Reports of mass copying during school and college examinations in several states, including Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, are common. But a blog post by a computer science professor indicates that students at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, and other engineering colleges, indulge in it too.
Earlier this month, Dheeraj Sanghi, a professor at the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology-Delhi, wrote a blog post on the quality of the country’s information technology engineers, which corporate recruiters also seem to be concerned about.
In the post titled, CS education is poor because of copying, Sanghi referred to a statement by Srinivas Kandula, chief executive of information technology major Capgemeni India, at a business event in Mumbai earlier this month.
At the event, Kandula said: “I am not very pessimistic, but it is a challenging task and I tend to believe that 60-65 per cent of them (IT recruits) are just not trainable.”
Sanghi attributed this to alleged copying in engineering institutions across the country. The professor, who has also taught at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, wrote that information technology and computer science students in India are falling behind because they have not learnt much in engineering college.
He wrote, “I have always been amazed at the Indian software industry. That it can grow so fast and become so big despite the absolutely abysmal quality of education in our colleges…
“A lot of people have talked about poor quality curriculum, poor quality faculty, poor infrastructure, poor school education, and so on. I disagree. There is a much simpler explanation for this: Copying in our colleges, besides laziness.”
Sanghi said, “In many colleges, even in some of the IITs but to a lesser extent, students either copy the code for a programme from the net, or one student writes it, and the others copy. The code is tested in the laboratory. If it runs – and it does – the student is awarded marks even if the lines are not original.” He added that these shortcuts are adopted as early as the first semester.
His blog post received many approving responses on social media.
Sanghi added that one reason for such laziness is that a large section of students do not join the engineering sector after they graduate. “They plan on studying management,” he said. “Their lack of skill is never discovered because they do not join the sector.”
Sanghi said that he had always suspected that students were not applying their minds in engineering college. He said that his suspicions were confirmed when he once accessed Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering data through which admission into post-graduate programmes of the IITs is regulated.
“About a decade ago, I had set the paper for the test and data for previous years had been shared with me,” said Sanghi. “The median score for the previous year was zero. Basically, I can train a five-year-old to do better than 50% of the applicants and all he has to do is submit a blank paper.”
In his blog post, he recounted that he was recently part of a selection committee to recruit programmers for a government department. He found that most applicants he interviewed, including those who had “several years of experience in industry”, could not perform a variety of tasks they ought to have learnt at engineering college. “These (were) all the programmes we ask our first semester students who have never programmed before,” he wrote.
Here are the latest on the 89th Academy awards:
Live updates:
10: 42 am: It might seem like the best joke pulled by Jimmy Kimmel so far. But with all seriousness, this fiasco can be marked as the best goof up in the history of Academy Awards. The 89th Academy Awards ended on a crazy note with the wrong name for Best Picture being announced on stage by the presenter. Still one can't figure out if this end is a good surprise or a bizarre one.
10: 33 am: The joke is probably on Warren Beatty who read out the wrong name at first. La La Land was announced to have won the award. But minutes later, after the acceptance speech began, and the entire crew of La La Land took the stage, Moonlight was announced as the Best Picture.
10: 24 am: Emma Stone wins award for Best Actress for La La Land. The award was presented by last year's Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio.
10: 14 am: Casey Affleck wins Best actor for the movie Manchester by the Sea.
10: 11 am: Damien Chazelle wins Best Director for La La Land.
10: 07 am: Jimmy Kimmel showered cookies and donuts down on the audience.
10: 02 am: Moonlight won an award for Adapted screenplay.
9: 59 am: Manchester by the Sea wins award for the Best Original Screenplay. The award was received by Kenneth Lonergan.
9: 53 am: Jennifer Aniston took the stage to present the year's montage of the great actors and artists who passed away in the past year.
9: 48 am: The award for the Best Original Song is bagged by La La Land for the song City of Stars. Scarlett Johansson presented the award for the same.
9: 40 am: La La Land wins award for Best Original Score. Justin Hurwitz recieved the award.
9 39 am: Jimmy Kimmel did not fail to entertain the audience. The mean tweet franchise that was introduced was bitter but better at fun. The winners and the nominees were seen reading out disturbing tweets about them. This was followed by a performance by John Legend.
