Cloud Hosting

Routt Catholic High School has earned a national award for diversity in the classroom.

Routt Catholic High School has earned the College Board AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for achieving high female representation in AP Computer Science Principles.

Anna Terwische, a Junior at Routt, says the computer logic learned in the class applies to many other things not just related to computer programming.

Weve learned different types of coding like Python and HTML. You can create websites and make them do different things. Weve also started to use 3D printing, and we are working on printing a prosthetic hand for a guy from Missouri, so thats been cool. Weve been sending it back and forth making new versions of it to see what works best for him.

Colleen Doyle Development and Enrollment Director says the class is only offered every other year at Routt. She says its a great review of what the world of computer science can look like.

They learn a lot about programming languages. They learn about building websites, being safe on the internet, learning about different carers you can have.

As a female who works here myself Im just excited for these young women here at the school that can benefit from Mr. Link, Mr. Roscetti, and Mrs. Ptacek who have worked so hard to provide these opportunities for our young women.

Senior Abigail Beddingfield says she proud that Routt was recognized with the award.

Honestly to me it feels good because is it specifically just about female participation. To me, it just feels really really good.

College Board research about AP CSP is so encouraging. According to the data, female students who take AP CSP in high school are more than 5 times as likely to major in computer science in college, compared to similar female students who did not take CSP.

The study also finds AP CSP students are nearly twice as likely to enroll in AP CSA, and that for most students, AP CSP serves as a stepping-stone to other advanced AP STEM coursework.

Schools honored with the award have expanded girls access to AP Computer Science courses. Routt was one of 831 schools recognized in the category of AP Computer Science Principles.

Read the rest here:

Routt Recognized for Diversity in Computer Science - WLDS-WEAI News

Theres a mesmerizing video animation on YouTube of simulated, self-driving traffic streaming through a six-lane, four-way intersection. Dozens of cars flow through the streets, pausing, turning, slowing, and speeding up to avoid colliding with their neighbors. And not a single car stopping. But what if even one of those vehicles was not autonomous? What if only one was?

In the coming decades, autonomous vehicles will play a growing role in society, whether keeping drivers safer, making deliveries, or increasing accessibility and mobility for elderly or disabled passengers.

But MIT Assistant Professor Cathy Wu argues that autonomous vehicles are just part of a complex transport system that may involve individual self-driving cars, delivery fleets, human drivers, and a range of last-mile solutions to get passengers to their doorstep not to mention road infrastructure like highways, roundabouts, and, yes, intersections.

Transport today accounts for about one-third of U.S. energy consumption. The decisions we make today about autonomous vehicles could have a big impact on this number ranging from a 40 percent decrease in energy use to a doubling of energy consumption.

So how can we better understand the problem of integrating autonomous vehicles into the transportation system? Equally important, how can we use this understanding to guide us toward better-functioning systems?

Wu, who joined the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS) and MIT in 2019, is the Gilbert W. Winslow Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering as well as a core faculty member of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. Growing up in a Philadelphia-area family of electrical engineers, Wu sought a field that would enable her to harness engineering skills to solve societal challenges.

During her years as an undergraduate at MIT, she reached out to Professor Seth Teller of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to discuss her interest in self-driving cars.

Teller, who passed away in 2014, met her questions with warm advice, says Wu. He told me, If you have an idea of what your passion in life is, then you have to go after it as hard as you possibly can. Only then can you hope to find your true passion.

Anyone can tell you to go after your dreams, but his insight was that dreams and ambitions are not always clear from the start. It takes hard work to find and pursue your passion.

Chasing that passion, Wu would go on to work with Teller, as well as in Professor Daniela Russ Distributed Robotics Laboratory, and finally as a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley, where she won the IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society's best PhD award in 2019.

In graduate school, Wu had an epiphany: She realized that for autonomous vehicles to fulfill their promise of fewer accidents, time saved, lower emissions, and greater socioeconomic and physical accessibility, these goals must be explicitly designed-for, whether as physical infrastructure, algorithms used by vehicles and sensors, or deliberate policy decisions.

At LIDS, Wu uses a type of machine learning called reinforcement learning to study how traffic systems behave, and how autonomous vehicles in those systems ought to behave to get the best possible outcomes.

