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Volume : 9 Issue : 6 June 2012 Price : Rs. 3.00
Chairman’s Message
T.S. [email protected]
From The Editor’s Desk
H.R. [email protected]
Blog: http://infoforuse.blogspot.comDear Members
Your section is running three programs foryou viz.
a. Conference Sponsorship Program –Technical and financial support toInstitutions having student branches and whoare organizing conferences / workshops /seminars and symposia under the banner of
IEEE. IEEE has introduced a new conferences application platformcalled ICX wef June 2012 to enhance the user experience on conferenceorganization.
b. Faculty Development Program – Conducting training programsfor faculty in specific areas to update them on latest knowledge andenable them to be more effective teachers. The 22nd FacultyDevelopment Program on “Soft Computing Techniques in ElectricalSciences – Recent Perspective” is scheduled on 30th June & 1st July2012. Faculty IEEE members get 50% concession in course fee.
c. Student Project Support Program – For the second successfulyear this program aims to encourage student members of IEEE toexperiment and explore their genuine project ideas as part of theircurriculum. Your section funds the project either partially or fullydepending upon the evaluation of the project by a committee.
During the last executive committee meeting, your section isconsidering adding two more programs viz.
d. Skills Development Program – One of the recurring feedbacks fromprevious faculty development programs is to consider running someskills based programs such as Matlab, Octave, Labview, Drupal etc.The IEEE GINI (Global Integrated Network of IEEE) and IEEE GOLDteams are already working on a program on Drupal (the open sourceCMS platform of our website) along with IEEE CS & IEEE PCS.
e. Financial assistance for attending conferences – Many requestshave been received by your section in the past, particularly fromstudent members, exploring the possibility of financial support forpresenting their selected papers at international conferences. Thesection is actively considering allocating a fixed budget for this purposeafter the members work out the modalities of approval.
Your section’s executive committee is keen to identify areas whereIEEE Madras Section can effectively contribute and make a difference byenhancing the value of IEEE membership. We welcome your suggestionsin this regard and assure you that each suggestion will be taken up fordiscussion in the committee.
Each month we download the latest active members list from SAMIEEEto update our listserv ids and postal labels to ensure that all active membersget our newsletters on time as also all the informative and very usefulemails that we circulate. It pays to keep your membership active always.
Finally, I would like to point you to https://supportcenter.ieee.org/for all your queries to be addressed through chat, phone or emails.
Yours [email protected]
Dear Friends,
Our chairman, in his message has detailedout the various initiatives of the Section for thebenefit of members. We are sure the members willparticipate and benefit from them.
LINK congratulates Mr. K.V. Rupchand forhaving received the “Certificate of Appreciation” from IEEE HQ for theNotable Services and Contributions towards the advancement of IEEEand the Engineering Professions as the Chair, IEEE Power & EnergySociety, Madras Chapter during 2008-2011.
LINK also congratulates Mr. B. Anand from Madras Section forhis project “A Significant Scheme on Small Renewable Hybrid Stand-Alone Power Generation System” having been selected to receive a grantof USD 480/=
We remind and encourage the SB counselors to send theirnominations to the IEEE R10 WIE Coordinator on or before 30th Jun2012 for the IEEE R10 WIE Section Affinity Group of the Year Awardand the IEEE R10 WIE Student Branch Affinity Group of the Year Award.
Being the year end and examination period, this month, the activitiesreported for publishing are comparatively lesser than previous fewmonths. We are in the process of bringing down the cost associated withthe print communication and use the savings for other initiatives.Accordingly, this issue of LINK will be of eight pages instead of thenormal 12 pages.
In this issue, we have published the reports on events organizedby the following institutions:
Madras Inst. of Tech
VIT Univ.,
Magna College of Engg Hindustan Univ.,
Infant Jesus College of Engg and Tech
M P Nachimuthu M Jagantahan Engg College
The other items published in the LINK include: Activities of IEEEIAS & PSES Chapters, Report on the national competition organized byNIOT and IEEE OES, Report on the Faculty Development Programmeon “A Complementary Essentials of MATLAB & LABVIEW – Theory& Practice”, Short articles on “Android on ARM for non-smart phone”,“Plagiarism”, “Learning from IBM Business Agility TechnicalConference” by our member, “Techbits” dealing with recent and interestingdevelopments.
