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Read more about the article UNESCO Hackathon at FOSSASIA Summit in Singapore

UNESCO Hackathon at FOSSASIA Summit in Singapore

Join the UNESCO Open Data Hackathon at the FOSSASIA Summit, create open source apps and games that tackle climate change, environment and sustainable development challenges, and win awesome prizes! The hackathon takes place from Saturday 24 March to Sunday 25 March 2018 at the Lifelong Learning Institute in Singapore. We are specifically interested in applications and games that set an example for others who could replicate solutions in other countries, and in particular in the Mekong countries, to tackle the sustainable development challenges. It is our goal to engage the developer community to develop innovative applications in open source by leveraging the open data and knowledge available. We are inviting developers, designers, open source contributors, bloggers, journalists and all FOSSASIA community members to be part of the UNESCO Hackathon. We are especially encouraging applications from the Mekong region to join the contest. The hackathon is open for all and awesome prizes are waiting for you! For participants from outside of Singapore we have the possibility to host them in a Singapore hostel. Please apply here. The number is limited. UNESCO encourages the application of women and girls. How do I sign up? 1. Get your ticket to the Event on eventyay.com. 2. Sign up on Devpost. 3. Join the Gitter channel at https://gitter.im/fossasia/hackathon (requires login with Github). 4. Find team members and create your team preferably at least 3 members and maximum 5 contributors. You are also welcome to sign up and then wait until the Presentation of Ideas on Saturday before deciding to join a team, however we'd encourage you to form/join a team in advance if you already have an idea that you'd like to work on. 5. Join the event at the Lifelong Learning Institute on Saturday, March 24 at the opening at 2.00 pm until 10.00 pm and on Sunday, March 25 from 9.00 am until 5.00 pm. Visit the website at unesco.sciencehack.asia and stay connected, join the event on Facebook and Meetup and follow FOSSASIA on Twitter. UNESCO Hackathon Schedule Hackathon Opening: March 24, 2018 12.00 Registration Opens 14:00 Opening 14.10 Intro of Background, Rules and Prizes 14:20 Presentation of Ideas, Teams and Team Building Activities 15:00 Begin of Hacking Activities 19.30 Dinner 22:00 Closing of Space Hackday: March 25, 2018 08:00 - 09:00 Breakfast 09:00 - 13:00 Hack Activities Continue 13:00 - 13:30 Lunch 13:30 - 15:00 Hacking Continues 14:00 Submission Form Closes 15:15 - 16:00 Presentation of Outcome 16:00 Judges Withdraw for Consultation 16:30 Award Announcement and Ceremony 17:00 Summit Closing Location/Venue Lifelong Learning Institute Address: 11 Eunos Road 8, Singapore 408601 Prizes Prizes are awarded for three teams, and each team prize with a value of 1000 SGD. Win cool gear, hardware, raspis, Arduinos and more! Project Submission Requirements For the expected outcome of the hack, the applications or games shall be open source and use open data to tackle the climate change, environment and sustainable development challenges. They shall address one or several of the following requirements: Respond to pressing environmental challenges…

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Read more about the article The Pocket Science Lab: Who Needs it, and Why

The Pocket Science Lab: Who Needs it, and Why

Science and technology share a symbiotic relationship. The degree of success of experimentation is largely dependent on the accuracy and flexibility of instrumentation tools at the disposal of the scientist, and the subsequent findings in fundamental sciences drive innovation in technology itself. In addition to this, knowledge must be free as in freedom. That is, all information towards constructing such tools and using them must be freely accessible for the next generation of citizen scientists. A common platform towards sharing results can also be considered in the path to building a better open knowledge network. But before we get to scientists, we need to consider the talent pool in the student community that gave rise to successful scientists, and the potential talent pool that lost out on the opportunity to better contribute to society because of an inadequate support system. And this brings us to the Pocket Science Lab How can PSLab help electronics engineers & students? This device packs a variety of fundamental instruments into one handy package, with a Bill-of-materials that’s several orders of magnitude less than a distributed set of traditional instruments. It does not claim to be as good as a Giga Samples Per second oscilloscope, or a 22-bit multimeter, but has the potential to offer a greater learning experience. Here’s how: A fresh perspective to characterize the real world. The visualization tools that can be coded on an Android device/Desktop (3D surface plots, waterfall charts, thermal distributions etc ), are far more advanced than what one can expect from a reasonably priced oscilloscope. If the same needs to be achieved with an ordinary scope, a certain level of technical expertise is expected from the user who must interface the oscilloscope with a computer, and write their own acquisition & visualization app. Reduce the entry barrier for advanced experiments.: All the tools are tightly integrated in a cost-effective package, and even the average undergrad student that has been instructed to walk on eggshells around a conventional scope, can now perform elaborate data acquisition tasks such as plotting the resonant frequency of a tuning fork as a function of the relative humidity/temperature. The companion app is being designed to offer varying levels of flexibility as demanded by the target audience. Is there a doctor in the house? With the feature set available in the PSlab , most common electronic components can be easily studied , and will save hours while prototyping new designs.  Components such as resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors, Op-amps, LEDs, buffers etc can be tested. How can PSLab help science enthusiasts ? Physicists, Chemists and biologists in the applied fields are mostly dependent on instrument vendors for their measurement gear. Lack of an electronic/technical background hinders their ability to improve the gear at their disposal, and this is why a gauss meter which is basically a magnetometer coupled with a crude display in an oversized box with an unnecessarily huge transformer can easily cost upwards of $150 . The PSLab does not ask the user…

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