A story of two curious friends

Here friends, is the link to my first science story that was published last year in VT SuN blog:

https://blogs.lt.vt.edu/sustainablenano/2015/01/12/once-upon-a-time/

Bacteria meets nano cellulose for the first time.

The two friends Saina and Gagi

Enjoy! <3

Nonlinear fit to exponential decay model in R

I had some trouble looking around for a non linear model that could fit exponential decay model on R. Finally this is what I have. Hopefully, the next code searcher will find it easier to hunt for such a code!
 :D

The data is in this format:
Week  TAD
0          a
1          b
….
(a and b are values of Cellulose concentration)

ti = seq(0,11, 0.1)
kSAD = nls(TAD~exp(-k*Week), start =list(k= 0.5), trace=T)
summary(kSAD)
plot(Week,TAD, pch=16, xlab="Week", ylab="Cellulose concentration microcosms in mg/mL", cex.lab=1.45,cex.axis=1.5)
lines(ti, predict(kSAD, list(Week = ti)), col="black", lty=3, lwd=2)
arrows(Week, TAD-RETAD, Week, TAD+RETAD, length=0.05, angle=90, code=3)

Created by Pretty R at inside-R.org

Enjoy! <3

Book Giveaway Part III: Spirit

This list is longer than last two book giveaways- are you excited? :D ?

Few months ago, I read a book called Bhakti Yoga Sagar Volume 1 and all my interest in practices of Raja Yoga started dissolving away. And the many books I have collected over past few years and read and felt inspired by, are now apparently destined to be put to the second oldest river of the world, our grand New River.  (Traditionally, when some thing very sacred to us is to be discarded, it is given to a holy river to keep the sacred gift in her lap. )

True to my pattern of being book worm, I bought more books. Then I read another book series, which has put a full stop to my reading habits. This happened sometime after my last book shopping spree.

Now, I have many partially read and completely unread books that I would like to giveaway in case some one is interested. Here are 10 of them:

1) Jnana Yoga Method and Attainment by Swami Niranjananda Saraswati: This is a brand new book that I admit I have not even read. Here is the amazon link of this book: Amazon link

Find out for yourself how this 80 page book is!

And here is more information about this book: http://www.biharyoga.net/yoga-publications-trust/books/jnana-yoga-book/

2) Monk Dancers of Tibet by Matthieu Ricard of happiest-man-on-earth fame: Even if you are not interested in this book, I highly recommend his TED talk on habits of happiness! This book is a library version hardcover filled with very colorful and exotic pictures from different rituals of Tibetan buddhism with notes and explanations from Matthieu Ricard.

3) Sannyasa Darshan by Swami Niranjananda Saraswati: (Okay now my secret is out!) 

I find this book to be a beautiful collection of stories from sannyasin of past and near present. So artistically and vividly described- that it transported me back to the era of these Sannyasins. Also, I find to be a very interesting work on tradition of renunciation, specially at a time when this tradition is under attack for ochre license to 'holy-men' for abusing the unsuspecting seekers. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It ends with English translations of some ancient texts and the Song of Sannyasin by Swami Vivekananda ji. 

Here is the amazon link: Amazon

4) Sadhana by Swami Sivananda Saraswati and Swami Satyananda Saraswati &

5) Samatvam by Swami Sivananda Saraswati and Swami Satyananda Saraswati: Half the essays in these two books (Sadhana and Samatvam) are by Swami Sivananda ji and other half by Swami Satyananda ji. If anything, it is evident how their writing styles belong to different eras. I personally prefer Swami Sivananda ji's style for they act like a whip to tamas.

6) Yoga Sadhana Panorama by Swami Niranjananda Saraswati: This book was personally given by the author to its first owner. I have read first  few chapters and they are interesting reads about some of the attributes that Yoga sadhana aims for and yes there is also author's interpretation of Bhagvad Gita.

7) Karma Sannyasa by Swami Satyasangananda Saraswati and Swami Satyananda Sarswati: This is a great book for an 'aspirant' interested in dedicating their lives to the path of yoga.

8) On the Wings of Swan Volume 1 by Swami Nirananjananda Saraswati: (By now I am really wondering why they have such long names! It is easy to pronounce these long names, but typing! Aah- typing is another story!) I read first few chapters and I find that they deal with topics related to day to day lives like how to parent etc.

9) Al-Quran English translation by Ahmed Ali: I received this book in an act of immense faith and I would like to hand it over with total respect for the faith that gave this book to me.

10) Swara Yoga by Swami Muktibodhananda: Another book that I have not read a single page of. The book deals with science of brain breathing and translates an ancient text on Swara yoga. I was very interested in taking my practice of pranayama a notch or two higher when I bought this book.
Coincidentally the day it arrived in the mail, was the day I woke up knowing that I am going to get rid of all the books I have.

