Category Archives: Computer Science
UTA team to explore assistive technologies for people with disabilities – uta.edu
Wednesday, May 04, 2022 Herb Booth : Contact
A University of Texas at Arlington computer science and engineering professor has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant worth more than $400,000 to incorporate assistive technologies for people with disabilities.
Ishfaq Ahmad, UT Arlington professor of computer science and engineering, said the grant will allow the NSFs Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site at UTA to continue.
The project is multidisciplinary and involves professors from all over the UT Arlington campus. Kathryn Daniel, professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation, is co-principal investigator.
The grant is open to all domestic undergraduates with computing backgrounds, with a focus on women and minorities at UTA, Ahmad said.
Whats great about the project is it tackles challenges people with disabilities face every day, he said. We aim to help people with disabilities through innovation and the creation of tools that they can use in life.
Titled REU Site: Assistive Technologies for People with Disabilities, this NSF grant continues work started on a 2018 $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, supplemented with $300,000 in UTA matching funds. One of its aims is to significantly increase the number of doctoral students, especially among women and minorities.
Some of the research aspects of the grant include assistive robotics, visual and hearing aids, smart care and artificial intelligence. The undergraduates in the program will receive experience in communications, ethics, leadership, collaboration and academic writing skills.
Ahmad also is the director of the Center for Advanced Computing Systems and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. His research interests are in the broader areas of parallel and distributed computing systems and their applications, optimization algorithms, multimedia systems, video compression, assistive technologies, smart power grids and energy-aware sustainable computing. His work in these areas has led to nearly 275 articles in books, peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. Ahmad is a recipient of numerous research awards and recognitions.
Hong Jiang, chair of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, said this type of project could have life-changing impacts for individuals with disabilities.
We know that the innovations and discoveries that are yielded from this research will help the people with disabilities community in their everyday lives, he said. The project goes beyond computer science.
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UTA team to explore assistive technologies for people with disabilities - uta.edu
UCLA and Amazon Announce Inaugural Recipients of Research Gifts and Amazon Fellowships – UCLA Samueli School of Engineering Newsroom
The UCLA Science Hub for Humanity and Artificial Intelligence, a collaboration with Amazon, announced today its first cohort of 12 Amazon fellowships and six gift-funded research projects.
Funded by Amazon and housed at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, the UCLA Science Hub was launched last October, marking Amazons first such alliance with a public university. The hub was established to facilitate synthesis between industry and academic research on artificial intelligence to address societys most pressing challenges and develop solutions that will ultimately benefit humanity.
Twelve fellows were selected from a group of 25 UCLA Samueli doctoral students, and six research projects were chosen from 55 proposals by faculty across UCLA.
I am excited to see the mission of the hub, harnessing the power of AI for the good of humanity, being carried out through collaborations among UCLA faculty, graduate students and Amazon scientists, said UCLA Science Hub faculty director and computer science professor Jens Palsberg. Together, we will break new ground in addressing the societal impact of AI and find real technological solutions to improve humanity.
The Amazon fellows doctoral students in computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and mechanical and aerospace engineering will each receive up to two quarters of funding during the academic year to pursue independent research projects. They will also be invited to apply to intern at Amazon.
The inaugural cohort of UCLA Science Hub for Humanity and Artificial Intelligence Amazon Fellows and their research interests consists of:
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MIT to launch new Office of Research Computing and Data – MIT News
As the computing and data needs of MITs research community continue to grow both in their quantity and complexity the Institute is launching a new effort to ensure that researchers have access to the advanced computing resources and data management services they need to do their best work.
At the core of this effort is the creation of the new Office of Research Computing and Data (ORCD), to be led by Professor Peter Fisher, who will step down as head of the Department of Physics to serve as the offices inaugural director. The office, which formally opens in September, will build on and replace the MIT Research Computing Project, an initiative supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research, which contributed in recent years to improving the computing resources available to MIT researchers.
Almost every scientific field makes use of research computing to carry out our mission at MIT and computing needs vary between different research groups. In my world, high-energy physics experiments need large amounts of storage and many identical general-purpose CPUs, while astrophysical theorists simulating the formation of galaxy clusters need relatively little storage, but many CPUs with high-speed connections between them, says Fisher, the Thomas A. Frank (1977) Professor of Physics, who will take up the mantle of ORCD director on Sept. 1.
I envision ORCD to be, at a minimum, a centralized system with a spectrum of different capabilities to allow our MIT researchers to start their projects and understand the computational resources needed to execute them, Fisher adds.
