U.S.-led sanctions are forcing Russia to use computer chips from dishwashers and refrigerators in some military equipment, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said Wednesday.
“We have reports from Ukrainians that when they find Russian military equipment on the ground, it’s filled with semiconductors that they took out of dishwashers and refrigerators,” Raimondo told a Senate hearing, noting that she recently met with Ukraine’s prime minister.
U.S. technology exports to Russia have fallen by nearly 70 percent since sanctions began in late February, according to Raimondo, whose department oversees the export controls that form a big part of the sanctions package. Three dozen other countries have adopted similar export bans, which also apply to Belarus.
“Our approach was to deny Russia technology — technology that would cripple their ability to continue a military operation. And that is exactly what we are doing,” she said in a response to a question from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) about the impact of the export controls.
Computer chip industry begins halting deliveries to Russia in response to U.S. sanctions
The semiconductor anecdote came from Ukrainian officials, who told the secretary that when they opened up captured Russian tanks, they found parts from refrigerators and commercial and industrial machinery that appear to make up for other unavailable components, Commerce Department spokeswoman Robyn Patterson said.
The number of U.S. shipments to Russia including items subject to the new rules — semiconductors, telecommunications equipment, lasers, avionics and maritime technology — has decreased 85 percent and their value has decreased 97 percent, compared with the same time period in 2021, Patterson said.
In her Senate remarks, Raimondo also pointed to recent reports that two Russian tank manufacturers have had to idle production because of a lack of components. The White House, too, has previously highlighted those reports, saying Uralvagonzavod and Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant have halted production.
Computer chips, also known as semiconductors, are the brains that operate most modern electronics, from appliances to fighter jets. Russia manufactures few of its own chips, historically relying on imports from Asian and Western companies.
The world’s biggest computer chip companies began cutting off deliveries to Russia in late February, after the U.S.-led restrictions kicked in.
Russian drones shot down over Ukraine were full of Western parts
The United States and other Western nations already had regulated sales to Russia of chips and other electronic components specifically designed for military use. Those sales required a government license to proceed even before Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
The new rules tightened those restrictions and also blocked the sale of most dual-use chips, which have both military and commercial applications, to nonmilitary users in Russia, including those in high-tech industries.
The Biden administration said the ban would cut off more than half of Russia’s high-tech imports and kneecap the country’s ability to diversify its economy and support its military. The ban was not designed to block deliveries of consumer electronics.
In a novel move that the United States has used only once before — against China’s Huawei — it is also requiring companies worldwide to abide by the rules and block such sales to Russia if they use U.S. manufacturing equipment or software to produce chips. Most chip factories around the world use software or equipment designed in the United States, analysts say.
Previous research has shown Russia’s military has long relied on western electronics. Russian military drones shot down over Ukraine in recent years have been full of Western electronics and components, according to investigators from the London-based Conflict Armament Research group, which dissected the drones.
In Megan Bowen’s high school robotics class, students made cardboard mazes, quizzed a local expert who brought live birds into her classroom, and decided how they should be graded, all before touching a computer.
Their goal was to collaboratively design a “bird vending machine” that used small microcontrollers to train crows to find loose coins in the surrounding neighborhoods of Salem, Mass., then deposit them in a slot in exchange for food.
“I’m very passionate about showing how computer science relates to things other than just coding,” said Bowen, who identifies as Hispanic-American and queer and originally studied to become an English teacher.
Such outside-the-box instruction is the fruit of a decades-long effort to widen the circle of educators and students taking part in K-12 computer science classes. The push has been supported by the National Science Foundation, a pioneering group of female academics, Presidents Obama and Trump, and a bipartisan group of governors, with a huge financial boost from Silicon Valley.
The “computer science for all” movement is shaping up to be a very impressive success story in 21st century public education, according to experts in the field.
“To put it simply, they are changing the face of what computing looks like,” said Yasmin Kafai, a learning scientist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
In the process, teachers like Bowen are also expanding the K-12 sector’s notions of what counts as “real” computer science. In a recent research paper, Kafai outlined how the field, once largely focused on workforce training, now also helps students use computing to explore their identities and express themselves creatively. Some teachers are also embracing what Kafai calls “critical” computer science, focused on examining how technology can work to either reinforce or challenge injustice.
Standards are still being written and revised. Curricula are being developed. Teacher-training programs are slowly adjusting.
