Category Archives: Technology

Sioux Falls, S.D. - Traffic in Sioux Falls is a concern for many drivers, but advancements in technology are here to help. About 30 thousand people travel down Minnesota every day. Newer adaptive traffic signals technology is designed to cut back on delays, wait times, and even accidents.

Its considering all those factors and trying to make the best decision on the fly for all of the intersections, Principle Traffic Engineer, Heath Hoftiezer said.

Adaptive traffic signals are relatively new to Sioux Falls. They look out for drivers, hoping to make their trips around town a bit faster and safer.

If it sees a big gap in traffic and it sees traffic on the side street it will do a quick determination on if it can serve the traffic on the side street to get them through, Hoftiezer said.

Starting next Wednesday, Minnesota Avenue drivers may notice a change on their daily commutes, thanks to the new technology known as "In-sync.

Pay attention to the traffic signals. You know make sure what its showing to you because it might not necessarily be what you are used to in the past, Hoftiezer said.

Back in 2014, the city of Sioux Falls installed this same system at 10 intersections along 26th street and saw a big impact on traffic flow.

We saw an 8 percent reduction on travel times in the corridor which corresponded to 164 hours of delay reduction on a daily basis for the corridor and weve seen a 24 percent decrease in the number of stops on the corridor, Hoftiezer said.

Businesses along 26th believe the adaptive traffic signals are definitely having an impact.

It seems like the traffic does get through the intersection faster. You dont see two cars waiting at one light and 20 at the other. Its a lot more balanced from both sides and usually you dont see that in other places in Sioux Falls, Lewis Employee, David Ferrier said.

Hoftiezer thinks the technology is here to stay.

It is something I would envision in the future. At least two thirds of the signals eventually will have this technology in them, Hoftiezer said.

Hoftiezer said there was a 21 percent decrease in the amount of crashes after the adaptive traffic signal technology was installed. He said the technology can cut down wait times during heavy traffic from 2 minutes to 90 seconds. The new signals are going up on Minnesota Avenue between 18th street and the I-229 interchange. The department of engineering will also install this technology on 41st street from Marion to Norton.

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Newer traffic technology designed to cut back on wait time and accidents - KSFY

When you think of Siemens, you might think of everything from generators to LED screens to one of the big-name sponsors behind PBS programmingbut start thinking in terms of Martian habitats.

Joining the race to Mars right behind Tesla and SpaceX mogul Elon Musk is the industrial manufacturing monolith, whose experience in generating energy could possibly power a human colony on a planet that would otherwise be perilous to our survival. Sunlight that filters through the reddish dust in what could pass for an atmosphere can be harnessed by solar panels. The same wind that obliterated most of its atmosphere can be the force behind sustaining human life. Mars may be devoid of water and oxygen, but it has no shortage of potential energy.

"Mars will be the ultimate microgrid," claims the companys website. "With no centralized power sources, communities will one day rely on decentralized energy systems."

Siemens future Martian technology was inspired by something much closer to Earth. When the people of the Aboriginal Wiyot reservation north of San Francisco recently experienced glitches in power due to interferences from the Pacific Gas & Electric power grid, Siemens joined forces with them to devise a method to fuel the reservation that would be both reliable and environmentally conscious. The microgrid that was the brainchild of this thinking runs on a 500-kilowatt array of REC Solar solar panels and a Tesla battery storage system, among other instruments. Maintenance is overseen through a computerized management system that determines where power resources are best used.

The best part? Power from the grid can be replaced even when its down.

This is the same type of technology Siemens hopes to someday use to keep a Martian colony flourishing, though requirements are bound to change on an alien planet lacking an atmosphere. Siemens Energy Management director of microgrid and renewable integration Clark Wiedetz is unsure of the variables that will make sense for Mars, but at least the microgrid is not dependent on cloud computing, which would be impossible to access 33.9 million miles from Earth. Maintenance in the Wiyot reservation is mostly overseen by the residents with some remote assistance, which is the same expected of astronauts journeying into deep space.

