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Miklos Daniel Brody, a cloud engineer, was sentenced to two years in prison and a restitution of $529,000 for wiping the code repositories of his former employer in retaliation for being fired by the company.

First Republic Bank was a commercial bank in the U.S., employing over seven thousand people and having an annual revenue of $6.75 billion. The bank closed on May 1, 2023, and was sold to JPMorgan Chase.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announcement, Brody was fired on March 11, 2020, from First Republic Bank (FRB) in San Francisco, where he worked as a cloud engineer.

Thecourt documentsstate that Brody's employment was terminated after he violated company policies by connecting a USB drive containing pornography to company computers.

Following his dismissal, Brody allegedly refused to return his work laptop and instead used his still-valid account to access the bank's computer network and cause damages estimated to be above $220,000

"Among other things, Brody deleted the bank's code repositories, ran a malicious script to delete logs, left taunts within the bank's code for former colleagues, and impersonated other bank employees by opening sessions in their names," describes theU.S. DOJ announcement.

"He also emailed himself proprietary bank code that he had worked on as an employee, which was valued at over $5,000."

Until his access to FRB's network was eventually terminated on March 12, 2020, Brody had performed the following actions:

After the incident, Brody falsely reported to the San Francisco Police Department that the FRB-issued laptop had been stolen from his car.

He continued to uphold this story when interviewed by United States Secret Service agents following his arrest in March 2021.

Eventually, in April 2023, Brody pleaded guilty to lying about the laptop and to two charges concerning violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

In addition to the two-year prison term and the payment of the restitution, Brody will serve three years of supervised release.

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Cloud engineer gets 2 years for wiping ex-employers code repos - BleepingComputer

MIT engineers have developed a robotic replica of the hearts right ventricle, which mimics the beating and blood-pumping action of live hearts.

The robo-ventricle combines real heart tissue with synthetic, balloon-like artificial muscles that enable scientists to control the ventricles contractions while observing how its natural valves and other intricate structures function.

The artificial ventricle can be tuned to mimic healthy and diseased states. The team manipulated the model to simulate conditions of right ventricular dysfunction, including pulmonary hypertension and myocardial infarction. They also used the model to test cardiac devices. For instance, the team implanted a mechanical valve to repair a natural malfunctioning valve, then observed how the ventricles pumping changed in response.

They say the new robotic right ventricle, or RRV, can be used as a realistic platform to study right ventricle disorders and test devices and therapies aimed at treating those disorders.

The right ventricle is particularly susceptible to dysfunction in intensive care unit settings, especially in patients on mechanical ventilation, says Manisha Singh, a postdoc at MITs Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES). The RRV simulator can be used in the future to study the effects of mechanical ventilation on the right ventricle and to develop strategies to prevent right heart failure in these vulnerable patients.

Singh and her colleagues report details of the new design in an open-access paper appearing today in Nature Cardiovascular Research. Her co-authors include Associate Professor Ellen Roche, who is a core member of IMES and the associate head for research in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT; along with Jean Bonnemain, Caglar Ozturk, Clara Park, Diego Quevedo-Moreno, Meagan Rowlett, and Yiling Fan of MIT; Brian Ayers of Massachusetts General Hospital; Christopher Nguyen of Cleveland Clinic; and Mossab Saeed of Boston Childrens Hospital.

A ballet of beats

The right ventricle is one of the hearts four chambers, along with the left ventricle and the left and right atria. Of the four chambers, the left ventricle is the heavy lifter, as its thick, cone-shaped musculature is built for pumping blood through the entire body. The right ventricle, Roche says, is a ballerina in comparison, as it handles a lighter though no-less-crucial load.

The right ventricle pumps deoxygenated blood to the lungs, so it doesnt have to pump as hard, Roche notes. Its a thinner muscle, with more complex architecture and motion.

This anatomical complexity has made it difficult for clinicians to accurately observe and assess right ventricle function in patients with heart disease.

Conventional tools often fail to capture the intricate mechanics and dynamics of the right ventricle, leading to potential misdiagnoses and inadequate treatment strategies, Singh says.

To improve understanding of the lesser-known chamber and speed the development of cardiac devices to treat its dysfunction, the team designed a realistic, functional model of the right ventricle that both captures its anatomical intricacies and reproduces its pumping function.

The model includes real heart tissue, which the team chose to incorporate because it retains natural structures that are too complex to reproduce synthetically.

There are thin, tiny chordae and valve leaflets with different material properties that are all moving in concert with the ventricles muscle. Trying to cast or print these very delicate structures is quite challenging, Roche explains.

