Challenge X is a:
Teams are from 17 Universities including: the University of Wisconsin – Madison and the University of Texas at Austin.
Only if a team succeeds will the the money be paid. Last year no team succeeded.
Scholarly journals’ premier status diluted by Web by Bernard Wysocki Jr., The Wall Street Journal:
I have nothing against Journals trying to stay in business. I do however, think the internet has created a better method of distributing information than existed previously. And, given the current state of the internet, I do object to scientific knowledge being kept out of the scientific and public community. The ability to use the internet to more effectively communicate new knowledge should not be sacrificed to protect the old model journals had for sustaining themselves. They should find a way to fund themselves and make their material availalbe for free on the internet (I think some delay for free public access would be fine – the shorter the delay the better). Or they should be replaced by others that do so.
Luckily sites like the Public Library of Science (freely accessible online scholarly publications) are offering such an alternative.
Robot combined with swallowable camera could give docs a better look inside the small intestine by Byron Spice, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
Metin Sitti is an engineer with Carnegie Mellon University.
New technique may speed DNA analysis:
Even Tech Execs Can’t Get Kids to Be Engineers by Ann Grimes:
But some of the nation’s tech elite — including many immigrants who benefited greatly from engineering careers — are finding even their own children shun engineering. One oft-cited reason: concern that dad and his contemporaries will ship such jobs overseas.
Technology is not only about new breakthroughs. In some cases the technology used is nothing special, the impact is made in applying the technology well. Many opportunities exist for breakthroughs using technology that has been around for a long time.
I was reminded of my father‘s work by the article: From Stanford Engineering to Social Innovation (broken link):
From the ApproTEC web site (broken link – it sure gets annoying how many people fail to follow basic web usability guidelines such as keeping links alive – organization now called KickStart):
On a related note, TrickleUp is my favorite charity. Their mission: to help the lowest income people worldwide take the first steps up out of poverty, by providing conditional seed capital, business training and relevant support services essential to the launch or expansion of a microenterprise.
Nanoscience’s Master Mechanic by David Pescovitz (from the University of California – Berkeley’s excellent Science Matters Newsletter):
Science Funding Dips In U.S. While Soaring In China by Cynthia Tucker, Editorial in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“As a percentage of GDP, federal investment in physical science research is half of what it was in 1970. (By contrast), in China, R&D expenditures rose 350 percent between 1991 and 2001, and the number of science and engineering Ph.D.s soared 535 percent.”
Update: link broken so removed the link to the original article.
La Vida Robot – Wired article on the Carl Hayden High School (from Phoenix) that competed with the top college teams in an engineering competition. Great Stuff.
The Carl Hayden team stood nervously in front of him. He stared sullenly at them. This was the engineering review – professionals in underwater engineering evaluated all the ROVs, scored each team’s technical documentation, and grilled students about their designs. The results counted for more than half of the total possible points in the contest.
“How’d you make the laser range finder work?” Swean growled. MIT had admitted earlier that a laser would have been the most accurate way to measure distance underwater, but they’d concluded that it would have been difficult to implement.
“We used a helium neon laser, captured its phase shift with a photo sensor, and manually corrected by 30 percent to account for the index of refraction,” Cristian answered rapidly, keyed up on adrenaline. Cameron had peppered them with questions on the drive to Santa Barbara, and Cristian was ready.
Swean raised a bushy, graying eyebrow. He asked about motor speed, and Lorenzo sketched out their combination of controllers and spike relays. Oscar answered the question about signal interference in the tether by describing how they’d experimented with a 15-meter cable before jumping up to one that was 33 meters.
“You’re very comfortable with the metric system,” Swean observed.
“I grew up in Mexico, sir,” Oscar said.
Swean nodded. He eyed their rudimentary flip chart.
“Why don’t you have a PowerPoint display?” he asked.
“PowerPoint is a distraction,” Cristian replied. “People use it when they don’t know what to say.”
“And you know what to say?”
“Yes, sir.”
See La Vida Robot scholarship fund – to benefit the four team members.