Polish Greatness

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

Polish-built robot flies to Mars on NASA mission
05.05.2018 08:30
A hi-tech robotic device designed and built by a Polish company was on Saturday scheduled to be launched to Mars on board a NASA spacecraft.

Image: ColiN00B/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative Commons

The device, described as a self-hammering mechanism, is a component of a heat probe that will examine the thermal properties of the Red Planet.

The main goal of the US space agency’s InSight mission — launching on Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California — is to give scientists a better understanding of the structure and geological activity of Mars.

The InSight lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on November 26 after a journey of 485 million kilometres. It is expected to remain active there for two years.

The self-hammering instrument has been developed by innovative Warsaw company Astronika, which was founded in 2013 by a group of Polish engineers specialising in precision mechanics and space technology.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP, astronika.pl

tags: Mars, NASA

Polish-built robot flies to Mars on NASA mission

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

The world’s first composite transplantation of neck organs carried out by a Polish team


The world’s first composite transplantation of neck organs was carried out by a Polish team led by Prof. Adam Maciejewski of the Institute of Oncology in Gliwice. The groundbreaking operation by the Silesian surgeons is their latest high-profile success story, following a life-saving face transplant completed in 2013.
The pioneering operation by the team of surgeons from Gliwice was performed on a 37 year-old patient on 11 April, however news of its success has only now been made public.

photo: Tomasz Jodłowski/REPORTER/EAST NEWS



„This is the first ever complex organ transplant involving the larynx, trachea, throat, esophagus, thyroid and parathyroid, hyoid bone as well as short muscles on the front wall of the neck coating,” Prof. Adam Maciejewski, the head of a team of reconstructive surgeons from the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology branch in Gliwice, told Polska.pl.



„Until now there had only been two transplants involving the larynx with the trachea. Our team is the first to carry out a composite transplantation of neck organs,” Prof. Maciejewski added. The Polish surgeon has been receiving congratulatory messages from across the world and he plans to describe the operation in detail in a distinguished international medical journal, such as the Lancet.

The seventeen-hour long operation consisting of a team of 25 doctors involved removing scar tissue from neck coatings, preparing vascular structures, as well as extracting the donor’s larynx organs, trachea , pharynx , esophagus , thyroid and parathyroid , hyoid bone and neck coating. The doctors then transplanted material from the donor and carried out a microsurgery of nerves and vessels. Surgeons proceeded to reconstruct the patient’s oral and respiratory tracts. „The operation was preceeded by lengthy preparations and studies. It involved a team consisting of nine surgeons,” Prof. Maciejewski told Polska.pl.



Prof. Maciejewski went on to say that the 37 year-old patient, who earlier had to breathe through a tracheostomy tube and take in food through a tube connected to his stomach, can now eat and breathe independently. He also regained his voice merely three weeks after the operation, a much shorter time than an American patient in 2011 who underwent a larynx and trachea transplant and was able to speak after three months. The Polish patient is currently still in hospital but is due to be released very soon. “He should return to full form within six to nine months,” Prof. Maciejewski said.



The transplant will allow the man to lead a normal life - a life which many specialists had already written off for him. "He was told that for the rest of his life he would have to breathe and eat through a tube, that he would have to come to terms with being an invalid. In addition to all of this, he came to us with a serious infection. Despite this, we were the first doctors who offered him hope of a recovery. The decision to go ahead with the transplant was made easier by the fact that he had been on immune suppressive medication," Prof. Maciejewski said.

The groundbreaking operation by the Silesian reconstruction surgeons follows the successful face transplant carried out by the team in 2013. In May 2013, Prof. Maciejewski led a team which reconstructed the face of a 33 year-old male who had suffered a serious work-related accident. After extensive dental reconstruction and teeth implants, the man was able to return to every-day life. The operation was described as the best of its kind at the annual summit of the American Society of Reconstructive and Microvascular Surgery in 2013.


The world’s first composite transplantation of neck organs carried out by a Polish team

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

Poland’s Olga Tokarczuk wins Man Booker International Prize
22.05.2018 23:38
Polish writer Olga Tokarczuk was on Tuesday announced the winner of the prestigious Man Booker International Prize for her novel “Flights.”

Photo: DariuszSankowski/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative Commons

The GBP 50,000 prize, which celebrates the finest works of translated fiction from around the world, has been divided equally between the book's author and its translator into English, Jennifer Croft.

Flights is a novel of linked fragments, from the 17th century to the present day, connected by themes of travel and human anatomy, the Man Booker Prize website said.

Tokarczuk is a multiple award winner in Poland whose work is gaining recognition abroad.

The Man Booker Prize is a leading literary award in the English-speaking world.

The Man Booker International Prize is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. Since 2016, it has been given annually to a single book in English translation.

(pk/gs)

Poland’s Olga Tokarczuk wins Man Booker International Prize

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

Wrocław students and graduates have built a robot that serves meals
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4. Wrocław students and graduates have built a robot that serves meals

A team of Wrocław University of Technology students and graduates constructed the Bistrobot, a machine for self-service sale of hot meals. The creators emphasize that it is the first such machine in the world.
At the moment the robot\'s menu consists of six dishes. It takes two to four minutes to prepare a meal. The prototype of the device has already been installed in the Wrocław University of Technology building. Its authors are students and graduates of the university, founders of the company Food Robotics.

"We hope that our project will change the future of gastronomy and revolutionize our thinking about meals and how we perceive food served by machines" - said the project coordinator Wojciech Jopek during the presentation of the robot on Friday.

Students were inspired to create Bistrobot by the people\'s growing awareness about healthy nutrition. "We pay more often attention to the origin of products, we are aware of the importance of healthy food. Dietary habits of Polish people are also changing, we eat out more often" - said Jopek. According to its creators, Bistrobot responds to these needs because it combines healthy and easily available food.

During the preparation process customers can check the composition of the meal.

According to the project coordinator, despite the fact that meals are served by a machine, these are not highly processed meals; they do not contain preservatives and are prepared from fresh ingredients. "These are restaurant meals prepared by a chef" - added Jopek.

The creators emphasize that their project is distinguished by the innovative application of flash freezing technology, to which meals are subjected, as well as a hybrid heating system. "The meals are cooled to the temperature of -20 degrees, which allows to keep them fresh and preserves their good quality. We use a special technology for heating food - high power infrared lamps are responsible for the baking effect, so the food does not look like from a microwave" - explained the coordinator.

The machine supervision system is also innovative. "We have a full remote control over the device and we know what is happening with the machine in every moment" - added Jopek.

Students admitted that the road to building the machine was long. The idea appeared already in 2011, and work on the construction took for 7 years. Jopek said that it is difficult to start an innovative company in Poland. "The problems are administrative barriers, among other things" - he said.

The creators of the Bistrobot technology are starting work on a series of five more robots and, as they emphasize, by the end of this year there will be fifty of them. "We intend to place machines in various locations. Suitable places include hospitals, office buildings and all places that have daytime traffic" - the project coordinator told PAP.

Another Food Robotics project, developed in cooperation with the Provincial Specialist Hospital, is a bionic hand, which will be first put on the patient in the first quarter of 2018.

Source: PAP - Science in Poland

15.01.2018

http://www.poland.gov.pl/science/ac...-and-graduates-have-built-robot-serves-meals/

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

This thread brings back memories of my first job running a lathe.
The owner Marion Marshal,God rest his soul,hired his nephews so they'd have a job and to shut up his brother about getting his son a job.
When the little polack showed up for his first day on the job and Marion handed him a print his nephew looked at it and asked Marion what a Polish finish was.

I shit you not this actually happened.

 

[xyz]

Why is this in "Race Relations/Racism"?

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

In 1916, Polish scientist Jan Czochralski devised something fundamental to today’s electronic devices. Even though this discovery secured him a place among the scientific greats, for decades his name was shrouded in obscurity in his homeland. He was even accused of collaborating with Poland’s wartime enemies, despite working for the resistance. Culture.pl investigates the twists and turns in the remarkable life of a true renaissance man.

The brains of a computer

Jan Czochralski in the office at the Warsaw University of Technology, photo taken probably after Poland occupied by the Germans, photo: Forum
When you enter the phrase ‘the Czochralski method’ into a search engine, you find that it appears in countless scientific publications from across the world, many of them very recent. The Czochralski method is actually so widespread that its creator, Jan Czochralski, is sometimes called ‘the most quoted Polish scientist’. What is it that draws so much attention and causes its creator to be often mentioned among the cream of Polish science, together with such figures as Mikołaj Kopernik and Maria Curie-Skłodowska? Well, nothing really, apart from the fact that without it, our global information society wouldn’t exist.

