, the Music Society, the Mime Club, and the Drama Club (which perform during the festivals and organize their own Nites) and the other bodies such as the Aerodynamics Club, the Quiz Club, the Electronics and Robotics Club, the Wall Street Society and the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership-to name a few. Students do find themselves missing home food, but the campus has no dearth of culinary options. Besides the two messes, we have the Institute Cafeteria (perfect for a quick breakfast in-between morning lectures), Monginis, Nescafe, Ice n Spice (snack,juices and shakes), Shahi Durbar (restaurant) and Gajalaxmi snacks (the Anda Pav shack). But man cannot live on bread alone, as the clich goes. We also have a well-stocked library with text-books, reference books and novels. And freshmen can buy almost everything they need at the campus Shopping Complex-buckets, mattresses, curtains, electric kettles, and toiletries. For the record, it is not true that the Goa campus has a private beach. But we do have a wonderful view of the Zuari river and the small, but beautiful Bogmalo beach less than fifteen minutes away. While most tourist beaches take over an hour to reach, Majorda and Utorda are relatively close to campus. The town of Vasco da BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus | BITS HERALD | 9 Gama is easily reachable by bus, while Panjim is a mere 45 minutes away by taxi. With a beautiful campus located in an even more beautiful state, youll be sure to have the time of your life here-whether youre organizing a fest, studying for exams or watching the Goan sun set over the Arabian sea.

Cultural Festival

Waves

Waves, our annual cultural festival, is one of the fastest growing cult fests of the country. From being an inter-hostel fest just six years ago, Waves has made a place for itself amongst the top 8 cultural festivals in the country, overhauling quite a few older and better established fests. It is one of the few fests in India that is entirely managed by students. Be it sponsorship, publicity, accommodation, special nights or events, we handle it all. With participants flocking in from all parts of the country, Waves has always witnessed an impressive footfall. The festival hosts a plethora of events spanning 7 categories including Dramatics, Dance, Fine Arts, Music, Literary, Quiz and the Big Four. In Waves 2011 SeaRock -a battle of the bands attracting some of the countrys best semi-professional bands- went national with eliminations in Pune, Bangalore, Delhi and Goa. Waves also includes a series of fun workshops organised by professionals- Canvas Shoe Painting, Stop Motion Photography, Cookery etc were extremely popular. The less artistically-inclined have the Adventure Zone with a Paintball Tournament, Real Angry Birds and Slip Soccer to look forward to. Events, Workshops and Informals aside, no cult fest is complete without a few kickass performances. Heavyweight performers like Kailash Kher, KK, Shafqat Amanat Ali, Parikrama, Thermal and a Quarter, Agam, Something Relevant, Blackstratblues and DJ Suketu have rocked the stage at previous editions of Waves. And we can assure you, Waves is going to get even bigger and better this year. As they say, Goa is the land of sun, sand and serenityand Waves.

10 | BITS HERALD | BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

Quark
Since its humble beginnings in 2006 as an intra-campus technical festival of our campus, QUARK has evolved to carve a niche for itself in the competitive tech fest circuit of the country. A completely student-organized festival , QUARK has witnessed how the brilliant young minds of our country make magic as they innovate in the competitive environment of a national level technical festival. QUARK attracts participation from premiere institutions from around the globe, including the IITs, NITs and our sister campuses. With events spanning over 9 technomanagerial categories, QUARK provides the opportunity to excel in the domain of your choice- be it Robotics, Science, Management or Programming. A technical festival with a social conscience, QUARK has been associated with a number of studentrun social and environmental initiatives such as Bhagirath and My Green Idea, the focus being on developing tech-based solutions to pertinent social issues. Besides events, project showcases and technical exhibitions; QUARK also witnesses festivities such as Aurora (the Guest Performances), the Techno-lounge and a wide variety of informal events such as Sumo Wrestling and Play Station gaming. Workshops organized by tech giants such as Microsoft, NVIDIA and Cypress Semiconductors have attracted large participation in previous editions of the festival. Associations with the likes of Dell, Mahindra Rise and Applied Materials have helped take the festival to new heights.

