Every journey you embark upon begins somewhere, for Mayank Aggarwal it began here at NSIT from where he graduated as an engineer in Manufacturing Process and Automation division in 2009. He is currently working as an analyst in Dunnhumby. It might surprise many that the person who founded the NSIT Motorsports and then went on to make a car for the International Competition in South Africa which was judged as the best among the Indian entries in the static competition that included the likes of IIT’s and DCE was more interested in Non technical work, but very few know that the seeds of analysis and leadership were laid during this time only.

Mayank was an active participant of competitions like robowars and carnage but repetitiveness soon paved way for boredom and eagerness to do something better and challenging. Taking inspiration from the car made by DCE the year before, NSIT motorsports was born. The success might illusion a few but the path was not without its share of failures. He says the key point was never losing the belief that theycould do it. People around them discouraged a lot but this belief kept them going and helped them achieve success. The discouragement came in the form of advice from people around them, indifference from administration and lack of sponsorship for the car. It was at this time that the leader in Mayank came out, be it in motivating his own team members to pitch in money for the car as the sponsorship for the same was scarce or convincing the director of NSIT to allocate some funds for the car.

Another experience which he hails as inspiring is his work in training and placement cell. Though the work was given to him the traditional NSIT way (seniors forcing to join ..!), Mayank accepts that it helped him more than he could have imagined. He became a part of the system and got to know how things worked instead of being one of the thousands who complain about the system  and ended up being influenced by it. In his own words,” There was a time when I was angry at being forced to work in the placement cell, yet I assure you that there came a time when I thanked my stars (and seniors) for the same”. Contradicting it may seem but it’s true all the same. His interaction with Human Resource Managers of some companies and his brush with cold calls from others gave him the confidence of presenting oneself. In simple words taught him to sell himself. Further elaborating on his work in the placement cell, he says there is more to the work than what meets the eye. The work doesn’t just include making phone calls and inviting the companies to the campus. From interacting with the representatives of the company to handling the candidates and regulating their resumes all is a part n parcel of the training and placement cell.

His experience during his own placement gives us an insight as to how to prepare for the Non Technical companies. He categorises the same into 3 categories, Case Study, Personal Interview and Guess Estimate. During the case study round, lot of data was given in the form of presentations where the candidate had to analyze the data and then answer the questions that followed. The foremost task during this round is to understand the data for which your analytical skills should be really sharp. Good listening skills help a lot since many a times when you start thinking in the wrong direction the interviewer gives hints to guide you back onto the right track so always keep an eye out for the same. All in all thinking on your feet helps. Mayank compares personal interviews metaphorically with a market where the interviewer is a customer to whom the candidate has to sell himself so he says pay attention to how you dress for an interview. Emphasis on your big achievements help you steer your interview in the right direction. Introspection of oneself is a perfect method of preparing yourself for the interview as they help you answer questions related to your strengths and weaknesses. Guess estimate

His ideology of improvising the existing things and integrating different areas of work gave Mayank an idea to work on an electric human hybrid tricycle as an interdepartmental B.Tech project under Gadre Sir from ECE and Vinod sir from MPAE.  It was a hybrid tricycle with electric motors and pedals with sensors. Originally the plan was to include solar charging as well but due to the increased cost that couldn’t be done. The Gen X symbolises the trend of contributing to the society and more so to their alma mater and so does Mayank Aggarwal. Continuing his association with his alma mater, Mayank has started a mentorship program along with his friends which aims to provide better guidance to the students of NSIT by none other than its own alumni’s. This program is modelled on the system followed in IIM Kolkata and the basic idea of this program is to provide a platform for the interaction of current students and alumni’s. Seniors will be assigned a group of mentees who will be in direct contact with the senior and receive guidance from them in the form of advice for their career, their CV etc. This program is on a volunteer basis where the mentors will be reviewed on their performance from time to time so as to ensure that mentees get enough guidance.

