THE 2010 GOOGLE ANITA BORG MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP -
$10,000 FOR THE 2010-2011 ACADEMIC YEAR
Deadline to apply: Monday, February 1, 2010.
Dr. Anita Borg devoted her adult life to revolutionizing the way we think about technology and dismantling barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology fields. Her combination of technical expertise and fearless vision continues to inspire and motivate countless women to become active participants and leaders in creating technology. In her honor, Google is proud to honor Anita's memory and support women in technology with the 2010 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship. Google hopes to encourage women to excel in computing and technology and become active role models and leaders in the field.
Google Anita Borg Scholarship recipients will each receive a $10,000 award for the 2010-2011 academic year. A group of female undergraduate and graduate students will be chosen from the applicant pool, and scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of each candidate's academic background and demonstrated leadership. All scholarship recipients and finalists will be invited to attend the Annual Google Scholars' Retreat in Mountain View, California in 2010.
Who can apply?
Applicants must satisfy all of the following criteria to be eligible:
• be a female student entering her senior year of undergraduate study or be enrolled in a graduate program in the 2010-2011 academic year at a university in the United States;
• be enrolled in Computer Science or Computer Engineering program, or a closely related technical field as a full-time student for the 2010-2011 academic year;
• maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.5 on a 4.0 scale or 4.5 on a 5.0 scale or equivalent in your current program.
• Citizens, permanent residents, and international students are eligible to apply. Past applicants and finalists are also encouraged to re-apply.
· Contact an EducationUSA Center for guidance on finding and applying to an accredited U.S. college or university (http://www.educationusa.org.tw/).
Deadline to apply: Monday, February 1, 2010.
For more information, write to:
anitaborgscholars@google.com.
http://www.google.com/anitaborg/
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
International Student Scholarship Aids in Diane Pego Attending Oregon State University
Oregon State University is the place Diane Pego chose to attend.“I’m from Brazil and back at home we were going with the education system here and so I came here three years ago as an exchange student and that really help me to figure out what I really want to do and where I want to study and I feel in love with the American system and you guys are very organized and everything works smoothly,” she says.
So I am attending Oregon State University in Oregon and I actually chose it by internet because I live back in Brazil and I talked to my dad and my mom and we decided that I was going to come here and there are so many universities in the United States to choose from and I just fell in love with the campus, the teachers at the campus, then I started to talk to people and email people and ask them questions like why should I choose their university.So I emailed like five or six universities and they emailed me and the people from Oregon State were just so friendly and so engaging and welcoming I just had the feeling that this was the right place and I was right!”
Choosing to major in Business, Diane says she will gain the knowledge and skills needed to eventually one day apply them in the business industry.“My major is Business for now, but I want to pursue an international business degree because I have always wanted to work with international affairs, international business I just think the thing that amazes me the most and that I always get excited about so I thought that Business would most likely take me to the path I want to go like an international path so I can travel a lot with a company or something.”
Diane says her time spent at Oregon State University has been good and she says the scholarship she received gives her an opportunity to share about her culture. “It’s been great. It’s just the way I imaged it.I love the campus, I love people here.People here are very friendly and we as international students we sometimes have a hard time making friends and getting involved, but here on campus it is so easy to get involved,” she says.
“There are so many activities and events and I have a scholarship, it’s called International Cultural Service Program and it’s a scholarship that is for international students and what we have to do is to give presentations and just share about our culture with the community and through that we do a lot of international things.We help with any international events when we can and through that I would meet so many people from different countries because here on campus we have I think about one thousand international students [on campus]. [Those] who have this scholarship would be about forty so we get to help with culture events and to give presentations either off campus or on campus and through this scholarship I’ve me so many people and have had so many great experiences just sharing about my culture and interacting with people from all over the world which is what I want to do with my life,” she says.“It is a great scholarship.It is a great experience.”
Receiving a scholarship Diane says has also kept her and her family from having to find ways to pay for her education here in America.“Also, it pays a big chunk of our tuition which is really good too and that is something that international students is always need and that is because the dollar rate always change every once in a while so that is something that most international students are worried about and here in the United States there are so many opportunities to get scholarships and that is one of the greatest scholarships they have here, so I am really glad to have that” she says.
