Tom Renn, MD of Bruntwood SciTech - the UK property provider dedicated to the growth of the science and technology sector - looks at how the North of England is leading the way in creating a more diverse tech sector. 
 
There’s no doubt that the lack of diversity in the tech sector is an issue. From the need to upskill and reskill more workers, to making sure there’s fairer opportunities and systems in place to ensure people of all backgrounds can work in tech, there’s certainly work to be done. 
Diversity in tech isn’t just about equality, it’s about innovation, talent, skills and social responsibility. 
Developing new technologies through a single lens only restricts creativity. On the other hand, developing new technologies through many lenses means more representative products of a broader demographic, driven by new perspectives, bigger visions, wider audiences and more opportunities.
The facts
Although Tech Nation’s 2020 Jobs and Skills report saw that demand for tech roles in the UK has increased 40% within the past two years, women still only represent around 17 - 19% of the tech sector workforce, and only 15.2% of tech roles are filled by people from ethnic minority groups.
Not only is there a huge gender and ethnicity gap within tech companies, but also far less investment is received by tech founders in these groups.
To put this into a local perspective, the 2019 Digital Skills Audit revealed that just one in every five technical roles in Greater Manchester are currently filled by women.
Worryingly, this underrepresentation is mirrored nationally at education level; figures from Wise Campaign reveal that just 39% of A-Level Maths students in 2018 were female, with this number dropping to 22% and 12% in Physics and Computing respectively. Despite this, girls outperformed boys in STEM subjects in 2018, showing just how much female talent the sector is missing out on.
Tech diversity starts in school
Creating a more diverse and inclusive tech sector begins in school. Bruntwood SciTech is always on the lookout to support projects and initiatives that start here, something done by Manchester Digital’s ‘Digital Her’ project.
Over the years we’ve joined the likes of Auto Trader, BJSS and GCHQ to help break down stereotypes and perceptions about what it means to work in the tech sector. 
This has been really important in encouraging diversity in STEM. The 2019 Digital Her roadshow reached over 1200 girls aged 12 - 13 across Greater Manchester, with a 37% increase in young women reporting they would consider a career in digital and technology as a result of the roadshow.
Talking to young people is all about debunking the common myth that working in tech is synonymous with men coding on computers in a basement - a recurring theme amongst young people when asked the question, "what does working in tech look like?"
Across the North, more work is being done to encourage this positive change. Circle Square-based entrepreneur Nile Henry founded The Blair Project to tackle underrepresentation in motorsport. Nile and his mum, Dr Marilyn Comrie, work with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to convert used petrol go karts into fully electric e-carts. 
Continue reading: https://www.prolificnorth.co.uk/features/2021/09/how-north-leading-way-diversity-tech

Here's something we should all be talking about: Women, who make up half of the U.S. population, remain severely under-represented in technology, and they continue to flee the industry at alarming rates. In fact, women make up just about 25% of technology workers, and the quit rate for women in high tech jobs is 41%, or more than twice that of men. 
Although some cynics argue that women don’t want to work in tech, that’s a typical stereotype that can obscure the path to viable solutions. In truth, women can be excluded from tech by a variety of forces, but the evidence shows that women thrive in tech under the right conditions, bringing talent and innovation to resource-starved IT teams. 
So what exactly are the right conditions for women? The same conditions under which anyone would thrive: encouragement; hands-on tech discovery in school; the presence of role models in leadership positions; mentorship; executive sponsorship; fair pay; workplace inclusion; and the flexibility to parent while employed.
The great news is that substantially increasing women’s involvement in technology is not a zero-sum game. The technology skills gap is well-documented, and there are more than enough job openings in technology to go around.
Here are seven key steps we can take to close the gender gap in technology:

1. Start girls early. Competence is not a function of gender but rather of belief, passion, and effort. Starting in kindergarten, we should intentionally provide girls with concrete opportunities to discover their natural wonder around technology. 
2. Recruit in new places. A standard tactic for recruitment involves seeking graduates from a traditional set of colleges and universities with as much prestige as your workplace can demand. This can be a dated practice that won’t necessarily fill all the open tech opportunities. Companies should cast a wider recruiting net and update their hiring approaches and criteria. For example, a college degree shouldn’t always be a requirement; military service or another salient career experience can be an excellent substitute. One household-name tech company is looking even further into nontraditional sources, turning formerly incarcerated women (and men) into full-time paid software engineers.
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   Continue reading: https://fortune.com/2021/09/15/women-in-tech-gender-gap-inclusion-mentorship/

