The written round consisted of 4 questions related to assistive technology for people with disabilities. Question 1 was about Dot, the world's first smartwatch for the blind. Question 2 was about brain implant technology aimed at helping patients with paralysis. Question 3 discussed the mobile app Be My Eyes which connects visually impaired users with sighted volunteers. Question 4 was about a modified guitar designed for a musician who could only use one finger. The theme identified was "Technology for the Specially Abled".

1. SAMASYA 2017
REFLECTIONS 2017
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS
PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY

2. INSTRUCTIONS
• The finals consists of a clockwise round, a themed written round and an
anticlockwise round
• The dries rounds follow infinite pounce and bounce.
• +10/-10 on Pounce
• +10/0 on Bounce
• All the Best!

3. 1
• For several years, Leon Bellan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering
at Vanderbilt University, has been tinkering with ______ _____ machines,
getting them to spin out networks of tiny threads comparable in size, density
and complexity to the patterns formed by capillaries
• His goal has been to make fiber networks that can be used as templates to
produce the capillary systems required to create full-scale artificial organs.
• FIB with a sweet treat

5. ANSWER
Cotton Candy

6. 2
• A long lost essay, “Are We Alone in the Universe?”, written by an unlikely
author recently resurfaced at the US National X Museum at Westminster
College in Missouri.
• In the essay, X ponders the conditions that make for a habitable world, and
on considering the vast number of stars perhaps circled by alien planets,
comes to the conclusion that the answer to the essay’s title question was
surely a resounding “no”.
• “What’s so amazing about the piece is that here is a man, arguably the
greatest statesperson of the twentieth century, and in 1939 he not only has
the interest, but finds the time, to write an essay about a purely scientific
question.” (Image follows)

9. ANSWER
• Winston Churchill

10. 3
• A typical device utilizes an electronic processor and a pair of small LEDs facing
a photodiode through a translucent part of the patient's body, usually a fingertip or
an earlobe. One LED is red, with wavelength of 660 nm, and the other
is infrared with a wavelength of 940 nm.
• Absorption of light at these wavelengths differs significantly between blood loaded
with X and blood lacking X.
• This device is ubiquitous in healthcare centres and used in ambulances to operating
theatres. WHO claims this device has played a pivotal role in saving millions of lives,
especially minimising complications such as brain damage and deaths during
surgery under general anesthaesia, and is working to bring this device into medical
centres in the developing world
• Image follows
• Put Funda.

13. ANSWER
• Pulse Oximeter
• To monitor the oxygen levels in blood. Drop in the blood oxygen saturation is
a leading cause of surgical complications such as brain damage, paralysis and
death.

14. 4
• Most medical institutions properly dispose of surgically removed organs and
body parts after running pathological examinations in the lab. Baylor
University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas however runs a unique program
named “Heart-to-Heart” for its patients who have undergone heart
transplant surgeries.
• One such patient John Bell describes his feeling on being a part of this
program as “I can’t actually explain why. I was just almost overcome with
emotion when I was able to____ __.”
• Put Funda.

16. ANSWER
• They let the
patients hold their
own hearts

17. 5
• The picture on the following slide shows an image of a bilateral glioma, a
type of particularly aggressive and difficult to treat brain tumour
• About 50% of GBMs occupy more than one lobe of a hemisphere or are
bilateral. Tumours of this type usually arise from the cerebrum and may
exhibit the classic infiltration across the corpus callosum
• It is however referred to by a common nickname due to its appearance. Give
me the nickname.

20. ANSWER
• Butterfly Glioma

21. 6
• On the next slide is a webpage of one of the departments at the University of
Leicester.
• What does the department study?

24. ANSWER
• Time Travel!

25. 7
• Close examination of this unique creature reveals a fully visible system of
organs, including the heart, liver, and full intestinal tract. (Image Follows)
• Scientists believe that earlier frogs of this species evolved to have this trait for
camouflage; while perched on a leaf or branch, they are extremely difficult to
spot from a distance.
• Give me the name this creature gets due to this unique translucency.

28. ANSWER
• Glass Frog

29. 8
• Meet Santiago Ramón y Cajal, an artist, photographer, doctor, bodybuilder,
scientist, chess player and publisher.
• Cajal started out with an interest in the visual arts and photography — he
even invented a method for making color photos. But his father pushed him
into medical school. Without his artistic background, his work might not have
had as much impact.
• Hunched over a microscope, he made the illustrations you are about to see.
ID the human organ that he helped understand, earning him the title --Father
of Modern ____________.

