Career in Nutrition Dietics

Ever increasing demand for Nutritionists and Dietitians

A nutritionist is a person who advises on matters of food and nutrition impacts on health. Different professional terms are used in different countries, employment settings and contexts - some examples include: nutrition scientist, public health nutritionist, dietitian-nutritionist, clinical nutritionist, and sports nutritionist. Some use the terms "dietitian" and "nutritionist" as basically interchangeable.

Nutrition examines the association between diet and health. Diet plays a vital role in the health and well being of human body. A good quality and balanced diet is vital for good health. Improper eating habits and lack of nutrition causes many diseases. Many of these diseases can be prevented with better nutrition and diet. Nutrition and Dietetics is the field related to this aspect of health.

Dietetics is the science of managing food and nutrition for better health. Dietitians are professionals who focus in this field. Dietitians are trained to provide secure and evidence-based dietary advice.

Employment Facts - Dietitians and Nutritionists:

Dietitians and nutritionists held about 1,50,000 jobs in 2011. More than half of all Dietitians and nutritionists worked in hospitals, nursing homes, and physician's offices and clinics.

The need for Dietitians and nutritionists is increasing every day with sedentary lifestyles, high consumption of fast food and other food related health disorders at an all-time high. Whether in schools, hospitals or communities, Dietitians and nutritionists are sought after allied medical health professionals because of their understanding of healthy eating and nutrition.

If you are interested in working with food and nutrition you may want to consider a career as a dietician or nutritionist. The first step to a career as a dietician or nutritionist is to pursue a proper bachelor’s degree in nutrition and dietetics.

Several collages/universities/institutes in India offer Bachelors Program in Nutrition & Dietetics. Manav Rachna International University provides Bachelor and Master of Science in Nutrition & Dietetics. The university also provides Ph.D. in Nutrition and Dietetics.

The programme at Manav Rachna provides a greater understanding of the scientific basis of nutrition and the influence of good nutrition on health. This course has a multidisciplinary emphasis providing a broad base of knowledge and skills. The characteristic feature that sets this course apart from various other courses is the provision of internship/ field placement for two months in the final year. This provides the student with an opportunity to interact with the community and participate in the development process. The student who leaves the portal of the institution would be an independent and confident person who has acquired knowledge of self, professional and communication skills.

Some of the highlights of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Manav Rachna International University:

·         The 1^st ever 14^th Commonwealth International Sports Science Congress was held at Manav Rachna International University

·         104 Physiotherapy and Nutrition students of MRIU were selected to work as Dope Control Officers at the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi

·         Placement opportunities with renowned groups and hospitals

·         Strategic tie up with Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, England and Lahiti University of Applied Sciences, Lahiti, Finland, International Institute of Health Promotion (IIHP) USA and Australian Institute of Sports.

Through the campus recruitment drive in Manav Rachna students have been placed in VLCC, Renova Health Care, Herbal Life International, British Biological etc. Apart from in campus recruitment drive students of Manav Rachna are also working as Dietitians/ Nutritionist/ consultants with various hospitals/health care centers/organizations like Asian Hospital, Faridabad, Fortis Escorts Hospital, Faridabad,  Diabetic Clinic, Rohini, IBM Gurgoan. Internationally, students have worked during CWG 2010 as medical officer. 

Rewarding Career Options in Physiotherapy

Physical therapy (or physiotherapy), often abbreviated PT, is a health care profession primarily concerned with the remediation of impairments and disabilities and the promotion of mobility, functional ability, quality of life and movement potential through examination, evaluation, diagnosis and physical intervention carried out by licensed Physical Therapists and Physical Therapist Assistants. In addition to clinical practice, other activities encompassed in the physical therapy profession include research, education, consultation and administration. Normally, patients with problems are referred by medical practitioners to physiotherapists who then take on the responsibility of the patient and get them back to shape. Physiotherapy is a branch of healthcare and very rewarding profession. Physiotherapists recognize and maximize movement potential through health promotion, preventive healthcare, treatment and rehabilitation. Physiotherapists use various skills to treat patients such as manual therapy, therapeutic exercise and the application of electro-physical modalities. The following are just a few of the areas physiotherapists work:

·         Outpatients

·         Intensive Care

·         Womens Health

·         Care of the elderly

·         Stroke patients

·         Orthopaedics

·         Mental illness

·         Learning difficulties

·         Occupational health

·         Terminally ill

·         Pediatrics

The occupation of a physiotherapist, which is preventive, healing and rehabilitative, is challenging but profitable. In medical courses, they have been given training to perform a history and physical examination, conduct assessments to establish a diagnosis process, select appropriate physical therapy interventions to treat the dysfunction, and monitor the effectiveness of treatment. To treat patient, physiotherapists use a variety of therapeutic intervention techniques. These are Manual Therapy, TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve stimulation used to control pain), Ultrasound Technique, Electrical Muscle Stimulation, Manipulation, Acupuncture etc. The job of a physiotherapist is physically very strenuous as it involves physically lifting and supporting patients.

