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Tom Gheysens

Biomimicr-E: Nature-Inspired Energy Systems | AAAS - 4 views

www.aaaspolicyfellowships.org/...nature-inspired-energy-systems

energy science phy space

shared by Tom Gheysens on 13 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Tom Gheysens on 13 Jan 14
     
    some biomimicry used in energy systems... maybe it sparks some ideas
  • LeopoldS on 27 Jan 14
     
    not much new that has not been shared here before ... BUT: we have done relativley little on any of them. for good reasons?? don't know - maybe time to look into some of these again more closely Energy Efficiency( Termite mounds inspired regulated airflow for temperature control of large structures, preventing wasteful air conditioning and saving 10% energy.[1] Whale fins shapes informed the design of new-age wind turbine blades, with bumps/tubercles reducing drag by 30% and boosting power by 20%.[2][3][4] Stingray motion has motivated studies on this type of low-effort flapping glide, which takes advantage of the leading edge vortex, for new-age underwater robots and submarines.[5][6] Studies of microstructures found on shark skin that decrease drag and prevent accumulation of algae, barnacles, and mussels attached to their body have led to "anti-biofouling" technologies meant to address the 15% of marine vessel fuel use due to drag.[7][8][9][10] Energy Generation( Passive heliotropism exhibited by sunflowers has inspired research on a liquid crystalline elastomer and carbon nanotube system that improves the efficiency of solar panels by 10%, without using GPS and active repositioning panels to track the sun.[11][12][13] Mimicking the fluid dynamics principles utilized by schools of fish could help to optimize the arrangement of individual wind turbines in wind farms.[14] The nanoscale anti-reflection structures found on certain butterfly wings has led to a model to effectively harness solar energy.[15][16][17] Energy Storage( Inspired by the sunlight-to-energy conversion in plants, researchers are utilizing a protein in spinach to create a sort of photovoltaic cell that generates hydrogen from water (i.e. hydrogen fuel cell).[18][19] Utilizing a property of genetically-engineered viruses, specifically their ability to recognize and bind to certain materials (carbon nanotubes in this case), researchers have developed virus-based "scaffolds" that
Thijs Versloot

Wall crawling gecko robots also work in space #ESA - 2 views

www.esa.int/..._robots_can_stick_in_space_too

shared by Thijs Versloot on 13 Jan 14 - No Cached
Juxi Leitner liked it
  • Thijs Versloot on 13 Jan 14
     
    The cooperation took place through ESA's Networking/Partnering Initiative, which supports work carried out by universities and research institutes on advanced technologies with potential space applications.
  • LeopoldS on 15 Jan 14
     
    really nice, especially since it is an idea that started in the team, led to an Ariadna study by Carlo Menon, RF in biomimetics who then got a research position at simon fraser univ, where he created his own biomimetics group menvra (http://menrva.ensc.sfu.ca) there, struggling as an italian in a canadian university doing space and not having access to the US space market ... the NPI was the first contract he got for a space resaerch project ... its fantastic to see his student now making headlines with this idea
jmlloren

IBM discovers its inner Kickstarter via enterprise crowdfunding - Network World - 2 views

www.networkworld.com/...13-ibm-kickstarter-273374.html

Management

shared by jmlloren on 04 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • jmlloren on 04 Sep 13
     
    Internal crowdfunding for ESA? for Ariadna? Perhaps I'm late, but sounds feasible.
Thijs Versloot

Cognitive computing - 2 views

www.forbes.com/...puting-ushers-in-new-era-of-it

IT technology computing

shared by Thijs Versloot on 04 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 04 Feb 14
     
    Has this not been underway for quite some time now? Not sure if this 'new era' is coming any day soon. Thoughts?
  • johannessimon81 on 06 Feb 14
     
    If they want to give the computers "senses" they should also go ahead and give them a body slightly taller than humans ...and guns. So once they reach a critical level of consciousness they can really go to town... http://0-media-cdn.foolz.us/ffuuka/board/tg/image/1385/54/1385549501025.jpg
  • Paul N on 08 Feb 14
     
