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ENTREPRENEURSHIP: FROM BEING TO BECOMING..

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Entrepreneurs are generally perceived as insane risk-takers; a surreal combination of Wolverine and Batman; aggressive yet calm, intuitive yet rational and reckless yet brave. Entrepreneurs are generally perceived as those riding lions: fast-paced and those diving off an airplane without a parachute: courageous. But the question is, if only five per cent entrepreneurs end up working on their original idea, only two per cent end up providing value, and only 0.5% end up having monetary success; how should this dream be pursued?

entrepreneur

Jump without a rope!
In ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, Batman learns that you can go into full throttle only when there is no back up. Entrepreneurship teaches you to put all your eggs, fruits, hair-dryer, mobile-phone and everything else in one basket. If you have a backup, it’s you who have failed and not your startup. In any case, unless you took unreasonable risks while pursuing your startup, dealing with its failure will be an unpleasant and a ridiculously boring affair. It’s more like a step along the journey.

It’s about the journey and not the destination
As a startup, people will ask you, “Where do you see yourself after five years from now?” while you are still figuring out which client will be paying for your next lunch. In a startup, you learn. You learn to react to insulting situations, uncomforting questions and demeaning feedbacks. In a startup, you build, modify, test, rinse and repeat. It’s an incremental and an agile perspective towards life. You will never want it to end. It’s certainly addictive.

The outcome is not binary
Chances are that you might not become a billionaire but also, chances are that you might not end up on the street begging. There are millions of shades of grey between black and white, there are infinite rational numbers between 0 and 1 and there are millions of outcomes possible when you have a startup. It’s scary, yes! But it’s even more exciting. That fear of uncertainty, that feeling of not knowing the outcome, that thought-process when you are not in control of everything; there are very few things which can trigger such emotions. They are so rare, the English dictionary has no words for it!

Businesses die, entrepreneurs don’t
A misleading element in the perception of success rate is that you only have one shot at it, so you better make it. Startups never sink or swim. They give you a swing of directions. You give up your corporate job, you put in all the savings, your company fails and you can’t get back to your original career. There, you have another direction all together. And mind well, if a startup fails, a negligible amount of people can go back to their jobs. You are addicted; ruined. You will flock with the most like-minded, risk taking, lean, suave and convincing SOBs around. And you will start another one! Entrepreneurship is a career. So long as you don’t hit yourself in the face with the bat, you can keep taking swing after swing after swing.

 

 

Yash Shah

SVNIT Alumni

CEO & Founder Gridle 

www.yashshah.in

Filmmaking

Reading Time: 3 minutes

 “There is nothing that inspires you more than a good film”

Every Engineer that has ever happened, seems to share a common curiosity, watching films. Thanks to DC++ that we have terabytes of films available at our disposal. Be it mess, canteen or lectures, we tend to discuss about the latest films that we have watched.

Everyone love films, but what is the actual process that goes into filmmaking?

Before coming to that, I would like to ask you, what actually is a film?

STORY+ACTING+CAMERA+A LITTLE PINCH OF MUSIC= FILM!

Well, that seems to be the mathematical formula for that, but even after all this your film should make a meaning i.e. there should be a moral to your story. Without it, the film would be nothing but a normal video.

Now, coming to the process of Filmmaking. The process includes three main components. i.e

  1. Pre-Production
  2. Production
  3. Post-production

 

Pre-production: As it is said, everything starts with an idea. A film, being no exception also starts with an Idea. Hopefully, an idea could be anything, from the life of people in prison (The Shawshank Redemption) to three random guys in a college (3 Idiots). You can even make a movie on your way to the class at mornings. You just need to be creative enough to see the story.

Making a story is never enough, you need to write it down in the form of a screenplay. The screenplay/script is a written form of film that contains dialogues, actions, expression and behaviour of different characters. Screenplay is written in a definite format which initially one might find unusual to the typical scripts. Screenplay of many movies are available on the internet. One can easily find them via google. Also, there are various software available for script writing. Most popular ones are CELTX, FINAL DRAFT and MONTAGE etc.

The other parts of pre-production includes documenting the shots, scouting the locations and casting the actors.

Production: This is the second part of Film making. It includes going to the scouted locations and shooting the scenes. There are various things that needs to be taken care of while shooting the film.

Composition: Composition simply means preparing the scene i.e. to make the scene solve its purpose. To do this there are various shots that one can take during the shoot. Those includes long medium, close-up, birds eye etc. There is a specific use for every shot. The details could be found on the internet. There is a thumb rule for the purpose i.e. the closer the camera is to the character, the more viewer has a deep insight for the character.

