December 2, 2009

Another hectic week started which didn't allow me to write my blog as well. I did some good work in last few days. On 30th Nov, I spend lot of time in study, trying to realize the method to compare two set of probabilistic waveforms, one from an individual inverter with an ideal ramp input signal and another one from an inverter chain. The main challenge of this experiment to make sure that comparison of waveforms are valid, I mean the input of the final inverter in the inverter chain and individual inverter in another experimental setup should have same input signal slew. I have developed a method to size the inverter chain on the fly to generate the exactly same slew as of individual inverter. After making the required setup, I found that both waveform are almost same and having very close output slew. My next task was to change the output signal slew to analyze the waveform variation. I attacked this problem by changing the input signal slew and captured all the waveforms. Surprisingly, I found that output waveform in all the cases are having almost same output signal slew. This new issue encouraged me to play with circuit and come-up with set of parameters and their range to cover required output slew range from 5ps to 600ps. I started with input signal slew and channel length. This combination did not worked out well. Then I tried with input signal slew and channel width. This combination also fails to give full swing in the output signal slew. Till now, I was using a high capacitor as a output effective capacitive load. I had reasoning for making this constraint in the design. But, since none of the combination of parameters were able to give us full swing of the output signal slew. I had thought to change output load as well. So, in the new experiment, I have used input signal slew and output capacitive load as two parameters and it works! I got full swing of the output signal slew which was desired but on the cost of variable output capacitive load. Now, in the rest of the week, I have to develop the complete method to model a set of probabilistic output waveform with circuit component.

This was my two days of academic work. But today is my third day of writing blog. It means one day is missing. Exactly! I was not in the university on Dec 1. On that day, I went for an excursion to Dutch Space, A dutch Company. This excursion was organized by student group of our department (ETV). This company makes solar panel for space satellites, parts of satellites rocket launcher, robotic cars like one went to Mars, robotic arm for international space station and many more. In fact we saw all these products in the lab. This was an amazing experience for me. I have taken some photos of the trip which are posted here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashish.nigam/ExcursionToDutchSpaceDec09

Good Night

November 29, 2009

It is interesting to know that I finally managed to get some time for writing my blog. I was thinking daily to write something but I couldn’t able to make it somehow. However, today I have finally got some time. This is superb great!

A lot of things have been happen in the last few days which are very difficult to remember and write it down. However, I will try to write at least some of them.

Professor Michel has given me a gift which is sent by Saint Nicholas (A sweet dutch culture). The gift was a very testy chocolate having my initial in big font. Photo of the gift is here:

1. 2. 3.

Apart from this, I also visited to Den Haag. There, I went to Scheveningen Beach. In this winter, almost no one was on the beach except few crazy adventurous fun lovers doing surfing on the strong wave. It was fun watching them live. I spent more then an hour just standing and watching them, enjoying strong wind, and natural beauty. This trip was on the bike when the outside temperature was 8*C! It was fun doing biking of almost 40 KM in this cold and rainy weather. Here, I have some photos of this trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashish.nigam/ScheveningenBeachInWinterNov09

The next big task I have completed is very interesting. I have finally collected some photos and videos of our diwali celebration. As I have already mentioned in past blogs, I have participated in two dances, a skit and a fashion show! I have uploaded all the photos and videos on ISA-Delft youtube and picasaweb account. The video of my dance, all photos and entire playlist is linked below:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ashish.nigam/Diwali2009ISATUDelft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XF3p4A2-su0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXFXDbcpc9g

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E11AE94C9B51B250

Hmmm, how can I forgot that I watched a movie name "Ajab Prek Ke Gazab Kahani". There is a very beautiful song in this movie, prem ki naiya ai ram ke bharose, ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RYm-e1GfFA

Apart from all these events, I have done some study and made progress in the thesis work. I have to again concentrate myself for thesis work.

I think this is substantial to regain for the blog. Let me sleep and get refreshed for tomorrow.

November 15, 2009

BIG DAY! The day of 15th Nov was second most awaited day of the year (first one was the day when I return back to India!). Today we had Diwali celebration in TU Delft. Diwali celebration is not the reason to say this day as most awaited day, today we had a cultural program and we had six programs in the list. And, I was performing in four out of these six programs. This includes two dances, a skit, and a fashion show on Indian culture. And I was excited because first time in my life, I was going to dance on the stage, and walk on the ramp of the fashion show! This diwali fills a lot of happiness in my life because I am doing something which I always wanted to do but never had enough courage to really do it. Out of these two dances, one was on a very old Indian TV Channel Durdarshan with the lyrics "Ek Chidiya, Anek Chidiya". And the second dance was on a very well known bollywood dance song "Bumaro Bumaro" from movie "Mission Kashmir" and the song is a "Kashmiri Lok-geet". The skit was based on the recent activities on the "TUDIndian" Yahoo Group and I (BALRAM urf BALMA urf BALLU) was acting as a new master’s student who is email-addicted and doesn’t like girls at all! And finally in the fashion show, I was a gujju guy. In the entire program I changed my dress four times, so basically right after every event I was running toward the change room to get new dress-up. I am still collecting the photos and videos to share over here.