    Neural networks!!! However, indeed, "senses" will not make any sense towards human-like computing without bodies that physically interact with the world. That's where most of these things are going wrong. Perception and cognition are for action. Without action coming from the machine side all these ideas simply fail.
Daniel Hennes

The World's Largest Solar Plant Started Creating Electricity Today - 3 views

gizmodo.com/ted-creating-electr-1521998493

technology energy

shared by Daniel Hennes on 14 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Daniel Hennes on 14 Feb 14
     
    The enormous solar plant-jointly owned by NRG Energy, BrightSource Energy and Google-opened for business today ... well yesterday, but still impressive!
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Athanasia Nikolaou on 14 Feb 14
     
    impressive! and google is among the owners.
  • LeopoldS on 15 Feb 14
     
    impressive pictures - looking at the 2nd to last and 4th to last one, I am wondering how this distributed individually control of the mirrors works - and idea?
  • Paul N on 21 Feb 14
     
    Machine learning obviously. Most likely neural networks :P On the other hand: http://sploid.gizmodo.com/the-worlds-largest-solar-plant-is-killing-birds-meltin-1525107821
Athanasia Nikolaou

Why mental illness is on the rise in academia - 2 views

www.theguardian.com/...ng-problem-pressure-university

Social

shared by Athanasia Nikolaou on 06 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • Athanasia Nikolaou on 06 Mar 14
     
    Interesting discussion is going about, on how work anxiety is spreading in academia, with possible mental consequences. And with robust links to the "Doing What You Love" motto of life/work. Could be proven an unsustainable model though. Recalling of Higgs' recent declaration, that today's Academia productivity demands would be hectic for him, could point to the direction of the problem and the solution...?
Guido de Croon

Will robots be smarter than humans by 2029? - 2 views

robohub.org/be-smarter-than-humans-by-2029

AI

shared by Guido de Croon on 10 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • Guido de Croon on 10 Mar 14
     
    Nice discussion about the singularity. Made me think of drinking coffee with Luis... It raises some issues such as the necessity of embodiment, etc.
  • ...9 more comments...
  • Luís F. Simões on 12 Mar 14
     
    "Kurzweilians"... LOL. Still not sold on embodiment, btw.
  • Ma Ru on 12 Mar 14
     
    The biggest problem with embodiment is that, since the passive walkers (with which it all started), it hasn't delivered anything really interesting...
  • Paul N on 13 Mar 14
     
    The problem with embodiment is that it's done wrong. Embodiment needs to be treated like big data. More sensors, more data, more processing. Just putting a computer in a robot with a camera and microphone is not embodiment.
  • Marcus Maertens on 14 Mar 14
     
    I like how he attacks Moore's Law. It always looks a bit naive to me if people start to (ab)use it to make their point. No strong opinion about embodiment.
  • johannessimon81 on 14 Mar 14
     
    @Paul: How would embodiment be done RIGHT?
  • Guido de Croon on 16 Mar 14
     
    Embodiment has some obvious advantages. For example, in the vision domain many hard problems become easy when you have a body with which you can take actions (like looking at an object you don't immediately recognize from a different angle) - a point already made by researchers such as Aloimonos.and Ballard in the end 80s / beginning 90s. However, embodiment goes further than gathering information and "mental" recognition. In this respect, the evolutionary robotics work by for example Beer is interesting, where an agent discriminates between diamonds and circles by avoiding one and catching the other, without there being a clear "moment" in which the recognition takes place. "Recognition" is a behavioral property there, for which embodiment is obviously important. With embodiment the effort for recognizing an object behaviorally can be divided between the brain and the body, resulting in less computation for the brain. Also the article "Behavioural Categorisation: Behaviour makes up for bad vision" is interesting in this respect. In the field of embodied cognitive science, some say that recognition is constituted by the activation of sensorimotor correlations. I wonder to which extent this is true, and if it is valid for extremely simple creatures to more advanced ones, but it is an interesting idea nonetheless. This being said, if "embodiment" implies having a physical body, then I would argue that it is not a necessary requirement for intelligence. "Situatedness", being able to take (virtual or real) "actions" that influence the "inputs", may be.
  • Ma Ru on 17 Mar 14
     
