National workshop on scientific computing

The Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management - Kerala (IIITM-K) is organising a national workshop on scientific computing on January 30 and 31, 2009.

This is part of a series of training programmes initiated by the IIITM-K to promote quality education. Classes will be led by the IIITM-K faculty who are academicians with Ph.D and extensive international-level research experience and will be supported by the Institute’s excellent IT infrastructure.

Scientific computing is the field of study associated with mathematical modelling and methods for providing numerical solutions to problems in science and engineering. The workshop is designed to give an exposition to the basic topics of scientific computing. It would also give a brief tutorial on Scilab, a free and open-source software for scientific computation widely used in numerical analysis, statistics, control systems design and digital signal processing.

The last date for registration is January 16, 2009. The workshop is free for the faculty of Government colleges and Universities in Kerala. 

Visit http://www.iiitmk.ac.in/nwsc2009/ for more details.

BarCamp Kerala 4

What is a BarCamp?
An informal gathering of all people interested in Computers, Gadgets, Internet and technology!

BarCamp Kerala 4
The fourth unconference BarCamp in Kerala is scheduled on 18th January at IIM Kozhikode.

Discussions

Kenney Jacob on

Social Media - Business Opportunities

Anand Subramanian on

Wordpress - Content Management Simplified

Vishnu Gopal on

Clojure: Lisp in the Java world

Praseed Pai on

The Paradox of Free & Open Source Software

This event is held in conjuction with the IIM-K’s Annual Management and Cultural Festival - ‘BACKWATERS’ scheduled on 16th, 17th and 18th of January 2009. This fest will host 15+ Management Events and Cultural Events that will see participation from 50+ top B-Schools across the country. The events also see participation from 1500+ Corporate Delegates, IIMK Alumni, Entrepreneurs, Undergraduates, etc.

Visit http://www.barcampkerala.org/blog/?p=189 for more details.

Share Photos you click on your mobile phone!

Mobshare Broadcasts your photos instantly to all your friends to their mobile.

Your friends receive instant photo broadcasts from you as an SMS with an embedded URL. No application needs to be installed on your mobile.

If you want your photos to be displayed on orkut, you then need to install the Mobshare Orkut Application.

mobME Wireless Solutions (P) Ltd. developed out of a partnership firm - Torque Technology Solutions which was incubated in T-BIC, Technopark, Kerala. 

Today the company has around 30 employees, a Marketing Office & a Development Center in Cochin and Biz Dev Centers in Mumbai & Gurgaon. They have successfully created many profit centers within the company. SMSC Solutions, IVR (In-bound & Out-bound) Services, Online Bulk SMS (www.FastAlerts.in & www.BuyBulkSMS.com) have all grown into steady businesses.

mobME is featured in the 2008 NASSCOM 100 Innovators list and lately on board of the Vodafone network as a peer2peer photo sharing partner.

www.mobshare.in

Canadian charter airline to deploy IBS software

Canadian charter airline Enerjet has opted for Technopark-based IBS Group's passenger services management software iFly to run its reservations, ticketing, and departure operations.

iFly is an integrated, multi-hosting system that addresses passenger reservations, inventory control, fares and ticketing, and departure control functions of commercial airlines, a release stated.

Enerjet, which began workforce transportation and charter operations in December 2008, will in 2009 launch leisure travel and tour operations, Darcy Morgan, Enerjet’s vice-president - business performance and integration, said .

Morgan added IBS will also work alongside Enerjet to combine the iFly solution with the IBS iLogistics workforce supply chain management software. “This will enable Enerjet charter customers to gain full visibility into their workforce travel plans and activities, resulting in lower costs and improved service,” he said.

Source: Business Standard

Free Software, Free Society

2nd International conference on Freedom in Computing, Development and Culture.
9-11, December 2008 at Mascot Convention Center, Thiruvananthapuram

The Free Software Movement, started about a quarter of a century back, pioneered the various movements for freedom in the digital world – for instance, free knowledge represented by Wikipedia or freedom of creative works from copyright restrictions represented by Creative Commons. We also see a new form of social production where collaboration becomes more important than competition, where people from different parts of the world co-operate to create digital products including documents, music or software. These movements, in their own way, are helping to bring about a reduction in the Digital Divide and increasing access to useful works of knowledge. It is perhaps time to define the contours of this new space and situate interventions therein. Located at the intersection of Free Software, Development and Society, the FSFS Conference will examine the application of the Free Software model for freeing intellectual artefacts from the clutches of restrictive laws (like the Copyright Act), and making them available for human development. The conference will also address, inter alia, issues such as technology access and the digital divide, legal issues, and experiences of using the Free Software model in fields such as music, and literature.

source: fsfs.in

INNOPT’08 Conference - Process Innovation and Performance Optimisation.