I was in these performances because people have given me a chance to perform and helped me to learn the steps. They guided me at every step to learn the steps and expressions to give a better performance. I am very thankful to Akshay for selecting me in "Ak-Anek", Vaibhay for selecting me in "Bumaro-Bumaro", Himanshu for giving me a role in "Skit" and Shilpa for accepting my request in "Fashion Show". These thanks are not a formality, but an emotional feelings coming from the bottom of my heart.

I know some people personally who were very actively involved in the preparation of this event. Akshay/Mukta had a 7 month old baby but they were guiding every single stage performance, Sachin/Supriya and Chetan/Shilpa were also intensively involve in organization and event performance, Krishna/Murthy/Deepak/Amit had put there best effort to make sure that every single detail of the event organization goes smoothly. In spite of the fact that Krishna and Murthy knew that they will not be able to attend the event, they did their best in the organization, talking to International Office, arranging venue, dates, bla bla. There were many more, and I am unable to mention every name here.

At the end of the program, we had a professional DJ! It was desi DJ with full of Hindi disco songs, and we had 2 hour full masti in DJ. It was amazing and we had a lot of fun in the entire day. Finally we were very tired and could not able to do anything after that went to home and slept.

At the end, I would like to remember the motivation force which always encouraged me to participate in the cultural program and gives the motivation for dance.

Here I have some photos to share:

1: http://picasaweb.google.com/ashish.nigam/DiwaliCelebration2009InTUDelft

2: http://picasaweb.google.com/kedar.ksd/DiwaliFunction2009_TUD

Will update more videos and photos in coming blogs.

February 1, 2009

Sunday! This was the last Sunday before next quarter begins and I really enjoyed a lot. Day is started with the check of next quarter class schedule and setup of Google Calendar. Then we had an Antakshari Shaam with Indians, organized by Aparna! This was a wonderful event, get-together with many Indians along with fun & masti of game. Today we had bunch of games which are listed below:

• Simple Antakshari
  
• Antakshari with Singer Name
  
• Theme Song with selected words
  
• Guess the tune
  
• Hindi Dum-C
  
• English Dum-C
  
• Guess word with Rapid Fire
  

Here we can find some of the photos of the people who have attended the game and had fun!

Nothing else after this, return to home followed by regular gup-shup talk with Akansh and Saket.

Now I am going to sleep as I have Q3 classes started from tomorrow.

January 29, 2009

Humm. Last exam of the Jan! Finally exams are over. Today I had exam of Semiconductor Device Physics which went very bad and I am going to fail! Sound's bad but this is the truth. I am not worried for this result because I had only 2 choices either do not go for the exam of write the exam and fail. I decided to face the exam in place of running away from it and I did it. Even if I failed, I am not regret about it because I didn't put any time for this course.

Now the fun part! I bought a speaker set for me, so party! Its "CREATIVE INSPIRE A200". Again creative, I am loving it!

Here is the photo of my new speaker:

From Poptahof Noord

Remember, this system configuration is just for the photography, original configuration is little different which gives more comfort and better management of wires!

New speaker, means party! We listen many songs continuously and then I watch a movie named "DOR". Now, I have to sleep so that I can do something for Nick's meeting which is scheduled for tomorrow.

January 24, 2009

Just like 2 faces of a coin, today had two faces, a happy as well as a sad. Sad face was due to my very inefficient productivity. I have read half of the paper and started writing report but could not able to focus properly. Totally I was involved into study for maximum 4 hour and all kind of crap in the rest of the day.

Life doesn't ends here. Similar to the sad face, there is a happy face as well. Today I have got my first EURO Salary! Finally I am no more unemployed. Expenditure plans always comes along with the money, so today was no exception. I though of spending this money in various ways, mainly invest into iPod Touch and/or Speakers. But the final decision as per now is to not spend money anywhere and focus on the study and exams first.

Along with this, I chat with Neha, Twincle, and Gyanendra. The chat time was very short and did not contribute to the destruction in my study.

The ends with some memorial photos of my Dutch style breakfast:

From Poptahof Noord

From Poptahof Noord

January 17, 2009

Pretty relaxing day, wake-up at around 9:30 but did nothing except chat/email/phone till 1:30, then lunch. I covered only 2 lecture of the Digital Signal Processing which was effectively 5 hour of study. So, over all very unproductive day, still I an happy as I spoke to my family many times!

Today, I surf Indian Post website and found very good collection of the Indian Stamps which I have downloaded from there and uploaded on my Picasa-Web Album. These stamps are available on my web album right here:

    http://picasaweb.google.com/ashish.nigam/IndianPostalStamp

Also, full detail can be found on the India-Post website:

    http://www.indiapost.gov.in/Netscape/Stamps2001.html

Hummm... sleep now...

January 10, 2009

Today was the good day. I finished another chapter of "Synthesis and Optimization of Digital Circuit". Also my first hair cut in Netherlands! Thanks to Hari.

Here is my new hair-style:

From Poptahof Noord

From Poptahof Noord

From Poptahof Noord

From Poptahof Noord

Social Friday Night – Special Belly Dance... Photos

Some photos from the social friday night - belly dance :)