Welcome to the April 7, 2023, edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for IT professionals three times a week.
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Historically Black University Created Its Own Tech Intern Pipeline
The New York Times
Natasha Singer
April 5, 2023
Last year, the computer science department at Bowie State University, a historically Black university in Maryland, established an internship program in partnership with several companies and government agencies. The department offers training sessions on interview skills, workshops on hot tech topics, and invites participating employers to visit campus, allowing them to mentor, interview, and recruit students directly. Sixty computer science students last summer received internships at big companies, federal agencies, and local startups. Additionally, six students returned from last year's Grace Hopper Celebration, an annual conference for women in tech, with internships or job offers from major companies.
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Simple Algorithm Brings Complex Power to Quantum Computers
RIKEN (Japan)
April 3, 2023
Researchers at Japan's RIKEN have developed a quantum-computational algorithm that can calculate atomic-level interactions in complex materials. The algorithm combines quantum and classical methods to compile time-evolution operators at a lower computational cost. This means it can be executed on small quantum, as well as conventional, computers. Said RIKEN's Kaoru Mizuta, "We have established a new protocol for constructing quantum circuits that efficiently and accurately reproduce time-evolution operators on quantum computers. By combining small quantum algorithms with the fundamental laws of quantum dynamics, our protocol succeeds in designing quantum circuits for replicating large-scale quantum materials, but with simpler quantum computers." Mizuta added that the research could "demonstrate the potential of using smaller quantum computers to study physics and chemistry."
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How Virtual Brain Models Could Transform Epilepsy Surgery
Nature
Miryam Naddaf
April 4, 2023
French neuroscientists are testing the Virtual Epileptic Patient (VEP) platform, developed by the Europe-based Human Brain Project in a multicenter clinical trial, to explore how virtual brain models could revolutionize epilepsy surgery. Researchers at France's Aix-Marseille University created a technique for producing a digital twin of a person's brain by uploading their presurgical magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalogram, and stereoelectroencephalography data to the virtual network. They employ artificial intelligence-based simulations to emulate brain activity and locate the epileptogenic zone that causes seizures, as well as to model the effects of surgery to minimize the risk of damage.
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Origami-Inspired Robots Sense, Analyze, Act in Challenging Environments
UCLA Samueli School of Engineering
April 3, 2023
A team of scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and China's Tsinghua University has created a manufacturing method for origami-inspired robots that do not rely on semiconductors. The researchers produced a system of transistors that can be combined with sensors and actuators by incorporating flexible and conductive materials within a pre-cut polyester film sheet. They programmed the sheet to mimic the functions of semiconductors. The Origami MechanoBots (OrigaMechs) assembled from the sheet can sense, analyze, and act in response to their surroundings. Robots built by the team using the technology include an insect-like walking OrigaMech that reverses course when its antennae detect an obstacle, a Venus flytrap-like machine that enfolds "prey" when its jaw sensors sense objects, and a reprogrammable two-wheeled robot that travels over pre-designed paths of different geometric patterns.
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Google Says Its AI Supercomputer with TPU v4 Chips Outperforms Nvidia’s A100 in Speed
The Tech Portal (India)
Soumyadeep Sarkar
April 5, 2023
Google claims the supercomputers used for training its artificial intelligence (AI) models are faster and more energy-efficient than those employed by multinational technology firm Nvidia. Google researchers detailed how they created a supercomputer from more than 4,000 fourth-generation Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), as well as custom optical switches to link individual machines. The AI models are segmented across thousands of chips, which must collaboratively train the models for weeks or more. Google's Norm Jouppi and David Patterson explained, "Circuit switching makes it easy to route around failed components. This flexibility even allows us to change the topology of the supercomputer interconnect to accelerate the performance of an ML (machine learning) model." Google says its new supercomputer is up to 1.7 times faster and 1.9 times "greener" than a system based on Nvidia's A100 chip.
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Generative Modeling Tools Render 2D Sketches in 3D
Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science
Jamie Martines
April 5, 2023
The pix2pix3d tool developed by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researchers allows users to reformat two-dimensional (2D) sketches as realistic three-dimensional (3D) models using generative artificial intelligence. Once users input the sketch or more detailed information from label maps, pix2pix3d produces a 3D-volumetric representation of geometry, appearance, and labels that can be rendered from multiple angles into the 3D model. Users can tweak the 3D image in real time by erasing and redrawing the base 2D sketch, so alterations do not require a re-render. Said CMU's Jun-Yan Zhu, "Our research goal is to make content creation accessible to more people through the power of machine learning and data-driven approaches."
