View allAll Photos Tagged technologist
SH-RP4
(ruggedized modified power droid)
Custom built from a heavily modified Industrial Automation EG series chassis and incorporating the processing unit of an R-series astromech, SH-RP4 and its sister units were co-designed by archaeologists and technologists at the Shadow University. They were engineered for use in investigations of remote areas where traditional power droids might be unable to navigate. By incorporating the analytical and communication capacity of an astromech, the SH-RP4 also offered archaeologists with data storage, retrieval, uplink, and analysis functions.
Of 12 such units built in the Shadow University’s technology recovery lab, SH-RP4 was one of the only droids that had a personality chip which seemed to harmonize within the new form and capabilities. Colloquially, it was “happy” in this new body. Affable and easy to work with, SH-RP4 was the most often requested companion droid by investigating archaeologists with enough clout to burn on their requisition forms - or credits to bribe the mechanics in the garage.
Some of the post-doc fellows and archaeology interns took to lovingly calling this unit "Sherpa" as she worked both as a skilled guide and strong-backed companion.
-------
So, this is my first try at a custom Star Wars model and I'm quite pleased with the results. I pulled this together for The Smuggler's Room YouTube channel's challenge. With a combination of crayon storage boxes, salvaged toy parts, and a 3D printed head, this little kitbash droid has been a joy to pull together.
The Mackay Sugar Research Institute was constructed in 1953 by builder Don Johnstone to a design by prominent architect Karl Langer. Initially, only one section, the eastern wing, was constructed, with the second or western wing opened in August 1966. Mackay architect HVM Brown prepared plans for the second stage of the building in 1963 based on Langer's original design.
Following the exploration and mapping of pastoral runs in the Mackay district in the early 1860s, the fertile land was soon reduced to smaller selections. It was found that the region was particularly suited to the growing of sugar cane and by 1870 the production of sugar was the region's principal industry. The development of the industry was assisted by the opening of a State Nursery in 1889. Originally built to explore the suitability of diverse forms of agriculture, the 'Lagoons' site became the centre for research into cane varieties and more efficient methods of production. Renamed the Mackay Sugar Experiment Station and including laboratories and residences, it was transferred to the Te Kowai mill site in 1935.
The Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations had been formed in 1900 as part of the Department of Agriculture and Stock with its work financed by levies on sugar growers and millers, matched by government funding. It co-ordinated the research carried out in the three sugar-growing regions of Mackay, Cairns and Bundaberg comparing cane varieties, sampling soils and fostering better farming and irrigation methods. Millers, represented by the Australian Sugar Producers' Association, became increasingly dissatisfied with their lack of control over the direction and activities of the Bureau. This was somewhat deferred by the formation of the technology branch of the Bureau.
Established in 1929, the Queensland Society of Sugar Cane Technologists held its first conference at Cairns in 1930, convened by Norman Bennett of the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations. This was after preliminary meetings of the representatives of 16 sugar mills, six engineering firms and the Central Cane Prices Board. Other absentee mill owners were reputedly uncertain about disclosing trade secrets that such an alliance might bring but the formation of the group was in the face of 'stark ruin, with overseas prices on which cheap labour countries could not exist. To some it appeared that the expansion of the previous period had been a mistake...' a situation which was to repeat in years to come. By 1948 both the Queensland Cane Growers' Council and the Australian Sugar Producers' Association were again concerned and angry because the Bureau had lost a string of highly skilled personnel [including two directors], to more highly paid jobs.
In 1949, the Australian sugar industry comprised mainly small cane farms located along the continent's tropical and sub-tropical Queensland and New South Wales coastline. The 5.5 million tonne cane crop, almost entirely grown in Queensland, was crushed by 34 raw sugar mills, most of which were owned co-operatively by growers. The highly regulated sugar industry was still recovering from material and labour shortages caused by World War II and was endeavouring to reassert its position in the world marketplace as a steady, consistent supplier of raw sugar. To achieve this goal, the industry's leaders determined they would have to expand cane production and the factories would have to improve sugar recovery and increase processing rates. The key was a speedy improvement in technological standards. As the government refused to entertain a proposal to place the Bureau of Experiment Stations outside the public service the Sugar Producers' Association formed a committee to draft the constitution for a new sugar industry funded and controlled research institute.
