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Yaser Khalifa and Evolutionary Algorithms

This is Yaser Khalifa's website about his experiences with evolutionary algorithms.

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High Schools Are Focusing on Computer Classes

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Computers are the future. This is a fact that has always been true no matter how you look at the future. Whether fictional or realistic, visions of the future rely heavily on computers and artificial intelligence to show how the world will be different and that much more efficient. These images of the future are becoming closer and closer to reality as computers and technology advance at exponential rates, making people skilled in these more and more important to the economy and country as a whole. While other countries have recognized this and are placing more emphasis on math and science than before, the US has been slow to catch up. Now schools are recognizing the importance of educating students in computer sciences and they’re offering classes.yaser_khalifa_computer_science

The fact is that the United States of America is already falling behind in subjects like math and science and faces the danger of finding itself completely out of the running when it comes to producing students who are skilled and educated in the fields of science, technology, computing, engineering, and math. This has finally been realized and after a few failed attempts to jumpstart this sort of educational bent, states are seeing some success as students begin to recognize the importance as well. Computer science is one of the fastest growing industries in the country and the need to high quality candidates is becoming more and more important. Since 2013, AP (Advance Placement) computer science courses have grown 25% and it doesn’t seem like things are going to stop there. With new courses aimed at getting girls and minorities to join being introduced over the next year, this spike in popularity should only increase.

Led by an increased emphasis on S.T.E.M. (Science, technology, engineering, and math) classes, public school districts are also introducing and placing an importance on computer science classes. These classes teach students the basic of programming and how to code, allowing them to pursue the field with more ease and success when they get to college. A few years ago, what few computer science classes that were offered frequently would be dropped by school administrators due to low enrollment numbers, ruining the chances for students who were actually interested in the subject from taking classes on it. Now, with students already talking about how their computer science courses helped them in college, hopefully these offerings will become the norm across the country.

If you’d like to read more, the link is here.

Not All Hackers Are Horrible

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Hackers have been all over the news recently due to the frequent and costly attacks on banks, businesses, and governmental institutions that always grab attention. While there’s no denying that some hackers are out to steal for personal gain and cause havoc for their own reasons, the vilification from the media portrays all hackers as socially-deficient sociopaths who have no other goals in life other than stealing money and causing havoc amongst innocent people who are just trying to live their lives. While this is certainly true for some hackers, most of them are more mischievous than Machiavellian and more like artisans and proud craftsmen than rampant looters.hacking

Researchers are starting to study hackers and the community they take part in to better understand how they function so that more effective counter-measures can be created and implemented. What they have found so far is different than how the media portrays hackers and how society has come to view them. While there are hackers who fit all of the negative stereotypes, they are in the minority and most hackers are more concerned with all manners of programming, not the stealing of money and identities. Kevin Steinmetz, an assistant professor of sociology, anthropology and social work at Kansas State University, is leading the study and believes that hackers are more akin to transgressional craftsmen with a love of mischief than to evil-doers who are hellbent on stealing from everyone.

Steinmetz learned about hacking by observing and interviewing a group of hackers from Texas. He interviewed them about subjects ranging from privacy to governmental institutes of authority and found that a surprising amount of similarities between hacking collectives and the craftsmen guilds of antiquity. What he also found is that hacking is so much different now than from how it started. What we consider to be “hacking” actually encompasses so much more than it originally did. Hacking is now frequently used to talk about the outcomes but in reality, it should only refer to the process and the programming. True hackers care about much more than the outcome and aren’t necessarily criminals. In fact many hackers work to find bugs in software and websites so that they can tell the companies running them and advise on how to fix them.

If you’d like to learn more, the link is here.

Machines Teach Humans About the Stars

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When people think of the stars they usually think about the stereotypical star or the sun. What they don’t think of is the sheer number of stars that our galaxy (let alone our universe) contains and how the sheer mass and number of stars can make studying them incredibly difficult for even the most obsessed and dedicated astrologer. Thankfully, machines and robots are able to accomplish certain things much faster than humans can and they are incredible useful when it comes to sifting through huge amounts of data. Scientists are now using machines like this to help with their study of stars and planets all around the universe.

The use of machines and computers to help scientists shift through data is still relatively new. That being said, it is quickly gaining steam and becoming the norm as computers can go through massive lists much faster and, potentially, notice patterns that would escape the human eye. Normally the search for patterns in stars and planets is accomplished by a spectrum; the sifting of starlight through different wavelengths in an attempt to discover properties. Now machines can use complicated algorithms that sift through data at a much faster and more accurate speed. This allows computer to take information on billions of stars in a relatively quick manner when compared to previous efforts.

After taking the pictures of stars gathered by thousands of telescopes around the world, the computers search through a massive database that show’s all of the pictures of the same stars taken over a period of time. By looking for differences in size, brightness, and other factors, the computers can find new classes of stars as well as track the progress of existing stars as they head towards supernova. This sort of information will become more and more valuable as humanity continues to explore space looking for both evidence of life as well as potential colonizable planets.

If you’d like to read more, the link is here.