Tesla and SolarCity also recently installed a microgrid run by batteries and solar panels that power an entire island for three days, even with overcast skies. Considering all that dust obscuring the view on Mars, this could be one more small step toward mankind going Martian.

(via Seeker)

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This insanely advanced technology could power a future colony on Mars. - SYFY WIRE (blog)

IBM, one of the worlds largest technology companies said that it had achieved a breakthrough in security technology that would allow enterprises from banks to health care companies to retailers to encrypt their customer data at a large scale.

The New York-based technology major said its system makes it possible for the first time to pervasively encrypt every level of a network, from applications to cloud services and databases and prevent theft of information.

This has been made possible by IBM Z (z14), a next-generation mainframe unveiled by the company in July. It is capable of running more than 12 billion encrypted transactions per day.

Data is the currency. It is equivalent to the future energy, said Gururaj S. Rao, IBM Fellow and vice president, Systems Integrators, IBM z Systems, in an interview. He said that digitisation was providing value, but was coming with the challenge of information security as data theft is on the increase.

Indian team

IBM, which reported a revenue of $79.9 billion in 2016, said that its India hardware and firmware team had made significant contributions to the z14 system and microprocessor development. It said that more than 100 engineers from its India labs worked on key components of both the core and the processor in the areas of logic design, verification, custom circuit design and tool development. The team has also contributed to the base firmware development, next-generation input/output enablement and in building newer virtualisation management capabilities.

One of the key units designed by the India team is the encryption unit, that gives an unparalleled security feature to the z14 mainframe, said Mr. Rao.

Known as big iron, a mainframe is a high-performance computer used primarily by large organisations for applications such as credit card payments, flight bookings and ATM transactions.

Pervasive encryption

Of the more than nine billion data records lost or stolen since 2013, only 4% were encrypted, according to IBM. This makes the vast majority of such data vulnerable to organised cyber crime rings, state actors and employees misusing access to sensitive information. The company said IBM Zs new data encryption capabilities are designed to address the global epidemic of data breaches, a major factor in the $8 trillion cybercrime impact on the global economy by 2022.

Mr. Raosaid that data could be travelling, sitting on a cloud device or on the application. He said the new system could encrypt everything without requiring application level changes. Regardless of where the data is, we will protect it. Other than IBM, no other vendor has been able to do it, said Mr. Rao, a PhD from Stanford University.

Another concern for users is the protection of encryption keys. In large firms, hackers often target encryption keys, which are routinely exposed in memory as they are used, the company said.

It said IBM Z can protect millions of keys, as well as the process of accessing, generating and recycling them. It does this in tamper responding hardware that causes keys to self-destruct at any sign of intrusion and they can then be reconstituted in safety.

The Big Blue said it was now betting big on India to sell its new system to customers such as the government, large banks and healthcare companies. Viswanath Ramaswamy, director, Systems, IBM India and South Asia, said that with the growth in digital transactions in India across banking, finance and government, our focus is to work with our ecosystem of partners and developers to deliver these new capabilities of IBM z14..

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India team helps IBM create technology to battle hackers - The Hindu

In less than a month school will be back in session and the school districts 1:1 M-Powered Learning Initiative will be underway. During the 2017-18 school year, each student in grades 6-12 will be issued an individual district-owned Chromebook to be used at school and home for educational purposes. Previously, the school district offered students computing devices at a ratio of approximately one device for every 1.5 students, but the shared devices were only accessible at limited times during the school day.

While there will likely be some concerns and difficulties that the school district will need to work through with this initiative, it is anticipated that the value and potential benefits of providing all students with a device is well worth any problems that will be encountered.

According to an overview prepared by the school districts technology department, it is expected that this initiative will provide the access needed to reliably integrate technology tools for facilitating quality learning experiences, while helping to engage students in critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.

