5/27/2021 Part 2.81
Mr Aravind’s third question:
c) With online courses being available for lesser amounts, how does formal education help to do well, in one’s career ?
My response
We can not compare both. A BE from a college is better than AMIE. Online learning is not education. I don’t want to call it even as learning. It is lecturing not even teaching. It cannot replace campus education. But it will definitely supplement campus learning to a large extent. This means that cost should come down and due to flexibility, many institutions will shut down. Enrollments will reduce. Unfortunately, we jumped into online lectures in a great urgency without plans and infrastructure due to covid. This led to more deficiencies. Let us see the differences between the two.
Learning is multidimensional. One uses senses , observations, discussions, collaborations, etc. If you miss a point in a lecture, you can talk to your friends for clarification. Peer learning is very effective. It is atleast more than twice effective than lectures. Lots of students miss a lot in online lectures. Online lectures provide information and does not help in guiding students on how to learn. Individual attention is not there. There is no connect . So the effectiveness of online lecturing is poor . It can be improved but still it falls short when compared to physical lecturing especially at primary school levels.
How do we handle labs and experiments? As it is , the emphasis on experiments are coming down. How do we encourage applications, project work, design ? How do you motivate students to be innovative and take up development work?
The online gives only some knowledge which students can get from web and books. . But human and Societal skills are not developed. Culture and sports will die. How does a student develop good habits, get corrected by others, and discuss about movies and cricket. This happens only during interactions with other students and by observing their behaviors. Similarly , how do you train students in games, debates, drama ,arts etc.
Are we producing singularities.?
Collaborative learning will not be possible. Comparisons are not possible.
We have not trained all stakeholders so that they can go digital. How do you handle disruptions in technology, at houses and at computer centers? How do you provide reading materials to students? How do you provide devices like laptops to students? How do you make internet available everywhere? We need to address these and many other issues in online lecturing.
We need many improvements in online lecturing . There should be ways of knowing absorption by students. This can be done by polling students periodically after each topic is lectured. Faculty should spend more time talking to students. Appoint many student coordinators. Change the style of lecturing. Include questions. Give more assignments and quizzes. Build and use a good feedback system. Use technology effectively. Make technology available, accessible, and user friendly. This will improve online systems. We need more effort from teachers. School children need a lot of handholding.
We can’t move away from formal education. We can supplement it.
5/28/2021 Part 2.82
d) Key steps needed to make youngsters understand the importance of research, development and innovation
My response
Our children have innate curiosity and good memory and absorption capacities. They discuss a lot amongst their peers. I used to see a small boy talking to his brother and father for a long period of time , this happened while they were walking in the morning. They want to analyze every event and decide. By the time, they reach 10 to 12 years of age, they build opinions on many things. Urban kids are better exposed to events and knowledge compared to their rural counterparts. But don’t underestimate rural kids. We at FAER have been running an internship for a month for rural high school students. We find them very curious. We find them adapting fast to a new situation, socializing with other kids and learning things and absorbing concepts fast. So there is hope.
We have observed students discussing in small groups about a recent movie or cricket match. They will describe scene by scene or ball by ball. They remember quite a lot. Their analysis is remarkable. What does it say? They are capable . But they loose the interest and curiosity in schools. They loose interest because they can’t relate to the topics taught . They find them unreal.
As I said in answer to your first question is to create a new way of generating topics related to persons, life, living, health, food, society, nature etc. That will connect them with day to day life and will be useful.
The second major problem is the delivery aspect. Most of our education is lecture based. It does not bother or consider each student and his way of learning and absorbing. It is non participative and does not kindle interest in students. We need to move to discovery mode of learning, project works, visits, discussions, videos etc. Take a first or second standard student. Ask them to discuss food and what they saw and what are new things they observed. The first step is to arouse their curiosity. Get them excited about various things. Move away from the lecture mode. Go for activities
Encourage thinking in students by asking questions. Every day, the students should be given 10 to 20 questions and find answers. Set aside half an hour for this. Reading books should be made mandatory. There are hundreds of small books on leaders, scientists, science available. Create an interest early in their life to read . Make them to talk about what they read.
