Summerhill is an island...

ओ मांझी रे, अपना किनारा, नदिया कि धारा हैं |


Summerhill is an island. It has to be an island, because its parents live in towns miles apart, in countries overseas. Since it is impossible to collect all the parents together in the town of Leiston, Suffolk, Summerhill cannot be a part of Leiston’s cultural and economic and social life.

I hasten to add that the school is not an island to Leiston town. We have many contacts with local people, and the relationship on both sides is a friendly one. Yet fundamentally, we are not a part of the community. I would never think of asking the editor of the local newspaper to publish success stories about my old pupils. We play games with the town children, but our educational aims are far apart.

Not having any religious affiliation, we have no connection with religious bodies in the town. If Summerhill were part of the town community center, it would be obliged to give religious teaching to its pupils.

[Summerhill A RADICAL APPROACH TO CHILD REARING 1968, A. S. Neill]

Summerhill, the book

You can download this book: "summerhill" by A S Neil. It will change your views about children, learning, and education. It will educate you once more.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/5081386/summerhill

This much is a great post in itself, I will quote more from this book soon.

Cobalt 60 and a dirty bomb ?

There were multiple events of radio-activity discovered in scrap metal industry area of New Delhi. One poor worker has died from exposure.

Question is: if they found so many Cobalt 60 pieces, what are chances that one such could be attached to a RDX bomb to make a dirty bomb? This is a real possibility, a scenario explored by Americans after 9/11. If a bomb is possible, as per this study, it can potentially make Delhi a cancer hell for a decade or more!

Has the government appointed someone to look after this? I am sure some terrorist would notice this window of opportunity sooner or later. :shudder:


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MIT and Tutions !

Read this email to a student collaborator (who will soon join MIT PhD program in Massachusetts) by another junior student.


======================================================================
From: "pxxxx mxxx" pxxxx@gmail.com"
To:fxxxx@bits-goa.ac.in
Subject: hi..

hi axxx...

congrats for MIT..m a 1st year student in bpgc...i knw its kinda early but jus wanted 2 know how u got thru nd wat ws ur GRE score...btw did u do sm coachin or nythin..

thnx

P
================================================================


Now, how do we address this insanity?

1. P, no, there are no tution classes in how to get to MIT, or how to create a new musical 'Rag', or how to run Pepsi Co., or how to create a new 4 GHz processor.


2. P, you can start preparing for GRE by writing your emails with proper words, instead of "prpr wrds"...
   

If you surmised that P got into India's 'top-class' engineering by rote learning, remembering books and solving a million problems one by one, you are very close to the truth. He must have attended coaching classes from his 5th standard, esp. for 10th, 12th, IIT, BITS, CET, AICTE exams. The last 5 exams are to be given within 1 month of each other. No wonder P thinks that even MIT admissions are of the same level as BITS/ IIT. I wish I could ask him to take tutions from Raghu and Suresh in BITS, but that would be atrocity against my dear ex-colleagues.



If you are an Indian student, this situation is fairly common for you. If by some design you were good at playing chess/ painting, interested in language and/ or history, hopeful to start a school or a hotel, your middle-class father/ mother would shout on you, your friends would lampoon you, and your grand-mother would start daily fast to urge the gods to change your mind. Then, when it comes to admission, they will even choose which stream is good for you, because there is great market for it. Failure to do so, is to fail your parents in life.



Thanks to the Indian government's tyrannical control of education, it is hard to change the way schools operate and how students learn. Even today, government meddles in education, and would not even allow top-ranked foreign universities in India. This has produced such students, for whom learning is within the bounds of textbooks, within the walls of a school (or worse, a tution class) and within limits of religion.



And Maha wants to explore how to enhance schools by introducing intervention programs, with various real-life activities added to school curriculum. More power to her !


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Indian and American Education System: a comparison - III

This is second part of my questionnaire, you can read earlier part 1 and part 2 for a background. Here we will consider remaining questions and their answers.

[ In the next post, I will use all these answers in designing my own education institution, along with a proposal of an education system based on liberal-arts set up.]

4) how was faculty and support staff? can you compare Physics group in India (i know this bunch the best) with one you saw there? we were a good group, i believe. we can improve hugely in terms of our approach, and i would like to know if you can point out the fault lines... again, i would ask you to stress less on equipment (automated robots or moving screens) than approach, but do write about the over all thing.

My Summary:

Teaching styles are a matter of appropriate training and experience of faculty. In general, faculty in US is better trained, with more incentives. Faculty are active in research and bring their research problems to their classes, providing first-hand access for students to research problems. Profs bring in their own experience and knowledge beyond books, courses therefore carry more weight.

The exams are rigorous and students put in a lot of effort for their grades. Students are treated with respect and trust, which students return. If students ask questions, point out flaws, it is appreciated. Student feedback is taken seriously, and provides vital input to teaching methodology and efforts. This is all done concious

The support staff is excellent too. Moreover, there is very little paper pushing and delay due to administrative overhead, bane of Indian system.

Facilities are many-folds better than India, of course, that comes with appropriate investments. Technology is ubiquitous, and is put to a good use. Everyone answers emails within 24 hours.

==============================

5) how were the syllabus and student activities (exercises, labs, seminars, research)? how did it make a difference, what exactly mattered to you the most?

While some courses depended only on the Profs self made notes and experience, others depended on books. Course activities range from assignments, seminars to projects; these elements are flexible. Prof decides to hold an exam or otherwise, and which elements weigh how much. Usually course assignments were weekly, carry a lot of weight and can not be copied. They also kept students up to date on material taught.

Courses are generally well structured, with a mix of both theory and application. Class interaction is very much encouraged (read summary of earlier question above). Lab work and exercises are an important part of the syllabus.

====================================

6) what was expected from students ? learning is a 2-way street, i believe, did you find something similar?

My summary:

Professors are open to dialogue and discussions are encouraged. Students are expected to ask questions and discuss with profs. Classes were not compulsory, but material was taught in such a good manner that classroom interaction was valued very highly.

There is a lot of emphasis on self work.: reading background stuff, latest research etc Students take their homework and assignments seriously. There is no copying unlike in India. In fact, given research-based assignments, it is hard to google and find answers. Any copy attempts is dealt with severely.

Peer grading enabled students not only to evaluate other submissions but also to appreciate different ways of solving the same problem. Some of the courses had project components that were entirely student evaluated.


=======================================

7) if you had to remodel Indian system, would you do? detail 2 things of your own (more if you have time).

My summary:

1. Reduce class sizes (hire more faculty)
2. Increase electives and choices for students (less rigid pattern of education)
3. Encourage faculty research, make them connect students with their work.
4. Let faculty decide courses' learning goals, teaching and grading methodologies.
   
5. Faculty performance review, sincere student feedback.
   
6. Thorough teaching, flexible grading and strict compliance of anti-copy rules.
7. Make courses more experience/ research oriented (not theory only)
8. Respect students, encourage academic discussions in classroom and outside, and make their life easier with less admin overheads.
9. Introduce TA system, encourage peer learning inside and outside the classroom.
   

Read replies yourself for more.



===============================================

--AN--

4) how was faculty and support staff? can you compare Indian Physics group (i know this bunch the best) with one you saw there? we were a good group, i believe. we can improve hugely in terms of our approach, and i would like to know if you can point out the fault lines... again, i would ask you to stress less on equipment (automated robots or moving screens) than approach, but do write about the over all thing.

