First Round (Login)

• Old IBM(CTRC) logo
• Hector Ruiz (AMD) pictures
• Robert Kahn’s picture (TCP/IP guy)
• Osborne-1 picture(first portable computer)
• Gordon Moore picture
• Gopher definition
• First high-level programming language created by John Backus for IBM in 1954. Original name – ‘speedcoding’ – FORTRAN
• Alan Turing’s picture

Second Round (Password) – Crossword

• First mobile was created by ? Motorola
• Moone Charles wrote a book ‘Superman of Computing’ about whom ? Seymour Cray
• Ursala Burns is CEO of which company ? XEROX
• Symantec’s main product ? Norton
• Passages from life of a philosopher ? Charles Babbage
• Tanaka Engineering Works is today known as ? Toshiba
• D2H is a direct to home service by whom ? Videocon
• Seamus Backley made the design of this ? Xbox
• Do Communication over Mobile ? DoCoMo
• Lord Byron’s daughter – Ada Lovelace
• Greek origin which means Wind Horse ? Asus (from Pegasus)

Third Round (Random Access)

• Which IT company is called the Big Blue ? IBM
• This famous processing tool was released with the name ‘MicroPro’ ? WordStar
• This hardware device is used to connect portable device to[...] ? Cradle
• In 1982, two friends Warnock and Geshcke found this company ? Adobe
• How many terrabytes make a petabyte ? 1024

Fourth Round (India Inspired)

• Logo of the ADHAR project, India’s UUID project
• ISRO logo
• Picture of India’s EKA supercomputer
• C-DOT logo

Fifth Round – TCS (Thirty Crucial Seconds, not TCS )

• A German Engineer developed a programming language called “Plan Claculus” in 1948. Created the first program controlled Turing-complete computer called Z3 ? Konrad Zuse
• Originally owned by Seattle Computer Products, created by Tim Patterson ? DOS
• Slate and Tablet were expected names of this device ? iPad

Score Board
PPC, Udupi, Karnataka : 120
DAV Public School, Orissa : 100
Sanmati High School, Madhya Pradesh : 30
Vibjyor High, Gujarat : 20
Nalanda Vidyaniketan, Andhra Pradesh : 10
St. Xavier High School, Jammu & Kashmir : 0
Virat Public, Rajasthan : 0
Model High School, Nagaland : 0

The competition between teams from Karnataka and Orissa was tough. Nakul and Athreya from PPC, Udupi finally bagged the trophy and a cash scholarship of 75K with an impressive show and loads of goodies. I couldn’t believe that I had won this same quiz two years back. Their level of quizzing and the competition now was way too high. Being their 5th time @ TCS Rural IT Quiz, this was their last chance, so they were determined to take the trophy home this time and were confident that nothing could stop them. Congrats !
P.S: The show’s gonna air on Doordarshan. I don’t know when.

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Prelims Questions(20 questions, 700 to 800 teams participated !)

Logo shown ? Ubuntu
Company from Canada, Blackberry ? RIM
Retina display technology ? iPhone 4
‘Nothing Like Anything’ tagline ? Micromax
‘What’s the point of option when…” tagline ? monster.com
First browser to have speed dial and mouse gesture features ? Opera
India’s 20$ laptop project name ? Saakshaat
First game to be imported to US from Russia ? Tetris
MobileMe is from ? Apple
This company is called Logicool in Japan, what in India ? Logitech
TelePresence is a Teleconference product from which company ? Cisco
Logo/screenshot ? Apple appstore
Galaxy brand ? Samsung
Expand HTC ? High tech corporation
WebOS ? Palm
Six axis ? Game controller
Decision engine ? Bing
What is the name given to 10 to the power of googol ? Googleplex

THE FINALS : STAGE ROUND ( top 6 teams)