Book Giveaway II: LOTR and Society

Thank you everyone! The books from the last giveaway are all gone or booked! I feel very happy that they found homes.

Here are more books for the second round of giveaway! If you like them and want them, do let me know! I recommend that you take a look at the books either in person or online before taking the books.

The theme of this round of giveaway is society and social relationships along with fantasy theme of Lord of the Rings!

1. The Hobbit:

The famous novel is here for free grab! The book condition is not so good. It is old and worn out. I am looking for LOTR fans, who miss having their own copy of the novel! And, yes did you see the third Hobbit movie yet?

2. Fellowship of the Ring:  The condition of this book is better than the Hobbit book.

3. The Two Towers: Yes this book too is for giveaway! This book is in okay okay condition.

4. The Return of King:

How would this LOTR set be complete without this book! If you are interested in LOTR set do let me know! This book is old and okay okay condition.

  

5. Social Intelligence The Revolutionary New Science of Human Relationships: After heralding Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman comes back in Social Intelligence and extends emotional intelligence to society. It has detailed information about various neurobiological experiments conducted in past decades. Goleman very neatly ties in all the research and with stories (that I felt lot moved on reading) makes this book an interesting read. For review check this Goodreads link out.

6. Romantic Manifesto: Ayn Rand- If on hearing her name, your mind runs into your pleasant memories of reading Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged, and you feel inspired to read more of her philosophy in her own powerful words, then this small powerful book might be the one for you! Just a note- this is a classic non-fiction from Ayn where she explains her philosophy of art in her own unique uncompromising style.

And for my dear curious friends, here is an anagrammatic hint for the theme of the next round of book giveaway:

It-Is-PR.

Books Giveaway- I: Physics and Maths and What does it mean to be alive?

This is the first giveaway in series of many. Let me know through Facebook messenger, Google+ or Gmail if you are interested in taking these books. If you suspect that you know someone, who might be interested in these free books - share! I bet they will make great gifts! And thanks! :D
I will accept your donations ONLY if you feel inspired to make one. 

I hope the books find a curious reader! I encourage you to check the books out before deciding if you want the book.

1. The Road to Reality: This book is BOOKED now.

If your heart warms at the sound of 'physics' and the life is much more beautiful when you know the gorgeous mechanics of it, then this 1040-pages + could be your favorite addiction. My copy is in flawless hardcover format. It aint new but it could easily pass for one! 

Here is the Amazon link:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-Reality-Complete-Universe/dp/0679776311

2. Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos: This book is BOOKED now. Of all books that I am giving away, this one is the hardest to part from. It stands as my favorite mathematics book inside out! This where dreams are written through nonlinear dynamics and take wings post bifurcation! 

Written by perhaps the only mathematician, whose articles have been regular in New York Times, this book has been a great read for me. 

My copy has some pencil marks in the initial chapters. It is slightly marked and morphed on one of its edges. There is a story behind this metamorphosis. In short the bag that the book was in, got soaking wet in rain and stuff inside the bag started leaching colors onto each other. 

Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Nonlinear-Dynamics-And-Chaos-Applications/dp/0738204536

3. Darwin's Dangerous Idea, Evolution and the Meanings of Life: So, you think that 'The Selfish Gene' was a great book? You ain't seen no great book, my fren'! Read this one up!

This book is perhaps most enjoyed with Darwin's evolutionary theory on mind when pondering questions like- "Woah Life!

Thee rocks! But howzz? And whyyz" or if you are curious about the purpose and phenomenon of this life and entertain a scientific bent of mind - then this book can help nudge the mind many notches higher in evolution.

In 1995 this book was National Book Award Finalist. My copy is in great condition with no markings or signs of wear and tear.

Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/DARWINS-DANGEROUS-IDEA-EVOLUTION-MEANINGS/dp/068482471X

4. The Quantum Universe, Everything that can happen does happen: Do you want to read about the following questions and some quantum answers to them: What is the music of atoms? What is illusion and what is real? Is the universe in a pin-head? Or rather is pin-head the universe? (Or even-better) where is the universe and where is the pin-head?

If you heart jumps in curiosity and excitement about above questions and their potential quantum explanation- this small book (smallest in this series) is for you!
My copy is as good as new! It is impossible to tell otherwise!

Here is the Amazon link to the book: http://www.amazon.com/The-Quantum-Universe-Anything-Happen/dp/0306821443

Day 6: Blacksburg's Farmers Market challenges me and I SNAP

I saw it on my Facebook - 

It was happily lurking there '2014 Virginia SNAP challenge, Eat Smart, Move More'. The challenge is to eat for just a week with a budget of $32 in solidarity with millions in USA, who eat on that budget week after week.