Reinforcement learning, which was most famously used by AlphaGo, DeepMinds human-beating Go program, is a powerful class of methods that capture the idea behind trial-and-error given an objective, a learning agent repeatedly attempts to achieve the objective, failing and learning from its mistakes in the process.

In a traffic system, the objectives might be to maximize the overall average velocity of vehicles, to minimize travel time, to minimize energy consumption, and so on.

When studying common components of traffic networks such as grid roads, bottlenecks, and on- and off-ramps, Wu and her colleagues have found that reinforcement learning can match, and in some cases exceed, the performance of current traffic control strategies. And more importantly, reinforcement learning can shed new light toward understanding complex networked systems which have long evaded classical control techniques. For instance, if just 5 to 10 percent of vehicles on the road were autonomous and used reinforcement learning, that could eliminate congestion and boost vehicle speeds by 30 to 140 percent. And the learning from one scenario often translates well to others. These insights could one day soon help to inform public policy or business decisions.

In the course of this research, Wu and her colleagues helped improve a class of reinforcement learning methods called policy gradient methods. Their advancements turned out to be a general improvement to most existing deep reinforcement learning methods.

But reinforcement learning techniques will need to be continually improved to keep up with the scale and shifts in infrastructure and changing behavior patterns. And research findings will need to be translated into action by urban planners, auto makers and other organizations.

Today, Wu is collaborating with public agencies in Taiwan and Indonesia to use insights from her work to guide better dialogues and decisions. By changing traffic signals or using nudges to shift drivers behavior, are there other ways to achieve lower emissions or smoother traffic?

Im surprised by this work every day, says Wu. We set out to answer a question about self-driving cars, and it turns out you can pull apart the insights, apply them in other ways, and then this leads to new exciting questions to answer.

Wu is happy to have found her intellectual home at LIDS. Her experience of it is as a very deep, intellectual, friendly, and welcoming place. And she counts among her research inspirations MIT course 6.003 (Signals and Systems) a class she encourages everyone to take taught in the tradition of professors Alan Oppenheim (Research Laboratory of Electronics) and Alan Willsky (LIDS). The course taught me that so much in this world could be fruitfully examined through the lens of signals and systems, be it electronics or institutions or society, she says. I am just realizing as Im saying this, that I've been empowered by LIDS thinking all along!

Research and teaching through a pandemic havent been easy, but Wu is making the best of a challenging first year as faculty. (Ive been working from home in Cambridge my short walking commute is irrelevant at this point, she says wryly.) To unwind, she enjoys running, listening to podcasts covering topics ranging from science to history, and reverse-engineering her favorite Trader Joes frozen foods.

Shes also been working on two Covid-related projects born at MIT: One explores how data from the environment, such as data collected by internet-of-things-connected thermometers, can help identify emerging community outbreaks. Another project asks if its possible to ascertain how contagious the virus is on public transport, and how different factors might decrease the transmission risk.

Both are in their early stages, Wu says. We hope to contribute a bit to the pool of knowledge that can help decision-makers somewhere. Its been very enlightening and rewarding to do this and see all the other efforts going on around MIT.

Follow this link:

Examining the world through signals and systems - MIT News

Newswise Thirty funded postdoctoral scholarships announced by Queens University Belfast are set to provide a unique opportunity to explore the challenges of Artificial intelligence (AI) for every area of science and society.

The researchers who secure places on the programme will work at the cutting edge of AI algorithms while considering the societal implications of allowing machines to make decisions about our futures.

Queenshas been awarded aLeverhulme Doctoral Scholarship grant of 1.35m over six years for the Leverhulme Interdisciplinary Network on Algorithmic Solutions (LINAS) Doctoral Training Programme (DTP) to fund 15 doctoral scholarships and has matched the funding to sponsor another 15 positions over the next three years.

The interdisciplinary research programme will be supervised by academic experts from theFaculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. The programme will be led by Professor John Morison from the School of Law, along with Dr Sandra Scott-Hayward from the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Professor Stephen Smartt from theSchool of Maths and Physics at Queens.

AI technologies have made rapid advances in the last decade, opening up huge possibilities for all parts of society but there are increasing fears that humans will begin to lose control of the process where machines interpret the world on our behalf.

