Wearing black headsets with tentacle-like sensors stretched over their foreheads, the competitors stare at cubes floating on computer screens as their small white drones prepare for takeoff. Some struggle to move even a few feet, while others zip confidently across the finish line. The competition -- billed as the world's first drone race involving a brain-controlled interface -- involved 16 pilots who used their willpower to drive drones through a 10-yard dash over an indoor basketball court at the University of Florida this past weekend. The Associated Press was there to record the event, which was sponsored with research funding from Intel Corp. Organizers want to make it an annual inter-collegiate spectacle, involving ever-more dynamic moves and challenges, and a trophy that puts the brain on a pedestal. "With events like this, we're popularizing the use of BCI instead of it being stuck in the research lab," said Chris Crawford, a Florida PhD student in human-centered computing.

A century ago, more than 60,000 tigers roamed the wild. Today, the worldwide estimate has dwindled to around 3,200. Poaching is one of the main drivers of this precipitous drop. Whether killed for skins, medicine or trophy hunting, humans have pushed tigers to near-extinction. The same applies to other large animal species like elephants and rhinoceros that play unique and crucial roles in the ecosystems where they live.

BigML is a leading Machine Learning company that helps other businesses make highly automated, data-driven decisions. BigML was founded in 2011 in Corvallis, OR, USA and made its European expansion official by opening its European headquarters in Valencia, Spain in July 2015. The company has pioneered the Machine Learning as a Service (MLAAS) wave of innovation through its consumable, programmable, and scalable software platform streamlining the creation and deployment of smart applications powered by state-of-the-art predictive models. To date, BigML has 15 patent applications, more than 25,000 customers from 120 countries and 5M in venture capital investment. In addition to commercial activities, BigML is playing an active role in promoting Machine Learning in education around the world through its rapidly expanding ambassador program thanks to active participation from top universities in diverse geographies such as North America, Europe and Africa, making real BigML's motto: "Machine Learning made beautifully simple for everyone".

Unless otherwise specified, we will refer to non-GAAP metrics on the call. The non-GAAP measures exclude the net impact from revenue deferrals and the impact of integration and restructuring charges. The non-GAAP financial measures provided should not be considered as a substitute for or superior to the measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. They are included as additional clarifying items to aid investors in further understanding the company's third-quarter performance in addition to the impact that these items and events had on the financial results. All growth comparisons we make on the call relate to the corresponding period of last year unless otherwise noted.

A century ago, more than 60,000 tigers roamed the wild. Today, the worldwide estimate has dwindled to around 3,200. Poaching is one of the main drivers of this precipitous drop. Whether killed for skins, medicine or trophy hunting, humans have pushed tigers to near-extinction. The same applies to other large animal species like elephants and rhinoceros that play unique and crucial roles in the ecosystems where they live.

During Build 2016 this year, Microsoft pitched a world of connected devices and sensors all speaking through cloud-backed machine learning models to developers. Microsoft is betting on a future that involves developers utilizing sensors that link to a vast pool of intelligent data to return immediate real-world benefits. Practicing what the company preaches, Microsoft's Solution Architect and Technical Manager of Microsoft Research, Kenji Takeda talks about how Cortana Intelligence suite is being used to secure safe drinking water for thousands of villages in rural Africa and Asia. A team consisting of Dr. Robert Hope of the REACH initiative, and machine learning experts David Clifton, an associate professor, and graduate student Farah Colchester have come together to try and secure safe and healthy water sources for 5 million poor people in Asia and Africa. The REACH program utilizes a series of mobile sensors connected to cloud computing to monitor water wells to secure a safe supply of water in more rural areas.

IMAGE: Researchers collect information for the design of PAWS in a protected area for a trial patrol. A century ago, more than 60,000 tigers roamed the wild. Today, the worldwide estimate has dwindled to around 3,200. Poaching is one of the main drivers of this precipitous drop. Whether killed for skins, medicine or trophy hunting, humans have pushed tigers to near-extinction.

REMEMBER the basic income grant South African labour unions, churches and NGOs campaigned for back in the 1990s and early "noughties", but on which Trevor Manuel's Treasury frowned on as a fiscal nonstarter? Silicon Valley A-lister Sam Altman thinks the US will have to adopt something like it within the next generation or two -- and he's not alone. Altman is founder and president of Y Combinator, the seed-stage tech investor that helped launch Airbnb and Dropbox. As co-chairman of OpenAI, he is working with Elon Musk to see that artificial intelligence, as it approaches and perhaps surpasses the human variety, benefits mankind. He believes that while technology will generate vast new wealth, it will in the process destroy much traditional employment without replacing it.

American drones fired more ammunition last year than manned warplanes for the first time, according to new data analyzed by Reuters. The news comes three years after U.S. President Barack Obama said that a drawdown of U.S. military forces after 2014 would "reduce the need for unmanned strikes." The data shows just how much American forces have come to rely on the unmanned vehicles to carry out missions in the Middle East and abroad, even while human rights organizations and some foreign governments have raised concerns over what they call an unnecessary amount of civilian casualties. "In recent months it's definitely flowed more," Lieutenant Colonel Michael Navicky, who commands the Air Force's 62nd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron, said. "We've seen increased weapons deployment in the past few months, and the demand is insatiable."

In 2025, in accordance with Moore's Law, we'll see an acceleration in the rate of change as we move closer to a world of true abundance. Here are eight areas where we'll see extraordinary transformation in the next decade: In 2025, 1,000 should buy you a computer able to calculate at 10 16 cycles per second (10,000 trillion cycles per second), the equivalent processing speed of the human brain. The Internet of Everything describes the networked connections between devices, people, processes and data. By 2025, the IoE will exceed 100 billion connected devices, each with a dozen or more sensors collecting data. This will lead to a trillion-sensor economy driving a data revolution beyond our imagination. Cisco's recent report estimates the IoE will generate 19 trillion of newly created value. With a trillion sensors gathering data everywhere (autonomous cars, satellite systems, drones, wearables, cameras), you'll be able to know anything you want, anytime, anywhere, and query that data for answers and insights. SpaceX, Google (Project Loon), Qualcomm and Virgin (OneWeb) are planning to provide global connectivity to every human on Earth at speeds exceeding one megabit per second. We will grow from three to eight billion connected humans, adding five billion new consumers into the global economy. They represent tens of trillions of new dollars flowing into the global economy. And they are not coming online like we did 20 years ago with a 9600 modem on AOL. Existing healthcare institutions will be crushed as new business models with better and more efficient care emerge. Thousands of startups, as well as today's data giants (Google, Apple, Microsoft, SAP, IBM, etc.) will all enter this lucrative 3.8 trillion healthcare industry with new business models that dematerialize, demonetize and democratize today's bureaucratic and inefficient system. Biometric sensing (wearables) and AI will make each of us the CEOs of our own health. Large-scale genomic sequencing and machine learning will allow us to understand the root cause of cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative disease and what to do about it. Robotic surgeons can carry out an autonomous surgical procedure perfectly (every time) for pennies on the dollar. Each of us will be able to regrow a heart, liver, lung or kidney when we need it, instead of waiting for the donor to die. Billions of dollars invested by Facebook (Oculus), Google (Magic Leap), Microsoft (Hololens), Sony, Qualcomm, HTC and others will lead to a new generation of displays and user interfaces.