We all have our favorite teachers — those who seem truly interested and treat us as intelligent beings. But what about teachers we don't know as well (or even don't like much)?

You can do lots of things to get a good connection going with your teacher. First, do the obvious stuff: show up for class on time, with all assignments completed. Be alert, be respectful, and ask questions.

Show an interest in the subject. Obviously, your teachers are really interested in their subjects or they wouldn't have decided to teach them! Showing the teacher that you care — even if you're not a math whiz or fluent in English — sends the message that you are a dedicated student.

You can also schedule a private conference during a teacher's free period. Use this time to get extra help, ask questions, inquire about a career in the subject, or talk about your progress in class. You may be surprised to learn that your teacher is a bit more relaxed one-on-one than when lecturing in front of the whole class.

It is possible to try too hard, though. Here are some things to avoid when trying to establish a relationship with your teacher:

Not being sincere.

Teachers sense when your only motivation is to get special treatment, a college reference, or a job recommendation.

Trying to be teacher's pet.

Your behavior will come off as phony and your classmates may start to resent you.

Giving extravagant gifts.

It's OK to offer a small token of appreciation to teachers if they've been helpful to you. But flashy, expensive items could send the wrong message, and a teacher is usually not allowed to accept anything expensive.

And i am sure that when we do the above we can maintain good relationship and also that our college life willnot be bored anymore.

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) of United States is working to develop an unmanned aircraft that is able to stay in air for a period of 5 years at a time. It is one of the most recent inventions of world.
Officials of DARPA has revealed that this aircraft will be known as VULTURE due to its Persistent Pseudo-Satellite Capability . It means that this aircraft will be able to fly over a single area, communicating or performing analysis for years at a time.

Major Obstacles in Project:

Even this project looks appealing to many of you, but there are some serious problems or you can say obstacles in achieving this project.

1) First challenge in front of designers is to figure out some Way to Supply Power to this aircraft during long missions.

2) Another problem is that this aircraft will carry a 1000 pound (450 kg) payload in winds at an altitude of 60,000 to 90,000 feet.

3) Designers have also to sort out the problems regarding Deterioration of Materials during their long-time exposure to stratospheric flight.
In addition to this there may be many challenges during designing of this aircraft.

Daniel Newman: The Man behind VULTURE

Daniel Newman is the Project Manger of this ambitious project of NASA. In his words: "We want to completely change the paradigm of how we think of aircraft. Aviation has a perfect record - we've never left one up there. We will attempt to break that record".

It looks that its time to get out of the traditional "launch - recover - maintain - launch cycle of aircrafts."

Concept behind Vulture:

Basically Aircrafts operates just like satellites, but the major difference is that these are not regulated by orbital mechanics. You can understand Vulture as a Pseudo-Satellite, which operates in the stratosphere and not in the low Earth orbit. This would provide a 65 dB upgrading in communications capability and will increase onboard sensor resolution.

When will it become a Reality?

Well, right now NASA has not mentioned any time table when the aircraft will be ready. But for now NASA has worked on the probable design of Vulture.

                                                                                     CHANGE ?

We are often told that change is uncomfortable and difficult, that it inevitably involves pain, and that to change your life is to struggle and fight against the status . But there is another way. Change can be gentle, spontaneous and natural – effortless, even. With the right approach, big changes can occur without the upheavals we might normally associate with such shifts.

You create your own experience of life:
 People from a similar social or cultural background are drawn together by a shared worldview; the rich and famous socialize within their own circle; similar scientific ideas which seem to arise at around the same time. The familiar saying, ‘birds of a feather flock together’ arises from this observation.
In the same way, our thoughts tend to attract the conditions we experience. In his now famous book, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, Joseph Murray writes,
“Everything that has happened to you happened because of thoughts impressed on your subconscious mind through belief… The habitual thinking of your subconscious mind establishes deep grooves… If your thoughts are harmonious, peaceful and constructive, your subconscious mind will respond by creating harmony, peace and constructive conditions.
Our experience of life is a reflection of our inner world. The landscape we paint with our minds becomes the one we walk through every day. We are the architects, the creators of our world. Many people are unaware of this, thinking that life ‘just happens,’ that events occur by chance, and that they are forever at the mercy of random occurrences. If you want to change your life, you will need to take responsibility for creating your experience. Your thoughts draw experiences of a similar quality into your life, so it is vital that your thinking be constructive, positive and affirming.

