| J.Ramanand |
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:: Samuel Becket ("Waiting For Godot")
IT601 - Mobile Computing Course: IT601 (Mobile Computing)Offered by: Sridhar Iyer When: July-Nov 2005 Mode: Credit (6) Grade: AB Assignments: * Use of "Opnet" to simulate 802.11 WLAN scenarios * Use of "Qualnet" to simulate MANET routing scenarios Project: * Location Aware Delivery Services [Report (pdf/343K)] {J2ME and Servlets} Notes: A well run course (with no hassles! :-)), it covers the important aspects of the Mobile Telecom domain touching upon Cellular Networks, GSM, GPRS, CDMA, WLAN etc. My aim in taking this course was to get an overview of this area which was precisely what I obtained. Sridhar Iyer conveyed the engineering and empirical aspects of the area quite well.
The assignments provided an introduction to two Network Simulation Tools, while in the project we worked on a
J2ME based solution. We did well in these. IT611 - Object Oriented Techniques Course: IT611 (Object Oriented Techniques)Offered by: Umesh Bellur When: July-Nov 2005 Mode: Credit (6) Grade: AB Termpaper: * New Trends in Visualisations for Object Oriented Systems [Link (pdf/94K)] Project: * Site Feeds Aggregator [Report (pdf/111K)] Notes: I think this is the best course I have ever taken till date (quite a statement, I know). The course covered all the glamorous and not so hip aspects of (advanced) Object Oriented Techniques. At the end, I had a fairly good idea about the mental approach to designing and implementing OO Components, Design by Contract, OO Metrics, Design Patterns and Aspect Oriented Programming. The course logistics called for a lot of work (we ran the entire gamut of quizzes, assignments, two sem exams, termpaper and project!) but no item was superfluous. Umesh Bellur's classroom sessions were principally sufficient in covering the areas and he showed a good command of all allied aspects as well. The exams were a real delight and apart from testing knowledge, actually enhanced it. Impressive.
I did well in the Termpaper (9.5/10) and Project (34/40) which yanked the grade up. IT619 - Foundation Lab Course: IT619 (Foundation Lab)Offered by: Om Damani When: July-Nov 2005 Mode: Credit (8) Grade: AA Assignments on: Unix Shell Programming, CGI, Apache and Unix System Calls for processes, PHP-MySQL, Unix System Programming, Java/Eclipse/JUnit, Javacc/Ant, Perl, Latex/Make/GNUPlot, Kernel Variables and /proc filesystem, Sed and AWK, Study of Profilers Notes: This is a compulsory lab for all MTech 1st Years and with the highest number of credits, so it has to be taken seriously. Apparently this year, the project has been eliminated and there has been some thought put into what aspects to focus on. I still found the philosophy behind the lab unsettled and mixed. Expecting newbies (to specific tools) to also churn out elegant code was a little too much, I thought. IMO, the lab should focus on providing an introduction to all those tools that are usually of utility later. The slant towards Unix system tools and calls was not necessary, IMO.
I started off doing all the assignments properly and found it totally ate up my time for the rest of
the courses (alternate view: I couldn't manage my time). I de-emphasized this in the post-midsem part
and luckily managed to hold onto the highest grade. IT623 - Foundations of IT-2 Course: IT623 (Foundations of IT-2)Offered by: Shashikant Kelkar When: July-Nov 2005 Mode: Credit (6) Grade: BB Notes: I'm afraid the words "a waste of time" come to mind. This course is supposed to teach us Probability and Statistics, a subject that most MTechs will require later and is therefore precisely the kind of "Foundation" we need. Unfortunately, I (and most of my classmates) didn't appreciate the way this course was run. I could have got around being treated as if I was Bart Simpson if only the contents were taught well, but the slides based approach isn't IMO the way to teach any mathematical subject. At the end of the course, I still have a lot of ground to cover and the grade is rather irrelevant. Pity. Back to Index IT655 - Introduction to Data Mining and Warehousing Course: IT655 (Introduction to Data Mining and Warehousing)Offered by: Sunita Sarawagi When: July-Nov 2005 Mode: Credit (6) Grade: BC Assignments: * Study of the Weka Data Mining tool and various classifiers * Classification of skewed datasets * Correlation Clustering Notes: This was a tough course for me. This course has been moved the 1st Sem from the traditional 2nd Sem so that Sunita ma'am can introduce an Advanced Data Mining course. The material required some Stats knowledge which I lacked and consequently found it a little hard to keep pace. Also, she does conduct lectures at a fair gallop and once you've missed the train, it's hard to jump back on.
Still, if you look past these hurdles, this was a good introduction to the world of Data Mining. HSS699 - Communication Skills Course: HSS699 - Communication SkillsOffered by: Humanities and Social Sciences Dept. When: July-Nov 2005 Mode: Credit (6) Grade: PP Notes: Ok, this was a shocker, because it's a shame this is being run in an institute like the IIT. All one needs to do is to pass this course, but the attendance requirements mean enduring two hours of some seriously bad natter. The problem essentially is that the course is run simultaneously for all MTech 1st Years - you can hardly teach communication skills this way. The issue has been recognised but nothing seems to have been done about it. Result: I slept through most of the classes, mugged up the material and took a objective test to prove my new and improved "communication skills". Some people who failed have above average communication skills and some who passed couldn't string a meaningful sentence. This academic items needs a major renovation exercise.
There was a departmental section to this course too where we needed to submit a proposal. |
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