Author: Humaam

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IIT Delhi Change Makers Summer Camp

https://www.thehansindia.com/news/national/makers-summer-boot-camp-exhibition-held-today-at-iit-delhi-750334

Hi all, wanted to share my experience at the IIT Delhi summer camp that I had recently attended, with a small writeup and some clips.

IITD hosted a DIY summer boot camp named ‘Change Makers’, where students across India were chosen through a form and an interview. the students of classes 11th and 12th were chosen for this program, and they had access to the Institute’s state-of-the-art facilities to convert their impactful ideas to reality.

It was a non-residential boot camp, held from 23rd May to 24th June 2022. It involved hands-on, rapid prototyping-based training in digital and mechanical fabrication. The training took place at the Makerspace (a DIY facility at IIT Delhi). After the training, the students were able to avail the IIT Delhi facilities till the end of the boot camp to build projects aimed at addressing some high-impact societal problems.

My experience?

I got to know about the change-makers summer boot camp just after the last date for registration had passed. I never expected to be able to visit the hallowed precincts of IIT Delhi, the aspiration of every PCM student. By some stroke of luck, I was selected for this prestigious program. Thank you so much to the staff at IIT Delhi for seeing the potential maker in me and allowing me to have such a great experience at a place I never thought I would be able to visit.

Visiting the maker space was a tinkerer’s dream come true, and it was a fantasy land for those who wanted to ideate, design and hold the final product in their hands. It was exactly what I had imagined to be, a huge area with all sorts of tools, from laser cutters, 3D printers, CNC routers, Water jets and more. It was truly exciting to enter this large room every day.

I really enjoyed interacting with the other innovators there. working with them and learning from them has been a personal milestone for me. Seeing how they approached a problem, giving their creative ways to solve it, and how everyone worked together has been an important step in increasing my teamwork skills.

Every time I asked the mentors a question, I would go back to my breadboard circuit, knowing how that one component finally worked. They were the epitome of the proverb –

“A single conversation with a wise person is better than 10 years of study.”

My team and I worked on a project called “Jaltech”, which allowed users to reuse reject water from R.O. systems. The reject water can be used for various useful tasks like watering your plants, cleaning the dishes, giving your pet a bath etc. it was an automated system which would monitor factors like the water level, the TDS and pH value. The reject water is collected over time, and the system would dispense the water automatically to the area of need. it measures and adjusts the pH and TDS level of the water to make it suitable for watering plants. It was designed using a microcontroller (ESP32) called the ‘TTGO’, which could be programmed as per our needs. This idea was suggested by me, and after getting the green flag from my team and the professors on campus, we worked on the design, programming, soldering, and assembly to make it into a functioning prototype.

We got to visit the biochemistry and chemical engineering lab, and I want to thank the professors who made those lab visits possible. They were a huge eye-opener for all of us, and I really hope to pursue something related to this in my future education. If the opportunity were to present itself again, I would definitely sign up for something like this again.

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Ishmael, Our Brother – My views on the article by James B. Mayfield

Every time we hear a non-Muslims name we think that other people hate the Muslim community or, they are planning to exterminate all people in Arabia. From this article, we all can spread the message of Islam and explain to the hard lined non-Muslims that they should stop the harassment of Muslims. It explains our faith in a positive light and can help others understand the true spirit of the message of Islam. He starts with the spiritual experience of listening to the Azaan. Continuing to explain the life of our prophet (PBUH). At one point, he mentions, “a Muslims religion permeates his life from dawn to nightfall and from his inner chamber (or house/ room) to his shop (business) in the crowded marketplace.” This sentence was the most striking point for me. The life of a Muslim starts from waking up early to say Fajr prayers and continue his work along with the other prayers till Isha. The writer also mentions the importance of reading the Quran. Every Muslim memorises the opening of the Quran, al Fathiah, being recited at many occasions. The Quran tells us,

  1. Repeating the short creed included in the call to prayer
  2. Prayer five times a day when called by the moazzin
  3. Almsgiving
  4. And at least going to Makkah one a lifetime, if you can afford it.

He highlights that in Islam, the gender of a newborn child does not matter – if it is a girl or a boy.

James also mentions that there is no distinction between the prophets. The Quran over and over again, discusses about importance of reading, writing, the pen, the book and how knowledge is mandatory for every Muslim. Arabs’ contributions to medicine were impressive. A famed medical center in Persia is Jundi-Shapor. Medical works of the Greek, Persian and others were translated into Arabic. In astronomy, the Arabs improved the Greek astrolabe and invented many accurate instruments which enabled them to study the stars and measure distances between celestial bodies.

Ishmael indeed has become a “great nation”, according to James, endowed with a sense of civilization for which all the western world should be grateful of. On the day of judgement, every individual who must give an accounting. This concept is certainly compatible with latter-day Saint theology.

The sons of Ishmael are indeed our brethren, too!

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The Namaz Clock

As salamu-alaikum,

I have thought of an idea which can help all Muslims in reading their namaz at the correct time. This device will be called ‘The Namaz Clock’. It will be a normal clock with an inbuilt speaker and an integrated compass which shows us the Quibla. The speaker will start ringing on whatever sound you want- it could be the adhan, it could just be a small beep or it could also be an audio on your choice.

There will be five switches a the back. Each switch will turn on the sound for a time of Namaz. The name of the Namaz will be written on top of the switch. There will also be a dial below the switches which sets the volume of the sound. You can set  the time of the beep manually or you can also download an app which allows you to set the time by connecting your phone to the clock by Bluetooth. This clock can be hung on a wall, kept on your side table or even in the kitchen .

I hope you all will help this idea become a true thing. Till then, assalamu-alaikum, and keep thinking.

 

-Humaam