But there’s plenty of excitement about the country’s diversifying computer science teaching force, which now includes a critical mass of Latina educators determined to make their mark.
Here are the stories of three.
Alicia Morris
Mendez High School Los Angeles, Calif.
Sometimes, when Alicia Morris has trouble sleeping, she trains her thought on a seemingly intractable dilemma, like how to support life on Mars.
“What would I have to do first?” she asks. “How do I break this huge problem down into something more manageable?”
It’s a strategy that her students at Mendez High, nearly all of whom are Hispanic and poor, seem to appreciate.
“I have found more and more students going into computer science not because it’s lucrative, but because they really enjoy the process of approaching problems and solving them with technology, prototyping an idea, and learning how to be OK with not having a full solution but still making progress,” said Morris, who grew up in Colombia and the United States and identifies as Hispanic.
She first introduced computer science into her classroom in the early 2000s. While teaching math to 2nd graders, she began integrating projects that involved coding in the kid-friendly programming language Scratch. That helped convince her that all students deserved access to such experiences—which, in turn, shaped her studies when she went to UCLA to pursue a master’s degree in educational administration.
I have found more and more students going into computer science not because it’s lucrative, but because they really enjoy the process of approaching problems and solving them with technology, prototyping an idea, and learning how to be OK with not having a full solution but still making progress.
Alicia Morris, computer science teacher, Mendez High School in Los Angeles
At Mendez High, Morris ended up teaching one of the early iterations of Exploring Computer Science. The introductory class blends technical skills like HTML programming with a broad survey of the role of computing in society. It would go on to play an enormous role in attracting more girls, students of color, and students with disabilities into the field.
Morris’s experience deeply affected both her and her students.
“They were much more willing to take risks,” she said. “And I was a different kind of alive.”
As a teacher, she began leaning into the idea that her role was to assist in her students’ discovery. She also doubled down on the importance of relationships, starting every semester with interactive games and making a point to share classroom authority with her students, who are involved with even seemingly small decisions like where tissue boxes should be placed. Morris’s fluency in both English and Spanish and her own experience as an immigrant also helped build trust.
From that foundation, her students dove headfirst into a series of adventurous projects, including one in which they used a world-building design software called Twin Motion to imagine a more sustainable Los Angeles as part of a broader civic initiative called L.A. 2030.
Morris said she doesn’t tell her students what to think. But she does push them to wrestle with big ideas, like what it means to live in a society where money is becoming a digital abstraction. Such conversations have prompted students to reflect on what’s best for themselves versus what’s best for the general public, leading to a-ha moments about the ways in which power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of those who are comfortable navigating an increasingly digital world.
“How do you know you’re part of the digital divide if you don’t even understand it?” Morris said.
Megan Bowen
Salem Academy Charter School Salem, Mass.
Megan Bowen has always loved technology. She’s also always loved being outdoors.
That’s why she now has the high school students in her 3-D Design class design, prototype, and print their own fishing lures, then test them at a local pond.
“Engagement has increased exponentially,” Bowen said. “I had 100 percent completion, 100 percent passing. And it’s primarily students of color, students with individualized education programs, and young women.”
She attributes her willingness to experiment with such nontraditional activities largely due to being named an Equity Fellow by the national Computer Science Teachers Association in 2020-21. The yearlong appointment helped her connect with other educators who shared her trepidation about not being a “real” programmer.
“For so long, because of the face of computer science, I felt like I didn’t belong,” Bowen said. “As a woman, as a queer woman, as a queer Hispanic woman.”
Her interest in equity and social justice dates back to her childhood outside Detroit. As a 6th grader, Bowen said, she petitioned her school’s principal to stop teachers from calling only on boys to carry things from one building to another.
At Grand Valley State University, she majored in English and minored in sociology while earning a certification in secondary education. Her first job was teaching digital literacy in the Grand Rapids, Mich., public schools. When that position was cut, she went back to school for a masters in instructional technology. She landed a job as an instructional technology specialist, helping teachers in another Michigan school district integrate digital tools into their classrooms. When that position was also cut, Bowen drifted away from education, finding a job developing employee training modules for a trucking company.
Engagement has increased exponentially. I had 100 percent completion, 100 percent passing. And it’s primarily students of color, students with individualized education programs, and young women.
