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How Network Technology Shifts Are Changing the Way Things Are Done – Channel Futures

No one could have predicted how the COVID-19 pandemic would affect business and quicken the growth of certain technologies, including network technologies. The transition to remote work led to higher adoption of virtual private networks, multi-factor authentication, virtual desktop, and unified communications and collaboration, among other things.

Perhaps most noteworthy was the rapid rise in broadband usage. Usage had been steadily increasing over the last decade, but the pandemic and subsequently distributed work environment expedited the climb. As evidence, OpenVaultreported in its Broadband Insights Report for the third quarter of 2020 that broadband usage rose 40% over 2019.

Internet of things implementations were another example. According toNemertes Research, more than 46% of IoT projects were in full deployment in 2020, compared to only 7% the previous year. That growth can be attributed to the IoTs ability to improve the supply chain and generate value and return on investment. TheVodafoneIoT Spotlight 2020 report found that an impressive 73% of mature IoT adopters said their implementation of IoT technology led to a significant return on investment.

While the growth of broadband and IoT is compelling, there were also a host of other transformative network technology trends in 2020, including an accelerated shift to the cloud, adoption of multi-cloud architectures, major alterations to cybersecurity strategies and a rethinking of the wide-area networking.

Accelerated Move to the Cloud

Many businesses already had cloud strategies in place when COVID-19 hit. And they embraced the cloud, even more, to facilitate their employees working remotely.Flexerareported in its May 2020 State of the Cloud Report that the majority (57%) of organizations had changed their cloud usage plans to be slightly or significantly higher than originally planned.

The cloud offers a way to cut expenses in the long term by shifting from a CapEx to an OpEx model and paying only for whats used. However, organizations are still struggling to reign in cloud spending. According to the Flexera report, businesses are spending an average of 23% more on the cloud than they anticipated, and they expect to further increase that spending by 47% in 2021.

Thus, cloud optimization will be key moving forward. To optimize cloud spending, organizations will need to get a better handle on their usage patterns and the cloud resources they have in place. This will help them identify and consolidate unused virtual machines that are taking up bandwidth. Otherwise, those businesses will continue to pay for more than they use.

Embracing Multi-Cloud

Another way to optimize cloud spending is by adopting a multi-cloud strategythat is, using more than one cloud computing and storage service in a single network architecture. This approach often includes a combination of public, private and edge clouds to ensure the best price for each workload.

The advantages of such a strategy include a wider array of options, optimal pricing, improved resilience, greater security and flexibility. According to the Flexera report, 93% of enterprises currently have a multi-cloud strategy in place.

For multi-cloud to be successful, businesses need to be well aware of the differences between clouds, including cost variances. They also need to keep close tabs on their cloud environments. One effective way to do that is through automated cloud management, either undertaken in-house or as a managed service provided by a third-party.

Security Shifts

Keeping data and users safe has always been a business priority. But the practice took on greater importance as workers left the office and moved todistributed models. IT departments could no longer control the computing environment and had to quickly pivot to be able to support expansive areas.

In fact, a conclusive 85% of chief information security officers conceded they

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5 Malware Removal Tools That Keep You Safe – G2

Malware, a malicious program infecting your computers and networks, can have a troublesome impact on your devices.

The termmalwareincludes a range of malicious software varying from computer viruses, trojans, ransomware, spyware, to others. It can take you through a bumpy road of downtime, financial losses, and reputation, especially when it affects your work. To avoid it infesting your assets, you should have protective anti-malware tools installed on your computer. Malware removal toolswill help you detect and remove malicious programs, keeping your IT assets safe.

1. Symantec Endpoint Protection

2. Malwarebytes for Business

3. ESET PROTECT Advanced

4. Webroot Business Endpoint Protection

5. MVISION Endpoint Security

*These antivirus software are suitable for large organizations.

There are various ways through which malware can enter your assets. The most common one is through emails sent in a phishing attempt. Such emails hold attachments disguised as genuine files that contain malicious programs embedded in them.

You should always be cautious about downloading them or opening an untrusted link. When you open a malicious link, it directs you to a compromised website that automatically downloads malware payload to your device.

Discover how different malware work differently to gain unauthorized access in this comprehensive guide to malware.

Attackers can also exploit software vulnerabilities to deliver malware, making it crucial for you to become technologically equipped in combating the potential threat.

Endpoint antivirus softwareis a tool capable of preventing and detecting malware in an endpoint device. Most of these tools have firewalls to prevent worms, trojans, adware, or viruses from entering a system.

This antivirus and anti-malware software provides several features like detecting and identifying potential malware, including tools to assess a devices health. It alerts administrators on finding a malware infection.

Most of the tools mentioned in the software list below are suitable for large organizations. If you need a free version, take a look at the top free antivirus software.

To qualify for the endpoint antivirus software list, a product must:

* Below are the five leading antivirus software from G2's Winter 2021 Grid Report. Some reviews may be edited for clarity.

Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP)protects your endpoint devices from malware attacks, including targeted attacks, advanced persistent threats (APT), and zero-day threats with a layers approach to security.

It unifies single and virtual protection with a single management console, delivering a scaled orchestrated response and high performance.