Professor John Morisonexplained: As AI becomes more sophisticated, we will witness algorithms and machines making use of huge datasets, including personal data, in decisions relating to medicine, healthcare, law and government, finance, city planning and even within military areas. The ethical, legal, political and sociological aspects of living with machines that have AI algorithms that are allowed to operate independently requires careful investigation.

Previous interdisciplinary programmes at Queens have given us different perspectives on these issues and the new researchers we recruit will be building on this in an exciting cutting-edge project. The LINAS project will identify and address scientific and engineering questions through the lens of law, humanities and the social sciences. Researchers will scrutinise the implications of algorithmic solutions on crucial aspects of human life.

Researchers from the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences and the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) will engage directly with humanities, social science and law researchers from theSenator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice to support the doctoral scholars.

Professor Stephen Smarttsaid: As well as adhering to traditional scientific governance, scientists and engineers working in the field of AI face many challenges around the introduction of trust and governance of data issues. Tackling these challenges in isolation could lead to effective discipline specific solutions but no advance in sustainable, societal algorithmic solutions.

Dr Sandra Scott-Haywardexplained: By collaborating with colleagues in humanities, social science and law, we can support the development of integrated, effective, scientifically rigorous and socially responsible algorithmic solutions. We have seen the benefits of this interdisciplinary approach applied to the field of cyber security and we are excited to further this for the challenges of AI with LINAS.

LINAS will also complement the Belfast Region City Deal and link with the Queens University Global Innovation Institute to address a range of issues around AI, in the context of secure connected intelligence.

Applications for the doctoral scholarships open on Friday 5 February 2021.

For more information on the application criteria and to apply, please visit: https://www.qub.ac.uk/Research/GRI/mitchell-institute/Study/linas/

See the rest here:

New Queens scholarship opportunities will explore impact of AI on science and society - Newswise

In a change highlighting Princeton's broad investment in computer and information technologies, the former Department of Electrical Engineering has become the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). The new name won unanimous support at the Feb. 1 monthly meeting of the University Faculty.

Leaders from across disciplines agreed that the change better captures the department's range of strengths and impact.

"Acknowledging computer engineeringin our name makes our core work more visible to the department's constituents, including prospective students, faculty members and industry partners," said department chair Sharad Malik, the George Van Ness Lothrop Professor in Engineering. "In many respects, this formal change reflects what's long been true in our classrooms and in our labs."

Roughly half of the department's research efforts and seven of its 10 undergraduate sub-concentrations investigate aspects of computing and information systems.

Malik said the department takes a "full-stack" view of computing that connects an array of academic pursuits all geared toward technology in the service of humanity. An applied science approach to materials and devices enables the advanced processors and sensors in smart systems. An applied math-driven analysis of data and information guides how machines make decisions and inferences. And the engineering of the computing systems that integrate it all creates systems that address societys most pressing challenges.

Professor Naveen Verma, for example, designs in-memory-computing chips with specialized devices and machine learning algorithms to build low-power, intelligent computing platforms. Associate Professor Prateek Mittal draws on a range of techniques from data and information science to secure communication networks. And a cluster of faculty members, including Professor Andrew Houck and Assistant Professor Nathalie de Leon, have taken lead roles in a major national initiative on quantum science and engineering, with an emphasis on devices and networks that will power new classes of future computing applications.

"The discipline of electrical engineering is exceptionally broadand has always been the nexus of innovation in new generations of computer and information technologies, said Andrea Goldsmith, dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science and the Arthur Legrand Doty Professor of Electrical Engineering. Goldsmith said the name change will convey that breadth more clearly to graduate and undergraduate students. It will convey to potential employers the fact that graduates from the department have deep knowledge of computer engineering.It will also allow us to compete more effectively for top students by articulating more effectively the breadth of research and education in the department.

Historically, the growth of information science that led to modern computing applications arose from within electrical engineering. Princetons electrical engineering department was founded in 1889, one of the first in the country. In the second half of the 20th century, as the theoretical underpinnings of computer science developed in parallel to advances in materials, hardware and architectures, the department expanded to become the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Computer science has since grown into its own large and robust field, forming a separate department in 1985. But the boundary between the two disciplines has always been porous, according to Jennifer Rexford, the Gordon Y. S. Wu Professor in Engineering and chair of computer science. Rexford pointed to areas of data science, machine learning and wireless communication where electrical engineers have played key roles in the mathematical foundations of modern applications.