Megan Bowen, computer science teacher, Salem Academy Charter School in Massachusetts
It was 2015 when she moved to Massachusetts. She started at Salem Academy, managing a schoolwide Chromebook implementation. She quickly moved into teaching courses on film and video, entrepreneurship, digital media, and workplace productivity tools—all of which she still thought of as “soft” computer science.
Amazon’s Future Engineer program changed that. Provided with a ready-made Advanced Placement Computer Science curriculum and plenty of hands-on training, Bowen was able to learn programming alongside her students.
“That’s where I went, ‘Maybe I can do this,’ ” she said.
The biggest change wasn’t becoming more comfortable with the Java programming language. Bowen also embraced how successful she’d been with her own approach to teaching. Her philosophy is to prioritize real-world projects and provide lots of on-ramps for marginalized students. She’s particularly committed to increasing the number of LGBTQ+ kids in computer science, saying their experiences and needs are often overlooked, especially if they also happen to be Black or brown or a woman or have special needs.
Sometimes, Bowen still feels like an imposter. And it’s not like her Mexican heritage and phenotypically white appearance allow her to automatically connect with her students, many of whom are Dominican and darker-skinned.
But during the recent “bird vending machine” project, Bowen’s willingness to learn to solder alongside her students helped spark the collaborative relationships she prizes.
“I definitely think of myself as part of a larger movement,” Bowen said. “My students have a broader sense of what computer science can look like.”
Mayné Gonzáles-Osorio
Jose E. Aponte De La Torre School Carolina, Puerto Rico
Growing up in San Juan, Mayné Gonzáles-Osorio fell in love with digital photo editing, early online chat rooms, and popular video games like Mortal Kombat.
The skills she learned eventually helped lead to a job as a Medicare fraud investigator for a company called Computer Evidence Specialists, LLC. That, in turn, led her to become a leader in the effort to expand computer science education in Puerto Rico, starting around 2013.
“My story really starts with Dewey University calling me to teach computer science courses,” said Gonzáles, who identifies as Hispanic and Black.
She started offering courses in the programming languages like C++ and Code Composer Studio, as well as a class in design analysis. Before long, she was also writing curriculum for use in other schools and universities on the island. When energy began building to create a Puerto Rico chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association, Gonzáles threw herself into the effort, eventually being named the group’s first president.
Technology is our life now. It’s in everything. It’s not just for a job. If my students can think computationally, they can resolve problems and make Puerto Rico better.
Mayné Gonzáles-Osorio, computer science teacher, Jose E. Aponte De La Torre School, Carolina, Puerto Rico
That was in 2017. Given the limited K-12 computer science offerings on the island, recruiting members was a challenge. So Gonzáles’s vision came to center around training teachers from other subjects to start integrating “computational thinking”—a problem-solving approach based on understanding and expressing potential solutions in a language that computers can understand—into their classrooms.
“The very first workshop we ran was called Scratch for Teachers,” Gonzáles said. “Teachers who had no computer science experience learned to translate programming languages and really understand the Scratch platform.”
Soon enough, they were also receiving training to build their own websites and program in Python, a newer programming language used for everything from building software to doing complex data analysis. Gonzáles also began working in an after-school program at the Jose E. Aponte De La Torre School, where she still teaches Python, game design, and mobile programming to middle and high school students.
There are still plenty of institutional hurdles. Many of the ready-made curricular materials are English-only. So are most professional computer science education conferences. Gonzáles would also like to see more of Puerto Rico’s colleges offer computer-science certificates to aspiring educators.
But now she’s a CSTA Equity Fellow, too. And watching her students walk out of De La Torre having created video games or apps that their friends and siblings want to play fills Gonzáles with hope.
“Technology is our life now. It’s in everything,” she said. “It’s not just for a job. If my students can think computationally, they can resolve problems and make Puerto Rico better.”
Docker is extending its popular Docker Desktop application to integrate with a wider range of developer tools, as well as providing native support for developers working on Linux workstations.
Announced today during DockerCon, Docker Extensions is launching with 14 partner integrations: Ambassador, Anchore, AquaSec, EverX, JFrog, Layer5.io, Okteto, Portainer, Red Hat, Snyk, SUSE/Rancher, Tailscale, Uffizzi, and VMware.
Those launch partners can be grouped into three main buckets: simplifying Kubernetes deployment (VMware Tanzu, Okteto, Portainer, Red Hat, Rancher), secure software supply chain (Anchore, AqueSec, JFrog, Snyk), and supporting hybrid development environments (Ambassador, Tailscale, Layer5, Uffizzi).
