Eye on A.I.— Celebrating the Godfathers of Deep Learning

Bengio (Photo by Maryse Boyce), Hinton (Photo by Keith Penner), LeCun (Photo, courtesy of Facebook)

By JONATHAN VANIAN 

April 2, 2019

Artificial intelligence’s growing importance, in both business and research, is largely because of Yoshua Bengio, Geoffrey Hinton, and Yann LeCun—otherwise known as the “godfathers of deep learning.”

Last week, the trio won the annual Turing Award, the technology world’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize, presented by the Association for Computing Machinery. Their research has led to huge breakthroughs in computers translating languages and identifying objects and people in photographs.

At the heart of the men’s research are neural networks, the software created decades ago to mimic how the human brain learns. The technology plays a huge role in artificial intelligence and its close cousin, deep learning.

The analogy of neural networks being like the human brain is something many A.I. researchers and neuroscientists loathe because it oversimplifies an extremely complicated process. “That’s okay,” Bengio, a University of Montreal computer science professor and co-founder of enterprise startup Element AI,said in an interview with Fortune a day before his Turing Award was publicly announced.

For years, the A.I. community ignored neural networks in favor of other techniques that are more closely related to conventional computer programming. But more advanced computer chips and access to Internet data supercharged the power of neural networks, which could now be fed enormous amounts of information so they could identify patterns and, thereby, learn.

“Because as we train these systems with more data, they just get better,” Bengio said.

He recalled how difficult it was to get funding when he initially studied neural networks. Ultimately, the Canadian government kicked in some money. Today, in contrast, artificial intelligence attracts big money from governments and venture capitalists, with most of the investment in the U.S. coming from businesses. Bengio only hopes that other technologies, especially those currently lacking buzz, also have easy access to cash.

“We need to be careful to nurture that spirit and not try to say, ‘That’s the end of it,'” he said.

LeCun, now Facebook’s chief A.I. scientist, also talked with Fortune about his early research into neural networks. During those experiments, he said he focused more on creating computers that “think” rather than how the technology would be applied in real life. But now LeCun believes big breakthroughs are imminent, mostly from businesses that specialize in areas including medical imaging, self-driving cars, and even garden maintenance (i.e. lawnmowers that know to trim only weeds instead of roses). What’s certain is that companies will use the technology in ways he never envisioned.

Says LeCun, “It’s not like we have a monopoly on good ideas.”

Source: http://fortune.com/2019/04/02/eye-on-ai-godfathers-deep-learning/ (Accessed on April 3, 2019)

THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS

The Internet of things (#IoT) is one of the most exciting trends in the recent history of technology so far. As connectivity, storage, and compute become more universal, we’re seeing an explosion of IoT solutions, from health care to public safety, all pointing towards one conclusion: The IoT is here to stay. As with any other trends in technology, it’s starting to require a new generation of platforms, standards, regulations, and protocols to name few.

Gartner defines the Internet of Things as the network of physical objects that contain embedded technology (such as intelligent sensors) which can communicate, sense or interact with internal or external systems. This can generate volumes of real-time data that can be used by organizations for a variety of applications, including smart appliances to monitoring equipment performance. The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming so ubiquitous that ABI Research predicts that there will be more than 30 billion IP-connected devices and sensors in the world by 2020.

The rapid evolution of the IoT market has caused an explosion in the number and variety of IoT solutions. Additionally, large amounts of funding are being deployed at IoT startups. Consequently, the focus of the industry has been on manufacturing and producing the right types of hardware to enable those solutions. In that model, most IoT solution providers have been building all components of the stack, from the hardware devices to the relevant cloud services or the solutions (as indicated in the diagram below). As a result, there is a lack of consistency and standards across the cloud services used by the different IoT solutions.

As the industry evolves, the need for standard models to perform common IoT backend tasks, such as processing, storage, and firmware updates, is becoming more relevant. In that new model, we are likely to see different IoT solutions work with common backend services, which will guarantee levels of interoperability, portability, and manageability that are almost impossible to achieve with the current generation of IoT solutions.

Hurdles Facing IoT 

While the initial generation of IoT solutions have focused on frameworks that enable communication with smart sensors, The new generation of platforms that enable backend capabilities for IoT solutions is about to emerge. But there are many obstacles to adoption; including the lack of differentiated platforms, outdated regulatory requirements, unclear business models, and most important no killer applications identified by businesses and consumers yet.

