Category Archives: Education

Of virtual mirrors and medical images on the Cloud

Education, Science & Technologies, World Opinion

Viswa Subramanian Sekar, a final-year BE (computer science and engineering) student of PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, looks forward to pursuing a career in research. Three weeks ago, she bagged the National Award for the ‘Best BTech project in Engineering 2013’ from Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) and the Government of Punjab for her work on efficient storage of medical images on cloud. “As someone who hails from a family of doctors, I felt I should do some research based on medical images,” says Viswa. “Cloud computing is a cost-efficient technique. I have also created an image compression technique that reduces the image size and also ensures that quality of the image does not get affected.”

She began her work in 2012. Viswa has also attended various national and international conferences. The research was also published in Elsevier, a reputed international magazine for science and technology this year. She was also the only UG student to attend the Elsevier international conference held in June.

Presently, she is working on her final-year project, which is about creating a virtual mirror interactive dressing room. “I was inspired to take up the project when I saw the video on the same topic by CISCO. Also, interactivity using gestures is the next-gen technology and so is augmented reality,” she explains.

In Viswa’s project, the customer can virtually try out the dress on himself/herself. Also, the sizes could be altered. “The software kinect (used to create the virtual mirror) is very expensive if installed on the system. My idea is to make the virtual mirror available to people at their homes. The project is ready but there is still scope for improvements,” she says.

In future, Viswa intends to pursue her PhD in computer vision and wishes to pursue her master’s in Germany. But for a start, she is all set to go to Technical University of Munich in Germany (her dream university) for an internship spanning over a month-and-a-half at the end of this year.

— edex@newindianexpress.com

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Edex / by Janani Rajeswari – Coimbatore / November 18th, 2013

Library in corporation school serves a perfect platform for kids

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

Madurai :

Stepping into the library of the Pandiyan Nedunchezhiyan Corporation Higher Secondary School in Madurai, one does not get the feeling of visiting a library situated inside a corporation school. Equipped with air conditioners, modern furniture, cushioned executive chairs, the library provides a perfect atmosphere for the children to kindle their reading habits. With only 466 books in 2009, the library now grown up leaps and bounds with more than 8,000 books in its collection. Thanks to the efforts of the librarian, K Kanagadurga, who joined in 2009 on a consolidated pay, the number of books not only increased, but it also imbibed reading habits among many students.

Philanthropists, who recently visited the library were taken aback by the maintenance were assured their contribution to the library to increase the books. A group of them had donated 1,032 books to the library. At a function organized in the library to felicitate the donors on Monday evening, V V Rajan Chellappa, mayor, Madurai Corporation took part. Speaking on the occasion, he said that people should take cue from the donors and give back to the society.

With two periods allocated for library for the 300-odd students in the school, the librarian is proud to say that 90% of the children are now fond of using the library books. Apart from the students belonging to the school, students from other schools in the surrounding areas are also benefited.

“When the book fair was held recently in Madurai, I thought of using the opportunity to equip the library with new books. I contacted some of the philanthropists. They were impressed when they visited the library and offered to contribute the books,” Kanagadurga said.

The library has books covering most of the subjects required for the students. Interesting simple scientific facts’ related books, history, biographies, autobiographies of eminent people are also available, she said.

“The most important thing is to attract the students to the library with simple books that are enjoyable to read. The books should be attractive so that children at least take and flip through them and discover the contents,” she said.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai / TNN / November 13th, 2013

Visually challenged teacher honoured

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features
B Ravichandran (third from left), who was promoted as headmaster of a government higher secondary school, being felicitated by district educational officer Manoharan, in Vellore on Saturday | Express Photo
B Ravichandran (third from left), who was promoted as headmaster of a government higher secondary school, being felicitated by district educational officer Manoharan, in Vellore on Saturday | Express Photo

Visually challenged teachers, under the aegis of the Vellore-Tiruvannamalai District Blind Teachers Association, gathered here on Saturday to celebrate Teacher’s Day and representatives of the Blind Teachers Association from the districts of Madurai, Cuddalore, Salem, Dharmapuri and Villupuram participated.

