Gaming is not so bad after all

This was the TED video I saw today. It's about the good effects of gaming on the human brain.

Back to blogging

Haven't been around for a few days, two to be precise, and here I am, back to blogging. Spend the days watching movies, playing with friends, etc. I did watch a few TED videos. Here are two those.

The first one is this.

Here is the second one.

TED video for Christmas

This was the TED video I saw today.

First Day of Vacation

Well, actually the vacation started yesterday evening. Had a great evening at my school. It was our annual day yesterday. Nothing much to note happened today. Went out for certain things I had planned for the vacation.

Spend the evening on the internet. I watched a few videos on TED. Here are two that I found interesting. One is about Yves Rossy, a man who has made equipments to fly like a bird, that is to control the flight using the movements of his body.
Here is the TED video link and below is the YouTube video

 

Another video was about Thomas Suarez, a 12-year old app developer. Here is the TED link.

Getting to know the HPC hardware

Today was a very special day at CHPC. We reached here at 7.30 in the morning and were told that we would be having class on C Programming. We learnt some C programming and then came the exciting part. Finally, we got to see what's within the CHPC room!

We were shown the high performance computer we have here at FISAT. It was really interesting to know that it was made up of many parts, which looked like a normal CPU, connected together. Then, we were shown the Server Room. Something that we noticed quickly was that the room was quite noisy. The operation of the equipments inside produced such a lot of noise. We were also shown the UPS room.

Then, we had class and in between we talked on various topics ranging from hacking to the Blue Waters project (the supercomputer being developed by the University of Illinois). We also discussed about the ethics of a professional. Then we had a small Christmas celebration. Mahesh Sir bought us a cake and we cut it in the lab. Unni Sir and Jestin Sir also joined us in the celebration.

During the afternoon session, we were asked to give feedback about the classes we had here at CHPC. The unanimous reply was that everyone enjoyed it. We were also given a chance to tell the topics we had trouble with.

We got tips for the Christmas vacation. Digital Electronics and Discrete Mathematics were to be familiarised. Watching TED videos, atleast one a day, was mandatory. Something important that we were reminded about was to keep updating our blogs.

That was the end of CHPC classes for this year and we dispersed after wishing each other Christmas.

Assignment day again!

Today was yet another day of assignments. Of course we knew that yesterday itself. The assignment we got today was from Digital Electronics.

We were given six questions and were asked to do it in teams of four members each, which meant every team got three questions. My teammates were Anto, Athira and Vivek. The questions we selected were to design a full adder, a comparator and a DFA to accept even number of zeroes. The full adder and comparator circuits were really simple and it was finished quickly. DFA was the one that took time and we did manage to make it work partially.

Then, we waited for Mahesh Sir to come and he spend time talking to us. At the end of the day, we were asked to do the blogging part but not before assuring us a Christmas celebration.

Great day at CHPC

Yesterday was a great day at CHPC. Yesterday's class was to be taken by
Bejoy Sir. But, when we reached here at nine in the morning, we were told
that he couldn't take class due to some reason and so we were to have
Mahesh Sir's class on C Programming.

We had studied C Programming in our third semester. So, first of all, we
were asked to empty our cups and start learning C Programming from the
beginning. We started from the basic programs and compiled it. Then, we
were told about the various types of errors. Errors were classified into
Syntax errors and Semantic errors. Syntax errors are caused due to
violation of the programming language syntax or the grammar of the
programming language. Semantic errors are those caused due to wrong logical statements.

Then, we were told that the speed of a high performance computer is measured in FLOPS. Now that was a new term for us. FLOPS stands for FLoating point Operations Per Second. We were also told about GCC (GNU Compiler Collections).

The afternoon session was taken by Unni Sir. He told us about mind maps and made one about career after B.Tech. That was really interesting, wondering why he kept on asking in between whether the class was boring. It was far from boring.

The last session of the day was taken by Parvathy Ma'am on Digital Electronics. Though we had learnt it before, it was only when she explained it to us that we understood how certain results were obtained. It was nice knowing how many of the things we learnt blindly were actually obtained.

A full day of microprocessor programming

The time table said that we were having a Mini Project today. I came here wondering what is meant by a Mini Project. When we reached here, Mahesh Sir told that he had prepared a few questions on microprocessor programming as an assignment and he would print it and give it to us in a few minutes time. Meanwhile, we could browse the internet to clear our doubts on microprocessors and get an idea about microprocessor programming.

Soon we were given the set of 8 questions and were asked to form teams of 2 members. Each team had to select 2 questions. The time allotted for completing it was from 9.15 in the morning to 3 in the afternoon. If we could finish the two questions on time, then we could attempt one of the four extra questions. My teammate was Vivek. The questions we selected were to find the nth fibonocci number and to convert a decimal value to binary.

First, we attempted the question on fibonocci. The logic of it was very simple involving just addition. It was just a matter of few minutes before we were done with the question. Then, we started with the question on converting a decimal number to it's binary form. It involved addition, subtraction, multiplication and division processes. But, 8085 microprocessor does not have operations of multiplication and division. So, we had to do it by repeated additions and subtractions. It took us a bit of time to get it right. After a series of mistakes, we finally managed to convert the decimal number entered to it's binary form.

