Customizable bicycle bell

Photo from Mybell Inc.

In my last post I wrote about the Engadget website. In the next few posts I will highlight the top five finalists of the Engadget Insert Coin Competition: "The best of crowd-funded hardware projects."

This link as a video (11:27) of highights of the event:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/12/engadget-show-47

One of the five finalists is MYBELL, a "digital noisemaker" that is mounted on the handlebars of a bike, and plays customized sound or music (you can upload any MP3 file) at up to 96 dB (loud!). It also has LEDs for nighttime visibility, for which different LED patterns can be chosen.

This article describes the gadget further:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/08/mybell-hands-on/

The product is said to increase safety for the rider and to "improve the relationship between bikers and drivers" since the sounds chosen can be less obnoxious than air horns.

This 42-second video clip shows how it works:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/11/08/mybell-hands-on/

I wasn't sure why this gadget was chosen as a finalist in this competition, since it didn't seem so important to me. But my students thought it was "cool" and liked the idea for their own bicycles. They said the device is simple, inexpensive and effective. So what's wrong with that?

In my next post I will look at another finalist in this competition.

Website for techies

A great source of material for all areas of ESP (particularly areas related to engineering and technology) Engadget is a techology blog that has the format of an online magazine.It describes itself as "a news, reviews and opinion outlet with obsessive coverage of cutting edge gadgets, consumer electronics and the science and technology they're built upon."

http://engadget.com

In addition to English, there are International Editions in German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese.

The sections of the English edition include News, Reviews, Features, Shows, Forums, and More (which includes "latest videos").

My students found the Reviews section particularly useful, and it covers:

• mobile
• photography
• gaming
• computers
• peripherals
• personal tech
• networking
• storage
• home theater

I had students look at some reviews for cell phones (their choice which ones) and we noted how the positive and negative features were presented, how comparisons were made, and how point of view was expressed. We used these examples as models for student-generated "reviews" of their gadget of choice.

Once students were introduced to this website via this activity, they found plenty of other areas of interest, and are motivated to read further reviews and the news articles on their own.

New Technical English Newsletter

Inch by Inch is a new website that presents two pictorials of labeled pieces of technology, and sends them in a free newsletter each week to subscribers. This is not only useful for teachers of technical English, but a great resource for students in all engineering disciplines.

http://inchbyinch.de

The resource is from Germany, and so focuses on German learners of English (with bilingual translations), but the visuals and vocabulary are useful for learners from any language background. It is particularly useful for lower level learners who will find the visual material very clear.

The first website page has pictorials of the following terms:

• sprinkler head
• escalator / moving stair
• ball bearing
• LED
• scissors
• bolt
• suspension bridge

The description of the resource on the website is:

"Every engineer knows: A picture is worth a thousand words. So, for a learner of technical English two tech pictorials a week would surely equal 2000 technical words, right?

Unfortunately, learning technical English isn't that easy. It's a slow and steady process, but pictures and drawings can certainly make it easier to learn and remember technical terms -- especially for visually oriented learners like us.

That's why we have set up this free newsletter with two tech pictorials per week to improve your knowledge of technical English -- inch by inch."

This is certainly a resource I will recommend to students, and I'll be letting you know in a future blog post how we work with this in and out of the classroom.

What do you know about email?

For most of my students, email has existed their entire lives. So they don't generally think about how it all started. Even though I'm old enough to remember life before email, I wasn't sure how it started, or by whom, or when or where or why.

In fact, the other day a student's question sparked some interesting discussion about email: How do you spell it? A variety of spellings are used in different sources: email, e-mail, Email, E-mail, eMail.

This discussion focused on what we knew about email, and since there were inconsistent answers, this lead us to look into email's history.

Some of the material my students found:

An Infogram on the history of email (both links from Mashable):
http://8.mshcdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/email.png
http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/email.png

Similar information in a different format:
http://mashable.com/2012/09/20/evolution-email/

This later version adds the years 2011 and 2012. Students could do the same: each student or each group can find a piece of information about email from 2012 and 2013 (and soon 2014), and then share their choices and vote for the one that will be added to the timeline.

Another timeline:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1167303/timeline_a_brief_history_of_email.html

My students liked discussing the information on the link below, and are currently looking for more "fascinating facts" to add. #6 refers to the different spellings. This also has information about what the @ symbol is called in different languages - interesting imagery! Some of my students didn't know what it is called in English.