Acting: Acting is one thing that can do wonders for a film and also might prove bad if not done properly. The director needs to work with the actors properly to get the desired acting.

Cameras: The type of cameras and lenses prove very important for the film. At our level, DSLRs do a nice jobs. Even if you don’t have a DSLR you can shoot by a digital camera or phone. Camera is just a tool for movie making but at the same time it is quite important.

Once you are done with all the shooting, it’s time for Post-production.

Post Production: It is the last step of the process of filmmaking. This requires the sorting of shots, merging them and adding music to them. This could be done with the help of an editing software. The best ones include Adobe Premier Pro, Sony Vegas Pro, Power Director etc.

Except the above, there is a golden rule of filmmaking, “The more you see, the more you learn” Watch as many movies as you can to get a good idea of making films.

 

Vinayak Vyas.

BTECH III, CIVIL ENGINEERING. 

Rich Resources of SVNIT Surat

Reading Time: 2 minutes

 

1.       Facility to download IEEE Research Papers for no cost through SVNIT  Local Area Network

IEEE is The World’s largest professional association for the advancement of technology. For us, it is a very good platform to read about all Research Papers written for all branches of Electrical & Electronics Engineers. But you need to be a member of that particular IEEE society to be able to download and read the paper. But!!! Our college provided us access to IEEE papers from our campus. So if you connect to IEEE website from our college LAN then you can access and download the papers!!!

So wait for what?? Read the latest research papers on various IEEE Societies mentioned onhttp://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/societies/index.html

Link to IEEE Explore for seeing a Research Paper of your interest- http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp

 

2.       Magazine and Journal Section in Central Library

Entering Central Library and on the second floor there is a Section for Magazines and journals for all branches which are the best way to stay in touch with the latest in technology. So go any explore your technical interest…..

 

3.       Reference Section 2nd Floor Central Library

We have a whole section of the best reference books for 100s different topics of all branches in our Reference Section. Avail that facility to read them and get your fundamentals crystal clear

 

4.       Digital Library – Store house of all well know Tech Journals ….

Go to svnit.ac.in -> Central Facility -> Central Library -> On Right Section Digital Library LINK

You need to login through our college LAN and then you can access various cool stuff like

E-BooksSpringler E-books, Cambridge University Press E-Book …….

E-JournalsScience DirectACM Digital Library, Institute of Civil Engineering Journals, Engineering Science Data Unit Series etc..

Purchased/Subscribed Standards

Previous Year Question Papers

The ABCD of RESEARCH PAPERS

Reading Time: 3 minutes

First of all, to write a paper, you need to have some things with you

  • An idea, a new concept.
  • Microsoft word/ Linux (This article will cover mostly the part in which you can type in word, the Linux part will be discussed in later blog)
  • A book, pen!!!
  • Math -type software (for typing formulas)
  • Lots of patience with will and vigor

The 1st step will be to formulate the idea clearly. Understand the idea deep enough and its implications. For a theoretical paper, this process takes time depending on how deep the result/idea could strike. Most of the time, people don’t understand their ideas deep enough and it creates problems in the later sections where they have to show some applications/implications of their idea. Hence, formulate it in simplest possible terms, both in Mathematics (if applicable) and English. Distill it till you can tell it in smallest number of words (That is one of the best ways to check if an idea is complete).

As Einstein says, ”If you cannot explain it to a child, u r probably wrong!!”

 

The 2nd step is to write a basic outline of the idea, in a book will be better, as it gives a physical feel.

3rd step will be to select a journal in which to submit your article. It is very important to select the correct journal, as selecting the wrong journal involves 2 risks.

  • Time: For a moderate level journal and above, the time taken in reviewing an article varies from 2 to 3 months and goes on. So if you are submitting in the wrong journal, u r wasting a lot of time.
  • Circulation: If your idea can strike deep enough, then the resubmissions involve a risk of imitation. Although, this can be avoided by preprints. (google for more)

Generally, the selection is based on two criteria; Topic and Impact factor

Impact factor is the number of people who look in to search about new advances. The higher the impact factor, the more famous, and tougher to get your article published in it. Although there are many journals who play with numbers to show higher impact factor, but generally better than average publishers are Elsevier, Springer, IEEE (for electronic and electrical people), nature to name a few.

Also check here the journal is cited .i.e. where will the article appear once it is published. Check for Sciverse, Sci, Sci expanded, Google scholar etc although it is not necessary that it should be at all places.

