Cool Sci/Tech News in my Local Paper! (Links, videos, and more) |
- Cool Sci/Tech News in my Local Paper! (Links, videos, and more)
- Designing for Multitouch Tables and Surfaces, by Erin Rose, Open Exhibits Blog
- Project: Interact "Invent, Design, Change" - A 10 week after-school program teaches high schoolers how to use design to change their communities
- UPDATE: Getting beyond "Ad-Hoc" Ubiquity: Content Centered Networking at PARC
| Cool Sci/Tech News in my Local Paper! (Links, videos, and more) Posted: 11 Oct 2010 05:52 PM PDT My local paper, the Charlotte Observer, has a great Science & Technology section every Monday. Each week, it includes a wealth of interesting news. Although some of the information is culled from other sources, there usually is a local twist. For example, on Sunday, our newspaper came with 3D glasses, just in time to view 3D pictures in print, and online. Below is a sample of recent "Sci/Tech" related articles in the Observer, along with related links. (At the end of the post, I've added a few more links to other interesting "scie/tech" items of interest that recently crossed my path.) 3D and the Charlotte Observer Why 3-D? Just because it could be fun (Rick Thames, Executive Director, Charlotte Observer) Charlotte Observer's 3-D Gallery (Online and in the paper.) Thin skin for sensitive robots "Engineers have developed a pressure-sensitive electronic material that could one day serve as skin for general purpose human-like robots". The skin is made from a mesh of pressure-sensitive electronic nanowires made out of germanium-silicon. The mess provides information about force to sensors under the "skin". Original press release: Engineers make artificial skin out of nanowires (Sara Yang, UC Berkely News, 9/12/10) (Images: Ali Javey and Kuniharu Takei, UC Berkeley)NELL : Never-Ending Language Learning System Computer teaches itself on the Web (Steve Lohr, NY Times) NELL is a collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and Google. The project uses Yahoo's research supercomputing cluster to do the heavy work. The research goal of this project is to "build a never-ending machine learning system that acquires the ability to extract structured information from unstructured web pages. If successful, this will result in a knowledge base (i.e. relational database) of structured information that mirrors the content of the web." The project's progress and knowledge base is available on-line: http://rtw.ml.cmu.edu/rtw/resources Tom Mitchell, the Fredkin Professor of A.I. and Learning at Carnegie Mellon, is involved with this research. Below is a demonstration of Tom Mitchell's work in the area of "thought reading" with his colleague, Marcel Just: "We are specifically interested in algorithms that can learn to identify and track the cognitive processes that give rise to observed fMRI data." "Professor of psychology Marcel Just and professor of artificial intelligence Tom Mitchell demonstrate how they are using brain imaging and machine learning to predict a subject's thoughts." -Carnegie Mellon University YouTube Channel HTML 5 Latest Web code offers far more ways to track what you do online (Tanzina Vega, NY Times) HTML 5 will make it easy for "them" to track your every Internet move, and raises concerns about online privacy and security. Charlotte Observer/Scitech Highlighted Blogs: He looks into the minds of animals, kids (T.DeLene Beeland, Charlotte Observer 10/10/10) This article is about Jason Goldman and his research in the area of developmental psychology. His research focuses on social cognition, which he writes about in his blogs: Thoughtful Animal Blog: http://scienceblogs.com/thoughtfulanimal Childsplay Blog: http://scientopia.org/blogs/childsplay OTHER INTERESTING LINKS Navigating the Aural Web"The PI's goal in this project is to establish advanced design strategies for the aural navigation of complex Web information architectures, where users exclusively or primarily listen to, rather than look at, content and navigational prompts. Conventional on-screen visual displays may not work well, if at all, in many situations. The most obvious instances occur when persons who are blind or visually impaired need to use technologies designed for sighted users. A much more common situation, however, occurs with users of mobile devices. These users are often engaged in another activity (e.g., walking around a city or driving a car) where it is inconvenient, distracting or even dangerous to continuously look at the screen...." -Award Abstract #1018054 Digital Graffiti Wall, by Cyan Design Twenty Things: More Awesome and Geeky Graffiti Digital Graffiti Wall at Ingenuity Fest 2010 from Chris Yanc on Vimeo. New Grants Aim to Boost