Career Fair @ Michigan Tech 2009

Career Fair at Michigan Tech 2009 was held on September 29th, 2009.

Their were 150 Companies which had made their presence which included Arcelor Mittal, Ford, Cummins, Cooper Power, CN and so on.

My experience goes this way.
Wear your best formals. And close to dress code given

The dress code is mentioned here

After you all set up and your clothes speaks your personality, check your CV once again. Make sure your Objective is Loud and Clear. I had  a problem in Objective which i came to know after i submitted my first CV. (My objective stated: To have an Internship or Co-op at Raythen, while i was in the stall of Cummins). So i had to rush to nearby printer(Luckily i found one) and took some prints.

SO REMEMBER CHECK YOUR CV THRICE.

Later Practice well in advance what you are going to speak while you are their.
What i said was ("I have done my Bachelors in E & TC and done project on GPS...bla bla, Intern from Alstom bla bla, Currently Masters bla bla... so i was looking for Intern or Co-op at your Co. ") I knew i can improve it alot, but as i was not prepared for it.

SO PREPARE WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO SPEAK AS IT IS YOUR TICKET FOR INTERVIEW

Once you have puked don't forget the goodies which is for you. He/she might not give you, so it is your duty to trick him to give you. What i did was asking if it one of their product. Ha they said oh no no it is bla bla, do you want it? and my answer was never in negation. (Never ask  Ford  whether that bottle was their product?)

SO DO TAKE GOODIES.

Remember to have a pen and paper in hand to note down the time of interview session or info session. Later it would be difficult to remember what was at what and you will be in deep shit. (I mixed up the time of info session of Coopers ). So you see excitation may lead to mess. So be wise and stay clean.

SO TAKING NOTE OF APPOINTMENT GIVEN, HELPS.

I am in this stage and waiting for interview so rest will be updated as i progress further.

Till then you can check my booty i grabbed.

Progressive Dinner at City of Houghton

    [A part of series of article describing "Life as Celebration" by the people of City of Houghton]

Life in Houghton is full of Celebration. It started with K-Day, than came Parade of Nations which later paved way for Progressive Dinner.

Progressive Dinner is a concept where the courses of Dinner progresses from one Church to another. To be more specific, the Appetizer was in Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Salad was in Canterbury House, Main Course in Portage Lake United Church and Deserts in St. Albert the Great Church.

Citizens involved with each Church prepare a multicultural cuisine, is served to the guest and in this way you can know new people and create a healthy society. Well as far as i am concerned i made some Finnish friends   who could help me in my Coin Collection. Hurrah.

The food which caught my attention was various new kinds of Deserts (Full of cream), Garlic cutlet, Hamas with Pita Bread,  Salads with various kind of dressings and Mushroom Curry. 

One of the most fascinating things i discovered today was Canterbury House. It is a house (Present in all Universities of US), where people come for group study, have snacks, have part-time job, and participate in multi-cultural activities. The best part is its proximity to the Department's and would love to visit it time and again.

To conclude, this wonderful yearly event is a beautiful idea of developing sense of community among residents of Houghton. 

  

 

An enthusiastic net-surfer from India had a typical admission Query.

He has everything on his side GPA of around 3.9, GRE score hovering around 1500.

Few doubts which he raised are as follows:

1)How is the research going on in the field of VLSI (We are thinking of applying to VLSI)?

2) How are the job prospects after completion of our MS?

3) How are the funding oppurtunities in MS for EE?

4) Is our profile sufficient for applying there?

Well starting with first, VLSI is one of the best paying fields in EE. But due to recent downturn there has been quite reduction as far as research is concerned. No wonder Big Universities are getting funding but the correction has been by 60%. So once you prove your performance in the first Sem, then one has a good chance of getting research. The key is, while applying for Admissions, talk to Prof. about your interest and may be this will give you an edge against your peers.

So the answer is YES funding is available for those who prove their worth.

Second. Job Prospects are a bit shaky for VLSI Engg. It is said that Co. don't hire freshers easily as "Time to market" factor is very important in this field. So new hands would delay the stuff for them (Remember Moore Law). So it is better to opt for subjects in Embedded System and VLSI in first sem and then in second Semester you may decide what to do. In this way you may make things more clear.

