Category Archives: Computer Science
UCF Researchers Ethanol Fuel Cells Offer New Alternative to Power Cars, Technology – UCF
A new material developed by the University of Central Florida may one day mean people could be pouring a drink for their car. Thats because UCF researchers are developing an alcohol-based power source for cars and other technology.
The power source an ethanol fuel cell is a renewable energy alternative to fossil fuels and uses less fuel and produces less emissions compared to a combustion engine.
This is because ethanol is used as a fuel to generate electricity rather than heat generated by combustion as in an engine. As a bonus, the approach requires no recharging time like is needed for battery-based electric vehicles, meaning consumers will have more options for alternatives to fossil fuels.
The fuel cell would be replenished similar to refilling a gas tank in a car, but instead of gasoline, ethanol would be used. Ethanol can be generated through fermentation of biomass such as corn and other plants.
The new technology is described in this months edition of the journal Nature Energy.
Our research enables direct ethanol fuel cells to become a new player to compete with hydrogen-fuel cells and batteries in various sustainable energy fields, says Yang Yang, an associate professor in UCFs NanoScience Technology Center and study co-author.
The development of ethanol fuel cells has been hindered in the past by sluggish internal reactions that hamper their performance, he says.
UCF researchers are overcoming this problem by adding the element fluorine to the palladium-nitrogen-carbon catalysts that spur electrical production in the fuel cell.
Our lab has continued to work on fluorine-doped materials for energy and sustainability, Yang says. We spent more than two years on this project, we never stop because we believe this invention will change the world.
Yang says the fluorine works to increase the effectiveness of the ethanol fuel cell by enhancing catalytic activity and decreasing corrosion.
The researchers found their designed catalyst achieves a maximum power density of 0.57 watts per centimeter square and more than 5,900 hours of operation in direct energy ethanol fuel cells. This has several times more power and operation time than previously developed ethanol fuel cells.
Yang says the technology is ready for commercialization now, and the research team is working on reducing the raw materials used and to reduce the manufacturing cost of the developed catalysts.
Study co-authors at UCF were Jinfa Chang, a postdoctoral researcher with UCFs NanoScience Technology Center; Guanzhi Wang and Wei Zhang, doctoral students with the NanoScience Technology Center and UCFs Department of Materials Science and Engineering; and Nina Orlovskaya, an associate professor in UCFs Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
Yang holds joint appointments in UCFs NanoScience Technology Center and theDepartment of Materials Science and Engineering, which is part of the universitysCollege of Engineering and Computer Science. He is a member of UCFsRenewable Energy and Chemical Transformation (REACT) Cluster. He also holds a secondary joint-appointment in UCFsDepartment of Chemistry. Before joining UCF in 2015, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Rice University and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany. He received his doctorate in materials science from Tsinghua University in China.
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UCF Researchers Ethanol Fuel Cells Offer New Alternative to Power Cars, Technology - UCF
Chantel Parnell: Working to Diversify Tech – California Teachers Association
Our 2021-22 Innovation Issue salutes educators who dare to imagine a world where life is better for their students:
My students know I mean business, but they also know I care for them and want them to be their best selves at all times.
Chantel Parnells students are only in middle school. But they are on a pathway to well-paying careers and diversifying the tech industry, thanks to her.
Parnell, a teacher at Bret Harte Middle School in Oakland, was named Teacher of the Year by her district last May for developing computer science and animation courses at her school and creating the districts only all-girls computer science class.
My girls love being in a girls class just for them, says the Oakland Education Association member. We have newcomer girls, too. They are getting stronger with their English skills, and we are all learning a whole new computer language together.
Parnell sees herself as helping to create a pipeline of women in computer science that will help diversify the tech industry in the Bay Area and beyond. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, computer science research jobs will grow 19 percent by 2026. Yet womenonly earn 18 percentof computer science bachelors degrees in the U.S. The percentage of women working in computer science-related professions dropped from 35 to 26 percent between 1990 and 2013.
Parnell, who teaches primarily Black and Latino students, hopes to see the tech industry become more racially diverse, too, reflecting Californias demographics. The challenge is real: According to a 2020 Los Angeles Times story, The industry has failed to move the needle on workplace diversity, and as a result, an entire sector of the economy is functionally barely open to Black and Latino people.
Parnell, top right, and her students with British soccer star David Beckham.
Parnell grew up in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles and went to school in LA Unified. She always wanted to be a teacher.