American Kids Need to Learn How to Code

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A new theory is sweeping through the educational world and it is threatening to overwhelm those who are unable to keep up and unwilling to look towards the future. More and more experts are talking about the importance of coding and learning how to code at a young age; so much so that it has probably become the new educational fad of the decade. With all this new importance being placed on coding, one thing should be coming to everyones mind; do you or your children know how to code or even what coding is? The sad truth is that America not only falling behind in a number of educational categories, but also that it is desperately falling behind the coding trend.

With President Barack Obama typing the first line of code a US president has ever typed earlier this week, coding is now more in the public limelight than it has been in the past decade. President Obama wrote his line of code as part of ‘Hour of Code’, a program designed by Code.org to help introduce people to the world of coding in an easy and painless way.  Code.org is a non-profit that has dedicated itself to increasing the exposure the average American gets to coding, especially women and minorities. It works to introduce coding into the national educational curriculum and to get kids, and adults, excited about and interested in coding. By creating programs like ‘Hour of Code’ and hosting activities and programs around the country, Code.org is slowly making sure that everyone at least knows what coding is and how it effects their everyday life.

There are, without a doubt, people who don’t see the value of coding and learning how computers and technology work. While this is fine, they are forgetting that the world is becoming more and more interconnected and technology is becoming more and more important. Coding is going to help Americans connect in ways they never thought possible and as it grows more and more important, there will be a stronger emphasis on it. Now is the time to get our children into coding; it is the future.

If you’d like to read more, the link is here.

New Bioethical Rules Are Being Created Due to Technology

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Facebook is currently known as a company that can do no wrong when it comes to business decisions and acquisitions. Facebook is also a company that is known for doing many things wrong when dealing with the people who use it and their personal information, their Facebook accounts and setups, and now their emotions. A couple of weeks ago, Facebook admitted that it had run non consensual emotional data manipulation experiments on many of it users. Facebook (along with scientists from Cornell) had manipulated the news feed so that they would see more sad articles and then collect data on the reactions and status posts of those tested on. While I’m not sure what sort of reaction they were expecting when they released this news, people were obviously furious and appalled that this sort of experiment was done without even asking or giving a warning that this might be a possibility. With all of the worries about data privacy and how big business is stripping those rights away, the Facebook revelation was swiftly condemned by users, reporters, bloggers, and everyone else in between.

Clearly the mass use of social media, and the experiments using it, have entered unexplored territory when it comes to ethics and rules regarding non consensual experimentation. Because of the hugely negative backlash (Facebook later released an apology), an international group of bioethics researchers have written an article attempting to deal with the unexplored world of large-scale social computing research. Before the advent of these massively popular social networks, no one had to worry about this sort of issue. Now that social networks are ubiquitous, there needs to be a set of rules that are to be followed so this sort of mass betrayal doesn’t happen again. It might not have been a big deal this time, but the rules need to be created before anyone else continues down this slippery slope.

If you’d like to read more, the article is here.

Can your computer tell how you’re feeling?

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Since the dawn of computers there has always been a not-so irrational fear that they would eventually supersede and replace humans. While that hasn’t happened yet, it’s possible that the first step has already happened; computers can now recognize human emotions with 87% accuracy based on keystrokes, text analysis, and depending on the emotion. While this isn’t the same as being able to tell due to expression, body language, or tone, this is the first time that computers have been accomplish this task with such a high percentage of success. This is the first step towards creating computers that can both accurately read as well as respond to emotional input from the humans using them.Kismet_robot_20051016

The program reads emotion by combining both keystroke dynamics and analyzing the text patterns from the sentences that the subjects wrote. The researches created a database of words commonly associated with the 7 emotions that they were testing for: joy, fear, sadness, guilt, disgust, anger, and shame. Of all the emotions tested, the computers had the easiest time analyzing joy and anger, with a success rate of 87% and 81% respectively. Computers that can read emotion are planned to be used in areas ranging from education and gaming to user authentication and video/imaging processing. Any activity that relies on a human’s emotional state might soon be done on a computer that can read how you feel depending on what you type. The future is coming close every day.

If you’d like to read more, the link is here.

Ancient Arachnid Brought Back To Life

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In an impressive new project from Manchester University, scientists have recreated the walking gait of an arachnid that died out 410 million years ago. By using fossils, thin slices of rock that showed the cross-section of the arachnid and all of its joints and limbs, the scientists were able to begin the project. By then combining that knowledge with observing the movement of modern arachnids, the scientists were able to use an open-source computer graphic program called Blender to create a video that shows how the animals might have walked when they inhabited the world.

However, this discovery isn’t only interesting because of how it might help us understand modern arachnids more. Before the early ancestors of the world left the ocean, these arachnids were what ruled the earth. They were so numerous that they outnumbered the current population of arachnids today. This discovery was only possible due to the fossils that were used. They were from a rock called the Rhynie chert and were very well preserved. This state of advanced preservation is what allowed the scientists to glean the information they needed for the video.

This also speaks to the incredible advancements that have been made in computer science and animation. Scientists (in fact, anyone) can now use this sort of technology easily and cheaply. This might lead to more and more fossils being used to create walking models such as this one, furthering our scientific knowledge even more.

If you’d like to read more, the link is below:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140709095624.htm