Sample-Collecting Drones

Sample-Collecting Drones

Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Radio Archive, Episode 23 , Segment 5

Episode: Guantanamo and Gaza, Movies in China, Drones

  • Mar 11, 2015 9:00 pm
  • 17:50 mins

(1:26:41) Guest: Carrick Detweiler, assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Nebraska  Now that the Federal Aviation Administration has released rules on when and where drones can fly in the U.S., we’re beginning to hear about a range of possibilities for small unmanned aerial vehicles that go beyond delivering packages or spying on your neighbors.  Scientists are keen to use drones in their research.  Dr. Carrick Detweiler is working on just that—he’s an assistant professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Nebraska.  Detweiler is working with physical water scientists to figure out where the water might be coming from, and how they may be connecting with each other.  “Right now these vehicles are very good at flying high and taking pictures,” says Detweiler, “in the future they could go out and take samples or place sensors.”  The new regulations by the Federal Aviation Administration slow down some of Detweiler’s hopes for development, given that drones must remain in “line of sight” of an operator. Detweiler hopes that they may one day fully automate the system.

Other Segments

American Heritage: Federalist Papers, no. 10

21 MINS

Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History Professor  Marcus Smith joins Grant Madsen to discuss the background of the Federalist Papers, written by James Madison to argue for the Constitution’s ratification. Madison essentially wrote the “rough draft” of the Constitution. He wrote Federalist Paper number 10 to discuss some of the key features of the new document.  Madison ran for his local state house back in the day and lost to a tavern-owner, who gave all the voters free beer. Federalist paper number 10 considers this problem: how elites can “buy” votes and wield disproportionate power.  “The term he used was cancelling ‘local faction’—you can overcome the powers of small groups through large groups.” This contradicted common theories of republican governments, which insisted that functioning Republics must be small

Guest: Grant Madsen, BYU History Professor  Marcus Smith joins Grant Madsen to discuss the background of the Federalist Papers, written by James Madison to argue for the Constitution’s ratification. Madison essentially wrote the “rough draft” of the Constitution. He wrote Federalist Paper number 10 to discuss some of the key features of the new document.  Madison ran for his local state house back in the day and lost to a tavern-owner, who gave all the voters free beer. Federalist paper number 10 considers this problem: how elites can “buy” votes and wield disproportionate power.  “The term he used was cancelling ‘local faction’—you can overcome the powers of small groups through large groups.” This contradicted common theories of republican governments, which insisted that functioning Republics must be small

Never Lose Your Child Again With This Student-Made Smartband

13 MINS

Guest: Spencer Behrend, BYU MBA student  When you take a toddler to a crowded public space, you better be prepared to keep one hand on the kid at all times, or risk just the kind of scare that prompted my next guest to invent a new technology.  After Spencer Behrend temporarily lost his 2-year-old son in a massive Fourth of July parade, he invented a Bluetooth device called “Kiband” \[pronounced “Kie-band”], to help parents keep track of their kids without needing a leash.  “There’s no GPS in this version of the Kiband, it’s just for localized supervision of the child,” says Behrend. It only goes as far as the Bluetooth radius of your phone. When a child goes further than the set range a parent sets, an alarm will go off on the Kiband bracelet.  “The problem isn’t ‘when’ is that child getting too far away, but ‘where’ is that child getting too far away,” says Behrend

Guest: Spencer Behrend, BYU MBA student  When you take a toddler to a crowded public space, you better be prepared to keep one hand on the kid at all times, or risk just the kind of scare that prompted my next guest to invent a new technology.  After Spencer Behrend temporarily lost his 2-year-old son in a massive Fourth of July parade, he invented a Bluetooth device called “Kiband” \[pronounced “Kie-band”], to help parents keep track of their kids without needing a leash.  “There’s no GPS in this version of the Kiband, it’s just for localized supervision of the child,” says Behrend. It only goes as far as the Bluetooth radius of your phone. When a child goes further than the set range a parent sets, an alarm will go off on the Kiband bracelet.  “The problem isn’t ‘when’ is that child getting too far away, but ‘where’ is that child getting too far away,” says Behrend