tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88864283862700233062024-03-13T10:51:04.866-04:00My Frame of ReferencePlease click on the title to see 'em in a nicer format!
Thanks you!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger187125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-86973577155793847362023-10-28T12:05:00.002-04:002023-10-28T12:05:17.050-04:00"Professor receives Fulbright Specialist Award to study air pollution in Nepal" [Archive]<p style="animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-iteration-count: 1; color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 14px;">September 13, 2023</span><br style="color: black; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="color: black; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">By: Worcester State University News</span></p><p style="animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-iteration-count: 1; color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Nabin Malakar, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Earth, Environment, and Physics, is one of two faculty from Worcester State University’s School of Science, Technology, and Health to be awarded a 2023 Fulbright Specialist Award. The award will enable Malakar to train researchers in Nepal on the use of low-cost sensors, remote sensing techniques, model development, data analysis, and the art of communicating research and to organize a series of workshops at the Kathmandu Institute of Applied Sciences.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgz0MifNXxtp9MBjn0tOTeP6UPWI3KpulJVCt96Sb_-uWiL_fUFqUMfZ3dAxZkhWLhsZ-UrBIh2MfxvMn45w70OuRPs1JZGCfptqx5pq947WSrLEDQmZNRBNy3VvhOvDpvDXWyKkQGy5P6EnU8zBDJ1q2XMz90aYkbUzd8m1rDGwpdrF5g2LVGOTG3AxfU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="850" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgz0MifNXxtp9MBjn0tOTeP6UPWI3KpulJVCt96Sb_-uWiL_fUFqUMfZ3dAxZkhWLhsZ-UrBIh2MfxvMn45w70OuRPs1JZGCfptqx5pq947WSrLEDQmZNRBNy3VvhOvDpvDXWyKkQGy5P6EnU8zBDJ1q2XMz90aYkbUzd8m1rDGwpdrF5g2LVGOTG3AxfU" width="320" /></a></div>Malakar, an expert in practical applications of environmental observations focusing on air pollution and urban heat island phenomena, is expected to make a significant contribution to the field of environmental science.<p></p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“I am honored to have been awarded a Fulbright Specialist award,” said Malakar. “This is a great opportunity to share my expertise with the community and collaborate with scientists.”</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">The workshops are expected to have a significant impact on the field of environmental science in Nepal. They will help Nepali researchers to develop the skills and knowledge they need to conduct cutting-edge research on air pollution. This research will help to raise awareness about the status of air quality in Nepal and provide insights to protect the health of its citizens.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Malakar is actively involved in various communities, holding the position of vice president at the Association of Nepali Physicists in America. He also serves on the board of Aldrich Astronomical Society, one of the oldest amateur astronomy clubs in the United States, situated in the heart of Massachusetts. In his spare time, he organizes a variety of public outreach programs as a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Ambassador.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Margaret Kerr, Ph.D., professor of chemistry, who received a Fulbright Specialist Award in 2007, received a second award and will return to Thailand to continue her subject expertise in chemistry.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">The Fulbright Scholar Program for academics and professionals awards more than 1,700 fellowships each year, enabling 800 U.S. scholars to go abroad and 900 visiting scholars to come to the United States.</p><p style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;"><span style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif;"><a href="https://news.worcester.edu/professor-receives-fulbright-specialist-award-to-study-air-pollution-in-nepal/">https://news.worcester.edu/professor-receives-fulbright-specialist-award-to-study-air-pollution-in-nepal/</a></span></p><p style="line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;"><span style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif;"><a href="https://usefnepal.org/grantee/fulbright-specialist-program-grantees/">https://usefnepal.org/grantee/fulbright-specialist-program-grantees/</a> </span></p><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-79652114074423678822022-08-27T17:56:00.000-04:002022-08-27T17:56:08.955-04:00My interview on DrishyaTV<div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">अमेरिकामा कार्यरत नेपाली वैज्ञानिक डा. नवीन मालाकारले अमेरिकी अन्तरिक्ष संस्था नासामा काम गर्दा अविस्मरणीय अनुभव हासिल गरेको बताएका छन् । उनले सन् २०१४ देखि सन् २०१७ सम्म नासाको जेट प्रपल्स ल्याबमा पृथ्वीको तापमानसम्बन्धी अनुसन्धान गरेका थिए । ‘विश्वकै प्रतिष्ठित वैज्ञानिक संस्था नासामा अनुसन्धाता भएर काम गर्दा म एकदमै उत्साहित थिएँ । त्यहाँ केही गरेर देखाउनुपर्छ, के सिक्नुपर्छ भन्ने हुटहुटी मनभित्र रहेको थियो,’ उनी भन्छन् ।
नवीनले पृथ्वीको तापमान नाप्ने नयाँ गणितीय ‘एल्गोरिदम’ तयार पारेपछि वैज्ञानिक जगतमा उनको चर्चा बढेको थियो । यस कामका लागि उनले पृथ्वीका चार भूउपग्रहको २० वर्षदेखिको तथ्यांक विश्लेषण गरी तापमान नाप्नका लागि नयाँ विधि पत्ता लगाएका थिए । यो विधि पत्ता लागिसकेपछि अब एउटै गणितिय विधिअनुसार विश्वका विभिन्न स्थानको ताप नाप्न सकिने डा. नवीन बताउँछन् । योभन्दा पहिले पृथ्वीको तापमान सम्बन्धी अध्ययन–अनुसन्धान गर्दा अप्टिकल तथ्यांक मात्र उपलब्ध हुन्थ्यो ।
सन् २०११ मा न्युयोर्कस्थित सुली अल्बानी युनिभर्सिटीबाट कम्प्युटेसनल फिजिक्समा पिएचडी गरेका नवीन पृथ्वीको तापमान अर्थात् ज्वरो नाप्ने अनुसन्धानमा त्यसयता निरन्तर लागि परेका छन् । उनले सन् २००३ मा त्रिभुवन विश्वविद्यालय भौतिकशास्त्र विभागबाट ‘ब्ल्याक होल’सम्बन्धी अनुसन्धानमा एमएस्सी गरेका हुन् । उनी अहिले उस्टर स्टेट युनिभर्सिटी, म्यासाचुसेट्सको अर्थ, इन्भारोमेन्ट एन्ड फिजिक्स विभागमा असिस्टेन्ट प्रोफेसरका रुपमा अध्यापन तथा अनुसन्धान गर्दै आएका छन् ।
आफूले प्रतिपादन गरेको पृथ्वीको तापमान नाप्ने विधि जलवायु परिवर्तन, विपद्, कृषि बालीविज्ञान आदिका लागि उपयोगी हुने उनको धारणा छ । पछिल्लो समय उनी नेपालको विभिन्न क्षेत्रमा जलवायु परिवर्तन र तापमान वृद्घिसम्बन्धी अनुसन्धान गरिरहेका छन् । अनुसन्धान पूरा गरेर यसको नतिजा सार्वजनिक गर्न अझै केही समय लाग्ने उनको भनाइ छ । वैज्ञानिक अनुसन्धान, विज्ञान लेखन र भावी योजनामा केन्द्रित रहेर डा. नवीनसँग दृश्य टिभीले गरेको कुराकानी यहाँ प्रस्तुत गरिएको छ ।</span></div><div><br /></div><div>URL: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR-4OZKFmd8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR-4OZKFmd8</a></div><div><br /></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JR-4OZKFmd8" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-9462688087078799522021-07-23T15:10:00.003-04:002021-09-28T09:41:38.399-04:00Convening the fourth ANPA Conference 2021 I am thankful for all the support and help received during organizing the fourth ANPA Conference 2021. It was held on a virtual platform on dates July 16 through 18, 2021. <div>The special highlight of the conference was the Nobel Laureate Dr. Joachim Frank, who delivered a keynote talk during the conference. In his talk, he discussed his discovery about single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), for which he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 with Jacques Dubochet and Richard Henderson. </div><div>The second keynote talk was delivered by professor Bijaya Karki, Professor at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA. </div><div>The third highlight of the conference was a Nepal focussed session that discussed the Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy of the Nepal government to engage Nepali scientific diaspora for the development of the country. Dr. Rudra Aryal facilitated the Nepali-diaspora session, with the panelists Dr. Sunil Babu Shrestha, the vice-chancellor of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, Dr. Vishnu Raj Upreti, the executive chairperson of Policy Research Institute, Dr. Binil Aryal, the Dean of Institute of Science and Technology, Tribhuvan university discussed the current status of research activities in Nepal and how the Nepali diaspora could contribute to accelerating the research collaboration among Nepali scientists. </div><div>During the three-day conference, there were 116 papers presented in two parallel sessions. The conference was held on a virtual platform as we could not run the in-person meetings. Hopefully next year we will have a hybrid program like we did in 2019 at Brooklyn College. </div><div><span id="docs-internal-guid-53a76349-7fff-36ad-ebcb-ce209ba0a18b"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 368px; overflow: hidden; width: 624px;"><img height="368" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pH53xXH_KvxW01poxsVdn8ijNYzk_3bBPscqy2xdZtoReXGEc1u2Trlz7ybGG_mpOp-xJgK3aMBOxKyTva-wFxB-yqmO2t8frqyRHnzbecZSwLnQbXROMPDNdeOm0TiR2l7T2SUf" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="624" /></span></span></span></div><div><br /></div><div>The selected papers based upon the conference will have an opportunity to be published in the special issue of the Nepal physical Journal of Nepal Physical Society. We have made a special issue editorial team members consisting of myself, D.Pashupati Dhakal, Dr. Arjun Dahal, Dr. Chiranjivi Lamsal, and Dr. Dilli Raj Paudyal. The editor of NPS (Dr. Binod Adhikari) will be the managing editor.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>During the last leg of the conference, the annual general meeting (AGM) was held. Various activities conducted by ANPA were presented. Dr. Chandra Adhikari was the master of ceremony who summarized various ANPA activities, Dr. Shree Krishna Bhattarai presented the development of the new website platform, Dr. Pashupati Dhakal talked about the ANPA Winter Workshop 2020, Dr. CR Bhatt discussed the ANPA student travel award; Dr. Tikaram Neupane discussed the ANPA summer camp for the high school students, and the meeting ended with a message from the president Dr. Jagan Devkota.
My sincere thanks to all the participants for the great enthusiasm and support provided by the community to organize a successful conference.
</div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-75006114749447680352021-06-05T06:30:00.002-04:002021-06-05T06:30:11.288-04:00Use of smartphones in experimental physics...<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><div><br /></div><div><div>Diffraction Experiments with a Smart Cart</div><div>The Physics Teacher 59, 272 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1119/10.0004155</div></div><div>Writes: <span style="font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 20px;">The use of smartphones in experimental physics is by now widely accepted and documented.</span><span class="ref-lnk" style="display: inline; font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 20px;"><a data-reflink="_i11" data-rid="c1 c2 c3 c4 c5" href="https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/10.0004155#" style="color: #00aeef; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-word;"><span style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">1–5</span></a></span></div><div><br /></div><div>I included one of the smartphone lab using the camera to find the focal length of the phone's camera lens. </div><div><br /></div><div><li style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(224, 224, 224); font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"><span class="ref-num" style="display: inline-block; vertical-align: top;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />1.</span><span class="ref-text" style="display: inline-block; max-width: 70%; padding: 0px 20px; text-indent: 2px;">M. Monteiro, C. Stari, C. Cabeza, and A. Marti, “<span class="NLM_article-title">The polarization of light and Malus’ law using smartphones</span>,” <i>Phys. Teach.</i> <b>55</b>, 264 (<span class="NLM_month">May</span> 2017). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4981030" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4981030</a>, <a class="google-scholar" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?hl=en&volume=55&publication_year=2017&pages=264&author=M.+Monteiroauthor=C.+Stariauthor=C.+Cabezaauthor=A.+Marti&title=The+polarization+of+light+and+Malus%E2%80%99+law+using+smartphones&doi=10.1119%2F1.4981030" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;"><b>Google Scholar</b></a><span class="sfxlink"><b><a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.4981030" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">Scitation</a></b></span>, <span class="sfxlink"><b><a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/servlet/linkout?suffix=c1/c1_1&dbid=128&doi=10.1119%2F10.0004155&key=000399785800003" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">ISI</a></b></span></span></li><li style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(224, 224, 224); font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"><span class="ref-num" style="display: inline-block; vertical-align: top;">2.</span><span class="ref-text" style="display: inline-block; max-width: 70%; padding: 0px 20px; text-indent: 2px;">A. Shakur and J. Kraft, “<span class="NLM_article-title">Measurement of Coriolis acceleration with a smartphone</span>,” <i>Phys. Teach.</i> <b>54</b>, 288 (<span class="NLM_month">May</span> 2016). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4947157" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4947157</a>, <a class="google-scholar" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?hl=en&volume=54&publication_year=2016&pages=288&author=A.+Shakurauthor=J.+Kraft&title=Measurement+of+Coriolis+acceleration+with+a+smartphone&doi=10.1119%2F1.4947157" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;"><b>Google Scholar</b></a><span class="sfxlink"><b><a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.4947157" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">Scitation</a></b></span>, <span class="sfxlink"><b><a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/servlet/linkout?suffix=c2/c2_1&dbid=128&doi=10.1119%2F10.0004155&key=000375931200012" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">ISI</a></b></span></span></li><li style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(224, 224, 224); font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"><span class="ref-num" style="display: inline-block; vertical-align: top;">3.</span><span class="ref-text" style="display: inline-block; max-width: 70%; padding: 0px 20px; text-indent: 2px;">Martín Monteiro, Cecilia Cabeza, Arturo C. Marti, Patrik Vogt, and Jochen Kuhn, “<span class="NLM_article-title">Angular velocity and centripetal acceleration relationship</span>,” <i>Phys. Teach.</i> <b>52</b>, 312 (<span class="NLM_month">May</span> 2014). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4872422" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4872422</a>, <a class="google-scholar" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?hl=en&volume=52&publication_year=2014&pages=312&author=Mart%C3%ADn+Monteiroauthor=Cecilia+Cabezaauthor=Arturo+C.+Martiauthor=Patrik+Vogtauthor=Jochen+Kuhn&title=Angular+velocity+and+centripetal+acceleration+relationship&doi=10.1119%2F1.4872422" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;"><b>Google Scholar</b></a><span class="sfxlink"><b><a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.4872422" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">Scitation</a></b></span>, <span class="sfxlink"><b><a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/servlet/linkout?suffix=c3/c3_1&dbid=128&doi=10.1119%2F10.0004155&key=000365777100020" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">ISI</a></b></span></span></li><li style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(224, 224, 224); font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"><span class="ref-num" style="display: inline-block; vertical-align: top;">4.</span><span class="ref-text" style="display: inline-block; max-width: 70%; padding: 0px 20px; text-indent: 2px;">Martín Monteiro, Cecilia Cabeza, and Arturo C. Marti, “<span class="NLM_article-title">Rotational energy in a physical pendulum</span>,” <i>Phys. Teach.</i> <b>52</b>, 180 (<span class="NLM_month">March</span> 2014). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4865529" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4865529</a>, <a class="google-scholar" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?hl=en&volume=52&publication_year=2014&pages=180&author=Mart%C3%ADn+Monteiroauthor=Cecilia+Cabezaauthor=Arturo+C.+Marti&title=Rotational+energy+in+a+physical+pendulum&doi=10.1119%2F1.4865529" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;"><b>Google Scholar</b></a><span class="sfxlink"><b><a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.4865529" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">Scitation</a></b></span>, <span class="sfxlink"><b><a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/servlet/linkout?suffix=c4/c4_1&dbid=128&doi=10.1119%2F10.0004155&key=000365776400018" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">ISI</a></b></span></span></li><li style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(224, 224, 224); font-family: Lora, serif; font-size: 20px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 20px 0px;"><span class="ref-num" style="display: inline-block; vertical-align: top;">5.</span><span class="ref-text" style="display: inline-block; max-width: 70%; padding: 0px 20px; text-indent: 2px;">A. Shakur and T. Sinatra, “<span class="NLM_article-title">Angular momentum</span>,” <i>Phys. Teach.</i> <b>51</b>, 564 (<span class="NLM_month">Dec.</span> 2013). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4830076" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">https://doi.org/10.1119/1.4830076</a>, <a class="google-scholar" href="http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?hl=en&volume=51&publication_year=2013&pages=564&author=A.+Shakurauthor=T.+Sinatra&title=Angular+momentum&doi=10.1119%2F1.4830076" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;"><b>Google Scholar</b></a><span class="sfxlink"><b><a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.4830076" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">Scitation</a></b></span>, <span class="sfxlink"><b><a href="https://aapt.scitation.org/servlet/linkout?suffix=c5/c5_1&dbid=128&doi=10.1119%2F10.0004155&key=000209539600023" style="color: #00aeef; display: inline-block; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-decoration-line: none; word-break: break-all;">ISI</a></b></span></span></li></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-34579232028490965352020-07-09T12:37:00.001-04:002023-10-29T10:48:54.215-04:00Researchers Identify Areas Impacted by Extreme Heat to Help Vulnerable Residents PrepareR<script type="text/javascript">
