EU companies are falling behind counterparts in China and the US in the global race to move artificial intelligence out of the research labs and into real life deployments, due to lack of technical feasibility studies, poor data quality and lack of investment in scaling up.
These are the headline findings of a new report by EIT Urban Mobility, the EU-supported innovation network set up to promote adoption of new technologies in transport.
The most pressing issue is technical readiness, which 60% of experts surveyed for the report singled out as a barrier to AI adoption. That is followed by poor data quality and availability, while finance is cited as an issue by 30% of AI experts in Europe.
“We can perform very complex information processing tasks in a fraction of the time using much less computer resources compared to what reservoir computing can currently do,” Gauthier said.
“And reservoir computing was already a significant improvement on what was previously possible.”
The study was published today (Sept. 21, 2021) in the journal Nature Communications.
Reservoir computing is a machine learning algorithm developed in the early 2000s and used to solve the “hardest of the hard” computing problems, such as forecasting the evolution of dynamical systems that change over time, Gauthier said.
Fueled with a $36 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc., the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership has launched an initiative called AnalytiXIN to promote innovations in data science throughout Indiana.
Its strategy? Build connections between Indiana’s manufacturing and life sciences companies and the university researchers who can help them use artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics to tackle big challenges like reducing a factory’s carbon footprint or improving worker health.
David Johnson
“This is one way to ensure early that these kinds of critical collaborations are happening,” said David Johnson, president and CEO of the Indianapolis-based Central Indiana Corporate Partnership. “It’s an ambitious effort.”
About half of the $36 million will be used to hire university-level data-science researchers, some of whom will be based at 16 Tech in Indianapolis. The other half will go toward the creation of “data lakes,” or large data sets built from information from multiple contributors. One of the data sets will be manufacturing-focused, while the other will contain health sciences data.
The Ryan Family’s latest gift builds upon their unwavering commitment to furthering strategic initiatives that contribute to Northwestern’s trajectory as a top-tier academic institution. The Ryan Family was already the largest benefactor in Northwestern’s history before this new gift. Their philanthropic support has benefited areas across the University, including scientific research, faculty, academic programs, student access and success, performing arts and athletics.
The Ryans’ historic new gift will support educational and research initiatives in the fields of applied microeconomics, business, digital medicine, neuroscience and global health, as well as translational research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the redevelopment of Ryan Field.
The gigantic new experiment on which the future of U.S. particle physics depends is far overbudget and years behind schedule, and a leadership shake-up at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the experiment’s host, is adding to the turmoil. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility/Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (LBNF/DUNE), a massive effort to probe nature’s most elusive particles, is now expected to cost
$3 billion, 60% more than the preliminary estimate, and construction has slipped 4 years, with first data expected in 2029. The rising costs obligate the Department of Energy to reassess the project’s design, although DOE officials say they have no plans to downsize it.
“DOE is not planning to implement any scope reductions that would sacrifice the science reach of the experiment,” Jim Siegrist, DOE’s associate director for high energy physics, wrote in an email to Science.
Since 2018, the federal government has had a strategy in place aimed at cultivating the use of artificial intelligence at home, backed up by similar efforts on the EU level. Mobility, health care, the digitalization of industry and manufacturing, environmental sustainability and, of course, the coronavirus pandemic were some of the key areas considered in a progress update published last December by Germany’s government. The country sees major potential for the integration of AI technologies in these areas, but has identified several hurdles that need to be overcome first.
The UK government has published its much-awaited National AI Strategy in pursuit of “global science superpower” status.
The document talks of plans for a “new national programme and approach to support research and development” plus a government white paper on the governance and regulation of AI [PDF].
Details of the strategy were trailed back in January when the AI Council published its “AI Roadmap” including 16 recommendations to the government.
Among the headlines from today’s announcement is the recognition that to make any progress, ministers must ensure the right skills are in place – and that means starting at school age right up to postgraduate learning.
Five Illinois universities, led by Northwestern University, have established the Metropolitan Chicago Data-science Corps (MCDC) to help meet the data science needs of the Chicago metropolitan area. The interdisciplinary corps will assist a wide range of community-based groups in taking advantage of increasing data volume and complexity while also offering data science students opportunities to apply their skills.
