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AREPORT ON

a) Food Habits of BITSiansb) Sleeping Habits of BITSians and their corresponding

Performance in terms of CGPA

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

MBA C413: Quantitative Methods

BYSHWETA GARG

2010H149218PSOUMIK SAHA2010H149256P

JOSE THOMAS2010H149250P

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OFMr. Ram Shukla

Professor, Management Department

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY&SCIENCEPILANI, RAJASTHAN-333031

November, 2010


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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Mr. Ram Shukla, Professor,

Management Group for providing us with this excellent opportunity to work on such an

interesting project. Without his constant help, guidance and scrutiny, we would not

have been able to achieve whatever we have done through this project. We are also

sincerely grateful to Mr. M.K Kashiramka, Public Relations Officer (PRO) for giving us

the permission to carry out the survey in BITS. We are also thankful to him for helping

us in our survey by filling our questionnaire. We also thank people from SAC, ANC,REDIS and Connaught for allowing us to question them. They provided us with

important information related to their day to day work.

The acknowledgement wouldnt be complete without thanking all my batch mates who

have helped us in carrying out our survey by filling up the questionnaire and giving us

useful suggestions and inputs.

SOUMIK SAHA

SHWETA GARG

JOSE THOMAS


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Objective: To Study the Food Habits of BITSians

INTRODUCTION

Food is everyones basic requirement and students of BITS are no exception. Students hailingfrom different parts of the country have unique food habits. This internally affects otherstudents also.There are a lot of options other than mess available for the students to have their food. But ithas been observed that outside food stations are preferred over mess. This has been causing aplethora of health related problems among the students. Nutritious and healthy food isconstantly being neglected by them and fast food items are being given more importance. A

survey was needed to assess the reasons for it.This report gives an overview of the general trends in the food habits of students in BITS. Itattempts to establish the causes that lead to habit of eating outside mess. The report alsoprovides a few suggestions following which the situation can be improved upon.A survey was conducted through questionnaires prepared for students. The scope of thissurvey is limited by the fact that it does not target the whole of BITS student community.About 5 % of the students participated in the survey.

METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

. The different bases are as follows: i) Mess

Shankar-Vyas: 16Krishna-Gandhi 16Vishwakarma-Bhagirath 18Rana Pratap-Ashok 11Ram-Budh 12Malviya (including Mal. Ext.) 17Meera 10

Total 100ii) Year

First Year 27Second Year 27Third Year 13Fourth Year 11Fifth Year 11M.E. 11

Total 100


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In BITS a large number of students are found eating outside the mess. Various factors can be

hold responsible for this trend. All these (factors, advantages, disadvantages) will be covered

in the following discussion.

FACTORS

I. MESS

Food, water and shelter comprise the basic needs of every human being. Proper shelter and

water can be easily catered to by the institute but pleasing students in the domain of food is

definitely not an easy job. Though the messes in BITS make an attempt to gratify students

appetite, there is a general consensus that students are not satisfied.

This is clearly proven by the following graph on the next page which shows the number of

times students in BITS skip the mess.

MESSES FIG. 1 : No. of times students skip the mess per week for different messes

According to the survey, in general a BITSian skips the mess approximately 5-6 times aweek which indeed is quite high.There are several factors such as Quality and Variety of food ,Hygiene , Mess timings,Service of mess workers etc. that determine the overall quality of any mess.

1. Quality and Variety of food


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The study shows that quality and variety of food have been the major downside of the mess..The pathetic rotis , the tasteless dals , the waterlogged sambhars etc. are a common scene inevery mess and this seriously degrades the quality of food in the mess.Almost half of the students ( 46 %) are totally unsatisfied with the quality and variety of mess

food while another 39 % are partially satisfied with them. Only a 15 % of the studentcommunity seems to be satisfied. This clearly reflects the poor state of quality and variety inthe messes of BITS.2. HygieneSince this factor has a direct impact on the health of students, it is of great importance to boththe students and the Institute. On an average, students in BITS seem to be quite satisfied withthe mess hygiene. A majority of them ( 59 % ) think of mess hygiene to be average while 29% rate it as good. The remaining 1 2 % who are discontent with the mess hygiene mostlycomplain about utensils ( like food plates, spoons etc.) being not washed properly.

3. Mess timingsThe timings of messes in BITS are as follows:-Summer

a) Breakfast 7 a.m. to 9.15 a.m.b) Lunch 11.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.c) Dinner 7 p.m. to 8.30 p.m.

