WEEK 5 [17.12 - 23.12.2018] Multi-agent evolutionary systems for the generation of complex virtual worlds

Hi, today I would like to present to you the article about Multi-agent evolutionary systems for the generation of complex virtual worlds.

Link to the article:

https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1604/1604.05792.pdf

Currently, movies, games and virtual reality applications depend to a large extent on computer graphics. Very complex models are often used to present many scenes and environments. Some works such as rendering, composition and animation have already been improved, but the modeling of complex models is still a laborious task. The authors of the article presented the use of an interactive genetic algorithm (IGA) for modeling computer graphics while compensating for user's program fatigue. The genetic algorithm is taught based on the choices made by the designer. Man chooses candidate solutions to be used in the evolution of the next generation of urban area. The training agent monitors the choices made by man. The training agent classifies new generations of sites based on several available classification algorithms and takes new decisions according to these classifications. The decisions made lead to actions, in this case the selection of new candidates. These choices are reintroduced into the genetic algorithm. The results indicate that the use of an Interactive  Genetic  Algorithm  with  a multi-agent implementation of a Human-Based Genetic Algorithm HBGA  allows for a greater exploration of the design space in a shorter time. Thanks to this, designers are less tired and can devote their attention to other details of created projects.

Questions:

1. Do you think that in the future human interference in the creation of artificial virtual worlds will be negligible and the whole creation process will be performer by appropriate algorithms?

2. Do you think that it is possible that artificial intelligence algorithms (not necessarily genetic algorithms) can help graphic designers and designers to create not only schematics of virtual worlds composed of simple elements, but also to choose colors, textures etc.?

3. Do you think that the semi-automatic solution presented in the article (part of the work is done by genetic algorithms, which is supervised and evaluated by a human being) will be used by filmmakers or computer games to save designers time? Would the quality of such a solution differ significantly from human work itself?

4. Do you think that there is a possibility to create an AI-based graphics engine that would allow anyone, even a non-graphic designer, to create a virtual world that does not diverge from today's high-resolution 3D computer graphics standards?

 

WEEK 5 [17.12 - 23.12.2018] EEG and Brain Computer Interfaces

I would like to present you article about electroencephalography and Brain Computer Interfaces which are based on EEG.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a technique dedicated to register and monitor brain electrical activity. It is  non-invasive measurement of specific waveforms emitted by a human brain. This activity is recorded with electroencephalograph – a special type of amplifier dedicated to signals of small amplitude, such as EEG signal. The signal is gathered from human scalp by dedicated electrodes and it is sent in real time to a computer, where it is analyzed and applied in different studies. EEG signal depends on the age of the patient, the activity performed and other psychophysical aspects. EEG signal analysis might be used in wide range of applications. It is usually applied in ambulatory and clinic applications, e.g. for monitoring patients being in coma or suffering from epilepsy or sleep disorders.

Nowadays EEG analysis is also applied in construction of brain computer interfaces (BCIs) which implement the set of methods enabling users to establish and conduct communication with computers and other devices without use of usual physical capabilities of their bodies.

BCI might be applied in software projects but they also might be used in hardware applications to control robotic devices performing such functions as transporting or

manipulating. BCI supports motion of disabled people who have serious diseases or injuries. 
There are three main paradigms of BCI based on EEG techniques: P300, steady state visual evoked potentials (SSVEP) and motor imagery (MI). P300 paradigm is based on event-related potentials which appear as a reaction to a specific stimulus at time between 300 and 600 ms after the demonstration of expected stimulus. SSVEP is related to the visual stimulus presented with the specific frequency. The frequency of the stimulus might be observed in EEG signal of examined person. MI is associated with moving of various parts of body e.g.: left/right hand, tongue or foot and it is based on event-related desynchronization/synchronization.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262963497_EEG-Based_Brain-Computer_Interfaces_A_Thorough_Literature_Survey

Questions:

1.     What do you think is it possible that we will have opportunity to use Brain Mobile Phone Interface widely?

http://www.ijirae.com/volumes/vol1/issue8/SPCS10103(46).pdf?fbclid=IwAR2ZW_NrT7LDFDTysxRuPcyaJp_itXUhs1dDtAaJCtP-951obN77OjZcMoI

2.     Have you ever participated in EEG experiment? If yes, did you like it?  If no would you like to participate in one?