10 Fascinating facts about e-mail
http://mashable.com/2011/01/26/e-mail-facts/

How do you spell e-mail?

One-year anniversary of this blog

My first post was on 30 November 2012, so today this blog is one year old!

As I look back at one year of posts, I see that a lot of material has been about robots. I do teach a number of robotics engineering groups, but I find that robotic devices are relevant for my other engineering students as well: biomedical engineering, electronics engineering, information technology, computer science, etc. It also seems to me that even non-engineering students find robots interesting. After all, what would science fiction films be without them?

I also see that I have focused a lot on material for process descriptions. I find this text type comes up in every kind of course I teach - even my academic English groups. So much of what we write and read is some kind of process, so I think this is very relevant for our students. Reading texts, listening to videos, focusing on various aspects of writing, encouraging speaking/discussion - there are so many ways to focus on process description.

And another area I see a lot in my posts is information about innovation. ESP students are always interested in innovations, especially in their field, and they will of course be part of innovations in their professional lives. So any innovation provides material for the classroom.

Over the year I have shared material I have found, but there are a few websites in particular that I keep going back to for ideas for my courses. Here are the ones I've used the most (and the date of the post when I first mentioned them):

December 2012

• Engines of our Ingenuity radio program: http://www.uh.edu/engines/

• Technical word of the week newsletter: http://newsletter.thepyramidgroup.biz/

March 2013

• The Innovations Report website: http://www.innovations-report.com/index.php

May 2013

• Planetary Radio:  http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planetary-radio/

June 2013

• Comics English: http://www.comicsenglish.com

July 2013

• Readlang (especially to recommend to students): http://readlang.com/

September 2013

• News in levels (especially for my lower level students): http://www.newsinlevels.com/

And many posts with material from the BBC news website, section technology:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology

During the year I have gotten positive feedback from many areas: readers of this blog, colleagues, other teacher bloggers - but most importantly from my students. They have usually been very enthusiastic about the material I've used in class, and they're very motivated to give me further suggestions.

For the future -- I'm always looking for articles, videos and websites on topics that engage my students, and lately some of my students have given me suggestions about website they've found that had news they were interested in. So I'll be using my students' suggestions more, and continue to indicate what we did with the material. If you know of other interesting websites and material, please let me know and I'll post it here.

RoboRoach: innovation and ethics

Photo copyright Backyard Brains

On 22 March 2013 my post was about Biobots - cyborg cockroaches fitted with a wireless control system and used to find victims of disasters such as earthquakes. I mentioned in that post that my students discussed ideas for further uses of such a biobot.

One use now available - which did not come up in that discussion - is implanting a wireless control on a cockroach in order to teach children about neural microstimulation.

This is the RoboRoach, developed by Backyard Brains, and described on their website as "... the world's first commercially available cyborg. With our RoboRoach you can briefly wirelessly control the left/right movement of a cockroach by microstimulation of the antenna nerves. The RoboRoach is a great way to learn about neural microstimulation, learning, and electronics."

The RoboRoach is available as a kit which children can order to implant the device themselves, and carry out the microstimulation experiment. It is available for $99.99 each, and is marketed to children and school classes.

Website of Backyard Brains: https://backyardbrains.com/

Information about RoboRoach: https://www.backyardbrains.com/products/roboroach

The innovation is quite interesting, and it generated a discussion in my classes about further innovations using similar technology. The website contains a lot of information about the control device itself and about the "surgery" necessary to implant the device. The latter is also explained on a video, also on the website. These sources are great material for process description, both written and spoken.

Video with surgery instructions: http://wiki.backyardbrains.com/RoboRoach_Surgery

But another aspect of the RoboRoach is that of the ethical concerns it raises. Some of these concerns are dealt with on the website, as comments about criticism. The criticisms noted and responded to are:

• This is simply a toy, not a scientific instrument
•  Modifying a living creature to make a toy is wrong
• The RoboRoach is pseudoscience
• This enables and encourages kids to harm animals

Ethical considerations:

http://wiki.backyardbrains.com/Ethical_Issues_Regarding_Using_Invertebrates_in_Education

My students found these ethical questions to be one of the most interesting aspects of this innovation. The groups I used this with were Electronics/Business, Biomedical Engineering and Robotics Engineering groups.

Although no one thought it was unethical to harm roaches (we do that anyway, don't we?), my students thought this could perhaps eventually lead to experiments using other animals, for example cats or dogs. Many felt it is okay for such experiments to be conducted in school under the supervision of a teacher, but that making this device available for children to experiment at home could lead to less educational uses. My students had a lively debate about where such experimentation would end, and whether we should create guidelines for eventual uses or stop it now.