( I cry as I type this. I am on day 6 and I have 5c left from my $ 32 budget. I do have enough lentils, rice and vegetables to last me until end of day 7. But I have only 5c for buying all things that I miss eating. And, I cry. How privileged! As my mom would say- how spoiled!)

Oh I digress!

This is my story so far:

Day 0: To a week well planned!

On Friday evening last week I went to Eats and got yellow split pea lentils (- they were cheapest of all lentils, total was $4.97), cheapest organic brown rice ($3.02), fruits and vegetables on sale (Eggplant -$0.65, 4 apples -$ 1.98). The plan was to eat lentils and rice with vegetable here and there. And, have apples as snacks. 

Day 1: Oh my innocence and the rain!

It rained heavens on Saturday. I do not own a motor-driven vehicle, so I walked to farmer's market (~3.5 miles). By the time I reached campus I was half drenched and felt lazy and cold and decided to take shelter in my workplace (a lab at VT). I was convinced that I could make it throughout without using match benefits from Farmers Market. (Aah! The glory of innocence (ignorance - as I say now)!

Breakfast: 3 cups of hot water and an apple

Lunch: rice, lentils and more than half of the eggplant.

Dinner: I was so full with the heavy meal of Lunch that I had another apple for dinner.

Day 2: The work begins~

Breakfast: Hot water and apple

Lunch: Rice, lentils, and leftover eggplant

Dinner: Went to Eats again. (why! oh why!) Had got seduced by the thought, "Oh my budget is great and I am only going to hunt for vegetables on sale. And few yogurt covered almonds and chocolate covered cashews will not really amount to much!" Aah! The ease of addiction to these habitual privileges! 

Got sweet-potatoes, ginger, handful of chocolate covered cashews and yogurt almonds, more apples at sale and few prunes. Total = $ 12.03

Day 3: Another oops and ouch moment!

Breakfast: Apple and microwaved sweet potato

Dinner: Regret, Apple and microwaved sweet potato

Day 4: ...

Okay... I must admit and share what happened on the lunch day of Day 3! I had my cooked lentils and rice at work for lunch and it was great. Then my best buddy at work asked me - 

"Hey do you wanna go to (our favorite place) for our (favorite salad)?"

It was so tempting. I said -'yes!' And I spent 5.53 dollars of my SNAP budget in a single meal!!! 

When I realized it during lunch I told my friend about this SNAP challenge and how I had just spent 1/6th of my budget for a single meal! She offered me her corn cake (as she always does- it is so so goood!) and I refused. She laughed and said, "It is free." I joined her laughter and refused again. How many people living on SNAP benefits eat out with their buddies, who offer them free desserts? No thank you. I will not eat it.

Back to Day 4: Recalibrating... ... ... ...

Breakfast: Microwaved Sweetpotatoes

Lunch: Lentils and Rice, I am missing vegetables. I will buy some tomorrow.

Dinner: More Lentils and Rice

Day 5: Farmers Market! 

Yay! I still have some 4 bucks left and I can buy vegetables and apples at farmers market worth $8! Wednesday is the best day in the world!

Breakfast: Some more lentils and rice - and this batch that I cooked was not really appetizing.

Snack: Apples and microwaved sweetpotato with a ginger - try it sometime!

Lunch + Dinner: Met the people behind the scenes of this challenge and farmers market. It felt great to talk to them! 

I got a picture clicked- yay! First picture of the challenge- and I know I know- no one likes to read anything without pictures.

Bought a $3 bag of kale, a $2 mighty big celeriac with superfluous greens on it. For two bucks I get both the tuber and the greens! Of course, I picked the celeriac that had most greens attached on it.

For Linner, Dunch or whatever one calls it - I had the tasting sample of the soup at the farmers market. I know it has come to this that I am munching on free samples. It was delicious! Oooh! I en-joy-ed it. Thank you Farmers Market SNAP challengers for cooking so well and offering! And I got the recipe too! 

I chewed on celeriac leaves until I could take it no more. Had an apple- it was the sweetest and most juiciest apple that ever landed on my tongue. Eating celeriac leaves earlier, definitely helped to give the apple juice explosion shock therapy to my tastebuds.

Picked up two candies from a workshop that I attended in the evening.

Day 6: The SNAP day! Another Oops and ouch moment, and I am still continuing!

Breakfast: (Had 4 prunes from my landlord's pantry- and this is where I broke my $32 SNAP challenge) Celeriac leaves with lentils and rice. Oh! Microwave chopped celeriac leaves! They are the best microwaved greens that naturally start smelling like fenugreek leaves. I thoroughly enjoyed eating lentils and rice with microwaved celeriac leaves. 

Celeriac (without most of its greens that at time of writing this post are the glory of my tummy. Bag of kale and my bowl of lentils-rice with microwaved celeriac leaves.)

