Ryszard Michalski, PRC Professor of Computational Sciences and Health Informatics, died from cancer on Sept. 20, Provost Peter Stearns announced Tuesday. He joined the Mason faculty in 1988. A memorial will be held at Bellarmine Chapel, 4515 Roberts Road, at 1 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 28. A reception at the same location will follow the service. All members of the university community are invited to attend.

In his new book, Who Owns The Future?, computer scientist, Jaron Lanier, argues that as technology has become more advanced, so too has our dependency on information tools. Lanier believes that if we continue on our present path, where we think of computers as passive tools, instead of machines that real people create, our myopia will result in less understanding of both computers and human beings, which could cause the demise of democracy, mass unemployment, the erosion of the middle class, and social chaos. Lanier encourages human beings to take back control of their own economic destiny by creating a society that values the work of all industries, and not just those with the fastest networks. By monetizing information, he foresees a more egalitarian society, which can still adhere to the principles of free market capitalism. What will the future economy look like if technology keeps advancing the way it does and we do nothing?

January 17, 2017 --Eugene "Gene" Cernan, the last human to walk on the moon, passed away Monday at the age of 82. The former astronaut played an important role in America's space program during the height of the Cold War. In addition to being one of only 12 people to have set foot on the moon, he was also only the second American to complete a successful spacewalk during a Gemini mission. On Dec. 11, 1972, Mr. Cernan and fellow astronaut Harrison Schmitt stepped onto the moon for the first time, an experience that he later said in his biography made him no longer belong "solely to the Earth," but "to the universe." But as he touched the moon, his transmission to Houston in the moment was more awestruck: "Oh, my golly. Before becoming an astronaut, Cernan was a pilot with the US Navy. He found himself on the backup crew for Gemini 9, along with Thomas Stafford, until the primary crew was tragically killed in a plane crash before launch. With Gemini 9, Cernan became the third person in the world to complete a successful spacewalk. His 2 hours and 9 minutes spent outside the capsule was a record stretch in 1966. Cernan's first trip to the moon happened in May 1969, during the Apollo 10 mission, though it would be over three years until he actually set foot on the lunar surface. Apollo 10 was a dress rehearsal of sorts, taking measurements from orbit and testing various essential procedures that would be needed for the first actual moon landing with Apollo 11. "I keep telling Neil Armstrong that we painted that white line in the sky all the way to the Moon down to 47,000 feet so he wouldn't get lost, and all he had to do was land," Cernan said in a 2007 interview with NASA. "Made it sort of easy for him." With Apollo 17, Cernan finally got his chance to explore the lunar surface. Over the course of the mission, Cernan and Schmitt travelled 19 miles (30 km) across the lunar surface on a rover, gathering over 220 pounds (100 kg) of moon rocks to bring home for further study. At one point, he traced the letters TDC, the initials of his daughter, on the lunar surface. But when the time came to leave, Cernan, the last man on the moon, was reluctant to leave. "Those steps up that ladder, they were tough to make," he said. "I didn't want to go up.

At the annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference that concluded last week, the majority of panelists on a panel discussing digital health dismissed artificial intelligence in healthcare as overhyped. Deborah DiSanzo, general manager of IBM Watson Health, who presented her company's vision at the conference in San Francisco and Vinod Khosla, founder of investment firm Khosla Ventures, who spoke at a satellite conference beg to differ. IBM Watson Health, with its acquisition of Merge Healthcare, has amassed a vast volume of imaging data – 30 billion to be exact -- and is putting its machine learning power to work. In a question-and-answer session following her presentation, DiSanzo explained that Watson can actually prioritize the image stack in a CT scan for example, and tell radiologists which images to see first and not waste time in viewing images that have nothing in them. What's more, the technology can also pull in unstructured text data from an electronic health record to provide context and decision-making support to the radiologists, DiSanzo explained.

Amazon Alexa, the voice assistant of Amazon, was everywhere on CES 2017. Integrated in cars, refrigerators, assistant devices and more, there's an emerging trend which requires us to talk to devices. But are we actually going to talk to machines on a structural level? The first sales forecasts of the Amazon echo are good. Google's voice assistant also had significant sales numbers last Christmas.

During the last 36 years of its illustrious history, ince its inception in 1980, AI Magazine has played an the magazine has gone through several transformations. Now the magazine is going through another transition: David Leake, the longtime editor-in-chief is moving on after 17 years of distinguished service, though fortunately he will continue to advise us as editor emeritus. I am honored and delighted to follow David. I have been a member of the Editorial Board of AI Magazine for several years, associate editor since August 2015, and editor elect since February 2016; my tenure as editor-in-chief starts with this winter 2016 issue. I thank David, Managing Editor Mike Hamilton, former AAAI President Tom Dietterich, and AAAI for recruiting me for this challenge....

Former astronaut Gene Cernan, the last of only a dozen men to walk on the moon who returned to Earth with a message of "peace and hope for all mankind," has died. Cernan died Monday following ongoing heath issues, his family said in a statement released by NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs. NASA said Cernan was surrounded by his family. "Even at the age of 82, Gene was passionate about sharing his desire to see the continued human exploration of space and encouraged our nation's leaders and young people to not let him remain the last man to walk on the Moon," the family said. Cernan, commander of NASA's Apollo 17 mission, set foot on the lunar surface in December 1972 during his third space flight.

Globe Expert has also been described and used in different papers published in magazines and journals.

A question I am often asked is, "Why did you get out of your comfort zone?" By any which yardstick, I ought to have stuck to honing my skills as a journalist and a writer. To which my simple answer is: "Because if I didn't, I'd be obsolete before I hail the next Uber." Uber is the new F-word. That if we don't take cognizance of entities like Uber and the forces that are shaping it, it is only a matter of time before a lot many of our livelihoods will be obsolete. To most people who've grown watching businesses evolve, this company makes no sense. I mean, come to think of it, what is it? An app that resides on my phone and allows me to hail taxis from wherever I am. And by all accounts, is one of the most unprofitable start-ups the world has ever seen. But for whatever strange reason, it is among the most valuable and sought after. But users like you and me are enamoured by it; traditional service providers don't know how to deal with it; policymakers have no clue what sense to make of this animal; and it is just but one metaphor for how the world is changing dramatically--India included. I touched upon how it is just one among the many things changing dramatically and how the ground beneath India's feet is shifting on Founding Fuel, the platform I co-founded. Why does it concern me?