How I got in…

IIT Roorkee wasn’t my first choice as I had already received confirmation of an Internship in the Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering of IIT Bombay. Naturally, I was very excited about this and had already drawn up a big shopping list too (Come on guys, its Mumbai ) along with some advance prep for the project! But as it turned out towards the fag end of my 6th semester, my guide received some fellowship from US and he would have to leave  midway through my project. As such, he wouldn’t be available for the whole two months and suggested that I explore other opportunities. My heart almost plummeted in despair and it looked like I was gonna spend another summer in IITG (After 2-3 stints in IITG, I was looking forward to working in a  fresh environment with new people). But every problem presents with itself unique opportunities. I had very little time and started applying again. That’s when I applied to Prof. Sharad K. Jain (website), NEEPCO Chair Professor of Dept of WRDM, and to my utter surprise he replied! To be frank, I never expected him to reply an Intern mail,being a busy, well-known and widely-respected Scientist in the field of Water Resources (With more than 200 pubs, half a dozen books and numerous book chapters) and was formerly the Director of National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee. However the projects I was working on with Dr. Rajib Bhattacharjya (IITG), Prof. Parthasarathi Choudhury(NITS) and Mr. Parthajit Roy(NITS) was very close to Prof. Jain ‘s interests. Looking back, that’s probably why he accepted my request. I jumped at this sudden stroke of luck and immediately accepted the offer …

The road to IITR …

Before leaving for Roorkee, I had many preconceived notions about the place – including a filthy hot summer and potted roads everywhere. But was I prepared for what I saw! Uttarakhand is by far the most beautiful state in the North Zone I had seen till now. Roads were smooth, people were friendly, weather was moderate, the gushing cold water of Ganga flowing through a canal in Roorkee – I fell in love at first sight!  To my surprise, Roorkee was a tiny little place with very ambient surroundings, even smaller than Silchar! I reported to the Guest House of National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee on 29th May, 2009 where my room was booked by my guide and as he was out of station till 30th, I had two whole days to myself – to unwind and discover the campus. The campus is well equipped with good sporting facilities, awesome library and a general sense of calm prevailed which suited me. I found many peculiar things though – A huge majority of the signs were in Hindi alone (Not even bilingual!) which is surprising as well as undesirable because IITs are supposed to be International Institutes. Infact, on the first night I got lost on campus.

My first meeting with Guide…

I am putting this as a separate heading because it was a meeting that is etched in my mind. I was totally in awe of him because I had never even heard his voice on phone (Yes, from my application to his accepting it, everything happened only through Email). I had heard very highly of him from other Professors I had worked with. But the first thing that struck me when he talked to me was how amazingly humble the person is! Here I was a petty undergraduate and he could have easily turned my Intern request down, but not only he  accepted but encouraged me at every step of my work. (Infact I was the only intern in the Dept. of WRDM this year. Its a very non-traditional dept where they dnt take many classes and all faculties are involved in Research, PhD Guidance, Training to Professionals worldwide and teaching a very small M.Tech batch). He not only gave me a very warm welcome but made sure I had no problems adjusting to the local environment, specially food.

My Projects…

My stay duration was for a little over a month there which severely impaired my ability to carry out as much work as I would have liked, thanks to my Institute’s infinite wisdom for having a summer break of only 2 months when IITs and most NITs give a break of 3 months. Nevertheless, I was simultaneously involved in two projects: One in collaboration with Dr. Vijay Kumar (Scientist, National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee) and other one guided by Prof. Jain.

In the joint project with NIH, the objective was to carry out a Trend Analysis of  Hydrometeorological variables for detection of climate change of North-East India. Plainspeak: It was to find out if and how much change has occurred in the trends of rainfall and temperature of NE India, an indication of Climate Change. We used several statistical measures like Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s Slope Estimator and we found significant increase in Temp over the last 100 years along with decrease of rainfall. I had to continue this work after I came back from IITR as not everything was completed on time. Presently, a paper is being authored highlighting the results that we hope to communicate to an appropriate Journal very shortly.

In the second project that I am still working on, our objective was to analyse the contributions of different nodes of Artificial Neural Networks to its output. Our final aim was to attach a physical interpretation of the different contributions by testing our hypothesis on a Evapotranspiration and Rainfall-Runoff dataset. Though some of the results have been encouraging, but the project has faced several problems till now. The work on this is  currently going on and we are testing it on different datasets to see if a particular pattern could be observed.

I got my own cubicle and mostly worked half-day though I didn’t receive any specific  work hours, which worked great for me as I am most productive in my work at night.

