MAY 2021 Ping! is an independent magazine of the students of IIIT Hyderabad. The views presented are not representative of the institute, and the institute is not the publisher of the magazine. Please send your valuable comments and suggestions to: [email protected]. Website: pingiiit.org Editors: Designers: Ainesh Sannidhi Abhigyan Ghosh Jaidev Shriram Ahish Deshpande Mayank Goel Ananya Sane Pooja Desur Anusha Roy Rohan Grover Arjun T.H. Eshika Khandelwal Shashwat Goel Harshita Gupta Tejasvi Chebrolu Jyoti Sunkara Mallika Subramanian Pratyay Suvarnapathaki Rohan Lahane Saravanan Senthil Vishwa Saravanan Compiled by: Eshika Khandelwal 06 Editorial 08CND: Origin Plagiariser’s 14 Dilemma CONTENTS Parliament Perception 17 22 Math@IIITH What if Online was the Norm 25 31 Sheets to Lull To Hotel California 34 Why Top Gear 39 Currently Sucks 42 Blood isn’t Always Thicker than Water The call to return to campus has reached a fever pitch recently as more than a year has passed since IIIT suspended in-class teaching. More agitating Editorial than quarantine, however, is the lack of a clear end to elcome to the May 2021 issue of Ping!, the this pandemic. As of publication, India witnesses the Wthird one to come out during the COVID-19 largest peak of COVID-19 cases yet, leaving any plans pandemic. The first pandemic release was during a for a campus reopening in limbo. Seeing no end in much simpler time - when home quarantine could sight, IIIT had made attempts to ease back into regular naively be confused for an impromptu holiday. functioning, but COVID scares routinely dampened The period around the second issue saw students enthusiasm. The unfortunate loss of a few IIIT staff coming to grips with the isolation of homestay, has exacerbated the already tense situation, forcing the monotony of the every day, and our psyche IIIT to reevaluate its bubble in a crisis-ridden city. during the lockdown. The cover of that August Hence, last year’s themes, that of a lacking social life, issue echoed that sentiment partially - a sense of would be a gross mischaracterisation of these times. being trapped in one’s head, forced to reflect and reevaluate parts of social life otherwise taken for This magazine, however, is not about the pandemic granted. This magazine echoes a different sentiment but a mere product of pandemic productivity. The - one that’s more outward-looking - captured in the only hint of COVID-19 is in the piece ‘What if online cover design by Pratyay Suvarnapathaki, a fight was the new norm?’ and the delayed release of this for normalcy obstructed by a relentless pandemic. issue. For the most part, it reflects regular student life: pieces on CND and Math electives at IIIT discuss the Ping! 6 may 2021 origins of a popular programme and the problems a failure, or even to say that it was not a success. plaguing IIIT’s math curriculum. ‘Parliament The event was exceptionally well organised and Perception’ addresses common complaints about quite fun. The performances were beautiful, and parliament and its fractured reputation. On the the use of Live Releases on Youtube ensured a other end, pieces such as ‘Hotel California’ and clean, enjoyable time with no technical glitches. ‘Top Gear’ discuss famous pop culture moments. And, there’s more! We couldn’t fit everything The reduced costs because of shifting everything into the magazine, so here’s a quick rundown of online meant that there were more ‘star performers’ some notable events/issues these past few months. than usual. A large chunk of the budget was available to get multiple comedians and internet personalities. This shift in focus from the form ACADEMIC WORKLOAD of the event (stage, lights) to the function was a positive change and made for an enjoyable A major point of contention over the Spring Semester felicity, even without the typical ‘grandeur’. was the sudden increase in workload. The freshmen found the jump from high-school education to undergraduate studies harder than normal because of the difficulty in online instruction. The sophomores Campus Life Online were burdened by poor academic scheduling as they The UG2K20 batch had a very tumultuous start saw most of their electives pushed to the second to their college life. Commonly referred to as the half of the semester. Overall, most students across Quaranteens, the freshmen had a rough start to their batches reported high-stress levels due to multiple undergraduate studies. The batch was broken into consecutive deadlines, despite reporting similar two parts because of varying examination dates, concerns in the 2020 Monsoon semester. However, and it took around two semesters (out of three) for unlike the Monsoon semester, there was no option to them to complete the same courses. Now, IIIT has mask one’s grade with the ‘P*’ grade. Subsequently, a very unique