We draw the attention of our readers to the announcements fromIEEE CS & IEEE PCS on the “Guest Lectures” and “ManageMySkillInitiatives”. SB counselors interested in these, may pl. get in touch withthe chairman, IEEE CS & PCS at [email protected]. Also, werequest the readers to enroll in the forthcoming FDP and benefit.
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IEEE-MAS Link Volume : 9 Issue : 6 June 2012
Technology Day Celebrations
IEEE IAS & PSES Chapters
IEEE IAS & IEEE PSES Madras Chaptersin association with Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Chennai
celebrated the Technology Day on 11th May2012. The function was inaugurated by Er. S.Rajavel, Chairman, IEEE-IAS Madras Chapter.Er. R. Srinivasan, Vice Chairman, IEEE-IASMadras Chapter welcomed the gathering. Major(Retd) VV Chandrasekaran, Chairman IEEE -PSES Madras Chapter addressed the gathering.
There were following two technical talksduring this programme:
1. Human Engineering & Safety - How not togo a Doctor by Dr G S Kailash, MBBS.,
MD. This hilarious and thought provokingspeech was enjoyed by all attendees.
2. Pumped Storage – Proven & Time TestedTechnology for Storing Electrical Energyby Shri. K V Rupchand, Chairman, IEEE-PES Madras Chapter. This was veryinformative with lots of statisticalinformation.
The program was attended by over 100participants with representation from industriesand academic institutions.
Photoshop Workshop
VIT University
IEEE-PES organized a “Hands-onWorkshop on Adobe Photoshop” on 11th Mar,2012. The event conducted in collaboration withMBS Group to teach the students the basics ofAdobe Photoshop Software, a professionalimage editing software package was attendedby over 200, including faculties and studentsfrom outside colleges as well. Mr. Dhananjay,Chief Designer, MBS Group presided over theworkshop and helped the students deal withthe intricacies of the software. The content ofthe workshop included everything from theimportance, aspect, role of the software to itsbasic tools of making selections, painting,retouching and layering. The participants werealso made familiar with the basics of softwarelike Corel draw, Maya and were also shown thefeatures of 3D Animation. The workshop gavethe participants the confidence to take new
design projects or image editing tasks on withease.
SCOPES’ 12: National Symposium onSmart Grid, Renewable Energy andDistributed Generation
CO2 Research and Green Technology Centre.The second day sessions included: Distributedgeneration and power quality issues” by Mr.Shanti Swaroop from IIT- Madras, “PowerGeneration and Distribution” by Mr. V. Suresh,DGM, Power Grid Corporation (SRLDC), and“Smart Grid initiatives by IBM” by Mr.Jagabondhu Hazara, IBM Research Lab Thelast session was conducted by IEEE-PES itselfwhere Sherin Ann Abraham, Pulkit Nahata andAbhinaya C enlightened the audience with theirknowledge and experience on HCPV, Smart Gridand PoFreCa (Polythene Free Campus Driveinitiated by IEEE-PES). On the third day, therewere two events, GREEN–O-VIT — an ideapresentation event on cleaner and greenertechnology covering topics such as efficiencyimprovement, waste management, smart gridsfor smarter systems, anti-pollution powersystems, green energy, renewable power andhybrid renewable power etc., andTECHVILLE2.0 — a fun filled, mind-bogglingquizzard. While the winners of the eventGREEN–O-VIT, Ashwini Arora and Anuj Suhagreceived a cash prize of Rs. 3500, the winnersof TECHVILLE2.0 were given Certificate ofExcellence and others Certificate of Participation.
Report by: Saket Bhattad,[email protected]
IEEE–PES along with School of EEorganised SCOPES’ 12 the National Symposiumon Smart Grid, Renewable Energy andDistributed Generation during 13-15, April,2012. After the event inauguration by VP(Admn), Mr. Sankar Vishwanathan, there weresessions on “Home Automation usingRenewable Energy” by Mr. A.V. Ramesh, SrExecutive Engineer, BOSCH, “GridOptimization using Intelligent Controls” by Mr.Arun Moorthy, Country Head (SAARC),Echelon. The afternoon sessions included:“Energy Management and Efficiency” by Ms.Suhagi Shah, Technical Expert from Schneiderand “Micro Grid in VIT” by Mr. Natrajan from
Link congratulates Mr. B. Anand from
Madras Section for his project “A Significant
Scheme on Small Renewable Hybrid Stand-
Alone Power Generation System” having been
selected to receive a grant of USD 480/= (360
from R10 & 120 from Section)
This project presents a schematic design
of a compact stand-alone hybrid power
generation system using wind-solar resources.
