Can an 18th Century Statistician Help Us Think More Clearly? | Mathematics-Statistics - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Jonathan Bartlett, Director of Technology at New Medio argues, Distinguishing between types of probability can help us worry less and do more.

Portrait purportedly of Bayes used in a 1936 book,[1] but it is doubtful whether the portrait is actually of him.[2] No earlier portrait or claimed portrait survives.
Photo: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Thomas Bayes (1702–1761) (pictured), a statistician and clergyman, developed a theory of decision-making which was only discussed after his death and only became important in the 20^th century. It is now a significant topic in philosophy, in the form of Bayesian epistemology. Understanding Bayes’ Rule may be essential to making good decisions.

Let’s say that you are a generally healthy person and have no symptoms of any illness and no specific risk factors for any illness. Acting on a friend’s suggestion, you get screened for a variety of diseases, just to be sure. Of the diseases you test for, the HIV test comes back positive. You read on the package that the test is 99.6% accurate. Are you more likely to have the disease or not?...

If you are unsure about the calculations, think about it this way: Imagine that we are testing 1,000 people, pulled at random from the general population. Of those 1,000 people, only 1 person is statistically likely to have HIV. Let’s presume that, for that person, the test was accurate.

However, with a 99.6% accuracy rate, the test will fail four times out of a thousand. That means that we have, on average, four false positives in our sample of 1,000 people. Which means in turn that, of the five people who tested positive, only one person actually has the disease. This is slightly different from our calculation above because, as noted, we simplified it earlier for convenience of explanation. The actual calculated value is just about one out of four.

Read more... 

Source: Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Mathematicians Apply 19th Century Ideas to Modern Computerized Algebra Systems | Mathematics - SciTechDaily

A team of mathematicians from RUDN University added new symbolic integration functionality to the Sage computerized algebra system by RUDN University. 

Algebra Mathematics
Photo: RUDN University

The team implemented ideas and methods suggested by the German mathematician Karl Weierstrass in the 1870s. The results were published in the Journal of Symbolic Computation.

The first computer program capable of calculating integrals of elementary functions was developed in the late 1950s. By creating it, the developers confirmed that a computer could not only perform simple calculations but was also able to deal with tasks that required a certain degree of ‘thinking.’ Symbolic integration, i.e. integration that involves letters and abstract symbols instead of numbers, is an example of such a task.

At the same time, scientists realized that neither humans nor computers were able to determine whether a given integral can be taken in elementary functions (provided such a human or computer used the methods studied in a university course of analysis and took a finite number of steps)...

One of the theories developed by the German mathematician Karl Weierstrass in the 1870s reduces the calculation of an integral of an algebraic function to finding a given set of known integrals of all three types. The initial integral is represented as a sum of standard integrals (this construction is knowns as the normal representation of an Abelian integral). The team from RUDN University confirmed that this representation is indicative of whether a given integral can be calculated in elementary functions. To confirm their theory, the mathematicians tested them on simple elliptical integrals using a software package that had been created by the team in 2017. The package helps calculate coefficients of the normal form of an integral. In the future, the team plans to conduct similar studies for a wider range of integrals.

Read more... 

Reference: 

“On symbolic integration of algebraic functions” by M.D. Malykh, L.A. Sevastianova and Y. Yu, 11 September 2020, Journal of Symbolic Computation.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jsc.2020.09.002

Source: SciTechDaily

Mathematicians Seek to Unravel Mysteries Hinted at by M. C. Escher | Faculty Excellence - Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Neal Buccino, Associate Director of Public and Media Relations, Rutgers University-New Brunswick and RBHS notes, Rutgers mathematician co-hosts a workshop on higher dimensional geometry.

Circle Limit IV (Heaven and Hell), 1960, by M. C. Escher.
Photo: WikiArt

The artist M. C. Escher brought complex mathematical ideas to life through dizzying illustrations like Circle Limit IV (Heaven and Hell), in which angels and demons soar through an infinite, bowl-shaped space. Their winged bodies form a pattern that mathematicians call a lattice.