A hearts shelf-life

In the new study, the team reports explanting a pigs right ventricle, which they treated to carefully preserve its internal structures. They then fit a silicone wrapping around it, which acted as a soft, synthetic myocardium, or muscular lining. Within this lining, the team embedded several long, balloon-like tubes, which encircled the real heart tissue, in positions that the team determined through computational modeling to be optimal for reproducing the ventricles contractions. The researchers connected each tube to a control system, which they then set to inflate and deflate each tube at rates that mimicked the hearts real rhythm and motion.

To test its pumping ability, the team infused the model with a liquid similar in viscosity to blood. This particular liquid was also transparent, allowing the engineers to observe with an internal camera how internal valves and structures responded as the ventricle pumped liquid through.

They found that the artificial ventricles pumping power and the function of its internal structures were similar to what they previously observed in live, healthy animals, demonstrating that the model can realistically simulate the right ventricles action and anatomy. The researchers could also tune the frequency and power of the pumping tubes to mimic various cardiac conditions, such as irregular heartbeats, muscle weakening, and hypertension.

Were reanimating the heart, in some sense, and in a way that we can study and potentially treat its dysfunction, Roche says.

To show that the artificial ventricle can be used to test cardiac devices, the team surgically implanted ring-like medical devices of various sizes to repair the chambers tricuspid valve a leafy, one-way valve that lets blood into the right ventricle. When this valve is leaky, or physically compromised, it can cause right heart failure or atrial fibrillation, and leads to symptoms such as reduced exercise capacity, swelling of the legs and abdomen, and liver enlargement.

The researchers surgically manipulated the robo-ventricles valve to simulate this condition, then either replaced it by implanting a mechanical valve or repaired it using ring-like devices of different sizes. They observed which device improved the ventricles fluid flow as it continued to pump.

With its ability to accurately replicate tricuspid valve dysfunction, the RRV serves as an ideal training ground for surgeons and interventional cardiologists, Singh says. They can practice new surgical techniques for repairing or replacing the tricuspid valve on our model before performing them on actual patients.

Currently, the RRV can simulate realistic function over a few months. The team is working to extend that performance and enable the model to run continuously for longer stretches. They are also working with designers of implantable devices to test their prototypes on the artificial ventricle and possibly speed their path to patients. And looking far in the future, Roche plans to pair the RRV with a similar artificial, functional model of the left ventricle, which the group is currently fine-tuning.

We envision pairing this with the left ventricle to make a fully tunable, artificial heart, that could potentially function in people, Roche says. Were quite a while off, but thats the overarching vision.

This research was supported, in part, by the National Science Foundation.

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MIT engineers design a robotic replica of the heart's right chamber - MIT News

UNESCOs first report on ethics of climate engineering

In time for the COP28 event in Dubai, UNESCOs World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) has published its first-ever report on the Ethics of Climate Engineering, or the use and adoption of new technologies to help reduce the impacts of climate change including carbon dioxide removal and solar reflectivity, along with specific guidelines and recommendations for their possible use.

This report documents the range of climate engineering technologies, which fall into two main categories. The first category is Carbon Dioxide Removal, which involves repelling carbon out of the atmosphere. Some examples include building industrial-scale carbon removal infrastructure, planting trees to absorb carbon emissions, or removing carbon dioxide from air using an electricity-based device.

The second is Solar Radiation Modification, which means reflecting sunlight back into space. Injecting aerosols into the stratosphere or painting roofs in light colors are considered as examples for this category. Swinging between these two, UNESCOs Ethics on Climate Engineering report documents the risks and opportunities of creating infrastructure and methods to solve these problems or aggravate them.

UNESCOs report on Ethics of Climate Engineering including carbon removal | image by Pixabay, via Pexels

COP28, also known as the United Nations Climate Change Conference, runs between November 30th, 2023, through December 12th, 2023, in Dubai and serves as a platform for companies and organizations to showcase how they are planning to tackle the global challenge of climate change using their programs, installations, products, and more. The entrance of UNESCOs Ethics on Climate Engineering report surfaces in time, given the climate disruption continuing at an alarming pace, as UNESCO claims, when peoples intervention and actions still fall short of reducing carbon emissions and global warming.

According to the report, climate engineering, also known as geoengineering, becomes an alternative to speed up the response in removing carbon from the atmosphere and reflecting sunlight into space. Take the City University of Hong Kongs cooling ceramic tilesas an example where they replicate the bio-whiteness of the Cyphochilus beetle in hopes of deflecting heat, reducing home air-conditioning usage, and, as an outcome, combating global warming.

