Category Archives: Computer Science
How to make dual-enrolment programmes work | THE Campus … – Times Higher Education
When Georgia Tech started its distance calculus programme nearly two decades ago, the face of the programme was a venerable mathematics professor standing in the front of a small auditorium in full cycling gear. He lectured wide-eyed first-year university students in the room and beamed his recitations live to five maths classrooms in metro Atlanta high schools. Everything about the programme was unorthodox, starting with the availability of post-calculus maths for high school students in Georgia.
Fast-forward to today, and the class reaches more than 90 high schools in Georgia and models the possibility of dual enrolment, allowing us to use innovative delivery and solid partnerships to serve the state and to create pipelines. Here are strategies we have learned along the journey.
Some campuses include dual-enrolment students in classes that would otherwise have empty seats. But what do you do if your campus cant offer this option because youre always operating at near capacity? You can create programmes that invite high-school students to enjoy your courses in designs intended for them.
When I picture our early days in distance dual enrolment, Iunderstand that broadcasting a college calculus class in Atlanta to suburban high schools was innovative. Today, reaching students who started their high school experience in an entirely virtual setting, innovation is still evident in the delivery of courses and the human element is also present. Math classes include a hybrid set-up of recorded lectures and live studio sessions. Teaching staff who never see these students in person hold office hours and study sessions for them. They keep staff chats and discussions to make sure that students understand the material. Students can work at their own pace when they need to and have present support when they need that, too.
Dual enrolment allows colleges and universities to provide educational programmes that local school systems cannot support. As an institute of technology, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to provide STEM courses that our schools in Georgia struggle to fund and operate. So, 18 years into teaching advanced maths through dual enrolment, we find the need greater than ever; more than 1,100 students applied for the programme for fall 2023. Weve expanded our programme and renamed it Distance Math to acknowledge that we teach four mathematics courses, only one of which is calculus.
If you know the fields in which your campus excels and where your programmes meet the needs in your community, you can both fill a need and create a pipeline. Legislation of the Georgia General Assembly requires computer science for every high school student beginning in 2024. Using the model of our maths programme, we have expanded our distance dual enrolment offerings to include introductory computer science classes. When computer science teachers are in short supply, providing another option for this critical subject reflects our commitment to serving the state.
Successful dual enrolment programmes can create pipelines for individual institutions, systems and even for majors and programmes. And aligning offerings to the communitys needs and the institutions curriculum can improve overall retention and graduation rates.
Nearly 20 per cent of our first-year students from Georgia participated in our dual enrolment programmes. Other institutions in our university system automatically admit dual enrolment students as first-year students, allowing natural retention on their campuses. Without natural retention, we retain 60per cent of our dual enrolment students on our campus and 75per cent in the university system. The University System of Georgia compared the performance of first-year students who had participated in dual enrolment with those who had not and found that the dual enrolment students consistently outperformed their classmates.
When dual enrolment participants enter our institution as first-year students, they bypass heavily subscribed first-year maths and computer science courses. Every bit of flexibility in scheduling relieves stress on our urban campus with limited space.
The success of any dual enrolment programme depends on key partnerships across your campus and with high schools and districts. For us, collaborators designing and implementing new programmes include the Center for Education Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing (our official arm to the K-12 community), Professional Education (our experts in online delivery) and academic units. Enrolling students requires partnerships among the offices of undergraduate admission, financial aid, registrar and bursar.
On the high school side, we work with counsellors who assist with scheduling and approving registration and funding. We work with facilitators who proctor tests in the maths courses. Building these relationships ensures that your dual enrolment programme can sustain enrolment and relevance over decades.
Laura Brown Simmons is director of non-degree programmes in undergraduate admission at Georgia Tech.
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How to make dual-enrolment programmes work | THE Campus ... - Times Higher Education
Purdue trustees ratify faculty and staff positions – Purdue University
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. ThePurdue UniversityBoard of Trusteeson Friday (Aug. 4) ratified faculty and staff appointments, recognizing efforts in discovery, learning and engagement that have advanced Purdues land-grant mission while elevating its reputation as a leading research university across the country and around the world.
The newly ratified positions are:
* Michael Sangid, who was named the Reilly Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering.
* Sherif Elfayoumy, who was named the Steel Dynamics Endowed Dean of the College of Engineering, Technology, and Computer Science at Purdue Fort Wayne.
* Leonard Harris, who was named the Joyce and Edward E. Brewer Chair in Applied Ethics.
* Melba M. Crawford, who was named the Nancy Uridil and Frank Bosseu Distinguished Professor in Civil Engineering.
* Andrei Gabrielov, who was named a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics.
* Jie Shen, who was named a Distinguished Professor of Mathematics.
* Alexandra (Sasha) Boltasseva, who was named the Ron and Dotty Garvin Tonjes Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
* Carol Handwerker, who was named the Reinhardt Schuhmann, Jr. Distinguished Professor in the School of Materials Engineering.
* Scott Sudhoff, who was named the Michael and Katherine Birck Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
* Rao S. Govindaraju, who was named the Christopher B. and Susan S. Burke Distinguished Professor in Civil Engineering.
* Fabio Ribeiro, who was named the W. Nicholas and Elizabeth H. Delgass Distinguished Professor in Chemical Engineering.