Make students to write on some topics of their interest and create a folder. For example a student can keep writing about solar energy and submit the folder at the end of the year for grading.
Encourage students to give seminars. Make them listen to TED talks and discuss what they learnt.
The key problem is to motivate teachers. They are static without any interest to learn more and get curious on what is happening in their field. It is a life without life – mechanical. Even University and college faculty don’t want to do research. In 1950s and 1960s , I used to see many faculty from University and colleges visiting IISc both some labs and library. They used spend their evening at our campus. Remember we had a very poor bus service and they don’t have a vehicle. They used to cycle or walk by about eight pm. I didn’t see that activity afterwards. AICTE has to insist on PhD for professors and later for assistant professors. It induced many to do PhD . Even NIT senior faculty were not interested in serious research. This needs to change.
Many feel research is a waste ,their responsibility is to teach. They say – I have heard this- we can’t become an Einstein nor can we produce Einstein-s. So why do research. One of my teachers and later a senior colleague ,Prof B N Narayana Iyengar , a person with simple habits and wants, used to say we do research not to become Einsteins but to be aware of current developments and introduce and teach modern aspects in their courses. It improves their teaching. We need to create a research ambience . So first motivation of teachers is needed. Then only motivation of students happens.
5/29/2021 Part 2.83
Improving quality of primary education
Dr Mathur raised a concern regarding the current scenario.
“Very comprehensive knowledge holders right from primary school are required to prepare curriculum.
Strong and knowledge fed teacher are needed to deliver class room learning with result oriented teaching learning processes”
My response
Dr Mathur , President ,Equate , raised the very important point about the academic and scholastic requirements of school teachers. His recommendations are valid. We expand on that.
We have a wrong and stupid notion – a harsh word, but is it not justified?- that minimum learning and knowledge are enough for the selection of primary school teachers. Many countries and many great schools appoint very knowledgeable, motivated and innovation positive persons as teachers, not some one with a minimum qualification. That is why government schools fail miserably in their simple task of teaching three R’s ,let alone improve curiosity and innovation
There are many studies which show the poor learning skills of students. But no actions or follow-ups were initiated by any government in India. Disinterested and limited knowledge teachers produced unlearnt , disinterested and demotivated students. This leads to massive dropouts at primary school level. The teachers are not aware of the difficulties of first generation, poor students. They don’t know psychology . This reminds me of Plato’s criterion. “Don’t select based on qualification. Motivation is lot more important. Integrity is also very important.” Assess motivation and learning capabilities of people who want to become primary teachers. Give extensive training to existing teachers. Reduce summer vacation for training .Conduct an yearly test to assess them.
Why should a teacher consider his or her job a birthright for life time once he or she got a job. We need periodic assessments and correction measures regularly. No point in saying teachers are useless. These are crying needs of the day , may be yesterday.
Kerala had excellent government schools with good infrastructure. They used to get very high enrollments. The static and politicalized education has driven most students to private schools located in a building with no proper infrastructure. Some government schools gave way to engineering colleges. I feel sad when i see the great infrastructure being given to colleges. I have seen the conversion. This reveals the misplaced priorities of governments. They didn’t consider primary education as important. They focused on engineering education. But teachers are needed by them. The Government teachers are strong vote banks. You can’t shake them. Even left front governments gave low priority for good education.
Private schools are slightly better. They look for money mostly . Education is not their focus but money is. So they employ persons without any motivation to teach. Their major goal is to get good pass percentages. Discipline is important to them. They check attendance, good behaviors and good marks in tests and exams . They force students to go for tuition. So some learning takes place .
This is only the first step. The more important need is cognitive learning- improve thinking and reasoning , improve curiosity and innovative spirit in children. Schools need to set up a centralized help desk at district level which does not address only grievances but answers students questions. The center can have competent psychologist and educators and can consult specialists in district or state. The cost will be less. Create community radios and broadcast the questions and replies for the benefits of others – students, parents and other villagers.
How will NEP solve these? I don’t see anything in their prescriptions. Their approach is to go for incremental changes. Don’t rock the…
5/30/2021 Part 2.84
There is a very important and basic question from Prof Bharathi ,Dr Ambedkar Institute of Technology, Bengaluru.