Last day of IITR…

How can I not mention this day? The day before my departure, my Guide invited me to his house for a sumptuous lunch. I met his wonderful family who gave me a very cordial reception. And the food was awesome! … It was more than a month I had tasted a home-cooked meal and the roti-dominated meal of Roorkee made sure I lost 5 kgs in a month. … I couldn’t but feel indebted to Prof. Jain who went out of his way to make sure I didn’t have to worry about anything else but my work…

I was expecting him to send me to work under some PhD as I didn’t expect him to give time to an undergraduate. But not only did he guide me for the entire duration including meeting me twice a day, he never forgot to ask me how my stay was going or if the food was suiting my requirements.

As such, I would highly recommend IIT Roorkee to all my Civil Engineering Juniors for spending an academically a fruitful as well as a very enjoyable Summer. You will discover things there that will not only broaden your horizons about Engineering but can also explore a lot of places with Haridwar 2 hours way and Mussourie 5 hours. The work culture is great and if you are planning for Higher Studies  (MS/PhD/M.Tech) or just want to know your subject better, a summer in IITR can be the best springboard if used properly.

Part I: Academic and Research Organisations like IITs.

Part II: Research Labs

Part III: Industry

If you are benefited, don’t forget to let me know as a comment!

CSIR Research Labs

1. Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee.
2. Central Road Research Institute, New Delhi.
3. National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur.
4. National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad.
5. National Institute of Oceanography, Goa.
6. National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi.
7. Structural Engineering Research Centre, Chennai.
8. Regional Research Laboratory, Jorhat.

Research Centres/Labs

1. Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore.
2. Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun.
3. National Remote Sensing Centre, ISRO.
4. Space and Atmospheric Research Science Division, Physical Research Lab, Ahmedabad.
5. Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.
6. Tata Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi.
7. Centre of IT in Building Science, IIIT-Hyderabad.
8. Earthquake Engineering Research Centre, IIIT-Hyderabad.
9. Earthquake Engineering Research Centre, IIIT-Hyderabad.
10. Lab for Spatial Sciences, IIIT-Hyderabad.
11. National Atmospheric Research Laboratory, Andhra Pradesh.
12. Space Applications Centre, ISRO.

This initiative is a part of the INSPIRING INTERNS Program under MISSION 2015 of Civil Engineering Society@NIT Silchar. It has been republished here.

There are numerous places to pursue Internships/Summer Projects in India for Civil Engineering students. You can work in various departments like Environmental Engineering, Ocean Engineering and Earth Sciences and, of course, Civil Engineering Dept. I have tried to compile a comprehensive list of all organisations that students can explore for a summer/winter position. Primarily meant for Civil Engineering students of NIT Silchar, I hope it will benefit all CE students of India. This list will continuously be updated and have been divided into three parts:

Part I: Academic and Research Organisations like IITs.

Part II: Research Labs

Part III: Industry

If you are benefited, don’t forget to let me know as a comment!

Indian Institutes of  Technology

Departments

1. Dept. of Civil Engg., IIT Guwahati
2. Dept. of Civil Engg., IIT Roorkee
3. Dept. of Civil Engg., IISc Bangalore
4. Dept. of Civil Engg., IIT Bombay
5. Dept. of Civil Engg., IIT Madras
6. Dept. of Civil Engg., IIT Kanpur
7. Dept. of Civil Engg., IIT Delhi
8. Dept. of Civil Engg., IIT Kharagpur
9. Dept. of Hydrology, IIT Roorkee
10. Dept. of Water Resources Development & Management, IIT Roorkee
11. Dept. of Earth Sciences, IIT Roorkee
12. Dept. Earth Sciences, IIT Bombay
13. Dept. of Ocean Engg., IIT Madras
14. Dept. of Earthquake Engg., IIT Roorkee
15. Environmental Engg and Mngmnt., IIT Kanpur
16. Dept. of Geology and Geophysics, IIT Kharagpur
17. School of Water Resources, IIT Kharagpur
18. Dept. of Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences, IIT Kharagpur
19. Dept. of Ocean Engg and Naval Architecture, IIT Kharagpur
20. Dept. of Agriculture and Food Engineering, IIT Kharagp

Research Centres

1. Centre for Environment, IIT Guwahati
2. Centre for Environmental Science and Engg, IIT Kanpur
3. Centre for Environmental Science and Engg., IIT Bombay
4. Divecha Centre for Climate Change, IISc Bangalore
5. Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, IIT Delhi
6. Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences (CAOS), IISc Bangalore
7. Alternate Hydro-Energy Centre, IIT Roorkee
8. Centre of Excellence in Disaster management and Mitigation, IIT Roorkee
9. Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc Bangalore
10. Centre for Infrastructure,Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning, IISc Bangalore
11. Centre for Sustainable Technologies, IISc Bangalore
12. Centre for Studies in Resources Engg., IIT Bombay
13. Computer aided design lab, IIT Kanpur

This initiative is a part of the INSPIRING INTERNS Program under MISSION 2015 of Civil Engineering Society@NIT Silchar. It has been republished here.

