Author Archives: curiouscat

Innovation with Math

Invented by scientists at the nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1980s, complexity science is a gumbo of insights drawn from fields as diverse as biology, physics, and economics. At its core is the belief that any seemingly complex and utterly random system or phenomenon–from natural selection to the stock market–emerges from the simple behavior of thousands or millions of individuals. Using computer algorithms to stand in for those individual “agents,” scientists discovered they could build fantastically powerful and detailed models of these systems if only they could nail down the right set of rules.

When Brown arrived in town in the late 1990s, many of the scientists-in-residence at the Santa Fe Institute–the serene think tank dedicated to the contemplation of complexity–were rushing to commercialize their favorite research topics. The Prediction Co. was profitably gaming Wall Street by spotting and exploiting small pockets of predictability in capital flows. An outfit called Complexica was working on a simulator that could basically model the entire insurance industry, acting as a giant virtual brain to foresee the implications of any disaster. And the BiosGroup was perfecting agent-based models that today would fall under the heading of “artificial life.”

Eat Less Salt – Save Your Heart

Reducing salt cuts cardiovascular disease risk:

Cutting back on salt intake could lower the risk of developing heart disease by 25 per cent, in addition to lower blood pressure benefits, say researchers who studied people with borderline high blood pressure. Researchers in the U.S. looked at more than 3,000 people in two trials with pre-hypertension who reduced their sodium intake by 25 per cent to 35 per cent, compared with control groups that did not.

Cut Heart Risk by Eating Less Salt:

Last summer, the American Medical Association (AMA) called for a minimum 50% reduction in sodium in processed foods, fast foods, and non-fast-food restaurant meals within a decade. The group also called on the FDA to work harder to educate consumers about the health risks associated with a high-sodium diet.

“The average American is eating three times as much salt as is healthy every day — the equivalent of 2 to 3 teaspoons instead of no more than 1,” he says. “The assumption tends to be, ‘If I don’t use my salt shaker much, I’m probably OK,’ but that just isn’t true.”

10 Lessons of an MIT Education

Very good, definitely worth reading – 10 Lessons of an MIT Education by Gian-Carlo Rota:

In science and engineering, you can fool very little of the time. Most of the sweeping generalizations one hears about MIT undergraduates are too outrageous to be taken seriously. The claim that MIT students are naive, however, has struck me as being true, at least in a statistical sense.

Last year, for example, one of our mathematics majors, who had accepted a lucrative offer of employment from a Wall Street firm, telephoned to complain that the politics in his office was “like a soap opera.” More than a few MIT graduates are shocked by their first contact with the professional world after graduation. There is a wide gap between the realities of business, medicine, law, or applied enginering, for example, and the universe of scientific objectivity and theoretical constructs that is MIT.

An education in engineering and science is an education in intellectual honesty. Students cannot avoid learning to acknowledge whether or not they have really learned. Once they have taken their first quiz, all MIT undergraduates know dearly they will pay if they fool themselves into believing they know more than is the case.

On campus, they have been accustomed to people being blunt to a fault about their own limitations-or skills-and those of others. Unfortunately, this intellectual honesty is sometimes interpreted as naivete.

Toy and Entertainment Engineering Camp

via our post suggestion page, this Toy and Entertainment Engineering camp looks interesting (for students or a teacher) to me.

My name is Rebecca and I work for a Branded Camp Services. We design and operate residential academic summer camps for high school students.

This year, at Union College in Schenectady, we will be offering a course in Toy and Entertainment Engineering. I’m looking to hire an
energetic teacher for both two-week sessions in July. Most of our teachers are currently in graduate school or recent graduates. This
class is brand new and we’re having a harder time recruiting because of its specialized nature.

Thanks! You can apply by writing me at Rebecca at brandedcampservices.com

$600 Million for Basic Biomedical Research

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) will hold a national competition for investigators that will result in an investment of at least $600 million in basic biomedical research. Up to 50 new researchers will be selected by spring 2008. HHMI Announces New Open Competition:

HHMI seeks applications from outstanding scientists studying biomedical problems in a broad array of disciplines, including not only biology and medicine, but related areas of chemistry, physics, engineering and computational biology. This competition is open to early career stage scientists at approximately 200 eligible institutions.
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HHMI values innovation and encourages its investigators to extend the boundaries of science. By appointing scientists as Hughes investigators — rather than awarding research grants — HHMI is guided by the principle of “people, not projects.” HHMI investigators have the freedom to explore and, if necessary, to change direction in their research. Moreover, they have support to follow their ideas through to fruition — even if that process takes many years.
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This new competition represents the first time that HHMI has opened up a general competition to the direct application process. In the past, faculty members had to be nominated by their institutions for HHMI investigator positions.

