IEEE @ Amrita

Technical Tutorials (on March 6, 2011 )

amritaieee — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:59:23 +0000

Tutorial 1:

Bio‐inspired Approaches to Optimization – Dr. Raghavendra V. Kulkarni

Dr. Raghavendra V. Kulkarni, Dept. of Wireless Networks and Applications, Amrita University, Amritapuri

Optimization intuitively refers to determining “good” values of one or more variables (such as the number of study hours and the percentage of income to save in a retirement plan). Optimization is an extremely important task in all aspects of engineering, business and life. Several deterministic approaches to engineering optimization exist. These approaches are characterized by exponential increase in computational expenses with increase in the number of optimization variables. This is referred to as the curse‐of‐dimensionality. This renders the approaches unattractive for many real‐time optimization problems.

Nature tackles the problem of optimization with simple and yet wonderful approaches. Ants find the shortest and yet the safest route to their food. Birds fly in a coordinated manner as if they follow a central command. Such biological intelligence has inspired computer scientists to develop optimization algorithms that are computationally inexpensive, therefore quick. Such algorithms produce satisfactory optimization results in reasonable time frame. The objective of this 2‐hour tutorial is to give a flavor of a few biologically inspired optimization algorithms in order to promote their application. Algorithms from evolutionary computing (namely, genetic algorithm and differential evolution) and swarm intelligence namely, particle swarm optimization and bacterial foraging algorithm) paradigms of computational intelligence will be introduced. Implementations of these algorithms will be demonstrated, and a comparative performance analysis will be carried out. Some reported applications of these algorithms will be discussed with an emphasis on their pros and cons.

Speaker’s Profile:

Raghavendra V. Kulkarni received his B.E. degree in electronics and communication engineering from the Karnatak University, India, in 1987, and his M. Tech. degree in electronics engineering from the Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, India, in 1994. He received his PhD degree in electrical engineering in the Missouri University of Science and Technology, Rolla, USA, in 2010. His research interests include development of wireless sensor network applications using computational intelligence tools. Dr. Kulkarni has been pursuing his career as an educator since 1987; currently he is an associate professor in the Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications, Amrita University, Amritapuri. Dr. Kulkarni has published 5 articles in refereed international journals including IEEE and Elsevier. In addition, he has presented 5 research papers, delivered 2 tutorials and chaired 2 paper presentation sessions in prestigious international conferences in USA and Australia. He was the registration and publications chair of the 2008 IEEE Swarm Intelligence Symposium (SIS’08). Besides he has served on program committees of a few other international conferences. He is a reviewer of research articles for numerous IEEE and other journals. He is a life member of the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), senior member of IEEE, and a member of the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. He features in Marquis’ Who‐is‐Who in Science and Technology, 2011.

Tutorial 2:

An Introduction to Compressed Sensing - Dr. Nithin Nagaraj

Abstract:

The celebrated Shannon-Nyquist theorem (1928) states that for a successful reconstruction of a band-limited signal from its samples, the sampling rate must be at least twice the maximum frequency. In 2004, Candes and Tao showed that for signals which are ‘sparse’ or ‘compressible’, one can uniquely reconstruct the signal with far fewer samples than the Nyquist rate, using random incoherent measurements. This sub-Nyquist sampling of ‘sparse’ signals is termed as Compressed Sensing (CS). CS has set off a revolution in Signal and Image Processing with applications ranging from efficient Medical Image reconstruction (MRI) to universal compression of data in wireless sensor networks; to the design of a single pixel camera and invention of Analog-to-Information converters. This talk shall introduce the fundamental ideas of CS and highlight a few applications.

Speaker’s profile:

Nithin Nagaraj obtained his PhD in the area of Chaos Theory (2010) from National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bangalore. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri. His areas of research interests are Chaos theory and its applications to Communications, Information and Coding Theory, Cryptography and Signal Processing. For more details about his research, please visit http://www.amrita.ac.in/nithin.

LINK Face to Face Meet 2011- ECLECTIC ’10

amritaieee — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:14:05 +0000

Amrita IEEE is proud to announce that we have been given the opportunity to conduct this year’s LINK Face to Face event on 6th March. The event would kick-start an array of LINK events monitored by the Kerala Section of IEEE India. The Face to Face event will contain an impressive list of technical and non-technical events. The registration details are stated below:

DD should be drawn in favor of “IEEE student Chapter” payable at “Kollam”.
DD should reach on or before Feb 28th 2011.
Fee: Rs. 75 for SB Chair or Link Rep.
Rs. 100 for other IEEE student members.
Rs. 150 for non-IEEE students .
If accommodation is needed, a nominal fee will be charged at the campus.

