Inspiring the Next Generation - Teaching Robotics

Part of the ICEX goals this year have been reaching out to elementary school aged children and introducing them to robotics and inspiring them to go into science and technology fields. During the quarter back at Cal Poly, we visited two different 2^nd grade classrooms at Pacheco elementary school every Wednesday. We switched off between the classrooms and had hands-on lessons that talked about design, testing and programming. It was very successful. The kids seemed to really enjoy it and retain a lot of what we taught. We even got a book of thank you notes written by all the students afterward – a nice touch.

Originally, that was going to be the extent of our outreach. At the suggestion of Timmy though, we packed a suitcase full of little robots so we could continue the lessons at several Maltese grade schools. We started off with a brief lecture about different types of robots and introduced the robots we brought and the paper disks used to program them.

The disks we used were small circular pieces of paper (that we had to individually cut out beforehand). The robots have two sensors that read the disk as it rotates and determines if the 2 rows of squares are black or white. Depending on the combination of black and white, the robot will go forward, stop, or turn left or right.

We then broke the students into groups of 3-4 and let them each “program” the robot to navigate a simple maze we created on the floor with tape by coloring disks with black pencils and pens. Overall, the students were very excited about it and there were several students who even inquired about where they could get their own robot so they could do more on their own.

It was encouraging to be so enthusiastically received by both the students and faculty of the schools and in addition to being a good educational experience for the students there, it was a great experience for the ICEX team as well to be able to talk with so many students (who represented a variety of ethnic backgrounds).

(More?) Hardware Repair

So we decided to stay home on Thursday (March 10th) after running into some hardware troubles on Wednesday and ended up getting a lot of troubleshooting done. Our major goals for the day were making the partial ROV water-proof so that we could check its depth sensor in our makeshift pool (a large trashcan), checking the depth sensor of the full ROV, and doing some work on one of our tethers so that we could get full communication with the ROV (one of the problems we experienced Wednesday).

Tyler and I worked with the ROV and Brig and Jeff took on the tether job. We hoped to meet up later in the day to connect the 2 hopefully-fixed pieces of hardware. Tyler and I put the trashcan into the shower and filled it up with water.

We waterproofed the partial ROV and put it in the water for the first time since we've been here in Malta (we had been primarily using it for parts). We used both ROVs and both of our control boxes to test the depth sensors. We received inconsistent readings of depth on the control boxes, and could not communicate with the sonar unit at all. After some testing, we took a break and got some McDonald's coffee down the road. We were even graced by Timmy's presence midway through our day.

Jeff came down and finished up splicing the new piece of the tether together so that we could combine our jobs from the day.

The fixed tether solved the sonar communication problem completely! We now knew that the problem was in the other tether (the one not spliced) so we could now actually get sonar data from the cave! We also tested both cables connected in tandem so that we might be able to get some extra length in the huge cave. The cables connected and were able to control the ROV, but we still did not have sonar communication, which again assured us that the error was within the tether.

The final step was to waterproof the new connection. This required wrapping each connection in electrical tape to prevent shorts, sealing all the connections with epoxy, heat shrinking the epoxy, covering this in a sturdy hose-like wrap, and finally epoxying the ends of the cover.

By the end of the day, the ROVs were back together and waterproofed, and the tether could now communicate with the sonar. Although we lost a day at the cave, we were able to successfully remedy some major problems, and the entire team felt like it was a good choice.

The Cave

Today (Wednesday) we began exploring a cave at St. George's Bay in St. Julian's. It was huge! It is this large, deep pool of water contained completely in this cave. We had a bit of a trek to get to the entrance, and when we got there, we had to walk down a staircase which led to the water. We set up our equipment up near the entrance so we had some light to work in, and Andy and Brig practiced their driving skills for the first time since we've been here in Malta.

Unfortunately, like yesterday, we had a lot of technical problems with the sonar communication (a relatively new problem since Chris showed up...impeccable timing). We ended up deciding to not dedicate too much time initially to troubleshooting the problem, and get on with exploring the cave. We took a lot of video and really just wanted to get a feel for the size and environment of the cave. With 3 days to explore, we wanted the first day to be dedicated to getting a grasp on the cave as a whole.

