March Profile - Prof. Aleksandra Kavcic - Inventor and Philanthropist

 

Prof. Aleksandra Kavcic - Inventor and Philanthropist

Inventor - From: "A Patent as a Life Work"

The most prestigious law firms and the most prominent names in the world of science and technology have been trying for years to challenge intellectual rights to the magnetic disk reader, which is under the patent of Aleksandar Kavčić, a former student of the Mathematics High School in Belgrade, and Carnegie Mellon University’s professor Jose Moura. According to the final judgement of the U.S. Appellate Court, in 2016, Marvell Technology paid $750 million in damages.

Aleksandar Kavčić (born 1968) is a former pupil of Belgrade’s Mathematical High School. He completed four years of studies at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering, only to move abroad – due to the war in this region and other circumstances – to earn his degree in electrical engineering in Bochum (Germany), and then to defend his doctorate in the U.S. It was actually this benchmark doctorate that represented a turning point in Kavčić’s entire life.

“My mentor, Professor Maura encouraged me to try to solve a problem that I previously had not heard of, although it was known in the literature from the early ‘80s when serial production of magnetic disks, so-called disk drives, began.”

When a very thin magnetic layer is applied to glass, metal or plastic disk, and when closely spaced electrical impulses are written on it, the process closely resembles writing on greasy paper in that the ink percolates towards the adjacent letters. While it was known how to write data on disks, it was unknown how to optimally read densely written data. Without optimal readers, densities had to be scaled back, or else readback error rates would have been unacceptably high.

The proper mathematical analysis of magnetic recording hadn’t previously been carried out, but that was precisely where the solution was: to apply proper magnetic recording models to so-called dynamic programming, which implied relatively complicated mathematics. That’s why roughly three years passed until the “eureka moment”.

Professor Maura requested that we summarise the solution such that nothing could be further eliminated or added to it. When that was done, I was impatient to publish the result in a professional journal, and then to turn to something else. “We won’t publish it anywhere,” said the professor, surprising me with his answer, before explaining that we should first patent the solution. The patent was accepted and approved three years later, which is the usual time-frame for such a procedure.

“Our solution became the de facto industry standard that enabled continuous increases in the capacity of disk drives, which is today measured in terabytes. I’m convinced that our solution will be used as long magnetic memories exist. First and foremost, that’s because we’ve proven mathematically that better detectors are impossible to build. Amongst other factors, to date, around six billion chips containing our patented invention have been sold.”

Carnegie Mellon University honoured Kavčić with a privilege rarely awarded to a scientist, by naming a research fund after the inventors: the Kavčić-Moura Endowment Fund. Kavčić and Maura, along with their wives, have personally supported the fund with several million dollars.

One should always go abroad, gather knowledge there, but consider returning. The electrical engineering faculties in Belgrade or Novi Sad do not have monopolies on knowledge. It’s rare in America for an individual to complete his doctoral studies at the same college where he earned an undergraduate degree. There are only a few professors working at universities where they earned their doctorates because it is only with the flow of people that ideas spread and are enriched. Thus, it is necessary to travel and exchange ideas, especially until Serbia changes its education system which has long been overdue for a revamp.

Aleksandar Kavčić served as a faculty member (assistant professor, associate professor and professor) in electrical engineering at Harvard University and the University of Hawaii.

Philanthropist - From "Kljuc uspeha nacije je u prosvetnom radniku"

Završio je Matematičku gimnaziju, a svojoj nekadašnjoj srednjoj školi prošle godine je poklonio 50 računara. Sada se uključio u projekat koji podrazumeva da će fondacija koja nosi njegovo ime svake godine obezbeđivati 20 računara gimnaziji, a ova će računare iz prethodne godine poklanjati osnovnim školama širom Srbije.

- Centralnu ulogu u obrazovanom sistemu imaju nastavnici, a ne ministarstvo prosvete svojim dekretima, naređenjima, preobukama, i sl. Prosvetni radnik je taj koji svako dete stavlja na prvi stepenik društveno-ekonomske lestvice. Možemo postaviti ambiciozne ciljeve, kao na primer smanjenje broja predmeta, insistiranje na razumevanju, a ne na bubanju, više projektne nastave, digitalizaciju, praktično ‚‚Finski model“… ali ko to treba da sprovede u delo?

- Mislim da treba da se okanemo ‚‚čitanja budućnosti”. Niko ne može da predvidi koja će to biti zanimanja budućnosti. Bitno je raditi na fundamentalnom i širokom obrazovanju.