technical Festival

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Sports Festival

Spree

Sport is plebeian. But Pure Sport a la BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus is elegance. SPREE, the sports festival of BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus is one of the best in India. The festival is completely organized by the students, with different Departments for overall control, sponsorship, publicity etc. Commanding participation from all over the country, Spree showcases a plethora of diverse sporting talent from the college sports circuit. Spanning over four days in the first week of March, the festival is loaded with Events, Specials and Offbeats. The categories range from the old favourites like Frisbee and Tug of War, to innovative versions of sports like AntiChess and C-Pool. Yes, we have the good old traditional versions of cricket ,football, basketball, and badminton as well. The festival always stood out of the ordinary with past associations like Shadab Jakati, Swapnil Asnodkar and Krishnan Sasikiran. With world-class football and cricket grounds and a well-equipped Student Activity Centre coupled with the renowned Salgaocar Football Clubs association with the campus, Spree has set a mark for itself in the national sporting map, and has been moving from strength to strength ever since its inception.

12 | BITS HERALD | BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

AA

NV C
ew enture
NVC (New Venture Creation) is an innovative course at BITS, which was planned and created by BITSAA (BITS Alumni Affairs Division) in association with CEL (the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership). The course was designed with the idea of educating budding entrepreneurs in the BITS community about entrepreneurship and enabling them to start up in earnest. It involves all aspects of creating a business venture right from scratch. Student teams are required to come up with their own business plans and ideas for its execution, which involves addressing various issues involved in creating a startup. They receive guidance along the way in the form of lectures from various successful entrepreneurs, including the likes of Vinod Khosla (co-founder of

reation
at the Pilani Campus, 24 teams have graduated and there are already a few success stories to boast of- one of them being Framebench which won the Economic Times Power Ideas Competition. NVC no doubt serves as an ideal entry point into the world of entrepreneurship and business, along with the added bonus of brainstorming with some of the best minds from across the world.

Sun Microsystems) and Raju Reddy (founder and chairman of Sierra Atlantic). Students are also assigned an experienced mentor to guide them along the way. The top teams in the course will be awarded a seed fund to help them bring their business plan to life. The whole program is run in close coordination with another BITSAA venture called BITS Spark and the Hatch Fund- which provide pre-seed funding. BITS Spark maintains a network of entrepreneurs who can mentor and advise the participants. It also helps by providing angel funding to the student teams at a later stage when the course has been completed. NVC is starting this year at the Goa Campus with an already rich reputation in just its infant stages. In just 3 years

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An Evening with Lord Meghnad Desai

BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus witnessed an interactive session with the world renowned economist, author and British Labour Life Peer- Lord Meghnad Desai on 3rd April 2012. He addressed the staff and students at the campus auditorium, followed by an interactive Q/A session, sharing his perspective on everything from the Global economy to Indian politics to the Education System. Lord Meghnad Desai also granted DoJMA an interview, an excerpt of which follows.

Q: What was your inspiration and prime motive behind joining the Labour Party? A: Well, I was always for the left wing view and the socialist view of changing the world for the better. I wanted to improve the living conditions of ordinary people and try and provide for employment, low poverty, better welfare state and such social and democratic ideals. Even though I am much more pro-capitalist now, I still think those are good things to go for. But, it has to be done differently.

Q: BITS-Pilani has a unique dual degree system, wherein students pursue a Pure Science degree along with an engineering degree. From the point of view of an economics scholar, how valued is the one year where the Economics dualities students study pure economics subjects? A: Its very difficult to answer that question. It depends on what the individual wants to do. Probably, one year in a joint degree system is enough to earn an Economics degree. But to know how academics judge it, we need to know what the individual plans to do. One year spent in Economics would not allow you to do a graduate course in economics. Two years might be required. But, then again it depends on what you learn and how much you learn.