I found the material about this innovation to be extremely useful for:

• Process Description - of the device and of the surgery to implant the device
• Discussion of impact of the engineering innovation
• Ethics discussion on the uses of the device
• Debate about the pros and cons of experimentation with invertebrates

For further material, there is an article about the RoboRoach in Popular Science:
http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-12/how-build-your-own-cockroach-cyborg 

Small car for city use

Photo copyright Lit Motors

Lit Motors has developed the C-1, a "fully-enclosed, all electric vehicle that is a motorcycle in all but name," according to an article on BBC News website (section Future). The article describes the vehicle as a "hi-tech, streamlined egg on two wheels."

Link to article: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130630-super-shrinking-the-city-car

My engineering students are always interested in innovations relating to cars, and this article presents not only interesting information about the innovation, but also different kinds of language work.

The information focuses on the advantages and disadvantages of this vehicle (which students can add to) and presents the pros and cons of the C-1 being classified as a motorcycle or not. In this description, there is a lot of language referring to size and comparison. For example:

• most
• twice as many
• cut in half
• less / more
• fewer / more
• very few
• halving the length / width
• much less so than

In addition, the description includes useful technical vocabulary for cars, and vocabulary useful for the text type of process description. This includes the kinds of examples I tell my students to use so that a non-engineer would understand the description. For example:

• Imagine if you could cut the size of a car in half, ...
• ... looks like a hi-tech, streamlined egg on two wheels.
• A spinning disc has a tendency to stay upright, just like a child's spinning top.
• If you were ever made to hold a spinning bicycle wheel horizontally at school then you will have experienced the physics at work.

Finally, there is a good variety of linking and transition words for students to notice, and examples of modals and "if" clauses.

The article refers to an earlier innovation - the Smart Fortwo - so I showed a picture of each vehicle and had students discuss the pros and cons of each (which would they rather drive and why; which would be more efficient on the road, etc.).

In general, my students found this topic very interesting, and the short, focused article was workable even for my lower-intermediate groups.

Great source of videos for the classroom

The website FORA-TV (conference and event video) has hundreds of videos for every type of interest. The videos are categorized into the areas of business, environment, politics, science, technology and culture. And within each of these areas, there is a further breakdown of topics. For example, in "technology" there is: internet, new media, start-ups, personal technology, wireless, computing, engineering and CEOs.

http://fora.tv

The times of the videos range from about 10 minutes to over 30 minutes. A few are an hour, but not too many. The narrators, of course, have various accents and speaking styles.

One I chose for my students (from June 2013) was a topic from the section "engineering" called Robots Among Us, presented by Chad Jenkins. He talks about the types of robots that are now a part of our lives. The time is 14:12.

http://fora.tv/2013/06/13/Chad_Jenkins_Robots_Among_Us

The types of robots he refers to include those used in space, the laboratory, the military, in the home, for disaster relief, as well as self-driving cars, humanoid robots and personal (service) robots.

Students can focus on the particular robots that interest them, or are related to their field of engineering. Discussion can focus on the state-of-the-art, or on implications for the future.

I think teachers (and students) will be able to find videos in any topic area that interests them.

History of information

A fascinating website for any type of group or student (engineering or otherwise) is History of Information, which focuses on the historical development of information in a wide variety of fields.

http://www.historyofinformation.com

The visitor to the website can choose either an era (from 2,500,000 BCE to 2013) or one of 89 themes (ranging alphabetically from Accounting/Business Machines to Writing/Paleography/Calligraphy). The thematic areas include business, technology, engineering, arts & culture, humanities, popular culture, etc.

I had my students scan the themes and choose one to focus on. They chose Computer/Internet culture. The time span of this theme is from 1305 to November 2013. I told them to look for "firsts" in this area that interest them. For the following lesson they had to prepare a short summary of the information they found, to present to the rest of the class. The texts for each entry range from extremely short (a couple of sentences) to much longer (a few paragraphs); but are easy enough for an intermediate group to read.

The information that the class found very interesting was from the entry, First use of "bug" in the context of computing (September 9, 1945). They were surprised that this term was so "old" in this usage, and had not realized that its origin was so literal. The entry reads:

"Grace Hopper, testing Aiken's Harvard Mark II Relay Calculator, found that a large dead moth, trapped between points at Relay #70, Panel F, caused the relay to fail. She removed the bug and entered the dead insect into a log book with the note, 'First actual case of bug being found.' This was the first use of the term 'bug' within the context of computing, and also perhaps the origin of the concept of 'debugging' within the context of computing."