“And my friends here, I live in the dorms also and it is a great way to get involved here on campus if you live in the dorms because you are interacting with peoples either American or other people from other countries too so it are just great.”
Graduation is a few years away for Diane; however she already has ideas as to what she would like to do.“I intend to graduate in 2012 hopefully, but I really don’t know I might stay longer because I have so many plans I want to study abroad first and go up to Germany because I’m learning German now and after I graduate as I said I want to work in international affairs international business so I think that my dream job would be to work for a company where I can travel and go to another countries and sell businesses and things like that and just help people too. I would love to go to parts of Africa, or to Asia where people sometimes struggle and help people through the company or something like that,” she says… that would be the job that I want, so there are a lot of things that I want to do.”
So I am attending Oregon State University in Oregon and I actually chose it by internet because I live back in Brazil and I talked to my dad and my mom and we decided that I was going to come here and there are so many universities in the United States to choose from and I just fell in love with the campus, the teachers at the campus, then I started to talk to people and email people and ask them questions like why should I choose their university.So I emailed like five or six universities and they emailed me and the people from Oregon State were just so friendly and so engaging and welcoming I just had the feeling that this was the right place and I was right!”
Choosing to major in Business, Diane says she will gain the knowledge and skills needed to eventually one day apply them in the business industry.“My major is Business for now, but I want to pursue an international business degree because I have always wanted to work with international affairs, international business I just think the thing that amazes me the most and that I always get excited about so I thought that Business would most likely take me to the path I want to go like an international path so I can travel a lot with a company or something.”
Diane says her time spent at Oregon State University has been good and she says the scholarship she received gives her an opportunity to share about her culture. “It’s been great. It’s just the way I imaged it.I love the campus, I love people here.People here are very friendly and we as international students we sometimes have a hard time making friends and getting involved, but here on campus it is so easy to get involved,” she says.
“There are so many activities and events and I have a scholarship, it’s called International Cultural Service Program and it’s a scholarship that is for international students and what we have to do is to give presentations and just share about our culture with the community and through that we do a lot of international things.We help with any international events when we can and through that I would meet so many people from different countries because here on campus we have I think about one thousand international students [on campus]. [Those] who have this scholarship would be about forty so we get to help with culture events and to give presentations either off campus or on campus and through this scholarship I’ve me so many people and have had so many great experiences just sharing about my culture and interacting with people from all over the world which is what I want to do with my life,” she says.“It is a great scholarship.It is a great experience.”
Receiving a scholarship Diane says has also kept her and her family from having to find ways to pay for her education here in America.“Also, it pays a big chunk of our tuition which is really good too and that is something that international students is always need and that is because the dollar rate always change every once in a while so that is something that most international students are worried about and here in the United States there are so many opportunities to get scholarships and that is one of the greatest scholarships they have here, so I am really glad to have that” she says.
“And my friends here, I live in the dorms also and it is a great way to get involved here on campus if you live in the dorms because you are interacting with peoples either American or other people from other countries too so it are just great.”
Graduation is a few years away for Diane; however she already has ideas as to what she would like to do.“I intend to graduate in 2012 hopefully, but I really don’t know I might stay longer because I have so many plans I want to study abroad first and go up to Germany because I’m learning German now and after I graduate as I said I want to work in international affairs international business so I think that my dream job would be to work for a company where I can travel and go to another countries and sell businesses and things like that and just help people too. I would love to go to parts of Africa, or to Asia where people sometimes struggle and help people through the company or something like that,” she says… that would be the job that I want, so there are a lot of things that I want to do.”
Friday, October 2, 2009
Scholarship From Country Sends Student to Youngstown State University
Its all because of a scholarship which is why Abdul Aziz Almoajil is in the United States.“I’m from Saudi Arabia and I decided to come to the United States because in Saudi Arabia right now they are now offering scholarships for us to study in the United States. The Saudi Arabian government started this program, King Abdullah scholarship and they are sending students to a lot of countries the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea, parts of Europe I’m not sure which countries they are sending students to and they are paying everything.”
