Week 3 [18-24.04.2016] Autonomous cars - moral decisions

Hi everyone! I would like to share with you an article about autonomous cars and moral decisions made by algorithms inside those cars. 

I would like to ask you:

1. What do you think about autonomous cars? Are we ready to use them?
2. Who should take the responsibility for bad decisions of the algorithms? What are for you those bad decisions - your personal opinion?
3. What do you think about morality of algorithms that will make decisions in future?

Article: 
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1510.03346.pdf

Google autonomus car:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqSDWoAhvLU

M. 

Week 3 [18-24.04.2016] Do we need a "moral operating system" ?

Today, I would like to get to know your views on Damon Horowitz TED Talk regarding moral choices. After stating that “we have a responsibility that is proportional to our power. Being sensitive to the human considerations is crucial in making ethical decisions ", he asks more questions than gives answers, which leaves an enormous field for a discussion.

https://www.ted.com/talks/damon_horowitz#t-640431

I wonder if ethical questions are important for you at all ?

Have you ever experienced a moral dilemma at work ?

If so what has helped you to resolve it ?

What is your opinion about the idea of a “moral framework” ?

Have a good week :), 

Asia

Week 3 [18-24.04.2016] Are Containers the Beginning of the End of Virtual Machines?

Hello, This time I would like you to present interesting findings on the adoption and use patterns of containers. I decide to present you this research because deployment containers in production environments is likely to increase in the short term. Containers are used as a kind of virtualization, well suited for microservices. If you are interested in open source technology you could hear about this technology before (known as lxc). The containers (in large short) unlike traditional virtualization don't need running a whole separate operating system to get a resource and security isolation. Launch of containers is very fast because they use the same kernel as the host machine. Because low level resource consumption they are widely used not only in the cloud but also there are many use cases for mobile devices and microcomputers working on ARM architecture. I believe mentioned information may be very important for those who make investment decision and are interested in the latest trends in IT. 

Here you can find a link to these studies http://offers.ruxit.com/rs/987-BEQ-874/images/State_of_Containers_Ruxit_compressed_V2.pdf

1. Have you heard about this technology before? Do you use virtualization in your environment? In what circumstances and on what architecture?
2. Do you think that technology as RHEV (KVM), Docker, RKT (mentioned containers) may provide an alternative to commercial solutions, eg. VMware or Hyper-V?
3. What is your opinion about container technology? In your opinion which of mentioned challenges is the most important for adopting containers in production environment?

Regards.

Week 3 [18-24.04.2016] Tying Up Loose Ends in Transitioning to the Cloud

Abstract
We are living in a world full of data. Moreover, we are being tied to them. We want to access them wherever we are, whenever we want and so on. Recently, we can observe new trends. People tend to prefer storing data in the cloud storage instead of storing them on their own devices. Even big companies are moving their infrastructures to the cloud. Enterprises no longer have the luxury of being slow in following this trend. Cloud is cheaper, more flexible and can fulfil almost every scenario we want to try. The cloud can speed up setting up startups with limited budgets, can help schools transform into smart schools and so on.
Are we really prepared to cope with this trend? Before entrusting our precious data to 3rd parties it would be nice to know how safe and reliable they are. In the below article you can find few answers to common questions. Improve your knowledge about encryption, vulnerabilities, SLA and learn about advantages and disadvantages of moving our infrastructure and data to the cloud. Enjoy.

Article
Tying Up Loose Ends in Transitioning to the Cloud

Questions

1. What do you think about moving infrastructure to the cloud?
2. How can you be more innovative by using the cloud?
3. Is cloud storage really reliable?

Week 3 [18-24.04.2016] That Sugar Film

Watch the documentary That Sugar Film at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSMxGRwesMg

and comment on it. Present the experiment and its results. Add scientific opinions presented by American researchers. 

Week 2 [4-10.04.2016] Natural unity and fascinating relationship?

Hello,

Probably most of you have heard of The Golden Ratio or Fibonacci Sequence while studying. However, I do not know if you've heard how often this structure (which usually know that a purely mathematical relationship) perfectly describe our close and distant 'environment' from the areas of disciplines such as biology, genetics, astronomy to music and architecture and even financial analysis or betting.

If you start to measure different objects, for example, in your home you can see how often you will find also the golden proportions, usually is what it seems to meet most of these esthetic, nice, proportionate.

1. I have few sources of starting something pleasant to look:
2. http://io9.gizmodo.com/5985588/15-uncanny-examples-of-the-golden-ratio-in-nature
3. http://www.inspirationgreen.com/fibonacci-sequence-in-nature
4. Through the scientific approach:
5. http://phys.org/news/2005-08-fibonacci-series-microstructures.html
6. Finally I would like present  film:
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Se-J5HBsQ

I also have a few questions:

1. Is in the course of their education often hear how this relationship occurs in nature?

2. Does the interplay of many disciplines surprised you?

3. How do you think whether it is natural optimization, or search according to "force"?

4. Maybe you know more interesting examples, applications, and can see other applications?

Correction

I think that most of you have heard about  The Golden Ratio or Fibonacci Sequence, haven’t you? However, I do not know if you heard that this structure can be found in nature very often? This relationship perfectly describes the world. If you look at the articles and the film, you'll see examples:

http://io9.gizmodo.com/5985588/15-uncanny-examples-of-the-golden-ratio-in-nature

http://www.inspirationgreen.com/fibonacci-sequence-in-nature

http://phys.org/news/2005-08-fibonacci-series-microstructures.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Se-J5HBsQ

