research

As Silicon Valley fights for talent, universities struggle to hold on to their [AI & robotics] stars [economist.com]

On 04/04/2016, in 21st century, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, data related items, Google, Microsoft, research, robotics, United States, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Million-dollar babies — from economist.com by
As Silicon Valley fights for talent, universities struggle to hold on to their stars

Excerpt:

THAT a computer program can repeatedly beat the world champion at Go, a complex board game, is a coup for the fast-moving field of artificial intelligence (AI). Another high-stakes game, however, is taking place behind the scenes, as firms compete to hire the smartest AI experts. Technology giants, including Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Baidu, are racing to expand their AI activities. Last year they spent some $8.5 billion on deals, says Quid, a data firm. That was four times more than in 2010.

In the past universities employed the world’s best AI experts. Now tech firms are plundering departments of robotics and machine learning (where computers learn from data themselves) for the highest-flying faculty and students, luring them with big salaries similar to those fetched by professional athletes.

Experts in machine learning are most in demand. Big tech firms use it in many activities, from basic tasks such as spam-filtering and better targeting of online advertisements, to futuristic endeavours such as self-driving cars or scanning images to identify disease.

Also from The Economist, see:

Why firms are piling into artificial intelligence

Excerpt:

AI is already starting to generate big financial gains for companies, which helps explain firms’ growing investment in developing AI capabilities. Machine-learning, in which computers become smarter by processing large data-sets, currently has many profitable consumer-facing applications, including image recognition in photographs, spam filtering and those that help to better target advertisements to web surfers. Many of tech firms’ most ambitious projects, including building self-driving cars and designing virtual personal assistants that can understand and execute complex tasks, also rely on artificial intelligence, especially machine-learning and robotics. This has prompted tech firms to try to hire up as much of the top talent as they can from universities, where the best AI experts research and teach. Some worry about the potential of a brain drain from academia into the private sector.

The biggest concern, however, is that one firm corners the majority of the talent in artificial intelligence, creating an intellectual monopoly of sorts.

10 promising technologies assisting the future of medicine and healthcare [Meskó]

On 03/25/2016, in Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), biology, future, global / globalization, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, innovation, research, robotics, social learning / networks, social media, society, tools, wearables, by Daniel Christian

10 promising technologies assisting the future of medicine and healthcare — by Bertalan Meskó, MD, PhD

Excerpt:

Technology will not solve the problems that healthcare faces globally today. And the human touch alone is not enough any more, therefore a new balance is needed between using disruptive innovations but still keeping the human interaction between patients and caregivers. Here are 10 technologies and trends that could enable this.

The essential unique search tool your students may have never used [Alan November]

On 03/16/2016, in history, ideas, internet, productivity / tips and tricks, research, student-related, tools, youth, by Daniel Christian

The essential unique search tool your students may have never used — from novemberlearning.com by Alan November
The Wayback Machine is as basic a reference tool for the Internet Age as a dictionary. When was the last time you saw a student use it?

Excerpt:

When I’m giving a talk to students about being responsible digital citizens, I’ll tell them, “You know, some day you might apply to college, or run for Congress—and you might regret something you posted online when you were young.” And there’s always one student who will say to me, “Mr. November, we’re not that stupid—we’re going to take those things off the Web before we apply to college.”

At that point, I pause the discussion. I show them a website called the Wayback Machine, and I call up some website that’s been gone for 10 years. There it is, live on the screen, as if it never had vanished. Typically, all of the links work as well.

The audience goes from laughing at me for how naïve I am for not realizing there is a delete button for web content to stunned silence in the blink of an eye.

I should really bring paper bags, because some kids are so nervous about the implications of what they’ve just seen, they’re hyperventilating. They simply had no idea that the overwhelming majority of the Internet is being saved in its entirety, links and all. This happens every few weeks or months, depending on the nature of a website and how often it’s updated.

What happens when you’re reading an article online, and you come across a link and you click on it, but it’s dead? They’ll say, “Well, I just give up.” And I say, “Watch this: You just copy the link, and you paste it into the Wayback Machine, and presto—there’s the website.”

From DSC:
I’m guessing this can be a scary thing — not just for students, but for adults as well. I post it so that we can impress on our students NOT to post things that they don’t want to haunt them later on in life (which is a tall order indeed).

