Category Archives: Technology

Back to school: Stanford University (California) brings nanoscience to teachers and Ingenium brings STEAM to school

I have two stories that fit into the ‘back to school’ theme, one from Stanford University and one from Ingenium (Canada’s Museums of Science and Innovation).

Stanford, nanoscience, and middle school teachers

h/t to Google Alert of August 27, 2024 (received via email) for information about a Stanford University programme for middle school teachers. From an August 27, 2024 article in the Stanford Report, Note: Links have been removed,

Crafting holographic chocolate, printing with the power of the sun, and seeing behind the scenes of cutting-edge research at the scale of one-billionth of a meter, educators participating in the Nanoscience Summer Institute for Middle School Teachers (NanoSIMST) got to play the role of students, for a change.

Teachers hailed from the Bay Area and Southern California – one had even come all the way from Arkansas – for the professional development program. NanoSIMST, run by nano@stanford, is designed to connect middle school teachers with activities, skills, and knowledge about science at the scale of molecules and atoms so they can incorporate it into their curriculum. NanoSIMST also prioritizes teachers from Title I schools, which are low-income schools with low-income student populations that receive federal funding to improve academic achievement.

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Debbie Senesky, the site investigator and principal researcher on the nano@stanford project, highlighted the importance of nanoscience at the university. “It’s not just about focusing on research – we also have bigger impacts on entrepreneurs, start-ups, community colleges, and other educators who can use these facilities,” said Senesky, who is also an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics and of electrical engineering. “We’re helping to train the next generation of people who can be a workforce in the nanotechnology and semiconductor industry.”

The program also supports education and outreach, including through NanoSIMST, which uniquely reaches out to middle school teachers due to the STEM education outcomes that occur at that age. According to a 2009 report by the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam Initiative, even among teens who were interested in and felt academically prepared in their STEM studies, “nearly two-thirds of teens indicated that they may be discouraged from pursuing a career in science, technology, engineering or mathematics because they do not know anyone who works in these fields (31%) or understand what people in these fields do (28%).”

A teacher from the Oakland Unified School District, Thuon Chen, connected several other teachers from OUSD to attend NanoSIMST as a first-time group. He emphasized that young kids, especially in middle school, have a unique way of approaching new technologies. “Kids have this sense where they’re always pushing things and coming up with completely new uses, so introducing them to a new technology can give them a lot to work with.”

Over the course of four days in the summer, NanoSIMST provides teachers with an understanding of extremely small science and technology: they go through tours of the nano facilities, speak with scientists, perform experiments that can be conducted in the classroom, and learn about careers in nanotechnology and the semiconductor industry.

Tara Hodge, the teacher who flew all the way from Arkansas, was thrilled about bringing what she learned back with her. “I’m not a good virtual learner, honestly. That’s why I came here. And I’m really excited to learn about different hands-on activities. Anything I can get excited about, I know I can get my students excited about.”

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They have provided a video,

One comment regarding the host, Daniella Duran, the director of education and outreach for nano@stanford, she comments about nano being everywhere and, then, says “… everything has a microchip in it.” I wish she’d been a little more careful with the wording. Granted those microchips likely have nanoscale structures.

Ingenium’s STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) programmes for teachers across Canada

An August 27, 2024 Ingenium newsletter (received via email) lists STEAM resources being made available for teachers across the country.

There appears to be a temporary copy of the August 27, 2024 Ingenium newsletter here,

STEAM lessons made simple!

Another school year is about to begin, and whether you’re an experienced teacher or leading your first class, Ingenium has what you need to make your STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and math) lessons fun! With three museums of science and innovation – the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum and the Canada Science and Technology Museum – under one umbrella, we are uniquely positioned to help your STEAM lessons come to life.

Embark on an exciting adventure with our bilingual virtual field trips and meet the animals in our barns, explore aviation technology, and conduct amazing science experiments.

Or take advantage of our FREE lesson plans, activities and resources to simplify and animate your classroom, all available in English and French. With Ingenium, innovation is at your fingertips!

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Bring the museum to your classroom with a virtual field trip!

Can’t visit in person? Don’t worry, Ingenium will bring the museum to you! All of our virtual field trips are led by engaging guides who will animate each subject with an entertaining and educational approach. Choose from an array of bilingual programs designed for all learners that cover the spectrum of STEAM subjects, including the importance of healthy soil, the genetic considerations of a dairy farm operation, the science of flight, simple machines, climate change and the various states of matter. There is so much to discover with Ingenium. Book your virtual field trip today!

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Here’s a video introduction to Ingenium’s offerings,

To get a look at all the resources, check out this temporary copy of the August 27, 2024 Ingenium newsletter here.

From the Phoenix payroll system to Dayforce? Hopefully an improvement for Canadian government employees—one day

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For anyone who’s unfamiliar with the Phoenix payroll system debacle, I have a rundown in my December 27, 2019 post. Briefly, the Canadian government (led by the newly elected Justin Trudeau and his Liberals) implemented a new pay system for the entire federal civil service in 2016. A disaster from Day 1, the system is still not properly functional as of this writing.

Daniel LeBlanc’s May 16, 2024 article for the Canadian Broadcasting (CBC) news online site gives a bit more detail about the debacle and a proposed remedy,

The federal government is accelerating plans to put the Phoenix public service pay system out of its misery.

Launched in 2016, the system — which cost taxpayers nearly $4 billion — has failed regularly [emphasis mine] to deliver public servants’ paycheques on time, or in the right amounts.

According to the government’s latest tally, more than 300,000 of 425,000 Phoenix transactions had failed to meet service standards as of last month — including 213,000 that were more than a year late.

Alex Benay, the federal official responsible for the file [Associate Deputy Minister of Public Services and Procurement (Enterprise Pay Coordination)], said $135 million set aside in this year’s budget will give a big boost to the development of Dayforce, the system which is expected to replace Phoenix in the coming years.

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Ottawa didn’t make any specific announcement related to Phoenix when the new spending was made public. It’s still a major increase in funding for the Dayforce project, which was launched in 2018 with an average annual budget of $25 million.

Dayforce is a payroll and human resources management system already in use by 6,000 organizations, including the governments of Ontario and California.

The federal government plans to make Dayforce its new pay system in the coming years, after conducting a series of tests that concluded in February [2024?]. Ottawa pays $36 billion a year in salaries to 420,000 people.

Benay struck a cautious note, pointing out that there’s still a lot of work to do before the transition to the new system. But Ottawa has abandoned all hopes of trying to salvage Phoenix for the long term.

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A major problem with Phoenix is that it needs to operate in tandem with more than 30 distinct human resources management systems in various departments and agencies, as well as more than 100 collective bargaining agreements.

A large number of payroll officers are needed to perform different calculations for each department. And when civil servants change departments, Phoenix struggles to overcome a series of technological challenges.

The federal government’s hope is that Dayforce will allow it to rely on a single tool for both payroll and managing employees’ personnel files at all stages, from hiring to retirement.

“We have no intention of disintegrating [the payroll and human resource management systems] a second time and making the same mistake,” Benay said. [Comment: A mistake that should never have been made in the first place. Even the contractor {IBM} warned that Phoenix wasn’t ready when it was implemented.]

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According to Public Services and Procurement Canada, Phoenix initially cost taxpayers $300 million and the federal government has spent another $3.5 billion on it since.

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As it prepares to transition to a new payroll system, the government says it will use artificial intelligence tools [emphasis mine] to clean up the data in the Phoenix system and reduce the number of late payments.

The plan is to introduce Dayforce gradually in several federal departments [that’s what should have happened with Phoenix], so that when Phoenix is finally scrapped, the new system can take off as smoothly as possible.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada said certain compensation rules could be standardized across government to ease the transition to a new pay system. However, it insisted that unions should help design and test the new system.

“If the members don’t suffer, we’re ready to co-operate in setting up a payroll system that works,” said spokesperson Yvon Barrière. “But we need to be certain that the system will work, and that it will not disadvantage our members under collective bargaining agreements.”

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It would have been nice to get more information about the artificial intelligence tools they propose using, especially in light of the many problems associated with those tools. (See my December 29, 2020 posting, “Governments need to tell us when and how they’re using AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms to make decisions.” Also, Associate Deputy Minister of Public Services and Procurement (Enterprise Pay Coordination), Alex Benay is mentioned in the post as he was leaving his job as Canada’s Chief Information Officer, a position created after the Phoenix Pay System debacle.)

So who is Alex Benay?

Since Benay was first mentioned here in a June 19, 2014 posting, “Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation welcomes Alex Benay as president and chief executive officer (CEO),” I was quite curious as to what he’s been doing since returning to the federal government civil service,

First, there’s the May 11, 2023 Government of Canada news release announcing Mr. Benay’s latest appointment to the civil service,

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today announced the following changes in the senior ranks of the Public Service:

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Alex Benay, currently Vice-Chair of the National Arts Centre and Senior Partner, Levio Business and Technology, becomes Associate Deputy Minister of Public Services and Procurement (Enterprise Pay Coordination), effective June 26, 2023.

