Z e n e r

The official newsletter of the EEE Association, BITS Pilani—K.K.Birla Goa Campus

March 2011

EXECUTIVE TEAM
Faculty Coordinator:
Dr. Ramesha C. K.
rameshack@bits-goa.ac.in

Coordinator:
Vijay Sudhir Kumar
bits.sudhir@gmail.com
Index
Activity Report P-1-3 Sub coordinator:
K. Sandeep Kumar
Spotlight P-4
sandeepkandukoori063@gmail.com
Quark 2011 feature P-5-9
News P-10-13 Secretary:
Upcoming Activities P-14 Jinal Shah
jinal4141@gmail.com
EEE FTP Address : ftp://10.1.1.222/EEE&I/

GOOGLE GROUP ADRESS : http://groups.google.co.in/group/eeeassociation

 2

1
ACTIVITY REPORT

FRESHERS’ PARTY - Students of the 2010 batch received a warm welcome into the BITS Family through the EEE
Fresher's party held on Monday, the 9th of August. Lots of faculty members joined on the occasion and interacted with
the juniors. Dr. K. R. Anupama Group Leader EEE&I Group, spoke about the facilities and the opportunity they have in the
campus. She also stressed about lab visits for the freshers so that they get acquainted with the instruments right in their
first year. She also inspired the first yearites to take up projects as a way to learn and apply the theoretical concepts
learnt in studies. Informal games were held and events like Mr. and Miss EEE were held. It provided a platform for inter-
action between juniors & seniors.

MEMS GUEST LECTURE: Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems(MEMS) is a very upcoming multidisciplinary branch.
The EEE Association invited Dr. K. J. Rangra, scientist
‘F’ from CEERI Pilani to enlighten the students on this
subject. Large number of students along with facul-
ties attended the lecture. The lecture was conducted
over two sessions dated 25th & 26th of sept. Dr. Ran-
gra gave several examples and illustrated how MEMS
can revolutionize the current world. His talk was con-
centrated on
Fabrication RF
MEMS Switch.
He also appreci-
ated the perfor-
mance of EEE Students of the campus at CEERI Pilani during PS-1. An interactive ses-
sion was held after the lecture.

MICROCONTROLLER LECTURE SERIES- A series of lectures on microcontroller workshop was being held
which gave a sneak preview into the world of microcontrollers and their appli-
cations. It was conducted by coordinator of Electronics & Robotics Club( ERC)
of the campus. The students were taught AVR Studio Microcontrollers & The
stimulation of all important circuits was shown using Proteus. The workshop
covered the following aspects - LED Interfacing, Seven segment display Inter-
facing, reading input from switch, Displaying text to LCD, driving a DC motor
using L293D,driving a Stepper motor through ULN2803,driving a relay using
ULN2803,sending signals to PC using serial communication, transmitting and
receiving infrared signals. The objective of the lecture series was to inspire the
students to take part in the autonomous events of in the technical festival

EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus

2
 3

2
ACTIVITY REPORT

GENERAL BODY MEET-
ING-
A general body meeting was
held on 26th of August. The Co-
ordinator, Sudhir and the Sub-
coordinator, Sandeep Kumar,
briefed the students about the
association activities, aims and
STARTING OF GOOGLE GROUP– A google group, for EEE Associa-
tion was started. It acts as a forum for discussions and giving updates about
guest lectures. This was a good initiative to present a platform for interac-
tions among the branch members.
INTERACTIVE SESSION ON QUARK 2010 - An interactive session for
the events in Quark 2011 was held on the 13th August. The main agenda was to dis-
cuss the ElectriQ and RobotiQ events to be held in QUARK 11. Last years panel coor-
dinators and event managers interacted with the audience and gave a few tips in

future plans of the association. both event participation and event management for Quark 2011. Vinay Iyer and

Some important points were

discussed as T-shirt design, Hos-
tel Representatives, lab visit
details and new projects.
Nishant Singh, this year’s panel coordinators for ElectriQ and RobotiQ (renamed as
SPARK and ROBOFICIAL respectively, explained the type of events that would be part
of Quark 2011 and urged them to come with bright ideas. Coordinators of EEE and
ENI Associations also interacted with the students present.

