Thursday, April 14, 2011

UG admissions

IISc, which has started the four year BS program this year, made the first set of admission offer letters to applicants. This was based on qualification in KVPY-SA/SB/SX. Further offers in this category will be made depending on the number of applicants who decline the offer. Separate admission will be made for candidates qualifying in  JEE/AIEEE/AIPMT, after the results of these exams are announced. An announcement to this effect will be made on the official website shortly.

There has been a slight delay in announcing our M.E admission results because the same staff who handle the M.E admissions handle the UG admissions. However, please be assured that the M.E. results will be announced on the web by tomorrow or latest by Monday.

Monday, April 11, 2011

JEE question wrong?

In the JEE paper of yesterday, one of the math question reads " Let M and N be two 3 × 3 non-singular skew symmetric matrices" I had thought that all odd order skewsymmetric matrices are singular. Is the question wrong? Of course, one can solve the question assuming M and N are 4 x 4 matrices and arrive at the answer (-M^2) but my point is the question wrong?

Friday, April 8, 2011

Overseas talent

Professor Balaram writes on attracting overseas talent for faculty positions in India.


Strangely, while schemes for attracting overseas talent are enthusiastically administered in the funding agencies, initiatives that promote local talent are invariably run with limited interest and efficiency. Looking outward may be attractive and fashionable. Looking inward may be desirable and essential.

The other issue that should be discussed is why faculty recruitment takes so much time. It is not unlikely that a candidate hears from an IIT one year after the application. Unless processes are sped up, it is not easy to recruit scientists at any level.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

3M

The Indian cricket team wins at 3Ms (Motera, Mohali and Mumbai) to lift the world cup. Congratulations to the Indian cricket team. They do it for Sachin. Dhoni proves why he is the one of the best captains in the world - wins the world cup, T20, champions league, IPL... and leads India to #1 in both ODI and test cricket.