SPAN: November/December 2011 by SPAN magazine

U.S.-India Higher Education Summit

A New Era of

ducational Ties

Above: India's Human Resource Developm ent Minister Kapil Sibal (from lell), U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Georgetown Un iversity President John J. DeGioia at the U.S.-India Higher Education Summit. Above right: Panelists at a discussion duri ng the summit. RighI: U.S. Assistant Secretary of Comm erce Suresh Kum ar (far right) meets schoolchildren in New Delhi as part of the first U.S. Education Mission to India.

ducation stalwarts and leaders from the government and private sector came together to work out a roadmap for enhancing academic ti es between the United States and India at the U.S.-India Higher Education Summit in October. The summit, in Washington , D.C ., was the result of talks between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. US. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapi l Sibal were the convenors. The United States and India have a strong history of academic exchanges with more than 100,000 Indian students pursuing undergraduate or graduate studies in America in 2010. "Today is an opportunity for us to take our high-level partnership and begin making it real for the millions of Americans and Indians who care about our shared future and are, frankly, curious about one another, " Secretary Clinton said at the summit. She mentioned that the Fulbright-Nehru program has nearly tripled in size in the past three years, and "the United States now conducts more faculty exchanges with India than with any other country through this program " Addressing the summit ahead of a round -table with senior U.S. and Indian officials, Minister Sibal said India must provide fo r higher education opportun ities for an additional 30 million students by 2020. "Research and innovation will require collaboration of multiple knowledge partners-those who have the capacity to create, share and apply new knowledge in cultures of mutual learning and continuous innovation ... In this, India and the US., with their democratic traditions, openness of thought, spirit of tolerance, rule of law, respect for institutions and understanding of diversity are natural partners ... " The two sides endorsed support for several goals including expansion of col laboration in the pri ority

areas of higher education such as science and eng ineering , social sciences and humanities and fostering partnerships in the areas of vocational education and skills enhancement.

414

To read the joint statement, go to: http//www.state.gov/r/pa/p rs/ps/20 11/10/175482.htm

November/December 2011

SPAN VOLUME LII NUMBER 6

A LETTER FROM THE

PUBLISHER very day, we see around us signs that the world is changing rapidly These changes are most often driven by the younger generation But who exactly are these young people who are changing our world? How did they become vanguards of change? These are the kinds of questions we asked ourselves as we were plann ing this issue of SPAN. We hope you enjoy the answers we discoveredl We selected dynamic American and Indian achievers, under the age of 30, from diverse fields, and took a look at how they are making the world around them a better place and what inspires them. Some of them are working in fields that did not even exist five years ago Some of them have excelled in traditional spheres like jazz music and acting, but have forced the world to sit up and take notice by virtue of their unique talents. What they al l have in common is the ability to break stereotypes and think outside the box. As President Barack Obama noted about the young winners of the Google Global Science Fair at this year's ceremony to present the National Medals of Science and the National Medals of Technology and Innovation in Washington, D.C.: " .. .it's young people like Shree .. .who make me incredibly hopeful about the future.!' Indeed, young people in India and America are showing that they are the new generation of doers, willing to take risks and apply their fresh perspectives as catalysts for a better tomorrow. Last month, I had the opportunity to attend the ground breaking U.S.-India Higher Education Summit in Washington, D.C, during which Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shared the story of a group of university students from India and the U.S. who worked together to create a new, inexpensive, effective incubator system for premature newborns that is now saving lives in Indian hospitals: another amazing example of how youth-led innovation and India-U.S. partnerships are making a difference in the world. If you find such young achievers as inspiring as wedo, please write to us at editorspan@stategov. We would love to hear from you. ;} ;1~

fockJr~ 路路

* Shree Bose and Naomi Shah: Youth

Power to Fight Disease By Paromita Pain

* Women and Science

How Far Apart? ByRicha Varma

* Matt Mullenweg Reinventing the

Internet, One Blog at a Time By Howard Cincotta

11 12

On the Lighter Side * Davi d Karp Wants to Give You an

Onl ine Identity (Or More Than One) By Howard Cincotta

* Sanjit Biswas Wants You to

Live in the Cloud By HowardCincotta

* Ajit Narayanan: Giving a Vo ice to the Disabled By Paromita Pain

Published by the PublicAftairs Section, American Center,24 Kasturba Gandhi

For notification of new content, write to ezinespan@state.gov

Publisher Michael P Pelletier Editor in Chief Adete E. Ruppe Acting Editor Deepanjali Kakati Hindi Editor Giriraj Agarwal Urdu Editor Malik RashidFaisal Copy Editors Richa Varma. Shah Md.TahsinUsmani Editorial Assistant Yugesh Mathur Art Director Hemant Bhatnagar Deputy Art Directors KhurshidAnwar Abbasi. Oasim Raza Web Manager Chetna Khera Production/Circulation Manager AlokKaushikPrinting Assistant Manish Gandhi Research Services Bureau of Internationallnforrnation Programs, The American Library Front cover: Ajit Narayanan (clockwise from bottom right), Esperanza Spalding, Shama Kabani and David Karp. Courtesy Sanjiv Kataria: courtesy of Montuno Productions, photograph by Sandrine Lee: courtesy Marketing Zen. Marg, New Delhi 110001 (phone:23472000), on behalfof the U.S. Embassy, New Delhi. Printed at Thomson Press India Limited,18/35,Delhi Mathura Road,Faridabad,Haryana 121007. Opinions expressed in this 52-page magazine donotnecessarily reflect the views or policies of the US. Governrnent * Articles with astar may be reprin ted with perrnission. Those without astar arecopyrighted and may notbereprinted. ContactSPAN at 011-23472135 oreditorspan@state.gov

Natal ia Allen : Conscientious Fashionista By Margret Aldrich

* Shama Kabani Cl icking to Success

By Candice Yacono

38 44

* Science and Creativity

By Marsha Walton

* Noureen DeWulf: More Than Beauty ByHowardCincotta

Grand Canyon: Can You Ever Gawk Alone? By Thomas Hayden

Letters to the Editor

Ankur.lain

aunching e opeS

By MICHAEL GALLANT

entrepreneu r

The young helps businesses \\do well by doing good .

n the world of modern day business, there really aren' t borders any more," says 21 -year-old American entrepreneur Ankur Jain. "It's not the U.S. market and the Chinese market separately. It's everyone working together. It 's been exciting working in this field ," he continues, laughing. "And tiring! " Indeed, for the last several years, Jain has found himself on more airplanes than he ' d care to remember, traveling around the world for meetings and conferences to represent the Kairos Society, which he created in 2007. "Kairos was fo unded under the premise that a young generation of leaders can use and harness the power of entrepreneurship to not only solve the world 's greatest problems, but to create billiondollar companies in doing so," says Jain . Since its creation , Kairos has helped up-and-coming entrepreneurs work together across borders and disciplines, and the society continues to organize priceless mentoring partnerships, b,usiness showcases, and other educational opportunities for its members. Regardless of whether Jain and Kairos fellows are working to provide cloud computing technology to underserved schools, retrofit buildings to be more energy efficient, or create low-pollution transportation technology, they make a compell ing case - if done right, good business and global progress can go hand in hand.

learning entrepreneurship " 1 had the great fortune of growing up in a very entrepreneurial family," says Jain , whose parents are first-generation Indi an American immigrants. "To thi s day, their story inspires me- it 's the true American dream. " That story began with Jain's father moving to the United States from Indi a with under $ 100 to hi s name; finding hi s way to Seattle, Washington ; and landing a job at software giant Microsoft, which was still a small company at the time. "After working there for a couple years, he decided it was time for him to pursue his own American dream," says Jain . "He launched his own company and has been a serial entrepreneur ever since."

I\We see the world as a series of grand challengesnot things to worry about but rather, problems to solve, /I

As a young child, Jain accompanied his father to conferences and meetings. "1 caught the entrepreneurship bug," he says. "I immersed myself in this exciting world where you can literally control your own destiny-and help other people to do what they love and transform their worlds as well." Jain himself made the transition from observer to innovator at age 11 , when he and a handful of friend s taught themselves basic computer programming. They created, among other things, an , il'l1lovative Web service that let cell-phone ': 'users send text messages to mUltiple contacts at once, well before such functionality became standard on mobile devices. To further pursue hi s entrepreneurial dreams, Jain studied at the University of Pennsylvania 's Wharton School of Business. "There were so many bright minds at Wharton, but the entrepreneurial culture hadn ' t hit the school yet," he says. Before the Wall Street crisis of 2008, though, Jain saw an opportunity, as many students were already becoming disillusioned with the world of finance . 'That felt like the ideal time to create a Silicon Valley-tY2e atmosphere at the

school with all of these brilliant people," he says. The result? Jain 's Kairos Society, named after the Greek word meaning "the opportune moment."

Kairos, Paniia and bevond A student-run, not-for-profit organization, Kairos currently has programs at over 40 universities in 14 countries. The society strives to provide young, inspired entrepreneurs with access to experts and resources, says Jain. " If we can take smart minds in different countries and give them opportunities to interact with leaders who can help them succeed, we can help create this American dream around the world," he asserts. That philosophy has manifested in acti vities throughout the United States, India, China, Mexico, the Middle East and beyond. "We bring in leading CEOs, entrepreneurs and scientists of today's generation to work with our students," says Jain . "So, from an early age, the students are given the tools and confidence to succeed." Kairos' programs have also involved bringing hundreds of students and CEOs together in New York for an

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov NoVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 3

ntrepreneurs are many types of people. entrepreneurs come in various ages, income levels, genders and races. They have different types of education and experience , and come from different cultures and countries. But research shows that most successfu l entrepreneurs share ce rtain personality tra its, including creativity, dedication, determination, flexibility, leadership, passion, self-confidence and "smarts. " • Creativity drives the development of new products or services. It makes the entrepreneur improve constantly. It is learning , asking questions and thinking in new ways . • Dedication makes the entrepreneur work hard , 12 hours a day or more , often seven days a week, especially in the beginning . Planning and ideas must have support from hard work to succeed.