Symantec has done a great job with their centralized management portal. The agent/client itself is easy to deploy once you understand Symantec's interface. Policy management could use some work, but given the class of software, it covers the basics and then some. Email notifications are a must for me, and this software does it well. It doesn't matter if the event was resolved automatically or not; admins always get notifications.

-Symantec Endpoint Protection Review, Chad G.

Theres no side of the product that I dont like. We have provided high-level protection against viruses and malware on our workstation and client computers with SEP. Therefore, we are satisfied with the product.

-Symantec Endpoint Protection Review, Ali T.

Malwarebytesprotect organizations and their employees from malicious programs that can threaten cybersecurity. It comes with advanced endpoint protection capabilities that stop malware and block suspicious activities with a small footprint agent.

This security software helps organizations quickly investigate, detect, remediate, and recover from advanced threats to ensure that compromised devices are back online and ready for use.

Logging in to the dashboard to get an overview of all of my clients is very helpful. It shows me which endpoints need a reboot, a scan, or a software upgrade. I can push all of those things outright from the dashboard. I also have the ability in a single click to drill down deeper to the endpoint level from the dashboard.

-Malwarebytes for Business Review, Thomas K.

Cost is higher than other endpoint security products, and it may take a while for a novice administrator to understand how to configure the cloud console properly.

-Malwarebytes for Business Review, Selina B.

ESET PROTECT Advancedprovides multiple defense layers to detect malware before, during, and after execution. It balances performance, detection, and false positives with a dynamic equilibrium of machine learning, big data, advanced behavioral analytics, and human expertise.

Eset endpoint security has a low impact on pcs resources and does not slow down the computer. Eset endpoint security helped us to manage all endpoints from one location using its centralized console. Eset provides frequent updates, but it does not disturb any of our work, and this also has a powerful scanning system that secures the network from many kinds of viruses, malware, ransomware, rootkits, worms, and more. It supports many operating systems, and implementation is quite simple.

-ESET PROTECT Advanced Review, Gayan W.

Some of the program update features are kind of cumbersome. Weve found that we need to run the software update multiple times to make sure everything is updated on a regular basis. The thing that I would change here about this function is setting an update to be released. As soon as a workstation comes online, it reaches out to the management console to see if it holds the released software. I think this would be a huge update to the present setup.

-ESET PROTECT Advanced Review, Jason R.

Webroot Business Endpoint Protectionprovides real-time protection and threat intelligence to protect businesses from diverse threats across the web, email, ads, applications, files, and more. In an event where a system gets compromised, the software leverages its unique journaling and rollback remediation, helping local drives uninfect, minimizing or eliminating the need to reimage hard drives or systems.

Managing the endpoints is easy with the help of the centralized management console. Unlike other similar protection, it does not require installing server applications on the device. The portal is web-based and isnt machine-independent. It can be accessed from wherever you are. The best part, it does not leave any noticeable footprint on the device.

It doesnt slow down the system. The executable installation file is very small in size. It supports a wide variety of clients, including Windows servers and MacOS. The installation is super easy, and it just requires one click to fully install. Installation KEY code is integrated on the downloaded client installation file.

-Webroot Business Endpoint Protection Review, Pawan B.

The policy hierarchy is a bit convoluted. There are global site policies and also individual policies. Sometimes new features can only be applied to global policies, which are difficult if you only implemented local group policies.

-Webroot Business Endpoint Protection Review, Chris S.

McAfee MVISION Endpoint Security leverages machine learning to analyze the latest threat to a device, and facilitates local and cloud-based malware detection. The software helps users to return the device to its healthy state instead of reimaging or repairing it. MVISION prevents systems and networks from potential breaches caused by malicious attempts to harvest user credentials.

McAfee Endpoint Security provides full encryption to avoid the inappropriate use of data from stolen devices such as computers, laptops, or mobiles. This software detects and protects from destructing viruses in an easy and user-friendly manner. It scans viruses rapidly and is consistent in its action with well-ordered management. McAfee has an efficient password management tool that delivers extra protection as it blocks the interrupting links, sites, and ads.

-MVISION Endpoint Security Review, Charlotte T.

Sometimes it detects wrong or false malware and viruses. Thus, it should provide some useful features so that this problem can be resolved. It may slow down sometimes as its a large program and due to its heavy processes. If your systems and networks are under the scan process, itll slow down other processes of your systems. Thus, you may not be able to work while scanning.

-MVISION Endpoint Security Review, Larissa M.

Malware can penetrate into operating systems even after robust security measures.

Malware on a Mac may sound bizarre, but in reality, its existence cant be doubted. Malwarebytes State of Malware Report 2021 tells that Malware accounted for 1.5% of all Mac detections in 2020, and the rest of the detections comprised of potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) and adware. Even though Apple adopts strict security measures to protect its devices, there are certain ways malware can attack your beloved MacOS.

Similarly, Microsoft Windows Defender works at its best at malware protection; there can still be gaps in security measures that malware can take advantage of.

Many malware signs can tell if your macOS, Android, iOS, or Windows device is prone to malicious intent. When you speculate that the malware signals converge toward malware, here are five ways to help you remove it.

Debarring your device from accessing the internet will help you restrict the damage that the malware was continuously causing. Isolate your device and prevent data exchanges between your device and the malware server.

