User:Archivist Llewellyn
Projects
Neil A. Armstrong Library And Archives
Located in NASA's CoLab region in Second Life, this area exhibits records and other documentation pertaining to astronauts and space exploration throughout history.
- Images: NASA BUZZ, National Defense University-FCVW 2010, 2010 Defense Technical Information Center conference
2010 Linden Prize Finalist Video: YouTube
Article about the Neil A. Armstrong Library and Archives appears on CNN website.
Nature article: Studying the Causes of Cancer: Creating the First 3d Model of p53 in a Synthetic Immersive Environment
The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research published Archivist's article, "The Neil A. Armstrong Library and Archives: That’s One Small Step for a Virtual World Library, One Giant Leap for Education!"
Ongoing Project: Avatars send their names to Mars in Real Life on Curiosity, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Rover
Location: Second Life Destintion Guide
Curiosity AI
- Images: Archivist with Colonel Langhauser
Humankind has often wondered, "Is there intelligent life beyond Earth?" Curiosity AI, by Archivist Llewellyn, is an award-winning project that explores how artificial intelligence can communicate R&D concepts to be used in our future exploration of Mars. Curiosity AI is hosted on VADER2 island by US Department of Defense, US Army Research Laboratory's Simulation and Training Technology Center.
Curiosity AI, by Archivist Llewellyn, is an award-winning project that explores how artificial intelligence can communicate R&D concepts to be used in our future exploration of Mars. The project won 2nd Place in the Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge, including a check for $3,000, an engraved trophy, a ribbon, and a medallion from the DoD / US Army for "Simulation, Training & Research." Archivist had a chance to demonstrate the project and be on a panel discussing "The Future of AI" at the Defense Gametech Conference in Orlando. Conference website. Curiosity AI focuses on a human controlling one AI which then controls many other AIs. Specifically, it proposes the use of a UAV flying hovercraft such as the Embla UAV. A UAV hovercraft like this would be capable of speeds of 50 miles per hour or more and would not limited by difficult terrain and could also navigate into caves on Mars and the Moon. My videos depicting the futuristic Mars Embla swarm were published in February (in a new media format on YouTube), and a presentation given at the IEEE Oregon Virtual Worlds Symposium on March 11, and submitted (as part of a larger project) for an AI contest in December of 2010. In terms of defense applications, the project simulates how one human could operate many drones, including swarms. According to Tim Owings, deputy project manager for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Project Office, "Right now, it takes two Soldiers to operate an unmanned aircraft," he said. "We want to take that to one-to-one and even to one-to-four. We will need higher levels of autonomy in our unmanned aircraft systems if an operator controls multiple vehicles" (March 24, 2011).
About the contest and award: White House Announcement Federal Virtual Worlds Challenge Website
Curiosity AI website and video: Home Page YouTube
Archivist wins Honorable Mention for her Curiosity Rover in the Gogbot 2010 Singularity Art & Design Show, Netherlands.
Location: Second Life Destintion Guide
National Robotics Week, April 9-17, 2011
Archivist Llewellyn was a principal organizer in National Robotics Week in Second Life for The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society. Events included: presentations, tours, robot hunt, and a week-long virtual robot building competition with prizes. Hands-on classes related to building and scripting robots, and AIML basics were taught in world. Over L$100,000 were given away in prizes.
Machinima
Archivist published a Machinima Best Practices Guideline in Second Life. Her video, "Can Results from Planck Prove the Inflation Paradigm?" with physics Nobel laureate John C. Mather, received a special showing at the Nobel Museum in Sweden. Mather's research led to strong empirical support to The Big Bang Theory. After the video, Dr. Mather was a speaker to a sizable audience in Second Life at NASA e-Education island and Stella Nova. A second video, with physics Nobel laureate Albert Fert also aired on the NobelPrize.org channel. Archivist has lectured on the subject of machinima at two conferences, Innovation for Libraries in the 21st Century (2010) and the 2011 Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education.
Archivist Llewellyn and Ariel Miranda chaired The National Space Society's “NSS in SL” Machinima Contest, exhibition showing, and award ceremony. The event that combined Second Life arts and sciences. Celebrating the mission of the NSS for space exploration and the technical and artistic expertise of machinima artists is what this event was about. The unprecedented machinima award ceremony saw the teaming up of two Linden Prize Finalists (Archivist Llewellyn of the Library and Archive at NASA CoLab (NASA JPL/Caltech), and Taralyn Gravois and Jayjay Zifanwe of the The University of Western Australia. The winner of the 2010 NSS in SL Machinima Contest was selected by the Executive Director of the National Space Society, Gary Barnhard. The event and videos were featured on the NSS website, the NSS magazine AdAstra, the Society's newsletter and other media outlets.
Fun with Science
- The BBC radio talk show Naked Scientists, hosted by physicians and researchers at Cambridge University, answers Archivist's question from Second Life: "Can Second Life avatars be controlled by thought?" Second Life location. See my earlier post: Brain-Machine Interface and Virtual Worlds - 2
- Bill Nye (The Science Guy) and Louis Friedman of The Planetary Society discuss the new NASA plan, and answer two of Archivist's questions.
- Marcia Bartusiak, Science Journalist & Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, answers Archivist's question during a mixed reality event at the Adler Planetarium.
- Science Friday, NPR. Archivist's question answered by Mark Sykes, director of the Planetary Science Institute "In terms of lunar exploration, what about other countries, and what does this mean for geopolitics?" (Transcript)
- Archivist at the Virtual Feynmannfest in Second Life, featured in Discover Magazine.
- Archivist meets Professor Jim Secord, Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project (www.darwinproject.ac.uk) and Cambridge University Professor. The Project aims to find, research and publish summaries of every letter written by or to Charles Darwin.
Biography
- Images: Archivist and Watson, Archivist at NASA GRC
Archivist holds the Master in Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree and is a professional librarian and archivist. Archivist’s background includes approximately 15 years of work experience in informal education (library, archive, museum) and formal education (K-16). She is a writer, editor and presenter. She has over 50 publications in various media formats. During her graduate study for the MLIS, she completed a project relating to the history of the U.S. Space Shuttle Program at NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Prior to obtaining her graduate degree, Archivist worked at the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum assisting with the education programming and working as a tour guide. Later, Archivist worked with the collection of one of the founding members of NACA (the precursor to NASA) located in the Oberlin College Archives. Archivist then served for a year at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as the Archivist of a living Nobel Prize winning scientist’s collection[1] (James D. Watson, co-discoverer with Crick and Wilkens of the structure of DNA) in the area of molecular biology. This included the official compilation of his books in translation in 26 languages. She has lectured on molecular biology digital resources at the University of California, Berkeley (2007) and science archives and history at the University of Oxford (2008). She presently serves at the volunteer Director of the Library and Archives at NASA CoLab in Second Life, a public-private collaboration with NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It is the first library or archives in a synthetic immersive environment recognized by the Library of Congress (MARC Code: CaPsLAN). The project received various media coverage, including an article on CNN's website. Her publishing background includes Technical Reviewer (along with Brion Vibber, Chief Technical Officer, Wikimedia Foundation) for MediaWiki (O'Reilly, 2008), a best selling book in Library and Information Science Automation, and editorial duties for two books published by Cambridge University Press (2004-5) as well as three other books. Archivist was awarded a full scholarship for three years to complete her Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge.