At a Calgary branch of ATB Financial, one of the bank's latest recruits educates customers about financial literacy, plays music, challenges them to an impromptu dance-off and, naturally, takes a selfie. Pepper, the new hire, doesn't have the most sophisticated skill set at this point -- for one thing, she can't make financial transactions -- but she's made a big leap forward in becoming the robot in customer service in Canadian banking. At some point, Pepper, developed by SoftBank Robotics Corp., could be programmed to do more complicated tasks. But for now, Edmonton-based ATB Financial is more interested in gauging how people react and figure out which customer situations the robot best fits in. "This isn't … the world's going to be run by robots or something like that," chief executive Dave Mowat said.

On August 13, The Knowledge Society (TKS), a Toronto-based innovation program for youth ages 13 to 17, will host the INNOVATE conference. Taking place at the Corus Entertainment Complex, INNOVATE will bring together 500 Canadian students who are interested in learning how to find and solve critical problems facing society today. The conference will give attendees the chance to hear from senior government officials, CEOs, and tech investors about the latest trends in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, genetic engineering, financial markets, Internet of Things, robotics, and venture capital. "We need to encourage students to start creating the world they want to live in." "We have seen the power of youth first-hand at TKS, and believe that they are vastly underestimated," said Navid Nathoo, co-founder and executive director at TKS. "The best way to predict the future is to create it, and we need to encourage students to start creating the world they want to live in."

The purpose of language is to reveal the contents of our minds, says Julie Sedivy. We are social animals and language is what springs us from our isolated selves and unites us with others. Sedivy has taught linguistics and psychology at Brown University and the University of Calgary. She specializes in psycholinguistics, the psychology of language, notably the psychological pressures that give birth to language and comprehension. More recently Sedivy has been writing about language in her own life. She was born in Czechoslovakia, spent time as a kid in Austria and Italy, and came of age in Canada. She speaks Czech, French, and English, and gets by in Spanish, Italian, and German.

Ian H. Witten is a professor of computer science at the University of Waikato in New Zealand. He directs the New Zealand Digital Library research project. His research interests include information retrieval, machine learning, text compression, and programming by demonstration. He received an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge University, England; an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Calgary, Canada; and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Essex University, England. He is a fellow of the ACM and of the Royal Society of New Zealand.

The Calgary Police Service became the first force in Canada to start using facial recognition software to match suspects against a mug shot database this week, but it likely won't be the last. The use of facial recognition technology is growing not just in law enforcement and security fields but also in commerce. "One of the reasons face [recognition] is so popular is that face images exist of almost everybody," said Kevin Bowyer, an expert on biometrics and computer vision and chair of the department of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Some cellphone apps use face recognition instead of passwords to give users access to devices. "You've got your driver's licence photos, you've got your identity badges wherever you work, so you've got this legacy of images that are easily accessible for everyone."

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At the Hotel Parco dei Principi in Rome, in September of 1973, the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erd?s approached his friend Richard Guy with a request. He said, "Guy, veel you have a coffee?" It cost a dollar, a small fortune to a professor of mathematics at the hinterland University of Calgary who was not much of a coffee drinker. Yet, as Guy later recalled--during a memorial talk following Erd?s's death at age 83 two decades ago--he was curious why the great man had sought him out. Guy and Erd?s were in the Eternal City for an international colloquium on combinatorial theory, so Erd?s--who sustained himself with espresso and other stimulants, worked on math problems 19 hours a day, and in his lifetime published in excess of 1,500 papers with more than 500 collaborators--most likely had another problem on the go.

While Star Trek-style teleportation is still a long way off, researchers have revealed a major breakthrough in the field of quantum travel. Two separate teams have transferred quantum information over several miles of fibre optic networks in an urban network. The results could lead to more secure bank accounts, a faster internet and possibly even open the door to the controversial idea of human teleportation. One of the potential applications for quantum teleportation is a network of quantum computers (illustrated) and a'quantum internet' that is far faster and much more secure than current networks When atoms are'entangled' the measurement of one of the atoms will not only cause it to'pick' one state, but it will also instantaneously cause the atoms it is entangled with to do the same, even if that atom has not been measured itself. This means we automatically know information about all the atoms that are entangled at once, just by measuring one, and it does not matter how far apart in space the two entangled atoms are.

A variety of technologies have emerged in the last decade that make it easier and cheaper than ever before to make representations of everyday mobile embodiment. Increasing numbers of people are quantifying and self-tracking their everyday lives recording behavioural, biological and environmental data (Beer, 2016; Neff & Nafus, 2016) using a variety of technologies, for example: • lightweight wearable cameras such as the GoPro allowing users to record footage of their most banal everyday activities; • devices such as the Fitbit and Apple Watch bringing continuous physiological monitoring out of the medical realm and into mainstream culture; • apps like Strava allowing people to quantify their cycling, running and walking activities; • lightweight devices for measuring brain activity (EEG) and stimulation (EDA) becoming sufficiently robust and discreet to be used in non-lab environments. None of the underlying technologies are novel, but as they are made accessible in cheaper and more user-friendly packages, new techniques and sources of data are becoming more readily available for geographical analysis. Engagement with these technologies has created a rapidly expanding area of investigation within geography. The emergence of the quantified-self poses both opportunities and dilemmas for geographical thought. We wish to move past simplistic protests that dismiss such technology as offering another take on Haraway's (1988) 'god trick', presenting partial, and highly situated data as objective truth. Instead, this session will build on the potential identified by Delyser and Sui (2013) to take more inventive approaches toward mobile methods. The focus will be on how these technologies can be engaged with by critical geographers to bring new perspectives to their analysis of everyday embodiment.

Most Uber riders know the pain of watching the tiny car in the app drive around in circles before reaching the blue dot. Now, the ride-sharing giant is teaming up with DigitalGlobe, a vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, 'to help identify and improve pickup and drop-off locations'. Using constellation sensors, the duo will access imagery and location intelligence to create high resolution maps of the area - giving drivers the ability to see exactly where you are. Uber is teaming up with DigitalGlobe, a vendor of space imagery and geospatial content, 'to help identify and improve pickup and drop-off locations'. Uber and DigitalGlobe have teamed up'to help identify and improve pickup and drop-off locations'.