Communications of the ACM
The blog archive provides access to past blog postings from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
January 2020
From The Eponymous Pickle
Numba: Speeding up Python
Just brought to my attention. Python use for numerical algorithms can be an issue when speed is required. Technical.
Accelerate Python Functions
Numba translates Python functions to optimized machine code at runtime using the…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Networks in the Enterprise
Podcast and more about the use of internal networks. Talking the podcast side we established some internal podcasts channels to talk to people about how emergent tech was being used. Talked and experimented with automating…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Taiwan Improves Manufacturing with AI
Some good details here about what is going on in Taiwan, notably integration with big data and AI capabilities.
From plastic toys to Industry 4.0: How Taiwan is using science to upgrade its manufacturing
The island is turning to…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Frontier in AI Training
We always need to consider the outlier case. Its often in current and future training.... I like the idea of thinking about broadening the training to include 'nothing'.
The Next Frontier in AI: Nothing
How an overlooked feature…
From insideHPC
Call for Papers: SCALE 2020 Scalable Computing Challenge for Cash Prizes
The IEEE International Scalable Computing Challenge (SCALE 2020) has issued its Call for Papers. "Are you doing real-world problem-solving using computing that scales? Want to win $1000 or $500? Submit a whitepaper to 13th IEEE…
From insideHPC
Video: Reasoning About Biology With Data-Driven Approaches
Adam Riesselman from Insitro gave this talk at DOE CSGF 2019. "Biology is quickly becoming a data-driven discipline, in which thousands of biological hypotheses can be answered in a single test tube. I will first highlight the…
From Putting People First
Design thinking in the future of cities: what approach to use for better services?
The design thinking approach offers many tools to design creative solutions to solve the most pressing problems affecting complex ecosystems such as cities. That's why it is important that policy makers are properly trained.
From Putting People First
Three narratives that stymie social change and what we can do about it
Nat Kendall-Taylor studied nearly 40 different social issues and the cultural models people use to understand them. He found three cultural models that stymie social change—and three research-based messaging strategies that can…
From Putting People First
A brief history of UX design and its evolution
When you think about user experience design it is a term that we instantly associate with apps and websites. And especially when considering a typical job description of a UX designer, it can trick you into thinking that it’s…
From Gödel's Lost Letter and P=NP
The Halting No Go Theorem
Using the halting problem to prove positive theorems. Cropped from “Turing’s Lost Letters” source Alan Turing proved the undecidability of the Halting Problem in 1936. Under a slight tweak to history he could thereby have refuted…
From Daniel Lemire's Blog
Science and Technology links (January 25th 2020)
Scientists found a way to increase the production of new neurons in the brains of mice, effectively rejuvenating the brains of old mice. (Source: Nature) How many people died during accidents at nuclear power plants? In North…
From insideHPC
Jack Dongarra presents: Adaptive Linear Solvers and Eigensolvers
Jack Dongarra from UT Knoxville gave this talk at ATPESC 2019. "Success in large-scale scientific computations often depends on algorithm design. Even the fastest machine may prove to be inadequate if insufficient attention is…
From insideHPC
Job of the Week: HPC User Support Technician at NREL
NREL is seeking an HPC User Support Technician in our Job of the Week. "Your job will be front-line support for the High Performance Computing user community which includes scientists, researchers, and students at many levels…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Sim Swapping Insecurity
Had read about this. The details here are that those responsible for the most minimal security are not taking it seriously. Poor security is not the right term, nonexistent was too often the case.
SIM Swapping, Poor Web Security…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Electronic Skin
Note the long history of this kind of effort.
Integrate Microchips for Electronic Skin
Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research (Germany)
January 22, 2020
German and Japanese researchers have developed an active-matrix…
From Schneier on Security
Friday Squid Blogging: More on the Giant Squid's DNA
Following on from last week's post, here's more information on sequencing the DNA of the giant squid. As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven't covered. Read my blog…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Putting Humans in the AI Loop
I argue that they are always in the loop. Just how effectively are they placed there. Always a very useful question. Starting with existing process helps.
Can AI Put Humans Back in the Loop?
ZDNet
Tiernan Ray
Scientists at Germany's…
From insideHPC
OpenFabrics Alliance to Expand Hands-On Tutorial Offerings at Its 2020 Workshop
In this special guest feature, Paul Grun from the OpenFabrics Alliance provides a preview of the upcoming OFA Workshop. "We are especially excited about how this year’s program is coming together. At the OFA Workshop 2019, we…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Show Devices Can Now Recognize
Just brought to my attention, Alexa 'Show' devices, that is, those that have an embedded camera, can now be asked to recognize things. Apparently only in the domain of' 'pantry items'. Designed as an assist for the blind…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Google Dataset Search
Worth another, closer look. In Flowingdata.
Over a year ago, Google released Dataset Search in public beta. The goal was to index datasets across the internets to make them easier to find. It came out of beta:
Based on what we…
From insideHPC
ANSYS Student Software Surpasses One Million Downloads
ANSYS is lowering the barrier of adoption for simulation software through its growing academic program. Free student software — a key component of the program — recently surpassed more than one million downloads since its launch…
From insideHPC
UMass Dartmouth Speeds Research with Hybrid Supercomputer from Microway
UMass Dartmouth’s powerful new cluster from Microway affords the university five times the compute performance its researchers enjoyed previously, with over 85% more total memory and over four times the aggregate memory bandwidth…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Update on Samsung Bixby
Took early looks at Bixby, was not impressed. Has huge appliance exposure, IOT connections. What's new and interesting
Bixby was quiet in 2019, but don't sleep on Samsung's assistant
It's not all bad news for Bixby.
Chris Velazco…
From insideHPC
Liquid Cooling Trends in HPC
In this special guest feature, Bob Fletcher from Verne Global reflects on how liquid cooling technologies on display at SC19 represent more than just a wave. "My intuition suggests that the larger established water-cooling users…
From Schneier on Security
Technical Report of the Bezos Phone Hack
Motherboard obtained and published the technical report on the hack of Jeff Bezos's phone, which is being attributed to Saudi Arabia, specifically to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. ...investigators set up a secure lab to examine…
From Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information From Alfred Thompson
The System Knows Who You Are
True confession – give me an app that plays with interesting and personal data and I’ll play for a while. The amount of data available to us today is astounding and computer programming lets us do some really amazing things.Guessing…
From insideHPC
University of Sheffield Launches Quantum Centre
A new research centre with the potential to revolutionize computing, communication, sensing and imaging technologies is set to be launched by the University of Sheffield this week. The Sheffield Quantum Centre, which will be
…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Why is Wal-Mart Embracing AI
Certainly they are, but the motivation not too clear from this.
Why Walmart is Embracing AI and Robotics
One of the most famous bonehead quotes from a chief executive who brushed off technological disruption came from Blockbuster…
From Computational Complexity
The World of Publishing
Bill is out for blogging for a couple of weeks on injured-reserve (he’ll be fine). I put together a quick blog post on what’s happening in the world of publications.
The Trump administration has suggested requiring publishers…
From The Eponymous Pickle
Delta Airlines Develops Disruption Predictions
Example in the aviation industry, would seem to be much available data, consideration and implications of inaccurate predictions?
Delta Develops Artificial Intelligence Tool to Address Weather Disruption, Improve Flight Operations…