Sangid is developing new approaches to the design, manufacture and life analysis of structures and materials leading to safer, more energy-efficient and higher-performing aerospace components. Through collaboration with major aerospace gas turbine companies, he has addressed critical production issues and resolved long-standing materials problems. Sangid established and serves as executive director of the Hypersonics Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center (the first contract awarded to the Purdue Applied Research Institute) to foster collaboration among industry partners, facilitate innovation in high temperature materials, reduce the time and cost of prototyping, and accelerate progress in the field of hypersonics. He spearheaded the design, development and deployment of Virtual Labs, offering students a more interactive and enriching laboratory experience, and is helping to integrate these experiences into various courses throughout the university.
Elfayoumy joined Purdue Fort Wayne in July from the University of North Florida, where he had most recently served as director of the School of Computing since 2015. Elfayoumy was with UNF since 2000, also serving as a professor and associate dean of the College of Computing, Engineering and Construction. Among his honors was the FIS Distinguished Professor Award in 2014. Elfayoumy has extensive experience in strategic planning, innovation, fundraising, administration and the promotion of academic achievement. His research interests include data analytics and data mining. He has published approximately 50 peer-reviewed articles, conducted more than $1.7 million in funded research and been awarded three patents. Elfayoumys leadership experience in computer science further supports one of Purdue Fort Waynes strongest and fastest-growing programs.
Harris has developed a new conception of racism that says it is primarily actuarial; that is to say, it is a matter of the distribution of life chances, including both health and sickness, and the artificial shortening of life. He calls this necro-being. This conception of racism, as well as his new conception of ethics more generally (called insurrectionist ethics) and his new conception of philosophy itself (called philosophy born of struggle), has had a significant influence on the field of philosophy. Harris work has contributed to the creation of the new Africana Philosophy subfield, which has become a disciplinary specialty recognized by the American Philosophical Association. He also has led a fundamental reevaluation of the African American philosopher Alain Locke, and the establishment of Locke as a major figure in the American philosophical movement known as pragmatism. For this work, Harris was awarded the prestigious Herbert Schneider Award of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy. Additionally, Harris has earned numerous prestigious fellowships and visiting appointments including Fulbright Scholarships in Ethiopia and Uganda fellowships at Harvard and the Tuskegee Institute and visiting appointments at Cambridge University and the Catholic University of Leuven.
Crawford is an internationally renowned scientist, engineer and leader in the field of remote sensing. She has pioneered and advanced the state-of-the-art in the use of machine learning methods for remotely sensed image data. Her contributions have resulted in vital new capabilities to address urgent problems in agriculture, geotechnical engineering, and environmental mapping and monitoring. Crawford is a professor of civil engineering and agronomy, the Nancy Uridil and Francis Bossu Professor of Civil Engineering, director of the Laboratory for Applications of Remote Sensing and a key member of Purdues Digital Forestry interdisciplinary team. Her honors include the 2023 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Mildred Dresselhaus Medal for contributions to remote sensing technology and leadership in its application for the benefit of humanity, the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society David Landgrebe Award, the IEEE GRSS Outstanding Service Award and NASAs Outstanding Service Award.
Gabrielov is a talented and influential mathematician who has impacted a broad range of theoretical mathematics, where his work has been instrumental in the creation of entirely new research directions and their subsequent development. His contributions span mathematical logic, topology, algebraic geometry, complex analysis and differential equations. Additionally, he has made contributions to applied fields. His work in geophysics resulted in new models of seismicity and improved the prediction and understanding of earthquakes, and he has been invited to speak at nearly 170 major scientific events around the world, including in Japan, Poland, Italy, France, Brazil, New Zealand, Mexico, Israel and Spain. Gabrielov was placed among the top 0.1% of world mathematical geophysicists and experts in earthquake prediction theory by a senior research fellow and research professor at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, a member of Academia Europaea and a former secretary general of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics. Gabrielov is also a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.
Shen has made contributions in many areas of computational and applied mathematics, including theoretical numerical analysis, scientific computing, computational fluid dynamics and computational materials science. A particular emphasis of his work is the development and analysis of high-order methods. For more than a decade, Shen has served as Purdues director of the Center for Computational and Applied Mathematics. He was ranked No. 4 in the world for single-year impact and No. 9 in the world for career impact in the field of numerical and computational mathematics in Stanfords 2022 Worlds Top Scientists and is a recipient of a Fulbright Award. He is also an elected fellow of the American Mathematical Society and an elected fellow of the Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He serves as a member of eight editorial boards for peer-reviewed journals in his field.
Boltasseva works in the fields of nano- and quantum photonics, plasmonics and optical metamaterials. The central focus of Boltassevas research is finding new ways for realization of photonic devices from material growth and advanced designs to nanofabrication and device demonstrations. She is currently the workforce development lead of the Quantum Science Center within the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science National Quantum Information Science Research Center. She also served on the Materials Research Society (MRS) board of directors and the Optica (previously Optical Society of America) board of editors and publications council. She is a past editor-in-chief for the Optical Materials Express journal of the Optica Publishing Group. Her honors include the Optica Society R.W. Wood Prize, the IEEE Photonics Society Young Investigator Award, the MRS Outstanding Young Investigator Award and the MIT Technology Review TR35 Award. Boltasseva received the Guggenheim Fellowship and is a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, IEEE, Optica, Materials Research Society and SPIE (the international society for optics and photonics).