“The amount of data produced in society today can be overwhelming to nonprofit organizations, especially those without pertinent resources, but data can help them fulfill their missions,” said Northwestern’s Suzan van der Lee, who spearheaded the initiative and is a professor of Earth and planetary sciences in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
Falk College will introduce an online Certificate of Advanced Study (C.A.S.) in sport analytics to its academic degree offerings in the Spring 2022 semester. Sport analytics focuses on data science applications to sports teams and businesses. The new 12-credit program explores different types of statistics used for analysis of player and team performance, and business performance across different sports and leagues. Upon graduation, students are proficient in visualizing and analyzing sport data and prepared to meet increasing demand for analytics professionals in the growing, international world of sports.
Entrepreneur Charles C. Hoskinson has made a $20 million gift to Carnegie Mellon University to establish the Hoskinson Center for Formal Mathematics, the university announced today. The center will advance mathematical research by improving global access to knowledge and resources for mathematics researchers, educators and learners.
“This generous commitment from blockchain pioneer Charles Hoskinson will allow CMU to pursue new collaborations at the intersection of mathematics, logic and computation,” CMU President Farnam Jahanian said. “By enabling a new way of doing math and creating collaborative digital libraries for mathematical tools, we can accelerate discoveries in a broad range of disciplines. This center is a distinct expression of our strengths in collaboration and technology-driven experimentation, and I am tremendously excited by its potential.”
Gaming company Zynga is donating $1.4 million to N.C. A&T’s College of Engineering, the university announced Wednesday.
The four-year gift will help the computer science department expand its gaming capabilities and also create a Zynga Scholars program to help students develop skills in gaming development.
It is the latest in a series of $1 million or larger gifts to the university in the past year, including $5 million from Google announced in June to help A&T prepare more minority students for careers in science and technology.
Washington University in St. Louis, Student Life student newspaper, Cynthia Chong
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Washington University will offer a Bachelor of Science or Arts in Data Science degree this fall in response to a major increase in demand for data science knowledge in the industry.
This program is a joint effort between the computer science department in the McKelvey School of Engineering and the statistics department in the College of Arts & Sciences, with a B.A. degree offered through Arts & Sciences and a B.S. degree offered through McKelvey.
A team of four core faculty members including professors of mathematics and statistics Soumendra Lahiri and José Figueroa-López and professors of computer science and engineering Marion Neumann and Ron Cytron spent a year planning and developing the degree.
Today, President Biden announced 30 of America’s most distinguished leaders in science and technology as members of his President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). A direct descendant of the scientific advisory committee established by President Eisenhower in 1957 in the weeks after the launch of Sputnik, PCAST is the sole body of external advisors charged with making science, technology, and innovation policy recommendations to the President and the White House.
Drawing from the nation’s most talented and accomplished individuals, President Biden’s PCAST includes 20 elected members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, five MacArthur “Genius” Fellows, two former Cabinet secretaries, and two Nobel laureates. Its members include experts in astrophysics and agriculture, biochemistry and computer engineering, ecology and entrepreneurship, immunology and nanotechnology, neuroscience and national security, social science and cybersecurity, and more.
Social determinants of health—the factors that shape where we live, work, learn, and play, from stable employment and housing to food access, education, and policies and laws—impact our health in many more ways than a doctor can.
These social determinants of health (SDoH) matter, and a data-driven understanding of how and why they matter can lead to better decision-making about policies that will improve population health, according to a new report by the Rockefeller Foundation–Boston University Commission on Health Determinants, Data, and Decision-Making (3-D Commission).
The 3-D Commission released its groundbreaking report, titled Data, Social Determinants, and Better Decision-Making for Health: The Report of the 3-D Commission, during a virtual event Tuesday, September 21, designed to coincide with this week’s 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York. Held on Zoom, the launch featured opening remarks by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), and Naveen Rao, Rockefeller Foundation senior vice president, health initiative, as well as a discussion of the report findings with six commission members, moderated by Sandro Galea, School of Public Health dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, chair of the 3-D Commission.
Philanthropist, entrepreneur, civic leader, and former U.S. secretary of commerce Penny Pritzker ’81 has made a $100 million gift in support of the Department of Economics at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard announced today. Pritzker’s gift will help create a new home for the department and bolster its global impact by enabling faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates to pursue dynamic new approaches to teaching, research, and collaboration within the department and across the university.
