TEAM VERITAS

H EA D ED I T O RS:

Alexandra Kent

Nandana Avasarala

ST A FF W RI T ERS:

Daniel Qiu

Sam anyu Ganesh

John Overend

Avi Agrawal

Caroline Chu

Lars Wust

M ax Scholle

ST A FF A RT I ST S:

Kirstin Liang

FACU LT Y A D V I SO RS:

Dr. Julie Pace

M r. David Abraham

5 Green Energy in Our Daily Lives

Daniel Qiu

13

Analog Com putation and M oore?s Law: The Future of Deep Learning and the Environm ent

Samanyu Ganesh

9

No M ore Bites: Applying Biotechnology to Reduce M osquito-Borne Illness

John Overend

FRC Team 2415: The Westm inster W iredCats - A Feature on the 2023 Season

Avi Agrawal

21

17

A New Hope: How the San Diego Zoo Aim s to Bring Back an Extinct Rhino Subspecies

CarolineChu

Creating the Tottori Table

LarsWust 31

27

FDM ax: Original 3D Printer Design

Max Scholle

As the size of the everyday com puter chip continues to leapfrog the predictions of M oore?s Law, so too does the am bition of data scientists m ultiply in m agnitude. Although significant advancem ents are being m ade every day, with ram ifications in all fields of society, the inefficiency of classical com puting techniques has im posed increased stress and strain on the environm ent, exacerbating the effects of clim ate change As a result, som e experts believe that now is the optim al tim e to turn a new leaf? enter analog com puting.

The very first com puters, built at the dawn of the 20th century, were analog, m eaning that they used the continuous variation of natural and physical phenom ena to perform calculations? rotating shafts and gears offered novel usage and applicability in approxim ating solutions to num erical equations Such innovations were em ployed in the course-predicting m echanism s of torpedo system s in subm arines, forecasting spring flood patterns in the M ississippi basin, as well as in state-of-the-art bom bsight technology in aircrafts during W W I Yet when the Second World War rolled around, a com putational revolution m aterialized, centered around the digital transistor; com puters with the capacity for program storage and m em ory soon eclipsed their analog predecessors. The likes of H arvard m athem atician Howard Aiken and British cryptanalyst Alan Turing ascended to the forefront of the m ovem ent, building upon the groundwork of Hungarian-Am erican polym ath John von Neum ann. As Tim Vehling, senior vice president of product and business developm ent at M ythic, one of m any recent startups in the field, sum m arized to DigitalTrends, ?[Digital com puting] was cheaper, faster, m ore powerful, and so forth.?Based in Redwood City, California, the heart of Silicon Valley, with facilities in Austin, Texas, M ythic seeks to hasten an age of low-power, low-cost, yet high-perform ance analog com puting architectures? their newly-announced M 1076 chip, packed with tunable resistors, functions off of real-world input voltages, collecting the current outputs as storable values

To an untrained eye, this process appears highly abstract, but it is rooted entirely in an equation fam iliar to all young physicists who have explored circuitry: Ohm ?s law, which states that voltage equals the product of resistance and current. As such, M ythic Analog M atrix Processors (AM Ps) have the newfound capability to conduct large-scale operations of m atrix m ultiplication at sm aller tim e and space (m em ory) com plexities, an infrequent result in the world of optim ization. Generally speaking, there exists a stringent tradeoff between m em ory capacity and algorithm efficiency of com putational infrastructure, yet analog techniques m anage to greatly im prove both; analog-based chips elim inate the need for m em ory m ovem ent and reallocation, sim ply utilizing resistors as strongholds of inform ation, whilst sim ultaneously allowing for hundreds of thousands of such calculations occurring in parallel Neural networks, the deep-learning m ega-algorithm s m odeled after the firing of neurons in the hum an brain, are fueled by vector operations with m atrices at every step of the way? thus, as researchers push these networks to the lim it, their groundbreaking experim ents need not rely anym ore on the frustratingly slow calculation speeds of classical chips, which not only com m only yield m em ory allocation errors, but sequentially perform m ultiplication operations, one by one

Furtherm ore, the efficacy of these program m able arrays of resistors (which replace the transistors found in digital chips) are projected to surpass the physical lim itations of M oore?s law. Pioneering developm ents have drawn into question the validity of the statem ent itself: Does the quantity of transistors squeezed onto an integrated circuit truly double every 18 m onths, or was M oore?s prognosis sim ply a wish stated as truth, with hopes of sustaining exponential progress for decades to com e.

