Pocket-Size Device Lets You Print from Anywhere

A new mobile robotic printer that is only a little bigger than three stacked hockey pucks will enable people to print anywhere and on any size page of paper.

Smartphones, tablets and laptops make it easy for people to work on the go, but traditionally, printers have been cumbersome to lug out of the office.

Zuta Labs, based in Jerusalem, reasoned that printers nowadays are essentially a printhead running back and forth on a moving piece of paper. The company's approach involves placing a printhead on a set of small wheels and letting it run across a sheet of paper, thus allowing printers to become smaller.

"The name 'Zuta' in ancient Aramaic means 'small,'" said Tuvia Elbaum, CEO and founder of Zuta Labs.

The new Zuta Pocket Printer is about 4 inches (10.2 centimeters) wide and long and 3 inches (7.5 cm) high, and weighs about 12 ounces (350 grams). It can connect wirelessly to smartphones, tablets, laptops and PCs via Wi-Fi, and is supported by Android, iOS, OS X and Windows. A free app from the company lets you use the printer via a mobile device; a laptop or PC can also select the printer for use just like any other wirelessly connected printer.

To print, a person switches on the device, aligns it with the corner of a sheet of paper and sends the document to it. The printer can print one average A4 page, measuring 8.27 by 11.7 inches (21 by 29.7 cm), every 50 to 60 seconds with a resolution of 300 dpi. Zuta Labs noted that its printer can print on any standard size piece of paper, and that, in principle, it could print on any surface, Elbaum told Live Science.

The printer's "omni-wheels" help it turn and move in any direction on a surface. Laser sensors help control the movement, speed and location of the device, according to the company.

If a person sends several pages to the device, the printer will stop when it gets to the bottom of the first page and wait until it is placed at the top of the next page. Users can then tap on the mobile app, and the printer will continue to print.

Zuta Labs said the printer's rechargeable lithium-polymer battery can last about 1 hour, on average — long enough to print about 60 pages. The device charges via a micro-USB port, and takes about 3 hours to charge fully.

One ink cartridge can print more than 100 pages, according to the company. Currently, the device prints only in black, although Zuta Labs said it plans to have a full-color printer in the future. Cartridges are replaced via a hatch on the bottom of the printer.

The founders of Zuta Labs, which was established in 2014, said the idea for their printer came in 2013, when they were students at the Jerusalem College of Technology. A 2014 Kickstarter campaign to fund Zuta Labs raised $511,662 from 3,081 backers, exceeding its original goal of raising $400,000. The company plans to ship its printers to customers in the beginning of 2017.

Source: livescience

Tiny Sensors Use Perspiration to Track Health

Imagine if taking a snapshot of your health were as easy as slapping a sticker on your skin. A new study finds that a tiny adhesive sensor can read what's going on in your body based on your sweat, and relay information about your well-being wirelessly to a smartphone. This type of wearable sensor could work as an alternative to blood tests to assess people's health one day, according to the researchers.

In the new study, scientists embedded chemical sensors and other devices into a soft, flexible silicone rubber disc, about the size and thickness of a quarter, that can easily stick to skin. The device is designed to collect and analyze sweat for key biomarkers, or markers of health. For instance, the sensor can show how people are responding to exercise, including whether someone needs to make adjustments, such as drinking more water or replenishing electrolytes.

Source: livescience

Google launches Tango AR smartphone system

After more than two years of tinkering and finessing, today Google finally officially launched its Tango smartphone augmented reality system to the masses.

Right now, it’s only available on Lenovo’s $499 Phab2 Pro, which arrives in stores in the US today, but you can expect to see this in a bunch of Android phones in the next year or so.

About 35 applications are launching with Tango support at launch. Developers are really still figuring out what these cameras are good for and some might be trying a bit too hard to capitalize on the depth-sensing feature. There are certainly some ground-breaking apps in early infancy.

For gamers, Tango certainly offers a chance to have a more intense gaming session. Titles like Crayola Color Blaster show the ability of games to capitalize on larger playing spaces while utilizing the technology’s tracking abilities.