Other topics the students found interesting:

• The @ in Email (March 1971)

• The invention of the word "internet" (circa 1973)

It's hard to imagine any student or group that wouldn't find something interesting on this site! So it lends itself to many classroom activities using any or all ofl the language skills.

Noise management

On the EngineerLive website there is a news item about Brüel & Kjaer's noise management service - Noise Sentinel - which, at the time of the post, was a finalist for the Environmental Initiative of the Year Award at the 2013 International Tunnelling Awards.

http://www.engineerlive.com/content/noise-management

The Noise Sentinel is described as being able to simultaneously monitor noise, ground vibration, dust and air quality, and complies with environmental guidelines.

Even though the Noise Sentinel didn't win the 2013 prize, my students were intereted in the innovation, since many of them are studying engineering aspects of tunnel systems and other areas of construction.

We found further information on the wesite of Brüel & Kjaer:

http://www.bksv.com/Products/EnvironmentManagementSolutions/UrbanEnvironmentManagement/ConstructionSentinel.aspx

The information given is very business-oriented, and like an advertisement. The focus is on describing the Noise Sentinel (what it does) rather than on how it works.

What we found interesting is the vocabulary used to sound very enthusiastic about the product. This provides a focus on language used for persuasion (useful for business proposals) and use of adjectives to advertise a product or service.

Also useful for students to notice is the language used to explain why a feature is considered an advantage. Some examples (indicated in boldface):

• Noise Sentinel takes care of the hassle associated with monitoring compliance, as we provide the instruments, installation, ...
• And because you are not buying the equipment, the costs of establishing your monitoring capability are much lower than if you were to purchase and operate your own instrumentation.
• Alerts on exceedances so you can take immediate action to reduce their impact.
• Noise Sentinel alerts you immediately when noise or vibration exceeds defined levels, allowing you to take immediate action...

Of course, the focus here can also be on linking and transition vocabulary, but in this text each feature is described as an advantage to the consumer. This relates well to other texts about products and services on business websites.

How the Earthquake Machine works

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma (USA) have designed a machine to mimic what happens inside the earth's crust during an earthquake. By understanding this process better, scientists can more accurately predict earthquakes and the extent of their expected damage.

The "How it Works" section of the website Popular Science has clear graphics of the machine, and a short process description.

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-03/earthquake-machine?dom=PSC&loc=recent&lnk=4&con=how-it-works-the-earthquake-machine

The first part of the process description describes the parts of the machine; the structure of the text provides a good model for students to emulate in their own process description texts or presentations.

For example, "The heart of the apparatus is a flywheel, a device that stores energy mechanically by spinning at high speeds. It's driven by a 100hp motor that can reach 3,300 rpm within 1/10 of a second. The flywheel connects to a central shaft." (The use of boldface is the text's, not mine.)

The second part details how scientists use the device to model the action of an earthquake:

"To model earthquakes of varying magnitude, researchers start by spinning the flywheel at a given speed; a faster flywheel means a bigger quake. The researchers then disengage it from the motor, letting the flywheel spin on its own stored power."

The article contains verbs that are useful for students to learn because they can be used for other types of technical descriptions, e.g., dissipate, discern, mimic, simulate, disengage.

Other useful vocabulary items include collocations such as: release energy, provide data, energy is radiated, evolve over time, transfer energy, dissipate energy.

This short article and the accompanying graphics not only give students a clear and focused explanation of how this device works, but also provide a good model for technical descriptions that they might have to write.

A robot that works with humans on the assembly line

In an article called "Could this robot save your job?" a collaborative manufacturing robot named Baxter is described. This robot was developed by Rodney Brooks, who also invented Roomba (the robotic vacuum cleaner). Baxter is intended for factory work, but working with humans on the assembly line - not replacing them.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/03/09/173841848/could-this-robot-save-your-job

Instead of being programmed, this robot learns by watching humans and by being guided by them. Mr. Brooks gives an example of the older factory worker who can do more challenging mental tasks while Baxter does the repetitive physical tasks.

In addition to the short news item, there is a video (time 2:33) describing the robot and showing it at work. The video claims that Baxter is so easy to use, that non-technical factory workers will be able to train and use "him." Although the background music might make it a bit more difficult for students to hear the narrator, he speaks clearly and slowly.