The challenges can be divided into 4 categories; Platform, Connectivity, Business Model and Killer Applications:

• Platform : This category includes , form and design of the products (UI and UX) , analytics tools used to deal with the massive data streaming from all products in a secureway , and scalability which means wide adoption of protocols like IPv6 in all vertical and horizontal markets .
• Connectivity: Connectivity includes all parts of the consumer’s day and night using wearables, smart cars, smart homes, and in the big scheme smart cities. From the business perspective, we have connectivity using IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) where M2M communications dominating the field.
• Business Model: The bottom line is a big motivation for starting, investing in, and operating any business, without a sound and solid business models for IoT we will have another bubble , this model must satisfy all the requirements for all kinds of e-commerce; vertical markets, horizontal markets, and consumer markets. This category is always a victim of regulatory and legal scrutiny. In a recent research piece, Goldman Sachs mapped out the IoT landscape and highlighted a few verticals that could be most impacted by it. Many of them are riddled with heavy regulations, which may impair disruption.
• Killer Applications: Three functions needed in any killer applications, control “things”, collect “data”, analyze “data”. 
  

Sensing the Future of IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming the everyday physical objects that surround us into an ecosystem of information that will enrich our lives. From refrigerators to parking spaces to houses, the IoT is bringing more and more things into the digital fold every day, which will likely make the IoT a multi-trillion dollar industry in the near future. While the IoT represents the convergence of advances in miniaturization, wireless connectivity, increased data storage capacity and batteries, the IoT wouldn’t be possible without sensors. Sensors detect and measure changes in position, temperature, light, etc. and they are necessary to turn billions of objects into data-generating “things” that can report on their status, and in some cases, interact with their environment. Because sensor endpoints fundamentally enable the IoT, sensor investments are an early indicator of the IoT’s progress. And, according to PwC’s 6th Annual Digital IQ survey of nearly 1,500 business and technology executives, the IoT movement is underway. Maybe one day we will see “IoT as a Service” technology offered and used the same way we use other “as a service” technologies.

Source: https://www.bbntimes.com/en/technology/the-future-of-the-internet-of-things (Accessed on April 3, 2019)

Better Quality with the Internet of Things

Picture a plant floor that is updating operators, managers and even other plants about potential machine problems. It would connect one machine to another and one system to the next. In order to maintain the highest quality, the systems would monitor any data that seems out of order or check on the line in process.

The Internet of Things is here to make these manufacturing concepts a reality. While buzzwords like this sound intimidating, the benefits can be substantial.

You’ve likely heard the terms, whether in the pages of Quality or in another context related to autonomous vehicles, equipment monitoring, or smart home devices. Although there is a lot of confusion around what exactly the term Internet of Things (IoT) means, the idea is that it allows products to communicate with people and one another. It could be described as the intersection of cyber and physical systems. But at its core, it’s all about data. With this newly available granular detail regarding machines, it is possible to spot trends, connect devices, and make your factory smarter.

According to research from Statista, the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market is predicted to reach $123 billion by 2021, with the discrete manufacturing industry projected to spend $40 billion on IoT platforms, systems and services. As you’re shopping for equipment, this may be something to keep in mind. Your next-generation products may have these features already built in.

Maciej Duraj explains the benefits in an article for Forbes. He writes, “Some examples of the way IoT for manufacturing can be utilized is adding online connectivity to machines and hardware; remotely monitoring and sharing of data on manufacturing equipment; using sensors for field service scheduling; as well as data collecting systems in play for equipment and workforce. This will not only make equipment and systems in plants longer lasting, but the hardware stay more efficient as well. Industry 4.0 leverages the power of cloud computing, big data and even machine learning (AI) in the case of Watson IoT, for instance, in order to find the best possible solutions to the whole manufacturing process.”

A Wired article explains it this way: “The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) takes networked sensors and intelligent devices and puts those technologies to use directly on the manufacturing floor, collecting data to drive artificial intelligence and predictive analytics.”

And this trend looks like it will continue to grow, in a range of industries including manufacturing. In a July 2018 Forbes article, Daniel Newman writes, “Sensors, RFID tags, and smart beacons have already started the next industrial revolution. Market analysts predict the number of connected devices in the manufacturing industry will double between 2017 and 2020.”

