What is IRIS?
Team IRIS (Integrated Resource and Information Sharing) system is an initiative to replace all manual paper work based system followed within NITK to make it technologically strong in terms of it’s data and resource management. Our goal is to provide necessary features at one place in order to make the workflow easier for students, faculties and the administration.
Under the guidance and resources provided by Dr K V Gangadharan, Center for System Design, NITK Surathkal, we started on our journey to build IRIS. Today, We are working on several modules as and when the need arises or on the ones that have been pre-planned on our roadmap.
IRIS Modules worked on over the summer
Some of the modules that we have worked over the summer that are currently deployed and are being used are as follows:
- Launch of IRIS TIMES: Launching the IRIS Blog which can be found at https://blog.iris.nitk.ac.in/ to talk about various Product Releases for IRIS. Status: Currently in Production
- Placement Module: Integration of Placement Module on IRIS to allow students to apply for Internships and Placements on IRIS. Status: Currently in Production
- Hostel Module: Random Hostel Room Allotment of 2nd Year and 3rd Year B Tech Students on IRIS to allow them to pick Roommate Groups and Wing Groups. Status: Currently in Production
- Finance Module: Integration of Paypal and Billdesk on IRIS to pay Fees on IRIS. Currently completed with 2.05 Crore rupees worth of transaction on IRIS. Status: Currently in Production
- PhD Module: Complete PhD Module Integration and Testing, demo on 17th July to respective faculties in charge and Dean Research and Consultancy Status: Currently in Review
- Admission Module: Admission Module changes as requested by admin for B. Tech., M. Tech. admissions. Status: Currently in Production
- IRIS UX-UI Dashboard: Improving the IRIS UX using feedback from different users and building on that knowledge to improve the UI as well. Status: Currently in Review
- CEMS Module: Calendar and Events Management System to allow for all kinds of Events which are hosted in NITK and push it systematically to all students. Currently in Alpha Testing. Status: Currently in Testing
- IRIS Android for Placements: Developing IRIS Android for Placement Module, currently in Beta Testing. Status: Currently in Review
- IRIS Server and Networks: Currently developing a DevOps automation to ensure all code is directly updated to production without Team Lead having to manually copy paste code. Status: Currently in Production
- Infrastructure Module: Development of IRIS Infrastructure Module to allow for room bookings, including Guest House Bookings as requested by Student Council, via Dean R&C. Integration of this Module with CEMS will be looked into soon enough. Status: Currently in Review
- NIRF Module: Development of the NIRF Module to collect data for all rankings and establish IRIS as a system for information retrieval. Status: Currently in Review
Process to apply for IRIS
The IRIS Recruitment Procedure is a 3-step process which looks out for a specific skillset from the candidates who apply for a particular role.
Step 1: Task Completion
- Login to IRIS NITK and go select the button to Login to Moodle.
- Select “IRIS Recruitment 2018” under the My Courses Block at the end of the page.
- Read through the Intro, Current and Planned Modules and Technical Overview to have a basic understanding of the requirements for the given roles.
- Fill the “General Questionnaire” as that is a compulsory task to have a general background about the candidates applying to the team.
- You are allowed to apply for one or more teams. Feel free to ask us questions regarding any of the recruitment tasks in case you are confused.
Step 2: Technical Interviews
All technical interviews will be taken by the respective teams and the Team Manager. To have a full list of team members, do check out the IRIS Team Page.
Technical Interviews will contain a detailed discussion about the respective tasks and also interviewers will gauge the knowledge of the candidate in the respective field.
P.S. No DSA questions will be asked. :p
Step 3: HR Interviews
Once candidates are selected from technical interviews, the HR Interviews will be taken by the IRIS Team Leads, (Salman Shah and Manish Kumar) for the year 2018-2019. Candidates will be asked questions ranging from their interests to their motivation to work at IRIS.
