OptimumT

The world is adopting renewable energy systems quite fast. Even in the regions where massive adoption of renewable energy systems in not underway, people and polities are contemplating about the possible ways in which it could be done. This recent article by the Scientific American magazine illustrates that how cities and towns of the U.S. are choosing renewables to save money. According to this analysis, even if adopting renewable energy systems turns out to be expensive in the beginning, it ends up quite cheap in the long run. Moreover, it allows people a way to escape the price volatility associated with the fossil fuel based energy systems. Add to this the catalytic advancements in the renewable energy systems. Adoption of newer systems built with organic materials is not only making solar energy panels a lot more cheap, it is also making them readily available at much lower costs. This is quite tremendous. According to other sources most of the world’s energy needs shall be fulfilled through renewable energy systems by 2025.

While the rest of the world is steering towards renewables, at OptimumT we contemplate on why this adoption is so formidable in Pakistan. We wonder why there is a sheer lack of a stimulus to adopt technological systems that would be cheaper for us in the long run. Renewable energy systems are not only becoming economically affordable, they have a much better impact on the environment as well. We wonder why it is so hard to convince the state owned public sector institutions about the benefits and need of such systems.

Our zest at OptimumT is to develop novel technological systems that would benefit the society at large. In the interim we also pine about adoption and deployment of systems that are already available. To serve this purpose we have written a small proposal to draw the attention of those responsible to our indispensable national requirements. Enjoy reading it as follows.

At OptimumT one of the things that concerns us the most is our environment. We hope that you appreciate the greenery of our approach.

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Keeping in line with our fascination of technical ideas, we would like to share another of our research proposals. This one is titled, “Theory and Applications of Hyper-Heuristics.” What are hyper-heuristics? A comprehensive understanding of the ideas demands some familiarity with meta-heuristic algorithms. So what are meta-heuristic algorithms then? In its simplest manifestation, a meta-heuristic algorithm takes a user-defined problem as an input and starts generating solutions for it. It then improves those solutions iteratively in a meaningful sense, and stops iterating when the desired solution has been found. If you find this explanation bemusing, read it again a couple of times before moving on.

So what is a hyper-heuristic algorithm? A hyper-heuristic algorithm takes a user-specified problem as an input and starts generating algorithms that would solve the problem. The algorithms it generates are in turn expected to generate solutions to the problem in whatever way they deem fit. Just like a meta-heuristic algorithm generates newer solutions to a problem iteratively, a hyper-heuristic algorithm generates newer algorithms iteratively. The only difference is of generation of solutions versus the generation of algorithms respectively. Consequently, a hyper-heuristic algorithm can cook-up newer meta-heuristic on its way to solving the problem. However, it is only the algorithms it creates, actually solve the problem. This is a simple explanation of how a hyper-heuristic works. If you are still bemused about how it works, read through this article again.

Hyper-heuristics have been applied to numerous problems and they have shown promising results. What inspires us most about them is their application to vehicle routing problem in the context of developing fully autonomous, self-coordinating unmanned aerial vehicles. Please read the following research proposal to get an idea about our interests in Theory and Applications of Hyper-Heuristics.

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If you spare some time to roam around in some area of Pakistan, you would find a widespread technical cornucopia in our society. You can find the latest models cars, mobile telephones, personal computers, handheld devices fairly easily. There is not a corner in Pakistan today where you cannot find one or the other that reflects the epitome of technical advancement the humanity has reached today. Moreover, you can also find herds of hyper educated young people.

Yet there are things that are not quite right about Pakistan. Everything seems to have been put together in a hurry. Everything looks quite messed up. There are hoards of garbage and used polythene bags spread in every corner of the country. There are stinking canals with stagnating dirty water in them. Human condition is quite dilapidated particularly. A large number of people live in abject poverty.

Despite all the awareness of the technological advancement in the developed world and its adoption in Pakistan, there is not much general interest among the people in national development. People are aware of the general global technological advancement and they even have a desire develop the country. However, there is a deep rooted cynicism in our society that overrides the most prosperous of our urges.

One of the ways this can be explained is why renewable energy has not been adopted so widely in our country. Everyone in Pakistan is aware of the potential benefits of adopting renewable energy systems. People are even willing that such systems be deployed in our country. However, the hopes that such systems would one day be deployed in our country are close to non-existent. Although some work is being done to this end. And it wouldn’t be a surprise if one day we had widespread installation of such systems. However, if you mention this to the common folks now, they would simply be pessimistic about any possibility that such developments can happen in Pakistan.