What effect will this have on the quality space? For quality professionals, the Internet of Things can affect their work in a number of specific ways. For one thing, it is clear that data can improve an organization’s quality processes. Six Sigma requires data analysis and IoT data provides another avenue to gathering this information. Aligning the Internet of Things and Six Sigma pairs data gathering and data analysis. Think of the Internet of Things as another route to data. As W. Edwards Deming said, “In God we trust; all others must bring data.”

Quality is essential in providing a means to understand the reams of data that are now available. This should be exciting, though as with any new technology, changes to processes and workflow can understandably be worrying at first. In an ASQ blog, Chris Moustakas offers some reassurance. “If you’re a quality professional and you feel overwhelmed or even threatened by the subject, you shouldn’t: in fact, you should welcome it, because it’s going to make your role that much more critical to your organization. Ultimately, the purpose of data is to derive insights regarding trends and patterns, so as to uncover bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Sound familiar? The tools and methods may be evolving, but at the end of the day a human (you) needs to translate those insights into organizationally appropriate actions.”

“Quality has always been about collecting and understanding data,” Moustakas writes. “By making it easier to gather and analyze information from sources previously prohibitive, technology has thrown open a wonderful door of opportunity. IT may know how to install the sensors and implement the software to crunch the inputs, but why they crunch and to what end needs to be done with purpose – and quality professionals can play a central role in shaping that purpose.”

While technology changes can be intimidating, it is also rewarding to see the improvements take shape. And with this data collection showing no sign of slowing down, it will be helpful to be on the right side of change.

Rather than getting left behind, quality professionals would do well to embrace the data available through the IoT. Consider that the more knowledge you have about your operations, the better the position you will be in to improve it.

Source: https://www.qualitymag.com/articles/95378-better-quality-with-the-internet-of-things (Accessed on April 3, 2019)

UGC funds for colleges offering women’s studies

The University Grants Commission (UGC) will allow over 10,000 institutes, both colleges and universities, to offer women’s studies programmes, a move the education regulator believes will highlight women’s contributions to society and the economy.

Eligible colleges will get a grant of Rs 25 lakh per annum and universities Rs 35 lakh per annum from the UGC.

UGC will monitor and engage in both teaching and research activities on issues related to women and also promote entrepreneurship among them.

These centres or departments will undertake field research in areas on women leadership, gender gap analysis, inclusion of women in economic and social development and existing policy and legislation related to women. Besides, it will also ask such centres to conduct research on women’s contribution to science and technology.

Women and their contributions to the economy have been a debate in India, particularly the participation of the woman labour force. In India, the women labour force participation rate is 27% against 33% in Bangladesh, 61% in China, 51% in Myanmar, 57% in the UK, 55% in the US and 82% in Nepal, according to World Bank data.

This despite robust economic growth, rising incomes and improvements in female literacy. Even the gender pay gap is high since women workers earn 19% less than men on average, according to a recent report by Monster India.

Such centres will help in pursuing a comprehensive, critical and balanced understanding of India’s socio economic realities, UGC said. The initiative will include “women’s contribution to society and social processes, and women’s perception of their own lives, the broader social reality and their struggles and aspirations.”

Source: Hindustan Times dated April 3, 2019

Dual degree courses: Why and how to get them

ZoomBookmarkSharePrintListenTranslate

For decades, our education system has followed a conventional approach to learning. But in recent years, we have been proactive in adopting new pedagogical trends aimed at fostering skill development and better learning outcomes. But the biggest deterrent to embracing novel developments has been the slow rate of social acceptance.

Many important factors have been responsible for bringing about a slow but definite change in mindset, including the government’s increasing focus on competing with developed economies where impetus is given to nurturing a knowledge economy rather than just equipping its citizens for survival. This applies in the case of pursuing higher education degrees as well. The Indian education system tends to follow certain conventions, which are set on pursuing one single degree like engineering, medicine etc. However, in some metros, the trend of pursuing dual or integrated degrees, is slowly gathering pace.

Source: Hindustan Times dated April 3, 2019

Mumbai University: Students can no longer write names on answer sheets

For years, students were prohibited from revealing their identity (mentioning their names or the institute) on their answer sheets during MU exams. This was done to curb malpractices during the assessment of answer sheets.

