Financial services institutions are capitalizing on digital transformation to enhance the efficiency of existing systems, and provide competitive conveniences for customers. However, adoption of disruptive and emerging technologies is not a seamless transition. Institutions must undergo structural reforms across internal and external processes and systems, while remaining compliant with changing regulations and customer demands. In this session, attendees will learn how a panel of seasoned technology executives are driving the financial industry forward with digital transformation. Attendees will learn: • How emerging technologies such as AI, machine learning and blockchain are transforming financial institutions.

BEIJING: A man who had travelled to Wuhan -- the central city at the heart of China's coronavirus crisis -- was surprised when police showed up at his door after he returned home, asking to check his temperature. The man, who had quarantined himself at home in Nanjing, eastern Jiangsu province, said he had not told anyone about his recent trip to the city. But by trawling through travel data from Wuhan, local authorities were able to identify him and dispatch officers to his home last week, according to a newspaper article posted by the Nanjing government. As Chinese authorities race to contain the spread of a new virus, which has infected more than 34,000 people and killed more than 700 in China, Beijing is turning to a familiar set of tools to find and prevent potential infections: data tracking and artificial intelligence. Several Chinese tech firms have developed apps to help people check if they have taken the same flight or train as confirmed virus patients, scraping data from lists published by state media.

One of the best performers on the ASX on Monday was the BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) share price. The artificial intelligence company's shares rocketed 25% higher to 6.9 cents at one stage before closing the day 14.5% higher. Investors were buying the company's shares after it announced the receipt of an EAR99 classification for its Akida Neuromorphic System-on-Chip (NSoC), Akida Software Development Environment (ADE), and related technologies from the U.S. Government. The Export Administration Regulations (EAR) classification of EAR99, which BrainChip has now formally received, removes the barriers for exporting Akida to non-U.S. The EAR99 designation means the company does not require a pre-approval, or a license from the U.S. Department of Commerce, before delivering its solutions globally as part of sales and market expansion activities.

Smart speakers, like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri, have come under fire over the past few years for'listening' to its owner's conversations. Now, a team of scientists believe they have developed the ultimate weapon to block the devices' spying abilities - a wearable that jams the microphone. Dubbed the'bracelet of silence', the chunky bracelet is fitted with 23 speakers around it that emit ultrasonic signals that drown out any speech of the wearer. While these ultrasonic signals are undetectable to human ears, they leak into the audible spectrum after being captured by the microphones, producing a jamming signal inside the microphone circuit disrupts voice recordings. Scientists developed the ultimate weapon to block the devices' spying abilities - a wearable that jams the microphone.

Self-driving electric vehicles that change colour could be seen hitting the roads by 2050, automotive firm Auto Trader has claimed. Their predictions for the car of the future have been guided by so-called'futurologist' Tom Cheesewright and a survey of more than 2,000 UK drivers. They think the car of 2050 will include an all-electric cabin fitted with 360 panoramic glass windows and body panels that will change colours. Auto Trader has revealed how it envisions how the future of driving will look like in the year 2050. It includes an all-electric cabin fitted with 360 panoramic glass windows and body panels that will change colours (pictured, artist's impression) The 2050 car would supposedly come with fitted with windows that extend into the roof to form a large bubble.

A former Amazon Executive revealed he switches off his Alexa smart speaker whenever he wants a'private moment' as he doesn't want it listening in. Robert Frederick, a former manager at Amazon Web Services, told BBC Panorama he always turns it off during personal and particularly sensitive conversations. Last year Amazon was forced to admit that some conversations recorded by virtual assistant Alexa were listened to and transcribed by humans. Amazon says human staff listen to less than on per cent of conversations to check for accuracy and the information is made anonymous before they see it. Amazon's Alexa is being placed in an increasing number of devices including televisions, smart speakers and screens The investigative journalism programme is exploring Amazon's rise from online bookstore to tech giant as well as the way it collects data from its customers.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates thinks artificial intelligence and gene therapy are the two technologies with the greatest power to change lives. In a speech Friday at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Gates said AI can "make sense of complex biological systems," while gene-based tools have the potential to cure AIDS. The potential of AI is only just being realized now, the billionaire philanthropist said, with computational power doubling every three and a half months. Along with improvements in handling data, Gates said it's enabling "the ability to synthesize, analyze, see patterns, gain insights and make predictions across many, many more dimensions than a human can comprehend." Gates said the most exciting part of AI "is how it can help us make sense of complex biological systems and accelerate the discovery of therapeutics to improve health in the poorest countries."

Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS), the national HIT agency in Singapore, has partnered with local healthcare AI startup KroniKare to pilot iThermo – an AI-powered temperature screening solution that screens and identifies those having or showing symptoms of fever. With the growing threat of the COVID-19 (which was recently renamed by the WHO, formerly known as 2019-nCOV), Singapore has officially raised its'Disease Outbreak Response System Condition' (DORSCON) alert level from yellow to orange on 7 February. The DORSCON orange status means that the COVID-19 disease spread in the country is severe but contained. As of 13 February, there are 58 confirmed cases of the disease. As part of the DORSCON orange status, temperature screening and monitoring becomes mandatory for most public spaces. With iThermo, less time is taken to conduct manual screening and it also reduces the exposure risks to viruses of frontline medical staff.

Researchers have developed an artificial neural network using deep learning to identify genes that are related to disease. An artificial neural network has revealed patterns in huge amounts of gene expression data and discovered groups of disease-related genes. The developers, from Linköping University, Sweden, hope that the method can eventually be applied within precision medicine and individualised treatment. The scientists created maps of biological systems based on how different proteins or genes interact with each other. Using artificial intelligence (AI), they investigated whether it is possible to discover biological networks with deep learning, in which entities known as artificial neural networks are trained by experimental data.

The theme is machine learning. We hope this is broad enough to let you take it where you want, from open data benchmarks to model for predicting fractures, or maybe you have some data for a predictive maintenance project, or want to look for trends in production time series. We will spend the first hour or so of the event defining projects and forming teams, so come ready to brainstorm!