Welcome to Spark of Humanity. It's about claiming your spark of humanity. I'm Maura Quinn. Martha Holden is here. She's gonna help us explain to us what that is, why you wanna claim it. And this is Ann Wade, who is learning about the Spark of Humanity Network. This is a production of the Spark of Humanity Network. And we're gonna start with this booklet, which it's not really important what's on the outside of this booklet, but it's what's on the inside. And that has very much to do with your spark of humanity. Martha, if you'd like to start. Okay, just to say there is a video on the website, which the website is www.sparkofhumanity.net. And there's a short three minute video that has this book animated. This is sort of the storyboard from it, but we're gonna read from it today. In everyone, in each one of us, there is a spark of humanity. Sometimes we are afraid that something might damage our spark. We are afraid it might be put out. It can't be, even though at times we are not feeling it. Sometimes our sparks are defended. Sometimes they are distorted. Sometimes they are baffled. Sometimes all three. Sometimes so much, we're not even aware we have one. Regardless, in everyone we meet, in everyone we think of, there is a spark of humanity. In us too, regardless of how baffled or distorted or defended. All sparks are made of the same stuff. Sparks have a natural affinity for each other. When you, through your spark, affirm and connect with the spark in another, regardless how defended or distorted or baffled they are. Their spark is strengthened. That changes things. It seems that the strengthened spark acts to erode the defenses, release the distortions, and clarify the bafflement. From the inside. It is very good. How might you claim your spark? Well, that's what we're gonna talk about. Martha, can you give us an idea of how this first came to you, this idea? I understand that you were a prosecuting attorney in California. I was out in California. I'd been sort of wandering around, being a lawyer, varying sorts, varying places. And I got let go from my job as a prosecutor and was offered a job as a defense attorney. And I had been so inculturated into the law enforcement mentality that I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to get my head around being a defense attorney. So I was thrashing around one night in bed as this new life was looming on the horizon. And you may very well have had this happen and you may have too. Suddenly there was like this insight. This, it wasn't a voice. It wasn't just these words, this conviction. There's a spark of humanity in everyone or every human being has a spark of humanity. And that gave me a foundation to move into the change to becoming a defense attorney. Realizing that my clients had sparks of humanity, which is relatively easy, but it was in the federal system so that the judges, the clerks, the FBI agents, the secret service agents, they all had spark of humanity. And so I developed really, I wouldn't have called it that then but now it was a spiritual practice of being in touch with my own spark of humanity and through that recognizing and interacting with the affirming the spark of humanity and the people I was dealing with professionally. So that's dealing with them professionally. They're spark of humanity, but the people that you were, you were the defense attorney. You had been the prosecuting attorney. So you had been in the position of you're, you did something wrong. You're gonna be in trouble for it. And you had to, your clients now were the people that you used to prosecute. Well, not actually, you know, it was a different role. Okay. I didn't have any contact with the defendants when I was prosecuting, except maybe in the courtroom, but they would be insulated for me by their attorneys. So it's, you know, it wasn't, but it was a role shift. Right. And I had been in the state juvenile system and I was in the federal system. So they weren't the same people at all. Right. And actually the law enforcement people I was working with weren't the same people. But it was the, it was the conceptual shift from being enculturated because I was hanging out with the police officers because they were so much fun. And then cultureated, looking at them in a certain way. Just becoming part of that culture. Okay. And how, can you give us an example of how this was helpful to you in dealing with that and in moving forward in your career? In your life? A couple, well skip the life, let's do the career first. Okay, career. The first time I really became aware of the example I can think of, I was in a holding cell with a client in the federal marshal's office and we were, I think three locked doors away from the marshal's. They could see us, but they couldn't hear us. And if they needed to come to me for help or I needed their help, they might not hear and it would take them a while to get there. And my client was not happy with what I was telling him and he reached down and grabbed a pencil like this and the impression I had was that he was gonna jab it into my eye. Wow.  Sort of like, you know, I give up, which was, for which I was grateful. And the other time when I was a lawyer that I was aware of at a friend of mine, I quit that job, she was a defense attorney, she was representing somebody who'd been accused of sexually molesting his, I think, three year old niece. And the family wanted to have a gathering, a meeting about this, to talk about this because the alleged perpetrator was denying it. And so we went up into the foothills outside Sacramento to meet with the family and it was a big room and there were maybe 20 or 30 people sitting in it to have this family conference and she wanted me to come along. I'm not quite sure why she invited me, maybe just for support, but I had no role there other than just being there. So I sat there and just connected with from my spark, the spark of humanity with everybody in the room. Including the defendant, the one accused of this crime. And I didn't pay any attention to what people were saying. I just was there connecting with their sparks. And after about somewhere between half an hour and an hour, and I could sort of feel this, but I was tuned into the sparks. So it was sort of like those, like golden haze in the way I was perceiving things. And if somewhere between half an hour and hour, the defendant confessed. Wow. And once again, there's no proof, but it seemed to me that by affirming and connecting with the sparks that that had changed the atmosphere. So he felt safe enough? Yes. So treated it as safe enough to be vulnerable to what he, horrifically, what he did. Well, without any judgment on it. And to trust his spark. To trust somehow that he would be okay. That as the book says, the spark cannot be extinguished. It cannot be put out. That he could move forward with his life and deal with it without trying to deny it or hide it. Regardless of the outcome, but to just say this is. He would be better this way by being open to the truth to, I mean, he didn't know the spark language, but essentially to trust his spark. Right. So yeah, those are the two instances that I think of. This was a long time ago. Those are pretty powerful instances. Right, that's right. That would make you think maybe there's something to this. Right. And move forward. Like there's something else moving within all of us. Right. Some kind of connection within all of us. And that spark of humanity is an access point. An access and an affirmation so it strengthens the connection that is already there. Yes. So it's because our minds are very powerful. And how we hold them and what we do with them makes a big difference in our experience. You know, quantum physics, we're all learning this stuff these days. Right. Yeah. It's very interesting. It is interesting. It's very interesting.  Have you experienced this in your life? Yes. How do you experience your spark?   Wow, and then I got to my class and told my instructor what had just happened and that's when I like fell apart. Yeah, right, yeah. But I think I've had many instances where I, even just recently when I go to a community homeless shelter meal in Barry at the congregational church and you know, you just, even though these people are so down and out and I can, if I really get out of my own head and I look and feel what or some compassion or something happens to me sometimes when I go to these things and I can feel their goodness and are there troubles or but there would have been a time where I would have been like those aren't my people. I'm not homeless, I'm not poor, I don't belong here but I've been invited to go and the more I go, it's like the more I really, I like going there because I can humble myself and understand that the spark lives with everybody. It's not always comfortable and sometimes it, you know, I do feel a little like, oh, I'm gonna kinda scoot away from this person but I do feel like I'm glad that Martha is talking about this because it is- Well, it's a language to your experience. Yes, that's true. But it helps you put words on it and to understand what you're experiencing and to have more confidence going into strange, maybe sketchy situations with people who would be good for you to be connecting with for whatever reason, to strengthen their spark or to exercise your own. Right. You were talking about, I'm not drawing it blank, I just, since you've mentioned this to me and gave me the booklet, I read it and you know, initially I thought, okay, all right, spark, whatever and but it really is funny. The more that I sit with it and I'm with my own spark, I kind of can feel a greater ability to communicate and be with other people, especially with people that I may not agree with at a particular time or that are really driving me a little crazy or stepping on close to my toes and I just wanna get away from them but there are some situations where your voice is important and you need to be engaged and instead of just running away from it and hiding or getting into a big argument and a conflagration, you know, a big flare and stuff, it's just sort of, okay, I have a spark of humanity, you have a spark of humanity, let's start there. It's amazing but it works. Right. I don't know why it works. No, but it does.  