Technology and its dimensions"Be a lamp, a life boat and a ladder. Help someone?s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd"Jalaluddin Rumi13th Century ersian !ufi oetI am indeed delighted to address and interact with the Students, Faculty and Staf of R.V Institute of Technology here in the historic town of Bijnor. My greetings to all of you.I understand griculture is the main source of income in Bijnor, with sugarcane !eing the main cro". Friends, also I understand the R.V Institute of Technology has wor#ed on se$eral Rural %e$elo"ment &rojects such as Self Reliant 'or#sho"s ( Farmer)s Meets, 'or#sho"s, &romoting *reen Building +am"us and se$eral other social initiati$es. The $ision of this institution is "To transform young minds into technocrats, globally competitive, highly skilled with positive mind set, who live with human values in full respect of the co-existence".I am sure, students come out of RV Institute will have the capacity to feel and do that I cando it. I would like to greet all the faculty members for shaping the young minds and the supporting staff. Friends, when I am with you I would like to share few thoughts on "Technology and its dimensions".First let me share about an important experience of system development, systems integration and system management, which I had during my education at MI !hennai. Systems integration, engineering and management"hile I was studying aeronautical engineering in MI, !hennai, #$%&'(&)* during the third year of my course, I was assigned a pro+ect to design a low(level attack aircraft together with six other colleagues. I was given the responsibility of systemdesign and system integration by integrating the team members. ,lso, I was responsible for aerodynamic and structural design of the pro+ect. he other five of my team took up the design of propulsion, control, guidance, avionics and instrumentation systems of the aircraft. My design teacher -rof. .rinivasan, the then /irector of MI, was our guide. 0e reviewed the pro+ect and declared my work to be gloomy and disappointing. 0e didn1t lend an ear to my difficulties in bringing together data base from multiple designers. I asked for a month1s time to complete the task, since I had to get the inputs from five of my colleagues without which I cannot complete the system design. -rof. .rinivasan told me 23ook, youngman, today is Friday afternoon. I give you three days time. If by Monday morning I don4t get the configuration design, your scholarship will be stopped.2 I had a +olt in my life, as scholarship was my lifeline, without which I cannot continue with my studies. here was no other way out but to complete the task of design. My team felt the need for working together round the clock. "e didn1t sleep that night, working on the drawing board skipping our dinner. 5n .aturday, I took +ust an hour1s break. 5n .unday morning, I was near completion, when I felt someone4s presence in my laboratory. It was -rof. .rinivasan studying my progressin the drawing board. ,fter looking at my work, he patted and hugged me affectionately. 0e had words of appreciation6 2I knew I was putting you under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline. 7ou have done great +ob in system design2. "hat I learnt from engineering education was, how important system development, system integration and system management is1 his integrated learning experience assisted me in various faces of my career. hrough this review mechanism -rof .rinivasan, really in+ected the necessity of understanding the value of time by each team member and brought out the best from the system design team. I reali8ed that if something is at stake, the human minds get ignited and the working capacity gets enhanced manifold. hat1s what exactly happened. his is one of the techni9ues of building talent. The message is that young in the organization, whatever be their specialization, be trained to systems approach of multiple disciplines and projects, which will prepare them for new products, innovation and undertaking higher organizational responsibilities. Teacher has to be a coach like Prof. Srinivasanission Pluto,s you all know in :anuary ;ow, let me share with you how a street boy became a >obel laureate. %t does not matter who you areMario !apecchi had a difficult and challenging childhood. For nearly four years, !apecchi lived with his mother in a chalet in the Italian ,lps. "hen "orld "ar II broke out, his mother, along with other Aohemians, was sent to /achau as a political prisoner. ,nticipating her arrest by the Gestapo, she had sold all her possessions and given the money to friends to help raise her son in their farm. In the farm, he had to grow wheat, harvest and take it to miller to be ground. hen, the money which his mother left for him ran out and at the age of four and half years, he started living sometimes in the streets, sometimes +oining gangs of other homeless children, sometimes living in orphanages and most of the time hungry. 0e spent the last year inthe city of Reggio Bmelia, hospitali8ed for malnutrition where his mother found him on his ninth birthday after a year of searching. "ithin weeks, !apecchi and his mother sailed to ,merica to +oin his uncle and aunt. 0e started his ?rd grade schooling afresh over there and started his education, interested in sports, studied political science. Aut he didn1t find it interesting and changed into science, became a mathematics graduate in $%=$ with a double ma+or in -hysics and !hemistry. ,lthough he really liked -hysics, its elegance and simplicity, he switched to molecular biology in graduate school, on the advice of :ames / "atson, who advised him that he should not be bothered about small things, since such pursuits are likely to produce only small answers.0is ob+ective was to do gene targeting. he experiments started in $%C< and by $%C', !apecchi had clear success. hree years later, he applied the technology to mice. In $%C%, he developed the first mice with targeted mutations. he technology created by /octor !apecchi allows researchers to create specific gene mutations anywhere they choose in the genetic code of a mouse. Ay manipulating gene se9uences in this way, researchers are able to mimic human disease conditions on animal sub+ects. "hat the research of Mario !apecchi means for human health is nothing short of ama8ing, his work with mice could lead to cures for ,l8heimer1s disease or even !ancer. he innovations in genetics that Mario !apecchi achieved, won him the >obel -ri8e in ;, material to design self assembling particles. "hen aparticular type of />, is applied on a particle at the atomic level, he is able to generate a prefixed behavior and automatic assembly from them. his could be our answer to self assembly of