Winter a) Breakfast 7.30 a.m. to 9.15 a.m.b) Lunch 11.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.c) Dinner 6.30 p.m. to 8.00 p.m.

The survey shows that only 39 % of the students find these timings comfortable whereas therest 61 % are not satisfied with them. According to these 61 % respondents, the dinnertimings are too early, especially in the winter season.

4. CELEBRATIONS A BITSian has to celebrate every special occasion with different groups like wing mates,department members (if he is in any) etc. which leads to several outings at various foodstations.

A survey was conducted to find out the necessary statistics of these outings at various food- joints such as ANC , SAC Cafeteria , Cnot & SKY . The survey resulted that about 53 % of thestudents visit the above mentioned places for celebrations 3-6 times a month. Only about 20% of the students go for celebration less than 3 times a month. This proves the fact thatstudents frequently go for celebrations.The following pie chart depicts the proportion of students preferring various food stations.


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FIG . 2 : Percentage of students preferring various food stations

The frequency in which students go out to these places varies from less than 2 per week toalmost daily and the overall frequency averages to about 4 times a week . About 24 % students visit at least one of these places almost daily and another 28 % go outside and have

fast food 4-5 times a week . The major section of the students ( 35 % ) goes to these places 2-3 times a week while only a small section ( 13 % ) visits these food stations as rarely as lessthan 2 times a week .The above data indicates that BITSians visit the food stations too frequently. So naturally theexpenditure incurred also would be high. The survey too reveals the same. About one-fourth of the total number of student spends more than Rs.100 per week eating fast food at theseplaces. The average weekly expenditure of major percentage (38 %) ranges from Rs. 50-100 .Another 24 % spend Rs.20-50 per week during these outings while only 13 % of thestudents have their weekly expenditure less than Rs. 20 .The above mentioned data has been represented in the form of a pie chart on the followingpage:

FIG. 3: Percentage of students with different weekly expenditure

5. CLUBS/DEPARTMENTS/ASSOCIATIONS

From the survey conducted, it was observed that 42 % respondents have theirclub/department/association meetings 2-3 times a week . Around one-fourth of them havetheir meetings 2-3 times a month . SAC and SKY are the most favorable venues for holdingthese meetings.

The departments/clubs/associations also have some grand treats after successful completionof any of the events organized by them. The average number of students during such treats is


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more than 20 . About 28 % of the respondents reported that the average expenditure of theirdepartment/club/association treat goes up to more than Rs. 1500 whereas 57 % opined thatit averages to about Rs.1000-1500 . Only a small section of 15 % felt that their averageexpenditure is only less than Rs. 1000 on such treats.

ADVANTAGES

1. AVAILABILITY

The approximate timings of the food stations are as follows:

IC 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Redis 9 a.m. to 7 p.m.SKY 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

ANC 5 p.m. to 2 a.mSAC 9 a.m. to 2 a.m.Cnot 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.

In addition, the personal interviews taken from shopkeepers at different food-joints depicteddifferent peak times for each of them. IC and redis are inundated with students (coming fromthe Institute) from 5 p.m. to 5.30 p.m . SKY too, has nearly the same peak timings from 5.30p.m . to 6.00 p.m . C not gets swarmed by students in the night especially during the dinnertimings ( 8 p.m.-9 p.m.). ANC and SAC are full during midnight with students pouring in forbirthday treats.

2. VARIETYAs was discussed earlier, the students in BITS do not find a large variety of food items in themesses which mostly have a restricted menu. Given this fact, the outside food stations havinga large variety of cuisines in their menu naturally become their favorites.

3. BREAK FROM MONOTONOUS LIFEEarly classes, weekly tutorials, assignments, the hectic test schedule is the story of anystudent in BITS. And even then if he locks himself up in the Library and the four walls of hisroom his life will become far too monotonous. Therefore, going out with friends becomes anabsolute necessity for him.

DISADVANTAGES

1. HOLE IN THE POCKETThis is the most obvious factor when it comes to the disadvantages of eating outside. ABITSian spends around Rs.50 per week (as revealed by the survey) to enjoy fast foodoutside. Considering the other way round, when a BITSian skips the mess and goes out to eatthen he wastes Rs.30 he pays for his meal in the mess. This causes a two-way loss to thestudents. In addition, a lot of money ( Rs.1000 per semester, on an average ) is anyway spenton the celebrations.

2. HEALTH PROBLEMS

It is generally observed that hygiene at these food stations is not as good as in the mess. Theydont give the required attention to the quality of food served, the cleaning of utensils etc.