The government is to clear the way for transplant organs, vaccines and other live-saving medical products to be flown around Britain by drone. Trials in Scotland have shown drones can dramatically reduce delivery times and costs, especially in remote locations. Over the last three months, drones have been flying every day between Oban and the Isle of Mull in Scotland, transporting blood samples, Covid tests and other medical consignments.
Now the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), working with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), will develop and test a special standardised container compliant with international dangerous goods regulations. It will allow the medical drone flights to be conducted outside special trials and for the deliveries to become an everyday occurrence across the UK. The CAA will “develop world-first standards for special containers that will allow drones to safely carry sensitive goods like medical products, so that remote communities can access critical supplies without delay,” a spokesman for the regulator told the Telegraph. The project aims to be completed by March next year, using a £55,000 innovation grant from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Business Minister Lord Callanan said: “Good regulation should spur entrepreneurship, not stand in its way, and this project will help keep the UK at the cutting-edge of innovation. “The CAA drone project could pave the way for exciting developments in the sector, bringing benefits to British businesses and consumers alike.”
Continue reading: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/government-gives-go-ahead-vaccines-organs-flown-around-uk-drone/

The Australian Broadband Advisory Council today released a report on digital agriculture. Widespread adoption of digital agriculture is critical to lifting the value of Australian agriculture from $60 billion to $100 billion by 2030, an objective set by the Australian Government.
The report considered three questions.
Does a ‘connectivity threshold’ exist in regional and rural Australia where connectivity becomes an enabler of digital agriculture, rather than a drag on it?
Connectivity to support digital agriculture is required across the entire farming operation, and not just at the homestead: connectivity out in the paddock for soil moisture probes; down by the creek, dams and bores for real time monitoring of water usage; on the move around the farm as digitally tractors work; and above the farm as drones strike at weeds.
However, the report found that across the country, beneath the broad brush strokes of mobile coverage and National Broadband Network (NBN) fixed and wireless networks, there are localised connectivity gaps on, across and between farms. The report called this patchiness ‘salt and pepper connectivity’.
Salt and pepper connectivity, in human geography terms, is all about scale. Salt and pepper connectivity is experienced not at the national or state level or even local government area level, but at the local community level, with variability between neighbouring farms or even across an individual farm. The report provides a case study of Tony, a cotton farmer 8kms outside Narrabri. In an effort to achieve greater water efficiency, Tony has spent $1.5 million on a large lateral irrigator with an onboard SIM connected to the mobile network. The idea is that the ‘robot’ can roll across the farm watering at night and can ‘call out’ by messaging Tony’s mobile phone when it has fallen over and needs him to get out of bed to right it. Tony’s farm is within line of sight of a mobile tower on a mountain about 45kms away. However, as coverage is patchy and variable on his farm, he cannot count of the ‘robot’ being online, and so he still has to get up during the night to manually check it.
If the threshold has not been crossed, what connectivity is required for digital agriculture to be put in place and what measures can be taken to get it in place?
If the problem is salt and pepper connectivity, the ultimate goal has to be ubiquitous connectivity across farms: or as NBN puts it “no paddock left behind”. However, the report concludes that carrier mobile and fixed wireless networks may not necessarily be the best way of achieving that goal:
National carriers may continue to be the primary providers of connectivity in rural Australia, but their focus – in terms of both technology and business outcomes – is on serving premises and ‘people on the move’ along transport corridors.
Carrier networks, by business case and technology, are geared to solve connectivity issues at large scale – which means premises and vehicles, not paddocks and cows.
Continue reading: https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=b3d7b08d-f3a4-446b-a3f4-96b5f8a754bb