Handwerkerhas madepioneering contributions to the understanding of tin whiskering behavior, the solidification of lead-free solder alloys, and their impact on the electronics industry. Tin whiskers have been responsible for several satellite failures worth billions of dollars over the past 50 years. Handwerkers groundbreaking work led to the production of the worlds first lead-free electronics by Matsushita/Panasonic, revolutionizing the industry and enabling more environmentally benign manufacturing and disposal of electronic devices worldwide.Handwerkers leadership in the Lead-Free Solder Project and subsequent findings of theInternationalElectronics Manufacturing Initiativeresulted in the adoption of the Tin-Silver-Copper alloy system as the new international standard. She is actively involved in advancing the adoption of lead-free solders in defense and aerospace systems, collaborating with the Department of Defense and leading a $42 million, five-year DoD program focused on electronics reliability.Handwerker was named to the U.S. Department of Commerce Industrial Advisory Committee in 2022 to consult on issues related to the CHIPS for America Act; she is one of four academics on this committee. Handwerker received the Department of Commerce Gold Medal for her leadership in helping the global microelectronics industry convert to lead-free manufacturing, and she has been inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. She is a fellow of every significant materials science and engineering society as well as the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Sudhoff is regarded as a top global leader in electric machinery and related magnetics. He is distinguished by his impressive technical versatility, which has enabled him to make major technical contributions in several fields, including power electronics, electric machine drive control and power distribution systems. For example, Sudhoff has made technical contributions to the development of specialized power distribution systems for the U.S. Navy, which are vital to the success of its goal to electrify the propulsion and weapons systems of their entire future fleet of naval vessels. Sudhoff has served as editor-in-chief for IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Transactions on Energy Conversion and IEEE Power and Energy Technology Systems Journal. He is an elected fellow of the IEEE, a two-time recipient of SAE Internationals Charles M. Manly Memorial Medal and was honored with the IEEE Power Engineering Societys Cyril Veinott Electromechanical Energy Conversion Award.
Govindaraju is a highly accomplished and internationally renowned scholar in the field of hydrology, where his extensive research has significantly advanced the understanding and application of surface and subsurface hydrology, contaminant transport, watershed hydrology and the study of droughts. Researchers worldwide have adopted his techniques to analyze hydrologic problems related to rainfall, streamflow, reservoir management and aquifer characterization. Govindaraju served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Hydrologic Engineering for 10 years and has been president of the American Institute of Hydrology. He is a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and was recognized with its prestigious Ven Te Chow Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.
Ribeiro has forged a distinguished research career in catalysis science and technology through the development of custom-designed, high-precision spectroscopy instruments that yield accurate measurements of the structures of catalysts under reaction conditions. His creative use of these instruments to perform elegant experiments to advance the fieldwere honored with many awards. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Ribeiro serves as the director of the National Science Foundation-funded Engineering Research Center for Innovative and Strategic Transformation of Alkane Resources (CISTAR) at Purdue. The nationwide CISTAR is a successful collaboration of five universities and 32 industry partners to develop transformative technological innovations and build a new diverse and innovative workforce to responsibly realize U.S. shale gas potential in reducing carbon footprints.
About Purdue University
Purdue University is a public research institution with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top 4 in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, with 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdues main campus has frozen tuition 12 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap, including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes, at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.
Sources: Patrick Wolfe
Michael Sangid
Sherif Elfayoumy
Leonard Harris
Melba M. Crawford
Andrei Gabrielov
Jie Shen
Alexandra Boltasseva
Carol Handwerker
Scott Sudhoff
Rao S. Govindaraju
Fabio Ribeiro
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Purdue trustees ratify faculty and staff positions - Purdue University
‘Confusing, misleading or just plain wrong’: Researchers explain … – Study Finds
RALEIGH, N.C. If youve ever felt overwhelmed by all of the cybersecurity rules, verbiage, and instructions you should be keeping up with, youre not alone. Countless people dont understand the guidelines they receive at work to keep their computers and data safe. Luckily, researchers from North Carolina State University are calling attention to a key problem with how these instructions are created, and outlining a series of simple steps that could improve upon current cybersecurity practices and help keep your computer safer too.
Specifically, this project focused on the computer security guidelines that organizations like businesses and government agencies provide to their employees. These guidelines are generally designed and intended to help employees protect their personal and employer data, as well as minimize risks associated with threats like malware and phishing scams.
As a computer security researcher, Ive noticed that some of the computer security advice I read online is confusing, misleading or just plain wrong, says Brad Reaves, corresponding author of the new study and an assistant professor of computer science at NC State, in a university release. In some cases, I dont know where the advice is coming from or what its based on. That was the impetus for this research. Whos writing these guidelines? What are they basing their advice on? Whats their process? Is there any way we could do better?
To research this topic, the team conducted 21 in-depth interviews with professionals responsible for writing the computer security guidelines used by organizations including large corporations, universities, and government agencies.
The key takeaway here is that the people writing these guidelines try to give as much information as possible, Prof. Reaves adds. Thats great, in theory. But the writers dont prioritize the advice thats most important. Or, more specifically, they dont deprioritizethe points that are significantly less important. And because there is so much security advice to include, the guidelines can be overwhelming and the most important points get lost in the shuffle.
Researchers report one prevalent reason security guidelines tend to be so overwhelming is that the writers often incorporate every possible item from a wide assortment of authoritative sources.