I like to have a nice, calm, peaceful environment and this work is done without words and without the agreement of the other person. Right. When somebody's stepping close to your toes and you're getting irritated, you could claim your spark and then connect with and affirm their spark and from my experience is that that change, it does as the book says, it changes things. Yeah. It changes things and what I find and what you intimated and what somebody who was in this work on the beginning said, it's changing me. The book and what we put out is about this is how you can change people who are bothering you, this is how you can change situations. It has an application worldwide. There's nobody that you can't work with the spark of. But the part that I'm beginning to accept more is that doing this work changes me and that strengthening my, when I connect with your sparks or your sparks, that that strengthens, my spark is strengthened by that and hopefully yours is too. Yeah. And that then with the strength and spark, it's not just your defenses that are being eroded, your distortions that are being released, your clarifying, distortions that are, your bafflement that's being clarified, it's mine too. Yeah. And that's because I always like to think that, well, I can see that you have a problem and you know, let me help you. But I'm fine just the way I am. Thank you for having me. You take somebody else's inventory. I was like, well, that guy's got a real problem.  Yeah. Oh, okay. My defenses are being eroded as you were saying and you were saying with the homeless dinners, you know, it's changing me. And because I trust it, I trust this work more than I trust my previous experience of myself. I think that often people are not willing to change because this is what's familiar. And I'm going to cling to it. It may not have worked very well, but I'm not going to give it up. It's certainty. People are looking for certainty. And when there's uncertainty, initially there's that thing, but people need uncertainty and certainty. It's a paradox. We need to grow. And this is, and so that being willing to, okay, I trust the integrity of the spark of humanity and this insight in the process more than I trust my judgment about what I need or what's good for me. That my resistance, my, you know, my balking, it's so. Because what? At least in theory, in practice, we have to find out every day. Well, is it in, do you know that in quantum physics, not that I'm a physicist or anything like that, but in quantum physics, the idea of whatever you observe is changed by your observation. So in Schrodinger's cat, if you open the door, was the cat alive or dead? And if you closed the door, would it have been alive or you don't know? Right. Because your observation, that may have opened up the thing that took all the oxygen away and then it's gone. Or that may have been the thing that gave life to it. So you don't know where your purpose is, but it is there. Right. And it's a matter of letting it breathe, I suppose. And observing it, you see, observing it changes it. Yeah. And brings, and strengthens it. Because affirmation strengthens us. Right. As a kid.  That took me 40 or 50 years to realize, well, people need attention. You know, that's what we, we have to have, we need that affirmation. We need the, we need that support and affirmation. So by supporting the, right. So supporting the spark, tacitly affirms and strengthens that spark. So then things change from the inside. And that allows, that allows some kind of engagement that's not, that they can actually do something. Go forward some way. It can only be constructive. It can only be constructive. Okay, let's talk about that. And that leads us to where this Spark of Humanity Network got its roots, got its start. And that was after the election in 2016. No, no, no, before. Actually, it was the- The network. The situation, the network, the situation at Standing Rock in the summer of 2016 where the native people's water rights were being stomped on by- Evaporated. The military industrial complex put it one way. And I felt passionately about that as I'm sure many people did. Maybe on a variety of sides. But I wanted to do something to help. And in 1991, this is, we're talking the first Gulf War, I was, did some training to do civil disobedience, role-playing civil disobedience.  And I was supposed to be seeing what that felt like and getting used to that. So I wouldn't crumble or hit back or something. Right. And so instead, I focused on the Spark of Humanity. And he just wilted, he said, I can't do this. So I thought, hmm, this might be useful for the allies, the indigenous people at Standing Rock, they had their act together, but the young people who didn't have any coherent spiritual practice and unifying, that this might be good for them because I think if they're facing people with the water cannons and all the rest of the stuff they were facing with the United Front, focusing on the Spark of Humanity, doing the Spark of Humanity, it could change things. I knew it would change things. So my little old lady going out to South Dakota and standing on a soapbox and saying, listen to me, I think that's a great idea. I thought nobody's gonna pay any attention. Right. They get their stuff from YouTube, from the internet. Well, I don't know, squat from the internet and YouTube. I mean, I can barely do it, you know? She goes to the library to do her thing. And so I got in touch with people, friends of mine, who know about that stuff and I said, what do you think of this idea? So we think it's a great idea, you should do this. Get in touch with this person. So I got in touch with them, what do you think? Oh, that's a good idea, why do you do this? So it ended up, the network started forming around creating a three minute video that's on the website of this, here at Orca Media in downtown Montpelier. Beautiful downtown Montpelier. Yes, wet at the moment. And then so other things began, it was like a magnet that drew people and other ideas, but that was the beginning, was just a few people, financial help from somebody. You know, I, yeah, it's all sort of volunteer, voluntary, except for the lovely young man who helped with the, and put the video together. He was a high school kid, he needed some money. But otherwise, everybody was, they liked the idea, so they did it. So that was the beginning of the network and the website. And the idea of the website and doing this is to amplify that, is to give it amplification, give it some kind of voice so that people can be aware of the spark of humanity network, the spark of humanity, being aware, is that the first step? And yes. Being aware that you have a spark of humanity. And then deciding to claim it. We're looking at the building, doing the website as this is part of it, but it takes time and creative energy, which I'm limited. But we're, ways that people can claim their spark. We're looking at having a weekly email going out. How did you claim your spark this week? Oh, I love this. And then having, and then people can write in, they can read other people's responses. So that's one thing, or you can get on the website and say, I want to be listed on the website as a member or an associate or a friend of the spark of humanity network. Just put my name, there is somebody who supports this idea. Or they can make the little books because the directors for making little books are on the website. So you can make those and hand them out to people. Leave them in public bathrooms. And, well, what's the word? Leaflets. What's this? Two minutes. Oh, okay. The leaflets, no, spark of humanity network. You know what happens sometimes is you'd be talking about one thing and then something comes in there like leaflet, bathroom and then boom, you're gone. It's like a bad cue ball on a pool table. Yes, it is like a bad, yes, a cue. Put some right in the hole and you never see them again. Yeah, boom, boom, boom. But the only requirement for being a spark, there is no requirement for... No, and how would I know? You could go down the street and everybody you meet might be a member or associate or friend of the network. You don't know. I like it that way. And it doesn't, you don't have to be a member of the spark of humanity network. The spark of humanity network is the idea is, is that this is an acknowledgement that there is a spark of humanity. Yeah, I guess, yeah. Each, there is a spark of humanity in every human being and in everyone. In everyone. And that awareness is something that we're trying to, because sometimes I think people forget about their humanity. When you're mean to somebody, if, you know, not that I'm ever mean to anybody, but if one is mean to another person, you maybe are forgetting yourself for a second. I mean, have you ever said something and then thought, why did I say that? Right, right. Or when you start labeling somebody else and forgetting that they have a spark of humanity. Yeah. Regardless of what they're doing to you or to anybody else. Yeah. Remembering they have the spark of humanity potentially transforms the situation. Yeah, they may be on a different political side than you are. They may be of a different, who knows what. Right. And, but if you can just start with the spark of humanity. Right. Then you've taken a step. Right. Good. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. That's just about, well, we're counting down. Thank you, Martha Holden on the spark of humanity network. Thank you, Anne Wade for being with us today. I'm more queen. Thank you, Martha. Come back next time we're gonna have more. See ya.


