more TED TALKS!!!

Lee Hotz: Inside an Antarctic time machine

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/lee_hotz_inside_an_antarctic_time_machine.html


Its about antartica-the highest,riest,coldest and windiest region of the world and the scientists are drilling into the past of our planet to find the clues to the future of climate change.To study the effect of the global warming on the natural climatic patterns-winds,ocean currents,cloud formation etc.They started drilling the ice and found it to be a perfect time machine-they found a 10-foot long cylinder of compressed ice crystals that contain the unsullied air and trace chemicals laid down by snow,season after season for thousands of years.Studying the various layers of ice helps us to estimate the prevailing conditions at hat time and helps us to study the changes that have occurred during the past few thousand years.

David Hanson: Robots that "show emotion"

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/david_hanson_robots_that_relate_to_you.html

Its about robots that can see faces,make eye contact with you,make a full range of facial expressions,understand speeches and begin to model how you are feeling and who you are and build a relationship with you.They mainly aim at two things-one the perception of people and two the natural form of the interface,so that its more intuitive for us to interact with the robot and we start believe that its alive and aware.

Mike Biddle: We can recycle plastic

http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_biddle.html

Less than 10% of plastic trash is recycled -- compared to almost 90% of metals --

 because of the massively complicated problem of finding and sorting the different kinds. Frustrated by this waste, Mike Biddle has developed a cheap and incredibly energy efficient plant that can, and does, recycle any kind of plastic.They recover materials from the waste and then recycle the end-of-life-stuff.The process start with metal recyclers which the stuff into very small bits and the shreddder residue predominently plastic is left behind.The materials other than plastic is taken outand sieved using magnets or air classification.Next the plastic is taken to multi step seperation process and the end result is the new plastic with redifined characteristics.  

TED TALKS

TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading".

TED was founded in 1984^[1] as a one-off event and the conference was held annually from 1990 in Monterey, California.^[4] TED's early emphasis was largely technology and design, consistent with a Silicon Valley center of gravity. The events are now held in Long Beach and Palm Springs in the U.S. and in Europe and Asia, offering live streaming of the talks. They address an increasingly wide range of topics within the research and practice of science and culture. The speakers are given a maximum of 18 minutes to present their ideas in the most innovative and engaging ways they can. 

Though i have been watching the TED talks for the past two days,thought of writing about them came to me only today!The first one is about Gaming.Its by Ali Carr-Chellman and is on "Gaming to re-engage boys in learning".
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/ali_carr_chellman_gaming_to_re_engage_boys_in_learning.html
 Ali Carr-Chellman pinpoints three reasons boys are tuning out of school in droves, and lays out her bold plan to re-engage them: bringing their culture into the classroom, with new rules that let boys be boys, and video games that teach as well as entertain.She argues that when compared to girls the boys suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactive disorder bu nearly four times.She displayed many statistics comparing the number of boys and girls as school droupouts,expelled from schools etc and the boys were ahead of the girls in such statistics.


The seond one is on self aware robots-which have the ability to learn, understand themselves and even self-replicate.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/hod_lipson_builds_self_aware_robots.html
The talk was by Hod Lipson.Te robots have been performing a number of tasks like cooking,cleaning,washing and even shopping.He expands the function of robots into various other spheres too.It has four legs around the body which help in its locomotion,eight motors-four on the knees and four on the hips.It has also two tilt centres that tell the machine which way its tilting.These robots are of corse not very useful in themselves,but they might teach us something about how we can build better robots.


The third was by Larry Burns on the future of cars.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/reinventing_the_car.html
Its about sleek, customizable (and computer-enhanced) vehicles that run clean on hydrogen -- and pump energy back into the electrical grid when they're idle.In order to obtain something  very affordable,they took he advantage of Moores law  with electronic controls and software and they selected hydrogen as the engine carrier.They had Autonomy drivable with Hy-Wire which is the worlds first drivable fuel cell and the hydrogen and the fuel cell provide the opportunity touse the cars and trucks to generte the power for the grid

INTO THE CHPC !

The day  began at 7.30am and began with  the discussion on C language.The for and while loops were discussed and it was made clear to us that infinite loops without any printf statement will eat up the CPU like anything.Functionsis are defined as a group of programs,that are needed to  be used continuously.

Then we were taken into the CHPC room and were familiarised with the components over there.We were also taken to server and UPS room and the function of each was discussed in brief.We were also  familiarised with the network  connection in the campus,how each section is monitered and the steps taken for network security.

The next discussion was on the concept of parallelising-how tasks are distributed to various processors.There atre Multi core and Multi Processor systems that are commonly used.The datas that are to  be fetched frequently are stored in the cache memory.The further topic was MPI-a group that has a specific size and each with an identity.


The session continued with videos on the database of facebook and Google and the project BLUEWATERS.It was really an amazing experience.The internal  architecture of Google and facebook gave an idea on the tremendous advancement in the field of intelligent building.Then before ending the forenoon session we had the christmas celebration with Mahesh sir cutting the cake and we were joined by Unnikarthe sir and Justin sir.

