The best thing about Science and Science researchers is to use their knowledge for the good of the society. Prof. Prabhat Ranjan has been working at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, Gandhinagar since 10 years. Currently, he is working to apply Embedded Systems and Sensor Networks to Planetary Exploration (Moon Mission), Wildlife Tracking, Nuclear Fusion, Healthcare and Agriculture. An IIT Kharagpur grad and a Phd from California, he talks to Gyancentral’s Mansi Sheth about innovation and building devices for the disabled and others.
Read full article here:
http://gyancentral.com/articles/post-graduate/others/social-innovations-the-mantra-of-science-says-professor-prabhat-ranjan
Social innovations the mantra of Science says Professor Prabhat Ranjan
Posted in Media Report
Learning disability, Mantra and Brainwaves!
I have been trying to understand brainwaves and its relationship to learning disability in children. Scientific research shows the parameter Beta1/Theta waves being a key criteria. To improve this “Brain Entrainment” or neurofeedback can be used. These typically need auditory stimulation of brain. Our Yoga and mediation also seem to work on brainwaves. I was wondering if our traditional “Mantra” also has something to do with this. I found this on net – “In his research conducted a few years ago, Dr Herbert Benson observed that chanting of specific mantras produced a “relaxation” response, causing reduction of heart beat, brain waves and respiration.”
In one more paper,, they claim “Practitioners understand ‘‘meditation,’’ or mental training, to be a process of familiarization with one’s own mental life leading to long-lasting changes in cognition and emotion. Little is known about this process and its impact on the brain. Here we find that long-term Buddhist practitioners self-induce sustained electroencephalographic high-amplitude gamma-band oscillations and phase-synchrony during meditation. These electroencephalogram patterns differ from those of controls, in particular over lateral frontoparietal electrodes. In addition, the ratio of gamma-band activity (25–42 Hz) to slow oscillatory activity (4–13 Hz) is initially higher in the resting baseline before meditation for the practitioners than the controls over medial frontoparietal electrodes. This difference increases sharply during meditation over most of the scalp electrodes and remains higher than the initial baseline in the post meditation baseline. These data suggest that mental training involves temporal integrative mechanisms and may induce short term and long-term neural changes.”
West has started using “mantra” for their benefit as seen in this video :Gayatri Mantra being used in West
So now need to find if learning disability can be improved through our traditional knowledge!
Posted in Brainwaves
Bridging the gap between Macintosh and Wang word processing system
I was writing my PhD thesis in Berkeley in 1985-86 period. When Mac was released in 1983 and they came for a demo to Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL), many scientists loved the idea of Mac and they placed orders then and there. I offered to set up the first Mac that arrived in my group. Once I did that, I had to do that for each of the subsequent Macs that arrived in the group.
What this did was to put many Macs on the desks of scientists but secretaries were using Wang Word processing system. Publication Division in LBL would only accept that document, which was prepared using Wang. This resulted in very peculiar situation since scientists would write letters/reports/documents and it would be printed and then retyped by secretaries. This not only resulted in wastage of time and effort of secretaries but also of scientists(they had to proofread it second time!).
When I was writing my PhD thesis, I also wrote that straight in Mac(in fact I did not use a single piece of paper in that process!). However it looked too bad for me to use the usual method of printing the whole document and letting secretaries type it all back(and that too with plenty of mathematical expressions!).
So I decided to do something about this so that this double work could be avoided. I decided to spend time to write a software that would allow my document to be transferred to Wang in a way that it preserved all the details of the original document. As Pascal was the native language of MacOS, I borrowed a compiler from Comp Sci division of LBL. I guess I must have spent 50% of my thesis writing time on developing that software which would not only convert the document of Mac (written in MacWrite format) to that used in Wang but also electronically transfer them. At that time we did not have compatible floppies or networking to do that.
I almost succeeded in doing this but Mac changed its version of MacWrite from 1 to 2 and made complete change in the way document was stored to reduce the size. They used the concept of representing 15 most used letter by “nibble” (a 4 bit number). In addition they also did many more changes. This took me extra effort but finally I could manage to even tame this beast!
Now my effort was to transfer this document between two systems. For this I connected the two of them by a RS-232 cable and added feature to my converter to set communication parameters and transfer. All this resulted in my thesis not needed to be typed two times! However fun was not over yet.