Several colleges/universities/institutes in India offer BPT/MPT course. Manav Rachna International University provides Bachelor of Physiotherapy and Master of Physiotherapy courses. The Department is recognized by Indian Association of Physiotherapists and the Delhi Council for Physiotherapy & Occupational Therapy. The Bachelor course is 4 1/2 years full-time (Regular course included in eight semesters with six months internship). The Master of Physiotherapy program at MRIU offers specialization Musculoskeletal, Sports, Neurology and Cardiopulmonary.

Some of the highlights of the Department of Physiotheraphy at Manav Rachna International University:

·         The 1^st ever 14^th Commonwealth International Sports Science Congress was held at Manav Rachna International University

·         104 Physiotherapy and Nutrition students of MRIU were selected to work as Dope Control Officers at the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi

·         Placement opportunities with renowned groups and hospitals

·         Strategic tie up with Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, England and Lahiti University of Applied Sciences, Lahiti, Finland, International Institute of Health Promotion (IIHP) USA and Australian Institute of Sports.

The department of Physiotherapy at Manav Rachna International University has nurtured active tie-ups with renowned hospitals like VIMHANS Hospital, Batra Hospital & Medical Research Center, Fortis Escorts Hospital, National Stadium, Netaji Subhash National Institute of Sports, major sports training camps, National Games, Haryana State Level Games, Sarvodaya Hospital, ESI Hospital, Helpage India, ERC School for Special Children, several Old Age Homes, Handicapped Schools, Metro Heart Institute and many more.

Besides this, the students and faculty of FAS has extensively given Physiotherapy support in various Industrial Health Camps at NCR, Community Health Camps at various Resident Welfare Associations, Handicapped Children Rehabilitation support, Geriatric Rehabilitation camps.

The out patient department of Physiotherapy is very well equipped with sophisticated instruments like KINCOM ISOKINETIC DYNAMOMETER, EMG Biofeedback, MWD, SWD, US Therapy and many more to render customized physiotherapy treatment and rehabilitation for physical ailments like arthritis, spondylitis, back ache, shoulder injuries, sports injuries and many more physical treatable medical conditions in the Neurological and Cardio-respiratory medical conditions. The department conducts variety of patient rehabilitation oriented sessions like arthritis rehabilitation program, back ache care program, shoulder rehabilitation program, stroke rehabilitation program, cerebral palsy treatment program, parkinson’s rehabilitation program, exercise programs, aerobics, core strengthening program , ante-natal and post-natal pregnancy exercises program, sports training program, and nutritional counseling for all age groups.

A tribute to Steve Jobs

Steve Job's quest for spiritual enlightenment brought him to India in the summer of 1974. Jobs came to India with one of his best friends from Reed College, Dan Kottke. Jobs started Apple with a fellow college dropout Steve Wozniak in his family garage in Los Altos, California in April 1976.  Jobs, then 21, was the 'sales' guy, while Wozniak worked as an engineer. Wozniak said about Jobs during an Intel Corp conference in August 2008, "Every time I designed something great from when we were very young, he would say, "let's sell it." "It was always his idea to sell it."

Their first creation was the Apple I - essentially, the guts of a computer without a case, keyboard or monitor. The Apple II, which hit the market in 1977, was their first machine for the masses. It became so popular that Jobs was worth $100 million by age 25. Time magazine put him on its cover for the first time in 1982.

During a 1979 visit to the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Jobs again spotted mass

potential in a niche invention: a computer that allowed people to access files and control programs with the click of a mouse, not typed commands. He returned to Apple and ordered the team to copy what he had seen. This showed his nature of taking other people’s concepts, improve on them and make them completely different and amazing new products! "We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas," Jobs said in an interview for the 1996 PBS series "Triumph of the Nerds."

Steve Jobs, a visionary, a re-inventor and the Silicon Valley icon who shared his ‘apple’ with the world! He gave the world iPod, iPad, iPhone, Mac and changed the way people live or use technology.

This visionary died of liver cancer on 5 October 2011 at the age of 56 years creating a void in all of our hearts! But before he died he made Apple the biggest technology corporation in the world and then resigned as the CEO and gave the reigns to Tim Cook who very well deserved it.

During his career, Steve Jobs has been named as primary inventor and co-inventor of more than 230 awarded patents or patent applications on a range of technologies including computer and portable devices to user interfaces, speakers, keyboards, power adapters and staircases.