“Sir how to transform knowledge into research”
My response
Since this doubt that knowledge leads to research exists with a lot of academic researchers, I want to discuss this in detail.
We have two quotes to illustrate the dilemma.
Newton says he was fortunate to stand on the shoulders of all inventions. This emphasizes knowledge. Astronaut Armstrong says research is creation of new knowledge. So the question is how do you go from old to new.
We will look at different categories of academic research, with the levels of dependence of each type of research on knowledge . We will also imbed them with a few examples. We know that Engineering research borrowed from many other disciplines with physics dominating in 18 th century and 19 th century and mathematics in 20 th century followed by computers and now AI. It may be biology and neurology in the near future. Let us see a perspective of how computers got applied in research in stages. These show that knowledge plays a role in research ,but it is limited. It is not the main player in a research activity.
Categorization of research
One simple partitioning is to divide research into
1.great research – this normally means new theories, new areas, new inventions, new technologies etc. Most did not depend on knowledge much. Enquiry, observation , alternate and deep thinking led to these research outcomes. The key factor here is to look outside . Knowledge makes you look inside, making research shallow. We know several eminent scientists and engineers who have done great research and built new areas. We saw in the mid 20th century, the emergence of many new disciplines – electronics, communications, control systems, general systems theory, computers, internet, cloud, 3D printing, machine learning algorithms, and AI. We will see more AI, quantum computing, and cyber physical systems in the coming years. Many areas got developed with collaboration by many researchers.
Most of these were done by going beyond existing knowledge. So the role of knowledge was minimal.
2. Surviving research – relevance is there for long time durations. Best examples are -Newton , Leibnitz, Niels Bohr , are well known names with many theories developed by them are in use today. Einstein brought a total change in our outlook with relativity. C V Raman discovered light spectra and scattering; Tesla invented AC surviving even today; E F Codd developed relational databases – used even now; Norbert Wiener conceptualized automation, it is growing at a galloping pace; Turing, Shannon, Cricks and Watson, and many others . Most of these are also great, fundamental and breakthrough researches. They also used only basic principles and not deep knowledge. Importance is enquiry, skepticism, imagination , observations and alternative thinking. Many optimization , heuristics, computational and random processes research are still in use. They won’t become breakthrough research ipso facto. But most research conducted by researchers fall in the non surviving category. It might have contributed something at that time , but it is not sustainable. They are forgotten. They add to publication numbers.
3. Inventions research – major modifications and improvements to existing devices and technologies and development of new devices ,processes – steel making as an example- .
In this case, we need good knowledge of the principles of devices one is working.
4. Hypothesis based research – prove a conjecture or hypothesis. Disprove a law or theory
5. Process oriented research – improvements to performance, operations, quality, control, etc.
6. Extension research – this is where research work done by the majority of researchers falls. Extension can be major or minor. Minor extensions are the most common research. This uses existing work, modifies a little to come with a research activity or paper. This uses topic knowledge a lot.
5/31/2021 Part 2.85
Research and knowledge (contd.)
What kind of knowledge is needed for research?
Normally knowledge needs to be acquired as we go along with our research in most cases. what level of knowledge are we supposed to know is the question we are addressing here.
We need definitely basic knowledge of the discipline and area. In most cases, we need mathematical and computational expertise.
We need deep knowledge in our topic of research
We need a broad knowledge of what is happening elsewhere. Most good to great research comes from interdisciplinary approaches. So we need to about the kind of activities going on in good research institutions. This is easy today with web accesses and search engines. This is what is called as look outside
But we need strong querying mind, deep thinking, and reasoning, imagination for research. I just want to give two examples .
We got a first ranker from Anna University for research at IISc in 1972. He was top of the class through out. He was considered brilliant. He fell apart within eight months . We have to admit him in NIMHANS. His parents accused us for destroying their son. I have seen many students spending 8 to 10 hours every day in the library reading and accumulating knowledge. But many could not complete their research. I have seen very good people not able to do PhD. This shows that knowledge alone is not sufficient.
