Robo Mania!

Assembling a giant robot in space

Cape Canaveral (Florida): Astronauts bound for orbit this week will dabble in science fiction, assembling a “monstrous” two-armed space station robot that will rise like Frankenstein from its transport bed.
Putting together Dextre, the robot, will be one of the main jobs for the seven Endeavour astronauts, who are scheduled to blast off in the wee hours of Tuesday, less than three weeks after the last shuttle flight.
They’re also delivering the first piece of Japan’s massive Kibo space station lab, a floatin closet for storing tools, experiments and spare parts. For the first time, each of the five major international space station partners will own a piece of the real estate.
At 16 days, the mission will be Nasa’s longest space station trip ever and will include five spacewalks, the most ever performed while a shuttle is docked there. Three of those spacewalks will feature Dextre, which is sure to steal the show.
With 11-foot arms, a shoulder span of nearly 8 feet and a height of 12 feet, the Canadian Space Agency’s Dextre — short for dexterous and pronounced like Dexter — is more than a little intimidating, at least for astronaut Garrett Reisman.
“Now I wouldn’t go as far to say that we’re worried it’s going to go run amok and take over the space station or turn evil or anything because we all know how it’s operated and it doesn’t have a lot of its own intelligence,” Reisman said.
“But I’ll tell you something ... He’s enormous and to see him with his giant arms, it is a little scary. It’s a little monstrous, it is.” Dextre will be flying up aboard Endeavour in pieces, and it will be up to a team of spacewalking astronauts to assemble the 1542kg robot and attach it to the space station. AP

SPACE MONSTER: This illustration by The Canadian Space Agency displays ‘Dextre’, a 'monstrous' two-armed space station robot that will be assembled by astronauts

Rebuilding the human race from scratch!

IF TOMORROW COMES, HEAD FOR THE MOON

Keeping Earth’s secrets in a ‘Doomsday ark’ on Moon

Maurice Chittenden

If civilization is wiped out on Earth, salvation may come from space. Plans are being drawn up for a “Doomsday ark” on the moon containing the essentials of life and civilisation, to be activated in the event of earth being devastated by a giant asteroid or nuclear war.
Construction of a lunar information bank, discussed at a conference in Strasbourg last month, would provide survivors on Earth with a remote-access toolkit to rebuild the human race.
A basic version of the ark would contain hard discs holding information such as DNA sequences and instructions for metal smelting or planting crops. It would be buried in a vault just under the lunar surface and transmitters would send the data to heavily protected receivers on earth. If no receivers survived, the ark would continue transmitting the information until new ones could be built.
The vault could later be extended to include natural material including microbes, animal embryos and plant seeds and even cultural relics such as surplus items from museum stores.
As a first step to discovering whether living organisms could survive, European Space Agency scientists are hoping to experiment with growing tulips on the moon within the next decade.
According to Bernard Foing, chief scientist at the agency’s research department, the first flowers — tulips or arabidopsis, a plant widely used in research — could be grown in 2012 or 2015.
“Eventually, it will be necessary to have a kind of Noah’s ark there, a diversity of species from the biosphere,” said Foing.
Tulips are ideal because they can be frozen, transported long distances and grown with little nourishment. Combined with algae, an enclosed artificial atmosphere and chemically enhanced lunar soil, they could form the basis of an ecosystem.
The first experiments would be carried out in transparent biospheres containing a mix of gases to mimic the earth’s atmosphere. Carbon dioxide given off by the decomposing plants would be mopped up by the algae, which would generate oxygen through photosynthesis.
The databank would initially be run by robots and linked to earth by radio transmissions. Scientists hope to put a manned station on the moon before the end of the century.
The databank would need to be buried under rock to protect it from the extreme temperatures, radiation and vacuum on the moon. It would be run partly on solar power. The scientists envisage placing the first experimental databank on the moon no later than 2020 and it could have a lifespan of 30 years. The full archive would be launched by 2035.
The information would be held in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish and would be linked by transmitter to 4,000 “Earth repositories” that would provide shelter, food, a water supply for survivors. SUNDAY TIMES

A car that folds for parking - Welcome to the Future!

