Robotics & AI blog

Logo of the blog

I recently came across a fairly new blog, Robotics & AI, while I was looking for interesting articles to use with my engineering students this semester. The article that had caught my eye was "Five Trends in Robotics to Watch This Year," since I like to use articles in class that have information about new innovations in my students' engineering fields.

Both robotics and artificial intelligence are relevant to many engineering fields, so I was particularly interested in the innovations and trends that would be focused on in this article and the other articles that were on this site.

Link to the blog: http://www.roboticsandai.com/

But, since the blog itself was new to me, I looked through other topics that have been posted. These include:

• The 'To Be or Not to Be' Question (referring to artificial intelligence - but I love the reference to Hamlet!)
• Five Trends in Robotics to Watch This Year
• Virtual Reality is Finally Here
• Home is Where the Robot Is
• Holy Moley, Your Chef is a Robot
• etc.

The information about the blog was also interesting. From About this blog:

"This blog is my attempt not only to report on the latest developments in the field, but also to provide a collaborative platform where enthusiasts can share their knowledge. Cutting through all the negative hype that surrounds the subject, this blog seeks to make a scientific enquiry into the latest developments in Robotics & AI to throw light on the positive solutions it offers for the future."

I liked the idea of focusing on "positive solutions ... for the future," since it reflects the kinds of discussions I like to encourage in my classroom. After all, our students are the future, and they will be the ones who develop such positive solutions.

The blogger, a "robotics and AI enthusiast" writes (About me):

"To the hundreds of thousands of enthusiasts like me, Robotics & AI spell not only the shape of things to come, but are also an exciting obsession that occupy cult status in our minds."

I think this will resonate with our students -- who are also enthusiasts of the latest technology and who also have a positive attitude about the future of such technology.

The focus of this site is so relevant - and interesting - that I have included a link to it on my blog as a Relevant link (at the right of the posts).

The first article I've used from this blog, as mentioned above, is "Five Trends in Robotics to Watch This Year."

http://www.roboticsandai.com/2016/01/five-trends-in-robotics-to-watch-this-year/

It has provided not only interesting discussion with my students, but also relevant language work for students to use when writing about an innovation or about their personal viewpoint of what they've read. For example:

• expressions of opinion (without stating "I think")
• use of concession and rebuttal
• ways of referring to information used or cited
• ways of referring to the future (information, trends, etc.)
• use of questions; rhetorical questions

Expressions of opinion:

• (Journalist Will Knight) produced an excellent article
• an ambitious plan to ...
• this will see drones really take off this year
• and that's just the tip of the iceberg
• This doesn't come as a surprise as ...
• probably as personal as it can get
• This we found to be most exciting
• 2016 certainly looks like a year which will see quantum leaps in ...

Use of concession and rebuttal:

• It's true that ... , but we wonder ...
• While it may not mean that ... , Knight predicts that we should expect ...
• While the skies may not be taken over by ... , it is only a matter of time before ...
• ... while personal robots will become more prominent, it will be difficult to design robots that...

Ways of referring to information used or cited:

•  ... produced an excellent article for the MIT Technical Review focusing on ...
• an analysis of his findings
• what we think of the trends
• (China) is well known for ...
• What is not as well known is that ...
• the government has committed to ...
• (Foxconn), who amongst other products, manufacture ...
• this move to introduce ...
• (Jeff Bozos) has long dreamt of ...
• (The US Federal Aviation Administration) has recently released new regulations for ...
• Knight predicts that ...
• Knight reports that ...
• One approach uses ...
• Some companies are even attempting to ...

Ways of referring to the future (information, trends, etc.):

• (Foxconn) plans to install ...
• we wonder what this will do to ...
• if such a robotic work force were to replace human workers ...
• this will see drones really take off this year
• our skies will be taken over by ...
• Knight predicts that we should expect ...
• it is only a matter of time before ...
• expected to debut this year
• it will be difficult to design robots that ...
• Robots will learn in ways that were not possible in the past.
• they will now be trained using deep learning
• This is set to accelerate the learning process
• We will endeavour to keep bringing you the latest updates

Use of questions; rhetorical questions:

• we wonder what this will do to the country's economy
• Is the price worth it, we wonder?
• isn't expecting machines to possess social skills a but unrealistic ... and err unnecessary really?

What is also particularly interesting about the articles on this blog is that they focus on the future -- the future impact of new technologies (both positive and negative) -- which is something that is important for our students to think about, since they are the ones who will be creating the technologies of the future. As it says in the logo of the blog: Let's talk about the future!