LAB VISITS

Visit to Digital & Electronics Lab was arranged for the 1st year students. They were explained about the use of breadboard, CRO &
different ICs. A large number students turned up & made best use of this golden opportunity. The main aim of the lab visits was to
get familiar with the equipment which can be very useful for the projects.

EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus

3
 4

3
ACTIVITY REPORT
Guest Lecture by Prof.L.K Maheshwari—

Guest Lecture was held by Dr. L. K. Maheshwari (Ex– Vice Chancellor BITS-Pilani) on Micro Electronics on November
18th,2010. A large no. of students along with faculty members attended the lecture & had conversation with him. He
also explained the interconnection of all engineering & science branches.

FAREWELL PARTY FOR 2007 BATCH—

The farewell party for the 2007 batch seniors was held on 24th November 2010. The event was attended by the single
degree students , M.E. students and distinguished faculty.

Many seniors spoke about their experiences at BITS, Goa in their last three years. Dr. K.R.Anupama wished them all the
best for a bright future ahead. She later distributed the memorabilia and farewell letters to all the students. A dinner
with the faculty members was organized for the seniors.

COLLECTION OF SENIORS DATABASE—

A questionnaire consisting of general questions from various topics like academics, placements, future studies, etc..
Was prepared . This questionnaire was then given to all seniors of the 07 batch. The database committee then collect-
ed all the questionnaire forms and compiled them into a single questionnaire booklet.

The questionnaire booklet can be found at the EEE FTP server : ftp://10.1.1.222/EEE&I/

EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus

4
 5

4
SPOTLIGHT : ICECET 2010
IEEE Conference(ICETET-2010)

IEEE is one of the largest professional organizations in the world dedicated to the advancement of technological inno-
vation and excellence for the benefit of humanity. IEEE and its members, across the world, inspire a global community
dedicated to the advancement of technology and fostering of innovation through its publications, conferences, profes-
sional & educational activities.

Ever since its humble inception last year, the student chapter of IEEE at BITS-Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa Campus, in keeping
with the motto of IEEE, has been consistently striving to explore new avenues of research and initiating increasing
numbers of students to the boundless opportunities in research. From a membership of a modest 40 people last year,
the student chapter has expanded to over 150 official members this year, making it one of the most active technical
groups on campus.

3rd International Conference on Emerging Trends in Engineering & Technology, ICETET -10 was hosted by BITS-Pilani
K.K. Birla Goa Campus from Nov 19-21, 2010.The Conference was technically sponsored by the IEEE System, Man &
Cybernetics Society, one of the world’s leading societies for the advancement human-machine systems and robotics,
co-sponsored by the SMC Chapter, IEEE Bombay and organized by GHR Labs & Research Center. A myriad of topics of
interest were covered, with some of the key speakers being Dr. U. B. Desai, Director of IIT Hyderabad, Dr. Ajith Abra-
ham of MIR Labs, Europe, Dr. Jun Wang from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Dr. Takayuki Fujita, group-
leader for the Micro Power Group of the ERATO Maenaka Sensing Fusion Project in the Japan Science Agency, who
spoke on cutting-edge developments in the areas of smart information and Energy systems, wireless communication,
robotics and automation. Former Vice Chancellor, BITS-Pilani and distinguished educationist Dr. L.K Maheshwari was
the chief guest.

The Conference Proceedings were published by IEEE Computer Society, USA. Accepted papers appeared in the IEEE
digital library and selected international journals and magazines.

EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus

5
 6

Quark 2011
Quark, the annual techno-managerial and innovation festival held in and by the BITS-Pilani, K.K. Birla Goa
Campus, is one of the most prestigious platforms to placate one's technical affinity. The projects by EEE
association were displayed during Open Showcase which were greatly applauded by the Judges & Chief
Guests. The projects were from varying fields like Image Processing, Embedded Systems etc. This year we
had three events under SPARK (Electronics) panel and another three under the Roboficial (robotics) Panel.
This year all the events were held in association with IEEE student chapter of the campus. Following are
the details of each event.

