| Robotic contest is geared toward inspiring students
To the untrained eye, the robots loosed on the arena floor seemed locked in a chaotic death struggle that was equal parts Dodge 'Em Cars and carnival contest. In reality, yesterday's colorful competition among high school teams from across California and the West was a collaborative clash designed to inspire and encourage students to pursue technology and engineering in college and careers. For the past 15 years, high school students from across the nation and several foreign countries have formed teams, secured sponsors and designed, built and operated robots to compete for recognition and, ultimately, college scholarships. It's all part of the FIRST Robotics Competition; the acronym means "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." "This encourages kids by engaging them in something that is challenging, exciting and really fun," said Jon Karanopoulos, who teaches industrial arts and auto shop at San Diego High School downtown.
The Jim Pinto Column: 2007 technology - Pinto's picks
After several years of stagnation, the industrial automation market is growing again. During the coming year, several new products and technologies will begin to emerge. Here are some of my technology picks for 2007.
Industrial wireless
Already widely deployed in commercial and business applications, broad industrial wireless adoption has been delayed purportedly because users remain paranoid about security. In 2007, there are vibes regarding major growth in industrial wireless.
Jack Bolick, president of Honeywell Process Solutions, suggests that wireless is ‘at the tipping point', and his group has ambitious plans in this new arena. John Berra, president of Emerson Process Management says: "The technical obstacles to wireless communication in plants and factories are falling.
Recording officer tells Robert Pickton trial about how DNA samples ...
NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. (CP) - The Robert Pickton murder trial is hearing from a recording officer who helped analyse DNA taken from the Pickton property five years ago. Joy Kearsey told Crown prosecutor Derrill Prevett that the size and magnitude of the Pickton case and the number of exhibits that had to be handled resulted in the development of a new procedure for handling DNA samples. Kearsey said there were two procedures used in the Pickton case. One involved manual handling of DNA and the second method that was developed due to this case is known as robotics. The robots work 24 hours a day and Kearsey agreed with Prevett's suggestion that in this case the labs handled some 235,000 procedures and the robotics procedure helped speed things up.
Microsoft funds research center with $1.5M grant
Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced a $1.5 million grant to Carnegie Mellon University that will lead to the creation of a center for computational thinking. The three-year grant represents only the latest collaboration between the Redmond software company and the computer science department at the Pittsburgh university. .
Getting the Most Out of a CS Curriculum?
Henry asks: "In September I start on a CS-type degree course. I am probably a fairly typical newbie programmer, in that most of my knowledge centers around scripting and high to very high level programming. There's much to choose from: languages, concepts, mathematics, and so on. From previous stories, I know that many readers have strong opinions on the failings and weaknesses of university courses and students. Apart from all of the coding that I will do, what can I do in the coming months to maximize what I get out of this? " .
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