Second semester starts

A new year starts :-)
Vacations done with :-(
New semester starts :-((
Back to old ways of losing sleep over assignments and projects and screwing up quizzes :-(((((...(

Well this sums up my emotions as I enter my 2nd semester here in IIT Bombay.
This semester we have to take 4 courses as credit along with one seminar. Prof Dhamdhare, our faculty advisor, had agreed to guide me for my seminar, so the headache of seeking seminar guides was over. But going by his reputation of strictness and hard to please nature, combined with my lazy nature, we sure are going to have some fun in the days to come :D.

I had already decided that I will take up an R&D project this semester, instead of a course. It gives me several advantages.

1) No end sem and mid sem exams
2) No quizes and assignments
3) Extra 3 non-lecture hours per week, which will be fruitfully, carefully and productivily used in bed.

But there is no such thing as free lunch. So the cons are

1) Several research papers to read up. Feels almost like another seminar.
2) Needs to show some "productive" result at end of the project.

Well let's see how it goes.

So 1 down, 3 more credits to be taken.
Next one I had in mind was a course called "Embedded Systems Design" which was offered by the electrical department.

Well as some wise person has said (obviously me), someone who doesn't know one's own backyard, shouldn't go and start digging in someone else's backyard.
Ok bad attempt at philosophy.
It was supposed to mean, a computer science guy, who is not even thorough with his own courses, should never dig his head into other department courses, especially electrical. This was the moral of the story I learned after my first class in this course.
The prof was shooting out OPAMs,Transistors,CMOS,IC at everyone. All the electrical guys were having a great time while poor me was drowning in a sea of ICs and transistors. But I was determined to credit this course. It's not everyday that you get to screw up a course offered by another department.

So 2 down, 2 more to go.
I had actually narrowed down my options to 3 courses now, out of which I have to choose 2. I had the option of either crediting 2 courses and doing a sit through (which means just attending lectures and no need to write any exams or do any assignemnts) the 3rd one or just take 2 courses this semester and do the 3rd course in the 4th semester (same courses are offered in the alternate semesters).

The courses were:
1) Program Analysis
2) Indian Astronomy (This semester we are supposed to take a non-CSE course called institute elective. The electrical course mentioned above is a different case in that even CSE students can credit it)
3) Mathematical foundations of formal verification (MFFV)

I had attended the first class of both Program Analysis and Indian Astronomy and wanted to credit both of them. But I had almost made up my mind to take up MFFV. One because it was going to be taught by Prof Supratik. He was one of the best profs in our dept and I had already taken a course last semester under him, called "Formal Specification and Verification of Programs (FSVP)". I loved his teaching soo much that I had made up my mind to take whatever course he offered this semester. So it was with a very heavy heart that I attended the first class of MFFV. I really wanted to credit Indian Astronomy this semester, but now it seems a remote possibility since I had made up my mind to credit Program Analysis. Well what the heck, I could always take it up in the 4th semester.

Supratik sir started taking the first class of MFFV. There were around 30 people in the class

"Hi all, this is the first time I am offering this course. "

Hmm good...

"I am surprised to see so many of you. I had planned this course keeping in mind a class strength of around 10"

Count me in...

"Maybe after I tell you the pre-requisites for this course, you all may get a more clear picture of what I intend to teach in this course"

Nothing is going to stop me from taking this course...

"The students who take up this course must have a good understanding of Automata theory, Propositional Logic, Discrete Structures. It would also be good if you take up, side by side, the course taken by Prof Bharat Adsul called 'Special Topics in Automata' "

Great!!!!! To take this course, I need to take up 4 other courses!!!!

Now I was in 2 minds whether to take it up or not. Maybe if I put in a little more effort, I may be able to manage it.

Then he started teaching the first chapter. That did it. I knew which course to take now.

At the end of the class Vinu came up to me and asked

"Hey you look so happy. You taking this course?"

"Yahooo I can take up Indian Astronomy now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So that's it. I had chosen my courses. Hopefully I can scrap through this semester also. All the best to me.