Moreover even in VLSI (Being a large field) there are many domains. Digital, Analog, Mixed Signal and many more. Let me give you a brief intro about it. Before few years there was a large demand for Digital Designers and suddenly Analog designers demand increased. ARM, INTEL everyone ran behind Analog Engg. So it is all matter of time and no one can say what is more better.

My advice as you get admit in ECE and not only Electronics you may apply in general but latter may shift to field you think may lead you to a safe future.

Third. Research and Funding goes parallel. If you have good funding you are going to have good research so it is the same with answer 1. But if you are looking for what research is going on currently in VLSI? Then well i am doing in Research and Placement. Which is almost last step of complete VLSI package. Some people are also doing in Bio-chip which happens to be of my interest too.

Forth. Your profile is terribly good man. For American Universities, Osmania or Maharaja Sayaji Rao University is the same. Only IIT is a brand here as far as Indian Uni are to be considered. So any internship and paper presentation or projects are only taken into account when you do not have a good GRE, TOEFL and GPA. In your case everything is well structured so your extra-curricular would be an icing of the cake.

In simple words don make sure your SOP is nicely drafting so it would leave simply no room for your rejection of application.

Some Universities which i can suggest you is University of Michigan, North Carolina State University, University of Texas at Dallas, A & M, University of California (Irvine, Berkley), University of Southern California (You will get a sure shot admit) , Rutgers (NJ), Arizona State University, Georgia Tech and to be on safe side apply to Michigan Tech, UT at Arlington.

ALL THE BEST for your future aspirations and if you have any doubt do not hesitate to contact.

Presidential Command

After a considerable gap over reading novels, September 24 came as a rescue and bought me this wonderful book. It will help me in giving insight about what is actual difference between Presidential System and Parliamentary System of Govt.

The author of the book has been closely associated with more than 5 Presidents and gives some situations in which Foreign Policy of United States was drafted, thus affecting lives of millions of people around the world.

What shocks me is that the President in United States once in Power has to fill around 3000 positions like Secretary, Joint Secretary, Under Secretary and so on.

My friends who till now know my reading habits must be quite surprised over my selection of a Non-fictional novel. Probably i agree with them and the decision for me to read it is dual purpose. 1) As i said to know more about the country where i am present 2) To obviously get fresh from daily studies which i do.

I hope by the time this book gets completed i may be able to interpret what will be the next step of US Govt. towards H1-B status. [:)]

Placement of my room

I cannot imagine my research on Study of placement and routing of chips in a circuit help me in designing of my room. I selected the position of bed, TV, Microwave and fridge by taking the amout of socket, light availibilty and privacy into consideration.

This operation bought me the solution of why do company hire engineer from other field venthough they might have not been from the same background?

What a company wants from an fresher is not great outputs or inventions, but fresh ideas. I can add something to it from my personal experince.

My Internship at Alstom Power was completely off my background in telecommunication. Infact instead of keeping me in Instrumentation and Control (Closest to my background), i was kept in Process side as a process engineer. Gradually when i interacted with my co-colleage and my seniors i came to know that this is what others face too.

An IIT- Kanpur grad. in Mechanical Engineering was in Procurement Dept. A DCE mech grad. was in Quality dept. writing punch points. The answer was clear. Company wants responsible people with commitment towards their work. The only thing they expect from the trainee is that they should be able to grasp all the knowledge given to them with curosity. They should be able to excel things given to them within time frame with lots of enthusiasm.

So my conclusion to all other students is that STUDY ALWAYS HELPS WHAT EVER IT MAY BE.

SOP for MS in Electrical Engineering

My SOP for my friends

Chirag K. Shah ~ MS ~ Electrical Engineering (VLSI) ~ Spring 2010

STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

It was only after careful consideration of my aptitude, interests and experiences gained while pursuing my under graduation in the field of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering that I have decided to pursue my masters in the field of Electrical Engineering. Being a dynamic and ever evolving field, many new developments are expected and there is immense scope for research on new products and applications. To progress and make a mark in this field, I realize that it is important for me to pursue my Master’s from a reputed university. So while gaining admission to your university and completing this course would be my immediate goal, I have always dreamt of taking up research. So after gaining some work experience with a well established company, I wish to further my qualifications with a PhD and conduct some ground-breaking research with some of the best minds in the research industry.