The Office of Research Computing and Data will provide services spanning hardware, software, and cloud solutions, including data storage and retrieval, and offer advice, training, documentation, and data curation for MITs research community. It will also work to develop innovative solutions that address emerging or highly specialized needs, and it will advance strategic collaborations with industry.
The exceptional performance of MITs endowment last year has provided a unique opportunity for MIT to distribute endowment funds to accelerate progress on an array of Institute priorities in fiscal year 2023, beginning July 1, 2022. On the basis of community input and visiting committee feedback, MITs leadership identified research computing as one such priority, enabling the expanded effort that the Institute commenced today. Future operation of ORCD will incorporate a cost-recovery model.
In his new role, Fisher will report to Maria Zuber, MITs vice president for research, and coordinate closely with MIT Information Systems and Technology (IS&T), MIT Libraries, and the deans of the five schools and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, among others. He will also work closely with Provost Cynthia Barnhart.
I am thrilled that Peter has agreed to take on this important role, says Zuber. Under his leadership, I am confident that well be able to build on the important progress of recent years to deliver to MIT researchers best-in-class infrastructure, services, and expertise so they can maximize the performance of their research.
MITs research computing capabilities have grown significantly in recent years. Ten years ago, the Institute joined with a number of other Massachusetts universities to establish the Massachusetts Green High-Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) in Holyoke to provide the high-performance, low-carbon computing power necessary to carry out cutting-edge research while reducing its environmental impact. MITs capacity at the MGHPCC is now almost fully utilized, however, and an expansion is underway.
The need for more advanced computing capacity is not the only issue to be addressed. Over the last decade, there have been considerable advances in cloud computing, which is increasingly used in research computing, requiring the Institute to take a new look at how it works with cloud services providers and then allocates cloud resources to departments, labs, and centers. And MITs longstanding model for research computing which has been mostly decentralized can lead to inefficiencies and inequities among departments, even as it offers flexibility.
The Institute has been carefully assessing how to address these issues for several years, including in connection with the establishment of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. In August 2019, a college task force on computing infrastructure found a campus-wide preference for an overarching organizational model of computing infrastructure that transcends a college or school and most logically falls under senior leadership. The task forces report also addressed the need for a better balance between centralized and decentralized research computing resources.
The needs for computing infrastructure and support vary considerably across disciplines, says Daniel Huttenlocher, dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing and the Henry Ellis Warren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. With the new Office of Research Computing and Data, the Institute is seizing the opportunity to transform its approach to supporting research computing and data, including not only hardware and cloud computing but also expertise. This move is a critical step forward in supporting MITs research and scholarship.
Over time, ORCD (pronounced orchid) aims to recruit a staff of professionals, including data scientists and engineers and system and hardware administrators, who will enhance, support, and maintain MITs research computing infrastructure, and ensure that all researchers on campus have access to a minimum level of advanced computing and data management.
The new research computing and data effort is part of a broader push to modernize MITs information technology infrastructure and systems. We are at an inflection point, where we have a significant opportunity to invest in core needs, replace or upgrade aging systems, and respond fully to the changing needs of our faculty, students, and staff, says Mark Silis, MITs vice president for information systems and technology. We are thrilled to have a new partner in the Office of Research Computing and Data as we embark on this important work.
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MIT to launch new Office of Research Computing and Data - MIT News
Bringing health care’s vision of tomorrow into focus – EurekAlert
image:Dr. Sarah Murthi tests an augmented reality prototype that overlays ultrasound data directly on the patient. view more
Credit: Maryland Blended Reality Center
Ultrasound data displayed directly on a patient via augmented reality headsets. Immersive grand rounds for medical students and faculty even when theyre in different locations. Virtual reality landscapes matched with classical opera to transport people with painful injuries outside of themselves, reducing the need for potentially addictive opioids.
These medical examples of extended reality (XR)the umbrella term used for technology based invirtual and augmented reality or other immersive mediaare already being prototyped or tested in clinical trials. But its widespread use in hospitals and other health care settings is currently hampered by technical challenges and sparse regulatory guidelines.
Now, with $5 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and technology titans including Google, Microsoft and Meta (formerly known as Facebook), a trio of academic institutions are collaborating with industry and the federal government to develop, test and certify XRtechnologies in medicine and health care.
The new Center for Medical Innovations in Extended Reality, known as MIXR, joins University of Maryland computer scientists and engineers with physicians and clinicians at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and the University of Michigan to improve medical training, patient management and health care outcomes across all areas of clinical practice.
The award is part of NSFs Industry-University Cooperative Research Centers (IUCRC) program, designed to jumpstart breakthrough research by enabling close and sustained engagement between industry innovators, world-class academic teams and government agencies.
Behrooz Shirazi, acting deputy division director of the NSFs Division of Computer and Network Systems and a program director for IUCRC, called MIXR one of the first national centers at the intersection of medical and computing sciences. We expect this vibrant collaboration to produce significant societal and health care impacts, he said.
In addition to Google, Microsoft and Meta, other technology companies involved in MIXR are Sony, Magic Leap, Health2047, GigXR, Brainlab and apoQlar.
Another key partner in the MIXR initiative will be federal regulatory experts working at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, ensuring that safe, effective and innovative clinical solutions make it to patients as soon as possible.
Well work closely with our industry and government partners to answer any scientific questions regarding regulatory evaluations and decisions needed for the widescale clinical use of these devices, said Amitabh Varshney, professor and dean of the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland.
Varshney is the lead site principal investigator on the project, and is joined by partner site PIs Sarah Murthi, M.D., an associate professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Mark Cohen, M.D., a professor and vice chair of surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School with appointments in pharmacology and biomedical engineering. All three have extensive experience developing and using immersive technologies in a medical setting.
Varshney and Murthi co-direct the Maryland Blended Reality Center (MBRC), launched in 2017 as part of MPowering the State, the strategic partnership between the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
Early projects out of MBRC focused on prototyping new diagnostic tools to assist physicians at the renowned R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where Murthi is a critical care doctor and director of the critical care ultrasound program. This includes innovative AR medical displays that could improve how bedside procedures are done.
MBRC clinicians also teamed up with the Maryland Institute College of Art to test a virtual reality platform that can help patients deal with physical and emotional trauma through immersion in another world, with a focus on quadriplegic patients who are hospitalized with acute spinal cord injury.
In 2018, Murthi and Varshney co-authored an op-ed in the Harvard Business Review that detailed how augmented reality could improve patient care and lower costs in hospital settings.
Immersive technologies have the potential to fundamentally change, improve and reduce the cost of medical training and of maintaining clinical skills across all aspects of health care, Murthi said.
Cohen, who leads the Center for Surgical Innovation and trains new physicians at Michigan, said that using XR in medical roundsadding in virtual reality-based illustrations or augmented reality data overlaid on a patientmakes for a richer experience for both teacher and student, both in-person or virtually observing from hundreds of miles away.
We realized that having this ability to interact virtually with both the patients and residentspulling up holographic windows and showing diagnostic imaging and labswould greatly enhance the educational experience in these traditional grand rounds, he said.
In an interview published last year, Cohen said he is also interested in combining XR technology with machine learning, hoping to leverage sophisticated immersive diagnostic imaging resources with artificial intelligence algorithms to better predict when diseases will flare up, and how to improve the way we follow and treat chronic diseases like heart failure, cancer and diabetes.
The MIXR initiative is heavily dependent on powerful computing resources. At Maryland, those resources will be handled by the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. This includes building and maintaining a soon-to-be-unveiled HoloCamera studio, where more than 300 immersive cameras are fused together to bring unique visualization technology to bear on immersive medical environment captures.
The new camera system can be used to record cinematic-quality 3D demos of surgeons teaching intricate procedures like a lower extremity fasciotomy, a limb-saving technique of cutting the sheath of tissue encasing a muscle to treat for loss of circulation.
Joseph JaJa, professor and chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMD, is also providing expertise. As the lead-site co-PI, he will support the integration of high-performance computing and machine learning into theXR technology being developed and use his extensive experience working with industry tofoster stronger collaborative efforts.
Barbara Brawn, currently working with Murthi and Varshney as the associate director of MBRC, will act as the industry liaison contact between MIXR researchers and technology companies keen to see their latest hardware and software tools used to save lives and improve medical training.
The synergy in MIXR will be contagious, Varshney said. Our industry partners will push forward new ideas and novel technologies. The scientists and physicians will help refine and test those ideas. And we both will work with the FDA to bring these technologies from the lab to the proper health care setting where they can have an exponential impact.
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Bringing health care's vision of tomorrow into focus - EurekAlert
Class of 2022: Jesus Guerrero overcame early high school struggles to thrive in college – VCU News
By Leila Ugincius
Jesus Guerrero took a circuitous route to dental school, which the 32-year-old starts this summer at Midwestern University in Arizona.