I took three courses, the faculty for which were as follows :

Professor A : Very bookish, used to put up lecture notes *and* then write almost exactly the same stuff on the blackboard, very little attempt at intuitive teaching. :(

Professor B : New prof from MIT, teaching a course for the first time, enthusiastic, and tried to be helpful, but was kind of erratic - didn't explain some topics well. Nevertheless, this course was enjoyable as a whole.

Professor C : The prof. who adopted the real-world kind of teaching approach I described earlier. Very good, the only complaint I had was, he graded horribly in a class of 20..still I believe that is mostly irrelevant

Now I guess almost all of these could be found in any other research group. One thing I did *not* find (sadly) was an improvement in *everyone's* teaching styles. So I guess that shows that as far as taught courses are concerned, the teaching has quirks almost everywhere.

As regards labs, there is little I can say, as the facilities here are far more numerous than any we had in India (not necessarily more advanced, only more opportunity to use them) As regards support staff, they are excellent here, and there is little of the paper-pushing and forms in triplicate mentality that seems to pervade a lot of the administrative thinking at xxxx.

5) how was the syllabus and student activities (exercises, labs, seminars, research)? how did it make a difference, what exactly mattered to you the most?

Aside from working in a lab, I didn't have any labs per se this semester. One of our courses contained a final project instead of a final exam, and it tested us quite a bit on the material covered, while managing to remain interesting.

6) what was expected from students ? learning is a 2-way street, i believe, did you find something similar?

The part which I found was slightly different from India (I'm assuming that expectations such as a proper understanding of theory, etc. are common factors everywhere) was that student-professor interaction was expected to be at a far higher level than usual. The office hours (chamber consultation hours) were expected to be used to the fullest.

7) if you had to remodel xxxx, what would you do? detail 2 things of your own (more if you have time).

One of the things I mentioned, and would like to mention again, is that the system at xxxx, consisting of assignments timed at 15-day intervals at max, seemed to work out better for me. Here, there is a weekly system of homeworks for almost each course, and if you take 3 theory-intensive courses (as I did this sem) it is a struggle to keep it going, leaving less time to actually ponder over the theory.

Now, as regards ideas if I had to remodel xxxx, I might do the following :

- Reduce class size, and increase the number of courses that can be taken as electives. As I mentioned earlier, EE student who are sure about their future work probably might not need to take things like MechSol, or even, say, Principles of Management for that matter (our final exam of PoM was a joke due to some people copying rampantly). Unless it is absolutely essential to the fundamental nature of the degree, it should be the student's choice whether he/she wants to take it or not.

- Increase collaboration with other colleges in the area as regards projects, research, etc. I have seen some stellar projects during Quark made by people from GEC. Also, apparently (according to Axxx) we have MoUs with universities all the way upto MIT which allow exchange programs, etc. which have never been used. These could be used to their fullest extent.

- (Slightly controversial, but decided to mention it anyway :p) Stop expanding immediately. Until xxxx campus has been raised to the level of xxxx in terms of all research groups, increasing number of campuses will only serve to widen the perceived disparity between the campuses, and will ultimately lead to isolation of the graduates of these campuses as of a distinct level from xxxx Pxxxxx. (Thankfully that did not happen for our batch during MS admissions.)

if you don't mind, i would like to know about these issues from your other friends and colleagues (from xxxx or elsewhere in India). can you forward this email?

I will try to ask interested people and then forward it to them. That being said, there are very few people who are genuinely interested in furthering education in India as such,
=================================================

--NI--

4) how was faculty and support staff? can you compare Physics group (i know this bunch the best) with one you saw there? we were a good group, i believe. we can improve hugely in terms of our approach, and i would like to know if you can point out the fault lines... again, i would ask you to stress less on equipment (automated robots or moving screens) than approach, but do write about the over all thing.

The xxxx Physics Group is probably still among the best set of people I have interacted with. One thing different here is the ubiquitous use of technology. Professors and staff alike usually answer email immediately, (worst case within 24 hours) and are very open and encouraging. Feedback provided by students is very serious - there are rating for each instructor for each course. This provides a good way to check the quality of teaching, as a consistently low performance must be acted upon. It also provides teachers an opportunity to refine their approach. Again this is online and anonymous.

5) how was the syllabus and student activities (exercises, labs, seminars, research)? how did it make a difference, what exactly mattered to you the most?

Grad courses are usually very project heavy, while undergrad ones will have a little more emphasis on exams. On an average, CMU courses will have 35-40% project, 15-20% labs/assignments and the rest for exams. What matters most - that depends on an individual as to what he/she is looking to learn. For a single individual, it might be different from course to course. I am focussing on learning various tools, techniques and softwares that I might use anywhere in the future.

6) what was expected from students ? learning is a 2-way street, i believe, did you find something similar?

Yes very much so. Class interaction is very much encouraged. Grad students will have a lot of emphasis on self work. Reading background stuff, latest research etc.

7) if you had to remodel xxxx, what would you do? detail 2 things of your own (more if you have time).

1) Frequent reviews of syllabus to keep content state-of-the-art.

2) More flexibilities

3) Review of performance of faculty.

=========================================================

--NC--


4) how was faculty and support staff? can you compare xxxx Physics group (i know this bunch the best) with one you saw there? we were a good group, i believe. we can improve hugely in terms of our approach, and i would like to know if you can point out the fault lines... again, i would ask you to stress less on equipment (automated robots or moving screens) than approach, but do write about the over all thing.

The faculty was, in general, very good. The thing I liked was the emphasis on rigor in theory, followed up by exercises that gave a taste of practical applications. I believe this approach would greatly enhance the approach of teaching at xxxx, which is already at a good level.

Also, I think some of the courses at xxxx (this is with regard to my experience of courses in EE) would have been better served if the exams were more challenging, with a commensurate leniency in grading, as opposed to general run-of-the-mill questions with stricter grading. Open-book tests at xxxx were a concept that I greatly admired, though in my later years, many courses did not have this component.

At Georgia Tech, we had a weekly seminar in the DSP Group, where a Professor or PhD student would explain an aspect of their ongoing research. This was helpful in giving students an idea of the cutting-edge research going on and also gave them an insight into what a particular Professor was working on. I guess maybe having something similar at xxxx would help in giving students an idea of whom they can talk to regarding taking up projects such as a COP/LOP/SOP.

5) how was the syllabus and student activities (exercises, labs, seminars, research)? how did it make a difference, what exactly mattered to you the most?

As I mentioned during my answers to the previous questions, the courses were generally well structured, with a mix of both theory and application, which was reflected in the exercises/assignments and exams. I think the xxxx system is also very good with respect to the continuous evaluation, as opposed to one final exam carrying all the weightage in terms of grades; however, I think a assignments/HW component in the courses at xxxx would be something to consider - perhaps we could have 2 midterms, assignments and a Comprehensive Exam instead of the 3 midterms and Compre.

A project component in the courses was also something that appealed to me and could be something to consider too, in courses where it would be feasible.

6) what was expected from students ? learning is a 2-way street, i believe, did you find something similar?

Students were expected to turn in good efforts on the HW assignments, following which (in some subjects) there was peer grading. This enabled the students not only to evaluate other submissions but also to appreciate different ways of solving the same problem. Some of the courses had project components that were entirely student evaluated. Also, the Professors always welcomed insights on various problems from students and were open to dialogue discussing topics more in depth than was covered in the class. Thus, students learned from both the Professor and each other, and this fostered deeper and quicker understanding of subject matter.

7) if you had to remodel xxxx, what would you do? detail 2 things of your own (more if you have time).