Tango has tellingly undergone some organizational changes within Google since it was first introduced. The program is now operated directly alongside Google Daydream, the company’s central smartphone virtual reality effort. It’s clear that there’s very little intention to keep these programs separate for too long. The opportunities offered by Tango in terms of inside-out positional tracking would offer VR a major boon if a smartphone is launched that is Tango and Daydream compatible.

For all its notoriety and specialty, Tango is a feature bound for mass consumption. Depth sensing cameras are a feature that will inevitably land on smartphones with the clear use cases becoming most apparent after we all readily have access to them. Tango is starting with a rather tepid launch on a single Lenovo phablet, but the quality experience is certainly there.

Source: techcrunch.com

A New Clothing That Could Help People Reduce Body Heat

A new type of fabric could keep people cool in hot climates and reduce the need for expensive and energy-consuming air conditioning, a new study finds.

A team of researchers has developed a low-cost, plastic-based textile that allows the body to release heat in a new way. Just as sweating is one way the body cools off, the new clothing could help people reduce body heat. This cooling clothing could allow for air-conditioning to be set to a lower output than usual while still ensuring people stay cool, the researchers noted.

Heating and cooling spaces contribute to 12.3 percent of total energy consumption in the U.S., according to the researchers. Efforts to reduce energy use have focused on improving building insulation and enabling "smart" temperature control. However, engineers studying "personal thermal management" found that providing heating or cooling only to one person — rather than the power needed to cool an entire building — would result in far higher energy efficiency.

 "If you can cool the person rather than the building where they work or live, that will save energy," Yi Cui, one of the study authors and an associate professor of materials science and engineering, and of photon science at Stanford University, said in a statement.

As with ordinary fabrics, the new material allows perspiration to evaporate. However, its other, new cooling mechanism works by allowing the heat the body emits as infrared radiation to pass through the textile, the researchers explained.

"Forty to 60 percent of our body heat is dissipated as infrared radiation when we are sitting in an office," said study co-author Shanhui Fan, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University who specializes in photonics, the study of visible and invisible light. "But until now, there has been little or no research on designing the thermal radiation characteristics of textiles."

The researchers used a commercially available plastic material — nanoporous polyethylene (nanoPE), which has interconnected pores 50 to 1,000 nanometers in diameter and is used in batteries as a separator to prevent electrical shorting. NanoPE's pores allow for infrared waves to be released. In lab tests, the researchers found that nanoPE allowed 96 percent of the infrared radiation to pass through. By contrast, cotton permitted only 1.5 percent of the infrared radiation to pass through.

If woven into clothing, the nanoPE material could make the wearer feel nearly 4 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than if they were wearing cotton clothing, the researchers said.

As the scientists continue their research, they are adding more colors, textures and other characteristics to the nanoPE material to make it more cloth-like.

The findings were published online Sept. 1 in the journal Science.

Source: http://www.livescience.com/56620-plastic-based-textile-keeps-you-cool.html

Time Relaunches Life in Virtual Reality

Time Inc., the publisher of the iconic Life magazine that closed in 1972, is relaunching the title — in virtual reality.

The new Life VR features immersive storytelling, the company said in its announcement last week, and is available as a free download in the Life VR app for iOS and Android mobile-based virtual reality headset users.

Three virtual reality experiences — Defying the Nazis , Fast Ride and Lumen — are already available in the application.

More virtual experiences will be coming soon.

“We have an aggressive editorial road map and live experiences planned for Life VR, which will represent the best traditions of this iconic brand,” said Mia Tramz, managing editor for Life VR, in the announcement.

Source: http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/author/nuela-ada/

'Cards Against Humanity' STEM scholarship for women

Last year, the wildly popular potty-mouthed card game Cards Against Humanity channeled the profits from its $10 Science Pack into a full-ride college scholarship for women studying science, technology, engineering or math. With Science Pack sales still going strong, and gender equality in STEM fields still sorely lacking, Cards is ready to accept another round of applications for the scholarship's second year. 