As one may see, the amount of work done by Mayank Aggarwal is tremendous and one can safely say that he made optimum utilization of his time here at NSIT. He summarizes his learning here as follows

    * Never waste a lot of time as it will never come back (Time is Money..!!)

    * Opportunities knock only once so grab the ones you get now, the next opportunity might be better or less but never the same.

    * Do what you really love and if you can’t help that then love whatever you do. Your output will increase marginally. 

The timely operation of street lights, porch lights and other forms of outdoor illumination is required for the twin concerns of safety and environment protection; lights operated too late are a safety hazard, while lights operated too early are a waste of power. The switching on and off of external lightings can be set with the help of the device twilight switch.

Traditionally switching has been controlled either via a human operator; automatic control is accomplished using a light sensor like LDR or photosensitive cells. Unfortunately the use of sensors is accompanied by wastage of power and unreliability because sensors invariably deteriorate over time due to exposure to rain, dust, snow and hail, degradation of materials due to sunlight, and other elements like littering and picking by birds.

Three students at NSIT, Akash Verma, Eklavya Gupta and Nipun Garg, pursuing the Bachelor of Technology degree specialising in Instrumentation and Control Engineering, have developed a twilight switch under the able guidance of Dr. Dhananjay V. Gadre.

The Twilight switch is a solution addressing the above concerns; it automatically calculates everyday the start and end of civil twilight for that day using accurate mathematical formulae and the geographic co-ordinates and current date as input data. Since the lightings are turned on and off when it is required, electricity is saved. No attendant is needed to perform this function. By being fully automated, this device adds economic viability by eliminating the requirement of an operator for switching on and off lights, only requiring a one-time configuration at the time of installation. By being devoid of sensors, it is possible to enclose the switch in a box away from environmental hazards. This model is an improvement over previously existing ones because of its ease of operation, ruggedness, performance in terms of accuracy of calculated times and because it is a low-cost model.

In terms of calculation of operation times, the Twilight switch gives results accurate to 2 minutes for all locations on the earth below 80° N; a maximum error of up to 10 minutes for the extreme case of twilight approaching 24 hours or nil duration. This error is observed on 3-4 days in the year for high-latitude regions. Indeed these "errors" should be called "deviations" from the standard used for testing; actual twilight times could easily deviate by bigger margins from the standard owing to a multiple of reasons like local topography, weather, temperature, air quality etc.

A prototype has been kept in operation since the 10^th of August at CEDT Lab at Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology and the operation of lamps at dawn and dusk has been as expected. The problem of drift in frequency has been brought down to -1 second per day, as mentioned before, and the behavior is logged periodically. The system clock on the kit has shown stable behavior and a negligible error, and the last problem - that of drift in frequency of crystal - may be considered resolved.

This project has some more scope left for future research in this field. The effect of temperature on clock accuracy can cause considerable error to accumulate over time in conditions of extreme climate, requiring more frequent recalibration. The use of temperature controlled crystal oscillators for minimizing this need of recalibration is being investigated for use in such harsh climates.

For further information about the project and future work, contact Akash Verma at emailakash@gmail.com.

 Ever wondered how it would be if NSIT did not have a proper Placement Cell?

Today we boast of an excellent student run placement cell but surprisingly none of us has ever thought about how students got involved with in the entire placement process. Who were the first students to work in the Placecom?

If we ever ask these questions we would be surprised to know that the placement cell was started in 2006 and it was the brainchild of a group of students one among whom was Harsha Vardhan.

Harsha Vardhan, or Harsh as he is popularly known, graduated as an MPAE engineer in 2007 and went on to work in Honda and McKinsey. After his stint at the two companies, Harsha moved to IIM Calcutta to complete his MBA.

Harsha talks with NSITonline’s Mansi Aggarwal about his leadership experience at NSIT and how it has helped him to progress professionally.