An introductory video and a wealth of other information about the 1:1 initiative is available on the school district website (www.tinyurl.com/sdmampower), but a few of the basic questions and answers for the program include:

Should school families or community stakeholders have any questions about the 1:1 technology initiative in the School District of the Menomonie Area , I invite you to visit me at the Administrative Service Center on Pine Avenue, or contact me at 715-232-1642. More information about our schools can be found on the school district website (www.sdmaonline.com), and I regularly post school-related information on Twitter (www.twitter.com/sdmaonline) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/menomonie.schools)

Thank you to SDMA Technology Team and Director of Technology Services Katie Krueger for contributing to this article.

Joe Zydowsky, Ph.D. is the district administrator for the School District of the Menomonie Area.

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School Crossings: 1:1 technology explained - Chippewa Herald

HAVERHILL Students from the Merrimack Valley said they had no idea theyd be spending part of their summer solving a murder, assembling circuits or designing objects for 3-D printing.

For many, the ambitious agenda of an innovative STEM College for Kids camp turned out to be the best part of their school vacation.

"This camp was the most fun thing I did all summer, and I got to meet some great kids," said Brandon Liranzo, who is entering eighth grade at Comprehensive Grammar School in Methuen.

During the camp at Northern Essex Community College in Haverhill, Liranzo said he designed an ultimate fighting ring where competitors can battle it out.

The free camp drew 55 students entering the 7th through 10th grades in Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen and other nearby communities. In its second year, the program nearly doubled its first-year enrollment of about 30, said Carolyn Knoepfler, assistant dean of the college's Technology, Arts, Professional Studies and Science division.

Knoepfler said the program was a great opportunity for middle school and high school students to come to a college campus, meet faculty and dabble in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

"Northern Essex faculty provided kids with a lot of hands-on learning, while making it fun," she said.

The program held in the Hartleb Technology Center met four days a week, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., for three weeks. It was funded by grants from the state Department of Higher Educations STEM Starter Academy and the Wellesley-based Amelia Peabody Foundation.

For the students, each day brought a series of hands-on projects, often interspersed by lively discussion.

Jay Fallon, coordinator of Northern Essexs advanced manufacturing program, challenged one group of students think creatively by replacing common math symbols with the suits of playing cards.

They performed calculations after designating one suit as addition, another as subtraction, one as multiplication and another as division. He called the exercise "Fast Math Olympics."

Isabella Ward, a rising freshman at Haverhill High School, called that and other math exercises were "intriguing."

"Instead of just working with a math book, we do a lot of math puzzles and solve math riddles, she said.

Ward and other students said they were especially fascinated by a challenge that involved a mock crime scene created by Paul Cavan, a member of the college's criminal justice faculty, and Mike Cross, a chemistry professor and forensic science instructor.

Cravan said the scene, with a mannequin, was created to look like a suicide. But it was actually a homicide.

Kids had to collect evidence and run tests such as fingerprint and (mock) blood analysis, and they also had to identify a person who walked through the crime scene then walked away with some evidence, he said.

Ward said the CSI challenge was really cool.

Yariehz Gabin, entering seventh grade at South Lawrence East School, said the forensics project was so interesting, he wants to return to camp next summer.

"It was my favorite part, and we learned a lot about solving crimes," he said.

Osamuyimen Osayimwen, of Methuen, who is entering his freshman year at Central Catholic High School, said he and his younger brother, Osegi, who is entering seventh grade at St. Monica's in Methuen, liked the camps advanced technology.

He designed a cell phone case using 3-D modeling software.

"The technology here is really advanced, and this camp exceeded our expectations," he said. "And I met a kid who is entering his freshman year at Central as well."

Vincent Nguyen, a rising eighth grader at Whittier Middle School in Haverhill, was absorbed in a project that involved measuring sunlight using a spectrometer.

Students wrote simple computer code to capture data and graph the color spectrum of light, Nguyen said as he looked at the results on a computer screen. They were led by Mike Pelletier, a professor in the center's engineering lab.

"I never did anything like this in school," Nguyen said.

Knoepfler said the Amelia Peabody grant helped pay for a coordinator, Doug Leaffer, who is an assistant professor of engineering at Northern Essex, as well as counselors-in-training. The students who attended the program last year were recommended for jobs at the camp this year.