Abdul attends Youngstown State University located in Youngstown, Ohio. He has completed his sophomore year and he says that several factors came into play as to why he chose this university over many others. “First, I didn’t know anything about Youngstown State University.I was looking for a university that was not highly competitive like something in between….not so hard, not so easy,” he says. “Also, the admission was easy and the student body is not big or small, but like in between and the most important thing was no Saudis in the university so I can learn English.
Having some skills in computers made it easy for Abdul to decide to major in that field.His biggest challenge he says has been the English Language. “Its computer science and I’ve choose my major because anybody can program me, I’ve grown up using computers all day like since I was eight or nine, I was fascinated by them,” he says.“I have some programming experience in high school. At first I was a little bit anxious everything was new for me, but I’ve learned a lot of things like how to make contract for the dorms and language was at first an issue for me, but then it became easy after I learned the language issue.”
There is no question for Abdul that having good English skills is important. He says that alone is one reason why studying in the United States is essential to him. “Right now most companies even out of the United States one of their requirements for employees is to have good English skills so it’s so important for me so I can improve my English and also it has one of the best universities.”
Adbul says he will graduate in 2011. He says he may continue his masters studies here in the states, but he isn't too sure just what he will do. Another, however he has a few ideas in mind. “I think I’ll like when I graduate I have to go back to Saudi Arabia because I am a scholarship student, but I will try to apply for an optional training program if they allow me, the American government I will work for a year under the optional training program and if they don’t I will go back go to Saudi Arabia and find a job.”
When asked what advice he would give other international students about studying in the United States, Adbul says... “I advise them not to hesitate at all, not to feel any fear of being over here and being alone, not having any fear of the language, people over here are very friendly, they communicate very well they are willing to help and I really encourage them to come over here and improve their English and if they don’t have any at all to learn English and to graduate from over here.”
Abdul attends Youngstown State University located in Youngstown, Ohio. He has completed his sophomore year and he says that several factors came into play as to why he chose this university over many others. “First, I didn’t know anything about Youngstown State University.I was looking for a university that was not highly competitive like something in between….not so hard, not so easy,” he says. “Also, the admission was easy and the student body is not big or small, but like in between and the most important thing was no Saudis in the university so I can learn English.
Having some skills in computers made it easy for Abdul to decide to major in that field.His biggest challenge he says has been the English Language. “Its computer science and I’ve choose my major because anybody can program me, I’ve grown up using computers all day like since I was eight or nine, I was fascinated by them,” he says.“I have some programming experience in high school. At first I was a little bit anxious everything was new for me, but I’ve learned a lot of things like how to make contract for the dorms and language was at first an issue for me, but then it became easy after I learned the language issue.”
There is no question for Abdul that having good English skills is important. He says that alone is one reason why studying in the United States is essential to him. “Right now most companies even out of the United States one of their requirements for employees is to have good English skills so it’s so important for me so I can improve my English and also it has one of the best universities.”
Adbul says he will graduate in 2011. He says he may continue his masters studies here in the states, but he isn't too sure just what he will do. Another, however he has a few ideas in mind. “I think I’ll like when I graduate I have to go back to Saudi Arabia because I am a scholarship student, but I will try to apply for an optional training program if they allow me, the American government I will work for a year under the optional training program and if they don’t I will go back go to Saudi Arabia and find a job.”
When asked what advice he would give other international students about studying in the United States, Adbul says... “I advise them not to hesitate at all, not to feel any fear of being over here and being alone, not having any fear of the language, people over here are very friendly, they communicate very well they are willing to help and I really encourage them to come over here and improve their English and if they don’t have any at all to learn English and to graduate from over here.”
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Stanford Graduate Receives Fellowship to teach Mathematics to high school students
Growing up in India, Deepti Gupta realized the importance of education. She is a recent graduate and she tells us a bit about her background. “I was born in India and I lived in a small town called Allahabad it’s in Northern India and I moved here in two thousand with my family when I was thirteen and since then I have been in the San Francisco Bay area except for when I went down to University of California, San Diego to get my undergrad in Math and then I came back up here to go to Stanford University to get my teaching credentials and I just graduated from there a couple weeks ago,” she says.