Researchers have developed a real-time approach that can help prevent incidents like the large-scale disruption at London’s Gatwick Airport in 2018. Possible drone sightings at the perimeter of the airport caused the cancellation of hundreds of flights.
The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, used a combination of statistical techniques and radar data to predict the flight path of a drone, and whether it intends to enter a restricted airspace, for instance around a civilian airport. Some of the results will be reported today (15 September) at the Sensor Signal Processing for Defence Conference in Edinburgh.
Their solution could help prevent a repeat of the Gatwick incident, as it can spot any drones before they enter restricted airspace and can determine, early, if their future actions are likely to pose a threat to other aircraft. This new predictive capability can enable automated decision-making and significantly reduce the workload on drone surveillance system operators by offering actionable information on potential threats to facilitate timely and proportionate responses. Real radar data from live drone trials at several locations was used to validate the new approach.
Drones have become ubiquitous over the past several years, with widespread applications in agriculture, surveying and e-commerce, among other fields. However, they can also be a nuisance or present a potential safety risk, especially with the wide availability of cheap and increasingly more capable platforms. A few days before Christmas 2018, reported drone sightings near the perimeter of Gatwick Airport caused hundreds of flights to be disrupted due to the possible risk of collision. No culprit was found.
Continue reading: https://innovationorigins.com/en/selected/real-time-drone-intent-monitoring-could-enable-safer-use-of-drones/

India’s varied landscape of towering mountains, expansive deserts, and wetlands susceptible to flash floods has long been an obstacle course for authorities trying to reach citizens in remote areas. In the COVID era, officials are navigating that maze to deliver vaccines, and they’re up against a ticking clock: the government’s goal to vaccinate each of India’s 950 million adults by the end of 2021. 
The extraordinary task calls for an innovative solution—one India piloted last weekend.  
On Saturday afternoon, a dome-shaped white drone the size of a mini refrigerator took off from the Vikarabad parade ground in the southern state of Telangana. Dozens of onlookers applauded as the device climbed upward before zipping off to the east. Within seconds, it was out of sight. Minutes later, the drone landed three kilometers away on the grounds of a state-run community hospital. 
On its journey, the drone cradled a medical cold storage box packed with dry ice and special insulation to protect precious cargo: vaccines against measles, mumps, and rubella. It was the first shipment in a 28-day pilot program spearheaded by the World Economic Forum that, if successful, will create a drone network to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to India’s hardest-to-reach places. The project, called Medicine From the Sky, is a partnership between WEF, the state government of Telangana, Apollo Hospitals HealthNet Global, and the government think tank NITI Aayog. For the pilot program, three drone startups—TechEagle, SkyAir, and Marut—have offered their services for free.
If the shipments of vaccines prove successful, the program will expand to delivering other critical medicines and emergency blood supplies.
“This is the first time in the world, when a revolution is about to start, India will not be a follower but a leader,” India Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia said at the launch ceremony.
Continue reading: https://fortune.com/2021/09/15/drone-vaccine-delivery-india-telangana-covid-campaign/

Dave Krause of Influential Drones and volunteer FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) Industry Member is joined by Dawn Zoldi of P3 Tech Consulting in a DroneLife.com 2-minute highlight reel of Thursday's National Drone Safety Awareness Week Topic: "Safe Flyers Know the Latest Rules" #FlySafe

September 14, 2021 (Security Television Network) -- Two hundred years ago a skull and crossbones flag on the ocean signaled an imminent threat. Now, those who defend and make their living at sea face a new lawless and unpredictable threat: cyberattacks.
Internet of Things: Maritime Vulnerabilities
When it comes to cyber threats, industry and military experts agree: U.S. maritime operations are vulnerable.
“As we have seen from recent incidents,” explained Captain Jason Tama of the United States Coast Guard, “the maritime industry’s growing dependence on continuous network connectivity and converging layers of information and operational technology make it inherently vulnerable to cyber threats.”
CAPT Tama identifies the transition to the Internet of Things (IoT) approach as a major source of that vulnerability. IoT is an information technology term that describes a system of devices or of self-contained systems that are connected and able to communicate over a single network. This connectivity is achieved largely by the introduction of firmware into vessel and onshore hardware systems. According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, firmware refers specifically to the “combination of a hardware device and computer instructions or computer data that reside as read-only software on the hardware device.”
Continue reading: https://www.erienewsnow.com/story/44731766/how-the-us-navy-hunts-down-cyber-threats

