Data Analysts Captivated by R’s Power

Posted on January 13, 2009  Comments (0)

Data Analysts Captivated by R’s Power

data mining has entered a golden age, whether being used to set ad prices, find new drugs more quickly or fine-tune financial models. Companies as diverse as Google, Pfizer, Merck, Bank of America, the InterContinental Hotels Group and Shell use it.
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Close to 1,600 different packages reside on just one of the many Web sites devoted to R, and the number of packages has grown exponentially. One package, called BiodiversityR, offers a graphical interface aimed at making calculations of environmental trends easier.

Another package, called Emu, analyzes speech patterns, while GenABEL is used to study the human genome. The financial services community has demonstrated a particular affinity for R; dozens of packages exist for derivatives analysis alone. “The great beauty of R is that you can modify it to do all sorts of things,” said Hal Varian, chief economist at Google. “And you have a lot of prepackaged stuff that’s already available, so you’re standing on the shoulders of giants.”

R first appeared in 1996, when the statistics professors Ross Ihaka and Robert Gentleman of the University of Auckland in New Zealand released the code as a free software package. According to them, the notion of devising something like R sprang up during a hallway conversation. They both wanted technology better suited for their statistics students, who needed to analyze data and produce graphical models of the information. Most comparable software had been designed by computer scientists and proved hard to use.

R is another example of great, free, open source software. See R packages for Statistics for Experimenters.

via: R in the news

Related: Mistakes in Experimental Design and Interpretation – Data Based Decision Making at Google – Freeware Math Programs – How Large Quantities of Information Change Everything

Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps

Posted on January 13, 2009  Comments (0)

photo of river in Yellowstone National Park by John HunterPhoto of a river in Yellowstone National Park by John Hunter

Externs.com, another curiouscat.com site, provides links to hundreds of internship opportunities. We highlight some science and engineering internships and plenty of other options too. Visit the internship directory site to find options like the Yellowstone Youth Conservation Corps. The YCC was established to accomplish needed conservation work on public lands and to develop an understanding and appreciation of participating youth in our nation’s natural, historical, and cultural heritage.

The Yellowstone YCC is a program that emphasizes work ethics, environmental awareness and recreational activities. Approximately 30 students are selected each summer from across the country and are expected to complete forty hours of work each week.

In the past, YCC enrollees have been instrumental in building backcountry bridges; trail construction and maintenance; log cabin restoration; painting; and working on a wide variety of resource management, maintenance, and research projects. Many of the projects take place in remote locations within Yellowstone and work crews may be camped out for up to ten days.

Along with the work projects, enrollees spend significant time participating in YCC environmental education and recreation programs. Many of these activities are scheduled in the evenings and on weekends. They include hiking, rafting, fishing, backpacking, ranger led programs, guest speakers, enrollee and staff presentations, and trips throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

To be selected you must be at least 15 and not turn 19 before the term ends in mid August.

via: Send Your Kid to Yellowstone National Park This Summer

Related: Swarm of Yellowstone Quakes Baffles Scientists – posts on internships – Light-harvesting Bacterium Discovered in Yellowstone – Who Should Profit from Yellowstone’s Microbes

$100 Million to Tackle Energy Issues

Posted on January 13, 2009  Comments (0)

Stanford launches $100 million initiative to tackle energy issues

The $100 million in new funds will enable the hiring of additional faculty and support new graduate students, in addition to the more than $30 million in yearly funding now spent on energy research.
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Precourt holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in petroleum engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard University. He has spent his career in the energy industry, holding president and/or CEO positions at Hamilton Oil Co.; Tejas Gas Corporation, subsequently a Shell Oil Co. subsidiary; and ScissorTail Energy and Hermes Consolidated, gatherers, transporters and processors of natural gas, crude oil and refined products.

He is convinced that Stanford research can influence national energy policy for the better. “The wonderful resources that are available at Stanford, and the multidisciplinary approach they have to developing working solutions, are really attractive in terms of making things happen,” he said.

On a personal level, Precourt said, “Stanford made a huge impact on my life, as I look back on it. It was a superb education and I made some wonderful friends that I’ve taken with me for my lifetime.” Precourt donated $50 million to the energy institute that bears his name.

A $40 million gift from Steyer and Taylor will create a new research center as part of the institute, the TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy.

Related: MIT’s Energy ‘Manhattan Project’ – Engineers Save Energy – Google Investing Huge Sums in Renewable Energy and is Hiring – more posts on Stanford

So What are Genetic Algorithms?

Posted on January 12, 2009  Comments (1)

Genetic Algorithms: Cool Name and Damn Simple is a very nice explanation with python code of genetic algorithms.

What Can Genetic Algorithms Do?
In a word, genetic algorithms optimize. They can find better answers to a question, but not solve new questions. Given the definition of a car, they might create a better car, but they’ll never give you an airplane.
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For each generation we’ll take a portion of the best performing individuals as judged by our fitness function. These high-performers will be the parents of the next generation.

