How to give a great start to a new semester? - 3 tips

New semester have began for many of the AeSI students. It's the time
when classes start and we all fall in the grove of going to classes
and tutions. Life falls into a routine and it's becomes easy to miss
out the right way to begin a new semester.

So here I will present you three ways (although all are related) to
begin the new semester that lays a strong foundation.

1. Cut out your study hours.
This is the start of the semester. Don't put too much time pressure on
yourself. It's the time when you have the leisure of time. So utilize
it on other things than taking notes more than needed, and studying
more than required!

Do the minimal study, read ahead what will be taught in the class and
the tution and be attentive in classes. Apart from that don't study.

2. Reflect.
Instead spend time reflecting on the things you are learning than
mugging up formulaes and data for the exams! Reflect on whatever is
taught in the class, imagine the concepts introduced, discuss or
connect what you learnt today with what you already know.

This is the time when you want to build the foundation of your study,
so shun making notes, mugging, and solving hundreds of numericals.
This will come latter in the semester, right now lay a strong
foundation with the concepts.

3. Use pen paper and drawing.
Use pen and paper. Draw, imagine and relate the stuff you are
learning. Take imaginary classes of the stuff you are learning. Teach
what you have understood, question what you haven't!

This is how the begining of you new study should commence.

As always, I am curious what do you think about this? Are you
following a nobel way? Do comment.

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The Pareto principle and AeSI Results

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule) states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. And this is true for AeSI's AMAeSI results too.

As I saw the June 2009 results of section A of AeSI, I found that close to 80% pass outs were from roughly 20% of the subjects. As I plotted the results on a pareto plot, whose purpose is to highlight the most important among set of factors, I found the subjects of basic electronics, fluid mechanics and strength of materials taking the lead, while Electrical Engineering, Introduction to Aeronautics, microprocessor and software engineering and applied mathematics lag behind and having the lowest passing percentage this semester.

So what does this mean? what does it point to? what does it show? Which are the subjects that you should concentrate?

Use this knowledge to improve your results. Work hard on the easy subjects to get the highest marks and in the difficult once work hard to understand the underlying concepts. Practise more for the hard subjects. allocate more time to them, discuss these subjects more.

The Pareto Principle also applies to a variety of more mundane matters: one might guess approximately that we wear our 20% most favoured clothes about 80% of the time, perhaps we spend 80% of the time with 20% of our acquaintances, etc.

Read more about pareto principle and pareto Chart by clicking the following links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_chart

A quick tip to get your resume noticed.

Here's a quick tip to get your resume noticed and net an interview
request based on it.

I receive updates from naukri.com every other day and they are fairly
accurate in reflecting the type of work I am doing and interested in.

But lately I am seeing a surge of opportunities seeking engineers for
aerospace related work and each of them mentions gas turbines in the
description.

So to improve your chances to get an interview request, update your
resume by adding the term gas turbines in your resume. I am sure your
resume will filter through and fall into the radar of the requirements.

I am not suggesting you to lie and just add the term but I am
suggesting you to add the term because if you have done aesi, you
can't escape studying them so you already know something about it. Now
is the time to fish an interview out if it.

Good luck!!

Many more job search tips are available via the link http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=job%20search

my-aesi blog is all about aesi and helping aesi graduates and
students. You can subscribe to it by this link http://feeds.feedburner.com/myaesi

Where do you see yourself in the next fi

Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

Answer this honestly and you have solved half of your future and
present worries.

Zoom out of the current path and see the big picture. Locate and pin
point your destination. Then start walking, cycling or driving towards
it.

Whatever stage of life you are in, be it a student just starting out,
or student just graduation or a professinal, answering this question
will clear the mist and give you more clarity.

You know, the answer you give is not important; it's asking the
question that is!!

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Riding bike and learning catia what's the connection?

Until you ride bikes on real road, you won't learn it. It's 100% true
for learning to drive a motorbike. And more so for all the software
tools.

Until and unless you are working on a real project you won't learn the
tool. You may know how to use it but driving on the highway, with real
traffic is the place which will hone your skills as a driver and in
the same way on a tool.