Around lunchtime, we decided to pull the ROV out, and attempt to do some debugging on the sonar connection. We narrowed the problem down to the actual connection between the ROV and the tether, but were not able to come up with a solution on site.

Deciding to continue with just video, we put the ROV back in the water and I took control of the control box for awhile. My goal was to get as deep into the cave as possible, given the limited amount of cable we had.

After exploring for awhile, I hit a maximum depth of about 35 meters (114 feet!). I went into the cave as far as I could, and when I was pretty sure I had run out of cable, we decided to turn around. Upon trying to surface, I realized that there was a bit of a problem: I had created some significant snags in the tether while driving around. This was probably one of the worst tangles that the ROV had experienced thus far, according Chris, so as one could guess, there was a bit of stress around the cave site. Half of the team was down in the cave, waiting to wrap up the cable as it became untangled, while the other half watched the video feed and attempted to strategize a plan to untangle the ROV. Chris ran back and forth between the computer and the cave to try and quickly solve the problem so we didn't end up becoming completely stuck in this massive cave. It took quite awhile to remedy, but after some careful driving, we were free and to the surface. Getting stuck allowed us to more closely see some of the natural formations of the lower parts of the cave, which were super interesting!

With the significant technical problems of today, we have decided that it would be best to stay home and troubleshoot tomorrow instead of trying to explore the cave with non-functioning equipment. We hope that by Friday, we will be able to have the sonar connected so we can create some maps of the cave (not an easy task), and maybe even connect our second tether so we can explore even deeper!

Mdina, Round 1

Our site for Wednesday was within the walled city of Mdina (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mdina). The first cistern was located in a restaurant called Bacchus, which was not open for the day yet.

This caused our time for exploration to be slightly shortened, as we had to be out before they opened. After arriving, during setup and some of the time spent in the cistern, about half of the team was able to wander around the restaurant with the owner getting a bit of a history lesson. There was much history to discuss since the room was built between 1657 and 1660! Since it was before business hours, many people transporting supplies for Bacchus were filtering in and out of the front entrance where we were located. Many stopped momentarily to see what we were doing, and were very interested in our sonar maps of the underside of the restaurant as well as the images we were receiving from the VideoRay.

In an effort to rotate drivers during different sites, Christina watched closely as I drove the VideoRay through this site so she could become familiar with the logging process and hopefully gather useful data. After gathering data for awhile, the ToughBook lost communication with the control box. After a quick bit of unsuccessful troubleshooting, it was about time to leave, so we headed to the next location.

The next spot was The Mdina Experience, right down the street. There was very limited space here, and it was during normal business hours.

There was actually a tour group passing right through our site when we arrived. They watched as we brought in and setup all of our equipment, but weren't interested enough to ask any questions. We switched to the Samsung backup since we thought the problem was with the ToughBook and did not have time to continue troubleshooting it on-site. Slightly different connections had to be made when using the Samsung, since it lacked a serial port, but everything worked out and we got the VideoRay through the small entrance and into the water.

Space was limited, so team members not directly involved couldn't really be present, so exploration presented itself again!

Another restaurant was our final location of the day. The cistern here was located in the basement. We had to walk through the restaurant which caused for some further stares of the other patrons. There was an extremely narrow passageway leading down to the site, and our equipment had to make it carefully down the long staircase. To add a bit to difficulty, the passageway was lined with wine bottles so there was little room for error. Luckily, Tyler and I made it all the way down successfully.

After making it downstairs and setting up, the data collection process began. Christina drove for for the first time on this site, and did an awesome job grabbing sonar scans and video for the cistern we were on top of. This cistern was composed of a large circular room and a narrow hallway that didn't lead to anything. We ended our day here, and loved the view off the balcony behind the restaurant!

A Troublesome Start

Unfortunately, our first technical blog will start a bit dreary. After the hustle and bustle of our many flights, and the changing of connections with our luggage, damage was done to the ROV’s stand. The picture shown below illustrates the complete fracture of the stand in two areas, leaving the stand unstable and hardly strong enough to hold its own weight on dry land. Our second technical problem of the day was also a result of the long journey and the solution to this problem is yet to be solved. One of the control boxes for the ROV no longer shows a display reading any of the crucial coordinates such as compass direction, depth and time. Although these technical problems are certainly not a great way to start our research in Malta, we still maintained high spirits and worked to solve these problems before days end.