Remember that the third parameter can be compromised upto a certain level. I mean it is meaningless to publish if it doesn’t appear anywhere, so go accordingly.

Once selection is complete, type your content according to the journal’s format, which they give in Author Guidelines section. If you have typed in above section, just adjust it according to the journal’s format.

Take care to note all your references, from where you have looked for contents, papers, books etc.

The title and abstract should be written only after writing the whole paper, as it is the tagline of paper. The title and abstract must convey the basic idea of what is in the paper, as people read these when they look for article.

Submit your article, ad wait for their response. Generally, rejections are faster, so hat you get time to target your next journal.

Typing in Linux is a totally different story which I shall discuss in later blog!

Best of Luck.

 

 

Binoy Nambiar

3rd Year Electronics

Email: nambiarbinoy@yahoo.co.in

Internship

Reading Time: 4 minutes

 

Quoting what IIT Delhi Global Internship Program FAQ;s Have to say:

https://sites.google.com/site/aicetinterns/

 

  I am a student of the <>th semester, can I apply ?

Every student is (wrongly) advised by seniors to go for a internship at the earliest opportunity. Senior students often tell junior students (wrongly) that grades don’t count, and that projects are all that matter. They are wrong. Grades count – we look at your grades very carefully when we select you for the Internship.

The best time to go for a Internship is in the summer following Semester 6 + Semester 7 (nearly 9 months), or the whole of Semester 7 + winter + Semester 8 (almost a year). Without doing your discipline courses in Semesters 6 and 7, you could be very badly prepared for any internship.

Please try to follow the advice below when you choose your Internship period:

 If you are a student of Semester …. : Advice 
 Semester 1,2,3
  1. Please do not come for this internship or ANY internship for that matter in Semester 1-3.
  2. Take your textbooks for the next semester and study the chapters.
  3. Try to solve the questions and read alternative textbooks in the area.
  4. Also, do NOT join C# / .ASP / .NET coaching classes – such courses only reduce your study time. An employer will probably hire a programmer for these skills and not a software engineer. 

    Confused ? The difference between a software engineer and a programmer is like the difference between a doctor and a compounder. Both can administer a injection, perhaps even equally well – but only the doctor would knowwhy the injection was necessary. Even if the compounder, due to long practice, gets to administer the injecton more deftly than the doctor, the doctor will still be the only of the two who knows why. The compounder would always know just how to administer the injection.

    If programming also interests you, buy a good book on the language you want to program in, download linux (www.ubuntu.com) and learn it for free at home.

 Semester 4
  1. Please avoid coming for a Internship in Semester 4 unless there is something special you think you need to do. Special things could be going to Institute X because there is a Scientist X there who specialises in Algorithm Y, taking a course in a area not taught in your Institute next semester.
 Semester 5, 6
  1. Prepare for your Internship by doing all of the following:
    1. Read the latest journals in areas of interest every Friday – either in the library or on the net (see www.webproforum.com)
    2. Read alternative text books
    3. Read IEEE / IEE Journals for recent papers – don’t bother if you don’t understand everything at first (30% understood is good enough). Keep reading.
    4. Form Special Interest Groups (SIGs), meet on a weekly basis and discuss topics
    5. Give (voluntarily) a Weekly Seminar on what you read – you could give this to your Special Interest Group
    6. Talk to your own Faculty / lab technicians for possible projects you could do – whether in lab-oriented or theoretical projects.
    7. Start identifying faculty in your institute or outside your Institute in the areas of interest. Write to them.
      Do NOT write emails indiscriminately to hundreds of people – it will backfire on you when you are found out.
    8. Attend conferences, talks and lectures in your city.
    9. Watch Discovery, CNN, National Geographic and Eklavya.
    10. Join a local library. Visit the local University library. Read fiction and non-fiction. Take Art classes. Take pottery classes. Learn to play a musical instrument.
    11. Watch lectures of the courses you are being taught on YouTube.
    12. Read the course material of the courses being taught to you on MIT’s Open courseware site or IIT’s NPTEL site.
    13. Apply for Internship in time
 Semester 7,8
  1. Try to do projects within your Institute. Accomodation is not a problem. People know you and your background and the chance of being handed a task you cannot execute is minimal.

    On the other hand, a Faculty Member in another Institute is very likely to assume that you have done something in your coursework which you have not done.  You avoid all the following when you do your project in your own Institute ! It is no joke – it cuts into work time and influences work moods significantly.Only when it is absolutely unavoidable, go outside your Institute to do a Internship. And if you do go to another Institute, give first priority to availability of accomodation on campus even if it is marginally more expensive. This saves time and you get to meet more people in your peer group, have longer working hours and tend to achieve much more in your Internship.

