The one we drove today is called Cooper MINI. It's bio-data looks something like:
owned by BMW
manufactured in the UK
1.6L 16-valve engine
112bhp at 6000rpm
0-60mph in 9s
37mpg on highway, 28 in the city
starts at just $18.5k!
As if that wasn't enough, the real deal comes when you rev it on the road in the sports mode. There are cars to your left and cars to your right, but one kick to that pedal and right after the intersection, your rear view mirror is spotless. All you see is some blonds and some brunettes, their necks turned and craned (even men, for ye girls driving). The MINI is like sex. It can only be experienced, not explained.
Note: The car likes to run comfortably at 1700rpm, but in sports mode, it doesn't want to run below 3200 ever. Like it just took the pill.
It's one bomb! Oh MINI....
Saturday, April 18, 2009
"Multi-core" car engine
The Green Multi-core
I was talking to my roommate who is a Mechanical Engg major. I learned that the car's combustion engine, say of 1600cc combustion capacity, does not have all this volume in one chamber. It has multiple "cylinders", each with two valves, which share this capacity equally. So if the engine is label V8, it has 4 cylinders, each of 400cc volume. Each of these cylinders also has a dedicated spark plug which ignites it's fuel injection, and is, in turn, connected to the crankshaft through a piston.
I know that sometimes the car seems less powerful (and may drive slightly bumpy) because a cylinder went down (the spark plug, usually). If the car can still operate almost fine with a cylinder down, why cannot the engine be designed to operate in dual (or multiple) modes where different number of cylinders are active in the two modes, say half and all. The all-mode can be the regular, full power mode while the half-mode can be the less powerful but more fuel-efficient mode, analogous to a multi-core processor chip.
I have not tried to do a technology/literature survey. Such a design may already be underway. I would be happy to learn about it.
The Green Hybrid
Some time back, while in India, I had the idea of a car that could operate in both the fuel-mode and the electric-mode, so that at traffic crossings and jams, it would operate in the pollution-free electric-mode and in sparser outskirts with higher speeds, would automatically switch to the regular fuel-mode. While I was discussing this with a Mechanical Engg friend, I came to the US, only to see hybrid cars already on the streets. Rest is just implementing a speed-mode transition policy, which will eventually happen as the need becomes more prominent here. (The need is surely more prominent in India, where pollution is more severe. A low-cost implementation would thrive as a business in one of the biggest markets of the world.)
The Green Recycler
It's interesting how I have "Green" in all three parts of this post. For two of these, that was not a part of the original idea at all. I was just trying to design something more efficient and economical. It's rewarding to see Green and Economical rhyme. Or maybe not. One could as well ask why Green is the most important of our economic problems today. It's a punishment to one and all. But I would like to stick with the reward-view, since that's future and hope.
The Green Recycler goes like this. Every time we take pickup from the engine, we burn fuel, generate energy and pump it into the car. Some of it is lost as heat, but a major portion is used to accelerate the vehicle. Why then, when we brake, do we not recover that energy, only to reuse to pickup again? All we need is to apply brakes electromagnetically instead of mechanically, using magnetic force to brake instead of friction. The reverse current thus generated can be stored and reused. The answer again came from my roommate, who told me that the MagLev train in Japan does exactly this. Perhaps it's not yet economical enough to do this for vehicles. But yeah, the idea is already there, and will make it's way as we develop. It seems we (our generation, that is) are now educated enough so that our ideas are at par with or leading the state of the art/development. We are ready to contribute.
I was talking to my roommate who is a Mechanical Engg major. I learned that the car's combustion engine, say of 1600cc combustion capacity, does not have all this volume in one chamber. It has multiple "cylinders", each with two valves, which share this capacity equally. So if the engine is label V8, it has 4 cylinders, each of 400cc volume. Each of these cylinders also has a dedicated spark plug which ignites it's fuel injection, and is, in turn, connected to the crankshaft through a piston.
I know that sometimes the car seems less powerful (and may drive slightly bumpy) because a cylinder went down (the spark plug, usually). If the car can still operate almost fine with a cylinder down, why cannot the engine be designed to operate in dual (or multiple) modes where different number of cylinders are active in the two modes, say half and all. The all-mode can be the regular, full power mode while the half-mode can be the less powerful but more fuel-efficient mode, analogous to a multi-core processor chip.