Growing up, I would gather all the kids on my block to come onto my lawn, where I had a chalkboard, and have them do math.
With support from the Fulfillment Fund (an LA nonprofit that helps make college a reality for students growing up in underresourced communities), she attended Bryn Mawr in Pennsylvania. After graduation she joined Teach for America. She was placed at Bret Harte; after five years as a math teacher, she was ready for a change.
I had an opportunity to pilot an all-girls introduction to computer science class. I went to an all-womens college and knew the advantages of being surrounded by other girls which is being more willing to take risks, speak up, and share ideas. I wanted to duplicate that experience with students on my campus.
She sought support and expertise from Code.org, a nonprofit that expands access to computer science, including animation, while increasing participation by young women and students from other underrepresented groups.
It was a very exciting time for me to be surrounded by young ladies and all of us learning together. I was up-front with my students. I said, Im terrified too, I dont know how it will turn out, but lets see where it takes us.
It has taken her to new opportunities, where she now teaches computer science and animation, including one all-girls computer science class.
Parnell describes her teaching style as warm but demanding. My students know I mean business, but they also know I care for them and want them to be their best selves at all times.
I wanted to take computer science because coding is super fun, says Vernia Morgan, eighth grader and student body president, who is enrolled in the all-girls class. Being in this class opened my mind to a career path in computer science.
I really like the way Ms. Parnell teaches, because it makes me feel like I have something to look forward to, says seventh grader Charlie Sellman.
Parnell lets her students shine. Pre-pandemic, they presented at the inaugural Future Trailblazer Challenge hosted by Salesforce, competing with students from other schools in a style similar to the TV show Shark Tank. Her students used coding and a 3D printer to build a solution to a problem school shootings and created a drop-down mechanism on classroom doors to keep intruders out. Her students have also met with UNICEF ambassador and soccer star David Beckham to discuss concerns about the state of the world.
For me, the fun comes when I allow students to create what they want to create and see them apply all the skills they have learned, Parnell says. I love seeing them do what they are interested in and sharing that with their classmates.
Parnell also trains teachers in computer science alongside computer science specialists. During the pandemic she created videos for her students, and she continues the practice this year.
She cried happy tears when she was named Teacher of the Year.
It was so nice to be recognized. Its not about what we do in the classroom; its also about preparing our students to be successful in the outside world. Im so glad I wasnt afraid to take a risk. We are all teachers and learners. We are all in this together.
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Chantel Parnell: Working to Diversify Tech - California Teachers Association
Decoding the science of coding in just one hour – CBS46 News Atlanta
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Decoding the science of coding in just one hour - CBS46 News Atlanta
Kronos Ransomware Update: Estimated Time To Be Fixed, Efforts of UKG’s Clients, and Other New Details – Tech Times
Kronos ransomware attack is one of the latest security breaches that affected a giant company. Specifically, this new cybersecurity attack affects an HR management company, Ultimate Kronos Group, which handles many agencies and other businesses.
(Photo : Photo by ROB ENGELAAR/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)A laptop displays a message after being infected by a ransomware as part of a worldwide cyberattack on June 27, 2017 in Geldrop. - The unprecedented global ransomware cyberattack has hit more than 200,000 victims in more than 150 countries, Europol executive director Rob Wainwright said May 14, 2017. Britain's state-run National Health Service was affected by the attack.
The system breach was confirmed on Saturday, Dec. 12. Involved security experts explained that many UKG's services were affected, such as its Private Cloud.
Since the HR company's Private Cloud service was breached, hackers behind the ransomware attack were also able to target the agency's Healthcare Extensions, Banking Schedule Solutions, UKG's Workforce Central, as well as UKG's Telestaff.
Recently, TechTimes reported that the ransomware attack is quite serious, stating thathigh-profile customerswere affected by the massive breach, such as Tesla.
According toUSA Today's latest report, UKG estimates that the ransomware attack will be fixed in several weeks. The duration would depend on the company's efficient actions against the breach.
(Photo : Photo credit should read DAMIEN MEYER/AFP via Getty Images)An IT researchers stands next to a giant screen a computer infected by a ransomware at the LHS (High Security Laboratory) of the INRIA (National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation) in Rennes, on November 3, 2016. Paradise where computer viruses blossom under the watchful eye of scientists, the Laboratory of high security (LHS-PEC) of Rennes is a small fortress from where emerge the first studies on the "ransomwares."
