Saturday, February 28, 2009

When is AeSI training not worth doing?

If any investment of your time doesn’t build internal assets, it isn’t worth doing.

Very true in every case. Recently I had a chat with my colleague. He just came back from UK on an onsite assignment and had done training in NAL Saras division.

I asked him about his experiences at both this place and he replied " yaar bore ho gaya, koi kaam hi nahi tha" he added  " sara sara din bhitho and ghar ja kar so jao" why? " yaar kaam aata hai but in drips so there was a long wait"...  so what you did in this long break " yaar soyae, net surf kiyae, ghanae sunae , ghumae aur kya"

Well this is where the problem lies. A few days back this very same guy commented that he wanted to learn VBA. And what’s surprising was that he was working on excel in both NAL and here in his present job and then also he knows nothing about VBA!!!

So who is to blame here. The guy of course. He had the time, the opportunity but he never utilized it. He was mostly stuck at the how part he reasons, but I know the reason is different. He was not clear about the where part. He wasn't clear where he wanted to invest his time or efforts. If he had clearly defined where he wanted spend his time, then learning VBA was just a matter of googling it... as he had access to internet, the vast reservoir of collective knowledge but he reframed from using it.

So how will you rate his training days in NAL and in the present assignment? I will give him zero. As I truly believe that If any investment of his time doesn’t build internal assets, it worthless.

Before deciding on training or getting a job think hard, Is the the time you will invest build internal asserts like new technical skills, discipline or presentation skills, if it doesn't then it isn't worth doing.

I have barely scratched the surface here, do pitch in with your views in the comments

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Related :

Friday, February 27, 2009

AeSI AGM at least attend your graduating ceremony

A good friend of mine whose name I won't reveal but he missed the AGM  (the annual general meeting) of AeSI.  In fact he choose not to go to it even though he was supposed to get his degree.

His reasons!!!!

The usual I can't waste my leaves on this. I don’t have enough time. Well maybe his reasons are reasonable or correct but what I feel is he missed a good opportunity. Its the only time in AeSI you feel what AeSI is, you get to see it physically and only time when the AeSI feels like a real organization than a voice on the phone.

And what's worst is that my friend would have easily been there if if had given it a thought and planning before hand.

For me I was also working when AGM happened for me. So what I did. I took a buddy he was also working at that time. And just at the announcement of the AeSI AGM we planned everything and marked our calendars and made it clear that we will be there.

What I would advice AeSI graduates is first decide that no matter what you will be at the AeSI graduation seminar. No matter how much you plan but first thing you need to do is decide that you will be there. In fact I have reiterated about it in the post Grand Hyatt mein...…

Then look for a buddy, someone who is in the same boat you are, who has the same reason for not making it to AGM. Then when you get the  dates for it make all arrangement immediately

Don't be like my friend, Its your graduating ceremony event and you shouldn’t miss it.

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Related AGM stories

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Tips for a new beginning

My cousin is settled now and when he came to Bangalore after his graduation, he practically had no skills, but within 6 months that he stayed here in Bangalore, he transformed himself from an ignorant boy  to a confident knowledgeable person. His confidence in himself propelled him back to his home town and he is now well settled there.

As I sat thinking about him, I realized that there are these 3 things that we all can learn from my cousin.... So lets begin.

Nothing is big or small. Take up any opportunity to get a start in the beginning, don't fuss over small things, see the big picture understand and get a feel of the new environment and settings. Know the rules before you break them.

Be dedicated. Apply and practice everyday. Put in the time, the effort everyday. Even if your body revolts and you feel like laying around, get up and make a effort and start.

Focus on the process not the outcome. Delve into the methods, devote more time on action than on thinking, remember Ready Fire then Aim

Measure, review and learn. Apply the lesson learnt. Quantify your output, your effort and use that as a motivation. (Read  Measure What is Measurable)

And last of all do an entirely different project along with your usual tasks. The project should not be related, have no close or remote connection. This keeps you from getting bored and brings some unexpected fresh twist in your goals and regular tasks.

 

Related :

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Why General Budget and this things are important

As interim general budget is being presented, I sat in front of my TV, thinking of what this means to us, the AeSI engineers. Well I have no idea. But one needs to find this out. Why you ask?

As Indian aerospace industry is going global and more and more of AeSI engineers are making a mark in aerospace industry, every word that the finance minister says do affect us, even when we are oblivious to it.

Being in the not known doesn't means we are immune to what things are happening. So take active interest in this stuff.

Yes I agree, Malika Sherawat's moves in her next movie, Shah Rukh khan’s next movie and slumdog millionaire’s success at the Oscars are more interesting topics to chat over around the coffee machine but not learning and keeping up with what's happening in the industry is one bad move that one shouldn't make

As stated in AIAA’s article Actions that will take your career ahead you need to keep tab on the industry we are in.

