All posts by Masato R. Nakamura, Eng.Sc.D.

Help NY nurses by joining PSC Homework Hotline!

Dear Colleagues,
The PSC is teaming up with the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the union representing 42,000 nurses in New York, to create the Homework Hotline-an initiative to provide academic support to the children of nurses while their parents are risking their lives to keep other New Yorkers safe. I am writing to invite you to participate by volunteering an hour or two a week to be available to help the children of nurses with their classes or homework.
Many of us have been looking for ways to support frontline workers, especially healthcare workers, in this terrible epidemic. One thing we can do is volunteer some time for their children, who have had to cope with distance learning and parents working long and grueling shifts in hospitals. I feel grateful for the opportunity to have something to offer, even if it’s small, to those who are offering so much.
If you can volunteer an hour or two a week, sign up here and specify the time you are available and the subject in which you are qualified to offer academic help. The subject areas have been kept broad because we anticipate that most of the students requesting help will be in elementary or secondary school. For now we have limited the subject areas to: Math, English, Science, Social Science, Spanish and, possibly, other languages. We may add more if there is a need for more or if greater specialization is needed.
Once we have a roster of volunteer faculty, we will provide a link to the roster to NYSNA members and their families. Students will sign up for tutoring in their desired subject at the time they need support. You can communicate with the student through email, video conferencing, phone conversation, or whatever combination works best for you and the student.
In order to protect your privacy and restrict the requests to your specified hours, the PSC staff strongly urge you to use a Zoom account or provide a dedicated email address and/or Google Voice number rather than your personal email and phone number. Simple instructions for signing on to these free services are below. Students will use that address or number to reach you during the times you specify.
If you’d like help signing up or have other questions, please contact Ida Cheng at the PSC. And if you are seeking additional ways to offer support, our statewide affiliate, NYSUT, which represents thousands of healthcare workers, has made an urgent appeal for donations to buy PPE for healthcare workers on the frontlines. Please give generously.
I know that many of us are stretched thin in our own lives right now, but I hope that those who can will find an hour a week to join the Homework Hotline.
Thank you.
Barbara Bowen
President, PSC/CUNY
INSTRUCTIONS FOR SIGNING UP FOR A GOOGLE OR ZOOM ACCOUNT
You can conduct your tutoring sessions using either Google Voice, Google Hangout, Google Video or Zoom.  All three Google options require that you have a Gmail account. It might be best to set up a Gmail account just for this purpose, even if you have an existing Gmail account.
Create a Google Account
If you do not have a Gmail account already, please sign up onwww.gmail.com. You will need to fill out basic information like your name, birthday, phone number and agree to Google’s terms and conditions.
Google Voice
By using a Google Voice number rather than your personal phone number, you can have the calls forwarded to your cell phone without disclosing your private phone number.  When you are no longer a volunteer-tutor, you can disconnect your Google Voice number from your cell phone. Students will also have the ability to leave you voicemails. The directions to set up a Google Voice number are on their website.
Google Hangout and Google Video
You can log into Google Hangout from your email account and click on New Conversation and find the person you want to chat with by searching their email address.  You can either chat by typing or live-chat by clicking on the video camera icon.
Zoom 
Many professors who have moved to online teaching already have a Zoom account.  Please feel free to use your Zoom account to conduct your tutoring session. If you do not already have a Zoom account, please sign up for a free account using this link.  Educators who sign up for a zoom account with their email addresses ending in “edu” will have the 40-minute limit lifted.
Please make sure to enable microphone access if you are using your computer or laptop.

The world’s largest financial newspaper introduced me as one of the social entrepreneurs working for UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Nikkei, the world’s largest financial newspaper, has introduced me as one of the social entrepreneurs working for UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The article published today is about how I started the Smart Gun Project, of which purpose is to reduce gun violence in the US, with research assistants in my lab group and City Tech’s industrial design students.

It also explains how my research of Energy and Environmental Simulation was applied to a firearm turning into a smart device (gun equipped with sensors and a computer) in order to identify the owner and collect data before&after pulled the trigger. In addition, this article in Japanese shows how I came to the US after I had a stroke due to a stressful working condition that I experienced as an engineer in Tokyo.

