ACM Chennai Chapter Newsletter – July 16-31, 2018
Chapter Activities, Upcoming Events, Tech News Chapter Activities
20 July, 2018: An informative and thought provoking presentation by Dr. Raj Reddy on 'Whither AI - Cognitive Amplifiers and Guardians Angels of the Future' at SSN College.
Upcoming Events
09 August, 2018: Next event of ACM India Chennai Professional Chapter is an expert talk,
the details are as follows:
Topic : Applying Machine Learning to support Human Learning
Speaker: Dr. Manish Gupta
Co-founder and CEO of Videoken Inc.
Infosys Foundation Chair Professor, IIIT Bangaore
Date & Time: 09 August @ 05:30 PM
Venue: Aryabhatta Hall(CS 25),
Department of CSE
IIT, Madras
Abstract:
Rapid changes enabled by technology are making it an imperative for virtually every human
being to commit to lifelong learning. The growth of online courses has led to the widespread
availability of high quality video lectures on practically any topic. However, much of formal
learning, in educational institutions as well as corporations, makes inadequate use of these
resources, and purely online learning continues to face challenges that limit its effectiveness.
We describe our attempts to improve learning via a platform called VideoKen. Our platform
uses novel techniques to support search and recommendation of educational videos on a given
topic. It applies machine learning techniques to index videos, inspired by the analogy with
text books, by automatically generating a table of contents and a glossary, and to gain
insights from the learner's interactions with the videos. We describe the need to support
social learning at multiple levels, both to enable faculty to conveniently share their
curated video content within and across institutes, as well as learners to curate specific
video clips and share with their classmates, friends or the organization at large. We describe
many outstanding challenges in creating an engaging and personalized learning experience for
each learner, and describe our preliminary efforts to deal with those challenges.
Bio of the Speaker:
Dr. Manish Gupta is a co-founder and CEO of VideoKen, a video technology startup, and the
Infosys Foundation Chair Professor at IIIT Bangalore. Previously, Manish has served as
Vice President and Director of Xerox Research Centre India and has held various leadership
positions with IBM, including that of Director, IBM Research - India and Chief Technologist,
IBM India/South Asia. As a Senior Manager at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown H
eights, New York, Manish led the team developing system software for the
Blue Gene/L supercomputer. IBM was awarded a National Medal of Technology and Innovation for
Blue Gene by US President Barack Obama in 2009. Manish holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from
the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He has co-authored about 75 papers, with more
than 6,000 citations in Google Scholar (and an h-index of 45), and has been granted 19 US
patents. While at IBM, Manish received two Outstanding Technical Achievement Awards, an
Outstanding Innovation Award, and the Lou Gerstner Team Award for Client Excellence.
Manish is Fellow of ACM and the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and a recipient of a
Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Delhi.
Registration is FREE. However, if you intend to attend the talk, please register
to facilitate logistics.
Tea and Snacks will be served before the talk at 5:00 PM.
Headlines at a Glance
1. The Rocky Road of Using Data to Drive Student Success 2. All-Optical Computing Gets Another Arrow in Its Quiver 3. Google wants to make programming quantum computers easier 4. Python has brought computer programming to a vast new audience 5. RMIT to provide students with blockchain-based digital credential platform 6. Life before Google: What was it like?
News in Detail
** The Rocky Road of Using Data to Drive Student Success campustechnology.com | Dian Schaffhauser | 26 July, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------ The California State University system has hit its share of potholes as it tests predictive analytics to forecast student performance in high-failure-rate courses. Here are its lessons learned ... Full Article (https://campustechnology.com/articles/2018/07/26/the-rocky-road-of-using-data-to-drive-student-success.aspx) ------------------------------------------------------------ ** All-Optical Computing Gets Another Arrow in Its Quiver spectrum.ieee.org | Dexter Johnson | 27 July, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------ All-optical computing promises to replace sluggish electrons with photons zipping along at light speed in digital logic. But despite years of effort and some progress in ... Full Article (https://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/optoelectronics/alloptical-computing-gets-another-arrow-in-its-quiver) ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Google wants to make programming quantum computers easier MIT Tech Review | Martin Giles | 18 July, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------ Quantum computers are still in their infancy, but builders of the exotic machines want to encourage software developers to experiment with them ... Full Article (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611673/google-wants-to-make-programming-quantum-computers-easier/) ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Python has brought computer programming to a vast new audience The Economist | 19 July, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------ IN DECEMBER 1989 Guido van Rossum, a Dutch computer scientist, set himself a Christmas project. Irked by shortcomings in other programming languages, he ... Full Article (https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/computing/software/new-optimization-algorithm-exponentially-speeds-computation) ------------------------------------------------------------ ** RMIT to provide students with blockchain-based digital credential platform zdnet.com | Asha McLean | 24 July, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------ Some students at the university will be able to store a 'digital skills' CV on a blockchain-based digital credential platform. They can also share it to LinkedIn ... Full Article (https://www.zdnet.com/article/rmit-to-provide-students-with-blockchain-based-digital-credential-platform/) ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Life before Google: What was it like? bbc.com | Roland Hughes | 19 July, 2018 ------------------------------------------------------------ In the 20 years since it was founded, Google has provided answers to the most random queries, become a verb and, on Wednesday ... Full Article (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-44871028) ------------------------------------------------------------
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