Biographical Notes

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Alex Benay

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If you click on Alex Benay, you’ll find this,

Education

Bachelor of Arts, History, University of Ottawa

Professional Experience

Since April 2023
Senior Partner, Levio Business and Technology [emphasis mine]

Since May 2022
Vice-Chair of the National Arts Centre

2020 – 2022
Global Lead, Government Azure Strategy, Microsoft

2019 – 2020
Partner, KPMG Canada

2017 – 2019
Chief Information Officer, Government of Canada

2014 – 2017
President and Chief Executive Officer, Ingenium Corporation

2011 – 2014
Vice-President, Open Text Corporation

2010 – 2011
Senior Director, Industry Marketing, Open Text Corporation

2009 – 2010
Senior Director, Customer Enablement, Open Text Corporation

2004 – 2009
Director, Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada

One comment: it seems odd to leave off your master’s degree in your official government of Canada biographical notes. This contrasts somewhat with the Alex Benay profile on Boardroominsiders.com,

Alex Benay

Associate Deputy Minister, Enterprise Pay Coordination, Public Services and Procurement Canada
Government of Canada

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Executive Summary

Alex Benay is an Associate Deputy Minister of Enterprise Pay Coordination for Public Services and Procurement Canada at the Government of Canada, a role to which he was named in June 2023. Most recently, he served as Head of Program Management at Microsoft Corporation. [emphasis mine] Prior to that, Benay was a Partner of Digital and Government Solutions at KPMG Canada and Chief Client Officer at MindBridge Analytics Inc. Before joining MindBridge, Benay was Chief Information Officer of Canada and Deputy Minister at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. He also served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation. Earlier in his career, he held leadership and marketing roles at Open Text Corporation. He holds a BA in History from the University of Ottawa and a Master’s Degree in History from Athabasca University. [emphasis mine].

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Employment History

Associate Deputy Minister, Enterprise Pay Coordination, Public Services and Procurement Canada, Government of Canada (from 2023)

Senior Partner, Levio Business and Technology, Levio Conseils Inc. (from 2023) [emphasis mine]

Head, Program Management, Microsoft Corporation (from 2022 to 2023)

Global Lead, Government Azure Strategy, Microsoft Corporation (from 2021 to 2022)

Partner, Digital and Government Solutions, KPMG Canada, KPMG International Limited (from 2019 to 2021)

Chief Client Officer, MindBridge Analytics Inc. (from 2019 to 2019)

Deputy Minister, Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and CIO, Government of Canada (from 2017 to 2019)

President and CEO, Canada Science and Technology Museum Corporation (from 2014 to 2017)

VP, Government Affairs and Business Development, Open Text Corporation (from 2011 to 2014)

Senior Director, Global Industry Marketing, Open Text Corporation (from 2010 to 2011)

Senior Director, National Customer Enablement, Open Text Corporation (from 2009 to 2010)

Director, Global Affairs Canada, Government of Canada (from 2006 to 2009)

Director, Policy, Global Affairs Canada, Government of Canada (from 2004 to 2006)

Senior Program Manager, Global Affairs Canada, Government of Canada (from 2003 to 2004)

Manager, Information, Communications and Knowledge Management, Natural Resources Canada, Government of Canada (from 2001 to 2003)

Information Services Officer, Global Affairs Canada, Government of Canada (from 2000 to 2001)

Medical Assistant, Canadian Armed Forces, Government of Canada (from 1999 to 2000)

Archival Assistant, Library and Archives Canada, Government of Canada (from 1998 to 1999)

Comment: Both the government profile and the boardroom profile agree that Benay is a current partner in Levio Business and Technology. This partnership started in April 2023 (govt. profile), a scant two months before his move (?) to his current government position. Consequently, it makes sense that the Boardroom profile lists Benay’s most recent role as “Head of Program Management at Microsoft Corporation.” As noted earlier, there’s the addition of a master’s degree to the Boardroom profile. Let’s see what’s next in an Alex Benay profile on FWD50.com,

Alex Benay (he/him)

Associate Deputy Minister, Enterprise Pay Coordination

Alex Benay became Associate Deputy Minister of Enterprise Pay Coordination in June 2023.

Prior to this appointment, Alex was [emphasis mine] a senior partner with Levio Business and Technology and Vice Chair of the National Arts Centre. From 2020 to 2022, he served as the Global Lead of Government Azure Strategy at Microsoft where he helped governments around the world adopt cloud technologies.

From 2019 to 2020, Alex was a partner with KPMG where he led the digital transformation of governments and Fortune 500 companies in the areas of technology, people and strategy.

Alex was a Deputy Minister at the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat from 2017 to 2019 where he served as Chief Information Officer. In this role, he oversaw key information technology initiatives in service modernization, legacy system management, good governance, and open and transparent government.

Alex was also the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Canada Science and Technology Museums Corporation (Ingenium) where he oversaw the transformation of the country’s national museums. In addition, he is a former Global Affairs Canada executive.

Alex is the author of 2 books: Canadian Failures and Government Digital. He holds a bachelor of arts in history from the University of Ottawa.

Nothing jumps out other than the past tense used to describe Benay’s partnership at Levio.

Thoughts

The omission of a master’s degree from Benay’s list of educational accomplishments seems odd but inconsequential. The mention of his two month long (?) partnership at Levio is a little more than odd especially with the confusion over his status as a partner (is or was?). Here’s why it seems concerning to me, Levio Business and Technology, from tho company’s homepage,

Levio is a digital native business and technology consulting firm.

As a true partner from start to finish, our goal is a long-lasting transformation that’s right for your business model. We provide a tailored approach, streamlined execution and a commitment to deliver digital transformation ventures that create value and measurable achievements.

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It seems as if Mr Benay’s firm (past or present?) could be a good fit as a contractor for Dayforce as would one or more of his previous employers.

That said, it would be impossible to find anyone with the experience necessary to properly oversee the transition from Phoenix who does not have many connections within the industry. It’s a very incestuous business.

I trust Mr. Benay is aware of and taken steps to deal with a federal government that has a notably poor record with implementing technology and dealing with contractors.

The Canadian federal government and a problem with contractors

Here’s an example of the Canadian federal government’s problem with contractors, from a February 12, 2024 article by Darren Major for CBC news online,

The final cost of the controversial ArriveCan app is impossible to determine due to poor financial record-keeping, a new auditor general report has found.

It is just one of the findings that Canada’s Auditor General Karen Hogan highlighted in a damning report about the pandemic-era tool.

Overall, Hogan found that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and Public Services and Procurement Canada “repeatedly failed to follow good management practices in the contracting, development and implementation of the ArriveCan application.” [emphasis mine]

“This is probably the first example that I’ve seen such a glaring disregard for some of the most basic and fundamental policies and rules,” Hogan told the House public accounts committee on Monday [February 12, 2024].

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“I have to say I am deeply concerned by what this audit didn’t find,” she told MPs on the committee.

“We didn’t find records to accurately show how much was spent on what, who did the work, or how and why contracting decisions were made — and that paper trail should have existed.”

CBSA said previously the development and operation of the app cost an estimated $54 million.

Hogan estimates the project cost was $59.5 million — but, as the report notes, she was only able to arrive at that figure based on the information available to her.

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CBSA depended heavily on third-party contractors [emphasis mine] to develop the app. The report cites that reliance as a major factor in its ballooning costs.

Hogan’s report suggests that a reduction in the use of outside contractors could have lowered costs and “enhanced value for money.”

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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh blamed the rise in government outsourcing on both Liberal and Conservative governments.

“This is the result of years of Conservatives and Liberals creating a system that allows wealthy consultants to procure government contracts and make millions in profits at the expense of our professional public service and Canadian taxpayers,” he said in a media statement.

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There is also little documentation to show why or how the biggest contractor — GC Strategies — was chosen for the project. [emphasis mine]

The company is a two-person consulting firm that advertises itself as being able to help companies navigate the government’s procurement process.

GC Strategies was given a sole-source contract in April 2020 despite a lack of evidence that the firm provided a proposal document for the project, [emphasis mine] the report says.

Hogan notes that at least one other firm provided an initial proposal for the same contract.

The report indicates that the auditor general couldn’t determine which government official made the final decision to select GC Strategies for the April 2020 contract.

And Hogan also found that GC Strategies was later involved in developing requirements that were later used for a competitive contract. That contract — valued at $25 million — was awarded to GC Strategies, the report says.

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What you might call a boondoggle from beginning to end.

July 2024 update

A July 10, 2024 article by Emma Weller for CBC news online notes this,

A payroll system for federal workers intended to replace the much-maligned Phoenix platform is still years away from being fully implemented, according to a senior government official.

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At a new conference on Tuesday [July 9, 2024], Alex Benay, associate deputy minister of Public Services and Procurement, said testing began on Phoenix’s replacement, Dayforce, in 2022.

“This is the year that we are building Dayforce as a replacement system for HR and pay and determining if it is a feasible solution for the Government of Canada,” Benay said.