P.S. All candidates are requested not to make up stuff as it is quite easy to spot it and will lead to immediate rejection. 😛
Teams at IRIS NITK
IRIS Backend
One of the oldest teams at IRIS NITK, this team basically works with Ruby on Rails and develops modules according to requirements provided the administration. Considered to be a pure Software Engineering team, this team has been the backbone of all the teams at IRIS NITK.
Tasks for this year can be found at: Backend Task Link
There are currently two tasks which have been released and applicants are expected to complete any one of the two tasks. Bonus points will be given if the applicants complete both the tasks. Applicants can use any MVC technology(Rails/Django/MEAN Stack/Spring/Laravel etc) (not restricted to just Rails, using Python Frameworks is also perfectly okay).
- Make a web application to get user data (First Name, Last Name, Email, Roll No, Registration No.) from IRIS using IRIS OAuth API and display it. Applicants are requested to go through the IRIS OAuth Documentation and use a MVC Application for the same.
- Design a complaint system for NITK using any MVC architecture (Rails/Django/MEAN Stack/Spring/Laravel etc). The application must take into account both the student and the administration part of NITK and allow complaints to be resolved both ways.
Both the tasks are given in much more detail, on the given link .
IRIS Systems
Systems along with IRIS Backend is the one of the other older teams at Team IRIS, which has been managing servers at IRIS NITK. Currently the team is looking to expand with the arrival of a new server at the beginning of this semester. The Systems Team currently manages three servers at and upcoming projects include Dockerisation of the complete server architecture and implementing CI-CD for the development process.
Tasks for the year can be found at: Systems Task Link
- Installing a Virtual Machine
- LXD containers and Nginx Web Server
- SSL Certificate
Complete details about the task can be found on the given link.
IRIS Android
IRIS Android is a one year old team which is currently looking at releasing the first release of the IRIS Android App by the mid-September. The team works continuously with the Backend team in ensuring and getting the required APIs that are to fetched. Applicants working with this team have to be thorough with the concept of GET and POST Requests and have a basic understanding of the Android Architecture.
Tasks for the year can be found at: Android Task Link
You are required to parse raw JSON data fetched from the server and display it on the Android device in form of a list. You are suggested to make use of Android Volley networking library for the purpose. Kindly check out the Android Task Link for more information about the same. Do check out https://androidtask.iris.nitk.ac.in/ for complete information about the task.
IRIS UX-UI
IRIS UX-UI is amongst the newer teams that work towards ensuring User Experience and User Interfaces for the users who use IRIS NITK. This team is currently mentored by Aditi Chalisgaonkar who is an NITK Alumna from the Electrical and Electronics Department (Batch of 2016) and has completed a Master of Integrated Product Design from CMU. She currently works at Walmart as a UX Designer.
Tasks for the year can be found at: UX-UI Task Link
There are two tasks for the UX-UI Team and candidates are requested to go complete any one of them. If candidates do both of them, bonus points will be given but it is not compulsory to do both.
- Conduct User Research, Capture user requirements (What do those who will be using the module want/expect from this module? ) and transform these requirements into ‘needs’ that needs to be implemented in the module. Classify the needs into Must, Should and Could, and brainstorm on them to come up with potential solutions to these needs.
- The IRIS Dashboard, which is the first page you see on logging in, has several inherent issues that affect the user experience, one of it being the text-overflow within the icons. Identify these issues, and redesign the dashboard to your liking, such that these issues are solved.
IRIS PPT (Product and Policy)
IRIS PPT is the only Non Technical team at IRIS NITK which will look to develop the IRIS Product as a whole and also Policies for various administrative activities in college. Currently being led by Manish Kumar from Final Year Computer Science and Engineering Department, the team is looking to work on some exciting modules in the upcoming months.
Tasks for the year can be found at: PPT Task Link
There are three rounds of tasks that are to be done for applying to the PPT Team and all of the rounds are compulsory.
- Round I – Q&A
- Round II – Video Demonstration
- Round III – Case Study
Complete details about the task can be found on the given link.
All in all, best of luck to all the applicants looking to apply to IRIS this year. We hope to see you as part of our team this year and for the years coming up.