Harsh was upgraded from DCE to MPAE in NSIT in 2nd semester. He sums up his experience in one word “surprised”. First day in NSIT was the day when he actually saw students sitting in class, and attending lectures. In his own words he found the atmosphere here at NSIT quite different from what it was in DCE. NSIT was an excellent platform for Harsha to hone his leadership and management skills. Always the one stressing on practical aspects of engineering, Harsha was sure he would end up taking GRE. However his years at NSIT were instrumental in giving his career a different direction and helping him realize his passion for management. His interest in manufacturing prompted him to work as an intern in General Motors. Harsha did a fantastic job at General Motors – so much so that his project manager called him for an internship the following year again. As his participation in different activities grew he realized there were more managerial issues to be solved rather than technical issues.

His first tryst with management of people came when he decided to start a society which we today know as CROSSLINKS.  Not a lot of people know that the inspiration for the same came from an article published about DCE. In Harsh’s  3rd semester an article was published in Horizons which brought DCE into limelight. Harsha realized that to build a positive perception about NSIT, it was important that NSIT get the right media coverage as well. His discussions about the same with his batchmate, Anish Johnson( Stanford University, 2009) gave him an idea of starting a society which would take care of NSIT’s media dealings and would highlight the achievements of students here. An initial draft was prepared which stated its responsibilities as media publicity, starting a newsletter and strengthening of alumni relations After a series of meetings with Bhatia sir and the Director, CROSSLINKS was formed in 2005.

Harsh used his experience and knowledge of Media Publicity as he worked as the Media management secretary in INNOVISION during his 2nd year. If asked to choose between his experience as a media management secretary and Vice president of INNOVISION,2006-7, without a second thought Harsh chooses his media management experience. He explains that during his 2nd year, NSIT was undergoing through a tumultuous time since it was being made semi-autonomous from an autonomous institution. There were a lot of administrative issues and getting any work done during that time was a herculean task. Harsh says publicising NSIT, the festivals and painting a positive picture of NSIT at the time was a challenging job. Harsh fondly recalls Innovision 2006-7 as being the first to be organized by the third years in NSIT’s history. The tradition continues till date. Moreover, Harsha also initiated various new competitions such as  Carnage and Complicato which have gone on to become the main attractions of INNOVISION today. 

Responsibility always excited Harsh and he was always on the lookout for opportunities to make a difference to NSIT. The establishment of the placecom was another such opportunity that he cherishes. The first official students’ placecom was formed with active involvement from Harsh who succeeded in increasing the participation of hardware and nontechnical companies. Harsh describes getting Schlumberger, Toyota and Honda to the campus as some of the highlights of his placecom career.

With strong fundamentals in Manufacturing, Harsh got placed in Honda Siel Cars India. With Honda being a first time recruiter, Harsh decided to go along with the basics. He revised the basics of manufacturing like casting, forging, welding etc for the written round. Some may find it hard to believe but with the job in hand Harsh didn’t get too much time to prepare for his interview for McKinsey( where he joined after one year at Honda), so he ended up just reviewing and preparing his resume well. His interview consisted of three rounds. In each round he was given a case study related to his resume. Harsh thus advocates allocation of proper time on resume preparation.

He continues to remain in touch with Prof . Sachin Maheshwari & Prof. MPS Bhatia, often discussing about the future of NSIT. One can also see him visiting the college campus whenever he is in Delhi, a habit he continues to maintain even after many years. When asked about why he continues to take interest in NSIT and its students, Harsh answers that he would always cherish the years he spent at NSIT.

Harsh further talks about how NSIT is a good stepping platform and the brand value of NSIT could be further increased if only all of us would work with unity.  He strongly believes that the students of NSIT need to stop and think for a moment where does NSIT go from here. The need for unity among students has risen now more so with DCE becoming DTU and NIT opening up in Delhi. He brings the discussion to an end with a thought provoking question

“ Why can’t we strive to give back a little to  our alma mater which has provided us with a brilliant stepping stone?” 

CSI-NSIT chapter in association with DIGIT presents a workshop on ethical hacking...