    1. Coming to a strange city or a strange country
    2. getting accomodation, or even having to adjust yourself into a relative’s home for six long months
    3. having constantly worried parents
    4. dealing with indifferent food
    5. going through long commutes
    6. suffering irregular mealtimes

 

Things I would like to add:

2 most inspiring and knowledgeable novel that will change your thinking:

Fountainhead By Ayn Rand

 Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell

For ones who are not not good at programming read “The C Programming Language (Ansi C Version) 2nd Edition” written by creator of C – Dennis Rotchie. It costs only Rs 146!!! Link

For 1st yearites the best option to get their 1st year concepts right by watching videos @ NPTEL’s & MIT 1st year course for EC & Comps students Link1 Link2

Videos of Basic 1st and 2nd sem subjects. Just watch them at 1.5x speed as you may feel them to be bit slow!!!

 Few good place to look for Internships online: www.internshala.com, www.twenty19.com

+ List of Online Portal to see video lectures, projects, departmental magazines, some god father tech sites is provided in “Extra Edgy Things For All Engineers” Blog

Graphical User Interface Designing

Reading Time: 3 minutes

START GUI DEVELOPMENT WITH C#.NET

It’s obvious that no one likes to work with Command line applications. Even though your application may be performance wise superior, users will choose the application with the better Graphical User Interface.

So, is it hard developing GUI application?

No it’s damn easy to develop a GUI app.

There were days when creating GUI applications with Win32 API (Application programing interface) was a headache. But now with the help of Visual Studio one can make simple-basic applications just by some drag and drop features and few lines (literally 10-15 line) of code.

First of all you will require Visual Studio C# 2010/Visual studio windows desktop 2013. You can download it from the following URL.

http://www.visualstudio.com/downloads/download-visual-studio-vs

All the express editions are for free.

Visual Studio is one of the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) used for the development of GUI application. An IDE is software that aids a programmer in developing complex application. Most of the time the IDE will provide the skeleton code for different part of the application and your job reduces to only filling the code at the required places.

While working with VS (Visual studio)  you may use C# or Visual Basic. But I strongly recommend C#. C# has a remarkable resemblance with JAVA. Even if you don’t know JAVA, learning C# is not rocket science.

The development in VS takes place in two views:

1>     Code View: This is where we write the actual code for the actions that have to be executed on different events (like clicking, mouse hover, etc.).

2>     Design View: This is where we design how the application looks. We can include GUI elements by just selecting them from the Tool Box. In this way we generate GUI elements and edit their properties without manually writing code for them in the code view.

NOTE: If you want you can manually write code for GUI elements in the code view.

For example if you want to create a button, you’ll first go to design view select button from the tool box and place it on the screen. And you can change the properties like name, size, colour, text and other visual attributes of the button.

If you want something to be done when a button is clicked, all you have to do is double click the button in the design view and IDE will take you to the place where coding for the button has to be done. All the empty function will be generated automatically and you just have to fill in the code.

This is the general flow in which the development of various parts of an application takes place. It is not possible to explain the actual process in a single post.The following source contains very good compilation of all the basic information if you want to learn C#.NET for GUI applications. It contains the information on commonly used classes and how to use them in your code. The tutorial is meant for beginners and contains step by step instructions.

http://www.homeandlearn.co.uk/csharp/csharp.html

 

Learning to develop GUI application is easy and straight forward but not a one day task. I would recommend you to be regular and understand by implementing the topics in the above mention link.

Happy coding!

 

Manav Prajapati

3rd Year Comps

SVNIT

Email: manav245@gmail.com

Supplements for Trical 1st Year & 2nd Year students

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Electrical engineering is one of the pioneers in modern development. This branch has its origin dated

back to the times when magnetism and electricity were discovered. Today, it provides the 4th

requirement of humans after air, water and food- electricity. It is known as the mother branch of

Electronics, Communication and Computer Science.

 

• Broad classification of Electrical Engineering-

 1. Power System- It deals with the generation, transmission, distribution of electric

power. Moreover, it deals with stability and fault analysis of electrical lines.

If possible, visit a power plant.

