Category: Information Technology (IT & Software)

** Documenting History

Meet the Bengaluru-based podcast creators who have made it big at the Asia Podcast Festival 2021.

Documenting the abolishment of Sec 377 and tracing the iconic moments of India’s space history – not just made it to the podcast trend list on Spotify but was recognised at the Asia Podcast Festival 2021. Created by podcast studio, All Things Small (ATS), 377 and Mission ISRO, won the award under the Best Arts, Society and Culture and in Science,Technology and Business category in the Asia Podcast Festival this year. 

Bengaluru-based Gaurav Vaz, founder of ATS, bagged the award for stories that have actually been landmark and historic moments in India’s social and technological space, respectively. However, the moments that transpired behind the mic for both the stories are exhaustive and distinctive. While 377 dealt with the abolishment of Sec 377, an ‘archaic’ law criminalising homosexuality, the podcast team had to navigate the contradictory perspectives within the LGBTQ community itself. Meanwhile, Mission ISRO was a project that spread its wings right in the middle of the pandemic, which meant that the makers connected with top scientists aged above 80 years, over virtual platforms, which made the task all the more harder. 

** Learn about 3D audio through a workshop with sound artists Felix Deufel and Nikhil Nagaraj

The workshop would help students, sound artists, producers and other practitioners to work with 3D audio

Sound artists Felix Deufel and Nikhil Nagaraj are conducting a one-day workshop on 3D audio at TheISRO’s (Indian Sonic Research Organisation) 3D SoundLab Bengaluru on January 5.

Though little-known in India, 3D audio is among the most exciting fields of study in audio technology, says Nikhil. Apart from its commercial uses in film, gaming and more, he reckons, it has limitless possibilities in “the experimental space”. For instance, his current projects include developing technical solutions for streaming immersive audio and recording high quality audio in ecologically sensitive areas for research and preservation.

** Techie-turned-farmer teaches kids about forgotten flora

He is a storehouse of knowledge on Indian trees, plants and herbs, and in his farm, which is nothing like the traditional setup, the flora grows wildly and naturally.

The farm has over 300 species of plants and trees, all either edible or used for medicinal purposes. 

Srivathsa Govindaraju, a software engineer-turned-farmer, started his farm 13 years ago with the intent of “respecting nature as it is and to understand how it functions”.

** Hassan: Man who found black box of crashed Navy helicopter awaiting prize from 30 years

A youth, who has reached senior citizen’s age now, who found the black box of the Navy helicopter that crashed on Western Ghats in 1991, did not receive the promised prize money.

In 1991, a Navy helicopter that was carrying very critical documents from Mangaluru to Bengaluru crashed on the plateau of Aramane Gudda on Western Ghats. Four people, including a colonel, lost their lives in the mishap. Even after frantic searching the helicopter could not be located.

Puttaswamy Gowda, a youth of 33 years, resident of Vanagoor village, continued his search in the quest of getting the prize, though all others stopped the hunt for the black box of the helicopter. After two years of continuous search he was able to locate the black box in 1992 October on the plateau of Aramane Gudda.

** Lokayukta website launched

The new website of Karnataka Lokayukta was launched on Thursday.

According to an official release, Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, who inaugurated the website at the Lokayukta headquarters in the city, said the Lokayukta website has been upgraded to provide transparency in the functioning of the organisation and provide timely information to complainants, defendants, and the public.

** Grasslands are treated as wastelands and diverted for other uses: Infosys Prize 2021 winner

Says window of opportunity to combat climate change is closing rapidly

COVID-19 has put the focus on zoonotic disease like nothing else did before. The bigger issue here, Mahesh Sankaran from National Center For Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru says, is habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation.

Prof. Sankaran was awarded the Infosys Prize 2021 in the Life Sciences category in recognition of his work on the ecology of tropical savanna ecosystems, and his contributions to highlighting the biodiversity of important Indian ecosystems such as the Western Ghats.

** KLS GIT team wins Hackathon Manthan

A team of students from KLS Gogte Institute of Technology won the National Security Hackathon Manthan-2021 jointly organised by the Ministry of Education Innovation Cell and the Bureau of Police Research and Development.

The team developed a solution to a problem statement, Analysis of Hinglish Text, where the task was to identify abusive content written in language that combines Hindi and English words on social media posts and report it to the authorities.

Belagavi….

** Railway cops use novel remote sensing app to record unnatural deaths on Karnataka rail tracks

The Government Railway Police (GRP) is making use of a novel system to ready Unnatural Death Reports (UDR) on railway tracks: an application developed by the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre (KSCRAC) to capture all details of a deceased person with location accuracy and related geo-tagged photos.

This innovative usage of technology was initiated by Additional Director General of Police, Railways, South Western Railway Zone, Bhaskar Rao. It is now being utilised by railway cops on a full-fledged basis following the completion of trials that commenced in March this year.

** With second-largest AI talent pool, Bengaluru ranked fifth in world

Bengaluru has emerged among the top five cities in the world for Artificial Intelligence (AI), ranked at No. 5, with the first four being cities in the USA. The ranking is among top 50 AI cities, measured by the TIDE Framework and listed by Harvard Business Review (HBR).

The top four cities are San Francisco, New York, Boston and Seattle. The ranking factors in diversity and inclusive talent pool. Reviewers have noted that Bengaluru also has the world’s second-largest AI talent pool and is ranked fifth for diversity among AI workers, as measured by data from Fletcher school, Tufts University, and derived at based on a framework of indicators such as talent pool, investments, diversity of talent, evolution of the country’s digital foundations (TIDE).