Lunch: Two apples and left over lentils-rice with microwaved celeriac leaves

Dinner: On the menu right now: More lentils and rice with celeriac leaves

There will be a Day 7 tomorrow- I promise me.

Talking Science and not Sanskrit ~

I want to tell you a story. It starts with – 'Once upon a time' and it goes like this:

Love descends:

Once upon a time, a child was born in a rustic village of India and was embraced by love of his mother. Two months later, I returned home from my boarding school and I heard his voice for the first time.

“Mom, is that a cat?”

“It is your brother”, she said.

New born babies, I guess sound all the same, no matter their species. And, of course, I was hoping for a cat. 

The Un-magical spell:

Many years passed and I came to USA for graduate school.

When I went to visit home for the first time, there was so much excitement in home and everyone wanted to know what I did here in USA. So, I started telling the room full of my family and extended family members about my research. About 20 seconds into my elegant narration of the super grand work that I had been doing, I had very successfully put everyone to dead sleep!

Meanwhile my little brother, who as it turned out was not a cat, was playing outside, completely oblivious to my newly acquired un-magical charm of sleep. When he came back home, he asked me the same dreaded question that my relatives dared asked earlier in the day, “Didi (elder sister), what is that you study in your America school?”

You see, I will happily play the Pied Piper and lead the entire world to sleep or doom or whatever that comatose-sleep was. But I can't do that to my brother!

So, I told him a story instead:

"A story of vast vast ocean, oh so blue! An ocean, as big as thousands of lakes put together! You see earth can appear quite small in Geography books and fast flying airplanes. But listen, earth is huge – our big town, our entire big town is not even a speck on this soccer ball of earth. 

Some people spilled some oil in middle of ocean and the fishes were not able to breathe and they died. When this oil reached land, the land birds, who were playing with the water got oil all over them and their feathers got stuck. They could not fly and died. In my school, I am studying how to best clean this oil when it reaches the shore. You see, sometime oil makes puddles like water puddles after rain and sometimes it make small balls with sand like our mumma makes sweetmeat balls with butter. I want to know which one should I clean first- the puddle or the balls."

No one died that day. And, life moved on.

Memories that inspire:

About two years later, working on my PhD, we had our mentors, professors and big people reminding us over and over again that we need to learn how to communicate our research.

Aah! How the joy of giving the gift of sleep to my family clashed with the shame and sadness of my boring narratives!

One usual night, I was talking to my brother on phone about his school and he told me about this new subject that they have to study- Environmental Science. I chimed in, “Brother, I study that subject too! Wow!” And, I so remember what he said-

“ I know. I remember you told me that you study how to clean big oceans from oil. The birds and fishes die when oil is spilled and you want to clean the oil puddles and oil balls.”

He remembered. And, in his remembering he imparted the secrets of scientific communication to me. 

May be this passed your noticing, but our world has been much lighter and brighter place since then.

As I write my first blog for VT SuN to talk about my research, I write it for my Guru of scientific communication, my darling baby brother!

Uninstalling old version of R in Ubuntu 12.04.4 for R 3.1.1

After many frustrated attempts at installing the newer version of R aka R version 3.1.1 (2014-07-10) I finally figured out what was perhaps happening.

I had done the glorious and famous step 0 of:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get remove r-base
sudo apt-get remove r-base-core

up to no avail! R.2 something always managed to run and execute itself.

"Sock it to Me"

What finally worked was an interesting combinations of various suggestions on internet that some how worked together - like a miracle!

The long and short of the procedure of installing R. 3.1.1  after successfully effacing the older version of R is:

Uninstalling the older version
Step 1: Do the Step 0 (the above mentioned glorious and famous step 0) of removing r-base and r-base-core

Step2: See what still remains:
 dpkg --get-selections | grep "^r\-"'

Step 3: Individually purge the files that belong to 'r-' family. I used sudo apt-get purge (name of R related file)

Installing the R 3.1.1 (2014-07-10) -- "Sock it to Me" 
Step 4: Followed suggestions as mentioned here: (http://askubuntu.com/a/352438) Please note that when I typed in the command for seeing r packages
apt-cache showpkg r-base I saw different packages than the ones mentioned in the comments. This is explainable as packages keep updating with newer ones showing up. I had the following show up:

Package: r-base
Versions:
3.1.1-1precise0 (/var/lib/apt/lists/cran.rstudio.com_bin_linux_ubuntu_precise_Packages) (/var/lib/dpkg/status)
 Description Language:
                 File: /var/lib/apt/lists/cran.rstudio.com_bin_linux_ubuntu_precise_Packages
                  MD5: 5787ca79ed716232c4cc2087ed9b425b
so I did
sudo apt-get install -f r-base=3.1.1-1precise0

Step 5: Typed in R and bingo!!