    @Paul While I completely agree about the "embodiment done wrong" (or at least "not exactly correct") part, what you say goes exactly against one of the major claims which are connected with the notion of embodiment (google for "representational bottleneck"). The fact is your brain does *not* have resources to deal with big data. The idea therefore is that it is the body what helps to deal with what to a computer scientist appears like "big data". Understanding how this happens is key. Whether it is the problem of scale or of actually understanding what happens should be quite conclusively shown by the outcomes of the Blue Brain project.
  • johannessimon81 on 17 Mar 14
     
    Wouldn't one expect that to produce consciousness (even in a lower form) an approach resembling that of nature would be essential? All animals grow from a very simple initial state (just a few cells) and have only a very limited number of sensors AND processing units. This would allow for a fairly simple way to create simple neural networks and to start up stable neural excitation patterns. Over time as complexity of the body (sensors, processors, actuators) increases the system should be able to adapt in a continuous manner and increase its degree of self-awareness and consciousness. On the other hand, building a simulated brain that resembles (parts of) the human one in its final state seems to me like taking a person who is just dead and trying to restart the brain by means of electric shocks.
  • Paul N on 17 Mar 14
     
    Actually on a neuronal level all information gets processed. Not all of it makes it into "conscious" processing or attention. Whatever makes it into conscious processing is a highly reduced representation of the data you get. However that doesn't get lost. Basic, low processed data forms the basis of proprioception and reflexes. Every step you take is a macro command your brain issues to the intricate sensory-motor system that puts your legs in motion by actuating every muscle and correcting every step deviation from its desired trajectory using the complicated system of nerve endings and motor commands. Reflexes which were build over the years, as those massive amounts of data slowly get integrated into the nervous system and the the incipient parts of the brain. But without all those sensors scattered throughout the body, all the little inputs in massive amounts that slowly get filtered through, you would not be able to experience your body, and experience the world. Every concept that you conjure up from your mind is a sort of loose association of your sensorimotor input. How can a robot understand the concept of a strawberry if all it can perceive of it is its shape and color and maybe the sound that it makes as it gets squished? How can you understand the "abstract" notion of strawberry without the incredibly sensible tactile feel, without the act of ripping off the stem, without the motor action of taking it to our mouths, without its texture and taste? When we as humans summon the strawberry thought, all of these concepts and ideas converge (distributed throughout the neurons in our minds) to form this abstract concept formed out of all of these many many correlations. A robot with no touch, no taste, no delicate articulate motions, no "serious" way to interact with and perceive its environment, no massive flow of information from which to chose and and reduce, will never attain human level intelligence. That's point 1. Point 2 is that mere pattern recogn
  • Ma Ru on 18 Mar 14
     
    All information *that gets processed* gets processed but now we arrived at a tautology. The whole problem is ultimately nobody knows what gets processed (not to mention how). In fact an absolute statement "all information" gets processed is very easy to dismiss because the characteristics of our sensors are such that a lot of information is filtered out already at the input level (e.g. eyes). I'm not saying it's not a valid and even interesting assumption, but it's still just an assumption and the next step is to explore scientifically where it leads you. And until you show its superiority experimentally it's as good as all other alternative assumptions you can make. I only wanted to point out is that "more processing" is not exactly compatible with some of the fundamental assumptions of the embodiment. I recommend Wilson, 2002 as a crash course.
  • Paul N on 24 Mar 14
     
    These deal with different things in human intelligence. One is the depth of the intelligence (how much of the bigger picture can you see, how abstract can you form concept and ideas), another is the breadth of the intelligence (how well can you actually generalize, how encompassing those concepts are and what is the level of detail in which you perceive all the information you have) and another is the relevance of the information (this is where the embodiment comes in. What you do is to a purpose, tied into the environment and ultimately linked to survival). As far as I see it, these form the pillars of human intelligence, and of the intelligence of biological beings. They are quite contradictory to each other mainly due to physical constraints (such as for example energy usage, and training time). "More processing" is not exactly compatible with some aspects of embodiment, but it is important for human level intelligence. Embodiment is necessary for establishing an environmental context of actions, a constraint space if you will, failure of human minds (i.e. schizophrenia) is ultimately a failure of perceived embodiment. What we do know is that we perform a lot of compression and a lot of integration on a lot of data in an environmental coupling. Imo, take any of these parts out, and you cannot attain human+ intelligence. Vary the quantities and you'll obtain different manifestations of intelligence, from cockroach to cat to google to random quake bot. Increase them all beyond human levels and you're on your way towards the singularity.
Tom Gheysens