This system can be implemented in national
highways, where huge amount of air can be
collected due to the high speed motion of
2012 Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Activitiesvehicles and at the same time the solar energyfrom the ambient will also be collected. Finallyboth energies will be acquired simultaneouslyfor charging the batteries and is supplied fordomestic and rural purposes. For the purposeof maximum uninterrupted power supply inindustries and factories, a DC generator andpower supply line are also connected to thesystem, but these two systems works in apriority order, only when the demand is notmet by the Wind-Solar system. The mainadvantage of this system is, it can be implementedin both stand-alone and grid connected modes.
Section Membership as on15th June 2012
Life Fellow - 2
Fellow - 2
Life Senior - 7
Senior Member - 101
Life Member - 4
Member - 1296
Associate - 60
Affliate - 22
Graduate Student Member - 882
Student Member - 4995
Total - 7371
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IEEE-MAS Link Volume : 9 Issue : 6 June 2012
International Conference on EmergingEngineering Trends
The second International Conference onEmerging Engineering Trends (ICMEET2K12)was conducted during 12th and 13th April 2012with the technical sponsorship from IEEEMadras Section. Out of 713 papers received,after screening by experts in the respective fields231 papers were selected for presentation in24 sessions in 6 venues. Dr. A. Rajadurai, Prof.,Dept. of Production Technology, MIT,Chennai, inaugurated the conference anddelivered an interesting and informativeinaugural address. Dr. Linda Hussami, K.T.H.
Magna College ofEngineering
Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden & Dr.S. Natarajan, Sr. Consultant, Engineering andEducation, delivered the keynote addresses. Dr.Subash C.B. Gopinath, Electronic & PhotonicResearch Institute, Japan and Dr. V. Ganesan,Prof.,Dept. of Mechanical Engg, IIT Madrasdelivered the keynote addresses on the second
day. Certificates and conference proceedings
were distributed to the participants. The
participants provided positive feedback and also
offered few suggestions for future guidance.
Report by: Mrs. R. Mythily,
International Conference on Recent Trendsin Information Technology
The Dept. of IT in association with IEEEMadras Section organized the ICRTIT 2012:International Conference on Recent Trends inInformation Technology during 19 – 21, April2012. The conference started with thepresidential address by the Vice ChancellorDr. P. Mannar Jawahar followed by specialaddress by Registrar Dr. S. Shanmugavel.Inaugural address was given by the Chief guestDr. V. Frank Wang, University of Kent, UK.Dr. V. Vaidehi, Professor and HoD/IT, MITwelcomed the gathering and briefed about theconference.
Three workshops — “PatternRecognition”, “Beyond 4G WirelessCommunications” and “Malware Analysis101” were held on the 1st day. There were sixkeynote addresses by eminent speakers —“Towards 2020 Computing”, “Technology,Globalization and the Vanishing Educational
Madras Institute ofTechnology
Institutions”, “Human Computation, CrowdSourcing, and Crowd Servicing”, “Role of it inTransforming Educational System in the DigitalEconomy”, “Complex Event Processing forSensor Network”, and “Genetic Programmingand Nonlinear Control Problems” An onlineplenary talk on “A New Perspective onSpectrum Sensing for Cognitive SensorNetworks” was also organized.
The conference received about 570papers from different educational institutions
and research organizations out of which 101papers were selected for presentation. TheProceedings of the conf. has been madeaccessible to international community throughIEEE Xplore. Valedictory address was givenby Dr. D. Vidya, Director, iNautics TechnologiesIndia Pvt ltd, Chennai. The conf. ended withvote of thanks by Dr. P. Anandha Kumar,Associate Professor, Dept. of IT.
Report by: Dr. V. Vaidehi,[email protected]
Hindustan UniversityNational Conference on CommunicationNetworks and Sensor Technology
A two days, National Conference onCommunication Networks and SensorTechnology - NCCNS’12 was organized during23-24, March 2012. Dr. K. Sarukesi, Vice-Chancellor, presided over the function. Ms.Swati Satish Kamat, CTO, Bharti Airtel,Chennai inaugurated the conference appreciatedthe unique theme combining CommunicationNetworks and Sensor Technology. Mr.Nabakishore Singha Technical Project Manager,Nokia Siemens Networks, Global Service
Delivery Centre, Chennai delivered the key noteaddress on “The Emerging Future ofCommunication Networks and Sensor Technology& the Technological Revolution TouchingEveryday Life”. Out of 400 plus papers receivedfrom all over the country on the topics relatedto Communication, Sensor Technology, VLSI& Image Processing and Wireless Networks, 80were selected for presentation by an expert panelin parallel sessions. The proceeding was alsoreleased on the occasion.