Network Systems and Technologies Pvt Ltd (NeST), an international company providing high-end software solutions in engineering and business domains, conducted an internal conference, INNOPT’08, at the Technopark here on Monday.

INNOPT’08 brought together the practitioners, process champions and technology leaders of the organisation to share their innovative ideas, unique experiences and informative findings.  INNOPT’08 was coined from the two streams of this year’s conference - process innovation and performance optimisation.

N.Jehangir, managing director and vice-chairman of the NeST Group, inaugurated the conference. "This is an excellent initiative that provides an opportunity to all NeSTians to share their innovative ideas and solutions. I am sure that this conference will further strengthen our image as a process-driven technology company," said Jehangir in his address.

Alec Dorling, international project leader of the SPICE project and convener of the ISO Group developing ISO/IEC 15504, Ravi Mittal, vice-president, Core Services and Protocols at Symbian (leading mobile operating systems company) and Dr Achuthsankar S.Nair, Head of the Centre for Bioinformatics, University of Kerala, addressed the conference.

Different papers were presented and selected papers were displayed as posters. A technical exhibition was also organised to demonstrate the technology leadership of NeST.

Source: expressbuzz.com

Recession not to block Kerala's IT sector plans

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Unfazed by the global recession,Kerala would go ahead with its plan to set up a string of Information Technology parks across the state,Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan told the state assembly on Monday.

There was no question of shelving the plans to develop IT parks in all the districts as the government did not think that the global crisis had seriously hit India's IT sector, Achuthanandan said during question hour.

The CPI (M) stalwart, however, said if India was able to withstand the shock of the meltdown to a great extent it was due to the Left's success in reining in the UPA Government from rushing with its ''policy of all round privatisation.''

The advice received by the state government,and, assessement of the industry itself, was that the recession did not dent IT sector in the state seriously.

Though there had been isolated cases of job cuts, the Labour Department had intervened to settle such issues,he said.

The Government would carry forward its plan to develop state- sponsored IT parks in all the districts except Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam, where facilities like Technopark and Infopark were already in existence, he said.

The parks being developed included those in Mulavana (kollam), Cherthala and Ambalappuzha (Alappuzha), Cheemeni (Kasargode), Eramam (Kannur), Nellikkode and Panthirankavu (Kozhikode) and Muringur and Thekkekkury (Thrissur).

Of these, parks in Apappuzha, Kannur and Kasargode would be given SEZ status, he said.

Source: Economic Times

Kerala firm 'incubates' software solution for energy-starved world

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Seven engineers, all in their early 20s, have developed a new device they claim will save power losses from computers and gadgets running on electricity. The group incorporated a company called Artin Dynamics in April and approached the state-owned Technopark to use its "incubation facility" for the company to grow. They are now ready to launch their first product, SPARA, which will save power losses on computers to the extent of 40 MW for 1000 computers.
"The value is considerably low when compared to the actual power used by the device but this small loss is responsible for nearly 26 percent of the total energy loss in the world," says budding firm's 23-year-old chief executive officer Nelvin Joseph.

The software module of the product, which hit the market last week, uses algorithms and its hardware modules increase the efficiency of the system, the group claims.

"The concept is the phenomenon called phantom power, defined as the power which is consumed by an electronic device when it is on standby mode or not in use," Joseph said. "We expect to eliminate this loss by up to 97 percent by using SPARA".

The product is capable of conducting high-level power management features like monitor control, core handling, CPU throttling besides the normal power management options like hibernation, shutdown and standby on a network.

"This allows the central SPARA server to make sure that the network is run in the most efficient manner. The software gives the administrator solid proof in terms of power saved by generating detailed reports about the usage statistics. This report can also be used to find the mentality and dedication of the employees," he explains.

"The hardware unit works using our patented technology Enhanced Trigger Loop. This device interfaces with the computer using its USB port. Once a power save command has been passed to the computer and the computer switches to a power down (shutdown or hibernate) state, the module terminates the power supply from the system and the supply point. This eliminates phantom power losses fully".

Artin Dynamics plans to develop and distribute more products and services based on artificial intelligence and the company claims it is the first in India to work exclusively in this domain.

"The motto of the company is to generate clean source of energy for the world and we aim to be the first company in Kerala to qualify for the carbon footprint qualification from the International Energy Council".

Source: Arab News

99999 lights out campaign to light up tomorrow

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, INDIA: Artin Dynamics, a technology start up company incubated at the Thiruvananthapuram Technopark's tech incubation center, has entered into a tie up with environmental service organization Exnora International in its bid towards reducing power losses.

With its new association with Artin Dynamics, Exnora International will now get an effective weapon to tackle issues contributing to global warming, according to a press release.

Exnora has launched its 99999 lights out campaign in Kerala, where people have been asked to switch off their lights and computers for 9 minutes on September 9, 2009 at 9 pm.

Artin Dynamics will be supporting this initiative in Kerala. The NGO operates in more than 1000 towns and villages through Exnora Innovators Club and in near one lakh streets as Civic Exnora and in several thousands of homes as Home Exnora.

Exnora has now extended its focus on global warming and is actively educating the corporate world on the need to switch of PCs after use and damages like carbon footprint generation and CO2 generation caused due to misusing power.

Artin Dynamics steps in with its product SPARA, which will be given as a solution to the corporate world to provide complete control to the administrator over all the systems. SPARA will help shut down systems after working hours and save electricity as well as reduce the carbon footprint.

Talking on the tie up with Artin, Sulochana Ramaseshan, president, Exnora International, said the tie up for the 99999 campaign in Kerala gives an important responsibility to Artin Dynamics.

"We appreciate Artin Dynamics for their enterprise and innovations. We are sure that Artin Dynamics' product SPARA would help in decreasing global warming," she said.

Nelvin Joseph, CEO, Artin Dynamics said "We are delighted to tie up with such a prestigious organization like ExNoRa International and together we believe we can fight global warming and phantom power losses. This tie up will go a long way in helping Mother Earth heal herself."


Source : CyberMedia News

God's own IT Country

Kerala’s lead over the other states in India on almost all social indicators is universally acknowledged. What is less known is that the spread of societal development is uniform throughout the state and not restricted to select cities. The benefits of social progression have been disseminated to the maximum number of people. Regional disparities are, more or less, non-existent.

Referred to as God's Own Country, the state is turning out to be one of the hot spots of tourism in the country. The salubrious climate and endless greenery are more than likely to keep any tourist spell bound. This distinctive resort town ambience coupled with the highest physical quality of life, are seen by companies as reason enough to move in.
But that is not all.

Today, Kerala has a lot more to offer. Consummate real estate solutions, an investor friendly Government, easy availability of qualified personnel and an extremely facilitating and scalable infrastructure beckon the IT industry. And the best part is that these are available at the most economical rates. It is, therefore, no surprise that Kerala is now one of the most sought after destination for the IT& ITES industries in the country.

The communications advantage 

• 100% digital telephone exchanges
• 98% of telephone exchanges connected by OFC to the National Internet Backbone (NIB)
• OFC backbones through out the state by Reliance, Bharti, Asianet.
• Highest telephone density; 20 per 100, double the national average
• Malappuram - First wifi district in the country
• 'SEA-ME-WE-3' and 'SAFE' submarine cable landings (1 of the 2 states in India to have two submarine cable landings)
• 15 GBps bandwidth support
• VSNL's primary international gateway in Kochi handles around two third of the country's data traffic

 

The Human Resources Advantage  

• Highest density of science and technology personnel in India
• Lowest employee attrition rate in the country - <5%
• 87 engineering colleges in the state
• Sanctioned intake of over 23,000 engineering students
• Database of readily employable graduates enabling interested ITES companies to access the best of professional talent
• Ongoing training for ITES HR pool

 

The Cost Advantage  

• A fully burdened cost of just $8 per hour when compared to the global average of $15
• Salaries - 1/5th of the international average
• Operational costs less than 50% when compared to the other major IT Parks
• Rentals lower by more than 60%
• Power and water tariff among the lowest in the country
• Sourcing bandwidth from VSNL's International Communication Gateway at Kochi provides significant savings vis a vis most other locations in the country
• Low cost of living

The two main cities which are the bee hive of IT / ITES buzz are Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi. These bustling modern cosmopolitan cities are the home of Technopark and Infopark respectively.