Picaxe in the news

Jeremy Harris

Senior Member
I wonder if any of the team that put the "bionic sparrow" together are on this forum and might like to share how they did it?

Seems a good bit of promotion for the Picaxe, anyway.
 

DamonHD

Senior Member
Hmm, that sounds like at least one of the banking projects I've worked on, that would have been vastly improved by the application of another sort of pickaxe!

Rgds

Damon
 

mrburnette

Senior Member
Duke was ranked the fifth-largest research university in the nation based on expenditures in fiscal year 2010, the University announced Monday. Duke spent $983 million on research, increasing its ranking two places from the 2009 fiscal year. Although the national average for research and development spending for universities increased by 6.9 percent, Duke’s expenditures increased by 21.6 percent.

Of Duke’s $983 million in expenditures, $514 million came from the federal government and $113 million was funded internally by the University, according to the National Science Foundation.
Now, Mr. Robo Sparrow was limited to just $1500, so I wonder how many other strange, weird projects they are involved upon? Come on folks, does anyone really freeking care if a male sparrow wing-flapping is a sign of aggression? The few times I have been attacked by birds (one seagull in the Highlands once bombed me as did a very ugly bird outside Brighton) the birds wings were flapping! Except for a bird in a glide, would we not think that an angry bird would be flapping its wings? This is just BS research. I spent a year in a university system as an employee in the school of electrical engineering- just a place to burn taxpayer's dollars!


- Ray
 

lbenson

Senior Member
>just a place to burn taxpayer's dollars

Still, there may be other uses for a "linear motor designed from first principles and miniaturized" (to paraphrase). And $1,500 to help train the student-engineer might be a bargain.
 

Ravenous

Member
BS research.
Did that mean Blue Skies research, or something else? :)

First I'd say if there was never any of this stupid research, we wouldn't have silicon or even valves. Secondly I'd guess most graduate level or pre-doctoral research is really for training the scientists/engineers/mathematicians/whatevertheyare, not actually producing anything concrete. You need the people to achieve something later.

Surprised nobody's made any Angry Birds comments yet by the way :)
 

mrburnette

Senior Member
>just a place to burn taxpayer's dollars

Still, there may be other uses for a "linear motor designed from first principles and miniaturized" (to paraphrase). And $1,500 to help train the student-engineer might be a bargain.
Yes professor, it may be a bargain but I suspect Duke Research now holds a patent application on that little motor... I seriously doubt that the spin-offs will trickle down quickly or inexpensively. Research funded with taxpayer moneys should be "public domain / free" with the special exception of National Security research and even then the patents should be in the Federal domain where licensing can rebuild the funding provided by the taxpayer.

Now, grants from private companies... that's all part of a healthy commercial economy. My point is that in my opinion Federal moneys should not be granted for non-Federal needs. It is often difficult to make a distinction regarding such investments, but with $16T in Federal debt, with the worlds' free economies rocking from overspending, and with unemployment and underemployment looming at critical areas, the Feds need to be a better steward of the taxpayer. But, that is only my opinion.

In my 5 years in the military and my 1 year in educational research, I have seen billion$ in taxpayers moneys burned for no particularly good reason other than the money was there to be burned.

@Ravenous:
First I'd say if there was never any of this stupid research, we wouldn't have silicon or even valves. Secondly I'd guess most graduate level or pre-doctoral research is really for training the scientists/engineers/mathematicians/whatevertheyare, not actually producing anything concrete. You need the people to achieve something later.
Edison, Telsa, Marconi, Farnsworth, and others were driven primarily by private investments after WWI. There has come about a general expectation that public funding is a good thing, but in reality this is just a way for governments to control and direct free institutions. Market driven opportunities are superior to government driven ones but often the government moneys are easier to obtain since corporations are looking for profit driven research. Profit driven research such as the old Bell Labs were quite good at producing benefits for the general public - such as the transistor. Valves (tubes) were commercialized by RCA. Telsa's wireless and HV research was supported by GE. TI patented the first IC. The list goes on...

- Ray
 
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hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
Come on folks, does anyone really freeking care if a male sparrow wing-flapping is a sign of aggression?
I would guess that Behavioural Ecologists and Biologists do as they have to provide evidence for any hypothesis they may come up with.

From the preview of the associated paper it seems they are attempting to assess if wing waving is an actual signal and will be treated by an intruder as an aggressive signal. Because it's not possible to make a bird do only one thing when an intruder appears they built a robot to see how wing flapping alone was responded to. Seems a reasonable experimental scientific approach to me.
 

BeanieBots

Moderator
Both Tesla and Marconi were scoffed at for messing about electomagnetism which would "never have any practical application".
Besides, in this day and age, if you want to do a Phd at university, what unique piece of research would you take on that has not already been done in some shape or form already?
 

westaust55

Moderator
Because the. Introduced Indian Mynah (aka flying cane toad) aggressively chases other birds and small mammals out of their habitat.

So far the application of high velocity metal particles has kept the starlings and mynahs out of Western Australia.

Now you can send me your 08M2 chip(s) ;)
 

papaof2

Senior Member
Engineering schools are popular with government agencies - I know that the CIA actively recruits from Georgia Tech.
 

Billo

Senior Member
This is just BS research. I spent a year in a university system as an employee in the school of electrical engineering- just a place to burn taxpayer's dollars!


- Ray
Let me see Ray,

Penicillin, microwave ovens, rubber vulcanization, teflon, x-rays, radioactivity, quinine, smallpox vaccination, insulin, the record player, dynamite, viagra...

All these, and many, many more were accidental discoveries made while the scientists were looking for something else, and in each case something of far less impact and value.

Maybe it's best to keep an open mind.

"Chance favors the prepared mind"
 

boriz

Senior Member
The LASER was invented before anyone had thought of a use for it. It was just 'BS research'.

Much of the modern technology we take for granted was discovered accidentally where investment and pure research meet. Even highly focused research usually requires inspiration and guesswork to make that vital leap.

Pure research is hugely underfunded, despite it's unarguably massive importance throughout history. (To torture a simile) It's like buying a fish instead of a fishing rod. Or worse still (and more accurately), buying a rod, but eating all your bait, then having to sell your rod to buy fish. Madness.

I agree, certain unscrupulous types will try to exploit research funds for personal gain, essentially stealing. Proper supervision and scrutiny is essential. But the decisions need to be made by scientists, not money men.
 

papaof2

Senior Member
1947 - Bell Labs - the Transfer Resistor (better known as the transistor)
Searching for a smaller, cheaper wat to amplify telephone signals. By 1987, much of the telephone network was switched by transistors - as embedded in a large variety of silicon chips..

The search for a better material for ICBM nose cones led to the development of freezer-to-oven ceramic cookware.

Just some bs research...
 
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