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IEEE-MAS Link Volume : 9 Issue : 6 June 2012
Workshop on How to Create Website
Infant Jesus College of Engineering and Technology
On 11th April 2012, the IEEE SB hadorganized a one day workshop to provide anexposure on how to create a website. In thisworkshop the students were given anintroduction about designing the website byusing software such as dream weaver, flash,photoshop, Microsoft front page. The sessionsincluded lectures and hands-on. The studentsparticipated in the workshop with interestbecome confident at the end of the day longprogramme. The workshop came to the formalclosure with the vote of thanks by Mr. T. D.Subash, SB counselor.
Website Design Contest
On 28th April 2012, the SB organized awebsite design contest. The contest wasconducted by the first year M.E CSE studentswho are the members of IEEE. The theme forthe competition was “My Dream Company”,Under that theme students designed thewebsites using the software such as Dreamweaver, flash, photoshop, Microsoft front page,in a time frame of 2 hours. Three winning teams(of two members) were selected based on theevaluation on photoshop, creativity, number ofpages and layout. At the inaugural function ofIEEE in IJCET, the mementos and certificateswas provided to the winners.
Inaugural Ceremony
The IEEE SB at IJCET, observed its firstofficial Inauguration on 28th April, 2012 withgreat enthusiasm from among the members,students and the faculty. Dr. B.Priestly Shan,Secretary IEEE India CAS from St JosephsCollege of Engineering and Technologyinaugurated the proceedings. 450 students
including 26 members and 16 faculty attended
the inaugural and office Bearers Installation
ceremony along with Dr. S. Allwin, Director of
the College, Dr .V. Velmurugan, Principal and
Prof. S. V. Ghosh, Dean.
After the presidential address by Dr. S.
Allwin and felicitations, Prof. T. D. Subash
introduced the OBs for the year 2012. Ms. J.
Avril took charge as the first SB Chairman and
presented about the plans and activities for this
year. The chief guest, Dr B Priestly Shan, in his
inaugural address congratulated the college
officials for showing interest for starting the
IEEE SB and highlighted the need for association
with professional bodies and the benefits of
IEEE SB. He elaborated on the various events
and activities which can be conducted in the
college and provided useful inputs about the
different types of awards and grants which are
funded by the IEEE for student activities. After
the IEEE Pledge by the members present, the
winners of the Website Design Contest held
were presented with prizes. The function
concluded with vote of thanks by Ms. Sumitha,
Treasurer of SB.
Seminar on “Digital Image Processing”
A one day seminar on Digital image
processing was held on 11th May 2012. Mr. T.
D. Subash, SB counselor welcomed the gathering
and introduced the Chief Guest Dr. B. Priestly
Shan, Secretary IEEE India CAS from St Josephs
College of Engineering and Technology. The
chief guest gave an introduction about image
processing and detailed out the applications of
digital image processing. He highlighted the
recent research activities in bio medical imaging.
He clarified the doubts raised by the participants
who numbered around 150 comprising of both
IEEE and non IEEE members. The seminar came
to the formal closure with the vote of thanks
delivered by Ms.Akila, HOD /ECE.
Report by T. D. Subash,
[email protected] & B.Rathna Priya
The 22nd FDP on “Soft ComputingTechniques in Electrical Sciences -Recent Perspective” will be held on 30thJune & 1st July 2012 at Akshaya College ofEngineering and Technology, Coimbatore.To register, pl. contact: IEEE MadrasSection. Email: [email protected] /[email protected]
Faculty DevelopmentProgramme
Congratulations
LINK congratulates Mr.K.V. Rupchand for havingreceived the “Certificate ofAppreciation” from IEEE HQfor the Notable Services and
Contributions towards the advancement ofIEEE and the Engineering professions asthe Chair, IEEE Power & Energy Society,Madras Chapter during 2008-2011.