Naučnik, inženjer ili lekar koji je potkovan jakim fundmentalnim znanjem, lako će sebe usmeriti u datom trenutku u budućnosti onako kako to profesija nalaže. Jednako važi i za društvene smerove i kulturu: pravnike, ekonomiste, novinare, pisce, glumce.

- Obrazovanje mora biti besplatno. Potpuno besplatno, na svim nivoima, od vrtića to fakulteta – mislim na ove državne. Srbija je mala zemlja. Sedam milion je malo da bi se obrazovni sistem prepustio stihiji u nadi da će se elita ‚‚izroditi” bez velikog ulaganja. Da bismo bili konkurentni, mi moramo svakom detetu ove zemlje pružiti mogućnost da dostigne svoj potencijal, a to je jedino moguće ako je školovanje besplatno i kvalitetno.

- Fondacija Alek Kavčić je pre dve godine počela da daruje sredstva Matematičkoj gimnaziji za obnovu računara. Frapantno nam je bilo da ova elitna, svetski poznata institucija nije imala savremene računare.

Kada su u Matematičkoj gimnaziji računari obnovljeni akcijom nas bivših đaka, Fondacija Alek Kavčić je rešila da ih svake godine obnavlja kako nikad više ne bi zastareli. Naravno, to je onda stvorilo višak računara, te se postavilo pitanje šta uraditi sa starijim modelima. Zajedno sa Matematičkom gimnazijom, napravili smo plan da starije modele unapređujemo i poklanjamo osnovnim školama u Srbiji.

Добротвор - Бесплатни уџбеници

 Фондација Алек Кавчић основана је у Америци 2017. године. У Србији почиње са радом почетком 2020. Основни циљеви фондације су промоција образовања и науке.

Професор из САД финасира бесплатне уџбенике одкупљене од Завода за уџбенике, за ђаке из Србије - Кавчић наводи да ће, рачунајући и уџбенике за стране језике, финансирати издавање више од сто наслова на којима, у доста случајева, раде и по два, три аутора којима ће платити хонораре. Открива да израда једног уџбеника кошта око 5.000 евра и да ће, уз додатне трошкове које има око издавања, на штампање свих школских књига за све разреде осмолетке уложити од пола милиона до милион евра.

 

 

NIKOLA TESLA: The 160th Anniversary of his Birth

Who Was Tesla?

NIKOLA Tesla was one of the most accomplished inventor-scientists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He invented radio and created the polyphase alternating current system of motors and generators that powers the world. 

Without his inventions the widespread electrification that greatly contributed to technological advancement of the twentieth century would not have been possible. 

Tesla was also a visionary genius, who conceived many ideas, some controversial at his time, that established the basis for everything that now powers our world with energy and information, including several of today's mainstream technologies ranging from wireless communication systems, radar, television broadcasting, robotics, computers, faxes, and even the U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative.

In writings about Tesla, one often finds statements such as that he “invented the twentieth century” or “the twenty first century”, or even that he “invented the future”.

The best documentary about Tesla's life and his inventions is "TESLA: Master of Lightning" - that was directed by Robert Uth and produced by Simonida Perica Uth. This movie could be viewed on their Web site:

http://newvoyage.tv/tesla_press.html 

TESLA Master of Lightning – The Movie ,http://newvoyage.tv/documentaries.html

Nikola Tesla was born at midnight between July 9 and 10, 1856, of Serbian parents in Smiljan in Lika, at that time the part of the  Austro-Hungarian Empire, then Yugoslavia, and now Croatia.

He was the second son of Djuka (Georgina) Mandic and the Reverend Milutin Tesla, who was well educated and highly respected Serbian Orthodox priest. 

He came to the USA in 1884 to work for Thomas Edison. In 1891 he became a U.S. citizen. 

 After his demonstration of wireless communication in 1893 and after being the victor in the "War of Currents" against Edison’s DC system, he was widely respected as America's greatest electrical engineer. 


With no skills at handling his finances, Tesla died impoverished and forgotten at the age of 86, but his inventions changed the world. Although Nikola Tesla died alone and poor, on January 7, 1943, his electrifying legacy lives and will continue to live with fulfillment of Tesla’s dreams and visionary ideas. The 160th anniversary of Tesla’s birth is celebrated around the World.

At the end of the 19th Century, electric power was at its beginning but growing rapidly. The first commercial power plants used direct current (DC) for incandescent lighting and power starting in 1882. However, the DC power could only be distributed over a limited area around the generating station (less than a mile). It was the work of Nikola Tesla that led to the broad commercialization of alternating current (AC) system, which enabled transmission of high-voltage power over large distances.