In the golden annals of the pristine hallowed history of Assam, which at times, was a trifle eventful too, no other clan, other than the mighty Ahoms, could proudly stake claim to have single-handedly dominated the entire fabric of medieval Assam with their obdurate courage, superlative dexterity, both as finesse-smitten artisans (in constructing fresh water tanks, ponds, i.e. pukhuris, beautiful temples, imposing forts, amphitheatres, et al) as well as proficient, successful administrators; that too, for an enduringly-amazing period of almost 600 long years; (1228 AD-1826 AD), which amounts to nearly double the period the majestic Mughals ruled over India — April 30, 1526 AD to November 7, 1862 AD — starting from Babur’s reign as the first Mughal Emperor from Delhi till the eventual death of exiled last Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar II at Yangon (Rangoon).

The Ahoms, a tribe of Shans in northern Burma (now Myanmar), migrated into the plains of Assam in 1228 AD, and established their kingdom, comprising in course of time, the whole of the Assam valley, with a heroic prince Chaolung Su-Ka-Pha at the helm of affairs. Su-Ka-Pha, in essence, belonged to the Shan state of Maulung (Tai-Mao) in upper Burma, a principality that occupied the area around what is today known as Xishuangbanna or, in Tai (language), Sip Song Pan Na (implying twelve thousand rice fields).

In fact, the Ahoms were the representatives of the great Tai race of the Mongolians, who now inhabit vast regions of southeast Asia. They gave Assam its modern name and in course of time, identified themselves with the mainstream Assamese society. Initially occupying a small territory, mainly confined to a portion of eastern Assam, it gradually extended westwards; and with the end of the Mughal wars in 1682, it extended up to the river Manaha, opposite Goalpara. This limit remained unaltered till the eventual culmination of the Ahom rule in 1826.

The six-century-old Ahom rule has always thrown up a plethora of questions; prominent among them being as to how it was literally possible for the Ahoms (whose numerical strength was much inferior as compared to those myriad and variegated conquered races) to continue in power for six long centuries. Two basic factors stand out prominently to explain the enduring efficiency of the Ahoms. First, the Ahoms passionately loved both their state (Assam) and its subjects with emotional fervour. They described Assam as a sonar saphura, (casket of gold), and would never allow any outsider to have a footing on their land and any misdeeds to tarnish its fair name. Second, the Ahoms had an innate knack to take full advantage of the surroundings and circumstances in which they were placed, and adjust their administrative policy in accordance with the available resources and opportunities of that particular set-up.

This apart, one of the greatest contributions made by the Ahoms to Assamese culture was the custom of compiling chronicles, which were first written in the Ahom language, and subsequently in both Assamese and Ahom. All political transactions were recorded in the chronicles or buranjis, and were mostly compiled under officials, auspices to serve as precedents. These Ahom literary remains can unquestionably claim to be rich treatises and chronicles. Lexicons from Assamese to Ahom and vice-versa were also compiled; the Ramayana was also rendered (translated) in the Ahom language. Indeed, the Ahoms left a deep and indelible imprint on the entire fabric of Assamese society during the six centuries of their rule.

This article was originally written by Saikh Md Sabah Al-Ahmadand published in Assam Tribune. Its a Must-read for all people of Assam specially, the younger generation.

Keywords: TLRN, Gamma, River Network

Summary: I intend to write a non-technical summary of the project and post it here along with all the codes and techniques employed after its online publication.

This paper has been accepted by International Conference on Modelling, Optimisation and Computing (ICMOC 2010, Oct 28-30) and will be published online by American Institute of Physics (AIP). An extended version of this paper is scheduled to be communicated to an appropriate journal in October 2010. This project was jointly supervised by Prof. Parthasarathi Choudhury and Mr. Partajit Roy of NIT Silchar and is a part of an ongoing Dept. of Science and Technology-funded Project entitled - “ANN and ANFIS based model development for flood forecasting with multiple inflows in Barak river network”

