NEWSLETTER
A
House Journal of
IEEE
Kerala Section
Volume
14 Number 1
January
- March 2006
Contents
Chairman's Message
Dairy of Events
Forthcoming Events
Revised Code of Ethics
Student's Activities
Melange 2006
IEEE Kerala Section Year 2006
Global News
Editorial
Free and Open Source Software
Home-made Cell Phones
Dear Professionals:
This is the first newsletter published since the new team of office bearers took charge of the section’s activities this year. . On behalf of the team, I thank you all for your confidence shown in us. I solicit your support and cooperation in all the activities of the section.
The year 2006 has started off on a very encouraging note to our section. The service and achievements of our section volunteers is getting recognition at international level. Our former Chairman Mr. K.G Satheesh Kumar has been adjudged the “2005 R10 Outstanding Volunteer”. He was selected for this coveted award based on his contribution to the IEEE in various capacities. Jyoti Ramasamy has been nominated for the post of Chair of the IEEE 2007 Women In Engineering Committee. Our student members are in lime light with their achievements and recognitions. Let us all join in congratulating these members for the honour they have brought to our section.
As you are aware, IEEE Kerala Section has been selected for “Distinguish Large Section Award” for the year 2005. All these achievements have brought in very good visibility to the section in the international arena. All what we have achieved in our section are due to the team work and voluntary service rendered by the members. IEEE, the largest professional body in the world thrives on such volunteerism. I urge you to keep up the momentum by increasing the participation level of all the members in the activities of the section.
We have members from all over the state; we need to enhance our communication means. This is required for increasing the participation level of members. As you may be aware we have an e-group for this. In case you are not already a member, I request you to join this e-group as a first step towards this. Link for this is available at the Kerala Section Website http://www.ieee.org/kerala). We need to rejuvenate this forum so that we can freely exchange our thoughts and ideas related to the section’s activities.
Let us work together to take our section to greater heights.
Yours Sincerely,
Unnikrishnan A.K
Chairman,
Kerala IEEE Section
| 04-01-2006 | Talk on ‘A ir Craft Accident Investigation’ at IE hall, Tvpm. |
06-01-2006 |
Talk on ‘Managing Cultural Diversity’ at IE hall, Tvpm. |
| 07-01-2006 |
A workshop on “Applying Systems Thinking to Traffic Management” – at Hotel Muthoot Plaza, Tvpm. |
| 07-01-2006 |
AGM of IEEE Kerala Section at Hotel Muthoot Plaza, Tvpm. |
| 18-01-2006 |
Talk on ‘Power From Sea Waves - The Indian Experiments Part-I’ at IE hall, Tvpm. |
| 20-01-2006 | Linux Workshop at FISAT by S B, classes by Amarnath Raja, InApp, Tvpm |
| 25-01-2006 |
Talk on ‘Sustainable Development of India 2020 - Technology Choices and Issues’ at IE hall, Tvpm. |
| 28-01-2006 |
DL Programme ‘Synchronization in Digital Telecommunication Networks’ organized by Communication Society Chapter of IEEE Kerala Section at Hotel Woods Mazor, Cochin. |
| 30-01-2006 |
MATLAB workshop by FISAT SB, classes by Rajesh of Model Engg College. |
| 31-01-2006 | DL Programme DL Programme ‘Synchronization in Digital Telecommunication Networks’ organized by Communication Society Chapter of IEEE Kerala Section at Amphi Theatre, CDAC, Tvpm. |
| 01-02-2006 | Talk on ‘Micro Air Vehicles’ at IE hall, Tvpm. |
| 04-02-2006 |
One day workshop on GD, Personal Interview and Resume Writing at CUSAT |
| 08-02-2006 |
Talk on ‘Computational Fluid Dynamics and High Performance Computing’ at IE Hall, Tvpm. |
| 10-02-2006 |
Modeling 2006 – A Seminar on ‘The IASA Foundation Reference and Taxonomy of IT Architecture’ at Travancore Hall Technopark, Tvpm. Speaker: Richard Hubert, IASA Director of Edn., and Director European Region, Organized by IEEE Computer Society of Kerala Section and ADA Software Group. |
| 11-02-2006 | A session on GRE and CAT Preparation at CUSAT |
| 11-02-2006 | Distinguished lecture program at CUSAT – talk by Vijai Bhutt, Intel Technology India Ltd |
| 15-02-2006 | Talk on ‘Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Principles, Overview and Application’ at IE hall, Tvpm. |
| 22-02-2006 | Talk on ‘Einstein - A I See Him’ at IE hall, Tvpm. |
| 24-02-2006 | PSPICE Workshop at FISAT, handled by Geetha, SC of NSS Engg College, Palakkad. |
| 28-02-2006 | Lecture on Neural Network at FISAT, handled by Parvathi, Lecturer, FISAT. |
| 28-02-2006 | Talk on Nanoelectronics at CUSAT |
| 01-03-2006 | Talk on ‘Knowledge Process Outsourcing - A Golden Opportunity for Indian Experts, at IE hall, Tvpm. |
| 04-03-2006 | All India Seminar on ‘Safety of Electrical Installations”, organized at NIT, Calicut. |
| 04-03-2006 | Student’s awareness program at CUSAT – talk by Jacob Iype of US Technologies and Jyothi Ramaswamy of TCS |
| 08-03-2006 | Talk on ‘Reducing The Distance To Technological Frontiers’ at IE hall, Tvpm. |
09-03-2006 10-03-2006 |
‘Hacking Workshop’ at FISAT by Pramod and Shakthikannan, Hexaware, Chennai. |
| 25-03-2006 | A workshop at CUSAT on ‘ESD in Micro-electronics’- Resource person M.K Radhakrishnan, IEEE ESD Distinguished Lecturer, Founder & CEO of Nanorel, Singapore. |
25-03-2006 to 25-03-2006 |
All Kerala Student Congress hosted by MES College of Engineering, Kuttipuram. |
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Forthcoming Events
|
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|
April 2006 |
Distinguished Lecture Program – talk by Kevin D’Souza at CUSAT. |
| 29-04-2006 |
EC Meeting of IEEE Kerala Section. |
| 16 to 18 -08-2006 | 4th International IEEE Conference on Industrial Informatics (INDIN'06) at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel, Singapore. http://www.simtech.a-star.edu.sg/indin2006. |
| 11 to14 -02-2007 | ‘The Challenges of Distributed Systems’, a conference by Information, Decision and Control (IDC) at Adelaide, Australia. |
We, the members of the IEEE, in recognition of the importance of our technologies in affecting the quality of life throughout the world, and in accepting a personal obligation to our profession, its members and the communities we serve, do hereby commit ourselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct and agree:
1. to accept responsibility in making decisions consistent with the safety, health and welfare of the public, and to disclose promptly factors that might endanger the public or the environment;
2. to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest whenever possible, and to disclose them to affected parties when they do exist;
3. to be honest and realistic in stating claims or estimates based on available data;
4. to reject bribery in all its forms;
5. to improve the understanding of technology, its appropriate application, and potential consequences;
6. to maintain and improve our technical competence and to undertake technological tasks for others only if qualified by training or experience, or after full disclosure of pertinent limitations;
7. to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others;
8. to treat fairly all persons regardless of such factors as race, religion, gender, disability, age, or national origin;
9. to avoid injuring others, their property, reputation, or employment by false or malicious action;
10. to assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and to support them in following this code of ethics.