14 | BITS HERALD | BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

An Evening with Lord Meghnad Desai

Q: We have a club called CEL, which stands for Centre for Entrepreneurial Leadership, which promotes Entrepreneurship. As of now, the world seems to be pro-social Entrepreneurship. Would you say it is a fad? A: It will just come and go. Eventually, entrepreneurship is entrepreneurship and it means finding a gap in the market and filling it. Facebook is an entrepreneurial activity. Nobody knew there was a gap. But, it provided that gap. Entrepreneurship is about ideas. It is a mental activity with risk-taking. Paradoxically, although there is a lot more capitalism, people are shy to speak positively about it. They dont want to mention profit-making is a good thing. So they talk about social entrepreneurship. Q: How do you feel that the research and academia scene in India has changed from your time? A: There is much more research into academia now. But I feel far too much research is government-sponsored. There arent enough private-research foundations or funding, that are enough to sustain really good critical work. I feel most of the research centres are concentrated in Delhi, due to this reason.

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Quark Open Showcase

Student Project|Hexapod

Robotics enthusiasts at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus have always found plenty of avenues to showcase their projects through the ERC club at the IEEE chapter on campus. The Hexapod is one such project that has successfully leveraged campus avenues to make it big. The bot implements an algorithm for intelligent autonomous robot walking, and has received external sponsorship of upto 10 lac INR from the DRDO (The Defence Research and Devel-

opment Organization, Govt. Murarka ,Ninad Kulkarni , Aiof India), whos been taken nesh Bakshi, Salil Kapur and on as Contract Researchers. Kratarth Goel were a part of the team. The Hexapod project was born out of the enthusiasm The terrain parameter used of the ex-ERC Co-ordinator, by the Hexapod- a hexagonal Avinash Kumar (2008 Batch). projection of the geometry It started out as an ERC proj- of the configuration of the ect and the entire club was robot is something thats extremely supportive, while never been used before in the IEEE branch allowed us to this field, thus capturing the work in their lab, says Rohit interest of a premier instiSant, a part of the Hexapod tutes like the DRDO, Rohit team, Besides Avinash and tells us. myself, Varad Gunjal, Priyans

16 | BITS HERALD | BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

Quark Open Showcase

Student Project
Humanoid
Shatruddha Kushwaha (2008 Batch, BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus) had a dream. He wanted to make a humanoid which can interact with the world and learn things on its own. His motivation behind this project was the fact that it was a multi-disciplinary project, involving applications of Mechanical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science. Lack of external sponsorship did not deter Shatruddha from his goal. He obtained free samples of ICs and made his own circuit board to cut costs. He also saved money by making his own connecting bars and structure for the 25 actuators required, which would otherwise have cost him 50K INR plus 20K on customs duty . But as Shatruddha proudly tells us, No one can tell that the structure was hand-made by looking it. All this hard work did pay off. Saksham (yes, the robot has a name) can now stand on its own, walk and even mimic human actions! he exclaimed. Shatruddha showcased Saksham at the Open Showcase of Quark 2012, the technical festival of BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus and received rave reviews for his brilliant work. Shatruddha now has a team of 20 students from various branches working on the Humanoid Project and plans to mentor more students in the future. He has also worked on a tri-copter project aimed at aerial surveillance and photography. Here are some video links of Shatruddhas projects in action:

http://www.youtube.com/user/shatruddha/feed?filter=2

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The CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) Global Business Challenge 2012 (an international level Case Study competition) saw a team from BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus making it to the National finals the second time in a row. The BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus team (named Plan B) comprised of Akhila Mallavarapu, Raj Patel, Debajyoti Datta and Indu Rajeev, all from the 2010 batch.