I think I will glean some points from my answers to your other questions for this one, as I already mentioned some of my thoughts with regard to improving xxxx in those questions.

- Having more HW assignments, well spaced throughout the semester, is beneficial as one is constantly kept on one's toes and challenged to go beyond what is covered in the lectures.
- Giving a real-world feel to the course, through challenging assignments or exam questions will be beneficial in expanding the student's understanding of the course and bridging the gap between theory and practice to an extent. In my field, as in many others, MATLAB simulations are an excellent way of doing this.
- Making exams more challenging, while not putting undue stress on students about their grade. As I said, perhaps a few questions on an exam can be out-of-the-way, forcing students to apply their minds.
- Encouraging student discussion and dialogue to enhance understanding of the subject. Maybe having a weekly seminar wherein students take turns in giving talks about various topics can be an idea to think about. I know some student groups, including our Astronomy Club at xxxx, incorporated this, but it can also be a feature of senior-level courses undertaken in the 4th year. Students can be exposed to research papers and literature surveys, which would benefit them should they choose to go to graduate school.

Having said all this, I believe the curriculum at xxxx is definitely one of its strong points, together with the concept of continuous evaluation. Many colleges elsewhere in India do not have these strong points. Also, the idea of xxxxxxx School to give relevant industry experience is a big plus. All in all, I believe xxxx has a great system, which can of course be evaluated and improved to be up-to-date and rigorous.

==========================================================

--AD--


4) how was faculty and support staff? can you compare xxxx Physics group (i know this bunch the best) with one you saw there? we were a good group, i believe. we can improve hugely in terms of our approach, and i would like to know if you can point out the fault lines... again, i would ask you to stress less on equipment (automated robots or moving screens) than approach, but do write about the over all thing.

The main difference between the faculty that I saw here and in xxxx (not necessarily the Physics group, since I have not taken many courses with professors in this group) was that all the professors here are actively involved in research. If xxxx could invest more on research, it would go a long way in bridging the gap between Indian and the American education system.

5) how was the syllabus and student activities (exercises, labs, seminars, research)? how did it make a difference, what exactly mattered to you the most?

The labs and exercises are an important part of the syllabus. It's through these that I did most of my studying. Doing the homeworks and labs sincerely removed the need to study for tests later on as we understood all the content while working on the exercises. There's absolutely no rote learning here and that's the thing that mattered to me the most. Another important part of most courses is the class project, where students are encouraged to work on something new and interesting. Projects proved to be a very good learning experience.

6) what was expected from students ? learning is a 2-way street, i believe, did you find something similar?

Yes, the classrooms are very interactive and informal and students are encouraged to participate in it. The more questions we ask and more discussions we have, the more we all learn.

7) if you had to remodel xxxx, what would you do? detail 2 things of your own (more if you have time).

I think that xxxx is in a much better place than most other academic institutions in India. With a few changes, it would be as good as the American ones. The main change I would make is more emphasis on research by faculty and hence getting students more interested in research. The second thing would be to change the curriculum so that it emphasizes less on rote learning but focuses more on applying concepts to practical situations through relevant lab work and home work.

=========================================================

--OP--

4) how was faculty and support staff? can you compare xxxx Physics group (i know this bunch the best) with one you saw there? we were a good group, i believe. we can improve hugely in terms of our approach, and i would like to know if you can point out the fault lines... again, i would ask you to stress less on equipment (automated robots or moving screens) than approach, but do write about the over all thing.

I have not interacted with the Physics Group here at all.

5) how was the syllabus and student activities (exercises, labs, seminars, research)? how did it make a difference, what exactly mattered to you the most?

The striking difference between Indian universities and the ones here w.r.t student activity in a class comes in the assignments. Assignments are taken very seriously here irrespective of the weightage they have , somehow...no one copies, everyone attempts and works it out on their own. In India (even in xxxx), just because its not an exam, assignments are taken v liberally. People copy without guilt and the one or two bright ones are more than happy to share their work.The assignments here are very well designed to enhance the learning process. Especially for the graduate courses, I have observed that at least 50% of a course's learning takes place through solving the assignments.

6) what was expected from students ? learning is a 2-way street, i believe, did you find something similar?

Not completely sure what you are referring to, but students are generally expected to contribute to the research being pursued by the professors of their department. Students make very solid, hands on contributions. Sometimes, the Professor vaguely proposes an idea, its the student who makes a detailed design and implements it. But then again, I guess I'm speaking only about graduate students.

7) if you had to remodel xxxx, what would you do? detail 2 things of your own (more if you have time).

a. Make the university more research oriented. Thoroughly involve students in the research.

b. Make the grading system tougher. I got away with As in a bunch of courses where I learnt very little. This really reduces the motivation to learn (esp in xxx --- India --- where there are tons of exciting things to do instead of studying).

(I can see a 19 yr old xxxxx relaxing in a xxxx lawn thoroughly disappointed at her future self suggesting something so horrendous, "How did I turn into you?" she asks!)

I do not know how to give the suggestion of Assignments, because even if very challenging ones were assigned, I would not know how to inculcate the culture of spending time on them and honestly attempting them.

_____________________________________________________________________


--IM--

4) how was faculty and support staff? can you compare xxxx Physics group (i know this bunch the best) with one you saw there? we were a good group, i believe. we can improve hugely in terms of our approach, and i would like to know if you can point out the fault lines... again, i would ask you to stress less on equipment (automated robots or moving screens) than approach, but do write about the over all thing.

It does not matter how many degrees the professor has earned and we can never really compare. Each professor has a varied approach, there is every kind of professor some extremely knowlegable, some who have earned degrees but not very student-friendly to work with. On the whole, what I think is the difference between the faculty here and faculty in xxxx is that, every professor here is very very actively working on a bunch of projects wheras in xxxx not all of them are involved in continuing research activity or atleast the students are not given a chance to participate in their research. It is of great help for the students to work with professors and real-time projects. Most of the professors here are associated with companies and real-time projects which is just not the case in xxxx

5) how was the syllabus and student activities (exercises, labs, seminars, research)? how did it make a difference, what exactly mattered to you the most?

Syllabus as i have mentioned involves in assignments and projects very very frequently( this can be the case with only georgia tech because tech is considered to be very toughest and time-consuming). The students are always given a chance to participate in the professors research and use it as a class project as well. Also, the quality of projects are quite different. As I did in xxx, most of them in the class google it and get almost the same answer just tweak a little. But here the projects are modules of new ideas which cannot be googled, we might just get an idea from google(which also is mostly not). They also make sure that the disciplinary code is very very strict which ensures students dont copy. It is very easy to copy in xxxx. These projects here happened to help me quite a lot. It gives you a hang of the concept.

6) what was expected from students ? learning is a 2-way street, i believe, did you find something similar?

Not much difference in this aspect, according to me.

7) if you had to remodel xxxx, what would you do? detail 2 things of your own (more if you have time).

Change the entire course curriculum to include more practical implementations and more programming.

I would love to see the professors having tight-relations with companies and I would expect the professors to be in continuous learning phase so that they can come up with interesting projects and suggest students about the various opportunities and areas to learn and grow in. The students will have to be given a chance to work with the professors on these real-time projects, participate in conferences and be actively involved in the present happenings in their field of study.