I. Cloud Computing (+10) – visual round

1. pic ? Andy Bechtolsheim // I got a cool TCS bag for answering this, passed as audience question
2. pic and clue : look at the parking lot ? Bell Labs HQ. (there was a B symbol in parking lot)
3. pic ? Ronald Wayne (the Apple guy)
4. pic : Google doodle having nature, identify the man ? Charles Darwin
5. pic : Apple logo with ‘Hold differently’ written below ? iPhone4 antenna problem spoof
6. pic : new Palm logo, what’s significance ? HP bought Palm recently and changed the logo to HP style

II. Automatic Computing

1. What’s blingtronics ? wearable electronics made of gold or diamonds
2. Connect these terms : base,trigger,button,autofire,hatch,suction,throttle ? Joystick
3. Six letter word of Greek origin, arranging together, rules of governing, construction of command ? Syntax
4. Barbara Liskov is a Prof. of CS from MIT, only female to have achieved this ? Alan Turing award
5. Connect these Mephisto,gidion,shredder,hiarcs,junior ? These are chess engines
6. This ambitious project called Project X has codenames cupcake,doughnut,eclairs ? Android

Audience questions

• What’s flog ? Fake blog
• What’s napstering ? Distributing illegal content and making money out of it

III. @TCS : Buzzer round

1. TCS is a tech partner to world’s oldest marathon ? Boston marathon
2. With which state in India did TCS start a citizen portal called ‘MahaOnline’ ? Maharashtra
3. TCS is officially partner till 2012 for this a leading European pro-cycling team ? Cervélo
4. Expand TRDDC ? Tata Research Development and Design Center

IV. Parallel Computing ( +10,-5) buzzer round

1. pics of Obama ,Mark Zuckerberg and another lady ? Facebook
2. Video showing Beckham, pics – flickr logo,inktomi logo,del.icio.us logo ? Yahoo
3. pics of camel,java temple,turtle,song ‘ruby tuesday’ playing in background ? Programming languages
4. MSN messenger logo,cdragon logo and another pic ? Apps designed by MS for Apple on AppStore

V. Final round – Grid Computing (+5,+10,+15)
Solve the 4 questions, derive the final single worded answer using the given formula and the answers of 4 questions !
Example Question :
R-2,C+3,F-2

• A program that permits rewriting and editing of file ? ediTor
• This name is abbreviation of San Francisco ? cisCo
• Web browser from Apple for Mac OS X ? Safari

Answer : TCS

1. E+2,T-2,R+2,A-2

• Designed by John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert ? enIac
• A small piece of software designed to fix problems ? Patch
• Advanced Research Project Agency Network ? arpAnet
• Original developer was C. Wayne Ratliff ? Dbase

Answer : IPAD

2. P+3,P+1,A+1,E-1

• Published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth ? pasCal
• Greek letter for ‘five’ ending with “ium” ? pEntium
• Base 2 number system ? binaRy
• Nippon Denki Kabushiki Kaisha ? Nec

Answer : CERN

3. X-1,I-1,U-2,A-2

• Founded as Graphics Group ? pIxar
• Coined by Ralph Vaerst, published by Don Hoefler ? Silicon Valley
• Device that interconnects two or more networks ? Router
• Netscape based web browser ? mOsaic
  Answer : ISRO

Final scores of teams :
SBM Jain : 40 //Champions
SKCH-CBSE : 30 //Runners-up
NAFL : 25
St. Joseph’s Boys : 10
Bishop Cotton Boys : 10
St. Pauls’ : 0

The champions got Lenovo laptops, a bag full of goodies and entered national finals.

• Will you get admission in good college or not?
• What will be the Cut off percentage of different colleges ?
• What are the different courses available in different colleges ?
• Which branch should I take ?
• Which college I will get for my rank ?

First things first, shortlist the colleges and the places that you like (keeping your rank in mind : having rank over 10k and expecting to get E&C in RVCE, that’s height of craziness). This is where the previous year cutoff ranks and college ranking list come in handy. You’ll get a very rough picture about which college and branch you can expect. You can talk to your elder brother,sister,cousin,relative or anybody who is doing engineering. That’s the best reliable source that you count upon.