One of our goals at OptimumT is to break this spell of pessimism. We aim to promote a technology culture in Pakistan in which everyone would be aware of not only the potential of cutting-edge technologies, but would also have the readiness to believe that such technological advancement can happen very fast. To this end, we would also like to promote a culture in which people are aware and wary of the ethical and moral issues concerning the applications of science and technology.

Although it is not our position to reflect on philosophical, political, and ethical issues at OptimumT, we still hope to promote ideas that would have a greater impact in developing a more peaceful,  sustainable and a civilized global society. At OptimumT our aim is to promote  a technology culture with a global impact.

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At OptimumT we not only care about fixing the things that come in your worldview, we also pine about elevating your inner self. This is to say that the ideas regarding personal well being of people worry us. We live in an age in which mental and physical health are matters of great concern for the humanity. There has been a lot of publishing activity in the media lately especially concerning the mental health. Mental illnesses like depression, bipolar disorder, mood swings have become commonplace by the day. More severe illnesses like schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, autism, attention deficit disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, autism and seizures are not uncommon by any means, and the list goes on.

At OptimumT we have written a research proposal especially for the purpose of studying human consciousness. We have titled it Understanding Human Consciousness. The scope of the proposal is, as suggested earlier, to develop a comprehensive overview of what problems affect the mental and physical well being of human beings, and to suggest cures for them if possible. Our primary concern in developing this document was to reflect on neuroscience. We love to study everything about neuroscience, ranging from mundane, albeit serious, mental illness to the mind-body problems in a philosophical context. Topics such as neural correlates of almost everything inspire our awe just for the sake of it. You can have a look at the research proposal below.

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We have been enticed time and again to work on challenging problems that were not even remotely related to our core expertise and qualifications. Such are the ruses of practical life. However, we have a sort of accepting such tests with a candid heart. At one such moment, we were asked to reflect on how high performance computing techniques could be applied to problems in financial modeling. In order to give our reflections, we chose to write another research proposal for that. The research proposal can be found as follows.

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Water scarcity is drawing a considerable attention of various think tanks and scientific magazines these days. The general impression is that some of the major, and well developed, cities of the world have begun to observe a considerable levels of water shortage. There is news about water problems of Mexico, and there are concerns about water crisis looming in some cities of the US. There is already reasonable awareness in some learned circles that water distribution is a very serious issue in many Asian countries. In some parts of the middle east there are already talks about assigning small quotas on per person basis to distribute the limited amount of usable water equally among the inhabitants.

The issue of water distribution needs to be taken seriously because the supply of this commodity is rapidly decreasing in wake of its drastically increasing demand. And the increased demand can be fairly explained in light of not only the increasing population, but also of the massive industrialization that has taken place over the past and that is expected to increase further in the future.

Poorly designed water distribution systems have not spared Pakistan a chance to prosper either. Actually it is general knowledge in our country that a significant proportion of our population does not have access to clean drinking water. This is a pity. And this is the plight of the people of Pakistan. Added to this are the future projections of further dwindling of water supplies in the near future. And that near future is not very far. It is expected to arrive as soon as the next five years. This is quite daunting.

Contrary to our poor water distribution systems, the truth is that is abundant water in the country. We have glaciers that melt during the summers. We have massive rivers that can carry that water to the sea. And we have a relatively calm and docile sea as well that splashes water gently mack to our shores. We also have rains and monsoons. And it is also not very hard to dig a well in your backyard to be able a fetch a pale of water when needed. Water can be found at relatively shallow depths in various parts of Pakistan.

Despite the abundance of water, most people are still deprived of clean drinking water. Water is not readily available for irrigation in various parts of Pakistan. We observe massive floods in Pakistan. And yet we frequently end up as a thirsty nation. Moreover, the analytical forecasts do not tell a nice story about us as a water rich country.

Whatever the reasons for this predicament of Pakistan, here at OptimumT we love to contemplate on this problem as well. In wake of this we have written a research proposal that is aimed at addressing water distribution problems of Pakistan. We hope to be able to design more efficient water distribution networks that would one day be helpful in supplying adequate and ample quantities of water to our people.

You might find our insights interesting, if not comprehensive. Our analysis of the problems is under evolution at the moment. At OptimumT we have a child-like curiosity to wonder about why so much abundance of water is mismanaged in Pakistan. If you find this problem interesting please have a look at our ideas.

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