Computing - Blog Posts
Space Shuttle Glass Cockpit
NASA upgraded the Space Shuttle’s cockpit to a glass cockpit or Multi-function Electronic Display System during a 10-month major overhaul in 1998.
https://www.instagram.com/spaceexploration_genz/
https://www.vsual.co/shop/space-exploration-gen-z
https://www.redbubble.com/people/astro3antica/shop
Apollo Display and Keyboard (DSKY)
The Display and Keyboard (DSKY) was the main interface between the crew and the Apollo Guidance Computers which controlled the Command/Service Module and the Lunar Module.
https://www.instagram.com/spaceexploration_genz/
https://www.vsual.co/shop/space-exploration-gen-z
https://www.redbubble.com/people/astro3antica/shop
So far, at 50. Lol.
Attending a DC leadership conference in May!
I will meet US college student leaders, participate in workshops & visit Capitol Hill. One of activity reads, "[Learn about]... advocacy, politics, and policy making from a panel of women who work for senators and representatives on Capitol Hill". Summer of 2013 I attended President Obama's Champions of Change White House event with NCWIT Aspirations in Computing sharing the importance of "project based learning" in schools. I talked with policy makers, company leaders and educators about how project based learning could be implemented and assessed. Additionally, I met Minnesota Senator Al Franken who since has visited FIRST robotics teams in my hometown & supported STEAM heavily. Again I want to have a focused message to share during my DC mission. I may keep the project based learning theme or pick a new one. I would love to hear your thoughts about what message I should share! Who knows who I'll run into!
I am so thankful AAUW Duluth MN awarded me with a scholarship making it possible to attend the AAUW's National Conference for College Women Student Leaders. Here is the agenda of the conference: https://www.nccwsl.org/about/agenda/
Watch for live blogging! Pictures are from my 2013 White House experience.
High School Women - Aspirations In Computing Award
Due November 7th!
High school women, check out the questions for the NCWIT Aspirations In Computing award, your qualification may surprise you! Seriously gals, apply. You will get internships/ job shadowing opportunities, access to college $$$ and most importantly meet peers with similar interests. This award made me look at computer science as a serious major, awarded me a new iPad and CAD software, gave me the opportunity to visit the white house to advocate for project based learning during a Champions of Change Event and encouraged me to attend Grace Hopper Computing Conference. At least look at the questions because you qualify more than you think, I promise. I talked on WDIO's Good Morning Northland about NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award for high school women which may provide some insight. Teachers, relatives and friends of HS women, please encourage them to apply.
NASA Co-Op Week 17: First Co-Op Tour Wrap Up
During my final week at NASA this fall I leave PLUTO with a helpful tool. I am putting together a database of hardware on board the International Space Station that is searchable by part number or name. Sometimes the astronauts ask about something that is hard to explain and visualize so this will ease communication. This may not be the most technical task but I wanted to leave them with a really helpful tool. This week I am also awaiting the opportunity to watch the astronauts use my training.
I have thoroughly enjoyed my semester with PLUTO. My top three experiences would have to be developing the astronaut training, visiting Kennedy Space Center and sitting console in Mission Control. PLUTO's work environment is impressive with friendly people, personal growth opportunities and approachable leaders. The PLUTO team was so gracious to nominate and present to me a Co-Op award for my work this semester. It is such an honor to work with these passionate and talented Mission Control specialists. This summer I return to the Co-Op program with the Propulsion and Power Division turning Moon and Mars regolith into fuel. I am so thankful for my Co-Op opportunity and I hope you all can get involved with NASA too! Please check out ways you can be a part of the NASA mission below.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Apply for a NASA Internship NOW (high school to grad school):
https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/
Apply for a NASA Co-Op (Pathways Internship):
http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm
Other current NASA opportunities for students:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/current-opps-index.html
Apply to be a NASA astronaut due Feb 18th:
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/423817000
Follow Scott Kelly in his yearlong mission: http://time.com/space-nasa-scott-kelly-mission/
NASA Co-Op Week 16: Barf Lab & Mockups
Twenty five weeks at NASA Johnson I finally got a proper tour, lead by a tour guide, of the Space Vehicle Mockup Facility that houses exact replicas (build with same blueprint) of International Space Station modules, Shuttle, and Soyuz. Astronauts train in these mockups. A "low definition" mockup of Orion was present too.
Neurosciences Laboratory took us on a tour of their various astronaut barf machines. It is really like the rumors of spinning chairs, dizzying treadmills, and dark enclosed sliding contraptions. The spinning is to isolate parts of your brain that are used for balance. Only one day after Space Station astronauts return to Earth in Russia they are flown over to Johnson Space Center and put through a series of gravity adaptation tests. They had to pick up weighted objects, navigate around obstacles, jump of a short platform, and exit a hatch like structure. These tests will help NASA determine if astronauts would be capable of completing Mars surface operations after a long low gravity flight to the Red Planet. I wouldn't be surprised if returning astronauts Kjell, Oleg and Kimiya are on their way to the barf lab right now!
Most of the NASA Johnson Co-Ops and Interns complete their Fall semester this week. It is absolutely heart breaking to get to know so many space passionate people only to have to say goodbye at the end of the semester. I wish I could see all of these stellar students participate in NASA's future as they have already contributed to the growth of space exploration. It was an honor to work among these bright minds.
WAYS TO GET INVOLVED
Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/4tw5uwHD0PEApply for a NASA Internship NOW (high school to grad school):https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/Apply for a NASA Co-Op (Pathways Internship):http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htmLearn to code: https://hourofcode.com/usMeteor Shower live chat December 13th: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/news/news/releases/2015/M15-180.htmlCurrent NASA opportunities for students: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/current-opps-index.htmlCode more: https://www.madewithcode.com/
Lights flashed on the stage.These are real life rock stars. 12,000 women computer scientists and engineers gathered for the Grace Hopper Women in Celebration. Women or not already during day one I learned valuable career advice anyone can benefit from. What's Your Niche? Take a moment to think about what other people think about you. No, not what they think about your clothing or how you shoved that piece of pizza in your face. What they think about you as a whole. Like it or not, everyone has a niche or brand that people identify you with. Are you a trail blazer? Approachable? Efficient? Ally? Approachable? Ask someone how they see you, however, you may not like the results... but there is a solution. There was a women in the workplace who was described to have career ADD, meaning she would purposely take on projects in disarray, fix them and move on to the next crumbling project. Transforming her weakness into a strength she used her talent to reorganize lost causes becoming a strategist. Co-workers could go to her for help with theor projects adding value to the team. Crucial Conversations In Your Career Unavoidably there will be times in your career when you have to practice conflict resolution, stick up for yourself and simply communicate with others what you are working on. Various social norms can debilitate folks from communicating effectively. Here are charactierstics that ensure effective communication: Be Direct, Be Specific, Be Proactive & Be Confident Advice From a CEO As an NCWIT (National Center for Women & Information Technology) collegiate member peers and I had the opportunity to have lunch with the CEO and engineers from Qualcomm. The CEO happened to sit at my lunch table and we got to ask him career advice. One of my favorite questions was, "What are characteristics that got you to the position of CEO?" His answer... 1) Communicate: speak confidently, convince others of your idea, be a good public speaker. 2) Trust: know your employee's are competent, they are the technical experts. 3) Motivate: Be a cat herder, convey the importance of the task effectively.
NASA Co-Op Week 1: Mission Control
What Am I Doing?!
For my first post as a NASA Co-Op I’m going to skip the typical “Houston we have a problem” and “All systems go” intro and get right to the good stuff. I just completed my first week as a NASA Pathways Intern at Johnson Space Center, what NASA calls their Co-Op program. I will be flip-flopping between working at NASA and my university studying Electrical Engineering until I graduate. 98% of students get hired on full-time with NASA after a successful Co-Op experience. This fall 16 out of over 1000 applicants are Co-Oping this fall. I am thankful to be working alongside such talented and passionate people.
Flying The Space Station
I am “touring”, what we call our Co-Op work tours, in a team in Mission Control called PLUTO. No, I am not working with New Horizons, PLUTO is in charge of the Plug and Play-Ability of hardware and software on the International Space Station (ISS). I will be helping develop technology that assist astronauts in experimenting in space, writing procedures for astronauts and sitting console in Mission Control. I can’t rent a car without an extra fee but I can help fly the multi-billion dollar ISS, makes sense.
How To Get Involved
Follow my weekly posts for the Co-Op perspective, Follow NASA on Tumblr, watch what NASA is up to, and apply for an internship or Co-Op with NASA.
NASA Intern Wrap Up
Some of the world's brightest minds and some of the most ambitious students have been my colleagues for my ten week adventure as a NASA intern. Week ten we scrambled to complete documentation for our projects. I was creating tutorials about making displays until my last hours as an intern. Our journey came to a close with an intern award ceremony, a branch competition playing laser tag and lunch with friends eating stir fry and drinking bubble tea. At the award ceremony a number of interns were recognized for their outstanding work and I was so proud to see one of the interns from the team I was in, Avionics System Division, be recognized! Students worked on so many game changing projects that if everyone was recognized the award ceremony would have lasted many hours. I am so thankful to be working alongside these talented people!