Like last year, the scholarship offers full, four-year tuition to any woman seeking an undergraduate degree in any STEM field and applications will be reviewed by a board of over 60 women working in places like NASA JPL, Harvard Medical School and the National Science Foundation. Ideal candidates will be "an ambassador for their field" and are asked to submit a three-minute video lecture on a science topic they are passionate about. Applicants must be enrolled or planning to attend college in United States during the 2017 academic year, but any STEM field is fair game. (Sorry, no graduate students, however.) The deadline for submissions is December 11th at midnight and ten finalists will be asked to submit additional materials.

To date, the scholarship has raised over $975,000 on the profits of that aforementioned Science Pack. More details about the application process can be found at the Science Ambassador Scholarship website, and for prospective applicants who need a little inspiration.

Source: https://www.engadget.com

Ada Lovelace: First Computer Programmer

Ada Lovelace (nee Bryon) has been called the world's first computer programmer. What she did was write the world’s first machine algorithm for an early computing machine that existed only on paper. Of course, someone had to be the first, but Lovelace was a woman, and this was in the 1840s. Lovelace was a brilliant mathematician, thanks in part to opportunities that were denied most women of the time.

Ada Byron was a teenager when she met Cambridge mathematics professor Charles Babbage, who had invented the Difference Engine, a mechanical computer designed to produce mathematical tables automatically and error-free. Babbage never built the actual machine due to personal setbacks and financing difficulty. By 1834 he had moved on to design his Analytical Engine, the first general purpose computer, which used punch cards for input and output. This machine also lacked financing and was never built. (Babbage's Difference Engine was finally constructed in 1985–2002, and it worked.)

Babbage was impressed with the brilliant young woman, and they corresponded for years, discussing math and computing as he developed the Analytical Engine. In 1842, Babbage gave a lecture on the engine at the University of Turin. Luigi Menabrea, a mathematician (and future Italian prime minister), transcribed the lecture in French. Ada, now in her late 20s and known as Countess of Lovelace, was commissioned to translate the transcript into English. Lovelace added her own notes to the lecture, which ended up being three times as long as the actual transcript. It was published in 1843. 

Lovelace's notes made it clear that she understood the Analytical Engine as well as Babbage himself, and furthermore, she understood how to make it do the things computers do. She suggested the data input that would program the machine to calculate Bernoulli numbers, which is now considered the first computer program. But more than that, Lovelace was a visionary: she understood that numbers could be used to represent more than just quantities, and a machine that could manipulate numbers could be made to manipulate any data represented by numbers. She predicted that machines like the Analytical Engine could be used to compose music, produce graphics, and be useful to science. Of course, all that came true—in another 100 years. 

Babbage was so impressed with Lovelace's contributions, he dubbed her "The Enchantress of Numbers."

How did a young woman get the opportunity to show the world her talents in the 19th century? Mathematical intelligence was not the only thing Ada Lovelace had going for her. Her potential for intelligence probably came genetically, as she was the daughter of the poet Lord Byron and his first wife Anne Isabella Noel Byron. Both were privileged members of the aristocracy, and both were gifted and well educated. The marriage broke up shortly after Ada was born.

Lady Byron, who studied literature, science, philosophy, and, most unusual for a woman, mathematics, was determined that Ada not follow in her father's footsteps. Instead of art and literature, Ada was tutored in mathematics and science. Ada excelled in all her studies, and her interests were wide ranging. Ada became a baroness in 1835 when she married William King, 8th Baron King; the two had three children. In 1838, she became Countess of Lovelace when her husband was elevated to Earl of Lovelace. Her pedigree and peerage alone would have landed Lovelace in the history books, but her accomplishments in mathematics made her a pioneer of not only computing, but of women in science.

Lovelace died of cancer in 1852, when she was only 36. More than 150 years later, we remember her contributions to science and engineering in the celebration of Ada Lovelace Day on October 13. First celebrated in 2009 (in March), it is a day set aside to learn about women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. 

Source: mentalfloss

Top Programming Languages

Source: http://spectrum.ieee.org

16-year-old South African invents wonder material to fight drought

Johannesburg schoolgirl Kiara Nirghin, 16, recently won the Google Science Fair's Community Impact Award for the Middle East and Africa with her submission "No More Thirsty Crops."