The wider Docker community will also be able to drive a greater range of extensions in the future using the new Docker Extensions SDK.
“The large, complex cloud-native tools landscape presents a challenge for developers, who need the right tool for the right job, right now,” said Docker CEO Scott Johnston. “Docker Extensions enables developers to quickly discover and start using the tools they need for their apps and not waste time searching, downloading, configuring, evaluating, and managing tools.”
Docker Desktop will also now be available on Linux workstations, with an identical experience to the macOS and Windows applications, allowing enterprise developers to move past the tyranny of what Johnston calls “it works on my machine” finger pointing.
Linux support has been the most requested feature among the Docker community for the past 12 months, according to Johnston, and the company’s recent round of funding has enabled them to push it forward on the roadmap. Docker Desktop for Linux includes Docker Compose, the Docker CLI, and Kubernetes.
Since selling its enterprise business to Mirantis in 2019, Docker has been pushing forward with a strategy of focusing on serving developers building containerized applications, primarily through the Docker Build function, the Docker Engine container runtime, the Hub image repository, and the Docker Desktop application.
CHICO — Modern technology is a marvel that still amazes me to this day.
I grew up using dial-up internet and blowing on plastic video game cartridges and now I have Final Fantasy 6 on my smartphone so I can replay it while waiting in a doctor’s office between sending text messages to a friend in Germany. It’s truly incredible.
That said, one of humanity’s greatest achievements is also one of its greatest headaches. Phones don’t last more than a few years, computers crash and internet speeds slow down over time.
Scammers are acutely aware of this and tend to prey on those who aren’t as tech-savvy in various forms like phone calls or email.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, tech scammers will call or send online pop-up ads saying that an issue has been detected on your computer or that something is slowing it down. And lucky for you, they can fix the problem immediately after you pay them.
The pop-up warnings are especially dubious as they can be mocked up to look like an actual message from your operating system, similar to ones you’ve seen dozens of times already.
“It might look like an error message from your operating system or antivirus software, and it might use logos from trusted companies or websites,” reads a warning from the FTC’s website. “The message in the window warns of a security issue on your computer and tells you to call a phone number to get help.”
Phone calls and emails can also send out these kinds of warnings. The fact of the matter is that while the things we do online can certainly be public to a great extent, no random person or bot on the internet will be able to see inside your computer or phone’s hardware to know that there’s a problem.
If you’re having computer troubles, it’s best to take it to a local store that specializes in fixing the tech. Don’t trust pop-ups and sketchy phone calls and certainly don’t give anyone money to fix your computer that you haven’t solicited yourself.
Scam of the Week generally runs every Tuesday. Readers are welcome to contact reporter Jake Hutchison to report scams and potential scams they have come in contact with by calling 828-1329 or via email at [email protected].
If you and your team or coworkers use a shared Google Drive, you may want quick and easy access to it. In just a few minutes, you can add this shared drive to File Explorer on Windows.
This is a convenient option because it eliminates the need to open your browser, sign in to Google Drive, and navigate to the item in the shared drive that you need. Just pop open File Explorer and go.
Note: As of May 2022, shared drives are available to Google Workspace accounts including Business Standard and Plus, Enterprise, Education Fundamentals, Teaching & Learning Upgrade, Standard, and Plus, Nonprofits, and G Suite Business; Essentials.
The first step in accessing your shared drive on Windows is to download the application. Visit the Google Drive for Desktop site and click “Download Drive for Desktop” which should automatically detect your platform.
Access your downloads via the folder or toolbar for the browser you’re using and open the GoogleDriveSetup.exe file.
When prompted, click “Yes” to allow Windows to run the installer for Google Drive on your computer.
You’ll then be asked if you want to add an application shortcut to your desktop or shortcuts for Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. Check the boxes per your preference and click “Install.”
When the process finishes, you’ll see a prompt to sign in. This is necessary to connect your Google account to the application. Click “Sign in With Browser.”
Select and sign in to the Google account you want to use or add another account if you don’t see the correct one in the list.
Next, you’ll receive a message with three statements that you should confirm for your safety. When you’re ready, click “Sign in.”
Upon successfully logging into your account, you’ll see a message of such in your browser. You can then close that browser tab or window.
You’ll also see a pop-up confirmation message from the Google Drive application. Click “Close” to acknowledge and continue.