The afternoon session was at an entire diferent level-it  was all about sharing our experience of these days,what difficulties we have in each subjet and the future plans of the group,a brief introduction to the projects and activities in the next semester...................."MERRY CHRISTMAS"!

AHEAD WITH DIGITAL ELECTRONICS!

The day began at 7.30am and we were provided with 6 questions from digital electronics.We divided ourselves into 2 groups consiting of  4 members each ans took up three questions which were:
1.design a 4:1 multiplexer
2.design a circuit to multiply 2 numbers(2 bit)
3.design a system to control water level in the tank.
The stategy  we adopted in grouping ourselves was that each group had a member from CS.This idea was adopted because they had attended the classes and lavs in the third semester itself.So it would be easy to approach a problem.

The questions were quiet simple(compared to that of microprocessors) because we have to deal with only ones and zeros and all of us were familiar with then basic gate operations.Moreover the connections of ICs were displayed in the lab which made it easier even for a beginner.We were able to complete the tasks within the mentioned time.

The second session was not in connection with any  technical matter but it was all about discussing freely in the group  about the respons e from the people and much more which would prove worthful to us in the years to come!

INTRODUCTION TO C LANGUAGE AND DIGITAL!

The day started with a session on introduction to  C language.We were instructed to empty our cups at the starting itself.It was developed in the 1970's in the BELL telephone laboratories for the use with the Unix Operating System.We started the discussion with what is meant  by a variable,how to assign a value to it and about data types.The data type was introduced to avoid the confusion between a numerical value and a character represented by the same numerical value.

The discussion continued on with the compilers.It can be described as a group of programs that converty a high level language into  machine language.The importance of sharing the source code is that it can be used for easy detection and correction of mistakes.While writing a C program it is important that it should be free from syntax and samantical errors.The functions of loops like if-else and while were also brought in.The printf can be considered as a black box as it is used for a wide varirty of operations and we are unaware of what is happening within it.

Though the session  sometimes took a path away from the technical it was interesting to listen to the moral values and norms in the internet community.

The afternoon session was on mind mapping by Mr.Unikartha,Dept of civil engineering.We were asked to give our career ideas after the enginnering and we gave out a long list.Each of our interest was taken seperately and discussed in detail-the steps that  should be taken to reach it,the benefits we get from it!

It was followed by 2 videos from the TED talks-one was about a robot that  would just  fly like a bird-the details in its design was given and we found that it  was not easy as we think.The second was  bit difficult to understand.The only thing i got from that is just like recrussion,symmetry is also an important concept in the universe.

The last session was on digital electronics by Mrs.Parvathy ,EEE department.She discussed from the basic idea of 4 number systems and we were asked to represent  0-15 using binary numbers.The concepts ob 'sum of products' and 'product of sums' were discussed and we were introduced to the basic gates like and,nor not,or.The simplification of gate circuits using K-maps was also discussed and we were given a pboblem to solve it by ourselves which gave us a better understanding of the concept!

the day worth remembering!!

Today was the second day with the assignments.The session began at 8am and we were asked to browse the internet to get ideas to proceed with the questions.A basic idea was given to us and we were asked to  browse regarding binary,hexadecimal,decimal  conversion,to find perfect square root,to represent a floating point,matrix multiplication-all using the 8085 microprocessor.

As the previous day we organized ourselves into 4 groups consisting of 2 members each and were asked to select 2 questions and work on it and the task to be completed by 3pm.We moved to the microprocessor lab and started working on it.The task for us was to 'find the square of a number ,if that number is an element in a matrix'.We could solve it out easily with the data sheet available and could perform the operation on the processor.

The second task was to 'design a program for multiplying two matrices'.We started to work on it  around 11 and tried out all possible logic.Finally  we arrived at  one which we felt was the best and started working on it.But for our disappointment whatever be the matrix we enter the final answer is just 50.We tried to find where the exact problem was for around 2 hours but ended up with the same 50.But still i'm happy that there is an improvement from the last day.Previously we were with no outputs for both the problems but today we could get an output for atleast one!

THE DAY OF ASIGNMENTS!!!!

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Into the world of electronics!!!!!!

We moved from the central computing lab to the hardware lab, the core place of CHPC.It opened a new world of electronic circuits and circuit designing in front of us.Intially we were introduced to passive components like resistors,capacitors and active componenets like transistors,diodes.Each component was studied in detail like the colour coding in resistors,how to distinguish between the terminals of a capacitor,the use of multimeters.




This was followed by designing a circuit using LED,resistor and a 9V battery.Small scale changes were made on the circuit and the changes during each time was noted which helped us to ananlyse them better.Then a design of half wave rectifier circuit was made and the input and output waveforms were analysed using a DSO-Digital Storage Oscilloscope.It  had a perfect output waveform with accuracy of 49.9 Hz.This was possible with an auxiliary circuit inside the DSO which generate the signal with same frequency as the input signal.Capacitive filters were later added to the circuit and analysis was done.