When I went to return the compiler to the Scientist in the Comp Sci division from whom I had borrowed Pascal Compiler, he asked me what I did with that. I explained to him. He asked me about my topic of PhD thesis and I explained to him that it is related to “Nuclear Fusion”. He seemed amused that I was working on this software but asked me if I could give him a copy of it. I said I do not mind but it is not properly documented code though I had prepared a brief user manual. He said that is ok with him. So I handed it over to him.
After this I came back to India to join Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata. May be after a year or so I got in touch with Secretary (Tina – who is unfortunately no more) through email. She informed me that whole of LBL is now using my software since it was published in LBL newsletter and it served need in all groups!
I guess that was my first entry to Open Source Software development 
Posted in Uncategorized
Android bluetooth link to Tata Indigo Manza Car
About one year back, I had purchased a TATA Indigo Manza Elan car. This has a feature to allow bluetooth based phone to connect to sound system in the car. This makes one handle hands-free phone call, while driving. I have a LG P500 Optimus Android based phone. Initially when I linked Bluetooth, it worked after I learned to connect the device. Some time back I upgraded my Android version to 2.3 from 2.2. After this I noticed that bluetooth link would connect but calls would not be handled properly. I could not hear incoming call etc.
I have been now able to solve this problem by adding an app named “Bluetooth Manager”, available from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mdsoftware.bluetoothpowermanager&hl=en. Now if I connect the car bluetooth system through this application, my phone call is handled properly. I do not know why it was not working otherwise but shared this here in case some one else has a similar problem.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged android, android upgrade bluetooth, bluetooth car., manza bluetooth
Use of ICT and Sensor Network Technology in Agriculture in Bihar
Bihar Govt has rightly recognized the potential of agriculture in growth of Bihar. For this purpose a separate “Agriculture Cabinet” has been formed. Road map for agriculture for next 10 years with a massive outlay has been planned as well.
In November and December 2011, I made two visits to Bihar and interacted with Agricultural Research Institute, Farmers and some young Social Entrepreneurs focusing on agriculture. I have also noticed the fact that some of the farmers in Bihar have done world record production of paddy and this encourages me to write this brief note.
In 2011, on behalf of IIT Alumni (Gujarat Chapter) I signed an MOU with Gujarat Govt to “Improve Agricultural Yield using Technology”. I feel that some of the points mentioned in that MOU are also relevant to Bihar. I am willing to work together with Bihar Govt to develop these technologies. The technologies that I am talking about are not part of standard agricultural technologies being covered but are more recent and are under development worldwide. While I would have hesitated to discuss such technologies in Bihar earlier since they would only be beneficial after farmers have started utilizing existing technologies. However now that I have noticed Bihar making fast progress in agriculture, I feel that time is ripe to take up research and development, which would take Bihar to next level and keep it ahead in Nation and World. I would mention these as follows:
Precision farming using sensor network- using the localized sensors linked with wireless communication system to provide real time feedback on various parameters which affect crop yield. As compared to the developed countries, our farm sizes are very small hence we need to develop low cost solutions based on latest advancements in MEMS sensors, micro radio transceivers and processing systems. This would allow us to monitor the spatial variation in moisture, soil properties, hardpan, nutritional status etc. on a much smaller scale.
This kind of technology would allow us to improve the quality of our fruits and vegetables as well as products being developed in green houses. While the basic concept is not new, it is critical to develop such technology at very low cost to make it economical to farmers in Bihar.
Use of Space Technology through Hyper Spectral Imaging– Using the advances in Communication and Remote sensing to create a systematic natural resources database and also to research in the advance area of Hyper Spectral remote sensing to compliment the Soil Health Card Program at ground level.
Soil health card system uses ground level periodic monitoring of soil related information(e.g. every 6 months) based on mobile soil labs to farmers in the villages. This measurement can be supplemented by Hyper Spectral Imaging already available in public domain to provide much greater spatial information and complements the information provided by “Soil Health Card”.
Low cost non-invasive sorting systems – It has now become possible to develop low cost sorting non-invasive machine based on advances in CMOS image sensors and LED light source to sort the agricultural yield based on their attributes such as their quality, size and maturity stage. This would allow farmers to get a better price in the market and would also make it easier for them to access the export market.
Traceability systems development – Traceability is a very important factor in today’s fresh produce industry. With more and more export market coming up with rules for food traceability, it is important to develop low cost technology to meet the needs of food traceability from “seed to plate”.
