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Submission + - Google Engineers Advocate for Geoengineering (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: Two engineers from Google's renewable energy department wrote a feature article for IEEE Spectrum arguing that engineers can play a vital role in addressing climate change through both scaling up fairly mature technologies and seeking breakthroughs in nascent fields. They argue for carbon removal and sequestration to reverse warming trends, estimating that 2000 gigatonnes of CO2 must be removed from the atmosphere over the next century, and also for solar radiation management as a stopgap measure while humanity figures out how to do carbon removal on that scale.

Submission + - Can Computer Models Prescribe Public Health Interventions for COVID-19? (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: Since last winter and spring, the world has relied on computer models to predict the spread of the coronavirus (though many models have a spotty record of accuracy). Now, a new XPrize competition seeks models that can not just predict case numbers and mortality, but can also prescribe the best public health interventions for specific regions.

Submission + - Photo Essay: Robots in the COVID-19 Response (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: To fight a disease that thrives on human contact, robots have increasingly taken the place of vulnerable humans. Sentry robots have performed screenings and patrolled streets, looking for lockdown violators. Avatars have allowed family members to visit loved ones in senior homes and enabled graduating students to walk across the stage. In hospitals, germ zappers have blasted UV-C light through hospital rooms, while doctor assistant bots have checked on patients. This photo essay takes a tour of essential robot workers during the time of COVID.

Submission + - Why Modeling the Spread of COVID-19 Is So Damn Hard (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: At the beginning of the pandemic, modelers pulled out everything they had to predict the spread of the virus. This article explains the three main types of models used: 1) compartmental models that sort people into categories of exposure and recovery, 2) data-driven models that often use neural networks to make predictions, and 3) agent-based models that are something like a Sim Pandemic. Sometimes they got things very wrong, but they say they've learned valuable lessons from the experience.

Submission + - NASA's Lunar Space Station Might Be a Boondoggle (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: NASA is under pressure to put humans back on the moon by 2024 — that's the target date that VP Mike Pence boldly announced in a speech earlier this year. NASA's plan for meeting that ambitious target relies on building a space station in lunar orbit, called the Gateway. NASA says it will use its (over budget and behind schedule) SLS rocket and Orion crew capsule to dock at this (yet unbuilt) Gateway, then send down a lunar lander. Critics say this is a stupid and over-complicated plan.

This article by veteran space reporter Jeff Foust explains how NASA got itself into this situation.

Submission + - Rwanda Is Way Ahead on Delivery Drones (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: While the Google spinoff Wing is just launching its first commercial service in Australia (scones and coffee are on the menu) and getting FAA clearance to operate in the United States, a company called Zipline is already offering a nationwide service in Rwanda. Zipline currently uses its fixed-wing drones to deliver blood products to hospitals across the country, and will soon begin delivering other medical supplies as well.

Medical supplies seem like they could be a killer app for delivery drones, since they're often lightweight and urgently needed. But Zipline hasn't yet proven that its business model is sustainable. So two technology reporters from IEEE Spectrum traveled to Rwanda to embed themselves in a Zipline operations center, and produced an in-depth report and a 360 video about the company's logistics and technology.

Submission + - When Charles Babbage played chess with the original Mechanical Turk (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: The 19th century British engineer Charles Babbage is sometimes called the father of the computer. But his first design for a massive computing machine, a contraption called the Difference Engine that had some 25,000 parts, was just a giant calculator intended to handle logarithmic tables. It wasn’t until he began designing his first Analytical Engine that he began to dream of a smart machine that could handle more general-purpose computations.

This short essay argues that Babbage’s creative leap was inspired by an early example of AI hype: A supposed chess-playing machine called The Turk that had astounded onlookers throughout the courts of Europe. Babbage played two games against the Turk, and lost both.

Submission + - First Medical Device to Treat Alzheimer's Is Up for Approval by the FDA (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: An FDA advisory committee met today to consider approving the NeuroAD device, which is supposed to help with the cognitive symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The device uses a combination of brain stimulation and cognitive training tasks to strengthen the neural circuits involved in language, memory, and other components of cognition. The treatment requires patients to come to the clinic daily for 1-hour sessions. Regulators in Israel and Europe have already approved the device.

The CEO of the company behind the device, Neuronix, says that they're not attempting to cure the underlying biological causes of Alzheimer's. "We’re attempting to modify the course of the disease,” he says. The cognitive improvements last for up to a year, after which they fade away.

Submission + - Wireless Sensors for NICU Babies Enable Cuddling (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: In newborn intensive care units (NICUs) today, tiny fragile babies lie in incubators, wired to a variety of monitors that track their vital signs. This mess of wires makes it complicated for nurses to pick up the babies for routine tasks like diaper changes, and makes it hard for new parents to pick up their infants for cuddling. Skin-to-skin contact between parents and infants has been proven not only to help with bonding, but also to have a host of medical benefits for the infants, so the wires that tether babies to their beds are a real problem.

At Northwestern University, an electrical engineer who works on flexible, stretchable electronics teamed up with a pediatric dermatologist to invent a solution. They devised a system of stick-on wireless biosensors (with a gentle adhesive that's safe even for thin preemie skin) that actually provide more information than today's standard setup.