Discovery of a kernel for controlling biomolecular regulatory networks : Scientific Rep... - 1 views

www.nature.com/...srep02223.html

shared by Tom Gheysens on 25 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • Tom Gheysens on 25 Jul 13
     
    What synthetic biology can offer to AI... 
Thijs Versloot

These Bacteria Are Wired to Hunt Like a Tiny Wolf Pack - 1 views

www.wired.com/...bacteria-wolfpack-biofilm

biology bacteria

shared by Thijs Versloot on 25 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 25 Jul 13
     
    Bacterial networks communicating via thread-like membranes. Especially the video is pretty cool
Beniamino Abis

Structure and Anonymity of the Bitcoin Transaction Graph - 1 views

www.mdpi.com/237

shared by Beniamino Abis on 26 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Beniamino Abis on 26 Sep 13
     
    Bitcoin utilizes a peer-to-peer network to issue anonymous payment transactions between different users. Dynamical effects have been found, of which some increase anonymity while others decrease it. Most importantly, several parameters of the Bitcoin transaction graph seem to have become stationary over the last 12-18 months. The implications are discussed.
Thijs Versloot

Telescope to track space junk using youth radio station - 0 views

www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx

shared by Thijs Versloot on 02 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 02 Dec 13
     
    Team leader Professor Steven Tingay, Director of the MWA at Curtin University and Chief Investigator in the Australian Research Council Centre for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO) said the MWA will be able to detect the space junk by listening in to the radio signals generated by stations including popular youth network Triple J.
Nicholas Lan

Plants employed as sensing devices - 1 views

pleased-fp7.eu

bioengineering

shared by Nicholas Lan on 05 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Nicholas Lan on 05 Dec 13
     
    fp7 project employing plants as part of a sensing network
Tom Gheysens

New theory of synapse formation in the brain - 2 views

www.sciencedaily.com/...131010205325.htm

Bio science AI brain

shared by Tom Gheysens on 14 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Tom Gheysens on 14 Oct 13
     
    I have no idea if an algorithm based on this already exists, but it would certainly be a good one for autonomous AI, I think. I think an algorithm based on this should be able to select his own input parameters and reject them if they are not stimulated any further or integrate them in the algorithm if they are continiously stimulated... this could enable self learning, etc.
  • johannessimon81 on 14 Oct 13
     
    By steering the neuron's back to an intermediate activity level the mechanism probably optimizes their efficiency within the network (after all a neuron that fires all the time is just as useless as one that never fires).
Thijs Versloot

Graphene #nantennas for power transfer and communication between tiny devices - 0 views

electroiq.com/...able-networks-of-tiny-machines

graphene technology

shared by Thijs Versloot on 16 Dec 13 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 16 Dec 13
     
    Known technically as a surface plasmon polariton (SPP) wave, the effect will allow the nano-antennas to operate at the low end of the terahertz frequency range, between 0.1 and 10 terahertz - instead of at 150 terahertz With this antenna, we can cut the frequency by two orders of magnitude and cut the power needs by four orders of magnitude," said Jornet. "Using this antenna, we believe the energy-harvesting techniques developed by Dr. Wang would give us enough power to create a communications link between nanomachines." As always, graphene seems to be the answer to anything, but steady progress is being made although one needs to find out first an easy method of generating high quality graphene layers (btw that is also one of the reasons to do the supercapacitor study...)
  • Isabelle Dicaire on 17 Dec 13
     
