Microsoft principal software development engineer Jennifer Marsman talked about the applications of machine learning at Microsoft's Ignite NZ conference. From teaching computers to make predictions to helping blind people "see", machine learning technology has already made incredible advancements in a short timeframe. Microsoft's Jennifer Marsman's interest is machine learning and helping to make the technology understandable to the average person. The Detroit-based principal software development engineer was in New Zealand last week for Microsoft's Ignite New Zealand conference, where she gave talks about applications of machine learning. It can be easy to let our imaginations run too wild when it comes to the future of technology, so Marsman to gave examples of machine learning's relevance in real life.

We introduce an Embarrassingly Parallel Search (EPS) method for solving constraint problems in parallel, and we show that this method matches or even outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms on a number of problems using various computing infrastructures. EPS is a simple method in which a master decomposes the problem into many disjoint subproblems which are then solved independently by workers. Our approach has three advantages: it is an efficient method; it involves almost no communication or synchronization between workers; and its implementation is made easy because the master and the workers rely on an underlying constraint solver, but does not require to modify it. This paper describes the method, and its applications to various constraint problems (satisfaction, enumeration, optimization). We show that our method can be adapted to different underlying solvers (Gecode, Choco2, OR-tools) on different computing infrastructures (multi-core, data centers, cloud computing). The experiments cover unsatisfiable, enumeration and optimization problems, but do not cover first solution search because it makes the results hard to analyze. The same variability can be observed for optimization problems, but at a lesser extent because the optimality proof is required. EPS offers good average performance, and matches or outperforms other available parallel implementations of Gecode as well as some solvers portfolios. Moreover, we perform an in-depth analysis of the various factors that make this approach efficient as well as the anomalies that can occur. Last, we show that the decomposition is a key component for efficiency and load balancing.

It's one thing to want to protect endangered animals, but another entirely to keep track of them. Case in point: the dugong, a medium-sized marine mammal often referred to as a sea cow. Cute they may be, but spotting them in large bodies of water is easier said than done. Since marine researchers want to do so to keep tabs on population sizes, conservation status, and their important habitat areas, that poses a bit of a problem. Fortunately, this is where Dr. Amanda Hodgson of Australia's Murdoch University comes in.

From sashimi to tartare, tuna is in demand year-round. More than half of the world's high-grade fish supply comes from the central and western Pacific Ocean, a region that accounts for a $7 billion market. The popularity of tuna sustains small fishing communities in distant places like Palau. But it also threatens an aquatic population that has been dwindling at an alarming rate. Over the past few years, unregulated fishing practices in tuna-rich Pacific regions have threatened to wipe out rich species like the bluefin and bigeye.

While we all look forward to the prospect of pizza being delivered by drones, not everyone is loving the flying gadgets. Surveyor Rick Steven, has had to contend with some angsty local eagles while flying his unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at the St Ives mine, located in Western Australia's Goldfields region. In short, they're destroying them, and it's forcing Steven to get inventive. The UAVs have assisted Steven in creating 3D models of mined areas, as well as helping workers avoid extreme weather conditions on surveys. But the pesky eagles have been taking down their drone-y mortal enemies, because they're seen as a threat.

Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) is a technique to guide search in a large decision space by taking random samples and evaluating their outcome. In this work, we study MCTS methods in the context of the connection calculus and implement them on top of the leanCoP prover. This includes proposing useful proof-state evaluation heuristics that are learned from previous proofs, and proposing and automatically improving suitable MCTS strategies in this context. The system is trained and evaluated on a large suite of related problems coming from the Mizar proof assistant, showing that it is capable to find new and different proofs. To our knowledge, this is the first time MCTS has been applied to theorem proving.

During his first official visit to Australia, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed how the company will be working with a range of local organisations to push the next stage of Australia's investment into artificial intelligence [AI]. Among the world's first users of Microsoft's new high performance virtual and intelligent machines are the Australian Government, Cricket Australia, and Webjet. Microsoft will deliver cloud services to Australian developers that will underpin the next generation of intelligent apps. This comes as the largest Windows 10 deployment in the Asia-Pacific region, and will help companies around Australia generate deeper customer insights and learnings. Speaking at a technology developer's conference in Sydney on Wednesday, Nadella said the new intelligent technology to be deployed by Microsoft and will allow human-like interactions with complex business systems.

While his feet may have been in Sydney, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's head was firmly in the clouds. In Australia for a Microsoft Developers conference, Nadella laid out his main theories for the digital future: Mobile-first and cloud-first. SEE ALSO: Inside Microsoft's plan to bring 3D to everyone "We have a distinctive point of view when we say'mobile first,'" he said. With echoes of Mark Zuckerberg's bot evangelism at April's F8, and Nadella's own remarks at the Microsoft's annual developers conference in March, it was a bot-heavy message sent Wednesday. To help build'em, Nadella announced the launch of the Azure Bot Service -- a new public cloud-based bot builder -- that will give everyone access to automated systems that understand conversational language.

If you measure the future in terms how pizza is delivered, the future is now: Domino's now delivers via autonomous drone. Today, the pizza chain officially launched its drone delivery service in New Zealand. The pizzaria chain has been working with Flirtey on the program for awhile now, but has only just started offering it to a select group of customers. "Drones offer the promise of safer, faster deliveries to an expanded delivery area," Domino's group CEO Don Meiji says. "Meaning more customers can expect to receive a freshly-made order within our ultimate target of 10 minutes."

Counting dugongs in the ocean can be a pretty difficult task. That's why Australian marine mammal researcher Dr. Amanda Hodgson, from Murdoch University in Western Australia, is trying to see if drones can provide an easier and more accurate way to keep track of the endangered sea animal. SEE ALSO: Pizza delivered by drone? It's been done for real in New Zealand At the moment, aerial surveys of dugongs are still a largely low-tech exercise. They're conducted via plane, with four researchers on board.