A new sports education and research venture unlike any other in the United States that will meet a pressing need in the sports industry is coming to The University of Texas at Austin.
Accenture has donated the founding $1.4 million gift to establish a Business of Sports Institute in the McCombs School of Business at UT Austin. The new institute will bring together all the advantages of a top business school at a major research institution with an elite sports program and combines those with the expertise in sports business consulting and analytics that Accenture brings to this multiyear partnership.
“There is no other major business school in the country bringing on-field, on-court performance analytics into the curriculum, into the research lab, and to sports industry leaders like we are,” said Ethan Burris, faculty director of the McCombs School’s Center for Leadership and Ethics, in which the new institute will be housed. “Talent management, performance metrics, sports-adjacent verticals and branding — there are a ton of topic areas we are poised to tackle.”
Yale University, Yale Daily News student newspaper, Eugenio Garza García
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On Thursday, Yale Athletics officially announced that it had reached an agreement with Hanse Golf Course Design to “create an architectural restoration master plan” for the Yale Golf Course.
Back in May, the News reported that a proposal was in the works for a restoration of the iconic Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor course. At the time, YGC General Manager Peter Palacios told the News that if the plan was approved the restoration would close the course for approximately 22 to 24 months. Now, Yale has officially hired Gil Hanse to lead the design effort. The announcement, years in the making, follows two key personnel changes at the course over the last 12 months.
Earlier Thursday, Golf Course Industry reported that the renovation plans are set to be funded by Yale alumni “to the tune of $25 million.”
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The eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good program is now accepting applications for student fellows and project leads for the 2021 summer session. Fellows will work with academic researchers, data scientists and public stakeholder groups on data-intensive research projects that will leverage data science approaches to address societal challenges in areas such as public policy, environmental impacts and more. Student applications due 2/15 – learn more and apply here. DSSG is also soliciting project proposals from academic researchers, public agencies, nonprofit entities and industry who are looking for an opportunity to work closely with data science professionals and students on focused, collaborative projects to make better use of their data. Proposal submissions are due 2/22.
… As work pushed into our homes, helpful boundaries began to blur. Almost half (49%) of Microsoft employees in one study reported working longer hours, and only 9% reported working fewer. In a global study of workers external to Microsoft one year into the pandemic, 54% said they felt overworked and 39% reported feeling exhausted.
We also lost a lot of the benefits of working together in the office. Participants in our studies reported that creative work like group brainstorming was more difficult while remote. There’s also mounting evidence of lost connection to coworkers. A recent paper we published in Nature Human Behavior found that our networks at work are becoming more siloed, presenting risks to innovation, knowledge transfer, and ultimately, productivity.
Study after study has shown that it’s not enough to be guided by simple measures of productivity as we figure out how to move to hybrid work. While it may be tempting to equate high levels of employee activity with success, doing so misses the factors that drive long-term, sustainable innovation. We must expand the way we think about productivity to focus on well-being, social connections, and collaboration and the innovation they bring to drive business success.
arXiv, Computer Science > Digital Libraries; Christine L. Borgman, Philip E. Bourne
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Implementation plans for the National Institutes of Health policy for data management and sharing, which takes effect in 2023, provide an opportunity to reflect on the stakeholders, infrastructures, practice, economics, and sustainability of data sharing. Responsibility for fulfilling data sharing requirements tends to fall on principal investigators, whereas it takes a village of stakeholders to construct, manage, and sustain the necessary knowledge infrastructure for disseminating data products. Individual scientists have mixed incentives, and many disincentives to share data, all of which vary by research domain, methods, resources, and other factors. Motivations and investments for data sharing also vary widely among academic institutional stakeholders such as university leadership, research computing, libraries, and individual schools and departments. Stakeholder concerns are interdependent along many dimensions, seven of which are explored: what data to share; context and credit; discovery; methods and training; intellectual property; data science programs; and international tensions. Data sharing is not a simple matter of individual practice, but one of infrastructure, institutions, and economics. Governments, funding agencies, and international science organizations all will need to invest in commons approaches for data sharing to develop into a sustainable international ecosystem.
A report proposing a ‘framework for participatory data stewardship’, which rejects practices of data collection, storage, sharing and use in ways that are opaque or seek to manipulate people, in favour of practices that empower people to help inform, shape and – in some instances – govern their own data.
