Lecture 1.1.1

co1-Identify the biological concepts from an engineering perspective.

•This subject is designed to impart fundamental knowledge on basic of genetics and emerging fields of biology like biomedical recording system and medical instrumentation.

•It is designed to impart knowledge that how to apply basics of biology in engineering.

Science and Engineering

•Generally, Science is the study of the physical world, while Engineering applies scientific knowledge to design processes, structures or equipment.

• Both Engineers and Scientists will have a strong knowledge of science, mathematics and technology, but Engineering students will learn to apply these principles to designing creative solutions to Engineering challenges. So when we think of a scientist versus engineer, the two aren’t separate entities but belong to each other – without science, there wouldn’t be engineering.

•The terms science and technology, are often pronounced in the same breath and used as synonyms, because they are closely intertwined, that their difference is often times ignored.

• Science is all about acquiring knowledge of the natural phenomenon along with the reasons for such phenomenon, like Why are leaves green? How do plants make their food? And so forth. When this knowledge is put to practice, to solve human needs or problems, it is termed as technology.

•So, in short, science deals with theories, principles and laws whereas technology is all about products, processes and designs.

•Biology is the natural science that studies life and living organisms, including their physical structure, chemical processes, molecular interactions, physiological mechanisms, development and evolution.

•There are three major branches of biology – botany, zoology and microbiology.

•BOTANY study of plants

•ZOOLOGY study of animals

•MICROBIOLOGY study of microbes

•Biomimicry, as it’s called, is a method for creating solutions to human challenges by emulating designs and ideas found in nature. It’s used everywhere: buildings, vehicles, and even materials.

•There are three main ways biomimicry can work.

• First, a design can mimic form or shape, like paint that helps surfaces self-clean the same way as a lotus leaf. Second, there is mimicking process, like patterning autonomous vehicle networks on how ants and bees communicate as a hive.

Difference Between Eye And Camera

Eye vs Camera

Eye is an organ of sight while a camera is equipment that is used to record images.

The first and the foremost difference between an eye and a camera is that an eye cannot record an image. The eyes use living cells to detect and interpret the light and convert these into electrical signals that are relayed to the brain and processed into an image. The camera on the other hand uses a diaphragm from where the image is recorded on film or like in modern cameras on tape or digitally.

A camera sees in 2 dimensions while the eye sees in 3 dimensions. This means that when we see with our eyes we see height, width and depth. With a camera we only see height and width. There is no way to have the depth in the picture as a photograph is a flat medium. This is mainly achieved by the stereoscopic vision of the eye. A simple demonstration of this can be trying to bring the forefingers of both hands to meet from the sides. This is much simpler to do with both eyes open than with only one eye or almost impossible with a camera.

While changing the focus the retina and parts of the pupil adjust the size accordingly. However, in a camera the focus is changed by the movement of the lens. Eye has a blind spot which is also known as scotoma, whereas, the cameras do not have any such limitations. The eye can also adapt itself to the dark and within a few seconds one can get start seeing better in the dark. However, if a camera is not equipped to capture images in the dark it can never get accustomed.

The eye is highly sensitive to the dust and foreign particles settling on the outer film. In a camera there is no such problem as any dust can simply be wiped off the lens.

Summary

1. Eye is a live organ for sight whereas a camera is an equipment to capture images.
2. Eye uses live cells to detect light while the camera uses a diaphragm to detect light and capture images.
3. Stereoscopic vision of eyes allows 3 dimensional images while camera captures only 2 dimensional images.
4. The pupil adjusts the size while focusing while in a camera lens moves to change focus.
5. Eyes have blind spots while cameras do not.

Lecture Topic 1.1.2

CO2-Development of artificial systems mimicking human action.

Introduction

Biomimicry is a type of innovation where scientists and engineers look for solutions to the challenges that face human beings by using the patterns of nature. Nature has configurations that are time tested and accurate. Human beings aim to create processes that will be sustainable for the future generations and the later life on earth. There are many instances where biomimicry has solved problems in the natural world.