Study report along with NMIMS. For the National Finals, the team made a video on CIMA from scratch, helped by Sai Phaltankar(2010 batch).The national finals took place soon after, at the JW Marriott, Delhi. Although the BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus team didnt qualify for the Global Finals, the experience, they tell us, is one they will always cherish. Through CIMA, we made some amazing friends and developed a great network with students from some Given the intense competition, then team was of Indias premiere institutions, says Akhila. skeptical about their chances of making it to the next round, much less the National Finals. We For the Most Popular Video award after the Naconcentrated on making the report as profes- tionals, the foursome had the entire college besional as possible and post-submission, forgot hind them, with people taking time out to like all about it. It was a wonderful surprise when we their video on Facebook in spite of exams. The qualified for the Western Zonals, says Akhila. immense support they received from BITSians The Western Region finals were held at the Hy- helped Plan B win closely against another CIMA att Regency in Mumbai, with 7 teams participat- team from IIT Delhi. ing. Plan B made it to the next round yet again, jointly winning a special prize for the Best Case

18 | BITS HERALD | BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

Interview

Shantanu Garg
Making the most of the opportunities available on campus and developing a strong network with fellow BITSians, is Shantanus advice to the next generation of BITSGians.

The BITS alumni network is as strong abroad as it is in India. I met a number of BITSians at Stanford, who constant guidance and support helped me make the most of my time there , says Shantanu Garg. Shantanu pursued his undergrad in Electronics and Instrumentation at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus, followed by a Masters degree in Management Sciences and Engineering from Stanford University. He plans to work in the US with the Boston Consulting Group as an Associate Consultant. The exposure I received at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus has helped me immensely. One of the advantages of being in a young campus is that you can carve your own path, you have the freedom to experiment; while on older campuses one is limited by a more rigid approach, he says. One of the founding members of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (one of the countrys leading Entrepreneurship cells) as well as two intra-campus student bodies( the Department of Sponsorship and Marketing and the Department of Creative Works, Shantanu has carved not one, but many paths for other BITSGians to follow.

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Getting High...Legally

The Aerodynamics Club of BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus is in a constant quest to defy gravity, all bounds of speed and manoeuvrability by continuously improving upon their designs. The club builds everything from acrobatic planes to pylon racers, from VTOLs to micro air vehicles. And theyre always on the lookout for more enthusiasts. Mr. Moss (a glider), YAK54 v1 (a tough to fly 3D plane with insane aerobatic tricks up its sleeve), Corostang (a scale down version of the P-51D sports flier Mustang), Spadet LC-40 (easy to fly box plane), Snoopylution (a biplane), a hovercraft, Tricopter V2.2 and SCAR (Sub-Coordis Aerial Raconteur- designed to equip new members with the basics) are just some of the crafts they made last year. Building around three to

four crafts every month, the club boasts of an impressive inventory of projects and models they have worked on. Aerial photography, videos and night time flying with LEDs on planes keep the members and non members alike perked up with greater expectations. The possibilities are endless, just like the sky which you fly in, says Sagar Bose, Club Coordinator. Just like a small gust of wind offsets the path of an airplane by humongous amount, every individual reading this is capable on his own, to bring up a storm of revolution and change, knowledge and understanding. With numerous projects to boast of, and a lot more on the landing approach, we plan to stay true to our motto for a long time to come. Get high legally!