Computer Science (Education Week, 10/8/10) "Two federal grants that were just announced will together provide nearly $27 million to advance computer science education. The announcements come the same week that a new report was issued raising concerns that the subject is getting short shrift in schools. The National Science Foundation is providing a $12.5 million grant to UCLA to promote new and innovative computer science instruction in high schools through the use of mobile phones and Web technology. (The effort will also use that technology for standards-based math and science classes.) The project, dubbed MOBILIZE: Mobilizing for Innovative Computer Science Teaching and Learning, is a partnership between two UCLA centers and the Los Angeles Unified School District." MOBILIZE website http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com  |
| Designing for Multitouch Tables and Surfaces, by Erin Rose, Open Exhibits Blog Posted: 11 Oct 2010 03:03 PM PDT If you are interested in exploring collaborative tabletop applications, take a look at the Open Exhibits blog. Erin Rose's recent post, "Designing for Multi-touch Tables and Surfaces", is a good overview of lessons learned over the past couple of years in design, development, and implementation of multi-user interactive tabletop applications. Although the focus of Open Exhibits is on applications and systems designed for museum exhibits, many of the design challenges hold true for similar applications in other settings, such as classrooms, libraries, and other public spaces. Erin's post explores each of the following topics in more detail:
(Erin Rose is a developer and community liaison for Open Exhibits.) RELATED Exhibit Files Jim Spadaccini Visitors Explore L.A. in Google Maps and Flickr Mashup. http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com  |
| Posted: 11 Oct 2010 02:47 PM PDT  Below is a brief description of Project Interaction, a program developed by Katie Koch and Carmen Dukes to teach high school students to use design thinking to change their communities, and also to inspire students to think about interaction design as a possible future career. Support Project: Interaction on Kickstarter! from Project: Interaction on Vimeo. RESOURCES Project: Interaction Vimeo Site, includes video interviews of people who work in the field of interaction design. Gamestorming: A playbook for innovators, rule-breakers, and changemakers: How to apply game thinking to your business challenges (Dave Gray, Sunni Brown, James Macanufo)How would this play out at a rural high school? I'd like to try something like this at my high school. It is located in rural N.C., in between two small towns, not too far from a larger "small" town. Charlotte, N.C. is the "Big City", but it is is about a 75-100 minute drive, depending on the traffic. The challenges the students face in a rural/small town area might not be the same as those of teens living in the middle of densely populated NYC, but that is OK. It is important to remember that design thinking and interaction design can address a wide range of problems that beg for new solutions, even in the countryside. It would be awesome if I had the time to implement this at the school. I wonder if any interaction designers in the Charlotte area would be interested in taking a trip out to the country to help get something like this off the ground!   SORT OF RELATED - RURAL EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY It occurred to me that I hadn't read much about "rural" education lately, although I pass horses and cows and cornfields every day to and from work. With access to cell phones and the Internet, and cable/satellite TV, young people who live on the outskirts have more access to urban trends than in the past, yet it is difficult for school districts in rural and small-town communities to attract and retain highly qualified teachers, especially math, science, and special education teachers at the high school level. "Boon, Not Boondock: With enrollment in rural schools on the rise, will education in small-town America finally get the attention it deserves?" Elaine McArdle, Harvard Graduate School of Education Ed. Magazine, 2008 In my own state, North Carolina: NC State Works to Turnaround Rural Schools Through Leadership National Research Center on Rural Education Support (UNC-Chapel Hill) Two of the four research programs of the NRCRES: Distance Education Program, which examines the role that distance education can play in rural schools, especially for enrichment andadvanced level courses. Rural High School Aspirations Study, which examines rural high school students' aspirations and preparatory planning for postsecondary education, career training, and adult life." Distance Education Publications, NRCRES de la Varre, C., Keane, J., Irvin, M. J., & Hannum, W. (2009). Social support for online learning in rural high schools. In Whitworth, B. & de Moor, A.