Researchers set sights on theory of deep learning | Education - Mirage News

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View in full here.

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Jade Boyd, Science Editor and Associate Director of News and Media Relations says, Deep learning is an increasingly popular form of artificial intelligence that’s routinely used in products and services that impact hundreds of millions of lives, despite the fact that no one quite understands how it works.

Richard Baraniuk (left) and Moshe Vardi are members of an interdisciplinary, six-university team that the Office of Naval Research has tapped to develop a theory of deep learning using a $7.5 million grant from the Department of Defense’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative.
Photo: Jade Boyd/Rice University

The Office of Naval Research has awarded a five-year, $7.5 million grant to a group of engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians and statisticians who think they can unravel the mystery. Their task: develop a theory of deep learning based on rigorous mathematical principles.

The grant to researchers from Rice University, Johns Hopkins University, Texas A&M University, the University of Maryland, the University of Wisconsin, UCLA and Carnegie Mellon University, was made through the Department of Defense’s Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI)...

Baraniuk said they will attack the problem from three different perspectives.

“One is mathematical,” he said. “It turns out that deep networks are very easy to describe locally. If you look at what’s going on in a specific neuron, it’s actually easy to describe. But we don’t understand how those pieces – literally millions of them – fit together into a global whole. We call that local to global understanding.”

A second perspective is statistical. “What happens when the input signals, the knobs in the networks, have randomness?” Baraniuk asked. “We’d like to be able to predict how well a network will perform when we turn the knobs. That’s a statistical question and will offer another perspective.”

The third perspective is formal methods, or formal verification, a field that deals with the problem of verifying whether systems are functioning as intended, especially when they are so large or complex that it is impossible to check each line of code or individual component. This component of the MURI research will be led by Vardi, a leading expert in the field.
Read more... 

Source:  Mirage News

Exploring the boundary between art and science | Arts & Culture - University of Leeds

A large sculpture has been installed on the side of the Sir William Henry Bragg building, a new engineering and physical sciences development at the University reports University of Leeds.

Exploring the boundary between art and science
Photo: University of Leeds

By artist Sara Barker, the installation is made from light-weight welded aluminium and a variety of shapes, motifs and colours convey ideas linked to science and engineering – and make connections with Leeds as a former centre of the textile industry and as a creative city.  

The artwork measures seven metres by just over six metres and is positioned more than four metres above the ground.

The artist has used iridescent paints inspired by research at the University, which allows parts of the structure to take on a different colour depending on the angle it is viewed from...

“The Sir William Henry Bragg Building will provide state of the art facilities to support ground-breaking interdisciplinary research, spanning engineering, physical sciences and computing, and linking with colleagues in medicine and biology. The Bragg Centre for Materials Research will discover, create and design new materials which will translate to a wide range of industrial settings.  

“Critically, this new complex will also provide creative spaces for students, ensuring that their research-based education is enriched by having access to cutting edge laboratories, workshops and digital facilities."  
Read more...

Source: University of Leeds    

What Is An Algorithm, Anyway? | Tech - Mashable

Mashable’s series Algorithms explores the mysterious lines of code that increasingly control our lives — and our futures.

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Rachel Kraus, Mashable Tech Reporter observes, The Algorithm” is impenetrable. It’s mysterious, it’s all-knowing, it’s omnipotent. Except that it’s not. 

What is an algorithm, anyway?
Photo: Bob Al-Greene / Mashable

An algorithm is a simple concept that, today, has many complex manifestations. Algorithms’ central and opaque position at the heart of social networks like Facebook cause some to view algorithms in general with a sort of mystical reverence. Algorithms have become synonymous with something highly technical and difficult to understand, that is either an arbiter of objective truth, or, on the other end of the spectrum, something wholly untrustworthy...

Mashable spoke with Pedro Domingos, a computer science professor at the University of Washington who has also written a book about the ever-growing role algorithms play in our lives. Before you go being alternatively impressed by or distrusting of the next computer algorithm you encounter, get back to basics on the concept that’s powering our world.
Read more...  