In engineering, biomimicry applies because nature inspires designs like navigation vessels, ships among other creative and innovative products (4). Nature acts an inspiration for many designs and innovations. One of the main innovations is how airplanes have taken the shape of birds.

Discussion

For over a thousand years, man has wanted to fly and to move from one point to another. Flying is the fastest mode of transportation, and people can move from city to city to carry out business and to look for new frontiers. Before man invented airplanes, he would rely on ships that would spend many days on the voyage.

Airplanes eradicated the problem of accessibility and made it faster and more convenient to do business. Birds fly so effortlessly because of the adaptations that they have. Birds have streamlined shapes so that when they are in flight the air can flow on their surface smoothly. Engineers used the shape of the birds as inspiration to model the planes (4). Most airplanes have a streamlined shape so that they do not face air resistance when they are in motion.

Secondly, birds have smooth and sometimes glossy surface. Birds groom their feathers with their beaks to makes sure that their body is smooth as they fly (2). Airplanes also have polished surfaces, and this prevents air resistance. Thirdly, birds use a concept where they fly in a V shape when they are in a flock. This mode of flying has enabled birds to travel greater distances. The V formation aids in collaboration, because as each bird flies, it adds more energy to the group, and they can keep up many miles in flight.

The birds keep changing positions and rotate their place in the stack, and this helps them go for long distances without tiring. There are some researchers from Stanford University who utilized this trait and concluded that if jets use the same trait, they can save on fuel. They purported that if jets fly in a V-shape and alternate their positions, they would manage to save their fuel up to 15%.

The concept of biomimicry has inspired the airplane wings. When birds want to take off, they raise their wings thereby creating a low pressure, and the body goes up through the process of ‘lift’. Airplanes use the same notion while taking off and landing. The scientists mimic the movements of the birds while modeling the wings. Airplane wings have taken the same shape as the birds’ wing and the taper outside. The two wings have different thicknesses as they move from the body.

There are some developments expected in future. Shaker Meguid, a medical engineer, said in 2008 that he aims to make changes to aerodynamics (1). He said that when birds are in the air, they extend their wings so far, and this helps them to stay high and to reduce the air drag. He also says that when birds what to move faster, they close their wings and planes can use the same concept that he calls ‘wing morphing’.

Human beings are always aiming to make new discoveries and alteration to their designs. Most modern planes have fixed wings that cannot change in angles. However, these planes have flaps on the wings that move up and down depending on where the plane is. Today, the only developments on a plane wing are the flaps and ailerons. There have been developments to make a wing that morphs. Scientists say that when a wing transforms, it will be easy to steer when it is in the air, and it will make flying easier. This revolutionizing of the airplane by biomimicry is something that in the works.

•Bio-inspired technologies: Biologically-inspired design (or BID) has become an important and increasingly wide-spread movement in design for environmentally-conscious sustainable development.

•Aircraft wing design and flight techniques are being inspired by birds and bats.

•Biorobot :-A biological organism that has been created and designed by artificial means. A person who performs robot-like tasks, or performs tasks in place of a robot.

•Suction nozzle of vacuum cleaner: inspired by proboscis of flies

•Spider web silk is as strong as the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests. Engineers could in principle use such a material, if it could be reengineered to have a long enough life, for parachute lines, suspension bridge cables, artificial ligaments for medicine, and other purposes. Spider silk is highly flexible, extremely stretchable, surpasses steel in strength, and most importantly, can be formed into a mesh that would stop a bullet.

Lecture Topic 1.1.3

CO2Development of artificial systems mimicking human action.

Eye vs Camera

Eye is an organ of sight while a camera is equipment that is used to record images.

