by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Entrepreneurship, Markets, News, Social Entrepreneur, Technology, Women Entrepreneur
Professor Veena Sahajwalla (right)
Sydney : In a pioneering effort to tackle the growing mountains of e-waste, an IIT-trained Australian scientist of Indian origin at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) here has helped launch the world’s first microfactory that can transform electronic waste (e-waste) like smartphones and laptops into valuable material for re-use.
Professor Veena Sahajwalla, a materials scientist at UNSW and Director of the Centre for Sustainable Materials Research and Technology (SMaRT) at the varsity, said the e-waste microfactory is the first of a series under development and in testing at UNSW which is now actively wooing Indian students to its Sydney campus.
These microfactories can also turn many types of consumer waste such as glass, plastic and timber into commercial materials and products.
Using technology developed after extensive scientific research at the SMaRT Centre, the e-waste microfactory has the potential to reduce the rapidly growing problem of vast amounts of electronic waste that cause environmental harm and go into landfills.
The microfactories can use e-waste like computer circuit boards to make metal alloys such as copper and tin, while glass and plastic from e-devices can be converted into micromaterials used in industrial-grade ceramics and plastic filaments for 3D printing.
“Our e-waste (microfactory) and another under development for other consumer waste types offer a cost-effective solution to one of the greatest environmental challenges of our age, while delivering new job opportunities to our cities but importantly to our rural and regional areas, too,” said the Mumbai-born Sahajwalla, who did her B.Tech in metallurgical engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1986.
“Using our green manufacturing technologies, these microfactories can transform waste where it is stockpiled and created, enabling local businesses and communities to not only tackle local waste problems but develop a commercial opportunity from the valuable materials that are created,” she said.
According to Sahajwalla, microfactories present a solution to burning and burying of waste items that contain materials that can be transformed into value-added substances and products to meet existing and new industry and consumer demands. She termed microfactories a “truly sustainable solution to our growing waste problem while offering economic benefits available to local communities”.
“We have proven you can transform just about anything at the micro-level and transform waste streams into value-added products. For example, instead of looking at plastics as just a nuisance, we’ve shown scientifically that you can generate materials from that waste stream to create smart filaments for 3D printing,” she said.
“These microfactories can transform the manufacturing landscape, especially in remote locations where typically the logistics of having waste transported or processed are prohibitively expensive. This is especially beneficial for the island markets and the remote and regional regions of the country.”
UNSW has developed the technology with support from the Australian Research Council and is now in partnership with a number of businesses and organisations, including e-waste recycler TES, mining manufacturer Moly-Cop, and Dresden which makes spectacles.
UNSW is one of the world’s leading research and teaching universities and is home to more than 52,000 students from nearly 130 countries. UNSW is ranked 45th in the world, according to QS World University ranking.
Sahajwalla has received numerous awards, including Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur for her outstanding contributions in the field of materials processing for sustainable development (2015), and also the Eureka Prize (2005), Pravasi Bhartiya Samman for outstanding achievement in science (2011).
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Books, Markets, Technology
By Vikas Datta,
Title: Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer; Author: Wendell Berry; Publisher: Penguin Classics; Pages: 64; Price: Rs 50
In this era of high technology, expressing disinclination to use a computer would be tantamount to declaring yourself a fossil. But have the ubiquitous computers — or rather the technological progress they embody — been an unqualified boon for us?
There may be no simple answer; and in any case, it would differ on a generational basis — from those who have practically grown up with computers, and their elders, who can still recall a world where they were not that common.
But there are some — among both sections — well aware that the growing presence of computers in every field of human activity also raises a few concerns. Artificial intelligence (AI) and its consequences is one, but slowly but steadily diminishing human ingenuity, knowledge and endeavour — and even thinking — is a rather bigger, though lesser-known, problem. Take anyone who turns to Google to find a fact, or a spelling — to find, not to cross-check (William Poundstone’s “Head in the Cloud”, 2016, is a worrying read in this regard).
However, it was nearly three decades ago that American novelist, poet, environmental activist, cultural critic and farmer Wendell Berry invoked these concerns while setting out his reasons for not investing in a computer to help him in his writing. As this book, reproducing his 1987 piece for “Harper’s Weekly”, shows, some of his points are still valid even now. While dealing with the US of the late 1980s, some will also strike a chord across time and space.