Recommended Reading

The Master Algorithm: 
How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World

Source: Mashable 

Your language brain matters more for learning programming than your math brain | Mind Control - Massive Science

New research contradicts long held assumptions about coding, according to a report from Amy Nippert, Neuroscience - University of Minnesota.

Photo: Christina Morillo from Pexels

When you think of learning another language, you probably think of French, Spanish, or Chinese. But what about Python or Java? The two processes might be more similar than you’d think. 

A recent study published from researchers at the University of Washington showed that language ability and problem solving skills best predict how quickly people learn Python, a popular programming language. Their research, published in Scientific Reports, used behavioral tests and measures of brain activity to see how they correlated with how fast and well participants learned programming...

Taken together, these result make the case for language skills being an integral aspect of learning programming (or at least of learning Python), while math skills weren’t very predictive of how well or quickly participants learned. This idea has important implications for the perceptions surrounding programming, which is often viewed as a “math intensive” field...

It’s true that some fields require both math and programming skills, but those aren’t necessarily the majority of programming jobs available. Based on this study, the requirements for advanced math classes for every computer science major seem unnecessary, and increased flexibility over math requirements could help recruit and retain students.
Read more...

Source: Massive Science

Math Books you should read in 2020 | Books - Medium

Przemek Chojecki, CEO Contentyze, PhD in mathematics suggest, Learn how mathematics influence every aspect of our life. 

Photo: JumpStory

Mathematics is behind every single process in today’s world. We breath mathematics even though we might not be aware of how it influences our behaviours. Maths is behind all the technological products we use. No matter what’s your background, you need to know how mathematics work in order to understand the world around you. 
These books will help you with that...

Everyone should have it on a shelf to look up any math concept coming up in their work or life.

This list will allow you to grasp how mathematics, statistics and algorithms shape the world we live in. Thanks to that knowledge you’ll be able to operate more efficiently and be more confident.
Read more... 

Source: Medium 

Euler’s Fabulous Formula | Maths and Musings - Medium

Photo: Leonhard Euler

Leonhard Euler (1707–83), who was one of the most prolific mathematicians ever, continuing to publish large numbers of papers even after going blind in 1766.

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Here we investigate and understand the brilliant formula which unlocks the power of complex numbers by Maths and Musings in Cantor’s Paradise.

Photo: https://www2.clarku.edu/faculty/djoyce/complex/mult.html

In some sense, it is obvious why it is famous. Like, what! e raised to the square root of -1 multiplied by pi gives -1. How!??!! I remember being astounded that this was the case.

Yet this turns out to almost be a definition of complex numbers, the idea that we can write:

It extends the definition of e to make sense for complex numbers while still making sense with the definition of e for real numbers. This will all make a lot of sense later, but is mind-boggling at first!

First, let’s really understand the right hand side of the equation, which ties in beautifully with elementary geometry...

Epilogue
Who would have thought it! The functions created by the Greeks to describe coordinates on circles (cos and sin) have a mystical link with the function which differentiates to itself, e, once we expand numbers to include the square root of negative 1.

It’s a wonderful world.
Read more... 

Recommended Reading

Dr. Euler's Fabulous Formula: 
Cures Many Mathematical Ills

 Source: Medium

A New Moment for Black Bookstores | Publishers Weekly

A version of this article appeared in the 08/31/2020 issue of Publishers Weekly under the headline: A New Moment for Black Bookstores

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Eugene Holley Jr., writes about jazz and African American culture observes, Four Black booksellers navigate today’s shifting social, political, and economic currents.

From l. to r.: D.L. Mullen, owner, Semicolon in Chicago, Dionne Sims, owner, Black Garnet Books in Minneapolis, VaLinda Miller, owner, Turning Pages Bookshop in Goose Creek, S.C.