Benay said the switch won’t happen overnight, however, and cautioned it may take years until the new system is fully implemented. In the meantime, Phoenix will remain in use.

“In order to do this well and steadily, there will be a world where we continue to see an IBM Phoenix contract and a Dayforce contract for the foreseeable future in order to make sure that we don’t replicate the mistakes that we did in 2017,” he said.

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When launched in 2016, Phoenix initially cost taxpayers about $300 million. The cost has now ballooned to $3.5 billion.

The federal government expects to spend an additional $936 million over the 2024-2025 fiscal year. Benay said half of that will be allocated to Phoenix while the other half will go toward the transformation to a new system.

Much of the Phoenix costs are directed at managing and reducing a serious backlog of transactions waiting to be processed.

According to the Public Service Pay Centre dashboard, 416,000 transactions were waiting to be processed on June 19 [2024].

Benay said the goal is to process them all by March 2025. To achieve that goal, he said 200 compensation advisers have been specifically tasked with helping resolve those outstanding cases, and they’ll have artificial intelligence (AI) tools at their disposal for support. [emphasis mine]

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Weller’s July 10, 2024 article doesn’t offer any details about the AI tools but she does include comments, which indicate that I’m not the only AI skeptic,

Mixed reaction from unions

Eva Henshaw, acting president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) said knowing a new system is in the works gives her members some hope.

“This might be the concrete commitment that we were looking for, but we will have to see,” Henshaw said.

She added that she wants to see greater consultation, and for the unions and their members to be part of the solution.

Henshaw said she remains skeptical of integrating AI into the operations and would like to see a risk plan. [emphasis mine]

“AI in itself may be very helpful and be a lot faster, but we have to make sure that AI doesn’t create other problems for our members,” she noted.

Sharon DeSousa, national president of Public Service Alliance of Canada, agreed and added that the country’s largest employer has failed in its most basic task.

“We live in a world where the principle is simple — you go to work and you get paid,” DeSousa said.

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Hopes and dreams

I’m really hoping that the government has addressed the issues revealed by the Auditor General and that all contracts including those associated with Dayforce will be carefully vetted, that financial records will be properly kept, and that there will be conscientious oversight.

Most of all, I hope Canadian federal employees will finally get some stability with regard to their paycheques. It’s past due.

Super-black wood from the University of British Columbia (UBC)

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The researchers have developed prototype watches and jewelry using the new super-black wood. Photo credit: UBC Forestry/Ally Penders

Generally stories about very black materials will mention carbon nanotubes but not this time. A July 30, 2024 University of British Columbia (UBC) news release (also on EurekAlert and received via email) announces the discovery of a technique for making super-black wood,

Thanks to an accidental discovery, researchers at the University of British Columbia have created a new super-black material that absorbs almost all light, opening potential applications in fine jewelry, solar cells and precision optical devices.

Professor Philip Evans and PhD student Kenny Cheng were experimenting with high-energy plasma to make wood more water-repellent. However, when they applied the technique to the cut ends of wood cells, the surfaces turned extremely black.

Measurements by Texas A&M University’s department of physics and astronomy confirmed that the material reflected less than one per cent of visible light, absorbing almost all the light that struck it.

Instead of discarding this accidental finding, the team decided to shift their focus to designing super-black materials, contributing a new approach to the search for the darkest materials on Earth.

“Ultra-black or super-black material can absorb more than 99 per cent of the light that strikes it – significantly more so than normal black paint, which absorbs about 97.5 per cent of light,” explained Dr. Evans, a professor in the faculty of forestry and BC Leadership Chair in Advanced Forest Products Manufacturing Technology.

Super-black materials are increasingly sought after in astronomy, where ultra-black coatings on devices help reduce stray light and improve image clarity. Super-black coatings can enhance the efficiency of solar cells. They are also used in making art pieces and luxury consumer items like watches.

The researchers have developed prototype commercial products using their super-black wood, initially focusing on watches and jewelry, with plans to explore other commercial applications in the future.

Wonder wood

The team named and trademarked their discovery Nxylon (niks-uh-lon), after Nyx, the Greek goddess of the night, and xylon, the Greek word for wood.

Most surprisingly, Nxylon remains black even when coated with an alloy, such as the gold coating applied to the wood to make it electrically conductive enough to be viewed and studied using an electron microscope. This is because Nxylon’s structure inherently prevents light from escaping rather than depending on black pigments.

The UBC team have demonstrated that Nxylon can replace expensive and rare black woods like ebony and rosewood for watch faces, and it can be used in jewelry to replace the black gemstone onyx.

“Nxylon’s composition combines the benefits of natural materials with unique structural features, making it lightweight, stiff and easy to cut into intricate shapes,” said Dr. Evans.

Made from basswood, a tree widely found in North America and valued for hand carving, boxes, shutters and musical instruments, Nxylon can also use other types of wood such as European lime wood.

Breathing new life into forestry

Dr. Evans and his colleagues plan to launch a startup, Nxylon Corporation of Canada, to scale up applications of Nxylon in collaboration with jewellers, artists and tech product designers. They also plan to develop a commercial-scale plasma reactor to produce larger super-black wood samples suitable for non-reflective ceiling and wall tiles.

“Nxylon can be made from sustainable and renewable materials widely found in North America and Europe, leading to new applications for wood. The wood industry in B.C. is often seen as a sunset industry focused on commodity products—our research demonstrates its great untapped potential,” said Dr. Evans.

Other researchers who contributed to this work include Vickie Ma, Dengcheng Feng and Sara Xu (all from UBC’s faculty of forestry); Luke Schmidt (Texas A&M); and Mick Turner (The Australian National University).

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper (and hat’s off to the writers for an accessible introduction),

Super-Black Material Created by Plasma Etching Wood by Kenneth J. Cheng, Dengcheng Feng, Luke M. Schmidt, Michael Turner, Philip D. Evans. Advanced Sustainable Systems DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adsu.202400184 First published: 16 June 2024

This paper is open access.

I can’t resist; this is such a good introduction, keeping in mind it’s written for an academic journal, from Super-Black Material Created by Plasma Etching Wood.

Super-black materials have very low reflectivity due to structural absorption of light.^[1] They are attracting considerable scientific and industrial attention because of their important applications in many fields: astronomy,^{[2, 3]} photovoltaics,^{[4, 5]} and optical science,^[6] among others. In these applications, super-black materials minimize unwanted reflection of light enabling devices to operate more accurately or efficiently.^[6] In other fields, for example art and design, the attraction of super-black materials lies in their ability to create bizarre visual effects because of huge contrast between black and adjacent colored objects or surfaces.^[7] This artistic application of super-black materials is analogous to the juxtaposition of super-black and brightly colored courtship display patches in birds and peacock spiders.^{[8, 9]} In birds, super-black patches have been defined as those having less than 2% directional reflectance at normal incidence.^[8] Reflectance values of super-black patches in 32 bird species ranged from 0.045 to 1.97% with an average of 0.94% (300–700 nm).^[8] Other studies have associated super-blackness with reflectance values of 1%^[10] or 0.5%.^[3] Far lower reflectance values have been achieved with materials containing aligned carbon nanotubes (CNT), for example a low-density CNT array (0.045%),^[11] the coating Vantablack (0.035%)^[7] and a CNT-metal foil (0.005%).^[12] The current holder of the “record” for a low reflectivity material (<0.0002%) is an ion-track micro-textured polymer with anti-backscatter matrix.^[13]

The low reflectivity of materials such as Vantablack is due to the high absorption of light by graphene and the ability of vertical arrays of CNT to lower surface reflection.^{[6, 7]} In the case of a low-density CNT array, its low reflectivity was ascribed to its random surface profile and presence of a loose network of entangled nanotubes, in addition to vertically oriented nanotubes.^[11] Other structures can also be used to reduce reflectivity of synthetic materials including nanopores, and microcavities.^[6] Even more diverse structures are found in natural super-black materials, including complex barbule microstructures in birds,^[1] cuticular micro-lens arrays in peacock spiders,^[9] and polydisperse honeycomb configurations in the wings of butterflies.^[14] The structural features of butterfly wings have been used as biomimetic models to create super-black polymer films.^{[4, 10]} This biomimetic route to creating super-black materials has the advantages that “the films are thinner than known alternatives and can be fabricated at lower temperatures via plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition, instead of being grown from CNT.”^{[4, 14]}

Biomimicry of nature’s structural material par excellence, wood, is being used to create lightweight stiff and tough composites,^{[15, 16]} but wood is not a model for the creation of super-black materials because even the darkest woods such as ebony (Diospyros spp.) or African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon Guill. & Perr.) lack structural features that reduce reflectivity. Nevertheless, there is interest in using wood in applications where blackness is advantageous such as solar steam generation and desalination of water,^[17-20] because wood is widely available, inexpensive, sustainable and can be fabricated into panels and objects. In these applications, wood is carbonized and retains its porous microstructure creating a black material with reflectivity of 3%.^[18] The creation of additional porosity by micro-drilling the wood prior to carbonization further reduced reflectivity to 2%.^[18] We serendipitously created a super-black wood during undirected investigations into the use of plasma etching to “machine” novel microstructures at basswood (Tilia americana L.) surfaces. We called this material Nxylon, a neologism created from Nyx (Greek goddess of the night) and xylon (Greek for wood materials). One of us published the reflectivity data for Nxylon in 2020.^[21] Here we report on the structural features responsible for the super-blackness of Nxylon, describe how it is made and discuss its possible practical uses. During the preparation of this manuscript, we became aware of a novel approach to creating super-black wood involving high temperature carbonization of delignified balsa wood (Ochroma pyramidale (Cav. ex Lam.) Urb.).^[22] This material is produced using “mature processing technologies” and can be used to create solid wood products with complex geometries. The surface plasma process we describe is liquid free, generates little waste and is more suited for the creation of super-black veneer which can be used on a small scale to manufacture luxury consumer products. Therein lies the novelty and significance of our work.