Students can focus not only on aspects of technical description (how the robot was built) and process description (how it "learns" and works), but also discuss implications of the robot's use in manufacturing.

The article includes links to further articles about Baxter, as well as a link to a description of the inventor, Rodney Brooks.

Printing a bionic ear

An article from the online edition of MIT Technology Review says that, "Princeton researchers, using a 3-D printer, have built a bionic ear with integrated electronics." This ear would not only enable the deaf to hear, but would actually be capable of detecting frequencies far beyond the range of a normal human ear.

I'm not sure what is more amazing here - the idea of a bionic ear or the fact that it was created with a 3-D printer. Students can discuss the implications of such innovative technology (and related cell tissue engineering) and also focus on the description of how this was done.

The article is fairly short, but includes enough material for a technical process description. In addition to the article, there is a video (2:41) narrated by Michael McAlpine, an assistant professor at Princeton university, describing how the ear was made. So there is also a process description to listen to.

http://www.technologyreview.com/demo/517991/cyborg-parts/

The material also refers to further body parts that the developers hope to be able to "build" with this printer.

Students might be interested in looking at the comments that follow this article, and add their own opinions to those expressed.

What if you could design a city?

In my post of September 8, I shared a graphic from the BBC News (Technology) website that showed ideas of what a city of 2050 might look like.

With another article, students can be encouraged to imagine their own ideas for the 'perfect' city. The article, on the same website, poses the question, "What if you could deisgn a city from scratch?" to four experts (and two children).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21032725

The four experts are:

• Guru Banavar, IBM's chief technology officer
• Steve Lewis, chief executive of Living PlanIT
• Tom Steinberg, founder of MySociety
• Carlo Ratti, Senseable Cities Lab, MIT

Each expert explains what they would include in their design, and why.

Students can first brainstorm their answers to this question and make a list of features they would include. Then discuss the various merits, advantages and possible disadvantages of each idea. Afterward, they can compare their ideas with those of the experts questioned.

A different activity would be to print out each expert's answer, and give one to each of four student groups. (Each answer is fairly short, ranging from 220 to 302 words.) After reading and discussing the information, each group presents the idea to the rest of the class. The class could then discuss the merits of each and come to a consensus as to which one they would choose if they were on the City Planning Committee.

Quiz: Who wants to be a millionaire?

The BBC Science website has an online quiz: Can you work your way to success? By answering a few questions, you can find out if you have what it takes to become a millionaire!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/millionaire2/

The quiz has only 5 multiple choice questions, and is said to be taken from the book, Think Yourself Rich (by Sharon Maxwell Magnus).

I took the test a number of times, giving different answers, to see which results I would get according to the different answers. The questions focus on those attributes that are associated with "success," at least in terms of being successful at work and earning money.

Example question:  Your boss is on holiday. Do you:

1. Come in later and leave earlier?
2. Work as normal?
3. Work harder - you want to impress your boss's boss?

I think it's not difficult to guess that answer 3 is the "right" one.

It would be interesting to have students take the quiz to see if they have what it takes to become millionaires. But in class they could discuss what their idea of "success" is. Does success on the job involve making a lot of money? Or are there other factors for students that are also important?

Another interesting activity would be to have students discuss why the "right" answers indicate that someone has more of an ability to become rich (or achieve "success"). What do they think are traits common to those who have achieved this kind of success.

Students could also brainstorm other questions for such a quiz, according to the characteristics they think are typical of self-made millionaires.

There is also room here for discussion of cultural differences, since this is a British-focused quiz.

The city of 2050

Thinking about what life might be like in the future is always an interesting topic for our students. They are the ones who will be designing and building the technology we will use, the cities we will live in, and the societies that will exist.

This BBC website has a page that "takes a look through the crystal ball to imagine what city life might be like in 40 years' time."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23524249

A large graphic is displayed, with various features labelled. You click each picture to read a short description of the feature. These features are:

• Delivery drones
• Farmscrapers
• Smart networks
• Smart buildings
• Shopping
• Sensor networks
• Urban spaces
• Human network
• Robo-texis
• Living street lights

Each description includes a picture, and is short enough to use for lower-level students. It would be interesting for more advanced students to choose one of these features and add more information (either through research or according to their own ideas).

Groups in different areas of engineering could also focus on those features they feel will be related to their current or future professional field.

