Industrial Instrumentation & me

I had just recovered from my shoulder injury and the sling was just removed .Our class test were going on, the day was of 5th january 2007.I went to my classroom and found that 4-5 friends of my branch ( all were boys ) were gossiping in the corridor regarding the change of elective subject.
I just thought that gossips never churn out anything , but during the next subject class, I came across an application letter regarding the change of elective and I refused to sign over it.


Actually I really wanted to study the core instrumentation;this very word creates a curiosity in my mind.I do remember, till 4th semester I used to ask our teachers -" How can we define Instrumentation?". My line of thinking is that when we will announce our self as an Instrumentation engineer, we should be the master of Instrumentation.
Our batch is 1st batch of our new university and we are the 1st batch of our branch in our college.

way back to 5th semester I had decided that I will not study computer science electives in 7th semester and 8th semester . Fortunately in 7th semester we got Biomedical Instrumentation as the elective, here also I had a thought to try 'Adaptive Signal Processing', but later on I poured cold water on this plan.Infact Biomed. inst. turned out to be a scoring subject along with our Compulsory subject of similar kind.
This time I was again relaxed that the 2 subjects offered-- 'Industrial Instrumentation' and 'Image Processing' are of our interest, but unfortunately our teacher of 'I. I.' left for UK and my other friends got the opportunity to opt for 'Operating systems'.


The thing about which I was fearing finally happened.Now I had to struggle for my choice.
I just disclosed my feelings to our H.O.D. in best expressive way possible, and he took it otherwise, I was taken aback, but I was knowing one thing that our respected sir can not restrict me from taking that subject as it was offered by the department itself ,initially.
I told that we can wait till new faculty comes.Later I learnt --

• that in Orissa faculty of instrumentation are not available at all.
• that the syllabus cover , very specific topics and that too is inter disciplinary.
• that the no. of books required will be 4-5.
• that the cost of all the books is very high and can not be afforded by a single student.
• that some of the books are out of print and are not available in library and market even if we are ready to bear the cost.
• that the new faculty came and left within one day.
• that this subject is provided in another 5 colleges of our university and there also condition is same as ours.
• that the examination paper can still be tough.

Now I had to fight against all these odds.The option of taking 'OS' along with other friends was always open.Only 5 out of rest 25 friends dared to take I.I with me.
I consulted in Chennai, Kolkata for books and I didn't got any response.
I searched in the Internet , and informations available were useless.
I visited our Director Research and I was made confirmed that , no faculty is going to come.
I visited our Executive Director and I haven't got any satisfactory answer.
I visited the director of another college ,he took my phone number never to ring me back.
I asked my friends of Durg and Amritsar about this subject but they were unaware of such subject.
I bought alternative books but they were having the same title with different study materials, not covering my syllabus at all.
There was a time when I used to think about I.I meeting with new faces,( may be they might be knowing something about it).
Our class test was also with-held.
The book of " Bela G Liptak " was of atleast 3kg, and was using abbreviations which were alien to me.I was striving for a faculty and guidance.
meanwhile I went to BPUT (univ.) TechFest and made friends of my branch who had taken this particular subject. I took their phone numbers and really one good fellow helped me a lot.
meanwhile our H.O.D.assigned one faculty to us, and things started moving.
I searched one of the book mentioned in syllabus in the web , but its cost was 250 euro.

The turning point came, when I went to our Director Academics(Bibhu Sir), and told all my frustration to him.He took the matter very seriously and helped us a lot ; He assured to purchase that book of 259 euros for us.
The miracle happened when one of the visiting faculty from NIT Rourkela agreed cover our syllabus in 16 hr. lectures which were supposed to be held within 2 days.Unfortunately our 1 day could not be made because sir felt ill, but he finished our course within 8 hr. next day.
We six people studied that subject from morning 8 o'clock to evening 7:30.
Now only six days were remaining for our main exams and I was still worried about exams .
I was constantly talking to students of other colleges, some of them played a bit prank with me, but when I saw the question paper of I.I . I was surprised that I was knowing all the answers.
I used highest no. of additional sheets taken by me in any exam to complete my answers .My exam went really very well.I am waiting the results of 8th sem. and am sure to get good marks in I.I.

I may face some tougher projects and issues later in my engineering carrier, but this event served me as a vaccination .As in vaccination ,a small amount of the virus are inserted in the body from which it is to be protected, our white blood cells fight with this little amount and then are better equipped to fight with similar kind of virus in large amounts also, similarly now I am feeling my self smarter, sharper and more experienced, moreover now I can teach this subject to my juniors also.