Next we were iontroduced to the transformer.IC-Integrated circuits,power transistors  and their various applications.The switching  action of transistor was discussed in detail.Next we were  asked to design a circuit with a transistor having switching action,LED and resistors.Different configuration were tried with resistors on the collector,base side and the best one was chosen for further manipulations.We included a relay to the collector circuit and a 230V bub was made to turn on and off using the circuit.Various collector loads like the LEDs,DC motors ,relays made the circuit analysis easier.It was made clear to us that by implementing small changes in the existing circuit distinct results can be observed.


We also designed a circuit that can be used as a voltage regulator using 78XX series IC and observed that a constant voltage of 5V was obtained irrespective of the variation in supply voltage or change in load.Lastly  we were introduced to motherboard in computers-the various ports were familiarised.Lastly we were asked for innovative ideas and were made to discuss among the group to select the best three and work for its implementation.

deeper into the programming sea!

    The day started with viewing of the video on 'Google's driverless car'.It was just  amazing encouraging a blooming engineer to do something worthy  for the society.

    The session was followed by moving deeper into porogramming using octave.Although the logic behind the program  was a bit difficult to be followed,as he time passed i found them lighter.As a beginner the programming on bisection was really brain storming for me.

    The session was followed by matrix manipulations including slicing of a matrix,inverse ,transpose.We were given an insight into the intel embedded challenge and asked to present an idea by evening.We were thought to perform all the methods of evaluating square root as a single function,how to assign a function.
The session also taught us to do the program to find the maximum among the given set of numbers or matrix,followed by how to load and save a matrix.


    The afternoon session was on image processing-the details on pixels of an image,how it can be viewed as a three-dimensional figure.The session handled how to  load an image,to find out its size,the point of maximum intensity.anh how each layer can be viewed seperately.It gave us the importance of application of matrices onto image processing and the use of various tools like laplace in image manipulation.The identification of the point with maximum brightness can be used to design games.


    The session concluded with the video"My brilliant brain"-a thought provoking experirnce to learn how to tackle the human brain despite the differences between male and female brains,how to use it in the optimum manner to enhance our potentials.

AHEAD WITH THE TASK OF COMPUTING!!

    The day started with the discussion on Hammaltonian path which means that the person has to move covering all  vertices only once,the edges can be repeated but the  vertices shouldn't be repeated.Unlike Euler method there is no specific method to identify a Hammaltonian path.

    The session gave an idea about polynomial type(P class-eg : n^2) and non deterministic polynomial type(NP class -eg:log functions ,2^n) algorithms.A small discussion on data encryption,the usage of public and private key was carried on.Encryption using public key and decryption using private key is included under P class algorithm and decryption without private key is included under NP class algorithm.

    The session continued with the topic of machine design which takes into account the accepting or rejection of certain combinations.It also threw light on the alphabet set of a machine.It helped us to design machines that will accept the specific input given to us.It was followed by the concept of nondeterministic (multiple choices available in a single string) and deterministic finite state machines.

    The idea of push and pop was introduced to us through an example that reveals the limitation of computing.Analysis of different cases were done the concept of Push Down Machines (eg:a machine that will accept 0^n 1^2n) was also discussed.

    The last session was on octave-how it is used in matrix numerical computation, about its interpreter,how a variable can be declared and redeclared at any time,matrix operations like addition,multiplication,inverse,transpose were executed.It also had the knowledge about coding to find out the square root of a number using methods of incrementation and bisection.Different keywords like if,while,for were also introduced.

    The day concluded with a talk on DATA STREAM ALGORITHMS AND APPLICATIONS by Mr.Naveen,Assistant Professor IIT Hyderabad.Although the entire concept was not clear a vague idea was obtained regarding data stream,the challenges like faster rate and limited memory storage and the approaches to solve the problems of data streamlines.

technology without maths????!

    The team consisting of 8 members got completed today ................I was completely unaware of what happened in the last class.............

    The brief introduction on continuous and discrete systems gave an idea of how things around us work.....the session was very appealing letting us know how the things in nature can be viewed in a different way as recressive ones...........it also gave an idea on computation and modelling,how to analyse a real life problem  as in case of salesman taking the least distance routes............

  

    The session made us understand the importance of mathematics in the field of engineering.............every phenomenon around us-the rise and fall of sea waves,the occurrence of day and night, can be related to maths and fields like robotics and control systems can  never be imagined without maths...........

    The session evoked in us a thought on real time systems.....its utility in the modern world...............It also thought us to analyse the same problem through different means and how to obtain the optimum solution.......................


    It also threw lights on the options of online education,the internet wonder "GOOGLE".....................I was really shocked to see the facilities provided to us by Google-apart from being just an advertising company it had played an important
role in shaping the web usage all around the world................


    The graph theory,the colouring of graphs made it easier to understand problems and provided us with an easier way to approach a problem...............


    The session also discussed on asymptotic notation,the complexity in any mathematical approach, and Euler's path  which gives an easy way to find out if the path can be traced touching all vertices without retracing any path............

    The final video on human body, analyzing it from deep within as an assembly of millions of atoms was indeed interesting and made us understand that the base for development of every artificial structure or machine is our own human body-IT IS THE MOST INCREDIBLE MACHINE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!!!!!