I guess this is what I have observed from one semester that I have spent here. I began to love this system now (though a lot of cribbing goes on and on everyday). Hopefully, this helps education level in xxxx to raise. It is very nice of you to take time to analyze the weaknesses and possible improvements to the Indian Education System as a whole and particularly in xxxx

========================================================

--KA--

4) How was faculty and support staff? can you compare xxxx Physics group (I know this bunch the best) with one you saw there? We were a good group, I believe. We can improve hugely in terms of our approach, and I would like to know if you can point out the fault lines... Again, i would ask you to stress less on equipment (automated robots or moving screens) than approach, but do write about the over all thing.

4. As mentioned before, I believe the 'approach' is important. Students trust teachers, when teachers themselves trust their courses and subjects. When a teacher loves what he is teaching (and more importantly effectively communicates this fact) then a student loves the course too. Here teachers are liberal, easy; a student can leave the class when he wants to, ask AS many questions as he wants to (without fear that he will be snubbed or ridiculed), submit an assignment a day late if he has a valid excuse, and so on. Teachers here are more like friends (like you were to us, but like almost no other Prof at xxxx - India- is) and understood and most importantly RESPECTED students. I believe that is the most important thing which lacks at xxxx (India). Students are treated like thieves and thugs and almost all of us will agree to that. Working in a lab late (even if on a student's own project) should be easy and not so bureaucratic like India. It is then we will see real innovation. After lab hours in PHY123 ("Harvard"), I would sit with some undergrads in the lab who were working on developing a new protocol for the iPods. In a few days they did it, and even presented some papers on that.

In terms of knowledge base, the faculty here was definitely MUCH MUCH better than that India. I say that because the course came out of papers, of the "other" knowledge of Profs and not out of books. Profs would start with stories about what they'd done in their UGs, bring those papers to share with us, to show the real innovation outside classrooms. Discussions were encouraged immensely. And most importantly, these Professors prepare before coming to the class, unlike most of the ones at xxxx (India) I studied under. I wouldn't want to name them, but even the best of the Profs did so many mistakes in the class.

Just between you and me, as an example, Prof. xxxx knew nothing about what she was teaching. When I used to point out her mistakes (in a not-so subtle way) she'd get so irked. She threw me out of her class once for acting "over smart." I lost all the will to come to the class anymore or even learn the subject. I could have taught the course better than her! Of course I made an A in the course, but the whole experience left me very bitter. If the same case had happened here (which did) the Profs are so understanding of their mistakes, and say sorry a million times, to actually make the student feel sorry for pointing it out (in a nice sort of way!) That helps because the next time the student is eager to learn more out of the course from the same Professor. The exact same thing that happened between Prof. xxxx (India), happened between me and Prof. yyyy (Man) or Prof zzzzz (Woman, both in India) to name some.

5) How was the syllabus and student activities (exercises, labs, seminars, research)? How did it make a difference, what exactly mattered to you the most?

5. Each course had its own structure. While some depended only on the Profs self made notes and experience, others depended on books. Almost always we didn't even have a prescribed text book (which I found unnerving initially!) but which worked better in the end because we focused more on what was going in the class room. Some courses are seminar courses too, but I didn't take any of them. Almost each course has weekly or bi-weekly HWs, and some of them had final take home exams too. One of them had a midterm group presentation and a final paper to be written. HWs since cannot be copied (unlike India) had to be done (they carried a huge percentage) and since they covered everything taught till that week, updated every student with what happened in the course till that date. The final projects were VERY intensive and often we didn't sleep for days! Also, please notice the file attached (I believe you've seen this before though.) This is a reply from the Prof for our midterm presentation. Such customized replies went to 12 other groups. This Prof. is perhaps the most famous professor in her field existing today and yet she put in the time and effort to do this. This is what impresses us as students; the Prof putting in as much work as the students (you did so for us in MT1 lab too.)

6) What was expected from students? Learning is a 2-way street, I believe, did you find something similar?

6. Students were expected to ask questions, lots of questions! The class was like a chatter box and students who didn't ask questions were mostly the ones who were asked questions BY the Professor. It kept us on our toes! Everyone was expected to attend the classes (and everyone did) because unless you attended the class you wouldn't get anything out of the slides, and you wouldn't be able to do your HWs. There was no compulsory attendance though. Also to make students attend the classes, the teachers did not compromise by giving questions from what is taught in class, but by teaching so, that the student would HAVE to attend the class. No surprise quizzes (which I personally believe didn't serve a single purpose in xxxx (india) since I never attended them and got A's in most of my courses.) and even if there were quizzes they were not "marked." Imagine getting all the quiz papers and the Prof. right then and there picking up them, not mentioning the name of the students who wrote them, and discussing what was wrong or right in their approaches. That way the topic was discussed then and there with students "actually" learning rather than caring more about their marks.

7) If you had to remodel xxxx, what would you do? Detail 2 things of your own (more if you have time).

7. Whoa. xxxx Would go topsy-turvy then.
a) Introduce TAs who are available to take a weekly "session" to review what was done in the class and answer students' queries. All students learn differently. Some are comfortable in a classroom setting with the Prof, others in a classroom setting with another student teaching them, and yet others who like to be alone while discussing questions. Introducing such students who are half way between a Prof and a student would be a very wise idea.
b) Introduce a MUCH stronger and centralized feedback system for Profs and courses. Students get to rate them back on various fields and that keeps the Profs on their toes. This also helps students decide on a particular elective course for the next semester.
c) Go easy on students. Respect them because they are because of who your institution runs. There are legitimate problems sometimes, and that needs to be understood. Each of them is different, and learns differently. I can remember so so so many instances of teachers shouting at students for no mistake of theirs. Stop that, there are other ways to tell them that they are wrong.
d) Focus on research. Make publishing at least one paper in an international journal mandatory. If we as students could publish papers only by our own work, then our Profs should too. That's how we will respect them too.
e) Get a larger non-teaching staff and delegate the administrative work to them. Teachers are already loaded with work and courses; this would give them more time to do research too.
f) Update the courses and not just the course text-books. Take ideas, information from the latest papers, discuss them with students.
g) In continuation, fascinate the students by giving hands-on demonstrations (if possible), reading excerpts out of papers (even if 50 years old!), talk about personalities who've existed in the area (for example Tesla, when teaching Magnetic fields!) and so on. Make it fun!
h) Pay more to the faculty. The reasons are understandable; better faculty, better …
i) Make the academic/other procedures for students a little bit more easier. It shouldn't be a pain to take a leave; the students are grown ups, or to simply audit a course or take an elective!

Indian and American Education System: a comparison - II

My first three questions

In my previous post I had requested a few, whom I was fortunate to interact with earlier, to compare their US experience with Indian education system. I had asked them some specific questions, and their feedback.

In this post I will compile and analyse their answers to three questions in the questionnaire.



1) did you take any courses that were similar to those in India? if so, can you compare what changed for better (and worse, of course).

[This was to compare two institutions directly, wherever possible]


My summary : In a US university, depth is valued more than breadth, so focus on a few fundamentals. Fundamentals are valued over ability to remember and calculate. There is a lot more rigor and students are given a lot of homework, which they take seriously unlike in India. There are also programming (MatLab etc.) exercises; laboratory projects; research papers to read/ work out; and research-related lab work to complement class-room learning.


2) were there any other courses (Logic or Astronomy) which you wish you had encountered before? perhaps, then you would remove some other courses from Indian curriculum, which ones?
[This is to understand what students desire in terms of background/ basic courses]

My summary : Rather than specific courses, what is (rightly, in my opinion) demanded is flexibility to choose from courses at an early stage. Also, the choice should be from a wider pool of courses, which allows for all branches to interconnect. Let the student decide which courses s/he wants to do. Fundamental courses in Math give a solid background, but only when taught with real-life examples, perhaps we should make teachers collaborate in a classroom. Plus, there should be arts courses, which would make it all-round development, of course given capable teachers (not making the director teach literature course, zilch of a background in that).



