Monday, September 27, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Boston Diary
My flight to Boston had a layover at the The Reagan National Airport just off Washington, D.C. The airport is well-located, as you can see the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol from the airport.
Washington is still enamored by the Obamas, as seen by the slew of books on display at the airport book store.
The Church of Scientology was right opposite Srivathsan's apartment.
Charles River is beautiful and serves as some sort of a boundary between Boston and Cambridge.
(L: Cambridge skyline as seen from the Boston side of the river, and R: Boston skyline as seen from the Cambridge side of the river)
The Quincy Bay reminded me of the Santhome Beach:
Next up, the Bunker Hill Monument:
The day was capped off with a visit to the Charlestown Navy Yard where the USS Constitution is stationed.
Cambridge is a very bike-friendly city, as can be seen with the bike lanes that sometimes move from the road to the walkway.
The big attraction on my way back home from the conference venue was MIT's Stata Center.
Also on the way was the Broad Institute, a genomics center affiliated with MIT and Harvard. They had quite a few computer screens facing the outside, which showed some cool genetic screening and sequencing work.
And finally, I saw this on Hanover Street, also called Little Italy. Apparently, Massachusetts is having fun with its newly elected Senator.
Here's a slideshow with some more photos:
Washington is still enamored by the Obamas, as seen by the slew of books on display at the airport book store.
The Church of Scientology was right opposite Srivathsan's apartment.
Charles River is beautiful and serves as some sort of a boundary between Boston and Cambridge.
(L: Cambridge skyline as seen from the Boston side of the river, and R: Boston skyline as seen from the Cambridge side of the river)
The Quincy Bay reminded me of the Santhome Beach:
Next up, the Bunker Hill Monument:
The day was capped off with a visit to the Charlestown Navy Yard where the USS Constitution is stationed.
Cambridge is a very bike-friendly city, as can be seen with the bike lanes that sometimes move from the road to the walkway.
The big attraction on my way back home from the conference venue was MIT's Stata Center.
Also on the way was the Broad Institute, a genomics center affiliated with MIT and Harvard. They had quite a few computer screens facing the outside, which showed some cool genetic screening and sequencing work.
And finally, I saw this on Hanover Street, also called Little Italy. Apparently, Massachusetts is having fun with its newly elected Senator.
Here's a slideshow with some more photos:
Reflections from the Boston conference
(L: Kendall/MIT Station on the Red Line and R: Kendall Square as seen from the Marriott Hotel, the venue of the conference)
I got back from Boston 2 days ago where I attended the Water Environment Federation's Urban River Restoration Conference, and wanted to write this down before my memories fade away. I will write a few things about Boston in my next blog entry, hopefully with some pictures, but for now, some observations and incidents from the conference:
1. Elected officials can be sensible: The plenary session at the conference was followed by a panel discussion involving the co-chairs of the conference and some invited guests. Prominent among them was Ms. Henrietta Davis, Vice-Mayor of Cambridge, MA - a city in the Greater Boston area that borders Boston along the Charles River. I found her quite knowledgeable in the area of city planning and waterfront development, topics that were the theme of the conference. The interesting thing is that she is not appointed by someone to this post, based on any expertise in this area. Instead, she is an elected official who has to give campaign speeches and participate in public forums/debates to retain her job. The fact that her constituency includes two of the finest internationally-recognized institutions - Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is only a small consolation. The city is economically and racially diverse, just like any metro city (if you think getting elected to the city council is easy, think Harvey Milk). I found her making sensible arguments and providing cogent responses, and not giving cliched talking points and campaign statements. She seemed to have traveled to other cities and attended other conferences in the 'Green Development' area. If she stands for re-election anytime, consider this an endorsement from me.
2. Not Indian anymore: I met a professor from Canada, who teaches at Queen's University and works on onsite wastewater treatment, the same topic that I work on broadly. We got talking about our mutual works, and I explained to him the state of onsite systems in Ohio and my proposed project, where I happened to mention the term 'health impacts', as it connected to my study. He then replied, "....and you know, healthcare is a big issue in *your* country." Hmmm... so he meant the U.S. by 'your' country. Interesting..!
3. You don't have a card?: I also met the North American director of the International Water Association and got into a conversation. She said her office likes to maintain contacts with universities and wanted to have my card. I replied that I am a student, assuming that she will understand what I meant (that I didn't have a card). Just when she was handing me her card, she noticed that I was not making any effort to take out a card (that didn't exist) and remarked, "..so you really don't have a card". I was definitely surprised, since I didn't expect that people would expect a visiting card from me, in spite of being a student. So, a lesson for those going to conferences - create your visiting card (hand-made/printed/whatever), so you can give your contact information to those who may want to contact you (in case they really want to!).
Monday, January 25, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
Enrollment Statistics
I conducted a student survey on "perceptions regarding water and wastewater issues on OSU campus" in November 2009. I got working on analyzing the data. But before I could go too far, I needed to know some details on the demographic make-up of the student body at The Ohio State University, so I could compare my population demography with that of my survey sample.
Here is some interesting information about the demographic composition of OSU students in Columbus campus.
* Male: Female ratio - 51.86: 48.14
* Domestic: International - 92:8
* Ohio: Other states - 85.62: 14.38
* Undergraduate: Graduate: Professional - 75: 19: 6
Now, some information on enrollment by academic break-up:
The most popular major on campus (by numbers): hmmm....Computer Science? Philosophy? Biology? .....The answer is Exploration (in other words, Undecided) with 2816 students. At least, it is better than ending up in the wrong major.