I would now like to ask that you join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God. Good evening. Welcome to NCSSM's 37th Convocation. I have the pleasure of introducing our dignitaries this evening. Please hold your applause until everyone has been introduced. As I call your name, please stand. NCSSM Chancellor Todd Roberts, Convocation Speaker Jonathan Mattingly, Class of 1988, Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs Katie O'Connor, President of Student Government Josh Zhao, President of Student Senate Jordan Jones, Chair NCSSM Board of Trustees Tom Williams, Board of Trustees members Paula Benson, Steve Griffin, Eric Hall, Hugh Holston, Tom Looney, Minnie Matile, former NCSSM Chancellor Gerald Borman, John Frederick, former Board of Trustees Chair and now Foundation Board member Henry Crow, Class of 1982, Foundation Board member Brad Ives, Class of 1982, Pairing Association Chair Jane Torecki. Thank you, everyone. Welcome to Convocation for the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Convocation signals the beginning of our school year and I hope that each of you has had a great first day of classes and that all of you are settling in for what I believe is going to be an outstanding school year. We are very happy that you're all here. I want to thank our distinguished guests and our faculty and staff and all of our students for being here this evening. It's also wonderful to have emeritus members of our faculty, two of our former heads of school, members of our Board of Trustees and Foundation Board here this evening as well. I also want to take this opportunity to welcome and thank Dr. Jonathan Mattingly for being our speaker. Dr. Mattingly is a member of NCSSM's Class of 1988 as you've heard and as you will hear in a few minutes he's had a remarkable career. It's also wonderful to have Dr. Mattingly's mother and sister here with us this evening sitting in the front row. I know that you're so proud of him and his many accomplishments as those of us at NCSSM are as well. I'm pleased that we start each year with an address from an outstanding alumnus. One of the things that I've found so special about NCSSM is the fond memories alumni have of the school and their willingness to give back to our school. Whether it's through their financial support that allows us to provide all of you with the many opportunities you have day in and day out on campus or whether it's by giving other time and talent like Dr. Mattingly is tonight. Through his story he's providing you with a chance to dream about the possibilities that are yours to achieve in the years that lay ahead. Students I hope seeing all the people here tonight helps you understand the type of community, the type of legacy you're a part of. This evening marks the beginning of NCSSM's 37th year. About this time in 1980 the first class of 150 or so juniors was here on this campus preparing for the first year of what they and the faculty and staff were not exactly sure but what they hoped would be a time to explore the infinite possibilities of what this new idea, this new opportunity, this new school might offer. Fast forward 36 years and here you all sit the 680 students of the classes of 2017 and 2018. While you're sitting in a much more comfortable setting now than then, I'll bet many of you still have that same feeling the students in those first classes had. You're not exactly sure what to expect but you have hopes of the possibilities that lay ahead of you this year at NCSSM. Much has changed over 36 years, many of the people, many of the things, but what has not changed is that you are here with talented students from all across North Carolina. You're here with outstanding faculty and staff, you're here with the tremendous support of our state and the many friends of our school and as was the case for the students 36 years ago you will find that these are the key ingredients of which infinite possibilities are made. To this point in your life you work very hard to achieve this success, only the foundation for your future. Every student in this auditorium has a success story to tell or you would not be here. Not all of your stories are the same, you come from all over the great state of North Carolina representing 82 of our 100 counties and you bring with you a diversity of experiences that make you all different people but you share a commitment to learning, to being successful in school, you all have big dreams and a desire to accept the greater challenge. NCSSM is the place where each of you will write the next chapter in your story where you'll design your future and collectively you'll help NCSSM write the 37th chapter in our story. Class of 2018 I know that you've been provided with a lot of information over the past few days. I bet you might be a little bit overwhelmed at this point, you had your first day of classes, no homework yet but tomorrow I bet you will. As you begin this time at NCSSM I hope you're excited for what lies ahead and ready to take advantage of all the next two years have to offer you. Let me tell you that you are not only have the wonderful guides of the guide the leadership and guidance of our amazing faculty and staff who work here but you also have that in your seniors. The class of 2017 is a wonderful class and I know they will play a large part in the story of your success. In class of 2017 I know that you're also excited about what lies ahead this year, your senior year. It's a busy one while you live and learn at NCSSM while at the same time turning an eye and the page of a college application towards your next chapter.  So students with that in mind just how fast the two years at NCSSM goes I hope each of you enjoys the year ahead. At this time it's my great honor to be able to present the UNC Board of Governors Excellence in Teaching Award to Philip Rash. This award is usually presented each year at commencement but Philip was with students in Singapore at a math competition during commencement this past year. Philip has been an exceptional teacher, an extraordinary mentor for the past 12 years at NCSSM. He's led hundreds of highly capable students to discover the beauty of mathematics and the importance of learning throughout life. Philip expects his students to take ownership of their learning and as he says mathematics is not a spectator sport. He sees his role as not only a teacher striving to be an expert in his field but also a student always learning something new about both the content and the students he teaches. An alumnus of the school captured the essence of Philip's impact when they stated. From the first day I sat in Mr. Rash's class as a junior I knew that he had every hallmark of a good teacher. He was extremely knowledgeable, eager to help and teach, interesting and challenging. However over the course of the next two years I came to more fully understand why his impact was so profound. The thing that changed my entire experience in his classes was that he was able to connect with us as people not just students. This manifested itself in many ways. Little jokes slipped into lectures encouraging and congratulating students on their extracurricular pursuits and introducing students to his own interests through his aviation mini term. He celebrated individual efforts of his students not simply tangible impressive successes which is exceedingly important and easily overlooked in a school with so many highly achieving students as NCSSM. He particularly in problem solving made it easy to do well in his class without being able to solve every problem which turned our focus from pursuing points to wanting to conquer thought processes and push our limits. The end result of his efforts was that his students as his students we had the utmost respect for Mr. Rash and he is still adored by many long after graduation as among the best that NCSSM has to offer. So congratulations Philip on receiving this well-deserved honor and I'd also like to take a second to recognize um recognize Philip's fiance who is here with us Laura in the front row if you don't mind waving and at this time I would like to introduce Dr. Katie O'Connor to introduce our guest speaker. Thank you. Good evening. Tonight I have the distinct honor of introducing our 2016 convocation speaker Dr. Jonathan Mattingly. We can confirm that exactly 30 years ago when he wasn't Dr. Mattingly yet Jonathan sat here for his convocation when he was a junior entering in the fall of 1986. NCSSM was suggested by one of his science teachers in Charlotte and it was on his parents radar as well. Jonathan lived in Hill during his junior year and when construction was completed on a wonderful new residence hall which we now call Hunt he moved to Hunt for his senior year. Jonathan played soccer here at NCSSM and he recalls being 18 years old and he had completed a course a bus driving course so he was allowed to drive his teammates to their soccer games and he was allowed to drive his friends on day-long loops. Oh my how times have changed. Except for the buses Jonathan we probably still have those buses if you want to take one first then. I reached out to a few people who Jonathan named as mentors when he was at NCSSM. One mentor was Dr. Steve Warshaw who's in the front row with us here tonight and he explained that Jonathan was in the Jordan Lake research course during his junior year and people had speculated that polluted water from the Hall River might flow back up the lake and contaminate the areas where drinking water was obtained but no one had demonstrated that this back flow was actually occurring so Jonathan set out to test that hypothesis. He designed and built a flow meter and made a drogue that demonstrated water was indeed floating back up the lake. Dr. Colina was Jonathan's academic advisor and instructor. Dr. Colina remembers how excited Jonathan was about learning new concepts specifically about physics. He loved learning why things are and why things work the way they do and finally Dr. Teague had the pleasure of working with Jonathan. Dr. Teague was making up the teams for our first mathematical modeling competition. Of the six students that he had three worked very well together and three did not. Dr. Teague said he decided to put the three hard heads together. Miss Mattingly, which group do you think your son was in? He was in the hard head group. Yeah. Okay. So Dr. Teague figured that either way that group would or Dr. Teague decided that either that group would produce nothing because they couldn't come together in agreement or they would produce something absolutely amazing and Dr. Teague received a phone call from the head of the contest who said Jonathan's group had turned in the winning solution. But he was afraid that the team was not eligible since the rules specified that only undergraduates could participate in the contest. Dr. Teague explained you can't get more undergraduate than high school students. So the judges agreed and since then high schools have been allowed to participate. So does someone with all these successes ever experience defeat? Well, Dr. Mattingly said he kept a folder that has all of his rejection letters in it. He said the folder is thick and there are enough papers in it to wallpaper his bathroom. I'm sure it's a very, very small bathroom. But he mentioned that it's important to keep rejection letters to remind himself that not everything always works out and sometimes that can be powerful. We are grateful that Jonathan was grounded with a high school diploma from NCSSM, an undergraduate degree from Yale, a master's degree in non-linear physics, a PhD from Princeton, postdoc work at Stanford, and currently the chair of Duke's Department of Mathematics. But if you look beyond all of these NCSSM memories and remarkable professional accomplishments, what's most important when leaving a legacy are the words that people use to describe you. Jonathan is described as having an infectious laugh, having unwavering ambition, and most importantly, having warmth and extraordinary kindness. Please help me welcome Dr. Jonathan Mattingly. I have to say it's really amazing to be back here. It's a little bit overwhelming to look out and see so many old friends. Oh, can you not hear me? Is that better? I was just saying it's a little bit amazing to look out and see so many old friends. I have three things that I want to tell you. The first one is that someday this will happen to you. Other than that, I essentially want to make two points. The first is how did I get here? So you just heard the press release, but let me hit a few of the highlights. I grew up in Charlotte. As was just said, I was in the class of 86. That was 30. I was in the class of 88 and we entered here in 1986. That was 30 years ago. I participated in a physics mentorship, a Jordan Lake limnology project. I was on the team that won the mathematical modeling contest. I went on to get a degree in applied mathematics from Yale. I studied non-linear physics in France. I obtained a PhD in mathematics from Princeton and after some time at Stanford, I returned here to teach at Duke, where I'm now the chairman of the department. That's all true. Listening to it, it sounds like I had a singular path that took me from one point to the next point. That I'm exactly where I always thought I would be, that I had planned to do this, to become a professor of mathematics. Except that's not how it happened. I know I was there.  