There's little doubt that the tech industry, like many industries, has unequal representation when it comes to gender. This has enormous impact across a range of areas, deeply affecting people's lives based on unconscious assumptions society should have moved away from. Melinda Gates noted at this year's Code Conference: "When I graduated 34% of undergraduates in computer science were women… we're now down to 17%." While the tech industry is building 3D printers and electric cars, it still hasn't built bridges for equal representation. As experts have noted, it's too easy to blame an absence of women or women having no interest in tech.

The African smartphone market is gaining rapid traction. According to predictions, smartphones sold this year will outnumber feature phone sales, and mobile penetration is far higher than line-based internet access. Currently, most people in Africa use text messages to send money with a service called M-Pesa from the largest tech start-up in Kenya. Now, chatbots could potentially replace text-based transactions altogether. Budapest-based Hungarian start-up UXstudio has created a chatbot called Nuru.

Mark Hamill is here to rescue your weekend with some good old-fashioned nostalgia. The "Star Wars" actor shared a photo Saturday morning of himself as a young Luke Skywalker posing in the Tatooine desert on the first day of filming "Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope." He stands with his hands folded across his heart. "Taken in Tunisia early morning day [number one] waiting for my [first] shot (emerging from home for robot auction)," he wrote. Hamill has played Skywalker since 1977's "A New Hope," the first installation in the Star Wars movie franchise.

Mark Hamill is about to take you to Nostalgia Town. On Saturday, the Star Wars star and prolific Trump impersonator took a break from staring at stuff on Ahch-To to share a throwback photo from the filming of Episode IV: A New Hope. "Taken in Tunisia early morning Day #1 waiting for my 1st shot (emerging from home for robot auction) -- Perhaps the very 1st #Luke Pic," he wrote. SEE ALSO: Original'Rogue One' ending did not include Darth Vader kicking ass Aw, look at original trilogy Luke. He's not quite a boy, not quite a Jedi; he's just hangin' out on Tatooine, ready to shoot some womp rats, farm some moisture, and go to Tosche Station to pick up some power converters.

Geneva, March 7th - Goodyear has revealed its long-term vision for future smart, connected tires. In an evolving mobility ecosystem defined by the transition to driverless vehicles and shared mobility in urban centers, Goodyear aims to revolutionize the interaction between tires, vehicles and their surroundings. Goodyear unveiled the Eagle 360 Urban, its latest concept tire, at the Geneva International Motor Show. This 3-D printed sphere is the first concept tire to be powered by Artificial Intelligence and able to sense, decide, transform and interact. "A revolution will take place at the intersection of autonomy, mobility and connectivity. As this unfolds, tire technology will be even more important than it is today. To safely navigate their surroundings, the autonomous vehicles of the future will need to learn to cope with the millions of possible unknowns we face in every day driving scenarios. To do so they will need access to data and the ability to learn and adapt," said Jean-Claude Kihn, president of Goodyear Europe, Middle East and Africa.

What will shopping be like in 10 years? No one knows all the details (that's exciting!), but one thing is for sure: it will be very different than it is today. History is clear about that. In the mid-19th century, most people in the US were shopping at small markets. They would tell the manager what they wanted, and then wait for the item to be retrieved from the back or from the supplier.

If you're keeping score of who is pursuing the hottest trends in technology, don't overlook Salesforce. As part of Salesforce's Spring '17 celebration this week, the company announced the general availability of Einstein, which is Salesforce's core AI engine. It's something the company has been talking about for many months. Salesforce also introduced Einstein Vision, a set of new APIs that helps developers of all sizes "build AI-powered apps fast." This includes apps that leverage vast troves of images including photos and graphics.

It's 3/14, also known as Pi Day – a mathematics holiday to celebrate the irrational, transcendental number we learned in school, for the most part, to calculate the circumference or area of circles. While there are a number of fulfilling Pi(e) related activities you can indulge in, from feasting on scrumptious pies to chasing down the value of Pi (good luck!), it is also an apt moment to turn attention to where children across the world stand in mathematics achievement and other learning outcomes. While countries have made impressive gains in access to education, a recurring theme is that not nearly enough learning is happening. The 2018 World Development Report (WDR) takes on the learning crisis and its possible underlying factors. The report also takes stock of a growing evidence base to identify key principles and effective interventions to improve learning, challenges in taking successful interventions to scale, and strategies to overcome those challenges.

Shifting from the drone policy of the Obama administration, President Donald Trump has given the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) new authority to conduct drone attacks against suspected militants, anonymous U.S. officials said. The new policy is in contrast to that of former President Barack Obama that limited the CIA's paramilitary role, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Under the Obama administration, the CIA used drones and other intelligence resources to locate suspected terrorists and then the military conducted the actual strike. Although Obama pushed for the use of drones, he kept the military in place to conduct the actual strike. During Obama's two terms, a total of 563 strikes, largely by drones, targeted Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen compared to 57 strikes under George W. Bush, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.