In December, a Rutgers University-New Brunswick mathematician will co-host a workshop, convened by the American Institute of Mathematics and National Science Foundation, to ask, among other things: How would those angels and demons look if Escher’s drawing were 22-dimensional? Or 1,001-dimensional? Or in any number of other dimensions?

Welcome to the world of “hyperbolic reflection groups,” the name for the type of geometric space Escher depicted in his Circle Limit engravings. They represent what you’d see if you placed a single object – say a single angel-devil picture – at the bottom of a bowl and surrounded it by mirrors to make the image reflect itself, over and over, infinitely...

Kontorovich and the workshop’s other mathematicians, representing the fields of geometry, topology, dynamics, arithmetic groups and number theory, intend to find out. The effort may take years, and what they learn might benefit other branches of mathematics.

Read more... 

Source: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

New study reconsiders dog-to-human age | CapeTown ETC

It is common knowledge that one dog year is seven human years, it is how we all calculate our pet’s age by leila stein, Author at CapeTown ETC.

Photo: Helena Lopes from Pexels

A new study has come up with substantial evidence that this might not be true.

“In terms of how physiologically mature a 1-year-old dog is, a 9-month-old dog can have puppies. Right away, you know that if you do the math, you don’t just times seven,” says senior author Trey Ideker of the University of California, San Diego. “What’s surprising is exactly how old that one-year-old dog is – it’s like a 30-year old human.”

The authors explain that genetic evidence shows that puppies and younger dogs age faster than their older counterparts. This means their ages are not able to be uniformly calculated across their life span.

The new formula found for working out a dogs age is human age = 16 ln(dog age) + 31.

Read more... 

Source: CapeTown ETC

Undergraduate Math Student Pushes Frontier of Graph Theory | Mathematics - Quanta Magazine

Kevin Hartnett, senior writer at Quanta Magazine covering mathematics and computer science says, At 21, Ashwin Sah has produced a body of work that senior mathematicians say is nearly unprecedented for a college student.

Ashwin Sah, 21, compiled a nearly unparalleled body of math research as an undergraduate at MIT.
Photo: Celeste Noche for Quanta Magazine

On May 19, Ashwin Sah posted the best result ever on one of the most important questions in combinatorics. It was a moment that might have called for a celebratory drink, only Sah wasn’t old enough to order one.

The proof joined a long list of mathematical results that Sah, who turned 21 in November, published while an undergraduate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (he posted this new proof just after graduating). It’s a rare display of precocity even in a field that celebrates youthful genius.

“He has done enough work as an undergraduate to get a faculty position,” said David Conlon of the California Institute of Technology.

The May proof focused on an important feature of combinatorics called Ramsey numbers, which quantify how big a graph (a collection of dots, or vertices, connected by edges) can get before it necessarily contains a certain kind of substructure...

Over the past three years Sah and Sawhney have written dozens of papers, many of them together. This fall they were announced as winners of the 2021 Morgan Prize, jointly given out each year by leading math organizations to recognize the best research by undergraduate mathematicians. Zhao remarked that there is no recent precedent for what they have accomplished.

“There is a long tradition of undergraduate research, but nothing quite at the level of Ashwin and Mehtaab in quantity and quality,” he said.

Read more... 

Source: Quanta Magazine

Suggested Books of the Week 48, 2020 | Books - Helge Scherlund's eLearning News

Check out these books below by Cambridge University Press.

Photo: JumpStory

Small Summaries for Big Data 

Small Summaries for Big Data

The massive volume of data generated in modern applications can overwhelm our ability to conveniently transmit, store, and index it. For many scenarios, building a compact summary of a dataset that is vastly smaller enables flexibility and efficiency in a range of queries over the data, in exchange for some approximation...

Summaries are described for specific types of data, such as geometric data, graphs, and vectors and matrices. The authors offer detailed descriptions of and pseudocode for key algorithms that have been incorporated in systems from companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix and Twitter.