We thought of attempting the extra questions, but by then it was three in the noon and we stopped our programming and went to Mahesh Sir. We were asked to rate our answers and suggest measures to improve ourselves. Then we did the blogging and that was the end of this end at CHPC.

Microprocessor

The big change today was that today's class was taken by Bejoy Sir. It was the first time we didn't have Mahesh Sir's class at CHPC. The class started at 9.30 AM. The entire morning session was spend on theory part of Microprocessors. I thought it would be very tough but it turned out to be much easier.

We started from the basic equation of Ohm's law and slowly came to Digital Electronics. We discussed about the various logic gates. Then, we came to the concept of trigger in clocked combinational logic. We came to know that the number of triggers in a second was the speed of the logic circuit. After that we came to the main topic of the day, Microprocessors.

Microprocessor was defined as "a programmable, clock-driven, register-based electronic device which can receive binary digits as the inputs, process binary data according to the instruction given by the master and give an output in the binary form". We came to know that the first microprocessor was 4004 designed by Ted Hoff at Intel. 4004 was a 4-bit microprocessor.

Later, we discussed about computers. Computers are classified as large size (such as mainframes), medium size (such as servers) and small size (such as desktops). An embedded system is a combination of the processing unit (processor), program and the mechanical parts. A Register is a small and fast memory in the processor. An important thing to note is that registers reside close to the processor.

The afternoon session was spent entirely at the microprocessor lab. We did programming on the microprocessors in assembly language. When we entered the lab, we thought it would be very difficult. But it turned out to be easy and fun, just that even adding had to be done in a sequence of steps in assembly language and not in a single step as in high level language.

At last we had the blogging session and that was the end of a very good day at CHPC.

Applying knowledge

Being a Sunday, the class started only at 10 o'clock. When we came, little did we know that today was going to be a very hectic one. When we reached class, there was Mahesh Sir with a paper in his hand. A peek at the paper and we knew we were going to have an assignment today.

There were 8 questions in all, 4 each from Programming and Electronics. We were asked to divide ourselves into 4 groups of 2 members each and each group had to select 2 questions, one each from Electronics and Programming. My teammate was Vivek. We selected our questions and after some time came to know that our Programming question was already selected by another group. So, we started to do the only question left out.

The Programming question we got was to convert an image to greyscale using the for-loop and also by vector implementation and compare both. Our Electronics question was to toggle a DC motor ON and OFF using a push button switch. We were given 3 hours for this and a computer for Internet access. As soon as the computer booted up, we started storming Google with searches. Only God and Google can say how many searches we did today.

Not finding any solutions for the Programming question on the Internet, we decided to do it ourselves and by noon we were able to do it. The Electronics question was the one that took us more time. As we were shown how to operate the DC motor using a push button switch the previous day, we wired it quickly and decided to modify it according to our need. After a lot of searches, we decided to use IC 7476 to make it work. We wired up the circuit but were disappointed that it didn't work out.

Mahesh Sir then arrived and asked us to rate our team by ourselves. We rated us 90 for our Programming question and 60 for the Electronics one. Dunno why we were asked to do it. Then, he talked about what was coming for us in the following days.

And at last, we had the blogging session.

Tough day at CHPC

It was the fifth day and the only tough one so far at CHPC. We spend the whole day with Electronics! Now, electronics wasn't my strongest area but today I understood how important the basics of Electronics are (decided to refer old books and get my basics right).

The day started with a look into the colour codes of resistors. Then, we talked on active and passive components. We were shown the various electronic components like resistors, capacitors, transistors, intergrated circuits, relays, switches, etc. We wired a few circuits on the breadboard. Quite sure I was the last to understand the circuit but I am glad that I could atleast understand it (Better late than never,hehe..). We checked the waveforms on an oscilloscope, a Digital Storage Oscilloscope(DSO). The DSO looked like a taperecorder and we were astonished hearing that it costed 60k Rupees.

We then discussed about the ideas we were asked to come up with, for the Intel Embedded Challenge 2012. We finalised on the Intelligent Speed Limiter which can change the speed limit according to the place where the vehicle is. We were asked to come up with three more ideas for the next day. Then we had the blogging session.

And regarding the article of the day, the article I came up with was about the record breaking data transfer speeds achieved by scientists recently. They could transfer data at the rate of 186 Gbps! Now, that's amazing. Further details can be found by searching the internet. Now here's a link.

Day of Programming

It was a day of programming here at CHPC. The day started with a video session about Google’s effort in making autonomous cars. It was even better than the attempt made by Stanford University. The car used was Toyota Prius (Well, identifying the vehicle is important for me :-D). The major difference of it from that of Stanford’s was that it could manage high speeds with no errors in handling. Now that is really important if autonomous vehicles are to get public acceptation. Overall, it was one of the best videos so far.