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The students dont loo k into this aspect but tend to go by the taste of food items only. Moreoften than not, this habit of the students proves detrimental to their health and they fall preyto a number of diseases.

4. WASTAGE OF MESS FOODThe workers in every mess prepare food for about 500 students eating there, assuming afixed number of students turning up every time. In such a situation varying number of students skipping the mess every time leads to wastage of food in the mess. In every mess outof 500 (approx.) about 100 students skip breakfast and about 40-50 students skip theirdinners. This gives us an idea of the amount of food that is wasted everyday in the messes.


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CONCLUSIONS

From the survey conducted, it has become clear that students in BITS have a great

tendency to skip the mess. With students skipping messes more than 5 times a week

on an average, the matter needs to be considered seriously. It is observed that the

number of students skipping their messes differ year wise. (it increases with the

years).

Moreover, some students find it hard to compromise on the hygiene of mess as

utensils are not properly cleaned and kitchen is always in disarray. The overall quality

and variety of mess food is hardly up to the expectations of students. For most of the

times the menu is not well planned and lacks variety. Moreover, it proves insufficient

in providing a balanced diet to the students. The menus of the grubs too seem to be

unaltered.

Regarding mess timings, some of the respondents found it comfortable but most of

them find dinner timings too early as well as the duration too short. To have dinner so

early forces the students to visit food-joints such as ANC and SAC Cafeteria. The

facilities such as EC and NC meant to compliment this drawback are also ill-rated by

the students. The major complaint about them was the lack of variety and quantity. Though it is not possible (and is even unnecessary) to completely eliminate the habit

of students of eating outside the mess, some appropriate measures taken by the

students and the Institute can help it reduce to an optimum level. This may help

students to get rid of the disadvantages and only enjoy its advantages. Measures

required to be taken are dealt with in the following section.


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RECOMMENDATIONS

The cleanliness of the mess should be enhanced so that there exist a better hygieniccondition in the mess.

Care should be taken that water, spoons, items like sugar, pickles etc. are

continuously available and students do not have to wait a long time to get them

Till the end of semester, same food items are served on specified days in a week and

this should be taken care of. Due to this the students start getting bored and tend to go

out to have food, Chapattis , daal , vegetables etc. should be made more delicious.

Though grubs, extras and canteens in mess make an attempt to introduce variety theyare not enough. An added variety should be brought into them.

Though nutrition is not a factor which students consider a lot, it should be taken care

of. We would recommend that services of a nutritionist should be sought to design

the menu.

Most of the students find dinner timings quite early. Half the students are not even

hungry at that time. So the dinner timings should be changed keeping in view the

students comfort.

If the quality and variety of mess gets improved and students start eating regularly in

the mess then almost half of the problem will be solved. So the recommendations to

improve the mess ought to be given the first priority.


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APPENDIX

QUESTIONNAIRE PROVIDED TO STUDENTS FOR SURVEY:

FOOD HABITS OF BITSIANS

QUESTIONNAIRE

(Please tick the appropriate boxes except where asked to indicate your answersotherwise)

Mention your ID No. (last three digits may be omitted)

Sex: M FMESS

1. How many times in a week do you skip the mess (including breakfast)?less than 3 3-66-9 more than 92. What do you think of mess hygiene?Poor AverageGood3. Are you satisfied with the quality and variety of food in mess?Yes NoPartly4. Are the services of mess workers satisfactory?Yes NoPartly5. What is your opinion about mess timings?Comfortable Uncomfortable

If uncomfortable, please specify the reasons -

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6. Are grubs, extras, EC and NC sufficient for the required change of taste?Yes NoPartlyCELEBRATIONS

7. Which food station do you prefer for celebrations?Cnot ANCSky SAC Cafeteria8. How frequently in a month do you visit the above mentioned places?


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less than 3 times 3-6 times6-9 times more than 99. What is the usual number of people in your group?less than 5 5-1010-15 more than 1510. What is the average expenditure incurred?less than Rs.250 Rs.250-500501-1000 more than1000

CLUBS/DEPARTMENTS/ASSOCIATIONS

(To be filled only if the concerned is a member of any club/department/assoc.)