3.     How Brain Computer Interfaces can help disabled people? Provide some examples.

4.     Does the EEG technique can be applied in cryptography for key generation?

Week 4 [3-9.12.18], An introduction to modern missing data analyses

Hi,

Today I would like to present an article on data analysis. Some of us are researchers who base their doctoral thesis on the results obtained from their own experiment. It is obvious that we draw conclusions from the experiment on the basis of the analysis of the received data. Unfortunately, it is very often the case that we do not have some data.  This may be the result of a poorly designed experiment. Sometimes a failure of the measuring device or a data acquisition software error can occur. However, most often it is the result of a human error, who has not done his or her work accurately and reliably. The result of such errors is the loss of important data.  Missing data is therefore inevitable in research. This problem concerns not only social sciences, but also those related to computer science, this problem is especially related to social computer science, where human behaviour is a dependent variable. The solution to such problems are different methods of data replacement, but in literature their potential undermining the credibility of such research results has often been omitted. This is partly due to the fact that statistical methods, which can solve the problems resulting from missing data, were until recently not readily available to researchers. Therefore, I would like to present you with different approaches to the problem of replacing lost or missing data. I am enthusiastic about the possibilities of algorithms that can improve the reliability of research results and reduce the waste of resources caused by missing data. The cost of algorithms is small compared to the cost of data collection. As a result, it is no longer possible to justify the missing values and the reason for which they were swept under the carpet, nor the potentially misleading and ineffective analysis of complete cases that can be considered appropriate.

http://212.182.24.107/owncloud/index.php/s/0vqQ50ZQ5xM8B9b

Questions

1. Does the method of replacing empty data make sense?

2. does the method of deleting whole lines with incomplete data give better results than substitution?

3.Which method of data replacement is more efficient; Maximal probability or multiple imputation?

4.How can researchers use missing data to improve their research projects?

Week 4 [3-9.12.18], How Machine Learning Is Changing the World and Your Everyday Life

Hi everyone!
Today I want to show you summary changes which would be made when machine learning go further. The article shows how AI could automate a large portion of skilled labor.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/312016

Here is some question:
1)Do you think that AI should be so widely used?

2)Are there professions that can be replaced, but we shouldn't do this? If so, which ones?

3) Do you have an idea how machine learning can be used to make life difficult for us instead of improving it?

4)Do you think that AI with data about disease from all the world could have worse result than doctor with long term experience? "Who" in your opinion will make a better diagnosis?

Week 4 [3-9.12.18] Improving image quality - DIY with Deep Learning

Hello, today I have a few articles about image processing for you:

https://venturebeat.com/2018/07/09/nvidia-uses-ai-to-clean-up-messy-photos/
https://arxiv.org/abs/1803.04189
https://www.engadget.com/2018/07/10/nvidia-ai-fix-bad-photos-deep-learning/

(I don't want to spark controversy. Why are so many articles here about controversial topics? I could have also gone for: https://www.engadget.com/2018/11/29/china-halts-gene-edited-baby-research/ - but I don't want to discuss ethics all the time).

1. Do you like taking photos? Are they sometimes e.g. noisy, or have any other problems (blur, under/over-exposure etc.)?

2. Do you use any methods to improve the quality of them? (yours or otherwise?)

3. How about using open sourced or published methods for such processing? Is it better or worse than just trusting your smartphone camera application, which has one button "Make Me Pretty!", that we don't know the workings of?

4. After taking a look at this, do you have an interest in trying out some of the deep learning image processing available e.g. on GitHub? Or maybe you have tried it already and can share a story? (Things like TL-GAN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1by05eX424 also count)

Week 4 [3-9.12.18] Saving the digital world

Hi everyone !!!

I have found a very interesting ariticle about saving digitlal data for future population. Today many articles, photos, posts are published in the internet. The technology is changing and we have no guarantee that this data won’t disappiered somedays or we couldn’t open it witch new programs. 