( Approved by the IEEE Board of Directors, February 2006 )
IEEE Student Branch Activities
NIT CALICUT
FOSS@NITC – 2006
The second edition of FOSS (A meet on Free and Open Source Software) had 10 talks and 2 workshops and other interactive sessions. The meet was held in the campus on 18th-19th March. More than 200 student delegates attended the two-day event. Following software professionals and open source software developers were part of FOSS 2006. The event was sponsored by TCS, Thiruvananthapuram and SPACE (Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment) was the partner in organizing this meet.
* Arun M Foss --- FOSS in Society
* Gopal Vijayraghavan --- DotGNU / Mozilla Hack
* Kalyan Varma --- Network Security
* Philip Tellis --- Education/Creative Commons
* Praveen and Dilip --- Debian Workshop
* Premshree Pillai --- Ruby
* Sarath Lakshman --- Live CD Workshop
* Shreekumar --- Game Programming (Quake 3)
* Shreyas Srinivasan --- GNOME Hack
* Pradeepto K Bhattacharya --- KDE Development
* Shyam Mani ---Gentoo Developer
* Aanjhan R --- Embedded Linux, EDA/VLSI tools
* Kushal Das --- Fedora BOF
Talks & Seminars
Strained Silicon Technology
Deleep R Nair, currently working with Device Design Group, IBM Microelectronics (NY,USA) and alumni of REC Calicut, spoke about sub-65nm silicon technology in this interactive session on 2nd January.
Introduction to Matlab
Dr. Abraham T Mathew, Assistant Professor, NITC gave a live demonstration of several features and tool boxes in MATLAB. The session will be having continuation sessions covering the toolboxes in greater detail.
GUI Programming & Python
Varghese Mathew, Ajay G and Haynes Mathew, final year CSE students at NITC conducted this workshop on Python Programming. This workshop was conducted under Student2Student Series on 20th February.
Where Technology Meets Marketing
Saji Nair from IIM Lucknow conducted this session based on theme of Technology Management, a very pertinent for current generation of engineering students. The speaker presented interesting case studies to the students. The talk also had discussion on standard models of Marketing Management.
Project Report Writing with Latex
GP Sajeev, Lecturer at GEC Kozhikode, conducted this talk for final year BTech and MTech students. The session proved to be guidance for writing thesis reports, conference & journal papers according to standard templates and IEEE formats.
Global Opportunities for Indian Professionals
Kaushik V, Head of IMS International Learning Sources, spoke about the various career opportunities for Indian engineers in the global scenario. The speaker shared his international experience in an interactive post-talk discussion with students. Topics like entrepreneurship and career planning were discussed in this session.
M G University College of Engineering, Thodupuzha
The IEEE Student branch of the M.G University College of Engineering was formally inaugurated on 29th September 2004. The Chief Guest for the occasion was the then IEEE Kerala Section Chairman E.E Rajkumar, Group Director (Computer and Information Group) at VSSC, Thiruvananthapuram. K N Premkumar, Regional Manager, Reliance Infocom , also a senior IEEE Member, was the Guest of Honor. Today the IEEE Student branch at the M.G University College of Engineering is entering its 3rd year and has left behind a great track record of activities over the last two years.
Starting in 2004 the IEEE Student Branch of the M.G University College of Engineering has organized and conducted many seminars and workshops to generate awareness and spread the latest word from the world of Technology among the students of the college.
In March 2005, we organized and conducted the first Mélange, an all Kerala intercollegiate event which saw participation from over 25 colleges in the state and more than 100 participants. Mélange was started as an annual event to be conducted every year by the Student Branch.
From the months of April to December 2005, the student branch members met regularly and organized many events within the college. Mock GDs and Debates and discussions on the latest technologies were conducted regularly and saw good participation not just from IEEE members but also non-members.
The Website of our IEEE Student Branch, www.ieee.org/uce was revised in June 2005 and re-designed. It now provides a wealth of information regarding our branch and its activities. It is being constantly maintained by a dedicated team of volunteers and continues as one of the unique achievements of our Student Branch.
In September 2005 we instituted a unique IEEE Student branch Newsletter – “TechVeda”. Tech Veda, an honest and genuine attempt at bridging the gap between the curriculum and the cutting edge of technology is a novel venture of the IEEE Student Branch of the College. A new edition of TechVeda has been published on the 10th of every month since September 2005 and it has become a great success. TechVeda is distributed freely among all IEEE members and is made available to all non-members for a nominal subscription fee. The secret of its resounding success is the fact that TechVeda is a medium for students to contribute and also learn from at the same time. Today we have an annual subscription of TechVeda exceeding 50 that number is on a steady rise. We hope to continue our efforts and take this venture to new heights through our activities in the coming years.
In October 2005 we held “Masterminds” an intra-collegiate Quiz program, which included participation from all semesters and branches in the college.
The other major development in the year 2005, our student branch has become more active in its interaction with the section and other student branches in Kerala. Our volunteers were present and participated and helped to organize various programs including the Annual General Meet of the IEEE Kerala Section, at Thirurivandrum.
We have taken a strong step forward in interacting with other IEEE student branches and spreading awareness about IEEE in neighboring Engineering colleges to form student branches. Our volunteers have shown active participation in LINK and Mentors of Kerala.
