Shear Thickening / Viscosity / Resistance to Deform of a Fluid (e.g. Cornstarch with Water)! Amazing Science Example to Teach a Great Leadership Trait!! Read this Interesting Perspective!!

 Dear Friends and Students

Couple of days back we organized a talk by Mr. Ajeeth Prabhu (linkedin.com/in/ajeeth-prabhu-577202a1) on a “Application of Shear Thickening Liquid for Social Cause ''. Mr. Ajeeth is doing a deep research on Shear Thickening Liquid properties with a noble objective to reduce the weight of a Bullet Proof Jacket of a Soldier!!

It was a 1 hour talk, but made the audience spellbound! Post session, we arranged Q&A. When we were interacting with students, we realized that this science application has great leadership meaning. First, it is solving the burden of an Indian soldier’s burden as a chest wear jacket and second, it is teaching a great management lesson! Before we dwell deep, let’s understand the science behind this.

Can you walk on a Water? Looks silly right? You look at this video, you will understand how? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-DZ0f0_NCA

If you mix corn with water and make a liquid. You apply a sudden force, it acts and becomes solid. You gently stand on it, you will sink!! What a contrast right? This is called a non-Newtonian fluid, a fluid that does not follow Newton's law of viscosity, i.e. constant viscosity independent of stress. Water is having constant viscosity whereas corn water liquid does not.

What is viscosity? It is a resistance of a fluid (liquid or gas) to a change in shape. It is the opposite of flow. Did you observe this- Our legs sink in dry sand and not in wet sand? You try this when you are walking on the beach! Same viscosity effect!

You learnt science, well! What is the leadership lesson in this?

A true leader should be like Shear Thickening Liquid or non-Newtonian fluid! When someone attacks (I mean not physical attack but if you are put in an unwanted situation or allegation or blaming for a wrong cause), you become strong, protect your skin and tit-for-tat. However, when you need to handle an issue gently, act like a constant viscous liquid like Water, where you sink fully!

Is it not a great leadership trait! Do you agree?

Become a non-Newtonian fluid! Increase your Shear Thickening Capacity!

Is Your Heart filled with Corn Starch Liquid? If not, fill it!!

Your Well-wisher

Ravi Saripalle

Join Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2itm.blogspot.com)

Post Pandemic Readiness - Teacher-Student Engagement Matrix

Dear Teachers and Institutions

Across the world, slowly schools and colleges are opening up. Thanks to Pandemic, Online teaching aids and Online content got developed and matured. These tools and materials are universally accessible. However, new challenges are propped up to the teachers and parents! In older days, predominantly, we used to distinguish students of two types- Irregular or Disciplined. After a pandemic, we have to bucket them into three categories- irregular, regular and disciplined. Similarly, we have three teaching methods- offline, online intervention and online content.

The challenge for educators of all levels (School level to Under Graduation level) is to how do we engage students positively? How do we improve productivity? How do we inspire them to reach their goal?

In the last 18 months, I had an opportunity to interact with a large set of students, teachers, parents and institutional founders across all segments- School Teachers/Founders to University Vice Chancellors / Educational Regulatory Authorities.

The summary of all the conversation is put together in the following Teacher-Student Engagement Matrix.  Being a progressive institution or innovative teacher, you may use this as appropriate in your teaching context.

Happy Mentoring!

Your Well-wisher

Ravi Saripalle

Join Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2itm.blogspot.com)

 

“Pair-of-glasses” is the Next Internet Revolution? Metaverse Combined with Design Thinking Rule the Social Experience in Next 10 Years? Are You Ready to Embrace? Read this Interesting Perspective!!

Dear Friends and Students

Last week Mark Zukerberg announced Meta as their Future Brand (Facebook, Whatsapp, Insta, and other Few Social Tools combined). Immediately, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella shares Metaverse plans, talks about users' immersive experience. Few other companies like Unity Software, Nvidia Corp, Epic Games, Payments firm Visa, etc. are betting huge and investing into Metaverse technologies.

Now you might ask what this Metaverse is. Why suddenly all these companies talking about?

Few decades back, desktop was popular. Next, web ruled the world and today the mobile. Similarly, when we were working, few of our IT teams used to have a gadget named “Pager”. Now it is no more. A small text used to popup and they used to attend calls. For some time, text was the king. Later photo sharing became a popular medium. Thanks to YouTube and free video space provisioning, today video content is powerful.

Now the question is what is upgraded in this evolution? – Experience and Social Connection!

The next in the line is all about Metaverse, an evolution of social connection! People are no happier with basic static or video calls!  They want more experience. Here comes Metaverse using Augmented Reality (AR) Or Virtual Reality (VR) or Mixed Reality (MR) technologies.

A day is coming shortly, where you don’t need to build a 5 crores physical mansion to experience the house. You can develop it virtually and immerse yourself! Metaverse makes it happen.

You don’t need to attend a family function happening 100 miles away! Your avatar can participate in that function as if you are physically present! You can participate in your cousin’s Marriage Sangeet Function happening in another country, sitting in your place!

You don’t need to go 1000 miles away to participate in an important customer meeting. Your avatar participates virtually. It allows physical expressions, eye contact, debate and make your presence feel natural and vivid, but you are virtual!

How it is possible? Technology is ramping up. AR/VR/MR are going to change this metaverse experience. Companies like Meta (Facebook) are building new ecosystem and brining standards and norms in this space without compromising privacy and safety. Metaverse brings Presence, Avatars, Home Space, Teleporting (hypothetical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them), Interoperability, Virtual Goods, Natural Interfaces, etc.

Virtual Reality (VR) technology means, when you wear VR enabled pair of glasses, you will be taken to virtual environment. Games, Training, Lab demonstration, Live broadcast etc. can be a few examples. Your professor can give a demo sitting in his office and you can attend lab sitting in your home!

Augmented Reality (AR) technology means real environment in addition to digital elements. You might have heard about Pokemon Go right? It is completely AR game. IKEA (Furniture) Mobile App, Disney Coloring Book (3D renderings using a mobile phone or tablet), L’Oréal Makeup App (various types of makeup), Weather Channel Studio Effects are few other examples!

Mixed Reality (MR) technology allows you to interact with and manipulate both physical and virtual items and environments simultaneous, using next-generation sensing and imaging technologies.

All this needed a lot of data and great infrastructure. This is going to be boom for some time!

Design Thinking makes these experiences more humanly! Design Thinking plays crucial role in developing these experiences!! Design Thinking shapes the Metaverse technology and applies to the real and social context.

Are you excited? Now you might ask, what skills you need to develop to participate in this revolution.

Skillset: Design Thinking, Programming (Java, C#, Swift, JavaScript, loops, control-logic, OOP principles like inheritance, abstraction, encapsulation, etc at your fingertips), UX Design Knowledge, UI/UX Development based on a given mock, SDKs like ARCore, ARKit, ARFoundation, Machine Learning & Computer Vision, 3D Modelling & Animation, Graphics Rendering, and finally understanding of Social Media!

Few IITs and Deemed Universities started Bachelor of Design Course with few Computer Science additions. Next year IIT Delhi is going to start B.Des. course. This course gets sense of future and structured Career path!

Are you ready to make your self-prepared for Next Metaverse based Internet Revolution?

Metaverse- All happening in a Pair of Glasses! Do You want to Cook in those glasses?

Your Well-wisher

Ravi Saripalle

Join Inspire to Innovate Storytelling Movement (i2itm.blogspot.com)