Feeling good is the key to change
 Most people create the conditions of their life by default, the practice of deliberately directing your attention can change your life enormously. This need not be a difficult or complicated process: mind control, meditation, visualizations and endless affirmations are not needed. Nature has provided us with a navigational tool: our feelings.
Bad feelings should not be ignored or suppressed – they are telling you something important. When you feel bad – anxious, worried, afraid, depressed – something is wrong and you are being given a signal that your thinking is not drawing the experiences you truly desire into your life.
They should be acknowledged, accepted and dealt with. Again, there is no need for complicated methods to eliminate such feelings. Whenever you become aware of them, you know that your thoughts have drifted off onto the wrong track; gently direct you’re thinking back to the positive and the empowering.
When you feel very bad, it can be hard to see a way out, and it is important not to expect too much of yourself. Feelings of relief, hope or optimism are often the easiest things to reach for. Relax, accept that all is well and that, when you stop fighting so hard against your problems, life tends to support you. When a drowning man stops struggling, he floats. Thoughts of this nature – and the better feelings which go with them – are what you need to find.

Change takes time:
Sometimes, revolution occurs. As a result of a sudden change in our mental landscape – a paradigm shift – our lives can change enormously in one fell swoop.
Most change takes time – it grows and matures. The tracks etched into our minds by years – or decades – of habitual thought are not wiped away instantly; they become fainter for lack of use, just as new tracks become established, slowly but surely, as we build them step by step, and soon become well-worn highways.
Trying to force the pace of change can lead to disaster – trying to pull grass to make it grow faster only kills it. A river rarely takes a straight course, meandering instead through the natural shape of the landscape, keeping to the lowest points, moving around mountains and hills. But the water keeps flowing and, eventually, reaches the sea.
"Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished (Tao Te Chink)"

You need to be persistent:
A new path can only be established by persistently being walked on. The new tracks you are making in your thought patterns will take time to become established, and at first they will be weak. Your thoughts may keep drifting back to the old, negative patterns. No matter – keep going and, in time, you will look back in amazement at how far you have come.
All journeys precede one step at a time, and to change your life is to acknowledge that the process is important. Relax, enjoy the ride, have fun.

Interesting Analysis...

 Hello dear Colleagues, I would like to bring to your notice about several websites which I believe you’d definitely consider them as very useful. “teachengineering.org” is the first one I would like to talk about.

As a preparation for a lecture, university prescribed textbooks seems to be the first choice of teachers, however the information given in a book is wholesome like a bulk, and a teacher usually would swim through it to find the most important points from that information bulk to disseminate among the students who already has a great amount of topics to learn in different subjects. "teachengineering.org” makes this job very easy since it separates out things and points out clearly what and how to be learnt in a particular topic. Although this website is designed for 12 grade teachers of USA, this could be very much useful, even for us.

For every topic you search ( “strength of materials” for instance) you will get information under these topics listed down in contents. I hope you’ll have fun preparing very interesting lecture and study material with the help of this website (well at least to a certain level since the content is for 12th graders).

Contents ( click here for description of contents)

1. Pre-Req Knowledge 
2. Learning Objectives
3. Introduction/Motivation
4. Background
5. Vocabulary
6. Associated Activities
7. Lesson Closure
8. Attachments
9. Assessment
10. Extensions
11. Multimedia
12. References

This is an open forum, kindly discuss about your views about this website and please let us know about more websites which you think would be helpful for lecturing or student’s handout preparation, thank you.

Anything done with interest is not a burden but fun, studying engineering with interest is lot of fun, these are few websites designed to kindle that spark called interest in those who wishes to be great engineers, enjoy!!! 

A Sightseer’s Guide to Engineering for Students
Spotlights how engineers improve our lives.

www.engineeringsights.org
 

Engineer Girl
All about engineering from a girl’s perspective.

www.engineergirl.org

Green Building Pages
This site provides links and resources to associations and other groups who promote "Green" engineering.

www.greenbuildingpages.com

Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century
Learn about many of the greatest engineering accomplishments of the 20th Century.

www.greatachievements.org

Guide Me NACME
Student website with activities and information about engineering. Provided by the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME)

www.nacmebacksme.org

“School to Careers” Iowa Public Television
Find information on varied professionals and what they do in their jobs here. For example, “Meet a Civil Engineer.”

www.careers.iptv.org

FIRST Robotics Competition
This is an exciting, multinational competition that teams professionals with students to solve engineering problems in an intense and competitive way. Check out the competition videos in the “What we do” section.

www.usfirst.org

How Everyday Things Are Made
Find out how things are made from Double Bubble Bubble Gum to airplanes. See videos and get links to manufacturers’ websites.

http://manufacturing.stanford.edu

JETS 

The Junior Engineering Technical Society provides real-world insight and challenges for high school students.

www.jets.org

Extreme Engineering
Interactive tours of extreme engineering projects.