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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Impact Comes From The Craftsman,

Just like every powerful tool, the impact comes from the craftsman, not the tool. -Seth Godin

Just read  this blog entry from marketing guru Seth Godin and loved this line. and its very true. True for all the things that I advocate in this blog. Catia, Solidworks, Ansys, Nastran, Unigraphics, Hypermesh, Fluent, ICEM, Isight, Gambit,Patran etc are powerful tools but that power doesn't come by itself, it comes from the users who uses it.

tools-don't-make-the-impact Its not the tools that create great things, its the application by the "craftsman" who makes wonders with them.

Always remember this when you are playing and handling your tools. You are the driver and where the vehicle will go is always in your hand and how skilful you are in it.

Same can be said for the slumdog film, there was nothing spectacular in the script, simple characters, simple scenes but the directors use of scene, screen play and  treatment made all the difference.... The camera, the technicians and the locations were all same that you will find in any Ram Gopal Verma's film, only thing that made slumdog great was its application.

So whenever you are looking at your tools, go forward with this attitude. You will surely win your Oscar!!!

related:

Energy, Interest, and Time.

Energy, interest, and time.

These 3 things can transform failure to success. Mundane to meaningful and common to special.

Energy to push forward,to carry on against odds. Interest to carry on, to explore to learn. Time to try things, to put in, to keep the promise.

If you can incorporate these three words in your life, you will never fail or miss something useful.

Natarajan sir is the person in my student life, who displayed all this 3 traits. He was in GIE close to 15 hours on Saturdays and Sundays, giving one class lecture after another. So no doubt about the energy and the time he put it.

And interest in his subjects and love to teach is what propelled him.

So find your interest and begin to put in the time and energy to it and success will be yours.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Good Tips for Job Seekers via LinkedIn - Video

This Forbes video has some good tips for job seekers on how to catch a recruiter’s attention at Facebook, orkut, Twitter and other social sites.

A few days back I wrote a post asking AeSI graduates and students to join LinkedIn and how it will help them,  this video supplements the topic.

Great advice in the video. If you aren’t seeing the video click here

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Sunday, February 22, 2009

Where Vs How – IPL 20-20

Which is more important where or how? Answer this before you proceed. Yes carry on….. I'll wait.

For me I feel where is the more important. Where I spend my most of the time is more important than how I spend it? Deciding on spending time in catia rather than in the coffee shop is more important than how will I spend the time.

Where means action, where as how delves in the realm of thinking. How encourages one to postpone the decision whereas where sets the agenda.

I see the success of IPL as the win of WHERE. Whereas ICL was mainly concerned with HOW, the grounds and stuff so it is stuck and had limited success compared to IPL

Which project to work on is more important, more crucial than how. Deciding on where and which will enable you to take on the next stage of how. How is important but not so as where and which.

How is learnable. Where is the decision. The ability to decide on where and which is the core of it. This is where IPL succeeded. How can you use this in your journey of AeSI.

AeSI in this regards confronts you with so many choices,which stream to choose from Section A to Section B choice, Doing or Not doing a training choice, so the most successful or good choice is not how you execute it, but  the choice is to choose the where before you think about the how. Once the WHERE is chosen, innumerable resources are available for anyone to get a jump start in to his or her chosen calling. Its always great. So take heart and choose the where, how will follow…

What do you think? I would love to know your views. please share them in the comments.

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Saturday, February 21, 2009

Some Tips to learn from Tutorials

Never use shortcut when learning a software. My experience of learning a new FEM software that is always popping up and figuring in most of my posts now is a testament of the fact.

Within short time I have learnt a great deal on this software, yes even my collogues wonder that I know more about this software than the person who has been touch with the software for last one year.

Yesterday only the guy came to my desk and saw that I was doing something in the FEM software and he wondered, “hey, can we do this in this software? I didn't knew that ?" This came from a person who for the last 6 months was working on that software. I saw he relied on toolbars while I knew where this commands were in the menus, he usually did those stuff through toolbars

So what are things to watch for. Use menu items than the toolbars. yes toolbars are shortcuts but relying  on menus means you will expose yourself to many other commands. This brings the other options to notice.

Same thing goes for dialog box inputs. In the dialog box don't just blindly fill in the default values explore. Try all the fields. Fill in unexpected values. See the error message the software throws up. understand the meaning of defaults.

Once the tutorial is over don't stop your exploration there. Continue it as you go along. Usually tutorials teach about one aspect of the tool but there is no harm to move ahead.

