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(Chronicle Note: The Software Freedom Day was celebrated all over the world on 20th September 2008. On 27th September a talk was held on the campus by Saurabh Aggarwal and J. R. Harshath (both 3rd year CSE). Below is the brief report prepared by Saurabh on the event. He is SUN campus Ambassador for our campus for the academic year 2008-2009. The SUN Campus Ambassador program is run on our campus by SUN Microsystems.
Saurabh can be contacted at: saurabhagg@gmail.com)
What is Software Freedom Day?
In an increasingly digital age, more and more of our everyday experiences depend upon software. Software influences how we interact with each other, enjoy different media, vote, get paid, and even navigate our roads. Software underpins our very way of life, our basic freedoms such as freedom of association, freedom of thought, freedom of choice and much more, yet many people do not realise the importance and influence of software and other technologies on their lives.
What do we mean by Software Freedom? Software Freedom is about a technology future that we can trust, that is sustainable, and that doesn't negatively impact on the basic human freedoms we take for granted. Untrusted electoral systems can lead to civil unrest and a lack of trust in governing bodies. Spyware that watches what we listen to, our banking details and who we email can be installed on our computers without our knowledge. Region encoding of movies introduces an artificial barrier to the international content; where is our personal choice? Proprietary data formats can mean lockout to accessing our own information! Software Freedom can be maintained by transparent systems (such as Free and Open Source Software) that are based on open, secure and sustainable standards including data formats and communication protocols.
Software Freedom Day is a yearly celebration of Software Freedom and why it is important; our purpose is public education about these important issues.
How was it celebrated?
A talk was organised on Saturday, 27th September, 2008 in Batch of '98 Hall in Computer Science & Engineering Department.
I and J.R. Harshath (also from 3rd CSE) delivered talks to an audience consisting mostly of students from 1st, 2nd & 3rd year from CSE, ECE & EEE.
We started with welcoming all the students and explaining them what Software Freedom was all about & why we celebrate the Software Freedom Day.
Harshath gave a presentation on free and open source software: how they affect us and how we can participate in it. He spoke at length on the advantages of using open source software, and how the philosophy behind software freedom is very much like our own right to freedom. He also explained we can contribute to the open source community - from a minimum of just using open source software to submitting bug reports and writing the code. He explained the meaning of the licenses we purchase along with non-free software, and how these licenses are very different from their open source counterparts like GPL, LGPL and CCDL.
Then I started with giving an overview of OpenSolaris, showing them it is no more the Solaris that they used in their 1st years in C programming labs, but now it is as good as, if not better than Windows XP or any other Linux distro.
I then presented some cool tech demos of cutting edge SUN Technologies, viz. ZFS file system, DTrace, Zones & Containers. I compared ZFS of Solaris with its Windows & Linux counterparts & showed how it proved superior to them. I also demonstrated the shell commands needed to create Z Pools & ZFS partitions & some basic administration commands like those for reserving memory for a particular ZFS partition, backing up & restoring the file system.
This was followed by a demonstration on DTrace, the Dynamic Tracing Tool which can be used to examine the entire software stack which helps in troubleshooting software bugs & capturing profiling data for performance analysis. Then I gave an introduction on Zones & Containers & how they are useful as a lightweight OS virtualization facility. I explained them how containers prove to be so useful for companies that have already invested in Linux products & want to move to Solaris.
At the end of my talk I distributed OpenSolaris CDs & explained the step by step procedure of installing OpenSolaris within VirtualBox and "on the metal". Then I introduced some OpenSolaris commands, comparing them with their corresponding commands in Linux, like "pfexec" for "sudo", "pkg install" for "apt-get install", etc.
The event was concluded with refreshments, as the audience interacted with us on how to start adopting open source software in their daily computing life, and how they can start contributing to the open source community.
Overall it was a great event; all enjoyed to the fullest & also learnt cool techs :).......
About Sun Campus Ambassador Program
Campus Ambassadors are students selected by Sun Microsystems who build a Sun community on their school or university campus. They learn all about the latest Sun open-source technologies and share that knowledge with fellow students. This includes activities such as starting a Sun user group on campus, demonstrating Sun technology to fellow students, promoting Sun events and contests, and blogging.
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Additional links
1) Software freedom day organization
http://softwarefreedomday.org/Home
2) Sun Micro Systems-OpenSolaris
www.sun.com
3) Saurabh Aggarwal’s blog on Sun website:
http://blogs.sun.com/saurabhaggarwal/
4) OSUM Community
http://osum.sun.com/index.php?
5) Sun Campus Ambassador program at IT-BHU campus
a) Check out itbhu osum on Open Source University Meet up:
http://osum.sun.com/group/itbhu__osum?xgi=1BZMVQ8
b) Saloni Arya was Sun Campus Ambassador for the academic year 2007-2008.