Enjoy R folks!

Research warns that Frozen Boogers are linked to Sure Death

Bleaksburg, VA.  Following reports of the area woman, who got frozen boogers during her stroll in single digit temperatures yesterday, researchers are now warning that frozen boogers are directly related to sure death.
Virginia Tech researcher P. See was heard screaming in campus hallway, "Stay away from frozen boogers! They are (like) death bombs!"

Research done at the local University in Bleaksburg, suggests that there is a strong correlation between death and frozen boogers. Dr. See was further heard saying, "Almost everyone, who had frozen boogers is now dead. Those who are still alive will die one day. I repeat- Stay away from frozen boogers!!", he shouted emphatically.

He added quickly, "If one actually succeeds in avoiding frozen boogers, one is not guaranteed not to die. However it is still very important that frozen boogers are completely avoided. The numbers of death related to frozen boogers are very important and can not be ignored." 

Earlier today officials at UBF issued a warning notice to all their poorly paid labourers and advised them to avoid deadly frozen boogers. 

University warned its denizens to not pick up frozen boogers off the grass or the snow. Students were advised to not scratch underneath desks during class as the bullies can easily plant frozen boogers there.

According to an area woman, her boogers froze during her casual stroll to work yesterday. The secret sources informed that she attempted to snort boogers off her nasal cavity when they froze mid air. The detailed news can be found here.

Area woman misses work as she frantically searches for Onion Reporters to report frozen booger

Bleaksburg, VA: Area woman is reported to be on a look out for Onion Reporters. Locals reported that she is missing work that she is actually paid to do, as she is looking around for Onion reporters frantically. It is reported that today morning the area woman attempted to snort her nose boogers out on the snow as she walked to work, and her nose boogers froze, leaving her helplessly looking for Onion reporters. 

An area man unable to comprehend her passion to get news of her frozen boogers out was heard saying,"She is so frantically running around searching for Onion reporters. I mean, man! It is just frozen booger! She is acting like like it is frozen brain or innards or intestines or so!"

Her colleagues at work on the other hand, totally echo the need for attention and media hype of her frozen boogers. One of her colleague was heard saying about her frozen boogers, "This is perhaps the most interesting scientific observation to have come out of our work group! Like ever ever!"

That I may serve~

Being a faculty in a university for me rhymes with the single concept of Service.

Service:

And, in service I uphold the service to students, university and to the community:

To students: As a faculty member, one embraces the choice to serve the students through inclusive, interested, and engaged pedagogy and involved mentoring. A faculty member is in a unique position to directly influence the future of our world and I uphold the service of allowing, encouraging, and helping growth of students as being the fundamental duty of any faculty member. 

To University: The university environment provides fertile ground for advancement of society and as a faculty member the service definitely includes service to university and its smooth functioning. As I have learnt with my interactions with Graduate Student Assembly at Virginia Tech, luncheons with Board of Visitors and interaction with Dean of Graduate School Dr. DePauw, the university officials and their motivation are quintessential for the university to thrive and create a learning environment. A faculty is obliged to serve the institution that serves, allows, and mentors the faculty itself.

To Community: Community through its million direct and indirect means affects and causes the university environment to exist and thrive. Service to presently existing community is as much as a faculty duty as is preparing the future community. Through her outreach efforts, her modeling of ideals that she upholds and respecting that she also represents the university, the faculty member is responsible for contributing to the society, from which the future springs,  and in where the present resides.

The three virtues that I would strive for as a faculty member wannabe are:

Advancement: 

When I ascribe the duty and expectations on (me as) a faculty member to help prepare a sustainable tomorrow, as she serves the present, I fully comprehend the need of the faculty member to be at the leading edge of the latest developments in her field of expertise and interest. And, with this comes the responsibility of staying abreast and aware of latest research, advancement, tools, technologies, and ideas that can help her serve the students, university, and the community better. 

To me faculty member is a lot more than a long standing product and part of a legacy rich institution. She is in charge of being aware of the change, embracing and finding opportunities in change, instead of choosing the state of denial.

Inclusion:

To me a faculty member epitomizes the term 'global citizen' and is a person who embraces, values, and respects diversity in all its forms. In doing so she actively models inclusive practices.  In an increasingly globalized economy and with increasing hopes of a truly globalized world, inclusion is an ideal worth striving for. 

Dissemination:

A chief difference between an expert, scientist and a faculty member, in my mind, is that latter has strong intentions to disseminate knowledge and understanding. Outreach efforts, engaged pedagogy and mentoring are few very powerful tools through which a faculty member reaches out and participates in dissemination. Being a faculty member to me implies embracing that all sciences and human understanding is our collective property and whenever appropriate, it is faculty duty to disseminate the information and understanding. 