More details and apply via: 2008 HHMI Investigator Competition.

2007 National Science Board Public Service Award

Chemist, Educator, Communicator Receives 2007 National Science Board Public Service Award

Bassam Z. Shakhashiri, a chemistry professor who pioneered new ways to encourage public understanding of science through his enthusiastic communications and visually exciting chemical demonstrations, will receive the 2007 National Science Board Public Service Award.
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In 1983, Shakhashiri founded the Institute for Chemical Education at the University of Wisconsin. It has since become a national center for research and development, teaching and dissemination of information on chemistry at all educational levels. In the same year, he opened the first-of-its-kind interactive chemistry exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, which has remained permanently on display there.

Science if Fun with University of Wisconsin-Madison Chemistry Professor Bassam Z. Shakhashiri.

PhysicsQuest

PhysicsQuest is a story-based activity that exposes middle school students to the fun and relevance of science. APS provides a free PhysicsQuest kit to registered 6-9th grade physical science classes, home school groups, science clubs, and after-school programs. The kit includes a user’s manual and materials for four physics experiments.

PhysicsQuest aims to teach middle school students physics concepts, but its overarching goal is to give them a positive experience with physics. APS is focusing this program on middle school students because these grades have been identified as the point when many students lose interest in math and science.

Two Screens Are Better Than One

3072x769 monitor

Two Screens Are Better Than One:

Microsoft researchers haven’t perfected the genie, but they’ve found a tool that can increase your productivity by 9 to 50 percent and make your work day easier. And you can begin using it right away. The researchers conducted user studies that proved the effectiveness of adding a second or even third monitor to your workstation, creating a wide-screen effect. In addition, they found out how the operating system needs to change to accommodate a larger screen area.

I must say when moving to two screens I was surprised how much of a difference it made. I look forward to my huge screen.

In the photo (from Photo from: Women Go With the (Optical) Flow – pdf) three projectors, show screens on a curved Plexiglas panel, resulting in a 3072 x768 resolution display. The display was curved to avoid distortion at the farthest fields of vision. Gary Starkweather, who also invented the laser printer, is the designer behind this effort.

What do Engineers Need To Know?

What do Engineers Need To Know? by Pradeep K. Khosla, dean of the College of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon:

In 1995, close to 40% of the world’s engineering work hours were based in the United States. By 2010, only 10% will be.
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The change has been accelerated by other nations’ massive investments in engineering and science education, first in Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea, and now in India and China. They all understand what America already knows: Knowledge creation drives future economic growth, and an educated labor force is essential for participation in the global economy.

So true, the economic benefit of science investment is a big theme in our economic posts.

We also are revamping the engineering curriculum. We still will emphasize depth in engineering knowledge, of course, but our graduates also must understand innovation, entrepreneurship, product development, and systems integration. Those skills will enable our graduates to lead organizations and manage effective teams. Graduates also will require greater knowledge of the world outside the United States and have experiences in working effectively with individuals from other cultures.

A good plan and one repeating what has been discussed here before: Benefits of Engineering and Innovation Education – MIT Undergraduate Changes – Harvard Elevates Engineering Profile – Improving Engineering Education. Also remember more S&P 500 CEOs majored in Engineering than anything else. Tour the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Lab.

Eco-Vehicle Student Competition

photo of Los Altos High School's Academy of Engineering vehicle

Most miles, least fuel wins

Los Altos High School‘s Academy of Engineering was one of more than 20 high schools and colleges from across the U.S. and Canada whose engineering students came together Saturday to compete in the Shell Eco-Marathon Americas. The race is designed not to see which vehicle could go the fastest, but which one could travel the farthest on the least amount of fuel. The grand prize: $10,000 to the winning school.

Participating schools included Purdue University, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Grand Rapids Technical School, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Rose- Hulman Institute of Technology and Mater Dei High School.
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By the end of the day, it was Cal Poly San Luis Obispo that took the grand prize for combustion-engine vehicles. The team’s vehicle traveled 1,902.2 miles to the gallon. Rose-Hulman took second place with 1,637.2 miles to the gallon, and Mater Dei High School in Evansville, Ind., came in third at 1,596 miles per gallon. Los Altos High School took first place for the hydrogen-engine group. The group’s vehicle traveled 1,038 miles to the gallon.

Photo from Shell Eco-Marathon Americas site (see more photos, results, webcasts…).