Free Electric bike

Video screen shot from Billions in Change

In my last post I wrote about the company Billions in Change and the types of innovations they are working on to solve what the company's founder, Manoj Bhargava, feels are the most pressing issues in the world: water, energy and health (Billions in Change, February 10, 2016).

One of the solutions that the company has developed is Free Electric, a hybrid bicycle described as the "cheapest, most practical way of getting electricity throughout the world."

The company's website has a short video (2:57) about this innovation.

Link: http://billionsinchange.com/solutions/free-electric

In the video, Manoj Bhargava asks, "Human mechanical energy is so amazing, why can't we use that to create energy?"

He says he thinks it's the "coolest" of all his company's inventions. "Electricity is the greatest enabler there is."

Students could discuss this statement, and brainstorm the impacts that this innovation will have. Mr. Bhargava, in fact, talks about the impacts that Free Electric will have not only on areas of the world that have no electricity, but also in the developed world when some disaster causes power to fail.

On the same site, there are two further video clips: The Problem (0:37) and The Solution (0:43). They are good examples of "elevator speeches" -- short statements summarizing the main idea.

For example, The Problem:

• Imagine your life without electricity. Not only would you have no cell phone, computer or television. It would be difficult to light and heat your home or prepare food without burning wood or coal. Your home would be smoky. Food storage would be impossible. That's how half the world lives. Now imagine the difference electrical power could make to those people.

The Solution offers a simple description of the innovation, which is also useful for students to develop their summarizing skills:

• The Free Electric machine gives people the power to generate electricity themselves -- pollution free. The machine is small, light and simple. Here's how it works: A person pedals a hybrid bicycle. The bicycle wheel drives a flywheel, which turns a generator, which charges a battery. Pedaling for one hour yields electricity for 24 hours with no utility bill, and no exhaust, no waste.

There's a very good article about the Free Electric on the Tree Hugger website:
http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/5-hour-energy-creator-roll-out-pedal-powered-energy-solution-india.html

It's fairly short (377 words), but has a lot of useful language material. It also has a link to the Billions in Change documentary that I referred to in my last post.

The article has a variety of vocabulary to describe change, particularly the impact of an innovation. For example:

• could have a big impact in the developing world
• potentially change the lives of billions
• he's focused on making a difference in the world
• tackling some of the pressing issues of our time
• creating and implementing solutions to serious problems
• innovations that have the potential to make a very real impact on
• This is going to affect a few billion people

There are also some useful idioms and expressions in the article:

• 5-hour Energy creator to roll out pedal-powered energy solution
• willing to put his money where his mouth is
• is worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 billion
• tackling some of the pressing issues of our time
• the documentary also touches on work being done

The article also has a short description of the Free Electric, as well as references to other innovations being developed by Billions in Change.

Billions in Change

Billions in Change is a company founded by Manoj Bhargava that seeks sustainable solutions to the problems of water, energy and health in the world. I came across its website recently while reading about some innovations in sustainability. The focus of Billions in Change is reflected in their "Philosophy" (as quoted from their website):

"Our philosophy is simple -- make things that meet the basic needs of those who don't have the basics, thus enabling them to provide for themselves, their families and their communities. These basic needs include fresh water for drinking and agriculture; clean electricity to power homes, schools and businesses; and healthcare solutions that prevent disease."

Link to website: http://billionsinchange.com/

Further aspects of their philosophy is expressed in the section, "Our Belief":

"We believe talking about change changes little. Creating awareness doesn't stop pollution, grow food or heal the sick. These things take doing. And that's what Billions in Change is all about -- creating and implementing solutions that meet basic needs, and thereby creating a positive impact on billions of people around the world."

It is the "creating and implementing solutions" that I feel would be of interest to our students. So the website is a good source of information about solutions that have already been developed.

Link to "Solutions" section: http://billionsinchange.com/solutions/

This section offers a variety of solutions to sustainability problems of water, electricity, energy and health. And example that I will focus on more specifically in my next post is one of sustainable energy. Manoj Bhargava's company has developed an energy-producing bike, intended for rural areas, for which one hour of pedaling equals 24 hours of electricity.

The website has specific information by and about Mr. Bhargava which could also be very interesting to students. His motivation and mission are very inspiring. In fact, related to an idea I discussed in my last post (Pioneer in AI has died, February 6, 2016), students could read about this man and write a short summary of his life and achievements in the style of an obituary. They could use the stylistic devices that I highlighted in that post.

The website also has a link to the documentary Billions in Change (43:02), which discusses aspects of the company in detail, particularly the three project areas the company is currently concentrating on: water, energy, health.

