Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus
Posts tagged AMRITA
“BarCamp” – A New Revolution in Knowledge Sharing
Oct 4th
When I first heard of the term “BarCamp” a few years back, I was totally confused with it. Lot of thoughts went through my mind. The term “Bar” is little bit confusing here. I thought it as a gathering of drunkards in a bar. With this thought in my mind, initially I was indifferent to it.
One day, during a casual talk with one of my colleagues Mr. Anish Chandran, I came to know that this BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering of technology enthusiasts from different parts of the country/world at a particular place. By that time, he already attended two three barcamps organized by barcampkerala team. He also took a few sessions in those barcamps. His words changed my attitude towards it.
With this idea in our minds, during the second anniversary celebrations of ACM student chapter, we introduced “Technical Unconferencing” in the campus last year. Students and faculty of our campus got a unique platform to share their thoughts on various technical areas they are really interested in. As their audience, they got people with same mindset and most of the sessions were on ablaze. Those who came there just to see what it is also took part actively in it.
People feel very relaxed when a technical/non technical session is organized in a very informal way in an open environment. In a classroom type setup or in a formal seminar session, all the people listening to it may not be interested in that topic. People feel it improper in leaving the room during the session. But ”unconference” is just the opposite of the normal conference where there is no such formalities. People can come in and go out at any time on their own interest. Here there is no spectators, only participants.
Barcamp is a group of such unconferencing sessions on different technical and non technical areas going on simultaneously. People can attend any of these sessions according to their interest.
A Little History and the conduct of BarCamp
BarCamp arose as a spin-off of Foo Camp, an annual invitation-only participant driven conference hosted by the founder of O’Reilly media, Mr. Tim O’Rrilly.
Is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment.
It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants who are the main actors of the event.
“Foo” and “Bar” are placeholder names usually used in computer programming or computer related documentation. The terms are used to name entities such as variables, functions and commands whose purpose is unimportant and serve only to demonstrate a concept.
The first BarCamp was held in Palo Alto, California, from August 19–21, 2005.
BarCamps are organized and evangelized largely through the web.
Anyone can initiate a BarCamp through the site www.barcamp.org
The Kerala version of BarCamp started three years back by a group of technology evangelists.
They can be reached through the site www.barcampkerala.org
The first ever BarCamp in Kerala was organized at Technopark Trivandrum on 13, Nov, 2007.
After this, seven more BarCamps were hosted successfully in different organizations/institutions across Kerala.
BarCamp Kerala 9 @ Amritapuri Campus
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus is hosting the 9th BarCamp in Kerala on 14, Nov,2010.
We are also very glad to celebrate the third anniversary of BarCamp Kerala in our campus.
Those who are interested in the idea and not yet registered for the camp, please do it now itself through the site www.barcampkerala.org
There are no registration fees or any charges for the barcamp as this is a user-generated conference.
If you wish to take a session, register the topic for your session in the site by clicking the link “Sessions“.
Attendees can register by clicking the link “Attendees“.
On behalf of Amrita and BarCamp Kerala, I personally invite each one of you to be an integral part of this new revolution of knowledge sharing…
M.A.M to take up cleaning of schools and public place
Oct 2nd
Courtesy: www.amritapuri.org
Amma (Mata Amritanandamayi Devi) said that the Mata Amritanandamayi Math is ready to take up the responsibility of cleaning schools and public places all over India if it has the support and co-operation of state governments and other organizations. “It is said that India is growing, that it is developing. However, in matters of environmental cleanliness and hygiene, we are lagging behind a lot. The lack of cleanliness in our roads and public bathrooms and toilets is proof of this,” said Amma.
Western countries maintain high standards of cleanliness on roads, in public places as well as in public bathrooms and toilets. In contrast, the standard of cleanliness in roads and public toilets in India is appalling. It has become a habit for people to urinate by roadsides and to spit on public roads and pavements. Even if there are waste bins present, they are not in the habit of disposing litter and food waste in these bins; they discard them by the side of the road or even in the middle of the road. Environmental cleanliness and hygiene are a part of development and cultural refinement. For this to happen, we need to plan widespread awareness campaigns. We should mount enough signboards on environmental cleanliness in public places, bus stands and roadsides.
Amma also stressed that the sincere support and co-operation of the television and print media are vital for the success of this mission. She said that the MAM is ready to construct public toilets in schools and public places if state governments, school management committees and local people collaborate.
This project will be implemented through proper blueprints, planning and the co-operation of students and the general public.
This project will be initiated in Kerala. Thereafter, it will be implemented gradually in other states of India.
Amrita ACM ICPC – 2010
Aug 31st
(http://icpc.amrita.ac.in/2010)
The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is a multitier, team-based, programming competition operating under the auspices of ACM and headquartered at Baylor University. The contest involves a global network of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the ACM-ICPC World Finals. Participation has grown to several tens of thousands of the finest students and faculty in computing disciplines at almost 2,000 universities from over 80 countries on six continents. The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. Quite simply, it is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world.
The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) traces its roots to a competition held at Texas A&M in 1970 hosted by the Alpha Chapter of the UPE Computer Science Honor Society. The idea quickly gained popularity within the United States and Canada as an innovative initiative to raise the aspirations, performance, and opportunity of the top students in the emerging field of computer science. The contest evolved into a multi-tier competition with the first Finals held at the ACM Computer Science Conference in 1977. Operating under the auspices of ACM and headquartered at Baylor University since 1989, the contest has expanded into a global network of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the ACM-ICPC World Finals. Since IBM became sponsor in 1997, the contest has increased over 800%. Participation has grown to involve twenty-two thousand of the finest students and faculty in computing disciplines from over 1,931 universities from 82 countries on six continents. The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. Quite simply, it is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world. The annual event is comprised of several levels of competition:
Most grueling moments @ the contest environment
Battle of the Brains - The contest pits teams of three university students against eight or more complex, real-world problems, with a grueling five-hour deadline. Huddled around a single computer, competitors race against the clock in a battle of logic, strategy and mental endurance. Teammates collaborate to rank the difficulty of the problems, deduce the requirements, design test beds, and build software systems that solve the problems under the intense scrutiny of expert judges. For a well-versed computer science student, some of the problems require precision only. Others require a knowledge and understanding of advanced algorithms. Still others are simply too hard to solve – except, of course, for the world’s brightest problem-solvers.
Revealing the problem solutions by judges on stage after the contest
Judging is relentlessly strict. The students are given a problem statement – not a requirements document. They are given an example of test data, but they do not have access to the judges’ test data and acceptance criteria. Each incorrect solution submitted is assessed a time penalty. You don’t want to waste your customer’s time when you are dealing with the supreme court of computing. The team that solves the most problems in the fewest attempts in the least cumulative time is declared the winner.
Amrita in ACM ICPC
ACM – ICPC is the world’s largest programming contest, primarily sponsored by IBM, and this is the sixth year Amrita is conducting the Asia Regional Contest. In India, only two institutions( IIT Kanpur and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham) are authorized by ACM to conduct this contest. This year, it is going to be a multisite contest where more than 150 teams are expected to participate from different campuses inside and outside India. In the years 2005 and 2006, the contest was held in Coimbatore campus. Last three years since 2007, the contest is being held in Amritapuri (Kerala) campus. During the past three years, 200 (60 to 65 teams) participants attend the Onsite Contest at Amritapuri Campus and this year, we are increasing it to 450 (more than 150 teams). To attract the participation of mentors (coaches) of these teams, we are planning to announce “Coaches Award”, and for the students, “Special Award for Top Ten Teams”, “Best Performance Award”, etc. The contest is a three day event with lot of excitement, fun and games with an excursion to the nearby scenic places.
Contestants enjoying delicious food
Amrita ICPC Online & Onsite Contest Dates Announced
Online Contest is also called as the “Preliminary Round” scheduled on October 17th 09:30 AM IST. All the teams shall complete the registration process before October 10th in order to participate in the Online contest. For more information on the registration process please visit the site
http://icpc.amrita.ac.in/2010
The teams shortlisted from the online contest will be invited for Onsite Contest which will be held in Amrita University, Amritapuri Campus on 11th and 12th of December, 2010. Two to three teams selected from the onsite contest will participate in the ACM-ICPC, 2011 World Finals to be held in Cairo, Egypt.
Contestants enjoying the scenic beauty of Kerala during excursion
Visit our photo gallery to get more information about the contest – http://picasaweb.google.com/icpcamritapuri/.
2009 ICPC Backdrop
On behalf of Amrita Fraternity, I invite each one of you to participate in this most exciting Battle of Brains contest.
Amrita ACM-ICPC Asia Regional Contest 2010
://icpc.amrita.ac.in/2010
VIDYUT-2011 Registration is open.
Please visit