Saloni Arya’s blog on Sun website: http://blogs.sun.com/saloni/
c) More about Sun Campus Ambassador program: http://www.sun.com/corp_emp/zone/campus_ambassador.html
d) IT-BHU Sun Club: http://groups.google.com/group/itbhu_sunclub
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(Sitting-from left to right: Ankit Kumar Ladha, Devender Singh and Abhilasha Purwar) Students of IT subjugated the technical fest of IIT Madras – Shaastra. Team of Devender Singh, Ankit Kumar Ladha and Abhilasha Purwar won Business Plan and Golden Design Competition (GDC) events and clutched prize money of Rs. 3.2 lakhs. Both the events were the biggest events of fest; GDC was the biggest event ever held in India in terms of prize money. Team have done the college proud by winning events at various college fests around the country (IIT Guwahati (Techniche-Techno management festival) and IIT Kanpur (Megabucks- Management fest)) Team of three took part in Business Plan competition in which participants from all over India took part and emerged as winner out of a tough competition. Around 120 teams took part in first round which includes team from Indian School of Business (ISB) and many other management colleges. Based on the performance in first round, 10 best teams were short listed for second and final round, where they have to present their plan against a panel of 4 judges in a closed room. Team presented their plan against the judges and not only won the event and begged prize money of Rs. 1.2lakhs but got offer from two venture capitalists one of whom is Ventureast. These venture capitalists were present during the presentation and found the plan attractive enough to invest. According to Devender Singh, team is in touch with Ventureast and working on agreement details. Moreover team is also working on improving the plan so that it could be practically implemented. Students also took part in golden design competition which is considered to be the biggest event in terms of money in India so far. Students presented a design of low cost water purifier there and won second prize, winning Rs. 2 lakhs as prize money. About 70 teams participated in first round which was screening round and based on their performance in first round, 35 teams were short listed and called in the fest to show working prototype based on their design. Seven teams were short listed for third round of the competition based on their presentation given in previous round. Models of selected teams were checked for complete one day and judged on their working, cost effectiveness, practical applications, design etc. Water purifier of team was very much appreciated as it was made according to the needs of rural sector. According to Devender, their model was different and better as it was designed after carrying out survey in rural sector and was designed according to the needs of rural sector, it costs about Rs. 348 and is based on gravity thereby does not consume electricity which is a big problem in villages.
About Shaastra festival at IIT-Madras (1st-5th October, 2008) Shaastra– technical festival of IIT Madras coincides with the Golden Jubilee year of IIT Madras. Shaastra is the only ISO 9001-2000 certified festival in Asia. Festival saw huge participation with over 600 teams from outside and around 2500 outside participants from different colleges took part. F1 car from Renault-Nissan was showcased along with 50*50m stall of Vestas which described working of windmill and latest technological advancement in arms from DRDO. Enjoyed thoroughly and was fascinated to see such participation from all over India. Didn't get much time to see Madras as we were busy preparing for events.
Participating students from IT-BHU: Following students participated in the Shaastra festival events:
Devender Singh Maun (2nd year Ceramic Engineering)-for B Plan and GOC.
Ms. Abhilasha Purwar (2nd year Industrial Chemistry)-for GOC.
Ankit Kumar Ladha (2nd year Ceramic Engineering)-for B Plan and GOC.
Devender Singh Maun can be contacted at: devender.maun@gmail.com
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Sketch of ExVirus water purification system:
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Additional links:
1) Shaastra festival at IIT-Madras http://www.shaastra.org/2008/home
2) Golden Challenges for water filter http://www.shaastra.org/downloads/2008/goldenchallenges/waterfilter_fullsize_new.jpg
3) Past articles about Devender Maun in Chronicle
- IT Students develop ExVirus water filter for use in rural area http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2008/09/index-campus-view.php#003752
- Summer Internship Experience -First Hand Report http://www.itbhuglobal.org/chronicle/archives/2008/08/index-campus-view.php#003639
- Department of Ceramic Engineering-Institute of technology, BHU http://www.itbhu.ac.in/cer/
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5 Oct, 2008, 1110 hrs IST, PTI
MUMBAI: A leading European research and advanced engineering group along with the French Embassy is offering scholarships of up to 30,000 Euro each to 25 meritorious engineering students from
The 25 full scholarships of 30,000 Euro each will be offered to students who wish to enroll in a MS programme of two years duration, beginning academic session September 2009, in all core engineering fields by ALTEN, the European research and development consulting and advanced engineering network and the French Embassy.
ALTEN is a network which brings together over 70 premier post-graduate engineering institutions in
Last year, the network had offered 10 scholarships to Indian students which have been raised to 25 this time and it plans to raise the number to 40 next year.
"The application form for these corporate scholarships (ATS- Alten Training Solution) is available online at the website - www.nplusi.com," ALTEN India Coordinator (Engineering Programme) Revati Arole told media.
No prior knowledge of French is required at the time of applying. Students do not need to take qualifying tests such as GRE or GMAT and will not be required to sign a bond with the company, she said.
Selection will be on the basis of academic merit, coherence of the statement of purpose, quality of recommendation letters and a personal interview, Arole said.
The network offers about 120 scholarships to students from across the world and has definite plans of increasing the number offered to Indian students each year.
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http://www.alten.com/nplusi/nplusi2.htm
Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP