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It’s not alive!

Whether it’s adhesions that mimic gecko toes or robotic technology inspired by land animals like cheetahs, many developments in science are inspired by nature. A team of mechanical engineers at Rice University in the United States took inspiration one step further, creating a new field of study called necrobiotics turning a dead wolf spider into a robot.

Spiders use their legs to walk and jump, but unlike most animals, they do so with the force of pressure rather than muscle contraction and extension. Spiders don’t have the ability to extend muscles in their legs, so after flexing, they push blood into their legs like a hydraulic system, allowing for powerful movements like jumping. When the spider dies, the legs curl up because there is no pressure present.

The team reintroduced pressure into the spider’s legs via a needle in its back, adding pressure to extend the legs and removing pressure to flex them. This allowed the researchers to use the legs as an actuator gripper to pick up items. They demonstrated the spider’s ability to pick up oddly shaped and delicate items and lift objects up to 130 percent above its body mass.

Its ability to pick things up isn’t the only benefit of using bio material: Nature will take care of the waste.

The actuator can camouflage in natural surroundings and the material would eventually fully biodegrade — unlike bioinspired or biohybrid mechanisms that use synthetic materials. The actuators were used in 700 actuation cycles before decaying — only one of the limitations of working with dead organisms.

Seven hundred actuation cycles is a low number compared with non-bio actuator grippers. A synthetic gripper used in farming to pick up lightweight food like mushrooms or berries, for example, would complete between 263,000 and 700,000 cycles.

In addition to limited performance, there are variables to consider when working with bio material.
Not all wolf spiders are exactly the same size so will not have the same longevity. Additionally, variation in size could affect the strength of the gripper.

“The concept of necrobiotics could play a role in inspiring more sustainable fabrication of actuators to reduce the accumulation of technological waste,” the team says in Advanced Science. Though this is a new area of research, they will continue to explore other organisms with similar hydraulic- movement systems.

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Educators grapple with how to use ChatGPT

ChatGPT, Open AI’s artificial-intelligence tool that can write poetry, news articles or essays, has been banned in many schools around the world, but others are embracing it in the classroom, saying it may revolutionize education.

Ahmad Samer Wazan, associate professor at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, encourages the use of the chat bot in his classroom, but says it will never replace the human ability to think critically.

Wazan, who recently gave a presentation on the subject at Khalifa University, says ChatGPT can offer superficial results, but the real learning takes place in the process of probing the AI tool.

Students need to understand the subject enough to know that the answer is superficial. They also need to think critically to probe for a more in-depth and accurate result, he says.

If it is asked a question, it will answer in a broad fashion — without real detail. The user needs to ask more meaningful questions to get a meaningful result. This, he believes, is where the learning can take place.

“The tool is not thinking critically” he says, indicating educators should use this tool to help students improve the technical aspects of their writing, but not rely on it.

Ahmad Samer Wazan, associate professor at Zayed University

Wazan is not alone. Other teachers are using the bot in other creative ways: to write story prompts, provide sample-test questions to prepare for exams, or have students critique the information and writing it produces to strengthen their own skills. It’s not only students who can benefit, however.

Educators can use the platform to save them administrative work, which means more time to focus on teaching. For example, ChatGPT can write lesson plans, emails to parents and meeting agendas. It can produce professional-development content for administrators to share with their teams or create curriculum-specific content. Some educators believe even with the risks, AI will continue to evolve and students should learn to use it effectively and ethically.

While ChatGPT can be used productively in education, there are risks. Educators need to be aware of the bot’s abilities in order to determine whether students are learning. Some teachers are adding impromptu oral examinations to test students suspected of cheating.

Because ChatGPT will not offer the same essay twice, however, it can be difficult to spot plagiarism.

Though the structure, grammar and punctuation is well-executed, professors have noted facts that are wrong. As a result, they’ve caught students cheating with AI-generated work.

To combat this issue, educators are turning to content detectors that can analyze the text and determine the likelihood that it was produced by AI. These detectors, however, are not reliable.

As a result of inaccuracies and risks of plagiarism, schools around the world have banned or restricted the use of chat bots.

Sciences Po, one of the top universities in France, is one of them, promising serious consequences for students who flout the rules governing the technology. “The sanctions for use of the software may go as far as exclusion from the institution, or even from French higher education as a whole,” the university says in a press release.

Tips for using ChatGPT

ChatGPT is simply the latest technology they will need to adapt their practice for. Similar fears of plagiarism circulated with the launch of the internet, mobile phones and tablets — all of which are now integral classroom tools.

Global online learning platform Coursera offers tips to use ChatGPT responsibly: ensure accuracy by reviewing and editing; use the tool as a starting point — not for a polished result; use for work that doesn’t require creative input; and use in tandem with other platforms and tools including your own thoughts, emotions and strategies.

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AI app can diagnose plant disease
and recommend treatment

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that almost U.S.$300 billion is lost globally to pests and disease every year, but the solution may lie in an artificial intelligence application you can download to your smartphone.