You must go offline, but dont give in to your urge to shut down your device. There are examples in cyberspace, especially in cases ofransomware, where malicious software is programmed to delete your encrypted files if you choose to turn the power off.

Wait until you confirm the presence of malware by using a malware scanner equipped with antivirus software. If you get a confirmation, call in an informed security professional who can help you deal with it.

Safe mode uses or allows only those applications that are critical to your devices basic functionalities. If an attacker has programmed malware to load automatically, entering safe mode will prevent it.

Once youre confident that youve avoided a situation where your data can be deleted permanently by malware, you can restart your device. You can enter safe mode in Mac by holding the Shift key when you restart your device and the Apple logo appears. Continue holding the shift key until you move to your login page and then release the key.

If you're a Windows 10 user, you can click the Windows button and go to power. Hold down theshift key and restart. Choose troubleshoot and go to advanced options where you'll find start-up settings. Under start-up settings, click restart, and you can find various options to boot in the safe mode.

Make sure you dont log in to your account or click on show password when the malware is still present. Its advisable to keep yourself out of sensitive accounts to prevent exposure of information.

When you have entered the safe mode, remove temporary files on your system. Deleting temporary files will help expedite antivirus scanning, and might even remove the malware if it was programmed to start while booting.

To remove the temporary files in Microsoft Windows you can use the disk cleanup tool. You can find it in Windows Administrative Tools listed in the start menu. Go to the disk clean up tool, scroll through files to delete list, and choose temporary files.

MacOS users can go to the main desktop, and press shift+command+G.In the finder window, enter the command ~/Library/Cachesand tap go. You'll find a new window with Mac's temporary files. Select all files using command+A and then press command+Delete.You'll have to enter your Mac's password here to complete deletion of temporary files.

Malware steals a substantial amount of processing power from your device. If you check your activity monitor, you can see the applications that have questionable CPU usage. When youre not using an application and its consuming a lot of processing power, it simply means that something isnt right. There can be malicious code behind it working to invade your information.

If you detect anything suspicious on your device, quit malicious applications at once to prevent it from any damage.

Once youve gathered evidence of malware on your device, its time to ascertain it. You can use antivirus software equipped with malware removal features to detect and remove different malware types attacking your device.

Antivirus programs can catch standard malicious entities across your device and protect you from emanating threats. If the type of malware youre dealing with has just embarked upon cyberspace, you may have to get an on-demand antivirus that has an updated threat database.

Malware can modify your browsers homepage to reinfect your device. Ensure your homepages authenticity so that if the threat persists, you can get rid of it.

You can check the homepages authenticity and clear the cache in Google Chrome and Safari through these steps:

1. Find the option to verify your homepage in the search engine tab, listed under Google Chrome settings. For Safari, you can make relevant changes in the preference section under general settings.

2. Find the clear browsing history section in the privacy and security settings of Google Chrome, and place a tick mark on cached images and files. For Safari, go to preferences, dive into privacy, manage website data, and choose the remove all option.

Malware removal follows the same basic idea for Windows and Mac, but differs in the removal process. For example, you need a different set of functions to enter Macs safe mode than Windows.

Now that youve walked through the process of removing malware, start protecting your assets from malware threats with leading antivirus software on the market.

Wondering what youll do if malware penetrates your assets, compromising your security? Learn more aboutincident responseto understand the exact steps you should follow to handle a security incident.

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Jordan Peterson is the Savonarola of our times – Spectator.co.uk

Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life

Jordan B. Peterson

Allen Lane,, pp. 432, 25

Like most novelists, I am a firm adherent to the W.H. Davies principle of finding time to stand and stare. I was once sauntering down Regent Street when a gentleman hared out of a department store, closely followed by two rather healthier specimens. They flung him to the ground, upon which large quantities of merchandise started falling from his pockets. I was fascinated, both by the level of violence the shops security was using and by what a captured thief actually says when hes being subdued. (Clue: not You got me bang to rights.) After a moment or two another bloke came over to me and a couple of others gawping on the public pavement. Move along there, he said. Theres nothing for you to see here. I replied as anyone would when a stranger starts ordering you around: Who the bleeding hell are you?

The same question came to mind when reading Beyond Order. Jordan B. Peterson published the successful 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos a couple of years ago, quite no-nonsense in tone. Stand up straight with your shoulders back was number one; Tell the truth number eight. Now he presents us with 12 more rules. Are these self-help books? And before we start listening seriously to someone telling us to Try to make one room in your house as beautiful as possible, lets look at Peterson. Why should we follow his rules for life rather than those of Bimini Bon Boulash?

Peterson had been leading a blameless life in the groves of Canadian academe until, in 2016, the Canadian parliament passed a law prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of gender identity. Many transgender people, as well as those unwilling to conform to gender stereotypes, think its important to be able to choose the pronouns they use. Peterson, though acknowledging that it would be jolly rude to refer to Jan Morris, say, as he, questioned the proliferation of invented non-binary pronouns, such as zie and per, the rather ungrammatical codification of the singular they and, most importantly, what the merry hell parliament was doing trying to control peoples speech in this regard. His haranguing of a weedy mob on campus quickly became a YouTube favourite. A richly amusing debate on local television followed in which a colleague of Petersons demonstrated just how absurd the proposals were:

Heres a great little tip for people who are despairing at the possibility of remembering all those pronouns. What I do is programme in the persons pronoun next to the persons name in my smartphone. So whenever Im out and about, and Ive forgotten whether one of my transgender friends uses zie or zer or they and them or something else, I just look it up and its really super-easy.

