The Ordinary Heroes of the Taj Hotel: Rohit Deshpande at TEDxNewEngland

Here are the ten revolutionary approaches to traditional engineering

By Dr Aloknath De

‘Smart engineering' is all about using insights to conceive, model and scale an appropriate solution to a problem or an objective. Scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge is applied in the process. This knowledge serves as an engine behind designing, building and maintaining structures, machines, systems, materials and even processes.

Need-of-the-hour engineering:

In the Before Christ period, people focused on primitive technology for agriculture - studying soil characterisation, improving irrigation system, and finding means of ploughing land for harvesting. As civilisation moved from the Stone Age to the Metal Age, the society learnt to cook and prepare food. Agriculture to heavy engineering to electronics engineering - various themes have got emphasis during India's series of five-year plans. Today's ‘need-of-the hour engineering' is towards a wide deployment of broadband and connectivity, and an optimisation of required infrastructure.

Improvised engineering:

I call the second lever of smart engineering as ‘improvised engineering'. This deals with how the same or similar purpose is achieved by more sophisticated technology. For example, in the early days, the shadow from an anchored stick used to give relative time-of-the-day. Currently, we have watches of all types including high-precision instruments that capture the split-second difference between winner and runner-ups in the Olympics 100-meter race. Smartphones have not only enriched voice communication, but also eased file-sharing and multimedia data transfer.

Strip-down engineering:

Curiosity about what goes into a product design gets satiated to a great extent by reverse engineering. How many people have tried to unravel Coke's signature formula? We also hear about frugal engineering, which drives down the cost factor but at times fails to maintain the durability of the product. ‘Strip-down engineering' combines the strengths of reverse engineering and frugal engineering. The engineering smartness here is built around applying Pareto's 80:20 principle and analysing how to keep essential functionalities. The goal is to select the top 80 per cent features from a user perspective and implement them with 80 per cent cost reduction.

Performance-boosting engineering:

The success of a product or service lies in its performance by relative as well as absolute measures. ‘Performance-boosting engineering' seeks to enhance performance by keeping constraints in mind. Let us take the example of the mobile phone where we currently leverage the octa-core processor. The evolution from single-core to octa-core has enabled us to incorporate parallelisation and increase processing power. In a heterogeneous processing environment, appropriate partitioning of code across ASIC, DSP, CPU, GPU, and MCU chips significantly drive up system performance. This category of smart engineering also encompasses developing multi-resolution systems, such as a spectrum of products from phone-with-full-connectivity-but-basic-camera to higher-resolution-camera-but-basic-phone-connectivity. This class of smart engineering facilitates introduction of more complex features, reduces response time or boosts other system performance metrics.

IntelliSys engineering:

 ‘IntelliSys engineering' empowers intelligent systems, promotes autonomous operation based on closed-loop control, energy efficiency and networking capabilities for a platform or a system to be intelligent. IntelliSys engineering for connected cars enables us to build cars that aid in navigation, cars that can go driverless, cars that talk to each other by wi-fi technology and cars that will even fly!

Cross-pollination engineering:

Studying a single field dries up one's ideas! Newer fields are emerging. And solutions for some problems require extensive knowledge of multiple faculties - either to tie ideas up, or learn from one field and apply to another. This is what I term as ‘cross-pollination engineering'. For example, knowledge of geology and soil engineering combined with biology helps to address problems pertaining to geo-microbiology. This helps us understand how bacteria and viruses come to our food through soil contamination and what possible remedies could be taken up. Geography knowledge in conjunction with information system expertise paves the way for geo-information system (GIS). Cross-pollination engineering gives birth to new fields like fiber optic communication that combines optical physics with telecommunication. The field of music, coupled with acoustics engineering, opens a chapter of musicology by cross-pollination of subtleties in both fields.

Smart-auxiliary engineering:

At times, engineering plays second fiddle to scientific projects - it helps in next-level of scientific discoveries through infrastructural support. Let us consider the lLarge hadron collider mega project recently conducted in CERN, Geneva. The very simulation of the Big Bang has been an engineering feat - this has been a pre-requisite to determine what happens after the big bang event. The support role of engineering should not be misconstrued as engineering trivia. One mouse can bother an elephant! One bird can hit a plane and knock it down.