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The most comprehensive piece I’ve published on the topic of the ‘really, really black’ is in a December 4, 2019 posting, “More of the ‘blackest black’.” At that point, some new work on creating the blackest black (up to 99.99% and 99.995% light absorption, respectively) had come from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). I also included the latest about an artistic feud over Vantablack (mentioned in the paper’s introduction) and its 99.8% light absorption and provided a link back to my earliest stories on Vantablack.

BC-based company (Aluula) partners with MaxSpace to make expandable habitats for astronauts to live on the moon in 2026

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The media advisory/news release about Aluula and its role in NASA’s (US National Aeronautics and Space Agency) proposed moon habitat was received via email back in June 2024. I’m glad I waited as I found a very detailed story by Devin Coldeway about the proposed moon habitat that wasn’t published until late July.2024.

First, some early news about Aluula and NASA, from an April 22, 2024 article by Nelson Bennett for Business in Vancouver,

A Victoria [British Columbia, Canada] composite materials company that developed a super-strong, lightweight polyethylene material used in a range out outdoor recreation equipment could soon be used by astronauts in space in inflatable space habitats.

Max Space, an American company that is developing expandable space habitats, is now incorporating composite materials made by Aluula Composites (TSX-V:AUUA).

Aluula’s innovation was developing a heat fusion process for working with ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) to make a super-tough lightweight material.

It is being used as part of a custom laminate that adds strength and durability to structural elements to the Max Space habitat, “making it possible to create a large living and working area at a fraction of the weight and transport costs of traditional crew modules,” Aluula said in a press release.

…

Here’s more about the NASA mission from a January 3, 2024 NASA news release,

NASA announced Tuesday [January 2, 2024] updates to its Artemis campaign that will establish the foundation for long-term scientific exploration at the Moon, land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface, and prepare for human expeditions to Mars for the benefit of all. To safely carry out these missions, agency leaders are adjusting the schedules for Artemis II and Artemis III to allow teams to work through challenges associated with first-time developments, operations, and integration.

…

With Artemis, NASA will explore more of the Moon than ever before, learn how to live and work away from home, and prepare for future human exploration of the Red Planet. NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, exploration ground systems, and Orion spacecraft, along with the human landing system, next-generation spacesuits, Gateway lunar space station, and future rovers are NASA’s foundation for deep space exploration.

…

The June 20, 2024 Aluula media advisory/news release (received via email) describes the company’s involvement this way,

…

A small company on Canada’s west coast is playing a big role to help astronauts return to the moon in 2026.

ALUULA Composites recently signed an agreement with Max Space, an American company, to use its innovative composite material to build space habitats on the moon. The company’s ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) laminate will be used to create a large living and working area for NASA’s astronauts when they return to the moon in September 2026.

The innovative material was selected because it has eight times the strength-to-weight ratio of steel and is extremely durable, which is ideal for space travel.

The first Max Space inflatable space habitat is slated to launch with SpaceX in 2026. The Max Space inflatables can be delivered into space in very small packages and then unfolded and expanded to create a much larger work space.

…

Emily Mertz’s July 16, 2024 article for Global TV news provides a few more details, Note: Links have been removed,

A small West Coast company is helping astronauts return to the moon in 2026. ALUULA Composites has signed on to provide its durable, lightweight fabric to build space habitats.

The Max Space inflatables can be transported in very small packages and then expanded to create a much larger workspace.

…

“It [Aluula’s ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) laminate] was actually originated by a bunch of engineers, chemists and wind sport enthusiasts. When you’re on the water, using a kite or a wing, you need something that’s very durable and very light and it was developed in that context.” [said ALUULA president and CEO Sage Berryman]

…

The B.C. company, which is fairly young — it started in 2020 — is also committed to sustainability.

“It’s the first material that’s been done as a composite not using glues, so that also allows it to be recycled at the end of its useful life, which is pretty different in a material that’s polyethylene — plastic-based,” Berryman said.

“Our goal is to make products that are able to be fully circular and that’s an exciting thing as well.”

…

“Having these opportunities to have these unique materials in unique applications is really exciting. And when you start talking about a project that’s not a huge project for us, but it’s huge in its meaningfulness, when you’re working with Max Space that’s working with NASA that’s going up on SpaceX, it is exciting,” she said.

…

Mertz’s July 16, 2024 article contains some news videos and about the project and related space information.

Space habitat details

Devin Coldeway’s July 27, 2024 article for TechCrunch and republished yahoo! news tells a fascinating story about space habitats with a special emphasis on the one being developed for NASA’s Artemis campaign, Note: Links have been removed,

Max Space reinvents expandable habitats with a 17th-century twist, launching in 2026

Working and even living in space has shifted from far-off fantasy to seemingly inevitable reality, but the question remains: what exactly will the next generation of space habitation look like? For Max Space, the answer is clear, and has been for decades — centuries, even. A new generation of expandable habitats could offer both safety and enough room to stretch your legs, and the first one is going up in 2026.

The startup is led by Aaron Kemmer, formerly of Made in Space, and Maxim de Jong, an engineer who has studiously avoided the limelight despite being the co-creator of expandable habitats like the one currently attached to the International Space Station.

They believe that the breakout moment for this type of in-space structure is due to arrive any year now. By positioning themselves as a successor to — and fundamental improvement on — the decades-old designs being pursued by others, they can capture what may eventually be a multi-billion-dollar market.

…

Expandable habitats go back a long ways, but their first real use was in the TransHab project at NASA in the 1990s, where the fundamental approach was developed.

Contrary to their appearance, expandables aren’t just big balloons. The visible outer layer is, like with many spacecraft, just a thin one to reflect light and dissipate heat. The structure and strength lie inside, and since Transhab the established convention has been the “basket weave” technique.

In this method, straps of kevlar and other high-strength materials are lined up in alternating directions and manually stitched together, and upon expansion form a surface like a woven basket, with the internal pressure distributed evenly across all the thousands of intersections.

Or at least, that’s the theory.

De Jong, through his company Thin Red Line Aerospace, worked successfully with Bigelow Aerospace to develop and launch this basket-weave structure, but he had his doubts from the start about the predictability of so many stitches, overlaps, and interactions. A tiny irregularity could lead to a cascading failure even well below safety thresholds.

“I looked at all these straps, and as a field guy I was thinking, this is a cluster. As soon as you’re over or under pressure, you don’t know what percentage of the load is going to be transferred in one direction or another,” he said. “I never found a solution for it.”

He was quick to add that the people working on basket-weave designs today (primarily at Sierra Nevada and Lockheed Martin) are extremely competent and have clearly advanced the tech far beyond what it was in the early 2000s, when Bigelow’s pioneering expandable habitats were built and launched. (Genesis I and II are still in orbit today after 17 years, and the BEAM habitat has been attached to the ISS since 2016.)

But mitigation isn’t a solution. Although basket-weave, with its flight heritage and extensive testing, has remained unchallenged as the method of choice for expandables, the presence of a sub-optimal design somewhere in the world haunted De Jong [sic], in the way such things always haunt engineers. Surely there was a way to do this that was strong, simple, and safe.

…

Mylar and Bernoulli

…

As he [de Jong] balefully contemplated the helium-filled Mylar, something about it struck him: “Every volume that you can put something in has load in two directions. A kid’s Mylar balloon, though… there are two discs and all these wrinkles — all the stress is on one axis. This is a mathematical anomaly!”

The shape taken by the balloon essentially redirects the forces acting on it so that pressure really only pulls in one direction: away from where the two halves connect. Could this principle be applicable at a larger scale? De Jong [sic] rushed to the literature to look up the phenomenon, only to find this structure had indeed been documented — 330 years ago, by the French mathematician James Bernoulli.

…

This was both gratifying and perhaps a little humiliating, even if Bernoulli had not intended this interesting anomaly for orbital habitation.

“Humility will get you so far. Physicists and mathematicians knew all this, from the 17th century. I mean, Bernoulli didn’t have access to this computer — just ink on parchment!” he told me. “I’m reasonably bright, but nobody works in fabrics; in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king. You have to be honest, you have to look at what other people are doing, and you have to dig, dig, dig.”