During my journey I learned two major lessons. I learned about the state of NASA and what exciting things I want to be a part of in the futurel.
The State of NASA NASA is filled with passionate professionals that love what they are doing and want what they are working on to succeed. These professionals are engineers, scientists, physicists, biologists, geologists, business majors, art majors, professionals from many disciplines. The word that best describes NASA is resilient. Outer spaces is a brutal place and yet the International Space station, a space lab larger than a football field, orbits the Earth every 90 minutes. Things malfunction and systems fail yet NASA picks themselves off the ground, brushes the dirt off and tries again refining, enhancing and improving. In addition to engineering challenges, NASA faces financial challenges. The returns for investing in space exploration is hard to visualize on the surface but can be illustrated after a bit of investigation. Cordless drills, MRIs and Solar Panels are all thanks to NASA's space exploration. These and other technologies are called "Spin-Offs", world changing technologies that are developed during space exploration. The microchip, like the one in your smart phone, was perfected by others but a technology first designed and implemented by NASA. There was little need to micro-size technology until humans had the desire to lunch it into space and conserve weight. NASA has created jobs by opening up the suborbital space industry and showing that such a crazy concept like that could be profitable. NASA is in a state of continued innovation and can propel even father and faster with greater financial support.
Future Endeavors Designing a display for a project I worked on two summers ago at another NASA center and seeing the collaboration of two centers on such an ambitious project was the most rewarding part of my internship. In the summer of 2013 I interned at NASA Glenn in Ohio testing and making a circuit board for a solar array regulator. The regulator insures that a space habitat has the correct amount of power at all times. This summer I worked on the displays for that same power system. I loved the birds eye view of the project understanding the electronics inside and the programming filtering data into the display. In the future I would like to be a part of multi-center projects like these and be able to follow the various aspects that tie it all together. In addition to high level understanding I also enjoy low level work as well. I would love to work on a team that is tasked with rapid prototyping. Feeling anxious about being able to meet a deadline is exciting; especially if I'm adding last details onto a system as its being loaded on a rocket, that's basically what we did in FIRST Robotics making last minute changes as we transported it tot the field. In addition to NASA projects I would love to intern or study abroad in Norway. As I am Scandinavian, I am interested in learning the language and spending a summer over there.
How to Get Involved I am so thankful I had the opportunity to intern at Johnson Space Center. Family members, teachers and mentors have supported me and shaped my trajectory to make this opportunity possible.Very shortly I will be starting a Pathways Internship, what they call their Co-Op program, back at Johnson. I wish everyone could have a NASA experience and I encourage you to apply for an internship, Co-Op or other program. Please comment or message me with any questions about applying.
Intern program: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/
Co-Op program: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm (More spots will open soon for Spring)
Blog post about other opportunities: http://kirsikuutti.blogspot.com/2015/06/launching-your-aerospace-career.html
Photos by NASA Johnson Space/Allison Bills
Also pictured Caleb the author of this awesome tumblr: http://astronomicalwonders.tumblr.com/
Mein 666-Tage-Lauf bei SoloLearn ...
Mein momentaner Programmierkurs ...
Post #149: SoloLearn, Learn To Code, Tutorial: Grundlagen der Programmierung (Python, HTML & CSS, SQL), 2024.
Post #91: Pinterest, @usamaawan5752, Python Road Map, 2023.
Some coding concepts for beginners ...
Variable Declaration
Control Structures
Data Structures
OOP (for beginners?)
Syntax And Tools
Post #70: Analytics Insight, 5 Fundamental Coding Concepts for Beginners, 2023.
Microsoft Visual Studio Code ...
Post #26: Computer Bild, Microsoft Visual Studio Code, Tutorial zur Programmierumgebung (IDE), 2023.
Quantum Computing: What the quibit?
Quantum computing is a groundbreaking technological advancement poised to revolutionize the way we process information. By leveraging the principles of quantum mechanics, quantum computers promise to solve complex problems far beyond the capabilities of even the most advanced classical supercomputers. But what exactly is quantum computing, and why is it so transformative? Microsoft Surface Pro 2…
Are humans the new supercomputer?
The saying of philosopher René Descartes of what makes humans unique is beginning to sound hollow. ‘I think – therefore soon I am obsolete’ seems more appropriate. When a computer routinely beats us at chess and we can barely navigate without the help of a GPS, have we outlived our place in the world? Not quite. Welcome to the front line of research in cognitive skills, quantum computers and gaming.