3) did you find any course very much enjoyable in your stay? which ones, and why? of course you will like some topics more than others, but it is the "learning experience" from a course that counts for me.

[This is to understand what does a course contain to make it students' favorite]


My summary : In US, a teacher would make students work with real-life examples: learning something, construct it yourself (learning 'amplifiers', make one). This means quality teaching, only a skilled teacher knows what to add to the course, and what activities to be carried out in what measure. Also, such a teacher would have to be active researcher to get the feel of the latest, esp. given the quick changes in "state of the art" of engineering and sciences.



Here are students' responses for you to read directly.

=======================================================
1) did you take any courses that were similar to those in India? if so, can you compare what changed for better (and worse, of course).

[This was to compare two institutions directly, wherever possible]

My summary : In a US university, depth is valued more than breadth, so focus on a few fundamentals. Fundamentals are valued over ability to remember and calculate. There is a lot more rigor and students are given a lot of homework, which they take seriously unlike in India. There are also programming (MatLab etc.) exercises; laboratory projects; research papers to read/ work out; and research-related lab work to complement class-room learning.

----AN----

I took Introduction to Probability Theory (which is a 500 level course), which was similar to the Probability and Statistics Course that I took in India. The major difference was breadth v/s depth. I'd say (in India) we covered a wider range of material in the course, but mainly without mathematical proofs. On the other hand, in the course here, relatively less material was covered topic-wise, but whatever was covered, was covered completely, with proofs for each relevant theorem

---NI---

in the first sem, I was a bit bull-headed, and I did not take courses which I though I had covered. However, now I realize that a course here is probably twice as much worth as one in India. from the point of view of using softwares.

There is a lot more emphasis on assignments which need a significant amount of work/effort/thinking. There is also probably a lot more industry relevance. I think syllabi here are updated more frequently here, and that makes a lot of difference. This semester I am taking a undergrad course which will teach me formally the things that I tried out in my projects in India. Formal knowledge makes a significant difference to the effort required to reach project goals, I believe.

--- NC ---

Some of the courses that I took in DSP and Communications involved some matter that had been taught in India too. The major difference that I observed was the stress on mathematical rigor, which was also reflected in the difficulty level of the problems assigned for HW. Further, the focus was on gaining a clear understanding of the fundamentals, and learning was facilitated through simulation examples via MATLAB, which made the subject more interesting.

--- AD ---

I have taken a number of courses here that are similar to India. I found that here the professors give more importance to strongly nailing in the fundamental concepts. This method is complemented by a good amount of homework and laboratory work that is meant to help us understand the concepts better. I feel that I have learned a lot more from the courses here than I did in India.

--- OP---

I was TA of an undergraduate course which was the equivalent of Digital Design and Computer Architecture in India. From what I know

a) The computer architecture part was not given any focus / importance in India. It is taught very thoroughly here, the examinations even had questions involving the redesign of the micro architecture of a basic pipeline as per a new instruction set specified by the professor and other involving choosing cache sizes for a specific application. In India, we only vaguely touched upon pipelines and caches as mere concepts.

b) In India, the practicals for the course ( basic VHDL programming, hooking up simple logic circuits on bread boards etc) was a part of the coursework. At this university, there are no lab sessions or programming assignments for the course at all. All of the practical aspects have been bundled into a separate course which may or may not be taken in another sem.

--- IM ---

I have taken a similar networking class to what we had in India. There we had mostly theoretical questions based on it. But in US we had a couple of projects where we could practically implement what we are learning. This is one of the major things that is lacking in our education. We read a book, ace the exam and get an A and an year later we dont really remember the basics if we do not go into that field anymore.

--- KA---

I took two courses very similar to India. PHY123 (commonly called the Art of Electronics, taught by Paul Horowitz and Tom Hayes) similar to MT1, ES1 and Advanced VLSI Design, similar to Analog and Digital VLSI Design (ADVD). Here are some thoughts:

PHY123: The course was simply outstanding! The first hour of the course was spent in discussing a chapter from Paul's book (Art of Electronics) and the rest 4-5 hours (yes!) working in the lab. The course did not require students to write lab reports (which was simply great, because according to me lab reports don't serve much purpose except for learning how to copy) but the HWs given at the end of each class covered all that was done in the lab. Hence one HAD to do the labs to get the HW questions right. Of course, the HW questions were novel and were generated over years (the course has been running for more than 30 years.) The course is immensely popular at MIT and the class was divided half and half between MIT and Harvard. The main point about the course which cannot be stressed more is the fact that it was FUN. I believe this is what we lack when we do courses in India; they are rote. You get a book, see what has to be done in the lab and do it. While here, you play with circuits, there are demonstrations (like how to send sound using just an LED and decode and play it on a speaker, etc) already prepared by the Professors before the students enter the classroom. The handouts/quizzes are handed on a mini-train which travels on the table and reaches every student, and so on. These might sound naive, but I've SEEN these things work. After every 20mins in the first hour, students were given a 5 min break since the attention span of a human averages over there, and so on. I could go on writing about the course in fact! :)

Advanced VLSI Design: The course was an eyeopener. Topics were taught from scratch, and students were not assumed to know anything. Very intensive classes too, with HWs from book, but otherwise information (updated!) was given. VLSI is an ever changing field, and instead of sticking to a book, students were made to read papers, comment on them etc. Each week an assignment was given which started from scratch design and culminated in students learning extensive use of Cadence softwares (which is EXTREMELY necessary for EE grads and not taught in India.)
==========================================================


2) were there any other courses (Logic or Astronomy) which you wish you had encountered before? perhaps, then you would remove some other courses from India curriculum, which ones?

My summary : Rather than specific courses, what is (rightly, in my opinion) demanded is flexibility to choose from courses at an early stage. Also, the choice should be from a wider pool of courses, which allows for all branches to interconnect. Let the student decide which courses s/he wants to do. Fundamental courses in Math give a solid background, but only when taught with real-life examples, perhaps we should make teachers collaborate in a classroom. Plus, there should be arts courses, which would make it all-round development, of course given capable teachers (not making the director teach literature course, zilch of a background in that).

--- AN---

If I were given the choice, I might consider removing Mechanics of Solids for Electrical Engineers, and perhaps replace it with a course teaching Object Oriented Programming, perhaps through Python. One thing you find here is that you're almost expected to know OOP (or rather, it isn't a minus point if you don't, but a big plus if you do...you can get started on projects etc. much more quickly if you know C++ or Java)

--- NI---

One thing I would encourage in India is the flexibilities offered here. It is not important whether the degree name is EnI or EEE, I should be allowed to do more courses of my interest rather than all the CDCs. Maybe there can be different 'tracks' like Control Systems, Systems, Signal Processing etc. You get the idea.. The Maths courses that India has - and it has a lot - are really helpful in providing background [Asgekar: "And I always found Math classrooms empty"]

--- NC ---

I wish I had understood the importance of Linear Algebra in Signal Processing. When we were taught this course in the 1st year at India came across as a relatively abstract, difficult though interesting course, but I believe we were not given enough real-world perspective. [Asgekar: "Read my comment above"]

Further, I also wish that I had done a more rigorous course on random signals/random processes. It was covered in 1 chapter in the Communication Systems course in India. but the material was covered very quickly, I believe it has enough content to merit a separate course.

