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Management of trade-offs in geoengineering through optimal choice of non-uniform radiat... - 1 views

www.nature.com/...nclimate1722.html geoengineering nature climate climate change
shared by LeopoldS on 27 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 27 Oct 12
     
    Nice modelling research on geo engineering options ...
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Characterizing Quantum Supremacy in Near-Term Devices - 2 views

arxiv.org/1608.00263
shared by LeopoldS on 04 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 04 Sep 16
     
    google paper on quantum computers ... anybody with further insight on how realistic this is
  • johannessimon81 on 05 Sep 16
     
    Not an answer to Leopold's question but here is a little primer on quantum computers for those that are (like me) still confused about what they actually do: http://www.dwavesys.com/tutorials/background-reading-series/quantum-computing-primer It give a good intuitive idea of the kinds of problems that an adiabatic quantum computer can tackle, an easy analogy of the computation and an explanation of how this get set up in the computer. Also, there is emphasis on how and why quantum computers lend themselves to machine learning (and maybe trajectory optimization??? - ;-) ).
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IEEE Xplore - An Adaptive Differential Evolution Algorithm With Novel Mutation and Cros... - 1 views

ieeexplore.ieee.org/...abs_all.jsp INF DE optimisation PaGMO
shared by Ma Ru on 20 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • Ma Ru on 20 Mar 12
     
    For Dario, as they quote him heavily...
  • Dario Izzo on 20 Mar 12
     
    Yep, I was told already a few months ago from Storn that this is indeed the best adaptive DE ever made. It is already in the road map for pagmo 1.2. According to pagmo it humiliates CMAES !!!
  • Ma Ru on 20 Mar 12
     
    And in case you didn't notice, the first author is an undergraduate student.
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3D-solar cells much more efficient - 1 views

www.bitsofscience.org/ar-cell-energy-efficiency-6206 technology PHY science space
shared by johannessimon81 on 06 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • johannessimon81 on 06 Sep 12
     
    3-dimensional silicon solar cell produces at least 250% of the power of a basic silicon solar cell.
  • LeopoldS on 10 Sep 12
     
    Any idea of the technology behind ... Sounds too much advertisement what is in the article " Now, our near term objective is to continue to improve the fabrication process and the power output, as we optimize the cost of manufacturing. We believe that the result will be a 50% reduction in the cost of solar electricity. Perhaps the installed system cost savings will be even greater"
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Solar Energy Generation in Three Dimensions - 1 views

arxiv.org/1112.3266 science NRG
shared by Lionel Jacques on 21 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • Lionel Jacques on 21 Dec 11
     
    A simple cube open at the top can increase the annual energy density generation by a factor (depending on the latitude) of 2 - 3.8 compared to a flat horizontal panel, versus an increase by a factor of 1.3 - 1.8 achieved from a flat panel using dual-axis tracking. Genetic algorithm are used to optimize the energy production in a day for arbitrarily shaped 3D solar cells confined to a given area footprint and total volume doi:10.1063/1.3308490 could be interesting to investigate
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Artificial energy harvesting tree - 1 views

www.solarbotanic.com BIO NRG
shared by Lionel Jacques on 11 Jan 12 - Cached
LeopoldS liked it
  • Lionel Jacques on 11 Jan 12
     
    The idea has been around for already some time (2008) but I like it despite the challenges/trade-off: visible vs IR photovoltaics, black leaves would be better... Piezo + classical PV would already be great... Optimizing the leave shape & distribution for both wind and sun energy harvesting could be interesting...
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An optimization algorithm inspired by musical composition - 3 views

www.springerlink.com/...n6hwlvp607587787 INF optimisation PyGMO music composition article science
shared by Ma Ru on 04 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Ma Ru on 04 Jan 12
     