“Now, I am just relaxing and preparing for full time teaching. It will be my first year teaching Math. I’ll be teaching ninth and tenth grade Algebra One and Geometry this year in Redwood City California.
Deepti is also one of the recipients of The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation or KSTF. She says although the selection process is rigorous she knows the fellowship will be of great support through her teaching career. “KSTF stands for The Knowles Science Teaching Fellowship and I was chosen through a rigorous process of letter recommendation, essays, transcripts, college transcripts and all that work and then an interview process which I flew off to Philadelphia for and it was a whole weekend long interview,” she says.
“This fellowship was established in 1999 to support, sustain and inspire high school science and math teachers that are just starting on their careers and that need a lot of support to stay in their career because approximately half of all secondary teachers leave the field within five years so the KSTF fellowship seeks to reverse the trend that is not just in the Bay area in California, but all of over the United States and they want to keep teachers in that field because it is so important and so that is why I decided to apply for the scholarship because I am a new Math teacher and I need that kind of support too,” she says.
Along with receiving pay from the school district where Deepti will teach in the fall, KSTF teaching fellows also receive tuition assistance of up to ten-thousand dollars per year for up to two years as well as a monthly stipend and financial support for summer professional development. Deepti says now, she wants to aspire her students. “My parents have always instilled the value of an education in me and my brother that it can help in social mobility, it can open up lots of opportunities in life and you won’t have to worry about what you are doing, your money and your family and everything if you get a good education and then a career,” she says.
“So that is why I became a teacher to help other students in the next generation. Also, I realize the value of education and how important it is to having a good life and my goal and hope for my students is to prepare them for jobs that probably don’t even exist right now, that they don’t even know about because we are a growing population and we create new opportunities for our students everyday and I also hope that my students become efficient communicators and logical thinkers and critical thinkers because that is what we need in this cut throat market and economy today.”
Deepti says she is committed to teaching mathematics in the United States high schools. Her advice to other students who may be considering teaching as a career after college. “Math and Science both are definitely important because it is not about the Pythagorean Theorem or the formula for the area of a triangle, but it is about the way you think. That’s what employers are looking for. They are looking for that edge if you have it. You know are you able to solve a problem. Are you able to think out loud or think outside of the box and that is what we as Math and Science teachers are trying to help our students do,” she says. “Who cares if you don’t have the area of a triangle memorized? Do you know what a triangle is? Do you know what area means? It’s the deeper concepts behind them is what is important,” she says.
“So, with my credentials from Stanford I am able to teach all levels of Math in high school up to Calculus, AB and BC and I enjoy Mathematics because it makes so much sense and we see it everywhere where ever we go in the world, so if anybody is thinking about teaching I would definitely encourage them to go to the website, its KSTF-dot-org and check it out and see if you want to apply if they would like this kind of support because it is wonderful and it is up to five years and then also talk to their teachers, talk to their professors and see what a day in their life is like if that is what they really want to do.”
“Now, I am just relaxing and preparing for full time teaching. It will be my first year teaching Math. I’ll be teaching ninth and tenth grade Algebra One and Geometry this year in Redwood City California.
Deepti is also one of the recipients of The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation or KSTF. She says although the selection process is rigorous she knows the fellowship will be of great support through her teaching career. “KSTF stands for The Knowles Science Teaching Fellowship and I was chosen through a rigorous process of letter recommendation, essays, transcripts, college transcripts and all that work and then an interview process which I flew off to Philadelphia for and it was a whole weekend long interview,” she says.
“This fellowship was established in 1999 to support, sustain and inspire high school science and math teachers that are just starting on their careers and that need a lot of support to stay in their career because approximately half of all secondary teachers leave the field within five years so the KSTF fellowship seeks to reverse the trend that is not just in the Bay area in California, but all of over the United States and they want to keep teachers in that field because it is so important and so that is why I decided to apply for the scholarship because I am a new Math teacher and I need that kind of support too,” she says.
Along with receiving pay from the school district where Deepti will teach in the fall, KSTF teaching fellows also receive tuition assistance of up to ten-thousand dollars per year for up to two years as well as a monthly stipend and financial support for summer professional development. Deepti says now, she wants to aspire her students. “My parents have always instilled the value of an education in me and my brother that it can help in social mobility, it can open up lots of opportunities in life and you won’t have to worry about what you are doing, your money and your family and everything if you get a good education and then a career,” she says.