9: 26 am: La La Land wins yet another award for Best Cinematography. Linus Sandgren took to the stage to accept the award.
9: 20 am: Meanwhile, Jimmy Kimmel took a jab at Donald Trump. It seems like Kimmel couldn't care less. Jimmy tweeted the President of USA asking if he was up. The tweet was projected on the big screen just to make the moment a tad more dramatic.
9: 16 am: Sing grabbed the award for The Best Live Action Short Film. The award was received by Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy.
9: 10 am: The White Helmets wins award for Best Documentary Short Film.
9: 08 am: On a lighter note, Jimmy Kimmel lifted Sunny Pawar from Lion while the theme song from the animation movie The Lion King played in the background.
9:07 am: Hacksaw Ridge wins award for Best Film Editing.
9:00 am: The Jungle Book wins award for Best Visual Effects.
8: 43 am: La La Land wins the award for the Best Production Design. David Wasco and Sandy Reynolds-Wasco received the award.
8: 40 am: Zootopia wins award for Best Animated Feature Film.
8: 38 am: Piper wins award for the Best Animated Short Film.
8: 23 am: Charlize Theron and Shirley MacLaine presented the award for the Best Foreign Language Film. Iranian drama The Salesman won the award this year. The director Asghar Farhadi boycotted the award function. However sent a statement which reads, ''My absence is out of respect for the people of my country'' before describing Trump’s ban as ''inhumane''.
8: 02 am: Viola Davis wins the award for the Best Supporting Actress for her role in Fences. Viola received a standing ovation while she stood emotionally on the stage. She gave a powerful speech, and thanked her family and friends for the same.
7: 57 am: Hacksaw Ridge wins academy award for Best Sound Mixing.
7: 53 am: Arrival wins award for Achievements in Sound Editing .
7.40 am: The award for Best Documentary Feature is won by 'OJ: Made in America', which was based on the sensational murder trial of OJ Simpson back in the 1990s. He was accused of murdering his wife and her alleged lover.
7.35 am: Harry Potter spin-off movie 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them', wins award for Best Costume.
7: 30 am: David Ayer's directorial 'Suicide Squad' wins the 'Best Make-up and Hair' award.
7: 19 am: Mahershala Ali wins the 'Best Actor in a Supporting Role' award for Moonlight. So Moonlight opens its account, by bagging the first award of the night. Dev Patel missed the train, despite his fine performance in Lion.
7: 13 am: Now legendary actress Meryl Streep comes under Kimmel's roaster. He says that it is Meryl's 20th consecutive Oscar appearance, although she didn't star in any film in last year. He also jokingly requests the audience to give her an 'undeserving' round of applause.
7: 11 am: Talking about Oscars and fashion, Ruth Negga's long-sleeved custom Valentino gown is a scene-stealer and landed the actress on several best-dressed lists for the evening.
Negga, who is a best actress nominee for "Loving," combined the high lace collar with responsibly sourced rubies. She also included one accessory that several other stars included -- a blue ribbon supporting the American Civil Liberties Union.
Negga was among those cited by People magazine as the best dressed of the evening. Other popular looks included a velvet gown worn by Taraji P. Henson, and a fringe gown sported by best actress nominee Emma Stone.
Opinion online was mixed about Halle Berry, who rocked a huge head of tousled curls along with a one-shoulder dress.
While the men get less scrutiny, many online noted the ruffles on best actor nominee Ryan Gosling's tuxedo shirt, with some likening it to a look from a 1970s prom.
7: 08 am: Kimmel starts the event by roasting Matt Damon. He also congratulates Amazon.com for their first ever association with the Oscars.
7: 00 am: The 89th Academy Awards finally starts, with Jimmy Kimmel hosting his first Oscars. His entry was a quirky one too, with a dance performance.
6: 40 am: Each celebrity who strolls the Oscars red carpet seems to have their own style as they pass their cheering fans in the bleachers.
Some, like Emma Stone and Jeff Bridges, smile politely and wave while others just walk by, seemingly oblivious to the adulation.
Laura Dern and Nicole Kidman, meanwhile, joined hands and lifted them in a cheer of their own.
As for those in the bleachers, when they aren't cheering many are gossiping.
Among the comments overheard: Vince Vaughn and Dern are tall and Michael J. Fox is really short.