The publishing world has had to adapt to a business landscape that is rapidly changing as a result of the pandemic and the response to continuing police violence against unarmed Black people. The 130 Black-owned bookstores in the U.S. have had to deal with these broader challenges, as well as with cultural and economic forces that uniquely affect them.

Marcus Books, one of the country’s best-known and oldest Black bookstores, was cofounded in 1960 in San Francisco by two African American doctors, husband-and-wife team Julian and Raye Richardson. Rising rents forced Marcus Books to close its San Francisco store six years ago, but it moved to Oakland...

Among the books recommended at Semicolon are titles by Octavia Butler, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and N.K. Jemison, as well as Kiley Reeves’s Such a Fun Age and Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half (which Mullen said did very well), plus “any Afro-futuristic writer.” She added, “Fiction is easier to understand, and something you can build empathy from, as opposed to statistics and numbers. Anti-racism is rooted in empathy—you have to understand the plight before you can support it.” 
Read more... 

Source: Publishers Weekly

Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair Goes Virtual | Penta - Barron's

Long-time producer says the switch helps cut costs and expose new audiences to the rare book world, inform Mareesa Nicosia, Freelance Multimedia Journalist.

Rare books and vintage ephemera will be on sale at the Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair.
Photo: Courtesy of Book and Paper Fairs

Every September, the distinctive aroma of old books wafts through the sun-splashed Brooklyn Expo Center in Greenpoint for a couple of days as dealers from around the U.S. and Europe set out their rare volumes and vintage ephemera for sale. This year, however, the annual Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair will make its online debut.
The event, which typically draws up to 2,500 collectors, librarians, and casual browsers, is being hosted Sept. 11-13 on a new digital platform that was built this spring in response to the coronavirus pandemic, event producer Marvin Getman tells Penta...

Items at this year’s Brooklyn Antiquarian Book Fair range from $50 to $10,000 and include antiquarian books, prints, photos, autographs, and ephemera from 200 dealers. In addition, the event will feature six live webinars and a live interview with Michael Horse, also known as Deputy Hawk, of the television series Twin Peaks. Horse will discuss his visual contribution to the show’s hieroglyphic maps, as well as his own ledger art paintings...

Admission to the event is free, but registration is required. 
Read more... 

Source: Barron's 

11 New Books We Recommend This Week | Book Review - New York Times

Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times by John Williams, Daily Books Editor and Staff Writer.

Books
Photo: New York Times

Plenty of evidence this week that we’re living in a boom time for thoughtful, powerful nature writing. “Vesper Flights” collects essays by Helen Macdonald, whom you likely know from her internationally best-selling memoir, “H Is for Hawk.” In “The Bird Way,” Jennifer Ackerman takes a detailed look at the lives of birds — including their parenting strategies — like the bowerbird, the cuckoo and the kea. From the sky to the sea, with another international best seller: Patrik Svensson’s “The Book of Eels,” which combines elements of memoir with an examination of the slithery creatures. 

As this strange summer (already, unbelievably) nears its end, Ali Smith reaches the end of her seasonal quartet of novels with her own “Summer.” Smith has conspicuously kept her eye on current events in these books, and has remarkably included the arrival of Covid-19 in this series-capper.

Also on this week’s list, a great diversity of genres and subjects: Kurt Andersen’s indictment of American politics over the past several decades; Jeffrey Toobin’s narrative treatment of the Mueller investigation; a group portrait of four European philosophers who navigated the tumultuous 1920s in very different ways; the latest novel by the great Israeli writer A.B. Yehoshua; the biography of a scientist who was once as famous as Einstein; a deeply disturbing and brilliantly conceived novel about cannibalism; and a devastating novel about tragedy in a Nigerian family.

Read more...

Source: New York Times

Reading, especially of the classics, is booming | Books - The Economist

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "The old stories"

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The old stories are the best.