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IEEE-MAS Link Volume : 9 Issue : 6 June 2012
The IEEE Madras Section in associationwith Dept. of Electronics and CommunicationEngineering, V.M.K.V. Engineering College,Salem organized the 21st Faculty DevelopmentProgramme (FDP) on the topic “AComplementary Essentials of MATLAB &LABVIEW – Theory and Practice” on 9th and10th May 2012. The programme was attendedby 35 faculty members of colleges anduniversities from all over Tamilnadu. The co-
FDP on “A Complementary Essentials of MATLAB& LABVIEW – Theory and Practice”
ordinators of the program were
Dr.N.Kumarappan, Professor, Annamalai
University and IEEE Madras Section
Educational Activity Chair and Dr. A. Nagappan,
Principal, V.M.K.V. Engineering College, Salem
and Excom Member IEEE Madras Section.
At the inaugural session, Mr. G.
Narendra, Asst. General Manager, Research
Publications, ICT Academy of Tamilnadu,
Chennai delivered the special address. He was
also a resource person along with Mr. Anand.B
Desh Pande, Senior Software R&D Engineer,Tech Mahindra, Bangalore, Mr. J. Visweswaran,
Academic Consultant, National Instruments,Bangalore and Dr. J. Sethuraman, Dean
Innovation & Extension, V.M.K.V. Engineering
College, Salem.
The topics covered included an
introduction to Matlab and Labview, desktop
layout, basic arithmetic operations in commandwindow, matrix algebra, curve plotting, common
functions and properties, 2D and 3D plots,
Laplace transform and Fourier transform withapplications. The participants were also given
hands-on training in Matlab and Labview basic
commands.
At the valedictory, Mr. Anand. B Desh
Pande, Senior Software, R&D Engineer, Tech
Mahindra, Bangalore delivered the valedictoryaddress and distributed the certificates to the
participants. The program received an excellentfeedback from all the participants. The FDP
provided an excellent opportunity to listen to
the experts and also to discuss basics and
advanced topics with hands-on training usingMatlab and Labview.
National Competition on Student Autonomous underwater Vehicle (SAVe-2012)
National Institute of Technology
(NIOT), under Ministry of Earth Sciences, runs
a competition for students pursuing engineering
degree to visualize and design an autonomous
underwater vehicle partnering with IEEE -
Oceanic Engineering Society - India chapter &
Ocean Society of India. The conceptual basis
for Student Autonomous underwater Vehicle
(SAVe), is a highly mobile autonomous
underwater vehicle (AUV) to be built based
on engineering principles. NIOT supports the
winning teams with their expertise and sponsor
for the International competition being held
annually in USA. In the SAVe-2012
competition, the team from IIT Kharagpur won
and participated in the International AUV
competition on 17th July 2011 at San Diego, USA.
For the SAVe – 2012 competition
announced in Nov 2011, 57 registrations were
received and 17 teams had submitted their
Preliminary Design Reports (PDR). They which
were reviewed based on the concept, Literature
Review, Design Method, Simulation, Theory
Design, Block Diagram, Project Document,
Theory Modeling, Method of Operation
and other requirements. The detailed
Conceptual Design Report and oral presentation
by the these 17 teams was held at NIOT on
30th Jan 2012. A High Level Committee under
the chairmanship of Dr. M. R. Nayak with
members from NIO Goa, NSTL Vizag,
IIT Madras and senior scientists from NIOT
evaluated the students on the basis of
oral presentation, CDR Report, work done on
design and development of AUV, methodology
adopted, team spirit shown and ability to
define their ideas etc., and shortlisted 8
teams. The working AUV developed by these
8 teams were demonstrated for evaluation to
the national committee on 30th April 2012 at
Sports Development Authority of Tamil
Nadu, Chennai. The committee recommended
the joint team of students from Panimalar
Institute of Technology, Chennai as the
winner. They would be sponsored by NIOT
to participate in the International Competition
to be held at San Diego, USA during July
2012.
Dr. P. Misra, Principal Officer cum Jt.DG
(Tech.) Mercantile Marine Department, Chennai
was the Chief Guest and announced the winning
team. Dr. M. A. Atmanand, Director, NIOT
appreciated the participants and colleges. He
also explained about the initiative taken by NIOT
in conducting this national event and its
importance in creating awareness and interest
among the young engineers. Dr. R Venkatesan,
Coordinator of the competition delivered the
Vote of Thanks.