6: 30 am: Justin Timberlake is the king of the Oscars red carpet, as least as far as the bleacher fans are concerned.
While some celebrities like Viggo Mortensen and Scarlett Johansson ignore the bleacher crowd, Timberlake stopped to lead a cheering war between two sections.
As wife Jessica Biel stood by in a stunning gold dress, Timberlake put his hand to his ear to draw applause.
Then he'd judge which section was winning by raising and lowering his hands
The crowd responded with raucous cheers.
6: 20 am: Veteran actor Mel Gibson hits the red carpet too.
6: 10 am: Justin Timberlake says the beginning of the Oscars is going to be free of politics.
Timberlake tells The Associated Press, "Watch the top of the show, it will be very un-political. I can promise you that."
It is an apparent tease to Timberlake's performance of his Oscar-nominated song, "Can't Stop the Feeling," which is from the animated film "Trolls."
Timberlake says he's honoured that the film academy honoured such a feel-good song. Timberlake says "I think the world could use a little bit of that."
Even before Sunday's ceremony begins, politics is on the mind of many nominees. Some top nominees, including Ruth Negga and director Barry Jenkins, are wearing blue ribbons supporting the American Civil Liberties Union.
Others, including documentary nominee Ava DuVernay and best actor nominee Andrew Garfield, say art is inherently political and winners should express their feelings about the current political climate if they wish.
6: 04 am: Andrew Garfield, one of the lead actor nominees for his breathtaking performance in Hacksaw Ridge, has arrived at the red carpet. Nicole Kidman and Halle Berry are here too.
6: 00 am: It was a no-brainer for Lin-Manuel Miranda when it came to picking a date for the Oscars.
It's his mother, Luz, who got him there after all.
Miranda's mother says she stayed up late watching the Oscars every year and told her son he would be there someday.
To which her son adds that she earned the honor "by calling dibs when I was 10 years old."
5: 45 am: Prominent faces arriving at Red Carpet so far: Octavia Spencer, Jackie Chan, Felicity Jones, Dev Patel and Matt Damon.
5: 40 am: Stars are mixing high fashion with some advocacy on the Oscars red carpet.
Several top nominees are sporting blue ribbons supporting the American Civil Liberties Union, including best actress nominee Ruth Negga and best original song nominee Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Miranda brought his mother to the Oscars, and she also prominently displayed the ribbon. The ACLU is among the groups suing over a travel ban imposed by President Donald Trump's administration that has been placed on hold by federal courts.
Director Barry Jenkins planned to wear one, and realized in the middle of a red carpet interview that he had lost it.
Jenkins, who is nominated for best director for "Moonlight," says he does not yet know what he would say if he wins an Oscar Sunday. He says, "I think art is inherently political," and he supports any artists who speak out about politics at the awards show.
Best actor nominee Casey Affleck also wore the ribbon at Saturday's Independent Spirit Awards, where he won the award for best male lead.
5: 30 am: First rule for Oscar bleachers fans: Yell loudly if you want to get a celebrity's attention.
That's what a group of fans did — repeatedly — until Ruth Negga politely turned away from a red carpet TV interview to give them a wave.
Before she could, however, one of her earrings fell out. Fortunately, her team saved it, she smiled and waved, then moved on.
After waving to the crowd, Lin-Manual Miranda made sure bleacher fans didn't overlook the person he was with. He pointed to her and mouthed the words, "My Mom."
Jackie Chan, beaming ear to ear, pretended to toss one of two stuffed pandas he was carrying into the crow. A disappointed groan moved through the bleachers when he moved on.
Jackie Chan has brought some furry friends to walk with him on the Oscars red carpet.
The action star did red carpet interviews clutching two plush panda toys. He told The Associated Press that he is a panda ambassador and also owns two of the bears in China.
The bears are dressed in yellow jackets and silver boots with UNICEF name tags, while Chan is sporting more traditional formal attire. Chan says he takes the bears with him everywhere, snapping photos with them. He says he may sell them for the charity.
Chan was a recipient of an honorary Oscar last year.
5: 25 am: Celebrities have begun arriving on the red carpet in Hollywood ahead of the 89th Academy Awards.
