Hola, It's been a loooong time since I updated my blog. Well, as it happens, I have hit upon a wacky idea to democratize scientific research which can eventually lead to deeper scientific penetration and accelerated scientific development. Here we go :)
Scientific research. The expression itself has come to be synonymous with 'not for plebs'. But that's a thing of the past. Anything 'Scientific' or 'research' automatically registers in the mind of the general populace as something uncomprehending, which is as wrong as it's gets. After all, its millennia worth of scientific knowledge that we condense and learn in just two decades at school and that too knowledge in diverse topics. In the grand scheme of things we see that only very few people even attempt to do any form of scientific research. True, that today, scientific work is very collaborative and scientists are networking more than ever, but the fact remains that only a handful of brains would be working in a niche research field at a given time which seriously limits the diversity of ideas.
I, by myself, is no scientist or a doctor and by no means wish to repudiate the achievements of the much revered scientific community, but I would like to propose an addition to current efforts which I believe will do good for the community as a whole ,that of Crowd-sourcing Scientific research. Contrary to popular belief, Scientific Research is not something unattainable intellectually to the masses. The idea presented itself to me when I attended a GIAN course on Scalable Interconnects in Networking on Chips (a course that emphasizes the recent research and advancements in the the emerging research area of Networking on Chips) at IIT-G one of the most reputed technology institutes in the country. Incidentally, this was also the most attended GIAN course in the history of the institute with participants ranging from the undergraduate level to research scholars.Myself being an undergraduate student I can say that the course was so well put together that even a school student would be able to easily digest the broad concepts being taught in the course. At some point, the instructors introduced to us new models of routing systems conceptualized by recent research, some of which they themselves had worked on. As they were explaining how these models worked, many questions began to pop up from the audience, which surprisingly, included ideas that ranged from ones that the scientific community had just started working on to ones that completely eluded those minds during all those years of research. I'm not implying that the scientific community may not have proven the practicality of some of these ideas or may not have thought of these at some point in their research, but what surprised me is the swiftness of such ideas popping up from a large group, out of which most were just recently introduced to these concepts through this course.
The human brain is such a diverse machine. We all have a system in our heads that rivals the fastest supercomputers in the world in processing capacity and the pips the most energy and area efficient man made computers by a reaaallyy big margin. No two brains are same. The conditioning and thoughts that traverse the planet's most efficient computer model is different from person to person. Even though the processing ability of all brains may be comparable, the algorithms in which each brain assesses and resolves a situation is markedly different, thanks to the independent and organic growth of the individual brain. So if we take a group of a hundred brains from as many diverse fields as possible, when presented with a diverse set of problems, the set of brains which come up with viable solutions first may be different for each problem. As the number of brains increase the probability that a solution for a problem will be found faster will also increase and that is the basis for 'the platform'.
The Platform
The Platform is an attempt to Crowd-Source Scientific Research. The avenues to bring cutting edge scientific research to the general public was limited in the past, mostly due to the fact that scientific knowledge was not so easily attainable. But today it is possible for anyone to share their knowledge thanks to the Internet. It is a fact that 100 page theses can be condensed into 'ideas' not exceeding one page and the complex diagrams and graphs can be condensed into simple block diagrams that can be understood by the masses. The limitations and advantages of the research model can be listed within another allotted 7-12 lines. A platform which provides lucid information about cutting edge research in simple but meaningful words will extend the reaches of science to anyone regardless of who they are or where they are from. It doesn't end with that. The 'observers' of the document will be able to 'comment' ideas which they think can modify the existing model or work as an add on. A 'debate' tab , reminiscent of the democratic debates in ancient Greece, for people to debate and discuss the veracity of the existing model or the proposed 'comments' is another key feature. To do advanced research in one particular area one only needs to study the specialty requirements needed for that area. What we lack today is an effective method to administer these specialty requirements and through that cultivate the much needed experience in passionate individuals. For that purpose a 'learners' tab which provides information and resources on the exact requirements to understand, learn or even simulate the given research model on your own and more resources to proceed with your own research in this area should also be an integral part of this platform.
Of course as the content providers, the benefit received to the scientific community in this regard is much greater. Useful ideas from the 'comments' provided by 'Observers' can be incorporated into the respective research papers thus packing in more power for the punch. An increased participation of 'observers' will lead to a greater pace of skill development among the populace which will lead to better awareness about scientific research among the public and lead to a much more skilled industry work force and also provide quality input to the research community. It is said that it takes about 3-5 years for a good research paper to be completed, an additional 1 or 2 years for it to get recognized among the scientific community, 3-4 years for it to be adopted by companies for research for their future products and finally an additional 1-3 years for the product to come into market as a product with 'cutting edge technology'. In short it takes anywhere between 8 to 15 (or more) years for a technology to start being useful for the society. This is a highly inefficient process as it all happens sequentially. With the proposed platform, all these steps can be pipelined to bring truly cutting edge technology to humanity in 3 to 5 years or sooner. Sounds impossible? Not really. The same process that is used to optimize manufacturing processes and data transfer in computers can be implemented in the research field too with 'The Platform'.