コロナウイルス拡大で大勢の方がお忙しい中、僕の進めているプロジェクトを取り上げてもらいました。記者の方、編集部の方々、日経新聞社さんありがとうございます。@nikkei #撃てない銃 #smartgun #スマートガン
「撃てない銃」開発者 米社会の悲劇を減らしたい SDGs起業家たち(8):日本経済新聞

New York City College of Technology (City Tech) News
CUNY – City University of New York
日本経済新聞(日経新聞)

https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXMZO56373580U0A300C2EE1000/?fbclid=IwAR3RLh5a9isS2EJNXt2PbAyir4VP308yRNMypeI6vMyIyJp0bMXG3ikM7ks

Announcement

Dear MECH students,

Due to the coronavirus disaster, I will have student advisement via online.

Need a face-to-face communication or a video conference call?  Skype me at xmasatox
Need to talk to me or voice conversation?  Skype me at xmasatox
Need to text me or a chat with me? Skye me at xmasatox
Need a discussion with me? Email me at mnakamura@citytech.cuny.edu

Stay safe, stay connected.

Dr. Nakamura

 

Friday, 4/26/2019 from 6:00 PM Columbia University panel discussion on academic careers

Are you interested in becoming a professor? I will serve as a panel for discussing academic careers. at Columbia University Medical Campus on Friday, April 26, 2019 from 6:00 PM.

Columbia University Events
IDP Career Panel: Academic Careers Friday, April 26, 2019 6:00 PM – 8:30 PMRoy And Diana Vagelos Education Center, 104 Haven Ave., New York, NY 10032 Room/Area: 401 Add to CalendarShareEvent URLA panel focused on careers in academia will take place the evening of April 26th at Columbia University, Medical Campus. The panelists will respond to moderated questions in the first portion of the event, after which questions from audience members will be addressed. A networking session will follow the panel session and will provide an opportunity for attendees to interact in more depth with the panelists. The panelists have a variety of training backgrounds such as Biomedicine, Molecular Biology, Engineering, Psychology, and Neurology. The panelists include: Daniel Herranz Benito, PhD*: Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey Farnaz Kaighobadi, PhD*: Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Bronx Community College Estela Area Gomez, PhD*: Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Masato R. Nakamura, PhD*: Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology, CUNY New York City College of Technology Jacky Austermann, PhD: Assistant Professor, Columbia University, Department of Earth and Environmental Studies *indicates a Columbia postdoc or graduate student alumni This event is part of the monthly career panel series portion of the IDP program for postdocs and doctoral level graduate students at Columbia University. This is the last panel in this series. The goal of this career panel series is to expose postdocs and doctoral graduate students to a broad range of career options and provide a forum to learn about the experiences of individuals who have transitioned into these careers following their graduate or postdoctoral training.Event Contact Information: Amanda Kelly 212 305 4073 Amanda.Kelly@columbia.edu More detail: http://bit.ly/2Dtbir3

An article I contributed to US Gaikyo news (industrial newspaper) has been published in Japanese.

最前線 2019年米国機械工学事情

ニューヨーク市立大学工科校 機械工学・工業デザイン学科

アシスタントプロフェッサー 中村正人

ボストンダイナミクス社(Boston Dynamics)が開発した二足歩行の人型ロボット、アトラス(Atlas)をご存じだろうか?米国国防総省の国防高等研究計画局(通称ダーパ、DARPA)監修のもと捜索救助用に作られたヒューマノイド・ロボットで、2013年にアトラスが公開された当時は、ニューヨークタイムズからホモサピエンスならぬロボサピエンスが出現したとまで言われた[1]。その後、二足歩行の能力を進化させ段差に飛び乗ったりバク宙(Backflip)をする動作や[2]、野外で雪や草木のあるでこぼこな場所で歩いたりする動作が動画で話題となっていたが、2018年の秋には、走りながら丸太を飛び越えたり段差のあるボックスを片足で跳ね上がるパルクールのような動作が公開され、アトラスの身体能力がどんどん進化しているのが注目の的となっている[3,4]。。。。(続きはUS概況ニュースで。)