32. ANSWER
• The Human Brain
• He is known as the Father of
Modern Neuroscience

33. 9
• NASA’s Jupiter orbiting mission Juno is scheduled to reach the end of the
mission during its 37th orbit (sometime around 18th February 2018) and
perform a controlled deorbit and disintegrate into Jupiter's atmosphere.
• This proposed suicide is being carried to keep the mission in accordance with
NASA’s Planetary Protection Guidelines.
• What is the central idea of these Guidelines? Put Funda.

35. ANSWER
• To prevent biological contamination of both the target celestial body and
the Earth (in the case of sample-return missions)

36. 10
• Up until her death, Margaret Ann Bulkley (1789-1865) practiced medicine
and was a surgeon in the British Army.
• When the truth about her career was revealed, she turned out to be the first
ever British female surgeon.
• What was this truth? Picture might help

39. ANSWER
• She spent her entire adult life as a man named James Barry so she could study
at a university and enrol in the army without being rejected for being a
woman.

40. WRITTEN ROUND
4 QUESTIONS OF 10 POINTS EACH
ALL QUESTIONS ARE CONNECTED BY A CENTRAL THEME
IDENTIFY THE THEME AND TAKE HOME 20 EXTRA POINTS

41. 1
• Dot is the world’s first smartwatch of its kind
• It helps its users access tweets, messages and even books anywhere at any
time.
• What makes it the first of its kind?

42. 2
• First the team placed a silicone patch, covered in a hundred tiny probes,
onto a region of their volunteers’ brains called the primary motor cortex.
This area is responsible for movement. The implant was then connected to a
computer, via a wire.
• One of the patients in the trial learned to control the cursor by imagining his
hand on top of a ball, rolling it one way or another. He quickly got the hang
of it. When faced with a keyboard he was able to move the cursor across the
screen to the desired letter and select it by thinking about clicking his
fingers.
• Who is this technology aimed at?

43. 3
• Following is the description of a mobile app ‘Be My Eyes’. It’s most important
feature is a live audio-video connection between its users.
• “Be My Eyes is all about contributing to and benefiting from small acts of
kindness, so hop on board and get involved!”
• Who uses this app and how?

44. 4
• The Kellycaster prototype features a standard X body with an adapted neck
enabling John, and other musicians, to play chords using real X strings and a
tailor-made switch interface.
• By developing a system to play the chord patterns whilst strumming or
plucking as you would on the strings, John can play the redesigned
instrument with full creative expression and dynamic as with any regular X
• ID X (Image follows)

46. EXCHANGE YOUR SHEETS
ANSWERS FOLLOW:

47. 1
• Dot is the world’s first smartwatch of its kind
• It helps its users access tweets, messages and even books anywhere at any
time.
• What makes it the first of its kind?

48. ANSWER
• Smartwatch for the Blind.
• This tool functions with six dots on four cells found on the surface of the
smartwatch. These dots will rise or lower to form 4 letters in Braille at any
time. It can connect via Bluetooth to any smartphone then retrieve and
translate the text (from an email or messaging app) into Braille for its owner.

49. 2
• First the team placed a silicone patch, covered in a hundred tiny probes,
onto a region of their volunteers’ brains called the primary motor cortex.
This area is responsible for movement. The implant was then connected to a
computer, via a wire.
• One of the patients in the trial learned to control the cursor by imagining his
hand on top of a ball, rolling it one way or another. He quickly got the hang
of it. When faced with a keyboard he was able to move the cursor across the
screen to the desired letter and select it by thinking about clicking his
fingers.
• Who is this technology aimed at?

50. ANSWER
• Patients affected with Paralysis

51. 3
• Following is the description of a mobile app ‘Be My Eyes’. It’s most important
feature is a live audio-video connection between its users.
• “Be My Eyes is all about contributing to and benefiting from small acts of
kindness, so hop on board and get involved!”
• Who uses this app and how?

52. ANSWER
• It connects visually impaired
users to sighted helpers from
around the world who help
them with everyday things
such as identifying objects,
reading sign boards etc.

53. 4
• The Kellycaster prototype features a standard X body with an adapted neck
enabling John, and other musicians, to play chords using real X strings and a
tailor-made switch interface.
• By developing a system to play the chord patterns whilst strumming or
plucking as you would on the strings, John can play the redesigned
instrument with full creative expression and dynamic as with any regular X
• ID X (Image follows)

54. • X – Guitar
• The Kellycaster is a guitar
designed to be played
using just one finger
• It was conceived by John
Kelly who is on the right
in this picture