Explore instead of plotting displacement plot von stress or instead of vector plots try counter plots. Change the direction of load or  boundary conditions. For me the tutorials does not end until I am tired of the model.

Yes all this takes time but even if you don't get anything important out of it but you are always learning and your mind  picks up little pieces that are helpful and It also helps your mind to get used to the tool.

Do you do any of this stuff in your learning of a new tool?

Friday, February 20, 2009

Questions On AeSI training

A few days back I wrote about 11 questions one should ask if he desires to go for training after AeSI. And I promised that I will post my answers to the questions that I had, so here we go. Hope this will give you some insight and direction in your quest for training after AeSI.

What is my goal for doing the training?

Well when I was at the training stage of AeSI, my most important criteria was to get into a environment which gave me the opportunity to learn and apply my skills. I already had the programming knack and I enjoyed thermodynamic and the propulsion subjects so I wanted to learn something that was based on these two skills. Catia or any CAE software were not in my mind. I was ready to accept learning catia or any other CAD but I wanted to test the waters for my programming skills and the stream I was graduating from.

Is there an alternate way I can fulfill this goal?

Since I had one subject (that is VMD ) left to clear and had the time so I initiated my training to make fruitful use of the time I had and my goal was to learn whatever I can and then give exams while doing this.

What skills I will develop with this training?

For me CAD and CAE skills were not the primary goal. When I joined NAL, my primary focus was what I knew and how I can apply it to the benefit of the mentor who took me as a trainee. So as I sat for the small interview with Dr Ramamurthy sir, my focus was on the c and small vb skills that I had. In fact those were the highlights of my resume at that time.

Are the skills congruent with my specialization?

In those days performance job was the only thing propulsion stream guys did. It was the in thing and for this excel and knowledge of one programming language was the most important so while I joined NAL, I was prepared to focus on these tool and skills. They were as I knew then congruent with my desire of working in an aerospace organization on software development and tools development

How much time I'll spend on the tools?

At the time of joining I made a goal that I will put at least 1 hours of my time in the tools that I want to learn and explore. In my last semester of AeSI, I employed a similar technique and put in a daily goal in which I wrote one c program daily. So I can decided to carry on the same here in my training and made a daily target to put in one hour minimum of my time in learning the tools that are available at my disposal in NAL. I set this minimum one hour limit and vowed not to miss it any day.

Does the skills I will learn congruent with my job goals?

As fate has been, I knew C but when I joined NAL and began working, my mentor handed me FORTRAN programs which I was supposed to run, and debug. This changed my course and without considering a bit I began learning FORTRAN putting the needed hours into it. Then as I began picking it, I was entrusted VB which I began learning in earnest and so as things progressed I picked up the skills that I am now using in my present and last work. So I would say at that time I just wanted to learn something and the best thing that I did then was I didn't block anything that came my way. I just accepted the opportunity that the work brought and carried on and I am thankful that I did so.

Is the mentor I will be working under well known or known to be good?

Yes this was best for me. Even before joining NAL, my friends told that if you want a good training then Dr Ramamurthy was the best for a propulsion stream guy. So He was the first person I approached and by luck I got through. He liked my resume and I got selected. I am glad and will forever be indebted to have him as my first boss later when I joined NAL as a contract engineer.

What are my 3 specific targets from this training?

My 3 specific goals during the training were.

  • To apply what I knew to the benefit of my mentors work, be it in programming, designing or analysis.
  • To be market ready and learn whatever is presented in my way
  • To gather skills and experience that will help me get a job after the training

How long I am willing to put in the time in what I do?

Since I still had one subject to clear, so  I knew 6 months was “pakka” for me to stay and I decided that  I will stay 6 months more before I head for any job. I even promised Dr Ramamurthy about this and in reality I stayed more than that duration and it was all worth it.

Do I really believe all the answers I have written?

When I did this training and decided to join, I knew what I am good at. So I wanted to test the water and wanted to see what I can learn and what I love the most. Even though my thoughts were not so clear about what I liked more (programming or designing or analysis), but I knew I wanted to explore my possibilities and areas of interest and training in NAL did fulfill all my wishes and helped me know what I enjoyed the most and wanted to work.

How will you quantify your success at the training?

This was one thing that I did in two ways one was to log the hours on each software that I worked on. So every night I came home and noted the hours that I put in each software. This helped me learn incrementally. Sometime even when there was no work I just explored that software and tinkering with it, always taught me a thing or two.

Another way I quantified my success was by crafting my resume, all that work that I did there increased my work experience and taught me new software tools every month, so I made a resume every 2 month with the updated new skills and work and posted it in naukri.com. This updating showed me that I was learning and the posting of resume in naukri brought in the new offers in my email that showed me what kind of profile I was building with the skills I was acquiring.