Reading, especially of the classics, is booming
Photo: Getty Images

A NORTH LONDON book club, which includes a top civil servant, a senior Bank of England official and one of the country’s best-known publishers, normally picks the latest novels to dissect. But when lockdown began in late March its six members decided to take on “Madame Bovary”, Gustave Flaubert’s masterwork about the danger of getting carried away by social and romantic ambition. The shift in the book club’s tastes was a reaction to the anxious zeitgeist, says one of its members. “We wanted a book that had stood the test of time. Something rock solid.”

This book club was not alone in turning to the classics in times of crisis. The British almost doubled the time they spent reading books, from around three-and-a-half hours a week, according to Nielsen, a research firm, to six during lockdown, and with bookshops closed and publishing schedules interrupted, many people found themselves browsing their shelves and opening volumes they already owned but had never got round to reading. There was much talk of poetry, and of immersion in the Russian greats...

Weighty tomes are doing particularly well. After Marcus Aurelius’s “Meditations”, Everyman’s bestselling titles are a two-volume edition of Tolstoy’s stories, then 1,400 pages of Montaigne. Faber & Faber reports that its most popular title in lockdown, after Sally Rooney’s “Normal People”, was “A Fine Balance”, Rohinton Mistry’s 600-page Indian epic set in a city by the sea, published in 1995.

Read more... 

Source: The Economist

The Highest Paying Jobs for Computer Science Graduates Revealed | News Extra - MKFM

Are you thinking about going to university to study computer science? by News Extra.

The Highest Paying Jobs for Computer Science Graduates Revealed

Or perhaps you’re already in a computer science career and considering taking a postgraduate degree to increase the amount of money you take home?

Whatever your reasons for wanting to know the highest paying jobs in the sector, you’re in the right place. We’ve done our research and narrowed down the highest paying jobs for computer science graduates. Let’s get started, shall we?...

As you can see, computer science graduates have numerous career options, many of which are well paid. 
Read more... 

Source: MKFM

How Close Are Computers to Automating Mathematical Reasoning? | Mathematics - Quanta Magazine

Stephen Ornes, science writer in Nashville, Tennessee says, AI tools are shaping next-generation theorem provers, and with them the relationship between math and machine.

Illustration of a robot and a human furiously doing math next to each other
Photo: Maria Nguyen for Quanta Magazine

In the 1970s, the late mathematician Paul Cohen, the only person to ever win a Fields Medal for work in mathematical logic, reportedly made a sweeping prediction that continues to excite and irritate mathematicians — that “at some unspecified future time, mathematicians would be replaced by computers.” Cohen, legendary for his daring methods in set theory, predicted that all of mathematics could be automated, including the writing of proofs.

A proof is a step-by-step logical argument that verifies the truth of a conjecture, or a mathematical proposition. (Once it’s proved, a conjecture becomes a theorem.) It both establishes the validity of a statement and explains why it’s true. A proof is strange, though. It’s abstract and untethered to material experience. “They’re this crazy contact between an imaginary, nonphysical world and biologically evolved creatures,” said the cognitive scientist Simon DeDeo of Carnegie Mellon University, who studies mathematical certainty by analyzing the structure of proofs. “We did not evolve to do this.”

Computers are useful for big calculations, but proofs require something different...

Useful Machines Mathematicians, logicians and philosophers have long argued over what part of creating proofs is fundamentally human, and debates about mechanized mathematics continue today, especially in the deep valleys connecting computer science and pure mathematics.

For computer scientists, theorem provers are not controversial. They offer a rigorous way to verify that a program works, and arguments about intuition and creativity are less important than finding an efficient way to solve a problem. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example, the computer scientist Adam Chlipala has designed theorem-proving tools that generate cryptographic algorithms — traditionally written by humans — to safeguard internet transactions. Already, his group’s code is used for the majority of the communication on Google’s Chrome browser.
Read more... 

Recommended Reading

 The Prime Number Conspiracy
The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta

The Prime Number Conspiracy: The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta (The MIT Press) by Thomas Lin, founding editor-in-chief of Quanta. 