Read this article https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07505-8 and answer some questions:

1. What is the biggest problem with archiving digital data?
2. How to protect data from being manipulated before archiving it?
3. How can we help this people to build a library of our history?
4. What data should we archiving?

Week 4 [3-9.12.18] AT, robots & big companies ...

Yes I know ... Today is 1st of December 2018 but it's likely that on Monday, December 3, 2018 I will not have access to the Internet, so

Two days ago I read an article by Karl Frederick Rauscher. He is a Bell Labs Fellow, commissioner of the Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GIIC) and serves on numerous governance and strategic advisory boards. An article published on November 26, 2018 regarding threats related to artificial intelligence, robots and big companies that want to launch robots and artificial intelligence on the market. Here is the link ... https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/can-we-avoid-the-potential-dangers-of-ai-robots-and-big-tech-companies/

Accordingly, if ...
1. Are there reasons to be afraid of artificial intelligence and robotics and are they justified?
2. Reasonable people should be concerned about what can cause robots with their introduction into everyday life?
3. Artificial intelligence can compete with our brains, and robots can compete with the activities we do, and maybe in many cases they can be better than us?
4. You agree that the more time passes, the better will be the robots equipped with artificial intelligence, while our own capabilities will rather remain at the same level?

Week 3 [19-25.11.18] Distributed Systems

Hello everyone,

I would like to present an article about "A Thorough Introduction to Distributed Systems".
The author explains what is distributed computing, scaling database. He also gives what they are
Distributed System Categories. 
After reading the article please answer the questions:

1. What is a distributed computing?
2. What that has to do scaling database with distributed computing?
3. How can distributed computing develop science? Give an example.

4. Have you participated in or continue to participate in a project using distributed systems? 
   If so, please tell about it.
   
   
   Distributed Systems

    

Week 3 [19-25.11.18] Digital archeology

I'd like to present You a paper about digital archeology: "Entombed: An archaeological examination of an Atari 2600 game"

Authors analyse old Atari 2600 game. They interview identified authors, with emphasis on maze generator used in game ("... it came upon him when he was drunk and whacked out of his brain, he coded it up in assembly overnight before he passed out, but now could not for the life of him remember how the algorithm worked"). After reverse-engineering the game image, they spot a bug in pseudo-random number generator (PRNG). PRNGs implementations with identical bug are then found out in 5 other Atari 2600 games, 3 by the same publisher, suggesting code re-use. As authors state, this work is already close to the gray area of copyright law.

And back to our times: there are games you can no longer get, like the list on https://www.thegamer.com/15-amazing-games-you-cant-play-anymore/ . Most of those are not available due to licences expiration. Such games, distributed via online stores as downloads on platforms implementing strong DRMs, are most probably lost for future generations.

1. Do You think it is a problem? Should we treat games as other artifacts of our culture and preserve, or more like low-end, volatile entertainment not worth second look?
   
2. Do you think we could learn anything from studies of old software artifacts? Or is the field today so different there is no connection?
   
3. What should we value more: rights of publishers, who want to control distribution of their products (possibly with intention to issue re-editions on new platforms) or efforts of digital librarians who attempt to save old hardware and software from oblivion?

For those interested, Gamasutra magazine published a 3-part series on game preservation a few years back: [Where Games Go To Sleep: The Game Preservation Crisis, Part 1]  [Part 2]  [Part 3]

Week 3 [19-25.11.18] Human error in privacy incidents

Hello everyone,

I would like to present you two articles about the impact of human on the IT security:

https://iapp.org/news/a/data-indicates-human-error-prevailing-cause-of-breaches-incidents/

and

https://iapp.org/news/a/full-disclosure-benchmarking-data-reveals-the-human-error-in-privacy-incidents/

Presented articles were prepared by the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). It is a non-profit member association which provides a forum for privacy professionals to share best practices, track trends, advance privacy management issues, standardize the designations for privacy professionals and provide education and guidance on opportunities in the field of information privacy.

According to the most popular cybersecurity reports there are still many attacks that exploit human weaknesses (for interested: a report of Cisco company: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/security/security-reports.html#~download-the-report).