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IEEE-MAS Link Volume : 9 Issue : 6 June 2012
Dr. S. ThiruvengadamProfessor of Eminence, Dept. of EE
Valliammai Engineering College
Webstar’s college dictionary defines‘PLAGIARISM’ as the art of presenting as new
and original an idea or product derived from anexisting source. It is also defined as taking andusing as once own the writings or ideas of
another. It involves reusing of someone else’sideas, processed results or words withoutexplicitly acknowledging the original author and
the source. If one neglects to properly cite thework one borrows, either by choice or byaccident, he is committing plagiarism. Plagiarism
infringes copyright and will entail legal liabilityto the author.
Plagiarism can be defined as involving fivelevels
1. Copying (verbatim) of greater than halfof an original paper without crediting.
Plagiarism 2. Copying (verbatim) of less than half ofthe original paper without crediting.
3. The verbatim copying of individualparas, sentences or figures withoutacknowledgement.
4. Paraphrasing of pages without giving duecrediting.
5. Verbatim copying of a major position ofa paper without quotes or indents anddue crediting.
Books, Magazines, Journals, Transactions,Conference Proceedings, Photos, Charts, tables,Multimedia presentations are covered by rules
of plagiarism. All publicly distributed materialis subject to the same rules of plagiarism.
There are four levels for relevant correctionaction
1. Publication of a notice of violation in theappropriate publications.
2. Prohibition of publication in all relevantjournals for 3 to 5 years.
3. Rejection of all of this author’s there
papers (if any) under review.
4. The errant author /authors submit written
apology to the affected author/ authors
and to the editor of relevant publication.
If one wants to use charts, photos, are other
material from another author’s original work,
he must:
1. Use quotation marks indentations and
provide a full reference to original material.
2. Obtain beforehand written permission
from original author/ publisher.
It is worth recalling in this context an
anecdote mentioned by Nobel Laureate Martin
Chalfie. Mr. Martin Chalfie sought permission
from his own wife for publishing some of her
unpublished research as part of his prize
winning paper. In response to this she wanted
him to make coffee, cook and empty garbage
for an entire month in their house to permit him
to use her unpublished researched.
Agile transformation and quickly adaptingto the growing changes of the clientele canheavily impact our business over our peers.
The capabilities of an effectivetransformation is
Agile Process and Decisions
Rapid, Adaptable Integration
Unbounded Application
Flexible and Intelligent Infrastructure
Successful transformations are built onBusiness Agility and that Business AgilityRequires
Learning from IBM Business Agility TechnicalConference
1. Enterprise Visibility
2. Operational Dexterity - The capabilityof a business to change quickly withcontrol over the business and withoutlosing the quality
3. Process Integrity - Transactionallyexecuting transformation
Roadmap to Business Agility and thestrategy for better business outcome.
Fuel New Growth
Speed time to value
Reduce the total cost of ownership
The requirements of the Customers are
ever-changing and how does our business handlethe best for each transformation required. Onebest solution is The Cloud. The ApplicationCloud is the mantra for IT Flexibilities. Theunique benefits of taking IT over cloud are:
1. Deliver IT without boundaries
2. Create business value in a new way
3. Delivery new offerings
4. Can handle pressure from the Customers
For more details on IBM Business AgilityandSmartCloud, please refer:
http://www-01.ibm.com/software/solutions/business-agility/
http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/us/en/
— Barnabas Muthu
Value Added Course
M. P. Nachimuthu M. Jaganathan Engineering CollegeThe Value Added Course for the II, III &
IV year EEE students was jointly conductedby the Dept. of EEE, IEEE SB with AeroCreative Academy, Erode. The course durationwas 45 days and the coverage included PLC,SCADA & MMI. At the end of the course anexam was conducted. All the participantspassed in the exam and they were issuedcertificates by the correspondent Tmt. VasanthaSudhanandhen.
Report by: D. Sabapathi,[email protected]
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IEEE-MAS Link Volume : 9 Issue : 6 June 2012
V. P. SampathConsultant, Ram Innovation Labs, Chennai
Android has seen extensive market sharein the mobile phone market, and it is migratingto markets which include tablets, thin clientpersonal computers, wireless video conferencingsystems and televisions featuringGoogleTV.Developers using ARM processorstend to gravitate toward Android for itsflexibility, power and versatility. Based on theopen source Linux kernel, Android retains manyof the characteristics of open source software,even with Google’s acquisition of Android, itmorphed into a hybrid model – between acommercial and open source OS. However, thebenefit to Android is that it is license free andprotected from claims by the open sourcecommunity. The Smartphone sleek touch screeninterfaces are so popular that these types ofinterfaces are proliferating into every dayproducts used in the home and commercially.