Born on February 24, 1955, in San Francisco Steven Paul Jobs was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs, a middle-class American couple. He saw his first computer terminal at NASA's Ames Research Center when he was around 11 and landed a summer job at Hewlett-Packard before he had finished high school.

Not many people know that Steve Jobs is a college dropout. In 1972, Jobs graduated from Homestead High School in Cupertino, California and enrolled in Reed College in Portland, Oregon. One semester later he dropped out. "All of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it," he said at a Stanford University commencement address in 2005. "I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out." Meanwhile, Microsoft copied the Mac approach and introduced Windows, outmaneuvering Apple by licensing its software to slews of computer makers while Apple insisted on making its own machines. Software developers wrote programs first for Windows because it had millions more computers. A Mac version didn't come for months, if at all.

In 1985, Jobs was ousted from Apple by John Sculley after a disagreement on how to run the company. Incidentally, Jobs had brought Sculley from Pepsi. "What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating," Jobs said in his Stanford speech. "I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life." 

On March 18, 1991, Jobs got married to Laurence Powell in a ceremony at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park with a Zen Buddhist monk presiding. They have three children, Reed Paul, Erin Sienna and Eve.

He started two other companies: Next, a computer maker, and Pixar, a computer-animation studio that he bought from George Lucas for $10 million. In 1996 Apple bought Next so Steve again started working for Apple. Soon in 1997 he became the interim CEO of Apple. The company was in big loss financially so he stepped in. He slashed unprofitable projects, narrowed the company's focus and presided over a new marketing push to set the Mac apart from Windows, starting with a campaign encouraging computer users to "Think different." In his first phase with Apple before getting fired ‘he took charge of every detail and was a control freak’. But in the second phase after getting back to Apple ‘he was clearly much more soft and mature’! This change in him made it possible to make Apple the largest technology company it is today!

In 2003 Apple launched iTunes, which gave people a convenient way to buy music online. Furthermore new versions of iPod kept on launching, getting better with each version keeping the fans interested. By 2007 Apple had become a brand cult. This was visible on the day iPhone was to be launched as faithful followers slept on sidewalks outside posh Apple stores for the chance to buy one. This way of waiting outside shops day(s) before the launch became a tradition and was seen at almost every launch of a new version of iPhone and soon the iPad. This is how strong the cult was and it never faded!

According to a regulatory filing, Jobs took a salary of $1 in 2010. However, he owns some 5.5 million shares in the company, which are worth some $1.8 billion at the current price of around $333 a share, a rise of more than 50 per cent on the year.

Few know that Steve Jobs is a Buddhist and a vegetarian. Jobs has also never named a successor. He told shareholders in March 2008 that the board would have a variety of executives to choose from when he steps down due to any reason. He singled out two potential leaders: COO Timothy Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer. In 2004 he had been diagnosed with – and "cured" of - a rare form of operable pancreatic cancer called an islet cell neuroendocrine tumor. The company had sat on the news of his diagnosis for nine months while Jobs tried trumping the disease with a special diet, Fortune magazine reported in 2008. “This was the closest I got to death”, is how Steve Jobs described it in his Stanford speech in 2005. Then Jobs took a half-year medical leave of absence starting in January 2009, during which he had a liver transplant. In January 2011, Jobs announced another medical leave, his third, with no set duration. Still battling his cancer he stepped down from CEO to Chairman and appointed Tim Cook as the new CEO. Soon about a month later on 5 October 2011 he breathed his last!

-       Shrisha S. Bhat, B.Tech CS-B, FET MRIU

Welcome Freshers To The Manav Rachna International University

We are waiting to introduce you to a new threshold in your lives.The orientation programmes will brief you about all the facilities that you can avail of in your journey of pursuit towards excellence. Besides the sound academic  foundation supported with a strong faculty , with years of experience and knowledge, we would encourage you  to participate in all our extracurricular activities.The Shooting Range, the top of the line gym, the squash court,  billiards: you can find it all in your own University campus.

While the new academic session of the Faculty of Engineering & Technology for 2011-12 has been admitted, other courses will follow suit. The orientation programme for all B.Tech and Int.B.tech students was held between July 18-21, 2011. Vaibhav Jain is looking forward to playing squash and enhancing his badminton skills which allowed him to represent his school at different championships. This fresher in the Computer Science course is keen to harness his sports skills. Shradul Gupta who has opted for the Mechanical course and is looking forward to a good academic session will be travelling from Rohini to be a student at the MRIU. Sumit Narang from PaschimVihar is excited to start his classes and Abhinav Kakkar is also looking forward to interact with a good ‘crowd’.

