Welcome to the August 7, 2020 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.
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White House Unveils Partnership to Boost Quantum Science Education
Reuters
David Shepardson
August 5, 2020
The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy announced that the Trump administration is launching a national partnership with major companies and research institutions to boost quantum information science (QIS) education in K-12 schools. One of the project’s aims is to introduce students to quantum information themes before college. Experts suggest the technology could significantly affect areas such as healthcare, communications, financial services, transportation, artificial intelligence, and weather forecasting. The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) will collaborate on the initiative with Amazon Web Services, the Boeing aerospace company, Google, IBM, aerospace and defense contractor Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, and the universities of Illinois and Chicago.
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Canada Learning Code Launches K-12 CS Education Framework
Canada NewsWire
August 5, 2020
Canada's leading advocate of digital literacy education, Canada Learning Code, has launched the K-12 Computer Science Education Framework to standardize K-12 computer science education across Canada by supplying guidelines on what every student should know to manage the modern technology-based world. Developed in consultation with industry and educational experts and thought leaders, the Framework covers fundamental learning outcomes, including coding and programming, computer and networks, data, technology, and society and design. The University of Alberta's Cathy Adams said the Framework “is about ensuring that all Canadian children have the opportunity to learn the computational and digital literacies they need to be successful, well-informed, and ethically responsive citizens in today's 21st century."
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50 Years After Designing Electric Lady Studios, Architect Cuts New Track with AI
The Wall Street Journal
Steven Rosenbrush
August 3, 2020
Acoustics architect John Storyk, who designed Electric Lady Studios for Jimi Hendrix over 50 years ago, has built software to help optimize musical recording and performance spaces for low-frequency sounds, by rapidly analyzing rooms of varying shapes and sizes. He and Walters-Storyk Design Group (WSDG) research and development director Peter D'Antonio spent more than a year developing the Non-Cuboid Iterative Room Optimization (NIRO) tool from a genetic algorithm. NIRO predicts how a space's acoustics will respond to specially constructed damping units, in order to optimize the physical structure. The software has been used in nearly 20 projects to date on new studios for Sony Corp. of America, rapper J. Cole, and Phish singer Mike Gordon, among others.
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Single Particles of Light Can Be Used for Remote 3D Surveillance
New Scientist
Leah Crane
July 31, 2020
Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China used a single-photon version of LiDAR to remotely capture extremely detailed three-dimensional (3D) images from afar. The team used a low-power laser to bounce light off an object, and a powerful detector to capture one bounced photon at a time. Although each photon only measures a single point, scanning the laser beam across an object compiles a 3D representation. The researchers have extended the range of the imaging system from about 10 kilometers (6.21 miles) between target and laser to 45 kilometers (28 miles), making it useful for long-distance surveillance.
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Deep Learning Moves Cancer Vaccines Toward Reality
Technology.org
August 1, 2020
Researchers at India's International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIIT Bangalore) have designed a deep learning method to help develop personalized cancer vaccines by better understanding the biological mechanisms of interaction between cancer cells and the human immune system. The MHCAttnNet deep learning model uses bidirectional long short-term memories to predict Major Histocompatibility Complex allele (MHC)-peptide binding with greater accuracy than current methods. The model also employs natural language processing to emphasize key subsequences from the amino-acid sequences of peptides and MHC alleles used to generate the prediction. Shrisha Rao of IIIT Bangalore the work was “an illustration of how artificial intelligence and machine learning research using cloud-based solutions can make a mark in different domains including medicine, in a much shorter time and at a fraction of the usual cost.”
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Julia Version 1.5 Is Out: Lots of Features, Better Performance
ZDNet
Liam Tung
August 3, 2020
Version 1.5 of the Julia programming language for data scientists has been released. With roots in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab, Julia was among the top 10 most-loved programming languages in Stack Overflow's 2020 developer survey. Fans of Julia cite its speed advantages over Python and statistical programming language R when processing datasets from CSV files. Julia 1.5 includes new features and performance improvements, such as a new command-line option, '--bug-report=rr' that will help developers fix bugs and move most of Julia's thread API from "experimental" to stable to improve its composable multithreading capabilities.
