The Five

I saw it in Debu's room once.The writing on the wall(apparently a senior's tribute to our Very Terrifying University(VTU)):'18 horrific Labs-62 subjects-168 internals-768 hours in lab,this isn't a f****n' B.E ,this is War and only the bravest make it'..Throughout this 4 year period we are bombarded with so much informtion and are kept so insanely occupied with exam prep that it is difficult to actually appreciate the subtlety and the profoundness of some of these absolutely brilliant subjects.Concepts which can make you go 'eureka' in the middle of the night and lead to frantic smses to friends of the :read pg139, Roth....amazing! kind. Appreciating engineering subjects is a very difficult thing as it is mostly concerned with mundane- how to do X or how to obtain Y from Z or with- this is how such and such a thing happens. But some of these subjects have such creativity in the way they arrive at results that you tend to wish fervently that you could be coffee wielding, bearded jeans-and-T-shirt grad student changing the way the world uses technology a La Bob Metcalfe /Jack Kilby/Richard Stallman/Kekule(OK Kekule is not quite engineering...we shall let it pass shaking the head silently at the demise of a once good Organic chemistry semi-expert) I have been waiting for a long time to do this post.I know my list doesn't contain the standard ECE gems-Digital Signal Processing,Electronic Circuits even Logic design....but the subjects that I have mentioned are the ones which I had most fun studying irrespective of their importance in the bigger scheme of things.Here in countdown format are my five most fav subjects :

5. Telecommunication&Switching-This subject mainly deals with the whole of the telephone network dealing right from the set at home to trunk offices and switching stations.It also deals with telecommunication traffic which ultimately leads to the usage of queuing theory.A very interesting thing to learn for people who want to go :you know.. this telephone network that you are so dependent on actually consists of twisted pairs connected to big Strowgers and sophisticated exchanges.....basically boast about their knowledge in front of their hapless non-engineering friends(never mind the fact that most electrical/electronics engineers are absolutely at sea when it comes to normal households appliances). I came across this in fifth sem and according to many this is a very strange/vague subject, the fact being that the textbook by J.E Flood is very cryptic ,brief and leaves much to imagination. My interest was especially piqued after seeing The History of Hacking documentary which deals also with 'phone phreaking' or hacking phones.


4.Microprocessors-8085.
Absolutely the only subject which I can safely say that I know in its entirety.The subject which,if you are an electronics engineer will never ever forget.The subject which changed the way I looked at technology in many many ways and exposed me to the sheer genius of this small little chip which runs each and every electronic device ever invented.microprocessors in layman terms are the very hearts of computers.It is the component in your computer which understands the 1's and 0's which everybody keeps talking about.I studied this in 4th sem and suddenly a lot of gaps in the knowledge of how things work in a computer were cleared.The invention of the microprocessor must surely go down as one of the most original and stunning creations of the 20th century.The prescribed textbook-RS Gaonkar is an absolute gem when it comes to lucid explanations,especially the parts about interfacing.really enjoyed reading it.

3.VHDL-It stands for VHSIC Hardware Description Language.VHSIC-Very High Speed Integrated Circuits.A programming language which describes hardware.It was a 6th sem subject and one of the only subjects that sem which were palatable (what with such heavyweights such as Microwave communication and Antenna & wave theory....subjects which merit a post all of their own) VHDL was an eye-opener of sorts 'coz it is one of those subjects which actually lets you think in terms of components such as Multiplexers,buffers,registers etc.So that you can actually envision a hardware design.I fondly remember cracking the logic of signed binary divider and some other tough-ies while solving some of the most beautiful design problems.bliss.

2.Computer Organization-A subject which is close to heart.One of the most diciest subjects in all of four years just because of the sheer amount of syllabus to be covered for the exam.The subject deals with the innards of a computer system...everything from memory,I/O,processor architecture,computer arithmetic.This was the defining turning point for me in engineering-opened doors of insights and I was truly a electronics engineering student after this.Loved reading about microcoded instructions,cache replacement algorithms and certain gate delays in carry-lookahead adders.*droooooooooool*.The textbook is one of the best I have ever come across...Hamacher,Vranesic,Zaky...apparently the cover of the book is a doodle by Vranesic's son.

and finally the Numero Uno:

1.Computer networks- The book-Tanenbaum.What do you call a book which is untouchable in terms of technical brilliance,has the capability of staying informal in tone always and is side -splittingly funny? I would call it:The Bible of computer engineering.You are seriously missing out on life if you are a CS/ECE/EEE student and have not come across this book.I suggest you shoot yourself in the head.Twice.Our university has this tendency to prescribe some amazingly boring and drab textbooks which suck the life out of you but strangely, we were prescribed Tanenbaum when it came to networks in 7th sem.I had a torrid affair with this book,who wouldn't... considering the fact that almost every page is filled with anecdotes of technical gaffes and Tanenbaum actually goes on to discuss the politics of technology and the serious problems that internet faces or is going to face in the future.The tone is always tongue in cheek.How can I ever forget...The apocalypse of two elephants,the history of the internet...countless stories about how people came up with ideas to make a world wide communication network,about the many versions of the Ethernet and the various internal squabbling between the various 802. IEEE groups.I especially admire the way he goes about talking about the various collision avoidance algorithms in local networks,also the politics of the ISO/OSI vs TCP/IP.Did you know that the person who invented frequency hopping spread spectrum is none other than -Hedy Lamarr-the first woman to appear nude in a motion picture(the 1933 Czech film-Extase)?People in my class had such fun reading the book that many of them read more than what was expected and on the day of the exam,were pretty relaxed.I leave you with the unforgettable Tanenbaum quote:
'never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway!!'