Computer scientist Joy Buolamwini knows a lot about racial bias both in and outside the lab. The MIT Media Lab researcher and founder of Algorithmic Justice League (AJL) works to uncover subtle instances of racial discrimination in facial recognition software, but like many Black people, she’s experienced it IRL as well. 
According to Kaiser Family Foundation research, about 7 in 10 African Americans have experienced unconscious racial bias. This discrimination runs the gamut from social media beauty filters favoring white-identified beauty features to prejudiced AI-driven hiring systems, it adversely affects people of color in tremendous ways. 
Olay, a company that has built its brand on inclusive beauty, has partnered with Buolamwini for the  #DecodetheBias campaign to impact meaningful and informed change by helping to triple the number of WOC in STEM by 2030. 
Buolamwini sat down with Essence to share her experience as a Black woman in STEM, her Olay partnership and the upcoming Netflix documentary that follows the journey to dismantling the systems that reinforce racial bias online against Black women. 
Continue reading: https://www.essence.com/news/money-career/olay-partnership-joy-buolamwini/

Elizabeth Tweedale is the founder and CEO of EdTech startup Cypher, the coding school teaching kids from 5-14 years old how to code through creatively themed courses. Elizabeth founded Cypher in 2016 following her passion to get children to engage with tech from a young age. She’s a working mother, successfully published author, award winning entrepreneur and advocate for gender equality in education.
What were you doing before launching your business?
My husband and I launched our own business, GoSpace AI, where I was CTO. While a great experience, I did face many challenges that females in tech are also met with today. In an investment meeting, the boardroom refused to believe I was responsible for building the business’ technology as I was a woman and was refused investment.
I’ve always had an interest in tech. I worked within several leading architecture practices as a computational design specialist, working on Apple’s HQ in California along with other amazing buildings. Whilst in this role, I quickly realized that I progressed in my career because I had a good understanding of coding and that it is the foundation needed to be successful in all careers. 
Continue reading: https://justentrepreneurs.co.uk/women-in-tech-interviews/women-in-tech-elizabeth-tweedale-founder-and-ceo-of-cypher

With the swift technological changes we are experiencing today,  there has never been a better time to invest in the digital skills of both children and adults.
This National Coding Week provides the perfect opportunity to draw attention to the importance of developing coding as a skill set and to consider what more we can be doing to actively encourage the younger generation, especially young girls, to engage with coding and STEM.
Svenja de Vos, CTO, Leaseweb Global elaborates, “every year National Coding Week provides an opportunity for tech companies to do more to showcase the benefits of a career in software development. You’re never too young or too old to code, and it is important to widen future pools of developers in order to help close the tech skills gap.
“The world needs talented coders and software professionals now more than ever. Especially in the last year and a half, coding has become essential to daily life by allowing organizations to continue business operations in the face of the pandemic. Every single day, software developers come up with innovative apps that are helping to revolutionize a variety of industries. Dedicating a full week to promoting coding will hopefully influence many to further develop their skill”.
Continue reading: https://wearetechwomen.com/national-coding-week-2021-bringing-women-into-tech-and-closing-the-digital-skills-gap/

Police departments across the U.S. have begun to employ drones in different ways, including to find suspects, locate missing persons in search and rescue efforts, and even to disperse crowds and enforce social distancing rules during COVID-19. One report from the Police Executive Research Forum says that drones are “quickly becoming one of the most innovative and effective technologies used by police agencies today.”
Here, the Gardiner-based Hudson Valley Drones has helped local police, fire and rescue agencies by utilizing thermal imaging cameras in their drones to conduct search and rescue operations in low light situations, gain situational awareness during an emergency response, and check for hot spots at structure or brush fires.
“I think they are incredible tools that are underutilized in a lot of ways,” said Keith Perry, founder and lead drone operator at Hudson Valley Drones. “Being on an emergency scene, it’s all about getting as much information as you possibly can as quickly as possible. To take a robotic flying camera and send that up in the air, you can get a perspective you wouldn’t normally be able to achieve.”
Hudson Valley Drones has logged over 2,285 flights and more than 500 manual hours of flying time, between public agency and other business needs combined. In August, Perry’s drone technology assisted in identifying hot spots in a brush fire at the Shawangunk Ridge, which allowed firefighters to concentrate their efforts in those areas.
Continue reading: https://www.timesunion.com/hudsonvalley/outdoors/article/hudson-valley-drones-search-and-rescue-16455705.php