The Czochralski method is used to manufacture monocrystals including silicone ones, which are fundamental in the production of microchips – the brains of computers. If not for the method, computers, cell phones and other modern electronic devices simply wouldn’t be there. Quite strikingly, despite the significance of Czochralski’s discovery, its story was shrouded in obscurity for decades in his homeland – the communist regime had condemned the scientist to being forgotten. Read on to find out what led to this perplexing state of things and to discover Czochralski’s life story, scientific achievements and his deep admiration for culture.

Nazi Collaborator or Resistance Fighter: The Extraordinary Story Behind The Man at the Core of The Digital Revolution

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

Photo: promotional materials

3 Tech-Savvy Polish Furniture Designs for Your Workspace
#design
Author: Marek Kępa
Published: Jan 26 2017
Share
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A chair that connects with your smartphone and tells you how to sit properly, award-winning acoustic panels that let you create your own personalised comfort zone, and a touch-operated electric table. Just three modern Polish designs that will make your workspace more efficient and pleasant.

Judging a book by its cover
The galloping technological development of recent years has impacted our lives in countless ways, many we’ve quickly become accustomed to. For example, the advantages of a smartphone, once considered very progressive, are often viewed as ordinary from today’s perspective. Still, in our vastly technological world there are things that seem to have retained much of their traditional features, and furniture is definitely one of them.

Ladeco electric desk, photo: promo materials
Tables, chairs and other objects of the sort have the same basic functions they have had for ages and many of the newest furniture designs are similar in shape to those well-known from the past. However, as we all know, judging a book by its cover can be misleading. Nowadays a piece of furniture, even one that isn’t futuristically styled, can pack cutting-edge technology that adds new functions or enhances existing ones. Here we take a look at three modern furniture designs from Poland that use technology to a specific end: making your workspace a more efficient and pleasant place.

Navigo Smart
This office chair wirelessly connects with a smartphone or computer to provide various data concerning its users. It comes with four pressure sensors in the seat and two in the back, as well as a gyroscope and accelerometer that keep track of your posture while you sit in it. Equipped with a microcomputer as well, Navigo Smart tells you how to sit properly, that is, in a way that’s healthy for your back, wrists, etc. It informs you about your position as you go about your day, helping you generate good sitting habits. The seat also provides statistics of desk occupancy rates which can be used to arrange an office’s layout efficiently. It even checks the room temperature, a condition that has a big influence on people’s performance at work.

Navigo Smart, photo: promo materials
Smartly designed to provide comfort and ease of movement, the chair is manufactured by one of Poland’s leading furniture company’s Grupa Nowy Styl. You may have already encountered their seats – they were used in the stadium stands of last year’s Euro football tournament in France.

VANK_wall
A piece of furniture, or an interior object if you will, whose technological advancement lies not in its electronics (it has none), but in its make-up. VANK_wall is a mobile acoustic screen that lets you create your personalised comfort zone within a larger space. However, unlike many other things that let you separate yourself from the world, it takes into account the impact your seclusion has on the bigger picture. Namely, VANK_wall is made from bio-degradable wool and recycled aluminium that can be re-processed again if necessary.

VANK_wall, photo: promotional materials
Apart from being eco-friendly, VANK_wall is also quite progressive as the manufacture of aluminium furniture poses a big engineering challenge (it requires specific know-how and machinery) which is why only a handful of European companies take it up. Specially designed to stimulate creativeness with its asymmetrical surface, the wall comes as an on-floor screen, a table-top screen or as a booth. Last year it won its Polish producer, VANK, the prestigious iF design award.

Ladeco electric desk
At first glance it looks like a tasteful, but ordinary office table without any special features. That impression fades the moment you put your hand on the logo of its manufacturer, Ladeco, in one of the desktop’s corners. Touching it causes the table to smoothly start lowering itself. If you touch the bottom of the desktop in the same corner, it will go upward. This nifty height adjustability isn’t just meant to amuse, it lets you work standing or sitting at the table.

Ladeco electric desk, photo: promo materials
Changing your position now and again when working an office job is recommended for health reasons, precisely what the table enables you to do with great ease and without leaving your work unattended. Ladeco, a Polish company with ties to the Pomeranian Science and Technology Park in the city of Gdynia, an organisation which facilitates the growth of innovative businesses, has called its design simply ‘electric desk’. Apart from the touch-operated version, models controlled by an ergonomic panel and a smartphone are also available

3 Tech-Savvy Polish Furniture Designs for Your Workspace

 

[irosie91]

Is this "TAKE A POLACK TO LUNCH" month?

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

Operation Simoom[1] (Polish: Operacja Samum) was a top secret Polish intelligence operation conducted in Iraq in 1990.

In 1990 the CIA asked European intelligence agencies to assist in the withdrawal of six American operatives (a mix of CIA and DIA officers) investigating Iraqi troops movements in Iraq before the Gulf War.[2] Several countries, such as the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France refused to help in such a dangerous operation; only Poland agreed to help.[2]

Poland had connections in Iraq due to Polish engineering firms' construction work throughout the country[2] and sent a few operatives to start working on the operation. Gromosław Czempiński[3] became the commander of this operation, assigned to it by Polish Minister of Internal Affairs and first chief of Urząd Ochrony Państwa, Krzysztof Kozłowski.[2] Ironically, Czempiński has previously been a spy in the United States and either took part or led many operations against the Western intelligence services.[2] The main plan was to reestablish contact with the hiding American spies and give them Polish passports so they could escape from Iraq in a bus, alongside Polish and Russian workers.

The six agents were hiding in Kuwait and Baghdad for several weeks before the escape was carried out.[2] The operation was very difficult because the Iraqis started to suspect some kind of American-Polish intrigue.[2]

The agents were given refuge at a Polish construction camp, and then provided with passports and put on a refugee bus. An Iraqi officer at checkpoint on the border had studied in Poland and spoke Polish well enough to communicate. When the bus arrived at the border, he asked one of the American spies a question in Polish. Since the spy did not know Polish at all, he pretended to be heavily drunk (another version states that the operative in question fainted). Nevertheless, the bus managed to cross the border with all occupants.[2] Poles moved the agents out of Iraq and into the safety of Turkey.[2] Operatives from both sides returned to their countries. Polish forces rescued not only the agents but also secret maps—detailed maps of various military installations and of crucial points in the capital of Baghdad itself—apparently crucial for Operation Desert Storm.[2][3]

As a reward for Poland's help, the US government promised they would urge other governments to cancel half, or $16.5 billion, of Poland's foreign debt.[4]

In at least two other operations, the Poles later aided another 15 foreigners to escape, mostly Britons, held hostage by the Iraqis as part of Saddam Hussein's "human shield" campaign to deter an allied invasion.[2]

Operation Simoom - Wikipedia

Information about this operation was first revealed in 1995 by The Washington Post.[3][4] In 1999, Polish director Władysław Pasikowski made a movie, Operacja Samum about this operation; it was the first Polish production co-financed by Warner Bros. and third by HBO.[3]

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

The Polish Man Who Sent a Car to the Moon
Opublikowano: 15/05/2017 11:34 am


Phot. Museum of WUT

We look with fascination at our students building satellites, rockets, stratospheric balloons, and Martian rovers. However, the Warsaw University of Technology’s affair with space began much earlier, with Mieczysław Bekker, a WUT graduate.

Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, “small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” – these are obvious associations when thinking about the first successful human trip to the Moon. It was 20 July 1969, when the world was filled with exhilaration, and the impossible became possible.

Mieczysław Bekker also had a great part in the success of lunar landing programs. He is a constructor almost unknown in Poland and forgotten in the United States, a graduate of the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering.

Engineer Needed Immediately

Mieczysław Bekker was born on 25 May 1905 in the Strzyżów village in the Lublin province. His father, Marian Wasyl Bekker, was a specialist working in the confectionery industry. Mieczysław Bekker spent his school years in Konin, where he graduated from the humanistic Tadeusz Kościuszko Gymnasium. What’s interesting, he was known even then as an analytic mind: he allegedly trained his mathematical skills on a wooden gate in the yard, which served as his blackboard.