MIT Scientists Design Vehicle That Folds At The Press Of A Button

Cambridge (Massachusetts):
Wouldn’t it be nice to drive a car into town without worrying about finding a parking space?
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have devised just such a vehicle, a futuristic “City Car” that could even drive itself.
Once at your destination, the vehicle’s computers would, at the press of a button, look for a parking spot behind others like itself, then fold roughly in half so you could stack it there as you would a shopping cart. “We have reinvented urban mobility,” said Bill Mitchell, a professor in architecture and director of the project at an MIT think tank in Cambridge, just outside Boston.
The vehicle hasn’t yet been built. But a miniature mock-up version has gone on display at a campus museum, and there are plans to build a full-scale model this spring.
The dozen or so engineers and architects on Mitchell’s team are confident their computer-generated work is on target.
They feel their golf cart-sized vehicle could provide a novel solution to the chronic traffic congestion afflicting cities across the United States, Europe and Asia — not to mention pollution and energy use, since it would run on a rechargeable battery, the researchers say. On the drawing board, their two-seater is roughly half the size of a typical compact automobile and a little smaller than the Smart car made by Mercedes-Benz.
“It’s a virtual computer on wheels,” said Franco Vairani, designer of the vehicle’s foldable frame, which he predicts will shrink the car to as little as an eighth the space needed to park the average car. While parked, it would hook up to an electricity grid for recharging, he added.
Hundreds could be stacked around a city and “you would just go and swipe your (credit) card and take the first one available and drive away,” Vairani said, seated by his computerized drawing board. People wouldn’t have to worry about where to park their cars in town and automobiles would take up less urban space, leaving more room for parks and walkways, he added.
Peter Schmitt, a team engineer, says the car would have independently powered robotic wheels and be controlled using a computerized drive-by-wire system with a button or joystick. REUTERS

SMALL WONDER: MIT student Franco Vairani looks over models of the ‘City Car’, a collapsible battery-powered car he designed for his thesis

LESSONS ON SOUL-SEARCHING - TOI

Red Bengal turns to religious value edu

Govt Colleges Invite Gurus For Lectures On Ethics

Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey | TNN

Kolkata: In Marxist Bengal, it’s monks—and not cadres—who are shaping young minds now.
Many government colleges in the city have started inviting religious figures to lecture students on morals and ethics. And, if things go according to plan, value education will become a permanent fixture of college curricula.
“Students these days think only about their careers and care too little for their surroundings and society. They don’t have a sense of belonging either. This is a dangerous trend as they will go on to become leaders in the future,” said Sanghamitra Mukherjee, principal of Lady Brabourne College.
It is to address these concerns that the authorities have decided to introduce value education in colleges. They feel it is not enough to just study, pass exams and bag jobs. It is equally important for students to have a firm grounding in ethics.
The move has quietly buried the age-old tradition of having strictly non-religious curricula in government colleges. For instance, Lady Brabourne is getting monks from the Ramakrishna Mission on Mondays to speak on Swami Vivekananda’s teachings. Swami Suparnananda, principal of RKM Narendrapur, will tell students how Swami Vivekananda wanted traditional values—correct behaviour and the codes of duty towards others and the nation—to be deeply entrenched in the youth, especially students. Some lectures will be delivered by Swami Chitropananda of the RKM Institute of Culture.
“We have to teach students about responsible behaviour. Hence the move to organize value education sessions,” said Mukherjee.
Bethune College, too, has started value education classes. These sessions are part of the college’s quarterly routine and it is mandatory for every first-year student, irrespective of her subject, to attend them.
Already, 22 such lectures have been held. The most important of these—the Bethune College lecture—was delivered by Swami Atmapriyananda, principal of RKM Belur University. He spoke on ethics and values.
Presidency College has just received Rs 1,00,000 to organize seminars and lectures on topics that interest students. The college administration has decided to have quite a few of these on value education. “While we all know the difference between good and evil, it helps if experts come and talk to us and remind us about our responsibilities. There is tremendous pressure on each student to perform and this, some times, affects their ethical judgement. Value education would be of great help to them,” said principal Sanjib Ghosh.

