Asia
LTU computer scientist to present groundbreaking research
Dr. Ben Choi, associate professor of computer science at Louisiana Tech University, will present his research on a groundbreaking new technology that has the potential to revolutionize the computing industry during a keynote speech next month at the International Conference on Measurement Instrumentation and Electronics. Choi will present on a foundational architecture for designing and building computers, which will utilize multiple values rather than binary as used by current computers. The many-valued logic computers should provide faster computation by increasing the speed of processing for microprocessors and the speed of data transfer between the processors and the memory as well as increasing the capacity of the memory. This technology has the potential to redefine the computing industry, which is constantly trying to increase the speed of computation and, in recent years, has run short of options. By providing a new hardware approach, the technology will push the speed limit of computing using a progressive approach which will move from two values to four values, then to eight values, then to 16 values, and so on. Future computers could be built using this many-valued approach.
A robot made by SoftBank will work at Pizza Hut and take customer orders
We've entered the year where robots will start taking our orders. Pepper, a humanoid robot developed by SoftBank, will begin taking orders at Pizza Hut locations in Asia by the end of 2016, according to a company statement. It will be the first time Pepper is used for commerce purposes. You'll only be able to use the robot if you have MasterCard, though. Pizza Hut goers will be able to use Pepper by simply greeting the friendly-looking humanoid robot.
A New Approach to Building the Interindustry Input--Output Table
We present a new approach to estimating the interdependence of industries in an economy by applying data science solutions. By exploiting interfirm buyer--seller network data, we show that the problem of estimating the interdependence of industries is similar to the problem of uncovering the latent block structure in network science literature. To estimate the underlying structure with greater accuracy, we propose an extension of the sparse block model that incorporates node textual information and an unbounded number of industries and interactions among them. The latter task is accomplished by extending the well-known Chinese restaurant process to two dimensions. Inference is based on collapsed Gibbs sampling, and the model is evaluated on both synthetic and real-world datasets. We show that the proposed model improves in predictive accuracy and successfully provides a satisfactory solution to the motivated problem. We also discuss issues that affect the future performance of this approach.
Polymorphic Malware Detection Using Sequence Classification Methods
A pdf version of this document created using latex can be downloaded by clicking here. Polymorphic malware detection is challenging due to the continual mutations miscreants introduce to successive instances of a particular virus. Such changes are akin to mutations in biological sequences. Recently, high-throughput methods for gene sequence classification have been developed by the bioinformatics and computational biology communities. In this paper, we argue that these methods can be usefully applied to malware detection. Unfortunately, gene classification tools are usually optimized for and restricted to an alphabet of four letters (nucleic acids). Consequently, we have selected the Strand gene sequence classifier, which offers a robust classification strategy that can easily accommodate unstructured data with any alphabet including source code or compiled machine code. To demonstrate Stand's suitability for classifying malware, we execute it on approximately 500GB of malware data provided by the Kaggle Microsoft Malware Classification Challenge (BIG 2015) used for predicting 9 classes of polymorphic malware.
How Information Graphics Reveal Your Brain's Blind Spots
Welcome to Visual Evidence, a new regular series about visualization in the real world! We'll take a look at unexpected datasets, cool design solutions or insightful graphics. We'll find examples of how visual information can help us solve real-world problems or save us from our own mistakes. And we'll illustrate all these ideas with charts, sketches, and of course, plenty of gifs. Chances are, you probably think your mind works pretty well. It might lead you astray now and then, but usually it helps you make good decisions and remember things reliably. At the very least, you're probably confident that it doesn't change depending on the time of day or what you had to eat.
A robot is about to take over my job; then he's coming after yours
Especially when those ideas stand in opposition to technological progress. I'm used to hearing, and quickly dismissing, fears related to our ongoing developments, especially when they come without factual basis or understanding of the underlying societal and technological aspects implicated. So keep all of that in mind when I tell you that I'm terrified of the future. Because I'm about to be fired and replaced by a robot. Yes, I'm afraid I've fallen off the bandwagon once again, knocked my head, and started to agree with some of the pundits you're hearing in the press. While I sense most people have no inkling of the huge tidal wave of change that's coming towards us, some of its effects are already starting to be felt.
Robots, Chatbots, and Conversational AI
Recently I visited the Innorobo show in Paris, a gathering of robot companies from around the world, which brought together industrial robots, service robots, toy robots, family robots, and many other robot types, all under one roof. One of the key highlights was SoftBank Robotics launching Pepper Partners Europe, inviting developers and companies in Europe to build applications for SoftBank's flagship robot, Pepper. This initiative is part of SoftBank's expansion of Pepper outside Japan, where more than 3,000 Pepper robots have already been deployed at over 1,000 companies. SoftBank Robotics, largely composed of the French robotics pioneer Aldebaran (of which Softbank owns 95%), has more than 500 employees globally, with the majority based in Paris at the Aldebaran facility. SoftBank has big ambitions for Pepper, and with more than 20,000 Pepper robots deployed worldwide in both consumer and enterprise environments, SoftBank is easily the leading player in this space.
Meet Wall Street's New A.I. Sheriffs
Inc.'s 11th annual 30 Under 30 list features the young founders taking on some of the world's biggest challenges. In 2013, a high-frequency trader named Michael Coscia was arrested in New Jersey for an activity called "spoofing"--essentially manipulating the market by flooding trading systems with future orders he had no intention of completing. He was fined 6 million--with the possibility of jail time. It was the first such prosecution under a new set of financial regulations from the 2010 banking reform law called the Dodd-Frank Act. That was an aha! moment for David Widerhorn, 28, and it became his reason for founding Neurensic.
MINDLER A Technology Driven System That Helps Students to Choose the Career Path Best Suitable For Them
MINDLER was founded in July, 2015 by Prateek Bhargava along with his mentor and career coach, Prikshit Dhanda. The organisation is based in Punjabi Bagh in New Delhi. MINDLER is a technology-enabled eco-system for career planning, development and mentoring for school students (class VIII-XII). The startup blends artificial intelligence and machine learning with strategic human interventions to help students and parents choose the best-suited career path. MINDLER's distinctive feature comes in the form of a 5 step assessment process - world's most advanced multi dimensional career assessment battery, algorithm driven semi-automated career planner & tracker and course correction mechanism.
United Nations CITO: Artificial intelligence will be humanity's final innovation - TechRepublic
Artificial intelligence, said United Nations chief information technology officer Atefeh Riazi, might be the last innovation humans create. "The next innovations," said the cabinet-level diplomat during a recent interview at her office at UN headquarters in New York, "will come through artificial intelligence." From then on, said Riazi, "it will be the AI innovating. We need to think about our role as technologists and we need to think about the ramifications--positive and negative--and we need to transform ourselves as innovators." Appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as CITO and Assistant Secretary-General of the Office of Information and Communications Technology in 2013, Riazi is also an innovator in her own right in the global security community. Riazi was born in Iran, and is a veteran of the information technology industry. She has a degree in electrical engineering from Stony Brook University in New York, spent over 20 years working in IT roles in the public and private sectors, and was the New York City Housing Authority's Chief Information Officer from 2009 to 2013. She has also served as the executive director of CIOs Without Borders, a non-profit organization dedicated to using technology for the good of society--especially to support healthcare projects in the developing world.