• Examples, figures, and pseudocode enhance understanding of fundamentals and applications
• Written in accessible plain English
• Optional sections of advanced technical material provide further reading for experts without overwhelming novices

Date Published: November 2020

Read more...

Foundations of Probabilistic Programming 

Foundations of Probabilistic Programming

What does a probabilistic program actually compute? How can one formally reason about such probabilistic programs?...

Excel tables, program testing, and approximate computing. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

• Overview of theoretical underpinnings and applications of probabilistic programming
• Comprehensive survey chapters, accessible to graduate students and non-experts
• This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core

Publication planned for: December 2020

Read more... 

125 Problems in Text Algorithms with Solutions 

125 Problems in Text Algorithms
with Solutions

String matching is one of the oldest algorithmic techniques, yet still one of the most pervasive in computer science. The past 20 years have seen technological leaps in applications as diverse as information retrieval and compression... 

The problems are drawn from a large range of scientific publications, both classic and new. Building up from the basics, the book goes on to showcase problems in combinatorics on words (including Fibonacci or Thue-Morse words), pattern matching (including Knuth-Morris-Pratt and Boyer-Moore like algorithms), efficient text data structures (including suffix trees and suffix arrays), regularities in words (including periods and runs) and text compression (including Huffman, Lempel-Ziv and Burrows-Wheeler based methods).

Publication planned for: February 2021 

Read more...

Mathematical Foundations of Infinite-Dimensional Statistical Models 

Mathematical Foundations of
Infinite-Dimensional Statistical Models

In nonparametric and high-dimensional statistical models, the classical Gauss–Fisher–Le Cam theory of the optimality of maximum likelihood estimators and Bayesian posterior inference does not apply, and new foundations and ideas have been developed in the past several decades...

This includes the basic theory of convolution kernel and projection estimation, but also Bayesian nonparametrics and nonparametric maximum likelihood estimation. In a final chapter the theory of adaptive inference in nonparametric models is developed, including Lepski's method, wavelet thresholding, and adaptive inference for self-similar functions. Winner of the 2017 PROSE Award for Mathematics...

Publication planned for: February 2021

Read more... 

Uncertainty Analysis for Engineers and Scientists A Practical Guide 

Uncertainty Analysis for Engineers and Scientists
A Practical Guide

Build the skills for determining appropriate error limits for quantities that matter with this essential toolkit. Understand how to handle a complete project and how uncertainty enters into various steps...

Whether you are new to the sciences or an experienced engineer, this useful resource provides a practical approach to performing error analysis. Suitable as a text for a junior or senior level laboratory course in aerospace, chemical and mechanical engineering, and for professionals.

• Organizes error analysis into random error, reading error and calibration error, and supplies worksheets for determining them
• Provides a set of linked examples showing how error analysis impacts various aspects of a complex problem
• Gives specific instructions for carrying out error analysis using both Excel and MATLAB®

Publication planned for: January 2021

Read more... 

Practical Philosophy from Kant to Hegel Freedom, Right, and Revolution

Practical Philosophy from Kant to Hegel
Freedom, Right, and Revolution

Scholarship on Kant's practical philosophy has often overlooked its reception in the early days of post-Kantian philosophy and German Idealism. This volume of new essays illuminates that reception and how it informed the development of practical philosophy between Kant and Hegel...

Taken together, the essays provide an historically informed and philosophically nuanced picture of the development of post-Kantian practical philosophy.

• Illuminates the reception of Kant's practical philosophy
• Highlights the importance of lesser-known figures in the German philosophical tradition such as Erhard and Reimarus
• Explores important topics related to right, morality, freedom and revolution

Publication planned for: March 2021 

Read more... 

Happy reading 📚books and drink ☕️coffee!   

Source: Cambridge University Press.

The Ten Best Science Books of 2020 | Books - Smithsonian Magazine

New titles explore the mysterious lives of eels, the science of fear and our connections to the stars by Corryn Wetzel, editorial intern at Smithsonian magazine, Joe Spring, associate digital science editor and Rachael Lallensack, assistant web editor for science and innovation at Smithsonian.

