Two days workshop on robotics in UIU,an awesome experience!!!

It is a very nice feelings when you have something very new n special which you actually want to have since a long ago. The workshop on Robotics was a that kind of experience for me that I can never forget. The workshop was held in our university DLD lab & it was a 2 days long workshop.
The workshop was launched by Nextsapiens (www.nextsapiens.com),an Indian company which deals with different robot based works n robot based machines. The workshop was from 28 - 29 August.
The first day of the workshop had two parts.The first part was the introductory part & the second part was the practice session. At the morning of August 28, first there was a briefing about the basic mechanisms of the robots & about the goals of the workshop. Then after lunch (It was Ramadan actually so we haven't got our lunch!!!) we have gone to the laboratory for the practical. There we were learned how to joint some parts of a mobile robot & how to arrange them & to code the microcontroller to derive the robot. At the first day we learned how to move a robot in different directions & how to control it by programs from the computer.
At the next day, we learned a lots of important things about the locomotion & control of the robot. At first we knew about the works of different sensors like light sensors etc. Then we were given three sensors to connect those with our robots & to control the robot using those sensors by writing effective codes in computers to the microcontrollers. Then we made a code that helps the robot to move in different directions & if it has any kind of barrier in front of it then ot will change it direction.
The next job was to locomote a robot with the help of the mobile phone. This was really one of the most interesting part of the workshop. Then the most interesting part of our workshop came that was to drive the robot in a black track i.e. to run the robot in in a track which was black. The rule was that the robot will go through the black track if it doesn't get any other color(A process of color sensing),if it find any turn then it will turn in that way. This race was really amazing & we all enjoyed that so much. That was the end job of the workshop.
At the end of the workshop there was a photo session & a certificate giving ceremony which was in the DLD laboratory. The certificates were given by Dr. Nurul Huda & Dr. Khawza Iftekhar Uddin Ahmed.
As a beginner of robotics the workshop helped us a lot & it was really encouraging. We learned a lot from the workshop & hope we will efficiently implement it in our project for the next Robotics Championship which will be held in next November/December.
Hope see you again with a another new topic. Till then take care. Bye......................

My first programming contest......

Today I have participated at AB Bank-IUT 2nd National ICT(Information n Communication Technology) Fest 2009 programming contest which is the first ever programming contest I've ever participated but true to say the experience was not so good as a first time perticipent because the question was hard(to me!!!) n my team was not in track that's why we haven't done well in it.
There were 10 problems in that contest.They were as follows--
A. Athletics Tracks
B. Judgment Day (Toughest!!)
C. Dividing the Land
D. Home! Sweet Home!
E. Mirror (Easiest)
F. Krypton Number System
G. Power Faster
H. Stick Madkes Gold
I. Arithmetic Subsequence
J. Water Land
My team(UIU_Surge),solved the problem "E" which one was the easiest one becuase 80% of the participated team had solved it.We also tried problem "A" & "I" but there was some mistakes in geomertical calculation in "A" thats why we hadn't got the right answer(We had some fractional mistakes) & in case of "I",we just tried simply using the algorithm "Brute Force" but it was a problem of DP(Dynamic Programming) thats why we got TLE(Time Limit Exceed) for our first submission.
Me & my teammates(Tausiq Ahmed Shahab n Saidul Islam) are so upset after this performance because we believed that we could solve at least 3 problems(We still believe so) but it was disasterious that we have solved only one!!!So mush bad day for dying I think...............
But from that contest I've(we've) learnt a lot of things that would help me(us) in future to build up my(our) programming effiency.The first point to notify was that the lack of practise.We're in lack of practise,though Sidky Sir(Our ACM instructor & one of the honourable judge of UVa Regional Contests) & Ishtiaque Sir(Our teacher n Team Coach,Ex Team Member of BUET Programming Team) had taken several online contests but we're not prepared enough to solve those kinds of problems which were given in the contest.I think we need to solve lots of problems which are contest related.Because to do easy problems & to increase the number of ACM solve doesn't increase the ability of solving problems.Problems like DP,graph,binary sorts are needed to solve rapidly because these types of problems are often given in the contests.We need to learn lots of efficient algorithms & need to apply it properly because without knowing & applying efficient algorithms,it is not possible to do well in the contests
There are also some very important things what are needed to improve the contest skills.Such as to solve problems in group i.e. to discuss & solve problems among the group members.If it can be done regularly then I think team spirit can be developed as well as the team members can know about the other members ability well which is very much needed in a contest because it is not possible to do well in a contest without the team work.
Last of all I hope our team should do very well in recent future because we'll try our level best to bring out the best from us.We should practice a lot & will make us prepare for the upcoming contests(Next contest would be the ICPC at NSU I think!!).Hope,next time things will go positive with us :p

Rafiul Sabbir
(Contest Team Member-UIU_Surge)