There’s been a surge in North Texas police officers who are trained to fly drones.
The small aircraft offer many public safety advantages, but so many new police eyes in the sky also raise privacy questions.
Lt. Neal Landfield supervises drones and 22 other officers certified to use them at the Arlington Police Department.
Landfield said the department can’t just go snooping around with drones.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
“We don't use drones to generate probable cause. We go where a police officer has permission to go already,” Landfield said.
Infrared video from an Arlington drone recently helped police determine a wanted man on a roof was unarmed. It led to a peaceful surrender.
Drones can be used to search for armed suspects in confined spaces like attics, where police officers went in the past.
Continue reading: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/drones-give-north-texas-police-departments-more-police-eyes-in-the-sky/2741712/

Three hundred thirty-one years ago, the first piece of paper money was printed in the United States. The Massachusetts Bay Colony supposedly issued those first bills to fund military action in King William’s War. Flash forward to today, and those bills are as ubiquitous as the British pound or Chinese renminbi. In recent years, however, there have also been talks that those bills may be replaced with a newer form of money altogether: cryptocurrency.
What is cryptocurrency? Is it really likely to replace our current cash system? Stacker answers all these questions and more in our closer look at Bitcoin and the world of cryptocurrencies. Using news reports, financial websites, and industry resources, we’ve answered the 10 most pressing questions you have about cryptocurrencies. While the topic is a complex one, we’ve done our best to discuss it in layman's terms and have avoided the more highly technical aspects that tend to bog down the discussion rather than carry it forward.
So read on to learn who invented this new form of money, how it’s mined, and what, exactly, Elon Musk has to do with it all. You’re sure to walk away with a better understanding of what Bitcoin is and how it affects your life.
Continue reading: https://www.wfmz.com/business/bitcoin-and-the-world-of-cryptocurrencies-explained/collection_21056a2c-25cf-5d29-b112-6dbdc9096e7a.html#2

Intro Vocals [00:00:02] You’re watching the block chain interviews posted by Dan Weiskopf. Each episode features interviews with leading industry experts so that viewers can have a deeper understanding of today’s quickly evolving blockchain marketplace.
Dan Weiskopf [00:00:21] Thrilled today to have Steve Ehrlich, CEO of Voyager Digital, on our show today, he’s also the former CEO of E-Trade Professional Trading. So thank you, Steve, for being on The Blockchain Interview series.
Steve Ehrlich [00:00:36] Oh, thanks for having me. Appreciate talking to you. I always look forward to when you and I get to speak.
Dan Weiskopf [00:00:42] Yes, Steve, I feel like we have known each other for decades. And really in 2018, I think it was through KCSA, introduced us to this little company with 20 million dollars in market value. Right. And we had a great conversation and today you’ve got 2.6, 2.7 Billion of market cap, millions of customers. My question to you is, you’ve had a long, successful career. You know, think through a little bit on how the pieces have come together to get to this point because, you know, frankly, that probably helps you in the hiring, too, of people.
Continue reading: https://etfdb.com/crypto-channel/steve-ehrlich-the-blockchain-interviews-dan-weiskopf/

Supply company Envisible is using blockchain technology to track its products from sea to store and counter fraud in the seafood industry.
Also known as distributed ledger technology, blockchain allows everyone within a network to share access to the same set of data. Once a data entry is added to the blockchain ledger, it cannot be changed. And because the data is shared, everyone on the blockchain network can hold one another accountable.
The technology is suited for supply chains because blockchain can help connect companies within otherwise decentralized supply webs, Envisible co-founder Jayson Berryhill tells Food Tank.
The basic premise, Berryhill explains, is that the more data collected and added to the blockchain ledger, the harder it is for a company to lie about their product.
Continue reading: https://foodtank.com/news/2021/09/how-blockchain-can-tackle-supply-chain-fraud-and-food-insecurity/

A good write up that explains in simple terms why banks are adopting crypto with a small describer for the different types. It bypasses the complexities associated with managing a real crypto custodian account, but that’s why it’s simple:

“Efforts from these early adopters have centered around the tokenization of U.S. dollar deposits to modernize B2B payments, which have been slow to evolve. Only a fraction of the $23 trillion in B2B payments made in the U.S. annually are digital. Astonishingly, 42% of B2B transactions are still made by check, according to Deloitte.
Tokenization accelerates the innovation curve for B2B payments. It eliminates many of the existing limitations of slow, antiquated payment rails such as cut-off times, overnight or multi-day processing and restrictions on transaction sizes.
Tokenization accomplishes this by creating a digitized representation of an asset. For each dollar deposited at the institution, a token is created that represents that dollar. These tokens are backed 1:1 by cash deposits that never leave the bank – a feature that has satisfied bank regulators.