One of them, Joshua Robles, entering his junior year at Greater Lawrence Technical School, called the camp "amazing."

"The kids were really into it and always wanted to get right to the projects," he said.

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Students solve crimes, study sunlight at Northern Essex science and technology camp - Eagle-Tribune

CHICAGO (Reuters) - In a control room at a police headquarters on Chicago's South Side, officers scan digital maps on big screens to see where a computer algorithm predicts crime will happen next.

Thrust into a national debate over violent crime and the use of force by officers, police in the third-largest U.S. city are using technology to try to rein in a surging murder rate.

And while commanders recognize the new tools can only ever be part of the solution, the number of shootings in the 7th District from January through July fell 39 percent compared with the same period last year. The number of murders dropped by 33 percent to 34. Citywide, the number of murders is up 3 percent at 402.

Three other districts where the technology is fully operational have also seen between 15 percent and 29 percent fewer shootings, and 9 percent to 18 percent fewer homicides, according to the department's data.

The community is starting to see real change in regards to violence, said Kenneth Johnson, the 7th District commander.

Cities like Philadelphia, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Denver, Tacoma, Washington, and Lincoln, Nebraska have tested the same or similar technologies.

The techniques being used in Chicago's 7th District's control room, one of six such centers opened since January as part of a roughly $6 million experiment, are aimed at complimenting traditional police work and are part of a broader effort to overhaul the force of some 12,500 officers."We are not saying we can predict where the next shooting is going to occur," said Jonathan Lewin, chief of the Chicago Police Department's Bureau of Technical Services. "These are just tools. They are not going to replace (officers)."

The department's efforts come after a Justice Department investigation published in January found officers engaged in racial discrimination and routinely violated residents' civil rights.

That probe followed street protests triggered by the late 2015 release of a video showing a white police officer fatally shooting black teenager Laquan McDonald a year earlier.

Some critics of the department fear the technology could prove a distraction from confronting what they say are the underlying issues driving violence in the city of 2.7 million.

"Real answers are hard," said Andrew Ferguson, a law professor at the University of the District of Columbia who has written a book on police technology. "They involve better education, better economic opportunity, dealing with poverty and mental illness."

Chicago's recent rash of shootings - 101 people were shot over the Independence Day weekend alone - prompted President Donald Trump to bemoan the response of city leaders to the bloodshed, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions to describe some of its areas as "killing fields."

One of the technologies being used in the 7th District is HunchLab, a predictive policing program made by Philadelphia-based company Azavea. It combines crime data with factors including the location of local businesses, the weather and socioeconomic information to forecast where crime might occur. The results help officers decide how to deploy resources.

Another is the Strategic Subject's List, a database of individuals likely to be involved in shootings that was developed by the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Police are tight-lipped about how it is compiled, saying only that the algorithm looks at eight factors including gang affiliation and prior drug arrests to assign people a number between 0 and 500. A higher number reflects higher risk.

They are also using the gunfire detection system made by ShotSpotter Inc (SSTI.O), which uses sensors to locate the source of gunshots. Police officials declined, however, to say how many such devices were installed in the 7th District.

"We can't give away the kitchen sink and tell them all of our secrets," district commander Johnson said.

Reporting by Timothy Mclaughlin; Editing by Ben Klayman and Lisa Shumaker

Originally posted here:

As shootings soar, Chicago police use technology to predict crime - Reuters

Garden Fresh founder Jack Aronson is bringing to metro Detroit the preservation technology that enabled him to take his salsa global and offering an avenue to similar success to other food makers.

That will help companies like Ferndale juice maker Drought, which now has to ship its products to Milwaukee for processing. Local processing will make national expansion more affordable.

Aronson and a minority partner are investing $5.5 million to install the state's first high-pressure processing operation open to other companies, in a former Garden Fresh Gourmet building in Taylor. It will be only the 13th such line in the country, according to the state.