B. A. Behrend, engineer and colleague of Tesla, said in 1917 “Were we to seize and eliminate from our industrial world the results of Mr. Tesla’s work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be dark, our mills would be dead and idle. Yes, so far reaching is his work that it has become the warp and woof of industry. The name of Tesla ... marks and epoch in the advance of electrical science. From that work has sprung a revolutions.” 

Short review of major Tesla’s inventions

The Discovery of the Rotating Magnetic Field – Induction Motors

• Tesla's discovery of the rotating magnetic field produced by the interactions of two and three phase alternating currents in a motor winding was one of his most significant achievements, and formed the basis of his induction motor and polyphase system for the generation and transmission of electricity. Thanks to this invention, large amounts of electrical power could be generated and transmitted efficiently over long distances.
  
  
  
  Tesla demonstrated the principle of the rotating magnetic field by showing the “Egg of Columbus”
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Tesla's Polyphase System of alternating current dynamos 

  Niagara Falls   

  
  
• Tesla’s dream to harness the power of Niagara Falls soon become reality. In October 1893 the Niagara Falls Commission awarded Westinghouse a contract to build the power plant at the Falls, using the generators that Tesla designed. 

   

   

  
  Those were dynamos of 5000 horsepower - the largest ever built in the World at that time. General Electric, licensing 9 of Tesla’s patents, was awarded a contract to build 22 miles of transmission lines to Buffalo, a city near the Niagara Falls

 

 

The Discovery of the Tesla Coil

 

 Tesla’s experiments with high frequency and high

voltage alternating currents resulted in the development of the “Tesla Coil” which is still used as a major component in numerous electronic devices. “Tesla coil” is a transformer with an air core that has both its primary and secondary tuned in resonance. His first patent on Tesla Coil was in 1891 (No.454,622). 

 

In 1899 he build his high-frequency laboratory in Colorado Springs, and in 1900 another laboratory in Long Island after his return to New York. In “Nikola Tesla Colorado Spring Notes 1899-1900” Professor Alaksandar Marincic writes

 “In 1898, Tesla’s creativity in the field of high frequencies were at its peak. From his initial ideas in 1890 and his first pioneering steps, he had worked with such intensity that many of his inventions and discoveries, which he had given the world by this time, have reminded unsurpassed to this day… Always true to his principle that ideas must be experimentally verified, Tesla set about building powerful high-frequency generators and making experiments in wireless power transmission."

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  Invention of Radio – wireless communications

 

Guglielmo Marconi was the first to send a message across the ocean and thus, he is partly responsible for developing' radio...but he did NOT invent it. Tesla did. 

Otis Pond, an engineer then working for Tesla, said, "Looks as if Marconi got the jump on you." Tesla replied, "Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He is using seventeen of my patents

James Maxwell lay down the theoretical basis of electromagnetism. Heinrich Hertz had tested Maxwell’s theory and verified the existence of radio waves in his experiments from 1878-88. However, the apparatus used by Hertz and later by Marconi was not to be used in today’s radios. Tesla filed his basic radio patent applications in 1897, and the patents were granted in 1900 (No.645,576 and 

 No.649,621)

Most people are unaware of what happened June 21, 1943: The United States Supreme Court made a landmark decision that essentially settled the long dispute between Marchese Guglielmo Marconi and Nikola Tesla. The court's decision, Case No. 369, identified as "Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America vs. United States rendered invalid Marconi's basic patent No.763,772 dated June 28, 1904. Tesla's patent No. 645,576 of March 20 1900, and its subdivision patent for apparatus No.649,621 dated May 15, 1900, had priority. Still, in a special journal issue, celebrating 100 years of radio, International Telecommunication Union did not mention Tesla among the six great inventors of radio” (Faraday, Maxwell, Branly, Lodge, Popov, Marconi).

However, the 1909 Nobel prize in Physics was awarded jointly to: Marconi and Carl Ferdinand Braun in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy."  

Radio Remote Control - Robotics

In 1898, at the first Electrical Exhibition in Madison Square Garden, Tesla demonstrated the world’s first radiocontrolled robot boat. Tesla applied his receivers and transmitters in remote ship control, and he was granted a patent in 1898 for “The Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles“- Tesla’s patent No.613,809 (Fig.10) of November 8, 1898.
 

This invention made Tesla an originator of remote control.
 

 

Unfortunately, as with many of Tesla’s inventions, this invention was so far ahead of its time that those who observed it could not imagine its practical applications.

The following excerpts from renown scientists criticizing Tesla’s work show clearly that Tesla was so far ahead of his time, that he was mostly misunderstood and criticized: 

Professor Cyrus Bracket of the Princeton University, in his interview for the “Electrician” in 1898: 



“The shortest, most correct and most complete criticism which I can make reference to this bold boast is that what is new about it is useless, while that which is useful had all been discovered by other scientists long before Tesla made this startling announcement. There is nothing new about this. The theory is perfect, but the application is absurd.” 