    For PyGMO 2.0 ...
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Encouraging Behavioral Diversity in Evolutionary Robotics: An Empirical Study - MIT Pre... - 2 views

www.mitpressjournals.org/...EVCO_a_00048 evolutionary computation neural_networks robotics behaviour
shared by Luís F. Simões on 04 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • several papers recently proposed to explicitly encourage the diversity of the robot behaviors, rather than the diversity of the genotypes as in classic evolutionary optimization. Such an approach avoids the need to compute distances between structures and the pitfalls of the noninjectivity of the phenotype/behavior relation; however, it also introduces new questions: how to compare behavior?
  • In this paper, we review the main published approaches to behavioral diversity and benchmark them in a common framework.
  • The results show that fostering behavioral diversity substantially improves the evolutionary process in the investigated experiments, regardless of genotype or task.
  • Luís F. Simões on 04 Mar 12
     
    paywall skipping: http://www.isir.upmc.fr/files/2011ACLI2061.pdf The most complete study I've seen so far on a new approach (Novelty Search) that has been gaining a lot of attention lately. And they even use parallel coordinates to visualize the results!! ;)
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Computer simulations of muscle-based biped locomotion (movie) - 3 views

sploid.gizmodo.com/...@caseychan biology simulation
shared by Thijs Versloot on 15 Jan 14 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 15 Jan 14
     
    Optimization of locomotion on a range of different bipeds with nice visualisation and funny movie (definitely watch at 3:25 !!) Also simulations at lower/higher gravity
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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

Optimize work efficiency using music - 2 views

started by Robert Musters on 10 Feb 14 no follow-up yet
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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.
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Light brought to a complete stop - 3 views

www.natureworldnews.com/...t-complete-stop-one-minute.htm science light
shared by Thijs Versloot on 29 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 29 Jul 13
     
    "When a control laser is fired at the crystal, a complex quantum-level reaction turns it the opaque crystal transparent. A second light source is beamed into the crystal before the control laser is shut off, returning the crystal to its opaque state. This leaves the light trapped inside the crystal, and the opacity of the crystal keeps the light trapped inside from bouncing around, effectively bringing light to a full stop." is the simple explanation, but I am not sure how this is actually possible with the current laws of physics
  • Isabelle Dicaire on 05 Aug 13
     
    There are two ways to make slow light: material slow light and structural slow light, where you either change the material or the structural properties of your system. Here they used EIT to make material slow light, by inducing transparency inside an otherwise opaque material. As you change the absorption properties of a material you also change its dispersion properties, the so-called Kramers-Kronig relations. A rapid positive change in the dispersion properties of a material will give rise to slow light. To effectively stop light they switched off the control beam, bringing back the opaque state. Another control beam is then used to retrieve the probe pulse that was 'frozen' inside the medium. Light will be halted according to the population lifetime on the energy level (~ 100s). They used an evolutionary algorithm to find an optimal pulse preparation sequence to reach close to the maximum possible storage duration of 100s. Interesting paper!
  • Thijs Versloot on 06 Aug 13
     
    So it is not real storage then in a sense, as you are stimulating an excitation population which retains the phase information of your original pulse? Still it is amazing that they could store this up to 100s and retrieve it with a probe pulse, but light has never been halted.
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Power hiking, single footstep powering 600 #LEDS - 1 views

pubs.acs.org/...nl4001053 LED technology energy
shared by Thijs Versloot on 04 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • LeopoldS on 05 Oct 13
     
    nice indeed! " Triggered by commonly available ambient mechanical energy such as human footfalls, a NG with size smaller than a human palm can generate maximum short-circuit current of 2 mA, delivering instantaneous power output of 1.2 W to external load. The power output corresponds to an area power density of 313 W/m2 and a volume power density of 54 268 W/m3 at an open-circuit voltage of 1200 V. An energy conversion efficiency of 14.9% has been achieved. The power was capable of instantaneously lighting up as many as 600 multicolor commercial LED bulbs. The record high power output for the NG is attributed to optimized structure, proper materials selection and nanoscale surface modification. This work demonstrated the practicability of using NG to harvest large-scale mechanical energy, such as footsteps, rolling wheels, wind power, and ocean waves."
  • Thijs Versloot on 07 Oct 13
     