The Orientation Programme also had a ‘Talent Hunt’ and we found talent which had a huge horizon. From a street magician to debaters to one who could sketch a canvas in a few minutes and ofcourse music lovers and players.Are'nt you excited to meet the talented crowd? There will be many more to join them -- the hunt has just begun!

We look forward to meeting you all and interacting with you.

Genuine in your approach to life

Nandini Awasthi Pillai, Early Co-ordinator, MRIS-21

Whenever I draft out a circular, invitation or even a lesson for my toddler kids, I first read it as a parent and then as a teacher, says Nandini Awasty Pillai, the Co-ordinator for EarlyYears at the MRIS Sector 21 C. Being a mother of a young child, she realizes the anxiety that parents often have to face when there are tall demands from school. “At the Manav Rachna Schools our first concern is how we can work in close co-ordination with the parents. The triangular concept of the parent, teacher and child is what our Principal Maam always focuses on, ” says the teacher who wears such a gentle appearance that any parent would be put at ease if they come to school with a problem. 

Issues of all kinds must be tackled. “I firmly believe that ‘It’ s not done, till it is done, ” says the Co-ordinator who is all praises for her Principal.“Action to any concern is immediately taken care of. There is no delay and when the ‘Head authority’ is strong nothing really can fall out of line, ” says Nandiniwith conviction. Teaching is her passion and she feels strongly for children.“At a tender age it is so very important to create an environment where the child wants to come to school, be comfortable with the teachers and the teaching environment.And to be able to do this one has to be genuine and imbibe good values to toddlers in the early years,” she says.

“As a Co-ordinator it is important to be a good listener. I give my teachers a chance to explain themselves. Whether it is new ideas or suggestions, when you are working in a team, each one must be given a chance to express, ” says the teacher who has been a great motivating source for her teachers. Having done her english Honours from LSR, New Delhi, Nandini is fond of reading books and listening to music. “Music is such a stress-buster, ” says the lady who likes to listen to soothing music but adds,“Even Rock music is welcome.Music in any form is so relaxing and takes you to a  threshold where there is peace and serenity .” 

“Never hesitate to say that you have made a mistake. But that mistake can be rectified  only when there is acceptance, ” says the soft  spoken lady .“It is the attitude of concern and  your desire to help out in complicated  situations which makes the difference, ” says  Nandini. Hard work, determination to do better and better and being genuine in whatever you do are some of the qualities which makes Nandini our mentor teacher for this issue of  REPORTER.

Success is measured only by satisfaction in what you do. And there are no shortcuts to success. You have to be genuine in your approach in just whatever you do. It is this motto which Nandini from MRIS Sector 21 C  has been following.

My Visit to God's Own Country

Sanya Bhalla, MRIS, Sec-21C

During my summer vacation I visited Kerala, a unique web of countless lagoons, lakes, canals and deltas of forty four rivers. I visited Kerala with my friends and family .We were twenty four people in all. I enjoyed every bit of it and came back rejuvenated.

Kerala is located on the Malabar Coast. We reached Munnar Airport at around 10.30 in the morning and then stayed at a Tea Garden Estate. It was sheer poetry imbibed with beauty and was like heaven visible to human eyes. The view of the tea gardens was simply mesmerizing. I could smell the freshness in the air. All around our cottages there were beautiful and lush green tea gardens and spices like cloves, cinnamon and cardamoms were also grown .

Next morning we visited a tea factory. I was amazed to see the process of making tea. My mother and her friends bought tea and spices. I clicked many pictures. It is indeed God’ s own country. On day three early in the morning we left for Kumarakom. It is a popular tourist destination located near the city of Kottayam. It is famous for its backwaters. It is set in the backdrop of theVembanad Lake in the state.

On reaching Kumarakom we checked into Taj Kumarakom.My room was next to the swimming pool. I thoroughly enjoyed myself with my friends.We played many water games in the pool like volley ball, throw ball.

On day four we took a day cruise in a houseboat. It was indeed a breathtakingly beautiful experience.The pulsating palms, the shoals of fish, waves of water, cool breeze all these together made my trip very exciting. My father caught fish and prawns and then we got them cooked and enjoyed the tasty dish. The houseboat was very comfortable and it made our vacation a dream holiday . In the evening we came back to our hotel and witnessed enthralling performances by the classical dancers of Kerala. The natural backdrop made the performances more beautiful, the stage was set by the side of the lake, it was like a fairy tale.

On day five we left Kumarakom for Kovalam by bus. Kovalam is a suburb and a beach town on the Arabian Sea in Thiruvanathapuram.We stayed at Leela in Kovalam. I enjoyed every bit of my stay in Kovalam. We played beach volleyball and made sand castles. I enjoyed the scenic beauty of the beaches. Kovalam has three crescent shaped beaches separated by rocky outcroppings.