 2. Control and Optimization- It deals with control systems which regulates almost

every machine and process. For example, to regulate a movement of robotic arm,

the design of complete system comes under this subject. This is a subject for you

if you are interested in Mathematics. This subject along with Microcontrollers,

forms the exciting automation subject (which is present in almost every modern

equipment). For further reference:www-control.eng.cam.ac.uk

 3. Power electronics- When electronics is applied for power conversion. This forms

integral part of modern power system. (If you are fascinated by inverter made by

Rancho in 3 idiots, then this is the subject for you)

 4. Machines- A subject of imagination. I don’t think you need description for this

subject

 5. Electrical Circuits- This part will serve as a basis for all the subjects described above.

 6. Microprocessor, Microcontrollers and Embedded System- If you are fond of

electronics and programming, these courses are for you. Almost every appliance

uses embedded system, for its control and operation.

 

• Things to do in summer –

 1. Visit a motor rewinding workshop. It will give you real insight of windings in

electrical machine. It will definitely serve as a base for subjects like Electrical

Machine 1 & 2. Moreover there is no prior permission required, you can just go

there, give your introduction and ask them to explain you the windings of machine.

 2. Do not ignore MATHEMATICS. There are many subjects in Electrical Engineering

which heavily rely on calculus and linear algebra. If you love to study apart from

your normal curriculum, there are online courses of calculus and linear algebra on

following website:ocw.mit.edu

 3. Probably everyone related to engineering has given this advice- Learn C

programming. And I am sure that majority of you have ignored it. I will just say-

If you want to peacefully clear your engineering, sit down in your room, watch

movie- The Social Network, get some motivation for programming, and learn C

programming. I know this is hard, but sometimes we don’t have options.

CRYOGENICS : Basics & Applications

Reading Time: 7 minutes

 

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENT

  • INTRODUCTION
  • CRYO—-
  • TYPES OF CRYOGENIC TREATMENTS
  • ABSOLUTE ZERO
  • PRODUCTION OF LOW TEMP
  • METHODS OF LIQUIFICATION OF AIR
  • APPLICATIONS
  • CRYOGENS
  • CONCLUSION
  • CRYOGENIC LABORATORY

 

INTRODUCTION

  • Cryogenics – the study and use of materials at extremely low temperatures
  • Inputs from three major disciplines, namely PHYSICS , MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING
  •  Such low temperatures cause changes in the physical   properties of materials that allow them to be used in unusual engineering, industrial, and medical applications
  •  For example, in the cryogenic temperature range, air becomes a liquid—or even a solid—and living tissue freezes instantly

 

TYPES OF CRYOGENIC TREATMENT

  •  SHALLOW CRYOGENICS, the objects are cooled down to temperature of approximately -85oC
  • FLOODING, first the object is taken to -85oC, then the chamber is flooded with liquid nitrogen to reduce the temperature furthur
  • DEEP CRYOGENICS TREATMENT, Subjects the objects to the temperature of approximately    -185oC

 

ABSOLUTE ZERO

  • Absolute zero is a temperature marked by a 0 entropy configuration. It is the coldest temperature theoretically possible and cannot be reached by artificial or natural means

 

PRODUCTION OF LOW TEMPERATURE

  • HEAT CONDUCTION: When bodies are in contact, heat flows from the body with the higher temperature to the body with a lower temperature. Can occur between any and all forms of matter. It is essential in the production of cryogenic temperatures and environments.
  • EVAPORATIVE COOLING: Humans lose heat by this mechanism. Atoms and molecules in the gaseous state are moving faster than the atoms and molecules in the liquid state. Adding heat energy to the particles in a liquid makes them gaseous
  • THE JOULE-THOMSON EFFECT:  Allowing a gas to expand very rapidly causes its temperature to drop dramatically. Reducing the pressure on a gas accomplishes the same effect.
  • Ordinary house hold refrigerators and air conditioners operate on this principle.

 

METHODS OF LIQUIFICATION OF AIR

  • Linde’s System also known as Hampson System
  • Claude’s System

LINDE’S SYSTEM

 

 

6

 

  • Clean dry air is taken from the atmosphere and is compressed up to 200 bar
  • The high pressure enters into counter flow air to air heat exchanger and is then throttled to atm – pressure
  • The J-T cooling up to expansion causes a lowering of temperature and this cool air is passed through heat exchanger where it cools the incoming high section
  • Thus the temperature at the valve is progressively lowered until the liquefaction temperature is reached

 

CLAUDE’S SYSTEM DIAGRAM

 

5

  • Claude’s System yields more efficient cycle than Linde’s System
  • The expansion through an expansion valve is an irreversible process.
  • In Claude’s System energy is removed from the gas stream by using an expansion engine or expander.
  • The expansion process is isentropic and much lower temp is attained then isenthalpic expansion
  • In Claude’s System the gas is first compressed to pressure of the order 4 Mpa.