"Computing also increasingly connects to the physical world through sensors, medical devices and so on," said Rexford, who received her bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Princeton. "This welcome change signals the critical importance of computing across engineering and the entire campus."

Over the past decade, Princeton engineering has invested heavily in those cross-disciplinary connections. The Metropolis Project integrates engineering advances in sensing, data processing and device networking with architecture, social science and the humanities to make 21st century cities more sustainable, equitable and livable for their residents.

The engineering school's focus on Robotics and Cyberphysical Systems has led to the development of a new robotics lab that will bring together researchers from at least three departments to work on real-world problems in sectors such as transportation, energy and environment, and urban planning.

And researchers in the newly announced Princeton Bioengineering Initiative will include ECE faculty who work on bio-imaging and machine learning applications to improve health and treat disease.

"Ultimately, this shift lets Princeton cast a larger external shadow in computing," Malik said. "It expands opportunities for our students entering the workforce and makes a statement to our external partners about Princetons strengths in transformative technological innovation."

View post:

Department name change signals broad impact on computer and information technologies - Princeton University

As per tradition during the first meeting of the calendar year, the Western New Mexico University Board of Regents spent time communicating with state legislators, including Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, during their Thursday assembly over Zoom. They also agreed on the university presidents performance goals, voted to extend regent Janice Baca Argabrights term as the board Secretary/Treasurer until a new board is constituted, and approved the Fiscal Year 2019-2020 Audit Report and the Fiscal Year 2021 Quarter 2 Financial Certification.

When you are at the legislative session, its really a place for someone like me to listennot talkand understand what your priorities are, Gov. Lujan Grisham said. New Mexico was successful in quashing the virus, largely thanks to higher education. You led in terms of figuring out ways to serve your students and faculty.

The governor praised WNMU President Dr. Joseph Shepard for compelling the states colleges and universities into collective action. Higher education came to the table early making sure their outcomes would be higher and helped us figure out a whole new education design. That was Joe Shepard. That was very powerful and that did not happen across the country. You all are something really special, she said.

Regent Chair Jerry Walz, who is completing his service after a dozen years on the board, said, We have not just been sitting around waiting for COVID-19 to pass. Weve been focused on our recruiting efforts and continue to compete for students not only on the local levels but on an international scale.

Echoing the chairs sentiments, Vice Chair of the board Dr. Mary Hotvedt said, Western New Mexico University has been using this time to think outside the box about how to make our university even greater as we emerge from this pandemic.

Acting Cabinet Secretary of the New Mexico Higher Education Department Stephanie Rodriguez briefed the board on legislation intended to support students in obtaining degrees and certificates through initiatives like the Opportunity Scholarship, also encouraging leadership to apply for available funding, particularly in the realm of early childhood education a field which she said WNMU has a premier focus on.

District 28 Senator Siah Correa Hemphill discussed her familys legacy of attending WNMU and expressed gratitude for the institutions compassion when she needed to take a break from her masters program.

District 39 Representative Luis M. Terrazas said, Im thankful I can reach out to Dr. Shepard when I have a question.

Legislative Finance Committee Director David Abbey noted themes emerging from the meetings conversation: family, business and political relationships. Its been a tough budget time in the past year procedurally and politically and financially. We presented a recommended budget with a cost of living adjustment of 1.5%. I dont need to tell the university about the consequences of falling behind in compensation in terms of retention and recruitment, he said.

What were seeing in the legislative session this year is a more supportive tone for higher education, said Kathy Ulibarri of New Mexico Independent Community Colleges.

Executive Director of the New Mexico Council of University Presidents Marc. H. Saavedra told the board that, with the leadership of Dr. Shepard, the group has developed a unified approach in their work with the legislature. He discussed the two budget recommendations on the table: the executive recommendation and Legislative Finance Committee recommendation, the latter of which he said looks more favorable for higher education. President Shepard has done an amazing job of advocating for higher education all around. He has been diligent and used great diplomacy in terms of how hes expressed where were at, Saavedra said.

Progressing to their agenda items, the regents addressed the proposed performance goals for Dr. Shepard, who explained, Its the board saying to the president, This is what we want you to accomplish, and well be evaluating you on this instrument.

