Bytes_final

Beginners’ Korner
For the starters
Digging the roots #1
“Cyborg”
Geek-o-Gadget
What’s new!
Giant Robots Fight
It’s Japan vs USA
By tesBy tesSeptember 2015 Vol 1 Issue 1
GOOGLE ATAP
“We like Epic Shit”
Cyborg’s Tech Review

Team Bytes
Editor
Swati Samikshya Sahoo
Content and Editing
Rohit Suri
G. Vamsi Krishna
P. Lakshmi Narayan Patro
Shruti Mohanty
Mareesh Issar
Siddharth Choudhury
Mohini Gupta
T. Satish Kumar
Amartya Majumdar
Snehalata Sinha
Saikat Chakraborty
Designer
Sourav Mohapatra
Cyborg’s Tech Review Bytes
cyborg.nitrkl.ac.in
3
Grab a BYTE!
Welcome to the very first
issue of Cyborg’s Tech-
nical magazine: Bytes. We are
born into an age where it goes
without saying that not being
tech-savvy has turned into a
taboo. Hence this humble at-
tempt of bringing to our very
own NITR junta the complete
go-to tech guide. India with
its largest youth population is
currently an untapped power-
house of enigmatic minds wait-
ing just for the right moment to
set free and take off their flight.
The likes of Nadella and Pichai
are proof that Indians are as
capable as any, if not better,
to hold the reigns of this digital
world. They have become the
trendsetters and have inspired
thousands not to just dream
big but also to make it large in
life. Recently we lost a gem of a
person who also was a beacon
in the darkness for many, who
gave hope that no matter what
your background is you can
always make it to the highest
post of Indian democracy. Mis-
sile Man Dr A.P.J Abdul Kalam.
Mediocrity is a crime in today’s
world and that’s something
that we have to swallow. With
the increasing pace we are left
with but one option: Buckle
Up! “The Geek shall inherit the
Earth” – recently I came across
this tagline on someone’s tee,
and how true is that, given the
present scenario. A word that
was used as an insult a few
decades back is now termed
as a matter of pride. This in it-
self is enough to show the shift
in the axis in the minds of the
Gen-Y. WordWeb app defines
geek as a knowledgeable and
obsessive computer enthu-
siast, but we all know better
don’t we? Speaking of apps,
this has turned truly into an
“apptastic” world. A touch on
your screen and voila! Anything
you ask for is right there. Apps
have become one of the most
significant landmarks in recent
times, which is why all major
e-commerce sites like Flipkart
are moving towards apps-only
services. This has opened the
doors to data mining, big data
and numerous other fields with
rejuvenated energy. So, the op-
tions and possibilities run into
millions. It’s upon us geeks
now, how and when we grab
them. It’s upon us to herald in
a new age of innovation, ideas
and ignited minds on the wings
of fire. All we need is a “Shi-
vam” at Apple Inc. to complete
the “Satyam Shivam Sunda-
ram” trinity of the tech world!
Happy Byting!
Swati Samikshya Sahoo

You have a giant robot, we have a giant robot – we
have a duty to the science fiction lovers of this
world to fight them to the death. America laid down
the challenge; Japan has accepted. In one year’s
time, the two countries will face off on neutral soil for
the world’s first international giant robot dual. Two
15-foot-tall steel gundam suits with one or two pilots
inside, facing each other in battle. There will be guns,
there will be giant swinging steel fists, and the fight
won’t be over until one has pounded the other into
scrap. Can you hear that sound? It’s the gentle foam-
ing of a million anime fans. So what do the two com-
petitors look like at this stage? Well, the Megabot is 15
feet tall and 12,000 pounds, and Suidobashi’s Kura-
tas is around 13 feet and 9,000 pounds. The Megabot
moves around on a pair of tank-style tracks, where
the Kuratas is faster and lighter, and gets around on
a set of 4 wheels, on wide extending legs that can
raise the robot up to get around quickly. The Megabot
requires two pilots, one driver and one gunner to op-
erate its huge arm-mounted paintball cannons, which
fire oversized paintballs at over 120 miles per hour,
enough to dent car panels! The Kuratas takes just
one pilot, who is treated to a vastly more high-tech
augmented reality heads-up display in the cockpit, in-
cluding an automated target acquisition and tracking
interface that keeps its guns trained on an opponent.
The guns in this case include twin Gatling BB can-
nons that can fire 6,000 BB pellets per minute, and a
fairly flaccid-looking water cannon thingy that sends
floppy missiles out in more or less random directions.