I was in fact constantly wondering what would my passion be. We're all different and your mileage may vary, but let me tell you how I viewed my path. I repeated fourth grade. Yes, the entire thing. I waver constantly before committing to come to science and math. Some of you may have done the same thing just a few months ago. I waited till the last possible day to turn in my acceptance. I love my math classes here. They had a huge effect on my trajectory, especially my modeling class with Professor Teague. But I was not accelerated. Not very much. I took calculus my senior year. I also liked many of my other classes. I loved my biology, my physics class, my history class, my literature class, my government class. I was a dorm assistant in Hunt Second West for those of you who are curious. I was passionate about politics. We called it New Dorm, but I guess I'm supposed to say Hunt so you're not confused. I was passionate about politics. I played soccer. I did a lot of drama. I did a lot of photography. I like to think of myself as the guy who liked and found new music. My friends who are in the audience, please don't say anything. By the way, it was good new music. I never did well in the state math contest. For college, I wavered forever between Yale and Haverford because I decided that Haverford fit better my life philosophy insofar as I understood it at the time. In the end, I chose Yale because it had more lab courses. Of course, when I got there, I found out I really didn't like lab courses, and I only took two of them. I went to Yale with no major declared. I explored many directions. I explored urban planning, neuroscience, computer science, fluid mechanics, political science, but among everything, I always kept taking mathematics. Why? Because it was the hardest class for me, not the easiest, because it seemed relevant to all these paths I kept wanting to take. I was not the best math student at Yale. In fact, my lowest grade in college was a C in mathematics. I got a C. The world did not end. I went to France after graduating because, to be honest, I was burnt out and I wanted to be able to learn and to dream in another language, something I recommend to all of you wholeheartedly. I traveled Europe for a year with no return date. I lived off the money that I had earned living for six months at home and working jobs. I applied to the Economal de Lyon to study physics, to be honest, mainly because I wanted to stay in France for another year. But once there, I loved the ideas. I was taken by what I saw and I was hungry to learn more. I applied to graduate school and returned to the U.S. hoping to stay politically active, or to become politically active, I should say, once I got back in my own country. Of course, I ended up going to Princeton, which is a sleepy little town which is anything but politically active. In fact, the only reason I applied to Princeton was that my high school and college girlfriend, a woman who I fell for, not in this hall but in the halls across the street, was there studying biology. However, after being accepted, I realized that Princeton was exactly the right place for me. It's worth noting that I only got into two places of the six I applied. So Princeton was perfect for me, but nonetheless, the first person I asked to be my Ph.D. advisor, he said no. I ended up with an advisor who took me in a completely new direction, a direction which I hadn't initially wanted to head. I almost stopped graduate school at one point. I took classes in the public policy school and imagined a life mixing math and public policy. After graduate school, I almost went to work in industry, but drawn by living in San Francisco was enough to turn my head to taking a position at Stanford. I seriously considered jumping into a startup company in 2000, but then the first dot com bubble crashed. Viewed from a distance, my life looks like a straight line, but that's largely because you know where it started and where it ended so far. The press release of my version hides all the true meandering paths. Lives are windy, twisty things, experiences with many different acts. The path forward is rarely clear at the moment. I often heard, find your passion. That always stressed me out. To me, that implied that there was some light shining in the direction I should head. I really didn't feel like I was standing in the light. There also seemed attention with something else that people always said to me. You can do whatever you want. Well, that just encouraged me to open as many doors as I possibly could and then stand there petrified to go through any of them.  These are cliches, but they're all truths. There are truths in each of these cliches. You must work hard. You must be passionate about your goals. You may not always see a clear path, but don't let that stop you from choosing doors to walk through. After all, you have to assume that there'll be doors in the next room also. Yes, the world is your oyster with so many possibilities, but you need to move in one direction at each moment, but always feel free to change your course. You are not a leaf blowing in the wind.  It is your job to keep dreaming and keep moving forward with your eyes open to the possibilities and realities which unfold in front of you. It is hard work, but the rewards of the journey are great, namely the journey itself. You never know in advance what is important. Many of the reasons I chose to go to Yale turned out to be completely unimportant in retrospect, yet Yale was a pivotal place in my life. In graduate school, I ended up with my second choice advisor, but in retrospect, he was the perfect advisor for me. I did not set out to be a mathematician, but here I am, which brings me to my second point. I am a mathematician. I am also a teacher. I enjoy teaching, but I am a mathematician first and foremost.  Mathematics is everywhere around us. It drives many things in our life. It is the basis of the revolutionary algorithms that are the heart of a Google search. It is the cryptography that makes the internet safe to surf.  It is how we can all use smartphones in the same room at the same time. Math is critical to understanding how cancer develops and how one could fight a pandemic plague. It leads to many professions. One of my friends worked for Netflix, figuring out what movies you probably want next. Another one of mine creates articles based on novel analytics for the New York Times. Still others work on finding how proteins fold, which is the heart of new drug development. Yet another friend works to detect art forgery by analyzing painting brushstrokes. Using related ideas, she even reconstructs how paintings looked hundreds of years ago before the paint faded over time. And as an aside, there will be an exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art later this fall highlighting exactly her work you should go. If you need help, call me. We'll find a way. Another friend was even a mathematician for the St. Louis Cardinals. He got a ring when they won the National League pennant in 2004. Another friend works at the NSA, which is reported to be the largest employer of mathematicians in the country, if not the world. Mathematics is truly everywhere in modern society. But yet, for all of its practical prowess, mathematics is also a subject of delete, of deep, with a deep sense of beauty and aesthetics, where time is spent exploring the beauty just because it's there to find it. It is a truly intellectual frontier at the boundary of human knowledge. I was not joking when I said that I took mathematics in college because it was the hardest class for me. I could feel my mind stretching. It was an addictive feeling. There was something addictive about understanding something that six months earlier seemed impenetrable to me. I study randomness and how it affects everything from computer algorithms to the turbulence that surrounds airplanes. That may have shaped my worldview, I admit. But I do think our paths are best guided random walks. You never start moving and evolving. The path is not clear in each step, but somehow it moves in some direction. For example, a friend of mine recently returned to graduate school after 10 years as an architect. She became a mathematician and now works in a government lab. Who could have ever predicted that change? I have circled back myself to my political interests. Using mathematics, I have recently developed bipartisan ways to decide if political districts are gerrymanders in the hopes of improving our democracy and the responsiveness of our government. I picked to talk about mathematics today because it describes my journey. And thus, well, my journey so far. But it is just an example. The point is that I would have not planned or even known that such a career existed 30 years ago when I was sitting where you are now. Okay, I wasn't really sitting here. I was sitting in the laundry building across the way, because that's where we used to sit. The campus is generally more dilapidated now, but this was a magical place for me. And I think it can still be for you. Do not be afraid to explore and sample from all this place has to offer. Pursue paths forward and embrace the unforeseen turns and forks which they take you on. Challenge yourself. Relish your teachers. They are amazing here. Take some time to explore the totality of life here. I made many fantastic friends in science and math, many of them who still travel through my life with me today. I am sure that your path will be different than mine, but equally rewarding and fascinating. Mine in fact is still evolving. I wish us all the best of luck. Class of 2018, this is it. This is the moment you've been waiting for. Ever since you clicked the accept button and you need requests, you've been waiting for this moment. Whether it's because of the academic rigor you want to accept, the community that you will meet, or just to get away from home, it all starts now. So welcome and congratulations. NCSSM was built for rigorous higher level learning. So many things here are fast paced. If you wait until the last day, you won't get the help that you need. Feek out your teachers early on and find teaching assistants and classmates who can get you through your difficulties. Classes here are meant to be challenging and teachers want to push your limits of learning. This is the 17th campus of the UNC system.  