The second example is on the other side. A post master used to declare he has invented water wheel. Another not well educated person talked of perpetual motion engine. He wanted grants to build it. Here people without knowledge had ideas. There are several examples available for this.
Let me look at next the general question of how to become a good researcher.
One needs to put in a lot of time of hard work.
One should not do blind literature survey, but do a critique. Sharpen your curiosity and look for opportunities. Don’t just abstract every paper. Look for formalism .
One needs focus in deciding scientifically answers to questions. Procrastination is to be avoided. Spend some time to decide ,not too much of time. Keep timelines in mind.
Prepare a plan for decision making with fixed time lines.
One needs to think all the time about the problems.
Select an area carefully. Don’t select over developed / old areas. Engineering is changing fast. New areas are good to work
Regularly update your knowledge.
We wiil look at the growth of research in engineering and computers in the next post
6/01/2021 Part 2.86
There is a query from Mr Karthik Nott, an entrepreneur on research aptitudes.:
“Does research point to certain attributes or trends on who is most likely to thrive in research or scientific enquiry vs who is likely to thrive in a field that is more application oriented.”
My response
Research comes naturally to some due to family, due to circumstances, due to the needs of poverty, health, living etc. It comes naturally to more poor persons. But a lot of people are induced into it due to upbringing, family and societal expectations . For some, who are spirituality inclined, it is a natural urge.
But research can be cultivated by encouraging natural curiosity in humans, by sharpening observations, by reading, by reflecting on various situations and events occurring , by looking at nature, by building thinking habits, by trying to think what will be others views on a situation or event, by reasoning and by imagining – allow your imagination to run riot. Children have most of it. Our job is to nurture them not curb them.
Given that premise, we need to ask how aptitudes develop . Is it innate or cultivable. Some look innate or genetic. It is difficult for many to learn music . We do not build the inner measurement of time, rhythm and sound. So music is not easy to acquire. That is why it needs enormous practice. I am not talking here about bathroom singing ,but professional music. Similarly an aversion is developed in some for mathematics while some love abstract thinking and some need full context to understand.
Logic is another difficult aspect to practice. Early teaching of logic was abstract. Lawyers enjoyed arguments and logical reasoning in the beginning. Now they quote judgments mostly. Indians for a long time developed mathematics ,logic, discussions and language. Again, some pick up languages fast ,some don’t. So our mental make up ,call it aptitude, plays a role in these skills.
So attitudes can be developed. In the 1960 s and 1970 s programmers were subjected to aptitude tests. Later it was discarded. I urged companies not to put importance on this management gimmick. If you want to develop an attitude , develop interest first. I was interested in civil constructions even when I was at primary school. I saw several repair work and construction . So one can say I got an aptitude for engineering. But the dissatisfaction in my family and friends was very high when they learnt I chose electrical engineering. It is due to another aptitude of mine. I was more interested in mathematics. I liked puzzles and solving mathematical problems and got thrilled. It is this interest that forced me to electrical engineering.
Science and mathematics and engineering are tools. So one chooses research areas based on interest ,passion and aptitude. But exceptions exist. Some fortunately are interested in challenges. So they employ deep work and concentration to learn a difficult subject and master it and move into research. Many still find quantum concept, random ness, uncertainty, time, space, cosmos difficult and mysterious. Some are attracted and some run away.
So it is partly a mindset. So you normally choose a low hanging fruit even in research.
Greetings. Dks
6/02/2021 Part 2.87
Research continued
Prof Mahendra Babu has an observation:
“I agree. Research and curiosity are inborn for some. Many are persuaded into research for various reasons. They may develop as the they go on the journey.
Babu “
My response
Let us clarify some points here.
Children are born with a mind with many instincts for survival. These instincts are for survival for food – crying, -, sensory perceptions and emotions like fear as well as curiosity. Visual capabilities including recognition and imagination gets built.
Some have additional instincts and better perceptions based on parental minds.
So curiosity is there with all. The problem is with time, it diminishes. It is discouraged by parents, school and elders unfortunately.
We keep adding habits, emotions, behaviors , interests, aptitudes and knowledge as we grow. This is our mind.
Research is an acquired habit. To be a researcher, one needs to sharpen curiosity , querying, thinking and reasoning habits.