Current year’s proposals:
Melange 2006 - the one event that every member of IEEE in UCE looks forward to with great anticipation and slight trepidation is the showcase of the activities of our student branch. This year we have been very successful in organizing the event and have been honored by a major sponsorship from TCS - Tata Consultancy Services.
In addition to this, in the coming months we plan to start at least one IEEE affinity group in the college and conduct more outreach and awareness programs. We also plan to conduct a series of talks, seminars and workshops, bringing the advantages of IEEE to its members in UCE.
( Reported by: Kuriakose Rajan, Secretary, IEEE Student Branch)
FISAT
The programs conducted from January 2006 to March 20, 2006 are as follows:
1. The IEEE Student Branch FISAT conducted LINUX Workshop on 20-01- 2006 for benefit of S1 & S4 students. Amarnath Raja, CEO, InApp, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram handled the class.
2. FISAT hosted the Mentors of Kerala Meeting on 28th January. About 11 Colleges attended the MOK.
3. For S6 students BASIC MATLAB workshop was arranged on 30-01-2006, handled by Rajesh, Professor of Model Engineering College.
4. On 24–02-2006 a PSPICE WORKSHOP was arranged for the benefit of S6 students and was handled by the Geetha, Branch Counselor NSS College Of Engineering, Palakkad.
5. A Lecture was arranged on 28-02-2006 on Neural Networks. It was handled by Parvathy, Lecturer, Electronics & Instrumentation, FISAT.
6. On 09 & 10-03-2006 a South India Level Hacking Workshop conducted by IEEE SB, FISAT in association with ‘Bharatham 2006’. Pramod and Shakthikannan from Hexaware, Chennai handled the sessions.
7. Future Activities (for the current Semester)
*Astronomy Workshop
*How To Tackle GDs and Interviews
*Talk on Signal and Systems
*Application of DSP
CUSAT
Summary of the programmes organized during the first quarter of the current year by CUSAT student branch is given below:
Event 1: A One Day Session on Group Discussion, Personal Interview and Resume
Writing Skills on 4th February 2006. Resource Persons: K.J. Jayanth, Marketing Manager, IMS Cochin and Captain Alexander Francis. Student Feedback: nearly 50 students attended the session. They gave a very positive feedback. The highlight of the session was on the spot GD and PI rounds. This went down very well with the students. They were very appreciative of the hard work put in by both the resource persons in making the rounds eventful. Students from Cochin University College of Engineering, Kuttanad, also attended the session and went satisfied with the day’s proceedings.
Event 2: A two-hour session on GRE, CAT preparation etc on 11th February 2006.
Resource Persons: Somlata Gopalakrishnan, Centre Manager, IMS Cochin and K.J.Jayanth, Marketing Manager, IMS Cochin. Student Feedback: The students had a very informative session on GRE and CAT preparation.
Event 3: IEEE Student Branch Distinguished Lecture Program on 11th February, 2006.
Resource Person: Vijay Bhat, Senior Chip Design Engineer, Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd., Banaglore, India. Student Feedback: This was a technical lecture on “Chip Design” and it was well received by the students.
College Of Engineering, Chengannur
Hardware Familiarization Workshop
Anoop K J and Pramod P, third year student members of the branch conducted a hardware familiarization workshop for the first year students on 24th and 25th of October 2005. The session on the first day included component familiarization with the help of an open CPU. All the internal components were shown and assembling procedure was demonstrated to the students. On the second day a detailed explanation of computer hardware using a power point presentation. Nearly 64 students attended the workshop. The event had an excellent feedback and all participants benefited from the event.
MATLAB workshop
Rajesh M P, senior lecturer in electronics from Model Engineering College conducted a MATLAB workshop for third years on 21st & 22nd of January 2006. The session extended from morning 10am to 5pm. He began the class with a general description about MATLAB. Then he brought up simple operations, their syntaxes. Matrix calculations were then taught. In the after noon he introduced the concepts of plotting graphs etc. he also taught to create bit-map images from matrixes. The class ended with a simple introduction to Simulink.
Personality Development Class
Cherian Varghese, a specialist in handling personality developments spent around three hours interacting with the students. 28 first year students attended the session. The programme was named “The Winning Edge”. He started the session by dividing the students into four groups and was given various tasks that showed up the need to work as a team and to understand each other’s skills. How to develop communication skills were taught. Tips for improving self-confidence, winning factors, teamwork, etc. was taught.
GNU/LINUX Familiarization Class
Githin F Alapatt, an ardent promoter of free and open source software, a third year electronics student from the branch spent two hours with the first year IEEE student members of the college. He conveyed the students about free software and the GNU project. Though there was constraint of time, he took efforts to explain most of the relevant facts in addition to clearing almost all the doubts asked by the participants. He urged the students to go the free software way, coming out of the ‘bondage’ of proprietary software. He demonstrated that students could learn many things like what happens when a computer boots which is purposefully hidden in Microsoft windows. He also briefly demonstrated some of the free software applications, which were installed, on his laptop.
Industrial Visit to ITI & FCRI
73 IEEE members of the student branch went for industrial visit to Fluid Control & Research Institute (FCRI) & Indian Telephones Industries, Ltd (ITI), Kanjikode, Palakkad on 18th March. The students got knowledge about how the PCB’s are made and got assembled in a telephone exchange from the ITI Ltd, and from FCRI the students where shown the various instruments and experiments how the fluids are being tested and researched.
C Class
A series of class on C Programming Language is going on in IEEE library from 8 am to 9 am or 4 pm to 5 pm thrice a week for first years. The students take the class from 1st year itself that studied C Language in Higher Secondary Level.
Future Activities
The proposed activities in the student branch in the month of April are Mpower 06 for third years, a management workshop on the topic “Professional Ethics” for 2nd years, “Robotics Workshop” for 1st years. Also there will be seminar on “Mobile Technology” for 1st years from final years in the beginning of May.
M G UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
WIE, IEEE KERALA SECTION
WIE Affinity Group of IEEE Kerala Section has started implementing a program for promoting the interests of students, especially girl students in the schools of Kerala state with the sponsorship from IEEE Foundation. Bringing the exhilaration of scientific discovery to young students, fostering technological innovation, preserving history, promoting public awareness of the long-reaching effects of engineering - these are some of the important functions of IEEE that are supported by the IEEE Foundation. Interdisciplinary in its activities and transnational in scope, the IEEE Foundation touches the lives of engineers every day, and through these engineers and their accomplishments, touches the lives of people all over the world. Please visit www.ieee.org/foundation. This program is planned in the lines of IEEE Student-Teacher and Research Engineer/Scientist (STAR) Program.