Source: Quanta Magazine

Meet Merit-Ptah, the ancient Egyptian doctor who didn’t exist | Science Heroes - Massive Science

Though created by accident, her story fit neatly with burgeoning 20th century feminism, according to a report from tropical forest ecologist and PhD student at Wake Forest University Cassie Freund.

Matteo Farinella

Legend has it that the first woman doctor in recorded history lived in ancient Egypt nearly 5000 years ago, around 2700 BCE. But sometimes legends are merely legends for a reason: the doctor in question, Merit-Ptah, probably did not exist. She’s still our science hero.

Ancient Egypt held women in high esteem. Many of the Egyptian deities were goddesses, including Hathor (goddess of love and fertility), Ma’at (goddess of truth and order), and Nut (goddess of the sky). The goddess Sekhmet, depicted with a human body but the head of a lion, was the patron of doctors and healers. Women had equal rights to men. They could own land and businesses, wear whatever they wanted, divorce their husbands, and hold powerful social positions. Merit-Ptah, rumored to be the first recorded woman physician in history, was thought to be the chief doctor of the royal court around 2700 BC. Her picture was even on one of the pyramids in the Valley of the Kings.  
Or, was it?...

Merit-Ptah’s life was a myth. But her popularity reflects the very real hunger of women to be seen as equals in science and medicine. And although Merit-Ptah’s story started, and initially proliferated, in white and Eurocentric circles, Kwiecinski notes that she also featured in Afrocentric black history, where she shined as “an example of the scientific genius of the black Africans.”
Read more...

Source: Massive Science

Infinite fun with infinite worlds | Science - Mirage News

The fact that there are many different types of infinities is one of the big puzzles in mathematics. One mathematician who enjoys investigating which infinities can actually occur is Saharon Shelah, the guest speaker at this year’s Paul Bernays Lectures.

Israeli mathematician Saharon Shelah is one of the top experts on infinity and how it can be understood and distinguished mathematically.
Photo: Wikipedia / ETH Zurich

One of the most astonishing findings in mathematics is the discovery that there are many different types of infinities – and for a long time, it was an unresolved problem whether some of these infinities could be of different sizes without contradiction.

One mathematical logician who has been studying this intensively for years is Saharon Shelah from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. As the guest speaker at this year’s Paul Bernays Lectures, he will discuss the current developments in “Struggling with the size of infinity”. Shelah is an established expert on the topic of mathematical infinity. A year ago, he managed to prove with Martin Goldstern and Jakob Kellner from the TU Wien that ten – and no more – infinities can have different sizes and can be arranged according to their sizes in what is known as Cichoń’s diagram (see figure).

This was a ground-breaking proof, as history shows: the modern mathematical debate on infinity began with a series of discoveries made in the 1870s by German mathematician Georg Cantor (1845-1918)...

At the Bernays Lectures, Shelah will discuss whether such an arrangement of the infinities and the cardinal arithmetic allow new insights into the continuum hypothesis. “The proof that ten infinities can be different in Cichoń’s diagram is not just ground-breaking, but also typical for Shelah,” says Halbeisen. “He considers mathematical matters in a completely unbiased manner and is able to see astonishing connections. His instinct for possible solutions is unerring.”
Read more...

Source: Mirage News

Professor: Let’s stop apologizing for teaching online; great things can happen | Opinion - TCPalm

Jena Heath, Associate Dean Arts & Humanities, Associate Professor Journalism & Digital Media, Coordinator Journalism and Digital Media program summarizes, Like virtually everyone I know in teaching I have been working all summer to up my online game. 

Mason Merola, 10, signs off a remote learning class with a thumbs up to his classmates and teacher, Mrs. Pendergast, on the first day of school, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020, at his home in Jensen Beach. The 5th grader at Jensen Beach Elementary School was enjoying his school day from home. "I was surprised that it was pretty fun," Merola said. "I like that I don't have to be at school because of coronavirus. I miss seeing my friends and I would like to, but I'm not going to take the risk."
Photo: LEAH VOSS/TCPALM

I’ve read pedagogical treatises and attended Zoom trainings at St. Edward’s University, where I have taught journalism and digital media since 2008. I am determined to improve the triage online teaching I did in spring, when COVID-19 ran us off campus.