Sustainable engineering:

 ‘Sustainable engineering' encourages us to build products that consume less energy and cause least damage to the environment. Let us take the example of electronic circuitry. Researchers have progressed to operate digital chipsets in 1.8V instead of 3V or 5V. Energy-aware protocols have also been designed. These techniques substantially help in overall power reduction for electronics equipments. Sustainable engineering addresses concerns around energy consumption, electro-magnetic radiation hazards produced by cell towers and so on. How to reduce contamination and even re-purify natural resources for our well-being is the concept behind sustainable engineering that impacts the product design phase.

Nature-inspired engineering:

City parks often have bushes that are shaped like animals. We can also design usable products inspired by flora and fauna. Cranes are built mimicking a long-necked giraffe. Look at our national flower lotus. The lotus leaves manage to remain free of contaminants as they possess a field of small bumps and dust is easily picked up by water drops. Nature-inspired engineers study objects and phenomena from nature to understand how a fundamental scientific principle works in daily life and apply the notions in product design.

Forward-looking engineering:

Engineering foundations that are based on strong theory and driven by science can be quite forward-looking. Information theory, game theory, number theory and string theory have all been playing roles in telecommunication, cryptography and other associated areas. Technology is moving from virtual reality to augmented reality. User interactions are changing from touch-base to gesture-controlled. Integration of audio, visual and haptic feedback is becoming a part of next user interaction. Quantum computing uses qubits with superposition and entanglement. Using these basic principles, quantum teleportation allows the same entity to be in two places simultaneously, but observation decoheres. Forward-looking engineering aims to manifest scientific ideas or even science fiction concepts to reality.

The writer is senior VP and CTO, Samsung India – Bangalore

Google plans to use Android to make the connected home a reality

At Google i/o this year, the company announced plans for Android@Home, a system that lets you control all your appliances, lights, and other stuff in your home from your Android phone.

Google was light on specifics as to how it would work, but it definitely sounded cool.

Why it's innovative: Switching your lights on and off? Setting your alarm? Setting your sprinklers to go off? If Google figures out a way to let you do all that from your Android phone, it'd be a huge game changer.

PROJECT GLASS:

  THE COMPUTER EYE WEAR…

    Google’s Project Glass is a product of the search giants X-Labs. A super-secret test bed where Google incubates the ideas of the future (such as the driverless car & elevators to space…yeah, I know…). The idea behind Project Glass isn’t so far out though. In a nutshell they consist of a Logic board similar to that found in your smartphone, running Google’s Android OS that is built into a frame with an integrated battery and heads up display. There will most probably also be a touch pad or button of some sort as Larry Page is seen pressing to take a snap in one of his keynote addresses. The concept behind the whole project is called Augmented Reality and has been used in Smartphone apps for a while now. Nonetheless, Google’s limitless budget and Brain Train should see that Project Glass will take wearable electronics to the mass…

TECHNOLOGY 
It is hard to believe how much the world has changed in the last 30 years ago. Three decades ago, a day in the office involved poring over files and printed statistic pages that had been mailed from another office. Today, a similar day would involve reading these same statistics from the screen of a digital device such as a laptop or a handheld device. Thanks to the rapid evolution in technology, modern business results and relationships are achieved differently. Today, people are more likely to be concerned with acquiring essential iPhone parts or MacBook parts to their respective device than they are with buying a new suit. Even we have trouble keeping up with the latest and greatest stuff.

With every new smartphone, every new computer, every new chip, we get closer and closer to what will become the standard in the future.

Wireless high-speed Internet everywhere? We're getting close thanks to LTE. Cars that drive themselves? Google is working on it. Appliances that sync with your smartphone? Android has you covered.

We put together what we think are the best gadgets and technologies that are setting the stage for tomorrow's tech.

The prototype device is built to be "virtually unbreakable", Samsung claims.
The prototype device is built to be "virtually unbreakable", Samsung claims.
“Our team was able to make a high resolution display on extremely thin plastic instead of glass, so it won’t break even if it’s dropped,” said Berkeley. 