News articles in levels

The website News in Levels has short news articles written in three levels: Level 1 is extremely simple - suitable for beginners to low-intermediate; Level 2 is more advanced; and Level 3 is the original article (suitable for upper-intermediate to advanced).

http://www.newsinlevels.com/

Each level has, in addition to the text, an audio component in which someone reads the news article. Levels 1 and 2 are read very slowly and clearly, and level 3 sounds like a "normal" news report (also reading the news text of the article). Each level highlights and explains "difficult" words for that level. The original news story (level 3) also has a news video (time 0.57).

Here's an example of the 3 versions of the first sentence from the article Some Cars are Not Safe:

1. People from the USA do a test. They test cars. This test has a name of "crash test."
2. The Institute for Highway Safety carried out a new safety car crash test.
3. A new safety car crash test has found that half of the vehicles tested were rated "marginal" or "poor."

The words highlighted as "difficult" are in 1. crash; in 2. carried out; and in 3. marginal.

These articles suit a range of levels, and are particularly good for lower-level students - it's often difficult to find texts for very low levels. They're good for both classroom use and for students to use at home to improve their reading and listening skills.

Short science articles

The website Popular Science has a section called Short Science Articles, which can be very useful as reading texts for lower level students. Each article is short enough to be less than one page on the screen, and range over many science topics (medicine, health, technology, physics, etc.).

http://www.popsci.com/category/tags/short-science-articles

Curiously, although other news articles on this website are current, the articles in the Short Science Articles section are dated from 2009. However, most of them are still newsworthy. Example headlines:

• "A squirt of stem cells gel heals brain injuries"
• "Website yields unexpected results in the business of artifacts"

and - my favorite - (headed "Science confirms the obvious"):

• "Parents and adult children: mutually irritating"

 In fact, there are other short articles headed "Science confirms the obvious," which could lead to some amusing ideas from the students for other articles in this series.

Combining robotics and teleconferencing

The AVA 500 is a video conferencing robot from the company iRobot, created with Cisco Systems, that allows a user to attend meetings, check up on colleagues, participate in projects, etc. from anywhere in the world. The website of iRobot says: "The robot blends together iRobot's autonomous navigation with Cisco's TelePresence to enable people working off-site to participate in meetings and presentations where movement and location spontaneity are important."

The section of iRobot's website with information about AVA 500 includes a promotional video:
http://www.irobot.com/us/learn/commercial/ava500.aspx

The video is 5:07 minutes long and explains and shows how the robot works. The narrator speaks slowly and clearly, so the video should be understandable to students at low-intermediate level and above.

The website includes information that could be used to have students describe the robot.

Applications: http://www.irobot.com/us/learn/commercial/ava500/Applications/Remote_Team_Collaboration.aspx

Features: http://www.irobot.com/us/learn/commercial/ava500/Features.aspx

For a longer text (to focus on textual language features), use iRobot's press release:

http://www.irobot.com/us/Company/Press_Center/Press_Releases/Press_Release.aspx?n=061013

The future of virtual instrumentation

From August 5-8, 2013, National Instruments held their annual Worldwide Graphical System Design Conference, NIWeek 2013, in Austin, Texas. The conference is described on the National Instruments website as delivering "technical networking and instruction with interactive sessions by NI R&D engineers and guest lecturers; targeted industry summits; hands-on workshops; exhibitions on the latest advancements in design, research, and test; and keynote presentations from leading technology thought leaders."

The keynote presentations are of particular interest because they are uploaded as videos, and are not too long for students to listen to (between 5 and 20 minutes).

http://www.ni.com/niweek/keynote-videos

The introduction keynote speech (time 19:29) was presented by Dr. James Truchard, President and CEO of National Instruments. The title is Expanding the Vision of Graphical System Design. Dr. Truchard talks about current and future products, after giving a brief overview of the evolution of instrumentation. He speaks clearly at a relaxed tempo, and there is a large projection screen behind him with the key words of his talk (including definitions of key concepts). This helps with understanding.

But if 20 minutes is too long for your students to listen to a speech, then you can focus specifically on a section of approximately 5 minutes in which he talks about "looking to the future" (from 10:49 to 15:21). He refers to the current state of technology as Industry 4.0 - the 4th Industrial Revolution, and reviews the developments of the first three revolutions. It would be interesting to have students brainstorm what they identify as these 3 revolutions (and when). Dr. Truchard describes them as:

1. (end of 18th century): Water and steam powered mechanical production;
2. (start of 20th century): Electric power and mass production;
3. (start of the 1970s): Electronics and IT automation;
4. (Today): Cyber-physical systems.