So that’s it,It has become a longer post that usual but I hope it helps AeSI students who are looking for training to clarify their thoughts and helps make them better choices.

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Thursday, February 19, 2009

Curiosity and Exploration

image curiosity and exploration are the two things that can accelerate any learning that you take up.

As I search for one underline theme in all my past and present learning pattern and projects, curiosity and exploring that curiosity has given me the major benefits.

My curiosity to build bulldozer helped me learn solidworks, exploring with solidworks laid my path to solid model India's first mixed flow compressor. Tinkering with ANSYS scripts fueled my interest in CAE and CAD automation.

Likewise in the recent FEM software my curiosity to explore it made me that tool quicker than others.

So how this all helps you?

Grow the habit of curiosity and exploration. In your free time, between work assignment, explore. Sometime explore excel. Learn how to use macros in Microsoft word. Explore lofting in catia, turbotool of gambit or explore ANSYS’s scripting abilities.

No one can stop you doing that and all it takes is 15 minutes. Get curious and explore.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

How to Write Great Cover Letter?

Cover Letters is one of the topics that I have covered quite a few time in this blog. Today as I read this latest advice on how to write great cover letters I could resist posting it here.

 

Some of the tips in there are obvious and some are really good. Do check it out and Hope this help you in your quest for jobs

 

how to write great cover letter?

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Some of the Related Websites AeSI Sites hosts

Have you ever gone to the AeSI’s new website which hosts a section called related website. (if not then here’s the link)

Following is the list of web sites listed there

 

  • www.airindia.com
  • www.airbus.com
  • www.airportsindia.org.in
  • www.asladvancedsys.in
  • www.boeing.com
  • www.cadestech.com
  • www.ecil.co.in
  • www.ge.com
  • www.hitech.com
  • www.embraer.com
  • www.indamer.com
  • www.rolls-royce.com
  • www.iasindia.com
  • www.honeywell.com
  • www.rockwellcollins.com
  • www.tajaironline.com
  • www.raes.org.uk
  • www.maxaerospace.com
  • www.iocl.com
  • www.indian-airlines.nic.in
  • www.vemtechnologies.com

    aesilogoSo now tell me how many of them are related to you? and Have you visited any one of them?

    Vemtechnologies is the odd one. I haven’t heard the name for the first time. Same for IOCL. Wondering why NAL, HAL and ISRO doesn’t figure in the AeSI’s site.

    So what are the sites I want to see on AeSI’S related website.

    • NAL
    • HAL
    • ISRO
    • Quest Global
    • Hcltechnologies
    • TCS
    • Infotech
    • ADA
    • ADE

    What do you want to see?

  • Monday, February 16, 2009

    Achieve

    As I wrote that I am posting this blog for the last 4 years in my last post here, the realty sunked in. 4 years is a long time. This is the 5th year I am running this blog. This bog has grown with me and has seen my journey from section a to section b to training and getting a job. Personally it witnessed my love life, getting married and having a bundle of joy. so I just went back to my achieves and cranked this two graphs after some number crunching.

     

    my-aesi-blog-posting

    blogposting-my-aesi-over-4-years

     

    The first graph shows the no of post that I made for all the years and the second graph gives a glimpse of the total postings month wise.

    2008 was the year I learnt the most and did posted the most. This year I hope to surpass 2008 and aim to add some more focused valuable content that will benefit the AeSI community at large.

    For anyone interested, below is the total archive of the posts so far.

    If you like what you see you can subscribe it here to get all this in your email.

    Sunday, February 15, 2009

    Suggestions on AMAeSI course offered by AeSI

    A few weeks back Mr pratap, wrote me a mail asking me this

    “I want your suggestions on AMAeSI course?”

    Well I don’t know what he meant by this question. If the question was to tell him about AMAeSI the course then I would have directed him to this post. Or does he meant to ask me about my experience on AMAeSI, well then I am documenting the same here in this blog since 2004!!!

    Since I don’t know what specific topic he wanted to cover  so here I am listing out some of the things that I have covered about AMAeSI course in this blog

    This is list of FAQ about AMAeSI the course. I made this presentation as during that time I was getting lot of emails from students of class XII about the AMAeSI course from AeSI.

    This is blog post in reaction to a poll question that i have put up and is quite popular. Still now my answer to this holds true. I am waiting for the day when I can change my answer to this question.

    This is another query that I receive most of the time about what is the scope of AMAeSI? What are the prospects after AMAeSI?

    Looking fro examination centers of AMAeSI exams then look no more. All of them are presented in this map of examination centers.

    Another common query and this one is answered by Bishnujee. This post is just the beginning find more.