Such incidents can be divided into three categories: intentional (malicious), intentional (not malicious) and unintentional (inadvertent). The most common (more than 96%) are inadvertent incidents. In general, they result from human error or other accidental actions.

Questions are:

1. Have you or your friends met phishing or malware attacks? What were the consequences?
2. Do you agree that human is the weakest link in IT security? Why?
3. Does the raising of cyber-threats awareness among computer users or employees really make sense? Why?
4. Has the implementation of the RODO (GDPR) helped you somehow?

Week 2 (05-11.11.18) BrainNet: A Multi-Person Brain-to-Brain Interface for Direct Collaboration Between Brains

BrainNet: A Multi-Person Brain-to-Brain Interface for Direct Collaboration Between Brains

Please read the paper available from below link:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1809.08632.pdf
You can also find it's summary on the YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IsIGp1IezE

What is your opinion about the idea of Brain-to-Brain Interface? Do you think that we dispose enough amount of knowledge about our brains and we have methods to do it properly?

Probably you have also heard about Neuralink, which is a company founded by Elon Musk and eight others, reported to be developing implantable brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). The founder says he will soon announce a Neuralink product that can make anyone superhuman by connecting their brains to a computer. He also says that Neuralink increases the data rate between the brain and computers and will give humans a better shot at competing with AI.

Do you think that eventually, Brain-Computer Interfaces would be as accurate and fast, as traditional input devices, such as mouse and keyboard? Or maybe it would be utterly incomparable to them?

Week 2 (05-11.11.18) Crowdsourcing Rare Events: Using Curiosity to Draw Participants into Science and Early Warning Systems

I wish to present  a paper about the topic of crowdsourcing from a slightly different perspective. Usually crowdsourcing use money or other specific benefits to encourage people to take part in the process. This time authors presents a curiosty driven crowdsourcing to collect the data about aurora borealis. They created website and mobile app which allows participants to
participate in developing an early warning system through space weather and the beauty of the aurora boreali. They described the innovation of a crowdsourced early warning system that uses
aurora sightings to nowcast solar activity. They used social media data as well.  A time series comparison of the global strength of the aurora was strongly correlated with the number of tweets related to auroral sightings. That is, gathering and processing social media data can enable a near real-time indicator of auroral activity. They showed that highly motived citizens that document the rare activity as aurora can have large impact of other citizen awarness. This research can be extended for other events.

Article: http://ww.w.iscram.org/legacy/ISCRAM2014/papers/p28.pdf


1. For which other purposes this kind of application can be used for?
2. Do you now any other interesting ways of encouraging people to get involved into crowdsourcing?
3. Have you ever participate in such kind of activity?
4. Do you use crowdsourcing in your research?

Week 2 (05-11.11.18) Post-quantum cryptography

In recent years, there has been a substantial amount of research on quantum computers – machines that exploit quantum mechanical phenomena to solve mathematical problems that are difficult or intractable for conventional computers.
Post-quantum cryptography refers to cryptographic algorithms that are thought to be secure against an attack by a quantum computer. As of 2018, this is not true for the most popular public-key algorithms, which can be efficiently broken by a sufficiently strong hypothetical quantum computer.  If large-scale quantum computers are ever built, they will be able to break many of the public-key cryptosystems currently in use. 

The problem with currently popular algorithms is that their security relies on one of three hard mathematical problems: the integer factorization problem, the discrete logarithm problem or the elliptic-curve discrete logarithm problem. This would seriously compromise the confidentiality and integrity of digital communications on the Internet and elsewhere.  

The goal of post-quantum cryptography is to develop cryptographic systems that are secure against both quantum and classical computers, and can interoperate with existing communications protocols and networks. This Internal Report shares the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)’s current understanding about the status of quantum computing and post-quantum cryptography, and outlines NIST’s initial plan to move forward in this space. The report also recognizes the challenge of moving to new cryptographic infrastructures and therefore emphasizes the need for agencies to focus on crypto agility.

https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/ir/2016/NIST.IR.8105.pdf

1. Could you propose other approach than symmetrical keys?

2. How companies should shift from classical security approach to post quantum?

3. If you know any interesting links, resources related to this topic please share with us.

4. What other acpects of modern IT could be affected by quantum computing?

Week 2 [05-11.11.18] The New Era of Innovation in E-commerce

The New Era of Innovation in E-commerce 

Dear all,

I would like to introduce to you a quite uncommon topic on this blog - internet marketing and e-commerce trends. 

