That’s music to Dean Kamen’s ears. He’s the founder of FIRST, the president of the engineering company DEKA, and a well- known inventor and entrepreneur. Through his FIRST competitions—what he calls the “NCAA of smarts”—he’s trying to jump-start a new generation of scientists and critical thinkers.

“There’s millions of technical jobs these kids could have if they put a little energy in learning,” he said. “The robots are incidental. They’re a catalyst for a bigger vision.” Indeed, robotics has helped him reinforce what he’s learned in school, said Nicolas Gauthier, a member of the Miracle Workerz team and a senior at the private, 470-student Archmere Academy in Claymont, Del. “Everything started to make more sense,” said Mr. Gauthier, who has always been interested in robotics, but doesn’t have the opportunity to explore it fully in school.

In fact, the school’s robotics team, which Ms. Wooten advises, recently won the Chairman’s Award, the most coveted prize in a nationwide robotics competition sponsored by FIRST, or For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a nonprofit group based in Manchester, N.H. Roughly 20,000 high school students participated.

“Before [the students started using robotics], you could give them equations and it was meaningless for them,” Ms. Wooten said. “All of a sudden, they have a reason for learning math. When they actually have to learn gear ratios and the relationship between the power of the motor and its output speed, it becomes crystal clear.”
Reinforcing Academics

This growing interest in robotics has come alongside popular television shows such as Comedy Central’s “BattleBots,” which pits robot against robot in gladiator- style battles, and the Learning Channel’s “Junkyard Wars,” in which contestants compete in building machines from powerboats and off-road buggies to a catapult that can hurl pumpkins 50 yards.

Science and engineering companies such as DuPont and Boeing and government agencies such as NASA sponsor robotics competitions not just to turn youngsters on to science, but also to find and nurture the best young talent for their future workforces. While demand for engineers is growing, American universities graduated nearly 19 percent fewer engineering majors in 2000 than they did in 1986, according to the Washington- based Engineering Workforce Commission.

He said India is not a leader in manufacturing microprocessors, actuators and motor devices and censors —- the basic devices that are key to the formation of any robotic device. “But it is the best when it comes to assimilating these technologies together and that is why Indian students are so in demand in all the universities across the globe,” he added.

These students participate in Miracle Workerz, a DuPont-sponsored after-school robotics team whose members come from Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. They’re part of a growing number of students nationwide attracted to robotics, which melds engineering, electronics, and technology.

‘Al Jazeera Children’s Channel is committed to support the Arab Children and highlight their creativity. Including Egypt in this year’s competition brings more excitement to the competition, and introduces diversity of means the children will be using to achieve their goals and construct a robot,’ says Mr. Mostapha Mellouk, Deputy General Manager of Al Jazeera Children’s Channel.

‘A crew from Al Jazeera Children’s Channel will accompany the competition around the region, starting with the workshop in Doha, and will produce a number of reports to broadcast the competition news update. Good luck to all our young contestants!’

Over the next few weeks, students will work with teachers and mentors to build and program their robots. The learning experience will culminate in April and May when the teams from each country compete against each other to see whose robot completes the course. The winning team also must demonstrate the work they’ve done in order to program their robot.

‘Botball is a great way for high school students to learn about robots,’ said Chuck Thorpe, dean of Carnegie Mellon Qatar and former head of the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute. ‘It’s also an excellent way for students to put their skills in math, engineering and teamwork to use.’

U.S. Robotics has been building the world’s best modems for over 25 years, and now we’re bringing you the latest in modem technology. V.92 lets you send e-mail and attachments faster, get online quicker,and even take incoming phone calls without losing your Internet connection. Getting a better connection is as easy as the three- step installation procedure.

The U.S. Robotics 56K* Faxmodem combines the superior performance and reliability of a controller-based modem with the convenience of V.92 technology.
Capable of receiving at up to 56 Kbps and sending at up to 48 Kbps (or 31.2 Kbps with V.90 server). Due to FCC regulations, receiving speeds are limited to 53 Kbps.

Actual speeds may vary. V.92 and V.90 features require compatible phone line and support from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). U.S. Robotics modems featuring V.92 enhancements are backward compatible and will negotiate the highest possible speed when connecting to an ISP.

U.S. Robotics has been building the world’s best modems for over 25 years, and now we’re bringing you the latest in modem technology. V.92 lets you send e-mail and attachments faster, get online quicker,and even take incoming phone calls without losing your Internet connection.

The U.S. Robotics 56K* Faxmodem combines the superior performance and reliability of a controller-based modem with the convenience of V.92 technology. Capable of receiving at up to 56 Kbps and sending at up to 48 Kbps (or 31.2 Kbps with V.90 server). Due to FCC regulations, receiving speeds are limited to 53 Kbps.

Here’s the good news: If you have a modern flash ROM upgradeable modem, you probably will not have to buy a new board to upgrade to V.92. U.S Robotics plans to offer free upgrade software for many of its V.90 models. Other vendors are likely to follow suit.

On the other hand, how quickly you can start using V.92 depends, once again, on your ISP. Most should be rolling out upgrades to their equipment throughout 2001. Even without a service provider upgrade, upgrading your own modem brings small benefits. Overall refinements in the V.92 code may improve connections overall, say U.S. Robotics officials.

The USRobotics 56K USB Modem delivers the performance and reliability USRobotics is known for, in a compact, flexible form factor. This controller-based modem integrates powerful communications processing functions into the modem itself, for assured performance without sapping your computers processing power.

In networking, the size of the facility matters, but not as much as you might think. A 3-computer network attached to the Internet has exactly the same fundamental pieces and parts as a 1,000-computer enterprise network.

The differences become apparent in the features you need to manage and secure the bigger network. Generally, network components are designed for one of four types of use: small office and home, small and medium enterprise, large enterprise, and carrier. The differences among these classes of products are in what we call the “-ities”–availability, capacity, manageability, reliability, scalability, and security.

The highest grade of products provides reliability of 99.9999 percent uptime per year. They support expansion, monitor their own operation and report their problems, and possess many flexible security functions. The least expensive products carry one-year warranties and function as “black boxes”–you plug them in and they work. But black boxes offer little flexibility or scalability.

People don’t want networks, specifically; they want the benefits that networks provide. So, although this buying guide will clearly differentiate the pieces and parts of networking, it will focus more on the benefits of the technology rather than the technology itself. We’ll also provide references for helpful technology discussions on the PC Magazine and ExtremeTech Web sites.

The most useful function offered by V.92 may be Modem On Hold, which is being implemented by U.S. Robotics and demonstrated at Comdex. When you’re trying to take calls and work on the Internet through one phone line, Modem On Hold alerts you to an incoming call and lets you put your Internet session on hold while you take it. Once you’re finished talking, you can pick up the Internet session without the seemingly interminable delay of redialing into your service provider.

But Modem On Hold has a few gotchas. You will be able to put your Internet session on hold for only short periods of time, in the order of a few minutes. Your Internet service provider gets to determine the length of pause time. Secondly–and this is true for nearly all of V.92’s new features–your service provider will need to upgrade its own modems.

A new Quick Connect feature should cut in half the time your modem takes for all the initial handshaking when you log on to your service provider. V.92 will reportedly allow modems to remember settings from previous sessions.