HackingTheUniverse

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The GRASP (robotics and automation) lab at Univ Penn is doing some fascinating work with swarms of small flying quadrotors. A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors – [youtube.com] VIDEO Experiments performed with a team of nano quadrotors at the GRASP Lab, University of Pennsylvania. Vehicles developed by KMel Robotics. Special thanks to Professor Daniel Lee for [...]

In the fall of 2011, Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig decided to offer their “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” course at Stanford in an online delivery and free. Responding to an email invitation that went viral in the blogosphere, over 160,000 students registered to take the course, although many of them dropped their participation early. The [...]

Swarms of small robotic devices can be used to collect sensory data, gather samples, map terrains, and assemble and construct objects. The qualities of a swarm of small objects make these tasks applicable in a variety of forms. They may be used to perform medical diagnostics inside a body or explore objects in space. Ant-Sized [...]

We use a variety of terms to qualify what we consider to be intelligent life: intelligence, consciousness, self-awareness, higher consciousness. There seem to be two primary ingredients common to most of the definitions of intelligent life and those are: Intelligence as some level of analytical reasoning ability and perhaps also the experience or knowledge necessary [...]

Composites are made by combining two different materials with different properties: Concrete – concrete by itself is a composite of cement and crushed rock, which has a high strength against compression or crushing (like rock) but can be poured like a liquid into forms to create specific shapes before it hardens. Concrete does not have [...]

Data mining is the process of searching through data sets (typically large) and extracting smaller data sets that often show some form of pattern or relevance to the data that was not obvious before the extraction. As data sets grow larger, the need for automated tools also grows. Usually, the purpose of data mining is [...]

Transgenic or genetically modified foods are controversial, but offer tremendous opportunity to produce nutritionally enhanced, therapeutic food products that are engineered for specific needs. Combine this with the use of 3D printers to produce food products and you have the possibility to create unlimited combinations of nutrition and taste and texture. Post Paleo? – [robbwolf.com] [...]

Purdue University is offering a new two part course on NanoElectronics starting in January. Each part will last five weeks and costs a $30 registration fee. You can either simply audit the class and not take the tests, or you can take the tests and by passing, earn a completion certificate. If you pass the [...]

Haptic technology is a way of providing tactile sensory input or feedback to enhance an experience. It is often integrated with virtual environments or augmented reality technologies. A simple form is the way game controllers vibrate to create a sensation connected with an event in the game. Haptics are being integrated into many areas besides [...]

Knowledge management (KM) attempts to enhance information sharing and an awareness of how knowledge is accumulated and used to create innovation. Keith Sawyer has written about applying the concepts of “flow” psychology to group collaborations in order to increase creative power. He also points out that group collaboration is in fact responsible for most of [...]