That the transition to remote instruction is a challenge is not news. Teachers must choose between synchronous (face-to-face) or asynchronous (no meetings) instruction, both of which involve enormous preparation and redesign of traditional classes.

They must think up ways to encourage participation in Zoom, an online environment that feels distant and oddly intimate at once. Colleagues in the sciences are adapting lab classes. Language faculty are planning the best ways to teach Spanish, French, German and Japanese online...

This is exactly what we will be doing this semester at St. Edward’s. Check out these Faculty Voices on Teaching mini-podcasts. You will hear a chorus of caring faculty talking about how they are adapting the ways they teach the subjects they love in hopes their students will love them, too, online or off.
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Source: TCPalm

6 Tips for Teaching Online and In Person Simultaneously | Teaching & Learning - Inside Higher Ed

Amy E. Crook, associate professor of management and Faculty Senate president at Belmont University and Travis W. Crook, assistant professor of pediatrics and director of pediatric medical education at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine outline strategies to promote meaningful engagement for online students while at the same time providing a rich face-to-face learning environment.

Photo: Julia M Cameron from Pexels

To adhere to social distancing guidelines within classrooms, many colleges and universities that are planning to have students back on their campuses are offering concurrent classrooms in which professors teach some students in person and others simultaneously online. Under those circumstances, professors can feel overwhelmed by attempting to cater to two audiences and worry that the online students may have a diminished learning experience.

In this article, we outline six strategies to promote meaningful engagement for online students while at the same time providing a rich in-person learning environment. Fundamentally, professors can take one of two approaches with their distanced students: they can simulate the in-person experience or differentiate online engagement.

First Approach: Simulate In-Person Experience
The basic premise of this approach is to make the online experience feel as similar as possible to the in-person experience by integrating across modalities. Here are three strategies that ensure balanced student engagement regardless of setting.
Read more...

Source: Inside Higher Ed

Save 85% off this 1-Hour Remote Teaching Online Crash Course | Online courses - Neowin

Today's highlighted deal comes via our Online Courses section of the Neowin Deals store, where for only a limited time you can save 85% off this Remote Teaching Online Course by News Staff. 

Learn the basics of teaching from home and start recording now with this 1-hour crash course featuring 7 lectures and one hour of content; includes certification! Get it via Neowin Deals!

Learn the basics of teaching from home and start recording now with this 1-hour crash course.

While we all have shifted to the norm of doing almost everything at home — working, buying  selling, and even studying — some are still adjusting. This course will teach you everything that will allow you to start recording your first lecture to share it online with your students. You’ll also learn what software is best for presentations and how to share them during lessons...

Good to know

Length of time users can access this course: lifetime

Certification of completion included

Redemption deadline: redeem your code within 30 days of purchase

 
For a full description, specs, and instructor info, click here.
Read more...

Source: Neowin

A Flexible Teaching Model: A Seamless Pivot from Face-to-Face to Online Teaching | Online Education - Faculty Focus

Julie Sochacki, JD, clinical associate professor of English and director of the English secondary education program at University of Hartford argues, When I envision teaching this fall, my highest priorities are social presence and flexibility. 

A Flexible Teaching Model: A Seamless Pivot from Face-to-Face to Online Teaching
Photo: Faculty Focus

No matter the outcome of the fall 2020 semester, my goal is for students to leave my course feeling as if they were part of a community in which their voices mattered. I want to embrace critical thinking and rigor, which have the power to transform students. This year, I am adopting a flexible teaching model that meets my expectations, and will guide and support my students through these unchartered waters. Within my model, I have considered content delivery; collaborative, active learning; synchronous experiences; and a strong social presence. 
The following is my plan for the fall semester:
Read more...

