NewsLetter 22

Hello readers,
It's been a fortnight since college reopened after the summer, and there's only more exciting things to look forward to. Following the break, we've presented you with CodeFrenzy 2k24, our selection contest for first-year students. While that's happened, a lot has also happened in the tech world. Scroll down to find the latest tech stuff!

Opportunities

Highlights

Turing Hut recently organized an exhilarating event, CodeFrenzy 2k24, designed to introduce first-year students from all branches to the exciting world of competitive programming. Held on June 15, the event saw enthusiastic participation from over 300 freshmen eager to showcase their coding prowess. The event was structured as a selection contest where participants were challenged with a series of problems tailored to assess their problem-solving skills and logical thinking. The event was a melting pot of budding programmers, fostering a spirit of healthy competition and camaraderie among the participants. This event also brings with it an exciting opportunity for its qualifiers - an exclusive training program on the basics of competitive programming, conducted by the members of Turing Hut. This initiative aims to bridge the knowledge gap and equip the newcomers with essential skills required to excel in competitive programming contests.

Interesting Reads

Micro-droplet Showers: Water Can Possibly Break Diamonds
In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers at IIT Madras have discovered that ionised water micro-droplets can break down minerals into nano particles. Atmospheric water droplets such as clouds and fog can be charged due to ionic species present in them and by contact electrification. Disintegration of minerals make nascent surfaces and on such surfaces, different types of catalysis may occur, forming new molecules. These processes could lead to a lot of new pathways for natural processes to occur. This research was led by Prof. Thalappil Pradeep, Institute Professor, Chemistry Department, IIT Madras, and a Padma Shri awardee, alongside Ms. B. K. Spoorthi, the First Author of the Research Paper who has recently finished her PhD from IIT Madras. The computational work was done by Ms. Koyendrila Debnath under the advice of Prof. Umesh V. Waghmare of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru and President of Indian Academy of Sciences. Find out more here.
Virtual Rodent - Closer To Understanding Human Brain
Harvard neuroscientists, in collaboration with Google's DeepMind AI lab, have developed a virtual rat with an artificial brain that can move like a real rodent. By training an artificial neural network to control the virtual body in a physics simulator, they found that the network accurately predicted neural activity measured from the brains of real rats. This advancement opens new possibilities for studying neural circuits and understanding how real brains generate complex behaviour. The platform may also have applications in engineering better robotic control systems. The next step is to give the virtual animal autonomy to solve tasks encountered by real rats in order to further advance our understanding of complex behaviours. Click here to know more..

Todo Problem

Here's the link to a wonderful question that you should check out: problem link.

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Thanks to Akshaya and Aniketh for contributing to the newsletter

“The most damaging phrase in the language is.. it's always been done this way” - Grace Hopper