‘Over-the-top’ science fair art to transform Point Pelee National Park

Science and Health

Article contentVisitors to the Canadian mainland’s southernmost point will be in for a whimsical treat this October, as Windsor artists turn the park into a carnival-like fair — blending art with interactive science exhibits. “People will be having a day at the park with their families and then this really absurdist artwork is going to interrupt it,” said Jennifer Willet, one of hundreds of artists participating in the provincewide Ontario Culture Days from September 20 to October 13.Article contentWillet is a Canadian artist, researcher, and curator. She is a professor in the School of Creative Arts and a Canada Research Chair in Art, Science and Ecology at the University of Windsor.Her work, Baroque Biology, will be presented — through experimentation, storytelling, sculpture, parades and performance — during an outdoor art and science fair at Point Pelee National Park on Sunday, October 6, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. “The main goal of my art is making art,” Willet said. “I’m really interested in whimsical, creative engagement with science and technology in the living world.“My work is very beautiful. It’s very over-the-top.” Domenica Mediati, left, lab coordinator and Jennifer Willet, director, of the Incubator Art Lab in downtown Windsor are shown Sept. 4, 2024 with a piece that will be featured in the upcoming Ontario Culture Days event. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor StarThe Ontario Culture Days festival is an annual celebration of arts, culture and heritage across Ontario.Organizers work with artists of all disciplines to produce installations, performances and community-based activities for the free provincewide festival.“The goal is to really engage the general public in the art world and the art and culture scene,” Willet told the Star. “It’s also promotes what we do on a larger scale — outside of museums, galleries and those types of things.”Article contentWillet works in a field called BioArt, which is art and biotechnology. Her work is centred around scientific processes, procedures, and living organisms. Jennifer Willet, director of the Incubator Art Lab in downtown Windsor, is shown on Sept. 4, 2024, with a piece that will be featured in the Ontario Culture Days festival. Photo by Dan Janisse /Windsor Star“I’ve lived now in Windsor for 16 years,” Willet said. “I worked hard to educate myself on the Great Lakes Basin and our local ecology. This work really delves into that.“For example, one of the pieces is called the Great Lakes Algae Organ. It’s a large bicycle-pulled street organ. It looks like a Dutch street organ, like something from a fair, and it plays music, but it also is an algae farm, and I use it as a way to talk to audiences about algae in the Great Lakes region.“If I create some sort of, like, really elaborate, wonderful, immersive art experience, the next thing you know, people are talking about algae and they’re learning about algae science on a weekend with their families.”Recommended from Editorial UWindsor professor selected for Ontario creative arts festival Windsor’s Carrousel of Nations retains crown as Ontario’s best festival The Arts Council Windsor & Region will provide a free round trip bus excursion to Point Pelee National Park on Sunday, October 6. The bus trip begins at 11 a.m. from ArtSpeak Gallery in Walkerville. For more information about Ontario Culture Days or to register for the bus trip, visit the online website [email protected] this article in your social network

Warwickshire homebuilder highlights mental health awareness with book donation to local school

Arts & Culture, Books

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565Visit Shots! nowLuxury homebuilder Mulberry Homes has donated mental health books to a primary school in Houlton, Rugby, to highlight Youth Mental Health Day on 19th September.Houlton St Gabriel’s CofE Academy, which is just one and a half miles away from the homebuilder’s Mulberry Homes at Houlton development, received a bundle of books which tackle sensitive subjects including emotions and grief. A spokesperson at Houlton St Gabriel’s CofE, said: “We are very grateful to Mulberry Homes for this donation. Children’s mental health is massively important, and these books are a great entry point for our children to speak about their feelings.” Youth Mental Health Day is aimed to encourage an open dialogue between young people about their mental health and any struggles they may be facing. The awareness day aims to break down the stigma surrounding mental health. Use the ‘Submit a Story’ link to tell us your news.Kerry Jones, Sales and Marketing Director at Mulberry Homes, said: “We are delighted to have supported Houlton St Gabriel’s CofE this Youth Mental Health Day. With our donation, we hope to encourage an open discussion about how children feel and their mental health.” Established in 2011 and based in Warwickshire, Mulberry Homes is a medium housebuilder that provides quality properties across the wider midlands and southern counties. It specialises in individual and exclusive developments with their own looks and personalities and builds traditional homes with modern layouts. Continue Reading

Europe is bidding a steady farewell to passport-free travel

Travel

Staring out over France and Germany from the vine-covered hills of Schengen, a village at the southern tip of Luxembourg, it is hard to tell where one country ends and the other begins. That is in no small part thanks to a deal signed there in 1985, which committed the Benelux countries, France and Germany to abolish the frontiers separating them. The Schengen passport-free travel area has since grown to include most of the 450m citizens of the European Union’s 27 countries, and some neighbours too. Keen to capture the mysterious essence of Euro-federalism, a trickle of tourists still flock to the village where it all started, as Charlemagne did this week. Alas, visitors face three kinds of disappointment. First, a museum celebrating the agreement is currently under renovation. Second, the village has turned into a Saudi prince’s fantasy: with just a few hundred inhabitants, it has eight sprawling petrol stations in its vicinity, serving motorists keen to fill their tanks before leaving low-tax Luxembourg. Finally, and most distressingly, the freedom of travel that put the place on the map is steadily being chipped away. A symbol of the EU’s success at bringing countries together risks succumbing to reinvigorated nationalism across the bloc.