He studied at the Warsaw University of Technology’s then Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, from which he graduated in 1929. In the meantime, he completed his internship at a Renault factory near Paris. After completing his military service in 1929–1931 at the Sapper Cadet School in Modlin, he returned to the University where he was hired. Until the Second World War, he had been a lecturer at the Warsaw University of Technology’s Military School, where he created the Special Vehicles Laboratory. At the time, he devised and gave lectures on the movement of wheels or tracks on loose ground. 30 years later, Bekker’s achievements with respect to this topic gave rise to a new branch of mechanics: terramechanics. At the same time, he worked on vehicles intended for the Polish Army. The army, which had been undergoing modernization at the time, preparing for future military turbulences, very much required modern technology. Bekker had been, among other things, a member of the team that prepared military car designs: Polish Fiat 508 “Łazik” [Rover], Polish Fiat 508/518, and Polish Fiat 518.

War had interrupted his research and construction works. At first, he participated in the September Campaign; then, together with retreating armies, he crossed the border with Romania. From there he moved to France, where he was hired as a recognised specialist by the Tank Division of the Ministry of Armaments in Paris. France’s defeat in June 1940 forced him to move to Marseilles, where he remained for two years. However, Bekker’s genius could not be wasted. In 1942, the Canadian government made him an offer to take a position at the Armoured Weapons Research Office. With the consent of the Polish government-in-exile, he had also served in the Canadian army in 1943–1956. His career had been gaining ground: in 1956, he moved to the USA, where he worked at the Military Laboratory of All-Terrain Vehicles, and he gave lectures at universities. Bekker achieved his greatest successes overseas: he became a professor of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, as well as the director of the General Motors Research Institute in Santa Barbara.


Apollo 17-Lunar Roving Vehicle and Eugene Cernan, phot. NASA, Wikipedia/pd

Star Wars

It was October 1st, 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik in space. The satellite was the size of a large beach volleyball and caused fear and intensified political debate in the United States. President Eisenhower’s administration replied by establishing NASA. It had begun the space race between the USA and the USSR. Both countries had begun intensified works on space technologies. The 60s saw the launch of the Apollo program, which was supposed to land the man on the Moon and – of course – bring him safely back to Earth.

In 1961, NASA announced a competition for a vehicle that would travel on the Moon. Naturally, Mieczysław Bekker and his team began their concept works. What’s interesting, his competition included a team... of another graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology, engineer Stanisław Rogalski, working for Grumman. Eight years later, the competition’s winner was selected – it was Mieczysław Bekker and his Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). The vehicle was built by General Motors and Boeing. Professor Bekker was the author of all technological solutions that allowed the LRV to travel on the lunar surface.

The Lunar Vehicle

Professor Bekker’s knowledge of adapting wheels to various terrain types was key to building a machine appropriate for lunar conditions. And the LRV’s wheels were the engineers’ most difficult problem. Classic tyres would not work right on a surface covered with moon dust. Constructors also had to consider the difficult terrain shape. Moon’s temperature (or rather – its fluctuations) was also a problem: it varied from +200 to -130 degrees Celsius.

Therefore, Bekker decided to build the wheels using a material (used to manufacture grand piano strings) woven in a mesh with attached titan strips. Each LRV wheel was powered by a separate engine: each generating approx. 0.25 HP. Due to weight limitations of the structure, on-board batteries allowed a maximum range of 92 km. It was also due to safety reasons – if the vehicle broke, astronauts should be in such a distance from the base that could be safely covered on foot.

Bekker’s vehicle weighed nearly 200 kg (even less, considering Moon’s gravity), could fold in half, and carry two astronauts with samples they were carrying.


phot. NASA, Wikipedia/pd

Moon Trip

The LRV first touched down on the Moon’s surface on 30 July 1971, during the Apollo 15 mission. Mieczysław Bekker was 66 then. His vehicles also participated in the next two Apollo missions. Three deployments took place during the first one (Apollo 15), where the astronauts travelled 27.9 km in the LRV. The second LRV – during Apollo 16 – travelled 27.1 km, while the third one (Apollo 17) travelled 36.1 km. None of Bekker’s vehicles returned to Earth – all of them remained on the Moon, forever. What was the WUT graduate’s input in the development of space technologies? We believe that as much as 90% of information that we had managed to gather during manned lunar space flights was obtained due to mobility provided by the LRV to the astronauts. Because Bekker’s vehicles remained on the Moon, one of the LRV’s cameras filmed the departure of Apollo 17’s crew from the satellite’s surface.

Professor Bekker wrote many scientific papers. He was the author of three key papers on the topic of all-terrain vehicles: “Theory of land locomotion” (1956), “Off-the-road locomotion” (1960), and “Introduction to terrain vehicle” (1969), wherein he presented the modern theory of locomotion of all-terrain vehicles.

Mieczysław Bekker’s scientific achievements were reflected in many awards. In 1962, the Technical University of Munich granted him an honorary doctorate. The Carleton University in Ottawa also gave him an honorary doctorate. However, due to his health, he wasn’t able to receive his next honorary doctorate from the University of Bologna in Italy. Mieczysław Bekker died in Santa Barbara, California on 8 January 1989. He was 84.

The Polish Man Who Sent a Car to the Moon

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

Why Poland is a top FDI destination
By Euronews
last updated: 23/01/2018
Advertisement feature presented by

In 2018, Poland will be home to Europe\u2019s largest lithium-ion battery factory, poised to fill growing demand for electric vehicle (EV) components \u2014a sector whose value is expected to top $240 billion USD in the next two decades.<\/p>","second":"\n
Korea\u2019s largest chemical company, Seoul-based LG Chem, is spending $1.63 billion USD on the EV battery plant in Kobierzyce \u2013 while creating 729 jobs.<\/p>\n
Poland has built a reputation as a regional production hub for automotive parts and accessories, counting GM\/Opel, Volvo, Fiat and Volkswagen among its veteran investors. Free access to the 500 million-strong European market and an educated local workforce, are just two benefits that have drawn businesses across many sectors to the Central European country.<\/p>\n
German automotive corporation Daimler has started building its first Mercedes-Benz factory in Poland, a \u20ac500 million new engine production plant in Jawor. Factors weighing in Poland\u2019s favour included: location, size, shape, and logistics advantages of the site, along with top local human resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast but not least,\u201d added Ewa \u0141abno-Fal\u0119cka, Ph.D., Head of Corporate Communication and External Affairs, Mercedes-Benz Polska, \u201cthe professionalism of our reliable Polish partners: the government and its agencies such as PAIH, as well as local government bodies and Wa\u0142brzych Special Economic Zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Such foreign direct investment has been steadily streaming in, with the economy growing on average four percent a year since the early 90s when Poland introduced market-skewed structural reforms to help it develop an open, free market economy.<\/p>\n
Today, the nation boasts \u20ac176 billion in total FDI. This has helped invigorate its economy with a stable banking system \u2014 acting as a motor for domestic innovation and growth.<\/p>\n
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Poland\u2019s success story<\/strong><\/h2>
Outside the automotive industry, Poland has made great strides in securing significant
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In 2018, Poland will be home to Europe’s largest lithium-ion battery factory, poised to fill growing demand for electric vehicle (EV) components —a sector whose value is expected to top $240 billion USD in the next two decades.

Korea’s largest chemical company, Seoul-based LG Chem, is spending $1.63 billion USD on the EV battery plant in Kobierzyce – while creating 729 jobs.

Poland has built a reputation as a regional production hub for automotive parts and accessories, counting GM/Opel, Volvo, Fiat and Volkswagen among its veteran investors. Free access to the 500 million-strong European market and an educated local workforce, are just two benefits that have drawn businesses across many sectors to the Central European country.

German automotive corporation Daimler has started building its first Mercedes-Benz factory in Poland, a €500 million new engine production plant in Jawor. Factors weighing in Poland’s favour included: location, size, shape, and logistics advantages of the site, along with top local human resources.

“Last but not least,” added Ewa Łabno-Falęcka, Ph.D., Head of Corporate Communication and External Affairs, Mercedes-Benz Polska, “the professionalism of our reliable Polish partners: the government and its agencies such as PAIH, as well as local government bodies and Wałbrzych Special Economic Zone.”

Such foreign direct investment has been steadily streaming in, with the economy growing on average four percent a year since the early 90s when Poland introduced market-skewed structural reforms to help it develop an open, free market economy.