Labster: Empowering the Next Generation of Scientists to Change the World
Laboratory Simulations for Educators to Empower their STEM Students

From DSC:
I recently met Maaroof Fakhri at the Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference. It was a pleasure to meet him and hear him speak of the work they are doing at Labster (which is located in Denmark). He is very innovative, and he shines forth with a high degree of energy, creativity, and innovation.

Keep an eye on the work they are doing. Very sharp.

Also see:

2015 with Labster in review, and ahead to 2016

Learnathons, on the other hand are optimized sessions that teach participants how to apply what they learn as soon as possible. They are on the opposite end of how classroom teaching is organized, with lessons spread out over the course of a semester focusing on theory and weekly practice. They are a fairly new concept, but have created an environment for learning that is speeding up comprehension and application to levels that aren’t seen elsewhere.

Addendum on 3/16/16:

What are Remote Labs? <– from ilabcentral.org

Making high school science labs more real, more engaging, and more accessible
Remote Online laboratories (iLabs) are experimental facilities that can be accessed through the Internet, allowing students and educators to carry out experiments from anywhere at any time.

The Research Pirates of the Dark Web [Waddell]

On 02/18/2016, in adjunct faculty, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, faculty, higher education, research, society, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

The Research Pirates of the Dark Web — from theatlantic.com by Kaveh Waddell; with thanks to Faculty Row for this item
After getting shut down late last year, a website that allows free access to paywalled academic papers has sprung back up in a shadowy corner of the Internet.

Excerpt:

There’s a battle raging over whether academic research should be free, and it’s overflowing into the dark web.

Most modern scholarly work remains locked behind paywalls, and unless your computer is on the network of a university with an expensive subscription, you have to pay a fee, often around 30 dollars, to access each paper.

Many scholars say this system makes publishers rich—Elsevier, a company that controls access to more than 2,000 journals, has a market capitalization about equal to that of Delta Airlines—but does not benefit the academics that conducted the research, or the public at large. Others worry that free academic journals would have a hard time upholding the rigorous standards and peer reviews that the most prestigious paid journals are famous for.

From DSC:
Though the jigsaw technique has been around for decades, it came to my mind the other day as we recently built a highly-collaborative, experimental learning space at our college — some would call it an active learning-based classroom. There are 7 large displays throughout the space, with each display being backed up by Crestron-related hardware and software that allows the faculty member to control what’s appearing on each display. For example, the professor can take what is on Group #1’s display and send the content from that display throughout the classroom. Or they can display something from a document camera or something from their own laptop, iPad, or smartphone. Students can plug in their devices (BYOD) and connect to the displays via HDMI cables (Phase I) and wirelessly (Phase II).

I like this type of setup because it allows for students to quickly and efficiently contribute their own content and the results of their own research to a discussion. Groups can present their content throughout the space.

With that in mind, here are some resources re: the jigsaw classroom/technique.

From Wikipedia:

The jigsaw technique is a method of organizing classroom activity that makes students dependent on each other to succeed. It breaks classes into groups and breaks assignments into pieces that the group assembles to complete the (jigsaw) puzzle. It was designed by social psychologist Elliot Aronson to help weaken racial cliques in forcibly integrated schools.

The technique splits classes into mixed groups to work on small problems that the group collates into a final outcome. For example, an in-class assignment is divided into topics. Students are then split into groups with one member assigned to each topic. Working individually, each student learns about his or her topic and presents it to their group. Next, students gather into groups divided by topic. Each member presents again to the topic group. In same-topic groups, students reconcile points of view and synthesize information. They create a final report. Finally, the original groups reconvene and listen to presentations from each member. The final presentations provide all group members with an understanding of their own material, as well as the findings that have emerged from topic-specific group discussion.

From jigsaw.org

PBS’ School Sleuth: The Case of the Wired Classroom <-- A well done, creative, objective, solid discussion of technology in the classroom

On 01/16/2016, in 21st century, active learning, Apple, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), change, collaboration, creativity, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education, education reform, education technology, elearning, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, hybrid learning, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning theories, media/film, Microsoft, multimedia, online learning, organizational change, parents/guardians, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, research, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, tablets, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, United States, web-based collaboration, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
If you can clear up just short of an hour of your time, this piece from PBS entitled, “School Sleuth: The Case of the Wired Classroom” is very well done and worth your time. It’s creative and objective; it offers us some solid research, some stories, and some examples of the positives and negatives of technology in the classroom. It weaves different modes of learning into the discussion — including blended learning, online learning, personalized learning and more. Though it aired back in October of 2015, I just found out about it.