I have not tried to do a technology/literature survey. Such a design may already be underway. I would be happy to learn about it.
The Green Hybrid
Some time back, while in India, I had the idea of a car that could operate in both the fuel-mode and the electric-mode, so that at traffic crossings and jams, it would operate in the pollution-free electric-mode and in sparser outskirts with higher speeds, would automatically switch to the regular fuel-mode. While I was discussing this with a Mechanical Engg friend, I came to the US, only to see hybrid cars already on the streets. Rest is just implementing a speed-mode transition policy, which will eventually happen as the need becomes more prominent here. (The need is surely more prominent in India, where pollution is more severe. A low-cost implementation would thrive as a business in one of the biggest markets of the world.)
The Green Recycler
It's interesting how I have "Green" in all three parts of this post. For two of these, that was not a part of the original idea at all. I was just trying to design something more efficient and economical. It's rewarding to see Green and Economical rhyme. Or maybe not. One could as well ask why Green is the most important of our economic problems today. It's a punishment to one and all. But I would like to stick with the reward-view, since that's future and hope.
The Green Recycler goes like this. Every time we take pickup from the engine, we burn fuel, generate energy and pump it into the car. Some of it is lost as heat, but a major portion is used to accelerate the vehicle. Why then, when we brake, do we not recover that energy, only to reuse to pickup again? All we need is to apply brakes electromagnetically instead of mechanically, using magnetic force to brake instead of friction. The reverse current thus generated can be stored and reused. The answer again came from my roommate, who told me that the MagLev train in Japan does exactly this. Perhaps it's not yet economical enough to do this for vehicles. But yeah, the idea is already there, and will make it's way as we develop. It seems we (our generation, that is) are now educated enough so that our ideas are at par with or leading the state of the art/development. We are ready to contribute.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Tar stains on the carpet?
It'll give you nightmares, I'm sure. It's not charcoal or juice stains. It's tar. The thing used to seal plugs in your roof, or to pave the road. It's supposed to stick. Stick strong and hard. And this time it chose your carpet.
I was trying to save six hundred dollars to pay my landlord to clean the carpet when I would vacate my place, only till I read on a forum that WD-40 dissolves tar. And, lo and behold, it did! WD-40 is that bluish bottle of lubricant with the characteristic yellow tubular folding nozzle attached to it's spray mouth. You can find it on any hardware store for $6-7, and it will leave your tarred-patches spotless. Literally.
Sleep well tonight.
I was trying to save six hundred dollars to pay my landlord to clean the carpet when I would vacate my place, only till I read on a forum that WD-40 dissolves tar. And, lo and behold, it did! WD-40 is that bluish bottle of lubricant with the characteristic yellow tubular folding nozzle attached to it's spray mouth. You can find it on any hardware store for $6-7, and it will leave your tarred-patches spotless. Literally.
Sleep well tonight.
Friday, April 3, 2009
New grad students to US
The second part of this post talks about housing and such, once you have decided to join UCLA.
Here is an FAQ for new admits to graduate school in the US, especially those from India. Some parts may be specific to UCLA/LA. Feel free to discuss and contribute. Also, a lot of these issues could be very subjective, depending on your background, your disposition and your goals. What I write here is just my opinion.
Q. I saw approximation of the fee on the UCLA site and the i20 is 44k. However, what does the actual fee turn out to be? They say that MS CS is a 5 quarter course...so is the fee / quarter. In the nut shell, how much will the tuition come to for the entire MS?
UCLA fees and tuition amount to about 24k/year for the MS program. That is for three quarters a year, excluding summer, therefore about 8k/quarter. Living costs included in the calculation are estimated to be about 2k/month, adding another 20k for I-20. Tuition + fees alone are, therefore, 24k/year. MS program usually will take 5 quarters of university. (The spread will be 6 quarters because it will include a quarter of summer). It is not hard to finish in 4 quarters if you plan out your curriculum well.
Q. What is the approximate duration of the course? Is it 1.5 years or 2 years?
1.5 years, as explained above.
Q. What does your monthly expenditure come to, staying in LA + misc..
Obviously, that subjective, but LA, especially Westwood (the area where UCLA is located) is one of the most expensive areas in the US. If you live close to the university campus and share bedroom, you will pay about $600/month for house rent (including utilities). A personal bedroom would be anywhere from $900-$1100. Assuming you share, $1000/month is a moderate, comfortable expenditure, but even the stringent estimate would be atleast $850/month.