First, he had to learn English, dabble in art, pick up the guitar, tour in a band, join the U.S. Navy, and earn a bachelors degree in biology with a concentration in neuroscience and a second one in computer science. He received the former from theUniversity of Texas San Antonio in 2018 and will receive the latter this month from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Ironically,Guerrerohad such bad grades in high school that none of his family thought he would get his degree.
As it turns out, I have pretty severe Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, Guerrero said. Its hard for me to maintain focus on things that are uninteresting, but when I find something I really truly enjoy, I get in that hyperfixation mode. But then I get to a point where I have to know everything about whatever it is that Im learning/doing.
Since Ive been addressing it as such and having learned different coping mechanisms for the whole thing, this second go-around at college was much more organized, more streamlined so less trying to do a bunch of stuff outside of my major all at once and more fruitful for learning what I wanted to learn.
After receiving his first bachelors degree in 2018, Guerrero started applying to dental schools and worked as a lead assistant in an orthodontists office in Richmond, Virginia. Having worked in the dental field on and off for 11 years in the Navy, he served inSicily at the Naval Air Station Health Clinic as the lead orthodontic assistant in the Dental Wing, and at the Naval Health Clinic Quantico as a supervisor for two satellite clinics and an onboarding instructor at the main clinic he wanted to do and learn something new.
While his ultimate goal was still to attend dental school,Guerreroalways found computers and programming interesting. So I decided to give computer science a shot, he said. I found out through some friends that there were projects that tied the MCV Campus with the [VCU] College of Engineering, which made my choice to go to VCU a simple one. This was a decision I made back in November of 2019, and it was one of the best decisions Ive ever made.
He started the computer science track at VCU in spring 2020 to supplement his overall knowledge with skills that he could merge into his dental experience.
While here, he hada yearlong internship with the Armys Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate as a research and development software engineer; joined Theta Tau, the professional engineeringfraternity; started a teachers assistant role forcomputer sciences introduction to programming course; co-founded the Web Development Club at VCU; and developed Augmented and Virtual Reality Applications for Surgical Planning and Training for a research team inVCUs Vertically Integrated Projects program.
He also conceptualized a system for Robotic or Facilitated Dentistry through Human Computer Interactions.
The idea behind this possible approach in dentistry is to use machines or robots as a way to remove the assistant and doctor from being directly around the patients space,Guerrero said. This would alleviate the dentist and assistant from needing to crowd the oral cavity as well as help with visualization and ergonomic positioning during awkward or hard-to-reach tooth structures. All this could theoretically be achieved through analog movements of the instruments via a rig similar to a [Computer Numerical Control] machine would be set up except through commands being sent and received and sent in real-time.
Prior to the official start of dental school in the fall,Guerrero will spend this summer inan informal semester for students eager to conduct research in the dental field to start getting their hands on ongoing projects.
These programs tend to be competitive, he said, and although I dont consider myself a competitive person, I do consider myself a very eager one. If I could have started the day I gained acceptance into the dentalmedicine program, without skipping a beat, I would have. Once I arrive, the goal is to jump on board with a proposal I will be pitching to the dean of research at Midwestern University.
My ideal time to start this process is immediately after my final exam ends. I dont want to waste any time.
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Class of 2022: Jesus Guerrero overcame early high school struggles to thrive in college - VCU News
Where are Kansas Board of Regents’ civic education recommendations? – The Topeka Capital-Journal
Michael A. Smith| Special to The Capital-Journal
Want more nurses and teachers? Start with civic education.
Late last month, the Kansas Board of Regents released recommendations to the Kansas State Department of Educationcalling for high-school students to take four math courses prior to graduation, instead of the current three. In addition, the BOR called for four units of English, validating the current standard.
They also encouraged more high school students to study computer science and take dual-enrollment courses, in which high school students earn college credit for transfer. Finally, they want schools to help students complete the FAFSA form for federal student aid. These are ambitious goals, but what happened to civic education?
It is no secret the BOR wants to make our students career-ready. That is a good goal. Todays popular careers with more need than applicants include nurses, teachers, physical therapists, and computer scientists. Yet with American democracy on life support, a renewed commitment to civic education remains vital not only for our well-being, but also for our careers.
Consider one of todays hottest job fields: nursing. Burnout is rampant among existing nurses, while potential nursing students are changing their minds. The reason: our broken political climate.
According to a 2019 survey by the American Nurses Association, one in four nurses has been physically assaulted on the job. A 2021 survey from the American Nurses Foundation found that 21% of nurses plan to leave their jobs within the next six months, and half of those (10% of all nurses total) said their jobs were negatively affecting their health and well being.
Toxic, political conspiracy theories promoted by politicians, trollsand foreign agents pretending to be American citizens online are major factors in this assault on medicine.