But tutorials is what I have, I hear you say. Well then create some
mini challenges. Challenges to produce something worth sharing. Here's
few idea for anyone learning a cad (catia, solidworks, unigraphics
etc) program.

1. Select a place in your house, let's say the bathroom and create all
the bathroom assessories that you see in it in your chosen cad
program. Design from start to finish and present 2d drawing just ready
to be manufactured. Design with an intention of sharing all your model
and cad drawing sheets with the world. Post them online. Let that be
the real project you are working for.

2. Design a bicycle from scratch. Measure one and assemble a whole
unit in your chosen cad program. Make drawing sheets which enables
someone with the drawing to built the bicycle from ground up.

Well I can go on but I will stop here and let you decide how you want
to create your own challenge.

The key thing in this whole exercise is your commitment to share your
results. When you design and cad model with that intention, you will
be in the very state of mind that actual designers are. It's just like
riding on a real road.

In my next post, I will discuss why this method works and things to
remember while doing this kind of exercises.

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http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=tools

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FORTRAN IS THE COMPUTING LANGUAGE OF CHOICE

The first time I Used FORTRAN I hated the language, coming from the background and knowledge of C, I had hard time in following the rigid column rules of FORTRAN 77. But now as I continue to use it for the last 4 years, I have completely fallen in love with this language.

So here's a brief history of the language that essentially began the IT revolution.

"
The development of FORTRAN I
----------------------------
The first FORTRAN compiler was a milestone in the history of computing,
at that time computers had very small memories (on the order of 15KB,
it was common then to count memory capacities in bits), they were slow
and had very primitive operating systems (if they had them at all).
At those days it seemed that the only practical way is to program in
assembly language.

The pioneers of FORTRAN didn't invent the idea of writing programs in a
High Level Language (HLL) and compiling the source code to object code
with an optimizing compiler, but they produced the first successful HLL.
They designed an HLL that is still widely used, and an optimizing compiler
that produced very efficient code, in fact the FORTRAN I compiler held
the record for optimizing code for 20 years!

This wonderful first FORTRAN compiler was designed and written from
scratch in 1954-57 by an IBM team lead by John W. Backus and staffed with
super-programmers like Sheldon F. Best, Harlan Herrick, Peter Sheridan,
Roy Nutt, Robert Nelson, Irving Ziller, Richard Goldberg, Lois Haibt
and David Sayre. By the way, Backus was also system co-designer of the
computer that run the first compiler, the IBM 704.

The new invention caught quickly, no wonder, programs computing nuclear
power reactor parameters took now hours instead of weeks to write, and
required much less programming skill. Another great advantage of the new
invention was that programs now became portable. Fortran won the battle
against Assembly language, the first in a series of battles to come,
and was adopted by the scientific and military communities and used
extensively in the Space Program and military projects.

The phenomenal success of the FORTRAN I team, can be attributed in part
to the friendly non-authoritative group climate. Another factor may be
that IBM management had the sense to shelter and protect the group,
even though the project took much more time than was first anticipated.

"

from http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/languages/fortran/ch1-1.html

you can read more of my love of FORTRAN by visiting the following link.

http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=fortran

Two Professional development programs in and after AeSI

Two programs that you should keep an eye on for your professional
development in and after AeSI.

One is iisc's short term proficiency courses that are conducted twice
a year. The courses are on fem, project management and many other cfd,
and engineering related topics. The courses mostly deal with theory
and strengthing concepts!!

Second short term courses are from MSRSAS. They come up once a year
and are more inclined towards tools like Catia, unigraphics, ansys,
nastran, fluent etc. !!

Right now my Internet access is next to nothing, so I won't be able to
offer any direct link to both of this. But google it, google still is
as good as it was in finding things. :)

Well this two were the one I knew and had some practical knowledge
about. If you know something else please do include them in comnents!!

To have a look on tools used by aerospace industry click the link
given below

http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=aerospace%20tools

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following link

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What every aerospace job requirement is looking for?

See any aerospace job requirement on different job sites or the onces
posted in ouraesi, aesi yahoo group or at aesiaa, hand calculation is
the one thing that jumps out of them.

As I have previously noted hand calculation is what companies are
looking for and this is were your aesi studies will come in handy.