Today there is an on-going battle between man and machine. While genuine machine consciousness is still years into the future, we are beginning to see computers make choices that previously demanded a human’s input. Recently, the world held its breath as Google’s algorithm AlphaGo beat a professional player in the game Go—an achievement demonstrating the explosive speed of development in machine capabilities.
But we are not beaten yet - human skills are still superior in some areas. This is one of the conclusions of a recent study by Danish physicist Jacob Sherson, published in the prestigious science journal Nature.
”It may sound dramatic, but we are currently in a race with technology—and steadily being overtaken in many areas. Features that used to be uniquely human are fully captured by contemporary algorithms. Our results are here to demonstrate that there is still a difference between the abilities of a man and a machine,” explains Jacob Sherson.
At the interface between quantum physics and computer games, Sherson and his research group at Aarhus University have identified one of the abilities that still makes us unique compared to a computer’s enormous processing power: our skill in approaching problems heuristically and solving them intuitively. The discovery was made at the AU Ideas Centre CODER, where an interdisciplinary team of researchers work to transfer some human traits to the way computer algorithms work.
Quantum physics holds the promise of immense technological advances in areas ranging from computing to high-precision measurements. However, the problems that need to be solved to get there are so complex that even the most powerful supercomputers struggle with them. This is where the core idea behind CODER—combining the processing power of computers with human ingenuity—becomes clear.
Our common intuition Like Columbus in QuantumLand, the CODER research group mapped out how the human brain is able to make decisions based on intuition and accumulated experience. This is done using the online game “Quantum Moves”. Over 10,000 people have played the game that allows everyone contribute to basic research in quantum physics.
"The map we created gives us insight into the strategies formed by the human brain. We behave intuitively when we need to solve an unknown problem, whereas for a computer this is incomprehensible. A computer churns through enormous amounts of information, but we can choose not to do this by basing our decision on experience or intuition. It is these intuitive insights that we discovered by analysing the Quantum Moves player solutions,” explains Jacob Sherson.
The laws of quantum physics dictate an upper speed limit for data manipulation, which in turn sets the ultimate limit to the processing power of quantum computers—the Quantum Speed Limit. Until now a computer algorithm has been used to identify this limit. It turns out that with human input researchers can find much better solutions than the algorithm.
"The players solve a very complex problem by creating simple strategies. Where a computer goes through all available options, players automatically search for a solution that intuitively feels right. Through our analysis we found that there are common features in the players’ solutions, providing a glimpse into the shared intuition of humanity. If we can teach computers to recognise these good solutions, calculations will be much faster. In a sense we are downloading our common intuition to the computer” says Jacob Sherson.
And it works. The group has shown that we can break the Quantum Speed Limit by combining the cerebral cortex and computer chips. This is the new powerful tool in the development of quantum computers and other quantum technologies.
We are the new supercomputer
Science is often perceived as something distant and exclusive, conducted behind closed doors. To enter you have to go through years of education, and preferably have a doctorate or two. Now a completely different reality is materialising.
In recent years, a new phenomenon has appeared—citizen science breaks down the walls of the laboratory and invites in everyone who wants to contribute. The team at Aarhus University uses games to engage people in voluntary science research. Every week people around the world spend 3 billion hours playing games. Games are entering almost all areas of our daily life and have the potential to become an invaluable resource for science.
“Who needs a supercomputer if we can access even a small fraction of this computing power? By turning science into games, anyone can do research in quantum physics. We have shown that games break down the barriers between quantum physicists and people of all backgrounds, providing phenomenal insights into state-of-the-art research. Our project combines the best of both worlds and helps challenge established paradigms in computational research,” explains Jacob Sherson.
The difference between the machine and us, figuratively speaking, is that we intuitively reach for the needle in a haystack without knowing exactly where it is. We ‘guess’ based on experience and thereby skip a whole series of bad options. For Quantum Moves, intuitive human actions have been shown to be compatible with the best computer solutions. In the future it will be exciting to explore many other problems with the aid of human intuition.
"We are at the borderline of what we as humans can understand when faced with the problems of quantum physics. With the problem underlying Quantum Moves we give the computer every chance to beat us. Yet, over and over again we see that players are more efficient than machines at solving the problem. While Hollywood blockbusters on artificial intelligence are starting to seem increasingly realistic, our results demonstrate that the comparison between man and machine still sometimes favours us. We are very far from computers with human-type cognition,” says Jacob Sherson and continues:
“Our work is first and foremost a big step towards the understanding of quantum physical challenges. We do not know if this can be transferred to other challenging problems, but it is definitely something that we will work hard to resolve in the coming years.”