As with all attempts to engineer linguistic usage, the appropriate response is what Regina George might say to Gretchen Wiener in Mean Girls: Gretchen! Stop trying to make zie happen. Its Not. Going. To. Happen.

If only we could all have such opponents in a debate, you might think. Peterson went on to build his sudden fame into worldwide celebrity, putting talks about all manner of things on YouTube and engaging in enjoyably robust exchanges with intelligently flabbergasted journalists I recommend an interview with the excellent Cathy Newman, in which both appear to be enjoying themselves a good deal. (Death threats followed, however.)

Peterson though rarely coming out with anything much that would be thought objectionable, rather than worth discussing is now a sort of bogeyman for millennials to scare each other with. When Penguin Random House Canada announced that it was publishing this book, a general meeting of employees was held. As reported by Vice website: People were crying in the meeting about how Jordan Peterson has affected their lives. [One employee] talked about how publishing the book will negatively affect their non-binary friend. You may find this amusing, or you may wonder whether the book you yourself are writing is going to have to be approved in advance, without being read, by the non-binary friends of junior employees of your publisher.

Anyway, here is the book itself, which, unlike the weeping juveniles, I happen to have read. It is pretty odd, I must say. The rules are quite old-fashioned Canadian Presbyterian in tone. Do not carelessly denigrate social institutions or creative achievement. Work as hard as you possibly can on at least one thing and see what happens. Plan and work diligently to maintain the romance in your relationship.

How is this going to work in practice? Petersons readers, surely, are drawn from the class of persons who are already firmly convinced about social order, hard work, hierarchy, tradition and so on. They arent likely to need his book unless they are planning to give itin a passive-aggressive way to their non-gender-conforming snowflake children.

The fact is that this is not really a self-help book at all. Cunningly disguised, it is a Savonarola-like jeremiad about things going to the dogs. If you dont do what Peterson says

Then you will come to curse man, reality and God himself for producing such an impenetrable maze of impediments and barriers. Corruption will beckon to you, led as you increasingly will be by dark, unexamined motivations. This will impoverish your life, your community, your nation, and the world. This will in turn impoverish Being itself.

On the other hand, things might go on much as before, one suspects.

This is a genuinely frustrating book. I wish, for instance, that the positions Peterson chooses to pick a fight with were better documented, rather than (quite often) the beliefs he imagines his opponents to hold. He goes to the Met in New York and looks at a painting (a little digging suggests hes talking about a Guido Reni.) There are people looking at it. I thought They do not know what that painting means. They do not understand the symbolic meaning of the mandorla. How does he know? It might have been an outing for a bunch of Guido Reni scholars.

More worryingly, there is a tale of a client of Petersons whose employer is said to have banned the use of the word flipchart on the grounds that it might be derogatory to Filipino employees, once insultingly known as Flips. I just dont believe this story. The racial slur is quite unknown to the OED, and any investigation of the new taboo placed on flipchart, including the source which Peterson cites, only turns up conservative voices bemoaning the ludicrousness of any ban. Of course there are cases of people objecting to words apparently close to racial slurs but etymologically distinct black students have complained about their professors using the word niggardly. But you need to be very sure of your ground here, both of the facts and that the choice of usage was genuinely innocent unlike a former colleague of mine who used to enjoy telling me that he was looking forward to eating faggots and peas for his dinner. The flipchart story, as so much here, just looks a lot like projection.

As an old-fashioned liberal, I ought to be on Petersons side: the defence of free speech against official or mob control; the injunctions to read and listen to other people, especially those who know what theyre talking about. But he makes it so hard. For one thing, he writes terribly badly:

This variance in ability (as well as the multiplicity of extant problems and the impossibility of training everyone in all skilled domains) necessarily engenders a hierarchical structure based ideally on genuine competence in relation to the goal.

His evidence too often looks constructed for his own convenience, or conjured out of some frankly weird readings of Harry Potter and Disney movies; and he is apparently totally lacking in humour.

The moment, however, when I really started to wonder whether I wanted his guidance about how to live was when, advising us on how important it is to make one room in your house beautiful, he describes his own. In his living room, no more than 12ft square, he hangs

some large paintings... Soviet realist/impressionist pieces, some illustrating the second world war, some representing the triumph of communism. There was even one... on the ceiling, where I had attached it with magnets.

Maybe not.

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Book of the week: Beyond Order by Jordan B. Peterson – The Week UK

Jordan Peterson isnt any old self-help guru, said Melanie McDonagh in the London Evening Standard. A once-obscure Canadian psychologist, he rose to fame five years ago with his hugely popular YouTube videos and bestselling book, 12 Rules for Life, which exhorted young men to take responsibility for their lives. Known for his stern bromides (Stand up straight with your shoulders back), and his conservative positions on questions of gender and identity politics, Peterson has been one of the most prominent figures in the culture wars of recent years. His new book arrives following a period of personal turmoil, which he details in its Overture. In 2019, after his wifes diagnosis with a rare form of cancer, Peterson started taking benzodiazepine sedatives. He became addicted, and later suffered a severe withdrawal response which very nearly killed him. Petersons millions of fans will be delighted by his new book and by their heros return from the edge.

