A prowess in the field of Computer Graphics, he aces in many other. A professor with a vast experience in his field, and an eternal urge to innovate, he is a favorite when it comes to doing projects. Practicality, engineering and creativity merge in his lab. Professor Anand Gupta shares his journey through the years and beyond with Team Alliance.
Q1.Since when have you been associated with NSIT?
I have been a part of this Institution since the year 2000. Initially, I taught DCS-2 in the ECE department. From the last 7-8 years, I have been teaching Computer graphics to ICE and COE students.
Q2.What are your areas of workover these years?
Computer graphics has been one of my core areas of work. I have also worked in the fields of data mining and Image processing.
Q3.What is the scope of Computer graphics beyond B.E.?
Graphics is one of those fields of engineering, which find a wide range of applications, cutting across fields of work. Be it a presentation in an entrepreneurial firm or designing blueprints of complex machines, graphics is always utilized. It has a huge user base. So, understanding its nitty-gritties, be it at the BE or masters level or beyond, only makes you ace multiple other fields.
Q4. You are considered the ‘ultimate maestro’ when it comes to data mining. Please give an overview of what the subject is all about.
Data mining or collecting data base and data information is essentially ‘mining’ the given raw data for a relevant pattern. For example, suppose a departmental store has two products X, Y and another product Z, such that, whoever buys either X or Y, also, frequently buys Z. This pattern could be put to use in designing the products’ layout in the store to ensure optimum convenience to the customers. This also finds enormous application in business scenarios and financial firms for guessing the market behavior. One must remember that all patterns are not useful, thus segregating, studying and analyzing ‘useful patterns’, is the work of a ‘data miner’.
Q5. Being one of the sought-after profes- sors for research work, you must have come across some interesting project topics. Could you please share some?
Yes, across the years, there have been some very novel project ideas that I have mentored. One of them was ‘Gait Analysis’. The project aimed at carefully recording the gait of people and singling out criminals through the analysis. The muscular anatomy was mapped and muscular angles at normal gait were computed. Then it was further developed to provide the difference between normal and furtive gait of a criminal. This image-processing tool can be used by police to nab criminals on the loose. Another project was on ‘Gesture Map- ping’. The students involved, mapped the typical gestures of a person in different mental states (sad, angry, happy, nervous, excitement, etc) and tabulated the typical gestures associated with different states. This Image processing tool can be used during interrogations to analyze the mental state of the person, vis- a-vis the ease/nervous tension while answering questions put forth.
Q6. What are the essential qualities you look for in students, when you agree to mentor them?
The only pre-requisite is the zeal to learn. Students are sadly, ‘end-oriented’, thus they are always on the lookout for a project to ‘polish’ their CVs . Often, the enthusiasm of the students weans off and the projects are left incomplete. The students are much interested in completing the project in a year or so and in case that doesn’t happen, they abandon it.
Q7. What are the various stages of a typical research project?
Usually students from the 3rd and 4th year work on these projects. It takes about 6-8 months for problem identification. This is the most important and longest phase of any research project which is followed by problem formulation, analysis, working, and finally report submission.
Q8. What are your views on the state of laboratories in our college?
Our laboratories are moderately equipped, however almost everybody works on their laptops and majority of the work we do, be it C programming, MATLAB, and PSPICE everything is computer simulation. Thus, those who are truly interested can achieve a lot of quality lab-work by using their own resources as well.
Q9. If not graphics, then what would have been your chief area of work?
Data-mining. They all deal with real-world problems and thus are a ‘hands on’ field of work, whose findings, results and applications cut across myriad fields.
Q10. Some final words to the students of NSIT…
I would like to ask the students to work hard, innovate and endeavor to keep up the college’s brand name. As a professor, nothing gives a greater high than the success of students. All the best!