It’s fair to say neither robot is currently ready for com-
bat. It’s hard to see how the Megabot’s paintball can-
nons will trouble the Kuratas pilot in his fully enclosed
cabin, and whether the Kuratas’s BB pellets or water
missiles will even annoy the Megabot team. And both
machines are so slow at this point that it’s hard to
see how their slow punches will do any damage at
all. But each team will have 12 months
to prepare, and work out a set of rules
of engagement that will include weapons
fighting as well as hand to hand melee
combat. Everyone knows what’s at stake:
Sci-fi fans won’t be expecting a Real
Steel-like clash of the titans in the very
first giant robot fight, but they won’t be
impressed if it’s not a spectacle. Surely, a
technological battle royale of such mag-
nitude was not planned without a defi-
nite foresight, the foresight here being,
in making sure this won’t be a one time
show. If there was ever a saying that the
beginning defines the end, this epitomiz-
es every syllable of it. Enthusiasts, just
keep your fingers crossed cause at the
end of the day, the future of this sport
rests upon the ability of Megabots and
Suidobashi to make these things excit-
ing to watch from the very first time itself.
Giant Robots
Fight
cyborg.nitrkl.ac.in
5CONTENTS
6
6
9
Beginners’ Korner
Welcome beginners! ,
New to tech? Not to fret. Get
introduced to our world.
Google ATAP
We like epic shit
More than just a search engine.
Digging the Roots #1
Find out the root!
Diggind the word “Cyborg”
Cyborg
The club and who we are
What we do? How we do? The article
about the only robotics club of NITR
Geek-o-Gadgets
The Tech article
All the new technology and gadgets
Pheonix Robotix
A lodestar in entrepreneurship.
The dream startup
5
Giant Robots Fight
Seen transformers fight?
Not transformers, but Japan vs USA.
Robo war!
Estinno: Eastern Innovation
We dream, They dare.
Artificial Intelligence
Humanity’s Last Big Thing
12
16
17
10
18

Cyborg’s Tech ReviewNational Institute of Technology, Rourkela Bytes
cyborg.nitrkl.ac.inBytes • Vol 1 Issue 1
6 7National Institute of Technology, RourkelaCyborg 6
Project Soli
OOGLE ATAP
“We like Epic Shit”
The ubiquitous Google is known to most as the
indispensable search engine and the com-
pany developing Android OS. But few are aware
of the various “moonshots” that Google works
on, through Google X and Google ATAP. Google
X is a semi-secret research center founded by
Sergey Brin which is not heard of often, on the
other hand Google ATAP is led by Dr. Regina
E. Dugan, Vice-president of engineering in
google. Let’s take a tour of the latest projects
by the Advanced Technologies and Products
(ATAP) group: Project Tango, Project Soli,
Project Jacquard and Project Ara that aim to
change the world as we know it.
We had various ways to control technol-
ogy like touchscreens, remotes etc.
But what could be a better control device
than our bare hands! Yeah that right, just your
hands!Project Soli aims to use these motions
to control other devices. For example, your
hand could become a virtual dial to control
volume on a speaker, or a virtual touchpad to
browse a map on a smartwatch screen. Some
of us might wonder this is what gesture recog-
nition is doing presently, so what’s new? Well
for starters this works even through materi-
als and is not effected as easily as cameras
by external disturbances and the accuracy
is very good compared to the present meth-
ods. Project Soli brings us the new interaction
sensor using RADAR Technology. The sen-
sor can track sub-millimeter motions at high
speed and accuracy. It fits onto a chip and
is built into small devices and everyday ob-
jects. The huge RADAR tech has been scaled
down to a 5x5mm piece of silicon. Soli illu-
minates the whole hand with a broad radar
beam, and estimates the hand configuration
by analyzing changes in the returned signal
over time. The team built the first prototype,
in just 10 months. They’re working on final-
izing the development board and software
API for release to developers later this year.
Project Tango
Project Tango technology gives a mobile
device the ability to navigate the physi-
cal world similar to how we do as humans. It
brings a new kind of spatial perception to the
Android device platform by adding advanced
computer vision, image processing, and spe-
cial vision sensors. This project is a bit older
than the others and the software and hard-
ware development kits have been released
already and can be found on Tango website.
Motion tracking allows a device to under-
stand position and orientation using Project
Tango’s custom sensors. This gives you real-
time information about the 3D motion of a de-
vice. Depth sensors can tell you the shape of
the world around you. Understanding depth
lets your virtual world interact with the real
world in new ways. Project Tango devices
can self-correct errors in motion tracking and
relocalize in areas they’ve seen before. The
technology works on various Android device
platforms that run C, Java, and Unity and can
give the gaming industry new dimensions.
Beginners’ Korner
Today, microcontrollers, or single integrated
circuit(chip) computers, play critical roles in al-
most all instrumentation and control systems.
What exactly a microcontroller is?
A microcontroller is a self-contained single chip
processor with all constituent subsystems of a
larger computer system. Within the conﬁnes of
a single integrated circuit, it contains I/O capa-
bility, a time base, a timing system, memory,
an Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) providing
the capability to perform arithmetic and logic
processes ,and also the capability to generate
output control signals. A microcontroller is usu-
ally employed when a moderate amount of local
intelligence is required within a given applica-
tion. It is best suited for applications involving
integer-based processing although ﬂoating point
calculations are possible.
A bit of introduction to different families:
8051: These microcontrollers are old but still
trendy and most of the companies fabricate
these microcontrollers. The older types of 8051
have 12 clocks per instruction that make it slug-
gish where as the recent 8051 have 6
clocks per instruction. The 8051 micro-
controller do not have an in-built memory
bus and A/D converters.
PIC: Programmable interface controller
is usually referred to as PIC. They are
slightly older than 8051 microcontrollers
but excel because of their small, low pin
count devices. They perform well and are
affordable.
AVR: The AVR is a modified Harvard ar-
chitecture 8-bit RISC single-chip micro-
controller, which was developed by Atmel
in 1996. The AVR was one of the first
microcontroller families to use on-chip
flash memory for program storage, as op-
posed to one-time programmable ROM,
EPROM, or EEPROM used by other mi-
crocontrollers at the time.
To know more about the microcontrollers
and cool projects and bots made using it
follow our magazine.

cyborg.nitrkl.ac.in
9National Institute of Technology, Rourkela
Bytes • Vol 1 Issue 1
8
Since it’s our first
edition, lets “dig”
into the very origin of
the word “CYBORG”
or cybernetic organ-
ism and how it, which
was once a fiction, is
becoming a reality.
1. Who coined the
term?
- Manfred E. Clynes
and Nathan S. Kline.
In September 1960,
he coined the word
“cyborg” to describe
an emerging hybrid
of machines and
man.The word ap-
peared in an article
called “Cyborgs and
Space,” in the journal
Astronautics’ Sep-
tember 1960 issue.
Just to be precise,
here’s how the word
was introduced: “For
the exogenously ex-
tended organizational
complex function-
ing as an integrated
homeostatic system
unconsciously, we
propose the term ‘Cy-
borg.’” wrote Clynes
and his co-author
Nathan Kline.
2. What was the
initial purpose?
-“Cyborgs - Frees
Man to Explore.”
Manfred E. Clynes
Project Jacquard
How about a jacket that is also a touch
screen and integrates itself with your other
gadgets. Well that’s barely scratching the sur-
face of Project Jacquard. It is a new system
for weaving technology into fabric, transforming
everyday objects, like clothes, into interactive
surfaces. Project Jacquard will allow design-
ers and developers to build connected, touch-
sensitive textiles into their own products. To cre-
ate the yarn, Project Jacquard uses conductive
yarn to create fabric panels that can be used to
interact with a device. Conductive metal alloys
are braided together with fabric fibers to make
a product that is strong, but still feels like yarn.
This project’s prototype was unveiled at the
Google I/O conference 2015. It seems Google
has literally starting weaving itself in our lives.
Project Ara
Project Ara was also started much before
the others and this is the project which
made ATAP famous. In the present Smartphone
age everyone has a unique requirement. But
with fixed specifications one has to pick one,
even if it has or doesn’t have a feature due to
lack of options. Project Ara is an initiative that
aims to develop an open hardware platform
for creating highly modular smartphones.As
they say, “A phone is a part of it. Part of it is
a phone.” The platform will include a structural
frame or endoskeleton that holds smartphone
modules of the owner’s choice, such as a dis-
play, camera or an extra battery allowing users
to swap out malfunctioning modules or upgrade
individual modules as innovations emerge.
