Science, Engineering and Polytechnic Education

Note: This post is India-specific

One day, as I was interacting with a lecturer of an Engineering College, the lecturer was complaining about the bias and step-motherly treatment meted out to the faculties of the Engineering courses who had a science background, not only by the management, but also by the governing bodies. The lecturer was critical about a particular policy, which states that a faculty with M.Sc/MCA degree, and who goes on to obtain M.E/M.Tech degree is eligible only for handling B.E/B.Tech and not M.E/M.Tech classes; while a lecturer with the B.E/B.Tech background and with M.E/M.Tech can handle B.E/B.Tech as well as M.E/M.Tech classes. The reason given by the management was that the M.Sc/MCA faculty typically would be having a Science degree (B.Sc) as their base, and therefore cannot teach M.E/M.Tech, even after they complete their own M.E/M.Tech degrees!

I was able to understand the furious sentiments of the lecturer, as to obtain M.Sc or MCA degree, one has to study for five or six years, while for B.E/B.Tech degree, one has to spend only four years; and then after M.Sc/MCA, one has to spend another 2 years for their M.E/M.Tech. I then tried to pacify that lecturer, by stating to him, that beyond a certain point, degrees do not matter, and only the work and capabilities of the individual matter. That said, I have my own strong views on this subject. But before expressing my views, let me confess that I too have done my Master degree in Science and not in Engineering. Now to the views ...

This reflects the pathetic conditioning of the Indian mindset that Engineering is superior, while Science, Polytechnic, and Arts are all inferior courses, and down the ladder. I had read somewhere that this mindset was deliberately forced or thrusted upon us, because of certain reasons - that India needed more Engineers than Scientists, and India needed to apply the technologies on the field, developed by the scientists or researchers of the western countries. I don't know how far this is true; but India surely lags behind in Science and Scientific research, in many fields, though the importance is being felt now.

In the west, there is no distinction between Science and Engineering, and in fact the degrees are awarded as Science degrees and not as Engineering degrees. In India, despite the numerous number of Engineering institutions coming up in the recent years, the craze on Engineering and Medicine, does not seem to slow down. The irony in India is that while many people look down a person pursuing a science subject, they look at scientists with great respect!.

According to me, Engineering is more towards implementing technologies - some times at the Design level and some times at the field-level, while Science is aimed at developing and validating those technologies at the architectural level, and the core aim of polytechnical education is to have people carry out the implementations at the field level according to the given specifications.

My intention of this post, is neither to say that Science is superior to others, nor to say that Engineering is not required for us, but to say that science should be given paramount importance and should not be considered as inferior to Engineering.

Nanotechnology - from a layman

I have never followed (or should I say bothered) about the developments in Nanotechnolgy; However, I have heard about the potential applications and the basics from many people through hear-say. This article is a reflection, of what I had gathered about the technology and its applications from many people, over the last few years.

Nano means 10 to the power -9. This can help you imagine, how small it could be. Nano devices can be built from many materials; However carbon is the most widely used and common material for building nano devices. Generally, using carbon, Nano-tubes are constructed. A significant property of nano-tube is that the surface-area of the tube is very high, and hence it can hold significant quantity of some other materials. Some research is going on for using nano-tubes to carry hydrogen - a potential fuel in the future. A large nano-tube perhaps can be seen only through a microscope, and might appear as a thin black powder, if built using carbon. Nano-tubes made of silicon, or even gold is also in place, but their use and applications are different.

A Nano-tube is a benzene-based structure of the bonds between the carbon atoms, whose property has to be analyzed and studied when they are holding materials like hydrogen or some other material; Right now research is primarily focused on how to use the nano-tube to carry materials using the outer surface-area of the tube, though some researchers are working on how to utilize the hollow space inside the tube to carry materials also.

By now, you might have guessed, that you can only think of carrying chemical compounds or other materials in significantly smaller quantities effectively. Hence research is progressing on how to utilize nano technology for carrying medicines, chemicals and also of how to store and retrieve data (information) from them!

A lot of people, particularly researchers, and students are working in this hot topic. There seems to be two groups here (as usual!) - one of theorists and the other of the practioners. Unlike most other fields, it seems that one could easily start experimenting with nano-technology by investing a few thousands to buy a nano-tube, and study its properties. Also, its said that it is easier to create a nano-crystal (?) in the lab, by growing the atomic structures of a material.

Nano Medicine or Nano Robots is an interesting application area for Nanotechnology and research is going on, in this area. Here it is being said that medicines and that too of a very tiny quantity can be injected at the spots required in a patient's body through this technology. A small tablet like piece, if swallowed by a patient, would travel via the blood stream, before reaching the point where treatement has to be done, and after reaching that point, the medicines or chemicals will be released at the exact quantity for treating the disease. Research is also being carried to perform surgeries through nano-robots.

CAUTION: I have not taken any serious efforts to read, collect and gather data about Nano-technology; Even for writing this article, I have not used any reference material or even used Google. This is absolutely written on the basis, of what I had heard from many people, over the past few years; and hence relying on this information is entirely up to you!.

UPDATE (Jul 2016):  The discovery of  Carbon Nanotubes is hard to figure out. However it could be attributed to the landmark 1991 paper of  Sumio Lijima (Japanese Physicist) who grew graphitic carbon needles on an electrode in a gas-filled vessel.

UPDATE (Sep 2019):  Carbon Nanotubes are being explored to convert heat that is wasted by the Solar Panels (not all light is converted into power in a Solar panel; the efficiency is only around 25%) into light and light into electricity.  Check out this video for more details. 