He says that cyber-physical systems "will transform industry" and describes their emerging infrastructures (eg., Intelligent Systems, Smart Factory, M2M, Big Analog Data(TM) Solutions, etc.). He then gives examples of cyber-physical systems across industries and applications:

• tumor treatment
• 6x6 MIMO OFDM Testbed
• advanced smart grid
• large telescope mirror control
• virtual test trains
• robotic rehabilitation
• rapid control prototyping

 He refers to these examples as "enabling the next generation of technology." This is where the recommended section ends (at 15:21).

This talk is not only interesting and informative, but it gives students practice in listening comprehension and could lead to further discussion about the impact of the future technology mentioned. These technology areas could include our students' future professional fields!

Robot helps firefighters

The website Design News has a short article about a semi-autonomous robot that was developed at the University of California at San Diego to help firefighters. The article includes a short video about the robot.

http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=265071&itc=dn_analysis_element& 

The robot, called Firefighting Robot (FFR), rolls on two wheels like a Segway, and enters burning buildings to take temperature readings and map out the area before firefighters enter.

This is another interesting example of robots being used for search and rescue work. Fortunately I have the summer off, but next semester I plan to use the information about various robots for a lesson on innovation in our lives. Maybe my students will be creative enough to come up with more ideas about how robots can be used in this way. We can also compare the robots that have been developed for various types of rescue work and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.

Impact of failed satellites

An article on the website BBC Future asks “what would happen if all satellites stopped working?”

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130609-the-day-without-satellites

The author, Richard Hollingham, writes a scenario of what could possibly happen throughout the day – at 8:00, 11:00, 16:00 and 22:00. The way it is written is a classic impact analysis; that is, a step-by-step description of the domino effect started by such an event.

At my university, we like to teach engineering students impact analysis so that they can be more aware of the possible impacts of their future work. So I will definitely use this article next semester.

Students can be asked to brainstorm the effects of all satellites no longer working, and then compare their ideas in a class discussion. In small groups, they could put their in chronological order, or in the order that each would impact the others, and from this decide how they would write their list as an impact analysis.

The article presents each possible scenario written in the past and past progressive tenses, as if the effects are being reported after they happen. For extra language work, students can change some of these sentences into a form of the conditional. For example: A pilot squadron lost contact with the armed drones they were flying over the Middle East would be changed to A pilot squadron would lose contact with the armed drones they were flying over the Middle East.

Finally, at the end of the article, readers are asked: “Do you agree with Richard? If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.” Instead, students can write their comment in class or as a follow-up homework assignment. A message for Twitter would be particularly interesting, because they would have to limit their comment to no more than 140 characters (which requires a clear focus on word choices).

Readlang: a website to help learn vocabulary

Readlang is a website created by Steve Ridout that helps you learn foreign languages (35 languages possible!) by reading and translating words you don't know.

http://readlang.com/ 

There is also a video to see how it works. It is said to be now out of date, but more information is on the website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qabaf3QumB8&feature=youtu.be 

On the website, first you set your native language, then set the language you’re learning. Then insert a text. A text can be cut and pasted onto the website, or a link can be uploaded. You can even upload an entire novel. I tried it with the first paragraph of an article I used with my students this past semester (see my last blog post, Self-parking automobiles), marking German as “my language” and English as the language I’m learning.

When the text is on Readlang, you can put your cursor on a word, and it is translated into your own language. The only problem I had with this is that you can only translate one word – not a lexical chunk (like “according to”) or idiomatic phrases (“just around the corner”). And, as we all know, one-to-one translation doesn’t always work very well. But for a fast and easy vocabulary check, my students will probably like to use this.

A useful feature is that all the words that you have chosen to translate are then stored in the area called “Learn”, where you can test yourself (like using flash cards). There’s also an area called “Words”, which gives more information about each of the words chosen. The text itself is stored in “Library.”

The site also has a blog where Steve Ridout gives more information about how to use the site, and gives further updates on the site’s progress.

The blog: http://blog.readlang.com/

Self-parking automobiles

There was an interesting article in The Economist last week about Volvo’s new feature that allows a car to park itself.