As a first step, we have collected inputs from various Government Schools about the curricular and extra curricular activities organized in Mathematics, Science and Engineering Subjects. All the schools we interacted with were willing to participate in this program. We have requested the school management to recommend an enthusiastic & energetic mathematics / science teachers who would be willing to take these programs forward.
WIE Kerala believes that by participating in this project the students will be benefited by more opportunities to interact with professionals, more exposure to the scientific world through the specially designed sessions requiring hands on practice, talks / lectures by eminent personalities, field visits to Industries etc. Also the school may get some infrastructure facilities like science books to the library, lab instruments etc.
WIE plans to manage this project for the initial 3 years. By the end of 3 years this is expected to become a benchmark program. This program - the curriculum and the resources - will be packaged and will be addressed to Government / Aided schools. We expect that the schools will be willing to incorporate this program into their curriculum and will utilize the services of the pool of resources that have acquired the expertise in handling these sessions.
(Jyothi Ramaswamy)
An All Kerala SPAVe organized by the IEEE Student Branch of the M.G University College of Engineering, Thodupuzha and sponsored by TCS – Tata Consultancy Services, Thiruvananthapuram, on 10 th March 2006. The event started with the inaugural session at 9.30 Hrs. Jyothi John, Principal of Model Engineering College, Erankulam, was the chief guest for the occasion. Principal of MG Uty College of Engg and the Chief Patron, A. V. Zachariah was also present. Neelakantan P. C, Branch counselor of the IEEE Student Branch preceded the function. Various events were:
Competitions
1. Panorama – Paper Contes: The paper contest was held in two categories. One dealt with papers relating to Electronics and Communications and associated topics, and the other section on Papers relating to Computer Science and Information Technology and related topics. Twelve papers were selected for presentation in Electronics and Communication and seven papers in Computer science and IT. In the first category, the winning presentations are: 1. Deepu R. Verma and George Joseph of M.G.U.C.E for their paper on “Celldar.” 2. Seethal Rose Varghese of M.G.U.C.E for her paper on “WiBro”, M.G University College of Engineering, Muttom P.O Thodupuzha. In second category, the winning presentations are: 1. Ashokanand N and Ranjith S of C.E.T for their paper on “Data Compression with the Burrows wheeler transform”. 2. Vijay Vishwanath and Roby Mathew of M.E.C for their paper on “Ergonomic cursor commander”.
Abacus – Project Demonstration
The winning projects at this year’s ABACUS are: 1. Renju Jose and Nisha M of M.E.C for their project on “Surveillance and Reconaissance Systems – SARS”. 2. Minimol Thomas of M.G.U.C.E for her project on “Net-Player”.
Divine Logic – Programming Contest: The programming contest was arranged in C programming language and was a tight competition. 10 participants were short listed after a preliminary round and the winners are: 1. Joby John of M.A.C.E, 2. Albin Goerge of M.G.U.C.E
Road Block – Obstacle Course: Road Block was an obstacle race, challenging the contestants both physically and mentally to do a variety of tasks in limited amounts of time. Each participant was tested for his / her time management, decision making agility and wit. The winners are: 1. Lipin V.P of V.J.C, 2. Sanjith S. Nair of M.A.C.E
Mine Sweeper – Circuit Debugging: The circuit debugging competition was tightly contested. The winners are: 1. Sreeraj R and Vineethraj R of M.A.C.E, 2. Anu S Das and Johns Jose of M.A.C.E.
Genesis – Web Designing: 1. Doney Jacob Mathew of M.A.C.E, 2. Cyril Sebastian of M.A.C.E.
Best Manager – TIME: The Best Manager competition was sponsored and conducted by T.I.M.E, Kochi and was a highlight of the events of the second day. Contestants were put through a series of elimination rounds, and stress interviews in the process of finding the very best, and the winners of this year’s competition are: 1. Jaison Abey Sabu of C.E.C
2. Robin Davis of M.G.U.C.E.
Fight Club – Technical Debate: In an effort to spread awareness and motivate self expression, this year’s Debate was arranged as a platform for free expression and did not disappoint. The topic on debate was “Should we teach more Engineering Ethics in our Universities today”. The discussion led around to ethics and it’s various aspects and implications on our lives. The winners are: 1. Sanoo P. S of M.E.C, 2. Sreehari A of M.E.C.
Marketing Gurus – Product Launch: This event saw teams presenting a new product and attempting to market it on stage to the audience, with the help of prepared presentations and models. It was an attempt to test the marketing skills of the contestants and the winners are: Roshan Paul and his team from St. Joseph’s College, Moolamattom.
Awareness Seminars
In an effort to increase awareness about IEEE and increase membership in our student branch, we arranged the following awareness sessions:
IEEE Awareness Seminar: The IEEE Awareness seminar was taken by Jaison Abey Sabu, Student Representative of IEEE Kerala Section, from College of Engineering Chengannur, along with Midhun Sneh and Priyanga D. of the same College. The one-hour, interactive session, helped many students among participants and audience become better aware of what IEEE is and it’s membership value. The program saw a positive response and generated much enthusiasm over IEEE.
Engineering Orientation Program for Secondary School Students: Our Student branch invited students studying in the various nearby secondary schools for an Orientation program that was designed to give them a better idea of what being an engineer is all about and orient them towards a career in Engineering. The event was conducted by our student branch members Rohit R and Gijo Raj. They were assisted by student volunteers from each department. The participants were given a tour of the college and the various laboratories and given an introduction to the various courses available and career opportunities. Their queries were answered in an open forum session and a special Quiz program was arranged for them. The Orientation program was a grand success receiving much positive feedback and thanks. Many of the participants were able to get a better grasp of the possibilities in Engineering and plan their futures accordingly.
IEEE GOLD: An awareness session on IEEE GOLD was arranged for the benefit of many of our Final year student volunteers who have been active in IEEE. The Seminar was conducted by Shahid Iqubal, Secretary of IEEE GOLD Kerala Section. The seminar was well received and surely will contribute to an increased number of students renewing their membership after graduation.
