Nothing Short of a Miracle!

That’s what happened today. The occasion was a cultural night arranged by the Staff Club of NITC (no one knew one even existed, till today!). Some of the faculty got together and wrote a drama to be staged tonight. I learnt about it from Deepak sir’s blog a few days ago, and that in itself seemed like a miracle. But the actual performance was nothing short of unbelievable, to say the least! It was fantastic. About the drama itself, I keep that for another day. I’m just too dazed by that performance to analyze it critically. Besides, Deepak sir has promised to make the script and video available.

I always knew that the faculty members were fantastic people outside the classroom, but hats off to them for this wonderful performance!

DSP Lab – Week 1

Constructing the Complex Plane

Suppose we have a sampled signal defined by the sequence ,

Its Z- transform is given by .

It maps the original sequence into a new domain, which is the complex plane where is the parameter in the Laplace domain and is the sampling period.

The axis in the -plane maps onto the unit circle with centre at the origin in the -plane. So the value of at different points on the unit circle actually gives the contribution of the frequency component given by , in the original signal.

This, in effect, gives the Discrete Fourier Transform of the sequence. Consider the following example:

%original sequence
h = [1,2,3,4];

%number of chosen points on the unit circle
N = 64;

%define the chosen points
z = complex(cos(2*pi/N*(0:N-1)),sin(2*pi/N*(0:N-1)));

%evaluate H(z) at each point
for i = 1:N
	H(i) = 1+2*z(i)^-1+3*z(i)^-2+4*z(i)^-3;
end

%plot the unit circle
plot(z)

%plot the value of H(z) along the unit circle
figure
plot(abs(H))

%plot the N-point DFT of h(n)
figure
plot(abs(fft(h,64)))

This example computes the value of at 64 uniformly spaced points on the unit circle and compares it with the 64 point DFT. We can see that both (fig. b & c) are identical.

unit circle

value of H(z)

abs(fft(h))

Freedom Walk at NITC

It was almost midnight when the Freedom Walkers arrived here on Wednesday. They were thouroughly worn out from the long long walk from Thamarassery. They had dinner from our mini canteen, and then I led them to the rooms in PG-2 hostel which Sandeep sir from the Electrical department had booked.

Next morning, a few S3 guys and I went to meet them. We had a small gathering in their room and discussed what all we could do to spread Free Software here at NITC. Since all of us except one were from Electronics, Jemshid suggested that we could get started on some Embedded GNU/Linux work. We can think of conducting workshops to get people interested in it.

Prasad talked about the Freedom Toaster they had made, and suggested that we could try to make one with a vending machine, as a project. They said we would have their support if someone is ready to take it up.

It’s too bad we couldn’t organize a more elaborate meeting with the Freedom Walkers, because of the exams. But we’ve got some pointers to think about, when we sit down to make a concrete plan regarding the FOSS Cell activities.

GNU/Linux Install Fest at NITC

As the first activity of the upcoming FOSS Cell NITC, we organized a GNU/Linux install fest on the occasion of Software Freedom Day. Around twenty people turned up during the day. The only undesirable part was that a couple of laptops, after installing Ubuntu, couldn’t boot Windows. Got to sort out their issues soon. We’ve set up a technical support mailing list for people to post their problems.Considering that it was the first ever event by our FOSS Cell, it didn’t go too badly.

Software Freedom Day at Kozhikode

Software Freedom Day 2008 was celebrated today at Malabar Christian College, Kozhikode. The event was organized by Swatantra Malayalam Computing, in association with Malabar Christian College. The main attraction was a seminar on Language Computing, led by SMC.

There was also a GNU/Linux install fest and demo in parallel. We installed GNU/Linux on around 6-7 systems, apart from the 5 in the computer lab of Malabar Christian College. There was also an installation demo for hardware technicians. I couldn’t attend the seminar, and I’m looking forward to reading other reports about it.

One of the highlights of the day was the revival of Free Software Users’ Group Calicut, which had been dormant for over two years. Jemshid, of Ascent Engineers, the team from KSEB led by Mohammed Unais, have taken the initiative to kick start the community’s activities.

There were a few representatives from GEC West Hill and AWH Engg. College, and we’ve decided to organize a few workshops, to get some people from those colleges involved in FOSS as well, and try to create a network of college FOSS communities. Shyam put forward the necessity of a common platform for engineering colleges throughout Kerala, based on Free Software. We also have to explore the possibility of encouraging students to take up Free Software development as their projects.

Jemshid and his team had managed to contact the Malabar IT dealers’ association, and their representatives had turned up. They expressed genuine interest in migrating to GNU/Linux for the default installation in new systems they sell. They would thus be able to avoid distributing so called “pirated” software. We have proposed to arrange a basic GNU/Linux workshop for the hardware vendors. This move has the potential to start a revolution. If they can show their customers that they can do almost anything on GNU/Linux that they normally use a computer for, they’ll be encouraged to switch to it. And the customers will have someone to turn to for support.

On the whole, the event was a great success. Tomorrow, we have a small event planned in our campus. More on that later.