(Eds). Handbook of Research on Socio-Technical Design and Social Networking Systems (pp. 575-588). Hannum, W., Irvin, M. J., & de la Varre, C. (in press). Extending educational opportunities in rural areas: Application of distance education in rural schools. In S. Mukerji & P. Tripathi (Eds.). Cases on technological adaptability and transnational learning: Issues and challenges. Hannum, W. H., Irvin, M. J., Lei, P.-W., & Farmer, T. W. (2008). Effectiveness of using learner-centered principles on student retention in distance education courses in rural schools. Distance Education, 29, 211-229. Irvin, M. J., Hannum, W. H., de la Varre, C., & Farmer, T. W. (2009). Barriers to Distance Education in Rural Schools. Manuscript submitted for publication. Irvin, M. J., Hannum, W. H., Farmer, T. W., de la Varre, C., & Keane, J. (2009). Supporting online learning for Advanced Placement students in small rural schools: Conceptual foundations and intervention components of the Facilitator Preparation Program. The Rural Educator, 31(1), 29-36 Keane, J., de la Varre, C., Irvin, M. J., & Hannum, W. (2008). Learner-centered social support: Enhancing online distance education for underserved rural high school students in the United States. In Whitton, N., & McPherson, M. (Eds). Rethinking the digital divide (pp. 39-48). Research Proceedings of the 15th Association for Learning Technology Conference (ALT-C 20 Rural Education SIG of the American Educational Research Association REL-Midwest: Online Learning Opportunities for Rural Schools: Framing the Conversation: Enhancing the Educational Outcomes of Children Through Distance Learning and Technology Clopton, K.L, & Knesting, K. Rural School Psychology: Re-Opening the Discussion. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 2006, 21(5) http://www.jrre.psu.edu/articles/21-5.pdf http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com  |
| UPDATE: Getting beyond "Ad-Hoc" Ubiquity: Content Centered Networking at PARC Posted: 11 Oct 2010 01:10 PM PDT I recently blogged about some interesting work going on at PARC, "Get what you want, faster, through content-centered networks: Video - Jim Thornton, PARC" After I published the post, I received a comment from someone from PARC with links to additional technical presentations about innovations in networking. Van Jacobson Explains It All If you are interested in ubiquitous & pervasive computing - and creating seamless user experiences across locations and devices, it is well worth the 90-minute watch. 2006 PRESENTATION In the video below, Van Jacobson talks about ubiquitous computing, wireless, networking, research, and the challenges of making everything synced and seamlessly inter-operative in the future. In this video, Van Jacobson provides a good overview of the history of the communications/ networking industry, and much, much more. Although the presentation was given in 2006, it is well worth the time to watch: A NEW WAY TO LOOK AT NETWORKING Here's info about Van Johnson and abstract of the talk from the Google Tech Talks website: "Google Tech Talks August 30, 2006 Van Jacobson is a Research Fellow at PARC. Prior to that he was Chief Scientist and co-founder of Packet Design. Prior to that he was Chief Scientist at Cisco. Prior to that he was head of the Network Research group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He's been studying networking since 1969. He still hopes that someday something will start to make sense." ABSTRACT "Today's research community congratulates itself for the success of the internet and passionately argues whether circuits or datagrams are the One True Way. Meanwhile the list of unsolved problems grows. Security, mobility, ubiquitous computing, wireless, autonomous sensors, content distribution, digital divide, third world infrastructure, etc., are all poorly served by what's available from either the research community or the marketplace. I'll use various strained analogies and contrived examples to argue that network research is moribund because the only thing it knows how to do is fill in the details of a conversation between two applications. Today as in the 60s problems go unsolved due to our tunnel vision and not because of their intrinsic difficulty. And now, like then, simply changing our point of view may make many hard things easy." A similar post can be found on The World Is My Interactive Interface blog. http://interactivemultimediatechnology.blogspot.com  |
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