• Determination means you real something bad happens, you don't give up. persuades the entrepreneur to make another phone knock on another door. For the true entrepreneur, money the reward , but seeing the product or service actually work is more exciting . • Flexibility is the ability to move quickly when things change. An entrepreneur should be ready to modify his or her original igea if customers push for someth ing else. • Leadersh[p is the abil ity to create ru les and set goals. Good leaders finish everything they start and make sure everyone follows the rules. • Passion is what gives entrepreneurs energy. Passionate entrepreneurs can convince others to believe in their idea. Passion helps entrepreneurs stay focused and gets others to take their plans seriously. • Self-confidence comes from planning , experience and what you know. Self-confident entrepreneurs can listen to others without giving up their own point of view. • "Smarts" is an American term. It describes ski lls based on common sense and intelligen ce Common sense gives a erson good instincts; intelligence makes him or her an exp ert. Many people have smarts but don't recogni ze them. For example, a person who successfully keeps a family budget has organizatio~al and financial skills. Employment, education and life experience all contribute to smarts. Every entrepreneur has some of these qualities. If he or she doesn't, he or she can hire someone who has them . The most important thing is to be aware of your strengths and to build on them. Jeanne Holden is a freelance writer with expertise in economic issues. She worked as a writer-editor in the U.S. Information Agency for 17 years.

annual global summit, as well as gathering Kairos fellows in the Netherlands to work with political leaders on issues ranging from health care to clean energy. Jain summarizes Kairos ' philosophy as doing well by doing good. "We see the world as a series of grand challengesnot things to worry about, but rather, problems to solve," he says. "That mentality has helped us launch over 100 companies around the world." In addition to his continued work with Kairos, Jain has dug deeply into Panjia, a new venture that supports multinational start-up companies. "What we're saying is that innovation has no borders," describes Jain. "Just because an entrepre4 NOVEMBERIDECEMBER 20 11

neur is based out of China, that doesn 't mean that he or she shouldn ' t be able to capture the global value of the creation he or she has developed." At Panjia, Jain and his co-founders try to minimize the risks of globalization for the entrepreneurs with whom they work. Through the company's model for business development, Indian or Chinese entrepreneurs, for example, can bring businesses to American markets without having to shoulder the burdens of raising capital, or parceling out ownership shares of their company to new investors. In the process, Jain says, Panjia sparks the creation of new wealth and jobs for all countries involved, essentially tying together

their economic expansion. "The whole idea is mutual growth and collaboration," he says. Jain sees Panjia's efforts rippling not just into global economics, but also fostering greater international brotherhood. "I am just tremendously excited about this," he says. "I believe that we can redefine globalization as a positive sum game because of entrepreneurs who are working across borders." He pauses in thought, and smiles. "If we can do that, then the future of diplomacy is bright." Michael Gallant is the founder and chief executive officer of Gallant Music. He lives in New York City.

Sustainability

is more than a buzzword, It's a way to live,

World Economic Forum as a Young ore than 8,000 chemicals were used to make Global Leader, and was named one of the Top 25 Women in Tech to Watch. the clothes in your And that design firm she directs on the closet. Approximately side? Design Futurist, an eco-innovative [6,814 liters] of fresh New York studio that Allen founded just water were used to a year after leaving Parsons, has already manufacture the jeans advised numerous high-profile clientsyou're wearing right now. All-too-comincluding Calvin Klein, Quiksilver and monplace numbers like these make it Donna Karan-and was declared by Fast clear that the fashion industry needs an eco-makeover. Natalia Allen is up for the Company one of [America's] 10 Most Creative Small Businesses. challenge. Allen's passion for environmental A 2004 graduate of Parsons the New School for Design, Allen calls herself a _. responsibility springs from both her love surfer who runs a design firm in her ., . ." of nature and her up-close-and-personal spare time. Modesty aside, this surfer relationship with clothing and accessory was the recipient of Parsons' production. "Many designers are behind prestigious Designer of the Year a computer and never see how their award (an honor she shares with designs are made," she explains. "I, howthe likes of Marc Jacobs and ever, spent time on the factory floor." ... Tom Ford), was chosen by the Design Futurist teams with already-suclelt: An original denim line with innovative proprietary dyes and finishes developed by Natalia Allen. Below: Light-emitting running gear designed by Allen. The photoluminescent technology is embedded into the fiber, then extruded into yarn and spun into a seamless garment. The clothing stays illuminated for more than 10 hours and can be charged quickly by exposure to any light source.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011

cessful brands and helps implement sustainable methods and materials, working on product development from beginning to end. DKNY. .. recruited Design Futurist to reinvent the waterproof jacket using non-petroleum-based materials; Calvin Klein enlisted the firm to create a line of men 's jeans using proprietary dyes and finishes. Wary of the "gimmicks and greenwashing" that saturate the market as companies scramble to jump on the green-living bandwagon, Allen is dedicated to using materials and technologies that will benefit society today and for generations to come. "Sustainability is more than a buzzword," she says. "It's a way to live." Respectful of the health of her customers and the environment, she favors organic fabrics and dyes as well as unconventional fibers such as hemp, flax and color-grown cotton. "I'm also working with recycled plastic materials and researching nontoxic synthetic fabrics that can be recycled easily into new

products," she says. Allen's forward-thinking design practices have gained worldwide attention, earning her speaking engagements in the Unjted Arab Emirates, Switzerland, Cruna, and elsewhere. [In 2010], she launched a workshop series on sustainable fashion with the Pratt Institute in New York City to spread the gospel of the green fashion revolution. In addition, Allen is developing her own line of sustainable clothing. Despite her busy schedule, Allen is never far from nature for long. "Designing from the beach is simply fantastic-only made finer by surfing breaks!" she tweeted one sunny day ....

if you

Margret Aldrich is an associate editor with Utne Reader.

The National Association of Sustainable Fashion Designers www.sustainabledesigners.org

Design Futurist http://www.designfuturist.com/

Parsons the New School for Design www.newschool .edu/parsons/

Natalia Allen on Twitter http://twitter.com/nataliaallen

Center and above: A collection of sustainable women's fashion designed by Natalia Allen for a premium brand distributed across the United Slales.

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov NovEMBERIDECEMBER 2011 7

One

~ ataTime

By HOWARD CINCOTTA

Word Press has evolved far beyond blogging into the world's dominant open-source publishing system,

8 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 201 1

WordPress blogging platform http://wordpress.com/

Word Press software http://wordpress.org/

Matt Mullenweg 's blog http://ma.ttl

Automattic http://automattic.com/

Word Press Foundation http://wordpressfou ndation. org

Blogs and open source nyone who has hung around the blogosphereWordPress' ascendancy on the Web is as reader, writer or both- the product of the two passions of Mullenweg. One is for blogging; the probably has a passing .:, 'other for open-source software, which can familiarity with WordPress, one of the be modified and used freely by anyone. Over the past eight years, without world's most popular attracting the media attention of figures blogging platforms. like the late Steve Jobs of Apple or What most people don' t realize is that Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Mullenweg WordPress has evolved far beyond bloghas been quietly changing the face of the ging into the world's dominant opensource publishing system. Among a wel- Internet. "Software can become a loss of freeter of impressive statistics is this stunner dom, ... a loss of transparency if it's a on its founder, Matt Mullenweg's blog: black box," Mullenweg said to his homeWordPress now runs about 12 percent of town newspaper, the Houston Chronicle. all Web sites on the Internet today, "If it's open source, it becomes a source including those of many companies and of freedom." media organizations.

Mu ll enweg, 27, caught the blogging bug at the University of Houston, where he joined friends in developing the source code for WordPress, which launched with little fanfare in 2003. A year later, he quit school and moved to San Francisco, California, where he worked for the Internet technology firm, CNET. In 2005, he founded Automattic, a company that runs a variety of Web ventures- Internet polling and creating online avatars, among others-along with its flagship initiative, WordPress. Automattic, although a giant on the Internet, is one of its smallest and most geographically dispersed firms, with only 90plus full-time employees in 62 countries. "Hire the best people anywhere in the

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov NOVEMBERIDECEMBER 20 11 9

ifyou _ ...."'"---~

There's no better feel.ing than knowing you're providing jobs and supporting families with your product.

" Above right: Mall Mullenweg at the Taj Mahal in Agra. India held its first WordCamp in New Delhi in 2009, with Mullenweg as the featured speaker.

10 NOVEMBERIDECEMBER 2011

world," Mullenweg told the technology Web site Steppin' Off the Edge. "We don't need the factory model anymore."