Less than six months after University of Mumbai (MU) introduced a provision for students to write their names on the answer sheets, it rolled back the feature. The newly-printed answer sheets have been printed as per the old format, in which students can mention only their seat numbers.

“The idea behind allowing students to write their names on the answer sheets was to trace them easily in case a student makes a mistake while writing his/her seat number. However, we returned to the old format — seat numbers only — after several officials panned the decision letting students write their names on the answer sheets,” said an official from the examination department.

He added new answer sheets were printed as per the old format and were issued for examinations that started from March 25.

For years, students were prohibited from revealing their identity (mentioning their names or the institute) on their answer sheets during MU exams. This was done to curb malpractices during the assessment of answer sheets.

In 2017, the varsity introduced on-screen marking (OSM) system of assessment for which booklets were scanned and assessed using a software. But owing to errors made by students in writing their seat numbers and software glitch, many answer booklets went missing.

In October 2018, the MU printed answer booklets with an additional slot for students to mention their names and then covered it with a removable sticker. Students and colleges alleged this violated secrecy norms during the assessment.

“Mentioning the name of student wouldn’t breach any norms because all personal information is masked. On OSM, a teacher can’t see the first page of the answer sheet that has personal information. So there is no chance of wrongdoing,” said a varsity official.

Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/mumbai-university-students-can-no-longer-write-names-on-answer-sheets/story-tHWnkTYxsHNfOe3C44SyOI.html (Accessed on April 3, 2019)

IITs to offer about 500 seats under EWS

NEWDELHI: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will offer about 500 seats to candidates from economically weaker sections this year, IIT officials familiar with the matter said.

In January, the Centre had announced 10% reservations in jobs and educational institutions to economically weaker sections (EWS) from the general category in a move that, it said, was done to provide social equality. The EWS quotas were done without disturbing the existing quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes, it clarified.

In case of admission to central institutions, the 10% reservation for EWS entails an overall increase of around 25% seats to ensure the number of general category seats remains unchanged. Implementing the EWS quota can be staggered over two years.

According to the tech school officials, most of the 23 IITs will, on average, implement around 4% EWS quota this year. The Joint Entrance Examination (Advanced), for admission to IITs, is scheduled to be held on May 27 and will be conducted by IIT Roorkee.

“With the introduction of EWS category in 2019, IITs are going to offer around 500 seats to EWS candidates, which is approximately 4%. The increase in the total number of seats will be a little less than 9%. Thus, the total number of seats will cross 12,500,” said Prof A K Chaturvedi, IIT Roorkee director who is the chairman of the Joint Admission Board of JEE (Advanced), 2019.

According to an information brochure for JEE (Advanced) 2019 uploaded by IIT Roorkee on its website on Saturday, the top 2,45,000 candidates from the JEE (Main) would be eligible for the JEE (Advanced) this year. This includes 9,310 candidates for the General-EWS category and 490 for the General-EWS-PwD (physically disabled) category.

In 2018, out of the 2,31,024 candidates shortlisted after the JEE (Main), only 1,65,656 students registered for the JEE (Advanced). A total of 11,279 seats were offered by the IITs in 2018, an increase of 291 seats from 2017.

Siddharth Pandey, chairman of JEE (Advanced) 2019 IIT Delhi said: “This year, IIT Delhi will be implementing 5.6% EWS quota. We will have an overall increase of 105 seats. For this, we are already constructing a girls’ and a boys’ hostel. We have also explored accommodation outside the premises.”

In comparison, IIT Madras implement 4% EWS quota this year. “This will throw infrastructural challenges, but it is doable. Classrooms will not be much of a problem but accommodations have to be worked out,” director Bhaskar Ramamurthy said.

IIT Kharagpur is likely to reserve 3% seats for EWS candidates, said officials requesting anonymity. The officials said the real infrastructure challenge would come in the second year of EWS implementation when a fresh batch of students would have to be accommodated. In case of new IITs, which are in expansion mode, this would be relatively easier. “We have proposed to allot funds for additional infrastructure, laboratory equipment and more teachers...,” said R Subhramanyan, higher education secretary in the human resource development ministry.

Source: Hindustan Times dated April 3, 2019