Then it was time for us to pack our bags. We did not want to come back but every good thing has to come to an end, so we took a flight from Kochi to New Delhi and reached Delhi at around 12 o’clock. I thanked my parents for organizing such a wonderful trip. Thinking about of Kerala reminds me of beautiful lines by Keats – “A thing of beauty is a joy forever”. It’ s loveliness increases, it will never pass into nothingness.. ”

India Innovates!

Read on or jump to the last para to know it firsthand.

India stands for innovation.  

Ask any teenager, any at all, particularly the ones preparing for the Engineering Institutes or just in your campus you could ask the young Manav Rachna technocrats who have been regularly bring laurels to the institute. Ask them the reason for choosing to get into those hallowed portals and pat would come the reply, “I wanna do something different. Something new, you know.” Ask them another question about how they would go on doing something different and you would be surprised like they are about loss of words to come up with innovative ways about doing something remarkable. 

Ever since Mr. Narayana Murthy, the poster boy of Indian IT, shocked his illustrious academic counterparts by choosing to open shop rather than work in one little did he realise that his single act would inspire thousands of entrepreneurs who started similar outsourcing companies. Numerous small, mid-sized and large IT outsourcing companies dot the corporate landscape of India today.

In the process, however, millions of people found another option for secure servitude: working for those outsourcing firms, earning big salaries, doing mediocre work. This has had a remarkably damaging impact on several generations of Indian talent over the past 20 years.

Today even when the world continues to stare and applaud at the daring and defiant act of Mr Murthy, the younger lot continues to look upto his labour of love, Infosys Technologies, whether they would come to their respective campus with lucrative job offers. 

So the big question is where is the Indian innovation? Where is the entrepreneurship? 

Unlike the young techie brigade of India who are more contented with secure a job in some MNCs in India or abroad, their western counterparts who start off in their garages are seen as the coolest kid in the block. At times even as geeks who would someday rule their desktops or laptops.  This lack of enthusiasm among the gen X brigade is due to a lot of factors. Lack of mentors, abysmal success rates of new start ups, lack of good incubator programs, lack of quality tech talent in India, etc, etc. 

But then the big question is, ‘are we really short of innovation and entrepreneurship?’

Not really, the country has never been short of innovation. Innovation has been running deep down in our veins since a long time. The scientific community has made the country proud with its endless number of discoveries and innovations.

Take examples of our own students who made it big in the one of the most prestigious technology innovation competition in the world. Team ‘Supersonic Tortoises’ consisting of 4 final year B.Tech students namely Tushar Chugh & Adeel Kidwai (Manav Rachna College of Engineering) and Madhav Malhotra & Anchal Arora (Faculty of Engineering & Technology, Manav Rachna International University) won the second prize in the Microsoft Imagine Cup for their project titled ‘PregnaCare System’. Another team consisting of Aman Jain, B.Tech Electronics & Communication Engineering 1st year and Rishabh Goyal, B.Tech Electronics & Communication Engineering 2nd year from Faculty of Engineering & Technology, Manav Rachna International University won the Third Prize for their project named ‘Tractrobot’.  Both ‘PregnaCare System’ and ‘Tractrobot’ are innovations for the society in large.

Pradeep Gupta, CEO of Cybermedia and president of TiE Delhi, concurs: "I have been talking on entrepreneurship at various colleges for the last two decades. I always ask a question: How many of you want to be entrepreneurs?" he says. "Earlier, maybe 5% [of] hands went up; today a quarter of the class raises their hands."

Prashant Bhalla, Senior Vice President, Manav Rachna International University, said, "At MRIU our endeavor is to promote the holistic growth of Science and Technology amongst our students so that they could apply their knowledge and produce path breaking innovations that would help the society and the country in large. Our students have been involved in lot of path breaking innovation. The need of the hour is to imbibe the spirit of entrepreneurship along with innovation."

Kunal Thadani, a venture capitalist returned to India after a successful track record in Silicon Valley as an entrepreneur. He understands the innovation process and acknowledges that the eco-system is stalling. "To build a product, you need to have either easy access to customers or many members in the team who all have deep shared knowledge of the customer pain," Kunal Thadani For now, neither is in place.

Meanwhile till such innovative entrepreneurs figure out how to turn their dreams into success stories, India continues to innovate. On A4 sheets, that is.

.mydomain

Two weeks back the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted to allow a new array of Internet domain endings.

First things first. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a nonprofit group that assigns addresses to Internet service providers. The organization was founded in 1998, has members from all over the world and is dedicated to "keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable," according to ICANN's website.

One of the organization's main jobs has become assigning and overseeing domain names on the Internet. They've been gradually expanding the options for years, a process which has added such top-level domain names as ".biz" and ".xxx."

