Machines That Sense, Think, And Act

If you have built a simple robot from your lego kit or participated in First Lego League competitions at your school, you are familiar with the basics of robotics. Robotics involves designing machines that can “sense, think and act” by themselves. It is a continuous cycle where you sense the world, think about it, and act – and your action will change the world, so you sense again, think and act. Robots are machines that can do all three (sense-think-act) without human intervention. And if anything violates this principle, then it is not a robot. Sense-Think-Act Sensing can be done in many...

My Work: Flying Cameras, Painter Robots

I am a roboticist and computer vision researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Much of my work is at the intersection of robotics and computer vision. The best way to describe my research interests is through an example. After 15 years of working as a professor, I took a leave of absence and joined Skydio as the chief scientist. A Thinking Drone! Skydio is a drone company that creates flying cameras. The drone follows you as you bike, run, or surf and creates beautiful videos of you doing the activity, that you can then share with your friends. We wanted to build a drone that does...

Meet Connor Regan From Google

At Google, Connor Regan leads a program called Be Internet Awesome, which teaches kids 7-12 years old about topics like cyberbullying, phishing, and password security. His team has designed a game called Interland , which allows students to learn about Internet safety while having fun. Connor was introduced to computers by his grandparents, who lived close to his home and with whom he spent many summers. He mostly played video games and created long lists! While studying in college, he realized he enjoyed working in the "real world" and after nine internships, he landed at Google. Connor...

How My Interest In Computers Began

You wouldn't think a five-year-old would be interested in building fountains, right? Well, that was me, engineering a fountain that my parents bought me in my backyard! I grew up in Southern California, so I spent a lot of time outdoors in the sunshine tinkering. A big part of growing up for me was learning on my own, exploring, and building things. Playing Game With Grandparents! My grandparents were one of the biggest influences in my life, especially as it relates to my interest in technology. I’ve always had a really close relationship with them and in the summers I spent a lot of time at...

Connor Regan

I lead a program at Google called Be Internet Awesome, which aims to teach children the skills they need to be smart and safe online.

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Con un programa en Google llamado Internet Awesome, el cual tiene como objetivo enseñar a los niños las destrezas para estar seguros en línea

What Does Internet Safety Mean?

The Internet has become a big part of our lives these days. We access the web to research new topics, complete assignments for school and communicate with friends. It can be a place for us to discover new passions, be entertained, and develop skills for the future too. But you may have also heard your parents and teachers caution you about being safe online. But what exactly does “staying safe on the Internet” mean? Usually, this phrase refers to common-sense safety practices that we should apply in the “online world” just as we do in the “real world.” In the “real world” you, of course,...

Teaching Kids Through A Game!

At Google, I lead a program called Be Internet Awesome, which teaches kids 7-12 years old about topics like cyberbullying, phishing, and password security. We do this through a game called Interland, which allows students to learn about Internet safety while having fun. My work ranges from game development to creating a curriculum. I work with engineers to work out ways that Interland can be made more fun and challenging, and have even greater learning outcomes. I also work on the marketing and promotion of the program and try and get it in the hands of as many kids as possible. I go to...

Arun Sethuraman: Personal Story

Like a lot of you, I grew up watching detective shows on television – ranging from Scooby Doo cartoons, to the drama on CSI, to the sometimes scary reality of The New Detectives, and The First 48. On those shows, forensic labs could use a drop of blood or a single hair left behind at a crime scene to positively identify a criminal. I didn’t have the internet to tell me “how” they did it – it all seemed magical. This was back in the 1990s – a time when genetic technology was making monster steps towards better methods to nail criminals in courts. I was instantly hooked, and I wanted to learn...

Bioinformatics: Where Computers Meet Biology!

Biology is the study of life, and informatics is the science of processing information with computers. Thus, bioinformatics is the science of using computers to answer biological questions. Computers today are capable of designing new vaccines, tracing the ancestry of one person thousands of years back, and identifying a criminal with nearly 100% accuracy from just a speck of blood. None of these tasks would be possible without advances in bioinformatics. Let’s look at a simple example to understand how a biological problem can be solved using bioinformatics. Putting Two And Two Together All...

Studying How Mice Adapt To Changes

In the previous article, I showed you how we can study fundamental biological questions using bioinformatics. But that is just one part of the story. What would happen if these red and white mice were moved to an environment that was bad for the red mice? Or what would happen if you separated the mice into different environments? These are the questions that I am interested in and continue to address through my research. But first things first, we need to understand DNA. To read more about DNA and genome, read our previous article here. What Happens When A Population Splits? When a population...

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