Q. How is the aid situation? How easy is an RA/TA? I haven't been offered any aid as of now... So, do MS-CS grad students get something at least by the 2nd quarter or so, or there is absolutely no aid?
As of April 2009, the economy's downturn has affected everyone. The aid situation is bad. Even PhD students don't feel secure. Aid for MS students is yet harder to find. In my batch, a few have found TA positions are in the third quarter, but new students without aid should not count on finding one. RA positions are similarly hard to find due to very reduced funding to professors. Apart from RA and TA, there are some "reader" positions that include grading homeworks, and pay about $1000/quarter at best. Usually, you can hold more than one reader positions but, again, don't count on it.
Q. How easy do campus jobs come by, and what do they pay like? I am really hoping that cali should be better than elsewhere...
Campus jobs don't pay enough to buy tuition - best jobs will pay about $15-20/hour (usually coding jobs). Campus jobs like working in stores/restaurants etc will pay about $7-10/hour. Given your work restrictions and available time anyway, this is all peanuts, especially since you're also paying NRT.
Q. How is the internship / job scene there? Is UCLA CS as affected as other colleges?
Quite affected. Some students are deliberately extending their stay in the program because they didn't find a job of their liking.
Q. And right after your admit, did you write to professors, and if so, did it help? I wrote to a few profs before the admit, no response....do u think that wriiting now can possibly help for RA/TA?
I wrote after my admit and got no response. Professors are very busy, so it's no surprise they don't respond. You shouldn't read anything into it. Since the funding scene is pretty bad, there are a lot of students roaming around for funding, so perhaps it's not that much personal/individual attention to student funding right now. My best advice to try find a funding is to arrive early - say 2-3 weeks earlier than most students would, and approach a professor immediately. That's what I did, and it worked. Chances of finding a yet-vacant TA position also improve if you come early. But again, no guarantees.
Q. I know if I should be taking such a heavy loan...so, do you think, taking the job + internship situation there, that UCLA CS will be worth the money I pump in?
Always entirely your call. From my personal experience and exposure, I'd say that the research scene and culture in US is significantly different than in India. This is not to compare professors, students or the quality of work, whatever is being done in either India or US. I'm only comparing the environment, culture and the working of things. If you aim to make research a career, the US experience would be very valuable. As for loan, try to imagine yourself 10 years down the line on either path, and weigh loan today against your place in 10 years, rather than weighing against your/your family's current situation. That should be a more appropriate basis for decision. But, like I said, it's entirely your call.
Q. I have an admit from Cornell MEngg. CS as well now, so I have to choose between UCLA CS and Cornell MEngg. What is your opinion?
That's exactly the situation I was in. The Cornell MEngg program is a rapid 9-month two-semester program with 5 courses each quarter. It is not a research program, be design. It's more of a terminal degree for students looking to enter the industry. MS, on the other hand, is a degree that prepares you for a research career through PhD. MS also allows you more opportunity to do research. It was mainly this that led me to choose UCLA MSCS over Cornell MEngg, because I was sure on continuing for a PhD (either at UCLA or another university). Another factor was that UCLA MSCS to PhD transition is internal to the department and therefore, easy if you perform well enough in the MS, while at Cornell, switch from MEngg to PhD would go through a full central application procedure and is much less common (to the best of my knowledge).
Q. How do you think are the job prospects from UCLA for an MS CS grad...And if they have deteriorated sharply in the past couple of falls, were they great before that? And how do you thing it compares with Cornell job-wise?
I'm not very aware of the job prospect comparison of the two programs.
Here is an FAQ for new admits to graduate school in the US, especially those from India. Some parts may be specific to UCLA/LA. Feel free to discuss and contribute. Also, a lot of these issues could be very subjective, depending on your background, your disposition and your goals. What I write here is just my opinion.
Q. I saw approximation of the fee on the UCLA site and the i20 is 44k. However, what does the actual fee turn out to be? They say that MS CS is a 5 quarter course...so is the fee / quarter. In the nut shell, how much will the tuition come to for the entire MS?