devices and colonies in deep space without human intervention as envisioned by /r @ Brik /rexler. hus, within a single research building, I saw how two different sciences are shaping each other without any iron curtain between the technologists. his reciprocating contribution of sciences to one another is going to shape our future and industry needs to be ready for it. .imilarly, last year, I visited the Hniversity of Bdinburgh, in the Hnited @ingdom, where I met -rofessor .iddharthan !handran who showed me the ,nne Rowling Regenerative >eurology !linic. I was particularly impressed by the work being conducted in the field of early detection of mental and neural disorders. -rofessor !handran showed his work on deploying technologies typically used by eye care professionals, and use it to help detect neural disorders. Hsing optical scanner devices, his team is mapping the inside of the eye, particular Retina. hey are going further, and targeting the optical nerve, a small opening into the Retina which carries neurons and photo receptors from the eye to the brain. Hsing advanced technologies they are able to 2peep2 down the optical nerves for new millimeters and make a longitudinal and cross section image of it. I am sure, all the faculty members, particularly R.V Institute of echnology will ensure at(least three months pro+ect for every student using multiple technologies and multiple faculties.Friends, few weeks back, I read an article in the +ournal called 2.cience2 which talk about the latest />, nano devices created at the echnische Hniversitaet Muenchen #HM* (( including a robot with movable arms, a book that opens and closes, a switchable gear, and an actuator. Aut there is something special about this pro+ect. It demonstrates a breakthrough in the science of using />, as a programmable buildingmaterial for nanometer(scale structures and machines. Results reveal a new approach to +oining (( and reconfiguring (( modular ?/ building units, by fitting together complementary shapes, like pu88le pieces, instead of 8ipping together strings of base pairs. his not only opens the way for practical nano(machines with moving parts, butalso offers a toolkit that makes it easier to program their self(assembly. his is a new field popularly known as 2/>, origami,2 in reference to the traditional :apanese art of paper folding, which is advancing 9uickly towards practical applications. he researchers can control the +oining of the nano(particles by altering the chemical ion concentration of the individual pieces. hey are also controlling the +oining pattern using temperature controls. .uch controlled assembly robots can be useful for deep space applications or for fighting germs and pathogens inside human body. hus, by using the bioscience of />, interaction, with physics of temperature, chemistry of ion concentration they are reali8ing the mechanics of robotic assembly which potentially can be useful in the space science or medical field. >ow, a new trend is emerging. he aspect being introduced is that of Bcology. Globally, the demand is shifting towards development of sustainable systems which are technologically superior. his is the new dimension of the ;$st century knowledgesociety, where science and environment will go together. hus the new age model would be a four dimensional bio(nano(info(eco based. "hen technologies and systems converge, obviously one important aspect is 2systems thinking and implementation2.Friends, let me now share a uni9ue story from the life of ,lexander Graham Aell and how he invented the telephone.+reat science emanates with a spirit of service"hile, successful scientists surely make a lot of wealth, but their motivation is always beyond money. hey think in terms of what change they can bring about in other peoples4 life. .cience is driven by compassion and empathy often to alleviate the pains of humanity. 3ook at the telephoneF it would remind you of a uni9ue scientist, ,lexander GrahamAell. 0e, besides being a great inventor, was also a man of great compassion and service. In fact, much of the research which led to the development of telephone was directed at finding solutions to the challenges of hearing impaired people in their ability to listen and also talk back. ,lexander Graham Aell1s mother and his wife were both hearing impaired and it profoundly changed Aell outlook to science 1 0e aimed to make devices which would help the hearing impaired. 0e started a special school in Aoston to teach hearing impaired people in novel ways. Itwas these lessons which inspired him to work with sound and led to the invention oftelephone. !an you guess the name of the most famous student of ,lexander Graham Aell1 It was 0elen @eller, the great author, activist and poet who was hearing and visually impaired. ,s a respect to her teacher, she once said, Aell dedicated his life to the penetration of that 2inhuman silence which separates and estranges.2 I have written, with my friend, .ri+an -al .ingh, about many such stories from the lives of greatest scientist in my recently published book, Reignited6 .cientific -athway to the Future.'onclusion$ what would you like to be remembered for,Friends, finally I would like to ask you, what would you like to be remembered for1 7ou have to evolve yourself and shape your life. 7ou should write it on a page. hat page may be a very important page in the book of human history. ,nd you will be remembered for creating that one page in the history of the nation 1 whether that page is the page of invention, the page of innovation or the page of discovery or the page of creating societal change or a page of removing the poverty or the page of finding new technologies for humankind. My best wishes to the students, faculty members and staff of RV Institute of echnology, Ai+nor, for success in the mission of creating enlightened citi8ens towards building a knowledge society. May God bless you.(ight point -ath for the StudentsBngineering and echnology is a life time mission. I will work, work and work and succeed."herever I am, a thought will always come to my mind. hat is what process or product I can innovate, invent or discover.I reali8e I have to set a great technological goal that will lead me to think high, work and persevere to reali8e the goal. My greatest friends will be great scientificItechnological minds, good teachers and good books. I firmly believe that no problem can defeat meF I will become the captain of the problem, defeat the problem and succeed. I will work and work for removing the problems faced by planet earth in the areas of water, energy, habitat, waste management and environment through the application of science and technology. My >ational Flag flies in my heart and I will bring glory to my nation.