Today, the nation boasts €176 billion in total FDI. This has helped invigorate its economy with a stable banking system — acting as a motor for domestic innovation and growth.

Poland’s success story
Outside the automotive industry, Poland has made great strides in securing significant investments from all over the globe, in a range of sectors — such as aviation, food processing, business service centres and business software research and development.

It ranks second as an FDI destination in Europe, by jobs created, surpassing even Germany. A big internal market, access to subcontractors and raw materials, skilled and efficient talent pool with foreign language proficiency, as well as central location and convenient time zone have all been magnets for foreign capital. So has a steady economy with plenty of growth potential.

The ‘Big Three’ (credit ratings agencies) have described Poland’s economic outlook as stable. And FTSE Russell has just upgraded its status — from ‘advanced emerging’ to ‘developed’ market.

For over 25 years, its diversified economy has grown continuously and doubled in its size, based on real GDP. In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, Poland was the only EU member state to evade recession, while its banks increased private sector lending to meet the downturn’s demand.

Central Europe’s shared services capital, rich in reinvestment
Poland, with its relatively low cost base and world-class human capital, has carved out an important niche for itself in high-quality shared services centres (SSC) and business service centres (BSS)

FDI in BSS in Poland is responsible for adding over 200,000 jobs to the market — many in the financial sector. Recently, some of those institutions have chosen Poland as a safe harbour for their back-office operations in the wake of Britain’s decision to leave the EU.

Multinational United States bank JPMorgan Chase is poised to establish an operational centre for its mid- and back-office positions in Warsaw, joining industry peer Goldman Sachs, which opened one in 2011.

Credit Suisse — one of six top investors in Poland’s business service sector, alongside Citibank, Nokia, IBM, Capgemini and Atos — set up an SSC in Warsaw in 2016. Crucially, the Zurich-headquartered multinational is a re-investor, having opened an office in Wroclaw over a decade ago.

In 2016, reinvestment, a key component of Poland’s FDI inflows, approached 42.3 percent in its totality. Ninety-two percent of global investors surveyed in 2017 by the Polish Investment and Trade Agency (PAIH), HSBC and Grand Thornton reported satisfaction with their decision to put their money into Poland, and said they would do so again. Among them, Xavier Douellou, Managing Director, 3M Poland has said: “Poland’s highly-qualified people and stable economic situation attract [interests] like 3M, which want to grow here to expand internationally."

A business-friendly innovation hub for entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs
“Poland is open for business and offers a broad range of investment incentives,” says Wojciech Fedko, executive vice-president of PAIH.

Government grants, tax relief and access to European funds “are available on equal terms and conditions to foreign and Polish investors,” he adds.”We are here to guide investors through the business opportunities the country offers, helping them to manage the business risk of entering the new market.”

R&D is one of the seven areas the Polish government has targeted for additional support via investment grants to businesses. Local companies and institutions can also benefit from R&D centres and related collaborations, which enable technology transfer from multinationals to domestic firms.

In the same vein, entrepreneurship in Poland blends with cutting-edge tech industry knowledge to create a vibrant startup culture. Google opened one of its campuses in Warsaw in 2015. There, pioneering minds meet, up-skill and develop game-changing businesses — blazing a trail to the next Facebook or Brainly.

Independent incubators like the one in Kraków Technology Park (KTP) play a part in expanding budding businesses too. Its grounds are home to economic clusters as well — inter-organisational cooperations which Poland promotes under various themes, such as the Visegrád Group nations.

In addition, KTP is designated one of Poland’s 14 Special Economic Zones — where companies investing over €100,000 can optimise their expenditure through Corporate Income Tax exemptions, competitive land pricing and government support.

Bespoke advice for investors
Somewhere between multinationals and startups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) have found a business-friendly home in Poland — which ranks 27th overall among 190 economies in the World Bank’s latest Ease of Doing Business report.

American entrepreneur John Lynch — 2017’s FDI Poland Investor Awards ‘Expat CEO of the Year’ — has run promotional merchandise supplier SME Lynka in Poland for over 25 years. He has experienced its commercial growth and sophistication firsthand: “Poland has become a business-friendly country: relatively low taxes, less bureaucratic, lots of improvements in that area.”

The Polish government provides such decision-makers with tools like the Constitution for Business legal packet. Among its goals: to simplify the legal system, and promote non-adversarial commercial dispute resolution such as mediation. SMEs can also learn about financing schemes which focus on day-to-day operations and investments, respectively.

While both large companies and SMEs can benefit from the government’s R&D tax relief for wages and personnel, qualifying SMEs receive an additional tax deduction of 50 percent for their costs in obtaining intellectual property.
Why Poland is a top FDI destination

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

23rd October 2017, Lodz

Polish researchers develop layered textile solutions for premature infants
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A team of researchers from Poland’s Lodz University of Technology (LUT) is working to develop innovative textile clothing for premature infants that is to protect them against dehydration and ensure thermal stability through special layered textile systems.

Izabella Krucińska, a professor at the university’s Department of Material and Commodity Sciences and Textile Metrology Activity and the project’s coordinator, told Innovation in Textiles that the project has secured funding from the European Union funds, transferred to the project team by the state-run National Centre for Research and Development (NCRD).

“The overall objective of the project is to develop innovative solutions for the construction of clothing products for prematurely born infants. These new products should reduce dehydration due to evaporation, and, at the same time, provide thermal comfort,” Krucińska said.

According to a study by Rachel S. Meyers from the State University of New Jersey, published in the Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics, dehydration can exert a major impact on newborns.

“Total body water content changes drastically from before birth until one year of age. At 24 weeks gestational age, a baby's total body water content is close to 80% of total body weight. This slowly decreases until the child is around one year of age, when total body water content is about 60% of total body weight,” the study says. “After birth, infants are expected to lose approximately 5%-15% of their body weight, with more being lost in low birth weight infants.”

This said, according to Krucińska, there are no textile products that would be designed for premature infants and available on the Polish market.

“The cotton knitwear that is currently used [to protect such infants] causes thermal discomfort because the water that is absorbed from an infant’s body and its surrounding evaporates, and, as a result, it reduces its body temperature,” Krucińska said.

Asked about the potential for the solution’s further commercialisation in cooperation with an industry partner, the professor confirms that, once the prototype is developed and undergoes tests, the researchers plan to launch production of the solution to introduce it to the market.

It is noteworthy that Lodz, where the university is based, is also the centre of Poland's textile industry. Before Poland’s transformation into a market economy and the fall of Communism in 1989, Lodz served as the powerhouse of the country’s textile industry, but since then, numerous textile producers have been forced to close their operations due to increased market pressure from more price-competitive foreign manufacturers.

On a brighter note, over the past few years, the Polish authorities have taken steps to stimulate the industry’s growth with the use of EU funds. Among others, about PLN 400 million (EUR 94.5 million) is to be provided fund research and development activities by Lodz-based textile industry players under the Innotextile programme in the financial framework for the years 2014 to 2020. The funds are to be allocated to various research and development (R&D) activities on innovative textiles, such as hydrotextiles, geotextiles and agritextiles, and their production by local companies.

However, regarding its potential export sales, Krucińska said that for now, the team behind the project is focusing on implementing its textile products in the Polish market.

“Under the agreement signed with the NCBR, we must first implement this solution on the Polish market in cooperation with a Polish company,” according to the professor.

To fund the first phase of the necessary R&D work on the project, an allocation of more than PLN 617,000 (EUR 146,000) was provided to the research team.

It is noteworthy that Krucińska and some other researchers from the Lodz-based university are part of a consortium that is developing innovative bioactive textiles enabled with healing capacities and intended for dermatological patients. The new textiles will allow to produce clothing that has the capacity to treat dermatoses with the use of microspheres containing active herbal extracts. The consortium was set up by Poland’s research unit Institute of Natural Fibres and Medicinal Plants (IWNiRZ), and includes the LUT, Poznan University of Medical Sciences and local textile industry player Marko-Kolor sp. J.

Similarly to the latest project on clothing for premature infants, the R&D work on these textiles, implemented under the Bioakod project, was also supported by funds obtained from the NCRD.