Beyond NYU: Taking mind control past ‘science fiction’ and into the world

Science and Health

CAS alum Aryan Govil came up with a life-changing idea while bored in a biochemistry class at NYU: a way to make mind control a reality. In the summer after his junior year, Govil co-founded Synaptrix Labs, where he is creating a brain-computer interface device that people with limited mobility can use to operate a wheelchair using only their mind. 
Since then, Govil said he has received over $500,000 from venture capital, $100,000 from Microsoft and a combined $50,000 from NYU and the University of California, Berkeley to develop this technology. Now, Synaptrix Labs is working to raise $5 million to expand its initiative. 
In an interview with WSN, Govil talked about his inspiration for creating Synaptrix Labs, fundraising for a startup and submitting a device to the Food and Drug Administration. 
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 
WSN: How did NYU support you in the process of creating Synaptrix Labs? 
Govil: One of the things that NYU does really well is they support student research. None of this would have happened if we didn’t get $1,000 from them. Seems simple — it’s $1,000 — but there’s not a lot of universities that do that. NYU has an Entrepreneurial Institute, the ELab, and it’s a full startup program. We took part in it this past summer and worked with the team there. We’ve worked a lot with NYU — with their research teams, with their team at the Entrepreneurial Institute at CAS. There are very limited schools in the United States that would really support students starting their companies, but NYU is definitely one of them.
Growing up in the Bay Area, Govil said he was inspired to pursue neuroscience after volunteering in a senior care home specializing in Alzheimer’s disease and seeing the devastating effects that complex neurological conditions had on patients and their families. 
Govil founded Synaptrix Labs with his roommate Eric Yao, both of whom graduated from NYU in 2024. He received the DURF grant from the College of Arts & Science — which awards students up to $1,000 for their research projects — to start working on Neuralis, a device that allows people experiencing paralysis to control their wheelchair movement with their minds. 
WSN: What is it like to watch Neuralis come to life? 
Govil: It’s a magical thing. You wear the device — it’s a headband — and you think about moving in a direction and just go. I remember when we just moved into our new apartment, we connected it to a remote-control car, and we’re driving this car around the apartment without a controller. Now, to bring this technology to patients is hopefully going to be magical for them as well.
Neuralis, Synaptrix Labs’ largest project, works with sensors placed over the patient’s occipital lobe to track visual cues and move the wheelchair in whichever direction the patient thinks of. The team is currently in the process of setting up its own clinical trial and one in conjunction with Columbia University. 
Govil said that the company met with the FDA on Wednesday to receive feedback on Neuralis and plans to officially pitch the device in December. The team, which includes four full-time employees, hopes to gain FDA approval by next spring and begin distributing Neuralis to patients worldwide.  
WSN: What are some of the challenges you face while leading Synaptrix Labs? 
Govil: A lot of the work that we’re doing is things that people consider to be science fiction. We say we’re in the business of taking the impossible and making it possible. One of the funniest things we realized when we started the company is if you Google anything, there are no search results for what we’re trying to do. There’s no Reddit thread, there’s no forums — there’s nothing. If we have an error, we have to figure that out, and that’s challenging.
The FDA application fee for upcoming technology is around $160,000. Govil said that the company plans to raise $5 million in the next nine months to continue expanding and developing Neuralis, and will continue to work on other projects in Synaptrix Labs as well — including a non-invasive device that allows patients with speech aphasia to communicate by placing sensors on their vocal muscles. 
One of the most important things to Govil throughout the process is tracking patient happiness as they use the Labs’ devices. He and his team conduct regular quality-of-life surveys with their patients to ensure that the device is improving their mental well-being as well as their mobility. 
WSN: What do you see in the future of Synaptrix Labs? 
Govil: We test with patients here in New York City and their families, and they’re really excited for the day where they can actually keep the device and use them day to day. It works. It really works, and it’s really magical. The quicker we get this done, the quicker millions of people around America have access to mobility, which I think is beautiful.
Contact Rory Lustberg at [email protected].