By forming Bernoulli’s shape (called an isotensoid) out of cords, or “tendons,” every problem with expandables more or less solves itself, De Jong [sic] explains.

“It’s structurally determinant. That means if I just take a cord of a certain length, that will define all the geometry: the diameter, the height, the shape — and once you have those, the pressure is the PSI at the equator, divided by the number of cords. And one cord doesn’t affect the others, you know exactly how strong one cord needs to be; everything is predictable,” he said.

…

It’s stupidly simple to make.”

All the important forces are simply tension on these cords (96 of them in the prototypes, each rated to 17,000 pounds), pulling on anchors at either end of the shape. And as you might guess from suspension bridges and other high-tension structures, we know how to make this type of connection very, very strong. Gaps for docking rings, windows, and other features are simple to add.

The way the tendons deform can also be adjusted to different shapes, like cylinders or even the uneven interiors of a Moon cave. (De Jong [sic] was very excited about that news — an inflatable is a highly suitable solution for a lunar interior habitat.)

With the pressurized structure so reliable, it can be skinned with flight-tested materials already used to insulate, block radiation and micrometeoroids, and so on; since they aren’t load bearing, that part of the design is similarly simple. Yet the whole thing compresses to a pancake only a few inches thin, which can be folded up or wrapped around another payload like a blanket.

The biggest inflatables anyone has made, and we did with a team of five people in six months,” De Jong [sic] said — though he added that “the challenges of its correct implementation are surprisingly complex” and credited that team’s expertise.

What De Jong [sic] had done is discover, or perhaps rediscover, a method for making an enclosure in space that had comparable structural strength to machined metal, but using only a tiny fraction of the mass and volume. And he lost no time getting to work on it. But who would fly it?

…

Thin Red Line has seen plenty of its creations go to orbit. But this new expandable faced a long, uphill battle. For spaceflight, established methods and technologies are strongly favored, leading to a catch-22: you need to go to space to get flight heritage, and you need flight heritage to go to space.

Falling launch costs and game investors have helped break this loop in recent years, but it’s still no simple thing to get manifested on a launch vehicle.

…

… Max Space, a startup built specifically to commercialize the new approach — the name is both a reference to having more space in space, and a tribute to (Maxim) De Jong, whom Kemmer [Aaron Kemmer, cp-founder] thought deserved a bit more recognition after working for decades in relative anonymity (“which suits me just fine,” he noted).

Their first mission will launch in 2026 aboard a SpaceX rideshare vehicle, and act as a proof of concept so they can get flight heritage, which is one advantage extant expandables have over isotensoids.

…

If you have the time and the interest, Coldeway’s July 27, 2024 article is a good read with a lot of informative images such as this one

Caption: The 20-cubic-meter habitat deflated to a 2-cubic-meter pancake, or “planar configuration.” Credit: Max Space? [downloaded from https://ca.news.yahoo.com/max-space-reinvents-expandable-habitats-150000556.html]

Aluula can be found here.

One last thing, it looks like the deal was originally announced with Thin Red Line Aerospace in a December 12, 2022 Aluula news release,

We are excited to announce that ALUULA Composites is supporting Thin Red Line Aerospace in the development of leading-edge application hardware for future NASA lunar and Mars missions.

“Their unique range of technical attributes combined with impressive strength to weight ratio specifications, make ALUULA Composite materials very well suited to the demanding requirements of technology in space.” Stated Thin Red Line Aerospace President, Maxim de Jong.

“We continue to find new and exciting ways in which our process enables and enhances composite materials to satisfy very specific technical objectives, and our work with Thin Red Line is another great example of what is possible with our materials and unique expertise.” Said ALUULA Composites COO, John Zimmerman.

Air & Cosmos International Announcement: https://aircosmosinternational.com/article/aluula-composites-selected-for-future-nasa-lunar-and-mars-missions-3364

JEC Composites Announcement: https://www.jeccomposites.com/news/aluula-composites-selected-for-future-nasa-mars-missions/

I guess they needed one more player, i.e., Max Space, to get ready for the launch.

Brain-inspired (neuromorphic) wireless system for gathering data from sensors the size of a grain of salt

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This is what a sensor the size of a grain of salt looks like,

Caption: The sensor network is designed so the chips can be implanted into the body or integrated into wearable devices. Each submillimeter-sized silicon sensor mimics how neurons in the brain communicate through spikes of electrical activity. Credit: Nick Dentamaro/Brown University

A March 19, 2024 news item on Nanowerk announces this research from Brown University (Rhode Island, US), Note: A link has been removed,

Tiny chips may equal a big breakthrough for a team of scientists led by Brown University engineers.

Writing in Nature Electronics (“An asynchronous wireless network for capturing event-driven data from large populations of autonomous sensors”), the research team describes a novel approach for a wireless communication network that can efficiently transmit, receive and decode data from thousands of microelectronic chips that are each no larger than a grain of salt.

…

One of the potential applications is for brain (neural) implants,

Caption: Writing in Nature Electronics, the research team describes a novel approach for a wireless communication network that can efficiently transmit, receive and decode data from thousands of microelectronic chips that are each no larger than a grain of salt. Credit: Nick Dentamaro/Brown University

A March 19, 2024 Brown University news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides more detail about the research, Note: Links have been removed,

…

The sensor network is designed so the chips can be implanted into the body or integrated into wearable devices. Each submillimeter-sized silicon sensor mimics how neurons in the brain communicate through spikes of electrical activity. The sensors detect specific events as spikes and then transmit that data wirelessly in real time using radio waves, saving both energy and bandwidth.

“Our brain works in a very sparse way,” said Jihun Lee, a postdoctoral researcher at Brown and study lead author. “Neurons do not fire all the time. They compress data and fire sparsely so that they are very efficient. We are mimicking that structure here in our wireless telecommunication approach. The sensors would not be sending out data all the time — they’d just be sending relevant data as needed as short bursts of electrical spikes, and they would be able to do so independently of the other sensors and without coordinating with a central receiver. By doing this, we would manage to save a lot of energy and avoid flooding our central receiver hub with less meaningful data.”

This radiofrequency [sic] transmission scheme also makes the system scalable and tackles a common problem with current sensor communication networks: they all need to be perfectly synced to work well.

The researchers say the work marks a significant step forward in large-scale wireless sensor technology and may one day help shape how scientists collect and interpret information from these little silicon devices, especially since electronic sensors have become ubiquitous as a result of modern technology.

“We live in a world of sensors,” said Arto Nurmikko, a professor in Brown’s School of Engineering and the study’s senior author. “They are all over the place. They’re certainly in our automobiles, they are in so many places of work and increasingly getting into our homes. The most demanding environment for these sensors will always be inside the human body.”

That’s why the researchers believe the system can help lay the foundation for the next generation of implantable and wearable biomedical sensors. There is a growing need in medicine for microdevices that are efficient, unobtrusive and unnoticeable but that also operate as part of a large ensembles to map physiological activity across an entire area of interest.

“This is a milestone in terms of actually developing this type of spike-based wireless microsensor,” Lee said. “If we continue to use conventional methods, we cannot collect the high channel data these applications will require in these kinds of next-generation systems.”

The events the sensors identify and transmit can be specific occurrences such as changes in the environment they are monitoring, including temperature fluctuations or the presence of certain substances.

The sensors are able to use as little energy as they do because external transceivers supply wireless power to the sensors as they transmit their data — meaning they just need to be within range of the energy waves sent out by the transceiver to get a charge. This ability to operate without needing to be plugged into a power source or battery make them convenient and versatile for use in many different situations.

The team designed and simulated the complex electronics on a computer and has worked through several fabrication iterations to create the sensors. The work builds on previous research from Nurmikko’s lab at Brown that introduced a new kind of neural interface system called “neurograins.” This system used a coordinated network of tiny wireless sensors to record and stimulate brain activity.

“These chips are pretty sophisticated as miniature microelectronic devices, and it took us a while to get here,” said Nurmikko, who is also affiliated with Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science. “The amount of work and effort that is required in customizing the several different functions in manipulating the electronic nature of these sensors — that being basically squeezed to a fraction of a millimeter space of silicon — is not trivial.”

The researchers demonstrated the efficiency of their system as well as just how much it could potentially be scaled up. They tested the system using 78 sensors in the lab and found they were able to collect and send data with few errors, even when the sensors were transmitting at different times. Through simulations, they were able to show how to decode data collected from the brains of primates using about 8,000 hypothetically implanted sensors.

The researchers say next steps include optimizing the system for reduced power consumption and exploring broader applications beyond neurotechnology.

“The current work provides a methodology we can further build on,” Lee said.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the study,

An asynchronous wireless network for capturing event-driven data from large populations of autonomous sensors by Jihun Lee, Ah-Hyoung Lee, Vincent Leung, Farah Laiwalla, Miguel Angel Lopez-Gordo, Lawrence Larson & Arto Nurmikko. Nature Electronics volume 7, pages 313–324 (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-024-01134-y Published: 19 March 2024 Issue Date: April 2024

This paper is behind a paywall.