Also Read:50TB Worth of COVID-19 Vaccination Data Allegedly Deleted as Hackers Exploit the Brazilian Ministry of Health
This means it could take around the end of December or by the first month of 2021.
"We are working with leading cyber security experts to assess and resolve the situation, and have notified the authorities," said the Ultimate Kronos Group's Executive Vice President, Bob Hughes.
He added that they are still working on identifying the full coverage of the attack. You can click thislinkto see more details.
The ransomware against UKG's services clearly affected various large companies, such as Puma, the YMCA, and other big names.
Of course, they are also doing their part to ease the security breach somehow. The University of Utah announced that already established a task force to help identify how serious the issue really is.
On the other hand, the City of Cleveland said that they are making efforts so that its staff's salaries would be uninterrupted. These are just some actions to ensure that their employees would receive their pays.
As of the moment, ransomware attacks are still becoming rampant.ITP.Netreported that Kaspersky, one of the well-known security firms, provided incident responses, with 50% focusing on ransomware breaches.
In other news,Chinese ransomware attackscould shut down the power of more than 30 million households.
For more news updates about security threats, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
Related Article:Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Arrests Man For Allegedly Coordinating Ransomware Attacks
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Written by:Griffin Davis
2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
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Sant Announces Expansion Of Ventures Team With The Addition Of Auriel August, MD, Ashley Seehusen, and Michael Gutbrod – PRNewswire
AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --Sant Ventures, (Sant), an early-stage healthcare and life sciences investment firm, has announced the addition of three new key hires to its team. Auriel August, MD joins as a Senior Associate, Ashley Seehusen as a Venture Fellow, and Michael Gutbrod as an Associate. The continued expansion of the firm's headcount comes on the heels of its recently-announced Fund IV, which raised $260 Million and closed in September of this year.
Dr. August will focus on developing the firm's portfolio of early-stage companies, with a specific emphasis on medical devices and healthcare services. She joins the firm having previously served as a Physician-In-Residence at IDEO's Design for Health Studio, where she played a pivotal role in helping to design new medical devices, digital healthcare technologies, and patient care experiences. Ashley Seehusen will focus on the exploration of new investment themes and incubating companies that could potentially become Series A Investments. Before joining Sant, she was the CEO and Co-founder of Nasus Medical. Michael Gutbrod will concentrate on the firm's portfolio of biotech companies, having previously been a fellow at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
"We are thrilled to welcome Auriel, Ashley, and Michael to our team, and look forward to being able to draw upon their impressive and diverse experience," noted Kevin Lalande, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Sant. "As our firm has grown, we remain committed to bringing on the best talent in the industry, who offer the critical support and visionary guidance that our portfolio companies expect from us. With these new hires, we close out 2021 in one of the strongest positions we have been in during our firm's 15-year history."
About Sant Ventures' New Hires:
Auriel August, MD cultivates the firm's portfolio of early-stage companies with a focus on medical devices and healthcare services. Prior to joining Sant, Dr. August was a Physician-In-Residence in IDEO's Design for Health Studio where she worked with clients in the healthcare space to design new medical devices, digital health technologies, and patient care experiences. Before joining IDEO, Dr. August completed the Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellowship, where she identified unmet needs within healthcare, invented novel technologies to address them, and mapped a path to implementation. Dr. August trained as a general surgeon at Stanford, where she focused on innovation as a way to address healthcare disparities. She earned her MD from Dartmouth Medical School, and a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering from Duke University.
Ashley Seehusen focuses on exploring new investment themes and incubating companies that could potentially become Series A investments. Prior to joining Sant, Ashley was the CEO and Co-founder of Nasus Medical, a company that was founded out of her year as a Stanford Biodesign Innovation Fellow. Ashley has spent 18+ years in the medical device industry, the last 12 in marketing, leading teams, setting business strategy, defining new products, and bringing them to commercialization. She earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of California, Berkeley and a PhD from the University of Bristol, both in mechanical engineering. She also has an MBA from Babson College.
Michael Gutbrod focuses on the firm's portfolio of biotech companies. Prior to joining Sant, Michael was a postdoctoral fellow at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and a visiting fellow at Harvard's Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. Michael earned his PhD from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in Biological Sciences and his Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne in Molecular & Cellular Biology and English.