This year's top ten titles explore the cosmos, fear and cleanliness alongside narratives about owls, fish and eels.
Photo: Shaylyn Esposito

When it came to science news this year, our feeds were filled with discoveries and studies, many of them about Covid-19. Those stories, often about potential vaccines and transmission rates, but also about space travel and forest fires, certainly demanded attention. But it’s important that this year’s longer works about science don’t get lost in the deluge of content. Compelling books came out on everything from researchers’ efforts to understand fear to the importance of astronomy to a concentrated mission to learn about a charismatic owl. These impressive and entertaining works, which we’ve rounded up here after online debates and votes via Zoom meetings, offer the best way to slow down and gain a deeper understanding of how science informs our world and makes it a better place.

Read more... 

Source: Smithsonian Magazine

Best books of 2020 | Books - The Guardian

More from this series

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Take a closer look at these best books of 2020 by The Guardian. 

Illustration by Mike Lemanski

A teenager’s nature diary, the race for a vaccine and the return of Lyra ... books have been vital in getting us through the year. Guardian critics pick 2020’s best fiction, poetry, politics, science and more

Read more...

Source: The Guardian

Fairfield University Bookstore hosting free virtual author talks | Entertainment - The Advocate

Fairfield University Bookstore is hosting free virtual author talks in December. 

Fairfield University Bookstore

It's beginning Thursday, Dec. 3, with Alisha Berger Gorder, who will discuss her debut novel, “Joy: A Modern Fable,” with moderator Nancy Doniger. James Ross follows on Thursday, Dec. 10, to discuss his new historical fiction, “Hunting Teddy Roosevelt.”

Both events begin at 7 p.m. Visit Facebook @ FairfieldUBookstore on event night and watch live. Signed copies will be available for purchase online @ www.fairfieldbookstore.com or in-store at the Downtown Fairfield University Bookstore, 1499 Post Road.

Read more... 

Source: The Advocate

How independent bookstores are weathering tough economic times | Arts - PBS NewsHour

These are perilous times for independent bookstores by Jeffrey Brown, chief correspondent for arts, culture and society at PBS NewsHour.

 Photo: Screenshot from PBS NewsHour's Video.

More than one independent bookstore has closed each week since the pandemic began, and 20 percent across the country are in danger of closing, according to a recent study by the American Booksellers Association. Jeffrey Brown has the story.

Read more... 

Source: PBS NewsHour

This online book shop is trying to dethrone Amazon by siphoning its revenue to indie bookstores | Culture - Mic

I’ve been diligent about buying books locally this year, particularly during the pandemic, which has been grueling on brick-and-mortar stores, writes Kara Weisenstein, staff culture writer at Mic. 

I’ve been diligent about buying books locally this year, particularly during the pandemic, which has been grueling on brick-and-mortar stores.
Photo: Mic

But it’s a commitment that’s required patience, if I’m being real. When I recently ordered a few books from my local shop that I knew were on their shelves, it took like a week before I could pick them up curbside. I’m not complaining, really; I was happy to wait for my books if it meant supporting a beloved business. But I worried that other people might not be as stoic about the delay and opt to have their next pandemic read on their doorstep in two days, courtesy of Amazon.

That’s where Bookshop fits in. Launched just last January, the online bookstore seeks to be the indie alternative to Amazon, with a chunk of proceeds getting kicked back to small stores. Bookshop’s founder, Andy Hunter, is an indie literature guy himself, as the publisher of Catapult and the website Lit Hub. He figured taking back any market share from Amazon could be a windfall for small bookstores. After all, Jeff Bezos’s behemoth accounts for around 70 percent of online book sales and the pandemic has strengthened its dominance as world’s largest online retailer. Amazon made a whopping $75.5 billion last quarter, up 26 percent from the same time last year.

After nearly a year in business, Bookshop is doing remarkably well...

