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This bit of advise may save a lot of your time: I am sure as a beginner you will start to go through a literature survey and most importantly go around meeting “expert deminers” because we believe that the practitioners can give valuable insights. Well, be careful when it comes to improving technologies to detect and remove landmines. A typical question some of these “experts” might ask you is “how long do you think it will take you to show me a prototype?” you as an honest researcher might say “three years, or four years?”. The typical answer would be “No. sorry. We will be done by then.” Here be careful. Ask the question, “for how long have been demining?” or a better way to ask the same would be “how much experience do you have?” a confident answer would come like “20 years!”. When I met these “experts” five years ago, they said the same to me. Still they have not removed at least 5% of the mines in Sri Lanka. My advice is to meet the army of your country first. Do not believe too much in somebody who will loose his job if this world is free of mines. Usually the majority of the mines of any given country is removed by the army of that country though they do not shout too much. They benefit from having safer and efficient technologies. If you are a robotist, and plan to replace the humans in the dangerous minefields with robots, some “experts” will ridicule you saying “you have no idea of how complex this is. We need a human to do this. A robot will never come close to our requirements!” The same was said by educated cardiac surgeons to those crazy robotists who went with the first ideas of tele-surgery or minimally invasive surgical tools. Do not get discouraged. Advancements in tele-perception will solve a lot of these problems. It is a matter of effectively transferring what the robot is feeling in the minefield to the sensations of a remote human (haptic feedback). Some experts will say “this is a very simple job. You guys are trying to complicate it.”. What he really means is “Hey I am comfortable with this life. Don’t disturb me. Look at my third world manual deminers. They are happy with the peasant wage I pay! You try to teach me ethics? Get out of here!” The fact is, this is a trade for many “experts”. They do not want to see a technology that is slightly more expensive than their third world manual deminers, and some don’t really want to demine faster than other people lay landmines. Today, when one mine is removed, twenty mines are laid. Therefore, unless we improve technology to accelerate current demining programs by at least twenty times, our world will not be free from landmines during our life time. Therefore, if somebody gives you a three year deadline, just laugh and get back to your laboratory. Be careful when you reach the donor community. The donor community thinks that there is no urgent need to improve the technology, because not many people like you come to meet them. Most are those “experts”. Complacency drips from every word they utter. Therefore, these kind hearted donors believe it. The unfortunate reality is the donors do not care to ask the question, “if the total cost of salaries, luxury vehicles, offices, rents, etc, is divided by the number of landmines they remove per anum, the cost per mine comes close to US$1500, there should be something wrong in the tools they use.” Another pithole is the way some “experts” calculate the cost of R&D. Lets say, your R&D budget is US$2 million for three years. You will not be able to compete with an “expert” who will say “Wow. Give that money to me I will clear half of landmines in your country.” or “Wow. Do you think that R&D investment can be recovered by selling your outcome?” The answer lies in a broader scope than that. If your technology helps genuine people to remove mines faster, it will boost the purchasing power of that affected community by many more million dollars. In Sri Lanka, we estimate around 3 million people have been affected by landmines to various extents. If they come back to perfect normalcy, and if their purchasing power is improved by just US$1 per month, the total boost in purchasing power will be US$36 million per anum. Where does this money go? To service providers. Even cell phone businesses, fast food businesses, or soft drink businesses will benefit by it. Therefore, it maybe a good idea to reach those multi-Nationals operating in developing countries than wasting time on brainwashed donors. By the way, if some “expert” gives you too much trouble, please write me an email. We will get together and make our planet a better place. |