Click to expand...

Continue reading: https://www.paymentsjournal.com/u-s-banks-are-embracing-blockchain-payments-heres-why/

Stanford University researcher Andrew Ng describes artificial intelligence as“the new electricity” – a general-purpose technology, reshaping business, and societal landscapes. As AI-related technologies penetrate ever more aspects of society, the management of AI will be a societal challenge as well as a technical one.
Since AI systems are designed by human beings with their own set of biases, when algorithms are applied to social and economic quandaries, they can perpetuate racism, sexism, ableism, and other harmful forms of discrimination.
When flawed AI is substituted for human decision-making, algorithmic biases manifest as algorithmic harms, especially for marginalized communities, when it comes to health care and economic opportunity.
Gender biases in the use of AI
AI technologies reflect human decision-making and limitations, learning from both human merits and flaws. While a machine's ability to process and analyze large volumes of data may address our finite capability to do so, if that data is burdened with stereotypical concepts of gender, the results will perpetuate this bias.
So if artificial intelligence is based on data that is androcentric or datasets with more male profiles than women's, the results could isolate women. 
Continue reading: https://menafn.com/1102793349/Toward-an-inclusive-AI-future-for-women

LAST MONTH, STANFORD researchers declared that a new era of artificial intelligence had arrived, one built atop colossal neural networks and oceans of data. They said a new research center at Stanford would build—and study—these “foundational models” of AI.
Critics of the idea surfaced quickly—including at the workshop organized to mark the launch of the new center. Some object to the limited capabilities and sometimes freakish behavior of these models; others warn of focusing too heavily on one way of making machines smarter.
“I think the term ‘foundation’ is horribly wrong,” Jitendra Malik, a professor at UC Berkeley who studies AI, told workshop attendees in a video discussion.
Malik acknowledged that one type of model identified by the Stanford researchers—large language models that can answer questions or generate text from a prompt—has great practical use. But he said evolutionary biology suggests that language builds on other aspects of intelligence like interaction with the physical world.
“These models are really castles in the air; they have no foundation whatsoever,” Malik said. “The language we have in these models is not grounded, there is this fakeness, there is no real understanding.” He declined an interview request.
Continue reading: https://www.wired.com/story/stanford-proposal-ai-foundations-ignites-debate/

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be skillfully deployed to address public health concerns. In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, AI can improve screening and testing and accelerate vaccine and drug development. Yet any incorporation of AI solutions in the public health realm must be accompanied by a stronger sense of trust in those technologies by patients and community members, particularly those historically underserved by the healthcare system, according to a new report released today.
“Public Opinion Research on Artificial Intelligence in Public Health Responses: Results of Focus Groups with Four Communities” was prepared for AAAS as part of the Artificial Intelligence: Applications/Implications (AI)² Initiative, by a team of researchers at Marquette University and the Medical College of Wisconsin. The initiative was launched by AAAS and its partners earlier this year to contribute to the responsible development and application of AI with a goal of eliminating rather than exacerbating social inequalities.
The report summarizes findings from virtual focus groups with four diverse and historically underserved communities in southeastern Wisconsin – African American, Hispanic, Southeast Asian and Native American (First Nation) – about public understanding and trust of AI technology used to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continue reading: https://www.aaas.org/news/new-report-calls-input-underserved-communities-deploying-ai-public-health