Sugar Research Limited was incorporated on 22 February 1949 with 22 companies representing 24 mills as original subscribers, although some smaller mills joined soon thereafter and the Colonial Sugar Refinery provided an annual payment. The inaugural board of Sugar Research Ltd first met in March 1949 with its most pressing tasks being the appointment of a director and establishing a centre for research.
Dr HW [Bill] Kerr, who had joined the Bureau of Sugar Experiment Stations in 1928, progressing to be the director from 1933 to 1943, was appointed the first Director of the Sugar Research Institute [1949-61]. Kerr was the driving force behind the establishment of the institute and well known in the Australian sugar industry for his important achievements. He developed and implemented soil analytical procedures for the assessment of available phosphorus, potassium and total replaceable bases. He introduced to sugar agriculture a system of replicated experiments, with statistical analysis and interpretation of results. Kerr was a member of the Queensland Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (from 1979 the Australian Society of Sugar Cane Technologists) from its establishment in 1929 until his death in 1992.
The board decided to establish the Sugar Research Institute's central laboratories in Mackay, as an acknowledgement that Mackay in 1949 was both the largest sugar growing district [out of the three main sugar growing areas - Bundaberg, Cairns and Mackay] as well as being the geographical centre of the Australian sugar industry. The board invited Dr Karl Langer to discuss building plans.
Karl Langer was born in Vienna in 1903 where he lived until migrating to Australia in 1939 with his wife Gertrude. Langer studied architecture in Vienna graduating in 1926. During this time he had worked in the office of Josef Frank, who was to be come well known in Swedish modernism. In 1933 Langer was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy for his thesis entitled 'Origins and Development of Concrete Construction'.
At the outbreak of World War II, Langer and Gertrude arrived in Sydney in May of 1939 proceeding to Brisbane in July. Langer left employment with Queensland Railways in 1946 to establish his own architectural practice. He worked throughout Australia and was the initiator of many influential urban design ideas such as the site for the Sydney Opera House and the pedestrianisation of Queen Street. He was the designer of buildings such as Main Roads Building, Spring Hill; St Peters Chapel, Indooroopilly; Lennon's Broadbeach Hotel on the Gold Coast, and worked in the regional centres of Queensland as an architect, town planner and landscape architect.
The name Karl Langer is now synonymous with modernist architecture in Queensland and his connection with Mackay predates the building. Langer had been offered the position of assistant town planner in the Brisbane City Council in 1944 but the controversy and publicity surrounding this appointment brought him to the attention of the Mackay council which commissioned him to revise that city's town plan.
Langer was also an acquaintance of the secretary of the Sugar Research Institute and was engaged to design the building with offices, boardroom, drawing office and a library and lecture room on the ground floor. The first floor was to house research laboratories. The design provided a single storey utility building, an annexe to the main structure, containing workshops, stores and a machinery room. Later, a second wing could be added to the main building providing additional workshops and laboratory space to cater for expansion of the research institute.
A residence for the director was planned next to the laboratories. According to the original plans for the main building and utilities building the tender for the director's house was described as being 'under a separate tender.' However this may refer to the construction of the building being under a separate tender rather than its design which is also attributed to Langer. Mrs Betty Kerr, HW Kerr's wife, discussed with Langer the need for some alterations to the design of the residence. One particular change related to the need to block the view to the kitchen from the front door. Prior to Mrs Kerr requesting this change a person at the front door was able to see through to the kitchen.
Langer's plans also provided for the landscaping of the site as well as the provision of a caretaker's cottage. The caretaker's cottage is currently let to tenants. Whilst Langer's plans provided for a caretaker's cottage it is unclear if the existing building which was used as a caretaker's cottage was purpose-built or if the building was already existing when the land was purchased by the institute. The stylistic indicators of the building including its hipped roof, lack of sunhoods due to wide eaves and its corner casement windows suggest a date of mid to late 1930.
Langer's pioneering use of climatic design in Queensland can be seen in the main institute building in the decorative restraint evident in the facade detailing and composition, the efficient but spacious planning of the building and the consideration given to a northern orientation. The northern orientation allowed for improved shading in summer and better light in winter. With the laboratories located on the southern side of the building this orientation allowed for a more even distribution of light to these areas.