WordPress communitv WordPress operates on two tracks. WordPress.com is a free, integrated Web publishing service providing a range of features from a selection of different templates or themes to support more than 120 languages. Wordpress.com now operates more than 53 million Web sites around the world, with two-thirds of its current growth coming from outside the United States. WordPress.org offers the identical opensource software, which users can download and install on their computers and servers to run independently, whether for commercial or other purposes. They can also modify, or "fork," the software however they please. The only restriction-which is the heart of the open-source model-is that they can't restrict anyone else's use of WordPress software. WordPress.org usage has soared in recent years. When WordPress version 2.9 was released in December 2009, it averaged about 47,000 downloads per day. Version 3.0, released in June 2010, initially recorded 235,000 daily downloads, according to the WordPress Foundation. Mullenweg, a skilled photographer and jazz enthusiast, stresses the need to stay as closely connected to his users and customers as possible. "We're trying to set up a community that will be around 10 to 30 years from now, one that's independent

from the whims of the market," he commented on his blog. WordPress averages three major releases a year. "It's the broader WordPress community that gives us this kind of speed of development," he said. Mullenweg travels constantly, often to increasingly popular WordCamps that are held around the world, attracting bloggers, Web developers, and WordPress users in the hundreds and.even thousands. In February 2009, India held its ftrst WordCamp in New Delhi, with Mullenweg as the featured speaker. "I've noticed more and more people coming up to me and saying that they ' re making a living using WordPress," he said. "There's no better feeling than knowing you're providing jobs and supporting families with your product." WordPress, founded before the era of Facebook and Twitter, is hardly a youthful start-up anymore. With the relentlessly changing online world, it now faces competition from a new crop of social networking sites- notably the free-form microblogging site, Tumblr. When asked to compare the two, Mullenweg said that if you wanted to collect and post images, or reblog, Tumblr might be the best choice. "But if you want to build your voice, your own domain, it would be WordPress." For Mullenweg, the focus remains on building large online communities through open-source software. ~ Howard Cincotta is a U.S. State Department ' writer and editor.

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Wants to Give You an Online Identity (Or More Than One) By HOWARD CINCOTTA

NOVEMB ER/DECEMBER 20 11

describe David Karp as a precocious, incredibly successful entrepreneur of the digital age is to understate the matter. At 25, he is the founder and CEO of Tumblr, one of the trendiest and fastest growing blog sites on the Internet today. Tumblr, which launched in 2007, is one of a new generation of free short-form blogs- often tenned microblogging-that stresses its capacity for self-expression, sharing and ease of use. After a sign-up process that can take a minute or less, users have the ability to post images, videos, songs, audio and text with the click of a single button. Another attraction is Tumblr 's Dashboard, which allows you to see, comment on, and repost content from your friends, just as they can with your material. Karp, born in New York City, where Tumblr remains based, is tall and rail thin, with a mass of brown hair that constantly threatens to cover his eyes. His career path wasn't that different from other young Internet entrepreneurs except that, instead of quitting college to pursue Web opportunities, Karp quit high school. He was working with a film animation producer by 14; joined the technical staff of UrbanBaby, a Web site for parents juggling careers and family; and, at 17, traveled to Japan alone to meet top-flight software engineers.

Left: David Karp speaks at an 'IInnual event for Web professionals and enthusiasts in Seville, Spain. Below: Tumblr staff at its headquarters in New York City.

Identitv and freedom Tumblr evolved from Karp's dissatisfaction with the blogging platforms he encountered growing up. The blogosphere was designed largely for editorial publishing, in Karp 's view, with a formulaic layout of titles, text blocks and comment pages. Karp had a much different vision for Thmblr, as he explained to the Web site TechCrunch. "All the blogs took the same form. I wanted something much more free-form, much less verbose." He decided the time was right to build his own blog, but without any anticipation of the instant popularity it enjoyed, especially among fellow Web developers, who were experimenting with new and unorthodox kinds of Web sites. Karp sees a marked distinction between Tumblr and social networking giants like Facebook and Twitter. "Nobody is proud of their identity on Facebook. They are not tools built for creative expression," he said in a talk to TechCrunch. "On Tumblr, people can create identities they're really proud of ... that represent you," he told Newsweek.

The perils of popularitv Although Facebook and Twitter still dwarf Tumblr in size, the company's recent growth has been explosive. Within two years of its launch, Tumblr had more than 3 million subscribers- and kept accelerating from there. In 2010, Karp reported that the site was averaging 2 million posts and 15,000 new users every day. By June 2011 , Tumblr 's short-form blogs surpassed the number of WordPress' generally longer postings. On a day in August 2011, the Tumblr Web site was registering more than 25.8 million blogs with over 42 million individual daily posts. That kind of rapid expansion brought real growing pains as the company has struggled to scale up fast enough to meet the demand. In December 20 I 0, Tumblr suffered a

Above: David Karp (second from right, standing) with the staff of Photojojo at their office in San Francisco, California.

severe crash which Karp described as a "cascading failure" that toppled its computer servers like dominos. "That crash was definitely a punch in the stomach," he commented to the publication, Adweek. Karp scrambled to reassure Tumblr users and quickly hired more technical and executive staff. Since then, Tumblr 's growth has continued unabated and its pool of investor funding has remained deep. Tumblr is now attracting an unexpected group of subscribers-companies and commercial brand names who like the ease with which the site can repost and distribute information and images to a predominantly young, tech-savvy audience. "Any good piece of new content that you put up there can spread really, really far," he told Adweek. The reasons for Tumblr's spectacular success are hardly a mystery in Karp's view. "Tumblr is about total freedom of expression," he said at a Mashable conference. "That means two things for us-the ability to post anything and the ability to customize everything ... It is totally your space, your page to do anything you want with it." H oward Cincotta is a U.S . Department of State writer and editor.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011

if you

Sanjil Biswas Wants You to Live in the Cloud By HOWARD CINCOTTA

hen he first picked up his father's computer science books as a child, the question wasn't whether Sanjit Biswas was going to be a technological success, but when. The answer turned out to be sooner rather than later. At age 15, Biswas, born and raised in California, became youngest computer engineer ever employed by the database giant, Oracle. "The only time his age became apparent was when he had to rush out of work so his mom could pick him up," recalled an Oracle co-worker in a 1998 news story. Today, at 30, Biswas is the co-founder and CEO of Meraki, based in San Francisco, California, a company that has become a leader in the rapidly expanding field of cloud computing. The cloud, in essence, transforms computing into a service instead of a collection of discrete products. Cloud computing means that shared resources, whether software applications or data transmission and storage, are delivered over the Internet as a utility, like the electrical grid. Meraki uses the cloud computing model to provide easily installed wireless networks just about anywhere, including parts of South Asia, Africa and Latin America where Internet access had previously been almost nonexistent or prohibitively expensive. In 2007, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) named Biswas one of the top innovators in the world under the age of 35. A year """f' later, Inc. Magazine listed him as one of its top "30 Under 30" entrepreneurs, and in 2010, Laptop magazine called him one of the 25 most innllential individuals in mobile technology. .:

industry giants like Cisco Systems, Meraki has enjoyed remarkable success in deploying its technologies to schools, businesses, housing complexes and government offices throughout the United States and internationally.

MIT and innovation

After working at Oracle and notching perfect scores on his SAT college qualification exams, Biswas earned degrees in ~ computer science and engineering from :;, Stanford University in California and MIT. ~ For his MIT doctoral program, Biswas ~ conducted research into a pioneering net- ~ work application known as mesh technol- ~ _ _ _........_ _......__..,..__---..; ogy. In such a mesh or "smart" network, Above: Sanjit Biswas. Below lell: Inside a communications nodes no longer receive Meraki wireless comand pass data automatically; instead, the munications node, or nodes analyze the data's signal strength and AP (access point). destination to determine which nodes should transmit the data along the network. In practical terms, this means that the network can rapidly adapt to changing circumstances, whether shifts in radio transmissions, or even blockages caused by something as simple as a passing truck. When coupled with off-the-shelf hardware, these networks can provide inexpensive wireless communications to isolated or poor communities that lack reliable Internet access. In 2006, Biswas took a leave of absence from MIT, and together with fellow student John Bicket, used their research breakthrough to found Meraki. In addition to low-cost wireless installations, Meraki offers another attraction for network administrators beleaguered by the proliferation of smartphones, iPads and other mobile devices. Using a Meraki "cloud "Free the Airwaves" controller," they can manage geographically dispersed wireless "Meraki's mission is to help connect the next billion people to systems from a central location, using only a simple Web screen. the Internet," Biswas declares in a YouTube video, part of a Meraki is providing its services to roughly 18,000 compa"Free the Airwaves" public campaign to open up the broadcast nies, schools and other organizations in more than 140 counspectrum. In 2008, Biswas and a few Meraki volunteers demontries. In April, it announced that, along with revenue growth of strated what they were talking about when they descended on a 300 percent over the previous year's quarter, it had added low-income apartment complex in San Francisco. After installing 1,200 new customers during the first three months of 2011. a network router, they attached wireless repeaters throughout the "With Meraki," Biswas said, "we've been able to change the development. The entire process took several hours. Then they economics of Internet access so it's no longer something that turned on the system. "Within a few minutes," Biswas said, "the requires a huge expenditure for people who often don 't have the community went from zero access to the Internet to having free money to get online." WiFi throughout their buildings and homes." Despite working in a highly competitive field dominated by Howard Cincotta is a U.S. Department of State writer and editor. <l

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011 15

- ....;;:;;.

of jazz and Latin music, earning rave reviews from audiences and critics alike. The New York Times described her as "luminous" on stage, "a major chord of exuberance, swinging behind her stand-up bass, eyes closed, singing to the lights, an evangelist of joy in various cool time signatures." While Spalding may have burst upon the world stage with her Grammy award, she is anything but an overnight success. Rather, her musical prowess and admirable career come from a lifetime of musical study and dedication, as well as an unwavering comu楼tment to learning and growth- as 路. .s~alding modestly told the Times, ''I'm not a master of my craft. I am still a student."