Conclusion
The current year’s Mélange was a huge stride forward for our Student Branch, we have finally arrived. Over the coming years we hope to increase our activities by coming up with new and more innovative projects and activities. The support and appreciation we have received for this year’s mélange will certainly be a factor in boosting our memberships and activities, we hope to continue our work by not just confining ourselves to our student branch but also interacting with other student branches and the Kerala section more often and coming up with new, exciting and combined projects and also spreading awareness about IEEE.
(Reported by: Kuriakose Rajan, Secretary, IEEE SB)
OFFICE BEARERS
Position Name Member (Number) |
Affiliation Place |
Phone (O) |
Phone (R) |
|
| Chairman Unnikrishnan A. K (SM2960169) |
C-DAC, Trivandrum |
2720532 |
2352762 |
unnikrishnan@ieee.org |
| Vice-Chairman Amarnath Raja (41431378) |
InAPP, Trivandrum |
2527270 |
2559314 |
amar@inapp.com |
| Secretary Aju Thomas Abraham (4088746) |
TCS, Trivandrum |
2700671 |
2541798 |
ajuthomas@ieee.org |
Treasurer
|
NEST, Trivandrum |
2449198 |
2550429 |
unni@nestec.net |
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Position Name |
Affiliation Place |
Phone (O) |
Phone (R) |
|||
Professional Activities E. E Rajakumar (SM7321631) |
VSSC, Trivandrum |
2565506 2564048 |
2448363 94470 89363 |
|||
Membership Development |
ALIND, Trivandrum |
2379503 |
2317899 |
|||
Educational Activities |
NEST, Trivandrum |
2444030 |
2369490 |
|||
Student Activities Chairman: Premkumar (41364316) |
Reliance Infocom Ltd., Ernakulam |
|
|
knpremkumar@ieee.org | ||
Student Activities Board Secretary: Koshy Vaidyan (41237660) |
TCS, Trivandrum |
2700671 | 2312551 | koshy.vaidyan@tcs.com | ||
Conference Activities |
C-DAC, Trivandrum |
2720882 | 2310978 | sasipm@ieee.org | ||
Awards |
VMA, Trivandrum |
2331959 | 2360017 98470 60016 |
k.g.kumar@ieee.org | ||
Inter Society Relations |
TCS, Trivandrum |
2700671 | 2358598 | k.kesavasamy@tcs.com | ||
Governmental |
VMA Trivandrum |
2331959 | 2430959 | gvr@trins.org vma@vsnl.com |
||
GOLD
Secretary: |
US-Software, Trivandrum
VSSC, Trivandrum |
2335777
2565273 2564614 |
93499 04705
98956 65610 |
jacob.iype@ustri.com
shahid.iqbal7862gmail.com |
||
WIE
Secretary: |
C-DAC, Trivandrum
TCS, Trivandrum |
2723226
2700671 |
2361134
2345355 |
fathima@cdactvm.in
jyothi@ieee.org |
||
Computer Society Chapter
Secretary: |
InAPP, Trivandrum
C-DAC, Trivandrum |
2527270
2723333 |
2352379 94470 27274
2361424 94474 50625 |
sbabu@ieee.org
subodh@cdactvm.in |
||
Power Engineering
Secretary: |
College of Engg., Trivandrum
KSEB, Trivandrum |
2515631
2551644 |
2333490
9387801940 |
pscnair@ieee.org
sunilk.nair@gmail.com |
||
Communication Secretary: |
Reliance Infocom Ltd., Ernakulam NeST, Trivandrum |
0484-
2527441 |
0484-
3090081
98470 67421 |
knpremkumar@ieee.org
sree@nestec.net |
||
IA & IE Soc. Secretary: |
N l T, Calicut
N l T, Calicut |
0495 - 2286337
0495 -2286306 |
0495 -
0495 - 2373816 |
kpmdas@yahoo.com
sreeramclt@ieee.org |
||
| Newsletter Editor K G Nair (1224104) |
Muslim Assn. College of Engg., Trivandrum |
2363232 94463 23230 |
kgnairs@rdiffmail.com | |||
| Web Support T S Ajayghosh (2390003) |
C-DAC | 2723333 | 2434259 | t.s.ajayghosh@ieee.org | ||
| Student Representative Jason Jaison Abey Sabu (41591597) |
College of Engg., Chenganr. | 0469- 2661078 | 94470 97659 0479- 2465042 |
jaison_sabu@ieee.org jaison_sabu@computer.org |
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MEMBERS AT LARGE |
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| Dr. D. S. Rane (LS01387794) |
Trivandrum | 2360865 | dsrane@hotmail.com dsrane@gmail.com |
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| Dr. Gomathy Muraleedharan (SM07352040) |
Trivandrum | 2326440 98471 78472 |
drkam@tinfo.net | |||
| N. T. Nair (SM06925275) |
Executive Knowledge Lines, Trivandrum |
2476854 5531316 |
2361316 94470 61316 |
del@vsnl.com ntnair@gmail.com |
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| Prof. V.K.Damodaran (SM04119145) |
UNIDO, Trivandrum | 2306883 94477 81515 |
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| Dr. V. P. Kulkarni (SM01735406) |
GemTech Solutions/ Kerala Univ, Trivandrum |
2317260 2317265 |
2442478 98464 42478 |
vijaypkulkarni@yahoo.com vpkul@hotmail.com vpkulkarni@gemtechsystems.com |
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| Koruthu P Varghese (SM3976115) |
SCTIMST, Trivandrum |
2524411 | 2449600 94471 00694 |
koruthu@sctimst.ker.nic.in | ||
| G. Vijaya Raghavan (SM01699214) |
VMA, Trivandrum |
2331959 | 2430959 98470 60959 |
gvr@trins.org vma@vsnl.com |
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| N. A. P. Thampy (SM0872887) |
DSRC, Chennai |
044-28524847 | 0471- 2477770 09841422469 |
napthampy@sify.com thammpy@dsrc.co.in |
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| S. Gopakumar (SM1758028) |
VSSC, Trivandrum |
2565889 | 2357194 94470 35620 |
s.gopakumar@ieee.org | ||
| J. Muraleemohan Lal (SM04134722) |
Trivandrum | 2325359 94470 12762 |
j.m.lal@ieee.org | |||
| K G Satheesh Kumar (SM1699321) |
VMA, Trivandrum |
2331959 | 2360017 98470 60016 |
k.g.kumar@ieee.org | ||
| R. Narayanan (SM40298899) |
TCS, Trivandrum |
2700691 2700671 |
2361137 | r.narayanan@tcs.com | ||
| E.E Rajakumar (SM7321631) |
VSSC, Trivandrum |
2565506 2564048 |
2448363 94470 89363 |
ee_rajakumar@vssc.org eer@vsnl.net |
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1. Women in Engineering Group Celebrates Record Growth: For the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) group, if strength is measured in numbers, then last year was the group's strongest ever. More than 1500 people joined, the largest annual jump in its history. Last year also saw the formation of 43 WIE Affinity Groups and Student Affinity Groups, the most ever established in one year. Find out more about this growth at http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2652/01224104
2. Virtual Museum Takes On Tiny Subject: There are those who predict that nanotechnology -- which involves miniscule particles and devices measuring less than 100 nanometers across -- will lead to cures for cancer or precipitate the next great leap forward in computing power. But with the hype should come reality, which is presented in a new exhibit on the IEEE Virtual Museum. Find out more at http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2653/01224104
3. E-mail Newsletters Let You Know: The "What's New @ IEEE" newsletters have been growing in popularity: subscriptions rose by more than 7 percent in 2005. These free monthly e-mail newsletters, with a variety of articles so brief that each one takes about 15 seconds to read, also offer Internet links that let you dig deeper should a topic pique your interest. Read more at http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2654/01224104
