Robotics for High School Students in a University Environment

The Young Scholars Program at the Institute for Systems Research of theUniversity of Maryland at College Park is an innovative summer researchexperience for high school students from Maryland, Virginia, and WashingtonD.C. Its goal is to steer talented high school seniors toward higher educationand careers in science and engineering.One particularly popular component ofthis program is a two-week mini-course in robotics. This course utilizes theresources of the Intelligent Servosystems Laboratory of the university tointroduce and demonstrate theoretical and practical aspects of robotics. Thispaper reports on the characteristics that make this a unique effort inrobotics-related education for both the Young Scholars Program participantsand the small group of University of Maryland graduate students who have beenresponsible for the development and instruction of this course.The content of this material has been published in theComputer Science Education Journal, vol. 7, no. 2, 1996, 257-278.</CENTER

Cues for Early Social Skills: Direct Gaze Modulates Newborns' Recognition of Talking Faces

Previous studies showed that, from birth, speech and eye gaze are two important cues in guiding early face processing and social cognition. These studies tested the role of each cue independently; however, infants normally perceive speech and eye gaze together. Using a familiarization-test procedure, we first familiarized newborn infants (n = 24) with videos of unfamiliar talking faces with either direct gaze or averted gaze. Newborns were then tested with photographs of the previously seen face and of a new one. The newborns looked longer at the face that previously talked to them, but only in the direct gaze condition. These results highlight the importance of both speech and eye gaze as socio-communicative cues by which infants identify others. They suggest that gaze and infant-directed speech, experienced together, are powerful cues for the development of early social skills

Evaluation of sprinkler irrigation systems with respect to nonuniformity of water application

A mathematical model is proposed to provide the means for the evaluation of the sprinkler irrigation systems with respect to non uniformity of water application. By introducing the time element, the processes of water application and soil moisture depletion by the plants were simulated. The model has the advantage of tracing the soil moisture development in the root zone. By employing water production functions, it became possible to make predictions on the yield reduction due to nonuniform and deficient water application, for any given set of climatic and operational conditions. The proposed model, based on the detailed analysis of the performance of rotating sprinklers under field conditions, can be used for irrigation scheduling or for design purposes. Examples are presented to illustrate how the method can be employed to assist with the effective design and operation of the sprinkler systems. Using the model, operational techniques are studied for improving the system performance during the period of drought. Finally, a simplified procedure is proposed to deal with the common design problems.</p