The teachers participated in the celebrations along with their spouses, some of whom were also visually impaired, and children. They made an appeal to the State government to hold special grievance camps on a periodical basis in all the districts to redress the problems faced by the differently abled persons. They also wanted the State government to provide training in computer application to all the blind teachers under the ongoing Rashtriya Madhyamik Siksha Abhiyan (RMSA) scheme.

Officials from the Education Department, led by DEO D Manoharan, assured all support to the visually impaired teachers. The occasion was also used to felicitate one of the senior colleagues, B Ravichandran, who was promoted as HM of a government higher secondary school in Krishnagiri district. Shankar, secretary of the association, said, of the 600 teachers who were shortlisted for promotion, Ravichandran was the only visually impaired teacher on the list. He said was a great honour for visually impaired teachers as well as for the district. He is the second blind teacher  to get this honour. The first was Manoharan, who retired this year.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by V. Narayana Murthi – ENS, Vellore / November 10th, 2013

Thoothukudi girl tops State TET

Education, Records, All
R Vinusha.
R Vinusha.

A second year student at the VOC College here has topped the State Teachers Eligibility Test (TET), the results of which were published on Wednesday.

R Vinusha, daughter of Ramachandiran, scored 126 marks out of a possible 150 and topped the State in the second paper of the TET.

Vinusha is the fifth daughter in her family of which four members, including her father and three elder sisters, are also teachers. She secured the top position in her second attempt of the test. She scored 88 marks in her first attempt.

This year, Vinusha outsmarted around seven lakh candidates who had appeared for the exam. Out of the total candidates, 27,000 have had made it through to the final list.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Student / by Express News Service – Thoothukudi / November 08th, 2013

Janfest’13 ends with a crescendo in Trichy

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

 

Students with the medals at the valediction of the 'Jamfest 2013' in Tiruchi on Monday./ Photo: A. Muralitharan / The Hindu
Students with the medals at the valediction of the ‘Jamfest 2013’ in Tiruchi on Monday./ Photo: A. Muralitharan / The Hindu

Joyous students brought the house down with their enthusiastic cheering and applause during the valediction of Jamfest’13, the annual inter-school talent competition organized at St. James Matriculation Higher Secondary School in the city on Monday.

Members of the school alumni association, were co-ordinating the event.

The two-day event included competitions on drawing, painting, oration, poetry, creative writing, quiz, stage play, dance, singing and other co-curricular activities. The annual event aims to nurture the extra-curricular skills of students. Different schools in the city participated in the event and prizes were awarded in junior and senior categories.

J. Mohaned Aslan of SBIOA school was crowned Mr. Jamfest, while S. Afreen Akhthar of St.James Matriculation school was Ms. Jamfest. The overall trophy for first prize was awarded to students of St. James Matriculation School due to their outstanding performance in all the events. The second overall prize was given to Alpha Matriculation School.

J. Veerapandian, president, Tiruchi Advocates Bar Council said “The best days of a person’s life are definitely the school days, and told students to reach great heights by studying with dedication.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Tiruchirapalli / by Staff Reporter / Tiruchi – November 12th, 2013

Teachers from Singapore sharpen Tamil skills

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, World Opinion

Madurai :

A 16-member team from Singapore is in the city to participate in a two-week programme to hone their Tamil teaching skills. Apart from attending several sessions in the American College here, 14 high school teachers and two officials will visit seven educational institutions to learn about Tamil teaching methods and also share teaching methods in their country.

“English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil are official languages of Singapore. Our government promotes learning of mother tongue as it ensures that students are aware of their culture and tradition. Equal opportunities are given to all languages in the country,” said N Subramaniam, chief instructor of Tamil teachers under the Singapore education ministry. He was addressing the inaugural session of the event on Monday.

The objective of our visit is to brush up grammar and literature of Tamil. We will be imparting what we learn here to fellow teachers once we are back in Singapore, Subramaniam said.V Iraianbu, commissioner in the economics and statistics department of Tamil Nadu government, pointed out that mother tongue comes from heart, while languages that we learn are used at the mind level. Iraianbu apprised the visiting delegation about the importance of Tamil.