    You should be able to put it also in your shoes such that you may be able to power some gadgets. Thinking about it, I have seen many kids already running around with brightly lit sneakers!
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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).
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Linked Open Earth Observation Data for Precision Farming - 1 views

www.linkedeodata.eu EO farming applications
shared by Thijs Versloot on 10 May 14 - No Cached
  • Thijs Versloot on 10 May 14
     
    Lots of Earth Observation data has become available at no charge in Europe and the US recently and there is a strong push for more open EO data. With precision farming, advanced agriculture using GPS, satellite observations and tractors with on-board computers, the farming process is performed as accurately and efficiently as possible. This is achieved by combining data from earth observations with other geospatial sources such as cadastral data, data on the quality of the soil, vegetation and protected areas. This enables the farmer to find the optimal trade-off in maximizing his yield with minimal use of fertilizers and pesticides while respecting environmental protection.
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The Highlight of the Scientific Calendar, 2014 - 7 views

www.improbable.com/...winners science BIO PHY FUN
shared by Ma Ru on 20 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Ma Ru on 20 Sep 14
     
    It's out there for TWO days and no one has posted it here yet? What's happening to the ACT... In any case, yet-another-year-ACT-didn't-make-it... Better luck next time.
  • LeopoldS on 21 Sep 14
     
    read them when they came out - as probably 90% of ACTers but did not see any of them worth posting ...
  • Ma Ru on 22 Sep 14
     
    I think e.g. de Tommaso et al. results have application in almost any business, ESA notwithstanding, in terms of implications for optimal office decor...
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heat shields: NASA's Orion capsule vs. SpaceX's Dragon capsule - 0 views

neil.fraser.name/09 re-entry shielding design optimization spacex nasa
shared by Luís F. Simões on 11 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • NASA has 50 years of experience with reentry capsules, but is fearful of trying something new. SpaceX has no reentry experience and chooses the most efficient engineering approach. Guess whose capsule is overweight and still sitting on the ground? Guess whose capsule completed a successful first flight yesterday?
  • Dario Izzo on 12 Dec 10
     
    Powerful contrast between the two pictures!!
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981.pdf (Objet application/pdf) - 6 views

www.seo.nl/...981.pdf
shared by pacome delva on 14 Dec 09 - No Cached
  • pacome delva on 14 Dec 09
     
    Where do you want to go to do academic research and still have a decent salary ? certainly not sweden, France or Germany... prefer the UK, US or the top... Switzerland !
  • ...2 more comments...
  • Luzi Bergamin on 14 Dec 09
     
    Where do you want to go to do academic research and still have fun? Where can you really do research instead of becoming an overpaid secretary? If you want to get rich go and work in investment banking...
  • pacome delva on 14 Dec 09
     
    well.. i'd better live decently than get rich... which is not possible in Paris (take 1680 euros for one family and a 1000 euros rent, minus all normal expenses (health, car, insurance, ...), it's difficult to finish the month...) Without mentioning that in France you would become an underpaid secretary...!!! My ex phd director is a professor and she doesn't even have a secretary to manage the 150 applications to the master she is in charge... My experience would rather say that the salary and the time you have for research are quite decorrelated.
  • Luzi Bergamin on 14 Dec 09
     
    Sure, 44k for a full professor, that's a bad joke! Just my experience from conferences: high saleries do not make good research, I rather suspect there's something like an optimal salery. People with too high saleries often seem to feel obliged to make much noise (whatever the reason might be), the result is not research but PR campagns.
  • pacome delva on 14 Dec 09
     
    I agree ! Just a correction, net salary for a full professor starting in France: 36456 euros/year... For a McF (equivalent junior prof.): 20160 euros/year, and of course a shitload of admistrative tasks and teaching. I don't know why i still dream to have a position...?
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