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The Theory of Knowledge
(from Albert Einstein’s letter of 1916)
“How does a normally talented research scientist come to concern himself with the theory of knowledge? Is there not more valuable work to be done in his field? I hear this from many of my professional colleagues; or rather, I sense in the case of many more of them that this is what they feel”.
“I cannot share this opinion. When I think of the ablest students whom I have encountered in teaching – e.e.? those who distinguished themselves by their independence of judgment, and not only mere agility – I find that they a lively concern for the theory of knowledge. They liked to start discussions concerning the aims and methods of sciences, and showed unequivocally by the obstinacy with which they defended their views that this subject seemed important to them.”
“This is really not astonishing. For when I turn to science not for some superficial reason such as money-making or ambition, and also not (or at least not exclusively) for the pleasure of the sport, the delights of brain-athletics, then the following questions must burningly interest me as a disciple of this science: What goal will and can be reached by the science to which I am dedicating myself? To what extent are its general results “true”? What is essential, and what is based only on the accidents of development?....”
“Concepts which have proved useful for ordering things easily assume so great an authority over us, that we forget their terrestrial origin and accept them as unalterable facts. They then become labeled as “conceptual necessities,” “ a priori situations”, etc. The road of scientific progress is frequently blocked for long periods by such errors. It is therefore not just an idle game to exercise our ability to analyze familiar concepts, and to demonstrate the conditions on which their justification and usefulness depend, and the way in which these developed, little by little…”.
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An academic conference or symposium
An academic conference or symposium is a conference for researchers (not necessarily academics) to present and discuss their work. Together with academic or scientific journals, conferences provide an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.
Conferences are usually composed of various presentations. They tend to be short and concise, with a time span of about 10 to 30 minutes; presentations are usually followed by a discussion. The work may be bundled in written form as academic papers and published as the conference proceedings. Usually a conference will include keynote speakers (often, scholars of some standing, but sometimes individuals from outside academia). The keynote lecture is often longer, lasting sometimes up to an hour and a half, particularly if there are several keynote speakers on a panel.
In addition to presentations, conferences also feature panel discussions, round tables on various issues and workshops.
Prospective presenters are usually asked to submit a short abstract of their presentation, which will be reviewed before the presentation is accepted for the meeting. Some disciplines require presenters to submit a paper of about 6–15 pages, which is peer reviewed by members of the program committee or referees chosen by them.
In some disciplines, such as English and other languages, it is common for presenters to read from a prepared script. In other disciplines such as the sciences, presenters usually base their talk around a visual presentation that displays key figures and research results.
A large meeting will usually be called a conference, while a smaller is termed a workshop. They might be single track or multiple track, where the former has only one session at a time, while a multiple track meeting has several parallel sessions with speakers in separate rooms speaking at the same time.
At some conferences, social or entertainment activities such as tours and receptions can be part of the program. Business meetings for learned societies or interest groups can also be part of the conference activities.
The larger the conference, the more likely it is that academic publishing houses may set up displays. Large conferences also may have a career and job search and interview activities.
Academic conferences fall into three categories:
- the themed conference, small conferences organized around a particular topic;
- the general conference, a conference with a wider focus, with sessions on a wide variety of topics. These conferences are often organized by regional, national, or international learned societies, and held annually or on some other regular basis.
- the professional conference, large conferences not limited to academics but with academically related issues.
Increasing numbers of amplified conferences are being provided which exploit the potential of WiFi networks and mobile devices in order to enable remote participants to contribute to discussions and listen to ideas.
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SMART TRUCKS
Ever noticed how road-sweeping trucks just seem to rearrange dirt and garbage rather than removing it? Make the trucks smarter and they will do a much better job: just arm the vehicles with a laser, a digital camera and an image-processing computer.
The problem with standard road sweepers, says Graham Parker at the University of Surrey, is that they are dumb. The settings for the brushes - the speed and the force with which they are pushed onto the road, for example - are usually set at the beginning of a run and then left alone.