UCLA fees and tuition amount to about 24k/year for the MS program. That is for three quarters a year, excluding summer, therefore about 8k/quarter. Living costs included in the calculation are estimated to be about 2k/month, adding another 20k for I-20. Tuition + fees alone are, therefore, 24k/year. MS program usually will take 5 quarters of university. (The spread will be 6 quarters because it will include a quarter of summer). It is not hard to finish in 4 quarters if you plan out your curriculum well.
Q. What is the approximate duration of the course? Is it 1.5 years or 2 years?
1.5 years, as explained above.
Q. What does your monthly expenditure come to, staying in LA + misc..
Obviously, that subjective, but LA, especially Westwood (the area where UCLA is located) is one of the most expensive areas in the US. If you live close to the university campus and share bedroom, you will pay about $600/month for house rent (including utilities). A personal bedroom would be anywhere from $900-$1100. Assuming you share, $1000/month is a moderate, comfortable expenditure, but even the stringent estimate would be atleast $850/month.
Q. How is the aid situation? How easy is an RA/TA? I haven't been offered any aid as of now... So, do MS-CS grad students get something at least by the 2nd quarter or so, or there is absolutely no aid?
As of April 2009, the economy's downturn has affected everyone. The aid situation is bad. Even PhD students don't feel secure. Aid for MS students is yet harder to find. In my batch, a few have found TA positions are in the third quarter, but new students without aid should not count on finding one. RA positions are similarly hard to find due to very reduced funding to professors. Apart from RA and TA, there are some "reader" positions that include grading homeworks, and pay about $1000/quarter at best. Usually, you can hold more than one reader positions but, again, don't count on it.
Q. How easy do campus jobs come by, and what do they pay like? I am really hoping that cali should be better than elsewhere...
Campus jobs don't pay enough to buy tuition - best jobs will pay about $15-20/hour (usually coding jobs). Campus jobs like working in stores/restaurants etc will pay about $7-10/hour. Given your work restrictions and available time anyway, this is all peanuts, especially since you're also paying NRT.
Q. How is the internship / job scene there? Is UCLA CS as affected as other colleges?
Quite affected. Some students are deliberately extending their stay in the program because they didn't find a job of their liking.
Q. And right after your admit, did you write to professors, and if so, did it help? I wrote to a few profs before the admit, no response....do u think that wriiting now can possibly help for RA/TA?
I wrote after my admit and got no response. Professors are very busy, so it's no surprise they don't respond. You shouldn't read anything into it. Since the funding scene is pretty bad, there are a lot of students roaming around for funding, so perhaps it's not that much personal/individual attention to student funding right now. My best advice to try find a funding is to arrive early - say 2-3 weeks earlier than most students would, and approach a professor immediately. That's what I did, and it worked. Chances of finding a yet-vacant TA position also improve if you come early. But again, no guarantees.
Q. I know if I should be taking such a heavy loan...so, do you think, taking the job + internship situation there, that UCLA CS will be worth the money I pump in?
Always entirely your call. From my personal experience and exposure, I'd say that the research scene and culture in US is significantly different than in India. This is not to compare professors, students or the quality of work, whatever is being done in either India or US. I'm only comparing the environment, culture and the working of things. If you aim to make research a career, the US experience would be very valuable. As for loan, try to imagine yourself 10 years down the line on either path, and weigh loan today against your place in 10 years, rather than weighing against your/your family's current situation. That should be a more appropriate basis for decision. But, like I said, it's entirely your call.
Q. I have an admit from Cornell MEngg. CS as well now, so I have to choose between UCLA CS and Cornell MEngg. What is your opinion?
That's exactly the situation I was in. The Cornell MEngg program is a rapid 9-month two-semester program with 5 courses each quarter. It is not a research program, be design. It's more of a terminal degree for students looking to enter the industry. MS, on the other hand, is a degree that prepares you for a research career through PhD. MS also allows you more opportunity to do research. It was mainly this that led me to choose UCLA MSCS over Cornell MEngg, because I was sure on continuing for a PhD (either at UCLA or another university). Another factor was that UCLA MSCS to PhD transition is internal to the department and therefore, easy if you perform well enough in the MS, while at Cornell, switch from MEngg to PhD would go through a full central application procedure and is much less common (to the best of my knowledge).
Q. How do you think are the job prospects from UCLA for an MS CS grad...And if they have deteriorated sharply in the past couple of falls, were they great before that? And how do you thing it compares with Cornell job-wise?
I'm not very aware of the job prospect comparison of the two programs.
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