http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engineering

TryScience
TryScience.org is your gateway to experience the excitement of contemporary science and technology through on and offline interactivity with over 400 science and technology centers worldwide.

www.tryscience.org

What’s That Stuff?
Ever wondered about what’s really in hair coloring, Silly Putty, Cheese Wiz, artificial snow, or self-tanners? Here’s a collection of articles that gives you a look at the chemistry behind a wide variety of products.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff.html

The IEEE Virtual Museum
Imagine life without telephones, TVs, computers, X-rays, lasers and the Internet. These technologies all have one thing in common – they all use electricity and magnetism. See videos and walk through virtual exhibits.

www.ieee-virtual-museum.org

Exploratorium
This museum of science, art and human perception is located in San Francisco. Visit its online counterpart here with over 15,000 web pages.

www.exploratorium.edu

Engineering Net

A collection of links and valuable engineering career information.

www.engineeringnet.com

Leonardo da Vinci
His life and machines from the National Museum of Science and Technology in Italy.

www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo

Building Big
Explore large structures and what it takes to build them. Read interviews with real engineers. This website and accompanying five-part television PBS series is a production of WGBH Boston.

www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig

Engineering K12 Center
Explore engineering fields, learn how to get and pay for an engineering education, and have fun with interactive engineering games and resources.

www.engineeringk12.org/students

Engineering Pathway
This is the engineering education wing of the National Science Digital Library. Check out Community Resources for Engineering Students for great information and links to find out more about engineering schools.

www.engineeringpathway.com

Sloan Career Cornerstone Center
If you are beginning to consider career paths, this site can help you explore the fields of science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computing.

www.careercornerstone.org/forstudents.htm

Envirolink
This non-profit organization offers a vast clearing house of online resources and links that include many engineering areas of interest.

www.envirolink.org

Engineering Search Engines:

www.athenus.com

www.google.com/Top/Science/Technology

http://infomine.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/search?physci

P.S Source - www.futuresinengineering.com/link.php

Students Interaction with The Hindu For the week-end Review

The media persons from 'The Hindu' news paper arrived at our college on 05-08-10 for an interaction with our college students. The interactions were mainly about how did the students use to spend their leisure hours during the college time. The students of both genders of about 24 in number, 4 each from all the departments, participated in the discussion. To the questions put up by the media people, they responded well. The media people, in the end, appreciated the students for their positive frame of mind, the understanding of various issues and the way they explained the questions. They promised that the details of the discussions would be published in the Week- End Issue of The Hindu, probably on 14-08-10.
 

1.Kavitha A Civil III,2.Nayana Tom Civil III ,3.Venkatanarayanan. K Civil III,4.Karthik R Civil III,5.Charanpriya CSE III,6.Jeffin. P CSE IV
7.Nandhini B CSE IV 8.Divya V CSE IV,9.Kokila K ECE III,10.Thoulath Khan ECE III ,11.Jhansi Rani ECE IV,12.Jameela Hanouf ECE IV
13.Abinaya M EEE IV,14.Rajalakshmi EEE IV,15.Jawahar prasath K EEE III,16.Somasundaram K EEE III 17Saranya R IT IV ,18.Meenadavi P J IT IV
19.Arnold Praveen Kumar IT III ,20.Nirmal R IT III 21.Jimmy Thomas Mech IV ,22.Devajit Mech IV,23.Nithin V JosephMech III,24.Shal Jomon Joseph Mech III

 
Now Indian Rupee has a new symbol and this is how it looks. This new symbol which has been shortlisted through a contest run by Finance Ministry of India. You can read about that Rupee design contest here. The basic aim of the new symbol is to provide the Indian rupee international recognition as the country’s economy exerts more influence in the global space, the unique sign will also help isolate the currency from the current abbreviation ‘Rs’ which is used by neighbouring Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The winning designers concept was based on the Tricolour and “arithmetic equivalence”. While the white space between the two horizontal lines gives the impression of the national flag with the Ashok Chakra, the two bold parallel lines stand for ‘equals to’, representing balance in the economy, both within and with other economies of the world. The winning designer is an IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar.

Along with the announcement of the result, there have been a number of controversies as well. One of the RTI activist had revealed that the panel took less than 20 seconds to go through each of the design and analyze.

RTI Activist exposed : Mismanagement and violation of guidelines in “Indian Rupee Symbol” design competition.
According to RTI Documents :
1. No records are available with Finance Ministry which could indicated, how many total design entries Finance Ministry had received ?
2. Non-eligible candidate was shortlisted in top five finalists.
3. One finalist was in contact with Finance Ministry and RBI prior to competition.
4. Design concept or brief was not put in front of jury along with Indian Rupee symbol design.
5. No marks or grades were allotted to selected (2644) candidates design entries, in the process of shortlisting top five finalist design entries.
6. Jury had spends less than 20 seconds on each design entries to analyze it.
7. One jury member from Ministry of Culture was absent on the day of final presentation.
8. Three jury member were absent in two days long meeting dated 29th Sept. and 30th Sept. 2009
9. All seven jury member had never meet in this whole selection process.