20 | BITS HERALD | BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

We arrived at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus with mixed feelings. A sense of achievement at having made it, anticipation of living in Goa, and apprehension at the expected ragging But as we soon discovered, getting into college got you practically nowhere and ragging in BITS is a joke. And as for the beaches- if youve seen em one, youve seen em all. And so with our shattered illusions of college life we began our freshman year at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus. The desperation to be part of a club/department was evident with some 300 hopefuls turning up for inductions to the most popular institutions on campus. While some Departments took in a decent proportion of the inductees, only a handful of talented freshers managed to make it to the performing clubs. Post inductions, fresher parties and CSA elections as the initial excitement of campus life began to wear off; we were gripped by the Pre Waves fever. But Waves 10 came and went, leaving us with a few leftover cans of Cloud9, even fewer bars of Snickers. After five fests (lets not forget the inter-hostel Slam and Zephyr) and six exams spread over ten months, we finally have enough leisure to reflect over the last year. For the average BITSGian the year did not go by in a string of drunken orgies at Goan beaches, nor was it exactly productive. But freshman year at BITS is worth remembering for the friends made, nocturnal trips to the mess, pulling all nighters to avoid a D, the mad rush to Monginis after a boring lecture. With two more months of the holidays to go, Im already missing college. And despite the intimidating second year courses, hectic lab schedules and the added pressure of planning a career I find myself eagerly anticipating sophomore year at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus.

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WikiLive
The Wikipedia Live Search
One of the many student-run tech innovations at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus is Wikilive, a Wikipedia instant search engine. Developed by Deepanshu Mendiratta, a second year Chemical Engineering student, the website was developed as a solution to the necessity of browsing through a number of Wikipedia pages to obtain search-relevant data. With just 5 hours of coding, the website was ready to take off. Wikilive.in opens all probable Wikipedia pages as tabs allied to the search topic. For example if one types Sony, the site pops up tabs related to the Sony like Sony Corporation, Sony BMG, Sony Entertainment and so on. Sony Corporation being the closest query result, has its Wiki page displayed alongside the other tabs, explains Deepanshu.

The website owes its speedy searching to AJAX requests to connect to Wiki servers and fetching the required data. Since its release, some changes have been made to aid easier searching like direct searching through the web browser. If one wishes to search for Soccer he can directly type http://wikilive.in/#Soccer or http://wikilive.in/Soccer into the browser address bar. I sincerely hope budding programmers develop faster and better algorithms; and build entire codes rather than copy pasting portions of it from the net, even if they are available, says Deepanshu, the site developer. He also advises budding web developers to avoid free lancing during their initial years as it would limit their ability to experiment.
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Google Summer of Code is an annual program by Google Inc. that offers students pursuing higher studies a chance to code the summer away through various open source projects. Selected candidates are offered a stipend of 5000 US dollars. Since its inception in 2005 the program has steadily grown to have accepted 1,212 proposals in 2012. Out of the 1,212 proposals accepted worldwide BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus boasts of 17 students accepted at GSoc 2012. They will have a chance to work under the 180 open source organizations chosen by Google. To put things into perspective, 2011 saw 1,115 accepted proposals over 175 organizations. The most successful Indian college over the history of the competition and the third most successful worldwide of that year, IIT-Kharagpur, accounted for 14 of those. Such a performance in one of the worlds foremost Open Source Development programs reflects in the excellent placement records of its Computer Science department. Following are the students who got selected in the Google Summer of Code 2012 :
Mudit Raj Gupta Rajat Goyal Chetan Bansal Abhishek Ritisha L Debajyoti Datta Neil Dhruva Dhanajay Sathe P. Selvam Shivansh Srivastava Bhaavan Shruti Gupta Mayank Singh Rachee Singh Dhruva Tb Anant Kamath Jay Rambhia

BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus | BITS HERALD | 23

Department of Journalism And Media Affairs BITS, Pilani - K.K. Birla Goa Campus NH-17/B Zuarinagar, Goa - 403726

Radhika Parik Francis James Akshay Vikas Abhijith Asok Renuka Pai Anjali Srivastava Sakshi Pratap Vaibhav Bajaj Pranshu Gupta Bhavul Gauri Harsha Koneru Vishakha Gupta Harman Singh

Prasoon Mehta Ankit Sharma Nikita Raina Seerat Bindra Mohana Bhattacharya Anshul Jain Sanjukta Krishnagopal Soumya Chauhan Anurati Srivastva Deepankar Sharma Nikhil Khadilkar Chantal de Souza

Thanks to : DoPY(Special thanks to Sarath Menon)

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