Well I diagnosed myself with an URI (upper respiratory infection I finished the initial 3 day first phase and am in the second phase). Meaning I have a virus. Most likely it is a Rhinovirus. So, I was thinking about how to remove it… I first thought of changing the cells so that they have some… Continue reading Antiviruses and Cancer
Author: drew
Neural net idea
Well this is a merging of neural networks from computer science and actual neuroscience. So, the idea probably doesn’t entirely meld. I was reading a while back how Google was studying neural nets and they learned that they were able to pick any random number of neurons and use them as the output rather than… Continue reading Neural net idea
Ethics of Self-driving cars
Well I just read something pretty disturbing that GM for 10 years basically hid the fact that the ignition system was faulty and can cause the car to stall, leaving the passengers with no airbags. (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/engineers-switch-hell-began-gm-recall-woes-071538074–finance.html) Ethically how are selfdriving/autonomous cars and the software in them going to do better? It is already known that… Continue reading Ethics of Self-driving cars
Robocup Publicity
Pretty cool the RoboPatriots team got some publicity for Robocup http://newsdesk.gmu.edu/2014/06/mason-students-compete-robocup-brazil/. I don’t think that I said those last two sentences though. I do remember saying that it is neat to go to Brazil since I have never been outside the USA. Ah oh well.
I, Librarian an alternative to Mendeley
Well, I collaborate frequently with people on research projects. This involves sharing research papers. I do this through Mendeley. However, they put a limit on the number of people allowed to be in one group and on the total size limit of the files. I only have 5mb left on a group! So, I am… Continue reading I, Librarian an alternative to Mendeley
Large MAS app. Parking lots
So the idea is that parking lots and local walmarts are not going to be able to afford remaking their parking lots so that when we have autonomous cars we can get dropped off at the door and the robot park somewhere and then pick us up at the entrance. This is because structurally there… Continue reading Large MAS app. Parking lots
Crowd source Bird ID APP
I was taking a walk tonight and I was listening to the birds and wishing I had an app that could ID the birds by their call/song/chirp. I got back home and did a little digging and I couldn’t find an app that did this. So, either it is too hard or too expensive or… Continue reading Crowd source Bird ID APP
ST-SR-IA number of robots
An interesting tidbit quote on the optimal assignment problem (aka ST–SR–IA:Single-Task Robots, Single-RobotTasks, Instantaneous Assignment, the multirobot task allocation problem): “Thus, for small-scale to medium-scale systems, say n< 200, a broadcast-based centralized assignment solution is likely the better choice” [1]. Note that n is the number of robots. This is an interesting assertion and is… Continue reading ST-SR-IA number of robots
Analogy
I gotta use this one day: The task is not easy, as policy makers and political and economic elites often reinforce dysfunctional institutions. But it is impossible without considering the varieties of capitalism in play today. The right institutional makeup can in fact increase equitable wealth creation, but to ignore institutional differences is akin to putting an… Continue reading Analogy
Secure Task Allocation Scheme
In the future the robots that are being used will most likely be common enough that anyone could purchase one and given enough knowledge infiltrate a system of robots. Currently the level of security in task allocation methods for robots is like that of communication of localization data between large ships, nonexistent. Methods for attack:… Continue reading Secure Task Allocation Scheme