Jazz from the ground UP

speranza Spalding grabbed international attention when she won the 2011 Grammy award for Best New Artistbeating the hugely popular Canadian pop star Justin Bieber in the process. But she was creating innovative music and breaking rules long before golden statues, acceptance speeches and television cameras were ever involved. The vibrant young singer, composer and upright bass player performs a blissful blend 18 NOVEMBERIDECEMBER 2011

Spalding was born in Portland, Oregon in 1984, the daughter of a single mother who constantly sang made-up songs around the house. Spalding's first instrument was the violin, and she primarily learned to play from an educational organization called the Chamber Music Society of Oregon. "As a child, I didn' t realize how valuable this program was," she says. "It was an undelfunded organization that somehow scraped together enough means and support to provide instruments, lessons, summer workshops, and weekly orchestral and sectional rehearsals to any kid who applied and could keep up with the work. That's really saying something." Spalding took the musicality and skills she learned to the acoustic bass at age 15 and began studying classical music at Portland State University just a year later. By the spring of 2005, she had earned her bachelor's degree and was hired to teach at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, a springboard from which she began working with a wide range of international jazz artists that included pianist Michel Camilo and guitarist Pat Metheny. Spalding recorded and released her first album, "Junjo," in 2006, and two other albums- the ambitious "Esperanza" and the string-infused "Chamber Music Society"followed during the next four years. She has received numerous awards during her short career, as well as an invitation by President Barack Obama to perform at twin Nobel Prize events. Her rigorous schedule includes touring around the world and preparing for her upcoming album, "Radio Music Society"- and by the look of things , this is just the beginning.

Come out swinging . When Spalding began making an impression on the jazz scene, she turned heads-not only was it unusual for a woman to be playing bass, it was also unusual for a bass player to stand front and center, singing and leading a combo. "It is really curious that there aren ' t more bassists up front in bands," she says. "I can' t really explain that. For me, it's just natural love for the instrument and its role, and the love I have had for years of singing and being the messenger of the melody, the one who tells the story and connects first with the audience." When Spalding plays bass to support other bands- and isn't singing her own original material- she steps effortlessly into a supporting role, laying down a solid foundation on which her musical colleagues can build. She has found, though, that the character of a band's music can change significantly when bass does take center stage. "Musicians start to think of the counterpoint between the melody and the bass line more predominantly when I'm in front," she says. "Visually and psychologically, it makes them pay more attention to it. That does something interesting to how we play together-and I like it." Regardless of where she stands on

stage, Spalding always strives to grow as a musician and learn from whatever influences she encounters. "I was just reading a book about poetry," she relates. "It described ways to use the sound of words and the syntax of a sentence without changing the meaning or using incorrect grammar, and how to throw in different words that could be used to describe the same thing, but carry with them their own feel, and a world of connotations.

"In the back of my mind, I immediately felt, 'I can incorporate that into my music,' " she continues. "Just reading that taught me something. Now it's in me and I can use it."

Michael Gallant is the founder and chief executive officer of Gallant Mus ic. He lives in New York City.

Left: Esperanza Spalding with the trophy for Best New Artist at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, California, in February. 2011 .

paII.SI,au~ .g()V NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 20 11

Giving a Dice to the Disabled By PAROMITA PAIN

harunika's parents were overjoyed when she told her teacher that she didn't like having dosas for breakfast. Sounds ~trange? Not when you realize that this was the first time the 13-year-old had expressed an opinion, and communicated something that went beyond the basics. Born with cerebral palsy, Dharunika's communication was limited to the 20 gestures she used to convey hunger, pain or discomfort. This was until Avaz changed her world. "A.vaz is basically an artificial voice for children and adults with cerebral palsy who don't have the required muscle control and therefore can't speak, or the autistic who think more in terms of visuals than actual wordst explains Ajit Narayanan, the 29-year-old creator of the device. Launched in March 2010, Ava拢 works by converting muscle movements into speech through features like pictures and scanning. "For example, userS can put together different words like 'I like' and then select a picture of an apple, thus constructing sentences pictorially. For those with lesser degrees of muscular control, who can't touch all parts of the screen, we use a method called scanning," says Narayanan. The scanning method shows different options users can select by touching any

" lelt: Auser demonstrates how to use Avaz.

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part of the screen. Avaz can sense their choice and help them narrow down options till the right one is reached to make speech. Avaz has artificial intelligence and can give suggestions to make choices easier. For someone trying to say "Good afternoon," selecting the word "good" has "afternoon" suggested as an option. This makes it easier for the user. Once the sentence is constructed, the artificial voice sYllthesizer speaks it out. Avaz supports English, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Marathi, and plans are on to add more languages soon.

Avaz's shape and size is that of a tablet computer. With a seven-inch display, easy to read fonts and voice prompts for the visually impaired, this battery-operated device can be mounted on desks and wheelchairs or even calTied on laps. Narayanan, an lIT Madras alumni, was named Innovator of the Year 2011 by MIT's Technology Review India. He worked in Georgia and California with American Megatrends Inc. for four years. "America was an excellent learning experience. I loved the Bay Area in California. But I always wanted to come back and start my own company." he says. "Contributing to solving a specific need that has special relevance to India was my inspiration." A visit to Vidya Sagar, a special needs school in Chennai. thanks to an ITT Madras professor and his wife, gave him an idea about what he wanted to do. Speaking to the faculty and students at the school made Narayanan realize that the differently-abled, a whole section in India that remains marginalized, could be given technical assistance to join the mainstream.

Inspired by the way Americans integrate technology into daily life and by the success stories of Dynavox, the U.S.-

based provider of communication products and speech-producing devices for various disabilities, Narayanan was sure that he wanted his creation to be technically savvy as well as have a high social impact. "We watched a lot of YouTube videos on Dynavox users who had broken down their walls of silence and emerged as successful, high-flying professionals. A product like Avaz doesn't existin India, so we had to build everything from scratch," says Narayanan. Work on the prototypes started in March 2008. "The real challenge lay in making it attractive for children with cerebral palsy and getting a response from those whose feelings we can't really feel. and hence find difficult to understand," he says. "When we gave them our earliest prototypes to test, we met with a blank stare. That's when we realized that they didn't like it. We made a lot of changes, especially redoing the size and making the software more sophisticated. Most of these children are familiar with computers so we made it look like a tablet computer and used symbols they were familiar with." The effectiveness of the changes was proved by Dha11lnika at Avaz's launch in her school, The Spastics Society of Tamil Nadu in Chennai. "She held it in her hands and in a few minutes typed out 'thank you' for the entire auclience," says Narayanan. The American connection with Avaz continues. "I received a lot of help from people in the U.S. who donate these units to schools. In fact. just a few days ago. a person from Virginia sponsored three units for a school in Kochi," he says.

Priced at Rs. 30.000, Avaz doesn't come cheap. but Narayanan explains. "There was always a commercial bent to this venture. The profits we make are pumped back to develop more sophisticated versions. Our future plans include extending the. ossibilities of Avaz to the

learning disabled as well." Narayanan's company, Invention Labs, which manufactures Avaz is about four years old with 10 employees. He funded the project from his savings from work in the United States and funds given by the Indian government for technology-related projects. Schools in 15 cities across India, including Chennai, Mumbai, Kochi, Kolkata and Jaipur are using Avaz.

Avaz The Spastics SOCiety of Tamil Nadu American Megatrends, Inc. Dynavox • •• •

•

For this avid trekker who loves to read. being able to lower costs is important. "1 am trying to explore government schemes that subsidize assisted technology," says Narayanan. "I hope more people in India start working on assistive technology that can be adapted globally. It's time to focus on reverse innovation."

Paromita Pain is cUITently doing her M.A. in specialized journalism from the Annenberg School of Com 111111lication University of Southern California. f

To share articles go to http://span.state.govltilmimiDalImm.·201121

if you

oc;a! med;, guru and be,",,!hng ,",ho, Shama Kabani is a lifelong entrepreneur, ever since starting her first business at the age of 9- selling gift wrap out of a catalog. "The business was a flop, but I learned along the way," Kabani says. "Growing up, I wanted to do multiple things. I wantd to be a journalist, a teacher, and I even t yed with the idea of Bollywood! My om is an actress, so she was very supp,ortive. My dad wanted me to be a doctor. hat I do today is a combination of jouralism, technology and media. I am very lucky that I have a career which combines all three which I am passionate about." Fastcompany.com, a top resource for entrepreneurs, calls Kabani the "master millennial of the universe" and an "online marketing shaman." She was honored in 2009 by BusinessWeek magazine as one of their Top 25 Under 25 entrepreneurs in America. The author of "The Zen of Social

very idyllic childhood, from participating in sports days and performing in talent shows to being mentored by the nuns and the Father in Residence. "As in most Cambridge-style Indian schools, discipline was strictly enforced. I learned the value of working hard and being diligent. At home, I was the eldest of two sisters. I enjoyed a fun childhood-playing in the monsoons, taking walks with my grandfather, and watching my mother run her boutique from the house," she says. Kabani moved to Texas in the United States when she was 9. "It was a challenging transition due to cultural differences," she says. "It was tough to go from uniforms and strictly textbook work to jeans and book reports on novels. I've often felt that the combination of an elementary Indian education combined with a secondary American education was the key to my success. I came into the U.S. classroom with the same diligence and discipline I'd acquired in India.

then a master's degree in organizational communications from the University of Texas at Austin. Despite her positive experiences with schooling, Kabani recommends that those who want to follow in her footsteps in the digital age should take responsibility for their own education. "I often find students over-relying on schools and career centers," she says. "School should teach you how to learn, but it is your responsibility to make learning a lifelong pursuit-especially when it comes to a field as young as social media and the digital world. The careers that exist today didn't exist five years ago. And we have no idea what will come about in the next 10 to 15 years ... "Career paths are not so clearly defined now, and no career is 100 percent secure. Even doctors and engineers have to be the best at what they do and be responsive to changes, or they can find themselves marginalized."