SPARK ;:The Electronics Panel

1)Digilogica
The event had 3 rounds each of which gives contestants the chance to earn virtual money. The first one was paper
based which contains basic questions related to gates & electronics, the second one was circuit design based in which
a particular logic was given & participants had to make a circuit using basic gates in efficient way, and the third one
was simulation based.

EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus

6
 7

Quark 2011
2) S.P.A.M (Signal Processing & Modelling)
The event had 2 on campus rounds. The 1st round consisted of finding the test audio signal among the given set of
sample audio signals. The 2nd round was regarding the filtering audio signals i.e. removing the unwanted noise from
the given audio signal

3) VERITAS
It consisted of 1 only 1 on campus round which was aimed at testing HDL-based system design & imple-
mentation skills.

EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus

7
 8

Quark 2011

ROBOFICIAL ; The Robotics Panel

1)Robokombat
One of the most successful technical events of Quark, Robokombat saw the best roboteers battling it out for glory with eve-
ry ounce of tact and turn available. The carnage and annihilation characterized by King of the Ring last Quark was taken to
an all new level under the banner of RoboKombat. It had the maximum number of participation in any technical event in
QUARK 2011.

The event threw up quite a few surprises and kept the audience mesmerized as they witnessed the war of the machines, en-
tering the arena in royal rumble style. With no dearth of flippers, rotors, inclines and other instruments of chaos, this event
was a robot warrior’s utopia. However, in this fiercely contested battle, there could be just one winner. Worthy opponents
notwithstanding, SDMCET, Mysore held together to the very end and was rightly crowned the victor. With an exciting fi-
nal held on the single largest arena made in BITS, RoboKombat gave a memorable end to QUARK 2011.

8
 9

Quark 2011
2) City Maps
The event consisted of 2 rounds :

ROUND 1: To make a basic line follower that can traverse from the starting point to the finish point by necessarily using the
bridge provided and stop at the penalty point for 5 seconds wherever it encounters them

ROUND 2: This round involves making a line following bot that starts at the starting point, traverses through a grid, and
reaches the delivery point and also traverses back. This shortest path can be obtained using the dry run that will be given
before the actual run takes place. The arena consists of penalty points at random nodes and bridges which can be used to
shorten the time of traversing via a node and also skip a penalty point node in case the bridge is placed in that way. The dry
run should be used to map the positions of penalty points and bridges in the arena.

Around 120 teams registered for this event.

3)Catch Me IF you can

The challenge was to make a computer controlled bot which can recognize the standard square, star and circle patterns in
motion and stop them by getting close to the bots within a radius of 10 cm from the center of any bot, with the help of an
over head camera. It was held during the first and second day of QUARK 2011 . The team consisting of Anantaram &
Prince Mathew of BITS,Pilani—K.K.Birla Goa Campus took the first prize.

EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus

9
 10

9
Quark 2011 : OpenShowcase
The following projects were the official entries from the EEE Asso-
ciation for OpenShowcase, during Quark 2011:

Design and interfacing of a farm robot for Greenhouse

monitoring using embedded Linux and ARM9 processor -
Chinmay Duvedi and Smarjeet Sharma

Thermal Image processing in a military robot - Smit Vora

and Dalan Mendonca

Development of a Pattern Recognition System Based On

Image-Processing Implemented On A Safety Critical Em-
bedded System For Accident Prevention — Nishad
Kamdar, Varad Gunjal & Abhinav Gupta

Development of A Wireless Application Protocol (WAP)

For Optimized Space Allocation Using Mobile Ad-Hoc Net-
works (MANETS) - Varad Gunjal & Abhinav Gupta

EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus

10
 11

Ultra-Strong Interaction Between Light and

Stable Fuel Cells
Matter Realized: One More Step on the Path to
Quantum Computers
Researchers around the world are working on the development of quantum
computers that will be vastly superior to present-day computers. The strong
coupling of quantum bits with light quanta plays a pivotal role. Professor Ru-
dolf Gross, a physicist at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM), and his
team of researchers have now realized an extremely strong interaction between
light and matter that may represent a first step in this direction.