I believe that our society always has had the potential to live outside the very confined walls of awareness and understanding, best described by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore in following lines:

"Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;

Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward ... into ever-widening thought and action" 

As a faculty member wannabe, I want to participate in building a world that the Rabindranath Tagore's lines above describe.
When I recognize a potential for good, I want to allow the potential bloom. And, this does include guiding it and nurturing it. And, when I see a change that is either inevitable or has potential for good of planet, I will allow the change to be, nurture it and help it be aware of its own value and potential.

Spinning 3D MDS plot in R

I did the classical MDS on my data and drew 3D spinning MDS plot and here is the code:
(Note that this code uses vegan, MASS, and rgl packages and the plot below was made in R 2.15.3)

And here is the plot:



Yay!

And yes now here is the data format:
In first column are names of different samples and in next columns abundance of different classes of bacteria. 

Sample A   sp1   sp2   sp3   sp4 ...
Sample B   sp1   sp2   sp3   sp4 ...
Sample C   sp1   sp2   sp3   sp4 ...
.
.

 

The Power of Teaching~

Reflecting back on the entire semester of GEDI and PFP classes at VT, I sense that my intention and attitude towards teaching have elevated from the desire to help others (students) find beauty in engineering in a way that I have found, to something even higher. And, that something higher is ineffable enough for me not find a noun suitable for it. I can try adding adjectives to what teaching means to me right now: a purpose for my awareness in this lifetime, something more akin to worship and the journey to higher self.

In My Past-Life

(Pre GEDI and PFP life): I have been a self-studying self-built person for most of my life. Most teachers in my undergraduate education to me were like the priest in a temple/church/mosque/anything-else to whom I pay respect and pretend to listen. My real spiritual development happened outside the holy-moly walls of the pious shrine/building. 

That is how most classes were for me- I attended them (mostly).  I tried not to sleep. I pretended to listen when awake. I tried not to read something else. (Facebook etc were not the thing yet.) I freaking tried all of that above. My real learning happened when I pored into books in my hostel room, in library, in the park, in our athletics stadium.

And, that is exactly the reason why for a long time I have held teaching as a pious profession. My belief has over time reinforced itself with the plethora of note-reading, no-eye-contact-please teachers that I have had. The more my teachers  performed  sadly in their theatrics and interest in teaching, the more convinced I became. 

The reason for this reverse reinforcement was this: It appalled me that the beauty I find in subjects is something that most of my class will probably never experience, because most of them need teachers to show them the beauty. 

So, I would take time and teach my classmates. And, the fire (and the zeal) built on itself.

This Life:

Now I am almost towards the end of this wonderful GEDI and PFP experience. My intention for teaching has risen over the desire to share the beauty as I perceive it to instead waking the genius in my students (and not transferring to them my genius image of the subject.)

I am thrilled. I am inspired. The power of teacher is not only in showing students what the subject is and how freaking exciting and beautiful it can be, but also in awakening the genius in our students. It is in helping them be more self-aware. To help them come vis-a-vis to their self-potential and self-inspirations.

Teachers are powerful. They have this magic wand that they can use to make the future stronger. They instill seeds in their students. (Seeds of what, everyone in the class chooses.) They sit in positions where they can make great service to society as they try to live with high ideals (/model them.) Think Henry L.I.V. Derozio.

Teach, Prey, Love:

In most Indian systems of philosophy the teacher (Guru) is often referred to as a blessing or someone above God. In fact there is a beautiful couplet translated as:

"Guru and God both are here, to whom should I first bow
All glory be unto the guru, path to God who did bestow"

Oh my gawdliness! I can not wait to get the chance for waving my wand in a formal setting! 

PBL: Open ended and close ended~

Having done the PBL and watched the presentations of other groups, I am Thrilled!

Wow! What amazing topics! How amazing ethical, social, financial dilemmas! How very unique structure of the PBLs and layout for assessments. Congrats fellow GEDIs! I am impressed and hopeful that we will all go ahead to become truly the teachers of our students, for our students, and by our students.

Open-ended and Not so open ended PBLs:

I want to broach the topic of PBLs being open ended or close ended. Which is better? Probably this in itself is an open ended question :)

So, I will just focus on what I understood from our presentations (not including the readings) on advantages of both kinds of PBL.

Advantages of Close-ended PBL:

Subjects that need to train students in at least in part finding the right answers can benefit from close-ended PBL. We ofcourse dont want bridges and airplanes with faulty designs. In disciplines where right answer does exist, close ended PBL serve the dual purpose of engaging students through its story and thereby guiding students to arrive at the right answer.

Advantages of Open-ended PBL: 

Oh! And yes when I want to fire students' creative thinking, and imagination, and I want to encourage them to 'push the envelope', of course I will choose an open-ended PBL. Because sorry ma'am and sir, there is no correct answer! It is a continuum with no ends. It is often conflict of interests, ethics, engineering challenges, public welfare, and arts! 