In the beginning, there were no tools, no great knowledge base, no logical formalism. So research was done by intense thinkers .
Slowly larger number of people got into research. Opportunities for research were very high. Benefits to humanity initially and to society later and to nature much later happened. New areas and new knowledge sprouted at a good pace and it is exponential now. Mathematics structured and formalized a lot of research. But it also limited research. Experimental facilities helped in proving or disproving a hypothesis. Computers speeded up research work in many areas. So research has become natural now.
Greetings. Dks
6/03/2021 Part 2.88
Limitations of mathematics
Mr HS Nagaraj, kirloskar electric, Bangalore University, ISEC, Sir MVIT has a query:
“Good morning sir. Can you please Elaborate a bit on how mathematics limited Research?. Thanks, Greetings. HSN
My response
We talked about the problems of approximation and solutions before and talked about limitations.
Let me summarize them
Mathematics is great in formalizing and representing a problem. But it does not always give a solution. Solution space is restricted. Many non linearities were not solvable.
Mathematics deals with problems in small. But problems in reality are large. For example consider matrices. Real life matrices have large sizes of the order of 1000 by 1000 or much higher. I solved equations with thousands of variables in 1967 and we need to look for innovative solutions. We can’t invert these matrices. The answer will be meaningless. We go the numerical way and use Gauss Seidel method. Even numerical solutions have truncation errors. When we do it in a computer, round off errors add to it. Let me tell you about calculations of Eigen values for nuclear reactions. We were not getting Eigen values. We need to increase the word length to 64 bits in 1968, we found four roots close to each other. I have talked about linearization and its troubles. It does not work most of the time. Most electrical devices and power systems are non linear. But most equivalent circuits are linear. Even resistance , inductance etc are simplified . We need to look beyond Simplification is the characteristics of mathematics . Linearization and approximations are two approaches. I gave the example of optimal control – how it oversimplified and did not solve the problem. We missed many physical principles like ferro resonance due to simplification – we used only fundamental frequency and ignored harmonics. Now a days harmonics have higher effects which can not be ignored. We need to go to the correct models with most harmonics included and discard assumptions like system is balanced; ignore harmonics etc. We need to go back. We still have many nonlinear pdes which are looking for solution techniques. Computer algorithms helped a lot.
Mathematical representations are separate. Look at multiple optimization techniques . it can not solve complex real life problems. You can not integrate. Better logical integration happened with programming. Further, how do we deal with semantic logic. How do I integrate semantic nets in a model ? How do I integrate a black box? We are doing it with programming techniques.
There is also the problems of ambiguity. Two examples are equality symbol and assignment symbol- same in mathematics but different in computers. Mathematics focused on formulation , computers focused on solutions . Another example is there exists quantifier. Do we need it? Third is we call NOT an unsafe operator . Indian philosophy has a component on Neti – not this ,not that, not that etc. This gives it a bound. But formal logic does not discuss this
World is random . Problems are random. We are not able to decide light is discrete with protons or continuous with spectra of frequencies. Some answer came from Einstein. But we need some new mathematical formulations to handle large random social phenomena.
Mathematics helps in solving problems which can be fitted into its models. But large problems deal with social constraints, behavioral variables, many complex relationships. These need a different approach to handle them.
Most machine learning algorithms use statistics more. Many real-life problems use statistical techniques more. AI and cognition need a new approach. Quantum is another story.
But after all said and done, we can’t ignore mathematics. It is very important We need formal approaches. But we need to invent integrated approaches and hopping through mathematical/ logical/ statistical/ behavioral and semantic models , find more ways of solving non linear and frequency spectral problems and build on new acceptable and explainable solutions based on mathematical principles.
But most importantly, we as engineers ,physicists, economists or managers think about problem solving mostly mathematically. This excuses many options and many new aspects. We need to think philosophically and use mathematics as needed.
6/04/2021 Part 2.89
What are the other limitations?
When I said limitations of mathematics, it doesn’t reduce the importance of mathematics, but tells us to think beyond it. I have a lot of interest in mathematics and have done quite a bit of work on optimization and solutions of equations and have developed a lot of mathematical models for power systems and distribution systems, water, energy , ecology and sustainable living and many other areas including carrying capacity.