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</script><span style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif;">esearchers at Worcester State are working on identifying “hot spots” in Worcester to help the most vulnerable city residents survive a growing number of extreme temperature events.</span><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Assistant Professor of Earth, Environment, and Physics Nabin Malakar, Ph.D., and student John Veneziano ’20 are focusing on heat vulnerability, looking at places where income level, age range (children and elders are particularly vulnerable), and housing environment stress leave people at risk of being impacted by extreme heat events. Their research will help communities make decisions about safety, Malakar says.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“It just stands out from the data,” Malakar says. “More than 50 percent of people are living in urban areas where the heatwave can seriously impact human health and wellbeing.”</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Venezio and Malakar’s research poster “Identifying Areas Impacted by Extreme Heat Events in Worcester, Massachusetts” was presented at the 100th American Meteorological Society meeting in Boston in January.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Extreme temperatures are “one of the leading causes of hospital visits and health issues,” write Malakar and Veneziano in their abstract. The impact of these extreme temperature events will increase as the Earth warms as a result of climate change.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“We want to make people aware of it so in the future we can be prepared about future climate changes,” Dr. Malakar says.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Malakar and Veneziano looked at the “urban heat island” effect, caused by a larger number of people and buildings close together in urban areas, the number of extreme heat events, and the expected increase in the number of these events as a result of climate change and the urban heat island effect that Worcester experiences.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">His presentation was well-received. “[There were] a lot of good responses to the presentation. John was enthusiastic about it,” Dr. Malakar says.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Working on this research was an opportunity for Veneziano to get experience and exposure. While Veneziano was very prepared going into the international conference, he was still “really nervous.” There were more than 1,000 posters organized by topic, and more than 40 people viewed with interest and asked questions about his presentation, Veneziano says.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“People were generally really curious about what I had to say,” Veneziano says, especially given that Malakar has worked with the core team of NASA scientists who worked on developing the satellite remote sensing data.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Veneziano and Malakar started working together when Veneziano was in one of Malakar’s environmental science classes. Veneziano was a “bright student” and he “stood out” Malakar says. While Veneziano was “kind of shy in the beginning,” he now needs minimal direction in the second year of their ongoing research.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“The purpose of research is to make the difference,” Malakar says. “The ultimate goal is to contribute to society to make a difference in people’s life.”</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-39724183080119872172020-06-22T03:00:00.000-04:002023-10-28T12:34:41.866-04:00Summer Course Recognizes First-Year Students May Need More Help Transitioning to College [Archive: news.worcester.edu]<span style="font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">June 22, 2020</span><br style="font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /><p style="animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-iteration-count: 1; color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">By: Nancy Sheehan</span></p><p style="animation-fill-mode: forwards; animation-iteration-count: 1; color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">A new summer course will allow incoming first-year students to get a jump on their journey into higher education at Worcester State University.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Called “Lancer Learning,” the free, three-credit course, which will run during Summer Session II, aims to bridge the gap between high school and college to help ensure students’ academic success. The course will be offered online in a flexible format so students will have a variety of ways to complete assignments and engage with faculty, current WSU students, and others.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Faculty leads will be Colleen Sullivan, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, and Nabin Malakar, Ph.D., assistant professor of earth, environment, and physics. They will be assisted by a group of faculty, staff, and administrators who have volunteered their time to help with the course.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“It’s a multidisciplinary course that will talk about the expectations inside the classroom and open students up to Blackboard, our learning management system, which they’ve probably never used before,” says Tammy Tebo, M.Ed, assistant dean of academic services. “They’ll be getting critical feedback from professors on how they should be writing in college, and be taught learning strategies specific for first-year students.”</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">The course also will help incoming students build relationships with Worcester State faculty, staff, students, and administrators. “We want to provide them opportunities to gain more confidence and be better prepared to begin their first semester,” Tebo says.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Sullivan says she hopes the course will introduce students to important tools they can use once the fall semester starts and they officially become college students.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“What Nabin and I are trying to do is to incorporate the technology they will be using and identify some literacy resources so they can find the right tools they will need for their classes in the future,” she says. “We’re also going to work on having students start to experience learning at a college level so they can get a sense of the kinds of expectations that professors usually have.”</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">The course has been designed to position students for success over the next four years, Malakar says. “We want these students to excel at our university,” he says. “Given the new scenario of this pandemic, we want to make sure that our students are successful and well prepared for the upcoming fall semester.”</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">The concept for the course arose when President Barry M. Maloney set up safe reopening teams and asked one of them to focus specifically on what high school seniors coming to Worcester State in the fall might need.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“This year is very different than before because of the pandemic,” Tebo says. “These students have experienced a major disruption, so we hope this course will fill the gap of the information they might have lost since they’ve been out of touch and maybe haven’t held a pencil in a few months.”</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">The course will give enrollees social tools as well as academic ones, Sullivan says.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“Offering both academic and social support will alleviate some of the nervousness and anxiety that they might have about coming into a new environment,” she says. “They don’t know where to look for help, so sometimes they get a little lost and this class is designed to introduce them to some of those resources and show them where they are on campus. We hope that helps alleviate some of the first-semester jitters that they often experience.”</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Course participants also will be able to get to know some of the people they will encounter when the fall semester begins. The larger group will be divided into smaller cohorts of 10 to 20 students at times, each working with its own group leader.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“Even though this is going to be online, they will be able to meet people, know a face, find somebody they have something in common with, so that even from a social perspective, it’s not as scary to them in the fall semester,” Sullivan says.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">“We want to align students toward their future and familiarize them the tools that are available,” Malakar says. “We want them to make friends with the people that they’re going to be with, and to know that the professors are not the scariest people in the world, and that the Worcester State campus is a place where they can find all the resources they need.”</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">Tentative plans call for the course to be graded on a pass/fail basis. “Lancer Learning” will run in two segments. At some point between July 6 to 10, students will need to attend one virtual welcome event for enrollees. During this time, they will learn how to log in to BlackBoard (an online system where grades and assignments are posted), review course expectations, and meet our faculty.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">From July 13 to Aug. 28, students will be expected to log in regularly and submit assignments on time. Each week, assignments and activities for the week will be posted on Mondays and due on Saturdays.</p><p style="color: #111c4e; font-family: Montserrat, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 25px;">How to register:<br style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />An email has been sent to the Worcester State Gmail accounts of all incoming first-year students. In it, there is an electronic form to submit to enroll in the course. The deadline for enrollment is Friday July 3. Students can ask any questions by emailing <a href="mailto:asuccess@worcester.edu" style="color: #007dba; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">asuccess@worcester.edu</a> or their academic advisor.</p><script type="text/javascript">
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</script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-89314211002313249912018-11-03T20:30:00.000-04:002018-11-03T20:33:56.551-04:00नासामा नेपाली वैज्ञानिकको उपलब्धि: पृथ्वीको ताप मापनमा ठूलाे फड्को<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="uk-text-bold nk-top-author" style="color: rgb(51 , 51 , 51); font-size: 16px;">दिनेश कार्की </span>बोष्टन (अमेरिका) कार्तिक १३</div>
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पृथ्वीलाई निरन्तर अवलोकन गरिरहेका चार भूउपग्रहको ४० वर्षदेखिका तथ्यांकलाई प्रयोग गर्दै एक नेपाली वैज्ञानिकले पृथ्वीको तापमान नाप्ने नयाँ गणितिय ‛एल्गोरिदम’ विकास गरेका छन्।<br />
नेशनल एरोनोटिक्सस एण्ड स्पेश एडमिनिस्ट्रेशन (नासा)को जेट प्रपल्सन ल्याबमा कार्यरत नेपाली वैज्ञानिक डा नवीनकुमार मालाकार नेतृत्वम अनुसन्धानकर्ताकाे एउटा समूहले भूउपग्रहबाट प्राप्त तस्विरका आधारमा एउटै गणितीय विधिबाट पृथ्वीका विभिन्न स्थानको ताप मापन गर्ने नयाँ ‘एल्गोरिदम’ विकास गरेको हो।<br />
यससम्बन्धी अनुसन्धान निष्कर्षसहितको लेख ‛आइइइइ ट्रान्जाक्सन एण्ड जियो साइन्स एन्ड रिमोट सेन्सिङ सोसाइटीको′ जर्नलमा प्रकाशित भएको छ। यो अनुसन्धानमा मालकारसँगै ग्यालन सी हुले, सिमाेन जे हुक, केली लार्बे, माेनिका कुक र जाेन अार स्कट संलग्न छन्।<br />
अहिलेसम्म फरक–फरक भूउपग्रहबाट प्राप्त तथ्यांकलाई छुट्टाछुट्टै हिसाब गरेर मान (भ्याल) पत्ता लगाइन्थ्यो। भौतिकशास्त्रका शोधकर्ता डा मालाकारले भने, ‛यो एल्गोरिदम पृथ्वीको तापमान जोडिएका तमाम विषयवस्तु अध्ययनमा विश्वव्यापी रुपमै प्रयोग हुनसक्छ। तापमान हिसाबकिताब गर्ने काममा यसले एकरुपता ल्याउनेछ।’<br />
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यसअघि पृथ्वी तापमापन अध्ययनमा अप्टिकल डाटा मात्र उपलब्ध हुने गरेकोमा यो शोधको सफलतापछि अब थर्मल डेटा प्रयोग गर्न सकिने भएको छ। ‘सतहमा मापन गरिएको डेटा र स्याटलाइटबाट लिइएको डेटा क्रस भ्यालिडेशन गर्दा मेल खान्छ’, उनी भन्छन्।<br />
यो वैज्ञानिक शोधलेख प्रकाशित भएपछि वैज्ञानिक समुदायबाट राम्रो प्रतिक्रिया आएको डा मालाकार बताउँछन्।<br />
<b>जलावयु परिवर्तनदेखि खेतीबाली अनुसन्धानमा उपयोगी</b>जलवायू परिवर्तनको प्रवृत्ति देखाउन यो एल्गोरिदम उपायेगी हुने मालाकारको विश्वास छ। विगत ४० वर्षमा कुन कालखण्डमा पृथ्वीको तापक्रम कसरी परिवर्तन भएको छ भन्ने तुलनात्मक अध्ययन पनि यसबाट गर्न सकिन्छ। भूसतहको तापक्रमलाई तापसँग सम्बन्धित महत्वपूर्ण विषयवस्तु जस्तैः शहरी जनसंख्यामा बढ्दो तापक्रम (हिट स्ट्रेस)को असर, भेक्टरजनित रोगहरुको अध्ययन आदिमा उपयोग हुनेछ। यसैगरी भूसतहको तापक्रमको दीर्घकालीन प्रवृत्ति आँकलन गर्न पनि यो विधि सहायक हुनेछ।<br />
अनुसन्धानमा युनाइटेड स्टेट्स जियोलोजिकल सर्वे (यूएसजीएस)को चारवटा भूउपग्रह (ल्याण्डस्याट)को सहयोगमा सम्भव भएको हो। ती भूउपग्रहले पृथ्वीलाई १ सय मिटरको रिजोल्यूसनमा अवलोकन गरेका तस्विर तथ्यांकलाई अनुसन्धानमा उपयोग गरिएको छ।<br />
भूउपग्रहरु नम्बर ४, नम्बर ५, नम्बर ७ र नम्बर ८ बाट प्राप्त तस्विरका तथ्यांकलाई मिहिन ढंगबाट विश्लेषण गरिएको डा.मालाकार बताउँछन्। यी भूउपग्रहहरु विभिन्न समयमा यूएसजिएसले प्रक्षेपण गरेका हुन्।<br />
नम्बर ४, ५ भूउपग्रह सन् १९८२ मा प्रक्षेपित गरिएको थियो। नम्बर ७ सन १९९९ र ८ सन् २०१३ मा पृथ्वीको कक्षमा पठाइएको थियो।पृथ्वीका जीवन र जलवायुका लागि तापमान निकै सम्वेदनशील विषय हो। वनजंगल फडानीको निरीक्षण गर्न पनि मेरो अनुसन्धानले विकास गरेको विधि काम लाग्छ’, उनी भन्छन्, ‘किनभने जहाँ रुख काटियो त्यहाँको तापक्रम बढी देखिन्छ र रुखहरु भएको ठाउँमा स्वभाविक रुपले तापक्रम कम हुन्छ।’<br />
मानवजनित क्रियाकलापले भूमण्डलीय पर्यावरणलाई कस्तो असर गरेको छ भन्ने विषयको सूक्ष्म अध्ययनको लागि पनि यो प्रविधि उपयोगी हुनेछ। डा मालाकारले विकसित गरेको विधि खेतीयोग्य जमिनको उर्बरता दर परिवर्तन छ कि छैन भनेर विश्लेषण गर्न पनि प्रयोग गर्न सकिनेछ।<br />
‘बालीनालीको बिमा गर्ने ठूला बिमा कम्पनीहरुले पनि हाम्रो बिधिलाई उपयाेग गर्न सक्छन्। यो विधिले सिजनको अन्त्यमा कति उत्पादन हुन्छ भन्ने निक्र्योल गर्न सक्छ’, उनी भन्छन्।<br />
<b>‘ब्लाकहोल’ अनुसन्धानकर्ता</b><br />
अहिले पृथ्वीको तापमान हिसाब गर्ने विधि पत्ता लगाएर ख्याति कमाइरहेका मालाकारले त्रिभुवन विश्वविद्यालयमा स्नातकोत्तर गर्दा भने ‘ब्ल्याकहोल’का शोधकर्ता हुन्। त्यतिबेला उनका गाइड अन्तर्राष्र्टिय ख्यातिप्राप्त भौतिकशास्त्री उदयराज खनाल थिए। विज्ञानमा जे अनुसन्धान गरे पनि त्यसले समाजलाई प्रभाव पार्ने खालको हुनुपर्छ भन्ने सोच त्यतिबेलै भएको उनी सुनाउँछन्। भन्छन्, ‛फिजिक्समा शोध गर्छु भन्ने थियो तर के गर्ने भनेर स्पस्ट मार्गचित्र मसँग थिएन।’<br />
नेपालको त्रिभुवन विश्वविद्यालयबाट भौतिक विज्ञानमा स्नातकोत्तर गरेका उनले युनिभर्सिटी अफ न्यूयोर्क अल्बानीबाट सन् २०११ मा भौतिक शास्त्रमा विद्यावारिधि पूरा गरेका हुन्।<br />
एकवर्ष यता उनी म्यासाच्यूसेट्सको उस्टर स्टेट युनिभर्सिटीमा भौतिक विज्ञानका सहायक प्राध्यापकको रुपमा कार्यरत छन्। त्यसअघि उनी पोष्ट डक्टारल शोध बैज्ञानिकको रुपमा नासाको जेट प्रपल्सन ल्याब, क्याल्टेक कयालिफोर्नीमा कार्यरत थिए। त्यहाँ उनले नासाकै भूउपग्रह मोडिस, भिआइआइआरएस लगायतका तथ्यांकबाट पृथ्वी भूसतहको तापक्रमबारे शोध गरेका थिए।<br />