The DD should be posted to the following address:

Mr. Rajesh Kannan

Amrita School Of Engineering

Amritapuri, Clappana P.O.

Kollam, 690 525

In parallel, IEEE SB at Amrita is also organizing a Tutorials as follows:

1) Bio-inspired approaches to Optimization” by Dr. Raghavendra V Kulkarni, Faculty, Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications.

2) An Introduction to Compressed Sensing - Dr. Nithin Nagaraj

The workshop registration fee (both workshops included) is as given below:

-Rs.150 for IEEE student members.
-Rs.200 for others .
A single DD is enough for both F2F and workshop registration fee.

Click on the following link to register now: REGISTER

Student project from Amrita funded by IEEE Foundation for US $7520

amritaieee — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:14:01 +0000

We are very proud and honoured in informing you all that the project “Intelligent Home Navigation System for Elderly and Physically Challenged” by a team of Mr. Rajesh Kannan, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham IEEE BC, Ramesh N Nair and Sai Manoj P, both students of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham IEEE SB, Kollam has got a grant of US $7,520 (approx. Rs 3,45,000) from IEEE Foundation Inc., NJ, USA. This a great achievement for IEEE Student Branch of Amrita , LINK and for the IEEE Kerala Section. This is the first time in the history of IEEE Kerala Section that a student project has got a grant worth US $7520. This is also the first in our campus history that students are getting such an high amount as grants for their projects. The project will span for a duration of two years.

Project Summary:

Title: Intelligent Home Navigation System (IHNS) for the elderly and the physically challenged.

Summary: Normally the elderly people forget the way to the different rooms in the home and the physically challenged people find it tough to navigate inside without external aid. The existing systems such as joy stick control wheelchairs are not customizable to deal with different degrees of disability. This project helps the unfortunate elderly and the physically challenged people which include the quadriplegics for their locomotion inside the home with the help of a gesture based wheelchair. The system comprises of preloaded map of the home for automation, and the personal security features.

AmritaIEEE in Malayala Manorama Yuva Mastermind 2010 contest

amritaieee — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:59:37 +0000

AmritaIEEE is very glad in informing you that, a project titled ‘Real Time, Remote, Home based, Non-Invasive, Elder Monitoring System’ of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam IEEE students (Vineeth R, Deepak Krishnan, Akhil K S and Denny C Jacob) got selected for the final round of Malayala Manorama Yuva Matermind 2010 contest. The project is guided by our IEEE SB Counselor Mr. Rajesh Kannan Of more than 700 projects submitted all over India, only 18 projects made to final round of which one is from our campus. Malaya Manorama will fund
Rs 10,000/- for the completion of our project. All the selected projects will be highlighted in Yuva/ Padipura of Malayala Manorama daily. There will be an exhibition of the chosen project to be held in January 2011. Cash prizes are awarded for the best projects selected during the exhibition by a panel of experts.

Paper Accepted BEATS 2010

amritaieee — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:55:04 +0000

AmritaIEEE is very happy to inform you all that, by Amma’s grace, two papers got accepted at the International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Assistive Technologies (BEATS 2010) to be held at NIT Jalandhar, Punjab Dec 17-19, 2010.

Paper Title: Automated Voice based Home Navigation System for the Elderly and The Physically Challenged
Authors: Rajesh Kannan Megalingam, Ramesh Nammily Nair (S5 ECE B) and Sai Manoj Prakhya (S5 ECE B)

Paper Title: Advanced Network Based Wireless, Single PMS for Multiple-Patient Monitoring
Authors: Rajesh Kannan Megalingam, Akhil.K.S, Denny.C.Jacob, Vineeth R, and Deepak Krishnan.M.U (All S5 ECE B students)

Lets congratulate all the students for this wonderful achievement.