Using orange peel and avocado skins, the precocious student created a super absorbent polymer (SAP) capable of storing reserves of water hundreds of times its own weight, forming reservoirs that would allow farmers to maintain their crops at minimal cost. The polymer has the added benefit of sustainability as it uses recycled and biodegradable waste products.

"Kiara found an ideal material that won't hurt the budget in simple orange peel, and through her research, she created a way to turn it into soil-ready water storage with help from the avocado," said Andrea Cohan, program leader of the Google Science Fair.

The inventor says she wanted to tackle the most urgent aspect of the national crisis.

"I wanted to minimize the effect that drought has on the community and the main thing it affects is the crops," says Nirghin, of St. Martin's School. "That was the springboard for the idea."

She describes the process as "trial and error," with a lot of experimentation before alighting on the perfect formula.

"I started researching what an SAP was, and what they all had in common was a chain molecule polysaccharide," Nirghin recalls. "I found that orange peel has 64% polysaccharide and also the gelling agent pectin, so I saw it as a good (option). I used avocado skin due to the oil."

The teenager combined the skin and peel and left the mixture in the sun, where they reacted together to form the powerfully absorbent polymer.

As a regional winner, Nirghin has been assigned a mentor from Google to work with her on developing the polymer, and hopes it could be tested in the field. She will soon discover if she is one of the tech giant's sixteen global finalists.

"If the idea was commercialized and applied to real farms and real crops I definitely think the impact that drought has on crops would be reduced," she says.

"I think it works," says Dr. Jinwen Zhang, a professor of materials engineering at Washington State University, who is developing absorbent hydrogels to address drought. "Using waste products for low-cost feedstock for large volume is definitely worth further investigation."

The teenager, whose hero is the Indian agricultural scientist M. S. Swaminathan, has many more ideas, including a proposal to dye the skins of endangered animals to discourage poaching.

"I might look into health sciences or engineering," she says of her future plans. "Something so I can improve the world."

Source:http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/09/africa/orange-drought-kiara-nirghin

The Math Problem Diverting Women Out Of STEM Careers

Low mathematical confidence + a bleak future of discrimination = women exiting the field

The pipeline that funnels women into careers in math and science is leaky all the way along along, but if one particular leak could be plugged, it might make a dramatic difference. Researchers have identified one change that would increase the number of women in so-called STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math) by 75 percent.

A new study finds that women are 1.5 times more likely to leave their STEM studies after their first college course in calculus, a crucial stepping stone for those pursuing a career in the field. Despite having above-average mathematical abilities and preparedness, women are more likely to both start and end the course with lower mathematical confidence than men. They report that they don’t understand the course material, meaning they leave that educational track and are diverted from STEM fields.

Women and men begin their formal educations with a relatively equal interest in science, but the divide tends to widen with time. The most notable shift can be observed in freshman attending a four-year college or university.

And before some self-described ‘men’s rights activist’ comes up with the brilliant analysis that these women lack confidence because they lack the skills (the study didn’t examine students’ grades or abilities) past research has found that women actually tend to outperform men in Calculus I, so those arguments simply don’t add up.

One factor in why calculus affects women’s decisions to pursue a new field of study in college so profoundly is the fact their mathematical confidence is shaken early on.“If female students are entering college excited to be challenged, supported, and surrounded by like-minded STEM people and they have a negative initial experience with a STEM course, it makes sense that this could be the final experience to encourage them to pursue a different (and non-STEM) field,” Jessica Ellis, a co-author of the report and professor of mathematics at Colorado State University, told Vocativ in an e-mail. Calculus is notoriously difficult, known for separating the wheat from the chaff at the collegiate level, which is something Stacy S. Klein-Gardner, director of the Center for STEM Education for Girls may be part of the problem.“Some professors aren’t changing how they teach or what they teach,” she said, noting that they often employ “an attitude where you’re doing great if you got a 60 on a test.” She notes that this type of negative reinforcement may affect women differently.

