They innovate to e-nable

TNN | Aug 15, 2013, 04.38 AM IST
READ MORE UPSC|NCR Corporation India|NCPEDP|Computer screen
NEW DELHI: Arun Mehta wanted to do more with his engineering skills than stare at a computer screen all day. He wanted to use his skills to interact with and empower different kinds of people. Mehta, who has coded a software for scientist Stephen Hawking, has developed many software and apps for people with disabilities.

Bhushan Verma, a multimedia professional, developed a tool for children to help them learn basic concepts like social skills, language and expressions. His inspiration was his little son Sainyam who is autistic.

Arun and Bhushan are among six individuals who were awarded the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP)-MphasiS Universal Design Awards on Wednesday. The awards, which were instituted in 2010, recognize contribution of people under three categories: persons with disabilities, working professionals and organizations. Four companies that work on innovations that can make infrastructure accessible and inclusive were also awarded.

Mehta says his interaction with Hawking was "life altering". It changed his vision and idea of a career in programming. He had to develop software for Hawking that would help him perform many functions with just one button. "It was tough but I really worked hard to make the software fast and useful for Hawking. He is kind and has a brilliant sense of humor," says Mehta .

He has developed a software called Skid for mentally challenged children. "Children, who cannot speak properly, including many with cerebral palsy and autism, are denied access to a regular school, even though they could communicate in other ways, for instance using a computer. It is such other ways that Skid explores," says Mehta.

Dr Satendra Singh, assistant professor, University College of Medical Sciences who was also awarded on Wednesday recollects how he had applied for the position of assistant professor in physiology in 2011 but did not get an interview call. "All others who had applied got a call from UPSC but I didn't. When I called to check why, they said I was not eligible and a person with disability cannot teach at a medical college," says Singh. He did not lose hope. Singh consulted NCPEDP and went to court against such discrimination. Since then, he has filed several RTIs and exposed inaccessible hospitals, ATMs, colleges and post offices.

Nekram Upadhyay, a rehabilitation engineer, was also awarded. He is currently developing a low cost electric wheelchair. While electric wheelchairs costs between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 25 lakh, Nekram's prototype is likely to cost Rs 30,000-40,000. He says customizing technologies for different kinds of disabilities is a tough but satisfying job.

Srinivasu, who is leading accessibility initiatives at a private organization and Arathi Abraham, alumna of NID who designs alternative communication material were also among awardees. Organizations like Handicare —Indian Association of Persons with Disabilities, Kriyate Design Solutions, NCR Corporation India and School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal were awarded.
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Nasa sending world's first 3-D printer into space

PTI | Aug 14, 2013, 09.52 PM IST
WASHINGTON: Nasa is set to launch world's first zero-G-ready 3D printer into space next year, during its resupply mission to the International Space Station, so that parts can be built on-demand in space.


Space manufacturing company Made in Space's customised 3D printer will be the first device to manufacture parts away from planet Earth, researchers said.

The 3D Printing in Zero-G Experiment will validate the capability of additive manufacturing in zero-gravity.

"Imagine an astronaut needing to make a life-or-death repair on the International Space Station," said Aaron Kemmer, CEO of Made in Space on the company's website.

"Rather than hoping that the necessary parts and tools are on the station already, what if the parts could be 3D printed when they needed them?" said Kemmer.

All space missions today are completely dependent on Earth and the launch vehicles that send equipment to space. The greater the distance from Earth and the longer the duration, the more difficult it will be to resupply materials.

"As Nasa ventures further into space, whether redirecting an asteroid or sending humans to Mars, we will need transformative technology to reduce cargo weight and volume," Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden said during a recent tour of the agency's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field.

"In the future, perhaps astronauts will be able to print the tools or components they need while in space," he said.

The Made in Space and Nasa team envisions a future where space missions can be virtually self-sufficient and manufacture most of what they need in space.

This includes such things as consumables, common tools, and replacements for lost or broken parts and eventually even such things as CubeSats (small, deployable satellites).

"The 3D printing experiment with Nasa is a step towards the future. The ability to 3D print parts and tools on-demand greatly increases the reliability and safety of space missions while also dropping the cost by orders of magnitude," said Kemmer.

"The first printers will start by building test coupons, and will then build a broad range of parts, such as tools and science equipment," Kemmer said.

Both Made in Space and Nasa view the space station as the place to initiate the journey of in-space manufacturing.

"We're taking additive manufacturing technology to new heights, by working with Made in Space to test 3D printing aboard the space station," said Michael Gazarik, Nasa's associate administrator for space technology in Washington.

In preparation for the 2014 launch, Made in Space tested a diverse array of 3D printing technologies in zero-gravity in 2011 and is conducting additional tests this year. These micro-gravity tests provide the initial research that fed into the developments for the 3D Print experiment.

The 3D Printer is built specifically to handle the environmental challenges of space and uses extrusion additive manufacturing, which builds objects layer by layer out of polymers and other materials.
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The unwitting discovey -(EUREKA)

Scientists make ‘impossible material’ by accident

Aug 15, 2013, 06.59 AM IST
READ MORE Upsalite|university of Uppsala|magnesium carbonate
It is so difficult to make that the researchers who first discovered it called it the "impossible material" .

Now, a century later, a team of Swedish scientists have done the impossible by producing the substance known as Upsalite by accident, after leaving their equipment running over the weekend.

The breakthrough has far-reaching commercial applications, as Upsalite (named after the University of Uppsala, where it was originally discovered) is the world's most efficient water absorber, with potential to be used for the removal of moisture in drug creation and high-tech electronics to cleaning up huge oil spills.

A single gram of this elusive white, dry, powdered form of magnesium carbonate (MgCO3) has an extraordinarily-large surface area of 800 square meters thanks to numerous minuscule pores, each one a million times smaller than the width of a human hair.

"Upsalite absorbs more water and low relative humidities than the best materials presently available and can be regenerated with less energy consumption than is used in similar processes today," said Maria Stromme, professor of nanotechnology at Uppsala University.

"This, together with other unique properties of the discovered impossible material, is expected to pave the way for new sustainable products in a number of industrial applications," she said. Other uses include ice hockey rinks, warehouses, the collection of toxic waste or chemical spills and odour control.

MgCO3 is also about as dry as a material can get, a property which, combined with a huge relative surface area that is inundated with pocket pores, makes it the world's best mop. The only problem is that, until now, this absorbent form of magnesium carbonate could only be produced by a process that is so expensive and involves so much heat that it wasn't remotely feasible to use it.

The irony is that although the Uppsala team had been trying to create the impossible material, they had been going about it the wrong way.

"A Thursday afternoon in 2011, we slightly changed the synthesis parameters of the earlier employed unsuccessful attempts, and by mistake left the material in the reaction chamber over the weekend. Back at work on Monday morning we discovered that a rigid gel had formed and after drying this gel we started to get excited," says Johan Gomez de la Torre.

The unwitting solution still involved bubbling the Co2 through the alcohol mixture, but at three times normal atmospheric pressure. A year of detailed analysis and experimental fine tuning followed, during which time it was discovered that when heated to 70C, the resulting gel solidifies and collapses into a white and coarse powder. The findings have been published in the journal PLOS ONE.
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