The first and the foremost difference between an eye and a camera is that an eye cannot record an image. The eyes use living cells to detect and interpret the light and convert these into electrical signals that are relayed to the brain and processed into an image. The camera on the other hand uses a diaphragm from where the image is recorded on film or like in modern cameras on tape or digitally.

A camera sees in 2 dimensions while the eye sees in 3 dimensions. This means that when we see with our eyes we see height, width and depth. With a camera we only see height and width. There is no way to have the depth in the picture as a photograph is a flat medium. This is mainly achieved by the stereoscopic vision of the eye. A simple demonstration of this can be trying to bring the forefingers of both hands to meet from the sides. This is much simpler to do with both eyes open than with only one eye or almost impossible with a camera.

While changing the focus the retina and parts of the pupil adjust the size accordingly. However, in a camera the focus is changed by the movement of the lens. Eye has a blind spot which is also known as scotoma, whereas, the cameras do not have any such limitations. The eye can also adapt itself to the dark and within a few seconds one can get start seeing better in the dark. However, if a camera is not equipped to capture images in the dark it can never get accustomed.

The eye is highly sensitive to the dust and foreign particles settling on the outer film. In a camera there is no such problem as any dust can simply be wiped off the lens.

Summary

1. Eye is a live organ for sight whereas a camera is an equipment to capture images.
2. Eye uses live cells to detect light while the camera uses a diaphragm to detect light and capture images.
3. Stereoscopic vision of eyes allows 3 dimensional images while camera captures only 2 dimensional images.
4. The pupil adjusts the size while focusing while in a camera lens moves to change focus.
5. Eyes have blind spots while cameras do not

Our eyes are able to look around and adjust dynamically depending on the environment. Hence, most of us would assume that there is little-t0-no difference between the human eye and camera. However, things are a lot more complicated than it seems. We need to understand that there are two primary differences in the way they work. We can summarize these differences as follows

Difference in focusing on an image

Difference in processing colour

Human Eye vs Camera

Following are some of the major differences between a physical camera and the human eye.

Human EyesCameraFocusing on an ImageThe human eye contains small muscles that contract and relax – and this enables the eyes to change shape and stay focused on a moving object. These muscles also capable of changing the thickness of the lens to accommodate the image that is being viewedA camera cannot do this, hence, it relies on a variety of lens. This is the reason why photographers often change the lens of their camera according to the distance from the object. Moreover, cameras use mechanical parts to stay focused on a moving object.Processing ColourHuman eyes contain special types of cells called photoreceptors. There are two types – rods and cones. Rods are primarily used for low-light vision while cones are used for colour vision. There are 3 types of cones that respond to 3 different wavelengths of light. For instance, blue cones respond to short wavelengths while red cones respond to long wavelengths and green cones respond to medium wavelengths. The colour we see is the result of the brain activating the cones in various combinations.Cameras use something called photosites to collect light. A typical camera has millions of these light collectors that hold the light and then convert it into a signal that can be interpreted by electronic devices. Moreover, cameras use filters that break up light into its primary colours – red, blue and green. It reproduces the full spectrum image by combining these colours.Blind SpotsThe human eye has a blind spot – this is located at the point where the optic nerve joins the retina. Under normal circumstances, we do not notice this blindspot as the brain uses information from the other eye to complete the missing portion of the image.A camera does not have such a blind spot.

Lecture Topic 1.1.4

CO1Identify the biological concepts from an engineering perspective.CO2Development of artificial systems mimicking human action.

•Bio-inspired technologies: Biologically-inspired design (or BID) has become an important and increasingly wide-spread movement in design for environmentally-conscious sustainable development.

•Aircraft wing design and flight techniques are being inspired by birds and bats.

•Biorobot :-A biological organism that has been created and designed by artificial means. A person who performs robot-like tasks, or performs tasks in place of a robot.