But some rubbish needs only light sweeping while other types ofdebris,like patches of split builder's gravel or wet sand, call for morevigorous scraping,so having just one setting makes the sweeping processinefficient.
"These vehicles are often not that effective, hence sweeping becomes a two-man operation with one in the truck and another behind on the foot sweeping up what the truck misses," Parker says. Identifying the types of trash to be dealt with should help the truck to pick up more rubbish at the first attempt. This will remove the need for a second pass, speeding up the operation and cutting fuel consumption and diesel emissions.
So with his colleague Gareth Peel, Parker set about making the trucks smarter. A lasermountednear the front projects a line onto the road ahead. A digital camera in the truck sends theimages to an on-board computer.
Parker says that an image- processing programme monitoring the shape of the laser line can pick out and identify lumps of rubbish lying in the road. This information could then be used to move the truck's brushes to the litter, or to raise the alarm if the debris is in danger of clogging up the vacuum unit.
For some types of litter, the system is smarter. It detects patches of gravel, sand or leaves on the road because they tend to have irregular outlines. These are then distinguished by measuring variations in their colours and brightness. "If you have a few dry leaves, you don't need as much power as with wet sand," explains Parker.
"It's great to see people working on practical problems," says Mark Atherton of the mechatronics group at South Bank University in London. But he adds that the system would need a manual override in some situations. "If it came across a patch of concrete stuck to the floor, you could be there for a while."
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Keeping people happy is an increasingly tough trick. With unemployment at record lows, companies are trying just about anything to retrain employees, says Jay Doherty of the New-York-based human resourses consulting firm William M.MercerInc. Not only ore employees being pampered, they,re getting more money, better benefits and help with personal problems such as child care and financial planning. Bosses once shunned such intervention. Retention is no longer a human resourse issue, it’s a business issues,Doherty says.
Because technology companies face the tightest labor markets, they have been the most aggressive in devising ways to keep workers. Herndon-based Net2000 Communications, for example, puts top perfomers behind the wheel of luxury cars like a BMW 323i or Z3. Microstrategy, a Vienna-based data miner, goes a step further and has hosted all of its employees on Caribbean cruises. Such perks are great for the employee, but do they make sense for the company? Maybe. Doherty says all companies-including technology firms-have to be careful they do not create a business model that’s not profitable. Don’t throw money at workers who want to leave because pay rises don’t always work. Perks And benefits can be effective, but they have to be custom fit to the company and the business sector. Don’t new perks just because they seem like hot trends, he says. “Too often there’s a desperation sometimes to just try anything and it’s very expensive” Microstrategy, which reported lower earnings earlier this year, has been rerthinking its cruises, for example.
Yet companies still face labor crunches that can really hurt. How do you keep workers? Start by making them feel they’re part of a special place with unique culture. “We want to hire people that are totally aligned with our values”, says Tim Huval, general manager for South Dakota-based gateway’s 2,200-employee call center and manufacturing facility in Hampton. “Honesty, efficiency,aggressiveness,respect,teamwork,caring,common sense and fun. Those are values that live by.” Richmond-based Xperts also lives by the value system. Founder and CEO William Tyler pushes pairing quality of life with a sense of social responsibility. Workers can designate which non-profit groups Xpertts contributes to, for example. A strong culture makes it hard for people to leave, Tyler says. “They don’t have an urge to leave because they’ve found a home.” They’re happy.
Notice this corporate culture stuff doesn’t say much about shareholders or profit. It’s a decidedly employee-centric approach. “If you ask any of them, they’re all going to say, “Pay me more money”But that’s not the truth,” Tyler says. What people are looking for is, A place that’s looking out for me. What that means is helping employees cope with problems they face outside the office. That is where companies can build loyalty, says Barbara Bailey of William M. Richmond office. One popular tool is revamping leave policies to create flexible leave banks that put all employee leave into single category. Employees take time off when they need it and don’t have to call it a sick day or vacation. Work-life issues are huge, Bailey says. You make them feel as though they’re not interested in looking elsewhere, because they’re very happy with their life.
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