At Sinhgad College of Engineering, Pune University, I have secured a first class in my final year. Pursuing Electronics and Telecommunications engineering have introduced me to many core electronics subjects such as microprocessor, mobile communications, VLSI and signal processing but I believe I need to take this knowledge and understanding to an advance level hence a Masters degree is inevitable.

My interest in circuit design scaled when I undertook a project on “GPS based vehicle tracking system” in the last year. This project aimed at locating the position upto 10 meters of a vehicle was based on Matlab as front end mechanism while the programming of ARM was done in C using Keil . I learnt and used Digital Electronics and Matlab to implement the project. I take pride in mentioning that my team secured first place for Technical Paper Presentation on the same topic with jury comprising of best brains in the field..

I have always been conscious in upgrading my skills and knowledge as I believe as engineers needs to keep themselves abreast with the latest developments and technologies. At the moment, I am gaining superior skills in C++ programming during my course of study at Michigan Tech and I believe mastering these skills will aid me immensely in the research at your department. Also my insight in Routing and Placement gained by my research in current semester will help to add value to the department diversity. Additionally, I also did my internship from Alstom Projects India Limited as a process engineer at combined cycle power plant. This experience makes me confident to take new challenges and achieve it in specific time frame.

I have attended many technical seminars and presentations on VLSI Design, Embedded System Design and Robotics which were offered at college. Moreover my constant discussionss with my Professor and PhD students at Michigan Tech helps me in knowing current issues in research and possible solutions for it.

Michigan State University is a research based University which foster creative and innovative thinking among the students. It is a known fact that the academic and research facilities in the University are highly qualified in their respective field . At your department, research projects in the field of VLSI design methods especially in routing and placement, Mixed Signal Design will particularly interest me and I would like work with some of the leading faculties and scholars in the nation. Getting a chance to be a part of such projects will really stimulate my innate technical and analytical abilities, expose me to the latest technologies as well as give me the competitive edge to secure an intership in a reputed company which will be a milestone towards achieving my goals.

Admissions worry due to class improvement.

Another day a very good friend of mine asked me a very interesting Question.

It goes this way: "If my class improvement result comes in February will it affect my admissions for Fall-10?"

Well, the answer is yes and no.

First start with positive side. No because in most of Good University (Remember most not all) such as Arizona State, SUNY and so on the deadline is missed by the time. But remember there are two deadlines. One for Online applications which most University accept and another is Document recieving deadline.

If i talk about my case then the deadline for Michigan State University was March 1. But that was for Online. I send the data on 15th with the request mail to the admissions dept.

So remember to submit the online application. Which does not require your score as you can mention result waiting. Even your GRE, TOEFL score space can be left blank. The only thing important in your online application will be your SOP (Some Uni. ask for online) and Application fee and term you are interested for.

Rest can be send as soon as available.

Now the bad part of the answer. There are certain University which does not accept even documents after certain date in any case (Bold because it depends on how you convince the admissions dept.). But those are rear and most University will accept Documents in March also.

So please don't worry unless you have submitted applications.

Have a great week.

Volunteering at Econofood and Sailing on Portage Lake

Can any one have more better than mine.Starting with waking earlier than my hyperactive roomie to sailing on a 30 feet deep lake, it was simply what i can say"My Day".

Econofoods is the biggest grocery store in the area. I went to volunteer as a box boy for fund raising for an an event called Parade of Nations.

http://www.doe.mtu.edu/international/international_festival.html

For many residing in this area it is said to be the best festival. The proof was pretty obvious with funds raised to be any where between 1K to 2K as Piggy (Bank's) stomach being full of GREEN Color

Later having earned my reward with delicious food i headed straight for Ms Nancy's place for Sailing. ( I hope she becomes American ambassador to India). My crew members were cool guys with having Phd in Sailing. Man genius. The passion was obvious with Nicky coming from Lower Michigan just for boating race.