The process subjects fresh, refrigerated foods to extreme pressure, which kills germs and extends shelf life by months without cooking or preservatives. That helps fresh producers capitalize on growing consumer demand for fresh food. It's the technology that made Garden Fresh more similar to homemade salsa than its jarred counterparts.

The $5.5 million project operating as Great Lakes HPP will include a new innovation center and lab to help up-and-coming fresh food producers decide if high-pressure processing is right for their product, and access to the expertise Aronson and his team have developed from experience at Garden Fresh.

Having the operation nearby will cut processing costs for Aronson's own Clinton Township-based Clean Planet Foods meat company and others like raw juice maker Drought by nearly half by eliminating the shipping fees they now pay to have their products processed in Milwaukee, the nearest similar operation.

Aronson expects the innovation center to open in a month and the processing line to be up and running by Nov. 1.

"I had HPP with Garden Fresh, which helped us grow not only regionally and nationally but globally," he said.

"We were the largest fresh salsa company in the world right out of Ferndale, and HPP made that possible."

Two HPP lines at Ferndale-based Garden Fresh transferred to New Jersey-based Campbell Soup Co. (NYSE: CPB) with the 2015 sale of the company. But even Campbell is sending some of its fresh products to Wisconsin to go through HPP because it doesn't have the capacity it needs here, Aronson said.

"I love what's been happening in food processing, and I feel like we (Garden Fresh) have been a small part of that," he said.

The new operation, which is expected to create 25-30 jobs, garnered a $150,000 grant from the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development in July, as one of the first incentives in a pilot incentive program launched by the state agriculture department (see story Page 3).

"There's literally hundreds of thousands of dollars a month leaving Michigan, going somewhere else," Aronson said. "Now we can bring this all in-state."

He owns 90 percent of Great Lakes; a silent partner owns the rest.

A 30,000-square-foot building on Trolley Industrial Drive near I-94 will house the HPP line. It was formerly a distribution site for Garden Fresh products, and Campbell Soup continued to operate from there for a time after it bought Garden Fresh.

Campbell vacated the building recently after constructing a new warehouse in Ferndale, leaving two "football-field-sized" walk-in coolers that are perfect for storing food going through the HPP process, Aronson said, and four loading docks.

The site has space for four HPP lines, but initial plans call for installation of a single line that would have capacity to process 45 million pounds of food per year.

When complete, the HPP line will be able to take small runs as well as large runs, given that it uses only cold water to process foods and won't need to go through costly cleanings in between product runs, Aronson said.

The process does change some some attributes of the food, he said. "What we noticed is it makes jalapenos hotter, so I had to put less in (salsa.) And it made garlic weaker. I had to put more garlic in."

The process can't be used for products in glass and doesn't work well for breads and breakfast sandwiches, Aronson said. Dips work great, but after they go through HPP, they may leach a little liquid around the edges.

"That's what I'll help them with. I'll tell them here's the food starch you want to use because it's all natural, and it's really attractive on your label. ... You don't want to add something with five ingredients. We can help them that way without having to experiment at home for a month or five months."

The process has helped Drought expand its distribution throughout the Midwest over the past eight months, said Jessie James, chief business development officer of Drought and one of the four sisters who founded the company six years ago.

Aronson gave the fledgling company the opportunity to experiment with his HPP machines at Garden Fresh, and testing showed the process extended the shelf life of its products from three to five days to 75-90, she said, though the company doesn't sell products past 40 days.

Between the addition of a new, 15,000-square-foot production site now under construction in Berkley and reducing costs with Great Lakes HPP, the company expects to increase its revenue by 40 percent in the coming year.

Over 80 retailers nationally are interested in selling Drought, James said. And Aronson's new line will make that possible.

"You're able to make a really fresh, great product without adding any preservatives," she said. "This technology is revolutionary."