Post-war shortages of both skilled labour and materials caused costs to escalate. The new director insisted that the director's residence both accommodate his wife and family of five children plus their maid and 'be of a type appropriate to the status of director' and suitable for entertaining guests from overseas. Escalating costs meant that Kerr was asked to modify his expectations and the institute building was completed in stages.
The sugar industry, in 1949, was on the threshold of the buoyant sugar markets of the 1950s and in 1950 Justice Mansfield was appointed to head a Royal Commission for the orderly expansion of the industry. Most mills prepared ambitious plans.
The Sugar Research Institute - 'a monument to the Australian sugar industry' - was opened on Saturday, 22 August 1953 by then Federal Treasurer, Sir Arthur Fadden. More than 100 official guests attended the opening during which Fadden stated that 'there was no industry in Australia better organised than sugar production' and that 'sugar is not only a Queensland industry, not only a national industry, but an international industry of great importance'.
The building provided an environment for chemists and engineers to scientifically study the milling process in co-operation with its practical application. The Institute's focus from its establishment was to find solutions to industry problems via a program of short-term research and strategic design and construction projects. As a non-government funded research institute, the Sugar Research Institute is comparably rare. CSR was involved in experimental research, so whilst the Sugar Research Institute is not the only example of a private research institution, it is still unusual.
The landscaping of the Institute was part of Langer's design, which included the planting of royal palms [Roystonea regia] along the roadside perimeter. The palms were planted in 1954 [a total of 58 at the time] to represent each of the Institute's member mills. The second half of the building, the mirror image of the first side, was completed to Langer's original design and opened in August 1966. Mackay architect Harold Vivian Marsh [HVM] Brown prepared plans for the second stage of the building in 1963.
Twenty-five years after being established, Institute-researched improvements in mill technology had tripled sugar production. By 1972 the Institute had developed improvements in cane transportation by improving scheduling, and reducing operating costs and capital expenditure; milling research that improved extraction through improved performance and reductions in capital expenditure; clarification studies that reduced losses and lime consumption; sugar quality; effluent treatment; elongated grain and filterability penalties and air pollution by developing suitable equipment to meet the standards set.
The institute's annual general meetings and technical conferences were always well attended providing opportunities for mill personnel to discuss any issues with factories and to liaise with colleagues. The meetings and conferences were held in the main building in the library/lecture hall on the ground floor, the ETS Pearce Library, until the Charles Young Conference Hall was opened. Eddie Pearce was the General Secretary of the Australian Sugar Producers' Association and was a major contributor in the establishment of the Sugar Research Institute.
On 31 August 1973 the Charles Young Conference Hall and laboratories were opened by Rex A Patterson then Minister for Northern Development. The hall and laboratories is located to west of the main building and is connected via a covered walkway. The building was named in honour of Charles Young in recognition of his services as founding Chairman from January 1949 to August 1973.
The 1990s were a time of economic stringency and an uncertain future. Destabilisation in world markets and changes in US sugar import quotas led to industry restructuring and streamlining in areas such as sugar industry research funding. The Sugar Research Institute, whilst reduced in staff numbers and outsourcing some contracts continued its research and development.
As reported by the Environmental Protection Agency's Sustainable Industries Unit in October 2004, the Institute developed more efficient condensers for sugar mills. Researchers at the Institute had observed that some vapour condensers operated more efficiently than others, requiring less cooling water flow and subsequently less electrical power for the cooling water circuit. The Institute obtained funding through the Sustainable Energy Innovation Fund to analyse the operation of several existing vapour condensers at sugar factories, to develop an improved condenser design to increase efficiency and to monitor the performance of two new condensers built with the new design.
Two prototype condensers were constructed and installed. Compared with conventional designs, the units achieved reductions in cooling water flow rates. By adopting design modifications, the Institute estimated the cooling water flow would be reduced by up to 12%, yielding a proportional reduction in energy consumption for water pumping and cooling tower fans leading to annual energy savings. Besides the two prototype condensers three other condensers at Millaquin and Tully Sugar Mills were subsequently constructed and installed for the 2004 crushing season.
Individual researchers from the Sugar Research Institute have also received peer recognition, including the prestigious Sugar Industry Technologists Crystal Award presented to Dr Peter Wright in 2003. The Crystal Award is presented to individuals who have contributed notably to the technological advancement of the sugar refining industry.