4. IEEE Senior Member Paves the Way for Others: When IEEE Senior Member Cheryl B. Schrader was an undergraduate EE student, the idea of pursuing an academic position never even crossed her mind. It wasn't until a male professor suggested it to her that she considered such a career. That's because she didn't have a mentor or even a woman engineer as a role model. Her work to ensure that today's bright, young female engineering students have good mentors and role models earned Schrader the 2005 U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. Learn more at http://boldfish.ieee. org:80/u/2656/01224104
5. Gifts to IEEE Foundation Seek to Help Students: The high cost of financing an education today has many students -- and their parents -- in search of scholarships and grants. To help with the financial burden, the IEEE Foundation has set up two new programs to help fund the education of future engineers. Find out more at http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2657/01224104
6. Digital Library Researchers to Meet in June: An electronic hum has joined the traditional library sounds of soft footsteps, rustling paper, and the thump of books on tables. Libraries are going digital, with new types of content and new ways to index and deliver the old. The Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, to be held from 11 to 15 June, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will explore the nature of these new methods. Read more at http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2658/01224104
7. Proceedings Features More Than 400 Tech Papers on Wireless: More than 2500 pages of research on signal processing are now available in the newly released proceedings of the 2005 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, held 13 to 17 March, in New Orleans. Topics include traffic engineering, sensor network design, and end-to-end performance. Institutions with subscriptions to IEEE online collections can access the proceedings through the IEEE Xplore digital library, depending on their access rights. For more information, visit http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2660/01224104
8. Submit Questions to the President-Elect Candidates: Members will have an opportunity to submit questions to the two candidates running for 2007 IEEE President-Elect and hear their responses online. Lewis M. Terman and John Vig will answer members' questions, and their responses will be broadcast over the IEEE Election Web site at http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2661/01224104 during the voting period. If you have a question about an IEEE issue, send it to <mailto:corp-election@ieee.org> (Election ballots will be mailed to all eligible voting members by 1 September.) For more information about the annual election, visit http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2662/01224104 or write to <mailto:corp-election@ieee.org>
9. Online Seminar Offers Financial Planning Advice: Join your colleagues in an Internet seminar called "Plan for Financial Success: Keys to Live By." The seminar, sponsored by the IEEE Graduates of the Last Decade group, will be held on 20 May at 10:00 a.m. EDT/14:00 GMT. Seminar leaders will discuss investing, retirement, college education for members' children, as well as other life situations. Registration closes on 12 May. To register or for information about the technical requirements to attend, go to http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2663/01224104 Send questions to <mailto:gold@ieee.org>
10. Open Target: Where America Is Vulnerable to Attack: IEEE Spectrum takes an inside look at the real issues of U.S. port and border security: risk assessment, homeland security funding, and the preparedness of government agencies. Listen to a special audio podcast report by IEEE Spectrum senior reporter, Harry Goldstein, and commentary by Clark Kent Ervin, former inspector general of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and author of "Open Target: Where America Is Vulnerable to Attack." Listen now at http://boldfish.ieee.org :80/u/2664/01224104
11. Recognizing Outstanding IEEE Volunteers: You can help recognize the efforts of outstanding volunteers by nominating someone for one of the prestigious Regional Activities Board (RAB) awards. Each prestigious award has a unique mission and criteria, and offers the opportunity to honor distinguished colleagues, inspiring teachers and corporate leaders. Do you know someone who has made substantial Regional contributions through innovative projects, exemplary leadership, service, or by fulfilling the goals as related to Transnational Activities? Consider nominating them for one of the following awards:
* RAB Achievement Award
* RAB GOLD (Graduates of the Last Decade) Achievement Award
* RAB Innovation Award
* RAB Leadership Award
* RAB Larry K. Wilson Transnational Award
The deadline for nominations is 15 October 2006. More information and nomination forms are available at the RAB Awards Website: http://www.ieee.org/rabawards. Questions can be sent to ra-admin@ieee.org.
12. Awarding Non-IEEE Entities that Support IEEE Units: The Friend of IEEE Regional Activities Award was created specifically to recognize support provided to the IEEE and its members in support of its goals by firms, divisions of firms or individuals. The award is a plaque or certificate for the recipient. Nominations may be submitted at any time during the year. The link for the nomination form is available at the RAB Awards Website: http://www.ieee.org/rabawards. Questions can be sent to ra-admin@ieee.org .
13. New Award Recognizes Ethical Practices: Do you know of an IEEE member or an organization employing IEEE members that has shown exemplary ethical behavior or practices, or successfully advocated them? Then consider nominating that person or company for the newly established IEEE Award for Distinguished Ethical Practices. The first award will be presented in 2007. The deadline for nominations is 1 July 2006. Nominations must come from the general membership of the IEEE. Members of the IEEE Board of Directors, the IEEE Awards Board, The IEEE Ethics and Member Conduct Committee (EMCC), and IEEE staff may not submit nominations. Nor are self-nominations permitted. The nomination form is available on the EMCC Web site at http://www.ieee.org/ethics and through the “Other Awards Programs” link on the IEEE Awards Web site at http://www.ieee.org/awards.