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Bringing Garden Fresh technology to others - Crain's Detroit Business

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

Google Is Developing Technology for Snapchat-Like Media Content Wall Street Journal (subscription) Google is developing technology to let publishers create visual-oriented media content along the lines of Snapchat's Discover, according to people familiar with the situation, upping the ante in a race among tech giants to dominate news dissemination ... Google tests publishing tech similar to Snapchat: sourceReuters Insiders say Google was interested in buying Snap for at least $30 billion last yearBusiness Insider all 55 news articles »

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Google Is Developing Technology for Snapchat-Like Media Content - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

The Trump administrations proposal for transforming Americas infrastructure provides no details about where funding for projects would come from or exactly where the money would go over the proposed 10-year life of the plan. While roads, railroads and seaports seem like obvious candidates for upgrading, some experts stress that huge investments will be required for a less visible but equally pressing facet of infrastructure: technology.

When it comes to upgrading the nations infrastructure, Gad Allon, Wharton professor of operations, information and decisions, says that strategic emphasis should be placed on the nations major airports and high-speed trains. But he also believes that it is important for long-range prosperity and competitiveness to make sure that every person in the U.S. has access to high-speed internet, ideally fiber optic. Only a fraction of the U.S. has LTE [wireless coverage]; most people have 4G. When people come from [South] Korea to the U.S., they cannot bear the speed here, so they stop connecting to the internet while they are here. This is, for me, first order.

Allon argues that the impact of such an internet upgrade would be transformative because many people in geographically remote regions in the U.S. have the feeling of being left behind in the social and political narrative about progress and modernity. The technology gap further deepens other social and political rifts between economically deprived regions and those regions that have advanced infrastructure of all sorts. Bridging that gap would allow a much larger portion of the populace to enjoy more and more educational resources that are online, including those provided by Coursera, Udacity and Kahn Academy. Innovation would be positively impacted as well: Access to the internet makes it easier for people to start and manage their own businesses, he notes.

We have such a high concentration [of high speed internet] in cities, and not such a viable ecosystem outside cities, Allon says. He points out that Google tried for a while to put fiber optics in smaller, secondary cities but stopped the project in part because of high costs.

If you put advanced internet infrastructure in places like Nebraska or wherever, you will get employment in more advanced technologies in those locations, Allon adds. That will spark a healthier distribution of innovation, penetrating many cities and towns that currently dont have the tech infrastructure to attract and host any viable firms. Americans should use the fact that we are behind in these places to catapult ourselves forward into the future, he argues.

We have such a high concentration [of high speed internet] in cities, and not such a viable ecosystem outside cities. Gad Allon

Wharton real estate professor Gilles Duranton is not so sure. While many say that boosting the federal budget for infrastructure may improve the efficiency of the American economy; may trigger a new wave of property development, both residential and commercial; and may provide a short-term boost to the economy, his own research has led him to conclude that increases in infrastructure spending are no panacea for lagging job growth. Rather, they will have not much of an impact on employment in technology and other sectors.

In fact, Duranton views the prospect of increased jobs and an era of infrastructure renewal technology or otherwise as being mostly overblown. This whole dream of [infrastructure spending] generating a huge number of new jobs is insane. Politicians always talk about jobs and job generation. You can get some if you do massive re-pavements of the American interstate system. You may indeed create quite a few jobs, but only in the short run, he says.

If good infrastructure were key to boosting prosperity, Japan and France would be world economic leaders, Duranton adds. Although there is often a correlation between infrastructure and prosperity, South Korea and Spain built their infrastructure after many years of prosperity, not the other way around, he notes. The scientific literature has failed to uncover major effects of infrastructure on growth.

Right to Access

While the benefits to the economy from technology infrastructure upgrades can be debated, access to that infrastructure remains a fundamental issue for many. Much like the debate over health care in the U.S., Allon notes that there is significant disagreement over whether access to the internet is an essential right that should be available at an affordable price to everyone. He compares the advent of the internet to the creation of the U.S. postal service in 1775, which enabled every American citizen to send a letter or parcel to anyone else in what was then the cheapest possible way. To me, access to the internet is almost as important as access to public transportation, he says. If I have access to high-quality internet wherever I am, I can potentially reduce the amount of time I need to travel back-and-forth to the office, which will reduce energy [costs].