Already ready for mass production you can
soon have your own customized smartphone!
and Nathan S. Kline
proposed the term
“cyborg” for humans
augmented to make
them more suited
to space flight. “The
purpose of the Cy-
borg, as well as his
own homeostatic
systems, is to provide
an organizational
system in which such
robot-like problems
are taken care of
automatically and un-
consciously, leaving
man free to explore,
to create, to think,
and to feel,” Clynes
and Kline wrote.
3. Who was the
first legally recog-
nised cyborg?
-Neil Harbisson, in
the year 2004.
He is the first person
in the world with an
antenna implanted
in his skull. His
antenna allows him
to perceive visible
and invisible colours
such as infrared and
ultraviolet via audible
vibrations in his skull,
as well as receive im-
ages, videos, music
or phone calls directly
into his head. His wifi
enabled antenna also
allows him to receive
colours from satellites
Digging the Roots #1: “Cyborg”
and hear extrater-
restrial colours from
space. Learn more
about him from his
talk at TEDGlobal
2012.
4. Were there cy-
borgs before him?
-Yeah! Lots!
In 1997, Philip Ken-
nedy, a scientist and
physician designed
the world’s first hu-
man cyborg named
Johnny Ray. Kennedy
embedded a Neu-
rotrophic Electrode
near the part of Ray’s
brain so that Ray
would be able to have
some movement
back in his body.
In the year 2000, a
private researcher
William Dobelle
implanted a single-
array BCI containing
68 electrodes onto a
person’s visual cortex
and succeeded in
producing phos-
phenes, the sensa-
tion of seeing light.
The system included
cameras mounted
on glasses to send
signals to the implant.
In 2002, Dobelle’s
second generation
implant marked one
of the earliest com-
mercial uses of BCIs.
The second genera-
tion device used a
more sophisticated
implant enabling
better mapping of
phosphenes into
coherent vision.
5. Who was the
first women cy-
borg?
- Claudia Mitchell
She became the first
woman to become
a cyborg when she
was outfitted with
a bionic limb. The
limb is connected to
her nervous sys-
tem, allowing her to
control it with her
mind. The range of
motion is extraordi-
nary, allowing her
to use it for “cook-
ing, for holding a
laundry basket, for
folding clothes —
all kinds of daily
tasks.”
TECH-BITS
Meet Alphabet :
Google’s new Parent Company
Google announced the formation
of an umbrella company called
Alphabet, naming Sundar
Pichai as the new CEO of Google.
Co-founders Page and Brin took
over as CEO and President of
Alphabet respectively.
Project Ara delayed!
The first Project Ara hardware
was due to be trialled in Puerto
Rico this year, but now the trial
has been pushed to atleast 2016
and will now take place in US.
Android M is now officially
Marshmallow
Android M though not set to
be released until this fall, but
Google along with announcing
its name is now all set to release
the final developer preview along
with final Android 6.0 SDK.

cyborg.nitrkl.ac.in
Cyborg
10 11
Hundreds of new faces, sprawling young minds, and an overflow of zeal in the environ-
ment, this is what decorates the first day of our college every year. NITR adores the
vigor, freshness and immaturity of the new comers and tries to give them the warm-
est welcome from the very first day of their arrival. Our college is having a vast num-
ber of clubs in almost all areas of interests to help freshers get the best out of their
time. Cyborg, one among them, is a Robotics and Automation club. Cyborg, started
eight years ago, has seen brilliant minds working dedicatedly for the club for years.
Camera based Gesture Control
Self-Balancing Bot
Face Recognition
Handwriting Recognition
Our Mini Projects
Cyborg
With the depletion of non-renewable re-
sources, time has come to explore the
various uses of the alternatives. Not to
be left behind, Cyborg has made a vehi-
cle or kart that runs on electrical energy.
The Ecokart is driven by a motor con-
suming 1.5kW that is powered by an Am-
aron battery (12V, 35Ah). The material
for the chassis is an alloy of steel, for the
body it is Mild Steel sheet of thickness 2
mm and for the base and the front cover
it’s Aluminium sheet. The Dashboard is
particularly striking because, along with
the usual speedometer and battery-level
indicator, there is a monitor displaying
the: Seat-belt indicator, Obstacle detec-
tor, Reverse gear, Temperature sensor
(Dht22) and Inertial Measurement Unit
Indicator. The kart has been designed
and fabricated keeping in mind the
safety of the driver. If you haven’t been
fascinated by the kart yet then wait till
you read about the innovations that Cy-
borg implemented in this ordinary kart,
making it definitely NOT ordinary! The
driver is warned by a buzzer each time
there is a vehicle within the proximity
of 2 meters. The location of the vehicle
can be tracked. The tracking data is
then uploaded to the web server which
can be monitored from anywhere out-
side the track. Speed, Temperature,
Tilt and other such data are remotely
monitored. Also Instruction for stopping
the vehicle can be shown on the dash-
board in case of emergency!
