IBM DeveloperWorks Conference

The IBM DeveloperWorks Conference was conducted on 31st October, 2008 and it started at 2 PM. I was the youngest participant and the only student of the gathering over there. I attended along with Prof. Ravi. Most of the audience was from Industry. This conference was conducted to give demo on the products of IBM. Totally we had four sessions. Lemme breif their contents...

The main theme of the conference was Software Oriented Architecture(SOA) and Web 2.0.

Speaker 1: Mr. Naren Krishnan

He is in the software architecture sector of IBM. He briefed on SOA and web 2.0. His contents were dry in such a way that a student like me could'nt get what he was saying. He was describing on how the software professionals will have their roles in SOA and Web 2.0. He says "In the current technology of SOA, the software developer will be given more authority to make the neccesary changes. Developer is in no need to send the proposals to the one in the top of the chain and wait for acceptance. This waiting may collapse the entire project.

Speaker 2: Ms Vidya Theivendran

She works for IBM and gave a briefing on the lotus symphony and lotus notes. Lotus is an email client like Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird. This client can be used only within the organisation. This email client has cool features like...

1. Searching similar mails even if subject line is changed
2. Delegation of mails during out of office
3. That client can be used as a browser to surf the web
4. Bookmark the websites and store in authority
5. File sharing permissions and access can be set

She gave goodies for answering questions. I got a brand new IBM Software Developer Kit for answering her question.

Speaker 3: Mr. Subrahmanyam Thuraga

He works for IBM with pretty number of years experience. He gave a briefing on sMash, a software for creating mashups. He gave a lucid explanation on the difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0. Web 1.0 is something like a speaker is delivering a lecture in conference hall i.e the services will be made use as such in the defined format whereas Web 2.0 is something like in a gathering people discussing among themselves i.e Web 2.0 is more flexible in such a way that any web service can be changed to any format and mixed with another widget to get a clear stuff so as to fit the customer requirement.

Spreaker 4: Mr. Kishore Kumar Neelamegam

He works for IBM with 12 years of experience in all the phases of Software Development Life Cycle. He gave a briefing on the versatility of mashups in Web 2.0. His lecture was pretty impressive with live demo. He gave a demo on how to connect data from two widgets to our own defined widget.

Jam : Why is open too open?

Ms Bharathi Muthu, the event coordinator came out with a contest atlast. The first prize was Apple iPod. The title was as above. I participated as one among the 13 voluntary contestants. One employee from TCS won the iPod. Other contestants were given with exciting goodies. I got IBM db2 9 XML Applications Red Book as a goodie.

Dr. H.V. Ramakrishnan Rocks!!!

Dr. H. V. Ramakrishnan, Additional Rector from Dr. MGR University participated in the contest and gave an amazing example for the theme of contest. He said "Do you know why the recent tamil movie Satyam flopped?? It is only because Nayanathara was exposed too much!!" and the gathering had a lighter moment and everyone laughed. He was the oldest by age yesterday's gathering but youngest by thoughts. Dr. HVR Rocks!!!

That was the end of session and everyone dispersed by 7:30 pm.

Current CSE syllabus of Anna Univ - Review

Most of the engineering graduates from Anna University use to aim for jobs in IT industry. But the syllabus consists of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical engineering papers. But these papers are no where relevant for a Computer Science graduate in an IT industry. So there rises a question on "Why these papers are included in the curriculum?" Also there are some research oriented papers. These papers are not taught in a proper way. The objectives of these papers are not made clear. The scopes and relevancy of paper should be vividly explained. I feel that this is the reason why students hate all research oriented papers. They are concentrating more on programming oriented papers. Thereby many are not coming to Research. Recently I attended Techvista '08, annual research symposium of Microsoft Research. There I got a chance for listening the keynote of Prof. John Hopcroft, the author of the prescribed book of paper "Theory of Computation". He explained the concepts in a different way. But when my professor taught me those things in my 5th semester, she gave only the exam oriented things and also the conceptual approach was no more relevant to that of Prof. Hopcroft. The mistake is the engineering college staffs are misunderstanding what these foreign authors giving as concepts. So there is a need for the Anna University to conduct "Refresher courses" for the faculties in order to enable the staff to teach effectively. The more pathetic thing is the staff itself is a fresher when he/she is teaching that paper (Especially the electives). Ultimately my question is "Arts and science universities like Madurai Kamaraj University, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, University of Kerala etc are conducting refresher courses for the faculties of their affiliated colleges. That too as a compulsory one that a faculty should have attended 3 refresher courses. When the situation is like this for these universities, why not Anna University conduct this sort of courses for the faculties’ in order to give a proper and quality education?"