•Ant-Inspired Pheromone Sensors for Traffic Control. Ant-based systems have special properties such as scalability, adaptability, and dynamicity, which are the main requirements for solving vehicle traffic congestion problem. Thus, ant-based algorithms are now being adopted by vehicle traffic systems (VTSs) to guide vehicles to less congested paths.

•Construction and architecture: Researchers studied the termite’s ability to maintain virtually constant temperature and humidity in their termite mounds.

•Suction nozzle of vacuum cleaner: inspired by proboscis of flies

•Spider web silk is as strong as the Kevlar used in bulletproof vests. Engineers could in principle use such a material, if it could be reengineered to have a long enough life, for parachute lines, suspension bridge cables, artificial ligaments for medicine, and other purposes. Spider silk is highly flexible, extremely stretchable, surpasses steel in strength, and most importantly, can be formed into a mesh that would stop a bullet.

Lecture topic 1.1.5

CO2-Development of artificial systems mimicking human action.

BIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS OF 18TH CENTURY THAT LEAD TO MAJOR DISCOVERIES

•In the early 18th century, botanist Carl Linnaeus established the classification system that we use today in his work, Systema naturae (System of nature). This system of binomial nomenclature assigns a two-part name to species in which the genus name is capitalized and precedes the species epithet; both are italicized. For example, the scientific name for human beings is Homo sapiens. Linnaean classification follows the taxonomic categories: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species. We now have added Domain as the largest category, before Kingdom. Classification of organisms can be a sticky and subjective process, and the framework was set primarily by Linnaeus and his contemporaries.

•Now we fast forward to 1827 where Robert Brown, a British botanist, is observing a suspended pollen grain in water. While looking at this pollen grain underneath a microscope, he notices that it undergoes a type of random walk. The figure below depicts the type of random, seemingly unpredictable motion, that the suspended particle underwent. This random motion is now referred to as BROWNIAN MOTION, but the motion itself may be easily remembered as the “Drunken Sailor Walk”. At first Brown attributed this motion to signs of life

Brownian motion is the random motion of a particle as a result of collisions with surrounding gaseous molecules. Diffusiophoresis is the movement of a group of particles induced by a concentration gradient. This movement always flows from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration.

First Law of Thermodynamics

Before we get into the first law of thermodynamics we need to understand the relation between heat and work and the concept of internal energy. Just like mass, energy is always conserved i.e. it can neither be created nor destroyed but it can be transformed from one form to another. Internal energy is a thermodynamic property of the system that refers to the energy associated with the molecules of the system which includes kinetic energy and potential energy.

Whenever a system goes through any change due to interaction of heat, work and internal energy, it is followed by numerous energy transfer and conversions. However, during these transfers, there is no net change in the total energy.

Similarly, if we look at the first law of thermodynamics it affirms that heat is a form of energy. What it means is that the thermodynamic processes are governed by the principle of conservation of energy. The first law of thermodynamics is also sometimes referred to as the Law of Conservation of Energy.

A thermodynamic system in an equilibrium state possesses a state variable known as the internal energy(E). Between two systems the change in the internal energy is equal to the difference of the heat transfer into the system and the work done by the system.

The first law of thermodynamics states that the energy of the universe remains the same. Though it may be exchanged between the system and the surroundings, it can’t be created or destroyed. The law basically relates to the changes in energy states due to work and heat transfer. It redefines the conservation of energy concept.

First Law of ThermodynamicsThe First Law of Thermodynamics states that heat is a form of energy, and thermodynamic processes are therefore subject to the principle of conservation of energy. This means that heat energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can, however, be transferred from one location to another and converted to and from other forms of energy.

To help you understand the meaning of the First Law, we can take the common example of a heat engine. In a Heat engine, the thermal energy is converted into mechanical energy and the process also is vice versa. Heat engines are mostly categorized as an open system. The basic working principle of a heat engine is that it makes use of the different relationships between heat, pressure and volume of a working fluid which is usually a gas. Sometimes phase changes might also occur involving a gas to liquid and back to gas.