Link to documentary: http://billionsinchange.com/film

For a shorter version, either for students to view on their own or to be used in the classroom where possible, is the trailer of the documentary (3:18). Even in this short viewing there is plenty for discussion. And after watching it, students could be motivated to watch the entire documentary on their own.

There are many quotes from the trailer that could be good starters for discussion. For example, one of the engineers at the company, talking about what the company is like, says:

"It is the most well-funded playhouse for engineers you could possibly have."

What a good image of what being innovative is like for engineers! Students can brainstorm ideas of what they would like in such a "playhouse."

Manoj Bhargava, talking about the solutions engineers at the company develop, says:

"If you come up with something cool that's not useful, we don't do it. I have no interest. I don't want to be cool. Actually, I'm never going to be cool."

I think that's a pretty cool thing to say! And it can serve as a model for students to not only consider why they might come up with a certain idea, but also who they imagine they're developing it for.

This, I think, is the most important focus for students -- that they could change the world, make a difference in other people's lives. Isn't this why they wanted to become engineers in the first place?

Pioneer in AI has died

Prof. Minsky at MIT in 1968

On January 24, 2016, Marvin Minsky died at age 88. Our engineering students should be aware of who this man was and what he achieved in his lifetime.

His work is relevant to just about every field of engineering as one of the "founding fathers" of artificial intelligence. He was working in this field at a time when no one even knew what AI was or could be.

As was written in his obituary in the New York Times:

"Well before the advent of the microprocessor and the supercomputer, Professor Minsky, a revered computer science educator at M.I.T., laid the foundation for the field of artificial intelligence by demonstrating the possibilities of imparting common-sense reasoning to computers."

Link to the obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/business/marvin-minsky-pioneer-in-artificial-intelligence-dies-at-88.html?&_r=0

There is so much that students could focus on for discussion about this man and his life's work, but one part of the obituary particularly caught my attention for students to consider:

"Professor Minsky's book, 'The Society of Mind,' a seminal work published in the mid-1980s, proposed 'that intelligence is not the product of any singular mechanism but comes from the managed interaction of a diverse variety of resourceful agents,' as he wrote on his website.

Underlying that hypothesis was his and Professor Papert's belief that there is no real difference between humans and machines. Humans, they maintained, are actually machines of a kind whose brains are made up of many semiautonomous but intelligent 'agents.' And different tasks, they said, 'require fundamentally different mechanisms.'" (my emphasis)

It also strkes me that there is a lot of language work than can be done with this article - or, in fact - with any obituary.

• A writing task in which students write a short summary of a person's achievements. They could pick a person they admire or are interested in (in their field, for example) and write the first paragraph of their "obituary." Summary writing practices both reading and writing skills, and focused students to get to the point in their writing.
• Work with relative clauses: examples of both restrictive and non-restrictive clauses, which all obituaries have.
• Work with parenthetical clauses to create complex sentences.
• Develop writing style by identifying and using non-finite introductory clauses. This extends students' ability to combine ideas in one sentence, rather than write a series of short, simplistic sentences.

All of these features are generally in obituaries, and there are many examples in this particular one.

Here is the first paragraphof the NYT obituary:

"Marvin Minsky, who combined a scientist's thirst for knowledge with a philosopher's quest for truth as a pioneering explorer of artificial intelligence, work that helped inspire the creation of the personal computer and the Internet, died on Sunday night in Boston. He was 88."

This paragraph is not only a concise summary of who the man was, but it also contains both a restrictive and non-restrictive clause. The rest of the article has many more.

A few examples of restrictive clauses:

•  (work) that helped inspire the creation of the personal computer and the Internet, ...
•  whose visions and perspectives liberated the computer ...
• (advances) that influenced modern robotics ...
• (one of the people) who defined what computing and computing research is all about, ...

A few examples of non-restrictive clauses:

• (Marvin Minsky), who combined a scientist's thirst for knowledge with a philosopher's quest for truth as a pioneering explorer of artificial intelligence, ...
• (John McCarthy), who is credited with coining the term "artificial intelligence."
• (machine), which he called Snarc.
• (Princeton), where he met John McCarthy, ...

A few examples of parenthetical clauses:

•  Professor Minsky, a revered computer scientist at M.I.T., laid the foundation for ...
•  Professor Minsky's book "The Society of Mind," a seminal work published in the mid-1980s, proposed "that ...
• After ruling out genetics as interesting but not profound, and physics as mildly enticing, he chose to focus on intelligence itself.
• Danny Hillis, an inventor and entrepreneur, co-founded Thinking Machines ...