    Well plasmonics is also the solution to everything it seems...
LeopoldS

Space in Images - 2014 - 06 - Space-brain networking - 2 views

www.esa.int/...Space-brain_networking

BMI brain microgravity

shared by LeopoldS on 17 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 17 Jun 14
     
    nice research - almost like a follow-up to our BMI work some time ago
Luís F. Simões

Singularity University, class of 2010: projects that aim to impact a billion people wit... - 8 views

www.kurzweilai.net/ty-webinar-today-sneak-preview

AI robotics biomedicine biotechnology electronics energy nanotechnology singularity futures social ethics space synthetic biology computer science defence

shared by Luís F. Simões on 22 Sep 10 - No Cached
  • Luís F. Simões on 22 Sep 10
     
    At the link below you find additional information about the projects: Education: Ten weeks to save the world http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100915/full/467266a.html
  • ...8 more comments...
  • LeopoldS on 23 Sep 10
     
    this is the podcast I was listening to ...
  • Dario Izzo on 23 Sep 10
     
    We can do it in nine :)
  • LeopoldS on 24 Sep 10
     
    why wait then?
  • Juxi Leitner on 24 Sep 10
     
    hmm, wonder how easy it is to get funding for that, 25k is a bit steep for 10weeks :)
  • Dario Izzo on 26 Sep 10
     
    well, we wait for the same fundings they get and then we will do it in nine.... as we say in Rome "a mettece un cartello so bboni tutti". (italian check for Juxi)
  • LeopoldS on 26 Sep 10
     
    and what you think about the project subjects?
  • LeopoldS on 26 Sep 10
     
    I like the fact that there are quite a lot of space projects .... and these are not even bad in my view: The space project teams have developed imaginative new solutions for space and spinoffs for Earth. The AISynBio project team is working with leading NASA scientists to design bioengineered organisms that can use available resources to mitigate harsh living environments (such as lack of air, water, food, energy, atmosphere, and gravity) - on an asteroid, for example, and also on Earth . The SpaceBio Labs team plans to develop methods for doing low-cost biological research in space, such as 3D tissue engineering and protein crystallization. The Made in Space team plans to bring 3D printing to space to make space exploration cheaper, more reliable, and fail-safe ("send the bits, not the atoms"). For example, they hope to replace some of the $1 billion worth of spare parts and tools that are on the International Space Station.
  • Dario Izzo on 26 Sep 10
     
    and all in only a three months summer graduate program!! that is impressive. God I feel so stupid!!!
  • LeopoldS on 26 Sep 10
     
    well, most good ideas probably take only a second to be formulated, it's the details that take years :-)
  • Dario Izzo on 26 Sep 10
     
    I do not think the point of the SU is to formulate new ideas (infact there is nothing new in the projects chosen). Their mission is to build and maintain a network of contacts among who they believe will be the 'future leaders' of space ... very similar to our beloved ISU.
Thijs Versloot

HealthMap software flagged Ebola 9 days before outbreak announced - 0 views

healthmap.org/ebola

AI health

shared by Thijs Versloot on 11 Aug 14 - No Cached
annaheffernan liked it
  • Thijs Versloot on 11 Aug 14
     
    HealthMap uses algorithms to scour tens of thousands of social media sites, local news, government websites, infectious-disease physicians' social networks and other sources to detect and track disease outbreaks. Sophisticated software filters irrelevant data, classifies the relevant information, identifies diseases and maps their locations with the help of experts.
Thijs Versloot

Neural network-based forecasting for renewable energy transmission - 1 views

phys.org/news329122125.html

shared by Thijs Versloot on 05 Sep 14 - No Cached
Paul N liked it
  • Thijs Versloot on 05 Sep 14
     
    Darn... Another field taken by NN.. paul?
  • Paul N on 08 Sep 14
     
    Liked for veridicity! :) In the end, for science, having models would be nice in order to promote understanding. But for practical applications? Neaaah
Paul N

Wiring of retina reveals how eyes sense motion - 2 views

www.nature.com/...-how-eyes-sense-motion-1.15147

BIO

shared by Paul N on 05 May 14 - No Cached
  • Paul N on 05 May 14
     
    Basically neuroscientists discovered time delay neural networks. Guess we were right on track with AI back in the 70s.
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