Men also choose to end their STEM studies at this juncture, but for different reasons. While men and women are nearly as likely to say they’ve dropped out due to having too many other courses, not doing well enough in Calculus I, or switching majors, women are more than twice as likely to say that they “do not believe [they] understand the ideas of Calculus I well enough to take Calculus II.” It’s the same basic rationale that means women don’t apply for jobs unless they’re 100 percent qualified, while men apply at 60 percent qualified.

This gender gap in confidence starts early—according to a recent study from Google and Gallup, more female students in high school or younger believe that boys will outperform them in computer science, and are less confident in their own abilities to succeed. The study also found that TV representation of girls and parents’ sentiments reinforce the notion—age-old cultural stereotypes, basically. Sure, there’s been a massive flood of STEM-toys for girls recently, including Mattel’s new Game Developer Barbie, but there are still a lot of cultural stereotypes to unravel here. (Remember the infamous “Math class is tough”-whining Teen Talk Barbie released in 1992?)

“Within any one woman’s life, [the confidence gap] likely stems back to her early childhood,” said Klein-Gardner. “Girls are equally as good or better at mathematics than boys, but word hasn’t gotten out yet to the average girl that it’s the case.”

The harsh reality for those who survive the long swim upstream to a career in STEM is that they’ll face racial and gender gaps there, which have persisted for a long time, with men statistically twice as likely to be hired for a mathematical task than women are. Widespread sexism in Silicon Valley has been found present in all aspects of the work culture, from the interview process to networking opportunities to sexual harassment.

“Our study indicates that the women who persist through the calculus sequence have higher mathematical confidence than those who don’t,” said Ellis. “If we imagine this trend continuing through up to women in academic STEM positions or leadership positions in tech companies, these are the women who may have the strongest mathematical confidence (and abilities). Yet, almost daily now it seems like there is another study published that highlights the ways in which these highly confident and capable women in STEM experience their careers with obstacles that men do not face.”

Source: vocativ.com

I Belong Here: 3 Ways to Attract More Women to STEM

"It's a girl, it's a girl," the audience murmured. As my daughter took the stage to receive an award at coding camp last summer, the other parents looked at each other in surprise, every other child in the camp was a boy. My daughter was the first girl to walk on stage that morning. Where was everyone else's daughter? Why did this elementary-age tech camp already mimic the vast gender disparity of the Silicon Valley tech world?

As a mom who has spent her entire career in the technology field, this was a proud moment. But it is unfortunately a scenario that still happens all too often. Despite the rapid growth of technology in recent years, there is still a significant imbalance in gender representation when it comes to Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) fields.

When Facebook and Google released their diversity numbers last year, it created a buzz of conversation on diversity in tech. Over half of the US population ages 15 to 64 is female, yet only 14 percent of computer science majors are female.  A report released last year by the American Association of University Woman reports that not only do women make up only 26 percent of computer scientists and 12 percent of engineers, but the numbers have worsened over the past 30 years. This is a huge disconnect, especially considering that published studies, such as by Harvard Business Review, show having a woman on a team raises the team’s performance and collective intelligence.

As a female tech executive, I have walked into countless rooms -- including boardrooms -- where I am the only female. The difference today versus 25 years ago is that today I know I belong here. Deals done, technologies commercialized -- that's only a part of it; I don't question that I should have a seat at the decision-making table, which is as much about attitude as it is track record.

As a society, we need to make changes to not only attract women to STEM, but also to create an atmosphere in these traditionally male-dominated fields where women intrinsically belong. So what can we do to address this?

Get girls to "opt in" early.

The deficit of women in STEM starts with the fact that, according to the American Association of University Women, many girls "opt-out" of STEM in middle school. Why? Most of these girls cite an increasing lack of confidence in using technology. They see boys obsessing over Minecraft mods but generally find current video games less compelling. The answer to keeping girls engaged in technology is about reframing the paradigm.

Passion for making a difference is what gets girls into technology and it is often why they stay in tech companies. In fact some of the top performing women in both my graduate program at Harvard and in the tech industry all say things like, "I was so fascinated by figuring out how developmental genetics worked, that I couldn't stop myself.” And these women often say that it was not about the mastery of a technology itself that interested them; it was that they saw a problem and they learned the technology to solve the problem.