As of now there are a limited number of generic top-level domains. Some of the kore recognizable ones are "com," "org," "info," "edu" and "net." As per the new rule, people will be able to apply to ICANN to register in their own language their domain ending.

Now the catch or rather the surprise which you weren’t expecting at all. It is nice to have your domain name as per your wish or whims, but are you ready to pay $185,000 per domain application (more in the case of buyers who want one all to themselves)? So till you can shell out that figure this privilege is reserved for corporations, and maybe some governments. It also will cost money to set up and maintain the domain, so something like .google or .ibm will a lot more likely to happen than, say, .deepakpatel. 

But this does not mean that there is only negativity without any positivity. Clearly, the biggest benefit will be for retailers who would open the windows wide open for their brand. Possessing a domain could lend a sense of legitimacy on the web as the tough procedures applied by ICANN a personalized domain ending will be an authenticity watermark of sorts.

However for the usual Web user, it could cut down on phishing and other online scam attempts. If you knew that only domains with your banks' names in the suffix were legitimate, it would make it harder for scammers to trick you by steering you to a fake site.

ICANN is scheduled to begin reviewing applications early next year and says we should start seeing new domains in July 2012. Several organizations have announced plans to file for particular domain endings. Prominent among them are – .unicef, .paris, .nyc, .canon and .hitachi.

Official CWG 2010 'Delhi United' Volunteer Theme Song By Manav Rachna International University

IN SYMPHONY WITH LIFE -SYMPHONY 2011

"We participated in 5 events and bagged the 1st prize in Collage Making, 2nd prize in Debatte, 3rd prize in Photography and Rangoli making. Winning is one very small part of  our trip to Mumbai, the larger part lies in the learning that took place. A wise thinker once said 'we’ve not lived a day if  we haven’t grown from yesterday ,' " say the students from the Bio-tech department who represented Manav Rachna at SYMPHONY 2011 at  K.J.Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai.

The Festival at the  K.J.Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai truly lived up to its name. 'SYMPHONY 2011' brought colleges and universities from across the county under one roof. And for us, the students from FET, it was a dream come true and participation brought symphony into our lives and we shall cherish our memories to Mumbai for a long time. 

We began with hurdles to cross and had a difficult time convincing the Management that we would make a mark at the cultural festival. That this was going to be a good opportunity and we were granted official permission to participate in the cultural festival 'Symphony 2011.'

We boarded our train for Mumbai on the 2nd of February 2011, and arrived on the Mumbai platform on 3rd February. The fest was scheduled to be held from 4th February to 6th February and we had registered for five events i.e. Debate, Photography, Rangoli making, Collage making and Model United Nations.

We participated in 5 events and bagged the 1st prize in Collage making, 2nd prize in Debate, 3rd prize in Photography and in Rangoli making. Winning is one very small part of our trip to Mumbai, the larger part lies in the learning that took place. A wise thinker once said ”we’ve not lived a day if we haven’t grown from yesterday” And rightly it has been said, we’ve also grown in many ways. We stayed in Mumbai for four days and every day brought us a new learning experience, every little moment or incident taught us a new lesson and made us wiser.

Sonali Khera, one of the participants from our team said, “being all by ourselves in a new city does certainly sound fun, but its equally difficult”, while Sumit Kharbanda of 4th sem BT said “waking up every morning, sharp on time, and all by ourselves is one hell of a task, because we always had to be on time.” Mansi Sharda put it correctly, “we now know how to manage money (laughs)”, and Sutirtho Ghosh says “this trip taught me tricks for regularity.”

This trip to Mumbai certainly taught us regularity, punctuality, discipline,  social awareness;  socialising and we’ve made some very good friends for life. We learnt how to adapt to new people and places, it made us come out of our comfort zones and explore new horizons. Golden opportunities do not walk up to you, you have to look for them and this was one such example that we certainly could not leave to chance.

The credit for this learning and winning is not ours; we owe this to our Management for being supportive and having faith in us. We could not have gone a step ahead if our HOD Dr .Sarita Sachdev would not have agreed to send us. We thank our Director, Dr.Soni, our HOD, Abhishek sir (D.R), and Nidhi ma’am for supporting us at every step. And the personality behind it all could have been none other than Dr Amit Bhalla, Vice President MRIU without whose support just nothing would have been possible. 

THANK YOU MANAGEMENT!
 

NATASHA SHARMA, BT 4th year

STUDENTS SHARE THEIR PROJECT IDEA

Is 3D the future?  Can it be an interesting teaching option for  ‘LEARNING IN A FUN FILLED MANNER? 