Before we could fix these issues we needed to calibrate the depth sensor on the ROV with an air gun to 50 psi. The ROV uses a pressure reading to determine an accurate depth measurement shown in the control box. The problem was we did not have an air gun but luckily Timmy’s close friend Erin was here to help. Erin was kind enough to pick up Joseph and I, along with the ROV, took us to his boat on a small island called Manoel to calibrate the depth sensor. The first obstacle came in the form of a 3 foot gap between the landing and the 1 ft wide ramp leading to the boat with the equipment needed to calibrate the ROV. What would normally be a simple stretch or a light jump became very difficult with a large 45 lb. box holding the cables to the ROV. I almost attempted the jump but realized that would not end well and convinced Erin to dangerously lean over the ramp and grab the box from me. With the first hurdle out of the way we proceeded to calibrate the depth sensor with an air compressor he had on board the boat. Erin did not have the proper fighting to pressurize the small hole in the ROV to 50 psi but with a little ingenuity and some quick thinking by Erin we were able to cut the air hose and create a seal around the pressure sensor. After a few failed attempts at calibrating the pressure sensor, Joe and I timed the air gun to get the pressure coming from the gun to be 50 psi right when Joe pressed the calibrate button, ensuring an accurate calibration. Our test with Erin’s underwater sonar matched the readings we were seeing on the control box ensuring our make-shift calibration was successful. After all the troubles of getting the correct pressure dialed-in, the depth calibration was finally correct but there was still the ROV stand and the control box to fix.

Although our ROV stand was broken, our backup (nonfunctional) ROV became very useful for spare parts and the stability was renewed again when we switched the two stands. We were unable to fix the control box for the time being but we believe it may just be a loose connection and we will investigate this problem as soon as we are able to.

Picture: The ROV's fractured stand (some of us may refer to them as the "legs" of the robot)

Research Project Discussion at Backstage - 2/15/11

So I got one picture...

Hopefully it's an okay summary of our meeting with Timmy Gambin and the awesome insights he was able to give into our individual research projects and also just some useful general knowledge about Malta.

Can't wait to talk with him more!

Malta's Sense of Self

It is quite remarkable to see how large of an influence and impact religion has on the tiny island of Malta, especially in more recent history. A 90% Christian population is not a statistic to be overlooked, and is one that falls in the top 20 countries that have high Christian percentages. As such an overwhelmingly large percentage of the people are Christian, it has become a defining factor of being Maltan since the times of St. Paul. The (relatively) recent sense of independence that Malta has experienced has produced a constitution that allows for “freedom” of religion, but at the same time declares Christianity (Roman Catholicism) as a state religion. For me at least, these seem nearly contradictory. Having a state religion established means that the government, in a way, expects the Maltese to be Christian. This leads to political decisions being aimed towards what may be religiously “correct” (i.e. ones that may promote religious ideals rather than ones that may progress the country as a whole: realize these two are not always correlated). I realize that this is simply the norm in Malta, and is likely generally regarded as a perfectly acceptable and reasonable method of making decisions. It is simply difficult for me, a member of another country which is in many respects different from this religious extreme, to understand how it has become the social norm.

In a bit of irony, the other largest defining aspect of being Maltese, based on a few of the readings, is the Maltese language itself. An extremely small number of people speak it in the world, making it unique and its speakers identifiable. The irony comes from its origins: the Arab invasion in 870 CE. This left an Islamic influence on the Maltese culture during that time which has propagated and can be seen in various aspects even today including the naming of some towns and villages. The fact that these influences are Arab in nature, conflicts with the extreme part of the culture that is now Christian. If being Maltese means pulling from conflicting ideals, it is interesting that it persists (a bit of what Dr. Gambin spoke about) throughout the culture.

