The Positive Implications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's) in Society or "How Drones Help"

There are infinite possibilities for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV'S), dubbed by the media with the evil pseudonym of "drone," to accomplish great feats for the betterment of our world.  Many of these possibilities are limited by the lack of support by the public.  With public support for these little autonomous machines and acceptance by the media, the implications of a UAV-Aided Society could make grave improvements to our society.  A UAV-Aided Society could: improve our aging transportation infrastructure, provide better healthcare to undeveloped countries, protect endangered wildlife from illegal poaching, give the disabled an outlet for expressing themselves, and much much more.  Many of the current challenges facing UAV technology are in fact due to the public's negative perceptions of what they are portrayed to do.  Challenges such as integrating UAV's into national airspace and gaining funding to pursue better research are difficult to overcome without public support.  Below are a few videos (courtesy of TED) showing some examples of how UAV's could help make our world a better place.  This is only a fraction of the endless possibilities for these machines to help develop our society; only limited by our creative imaginations...

Andreas Raptopoulos: No roads? There's a drone for that!

Lian Pin Koh: A drone's-eye view of conservation

Henry Evans and Chad Jenkins: Meet the robots for humanity

"MATCHES" ---> "BURN!"

So I have this idea....it's called "MATCHES." It was invented sitting on the beach in Virginia Beach almost a year and a half ago and since then, I cannot stop thinking about whether its feasibility could really be applied to the world in some way that could help people and make this world a little better place. I've talked to a lot of people about this idea, with much criticism...and sometimes support. But I am still uncertain whether this concept is really just some crazy wandering of my imagination or a concept that could bring people of different backgrounds, cultural ethnicity, family morals, or political factions together in a world that at this point in time I think could really use some unifying...

The idea of "MATCHES" is simple. It's a code word that can be used to connect people and open them up to the possibility of starting a conversation...about anything; news, politics, weather, what was on TV last night, or the latest technological advancements in string theory....anything. The code word is the word "MATCHES." How it works is this: one person sees another person in some public place and wants to talk. That person goes up to the other person and says "MATCHES." If the other person has some time to sit down and get to know each other, that person just has to respond with the word "BURN". Voila! A connection...

Now the most common question that I receive at this point is..."How is this different from just stopping someone and saying hello?" Really...not much. But the difference is this, by using the code word, you've established the grounds that both of you want to talk, the awkwardness of not knowing whether this person really has any desire or time to stop what he or she's doing to get to know you can pass and BOOM, you might have a new friend. And how often do people really stop each other to communicate? Not much... As more and more people start to use "MATCHES," people will be encouraged to get to know each other, and I think that they would be surprised what they can find.

The trick is that for this idea to work, everyone would have to already know about the code word and the response. But I think that by spreading the word on the internet and by word of mouth in this day and age when one Twitter post can go out to millions of people is really not all that difficult. And I think that it would be easy for the concept to start small. Maybe in a high school or at church and then move to bigger places like universities and workplaces. As groups begin to commit to using "MATCHES" to get to know each other, the word will spread that the code word is out there. And more and more people will get on-board.

Think of it as real-life social networking. There's more and more social networking sites online and ways for people to connect over the internet, but with this advancement in technology there's less and less reason for people to have face-to-face conversations. "MATCHES" could help change that....

Lastly, I just want to state the obvious point that there could be some safety concerns with "MATCHES." Not all people are good, and the system could most definitely be used to exploit or hurt people. Because of that, I think it's imperative that this system be used in public, where people are always under the watchful eye of others. Until you know someone well enough to really call them your friend, it is never a good idea to go to a private place alone with them.

So that's all I'll write about "MATCHES" for now. I'm not sure if "MATCHES" can change the world, but I think that it could push people in the direction of acceptance of others rather than suspicion. And I would hope that this could make a dent in the misconceptions that people have of each other. Thank you for taking the time to read this. I'd appreciate any feedback or questions that anyone would have and whether you all think that I could go forward making "MATCHES" into a reality.

Back to grad school...

After two years of grinding my gears day in and day out working the life of a young professional, I'm setting up to go back to grad school. I'll be pursuing a Masters in Systems Engineering degree from Johns Hopkins with a concentration in Modeling and Simulation. This fall will add a whole new layer of turmoil to my life as I attempt to balance work life and school life all at the same time while still trying to keep up the social spirits of a mid-twenty-year-old. Bring it on...

Oktoberfest

Well, I'm back to Germany and this time its for the biggest beer festival in the entire world! After five more days back in Deutschland, I can't even explain how much I love this place. And since I'm being timed right now on my internet usage...I guess I won't.

Alles Gute aus Deutschland!

Ein bischen Deutsch...

