Our Defense, Their Defense!

Of course I am going to blabber about PhD thesis defense and the difference between defense in Indian schools and their US counterparts.

Like many formal events, the thesis defense ceremony in US schools is a low profile, but important activity. Whereas, the PhD defense in Indian schools is still a big fat event where you need to prepare yourself and others for a sufficiently long time to fulfill every formalities of this gala event (which bears the typical Indian flavor of grandness of all important events of one's life, be it marriage or getting a degree). This gala event starts right from the day your adviser thinks that you now can be get ridden of the lab because you have demonstrated that your are fit for a PhD degree (read you have spent at least 5 years or so in captivity in the lab as a lab rat, on a lighter side!). Then several copies of your thesis go out to different destinations, home and abroad, for evaluation of the worth of your contribution. The whole procedure takes a big chunk of your time and energy, and not to mention the botheration of your adviser, administrative staffs and all external examiners. This goes on simultaneously with other normal activities of your PhD, like communicating your papers to good journals and getting the stamp of approval/acceptance of your work in the form of publications. And then in the final months, after several hundreds of e-mails between the examiners and your adviser, you are ready for the grand event: to defend your thesis in front of experts in your field who come from your school and also from other institutes to formally approve your work and bestow the degree.

The US schools have a rather practical and causal approach to the whole thing. They believe that once you have published several good quality papers in high impact journals, then that itself is a direct vindication/ratification of your work. And you no longer have to send your copies of your thesis to all other experts, in home or overseas, to get a stamp of approval. I believe this is quite logical and it saves a considerable amount of time and energy of everyone involved in the whole process. After this, the defense formality is a just a normal event where members of your PhD committee would gather for a final presentation -- and there you go -- congratulations, you are a Dr. now.

I think the Indian students go through more rigor (part of which is unnecessary in my opinion) to earn their PhD. Anyone out there to prove me wrong? and justify why such a practice is still there in the best Indian schools?

Last Lecture of Prof. Pausch!

The Last Lecture of LIfe

Yeah, it sounds bizarre! But here is Professor Randy Pausch from CMU who gave his last lecture of life. Prof Pausch is expected to live for a few more months as he has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer for which there is no apparent remedy. Here is a terminally ill man who doesn't even look a bit of morose or gloomy, he is all full of life and humor, and preaching us how to get most out of life. Truly inspiring ( I have personally seen people who are living inspirations for everyone struggling the toughest diseases and disability of life, but Randy is the ultimate, hats off to you dear Professor! These videos and lectures by you are surely going to be my resort when I am out and down....for all of my lifetime!)
News Link: http://chronicle.com/temp/reprint.php?id=53dgg11spcdvzv4lk4pcc11bd5b0q7qx

Next time when you go to Walmart...

watch out for scorpions!!

A girl was stung by scorpion when she was picking up a seedless watermelon.

More at yahoo news: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080526/ap_on_re_us/odd_shopper_stung

Will the iPod and iPhone run on solar cells?

Apple just patented this technology where the reliance on solar cells will grow!

Read more at:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/26/apple-files-patent-for-solar-cells-on-portable-devices/

Ethanol from Coke Oven Gas ? Good News for Steel Industry

Read more at : http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10436171

The same topic (along with a bigger picture of the whole gamut of start-up companies working on bio-fuel and greentech technologies to produce ethanol) was also presented by the Chief Scientific Officer of Khosla Ventures (a sillicon valley VC firm started by India-born VC Vinod Khosla), Dr. Doug Cameron at Pitt, Swanson School of Engineering. This was the Bayer's Distinguish Lecture 2008. He showed how they have helped many start-up companies to do research in this area which is a booming field for future clean technology development for alternate fuels in the USA and also in India, Brazil, China, etc.

In a specific way, amongst other methods, he also talked about how the CO or carbon monoxide which is found in the coke oven gas in any steel industry (which also carries heavy energy, it is a fuel having good Calorific Value) can be used to produce ethanol following a green bio-route. Normally, this gas is burnt off or used in some other areas like furnaces in a steel industry. Therefore, it holds a great promise for future greentech to produce ethanol which is a substitute for the limited reserve of our gasoline or diesel.

Vinod Khosla

Interesting reading about this great VC:

http://www.khoslaventures.com/people.html

It's a family business!

Read on, amazing:
http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20011021blum1021p3.asp

A touching video from youtube

American presidential election system demystified: a primer as harvested from Wikipedia

A refresher to the US presidential election system for the newbies:

The US parliament is called the Congress (located in Capitol Hill in DC). It has two houses: house of representatives (435 reps, chosen to reflect the public opinion, number from a state is proportional to the population of the state) and the senate (100 senators, 2 members elected from each state, this number is fixed and irrespective of the population of the state, they reflect the state gov's opinion). The senate can try presidential impeachment cases and the house of reps can also initiate impeachment process (only two presidents were impeached by the Congress: Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998). Only one president, Richard Nixon, resigned before being impeached in the history of the USA ever.

Before the actual presidential elections are held, the primaries (one type of election) are held in many states. The states are chosen randomly for primaries. Primaries results indicate which candidate should be nominated by the party for the presidential candidate in the national convention (say, Primaries will decide whom the Democratic party will promote as the presidential candidate: Hillary or Obama ?). Once the nomination is done, the nation goes for polling. Individuals cast their votes and one of the candidates belonging to a particular party receives the most vote in that state. Each state has a number of electoral votes (again roughly proportional to the population) which constitute the electoral college (see below how the electors in the electoral college are elected). A party or a candidate belonging to that party gets all of the state's electoral votes if it has a clear majority from the people's polls. The electors of the electoral college now cast their votes to elect the president. "The presidential ballot is actually voting "for the electors of a candidate" meaning that the voter is not actually voting for the candidate, but endorsing members of the Electoral College who will, in turn, directly elect the President".

"The current process is an indirect election. Constitutionally, the election is by United States Electoral College electors, who are chosen by methods each state individually establishes". "The presidential election occurs quadrennially. The most recent election occurred on November 2, 2004. The next election is scheduled for November 4, 2008. Elections are held on Election Day—the Tuesday after the first Monday in November of every fourth year". "The elections are conducted by the various statesfederal government" . ..."it appears virtually certain that the 2008 election will mark the first time since John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election that a sitting Senator will be elected President of the United States".


"Electors in the electoral college are chosen by way of elections in each state, and Washington, D.C., held on Election Day (same day of presidential election). The number of electoral votes of each state is the sum of its number of U.S. Senators (always two) and its U.S. Representatives to which that state is entitled."

.."Electoral college votes for 2008 = 538. The winning candidate needs 270 electoral votes (out of 538 = 435 (house of reps) + 100 (senators, 2 each for 50 states) + 3 other guys, electoral votes)".

"The nature of the process and its complication have been critiqued, with its detractors proposing several alternative methods of electing the president. This issue was revisited following the Presidential Election of 2000 when Democratic candidate Al Gore received the plurality of the national vote, but failed to win the majority of the Electoral College. Advocates of the current system have similarly set forth arguments for its advantages."

See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_presidential_election
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War