Furthermore, this strong sense of belonging and the specific identifiers that the Maltese use in present day are quite different to Malta historically. Malta, being a pit-stop along trade routes and a country that has simply been ruled by the current world power (which has switched many times), has had a difficult time establishing traits that set it apart from other areas of Europe. It has simply been mainly an extension of other cultures. But since gaining its independence, it has developed a sense of self. It uses the traits discussed above, and has very recently (2004) joined the EU as its own nation. These steps of independence mark important milestones in Malta’s development. To quote Dr. Gambin again, Malta is in a state of adolescence as a country, and is still “finding itself,” which I find extremely interesting.

(502)

http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/irf/2009/127324.htm

http://www.guidetomalta.net/malta-culture/maltese-culture-religion/

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20080726/opinion/true-maltese-identity

http://www.maltabulb.com/maltese_culture.html

More pool tests

A few more pictures from the recent pool test where we got to drive the ROV around with the joystick

The Pool!

Just wanted to share that we got the ROV in our pool and drove it around with the joystick and toughbook today. Yay!

And we had the IVER in and doing missions. Yay!

Pics:

Jennifer took a couple of the ROV (I think...) but I don't have those ones.

How Minority Groups in Malta are Kept Oppressed and Potential Solutions through Education

Abstract

Women have had an extremely difficult time gaining equality in many scenarios in Malta, especially those in STEM fields. Likewise, various minorities have also struggled to gain equal rights and opporunities. Physical abuse or simple lack of education are a couple of the many factors that keep these minority groups where they are in the social ladder. In addition to exploring further causes to how and why these groups are kept as lower class citizens than the working white male, I hope to uncover potential progress in more contemporary scenarios, as well as possible solutions. While I am a fan of further and complete education to solve problems including these, other methods are brought up and discussed through various sources, so I anticipate a wide variety of options.

Annotated Bibliography

Attard, G. (2010, June 16). Maternity, paternity leave – the other side of the coin. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from National Council of Women of Malta: http://www.ncwmalta.com/maternitypaternityleave

This article, written by president of the National Council of Women of Malta, stresses the importance of equality for women with dependent children in the workplace. Even recently, there is an overwhelming gap between employment rates of men compared to that of women (over 25%). In the article, Attard stresses the importance of keeping women in the labor market: mainly due to the fact that when women are forced to leave jobs due to pregnancy, they often do no return. This article in particular will be useful in my research because it is a prime example of how women are far from equal to men (in the workplace in particular). It also provides slight suggestions to go about possibly remedying this problem in the Maltese society. Unfortunately, it is only one of the many problem areas that women face, but, according to Attard, is one on the forefront of being remedied. I believe that the solution will be a stepping stone to fixing various other problems as well, so I understand Attard's focus and commitment.

Attard, G. (2008, July 25). Sending a strong message against violence – More action for less violence. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from National Council of Women of Malta: http://www.ncwmalta.com/councilviews?id=6

Another large problem women face is one of domestic violence. Statistics show that "one in three women will be victims of violence during their lifetime" and that "more women die from the consequences of violence than from cancer." This is a horrible problem that women face in not just Malta but Europe as a whole. It is also a problem that creates fundamental problems of equality between women and men: one that cannot be overcome without significant outside influence. It is a problem that perpetuates the dominant image of the male. This is an extremely important point in my research and gives one fundamental cause (or continuation) of this drastic inequality. I think the method of solving this problem provided by Attard is an important: one that is the responsibility of all society to combat, which I believe will play a large role in my research.

Caruana-Dingli, M. (2005). Integrating ICT and multicultural aspects within a classroom: the SAIL project. Intercultural Education , 16 (4), 395-404.

This article focuses on using Information and Communication Technology in the classroom to more effectively teach, but more importantly, stress the involvement and education of minority groups. There is an important overlap here between minority groups and technology, although maybe not the traditional one (in the workforce). This article brings education into the picture, which I would also like to focus on somewhat for my research project. Fundamentally, I believe with better, or maybe more appropriate, education, many problems that exist can begin to be dissolved. Notably, when the education of minority groups is becoming more effective, which is where the SAIL (Specialized Animated Interactive Learning) program becomes important.

Fenech, D. (1999). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 457-463.