Polish researchers develop layered textile solutions for premature infants

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

CHILDREN BENEFIT FROM EXOSKELETON MADE ON SINTERIT DESKTOP SLS 3D PRINTER
BEAU JACKSON AUGUST 01ST 2017 - 1:32PM 4 0
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In partnership with 3D printer manufacturer Sinterit, designer Bartłomiej Gaczorek has designed a custom fitting exoskeleton for children with SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy).

The genetic condition, which can severely impede the lives of young children, causes a loss of movement in limbs due to dysfunctional nerves.

With adequate equipment however, many children with SMA can find the support they need to keep healthy and active.


Laser sintered joints on Gaczorek’s specially designed exoskeleton. Image via Sinterit
Parent-approved

The exoskeleton project was launched by Gaczorek after receiving a call from a parent asking for assistance. At this point, the family had tried many 3D printed designs for their 3 year old son, but none had been sufficient in meeting the requirements.

A primary criteria of the design was that comfort should remain paramount throughout the device’s conception. Second, but also important, was the cost to produce the arm, and also the reliability of its design and materials.

Taking these needs into account, the arm was created by Gaczorek with consideration of other supportive exoskeletons on the market, and consultation with parents, doctors and physiotherapists who understand the condition.


Gaczorek’s specially designed exoskeleton to be worn as support on a child’s arm. Image via Sinterit
SLS is the best solution

Gaczorek CAD modeled the exoskeleton using Autodesk’s award winning 3D design software Fusion 360. It was then 3D printed on a Sinterit Lisa desktop SLS 3D printer.

“I decided to print main elements in SLS technology,” says Gaczorek, “because it is able to print complex internal structure. [A] very important factor for me is also the comfort of user which is much better with SLS/SLA than with FDM technology.”

The cost of production was also significantly cheaper than the market’s industrial alternative.


The Sinterit Lisa 3D printer. Photo via Sinterit

Children benefit from exoskeleton made on Sinterit desktop SLS 3D printer

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

by Jacek Krywko
on Feb 08, 2018
International Space Station (ISS) is the largest human-made body in the low Earth orbit. Sixteen modules, launched and assembled from 1998 to 2011, provide 32,898 cu ft of pressurized volume for a crew of 6 astronauts to do research in physics, astrobiology, astronomy, space medicine, life sciences, and many other fields. Keeping the ISS operational sometimes requires maintenance to be done outside the station, in the harsh and hostile space environment. Astronauts do this during extravehicular activities or EVA’s, commonly referred to as spacewalks.

An astronaut on a spacewalk around the International Space Station. Credits: NASA/JSC.

So far, there have been over 200 such spacewalks devoted to adding new modules and keeping the existing ones in good technical shape—more than 1250 hours spent in space. All this work would not have been possible without thoroughly designed tools. Designing them is a job of engineers at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston aided by Zortrax M200 and M300 3D printers.

BACKGROUND
NASA divides its tasks down into two main categories: nominal, and off-nominal. The former are all things the agency is comfortably able to plan for in advance. Engineers can take their time in prototyping tools for nominal tasks as most of the relevant variables are known beforehand: what are the mission’s technical requirements, what are the conditions the tool is going to be used in, what it is supposed to accomplish. Since the development process of space-related technologies is relatively lengthy, the most of nominal tools being used at the ISS today are described in EVA Tools and Equipment Reference Book issued by NASA JSC back in November 1993. There has been no need to update it since then.

An astronaut performing maintenance tasks during a spacewalk outside the ISS. Credits: NASA/JSC.

Tools for off-nominal tasks, though, are an entirely different story. Such devices are needed for dealing with the unexpected. The team at NASA JSC has to design, prototype, test, and deliver tools for very specific scenarios on short notice. This is usually where rapid prototyping technologies like 3D printing come into play.

GOALS
Challenges NASA engineers face in designing the tools for EVAs arise from extreme conditions the station operates in. The ISS is orbiting the Earth roughly 250 mi above the surface at a staggering 17,200 mph. Every 24 hours, it goes through 16 cycles of light and darkness.

The ISS seen from a departing spacecraft. Credits: NASA.

While Earth’s gravity at the station’s altitude is more or less the same as the one we experience on the ground, the ISS, like all other objects in orbit, is in a continuous state of free fall resulting in apparent weightlessness. With no air to conduct heat, the Sun-facing side of the ISS is exposed to over 250 degrees F while the dark side, at the same time, goes as low as minus 250 F. Same differences in temperatures between the shade and sunlight apply to astronauts and their tools working outside without thermal control systems to protect them.

Astronaut Mark Vande Hei taking a selfie during a spacewalk on Oct. 10, 2017. Credits: NASA.

To survive and operate in space, astronauts wear two-piece, semi-rigid Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs) commonly referred to as spacesuits. EMUs offer a hair above 8 hours of life support and provide operating pressure of 29.6 kPa, but they are very uncomfortable making precise hand movements difficult due to pressurized gloves.

Hence the tool design team at NASA JSC has three main challenges to overcome in their work. First they need to make sure the tool can be utilized by an astronaut wearing a spacesuit with pressurized gloves. Second, they need to make sure the tool functions in the harsh space environment. Third, they need to make tools intuitive and easy to use for all astronauts. Pulling this off takes lots of iterating on various designs. And lots of 3D printed concepts.

PROCESS
The tools’ design process starts when an astronaut, an EVA planner, or someone else will realize that a certain tool is needed that doesn’t already exist. Various stakeholders will get together formally and informally to start determining the tool requirements. Then the team will start to brainstorm ideas and usually model up concepts in CAD. These days, with the advent of additive manufacturing, the team also ends up 3D printing prototypes useful in determining which concepts are better than others. Engineers then continue to iterate on designs keeping the relevant stakeholders informed and getting their opinion as the designs get more and more detailed. Eventually, the final concept is selected and the rest of the team’s effort is focused on ensuring that design will work in space.

A 3D printed prototype of an EVA GoPro casing astronaut Mark Vande Hei used during a spacewalk on Oct. 10, 2017. Credits: NASA/JSC.

To an extent, space as the tools’ intended environment determines which post-processing techniques make sense for NASA JSC engineers. Each 3D printed model needs a few finishing touches to be done. The first step is to remove support structures. Then the team goes on to drilling holes depending on the exact size needed and adding thread holes where necessary. Next goes installing inserts and sometimes sanding of edges.

A 3D printed prototype of an EVA GoPro casing. Credits: NASA/JSC.

Because the tools for astronauts require impeccable dimensional accuracy, the team initially had minor issues with holes’ diameters turning out to be slightly lower than intended due to shrinkage, an inherent property of all ABS-based materials. The problem has been solved by adjusting appropriate advanced settings in Z-SUITE. Specifically, the engineers utilized the OFFSET feature, an option that allows a user to modify outer contours and holes dimensions of a model, to control for shrinkage. Overall, the team 3D prints with three dedicated Zortrax materials: Z-ABS, Z-HIPS, and Z-ULTRAT. Parts of tools intended for space are very rarely glued, as most of known glues would not withstand extreme temperatures around the ISS. Hence, the tools are designed to be bolted, rather than glued together.

Having the design chosen and 3D printed, the team proceeds to the testing phase. Back in March 2015, when NASA JSC bought the first Zortrax 3D printer, prototypes 3D printed with Z-ABS provided a means to hold the tool in hand early in the process and get rid of the design flaws that had eluded the engineers during the CAD modeling stage. However, with stronger materials like Z-ULTRAT, the team opted for running more demanding tests on 3D printed tools. Today, functional 3D printed prototypes undergo tests in Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory(NBL), a vast pool located at NASA JSC’s property.

Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) at NASA JSC. Credits: NASA/JSC.

The NBL is 202 ft long, 102 ft wide, and 40 ft deep containing 6.2 million gallons of water—enough to hold full-scale mock-ups of the ISS modules. Because the facility is used for astronauts’ training, it also provides an opportunity to test various tools’ designs. The goal of using 3D printed prototypes at the NBL is to determine reach and access into worksites.

Astronauts during a test and training session at the NBL. Credits: NASA/JSC.

After the NBL testing phase is done, 3D printed prototypes have served their purpose. Further tests like putting tools into vacuum or thermal chambers are performed with devices made of end-use materials suitable for space environment.

A 3D printed prototype of an EVA GoPro casing. Credits: NASA/JSC.

Predictably, the time needed for the prototyping process depends on the tool and its complexity. The urgency or need date of the tool can also determine how quickly the team has to deliver a finalized design. For simple tools, the NASA JSC engineers have been able to design, build, test, and deliver a fully functional device within 3 weeks. Currently though, the team is involved in a very complex project with 3 years of lead time.