उच्चशिक्षा अध्ययनका लागि अमेरिका आउनुअघि मालाकार मध्य बानेश्वरस्थित हिमालयन ह्वाइटहाउस कलेजमा फिजिक्स पढाउँदथे। मकवानपुरको हेटौंडामा जन्मेका नबिन मालाकारले भुटनदेवी माविबाट एसएलसी गरेका हुन्। भुटनदेवी मावीका शिक्षकहरुको प्रेरणाकै कारण आफू भौतिक विज्ञानको शिक्षामा आकर्षित भएको उनी सुनाउँछन्।</div>
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प्रकाशित १३ कार्तिक २०७५, मंगलबार | 2018-10-30 10:51:36</h6>
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Publised on nepalkhabar.com</div>
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<a href="https://nepalkhabar.com/np/news/community/48450" target="_blank">https://nepalkhabar.com/np/news/community/48450 </a></div>
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The research paper:</div>
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<a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8361068">https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8361068</a></div>
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<b>An Operational Land Surface Temperature Product for Landsat Thermal Data: Methodology and Validation </b><br /><a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/searchresult.jsp?searchWithin=%22First%20Name%22:%22Nabin%20K.%22&searchWithin=%22Last%20Name%22:%22Malakar%22&newsearch=true">Nabin K. Malakar </a><a href="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4816-6304"></a>; <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/searchresult.jsp?searchWithin=%22First%20Name%22:%22Glynn%20C.%22&searchWithin=%22Last%20Name%22:%22Hulley%22&newsearch=true">Glynn C. Hulley </a>; <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/searchresult.jsp?searchWithin=%22First%20Name%22:%22Simon%20J.%22&searchWithin=%22Last%20Name%22:%22Hook%22&newsearch=true">Simon J. Hook </a>; <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/searchresult.jsp?searchWithin=%22First%20Name%22:%22Kelly%22&searchWithin=%22Last%20Name%22:%22Laraby%22&newsearch=true">Kelly Laraby </a>; <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/searchresult.jsp?searchWithin=%22First%20Name%22:%22Monica%22&searchWithin=%22Last%20Name%22:%22Cook%22&newsearch=true">Monica Cook </a>; <a href="https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/searchresult.jsp?searchWithin=%22First%20Name%22:%22John%20R.%22&searchWithin=%22Last%20Name%22:%22Schott%22&newsearch=true">John R. Schott</a> <br /><br />Preprint is available: <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325231273_An_Operational_Land_Surface_Temperature_Product_for_Landsat_Thermal_Data_Methodology_and_Validation%C2%A0">https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325231273_An_Operational_Land_Surface_Temperature_Product_for_Landsat_Thermal_Data_Methodology_and_Validation </a><h6 class="uk-text-primary uk-margin" style="background-color: white; color: #2d7091; font-family: "ek mukta", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; margin: 15px 0px;">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-18150436436130127322018-11-03T20:21:00.003-04:002018-11-03T20:21:57.751-04:00Importance Of Physics Education In Nepal: The Rising Nepal/Oct 27, 2018<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Importance Of Physics Education In Nepal </b></div>
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Dr. Rudra Aryal, <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Hunter Francoeur &<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Dr. Nabin K Malakar</div>
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Physics, the Greek meaning of “nature”, is a science that plays a key role in the daily life of human societies. It is the study of matter, energy and their interactions. According to a statement adopted by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP, 1999), “Physics is an international enterprise, which plays a key role in the future progress of humankind”. Physics plays a key role in the world and generates fundamental knowledge. The influence of physics leads to the transfer of old technologies to the development of new ones along with productivity in economies. The interdisciplinary nature of economic growth also relies on greater cooperation between physics and other sciences. Therefore, physics education is an essential part of an advanced society.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><i>Impacts</i><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The Institute of Physics (IOP), a London based leading scientific membership society working to advance physics for the benefit of all, have reported that Physics-based companies contribute to about nine percent of the UK’s economic output and employ millions of people. Moreover, physics-based industries have multiple impacts on a country’s economy. An IOP study established that for every dollar amount invested into the physics-based industry can contribute to more than twice the value to the economy as a whole. The range of applications goes from manufacturing, fuel, crude materials, electro-mechanical, through optical-communication industries. No fields remain untouched by the impacts of physics. A famous example of how physics can aid in boosting the economic growth of a country can be illustrated by the following anecdote. Around 1850, William Gladstone, a British statesman, asked Michael Faraday why electricity was valuable. Faraday answered, “One day, you may tax it.” Obviously, one cannot imagine a standing nation without electricity today. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />A better understanding of physics leads to a greater economic growth. Einstein’s formula of E= mc2 allowed us to harvest energy from the physical matter. When the first nuclear weapon was designed by Nuclear Physicist Robert Oppenheimer, during the Manhattan Project, it opened the door to understanding the strength of Physics in the modern society post the Second World War. This idea created the mantra that fields such as nuclear energy, pharmaceuticals, and space exploration could leapfrog a country out of its developing state and into the industrialized era. Study of physics is also perceived as the study of prosperity. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />According to the American Institute of Physics (AIP) 2016 reports, government-supported research, and development (R&D) in the United States is less than quarter fraction while more than two-thirds of the US R&D is supported by the business-funded venues. However, basic research is still mostly supported by the US Federal government through universities and higher educational institutions. If one were to analyze the sources of funding published by the National Science Foundation’s National Center for Science and Engineering, the total R&D funding is continually increasing past 500 billion dollars since the record began in 1953. The business-sponsored R&D has increased from less than 0.6 percent of GDP in the 1950s to about 2 percent in recent years. Clearly, as the economic and business growth takes place, the industry would be able to self-support the cutting edge research as indicated by the current trends in the developed nations.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The general desire of a country to jump forth into the industrialized stage can be accomplished through research in the cutting-edge topics. However, developing nations are not able to support or maintain these cutting-edge research endeavors. Physics in developing countries should rather focus on implementing technologies to aid the current situation, developing a basic level of science education to the public, and creating programs to involve science within the government. Once basic needs are met physics and science will be able to aid the country in many aspects of life.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The first area that developing countries need to focus on is making the government more open to physics and science as an institution. By putting forth an effort to increase the knowledge of such sciences in the policy level, they can be applied to many aspects of life such as agriculture, medicine, and even everyday necessities such as electricity. This can start simply by taking more value in science during education and creating a foundation for the younger generation to learn. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />The governments in developing countries should focus on the basic education of the general population in physics and science. This would be one major stepping stone towards achieving economic growth. On a global scale, eighty percent of the world’s population is located in developing countries but only twenty-eight percent of the world’s scientists come from these countries. During the colonization of many countries, education in science was limited to colonial elites who meant for their children to have higher access in countries such as the United Kingdom. Flash forward to the 1960’s and this practice was partly maintained, instead of colonial elites science education is mainly held for higher class citizens at the secondary level. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Once the developing countries prepare a foundation of basic science education at home then the people who are knowledgeable in physics and science can travel to other countries to bring back ideas. According to the statistics survey published by American Institute of Physics (AIP) in 2014, about 50 percent of the Ph.D. students in the USA are comprised of international students. The proportion has been about 50/50 for the last two decades. We are familiar with the trend that many physicists from developing countries are going to the USA and other developed countries for their higher education in Physics, and sciences in general. For example, more than four hundred Nepali Physicists, about ten percent of total physicists of Nepal, have received their doctorate level education in Physics from the USA. The Condensed matter physics is the most popular field in the USA followed by the particle and astrophysics. <br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />According to an informal survey conducted by the Association of Nepali Physicists in America (ANPA), the condensed matter physics, and Atomic, molecular, and optical physics (AMO), Atmospheric Physics, Nuclear Physics are the most favorite topics among the physicist from the Nepali diaspora, also a good percentage are engaged into the cutting-edge Solar/photovoltaic research, biomedical physics. It is timely that the government of Nepal should connect the scientific diaspora for the transfer of knowledge to their country of origin. As an example, Physics-based projects can be used for the development for the simple things to make life at the ground level easier for the general population. Notably, there are various efforts at the personal levels in which spontaneous attempts being made to bring science to society.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Some of the examples could include, but not limited to creating water filtration systems, geological exploration, or improving agricultural and medical practices using state-of-the-art drone technologies that will greatly facilitate countries. An idea in emerging technologies for alternative energy such as solar, or windmill, although not simple or cheap to implement may start a snowball effect in bringing the country out of the developing state. After a thorough feasibility study, the energy can be used to power production plants, which can then be utilized to create machinery that can create a system of carbon-neutral roadways and distribute electricity to all villages. This will create tremendous bounds for the country and improve all aspects of life. This energy can also be utilized in other ways such as creating farming machinery or serving in remote hospitals for people who are suffering. On top of this, it will also stimulate the economy creating new jobs and a means of making income.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />To sum up, Physics plays a key role in the world and generates fundamental knowledge. While it is a normality in many industrialized countries, it is severely lacking in the developing countries. Physics education programme should be implemented from the governmental level to improve education and provide incentives for physics and engineering based companies that can improve quality of life.</div>
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<i>Workforce</i><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Developing a strong physics program with the support of research, scholarships, and fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students can make a huge difference in the education of Nepal. Once an expert workforce has been created ideas for improving life can bring in. One simple idea such as this can help improve the manufacturing of goods and help create roadways and give energy access to millions who lack it. Physics should focus on areas that would be most rewarding to the immediate situation of the country.</div>
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Published: 27 Oct, 2018 <br />
<a href="http://therisingnepal.org.np/news/26644%C2%A0" target="_blank">http://therisingnepal.org.np/news/26644 </a></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-86947174663099871402016-05-25T22:35:00.000-04:002016-05-25T22:35:00.355-04:00Special Issue "Sustainability in the Mountains Region"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/mountains_region">http://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/mountains_region</a></div>
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Mountains are a part of the global biodiversity repository, play a vital role in maintaining global ecosystems, while supporting millions of people. In the meantime, they are the most vulnerable ecosystems. Changes in the environment and economic priorities in past few decades have considerably influenced the livelihood and sustainability of mountains globally. The effects of changing climate and other socioeconomic factors on mountains can affect the densely populated and underdeveloped regions to an inconceivable scale. It is, therefore, important that we study the impacts of climate change, changes in economic priorities of the mountain residents, and increasing non-conventional values of mountain ecosystems and its inhabitants. Moreover, the factors affecting the sustainable livelihood of mountain inhabitants need to be carefully studied to assess the short and long-term impacts, and to develop a long-term strategy for improving the livelihood of the residents in the face of the changes.</div>
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This Special Issue will feature peer-reviewed papers from the international conference on “Mountains in the Changing World (MoChWo)”, to be held in Kathmandu, Nepal, on 1–2 October, 2016 (<a href="http://conference.kias.org.np/" style="color: #934e4e; text-decoration: none;">http://conference.kias.org.np</a>). The conference and the Special Issue aim to provide a forum for international/national scholars, researchers, policy makers, and students with an opportunity to share their research findings and knowledge related to various aspects of mountains. </div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 17.3333px;">
The range of relevant topics include:</div>
<ul style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 17.3333px;">
<li>Environmental, economic and social sustainability</li>
<li>Land use and land cover monitoring, natural disaster and risk assessment</li>
<li>Decision making and societal impacts, policy and management strategies for sustainable development</li>
<li>Citizen science and trainings</li>
<li>Remote sensing, and mapping of resources</li>
<li>Data fusion, and data visualization relevant to sustainability issues</li>
<li>Innovation in renewable and alternative energy</li>
<li>Pesticide uses and sustainable agriculture</li>
<li>Organic farming</li>
</ul>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 17.3333px;">
We welcome papers from broadly defined topics that are relevant to the theme of the Special Issue.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px; line-height: 17.3333px;">
Dr. Nabin K Malakar<br />Dr. Rajan Ghimire<br />Dr. Jhalendra Rijal<br />Dr. Pradeep Wagle<br /><em>Guest Editors</em></div>
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</script>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-66432512424508630522016-04-08T15:02:00.003-04:002016-04-08T15:08:21.385-04:00An Interview with Dr. Mike Abrams, #ASTER project leader @NASAJPL<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection
Radiometer (ASTER) instrument has been flying in space on the Terra platform
since its launch in 1999. Not bad for a satellite which had an expected
lifespan of five-years. Hopefully it will continue into the foreseeable future.