15. How frequently do you have your club/dept./ assoc. meetings? once a week 2-3 times a week

once a month 2-3 times a month16. Which places are among the favorite venues for these meets?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

17. Do you have any sort of department/dutch treats after the meetings?Yes No18. If Yes,

a. What is the average number of students in the treat?Less than 5 5-1010-20 more than 20

b. What is the average per head expenditure in such treats?Less than Rs.10 Rs.10-15Rs.15-20 more than Rs.20


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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Mohan, Krishna and Sharma, R.C .Business Correspondence and Report Writing, Third

Edition. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, 2002

o < http://www.fa-ir.org/ai/fastfood_hidden.htm >

o < http://obesity.ygoy.com >

o

o < http://www.calorie-count.com >
http://www.fa-ir.org/ai/fastfood_hidden.htmhttp://www.fa-ir.org/ai/fastfood_hidden.htmhttp://www.fa-ir.org/ai/fastfood_hidden.htmhttp://www.calorie-count.com/http://www.calorie-count.com/http://www.calorie-count.com/http://www.calorie-count.com/http://www.fa-ir.org/ai/fastfood_hidden.htm


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Objective: Sleeping Habits of BITSians and their correspondingPerformance in terms of CGPA

Introduction

Sleep is a naturally recurring state characterized by reduced or lacking consciousness,

relatively suspended sensory and non-motor activity - inactivity of nearly all voluntary

muscles. It is distinguished from quiet wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli,

but it is more easily reversible than hibernation or coma. Sleep is a heightened anabolic

state, accentuating the growth and rejuvenation of the immune, nervous, skeletal and

muscular systems. It is observed in all mammals, all birds, and many reptiles, amphibians,

and fish.

The purposes and mechanisms of sleep are only partially clear and are the subject of intense

research. Sleep is often thought to help conserve energy, but actually decreases metabolism

only about 5-10%.

Optimal Amount of Sleep for humans:

Adult

The optimal amount of sleep is not a meaningful concept unless the timing of that sleep is

seen in relation to an individual's circadian rhythms. A person's major sleep episode is

relatively inefficient and inadequate when it occurs at the "wrong" time of day; one should

be asleep at least six hours before the lowest body temperature. The timing is correct when

the following two circadian markers occur after the middle of the sleep episode and before

awakening

Maximum concentration of the hormone melatonin, and

Minimum core body temperature.

Human sleep need , can vary by age and among individuals, and sleep is considered to be

adequate when there is no daytime sleepiness or dysfunction. Moreover, self-reported

sleep duration is only moderately correlated with actual sleep time as measured by


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actigraphy, and those affected with sleep state misperception may typically report having

slept only four hours despite having slept a full eight hours.

A University of California, San Diego psychiatry study of more than one million adults found

that people who live the longest self-report sleeping for six to seven hours each night.

Another study of sleep duration and mortality risk in women showed similar results. Other

studies show that "sleeping more than 7 to 8 hours per day has been consistently associated

with increased mortality," though this study suggests the cause is probably other factors

such as depression and socioeconomic status, which would correlate statistically. It has

been suggested that the correlation between lower sleep hours and reduced morbidity only

occurs with those who wake after less sleep naturally, rather than those who use an alarm.

Researchers at the University of Warwick and University College London have found that

lack of sleep can more than double the risk of death from cardiovascular disease, but that

too much sleep can also be associated with a doubling of the risk of death, though not

primarily from cardiovascular disease. Professor Francesco Cappuccio said, "Short sleep has

been shown to be a risk factor for weight gain, hypertension, and Type 2 diabetes.

Hours Required by Age:

Children need more sleep per day in order to develop and function properly: up to 18 hours

for newborn babies, with a declining rate as a child ages. A newborn baby spends almost 9

hours a day in REM sleep. By the age of five or so, only slightly over two hours is spent in

REM.

Age and condition Average amount of sleep per day

Newborn up to 18 hours1 12 months 14 18 hours

1 3 years 12 15 hours



Adolescents 9 10 hours

Adults, including elderly 7 8(+) hours

Pregnant women 8(+) hours
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actigraphyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolescencehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actigraphy


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Sleep debt

Sleep debt is the effect of not getting enough rest and sleep; a large debt causes mental,

emotional, and physical fatigue.

Sleep debt results in diminished abilities to perform high-level cognitive functions.

Neurophysiological and functional imaging studies have demonstrated that frontal regions

of the brain are particularly responsive to homeostatic sleep pressure.

Sleep deprived if you...

Need an alarm clock in order to wake up on time.

Rely on the snooze button. Have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning.

Feel sluggish in the afternoon.

Get sleepy in meetings, lectures, or warm rooms.

Get drowsy after heavy meals or when driving.

Need to nap to get through the day.