Dr Wright began his career as a sugar technologist with the Sugar Research Institute in 1957. He is the first Queenslander, and the fourth Australian to receive the Crystal Award. Sugar Industry Technologists Inc was founded in the United States in 1941 by several North American sugar refineries. It has since grown to become an international association with a combined membership of approximately 100 corporate sugar refining companies and corporate allied companies with over 500 individual members worldwide.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy shakes hands with A.C. Charania after swearing him in as NASA’s Chief Technologist, Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023, at the Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters building in Washington, DC. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
In March 2025, I photographed Dr. Catie Cuan, a rare kind of technologist—one who does not merely study movement but inhabits it, shaping our understanding of both human and robotic motion in ways that feel at once inevitable and revolutionary. To witness her at work is to see someone in deep conversation with machines, coaxing out a language of movement that is not just efficient but expressive, not just technical but emotional.
A trained dancer and mechanical engineer, Cuan is a pioneer in ‘choreorobotics,’ a field that merges artificial intelligence, human-robot interaction, and art. Her career has been a dance in itself, moving fluidly between performance, research, and entrepreneurship, all in pursuit of a singular question: how can robots move in a way that feels alive?
Cuan holds a PhD and a Master’s of Science in robotics and AI from Stanford, where she is also a postdoctoral researcher leading the art and robotics efforts at the new Stanford Robotics Center. Her dissertation, “Compelling Robot Behaviors through Supervised Learning and Choreorobotics,” explores how machine learning can teach robots to move in ways that evoke presence—where motion itself carries meaning. During her doctoral research, funded by the National Institutes of Health, Google, and Stanford University, she led the first multi-robot machine learning project at Everyday Robots (Google X) and Robotics at Google, now part of Google DeepMind.
But Cuan is not content to leave her work in the realm of academia. She has spent years choreographing robots, treating them not as rigid automatons but as performers capable of communicating through motion. She has held residencies at the Smithsonian, the Exploratorium, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, TED, Everyday Robots (Google X), the RAD Lab, and ThoughtWorks Arts, working with nearly a dozen different robotic platforms—from the industrial ABB IRB 6700 to small, interactive tabletop machines. Her performances reimagine robots not as servants or tools, but as collaborators, capable of moving with grace, intention, and even artistry.
Cuan’s vision is as much about rethinking robotics as it is about rethinking humanity’s relationship to machines. Her work suggests that the way a robot moves can influence the way we feel about it—that movement is not just a function of engineering but of psychology, of storytelling, of something deeply embedded in how we perceive life itself. In healthcare, she envisions robots that move with a bedside manner, adjusting their motion to put patients at ease. In entertainment, she imagines robots that can dance, that can anticipate and respond to human motion as a partner rather than an operator. Her work, at its core, is about breaking down the binary between the organic and the artificial.
Photographing Cuan, I saw someone who carries these ideas not just in her mind but in her body. Her own movements are precise yet fluid, deliberate yet spontaneous, as though she is always attuned to the forces of motion around her. In that moment, it was clear: she is not just designing how robots move—she is teaching them how to be seen, how to be understood, how to exist in a world that has, until now, only made space for the living.
NASA release April 1, 2010
The giant elliptical galaxy NGC 5128, show here in visible light, hosts the radio source known as Centaurus A. Located 12 million light-years away, it is one of the closest active galaxies.
Credit: Capella Observatory
To learn more about these images go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/smokestack-plumes.html
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
About Me:
I am Pranav Bhasin, a technologist by education, photographer by passion, cyclist and runner by desire, entrepreneur by choice and an ardent traveler.
My photography is an attempt to mirror the soul of places I have been to, people I have met and things I have experienced during my travels. Please visit Pranav Bhasin's Photo Gallery and Photo Blog for a collection of my best photos.
You can also connect with me at: My Product Management and Social Media Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare.
In case you are interested in using my photos, please write to me and I would be happy to offer them for a price. Please do not use my photos without prior authorization from me. Thanks!