The best video i have ever seen

Hi Friends,

Please view this video... It gives u what is the current mentality of Indians...

Bloggers meet - Indiblogger.in

Indiblogger.in conducted its first student blogging initiative on 16th October, 2008 @ KCG College of Technology, Chennai. This was organised by the Campus Technical Club, Y's Men Club and Indiblogger.in. Nearly 500 students attended this meet. I welcomed the Indibloggers Bala Ganesh, Sriram Narasimhan, Renie, and Sandhya. They gave live examples on how to create a blog, publish posts and how to make it popular. Manoj Bhamidipati of Ist yr CSE got the luck of getting trained for creating his blog with hands on experience. KC Tech is proud to host the first student initiative in blogging by Indiblogger.in. The Campus Technical Club got an oppurtunity to identify a geek from Ist yr CSE. Yuvaraj Pandian from Ist yr CSE, who was already a part of Indiblogger.in. Kudos to Indibloggers!!!

Published papers and papers to be published tentatively

Name : Ferdin Joe J

Tentative Publications

1) Paper titled "Metric based architecture to enhance software usability" is selected for presentation in the IAENG International Conference on Software Engineering 2009 to be held at Hongkong during 18 - 20 March, 2009.

2) Paper titled "Optimized Image Retrieval Using Multimedia Data Mining" is selected for presentation in the International Conference on Data Mining 2009 to be held at Wessex Institute of Technology, UK.

3) Paper titled "Content Management System and Image Copyright Using Microsoft ASP" is selected for presentation in the International Conference on Knowledge Networking and ICT Era to be held at B.S. Abdur Rahman Crescent Engineering College, Chennai during January 22-24, 2009.

Papers Published So Far

1) Paper titled "Software Activation Module Using Encrypted Image Authentication" was published in IET-UK Conference on Safety and Security, Sicurezza '08 conducted at Dr. MGR University and won the "Best Paper Award" during September 23-24, 2008.

2) Paper titled "Enhanced Security of Blowfish Algorithm Using Bitmap Image Pixel Plotting" was published in CarteBlanche '08, a National level Technical Fiesta conducted by Anna University Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai during February 2008.

3) Paper titled "Real time City Bus Tracking Using Wifi" was presented in Cynapse '08, a National level Technical Symposium conducted by RMK Engineering College, Chennai during March 2008.

4) Paper titled "Bluetooth Personal Area Networks - The new age of Wireless Networks" was published in the AICTE sponsored National Conference on Computer Communication and Networking (NCCCN '07) conducted by KCG College of Technology, Chennai during March 2007.

My Personal Website

Friends,

I am glad to inform you all that I have launched my personal website. My URL is http://www.ferdin.co.nr . In this website you can get to know about my publications. You all can access the abstracts of the papers published by me in National and International Conferences. Hope my website helps you all atleast to a minimal extent.

Techvista '08, the turning point

Hi everyone! I am here to share my experiences in Techvista '08, the Annual Research Symposium conducted by Microsoft Research India. Previously Mr. Ashwani Sharma, Manager, Microsoft Research visited my college on 9th September, 2008 and insisted the students to pursue the career in research. He also invited the faculties as well as the students to attend Techvista 'o8 on October 1st, 2008. I was not aware that Techvista will play a key role in making me dedicated to research.

That was a cool event which witnessed audience from famous institutions like IITM, NITS Trichy, Anna University etc.

Now let me tell about the speakers....

Dr. P. Anandan

Managing Director of MSR India.

Prof. John Hopcroft

Turing Award Winner working for Microsoft Reseach. He is a professor of Cornell University.

Dr. Rick Rashid

Researcher in Microsoft Research.

Prof. Shafi Goldwasser

Professor in MIT, Bostonand working for Microsoft Research.

Dr. Rick Szeliski

Chief Researcher of Microsoft Research. He is an IEEE fellow.

Prof. Shree Nayar

Professor in Columbia University working for Microsoft Research.

Dr. Vijay Chandru

Working for Strand Life Sciences. A wizard to connect computing concepts with biology.

The lunch was an unlimited buffet. I enjoyed a lot.

Last but not the least, the event nurtured me a lot. It taught me that software company is not the only avenue where we can earn name and fame, there is another avenue where we can find the things cool enough. That is "RESEARCH". If Computing is a religion, then Microsoft is GOD.

Microsoft Rocks!!!