When Face Recognition Doesn't Know Your Face Is a Face An estimated 100 million people live with facial differences. As face recognition tech becomes widespread, some say they're getting blocked from accessing essential systems and services. Autumn Gardiner thought updating her driving license would be straightforward. After getting married last year, she headed to the local Department of Motor Vehicles office in Connecticut to get her name changed on her license. While she was there, Gardiner recalls, officials said she needed to update her photo.

The theory of quantum computing has been with us for nearly three decades, courtesy of a quantum mechanical model of the Turing machine proposed by physicist Paul Benioff in the early 1980s. For most of that time, the notion has seemed more a far-off vision than an impending reality. That changed abruptly with a 2019 claim by Google AI, in conjunction with NASA, that it had managed to perform a quantum computation infeasible on a conventional computer. While many have eagerly anticipated the new vistas that could open with the arrival of quantum computing, cryptographers and security experts have not generally shared that enthusiasm since one of the most anticipated quantum advantages comes in integer factorization, which is critical to RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman)-based security. Also, as far back as 1994, MIT mathematician Peter Shor developed a quantum algorithm capable of solving the discrete logarithm problem central to Diffie-Hellman key exchange and elliptic curve cryptography. Now that it seems quantum-computing capabilities could become commercially available within the next decade or two--likely in the form of cloud-based services--security professionals have turned with an intensified sense of urgency to the challenge of how to respond to the threat of quantum-powered attacks. One domain where this is particularly true is in the automotive industry, where cars now coming off assembly lines are sometimes referred to as "rolling datacenters" in acknowledgment of all the entertainment and communications capabilities they contain. The fact that autonomous driving systems are also well along in development does nothing to allay these concerns. Indeed, it would seem the stakes of automobile cybersecurity are about to become immeasurably higher just as some of the underpinnings of contemporary cybersecurity are rendered moot. To explore the implications of this in the discussion that follows, acmqueue brought together some of the people who are already working to build a new trust environment for the automotive industry: Alexander Truskovsky, director of technical strategy at ISARA Corporation, where efforts are being made to develop quantum-safe cryptographic roots of trust; Mike Gardiner, a solutions architect at Thales who has been central to efforts to tailor quantum-safe protections for the automotive industry; Atefeh Mashatan, director of the Cyber-security Research Lab at Ryerson University; and George Neville-Neil, director of Engineering Operational Security at JUUL Labs, who is better known to many as Kode Vicious. ATEFEH MASHATAN: What do you see as your greatest concerns when it comes to quantum vulnerability in the automobile industry? MICHAEL GARDINER: One of the big concerns has to do with over-the-air software updates for smart cars--like a Tesla, for example--where somebody with a quantum computer could potentially issue malicious firmware while creating the illusion it comes from the manufacturer.

ThoughtSpot has expanded the number of backend data sources that can be accessed via its cloud-based analytics platform to include the Databricks cloud service based on the Apache Spark framework. A ThoughtSpot for Databricks offering now makes it possible to directly run queries through the ThoughtSpot search engine against a Databricks Lakehouse, a data architecture that combines the features of data lakes and data warehouses, according to Databricks. For nearly a decade, ThoughtSpot has been making the case for an alternative approach to analytics that eliminates the need to rely on a data analyst or IT professional to construct a dashboard. Instead, it presents end users with a search interface through which they can employ natural language to query multiple backend data repositories. That approach enables end users to interrogate data in a more interactive fashion that is not constrained by the limitations of how a dashboard was constructed, said Seann Gardiner, senior vice president of business development for ThoughtSpot.

Since Theresa May invoked Article 50, there has been a mystifying surge in video games set in Britain. They come in all shapes and sizes, from Nintendo's Pokémon Sword and Shield, which riffs on the architecture of Oxbridge and London, to PanicBarn's anti-Brexit polemic Not Tonight. Most began development long before the EU referendum, but they are useful explorations of national identity at a time when what Britain stands for is hotly contested. Gary Younge has described the Brexit debate as a clash between stories about Britain's past and our ideas of Britishness. How, then, might these video games help us think about what Britain is today? In the 9th-century, Britain was not one but several nations, a mass of warring Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Viking kingdoms.

First algorithms figured out how to decipher images. That's why you can unlock an iPhone with your face. More recently, machine learning has become capable of generating and altering images and video. In 2018, researchers and artists took AI-made and enhanced visuals to another level. Scroll through these examples to see how software that can make images, video, and art could power new forms of entertainment--as well as disinformation.

The construction of New York's Empire State Building is often seen as the figurative and literal pinnacle of construction efficiency, rising 1,250 feet and 102 stories from the ground to its rooftop spire in just over 13 months' time, at a human cost of just five lives. Indeed, most of today's construction projects would be lucky to come close to that level of speed, regardless of the building's size. While the construction industry traditionally has been slow to change the way it operates, several new technologies are poised to usher in a new era of faster and more automated construction practices. Three-dimensional (3D) printing is among the key technologies that are expected to change the way structures are built in the future, as construction engineers and contractors seek methods for completing buildings more quickly, more efficiently, and, in many cases, with a greater attention paid to sustainability. Large printers that can print construction materials such as foam or concrete into specific shapes can drastically speed up the creation of walls, decorative or ornamental pieces, and even certain structural elements.

A four-part look at how robots are changing the way we work. About 180 robots here are doing work that humans used to do at a GE Aviation plant that makes parts for jet engines. But they haven't replaced the humans. Indeed, the opposite is true. Since a new, automated section of the plant ramped up at the start of the decade, the number of people working here has risen to more than 900 from 600. "A machine is not replacing three jobs," said Eric Bouchard, senior operations manager at the Bromont plant.

Three early-career engineers who are making a big difference in three very different areas of technology are to receive the Royal Academy's prestigious Silver Medal at the Academy Awards Dinner at the Tower of London on Thursday 23 June 2016. The Silver Medal celebrates outstanding personal contributions to UK engineering, which has resulted in successful market exploitation. Professor Dame Ann Dowling OM DBE FREng FRS, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, says: "Damian Gardiner, Demis Hassabis and Tong Sun have all demonstrated the power of use-inspired research in taking ideas they have developed in academia and applying them to solve real-world problems. They are working with colleagues all over the world and making an enormous impact early in their careers that is both enriching academic knowledge and generating real economic benefit for the UK." Dr Damian Gardiner is taking the world of product authentication by storm, with his Cambridge University start-up company ilumink Limited acquired by Johnson Matthey's Process Technologies Division in 2015. They were keen to adopt his unique method of printing'liquid crystal' material onto any surface using an ink-jet printer.