Only a renewed commitment to a healthy political climate will solve this. Students must be taught to thoroughly, rigorously evaluate information they read online and evaluate it in light of science.
They also need to learn tolerance for those with whom they disagree. That is, they must learn that those with differing opinions are just that, not a cabal that is trying to hurt them, kill them, destroy their way of lifeor even these are actual tenets of the popular QAnon conspiracy theory worship Satan and drink childrens blood in order to get high.
Toxic nonsense corrupts other high-demand professions as well. We face growing shortages of teachers, who in turn are facing increasing harassment from politicians, internet trolls, and small minorities of parents who arrive at meetings ready to start fights because of things they have read or heard on social media or TV. Not surprisingly, fewer college students are showing an interest in becoming teachers. Another math class will not fix this.
Our professionals are leaving their jobs due to political, verbaland even physical assault, which in turn is caused by conspiracy theories and broken politics. High school and college students are shying away from these jobs.
While the study of mathematics and other fields are to be commended, the only way to fix this crisis is to commit ourselves to a renewed, healthy political climate centered on accurate information and respect for differing opinions. It starts with civic education in the classroom.
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Where are Kansas Board of Regents' civic education recommendations? - The Topeka Capital-Journal
Rhode Island Museum of Art and Science to permanently close; Educational Outreach Program absorbed by Rhode Island Computer Museum – What’sUpNewp
The Rhode Island Museum of Science and Art (RIMOSA) announced today that it will close its doors on Westminster Street in Providence on June 1, 2022 and that its educational outreach program will be absorbed by the Rhode Island Computer Museum (RICM).
Founded in 2010, RIMOSAs mission has been to kindle curiosity and encourage experimentation through hands-on, STEAM-based exhibits and experiences that enable open-ended experimentation, todevelop curiosity, motivation, grit, and creative problem solving. The 501(c)(3) organization has delivered educational outreach programs since its founding and opened its physical museum space in 2017.
RICM has been collecting and preserving rare and historically important computer gear since its founding in North Kingstown in 1999. Twenty-two years later, the museum has one of the largest collections of vintage computer equipment in the country, stored in a warehouse at the Quonset Business Park. Disseminating knowledge and encouraging research in computer science by means of visits, lectures, discussions, and publications, RICM aims to inspire young people for the future workforce by saving old and new technology.
When RIMOSA dissolves its organization and closes its museum doors at 763 Westminster St., Providence, its educational outreach program will be absorbed by RICM andcourses will continue to be delivered as RIMOSA Workshops Powered by RICM from the RICMLearning Lab.
After RIMOSA closes, RIMOSA says in a press release that Executive Director Bonnie Epstein, PhD, and Board member Jennifer Pietros, PhD, will join RICMs leadership team to help support its educational direction.
Epstein said in a statement, RICM is an amazing entity they have built a strong community of coders, makers, and tinkerers and offer a vibrant set of STEM programs. Weve worked together in the past and found our approaches complementary.Weve focused primarily on the basis of learning and tinkering that does not involve computers, while RICM picks up in the areas that RIMOSA leaves off. We dovetail nicely.While we are sad RIMOSA is closing, were exceedingly happy to continue our mission in another shape, as part of RICM.
RICM Executive Director Dan Berman said in a statement, RIMOSA offers an exciting set of programs that blend science and art. Bringing those programs into RICM will enable us to extend our STEM focus to STEAM, which is a wonderful opportunity for our community. With RIMOSA on board RICM will have more workshops and more educational and public programs.
RICM and RIMOSA are finalizing the RIMOSA Workshops Powered by RICM program and will post courses and schedules on the RICM website when they are finalized.
When the RIMOSA space closes, RIMOSA says that most of itsexhibitswill go into storage at RICMs North Kingstown warehouse and may appear at pop-up venues and festivals from time to time. Other items will be donated to RI non-profit organizations.
RIMOSAis taking inquiries from non-profit organizations for its larger assets (office/classroom furniture)through May 30 on a first-come, first-serve basis via email,info@RIMOSA.org.
RIMOSA is also offering its remaining recycled materials and art supplies to educators at no charge, which they may pick upat RIMOSA, 763 Westminster St. Providence (masks required) on these days/times:Fridays: May 6 and May 20, 1:00 5:00pm;Saturday, May 21, 1:00 5:00pm;Wednesdays, May 11, 18, 26, 11:30am 3:00pm.