Also, I know it is difficult to increase the flexibility, but I think it would help if the Compulsory Discipline Courses in India had a wider scope and students could choose from a pool of courses, as against the compulsory 8 courses that we had to do in our 3rd year. In my case, I would have rather done a course on Random Signals than, say, Power Electronics or VLSI Design.

--- AD ---

Actually, I think the Indian curriculum was very good and I wouldn't drop any courses from it. The method of tackling the courses is what needs to be changed a little bit. I did feel it would have been useful to include Operating Systems course in the ECE required course work.

--- OP---

There are many interesting courses to choose from at universities in U.S.A. Though I wondered sometimes why Indian Univ had a limited choice of courses, I felt that the idea may not be practical considering both the smaller number of students and the fewer degrees offered. We only had Engineering and Sciences as the programs offered. On the other hand, universities here offer hundreds of degrees ranging from Archeology to Creative Writing to Law. Hence any course would find a good number of students wanting to take it, this may not be the case in India.

--- IM ---

I am extremely unhappy about the number of electives that are offered in India. Undergrad is a time for people to know what they are interested in and shape their career in. How can they just restrict us to a couple of electives? I would have loved to take foreign languages, give a shot at photography. There is not much importance given to art in India, may be it is not related to our college alone, but Art and psychology and public affairs are all extremely important to the universities here.

--- KA---

2) Instead of removing a course from Indian curriculum (MT2 can be removed!) improving them is a better option. Courses like CP2 do nothing to teach much except know how pointers work. Many many more assignments should be given at India.

==========================================================

3) did you find any course very much enjoyable in your stay? which ones, and why? of course you will like some topics more than others, but it is the "learning experience" from a course that counts for me.

My summary : In US, a teacher would make students work with real-life examples: learning something, construct it yourself (learning 'amplifiers', make one). This means quality teaching, only a skilled teacher knows what to add to the course, and what activities to be carried out in what measure. Also, such a teacher would have to be active researcher to get the feel of the latest, esp. given the quick changes in "state of the art" of engineering and sciences.

--- AN---

Well, I liked a course on Coding Theory that I took. The professor in charge of the course explained the theory very lucidly and with real-world examples of codes. In general, he always tried to adhere to the "how do we construct an *actual* code with these principles, and model real-world error probabilities into it, etc" approach.

--- NC ---

Three courses that I really enjoyed at ... were:

1) Digital Communication (basic M-ary communication system design and performance analysis in AWGN channels)
2) Digital Processing of Speech Signals (speech production models, analysis techniques and applications such as coding, recognition)
3) Harmonic Analysis and Signal Processing (wavelets and time-frequency representations, approximation theory, best basis and sparse approximation, statistical estimation, compression, inverse problems)

I learned a lot through these courses, due to a combination of skilled teaching, well-planned coursework and insightful assignments/projects. Again, I believe that learning was greatly enhanced by incorporating extensive MATLAB simulations into the coursework.

--- AD ---

The best course that I have done here is VLSI Principles. The course content, homeworks and lab work were designed to give a thorough understanding of digital chip design. The highlight of the course was that it is superbly oriented with the current semiconductor industry, giving us hands-on experience with state-of-the-art tools and designs through lab assignments.

--- OP---

I loved the course Digital VLSI Circuits Design. The course project involved doing the physical layout of an entire micro controller. It was extremely challenging, but also very very useful. The classes were also very impressive because of the professor's teaching style, he often used his incredible knowledge of "how its done in the industry" in lectures and shared the simple intuitions he had about various concepts.

--- IM ---

The course I liked the most is Operating Systems and Image Processing. I liked Operating Systems because we have gained indepth knowledge of how things work, very low-level. We were introduced to working with shell scripts though it was not included in the course curriculum( which by the way has to drastically improve to include more practical coding and programming, which a normal college in India has but unfortunately we dont). Image Processing was interesting because I could apply whatever I have learnt by working on a project extensively. The charm of a topic is only reliased when we work on it and see what it is all about. I think our course curriculum gives more importance to include theory of as many topics as possible but that does not help in any way if we cant use it. They should try testing the students on projects more than on tests.

--- KA---

3)See answer 1. Apart from that, a course at MIT called Low Power VLSI Design was very very useful. The course was finely broken up into topics required for Low Power Design without overwhelming the students. The HWs were made challenging but not so much that a student would be dissuaded. The course culminated with a project which covered EVERYTHING taught in it.

Hussain and Secularism in India: Hilda Raja's email to Hindu's N Ram

I admire how neatly Ms. Hilda Raja puts points across to the left-wing media and intelligentia. Hats off to her !!!

letter to the editor-in-chief of The Hindu

March 3, 2010

I have taken time to write this to you Ram- for the simple reason that we have known you for so many years- you and The Hindu bring back happy memories. Please take what I am putting down as those that come from an agonized soul. You know that I do not mince words and what I have to say I will-I call a spade a spade- now it is too late for me to learn the tricks of being called a ‘secularist’ if that means a bias for, one, and a bias against, another.

Hussain is now a citizen of Qatar-this has generated enough of heat and less of light. Qatar, you know better than me, is not a country which respects democracy or freedom of expression. Hussain says he has complete freedom-I challenge him to paint a picture of Mohammed fully clad.
There is no second opinion that artists have the Right of Freedom of expression. Is such a right restricted only to Hussain? Will that right not flow to Dan Brown-why was his film-Da Vinci Code not screened? Why was Satanic Verses banned-does Salman Rushdie not have that freedom of expression? Similarly why is Taslima hunted and hounded and why fatwas have been issued on both these writers? Why has Qatar not offered citizenship to Taslima? In the present rioting in Shimoga in Karnataka against the article Taslima wrote against the tradition of burqua which appeared in the Out Look in Jan 2007. No body protested then either in Delhi or in any other part of the country; now when it reappears in a Karnataka paper there is rioting. Is there a political agenda to create a problem in Karnataka by the intolerant goons? Why has the media not condemned this insensitivity and intolerance of the Muslims against Taslima’s views? When it comes to the Sangh Parivar it is quick to call them goons and intolerant etc. Now who are the goons and where is this tolerance and sensitivity?

Regarding Hussain’s artistic freedom it seems to run unfettered in an expression of sexual perversion only when he envisages the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. There is no quarrel had he painted a nude woman sitting on the tail of a monkey. The point is he captioned it as Sita. Nobody would have protested against the sexual perversion and his orientatation to sexual signs and symbols. But would he dare to caption it as ‘Fatima enjoying in Jannat with animals’?
Next example-is the painting of Saraswati copulating with a lion. Here again his perversion is evident and so is his intent. Even that lets concede cannot be faulted-each one’s sexual orientation is each one’s business I suppose. But he captioned it as Saraswati. This is the problem. It is Hussain’s business to enjoy in painting his sexual perversion. But why use Saraswati and Sita for his perverted expressions? Use Fatima and watch the consequences. Let the media people come to his rescue then. Now that he is in a country that gives him complete freedom let him go ahead and paint Fatima copulating with a lion or any other animal of his choice. And then turn around and prove to India the Freedom of expression he enjoys in Qatar.

