Category Archives: higher-edu

The quality of a scientific paper … A casual reposition. Reply

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The quality of a scientific paper are not ZERO if citation is zero. Perhaps we need to define two parameters, quality and significance of scientific communication. Quality; a well done research in the best traditions and methods available. Significance; the outreach of the paper to bring effect into others work and others understanding toward the subject matter.

While there will always be a downside to both parameters, citation reflects the significance (and quality as much as it correlated to significance) of a paper. More…

Why Bose is not the scientist after whom Higgs is named. Reply

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A very few particles (out of 1000s) are named after scientists, eg the so called mu meson was called a Yukawa Meson, although it turned out to be a misnomer. Mu-meson was found to be a lepton, rather than a meson, as was thought by Yukawa and others.

Now called Muon it belongs in the same class that an electron belongs to, leptons, which are both Fermions. Hence initially thought to be a Boson (because all mesons would be bosons) the muon is actually a Fermion (all leptons are Fermions).

Should we say; initially muon was named after Bose, then correctly; after Fermi? That would be HOKUM. Right thing would be to say; it was named after Hideki Yukawa (wrongly as a meson or boson) then it has been named as muon which is now a Fermion. But its still named after Yukawa; given to a misnomer-correction. It can be called Yukawa-Lepton MUON (instead of Yukawa Meson Mu).

Nowhere Bose or Fermi have been the scientists after whom this particle has been named. Bose and Fermi are scientists after whom a principle of physics or nature has been named but not a particle. That would clear any mischievous air. More…

A step toward Higher Education? Reply

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Here is the summary. And I am quoting actual numbers from News Paper Reports.

News Report; 5% Odisha Resident students. [Including perhaps those also who would be Odia by their citizenship, irrespective of where they stay]

My estimate; a typical 10% general category students, going by how large the quota regime entails in terms of percentage toward quota qualifiers.

News Paper Report; Lying vacant per anum, 10%.

My reasoning; if there would be no quota based qualification system perhaps these seats would never lay vacant, plus we would have far superior engineers produced in the country. Because the 3-levels of quota scrutiny sees the merit off to such a level even 10% seats lay vacant, at the same level that gets admitted after fierce scrutiny. More…

What is it like to be in an Ivy League. Just a musing. Reply

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The other aspect is from my own experience, while you are highly qualified, you are perhaps no more pouring in as much as even you would like to pour in, in terms of real research. You or your employers don’t want you to go into controversies, because they drain you out of wit and the employer runs into razor sharp issues. The Ivy Leagues have the “requisite infrastructure” which is cutting edge in a way preconceived notion kind of way. It really does not open the actual researchers to the issues involved in fundamental thinking. And sooner or later we all the highly intellectual kind belong to a level where we see our wit’s end. It takes the highly competitive experience of figuring out what exactly the Ivy League want from you for you and them to be successful lest which they are subjected to competitive and often no so harmless scrutiny from even tiny rats. More…

Higher Studies in Computer Science. Reply

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Its better to go for a job first in India instead of a PhD. I think all the IITs, IISc and other good engineering schools should provide good PhD degrees in Computer Science. There are few good Universities too. A search on the internet provides best information and you can judge yourself.

If you want to do PhD in USA then its a good idea. But people first go in-to master’s degree and then judge where to join for the PhD degree. ( even if they already have a Masters Degree in India, like you do) But for graduate study in USA (i.e. either Masters or PhD) one needs GREs and in addition international students need TOEFL (test of English as a foreign language ). If you want to do PhD directly since you already have MCA* degree More…

Whats the population; if male and female literacy is given as percentage. Reply

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May I add one more small note, see how easy it becomes to understand an “order of estimate”; A good student, that is one with a good maths background, should immediately pick up, population ~ 1.19 million. 61.26 % male. 58.04 % female. (Not only literate but total male and female). Then even, one question can be asked, what is male-female disparity, in terms of their population. (That is, without regard, to any further attributes, such as literacy numbers, or purchasing power distributions etc, which are btw non-existent variables in India, because research in India means Governmental Apathy.)

Its a slightly tricky question, if you already note, there is a mistake in the above, The % is not scaled to 100. Its an over-estimation by a factor of 1.193, and the really smart student recognizes this, (s)he doesn’t go and change all calculations. See how all numbers came just from the first few digits of the given numbers; 11,92,948 >> 1.19 million, vs over estimation factor; 1.193 (or less precise 1.19). Male: 6,12,597 >> overestimated percentage: 61.26. Female; 5,80,351 >> overestimated percentage: 58.04.

You would know they are over-estimated, because these two numbers, male and female population, while exclusive parameters, hence must add up to normal: 100 or 1.00, added up to 61.26+58.04 = 119.30, or (61.26+58.04)/100 = 119.30/100 = 1.193, do you see how easily, without doing any further adding etc, I caught the actual overestimation factor, above, to be 1.193? Cool Huh? Just from the first few numbers. If maths runs in your mind, you can do all these, if it doesn’t, but you have the right numbers, you will be led to believe nobody would catch your mistakes, and lie about the numbers. Possible. Just from the numbers as are stated, we can, catch the inconsistency, thats why maths education is important. In-fact, I committed the mistakes and wanted to catch the inconsistency, and from the calculations gradually caught it, so a more consistent picture was envisaged. More…