What you'll find however is that students greatest challenges often lie beyond the classroom. Through clubs, academic teams, and competitions, you can hone in your skills into areas that excite you the most. Finding the right clubs and competitions isn't easy, especially when you haven't heard of any of them before. That's why student government is preparing the first ever opportunities catalog, where clubs and their associated competitions will be listed side by side so that you can easily find where to cultivate your interests the best. Your first community will often be your hall. Through the pleasures of housekeeping, ping-pong matches, late night movies, intramurals, and food runs, you can find people to rely on who live just a couple doors down. As you take more classes, commit to clubs, and join sports, you'll find your niche in this community. To make your transition into our community smoother, student government's been working hard since May. If you tuned into our first ever webinar for incoming students, you've hopefully found our student panel's advice as well as the resources we've assembled helpful up to this point. On our rebuild website, you'll find new features that will make connecting to our community even easier. Our new calendar centralizes major campus activities and club activities so that you can find them easily. You can also easily add your own club, seminar, or campus activity. We're also excited about our first ever petitioning system on student government's website. It works just like the one for the White House. Get peers to sign your petition online, and it will come to our attention. To see more of what we can do for you, check out sg.ntssm.edu. A strong community requires healthy minds. That's why student government this year has a director of mental health advocacy for the first time. He'll launch de-stressing campus activities, educate us on mental well-being, and partner with counseling to help keep our community's mental livelihood on par with our academic livelihood. And if you're just here for a second home, be prepared. You've joined a family like no other. Student government and I could only have pushed for the new initiative I just mentioned and one that we're working on today by understanding all of you. That's why we plan to continue the open office hours that we started in May. Every few weeks right outside the PFM, you will find myself or another student government member waiting to hear about an issue affecting you. We can better serve your needs by knowing them. Find me at open office hours, tonight's reception, any senate meetings, or any time you see me around. Any student government member is open to a Facebook message. We want to hear and work on your thoughts, your concerns, your suggestions, and your feelings about anything at NCSSM. That's what we're here for. Look out for student government's new resources to help you up your academic rigor and make it easier to engage with our community. And remember, change can only happen when you're involved. Thank you, Josh. And again, thanks, Jonathan, for wonderful, wonderful talk. As we close our 37th convocation at NCSSM, I want to take an opportunity to thank all the members of our convocation committee and everyone who made this evening possible. Again, thank you to Dr. Mattingly's family for being here. I'm sure you're even more proud of him now. Thank you to all of our honored guests for being here this evening and for your tremendous support for NCSSM. And to our faculty and staff, thank you for all of your work in helping us get the 2016-2017 school year off to a great start. The start of the school year is always filled with great excitement and with possibilities that come with starting anything new. So students, as you experience, learn, wrestle with, and enjoy all that lies ahead of you this year, I want you to remember what got you here.  NCSSM is not like other schools. You'll have greater opportunities and greater challenges than ever before. Every one of you has the talent and ability to be as successful here as you have been in school all these years prior to now. Every member of our faculty and staff are here to help you succeed, and you will find that there are no better and more committed professionals anywhere. However, it is your commitment to being successful that is most important more so than any other thing. We have spent a great deal of time over the past couple of years asking alumni and students how they would describe what their experience at NCSSM meant to them and how they believe we should best articulate that. One of the common threads of what we heard when we asked was that NCSSM provided them with opportunity and community. This is your opportunity to design your future, whether in the classroom, research labs on campus or off, on playing fields or on stage, out in the community providing service to others or on hall. Explore your interests, grow your passions, strive for your best while helping make those around you better. Make the most of your time and your community. I've been thinking a lot about community this past year, and I'm not sure if I've been thinking about it because of all the difficulties and tragedies taking place in communities across our country and around the world. The seeming inability of communities to find community. And thinking about this, I feel grateful to be a part of this our NCSSM community. One where we work to build each other up, one where we learn from and celebrate our differences, not separate and tear each other down because of them. Ours is a community where two people who may be hundreds of miles apart literally in where they live and worlds apart figuratively in their experiences prior to come into NCSSM can room together and become lifelong friends. Ours is a community where someone can get up and sing in front of 80 people at Coffee House, even though they've never sang anywhere other than the shower before. Ours is a community where someone can perform on stage in a cultural fest, a dance they did not know the name of before coming to NCSSM. So while I worry about the larger community around us, I marvel at our NCSSM community where for 36 years the people have made the place. I often get asked what's the special sauce at NCSSM. My answer is always the community, the learning and living environment that allows each of us to accept the greater challenge and be our best while helping those around us be better. So Unicorns, the 2016-2017 school year is yours. Yours for the challenges it will present, yours for the learning it offers, for the many opportunities before you, it's your community to build. So congratulations and I look forward to working with you on this year and to your great success over the course of it. Everyone will join us after we recess for a reception on the Bryan lawn and again thank you to everyone for being here this evening.


To determine the success or failure of any new startup venture, we need to compute the value of this given venture and the value of any option that can be embedded to this venture at its terminal life. For that purpose, let's see an example. On the screen, we see certain financial projections for a newly startup venture, which is named as the Alligator Alley. It is a restaurant that is intended to serve alligator meat. There are four years financial projections that starts from the sales, which are 300,000 from year one to year two. And then there is an increase of 600,000 unit three and 100,000 in year four. The cash flows from operations are negative for the first two years, whereas these are positive for the later years. And increase in working capital is also there from year one to year four. If we see the net cash flows from the year one to year four, we see that there is negative net cash flows during the earlier two years, whereas these cash flows are positive for the later years starting from year three. And then if we see the present value of the terminal value, and from this terminal value, we can calculate the present value of this restaurant project, and that is 582561. Now to get start this project, we need an initial cash flow, and that is the cost of the building, which is 700,000. And if we see that the present value of cash outflow is 700,000, whereas the present value of cash inflow is 582,000, so resulting present value is the negative present value, which is negative NPV of 1,1700,439 dollars. So there is a negative NPV associated this with this project, and the implications for this project is that these projections are based on the expectations, including there are 50% chances that the meet will become popular in the region, and so it will fetch more cash flows for the firm than the projected one. And equal chances are there that the meet will become less popular, so it will fetch less cash flows for the firm than the projected cash flows. This means that this restaurant would not be funded with further capital if there were no possibility of the expansion by the owner. So we can see that there are options that can be embedded in this project, and these options are of two types, like the first option is that the project can be abundant under bad conditions and whereas the project can be expanded under the good conditions. Now let's see how this will work. So we have to choose any of the options, let we choose the option of expansion. Now there is a strategy to cater the regions where the alligator meet is already popular, so the forecast of the quick expansion is subject to the success of the first restaurant in those areas. Then we see that after 4 years if the project goes successful, after 4 years 30 more restaurants can be opened. This means that we need first 3 years to run the first restaurant smoothly and successfully in order to get it run very successfully and also to get enough amount of information to place an accurate value for the further forecasting to open 30 new projects. So we see that the successful running of the first unit will allow in the 4th year to open and get open the avenues for getting new capital from the external world. But that will happen after the 4 years and then after the 4 years the firm will be able to open 30 new restaurants in the regions. Now let's see how we can value this project and the embedded options. We see that the net present value of the single restaurant is negative and that is 117,439. So there is no chance of funding for the possibility of the additional capital because for that purpose we need to be successful then only there will be the possibility of setting up 30 new units. This means that success will lead to the following observations because the total of setting up 30 new projects will be recurring the cost of 21 million dollars and the present value of cash flows at the 4 years will be 17.43 million dollars, 17.48 million dollars and if we convert this amount into the present value right now. The amount will become to 8.43 million dollars, we are assuming a discount rate of 20% at which we have discounted these future cash flows. This means now that this business is essentially a call option with the feature of exercise price of 21 million dollars and the underlying assets worth of 8.43 million dollars. So this option is apparently out of money because of the negative NPV earned by the first project. Now we have enough information to go for valuing the project through the help of black school model where we have the stock price of 8.43 million dollars and the access price is 21 million dollars, the term to maturity is 4 years. The riskiness of the return on the firm's assets is equal to 50% and the continuous rate of return compounded is equal to 3.5%. The value of this option will be determined using the black school formula which will be working in three steps. At first step we need to determine the value of D1 and D2 and at the second step we need to determine the value of D1 and D2 using the normal distribution function through the excel mode. Then when we have all the required information with us we can put these available information in the BS model and through this model we can determine the value of the call and that comes to 1.454 million dollars. This means that the value of the business including the cost of the first restaurant is basically equal to 1.337 million dollars and that has been reduced from 1.45 million dollars due to the result that we have negative NPV on our first project or first restaurant. Now we can draw a conclusion from this example that the first unit is earning a negative NPV due to this the investors will not invest in this loss earning unit and as a result there will be no capital raising in the future. But if the operation of the first project goes successful then there will be the chance of expansion and that chance of expansion will be offered to the investors. So the investors will be happily willing to give additional money to the firm's owners to open 30 new restaurants in the regions. So we can say that virtually every business has both options to abundant and options to expand but only an option say the option of expansion can be appropriate. That is better to go for the option of expansion but ignoring any of the two options may lead towards an undervaluation of the given project.