A world of 3D

Our vision is to employ the state-of-art 3D motion sensing  technology being currently used  in creating virtual scenarios/interfaces,  to be used  for  education and specifically vocational teaching purposes. Through 3D  motion sensing technology, the lack of materials and the physical absence of educators will no longer pose a problem. Standing in front of a screen and holding a “virtual chisel” a child can learn 10 or 100 or 1000 times to create a beautiful sculpture  of  his  own  imagination. He/she can learn carpentry, craftsmanship, pottery and many more to learn and live with dignity and earn his/her own piece of bread and butter. As like a child plays game on Kinect, on similar track there will be an interface, where he will choose which technology or work he wants to learn.

Interactive platform will read the  child’s  response  and  will teach the child the step by step process  parallel  reading  child’s motion.

It  is when you  feel..that you dream…  and  it  is  when  you dream..that  you  achieve.  This technology is for children to see and realize the infinite potential hidden inside each one of themand make use of current technol
ogy to enable young minds of the future. 

Gaming is one area in which technology has jumped by leaps and  bounds.  Faster  processors, next-gen controllers...they have it all. All these have completely transformed  how  we  interact with media and computers. And in here lies the potential - the potential  for  creating  learning  of pure fun, the potential for creating  meaning  and  impact  and adding value through the otherwise meaningless entertainment and free time.

We need to enlighten human mind  to  make  change  in  the world and the best way to do it is to spread knowledge and awareness and we are integrating technology with education. Motion Detection Webcam has just been used in the field of Gaming for making it more interesting. We are proposing to make education more interesting by developing an interactive platform. This will specially help in teaching illiterate kids.

We propose the idea of using a platform  based  around  a  webcam-style add-on peripheral with the PC which enables the user to interact using gestures and spoken commands.

The Motion detection Webcam with a 3D Sensor will enable the user to input its command without  using  any  external  device. Developing all simple lessons to hardest one using this technology will make  learning  far more simple and interesting. This has infinite  number  of  usage,  not only for teaching illiterate kids, life risking surgeries can be practiced by medical students using this technology.

The present of gaming... The future of education.... 

By:  Sachi  Bansal,  Anuraag Gupta, Apoorva Jain

THE YOUNG MINDS AT WORK

Android vs Symbian – which is the better option? Read on to find out

I’m a typical mobile phone user in India. And like to be updated about the latest technology. Something made me think “Which operating system is better, Android or Symbian?”. This question was asked by my classmate, Shrisha S. Bhat. As I usually prefer Nokia N-series mobiles my answer was Symbian. But when he asked me on what basis I told him theanswer, I was stumped. That led me to search over the internet, asking different guys who know more about the topic. Finally I reached the point where I realized that I was wrong. The fact is Android overcomes Symbian in many ways. The points written below should illustrate the many ways in which Android surpasses Symbian.

Great processing power based on modern processors. Androids use Cortex-A8 based processors which deliver a much better performance than Symbians with Arm 11 CPUs. Excellent examples are HTC Snapdragons (currently with 2nd generation) and Samsung Hummingbirds, both running at 1 GHz speed (versus 680MHz speed in Symbians). The gap in processing power is even larger with the newest dual-core CPUs based on Cortex- A9 architecture (like in Motorola Atrix). That makes Symbians to fall even farther behind Androids.  

Screen resolution. Androids use higher screen resolutions with 800(854)x480 compared to Symbians (640×360). This allows more details to be displayed on screen, which is especially handy with web browsing (the extra information on screen saves the trouble to scroll too much). Furthermore, the recently announced Atrix brings even a higher qHD resolution (960×540)! That means 2.25 times more pixels on the phone display than those found in Symbian phones.

Memory (RAM). Everyone hates when the applications in a phone start to crash because of low memory. While 512MB RAM is normal for Androids, Symbians have to leave with 256MB RAM. Despite Nokia trying to optimize the memory usage, “out of memory” messages still happen in Symbian phones. On the contrary, some Androids reward you with even more RAM (768MB in Desire HD, 1GB in Atrix).

Graphics and games. Symbian devices  use  the  Broadcom  BCM2727 GPU, which while seems to perform pretty well against  the old Adreno 200 chips (Nexus One), it falls behind the newest Android GPUs. Current Android devices come with powerful GPUs based on Adreno 205 (Desire HD) or PowerVR SGX540 cores. Furthermore, the newest Nvidia Tegra 2 chips  bring  even  further  boost  in graphics performance, that is said to show 3-4 times better performance than Adreno 205 or SGX540! Nvidia has  opened  a  special  portal  called Tegra Zone, where the owners of Android Tegra 2 devices can enjoy high quality gaming (as Nvidia describes the chip: “capable of extreme multitasking with  the  first mobile dualcore CPU, hardware accelerated Flash, and console-quality gaming with an ultra-low power GeForce GPU).