Additionally, you may notice a smaller alert that Google Drive is loading your files. If so, you can click “OK” to acknowledge and close the notification.
If you opted to place the Google Drive icon on your desktop, you can double-click it as an alternative. This will open File Explorer with Google Drive selected for you.
Once you install Google Drive for desktop, you can make adjustments to the preferences if you like. This includes changing the drive, mirroring files versus streaming, launching on system startup, adding another Google account, and more.
Open your System Tray and select the Google Drive icon. Click the gear icon and pick “Preferences.”
Choose “Google Drive” on the left to see the first set of settings. For more, click the gear icon on the top right.
Open Google Drive in File Explorer and select “Shared Drives” to view your items. Right-click an item, move your cursor to Offline Access, and pick “Available Offline” in the pop-out menu to put a checkmark next to it.
Having Google Drive right on your desktop is handy for those who use it regularly. So, being able to see that drive in File Explorer makes it even better.
A computer problem is keeping the city of Belleville from mailing sewer bills to local residents or processing automatic debit payments, according to the city’s public relations specialist.
City Treasurer Sarah Biermann, who handles sewer billing and payments, declined to comment, referring calls to PR and Communications Manager Kathy Kaiser. The BND asked Kaiser to make Biermann and Information Technology Director Scott Markovich available to answer specific questions. She declined.
According to Kaiser, a power surge caused a computer outage that damaged the city’s billing system, making names and addresses of some customers inaccessible. She said through an emailed statement to the BND and over the phone that an “outside source” has been contracted to “assist in the recovery” of that data.
The city hopes to resolve the problem and issue the remaining bills by Tuesday, Kaiser said, though she cautioned that time frame could be affected by the extent of the damage to the software system.
“We didn’t want to include a timeframe in our statement in case it didn’t materialize,” she said.
She said no late fees will be assessed for May billing.
Belleville has 42,404 residents and 17,824 households, according to the last U.S. census. Some of the bills were mailed on time, Kaiser said, though she couldn’t say late Friday afternoon how many were delayed by the computer outage.
Last June, St. Clair County alerted about 600 residents that some of their personal information may have been jeopardized by a ransomware attack on the county’s computer network. The malware infection prompted the county to shut down its computer system and website for several days, beginning May 30, 2021.
Kaiser said the city’s computer system has not been breached in any way.
Kaiser emailed the following statement:
“The City of Belleville experienced a computer outage on April 27. 2022, which resulted in the physical failure of discs attributed to our server. This outage has affected our LOCIS Software system, which includes our Sewer Billing division.
“Per discussion with our IT department and the outside source we have contracted to assist in the recovery process, this situation was the result of a power surge to our system, and there is no evidence of any malicious attack on our system from outside sources.”
The problem became public on Thursday, when the following message was posted on the Welcome to Belleville Facebook page:
“ATTENTION ALL CITY RESIDENTS: Due to a computer system outage at the City of Belleville, we have been unable to issue our monthly Sewer bills which is why you have not received them, via the US Postal Service. We have also been unable to issue direct debiting for this months bills as well.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. We are working diligently to rectify this situation, as soon as possible.”
It’s not known how the city intends to notify local residents who don’t have Facebook accounts or internet access of the computer problem and its effect on sewer bills.
Reporter Teri Maddox and Senior Editor Todd Eschman provided information for this story.
Teri Maddox has been a reporter for 37 years, joining the Belleville News-Democrat in 1990. She also teaches journalism at St. Louis Community College at Forest Park. She holds degrees from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
How do you fancy getting your hands on one of Apple’s 2021 10.2-inch iPad with a 5% discount applied? If you act now and take note of this deal, you can grab a 256GB iPad for just $579.98.
In terms of technical specification and access to advanced software, this iPad is packed to the rafters and should be perfect for anyone who is looking for Apple’s 10.2-inch form factor. The stunning 10.2-inch Retina display comes with True Tone for realistic, lifelike visuals. The hardware is powered by Apple’s A13 Bionic chip with an accompanying Neural Engine. You won’t have any complaints about the power or performance of this tablet.
From a photography perspective, it offers an 8-megapixel back camera combined with a 12-megapixel ultra-wide front camera with Center Stage technology. The tablet also comes with 256GB of internal storage for photos, videos, apps, and additional games installed from the iPadOS App Store. Each Apple account gets free access to 5GB of iCloud storage and that can always be extended exponentially for pennies per month.