Fenech, D. (2000). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 458-461.

Fenech, D. (2001). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 361-364.

Fenech, D. (2002). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1033-1036.

Fenech, D. (2003). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1026-1028.

Fenech, D. (2004). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1078-1083.

Fenech, D. (2005). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1119-1123.

Fenech, D. (2006). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1198-1200.

Fenech, D. (2007). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1038-1040.

Fenech, D. (2008). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1071-1073.

Fenech, D. (2009). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1047-1051.

Fenech, D. (2010). Malta. European Journal of Political Research , 1089-1094.

The above twelve articles are going to used essentially as a single reference. They are mostly short articles of statistics about demographics within Malta over various years. These statistics include significant amounts of data about elections and political proceedings throughout their respective years. What I found interesting, and hope to use to my advantage, are the statistics about the political offices held during each year. Also provided (and arguably the most important part to me and my research project), is the gender of the office holder. I think it will be interesting and insightful to compare all of the years provided to one another to see if female prevalence in political offices increases at all over the 12 years I have. Also noted in the last 6, are prevalent issues in national policies throughout the year: these may touch on issues both about women and people of color, which would aid towards my project.

Knepper, P. (2009). The 'White Slave Trade and the Music Hall Affair in 1930 Malta. Journal of Contemporary History , 44 (2), 205-220.

This article focuses on the 1930s in Malta which aroused allegations of prostitution of English women who were present due to jobs at the Music Hall. These happened to be false, but spawned an investigation of these types of practices which aimed at foreigners. This article is especially interesting because the military forces from Britain that came in to deal with the problem shifted focus to the “immoral character of women” rather than the problem at hand. This is a point which has many implications and will hopefully contribute to my research project with some useful points. This Music Hall Affair did not end up directly affecting human rights for immigrants coming to Malta, but showed the fears of foreigners in the face of a “limited world view” as shown by those in the military.

Research Progress Report #1 - Joseph White

I will be researching the areas of gender and race differences in Malta. This will focus on positions of these demographics in both professional and households fields as well as in, specifically, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. One note: in the household environment, I have found that domestic violence is exceedingly prevalent. It seems that this fact may give a sign as to where the rest of these topics currently lie. These topics will also include historical as well as contemporary patterns of these statuses.

I am currently focused on various papers which include topics such as slavery (historical) and SAIL, a multicultural engineering project initiative (contemporary) to name just a couple. Other papers I have found do not focus directly on these topics, but I hope to find useful information within them such as specific breakdowns by year of things including population, or gender and age of political offices. This data is given for many consecutive years; therefore, I hope to see some kind of pattern or maybe see a drastic change in women’s or other civil rights as time progresses, possibly even correlating with times of other civil rights movements around the world. Interestingly, Malta did not grant women suffrage until the late 1940’s (compare this to the 1921 granting of women’s suffrage in the US). Women also did not have equal right in family law until the 1990s. It will be interesting to see how these comparatively late movements for women play into their current place in the professional fields. In regards to this, I have found that at the very least, women are extremely under-represented in management positions.

It is a bit difficult to find data due to a small amount of research done on these topics in Malta. Another challenge is looking specifically for STEM areas of interest when they concern women or people of color. This is due to the fact that most papers or sources of information simply talk about the field and the research done, rather than who is performing the research: making it difficult to identify how significant a role women and people of color played in these fields.

Concepts and themes I am focusing on include whether or not there is a significant segregation in the workforce based upon gender or ethnicity (especially in STEM fields). The approach I have found (and believe will be) most successful is not to look for articles relating to STEM and see if they touch on the subjects I am focused on: this is unrealistic. But rather look for articles focusing on women and people of color in Malta, and STEM fields will be a bonus.

I have also found a prevalence of contemporary articles as opposed to historical articles. This, I believe is for 2 reasons. One, research from Malta is somewhat rare and most research has occurred in the recent past. Second, there is more of a focus now than ever on STEM fields which promotes further publications of such topics.

I hope to narrow down my searching and specify what I should be concentrating on based on knowledge I gain from some of the articles I have. A lot of the (somewhat) historical data has given me a better idea of what to look for in regards to these topics.