“So that is why I became a teacher to help other students in the next generation. Also, I realize the value of education and how important it is to having a good life and my goal and hope for my students is to prepare them for jobs that probably don’t even exist right now, that they don’t even know about because we are a growing population and we create new opportunities for our students everyday and I also hope that my students become efficient communicators and logical thinkers and critical thinkers because that is what we need in this cut throat market and economy today.”
Deepti says she is committed to teaching mathematics in the United States high schools. Her advice to other students who may be considering teaching as a career after college. “Math and Science both are definitely important because it is not about the Pythagorean Theorem or the formula for the area of a triangle, but it is about the way you think. That’s what employers are looking for. They are looking for that edge if you have it. You know are you able to solve a problem. Are you able to think out loud or think outside of the box and that is what we as Math and Science teachers are trying to help our students do,” she says. “Who cares if you don’t have the area of a triangle memorized? Do you know what a triangle is? Do you know what area means? It’s the deeper concepts behind them is what is important,” she says.
“So, with my credentials from Stanford I am able to teach all levels of Math in high school up to Calculus, AB and BC and I enjoy Mathematics because it makes so much sense and we see it everywhere where ever we go in the world, so if anybody is thinking about teaching I would definitely encourage them to go to the website, its KSTF-dot-org and check it out and see if you want to apply if they would like this kind of support because it is wonderful and it is up to five years and then also talk to their teachers, talk to their professors and see what a day in their life is like if that is what they really want to do.”
Monday, August 10, 2009
For Inventor-Entrepreneur Dean Kamen, the Future is Now
Dean Kamen's name - and his list of patents - are almost legendary among today's inventors and entrepreneurs. But the general public may know him best as the creator of the Segway Personal Transporter. Designed for a single, upright driver, the two-wheeled, self-balancing electric device can move across almost any level surface.
When it was introduced in 2001, some predicted the Segway would revolutionize how people get around. That hasn't quite happened. Yet Kamen continues to invent devices, mostly for the health care field.
"Actually," says Kamen, "the Segway grew out of one of those devices."
Ten years in development, it was called the "iBot," and its purpose was to revolutionize the way the disabled get around. The iBot looked like a very sophisticated wheelchair, but in contrast to traditional wheelchairs, it enabled people to be at eye level with their non-disabled peers and to climb steps and street curbs.
"In order to do those things," says Kamen, "we needed to figure out how to restore [synthesize] human balance."
After 10 years in development, the iBot was brought to market in 2003.
Innovator gets an early start
Kamen's career as an inventor began when he was only 5 years old, when he devised a system of knobs and pulleys that would straighten the sheets and blankets on his bed each morning automatically.
In high school, Kamen devised a groundbreaking audio-visual system that he eventually sold to planetariums worldwide. After a stint in college, he teamed up with his brother - a medical student at the time - to develop the world's first automatic syringe for premature infants.
"But soon we found we could build these little pumps, and instead of [just] putting them on these babies, we could [also] put them on the belt of a full-grown adult and deliver insulin to diabetics, which became a very large opportunity for my little company."
Kamen eventually moved out of his basement laboratory at his parents' Long Island, New York home and sold that business to a large pharmaceutical company in order to move on to invent new devices for the health and medical fields.
Health care inventions help people lead fuller lives
One important innovation by Kamen's company, DEKA Research and Development, was a kidney dialysis machine patients could use at home. Until Kamen's "Homechoice PD" was introduced in 1995, most people suffering from kidney disease had to be in the hospital several times a week to flush out the accumulated toxins in their bodies.
Recently, Kamen and his team of engineers also created the so-called "DEKA Arm." It is a bionic, or electro-mechanical, arm capable of movements so precise it allows upper-arm amputees to grasp small objects. The arm is also powerful enough to lift objects weighing up to 18 kilograms. The DEKA Arm is now in being clinically tested.
"One of the great things about working on medical products is you can 'do good while you are doing well.' It's a good business, and somehow at the end of the day, when you are going to bed tired because you have really tough problems… you go to bed completely happy, because you are going to be giving health and life to people."
Device could bring clean drinking water to millions
One essential ingredient for health and life is clean water. Yet around the world, lack of access to clean drinking water puts the lives and well-being of millions of people at risk. So Kamen and his engineers designed a small, portable water purification machine that could be brought to any village or urban slum in the world. It's a simple device with two hoses in it.
"You stick one hose into anything that looks wet, no matter what's wrong with the water," says Kamen, "and out the other hose comes out absolutely pure water. The device can make a thousand liters of water a day, while using less total electric input than a handheld hair dryer.
"Now we have to figure out how to get these boxes put all over the world."
Inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs
Kamen says his most gratifying invention to date isn't a machine, but an educational foundation called FIRST, which is an acronym meaning "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." Kamen explains that the organization is devoted to bringing hands-on science and engineering education to young people who may be more interested in basketball and pop stars than the next great life-saving device or renewable-energy source.
The foundation's main activity is a competition for high school students that Kamen calls a "varsity sport of the mind." To participate, student team are given a bag of assorted parts and told build a robot that can perform a certain task of Kamen's choosing. At the premier FIRST Robotics Championship in 1992, 28 high school teams competed in a gym. In 2009, nearly 1,700 teams and their mentors competed at the 72-thousand seat Georgia Dome stadium.
"I started FIRST because I believe that if you can show kids just a little bit that science and technology is accessible, it is rewarding, it is fun, by putting them in a venue where it is presented as entertainment, they'll never go back."
Instead, he hopes, "they will start a serious life of starting to think about science and technology, studying math and physics, and they'll become the next generation of great innovators."
Today, Dean Kamen is a wealthy man with two large houses, two helicopters, a private jet, and millions of dollars in the bank. But Kamen measures his true wealth by how much he's been able to help others.
"I hope," Kamen says, "that someday people will say of me, 'He put back more into the world than he took out, and he took out a lot!'"
When it was introduced in 2001, some predicted the Segway would revolutionize how people get around. That hasn't quite happened. Yet Kamen continues to invent devices, mostly for the health care field."Actually," says Kamen, "the Segway grew out of one of those devices."
Ten years in development, it was called the "iBot," and its purpose was to revolutionize the way the disabled get around. The iBot looked like a very sophisticated wheelchair, but in contrast to traditional wheelchairs, it enabled people to be at eye level with their non-disabled peers and to climb steps and street curbs.
"In order to do those things," says Kamen, "we needed to figure out how to restore [synthesize] human balance."
After 10 years in development, the iBot was brought to market in 2003.
Innovator gets an early start
Kamen's career as an inventor began when he was only 5 years old, when he devised a system of knobs and pulleys that would straighten the sheets and blankets on his bed each morning automatically.
In high school, Kamen devised a groundbreaking audio-visual system that he eventually sold to planetariums worldwide. After a stint in college, he teamed up with his brother - a medical student at the time - to develop the world's first automatic syringe for premature infants.
"But soon we found we could build these little pumps, and instead of [just] putting them on these babies, we could [also] put them on the belt of a full-grown adult and deliver insulin to diabetics, which became a very large opportunity for my little company."
Kamen eventually moved out of his basement laboratory at his parents' Long Island, New York home and sold that business to a large pharmaceutical company in order to move on to invent new devices for the health and medical fields.
Health care inventions help people lead fuller lives
One important innovation by Kamen's company, DEKA Research and Development, was a kidney dialysis machine patients could use at home. Until Kamen's "Homechoice PD" was introduced in 1995, most people suffering from kidney disease had to be in the hospital several times a week to flush out the accumulated toxins in their bodies.
Recently, Kamen and his team of engineers also created the so-called "DEKA Arm." It is a bionic, or electro-mechanical, arm capable of movements so precise it allows upper-arm amputees to grasp small objects. The arm is also powerful enough to lift objects weighing up to 18 kilograms. The DEKA Arm is now in being clinically tested.
"One of the great things about working on medical products is you can 'do good while you are doing well.' It's a good business, and somehow at the end of the day, when you are going to bed tired because you have really tough problems… you go to bed completely happy, because you are going to be giving health and life to people."