Location : I had an obsession after my CET; I wanted a college either in Bangalore or Mysore and nowhere else. Ask yourself, do you mind moving to far places to do engineering. Those of you have stayed in hostel or as paying guest before, this shouldn’t be a problem at all. It’s a good thing opting for a college located in Bangalore (or even Mysore) because you’ll have good exposure there and bright career opportunities even if you by chance end up in a college that is not quite good. Besides, the weather is also good in B’lore and Mysore

Infrastructure and facilities : Infrastructure does NOT mean attractive buildings and gardens. Check whether the college has sufficient amount of infrastructure according to it’s intake capacity. It includes classrooms, administrative building, workshop, computer labs, various laboratories etc. You can include playgrounds too. A friend of mine(Federer fan) had got Mech @ PESIT and he was complaining that there was no lawn tennis court there. lol Visit the college campus and take a look around yourself. Check if it has good Library, Internet access, hostels, seminar halls, dispensary, student clubs, gym etc.

Faculty : Okay, here’s the truth. There’s no way to know how the teaching there will be unless you are in touch with a student who studies there. I believe engineering is all about self study. So don’t give a damn about how the faculty is. But, do look for colleges that have good teacher to student ratio and experienced teachers. How to identify experienced teachers ? Look at their hair ? Are they bald yet ? I was just kidding

Placements : I believe this is the most important factor of all. Consider you’ve completed 4 years of engineering. Now what ? How can you manage to get a job ? Check the placement record of the college in previous years branch wise as well as company wise. Suppose you join a college which has a very good placement record , it does not mean you get placed easily. It depends on your talent, personality and how your interview goes. I joined PESSE, a sister concern of PES because it had same management as that of PESIT and we get to write placements along with them Here is the placement record of my college for this year.

Extra curricular activities: “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”. To survive in competitive environment and to have a good personality, extra curricular activities play a very important role. So have a look about extra activities provided by college like, annual fest, technical fest, sports function, students club, seminars and workshops, industrial training, social activities etc.

Parent’s Choice : I don’t want to give any comment here. Parents can guide you by their experience. But some times,students know more than their parents about the education field. It’s you who makes the final call and choose the college.

Autonomous or VTU ? Those of you who don’t know what an autonomous engineering college is, start here. In most of the autonomous colleges : they have their own updated and optimized syllabus(with no nonsense and irrelevant topics like VTU syllabus). They have their own grading system (sometimes it’s an advantage as well as disadvantage) and you get around 3 months holiday between even semesters !!! On the other hand, in VTU colleges, the syllabus and grading system is same throughout Karnataka and hence there’s a common exam for all colleges at the end of each semester. VTU question papers have choice : answer any five out of eight questions with each question coming from each individual units. So you can study 5 units throughly and become topper (highly not recommended idea). Besides, in VTU colleges, you get around one month holiday between even semesters Above all, VTU really sucks, students often curse VTU.

Do you really want to know how a college is ? Then ask someone who is in that college. They’ll be knowing the college better than any outsider. And some of you may be wondering by now, how I know all these stuff ? I’ve been through the dilemma just one year ago.

Need for Autonomy :
The affiliating system of colleges was originally designed when their number in a university was small. The university could then effectively oversee the working of the colleges, act as an examining body and award degrees on their behalf. The system has now become unwieldy and it is becoming increasingly difficult for a university to attend to the varied needs of individual colleges. The colleges do not have the freedom to modernise their curricula or make them locally relevant. The regulations of the university and its common system, governing all colleges alike, irrespective of their characteristic strengths, weaknesses and locations, have affected the academic development of individual colleges. Colleges that have the potential for offering programmes of a higher standard do not have the freedom to offer them. The 1964-66 Education Commission pointed out that the exercise of academic freedom by teachers is a crucial requirement for development of the intellectual climate of our country. Unless such a clim ate prevails, it is difficult to achieve excellence in our higher education system. With students, teachers and management being co-partners in raising the quality of higher education, it is imperative that they share a major responsibility. Hence, the Education Commission (1964-66) recommended college autonomy, which, in essence, is the instrument for promoting academic excellence.