WIE students affinity group at Amrita IEEE on 11th August

amritaieee — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:28:32 +0000

We are happy to announce that Amrita IEEE SB is going to launch WIE in its campus on 11th August. We cordially invite all fellow IEEEians to be a part of it. Ms.Maneesha (Chief Training Officer, Center for Corporate Relations, Amritapuri campus) will be inaugrating the WIE affinity group, which is aimed at empowering women in the field of engineering. She will give a talk on the topic “Women in Millenium”. The ceremony will be presided by Mr.Rajesh Kannan (IEEE SB counsellor).
The program will witness the announcement of WIE executive committee members. As a part of WIE inaugration, Dr. Anantha Sethuraman, President and CEO, DFMSim Inc., USA will be conducting a workshop on “Principles Of Semiconductor Manufacturing”. We will mail you the Workshop details on request through email. All are welcome to attend the same. Email us at: vineethmohan@ieee.org or rameshnair@ieee.org

Venue: CCR Room
Timings: 1.30pm – 2pm : Inauguration
2pm – 5pm : ‘Principles of Semicondutor Manufacturing’

STAC program on VLSI at Amrita

amritaieee — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:26:43 +0000

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham IEEE SB, Kollam has planned to conduct a workshop on Intoduction to Digital Design using HDL (VLSI) on august 14, 2010, saturday. The program is being conducted as part of STAC, a Hub1 and LINK initiative. Registrations are open to all. Seats are limited to 60.We will mail you the agenda on a request through e-mail.

Registration Fees: (on spot payment)
IEEE members: Rs. 75/-
Non IEEE members: Rs. 150/-
( Registration fee includes Lunch also )

Please confirm your registration by sending an email to rameshnair@ieee.org and a copy of that mail to vineethmohan@ieee.org
For furthur details about the program, pls contact:

Avinash S Nair – 9496342543
Ramesh N Nair – 9447364553
Vineeth Mohan – 9447362401

IEEE Awareness Programme at AMRITA

amritaieee — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:18:11 +0000

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Kollam IEEE SB conducted an IEEE awareness program for the first year Electronics and Communication Engineering student’s on 4th August 2010. The program was conducted at CIR Learning Room ‐2, at the University Main Building between 2
and 4 pm. 140 students attended the program. PowerPoint presentation included Introduction, History, Values and Benefits of IEEE. It was followed by the Student branch presentation. The presentation was prepared and presented by Ramesh N Nair, LINK Representative, IEEE SB and Vineeth Mohan, Webmaster & PRO, IEEE SB. The program was presided by Mr. Rajesh Kannan, IEEE SB Counselor. The students were explained the value and benefits of being IEEE members. IEEE pamphlets were distributed to the students, which contained information about the various benefits of IEEE membership. The sessions were made interactive by having a quiz in between the presentation. The students who answered correctly were given IEEE complements. The students were encouraged to ask their doubts about IEEE after the presentation. The overall feedback of the students was that they were given awareness to the IEEE activities, and they showed their willingness to come up and participate in the various SB and LINK events.

3 Teams from Amrita IEEE heading to SINGAPORE

amritaieee — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:33:27 +0000

Amrita IEEE is pleased to announce that 3 of its student research teams have been selected at ICMET 2010 (International Conference on Mechanical and Electrical Technology) in Singapore. The 3 teams will represent Amrita IEEE at ICMET this September. The selected papers are:

1) “Wireless Sensor Network for Vehicle Speed Monitoring and Traffic Routing System (VSMTRS)” by Rajesh Kannan, Vineeth Mohan, Ajay M, Paul Leons and Rizwin S (S5 ECE A)
2)” Wireless Vehicular Accident Detection and Reporting System” by Rajesh Kannan, Ramesh Nair (S5 ECE B) and Sai Manoj (S5 ECE A)
3)” Autonomous Safe Server Guard for Advanced Safety Measures using Wireless Mobile Technology” by Rajesh Kannan, Vineeth R, Deepak K, Akhil K S and Denny Jacob (S5 ECE B)

Amrita IEEE students get 3 Intel recognitions

amritaieee — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 05:08:33 +0000

Amrita IEEE is proud to announce that our team of 4 boys ( Arun Kumar, Arjun Ashok, Daniel C J and Nived Krishnan , 2010 ECE passout batch) have won the 3rd prize in the prestigious Intel Embedded Challenge 2010 in Bangalore. Their Final year project “Gesture Based Wheelchair Control System for Physically Challenged” was the only project that won in all the three categories and emerged 3rd overall. They were awarded:

1) Intel Embedded Challenge : 3rd Prize, Rs.25,000.
2) Special Intel Employees Award for the BEST PROJECT (Gold Medal)
3)Project selected for case study by the Intel Research Centre.

The team was provided an Intel Atom processor kit for the project. The first phase of the contest saw 2170 competants from all over India. 455 of them were shortlisted for the 2nd phase. 36 finalists were called to demonstrate their project at the Intel Campus at Bangalore. The project is guided by the Amrita IEEE SB counsellor Br. Rajesh Kannan.