Data Science newsletter – February 2, 2022

Newsletter features journalism, research papers and tools/software for February 2, 2022

 

On communicating planet-size facts

ACM Interactions, Andrew Yang


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This remix, presented as a 16-foot wall graphic in knowledges at the Spencer Museum of Art, takes the original SYS graphic and transforms it into a 3D volume. It remains true to the data—each year an equal volume—while also providing a more meaningful perspective on “now.” If the graphic is meant to present a point of view, then an end-on volumetric perspective provides just that, with the visual footprint of the most recent year taking up the most visual space—just as the urgency of global warming demands. In communicating vital facts, we must move beyond convention so that we represent both data and concerns with the clarity that they deserve.


Programming languages: Python dominates, but developers are adding new skills to stand out

ZDNet, Liam Tung


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Ransomware is driving developer interest in cybersecurity while the Internet of Things and games development has spurred more interest in 35-year-old programming language C++, according to O’Reilly Media’s 2021 learning platform analysis. However, it could the case that developers are looking at some newer languages to give them the edge.

O’Reilly, a developer-focused education content provider, creates an analysis of search terms and content modules consumed on its learning platform each year to reveal developer trends. Content usage is an aggregate measurement of “units viewed” across all forms, including online-training courses, books, videos, online conferences, and other products.


The EU and U.S. are starting to align on AI regulation

The Brookings Institution, Alex Engler


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A range of regulatory changes and new hires from the Biden administration signals a more proactive stance by the federal government towards artificial intelligence (AI) regulation, which brings the U.S. closer to that of the European Union (EU). These developments are promising, as is the inclusion of AI issues in the new EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council (TTC). But there are other steps that these leading democracies can take to build alignment on curtailing AI harms.

Since 2017, at least 60 countries have adopted some form of artificial intelligence policy, a torrent of activity that nearly matches the pace of modern AI adoption. The expansion of AI governance raises concerns about looming challenges for international cooperation. That is, the increasing ubiquity of AI in online services and physical devices means that any new regulations will have important ramifications for global markets. The variety of different ways that AI can be trained and deployed also complicates this picture.


Schwartz Reisman Institute teams up with Canada School of Public Service to offer AI course to public servants

University of Toronto, U of T News


from

The University of Toronto’s Schwartz Reisman Institute for Technology and Society has partnered with the Canada School of Public Service to teach federal public servants about artificial intelligence, a technology transforming sectors ranging from health care to law.

More than 1,000 Canadian public servants have so far signed up for the online course’s events so far. They include a mix of recorded lectures and moderated live panel discussions with scholars and industry leaders that are designed to explain what AI is, where it’s headed, and what public servants need to know about it.

The eight-part series – called “Artificial Intelligence is Here” – launched in November 2021 and runs through May 2022, with sessions delivered virtually in both English and French. It was developed by Gillian Hadfield, director of the Schwartz Reisman Institute (SRI) and a professor in the Faculty of Law, and Peter Loewen, SRI’s associate director, director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and a professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science.


Machine learning fine-tunes flash graphene – Rice University lab uses computer models to advance environmentally friendly process

Rice University, News & Media Relations


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Rice University scientists are using machine-learning techniques to streamline the process of synthesizing graphene from waste through flash Joule heating.
Machine learning is fine-tuning Rice University’s flash Joule heating method for making graphene from a variety of carbon sources, including waste materials. Illustration by Jacob BeckhamMachine learning is fine-tuning Rice University’s flash Joule heating method for making graphene from a variety of carbon sources, including waste materials. Illustration by Jacob Beckham

The process discovered two years ago by the Rice lab of chemist James Tour has expanded beyond making graphene from various carbon sources to extracting other materials like metals from urban waste, with the promise of more environmentally friendly recycling to come.

The technique is the same for all of the above: blasting a jolt of high energy through the source material to eliminate all but the desired product. But the details for flashing each feedstock are different.


Cubic Transportation Systems, McMaster University launch Center of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence and Smart Mobility

Mass Transit


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Cubic Transportation Systems (CTS) McMaster University are launching the Center of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence and Smart Mobility.

This long-term program will develop the building blocks to design the future of inclusive mobility through innovation and technology collaboration between government, academia and the public and private sectors. The program will also train the next generation of engineers, scientists and leaders through hands-on research and product development with public and private mobility service providers.

