Today’s session (1 August 2016)

Hi everyone

Today we started by re-visiting last week’s discussion around what it would be like to live on Mars. Last week we talked about the problems that NASA is trying to solve by building a Mars simulation on a red lava field in Hawaii and how they expect this to better inform their decision making for living in space. Issues involved isolation, weightlessness, stimulation, etc.

Since last week, another NASA-linked article popped into view in the form of another National Radio interview, this time with Katey Forth, an ex-NASA neurophysiologist who was involved in research around how the mind and body respond to weightless environments. Forth has since left NASA and she has used her research to develop algorithms to help predict the likelihood of people falling over. This may sound frivolous but preventing accidental falls is a major concern of preventative treatment for older and infirm patients (and even in otherwise hale-and-hearty people such as ourselves).

Forth and her team have developed models which help them to make accurate predictions about who is actually in danger of falling. Her predictive algorithms allow us to differentiate between people who (on the one hand) look and act doddery but are in no real danger of falling over and (on the other) people who are at risk.

I can see exactly what she is talking about in the case of my own elderly parents: My mother looked incredibly unsteady on her feet in her latter years but she only ever fell over once that I know of. This was a combination of her ability to adapt to her limitations and a low neurophysiological risk of becoming unbalanced.

So, in order to solve the problem of how to prevent falls, Forth is suggesting that we should look less at whether someone ‘looks’ like they are in danger of falling over (or even whether they are in the ‘danger demographic’) and more at what measurable data tells us about sensory / motor-skills / impairments. Have a listen to the interview at http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/201810131/katey-forth-nasa-researcher,-entrepreneur-and-frisbee-whizz.

For more discussion on algorithms and their use as a problem solving tool, see http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~cs1101x/4_misc/jumpstart/chap3.pdf

Leaving real life examples of problem solving for the moment, we then did a brief check to see that everyone had received the material which I sent out last week. I wanted to make sure that everyone was connected via Moodle and that you all now have access to the following documents …

* Course Outline

* Session 1 powerpoints

* Session notes

* Resource Book

* Assignment 1 template

Read through this material as (most) of it is actually quite useful!

Remember also that the Resource Book is a trial to see whether we can replace the traditional (and expensive) compulsory textbook with something more active and relevant. I already have three new links to add to the book for this week and I need you all to take part in finding interesting and relevant links that we can add. If you think something is worthwhile including then send me a link and a brief explanation of why you think it is useful. From time-to-time I do expect to see you mention some of the material from this Resource Book in your assignment work and in class.

By now you should be well underway with your first week’s instalment for Assignment 1. This assignment is a way for me to provide you with facilitated learning opportunities and to monitor your out-of-the-classroom learning. I am also trying to encourage you to develop some good learning habits (if you don’t already have them!) and to allow you to choose PSDM topics which have relevance to your own interests.

Remember that the assignment is set up to support analysis and application. So, as you read something about PSDM, makes notes about it and tell me what you have learned (no cut-and-pastes please!). Then tell me how it applies to you, how you could use that information or maybe tell me about an experience that you had which is relevant to what you have read. Only write enough to show me these things: I don’t want you shackled to a desk each week writing thousand word essays for me! Remember also, that it is important to be able to distil ideas down so that you get to the important points as quickly as possible (unnecessary words don’t earn extra marks!)

The first instalment of this assignment is due this Friday and I will attempt to mark it over the weekend and get feedback to you by Monday.

Moving on from this, we then did a couple of problem solving practicals.

The first was a recap discussion around strategies for completing Assignment 1. I suggested that one way to successfully manage this assignment is to have a regular piece of time blocked out each day when you can grab a quiet cup of coffee and some time on your laptop or with a book. This might only need to be 10 or 15 minutes and you should find something that interests you in the PSDM area. For instance, you might be interested in something which we discussed in class or you might want to dip into a textbook at random to see what it has to say. Other options might be finding a PSDM-related newspaper article (only one per week please) or reflecting on something that you have done recently.

We then tried our hand at making our own algorithm for a simple task involving putting random cards in numerical order. This is a deceptively easy task (after all we do things like this every day) but it becomes far more difficult when we try to identify step-by-step rules that we can actually use. We only really scratched the surface in this exercise and you might like to try it at home to see if you can come up with workable solutions (both for gap and non-gap versions).

This exercise shows us two competing (or should that be complementary?) sides to PSDM: Logical, critical, step-by-step thinking v creative, lateral, expansive thinking approaches. This is something which we will return to quite often during the semester so think about your own style and when / where you might switch between the two.

Finally, we turned our attention to a serious PSDM issue which affects all students to one degree or another: The ability to locate and use appropriate resources in order to successfully complete their studies. Part of the solution to this is to incorporate a few library-related sessions into our classroom activity. For some students this will be a rehash of what they already know while for others it will be a new experience.

For me, the session on library e-books was an eye-opener and I will certainly be looking for student use of this resource in your assignment work. In the next few weeks we will also be visiting the library databases and learning about how to order books from other libraries. (So, if I see assignments with lazy referencing to third-rate sources then you probably won’t do very well in this paper!)

Remember also to take a closer look at the jellybean jar in the Faculty admin office. You each need to tell me how many jellybeans are in the jar, before the end of the term, so that we can find a winner (remember that you can’t open the jar or take it out of the office). We will start discussing how these sorts of problems can be solved and you should start thinking about related workplace problems such as managing tasks, organising logistics and allocating workflows.

Cheers

Phil