Then, we came back to algorithms. We found the square root of a number using the iteration algorithm, bisection algorithm and Newton-Raphson algorithm and then programmed it in Octave. We also analyzed the efficiency of the algorithms and found the Newton-Raphson algorithm to be the most efficient among the three, using considerably lower steps.

We were introduced to the various commands in Octave. Using of functions in Octave was familiarised. We did a lot of programs on matrices. Octave supports scalar operations on matrices that can be used with the help of ‘.’ (for eg: ‘<matrixname>.*2’ is used for scalar multiplication of a matrix by 2). Another important point to be noted was that we have to try to use built-in functions of Octave to improve efficiency. For example, finding square root of every element of a matrix can be done more efficiently by using ‘<matrixname>.^(1/2)’ than by a function to find square root of every element using Newton-Raphson algorithm. It is because the in-built function does parallel processing.

During the afternoon session, we looked into image manipulation. Every pixel of an image has a R value, a G value and a B value. So each pixel is represented by it’s RGB value. So an image can be represented as a 3-dimensional matrix. We can manipulate an image by varying the RGB values.

Then, we had another video session during which we were shown a video titled ‘My Brilliant Brain’ taken by NatGeo. It was about the female chess grandmaster named Susan Polgar. Not only could she win matches, but she could do it at an unbelievable speed. The video analyzed how she could do it. Her father believed that “genius was not born, but made”(Interesting) and her achievements prove her father’s theory. The training she received was so good that her brain could remember previous chess board situations she encountered as if they were human faces and proceed with the best move, from past experiences, within a second. Really amazing!

The day ended with the blogging session. We also had to send an interesting topic to Ajay, who collected this from every CHPC member. The article I send was about Google Go.

Algorithms, algorithms and even more algorithms

This was the busiest day so far for us at HPC. We started the morning session with a discussion on Hamiltonian cycles. We came to know that it is still a mysterious part in Discrete Mathematics, proving theories of which would fetch millions of dollars. Hm..Interesting. Only brute force can resolve whether a graph has a Hamiltonian cycle. This brought us to polynomial(p) time algorithms and non-deterministic polynomial(np) time algorithms. It was a point worth noting that np time algorithms can have polynomial time verifiers.

Then, we discussed about encryption of information and later came to discuss about Alan Turing, the father of Computer Science (er... I had mistaken his name with that of a British hacker (Gary McKinnon).Oops!). We came to know about the Turing machine and the Enigma machine. Later we proceeded to RSA algorithm, which is used to encode information that are transferred over the internet. As a part of the talk on encryption, we were given information about public keys and private keys. While both public and private keys are p class algorithms, decrypting without the private keys requires an np class algorithm, in other words brute force.

We went on to get informed about alphabet set and language of machines and designed a few machines. Deterministic finite state machines and non-deterministic finite state machines were discussed as a part of it. As we were designing machines for various conditions, we came across conditions for which we couldn't design machines with our limited knowledge. Hence, we came to the concept of Push Down machines.

Later, we were told the importance of using books from reputed authors for references. We were suggested to go through the works of Donald A Knuth of the Standford University. After that we proceeded on to discuss about how to use Octave.

During the afternoon session, we attended a talk given by Mr. Naveen Sivadasan from IIT Hyderabad on Data Stream Algorithms. Though most of it were quite tough for me, I could grab a point or two. The day finished with the blogging session and I am looking forward for the next day's class.

Day 2

Like the previous day, the class started at nine in the morning. The morning session started with a quick revision of the previous day's topics. Then, we discussed about optimizing programs. We proceeded on to start with Discrete Mathematics.

Topics like Graph Theory were discussed. We were also informed about the applications of Discrete Mathematics in real world situations. We analysed the application of Discrete Maths in the functioning of sensors used to control the working of a water pump to fill a water tank. We also discussed the problem of the Towers of Hanoi in which a set of disks from a source tower were to be shifted, one at a time, to a target tower with the help of an auxiliary tower.

The Travelling Salesman Problem and the Konigsberg's Bridge problem were the other questions which we discussed. We also talked about the colouring of graphs. We then discussed about fractals, ie. forming complex shapes by repetition of a basic shape. After that, we had the lunch break.

During the afternoon session, we continued with Discrete Maths and then had a small test on it. After the test, we had a video session during which we were shown a video clipping telecasted by the Discovery Channel about the human body. The video clip which was for about 45 minutes, showed the amazing way in which different parts of the body works.

That was the of Day Two's classes and then we had the time for blogging.

Day 1

The first day with the High Performance Computing (HPC) team was awesome. I came here without even the slightest clue of what was about to be taken here. But, it turned out that I enjoyed the class a lot.

The morning session started off with a talk about the need to have a blog for HPC and a reminder to keep it updated day to day. It was followed by a basic introduction to HPC and Electronics. In between the talks, we were given details about what we would be doing the following months.

During the afternoon session, we were shown the movie 'October Sky'. The movie was based on the real-life story of a NASA scientist named Homer. It was both entertaining and inspiring. Enjoyed it!!

After the movie, we were asked to start our own personal blogs. And here I am updating my blog.

First Post

Just a trial posting. :-)