I called up one of my favorite shops in Brooklyn, Books Are Magic in Cobble Hill, to get their point-of-view. Colleen Callery, the store’s Marketing and Communication Manager, said they’ve made a “nice chunk of change” just from having an account with Bookshop. When shoppers choose to buy through Books Are Magic on the Bookshop platform, the small business gets 30% of the list price — less than they’d make from a direct sale, but without the hassle of fulfillment. Orders are shipped through Ingram, a large book distributor.

Read more... 

Source: Mic

How Fibonacci Can Help Us Convert Between Miles and Kilometers | Mathematics - Medium

This interesting math trick arises from an interesting empirical observation and the Fibonacci sequence by Krishnan  published in Cantor’s Paradise.

Image Source: https://mathigon.org/course/sequences/fibonacci

 First, we should define the relationship between miles(mi) and kilometers(km):

1 mi = 1.60934 km and 1 km = 0.621371 mi

Now, if this number looks familiar, it is because these numbers are extremely close to the golden ratio.

By noticing the golden ratio is close to the conversion factors of miles and kilometers, we can rewrite the relationship between miles and kilometers as an approximation:

Concluding Remarks

By no metric, is this considered serious math. It is just an interesting trick that came from closer observation. However, I would like to point out that this is an example of how beauty emerges from the randomness of the universe. No one thought of the golden ratio or the Fibonacci Sequence when coming up with miles and kilometers, yet this connection exists.

Read more...

Source: Medium

Helping Online Students Succeed | Online Education - Faculty Focus

 *Editor’s Note: This is an article from The Teaching Professor. If you are interested in similar articles, check out The Teaching Professor membership.**

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John Orlando, PhD says, When students do poorly on an assignment, faculty generally chalk it up to either a) lack of effort or b) lack of intelligence.

Helping Online Students Succeed
Photo: Faculty Focus

But problems in product are usually problems in process, and often students lack the “self-regulated learning strategies” needed to be successful (Wandler and Imbriale, 2017). Self-regulated learning strategies include goal setting, self-monitoring, and help seeking.

This can be a particular problem in an online class, where students must be more self-regulated than in face-to-face courses because they lack the structure of being required to be in a particular place at a particular time. It can be easier to drift away from a class without that schedule.

The good news is that students can be taught self-regulated learning strategies as part of an online course without distracting from the course content. Teaching these strategies as part of the course will not only help student achievement in that particular course but give them skills that will serve them will in future courses.

Read more... 

Source: Faculty Focus

Engaging Faculty to Connect with Online Learners in Real Time | Transforming Higher Ed - EDUCAUSE Review

A faculty-led initiative at Indiana Wesleyan University/National & Global Campus focused on creating real-time engagements with students in asynchronous online courses.

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Over the past year, a collaborative team of administrators and faculty from Indiana Wesleyan University's adult education programs, National & Global (IWU/N&G), developed and deployed an approach to teaching and learning for students of asynchronous online programs summarizes Tiffany Snyder, Assistant Director of Faculty Enrichment and Brad Garner is Director of Faculty Enrichment at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Photo: P-pongsiri / Shuttertock.com © 2020

Although this initiative—dubbed Synchronicity—is not revolutionary in the scheme of online teaching, it demonstrates the power of engaging faculty in the process of systemic change. The team's belief in the benefits of blended online learning—that is, the thoughtful integration of synchronous and asynchronous online modalities—was inspired by the professional literature,¹ as well as student data from a pilot study at IWU/N&G. 

The Pilot Study: January to June 2020

In January 2020, sixteen IWU/N&G faculty began an interdisciplinary research effort to compare student outcomes between fully asynchronous versions of online courses and other versions that blend asynchronous and synchronous elements. Faculty participating in the pilot study implemented at least one synchronous learning activity in their online courses and made the activities optional for students. Examples of synchronous learning activities included welcome sessions, discussions, and virtual office hours.

Faculty participating in the pilot study recruited colleagues who taught the same or similar online courses without synchronous components...