If good infrastructure was key to boosting prosperity, Japan and France would be world economic leaders. Gilles Duranton

Technology infrastructure has helped level the playing field in health care, as well. I can call my physician, and using my wearable device, they can take my pulse. A small mobile device [thus] enables them to measure my heartbeat. That saves a lot of time, only bringing me into the [doctors] office when it is essential. Likewise, any individual with a health problem can go online to Web MD to see whether the symptoms they have are actually indicative of a disease.

Although high-profile advanced technologies such as the internet will continue to be vital, the often neglected deficiencies of U.S. infrastructure for water and energy systems built in the 1950s and 1960s when people had vastly different needs than now have a first-order effect primarily on health, education, and innovation, notes Allon. These are three things that, the moment you lose your grip on them, you basically create a hole for 10 or 20 years.

Intelligent Construction

A national upgrade in technology infrastructure could, in fact, help propel other infrastructure projects forward in a more cost effective way. Recently, while traveling down a congested road leading to Dulles Airport in Virginia, Dennis Slater, president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, witnessed bulldozers working on a highway project that were controlled from satellites 11,000 miles away in space, he told attendees at a recent Bloomberg Government conference on infrastructure renewal. Those data-driven, networked machines were measuring the face of the earth with enough precision to complete their tasks to a high standard of accuracy.

In Japan and the U.K., governments have mandated the use of so-called intelligent construction technology on 20% of public-works projects in 2017, and 100% by 2020, noted conference speaker Ray OConnor, president and CEO of Topcon Positioning Systems. He added that the British government claims to have saved between 15% and 20% of the cost of public works as a result of such initiatives. With the sensors [installed in] vehicles today, we can measure the size of potholes, the lines on a street, or the signs on a guard rail that is broken. Those vehicles are seeing everything, and matching what they see with the plans they have designed on 3-D modeling devices. Engineers at Topcon, which makes measuring instruments for civil engineering, figured out that if we make the measuring instruments and connect them to the machines, we could automate the process and make it go much faster, said OConnor.

To me, access to the internet is almost as important as access to public transportation. Gad Allon

Although intelligent construction technology remains obscure to the general public, Charles Jahren, a professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at Iowa State University, explained during the Bloomberg event that electronic data can be used to manage transportation infrastructure all the way through its life cycle from the initial stages in which initial sketches can be digitized to precise three-dimensional models, and then the fabrication process. Jahren noted that some of the first attempts took place around 2000. Later, Caterpillar and Trimble Positioning started working together on this concept. Its been gaining momentum ever since.

Another major benefit is on the maintenance and monitoring of infrastructure. The idea is that a lot of the data that you need in order to maintain the infrastructure is the same data that you built it with, says Jahren. In a typical highway department, the people who maintain the roads and the people who built the roads are in completely different, large departments and dont communicate with each other. A technology network can bring them together and create efficiencies that didnt exist before.

Much remains to be done in order to maximize the benefits of intelligent construction technologies in the U.S., but Duranton does not expect a lot of investments to be made in infrastructure technologies by the current administration. There are a few big areas where the government could do something upgrading roads, for example but what remains to be done is not sexy. The Trump administration probably wont want to go there, he predicts.

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America 2.0: Why It's Time for a Technology Upgrade - Knowledge@Wharton

Facebook has announced that it has shut down an artificial intelligence experiment after the AI forms involved began speaking in their own language. This comes not long after Elon Musk, founder and CEO of aerospace company SpaceX, drew criticism for cautions against AI in a speech to American governors July 15. Musk has maintained the position that AI is civilizations greatest risk, and that laws must be put into place to regulate it. He has been criticized for his approach by many, but Musks concerns should be welcomed amid a seemingly unquestioning, relentlessly popular push to advance technology and shatter boundaries. In light of this progress, humanity and human rights must be fundamentally significant.

That Musk should appeal to American governors is no surprise. Musk, a South African by birth, has described himself as nauseatingly pro-American and has displayed tremendous love and respect for the United States. Musk knows it is a place of opportunity and possibility especially for technology.