 

How Claude’s System is more efficient than Linde’s System

  • The advantage of the Claude’s System is, it operates at low compression ratio      compared with Linde’s process.
  • Secondly the temperature of air before coming to the expansion valve in Claude system is lower than the Linde system.

 

Cryogenic Devices

4

 

3

 

 

2

 

APPLICATION OF CRYOGENICS

  •   Aerospace-cryogenic engines
  •  Medical Field
  •  Manufacturing field
  •  Electronics Field
  •  Fuels research
  •  Miscellaneous uses

 

CRYOGENIC ENGINES IN AEROSPACE

  • First operational Cryogenic Rocket Engine is 1961 NASA designed  RL-10 LOX LH2 rocket engine
  • The second-stage Pratt & Whitney RL10B-2 engine is based on the 30-year heritage of the reliable RL10 engine
  • At Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu, is the LPSC. The system involves materials working at 23K and pumps at speeds of 40,000 rpm. Complex metering, monitoring, integrating technologies involved. The engines required to fire for  700 seconds during the final stage of a launch providing 7 tones of thrust
  • Engine works on ‘Staged Combustion Cycle’ with an integrated turbo pump running at 42,000rpm. Also equipped with two steering engines developing a thrust of 2 kN each to enable three-axis control of the launch vehicle during the mission
  • Closed loop control of both thrust and mixture ratio, which ensures optimum propellant utilization for the mission
  • To know how cyrogenics plays vital role in space shuttle.. watch this video :

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjG-4oR7JxI

 

CRYOSURGERY

  • Cryosurgery- Use of extreme cold produced by liquid nitrogen (or argon gas) to destroy abnormal tissue.
  • Used to treat external tumors, such as those on the skin.
  • For internal tumors, liquid nitrogen is circulated through a hollow instrument called a Cryoprobe.
  • Used since many years in the treatment of skin cancer

 

CRYOGENICS IN MANUFACTURING FIELD

  • Cryogenic treatment works on Reamers, Tool bits, Tool punches, Carbide Drills, Carbide Cutters, Milling Cutters, Files, Knives, Reciprocating Blades, Dies and cutting tools
  • Stress relieved ferrous and non ferrous castings and forgings for enhanced dimensional stability and surface finish

 

CRYOGENICS IN ELECTRONICS FIELD

  • Super conducting electronic devices like SQUID (Super conducting quantum interference device) are used in sensitive digital magnetometers and voltmeters
  • Zero friction bearings use magnetic field instead of oil or air, derived from the Meissner Effect associated with super conductivity.
  • Super conducting electric motors are constructed approaching zero electric loses

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR)

Most common method to determine the physical and chemical properties of atoms by detecting the radio frequency absorbed and subsequent relaxation of nuclei in a magnetic field. Strong magnetic fields are generated by supercooling electromagnets. Liquid helium(BP  4K) is used to cool the inner coils. Cheap metallic superconductors can be used for the coil wiring. So-called high-temperature superconducting compounds can be made to superconduct with the use of liquid nitrogen(BP 77K)

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)  :

Complex application of NMR where geometry of the resonances is deconvoluted and used to image objects by detecting the relaxation of protons that have been perturbed by a radio-frequency pulse in the strong magnetic field. Mostly used in health applications

Electric Power Transmission:

  • Superconductors could be used to increase power throughput. Require cryogenic liquids such as nitrogen or helium to cool special alloy-containing cables to increase power transmission. Field is the subject of an agreement within the International Energy Agency.

Frozen Food:

  • Transportation of large masses of frozen food. Food is freezed in war zones, earthquake hit regions, etc. Cryogenic food freezing is also helpful for large scale food processing industries

Forward looking infrared (FLIR)
Many infra-red cameras require their detectors to be cryogenically cooled

 

Blood banking
Certain rare blood groups are stored at low temperatures, such as −165 °C

Special effects
Liquid nitrogen and CO2 has been built into nightclub effect systems by Kryogenifex to create a chilling effect and white fog that can be illuminated with colored lights.