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With TikTok, 'Uncool' Microsoft Aims for the Love of Tweens
The New York Times
Karen Weise; Steve Lohr
August 3, 2020
Microsoft's talks to acquire Chinese-owned social media company TikTok's U.S. operations appear to be a bid to expand into the tween market by assuming control over a highly influential social network. The TikTok application is popular among young smartphone users, and Microsoft's Dan Ives said its acquisition will mean that "Microsoft goes from an uncool company to many under 25, to potentially as hip as TikTok." President Trump has threatened to ban TikTok unless an American company buys it, due to concerns that the app potentially allows China to access U.S. user data. Microsoft has said it would “ensure that all private data of TikTok’s American users is transferred to and remains in the United States.”
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Scientists Design Thread-Based Wearable Sweat Sensors to Monitor Health
International Business Times
Divya Ramaswamy
July 29, 2020
Researchers at Tufts University have developed a flexible electronic sensing patch that can analyze a person's sweat for multiple health markers while being worn. Sewn into clothing, the device incorporates special sensing threads, electronic components, and wireless connectivity for real-time data acquisition, storage, and processing. The patch can be used to diagnose acute and chronic health conditions, as well as to monitor athletic performance and workplace safety. It measures in real time levels of biomarkers found in sweat, like electrolytes, metabolites, pH, and the stress hormone cortisol. Said Tuft's Trupti Terse-Thakoor, "The markers we can pick up in sweat also correlate well with blood plasma levels which makes it an excellent surrogate diagnostic fluid."
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IoT Technology to Help Trees Fight Climate Change
EuroNews
Marthe de Ferrer
July 30, 2020
Vodafone has joined forces with the U.K. Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs and Forest Research, the country’s principal organization for forestry and tree-related research, to study the role of trees in addressing climate change. Sensors using Vodafone's Internet of Things (IoT) technology will be attached to trees for three months, during which they will send data continually on temperature, humidity, tree growth, and soil moisture back to scientists. The IoT technology will enable researchers to monitor areas of the forest generally inaccessible or too costly to reach. The goal is to learn more about how a tree's ability to store carbon can be used to mitigate climate change.
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Australia Will Use Robot Boats to Find Asylum Seekers at Sea
New Scientist
David Hambling
July 31, 2020
Australia is deploying unmanned robot boats to patrol its waters and monitor weather and wildlife, as well as identifying boats potentially transporting asylum seekers. The Bluebottle vessels are driven by wind, wave, and solar power to maintain a steady 5-knot (roughly 6mph/9kph) speed. The robots are equipped with cameras, radar, and sensors to detect transponder signals from ships and aircraft, and can carry instruments for measuring temperature, pressure, and other meteorological factors. The Bluebottles tow sonar for tracking wildlife and submarines, and feature automatic collision avoidance with only occasional human supervision. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority has authorized Bluebottle patrols in Australia's exclusive economic zone; if the drones detect potentially unauthorized vessels, they can investigate, with Royal Australian Navy vessels dispatched to intercept ships if deemed necessary by Bluebottle operators.
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Algorithms Could Reduce Polarization From Information Overload
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
July 30, 2020
Computer scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of California, San Diego are calling for new algorithms that prioritize providing a broader view of available information online. They suggest awareness of this could avoid the polarization often caused by information overload. Said Rensselaer's Boleslaw Szymanski, "[T]he attention span of human beings is not prepared for hundreds of millions of authors. We don't know what to read, and since we cannot select everything, we simply go back to the familiar, to works that represent our own beliefs." The scientists propose a technique in which algorithms shift from "extractive summarization," which focuses on content that was consumed in the past, to "abstractive summarization," which expands the share of available thought that can be digested.
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