In other words, the guideline writers are compiling security information, rather than curating security information for their readers, Prof. Reaves explains.
Drawing on what they learned from their interviews, study authors developed two recommendations for improving future security guidelines:
Look, computer security is complicated, Reaves says. But medicine is even more complicated. Yet during the pandemic, public health experts were able to give the public fairly simple, concise guidelines on how to reduce our risk of contracting COVID. We need to be able to do the same thing for computer security.
In conclusion, researchers say that security advice writers need help.
We need research, guidelines and communities of practice that can support these writers, because they play a key role in turning computer security discoveries into practical advice for real world application, Prof. Reaves concludes.
I also want to stress that when theres a computer security incident, we shouldnt blame an employee because they didnt comply with one of a thousand security rules we expected them to follow. We need to do a better job of creating guidelines that are easy to understand and implement.
Researchers presented their findings at the USENIX Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security in Anaheim, California.
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'Confusing, misleading or just plain wrong': Researchers explain ... - Study Finds
UN Secretary-General Creates Scientific Advisory Board for … – United Nations
The United Nations Secretary-General Antnio Guterres has announced the creation of a new Scientific Advisory Board to advise UN leaders on breakthroughs in science and technology and how to harness the benefits of these advances and mitigate potential risks.
Scientific and technological progress can support efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals but they are also giving rise to ethical, legal and political concerns that require multilateral solutions, Mr.Guterres said.
My Scientific Advisory Board will strengthen the role of the United Nations as a reliable source of data and evidence and provide advice to me and my senior management team.
The Advisory Board will comprise seven eminent scholars alongside the Chief Scientists of United Nations System entities, the Secretary-Generals Envoy on Technology, and the Rector of the United Nations University. The Board will be associated with a network of diverse scientific institutions from across the world.
The Secretary-Generals decision to establish a Scientific Advisory Board underscores the unwavering dedication of UN leaders to the principles of the scientific method. I look forward to supporting the UN Secretary-General in raising the voice for science-based policy and decision-making, expressed Professor Yoshua Bengio, Scientific Director of Mila Quebec AI Institute and Professor at the Universit de Montral.
The primary objective of the Board is to provide independent insights on trends at the intersection of science, technology, ethics, governance and sustainable development. Through their collaborative efforts, the Board and its Network will support United Nations leaders in anticipating, adapting to and leveraging the latest scientific advancements in their work for people, planet and prosperity.
By ensuring that UN policies and programmes are founded on the best available scientific evidence and expertise, the Board will play a crucial role in navigating the complex moral, social, and political dilemmas presented by rapid scientific and technological progress, said Ismahane Elouafi, Chief Scientist at the Food and Agriculture Organization.
With the formation of the Scientific Advisory Board, the United Nations takes a momentous stride towards better bridging science and policy. This initiative marks a vital step towards embracing the full potential of science and technology for the collective benefit of all Member States. Through collaborative efforts and inclusive representation, the Board will bolster the UNs capacity to address the intricate challenges and opportunities at the forefront of science and technology, fostering a path towards a more equitable and prosperous future for all.
Scientific Advisory Boards Design and Membership:
Centred around a hybrid model, the Board will comprise a group of seven eminent scientists with a track record in applying their expertise, including in the humanities, and another group of Chief Scientists of different UN entities, the UN University Rector, and the Tech Envoy. The Board itself will act as a hub for a network of scientific networks. The objective is to have better interface between the scientific community and decision-making in the UN.
External Members:
United Nations Members:
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UN Secretary-General Creates Scientific Advisory Board for ... - United Nations
Artificial intelligence is gaining state lawmakers’ attention, and they … – Connecticut Public
As state lawmakers rush to get a handle on fast-evolving artificial intelligence technology, they're often focusing first on their own state governments before imposing restrictions on the private sector.
Legislators are seeking ways to protect constituents from discrimination and other harms while not hindering cutting-edge advancements in medicine, science, business, education and more.
We're starting with the government. We're trying to set a good example, Connecticut state Sen. James Maroney said during a floor debate in May.
Connecticut plans to inventory all of its government systems using artificial intelligence by the end of 2023, posting the information online. And starting next year, state officials must regularly review these systems to ensure they wont lead to unlawful discrimination.
Maroney, a Democrat who has become a go-to AI authority in the General Assembly, said Connecticut lawmakers will likely focus on private industry next year. He plans to work this fall on model AI legislation with lawmakers in Colorado, New York, Virginia, Minnesota and elsewhere that includes broad guardrails and focuses on matters like product liability and requiring impact assessments of AI systems.
Its rapidly changing and theres a rapid adoption of people using it. So we need to get ahead of this, he said in a later interview. Were actually already behind it, but we cant really wait too much longer to put in some form of accountability.
Overall, at least 25 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia introduced artificial intelligence bills this year. As of late July, 14 states and Puerto Rico had adopted resolutions or enacted legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The list doesnt include bills focused on specific AI technologies, such as facial recognition or autonomous cars, something NCSL is tracking separately.
Legislatures in Texas, North Dakota, West Virginia and Puerto Rico have created advisory bodies to study and monitor AI systems their respective state agencies are using, while Louisiana formed a new technology and cyber security committee to study AIs impact on state operations, procurement and policy. Other states took a similar approach last year.