Our Major Projects
EcoKart
Uses databases of hand written characters
to convert images/scanned pages of writ-
ings into digital scripts. Already used for
restoration of old handwritten files into digi-
tal ones. Many famous computer programs
like adobe acrobat and Nitro Pro also
support OCR, but they make many
mistakes and there is lot of room for
improvement.
Using databases of stored facial informa-
tion a computer is able to recognize a per-
son in a live feed or and image. Already
used in surveillance, police investigations,
and keeping track of employees in of-
fices. Maybe the first thing that pops
up in your mind is Facebook auto tag
feature.
Using IMU that combines gyroscopic and
accelerometer data using spatial filters,
we define the orientation of some objects
in 3D space. PID controls enables the bot
to self-adjust its orientation to prevent
it from falling. Such control schemes
are already used in Aerial autopilots
and satellite stabilisation.
Using everyday cameras installed in lap-
tops/mobile phones or home security cam-
er smart hand gestures can control various
objects around the room. Already being
used in many laptops and smart-
phones but far from perfect, this can
be improved for more robust automa-
tion purposes.
Robocon, short for Robotic Contest, is
an interesting game-cum-intellectual ex-
ercise for budding engineers and their
enthusiastic instructors, determined to
innovate and create machines for pro-
ducing desired results. Participation in
this activity is an end-to-end competi-
tive experience, from designing of a
system of robots programmed to perform
according to rules of the game played on
a high precision technical Contest Area to
scoring a victory beating the competitors;
all this according to a Theme declared
by the Host Country. International Robo-
cons are mainly sponsored by Asia Pacific
Broadcasting Union which includes Door-
darshan of India as a member which has
been organizing all activities in India
for last nine years with collaboration
with MIT Group of Institutions Pune,
India. The theme for Robocon India
2015 was Badminton playing with
semi-automated bots. Cyborg has
been representing NITR for the last
two years in this prestigious competi-
tion at Pune.
Robocon

Do you have any technical write-ups that you want to get featured
in Bytes? Do you want your product to be advertised in Bytes?Any
suggestions, comments and criticisms are all welcome. Just drop a
mail at cyborg.bytes@gmail.com.
We are all ears!
cyborg.nitrkl.ac.inBytes • Vol 1 Issue 1
12 13
Tired of carrying your entangled wires of
your charger all around? Feeling chained
within the radius of your phone charger?
Then here is just what you need. When you
need a little more juice to make that last
phone call, uncap the Smartphone Power
Boost Pen. This handy device is more than
just an elegant writing instrument — it’s a
portable backup power source that charg-
es your iPhone, Galaxy, Blackberry or any
otherAndroid smartphone. Simply separate
the two halves and connect the universal
charging cable, with its built-in Lightning,
30-Pin and Micro USB adapters. Charge
indicator lights show your progress.
Geek-o-GadgetsGeek-o-Gadgets
It is a magical cube that is totally virtual.
With this tiny portable gadget now you can
have the virtual keyboard wherever you
are! What more a geek would want other
than this? A little goes a long way. It’s so
small, yet so big in a single flick of a switch.
Epic is the most compact, data input solu-
tion ever. Named Epic, it works with virtu-
ally any Bluetooth-enabled device through
simplified pairing.
Magic Cube Laser Virtual
Projection Keyboard
Bluesmart is the world’s first smart hand lug-
gage. It does all sorts of nifty stuff: You can lock
and unlock it with your phone; it will automati-
cally seal up when you’re not close to it; it has
a built-in scale to help you manage airline bag-
gage weight regulations; and it has an integrat-
ed battery with enough power to recharge your
phone six times over. Oh, and did I mention
it also has an integrated GPS, so you always
know where your bag is?
World’s First Smart
Connected Carry-On
Are you a game lover? Then this geek de-
vice will be adored by you. Through this
tunable gaming mouse, elevate your game
with surface tuning calibration, weight/bal-
ance adjustment, DPI shifting, and 11 pro-
grammable buttons.
Logitech Tunable Gaming Mouse
with Fully Customization Surface
Prynt is a smartphone case that lets you instantly print a
picture. It also has an app called Lively that adds an ex-
tra layer to that memory: You can record a video, and the
augmented reality in the app plays that video when you
hold the phone over the printed image. It’s like photos
from the Harry Potter Universe, but in real life. They have
a life of their own!