A few examples of non-finite introductory clauses:

• Fascinated since his undergraduate days at Harvard by the mysteries of human intelligence and thinking, Professor Minsky ....
• Beginning in the early 1950s, he worked on ...
• While earning a degree in mathematics at Harvard, he also studied music ...
• Fascinated by electronics and science, the young Mr. Minsky ...
• Intellectually restless throughout his life, Professor Minsky ...

Obituaries of Prof. Minsky from other news sources could also be read, since the information is certainly of interest to our students, and obituaries usually have the language features I have focused on.

Predictions in science fiction novels

From the website geekandsundry

Which science fiction movie or novel is most prescient today? This question is related to other posts I've written about future predictions (or past predictions about today). For example, "Past predictions of the future" (October 20,2015); "Back to the Future today" (October 25, 2015); and "Predicting Obsolescence" (January 12, 2016).

This was a question asked of guest contributors to the Room for Debate section of the New York Times recently. Six contributors explain their choices.

Since my students like science fiction movies (some even like science fictions books!), they could discuss the ones they've seen (or read) and talk about to what extent any of the science fiction has come true. They could compare similarities with books on this list. Perhaps some of the students have read one of the choices, or have seen a movie version of one of the books.

Link to the Room for Debate page:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2015/12/29/what-science-fiction-movie-or-novel-is-most-prescient-today

The introduction to the 6 short articles is:

"This year, NASA confirmed the existence of liquid water on Mars, raising the possibility of Martian life; a genetically engineered animal can now be sold for human consumption, as in a tale by Margaret Atwood; and a Silicon Valley research institute was formed to create a computer with the intellectual ability of a human, and to confront the threat such artificial intelligence poses to humanity.

Scientific discovery and invention often leads to comparison with speculative or dystopian fiction.

What science fiction movie or novel seems most prescient today?"

Here are the choices and a short excerpt of the reasons:

• Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury): Ray Bradbury ... wrote "Fahrenheit 451" in 1953, and yet it speaks directly to today. In terms of technology, Bradbury accurately extrapolated, from that era's nascent television culture, something that eerily predicts the Internet. The book imagines a world flooded with information, pouring into citizens' ears and eyes through ear buds and wall-sized flat-panel screens.
• The Martian (Andy Weir): "The Martian" is the story of an American astronaut who must jury-rig his own survival on Mars after he is accidentally left behind on the planet during a windstorm. The experimental trajectory of his actions are (sic) very true to scientific inquiry and practice, as were some of the elements of his team's space travel.
• The Fifth Season (N.K. Jemisin): N.K. Jemisin's latest novel, "The Fifth Season" explores a science that is oddly neglected in science fiction: the geophysics of exoplanets. Though we have plenty of stories about the physics of space travel and the biology of alien life, very few authors tackle the actual rocky, gassy, molten stuff that planets are made of. Jemisin does it brilliantly, crafting a tale that is both intensely moving and scientifically complex.
• The Body Snatchers (Jack Finney): "The Body Snatchers" gave us the term "pod people" -- for alien beings that can disguise themselves as humans, killing those whom they emulate, until they've used up and destroyed a civilization. The reason for the story's popularity is obvious. The thought of a strange, soulless force from outside, taking over our bodies, is terrifying. It's scary enough in fiction, but even in 2015, modern day "body snatchers" in state legislatures and Congress are trying to take over women's bodies.
• Book of the New Sun (Gene Wolfe): A failed interstellar culture, Wolfe's society has fallen backward from fear into inscrutable religious ritual, mistaking technology for magic and, worst of all, elevating torture to spiritual ecstasy. Every time I see a tweet in support of torturing America's enemies, or poo-pooing science and its calls for caution, or praising Donald Trump, I flash forward to Wolfe's wondrous dystopia.
• Use of Weapons (Iain Banks): This book is the epitome of the best kind of science fiction, which is always about us in the here-and-now, rather than "them" in the there-and-then. It provides the distance needed to see ourselves more clearly. ... (Banks's) civilization, the Culture, and its special action executive arm, Special Circumstances, has the knowledge of foresight that America's best and brightest did not. They use their weapons for the utilitarian good. Nonetheless, they use their weapons and they use them up. And their weapons are people.

Related to this is another article, "Science Fiction that Predicted Our Dystopian Present" on the website "geekandsundry":
http://geekandsundry.com/science-fiction-that-predicted-our-dystopian-present/

This article chose 3 books that predicted aspects of the present. The choices (and reasons) are:

• 1984 (George Orwell) - government surveillance
• Twilight Zone (example given: "Number 12 Looks Just Like You") - body image and conformity
• Fahrenheit 451 (again!) - reality TV

Since there is so much material linking language with themes relevant to our engineering students, it seems a shame not to take advantage of it.