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).

Hackers’ guide to grounding drones

While Deer Creek, Colorado may have wanted to take down drones with shotguns and hunting rifles, there are more subtle methods that would probably be difficult to punish. GPS jammers and directed energy weapons can interfere with the electronics and navigation of drones, bringing them down with no noise and little trouble. While presented as […]

The Drones of the Future Won’t Kill, They’ll Take Selfies

Constantly recording personal drones maybe be more privacy invading than innocuous to some. Nevertheless, they are probably more acceptable to the public than the military and government drones. The Paparazzi drone in particular is interesting as it abandons the common (and perhaps somewhat menacing) quadrotor for a highly stylized design looks like a cartoon helicopter.

Balfour Beatty considers improving staff safety with drones and gamification

This large construction company is showing interest in using drones, both for monitoring large, chaotic work sites, and also for directly adding to a structure. It is perhaps not a surprise that this initiative was announced in Japan, a place that has long been willing to integrate robotics into society.

Drones in Culture: Colbert Report (13 Nov. 2013)

With his trademark sarcasm, Colbert covers drones. The Amnesty International/Human Rights Watch report on possible war crimes is touched on, followed by an investigation into Deer Trail, Colorado – the town that considered a ‘drone hunting license.’ Given Colbert’s popularity, both of these issues may be approaching common knowledge.

Drone worth millions crashes into Lake Ontario, military says

The circumstances surrounding this accident are currently unknown. Depending on the details, this could be anything from old-fashioned operator error by the pilot-in-training to a major flaw in the design of the Reaper drone. Whatever the cause, this will not be the last lost drone, as both demand for (and supply of) the technology is […]

Drones in Culture: Zits

Drones in Culture: Marmaduke

A surprisingly neutral and apolitical appearance.

Drones Plumb New Depths

The research project described in this article involves several underwater robots, two borrowed from the Navy, one built by Rutgers University. Together, they add a new element to oceanographic data collection, supplementing the predominantly surface data with readings from hundreds of feet under water. Two aspects of this article are worth noting. First, it appeared […]

As deadline for drone rules nears, FAA issues roadmap for inclusion in the skies

The FAA, under pressure from members of the government, the drone industry, and public interest groups, is moving forwards on developing a framework for domestic drone use. Many important details remain up in the air, however. Information on the legal standing of the smaller, hobbyist type drones that will not require traffic control is lacking, […]

Driverless cars set to roam Milton Keynes from 2017, says Vince Cable

The town of Milton Keynes is planning a grand experiment on the future of transportation. The small two-seater autonomous vehicles appear to be an attempt to merge the flexibility of a taxi and availability of a trolley. As is mentioned in the article, the uncertainty associated with this project (and others like it) is in […]