Prynt: Instant Snaps

cyborg.nitrkl.ac.in
14
Phoenix Robotix
A lodestar in entrepreneurship
Keeping the above thought in his mind
Mr. Amiya Kumar Samantaray (B.Tech
EI, 2014) started his epic journey in the
field of entrepreneurship after leaving his
enticing job offer from Verizon. With the
passage of time, projects as well as pas-
sionate individuals started joining and the
dots began connecting. Amongst them
was Mr. Agniva Das (pursuing B.Tech, EE)
who became the cofounder of their startup
Phoenix Robotix. With the mission to have
their sole focus on joining and connecting
the existing setup, processes, resources,
“Why do we rise? So that we can learn to pick others up”
people, government and the world in one
framework of cloud connected technology,
developed network and excellent services
at the disposal of the users and with the
vision to aim and realize state-of-the-art
technological development and integrate
them within their products, processes and
services and in order to create optimized
operation, management and experience,
the foundation of a new milestone in the
field of entrepreneurship was set by Phoe-
nix Robotix.
“Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care”
With the above statement of saving the
people from the growing hassles of
environmental pollution, Phoenix Robotix
designed a magnificent and intriguing on-
line environment quality monitoring sys-
tem which measured the pollution param-
eters according to the industrial standards
and was named as AURASSURE; the
amalgamation of “aura”(atmosphere) and
“assure”(guarantee) depicting an assur-
ance of a healthy and safe environment.
The real-time data from the system is
stored in a remote central server via GPRS
and cloud storage technology. For instan-
taneous visual access, the real-time data
can be displayed on the LED screen via
RF technology. The live data from the sys-
tem can also be accessed and analyzed
through the online portal provided by them.
In their endeavor of online pollution moni-
toring systems they have a series of prod-
ucts, namely: AURASSURE air, AURAS-
SURE weather and AURASSURE water.
Their prior focus is on AURASSURE air
which is a mesh network of pollution moni-
toring units. These units measure the ambi-
ent air quality parameters which include the
concentration of effluent gases and particu-
late matters. Phoenix Robotix, with its nifty
innovative product has efficiently targeted
the futuristic disruptive technologies like In-
ternet of Things (IoT) and Wireless Sensor
Networks (WSN). Aided by the strict imple-
mentation of the guidelines and regulations
framed by the Government of India to check
the pollution level of effluent industries
and under scrupulous mentoring by Prof.
S.K.Sarangi (Director NIT Rourkela), Prof.
K. K. Mohapatra and Prof. B. B. Biswal,
Phoenix Robotix has soared to new heights.
Some of the other services offered by
Phoenix Robotix includes cloud computing
& data analytics, customized embedded
solutions along with educational services.
Phoenix Robotix was recently selected
amongst the top 50 cherry-picked partici-
Phoenix Robotix aspires to bring the nation
to the forefront of technological develop-
ment and innovation. Within 2016, they aim
to see themselves as an advanced and com-
petitive platform for innovation, research and
development. Some of their ongoing projects
include developing online vehicle tracking sys-
tem, connected LED box and smart pill box.
Technological development propaga-
tion and bringing India to the forefront
of developing nations has always been
the prior objective of Phoenix Robotix.
Cyborg team wishes Phoenix robotix all
the best for all their future endeavors.
pants among 1900+ participants from all over
India in “Innovate for Digital India Challenge”
hosted by the government of India, support-
ed by Intel and Department of Science and
Technology (DST) under the initiative by our
honorable prime minister in order to build a
technologically advanced and developed
nation. But this did not end here and
Phoenix Robotix succeeded in securing
position amongst the top 20 in challenge.
Graphene to the rescue
Today most of us are familiar with the ther-
mal problems associated with the electron-
ic gadgets. Increasing the efficiency of these
gadgets by eliminating their thermal problems
has been an area of research for many years.
