My Journey So Far..

My journey so far in transitioning to a Data Scientist has been an eventful, satisfying journey. The updated Portfolio shows the different forks creating challenges on the path. The journey will continue using Machine Learning. The Tiny ML program has been satisfying and it will help for applications. Thank you for being with me on the way.

Team Ad Astra Campaign Website

We have added the Team Ad Astra Campaign Website to our hosted domain lifespectralsurvey.com. We are centralizing our efforts in both space and anatomical research. You can view it at http://airandspaceeducation.com. We are adding links to our remote sensing devices and anatomical documentation.

NASA Tech Leap Universal Payload Interface Challenge

These are exciting times for us in our new journey with data science. We have proposed for the NASA Tech Leap Universal Payload Interface Challenge to further our understanding of interfaces (both digital and physical). We are taking a component approach of building both our physical interface and our data analysis of telemetry from the payload. We aim to customize while still remain general.

This has been a well trained model as seen with our dynamic collaborations through time. Our collaborations with Florida Space Grant, Silicon Valley Space Center in the Get Away Special and Flight Opportunities programs respectively gave us insight into payload integration.

Our journey has taken us through other challenges like Google Lunar X Prize as a member of Team FredNet and the Qualcomm Tricorder X Prize as Team FredNet.

Here are the two videos summarizing our Open Source ideas surrounding these two differing prizes:

We plan on designing a system that reflects these values in a dynamic collaboration, the name of our project.

Challenging us to create a payload interface that supports radiation and shock for passive while providing power and telemetry support, we rise to the challenge with open source off the shelf technologies. Our concept involves interconnected magnetic block supported with radiation hardened edge computing. Beyond the technical challenge, we are planning on integrating team logistics and collaboration dynamically.

For more information, please visit: NASA Tech Leap Universal Payload Interface Challenge

Silicon Valley Space Center

After all the activities of which were involved in 2010 and 2011; we learned many lessons and met wonderful people that really contributed in  our projects.  We could not let these resources go so we decided to help in the creation of the Silicon Valley Space Center (SVSC).  We had many of our projects center on the Mojave Dessert of California as it is an incubator of space development.  Many start-ups have chosen the Mojave as the place to investigate the applicability and manufacture of space technology.  Examples range from Scaled Composites to Masten Space Systems.  Since the dessert had proximity to the Silicon Valley; a consensus developed  to name it after the valley that produced much of our modern technology.  The SVSC is a business incubator while being a hang-out of sorts for people who care about space. Based on the Hacker Dojo concept; to have a space that is both free enough for creative thinking but can be conducive for group meetings to network on ideas.

SVSC/ASEC partnership has been noticed.  ASEC/SVSC had/have presentations at all three Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conferences (NSRC 2010, NSRC 2011, and the upcoming  NSRC 2012).   ASEC/SVSC contributed to proposals for the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts and Flight Opportunities programs along with the Silicon Valley Space Center. Our group was granted the Flight Opportunities award  for our project to measure the mesosphere, a location that benefits from parabolic and orbital flight.  We are looking forward to these opportunities this year.

To learn more about the original Silicon Valley Space Center click here.

To see our abstracts for NRSC 2010 click here for Branly & Howard, and here for Komatireddy et al.

To see our abstract for NRSC 2012 click here for Casey et al.

To see more information on the Flight Opportunities program; click here.

Cold Planets

The large outer planets were the home of the gods.  They were Mount Olympus. Shining brightly, the inspired awe and fear.  They inspired us to build probes and send them out at great speeds. What we observed was even more beautiful than the myth behind each planet.  Comment on the differences and similarities of these bodies.

Warm Planets

The inner planets always intrigued the different ideas and thoughts of the ancient astronomers.  They thought Venus was the planet of grace and dignity. It was the home of advanced thought and design.  Mars on the other hand was barbaric and arid.  Warrior came from here.  Several novels from H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, and Edgar Rice Burrows borrowed from these ideas.  Now we know there are not these cultures and attributes; Venus is hot wasteland with no cities, and Mars is cold hinterland with some possibility of microbial life. Comment on the similarities and differences of the Terrestrial planets.

Reinforcing the Model

Many stories exist in the annals of Astronomy.  They range from being truthful to apocryphal. It also depends on who tells the tale; thus their perspective and analogies.   Galileo Galilei was a pious man who tried to guide his church into a new understanding of the Universe.  Galileo Galilei was a heretic, philanderer and thus was placed under house arrest for his sins.   These two views are vastly different; and the truth is in between these descriptions.  But how do we teach this history when different adjectives, emotions become attached to people’s observations? Comment on who wins the debate in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo and defend their point of view.

Baby Steps

Rulers reigned supreme, their ideas were not to be challenged.  They had their courtiers and advisers. One such adviser were court philosophers which included an astrologer. Most astrologers followed the ideas of Aristotle, a geocentrist. Geocentricity, the philosophy that Earth was the center of the universe, offered a comforting sense of the stability to leaders of many empires.  But others challenged this idea starting with Aristarchus, a contemporary of Aristotle.  These philosophers believed the Sun was the center.  This idea enticed Copernicus and led to a revolution of ideas that led to the Age of Revolution. Please comment on the differences between the Geocentric and Heliocentric Universes with this article.

Fractals

The science of chaos informs us that the small is like the large.  We notice the patterns of the edges of leaves seem to match the patterns of the branches of the trees that they inhabit.  We have been applying this to the behavior of the biological and social systems.  Sometimes the behavior of the stock market over a few days matches the behavior over a few months.   Now with current theories (string, loop, etc.) we have shown the behavior of quarks (a particle that comprises the proton) may influence the behavior of matter at a much larger scale. An example is that the spin of a hurricane seems to match the spin of a galaxy in space.  How does the small mimic the large?