Beyond Order is strikingly similar to its predecessor, said Suzanne Moore in The Daily Telegraph. It is again structured around 12 rules and consists of hokey wisdom combined with good advice. Once more, Peterson advances the Jungian argument that life is a contest between order and chaos, represented respectively by masculinity and femininity. Women, admittedly, wont find much to entice them in his vision he advises them to have babies young and to keep their marriages alive with candles, lingerie and talking. Yet though blinkered on certain issues, Peterson has a powerful message: that life is suffering, and the goal is to find meaning rather than happiness. The rules themselves Make one room in your house beautiful; Be grateful in spite of your suffering are really nothing to argue about.

As a speaker, Peterson oozes charisma, authority and dazzling spontaneous intellect, said James Marriott in The Times. His prose, however, is repetitious and self-important, and the battiness of his ideas soon becomes all too clear (one chapter is devoted to the philosophical meaning of Harry Potter). Petersons relentless focus on the agonising human predicament leaves little space for humour, said Oliver Burkeman in The Guardian. Yet he also reminds us of something important, which the Left is apt to forget: that not all our suffering is the result of power disparities; some of it comes from the fact that we are finite beings. In the end, its a good thing that theres space on the self-help shelves for a book as bracingly pessimistic as this one.

Allen Lane 432pp 25; The Week Bookshop 19.99

To order this titleor any other book in print, visit theweekbookshop.co.uk, or speak to a bookseller on 020-3176 3835. Opening times: Monday to Saturday 9am-5.30pm and Sunday 10am-4pm.

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Jessie Opoien: If theyre being canceled, why are the Ron Johnsons of the world getting so much coverage? – Madison.com

Id say you cant make this stuff up, but someone already did.

If you watched Netflixs Death to 2020, in which Lisa Kudrow plays a non-official conservative spokeswoman channeling Kellyanne Conway, among others named Jeanetta Grace Susan, you know what Im talking about.

Look, the fact which doesnt care about your feelings is that online, and in the media, conservative voices are being silenced, Kudrows character says. Ive said this before. Ive said this on my YouTube channel. I said it on Joe Rogan. On the Jordan Peterson kayak podcast. I said it on Tucker Carlson twice, actually. And I said it in my New York Times bestseller, Conservative Voices Are Being Silenced. Its a point I have to make over and over, because conservative voices are being silenced.

In a case of life imitating art, Wisconsin U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal on Monday, declaring in the headline, I Wont Be Silenced by the Left.

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On stage to on screen: Improv is still challenging these computer science majors – News@Northeastern

Even for Nathan Cunninghama combined computer-science and cognitive-psychology major fairly confident in his public-speaking abilitiesNortheasterns required theater class involving exercises such as loud chest pounding and lip trills can be intimidating.

Cunningham says he put off taking the class until the end of his fourth year partly because his schedule didnt accommodate it.

Also, yeah. I thought this class was going to be really weird, Cunningham admits.

Hes not alone. Even though the pandemic has shifted the public performance course from the classroom stage to the computer screen, acting and presenting remotely has its own challenges, says part-time drama professor Charles Linshaw.

Public speaking is something that is so terrifying for so many people, and it is really magnified on camera, Linshaw says. The mandatory performance-based class called The Eloquent Presenter has been a source of quiet dread for many computer-science majors since it began in 2016.

The course started as a way for those working in technology to robot-proof their jobs by highlighting the unique benefits of human collaboration, something Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun wrote about in a 2018 book called, Robot-proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. One key takeaway: Students working in technology who have been trained to think critically and creatively can provide value that no robot ever could replicate.

Linshaw says he continues to focus on collaboration, even though students are now interacting from their home office or living room because of the COVID-19 pandemic. He starts with a 10-minute warmup, asking students to keep their cameras and sound on while walking around their rooms and swinging their arms.

Now I want you to sort of shimmy and jostle your shoulders, and just pour out a bit of sound while you do it says Linshaw, releasing a long Ahhhhhhh as an instructive example.

Cunningham admits the weekly warm up gets me out of my comfort zone, which is partially the point as students get used to speaking with confidence and authority in front of their peers.

Students are sometimes going to feel on the spot, but I really want them to feel collaborative, says Linshaw.

I tried to organize the presentations I assign around different things that could happen in interviews or proposals, so that when were talking acting techniques were always grounded in practical skills, Linshaw adds.

During one recent class, students gave brief presentations about subjects they are passionate about, identifying presentation issues they have had in the past, such as speaking too quickly or using too many filler words.

Computer-science major Eric Tang tells the class that hes working on eye contact and pacing before he began his presentation about Bostons subway system.

I think its honestly a stereotype of the T that its never really on time, says Tang, looking into the camera while speaking.

Linshaw and other students offer feedback, celebrating his improvements.