14. Paypal Use by IEEE Units: PayPal has become a popular method to conduct financial transactions via the web. However, at the current time, PayPal should not be used by Units to conduct IEEE business. PayPal is not subject to standard banking regulations and accounts can be frozen at their discretion. Additionally, the Staff Director of IEEE Financial Services department must be an authorized Signer on all bank accounts for IEEE. At this time there is no way to have this individual included as an authorized signer on the PayPal accounts so he can have access to the funds in case the Unit treasurer is not available. IEEE is currently investigating alternatives to try to qualify PayPal or an equivalent service for use by the IEEE Geographic Units.
15. Geographic Unit Audits of 2005 Financial Activity: As in past years, Councils, Sections, and Chapters who have revenues or expenses in excess of USD 100,000 must be audited by a professional independent outside source. The involved units may select their own auditor for these audits or they may ask IEEE Operations Audit to Conduct the audit. In addition to the audits of geographic units with revenues or expenses that exceed $100,000, IEEE Operations Audit will also conduct audits of units with expenses or revenues of less than $100,000 on a random sample basis. The Selected units will be contacted directly by Operations Audit to advise them of the information that is required for completion of the required audits. If your Section does not fall into one of the two categories noted above, it is strongly suggested that your Section make arrangements to have a review of your finances conducted by local volunteers. The link below provides material to assist in this process. http://www.ieee.org/scs/ Required_Reporting/financial-operations-review.html
16. Technical Symposia Grant Program 2006 : IEEE Regional Activities will provide grants of $500 each to Sections or Chapters sponsoring a full day or longer technical symposium that meets the program’s qualification guidelines. The purpose of the program is to encourage and enable IEEE Sections and Chapters to support their members through local technical symposia and workshops. For the detailed guidelines and the grant request form, visit http://www.ieee.org/geofinances and click on the link for "Technical Symposia Grant". Questions can be sent to symposia-grants@ieee.org.
17. Benjamin Franklin's London House Opens Its Doors: The IEEE doesn't usually attend open-house parties. But the one held on 17 January in London was special. Representatives of the IEEE Foundation were on hand to celebrate the restoration of the Benjamin Franklin House at 36 Craven Lane on Franklin's 300th birthday -- a restoration made possible by grants totaling US $140 000 from the IEEE Foundation. Find out more at http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2597/01224104
18. Ready to Learn With Online Tutorials: The problem: you have to get up to speed quickly on, say, the python programming language. The solution: start with the new Ready Notes online tutorials from the IEEE Computer Society. Seven tutorials are out so far, and the one-stop guides provide practical nuts-and-bolts instruction across a range of topics geared to software developers, IT professionals, computing instructors, and students. Read more at http://boldfish.ieee .org:80/u/2598/01224104
19. Mixed Reviews on Member Satisfaction, Survey Shows: Members gave a thumbs-up to the quality of IEEE publications and the process for renewing their membership, but the IEEE financial Advantage Program and pre-university educational programs didn't fare as well in the 2005 survey of members about how satisfied they are with the IEEE and its services. Find out more at http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2599/01224104
20. Access to Copyright Form Just Got Easier: Attention, journal editors and conference organizers: it just got easier to have your authors assign their copyright to the IEEE. Now you can give them access to the IEEE copyright form via the Web -- and you don't even have to be using an IEEE submission system for your manuscripts. Learn more at http://boldfish.ieee.org :80/u/2601/01224104
21. Marketplace of Ideas: Jail Time for Hackers: In an effort to combat criminal and terrorist activities online, the United Kingdom's parliament is debating a bill that would put anyone caught merely hacking into a computer in jail for 10 years. Is such a sentence necessary, or is it too harsh? Weigh in at <mailto:institute@ieee.org>
22. Sign Up Today for IEEE Spectrum's Career Accelerator Forum: Today is the last day to register for tomorrow's forum. The event, which is free, will offer advice on topics such as earning an advanced degree, staying ahead in your field, landing your dream job, and switching careers. You'll also be able to e-mail questions to an expert panel from the convenience of your computer. For more information as well as a list of panelists, visit http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2602/01224104. To sign up for the forum, go to http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2603/01224104
23. Call for 2006 IEEE Education Award Nominations: The IEEE Educational Activities Board seeks nominations for seven awards that recognize IEEE members, pre-university educators, and employers of members who have made noteworthy contributions to education. The nomination deadline is 30 April. For award descriptions, honorarium details, and nomination packets, visit http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2605/01224104
24. Online Seminars Offer Tips for Searching the IEEE Digital Library: Users of the IEEE digital library who want to improve their research skills can attend a free online training seminar, "Searching with IEEE Xplore," which is being offered on 19 April, 10 May, and 16 May. Advance registration is required, and space is limited. To sign up, visit http://boldfish.ieee.org :80/u/2606/01224104
25. Welcome to the Vlogosphere: Video blogs, or vlogs, are putting the "me" in media, and radically transforming the way we receive and send visual content. With distribution decentralized by advances in file-transfer technology, you can be the audience or the producer. Is this a good thing? Find out at http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2607/01224104. For an example, check out the latest IEEE Spectrum vlog at http://boldfish.ieee.org:80/u/2608/01224104
As a recurrence, this year also the officials gave me an opportunity to serve IEEE Kerala Section through the nomination as Newsletter editor, in reposing trust on me. Without any trepidation I accepted the offer as customary. Every year the team of office bearers chart out novel plans to stimulate and sustain the activities in a competitive sense which added fruitful achievements and reputation to the Kerala section globally.
When we bear in mind the list of achievements of the Section through the past years, last year’s is commemorating. Our past chairman and a ‘member-at-large’ K.G Satheeshkumar’s contributions coined IEEE to notice the Section globally which led him to ‘2005 R10 Outstanding Volunteer Award’, Kerala Section’s overall performance trapped ‘Distinguish Large Section Award’ for the year 2005, student member Prijoe Philips Komattu’s ‘LINK’ idea and its implementations linked him to ‘Larry K Wilson Award of IEEE’ and Jyoti Ramasamy’s proficiency in percolating IEEE activities down to the society to benefit more common people which led her to the nomination for the post of ‘Chair of the IEEE 2007 Women in Engineering Committee’ are more for a Section to celebrate! No other Section may entrap this much credibility in a petite period to keep every member to proud of. Let us appreciate all who shed their enthusiasm and expertise for maximizing creative activities through volunteerism.