Nowadays, the absence of a company or brand on the Internet is unacceptable. Internet advertisement gives a lot more opportunities and brings better results than traditional equivalents. The use of many IT tools has completely changed the image of online trading. Today, companies have access to big data, tools collecting opinions about them on the Internet, CRM software, various monetization models, affiliate links and many more. The articles presented by me describes trends and tools used in e-commerce. But more importantly indicate the possible trends and tools that can be used in the near future. Already today we can notice huge changes. Even today we can use additional forms of payments (BLIK, Google Pay, MasterPass, Visa Checkout, PayPal) but also many FinTechs are working on newer methods, eg direct card to card payments. 

Big Data helps with differentiating pricing strategies at the customer-product level and optimizing pricing using big data are becoming more achievable. At the same time Big Data is revolutionising how companies attain greater customer responsiveness and gain greater customer insights. 

The marketing has also changed a lot, often instead of advertising with the participation of celebrities and actors, companies choose "Internet influencers”. Internet users trust the recommendations of real people much more than they trust advertising and promotion of brands in every guise. According to some studies, the ROI of blog posts of influencers is 11 times greater than the ROI of advertising banners after 12 months. 

QUESTIONS TO ANSWEAR:

1. Do you think that the professional look of the website is still very important for brands or social media accounts and engagement with posting there is more important?
2. How do you see the future of traditional advertising?
3. Will influencer marketing sooner or later end with the same failure as creating fictitious purchased reviews in forums?
4. Will Big Data become the absolute basis for any, even the smallest e-commerce enterprise?

ARTICLE:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Prem_Kumar8/publication/308038039_E-Commerce_Trends_and_Future_Analytics_Tools/links/584c3b4b08aecb6bd8c2e30e/E-Commerce-Trends-and-Future-Analytics-Tools.pdf

Week 1 [22-28.10.18] Business Research for Business Leaders ( Information Technology)

Choose an article of your interest at https://hbswk.hbs.edu/Pages/browse.aspx?HBSTopic=Information%20Technology
and discuss it here.

Week 1 [22-28.10.18] Educause

Read an article of your interest at https://library.educause.edu/topics
and discuss it here. Add additional materials connected with the topic.

Winter Semester 2018/19

Dear Students,

1. Each week  there will be presented texts/films and presentations, which I would like you to read/watch and comment on.

2.  You should also present a scientific article with your comments and questions for the group to discuss: you do not write it, you just find something of your interest online, present it and moderate the discussion of it.  Put your name on the list of blog moderators next to the date when you would like to do it.

3. At the end of the semester you will deliver a 10-minute presentation of your research area

Read How to Make an Oral Presentation of Your Research  at http://www.virginia.edu/cue/presentationtips.html
Use Steve Jobs's presentation techniques  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4UEJMuo0dA) 

1. 22-28.10.18
2. 05-11.11.18 Cezary Góralski, Katarzyna Baraniak, Artur Chudzik, Ewelina Winska
3. 19-25.11.18 Damian Węgrzyn, Przemysław Tomczyk, Artur Arciszewski
4. 03-09.12.18 Michał Bukowski, Piotr Schneider, Tomasz Gandor, Kamil Bolek, Kawiak Andrzej
5. 17-23.12.18 Monika Kaczorowska, Monika Berendt-Marchel, Tomasz Zdunek, Agata M. Kaczyńska-Kral
6. 07-13.01.19 Klara Szelągowska, Adam Słucki, Przemysław Latoch, Michał Srokosz
7. 21-27.01.19 Marta Popławska, Artur Paluch,Łukasz Kwaśniewicz, Agata M. Kaczyńska-Kral