Indian American whose work has impacted billions around the world awarded 2024 Millennium Technology Prize: Professor B. Jayant Baliga

Technology

– ADVERTISEMENT – “The man with the world’s largest negative carbon footprint”Professor B. Jayant Baliga. PHOTO: NCSU.eduIn yet another example of what immigrants have contributed to the United States, North Carolina State University Professor B. Jayant Baliga was awarded the 2024 Millennium Technology Prize earlier this month. Professor Baliga’s work on the invention, development and commercialization of insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), has played a critical role in energy efficiency for technologies worldwide.Forbes called Baliga, “the man with the world’s largest negative carbon footprint” and that reputation may get further enhanced as the Indian American professor continues to work on new inventions related to solar power and delivery, as well as Artificial Intelligence.The Millennium Technology Prize, which comes with a 1 million euros award, is the most prestigious international award focused on recognizing technological innovation, a September 4, 2024, news report on the NCSU website says. Baliga is the Progress Energy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State. The formal award ceremony will take place October 30 in Finland.The IGBT invented by Prof. Baliga, is an energy-saving semiconductor switch that controls the flow of power from an electrical energy source to any application that needs energy. It improves energy efficiency by more than 40 percent in a wide range of products from cars and light bulbs to cardiac defibrillators.According to estimates, the IGBT has reduced global carbon dioxide emissions by over 82 gigatons (180 trillion pounds) over the past 30 years. “This is equivalent to offsetting carbon dioxide emissions from all human activity for three years, based on average emissions of the past 30 years,” the news report said.The IGBT Device: Physics, Design, and Applications of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (Book 2015). PHOTO-NCSU.EDU“The IGBT has already had and continues to have a major impact on supporting sustainability with improved living standards worldwide, while mitigating environmental impact,” Minna Palmroth, chair of the Board of Technology Academy Finland, which gives the prize, is quoted saying.. “The main solution to tackle global warming is electrification and moving to renewable energy. The IGBT is the key enabling technology in addressing these issues.”Baliga said, “It is very exciting to have been selected for this great honor,” noting how ubiquitous IGBT is in the everyday life of billions of people worldwide. The graduate of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, has at least 123 patents and has receives scores of awards and recognitions during his career.His split-gate power MOSFET is widely manufactured for use in laptops, PCs and servers. And his silicon carbide inventions – including the JBS rectifier and shielded channel power MOSFET – are used in a variety of state-of-the-art electrical power management technologies, the news report said.After graduating from IIT Madras in Electrical Engineering, Prof. Baliga received his Masters and Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, NY. According to his bio on the NCState website, he is a Member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE. He spent 15 years at the General Electric Research and Development Center, Schenectady, NY, leading their power device effort and was bestowed the highest scientific rank of Coolidge Fellow. He joined NC State in 1988 as a Full Professor and was promoted to the rank of ‘Distinguished University Professor’ in 1997. Among his many NC State honors, he was the recipient of the 1998 O. Max Gardner Award given by the North Carolina University Board of Governors to the one person within the 16 constituent universities who has made ‘the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race’; and the 2011 Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal of Excellence, the highest honor at NC State from the Board of Trustees.Prof. Baliga has authored/edited 18 books and over 500 scientific articles.   He received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the highest form of recognition given to an engineer by the United States Government, from President Obama in October 2011, at the White House. Previous Post Next Post Coming Soon…

‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’: Anees Bazmee reveals the film will be bigger and better than the prequel

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Bollywood cinephiles are in for a treat! A grand showdown will ensure between two of 2024’s most anticipated releases. On Diwali of 2024, Anees Bazmee’s ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ will fight head-on with Rohit Shetty’s ‘Singham Again.’ While reports surfaced that Kartik Aaryan, the leading man of the upcoming horror-comedy reached out to Rohit Shetty to seek the actioner’s postponement, it didn’t materialise. ‘Singham Again’ expressed its confidence by deciding not to budge. With the highly intriguing battle set, Anees Bazmee has piqued curiosities with ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.’
Also Read: ‘Singham Again’ to NOT get postponed! Confirmed clash with ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’

The film is the third instalment of the cult classic horror-comedy franchise and the second collaboration between Aaryan and Bazmee. The duo delivered the blockbuster ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2′ which also starred Tabu and Kiara Advani. While fans were sceptical about whether Kartik Aaryan would be able to match Akshay Kumar’s ‘Bhool Bhuliyaa,’ Aaryan managed to win hearts with his rendition of Rooh Baba. The third instalment already has fans on the edge of their seats with its cast. Moreover, filmmaker Anees Bazmee ensures that the anticipation meter keeps hitting new highs. With Aaryan reprising his role, the film will also bring back the original Manjulika, Vidya Balan. Additionally, they are joined by Madhuri Dixit and Triptii Dimri.

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