See other blogs and photos of the event:
Hiran

Software Freedom Day at NITC

We are planning to celebrate the Software Freedom Day through an install fest and demos. There was a meeting today to get some volunteers for the event, and around twenty S3 students turned up. Only some of them have used GNU/Linux before, and they have been given the task of familiarising the others with it before the event. We are also hopeful of launching our FOSS Cell officially on that day. More about the event as it materializes…

Liberation of Environment Knowledge Repository

The Centre for Science and Environment, in association with the National Knowledge Commission, has set up a National Portal on Environment. Read more here…

I became a keen reader of CSE’s Down to Earth magazine, while I was at IUAC. It’s very informative and covers stories of development and environment from a rural perspective- many things which never appear in the mainstream media. It is great to know that the Environment Portal will make the whole Down to Earth archive freely available.

First Meeting

Fifteen of us, including Deepak sir and Murali sir met today for what was the first meeting of the FOSS cell. It was notable that there were six S3 guys, from Electronics, Computer Science, Electrical and Civil, all of them motivated from last year’s FOSSMeet. We got to know each other, and decided on the things to be done immediately for setting up a group. It’s a new beginning and I’m looking forward to it. The S3 guys seem to be an enthusiastic bunch and there is enough reason to be optimistic about this new venture.

Conversation with a Theoretical Physicist

A couple of days ago, I had the honour of meeting Mr. Prince Ganai, a Kashmiri theoretical physicist who is a member of the faculty at NIT Srinagar. He’s a really cool guy! Must be in his late thirties. When I told him about Phoenix, he was very interested, and he said he would like to get some boxes to use in the labs at NIT Srinagar. I told him to get in touch with Ajith sir when he returned.

I was previleged to spend enough time with him to talk about a variety of topics. We talked about the problem with the education system in India, specifically Engineering. He was of the opinion that with the current system, BTech was a waste of time! He stressed on the importance of the need for flexibility and academic freedom in the curriculum.

When I told him about my bitter academic experiences at NIT Calicut, he wasn’t surprised. He agreed with me that too much importance is given to exams – first interim, second interim, tutorials, end semesters – he said it’s nonsense! He also felt that the semester system doesn’t help learning, because re-learning is an important part of learning. In the present system, you just end up with scraps here and there, while preparing for the exams, and you soon forget whatever little you learnt because you have to get on with the next semester. The truth is that at this level, you have to spend some time reflecting on what you have learnt, to savour its beauty and enjoy the whole learning process. The rigid and hectic schedule of BTech doesn’t provide for that.

Well, apart from education, he talked about food, customs, society, philosophy… just name it! It was great to listen to him – such a dynamic person. He talked about the need for our society to rid itself of its rigid outlook and adopt the scientific approach to life. “We hear people complaining about Westernisation of India. Actually, the truth is that India is becoming Scientific, and rational.”

Mr.Ganai told me about his passion for Theoretical Physics. That it is an exciting intellectual adventure. He is at IUAC to carry out some computations for some project in Theoretical Physics that they are carrying out here. He said that when he had some work to do in Theoretical Physics, he usually did it during late night/early morning, because “you need solitude, as you sometimes have to talk to someone who is not there!” It must indeed be an exciting journey to explore deep into the laws of Nature. It’s a pity that we don’t have many such people in our country. Why should the Europeans and Americans have all the fun?

The Story of Phoenix

Looking back as my stay here at IUAC, Delhi comes to an end, it has been an extremely enriching experience for me, working on the Phoenix project under Ajith sir. He has been working at the Inter University Accelerator Centre for well over twenty years, right since the institue was set up in 1984, and had been actively involved in the setting up of the accelerator research facility during its early years. A few days ago I asked Ajith sir how and when he got the idea to start the Phoenix project. Let me present his reply, along with some other information, in the form of an article.

Introduction

When you conduct experiments in modern Physics, the equipment involved is often huge and complicated, which is beyond a human being’s ability to control. Also, precise measurement of time and fast and continuous measurement of physical quantities are often required. Consequently, such experiments are automated, and computer interfaced. This means that the scientist carries out the experiment by controlling the equipment using a computer.

Carrying out an experiment consists of different steps. The first step is to activate the equipment, that is, to start the physical phenomenon which is to be studied. For example, in a simple pendulum experiment, this step would be to set the pendulum in motion. Once the physical system is active, we record the observations. This is the second step – data acquisition. And the final step is the analysis of the data obtained. Computers are unique in that they can be used for all these three steps, with the appropriate peripheral equipment.

Why Phoenix?

When a student who has completed her post graduate studies in Physics starts doing research, she inevitably has to carry out computer interfaced experiments. But we do not get such exposure in our education system, even at the post graduate level. As a result, it is likely that the student would find herself in highly unfamiliar territory. Of course, the research facility would provide a friendly interface and adequate help to the student to complete her experiment successfully, but chances are that the student might not have developed a feel for the whole procedure. This affects the quality of research.