Hundreds of people sitting in the fan bleachers shouted excitedly when actor Jerry O'Connell walked by.
Broadway star Cynthia Erivo is also among the first arrivals, her shock of white hair a beacon in the crowd.
The weather is slightly chilly and there's the possibility of sprinkles from gray clouds overhead.
Astronomers have found at least seven Earth-sized planets orbiting the same star 40 light-years away, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The findings were also announced at a news conference at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
This discovery outside of our solar system is rare because the planets have the winning combination of being similar in size to Earth and being all temperate, meaning they could have water on their surfaces and potentially support life.
"This is the first time that so many planets of this kind are found around the same star," said Michaël Gillon, lead study author and astronomer at the University of Liège in Belgium.
The seven exoplanets were all found in tight formation around an ultracool dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1. Estimates of their mass also indicate that they are rocky planets, rather than being gaseous like Jupiter. Three planets are in the habitable zone of the star, known as TRAPPIST-1e, f and g, and may even have oceans on the surface.
The researchers believe that TRAPPIST-1f in particular is the best candidate for supporting life. It's a bit cooler than Earth, but could be suitable with the right atmosphere and enough greenhouse gases.
If TRAPPIST-1 sounds familiar, that's because these researchers announced the discovery of three initial planets orbiting the same star in May. The new research increased that number to seven planets total.
"I think we've made a crucial step towards finding if there is life out there," said Amaury Triaud, one of the study authors and an astronomer at the University of Cambridge. "I don't think any time before we had the right planets to discover and find out if there was (life). Here, if life managed to thrive and releases gases similar to what we have on Earth, we will know."
Life may begin and evolve differently on other planets, so finding the gases that indicate life is key, the researchers added.
"This discovery could be a significant piece in the puzzle of finding habitable environments, places that are conducive to life," said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. "Answering the question 'are we alone?' is a top science priority, and finding so many planets like these for the first time in the habitable zone is a remarkable step forward toward that goal."
And as we've learned from studying and discovering exoplanets before, where there is one, there are more, said Sara Seager, professor of planetary science and physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Seager and other researchers are encouraged by the discovery of this system because it improves our chances of finding another habitable planet, like Earth, in the future, by knowing where to look.
The planets are so close to each other and the star that there are seven of them within a space five times smaller than the distance from Mercury to our sun. This proximity allows the researchers to study the planets in depth as well, gaining insight about planetary systems other than our own.
Starting closest to the star and moving out, the planets have respective orbits from one and a half to nearly 13 Earth days. The orbit of the farthest planet is still unknown.
Standing on the surface of one of the planets, you would receive 200 times less light than you get from the sun, but you would still receive just as much energy to keep you warm since the star is so close. It would also afford some picturesque views, as the other planets would appear in the sky as big as the moon (or even twice as big).
On TRAPPIST-1f, the star would appear three times as big as the sun in our sky. And because of the red nature of the star, the light would be a salmon hue, the researchers speculate.
Based on preliminary climate modeling, the researchers believe that the three planets closest to the star may be too warm to support liquid water, while the outermost planet, TRAPPIST-1h, is probably too distant and cold to support water on the surface. But further observation is needed to know for sure.
TRAPPIST-1 barely classifies as a star at half the temperature and a tenth the mass of the sun. It is red, dim and just a bit larger than Jupiter. But these tiny ultracool dwarf stars are common in our galaxy.
They were largely overlooked until Gillon decided to study the space around one of these dwarves.
The researchers used a telescope called TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) to observe its starlight and changes in brightness. The team saw shadows, like little eclipses, periodically interrupting the steady pattern of starlight. This is called transiting. The shadows indicated planets, and further observation confirmed them.
In July, the team was able to determine that two of the closest planets to the stars had atmospheres that were more compact and comparable to those of Earth, Venus and Mars by observing starlight through the planets' atmosphere.
By using a global network ground-based telescopes like TRAPPIST and space-based telescopes like Spitzer, the researchers continued looking toward the TRAPPIST system and were able to determine the orbital periods, distances from their star, radius and and masses of the planets.
Over the next decade, the researchers want to define the atmosphere of each planet, as well as to determine whether they truly do have liquid water on the surface and search for signs of life.