Check it out if you can!

Also see:

Schools push personalized learning to new heights — from edweek.org
Excerpt:
For most schools, reaching the next level of digitally driven, personalized learning is far from reality. Still, some schools are extending their digital reach in significant and sometimes groundbreaking ways, as the stories in this special report illustrate. They are making moves to integrate a variety of technologies to track how students learn and to use the resulting data to expand the use of hands-on, project-based learning. The goal is to build never-ending feedback loops that ultimately inform the development of curriculum and assessment. Plus, big data and analytics are gradually making their marks in K-12 education. This special report outlines the progress schools are making to use digital tools to personalize learning, but also raises the question: Are they reaching far enough?
.
A Pedagogical Model for the use of iPads for Learning — from higheru.org

Brain Based Learning and Neuroscience – What the Research Says! [Thalheimer]

On 01/14/2016, in biology, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, instructional design, learning, learning theories, psychology, research, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Brain Based Learning and Neuroscience – What the Research Says! — from willatworklearning.com by Will Thalheimer, PhD

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

The world of learning and development is on the cusp of change. One of the most promising—and prominent—paradigms comes from neuroscience. Go to any conference today in the workplace learning field and there are numerous sessions on neuroscience and brain-based learning. Vendors sing praises to neuroscience. Articles abound. Blog posts proliferate.

But where are we on the science? Have we gone too far? Is this us, the field of workplace learning, once again speeding headlong into a field of fad and fantasy? Or are we spot-on to see incredible promise in bringing neuroscience wisdom to bear on learning practice? In this article, I will describe where we are with neuroscience and learning—answering that question as it relates to this point in time—in January of 2016.
…
Taken together, these conclusions are balanced between the promise of neuroscience and the healthy skepticism of scientists. Note however, that when these researchers talk about the benefits of neuroscience for learning, they see neuroscience applications as happening in the future (perhaps the near future). They do NOT claim that neuroscience has already created a body of knowledge that is applicable to learning and education.
…
Conclusion
The field of workplace learning—and the wider education field—have fallen under the spell of neuroscience (aka brain-science) recommendations. Unfortunately, neuroscience has not yet created a body of proven recommendations. While offering great promise for the future, as of this writing—in January 2016—most learning professionals would be better off relying on proven learning recommendations from sources like Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel’s book Make It Stick; by Benedict Carey’s book How We Learn; and by Julie Dirksen’s book Design for How People Learn.

As learning professionals, we must be more skeptical of neuroscience claims. As research and real-world experience has shown, such claims can persuade us toward ineffective learning designs and unscrupulous vendors and consultants.

Our trade associations and industry thought leaders need to take a stand as well. Instead of promoting neuroscience claims, they ought to voice a healthy skepticism.

Also see:

Don’t make promises you can’t keep when it comes to brain games, or the FTC will come for you — from digitaltrends.com by Lulu Chang

From DSC:
Below are some further items that discuss the need for some frameworks, policies, institutes, research, etc. that deal with a variety of game-changing technologies that are quickly coming down the pike (if they aren’t already upon on). We need such things to help us create a positive future.

Also see Part I of this thread of thinking entitled, “The need for ethics, morals, policies, & serious reflection about what kind of future we want has never been greater!“ There have been so many other items that came out since that posting, I felt like I needed to add another one here.

What kind of future do we want? How are we going to insure that we get there?

As the saying goes…”Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should.” Or another saying comes to my mind…”What could possibly go wrong with this? It’s a done deal.”

While some of the items below should have very positive impacts on society, I do wonder how long it will take the hackers — the ones who are bent on wreaking havoc — to mess up some of these types of applications…with potentially deadly consequences? Security-related concerns must be dealt with here.