I came across some GREEK words such as starboard , port , forward or fore , aft bow , stern , beam and so on. ....

After coming second in the two race participated, we won a NIMBUS TOO award. (Chocolate of more than 15 varieties). Jesus...

After reaching dock plan was made for a dinner at Library Restaurant. (My first American Restaurant). Had a Veggie Sub and was surprisingly good.

After bidding adieu to the crew members and thanking to make the day so delighful for me came to room for dance practice for Indian group of Parade of Nations.

And now i am here describing the day i had..........

For all GRE aspirant

My dear college friend recently contacted me for tips to crack GRE.

Well the solution lies in itself G= Geek + R=Remember + E = Execution

Let me explain each of you seperately.

GGG

GGG

GGG. You have to collect all the books essential to learn. Be a geek. Find them online and you can have it without paying a penny. Books Suggested. Nova Latest, Baron, EEC Classes Books and Kaplan for tests. There are also various software available online and most are available of above mentioned books. Dr. Raju site is also good to have couple of probs.PowerPrep send by ETS will also add value to your collection

RRR

RRR

RRR. Remember what ever you study. This is a key to crack GRE (1400 + score). There are so many words (3500 of them) start remembering from day one. But hey be smart.

A Homosapien is not born for these stuff. What you need to do is Learn 400 hitlist words of Nova. Remember it. Then start solving all tests. You would face words mostly related to these 400 words and remember them also. These way by the end of 2.5 months you will have memorized 1K words and in opinion enough as all important will be covered. In test you will be asked words played around this only....Power Prep is your Key. DONOT solve it before 2 days of your exams. You will have couple of Questions from it toooo. For Quant try to solve Maths of NOVA and also Barron Last 5 papers. Moreover in EEC books solve 4th and 5th level maths problem. They are really good. And please do not over work on problem.

REMEMBER: DO QUALITY NOT QUANTITY. There are few type of Questions so by solving all these you will go under all categary so just KEEP ALL TRICKS IN MIND. Its that simple. Don't go to other sources for more options. Simply don't.

REMEMBER:Do not over practice!!! I have seen ppl solving MBA books for Probablity. Don't do that Probablity Q asked are very Easy.

EEE

EEE

EEE Execute your paper fully planned. As i said Power Prep when solved before 2 days gives best estimate of your score in test. I had same to same. Can you believe that. You will once you go through it. Also there are lots of things to remember while giving exams. Do remember you will have to write Issue and Arguement. Just practice a bit before 3-4 days and see how the pattern is. After taking all the practice test you would be very confidant about the pattern and the screen you will have in test.

NOTE: In Quant. beware of D.I. It is easy but read the Q twice before solving. It's kinda tricky.

Do select your University well in advance so that you wont miss 4 free scores.

All the best and do tell me score. [:)]

Admitted in Computers program in US for Masters in top 60 university

Here i am going to discuss about a typical example of my friend who wants to get admitted in Masters program of Computer Engineering. His worry is to get admitted in top 60 University of US.

10th : 75% 2002
12th : 60% 2004
B.E. Comp - 2008 (Kanpur University ): 67 % in final year
Aggregate of 8 semesters -> 55% with total 11 dead backlogs.
Work Ex (K.P.O) : 6 months as Technical Trainee in Dell

Seems pretty interesting with the odds not much in favour. But looking with the past experience of my friends with almost similar academic track record i found its possible to get admit if not easy.

Just keep this in mind. I and other friend of mine with GRE of 1330 and 1350 in Electronics got admit from NY Poly and Michigan Tech. While other friends of our in Computer with GRE of 1300 and 1400 got into USC and Georgia Tech.

So here is where the difference comes into picture. It is more easier to get admitted for Computer Programs.

So my friend keep in mind to highlight strong points of yours such as Work-ex, Programming skills (In your case CCNS) and good GRE and TOEFL score in SOP. Your LOR should also be something impressive to get admitted.

So make sure you start taking working instead of wasting time in unexpected strategies.

Take care and All the best

Posted by Chirag K. Shahat 10:42 PM