Talking about Freedom of Expression- this is the Hussain who supported Emergence-painted Indira Gandhi as Durga slaying Jayaprakas Narayan. He supported the jailing of artists and writers. Where did this Freedom of Expression go? And you call him secularist? Would you support the jailing of artists and writers Ram –would you support the abeyance of the Constitution and all that we held sacred in democracy and the excessiveness of Indira Gandhi to gag the media-writers-political opponents? Tell me honesty, why does Hussain expect this Freedom when he himself did not support others with the same freedom he wants? And the media has rushed to his rescue. Had it been a Ram who painted such obnoxious, degrading painting- the reactions of the media and the elite ‘secularists’ would have been different; because there is a different perception/and index of secularism when it comes to Ram- and a different perception/and index of secularism when it comes to Rahim/Hussain.

It brings back to my mind an episode that happened to The Hindu some years ago. You had a separate weekly page for children with cartoons, quizzes, and with poems and articles of school children. In one such weekly page The Hindu printed a venerable bearded man-fully robed with head dress, mouthing some passages of the Koran-trying to teach children. It was done not only in good faith but as a part of inculcating values to children from the Koran. All hell broke loose. Your office witnessed goons who rushed in-demanded an apology-held out threats. In Ambur, Vaniambadi and Vellore the papers stands were burned-the copies of The Hindu were consigned to the fire. A threat to raise the issue in Parliament through a Private Members Bill was held out-Hectic activities went on- I am not sure of the nature and the machinations behind the scene. But The Hindu next day brought out a public apology in its front page. Where were you Ram? How secular and tolerant were the Muslims?

Well this is of the past-today it is worse because the communal temperature in this country is at a all high-even a small friction can ignite and demolition the country’s peace and harmony. It is against this background that one should view Hussain who is bent on abusing and insulting the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Respect for religious sentiments, need to maintain peace and harmony should also be part of the agenda of an artist-if he is great. If it is absent then he cannot say that he respects India and express his longing for India.

Let’s face it- he is a fugitive of law. Age and religion are immaterial. What does the media want-that he be absolved by the courts? Even for that he has to appear in the courts-he cannot run away-After all this is the country where he lived and gave expression to his pervert sadist, erotic artistic mind under Freedom of Expression. I simply cannot jump into the bandwagon of the elite ‘secularist’ and uphold what he had done. With his brush he had committed jihad-bloodletting.
The issue is just not nudity- Yes the temples-the frescos in Konarak and Kajhuraho have nude figures-But does it say that they are Sita, Sarswati or any goddesses? We have the Yoni and the Phallus as sacred signs of Life-of Siva and Shakthi-take these icons to the streets, paint them -give it a caption it become vulgar. Times have changed. Even granted that our ancients sculptured and painted naked forms and figures, with a pervert mind to demean religion is no license to repeat that in today’s changed political and social scenario and is not a sign of secularism and tolerance. I repeat there is no quarrel with nudity-painters have time and again found in it the perfection of God’s hand craft.

Let me wish Hussain peace in Qatar-the totalitarian regime with zero tolerance May be he will convince the regime there to permit freedom of expression in word, writing and painting. For this he could start experimenting painting forms and figure of Mohamed the Prophet-and his family And may I fervently wish that the media-especially The Hindu does not discriminate goons-let it not substitute tolerance for intolerance when it comes to Rahim and Antony and another index for Ram.

I hope you will read this in the same spirit that I have written. All the best to you Ram.

Dr Mrs Hilda Raja,
Vadodara

Energy Efficiency and Human Behavior

As this Ars Technica article mentions, in energy savings it matters more to change people's attitude than basic technology. Current technology, when assisted with proper incentives, can be used by people to lower their energy usage.

What incentives: layered energy costs, tight monitoring of power usage, rewards (subsidies) to those who use energy efficient bulbs/ systems, punishments (taxes) on less efficient systems. Governments are decreed to have this as their main function, instead Indian government focuses on caste-/ religion-based quotas, blanket subsidies to the rich (petrol), criminal waste of tax-payer money supposedly on 'employment of the poor' (NREGA) etc.

Let us see what all can GoI do in this regard:

1. tax petrol/ diesel
2. yearly tax on cars depending on their energy/ fuel efficiency (higher tax for SUVs e.g.).
3. tax fluorescent light bulbs, subsidize efficient ones
4. tax ACs on yearly basis (pay yearly tax based on their energy usage and efficiency)
5. offer cash for tree plantation and growing programs
6. encourage and build public transport (not take bribes from Kinetic/ Honda to encourage 2-wheeler traffic on the road)
7. subsidize energy efficient cooking ranges (taxes are based on the energy efficiency)
8. buildings with ecologically friendly structures (more cross-wind, green areas, indoor water cooling, etc.)
   

and more on these lines.

What are your suggestions in this regard?

Indian and American Education System: a comparison - I

I have always wondered what would I have been if I had received better educational choices offered in countries such as US. Would I have stuck to just plain Physics, or ventured in Applied Physics, Economics of Education, Medieval Poetry, or even Sports Mechanics and Injury.Instead of listening to insipid lecturers, who did not know difference between Fermions and electrons, I could have spoken to Prof. Levine (MIT) and seen his demonstrations live. Instead of doing my first experiments with telescopes at the age of 22, would I have done some cool supernova observations, derived age of an unknown galaxy or studied planet around a distant star at the age of 17? Possibilities are endless, and I would like to know what exactly did I miss in the class: the attitude of teachers, students, facilities, and of course, aims of learning.

So, I asked a few students from Goa, whom I had incidentally taught Physics and a few other things. These students are now in the US universities, doing some exciting things on their own. I asked them to compare our teaching environment and what they encountered so far in their American colleges.

My questions to them went like this:

1. Did you take any courses that were similar to those in [our_college] ? if so, can you compare what changed for better (and worse, of course)?
   
2. Were there any other courses (Logic or Astronomy) which you wish you had encountered before? perhaps, then you would remove some other courses from [our_college] curriculum, which ones?
3. Did you find any course very much enjoyable in your stay? which ones, and why? of course you will like some topics more than others, but it is the "learning experience" from a course that counts for me.
4. How was faculty and support staff? can you compare [our_college] Physics group (i know this bunch the best) with one you saw there? we were a good group, i believe. we can improve hugely in terms of our approach, and i would like to know if you can point out the fault lines... again, i would ask you to stress less on equipment (automated robots or moving screens) than approach, but do write about the over all thing.
5. How was the syllabus and student activities (exercises, labs, seminars, research)? how did it make a difference, what exactly mattered to you the most?
6. What was expected from students ? learning is a 2-way street, i believe, did you find something similar?
7. If you had to remodel [our_college], what would you do? detail 2 things of your own (more if you have time).

They contradicted themselves and repeated themselves, but their answers were surprisingly similar, although words were different and order was jumbled. In my coming posts I will discuss answers to various questions, and my reposte on those answers. After 7 such posts, I will put in my summary posts on this.

If you had to do so, how would you phrased your questions?


.

उल्टा गब्बर गाववालों को डांटे !

Or, how captain of thieves lectures to the looted townsfolk !

This is our prime-minister's (MMS) message :

Terming as "unfortunate" regression in some sectors of Indian science due to red tape and political interference, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday asked scientists to engage with government to liberate it from shackles of "bureaucratism and in-house favouritism".

Hello, "some sectors of Indian science"? The truth is that this phenomenon pervades the entire Indian science, industry and innovation sector. The political class, with the help of the beureaucrats, are looting the innovators, hard-working people. The entire structure is based to make money, so hire those scientists who pay ministers, allow more research funds to those who will share the cut with ministers, and so on. (All know certain cases where appointments were made when money was paid to various places, don't we?) This structure does not allow for clean scientists to survive and go on to make discoveries (and share it with government and 'babu's as a part of copyrights/ patents etc.)


