The next WATCH talk, called Why the Census Bureau Adopted Differential Privacy for the 2020 Census of Population, from John M. Abowd, Chief Scientist and Associate Director for Research and Methodology at the U.S. Census Bureau, is Wednesday, June 6th 2018, Noon-1PM EST. Dr. Abowd was the lead author of the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) white paper on Privacy-Preserving Data Analysis for the Federal Statistical Agencies in January 2017.  John M. Abowd is Associate Director for Research and Methodology and Chief Scientist at the United States Census Bureau and the Edmund Ezra Day Professor of Economics, Professor of Statistics and Information Science at Cornell University. At the Census Bureau, he leads a directorate of research centers, each devoted […]

The computers, smartphones, and tablets that we use every day are becoming more advanced. Older adults who have cognitive or physical disabilities might have trouble using such devices. Technology should not just be for the young. We need to start thinking about how we can better adapt devices to fit the needs of our aging population. Recently, the Wired posted an article called Bigger, Brighter, Simpler: A Tablet For The Mature User that highlights some features of tablets which allows older adults to use them more successfully. These features include: Clear Notifications A bright light illuminates the tab of the person just contacted, so users can keep track of in-progress conversations. Real Buttons Tablets […]

Check out the following updates from the Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC) Attend the Tech Jam Update (June 20-22, Portland, Oregon, USA) Register here  More than 20 action clusters working with municipal governments will present at the Tech Jam on June 20. Speakers include: Kris Bailey, COO, Electric Cab of North America Arik Bronshtein, CEO, UrbanLeap Sudipta Bhattacharyya, IoT Solution Lead, Nokia Benjamin Ng H. A., Assistant Vice President (Head of USA), Concorde USA & Singapore Hiroaki Nishi, Chairperson of the Consortium for Town Management of Misono and Professor, Keio University Limor Schafman, Director, Smart Buildings, Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) The list of on-stage presentations is available here. Data SuperCluster (DSC) […]

The following is a Request for Information (RFI) from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.  The Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), within the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, announces an RFI seeking feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders regarding research opportunities associated with applying machine learning techniques toward challenges in the geosciences that are relevant to geothermal energy. With respect to the overall goals of establishing the practice of machine learning in the geothermal industry and maximizing the value of the rich datasets available to the geosciences, GTO is seeking input in three areas: Identifying […]

Shwetak Patel, from the University of Washington, contributed to this post.  Would you like to know how much energy your living room TV is using when it is running? What about when how much it uses while still plugged in and turned “off”? How about checking to see if your newborn baby has jaundice using your smartphone? Would that be helpful? All these practical applications are now possible using a smart sensor in the home and on your phone. The National Science Foundation Science Nation recently went to the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) council member Shwetak Patel’s lab to learn how to use smart sensors to create a breakdown of […]

CCC Council member Maja Mataric from the University of Southern California provided contributions to this post. If we train Artificial Intelligence (AI) to do our work for us it will still need to be periodically checked for errors and random noise. This detailed human oversight is not something we can skip. As AI has more and more power, it will also have more responsibility and the decisions it makes could be deadly if incorrect. We still have so much to learn about building machines that could potentially make life-altering decisions, and we cannot predict what kinds of serious engineering flaws will occur in the future. Michael I. Jordan from the […]