Prior to this, 2021 seems to have been a banner year for Nurmikko’s lab. There’s this August 12, 2021 Brown University news release touting publication of a then new study in Nature Electronics and I have an April 2, 2021 post, “BrainGate demonstrates a high-bandwidth wireless brain-computer interface (BCI),” touting an earlier 2021 published study from the lab.

A ‘time travel’ thought experiment for considering technology from the perspective of future generations

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A March 26, 2024 news item on ScienceDaily describes an intriguing thought experiment,

The world approaches an environmental tipping point, and our decisions now regarding energy, resources, and the environment will have profound consequences for the future. Despite this, most sustainable thought tends to be limited to the viewpoint of current generations.
In a study published in Technological Forecasting and Social Change, researchers from Osaka University have revealed that adopting the perspective of “imaginary future generations” (IFGs) can yield fascinating insights into long-term social and technological trends.
…

A March 14, 2024 Osaka University press release (also on EurekAlert but published March 19, 2024), which originated the news item, describes how the research was conducted,

The researchers organized a series of four workshops at Osaka University, with participants drawn from the faculty and student body of the Graduate School of Engineering. The workshops discussed the state of future society and manufacturing in general, and also looked at one technology in particular: hydrothermally produced porous glass. During the workshops, the participants were asked to think about this technology from the perspective of IFGs, to imagine how this technology might be adopted in the future and to assess its future potentiality.
“We chose hydrothermally produced porous glass for the case study because of the generational trade-offs involved,” says lead author of the study Keishiro Hara. “Porous glass is incredibly useful as either a filter for removing impurities or an insulator for buildings. Also, it can be recycled into new porous glass more or less indefinitely. The problem is that making it takes a lot of energy – both to pulverize waste glass and to heat water to very high temperatures. There’s a striking trade-off between costs now and gains in the future.”
In the workshops, the participants first looked at issues involving society and manufacturing from the perspective of the present and were then asked to imagine themselves in the shoes of their counterparts in 2040.
“The future the participants imagined was quite different from the future as seen from the perspective of the current generation,” explains Toshihiro Tanaka, senior author. “Most groups described a future in which sustainability has become a central concern for society. Meanwhile, advances in renewal energy mean that energy is abundant, as are resources, as frontiers such as the moon and deep ocean are opened to exploration. In this context, hydrothermally produced porous glass comes into its own as a sustainable way to recycle glass, and the energy needed to produce it is readily available.”
The participants were surveyed between workshops and asked to rank indicators related to the future potentiality of the technology. Interestingly, these rankings looked quite different after the workshops in which the participants were asked to take on the perspective of “imaginary future generations.”
“We noticed that when the “imaginary future generations” method, which has been proven to be effective in facilitating long-term thinking, was adopted, participants perceived the feasibility of this technology differently, and their adoption scenarios changed accordingly,” says Hara.
The study suggests that the simple act of putting ourselves in the position of future generations may provide new perspectives on issues of sustainability and technology, helping us to rethink our priorities and set new directions for research and development.

Caption: Processes of manufacturing using hydrothermal technology. Credit: Hara K, Miura I, Suzuki M, Tanaka T, Assessing Future Potentiality of Technologies from the Perspective of “Imaginary Future Generations”– a Case Study of Hydrothermal Technology, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 202, 123289, 2024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123289

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Assessing future potentiality of technologies from the perspective of “imaginary future generations” – A case study of hydrothermal technology by Keishiro Hara, Iori Miura, Masanori Suzuki, and Toshihiro Tanaka. Technological Forecasting and Social Change Volume 202, May 2024, 123289 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2024.123289

This paper us is open access: under a Creative Commons license

Quantum Leaps Career Conference (online) – Medicine and Medical Research for girls in grades 8-12 on May 27, 2024

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Notice of this conference came in a May 13, 2024 Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST) announcement (received via email),

Quantum Leaps: Medicine and Medical Research
May 27 [2024] | 5-6pm PDT | Online
Quantum Leaps is a virtual career conference where girls in grades 8-12 can learn about STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] careers. Participants will gain invaluable insights into careers in medicine and medical research, and get a firsthand look into the daily routines and experiences within these fields. Register.

I’ve got a little more information from the event registration page,

During these events, girls can meet women professionals who have been successful in their STEM fields and meet other like-minded girls who have similar aspirations and interests. This event will help them know more about the STEM fields they are interested in and discover new STEM fields. Quantum Leaps also aims to aid students in the transition between high school and higher education.

This particular Quantum Leaps event will focus on women professionals working in careers related to Medicine and Medical research. They also have expertise in science communication and facilitating learning. Did they have a fixed plan for what they would like to do five years after high school? How do they ease into changing their career focus? Did they know that they wanted to pursue these careers when they were in university? Girls will get the opportunity to interact with these women to get the answers they need at the event.

AGENDA

6:00-6:25: Speaker 1 and Q&A session

6:25-6:50: Speaker 2 and Q&A session

6:50-7:00 Conclusion

SPEAKERS

Ivy Mageto, a third-year medical student at the University of Medicine and Health Sciences (UMHS) in Saint Kitts and Nevis, hails originally from Kenya but has called Canada home since the 10th grade. Before embarking on her medical journey, Ivy pursued an accounting diploma and business degree from BCIT with aspirations of becoming a Certified Professional Accountant, though her path took an unexpected turn.Throughout her tenure in medical school, Ivy has actively engaged with various organizations. She served as the Vice President of Because We Care at UMHS, an organization dedicated to community service, diversity, inclusion, and health education. Additionally, she contributed her time as a teaching assistant for Biostatistics and Histology courses.Presently, Ivy finds herself in Michigan State for her medical school rotations, where her passion for medicine continues to grow. Eager to share her career journey, she looks forward to the opportunities ahead.

Jessica [Lovnicki] has experience working as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the field of Oncology. With a patient-focused mindset and a strong interest in pediatrics, she continues to strive to build world-class programs that enhance children’s health. Since November 2019, she has also offered administrative support to numerous students by logging their private school and university applications. She has also provided career and education counselling to help students decide which path to pursue by providing options that offer the opportunity for fulfillment and success. Realizing her passion for teaching and working with students, she will be going back to school this fall to become a biology and chemistry teacher. With a passion for education, teaching and career guidance, she looks forward to sharing her career journey with high school girls.

The event is free.

Digi, Nano, Bio, Neuro – why should we care more about converging technologies?

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Personality in focus: the convergence of biology and computer technology could make extremely sensitive data available. (Image: by-studio / AdobeStock) [downloaded from https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2024/05/digi-nano-bio-neuro-or-why-we-should-care-more-about-converging-technologies.html]

I gave a guest lecture some years ago where I mentioned that I thought the real issue with big data and AI (artificial intelligence) lay in combining them (or convergence). These days, it seems I was insufficiently imaginative as researchers from ETH Zurich have taken the notion much further.

From a May 7, 2024 ETH Zurich press release (also on EurekAlert), Note: You’ll see in the ‘References’ some extra words, ‘external page’ is self-explanatory but ‘call made’ remains a mystery to me,

In my research, I [Dirk Helbing, Professor of Computational Social Science at the Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences and associated with the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich.] deal with the consequences of digitalisation for people, society and democracy. In this context, it is also important to keep an eye on their convergence in computer and life sciences – i.e. what becomes possible when digital technologies grow increasingly together with biotechnology, neurotechnology and nanotechnology.

Converging technologies are seen as a breeding ground for far-reaching innovations. However, they are blurring the boundaries between the physical, biological and digital worlds. Conventional regulations are becoming ineffective as a result.

In a joint study I conducted with my co-author Marcello Ienca, we have recently examined the risks and societal challenges of technological convergence – and concluded that the effects for individuals and society are far-reaching.

We would like to draw attention to the challenges and risks of converging technologies and explain why we consider it necessary to accompany technological developments internationally with strict regulations.

For several years now, everyone has been able to observe, within the context of digitalisation, the consequences of leaving technological change to market forces alone without effective regulation.

Misinformation and manipulation on the web

The Digital Manifesto was published in 2015 – almost ten years ago.¹ Nine European experts, including one from ETH Zurich, issued an urgent warning against scoring, i.e. the evaluation of people, and big nudging,² a subtle form of digital manipulation. The latter is based on personality profiles created using cookies and other surveillance data. A little later, the Cambridge Analytica scandal alerted the world to how the data analysis company had been using personalised ads (microtargeting) in an attempt to manipulate voting behaviour in democratic elections.

This has brought democracies around the world under considerable pressure. Propaganda, fake news and hate speech are polarising and sowing doubt, while privacy is on the decline. We are in the midst of an international information war for control of our minds, in which advertising companies, tech corporations, secret services and the military are fighting to exert an influence on our mindset and behaviour. The European Union has adopted the AI Act in an attempt to curb these dangers.

However, digital technologies have developed at a breathtaking pace, and new possibilities for manipulation are already emerging. The merging of digital and nanotechnology with modern biotechnology and neurotechnology makes revolutionary applications possible that had been hardly imaginable before.