 

 

 1

  • Inert Gases: Do not react chemically to any great extent. Do not burn or support combustion. Includes Nitrogen, Helium, Neon, Argon and Krypton
  • Flammable Gases: Some cryogenic liquids produce a gas that can burn in air. Includes Hydrogen, Methane and Liquefied Natural Gas
  • Oxygen: Many non-combustible materials can burn in the presence of Liquid Oxygen. Organic materials react explosively with Liquid Oxygen. Hazards and handling precautions of liquid oxygen is considered separately from other cryogenic liquids

 

FACILITIES AT OUR CRYOGENICS LABORATORY

  • Oil Diffusion Vacuum Pumping System with Measuring Guages, Trolley Heater & Oil
  • Dewar vessels ( Model T-26-A 0110 capacity – 25 Lt. ) ( Model T-55-A 0110 capacity – 50 Lt. )
  • VPF 100 Liquid Nitrogen variable temperature Dewar with Controller & Trolley
  • Servotronic Digital (6 digit) Temperature Indicator ( PT-100 -200C to 100C six channel 230 VAC )
  • Piezo-Electric Transducer with Accessories
  • Data Logger with Software for online display ( ModelNo: MICROLOG 6102 + CST 27)
  • Helium Compressor

 

Projects on Cryogenics

  • QUASI-ISOTHERMAL EXPANSION ENGINE FOR CRYOGENIC AUTOMOTIVE PROPULSION
  • CRYOGENIC ENGINE IN ROCKET PROPULSION
  • DEEP SPACE COOLING TO ELIMINATE CRYOGENIC VENTING
  • APPLICATION OF CRYOTREATMENT FOR ENHANCEMENT IN TOOL LIFE

Supplements for 1st and 2nd Year Chemies

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Hey 2nd Yearites . !!  As you are in 4th sem so first of all you might be thinking  what chemical engineering is…. We are not definitely studying it the way we used to study chemistry in XI or XII standard,instead of that we are with subjects like Electrical Technology, TMMD, Solid mechanics. I’ll tell you why these subjects are important. As chemical engineer you will be able to come up with technical solutions for problems and issues in relation to process and product technology. In finding these solutions, chemical engineers work closely with experts from other specializations, taking into account the related economical, social, environmental and ethical aspects of the problem they’re dealing with. To understand it let us see one practical situation wherein you have task to build up a transportation pipeline from point A to point B  and no qualified person is with you to help except one or two labourers. Your area of concern will be : 1) Angle of elevation of point A and point B from horizontal. 2) Diameter,length of pipe and which type of joints should be there? — So here comes Theory of machines and machine designing. 3) From what material pipe is to be made ? and what are the possibilities of failure of such a  structure? If pipeline is to be made underground then the nature of soil needs to be understood to avoid corrosion problems— So here comes Chemical Engineering Materials. Finally let’s say you have carefully made all arrangements and the pipeline is ready to use. And as you switch on the pump, you may not see the fluid coming out from the pipe!!Then what will you do??? What is the problem??? Problem was that you may not used proper motor which will provide you exact power or you have purchased correct HP motor but it is consuming more power, then you will go and see whether my motor is delta or star connected because every connection has its advantages and disadvantages. So if you have studied electrical engineering basics then you would have easily identified the problem.

  • Please don’t take any subject lightly or for the sake of getting marks. Strictly speaking what I think  from my experience is that an engineer should have the know of  basics of all disciplines of engineering. Now you may ask is coding and programming is going to help a chemie?? The answer is yes, because chemical process calculations are not as simple as solving an two variable equation and finding the answers. Practically any chemical  process or  even a small unit operation will have ‘n’ no. of variables so how you can solve them. So we need simulation software to handle these large no of variables. Now if you have basic “funda” clear in your mind that how it was designed and programmed.. You can handle the software much better than your colleague. But again I am not saying that you should be ‘phoodu’ in programming but basics are compulsory.
  • So, Chemical or process engineering is an interdisciplinary science comprising elements of mechanical Engineering, chemistry and technical physics.
  • The difference between chemical Engineering and process engineering lies in the emphasis of the degree course: while chemical engineers concentrate mainly on chemical processes, process Engineers deal primarily with the plants needed for this, their design and technical solution.
  • For General Chemical Technology (GCT) please watch you tube animation videos, NPTEL lectures. Also you can distribute these topics among your friends and then have a discussion for e.g. one can prepare about paper and pulp industry , other one on sugar industry and discuss among themselves.

I hope you are clear what are the application and importance of these subjects in the life of chemical engineer.

  • For first yearites : Observe the chemical processes occurring in day to day life and analyze them. See corrosion problems , how thermodynamics is playing in your home kitchen, analyze how propulsion systems works , analyze how energy sources like batteries, fuel cells, solar cells works.
  • Study alternate sources of energies such as bio diesel ( Jatropha seeds).Go through some basic outline of industries such as:Sugar industry, paper and pulp industry, soap and detergent industry….etc.
  • If possible visit as many industries as possible.
  • At the end of first year try to learn Microsoft Excel Software as much you can and C programming language in summer vacations.