Device could bring clean drinking water to millions
One essential ingredient for health and life is clean water. Yet around the world, lack of access to clean drinking water puts the lives and well-being of millions of people at risk. So Kamen and his engineers designed a small, portable water purification machine that could be brought to any village or urban slum in the world. It's a simple device with two hoses in it.
"You stick one hose into anything that looks wet, no matter what's wrong with the water," says Kamen, "and out the other hose comes out absolutely pure water. The device can make a thousand liters of water a day, while using less total electric input than a handheld hair dryer.
"Now we have to figure out how to get these boxes put all over the world."
Inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs
Kamen says his most gratifying invention to date isn't a machine, but an educational foundation called FIRST, which is an acronym meaning "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology." Kamen explains that the organization is devoted to bringing hands-on science and engineering education to young people who may be more interested in basketball and pop stars than the next great life-saving device or renewable-energy source.
The foundation's main activity is a competition for high school students that Kamen calls a "varsity sport of the mind." To participate, student team are given a bag of assorted parts and told build a robot that can perform a certain task of Kamen's choosing. At the premier FIRST Robotics Championship in 1992, 28 high school teams competed in a gym. In 2009, nearly 1,700 teams and their mentors competed at the 72-thousand seat Georgia Dome stadium."I started FIRST because I believe that if you can show kids just a little bit that science and technology is accessible, it is rewarding, it is fun, by putting them in a venue where it is presented as entertainment, they'll never go back."
Instead, he hopes, "they will start a serious life of starting to think about science and technology, studying math and physics, and they'll become the next generation of great innovators."
Today, Dean Kamen is a wealthy man with two large houses, two helicopters, a private jet, and millions of dollars in the bank. But Kamen measures his true wealth by how much he's been able to help others.
"I hope," Kamen says, "that someday people will say of me, 'He put back more into the world than he took out, and he took out a lot!'"
Sunday, July 19, 2009
US College Teams Invent for a Better World
Twelve teams were selected from 100 applicants to participate in the March Madness for the Mind. The National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance, or NCIIA, sponsors the event, which takes its name from the annual collegiate basketball tournament in the United States known as March Madness.
While inventions ran the gamut from a 3D imaging system to device to diagnose dizziness, many of the projects targeted the developing world. "I really think it is a testament to students in the U.S. today that there is a lot more awareness of global issues," says Humera Fasihuddin, a program manager at NCIIA. "There are students working on some pretty big problems."
Telemedicine in East Africa
Problems like a lack of doctors in rural East Africa, where they have one doctor for every 50,000 people. Julia Wittig of Pennsylvania State University. "A lot of times making the decision whether to go to the doctor or not is one of the most important [decisions they make]," says Julia Wittig of Pennsylvania State University. "If you are living in a rural area, it takes a lot of time and costs a lot of money."Wittig and other students from Pennsylvania State University developed a global telemedicine system to address that issue by using a laptop and cell phone connection to transmit data from rural communities to a Web server. "Doctors around the world as well as local doctors can access [the data] and provide feedback." Sensors that measure heart rhythm, temperature, and blood pressure can be connected directly to the laptop. The data is recorded and transmitted to the Web server, where a doctor can review it and determine whether the patient needs to be seen in person or not. Wittig's team went to Tanzania last summer to do feasibility studies and will test the system this summer in Kenya.
A new lantern and a human-powered water pump
Cooper Union's team traveled to Ghana to assess needs there. The community they met with asked them to design a better source of light. "Currently charities go over there and give away a lot of lanterns, but they pretty much break after six months," says Anurag Panda. "We provide a small kit and the community builds their own lantern, learns how to use the equipment, so it's a self-sustaining project."
Agriculture was the focus of the engineering team from Washington State University. Brendan Dallas says they traveled to Malawi to test their water pump, which is so easy to use, even a child can operate it. "We specifically designed it to be used [with] human power, because electricity isn't an option," Dallas says. He notes the pump is made of materials that are readily available in the regions where it will be used. "That means more jobs in those locations." Although the pumps are designed to handle heavy use and rugged conditions, using materials that are readily available also means they are easy to repair if they should break.