The instrument acquires images in visible, near infrared, and thermal infrared
wavelengths (TIR). The spatial resolution range from 15 to 90 meters. ASTER
spans +- 83 degree latitudes, and covers 99 percent of earth's landmass.
ASTER also produces one of the high resolution elevation dataset (30m). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Recently, NASA released the complete archive (2.95 million
images) of Earth's thermal infrared images to the public with unlimited access.
Previously, users could access ASTER's global digital topographic maps for
free, however, other ASTER data products were available at nominal fee paid to
Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
ASTER has been used to study, map, and monitor the
ever-changing surface of our planet Earth. Some of the products and application
of ASTER data include surface mapping and monitoring of changes in surface
properties such as glacial advance/retreat, volcanism, crop stress, cloud
properties, wetlands, coral reef degradation, land surface temperature, surface
geology, etc.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A good selection of ASTER images can be found on the ASTER
web site, gallery pages:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallerymap.asp">http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallerymap.asp</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The dataset is available at:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/data.asp">http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/data.asp</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We stopped by the office of Dr. Mike Abrams, the project
leader for ASTER science team at NASA JPL.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are 5 quick questions with him: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<i>1. Please share your experience with the ASTER project. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I have been involved with the ASTER project since its
inception in 1988 as part of NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS) program.
Working with my Japanese colleagues and traveling to Japan has been an
enriching inter-cultural experience. Added to that is the satisfaction of the
success of our 16-year joint mission</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>2. Why are the millions of ASTER images being made public? <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In Japan, oversight of the ASTER project was transferred
from one organization to another. The new operator is part of Japan’s National
Science Institutes. Jointly, with NASA, the decision was made to eliminate
charging for all ASTER data.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>3. How can users get maximum use out of the ASTER data?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Natural color, full resolution JPEG images can be downloaded
for all images in the archive. No sophisticated software is needed to view
these images. (<a href="https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/terralook/home">https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/terralook/home</a>).
To do more in-depth analyses, the digital data must be downloaded, then
analyzed with GIS or image processing software.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>4. What are the unique feature of ASTER? (Some examples of
news for societal benefit.)<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Our high resolution, global Digital Elevation Model (DEM)
data set is unique. It is the only topographic data freely available to all
users covering the land surface of the Earth at 30m resolution. We have a
vigorous monitoring program of 1500+ active volcanoes, and 100,000+ glaciers,
looking for time-dependent change. We also acquire many images for
post-disaster mitigation, like damage from tsunamis.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>5. Do you have favorite image(s) of ASTER? <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
See the interview with National Geographic: <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160406-pictures-nasa-terra-aster-satellites-space-science/">http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160406-pictures-nasa-terra-aster-satellites-space-science/</a></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V8HauOGWL6E/Vwf_0GqrvnI/AAAAAAAAK4w/GqkgFNl4JIgS2vhek3o7PJruLfiSBmLFA/s1600/20160408_102102.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V8HauOGWL6E/Vwf_0GqrvnI/AAAAAAAAK4w/GqkgFNl4JIgS2vhek3o7PJruLfiSBmLFA/s320/20160408_102102.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A selfie with Dr. Abrams.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Note: I had an opportunity to be a co-author with him on the paper:<br />
The ASTER Global Emissivity Dataset (ASTER GED): Mapping Earth's emissivity at 100 meter spatial scale, <span style="background-color: white; color: #777777; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.12px;">GC Hulley, SJ Hook, E Abbott, N Malakar, T Islam, M Abrams</span><br />
<div class="gs_gray" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #777777; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 16.12px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Geophysical Research Letters 42 (DOI: 10.1002/2015GL065564)</div>
<a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015GL065564/full" target="_blank">http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015GL065564/full </a></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-52593543951691062442016-02-11T12:58:00.004-05:002016-02-25T16:22:20.725-05:00Gravitational Waves and LIGO Experiment<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of the fascinating argument of Einsteins' theory of General Relativity can be simply illustrated by the foam-ball diagram. Where a heavy ball put on the surface would produce a curvature. Thereby generating the deformation so that if a lighter ball is rolling nearby, it would cause the ball to roll towards the bigger ball.<script type="text/javascript">
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<br />
<br />
<div>
Similarly, if we imagine that the space-time that our universe resides is a giant surface in 4-dimension, then we can argue that things that have mass will cause that surface to bend. In other words, the matter will tell the spacetime where to bend while the spacetime curvature will then dictate how the mass will travel. The more "heavy" the mass, the more bending. Ultimately, the heavy "mass" or huge Energy, can cause a hole in the fabric of spacetime. That we call the black hole!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What is interesting is that we can imagine traveling from point A to B. If the amount of effort that is required is called as action, then naturally one tends to minimize the action. The most straightforward way to minimize the action in two dimension is a straight line! Now, if you were in four dimension, and wanted to go from point (need to call it a four-point as it has four co-ordinates) A to point B. Then naturally, it would be a "straight" line in 4D! However, the manifestation of the space and time makes it look like a curved line near the "heavy" masses. That's the reason behind the orbits of the planets. You may ask: but, aren't the planets coming back to the same positions after one planetary year? Yes, that is right in space. But in time, you moved one year's worth of journey! Think about it!</div>
<div>
That means there is no force which is pulling things around. It is just the manifestation of the bending of the spacetime fabric.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
When masses accelerate, gravitational waves are produced. This can cause "ripples" in the space!</div>
<div>
The LIGO experiment, (LIGO: The Laster Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) was designed in 1992. It is a large-scale physics experiment to detect gravitational waves. It consists of 4 km long tunnels in L-shape. LASER <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometry" target="_blank">interferometry </a>is used to detect any change in the fabric of space due to the gravitational wave. Interferometry go about finding changes in the distance between the points A and B by using the principle of superposition of the waves, by measuring the change in the fringes due to shifting of the reflecting mirrors for example. This works because when two waves with the same wavelength/frequency meet, their fates are determined by the phase difference between the waves. The waves in phase will undergo constructive interference and the out-of-phase will undergo destructive interference [<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_xd9hUZ2AY" target="_blank">See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_xd9hUZ2AY</a> More specifically this one : <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUytkiBwXvI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUytkiBwXvI</a>]. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
In the case of LIGO experiment, the primary interferometers consist of mirrors suspended at each corners of the L-shaped vacuum tube (4km long). A LASER beam is used to monitor the interference patterns called fringes. When a gravitational wave passes through the interferometer site, the fabric of spacetime is affected. Since the instrument is L-shaped, one side will be stretched while the other side is compressed. This changes the phase of the reflecting waves causing the phase difference between the ends of the L-tube, and thus the wave should be detected!!! </div>
<div>
The LIGO has to detect the distortion of 10^(-18) m in space for the light that reflects off the 4-km long tunnel! This is the length less than one thousandth of the diameter of a proton (fm=10^-15). Moreover, since there are two LIGO experiment sites(<img alt="" class="wmamapbutton noprint" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/WMA_button2b.png/17px-WMA_button2b.png" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: none; cursor: pointer; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.32px; line-height: 18.48px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap;" title="" /><span class="geo-default" style="background-image: none; color: #663366; display: inline; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.32px; line-height: 18.48px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;"><span class="geo-dms" style="display: inline;" title="Maps, aerial photos, and other data for this location"><a class="external text" href="https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=LIGO&params=46_27_18.52_N_119_24_27.56_W_type:landmark_dim:4000_region:US-WA&title=LIGO+Hanford+Observatory" style="background-attachment: initial !important; background-clip: initial !important; background-image: none !important; background-origin: initial !important; background-position: initial !important; background-repeat: initial !important; background-size: initial !important; color: #663366; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.32px; line-height: 18.48px; padding: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;"><span class="latitude" style="white-space: nowrap;">46°27′18.52″N</span><span class="longitude" style="white-space: nowrap;">119°24′27.56″W</span></a> and</span></span><br />
<img alt="" class="wmamapbutton noprint" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/WMA_button2b.png/17px-WMA_button2b.png" style="background-color: #f9f9f9; border: none; cursor: pointer; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.32px; line-height: 18.48px; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: nowrap;" title="" /><a class="external text" href="https://tools.wmflabs.org/geohack/geohack.php?pagename=LIGO&params=30_33_46.42_N_90_46_27.27_W_type:landmark_dim:4000_region:US-LA&title=LIGO+Livingston+Observatory" style="background-attachment: initial !important; background-clip: initial !important; background-image: none !important; background-origin: initial !important; background-position: initial !important; background-repeat: initial !important; background-size: initial !important; color: #663366; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 12.32px; line-height: 18.48px; padding: 0px !important; text-decoration: none;"><span class="geo-default" style="display: inline;"><span class="geo-dms" style="display: inline;" title="Maps, aerial photos, and other data for this location"><span class="latitude" style="white-space: nowrap;">30°33′46.42″N</span><span class="longitude" style="white-space: nowrap;">90°46′27.27″W</span></span></span></a>), triangulation method can be used to find the source of the ripple!</div>
<div>
Here is a nice video explaining the method</div>
<div>
<a href="https://youtu.be/FXlg3cr-q44?t=1m20s">https://youtu.be/FXlg3cr-q44?t=1m20s</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Now here comes the big news!</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
LIGO has detected the gravitational wave!!!</div>
<div>
The authors claim that the signals came from two merging black holes, each about 30 times the mass of our sun, lying 1.3 billion light-years away.</div>
<div>
The scientific paper is here:</div>
<div>
<a href="http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102">http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.061102</a></div>
<div>
<br />
If you are interested in the press release,</div>
<div>
<a href="https://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gwave#graphics">https://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gwave#graphics</a><br />
<br />
FYI: India is working on next LIGO experiment<br />
<a href="https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/ligo-india">https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/ligo-india</a><br />
<br />
Also, it seems like Einstein had doubt about the Gravitational waves at some point<br />
<a href="http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/58/9/10.1063/1.2117822">http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/58/9/10.1063/1.2117822</a><br />
<br />
One interesting presentation<br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajZojAwfEbs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajZojAwfEbs</a><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Disclaimer: These are my personal notes. Please draw conclusions at your own risk.</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-35830605963149890272015-01-20T20:25:00.000-05:002015-01-21T07:17:26.391-05:00Crowdfunding Science: Experience from a Developing Country<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>By <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/basant-giri/16/658/2a1">Dr. Basant Giri</a> (</b></span><a class="pretty-link js-nav" data-send-impression-cookie="true" dir="ltr" href="https://twitter.com/girib71" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #3b88c3; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"><span class="screen-name" style="color: #66757f;">@girib71</span> </a><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>)</b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2014, we raised $3772.10 + NRs 61797 from a fundraising campaign in my coordination. Majority of this amount was collected via a crowdfunding platform, the Fundrazr.com and was used to buy </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">UV-Vis spectrophotometer</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (a scientific instrument) and accessories for Department of Chemistry, Mahendra Morang Adarsha Multiple Campus (MMAMC), Biratnagar, Nepal.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Educational institutions in Nepal like other developing countries lack basic infrastructure (instruments, equipment) for teaching and research in science, as unfortunately, support from the government is not enough. However, despite the lack of basic facilities, few enthusiastic researchers are trying their best to carry out research and train their students in science.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Among various other campuses around the country, MMAMC, Biratnagar desperately needed an UV-Vis spectrophotometer, one of the basic instruments in many disciplines of science including chemistry. Unfortunately, neither MMAMC nor the Tribhuvan University could support the purchase of this instrument, making external funding crucial. Unlike others, Dr. Ajaya Bhattarai, assistant professor of chemistry from MMAMC came forward and discussed the possibilities of obtaining funds with me.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">C</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rowdfunding</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We then decided to ask our friends around the globe to donate. Rather than asking privately, we decided to use a public forum in order to let more people know about our campaign for a good cause.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">In recent years, crowdfunding has become very popular to generate funds for variety of purposes including support for scientific research. The crowdfunding is an idea of raising fund for a common cause from a large number of people primarily via internet. Even though crowdfunding had initially found successful in developed countries like US, Europe, and Australia, the rapid rise of mobile technology and social media utilization has made crowdfunding more viable opportunity to finance innovation in developing countries.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ready to face harsh comments and questions</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-e7380f92-0a21-0807-3abf-00c7738cc8d2"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you ask for money, there are people who think the donation is important and are happy with it; however, you also face some people who have an aversion to the idea. We also obtained similar responses. Most of the comments we received during the fundraising period were very encouraging. But there were some negative ones. Some people tried to connect my relationship to Biratnagar and if it was for my personal benefit. One person, I know personally, argued really hard with me and said he would donate if it were for his village or school. There were some social media arguments started at the same time referring to the idea of “giving” to developing country is really bad.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Important factors for successful crowdfunding</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Not all projects seeking crowdfunding are successful. More than half of such projects fail to reach their goal. I have following suggestions for successful fundraising campaign.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: -24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A clear idea: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">fundraising campaign had a clear goal of buying scientific instrument for MMAMC and a good explanation of why the fund was needed.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: -24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Networking:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We networked to our prospective donors primarily through Facebook. We have a group of Nepali chemists on Facebook; that helped a lot. We reached out to all of them in addition to contacting people from Biratnagar and those who studied in MMAMC residing in developed countries. We also sent personal email to many donors.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: -24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Know your target donors: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">People who are either affiliated to the MMAMC or had studied chemistry residing abroad were our target donors. However, we raised a considerable amount of money from people residing in Nepal offline. As online payment system is not widely used in developing countries, it was difficult to raise funds inside country via online platform.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: -24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Authenticity: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is important to understand the fact that potential donors are very cautious about the authenticity of the fundraising and the proper use of money after collection. Our donors were familiar to the fact that the instruments donated to Tribhuvan University and other governmental research centers mostly sit idle dust covered. Therefore, in our case, we had to convince our donors that the instrument would definitely be used regularly. Dr. Ajaya Bhattarai and his background played crucial role in this case.</span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-26qv3gJ8yZ0/VL7_i0dB0HI/AAAAAAAAKpM/dzIgR1O_bYI/s1600/crow1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-26qv3gJ8yZ0/VL7_i0dB0HI/AAAAAAAAKpM/dzIgR1O_bYI/s1600/crow1.jpg" height="640" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A successful example.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Potential funders want to see the people behind the fundraising event. We asked ourselves: do people really believe on what we are asking for? We tried our best to be as transparent as possible telling who are behind the fund raise, how the money will be utilized and who will be responsible for purchase, use, and care of instrument. We requested our friends to share the event using social media.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-left: 18pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Before this fundraise event, my friends (mostly chemists) and I had also raised fund to buy a projector and laptop for Central Department of Chemistry, Tribhuvan University. This previous experience increased our confidence and people’s belief on us.</span></div>
