Thrishantha

When we write UK research grants, we have to write some facts relating our research goals to UK National priorities. I write this note because this section can force us to be narrow-minded and miss the whole point of why we should do research. There are 7 billion people in this world now. While some people see this large population to be a problem, some other people see this as a massive opportunity. For instance, if you manage to solve a common problem faced by lets say 4 billion people out of 7 billion, and pave the way to a commercial product that can make just 1-pence of profit per person per day on average, that product makes 365p * 4 billion per year. That is £14.6 billion of profit per year. However, these common problems that make such low profit margins are so mundane like making a self-sharpening pencil,  better box of matches, better soap, etc, and most people may not notice the fundamental research that can lead to such products. Even if they see it, they will give ...

This note is for informatics students who take modules in intelligent systems, robotics, advanced computing, telecommunications, and the rest listed  here . Soft skills and core skills : When I was a university student, many career advisors wanted us to develop soft skills like making presentations, personal relations, teamwork, communication skills, etc. Still today, I don’t dispute the importance of soft skills, because they are needed to translate what we conclude based on scientific methods to lay people. However, it is wrong to believe that soft skills are all that is important, and that learning Math is just a way to train the mind like learning Latin. Survivors in the recent economic crisis : First, lets pay a little attention to the recent Global economic crisis. Out of all the Western countries, Germany was one of the least affected. But Iceland went bust! London financial hubs went on their knees. Wall street went nose down, but most Silicon Valley high-tech c...

What we do in science:  When we pursue scientific careers, we dedicate ourselves to investigation. We ask questions that are important to us like “why do people change the stiffness of their fingers when they do a tactile exploration of an object? Does the stiffness of the fingers have anything to do with information transfer? If so, can I use that principle to develop a better probe to localize cancer?” Then we design experiments and test our intuitive hypotheses, and if we see something interesting, we publish the results with evidence. What are the evidences we present? Apart from analysis of data we could measure with acceptable sensors, evidence includes mathematical derivations based on certain assumptions. Assumptions include linearity, negligible terms in nonlinear equations to bridge the formulations to what we can easily solve with known methods, and reasonable things we can do to reduce the order of differential equations. Conditioned nature of gathering evidence...

This note is strictly a piece of personal advice, and it is mainly based on my practice of Buddhism too. So, please take any of it if you feel comfortable and discard anything. When you go through your PhD course, you are expected to publish in high quality journals and conferences before writing a quality thesis you can be proud of. This inevitably imposes pressure on you to become somebody you are not right now. So, if you are not careful, this can lead to mental stress that may sometimes damage your health. Here are some advices you may consider taking: First distinguish the difference between “achievement” and “accomplishment”. Trying to achieve is about creating a void and trying to fill it. This causes stress. For instance, you determine that “I will somehow publish a paper in the prestigious journals of XYZ”. What it intrinsically means is that you “become a person” who “does not have a paper in the journal of XYZ”. Then, you work hard with the dream of “becoming the on...

It is a great initiative by  UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (  EPSRC  ) to fund the  UK Robotics and Autonomous System Network . UK robotics community being young, has the advantage of learning from each other as well as from expensive mistakes done by groups in other countries with a longer history for robotics. The common mistake of judgment – play to media or slow down to address hard problems?  By trying to be “attractive” to media, some groups in other countries more known for robotics made robots that looked like humans that could walk with bent knees on flat floors, wave at audiences, shake hands with politicians, etc., but failed outside calibrated environments. Some robots could even play violins but went nuts if a string broke! They of course brought more funding in the short run, but lost public trust in the long run. Recent DARPA  grand challenge  is an eye-opener to all of us that the robotics commu...