School should teach you how to learn, but it is your responsibility to make learning a lifelong pursuit- especially when it comes to a field as young as social media, Media" (2010), Kabani speaks around the world. She is an expert source for publications like BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal, among many others, and has her own Web-based television show, Shama.TV. Kabani attributes her triumphs to an uncommon blending of Eastern and Western academic and cultural styles. "I was born in Goa and grew up in Bangalore," Kabani says. She enjoyed a

However, this time I learned creativity and teamwork. My parents both worked full-time, so I took on greater responsibility, and was a 'latch-key ' kid until high school. lowe a lot to my teachers, who took a great interest in helping and mentoring me. My passion for writing and technology was ignited by teachers who pushed me to succeed." She went on to earn a bachelor's degree in corporate communication and

In the future , Kabani hopes to continue building her company, The Marketing Zen Group, which she founded in 2009; it has seen rapid growth. "And I plan to continue sharing my passion for technology with a broader audience via TV and the Web," she says.

Candice Yacono is a magazine and newspaper writer based in southern California.

share articles go to http://span.state.gov NovEMBERfDECEMBER 2011 23

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. ..

Actor Dominic Rains (from left), director Eyad Zahra and actors Bobby Naderi and Noureen DeWulf of the movie, "The Taqwacores," at the Gibson Guitar lounge in Park City, Utah.

if you

blog EatSleepLiveFilm, "She outshines the burqa. When I see it now, I don't see the burqa, I see the person. She knocked it out of the park." "It is challenging and hard to not accept all the stereotypical roles that get thrown your way," DeWulf said to the online entertainment magazine Buzzine. "For me, I've been really, really lucky because I have been able to playa lot of different parts."

DeWulf was born in New York City to Gujarati parents from Pune, Maharashtra, and grew up in Stone Mountain, Georgia. She is fluent in Hindi, Urdu and Gujarati. DeWulf quietly nurtured the dream of becoming an actress as a child, even though she wasn't permitted to take theater classes. At Boston University's School of the Arts, in Massachusetts, however, DeWulf threw herself into theater courses and joined an acting company in Atlanta, Georgia during summer breaks. In 2005, without any friends , connections or agents, she moved to Los Angeles. "I was really nervous to come out here," she told Buzzine. "You put your26 NOVEMBERIDECEMBER 2011

self out there and perhaps you fail, then you have no job. I was kind of hesitant, but I made the leap of faith." She addresses the contradictions of her strict upbringing and her Hollywood persona with refreshing candor. "Ironically, it was because I was raised as a Muslim in the South, that I realized the value in being true to who you really are," she said to the fashion and entertainment magazine Details. "I've just got so many things going on inside. I don ' t know how to resolve all of them other than being true to who I am." DeWulf is frank in acknowledging that many of her film roles are not easy for her family to cope with. "But as I work in more roles, I think my parents are understanding it's not me doing those things, but the character which I'm portraying," she said to SAPNA, the magazine for South Asian American women and desi girls. At the same time, she observed, "I love my heritage both as someone who grew up as a Muslim and as an Indianit's part of who I am and I would never ~... . " denylt. ~ Howard Cincotta is a U.S. State Department writer and editor.

I've just got so many things going on inside. I donlt know how to resolve all of them other than being true to who I am.

Ishita Chaudhry

leadin the

::::::::::::;..,• • • • • he Youth Parliament Foundation, a New Delhi-based organization of social entrepreneurs develops young people's leadership skills to challenge stereotypes and take action on issues they are passionate about. With 26-year-old Ishita Chaudhry at its helm, the foundation has set up more than 200 projects across India and reaches out to 300,000 young people in the 13 to 28 age group. Members of the foundation have met and interacted with the White House Council on Women and Girls, the Obama Administration, the Global Health Council, the United States Agency for International Development and the U.S. Department of State on a range of youth issues. In March 2009, Chaudhry was invited to speak at a Congressional briefing at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. on "A

By RICHA VARMA

Global Investment: Strategic Funding for Young People's Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights. " Over the past seven years, the foundation has also collaborated with the New Delhi American Center on projects addressing livelihood sustainability in the arts, interfaith and youth leadership, disability and education. In an interview with SPAN, Chaudhry spoke about what it takes to reach out to communities through the performing and visual arts, literacy and research projects, peer education and skill building initiatives. Excerpts: When and how did the idea of setting up The Youth Parliament Foundation come about? Despite my privileged educational background, in a country where only 54.5 percent of...girls have access to primary schooling, I didn't have an infonned opinion. I began to question how we lived our lives and shared power,

Our work with young people challenges the silences that exist in society.

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011

identity and privilege, and my own lack of action as a young person. I began my work nine years ago, because I wanted to change those silent spaces in our lives. I want to live in a world where human rights are upheld, where young people's leadership skills are strengthened, where women and young people are recognized as powerful change-makers and equal stakeholders in society, and are involved in making policies and executing programs that impact our health, rights and lives. Are there any particular areas that the foundation focuses on? Most young people do not currently have the set of tools required to communicate effectively on issues of sexuality, gender, health and rights without experiencing some form of shame or discomfort. Our work with young people challenges the silences that exist in society around these issues. How has the organization developed over the years? Our work has been recognized as a good practice for working with young

28 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011

people on reproductive health and has been published as a worldwide case study by UNAIDS. We' ve also got recognition from the Clinton Global Initiative, the United Nations [and] the MTV Youth Icon of India. Our journey since has challenged our own assumptions and pushed us beyond what we thought we could do. Do you have any childhood memory that has a bearing on what you do now? A memory and daily reminder that never leaves me is meeting children who are coerced into begging and ragpicking at [traffic intersections], a single tap on the door of a car that I'm sitting inside is the strongest reminder of the inequality that exists in our society. The first time this happened, I was very young and the existence of class and power in how we live our lives really struck me and has stayed with me. I hope with our work at The Youth Parliament Foundation, that we can empower children, adolescents and young people to challenge and change this reality. What kind of support have you got

from your family? My family has been ... a very big part of what sustained us in our first five years, when resources were hard to put together and I was still completing my education. Our office was our house. My parents and my brother gave up their plivacy and their rooms to 50 young people, who were strangers, in their home on a daily basis. Very few people would do that, and they did it when they didn't have a complete understanding of what I was doing, where [the foundation] was headed and how it could survive. Despite being a fairly conservative family, there's never been any pressure from them to conform to a certain kind of job or career or to get married and I really appreciate that. What do you like to do in your spare time? I'm an avid reader; I'll read just about anything and occasionally, write a blog as well. I've studied the piano as well as the classical arts since I was 10 and I trained as a mezzo-soprano in opera. Music is what I'll always come ~ home to.

Shree Bose and Naomi Shah

outh Power to Fia~!oMITAPA'N isease ancer and asthma won, with the big C leading the race. This isn't about the dreaded diseases taking over the world but about the projects of teenage researchers, Shree Bose and Naomi Shah, for the inaugural Google Global Science Fair 2011. Bose and Shah focused on cancer and asthma, respectively, and were lauded by a panel of judges comprising Nobel laureates and tech visionaries for their impressive research on these subjects.

The teenagers research about cancer and astilma prompted scientists to stop to take a look. Below: Naomi Shah (right) with American computer scientist Vint Cerf at the Google Global Science Fair awards ceremony in July.

lell: Shree Bose at the Google Global Science Fair in Silicon Valley, California.

NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2011

couple of weeks ago, I got a chance to meet the winners of the Google Science Fair. I want to pOint out that all three of them were girls. (Applause.) They had beat out 10,000 other applicants from over 90 countries. So I had them over to the Oval Office , and they explained their projects to me, and I pretended that I understood. (Laughter.) One of the winners, Shree Bose, did her first experiment in second grade by trying to turn spinach blue. (Laughter.) In fourth grade, she built a remote-controlled garbage can. And for this science fai r, at the age of 17, she discovered a promising new way to improve treatment for ovarian cancer-at 17. And she also told me very matter-of-factly that she'll be going to medical school and getting a doctorate, and I suspect she will do so. (Laughter.) She did not lack confidence. And it's young people like Shree, but also the people on this stage, who make me incredibly hopeful about the future.

-Excerpts from President Barack Obama's remarks at the presentation of the National Medals of Science and the National Medals of Technology and Innovation, on October 21, in Washington, D.C.

Aimed at students aged 13 to 18, the fair encouraged individual participation or small teams centering on scientific issues that are "interesting, creative, worded scientifically and relevant to the world today." More than 10,000 students from 91 countries entered the fair by submitting entries over the Web and 15 finalists presented their projects to judges at Google 's Silicon Valley headquarters in July.

