The engineering lyfe chose me.

Today Google celebrates Shakuntala Devi’s 84th birthday.  She was popularly known as the “Human Computer”, was a child prodigy, and mental calculator. She passed away on April 21 2013, she was 83 years old. Her achievements include:

In 1977 in the USA she competed with a computer to see who could calculate the cube root of 188,132,517 faster (she won). That same year, at the Southern Methodist University she was asked to give the 23rd root of a 201-digit number; she answered in 50 seconds. Her answer—546,372,891—was confirmed by calculations done at the U.S. Bureau of Standards by the Univac 1101 computer, for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation.

On June 18, 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 × 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She correctly answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds. This event is mentioned in the 1982 Guinness Book of Records.

What Happened to the Computer Girls? 

Believe it or not, in the 1960’s, programming was seen as women’s work. It was even touted as being “just like planning a dinner”.

So what happened?

Eventually male programmers wanted to raise their status above “women’s work”. So they actively discouraged women from these positions, designed hiring tests rigged for men, and even created the stereotype that programmers are disinterested in people. No wonder in the years since, it’s still a male dominated field. Women earned only 18% of the computer science degrees awarded in 2008-2011. 

Just a drop of liquid gallium weakens the structure of a Coke can (aluminium) to the point where it can be pierced with the slight press of the thumb. Gallium infiltrates the aluminium structure, compromising its integrity and making the can feel like tin foil instead of metal.

The LittleDog Robot

JESUS CHRIST, THIS ROBOT IS ACTUALLY CORRECTING ITSELF WHEN IT COMES ACROSS PROBLEMS. THIS ROBOT IS “LEARNING” TO ADJUST ITSELF TO NEW TERRAIN. THIS ROBOT IS RESPONDING WITH INNOVATIVE WAYS OF TRAVELING, DESPITE UNEXPECTED OBSTACLES OR CHANGES.

THIS HAS TAKEN US FOR-FUCKING-EVER TO GET, EVEN ON A BASIC SCALE. THIS LITTLE ROBOT IS FUCKING AMAZING.

AND ON TOP OF THAT, THE RESEARCHERS MADE SURE THIS LITTLE GUY WASN’T DANGEROUS.

YOU GO, LITTLE ROBOT.

From Debbie Sterling’s TEDxPSU talk, "Inspiring the next generation of female engineers." Sterling is the creator of GoldieBlox, a set of toys featuring Goldie, a female engineer who guides girls to develop problem-solving skills and build projects, introducing girls to the world of engineering through a tech-savvy female role model.