The iPad offers Touch ID, stereo speakers, access to the latest iPadOS software, and features such as Apple Pay. It also offers 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Gigabit-class LTE cellular data that allow owners to get more done on the move. Wherever they are. The specification is backed up by up to 10-hours of battery life and support for the first-generation Apple Pencil.
If this is the type of technology deal that you are interested in, then you should know what to do by now. You won’t need any promotional codes or discount coupons to take advantage of this deal. Just make sure to act with haste before the 5% discount is revoked and Apple asks you to pay full price for this excellent hardware.
You can follow us on Twitter, or Instagram, and even like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple, and the Web.
The full-stack, scalable quantum supercomputer Microsoft is building isn’t ready just yet — but the tech giant is already working with the government and other companies to prepare quantum-inspired algorithms to run on classic high-performance computers and, hopefully, pave the way for workloads of the future.
Almost two decades into the company’s journey exploring the promise of quantum information science, Microsoft officials see breakthroughs, and threats, just beyond the horizon.
“We’ve learned a lot, because this is one of the longest-running research projects that Microsoft has ever had. I mean, imagine a commercial [set-up] where I do see my [chief financial officer] every quarter, having to go in and say ‘we’re still doing that quantum thing. It’s year 17, but trust me, this is going to be so awesome. It’s going to blow you away and we’re getting closer on that,’” the company’s Executive Vice President Jason Zander said this week.
During a keynote presentation at Microsoft’s National Security Symposium, he added: “Our crypto schemes that we use today, those crypto technologies, will not survive a highly scalable quantum computer, and so there’s all this work that we’re doing about post-quantum [cryptography] and figuring out the algorithms we should be using. Anybody that’s worked with large organizations, whether that is a government organization or a commercial enterprise, you know swapping out crypto and other technologies is not something you just snap your fingers and it takes six months — it takes a very long time to go through. So, we even have to be doing that planning way in advance.”
Zander’s comments came just a couple days before President Joe Biden signed a national security memorandum that initiates that likely long and arduous, whole-of-nation process to secure America’s infrastructure against such advanced, yet-to-exist supercomputers, underscoring the risks they might pose.
Considered an alternative computational paradigm, quantum computing applies certain laws of physics to digital information processing. Proponents predict it could lead to revolutionary breakthroughs — like an unhackable internet — but as noted, so far, such outcomes probably remain years away.
Microsoft is among multiple major U.S. businesses, including Google and IBM, vying to be the first to achieve the quantum advantage.
Putting the expected opportunities into perspective in his presentation, Zander explained that “tasks that we think would literally take a million years to complete” on a classic digital transistor, “we think we can get done in about a day” using a transistor designed for quantum computers.
“That’s why it’s such a big prize to go after,” he said.
Other executives at the corporation also see the potential promise quantum holds — and the need to continue to prioritize work associated with it.
“Quantum computing technologies can accelerate the ability to analyze and process information for defense applications while dramatically improving security of that data and information,” Microsoft Federal’s Vice President for Defense Wes Anderson told FedScoop in an email on Thursday.
The company has made a range of recent progress on its quest to quantum realization. In March, officials “hit a historic milestone for” their program, by demonstrating the elusive building blocks for a topological quantum bit, or qubit.
Still, there’s a lot of work to do before a highly scalable quantum computer is all set up and fully operational.
Zander said while they continue to make gradual progress there, his colleagues are also designing quantum-inspired optimization algorithms that can function on classical computers now — so that when America’s first quantum machine is up and running, they can be readily applied to complete “transformational” tasks.
Recently, one of those future-facing algorithms was used to help NASA solve a network scheduling problem associated with communicating with spacecraft deep into the solar system, and beyond it.
“This is some of the biggest stuff that we’re doing from the motions of scientific experimentation, which is just really freaking awesome,” Zander said.
[Nervous System] sells a variety of unique products, and we really appreciate the effort they put into sharing elements of their design and manufacturing processes. This time, it’s details of the work that went into designing a luxury lamp shade that caught our eye.
Top: Finished lamp. Bottom: Partially-assembled.
The finished lamp shade is spherical, but is made entirely from flat-packed pieces of laser-cut wood that have been specifically designed to minimize distortion when assembled into a curved shape. The pieces themselves are reminiscent of puzzle cells; complex, interlocking cellular shapes found in many plants.