Beating cancer resistance For Bose, winner in the 17 to 18 years category as well as the overall winner whose work was deemed "groundbreaking," this is the start of a journey she had planned since she lost her paternal grandfather to cancer. "When he was diagnosed with cancer, even though his memory remained as sharp as ever, he just wasn't himself. I watched my father go through the process of losing a parent and something inside made me want to do my best so that no one ever suffered . like this," says Bose, a student of Fort Worth Country Day School in Texas. Her first steps in science involved

30 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 20 11

injecting spinach with blue food coloring in second grade since she thought blue vegetables would provide an alternative for children who would not eat green veggies. However, she forgot to water the plants. The spinach didn ' t li ve too long but the scientist in Bose was awakened. Her project for the Google science fair, titled, "AMPK and Cisplatin Resistance," deals with drug resistance in ovarian cancer. "My project is about how the drug Cisplatin (commonly used to treat thi s kind of cancer) goes into the DNA of cancer cells and kinks it up so that the cell realizes that something is so wrong that it must kill itself. A major problem with this drug is that cells often become resistant to this and so patients who have responded well to [Cisplatin] often come back with recurrence of the disease. This is often the biggest problem with this drug at the moment. We thought this has to do with a protein called AMP Kinase, an energy protein that, in the cell, regulates the energy ratio and signals to the cells when energy ratios are high or low. Basically, we turned off the signal and studied the way in which this affected cancer as well as non-cancer cells," she

explains. Her proudest moment? Proving that AMP Kinase does play a role in developing resistance to this drug. Balancing schoolwork and research can be tough but Bose, whose Google winnings include a $50,000 study scholarship, an internship at the CERN particle physics laboratory in Switzerland and a lO-day trip to the Galapagos Islands, also finds time to swim and edit her school newspaper. Father Animesh Bose, a materials engineer with a degree from lIT Kharagpur, and mother, Prarthana, have always been supportive. Bose started working on the project in May 2010 and finished it by the end of August. "Three months actually but they involved insane hours," she says. When she first conceived the idea, she e-mailed several professors and many rejected her before Alakananda Basu, professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Immunology at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, took her on. "From then on, it was the lab, reading tons of papers, talking to graduate students and spending all summer working while my friends were

if you

leI!: President Barack Obama congratulates the winners of the Google Global Science Fair, Naomi Shah (from left), Shree Bose and Lauren Hodge at the Oval Office in the White House.

having a great time outside," says Bose. Her elder brother, Pinaki, whom she describes as the smartest person she knows, is a science buff who would explain things to her when they were children. "He was always building stuff with Lego and I was the kid who would find the suitable pieces," she laughs. "Today I have done something that helps me explain science to others. In so many ways, that makes me feel I have finally grown up."

Breathing free Anyone familiar with the tight, choking sensation that asthma produces will attest to the importance of Naomi Shah's project, "Air Pollution Impacts Lung Health of Asthma Patients." Winner in the 15 to 16 age group, Shah found during her research from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and WHO statistics that asthma causes 1.6 million deaths a year. Some "people almost spend 90 percent of their lives indoors .... Air quality doesn't get the attention it should," she says. While doctors prescribe medicine to help patients, there is not much research into how

much damage airborne pollutants can actually cause. Her parents own a business and no one in the family has a medical background. Some of her cousins have asthma. "These are genetic diseases that can affect any member of my family and me. Often environmental factors are a triggering cause and while we don't have control over everything, we can fix certain environmental factors ... ," she says. Her research work involved reading vast quantities of literature meant for graduate students and approaching health-related industries in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. "I started with the smaller articles first. They made getting through the long, peer-reviewed ones easier," she says. Another major source of encouragement was seeing how receptive people were to her ideas. Her parents

were a constant support, driving her around to the subjects' homes. She presented her research in various groups and often patients would approach her voluntarily. She contacted companies who helped her with equipment like lung health and air quality monitors. "I am glad they saw the potential in the research to help many people," says Shah. Not having a mentor was often a struggle. "But this was never a burden. I enjoyed it like I would a school project. 1 had loads of fun working with my subjects in summer," she says. Shah had to do some innovative scheduling to get things done. "I like doing things perfectly and this project taught me time management," she says. Both Shah and Bose are veterans of many science fairs and exhibitions but they agree that the Google experience was unique. Now it's time to plan for high school, college and, of course, focus on developing the potential the judges have lauded. ~ Paromita Pain is currently doing her M.A. in specialized journalism from the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California.

Google Global Science Fair http://www.google.com/events/ sciencefair/index.html

A photo gallery of the fair http://mashable .com/20 11/07/121 google-science-fair-photosl

Biographies of women scientists http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/ SciRefGuides/biowomen.html

share articles go to http://span.state.gov NoVEMBER/DECEMBER 201131

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ow arApart?

By RICHA VARMA

The third annual Women in Science workshop in New Delhi aimed at inspiring girls to challenge stereotypes .

32 NOVEMBERIDECEMBER 201 1

s a little girl, Shivani Bhandari often looked out into the vastness of the night sky, dreaming of becoming an astronomer. As a young adult, at a workshop on promotion of gender equity in scientific careers, Bhandari informed that she is on the way to turning her dream into reality, with support from her family. "My parents are ready to bear the cost of higher education via loans ," she says. After earning a bachelor 's degree in electronic engineering from KIlT (Karmah Institute of Information Technology) college in Haryana, Bhandari is applying to several U.S. colleges for an M.S. in astrophysics and astronomy. "M y father doesn't know much about the concepts of astronomy but he is always very enthusiastic about asking me questions and observes eclipses or meteor showers with me. After studying and coming back to India, I want to encourage other women to learn about astronomy," says Bhandari, who dreams of working with NASA. She joined fellow female students pursuing sciences sllch as forensics and zoology,

early career and senior women scientists, women from academia, nongovernmental organizations and policymakers at the Women in Science workshop in New Delhi in September. Organized by the U.S. Embassy with support from the Indian Department of Science and Technology and the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum, the workshop examined India's climate for women in science and the global initiatives for steering them to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.

Lessons to share Participants agreed that governments across the world have an important role in creating a level playing field for both men and women. Blair Hall, Minister-Counselor of Economic, Environment, Science and Technology Affairs at the U.S. Embassy, said the issue was an important subject for the United States, "since societal and gender challenges are not unique to any one country." T. Ramasami, Secretary of the • Department of Science and Technology, said the Government of India is seeking answers to the same pressing questions. He suggested that while "India's policies may have adopted a gender neutral

Students pose questions to astronaut Sunita Williams during a live Web interaction at the workshop.

approach ... we need to ask the question [whether] we need a gender sensitive approach." Shirley Malcom, co-chair of the Gender Advisory Board of the U.N. Commission on Science and Technology for Development, added that "while the solutions have to be locally based, both India and the United States have a lot to learn from each other. One of the biggest challenges is .. .in implementation." "I believe that we can share strategies for building support from family and community, for identifying policy barriers that might inadvertently depress participation, strategies for examining practices in universities that can be undertaken to bring more women into faculty and leadership roles," said Malcom, who is also the director of education and human resources at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (http://www.aaas.org/).

Choosing a career in science According to a report prepared by the White House Council on Women and Girls in March 2011, while women's gains in educational attainment in America "have significantly outpaced those of men over the last 40 years, ... differences can be seen in the fields

that women pursue in college; female students are less well represented than men in science and technology-related fields." "Women continue to spend more of their time in household activities or caring for other family members," says the Women in America report, which, according to President Barack Obama, is the most comprehensive description of the status of women in America in 50 years. "Partly because it is so tricky to juggle kids and a career, many highly able women opt for jobs with predictable hours, such as human resources or accounting. They also gravitate toward fields where their skills are less likely to become obsolete if they take a career break ... ," says an article documenting the issues women face in the workplace on www.economist.com. American astronaut Sunita Williams, who participated in a live video session at the workshop, admitted that even in the United States women's involvement in scientific careers falls behind men even though there are plenty of opportunities. She encouraged Indian students pursuing a career in science to acquire hands-on experience in their desired field to establish a clearer picture of their goals.

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• Gendenilivfdecuts'acrossall sections and SOCi06c:000rl1iGclasses. • Men and w6J1lellbringdlfferent$kiU sets to thetilile .. WOITlBn multitask 'effectively.', • .' More woman leaders are needed. Not because ofgellder paritybutforthe health otanenlerprjse. • Need to estabUsh aroadmapforgov': ernmentandpriwte se~o( regarding re-entry ofwomen in scientific careers. • Infrastructuredeveloprneotis part of the solution for rural inaccessibility issues regarding science educaijon. • Cannot jgno~ lhepotential for change for womenwllOareempowetedwitll tools ofscience and technology.

To share articles go to http://span.state.gov NovEMBER/DECEMBER 20ll 33

if you _____ _

Women in Ameri ca: Indicators of Social and Economic Well-Being http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/cwg/data-on-women

Sharmila Bhattacharya

-_. :=1

h ~tp:/lwomen.nasa.gov/

" sharmila-bhattacharya-2/

Science Cheerleader http://www.sciencecheerleader.com/

NASA video gallery http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/ videogallery /

wo-time NASA space shuttle astronaut Mary Ellen Weber recalled her experience at the International Space Station during a visit to New Delhi , Hyderabad and Srinagar as a guest of the U.S. Embassy, in October. Among the youngest astronauts to venture into space, Weber has travelled 297 Earth orbits. She is currently vice president at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. http ://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/weber.html Williams ' employer, NASA, set up Women@NASA (http://women.nasa.gov/) in March, a Web site aimed at developing the next generation of women scientists, engineers and explorers. In one of the 32 videos and essays from women working at the agency, Indian American scientist Sharmila Bhattacharya says success for her is not measured by medals or money but by seeing her experiments flown in space, a dream of fl ight fuelled by her father, a pilot, who told her that being a girl should not deter her from doing anything . "At the time, most of the pilots I saw around me were men, so I asked him, 'Can 1 even be a pilot since I'm a girl?' 'Well,' he said, ' you can be absolutely anything you want to be,' '' says Bhattacharya. "Now ... 1 realize how important it was for me to hear those words as an impressionable young child. It made me believe that if I worked hard, I could achieve my goals, whatever they may be." ~ 34 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 20 11

Above: Teachers attending the Presidential Awards for Mathematics and Science applaud as President Barack Obama enters the State Oining Room of the White House, prior to the "Educate to Innovate" event for excellence in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM), in January 2010.

