About: Ibrar Ayyub

Modern digital cameras are equipped with an impressive array of functions – from autofocus and image stabilization to panoramas and high-definition video. Recently a team of engineers from Duke University has unlocked a previously unrecognized 3D imaging capability of modern cameras by simply repurposing its existing components.

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) studied tweets sent between 15 and 30 June 2014 by followers of either Republican (conservatives) or Democrat (liberals) party Twitter accounts, and found that you can tell a lot about someone’s political leanings just from the words they use.

Introduction We have created an autonomous, servo-controlled fire extinguisher that is capable of aiming photo sensors and a water nozzle along two axes to detect and extinguish candle fires a short distance (about 1 ft.) away using a small burst of water. Our inspiration originally came from thinking about an automated toy sentry turret that […]

Humans are extremely choosy when it comes to mating, only settling down and having kids after a long screening process involving nervous flirtations, set-ups by friends, online matchmaking sites, awkward dates, humiliating rejections, hasty retreats and the occasional lucky strike. In the end, we “fall in love” and “live happily ever after.” But evolution is an unforgiving force – isn’t this choosiness rather a costly waste of time and energy when we should just be “going forth and multiplying?” What, if anything, is the evolutionary point of it all?

For our ECE 4760 final project, we designed and built a pointing device with webcam-color-tracking based movement control.  Our implementation allows the user to wear a set of finger-sleeves complete with buttons for clicking and scrolling and a red LED for color-tracking cursor control to interface with a computer as a normal mouse would.  Users […]

This Saturday at a conference in Quebec, Canada an international research team will present the first online data portal on global permafrost. In the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost researchers first collect all the existing permafrost temperature and active thickness layer data from Arctic, Antarctic and mountain permafrost regions and then make it freely available for download

Abstract The automated drink mixer takes orders from a push-button menu, and moves a regular 16-ounce glass under a series of inverted bottles while dispensing specified amounts of mixers to make perfect non-alcoholic beverages. Introduction             If you’ve ever been to a crowded bar or restaurant and waited a long time just to get served […]

Pointing and pantomime are important components of human communication but so far evidence for referential communication in animals is limited. Observations made by researchers Pamela Heidi Douglas and Liza Moscovice of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, make important contributions to this research topic: To solve social conflicts female bonobos invite other females to engage in a socio-sexual behaviour by using pointing gestures and mimicking hip swings.

When UCLA hosted the Special Olympic World Games this summer, a positive message of inclusion and acceptance was amplified. But unfortunately for many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in other parts of the world, this message doesn’t resonate in their countries, where there are no pathways for them to learn work and social skills or gain independence.

Working closely with the U.S. Forest Service and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, an international team of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation has begun to piece together an archaeological and historical narrative of how the crew of the wrecked 19th century Russian-American Company sailing ship Neva survived the harsh subarctic winter.