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).

Ukraine Resurrects Soviet-Era Super Drones

While drones may be exploding onto the world consciousness at the present time, the idea is surprisingly old, with autonomous torpedos, mobile anti-tank mines, and also these jet-powered surveillance drones from the 1970s. Unable to land properly, the Tu-141 carries a parachute system instead. It does, however, manage to have a top speed more than […]

LAPD adds drones to arsenal, says they’ll be used sparingly

This is more than merely another “police obtaining drones” article. The drones the LAPD received are being given away because the citizens of Seattle refused to let their police force use them. It remains to be seen whether Los Angelos will also reject their use. It is also noteworthy that the LAPD, avoided the word […]

Drone Battle Over Syria

Both Assad’s forces and the rebels have been using small, often commercial, drones for battlefield intelligence. Even in a war torn and now heavily isolated country, innovation continues.

The NSA’s Secret Role in the U.S. Assassination Program

Drones and the NSA: two of the biggest stories in military technology meet in this article. The NSA provides targets’ cell-phone location data, and drones often collect signals intelligence data for the NSA to analyze. Perhaps even more interesting than this predictable synthesis is the terrorists/insurgents’ adaptation. By changing or trading cell phones, the article […]

Navy’s 757-Sized Drone Will Provide Big-Time Surveillance

Once again, the Navy demonstrates its interest in drones, this time with a high altitude surveillance vehicle. The article hints at an impressive amount of automation in both flight and sensor analysis.

Coming Soon, a Night Watchman With Wheels?

This prototype illustrates just how far the field of robotics has come. With half a dozen kinds of sensors and some level of autonomy, this device still has an expected effective cost of just $6.25/h. Needless to say, privacy is a concern. As it is designed to be networked, perhaps security should also be a […]

Army Scores a Super-Stealthy Drone That Looks Like a Bird

In the U.S. military’s ongoing battle against insurgents and terrorists, radar stealth is less important than invisibility – or, in this case, disguise. Designed to look like a circling bird from a distance, this small drone model is designed to provide short-range surveillance without alerting the subjects.

European Defense Firms’ Drone Push Remains Elusive

Despite interest, the United States and Israel remain the dominant manufacturers of drones. Some of Europe’s problems seem to originate from bad management – see the part about their being more requested variants of a drone than countries offering to buy it. Others come down to bad PR management – namely Germany’s EuroDrone project, killed […]

DOJ calls for drone privacy policy 7 years after FBI’s first drone launched

The greatest public concern over domestic drones is privacy. As UAVs become more common and more widely used, the debate over their use and regulation will only get more intense. This year’s revelations about the NSA has presumably not helped various departments’ arguments for self-regulation, though surveys on the subject of drones remain rare and […]

U.S. documents detail al-Qaeda’s efforts to fight back against drones

Notable is that some of the proposed responses include al-Qaeda building their own drones. While most drones today are dependent on major power’s global communications reach and strong technological/industrial base, UAVs are remarkably simple for today’s technology and small, cheap versions can be obtained or built by anyone. Terrorist and insurgent groups of all kinds […]