UI and customization. It has been pointed out by many analysts that Nokia UI is not modern enough to compete with Android/iOS. The limited  customization  of  the  homescreens and deep menus are all weaknesses of Symbian. On contrary, Androids offer huge customization of homescreens,  menus,  launchers, widgets that will satisfy vast majority of tastes. Either go with manufacturer customized UI (like HTC Sense with its 7 homescreens and widgets) or create a new one completely suited to your  tastes. Popular launchers  like Launcher Pro or ADW Launcher are handy to create customized UIs.

Web Browser. The Android stock browser is the most popular out there because it does the job nicely. Starting form  Android  2.2,  it  can  support Adobe 10.1 full flash, that  is being used in many websites. This enables full  browsing  experience,  enables flash  video  streaming  and  playing flash games from websites like Kongregate. Symbian browser at this moment is a headache to use. For that reason, some users have jumped to use  Opera,  but  it  doesn’t  support flash.

Multimedia. Thanks to powerful hardware and abundance of multimedia applications, playing videos, listening  to music or playing with photos  is  fun  on Android  devices. Large screens (up to 4.3″), great displays (Super Amoleds), huge amount of media players, support for all popular audio/video formats, HDMI connectivity, DLNA media streaming – all these contribute  to  the media  fun. Symbians have to  limit themselves with lesser displays, rely on default media player (because there are hardly any good alternative applications) and miss DLNA connectivity.

Applications Store. While Symbian OVI Store has grown recently (258% in 2010),  it’s growth  is  lower compared  to Android market  (544%  in 2010). The number of applications is also much higher in Android Market (200,000) compared to OVI (40,000). However, what the user notices most is how these app stores integrate with their phones. While OVI seems to be just a disconnected place to download  applications, Android Market will synchronize your installed applications, will notify you of almost daily updates, will auto update them all if  you wish  (even  simultaneously) and offer similar apps. Some alternative client applications for Android Market, like AppBrain, take it even further by allowing you to browse the applications on PC and schedule auto installs on your phone or allow customized selection of apps suitable for your needs.

Applications. As pointed above, there are more Android apps available than Symbian Apps. But what does this give us? For one, you can do more things that you can’t do with Symbian, because Symbian doesn’t have similar application. For example, I’m using at least 5 Dutch Android apps that have no Symbian equivalents. Next, there is the variety of applications. Thanks to more developers being involved with Android, we get a huge choice of applications. Try to count  the  number  of  applications available for Android and Symbian in a particular interest, say how many music  or medical  applications  are available in each platform.

When we look at the applications outside  the  Apps  Stores,  they  are most easy to install on Androids: just copy them to the phone and run it there. With Symbian, you have  to deal with the complicated Symbian signing  procedure.  DailyMobile’s Symbian forum has probably a few thousands posts with desperate questions on this matter. Finally, sharing apps on Androids is a breeze thanks to Apps Sharing applications and QR codes. There are multiple ways to do this, including Dropbox sharing and Barcode scanning. 

Custom ROMs and Modding. This is a special area where Androids shine above other platforms. Professional modding  communities  like Cyanogen, XDA-World, or Modaco are  immensely popular by creating new firmware with either new OS versions or improving those that come built-into the devices or by adding new features. For people who love to scqueeze the best out of their phones, Android truly offers the best possibilities.

OS updates. On average, every 6 month there is a new OS version in Android. While manufacturers have different ideas about updating their phones (HTC does an excellent job updating their phones), you can almost always update your phone to latest  version  thanks  to  custom ROMs. The fist Android phone (G1) that was released in 2008, was updated  to Android 2.2 Froyo via Vodaphone and via custom ROMs. Symbian jumped from S60V5 to S^3 for touch  devices,  but  none  of  those S60V5 devices was updated (probably because the hardware was crap).

Market trends.Some trends are obvious,  like  declining  popularity  of Symbian  devices,  falling  Symbian and  rising  Android market  shares, other  manufacturers  abandoning Symbian at all (like Samsung and SE), disposal  of  Symbian  foundation, etc… It has come now to “One versus Many”  where  Symbian  is  alone (Nokia)  against  a  team  of  players (Google, Samsung, HTC, Motorola, SE, LG, etc…).  In  January,  the CES 2011 electronics show was all about Android devices (now even stronger with  tablets  invading  the market), while  Symbian was nowhere  to be found. Maybe in MWC in February? Maybe… Taking too much time between announcing a phone and releasing it doesn’t help Symbian at all (typical examples are Nokia N8  and  E7).  Contrary  to  this  Androids keep it short, between 1 to 3 months (see DHD or Nexus S or LG Optimus 2X).

Many thanks to Shrisha for asking me a question which enlightened me on this topic.