As usual, [Nervous System] applied a hefty dose of math and computational design to arrive at a solution. Each unique panel of the lamp is the result of a process that in part implements a technique called variation surface cutting for the shape of the pieces. They also provide a couple of nifty animations that illustrate generating both the piece boundaries as well as the hole patterns in each of the 18 unique pieces that make up each lamp.
As for making the pieces themselves, they are laser-cut from wood veneer, and assembly by the end user takes an hour or two. Watch a video overview, embedded just below under the page break.
We’re glad [Nervous System] takes the time to share details like this, just like the time they figured out the very best type of wood for laser-cutting their unique puzzles and didn’t keep it to themselves.
Archaeologists have found the largest grouping of cave art drawings made by Native Americans prior to the arrival of Spanish explorers.
Scientists took thousands of high-tech photos to scan the ceiling of the cave in Alabama to create a 3D model.
Inspection of the virtual cave ceiling revealed thousands of drawings, including several life-sized images.
Researchers used 3D scanning technology to reveal what they say is the largest collection of cave art drawings ever found in North America.
Among the glyphs discovered on the ceiling of a cave in Alabama is a serpent-shaped figure that measures about 11 feet, scientists reported in research published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Antiquity.
The five examples of Native American cave art documented in the study were the largest found and estimated to be 1,000 to 1,800 years old, said co-author Jan Simek, an archaeologist and professor of anthropology at the University of Tennessee. But the process used to create a photorealistic, virtual 3D model of the cave actually revealed “thousands of additional glyphs and images,” according to a story documenting the research in the Ancient Art Archive.
“It was surprising to see them, but it wasn’t surprising they were there,” Simek told USA TODAY.
That’s because archaeologists have found many examples of open-air rock art created before Spanish explorers arrived in North America. But much of that has been found by archaeologists exploring burial sites.
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These new revelations come after Simek – a board member of the non-profit archive – and study co-author Alan Cressler first published findings in 1999 about the cave, identified as “19th Unnamed Cave” to protect its location from looters. After Cressler subsequently noticed some additional faint mud drawings in the cave’s ceiling, they decided to explore further.
To accurately capture the ceiling’s topography, the study’s third co-author Stephen Alvarez, who is also a founder of the Ancient Art Archive, proposed the 3D mapping project. He spent several months taking more than 16,000 high-resolution photographs in the more than 5,000-square-foot chamber.
Those overlapping photographs were stitched together into a 3D model using photogrammetry, a software technology also used in making virtual maps and environments, and virtual objects for video games such as Call of Duty.
Alvarez also built a custom computer to handle the processing after one computer’s motherboard melted while compiling the images.
Within the powerful 3D software, the scientists could shine virtual light on the ceiling’s surface to reveal previously unseen drawings. Many etchings were faint or obscured as humidity and rain had worn them away, the scientists said.
The 3D model also provided a better vantage point for assessing the cave surface because “the tight physical confines of the cave” required you to crouch or be prone to view it in person, they said. As a result, you are often too close to the ceiling to discern images. “We can actually drop the floor away from the ceiling in the model,” Simek told USA TODAY.
The original cave artists made these life-sized and larger drawings “without being able to see them in their entirety,” the researchers wrote in Antiquity. “Thus, the makers worked from their imaginations, rather than from an unimpeded visual perspective.”
What were they actually drawing? Since caves were sacred places to Native Americans of the Southeast U.S. – and considered “pathways to the underworld,” the researchers write – the stylized human forms, depicted below with rattlesnakes, may represent religious spirits.
“We would characterize them as human-like forms, but it’s hard to tell whether they are humans in elaborate regalia or perhaps supernatural characters,” Simek said. “Meaning is difficult this far into the past.”
Ancient art in caves was unanticipated by many archaeologists, he said. “We were excited to see these things emerge through the process of this analytical technique,” Simek said.
The scientists have shown the findings to the Eastern Band of Cherokees’ annual archaeology conference. “They were quite fascinated by what we were seeing,” Simek said.
The Cherokee Nation, along with the Muscogee Creek Nation, the Chickasaw Nation, and the Choctaw Nation, are among the tribes whose descendants lived in the region at the time the drawings were made.
Photogrammetry has subsequently been used in several other caves in the Southeast. “What amazes me about using 3D modeling is that a story that was laid down a thousand plus years ago and has been invisible can now be seen in its entirety,” Alvarez said.
“The artists who engraved the cave are speaking to us,” he said. “We can use 3D modeling to listen.”