Girls like to engage in problem solving and making a difference in society -- according to the book “The Changing Face of Medicine”, altruism has been more highly linked to career choice for women.Research shows that girls are less likely to be interested in learning a technology for its own sake, but making technology a relevant part of solving problems that interest girls propels them to learn technology. School programs in which computers and tablets are integrated into learning and problem solving could go a long way in keeping girls in STEM through middle school because they can gain confidence as technology is integrated into daily life, and they are used to solving problems with technology. Programs like Alexa Cafe by iD Tech that teach entrepreneurship and social movements with technology as a backdrop could be another key to unleashing girls' passion and curiosity for using more technology.

Reduce unconscious bias.

We have come a long way, but we have not eliminated many of the unconscious biases, particularly in tech. The stereotypes of what it takes to be a leader and what it takes to succeed often put women at a disadvantage. For example, I've seen situations where a woman's attempt to be collaborative is interpreted as "she doesn't know what she's doing," while the same woman when being directive is labeled as "abrasive." Women leaders have to weather more criticism and prove themselves more extensively because they are typically evaluated more harshly, especially in industries that are dominated by men. In the book, "What Works For Women At Work", Joan Williams and Rachel Dempsey call this the "prove it again bias". More recent work by Williams specifically looking at bias and the female scientist shows that black women bear the brunt of this bias even more than Latina, Asian or white women.

As more women enter tech careers this is slowly changing, but the number one thing we can do to reduce bias is implement objective measures of performance that they can use to measure results for both men and women. For example, imagine a tech support call center in which the measurement goal went beyond simply, "Excellent support of all customers" to "Excellent support of customers as measured by a net promoter score of 70%.” With this second goal, it would be quite clear who on the team was reaching the goal and prove it, and biases or subjective judgments would be more difficult.

Re-imagine the tribe.

Quick, think of the stereotypical person who 1) works at a software company or 2) has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard. Chances are you envisioned someone sloppily dressed who loves Star Wars and eats cold pizza. While I am both 1) and 2), I am sitting here wearing Ferragamo shoes and consider myself a bit of a foodie. (Admittedly, I do like Star Wars). Unfortunately, many young girls get the message that they don't belong in the STEM culture, either because they don't fit a stereotype or because they don't see role models that they identify with as tech leaders. Simply put, girls don't identify with the stereotypes of people in STEM careers and don't see the techie tribe as being for them. Having a mentor that they can relate to (including but not limited to gender) is a strong factor in a girl's interest in a STEM career.

Truthfully, most of my mentors have been male but they have made a difference because in one way or another they have made me feel that "someone like me" can succeed and be part of the tribe. I'll never forget when one of my mentors told me "You have what it takes to run a company someday; recognize that the locker room smack talk you sometimes hear is because they consider you a player." These mentors have personally sponsored me and my capabilities in organization discussion, and also coached me on how to position myself to effectively go after a role I wanted, saying things like, "Look, I know you can do this role, but let's talk about the hard questions they will ask about you and what you will say when those hard questions come.” Mentors and sponsors are critical to navigating the sometimes rough and tumble world of a growth company.

A feeling of belonging is one of the strongest predictors of a female being attracted to a STEM career. I have not been the victim of systematic bias but I have had my share of awkward moments as a woman in technology and I have had to hear and get past some harsh judgments. But my passion for using science to improve society has given me the grit to go after the possibility that I see. I belong not because I have been doing it for 25 years, not because I'm an executive but because I love to figure out how to solve problems and help people -- and new technology is one of my favorite ways of doing it. I belong here.

Source: www.entrepreneur.com

Create 3D Animations with the Stroke of a Pen

With just the stroke of a pen or the click of a mouse, you can now transform your 2D sketches into 3D animations.

New computer software, known as Mosketch, allows anyone to try their hand at 3D animation without toiling away at numerous sketches. The software combines two major animation methods: direct kinematics, which deals with the change of a character's joints, and inverse kinematics, which takes into account the movement of a character's body part. Artists can use the 3D software to seamlessly convert a 2D stroke into 3D moves, according to its developers.