Hello everyone. So, I am Pratham from Fossey project team. So, there are various projects in Fossey that you can take up for internship. So, I will be presenting three of them. So, these are the list of projects. So, I will be presenting first three projects. So, the first project is build ipython widgets backend. So, there is a trades UI package in Python using that you can build user interface very easily means in few lines of code you can build a beautiful UI. So, for example like this within 8 to 10 lines of code and you can build an UI. So, similar thing we want to build in ipython. So, ipython there are ipython widgets using widgets you can build user interface in ipython notebook. So, basic aim is to build an initial version of ipython widgets backend. So, this will allow users to easily display UI on remote ipython notebook. So, for this you should know python, ipython, ipython widgets and javascript. Qt is optional. So, Qt wx python is the backend used by the trades UI package. So, the next project is automation of certificate generator. So, cosy team organizes various events, conferences, workshops. So, we need to provide certificates to the participants, speakers and coordinators. So, this process should be very simple and automated. So, for that as an organizer you will simply feed in the event details the participant details and then using an interface I can simply create a certificate template which will be a simple drag and drop. So, and then on one click I can send the certificates to the participants via mail. That easy the process should be and the system that is your application should keep the authenticity of the certificate. So, that it should generate QR code for each certificate the QR code will be unique. So, and using QR code you can verify the certificate and obviously validation of email IDs and as an participant you can verify the certificates give feedback about the events and certificates. So, technologies required will be python Django latex for creating certificate or any other package Django package that is report lab or any other package you can use. Then you should have knowledge of HTML, JS, CSS and some knowledge of Git. The third project is revive python flu package. So, python flu is a python module which you can use to interact with open form. Open form is a computational fluid dynamics software. So, using python flu you can interact with interface with open form. So, the problem is that python flu supports the older versions of open form. So, we need to revive this package and support the latest version of open form. So, for this you should have very good knowledge of C plus plus, python and some knowledge of svig. So, and the important gain for this project is that you will interact with professor Prabhu Ramachandran. So, because he is the mentor of this project. So, all the best. Thank you. So, hello everyone. I am Priyanka. I am a software engineer at Fossey project here. So, our basic aim is to create websites for the project. Basically, this internship we are asking you guys to help us out with website development for Sylab project. So, we have a website called sylab.int. So, it is already developed. We are here to enhance the features of the website. So, there is a activity in Fossey which is book companion project. So, in this suppose you have a book that gets converted into Sylab code and that gets uploaded. So, this entire interface is created in that website. So, our basic aim here is to ease the process and enhance its feature for user and review of interface. So, the things that you will achieve in this particular internship over this project is that the TBC user interface you will need to enhance the already existing book proposal interface. So, for example, how users can upload, how they download, then how the books can be saved and other such enhancements. Second is the code upload. So, currently what happens is the book gets saved on the server and the entry gets to the database. So, we would like that there is a standard way how the codes get uploaded and also it automatically gets pushed to the Git repo. So, the knowledge of Git would be required for this. Third is that you know right there can be scripts which you run and it automatically tells that these are the errors found or some sort of code. So, we would like to write a script which will scan all the codes and tell us if there are any dependencies issues or any other problems which are there in the code at the time of submission. Second phase is the TBC review interface. So, the reviewer interface is very complicated. So, you know right you write a book then there are reviewers who tells ok this is wrong this is wrong. So, that becomes your first review. Then it comes back to the user. Then the user corrects all the comments given by the reviewer. Then it again goes for the second review. Now, this process is quite complicated in the current system. So, our focus here is how can we simplify the process which is already there and if we can generate reports for each review. So, the external reviewer or the admins can see ok what is the progress of a particular review. Now, the earlier ones which I showed you are the already existing interfaces which needs to be enhanced. The third one is you need to create a user dashboard. Now, currently what is happening? I am a user I create many books right TBC books. After I get good amount of knowledge in it I say that I will also review books which other people have now created.  So, your roles you are now at two roles right. So, these all activities then your payment you get paid for the TBC project. So, all these activities should be mentioned in the user dashboard. This is a new interface which we will like to add. The last thing would like is to create the entire theme in silab.in. Now, the 4C project use Drupal CMS. How many of you are aware of CMS WordPress or Jumla Drupal. So, all these are CMS. So, all the websites are being developed in Drupal ok.  So, we are having 14 other websites other than silab.in. So, the advantage of this theme will be that the theme developed by you will be used throughout all the other FOSI websites. So, the technologies as you can see is Drupal CMS knowledge of PHP minus QL latex because there are report generations and PDF generations. HTML, JS, CSS, basic web technology knowledge is required and get. Ok, any questions on this? Ok. So, now second is enhancing FOSI forums portal. Now, because we do promote open source software and hardware. So, people do have questions right on installation then how we can do. So, there is a forum which we have created. So, this has been developed in Django Python. So, again the main role of this is to enhance the existing interface, make it user friendly and also how it can be more applicable towards user interface. So, basically it is a question answer portal for installation and free open source software questions. So, the existing system is just like the user comes he has he posed the questions then the experts answer. So, this is the basic flow. Now, what we want to enhance in this is that the rating system. How you know how Stack Overflow is? StackOverflow.com right? So, similar but not that to that great extent do. But we are planning to reach towards that standard. So, rating system then tags. Suppose I write or type a question it should be able to fetch like these questions were already asked. So, then duplicacy gets reduced. So, such type of enhancements are required in this project. Secondly is to create the admin interface. Currently everything is done by database and also a proper admin interface whether user if there is some spam question or answer which needs to be deleted or edited or something like that you should be able to do. So, the technologies required here are Python Django, HTML, JS, CSS and Git. So, the third one which I am going to explain is about the interactive grading system. So, I am presenting this on behalf of Professor Sundar. So, he would be the mentor for you. So, the basic idea is that current grading system is manual right? So, I think the several autonomous institutions use letter grades for course grading. So, the basic idea is you give some combination of formulas. So, this is what he is explaining is that. So, suppose I say 75 percent K above will get A grade then B grade C grade D grade. So, this will anyways be done by using a formula. Now, it should be an interactive tool where the teacher can actually change the parameters dynamically and it can automatically get updated according to those changes. So, this is the rough idea for any more details you can directly contact Professor Sundar for the same. Thank you. So, afternoon all of you. My name is Rupak and I would speak about two projects for this internship. So, this first project is about improving SbH's remote triggered virtual lab server and website. So, the title is very huge and there are some jargons used. So, I will first clarify those jargons. First of all SbH is basically a device. It is a embedded system. It is a device experimental setup and SbH stands for single bold meter system. That is the name given to the setup. And remote triggered virtual lab is something that we will see in the slides. So, it is about virtual laboratory. How many of you know about the concept of virtual laboratory? So, it is about extending laboratory experience to students online. It is an independent project virtual labs. So, a virtual laboratory like it is an online facility and now there are two categories in virtual laboratory. One is a simulation lab where you do simulations. The other one is remote triggered lab. Simulation labs are the one in which everything happens on a browser. Like you can do some animations on it like using flash or HTML5 or you know JavaScript whatever. And the other kind of lab is the remote triggered lab wherein the device is actually sitting on the remote location when the student is accessing their device over the internet from his home hostel wherever he is. So, we are talking about that kind of virtual laboratory, remote triggered virtual laboratory. And we have a setup for this device, single-portrait system. So, in this RT lab we are going to be accessing this device remotely over the internet. And there is the URL where you can just go and take a feel for it. So, now coming to the work. So, this entire system has been tested for like around three years now, more than three years. And over this period we have found a couple of not exactly bugs but some problems you know inherently inside the server. We would want you to fix those problems and we also want to add some new features to it. So, the main problem that we have here that I'm talking about is basically about a no connection issue. Now, you have to figure out like why this happens. It doesn't happen with all systems. So, I have an array of this sbch's unit. So, I have 32 hardware devices you know connected online to the computer to the server and people access them remotely. So, 32 devices. So, this problem doesn't happen with all devices. A few couple of devices that happen randomly. So, that is actually the problem statement here. The first problem statement. Second is now there is an admin to it, right? And we need some admin features to be fixed. The first issue is like MID is basically machine ID. So, every board has its own machine ID. So, there is some problem with the machine ID display and it takes up the wrong machine ID for some reason. So, that has to be fixed. The second is like I have 32 systems, right? And the public that is going to be accessing it is like millions like right? It's on the internet. So, anybody can access it. So, we have something called as a traffic control mechanism called as a slot booking mechanism. It's similar to booking a movie ticket, right? What do you do when you go to a movie? First, buy a ticket.  