RESULTS
Engineers at NASA JSC have been using the Zortrax M200 since March 2015 and the Zortrax M300 since April 2017. As of January 25 2018, the 3D printers have had slightly over 3000 hours of runtime: 2163 hours on the M200 and 838 hours on the M300 respectively. During that time, both machines combined 3D printed over 1350 parts in nearly 450 work cycles. The Eva GoPro, a casing for a popular video camera that provides a handheld High Definition video option for astronauts on spacewalks is one of the tools prototyped on Zortrax machines. It’s been used on multiple spacewalks since 2015. During the development process, NASA JSC engineers 3D printed different concepts for how to contain this camera so it could work in space.

Astronaut Mark Vande Hei using the end-use version of an EVA GoPro casing during a spacewalk on Oct. 10, 2017. Credits: NASA.

Another example are tools designed for NEEMO, one of the NASA’s permanent analog missions set underwater to replicate conditions astronauts experience in space. In support of the NEEMO 20 mission, the nail holder was produced with the Zortrax M200 3D printer at the request of the aquanauts, NASA crews working underwater. They were in need of a better way to hold nails, which they were using to mark locations in which they sampled the coral reef. The engineers at NASA JSC designed, modeled, and 3D printed the holder as specified and had it delivered to the aquanauts within 24 hours.

CONCLUSIONS
Before getting Zortrax 3D printers, NASA JSC engineers would make prototypes out of metal. They’d use the same process as they do now, modeling their concepts in CAD, making drawings, and having them machined at a machine shop. However, they were not able to iterate on their designs as much as they do today due to relatively high cost of CNC machining parts out of metal. Other 3D printers were being used around at NASA JSC at that time, but only a couple of people had them.

The ISS photographed from the departing space shuttle Atlantis. Credits: NASA.

3D Printers at NASA - Prototyping Tools for Spacewalks | Zortrax

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

Paweł Pawlikowski holding his Best Director Award in Cannes, 19.05.2018, photo: Regis Duvignau/REUTERS/Forum

Paweł Pawlikowski Wins Best Director At Cannes 2018
#film
Author: Bartosz Staszczyszyn
Published: May 19 2018
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The director of Cold War (Zimna Wojna) has won Best Director at the 71st edition of the Cannes International Film Festival. It's the most impressive Cannes success for Polish cinema since The Pianist won the Palmes D'Or in 2002.

Pawlikowski is the first Pole to win the prestigious Cannes award. Receiving his award, the director of Cold War dedicated it to the late Janusz Głowacki, the co-writer of the film's script.

Cold War competed at Cannes along with twenty other rival productions from all over the world, including Capernaum directed by Nadine Labaki, Dogman by Matteo Garrone, and the Russian production Summer by Kirill Serebrennikov. The films in the main competition were assessed by a jury led by actress Cate Blanchett, including Chang Chen, Ava DuVernay, Robert Guédiguian, Khadja Nin, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Denis Villeneuve and Andriej Zwiagincew.

The Palme D'Or this year went to Kore-Eda Hirozaku's film Shoplifters. The Grand Prix, the second most important award, went to Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman. The Jury Award went to Nadine Labaki for Capernaum, while a special award was given to Jean-Luc Godard for Image Book.

A minimalist melodrama
Janusz Głowacki
A novelist, playwright and screenwriter. He launched his career with superb short stories where he described the cultural and social phenomena of the 1960s and 1970s.
#language & literature#culture

Still from the film Cold War directed by Paweł Pawlikowski, starring Borys Szyc & Jeanne Balibar, photo: promo materials

Cold War is the story of an unusual romance that develops during the 1950s and 60s. The central characters are musicians: Wiktor (Tomasz Kot), a sedate intellectual and composer, and Zula (Joanna Kulig), a lively girl from the provinces with big career aspirations. Pawlikowski shows how they meet but the film moves away from typical melodramatic formulas and linear narration. The proceeding scenes shuffle viewers through time, allowing them to take part in the following chapters of their shared history and fill in the blanks separating later events.

Paweł Pawlikowski
The director Paweł Pawlikowski shoots on treatment, allowing for cast input and on-set improvisation, and is regarded by the BBC as "one of Britain's leading filmmakers". His new hit Ida is currently taking over the world one prize at a time.

#film#culture#turkiye
Called the 'twin' of Pawlikowski's Oscar-winning Ida thanks to another appearance by Łukasza Żal's black-and-white cinematography, the music links folk traditions and jazz, sung poetry and instrumental arrangements to create a soundtrack that enchanted the Cannes critics and audiences alike.

A media favourite
Ida - Paweł Pawlikowski
Paweł Pawlikowski's new film is visually gorgeous, has phenomenal acting and poignantly uses dialogue and symbolism.
#film#culture




After the first couple screenings at Cannes, Cold War was already being pegged as a favourite to win something big. The Independent's Geoffrey McNab called it:

A glorious throwback – a film made with a verve and lyricism which rekindles memories of the glory days of European New Wave cinema.

Vox's Alissa Wilkinson said Cold War was:

Undoubtedly one of the best films in the festival...

Łukasz Żal
Łukasz Żal, born 24th June, 1981, is one of the most talented young cinematographers in Poland. His work on Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida, the most spectacular cinematographic debut in many years, was nominated for an Academy Award for Cinematography.
#film#culture
Meanwhile, The Economist's Prospero blog noted that:

It’s one of those rare films that you could pause at random at any moment, and have an image that’s striking enough to put on the poster.

Various reviews gave glowing praise to both cinematographer Łukasz Żal and the composer Marcin Masecki, as well as the pair in the main role – Tim Robey of The Telegraph compared Joanna Kulig to Jeanne Moreau, while others complimented the restrained dramatic performance of Tomasz Kot.

Polish Cannes

Marcin Masecki - From the Classics to Electro Pop - Video




Cold War was not the only Polish picture at the 71st edition of Cannes. The 2018 programme included six other films with links to Poland. In the main competition alongside Pawlikowski's picture was Sergey Dvortsevoy's Ayka, which features cinematography by Jolanta Dylewska, while the short film competition included IIIby Marta Pajek among its eight contestants. When it came to animation, among those competing for the Cinéfondation prize was The Other by Marta Magnuska from the Łódź Film School.

Photos
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+ 5
Included in the International Critics' Week section was the premiere of Fugue by Agnieszki Smoczyńskiej, director of the much-lauded horror musical The Lure, while the Un Certain Regard section presented the Polish co-production The Harvesters by Etienne Kallos.

Photos
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+ 2
But one of the most long-awaited Polish events of this year's Cannes was the premiere of Another Day of Life directed by Damiana Nenowa i Raúla de la Fuente, an animation-documentary hybrid inspired by the famous reportage journalist Ryszard Kapuściński.



Paweł Pawlikowski Wins Best Director At Cannes 2018

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

Jacek Karpiński: The Computer Genius the Communists Couldn’t Stand
#technology & innovation
Author: Marek Kępa
Published: Aug 7 2017
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In 1970s Poland, the engineer Jacek Karpiński made an incredible technological breakthrough. He created the K-202, a computer which could conduct a million operations per second but was small enough to fit into a briefcase. At a time when computers were not only slower but also comparable in size to large cupboards, this was a remarkable accomplishment. Unfortunately, the communist regime blocked the device from going into production, and here’s why.

A million per second

An advertising leaflet for the K-202 computer, photo: promo materials
The K-202 computer made its debut in 1971 at the Poznań International Fair. It was small enough to fit into a briefcase, and could conduct a million operations per second – many more than the PCs that conquered the world a decade later. In addition, this revolutionary Polish computer cost around $5,000 – not at all pricey given its unique features. On the contrary, it was much cheaper than its main Polish competitor, the Odra computer – a slower and much bigger device, like the many other computers around the globe at the time, around the size of a cupboard.

Despite all of this, two years later, the ingenious constructor of the K-202, Polish inventor Jacek Karpiński, was escorted out of his factory by guards armed with rifles and all of the K-202s in production were thrown out. On top of that, the authorities of the communist regime banned him from creating any other devices.

Why would such a fate befall the would-be Polish Bill Gates or Steve Jobs (as he’s dubbed in today’s Poland)? Why on earth would any country deprive itself of potentially becoming the leader in a vital and cutting-edge field of technology? This article looks into these very questions and looks a bit closer at the man behind the machine: Jacek Karpińśki.