Although 40 light-years away doesn't sound too far, it would take us millions of years to reach this star system. But from a research perspective, it's a close opportunity and the best target to search for life beyond our solar system.
"If we learn something now, it can determine if we looked in the right place," Gillon said.
In 2018, the James Webb Space Telescope will launch and be positioned 1 million miles from Earth with an unprecedented view of the universe. It can observe large exoplanets and detect starlight filtered through their atmosphere.
The researchers are also searching for similar star systems to conduct more atmospheric research. Four telescopes named SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) based in Chile will survey the southern sky for this purpose.
This star system will probably outlive us because this type of star evolves so slowly. When our sun dies, TRAPPIST-1 will still be a young star and will live for another trillion years, Gillon said. After we are gone, if there is another part of the universe for life to carry on, it may be in the TRAPPIST-1 system.
"This is the most exciting result I have seen in the 14 years of Spitzer operations," said Sean Carey, manager of NASA's Spitzer Science Center at Caltech/IPAC in Pasadena, California. "Spitzer will follow up in the fall to further refine our understanding of these planets so that the James Webb Space Telescope can follow up. More observations of the system are sure to reveal more secrets."
A Dutch vehicle manufacturer has made flying cars commercially available for the first time ever.
PAL-V has created the Liberty Sport and Liberty Pioneer, a pair of two-person three-wheelers capable of flying at speeds of up to 112mph.
The Sport is the cheaper of the two, with the base model starting at $400,000. The Pioneer, meanwhile, comes in at $600,000.
That extra cash gets buyers training sessions, power heating and an electronic flight instrument display.
Potential buyers that can’t afford to lay that sort of money down up-front can instead drop a non-refundable deposit of $25,000 for the Pioneer, or $10,000 for the Sport.
Both versions of the Liberty use a retractable rotor blade and a pair of engines, one that’s used for driving, the other for flying.
On the ground, the Liberty is capable of moving at a top speed of 100mph, can go from 0-62mph in nine seconds, and has a range of 817 miles and fuel efficiency of 31mpg.
PAL-V says it takes 10 minutes to switch from driving to flying mode and, in the air, you’ll get 310 miles from a full tank.
“After years of hard work, beating the technical and qualification challenges, our team succeeded in creating an innovative flying car that complies with existing safety standards determined by regulatory bodies around the world,” said Robert Dingemanse, the CEO of PAL-V.
Unfortunately, they won’t start shipping for a while yet, with first deliveries of the Liberty scheduled for the end of 2018.
In a momentous occasion for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as well as India, a record 104 satellites was launched today from the spaceport of Sriharikota of Andhra Pradesh. India now becomes the first country to script history after launching the 104 satellites in a single rocket.
ISRO already an achiever of extraordinary feats, has outdone itself and Russia which previously held the record for the most satellites launched in a single mission- which is 37 -- in 2014.
Last June, ISRO had sent up 20 satellites in one go, its personal best. It is using the same rocket this time -- the XL version of the popular Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), to push the boundaries of efficiency and effectiveness in space launches.
With smaller satellites -- like the ‘Cubesats’ that measure 10cm x 10cm x 10cm and weigh between 1 kg and 10 kg -- becoming the norm, it is possible to load more and more of them on to a single rocket. Satellites that are even more small and light are becoming popular too, and are being used for a variety of space applications. When ISRO put in to orbit 10 satellites on the PSLV-C10 in June 2008, it created a world record. But the record was subsequently broken several times by Russian and American rockets.
Of 101 co-passenger satellites, 96 belong to USA, five from International customers of ISRO -- Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, respectively.
Two other Indian nano satellites, totally weighing about 1,378 kg, will also ride piggyback in the rocket. The nano-satellites belonging to international customers are being launched as part of the arrangement by Antrix Corporation Ltd (ANTRIX) the commercial arm of the ISRO. Cartosat-2 Series, which is the primary satellite, will be similar to the earlier four satellites in Cartosat-2 Series.
It was ISRO’s second successful attempt after launching 23 satellites in one go in June 2015. PSLV has first launched the 714 kg CARTOSAT-2 Series satellite for earth observation and then inject 103 co-passenger satellites, together weighing about 664 kg at lift-off into polar Sun Synchronous Orbit, about 520 km from Earth.
