FutureLab-Nepal

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Do you want to learn and put mapping skill in your technical toolset and learn about open mapping tools? Then grab this opportunity and be part of this event and be part of open mapping community of Nepal.

Applicants Registration Link: https://forms.gle/t679u6qazhuMWLGD9
Date: 2nd August, Sunday

Are you willing to serve the vulnerable communities of Sudurpaschim Province from your home by mapping? Do you want to learn concepts of , , and tools like ?

We are on a mission to map vulnerable, remote, and disaster-prone locations of Bajhang and Bajura districts of Sudurpaschim Province as a part of “Local Trails and Community Infrastructure Mapping for Emergency Preparedness and Response” being implemented by . YouthMappers and Geomatics Engineering Society are with us in this great campaign.

We are organizing an orientation session on 2nd August. The orientation session will be followed by a series of technical training and remote mapping sessions.

We will also have mappers sharing their stories of OSM and remote mapping.

Local youths from Sudurpaschim Province are encouraged to apply.

Every time I see post on current situation of education system and specially engineering something churns inside my mind and lead me to take some action.

So instead of asking to change the current system, I am proposing following student centric programs where we will provide resources(hardware and software) and learning management system(moodle, piazza, moocs based) where students, themselves will have to explore various topics through hands on projects(mentored by experts and student themselves).

(These are not for the faint hearted students who take engineering as a 3 hour exam and think of passing exam through Pulchowk notes at last hours. )

Some available topics, I am offering under FutureLab Academy (FutureLab-Nepal): (If you are interested than you can drop a comment or fill the interest form available in following link:

https://forms.gle/MvN45LqemnRTACob8

(These topics are for academics in field of electronics, electrical and computer science)

List of Capstone Project based and other student-centric courses:

1. Local Digital Broadcasting service using DVB-T transmission with feedback through low speed internet network (ECE-401)
Work on: Antenna Design, Embedded Linux and Multimedia technology

2. Understanding Digital Logic along with Hardware programming on FPGA (ECE-101, CSE-102)
Work on: Verilog programming, Designing your own next Intel processor

3. Learning C++ using game programming(CSE-101)
Work on: Game physics, SFML game library

4. How to work with open source software and live a free life?(CSE-103)
Work on: Linux application development, version control, documentation

5. How linux works and Kernel programming(CSE-401)
Work on: Embedded Linux development and build your own linux

6. Mobile Robotics through ROS(ROS-101)
Work on: Mobile robotics, ROS robotics framework

7. Learning the black art of Electronic Troubleshooting(ECE-401)
Work on any Electronic device troubleshooting and maintenance

8. Black art of High Speed PCB design(ECE-402)
Work on: Advance PCB design and design RPi like single board computer

9. Academic Reading and Writing(RNW-101)
Work on: Art of Reading and writing research papers and Latex

So still thinking about your engineering classes then contact your CR for copies of engineering notes and as lockdown eases down, IOE will conduct its exam because they don't want any disturbance in this lockdown vacation.

If not then just comment the courses you would like to take or fill your details in the following google form https://forms.gle/4UjkKFX7T2iJTPLL7.

Jai ho
Corona Lockdown.

FutureLab Academy: Interest on New Project based courses

The journey from collision to connection (The art of awareness)
"Functional invisibility is really about awareness, connection, empathy and respect. These are common practices among indigenous people who regularly interact with wildlife up close.(This became more clear to me during the silent loneliness of the lockdown while watching and listening to the birds around my house.).... the journey from collision to connection (to awareness of the life around.)" - Young, Jon (What the Robin Knows).
It is the first day of official lockdown (but it has been week working from home) for decreasing the corona virus outbreak. During this period, I had an experiment of counting the birds in our surrounding (one of the fun task to do during this lockdown) organised by Bird Conservation Nepal and learning the art of tracking, observing and identifying(Eureka !) the birds. During these periods I came to know about city birds(yes, even in the cacophony of busy cities, these birds have able to survive) and their behaviours(right now is the start of the spring, so lots of male birds will be busy to impress their partners.)
During these exploration I came across number of live cams around world for viewing these magnificent beauties.
So in this time of social distancing, if you are filling bored than these cams will make your day(goldmine in the mountain of online media).

Link 1 - https://youtu.be/N609loYkFJo
Link 2 - https://youtu.be/F_ZxbW80nGI
Link 3 - https://youtu.be/2kPv8TUlIhQ
Link 4 - https://youtu.be/b9F5hHanJbo
Link 5 - https://youtu.be/iNYDhlAYmgg

Live Birds In 4K! Cornell Lab FeederWatch Cam at Sapsucker Woods Watch LIVE at http://AllAboutBirds.org/CornellFeeders for news, updates, and more information about the pond and its surroundings. This FeederWatch cam is lo...

FutureLab Puzzle of the Day

Puzzle 002: Why a boy had no time for school?

After a boy failed to attend school for several weeks he was visited by his teacher. The boy explained why he had no time for school.

"I sleep 8 hours a day. That makes 8 x 365 = 2920 hrs. There are 24 hours per day, so that's the same as 2920/24 = 122 days."

This was one of the elite school of Kathmandu so they have Saturday and Sunday holidays. That amounts to 104 days per year.

They also have 1 month winter vacation, 1 month after exam. So 60 days holidays.
"I need 3 hours a day for meals that's 3*365=1095 hrs or 45 days.
And I need 2 hours for recreation in mobiles games and cartoons. That comes out to be 2*365 = 730 hrs or 30 days."

The boy jotted down the figures and added up all the days:

Sleep 122
weekends 104
holidays 60
Meals 45
games 30
Total =361

The total of 361 days.

"You see", said the boy, "that leaves me only 4 days to be sick and I haven't considered the dashain, tihar and unannounced holidays like strikes and bandas."

The teacher was amazed by the boys calculations and could not find any thing wrong with them.

Do you agree with the boy and his busy life.

FutureLab Puzzle of the Day Follow Up
Puzzle 001.2 Lotus in a Pond
Its 29th Day and with the pond half covered with lotus, authority understood the scenario finally. So hoping to stop the further growth they started a transplantation program, shifting the plants to other water bodies. To their relief, they found other 3 ponds (like Rani Pokhari) of similar sizes and they immediately started the mass transportation, successfully distributing lotuses in 4 ponds, just on the 29th day. How much more days does these additional ponds buy before these magical plants took over them?

FutureLab Puzzle of the Day Follow Up
Puzzle 001.1 Lotus in a pond
So Lotus will cover the half of the pond on 29th Day and fully on 30th. So there are no any place for the future growth and may disturb the whole ecosystem of the pond. So one of the mathematically sophisticated gardener, who looks after the flowers, gets worried and on 26th day confronts the authority. "If we do not control the growth of the Lotus today, in just four days it will cover the whole pond." Will anyone believe the gardener.

Hint: What is the area covered during 26th day.

Image Courtesy: https://commons.wikimedia.org/