ACADEMIC FREEDOM - TOI article

City college to allow mixing of streams

Hemali Chhapia I TNN

Mumbai: Never would have former Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman K Kasturirangan imagined that he could dabble in a little bit of economics along with physics. But thousands who will follow him into Ruia College in the coming years are likely to have the chance to do so. The college is planning to launch a credit-based curriculum after it gets autonomy.
The coming academic year could see three city institutions receive the autonomous tag—Ruia College, St Xavier’s College and Sardar Patel College of Engineering. While the last two have submitted proposals to the University of Mumbai seeking academic freedom, Ruia is busy revising its proposal.
The Matunga-based institution, which had applied for autonomy to the university for its postgraduate courses around three years ago, recently took back its application for a revision. The college plans to submit a fresh application for full academic autonomy—for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses—by the coming month.
Principal Suhas Pednekar said they were “reworking the application seeking autonomy so that the college has the freedom to introduce credit-based courses, as also to review and revise the syllabi every year’’. Started in 1937, Ruia has for long been one of the best institutions for collegiate science in the city. Former students speak of spending long hours in the institution’s postgraduate study and research centre, which has over 1.5 lakh books and journals.
Set up by the S P Mandali, Ruia was among the first institutions to start a Marathi unit to help students cope with English teaching and learning after their Marathi-medium schooling. Moreover, keeping with the times, the institution has changed its facade to a more modern-looking building with wi-fi enabled halls too.
With academic autonomy, said Pednekar, his institution is looking at working with other universities—domestic and international—to redesign courses and review teaching methods and assessment patterns. “Autonomy will give a lot of flexibility in designing syllabi and conducting examinations. We want to introduce a credit-based system to enable students to mix courses in arts and science as also to replace the single-exam system with continuous assessment,’’ added Pednekar.
Sardar Patel College of Engineering, set up by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1962, and St Xavier’s College have also applied for autonomy. University vice-chancellor Vijay Khole said, “All three
proposals are likely to be placed before the next academic council for approval of academic autonomy.’’
Autonomy will give these institutions the freedom to design their own curricula, hold exams, work with experts from other universities, redesign their assessment patterns and bring about several other academic changes.
On the other hand, according to the state’s rules on autonomy, every autonomous college will be governed by an 11-member board, of which merely five will come from the college and the rest will be representatives of the state government and university and other experts.