On an ending note, I believe such a platform will have the power to transform the world of research for good and also open new vistas of knowledge to people around the globe. As time passes, science and technology have developed much beyond our wildest dreams. It is imperative that with such explosive development of technology, a similar effort should also be made to bring about radical change to the way we impart knowledge to the society, which still seems to be stuck in a bygone era from 200 years ago. Democratize Knowledge, Reap the benefits. The time is now.
| Democratizing Knowledge |
I, by myself, is no scientist or a doctor and by no means wish to repudiate the achievements of the much revered scientific community, but I would like to propose an addition to current efforts which I believe will do good for the community as a whole ,that of Crowd-sourcing Scientific research. Contrary to popular belief, Scientific Research is not something unattainable intellectually to the masses. The idea presented itself to me when I attended a GIAN course on Scalable Interconnects in Networking on Chips (a course that emphasizes the recent research and advancements in the the emerging research area of Networking on Chips) at IIT-G one of the most reputed technology institutes in the country. Incidentally, this was also the most attended GIAN course in the history of the institute with participants ranging from the undergraduate level to research scholars.Myself being an undergraduate student I can say that the course was so well put together that even a school student would be able to easily digest the broad concepts being taught in the course. At some point, the instructors introduced to us new models of routing systems conceptualized by recent research, some of which they themselves had worked on. As they were explaining how these models worked, many questions began to pop up from the audience, which surprisingly, included ideas that ranged from ones that the scientific community had just started working on to ones that completely eluded those minds during all those years of research. I'm not implying that the scientific community may not have proven the practicality of some of these ideas or may not have thought of these at some point in their research, but what surprised me is the swiftness of such ideas popping up from a large group, out of which most were just recently introduced to these concepts through this course.
The human brain is such a diverse machine. We all have a system in our heads that rivals the fastest supercomputers in the world in processing capacity and the pips the most energy and area efficient man made computers by a reaaallyy big margin. No two brains are same. The conditioning and thoughts that traverse the planet's most efficient computer model is different from person to person. Even though the processing ability of all brains may be comparable, the algorithms in which each brain assesses and resolves a situation is markedly different, thanks to the independent and organic growth of the individual brain. So if we take a group of a hundred brains from as many diverse fields as possible, when presented with a diverse set of problems, the set of brains which come up with viable solutions first may be different for each problem. As the number of brains increase the probability that a solution for a problem will be found faster will also increase and that is the basis for 'the platform'.
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| The ultimate collaboration |
The Platform
The Platform is an attempt to Crowd-Source Scientific Research. The avenues to bring cutting edge scientific research to the general public was limited in the past, mostly due to the fact that scientific knowledge was not so easily attainable. But today it is possible for anyone to share their knowledge thanks to the Internet. It is a fact that 100 page theses can be condensed into 'ideas' not exceeding one page and the complex diagrams and graphs can be condensed into simple block diagrams that can be understood by the masses. The limitations and advantages of the research model can be listed within another allotted 7-12 lines. A platform which provides lucid information about cutting edge research in simple but meaningful words will extend the reaches of science to anyone regardless of who they are or where they are from. It doesn't end with that. The 'observers' of the document will be able to 'comment' ideas which they think can modify the existing model or work as an add on. A 'debate' tab , reminiscent of the democratic debates in ancient Greece, for people to debate and discuss the veracity of the existing model or the proposed 'comments' is another key feature. To do advanced research in one particular area one only needs to study the specialty requirements needed for that area. What we lack today is an effective method to administer these specialty requirements and through that cultivate the much needed experience in passionate individuals. For that purpose a 'learners' tab which provides information and resources on the exact requirements to understand, learn or even simulate the given research model on your own and more resources to proceed with your own research in this area should also be an integral part of this platform.
Of course as the content providers, the benefit received to the scientific community in this regard is much greater. Useful ideas from the 'comments' provided by 'Observers' can be incorporated into the respective research papers thus packing in more power for the punch. An increased participation of 'observers' will lead to a greater pace of skill development among the populace which will lead to better awareness about scientific research among the public and lead to a much more skilled industry work force and also provide quality input to the research community. It is said that it takes about 3-5 years for a good research paper to be completed, an additional 1 or 2 years for it to get recognized among the scientific community, 3-4 years for it to be adopted by companies for research for their future products and finally an additional 1-3 years for the product to come into market as a product with 'cutting edge technology'. In short it takes anywhere between 8 to 15 (or more) years for a technology to start being useful for the society. This is a highly inefficient process as it all happens sequentially. With the proposed platform, all these steps can be pipelined to bring truly cutting edge technology to humanity in 3 to 5 years or sooner. Sounds impossible? Not really. The same process that is used to optimize manufacturing processes and data transfer in computers can be implemented in the research field too with 'The Platform'.
On an ending note, I believe such a platform will have the power to transform the world of research for good and also open new vistas of knowledge to people around the globe. As time passes, science and technology have developed much beyond our wildest dreams. It is imperative that with such explosive development of technology, a similar effort should also be made to bring about radical change to the way we impart knowledge to the society, which still seems to be stuck in a bygone era from 200 years ago. Democratize Knowledge, Reap the benefits. The time is now.