We’ll also randomly select some lesser performing individuals to be parents, because we want to promote genetic diversity. Abandoning the metaphor, one of the dangers of optimization algorithms is getting stuck at a local maximum and consequently being unable to find the real maximum. By including some individuals who are not performing as well, we decrease our likelihood of getting stuck.

Related: DNA Seen Through the Eyes of a Coder – Evolutionary Design – Algorithmic Self-Assembly – The Chip That Designs Itself

Solving the Toughest Problems in Computer Science

Posted on January 12, 2009  Comments (1)

Software Breakthroughs: Solving the Toughest Problems in Computer Science, 2004:

Bill Gates’ talk at MIT provided an optimistic view of the next generation of computer science, now that the “rough draft” is done. Gates finds a paradox today in that computer science is poised to transform work and home life, “but people’s excitement level is not as high as it was five years ago during the Internet bubble.” Because most sectors of the computer industry—from microchips to storage, displays to wireless connectivity— continuously improve in performance, Gates predicts a flood of new products and applications. He sported a wristwatch that receives data wirelessly, as well as keeps its user on schedule. Gates describes “rich, new peripherals” such as ultra-wideband digital cameras and he demonstrates software that allows pictures to be archived using a 3D visual interface with a built-in time, date, and keyword database. He says that computer science is merging with and making over such fields as astronomy and biology, by unifying vast, unwieldy data collections into easily navigable libraries. And Gates appears confident that technological breakthroughs will ultimately resolve urgent problems of computer and network security.

Related: Bill Gates Interview from 1993 – Donald Knuth – Computer Scientist – Open Source: The Scientific Model Applied to Programming – Internship with Bill Gates

Solid-State Drives For Laptops

Posted on January 11, 2009  Comments (1)

SanDisk Drops Price On Solid-State Drives For Laptops

The products are scheduled to be available in the middle of this year.
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SanDisk claims the SSDs are more than five times faster than the fastest 7,200 revolutions per minute hard-disk drives used in laptops. The vendor also claims its devices are more than twice as fast as SSDs that shipped last year.

The latest devices operate at a 40,000 vRPM, or virtual RPM, a metric used to compare the speeds of SSDs and HDDs. The SanDisk drives read and write data at 200 MBps and 140 MBps, respectively.

“With large capacities and aggressive pricing, SSDs are poised to enter mainstream corporate notebooks in 2009,” Rich Heye, senior VP and general manager of SanDisk’s SSD business unit, said in a statement.
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SSDs use flash memory chips to store data, so have no moving parts. As a result, the technology is quieter, uses less power and is more reliable than HDDs. In addition, SSDs are faster and are more rugged.

Related: von Neumann Architecture and Bottleneck – Nanotechnology Breakthroughs for Computer Chips – IBM Believes New DRAM will Double Performance – $100 Laptops for the World

Moth Jams Bat Sonar

Posted on January 10, 2009  Comments (1)

Superloud moth jams bat sonar

A gray moth with orange highlights called Bertholdia trigona “goes berserk,” making lots of noise above the range of human hearing when a hunting bat approaches, says William Conner of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. Bats rely on their natural sonar to locate flying moths in the dark, but in a lab setup, the bats rarely managed to nab a loud moth.

When researchers disabled the moth’s noisemaking organs, though, bats caught the moths in midair with ease, Conner reported at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.

Conner says the work is “the first example of any prey item that jams biological sonar.” Conference attendee David Yager of the University of Maryland in College Park says Conner’s experimental paradigm is “very strong, and I do think he has documented jamming by a species of moth.”

Insect-hunting bats and their moth prey have become a classic in the study of evolutionary arms races, Conner says. “This is warfare … The first counter-adaptation is that the insects developed ears.”
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Jamming isn’t the only possible explanation for moth noises, he said. An explosive clicking sound coming back out of the night might startle a bat just a split-second long enough for the moth to get away.

Related: Vampire Moth Discovered – Monarch Butterfly Migration – Human Sonar, Echolocation – Still Just a Lizard – Lancelet Genome Provides Answers on Evolution

Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake Photos

Posted on January 9, 2009  Comments (1)

Yellow flower on Antelope Island

I have posted photos from the first day of my Utah trip: Antelope Island, Great Salt Lake and Salt Lake City. The Great Salt Lake is

  • The largest U.S. lake west of the Mississippi River
  • The 4th largest terminal lake (no outlet) in the world
  • A remnant of Lake Bonneville, a prehistoric freshwater lake that was 10 times larger than Great Salt Lake
  • About 75 miles long, and 28 miles wide, and covers 1,700 square miles – it fluctuates in size during the year and over the years
  • Has a maximum depth of about 35 feet
  • Typically 3 to 5 times saltier than the ocean
  • Fish free, the largest aquatic critters are brine shrimp and brine flies
  • One of the largest migratory bird magnets in Western North America