About Sant VenturesFounded in 2006, Sant Ventures is a specialized healthcare and life sciences investment firm with nearly $1BN in capital under management. The firm invests in early-stage companies developing innovative new medical technologies, biotechnologies, and digitally enabled healthcare services. Recent Sant successes include Farapulse (Boston Scientific), Claret Medical (Boston Scientific), TVA Medical (Becton Dickinson), Millipede Medical (Boston Scientific), Molecular Templates (MTEM), AbVitro (Celgene), and Explorys (IBM Corp). Sant invests nationally and has offices in Austin, TX, and Boston, MA. For more information, please visit http://www.sante.com.
Media ContactsSant Ventures Press and Community Relations[emailprotected]512.721.1200
Ryan Walker, R.J. Walker & Co.[emailprotected]860.930.3611
SOURCE Sant Ventures
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UW-Green Bay’s Rising Phoenix Program Expands with Computer Science Pathway for Students Across the Region – Inside UW-Green Bay News – UWGB
Program addresses the computer science workforce shortage in Northeast Wisconsin
Green Bay, Wis.The Rising Phoenix Early College High School Program is expanding through a new collaboration between UW-Green Bay and the Computer Science Talent Ecosystem Youth (CSTEY). The Rising Phoenix Computer Science Pathway program is modeled after the inaugural Rising Phoenix cohort with the Manitowoc Public School District that launched in Fall 2020 by expanding the program across the CESA 7 region.
According to CSTEY, computer science is one of the fastest growing careers in the region with at least 2,000 new jobs created by 2022. To keep up with new job creation, the region requires a higher output of computer scientists with bachelors degrees, who are ready to meet computing needs of employers. The Rising Phoenix Computer Science Pathway fast-forwards bachelor degree attainment by providing the opportunity for students to get a two-year head start by completing an Associate of Arts and Sciences (AAS) degree while in high school.
We are proud to expand the Rising Phoenix program with a specialized pathway in computer science in order to provide skilled computer scientists to employers in the region, said UW-Green Bay Chancellor Michael Alexander. Rising Phoenix strengthens the bridge between school districts, UW-Green Bay and area employers in order to fill critical workforce shortages in the region. We are proud to partner with CSTEY and their partners to provide innovative workforce solutions.
Current sophomores from participating high schools in CESA 7 will have the opportunity to apply for the Rising Phoenix Program and enroll during their junior and senior years of high school. When admitted to the program, students will be concurrently enrolled at their high school and UW-Green Bay. Rising Phoenix courses are selected to meet Wisconsin high school graduation requirements and the UW-Green Bay Associate of Arts and Sciences (AAS) degree. Students are offered a flexible combination of courses that include existing dual credit options offered in each students high school, UW-Green Bay courses offered at campuses in Green Bay, Marinette, Manitowoc and Sheboygan and online courses. In this way, students can take courses and participate in extra-curricular activities at their high school. With Rising Phoenix, students get to experience college coursework in the familiar environment of their high school with dedicated support and gain confidence by learning alongside other college students at a college campus.
Students enrolling in the program as high school juniors will have the opportunity to earn an AAS degree by the time they graduate high school. Students who complete an AAS degree will have the first two years of a bachelors degree completed as well as 12 credits in computer science. Students will earn a digital badge in Computer Science Principles to validate and provide a shareable record of their accomplishment. The AAS will apply whether students decide to continue at UW-Green Bay, transfer to a different college or university or enter the workforce upon graduation with an earned college credential. Students tuition and textbook costs will be covered by their school district through the Early College Credit Program and UW-Green Bay Dual Enrollment Access Academy.
We are excited with the opportunities this partnership will present to students in our services area, said CESA 7 Agency Administrator Jeff Dickert. We know jobs in the computer science field are in high demand in Wisconsin and this creates another way for our schools to prepare our kids to be college and career ready.
Committed student support and coaching are the main advantages of the program. Every student enrolled will work consistently with UW-Green Bays Rising Phoenix student success coach, who will:
To learn more about the program and express interest, school districts in CESA 7 should visit https://www.uwgb.edu/computer-science-districts/ for more information and to express interest in providing this option for students.