On the roof of Europe

The first days of August 1944, photo: Stefan ‘Kubuś’ Bałuk
Jacek Karpiński was to be born on the roof of Europe, at least that’s what his parents had planned for him. In a 2009 film about him, made toward the end of his life by Polish Television, he says the following:

I was to be born on Mont Blanc, there’s a little hut over there, called maybe Courmayeur. Just below the summit, that’s where I was supposed to come into this world – a completely crazy idea.

Both of his folks were mountaineers, hence this ‘crazy idea’, which they eventually dropped due to the fact that the hut was somewhat Spartan. Jacek was eventually delivered in Torino on 9th April 1927. Nevertheless, this anecdote illustrates the ‘sky-is-the-limit’ mind-set that ran in the Karpiński family and in time would become one of Jacek’s personality traits.

His father, Adam, who was killed by an avalanche while trekking in the Himalayas in 1939, was an aircraft designer. It was he that proposed the construction of a low-wing plane years before that kind of aircraft was first introduced – unfortunately the idea wasn’t approved by his bosses. Jacek’s mother, on the other hand, was a professor who specialised in rehabilitation. She was decorated with one of Poland’s most important awards, the Virtuti Militari, for serving as a liaison officer during the Polish-Bolshevik war.

Jacek went to war himself as well. When he was only 14 years old (claiming he was older), he joined the Polish resistance in World War II. He participated in reconnaissance missions and served alongside Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński, the noted Polish poet who perished in the Warsaw Uprising. Karpiński, who also fought in the Uprising, was shot in the spine, paralysed, and transported out of the Warsaw – and he survived. Fortunately, thanks to his and his mother’s efforts he regained mobility, although he was left with a permanent limp. He never removed the bullet either, it remained in his back for the rest of his days.

You’re fired

The AKAT-1 computer, photo: Wikipedia
After the war, Karpiński completed high school and in 1951 he graduated from the Warsaw University of Technology. He had considered becoming a composer, as he loved music dearly, but in the end he chose to pursue electronics. Even though this may seem unthinkable, as a former freedom fighter he had trouble finding employment upon graduating from university.

After World War II, the communist regime in Poland considered members of the resistance a threat to its existence, convinced that people who had risked their lives to free Poland of its Nazi oppressors could also act to undermine the new Soviet regime. Eventually though, after being thrown out of several workplaces because of his wartime past, he was finally hired at an electronics plant where he constructed a shortwave radio transmitter that proved good enough to be used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

By 1955 Karpiński was working with the Polish Academy of Sciences, where he created, among other things, the AAH mathematical machine, which increased the accuracy of weather forecasts by 10%. In 1959, under the auspices of the academy, he also constructed the world’s first analogue computer which could analyse differential equations – the AKAT-1. The transistor-based device, stylishly designed at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts, was the size of a small desk and showed the results of its work on a built-in screen.

The construction of this computer prompted the Academy of Sciences to register Karpiński for a global technological talent competition organised by UNESCO in 1960. Of course, he won. As a result, he had the opportunity to go to the United States for two years and further his education at Harvard and MIT.

High toxicity
This is how Karpiński described his trip to America in an interview he gave CRN magazine in 2007:

I was treated like a king, which by the way made me feel quite uncomfortable. I was only in my early thirties. After I finished studying, I asked if I could visit a whole list of companies and schools. UNESCO agreed. At Caltech I was greeted by the rector and all the deans, in Dallas – by the city’s mayor. Everybody wanted me to work for them, from IBM to the University [of California] in Berkeley.

Karpiński was even let into what he described later as a ‘top-secret military and government research facility’ where he was able to familiarise himself with American work on artificial intelligence. This all goes to show how seriously he was treated by the Americans, who badly wanted him to stay in their country. Karpińśki, however, decided to return to his homeland, hoping that one day the communist regime would collapse and that his inventions would be able to serve a free Poland, not a foreign country.

In 1962, he returned to Poland and resumed work at the Polish Academy of Sciences. Two years later he presented his Perceptron, a transistor-based neural network hooked up to a camera that could identify shapes shown to it (e.g., a triangle drawn on a piece of paper) and learn by itself. This was only the second such device in the world (the other in the USA) but rather than getting a promotion for his accomplishment, Karpiński had to leave the academy – his superiors grew rather envious of his invention, so much so that he decided to find another place of work, one where the atmosphere was less toxic.

It’s impossible

Jacek Karpiński at the KAR-65 computer, photo: public domain
Karpiński ended up at Warsaw University’s Institute of Experimental Physics. At the time, the institute was receiving far more data from the famous CERN laboratory than it could process. To solve this issue, Karpiński, together with a small team, constructed a computer that would analyse the data concerning collisions of elementary particles. It was ready in 1968, after three years of work.

Called KAR-65, the transistor-based machine was the size of two cupboards and was controlled via a console as big as a desk. It could conduct 100,000 operations per second and served the institute for the next twenty years. Even though this was yet another big success of his, Karpiński had no intention of taking it easy. When working on the KAR-65, he was already thinking about his next project: a computer that could fit into a briefcase. At a time when computers could take up entire rooms this must’ve seemed like ‘a completely crazy idea’. However, unlike his father’s idea to build a low-wing aeroplane, this one was to be realised, even if the road leading to it that was to be a winding one.

What Karpiński had envisioned this time was of a much bigger scope than his earlier technological inventions. He was looking to make a versatile micro-computer (a term used back then to describe computers comparable in size to today’s PCs) not limited to a specific scientific use. At the time a device like that would’ve been at the forefront of international technological development. The Institute of Experimental Physics couldn’t come up with the funds required to back such an ambitious project, so Karpiński decided to go to the army with his idea. Even though there was some initial interest in his micro-computer, the final decision was a no-go. The conclusion was based on the findings of a special committee appointed to review Karpiński’s idea, which argued that the project was impossible to realise, because… if it were possible it would’ve already been done by the Americans.

A little help from my friends

Photo on an advertising leaflet handed out in 1972 at the Poznań International Fair
Karpiński, however, wasn’t going to give up on his project that easily. With the help of a well-connected British friend, he managed to present his idea to a computer specialist in England. Unlike the committee back in Poland, they were enthralled by it, recognising it for what it was – a brilliant design. Karpiński could’ve set up shop on the Isles as the Britons were eager to manufacture his product, but he decided to go back to Poland. Acting on the same principles that made him return from his educational trip to the USA, he wanted to take one more shot at persuading the communist authorities to give his project the go-ahead.

Eventually, thanks to the British specialists’ seal of approval and the help of another friend, a journalist by the name of Stefan Bratkowski who opened some important doors for him, Karpińśki was given the green light. Thus in 1970, the Microcomputers Plant was established. Located in Warsaw, it employed Polish workers but used British components and financing – the required parts weren’t available in Poland and the communists weren’t at all eager to throw money at the project.

A printer, camera, radar

Jacek Karpinski, creator of the K-202 minicomputer, at the Poznań International Fair, photo: Aleksander Jalosiński / Forum
Within a year Karpiński delivered on his idea. He and a team of engineers including Zbysław Szwaj, Elżbieta Jezierska, and Krzysztof Jarosławski, had worked day and night, convinced that they were doing something remarkable – Karpiński’s enthusiasm proved infectious. The result of their efforts was the famous K-202 computer, at the time of its creation an absolutely exceptional piece of hardware.

The K-202 could conduct a million operations per second – many more than the PCs that became popular a decade later. It was designed to be modular, which meant you could connect or disconnect various components of it: memory blocks, ports, etc. Today this may seem obvious but back then it was a revolutionary solution. The 16-bit machine also made use of paging, which according to the Collins English Dictionary is ‘the transfer of pages of data between the main memory of a computer and its auxiliary memory’. Thanks to Karpińki’s skilful implementation of this method of increasing memory, the K-202 could have up to 8 MB, whereas other micro-computers at the time had no more than 64 KB.

It’s believed that Karpiński paved the way for today’s common use of paging in computer memory systems. On top of all this the K-202, running on Karpiński’s original operating system, could have various peripheral devices connected to it: a camera, a printer, even radar. The computer was a multi-purpose device – it could’ve been used in an office or for engineering work. It was also very reasonably priced but, most importantly, its system unit, the case containing the system’s bowels that was connected to an external monitor and keyboard, could fit into a briefcase, just as Karpiński had promised.