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Cryptography pioneer Silvio Micali on where crypto is headed – Los Angeles Times
Some 40 years ago, Silvio Micali and his colleague Shafi Goldwasser wanted to figure out how to play poker together on their phones. They needed a way to ensure neither could know the other players hands.
The two computer science graduate students at UC Berkeley drew up what Micali calls the first secure encryption scheme the world has ever seen. For their invention, which proved vital to the modern internet, they were awarded the A.M. Turing Award, considered computings equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
Today, Micali, 67, is focused on another application of encryption: the blockchain, which is the foundation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. At the Milken Institute Global Conference this week, the MIT professor promoted Algorand, a blockchain he developed that he says is greener, faster and more secure than other protocols.
Blockchains are typically described as public ledgers where transactions are recorded on an open network. Validating a set of transactions to add to the ledger is one of the biggest security challenges. Algorand says it uses a novel approach involving the random selection of its users to ensure blocks of transactions are more resistant to hacks, which cost cryptocurrency holders a record $14 billion last year by one tally.
Algorand is one of a swarm of new blockchains that aim to transform finance and the modern world by serving as the platforms for so-called decentralized smart contracts that can be conducted person to person and across borders without government intermediaries.
An announcement at the Milken conference that Algorand will partner with FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, drove up prices of its ALGO coin, making it the 30th-largest cryptocurrency on Coinbase on Tuesday, with a $4.5-billion market cap. (Bitcoins market cap is $725 billion.)
Your contribution to modern encryption won you the Turing Award. What applications does it have today?
It is used to secure a lot of things that go over the internet. When you send a message to Citicorp, one of the practical side products of our work is that your browser knows that it is talking truly to Citicorp and not to a middleman who is intercepting the messages and pretending to be Citicorp.
Bitcoin has been around since 2009. What was your first impression of it?
I bought into the main idea. The idea is beautiful, but somehow the solution is not exactly elegant. We all aspire to beauty and elegance in what we do.
One of the criticisms of bitcoin is the energy needed to validate transactions and mine new coins. There is a bill in the New York State Assembly that would impose a moratorium on bitcoin mining. Can you describe the energy efficiency of Algorand in terms I can understand?
Bitcoin absorbs as much electricity as a small country, and we are going to consume as much electricity as roughly 10 homes. [Algorand uses a so-called pure proof-of-stake method for validating blocks of transactions, versus bitcoins far more energy-intensive proof-of-work system.]
Where are we on the adoption curve with blockchain technology?
We are in a very divided world. We have blockchain 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 which I believe Algorand is coexisting during the same time. So that is very unique. If you look at the Industrial Revolution ... you have more and more sophisticated [technologies], so usually not all these things coexist. We are at a very unique moment in which there are extremely sophisticated blockchains like ours and when there are very early generation blockchains who continue to be there simultaneously. Its like you have Neanderthal man and Homo sapiens living together.
What do you see 10 years down the road?
The moment the blockchain starts to be used for transactions, the few blockchains that are really capable of transacting at a very low cost, theyre going to emerge, in my opinion. When traditional finance starts getting on the blockchain, youre going to see the blockchains that are really used in a massive and transactional way are going to accelerate. And a few store of values [like bitcoin] will maybe stay.
New blockchains such as Algorand are being created to serve as platforms for diverse decentralized applications such as digital currencies, carbon offset trading and personal identification. Yet many people are more interested in buying the coins as a speculative investment.
First of all, we cannot stop people from speculating. But what we want to give is a technology to enable people to use our platform for a variety of transactions and really sophisticated transactions too.
Can you give an example?
So if you look at stocks, right, stocks have a settlement time of T plus 2. T is the time when you buy a stock and two is the number of days after which this transaction settles. That is two days of waiting for a transaction to settle. We settle our [blockchain] transactions in 4.4 seconds today, at the end of Q2 in 4 seconds and at the end of Q3 in 2.5 seconds. Thats an enormous difference.
That future is hard to predict and any person signing on to a Coinbase account for the first time would be bewildered by all the investable cryptocurrencies. What single piece of advice would you give a newbie?
I really believe that you have to invest in what you understand. But nobody can say you have to understand the technology, no more than you have to understand how a plane flight works to take a plane. But you have to ask some very basic questions.
What are those?
To invest in cryptocurrency the most basic tool is consensus [verification of the blockchain]. One question I would ask if you want to join a blockchain is, Can I join the consensus process of this blockchain? Thats a very fair question. And if the answer is, Sure, buy a couple of supercomputers and join us. And you say, I dont have a bunch of supercomputers nor do I have the money to buy them. So, Id say be careful.
Any other bad answers?