55. THEME
• Technology for the Specially Abled

56. ANTICLOCKWISE
10 QUESTIONS

57. 11
• "Research Institute" came about through LEGO Ideas, a website that allows
enthusiasts to submit suggestions for new sets.
• Each idea that gathers 10,000 supporters is reviewed by a board of set
designers and marketing representatives and from there, select designs are
chosen for full-fledged production.
• What is notable about this new set that was suggested by Dr. Ellen Kooijman,
a geochemist and LEGO fan from Stockholm.
• Image follows

60. ANSWER
• It is a female scientist set featuring an Astronomer, a Palaeontologist and a
Chemist.

61. 12
• In the image that follows, blue shows areas of gray matter volume decrease,
likely reflecting shifting of cerebrospinal fluid which is no longer being
pulled down.
• Orange shows regions of gray matter volume increase, in the regions that
control movement of the legs. This likely reflects brain plasticity associated
with learning how to move in the new environment.
• The extent of the alteration depended on the length of time spent in this
environment
• What is the new environment?

64. ANSWER
• Microgravity
• This is the first image of how spaceflight changes brain structure in humans!

65. 13
• The mOm incubator was conceived by James Roberts during the final year of
his university degree. Given the brief of 'design something that solves a
problem', James learned from a TV documentary that the lack of infant
incubators in X during their current crisis was costing them an entire
generation.
• Risk factors for preterm birth include infections, malnutrition and stress -- all
very common among women living through this crisis
• mOm is an inexpensive, portable, electronically controlled, inflatable infant
incubator designed and built to decrease the number of infant deaths.
• ID X or the crisis which inspired the invention.

68. ANSWER
• X – Syria
• Studies have shown that refugee women have a greater risk of delivering
preterm babies

69. 14

70. • What is the “solution” to this common early morning problem that
would leave you in a high spirit for the rest of the day?

72. ANSWER
• Alcohol
• Part points for Salt solution etc.

73. 15
• Vadim Backman and Hao Zhang, both of Northwestern University in
Evanston, discovered that when X is tickled with particular wavelengths of
light, it “blinks” on, momentarily shining brighter than it would with the most
powerful fluorescent tags.
• They designed a setup that excites cells with light and then collects the
spectra of the emitted light, allowing them to discern different kinds of
biomolecules.
• The approach has allowed the researchers to collect images of structures a
mere 6.2 nanometers across (a X molecule is 3.4 nanometers across).
• ID the biomolecule X. (Image follows)

76. ANSWER
• DNA

77. 16
• Longyearbyen, Norway is the northernmost populated town on the planet.
• Due to their unique geographical location, they experience sub-zero
temperatures throughout the year.
• This has required them to live life a little differently than most of us on the
planet, with many laws that we would find weird
• One such law makes it illegal to bury the dead in this town. But why?

79. ANSWER
• Because it is too cold for the bodies to decompose at that
temperature

80. 17
• Meitnerium is the 109th element in the periodic table. It is named after the
pioneering physicist Lise Meitner and is the only element named after a non-
mythological woman.
• This is despite there being the element Curium in the periodic table
• Why does it have that distinction?

82. ANSWER
• Curium is named after both Pierre and Marie Curie.

83. 18
• The team of the Baby _____ Project sent collection forms to schools in
the St. Louis, Missouri area, hoping to gather 50,000 _____ each
year. Ultimately, the project collected over 300,000 _____ from children of
various ages before the project was ended in 1970.
• The focus was on detecting the presence of strontium-90, a cancer-
causing radioactive isotope created by the more than 400 atomic tests
conducted above ground that is absorbed from water and dairy products
into the bones and _____ given its chemical similarity to Calcium.

85. ANSWER
• Teeth
• The aim was to determine the effects of nuclear fallout in the
human anatomy by examining the levels of radioactive material
absorbed into the deciduous teeth of children.

86. 19
• Scientists have detected a black hole spending more than a decade devouring
a star — something that usually only takes a year.
• “We have witnessed a star’s spectacular and prolonged demise,”
• Guardian carried an article about the discovery with the headline “Black hole
and distant sun locked in slow-motion _____ of _____”
• FIB with an alliterative phrase that sums up the “graceful” motion of the
stellar matter around the black hole and devastation of the event.

89. ANSWER
• Dance of Death

90. 20
• Administratium is a well-known in-joke in scientific circles, and is
a parody both on the bureaucracy of scientific
establishments and on descriptions of newly discovered chemical
elements.
• A commonly heard description describes it as "having a
negative half-life“
• A positive half life, we know, results from an exponential decay of
the material. What on earth does a negative half life mean?!

92. ANSWER
• As more time passes, the more massive “Administratium"
becomes; it only grows larger and more sluggish.
• This is generally perceived as a system in which bureaucratic
procedures accumulate and whatever needs to get done takes
increasingly longer to get done as soon as it touches the
bureaucracy.