Week 7 [12.19-25.12.2016] Predictions for 2020s With Ray Kurzweil

Hello everyone,

I have noticed it's pretty hard to find a good topic for general conversation if we publish something very narrow so I have decided to give you a rather general more conversational topic. I have found a video of with Ray Kurzweil "Predictions for 2020s With Ray Kurzweil". I think everybody heard about Mr. Kurzweil and his achievements in the field of new technologies and I hope you enjoy his vision of the future.

1) Can you suggest other great visioners worth following on the twitter, facebook, youtube or read their publications? Please share and describe shortly why you suggest this person.

2) What do you think about idea of open source clothing and having all products as virtual files?

3) Do you agree on the thesis we will have more and more systems decentralised as this guarantees more stability and especially do you think it's possible to have one decentralised currency?

Thank you and enjoy.
M

Week 7 [12.19-25.12.2016] Teach Kids Math Using The Model Method For Math From Singapore

Hello everybody.

I want you take a minute to read this short article about teaching math young students. In current situation where everybody is trying to encourage young people to attend computer science or related studies, maybe we should start earlier (in kindergartens or elementary schools) and we should focus on making math approachable by youngsters.

1. What do you think about presented method?
2. Does it could be applied in polish environment?  
3. Can you suggest example exercises for such method?

Week 6 [12.12-18.12.2016] The stride of the Dragon - China's silk road and the business possibilities

Hi guys,

While thinking about the topic for the blog entry, I decided to choose something understandable for most of us which would not lay beyond anyone's comprehension (all DNA teleport machines are definitely way too difficult for me to grasp after reading one or two articles. Leaving a wise comment is even much harder).

So, my topic is more practical - as you might have heard, China is planning to build the silk road. This includes building two new routes - overland and by the sea. The point is to set a trade corridors from China to Middle East and Europe. From Polish perspective, this investment is crucial, because the overland route goes across our country, so - for example - we'll have an opportunity to distribute the goods further across Baltic sea and to the south of Europe across the land.

Please read these two articles (one of them contains a short movie clip):
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/why-china-is-building-a-new-silk-road/
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/europe-china-new-silk-road/

and answer following questions:

1. In times of big geopolitical changes (Trump wins the general election in the US, China builds the silk road) and in times of competition between dominant political powers, who do you think we should cooperate with and why?

2. What kind of new possibilities the IT companies (or companies of your interest) would have thanks to China's investment?

3. What kind of technologies could improve building of such enourmous route? Do you know any? Or maybe one of those presented on the blog so far could be helpful in the future?

Week 6 [12.12-18.12.2016] Future computing and brain based chips

Hello everyone,

I have come across interesting presentation about new chips which are being develop or appearing on the market. Those new chips are having NN like architecture and are design to be used instead of current CPUs where the computation and power consumption requirements to complete the tasks are high.

1) Do you think we will build one day a chip which has the same amount of neurons than human brain?
2) What field of application do you think will gain the most from this new chip development?
3) Can new chips take place of current chips architecture or rather they will work in parallel being used accordingly to the task at hand?

Thanks

Week 6 [12.12-18.12.2016] Machine Translation and Computer Assisted Translation as Example of Tools Utterly Changing One of the Mordern World Proffessions

Hello everybody,

I am very happy to present you an interesting article on what is partially connected to a very important issue for a modern world ‒ the need, importance and role of certain proffessions. Machines and computers speed up many production proccesses, save time and work, help develop advanced technical solutions to various problems. Nevertheless, there is also a negative side of technical progress, some proffessions disappeared, some are slowly fading away, while other need to evolve and change their form. This article pertains to machine translation and coputer-assisted translation and their influence on role of translators in the modern world. I hope you will find it interesting. I would also like you to comment on it, bearing in mind the following questions:

1. Basing on the article presented, can you elaborate on the difference bettween machine and computer assisted translation?

2. Do you know any other proffessions that disappeared or were forced to evolve and adapt to new circumstances due to technical progress, invention of computers or other machines?

3. Do you know any machine translation programmes apart from Google Translate? Do you think that such programmes may be useful tool in scientific research or everyday life when travelling abroad to communicate with native people of a particular country?

