How can you get 100 million people translating everything into different languages efficiently for free?

Step 1: Internet

Step 2: Duolingo

Step 3: Go to Step 2 and repeat forever

 
It’s unique, but that’s not all as to why it’s a hit. It’s free, but that’s not all as to why it’s booming right now. It’s available in a lot of interfaces, but that’s definitely not all as to why it’s attracting people like voodoo.

The main reason behind the success of Duolingo – it’s ingenious. Its rationale, concept, working and approach are impressive. In 2005, the then Carnegie-Mellon University PhD student, Luis von Ahn, had an idea for a fantastic game. Famed as one of the pioneers of crowd sourcing, Luis von Ahn tried to combine the computational prowess of human beings with better image searching.

Result: ESP Game; acquisition by Google; later renamed to Google Image Labeler.

In 2007, Luis von Ahn had another epiphany. He realised that people spend a lot of time typing in CAPTCHAs online and hence, decided to transform it into something bigger. (Just a heads up, Luis von Ahn was one of the founders of CAPTCHA as well. For those who don’t know, CAPTCHAs are the fuzzy, twisted words that you’re required to type in on a lot of online platforms these days to distinguish yourself from computers and prevent spamming.) He felt that the time people spent entering CAPTCHAs online did serve the purpose of preventing spamming; but the use wasn’t enough. So, it was put to use in digitising text books.

Result: reCAPTCHA, big brother of CAPTCHA; followed by its acquisition by Google, yet again.

And now the genius is back.

Enter Duolingo - his latest, marvellous, crowd sourcing, gem of an online startup.

Duolingo is a free language-learning website; for the people and by the people.

Here, it’s hard to stress upon the gravity of the phrase ‘by the people’. Duolingo is designed in such a way that while going through different language exercises, people are actually translating countless online documents into almost every major language. Started as a private beta in November 2011, Duolingo had acquired a waiting list of over 300, 000 users even before the actual website for the public domain use was launched in June, 2012. Presently, users can avail free language learning for Spanish, English, French, German, Portuguese and Italian. I, myself, am trying out my hand in German these days.

Apart from the fairly obvious desktop presence, Duolingo is available on Apple’s iOS, with an Android version on its way.

“I wanna play a game”

The ‘Game’ approach to make this concept even more tempting comes from the actual working of the website. While trying a language exercise, the user attains a “learned” status after completing a set of questions related to a particular skill, and a “mastered” status in the skill after he or she has translated real world texts based on that skill. For each set of exercises, the user gets three or four lives, losing one for each wrongly answered question and increasing the final “skill points” for all lives saved by answering them correctly. As and when people increase their skills with the new language, the exercises become tougher and closer to the real world, thus, depicting the obvious reason for one to play this game.  

“Yeah Duolingo, don’t worry. I’ve got your back”, says Science.

To put a cherry on top, and to put the cynic’s mind at ease as well, the methodology behind Duolingo is scientifically proven. A scientific study conducted by two PhD holders, Roumen Vesselinov and John Grego, over eight weeks of a university semester, has proven that Duolingo matches university level learning.

Not convinced? Here are some numbers:

According to the study, 34 hours of practicing on Duolingo equals 1 university semester (approximately 11 weeks)

That means, on some levels, Duolingo actually trumps university education. And these ‘levels’ are some of the most important ones. Time and Money – you save both using Duolingo.

Perhaps the heart of Duolingo couldn’t be better surmised in its simple yet effective slogan,

“With Duolingo you learn a language for free while helping to translate the web”

Killing two birds with one stone? Nailed it.

Yugal Raj Jain
Columnist

Formula SAE (FSAE) is a collegiate design competition sanctioned by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for student members. The competition is based on the premise that the students have been hired by a manufacturing firm to produce a prototype Formula one style racing car for consideration as a production item. The teams are encouraged to be creative in their designs and push the boundaries of automotive engineering

Bullethawk racing is a student initiative run by students of Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Delhi. Founded in 2009, BHR team designs and manufactures a formula style race car and participates at various FSAE events held globally. Team BHR has left no stone unturned to outshine it’s contemporaries at various SAE events. Right from designing the car to manufacturing different parts such as Steering, Brake System,  Chassis etc, the car is built right from the scratch. BHR has been a part of the FSAE event from 2009, the year FSAE was brought to India. BHR has performed to the paramount of its abilities in all the events consistently and is improving each year. Sincerity is the most valued virtue in the team since a year long project with a 20-25 member team requires immense sincerity to be carried out flawlessly. Their projects are the perfect amalgamation of ideas, comprehensive use of our available resources and hard work. 

Recently, Team BHR represented NSIT and Delhi University at SUPRA SAE 2012 - a 4 day event in which they ranked 3rd in Marketing Presentation and 10th in Cost Report."It was a learning experience as the team members gained practical insight into designing and manufacturing every part in the car (except the engine of course *laughs*). The team aims to better their performance next year.", Says Mayank Khera, Senior Member, Bullethawk Racing.


- Videt Jaiswal

Source: Crosslinks (www.facebook.com/crosslinks.nsit)

In mid of a boring lecture...Suddenly you hear a beep sound, you realize it’s your Smartphone and you reach out for it with all enthusiasm…and Oops! It just slipped out of your tender hands leaving the screen all cracked. Naah…no need to cry over spilled milk. Samsung has got a magic wand for you. Samsung in Korean means “tristar” or “three stars”. The word “three” represents something “big, numerous and powerful”, the stars on the other hand mean eternity. Proving true to its meaning stands Samsung’s latest invention. This very technology could mark the end of cracked phone screens. 

The company made its debut of flexible phone prototype recently at the International CES in Las Vegas. Made up of organic light emitting diodes famously known as the OLEd’s, this new phone by the technology gigantic is like a breath of fresh air which would swap plastic for glass in screen. The phone comes with a 5 inch, 16.9 resolution screen which is quite impressive. According to a Samsung spokesperson, the screens will be “ fold able, roll-able  wearable and more. They will allow for a high degree of durability through their use of a plastic substrate that is thinner, lighter and more flexible than the conventional LCD technology. 

Though the concept of creating flexible electronics sounds very amusing but it is not the first. This very idea has been touted since the 1960’s when the first flexible solar cell arrays appeared. Since then many companies have been working on the idea though now it seems that Samsung has surely walked away with the cake. The company though hasn’t yet announced the price of the “unbreakable” phone but according to the gadgets pundits it is going to cost a hefty amount keeping in mind its extraordinary features. The phone can be expected to hit the international markets somewhere in the first half of 2013but as far as the Indians are concerned they may have to wait a bit longer. Whatever the technology may be, it certainly seems that very soon our phones will not just be smart but bendy too. So, all those gadgets freaks out there…Get ready to attack!!!


Kirti Sharma
Columnist