    I might have missed something important so here is the list of the articles that I wrote under AMAeSI 

    Everything about AMAeSI at one place, Hope this helps.

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    Saturday, February 14, 2009

    Open Letter to Ministry of HRD by Bishnujee

    The following is the text of the email that Bishnujee has sent to the Ministry of HRD. Love the work he is doing for AeSI folks.

     

    Dear Prof R A Yadav,
    S incere compliments of the day.I wanted to draw your kind attention that AICTE & Ministry of HRD need to take careful about the Degrees & Diploma issued by Universities & Professional Institutions. Serious problems have been faced by Applicants to US Immigrant Visa where there applications has been rejected by USCIS Immigration Officers challenging the terminology used by Indian Institutions. I would be glad if you people can kindly look into this issue and recommend changes.

    In recent times cases has increased at a rapid pace and the matter has been referred to me where I had to personally intervene with USCIS Immigration Officers regarding such issues.These issues can be very well taken care of by Academic regulating bodies like AICTE,Ministry of HRD & others.


    There are certain Professional Institutions like Institution of Engineers (India),Aeronautical Society of India ,IETE(India),IME (India) who award there Sec A & B Qualifications which is recognised by Govt of India at par with BE/BTech from Indian University.These qualifications has been under scrutiny of US Immigration officers as they want to check whether these Professional Membership Qualification are indeed Degree Qualification since they have been using the term Section A & B on there completion certificate and it doesn't state anywhere on the same that it is Degree certificate.

    Only IME (India) among these Professional Institution has been issuing Certificate with term Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Rest all of them have been issuing under there own terminology like Completion certificate or Associate/Graduate Membership certificate. This has led to plenty of Graduates from such Institution being denied Immigrant Visa.

    I have been discussing with USCIS on individual case basis ,but I would be glad if this terminology issue is taken care of by regulating bodies from India,so that there Graduates don't face such problem in Foreign nations.

    Professional Membership Institutions need to be very clear regarding there professional Exams which allows them to award Degree certificate or equivalent,since mixing of Membership title with Educational Qualification Title can lead to serious issues. For Example: Any Commercial Pilot License may be Graduate Member of Aeronautical Society of India and higher membership Grade. So he cannot be considered as Professional Degree as per rule.

    That's why they need to be careful with Professional Examination Qualification title. Only IME (India) has so far been issuing terminology " Degree in Mechanical Engineering" which looks better than other terminology.But there need to be parity between terminology used by these Institution to avoid discomfort to there Graduate Engineers.

    Your help in this regard would be very much appreciated.

    Kind regards
    Bishnujee Singh

    Hope the AeSI and the concerned person respond and do the needful for this issue.

    My Valentine

    anmol blue

    Happy Valentines Day!!

    As the war rages between Liberty and Valentine. I just wish people enjoy life as it is, keeping politics, religions and extremism out of it.

    Friday, February 13, 2009

    AeSI results is out

    aesi-results-out

    Yes I now you know it but then again I just wanted to shout. AeSI RESULTS OUT!!

    Congrats to everyone have crossed one more step of the ladder of AeSI. And for those who weren’t lucky, don’t loose heart. Learn from this and go full throttle for the next upcoming exams.

    I got the news of results in office and because of limited access to net, I was not able to check the full results, but as I saw the half downloaded results these are the things that I noticed.

    This time AeSI not only posted the marks of passed students but also included the marks of the failed roll number. This is a good step this will allow us to have a better idea on how we performed and if someone failed we now know how much marks were the lowest in that subject. It also gives the indication of the number of students appearing in the exams.

    well as you know as is my habit of number crunching, I will begin that during sometime this weekend and will come up with some useful insights. So stay tune.

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    What if your plans go haywire?

    turbofan-engine-rolls-royce-on-the-podWhat if your plans go haywire? What if your well laid out action steps are turned meaningless by an external factor. 

     

    Like your time table for study is ruined since that time is now taken by an unscheduled extra class. In my case this has happened recently when my office timing changed and my well formed routine got twisted. I am still trying to cope up with it. But here are 3 things that has helped me so my plans of goals are still on track.

     

    • First hour of walking is very important for me. This is when I execute most of my plans.  I get up and do the stuff that I need to do. So utilize the first hour of your day and you will have most productive all day long.

     

    • Second thing  that I did was stop thinking start doing. Yes doing is what will take you closer to your goals so stop thinking and begin doing.

     

    • Now doing is always not that easy. My action plan for this was start with a small step. Small step that requires no extra effort. Like if I need to write an article I just begin it outline it. If I have to begin a big project assignment I begin breaking down the big thing to small steps and begin doing the first small steps.

    All this small steps stack up and are helping me when my plans go haywire.

     

    Do you any such tips and experience. Do share it with me.

    Thursday, February 12, 2009

    AeSI Training: 11 questions to ask yourself before deciding on training

    Training is an integral part of AeSI students journey. Its one thing that had huge impact in my career, this was the point where my confidence in my abilities and education increased. Read 6 reasons for doing training after AeSI to know more about it.

    Here is the list of eleven questions that can help you decide is training for you and what exactly will you gain from it.

    1. What is my goal for doing the training?
    2. Is there an alternate way I can fulfill this goal?
    3. What skills I will develop with this training?
    4. Are the skills congruent with my specialization?
    5. How much time I'll spend on the tools?
    6. Does the skills I will learn congruent with my job goals?
    7. Is the mentor I will be working under well known or known to be good?
    8. What are my 3 specific targets from this training?
    9. How long I am willing to put in the time in what I do?
    10. Do I really believe all the answers I have written?
    11. How will you quantify your success at the training?

    Hope answering this questions will help you see the direction you want to take after your AeSI. Answering this sure did helped me in my journey. will share my answers to this questions in a latter post

    Wednesday, February 11, 2009

    Aero India 2009 Show is On

    Aero India 2009

    Tutorials

    vlcsnap-79527If you are planning to learn CATIA ANSYS or any other technical software then getting tutorials for them is the first thing that comes to mind.

    Without tutorials things seems lost. Best way as I have stated here is to see a real person doing it but since this isn't always possible because of various reasons, so we tend to gravitate towards tutorials.

    There are lots of tutorials that I have found and have linked them here in this blog. Some are related to CATIA, some to ansys, some to solidworks etc. All are the stuff that I saw in my exploration phase of tinkering with each of this tools.

    In this post I'm linking all those in this one page. Hope this will help you get the best of this blog.

     

    By no means this list is complete, please add your suggestions and links here. I would love to have your feedback.

    Tuesday, February 10, 2009

    3 things to do when you receive the result.

    AeSI result is expected any day this week, so I thought why not write about 3 things that I did in my AeSI days that helped me start the next semester. So without any delay, lets begin.

    1. Whatever the result communicate it to anyone who cares. I have seen people in my days of AeSI hiding results from their parents, friends. That's counter productive as it puts you under more pressure. Pressure of lying. Many a times I got unexpected results but whatever it was I was truthful with it and communicated it to my parents. Yes they will sad angry and disappointed but my truth never gave them false assumption and my conscience was clear.

    2. Analyze your results.  Now a days you get marks along with the declaration of results and don't have to wait for mark sheet to arrive as we had to. So whatever be your marks. Take out the question paper and try to ascertain why you got those marks? How short are you from the highest. Yes it easy to blame the pattern and bad governance of AeSI but here you need to stop that and objectively access the things from your angle. Where you did wrong and where you did right. Refresh yourself of all the feeling that you had in the examination hall.

    3. Last of all, after all the analysis take out 3 action steps that you learnt from the above exercise and implement them in your study routine for the next semester. Like when I did this exercise while in AeSI, i always got 2 or 3 tips to improve on my study technique.

    So guys and gals these were some of things I did on getting my result. So what do you think? Do you do anything similar? Do share in the comments.

    Love to receive this and similar tips in you inbox then subscribe.

    Monday, February 09, 2009

    Constrained Life

    Things can't go more wrong. There's no electricity connection at my locality here in Bangalore for the last 24 hours so you can know how constrained life has become, but still my trusty phone is working but don't know how long the battery will hold and when Bangalore electricity department will wake up from their coma, so this is just a quick post to let you know what's hapenning with me right now!!

    :)

    AeSI results are due any day this week. So best of luck guys and gal

    Sunday, February 08, 2009

    25 Very Useful Excel Keyboard Shortcuts

    Majority of my work in office is done on excel and I have seen most of the other folks who are working on NASTRAN, CATIA, Solidworks, ANSYS etc. etc use excel one time a day, so when I saw this excellent post from chandoo about excel I just had to share this with you.

    Here’s the 25 useful excel keyboard shortcuts that has the power to make a super man in excel !!! :) Thanks chandoo.