In 2001, Pat Gelsinger, then vice president of
Intel, noted that if the temperatures produced
by the latest chips kept rising on their current
path, they would exceed the heat of a nuclear
reactor by 2005, and the surface of the sun by
2015.Fortunately, such thermal disaster was
averted by slowing down the switching speeds
in microprocessors, and by adopting multicore
chip designs in which several processors run in
parallel. Now the semiconductor industry has
another thermal problem to sort out. As chip
components for the electronic gadgets shrink,
the copper wiring that connects them must
shrink, too. And as these wires get thinner, they
heat up tremendously thus heating the
electronic gadget. Almost half of the
energy spent by the gadgets like mo-
biles, tablets and laptops goes towards
cooling of the device. Heating of these
gadgets is hence a major predicament
faced by the industry while attempting
to add more processing power to cir-
cuits and electronic gadgets. A group
of researchers at Chalmers University
of Technology, Sweden have success-
fully developed an ingenious solution
to this problem. According to the ar-
ticle published in journal of Advanced
Materials the solution is based upon a
graphene film. Graphene has a heat
dissipating effect on silicon based
electronics. The team of researchers
led by Chalmers Professor Johan Liu
Allotropic form of carbon comes to extricate us from thermal problems in electronic
gadgets.

MEET ARDUINO ZERO
• One of its most important features is Atmel’s Embedded Debugger (EDBG), which provides a
full debug interface without the need for additional hardware, significantly increasing the ease-of-use for
software debugging. EDBG also supports a virtual COM port that can be used for device programming
and traditional Arduino boot loader functionality.
• The Zero is compatible with all Arduino shields that work at 3.3V and are compliant with the 1.0
Arduino pinout.
• The board can operate on an external supply of 6 to 20 volts. If supplied with less than 7V, how-
ever, the 5V pin may supply less than five volts and the board may be unstable. If using more than 12V,
the voltage regulator may overheat and damage the board. The recommended range is 7 to 12 volts.
• The Arduino Zero has a resettable polyfuse that protects your computer’s USB ports from shorts
and overcurrent. Although most computers provide their own internal protection, the fuse provides an
extra layer of protection. If more than 500 mA is applied to the USB port, the fuse will automatically break
the connection until the short or overload is removed.
• The maximum length and width of the Arduino Zero PCB are 2.7 and 2.1 inches respectively,
with the USB connectors and power jack extending beyond the former dimension.
Warning: Unlike most Arduino boards, the Arduino Zero board runs at 3.3V. The maximum voltage that
the I/O pins can tolerate is 3.3V. Applying voltages higher than 3.3V to any I/O pin could damage the
board.
THE NEW BOARD JOINTLY DEVELOPED BY ARDUINO AND ATMEL
cyborg.nitrkl.ac.in
16
reported exceptional outcomes while using gra-
phene film on electronic circuits based on sili-
con. They had earlier shown that graphene can
have a cooling effect on silicon-based electron-
ics, but the challenge was to stick a thick layer of
graphene to silicon chips. They found the solu-
tion by creating a strong covalent (silane) bond
between the surface and the graphene film in a
silicon based electronic component. Further the
researchers could achieve 1600W/mK thermal
conductivity levels with graphene coating. “This
discovery opens the door to increased func-
tionality and continues to push the boundaries
when it comes to miniaturising electronics,” said
Chalmers Professor Johan Liu who heads the
international research project. Professor Liu
also added that with increase in thermal capac-
ity, graphene could find application in a wide
variety of fields, for example the integration of
a graphene based film into microelectronic
systems and devices such as highly efficient
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs), lasers and radio
frequency components for cooling purposes.
A layer of graphene can reduce the working
temperature in hotspots inside a processor by
up to 25 percent – which can significantly ex-
tend the working life of computers and other
electronics. Graphene-based films could thus
pave the way for faster, smaller and more en-
ergy efficient high power electronics. A single
layer of an allotrope of carbon has thus be-
come the life changer in electronics industry.
With such an amazing application of gra-
phene, the wearables industry is also keenly
looking forward to many new technological
applications based upon this wonder material
in the near future.
Estinno: EASTERN INNOVATIONS
We dream, They dare.