The same thing happens here. You book a slot for an hour and then nobody accesses the devices but only you, okay? So, this booking page actually doesn't sort the bookings properly by date time properly. So, that is the issue. Third, we also have a web camera facility. So, every device has a display on it. And we have a web camera attached to it and it gives you a live field on the server, on the web page. I'm talking about the admin interface, okay? So, here it doesn't auto refresh the images, okay? So, admin interface basically have, will show all the 32 or 40 devices connected, okay? It will show all the web cameras, feed live feeds for all the devices, okay? And then we need some test cases for the server, right? So, suppose I want to add a new feature or found a redeploy it. I need some test cases for it to see in the development stage whether the modified version is working or not. Or the new feature is working properly before I deploy it, okay? Now, the other features that I talked about earlier were about fixing it. These are the new features that I want to add. So, first is disabling the board. Like, suppose some board is faulty. So, I want to disable, you know, I want to make it offline. So, then nobody comes and, you know, sees it, comes and, you know, tries to experiment and then he finds out that the board is not working. So, I have to avoid that, okay? Then a couple of some other things also like notify reboot because it's a hardware service if system reboots, you know, in the middle. So, when it reboots, it has to scan the devices again and make sure that these are all USB devices. So, they are all properly listed and, you know, each USB devices is mapped to its user properly. Okay? So, we need some intimation when the server reboots. Then timely, you know, hardware health reporting like is every hardware reporting properly or not timely reporting. Okay? Then also monitoring of the ongoing experiment. So, I mean, suppose a student is doing an experiment on board number one, okay? And I'm a faculty, for example. I'm not a faculty but suppose I'm a faculty and I want to see how a student is doing it. Okay? So, without I intervening in his experiment, I just want to be a monitor. Just want to see how the student is performing. So, that, you know, monitor interfaces has to be built. So, the device, the right to the device is to the student. He would access this device but the faculty would just, you know, monitor it. That is one. Then a small feature changing the MID. Now, the second phase of this project is we need, we have to, we want to master slave architecture. Okay? So, here what happens is the current software architecture for this RT lab is, you know, one server, one device, you know, one fleet of device and one server. That's it. If this server crashes, the entire lab is down. Okay? And then there is a limit. So, I said USB devices, right? So, there is a limit to how many USB devices you would connect to, you know, one single company. There's a limit to it, right? So, one way to break that limit is to have multiple, you know, servers. It's like one master and they have several slaves. So, I can, you know, plug out and plug in any number of slaves I want.  So, that master slave architecture has to be deployed. Okay? So, this is the current server architecture. You should see this server computer. So, I have, so what technologies I have used here is MySQL database server and Python Django for the main website, server and Apache obviously for the web server. And I have like several devices connected to it. This is the client computer and everything happens over the internet. So, this architecture has to be redesigned for a master slave, you know, topology. Okay? Now, there are some distinctions to it. These we can actually skip. Okay? The next project is about optimization of Sylab instances on server. So, you know, I'll know about Sylab. Anytime I work with Sylab as a part of a curriculum or something, right? One person I can see. Okay? So, Sylab is basically a numerical computation tool and so, we use it extensively within all of most of our projects. Okay? And we are talking about optimizing its instances. Okay? So, I'll come to it. Okay? So, why Sylab? It's a cross-platform. It's a free cross-platform software. It's compatible to MATLAB. MATLAB is, you know about MATLAB, right? You all know about MATLAB. So, it's an open source equivalent to MATLAB. Sylab. Okay? So, the problems with the, so now as she talked about, you know, TBC. So, TBC, she talked about TBC earlier. So, that TBC would typically use Sylab, you know, on the cloud, right? Yeah.  Okay? So, the Sylab doesn't reside on the client's company. It's on the cloud. And the server like pings to the cloud, does the computation, returns the answer and gives it back to the student, the user. Okay? So, now this process requires one Sylab instance to be there, right? So, now the problem here is an instance of Sylab is very heavy, both memory as well as processor. Okay? So, it loads all default libraries. It doesn't just loads. So, how Python works, you know, how Python works? It'll load only the libraries that you import, right?  It doesn't happen, right? But this, like, it blows up completely. It's a big instance created and takes up a lot of memory and processor. Okay? So, we need some work around on it. So, optimizing the instances. So, what does it mean? I'll show you. So, it's like there are multiple calls of Sylab code happening. Okay? So, these are like users' codes and they're coming to the server. And as the number of server requests is, user requests come, the number of Sylab which is increased and they tend to become resource hungry. Okay? So, this is the proposed Sylab server. We are open to any solution, frankly speaking. If you have a better solution than what we are proposing, you are most welcome for it. This is what we are talking about, that we have, we are proposing for it to do. So, the idea is basically, we have to deliver two things. One is a toolbox in Sylab that talks about the network and one API which, you know, it's kind of a middleman. So, it controls all the traffic that goes to the Sylab server, right? So, there are 100 requests and I can source only 50 Sylab instances. So, I will make the other 15 queue. I'll queue them up. I'll process the request properly and I'll make sure that the instances are killed, you know, whenever the job is done or cleared, whatever is optimized.  So, you then, you know, continue this process as the instances become clear. Okay? So, it's a pictorial representation if you can, you know, get something out of it. These are the skills required like Python, Java, CCs, plus plus. Okay? Good afternoon. My name is Dutty and I will be mentoring the project Xcos on Cloud. So, before going to the project description and brief, I will just give a brief introduction about Sylab and the Xcos. So, as Rupak already told you that Sylab is a free open source software which is more equivalent to the Metlab which you use in your colleges. It is a powerful competitive environment for scientific calculation and all that. So, Xcos is a graphical package which is inside the Sylab and it is used for creating diagrams, mostly the dynamic hydravit modules system. And we have like in this Xcos we can design, save, then simulate and get the output of the modules. All Xcos blocks are grouped under categories that is mathematical or either signal processing and so on. So, they have many categories in that. So, why Xcos on Cloud? Why we came from a desktop application which is a Xcos to a cloud? Because we wanted to put all the core functionality of the Xcos desktop into a browser based software you can say. So, advantage will be one is that the clients will not be installing any software. It is not required for installing on any software. Then the another advantage will be like a user has 24-7 access to that computing software. Then interested students or user can easily access this without any installation and also on the machine which has an internet connection also. So, this is the Xcos on Cloud UI and this is partially implemented by us and as you can see on the left side they are the blocks which I mentioned which are categorized into different categories. So, in this we are just dragging the blocks to the canvas on the right side and you can connect them through and then simulate. So, once you click on simulate, this whole diagram is converted into Xcos file that is sent to the server, server executes and sends back the result to the browser and that result is shown to the user. So, for user they do not have to install anything they are just accessing the server and getting the result. So, technologies which we have used in this is MX Graph. It is an open source JavaScript library and it is basically used for creating the UI which you just saw like last slide and it generates the encoded XML which is for use for Xcos file. Then we have a JavaScript, we have created like few of Sylab functions into JavaScript. So, when we are executing any Xcos file, so the value should be same which should be sent to the Sylab server on the server. So, for that change of values from one format to other format, we have used JavaScript functions. So, then we have XML because we have to come up with an Xcos file whose XML content is similar which goes to the desktop version. Then we have Python server and Python technology used because we have a parser which actually works on SCI level that is it converts the blocks SCI file which are in desktop application to a JavaScript file which is similar. Then even we have another that is the computing technologies which we are using for reading such files and even getting the result from the server is based on Python. Then we have used high chart that is for dynamic display of the graph and Sylab is there to run the simulation at the server side and few more changes will be done on the Sylab side. So, we want you people