Supercomputers are used for almost anything nowadays. Clustering several high-performance, programmed computers, each designed to perform a particular task, transforms a normal computer into a supercomputer. This typically includes finely tuned hardware, a specialized network, and a huge amount of storage, among other items. Workloads that need a supercomputer, on the other hand, typically have two characteristics in common: they either demand computation on a large volume of data or they are computationally concentrated. However, since supercomputing is commonly used for data analysis, scientific activities such as processing vast volumes of data to fix clinical, environmental, infrastructural, and a number of other scientific problems, few members of the general public have a detailed understanding of how advanced tech affects their lives.

Before he joined the University of Texas at Arlington as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and founded the Robotic Vision Laboratory there, William Beksi interned at iRobot, the world's largest producer of consumer robots (mainly through its Roomba robotic vacuum). To navigate built environments, robots must be able to sense and make decisions about how to interact with their locale. Researchers at the company were interested in using machine and deep learning to train their robots to learn about objects, but doing so requires a large dataset of images. While there are millions of photos and videos of rooms, none were shot from the vantage point of a robotic vacuum. Efforts to train using images with human-centric perspectives failed.

To navigate built environments, robots must be able to sense and make decisions about how to interact with their locale. Researchers at the company were interested in using machine and deep learning to train their robots to learn about objects, but doing so requires a large dataset of images. While there are millions of photos and videos of rooms, none were shot from the vantage point of a robotic vacuum. Efforts to train using images with human-centric perspectives failed. Beksi's research focuses on robotics, computer vision, and cyber-physical systems.

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear about cancer? If you did, you are right. According to the World Health Organization report, 20% of males and 17% of females develop cancer during their lifetime, and 12.5% of males and 9% of females die from the disease. Cancer is the second leading cause of death after a heart attack, killing more than 500,000 people every year. Thankfully, technology is here to change all that for good.