Saturday, October 12, 2013

Videos show the tech in Virginia Tech

As part of last week's Overnight News Digest: Science Saturday (ACA and shutdown on campus) on Daily Kos, I included more than half a dozen videos Virginia Tech posted to the university's YouTube channel.  I've already featured two of them in Renewable energy news from campuses on the campaign trail* and Marching band moment.  Here are more, which show off the technology education and research at Virginia Tech.

First, Drones used to explore atmosphere.

David G. Schmale III, an associate professor of plant pathology, physiology, and weed science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, conducts research using drones — also called unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs — to explore microbial life in the atmosphere.

Schmale and colleagues have used research drones to track the movement of dangerous microorganisms that surf atmospheric waves. These atmospheric waves collect, mix, and shuffle microorganisms across cities, states, and even countries.

This research has deepened our understanding of the flow of life in the atmosphere, and has contributed unique tools for scientific exploration in the burgeoning field of aeroecology.
One of the points I make to my students is that new instruments are vital to science, as they allow more accurate and precise observations, which feed into the theories behind the science.  Here's to drones contributing to science in that manner, and not just as surveillance and weapons platforms.

Next, Google Car visits VTTI.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute has partnered with Google and General Motors to perform research on self-driving vehicles. In early September, a Google Car equipped with this technology visited the VTTI Smart Road. Rep. Bob Goodlatte and Rep. Morgan Griffith were on hand for the event.
We may not get flying cars for the mass market, but another science fiction transportation idea, self-driving autos, looks like it's on its way.

There's more automation news in Robot seeks a brain.

Meet Team ViGIR -- short for Virginia-Germany Interdisciplinary Robotics -- one of two Virginia Tech College of Engineering-based teams competing in the multi-year Robotics Challenge, sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, a subsidiary of the U.S. Department of Defense dedicated to high-tech research.

ViGIR is a collaboration between College of Engineering spin-off company TORC Robotics -- based at Virginia Tech's Corporate Research Center -- the Department of Computer Science's Center for Human-Computer Interaction, and German-based Technische Universitat Darmstadt, a longtime student-exchange partner with the College of Engineering.

The team is building new software and control tools for Atlas, a high-tech robot built by Boston Dynamics, as part of the challenge with the end-goal of creating rescue robots that can easily maneuver disaster scenes and save lives. This robot has been named Florian after the patron saint of firefighters (among other professions).
The significance of the program's name got pointed out at Daily Kos.
"ViGIR" . . . ? Somebody is a Star Trek fan. ;)
Finally, here's Designing and Building a Bridge.

Award-winning designers Keith and Marie Zawistowski, faculty members in the College of Architecture and Urban Studies, provide an opportunity for their students to see a project through from conception to building. The most recent class built a bridge in the town of Clifton Forge, Va.
I'm becoming more and more impressed with Virgina Tech as I cover more stories from the school.  Keep up the good work, Hokies.  Your PR campaign is working.

*I've already shown the video in this entry to my students as part of a lecture on how forest resources are natural capital.  One of the uses of wood is as biomass energy, and I just happened to have that handy.  Welcome to blogging as professional development.

22 comments:

  1. Because the title is about technology and you're ostensibly advertising technology advice (really health and beauty at the link), I'm letting your spam stay. Lucky Viking.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Your luck has run out, spammer. Blogger has retroactively classified your comment as spam and I'm not approving it, so it stays in the bit bucket.

      Delete
  2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. It took nearly a decade, but this entry is turning into a spam trap. It would be worse if the spam filter weren't so aggressive, as it caught three comments that never got published. Your comment is joining them. Flattery will get you nowhere as long as you have an off-topic link.

      Delete
  3. And this entry continues to be a spam trap. I'm letting your comment stay, as the products you're advertising look legit and on-topic for this entry, but I'm wondering how long it will take Blogger to make your comment disappear. I give you one week. If (when) that happens, I'm not approving your comment; it will stay in the spam filter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was too optimistic. It took three days for Blogger to throw your spam comment into the bit bucket. There it will remain.

      Delete
    2. Give up, "jack." Blogger has identified you as a spammer and won't publish your comments and I won't approve them. Even if one does escape the spam filter, I'll just delete it. Flattery will get you nowhere.

      Delete
  4. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Non-English comments and off-topic spam get deleted. The only exception will be if my French readers return in their old numbers, in which case I might let on-topic comments in French remain. Your spam doesn't qualify. Bye!

      Delete
  5. I'm repeating what I told "jack": "I'm letting your comment stay, as the products you're advertising look legit and on-topic for this entry, but I'm wondering how long it will take Blogger to make your comment disappear." I gave "jack" one week. It took only 3 days for Blogger to throw his spam comment into the spam filter. Let's see how it takes for the same thing to happen to you. If (when) that happens, I'm not approving your comment; it will stay in the spam filter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nine days later, Blogger threw your comment into the spam filter, where it will stay.

      Delete
  6. I'm repeating what I told "jack" and "My Blog": I'm letting your comment stay, as the product you're advertising looks legit and on-topic for this entry, but I'm wondering how long it will take Blogger to make your comment disappear. I gave "jack" one week. It took only 3 days for Blogger to throw his spam comment into the spam filter. Let's see how it takes for the same thing to happen to you and "My Blog." If (when) that happens, I'm not approving your comment; it will stay in the spam filter.

    Also, I don't think you spammers would leave your spam here if you saw what I see; no one besides you and me is still reading this entry. Go ahead and waste your time turning the comments to this post into a spam trap based on the keyword "tech" for your SEO.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Less than a week later, Blogger threw your comment into the spam filter, as I predicted. As I promised, it will stay there.

      Delete
  7. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I have a better entry for your unsolicited advertising, OMG, Spam Shoes! I'd let your comment remain there. Here, I'm just deleting it as off-topic.

      Delete
    2. Blogger sent your next comment directly to the spam filter. I'm keeping it there.

      Delete
  8. One of your comments made it past the spam filter. I'd say congratulations, but I expect it to be short-lived, as Blogger removed all previous comment like yours that I allowed to stay as spam within a week to ten days.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's now gone, as Blogger has sent your comment to the spam filter, where it will remain. It only took one day.

      Delete
  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I would have left your comment for Blogger to throw into the spam filter, but your link is in Chinese, and I delete non-English spam on sight. Besides, maybe the Singaporeans and Taiwanese who read my blog would appreciate it, but I've had very few readers from China proper lately outside of Hong Kong.

      Delete
  10. New account, but same old spam. I give it between one and ten days before enough people mark your comments as spam and Blogger unpublishes this comment. I won't be one of them. I'll just sit here eating popcorn until your flattery and link end up in the spam filter.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. And it took only one day. Enjoy eternity in the spam filter!

      Delete