Microrobots for precision medicine

In personalised medicine, for example, the advancing miniaturisation of electronics is making it increasingly possible to connect living organisms and humans with networked sensors and computing power. The WEF [World Economic Forum] proclaimed the “Internet of Bodies” as early as 2020.^3, ⁴

One example that combines conventional medication with a monitoring function is digital pills. These could control medication and record a patient’s physiological data (see this blog post).

Experts expect sensor technology to reach the nanoscale. Magnetic nanoparticles or nanoelectronic components, i.e. tiny particles invisible to the naked eye with a diameter up to 100 nanometres, would make it possible to transport active substances, interact with cells and record vast amounts of data on bodily functions. If introduced into the body, it is hoped that diseases could be detected at an early stage and treated in a personalised manner. This is often referred to as high-precision medicine.

Nano-electrodes record brain function

Miniaturised electrodes that can simultaneously measure and manipulate the activity of thousands of neurons coupled with ever-improving AI tools for the analysis of brain signals are approaches that are now leading to much-discussed advances in the brain-computer interface. Brain activity mapping is also on the agenda. Thanks to nano-neurotechnology, we could soon envisage smartphones and other AI applications being controlled directly by thoughts.

“Long before precision medicine and neurotechnology work reliably, these technologies will be able to be used against people.” Dirk Helbling

Large-scale projects to map the human brain are also likely to benefit from this.⁵ In future, brain activity mapping will not only be able to read our thoughts and feelings but also make them possible of being influenced remotely – the latter would probably be a lot more effective than previous manipulation methods like big nudging.

However, conventional electrodes are not suitable for permanent connection between cells and electronics – this requires durable and biocompatible interfaces. This has given rise to the suggestion of transmitting signals optogenetically, i.e. to control genes in special cells with light pulses.⁶ This would make the implementation of amazing circuits possible (see this ETH News article [November 11, 2014 press release] “Controlling genes with thoughts” ).

The downside of convergence

Admittedly, the applications mentioned above may sound futuristic, with most of them still visions or in their early stages of development. However, a lot of research is being conducted worldwide and at full speed. The military is also interested in using converging technologies for its own purposes. ^{7, 8}

The downside of convergence is the considerable risks involved, such as state or private players gaining access to highly sensitive data and misusing it to monitor and influence people. The more connected our bodies become, the more vulnerable we will be to cybercrime and hacking. It cannot be ruled out that military applications exist already.⁵ One thing is clear, however: long before precision medicine and neurotechnology work reliably, these technologies will be able to be used against people.

“We need to regain control of our personal data. To do this, we need genuine informational self-determination.” Dirk Helbling

The problem is that existing regulations are specific and insufficient to keep technological convergence in check. But how are we to retain control over our lives if it becomes increasingly possible to influence our thoughts, feelings and decisions by digital means?

Converging global regulation is needed

In our recent paper we conclude that any regulation of converging technologies would have to be based on converging international regulations. Accordingly, we outline a new global regulatory framework and propose ten governance principles to close the looming regulatory gap.⁹

The framework emphasises the need for safeguards to protect bodily and mental functions from unauthorised interference and to ensure personal integrity and privacy by, for example. establishing neurorights.

To minimise risks and prevent abuse, future regulations should be inclusive, transparent and trustworthy. The principle of participatory governance is key, which would have to involve all the relevant groups and ensure that the concerns of affected minorities are also taken into account in decision-making processes.

Finally, we need to regain control of our personal data. To accomplish this, we need genuine informational self-determination. This would also have to apply to the digital twins of our body and personality, because they can be used to hack our health and our way of thinking – for good or for bad.¹⁰

With our contribution, we would like to initiate public debate about converging technologies. Despite its major relevance, we believe that too little attention is being paid to this topic. Continuous discourse on benefits, risks and sensible rules can help to steer technological convergence in such a way that it serves people instead of harming them.

Dirk Helbing wrote this article together with external page Marcello Ienca call_made, who previously worked at ETH Zurich and EPFL and is now Assistant Professor of Ethics of AI and Neuroscience at the Technical University of Munich.

References

¹ Digital-Manifest: external page Digitale Demokratie statt Datendiktatur call_made (2015) Spektrum der Wissenschaft

² external page Sie sind das Ziel! call_made (2024) Schweizer Monat

³ external page The Internet of Bodies Is Here: Tackling new challenges of technology governance call_made (2020) World Economic Forum

⁴ external page Tracking how our bodies work could change our lives call_made (2020) World Economic Forum

⁵ external page Nanotools for Neuroscience and Brain Activity Mapping call_made (2013) ACS Nano

⁶ external page Innovationspotenziale der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion call_made (2016) Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften

⁷ external page Human Augmentation – The Dawn of a New Paradigm. A strategic implications project call_made (2021) UK Ministry of Defence

⁸ external page Behavioural change as the core of warfighting call_made (2017) Militaire Spectator

⁹ Helbing D, Ienca M: external page Why converging technologies need converging international regulation call_made (2024) Ethics and Information Technology

¹⁰ external page Who is Messing with Your Digital Twin? Body, Mind, and Soul for Sale? call_made Dirk Helbing TEDx Talk (2023)

Here’s a second link to and citation for the paper,

Why converging technologies need converging international regulation by Dirk Helbing & Marcello Ienca. Ethics and Information Technology Volume 26, article number 15, (2024) DOI: 10.1007/s10676-024-09756-8 Published: 28 February 2024

This paper is open access.

How can ballet performances become more accessible? Put a sensor suit on the dancers*

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Take a look,

While this December 20, 2023 news item on phys.org is oriented to Christmas, it applies to much more,

Throughout the festive season, countless individuals delight in the enchantment of ballet spectacles such as “The Nutcracker.” Though the stories of timeless performances are widely known, general audiences often miss the subtle narratives and emotions dancers seek to convey through body movements—and they miss even more when the narratives are not based on well-known stories.
This prompts the question: how can dance performances become more accessible for people who are not specialists? [emphasis mine]
Researchers think they have the answer, which involves putting dancers in sensor suits.
…

Putting dancers into sensor suits would not have been my first answer to that question.

A December 20, 2023 Loughborough University (UK) press release, which originated the news item, describes the international research project, the Kinesemiotic Body, and its sensor suits Note: A link has been removed,

Loughborough University academics are working with the English National Ballet and the University of Bremen [Germany] to develop software that will allow people to understand the deeper meanings of performances by watching annotated CGI [computer-generated imagery] videos of different dances.
Leading this endeavour is former professional ballerina Dr Arianna Maiorani, an expert in ‘Kinesemiotics – the study of meaning conveyed through movement – and the creator of the ‘Functional Grammar of Dance’ (FGD), a model that deciphers meaning from dance movements.
Dr Maiorani believes the FGD – which is informed by linguistics and semiotics (the study of sign-based communication) theories – can help create visualisations of ‘projections’ happening during dance performances to help people understand what the dance means.
“Projections are like speech bubbles made by movement”, explains Dr Maiorani, “They are used by dancers to convey messages and involve extending body parts towards significant areas within the performance space.
“For example, a dancer is moving towards a lake, painted on the backdrop of a stage. They extend an arm forward towards the lake and a leg backwards towards a stage prop representing a shed. The extended arm means they are going to lake, while the leg means they are coming from shed.
“Using the Functional Grammar of Dance, we can annotate dances –filling the projection speech bubbles with meaning that people can understand without having background knowledge of dance.”
Dr Maiorani and a team of computer science and technology experts – including Loughborough’s Professor Massimiliano Zecca, Dr Russell Lock, and Dr Chun Liu – have been creating CGI videos of English National Ballet dancers to use with the FGD.
This involved getting dancers – including First Soloist Junor Souza and First Artist Rebecca Blenkinsop – to perform individual movements and phrases while wearing sensors on their head, torso, and limbs.
Using the FGD, they decoded the conveyed meanings behind different movements and annotated the CGI videos accordingly.
The researchers are now investigating how these videos can facilitate engagement for audiences with varying levels of dance familiarity, aiming to eventually transform this research into software for the general public.
Of the ultimate goal for the research, Dr Maiorani said: “We hope that our work will improve our understanding of how we all communicate with our body movement, and that this will bring more people closer to the art of ballet.”
The Loughborough team worked with experts from the University of Bremen including Professor John Bateman and Ms Dayana Markhabayeva, and experts from English National Ballet. The research was funded by the AHRC-DFG and supported by the LU Institute of Advanced Studies.
They are also looking at how the FDG can be used in performance and circus studies, as well as analysing character movements within video games to determine any gender biases.