Designers for these new, sleek productswho are contemplating migration from anexisting application to the Android environmentshould note the differences between Linux andAndroid. There are many similar capabilities,such as multimedia processing, file system calls,driver patches and other software modules.However, they are not the same, even thoughAndroid is build upon a Linux kernel. Designerswill need to do some re-coding when movingfrom Linux to Android.Android is pre-configured with a powerful set of capabilities.Google defines the middleware, multimediaframeworks and key system firmware associatedwith the OS, which differs from open sourceOS such as Linux where developers mustintegrate these capabilities into the open sourcekernel. The most recent release was Android4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich, which merged thesmartphone and tablet pieces of the OS into asingle version.
ARM cores optimize
The Android OS is a perfect fit for ARMprocessor cores, specifically the ARM Cortex-A cores, including ARM Cortex-A8 offerings.The low power consumption and functionalityof a net book class CPU for embedded systemsmakes the ARM Cortex-A8 a perfect fit formobile embedded systems. ARM Cortex-A8devices include an ARM Advanced SIMDtechnology known as NEON to accelerateoperations such as codec’s or graphics pixelmanipulations can improve performance over
Android on ARM for non-smart phone
straight ARM or THUMB code significantly.TI ARM devices include the NEON AdvancedSIMD engine. ARM9 cores are widely deployedin embedded systems, but Android is notoptimized for this core. It can certainly functionon an ARM9 device, but performance issignificantly hindered when runningAndroid.Android-based systems usually featuremultimedia applications, and developers shouldnote how the video, audio and graphics areprocessed by the system. A lot of the multimediacodec’s – encoders and decoders – are pre-configured with Android at low-resolutions,since they are targeted at ARM Cortex-A8general-purpose cores. But many of the industryprocessors, such as TI’s OMAP mobileapplications processors, DaVinci videoprocessors and C6000 DSP + ARM processorscombine the ARM and DSP processing coreswhich is helpful because the DSP core canoffload processing tasks from the ARM coreand accelerate multimedia processing beyondcapabilities of the ARM core.
Android development tools
Android offers developers Java and C/C++.Java utilizes the Android softwaredevelopment kit (SDK) and the Dalvik virtualmachine optimized for mobile devices. Java willrun anywhere that supports Java. The AndroidNative Development Kit (NDK) is used withC/C++ code, which limits the code to a specificCPU architecture. Since Android devices aremostly ARM-based, it’s definitely not a severelimitation. This is a bigger problem for x86vendors that want to use Android. The Javaonly applications run without modification, but
if an application requires some NDK codedeveloped for ARM, it needs to be manuallyported to the x86 device.
An Android Development Tools (ADT)plug-in from Google is featured in the popularEclipse integrated development environment(IDE). Eclipse comes equipped with many toolsto quickly set up a project, develop anapplication user interface, add componentsbased on the Android Framework ApplicationProgramming Interface (API), debug code withtools from the Android SK and exportcompleted code.TI’s Code Composer Studio v.5IDE is based on Eclipse and extends it withfeatures such as advanced debug capabilities,hardware debugging, profiling, simulation andothers. If developers implement CodeComposer Studio and the ADT plug-in, theycan debug Android Java and C/C++ code, theLinux kernel, code for a DSP and more all withinthe same IDE. Developers can also debug coderunning on the Android emulator with CodeComposer Studio and the ADT plug-in.
References:
Developing Android applications forARM Cortex-A8 cores. DarrenEtheridge, Android MultimediaEngineering Manager, DSP and ARM,Texas Instruments (http://www.ti.com/lit/wp/spry193/spry193.pdf)
ARM developers’ community. (http://www.arm.com/community/)
Mobile Virtualization - Coming to aSmartphone Near You – Steve Subar –Open Kernel Labs (http://www.ok-
labs.com).
IEEE Computer Society is pleasedannounce the availability of Dr. VenkatRamanathan, Evangelist, AdvancedTechnology Applications Practice,Institute of Systems Science of theNational University of Singapore duringAug 22-23 & 29, 2012 to deliver guestlectures on the following topics.
Business/IT alignment.
Service Oriented Architecture - Trendsand Directions
Techniques for designing Services forsuccessful adoption of SOA
Institutions, interested in hosting the talksmay please write to the chairman, IEEE CSat hrmohan.ieee@gmail indicating the topic& date of their choice.