to implement like some enhanced feature in the existing system. One is dynamic graph for the scopes. Scopes are one of the categories of Xcos blocks and they have graphs in that. So, we will like to have a mechanism where the data from the Xcos is written into a file and that is read by the high chart and a graph is generated for the user. Then even there are few parameters for each block that is get and set. We would like to complete such parameters get and set for almost 200 blocks are there for Xcos. So, next is implementing display block functionality. Actually it is just block, there is a block name display who gets the result from the server and it display within that same block. So, it is a text change you can say within the block itself. Then another is working on the different format of the result. Sometime Xcos simulation sends text as a result, sometime a image is written as a result. So, we want all other different format to be supported. Then there is another task that is two way interaction between the server and the client. In this there is a block name tkscale. If I change the value of the tkscale, the graph inputs changes. It is a input block. So, we want the two way communication to be implemented in this. Another is like modification of block code that is on Sylab desktop part. The Sylab which is running on the server needs some changes to be done. So, that the result will be written in a text file and that can be easily read by the website or the client side. The skill which we require is Python, generally for the server computation and even for reading of high charts value and all. Then JavaScript first for the blocks and second for creating the Sylab codes which will be used for changing the values from one format to other. Then XML for creating the xcos files which is compatible with the desktop version. Then is cc++ because we want to change and modify some of the files of the Sylab desktop version. And last is Git which is not mentioned over here, but we will want a person to like know a little bit of Git also. So, that's it from myself. Good afternoon. I'd be mentoring this project developing a GUI for OpenModelica. Now, what is OpenModelica? So, OpenModelica is an open source simulation environment. It is just like MATLAB, but it is very easy to code.  You can straight away dump down your equations and it solves them simultaneously. So, it follows an equation oriented approach. So, as we learn from this, OpenModelica has very good study state as well as dynamic solvers. So, as such it is very good for solving chemical engineering app simulations. The only problem with OpenModelica is it doesn't have a good GUI that is capable of solving or executing chemical engineering simulations. So, therefore, we need a good GUI. Now, this is the whole picture of the project. So, here is OpenModelica sitting over there. We have to develop this Python GUI that can connect with OpenModelica, dump all those equations to OpenModelica, let OpenModelica solve those equations, and then the results will be thrown to the GUI. So, it is basically a layer over OpenModelica. And then we'll have a good simulator that is capable of doing everything. So, to carry out this, this is our usual approach. So, already we have written unit operations and libraries for chemical engineering in OpenModelica. They have already been written. Now, we need a Python GUI. So, why Python now? Because OpenModelica forum already has an interface named as OMpython, which connects OpenModelica and Python. So, it is good that we code it in Python. So, what this GUI will do basically is, it will generate a .mo file. .mo file is an extension for OpenModelica files. So, as soon as the user drag unit operations or it connects all those files, MO file will be generated. Suppose a user drags a unit operation. So, at the back end, a file will be created, which says import this module. So, basically it is replicating the work what a user does on the GUI. So, at the end, it will generate a .mo file. It will send this .mo file to OpenModelica for simulation and collect the results and throw back the results to the GUI. So, the objective is a complete desktop GUI with all the functionalities required for chemical process simulators, linking the GUI with OpenModelica using OMpython that I already discussed. Another thing is adding plotting functionalities. Now, OpenModelica lacks plotting functionalities. You can only plot variables with respect to time. Basically, OpenModelica was developed just for dynamic simulations. Now, they have gone for a steady state as well. So, basically, the only plotting functionality available in Modelica presently is with respect to time. So, we have to add plotting functionalities. So, we will use some Python module for that. Okay. Now, this whole GUI that is developed in Python. So, we are using a module named Kiwi. Has anyone used Kiwi till now? That is the most recent GUI module that Python has launched. It is still in development for about five to six years. And we have chosen Python because it is a very advanced GUI.  And that code is available to all platforms. You develop a GUI for a normal code for a GUI. That is available in iOS, in Android, and all such platforms. All the extra platforms and all mobile platforms as well. So, that is why we chose Kiwi to develop this. And it has great advanced functionalities that you will learn later probably. So, the learning outcomes from this project would be hands-on experience on advanced GUI development in Python. An idea on interfacing Python with other programs. So, in this project, we are integrating Python with OpenModelica. But you will get a general overview of how to integrate Python or how to use Python to communicate with other softwares. And as a... So, there is always a bi-product in everything. So, this is a bi-learning in this project. So, as such, you will be working on Kiwi. So, you will be very familiar with mobile app. I mean, you can develop all those mobile apps in Python by using Python for Android. That is a library that Android has developed. So, you can code it in Python and develop apps as well. So, I am handing over to Manas now. Thanks. Hello. This is Manas. And I will be mentoring this project. So, I don't think anybody needs an introduction on IoT because this is a multi-billion-dollar industry. And everybody is into IoT. You can name any company, IBM, Microsoft, any big companies into this domain. So, but before you can say that generic. Generic in the sense, the platform you will be developing should support heterogeneous devices and heterogeneous protocols. By heterogeneous devices, that means it should support the number of microcontroller families or might be some other new controllers that will be coming. And then comes heterogeneous protocols. The IoT has some standard protocols. I can say MQTT and COEP, XMAP and all those things. So, the platform should support all these protocols. So, this will be the algo for your implementation. So, let me go through it. So, you can see first this device. In the device, there will be all your sensors. Sensors in the sense it can be, let's say in generic sense, temperature, humidity or it can be anything. So, from the sensors, you have to take the data to the next level. That there comes the gateway. And the communication should be bidirectional. You can take the data from the sensors to the gateways and also you can command something. Like, let's say I have to switch on, switch up the SC or whatever it is there. So, the commands should be, can be from the other side also. So, the communication should be bidirectional. And then once your data comes from nodes to gateways, then it should be real-time streaming to the user application. So, up to the gateway part, all your heart, everything will be on hardware. Like, it can be on the Arduino board or ESP8266 or then the aggregation gateway part there comes Raspberry Pi. The gateway in common sense, you can say it's a kind of a server. Then once your data comes to the user, it should be real-time. Then the data should get stored in a structured manner. Why you need the data in a structural manner? The data you are getting from the sensor, it contains a lot many noise.   So, the data should be in a structured manner. Then your logic and analysis will be on the event processing part. Then what does it mean by logic and analysis? Let's say you have a temperature data inside a room. And let's say I have a set point. Like, it's a 25 degree. If the temperature data crosses 25 degree, my SC should be automatically switched on. So, those logic and analysis part comes on the event processing part. Then the last part is user experience. User experience, it is like a front end of an application. Like, you are giving a user a nice GUI having, yes, you can click this button. You can see all those data and have some nice plots and all those things. So, this will be your basic algo. Means there might be some changes on the upper level. It depends on whatever you are going to implement. So, let's describe it in a more, yeah, you can see. On the device part, you will be having n number of sensors. It should be whatever you will be giving to the user, the number of sensors or nodes he can be, he can add n number of sensors. It can be any number. And on one node, sensors might be in one, two, or it can be anything. Then comes your gateway part. The gateway part might be on RPI, Bigelbon or anything. So, up to that part, the hardware part is finished. Then comes your cloud. On the cloud part, you have your ingestion that means your real-time streaming of data, stories in a structured manner, and analysis of your data. Yeah. So, that is the overview of the implementation. And mostly, I'll be looking for this proficiency. Arduino Embedded C, JavaScript, Database, and a bit of web development. That's it. Thank you.


It was always so good to people, people respected him, he tried to be good to everybody. Not only a great sheriff, but also a great person and a great family. He was born and raised here in Belfry, and he didn't live in Belfry anymore. But he always called Belfry home, and I'm sure the community here is gonna be a sad day. He was the same every day, you know, myself as what I try to model myself after, you know, I was jailor 16 years before I became sheriff, and you know, he and I, we campaigned together and, you know, he was the same every day. So, you know, he was a good person. He was definitely a company man. He spent most of his days at the sheriff's office, as everybody knows. He was the sheriff in Pike County for 41 years, and outside of there, he spent time with his family, loved UK, loved watching the ball games, went to church, but most of his time was spent at the office. So, he's got not only his family, his blood family, but he's got all of his co-workers and people in the community that he was a part of their family as well.