    The tips marked in different colors are the once that I can’t live without

    1. To format any selected object, press ctrl+1
    2. To insert current date, press ctrl+;
    3. To insert current time, press ctrl+shift+;
    4. To repeat last action, press F4
    5. To edit a cell comment, press shift + F2
    6. To autosum selected cells, press alt + =
    7. To see the suggest drop-down in a cell, press alt + down arrow
    8. To enter multiple lines in a cell, press alt+enter
    9. To insert a new sheet, press shift + F11
    10. To edit active cell, press F2 (places cursor in the end)

    11. To hide current row, press ctrl+9
    12. To hide current column, press ctrl+0
    13. To unhide rows in selected range, press ctrl+shift+9
    14. To unhide columns in selected range, press ctrl+shift+0
    15. To recalculate formulas, press F9
    16. To select data in current region, press ctrl+shift+8
    17. To see formulas in the worksheet, press ctrl+shift+` (ctrl+~)
    18. While editing formulas to change the reference type from absolute to relative vice versa, press F4
    19. To format a number as currency, press ctrl+shift+4 (ctrl+$)
    20. To apply outline border around selected cells, press ctrl+shift+7
    21. To open the macros dialog box, press alt+F8
    22. To copy value from above cell, press ctrl+’
    23. To format current cell with comma formats, press ctrl+shift+1
    24. To go to the next worksheet, press ctrl+shift+pg down
    25. To go to the previous worksheet, press ctrl+shift+pg up

    Go over to chandoo’s blog for more excellent excel tips. Do you have something excellent to share. just hit the comments!!!

    Saturday, February 07, 2009

    AeSI results update

    Mr R.Senthil kumar has this update on the AeSI exam results.

    Dear Friends,
                    First of all i wish All the best for those who write
    GATE-09. I called our society office today morning regarding Dec-08
    result and got reply as result will be publish on Feb 16th.Here I have
    to note another point also that result published earlier as they
    announced in last two sessions.
    Kind Regards,

    As Senthil says, the date is not to believed as AeSI is known to throw up surprises.

    If you have any other updates please do share it with us. anyway for all those who are taking gate 2009. Best of luck and shine!!

    Friday, February 06, 2009

    Take that risk

    If you want great things in your life, the choice is clear. It’s time to step up to the plate and take that risk. – The Simple Dollar

    To grow in any department of life taking the leap is important. Taking the courage is the first thing you have to take. Be it the choice of your stream in section B or the choice of training or the choice of opting for job instead of higher education or the choice of changing your job.

    If you are given two choices staying put and not deciding is not a choice. Higher rewards come with risks. So if you are faced with a decision. Take stock and decide. Decision is the choice that you will make. If you don’t decide then you are at the risk that you will follow the decisions other people or circumstances will make for you.

    As I was working in NAL as project engineer, I had this opportunity at a software firm to code in Fortran, that was one decision I needed to make that time. My mentor at NAL wanted me to go for an aerospace related job, mine inclination wanted the freedom that comes with earning decent money and the ability to explore the field of software development that I was passionate about.  I was torn between working in an engineering service related jobs many of my friends were joining and the lure of developing software that made all this possible. My natural inclination that time was to delay the decision but fortunately I couldn’t and i decided to go with the job and opted it. And I am happy I did so because I shined in that job and when I left the company after two years I was the revered team member of team and had the invaluable experience of working in a software company.

    It was unique and had helped me grow and learn. That time I knew I was taking a risk of migrating to software where I had studied for aerospace engineering but I wanted that experience and I am glad I did it and now at a new job my skills and the experience is helping me a lot.

    To achieve great things, the choice is simple take the leap.

    In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.   Roosevelt, Theodore

    In the moment of decision, a choice whether wrong or right is much better than no decision at all.

    Thursday, February 05, 2009

    AMAeSI results and the scorllbar at AeSI’s website

    aesi-results

    It’s February and for the student of AMAeSI it’s the time to check on the scrolling text bar at the all new shiny site of aerosocietyindia. I have no idea when the date of AMAeSI exams results will be but it’s certain that it will be in and around the date of GATE 2009!!

    So buckle up guys and gals. When I was in your stage, this time rumors of AeSI exams results announced were everyday events. SMS were rampant and anyone you meet asked “Result kab aa raha hai?” And there was always this reply someone called Mr. Goyal and he said AeSI results will be out on 10th  or 2nd Tuesday of this month!!!

    And this person who called will always be a friend of a friend and so… So keep your eyes fixed on that scrollbar of AeSI’s website.

    Anyways enjoy this anxiety filled period. I bet you will miss this too.

    Ready Fire Aim

    Ready Fire Aim !!!!!!

    I like this approach and have used it in many of my learning projects. This is way I work on them and this is the way things have worked for me

    The other way is ready aim and fire.  so you see except the ready being common nothing is common. 

    The ready is getting the gun, holding it properly. In case of learning a tool it is installing the tool, knowing how to use it, knowing the basic functions of it. Figuring out how to begin is the ready stage.

    Majority of us do this stage nicely and then for the aimers they get stuck, getting there aim right. Some do it to a greater degree and some to a lesser degree. Then like in new software tool they wait for inspiration to come to create something useful, they wait to write the perfect useful program, they wait to mesh a great complicated model. Or they wait to create that perfect CAD model.