Fall asleep while watching TV or relaxing in the evening.

Feel the need to sleep in on weekends.

Fall asleep within five minutes of going to bed.

The effects of sleep deprivation and chronic lack of sleep

Fatigue, lethargy, and lack of motivation

Moodiness and irritability

Reduced creativity and problem-solving skills

Inability to cope with stress

Reduced immunity; frequent colds and infections

Concentration and memory problems

Weight gain

Impaired motor skills and increased risk of accidents

Difficulty making decisions

Increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems


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Lack of sleep affects your judgment, coordination, and reaction times. In fact, sleep

deprivation can affect you just as much as being drunk. The BBC has a fun test to help you

determine if lack of sleep is affecting your performance.

In order to check the alertness or freshness among the students of BITS, we carried out atest on them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/

We found out that the performance of the students was best during night time, i.e. 9-12 and

poor in the morning time between 8-10 A.M. This can be because of the habit of sleeping

late and then waking up for 8 A.M class and ending up in groggy and sluggish mood for

whole day because of sleep deprivation.

Effect of Sleep on Performance:

The notion of sleep is important for learning has been kicked around, but hotly debated, by

scientists for years. Recently, however, advances in neuroscience led researchers to carry

out a variety of careful studies in both humans and animals, which provide clear evidence

that sleep is indeed important for at least some types of memory and learning. In particular

it seems to secure memories, termed procedural memories, which help people learn skills.

Thanks to procedural memories, you can master a video game, a gymnastics move or a

melody on the piano.

In some of the work, researchers trained people to complete a procedural memory-based

task and then determined if sleep improved their performance. Several studies show that it

does. In one recent example, participants had to repeatedly type a sequence on a keyboard.

A group trained in the morning and then tested 12 hours later showed no significant

improvement. But a full night's sleep improved their performance by almost 20 percent.

Another group, trained in the evening, improved their performance by about 20 percent

after a full night's sleep. But after another 12 hours of staying awake, they showed hardly

any improvement. This shows that sleep, not time, aids the learning.

Sleep may allow the brain to reprocess newly learned information so that memories of it

stick. Research that uses technology to peer inside the brain supports this idea. In one study,

scientists first found that sleep improved performance on a task that tests procedural
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/


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memory. They then used an imaging technique to map brain activity and discovered that

some brain areas activated during the training of the task were reactivated during sleep

Sleep Habits of Bitsians :

Sleep Duration:

For Females:

This graph shows the sleep duration vs. CGPA. If we see here, the trend shows that there is agradual increase in the CGPA from 7 to 8 for the sleep duration of 8 hours. The Maximum

CGPA of 9+ is there for the sleep duration of 8 hours. But for sleep duration of less than 7

hours, there is a reduction in the CGPA.

Description Statistics:

Column1

Mean 0.324166667Standard Error 0.006486275Median 0.3125Mode 0.3125Standard Deviation 0.032431373Sample Variance 0.001051794Kurtosis 1.631497375

Skewness-

0.769544619

Range 0.145833333Minimum 0.229166667


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Maximum 0.375Sum 8.104166667Count 25Confidence Level(95.0%) 0.013387013

Sleeping Duration:

For MALES:

In this scatter plot we see that the performance based on CGPA is most in the range of 6.5

hours to 8.5 hours. For 5-5.5 hours there are two exceptions of 8+ CGPA. They are the 4th

year students who have got used to live on less sleep hours without affecting their

performance. But in general the performance is constant for 7-8 hour of sleep for the males of

the BITS students community.

Description Statistics:

Column1

Mean 0.2975Standard Error 0.009122368Median 0.291666667Mode 0.291666667Standard Deviation 0.045611839Sample Variance 0.00208044Kurtosis 0.800705656Skewness 0.62066395Range 0.208333333

Minimum 0.208333333Maximum 0.416666667


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Sum 7.4375Count 25Confidence Level(95.0%) 0.018827642


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Conclusions

From this survey we conclude that the sleeping habits of BITSIANS change as they move

from 1st

year to 4th

year. 1st

yearites tend to sleep for more than 7-8 hours and tend to performwell with an average CGPA of few students are there who sleep for less than 6 hours and tend

to get their CGPA affected. But as we surveyed we saw that students tend to sleep for lesser

and lesser time. They tend to spend more times on games, watching movies and department

works. Certain cases were there, where even sleeping for less time, their CGPA will

respectable, i.e. 7-9. The one reason for this case is that they have got used to the process

over a period of time.

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