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<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; list-style-type: decimal; margin-left: -24px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Share and publish the details: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We kept updating the progress of fundraising on regular basis. We wrote our aim and objectives clearly on the crowdfunding website.</span></div>
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</ol>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Did we get all money raised?</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The answer is a big NO. In our case, the crowdfunding company deducted 8.7% of the total money raised via crowdfunding platform (online) including the PayPal fee. Plus a fee to transfer money from US to Nepal.</span></div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-e7380f92-0a11-23ea-b929-64618d236138"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 15pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Finally, I am happy to share with you that the instrument we donated is being regularly used and has generated some data. Dr. Ajaya Bhattarai recently presented the findings of his research on the interaction of dyes with surfactants using UV-Vis spectrophotometer in the 16th international symposium on eco-materials processing and design (ISEPD 2015) in Kathmandu, Nepal. This is important to mention here because many people think [which unfortunately could be true in some cases] that donated equipment are not being used rather they are stored with dust covered. Well, we assure to let the work speak for itself. Thank you! </span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-59613085811472760832014-12-30T17:50:00.000-05:002015-01-05T13:21:13.215-05:00#AMS2015, January 04 - 08, 2015 Phoenix, AZ #conference @ametsoc<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Data fusion of Satellite AOD and WRF meteorology for improved PM25 estimation for northeast USA</h2>
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Monday, 5 January 2015: 1:45 PM </div>
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(Session: <a href="https://ams.confex.com/ams//95Annual/webprogram/Session37861.html" style="border: 0px; color: #633100; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;">Air pollution and air quality impacts on health-Part II</a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">at </span><a href="https://ams.confex.com/ams//95Annual/webprogram/6HEALTH.html" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #633100; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;">Sixth Conference on Environment and Health</a>)<br />
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228AB (Phoenix Convention Center - West and North Buildings)</div>
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<b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Nabin Malakar</b>, City College of New York, New York, NY; and L. Cordero, B. Gross, D. Vidal, and F. Moshary</div>
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The current approach to ingesting satellite data (IDEA- Infusing satellite Data into Environmental air quality Applications Product) into surface PM2.5 retrievals uses a combination of spatial interpolation and a global geo-chemical model (GEOS-CHEM) to define appropriate mass to AOD factor maps that can be used with satellite AOD retreivals. This information is then statistically blended with current AIRNow measurements creating a refined retrieval product. In this paper, we propose to use the same approach except that we replace the GEOS-CHEM component with an alternative high resolution meteorological model scheme. In particular, we illustrate that the GEOS-CHEM factors can be strongly biased and explore methods that incorporate a combination of satellite AOD retrievals with WRF meteorological forecasts on a regional scale. We find that although PBL height should be a significant factor, the WRF model uncertainties for PBL height in comparison to Calipso make this factor less reliable. More directly we find that the covarying PBL averaged temperature (together with wind direction) are the most important factors. Direct statistical comparisons are made against the IDEA product showing the utility of this approach over regional scales. In addition, we explore the importance of a number of factors including season and time averaging showing that the satellite approach improves significantly as the time averaging window decreases illustrating the potential impact that GOES-R will have on PM25 estimation.</div>
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Fusing Spatial Kriging with Satellite Estimates to Obtain a Regional Estimation of PM2.5</h2>
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Sunday, 4 January 2015 (<a href="https://ams.confex.com/ams//95Annual/webprogram/Session37084.html" style="border: 0px; color: #633100; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;">Student Conference Poster Session</a>, <a href="https://ams.confex.com/ams//95Annual/webprogram/14STUDENT.html" style="border: 0px; color: #633100; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;">14th Annual Student Conference</a>)</div>
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<b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Daniel Vidal</b>, City College of New York, New York, NY; and B. Gross, N. Malakar, and L. Cordero</div>
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This work focuses on developing estimates of ground-level fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the northeastern U.S. based on measurements derived from the Air Quality System (AQS) repository. Real time monitoring of PM2.5 is important due to its effect on climate change and human health, however, designated samplers used by state agencies do not provide optimal spatial coverage given their high cost and extensive human labor dependence. Through the application of remote sensing instruments, information about PM2.5 concentrations can be generated at certain locations. On the other hand, coverage limitation also occurs when using satellite remote sensing methods due to atmospheric conditions. Therefore, our approach begins by utilizing surface PM2.5 measurements collected from the Remote Sensing Information Gateway (RSIG) portal in order to build fine particulate matter estimations by applying a Spatial Kriging technique. Then, we combine our Kriging estimations to the satellite derived PM2.5 obtained through an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) scheme to generate a daily regional PM2.5 product. Finally, evaluation of our fused algorithm's technique is assessed by performing comparisons against Kriging and neural network individual performances, showing the promising value added by the combination of these two techniques in producing more accurate estimations of surface level PM2.5 over our region of interest.</div>
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This one is related to the award winning work by Daniel:</div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica Neue, Tahoma, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="http://www.nabinkm.com/2014/11/daniel-vidal-ccny-cuny-wins-first-prize.html">http://www.nabinkm.com/2014/11/daniel-vidal-ccny-cuny-wins-first-prize.html</a></span></span></div>
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Analysis of New York City traffic data, land use, emissions and high resolution local meteorology for the prediction of neighborhood scale intra-urban PM2.5 and O3<br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: italic;">Monday, 5 January 2015: 4:30 PM </span></h2>
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(Session: <a href="https://ams.confex.com/ams//95Annual/webprogram/Session37862.html" style="border: 0px; color: #633100; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;">Air pollution and air quality impacts on health-Part III </a></div>
<span style="text-align: center;">at </span><a href="https://ams.confex.com/ams//95Annual/webprogram/6HEALTH.html" style="border: 0px; color: #633100; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none;">Sixth Conference on Environment and Health</a>)<br />
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228AB (Phoenix Convention Center - West and North Buildings)</div>
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<b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Chowdhary Nazmi</b>, NOAA/CREST/City College, New York, NY; and N. Malakar, L. Cordero, and B. Gross</div>
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Air pollution affects the health and well-being of residents of mega cities like New York. Predicting the air pollutant concentration throughout the city can be difficult because the sources and levels of the pollutants can vary from season to season. Local meteorology, traffic and land use also play an important role in these variations and the use of statistical machine learning tools such as Neural Networks can be very useful. In order to develop a Neural Network for the prediction of intra-urban air pollutants (PM2.5, O3), high resolution local data are collected and analyzed. Surface level high resolution temperature, relative humidity and wind speed data are collected from the CCNY METNET network. Annual average daily traffic data from NYMTC model as well as continuous and short count traffic data are collected from NYSDOT. High density data from NYC Community Air Survey model is used to analyze the relationship between background and street level indicators for PM2.5 and O3. All the variables (meteorology, population, traffic, land use etc) are ranked according to the absolute strength of their correlation with the measured pollutants and highest ranking variables are identified to be used for the development of a Neural Network. An analysis of how street level pollution differs from background AIRNow observations will be made showing the importance of high density observations. The potential to use the model in other urban areas will also be explored.</div>
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Having now relocated to NASA JPL, it is fun to reflect back to see what was accomplished during my stay at CCNY.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-41197165862086847602014-12-19T23:09:00.000-05:002015-01-05T13:21:25.182-05:00Presented in the AGU 2014, San Francisco, CA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://41.media.tumblr.com/381aa95ddecf8a5a2df461bdee5f8399/tumblr_nhnq4lJ9Yf1r0ym3vo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://41.media.tumblr.com/381aa95ddecf8a5a2df461bdee5f8399/tumblr_nhnq4lJ9Yf1r0ym3vo1_500.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<li class="title" style="border: 0px; color: #c65e27; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Tahoma, Optima, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.1em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="itemNumber" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.4em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px 1em 0px 0px;">GC51D-0460</span><span class="itemTitle" style="border: 0px; left: 0px; line-height: 1.3em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; width: auto;">Ingesting Land Surface Temperature differences to improve Downwelling Solar Radiation using Artificial Neural Network: A Case Study</span></li>
<li class="title" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="itemTitle"><section class="itemAdditional" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Tahoma, Optima, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; left: 0px; line-height: 16.7999992370605px; margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; width: auto;">In order to study the effects of global climate change on regional scales, we need high resolution models that can be injected into local ecosystem models. Although the injection of regional Meteorological Models such as Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) can be attempted where the Global Circulation Model (GCM) conditions and the forecasted land surface properties are encoded into future time slices - this approach is extremely computer intensive.<br style="margin: 0px;" />We present a two-step mechanism in which low resolution meteorological data including both surface and column integrated parameters are combined with high resolution land surface classification parameters to improve on purely interpolative approaches by using machine learning techniques. In particular, we explore the improvement of surface radiation estimates critical for ecosystem modeling by combining both model and satellite based surface radiation together with land surface temperature differences.</section></span><section class="itemPeople multiColumn " style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; clear: both; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.7999992370605px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 1em 0px;">Authors<br /><br /><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/61914">Nabin Malakar </a>- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory<br /><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/171093">Mark Bailey</a><br />CUNY City College<br /><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/171197">Rebecca Latto</a><br />CUNY City College<br /><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/171250">Emmanuel Ekwedike</a><br />CUNY City College<br /><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/166993">Barry Gross</a><br />CUNY City College<br /><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/171327">Jorge Gonzalez</a><br />CUNY City College<br /><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/16807">Charles Vorosmarty</a><br />CUNY City College<br /><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/29786">Glynn Hulley </a>- NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory<br /><br /><section class="itemPeople multiColumn " style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; clear: both; color: #333333; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.7999992370605px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 1em 0px;"><br /></section><span class="itemTitle"><span style="color: #c65e27; font-family: Open Sans, Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Tahoma, Optima, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 18px; line-height: 1.3em;">
A51B-3024Bias Correction of MODIS AOD using DragonNET to obtain improved estimation of PM2.5
</span></span></span></section></li>
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<br />
<section class="itemAdditional" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Tahoma, Optima, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.7999992370605px; margin: 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px;">MODIS AOD retreivals using the Dark Target algorithm is strongly affected by the underlying surface reflection properties. In particular, the operational algorithms make use of surface parameterizations trained on global datasets and therefore do not account properly for urban surface differences. This parameterization continues to show an underestimation of the surface reflection which results in a general over-biasing in AOD retrievals. Recent results using the Dragon-Network datasets as well as high resolution retrievals in the NYC area illustrate that this is even more significant at the newest C006 3 km retrievals. In the past, we used AERONET observation in the City College to obtain bias-corrected AOD, but the homogeneity assumptions using only one site for the region is clearly an issue. On the other hand, DragonNET observations provide ample opportunities to obtain better tuning the surface corrections while also providing better statistical validation. In this study we present a neural network method to obtain bias correction of the MODIS AOD using multiple factors including surface reflectivity at 2130nm, sun-view geometrical factors and land-class information. These corrected AOD’s are then used together with additional WRF meteorological factors to improve estimates of PM2.5. Efforts to explore the portability to other urban areas will be discussed. In addition, annual surface ratio maps will be developed illustrating that among the land classes, the urban pixels constitute the largest deviations from the operational model.<b style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"></b></section><section class="itemPeople multiColumn " style="background-color: white; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: solid; border-width: 1px 0px; clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: 'Open Sans', Arial, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Tahoma, Optima, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 16.7999992370605px; margin: 1em 0px; padding: 1em 0px;"><ul class="PersonList" collectionname="ChildList_Role" id="593867a392a3e1a8418a5a35" modelid="Paper/31198" style="-webkit-column-count: 2; -webkit-column-width: auto; border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><section style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h5 style="border: 0px; cursor: default; font-size: 1.2em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
Authors</h5>
<ul style="border: 0px; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li class="RoleListItem" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; line-height: 2em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/176324" style="border: 0px; color: #3372bb; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Barry Gross</a><span class="roleAffiliation" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ul class="AffiliationList" collectionname="ChildList_Address" id="9b2c04dd4e01d6bc96fb0dfa" modelid="Role/117254" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">CUNY City College</li>
</ul>
</span></li>
</ul>
</section></span>
<li class="RoleListItem" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; line-height: 2em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/61914" style="border: 0px; color: #3372bb; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Nabin Malakar</a><span class="roleAffiliation" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ul class="AffiliationList" collectionname="ChildList_Address" id="8ca1030f78e5529f88f4a77d" modelid="Role/117370" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">CUNY City College</li>
</ul>
</span></li>
<li class="RoleListItem" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; line-height: 2em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/176429" style="border: 0px; color: #3372bb; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Adam Atia</a><span class="roleAffiliation" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ul class="AffiliationList" collectionname="ChildList_Address" id="a0c2beaff6219eabd06bd1c8" modelid="Role/117386" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">CUNY City College</li>
</ul>
</span></li>
<li class="RoleListItem" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; line-height: 2em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/176433" style="border: 0px; color: #3372bb; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Fred Moshary</a><span class="roleAffiliation" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ul class="AffiliationList" collectionname="ChildList_Address" id="04927bc718ad771093f10683" modelid="Role/117396" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">CUNY City College</li>
</ul>
</span></li>
<li class="RoleListItem" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; line-height: 2em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/2098" style="border: 0px; color: #3372bb; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Samir Ahmed</a><span class="roleAffiliation" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ul class="AffiliationList" collectionname="ChildList_Address" id="5db47a814c0135895d1a8bc7" modelid="Role/117406" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">CUNY City College</li>
</ul>
</span></li>
<li class="RoleListItem" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; line-height: 2em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://agu.confex.com/agu/fm14/meetingapp.cgi#Person/58937" style="border: 0px; color: #3372bb; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Min Oo</a><span class="roleAffiliation" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><ul class="AffiliationList" collectionname="ChildList_Address" id="a3c8c29d7627cc0a36bbd2bf" modelid="Role/117407" style="-webkit-column-break-inside: avoid; border: 0px; display: table; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="border: 0px; font-size: 0.85em; font-style: italic; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px;">University of Wisconsin - Madison</li>
</ul>
</span></li>
</ul>
</section></div>
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-17263679939884685012014-11-18T13:31:00.000-05:002014-11-18T21:30:22.676-05:00Daniel Vidal (CCNY, CUNY) Wins first prize <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