Experts at the McMaster Automotive Resource Center (MARC), a transportation research institute in North America and headquarters of the new center, and CTS will work together to address complex issues facing transportation systems through multidisciplinary research and product development.


The Fed’s Climate Awakening

Project Syndicate, Simon Johnson


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As for climate-related financial risks, Powell framed them well in recent congressional testimony, “We know that the transition to a lower-carbon economy may lead to sudden repricings of assets or entire industries and we need to think about that carefully in advance and understand and be in a position to deal with all of that.”

In other words, banks could suddenly find themselves with loans or other assets acquired under a set of assumptions that are no longer valid. The last time bankers climbed on a bandwagon at scale, they assumed housing prices would always rise. It was a sound assumption – until suddenly it wasn’t.


Web3 is the future, a scam, or both: The crypto and NFT rebrand, explained

Vox, Recode, Peter Kafka


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The fact that Web3 is hard to define — I’ll try to do that in a bit — isn’t necessarily a bug. It’s a nascent idea floated by a mix of buzz, optimism, confusion, theological battles, and pure unadulterated speculation, which means it’s incredibly malleable. You can explain why Web3 is a fundamental remaking of the internet, and some people will take you very seriously. And you can argue that it’s an MLM scheme built to enrich people who are already rich, and find plenty of people nodding along.

What you can’t do, right now, is ignore Web3 if you work in or around tech. Because it’s all anybody has wanted to talk about for the past several months.


Israeli technology involved in opening of first US autonomous store

The Jerusalem Post, Business and Innovation


from

In order to shop, customers download the app and receive a barcode for identification. They only need to enter their means of payment once, as payment afterward is automatic. The shelves in the stores are equipped with Shekel’s weighing system, which incorporates IoT (Internet of Things) sensors and artificial intelligence-based algorithms. The system recognizes when a product is taken off of a shelf and immediately adds it to the shopper’s virtual carts. It also recognizes when a product is returned to the shelf and removes the item from the virtual cart.

The customer then leaves the store without having to pass through any form of the checkout counter, and they receive the receipt directly to their emails. The “Smart Shelves” also send updates to the retailers about stock deficiencies and status.


Rare and ancient trees are key to a healthy forest

Science, Elizabeth Pennisi


from

Ancient trees may contain DNA that makes them less likely to be toppled by wind, for example, or more resistant to fungal diseases. And because these individuals have survived hundreds—if not thousands—of years of climate fluctuations, old-timers that sprouted in a very different environment provide a way for the forest to survive should climate swing back to former times.

“Once they are gone, they are gone,” [Charles] Cannon says. “We can’t just replant ourselves back to a healthy forest.”

“Ancient trees are an irreplaceable hub of biodiversity,” agrees conservation ecologist Gianluca Piovesan, a co-author at the University of Tuscia. Unusual insects and other species make their homes in them, he says. “We absolutely must preserve old-growth forests and ancient trees to transition to an ecologically sound future.”


A new beginning for innovative pollution remediation: microplastics

National Research Council Canada


from

Since plastic degrades into very small pieces called microplastics, it is very challenging to retrieve them all using existing filtration and water treatment systems. Without accurate information on how these microplastic particles behave and on where to find them, addressing this issue seemed nearly impossible, yet this did not discourage Dr. [Vahid] Pilechi.

Through the NRC’s New Beginnings Initiative, Dr. Pilechi was able to explore a new line of research at the NRC. He demonstrated how numerical modelling and machine learning technology can be applied to this global problem by enabling the prediction of potential sources, pathways, and the fate of microplastics in aquatic environments.


Opportunities for neuromorphic computing algorithms and applications

Nature Computational Science, Perspective; Catherine D. Schuman, Shruti R. Kulkarni, Maryam Parsa, J. Parker Mitchell, Prasanna Date & Bill Kay


from

We define neuromorphic computers as non-von Neumann computers whose structure and function are inspired by brains and that are composed of neurons and synapses. Von Neumann computers are composed of separate CPUs and memory units, where data and instructions are stored in the latter. In a neuromorphic computer, on the other hand, both processing and memory are governed by the neurons and the synapses. Programs in neuromorphic computers are defined by the structure of the neural network and its parameters, rather than by explicit instructions as in a von Neumann computer. In addition, while von Neumann computers encode information as numerical values represented by binary values, neuromorphic computers receive spikes as input, where the associated time at which they occur, their magnitude and their shape can be used to encode numerical information. Binary values can be turned into spikes and vice versa, but the precise way to perform this conversion is still an area of study in neuromorphic computing3.