Now available in beta, Mosketch was developed by Moka Studio and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), a research institute in Switzerland that specializes in physical sciences and engineering. Mosketch is being promoted as professional-grade software that can "be used by anyone, from independent artists to animation studios.

Ronan Boulic, head of the immersive interaction research group at EPFL, said the software automates the natural flow of action of a graphic artist so that anyone can create animations.

When using the software, artists are able to focus on visual cues rather than detailed coding to create the animations, Boulic said. The software does the background work of programming a movement, while the artist simply uses their pen or mouse to draw the prompts.

"We rely as much as possible on the visual interaction on the screen, through the location of the pen on the screen," Boulic told Live Science. "As soon as you draw a line, stroke, you see the line on the screen and the algorithm instantaneously adjusts the pose of the 3D figure to match this line. So there is no complicated user interface.

The software also allows users to change viewpoints as they change a character's poses, adding to the experience of animating in a 3D space, Boulic said. Changing perspective as the drawings are animated is similar to a camera moving around the animated space.Behind the computer screen, two algorithms work together in Mosketch's software to fluidly create these 3D animations. "One converts the 2D strokes that youꞌve done on the screen, converting them into the pose of the character," Boulic said. "The second algorithm is a bit different. The user would pick one body part, letꞌs say the right hand, and would guide the position of this body part in space and the limb would automatically be adjusted."

This combination of actions was inspired by the way 2D artists work, Boulic said. A 2D artist could endlessly redraw little strokes until they achieve their vision. Then, micro-changes would need to be made to animate that vision, meaning the artist would need to create even more strokes. Boulic said it was this series of actions by a 2D artist that Mosketch aims to reproduce, with the added value of being in 3D. “We try to combine the two worlds, exploiting the skill of the 2D artist with this sequence of strokes," Boulic said. "That is then visualized in the successive adaptation of the 3D [movements]."

And Mosketch is not limited to just 3D animations, Boulic said. The mathematical equations and algorithms behind the software could have applications for virtual reality and robotics, he added.

Source: livescience.com

STEM Scholarships for African Girls

The Visiola Foundation provides scholarships for high potential girls to study science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). 

Eligible candidates can apply to the Visiola Foundation’s Scholarship Fund through Lead City University and Ashesi University.

For more info, please visit http://www.visiolafoundation.org/scholarships

High-Tech Toothbrush That Corrects Common Brushing Errors

There are few things more routine than brushing your teeth: At least twice a day, every day, you stand in front of the mirror and go through the motions. So it might come as a surprise to learn that most people are probably doing it wrong. Now, a uniquely designed toothbrush aims to guarantee that brushers get it right.

Most people have heard that they should brush their teeth for at least 2 minutes, twice a day. But it's perhaps less well-known that the way you brush is just as important. The American Dental Association recommends holding the toothbrush at a 45-degree angle away from the gums and brushing in short, downward strokes.

More commonly, people hold their toothbrushes perpendicular to their teeth and gums, said Alexander Kandemir, inventor of the new iBrush 365. The gums should make a tight seal with the teeth, but holding a toothbrush perpendicular to the teeth pushes the gums upward and makes them start to pull away, he added. This makes brushing less effective and can contribute to oral problems like gum disease.

The new iBrush 365 aims to correct bad brushing behavior by allowing people "to brush in ways the dentist wants, without changing our old habits," Kandemir told Live Science. The electrical toothbrush has a cylindrical head that is loaded with more than 13,000 soft "micro bristles" (compared to the 2,500 bristles in a standard toothbrush) that can effectively clean the entire mouth in less than a minute.

In practice, using the brush feels a lot like using a regular electric toothbrush. You hold it perpendicular to your teeth and move it from side to side. The rotating head ensures that teeth are brushed in a downward direction and that the bristles are at a 45-degree angle to the gums, the company said. The toothbrush's head can rotate in either direction, changing with a simple push of a button so that the movement is always directed downward.

The cylindrical head also cleans more than just the teeth. "Clean teeth doesn't mean a clean mouth," Kandemir said. "You need to brush your gums, tongue and cheeks, too."

The iBrush 365 was tested on more than 300 people, and Kandemir said the results show that the device is the most effective brush on the market.