“It is important to learn the nuances of Tamil which has a rich literary history and culture. Ancient Tamil literature reflects society’s affinity to nature as early Tamils lived in harmony with nature,” he noted, while advising the Singaporean teachers to read more of Tamil literature as proficiency comes with practice. Tamil teachers from Singapore will visit Lakshmi School, Veerapanchan; OCPM Girls HSS, Capron Hall School, Madura College HSS; and TVS Lakshmi school in the city. The delegation will also visit St Peter’s School in Kodaikanal. Thiagarajar School of Preceptors, a BEd college in Madurai, is also on their itinerary.

Interacting with media persons at the sidelines of the meeting, Subramaniam said they will concentrate on learning as well as co-teaching in the schools so that they learn the teaching methods of Tamil. “It will be mutual where we learn and share our teaching pedagogy with the local teachers here,” he said.

The overseas delegation will focus on contemporary Tamil teaching. “Now, teaching is more student- and technology-oriented. Short films made in Tamil is one such example, he pointed out.

Eminent personalities from the field of Tamil art and literature will take technical sessions for the visiting teachers.

M Davamani Christober, principal of American College, presided over the inaugural session.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Madurai> Teachers / TNN / November 12th, 2013

3 engg colleges in western Tamil Nadu win awards for best streams offered

Education, Records, All

Salem :

Three engineering colleges in western Tamil Nadu  (Coimbatore, Erode and Salem districts) have been conferred awards for being the best in country in the streams of Computer Science and Information Technology, Electronics and Communication Engineering and Electrical Engineering.

The award was conferred on them by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with ministry of human resource development.

“Southern colleges dominated the awards yet again in the engineering category,” said C R Swaminathan, co-chair chairman of CII National Higher Education Committee. Kapil Sibal, Union minister for communications and information technology participated in the function held in New Delhi recently. During his speech, Kapil Sibal called for reforms in the education system to make it child-centric and he said that several initiatives need to be taken to take the system forward.

Ahead of the two day CII Global University-Industry Congress and 5th Higher Education Summit, CII and AICTE conducted a survey throughout the nation. “The objective of the survey was to showcase best practices of industry partnerships across AICTE approved technical institutes in the covered streams. A total of 1,050 AICTE approved institutes from established engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture institutes, and from emerging engineering and management institutes, participated in the voluntary survey,” Swaminathan said.

He also said that top business houses including Tata Chemicals , Forbes Marshall, Elico, Sun Pharma and Pennar Industries joined hands to give awards to the winning institutes in recognition of their strong linkages with industry. “The exercise involved a survey of industry-linkages with colleges where objective scores generated by the AICTE web portal based on data gathered from the online survey, were evaluated by a high-level jury. On-ground visits to shortlisted colleges were made by a team comprising AICTE and CII representatives to ensure that the data submitted was valid. Their feedback was then analyzed to arrive at the final winners,” he said.

The winner in the best industry-linked institute in electronics and communication category was PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore. The award for best industry-linked institute in mechanical engineering went to College of Engineering Pune; for electrical engineering to Kongu Engineering College in Erode; for civil engineering to Walchand Institute of Technology, Sangli; for computer & IT engineering to Sona College of Technology, Salem and for chemical engineering to Institute of Chemical Technology. XLRI Jamshedpur was declared the best industry-linked institute in management. Bombay College of Pharmacy was adjudged winner in the pharmacy stream. “Of them, Sona College of Technology in Salem, PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore and Kongu Engineering College in Perundurai in Erode district are situated in western Tamil Nadu,” Swaminathan said.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Education> Information Technology / TNN / November 11th, 2013

The great ‘vocabulary battle’ comes to an end

Education, Records, All
The winning team from Bala Vidya Mandir that battled with five other finalists to bag the Oxford Dictionary Quiz trophy | Express
The winning team from Bala Vidya Mandir that battled with five other finalists to bag the Oxford Dictionary Quiz trophy | Express

Teams from over 75 schools in the city battled it out at the Oxford Dictionary Quiz conducted by the Oxford University Press recently. Words like euphoria, serendipity and quixotic were being thrown around the hall during the prelims. Following this six finalists got into the heated battle for the title.