Lawmakers want to know Whos using it? How are you using it? Just gathering that data to figure out whats out there, whos doing what, said Heather Morton, a legislative analysist at NCSL who tracks artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, privacy and internet issues in state legislatures. That is something that the states are trying to figure out within their own state borders.
Connecticut's new law, which requires AI systems used by state agencies to be regularly scrutinized for possible unlawful discrimination, comes after an investigation by the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic at Yale Law School determined AI is already being used to assign students to magnet schools, set bail and distribute welfare benefits, among other tasks. However, details of the algorithms are mostly unknown to the public.
AI technology, the group said, has spread throughout Connecticuts government rapidly and largely unchecked, a development thats not unique to this state.
Richard Eppink, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, testified before Congress in May about discovering, through a lawsuit, the secret computerized algorithms Idaho was using to assess people with developmental disabilities for federally funded health care services. The automated system, he said in written testimony, included corrupt data that relied on inputs the state hadn't validated.
AI can be shorthand for many different technologies, ranging from algorithms recommending what to watch next on Netflix to generative AI systems such as ChatGPT that can aid in writing or create new images or other media. The surge of commercial investment in generative AI tools has generated public fascination and concerns about their ability to trick people and spread disinformation, among other dangers.
Some states haven't attempted to tackle the issue yet. In Hawaii, state Sen. Chris Lee, a Democrat, said lawmakers didnt pass any legislation this year governing AI simply because I think at the time, we didnt know what to do.
Instead, the Hawaii House and Senate passed a resolution Lee proposed that urges Congress to adopt safety guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence and limit its application in the use of force by police and the military.
Lee, vice-chair of the Senate Labor and Technology Committee, said he hopes to introduce a bill in next year's session that is similar to Connecticut's new law. Lee also wants to create a permanent working group or department to address AI matters with the right expertise, something he admits is difficult to find.
"There arent a lot of people right now working within state governments or traditional institutions that have this kind of experience, he said.
The European Union is leading the world in building guardrails around AI. There has been discussion of bipartisan AI legislation in Congress, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in June would maximize the technologys benefits and mitigate significant risks.
Yet the New York senator did not commit to specific details. In July, President Joe Biden announced his administration had secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure their AI products are safe before releasing them.
Maroney said ideally the federal government would lead the way in AI regulation. But he said the federal government can't act at the same speed as a state legislature.
And as weve seen with the data privacy, its really had to bubble up from the states, Maroney said.
Some state-level bills proposed this year have been narrowly tailored to address specific AI-related concerns. Proposals in Massachusetts would place limitations on mental health providers using AI and prevent dystopian work environments where workers don't have control over their personal data. A proposal in New York would place restrictions on employers using AI as an automated employment decision tool to filter job candidates.
North Dakota passed a bill defining what a person is, making it clear the term does not include artificial intelligence. Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, a long-shot presidential contender, has said such guardrails are needed for AI but the technology should still be embraced to make state government less redundant and more responsive to citizens.
In Arizona, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed legislation that would prohibit voting machines from having any artificial intelligence software. In her veto letter, Hobbs said the bill attempts to solve challenges that do not currently face our state.
In Washington, Democratic Sen. Lisa Wellman, a former systems analyst and programmer, said state lawmakers need to prepare for a world in which machine systems become ever more prevalent in our daily lives.
She plans to roll out legislation next year that would require students to take computer science to graduate high school.
AI and computer science are now, in my mind, a foundational part of education, Wellman said. And we need to understand really how to incorporate it.
___
Associated Press Writers Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu, Ed Komenda in Seattle and Matt O'Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.
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Artificial intelligence is gaining state lawmakers' attention, and they ... - Connecticut Public
Every Computer Scientist Must Read These Books | by Jans Notes … – DataDrivenInvestor
Books that computer scientists cannot avoid
Computer science, emerging out of the mathematics and physics departments, has become a vast field.
New technologies and frameworks come out in a weekly cycle. It can be hard to keep up with all of this.
Learning the fundamentals of computer science will give you a much needed breath of fresh air. These fundamentals wont ever change and can be applied to every new technology that emerges.
Here are three books that a computer scientists just cannot ignore.
The Art of Computer Programming is a seminal multi-volume work by Donald E. Knuth, often referred to as the Bible of computer science.
This series explores the fundamental algorithms, data structures, and mathematical concepts that form the bedrock of computer programming.
While this book contains the fundamentals, books written by Knuth can be daunting.
Bill Gates once said that if you finish the whole book series and understand everything, he will not hesitate to hire you.
My favorite quotes from the book:
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Every Computer Scientist Must Read These Books | by Jans Notes ... - DataDrivenInvestor
Six Faculty Members Selected for the Ivy+ FAN Fellowship – Dartmouth News
The Ivy+ Faculty Advancement Network named six Dartmouth faculty leaders as fellows to join the consortiums yearlong Institute on Inquiry, Equity, and Leadership in the Academic Department.
The networks member universities, made up of the Ivy League and similar institutions, together send a cohort of about 50 faculty leaders to join a series of world-class scholars in higher education to help us examine academic routines, center equity in policies and norms, and ultimately lead more inclusive departments, according to FAN.
Our faculty fellows will be engaging with academic peers from across FAN member institutions to ideate and gain new insights on inclusive practices that they can bring back to their campus departments, saysShontay Delalue, senior vice president and senior diversity officer at Dartmouth and a co-chair of FAN.