Submission + - Google Fiber abandoning Louisville residents with two months notice (theverge.com)

Submitted by stoborrobots
stoborrobots writes: Google Fiber is leaving Louisville, as reported in The Verge:

Google Fiber’s attempt to roll out its gigabit internet across the city of Louisville, Kentucky has apparently failed so spectacularly that the company has decided to completely shut down the service and leave town altogether. CNET has a report on the news, which Alphabet’s Access division confirmed in a blog post on Thursday. “We’ll work with our customers and partners to minimize disruption, and we’re committed to doing right by the community, which welcomed us as we tested methods of delivering high-speed internet in new and different ways,” the Fiber team said.

TechCrunch's take is that:

It’s a rare admission of defeat for Google Fiber, though it’s no secret that the company isn’t exactly bullish on the prospect of the service anymore. Louisville was supposed to be somewhat of a comeback for Google Fiber, which like so many Google services is now under more pressure to generate a profit. Clearly, that didn’t work out.

Submission + - Green New Deal Bill Aims To Move US To 100 Percent Renewable Energy (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: On Thursday morning, NPR posted a bill drafted by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) advocating for a Green New Deal—that is, a public works bill aimed at employing Americans and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the face of climate change. A similar version of the bill is expected to be introduced in the Senate by Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.). The House bill opens by citing two recent climate change reports: an October 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a heavily peer-reviewed report released in November 2018 by a group of US scientists from federal energy and environment departments. Both reports were unequivocal about the role that humans play in climate change and the dire consequences humans stand to face if climate change continues unchecked.

The bill lists some of these consequences: $500 billion in lost annual economic output for the US by 2100, mass migration, bigger and more ferocious wildfires, and risk of more than $1 trillion in damage to US infrastructure and coastal property. To stop this, the bill says, the global greenhouse gas emissions from human sources must be reduced by 40 to 60 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, and we must reach net-zero emissions by 2050. [...] The Green New Deal specifically calls for a 10-year mobilization plan that would "achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions through a fair and just transition for all communities and workers" by creating "millions" of high-paying jobs through investment in US infrastructure. Specific kinds of infrastructure aren't listed, but general categories or works projects are outlined. Adaptive infrastructure tailored to communities, like higher sea walls and new drainage systems, would be included.

Submission + - Giving the humble stethoscope an AI upgrade could save millions of kids (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: The stethoscope is a ubiquitous medical tool that has barely changed since it was invented in the early 1800s. But now a team of engineers, doctors, and public health researchers have come together to reinvent the tool using adaptive acoustics and AI. Their motivation is this statistic: Every year, nearly 1 million kids die of pneumonia around the world, with most deaths in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The death toll is highest among children under the age of 5.

The researchers, from Johns Hopkins University, designed a smart stethoscope for use by unskilled workers in noisy medical clinics. It uses a dynamic audio filtering system to remove ambient noise and distracting body sounds while not interfering with the subtle sounds from the lungs. And it uses AI to analyze the cleaned-up signal and provide a diagnosis.

Submission + - AI Could Get Smarter by Copying the Neural Structure of a Rat Brain (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: Many of today's fanciest AI systems are some type of artificial neural network, but they bear only the roughest resemblance to a biological brain's real networks of neurons. That could change thanks to a $100M program from IARPA.

The intelligence agency is funding neuroscience teams to map 1 cubic millimeter of rodent brain, looking at activity in the visual cortex while the rodent is engaged in a complex visual recognition task. By discovering how the neural circuits in that brain cube get activated to process information, IARPA hopes to find inspiration for better artificial neural networks. And an AI that performs better on visual recognition tasks could certainly be useful to intelligence agencies.

Submission + - Neuroscientists offer a reality check on Facebook's "typing by brain" project (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: Yesterday Facebook announced that it's working on a "typing by brain" project, promising a non-invasive technology that can decode signals from the brain's speech center and translate them directly to text (see the video beginning at 1:18:00). What's more, Facebook exec Regina Dugan said, the technology will achieve a typing rate of 100 words per minute.

Here, a few neuroscientists are asked: Is such a thing remotely feasible? One neuroscientist points out that his team set the current speed record for brain-typing earlier this year: They enabled a paralyzed man to type 8 words per minute, and that was using an invasive brain implant that could get high-fidelity signals from neurons. To date, all non-invasive methods that read brain signals through the scalp and skull have performed much worse.

Submission + - Neuroscientists Weigh in on Elon Musk's Mysterious "Neural Lace" Company (ieee.org)

Submitted by the_newsbeagle
the_newsbeagle writes: Elon Musk has set out to change the world with SpaceX's reusable rockets and Tesla's electric cars, and now he plans to change your brain. His new company, Neuralink, will reportedly build delicate brain implants called "neural lace" to help people with neuropsychiatric disorders and to give healthy people strange new mental abilities.

But the news announcements about the company contained scant details about what kind of hardware Neuralink might actually build, and what engineering challenges the company will have to overcome in pursuit of miniaturized and safe brain implants. Here, five neuroscience experts describe those challenges, and give hints on what to expect from Musk's neural dust.

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