The International Center for Biosaline Agriculture in Dubai, in collaboration with the University of Barcelona, in 2022 launched an AI application that can help smallholder farmers detect crop disorders.

The application, called Dr. Nabat (the Arabic word for plant), aims to reduce crop loss in Tunisia, Egypt and the UAE. The app can diagnose 18 diseases commonly found in cucumbers, tomatoes and capsicum peppers. The developers plan to roll it out to other countries and eventually include other crops in the Middle East and North Africa such as quinoa.

While the app might solve complicated problems for smallholder farmers, it’s easy to use, the developers say. The farmer aims the Android phone camera at the crop, snaps a photo and instantly receives a diagnosis and recommendation for treatment.

The launch comes after a two-year beta trial in which 414 smallholder farmers and extension specialists fed data into the application.

Tarifa Alzaabi, director general of the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, says providing this kind of information to smallholder farmers is important to the world’s food security.

“(The farmers) are the backbone of many agricultural economies, yet they often lack access to information about pests and diseases. We have developed this mobile application to help bridge this gap and put knowledge in their hands,” she says.

The World Economic Forum estimates smallholder farmers are responsible for one-third of global food supply.

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UAE team among winners of
global FoodTech Challenge

A team from the UAE is one of four winners of the second edition of the global FoodTech Challenge in Abu Dhabi.

The team from Dubai-based agritech company Revoltech uses electromagnetic fields to speed up the freezing process, which allows food to be preserved for up to 50 years.

Other companies sharing the win with Revoltech are:

  • Aguagrain — Creating a soil improver made from organic waste that can absorb 30 times its weight in water, supplying water and food to crops. It requires no fertilizers.
  • Sustainable Planet — Developing a plant-based protein that can be grown in salt water, with 20 times less water than other protein isolates require.
  • Orbisk — Using AI technology to quantify food waste to reduce food-waste cost, water waste and carbon emissions.

The Abu Dhabi Ministry of Climate Change and Environment started The FoodTech Challenge to encourage sustainable food production and address food waste.

The winners of the 2022 FoodTech Challenge will share a U.S.$2 million prize. The prize also includes start-up incentives, mentorship programs and grants. Close to 700 applicants from 79 countries applied for this year’s competition.

Others who have won the award have had success bringing their projects to life.

One of the winners from the first edition was Ryan Lefers of Saudi Arabia-based Red Sea Farms. Red Sea Farms builds sustainable technologies to grow food in such harsh environments as deserts.

For prospective participants in future FoodTech competitions, Lefers advises, “Carve out time to wholeheartedly invest in the process of the FoodTech Challenge because ultimately, it is an investment in your business. It is worth it to create a thoughtful application and to engage fully in all of the mentor sessions,” in an interview with FoodTech Challenge.

Global food insecurity is on the rise. The World Food Programme estimates 345.2 million people in the world will be food insecure in 2023 — double what it was in 2020.

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Wearable tech helps protect
workers from heat stroke

Between 1992 and 2017, 815 American workers died and another 70,000 were seriously injured from heat stress, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. But new wearable tech could make laboring outdoors much safer.

American company Kenzen developed a device that attaches to a strap a worker can wear on the upper arm, similar to one a runner might use to carry a phone. It measures the wearer’s core body temperature; heart rate; how much the worker sweats; and level of activity. The device indicates in real time if the wearer is in danger of heat stroke and is used as a preventative tool.

A signal sent to the wearer and any nearby health and safety managers indicates the worker needs a break. The detailed health information, however, is sent to only the wearer in order to maintain privacy. The data is stored in the cloud so companies can analyze patterns and adapt work schedules.

UAE-based Emirates Global Aluminium ran a trial on the device with 50 employees in summer 2022, CNN reports.

Without these factors in place, wearable technology on its own cannot eliminate the risk of heat-related illness for people working outside.

– Salman Abdulla, Emirates Global Aluminium

Salman Abdulla. CREDIT: Emirates Global Aluminium

Though the data from the trial is still in review, the metal producer reports that the device did well maintaining connectivity in difficult areas and fared well in terms of comfort. Additionally, they were able to identify increases in susceptibility to heat-related illnesses at the end of the day and if the wearer was fatigued prior to beginning a shift.

The company managed zero heat-related illnesses so far in 2022 and will continue to examine what role the device played in this result. The first year without heat-related incidents for the company was 2019. Emirates Global Aluminium is the largest industrial company in the UAE outside of the oil and gas sector.

“This is complementary to the decades of work we have done on heat-stress, which focuses on providing workers with knowledge to actively care for themselves and others around them, empowering them to take action when they have a concern, and providing the tools and resources they need to take that action. Without these factors in place, wearable technology on its own cannot eliminate the risk of heat-related illness for people working outside,” Salman Abdulla, the company’s executive vice president for environment, health, safety and sustainability, tells KUST Review.

Wearable safety technology includes smart helmets, smart footwear, exoskeletons and smart safety vests.