 World without blind people is impossible. But scientist at Harvard and MIT is going prove that we can remove the definition for blind from the dictionary. Scientist created a wonderful invention for blind people to regain their eye sight partially. They named this invention as “Electric Eye”.

In brief, Scientist is developing a microchip to retain partial eyesight for the blind people. It won’t completely regain the whole vision, but it will help them to recognize patterns like human faces, walls, doors and so on. This electric eye is made from titanium for long lasting one and placed inside the patient eye ball. A minute camera is introduced in the spectacles that will transmit image directly into the chip. Then the chip processes everything and sends directly to the brain. So they don’t need any assistance from any one here after. MIT researchers are developing a microchip that could help blind people regain partial eyesight. Though it won't completely restore normal vision, it will enable a blind person to recognize faces and navigate a room without assistance. The chip, which is encased in titanium to prevent water damage, will be implanted onto a patient's eyeball. The patient will then wear a pair of eyeglasses equipped with a tiny camera that transmits images directly to the chip, which in turn sends them to the brain. 

 

Energy Audit

What is an Energy Audit ?

An energy audit is a preliminary activity towards instituting energy efficiency programs in an establishment. It consists of activities that seek to identify conservation opportunities preliminary to the development of an energy savings program.

The Role of an Energy Audit

To institute the correct energy efficiency programs, you have to know first which areas in your establishment unnecessarily consume too much energy, e.g. which is the most cost-effective to improve. An energy audit identifies where energy is being consumed and assesses energy saving opportunities - so you get to save money where it counts the most.

In the factory, doing an energy audit increases awareness of energy issues among plant personnel, making them more knowledgeable about proper practices that will make them more productive. An energy audit in effect gauges the energy efficiency of your plant against “best practices”. When used as a “baseline” for tracking yearly progress against targets, an energy audit becomes the best first step towards saving money in the production plant.

Contents of an Audit

An energy audit seeks to document things that are sometimes ignored in the plant, such as the energy being used on site per year, which processes use the energy, and the opportunities for savings. In so doing, it assesses the effectiveness of management structure for controlling energy use and implementing changes. The energy audit report establishes the needs for plant metering and monitoring, enabling the plant manager to institutionalize the practice and hence, save money for the years to come. The energy audit action plan lists the steps and sets the preliminary budget for the energy management program.

1. Analysis of energy use

Identifying where energy is used is useful because it identifies which areas the audit should focus on and raises awareness of energy use and cost. The results of the analysis can be used in the review of management structures and procedures for controlling energy use.

Analysis of energy use can be done by installing submeters in different plant locations to pinpoint actual energy usage per area. This is a good source data for allocating energy use. The plant manager can also list all equipment used and the corresponding operating hours. With this information, he can create spreadsheet information and generate charts useful for analysis.

Important Points to Consider When Collecting Site Load Data

1. Operating hours - This can be gathered from plant personnel. It is important to ensure the accuracy of this data because much of the potential for energy savings lies on correct estimation of the equipment’s operating hours.
2. Duty cycle - Machines such as large electric motors have varying loads and hence, different power requirements.
3. Actual power consumed - For electric power users, this is based on either 3-phase current/voltage readings or power analyzer measurements (e.g., direct kW which incorporates power factor). For fuel users, tank readings of monthly consumption estimates and flow meters with totalization can be sources of measurement.

2. Identification of energy projects

Opportunities for energy savings can range from the simplest, such as lighting retrofits, to the most complex such as the installation of a cogeneration plant. The important thing to remember is to focus on major energy users and areas. Always apply the 80/20 rule, focus on opportunities that provide 80% of the saving but require 20% input. After the preliminary identification of opportunities, spend more time on those which have shorter payback periods.

3. Cost benefit analysis

The identified energy conservation opportunities should be analyzed in terms of the costs of implementing the project versus the benefits that can be gained. If you want to, say, install a heat plate exchanger to recover waste heat, you need to calculate the total cost of installation and compare that with the savings you will derive from recovering waste heat. It makes sense to go on with the project if there is a net positive benefit from the project.

4. Action plan to set implementation priority

After passing the cost benefit test, an action plan should be developed to ensure that the opportunities identified are implemented. The action plan should include all the major steps for implementing the opportunity as well as the people responsible. Furthermore, there should be a plan for monitoring the results.