Abstract :  Prediction of river runoff using historical precipitation and runoff data is an important aspect of hydrologic studies and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) have found widespread application in forecasting of water resource variables. The objective of this study is to observe the variation of prediction efficiencies of ANN-based models with change in learning algorithms employed and adopt the best learning rule to train the networks using standard statistics. Hence, feedforward models trained using eight different learning algorithms are developed for Ranganadi basin of Arunachal Pradesh in India for single-day ahead forecasts. Due to large variation of input data, normalization of data series is carried out. The models are trained, cross-validated and tested using 1200 concurrent measurements of precipitation and runoff (2006-2009). To capture the relationship between the previous state of a hydrologic system and present response, precipitation and runoff measurements with varying lag times are also fed as network inputs. The activation function used was sigmoid and the processing elements (PE) in hidden layer are varied from 4 to 10. The results obtained using various algorithms showed that the model trained by Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm with 4 processing elements performed better than other networks with RMSE 0.0274, MSE 0.0007 and R value of 0.890. Also, the network architecture with the input vector containing present precipitation [P(t)] and runoff [Q(t)]and antecedent precipitation [P(t-1)] and runoff [Q(t-1)] with one-lag gives best predictions among all models.

Summary: I intend to write a non-technical summary of my project and post it here along with all the m-codes I used for this work after the full paper gets reviewed.

This paper is under review for the 4th ASCE-EWRI International Perspective on Water Resources & the Environment (IPWE 2011, 4th-6th Jan). This was my first project in Hydrology and I started it as a Summer Intern in Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati in my Sophomore year under Dr. Rajib Kumar Bhattachatjya.

Wonderful campus pics of my Alma-mater – National Institute of Technology, Silchar. Its an Institute of National Importance in India established in 1967 and spread over a sprawling and pristine campus of more than 600 acres. Read more about it here.

1. It’s National
As it says in the name an NIT is a national institution. The place may not be run like an IIT but it’s bonafide. The courses will happen on time. The exams will be clean. The students won’t get duped on fees and such things. Some of the best NITs are as good as some of the IITs in most things. You can sign up for a course at most NITs blindly.

2. The Infrastructure
It may not be Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but an NIT normally will have good infrastructure across the board. The newer ones even more so. The libraries will have books, the classrooms will be hospitable and the hostels won’t be too bad. No temporary iron sheds here like those shady private colleges that are a dime a dozen. And yes, most NITs have great computing facilities.

3. The Academics
NITs offer an array of courses and electives second only to the IITs. So your academic program will be sound. You may not get every subject you want or aspire for but still, the NITs are a good compromise to the IITs. The classes will be decently scheduled, books will be available, labs will be adequate and you should have a fairly decent faculty resource. No ad hoc cost cutting as often seen in private colleges.

4. The People
We think this is one of the strongest things going for an NIT. You will be studying with a bunch of people from every nook and corner of the country and every strata of society. This is absolutely impossible to replicate in any other institute. A wonderful opportunity to mix with and be explosed so many different cultures.This is an NIT special!

5. The Alumni
NITs produce some great alumni too. So when you’re looking for a job or funding for your startup having a good network helps. The NITs have been around for years and years. And a good alumni network is worth it’s weight in gold. And don’t forget that a lot of NIT alumni study abroad too. Always helps when you need that MS at Virigina Tech desperately.

6. The Brand
Sure it ain’t the IITs. (we get sick of saying that.) But it’s miles ahead of Popat Lal College of Technology in Vellore. The NITs are recognized in India AND abroad AND by HR people in companies.

7. The Heritage
The oldest NITs are 40+ years old. This in itself should give you a sense of security. Heritage also means recognition, infrastructure and a great alumni network with many CEOs and such like. Old, in the academic world, is gold.

8. The Value
Fantastic value for money. You get a top notch education at low to pathetically, senselessly, insanely pittance fees. You should have no trouble at all paying off your education loans.

9. The Atmosphere
The mix of people makes it a really cool place to hangout. Also you normally get the freedom to do several extra-curricular activities and some of the best college festivals are hosted by the NITs (they get good sponsorship you see). Most people from the NITs will tell you that their greatest takeaway from their course was the great atmosphere.

10. The Placements
Kickass placements. All the top names, across sectors and industries. And top class salaries. Some companies prefer NIT alumni to the IITians because apparently the NIT-ians ‘stick’. The top NITs place close to 100% without breaking into a sweat. Of course it all depends on the economy. But when things do go wrong globally it does pay to be at an NIT!

This is an excerpt from an article that originally appeared in JAM mag and in my previous blog. Hope this will give all budding aspirants an insight into the NIT life to aid in making an informed decision. However this was written way back in 2002, and NITs have changed beyond recognition since then with great improvements and success nationally and  internationally