One of my undergraduate student, Daniel Vidal from the City College of New York, has come first in the final round of the technical paper competition in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) conference in Detroit, Michigan.<br />
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Congratulations to Daniel! </div>
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Cheers!</div>
<div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="455" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/41715799" style="border-width: 1px; border: 1px solid #CCC; margin-bottom: 5px; max-width: 100%;" width="525"> </iframe> <br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<strong> <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/NabinMalakar/creating-a-regional-pm25-map-by-fusing-satellite-and-kriging-estimates" target="_blank" title=" CREATING A REGIONAL PM2.5 MAP BY FUSING SATELLITE AND KRIGING ESTIMATES "> CREATING A REGIONAL PM2.5 MAP BY FUSING SATELLITE AND KRIGING ESTIMATES </a> </strong> from <strong><a href="https://www.slideshare.net/NabinMalakar" target="_blank">Nabin Malakar</a></strong> <br />
<br />
The work was based upon<br />
<a href="http://www.nabinkm.com/2014/04/pm25-map-by-fusing-machine-learning-and.html">http://www.nabinkm.com/2014/04/pm25-map-by-fusing-machine-learning-and.html</a><br />
and our collaboration over the summer. We expanded the prototype to the northeast, and got nice results.<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-36043888839400724002014-07-19T09:47:00.001-04:002014-07-19T09:59:45.147-04:00Presented at IGARSS 2014, Quebec, Canada<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u9ytphHgoGw/U8p21UUONiI/AAAAAAAAKek/XXGC2OFFuu4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-19+at+9.33.54+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u9ytphHgoGw/U8p21UUONiI/AAAAAAAAKek/XXGC2OFFuu4/s1600/Screen+Shot+2014-07-19+at+9.33.54+AM.png" /></a></div>
This week I attended the joint International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2014) / 35th Canadian Symposium on Remote Sensing (35th CSRS). The symposium theme was “Energy and our Changing Planet”.<br />
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ON Friday I presented my work on:<br />
<table border="0" class="PaperDescription" style="background-color: white; border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px none black; color: black; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><tbody>
<tr><td colspan="3" style="border: 1px none black; padding: 2px 4px;"><b>Assessing MODIS C006 urban corrections using the High Resolution Dragon AERONET Network</b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://igarss2014.org/Papers/viewpapers.asp?papernum=3464">http://igarss2014.org/Papers/viewpapers.asp?papernum=3464</a><br />
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The slides are embedded below for viewing:<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="400" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/37152122" width="476"></iframe></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-49809605544254279502014-07-13T13:58:00.000-04:002014-07-13T14:14:29.627-04:00An Interview with Dr. Churamani Gaire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dr. Churamani Gaire, from Syangja, Nepal, shares fond memories of the school days, teachers and mentors. He also shares his experience in joining the semiconductor industry as he is currently working as Principal Process Engineer at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. It is our pleasure to have him in my frame of reference. <br />
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Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself. <br />
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<a href="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrink_200_200/p/3/000/054/138/370efae.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://media.licdn.com/mpr/mpr/shrink_200_200/p/3/000/054/138/370efae.jpg" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I was born and raised in an economically subaltern farming family in Kuwakot-8, Syangja. I went to local school (Now Bhanu Higher Secondary School, Chaughera, Syangja), where I learned Nepali and English alphabets from my teachers Durga Pangeni and Hari Bdr Ale, respectively. I completed high school from Keware (Now Bal Siddha Higher Secondary School), Syangja. I then continued my undergraduates at Prithvi Narayan College, Pokhara and Masters in Physics at Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur. Having to answer this question makes me a bit nostalgic of all the fond memories.<br />
My research interest is in the nanotechnology. My professional profile is in LinkedIn: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/churamani-gaire/1a/45a/2a1">https://www.linkedin.com/pub/churamani-gaire/1a/45a/2a1</a><br />
My research activities are disseminated in various journals and conference proceedings and are available for public consumption: <a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fY905A4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=fY905A4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao</a>.</blockquote>
How did you decide to study physics? Did anyone, in particular, influence you?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I was shy as a child and did not know what I was up to. Growing up, I used to carve tops and toy cars out of wood and play. By high school time, it was clear to me that I was more into mathematics and physical sciences than other subjects. I was privileged to have great teachers like Bhoj Raj Gurung and Babu Ram Sharma in High School, Namo Narayan Yadav, Pabitra Mani Poudel and Binay Kumar Jha in Undergraduates; Devendra Raj Mishra and Shekhar Gurung in my Masters. I have the highest regard to Babu Ram Sharma, Binay Kumar Jha and Shekhar Gurung for their support I got during my high school and college times. While I recall these great names today, it is Guru-Purnima, and I salute these great teachers and mentors on this occasion.</blockquote>
What strategies did you use to be successful in college? Please give out some tips on how to become a successful student in Nepal? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My strategy was to attend all the classes, go through the subject material more than once, note down the areas of weakness and focus on those items in the next iteration of study. In my opinion, one has to develop his/her own style. There is no universally applicable strategy per se. However, my biggest tip to the Nepalese students would be to not waste their time by going to political pep-rallies and become puppets of political parties.</blockquote>
Could you also describe your academic and research journey in USA? What are the challenges for Nepalese students? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I started my graduate study from University at Albany in theoretical physics. I later transferred to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), due to a better match to my academic interest. I conducted my graduate research in nanoscale growth and characterization of semiconducting materials. After my graduation, I continued my research at RPI and developed strategy to grow near single crystal semiconductor material starting from amorphous substrate suitable for low-cost energy application. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As regard to the challenges, it's the initial first few months when one is trying to adjust with so many new things: new place, new education system and some language barrier. Back in the country, our focus was more on theoretical than experimental physics. So, if you want to pursue theoretical physics in USA, I think you can immediately choose a research group and start contributing towards your graduate dissertation. However, if you want to pursue experimental physics, it takes one-to-two semesters before you can contribute towards your graduate dissertation. Again, it varies from person to person. I believe that Nepalese graduates are capable of competing with international graduates.</blockquote>
Could you please suggest the practical applications of your research outcomes? Do you have a favorite research paper (written by yourself or somebody else)? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My research was about nano-heteroepitaxial growth of near single crystal semiconductor material starting from amorphous substrate. This is applicable in substrate fabrication for low-costing solar cells. I use epitaxial growth method in my current job to create individual transistor units used in computer chips. My publications done during my graduate school are in the public domain and are available for your viewing pleasure as I mentioned earlier. Instead of me saying which of my articles I like, I will leave that option to the public to judge. However, I shall say some of my papers are cited more than the others by the researchers in the field.</blockquote>
How is your experience in joining the Industry? Was there any culture shock for an academician? Or shall a PhD holder expect any difference?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Definitely there is a bit of culture shock. I find rather interesting differences in academia and high-tech industry. Industry has more stringent requirements for deadlines. Your decisions can make immediate financial impact on the order of 10s of millions of dollars. To this end, I would say both the risk and reward are much higher in the high tech industry. And whether you have a PhD or not does not make much difference in the industry, your abilities are judged through whether you can solve problems efficiently and precisely and deliver the solution or not. Nevertheless, the rigorous training process that you have gone through during your PhD definitely prepares you for the rigorousness required in the industry.</blockquote>
A general perception is that industry experience is very demanding. Could you please give us a snapshot of your one day in office? <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Yes, you are correct that the industry is very demanding due to short shelf-life of technology. One has to constantly update the new things that are in the market, and stay up to date with the technology challenges and solutions.<br />
I work in semiconductor foundry and own a critical process responsible for transistor performance. On my typical day, I have to fulfill three kinds of major responsibilities and generally attend/prepare for 5-6 meetings a day to:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Ensure that there are no problems in my process step from both process and hardware aspects. If there are problems, resolve immediately.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Ensure that internal and external customer demands are met. Internal customers include integration and device team who are constantly looking for new processes and recipes to improve the overall flow. The external customers are real customers who I have to engage time to time and ensure they are comfortable working with us.</li>
</ul>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Ensure that we offer improved process to our internal and external customers. We constantly conduct experiments to improve our process. We analyze/interpret data and feed-forward the learning to next cycle, a process we call “continuous improvement process”. </li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
What have you found to be the toughest aspect of being a physicist, if any?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The job hunting was the toughest part as a physicist.</blockquote>
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Which of the skills are strongly recommended for the job hunters in this field?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In my opinion, strong communication skill, data analysis/interpretation and decision making ability are some of the key items recruiters are looking in new hires.</blockquote>
Sir, since I am not a professional interviewer, would you like to add anything else? Thank you for your time!<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I am afraid your questions are more professional than my answers. I commend you for your effort. And I wish you for your continuous success as blogger in the future. Thanks very much.</blockquote>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-48500115432213174682014-07-01T14:08:00.000-04:002014-07-13T14:03:58.339-04:00An Interview with Dr. Dipak Rimal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cUHqFrx8A7c/U7L3K9TP6gI/AAAAAAAAKdc/IXEOxB0Xv4U/s1600/RimalD.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cUHqFrx8A7c/U7L3K9TP6gI/AAAAAAAAKdc/IXEOxB0Xv4U/s1600/RimalD.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Dr. Dipak Rimal recently defended his PhD in experimental nuclear physics, and joined a post-doctoral research associate position at the University of Florida. He was born and raised in Baigundhura VDC in south-eastern part of Nepal. We are pleased to have Dr. Rimal in my frame of reference!<br />
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Please tell us about yourself, and your journey to USA for higher education. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I was born and raised in Baigundhura VDC in south-eastern part of Nepal. My father was a local educator, and had a great appreciation for science and technology. His constant motivation and inspiration lead me to pursue higher education in science. After passing the School Leaving Certificate (SLC) exam from Shree Amar Madhyamik Vidhyalaya in 1995, I went to Birat Science College, Biratnagar to study science (I. Sc.). I then went to Tri-Chandra College for Bachelor's degree. Since I graduated as a physics major with minor in chemistry and math, I got admitted to the Central Department of Physics (CDP), Tribhuvan University for M. Sc. in Physics. After graduating, I taught undergraduate level physics courses at Xavier Academy, Lazimpat for two years. In the fall of 2007, I moved to Miami after I got admitted into the PhD program at the Department of Physics at Florida International University. I recently graduated from FIU with PhD in physics specializing in experimental nuclear physics. </blockquote>
Could you please describe your PhD research in plain English. (Einstein once said, “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”)<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My PhD research was in the field of experimental nuclear physics. My research was primarily focused on expanding our understanding of the electromagnetic (EM) form factors of the proton, the positively charged core of the hydrogen atom. The EM form factors of the proton are the most fundamental observables, which encode information about the charge and magnetization distribution inside it. Even though the proton has been studied for several decades, a lot remains to be understood about the electromagnetic form factors in order to completely understand the structure of the proton. A significant discrepancy exists between the results from unpolarized and polarized electron scattering measurements of the EM form factors. This discrepancy casts a serious doubt on our understanding of the proton electromagnetic form factors and also on several other observables derived from these form factors (for e.g. proton charge radius). I don’t want to go into details here but plausible theoretical explanations for the cause of this discrepancy have been proposed. Rigorous experimental tests are necessary to make a definitive statement about these explanations. In short, my research was focused on the experimental test of the proposed theoretical explanations.Our team produced an intense matter/anti-matter mixed beam (electron/positron) from a 5.6 GeV primary electron beam at Jefferson Lab. Ordinarily, the matter and anti-matter particles would annihilate releasing the energy in the form of photon. To keep the particles intact, the electrons and positrons were spread over a distance of a few centimeters. The mixed matter/anti-matter beam was then scattered from a liquid hydrogen target, kept at the center of a giant spectrometer known as CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS). The elastically scattered electron, positron, and the proton were detected in CLAS. The detected particles were then analyzed to compare the positron-proton and electron-proton interactions.</blockquote>
What are the social applications of your research/ short-term or long-term impact of your research to the society.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My research, being a fundamental science research, may not have immediate social applications. However, in the long run it will reshape the way the electron scattering data is analyzed. My research was intended to test theoretical explanations for the discrepancy between different methods of measuring the charge distribution inside proton. These results will help make a definitive statement about the explanation for a decade long scientific puzzle. </blockquote>
How was your graduate school experience? (Specifically skill(s) you needed to sharpen etc.)<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My graduate school experience at FIU has been memorable one. Since we had a lot of fellow Nepali graduate students in the department, the physics department at FIU felt like a second home. I feel lucky that I had an excellent advisor who provided me an opportunity to work in a large international collaboration comprising of scientists from all over the world. I had to learn UNIX/LINUX operating systems, and learn programming languages. I also had to sharpen my problem solving and experimental skills.</blockquote>
Please share few useful tips that you wish you were told when you applied for PhD.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I wish I had learned at least one programming language before I applied for PhD. I wish I was told to learn problem-solving rather than memorizing physics derivations. </blockquote>
Where do you want to be in the next 5 years? What are your hobbies, and spare time activities?<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Umm! This one is the hardest one. I don’t really know! I just started working as a post-doctoral research associate at University of Florida. I will be working on MINERvA neutrino experiment at Fermilab to investigate neutrino-nucleus interactions. Let’s see how next 5 years unfold but I definitely want to see myself in a pretty good shape in terms of research. Regarding hobbies, I enjoy visiting new places. I follow world news to keep myself up to date with the recent happenings around the globe. I am also a big time sports fan. In the spare time, I enjoy watching professional leagues and college sports. </blockquote>
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Matlab's Trendy feature can be used to monitor and collect hourly air quality station data directly from the source url. The data can be feed into the trendy app using the <b>urlfilter</b> and <b>updatetrend</b> commands.<br />
<br />
Here is the basic code that gets the job done for the CCNY location. If you are interested to get multiple data, just append it to the update trend array:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
% Get the data from CCNY, update the trendy<br />
url = 'http://www.dec.ny.gov/airmon/stationStatus.php?stationNo=73';<br />
count = urlfilter(url, 'PM25C'); % reading<br />
PMccny = count; % PM at CCNY<br />
updatetrend([PMccny]);</blockquote>
The Trendy then can be used to plot the gathered data. I had to let it gather data for few days before I could plot some nice trends. You can already see the diurnal variation in the data below.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/trendy/images/plots/plot_1349.png?1404145373" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/trendy/images/plots/plot_1349.png?1404145373" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;">PM2.5 trend in NYC. If the image is not available, follow the link below.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/trendy/plots/1349">http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/trendy/plots/1349</a><br />
The plots can be made with the following code (the time and data will be different for your code):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
% PM2.5 hourly measurements in CCNY<br />
% time vector is: time2322<br />
% data vector is: data2322<br />
plot(time2322,data2322, 'o-');<br />
datetick<br />
hleg = legend('PM2.5(ug/m3)', 'Location', 'SouthWest');<br />
set(hleg, 'FontSize', 8);<br />
title('Air Quality at CCNY station');</blockquote>
I can also set up an email alert if the PM2.5 reading gets higher than some threshold, say 35ugm/m3. Now you can think about the useful applications of such tools!!<br />
<br />
