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.

Spatial Robots Website

Grid: Augmented Reality Gaming (by Sahar Fikouhi)

Students work on various projects for their studies, and usually also have ideas for developing private projects of their own according to their technical area of interest. That's often why they decided to study engineering. An interesting website highlights projects that relate to interactive architecture. This includes topics in the areas of architecture, robots, interfaces and control.

The link: http://www.spatialrobots.com

The website's description is that it "features and critiques control technologies, interfaces and robotics as they pertain to the future of interactive architecture and space. Created by Miles Kemp in 2007, this website showcases architecture, space, interfaces, new media, websites, robotics, nanotechnology, reconfigurable objects, behavioral logic, new materials, and emerging technologies with emphasis placed on projects being interactive and spatial."

Posts include videos, short articles and links to other blogs. Readers are invited to submit news they think is "cool" to be featured on the website. This would be an interesting invitation to students at the beginning of the semester, to see what kinds of material they think is "cool news" to share with the class.

A recent addition to the website (currently on the home page) is Grid: Augmented Reality Gaming by Sahar Fikouhi, described as providing a "spatial configuration for real-time gaming at an architectural scale."

A video (3:12 minutes) shows how Grid works, and there's a link to Sahar Fikouhi's blog, MOB-ILITY, which has an article that explains the project (a good example for students) and more visuals related to the project.

For more information: saharfikouhi.blogspot.com/2011/12/grid-augmented-reality-gaming_27.html

Cartoons for ESL

I came across an interesting website recently that has cartoons for English learners, with accompanying information. For each cartoon there is a transcript of the text, vocabulary explained, and information about context (explaining the cartoon and giving cultural background if relevant).

The website Comics English is at: http://www.comicsenglish.com

It’s fairly new (started 20 May 2013), but invites the reader to “visit regularly” for cartoons. I told my students about the website so that they can read it on their own – I figure that cartoons and comics will be a big motivator! But in class we looked at the following cartoon (originally from the website xkcd: http://xkcd.com/), which describes itself as “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.”

This cartoon is at:  http://www.comicsenglish.com/2013/05/xkcd-lack-of-insight/

The Comics English website explains all the relevant vocabulary and, as Context, adds, “Notice that the first sentence is like a formula. Speakers can put the name of any new technology they want in between < … > (Google Glass in this instance).”

But my students and I went further. We discussed the significance of having a “formula” by which you could discuss any kind of new technology, even if you don’t know anything about it. We played around with it a while, substituting other technologies the students know about. Then we tried to think of other “formulas” for discussing technology, art, literature, their studies, etc.

The cartoon made me think of the idea behind a series of books (or more accurately, booklets) called Bluffer’s Guide. Topics in the series include economics, poetry, skiing, sex, hiking, beer, quantum universe (and many others). The series helps you “bluff your way with those who claim currency in the subject. Nothing demanded, just a sense of humour.”

Early innovation in mail sorting

Focusing on innovations of the past is not only informative, but allows students to reflect on the impact through time of that innovation. One interesting example I used with my students is the computerized mail sorting system introduced in Australia in 1966.

This website has a video clip from a 1966 promotional film of The Redfern Mail Exchange’s computerized mail sorting system, which was quite an innovation at the time. The clip describes the process of data entry for the computers, conveyors for moving the letters, and the method of typing the postcodes on each letter.

In addition the website has Teacher’s Notes with “educational value points” as well as Curator’s Notes with extra information.

Australia Post: This is the Mail (1966) (time = 2:59)

http://aso.gov.au/titles/sponsored-films/australia-post-mail/clip3/


What the students might find interesting is the 1960s computer, which was extremely large and was operated through keypunch cards. Although it seems quite old-fashioned now, the clip makes clear that at the time it was fast and efficient, and quite an important development in the sorting and distribution of mail.

The video provides listening practice for students, and the information given is a very clear process description (with visual input). In addition to a discussion of the system, the students worked in small groups to write a summary of the process. A follow-up activity involved each group plotting the impact of this innovation to the mail-sorting systems used today. This involved further work on the students’ part to find out how mail is currently sorted in their own country.