If the answer is, You could but we already have a club. Sorry, you are not one of the club. So then I have to say you have to be concerned.
Is there a good answer?
If the answer is not only you are allowed to join, but you have the technical means to join because a laptop is enough or something very basic, so then I have to say that means that blockchain is really decentralized. And I believe that decentralization is really the ultimate source of security.
Last question. You are a brilliant Turing Award-winning MIT computer scientist. Have you been lying to us? Could you be Satoshi Nakamoto, the legendary anonymous creator of bitcoin?
[Big laugh.] No, but I cannot prove it.
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Cryptography pioneer Silvio Micali on where crypto is headed - Los Angeles Times
CodePath Partners with Course Hero, Schmidt Futures, and Workday to Host Pre-Internship Program to Close the Tech Equity Gap – PR Newswire
"There are plenty of talented underrepresented students who go without the proper support and resources that can help them along in their computer science journeys and open doors for high-income careers post-graduation," said Michael Ellison, CEO and founder of CodePath. "We remain committed to expanding access to underrepresented students and recognize the potential that employers can have in providing these opportunities earlier on, which will help create a more robust diverse talent pipeline in tech."
The Summer Internship for Tech Excellence (SITE) program addresses a key barrier to underrepresented students' presence in technology - early access to coveted internships at tech companies.
SITE is a 10-week, hands-on program that gives rising juniors relevant work experience and weekly mentorship from various volunteer software engineering teams. Students will be introduced to full-stack web development, gaining an understanding of databases, back-end code, front-end code, testing, design, and deployments. This program will help build the foundational knowledge and skills students will need as they continue to pursue a career in tech.
CodePath designs and delivers research-backed, and intentionally executed programs such as SITE, which focuses specifically on Black, Indigenous, Latinx students, in addition to students from low-income backgrounds, and students that are the first in their family to attend college. These programs address systemic issues at the core of tech's diversity crisis, bringing diverse, top talent with unique perspectives to leading engineering teams.
For most employers, 75% of their entry-level technology hires come from internship programs, which are usually offered to rising college seniors. However, research has shown that underrepresented students in computer science drop out or switch majors before their junior year. These students are missing out on internships they need to stay engaged in their studies, make connections, garner references, and launch their tech careers.
SITE uniquely provides these internships earlier than most other corporate programs, therefore offering underrepresented minorities access to coveted internships, as well as real-world experience that will keep them dedicated to completing their computer science degree. By the end of the program, students will have the skills to build and deploy their own web applications, setting them up for success when applying for junior year internships.
For the inaugural 2021 SITE program, CodePath partnered with edtech pioneer Course Hero, and Workday, a leader in enterprise cloud applications for finance and human resources. While graduates of the inaugural SITE program are still interviewing, nearly 86% have already secured junior year paid internship opportunities.
"Our work is centered around helping students graduate confident and prepared," said Emmanuel Matthews, Group Technical Program Manager, Course Hero. "Partnering with CodePath helps us create spaces for collaboration and learning that changes how tech talent is supported and how employers equitably recruit talented workers from diverse backgrounds."
"We're proud to partner with CodePath and support its impressive work to advance the education and careers for underrepresented groups in tech," said Carin Taylor, chief diversity officer, Workday. "At Workday, we believe that diversity fuels innovation and creates a broader connection to the world, and we've seen firsthand how CodePath interns further support that. They bring fresh, new perspectives to our workplace, which in turn provides valuable impact to our business and how we operate."
Now in the program's second year, CodePath welcomed support from Schmidt Futures, which will bring a focus on social impact to the curriculum and encourage students to pursue world-changing ideas in their capstone projects.
"We're excited to support Michael Ellison as an Innovation Fellow," said Kumar Garg, Vice President, Partnerships at Schmidt Futures. "Under his leadership, CodePath is creating a more diverse talent pipeline in tech, and providing students with new avenues to learn about how they can apply their skills to tackle important problems."
SITE will take place from June 6 - August 12, 2022. It is available to students who will complete their sophomore semester in Spring 2022. To be eligible, students must be studying CS or a closely related field (information systems, electrical engineering, data science, etc.) and have completed a CS 1-type class, such as Intro to Programming.
For more information, please visitcodepath.org/SITE
About CodePath
CodePathis a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit that partners with colleges and major tech companies to prepare underserved computer science students for careers in tech. CodePath runs courses across over 70 universities, and we have taught over 10,000 students since 2017. CodePath is supported by Andreessen Horowitz, Blue Meridian Partners, Cognizant Foundation, Comcast, Knight Foundation, Meta, New Profit, Salesforce, Walmart, and Workday. To learn more, visit http://www.codepath.org.