5 amazing and alarming things that may be done with your DNA — from washingtonpost.com by Matt McFarland

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Venter is leading efforts to use digital technology to analyze humans in ways we never have before, and the results will have huge implications for society. The latest findings he described are currently being written up for scientific publications. Venter didn’t want to usurp the publications, so he wouldn’t dive into extensive detail of how his team has made these breakthroughs. But what he did share offers an exciting and concerning overview of what lies ahead for humanity. There are social, legal and ethical implications to start considering. Here are five examples of how digitizing DNA will change the human experience:

These are the decisions the Pentagon wants to leave to robots — from defenseone.com by Patrick Tucker
The U.S. military believes its battlefield edge will increasingly depend on automation and artificial intelligence.

Excerpt:

Conducting cyber defensive operations, electronic warfare, and over-the-horizon targeting. “You cannot have a human operator operating at human speed fighting back at determined cyber tech,” Work said. “You are going to need have a learning machine that does that.” He did not say whether the Pentagon is pursuing the autonomous or automatic deployment of offensive cyber capabilities, a controversial idea to be sure. He also highlighted a number of ways that artificial intelligence could help identify new waveforms to improve electronic warfare.

Britain should lead way on genetically engineered babies, says Chief Scientific Adviser — from.telegraph.co.uk by Sarah Knapton
Sir Mark Walport, who advises the government on scientific matters, said it could be acceptable to genetically edit human embryos

Excerpt:

Last week more than 150 scientists and campaigners called for a worldwide ban on the practice, claiming it could ‘irrevocably alter the human species’ and lead to a world where inequality and discrimination were ‘inscribed onto the human genome.’

But at a conference in London [on 12/8/15], Sir Mark Walport, who advises the government on scientific matters, said he believed there were ‘circumstances’ in which the genetic editing of human embyros could be ‘acceptable’.

Cyborg Future: Engineers Build a Chip That Is Part Biological and Part Synthetic — from futurism.com

Excerpt:

Engineers have succeeded in combining an integrated chip with an artificial lipid bilayer membrane containing ATP-powered ion pumps, paving the way for more such artificial systems that combine the biological with the mechanical down the road.

Robots expected to run half of Japan by 2035 — from engadget.com by Andrew Tarantola
Something-something ‘robot overlords’.

Excerpt:

Data analysts Nomura Research Institute (NRI), led by researcher Yumi Wakao, figure that within the next 20 years, nearly half of all jobs in Japan could be accomplished by robots. Working with Professor Michael Osborne from Oxford University, who had previously investigated the same matter in both the US and UK, the NRI team examined more than 600 jobs and found that “up to 49 percent of jobs could be replaced by computer systems,” according to Wakao.

Cambridge University is opening a £10 million centre to study the impact of AI on humanity — from businessinsider.com by Sam Shead

Excerpt:

Cambridge University announced on [12/3/15] that it is opening a new £10 million research centre to study the impact of artificial intelligence on humanity.

The 806-year-old university said the centre, being funded with a grant from non-profit foundation The Leverhulme Trust, will explore the opportunities and challenges facing humanity as a result of further developments in artificial intelligence.

Tech leaders launch nonprofit to save the world from killer robots — from csmonitor.com by Jessica Mendoza
Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and other tech titans have invested $1 billion in a nonprofit that would help direct artificial intelligence technology toward positive human impact.

2016 will be a pivotal year for social robots — from therobotreport.com by Frank Tobe
1,000 Peppers are selling each month from a big-dollar venture between SoftBank, Alibaba and Foxconn; Jibo just raised another $16 million as it prepares to deliver 7,500+ units in Mar/Apr of 2016; and Buddy, Rokid, Sota and many others are poised to deliver similar forms of social robots.

Excerpt:

These new robots, and the proliferation of mobile robot butlers, guides and kiosks, promise to recognize your voice and face and help you plan your calendar, provide reminders, take pictures of special moments, text, call and videoconference, order fast food, keep watch on your house or office, read recipes, play games, read emotions and interact accordingly, and the list goes on. They are attempting to be analogous to a sharp administrative assistant that knows your schedule, contacts and interests and engages with you about them, helping you stay informed, connected and active.

IBM opens its artificial mind to the world — from fastcompany.com by Sean Captain
IBM is letting companies plug into its Watson artificial intelligence engine to make sense of speech, text, photos, videos, and sensor data.

Excerpt:

Artificial intelligence is the big, oft-misconstrued catchphrase of the day, making headlines recently with the launch of the new OpenAI organization, backed by Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and other tech luminaries. AI is neither a synonym for killer robots nor a technology of the future, but one that is already finding new signals in the vast noise of collected data, ranging from weather reports to social media chatter to temperature sensor readings. Today IBM has opened up new access to its AI system, called Watson, with a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow other companies and organizations to feed their data into IBM’s big brain for analysis.