    • Related: Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, Ohio Photos – Grand Teton National Park – Scientists Search for Clues To Bee Mystery – Researchers Learn What Sparks Plant Growth

    NSF Funding for Engineering Education, Curriculum, and Infrastructure

    Posted on January 8, 2009  Comments (1)

    The Innovations in Engineering Education, Curriculum, and Infrastructure (IEECI) program supports research which addresses four aspects of engineering education: (1) how students best learn the ideas, principles, and practices to become creative and innovative engineers, and how this learning is measured (2) how application of cyberlearning resources of networked computing and communication, interactive visualization capabilities, and well designed user interfaces can be used to develop easily transportable tools and systems with low barriers to adoption which significantly improve learning, (3) integration of sustainability into engineering education, and (4) future directions of U.S. engineering doctoral programs.

    Two types of awards will be supported: Expansion Projects (approximately 10 grants are anticipated) will only be available for area (1), Innovations in Teaching and Learning. Exploratory Projects (25-30 grants are anticipated) will be available in areas (2-4).

    Anticipated Funding Amount: The total anticipated funding in fiscal year 2009 is $8,500,000. Expansion Projects will be funded at a level of up to $400,000. Exploratory Projects will be funded at a level up to $150,000, but exploratory projects involving multiple universities may apply for grants up to $200,000.

    Full proposals are due by 11 March 2009.

    Related: $92 Million for Engineering Research Centers – Worldwide Science and Engineering Doctoral Degree Data – NSF Graduate Research Fellows 2008 – House Testimony on Engineering Education – Webcast: Engineering Education in the 21st Century

    Providing Computer to Remote Students in Nepal

    Posted on January 7, 2009  Comments (6)

    photo of students using computers in Nepal

    Pupils conquer fear of computers

    “I was really scared when I saw the computer,” he says. “I didn’t go near it. I was worried it might explode and kill me. “It was only when the teacher called me saying it was harmless that I went into the room, but I still hesitated.” Things have changed now, he adds.

    “I’m feeling much better. The E-library has helped with my studies. “We can see the periodic table of science, and also maps and other geography things in a pictorial way that is easy to understand. It’s not only that – we can also play games and have fun.”

    Kamal says his parents were very excited when he told them about the computer and came to watch the very next day. It was not only Kamal. His computer teacher, Shankar Prajapati, says all the pupils were afraid. “They all worried they would catch some virus and fall ill or even die. But now they are familiar with computers,” he says.

    “Even we teachers are gaining knowledge from the E-library. It’s really helpful for us, too. “The students can see science experiments carried out on screen and search for whatever they want in the encyclopaedia.
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    This is a free and open-source (accessible to everyone) package which connects one powerful central server in the school, using the Linux operating system, to a number of diskless low-end computers. When linked to the server, each computer receives a full Linux desktop.

    Read more about the Help Nepal Network’s eLibrary program. Photos from this web site shows students in Nepal using computers.

    In the face of rapidly changing technological advancement and the exorbitant cost of proprietary hardware and software solutions, which had stymied Nepal in attempting to participate in ICT for development, the use for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is emerging as a solution.
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    Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) can be a low cost solution for deprived communities who cannot afford a bigger volume financial expense.
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    LTSP, a system that works with only one central high end server and other diskless low-end thin client computers, allows to run Linux on a server, and then use thin clients (almost any computer will do) to connect to the server and receive a full-blown Linux desktop.

    I believe strongly in the ability of kids to learn if they are just provided some tools that help them do so. See a great post on Hole in the Wall computers.

    Related: A Child’s View of the OLPC Laptop – Fixing the World on $2 a Day – Open Source: The Scientific Model Applied to Programming – What Business Can Learn from Open Source

    Does the Earth Have Two Cores?

    Posted on January 6, 2009  Comments (1)

    Did Earth’s Twin Cores Spark Plate Tectonics?

    a new theory aims to rewrite it all by proposing the seemingly impossible: Earth has not one but two inner cores.

    The idea stems from an ancient, cataclysmic collision that scientists believe occurred when a Mars-sized object hit Earth about 4.45 billion years ago. The young Earth was still so hot that it was mostly molten, and debris flung from the impact is thought to have formed the moon.

    Haluk Cetin and Fugen Ozkirim of Murray State University think the core of the Mars-sized object may have been left behind inside Earth, and that it sank down near the original inner core. There the two may still remain, either separate or as conjoined twins, locked in a tight orbit.

    Their case is largely circumstantial and speculative, Cetin admitted. “We have no solid evidence yet, and we’re not saying 100 percent that it still exists,” he said. “The interior of Earth is a very hard place to study.”

    The ancient collision is a widely accepted phenomenon. But most scientists believe the incredible pressure at the center of the planet would’ve long since pushed the two cores into each other.

    I must say two cores seems very far-fetched to me. But it is another great example of the scientific discovery process and an interesting idea.

    Related: Himalayas Geology – Drilling to the Center of the Earth – Curious Cat Science and Engineering Search

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