This collaboration is built on a series of inquiries that examine climate and culture in the areas that these leaders have the greatest discretion to make improvements. The goal is to provide faculty leaders with tools to create equitable and inclusive spaces in their departments, across the campus, and within the academy, Delalue says.
The Ivy+ fellows were nominated by their deans and selected based on their leadership roles in departments, programs, or institutes and for their commitment to inclusive and equitable leadership, says Vice Provost for Faculty AffairsDean Lacy, a professor of government who serves on FANs executive and steering committees.
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The goal is to provide faculty leaders with tools to create equitable and inclusive spaces in their departments, across the campus, and within the academy.
Attribution
Shontay Delalue, senior vice president and senior diversity officer
Dartmouths fellows from STEM are Professor of Computer ScienceDevin Balkcom, chair of computer science, and Professor of Biological SciencesMagdalena Bezanilla, Ernest Everett Just 1907 Professor and a professor in the molecular and cellular biology graduate program.
The fellow representing the professional schools is Geisel professorMichael Whitfield, chair of the Department of Biomedical Data Science, director of the Center for Quantitative Biology, and co-director of the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Big Data in the Life Sciences Training Program.
Fellows in the humanities are Associate Professor of German StudiesVeronika Fuechtner, the chair of comparative literature and affiliate faculty in Jewish Studies and Womens, Gender, and Sexuality Studies; Associate Professor of Studio ArtTricia Treacy, chair of the Department of Studio Art; and Associate Professor of Latin American, Latino and Caribbean StudiesDesire Garcia, an affiliate of Film and Media Studies who is participating in the program as an inaugural Mellon Leadership Fellow.
The fellowship includes a series of six workshop sessions over the next academic year, kicking off in September at Columbia University. The first convening will include gatherings and discussions around the inquiry topic equity-minded workloads by design, and the fellows will be organized into crews of peers with whom they will be meeting most often, though not exclusively, over the course of the year.
At their sixth and final meeting in April, held at the University of Pennsylvania, the fellows will design and propose guidelines for interventions likely to yield systemic improvements in diversity and inclusion in the American professoriate.
The Ivy+ FAN fellows shared their thoughts about the program.
Devin Balkcom
Id like to learn how we can most successfully engage students from diverse backgrounds in computer science. How might we think about structuring our introductory courses to be most welcoming and effective? Id also like to learn about what approaches have been most successful in building, and strengthening, a vibrant and diverse community of undergraduate and graduate students who support each other both online and in person.
As interest in computer science has continued to explode, we expect to hire new faculty over the coming years. Id like to understand how we can reach the broadest group of potential faculty members working in the computer science field, and how we can attract strong teachers and scientists to join and support our diverse community.
Magdalena Bezanilla
Im honored to have been nominated as an Ivy+ FAN fellow. I have a longstanding commitment to increasing diversity in STEM. As an undergraduate, I was a physics major where I became acutely aware of the lack of diversity in my classes and among my professors. In fact, it was this lack of diversity that in part caused me to switch gears in graduate school and pursue a PhD in biochemistry, cell and molecular biology.
If I had seen myself, a Hispanic woman, more well-represented in physics, I might have pursued a career in physics. All that is water under the bridge, as I have been very happy and successful as a cell biologist. However, as I teach cell biology to undergraduates, I am reminded of how important representation and diversity are to all disciplines, especially in STEM. I am eager to meet with peers at other institutions to learn more about how we can attain a more diverse and equitable STEM environment from the undergraduate classroom to the faculty offices.
Veronika Fuechtner
I look forward to participating in the Ivy+ program as a way of understanding how other institutions foster diversity and equity, and how Dartmouth as an institution can do better in collaboration with other institutions. I do think that transparency and accountability in the way faculty are supported and mentored throughout their careers is crucial.
I look forward to collectively coming up with sustainable long-term strategies that ensure that everyone on campus feels committed to diversity and invests in this commitment beyond recruitment.
Desire Garcia
If we know anything about how change happens, we know that it must come from above and below. My own experience with the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship (first as an MMUF awardee and subsequently as a mentor) has taught me that a committed investment in the diversification of the professoriate, and by extension our academic institutions, can effect real change. I am thrilled that the Mellon Foundation has committed to effecting change at the level of academic administration.
I look forward to working with the Ivy+ Faculty Advancement Network to learn from my cohort members and to bring those lessons to Dartmouth. I see the fellowship as an opportunity to make change both within the administration and outside of it, expanding the demographics of academic leadership as well as addressing the challenges that face people of color at this institution.
Tricia Treacy
Representing Dartmouth as a 2023-2024 Ivy+ FAN fellow will bring productive conversations, interdisciplinary inquiry, and new perspectives amongst a diverse group of academic leaders. It couldnt be timelier and more crucial after the recent Supreme Court affirmative action decision. Im looking forward to collaborating with my Dartmouth colleagues on this important work.
Michael Whitfield
Participating in the Ivy+ Faculty Advancement Network will allow me to learn how colleagues in other fields have advanced equity, diversity, and inclusion in their own departments and among their trainees. I believe it is extremely important that data science researchers and our trainees bring diverse backgrounds and unique perspectives when considering the problems of the future.
I hope that becoming part of this network will enable me to work with the other fellows and key thought leaders to further develop my own leadership skills to address problems in equity, diversity, and inclusion within my department and more broadly at the Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth.
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Six Faculty Members Selected for the Ivy+ FAN Fellowship - Dartmouth News
Team’s AI Tool May Predict Cardiac Arrests in Pediatric Patients – University of Texas at Dallas
Dr. Sriraam Natarajan and fellow researchers developed an artificial intelligence tool that could help doctors predict cardiac arrests in pediatric patients.
University of Texas at Dallas researchers have developed an artificial intelligence tool that could predict the risk of cardiac arrest in children hospitalized in cardiac intensive care units.
The technology is the latest work from the Statistical Artificial Intelligence and Relational Learning Group, a UT Dallas research lab where experts develop AI to assist health care providers. The researchers aim to provide tools to help doctors evaluate and monitor individual patients risks for a variety of conditions, including gestational diabetes and adverse drug interactions.
Dr. Sriraam Natarajan (second from left) with members of the Statistical Artificial Intelligence and Relational Learning Group.
In a study published online April 6 in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, the UTD computer scientists collaborated with pediatric cardiology and critical care researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center and the University of Washington.
The team examined the electronic health records (EHR) of 160 pediatric patients who had a cardiac arrest during their admission to the cardiac ICU at Childrens Health in Dallas between 2010 and 2019, as well as data from a control group of 711 patients. The goal was to determine which indicators recorded over a 24-hour period could predict a cardiac arrest in the subsequent 24 hours, said Dr. Sriraam Natarajan, professor of computer science in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science.
Using 11 vital-sign and laboratory variables that were collected from the EHR, combined with historical training/testing sets, the team successfully created a machine-learning predictive algorithm to predict cardiac arrest in children one hour before the cardiac arrest, Natarajan said.
Our goal is to assist physicians to prevent cardiac arrests. If we save childrens lives, that would be amazing progress, Natarajan said.
As they reviewed the 11 key variables, the researchers found that ineffective tissue perfusion lack of oxygenated blood flow to areas of the body was a major predictor. The finding tracked with the results of the researchers statistical analysis of the data, demonstrating that their algorithm is correct. The next step in their research is to test the algorithm on larger data sets to determine whether it applies to broader pediatric populations.
Our goal is to assist physicians to prevent cardiac arrests. If we save childrens lives, that would be amazing progress.
Dr. Sriraam Natarajan, professor of computer science in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science
Dr. Michael Skinner, one of the studys authors, is a retired UT Southwestern pediatric surgeon who enrolled at UT Dallas as a computer science doctoral student five years ago to learn how to develop the type of technology he wished he had as a physician. As a computer science researcher, he brings the advantage of decades of clinical experience.
What were working on is clinical decision support, Skinner said. With critically ill patients, youd like the machine to be able to integrate all the data to give you a warning if theres something that is predictive of a problem.
The study is an offshoot of a project Natarajan worked on that was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD101246) to use machine learning and clinical, genetic and molecular data to assess risks and predict adverse outcomes during pregnancy. Last year, Natarajan co-wrote a study published in JAMA Network Open that found the risk of gestational diabetes increases significantly for individuals who are at high risk for Type 2 diabetes and who have low levels of physical activity. The findings suggest that physical activity early in pregnancy can reduce gestational diabetes risk.
Natarajan, who directs UTDs Center for Machine Learning, emphasized the importance of incorporating the knowledge of clinicians and other experts with data and technology to predict health outcomes and to solve health care problems.
AI can help mankind, but humans are in control, Natarajan said. Humans are the ones teaching the AI systems.
Dr. Priscilla Yu, assistant professor of pediatrics, was corresponding author of the Clinical Medicine study, and Dr. Lakshmi Raman, professor of pediatrics, was the senior author, both at UT Southwestern.
The pediatric cardiology research was funded by Childrens Health and the ZOLL Foundation.
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Team's AI Tool May Predict Cardiac Arrests in Pediatric Patients - University of Texas at Dallas
National Science Foundation funds NYU Tandon School of Engineering project to safeguard U.S. laws and legal information against cyberattacks and…
Newswise NYU Tandon School of Engineering researchers will develop new technologies to secure the digital legal supply chain the processes by which official laws and legal information are recorded, stored, updated and distributed electronically thanks to a $1.2 million grant just awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Justin Cappos, associate professor in the Computer Science and Engineering department at NYU Tandon, heads up the four-year NSF project,Defending the Supply Chain of Democracy: Towards a Cryptographically Verified and Authenticated Network of Laws.His team includes faculty fromUniversity of Wisconsin Law Schooland staff from theOpen Law Library.
In the early 2010s, Cappos builtThe Update Framework (TUF), an open-source technology that secures software system updates and is now used by companies including Microsoft, Google and Amazon.
In 2019, Cappos began collaborating with the non-profitOpen Law Library a digital platform for governments to publish laws online to createThe Archive Framework (TAF). A variation of TUF, TAF is specifically designed to enhance the security of legal materials published by Open Law Library, protecting them from cyberattacks and potential threats from within.
Seven U.S. jurisdictions, including the District of Columbia and the City of San Mateo, currently use TAF through partnerships with Open Law Library, with another four jurisdictions pending.
Under the new NSF grant, Cappos' research team will introduce improvements within TAF. Team members will focus on finding long-term solutions for securely distributing, archiving, and accessing authenticatable laws. Additionally, they plan to integrate authentication systems into the legislative process, providing auditable assurances that passed laws align with the intentions of elected officials.