We will not sow the seeds for a brighter future or reap the benefits of the change we need without the full and active participation of women around the world.

- President Barack Obama '

are more believable when every character's movements accurately follow the laws of physics .

There's a believability that comes into play in animation, You can stretch the rules, but you should never break the rules, 36 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011

"explosions look real. "Anatomy is a topic rom drawings to computer animation, magic of cartoon movies allows audi- that doctors study, and so do artists," Garcia says. "With animation, physics ences to explore a fantastical and imaginary world. To make animated characters has become another science essential to the craft of these artists." life-like on the big screen, the laws of Garcia also helps animators create physics have to be taken into account by filmmakers. To be believable, every char- realistic yet whacky worlds of their own. acter's movements have to have the fun"It's very important for animators to damentals of physics supporting them. If understand motion because that's really filmmakers incorporate scientific princiwhat they ' re doing, they're creating ples during the creation of the animated motion," says Garcia. Animators create worlds that aren' t movie, audiences escape reality and enter a fantastic, yet still realistic world. always a plausible fit in the natural "The biggest win is when the audience world. Damon Riesberg, a DreamWorks animator ,and the head of character feels an emotional connection to the character," says Cassidy Curtis, a charac- effects for DreamWorks' "Megamind," ter animator for DreamWorks. "Physics understands how to mix imagination with is integral to everything we do as anima- reality. "Each movie, each film animators because when something doesn't tion that we do has its own world of feel like it's physically capable of happhysics," Riesberg says. "They ' re slightpening, it pops the audience out of the ly off from what our normal physics moment. It reminds the audience what would be." The world of "Megamind" they're watching isn't real." wasn't necessarily our world, he adds. Sitting in front of a computer screen, But other parts of "Megamind" are Curtis shows the early drawings and ani- much more realistic. To create the perfect mations of Toothless, the young, flying cape design, animators took various dragon in the movie "How to Train Your capes out for a test spin. "Our team built Dragon." Curtis helped develop the char- real capes of different fabrics , different acter that flies through explosive flames , materials, lengths and thicknesses to see what the real world physics would be," spins out of control and falls from the sky. "Our job is to convince the audience says Riesberg. that, not only could that animal fly, but if Animators analyze the real world physics of cape behavior while running, he hits the ground, it will kill him," he says. spinning and jumping around. The tests Physicist Alejandro Garcia, currently give the animators understanding of how to create a reasonable yet individualistic on leave from San Jose State University cape. "That's some of the science Garcia and working in the artistic development division at DreamWorks animation, teaches ," says Riesberg. advises animators like Curtis to create Garcia's physics lessons have also believable characters. With physics in taught Jason Spencer-Galsworthy, supermind, he and other scientists help anima- vising animator for "Megamind," a few things as well. "He explains how physics tors make dragons fly properly, and

says, "There's a believability that comes into play in animation." You can stretch the rules, but you should never break them, he adds. Learning these rules could give future animators a leg-up on the competition when they start the job search in the profitable movie, TV and gaming industries. "It's a very highly skilled industry, both on the art and technology side," says Marilyn Friedman, head of outreach and special projects at DreamWorks. "Not every school is teaching it in the way that will set them up to succeed at a place like this." With physics as groundwork, prospective animators could make any imaginary world seem as authentic as our own.

Far lell: A scene from DreamWorks' movie "Megamind." l e": Hiccup and one 01 Ihe dragons 01 DreamWorks' "How 10 Train Your Dragon ."

actually works," SpencerGalsworthy says. Garcia gives lessons about gravity to help animators figure out the speed of falling objects or how characters should shift their weight from side to side when they're running, walking or standing still. With support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Garcia has been able to develop a course at San Jose State University on the physics of animation. The obj ective is to teach animators-in-training how to make it all look plausible. Students who have taken the course

say it's invaluable. "I learned about the physics of jumps," says student Carlos Nunez. "I learned about light and how light is affected by the world around us and how sound is affected." Emily Johnstone is another student who appreciates Garcia 's course. "Physics is what life is all about," says Johnstone. "What we're trying to capture is how life works and how things behave." In the classroom, Garcia analyzes a student's animation and points out subtle changes that would make it appear more realistic. Garcia 's student, Paul Yula,

Ann Kellan is a writer and producer with the National Science Foundation.

Animation Physics Creating Believable Animation

DreamWorks • &. • W hether y ou're a traditional , eG, or stop-mot ion an imator, to create ':.' realist ic mot ion , it's helpful to know some phy sics . This site and its comp anion wiki (A nimat ionPhysic s.pbwiki.com ) are ded icated to presenting phy sic s that's useful to and in t he langu age spoken by animat ion art ists . ~like

.•

"Megamind" • New Animation Physics Tutorials·

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•

San Jose State University •

Physics of Tim in g and S pad oq Simple ex amples show how core principles

can be appl ied to a falling baseball or a jumping character.

Left: A screenshot of http://www.animationphysics. com/. Professors Alejandro Garcia, Alice Carter and Courtney Granner, in collaboration with Martin McNamara, have been awarded a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation to create content for lectures for art students on the physiCS of animation. This Web site is one of the distribution channels for the materials developed in this project.

To sharearti cles go to http://span.state.gov NovEMBER/DECEMBER 20ll 37

By THOMAS HAYDEN

Ever a

It is possible to see what everyone else does at the without I

he Grand Canyon comes with a lot of baggage , For a century at least the 277 -mile gash through Earth's skin in northwestern Arizona has been unrivaled as the must-see monument of natural America. Nearly 5 million people a year visit, and therein lies the problem. They're packed six deep along the guardrails of overlooks. But dodging crowds in the backcountry can mean missing classic views. Can the casual day visitor experience the grandeur without feeling like a passenger on the Tokyo

40 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011

subway? Fortunately, yes. Most visitors head straight to Grand Canyon Village, just inside the South Entrance, and slowly spread out along the rim through the day. Flip that itinerary, and you 're on your way to seeing what everyone else does, without having to see everyone else in the process. The little-used East Entrance is in

Far lell: Continuing below Cedar Ridge on the South Kaibab Trail, hikers next descend to the saddle of O'Neill Bulte. Above left: Designed in 1932 by Mary Colter, the Desert View Watchtower overlooks the eastern end of the Grand Canyon National Park. Left: The interior of the watchtower, with stairs to the first gallery. Hopi artist Fred Kabotie's murals adorn much of the second level of the tower. Above: The Kaibab Squirrel is found only on the Kaibab Plateau in northern Arizona, including the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park.

the middle of nowhere, a 230-mile drive from Phoenix or 300 miles fro m Las Vegas. But it's only 30 miles from the dusty town of Cameron, Arizona, where the comfortable Trading Post and Motel makes an excellent starting point. Stock up on gas [and] water...the night before, and get ready for a predawn departure. The canyon can be spectacular any

time of day, but it's worth making the effort to time your first view to sunrise, about 5:15 a.m. in June or 6 a. m. by late August. Drive to Lipan Point, a few miles past the East Entrance (it will be unattended-you' ll have to pay the $20 entrance fee later in the day) and prepare to be dazzled. The sun rises slowly, revealing each horizon of the layer-cake geology in turn. Gaze

back to the east, and you' ll see the 1932 stone Watchtower in silhouette against the rising sun; scan across the 180-degree view to the west and new colors and featu res will emerge every few minutes as the complex rock forms are thrown into ever sharper relief. Solitude factor: high. A dozen miles farther along Desert View Drive- about halfway to the NOVEMBERIDECEMBER 20 11

The canyon can be spectacular any time of day, but it's worth making the effort to time your first view to sunrise.

Top: The Colorado River at the Grand Canyon. Above: South Kaibab Trail at the Grand Canyon National Park, the only hiking route built along a ridge line. Above right: Hikers look out at the Grand Canyon from Ooh Aah Point on the South Kaibab Trail.

o share articles go tohttp://span.state.gov

village- you come to Grandview Point and a look at the view that firs t made the canyon famous. Thi s was the South Rim 's first tourist hub, home to a rustic lodging as early as 1893 .... East Entrance tourists tend to gather at the Watchtower for sunrise, and those coming from Grand Canyon Village won' t be here for hours. Solitude factor: moderate. It's still early, but traffic is picking up

and the crowds are swelling with tour bus arrivals. It's time to dip a li ttle deeper into the abyss. "Especially at mid-day, the canyon can look pretty static when you ' re glued to the rim," says Mike Buchheit, director of the Grand Canyon Field Institute. "But below the rim, the view changes with every switchback. You don ' t have to descend far to get a taste." Your best bet is the South Kaibab Trail- the

only hiking route built along a ridgeline, providing unforgettable 360-degree views (and occasional bouts of vertigo). The trailhead is accessible only by park bus, so you' ll have to drive into the village to catch the free shuttle. Gawk at crowds snapping cellphone photos from the most crowded overlooks as you pass. It's a steep descent-you'll want sturdy shoes or hiking boots and plenty of water- and you'll most likely run into other hikers. But make your way down 1.5 miles to Cedar Ridge (about an hour down and two hours back at a moderate pace), and you'll find that even the human encounters take on a different character below the rim. "This is spectacular," says Sharon Bloodgood, surveying the view from Cedar Ridge with her sister and longtime hiking partner, Irene Cline, both from Madison, Wisconsin. "Mount Rainier and Lake Tahoe are pretty spectacular too," says Bloodgood, "but the sheer size of this is awesome." Solitude factor: low, but down here that doesn ' t seem to matter. With the sun now overhead, it's time to head for cover. Shoshone Point doesn't show up on the park's tourist maps, making it your afternoon ace in the hole. Turn into the small roadside clearing 1.2 miles east of Yaki Point for a milelong hike along a dirt road through cool juniper forest to a permit-only picnic area near the point. Walk out onto the spectacular overlook-no guardrails here-and make your way a few dozen feet below the rim

and out of sight of civilization. Solitude fac tor: near perfect. There's still sunset, of course. Just for contrast, hop a free shuttle from the village to Hopi Point on the western Hermit Road, where it seems all 5 million visitors have gathered for the final show of the day. Solitude factor: Are you kidding? Watching grumpy sunsetters race for prime seats on the return bus before the sun has even dipped below the horizon, you'll be glad your earlier vistas were enjoyed more or less alone. Thomas Hayden was a senior writer with U. S. Ne-ws and World Report.