The iBrush 365 is equipped with a lithium-ion battery that lasts six weeks on a single charge, the company said. Users can charge the device with a USB power cord and a universal wall plug that works from 110 to 240 volts.

The project raised more than $29,000 through a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. The brush is now available for preorder on the company's website for $79, and orders will begin shipping this month.

Source: livescience.com

The STEM Prize for Young Cameroonians

The STEM Prize was established to encourage young Cameroonians and Africans, especially girls and young women to pursue careers in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This competition brings together young scholars from both secondary and tertiary schools (between the ages of 13 and 21 years old) to design projects that have the greatest potential of positively changing their communities. Based on the recommendations of the evaluators at the Denis & Lenora Foretia Foundation, winners will be chosen and prizes presented to them.

Goal of The STEM Prize Competition

Science and technology are becoming the most pervasive forces in our global economy and modern society. In other words, the growth and ultimately the success of any economy in these modern times depend heavily on their investment and improvement in the fields of science and technology. As our society becomes increasingly environmentally aware, health conscious, and reliant on technology, it is normal it becomes more dependent on students pursuing studies in STEM.

A few years ago, the Government of Cameroon (GoC) launched its strategy to make Cameroon an emerging economy by the year 2035. For this vision to be realised, Cameroon needs to produce more professionals in the field of STEM by increasing the number of youths studying courses in STEM from 10% to at least 30%.

Hence the aim of the STEM Prize Competition is to raise awareness on the importance of STEM to an economy and encourage more youths to get into careers in STEM, consequently, building a foundation for Cameroon’s 2035 vision to be achieved.

Program Design

The STEM Prize competition will consider applications from teams/groups of 2-5 members age between 13 and 21 years old. Each team will design a project that has the greatest potential of positively improving their communities. The best projects will be chosen and the teams will be invited to spend 3 days at the Denis & Lenora Foretia Foundation where they will participate in several educational trainings. Prizes will be given out to the successful teams at the end of the competition.

Eligibility to Participate

To be eligible for The STEM Prize Competition, applicants must be between the ages of 13 and 21 years old and be citizens of CEMAC countries (Cameroon, Chad, Central Africa Republic, Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea). An application must be made by a team or group of at least 2 people or at most 5 people.

Project Requirements

Project proposals will follow the outline below:

• Names and Community(ies) of applicants
• Title of project
• Identification and elaboration of community problem
• Proposed solution and illicit method of solving problem based on recommendations
• Budget Planning
• Partners and timeframe of project realisation
• Evaluation of project.

Invitation to Top Teams

The top teams as chosen by the evaluators/judges will be invited to the foundation’s headquarters in Yaoundé to participate in an intensive 3-day workshop full of training on research, career guidance, and project implementation. These trainings will be carried out by experts in these fields.

Prizes

A total of 5,000,000 FCFA (approximately $10,000 USD) will be awarded in prizes and will be distributed as follows:

• Winning team: 1,500,000 FCFA ($3000 USD)
• 1st Runner Up: 1,000,000 FCFA ($2000 USD)
• 2nd Runner Up: 500,000 FCFA ($1000 USD)
• Other individual prizes: 2,000,000 FCFA (? $4000 USD)

The foundation will work with all winning teams to get their projects up and running.

Important Timeline

• 02 Jun 2016: Official Online Launching of STEM Prize.
• 02 Jun 2016 – 31 Jul 2016: Registration and submission of proposals by candidates.
• 01 Jul 2016 – 21 Jul 2016: Publicity of program and event through media (TV & Radio).
• 01 Jul 2016 – 21 Jul 2016: Communication using talks, online posts and flyers to student bodies and target groups.
• 01 Aug 2016 – 21 Aug 2016: Review and shortlisting of top projects.
• 23 Aug 2016: Official invitations sent to top teams.
• 14 Sept 2016 – 16 Sept 2016: 3 day training event for shortlisted teams.
• 22 Aug 2016 – 23 Sept 2016: Final planning of award ceremony.
• 28 Oct 2016: Award’s Ceremony

Source: http://www.foretiafoundation.org