In the quest for efficient, cost-effective

and commercially viable fuel cells, scien-
tists at Cornell University's Energy Mate-
rials Center have discovered a catalyst
and catalyst-support combination that
could make fuel cells more stable, conk-
out free, inexpensive and more resistant
to carbon monoxide poisoning.
The problem is that platinum and plati-
num/ruthenium alloys, which are often
used as catalysts in PEM (proton ex-
change membrane) fuel cells, are expen-
sive and easily rendered ineffective by
exposure to even low levels of carbon
monoxide.
Electron microscopical picture of the superconducting circuit (red:
aluminum-qubit; grey: niob-resonator; green: silicon substrate)
The simplest system for investigating the interactions between light and
matter is a so-called cavity resonator with exactly one light particle and one
atom captured inside (cavity quantum electrodynamics, cavity QED). Yet
since the interaction is very weak, these experiments are very elaborate. A
much stronger interaction can be obtained with nano-structured circuits in
which metals like aluminum become superconducting at temperatures just
above absolute zero (circuit QED). Properly configured, the billions of at-
oms in the merely nanometer thick conductors behave like a single artificial
atom and obey the laws of quantum mechanics. In the simplest case, one
obtains a system with two energy states, a so-called quantum bit or qubit.

To create a catalyst system that can tol-
erate more carbon monoxide, scientists
have deposited platinum nanoparticles
on a support material of titanium oxide
with added tungsten to increase its elec-
trical conductivity.
Coupling these kinds of systems with microwave resonators has opened a
rapidly growing new research domain in which the TUM Physics, the WMI
and the cluster of excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM) are
leading the field. In contrast to cavity QED systems, the researchers can
custom tailor the circuitry in many areas. The researchers achieved the ul-
trastrong interactions by adding another superconducting component into
their circuit, a so-called Josephson junction.

The measured interaction strength was up to twelve percent of the resona-

tor frequency. This makes it ten times stronger than the effects previously
measureable in circuit QED systems and thousands of times stronger than
in a true cavity resonator.