Data is information that has been translated into a form that is more convenient to process. Data  is  often  viewed  as  a  lowest  level  of  abstraction  from  which useful information and knowledge are  derived. Experimental  data  refers  to  the  data  generated within  the  context  of  a  scientific  investigation  by  observation  and  recording. In an embedded system, data to be collected is either in the form of binary sequences of pulses, generally  referred  to  as  digital  data  or  has  continuous  range  of  values which  is  called analog data.

Most research projects need data in order to answer a proposed research problem. The data that need to be acquired, and the sources of such data, must be identified as a matter of utmost importance. No amount or depth of subsequent data analysis can make up for an original lack of data quantity or quality.

Research problems and objectives (or hypotheses) need to be very carefully constructed and clearly defined, as they dictate the data that need to be obtained and analyzed in order to successfully address the objectives themselves. In addition, the quantity of data, their qualities, and how they are sampled and measured, have implications for the choice and effectiveness of the data analysis techniques used in subsequent analysis.

Data Acquisition is the process of sampling and collection of real world data that can be either processed within a specific deadline from time of collection of data or stored in a storage device and retrieved for processing later on. Alternatively, a data acquisition system may be either real time if it processes the data as it collects it or non real time if it stores the data and processes it later on. The purpose of data acquisition is to measure an electrical or physical phenomenon such as voltage, current, temperature, pressure, or sound and log the readings in a storage device. 

Every data acquisition system shares a common goal of acquiring, analyzing, and presenting information. A processor based data acquisition generally involves conversion of analog data to digital data for storing in the memory. Hence, an analog to digital converter is the heart of an analog data acquiring system. PC-based data acquisition uses a combination  of  modular  hardware  to  take  the measurements,  application  software  to  operate  the  system,  and  a  computer  to  store  the data  and  process  it  further. 

Two students at NSIT, Nehul Malhotra and Mayank Jain, specialising in Electronics and Communication, have successfully developed a fully dedicated data acquisition system having the ability to acquire data at a specified time with fine resolution and high accuracy in both time and data measurement. Their guide is a reputed faculty member of the Electronics and Communication Division, Prof. Dhananjay V. Gadre.

The system can be used to develop the V-I curves  of  charging  of  a  capacitor  with  the  help  of  technique  known  as undersampling. From the V-I curves obtained, we can find the value of capacitance. The  system  also  has  the  ability  to  communicate with  the  PC.  The  other  parts  of  the  project  also  include  MATLAB  based  support  to  interface  the  system with PC  to  create a user  friendly environment.

The system they used is a generic PC – based data acquisition system which uses a modular hardware comprising of a digital processor. A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit consisting internally of a relatively simple CPU, clock, timers, I/O ports, and memory. The microcontroller has been  programmed  in  C  language  to  collect  the  data  at  a  specified  time  with  fine resolution and high accuracy in both time and data measurement along with the ability to communicate with PC by software implemented for storage and further processing of data.

Although the system can collect any analog data available on its data input terminal but in this case, it has been made to collect the analog voltage across the capacitor during its charging with the resistance of pre-specified value. It should be noted that measurements like voltage across the capacitor during charging and discharging require utmost accuracy of  time  and  it  can’t  be  obtained  by  a  multithreaded  environment  like  OS (Windows/Linux) on a PC. Therefore, the need arises to develop a fully dedicated system to  collect  the  data  at  accurate  times  which  can  then  be  logged  into  PC  for  further processing.  Time  errors  arising  during  logging  don’t  matter  as  the  actual  data  was collected at the exact time although it may be received by PC at some later time. Once the PC has collected all the data it can process using features like curve tracing etc. to find the value of capacitance.

The readings across a capacitor have been taken by the process of undersampling meaning that after collecting a reading at a particular time, the capacitor is discharged to ground  and  then  charged  again  till  specified  time  to  collect  the  next  reading.  So, the actual time required to collect a single complete set of readings takes a lot more time than the time taken by capacitor to charge in a single go.

Below is a screenshot:

Nehul Malhotra can be contacted at malhotra.nehul@gmail.com.