Tesla even contacted the U.S. Navy and offered his plan to construct a remotely controlled torpedo, but was rejected – the Navy did not have use for it!

Today, more than 100 years since Tesla remotely controlled his boat, we are witnessing widespread use of wireless remote control in household appliances (TV, VCR, CD, garage door openers, car locking system, toys), cordless phones, various medical applications, satellites, etc.

Tesla’s visionary ideas

“The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.” Tesla
 

In his visionary ideas Tesla was so far ahead of his time, so much a visionary, that his contemporary scientists really didn't understand what he was doing. We witness today realization of some of Tesla’s visionary ideas, that he envisioned at the end of 19th and the beginning of 20th century. Many times he was misunderstood, or looked upon as an eccentric or even a lunatic. This created a great difficulty for Tesla and his ability to attract investors who would fund his research work. Only in few cases (such as collaboration with Westinghouse) he was able to fully complete his visions.

Several Tesla’s biographers point out that Tesla was a true scientist who lacked ability to broadly commercialize his work. Tesla needed money to do his research, while Edison used his inventions to earn a lot of money.

Among many Tesla’s visionary ideas, we will mention only few that came to realization only recently, or are still waiting to be utilized: 

(a) Global wireless system for transmission of signals and energy, 

(b) Robotics and remote control foundations, 

(c) Vertical takeoff aircraft (VTOL), 

(d) Pump design suited for micromachines, 

(e) Use of geothermal energy, and 

(f) Vision of “electrical” future.

Wardenclyffe Tower  – Vision of Wireless Communication - patented 1914

 

In 1900, Tesla began construction on Long Island of a wireless world broadcasting tower (Wardenclyffe Tower), with $150,000 capital from the American financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Tesla was planning to provide worldwide communication with ability to send pictures, messages, weather warnings, and stock reports.

The project was abandoned because of a financial panic, and J.P. Morgan's withdrawal of support.

 

 In early 1990’s Tesla wrote “…a telephone subscriber here may call up and talk to any other subscriber on the Globe. An inexpensive receiver, no bigger than a watch, will enable him to listen anywhere, on land or sea, to a speech delivered, or music played in some other place, however distant.” 

Sounds familiar? It took a better part of the 20th century for this Tesla vision to be realized. He had three goals: to develop a transmitter of great power, to perfect means for individualizing and isolating the energy transmitted (e.g., signals), to establish the laws of propagation of currents through the earth and the atmosphere.

Robotics and Remote Control –Artificial Intelligence

Tesla laid the foundation of remote control systems (what he called teleautomation) in 1898 at the first Electrical Exhibition in Madison Square Garden.  He demonstrated how the ships and mechanical gadgets could be controlled remotely using a wireless principle.
 
In Tesla’s own words we can recognize the basis for what we call today “Computers” and even one step further “Artificial Intelligence”: “[it will be able to follow a course laid out …or obey commands given far in advance, it will be capable between what it ought and what it ought not to do … and of recording impressions which will definitely affect its subsequent actions”.

  

This invention made Tesla an originator of remote control. Unfortunately, as with many of Tesla’s inventions, this invention was so far ahead of its time that those who observed it could not imagine its practical applications.

  Vertical Takeoff –Apparatus for Areal Transportation - Patented 1928

Tesla envision this aircraft in 1921.

Vertical take-off and landing aircraft

Combined helicopter and airplane
Gives a thrust analysis
It was not built during Tesla's time.
However they are in military use today (V-22 Osprey)

Pumps without moving parts 

 Traditional method of controlling fluid flow with valves is imperfect due to: mechanical wear of moving parts, inability to control rapid flow “impulses”, inability to control the flow when the fluid is highly heated or corrosive. Tesla proposed an ingenious conduit without moving parts, that could be defined as a “fluid diode”. 

It has clearly defined “direct vs. reverse” flows, such that the resistance in the reverse flow is several hundred times larger than in the direct flow. It could be easily constructed and modularly expanded. It is ideally suited for micromachines, due to high reliability, and no interference with parts. Possible applications include medical applications: such as drug dispensing in the body.

   

The Unit of Magnetic Flux Density

 

In 1956, Tesla's peers at the Electrotechnical Conference in Munich acknowledged his monumental contributions to science by designating his name to represent a unit of magnetic measurement. Thus, the "TESLA" became the Unit of Magnetic Flux Density in the MKS system. Throughout the entire history of electrical science only fifteen men worldwide have received this honor.

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Prepared by J. Vujic

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