In 10 years: Affordable robots to complete daunting home-tasks

Tidying a messy room is an everyday thing, but daunting chore. But soon, you could buy yourself a robot that would do all such tasks for you.

Cornell University Assistant Professor of Computer Science Ashutosh Saxena and his colleagues are working at Cornell's Personal Robotics Lab, which develops software for complex, high-level robotics.

Among the lab's goals are programming robots that can clean up a dishevelled room, assemble an Ikea bookshelf and load and unload a dishwasher - all without human intervention.

"Just like people buy a car, I envision that in five to 10 years, people will buy an assistive robot that will be cheaper or about the same cost as a car," Saxena said.

Picking up a pen is one thing. It's quite another to make a robot understand how to pick up an object it's never encountered or navigate a room it's never seen.

Saxena has researched how to make robots perceive information in cluttered and unknown environments. His work also has enabled robots to estimate depth from a single image.

Using a camera, one robot evaluates an object - say, a cup or plate - and figures out how best to grab it. This technology will eventually integrate into the full-fledged dishwasher-loading robot. 

Comprehensive Child Survival Programme Resource Center inaugurated at AMU

Professor P.K. Abdul Azis, Vice Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University inaugurated a “Comprehensive Child Survival Programme Resource Center” at the Department of Pediatric, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College. He said that the children mortality rate in Uttar Pradesh is a big challenge and this state has not proper sanitation, no fresh drinking water and facilities of health care in UP, are the major cause of children mortality. Prof. Azis said that Kerala has made public health care system. In Kerala, every hospital and nursing homes has a pediatrician.

Prof. Azis further added that this child survival programme would provide trainings to Pediatricians for all parts of the UP in partnership with UNICEF.

Prof. S. Manazir Ali, course Coordinator and Chairman, Department of Pediatrics in his welcome address mentioned that the Department has received, six projects this year from different funding agencies to provide better children health care. He pointed out that 22 lakh children die under age of five years every year in India. This means more than 6000 every day and more than 250 children every hour. He also mentioned that Malnutrition is more common in India than in sub-Saharan Africa. One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India.

Dr. Javvad Suri, Coordinator, health and nutrition of the UNICEF said that AMU had played a very positive role for social mobilization for polio eradication programme and the Department of Pediatrics is providing all support as a partner.

Prof. S. Abrar Hasan, Dean, faculty of medicine, Prof. M. Ashraf Malik also addressed the inaugural function and appreciated the efforts of the Chairman, Department of Pediatric. Prof. Tabassum Shahab proposed a vote of thanks. A large number of faculty members and senior officials of the University were also present on the occasion.

Global Warming Reaches Deep Ocean Depths

The warming trend on the planet has reached deep into world oceans over the last two decades, particularly in the waters around Antarctica, according to a new study. While earlier studies have shown that the upper levels of the planet’s oceans are getting warmer, scientists with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say their latest research shows that waters at a depth of 3,300 feet and more have absorbed about 16 percent of the heat accumulating in the upper layers of the ocean.

While the temperature increase is relatively slight — about 0.02 degrees C per decade in the Southern Ocean, and less elsewhere — researchers say it’s still a significant increase given the massive volume of water involved and the high capacity of water to absorb heat. That temperature increase has not only caused ocean water to expand worldwide, increasing sea levels, but has contributed to the melting of some Antarctic ice sheets, according to the paper, published in the Journal of Climate. Sea levels around Antarctica have increased by 3 millimeters annually — about an eighth of an inch — since 1993.

CBSE to introduce Chinese Language in syallabus, says Kapil Sibal

CBSE schools will soon have Chinese language (Mandarin) as a part of their 
curriculum.Human Resource Minister, Kapil Sibal announced it on September 
15, 2010 after discussing with China’s Education Minister Yuan Guiren the 
modalities of training Indian teachers for the task.“China is our powerful 
neighbour and emerging as a biggest consumer of global resources. We cannot 
wish it away. The best way to introduce China in India is to introduce its 
language at primary level so that our kids develop interest and knowledge 
about China”, Sibal said. 
He told Yuan it was necessary for the Indian government to collaborate with 
China to formulate proper standards of teaching and examination. Sibal 
said learning Chinese at primary level is better than learning at tertiary 
level which is more of academic interest. 
The collaboration plans to involve training of 200 Indian teachers 
initially. The CBSE chairman Vineet Joshi has also agreed to introduce Chinese in 
the curriculum as soon as some teachers are available. The minister also 
offered a student exchange programs to his Chinese counterpart so that 
governments of the two countries support scholars from both sides. 
Expressing his inability to interfere in the issue of recognising Chinese
medical degrees in India Sibal said, “It is an issue for Medical Council of 
India, which has not extended the recognition to Chinese colleges. The 
situation is similar with Russian Medical degrees.” There are many Indian 
students studying in Chinese medical colleges who are demanding recognition of 
their degrees. 