Link to article:
http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21580134-autonomous-vehicles-are-arriving-piecemeal-more-and-more-driving-tasks-are

My students are usually interested in anything to do with cars, so the topic would catch their attention. Information about innovation is always useful in lessons, and this article also compares this innovative feature to other car-parking systems. Students can discuss the pros and cons of each one. 

In addition, there are a number of interesting language features. For example: 

• Use of adverbs, including slowly, steadily, recently, completely, easily, conversely, fully, highly, etc. (there are 13 different ones, and 5 are repeated twice)
• Use of comparatives and superlatives
• Conditional clauses
• Linking/transition words
• Relative clauses 
• And many phrases indicating future change, for example: 

• …are just around the corner 
• …car will arrive 
• …five to ten years from commercial deployment 
• That, too, is coming. 
• A number of carmakers are developing… 
• …expects to see…from around 2020.

Exercises focusing on any of these features could be part of the lesson, or given for homework.

Pizza vending machine

How about an innovation about pizza to catch students’ attention? A new vending machine, Let’s Pizza, has been developed to completely create a pizza while you wait. Inside the machine the process starts with flour and water to make the dough, it kneads the dough, puts on the chosen toppings, and bakes the pizza – in less than 3 minutes. If the ingredients are not used after 24 hours, the machine disposes of them so that the pizza is always fresh. Among the innovative features of this vending machine are “technical solutions to guarantee” that the food would be safe and hygienic.

Link to Design News:

http://www.designnews.com/document.asp?doc_id=247072

The article about this innovation is rather short, but there is also a video showing the process. Students can discuss the technical aspects of this machine, and consider whether they would want to try this pizza (can you really trust food made in a vending machine?). The CEO of A1 Concepts, the distributor, says he “wouldn't be surprised if the Let's Pizza's success spawns imitators.” Students could brainstorm other food items they could imagine being made from scratch in a vending machine.

The plan is to have Let's Pizza where food vending machines are usually found: at train stations, airports, schools and universities. The article (written in July 2012) says that "the machine has been available in Europe since 2009," but I haven’t seen one yet. Maybe this summer I'll come across one on my travels. It would be fun to see how it works, but I'm not sure I want to try one.

Anti-theft technology for cars

There is a lot of interesting visual material on the australianscreen website: http://aso.gov.au/

It is operated by Australia's National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA), which is "the national audiovisual archive, collecting, preserving and sharing the nation's moving image and recorded sound heritage."

A video clip I used with my students is "Four Corners: Car Wars" (2:09 min).
 http://aso.gov.au/titles/tv/four-corners-car-wars/clip2/

This viedo shows a technological innovation from DataDot Technology that was developed to prevent car theft. This innovation involves spraying microdots over various parts of a new car. In the video, the innovation is described, and there is a chronological explanation of the development and use of these microdots.

The site includes "Education notes" which give background information and statistics on the car-theft problem in Australia (this can be compared to the students' own country).

One example of the information in these notes is a list of other types of anti-theft devices, including keypad immobilisers, alarms with motioin sensors, and automatic anti-hijacking door locking.

After discussing information from the video, students had the assignment (in groups) to find out more information about each of these other devices, and then in class we had a "panel discussion" comparing and contrasting their merits. Each group tried to persuade the rest of the class to "vote" for the device they had researched.

Another idea is to start a brainstorming session where students think of their own ideas for future technological innovations to prevent car theft.

Future shock or Coping with the future

In this BBC video, economist and futurist Robin Hanson presents ideas related to living as long as we can. He asks, "If any of our visions of technological revolution come true, then how will humans cope?"

Video: How to survive the future (4:04 minutes)
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20121219-how-to-survive-the-future


Questions I asked students before viewing the video:

• How long would you want to live?
• What do you think would be the best way(s) to live longer?
• What problems do you think there would be with a longer life?
• What current and future technologies do you think will help us to live longer?
• What skills or characteristics do you think you would need in order to cope with living far in the future?

Students had very different responses to the first question, ranging from only wanting what is now considered a "normal" life span, to wanting to live to over a hundred -- if they could be healthy and active. Their ideas for living longer focused on diet, exercise and healthy lifestyle.

But when we started to discuss technological innovations for prolonging our life-span, they became very creative, and their focus depended on which type of engineering they were studying.

The ideas in the video mainly focus on cryogenics and on artificial intelligence. But Robin Hanson also talks about how he imagines preparing for a coping with life far in the future.

While we watched the video, the students took notes and afterward discussed Robin Hanson's ideas. This led to quite a lively discussion rating the pros and cons of each idea.