Source: Faculty Focus

The Idealism of Freedom | Book Depository

In The Idealism of Freedom, argues Klaus Vieweg, philosopher at the university of Jena and author of a biography, entitled Philosopher of Freedom for a Hegelian turn in philosophy.

Photo: Prof. Dr. Klaus Vieweg

Hegel's idealism of freedom contains a number of epoch-making ideas that articulate a new understanding of freedom, which still shape contemporary philosophy. Hegel establishes a modern logic, as well as the idea of a social state...
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Publication date 24 Sep 2020 
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Source: Book Depository

Celebrating Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s 250th birthday on 27 August 2020 | Philosophy - Cambridge Core

Christoph Schuringa, editor of Hegel Bulletin says, Welcome to this special site celebrating Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s 250th birthday on 27 August 2020. 

Hegel images used with the kind permission of the artist, Helena Wilcox

To mark the occasion a wide range of Cambridge content from across books and journals is now free to access, along with brand new podcasts and blogs featuring some of today’s leading Hegel scholars, as well as an interview with Terry Pinkard where he discusses Hegel's impact today, his distinctive readings of Hegel and also Hegel's life in a historical context. 
It is significant that, like Beethoven, Hölderlin and Wordsworth, Hegel was born in 1770. These figures all experienced the seismic event of the French Revolution while on the brink of adulthood. Hegel’s extraordinarily ambitious early work, the Phenomenology of Spirit, is still marked by this, with its images of bursting forth into a new era...

Scholars are also increasingly grappling with Hegel’s involvement in European racism, while at the same time the politically emancipatory power of his thought continues to be explored. In many senses, Hegel remains, 250 years on, a living and challenging thinker. 
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Source: Cambridge Core

Get Started Teaching Online | Online Courses - Magna Publications

Are you new to online teaching, or have you had little notice from your leadership that you will be teaching in this modality? by Magna Publications.

Get Started Teaching Online
Photo: Magna Publications

Either way, you are probably feeling overwhelmed and just don’t know where to start. Get Started Teaching Online is specifically for college faculty and will help you focus on actionable ideas that will make a difference in your ability to create an online course, teach it effectively, and engage with your students during the upcoming school year.

COURSE DATE:
Sunday, August 23 – Friday, September 25, 2020

Suddenly find yourself prepping to teach online?  
Not sure where to start? Get Started Teaching Online will guide you through this process. This 8-hour learning path is designed specifically for college faculty and will provide direct insights from experienced online educators who will show you exactly how this modality works. You’ll learn more than enough to get started with confidence!
Providing special reduced-pricing, this learning path focuses on five key areas of online teaching: Course Planning and Design, Classroom Climate, Active and Engaged Students, Teaching Strategies, and Personal Improvement.
Read more...

Source: Magna Publications

What is artificial intelligence? | Future Technology - BBC Focus Magazine

Peter Bentley, computer scientist and author who is based at University College London explains, Everything you need to know about the history of AI, what we mean by 'deep learning', and if we can really trust artificial intelligence.

Photo: Getty Images

Why is artificial intelligence so popular today? 

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been around since the birth of computers in the 1950s. The original pioneers dreamed of making ‘computer brains’ that could perform the same kinds of tasks as our own brains, such as playing chess or translating languages. But hopes that AI would quickly reach human-level intelligence didn’t come to fruition, and AI soon fell out of favour.

Over the following decades, technology improved at an exponential rate. Computers got faster, the internet was invented, and researchers made new advances in AI algorithms...

Can we trust AI? 
There are always downsides to technologies. If an AI is trusted too much, then we may get ourselves into trouble – this is why driverless cars will always need a human override option.

If we train AI with biased data then the AI will also be biased, as studies have shown where AIs recognise white male faces better than others. Some worry that AI will lead to job losses, which may be true, but AI will also create many jobs.
Read more...

Source: BBC Focus Magazine