NASA Chief Technologist Dave Miller volunteers at the Joyful Food Market during a Martin Luther King Jr. day of service at Plummer Elementary School on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 in Washington, DC. The Joyful Food Market was coordinated with Martha's Table and the Capital Area Food Bank to reduce hunger and increase access to and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. Photo Credit: (NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
Panelists Mike Massimino, Columbia University professor and former NASA astronaut, far left, Drew Goddard, screenwriter of "The Martian," second from left, David Miller, NASA Chief Technologist, center, Dave Lavery, program executive for Solar System Exploration at NASA Headquarters in Washington, second from right, and film Producer for “The Martian” Aditya Sood, far right, look at a short video during a panel discussion about NASA's journey to Mars and the film "The Martian", Sunday, Sept. 27, 2015, at Columbia University in New York City. NASA scientists and engineers served as technical consultants on the film. The movie portrays a realistic view of the climate and topography of Mars, based on NASA data, and some of the challenges NASA faces as we prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet in the 2030s. Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
The mesh is placed on your face & shaped into you face crevices on the very first day of treatment. The blue foam is attached to the table to hold you still; the table moves you. The tape & lines assist the technologist to be able to adjust the radiation machine & pinpoint the cancer areas.
Lydia is a medical technologist by profession, a dance instructor / Philippines folk dancer by vocation and a 'poet in motion' by inspirational vocation.
In 1980 Lydia arrived in Finland due to her work as medical technologist. Half a decade later she met a Finnish car racer man and got married. Unfortunately, less than a couple of years later, her husband died, nevertheless, she remained in Finland.
Lydia, in her 70s now, is a choreographer, a dance teacher, promoting Philippines through dancing.
We met at the Sea Fortress Suomenlinna / Sveaborg where she was visiting with a group of Filipino friends tourists.
It was a very friendly encounter which started by my spontaneous greeting in Tagalog as I overheard them speaking their mother-tongue.
Naturally, they wanted to know how and where I learned Tagalog. I told them about Stella, my mother's Filipino care giver.
Stella has become like a daughter to me, we still keep in touch two and a half years after my beloved mommy passed away.
Lydia and her friends, Grace & Myrna, were making pictures of each other, taking turns wearing the lovely crown of flowers made by Lydia.
One of her friends took pictures of all of us and Lydia gave me her card to keep in touch.
This is my 302nd submission to The Human Family group.
Visit the group here to see more portraits and stories: www.flickr.com/groups/thehumanfamily.
Draw By Night #41 (Aug '15) - Simulator Sickness
What happens when you mix a roomful of artists, giant pieces of paper, and a crazy theme? If you’re Interactive Technologist and Instructor Christopher Quine, you turn those ingredients into Vancouver’s only bi-monthly drawing party. At Draw By Night, artists can work collaboratively on pieces, or by themselves on their own section. The only emphasis is on getting everyone drawing. Participants are encouraged to use Twitter or other social media to discuss the event and post pictures, allowing real-time engagement with the drawing community. They can also post ideas and comments that are often integrated into the next event.
Find out more about VFS's one-year Digital Design program at vfs.edu/programs/digital-design
Photos by Danny Chan
About Me:
I am Pranav Bhasin, a technologist by education, photographer by passion, cyclist and runner by desire, entrepreneur by choice and an ardent traveler.
My photography is an attempt to mirror the soul of places I have been to, people I have met and things I have experienced during my travels. Please visit Pranav Bhasin's Photo Gallery and Photo Blog for a collection of my best photos.
You can also connect with me at: My Product Management and Social Media Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare.
In case you are interested in using my photos, please write to me and I would be happy to offer them for a price. Please do not use my photos without prior authorization from me. Thanks!
About Me:
I am Pranav Bhasin, a technologist by education, photographer by passion, cyclist and runner by desire, entrepreneur by choice and an ardent traveler.
My photography is an attempt to mirror the soul of places I have been to, people I have met and things I have experienced during my travels. Please visit Pranav Bhasin's Photo Gallery and Photo Blog for a collection of my best photos.
You can also connect with me at: My Product Management and Social Media Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare.
In case you are interested in using my photos, please write to me and I would be happy to offer them for a price. Please do not use my photos without prior authorization from me. Thanks!
About Me:
I am Pranav Bhasin, a technologist by education, photographer by passion, cyclist and runner by desire, entrepreneur by choice and an ardent traveler.
My photography is an attempt to mirror the soul of places I have been to, people I have met and things I have experienced during my travels. Please visit Pranav Bhasin's Photo Gallery and Photo Blog for a collection of my best photos.
You can also connect with me at: My Product Management and Social Media Blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Foursquare.
In case you are interested in using my photos, please write to me and I would be happy to offer them for a price. Please do not use my photos without prior authorization from me. Thanks!