    If you follow the same ready aim pattern, then you are likely that you will be getting stuck at the aiming part.

    This is where I deviate my path. I fire. I dive into the tool. I get the tool and begin creating stuff with it, yes the stuff are not world class but still its not a blank screen, The first time I tried solidworks, I didn’t draw a compressor model, I began with a cube, Yes a cube!! Then a glass and so on.. For solidworks I began with drawing a glass, then to cups and so forth, Then as I got stuck, I referred back to any manual that I had and this is where aim came into the picture.

    So try the ready fire aim approach. Get ready, then fire and then adjust. Reading all about the tool and starting it is much better than waiting for inspiration, waiting for some how to tutorials… so FIRE!!!

    Wednesday, February 04, 2009

    Missed Aero India show in 2007

    Aero India Air Show 2009 is around the corner and will hit you on 11 Feb. So planning to visit. I for one am planning to get to the show. But before that just wanted to share some of the video’s for some of the exiting moments of Aero India show in 2007. So enjoy

    And the slide show here

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/aeroindia2007/show/

    and if you are interested then visit the official website of aeroindia 2009 show

    Its conveniently named http://www.aeroindia.in/

    Tuesday, February 03, 2009

    7th Aero India show, are you coming?

    02

    The 7th Aero India is being organized by the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. It is managed by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) at Air Force Station Yelahanka, Bengaluru, India from February 11-15, 2009.

    Aero India has already carved a niche for itself globally as a premier aerospace exhibition, with six successful editions organized between 1996 and 2007.The show aims at bringing under one roof, exhibitors from all around the globe to showcase the best in aviation. Aero India includes both flight and static displays of a wide range of

     

    Here are the ticket prices if you are wondering about the cost

    image

    Tickets will be available from Selected* State Bank of India Outlets from 3rd February 2009.

    Please carry your Valid Photo Id Cards for purchase of tickets.

    • Exhibition opens at 1 pm on 11th February 2009.

    • Exhibition Timings: 10am to 5 pm

    Monday, February 02, 2009

    Miss Pooja

    miss-pooja she is the phenomenon that's taking Punjabi music industry by storm. And as this post might suggest I'm fan of her music and do love most of her songs. I believe that she embodies the principle of cranking to the hitch.

    If you don’t know what I mean by cranking then go read this. Yes go I will wait….

    She has more than 500+ songs and has 80+ albums out there. She is the only lady singer of Punjabi music scene who has sung with most of the artist.

    One thing I like about her is that when she knows she is good. She is just cranking one song after another. Some of them are mediocre but some are great but what is happening is that she is improving in each of her songs and this continuous churning is letting her experiment.

    So what can one learn from her. If you want to be the best in anything keep working on it. Keep churning. Put in effort everyday and crank out everyday. Don't bother about the quality very much see if its good enough. Get cranking. If its a race between Quality vs quantity, Choose quantity in the beginning, quality will follow. This is how one will improve. I am following in the same technique with this blog.

    I know how true this quality vs quantity is for Miss Pooja!

     

    And now you can hear and see some of her Punjabi songs in below video

    Click here to see the video

    Sunday, February 01, 2009

    Something I learnt while writing for 30 days regularly

    Sometimes its not the big thing that I have to write. Today do not feel like writing but still I took up the task. I have made a promise to myself and I am carrying through it.

    Its been continuous 30 plus days that I have kept the habit of writing regularly. There were 3 main stages till now that I experienced.

    Beginning was easy as my enthusiasm carried me forward. There was not much of am effort and I managed to get write fairly well, then came the stage when I thought I need to produce world class content.

    Yes making post perfect before I published them entered my mind and this is the phase I struggled as I kept delaying writing and had to lay back and its only because of Sundays that I was able to cope up with the task of posting regularly. This phase forced me to establish some routine and processes so I could get decent output from myself.

    Now I have crossed and realized that the blog is mine and I need to grow it and if people read it they read it because of my views so lately I have made some opinioned posts. Instead of writing perfect post now I am concentrating on things that I feel are important, that I need to make a difference and things the AeSI community will benefit at large

    Best thing I have learnt in all this is that during the initial stages when your enthusiasm is high, set up some processes, establish some routines or setup your work habits so that once you cross the initial stage you do not fall back to your old ways and don't let off the momentum. Utilize your enthusiasm to build on the momentum.

    Don't let yourself down. If you miss doing a things don't hang on to it try and do it again. This is how I have been able to sustain by writing everyday.

    My friends who read this wonder how I find so much time. 15 minutes a day and a commitment to put in the time is all it takes.

    Are you putting in your 15 minutes of time?

    Related post : Attain the Australian team’s consistency

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