So let us look at programming. This is an area where we started with limiting our universe due to practical considerations of hardware. We built separate programming languages for each type of applications. FORTRAN was developed for scientific work. COBOL was developed for business applications . Language BCPL and later B and much later C were developed for systems work. Initially systems programming was used for linkers and loaders and later on for OS. In 1970s Systems programmers were considered superior to scientific programmers who thought themselves to business programmers. We had languages for simulation ,for symbolic computation etc. Assembly language was used for some parts of kernel of OS. PL 1 integrated scientific and business functions and failed. ALGOL was a very advanced language used in Europe in 1970s. But it was not popular in US . It’s features were used in Pascal first and later in C. C and its variants used many features needed by many programmers and so became popular as a base language. Today Python is used in ML work mostly. Built up procedures and packages help us in doing many activities without coding. So programming is continuously evolving by integrating multiple features and functionalities . When we teach programming, don’t look inward at functionalities and syntax but outward on what can be done , what can be done with difficulty and what can not be done efficiently.
Since automation is spreading its wings everywhere – almost- , we need to think about self maintaining, self repairing, self modifying units in a software. How do we do it?
With robots ,drones and knowledge processing, we need a near natural language to talk to computers and many devices in IOT , drones and robots in multiple ways to solve not just mathematics or business problems but social problems faced by society also.
It – the new language- needs to understand behaviors. We may call this social programming.
Americans have immense faith in technology. We are skeptical on use of technology. The best example is use of core banking ,the basic transactions software, by our banks. While US and Europe used it by mid 1970s and even Thailand used in late 1980 s, we moved into it by only 2000. Let us be skeptical and do our analysis before jumping into AI.
Skepticism is good for research and also for development.
Greetings. Dks
6/05/2021 Part 2.90
Social problem solving
One of the important aspects in life is to have problems and find solutions. It can be intuitive or intelligent or instinct based. It can have high impacts in life – affecting the way one lives. There are normally many choices like a menu in a restaurant and one needs to choose wisely. In some instances, one can make a mistake and learn from it but some others like choosing education ,a spouse, or a job in a tough market, it will be tough and make life good or bad. Having made a choice, make the best use. Reversibility is not there for every decision. These problem solving and decision making skills need to be taught in today’s complex world. We call this social problem solving but it is needed in jobs also.
We think problem solving is primarily solving mathematical problems . But there are a large variety of problems which fall outside these formal methods. Let us call them social problems.
Let us have a generalized view of a problem.
We encounter several problems – trivial to complex – in our life. We need to select a good option, we need to plan and execute , we need to keep alternates etc.
What is a problem?
Let us start with examples. Our life is full of problems.
1.Trivial ones – We need to decide what to cook, where to go, how to repair a leaking tap, which movie to see, whom to meet etc.
2.Complex ones – where to study ,what to study, how to plan finances, how to save for contingencies, how to prepare for a course, conduct of functions and marriages,
3.Social ones – how to talk to a neighbor about their dog creating nuisance, how to solve water shortage problem, how to conduct a festival, whom to vote etc
4.Professional how to select computers – pc or laptop or tablet? How to select a technology for an application? How to send materials or end products? How to buy furniture? etc. There are unexpected problems like material delivery delayed, power is shut down due to a major fault, network cables cut etc .
5. There are disasters like floods , major accidents and pandemics – how does one run the business under these conditions?
So we see that you have some initial conditions and state – like pipe leaking- and we have a goal – outcome – non leaking pipe . We may not know how to go about this . In most cases , it is a selection process. We have many options and we need to decide on an acceptable one. There is no straight approach to a solution. There may be multiple solutions acceptable.
Consider the problem of selecting a college degree program – one has a lot of choices – science, mathematics, humanities, languages ,literature, pharmacy, engineering, medicine etc. So one has to make a good choice so that one doesn’t regret later. We need to look at some criteria for selection . Let us list some
Aptitude and interest; availability of courses nearby ;
Selection possibilities like easy, to tough ; job opportunities; cost and affordability; long term prospects ; opportunity to go abroad ; support available; willingness to go to a far off place ; etc.