The job boom is in education - source DNA

Other big markets in ’08 will be healthcare, hospitality

Priyanka Golikeri. Mumbai

Approximately one million new jobs will be created in the organised sector this year — with the education, health and hospitality industries being key drivers of the job market. That’s the message emanating from the annual employment survey undertaken by Ma Foi Consultants, a Chennai-based human resource service provider and staffing company. The education sector is the largest employer in the country, employing around 10.26 million people in 2007. It is likely to add another 1,66,005 by the end of this year. It is closely followed by the hospitality and healthcare sectors, which employed about 6.17 million and 3.32 million people, respectively, in 2007. Hospitality and healthcare would add another 4,26,668 and 2,95,829 people this year. “This was the striking aspect of the survey as these sectors have left behind the traditional favourites such as banking, financial services and insurance (BSFI), and information technology,” said K Pandia Rajan, managing director of Ma Foi. BSFI and IT would be adding only about 7,600 and 74,693 more people, respectively this year. The survey was conducted across 2,006 companies belonging to 22 organised sectors in the country. “We have a billion plus population which needs to be educated. There is currently a lot of activity happening in the education field. With government funding for education hiked from Rs 28,674 crore last year to Rs 34,400 crore in budget 2008-09, the sector will witness major transitions. This sector is the foundation on which other sectors rest,” says Anand Sudarshan, chief executive officer of Manipal Education. According Sudhakar Balakrishnan, CEO of HR firm Adecco India, the entire education market is pegged at Rs1,50,000 crore. “Not surprising then, that companies like Educomp are making the most of it by investing huge sums and setting up schools. We have companies like NIIT and Everonn hiring about 800-1,000 people a year. All this will only drive the sector further.” According to analysts, the market size of the tutorials sector in Mumbai alone is worth Rs200 crore. Over one lakh students depend upon tutorial classes in English medium and two lakh in Hindi and Marathi mediums. With the healthcare industry growing at 15% per annum, there will be greater demand for professionals, technicians, doctors, and health specialists, says VP Kamath, CEO of Apollo Hospitals, Mumbai. “Medical tourism is expected to become a $2 billion industry by 2010. This will only add to the job creation in the healthcare sector.” According to Ficci, an apex industry association, the healthcare industry has emer-ged as one of the most challenging sectors in India with estimated revenue of about $30 billion (in financial year 2005-06), comprising 5% of GDP. The survey further says that the real estate and construction industry has the highest percentage of outsourced workforce at 19% and is closely followed by the hospitality sector at 18.5%. It also says that experienced workers are hired more than freshers, who constitute a little more than a quarter of the newly hired. Sectors where the demand for freshers is above 30% include hospitality, energy generation and supply sector, IT-enabled services, mining and extraction. “Although there is optimism about young minds and fresh ideas, experience counts to a large extent,” says Rajan.

Get paid for performance in school!

Big debate in US: Should students be paid to excel?

Kids Should Be Inspired To Learn For Knowledge’s Sake: Critics

Jennifer Medina

The fourth graders squirmed in their seats, waiting for their prizes. In a few minutes, they would learn how much money they had earned for their scores on recent reading and math exams. Some would receive nearly $50 for acing the standardised tests, a small fortune for many at this school, PS 188 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
When the rewards were handed out, Jazmin Roman was eager to celebrate her $39.72. She whispered to her friend Abigail Ortega, “How much did you get?” Abigail mouthed a barely audible answer: $36.87. Edgar Berlanga pumped his fist in the air to celebrate his $34.50.
The children were unaware that their teacher, Ruth Lopez, also stood to gain financially from their achievement. If students show marked improvement on state tests during the school year, each teacher at Public School 188 could receive a bonus of as much as $3,000.
School districts nationwide have seized on the idea that a key to improving schools is to pay for performance, whether through bonuses for teachers and principals, or rewards like cash prizes for students.
New York City, with the largest public school system in the country, is in the forefront of this movement, with more than 200 schools experimenting with one incentive or another. In more than a dozen schools, students, teachers and principals are all eligible for extra money, based on students’ performance on standardised tests.
Each of these schools has become a test to measure whether, as mayor Michael R Bloomberg posits, tangible cash rewards can turn a school around. Can money make academic success cool for students disdainful of achievement? Will teachers pressure one another to do better to get a schoolwide bonus?
So far, the city has handed out more than $500,000 to 5,237 students in 58 schools as rewards for taking several of the 10 standardised tests on the schedule for this school year. The schools, which had to choose to participate in the program, are all over the city.
“I’m not saying I know this is going to fix everything,” said Roland G Fryer, the Harvard economist who designed the student incentive program, “but I am saying it’s worth trying. What we need to try to do is start that spark.”
Nationally, school districts have experimented with a range of approaches. Some are giving students gift certificates, Mc-Donald’s meals and class pizza parties. Baltimore is planning to pay struggling students who raise their state test scores. Critics of these efforts say that children should be inspired to learn for knowledge’s sake, not to earn money, and question whether prizes will ultimately lift achievement. NYT NEWS SERVICE

CASH REWARD: Ruth Lopez gives one of her students a certificate showing her earnings from test score