About the University of Wisconsin-Green BayEstablished in 1965, UW-Green Bay is a public institution serving 9,276 undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students and nearly 80,000 continuing education enrollees each year across all campus locations. We educate students from pre-college through retirement and offer 200+ degrees, programs and certificates. UW-Green Bay graduates are resilient, inclusive, sustaining and engaged members of their communities, ready to rise to fearlessly face challenges, solve problems and embrace diverse ideas and people. With four campus locations, the University welcomes students from every corner of the world. In 2020, UW-Green Bay was the fastest growing UW school in Wisconsin. For more information, visit http://www.uwgb.edu.
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Machines that see the world more like humans do – MIT News
Computer vision systems sometimes make inferences about a scene that fly in the face of common sense. For example, if a robot were processing a scene of a dinner table, it might completely ignore a bowl that is visible to any human observer, estimate that a plate is floating above the table, or misperceive a fork to be penetrating a bowl rather than leaning against it.
Move that computer vision system to a self-driving car and the stakes become much higher for example, such systems have failed to detect emergency vehicles and pedestrians crossing the street.
To overcome these errors, MIT researchers have developed a framework that helps machines see the world more like humans do. Their new artificial intelligence system for analyzing scenes learns to perceive real-world objects from just a few images, and perceives scenes in terms of these learned objects.
The researchers built the framework using probabilistic programming, an AI approach that enables the system to cross-check detected objects against input data, to see if the images recorded from a camera are a likely match to any candidate scene. Probabilistic inference allows the system to infer whether mismatches are likely due to noise or to errors in the scene interpretation that need to be corrected by further processing.
This common-sense safeguard allows the system to detect and correct many errors that plague the deep-learning approaches that have also been used for computer vision. Probabilistic programming also makes it possible to infer probable contact relationships between objects in the scene, and use common-sense reasoning about these contacts to infer more accurate positions for objects.
If you dont know about the contact relationships, then you could say that an object is floating above the table that would be a valid explanation. As humans, it is obvious to us that this is physically unrealistic and the object resting on top of the table is a more likely pose of the object. Because our reasoning system is aware of this sort of knowledge, it can infer more accurate poses. That is a key insight of this work, says lead author Nishad Gothoskar, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) PhD student with the Probabilistic Computing Project.
In addition to improving the safety of self-driving cars, this work could enhance the performance of computer perception systems that must interpret complicated arrangements of objects, like a robot tasked with cleaning a cluttered kitchen.
Gothoskars co-authors include recent EECS PhD graduate Marco Cusumano-Towner; research engineer Ben Zinberg; visiting student Matin Ghavamizadeh; Falk Pollok, a software engineer in the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab; recent EECS masters graduate Austin Garrett; Dan Gutfreund, a principal investigator in the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab; Joshua B. Tenenbaum, the Paul E. Newton Career Development Professor of Cognitive Science and Computation in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS) and a member of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; and senior author Vikash K. Mansinghka, principal research scientist and leader of the Probabilistic Computing Project in BCS. The research is being presented at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems in December.
A blast from the past
To develop the system, called 3D Scene Perception via Probabilistic Programming (3DP3), the researchers drew on a concept from the early days of AI research, which is that computer vision can be thought of as the "inverse" of computer graphics.
Computer graphics focuses on generating images based on the representation of a scene; computer vision can be seen as the inverse of this process. Gothoskar and his collaborators made this technique more learnable and scalable by incorporating it into a framework built using probabilistic programming.
Probabilistic programming allows us to write down our knowledge about some aspects of the world in a way a computer can interpret, but at the same time, it allows us to express what we dont know, the uncertainty. So, the system is able to automatically learn from data and also automatically detect when the rules dont hold, Cusumano-Towner explains.
In this case, the model is encoded with prior knowledge about 3D scenes. For instance, 3DP3 knows that scenes are composed of different objects, and that these objects often lay flat on top of each other but they may not always be in such simple relationships. This enables the model to reason about a scene with more common sense.
Learning shapes and scenes
To analyze an image of a scene, 3DP3 first learns about the objects in that scene. After being shown only five images of an object, each taken from a different angle, 3DP3 learns the objects shape and estimates the volume it would occupy in space.
If I show you an object from five different perspectives, you can build a pretty good representation of that object. Youd understand its color, its shape, and youd be able to recognize that object in many different scenes, Gothoskar says.
Mansinghka adds, "This is way less data than deep-learning approaches. For example, the Dense Fusion neural object detection system requires thousands of training examples for each object type. In contrast, 3DP3 only requires a few images per object, and reports uncertainty about the parts of each objects' shape that it doesn't know."