My questions:

1. Have you heard of these dependencies before

2. Were you surprised?

4. How do you think, is it natural optimization?

4. You give the other interesting examples?

Week 2 [4-10.04.2016] Assessment of Application Technology of Natural User Interfaces in the Creation of a Virtual Chemical Laboratory

Hello,

I would like to present a very interesting article prepared by two polish scientists which was published by Springer. This paper is quite short and provides promising results of the usage of NUI at schools.

I would like to ask following questions:
1. Have you heard of NUI before? What do you think about this aspect of usage of NUI?
2. What are the other ways of the usage of NUI?
3. Do you see any drawbacks of the usage of NUI?


Link to the article:


Assessment of Application Technology of Natural User Interfaces in the Creation of a Virtual Chemical Laboratory

Week 2 [4-10.04.2016] Process mining: software and features

Hello, 

this week I want to continue the process mining topic. As you know, process mining is methodology, which allows us take a look on the process as it looks in reality. Week 2 is the proper time to think about four aspects that are crucial in process analysis:

• Zoomability
• Zoomability is an approach that allows us to look at the process as like as on google maps. Using scroll you can look on continents, countries, highways or alleys. It depends on our needs. When you are a director you should know, how the things are going without mining in departments reports. If you are not able to answer - why is so bad then you can spend some time on searching source of problem in detailed process view by zoomability.
• When we add timestamp in zoomability then we are able to find bottlenecks in our process.
• Evaluation
• Trade-off between: fitness, precision, generalization and simplicity.
• “More specifically, for instance the question whether a violation to the four-eyes principle occurred, i.e. whether two different persons looked at a certain case, should not be answered using a model with 80% fitness, as roughly 20% of the behaviour is not shown in it. Another example: a question whether something could happen in the future should be answered on a model with high generalisation, rather than an overfitting one”
• Semantics
• “Executable semantics allow for replay, which enables decision point analysis”
• Speed
• How long have we wait till we receive process mining results. (It is determined by learning curve and responsivity of the tool)

Source article shows different software examples and mining methods / algorithms. My favourite one is Inductive Visual Miner that allows us take a look on each instance of the process as like as at video. Time stamp on event log gives us a possibility to track each instance flow.

My experience with commercial and academic tools is that the commercial one are more user friendly (authors wrote the same) but academic software as a ProM has a lot off different functions which allows us to make complete analysis too. Additionally ProM community is growing up, so gap between commercial will … ? and the questions.

1. First question is about open source: can open source software be better than commercial equivalent? If yes - can you give an example?
2. What should we do when we identify potential deviation in process?
3. Which of four aspects is the most important in your opinion?

Article: http://wwwis.win.tue.nl/~wvdaalst/publications/z4.pdf

Week 2 [4-10.04.2016] The Promise of Virtual Reality in Higher Education

Hi everybody J

I would like to present a very interesting article about VR in education. In the modern world pupils and students need new ways to improve their knowledge. In my opinion VR  is one of the best ways to explore new fields of knowledge as history, geography, astronomy etc.

These days virtual reality teeters on the edge of becoming mainstream, with software development outstripping the hardware and memory storage needed. In the article, a librarian and an art historian discuss  many ways that VR may transform learning and student experiences.

Not that long ago students and scholars could access only the libraries and museums available to them on their home campus — or perhaps in their city or region — because only a select few had the credentials to access materials from other institutions or the means to travel to distant places for their research. The Internet changed everything, of course, with the corpus of human knowledge now at everyone's fingertips. Just as hypertext, digital publishing, and other digital media have transformed the ways in which we engage with documents and collections, the technologies surrounding virtual reality (VR) may ultimately transform the ways in which we teach, learn, engage with each other, and experience the world writ large. In a not-too-distant future, as VR technologies advance at a steady pace and become embedded in our lives, we may one day look back with a sense of amazement at students once bound to a physical classroom, campus setting, locale, or even place in time.

VR may be seen as the next logical extension of cyberspace. While scientists and programmers have explored the possibilities of VR since the 1960s,1 last year marked the first time that VR hit the mainstream, when many of us from a broad range of disciplines began to first see its possibilities. With freely available apps, one can journey through our solar system with Titans of Space or experience firsthand what it is like for a young refugee uprooted by war through The Displaced, an immersive video documentary produced by The New York Times, both available for Google Cardboard. One can now experience a Roman gladiator battle with Colosseum VR or take a 360-degree tour of world cities with StreetView VR for the Oculus DK2, and begin to feel like you're actually there.

I would like to ask you about the issues below:

1.       What do you think about using VR in teaching?
2.       Do you think administrations should invest in this topic?
3.       What other topic can VR use during teaching?

Link to article:

http://er.educause.edu/articles/2016/3/the-promise-of-virtual-reality-in-higher-education