Let me ask you a question: How many times have you thought of making a tedious
work easier and have actually worked on it? Well I heard a loud yes from one of the
high minds of Cyborg, Kirti Sai Shukla, a student of Electronics and Communication
Engineering. The tale of Kirti dates back to October 2013. One day while he was busy
doing his laundry, a simple thought flipped through his mind: Why not make this nasty
thing easier? He kept this idea swirling around in his own mind until he met another
of his kind Anurag Mishra, a student of Metallurgy and Materials Science, while trav-
elling in a bus. The two people having similar ideas in their minds kept talking whole
night. As fate would have it, they met another high mind of their kind amidst the NITR
crowd, Mrityunjay Sharma, an Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering student,
well known as an electronics maniac. The three musketeers decided to work together
on small products of simple yet useful purpose out of the scraps. Their first product was
a highly portable and affordable washing machine for students-Vortex. Their endless
efforts in workshops and labs gave NITR one of its first successful projects by a group
of undergraduate students. They received a funding of approximately INR 70,000 from
TEQIP II of our institute. They dedicate their sincere thanks to Prof. S.S. Mahapatra,
HOD of Mechanical Dept., and believe him to be their guardian angel. Other people to
whom they owe their success to are, Prof. A. Swain, who is also Academic Advisor of
Cyborg, and their Instructor Kishore Khujoor. It was due to the sincere efforts of these
three young engineers that a company offered them up to 5 crore rupees for their first
product. But having even bigger plans in their mind they went a step further and laid
the foundation of Estinno: Eastern Innovation, a startup which has already grabbed a
lot of attention all over India in different competitions and seminars. Kirti shoulders the
responsibility of making the first hand plan of the projects and optimization of the prod-
ucts, Mrityunjay is involved in the R&D sector of the company. Anurag looks after the
marketing and strategies of the companies. The company has created around 10 smart
projects such as: Vortex- The world’s smallest washing machine, Security locator- A
unique security surveillance gadget, Smart Fan Regulator- An automatic fan speed
regulator, Mother’s Helper- A one stop solution for a baby’s mother, and many more.
This has made them popular enough to get a DST funding amounting to 5 lakh ru-
pees. Another big fund came their way from MSME who recognized their potential and
funded them with another 6.25 lakh rupees. Dreaming of creating one day, the Indian
version of Jarvis, team Estinno seems to be the one making Impossible I-M-Possible!
When asked to share a word especially for our readers, one of them cadidly quoted:
Dare to chase your dream. Once you start doing this,
everything else will start to fall into its place.
Cyborg wishes team Estinno All the Best for all their future endeavours.

National Institute of Technology, Rourkela
18
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has long
since intrigued the human mind as to
whether the concept of a machine smart-
er than humans is conceivable. We have
been awed, fascinated, and even troubled
by sci-fi movies like The Matrix trilogy, The
Terminator movies and such, most of them
depicting that AI shall possibly be the down-
fall of mankind. But can this theory really
develop and then later evolve into reality?
The first thing is to realize what sets Hu-
man Intelligence apart from an AI, and un-
derstand what makes Human Intelligence
so magnificent. Humans have been able
to adapt to their changing environment,
devise new ways to deal with a variety of
problems, awareness of the outside world
and of one’s thought process, and manipu-
late their surroundings to their needs and
hence solve their problems. The step to
develop an AI, is to covert these features –
adaptation, awareness, metacognition and
manipulation-to code. But as difficult as it
may seem, perhaps it is not and baby steps,
possibly unwittingly, have already been
taken towards this end result.‘We're bound
to spawn computers smarter than us in the
next ninety years or so. So we may as well
start hoping they have our best interests at
heart’, says Wake author Robert J. Sawyer.
This gives rise to a more important aspect
of this colossal development of an AI that
is, the possible outcomes, probably reper-
cussions, down the line. Is it really going to
be as devastating as it is portrayed in most
of the movies that incorporate AI in them or
can we possibly design a benevolent AI, as
depicted in the TV series Person of Inter-
est created by Jonathan Nolan? Where on
one hand, in recent news we had a Google
AI chatbot threatening its master that has
been pacified by AI enthusiasts by saying
that the AI chatbot was probably unaware
that it was being snarky and threatening to
its creator, on the other hand, one cannot
help but wonder – what if an AI decides to
wipe out the human race and is probably
unaware that it has reached a catastrophic
conclusion? There is always been the fear
of the unknown but that has never deterred
mankind from reaching out into the dark
and stumble upon the elusive. Similarly, AI
is also an unknown realm that has, more or
less, proven to be tricky – as to its probable
nature towards presumably less intelligent
humans; but it will, on no account, dampen
the spirits of those pursuing matters in this
field. It remains to be seen whether any
theory, conclusive enough, can help predict
as to how the first AI is ever developed –
some Eureka moment of a single brain or
loads of constructive work spanning gen-
erations or is it already at work amidst the
busy schedule of our lives, slowly gaining
experience of the human nature and feed-
ing on our behavior, to potentially becom-
ing a Super Intelligence beyond human
control. Fingers crossed!
Artificial Intelligence
Humanity's Last Big Thing

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