Nabin K. Malakar, Ph.D.

NASA JPL
I am a computational physicist working on societal applications of machine-learning techniques.

Research Links

My research interests span multi-disciplinary fields involving Societal applications of Machine Learning, Decision-theoretic approach to automated Experimental Design, Bayesian statistical data analysis and signal processing.

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Interested about the picture? Autonomous experimental design allows us to answer the question of where to take the measurements. More about it is here...

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I addition to the research, I also like to hike, bike, read and play with water color.

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Saturday, November 3, 2018

Importance Of Physics Education In Nepal: The Rising Nepal/Oct 27, 2018


Importance Of Physics Education In Nepal 
Dr. Rudra Aryal, 
Hunter Francoeur &
Dr. Nabin K Malakar
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.

Impacts
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. 
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. 
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.
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.
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. 
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. 
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. 
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.
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.
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.
Workforce
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.


Published: 27 Oct, 2018 
http://therisingnepal.org.np/news/26644 

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Special Issue "Sustainability in the Mountains Region"




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.
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 (http://conference.kias.org.np). 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.  
The range of relevant topics include:
  • Environmental, economic and social sustainability
  • Land use and land cover monitoring, natural disaster and risk assessment
  • Decision making and societal impacts, policy and management strategies for sustainable development
  • Citizen science and trainings
  • Remote sensing, and mapping of resources
  • Data fusion, and data visualization relevant to sustainability issues
  • Innovation in renewable and alternative energy
  • Pesticide uses and sustainable agriculture
  • Organic farming
We welcome papers from broadly defined topics that are relevant to the theme of the Special Issue.
Dr. Nabin K Malakar
Dr. Rajan Ghimire
Dr. Jhalendra Rijal
Dr. Pradeep Wagle
Guest Editors
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Friday, April 8, 2016

An Interview with Dr. Mike Abrams, #ASTER project leader @NASAJPL

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).
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).
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.

A good selection of ASTER images can be found on the ASTER web site, gallery pages:

The dataset is available at:

We stopped by the office of Dr. Mike Abrams, the project leader for ASTER science team at NASA JPL.
Here are 5 quick questions with him:

1. Please share your experience with the ASTER project.
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
2. Why are the millions of ASTER images being made public?
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.

3. How can users get maximum use out of the ASTER data?
Natural color, full resolution JPEG images can be downloaded for all images in the archive. No sophisticated software is needed to view these images. (https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/terralook/home). To do more in-depth analyses, the digital data must be downloaded, then analyzed with GIS or image processing software.

4. What are the unique feature of ASTER? (Some examples of news for societal benefit.)
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.
5. Do you have favorite image(s) of ASTER?
See the interview with National Geographic: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/04/160406-pictures-nasa-terra-aster-satellites-space-science/

A selfie with Dr. Abrams.
Note: I had an opportunity to be a co-author with him on the paper:
The ASTER Global Emissivity Dataset (ASTER GED): Mapping Earth's emissivity at 100 meter spatial scale, GC Hulley, SJ Hook, E Abbott, N Malakar, T Islam, M Abrams
Geophysical Research Letters 42 (DOI: 10.1002/2015GL065564)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015GL065564/full 

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Gravitational Waves and LIGO Experiment

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.

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!

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!
That means there is no force which is pulling things around. It is just the manifestation of the bending of the spacetime fabric.

When  masses accelerate, gravitational waves are produced. This can cause "ripples" in the space!
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 interferometry 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 [See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_xd9hUZ2AY More specifically this one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUytkiBwXvI]. 

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!!! 
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(46°27′18.52″N119°24′27.56″W and
30°33′46.42″N90°46′27.27″W), triangulation method can be used to find the source of the ripple!
Here is a nice video explaining the method


Now here comes the big news!

LIGO has detected the gravitational wave!!!
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.
The scientific paper is here:

If you are interested in the press release,
https://mediaassets.caltech.edu/gwave#graphics

FYI: India is working on next LIGO experiment
https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/page/ligo-india

Also, it seems like Einstein had doubt about the Gravitational waves at some point
http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/article/58/9/10.1063/1.2117822

One interesting presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajZojAwfEbs


Disclaimer: These are my personal notes. Please draw conclusions at your own risk.



Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Crowdfunding Science: Experience from a Developing Country

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 UV-Vis spectrophotometer (a scientific instrument) and accessories for Department of Chemistry, Mahendra Morang Adarsha Multiple Campus (MMAMC), Biratnagar, Nepal.
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.
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.
Crowdfunding
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.
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.
Ready to face harsh comments and questions

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.
Important factors for successful crowdfunding
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.
  1. A clear idea: Our fundraising campaign had a clear goal of buying scientific instrument for MMAMC and a good explanation of why the fund was needed.
  2. Networking: 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.
  3. Know your target donors: 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.
  4. Authenticity: 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.
A successful example.
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.
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.
  1. Share and publish the details: We kept updating the progress of fundraising on regular basis. We wrote our aim and objectives clearly on the crowdfunding website.
Did we get all money raised?
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.

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!


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