The item was approved unanimously.

WNMU Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost Dr. Jack Crocker presented two faculty members for sabbatical, recommending sculpture professor Michael Metcalf and math and computer science professor Dr. Nancy Livingston.

Metcalfs proposal outlined his intentions to design and fabricate a strategically placed entry sculpture on campus. During a 2006-07 sabbatical/leave-of-absence, he created two 30-foot tall sculptures for the City of Albuquerque, and over the last 15 years, he has designed and fabricated five large scale, publicly and privately commissioned sculptures. In this one-semester sabbatical, Metcalf plans to create a 30-foot outdoor site-specific sculpture for WNMU. I care passionately about WNMU and want to create a work that captures the WNMU experience. I will collaborate with students and faculty to gain student quotes about their WNMU experience and the ALAS program. Theses student quotes will be incorporated into the pillars that define the sculpture and suspend the earth form boulder in a tenuous way. The form implies the complexities of our current civilization and our students (spire forms) are the ones to carry the future burdens, he wrote. I plan to use durable materials such as stainless steel, bronze, and granite to create a lasting work that will serve the university and stimulate students for the next 100 years.

During her requested sabbatical leave, Dr. Livingston wishes to accomplish three interdisciplinary objectives: WNMU Cliff Swallow Research, Java Programming Study, and Data Science with Python Study.

She began a cross-disciplinary study of the Southwestern Cliff Swallow in late 2019 and, with university support, installed data logging sensors at nesting locations across campus. These sensors collected daily nesting location temperature, humidity and light values for the entire 2020 nesting season. Dr. Livingston and students supported through New Mexico AMP funding documented the birds with photographs and video footage. Along with studies completed by other university employees and students plus data collected by the Silver City Audubon Society, there is multivariate data to organize, synthesize and analyze, which Dr. Livingston plans to do using opensource statistical programming environment R and RStudio. Though I was attempting to complete this project in my free time, as it was a completely voluntary effort on my part, I have discovered that it is impossible for me to complete during my working semesters. These annual visitors are part of the universitys history, culture and future, and are thus important to document, she said.

In anticipation of the retirement of both WNMU computer science professors, Dr. Livingston aims to become qualified in teaching the Java programming courses. Also seeing the increasing importance of handling large data sets and gleaning correct information from the data and the related job opportunities for graduates skilled in this area, Dr. Livingston is going to be working toward establishing a new masters program in data science.

Discussing the results of the Fiscal Year 2019-2020 Audit was auditor Chris Garner from Patillo, Brown and Hill. First describing the firms responsibility under U.S. and Government auditing standards, he said, We give whats called reasonable assurance. We state the financial statements are fairly presented without our standards. We have to communicate significant matters that come to our attention. If we come across anything, were required to report that as a finding. We issued an unmodified opinion. This is the highest level of assurance that we can give, he said.

Garners presentation showed that the university financial records are being maintained in good order. Our overall opinion was an unmodifiedor cleanfinding, he said.

WNMU Faculty Senate President Dr. Sue McFeaters said that the faculty body is working with Dr. Shepard and Dr. Crocker to strategize from an academic standpoint how faculty can be part of increasing enrollment.

In his report to the board, WNMU Staff Senate President Michael Acosta said, The pandemic has allowed us to identify certain weaknesses and allowed us to increase improvements. Some of those things are how we interact between faculty and staff.

Associated Students of WNMU President described how students are working to maximize their student fees and stay as engaged as possible while most of their education is online. Weve been creating a safe campus by promoting the protocols and guidelines we need to follow, she said, noting that many students remaining on campus are athletes, who also follow rigorous screening and testing regimens.

Dr. Shepard advised the board that fewer students are enrolled at WNMU this spring, amounting to a 7% drop. The silver lining is theyre taking more classes. Were only down about 1% in credit hours, he said.

Announcing a goal to increase enrollment to 4,000 students by fall of 2022, Dr. Shepard said, I will be looking for ways to incentivize and reach that goal. If we all pitch in and help, that would lift us up substantially, he said. We think this is actually a promising time, because well have some one-time money to invest over the next two years.

The university president concluded his report saying, Were off to a great start this semester, as difficult as its been.

Original post:

WNMU Board of Regents Virtually Sits Down With Legislators, Governor - WNMU News