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Ask Me Anything about MOOCs
Fisher, Doug (Vanderbilt University.) | Isbell, Charles (Georgia Institute of Technology) | Littman, Michael L. (Brown University) | Wollowski, Michael (Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) | Neller, Todd W. (Gettysburg College) | Boerkoel, Jim (Harvey Mudd College)
In this article, ten questions about MOOCs (crowdsourced from the recipients of the AAAI and SIGCSE mailing lists) were posed by editors Michael Wollowski, Todd Neller, James Boerkoel to Douglas H. Fisher, Charles Isbell Jr., and Michael Littman — educators with unique, relevant experiences to lend their perspective on those issues.
Keeping it Real: Using Real-World Problems to Teach AI to Diverse Audiences
Sintov, Nicole (The Ohio State University) | Kar, Debarun (University of Southern California) | Nguyen, Thanh (University of Michigan) | Fang, Fei (Carnegie Mellon University) | Hoffman, Kevin (Aspire Public Schools) | Lyet, Arnaud (World Wildlife Fund) | Tambe, Milind (University of Southern California)
In recent years, AI-based applications have increasingly been used in real-world domains. For example, game theory-based decision aids have been successfully deployed in various security settings to protect ports, airports, and wildlife. This article describes our unique problem-to-project educational approach that used games rooted in real-world issues to teach AI concepts to diverse audiences. Specifically, our educational program began by presenting real-world security issues, and progressively introduced complex AI concepts using lectures, interactive exercises, and ultimately hands-on games to promote learning. We describe our experience in applying this approach to several audiences, including students of an urban public high school, university undergraduates, and security domain experts who protect wildlife. We evaluated our approach based on results from the games and participant surveys.
Ethical Considerations in Artificial Intelligence Courses
Burton, Emanuelle (University of Kentucky) | Goldsmith, Judy (University of Kentucky) | Koenig, Sven (University of Southern California) | Kuipers, Benjamin (University of Michigan) | Mattei, Nicholas (IBM Research) | Walsh, Toby (University of New South Wales and Data61)
The recent surge in interest in ethics in artificial intelligence may leave many educators wondering how to address moral, ethical, and philosophical issues in their AI courses. As instructors we want to develop curriculum that not only prepares students to be artificial intelligence practitioners, but also to understand the moral, ethical, and philosophical impacts that artificial intelligence will have on society. In this article we provide practical case studies and links to resources for use by AI educators. We also provide concrete suggestions on how to integrate AI ethics into a general artificial intelligence course and how to teach a stand-alone artificial intelligence ethics course.
How to Start Incorporating Machine Learning in Enterprises
Editor's Note: This post was originally published on LinkedIn on June 12, 2017. The world is long past the Industrial Revolution, and now we are experiencing an era of Digital Revolution. Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data Analysis are the reality of today's world. I recently had a chance to talk to Ciaran Dynes, Senior Vice President of Products at Talend and Justin Mullen, Managing Director at Datalytyx. Talend is a software integration vendor that provides Big Data solutions to enterprises, and Datalytyx is a leading provider of big data engineering, data analytics, and cloud solutions, enabling faster, more effective, and more profitable decision-making throughout an enterprise.