10 EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus

11

New Solar Conversation Process
Stanford engineers have figured out how
to simultaneously use the light and heat of
the sun to generate electricity in a way
that could make solar power production
more than twice as efficient as existing
methods and potentially cheap enough to
compete with oil.
Unlike photovoltaic technology currently
used in solar panels -- which becomes less
efficient as the temperature rises -- the
new process excels at higher tempera-
tures.
Called "photon enhanced thermionic
emission," or PETE, the process promises
to surpass the efficiency of existing photo-
voltaic and thermal conversion technolo-
gies.
And the materials needed to build a de-
vice to make the process work are cheap
and easily available, meaning the power
that comes from it will be affordable. Most
photovoltaic cells, such as those used in
rooftop solar panels, use the semiconduct-
ing material silicon to convert the energy
from photons of light to electricity. But
the cells can only use a portion of the light
spectrum, with the rest just generating
heat. by coating a piece of semiconducting
material with a thin layer of the metal ce-
sium, it made the material able to use
both light and heat to generate electricity.
11
EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus
12
Key advance in understanding 'pseudogap' phase in
high-Tc superconductors
Scientists have been trying for some 20 years to understand why the
low temperature at which copper-oxide superconductors carry cur-
rent with no resistance can't be increased to be closer to room tem-
perature. Recently, scientists have focused on trying to understand
and control an electronic phase called the "pseudogap" phase, which
is non-superconducting and is observed at a temperature above the
superconducting phase. But what form of electronic order (if any)
characterizes the pseudogap phase has remained a frustrating and
challenging mystery.
This pattern shows the tunneling potential
of electrons on oxygen atoms “north” and
“east” of each copper atom (shown embed-
ded in the pattern) in the copper-oxide layer
of a superconductor in the pseudogap phase.
On oxygen atoms north of each copper, the
tunneling potential is strong, as indicated by
the brightness of the yellow patches forming
lines in the north-south direction. On oxy-
gen atoms east of each copper, the tunneling
potential is weaker, indicated by less intense
yellow lines in the east-west direction. This
apparent broken symmetry may help scien-
tists understand the pseudogap phase of
copper-oxide superconductors.
Now scientists have discovered a fundamental difference in how electrons
behave at the two distinct oxygen-atom sites within each copper-oxide unit,
which appears to be a specific property of the non-superconducting
pseudogap phase. Using a technique known as spectroscopic imaging scan-
ning tunneling microscopy, scientists measured the relative ease with
which electrons could jump from the surface at each individual copper and
oxygen site to the tip of the microscope needle. Across the entire copper-
oxide crystal, the scientists found a remarkable difference in the electronic
states associated with the mysterious pseudogap phase: The number of elec-
trons able to "tunnel" to the microscope tip differed depending on the posi-
tion of the oxygen atom relative to the copper atom. The discovery of this
asymmetrical behavior could be a breakthrough in understanding and con-
trolling high-temperature superconductors.
Actual STM image of the cuprate. Copper-
oxygen bonds along the X-direction show a high-
er intensity than those along the Y-direction.
There are several possible reasons for the lack of
uniformity in the signal, which the researchers
plan to study.
12

Robot Learns to Clean
Whiteboard
This is HOAP-2. A human can move
HOAP-2's arms in different cleaning pat-
terns, and the bot will remember and
then be able to clean by itself later on.
The cool thing here is, of course, that
HOAP is learning to erase instead of be-
ing programmed to erase. Robot learning
is the focus of tons of research today.
The positive thing is that this robot can
be used for all type of Boards e.g. White
Biard It really makes much more sense
to have a robot be a generalist, and to be
an effective generalist a robot has to be
adaptable, something that. But robots
are notoriously good at following in-
structions, so robots that can learn new
tasks from humans on the fly have the
potential to be much more effective, and
much less frustrating for their users.
12 EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus
13
A Foucalt Pendulum on a Chip
A MEMS microgyroscope mimics a 19th centuary instru-
ment’s mechanism to boost abilities of inertial guidance
A new type of microscopic gyroscope could lead to better inertial guidance
systems for missiles, better rollover protection in automobiles, and balance-
restoring implants for the elderly. Researchers from the MicroSystems Labor-
atory at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), described what they’re call-
ing a Foucault pendulum on a chip at last week’s . A Foucault pendulum is a
large but simple mechanism used to demonstrate Earth’s rotation. The device
the UCI engineers built is a MEMS gyroscope made of silicon that is capable
of directly measuring angles faster and more accurately than current MEMS-
based gyroscopes.
Today’s MEMS gyroscopes don’t measure angles directly. Instead, they meas-
ure angular velocity, then perform a calculation to figure out the actual angle.
When something is in motion, such as a spinning missile, keeping track of its
orientation requires many measurements and calculations, and each new
calculation introduces more error. The plane on which the pendulum oscil-
lates stays in one position relative to the fixed stars in the sky, but its path
over the floor gradually rotates as the world turns. Similarly, the oscillation of
a mass in the gyroscope stays the same with respect to the universe at large,
while the gyroscope spins around it.
Instead, four small masses of silicon a few hundred micrometers wide sit at
the meeting point of two silicon springs that are at right angles to each other.
A small electric current starts the mass vibrating in unison. As the gyroscope
spins, the direction of the vibrational energy precesses the same way a swing-
ing pendulum would. The gyroscope operates with a bandwidth of 100 hertz
and has a dynamic range of 450 degrees per second, meaning it detects as
much as a rotation and a quarter in that time. Many conventional microgyro-
scopes (at least those of the ”mode matching” variety) operate at only 1 to 10
Hz and have a range of only 10 degrees per second. But inertial guidance sys-
tems—such as those that stabilize an SUV when it hits a curb or keep a rap-
idly spinning missile on track—require both high dynamic range and high-
measurement bandwidth to accurately and quickly measure directional
changes in such moving objects.
13