Below left: The Desert View information center and bookstore, located near the park's East Entrance. Below: Park . visitors board the free shuttle bus on the scenic Hermit Road in Grand Canyon National Park.

CI re

By MARSHA WALTON

Parag Chordia is . ways to bring toget two disparate realities . music and learning ma . and science ,

44 NOVEM BERIDECEMBER 20 11

om records to boom boxes to CDs and iPods, music has long been part of the lifeblood of being a teenager. Learnin~ math and science in class is not always such a priority. Parag Chordia, director of the Music Intelligence b at Georgia Tech. is finding ways to bring those two disparate realities together. "How can music be used to think about scientific problems, how can music be used to sort of catalyze our thinking in other areas?" asks Chordia. With support from the NatiOnal Science FOlmd.ati()W' Chordia is researchin the neurological roots of

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n iPhone app Parag Chordia and his colleagues created gives a psychological boost to people who may not think they have any musical skills. It's called LaDiDa, and it now has more than 10 million users. "You sing into the app, it listens to what you are singing, and it composes music to match. Our goal is to make music expression as ubiquitous as social expression," says Chordia. "I'm a terrible singer, and I think part of the whole point of this technology is to let people like myself actually get the confidence to make music. " There are many YouTube videos of LaDiDa users, from Chordia himself to Mishka the singing dog, using the simple app, and in most cases, sounding much better after the app's music has been added. "A lot of the people we are targeting are young people between 13 and 18, who are really engaged in music. And they want to have the experience of making music. We get e-mails all the time, 'I was afraid to sing but now it makes me want to sing all the time,' " says Chordia. And those musical experiences that feed the mind may also spark greater proficiency in science and technology. "Creativity lies at the heart of the modern econoHit play now my," he says. -M.w. --.~ If'l; -

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" 46 NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 20 11

creative process. And music is a key ingredient. says Chordia. "We've never found a culture that has no "So it's very similar to language, where language-we've never found a culture that you have tJ;!ese low level acoustic units like has no music. So, music seems to be univerphonemes, which form syllables, which form sal," he says. words. So, what we are trying to do here repWhile music and arts programs are often resents that process of pattern formation," he the first subjects to be cut when school budg- says. Studies show that at different ages, music ets are tight, Chordia says that may not be connections do work as teaching tools. the best strategy. 'To be a great engineer; to really produce "At the college level, students who have innovative products and to advance the fronaccess to music programs are much more tiers of science, you have to be creative. And likely to graduate because it increases retenit's not just that music is a diversion or an tion," says Chordia. "And people have, in extracurricular, but it's actually something terms of early learning, shown that exposure that's fundamental to life and mind," he says. to music at an early age, intensive exposure "One of the difficulties of teaching math in music does improve cognitive outcomes." and science is that it quickly becomes very abstract. You have to have points of reference Studving the creative process that people can relate to and it becomes Chordia understands the creative process much easier. So, whether we're talking about from many angles. He is a master of the teaching basic mathematical concepts, or sarod. He is also a mathematician . And his designing experiments, you can design exper- research works to see how all those elements iments around music," he explains. work together. Statistics, for instance, can be used to "Is creativity just the gift of a few-just model music. sprinkled on a few people and that's it? I "For example, if you listen to a melody, would argue no, that creativity is something a melody is made up of all these different lit- that we all have inside of us and what it's all tle motifs, and those motifs go together to about is finding out, how do we unlock that creativity," he says. make up larger patterns and those larger patterns form bigger blocks that we build on," Using tools lik e ectroencephalograms

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tinct difference when professional musicians are playing composed music, versus when they are improvising. Future studies could be designed to try to home in on exactly what is happening when someone is experi encing deep creative insight.

Music Intelligence Lab

(EEGs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Chordia is investigating whether "real-time creativity," like improvising in a jazz band, uses the brain in a different way. "When a person is improvising, are they entering into a uniquely creative state, and if so, what is that state all about?" he asks . Brain scans show a dis-

Other work in the Music Intelligence Lab involves music and computers. Graduate student Avinash Sastry investigates "computational creativity." While that may sound beyond the scope of what we think these machines usually do, the aim is to let computers do what they do best, to free up human teachers and composers for their best work. Sastry writes computer programs that analyze musical compositions; then, the computers write their own music. "So we have a database of compositions, giving it [the computer] some idea of what it is going to expect. So it analyzes all this, and builds up this big tree of probabilities. It's going to try and predict what's going to happen at every step and it's going to use that information to try and compose its own sequence of strokes as it goes on," explains Sastry. Sastry says he has done some double takes when he hears original music composed by a computer. "So sometimes you get these gems of music that just pop out, and we are working on trying to isolate those things and use that in a more constructive way," he says. Sastry says he can easily see this as being an"educational tool for children, and even mu~icians. The human composer gives the cokputer something to start with, and it can the'll try to help you compose. "So the idea is to use everything together. .. use their computational ability along with our emotions, our ability, our creativity, put everything together and make some sort of collaboration," says Sastry.

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Marsha Walton is a writer and producer for Science Nation, the National Science Foundation's magazine.

NOVEMBERIDECEMBER 2011

S.M. Goyal

Ajmer, Rajasthan Education plays the most vital role in an individual 's life. To get quality education , youngsters globally crave admission to a prestigious U.S. university. The September/October issue of SPAN is a boon to all such aspirants as almost half of it is devoted to this subject, clarifying various doubts and queries such as choosing the right institution, sending the application, visas, interaction on the campus, planning academics, housing, costs involved and other relevant guidelines. It saves them the trouble of perusing other booklets or brochures in this regard. The beauty of these articles is that these are all from the pen of those studying in the U.S Indeed a wonderful , solid service.

The USS Defender (MCM 2) , an avenger class mine countermeasures vessel in the U.S. Navy, conducted a port call in Port Blair in September. Although a routine visit, it gave the American sailors a chance to get to know their Indian Navy and coast guard counterparts better an.a to learn about the people and culture in the Andaman Islands. While in Port Blair, the crew participated in a community service project and spent time with children displaced by the 2004 tsunami. http://chennai.usconsu late.gov

B.C. Sreekumar Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala "Demystifying Social Media" by Richa Varma, published in the September/October issue, is really an eye-opener. I would like to congratulate the author for interviewing such a great scholar and tech guru as Professor Sree Sreenivasan and enabling the readers to learn about his opinions and views. I only wish you had given more coverage to it. A big thanks to Professor Sreenivasan for advising the youth to apply caution while using social media.

Satananda Bhattacharjee Hailakandi,

Assam The September/October issue of SPAN indeed attracted me. Michael Gallant, in his article "Businesses Gain Power From Social Media," rightly mentioned that the use of Facebook, etc . is simply for fun or just a waste of time. In order to explore social media in business, Realtime NY 11 organized an event. I strongly advocate that such events be organized in India for better prospects of businesses in this sector. Even the youth fraternity in remote Indian villages have access to Internet services and it has both good and bad effects. Some people are using Facebook for fun, chatting , sharing photos, giving up their studies and other important personal business. These people are losing their creativity and interests in all other aspects. There should be some constructive ideas in a country like India on the use of Facebook. The tips from the tech guru, in the article ..-.............." ... "Demystifying Social Media" by Richa ~~~~~ Varma, may throw some light on it. ,~

NQVEMBERIDECEMBER 2011

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The "Spirit of New York" came alive in an exhibit at the New Delhi American Center with 3D installations and lifesize posters of New York City on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The center organized a film festival that depicted the city through the eyes of some of the greatest American film directors, and featured classics like "The Apartment" and "Coming to America." A blood donation drive was also organized to coincide with the event at the Ambience Mall in Gurgaon http://www.facebook.com/americancenternewdelhi

Indira S. Somani, an assistant professor of journalism and mass communications with Washington and Lee University in Lexington , Virginia, is in India on a Fulbright research scholarship to study Western influence in Indian TV programs and its effects on Indianorigin people in the United States. Currently teaching at the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media in Bangalore , Somani is also traveling to New Delhi and Chennai to interview media experts to understand how news and serials are developed in India. She hopes the research will help her to understand the media's role in maintaining culture and identity for the Indian transnational audience. She also filmed festivals such as Durga Puja and Diwali across India. http://www.usief.org .in

MEGA-SkY, the Minority Education for Growth and Advancement-Skills for Youth program, aimed at providing quality education for disadvantaged children and youth, especially those in Muslim communities in Bihar, New Delhi , Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, concluded successfully in September US. Charge d' Affaires A. Peter Burleigh and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit participated in a National Dissemination Workshop at the India Islamic Cultural Centre and lauded the success of the program. Launched in 2009, and financed by USAID, the program created educational and skill-building opportunities for more than 48 ,000 children, 60 percent of whom were girls It also developed training materials for madrasa teachers and Urdu-English radio instruction materials. http://mega-sky.edc.org

Registered under RN I-6586/60 Scan this with your phone's barcode reader to access SPAN 's Web site

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