Sramana Majumdar

"Violence, Identity and Self-determination: Narratives of conflict from the Kashmir Valley" 4:15 PM, Monday 18 Nov Room 239, BYC Bryn Mawr College

Exposure Index

Tired of paper and pencil questionnaires about integration and intergroup contact? Try the new and improved EXPOSURE INDEX (click tab above on this page).

ROV Finishes First Leg of Expedition Off East Coast

The North-West Atlantic may not be the deepest or most exotic location, but the region’s fisheries depend on a sound underlying ecology and good management of it.

National Geographic: Cheap, Disposable UAS are the New Storm Chasers

The military is not the only organization with hazardous flight missions. Besides hurricanes and wildfires, the article also discusses the development of small, quiet, and mostly biodegradable drones for wildlife tracking.

FAA Certifies First 2 Types Of Drones For Civilian Use

While civilians have long had access to remote control aircraft and other hobby-level drones, these tended to be small and operated in unrestricted Class G airspace. This FAA certification opens the door for larger, longer range civilian UAVs capable of surveying and mapping inaccessible areas.

Testing the Future: Astronaut in Space Remote-Controls Robot in California

A new series of tests on how best to remotely operate unmanned vehicles in outer space. While light-speed will still limit the practical range of such techniques, it’s certainly useful for orbital to lunar operations.

The Ethics of Saving Lives With Autonomous Cars Are Far Murkier Than You Think

A discussion of autonomous cars from the point of view of a philosopher.

Daddy, What Was a Truck Driver?

This article starts with Caterpillar’s work on autonomous mining trucks, and considers the future of driving jobs as the technology becomes more reliable and less expensive.

Smartphones and drones: Nokia Lumia 1020 to get airborne

While still expensive ($7000+), the use of a smartphone as the computational core of this UAV brings drones far closer to the general public and low-budget hobbyists.

DARPA Hydra, here comes the mothership designed to deploy drones

The goal of the project is an unmanned submarine capable of deploying smaller unmanned underwater and/or aerial vehicles. Unlike the Air Force, the Navy appears less culturally against unmanned vehicle, having tested long range autonomous vehicles for years, quietly implementing them for mapping and surveillance. This perhaps comes from decades of autonomous torpedo development. Deployable […]

Mars Rover Finds Good News for Past Life, Bad News for Current Life on Mars

The Curiosity rover is a remote controlled vehicle with autonomous modes and collision avoidance (both necessary due to the 4-24 minute lightspeed delay between here and Mars).

NASA’s Polar Robotic Ranger passes first Greenland test