The 3DP3 system generates a graph to represent the scene, where each object is a node and the lines that connect the nodes indicate which objects are in contact with one another. This enables 3DP3 to produce a more accurate estimation of how the objects are arranged. (Deep-learning approaches rely on depth images to estimate object poses, but these methods dont produce a graph structure of contact relationships, so their estimations are less accurate.)
Outperforming baseline models
The researchers compared 3DP3 with several deep-learning systems, all tasked with estimating the poses of 3D objects in a scene.
In nearly all instances, 3DP3 generated more accurate poses than other models and performed far better when some objects were partially obstructing others. And 3DP3 only needed to see five images of each object, while each of the baseline models it outperformed needed thousands of images for training.
When used in conjunction with another model, 3DP3 was able to improve its accuracy. For instance, a deep-learning model might predict that a bowl is floating slightly above a table, but because 3DP3 has knowledge of the contact relationships and can see that this is an unlikely configuration, it is able to make a correction by aligning the bowl with the table.
I found it surprising to see how large the errors from deep learning could sometimes be producing scene representations where objects really didnt match with what people would perceive. I also found it surprising that only a little bit of model-based inference in our causal probabilistic program was enough to detect and fix these errors. Of course, there is still a long way to go to make it fast and robust enough for challenging real-time vision systems but for the first time, we're seeing probabilistic programming and structured causal models improving robustness over deep learning on hard 3D vision benchmarks, Mansinghka says.
In the future, the researchers would like to push the system further so it can learn about an object from a single image, or a single frame in a movie, and then be able to detect that object robustly in different scenes. They would also like to explore the use of 3DP3 to gather training data for a neural network. It is often difficult for humans to manually label images with 3D geometry, so 3DP3 could be used to generate more complex image labels.
The 3DP3 system combines low-fidelity graphics modeling with common-sense reasoning to correct large scene interpretation errors made by deep learning neural nets. This type of approach could have broad applicability as it addresses important failure modes of deep learning. The MIT researchers accomplishment also shows how probabilistic programming technology previously developed under DARPAs Probabilistic Programming for Advancing Machine Learning (PPAML) program can be applied to solve central problems of common-sense AI under DARPAs current Machine Common Sense (MCS) program, says Matt Turek, DARPA Program Manager for the Machine Common Sense Program, who was not involved in this research, though the program partially funded the study.
Additional funders include the Singapore Defense Science and Technology Agency collaboration with the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, Intels Probabilistic Computing Center, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, the Aphorism Foundation, and the Siegel Family Foundation.
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Apple, Boys & Girls Clubs team up to offer coding opportunities to kids, teens – Apple Newsroom
December 6, 2021
UPDATE
Apple teams up with Boys&GirlsClubs of America to bring new coding opportunities to young learners across the country
In celebration of Computer Science Education Week, Apple and Boys & Girls Clubs of America today launched a new program that will bring coding to Boys & Girls Clubs in more than a dozen US cities. This new collaboration will bring coding with Swift to tens of thousands of students across the country, building on Apples existing partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America through the companys Community Education Initiative in support of its Racial Equity and Justice Initiative.
Using iPad and Apples free Everyone Can Code curriculum and with ongoing professional support from Apple educators kids and teens at local Boys & Girls Clubs will integrate coding into their programming, giving students the opportunity to create and collaborate on the basics of app design and development, with an emphasis on critical thinking and creative problem-solving.
At Apple, we believe education is a force for equity, and that all learners should have the opportunity to explore and develop coding skills for their future, said Lisa Jackson, Apples vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives. Together with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, weve already introduced thousands of students to innovative technology experiences, and we are thrilled to expand our partnership to bring coding with Swift to even more communities across the country.
Boys & Girls Clubs of America is committed to helping youth reach their full potential, which includes equipping young people with critical thinking and problem-solving skills that will serve them for years to come, said Jim Clark, Boys & Girls Clubs of Americas president and CEO. We are thrilled to partner with Apple to enhance Club programming with innovative and educational coding activities that will build kids and teens engagement and opportunity in technology.
The program will initially launch in 10 new regions, including Atlanta; Austin, Texas; metro D.C.; Miami-Dade County, Florida; Wake County, North Carolina; and Silicon Valley, with the goal of expanding coding opportunities to clubs nationwide. Programming has already launched in Atlantic City, New Jersey; Chicago; Detroit; Nashville, Tennessee; and Newark, New Jersey, where engagement will continue to expand.