The Biggest Abstractions

Abstractions are the models of either real or notional entities. One abstract way to define abstractions is: "Abstractions can be defined as representational transition of  concepts/objects of one form to another."

Abstractions, may lead to simplicity. Though all of us may not like all of the abstractions that we may encounter, in our lives, generally speaking, we as a human society have always cherished the idea of abstractions. If you do not believe this check the list below. Abstractions though helped us to overcome the complications, but have limited our thoughts, behaviors and actions. Assume that if one abstraction has been accepted by everybody - which is a model of something, then we are limited by the preciseness of the model, and for that sake everyone knows that a model is a model and not the exact entity itself. Well, now let's start with the biggest abstractions that we generally encounter.

The first biggest abstraction is God - who has created this Universe in the first place. Though this may be arguable for some, the next biggest abstraction is - Time - which has been accepted by everybody!. Humans have modeled a clock, a calendar to model this important phenomenon!. I also consider time to be the real taskmaster that drives all of us. The next biggest abstraction, that I could think of is Numbers, that lead to Arithmetic, and of course the entire subject of Mathematics. Adding to this, without experiments, even Science, is only of abstractions. The entire concept of Money and Finance is also an abstraction, which had been evolved out of the abstraction of Numbers!. So, we live in a world embedded with multiple layers of abstractions!.

Ofcourse the list can go on and on, with simple abstractions to complex abstractions built on multiple layers, but I would like to stop here, and wonder about the most basic and elementary abstractions, which may throw some insights and spark new thoughts, and after all the world will call you as an 'intellect', if you work with higher and higher layers of abstractions!

God and his Open System

As (I might have) indicated earlier in my blogs (such as "Secrets of Nature", "Beliefs on Evolution", and Superior Evolution), it makes sense for us to perceive the creations of God - essentially the Universe, as a System and of course, I believe that God has created this system.

I also sometimes believe that it is this System, created by God, that creates each one of us, than God himself creating each one of us individually, and the system has also spawned up the entire earth and the world we live in. We are all components or entities within the system, and I believe that god has designed and put in place controls, limitations and other mechanisms for the effective functioning of his system, and of course, god will and can control his system.

One secret to understanding God's own system is to understand nature that will unlock all the secrets of the system. Talking more from the system theory perspective, a system, is called a closed system, if it does not interact with the external world. In such case, a closed system cannot change and also cannot evolve. However, as we know the system created by God, the Universe, is subject to change and evolution, and hence very much an open system.

As the main system, created by God is open, all the entities and all the other subsystems within it, can only be open naturally. Hence, it is highly impossible to design and have a fully closed system, and run it for long!, as in a closed system, there cannot be developments or enhancements possible. So, for a system to function, it should try to mimic the parent system, and hence should be open, and should interact with diverse external environments to enrich and sustain itself. This could be true for families, organizations, countries, cultures etc.... as these are all sub-systems within the global system.

Well, now the IT people, may ask if God has created a open system, where is the source code?. My answer is, the source code is available for all of us, but we have surrounded ourselves with such worldly illusions, that we are unable to see it, - forget deciphering it!.

The year 2008 - for me

As usual, I start blogging in this year, by reminiscing about the main events of my (both work and personal) life in 2008:

• Privilege to listen and interact with some really great and wonderful people
• Assisting my professor (guide) to setup a HPC Cluster for his new area of research on Computational Nanotechnology
• Publication of research papers in National Conference, International Workshop, and in a Journal
• Invited Talks at a couple of National Symposiums/Conferences and Faculty-Development Programs
• Introduced Multi-Agent Systems in the Advanced Web Module of our courses.
• Being part of an awareness project - to spread awareness about PKI and Digital Signatures
• Building a Unified Interface for a suite of Network Security products
• Understanding ISO and incorporating various Processes - as our organization is moving towards certification
• Project Guidance to MCA Students
• Handling Network and Web Application classes for students of a reputed Management Institute
• Travel - Hyderabad (for the 3rd Meeting of Internet Governance Forum) , Delhi, and Kerala (Trivandrum, Alleppey)
• Learning about: Complexities in Contextual IR, Agent-based Automation systems, Latest technologies in Web Applications, Cryptography and Information Security, E-Markets, Financial Markets and so on ...
• Personally, putting my daughter in a play school, and watching as she grows and learns ...
• Overall the year was full of learning.
  

Intelligence Defined!

Intelligence can be defined as realization; like the realization of:

Learning is different from reading
Listening is different from hearing
Observing is different from seeing
Thinking is different from dreaming
Talking is different from speaking
Relaxing is different from sleeping
Acting is different from reacting
Narrating is different from telling


(This has to be read from the AI Perspective!)

A Punch Dialogue!

This is intended to be a thought in a lighter vein. While, I was watching a movie, the hero was delivering a dialogue, that he will not fear death ...

Giving some thought to it, you can say that a bold person is one who neither fears to live nor fears to die. Elaborating on it, most of us have both the fears - the fear to live and the fear to die. However, it is those people, whose fear to live is more than the fear to die, commit suicide, and of course for the most of the rest of us, it's the other way around - the fear to die exceeds the fear to live.

You might be wondering why should one fear to live ? ... Many reasons can be given, but I think main ones would be the Society, grief or pain, and probably the need for money and making of it, and all these things that one should go through in their life. Of this, the last one - money, an illusonary thing that weaves our world with its maya or magic.

Well, these are hard questions with no easy answers; and to conclude this, a real hero is one who neither fears to live nor fears to die. So, script-writers, dialogue-writers, take this and make it as a PUNCH dialogue ...