Muthamil mandram:

         Muthamil mandram holds its uniqueness of being the only language and culture club in our college. They conducted selection for coordinators among first year students last week. They showed great interest and took active participation. The first round was on 14th February which had one-on-one interview session and the second round was held on 20th Feb. The students were expected to stage a speech or write a comprehension for the second round.The participants are eagerly waiting for their results to be announced which is expected shortly.

SPORTS:

It is almost a month since the inter year sports day events started. Here is a preview of the status so far:

Toreroz - 134
Rovonz - 72
TeccaTronz - 34
Asgardian - 16
 The final year team tops the board as for now. But no one is to lose hope. Every team is fighting to prove themselves. All the best to the players on the upcoming events.

GENERAL ARTICLE:

Breakthrough in the search for graphene-based electronics:

For 15 years, scientists have tried to exploit the "miracle material" graphene to produce nanoscale electronics. On paper, graphene should be great for just that: it is ultra-thin -- only one atom thick in fact and therefore two-dimensional, it is excellent for conducting electrical current and should be ideal for future forms of electronics that are faster and more energy efficient. In addition, graphene consists of carbon atoms -- of which we have an unlimited supply.
In theory, graphene can be altered to perform many different tasks within e.g. electronics, photonics or sensors simply by drawing tiny patterns in it, as this fundamentally alters its quantum properties. One "simple" task, which has turned out to be surprisingly difficult, is to induce a bandgap -- which is crucial for making transistors and optoelectronic devices. However, since graphene is only an atom thick all of the atoms are important and even tiny irregularities in the pattern can destroy its properties.
"Graphene is a fantastic material, which I think will play a crucial role in making new nanoscale electronics. The problem is that it is extremely difficult to engineer the electrical properties," says Peter Bøggild, a professor at DTU Physics.
The Center for Nanostructured Graphene at DTU and Aalborg University was established in 2012 specifically to study how the properties of graphene can be engineered, for instance by making a very fine pattern of holes. This should subtly change the quantum nature of the electrons in the material, and allow the properties of graphene to be tailored. However, the team of researchers from DTU and Aalborg experienced the same as many other researchers worldwide: it didn't work.
"When you make patterns in a material like graphene, you do so in order to change its properties in a controlled way -- to match your design. However, what we have seen throughout the years is that we can make the holes, but not without introducing so much disorder and contamination that it no longer behaves like graphene. It is a bit similar to making a water pipe, with a poor flow rate because of coarse manufacturing. On the outside, it might look fine. For electronics, that is obviously disastrous," says Peter Bøggild.
Now, the team of scientists have solved the problem. Two postdocs from DTU Physics, Bjarke Jessen and Lene Gammelgaard, first encapsulated graphene inside another two-dimensional material -- hexagonal boron nitride, a non-conductive material that is often used for protecting graphene's properties.
Next, they used a technique called electron beam lithography to carefully pattern the protective layer of boron nitride and graphene below with a dense array of ultra small holes."We have shown that we can control graphene's band structure and design how it should behave. When we control the band structure, we have access to all of graphene's properties -- and we found to our surprise that some of the most subtle quantum electronic effects survive the dense patterning -- that is extremely encouraging. Our work suggests that we can sit in front of the computer and design components and devices -- or dream up something entirely new -- and then go to the laboratory and realise them in practice," says Peter Bøggild. He continues:
"Many scientists had long since abandoned attempting nanolithography in graphene on this scale, and it is quite a pity since nanostructuring is a crucial tool for exploiting the most exciting features of graphene electronics and photonics. Now we have figured out how it can be done; one could say that the curse is lifted. There are other challenges, but the fact that we can tailor electronic properties of graphene is a big step towards creating new electronics with extremely small dimensions," says Peter Bøggild.

Fun facts:

1. When you say “a million seconds”, it means 11 and a half days. “A billion seconds” would be over 31 years.
2. There are more English speakers in China than in the United States.
3. Our ears and our nose never stop growing.
4. The human heart can squirt blood to a distance of 30 feet.
5. The name Australia contains three A's and each of them is pronounced differently.
6. People spend an average 22 years of their life asleep.
7. Travelling decreases risk of heart attack and depression and supports brain health.

PICS CORNER:

Mohanraj.LSP,3rd yr,CSE

Aravinth.R,3rd yr,CSE

S.Sabarisubasini,3rd yr,ECE