Update: well, it has been deprecated! and replaced with "<a href="https://thingspeak.com/" target="_blank">trendy</a>"</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-74005187613923099942014-06-19T01:14:00.001-04:002014-06-23T11:48:00.393-04:00An Interview with Dr. Amit Dongol<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NP5vuiefN3M/U6JxrAWtKDI/AAAAAAAAKcc/GzWftHR-O2I/s1600/amit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NP5vuiefN3M/U6JxrAWtKDI/AAAAAAAAKcc/GzWftHR-O2I/s1600/amit.jpg" height="171" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-bf7e4d43-b286-4da0-360b-a9586da16962"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Born and raised in Biratnagar, Nepal, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Dr. Amit Dongol</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> recently defended his PhD from Physics Department at University of Cincinnati, OH, USA. He will be starting a new job in INTEL from next month. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> We present a brief chat with Dr. Dongol. He can be reached on LinkedIn at </span><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/amitdongol/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.linkedin.com/in/amitdongol/</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, and also maintains a nice personal website </span><a href="http://www.amitdongol.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.amitdongol.com</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> .</span></div>
<br /><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">0. Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself. </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I was born and raised in Biratnagar, Nepal. I had my SLC exam from Jaycee Bal Sadan, Biratnagar, Nepal. For higher studies (I.Sc and B.Sc physics) I went to Mahendra Morang Adarsha Multiple Campus at Biratnagar. I did my Master in Physics from Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Nepal. I was also actively involved in family business of photography and I love taking pictures.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Recently I have also reviewed a LabView book for </span><a href="http://www.packtpub.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Packt Publication</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. It is a nice </span><a href="http://www.packtpub.com/labview-graphical-programming-cookbook/book" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">book</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> if anyone is interested in learning and building a research lab for software and hardware automation. The name of a book is </span><a href="http://www.packtpub.com/labview-graphical-programming-cookbook/book" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">LabView Graphical Programming Cookbook</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> authored by Yik Yang.</span></blockquote>
<br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">1. How did you decide to study physics? Did anyone, in particular, influence you?</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Being good in math, logical thinking and electronics/computer made me decide to study physics. My elder brother (Raja Dongol) helped me to figure out what to study further in the area of my interest.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">2. Could you also describe your academic and research journey in USA? What are the challenges for Nepalese students? </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I came to USA with my Wife (Pooja Shrestha). She got her admission for PhD at University of Cincinnati. Soon after one year I also joined a PhD program at University of Cincinnati and got through qualifier exam immediately and joined a research group in computational biophysics. I worked for about one year in the field studying proteins using coarse-grain GO-model. After that I started working in experimental condensed matter physics in the field of nonlinear optics and completed my PhD..</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The challenges depend upon the individuals, how serious and how well he/she prepares for the challenges. Nothing is impossible, just need to have positive thinking and positive doing blended with hard working and always willing to learn and adapt the situation. If the (TU) courses were to be slightly modified with problem solving strategies and more like real practical problem solving, it would be very helpful to prepare ourselves for education system abroad. It also helps better in cognitive thinking. The challenges are also rewarding. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">3. Could you please describe your thesis in plain English?</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My research is mainly focused on characterizing a quantum well sample using femtosecond pulsed laser. The technique I used is called Four-Wave Mixing (FWM) process that involves at-least two or more pulsed laser. The main goal of the research is to study the exciton, electron grating, and exciton grating formed in a quantum well responsible for fast responsive and highly sensitive real-time holographic imaging. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">4. Could you please suggest the practical applications of your research outcomes? Do you have a favorite research paper (written by yourself or somebody else)? </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My research goal is to characterize and optimize the II-VI/III-V quantum well sample for the purpose of Real-time holographic imaging called Optical Coherence Imaging (OCI). The potential of the OCI is to image an object concealed behind the turbid media and sensitive enough to image a few 10’s of micron sized object or living organism.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">5. Which of the skills are strongly recommended for the job hunters in this field?</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I would say learn everything that you could and there is nothing that you should not learn. If you get an opportunity to learn then don’t let it slide. Good experimental hands (if you are experimentalist) and clever logical thinking (for computational programming) with depth knowledge of the subject and instruments is always required. If you are an experimentalist then you should learn one of the hardware controlling softwares. I would recommend LabView because it is one of the most widely used software where you can make your own software or whole package of applications integrating multiple tools and devices together according to your need of your research. This will really boost your resume and lots of job requires the knowledge of this software. For computational people there are so many things around. It does not matter what you do in the field but atleast you need to have commanding knowledge in at-least one or more programming language like, C, C++, C#, perl, Gromacs, Mathematica, Matlab and many more. Now a days CUDA (a GPU) programming is one of the most rising and demanding to my knowledge. I would recommend it to have this knowledge and skills. I wouldn't say that this is enough but if you can and opportunity provides then learn everything you can. In my case addition to these being able to design and build a website for my research group and making a file server and maintaining also helped me to impress my job interviewer. Being active in social and community services also adds up. There is no one factor but its a whole package I would say. </span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">6. Would you like to add anything else? </span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 13px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Learn whatever you can and its never late to start new things. There is a saying in our society “नजाने गाँउको बाटो नसोध्नु” and I believe this is completely wrong. </span></blockquote>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-65651987188417449802014-06-17T11:34:00.002-04:002014-06-17T11:34:29.980-04:00PM2.5 and O3 dense ground observation in NYC summer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My research involves use of in-situ data, satellite remote sensing data infused with the meteorological information, and application of machine learning techniques to obtain improved estimates of PM2.5. Broadly, my current project involves climate and air quality research, and I have worked with wide variety of model and remote sensing data.<div>
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<div>
This post is concerned about the dense urban observation in the summer database collected over the New York City over the years 2009-2012.<div>
This database gives insights into the PM2.5 and O3 concentration in the urban setting. Specifically for New York City where these pollutants can affect about 8 million people. Two figures from summer 2010 are presented below showing the relative concentrations in reference to the background EPA measurements binned over the 15-day measurement period. The densely populated area show increased PM2.5 (ug/m3), while decreased O3 concentrations (ppb). Some interesting geo-chemistry going on! </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-81155051241255341222014-05-19T18:06:00.001-04:002014-05-25T11:36:30.668-04:00An interview with Dr. Mukti Aryal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DQUIFuUEuAc/U3qAIwmVVwI/AAAAAAAAKXQ/MOY9KksZMvc/s1600/IMG_7300.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DQUIFuUEuAc/U3qAIwmVVwI/AAAAAAAAKXQ/MOY9KksZMvc/s1600/IMG_7300.JPG" height="178" width="200" /></a>We present a candid interview with Dr. Mukti Aryal!!<br />
Born in a remote village of Nepal, Dr. Aryal's journey has inspirational stories as he represents one of the best achievers among the Nepalese physicists.<br />
Please read on!<br />
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<i>Could you please tell us a little bit about yourself? (Where did you grow up, where and studied etc.) </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Thank you for this interview Nabin ji, I appreciate it. This is a good opportunity to share my academic experiences, and about myself. I was born in Darlamchaur, Isma Gulmi; a hilly region in western Nepal. I am from farmer’s family, one among nine kids of my parents. Most small farmers like us used to hardly make their living from farming. However, since my father was an elementary school teacher in our village, we had an additional income. That means we had a little more comfortable living since my father was educated and that’s why my parents were very much aware of importance of education. In my time, most parents in my village were either unaware of importance of education or they would require their kids to help them in the farms. Most kids used to help their parents in household work such as taking care of cows, buffaloes, cutting grasses, chasing monkeys from corn field etc. while I did take part in such activities and farming only in the morning and evening or in my free time.
I was curious and very disciplined in school and used to do my homework regularly. After I passed grade five I had to help my parents at home and left school for one year. I started again after my eldest brother got married and my sister-in-law came to help at home. After that I continued my education and I was doing excellent in my study from very beginning. I am a PhD now and I want to say to school kids from village of Nepal who are barely getting chance to go to school: kids! You can do it as I did!
I did my primary school (1-3 grade) nearby my home (15 minutes’ walk), sitting in the lawn under open sky with two teachers and one of them was my father. Middle school was about 1 hour walking but had to leave home for grade 8 and up. I did my high school, SLC from Mahendra Ma. Vi. Tamghas, Gulmi in 2045 B.S; I. Sc. from Tansen Palpa, neighboring district; B.Sc. from Tri-Chandra College Kathmandu; master in Physics from TU Kritipur and finally I did my PhD from University of Texas at Dallas in 2010. After PhD, I went to University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill for post doc and finally I am here in California for industrial job working as a process engineer/research scientist. </blockquote>
<i>What was your aim in life as a teenager? How did you decide to study science and then physics? Did anyone, in particular, influence you? </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
You probably meant professional aim. As a son of a farmer and a teacher, I had an aim to be a good teacher and a good farmer following the footpath of my father. Every kid is naturally curious. However, unknowingly parents or elders kill the curiosity by discouraging them from asking questions and stopping them from exploring things. That did not happened to me, instead my mom used to keep interest about what I read at school, wanted to know the stories from my books while she was illiterate. I was always among top students in class so I was advised to take science and major math in high school. One of my elective subjects was Agriculture. It was exciting because I wanted to be a good teacher and a farmer. In school, I learned that traditional agriculture system was one of the main reasons for poverty of villagers. I and my elder brother and classmate Baburam were working together in farm to grow better. We really set example of good farming growing crops in our fields using knowledge learned in class at that time.
My science teacher in high school once suggested to take science major in college and I liked that idea. There was no science college in Gulmi district at that time. I went Tansen Papla to study science. However, first college degree in science major (I. Sc.) was very tough for me and it is tough for anyone whose SLC is from government school where courses are taught in Nepali medium. Some of my schoolmates dropped science because they were not coming for their own but were sent by parents. I had no choice but success because study science was my choice not my parents’. I had determination so I was patient and I could complete I. Sc. in physics and mathematics.
As a scientist, of course, I advocate science. For new generation I would like to say that I. Sc. was my greatest achievement and a financial freedom. I. Sc. was my reason for financial freedom because I was not dependent on my parents anymore. For the first time I felt like I could stand in my own feet. This is because it was relatively easy to get teaching job after I. Sc. at that time. I might not find one where I wanted to, but there were so many schools looking for math and science teachers in Nepal at that time. Even now, if you want to go villages or remote areas you can get job after I. Sc. This can be a very good reason for one to study science. This should be the real motivation for science major. There are still more chances of getting teaching jobs for science major than other subjects.
If one has more choices, or one thinks that he can get job s/he could gain a lot of courage to move forward and courage to take risk that applied to me as well. Though my parents were not able to support my further education, I came to Kathmandu to see if I could still survive and peruse my education. Otherwise I would take a break for teaching to make money for my study. Therefore, I strongly recommend young generation to start college with science major. If you succeed, you have so many doors open. You can always change your mind and move to arts and commerce, you can find teaching job in schools, you can do tutoring to high school kids and so on. Moreover, you can understand basic principle of natural phenomenon.
Finally, science major led me to physics. Physics is a beautiful subjects as we get chance to understand the nature and express natural laws in mathematical relations. It requires a lot of thinking. I used to love to read literatures but that I would understand without much effort and without taking any classes. Physics requires brain exercise and more I read it more I get interested. Moreover, I study physics as I saw more chances of getting job after graduation in physics. </blockquote>
<i>Sounds like you worked and studied together. So, how did you balance work and study? How did you succeed? </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If there is a will, there is a way. I came to Kathmandu for my bachelor’s degree in science (B.Sc.). Sometime teaching in boarding school, sometime tutoring math and science to high school kids I managed to work and study. Sometime I had to skip my classes for work. The day I completed my B. Sc., my confidence level reached to the highest level. I was encouraged by my own success; I was interested in reading by more reading. Nothing extraordinary, I just kept doing and I think this is the key to success.
I wanted to continue my study to master’s in physics. By that time my professional aim was changed and I wanted to be a physics professor in a university in Nepal. Obviously I had to work and study for my master as well and this time I had to support my younger brother too! As you know Master level courses in physics are very tough in Nepal. Basically, we learned taking classes but that was not enough. Discussions among friends, collections of old questions and solving them in groups, sharing class note among friends and finally memorizing formulas and equations were major strategies to succeed the Tribhuvan University comprehensive exam, which is very tough annual exam. I would suggest to new generations not to panic if you don’t understand at first, continue to ask and discuss with friends. Our teachers are so helpful, take full advantage and success is in your hands. After you succeed there in Nepal, you can compete with anybody in the world. All graduate from Nepal are doing excellent around the globe. Data show that they are doing equal or better than the students from anywhere else. </blockquote>
<i>You said that you wanted to become a physics professor in Nepal. What makes you come to USA?</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Well, it did not go as I thought. TU did not open professors’ positions for long time. I was mostly teaching in English boarding school and as a part-time lecturer in TU. Though one could get teaching position after MSc, a PhD would be recommended and most of physics professors in TU were PhD holders. To that front, I was looking for options for further education as well. The trend to come to USA for further study was just about there. I was in contact with Dr. Jagat Shakya and Dr. Naveen Jha who were already in USA. I was not sure I would be able to come but just took TOEFL exam and applied a couple of places. I got admission with scholarship at Minnesota State University and got visa. To get chance to come to USA was considered a good option and I had no many choices. So, I came for master program in physics to USA in 2003. Nowadays, it is a lot easier. There are a lot of Nepalese around the globe now; you can find information in Nepali Physicists around the globe in this website here <a href="http://goo.gl/maps/KV2RH">http://goo.gl/maps/KV2RH</a>. Thank you Nabin ji and team for this good work. I really appreciate your effort. Internet access is easy nowadays, you can get connected via email, facebook, linkedin, twitter and most of the time you can get response instantly. My advice to new generation is that please take full advantage of it. </blockquote>
<i>Could you please tell us about your research interest. </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I came to USA in 2003 and started first research at Minnesota State University, Mankato Minnesota in 2004. There I learned about doing research by preparing high temperature ceramic super conducting samples, used X-ray powder diffraction and measured its magnetic and heat capacity etc. My PhD research in UT Dallas was about organic solar cells (plastic solar power) which have potential for low cost production and the flexibility would enable the solar to wrap around any types of curved surfaces like clothing, cars etc.
Another area of my expertise is nanofabrication of photonic structures. In my post-doctoral research I was able to fabricate photonic nanostructures of the butterfly wings, that are consider most complex structures in nature. Using low cost method, there I demonstrated that the current engineering technology was capable for mimicking the most complicated photonic structures in nature. These photonic structures have several uses such as black wings for maximum light absorption, other colors for chemical sensing, bank note counterfeiting etc. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My publications can be found in <a href="http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8_OeP4AAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8_OeP4AAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao</a><br />
Linkedin page <a href="http://bit.ly/MuktiAryal">http://bit.ly/MuktiAryal</a> </blockquote>
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<i>What strategies did you use to be successful in research, Any advice? </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
There were challenges and opportunities to succeed and do research of my interest. To choose a professor and a research topic is challenging and the success determines future career. It may be helpful for beginner researchers if I go over a little bit detail on this. The choice of research topics depend on several factors: research interest, availability of research and vacancies with the professor etc. I think it is important to think what you want to do after graduation. I chose a research which could open doors for industries and academia so that it might be easier to find a job after graduation. As I understand today, the research skills such as sample preparations and characterizations are more important than the research topic itself in industrial jobs. Academia needs more publications and in depth understanding of the topic and creative ideas.