So we needed to decide on the criteria to be chosen for selection.
Then there may be constraints. Some criteria may become constraints like
There is a limit to finances
I don’t want to go out of my city
I don’t like mathematics
I don’t want to go abroad
I want a government job
etc.
So these will reduce the choices to selectable programs which are in the city and which are affordable and no mathematics oriented programs etc.
Now do some consultations by crowd sourcing – talking to friends, peers, neighbors , acquaintances to gather information. Visit web sites. Find where students get jobs? Use experience. Someone in the family has done degree in a good college. He can suggest contacts . Get advice on how to score in entrance tests. If you don’t have access to a lot of data, consult a counsellor.
Solutions have multiple paths. One has to go through multiple steps to solve this systematically. No guarantee you will get admission for your first preference option. So have fall back options.
Characteristics of problems
Most times data will be unreliable or not available. Situations are uncertain. Even outcomes may be uncertain.
Today it is better to get good data and improve reliability
Experience helps in solving a problem. A problem if encountered several times, it becomes a non problem. One standardizes solutions. Consider the problem of what should I have for breakfast. Hostels have a weekly planned menu and it is repeated. Or I can decide to go for oat meal every day.
Criteria can be many and conflicting. So conflict resolution is needed. Prioritization needs to be done. It is important to know one’s mind and take this decision.
One cannot guarantee the answers. After your decision for a program, University may close it or you don’t get admission or your cost estimate is wrong- I know a case of a student doing medicine finding the cost more than double and his loan reached the limit.
Problem formulation is as important as problem solving. One needs to spend time on this. Let us continue this further.
[11:42 PM, 6/5/2021] Bala Ajjampur: The simplest solution that one seeks is I will follow my fate and accept the consequences. This may be attributed to lowest level of education or an understanding of the capabilities. The next level is the flight. After that comes facing challenge. All these levels pose problems and the solutions found or adopted defines the community that is either vibrant or dysfunctional.
6/07/2021 Part 2.91
We saw decision making in normal situations that occur regularly in our life. Let us look at difficult situations .
What is a problem?
A Problem arises when a living creature has a goal but does not know how this goal is to be reached. Whenever one cannot go from the given situation to the desired situation simply by action[i.e.,by the performance of obvious operations],then there has to be recourse to thinking”(Duncker,1945) and problem solving .
Let us dwelve deeper into knowing what is a problem
Cambridge dictionary says
“Problem is a situation, person, or thing that needs attention and needs to be dealt with or solved:
financial/health problems
Our main problem is lack of cash.
I’m having problems with my computer.
No one has solved the problem of what to do with radioactive waste.
The very high rate of inflation poses/presents a serious problem for the government.
Who is going to tackle (= deal with) the problem of poverty in the inner cities?
Did you have any problems (= difficulties) getting here?
I’d love to come – the only problem is I’ve got friends staying that night.
What’s the problem here? Some views
difficulty The company is having some financial difficulties at the moment.
trouble We’ve had a lot of trouble with the new computer system.
hitch The ceremony went without a hitch.
glitch We’ve had a few technical glitches, but I’m confident we’ll be ready on time.
hurdle Getting a work permit is only the first hurdle.
Another view : A problem is a situation preventing something from being achieved. The word comes from a Greek word meaning an “obstacle” (something that is in your way). Someone who has a problem must find a way of solving it. The means of solving a problem is called a “solution”.
Let us take an example.
A student is not doing well in his courses. He wants to find out the causes and correct it. What do we do normally. Suggest to him to spend more hours of reading or join a tutorial or remedial classes by the teachers. Are these correct methods. Did we analyze the reasons for performance by looking at evidences? Do we watch every student individually every day? Can we use online tracking of progress with new approaches ?. But first , we need to know the cause . What is his difficulty – not able to understand and comprehend, not able to retain, not able to reproduce , or not having concentration with mind wandering, or not able to apply and solve mathematical problems or disinterest in the subjects or any other reasons. Once we probe into various aspects, we can look for a solution. This is called root cause analysis.