Traditional systems are very expensive and we need to develop low cost system so that farmers in Bihar are able to export their product in International market, which is going to be crucial for Bihar in next few years.
GIS based planning : Today it has become possible to collect information through remote sensing as well as ground survey using Mobile phones (e.g. Android based systems) regarding crop, water resources, soil condition, weather and all other parameters and add them to a Geographical Information System (GIS) to allow easy access to information and use them in planning. Some of this data can be made available on real time basis through wireless sensor network such as Agro-Weather Sensor Network. It would give a big boost to the way we manage and plan our agriculture.
Posted in Bihar, Sensor Networks
Innovation Belts for Growth of Bihar – Final Version
Objective
To set up clusters of educational/research and industrial organizations at few geographically distributed locations to promote innovation as well as cater to gap in demand and supply in education within state.
Budget Allocation
I am suggesting investing Rs 1000 Crore per year under this head for next 6 years to develop this in the state at rapid rate. Rough idea about how this figure is arrived at is given in a later section.
Advantage to State
- Reduce the gap in quality education seat demand and supply, which is very large in Bihar as of now and among the worst in India
- Multiple institutions would support ecosystem to promote innovations cutting across disciplines Would make it easier to develop infrastructure at few of these locations and support better quality of life, needed to attract quality faculty
- Today most couples are working and they need opportunity in close proximity – due to this they tend to prefer metro cities. Proposed clusters like this would increase such possibilities
- Link education to Innovation in various aspects of importance to Bihar : e.g Agriculture, Healthcare, Tourism and also generate industry based on innovation – Make Bihar innovation hub of country
- Generate skilled manpower at all levels and attract industry. In turn, industry would also help these institutions.
- Would lead to direct and indirect job creation within state and stem the migration
- New township and related infrastructure would develop providing economic growth to state
Background
Bihar has been land of innovation in the past and till today this signifies the glory of Bihar. Innovations were in many fields and included new thought processes through “religion” (e.g. Buddhism or Jainism), Mathematics, Astronomy, Politics, Economics etc . So Innovation was not limited to scientific or technological innovation.
In today’s context innovation is equally important if Bihar has to grow and maintain its growth and be visible not only on map of India but also of world. So this brief document looks at how to kick start growth of Bihar based on innovations.
Education in Bihar
Education has been the lifeline of Bihar so I feel that any such effort has to start around education. In spite of this, Bihar has severe shortage of educational opportunity. As per statistics in table below, Bihar having nearly 8.6% of population in country has less than 0.4% of Engineering seats(Which may have worsened since I do not have latest data). Compared to states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra, Bihar seems clearly at severe disadvantage. While some efforts have been made in last few years to improve situation, it is clearly no where close to the kind of effort needed. We still have a huge gap in demand and supply. Bihar students go all over the country and flood colleges around the country. According to one data, nearly 1 Lakh students go out of Bihar every year for engineering education alone with an outflow of Rs 2000 Crores. Even a far off place like Kota having coaching facilities, 60% of students out of 50,000 are from Bihar. This figure would go up substantially (may be several times), if we add all education groups including schools.
So do we go ahead and build educational institutes in all districts or we plan it according to certain state level plan? It should be understood that just increasing number of educational seats without caring for quality is not going to help.
So a very critical issue is about increasing number of quality seats (in various educational segments). A second aspect is to make sure that the system promotes innovation through education so that state can become hub of innovation. This would lead to improving not only various aspects of state through innovation but also make sure that industry would develop by promoting entrepreneurship around these innovations.
With very scares resources, it would not be foolish to let these institutes be made at random and scattered geographically. What this paper suggests is to organize such institutes in clusters, which I am referring to as “Innovation Belt” at about 6 locations in Bihar.
Innovation Belt
These “Innovation Belts” are clusters of educational organizations of various kinds ( I have given examples of Engineering colleges but these clusters would cover all kind of educational organizations including schools, ITIs, Diploma institutes etc) along with research institutes and facility for setting up industry along with relevant industry itself.
These “belts” can be setup in a 5-6 geographical regions spread over Bihar. For example, these could be : (1) Motihari (2) Darbhanga (3) Kishanganj (4) Bhagalpur (5) Gaya and (6) Siwan. This is shown in the map to show the spread (green dots indicate new areas to be developed where as red dots indicate already existing organizations need to be brought under this concept).
How I have arrived at these locations?
Most of these belts would need some kind of “nucleus” organization to kick start the process of development around it. Some of these could be a new upcoming organization or some due to certain historical significance. I have also kept in mind geographical distribution of such belts to spread them across state. Let me give some reasons:
Gaya: This belt would extend from Gaya to Nalanda of about 70 kms. It is most suited for early development due to easier availability of land, airport at Gaya, good rail link, Magadh University (with very large campus), International tourist circuit, Nalanda International University(upcoming) etc.
Motihari : this belt extends from Motihari to Bettiah of about 50 kms. Due to significance of this place in Independence movement, Chief Minister announced development of Central University or something similar at this place. So this can become the nucleus around which rest of the cluster can develop. In addition Medical colleges are being setup as well. This area is rich in sugarcane, forest resource, wildlife etc. Proximity to Nepal bring another dimension too. Innovation belt in this region can take advantage of these to have its unique character.
Darbhanga: This belt extends from Darbhanga to Madhubani of about 35 kms. It already has well known medical college (DMCH) and Mithila University along with other institutes.
Kishanganj: Bihar govt has already provided land to set up Aligarh Muslim University here. This can be nucleus around which innovation belt can be setup. This can extend towards Purnea side. This area is quite underdeveloped but has good connectivity by rail and road. Airport at Bagdogra has regular flights and is about 90 kms from here.
Bhagalpur: This belt could extend from Bhagalpur to Bikramshila about 40 kms away. Bikramshila being ancient seat of learning would provide appropriate historical background for “Innovation Belt”. Some of the very big power projects are coming up here.
Siwan: Siwan is the birth place of Dr Rajendra Prasad and it is befitting that Siwan should be one of the innovation belts. This can cover the region between Siwan and Gopalganj of about 35 kms. This area has high inflow of remittance from abroad. According to some estimate Rs 2600 Crore inflow per year is there, which does not find proper investment possibilities. So this region is ripe for private investment in such a venture. This area has lot of possibilities in the area of Agriculture and related industry.
Cost of development of such belts
If we try to achieve 50% of all India average in engineering seats through these belts, we would need to add additional 40000 seats. Rough cost of development of these would be about Rs 3,000 Crores. If we add additional capacity for all other types of institutes, we can roughly estimate this to be Rs 20,000 Crores. Out of this, if state govt spends about 30%, we can target 70% of funds to come from other sources (Central govt, Private funds and International sources). So state govt needs to spend about Rs 6000 Crores and Rs 14000 Crores would need to come from other sources.
Simultaneous planning should be done to connect these belts to each other through high speed communication link. For example some of the belts may be close to proposed “Eastern Economy Corridoor”. We can provide high speed linkage to this. At other places, we can strengthen the communication link.
How Innovation can be promoted through education ?
Our education system by and large promotes rote learning at both school level and college level. This does not promote culture of innovation. To change this we need to focus in a different way of learning. This can be done through modern methods based on “Project based learning”, Team Work, Development of Self Learning etc.
Examples of such clusters
Such education needs to be imparted at both school level as well as college level. At school level School of Creative Learning, Patna (operating for last 15 years) has already been working along these lines. We need to identify if anything more needs to be added to this system and if one can replicate similar systems to promote creativity and innovation at school level.
At college level, Olin College in USA is a model. It was set up about 10 years back and has focused on promoting innovation. It has worked on “Project based learning” model. Another good example of innovation is through “extreme affordability” course of Stanford Design School through Interdisciplinary research.
Within India, we have many examples of educational clusters. One good example is Vallabh Vidyanagar near to Anand. In about 50 years from scratch, it has now 92 educational institutes catering to nearly 1 Lakh student along with industry. However they have not really focused on innovation as a goal education.
References:
- Bihar Grand Total: Diploma Courses (5,125) + Post Diploma Courses (30) + Part-Time Diploma Courses (180) = 5,335. ( http://www.sbtebihar.gov.in/Intake/IntakeCap13.htm )
- Engineering Degree College : 3779 (http://dst.bih.nic.in/EngineeringColleges.aspx )
- http://www.careers360.com/news/4134-One-million-engineering-seats-in-India
- http://www.indianexpress.com/news/why-engineering-seats-find-few-takers/816041/0
Posted in Bihar
Concept of “Innovation Belt” for Bihar
- Prof Prabhat Ranjan (prof.prabhat.ranjan@gmail.com)
Objective
To set up clusters of educational/research and industrial organizations at few geographically distributed locations to promote innovation as well as to cater to the gap in demand and supply in education system within the state.