Given the aforementioned contrasting characteristics between the two architectures (Fig. 1), neuromorphic computers present some fundamental operational differences:

  • Highly parallel operation: neuromorphic computers are inherently parallel, where all of the neurons and synapses can potentially be operating simultaneously; however, the computations performed by neurons and synapses are relatively simple when compared with the parallelized von Neumann systems.
  • Collocated processing and memory: there is no notion of a separation of processing and memory in neuromorphic hardware.

  • How much of tech history involves Black history?

    ZDNet, Nate Delesline III


    from

    Many of today’s 21st-century innovations came from the 1950s and 1960s. Inventions like the microchip, computer programming languages, and satellites are the foundation of services and devices we take for granted today — the internet, smartphones, artificial intelligence, virtual learning, remote work, and social media.

    While these innovations were taking shape, America was in the midst of its 20th-century civil rights movement. Unfortunately, like many other aspects of public policy and culture, most tech innovations were developed without consideration of how they might affect the lives of Black Americans.

    We asked three computer science professors to weigh in on how the development and use of technology influence Black American’s past, present, and future. Here’s what they said.


    Very excited that my article “Rediscovering the 1%: Knowledge Infrastructures and the Stylized Facts of Inequality” is now out!

    Twitter, Dan Hirschman


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    This paper starts with an observation: Scholars & bureaucrats measured top income inequality (e.g. the share of the top 1%) way back in the 1920s-1950s. Then they stopped doing so, such that by 2003, Piketty & Saez could surprise everyone with their findings. What’s up with that? … I argue that knowledge infrastructures are particularly important for shaping what stylized facts we identify (& which we miss). Stylized facts are simple empirical regularities that become the things models and theories try to explain


    What’s driving the remarkable decline of urban sprawl in the US?

    Anthropocene magazine, Sarah DeWeerdt


    from

    After falling during the 2000s, the rate of land development stabilized around 2010 at a rate about one-quarter of its peak in the late 1990s, the researchers report in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

    The researchers also simulated what the landscape would have looked like if high land development rates had continued. Overall, the slowdown in land conversion spared 7 million acres of forest and agricultural land from development between 2000 and 2015, they showed.

    Finally, they used a mathematical model to tease apart how three important drivers of land development – population growth, income, and commuting costs – contributed to these changing rates of land conversion. “We find that rising incomes and low gas prices helped spur the increasing development rates in the 1980s and 1990s, while rising gas prices were the largest factor that helped bring land development rates back down from 2000-2015,” [Daniel] Bigelow says.


    Emory University Receives Landmark Gift from Rollins Foundation in Support of Students and Faculty

    Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health; Atlanta, GA


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    The Rollins Fund for Faculty Excellence will focus on recruiting and retaining distinguished senior faculty leaders dedicated to addressing the world’s most pressing public health challenges and provide early career support for gifted junior faculty members.

    The gift will allow the Rollins School of Public Health to deepen the bench of exceptional faculty members in key areas where the school is recognized as a national leader, from cancer research and infectious diseases to global safe water, sanitation and hygiene, mental health and substance use disorders, and more. Additionally, in selecting recipients, Rollins will expand the faculty in departments where the school has a significant opportunity to gain national prominence.

    The Rollins Fund for Student Success will expand the school’s ability to provide financial support and valuable career-enhancing experiences to the nation’s most promising students through the Rollins Earn and Learn work-study and global field experience funds. The fund will also allow the school to support increased student interest in public health spurred by the global pandemic.


    How a decades-old database became a hugely profitable dossier on the health of 270 million Americans

    STAT, Casey Ross


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    To most Americans, the name MarketScan means nothing. But most Americans mean everything to MarketScan.