Another case to make is through VTT Technical Research Centre of Finlands spin-out company Carbonaide which may fall under the same umbrella since they attempt to transform carbon dioxide into carbon-negative concrete blocks that can eventually become a carbon sink, or an object that can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

MITs Verdox | image by MIT | read more here

While these inventions may be beneficial long-term, UNESCOs COMEST advisory body and its first-ever report on the Ethics of Climate Engineering still express fear that these designs may cause problems rather than solve them. The report conveys its worry that trying to control the weather or reduce the impact of climate change including carbon dioxide removal and solar reflectivity using big-scale technologies might create issues. Fortunately, the first two mentioned might not be seen as industrial-scale effects, but rather micro ways that can induce greater impact.

Theres also a fear that focusing too much on these climate engineering solutions might take attention and financial support away from the inventions and technologies that have already been placed or developed to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. These concerns may have been on the table when Vincent Callebauts twisting carbon-absorbing tower in Taipei was first introduced. The premise began when the Belgian-born, Paris-based architect was chosen in 2010 to construct a sustainable residential tower in central Taipeis Xinjin district.

The idea for the Tao Zhu Yin Yuan Tower was to build a double-helix spiraling tower with open gardens and green energy to help reduce carbon emissions. A documentary showcases how the 21-story tower can do just that, partly steering from UNESCOs report since the established tower can offer a solution to decrease carbon emissions while affirming the concerns from the perspective of building the tower and what it generated in the making.

City University of Hong Kongs cooling ceramic | image by City University of Hong Kong | read more here

The report on the Ethics of Climate Engineering also brings up the concern that people may not know enough about these new climate-shifting technologies yet, so transparency in educating them on how they work is a must. On top of that, wide-ranging and unexpected effects on the environment, human health, oceans, and more may occur caused by these technologies, so depending too much on them to solve the environmental crises could be risky.

A suggestion indicated in the UNESCO report is that people need to do more research to understand these technologies better and figure out through data gathering, verification, and comparison if theyre safe and useful. This may also mean that companies, brands, and organizations might have to start being more open to the public on the effectiveness and the process of making their carbon-removal and solar-reflecting methods.

When a team of engineers from Purdue University invented the whitest paint ever that can cool buildings down and can be applied to other objects and surfaces to achieve the same effect, they detailed the information in their study, which included the paint reflecting up to 98.1 percent of sunlight back into space. In 2022, they made changes to the formula to make it even lighter and thinner and documented it, including what went into the formula and results of the findings for public viewing.

Carbonaides carbon-negative concrete | image by Carbonaide | read more here

In this case, the viewers can freely read the information themselves, so they can be updated on whether or not the white paint can deflect heat. The engineers attempt to be transparent with their information can help the viewers form their deductions and allow them to find ways to verify the effectiveness of the formula in cooling down spaces. The same theory may go with Brilliant Planets massive algae ponds in the coastal desert of Morocco which targets to sequester carbon at the gigaton scale.

The team states that they would produce algae and convert it into stable biomass before burying it, where the carbon dioxide remains stable and locked for thousands of years. This method is thought of to remove carbon dioxide permanently from the atmosphere, and in the process, they can also deacidify vast amounts of seawater to strengthen the local coastal ecosystem.

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from carbon removal to solar reflection, UNESCO reports climate engineering risks at COP28 - Designboom

SAN JOSE, Calif. and LONDON, Dec. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Happiest Minds Technologies Limited(NSE: HAPPSTMNDS), a 'Born Digital . Born Agile', Mindful IT Company, today announced that it has been recognized as a 'Rising Star' across multiple categories in the ISG Provider Lens Digital Engineering Services Report 2023 by Information Services Group (ISG), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

Happiest Mindsis the only company this year to earn the distinction of being a 'Rising Star'across 3 different categories Design and Development (Products, Services, Experience), Integrated Customer/User Engagement, and Platforms & Applications Services. The full ISG report for Happiest Minds can be downloaded here.

'Rising Star' indicates a company with a 'promising portfolio' and 'high future potential' by ISG's definition. This recognition across three different categories underscores the significant progress that Happiest Minds has made by building on the foundation of its digital engineering capabilities.

Dr. Tapati Bandhopadhyay, Lead Analyst at ISG,said, "Being an agile service provider right from its inception, Happiest Minds delivers digital platform engineering capabilities in an intuitive, context-aware manner. Happiest Minds offers design services to a broad range of enterprises that are at different stages of digital maturity and provides digital technology use cases to deliver improved agile CX and UX services."