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China Offers Joined-Up Rail Ticketing to ‘Belt and Road’ Countries
South China Morning Post
Stephen Chen
April 6, 2023
The China Academy of Railway Sciences Corporation said researchers have engineered an all-in-one train ticketing system that unifies different ticket selling platforms in more than 140 countries in a single smartphone application. The system is customized for member nations of China's Belt and Road Initiative, with customers in initial adopter country Laos able to book tickets via smartphone since March 15. The system's primary servers can handle requests from passengers in different languages, while the Swiss franc will be its standard currency for international exchange, according to the researchers. The Belt and Road ticket system is the international iteration of China's 12306 domestic train ticket app.
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Researchers Create Classification of Chess Openings
Complexity Science Hub Vienna (Austria)
April 4, 2023
Researchers at Austria's Complexity Science Hub Vienna developed a new classification method for chess openings. The researchers analyzed 3,746,135 chess games, 18,253 players with ratings above 2,000, and 988 different openings from the online chess platform Lichess to assess the similarity of chess openings. They identified 10 clusters that each represent a certain style of play. The Complexity Science Hub's Vito D.P. Servedio said, "Our clustering represents a new order that is close to the used one and can add to it by showing players how similar openings actually are to each other." The new classification method, which could be applied to similar games like Go or Stratego, enables researchers to measure a player's ability (fitness) and the difficulty of a particular opening game (complexity).
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3D Concrete Printing for Building a Sustainable Future in Construction
Interesting Engineering
Kavita Verma
April 4, 2023
A three-dimensional concrete printing (3DCP) milestone achieved by University of Michigan (U-M) researchers promises more sustainable construction. U-M's Mania Aghaei Meibodi, Alireza Bayramvand, and Yuxin Lin developed the "Shell Wall" method to fabricate waste-free concrete with 72% less weight than conventional concrete of the same size. Shell Wall blends topology optimization and 3DCP; the former technique distributes material most efficiently based on performance criteria for a given set of support. The researchers created a computational model that uses the topology-optimized components' shape and geometric characteristics to synergize nonplanar and variable material deposition. Meibodi said the method "eliminates unnecessary overbuilding with excessive amounts of materials," allowing more affordable construction of environmentally-friendly structures.
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Simulating a Secure Future
KAUST Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (Saudi Arabia)
April 2, 2023
Researchers at Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have designed multifunctional logic gates that can enhance the security of semiconductors. The researchers investigated polymorphic gates fabricated from magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs), which are easily switched by reversing the relative orientation of their ferromagnetic layers' magnetic spins. The team proved the gates' circuit- and layout-level symmetry can thwart tampering and intellectual property theft by complicating reverse-engineering. Hard drives employ MTJs, creating the potential for integrated memory and processing, which could reduce power consumption and interconnect delays. KAUST's Yehia Massoud expects spintronic devices will contribute significantly to hardware security as they "are energy efficient and nonvolatile and are easily integrated with conventional silicon substrates."
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Amazon Looks to Grow Diamonds, in a Bid to Boost Computer Networks
Bloomberg
Ian King
April 5, 2023
Amazon and diamond mining company DeBeers Group have partnered to grow artificial diamonds, hoping they will transform computer networks. De Beers' Element Six division will collaborate with Amazon Web Services' Center for Quantum Networking (CQN) to develop a quantum networking methodology that employs the diamonds so quantum bits can travel farther without breaking down. Synthetic diamonds can function as signal repeaters in a quantum-based network because of their impurities. Amazon aims to leverage quantum networking to obtain a competitive edge over Microsoft and Google for computing and information storage, while Element Six envisions new uses for industrial diamonds. The CQN's Antia Lamas-Linares expects quantum network technologies to be in use within "years, rather than decades."
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Researchers Test Supercomputer Modeling with Wind Farm Site Field Data
University of Wyoming
April 3, 2023
University of Wyoming (UW) researchers and Power Company of Wyoming partnered to compare computer-modeled wind flows with data from the wind energy firm's Sierra Madre wind farm site. The researchers assessed a modeling approach called large eddy simulation (LES) using resources at the National Center for Atmospheric Research-Wyoming Supercomputing Center and UW's Advanced Research Computing Center. They confirmed their simulations' accuracy compared with real-world measurements of wind speed and duration at the wind farm. The researchers said such calculations will soon be accelerated from days to hours through innovations in supercomputing capacity. "This, in turn, might make LES a standard tool in the near future for evaluating the detailed wind resource within complex terrain and for wind farm layout design studies," they explained.
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Hello AInstein! Robot with ChatGPT Shakes Up Cyprus Classrooms
Reuters
Yiannis Kourtoglou
April 4, 2023
A prototype robot named AInstein created by high school students and teachers in Cyprus enhances classroom instruction using OpenAI's ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) technology. AInstein can tell jokes, attempt to speak Greek, and offer guidance on teaching Einstein's theory of relativity, while its screen mimics a face with blinks and frowns. Said project leader Elpidoforos Anastasiou, "Students can ask him questions, he can answer back, and he can even facilitate teachers to deliver a lesson more effectively." Teachers said incorporating the robot into education is the project's goal, while project members said the experience with AInstein demonstrates that AI should not be feared.
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