    As a repository of sensitive patient information, the company’s databases churn silently behind the scenes of their medical care, scooping up their most guarded secrets: the diseases they have, the drugs they’re taking, the places their bodies are broken that they haven’t told anyone but their doctor. The family of databases that make up MarketScan now include the records of a stunning 270 million Americans, or 82% of the population.

    The vast reach of MarketScan, and its immense value, is unmistakable. Last month, a private equity firm announced that it would pay $1 billion to buy the databases from IBM. It was by far the most valuable asset left for IBM as the technology behemoth cast off its foundering Watson Health business.


    A “techlash” is coming this year

    GZERO Media


    from

    After years of uninhibited expansion into nearly all corners of modern life, consumer internet companies could this year face meaningful action to curb their activities from governments around the world. From Delhi to Dublin, Beijing to Brussels, and Washington to Warsaw, there is real momentum behind unprecedented legislation and stepped-up regulatory enforcement against big tech. In response, these companies will launch forceful advocacy campaigns to try to deflect the most aggressive measures, while modifying their business models and practices in response to the changing environment. We spoke to Eurasia Group expert Alexis Serfaty to get a sense of how the backlash against big tech is likely to play out in three major markets: the EU, China, and the US.


    The vaguely dystopian technology fueling China’s Olympic Games

    Rest of the World, Meaghan Tobin


    from

    The Olympics aren’t just about sport, they’re a showcase for the host country. And this year’s Winter Games are no different, as China hopes to demonstrate its advancements in technology with an entire town’s worth of machine-made snow, the rollout of the world’s largest digital currency — and, if all goes to plan, zero Covid-19 transmission.

    Beijing is taking the second mid-pandemic Games to new heights inside a “closed loop,” a sealed and guarded area from airport to arena, and deploying fleets of robots and unprecedented levels of health tracking and surveillance. Nearly 3,000 athletes, plus thousands more participants, including coaches, staff, and media, will be inside the bubble.

    The Games will show off high-tech innovations at every scale — from artificial intelligence to internet infrastructure and even a new way to keep ice cool. They’ll also serve as a venue for the official rollout of China’s digital currency, e-CNY, which will be one of the only acceptable payment mechanisms in the Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Village.


    Events



    THE 2022 AAAS ANNUAL MEETING WILL CONVENE ONLINE

    AAAS


    from

    Online February 17-20. “We have made the difficult decision to forego the in-person component of the AAAS Annual Meeting in Philadelphia and convert to an entirely virtual convening. Before the live event on February 17-20, be on the lookout for pre-released Spotlight Videos, highlighting the work of individual panelists.” [registration required]


    Deadlines



    cfp – 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Science and Law

    “The 2nd ACM Symposium on Computer Science and Law is soliciting submissions of both original research papers and systematizations of knowledge (SoKs). The latter are papers that evaluate, systematize, and contextualize existing knowledge, often providing important new viewpoints, challenging long-held beliefs, or devising useful taxonomies.” Deadline for submissions is March 15.

    SPONSORED CONTENT

    Assets  




    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.

     


    Tools & Resources



    For successful machine learning tools, talk with end users

    MIT Sloan, Ideas Made to Matter, Sara Brown


    from

    The researchers identified two reasons why back-and-forth dialogue was an important part of integrating the tools.
    1. Because end users best understand the data. … 2. Because machine learning models are opaque.


    How to fix your scientific coding errors

    Nature, Scientific Feature, Jeffrey Perkel


    from

    Software bugs are frustrating. Adopting some simple strategies can help you to avoid them, and fix them when they occur.


    Make the Most of your RIM System

    OCLC Research, Hanging Together blog, Rebecca Bryant


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    Research information management (RIM) is a rapidly growing area of investment in US research universities. RIM systems that support the collection and use of research outputs metadata have been in place for many years, with greatest maturity in Europe and the Pacific Rim. However, in the absence of national research assessment requirements in the United States, RIM practices at US research universities have taken a different—and characteristically decentralized—course.

    The Research Information Management in the United States two-part report series from OCLC Research examines the practices, goals, stakeholders, and uses that comprise the RIM landscape in the US, documenting how it is used to support reputation management, interdisciplinary research, faculty annual reviews, and strategic planning and reporting. In the course of documenting RIM practices at five case study institutions, the authors have synthesized six high-level recommendations for US institutional leaders and decision makers.

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