Stressing he did not “admire” his reliance on energy corporations and wanted to be “hooked” on them as less as possible, Berry holds this is the primary reason for not acceding to the demand of several people that he get a computer.
Asserting he “did not admire the computer manufacturers a great deal more than I admire the energy industries”, he says he was familiar with the former’s “propaganda campaigns that have put computers into public schools in need of books”.
Berry also argues that the stand that computers are “expected to become as common as TV sets in ‘the future’ does not impress or matter to me” for he does not see them advancing, even a bit, anything that matters — peace, economic justice, ecological health and so on.
He goes on to list his nine standards for useful technological innovation. However, all this barely covers two (A4) pages — but then there are a selection of letters, mainly critical, his article evoked, especially his quips about his wife’s role in his writings, and his joint rejoinder to them, questioning “technological fundamentalism”.
But what occupies most of this book, among Penguin’s special printing selection from 50 classics, is a longer essay titled “Feminism, the Body and the Machine”.
In this, Berry, expanding on his previous arguments, gives an eloquent and reasoned, yet provocative, pitch on how technological progress, or even the modern economic system that props it up, may not always be very positive, since it may be dehumanising us.
This, he polemically but cogently argues, has made the modern household “the place where the consumptive couple do their consuming” and “nothing productive” — well almost nothing — is done. How the aims of gender equality cannot be served by women submitting to “the same specialisation, degradation, trivialisation and tyrannisation of work” that men have, and the fact that work can be a gift too is overlooked.
Berry also deals with the shortcomings of modern education where “after several generations of ‘technological progress’… we have become a people who cannot think about anything important” and goes on to question the very purpose of all this progress, which is not having a too salutary effect on our lives — family or personal — despite its promise of “money and ease”.
There is much more which merits a careful consideration, though many of us will dismiss this as an obscurantist rant. But as Berry, now over 83, says: “My wish simply is to live my life as fully as I can.”
Do we need devices for this?
(Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in)
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Business, Marketing Basics, Markets, Medium Enterprise, Technology
Moto Z2 Force
By Krishna SinhaChaudhury,
New Delhi : Lenovo-owned Motorola’s latest premium offering Moto Z2 Force, with dual rear cameras, is here and the company is selling it as a phone with a shatter-proof display.
Moto Z2 Force essentially replaces the original Moto Z with Moto “ShatterShield” technology as its USP and a bundled Moto “TurboPower mod pack” in India for Rs 34,999.
How does the smartphone fare when it comes to everyday usage? Here is our review.
The smartphone has a 5.5-inch Quad HD AMOLED shatterproof screen that did withstand drops and falls during our review test from approximately 3-4 feet height.
Despite being launched in 2018, the device features 16:9 aspect ratio that is now outdated as other flagships such as Galaxy S9, OnePlus 5T and Honor View10 are now offering a better 18:9 display — and this might be a put-off for those who want more a immersive experience.
Having said that, the good colour reproduction and viewing angles of the display mostly make up for the loss of screen space. It was bright with decent sunlight legibility.
The front of the phone is dominated by thick bezels above and below the screen, which was also present in the original Moto Z. This is because the company had promised that at least three generations of Moto Z phones would be compatible with the original “Moto Mod” — a clip-on accessory that transforms Moto Z Force into a super-zoom camera, a boombox, a projector and more.
There is an earpiece above the AMOLED screen that also houses the loudspeaker.
There is a 5MP selfie camera with a flash which was capable of taking decent self portraits.
Moto Z2 Force is comfortable to hold and for single-handed use but feels slippery when used without a Mod or a protective case.
The device is made of 7000 series aluminium which made the exterior look both tough and appealing. An added advantage of water-repellent nano-coating is there to protect the device from accidental spills or splashes.
The 12MP dual primary camera sensors come with phase detection autofocus (PDAF) and 4k video recording. It took good photographs in well-lit conditions with accurate colour saturation levels.
The phone runs Android Oreo Operating System (OS) and offered an enhanced stock Android experience.
Motorola has added features such as “one-button” navigation, “double chop” gesture to turn the flashlight on or off, twist the phone to launch the camera and take screenshot by placing three fingers on the screen, among others.