CONTACTAnnie Brown, Director of Communications[emailprotected]
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3 schools of computer science cracking the code to academic success – Study International News
Bill Gates famously said: The computer was born to solve problems that did not exist before. In a world where devices play an integral part in our daily lives, his opinion couldnt be more true. The proof is in the numbers.
The US Bureau of Labour Statistics projects that employment in computer and information technology occupations will grow 13% from 2020 to 2030, much faster than the average for all occupations. Its little wonder why. Computer science professionals are responsible for solving complex organisational problems with technical solutions. Hence, their ability to infiltrate any sector that comes to mind. For them, anything is possible with the right qualification.
Thankfully, most universities across the globe are ramping up their offerings to give their students a deeper understanding of emerging technologies. In fact, many are even developing programmes comprehensive enough to produce professionals capable of innovating these technologies instead. These dynamic institutions representing Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand are proof:
Soon, all new undergraduates at PolyU will be required to take on foundational courses in emerging technologies and entrepreneurship. Source: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Few universities are as committed to producing successful students the way The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is. While rigorous, the experience is still holistic unsurprising from an institution that effortlessly balances 80 years of tradition with a progressive approach. At this top 100 university, undergraduate students arent expected to have it all figured out. Instead, they enjoy a year of exploration before deciding on a major a unique initiative designed to ensure aspirations are solidified before they are pursued in Year 2.
Its new departmental scheme-based admissions curriculum is set to integrate two 21st century elements: Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA) and Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IE). Both will be incorporated into the General University Requirement from the academic year 2022-23, ensuring that while students are gaining a solid academic foundation, they will be preparing for societys ever-changing manpower needs as well. They will be required to complete at least two credits of AIDA courses and at least one credit of IE courses.
Those sure of their decision to take the future-focused route will be able to enhance their newfound skills with one of the Faculty of Engineerings many undergraduate programmes like the BSc (Hons) in Computer Science, BSc (Hons) in Enterprise Information Systems or the BSc (Hons) in Financial Technology and Artificial Intelligence.
The BSc (Hons) Scheme in Computing and AI makes a perfect starting point for each. However, even if students choose to relish in another PolyU faculty, school or department; AIDA or IE courses will always be available as Secondary Majors. Click here to learn how else PolyU prepares students for the jobs of tomorrow.
This School of Computer Science is currently New Zealands largest, most diverse and accomplished division. Source: University of Auckland Facebook
There are many reasons why the University of Auckland ranked first in New Zealand for Computer Science and Information Technology, according to the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019. It has also placed among the worlds top 100. Its School of Computer Science is behind the prestige.
Founded in 1981, it is currently New Zealands largest, most diverse and accomplished division. Students arrive from all over the world because they know their aspirations are welcomed. Here, a broad range of courses spanning most aspects of computer science are ready and waiting to teach the art of computing.
None of it would be possible without the experts behind the Bachelor of Science (BSc) majoring in Computer Science, Bachelor of Advanced Science (Honours) (BAdvSci(Hons)) specialising in Computer Science, and the Bachelor of Science (BSc) specialising in Data Science. While distinctive from one another, each programme was developed to fix the IT sectors ever-growing skills shortage. Thanks to their effectiveness, more graduates land employment every year with ease.
Our graduates are well prepared for the challenges of the dynamic and fast-growing software industry and are very well received by industry employers, confirms head of school and associate professor, Dr Giovanni Russello.
The School of Information Technology offers a wide array of programmes. Source: University of Queensland Facebook
Are you looking to pursue a bachelors degree in IT, or to hone your expertise in the field with a career-boosting masters qualification? You may want to consider doing so at the University of Queenslands School of Information Technology.
The school focuses on key areas such as: Cybersecurity and Software Engineering; Imaging, Sensing and Biomedical Engineering; Power, Energy, and Control Engineering; Human-Centred Computing; and Data Science. Here, research is facilitated at the Centre for Energy Data Innovation (CEDI) and ARC Training Centre for Information Resilience (CIRES).
The School of Information Technology offers a wide array of programmes. At the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, you can opt for a variety of programmes in Computer Science and Information Technology. These programmes are taught by award-winning teachers in a varied and extensive lineup of expertise. Students are provided with an in-depth understanding and set of skills in computational science, numerical simulation, applied mathematics, statistics, and data science.
*Some of the institutions featured in this article are commercial partners of Study International
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3 schools of computer science cracking the code to academic success - Study International News