1) Now the onus is on us to "engage with the government"? What is "government" here, the beureaucrats and ministers (and their cronies). What does "engagement" mean, sleep with them or pamper their whims? The "government" is not going to cede power, the PM has to empower a (large) body of scientists, taken broadly from all universities and institutes, to create a new structure. Indian Academy of Sciences is the oldest such body, and he and his government should the first step in inviting the body... The formation is the most crucial step here, if not done properly, it would not make any impact whatsoever: it has to be politically impartial, neutral to gender/ caste/ regional/ subject-field biases.

Holding that time has come to give a "new boost" to science and technology, he asked Indian scientists working abroad to return to the country to convert the "brain drain" to "brain gain".

Why should anyone come back? What guarantee that the structure is never formed? Individuals need incentives to do work, and assurance that when political power shifts, the above step does not get lost.

2) So, the formation and successive framework has to be carried out after a prolonged debate with opposition parties, esp. the major opposition (BJP in particular). This engagement is crucial, this will bring necessary neutrality.

The Prime Minister appealed to scientific institutions to introspect and to propose mechanisms for greater autonomy, including from the government, which could help to improve standards.

Sorry, MMS, this time the onus (of introspection) is squarely on the political class. Take permission from the Italian madam, or the Prince, and start broader reforms, more akeen to the financial reforms you had initiated in 1991. For that, the political class needs to rescind their powers and will to make wanten money from every possible decision.

Noting that the government has declared 2010-2020 as a "decade of innovation", he said, "We cannot continue with business as usual as we need new solutions in many areas to achieve the goals of inclusive and sustainable growth."

He pitched for a strong outward orientation of the innovation eco-system to stimulate innovation to find indigenous solutions for local problems.

Such declaration, esp. by weak governments like India, do not carry much meaning. Tokenism of this kind has hurt us all this while. What is this obfuscation "outward orientation of the innovation eco-system"?

4) To make innovation happen, government has to provide incentives: simple banking/ funding possibilities, easy access to patenting and copy-rights, crucially simpler access to information (using internet). Given recent silly internet banning of "sex" and related material, we can safely forget about information exchange, the most key aspect of innovation and research.

Bottomline: MMS is only making an empty speech, good on words (and he may even understand significance of those), but empty on actions...

Siddhartha : 2010

I am reading Siddhartha, iconic novel by Herman Hesse. You can find a copy at Project Gutenberg. I believe 2010 will be the year of awakening for me, I have to discover myself, reinvent my cause and start moving forward.

Awakening

When Siddhartha left the grove, where the Buddha, the perfected one, stayed behind, where Govinda stayed behind, then he felt that in this grove his past life also stayed behind and parted from him. He pondered about this sensation, which filled him completely, as he was slowly walking along. He pondered deeply, like diving into a deep water he let himself sink down to the ground of the sensation, down to the place where the causes lie, because to identify the causes, so it seemed to him, is the very essence of thinking, and by this alone sensations turn into realizations and are not lost, but become entities and start to emit like rays of light what is inside of them.

Slowly walking along, Siddhartha pondered. He realized that he was no youth any more, but had turned into a man. He realized that one thing had left him, as a snake is left by its old skin, that one thing no longer existed in him, which had accompanied him throughout his youth and used to be a part of him: the wish to have teachers and to listen to teachings. He had also left the last teacher who had appeared on his path, even him, the highest and wisest teacher, the most holy one, Buddha, he had left him, had to part with him, was not able to accept his teachings.

Slower, he walked along in his thoughts and asked himself: "But what is this, what you have sought to learn from teachings and from teachers, and what they, who have taught you much, were still unable to teach you?" And he found: "It was the self, the purpose and essence of which I sought to learn. It was the self, I wanted to free myself from, which I sought to overcome. But I was not able to overcome it, could only deceive it, could only flee from it, only hide from it. Truly, no thing in this world has kept my thoughts thus busy, as this my very own self, this mystery of me being alive, of me being one and being separated and isolated from all others, of me being Siddhartha! And there is no thing in this world I know less about than about me, about Siddhartha!"

Having been pondering while slowly walking along, he now stopped as these thoughts caught hold of him, and right away another thought sprang forth from these, a new thought, which was: "That I know nothing about myself, that Siddhartha has remained thus alien and unknown to me, stems from one cause, a single cause: I was afraid of myself, I was fleeing from myself! I searched Atman, I searched Brahman, I was willing to to dissect my self and peel off all of its layers, to find the core of all peels in its unknown interior, the Atman, life, the divine part, the ultimate part. But I have lost myself in the process."

Siddhartha opened his eyes and looked around, a smile filled his face and a feeling of awakening from long dreams flowed through him from his head down to his toes. And it was not long before he walked again, walked quickly like a man who knows what he has got to do.

"Oh," he thought, taking a deep breath, "now I would not let Siddhartha escape from me again! No longer, I want to begin my thoughts and my life with Atman and with the suffering of the world. I do not want to kill and dissect myself any longer, to find a secret behind the ruins. Neither Yoga-Veda shall teach me any more, nor Atharva-Veda, nor the ascetics, nor any kind of teachings. I want to learn from myself, want to be my student, want to get to know myself, the secret of Siddhartha."

He looked around, as if he was seeing the world for the first time. Beautiful was the world, colourful was the world, strange and mysterious was the world! Here was blue, here was yellow, here was green, the sky and the river flowed, the forest and the mountains were rigid, all of it was beautiful, all of it was mysterious and magical, and in its midst was he, Siddhartha, the awakening one, on the path to himself. All of this, all this yellow and blue, river and forest, entered Siddhartha for the first time through the eyes, was no longer a spell of Mara, was no longer the veil of Maya, was no longer a pointless and coincidental diversity of mere appearances, despicable to the deeply thinking Brahman, who scorns diversity, who seeks unity. Blue was blue, river was river, and if also in the blue and the river, in Siddhartha, the singular and divine lived hidden, so it was still that very divinity's way and purpose, to be here yellow, here blue, there sky, there forest, and here Siddhartha. The purpose and the essential properties were not somewhere behind the things, they were in them, in everything.

"How deaf and stupid have I been!" he thought, walking swiftly along. "When someone reads a text, wants to discover its meaning, he will not scorn the symbols and letters and call them deceptions, coincidence, and worthless hull, but he will read them, he will study and love them, letter by letter. But I, who wanted to read the book of the world and the book of my own being, I have, for the sake of a meaning I had anticipated before I read, scorned the symbols and letters, I called the visible world a deception, called my eyes and my tongue coincidental and worthless forms without substance. No, this is over, I have awakened, I have indeed awakened and have not been born before this very day."

In thinking this thoughts, Siddhartha stopped once again, suddenly, as if there was a snake lying in front of him on the path.

Because suddenly, he had also become aware of this: He, who was indeed like someone who had just woken up or like a new-born baby, he had to start his life anew and start again at the very beginning. When he had left in this very morning from the grove Jetavana, the grove of that exalted one, already awakening, already on the path towards himself, he he had every intention, regarded as natural and took for granted, that he, after years as an ascetic, would return to his home and his father. But now, only in this moment, when he stopped as if a snake was lying on his path, he also awoke to this realization: "But I am no longer the one I was, I am no ascetic any more, I am not a priest any more, I am no Brahman any more. Whatever should I do at home and at my father's place? Study? Make offerings? Practise meditation? But all this is over, all of this is no longer alongside my path."