GE wants to give industrial machines their own social network with Predix Cloud — from fastcompany.com by Sean Captain
GE is selling a new service that promises to predict when a machine will break down…so technicians can preemptively fix it.

Foresight 2020: The future is filled with 50 billion connected devices — from ibmbigdatahub.com by Erin Monday

Excerpt:

By 2020, there will be over 50 billion connected devices generating continuous data.

This figure is staggering, but is it really a surprise? The world has come a long way from 1992, when the number of computers was roughly equivalent to the population of San Jose. Today, in 2015, there are more connected devices out there than there are human beings. Ubiquitous connectivity is very nearly a reality. Every day, we get a little closer to a time where businesses, governments and consumers are connected by a fluid stream of data and analytics. But what’s driving all this growth?

Designing robots that learn as effortlessly as babies — from singularityhub.com by Shelly Fan

Excerpt:

A wide-eyed, rosy-cheeked, babbling human baby hardly looks like the ultimate learning machine.

But under the hood, an 18-month-old can outlearn any state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithm.

Their secret sauce?

They watch; they imitate; and they extrapolate.

Artificial intelligence researchers have begun to take notice. This week, two separate teams dipped their toes into cognitive psychology and developed new algorithms that teach machines to learn like babies. One instructs computers to imitate; the other, to extrapolate.

Researchers have found a new way to get machines to learn faster — from fortune.com by Hilary Brueck

Excerpt:

An international team of data scientists is proud to announce the very latest in machine learning: they’ve built a program that learns… programs. That may not sound impressive at first blush, but making a machine that can learn based on a single example is something that’s been extremely hard to do in the world of artificial intelligence. Machines don’t learn like humans—not as fast, and not as well. And even with this research, they still can’t.

Team showcase how good Watson is at learning — from adigaskell.org

Excerpt:

Artificial intelligence has undoubtedly come a long way in the last few years, but there is still much to be done to make it intuitive to use. IBM’s Watson has been one of the most well known exponents during this time, but despite it’s initial success, there are issues to overcome with it.

A team led by Georgia Tech are attempting to do just that. They’re looking to train Watson to get better at returning answers to specific queries.

Why The Internet of Things will drive a Knowledge Revolution. — from linkedin.com by David Evans

Excerpt:

As these machines inevitably connect to the Internet, they will ultimately connect to each other so they can share, and collaborate on their own findings. In fact, in 2014 machines got their own ”World Wide Web” called RoboEarth, in which to share knowledge with one another. …
The implications of all of this are at minimum twofold:

The way we generate knowledge is going to change dramatically in the coming years.
Knowledge is about to increase at an exponential rate.

What we choose to do with this newfound knowledge is of course up to us. We are about to face some significant challenges at scales we have yet to experience.

Drone squad to be launched by Tokyo police — from bbc.com

Excerpt:

A drone squad, designed to locate and – if necessary – capture nuisance drones flown by members of the public, is to be launched by police in Tokyo.

An advance in artificial intelligence rivals human abilities — from todayonline.com by John Markoff

Excerpt:

NEW YORK — Computer researchers reported artificial-intelligence advances [on Dec 10] that surpassed human capabilities for a narrow set of vision-related tasks.

The improvements are noteworthy because so-called machine-vision systems are becoming commonplace in many aspects of life, including car-safety systems that detect pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as in video game controls, Internet search and factory robots.

Somewhat related:

Novo Nordisk, IBM Watson Health to create ‘virtual doctor’ — from wsj.com by Denise Roland
Software could dispense treatment advice for diabetes patients

Excerpt:

Novo Nordisk A/S is teaming up with IBM Watson Health, a division of International Business Machines Corp., to create a “virtual doctor” for diabetes patients that could dispense treatment advice such as insulin dosage.

The Danish diabetes specialist hopes to use IBM’s supercomputer platform, Watson, to analyze health data from diabetes patients to help them manage their disease.