In the current year also, we have to plan and carry out unbeatable new ventures thereby to act and gain more. Probably, this is the integral and inescapable part, which will help to sustain the growth and continue to excel opportunities that soar to new heights.K.Gopalan Nair
Compiled by: N. T. Nair, Editor, IEEE India Info Newsletter
A 2-day Workshop/ Seminar on ‘Free and Open Source Software’, FOSS@NITC2006, was organized at National Institute of Technology Calicut on 18 th and 19 th March 2006. G R C Reddy, Director of NIT Calicut, inaugurated the Workshop. M. Muralidharan, Head of the Microsoft Division at Tata Consultancy Services, Bangalore, delivered the keynote address. K.P.Mohandas, Dean (PG) and Mentor IEEE Student Branch, presided over the function. Deepak Malani, Secretary, IEEE SB, Amarjith Singh, Chairperson, IEEE SB, and Arun C Pullat, GNU Linux Group Calicut spoke on the occasion. S Ashok, Counselor, IEEE Student Branch and Vinod Pathari Computer Science faculty were also present. Around 200 delegates attended the meet with as many as 60 students from other institutions and colleges. IEEE Student Branch, Computer Society of India Calicut chapter, GNU Linux Group Calicut and SPACE, jointly organized the meet. The official sponsors for the event was Tata Consultancy Services.
The event was organized as several talks and interactive sessions with live workshop and demonstrations in parallel. Eleven enthusiastic speakers from several software groups in Bangalore shared their experience through lectures and interactive sessions on the two days. The first talk on Qt/KDE was given by Pradeepto Bhattacharya, En-interactive technologies. Gopal Vijayraghavan from Yahoo! Inc delivered the next talk on the DOTGNU technology. The third talk in pre-lunch session was on Gentoo Linux development by Shyam Mani, who is a developer for Gentoo Linux himself. In the post-lunch session, Philip Tellis of Yahoo! Inc interacted with the participants on ‘Creative Commons’. This was followed by a demo on ‘Game Programming’ by Shree Kumar from HP. The workshops, which were conducted simultaneously, were by Sharath Laxman, a tech wiz who is presently in class 12(Live CD workshop) in the morning and Praveen and Dileep (two former students of NIT currently attached to Hewlett Packard and Wipro) in the afternoon.
The technical sessions on day two were more in number with six speakers sharing their expertise with delegates with talks and very active interactive sessions. The speakers included Premshree Pillai (Yahoo! Inc) on ‘Ruby”, Anjhan R (Robert Bosch) on VLSI/ EDA Design Tools in the morning and Embedded Linux in the afternoon, Shreyas Srinivasan (NOVELL) on FOSS Foundry, Arun M (Free Software Foundation/ SPACE) on Licenses and Kalyan Verma (SecuPrise) on Network Security. There were very instructive live demonstrations and interactive sessions. These young enthusiastic speakers and knowledgeable have taken the mission of educating the academia and the public of the usefulness of the Free and Open source Software as their passion. The delegates expressed their satisfaction at the wide range of topics discussed and the way the meet was organized by the young organizers of NIT Calicut. The delegates were supplied with free software ‘ Ubuntu’ for practice on Linux Operating Systems.
Home-made Cell Phones
There was a time decades back, when people used to assemble radios, amplifiers and a host of other electronic gizmos at home for personal use. Kits of many gadgets of daily use were available for the technically-oriented to make these wares themselves. Even in the case of PCs, the trend was seen to some extent. But when it came to cell phones, this practice was totally absent, may be due to various reasons like the phones were readily available at affordable cost, the technologies used in them were most advanced like SMD chips, dedicated embedded software based on RTOS etc, which an ordinary person can not match.
However, the old trend is now re-emerging, spearheaded by some techno-savvy people who are attempting to build the first practical home-made cell phones. They hope to bring about greater innovation and creativity in its design, including in the firmware controlling various functions. In fact, they aim to develop a free software suit based on Linux that would unleash entirely new applications, not normally available in commercial phones.
Mobile phones are poised to be a promising computing platform also, at least for the developing world, it is indicated. The powerful microprocessors inside even modest cell phones are being exploited by a growing group of techies like Surj Patel and his partner, Deva Seetharam, to run software tailored to the needs of people who can’t afford an ordinary PC. Patel is an MIT alumni and Deva Seetharam is an engineer in US who joined together to build their own mobile handset, which they named as ‘TuxPhone’ after Tux, Linux’s penguin mascot.
Cell phones have many advantages over PCs, say,In a market increasingly getting filled with cheap phones that take pictures, play music and show television re-runs, a make-your-own kit isn't likely to attract many, except the technical minded.
Casey Halverson, a Seattle-based mobile developer who is also working on homemade phone projects, has observed that commercial cell phones don't let software developers write at a basic level that talks directly to the hardware, which makes some programming tasks impossible or hugely inefficient.
"I think as more people move to mobile devices, they will be running into more and more limits with closed systems," Halverson said. "For now, such projects are limited to tinkerers, but in the future there might be some kind of open platform for people to do these kinds of things."
But innovations that happen at the technology front have a way of filtering into the mainstream over time. Thirty years ago, the first “homebrewed” computers created by Wozniak and Steve Jobs of Apple computers in their garages set the foundation for a desktop computer revolution. The dial-up bulletin board systems of the 1980s evolved into today's near-universal Internet access. But in the case of mobile world, it is in a way the inverse of that curve: cell phone use has already exploded all over the world, but it is only recently that falling component prices have made it practical for homebrew phone hackers to build their own.
The new approach is to add custom capabilities into the phones like RFID readers, GPS units etc. Such tasks are not provided in most ready-built phones, even though some limited applications in these lines are available in some of them. The software that controls these phones is proprietary and hence not accessible to outsiders for modifying it to suit their applications.
As an alternative to building their own handsets to experiment with new cell phone applications, engineers are attempting to bypass the existing operating system on phones and install a new one, under the same hardware. It is not just independent programmers who welcome this approach; the phone manufacturers would also benefit from this approach, as they would no longer need to pay licence fees for OS. A number of open source software groups are working with handset makers, chip makers, and software developers to coordinate research into using Linux for mobile devices. Such openness on the part of handset manufacturers will help in enriching the mobiles with much more capabilities, which normally would have taken longer periods. It will be yet another case of a whole community of open source developers from world over working simultaneously on empowering the handsets with richer applications.