The Final Word

As is the case with any instructional strategy, when faculty are presented with information about synchronous online sessions, some are die-hard proponents, others are fence-straddlers, and a few admit reluctance. Typically, those who are reluctant either have tried synchronous sessions and experienced disappointment in student attendance and engagement or have not tried synchronous sessions and do not feel equipped to facilitate learning in a live virtual format. The process of integrating synchronous activities in asynchronous classes may feel daunting, unfamiliar, and frustrating at times. Faculty have been encouraged to start slowly by focusing on a single class and one or two technologies. 

Read more... 

Source: EDUCAUSE Review

The algorithms are watching us, but who is watching the algorithms? | Artificial Intelligence - ZDNet

Daphne Leprince-Ringuet, reporter at ZDNet explains, A two-year investigation into the private and public use of AI systems shows that more oversight is needed, particularly in government services like policing.

Photo: Daria Sannikova from Pexels

Empowering algorithms to make potentially life-changing decisions about citizens still comes with significant risk of unfair discrimination, according to a new report published by the UK's Center for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI). In some sectors, the need to provide adequate resources to make sure that AI systems are unbiased is becoming particularly pressing – namely, the public sector, and specifically, policing. 

The CDEI spent two years investigating the use of algorithms in both the private and the public sector, and was faced with many different levels of maturity in dealing with the risks posed by algorithms. In the financial sector, for example, there seems to be much closer regulation of the use of data for decision-making; while local government is still in the early days of managing the issue.

Although awareness of the threats that AI might pose is growing across all industries, the report found that there is no particular example of good practice when it comes to building responsible algorithms...

Similar conclusions were reached in a report published earlier this year by the UK's committee on standards in public life, led by former head of MI5 Lord Evans, who expressed particular concern at the use of AI systems in the police forces. Evans noted that there was no coordinated process for evaluating and deploying algorithmic tools in law enforcement, and that it is often up to individual police departments to make up their own ethical frameworks.

Read more...

Source: ZDNet

Learn Data Analysis on Excel, Python, Tableau, and More | Deals - MakeUseOf

Kickstart your career as a data analyst with advance content on Excel, Power BI, Tableau, VBA, and Python, inform Rahul Saigal, Author at MakeUseOf.

Kickstart your career as a data analyst with advance content on Excel, Power BI, Tableau, VBA, and Python
Photo: MakeUseOf

It takes a versatile skill set to get a job in these positions. While there are platforms and programming languages more suited to data analytics, online training in Excel and Data Analysis can help you achieve the career path you want. 

What’s in the Bundle?

This massive bundle includes 24 courses on basics and advanced of Excel and data analysis. Let’s explore the bundle in detail: 

Read more... 

Source: MakeUseOf

The Maturation of Data Science | Ethics - Datanami

Alex Woodie, managing editor at Datanami observes, Data science used to be somewhat of a mystery, more of a dark art than a repeatable, scientific process. 

Photo: Chan2545/Shutterstock

 Companies basically entrusted powerful priests called data scientists to build magical algorithms that used data to make predictions, usually to boost profits or improve customer happiness. But in recent years, the field has matured to a remarkable degree, and that is enabling progress to be made on multiple fronts, from ModelOps and reproducibility to ethics and accountability.

About five years ago, the worldwide scientific community was suffering a “reproducibility crises” that impacted a wide range of scientific endeavors, including so-called hard sciences like physics and chemistry. One of the hallmarks of the scientific method is that experiments must be reproducible and will give the same results, but that lofty goal too often was not met.

Data science was not immune to this problem, which should not be surprising, given the relative newness and the probabilistic nature of the field. And when you mix in the black box nature of deep learning models and data that reflects a rapidly changing world, sometimes it seems a miracle that an algorithm of any complexity could generate the same result at two points in time...

AI Ethics Improving

The increasing maturation of the data science field is also paying dividends when it comes to ethics and trustworthy, which are emerging as big challenges for AI to overcome.

It wasn’t long ago that companies didn’t give a thought to how AI could go off the rails, said Ted Kwartler, DataRobot’s vice president of Trusted AI.

Read more... 

Source: Datanami

Will Artificial Intelligence Replace The Mathematician? | Business - EconoTimes

In the 1970s, mathematician Paul Cohen predicted that “at some unspecified future time, mathematicians would be replaced by computers.” by EconoTimes.