Coming to its performance, the Moto Z2 Force is powered by a Snapdragon 835 chipset which is the same as in OnePlus 5T device.
The phone offered snappy performance most of the time and the fingerprint sensor below the display interested us the most.
The phone can be put to sleep with a long-press and the same button can unlock the device.
What does not work?
The absence of weather-proofing could be a major put-off for most users.
We also noticed that the display was extremely prone to scratches even as it doesn’t shatter or crack easily.
Conclusion: This is undoubtedly a well-built device with Motorola’s promise of timely updates. If you are looking for a sturdy device with stock Android experience, go for it.
(Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at krishna.s@ians.in )
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | World
By Arul Louis,
United Nations : Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is betting that the battle against climate change will be won through the technological advances and public mobilisation even if governments fail to act.
While “there are reasons to be alarmed” about the rapid pace of climate change, “we believe that the right bet is the bet that technology is pointing to, and that bet is the green technology, and cities, companies, consumers are making that bet,” he said on Monday.
“I think that what is clear is that the reality is changed by the companies that produce, the consumers, the cities that manage,” he said. “Very little depends today, in relation to climate change, on central government.”
“I am very confident that this battle will be won, because the realities of today’s economy are such that the wise decision is the green decision,” he added, while speaking to reporters announcing the re-appointment of Michael Bloomberg, the media tycoon and former New York mayor as his Special Envoy for Climate Action.
“Because of technological advances, the cheapest energy today is green energy,” Guterres said.
Reinforcing it is the “enormous capacity to mobilise the civil society, the business community and the cities” he said. “And we see cities, but also companies and civil society everywhere, leading climate action, leading the capacity of the international community to be able to beat climate change.”
In an apparent warning to US President Donald Trump, who has tried to roll back some of the environmental regulations and programmes for countering climate change, Guterres said without naming him, “Countries that do not back today the green economy will not be leading countries in the global economy of the future.”
Bloomberg said that “without any help whatsoever from the federal government” the US was way ahead in meeting the greenhouse gas reduction goals set for 2025.
“In fact, we have done more than any other industrial country in the world to meet those goals.”
The multi-billionaire is the founder of the financial news and information company that bears his name and he also runs a philanthropy devoted to fighting climate change and issues of immigration, gun control and public health.
He was first appointed the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Climate Action by Guterres’s predecessor Ban Ki-moon in 2015.
“Because of public pressure and the low price of natural gas, 268 of about 500 coal-fired electricity plants in the US have closed or are in the process of closing,” Bloomberg said.
“Corporations today are very, very sensitive to their responsibilities to be environment friendly,” Bloomberg said.
“When a big money manager goes to visit a corporation to check on their earnings, the first question that comes in this day and age is, ‘What are you doing to fight climate change?'” he said. This is because the pension funds, endowments and other investors want their money to be invested responsibly, he explained.
As for Trump, he said he hoped that the president “listens to his advisers and looks at the data and changes his mind.”
“And if that is the case, that shows a great leader, who, when facts change, they recognise something different, they are not bound to what they did before, they are willing to change,” he said. “And I think it is fair to say that this president does change his view, generally from one day to the next, but over a longer period of time, hopefully he will.”
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Business Summit, Events, Markets, Technology
Panaji : With an aim to creating a pool of highly-skilled workforce in the country, Google on Friday announced a three-day ‘Developer Students Club’ (DSC) summit in Goa.
The summit — from February 23 to 25 — is aimed at giving the Indian student community a head-start on Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Mobile and Web Development technologies.
“To broaden access to world-class technology curricula for students, we are delighted to launch the ‘Developer Students Club’ summit that would make it easy for students and developers to gain the skills they need to be successful in the changing technology landscape,” William Florance, Developer Products Group and Skilling Lead, Google, said in a statement.
The inaugural batch will see 200 student ambassadors from 98 cities across 170 colleges in India attend the three-day event.
The students would learn about various emerging technologies through a series of engaging sessions from experts from Google and industry and hands-on one-to-one mentoring activities.
The summit will also have a ‘Design Thinking’ workshop by university innovation fellows from across the country.
—IANS