 

  • For second yearites.. We dont have core chemical engineering subjects in 2nd year… So in 2nd year have active  participation  in techfests of various colleges; this will give you experience, direction , boost up your confidence and   will definately gives practical knowledge which helps when you will study core subjects such as (HTO, MTO, Thermo, CRE..etc)
  • You can participate in events like chemical car competition and chemistry related quizzes in 2nd yearand then in 3rd year you can participate in heat exchanger event …(I am saying this because there is a separate topic on heat echanger in 5th semester,so it is better to participate in this event later on in 3rd year.) … Do as per your interest.
  • Read magazines these are available in library, watch NPTEL lectures they are very good.
  • There are some free online courses available online these are given by profs of MIT , Harvard, Oxford, Stanford.. So make use of them. Most recommended courses are EDX and Stanford university online course.
  • My advice to you all is that don’t do industrial training in 2nd year.Instead  go to your seniors, profs and work under them  and learn as much you can from them. The best places for summer training  in chemical engineering some are: IITs, IISC , ISER, NCL, ICT, CSMCRI etc and in Private colleges we have very good Nanotechnology Lab at DDIT college in Nadiad. and in our college itself we have summer training programme so apply for that .

Some preferred courses: EDX

  1. our energetic earth
  2. Introduction to water treatment 
  3. Solar energy
  4. Introduction to solid state chemistry
  5. Thermodynamics
  6. Introduction to Drinking Water Treatment

STANFORD ONLINE COURSE

  1. Solar: Solar Cells, Fuel Cells and Batteries.
  2. Reservoir Geomechanics

Data Structures: Segment Trees

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Video : CEV TALK_3: DATA STRUCTURES- SEGMENT TREE

Data Structures are a way to store data in such a way that we can operate on them efficiently. The way we are organizing our data matters a lot. If we manage our data in the right way, we can reduce the running time of our operations on the data by a lot.

This talk is about such a data structure known as segment tree.

First lets see why we need segment trees. I demonstrate it using a problem statement:

You are given an array of n integers (a[0] to a[n-1]).

You have to answer m queries.
In each query, you are given two integers, l and r ( 0<=l,r<=n-1 ). Your job is to print the largest number in the range a[l], a[l+1], a[l+2],…., a[r-1], a[r].
n is in the order of 10^6
m is in the order of 10^5.

Iterate from l to r and keep track of the maximum number found.
Eg. For query 2 7, look at all the numbers from 2 till 7. Easy to find the max number this way.
In form of a ‘for’ loop:
int max=array[l];
for(i=l;i<=r;i++)

{

if(array[i]>max)

max=array[i];
}
Though very simple to understand, this method is very time consuming.
For each query, it does (r-l+1) operations. For n=1000000, and a query where l=0 and r=999999, 10^6 iterations will take place. As I mentioned earlier, there can be 10^5 queries like this. So, the total operations required to answer all queries will be 10^5 X 10^6= 10^11.

For n=1000000 and m=100000, this method will take 120 seconds to run. And this is a lot!

The better way to solve this problem is using segment tree.

The principle of segment tree is:
If we have two arrays
{3,5,2} and {6,22,1,6,10}.
And the maximum integer of these arrays is m1=5 and m2=22 respectively. Then, the maximum of the array obtained by combining both these array {3,5,2,6,22,1,6,10} is MAX(m1,m2)=MAX(5,22)=22.
i.e. We don’t need to look at the whole combined array again. We can deduce the maximum of the whole array just by looking at the maximum of the individual arrays

Segment tree for the array {30,9,62,2,6,39,22,77,67,51,83,12,19,49,3,99} is as follows:

stree

Using this segment tree, we can reduce the number of nodes that we have to look at to answer a query. For eg.
for the query 4 15, we have to look at the two nodes labelled 4-7 and 8-15. And the answer for the query 4 15 will be the MAX of the value of the two abovementioned nodes i.e. MAX(77,99)=99.
For the query 4 13, we will look at the three nodes labelled 4-7 and 8-11 and 12-13. And similarly find that the answer to the query is MAX(77,83,49)=83.
You may observe that you never have to look at more then 2 X log2(n) nodes for answering any query.
So, for n=1000000, m=100000, the number of operations required to answer all queries is 2 X log2(1000000) X 100000 = 4 X 10^6 operations.
And indeed, this algorithm runs on the same input in only around 0.35 seconds!

Click the following to download the .pdf on segment trees used during the Talk.

CEV TALK SEGMENT TREES

CEV - Handout