Cunningham says hes glad he took the course, which has helped him improve his presentation skills in addition to helping to open himself up to new experiences.

I think this class adds a lot of humanity to my education and I value the professors commitment to building us up rather than breaking us down and stressing us out, says Cunningham.

Linshaw says hes glad hes been able to adapt the class successfully, but he looks forward to returning to class soon.

The nature of this class is so collaborative and physical that its really difficult to do remotely, Linshaw says. When were in-person and students are in a room together they develop a real sense of community and that really helps with the collaborative aspect of the course.

For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.

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Lovsz and Wigderson to Share Abel Prize for Contributions to Theoretical Computer Science, Math – HPCwire

OSLO, March 17, 2021 The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters has decided to award the Abel Prize for 2021 to Lszl Lovsz of Alfrd Rnyi Institute of Mathematics (ELKH, MTA Institute of Excellence) and Etvs Lornd University in Budapest, Hungary, and Avi Wigderson of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, USA, for their foundational contributions to theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics, and their leading role in shaping them into central fields of modern mathematics.

Lszl Lovsz

A brilliant mathematician since he was a teenager, Lszl Lovsz more than delivered on his early promise. Born in 1948 in Budapest, Hungary, he has also served his community as a writer of books, noted for their clarity and accessibility, as an inspirational lecturer, and as a leader, spending a term as president of the International Mathematical Union (2007-2010).

In the 1970s graph theory became one of the first areas of pure mathematics able to illuminate the new field of computational complexity. Lovasz later said that he was very lucky to experience one of those periods when mathematics was developing completely together with an application area. In addition to his work on the foundational underpinning of computer science, Lovsz has also devised powerful algorithms with wide-ranging applications, such as the LLL algorithm, which has had remarkable applications in areas including number theory, cryptography and mobile computing.

Lovsz has won many awards including the 1999 Wolf Prize, the 1999 Knuth Prize, the 2001 Gdel Prize and the 2010 Kyoto Prize.

Avi Wigderson

Wigderson is known for his ability to see links between apparently unrelated areas. He has deepened the connections between mathematics and computer science. He was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1956. His contribution to enlarging and deepening the field of complexity theory which concerns itself with the speed and efficiency of algorithms is arguably greater than that of any single other person.

Wigderson has conducted research into every major open problem in complexity theory. In many ways, the field has grown around him. He has co-authored papers with more than 100 people.

The most important present-day application of complexity theory is internet cryptography. Early in his career Wigderson made fundamental contributions in this area, including the zero-knowledge proof, which today is being used in cryptocurrency technology.

In 1994, Wigderson won the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize for computer science. Among his many other prizes is the 2009 Gdel Prize and the 2019 Knuth Prize.

Algorithms and internet security

The theory of computational complexity which concerns itself with the speed and efficiency of algorithms was in its infancy in the 1970s, and is now an established field of both mathematics and theoretical computer science. Computational complexity has become important, providing the theoretical basis for internet security. Also in the 1970s a new generation of mathematicians realised that discrete mathematics had, in computer science, a new area of application. Today algorithms and internet security aspects are an integral part of everyday life for all of us. The work of Lszl Lovsz and Avi Wigderson has played an important part of this development.

Lovsz and Wigderson have been leading forces in this development over the last decades. Thanks to their leadership discrete mathematics and the relatively young field of theoretical computer science are now established as central areas of modern mathematics, says Hans Munthe-Kaas, chair of the Abel committee.

Source: The Abel Prize

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Lovsz and Wigderson to Share Abel Prize for Contributions to Theoretical Computer Science, Math - HPCwire

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A Top Computer Science Professors Insights And Predictions For Conversational AI – Forbes

Breaking Bots by Clincs Founder CEO Jason Mars is released with ForbesBooks.

This release is posted on behalf of ForbesBooks (operated by Advantage Media Group under license.)

NEW YORK (March 16, 2021) Breaking Bots: Inventing a New Voice in the AI Revolution by Clincs Founder CEO Dr. Jason Mars is available now. The book is published with ForbesBooks, the exclusive business book publishing imprint of Forbes.

In setting the stage for his new book, Jason Mars considers how technology has shaped the arc of human history, time and again. From the Bronze Age to the Industrial Revolution to our current Technological Age, a once gradual pace of progress has given way to an era of rapid, exponential growth. The next revolution humanity must prepare for, in Mars view, is Artificial Intelligence. In Breaking Bots: Inventing a New Voice in the AI Revolution, Jason Mars expresses the surprising progress AI has made in recent years and what our shared future holds. At the same time, Mars chronicles the unique journey and key insights of creating a company dedicated to advancing AIs potential.

The frontier for conversational AI is endless and thrilling, Mars explained. Being able to speak freely, as you would to a human in the room, is the holy grail.

While virtual home assistants like Alexa or Siri are now commonplace, these technologies are limited by their market and narrow internal intuitions. That said, Breaking Bots still positions conversational AI as humanitys next fire, light bulb, or internet. It is in bridging those intuitional gaps that the work of computer scientist Jason Mars and Clinc, the company he founded, seeks to make an impact. Breaking Bots offers insights into the paradigm-shifting technical and cultural DNA that makes Jasons work, and Clincs technology, a bold future for AI.

Ryan Tweedie, the CIO Portfolio Director and Global Managing Director of Accenture, believes that Mars is a true vanguard in the lineage and development of AI, especially for what countsthe human element.

Breaking Bots: Inventing a New Voice in the AI Revolution is available on Amazon today.

About Jason Mars, Ph.D.

Jason Mars has built some of the worlds most sophisticated scalable systems for AI, computer vision, and natural language processing. He is a professor of computer science at the University of Michigan where he directs Clarity Lab, one of the worlds top AI and computing training labs.

In his tenure as CEO of Clinc, he was named Bank Innovations #2 Most Innovative CEO in Banking 2017 and #4 in Top 11 Technologists in Voice AI 2019. His work has been recognized by Crains Detroit Businesss 2019 40 under 40 for career accomplishments, impact in their field and contributions to their community. Prior to the University of Michigan, Jason was a professor at UCSD and worked at Google and Intel. Jason holds a Ph.D. in computer science from UVA.

About ForbesBooks

Launched in 2016 in partnership with Advantage Media Group, ForbesBooks is the exclusive business book publishing imprint of Forbes. ForbesBooks offers business and thought leaders an innovative, speed-to-market, fee-based publishing model and a suite of services designed to strategically and tactically support authors and promote their expertise. For more information, visit forbesbooks.com.

Media Contacts

Michael Szudarek, Marx Layne, mszudarek@marxlayne.com

Carson Kendrick, ForbesBooks, ckendrick@forbesbooks.com

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Lets Teach Computer Science Majors to Be Good Citizens. The Whole World Depends on It. – EdSurge

Digital technology has become increasingly important in the lives of all Americans, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic, which has made many of us even more reliant on computing devices to execute our daily responsibilities.

Yet, many social, political and ethical concerns have emerged as the application of technology has grown in daily life.

For example, in 2020, the first known wrongful arrest through misidentification via facial recognition software occurred when police mistakenly accused a Black man of committing a crime. To address concerns about this kind of excessive citizen surveillance, city governments in some locales have restricted the use of facial recognition software, and a bill has been proposed to ban federal law enforcement agencies from using it. Meanwhile, in the political arena, evidence has emerged that data analytics were applied to deter Black voters from voting in the 2016 election and that similar technology has been applied to affect other countries elections as well.

To mitigate the perpetuation of these and related inequities, observers have called for increased diversification of the technology workforce. However, as books like Brotopia by Emily Chang and Race after Technology by Ruha Benjamin indicate, the culture of tech companies can be misogynistic and racist and therefore unwelcoming to many people. Googles firing of a well-regarded Black scientist for her research on algorithmic bias in December 2020 suggests that there may be limited capacity within the industry to challenge this culture.

Change may need to start earlier in the workforce development pipeline. Undergraduate education offers a key opportunity for recruiting students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic, gender, and disability groups into computing. Yet even broadened participation in college computer science courses may not shift the tech workforce and block bias from seeping into tech tools if students arent taught that diversity and ethics are essential to their field of study and future careers.

Unfortunately, those lessons seem to be missing from many computer science programs.

In a national study involving a multiyear examination of how student worldviews are changing at more than 120 colleges and universities (IDEALS), our research teams at Ohio State, North Carolina State (led by Alyssa N. Rockenbach), and the Interfaith Youth Core found evidence indicating that computer science majors have limited access to instruction about ethics and cultural inclusivity.

This study sought to uncover how students are changing in college, including how their academic majors might have an effect on their beliefs and attitudes. Of particular interest to us was students citizenship, or their level of agreement (strongly agree, somewhat agree, and so on) with these four statements at the beginning and end of their college careers:

When we compared more than 5,500 student responses by major, what we found was striking. The number of computer science majors who highly agreed with these statements decreased across their four years in college and resulted in lower overall citizenship scores when compared to students in other majors.

In other words, students in computer science were graduating college with less preparation than students in all other majors to become agents of responsible change in an increasingly global citizenry.

These data underscore a key barrier to creating a technology workforce that is more oriented to the public good and highlight how undergraduate education would be an appropriate site of intervention.

Incorporating more education about morality and ethics into computer science education could help. Thats an effort underway at big institutions including MIT, Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley. Another strategy is drawing computer science back into the liberal arts, to better root technology in disciplines like history and sociology that explore social issues.

An additional approach would be to create educational contexts for computer science students that advance their capacity to enact social and cultural responsibility. According to the book How College Affects Students: Volume 3, which synthesizes findings from hundreds of higher education studies, such educational contexts develop: a respect for human rights; an analytic understanding of transparency, inclusivity, and openness to debate and their essential role in a participatory society; and the capacity to critically examine elements of any social arrangement.

What might such educational contexts in computing look like? For the past decade and a half, The Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI), a network of 40 colleges, has developed approaches to computer science education that have raised Hispanic students' bachelor's degree attainment in computing fields. With the support of federal funding, industry partners, and nonprofit educational agencies, CAHSI has developed peer tutoring, undergraduate research experiences, and professional clubs that successfully recruit and retain Hispanic students and other underrepresented groups in computing.