social dynamic. There are multiple the past few months have seen a long campaign to tiny groups that are formed because of mutual restore ‘P*’ with no success. To the institute’s credit, love (or hate) for particular things. You are more the academic office has been handling genuine likely to remain friends with the people you meet appeals (due to COVId-19 infections or other related on the first day of induction and are less likely to problems) on a case by case basis. Still, it sets up an make lasting friendships as the years go by. This interesting situation for the coming semester, which effect has been exacerbated because of the online will likely be online as well. In the absence of fool- setting. The division between “Section A” and proof examinations, a greater number of assignments “Section B” is apparent, and common talking points, and projects have flooded calendars, leaving little like “bitching” about courses, are very restricted. time for recreation; the last two months of Spring barely saw any activity from any cultural clubs, a Another unfortunate by-product of the continuous dry spell typically reserved for examination weeks. lockdown has led to the second batch of seniors graduating online. Life online has been strange indeed. Around this time last year, India struggled Felicity with fixing a date for the JEE examinations, and this year is no different. It’s nearly guaranteed that the February saw the re-emergence of Felicity, albeit next set of freshers will join online as well, making in an entirely online format. The event this year, for an even more interesting student dynamic. If there in a way, represented how we exist in this quasi- was such a thing as ‘IIIT culture’, it’s likely harder normal state. All the regular events - Inaugurals, a to return to that same sense of normalcy even a year comic act, music performances, etc., were present, later. The idea that more than half of the IIIT campus is but everything was watered down. There was no unaware of its buildings, hidden rooms, and friendly/ cheering as your batchmates stepped up to dance , devilish dogs is something that won’t get easier to sang their hearts out or cribbed about how the comic digest any time soon. However, the ‘Sir/Ma’am’ was very unfunny and pompous. Instead, you had culture still lives, so at least some things never die... ■ live comments on an online interface, which reduced their impact and made them devoid of emotion and inhumane. Now, this is not to say that Felicity was Ping! 7 may 2021 - Pahulpreet Singh Timeline 2001: MSIT (Bio- informatics) is started in collaboration with CMU 2002: BiRC is set up 2004: M Tech (Bio- informatics) program is started 2005: 4-year post-B. Sc. MS by Research pro- gram 2007: BiRC convert- ed to CCNSB 2008: Proposal for IT + CNS Dual Degree program 2009: CND is born Ping! 9 may 2021 Introduction IIIT-H and t has been over ten years since the emergence Iof the Computational Natural Sciences Dual Bioinformatics Degree program, commonly referred to as the CND program. This program’s nature is not known to many, especially outside of IIIT-H, due to this (before 2006) program’s distinctiveness, with few counterparts Bioinformatics became the new “trend” in the in other Indian colleges. The unique nature of this late 1990s - early 2000s period. The focus was program raises the question of its genesis. slowly being shifted from information technology to biotechnology in many parts of the world, just To get the answers to our questions, we interviewed around the period when the institute was founded. some of the professors who played a pivotal role in The emergence of bioinformatics in IIIT-H is setting up this program - Prof Abhijit Mitra, Prof marked by the MSIT program (Master of Science Harjinder Singh, Prof Prabhakar Bhimalapuram in Information Technology), which was a multi- and Prof Deva Priyakumar. This article covers university program started in 2001 in collaboration the history of bioinformatics and natural sciences with various institutes in Andhra Pradesh/ at IIIT-H, as well as other interesting events that Telangana (JNTU Hyderabad, JNTU Kakinada, capture the institute’s evolution. JNTU Anantapur, SVU Tirupati) under Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). This program covers a large number of fields including Machine Learning, Conception of Data Science, Software Engineering, etc. but the Bioinformatics branch was set up in IIIT-H. CND This was initiated by Prof Raj Reddy. (As of now, Despite being an IT institute, Dr Kishore Prahllad is IIIT-H understood that a In our conversation with Prof. overseeing this program university is not just an Mitra, he tells us that back then on behalf of IIIT Bioinformatics dealt with a large expanded computer science Hyderabad.) MSIT is amount of data and pattern department.