Editor's note: this post is part of an ongoing series exploring developments in artificial intelligence. First, collect huge amounts of training data -- probably more than anyone thought sensible or even possible a decade ago. Second, massage and preprocess that data so the key relationships it contains are easily accessible (the jargon here is "feature engineering"). Finally, feed the result into ludicrously high-performance, parallelized implementations of pretty standard machine-learning methods like logistic regression, deep neural networks, and k-means clustering (don't worry if those names don't mean anything to you -- the point is that they're widely available in high-quality open source packages). Google pioneered this formula, applying it to ad placement, machine translation, spam filtering, YouTube recommendations, and even the self-driving car -- creating billions of dollars of value in the process.

Data Analytics Skytree, Inc. just announced the launch of both their company and their primary product, Skytree Server. Skytree is a machine learning program intended to serve as a replacement for SQL databases, and has the ability to take even unstructured sets of data and crunch it faster than traditional methods. The company claims that its learning algorithms can be used to process data for a wide variety of applications, from predicting the effectiveness of sales promotions to fraud detection to molecular modeling to astronomy. Which is no surprise, as algorithms to predict certain types of data are often easily portable to other types of data. The trick is just in setting the data up properly.

What's the best way to prove you "know" something? A. Multiple choice tests B. Essays C. Interviews D. None of the above Go ahead: argue with the premise of the question. Oh yeah, you can't do that on multiple-choice tests. Essays can often better gauge what you know. Writing is integral to many jobs. But despite the fact that everyone can acknowledge that they're a more useful metric, we don't demand students write much on standardized tests because it's daunting to even imagine grading millions of essays.

Today on In Case You Missed It: An affordable robotic arm is up on Kickstarter for $350 and promises machine vision, artificial intelligence and all kinds of other great stuff that we can hardly believe is available for that price. A shocking bit of research was just published on the effect some antioxidant supplements had on lab mice with cancer. Turns out it made tumors grow faster than the control group. Meanwhile those happy-go-lucky bike commuters have another new piece of bike tech for signaling to drivers. The Revolights Eclipse Plus syncs with Bluetooth and is being fulfilled through Kickstarter now. We also do a round-up of some of the week's biggest tech headlines.

To the list of French accomplishments you may now add "robot basketball training" -- at least if the video above is to be believed. But you probably shouldn't believe it when members of Poitiers Basket 86 testify that amusement park rides improved the team's "spatial orientation" and helped them defeat top-ranked Chalon. It'd be different if the "robots" were teaching them perfect free-throw or helping them walk, obviously, but PB86 is known for its innovative advertising, and this seems like a quirky example. Hit the video above to see the pranksters at work, but know that, as with Sartre and Camus, something gets lost in translation.

Aims and Scope: The Journal of Biomedical Informatics reflects a commitment to high-quality original research papers, reviews, and commentaries in the area of biomedical informatics. Although we publish articles motivated by applications in the biomedical sciences (for example, clinical medicine, health care, population health, and translational bioinformatics), the journal emphasizes reports of new methodologies and techniques that have general applicability and that form the basis for the evolving science of biomedical informatics. Articles on medical devices; evaluations of implemented systems (including clinical trials of information technologies); or papers that provide insight into a biological process, a specific disease, or treatment options would generally be more suitable for publication in other venues. Papers on applications of signal processing and image analysis are often more suitable for biomedical engineering journals or other informatics journals, although we do publish papers that emphasize the information management and knowledge representation/modeling issues that arise in the storage and use of biological signals and images. System descriptions are welcome if they illustrate and substantiate the underlying methodology that is the principal focus of the report and an effort is made to address the generalizability and/or range of application of that methodology.

IS IT a new medium on a par with film and music, a valuable educational tool, a form of harmless fun or a digital menace that turns children into violent zombies? Video gaming is all these things, depending on whom you ask. Gaming has gone from a minority activity a few years ago to mass entertainment. Video games increasingly resemble films, with photorealistic images, complex plotlines and even famous actors. The next generation of games consoles--which will be launched over the next few months by Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo--will intensify the debate over gaming and its impact on society, as the industry tries to reach out to new customers and its opponents become ever more vocal. Games consoles are the most powerful mass-produced computers in the world and the new machines will offer unprecedented levels of performance.

This is a partial set of slides used during the Institute. They are generously provided by some of the lecturers/speakers and hosted in this server as a means to disseminate the contents of the Institute.