You can find the Kinesemiotic Body here, where you’ll find this academic project description, Note: Links have been removed,

The Kinesemiotic Body is a joint research project funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) and Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) in cooperation with the English National Ballet (ENB). The project brings together an interdisciplinary group of researchers with the aim of evaluating whether a description of dance discourse informed by multimodal discourse analysis and visualised through enriched videos can capture the way dance communicates through a flow of choreographed sequences in space, and whether this description can support the interpretative process of nonexpert audiences. The theoretical framework of the research project is based on an extended dynamic theory called segmented discourse representation theory (SDRT) and on the Functional Grammar of Dance Movement created by Project Investigator Maiorani. Project’s long-term goal is to develop an interdisciplinary area of research focusing on movement-based communication that can extend beyond the study of dance to other movement-based forms of communication and performance and foster the creation of partnerships between the academia and the institutions that host and promote such disciplines.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a piece that touches on multimodal discourse.

*March 20, 2024 1630: Head changed from “How can ballet performances become more accessible? Put on a sensor suit on the dancers*” to “How can ballet performances become more accessible? Put a sensor suit on the dancers”

Interweave: A multi-sensory show (March 21, 2024 in Vancouver, Canada) where fashion, movement, & music come together though wearable instruments.

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Interweave is a free show at The Kent in the gallery in downtown Vancouver, Canada. Here’s more from a Simon Fraser University (SFU) announcement (received via email),

SFU School for the Contemporary Arts (SCA) alumnus, Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, is hosting Interweave, a multi-sensory show where fashion, movement, and music come together though wearable instruments.
Embrace the fusion of creativity and expression alongside your fellow alumni in a setting that celebrates innovation and the uncharted synergy between fashion, music, and movement. This is a great opportunity to mingle and reconnect with your peers.
Event Details:

Date: March 21, 2024
Time: Doors 7:30pm, Show 8:00pm
Location: The Kent Vancouver, 534 Cambie Street
Free Entry, RSVP required

Interweave is the first event from Fashion x Electronics (FXE), a collective created by Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi, SCA alumnus, composer, and performer, and designer Kayla Yazdi. FXE is an interdisciplinary collective that is building multi-sensory experiences for their community, bridging together a diverse range of disciplines.
This is a 19+ event. ID will be checked at the door.
RSVP Now!

I wasn’t able to discern much more about the event or the Yazdi sisters from their Fashion x Electronics (FXE) website but there is this about Kayla Yazdi on her FXE profile,

Kayla Yazdi
Designer / Co-Producer
Kayla Yazdi is an Iranian-Canadian designer based in Vancouver, Canada. Her upbringing in Iran immersed her in a world of culture, art, and color. Holding a diploma in painting and a bachelor’s degree in design with a specialization in fashion and technology, Kayla has cultivated the skill set that merges her artistic sensibilities with innovative design concepts.
Kayla is dedicated to the creation of “almost” zero-waste garments. With design, technology, and experimentation, Kayla seeks to minimize environmental impacts while delivering unique styles.

Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi’s FXE profile has this,

Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi
Sound Artist / Co-Producer
Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi(b. 1997 Tehran, Iran) is a California/Vancouver-based composer and performer. She writes for hybrid instrumental/electronic ensembles, creates electroacoustic and audiovisual works, and performs electronic music. Kimia explores the unfamiliar familiar while constantly being driven by the concepts of motion, interaction, and growth in both human life and in the sonic world. Being a cross-disciplinary artist, she has actively collaborated on projects evolving around dance, film, and theatre. Kimia’s work has been showcased by organizations such as Iranian Female Composer Association, Music on Main, Western Front, Vancouver New Music, and Media Arts Committee. She has been featured in The New York Times, Georgia Straight, MusicWorks Magazine, Vancouver Sun, and Sequenza 21. Her work has been performed at festivals around the world including Ars Electronica Festival, Festival Ecos Urbanos, Tehran Contemporary Sounds, AudioVisual Frontiers Virtual Exhibition, The New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Yarn/Wire Institute, Ensemble Evolution, New Music on the Point, wasteLAnd Summer Academy, EQ: Evolution of the String Quartet, Modulus Festival, and SALT New Music Festival. She holds a BFA in Music Composition from Simon Fraser University’s Interdisciplinary School for the Contemporary Arts, having studied with Sabrina Schroeder and Mauricio Pauly. Kimia is currently pursuing her DMA in Music Composition at Stanford University.

For more details about the sisters and the performance, Marilyn R. Wilson has written up a February 21, 2024 interview with both sisters for her Olio blog,

Can you share a little bit about your background, the life, work, experiences that led you to who you are today?
Kayla: I’m a visual artist with a focus on fashion design, and textile development. I like to explore ways to create wearable art with minimal waste produced in the process. I studied painting at Azadehgan School of Art in Iran and fashion design & technology at Wilson School of Design in Vancouver. My interest in fashion is rooted in creating functional art. I enjoy the business aspect of fashion however, I want to push boundaries of how fashion can be seen as art rather than solely as production.
Kimia: I’m a composer of acoustic and electronic music, I perform and build instruments, and a lot of times I combine these components together. Working with various disciplines is also an important part of my practice. I studied piano performance at Tehran Music School before moving to Vancouver to study composition at Simon Fraser University. I am currently a doctorate candidate in music composition at Stanford University. I love electronic music, food, and sports! My family, partner, and friends are a huge part of my life!
…
You have your premier event called “Interweave” coming up on March 21st at The Kent Gallery in Vancouver. What can guests attending expect this evening?
Kayla & Kimia: Interweave is a multidisciplinary performance that bridges fashion, music, technology, and dance. Our dancers will be performing in garments designed by Kayla, that are embedded with microcontrollers and sensors developed by Kimia. The dancers control various musical parameters through their movements and their interaction with the sensors that are incorporated within the garments. Along with works for movement and dance, there will be a live electronic music performance made for costume-made instruments. So far we have received an amazing amount of support and RSVP’s from the art industry in Vancouver and look forward to welcoming many local creative individuals.
We’d love to know about the team of professionals who are working hard to create this unique experience.
Kayla & Kimia: We are working with the amazing choreographers/dancers Anya Saugstad and Daria Mikhailiuk. We are thankful for Laleh Zandi’s help for creating a sculpture for one of our instruments which will be performed by Kimia. Celeste Betancur and Richard Lee have been our amazing audio tech assistants. We are very appreciative of everyone involved in FXE’s premiere and can’t wait to showcase our hard work.
…

I have a bit more about Kimia Koochakzadeh-Yazdi and her work in music from a February 27, 2024 profile on the SFU School for the Contemporary Arts website, Note: Links have been removed,

Please introduce yourself.
I’m a composer of acoustic and electronic music, I perform and build instruments, and a lot of times, I combine these components together. Working with various disciplines is also an important part of my practice. I studied piano performance at Tehran Music School before moving to Vancouver to study composition at Simon Fraser University, graduating from the SCA in 2020. I am currently a doctoral student in music composition at Stanford University, where I spend most of my time.
…
Tell us about your current studies.
I’m in the third year of the DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) program at Stanford University. I do the majority of my work at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). I’m currently trying to learn and to experiment as much as possible! The amount of resources and ideas that I have been exposed to during the last couple of years has been quite significant and wonderful. I have been taking courses in subjects that I never thought I would study, from classes in the computer science and the mechanical engineering departments, to ones in education and theatre. I’m grateful to have been given a supportive platform to truly experiment and to learn.
As for my compositions, they are more melodic than before, and that currently makes me happy. I have started to perform more again (piano and electronics), and it makes me question: why did I ever stop…?
…

Koochakzadeh-Yazdi’s mention of building instruments reminded me of Icelandic musician, Bjork and Biophilia, which was an album, various art projects, and a film (Biophilia Live), which featured a number of musical instruments she created.

Getting back to Interweave, it’ s on March 21, 2024 at The Kent, specifically the gallery, which has,

… 14 foot ceilings boasts 50 track lights with the ability to transform the vacuous hall from candlelight to daylight. The lights are fully dimmable in an array of playful hues, according to your whim. A full array of DMX Lighting and control systems live alongside the track light system and our recently installed (Vancouvers only) immersive projection system [emphasis mine] is ready for your vision. This is your show.

I wonder if ‘multi-sensory’ includes an immersive experience.

Don’t forget, you have to RSVP for Interweave, which is free.

FrogHeart

Commentary about nanotech, science policy and communication, society, and the arts

Category Archives: Technology

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Converging global regulation is needed

How can ballet performances become more accessible? Put a sensor suit on the dancers*

Interweave: A multi-sensory show (March 21, 2024 in Vancouver, Canada) where fashion, movement, & music come together though wearable instruments.

Stanford, nanoscience, and middle school teachers

Ingenium’s STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) programmes for teachers across Canada

Bring the museum to your classroom with a virtual field trip!

So who is Alex Benay?

Education

Professional Experience

Alex Benay

Executive Summary

Employment History

Alex Benay (he/him)

Associate Deputy Minister, Enterprise Pay Coordination

Thoughts

The Canadian federal government and a problem with contractors

July 2024 update

Hopes and dreams

Wonder wood

Breathing new life into forestry

Space habitat details

AGENDA

SPEAKERS

Misinformation and manipulation on the web

Microrobots for precision medicine

Nano-​electrodes record brain function

The downside of convergence

Converging global regulation is needed

Nano-electrodes record brain function