For artificial intelligence to get any smarter, it needs first to be as intelligent as one of the simplest creatures in the animal kingdom: the sea slug.
A new study has found that a material can mimic the sea slug’s most essential intelligence features. The discovery is a step toward building hardware that could help make AI more efficient and reliable for technology ranging from self-driving cars and surgical robots to social media algorithms.
The study, publishing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was conducted by a team of researchers from Purdue University, Rutgers University, the University of Georgia and Argonne National Laboratory.
“Through studying sea slugs, neuroscientists discovered the hallmarks of intelligence that are fundamental to any organism’s survival,” said Shriram Ramanathan, a Purdue professor of materials engineering. “We want to take advantage of that mature intelligence in animals to accelerate the development of AI.”
Continue reading: https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2021/Q3/taking-lessons-from-a-sea-slug,-study-points-to-better-hardware-for-artificial-intelligence.html

The Edge is not a new place, but it is garnering lots of attention, especially when it comes to Artificial Intelligence. In fact, AI is the number one workload for the edge, according to Moor Insights & Strategy in the newly published paper, “Delivering the AI-Enabled Edge with Dell Technologies.” The paper also points out that numerous organizations across all industries are extending the reach of their IT infrastructures to the edge, with many of them being directed from the top down.
Edge Dynamics and Requirements
As we move further into a world of autonomous operations, whether it be with self-driving vehicles or automated manufacturing lines, the combination of AI and the edge, along with a robust and scalable enterprise IT infrastructure, is required to bring full automation to fruition. However, the pairing of AI and edge adds new levels of complexity, with many edge devices and endpoints being located in less secure environments, where devices will need to be hardened against weather and theft.
Deploying edge devices to remote locations should not be an afterthought. An edge solution ideally will be fully integrated with an organization’s overall IT infrastructure and thus be as enterprise-grade as the rest of the data center. Although the requirements of AI at the edge can be exceedingly complex, for the most part they mirror the capabilities of traditional IT infrastructure.
Continue reading: https://www.cio.com/article/3633332/the-ai-enabled-edge.html

While social or companion robots may sound like something one would only see in a science-fiction movie, conversational AI bots are becoming the norm in Asia, and are beginning to be commonplace even in the United States. Microsoft’s Xiaoice, for instance, has 660 million users in China, and recently had a valuation of $1 billion dollars. The Xiaoice chatbot is included in 450 million smart devices, and according to the Xiaoice company, which split off from Microsoft in 2020, 60% of all worldwide AI-human interactions are conducted via Xiaoice technology.
The Rise of the Companion AI
Many enterprise businesses use AI chatbots for customer service and product inquiries, but for millions of users today, the AI chatbot is seen as a romantic partner or companion. Likened to the AI-character Samantha in the 2013 movie Her, Xiaoice is not the only AI entity in the conversational AI space. Azuma Hikari is billed by the Japanese-based Gatebox company as “your personal bride,” and social chatbot Replika is touted by the San Francisco-based Luka company as “the AI companion that cares.”
A February 2021 report by Making Caring Common and Harvard University revealed that 36% of those polled indicated that they have felt lonely “frequently” or “almost all the time or all the time” in the prior four weeks, up from the 25% that said they were experiencing serious issues in the two months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Most surprising was that 61% of those aged 18 to 25 reported high levels of loneliness. 2020 and 2021 brought with them not just the COVID crisis, but also what many are referring to as the Loneliness Pandemic, something the creators of companion bots hope to both capitalize on and help to improve.
Continue reading: https://www.cmswire.com/digital-experience/are-conversational-ai-companions-the-next-big-thing/

Dave Krause of Influential Drones and volunteer FAA Safety Team (FAASTeam) Industry Member is joined by Dawn Zoldi of P3 Tech Consulting in a DroneLife.com 2-minute highlight reel of Wednesday's National Drone Safety Awareness Week Topic: "Safe Flyers Become Part of the Community" #FlySafe

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program awarded $750,000 to Texas-based small business Cobalt Solutions Inc. to develop a detection and tracking sensor system that can identify nefarious small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in an urban environment.
“As advancements in drone technology provide unlimited opportunities for everyday recreational and commercial use, this also presents a potential attraction for bad actors” said Kathryn Coulter Mitchell, DHS Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology. “With drones in urban environments becoming increasingly prevalent, it is vital to develop advanced UAV solutions that can efficiently monitor and differentiate between different types of activities to protect our public safety against potential threats.”
Continue reading: https://www.hstoday.us/industry/dhs-awards-750k-to-texas-small-business-for-urban-detection-and-identification-of-small-unmanned-aerial-vehicles/