With over 300 students, teachers and parents cheering on, the six teams that were named after famous contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary, went through a gruelling six-round finale. Finally, the team from Bala Vidya Mandir in Adyar emerged the winners of the competition, albeit with a very tight lead over the runners up. The team comprised Sadhana Smriti of Adyar and Karthi Srinivasan of Besant Nagar. They were presented with a trophy that resembled a dictionary, made out of silver.

The winners were presented with certificates and prizes by the quizmaster Adittya Nath Mubayi and IIT Madras Professor Shreesh Chandra Chaudary.

Sadhana Smriti, whose team emerged as the winner, when asked about their preparation, said, “Our effort was really extempore and we had no preparation before the finals.” Karthi Srinivasan said, “Our school has a strong focus on extracurricular activities and we have clubs for debates and quiz.”

The competition, which was going pretty even between the top three teams till the penultimate round, shifted in favour of Sadhana and Karthi’s team, in spite of them not attempting a single question in the round. The other teams, which attempted the questions in the last buzzer round lost out on the negative marking. When quizzed whether there was any strategy involved regarding their decision to not attempt any questions in the final round, Sadhana said, “No strategy, we just figured that we were in a decent position and we didn’t want to spoil it by answering questions we weren’t sure of and get negative marking.”

The teams participating in the finals were all given prizes and the teams that emerged in the top three were from Bala Vidya Mandir, Adyar, Maharishi Vidya Mandir, Chetpet and DAV Boys School, Mogappair. The trophy was presented to the winning team in a ceremony held after the quiz.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / November 11th, 2013

IIT-M working on battery to store solar power

Education, Green Initiatives/ Environment, Science & Technologies
IITcf19nov2013
Chennai:
 Tasting success in the solar technology, the Ind­ian Institute of Techn­ology (IIT), Madras, will soon come out with a cost-effective battery technology, which could be used to store large quantity of electricity.
Speaking to DC on Satu­rday, IIT-M director Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi said that several faculty at the institute had started their research on optimisation of electricity and appropriate battery technology.
“We are working on lower life cycle cost. We are looking at bulkier, non portable, batteries, which would be used for fixed use. Centre for decentralised photovoltaic systems in our institute is working on how to handle problem of load shedding and harness solar power locally,” he said.
Prof. Ramamurthi says that India en­joys solar power for over 300 days in a year from 9 am to 4 pm with variations. Pointing out that the present solar tech had mismatch of production and storage (battery) of electricity, he said that a person had to spend Rs 14 to store one unit of power in the battery.
source: http://www.deccanchronicle.com / Deccan Chronicle / Home> News> Politics / DC / by N. Arun Kumar / November 17th, 2013

Horlicks Wizkids: Two Coimbatore students elected to attend South-East Asia competition

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All, Sports, World Opinion

Coimbatore :

Two higher secondary students from the city have been selected to attend a South-East Asia competition to be held from this Monday in Bangalore. The duo was selected after several rounds and would be pitted against students from neighbouring countries.

Suchitrha Sudeshkumar, a class 11 student from Vidhya Niketan Matriculation Higher School, Vilankurichi and Aakash Dabral from Kendriya Vidyalaya, Sowripalayam are among the ten students from India to take part in the competition held by Horlicks Wizkids in Bangalore. Out of the 10, 5 will be selected for an educational trip to Germany with a cash award of Rs 1 lakh each.

Suchitra, who writes poetry, had cleared the initial rounds and was asked to do some voluntary activity. She approached orphanages and managed to get sponsors to instal roofs for the orphanage. “I went to an orphanage at Thondamouthur. I came to know that they lacked roofs and mattresses. With the help of some firms, I managed to raise around Rs 45,000 for the purpose,” she said.

Aakash Dabral, a class 12th student said that he took soft skill sessions for students of government schools and other institutions. “I took sessions in 5 schools. Many of them lack English skills. I want to do more such training programmes,” he said.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore> Orphanage / TNN / November 10th, 2013