Monday, March 24, 2014

Mars rover landing explained

"Curiosity" is a car-sized robotic rover developed by NASA to explore Mars. It was launched on 26 November 2011, and safely landed on 6 August 2012. Its successful landing, however, was not guaranteed. There were various reasons why the landing was expected to be full of difficulties.

A video on the National Geographic website explains the difficulties of creating a safe landing on Mars for Curiosity's Rover.

Mars Rover's 7 Minutes of Terror:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/news/mars-curiosity-rover-vin?gc=%2Fvideo%2Ftechnology

The video (3:08) also shows computer simulations of how the landing was expected to work, and details the parts of the operation that were expected to be most difficult and why.

The narration is clear and fairly slow, and although there is background music, it is not loud enough to interfere with the narration.

The explanation and computer simulations are not only interesting for students, but also provide a good example of process description - either for writing or for presentations.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Great source of videos

The National Geographic website is a useful source of information about all areas covered by the National Geographic Society, and I have often found news articles relevant for all my engineering groups. However, a section of the website particularly useful in the classroom - and for homework - is the video section, because the videos are generally short and produced in an interesting way with high quality.

Link to the video section:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video

The categories in this section are:
  • adventure
  • animals
  • environment
  • history & civilization
  • people & culture
  • photography
  • science & space
  • technology
  • travel
In particular, the section technology has yielded videos with information my engineering students found both relevant and interesting.And, of course, they enjoy the visual input in the classroom.

In my post next week, I will focus on one of the videos from this category that I used with my robotics engineering students.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

World Wide Web for robots

Picture from RoboEarth website
Most robots are programmed to carry out one kind of task. But with an innovation called RoboEarth, when a robot "learns" something new, it can update the data to the cloud, where other robots can share it, add to it and learn from it.

RoboEarth website: http://roboearth.org/

The description of the innovation from RoboEarth's website: "At its core, RoboEarth is a World Wide Web for robots: a giant network and database repository where robots can share information and learn from each other about their behavior and their environment. Bringing a new meaning to the phrase 'experience is the best teacher', the goal of RoboEarth is to allow robotic systems to benefit from the experience of other robots, paving the way for rapid advances in machine cognition and behavior, and ultimately, for more subtle and sophisticated human-machine interaction."

A simple diagram of the interaction among robots and the RoboEarth cloud engine and the RoboEarth data base is also on the website:



There is an article on the BBC News website that is both interesting and useful for language work:
Robots test wtheir own world wide web, dubbed RoboEarth

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25727110

There are examples of different tenses, especially the future with "will." This is useful for illustrating both the uses of different tenses and the differences between tenses (for example, between the use of the simple past and of present perfect):
  • information is being shown off ...
  • Scientists ... will put it through its paces at ...
  • Four robots will use the system to ...
  • ...both robots and humans will be able to ...
  • The system has been developed by ...
  • ...robots are often developed ...
  • ...are now being developed ...
There are also useful phrases for explanation and explaining possibility:
  •  ...complete a series of tasks, including ...
  • The eventual aim is that ...
  • ...which would act as a kind of ...
  • At its core RoboEarth is a ...
  • ... so that ...
  • The problem right now is that ...
  • The aim of the system is to ...
  • A task like ...
  • ...will also mean that ...
  • ..., meaning that ...
  • ...are likely to be available ...
  • It is already possible to ...
  • ... RoboEarth adds security by ...
  • The consequences of ...
In addition to the article, there is a link to a BBC video (3:33) with a journalist presenting news about the innovation and with examples of a robot using the capability in a hospital setting.

Link to video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25926292

The journalist in the video thinks the robots don't look "friendly." What do your students think? To what extent does it matter what the robots look like? What kind of "look" would students choose? They could draw or discuss their ideas and compare.

Other questions focus on the article. What do students think of the quote by James Barrat, who says, "In the longer term, watch out when any of the nodes can evolve or otherwise improve their own software. The consequences of sharing that capability with the central 'mind' should be explored before it happens."

What measures do students think could be taken now to forestall problems in the future?

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Using 3D Positioning System for language work

ALLU 3D Positioning System
When I was looking through the Pile Buck website (mentioned in my last post), I came across an article about an innovative 3D Positioning System: ALLU Introduces In Situ Mixing GPS 3D Positioning System. The innovation was of interest to a group of students working in construction engineering, but I also noticed ways the article itself could be used to focus on useful areas of vocabulary, grammar and text type features.

The article: http://www.undergroundconstructionmagazine.com/allu-introduces-situ-mixing-gps-3d-positioning-system

The first thing I noticed was the aspects of the article pertaining to process description. I generally tell my students that a process description should have the following information:
  •  what it is
  • what it does / what it was invented for
  • what it looks like / what parts it has
  • how it works
So I had them identify those parts in the text

What it is: "The ALLU 3D Positioning System."

What it does: "The new system uses GPS signals to precisely locate the ALLU PMX excavator-mounted power mixing head, guiding the excavator operator to feed the correct amount of binder and to thoroughly mix each block of the job matrix."

What it looks like: "The new system is comprised of four modules, including computer unit with software, touch screen, base station and GPS Sensor."

How it works: "...the Pressure Feeder Data Acquisition System tracks the amount of binder applied and the 3D Positioning System tracks exactly where it was applied. This provides the contractor with more accurate record keeping, a superior quality assurance plan and can result in faster acceptance of the project. The 3D Positioning System tells the operator when to change locations and begin stabilization from another point ..."

Since it's an innovation, we also looked at what was new about it, and which advantages are mentioned. Here is a sample:

"...there are significant advantages to the operation ... Due to the precise placement of the binder, only the optimum amount of binder is used, keeping material costs down."

"... tracks exactly where it was applied. This provides the contractor with more accurate record keeping, a superior quality assurance plan and can result in faster acceptance of the project."

This includes vocabulary that highlights advantages:
  • there are significant advantages to the operation
  • only the optimum amount of binder is used, keeping material costs down
  • This is critical because... 
  • provides the contractor with more accurate record keeping
  • can result in faster acceptance of the project
  • optimizing mixing production rates, while ensuring thorough mixing 
Then, we were able to add a number of adjective-noun collocations to students' vocabulary logs. For example:
  •  specialized products
  • mass stabilization
  • cost-effective method
  • contaminated soil
  • hazardous constituents
  • treated material
  • significant advantages
  • optimum amount
  • material costs
  • accurate record keeping
  • assurance plan
  • mixing production rates
  • binder addition rates
  • efficient use 
Finally, 3 adverb-verb collocations:
  • precisely locate
  • thoroughly mix
  • tracks exactly
This work is now being used as a basis for students' own process descriptions, as well as descriptions of the advantages of new products.

Similar language work can be done with other articles that give information about an innovation in the students' technical field.