Foreign IT workers seen as solution to industry shortage
There is a rising demand for IT engineers in Japan as many point out there is a shortage of such professionals domestically. An estimate shows that Japan will face a shortage of close to 600,000 IT-related professionals by 2030. As companies are moving to recruit workers from overseas, skilled IT engineers, especially from Asia, are increasingly garnering attention. Such a trend seems to be in line with the government's policy to further increase the number of foreign workers with technical skills. What are some of the issues Japanese firms need to address when expanding the hiring of foreign workers? Staffing agencies reportedly plan to shore up their efforts to recruit IT workers from Asian countries. Meanwhile, a program called Project Indian Institutes of Technology (PIITs), which involves IT-powerhouse India, invites students from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) to intern at Japanese firms. The Japan Times organized a forum on June 13, titled "IT human resources sought overseas by Japanese companies: an example of an internship program by IIT students," to enhance the discussion regarding the IT engineer situation in Japan. Japanese companies accepting IIT students as interns and Indian students taking part in the program were invited to discuss their thoughts. The participants of this forum were Hiroshi Hirabayashi, president and representative director of the Japan-India Association; Shigeo Mizuno, director and corporate vice president of Fujifilm Software Co.; Koji Iwamoto, deputy manager of the general planning department at Tonichi Printing Co.; and Toyoaki Machida, Japan general manager of the global section at Webstaff Co. Additionally, Himanshu Tolani, a third-year undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar; Shubham Jain, a third-year undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur; and Yash Ubale, a third-year undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar, participated. The moderator was Takashi Kitazume, chief editorial writer of The Japan Times. Below are excerpts of their discussion. Moderator: Thank you for your participation despite the bad weather today. At this panel discussion, I'd like to hear the intentions of those taking part in this program, the feedback from Japanese companies accepting Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) students as interns and also from the Indian students to enhance the discussion on the theme of "IT human resources sought overseas by Japanese companies: an example of an internship program by IIT students."
What Top Firms Ask: 100 Data Science Interview Questions
A fresh scrape from Glassdoor gives us a good idea about what applicants are asked during a data scientist interview at some of the top companies. Unfortunately for us, almost every company has their interviewees sign NDAs. Since Glassdoor allows anonymity, a few brave souls have given us some fantastic examples of what they were asked during the interview process at top companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. If you find yourself unable to answer some of the questions below, consider checking out a course or a book on the subject. If you'd like to share your answer(s) to any of the questions, leave a comment and I'll add the top ones to the post.
Reimagining the Avatar Dream
D. Fox Harrell (fox@csail.mit.edu) is Professor of Digital Media in both the Comparative Media Studies Program and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, and the founder and director of the Imagination, Computation, and Expression Laboratory. Chong-U Lim (culim@csail.mit.edu) recently completed his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, where he was a member of the Imagination, Computation, and Expression Laboratory.
A machine-learning approach to venture capital
In this interview, Hone Capital managing partner Veronica Wu describes how her team uses a data-analytics model to make better investment decisions in early-stage start-ups. Veronica Wu has been in on the ground floor for many of the dramatic technology shifts that have defined the past 20 years. Beijing-born and US-educated, Wu has worked in top strategy roles at a string of major US tech companies--Apple, Motorola, and Tesla--in their Chinese operations. In 2015, she was brought on as a managing partner to lead Hone Capital (formerly CSC Venture Capital), the Silicon Valley–based arm of one of the largest venture-capital and private-equity firms in China, CSC Group. She has quickly established Hone Capital as an active player in the Valley, most notably with a $400 million commitment to invest in start-ups that raise funding on AngelList, a technology platform for seed-stage investing.
Artificial intelligence positioned to be a game-changer
The search to improve and eventually perfect artificial intelligence is driving the research labs of some of the most advanced and best-known American corporations. They are investing billions of dollars and many of their best scientific minds in pursuit of that goal. All that money and manpower has begun to pay off.In the past few years, artificial intelligence -- or A.I. -- has taken a big leap -- making important strides in areas like medicine and military technology. What was once in the realm of science fiction has become day-to-day reality. You'll find A.I. routinely in your smart phone, in your car, in your household appliances and it is on the verge of changing everything. On 60 Minutes Overtime, Charlie Rose explores the labs at Carnegie Mellon on the cutting edge of A.I. See robots learning to go where humans can'... It was, for decades, primitive technology. But it now has abilities we never expected. It can learn through experience -- much the way humans do -- and it won't be long before machines, like their human creators, begin thinking for themselves, creatively. Independently with judgment -- sometimes better judgment than humans have. As we first reported last fall, the technology is so promising that IBM has staked its 106-year-old reputation on its version of artificial intelligence called Watson -- one of the most sophisticated computing systems ever built.