It is beautiful! And we certainly need more of such PBLs in our class rooms!

And, I want to end this blog with the picture below that reinforces the abilities of our students and our future! Great job GEDIs! It was a pleasure to be in same class as you all!

Contemplative Practices Part 3 (Engineering and Science Higher Ed)

Last weekend, we had a wonderful conference at Virginia Tech, 'Contemplative Practices for a Technological Society'. Here is summary of my notes that pertain to including contemplative practices in higher ed (engineering and science only) from that conference:

(Note: I am in process of writing down all my notes from this conference in a separate blog and will share it here in this post, in this space, as soon as it is ready. This conference was indeed an overload of wisdom, precious tools and experiences!  Bliss!)

In Engineering Curricula:

1. Dr. David Levy, Univ. of Washington, of  "You're distracted! This professor can help" fame was one of the invited speakers and panelist for this conference. He is incorporating mindfulness in his students by helping them be more aware of their behaviour and efficiency as they multi-task through a course that he offers.

( Fellow GEDIs, remember the test that Dr. SF made us do in our GEDI class on multi-tasking? 'write series of unusual numbers {subtract 7 from 100 and so on...} and answer questions based on what she was reading at the same time?)

Well, when Dr. Levy realized the subtlety of multi-tasking and task-switching, he plunged into researching ways to increase productivity and wellness as we continue to switch tasks rapidly. He found his answer in using techniques like meditation, being mindful, having more self-awareness. 

He shared his story that when he left his thinking-intensive job and came over to academia, he realized that he was not really thinking deeply, (the way he did in his previous job.) Thereupon, started his journey onto finding task-switching as a challenge and mindfulness as a tool. 

He designed and conducted a study (snapshot on left) that showed subjects were more efficient/productive, less stressed, happier at doing a secretary-sort of high-stress work, which was designed to demand intense task-switching, when they were trained in mindfulness.

Here was a scientific proof for what many people already preached and practiced  Dr. Levy then went ahead and devised a course for helping students become more mindful of their activities. (More about this course, and its story here. It is definitely worth reading + I am ensuring that I do not reiterate what has already been written there, despite being talked about at the coference.) They observed that when people are mindful, they are less likely to be distracted by interrupting emails, focus longer, are happier with their work, and more productive.

2. Dr. Roop Mahajan, Virginia Tech, held out a visionary challenge to engineering education

system. He emphasized on the role that contemplative practices play talked about completely transforming engineering education by offering degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Mindfulness, or XYZ engineering and Mindfulness. He took the example of Mechanical Engineering and laid out a curricula for Mechanical Engineering that was actually in compliance with ABET and was flexible to accomodate each student's interest. Wooh! Imagine Department of Civil Engineering and Mindfulness!

He emphasized how companies too realize that there productivity depends a lot on how focussed and well their employees are. He justified that such an engineering degree would be a cutting edge sword for any university that takes the lead and starts offering them.

The discussion then went onto stress that Univs offer experience that MOOCs dont. And, it is high time that mindfulness is added that experience!! 

3. Diann Brei, Design Science, Univ of Michigan: Dr. Diann started with admission that she wears too many hats and believes that she does not practice mindfulness. However, she is convinced that Tree of Contemplative Practices and practice it.
mindfulness is important and has the potential to be very useful for her students, and so she does introduce her students to contemplative practices and infact, one of the assignments they have is to pick one activity from the tree and practice it.

As Program Chair of Design Science centre at University of Michigan, she ensures that mindfulness is practiced in there. 

One extremely striking practice that she talked about and is proud of is bringing in liberal arts and science together. She talked about how every science/engr. based research group under the wing of Design Science has at least one 'arts' graduate student. This has to her experience blown off the perceived limits of creativity and has enriched the experience of everyone in Design Science!

This is all for now! In Part 2, I will share my notes of contemplative practices in higher ed that are not limited to science and engineering!

Namaste!

Wish we had a shout-out forum~

Twitter style or FB style for our PFP class!

Here is a conference/workshop thingy that I found and I want to share with our awesome PFP and GEDI classmates! (Following our energy-filled discussion in last PFP class.)
This workshop also introduces the full-of-mind techniques into and for higher-ed and other professions.

http://www.cpe.vt.edu/cpts/schedule.html

Disclaimer: This is not a blog entry. It is just me shouting-out from my isolated (and connected) satellite tower. The view from here is beautiful btw! (Wherefrom is it not?)

On Midwives and Wisdom of Unconscious~

Teaching, to me, is an art. And like some other art forms, I associate tremendous sanctity with it. It is a profession of practicing ethics, discipline, and love, while facilitating students to discover knowledge/concepts. 