Photo: Paul Joseph Cohen

It’s a theory that has unsettled many in the field of mathematics.

With the rise of artificial intelligence, is it just a matter of time before Cohen’s prediction comes true? Will we reach a stage in which mathematics becomes so computerized and automated that a human is no longer needed.

In this article, we discuss AI and mathematics, how their roles overlap, and whether it’s possible that artificial intelligence may replace the mathematician.

What is mathematics?

Mathematics is one of the oldest and most respected sciences and the foundation for many other sciences and industries in which it is applied. Mathematics is split into two categories: theoretical mathematics (also called pure mathematics) and applied mathematics...

What is artificial intelligence?

When most people think of artificial intelligence, they may visualize a talking robotic serving their morning coffee. While robotics is one form of AI, the field is much broader and more complex than that...

Machine learning underpins data science, and mathematical algorithms are what machine learning software is based on. Therefore, data scientists need to understand the mathematics behind machine learning algorithms. In fact, some degrees in mathematics now also include data science in the curriculum. 

Read more... 

Source: EconoTimes

BBC Launches Artificial Intelligence Tool To Read Its Articles To Listeners | Technology - NPR

The BBC is launching a new audio tool that uses artificial intelligence to read articles from its website aloud with a voice that speaks in a friendly, easy to understand northern British accent.

 

Read more... 

Source: NPR

Machine Learning Most Mentioned Trend Among Top 10 AI Influencers on Twitter Ranked by GlobalData | Machine Learning - AiThority

Machine Learning, Big Data and Data Science emerged as the most mentioned trends among the artificial intelligence (AI) influencer discussions on Twitter during the third quarter (Q3) of 2020, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company by AIT News Desk.

The discussions around machine learning were related to how organizations have reacted to COVID-19 outbreak through digital transformation integrated with machine learning. To maximize enterprise value, companies have started integrating AI strategies with data science.

Among companies, Alphabet Inc. emerged as the most mentioned company among AI influencer discussions on Twitter during Q3 2020...

Amazon emerged as another most mentioned company, led by surge in discussions related to the launch of its AI-powered fitness band Halo in August. It was followed by Microsoft, which won the Pentagon’s US$10bn worth Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) project in September. The objective of the AI integrated project is to speed up war planning and fighting capabilities.

Read more... 

Source: AiThority 

Top Free AI & Data Science Courses Launched In 2020 | Education - Analytics India Magazine

After a lot of turmoil that the year 2020 brought in terms of business disruption, challenges to ensure business continuity, remote working becoming the new norm, among others, many companies and institutes introduced and developed free courses for the data science and AI enthusiasts to make the most of the lockdown, as Srishti Deoras, works as Associate Editor at Analytics India Magazine reports. 

Top Free AI & Data Science Courses Launched In 2020
Photo: Analytics India Magazine

From various ivy league institutions to major organisations across the globe, several courses were made free this year. As the year 2020 comes to an end, we list a few such courses in AI and data science that were made free and are still available for tech enthusiasts to avail. The courses are listed in no particular order.

In March this year, as lockdown ensued, to uplift the learners and help the community in the critical time, Coursera decided to launch new, free resources, as well as sharing impressive course collections, community discussions, and expert interviews. The courses were made free for anyone, anywhere. Aimed at helping the candidates take the first step in exploring a new career path, it made courses in areas such as data science, cloud technology and more, which can be availed even now. 

Read more... 

Source: Analytics India Magazine

Extend Robotics unveils new VR-controlled robotic arm | Robotics - The Engineer

UK-based start-up Extend Robotics has announced the launch of a new low-cost virtual reality (VR) controlled robotic arm by The Engineer. 

“R:O:B:” – a Virtual Reality-controlled ‘robotically optimised bartender’ 

 

Aiming to produce affordable, dexterous robotic hardware for use in the healthcare, services, utilities and energy industries, Extend Robotics has revealed its Robot Toolkit which is said to offer ‘highly realistic’ human-like dexterity and reachability to six degrees of freedom. 