Not accounting for undecided students and the 391 who are part of the Undergraduate Student Academic Services, I have divided the rest (includes undergraduate, graduate and professional students) into 17 colleges. Here's how they match-up against each other (click on the image get high-res view):
Engineering is the most popular field, no surprises there, with 7843 students. But I was surprised to see that the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences has the second-most number of students on campus (7416). In fact, if you separate Architecture (788 students) from Engineering, there are more social scientists studying on campus than engineers! College of Business comes in third with 6540 students, while the next big college is that of Education and Human Ecology (5706 students). The smallest colleges are that of Public Health and Nursing with about 270 students enrolled in each.
China sends the largest set of international students to Ohio State, with 1411 students, followed by Republic of Korea (read South Korea) and India, with about 700 students each. The number of Chinese students jumped 44% compared to last year, while those from other countries including Korea and India dropped by about 3%. Due to the large jump in the enrollment of Chinese students this year compared to the last, the number of international students on OSU campus went up by 7.7% over last year.
Finally, I noticed that there is one international student from Haiti. I hope his/her family and relatives are safe after the massive earthquake. If you are interested in more information, please open this pdf file from the Registrar's website. Information for each Quarter is available here.
Here is some interesting information about the demographic composition of OSU students in Columbus campus.
* Male: Female ratio - 51.86: 48.14
* Domestic: International - 92:8
* Ohio: Other states - 85.62: 14.38
* Undergraduate: Graduate: Professional - 75: 19: 6
Now, some information on enrollment by academic break-up:
The most popular major on campus (by numbers): hmmm....Computer Science? Philosophy? Biology? .....The answer is Exploration (in other words, Undecided) with 2816 students. At least, it is better than ending up in the wrong major.
Not accounting for undecided students and the 391 who are part of the Undergraduate Student Academic Services, I have divided the rest (includes undergraduate, graduate and professional students) into 17 colleges. Here's how they match-up against each other (click on the image get high-res view):
Engineering is the most popular field, no surprises there, with 7843 students. But I was surprised to see that the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences has the second-most number of students on campus (7416). In fact, if you separate Architecture (788 students) from Engineering, there are more social scientists studying on campus than engineers! College of Business comes in third with 6540 students, while the next big college is that of Education and Human Ecology (5706 students). The smallest colleges are that of Public Health and Nursing with about 270 students enrolled in each.
China sends the largest set of international students to Ohio State, with 1411 students, followed by Republic of Korea (read South Korea) and India, with about 700 students each. The number of Chinese students jumped 44% compared to last year, while those from other countries including Korea and India dropped by about 3%. Due to the large jump in the enrollment of Chinese students this year compared to the last, the number of international students on OSU campus went up by 7.7% over last year.
Finally, I noticed that there is one international student from Haiti. I hope his/her family and relatives are safe after the massive earthquake. If you are interested in more information, please open this pdf file from the Registrar's website. Information for each Quarter is available here.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
In Print
My second journal article is in print. Click here if you are using a university computer/connection, or click here to view the pdf version.
Citation: S. Vedachalam, J. P. Schmiedeler, K. M. Mancl. 2009. Automation of Delivery Device for Chlorine Dioxide Disinfection. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 25(6): 915-921.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Consumer Surplus
More than 3 months ago, I had posted about the quirky way in which my paper got accepted at a conference. Click here to revisit history. At that time, it wasn't decided if I would go and present at the conference.
It's now decided and sealed. I am going to Boston in March to present at the Urban River Restoration Conference. I talked to my project guide in December, and he indicated that there were $500 left in the project account and I could use that amount to fund my travel. In effect, there was a willingness to pay upto $500 for the travel expense.
That's when I discovered Bing Travel. You may hate Microsoft for whatever reasons, but you've got to love Bing Travel. It is the only website to offer predictions on the best time to purchase tickets. Based on historical records, it gives you a simple indicator of whether fares will go up or down in the next few days and what is your best course of action (buy tickets now/wait). I tried it, waited for more than a week, but got what I wanted - cheap fares to Boston.
I bought my tickets today for $283. Assuming that I spend $50 for checking in a bag, I still spend $333 for travel from the project account. This means that Consumer Surplus for the project account is $500 - $333 = $167. This surplus can now be used for some other project-related expense in the future. Consumer surplus is an important concept in economics and I will let you read more about it on Wikipedia.
It's now decided and sealed. I am going to Boston in March to present at the Urban River Restoration Conference. I talked to my project guide in December, and he indicated that there were $500 left in the project account and I could use that amount to fund my travel. In effect, there was a willingness to pay upto $500 for the travel expense.
That's when I discovered Bing Travel. You may hate Microsoft for whatever reasons, but you've got to love Bing Travel. It is the only website to offer predictions on the best time to purchase tickets. Based on historical records, it gives you a simple indicator of whether fares will go up or down in the next few days and what is your best course of action (buy tickets now/wait). I tried it, waited for more than a week, but got what I wanted - cheap fares to Boston.
I bought my tickets today for $283. Assuming that I spend $50 for checking in a bag, I still spend $333 for travel from the project account. This means that Consumer Surplus for the project account is $500 - $333 = $167. This surplus can now be used for some other project-related expense in the future. Consumer surplus is an important concept in economics and I will let you read more about it on Wikipedia.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)