Why Google’s new quantum computer could launch an artificial intelligence arms race — from washingtonpost.com

8 industries robots will completely transform by 2025 — from techinsider.io

Addendums on 12/17/15:

Russia and China are building highly autonomous killer robots — from businessinsider.com.au by Danielle Muoi

Excerpt:

Russia and China are creating highly autonomous weapons, more commonly referred to as killer robots, and it’s putting pressure on the Pentagon to keep up, according to US Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work. During a national-security forum on Monday, Work said that China and Russia are heavily investing in a roboticized army, according to a report from Defense One.

Your Algorithmic Self Meets Super-Intelligent AI — from techcrunch.com by Jarno M. Koponen

Excerpt:

At the same time, your data and personalized experiences are used to develop and train the machine learning systems that are powering the Siris, Watsons, Ms and Cortanas. Be it a speech recognition solution or a recommendation algorithm, your actions and personal data affect how these sophisticated systems learn more about you and the world around you.

The less explicit fact is that your diverse interactions — your likes, photos, locations, tags, videos, comments, route selections, recommendations and ratings — feed learning systems that could someday transform into super–intelligent AIs with unpredictable consequences.

As of today, you can’t directly affect how your personal data is used in these systems

Addendum on 12/20/15:

Humans Are Slamming Into Driverless Cars and Exposing a Key Flaw — from bloomberg.com by Keith Naughton

Addendum on 12/21/15:

Facewatch ‘thief recognition’ CCTV on trial in UK stores — from bbc.com
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
Face-recognition camera systems should be used by police, he tells me. “The technology’s here, and we need to think about what is a proportionate response that respects people’s privacy,” he says.
…
“The public need to ask themselves: do they want six million cameras painted red at head height looking at them?

Addendum on 1/13/16:

The Algorithms Are Taking Over: Who Controls Our Online Future? — from forbes.com by Kalev Leetaru

The Current State of Machine Intelligence — from Shivon Zilis; with thanks to Ronald van Loon for posting this on Twitter

Excerpt:

I spent the last three months learning about every artificial intelligence, machine learning, or data related startup I could find — my current list has 2,529 of them to be exact.
…
The most exciting part for me was seeing how much is happening the the application space. These companies separated nicely into those that reinvent the enterprise, industries, and ourselves.

Also see:

Amazon launches new program to fund university research [Greene]

On 11/12/2015, in Amazon, colleges, community colleges, funding / grants, higher education, ideas, innovation, research, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Amazon launches new program to fund university research — from seattletimes.com by Jay Greene; via the College Planning & Management Weekly Update

Excerpt:

Amazon.com is getting into the university grant-making business, launching a new program Thursday to fund research into big, world-changing ideas at universities.

The program, Amazon Catalyst, will debut at the University of Washington.

Amazon hopes to fund research into ideas in complex and vexing areas such as climate change and immigration. And the company is keen to put money toward “early-stage ideas” that might not otherwise get grant money.

In announcing the program, Amazon isn’t putting a limit on the amount it will dole out. But Adam Siegel, Amazon Catalyst’s managing director, said the “ballpark” range would run from “tens of thousands of dollars” to $100,000 per grant. He said Amazon hasn’t set a limit on the number of projects it will fund or the duration of Catalyst.

What Google’s new open-source software means for artificial-intelligence research [Wexler]

On 11/11/2015, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, computer science, Google, open courseware and systems, programming, research, trends, vendors, by Daniel Christian

What Google’s new open-source software means for artificial-intelligence research — from chronicle.com by Ellen Wexler

Excerpt:

Google wants the artificial-intelligence software that drives the company’s Internet searches to become the standard platform for computer-science scholars in their own experiments.

On Monday, Google announced it would turn its machine-learning software, called TensorFlow, into open-source code, so anyone can use it.

“We hope this will let the machine-learning community — everyone from academic researchers, to engineers, to hobbyists — exchange ideas much more quickly, through working code rather than just research papers,” Google announced on its website.

Until now, researchers have had access to similar open-source software: Torch, built by researchers at New York University, as well as Caffe and Theano, are also open to everyone. TensorFlow is meant to combine the best of the three, Jeff Dean, a top engineer at Google, told Wired.

Also see:

Cognitive technologies: The real opportunities for business
Instructor: David Schatsky
A free course from Deloitte University Press | October 19, 2015 – December 8, 2015

Excerpt of description:

Artificial intelligence (AI) may sound like science fiction, but it is real, and becoming increasingly important to companies in every sector. The field of artificial intelligence has produced a wide variety of “cognitive technologies” that simulate human reasoning and perceptual skills, giving businesses entirely new capabilities and enabling organizations to break prevailing tradeoffs between speed, cost, and quality.