I got interested in solar energy, best renewable energy alternative to current fossil fuels and coals. There have been solar power in the market but expensive to replace traditional electric powers such as hydroelectricity and fossil fuels power plants. My research focused on plastic solar cells as mentioned earlier. The best part of my research was I could learn nanotechnology, nanostructure fabrication and characterization and other related skills that could fit for academia and industries. My research helps in fundamental understanding of conducting polymer.
Let me tell you about plastic solar cells. In high school, we learned that plastics are bad conductors. First conducting polymer was discovered by Nobel laurel Alen Heeger and his team in 1990s. Research in plastic solar cells was a hot topic when I was about to start my PhD research. Plastic solar cells have potential for low cost but their efficiency is poor. One way to improve efficiency was by controlling nanostructure morphology. In that front, my group pioneered in nanostructured organic solar cells that I proved that nanostructured morphology can be controlled by nanoimprinting. I presented my research in MRS Fall meeting in 2008. This was my first conference presentation that happened in front of large audiences where one of which was Nobel Prize winner Prof. Alen Heeger, all seats were full and people were standing on back of the room. I published my first paper in 2008 which is cited 76 times as of today. The excitement was high in the beginning. The efficiency of organic solar cells at that time was about 5% and we were hoping to reach 10% with our techniques.
However, there are always likely to have ups and downs in research. Likewise, the efficiency of our cells was much lower than we expected. Again, I did not give up but continued to explore the reasons behind the low performances. Around that time I found an interview by Alen Heeger <a href="http://esi-topics.com/conducting-polymers/interviews/Dr-Alan-Heeger.html">http://esi-topics.com/conducting-polymers/interviews/Dr-Alan-Heeger.html</a> on conducting polymer. At the end of interview on the question of long term goal, <b>Dr. Heeger</b> said (2nd last paragraph): “<i><u>Polymer chains are disordered like cooked spaghetti noodles , what you really want, if you want very high performance, is more like spaghetti in the box before you cook it.</u></i>” I started looking if I can really do that. Finally, I was able to show that that can possibly happened by the technique we were using to fabricate organic solar cells. All I needed to show was, that was really happening. In 2009, I published a paper on polymer chain alignment, which is my biggest contribution in understanding of fundamental polymer science. This paper attracted many researchers around the world (cited 122 times). We wrote a review in the topic after that. Very recently I contributed in a paper published on the similar topic in April 2014. This is how my PhD was so exciting and fun. My PhD advisor is Prof. Walter Hu who thinks that Nepalese students are very bright.
After my PhD, I moved to University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill, North Carolina for new challenges and opportunities. My postdoctoral research was also nanostructured organic solar cells but this time the focus was to maximize the light absorption. The concept of national science foundation (NSF) funded project was to mimic black spot of butterfly wings and utilized it in solar cells for maximum light absorption to increase solar cells efficiency. As a nanofabrication expert, I had given a most challenging part of the project to mimic the butterfly wings photonic structures or fabricate the similar nanostructures of butterfly wings. These structures are of interest since 1970 after <b>Helen Ghiradella</b>, a pioneer in this field <a href="http://www.albany.edu/biology/faculty/hghiradella">http://www.albany.edu/biology/faculty/hghiradella</a>/. Now the topic is interested to physicists and engineers see examples here <a href="http://www.geglobalresearch.com/blog/butterfly-wing-nanostructures-and-temperature-changes">http://www.geglobalresearch.com/blog/butterfly-wing-nanostructures-and-temperature-changes</a> However, the research is conducted using natural wings of butterfly and nobody even knew if the current engineering technology is able to mimic such complex photonic structures in nature. After several failure and frustrations, most exciting time finally came. I was able to demonstrate that photonic nanostructures of the various butterfly wings can actually be fabricated using existing conventional engineering technology over large area in low cost. (Read my interview in Beneath the AVS Surface, Replicating Nature: A new method to mimic the light-manipulating properties of butterfly wings: <a href="https://avs.org/AVS/files/6f/6f052181-f991-41f1-83f9-ac963bd0507c.pdf">https://avs.org/AVS/files/6f/6f052181-f991-41f1-83f9-ac963bd0507c.pdf</a> in AVS highlight at <a href="http://archive.today/RaHBx">http://archive.today/RaHBx</a>). In a very short period of time, I made breakthrough in my major project and made several outstanding contributions in the team. Since I left too early my post-doctoral research (left just after 1 year) to join a startup in California; So, I could not continue my research in that topic for more breakthroughs. </blockquote>
<i>How is your experience in joining Rolith, Inc. as a Process Engineer? Was there any culture shock in moving to industry?</i><br />
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Rolith Inc. is a startup nanotechnology company (see application page for here http://www.rolith.com/applications/transparent-conductive-electrodes ). I am here almost from the beginning of the company. A startup company has to develop from the proof of concept to manufacturing level. Of course, a small company has limited resources and a fixed target as compare to research institute where one can have freedom for various researches and access to many instruments. Working in Rolith, a startup company is more or less similar to research institute with limited facilities and certain research goal. There was not any cultural sock for me after I moved from my postdoctoral research to Rolith. It is also because of my research interests. My research interests of nano-fabrications for various applications such as anti-reflecting surfaces etc. are well match with the interests of this company. After I joined Rolith Inc, I made some breakthroughs, contributed US patents and several conference papers. In academia I was highly appreciated by my PhD advisors, post-doctoral advisors and the people in the field. I could present in several conferences in front of large audiences. Here probably not as much, but I am happy from what I could contribute to the company for moving forward. </blockquote>
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<i> A general perception is that industry experience is very demanding. How do you balance life and work? </i><br />
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It has been great so far! Though work hours are long, I don't need to work from home. While I am at home, I give time for my family. I live with my wife, a nine year old son and a five year old daughter. Evening time and weekends are mostly for family. I think a professor has to be much busier than an engineer in industry. We don't need to worry about a grant proposal, publications, and class preparation and so on. There are of course pros and cons in everywhere. For example university jobs are stable, while people tend to move frequently from one job to another in industries. </blockquote>
<i> Could you please give us a snapshot of your one day in office? How much of table research versus the experimental work is involved? </i><br />
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The short term and long term goal of the company are discussed in the meeting and the work is assigned for the week. As an employee my goal is to complete the assign tasks in timely manner, find the solution of the problem by designing experiments and performing them, and report the progress or difficulties in the meeting. Everyday is not the same but in general more time is assign for experimental work than literature search. Working hours are flexible but it’s about the feeling responsibility and performing as much as I can to complete the task. In general my office starts around 8:30 in the morning and end at 6 PM. In between, I come home for lunch as I live about 5 minutes’ drive. .</blockquote>
<i>Could you please share one or two interesting ‘aha’ moments in your research career or industrial job? </i><br />
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Yes, I can share a couple of interesting moments with you. In 2008, my team published concept paper of nanostructured organic solar (plastic solar) cells and we applied US patents as well. So there was lot of excitements. Pretty soon we realized that the efficiency was much lower than we expected. Life is full of ups and downs like sinusoidal curve. It happens almost everywhere in life. The best scenario was to get high efficiency but it was not happening. When I was trying to find the reason behind the unexpected results, I discovered a fundamental polymer behavior due to Nanoimprinting. At that moment I was so excited that then I could get a good publications and my PhD.
Next moment I want to share that was happened when I was doing post doc at UNC. Several times I hoped to get pine tree structures similar to butterfly wings’ in the sample while observing under scanning electron microscope (SEM). It had not happened several times for long. It was November 2010 and I was imaging. I saw pine tree structures under microscope and I shouted and jumped high like a soccer player had made a goal! I was alone that time and right after I saw my co-worker at the door and I showed him the results. I and my team finally proved that we could fabricate most complex structures of nature, photonic structures of butterfly wings. </blockquote>
<i>The technology evolves fast, are the requirements and qualifications/experiences/skills for a new hire changing in the similar rate? Any words of wisdom for the new comers into the industry, or in general which kind of skill sets are on demand? </i><br />
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Technology evolves fast is true and the requirements for new hire are also changing. However, the requirements for a new hire may not be changing in the similar rate. I think evolution of new technology is the results of mostly advancements in thoughts or creativities. In other words performance of new jobs may not always require new skills just like using same pen and paper we can write different stories. However, competition increases more and more over time. The more skills we have more the chances of getting hired. The skill sets depends on the types of jobs so it is hard to say what kinds of skills are required in general. It is good to have access in modern characterization tools such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), tunneling electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) among others in nanotechnology research. Nowadays it looks like if you don’t have some basic computer programming skills, you are lacking something. </blockquote>
<i> There have been talks about supporting research activities in Nepal by Alumni of TU. What could be the best way to start/support/foster such activities? </i><br />
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Sharing research ideas and activities we are doing here, providing literatures that are not available/not accessible from Nepal, financial support to purchase some instruments can be some among others. Theoretical research ideas may be more useful than those requires high cost instruments. We can update new publications in common forum, share thesis etc. I had made an extra copy of thesis for physics department and dropped it there last December when I visited Nepal. One idea may be that we can discuss about conducting yearly conference meeting of Nepalese scientists in USA. There, we can discuss more about opening industries and research centers in Nepal.</blockquote>
<i> Earlier you told about your professional aim. How was your ‘aim in life’ developed? </i><br />
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To elaborate more, professional aim is what kind of profession we want to choose for living a comfortable life. I think ‘life aim’ and professional aim are two different things. One can choose to be a doctor, a teacher or a farmer etc. Yes, earlier I was just talking about professional aim. It has been changing over time. In the beginning I wanted to be teacher and a farmer. Later it was changed to university professor in Nepal. Now I am working in industry. Certainly, as a teenager, my ‘aim in life’ was not to be a scientist and work for USA. Engineering or research is my profession and it can be changed too. However, life aim is developed over time through learning by experience and realizing the purpose of life, knowing the meaning of life, why I am in this earth, what makes difference if I am not here, what kind of legacy I can leave after me etc. When one achieves this aim, s/he can gain inner satisfaction. Then one can see the meaning of life. My aim in life is to help others and that was developed since I was a teenager and it is still growing and taking shape. I think that my life will be successful if I can make society move forward even a little bit.
When I was teenager, I was very much impressed by life of our great poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota. “खोज्छन सबै सुख भने सुख तो कहाँ छ? आफु मिटाई अरुलाई दिनु जहाँ छ |” Translation: Where is happiness if everybody is looking for it? There where you make yourself empty giving to others. So, I developed myself that I want to help other, do social work and help society. The types of questions where I grew up, where I studied etc. make all of us emotional. We are not there where we grew up, we are not there where we learn to be human or learn to be a good citizen, where we got life. So many of us grown up, and left. Some of us left village and go to cities, some of us left country. When we thought we were successful and we left our country. If we were not successful we wouldn’t. This sounds like kind of selfishness. I like to add here that I am glad to see increasing number of Nepali physics PhD every year. Doing PhD is great and after that it is time to think what can we do back home. Let’s hope Nepal will not just be a man power producer for USA or other developed countries. As I mentioned earlier, we can help recent graduate for the opportunities abroad. However, that should not be counterproductive for the country by sending brain power abroad. In the other hand we cannot stop brain drain if there are no opportunities in the country. Therefore we have to think two things here. First: help new graduate for higher education abroad, second: do something for the advancement of the country to create some opportunity for the new comers. </blockquote>
<i>It seems you have a plan to do some social work for your society, could you please elaborate? </i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
To talk about myself, after I completed M. Sc., my aim was to encourage and help younger generation for higher education. I and my friends from Isma established an organization named ‘Ismali Kosh’ (now Ismali Samaj) with the aim that any student or anyone from our area could get load for his need and return later. It is still growing.
Five years ago, we (I and my wife) established “Premnath Memorial Scholarship Fund” in my father’s name. Now the fund has been utilizing through Ismali Samaj Kathmandu so that the Samaj gives prize for three top SLC students from Isma village every year. We are hoping we can do more in the future. Then, we get inner satisfaction regardless the type of profession we do and it really does not matter where we stay (home or abroad). Any work that can help our society move forward is appreciated. For example, I recently learned about initiative in anti-corruption, poverty alleviation and several inspirational programs by Hemsarita Pathak Academy founded by our friend Hem Pathak and team. </blockquote>
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Thank you Nabin Ji for this opportunity to express my views in your blog!</blockquote>
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<i>It is our pleasure to have you!- Thank you!!!NKM</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-61446700607454696772014-05-10T08:47:00.000-04:002014-05-10T09:02:59.187-04:00Live HD video of earth from the International Space Station<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The view is astonishing!<br />
Here, follow the link, I can assure you that it is going to be wonderful<br />
<a href="http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/HDEV/">http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/HDEV/</a><script type="text/javascript">
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I wish I had a projector, and could project these view while working!!!<br />
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Did you say that you want a background music for this view?<br />
Here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyJwbwWg8uc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyJwbwWg8uc</a><br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyJwbwWg8uc&list=RDlyJwbwWg8uc<br />
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The view would be absolutely amazing if we could catch it when it flies over Aurora. <br />
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Head over to spaceweather.com and try to track down one of 'em. Please let me know if there is going to be an Aurora watch! <br />
There are other Alerting sites too, for example:<br />
http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast<br />
https://twitter.com/Aurora_Alerts<br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-63667459960525589112014-05-05T09:02:00.003-04:002014-06-23T11:47:18.406-04:00Downscaling Shortwave Radiation for northeast regional ecosystem model (ne-resm)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A brief update on our recent progress in downscaling the atmospheric variables. This work was performed to support the input variables for northeast regional ecosystem modeling group (NE-RESM.org). </div>
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We applied machine learning technique to downscale the GCM in reference to the Daymet variables (which represents the ground truth). Since the Daymet is only available in current scenario, our scheme will be more useful for providing the high resolution atmospheric variables for the future scenario. Moreover, since we have built the framework, this approach can be extended to continental USA. We have performed downscaling of Maximum temperature, minimum temperature and downwelling shortwave radiation. The shortwave radiation is the one that requires a lot of improvements... details to come out in a paper soon. This work was presented in Machine Learning Conference in NYC and received quite nice receptions from people who visited the poster. You can see some more pics here:<br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="http://bit.ly/ne-resm14a">http://bit.ly/ne-resm14a</a></span></div>
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Thanks are due to Dr. Peter Thornton at Climate Change Science Institute / Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. I am grateful for his help in ingesting the daylength variable so that ISIMIP and Daymet could be converted to the same 24hr average, </div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8886428386270023306.post-64350197939737746492014-04-26T22:52:00.000-04:002014-06-23T11:49:22.125-04:00PM2.5 Map by fusing Machine-learning and Kriging estimates<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Just a brief update on our progress in making PM2.5 maps for the northeast. First we applied machine learning algorithms to estimate PM2.5 from remote sensing, ground station and meteorology data, then we fused Kriging results of the ground station data to obtain the final PM2.5 map. Inverse distance weighting on remote sensing has been applied to improve the coverage on remote sensing. The results were obtained using NY state data as we were funded by NY state agency. </div>
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