History bears this out. Elbert Smith, in his book The Presidencies of Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore, touches upon the historic centrality of technological advancement to the American makeup as the country began to function in earnest: In the development of new technology the brash young nation was unsurpassed. Between 1840 and 1850, budding American inventors applied for 13,297 patents and received 6,033.

These innovations included new ways of cultivating and harvesting grain; steel plows designed to cut through prairie earth; newer and faster trains with greater carrying capacity both for passengers and goods; and Yankee clippers, designed for trade by water. Today as then, men like Elon Musk, American by birth or by immigration, manifest the future.

Musk also knows many Americans carefully consider these innovations. We know innovation can come at a price. New devices, systems, machines, software and other creations can be used for harm as well as for good; and can bear negative consequences as well as positive outcomes. Americans are by no means Luddites seeking to tear up train tracks, but Americans are careful in their approach to particular forms of new technology. We rightfully worry about those who would sooner pay attention to their smartphones than the human being sitting across the restaurant table, to cite one common example.

When the focus is on the machine and not the man, we know there is cause for concern. Interactivity with the machine instead of interaction with our fellow human beings creates a kind of selfish isolation: We are dulled to human connection, and distanced from love of the other. A machine, for the moment, is subject to our control; and a human being other than ourselves is a free agent who cannot be controlled in the same fashion. And so we turn away from the other to ourselves.

In so doing, we lose the respect of recognition of the other, and the other becomes unimportant. We lose what philosopher Roger Scruton refers to as the you-I relationship. Philosopher Gilbert Ryles contention that there is no ghost in the machine (read: human body) that there is no mind or soul that exists within the human body that distinguishes it is artificially upheld by our own choosing of technology. That ghost our God-breathed souls is rendered irrelevant. The human becomes merely a body, or a machine. Our humanity is therefore lost, and those whom we disagree with and cannot control become second to technology. Machines can therein become a means to control those whom with which we disagree, by indoctrination, systematic enforcement or violence. And in the case of Facebooks AI, the machines can take on a life of their own.

Musks precautions have been criticized by many as being grounded more in science fiction films than in reality but it is clear Musks concerns have merit. Typically, we consider movies like those of the Terminator series against a backdrop of dystopian novels and films to attempt to gain a broader understanding of the limits of our progress, and the ramifications of unchecked innovation. History and current events tell us the same. They tell us that free societies and totalitarian regimes tend toward different ends, will use the technology available to them, and will set out to innovate from the present. (Consider the level of technologically-based censorship of information in North Korea.) We know that a free society can descend into tyranny, even predicated on good intentions. Fiction often reflects reality, and fiction can explore the theoretical. Combined, these things prove to be an omen.

We come away from this with a simple philosophical precept that has existed for thousands of years: Just because it can be done, does not mean it should be done. Before we commit to any course, we have to ask fundamental questions regarding our humanity, our culture and our laws. For example, do we allow private ownership of AI forms that have the ability to wield or act as weapons? Do we limit or regulate the kinds of activities and functions these AI forms can engage in, such as work, parenting, sex and inventing their own languages? Do we limit the level and range of intelligence and adaptability an AI form may possess? Do we consider the AI form to have any rights, or a different kind of rights and would this affect our own human rights and humanity as whole? What do we do when a company fails to self-regulate, and a situation like Facebooks is not succinctly concluded? Do we have a right to do anything at all?

This is not alarmism, but proactivism. We must be optimistic, but cautious; and we must be hopeful yet realistic. Technological innovation and progress are beautiful things but these things can also impose dangers. That two of Facebooks AI forms could begin communicating in a language known only to them is immensely disturbing, and removes a barrier between science fiction and reality. Before we act, we have to have answers to fundamental questions else, innovation will be our undoing.

Joe Vigliotti is a writer and a Taneytown city councilman. He can be reached through his website at http://www.jvigliotti.com.

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Vigliotti: Human Rights and Technology - Carroll County Times