Surfing

Early this morning, I wanted to know about something called trend surface analysis. Wikipedia, for once, only offered a mention, what it calls a stub, rather than an article. But Bing turned up reference 1, which appeared to be where it all started, in the world of agronomy and weed control. But I could only have it on presentation of $35, which seemed a bit strong. But then, either Bing or Google, I forget which, turned up reference 2, from the world of geology, which I could have for free. Not got very far yet, but it looks as if it might well meet my modest needs.

The point of the present post being that I have now learned of a large university, Utkal University, which I had never heard of before, in a place which I had never heard of before. In the coastal strip to the east of the Eastern Ghats, a hundred miles or so southwest of what used to be called Calcutta. Their web-site is a little creaky compared, say, with that of a similar establishment in the US, and I have not been able to find out how big it is, but it does seem to have over 3,000 post-graduate students and occupy a lot of space on the map. Originally founded in 1943, perhaps moved to this site on the 1st January 1958, when the then Union President, Doctor Rajendra Prasad, laid the foundation stone.

On the other hand, neither Google nor Microsoft have sent their camera vans in to provide Street View (Google gmaps) or Streetside imagery (Microsoft Bing Maps). So I don't have quite the feel for the look of the place, Bhubaneswar, that I was hoping for.

The name of the bit of Bhubaneswar that the university is in, Vani Vihar, means 'Place of Learning'. Variations on this name being widely used in Odisha at large. Odisha being the state formerly known as Orissa. A place of learning which, according to Wikipedia, has its fair share of student troubles and demonstrations.

So much going on in the world which I don't have a clue about, the reach of Google and Bing notwithstanding!

PS: the references given at the end of reference 2 are very coal flavoured. From which we deduce that mining and burning coal is a big industry in Odisha. Global warming not yet arrived there.

Reference 1: Trend surface analysis: a simple tool for modelling spatial patterns of weeds - F. Dessaint, J.-P. Caussanel - 1994.

Reference 2: Trend Surface Analysis of Spatial Data – Rabindra Nath Hota – 2014.

Reference 3: Utkal University.