Background
Bihar has been land of innovation in the past and till today this signifies the glory of Bihar. Innovations were in many fields and included new thought processes through “religion” (e.g. Buddhism or Jainism), Mathematics, Astronomy, Politics, Economics etc .. So Innovation was not limited to scientific or technological innovation.
In today’s context innovation is equally important if Bihar has to grow and maintain its growth and be visible not only on map of India but also of world. So this brief document looks at how to kick start growth of Bihar based on innovations.
Education in Bihar
Education has been the lifeline of Bihar so I feel that any such effort has to start around education. In spite of this Bihar has severe shortage of educational opportunity. As per 2007 statistics, Bihar had 1.82 engineering seats per lakh of population compared to a figure of 189 in Tamilnadu. A difference of 100 times! (Which may have changed a bit since I do not have latest data). India average is about 59 seats. So there is a huge gap in demand and supply. Bihar students go all over the country and flood colleges around the country. According to one data, nearly 1 Lakh students go out of Bihar every year for engineering education alone with an outflow of Rs 2000 Crores. Even a far off place like Kota having coaching facilities, 60% of students out of 50,000 are from Bihar. This figure would go up substantially (may be several times), if we add all education groups including schools.
Innovation Belt
So there is no doubt that Bihar would need to build a huge educational infrastructure to meet the aspirations of young people of state. This would need investment from Govt as well as Private Sector. What we are suggesting in this brief note is to organize a fraction of such development in a cluster in the form of “Innovation Belt”. This can be setup in a 5-6 geographical regions spread over Bihar. For example, these could be : (1) Motihari (2) Darbhanga (3) Kishanganj (4) Bhagalpur (5) Gaya and (6) Siwan. This is shown in the map below to show the spread (green dots indicate new areas to be developed where as red dots indicate already existing organizations need to be brought under this concept):
Change in Education System for Innovation
Our education system by and large promotes rote learning at both school level and college level. This does not promote culture of innovation. To change this we need to focus in a different way of learning. This can be done through modern methods based on “Project based learning”, Team Work, Development of Self Learning etc.
Examples of such clusters
Such education needs to be imparted at both school level as well as college level. At school level School of Creative Learning, Patna (operating for last 15 years) has already been working along these lines. We need to identify if anything more needs to be added to this system and if one can replicate similar systems to promote creativity and innovation at school level.
At college level, Olin College in USA is a model. It was set up about 10 years back and has focused on promoting innovation. It has worked on “Project based learning” model. Another good example of innovation is through “extreme affordability” course of Stanford Design School through Interdisciplinary research.
Within India, we have many examples of educational clusters. One good example is Vallabh Vidyanagar near to Anand. In about 50 years from scratch, it has now 92 educational institutes catering to nearly 1 Lakh student along with industry. However they have not really focused on innovation as a goal education.
Posted in Bihar
Embedded Systems through Arduino in Patna
As a way to promote innovation based on ICT, I am planning to organize a 2-day workshop around Feb 20 in Patna. This would focus on “Embedded Systems development using Arduino”. An Aruduino kit would be given part of the registration fee of Rs 3000. This would permit the participant to continue working with the kit at their own and create all kind of things including robots. This would be very useful to college going students, specially Engg students but can be useful to anyone with some knowledge of simple programming. Arduino has been making waves all over the world by bringing benefit of embedded system to non-technical people like Artist/Designers/Musicians … It would be very useful for projects of Engineering students, who can not only use this to make working prototype but also start companies around it. Most of my research projects are done using embedded systems.
If this workshop is successful, I can do more advanced level workshop since I teach 4 semester course on related topics. This can lead to a plan to setup an “Innovation Lab” in Bihar to bring benefit of this to all students and young professionals including school students. In many other parts of India, specially south India, many commercial organizations have flourished around projects but in somewhat unethical manner. We do not plan to take that path but provide knowledge and training to individuals and make available facilities that they can avail of to realize their thoughts and bring innovation in focus.
Posted in Sensor Networks, Uncategorized
Magnificient Bihar covers news about my life and work
http://magnificentbihar.co.in/2012/01/06/scientist-from-bihar-breaking-ground/
Some of the pictures referred to in the article are missing. Here are they:
Posted in Media Report