Anti Laser Invented
Device acts like a laser in reverse,
could become a silicon photonics
component
Yale University physicists have built an
antilaser, a device capable of completely
absorbing coherent light beams instead of
scattering them as most other things do.
If such a device proves practical, it might
provide a way to build miniature silicon
optical switches or lead to new types of
photonic sensors. The device works on
the same principle as a laser but in re-
verse, and uses "time-reversal symmetry,"
a concept from electromagnetic theory.
In the antilaser, a coherent beam of light
is inserted into a loss medium, which can
be the same material as the gain medium
or one less likely to emit light, such as the
silicon used in this experiment. Any ma-
terial will absorb some photons and scat-
ter the rest, but picking just the right
wavelength for the particular material
and the length of the antilaser cavity en-
sures that all the photons will be ab-
sorbed if they stay in the material long
enough.
But because the antilaser works with a
specific wavelength in a coherent beam, it
wouldn’t have any practical use in solar
cells. It also wouldn’t help with stealth
technology, and it’s not a shield against
laser beams
13
EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus
14
Harvard Team Makes Programmable Logic from Nanowires–
Nanowires made into logic tiles could be basis of low power nanopreocessors
Transistors made from silicon-clad germanium nanowires—much smaller
than traditional transistors—have for the first time been built into program-
mable "logic tiles," say researchers at Harvard University. Such tiles, layered
together, could be the foundation for miniature processors that could con-
trol microrobots or run implantable medical monitors. Lieber’s team have
been able to build a programmable array of nanowires that can have up to
eight distinct logic gates. They dub such an array a "logic tile," with the idea
that multiple tiles could be connected to perform more-complex logic func-
tions. The nanowires are made of a 10-nm-wide core of germanium, sur-
rounded by a 2-nm-thick shell of silicon. The chief innovation was to cover
those wires with a three-layer dielectric—first aluminum oxide, then zirco-
nium oxide, then another layer of aluminum oxide. The three-layer material
lets the wires trap charge carriers, allowing them to act as a nonvolatile
memory, holding a positive or negative state even when no current is ap-
plied. The nanowires are laid out parallel to one another, with a source and
drain on either end. A series of metal gate electrodes crosses the wires per-
pendicularly. Each nanowire contains multiple transistors, because each
cross point between the nanowire and metal gate makes an individual tran-
sistor.
The design allows for many
more transistors in a given area
than traditional complementary
metal-oxide-semiconductor
(CMOS) manufacturing is likely
to achieve. Lieber expects his
transistors to operate at between
10 and 100 megahertz, instead of
the gigahertz of CMOS. The flip
side is that power demands will
be much lower. While future
CMOS is projected to use 10 to
100 nanowatts per transistor
element, Lieber predicts his device will require only 1 nW per element. That
would make it ideal for applications where the device is small and requires
low power consumption and where fast processing is not needed. For in-
stance, the tiles might make a controller for some microelectromechanical
device, so it wouldn’t need to be wired to a larger external processor. The
tiles could run some sort of biosensor, to provide constant monitoring of a
person’s medical status.
14
 15

UPCOMING ACTIVITIES

ASSOCIATION TSHIRT :

The T-shirt Design has been finalized and orders will be taken shortly at the SWD site http://swd.bits-goa.ac.in/.

The Design is available on the EEE ftp site : ftp://10.1.1.222/EEE&I/.

SENIORS’ QUESTIONNAIRE :

The seniors’ questionnaire for semester 2 will be compiled by the database team headed by Sandeep M.S.
(2009A3PS110G).

14
EEE Association—BITS - Pilani | K.K. Birla Goa Campus
15