Flood fear in Delhi; Yamuna crosses 207-m mark after 32 yrs

Flood fear gripped several areas of the capital as water level in Yamuna went up to over two metres above the danger level, crossing the 207-metre mark for first time in 32 years and forcing city government to evacuate more people living in low-lying areas to safer places. Authorities said the water level is expected to go up further and may touch 207.30 metres by tomorrow afternoon but insisted that all arrangements have been made to deal with the situation.

"The water level in Yamuna touched 207.06 metres at 8 pm which is 2.23 metres above the danger mark of 204.83 metres. It will keep on rising and is likely to touch 207.30 metres tomorrow," Chief Engineer in the Flood and Irrigation Department V P S Tomar told PTI. The city witnessed massive floods in the year 1978 when water level in Yamuna had touched 207.49 metre.

The water level in Yamuna has gone up after Haryana released 7.5 lakh cusec of water into it on Monday, the highest discharge in last 100 years on a single day. The neighbouring state had released a total of 6.53 lakh cusec of water into the river on Sunday.

Fearing a flood-like situation, Delhi Government has shifted people living in low-lying areas to safer places. "We are constantly monitoring the situation and everything is under control.

We have already shifted people living in low-lying areas," Tomar said. The government has shifted hundreds of people from Garhi Mandu, Usmanpur Pusta, Jagatpur Village and Shastri Nagar to relief camps.

Over 3500 people who shifted to relief camps set up by the government following flood-threat last week, are already staying there. In the last 40 years, the city had witnessed floods in 1967, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1988, 1995 and 1998 but the flood in 1978 was of serious nature as it had inundated many areas in the city.

Meanwhile, Railways today cancelled 22 trains in view of the closure of the Old Yamuna bridge here and announced diversion of 65 other trains. The cancelled trains were mostly local trains, a Northern Railway spokesperson said.

He said 53 trains were terminated at various stations. The Old Yamuna Bridge, connecting east Delhi with the heart of the national capital, was shut for rail and road traffic yesterday after water level in Yamuna rose menacingly.

Yale to Focus on India

Yale University President Richard C. Levin says the elite American institution wants to grow ties with India to at least equal its ties with China.

AFP/Getty Images

Yale University President Richard C. Levin says the elite American institution wants to grow ties with India to at least equal its ties with China.

“We were devoting pretty large resources to China,” said Mr. Levin, before joining a panel discussion on India at Citibank headquarters in New York City Tuesday evening.

In 2008 and going forward the Ivy League school in New Haven, Conn., is devoting a “much wider portion of intellectual activities” to India.

He said the number of students at Yale from China and India has doubled in the past 10 years but China still has more overall students (350 total) at Yale than India, which sends roughly 140 total graduate and undergraduate students of Yale’s 11,593 students.

“We hope to establish Yale as a leading, if not the leading, university in the U.S. for teaching of India,” he said.

Rival institutions such as Columbia University in New York, Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and the University of Chicago have formidable resources and connections to India, he said.

Elihu Yale lived in India for nearly three decades in business and government starting in 1670 and donated goods to the Connecticut school, a gift that connected his name to the institution.

Mr. Levin said that, since 2008, Yale has added India specialists to faculty ranks in economics, political science, anthropology and other fields. It has expanded conferences, research collaborations with India-based institutions. And it plans to engage the Indian diaspora with programs and lectures in the U.S.

Part of that motivation may be to raise funds from the group of elite Yale alumni with ties to India, including Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi, CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and Rakesh Mohan, former Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India who is now teaching at Yale (all three joined the panel discussion with Mr. Levin and Kapil Sibal, India’s education minister.)

The school says it has devoted $30 million to the initiative since 2008 and has raised $15 million more from donors already.

When pressed on whether Yale would open a campus in India, however, Mr. Levin demurred. The school is in talks to open an undergraduate liberal arts college in Singapore that will explore East and West intellectual traditions, plans that could be finalized by December. That school could be a beach head for Yale in Asia, he said, but “I don’t think we’re ready to start a university in India at present time.”

Indonesia to vaccinate 400,000 dogs against rabies

Indonesia will vaccinate 400,000 dogs against rabies on the resort island of Bali, officials said Tuesday, as they cranked up efforts to wipe out an epidemic that has killed dozens of people. Local authorities who have been overwhelmed with reports of dog bites came under heavy criticism earlier this year after they started killing stray dogs by the tens of thousands.

They said they could not afford mass vaccinations recommended by the World Health Organization and others. Bali's governor, Made Pastika, said thanks to funds provided by a global alliance of animal welfare organizations, "we now have a humane alternative for protecting our people and our animals.

" He and others said they hoped to see Bali rabies-free by 2012. More than 80 people have died from rabies this year alone including several young children.

With another 30,000 others bitten, hospitals across the island of 3 million people have on several occasions found themselves out of free post-exposure vaccines. The epidemic got so bad that several countries, including the United States and Australia, had to advise vacationers to consider getting pre-exposure rabies vaccinations before arriving and to stay clear of dogs roaming the island's white-sand beaches.