4. Can you name a programme that led to disappearance of a particular proffession or utterly changed a particular field of science or branch of business? How did it happen?

http://translationjournal.net/journal/29computers.htm

Week 6 [12.12-18.12.2016] Using Machine Learning to Predict Project Effort: Empirical Case Studies in Data-Starved Domains

Hello everybody.

I would like to introduce a Using Machine Learning to Predict Project Effort topic for you.

This study is trying to approach problems related to project estimation effort and how it can be solved with usage of machine learning algorithms.Ideally, software engineering should be able to use machine learning to control or significantly decrease the costs associated with building software. In reality, there are very few examples of applying such applications early in the software life cycle. One reason for the scarcity of examples is the lack of empirical data in the software engineering discipline. This dilemma is quite evident when constructing models to predict project effort.

1. Do You think it is possible to apply machine learning or AI solutions for such field as effort estimation and if would have any significant outcomes?
2. Are you familiar with any existing solutions for this topic? What is state of the art in this field
3. Do You know any open source data sets related to this topic?

Week 5 [5.12-11.12.2016] TorchCraft - Deep Learning StarCraft

Hi,
I know some of you consider AI a potential humanity destroyer, but I'd like to share an article on it.
Recently I came across an article on learning Artificial Neural Networks (NN) to play real-time strategy game (RTS). Obviously NNs playing computer games is not a recent invention, but as far as I know until recent NNs were playing simple arcade games. According to the article a NN using Deep Reinforced Learning is able to achieve nearly a 100% win rate.
I wonder what is your opinion on artificial intelligence in games, both built-in (like bots or NPCs) and AI playing games.
What is also interesting (and what I did not realize) is that games like StarCraft provide API to integrate with it. I searched for other games providing an API and found that very few do so. Do you know any other RTS with API?
Please take a quick look at the article on arxiv and a poster and share your thoughts.
Best,
Mikolaj

Week 5 [5.12-11.12.2016] - HyperCam: Hyperspectral Imaging in our phones

HyperCam: Hyperspectral Imaging in our phones

Would you like to become a little scientist/doctor in your everyday life? 

In studies of ancient pieces of art, including paintings, books hyperspectral imaging is an indispensable tool for non-invasive examination of authenticity and hidden content of the work.

It is also an excellent tool for remote detection of environmental pollutants. 

Soon everyone will be able to use their mobile phones, for example, to detect or monitor the quality of food or monitor own health. The benefits for consumers could occur in health care, such as mobile phones, which are able to check if the moles are malignant or food is edible. They could also check the authenticity of the product, or to identify users based on biometric data. 

Hyperspectral imaging significantly accelerates the identification and diagnosis of skin cancer. New technology makes it easier to determine the exact shape and size of signs. Reducing device size and integrating it with a microscope can dramatically accelerate distinguish melanomas from ordinary moles while maintaining security and lowering costs. This rapid test allows for the precise boundaries of the presence of cancer cells.

Materials:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161124081556.htm

http://homes.cs.washington.edu/~mayank/Papers/HyperCam.pdf

Questions:

1. What do you think about HyperCam in everyday usage? Do you think that this technology can be as good as doctor’s diagnosis and we will no longer need to visit health clinics?
2. What are other possible usage of HyperCam besides health monitoring, food quality and environment monitoring?
3. If HyperCam was working 100% correctly do you think that people would use is on regular basis (multiple times every day)? Or will it remain to be just a gadget or another not useful function in our phone?

Week 5 [5.12-11.12.2016] - Bitcoin, Blockchain, and the Future of Financial Transactions

Ladies and Gentlemen,

this week I have the pleasure to present you the article about future of finance in terms of usage of virtual currencies and blockchain.

http://www.cfapubs.org/doi/full/10.2469/cp.v32.n3.5?src=recsys

Article was presented in last years CFA Institute Conference. 

Briefly introducing - bitcoin is a new financial system that has the potential to have a big impact on the way the world does business. Its open ledger system and distribution network make it an alternative way to present methods how transactions are made, settled and record . Although it is still in its infancy, as bitcoin becomes larger and more sophisticated, it may very well provide solutions to many of the current financial system’s problems.

Questions to the article are as follows:

1. Charles G. Cascarilla identifies three main areas where Bitcoin technology is used nowadays. Do you know any other areas that has potential to use Bitcoin for?
2. Do you think that blockchain technology will replace the traditional banking systems in the future?
3. Do you know any other solutions that use blockchain?