My Day Job

Recently Popular Mechanics ran a story on some of the research I do.  I am pretty proud of it.  Check it out. If you are interested in Cyber-Physical security research please do not hesitate to contact me.  This an emerging and exciting field in my opinion.  There are not too many of us cyber-physical security researchers out there. 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/robots/self-defense-for-the-self-driving-car-12410682

Mayavi2 import problems in Ubuntu 10.04, python 2.6.5

Recently I was trying to import mayavi2 into python 2.6.5 on Ubuntu 10.04
Mayavi2 can be downloaded and installed using:

sudo apt-get install mayavi2

From there when I tried to import it into python using the line in the tutorials:

import mayavi

I would get the error msg:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "", line 1, in
ImportError: No module named mayavi

After a little searching through the installed files I tried

import enthought.mayavi

That did the trick.  You can test it using the exmple posted here:

http://docs.enthought.com/mayavi/mayavi/mlab.html


Here is the code with my slight modification. 

from numpy import pi, sin, cos, mgrid
dphi, dtheta = pi/250.0, pi/250.0
[phi,theta] = mgrid[0:pi+dphi*1.5:dphi,0:2*pi+dtheta*1.5:dtheta]
m0 = 4; m1 = 3; m2 = 2; m3 = 3; m4 = 6; m5 = 2; m6 = 6; m7 = 4;
r = sin(m0*phi)**m1 + cos(m2*phi)**m3 + sin(m4*theta)**m5 + cos(m6*theta)**m7
x = r*sin(phi)*cos(theta)
y = r*cos(phi)
z = r*sin(phi)*sin(theta)

# View it.
from enthought.mayavi import mlab
s = mlab.mesh(x, y, z)
mlab.show()

How to pick up chicks

My friend Amy came up with this.  I liked it and thought it was worth sharing since my personal experience seems to validate the theory.  I think it is pretty wise.

From Amy:
"Notice the gentle approach, meeting her at her comfort level, holding on with both hands confidently and most importantly - lifting her up."

One the most thought provoking Catholic Art works I have seen.

Last weekend I was in Las Vegas doing an experiment for work.  I decided to go to Mass at the parish on "The Strip."  Guardian Angel Cathedral.  When I walked in the first thing I saw was this gigantic mural.  At first I really did not care for it.  I thought it was way too new agey and strange.  The more I looked at it though the more it made me think.  It is probably the most thought provoking Catholic art I have ever seen.  I took these phtotos with my phone so please excuse the quality. 

First off notice the crucifix in the front hanging from the ceiling.  This is kind of the normal thing you would see in a church.  Behind it though is this big mural.  When you sit in the pews in the middle of the church you look through the cross onto the mural.  It is kind of like the crucifix is an invitation to another world.  I believe the mural is the artist's interpretation of heaven.  It is really kind of interesting.  Now let's look at the various characters starting with the tall guy in the middle. 

Now let's take a look at his friends.
First notice that most of the other people in the mural are coupled up.  I suspect these are married couples in heaven.  Now there is no marriage so to speak in heaven but I don't see why they can't still be friends.  Each of the coupled up pairs do seem to feature a masculine individual and a feminine individual.  Next, right below Jesus you see a larger single person.  I suspect this is a single person who chose to accept a vocation to the religious life.  This is why they are so close to Jesus and larger.  

Lastly, to the sides there are these kind of small paired up flying beings.  I am not sure if they are people or angels or what.  I am not to sure.  Maybe they are humans who did not recieve/accept as much of the heavenly life.  I am not too sure.  I think they are kind of interesting to ponder. 

At the end of the day I have never seen religious art that made me think so much.  This is a very interesting mural for me because it helps spur me to envision the life of heaven and hope.  I hope you enjoy this mural as much as I did. 

The Dog Blindness Prosthetic Electronics Have arrived!

The electronics for the dog blindness prosthetic has arrived.  My Friends Chris and Jarrod and I have begun getting the microcontrollers ready.  We got a power supply wired up and are getting the programmer working.  Once the programmer is online.  We will get some UART and ADC libraries running so we can sample data from the sensors. 

As Tony Stark would say, "We are going into hardware mode!"

Me doing some inagural soldering.

 

 Jarrod learning how to solder.

Engineering is fun. 

Wired up power supply.

Here is the microcontroller attached to the programmer.  We are getting some software/hardware bugs sorted out now. 

Computational and Applied Theology

Recently I was at a presentation given by a guy who does chastity talks to high school students around the country. He was throwing out the standard statistics about how effective various types of "safe-sex" devices are. I have heard this story countless time before, but this time was different. I had recently been studying various types of agent-based models and I said to myself, "this is a great opportunity to actually start a engineering/science ministry in Catholism." I have been trying to figure out a way to make that work for years, but to no avail. Globalisation has made social justice issues very complex. I have looked over various encyclicals that talk about social justice. I always get frustrated because the principles they throw out seem self-contradictory at times. Furthermore it is totally unclear how to apply many of those ideas. Being a Catholic I am used to dealing with things that appear to be paradoxes, so I don't give up, I just know I need to dig deeper. Given the challenges we are facing with the HSS mandates and health care in general I think it is past time Lay Catholics start generating real solutions to the social justice problems facing the world. I feel there was a time when Catholics were at the forefront of academy. I also feel that time is no longer with us in most fields. It doesn't have to be this way and it shouldn't. It's time Catholics started looking at some of these complex social justice problems ( e.g. immigration, resource allocation, healthcare, developing world, chastity, evangelization) were examined under the "algorithmic lens" so to speak. I have done a little bit of literature review and I have not seen too much from Catholic academia that tries to address these problems. I found one Catholic think tank in Washington DC, but they seem to be more focused on philosophy. This is my first attempt to do it.

(If you want to learn about the "algorithmic lens" I suggest you see this presentation:
The Algorithmic Lens: How the Computational Perspective is Transforming the Sciences
March 1, 2009
Presentation by Christos Papadimitriou, Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department, UC Berkeley, CA.
http://www.scivee.tv/node/10204
)

I am seriously considering putting together a preliminary agent-based model of STD infection in an American High School. Actually I already started it (See screenshot above). My thought is this could start to get scaled up to work out non-contraceptive techniques for mitigating the spread of AIDS in Africa. My thought is I could put together in preliminary results in a poster that I could show at the annual Catholic Medical Association conference.
Abstracts are due Aug 3, 2012 so I have a deadline. I have the pleasure of knowing some guys that are pretty active in their CMA guilds so hopefully I can find some Infectious disease experts to help continue this work. Here is the CMA website if you want more info.

http://www.cathmed.org/events/annual_educational_conference/poster_session/

From CMA:

Poster Session

Call for Abstracts!

What: Poster presentations of scientific or theological topics of interest to Catholic physicians. Must be original work and not previously published or submitted for publication. Author must be present.

Limits: 3 abstracts per author

• Theological abstracts: 150 words
• Scientific abstracts: 250 words

Deadline: August 3, 2012

Submit by email: LQ@cathmed.org

Maybe we can find some other problems to begin addressing as well. I also happen to be in a place with a fairly active Catholic community with alot of guys who know how to run models. It might be a good place to get started.

Our Man-Dog-Dolphin Alliance to Restore a Feeling of Playfulness and Harmony to the lives of Visually-Imparied Dogs and their Companions

I want you to meet my friend Chris and his loyal companion Moose the dog. I have seen Moose multiple times when I have visited Chris' house. He is a very warm and affectionate dog. He would be so happy to meet you so he could jump on you and give you a big, wet kiss. Chris and Moose have shared many special moments together. Unfortunately, life being what is is, threw Moose a curveball. Moose the dog went blind. Now Moose has a good attitude on life. He has not let this make him depressed. He just goes on living his life for the moment making the best of his situation. He is just happy to give and receive affection whenever he can. He likes eating too :-).

Chris accepts the current situation, but he wishes there was more he could do for his buddy Moose. The other day Chris was telling me stories about Moose. He said that Moose learns a map of their house in his head so he can learn to get around fairly well. The problem is every once in awhile Moose will get a little disoriented and he will run head-on into a wall at full speed. I've seen him do it. It looks painful. Also, if people move the furniture it causes a conflict with Moose's internal map. As a result he will sometimes run into chairs. When Chris told me Moose's story my heart and mind were moved. Recently I had heard a story about a blind man who had learned to in some sense "see" using echolocation like a dolphin. Then the thought struck me! Moose is smart!!! Why can't Moose learn to act like a dolphin? I got really excited by the idea and started doing some research so we could help Moose.


Man, Dolphin and Dog all can share a special friendship centred on playfullnes and joy. It really defies explanation. I think this video captures a great example of it.



Chris, Moose, and I have since decided to embark on a quest to help Moose embrace the "Spirit of the Dolphin." Our hope is that we learn from the dolphin so Moose can spread joy wherever he goes without having to worry about running into chairs and walls. We are going to keep a chronicle our adventures in the hope that the lessons we learn can be applied by lively, happy dogs around the globe. We are really excited by this new project. I hope you will stay tuned...