Does autonomy mean absolute freedom ?
The National Policy on Education (1986-92) formulated the following objectives for autonomous colleges. An autonomous college will have the freedom to:

• determine and prescribe its own courses of study and syllabi, and restructure and redesign the courses to suit local needs; and
• prescribe rules for admission in consonance with the reservation policy of the state government;
• evolve methods of assessment of students’ performance, the conduct of examinations and notification of results;
• use modern tools of educational technology to achieve higher standards and greater creativity; and
• promote healthy practices such as community service, extension activities, projects for the benefit of the society at large, neighbourhood programmes, etc.

Relationship with the parent university, the state government and other educational institutions:
Autonomous colleges are free to make use of the expertise of university departments and other institutions to frame their curricula, devise methods of teaching, examination and evaluation. They can recruit their teachers according to the existing procedures (for private and government colleges).

The parent university will accept the methodologies of teaching, examination, evaluation and the course curriculum of its autonomous colleges. It will also help the colleges to develop their academic programmes, improve the faculty and to provide necessary guidance by participating in the deliberations of the different bodies of the colleges.

The role of the parent university will be:

• to bring more autonomous colleges under its fold;
• to promote academic freedom in autonomous colleges by encouraging introduction of innovative academic programmes;
• to facilitate new courses of study, subject to the required minimum number of hours of instruction, content and standards;
• to permit them to issue their own provisional, migration and other certificates;
• to do everything possible to foster the spirit of autonomy;
• to ensure that degrees/diplomas/certificates issued indicate the name of the college;
• to depute various nominees of the university to serve in various committees of the autonomous colleges and get the feedback on their functioning; and
• to create separate wings wherever necessary to facilitate the smooth working of the autonomous colleges.

The state government will assist the autonomous colleges by:

• avoiding, as far as possible, transfer of teachers, especially in colleges where academic innovation and reforms are in progress, except for need-based transfers;
• conveying its concurrence for the extension of autonomy of any college to the Commission within the stipulated time of 90 days after receipt of the review committee report, failing which it will be construed that the state government has no objection to the college continuing to be autonomous; and
• deputing nominees on time to the governing body of government colleges and other bodies wherever their nominees are to be included.

Conferring autonomous status
Autonomous status covers certificate, diploma, undergraduate, postgraduate and M.Phil. programmes offered in colleges that are autonomous and those seeking autonomous status. The parent university will confer the status of autonomy upon a college that is permanently affiliated, with the concurrence of the state government and the University Grants Commission. The Act and Statutes of the universities ought to be amended to provide for the grant of autonomy to affiliated colleges. Before granting autonomy, the university will ensure that the management structure of the applicant college is adequately participatory and provides ample opportunities for academicians to make a creative contribution.

Source : UGC : Schemes of Autonomous Colleges

List of autonomous engineering colleges in Karnataka under CET

I don’t have reservation under any category and hence cannot get Computer Science branch in any top engineering college. May be I should take Mechanics. Or if luck is on my side, nobody should take Computer as the IT industry has collapsed and there are thousands of job cuts. Hope it works that way
The following cutoff ranks are with respect to General Merit (GM) seats only.

Engineering CutOff Ranks Of Various Colleges in Karnataka

If you are eligible for any reservation like rural quota, minority quota, SC/ST, OBC etc, you may get good colleges even if you do not have good ranks. Reservation has ruined our country Here’s an example. Click on the following image to see an enlarged one.

CutOff ranks of RVCE across various reservation categories.

If you want to know detailed cutoff ranks of other colleges, you can download the 2007 Engineering Cut-Off Ranks Full Document. It contains cut off ranks of all colleges under all reservation categories.
CET 2007 Engineering Cut Off Part-1 (1.45 MB)
CET 2007 Engineering Cut Off Part-2 (160 KB)

More…
CET 2007 Medical Cut Off Rankings
Expected Cut Off Rankings of COMEDK 2009
Opening Closing Rank AIEEE 2008 – NITK, Suratkal
Availability of seats at NITK, Suratkal for AIEEE 2009 State Ranking

IMPORTANT
CET : How to choose the right Engineering College for your rank ?

All The Best