W hatever the reality, the barrier of plausibility for classical chips is fast approaching? analog technology paves the way forward Kerem Gülen of Dataconom y highlights a recent M IT interdisciplinary study that aim s to bolster energy efficiency of the resistors in analog circuits. At the M IT.nano facility, robust nanofabrication techniques have augm ented the analog architectures with the inclusion of an inorganic m aterial com patible with silicon production m ethods. The researchers??protonic?program m able resistors m odulate electric conductivity by m eans of the electrochem ical insertion of protons into insulating oxides? the newly-added com ponent accelerates the ionic device, am plifying the strength of the m agnetic field.

The electrom agnetism of program m able resistors, while highly popular am ongst proponents of analog com putation, are not the only prom ising m ethod of harnessing com puting power with analog devices. Cem Dilm egani, a user of the research-sharing platform AIM ultiple, underscores quantum annealing, an adiabatic physical process related to quantum tunneling and entanglem ent, which can be channeled into solving optim ization problem s for today?s neural networks. By m anipulating the truly random (as opposed to the pseudo-random generation of classical com puters) nature of subatom ic particles, scientists have now exercised the capability to m aintain the stability of qubits (the quantum analogues of classical com puter bits) for longer periods, effectively eradicating m ost of the insignificant quantum noise garnered with other approaches

According to Statista, last year, Intel was responsible for 3 27 m illion m etric tons of carbon dioxide em issions; perhaps it?s opportune for the big-data tycoons of Silicon Valley to acknowledge the above research and join the analog crusade, with the horsepower necessary to propel society into a golden age of coexistence between com puters and the environm ent.

Bibliography

Dilm egani, Cem . "Quantum Annealing in 2022: Practical Quantum Com puting."

AIM ultiple, 14 June 2022, research.aim ultiple.com /quantum -annealing/. Accessed 23 Oct 2022

Dorm ehl, Luke "Analog A I ?It sounds crazy, but it m ight be the future" DigitalTrends, Digital Trends M edia Group, 10 Apr. 2022, www.digitaltrends.com /com puting/m ythic-ai-analog-artificial-intelligence/.

Accessed 23 Oct 2022

Gülen, Kerem . "Analog Deep Learning Paves the Way for Energy Efficient and Faster Com puting " Dataconom y, Dataconom y M edia Gm bH , 1Aug 2022, dataconom y.com /2022/08/analog-deep-learning-ai-com puting/. Accessed 23 Oct. 2022.

Intel. "Intel's Greenhouse Gas Em issions Worldwide from 2015 to 2021(in M illion M etric Tons of Co2 Equivalent)" Statista, Statista Inc , 11M ay 2022, https://www-statista-com .westm inster.idm .oclc.org/statistics/1200873/ intel-greenhouse-gas-em issions-worldwide/

H ave you ever looked outside and wondered how hum ans are able to harness so m uch energy despite the steady decline of the available non-renewable resources?For exam ple, fewer and fewer factories producing black sm oke are present today and m ore wind turbines and solar panels are beginning to take over that space That is because scientists have found new ways to obtain power in a m uch m ore efficient and environm entally friendly way. Research has determ ined the am ount of carbon dioxide and harm ful gas em issions are projected to reach an unhealthy rate at a rather quick rate and fortunately for hum ans, they have found som e solutions that com bat this global issue. Som e state of the current econom ic applications includes, but are not lim ited to, the generation of electricity and transportation