Pour tea on it & throw it off the table

The Wrocław Elwro Electronics Plant existed in the years 1959-1993 and produced e.g., calculators as well as Odra and RIAD computers. In the image you can see the mounting of components. Photo: Stanisław Kokurewicz / Forum
One would expect that for such an achievement in the greatly important field of computers sciences Karpiński would get some sort of recognition, a bonus at least… After all thanks to him Poland under the communist regime had the opportunity to become a world leader in technology. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the way things worked back then. There were powerful forces at play trying to ruin Karpiński’s success.

When Karpiński showed the K-202 at the Poznań International Fair in 1971 it drew way more of the authorities’ attention than its main Polish competitor, the slow and bulky Odra. The press was excited, here’s what the weekly Perspektywy wrote about it:

A micro-computer based on fourth-generation electronical components was made, it is the most universal machine of its kind in the world. It counts with the speed of a million operations per second, a result that can be matched only by the American minicomputer Super Nova and the English Modular One.

The manufacturer of Odra, the Elwro company, was, however, better connected with the regime than Karpiński. Instead of improving its product to catch up with the competition Elwro began to subvert Karpiński’s position in any way they could, not shying away from slander. Moreover, the Soviets wanted to introduce a single computer to the entire Eastern Bloc, a crude rip-off of a by then already outdated IBM machine. Called RIAD, the device constructed by Nikolai Lavronov was K-202’s opponent. Its constructor even got to see the revolutionary Polish micro-computer during a trip to Poland. Here’s how Karpiński described that moment as reported by the Puls Biznesu daily in 2008:

Lavronov couldn’t help but wonder how I could fit into a briefcase what he required a whole wall of space for. When I poured some tea over the K-202 and then threw it off the table, his eyes went wide. The computer was still working.

Karpiński’s computer could be so small and resilient because it used Western components. Even though they were vital to the functioning of the K-202, they might have raised suspicion among the authorities of the Eastern Bloc, as they were elements imported from beyond the Iron Curtain and used in the sensitive field of information processing. Also, it didn’t help that during a visitation of communist dignitaries to his factory Karpiński called one of them ‘fit only for constructing chamber pots’.

Real pigs

The KAR-65 computer at the Warsaw Museum of Technology and Industry, photo: Wikipedia
This all lead to the shutdown of Karpiński’s operation in 1973. He was escorted out of his factory by men armed with rifles who made very sure he wouldn’t and couldn’t retrieve any sensitive information or components from his workplace. All of the K-202s in production (about two hundred) were thrown away. Before then, only thirty such computers had been manufactured. As if that wasn’t enough, the communists also banned him from making any other computers and wouldn’t issue him a passport. As a result, in a gesture of protest, Karpiński and his wife Ewa moved to the countryside, where they farmed pigs and chickens. He once said to a journalist that visited him at his new place of residence that ‘he preferred real pigs’.

He finally received a passport in 1981 and left Poland, a place where at the time it was impossible for him to pursue his vocation – the creation of electronic devices. Karpiński moved to Switzerland where he designed among other things the Pen Reader, a hand-held scanner that scanned text from paper onto a computer. Soon after the fall of communism, in 1990, he returned to Poland wanting to manufacture this device, which predated the first Japanese scanner of the kind by more than a year. Unfortunately, due to credit problems, Karpiński didn’t manage to do so and even lost the house in Warsaw where he had lived after his return. Eventually he moved to Wrocław, where he made a living designing websites.

Certainly a genius

Jacek Karpiński, Warsaw, 1993, photo: Grzegorz Rogiński / Forum
Jacek Karpiński passed away on 21st February 2010. For the bravery he exhibited in the Warsaw Uprising he was decorated with three Cross of Valour medals.

Jacek Karpiński: The Computer Genius the Communists Couldn’t Stand

 

[Toro]

"Polish Greatness" is one of those contradictions in terms, like "dry water" or "funky white guy."

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

"Polish Greatness" is one of those contradictions in terms, like "dry water" or "funky white guy."

It's a walking contradiction, when people like you are prejudiced against a people, while pretending to be against prejudices.

 

[blastoff]

Considering the mockery, and slander / libel against Poles I think it's necessary.

Has any ethnic population been more scapegoated, and slandered?

There's so many negative stereotypes upon Poles, like dumb Polak, thieves, criminals, drunks, prostitutes, weak at war, using horses in WW2, starting WW2 in Bromberg Massacre, being the land of the Holocaust, being Nazi collaborators.

Most of these are downright slander / libel, or and many others are extreme exaggerations.

.1.) Are Poles dumb?
Poland in the Renaissance was the European leader in science, even the Scientific Revolution came from Poland thanks to Copernicus, and Albert Brudzewski.

Polish Americans scored a massive 109 IQ.
While Poland's IQ is considered to be 99, this is by no means low.
The PISA scores of Poland are high, the literacy rates of Poland are high, and Poland wins many intellectual competitions like the IBM Battle of the Brains Contest, the University Rover Challenge, the Google Online Marketing Challenge, Google Code Jam, among others.

So, no I wouldn't say Poles are particularly dumb.,

2.) Thieves, or criminals?

Poland was the first European country to successfully hold off slavery.

Poland had no involved in Colonialism, nor the Atlantic Slave Trade of thievery, or Criminality.

As for common criminals?

Poland's murder rate is now lower than the EU average.

There's an extreme exaggeration of Polish as being a particularly criminal population in UK media, and British circles.

But, Poles are estimated to have 6,700 or so criminals yearly, as opposed to 1.19 million criminals yearly in the UK.

This would support that 0.5% of criminals in the UK were Polish, while over 1.0% of the UK was Polish.

So, actually Poles are underrepresented in crime in the UK.

3.) Drunks?

This map shows that Poles were less likely to be diagnosed with alcoholism than most of Northern Europe.

4.) Prostitutes?

Poles have one of the latest ages for losing virginity in Europe.

While, there might be some Polish prostitutes.

Most Polish girls are if anything more prude than most of Europe.

5.) Weak at war?

I don't think anyone has won more battles when outnumbered than Poles.

Quite a few Polish battles come to mind, the Battle of Hodow, Battle of Klushino, Battle of Kircholm, Battle of Lubieszow, Battle of Trembowla, battle of fuengirola etc.

6.( While it's true that Poles had Horse units in WW2.

So did everyone else except Great Britain.

Actually the Nazis, and Soviets each had many times more Horses than Poland.

So, why do many anti-Polish Nazis, and anti-Polish Soviets ignore these facts?

7.) Bromberg Massacre starting before WW2 is not historically accepted.

But, many Nazis, or German sympathizers try, none the less.

I think the fact that Nazi Germany had claimed a Bromberg Massacre was going on since March of 1939, but invaded Czechoslovakia in March of 1939 instead of Poland says all that needs to be said.

8.) While it's true that Poland is where many Concentration Camps are located.

The Nazi Germans had annexed this land.

Furthermore Nazi Germany first put Poles into Auschwitz, rather than Jews.

Up to 100's of thousands of Poles passed through the Concentration Camps, and 100's of thousands of more Poles were killed in Nazi massacres, including Wola Massacre, the Ponary Massace, Operation Tannenberg etc.

9.) Poland was the first nation to fight the Nazis.

After the Nazis had invaded, Poland had the biggest anti-Nazi resistance in occupied Europe.

Poles had the highest number of Righteous Among the Nations risk their lives to save Holocaust victim Jews, some serious names come to mind like Eugene Lazowski, Henryk Slawik, or Irena Sendler.
(This is in spite of the fact that Poland was the only nation in occupied Europe that a death penalty was created for aiding Holocaust Jews.

Zegota was an entire Polish organization which had dedicate their time, lives, and resources to aiding Holocaust victim Jews.

With that said, Poles like all populations of Europe had some Nazi collaborators.

But, there's no recorded Polish Nazi SS units in Europe.

Furthermore even the Jews had some Nazi collaborators.
Actually the Jewish historian Emanuel Ringelblum who lived his last days in the Nazi controlled Warsaw Ghetto, had admitted that Jewish Nazi collaborators of the Jewish Ghetto Police, were more brutal than Polish Nazi collaborators of the Polish Blue Police.

The Polish peaked with the sausage. It’s been all down hill since.