There is a theory in 'Karma Yoga' that has also been believed in by some psychologists/psychiatrists like M. Scott Peck, Carl Jung - "wisdom of unconscious".

The theory goes on like this for me:

Our un/sub-conscious is all knowing, supremely fast and efficient in perceiving, calculating and predicting. All the knowledge and wisdom that we can gain at any instance already resides within us. 

Like the baby that is inherently present inside the womb of the pregnant female! She can not birth a baby that is not inside her womb already!

And, so is with knowledge:  At a given instance (x,y,z,t,...) one can not learn what one's un/sub-conscious does not know already.

Learning then becomes the process of allowing the subconscious to rearrange its knowledge in a way that is comprehensible to our loud, chattering conscious minds. 

(And learning is often tough, just like birthing a baby. For both involve bringing out what is inside in dark out onto the loud chattering perceivable/thinkable existence. )

Midwives can only facilitate the process of birthing. They can not make a baby out of this air. She is not the source. 

And, teachers can only facilitate the process of learning. They can not impart any knowledge to students. 

They can only help students to discover themselves, their wisdom, and their knowledge - through their words, engagement, or any other tool that they can employ. 

In the Classroom: 

Somethings that we heard in our GEDI class and elsewhere (I am heavily paraphrasing it):

1) Some students are just not ready and engaged no matter what we do. 

2) Teaching is a two way process- both students and teachers have to be ready.

3) Sometimes it has to click. We might 'know' (have memorized by rote) something, but the knowledge has to 'click' to actually 'know'.

Some stuff we might have experienced in a classroom setting:

1) The moments in which learning really happens- whether it is during brief moments in a class, or a homework that is due in 20 minutes. Those moments are so like Csikszentmihalyi's flow experience. Silent.

2) The 'aha' moment!  As if we always knew the truth (the knowledge), but did not know that we knew! Or, never thought of it that way!

To me these are multiple lines of evidence that we only learn what we already have in our shadows and   quiet shelves of our brain. We can only learn what we are ready to learn. 

And, then to me, the teacher is no more than a mid-wife - a facilitator. That is it! 

A very important facilitator though :=)

Emphasis, Directive, Apathy, and Hope

In our last class, we travelled over to three utterly different and beautiful countries: El Salvador, Ecuador, and China.

What a beautiful trip it was!

El Salvador has a remarkable UN
Development Index  record for South America

What strikes me most is how the government emphasizes so well on primary education in El Salvador! Wow! Hopefully soon they will have their citizens well-equipped to accept and find information and knowledge. Government ensures that students are well cared for at least until the 'highschool' equivalent exam.

 The Biodiverse Ecuador!

I continued with amazement how Ecuador's government is so eager for stepping up to provide world-class vocational and college education. Their emphasis on training teachers and researchers from abroad, providing free college education based on merit- blew my mind away!!

The key phrase that is on my mind for these two beautiful nations are: Emphasis on Education on Primary and College/Vocational Level. They are doing their best in providing the facilities for their citizens to make use of opportunities and even create new opportunities.

 And, then we travelled off to China. China the majestic with a long standing history! Image of an extremely competitive and fiercely directed education system came on my mind as our colleague (Juan Ma) described the education system in China.
The state decides when students sleep, the states decides how many students go into engineering and how many into other streams. The key phrase for me was: State Directed Education.

and the Formidable economic giant of China!

The state perhaps takes on a very active and important role in imparting higher education! I am amazed at how involved the state is! With such a huge country, I can only try to imagine what humongous infrastructure they must have built to make such state directed education a reality! Woah! Woah!

 Golden Temple, India: A much complicated system

Today, hopefully, Sabithulla and I, (me/myself/mine??) will take the class for a tour to India and our educational system.
What scares me most is talking about what I have experienced, through me, my friends, people whose stories I have heard, read, and google! Apathy! Goverment apathy when it comes to emphasizing adequately on universal education. Apathy when it comes to directing education and enforcing standards. Apathy when it comes to the future of our youth!

Yet, on paper we are an amazing educational system! We have a vast net of very accessible universities, and free universal education for kids. I do not have answers to questions I ask myself about our education system. It is extremely daunting for me to face the class today as I present our highly divided (economically, regionally, socially) education system.



Yet, within this painful disparity, I have often found hope! Like islands in vast lost ocean ride! Like oasis in desert- a mirage come real- in form of students from extremely poor background (poverty beyond what words can do justice to) in one of our internationally esteemed technical colleges, with merit-cum-means scholarships.
Hope in form, of those multiple holes-in-the-walls that are busy allowing children to educate themselves. And, stories these students tell when they have done beyond everyone's (anyone's) wildest dreams:

Hope, the sweetest of all~