Importantly, these activities involve community building, intergenerational mentoring, and assets-based approaches toward computing education that affirm the humanity, participation and cultural strengths of students. These approaches cultivate the sense of belonging in computing and STEM fields that have been found to be critical for students of color. Additional internships and opportunities to attend computing conferences geared at uplift of women and Hispanics in computing have further emphasized student leadership capabilities to serve and support other students and their broader communities.

Examples like CAHSI indicate that incorporating a sense of ethical and cultural responsibility to the public good in computing is possible. There are several strategies that can be applied to enhance computing students' sense of social justice and capacity to serve diverse communities. Integrating collaborative, active, experiential and culturally responsive approaches in computing education augments the engagement and success of all students in computing. Furthermore, these practices can transform the culture of computing to prepare students with the skills to better serve the public good.

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Lets Teach Computer Science Majors to Be Good Citizens. The Whole World Depends on It. - EdSurge

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Skowhegan High and Tech Center receive female diversity award for participation in computer science course – Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

SKOWHEGAN When Kim McEwen attended her first engineering course at the University of Maine, she was the only female student in the class.

Decades later, she now teaches STEM courses science, technology, engineering and math at the Skowhegan Area High School and the Somerset Career & Technical Center, and has been recognized for her work in closing the gender gap in Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles, while continuing to make STEM education accessible to more students.

McEwens computer science class was recently recognized by the College Board with the AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award, which is given out to schools that achieve high rates of female representation in AP Computer Science Principles.

Skowhegan Area High School and SCTC have expanded access to girls in these courses, and McEwen has also been making strides toward expanding lessons to fifth-graders in Maine School Administrative District 54.

Of the 20,000 institutions that offer AP courses, 1,119 achieved female representation of 50% or more in one of the two AP computer science courses during the 2019-20 school year.

Skowhegan Area High School/Somerset Career & Technical Centers students need the power to shape technology, not just cope with it, Stefanie Sanford, College Board chief of global policy and external relations, said in a statement released to the news media. Young women deserve an equal opportunity to become the next generation of entrepreneurs, engineers and tech leaders. Closing the gap in computer science education empowers young women to build the future they want.

In 2020, Skowhegan Area High School/SCTC was one of 831 schools recognized with this award.

In Maine, 29.2% of those working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields are women, according to a 2015 report from the Institute for Womens Policy Research, compared to 28.8% nationwide.

During an unprecedented year, Skowhegan Area High School/Somerset Career & Technical Center female students have demonstrated perseverance and dedication in their study of AP Computer Science, said Bruce Mochamer, principal of Skowhegan Area High School.

We could not be more proud of our female students for staking their claim as the next generation of STEM and computer science professionals.

At Skowhegan Area High School/Somerset Career & Technical Center, students have the option to take 3D design, robotics, computer science and structures with McEwen. She said the courses change or are added based on students requests and needs.

We have kids come to robotics every year because they can code, but they wanted a full-on coding class, McEwen said. They wanted to see if that was something theyd want to do in the future.

(Coding) certainly wasnt my background, but I spoke to David Dorr (director of SCTC) and Principal Mochamer to have guidance and to make sure we could add it to our programming. Then I received training so I could guide the kids. It gives them an opportunity to try it here for free and get a feel for whether they want to do it or not.

Prior to teaching in Skowhegan, McEwen worked with public water utilities in Connecticut and Maine. Before switching to teaching, she worked for the Bath Water District.

McEwen has a civil engineering degree from UMaine. She spent a decade working as an engineer and has been teaching for 18 years.

(Teaching) was a personal choice for me, McEwen said of her career change. I did a lot of traveling and spent a lot of time away from my family, and my husband and I wanted to move back to this area. I said one day: I like math and science. Lets teach math and science.'

She added that in the current academic year, she does not have any female students in her computer science class, which was recognized for the award, but this is not common.

In all of our classes, we typically have quite a few females, McEwen said. The one that has always been traditionally low (in enrollment) is robotics.

McEwen has also been working on outreach and is starting a program with fifth-grade students across the district. An effort to bring STEM lessons to Margaret Chase Smith School and Canaan Elementary School began last spring, but was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and cancelation of in-person learning.

As we updated our own robotics equipment so that our kids could compete in competitions, we had some really nice working equipment, McEwen said., so we thought that we should reach out to fifth-grade teachers and wanted to do a traveling STEM program.

By offering these programs to younger students, McEwen said she hopes to attract more into STEM courses by the time they reach high school.

Due to the hybrid learning schedule and spacing requirements required by the COVID-19 pandemic, the lessons are not offered this year, but McEwen said they will resume at the beginning of the 2021-22 school year.

Meantime, McEwen and her colleagues are in the process of putting together a summer robotics class for middle school students that will run during the normal summer school session in MSAD 54.

Theres a lot of schools across the country that are now making computer science a part of their graduation requirements, McEwen said. We need tremendous amounts of numbers of people that want to train in coding, and we need bodies to fill these roles.

Theres so many things you can get out of it, like problem solving and analytical skills. Those qualities are good, no matter where you go. It doesnt matter if you want to be an engineer, teacher or businessperson.

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Skowhegan High and Tech Center receive female diversity award for participation in computer science course - Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel

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