Let us take a more difficult example. We have a serious problem of high percentage of dropouts from primary schools. What are the reasons? Poverty, family ambience and understanding, health, non interest in subjects taught – most are not real or relevant to his needs; see the agitation by north East students for inclusion of topics of North east- , no realistic interpretation of topics – how does one relate with mogul rule particularly in South India- , no hope of benefits, difficulty in reaching schools, disinterestedness of teachers, punishments, harassment etc. Our governments found one solution – mid-day meals scheme ,- many educationists poured scorn on it when MGR introduced it and implemented it with vigor- , . It has improved nutrition levels . But it did not bring down dropouts. Teaching is archaic. There is only punishments. The system does not allow participation by students. Curriculum needs localization and relevant and job oriented. High Schools are far away. Parents are reluctant to send girls to schools. So parent education and involvement are needed. Parents should be allowed to visit schools. Schools should arrange for discussions.
So we find many sub problems which have to be understood and solved to solve the main problem of school dropouts.
Yesterday we saw a decision problem which needed data, discussions and heuristics solutions. Today’s problems look for root cause analysis to go in the right direction to solve a problem. There are more methodologies like convincing, contributing, negotiating, supporting , involving and strategizing to solve problems. Let us continue.
6/09/2021 Part 2.92
Mr. Ramaprasad has a question
“In today’s 2.91, problem is discussed.
At times there are certain problems in life situation, which never get solved. How do you go about on such problems?”
My response
You are right. We talked about dropouts and no solution is in sight. The reason is low priority for the problem. While we solved the problem of large famines by getting better seeds and yields, we are still struggling to handle poverty. Many African countries have the same problem. What is the reason – no will power, no concern for poor, no dole? So while it looks like this problem is difficult, we make halfhearted efforts to solve it. There are many such problems which need solutions.
The first aspect is unlike mathematical problems, these socia…
Times of India: IISc beats world’s best in research impact: QS list.
6/11/2021 Part 2.93
Problem solving
As we saw before our actions are irrational mostly. Problems are solved subjectively in most instances.
Problem solving in real life is either intuitive and instantaneous or emotional. We apply mathematical techniques in some problems like finances or in our professions. Look at how marriages are decided in India – a few minutes to decide. We are not rational mostly. We go by trust, fear, guilt, anger, revenge, dependence, etc. to decide on a solution. Ego plays a great role in improper or incorrect problem solving.
I give below Mr Bala Ajjampur s comments.
“The simplest solution that one seeks is I will follow my fate and accept the consequences. This may be attributed to lowest level of education or an understanding of the capabilities. The next level is the flight. After that comes facing challenge. All these levels pose problems and the solutions found or adopted defines the community that is either vibrant or dysfunctional.”
6/13/2021 Part 2.94
Three box approach – Problem solving
Three box approach
Many jumps into solving a problem. This is not correct and sometimes may lead to wrong solutions. We need to go through three stages as given below.
1.Understanding – what are the issues, why it happens, what are causes, who are affected and how, what are the impacts on society and nature, solvability – easy, difficult-, levels of uncertainty in data and outcomes, confidence levels, availability of data and methods of collection; interpretation of issues, rules and practices and results: past experiences, and generation of sub problems
2.Representation, modeling and Formulation – approaches like procedures, research and developments, hypotheses, validations, discussions, negotiation, collaboration, usability, cost estimations, reliability, ruggedness, dependability, sustainability, levels of independence in handling execution, finances, changes in processes, organizational structures, practices, procedures and rules, legal aspects, time frame, feasibility, contracts, agreements, etc. We need to build new social models to integrate factors like delays in acceptance, compassion and corrections for affected persons, behavioral parameters, events, satisfaction levels etc.
3. Solving – look for options, evaluate -feasibility, cost, adaptability, suitability, use various solving methods, simulate, reflect, prototype, test, get reactions, decide , implement , monitor, evaluate, improve, educate, put to use. Simulation will play a major role in solutions. We can create hundreds of scenarios, thousands of factors for behaviors, hundreds of interactions and hundreds of events. Entities are less important. Interactions are more important. We need a strong social modeling program which can learn, predict and suggest many solutions.