Guest Lectures
IEEE CS & IEEE PCS MadrasChapter are exploring the possibility ofoffering “ManageMySkill” training to thestudents of various branches of Engineering,Management and MCA courses acrossdifferent years based on an initial assessmentof their skill sets. This initiative will broadlyaddress and strive to improve the academic,cognitive and enabling skills, career managementskills, employability/work/job skills and willbe offered on a short / long term basisdepending on the need and at an affordablecost. This will be a collaborative initiativeof the IEEE Society Chapters (CS & PCS),Institutions and VictoryMind. SB counselorsof the institutions interested in this initiativemay please write to the chairman, IEEE CS& PCS at [email protected]
ManageMySkill Initiatives
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Published by Dr.Krishna V.Prasad on behalf of IEEE Madras Section, Room No. 3, ISTE Professional Centre, Gandhi Mandapam Road,Chennai 600 025. Printed by : R. Ravi, Vignesha Printers, No. 325/2, Triplicane High Road, Triplicane, Chennai -600 005. Ph : 28419352
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Posted On : 25th June 2012Posted at: Egmore RMS (Patrika)
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IEEE-MAS Link Volume : 9 Issue : 6 June 2012 Registrar of Newspapers for India. No.: TNENG/2004/16284W.P.P No: TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-618/12-14Postal Regn. No: TN/CC(S) Dn.63/12-14
Editorial Team
Mr. H.R. Mohan, Mr. T.S. Rangarajan,
Dr. T. Thyagarajan, Dr. P. Suresh Chander Pal,
Major. V.V. Chandrasekaran, Dr. Krishna V. Prasad
The Green Grid is a non-profit, openindustry consortium of end-users, policy-makers, technology providers, facilityarchitects, and utility companiescollaborating to improve the resourceefficiency of data centers and businesscomputing ecosystems. With more than170 member companies around the world,The Green Grid seeks to unite globalindustry efforts, create a common set ofmetrics, and develop technical resourcesand educational tools to further its goals.More at http://www.thegreengrid.org/
Can computers understand emotions? Cancomputers express emotions? Can they feelemotions? The latest video from theUniversity of Cambridge at http://goo.gl/Wkhph shows how emotions can be usedto improve interaction between humans andcomputers.
A breakthrough in the ability to processthermoplastic-based composites for use inthe helmets of soldiers which saves at leastone-quarter the weight and up to 35%higher tolerance from fragmentingmunitions has been achieved by The U.S.Army Research Laboratory
Techbits The new material grades have producedseveral types of head protection, each ofwhich saves at least one-quarter the weightand up to 35% higher tolerance fromfragmenting munitions.
Seagate recently announced it had achieveda density of 1 terabit (1 trillion bits) persquare inch on a disk drive platter. That
breakthrough should lead to 20TB laptopdrives within the decade.
Computer scientists at the University ofGlasgow are participating in a new projectto develop a search engine which will drawits results from sensors located in thephysical world. As the Internet continuesto expand, public access to net-connectedsensors such as cameras and microphonearrays is increasing. The European-fundedproject, known as SMART, for ‘Searchengine for MultimediA EnvironmentgeneRated content’, aims to develop andimplement a system to allow internet usersto search and analyze data from thesesensors.
Technology That Translates Sign LanguageInto Text Aims to Empower Sign LanguageUsers: Researchers at University ofAberdeen have developed the Portable Sign
Language Translator (PSLT), software thatcan be used on mobile devices and enablesusers to customize sign language to theirspecific needs. To use the program, a personsigns in front of a standard camera thatcomes with portable computing devices.The program then translates the signs intotext that can be read by others. This technologyaims to empower sign language users byenabling them to overcome the communicationchallenges they can experience, throughportable technology. PSLT can be used witha range of sign languages, including BritishSign Language (BSL), a general-purposelanguage. Full story at http://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/details-11751
Software Translates Your Voice Into AnotherLanguage: Microsoft researchers havedeveloped speech recognition software thatcan learn the sound of a user’s voice andtranslate it into a new language. This couldbe used to make language learning morepersonal or make traveling easier or indoctor-patient consultations. The softwarecan convert between any pair of 26supported languages, including MandarinChinese, Spanish, and Italian. Full story athttp://www.technologyreview.com/computing/39885/
Compiled by: H.R. Mohan