Joseph Anantharaju, Executive Vice Chairman & CEO (PDES), Happiest Minds,said, "At Happiest Minds, we have constantly endeavoured to stay ahead of the technology curve to help our clients build future-ready products and platforms. Hence, it is gratifying to see that we are the only company recognized as a 'Rising Star' in 3 critical digital engineering quadrants. This recognition is a testament to our digital DNA and agile mindset complemented by our happiest people, happiest customers approach."

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Arsalaan Kashif, Senior Marketing Director, Happiest Minds, said, "Since its inception, Happiest Minds has had a strong engineering pedigree and digital DNA. As a result, we've helped many digital native clients create pioneering products and solutions in completely new market segments. The ISG Digital Case Study award that we won for our work with DoubleVerify and the 3 Rising Star recognitions for digital engineering underscore the value we've been able to deliver to our customers."

About Happiest Minds Technologies

Happiest Minds Technologies Limited (NSE: HAPPSTMNDS), a Mindful IT Company, enables digitaltransformationfor enterprises and technology providers by delivering seamless customer experiences, business efficiency and actionable insights. We do this by leveraging a spectrum of disruptive technologies such as:artificial intelligence,blockchain,cloud,digital process automation,internet of things,robotics/drones,security,virtual/ augmented reality,etc. Positioned as 'Born Digital . Born Agile', our capabilities span Product & Digital Engineering Services (PDES), Generative AI Business Services (GBS) and Infrastructure Management & Security Services (IMSS). We deliver these services across industry sectors such as automotive, BFSI, consumer packaged goods, e-commerce, EdTech, engineering R&D, healthcare, hi-tech, manufacturing, retail, and travel/transportation/hospitality. The company has been recognized for its excellence in Corporate Governance practices by Golden Peacock and ICSI. A Great Place to Work Certified company, Happiest Minds is headquartered in Bangalore, India, with operations in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and Middle East.

Media Contact:Kiran Veigasmedia@happiestminds.com

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30Tk5k-SMhsLogo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1812236/4451588/Happiest_Minds_Logo.jpg

(PRNewsfoto/Happiest Minds Technologies Limited)

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Happiest Minds recognized as a Rising Star in ISG's Provider Lens Digital Engineering Services US Report 2023 - Yahoo Finance

George K. Giakos, Ph.D., professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been selected as one of the worlds top industry scientists by the Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Alliance (AIIA). The designation is given to scholars and scientists whom the organization believes can contribute towards the growth and dissemination of AI principles within the industry.

As a member of this alliance, Giakos will promote the practical applications of artificial intelligence across various industries, fostering economic development and societal progress and facilitating industry connections. The AIIA notified Giakos that he had been selected by its board members for his research and contributions in the field of artificial intelligence.

"I am incredibly honored to be named one of the world's top industry scientists by the AIIA, said Giakos. This recognition is a testament to the hard work and dedication of my research team, colleagues and students at Manhattan College. We are constantly striving to push the boundaries of artificial intelligence and its applications and I am excited to continue working alongside such a talented group of individuals."

Giakos research interests lie primarily in technology innovation, through the integration of physics, engineering and artificial intelligence. He has more than 20 U.S. and foreign patents and has published 350 peer reviewed papers. He is the founding director of the Laboratory of Quantum Cognitive Imaging and Neuromorphic Engineering q(CINE) and Bioinspired Space Systems. Since 2000, Giakos has conducted research at prestigious U.S. national laboratories and companies such as NASA, The Air Force Research Laboratory, The Office of Naval Research and Lockheed Martin on the development and advancement of polarimetric imaging systems. Polarimetric imaging systems can capture hidden details and information that ordinary cameras miss and can be used for many applications including, medical imaging, environmental monitoring and art restoration.

Giakos and his Manhattan College students pioneered an artificial intelligence vision sensor technology called a Polarimetric Dynamic Vision Sensor p(DVS)s," blending neuromorphic processors (types of computer chips modeled on the structure and function of the brain) with polarimetric principles (principles based on the understanding and manipulating the polarization of light) that can process visual information in a way that is similar to the human optical system.

The AIIA was established in 2023 and is based in Hong Kong. It brings together scholars, scientists, government agencies and universities that are engaged in technology, research and development, applications, scientific education, consulting and investment and financing in the field of artificial intelligence.

I congratulate our colleague Dr. George Giakos on his selection as one of the world's top industry scientists within AIIA," said Anirban De, Ph.D., interim dean of the School of Engineering. This is a well-deserved recognition of Dr. Giakos' impressive record of scholarship as a faculty member at Manhattan College.

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Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Selected as One of the Worlds Top Industry Scientists by International ... - Manhattan College News