Reportedly featuring real-time, immersive and intuitive control using the latest VR technologies, the VR teleoperated robot has been developed in-house at the company’s headquarters in Reading. The video shown above demonstrates how the robotic arm can be operated remotely by a human operator.

“At Extend Robotics, our vision is to extend human capability beyond physical presence,” explained Dr. Chang Liu, founder and CEO of Extend Robotics and former research associate at Imperial College, London. “...

“Right now, as we approach the end of the COVID-19 crisis, we expect to see remote working as ‘the new norm’ across many industries, for numerous health, safety and environmental reasons,” Dr Liu added.  

Read more...

Source: The Engineer and Extend Robotics Channel (YouTube)

FAA Moving Forward to Enable Safe Integration of Drones | Drones & UAVs - Geospatial World

The FAA has published the airworthiness criteria for the proposed certification of 10 different Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) or drones as special class aircraft by News Desk. 

This is an important step towards allowing more complex drone operations under the small unmanned aircraft rule (Part 107), including package delivery...

Airworthiness criteria notices are published in the Federal Register for the following applicants:

• 3D Robotics
• Airobotics
• Amazon
• Flirtey
• Flytrex
• Matternet
• Percepto
• Telegrid
• Wingcopter
• Zipline

The applicants’ drones range from five to 89 pounds, and include various types of vehicle designs, including both fixed wing and rotorcraft, and are all electric-powered. 

Read more... 

Source: Geospatial World

To Fix Math Education, See It as a Program That Needs an Update | Mathematics - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Part 1: How can we really fix the way math is taught? First, we must understand why we teach math in the first place. Math teaches students how to think more clearly in all areas of life but it mostly performs this function silently, invisibly.

Part 2: Straight talk about fitting the math curriculum to the student. We need to avoid pushing too much too soon, lest students come to see themselves as “bad at math” when they are just not ready for it. About math drills: Every algebra teacher I’ve ever met will tell you that instant recall of math facts is the best predictor of algebra success.

Part 3: Helping students see how math benefits them in the long run. To keep them motivated, we need to answer the “Why bother?” question honestly and directly. Most mathematics topics teach a specific logical skill that will help students solve problems on any career path.

See also: Bartlett’s calculus paper reviewed in a mathematics magazine. The paper offers fixes for long-standing flaws in the teaching of elementary calculus.

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Jonathan Bartlett, senior software R&D engineer at Specialized Bicycle Components inform, In this series we are looking at ways that math education can be reformed. 

Photo: aleonmail via Flickr

In contrast to some other math reform efforts, we are not trying to fundamentally rewrite what math education is doing but to simply admit that we can do better and see where that takes us. (See Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.) Here in Part 4, let’s look at specific content issues that, I will argue, we could improve when we do a curriculum revision.

Mathematics is an old subject. We have inherited quite a bit of mathematical thought. We must educate future generations so as to make sure that this hard-won knowledge is not lost. But one of the biggest impediments to our task is simply the way in which mathematics is presented.

Here is an illustration that may help: In computer programming we sometimes talk about “legacy code.” Legacy code consists of working programs that have been handed down to us, usually from earlier programmers. Oftentimes, as change requests have come in, one programmer after another bolts features into the code. After a while, the bolt-ons start making the code itself confusing. As a result, later programmers have a hard time making sense of how everything fits together.

Eventually, the code must be “re-factored.” This means that we pull the code apart and rebuild it so that it makes a lot more sense to those who are currently using and developing it.

I think the same process is needed for math education...

A great math problem would be a practical one. For example, ask students to create a formula for a catering budget based on a head count, and then to modify that formula to see, given a particular budget, what the head count would be.

Too often, formulas in mathematics simply seem to fall from the sky and students are merely asked to use and obey. That works well for younger students who just need a thinking tool to begin with. But our goal is to eventually get students to think for themselves and generate their own solutions to their own problems. Math can help with this but only if we train students to think in a logical way as a normal routine.

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Source: Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence