IEEE India Bulletin  Vol. 12 No. 3  March 2002

Dear Fellow Member,
A number of professional societies are functioning in India which look after their own specific needs in their respective fields but so far there is no single agency which could take care of common issues and problems of engineering profession affecting all engineers .Hence to fill up this gap, an Engineering Council of India (ECI ) has recently been formed at New Delhi which is basically a confederation of all engineering professional societies and will act as single agency to coordinate the activities and responsibilities of all professional societies in developing a uniform code for regulating the conduct of Indian professional engineers both inside the country and abroad. The emerging WTO regime also calls for internationally laid down and recognised norms to facilitate engineers' global mobility. Though the individual professional society is competent to decide on the professional ability and competence required for performing professional duties and activities in its own profession, the ECI would be given responsibility to
* take all actions needed for advancement of engineering profession and enhancing image of engineers in society.
* lay down strict norms of professional conduct and take appropriate
penal action against failure to follow them.
* certify the competence of engineers for undertaking professional activities both inside the country and outside and meet all obligations under the WTO charter.
* ensure the competence of engineering organisations offering consultancy services. The basic objectives of the new organisation would be :-
1. Advancement of science and practice of engineering in the country.
2. Co-operation among its members and the Government in evolving a uniform code of professional conduct and ethics to be followed by all engineers.
3. Certification of competence of Professional Engineers for undertaking engineering activities inside the country and outside.
4. Certification of competence of Consulting Engineers for providing engineering services to clients inside the country and outside.
As some or all the above objectives can be of interest to our members, it
would be only desirable for IEEE to be part of ECI. IEEE has been involved in all the deliberations held for formation of ECI and has been invited to be its Founder Member. As Chairman, India Council, I have agreed for the same and signed on the Charter of Founder Members in the meeting held at New Delhi on the 5th Feb. 2002. Shri K C Pant, Member, Planning Commission, Govt. of India has agreed to be its Patron and Shri Ashok Chandra, Special Secretary, Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India is the first Chairman of ECI. I feel by being member of this confederation interest of our members will also be generally served and we should fully co-operate with the ECI in fulfilling its objective. I will furnish full details to all the Sections for their information who may in turn apprise their members of it. I would
welcome suggestions if any which may be discussed with ECI if necessary.
With best wishes

E-mail : pksri@satyam.net.in

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A twin workshop for exposing computer science academicians to the teaching of cluster computing and one for sharing developments in the high speed areas on distributed computing was held under the aegis of the IEEE, Gujarat Section supported by the IEEE Region 10 Educational Activities Committee, the Dept. of Computer Science, University of Gujarat, and the IEEE, India Council Chapters, at the Physical Research Laboratory and Ahmedabad Management Association from 18 - 21, December '01.
The chief resource person was Prof. Barry A. Wilkinson, whose book 'Parallel Processing' was the key text used to expose teachers of cluster computing to the subject.
The opening function held on 18th Dec. 01 at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad was addressed by Dr. Naresh L. Ved, Vice Chancellor, Gujarat University, Prof. Girish Aggarwal, Director, PRL and Shri Sohanlal N. Khemka, Chairman, IEEE Gujarat Section.
Shri Mayank M. Pande, Secretary/Treasurer, IEEE Gujarat Section read out a message from Prof. A. K. Aggarwal, Chairman, IEEE India Council Computer Society Chapter and immediate past Chairman, IEEE India Council, and Prof. Savita Gandhi, Head of the Department of Computer Science, Gujarat University gave the vote of thanks.
The 37 participating academicians came from as far as West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana.
A combined inaugural function of the twin workshop was held at the Ahmedabad Management Association, on 20th December '01. Shri Lehmbar Singh, GGM and Head, Institute of Reservoir Studies, Ahmedabad was the chief guest.
In his opening address he emphasized that cluster computing is of interest of every computer user as it leads to tremendous increase in computing power without frequent phasing out of hardware. Dr. Aditya Shastri, Dean, Apaji Institute, Banasthali University, Rajasthan and Co-Chairman, Program Committee of the Workshop on Distributed Computing (WDC) outlined the state of the art and declared the slate for paper presentation in seven sessions.
The twin workshops were a grand success.
Shri S. N. Khemka, Chairman IEEE Gujarat Section in his closing address thanked all the organizers, participants and expressed his deep sense of gratitude to Prof. Barry A. Wilkinson and the generous support given by the IEEE Region 10 Education Activities Committee for making the workshop a grand success.

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It was the first hour in office of those young engineer-trainees in their first ever job. The manager ushered them into a conference room. After a very brief session of introducing each other and other pleasantries, the manager said this, before directing them to their respective seats.
'Assume a hypothetical situation like this. On any working day, as soon as you reach office, you are being interviewed by a team of experts to assess your capabilities and decide that you are worth a salary of say, … rupees. You spend the day in workplace, acquiring new knowledge and the same team interviews you again in the evening to see if any value addition has been done during the course of the day. It should be your endeavour every minute to see that you enrich your knowledge, be it theoretical, practical or managerial, so that the experts would be tempted to decide that you have spent your working hours gainfully, adding value to yourself. They should agree that you are now worth a little more of salary, than in the morning'
This value-addition process is equally applicable to every engineer and manager, if they have to remain employable, in this era of globalization and techno-managerial challenges.
When we are born, we are also given a special pass book of fixed deposit of 6,13,200 hours of time, which is non-replenishable. Taking an average life span of 70 years, we only get these 6 lakhs hours to live our life. Every hour we draw from this account will have to be spent to enrich our life as well as of those around us. There is no way by which you can add some more prime hours - yes, prime and not old-age hours through modern medicine.
Can we do an introspection on our time utilisation before retiring to bed every day?

Trivandrum 1 Mar. '02

N. T. Nair Trivandrum Editor email: del@vsnl.com

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by
IEEE KERALA SECTION

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- First of its kind in the international market with so much of depth and details
· The book published by Butterworth-Heinemann-UK/USA
· A 5-part guide to all aspects of electrical power
· Uniquely comprehensive coverage of all subjects associated with Power Engineering
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Volume II: Switchgear Assemblies and captive power generation, instrument transformers and cable selection. a very special coverage on painting procedure for switchgear and control gear assemblies and bus systems, including effluent treatment.
Volume III: Voltage surges and Over voltages. Including causes, effects and remedies and theory of over voltage. Ground fault protection schemes and grounding practices.
Volume IV: Power Capacitors: power factor improvement, system regulation and curing an ailing distribution network. Application of shunt and series capacitors, their switching behavior and protection.
Volume V: Non-isolated and Isolated Phase Bus Systems and Rising Mains, covering total design aspects of any current or voltage rating.

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Additional nominations by petition, if any may be submitted no later than 1st April 2002 to the Secretary/Treasurer India Council at the following address. To be valid, such petition shall carry the signatures of no fewer than 25 voting members of the Council.

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Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour a day to drain the fluids from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back.
The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation. And every afternoon when the man in the bed next to the window could sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate all the things he could see outside the window.
The man in the other bed would live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enliven by all the activity and colour of the outside world. The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake, the man had said. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm amid flowers of every colour of the rainbow. Grand old trees graced the landscapes, and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the distance. As the man by the window described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.
One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by. Although the other man could not hear the band, he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words. Unexpectedly, an alien thought entered his head: Why should he have all the pleasure of seeing everything while I never get to see anything?
It didn't seem fair. As the thought fermented, the man felt ashamed at first. But as the days passed and he missed seeing more sights, his envy eroded into resentment and soon turned him sour. He began to brood and found himself unable to sleep. He should be by that window - and that thought now controlled his life. Late on night as he lay staring at the ceiling, the man by the window began to cough. He was choking on the fluid in his lungs. The other man watched in the dimly lit room as the struggling man by the window groped for the button to call for help. Listening from across the room, he never moved, never pushed his own button which would have brought the nurse running. In less that five minutes, the coughing and choking stopped, along with the sound of breathing. Now, there was only silence -- deathly silence.
The following morning the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths. When she found the lifeless body of the man by the window, she was saddened and called the hospital attendant to take it away - no works of fuss. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.
Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up one elbow to take his first look.
Finally, he would have the joy of seeing it all himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.
It faced a blank wall.

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"We, the members of the IEEE … do hereby … agree to seek, accept, and offer honest criticism of technical work, to acknowledge and correct errors, and to credit properly the contributions of others"

- IEEE Code of Ethics

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