In New Jersey, Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City opened a Design Lab and a STEAM Lab last year to support creativity, coding, and career development programming and the Club is opening a second STEAM Lab in January to create additional opportunities for young learners. The labs are equipped with iPad and Mac computers, and curricula incorporate Everyone Can Code, Everyone Can Create, and Develop in Swift. To prepare its students for future academic and professional pursuits, the Club is also launching a new STEAM preapprenticeship program that will teach students the foundations of working on iPad and Mac, eventually giving them the tools to seek a formal App Development with Swift certification.
Working with Apple this past year has been transformative for our students, who have had the opportunity to explore entirely new ways of thinking, creating, and pursuing their passions, said Stephanie Koch, Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic Citys CEO. The young people we work with are the future of Atlantic City, and were proud to partner with Apple to help them gain new skills to grow as learners and prepare for jobs in the 21st-century economy.
In Detroit, Apple helped support Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigans summer Code to Career coding course and app challenge. The program brought together young adults ages 18 to 24 to learn the foundations of human interface design and the Swift coding language, using Apples Everyone Can Code curriculum. Students worked in small groups to create app prototypes designed to solve a challenge within the community including fashion sustainability, using hip-hop to build a sense of community, and improving city mobility. The club is now expanding this work further, bringing new devices and coding programming to its 11 locations across Greater Detroit.
Todays announcement builds on a 2020 initiative through which Apple donated 2,500 devices to Boys & Girls Clubs of America locations in Alabama; Arizona; California; Connecticut; Georgia; Idaho; Illinois; Louisiana; Massachusetts, Michigan; Minnesota; New Jersey; New York; Ohio; Oregon; Pennsylvania; Tennessee; Texas; Washington, D.C.; and Wisconsin.
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Apple, Boys & Girls Clubs team up to offer coding opportunities to kids, teens - Apple Newsroom
UCF Professor Greg Welch Named to the National Academy of Inventors – UCF
UCF Professor Greg Welch is one of 164 national faculty members who have been named to the National Academy of Inventors and one of only 10 from Florida this year. Welch is the AdventHealth Endowed Chair in Healthcare Simulationin UCFs College of Nursing. The computer scientist and engineer is also the co-director of theUCF Synthetic Reality Laboratory.
The NAI Fellows Program recognizes academic inventors who have demonstrated a spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and the welfare of society. Election to NAI Fellow is the highest professional distinction accorded solely to academic inventors, according to the NAI. The years honorees will be formally appointed at the Fellows Induction Ceremony during the 11th Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Inventors in June 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Chicago native who also holds additional faculty appointments in UCFs College of Engineering and Computer Scienceand in theUCF Institute for Simulation and Training within the School of Modeling, Simulation and Training is the universitys 17th NAI fellow. His work has resulted in 18 ideas or products that have eventually been granted patents including 10 at UCF, which the Technology Transfer Office is working to license to companies. The key to innovation is collaboration, time to think and finding solutions to real problems, he recently said.
Welch has a vast range of experience from working at NASAs Jet Propulsion Lab on the Voyager project to serving as a research professor at University of North Carolina Chapel Hill for many years before joining UCF in 2011.
The past two years have been exceptionally accomplished ones for Welch. In 2020, he was named a Pegasus Professor the highest honor bestowed to faculty at the university. Last month he also earned recognition at the TechConnect World Conference.
To date, NAI Fellows hold more than 48,000 issued U.S. patents, which have generated over 13,000 licensed technologies and companies, and created more than one million jobs. In addition, over $3 trillion in revenue has been generated based on NAI Fellow discoveries.
The 2021 Fellow class hails from 116 research universities and governmental and non-profit research institutes worldwide. They collectively hold over 4,800 issued U.S. patents.Among the new class of fellowsare 33 members of the National Academiesof Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and three Nobel Laureates, as well as other honors and distinctions.Their collective body of research and entrepreneurship covers a broad range of scientific disciplines involved with technology transfer of their inventions for the benefit of society.
Two faculty members, Pegasus Professor of Optics and Photonics Martin Richardson and NanoScience Technology Center Professor James Hickman, were among the 2020 cohort of fellows. Earlier this year, UCF was ranked No. 25 in the nation among public universities for producing patents.