So after you graduate, don't just concentrate on your software skills
but take a hard took at the hand calculations. You should be able to
solve truss on paper before you analyze it in ansys or nastran, you
should be able to design a shaft of required strength on paper before
designing it in catia or solidworks.

Don't neglect hand calculation over softwares.

Read more about hand calculation and stuff by clicking the followig link
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Don't let your engines ideal!!

Don't throw a spanner into the cogs of your study life. Start
immediately. Don't postpone your studies till the last two months
before AeSI exams, instead start today.

Doing one hour of study per day from today is much better and
effective than studying for 16 hours a day in the last month before
the amaesi exams!!

So don't let your engines ideal, start now and be consistent. You will
be in a much better shape during the exams!!

101 technical interview questions

101 technical interview question you should be able to answer in an
aerospace interview.

1. What is lift?
2. What is drag?
3. What is thrust?
4. What is induced drag?
5. What are different stages of flight?
6. What is boundary layer?
7. What is viscous flow?
9. Explain bernauli's principle?
10. How does an aircraft fly?
11. What's aspect ratio?
12. Explain entropy?
13. What is heat?
14. What is work?
15. What is pressure?
16. Explain stress?
17. What's fatigue?
18. What are different efficiencies of gas turbines?
19. Explain brayton cycle?
20. What's compression ratio?
21. Explain pressure ratio?
22. What is TET?
23. What affects specific thrust?
24. What is specific thrust?
25. What is cg?
26. Explain structure of aircraft wing?
27. What is sfc?
28. What is specific impulse?
29. What is hoop's stress?
30. Draw cl alpha curve?
31. Explain continuity equation?
32. What is principle of conservation of mass?
33. Explain propellor efficiency?
34. What is isentropic efficiency?
35. What is polytropic efficiency?
36. When to use each of the above efficiencies?
37. What is the function of a nozzle?
38. What's the function of diffuser?
39. What is bypass ratio!
40. What will happen if by pass ratio is too high?
41. Draw a gas turbine ?
42. Draw real brayton cycle?
43. Explain specific thrust and what's it's significance?
44. What is Mach no?
45. What's the use of velocity triangles?
46. Show stress strain curve?
47. Plot compressor characteristics.
48. What is surge?
49. Explain surge line?
50. What is compressor stall ?
51. What is aircraft stall ?
52. What are slats?
53. What's the function of rudder?
54. What's pitot tube?
55. Explain stagnation pressure?
56. What properties changes over a normal shock wave?
57. What is wave drag?
58. What is oblique shock?
59. Describe Mach cone?
60. What's the thrust equation?
61. What is service ceiling?
62. What's rate of climb?
63. What affects runway length?
64. What's chamber?
65. Draw an aerofoil?
66. What is supersonic ?
67. What are the types of drag?
68. What is source and sink?
69. What is laminar flow?
70. Explain hookes law?
71. What is spar ribs?
72. What is ILS?
73. Explain bouandry layer growth?
74. What is compressible fluid?
75. How does combuster work?
76. Explain lapse rate?
77. What is ISA?
78. What is lift coefficient?
79. Describe d'alembert's paradox?
80. What is lift to drag ratio?
81. Explain endurance?
82. What is range?
83. What is aerodynamic center?
84. What is center of pressure?
85. Define density?
86. Define rocket propulsion?
87. Describe specific heat?
88. What is relaionship between temp and height in ISA ?
89. Explain axial flow compressor working?
90. How many types of compressor?
91. What is the purpose of intake?
92. Difference between axial and radial compressor?
93. Describe different types of combusters?
94. What is first law of thermodynamics?
95. Write steady flow equation for turbine and compressor?
96. What are different methods of cooling?
97. Explain ramjet engine?
98. What is the material of compressor and turbine ?
99. What is by pass engine?
100. Explain working of nozzle?
101. What is turbo machinery?

About 90% of the questions listed here are part of the real questions
that I and my friends have faced in real aerospace interviews.

The list must go on, list the questions you faced in the comments.

Find more technical interview questions by following the link given
below.

http://my-aesi.blogspot.com/search?q=technical%20interview