Und heute hab ich Lust eine Post auf Deutsch zu schreiben. Auf jeden fall ist mein Grammatisch und Wort-benutzung sehr schlecht aber manchmal denke ich dass ein bischen schreiben auf Deutsch konnte die fremdsprach fur mich verbessern. Fremdsprach ist so wichtig ein Kunst zu lernen, besonders fur Amerikaner. Wir besetzen hier an diese grosse Kontinent mit sehr wenig kulturisch verschieden. Damit die ganze Welt zu verstanden, mussten wir weit und breit reisen zu Fremdkultur zu finden. Wenn dies moglichkeit besetzt uns, wir sollten bereits werden. Mit die Landessprach vermitteln ist am besten weg die richtige Volkskultur zu tragen. Sprachforschung untericht viel uber die Kulture eine Lande. Ich hoffe das ich vergess dies Fremdsprach nicht und ich weiss das ich muss immer benutzen zu mir errinern. Vielleicht fang ich ein sprach-wechseln mit Skype eines Tages an. Und hoffenlich kann ich am endlich nach Deutschland Rueckreise.

Rigor in Development: How open-source science can improve our world

What am I reading today?
Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty
By, Morris Kline

Not a book you should pick up for an easy read on a road trip to Disney World, but "Mathematics: The Loss of Certainty" goes through the invention of Mathematics from its roots with the Babylonians back in 3000 BC to the Greeks creation of Euclidian geometry to the quarrels and debates of its development that lasted through the 19th century and on to today. It's interesting to see how some of the most useful mathematical methods like negative numbers, the complex number system, and irrationals, were hotly debated topics for hundreds of years. Man could not accept that when you take something from less than nothing you can get even more less than nothing. And to say that less than nothing multiplied by less than nothing could equal something was just nonsense. The arguments against imaginaries were even more profound. A number that represents the square root of a number less than one? Incomprehensible. Gauss said that if the units had not been given the names direct, inverse, and lateral as opposed to positive, negative, and imaginary, "people would not have gotten the impression that there was some dark mystery in these numbers." Today these topics are basic lessons taught in high school and college math class and are crucial for use in the complex mathematical operations of today.

But it's not my intention for today to summarize this somewhat complicated and monotonous book. What I want to dive into are some of the points made by mathematicians in Chapter VII, "The Illogical Development: The Predicament CIRCA 1800." Many arguments were made as to the necessity of proofs and rigor to define mathematics. The creation of a theorem could not be fully accepted by the mathematical community until it was proven for all n x n cases. To take on such a task for complicated (but many times useful) ideas could take years of painstaking and rigorous work. And it is these types of proofs that led the greatest minds of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries to spend most of their time debating about the validity of concepts instead of building upon them. Over four hundred years of going round and round in circles....

In the modern world, how much rigor should be put into analysis before accepting and pressing forward with an idea? Engineers work for years on end to prove and reprove concepts so that no error is made. But what is wrong with taking an idea, publishing a coherent paper to the world and accepting it as true? Once it is released to the vast realm of the internet, it must submit to the scrutiny of thousands of critics through comments and response. And the more interesting the concept, the more critique it will gain. These critiques can serve as the painstaking "proof" process without hindering the development of the technology. With the advent of open-source technology and wiki articles, this concept of reducing rigor and continuing development seems to already be taking hold. But within the scientific community, the slow and painstaking process of "proof" continues. Proprietary information from large corporations cripples this development process to an extent, but the quickest and most technology savvy of companies will soon learn that the pros of expedited technology insertion far outweigh the cons of technology abduction. Companies like Google are already pressing forward with this attitude to the delight of unfathomable monetary gains. Google is the 7th largest company in the world by market capitalization and the majority of its work is done in an open-source environment. The results of publicizing information, pressing forward with advancement, and neglecting that difficult process called proof and analysis, will serve for the betterment of corporations and in the long run, the betterment of the world.

Writing just to write...

Sometimes I like to read, sometimes I like to work-out, sometimes I like to listen to speeches or watch movies or play video games...but right now, all I want to do is write. It's funny how after you graduate from college the necessity of writing anything just for the sake of writing drops virtually to zero. As an engineer, the only writing that I do is concise e-mails shot back and forth to coworkers meant to convey a complicated message in as simple language as possible. Long words and phrases turn into acronyms and compound sentences turn into bullet points. Difficult computations are much better represented as an attached Excel document and in-depth presentations become PowerPoints. And the statements that get electronically transferred through e-mail must be checked and double-checked for comprehension and accuracy, for once that "SENT" button is pressed, your simple statements become living documentation demonstrating your, and the organization that you represent's signed and authorized opinion of a certain situation. E-mail's can be dangerous... One wrong word sent to one wrong person can mean a thread-ful of hurt responses. Even the choice between "TO" and "CC" becomes a matter of close scrutiny; does a person copied on an e-mail really need to read the e-mail at all???

Technical writing takes all of the freedom and creativity that existed in your high school English class and flips it on its head. The need to use symbolism and literary devices is trumped by the desire for clear and concise communication. Maybe this is why so many people turn to blogging (and Facebook) to express their needs to write...freehand...in whatever literary fashion they may so desire. Whether a post contains the grammatical inferiority of an 8 year old or the professional tone of a world renowned author, the blog-ee can always feel good about taking the words within him and setting them out to the world (with no risk of rebuttal except that of a sharply phrased comment or two...) Although I do not think of myself as a regular "blogger", I respect and understand those who take the time to keep up with the online world and freely contribute their thoughts and opinions. Thanks to everyone who does this as it continues to keep people like me (lazy internet stumblers) with a bit of Attention Deficit Disorder entertained every day. Maybe someday I'll get more involved in the wide world of blogging and give a little back myself...