So what is the way out? The obvious solution is to introduce computer interfaced experiments right at the undergraduate or even high school level. One of the main obstacles is the cost involved. Though computers have become inexpensive, commercially available data acquisition hardware is too expensive to be affordable for college labs, where teaching/learning and not research, is the main objective. Thus the idea of building a low cost data acquisition hardware, and subsequently “Physics with Home-made Equipment and Innovative Experiments” (Phoenix), evolved. Phoenix is a big step in the right direction. It is easily affordable for colleges and can be interfaced with personal computers through 100% free and open source software.

The Early Days

The first version of Phoenix was completed around September 2004. It communicated with the computer through the parallel port interface, and depended entirely on the computer CPU for control. Time measurements were done using the CPU clock itself, using real time operating system features. The device driver took care of all the control and measurements. It was first implemented using DOS, and later using real time linux.

The first Phoenix workshop was held on 11 November 2004 at the University of Calicut, Kerala. The first workshop hosted by IUAC was conducted from the 3rd to 14th of October 2005. Many such workshops have been held since. Physics teachers from all parts of the country have taken part in these programs. More such workshops will be conducted in the future. You can find a complete list of the Phoenix workshops conducted so far, as well as announcements regarding future workshops at http://iuac.res.in/~elab/phoenix/workshops/index.html.

Thus the parallel port version kicked off the Phoenix activities. As it later became completely based on free and open source software (FOSS), it attracted interest from the FOSS community, most notably from Pramode C E, who continues to be an active developer/promoter of Phoenix. As a result, demonstrations of Phoenix have since been held at some of the prominent FOSS events like FOSS.IN, FOSSMeet@NITC etc.

Need for a Simpler Hardware/Interface

But the parallel port version was never going to be viable in the long run. For one thing, it was bulky. More importantly, for using it on a computer, you had to compile the device driver with the kernel. This would have been too difficult a task for the end user. As a result, it was not very portable, in the sense that you could not just plug Phoenix in and start using it. Some amount of expertise in programing was required for installing the Phoenix driver. It is still a valuable tool for students for learning how to write device drivers, though.

This led to a complete redesign of Phoenix in early 2006. The new design was based on the Atmel ATMega16 microcontroller, which shifted the control tasks from the real time kernel, to the firmware (written in C and compiled using the AVR-GCC cross compiler) running on the microcontroller. This made things a lot simpler. Now once you burnt the firmware onto the microcontroller flash memory, all you needed was a code library to communicate with it from the PC (through the RS232 serial port interface). No more complicated device drivers! Also, this made the hardware schematic simpler and easier to debug. The new version of Phoenix was named the Phoenix-Mini, or Phoenix-M for short. It was also much more compact (13cm x 10.5cm x 2.5 xm) and cheaper (it costs only around Rs.1500) than its predecessor.

Ready for the Market!

Phoenix-M was ready by the end of May 2006, and started being produced commercially by three different vendors in different parts of India. You can find information about these vendors at http://iuac.res.in/~elab/phoenix/vendor.html. Since the cost of research and development is funded by the IUAC and the schematics are made freely available, the vendors are able to provide the hardware at a low price, based on the cost of raw material and the labour involved.

Phoenix Live CD

By this time, workshops were being held in different parts of the country, and the need for a portable suite of the Phoenix software libraries arose. This resulted in the development of the Phoenix Live CD, which is a complete customized GNU/Linux operating system (based on the Slax live CD) which you can boot from the CD without needing to install anything to the hard disk. It contains, apart from all the software needed to use Phoenix, a collection of free and open source scientific/educational software tools. You can download the Phoenix live CD from http://iuac.res.in/~elab/livecd_images/index.html. A new version based on Debian GNU/Linux is also being developed.

Recent Developments

Laptop computers have become popular, and many of them do not provide the RS232 interface. So, a new USB version of Phoenix-M was developed in late 2007. It communicates with the computer, using a USB to RS232 converter implemented by firmware running on a dedicated on-board controller. Apart from this, the Phoenix Microcontroller Development Kit (PMDK) has also been developed to provide a low cost, easy to use microcontroller development system, mainly for engineering students and electronics enthusiasts. Several add-on boards have also been designed for use with PMDK. This modular structure is useful for application in the projects of engineering students.

Future Direction and Challenges

The Phoenix project has matured since its beginning in 2004. We now have a reliable, cost-effective product which is ready for mass deployment. Some academic institutions have already started using Phoenix. For example, the West Bengal University of Technology(WBUT) has included it in their refresher course for Physics teachers. The Department of Education, Kerala, has initiated a project to use Phoenix as a tool for IT enabled education at the high school level.

But there are many challenges that lie ahead, before Phoenix can become a regular part of the curriculum. First of all, computer interfacing of scientific experiments is an entirely new concept, to most of the Physics teachers and students in India. This hurdle can be overcome only through a series of Phoenix workshops. But for its effect to be far-reaching, we need to build a community of enthusiasts from different parts of the country, who can help in conducting workshops. Only with a stong community and user base, can we be assured that Phoenix will realize its potential to revolutionize science education in our country.

Suggested Reading

1. A Report on Phoenix, by B.P. Ajith Kumar.

2. Experimental Physics with Phoenix and Python, by Pramode.C.E

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