In a democracy, it's crucial to have a fair and transparent system for making and sharing laws, but cyberattacks and people with malicious intentions can tamper with or hide legal information, undermining trust in digital legal systems, said Cappos. Our aim is to create tools that will help protect and authenticate laws and other legal information from the moment they're introduced in the legislative process all the way to their public distribution.
Cappos research team will also develop tools for releasing authenticatable redacted documents and work on refining the user experience of these systems, making them suitable for adoption by governments of all sizes and capacities.
Securing digital laws and processes is particularly vital, as the pandemic accelerated the transition of government processes to digital-only with no official paper trail, said David Greisen, founder and CEO of Open Law Library.
For its role in the project, University of Wisconsin Law School will collaborate with Open Law Library to expand TAFs real-world usage. UW Law has worked closely with the Open Law Library on anaward-winningpilot programto make American Indian tribal laws the majority of which had been unpublished accessible on library websites. UW Laws focus for the newly funded project will be overcoming obstacles to the adoption and ease-of-use of TAF and the authentication systems in development.
Were working toward the ambitious goal of creating systems sophisticated enough to resist attacks by nation-state actors but accessible to non-technical users, said BJ Ard, associate professor at UW Law School. These efforts have the potential to revolutionize the way millions of lawyers, lawmakers and citizens worldwide engage with the legal system.
This NSF project advances NYU Tandons commitment to cybersecurity research, one of the Schools seven Areas of Excellence, the interdisciplinary fields that frame research priorities. The project is the 12th NSF-granted project spearheaded by Cappos, with his previous work addressing topics such as software supply chain security, making software harder to attack, and studying why security flaws occur in software. Amongst other things, his prior grants have led to a standard for supply chain security which is widely used across industry, a new security architecture adopted by the most widely used version control system, and an over the air updater used to protect major automakers and millions of non-automotive IoT devices.
About New York University Tandon School of Engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering is home to a community of renowned faculty, undergraduate and graduate students united in a mission to understand and create technology that powers cities, enables worldwide communication, fights climate change, and builds healthier, safer, and more equitable real and digital worlds. The schools culture centers on encouraging rigorous, interdisciplinary collaboration and research; fostering inclusivity, entrepreneurial thinking, and diverse perspectives; and creating innovative and accessible pathways for lifelong learning in STEM. NYU Tandon dates back to 1854, the founding year of both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute. Located in the heart of Brooklyn, NYU Tandon is a vital part of New York University and its unparalleled global network. For more information, visitengineering.nyu.edu.
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Shrewd apples – Columbia Basin Herald
GRANDVIEW Innov8.ag partnered with Washington State University Extension, the Washington Fruit Growers company and the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission to host a Smart Orchard Field Day at Grandview Ranch Wednesday morning. The field day showcased technologies that can automate and assist orchard data collection and growth.
The founder of Innov8.ag, Steve Mantle, said that the Smart Orchard project, a collaboration between the organizations involved in hosting the field day, is in its third year of research.
Basically, the theme here today is about data and how data can be collected, analyzed and then applied to be actionable for a grower, said Mantle.
The Smart Orchard project is located on a Honeycrisp apple orchard block of the Grandview Ranch that is about twenty years old and difficult to manage, said Mantle.
Thats pretty old and gnarly and, frankly, this is Washington Fruitss redheaded stepchild, said Mantle.
The Grandview Ranch is owned and operated by Gilbert Plath, the head of Washington Fruit Growers, according to an informational packet distributed at the field day. Plath said that Washington Fruit Growers allowed the Smart Orchard project to research on the Honeycrisp block in order to see if the project could improve the crop there and help develop better technology for other orchards.
The field day featured a series of presentations on various aspects of the Smart Orchard projects technologies.
The first presentation was conducted by Bernadita Sallato, a tree fruit extension specialist with the WSU Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center, WSU Intern Elijah Lin and Jill Tonne, a crop consultant with Nutrien Ag Solutions. This presentation dealt with nutrients and nutrient sample collection in the orchard.
Mantle also said that the field day was also focused on involving younger individuals in agricultural research and careers, including a number of WSU students such as Lin, a computer science major involved in hosting the field day or participating in the Smart Orchard project.
There's a key theme in here around the next generation, said Mantle. We've got a number of different students that have been engaged around here that are not typically studying agricultureSo how can we inspire those folks that there actually are really cool data opportunities and careers in agriculture and precision ag?
The next presentation was on chemical spray technologies and how they affect orchard blossom characteristics. The speakers were WSU Professor Lav Khot, WSU Regional Extension Specialist Gwen Hoheisel and Mantle.
The final presentation of the field day was on irrigation technologies, specifically sensors and data collection devices and their role in a smart orchard. It was hosted by Mike van Bavel, president of Dynamax Inc., a monitoring instrumentation manufacturer, and Val King, the director of business and development in North America for Swan Systems, a water and nutrient management service.
After the scheduled presentations the event shifted to an open-ended showcase of different technologies from informational booths hosted by various agricultural organizations and businesses, including those that presented earlier in the day.
I think the other piece here too, said Mantle, is you're seeing the turnoutreally kind of rallying us all together so that we can more be on the same page and collaborate together and ultimately end up with better offerings for growers as well. So yeah, it's going well.
Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com.
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