One inconvenience with the constant usage of oil, coal, and other non-renewable resources is that they will eventually run out, therefore, it is crucial to capitalize on renewable resources. According to Octopus Energy, scholars believe that ?If we keep burning fossil fuels at our current rate, it is generally estim ated that all our fossil fuels will be depleted by 2060. New reserves will probably be found before this point, extending the deadline som ewhat, but it is worth rem em bering that if we are to lim it global warm ing to the 'relatively' safe level of 2C by 2050, 80%of coal, 50%of gas and 30%of oil reserves are "unburnable".?The year 2060 surely is right around the corner and hum ans are advancing at an im m easurable rate As a result, governm ents and independent agencies around the world are fast to im plem ent tools that help reduce the usage of these valuable resources. Exam ples include: wind turbines, solar panels, and dam s and they all work together to gather energy and replicate the sam e product as fossil fuels. These renewable resources are unlim ited, good for the environm ent, and reliable (for the m ost part) com pared to fossil fuels, however, one question arises: ?W hy are hum ans still using nonrenewable resources??The problem is efficiency. Statistics by Consum erAffairs show that natural resources have around fifteen to twenty percent efficiency com pared to fossil fuels having forty to sixty percent efficiency (The energy lost is usually turned into therm al energy) .

Additionally, in unprecedented circum stances such as cloudy days and windless days, etc where there will not be sunlight to power solar panels or wind to m otor the panels. Despite the benefits renewable resources have, the efficiency of these fossil fuels seem s to outweigh the harm s. Therefore, scientists are currently finding ways to obtain a constant source of efficient green energy source: nuclear energy. Nuclear energy em its the lowest am ount of carbon em issions and is responsive to both clim ate change and greenhouse gas em issions, but it is extrem ely dangerous and expensive to build No need to worry at this point in tim e as scientists are hard at work seeking to find alternatives to slowly dim inish the harm s of green energy and soon, our lives will change for the better with a consistent source of energy generation

In recent history, com panies such as Tesla and Nissan have stepped forward in transform ing from gasoline-powered vehicles into electric ones in efforts to lower the carbon footprints left behind by them . In April 2016, the United States signed the Paris Agreem ent in which they hope to achieve clean, affordable energy by 2030 and net-zero em issions by the year 2050. So far, a total of one hundred and ninety-two countries and the European Union have joined in on the efforts in the Paris Agreem ent. One big change is the recent shift to electric cars. M any benefits include saving m oney on gas, quicker acceleration (for the sports car enthusiasts), and m ost im portantly, the low am ount of em issions these cars have. On average, electric cars em it around thirty-four percent of the em issions com pared to gas cars. This is already an enorm ous step forward in reaching the goals of the Paris Agreem ent. Besides em issions, experim ents done by the City of M oreno Valley present that ?rivers save about $700 in fuel costs per year while driving electric cars.?Although seven hundred dollars does not seem like a lot, the long-term benefits to one?s wallet and the Earth are alm ost priceless. As a result, m any other car com panies such as Toyota, BM W, and Volvo have jum ped in on this industry in hopes of m aking the world a safer place

All in all, green energy is the direction of our future. Despite the m inor inconveniences it brings, one can be sure that in the future, all of these will be resolved. Global warm ing has been a hot topic in recent years because of the rise of the sea level, anim als dying, and harm ful chem icals floating around in the air. Our lives are in danger as of right now, but these new techniques of energy generation and transportation help slow down these trends and it acts as a great leap forward into a m ore efficient and healthy alternative to fossil fuels.

Works Cited

Kaltenekker, Bill, and Kathryn Parkm an. ?Solar Energy vs. Fossil Fuels.? Consum erAffairs, Consum erAffairs, 12 M ay 2022, https://www.consum eraffairs.com /solar-energy/solar-vs-fossil-fuels.htm l. ?Nuclear Power.?W ikipedia, W ikim edia Foundation, 14 Oct. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear power?scrlybrkr=d30e9845.

Rangaiah, M allika. ?Can Electric Vehicles Save the Overall Environm ent?? Analytics Steps, https://www analyticssteps com /blogs/can-electricvehicles-save-overall-environm ent.

?W hen W ill Fossil Fuels Run out??Octopus Energy, https://octopus energy/blog/when-will-fossil-fuels-run-out/

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