Aimed at a general business audience, this course demystifies artificial intelligence, provides an overview of a wide range of cognitive technologies, and offers a framework to help you understand their business implications. Some experts have called artificial intelligence “more important than anything since the industrial revolution.” That makes this course essential for professionals working in business, operations, strategy, IT, and other disciplines. Throughout the course, participants will build a knowledge base on cognitive technologies to equip them to engage in discussions with colleagues, customers, and suppliers and help them shape cognitive technology strategy in their organization.

“The bridge between what researchers have been saying about learning & what teachers and students do in a classroom is spelled HTML5.”

On 09/02/2015, in active learning, curriculum, digital learning, digital textbooks, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, online learning, online media, pedagogy, research, teachers, teaching & learning, trends, by Daniel Christian

Is There an Uncrossable Chasm Between Research and the Classroom? Part 2 — from thejournal.com by Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
HTML5 is the bridge!

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

The bridge between what researchers have been saying about learning & what teachers and students do in a classroom is spelled HTML5.
Do we hear a “HUH?” Okay, buckle up. Here goes…
…
Put another way: When curricular resources are implemented in HTML5 (or its derivatives), the dream of BYOD is no longer a dream: Students can bring virtually any computer device into the classroom and a teacher can count on the fact that the learning activity for today’s lesson will be executable on all of those devices.
…
Yes, HTML5 is that big a deal. Why? Because it has come along at just the right time. Curriculum and pedagogy are changing; new curricular materials are being developed that meet CCSS and NGSS. If those materials are developed in HTML5, then the curriculum developer and the teacher can expect those materials to work in her or his BYOD classroom or his or her iPad/Chromebook/laptop classroom. And, for the researcher, there is the opportunity to influence curriculum development and have those research-based ideas embodied in curricular resources that virtually every learner in the U.S. can use on their computing device! Holy Toledo indeed!

The NMC Releases the NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Library Edition

On 08/19/2015, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, change, data related items, digital learning, education technology, learning spaces, library / librarians, maker movement, mobile learning, mobile technologies, online learning, online media, research, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

The NMC Releases the NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Library Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, giving library leaders and staff a valuable guide for strategic planning. The format of the report was designed to provide these leaders with more in-depth insight into how the trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice.

“Nowhere on university campuses has technology had a more sweeping impact than on their libraries,” says Larry Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of the NMC and co-principal investigator for the project. “It is critically important for the field that the unique needs and perspectives of those who work in academic and research libraries are at the center of this second annual report.”

The Hitchhikers Guide to iBeacon Hardware: A Comprehensive Report by Aislelabs (2015)

On 05/04/2015, in Australia, human-computer interaction (HCI), machine-to-machine communications, mobile learning, mobile technologies, Near Field Communication (NFC), research, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Someone in your organization needs to be getting up to speed on sensors and machine-to-machine communications — and looking for potential applications. This goes for schools, colleges, universities, and corporate training departments as well. Already such technologies are being applied within museums, art galleries, and for self-guided tours.

Is that student, teacher, professor, or trainer not around to talk about their poster, project, or artwork hanging in the hallway? Why not use an app like Locly along with Estimote beacons to allows visitors to hear what they had in mind?

The Hitchhikers Guide to iBeacon Hardware: A Comprehensive Report by Aislelabs (2015) — from aislelabs.com

Excerpt:

In this report we examine 26 different iBeacon hardware vendors, including Estimote, Kontakt, and Gimbal. Over the past nine months, we have stress tested the beacons under many conditions examining every aspect of them. This is the most comprehensive report of its kind, covering every major beacon manufacturer, and providing an independent benchmark of each.

Addendum on 5/6/15:

IoT and connected devices strategy critical for all business — from itbrief.co.nz by Heather Wright

Learning Ecosystems

The Research Pirates of the Dark Web [Waddell]

Brain Based Learning and Neuroscience – What the Research Says! [Thalheimer]

Amazon launches new program to fund university research [Greene]

The Hitchhikers Guide to iBeacon Hardware: A Comprehensive Report by Aislelabs (2015)

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