Welcome to the December 13, 2023 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.
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Scientists Use Brain-Like Tissue in Advance for ‘Biocomputing’ Research
Financial Times
Michael Peel
December 12, 2023
Scientists from Indiana University Bloomington, the universities of Florida and Cincinnati, and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center combined brain-like tissue with electronic hardware to create a system capable of speech recognition and calculation. The researchers built the Brainoware system using an organoid, a small three-dimensional neural structure grown from human stem cells. Computer hardware was connected to the organoid to send electrical stimulation and read the neural activity it produced in response. In a language test, Brainoware was tasked with distinguishing between eight different male Japanese speakers recorded on a total of 240 audio clips. The system got significantly better after training of its underlying algorithm.
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New York Joins IBM, Micron in $10-Billion Chip Research Complex
The Wall Street Journal
Asa Fitch; Jimmy Vielkind
December 11, 2023
New York state is partnering with IBM, memory manufacturer Micron Technology, and chip makers Applied Materials and Tokyo Electric to develop a $10-billion semiconductor research facility at the University of Albany. The goal of the facility is to perform next-generation chip manufacturing and help the state achieve designation as a research hub under the Chips Act. Construction of the 50,000-square-foot facility is expected to take around two years.
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Rendering a Winter Wonderland
Waterloo News (Canada)
December 11, 2023
Researchers at Canada's University of Waterloo developed a model to improve understanding of the impact of climate change by accounting for various properties of snowpack and the crystalline makeup of snowpack grains. The "light transport" model, SPLITSnow, was designed to help researchers understand how snow affects sunlight, specifically how snow blocks or absorbs different wavelengths of light. Explained Waterloo's Petri Varsa, "Even small changes in the quantity and the quality of light propagated by snow may dramatically affect ecosystems."
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Technological Advances Are Helping the Unhoused
Associated Press
Ashraf Khalil; Gary Fields
December 9, 2023
The shift to a largely cashless society has led to a decline in street-level charitable giving. The rise of PayPal, Venmo, and other electronic payment apps have left the unhoused behind, as they lack the credit cards, bank accounts, identification documents, and fixed mailing addresses required by some apps. Some organizations, such as the Salvation Army, have installed cashless payment systems that allow donors to tap their phones to make contributions. Meanwhile, the Samaritan app facilitates cashless donations to the unhoused and allows donors to sponsor an unhoused individual to help steer them into support systems.
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Robot Chemist Sparks Row with Claim It Created New Materials
Nature
Mark Peplow
December 12, 2023
Researchers are disputing claims that an autonomous laboratory assistant that uses artificial intelligence (AI) can produce new materials. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reported the A-Lab, unveiled in late November, had produced 41 new materials in 17 days. After digging deeper, critics say the algorithm used to identify the materials was not reliable. Said Robert Palgrave, a solid-state chemist at University College London, “The central claim of the paper is that they synthesize new materials, and they have provided nowhere near enough evidence for that.”
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NOAA's Older Earth-Watching Satellites Get 'Extended Life'
Space.com
Meredith Garofalo
December 7, 2023
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plans to use a cloud-based system to extend the lifespan of older polar-orbiting satellites that are slated for decommission. The older satellites were launched from 1998 to 2005 and used for climate and weather prediction as part of NOAA's Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES) fleet. NOAA will control the older satellites using a POES Extended Life Internet cloud-based system through Microsoft Azure, with the "ground system as a service" approach expected to keep them running at least through September 2025.
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AI Tries to Resurrect Vincent van Gogh
The New York Times
Zachary Small
December 13, 2023
At the Musée D’Orsay in Paris, a replica of Vincent van Gogh chats with visitors, offering insights into his life and death. The “Bonjour Vincent” exhibit, intended to represent the painter’s humanity, uses artificial intelligence to analyze hundreds of letters the artist wrote, as well as early biographies written about him. Visitors can converse with the replica on a digital screen through a microphone.
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3D-Printing Self-Heating Microfluidic Devices
MIT News
Adam Zewe
December 11, 2023
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers developed self-heating microfluidic devices using multimaterial extrusion three-dimensional (3D) printing. Microfluidics, which uses miniaturized machines to manipulate fluids and facilitate chemical reactions, can detect disease in tiny samples of blood or fluids. The one-step fabrication process created by the researchers allows for customization and requires just $2 worth of materials.
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AI Turns Thoughts into Text
University of Technology Sydney (Australia)
December 12, 2023
A portable, non-invasive system developed by researchers at Australia's University of Technology Sydney (UTS) can transform an individual's thoughts into text. The system incorporates what the researchers described as DeWave, an artificial intelligence (AI) model trained on vast amounts of electroencephalogram (EEG) data that can translate EEG signals received through a cap the subject wears into words and sentences.
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Climate Change Is Breaking Insurance. Tech Could Save It
The Wall Street Journal
Christopher Mims
December 8, 2023
As major insurers stop writing coverage in states prone to natural disasters, insurance technology startups are filling the gap. FloodFlash, for instance, offers parametric insurance coverage that automatically triggers payouts when on-the-ground sensors determine floodwaters have reached a certain threshold. These startups use data science and artificial intelligence (AI) to assess risks. Kettle, for instance, which bases its property insurance sales on AI assessments of how climate change impacts risk, has evaluated every property in California using its algorithms, ranking them on their risk of wildfire destruction.
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Robotic Mouse with Flexible Spine Moves with Greater Speed, Agility
New Scientist
Matthew Sparkes
December 6, 2023
Researchers at Germany's Technical University of Munich (TUM) three-dimensionally (3D) printed a mouse-like robot with an articulated spine. The 40-centimeter-long robot’s spine is comprised of eight joints controlled by servos. In tests, the flexible spine increased the robot's walking speed up to 17%, and allowed it turn corners up to 30% faster.
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