Wheelchairs from bicycles
Easy repair was the primary concern of a team from the California Institute of Technology that developed a design for a wheelchair. "If you have a wheelchair that can be repaired in country, you can get it repaired cheaper and faster," says Daniel Oliver, executive director of Intelligent Mobility International, a non-profit organization he and several friends formed after graduating.
Their wheelchair is made from bicycle bearings, wheels and tires. "If any of those parts wear out or break, the user can take the chair into any bike shop, which are prevalent throughout the developing world, and get them fixed instantly." Like most of the projects on display at March Madness for the Mind, the wheelchair originated as a class project. Oliver says the class Engineering for the Developing World was a way for him to use his engineering skills "to instantly make a difference." Intelligent Mobility International is already producing its wheelchair in Guatemala. The other teams are still fine-tuning their projects, but hope to have them in communities where they can make a difference soon.
While inventions ran the gamut from a 3D imaging system to device to diagnose dizziness, many of the projects targeted the developing world. "I really think it is a testament to students in the U.S. today that there is a lot more awareness of global issues," says Humera Fasihuddin, a program manager at NCIIA. "There are students working on some pretty big problems."
Telemedicine in East Africa
Problems like a lack of doctors in rural East Africa, where they have one doctor for every 50,000 people. Julia Wittig of Pennsylvania State University. "A lot of times making the decision whether to go to the doctor or not is one of the most important [decisions they make]," says Julia Wittig of Pennsylvania State University. "If you are living in a rural area, it takes a lot of time and costs a lot of money."Wittig and other students from Pennsylvania State University developed a global telemedicine system to address that issue by using a laptop and cell phone connection to transmit data from rural communities to a Web server. "Doctors around the world as well as local doctors can access [the data] and provide feedback." Sensors that measure heart rhythm, temperature, and blood pressure can be connected directly to the laptop. The data is recorded and transmitted to the Web server, where a doctor can review it and determine whether the patient needs to be seen in person or not. Wittig's team went to Tanzania last summer to do feasibility studies and will test the system this summer in Kenya.
A new lantern and a human-powered water pump
Cooper Union's team traveled to Ghana to assess needs there. The community they met with asked them to design a better source of light. "Currently charities go over there and give away a lot of lanterns, but they pretty much break after six months," says Anurag Panda. "We provide a small kit and the community builds their own lantern, learns how to use the equipment, so it's a self-sustaining project."
Agriculture was the focus of the engineering team from Washington State University. Brendan Dallas says they traveled to Malawi to test their water pump, which is so easy to use, even a child can operate it. "We specifically designed it to be used [with] human power, because electricity isn't an option," Dallas says. He notes the pump is made of materials that are readily available in the regions where it will be used. "That means more jobs in those locations." Although the pumps are designed to handle heavy use and rugged conditions, using materials that are readily available also means they are easy to repair if they should break.
Wheelchairs from bicycles
Easy repair was the primary concern of a team from the California Institute of Technology that developed a design for a wheelchair. "If you have a wheelchair that can be repaired in country, you can get it repaired cheaper and faster," says Daniel Oliver, executive director of Intelligent Mobility International, a non-profit organization he and several friends formed after graduating.
Their wheelchair is made from bicycle bearings, wheels and tires. "If any of those parts wear out or break, the user can take the chair into any bike shop, which are prevalent throughout the developing world, and get them fixed instantly." Like most of the projects on display at March Madness for the Mind, the wheelchair originated as a class project. Oliver says the class Engineering for the Developing World was a way for him to use his engineering skills "to instantly make a difference." Intelligent Mobility International is already producing its wheelchair in Guatemala. The other teams are still fine-tuning their projects, but hope to have them in communities where they can make a difference soon.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Number of Foreign Students at US Universities Increasing
After the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the number of foreign students attending U.S. colleges and universities dropped off, mostly due to tightened visa restrictions. But the numbers have now rebounded, and foreign students are entering the U.S. education system at record rates.The number of international students at American colleges and universities increased by seven percent last year, to nearly 624,000, according to The Institute of International Education.
Foreign students contributed more than $15 billion to an economy in dire need of their money.
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