It's called the Youm, but its technical name is a "flexible OLED display." OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode and flexible OLED technology promises to eventually bring bendable tablets, computer monitors and HD television screens.
“Our team was able to make a high resolution display on extremely thin plastic instead of glass, so it won’t break even if it’s dropped,” said Berkeley. 
It's called the Youm, but its technical name is a "flexible OLED display." OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode and flexible OLED technology promises to eventually bring bendable tablets, computer monitors and HD television screens.
It's called the Youm, but its technical name is a "flexible OLED display." OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode and flexible OLED technology promises to eventually bring bendable tablets, computer monitors and HD television screens.

   FLEXIBLE SCEERN…

     Samsung, manufacturers of smart phone range is up again with a new concept THE FLEXIBLE TECHOLOGY…

MORE ABOUT FLEXIBLE SCREEN:

   The screen uses the same OLED - organic LED - technology as many current smartphones, but encased in plastic instead of glass. 

   The device was shown off by Brian Berkeley, senior vice-president of Samsung Display, at a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Even when you bend the screen, the color display and image quality do not change in any noticeable way.

Not only does the flexible OLED screen bend -- it uses less power. If you watch movies or shows on your mobile device, you'll have fewer battery issues whenever the day comes that you have a bendable mobile device.

The flexibility of the screen does offer some drawbacks, though. The screen will bend, but in a direction away from your finger when you're typing. Meaning -- if you have trouble typing on your current smartphone screen, wait 'til you try typing on a screen that keeps bending around all the time.

     So when can we finally to finally own these awesome unbreakable, uncrackable phone screens?

Samsung is not saying when the bendable screens will be integrated on a phone or released to the public. They just want you to know that they are capable of doing this.

THE LEADER

It was Daniel Goleman who first brought the term “emotional intelligence” to a wide audience with his 1995 book of that name, and it was Goleman who first applied the concept to business with his 1998 HBR article, reprinted here. In his research at nearly 200 large, global companies, Goleman found that while the qualities traditionally associated with leadership—such as intelligence, toughness, determination, and vision—are required for success, they are insufficient. Truly effective leaders are also distinguished by a high degree of emotional intelligence, which includes self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill.

These qualities may sound “soft” and unbusinesslike, but Goleman found direct ties between emotional intelligence and measurable business results. While emotional intelligence’s relevance to business has continued to spark debate over the past six years, Goleman’s article remains the definitive reference on the subject, with a description of each component of emotional intelligence and a detailed discussion of how to recognize it in potential leaders, how and why it connects to performance, and how it can be learned.

Every businessperson knows a story about a highly intelligent, highly skilled executive who was promoted into a leadership position only to fail at the job. And they also know a story about someone with solid—but not extraordinary—intellectual abilities and technical skills who was promoted into a similar position and then soared.

Such anecdotes support the widespread belief that identifying individuals with the “right stuff” to be leaders is more art than science. After all, the personal styles of superb leaders vary: Some leaders are subdued and analytical; others shout their manifestos from the mountaintops. And just as important, different situations call for different types of leadership. Most mergers need a sensitive negotiator at the helm, whereas many turnarounds require a more forceful authority.

I have found, however, that the most effective leaders are alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence. It’s not that IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but mainly as “threshold capabilities”; that is, they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions. But my research, along with other recent studies, clearly shows that emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership. Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but he still won’t make a great leader.

In the course of the past year, my colleagues and I have focused on how emotional intelligence operates at work. We have examined the relationship between emotional intelligence and effective performance, especially in leaders. And we have observed how emotional intelligence shows itself on the job. How can you tell if someone has high emotional intelligence, for example, and how can you recognize it in yourself? In the following pages, we’ll explore these questions, taking each of the components of emotional intelligence—self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill—in turn.

source : hbr blog

can you solve ?

Einstein`s Riddle:

Einstein wrote the following riddle. He said that 98% of the world could not solve it. But several NIEHS scientists were able to solve it, and they said its not all that hard if you pay attention and are very patient. Give it a try:


There are 5 houses in 5 different colors in a row. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage. Other facts:


1. The Brit lives in the red house.
2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Dane drinks tea.
4. The green house is on the immediate left of the white house.
5. The green house`s owner drinks coffee.
6. The owner who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The owner living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The owner who keeps the horse lives next to the one who smokes Dunhill.
12. The owner who smokes Bluemasters drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The owner who smokes Blends lives next to the one who drinks water.


The question is : WHO OWNS THE FISH?