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UCF Professor Greg Welch Named to the National Academy of Inventors - UCF
SAP : Helping to Close the Computer Science Education Disparity – marketscreener.com
I believe teaching is one of the most important yet challenging professions. A good and supportive teacher can have an immensely positive impact on a student, helping to ignite a lifelong passion for a particular subject.
I think of my own experience in high school. Two of my favorite classes were physics and chemistry. These classes relied on technical skills and computational thinking, along with experiments and hands-on activities that engaged me. I remember the thrill of seeing the pieces come together in my head and how that translated to our world. I felt a connection to the classroom and the material, all of which was made possible by teachers who made me feel like I belonged there and supported my excitement.
Of course, we are living in a different world from then. The pandemic has contributed to increasing stress among teachers. It has had a similar effect on students and has likely exacerbated many of the disparities and hardships that already existed in education.
Next week kicks off Computer Science Education Week, which is aimed at inspiring students to "learn computer science, advocate for equity in computer science education, and celebrate the contributions of students, teachers, and partners to the field."
With education, we often focus on students. However, I think we are doing a disservice to our teachers if we keep our focus too narrow. It is, after all, our teachers who are at the center of a learner's experience - particularly in fields that are not usually a part of core courses, such as computer science.
Despite computer science being foundational to many jobs today - and especially the jobs of tomorrow - only about half (51%) of public high schools in the U.S offer at least one foundational computer science course, according to data compiled by the Code.org Advocacy Coalition, Computer Science Techers Association, and Expanding Computing Education Pathways. This is up from 47% last year, but still means nearly half of public high schools in the U.S. are not offering basic computer science courses.
What's more, disparities persist. This is particularly the case in rural and urban schools, and schools with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students. Also, only three out of 10 high school students currently enrolled in foundational computer science classes are female.
It's up to all of us to take action to address the computer science education disparity.
I've admired the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) for a long time. It is a community of computer science teachers led by educators that share the latest best practices in K-12 computer science education across the U.S. and Canada. Not only are they focused on creating a strong environment to support K-12 educators, they're also committed to equity in their community and for the students these educators serve.
Specifically, SAP is supporting CSTA's Computer Science Honor Society, a program that will award funding to local community projects that encourage elementary, middle, and high school students to explore computer science and learn about pathways outside of the classroom. The focus is bringing this computational thinking off the screen and into the real world.
In a recent Instagram Live, I spoke with Jen Rosato, 2021 CSEdWeek Committee Chair and Past Chair, CSTA Board of Directors, about the importance of building community and how we as individuals can all support computer science education and teachers. The perspective Rosato was able to share was both insightful and valuable, and I encourage you to check out the conversation here.
NAF is a network of education, business, and community leaders who work together to ensure high school students are college and career-ready. SAP has partnered with NAF since 2016, and in that time, we have collaborated on a number of workforce readiness and IT pathway support programs, impacting approximately 500,000 students across the U.S.
In 2021, we continued the partnership by supporting a key initiative: The Academy of Information Technology (AOIT) Curriculum Collaborative Lab. There are currently 115 computer science of IT pathways within the NAF network. This incredible group of computer science teachers are creating and piloting new computer science content as it is developed. Examples of this work include NAF's Passport to Tech and Passport to Engineering Expeditions, which inspire students to imagine innovative solutions to real-world issues in partnership with career experts. Topics covered include space, artificial intelligence (AI), eco-tech, virtual reality, creative coding, and user experience (UX). The program is built around one underlying premise: that it will help students better connect with the content.
There is plenty of work to be done, and our work does not stop with these two impactful programs. Other organizations making an impact in the field of computer science we're proud to be supporting include Ignite Worldwide, Jobs for the Future, four early college high schools that SAP has been supporting for nearly a decade, and 100Kin10. We're also proud to be advancing data science with the 49ers in a new partnership we announced this year.
As a major technology company dependent on software development, SAP has a duty and vested interest in preparing the future workforce, particularly in this field.
Technology is changing incredibly fast, and society becoming more reliant on it. If computer science is not accessible to every student, and if we're not building bridges between computer science educators and the people using this technology every day, we will have a workforce wholly unprepared for the jobs of tomorrow.
One of our most fundamental corporate social responsibility goals is to ensure this outcome never comes to fruition.
Katie Booth is head of SAP North America Corporate Social Responsibility.
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SAP : Helping to Close the Computer Science Education Disparity - marketscreener.com