Category Archives: Technology

Oct 16th 2021

The Exponential Age. By Azeem Azhar. Diversion Books; 352 pages; $28.99. Published in Britain as Exponential; Random House Business; 20

Human Frontiers. By Michael Bhaskar. MIT Press; 432 pages; $29.95. Bridge Street Press; 20

Masters of Scale. By Reid Hoffman with June Cohen and Deron Triff. Currency; 304 pages; $28. Bantam Press; 20

HISTORIANS OF SCIENCE distinguish between useful discoveries, such as dental floss, and general-purpose technologies that can be applied to numerous purposessuch as electricity, which powers everything from factories to streetlights to televisions. These transformative inventions, and the gadgets they spawned, were developed at a swift, industrial pace in the 19th and 20th centuries. Now, though, a new phase of progress is under way: many technologies are not following linear growth rates but exponential ones. This does more than speed up innovation. It poses drastic challenges for businesses, governments and society.

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Many Western institutions are unprepared for this shift because they are stuck in an industrial-age mindset, say three new books. There is good reason for that: people are generally far more familiar with linear growth, in which things change or add up bit by bit, than with the exponential kind, whereby they double or triple (or more) at each increment. For example, if a step is a metre long and you take 25 of them, you have travelled 25 metres. But if each step grew exponentially, doubling from one to two to four metres and so on, your seventh pace would cover a football pitchand your 25th would span 33m metres, or almost the circumference of Earth.

It may initially seem slow and boring, but exponential change suddenly becomes unfathomably dramatic. The world is in the midst of just such a transformation, argues Azeem Azhar. Computer technology, he notes, long observed Moores law, according to which the power of a computer chip (as measured by the number of transistors) doubles every two years, basically with no rise in cost. But, says Mr Azhar, today such exponential growth is also characteristic of other technologies that have been supercharged by digitisation or advances in artificial intelligence (AI). These include solar cells, batteries, genome-editing, augmented reality, 3D manufacturing, online business, even electric cars and urban farmingas well as, alas, online misinformation, cybercrime and warfare.

A slew of superstar firms are emerging on the back of these technologies. They are dominating their sectors because of network effects, whereby using the same platform is widely beneficial. For example, Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce giant, created an online-payments system in 2004. Nine years later that had become the worlds largest mobile-payment platform, called Ant Financial. By having a plethora of data it could improve its service, which made it more popular, which in turn let it collect more dataa cycle known, in a term popularised by Jim Collins, a management scholar, as a data flywheel effect.

Ant Financials data scientists saw that women who bought skinny jeans were also more likely to pay for phone-screen repairs. They speculated that the handsets were slipping out of the trousers pockets. So the firm began directing offers of screen insurance at skinny-jeans-wearing women. Because of such insights and targeting, 80% of its customers use at least three of its five financial products. Traditional banks that lack such data are at a huge disadvantagewhich Mr Azhar calls the exponential gap.

With his experience as a startup entrepreneur, tech investor, innovation executive at big companies and journalist (including, 25 years ago, at The Economist), Mr Azhar is well-placed to decrypt these digital trends. He has a knack for interrogating and inverting conventional thinking, for example in making the case that the adoption of exponential technology leads to job increases, not cutswitness the rising headcounts of expanding businesses such as Amazon or Ocado, a British online grocer. The unemployment that results, he says, is down to the firms that fail to adapt, not those that do.

The importance of harnessing technology for business is the theme of Masters of Scale by Reid Hoffman, a co-founder of LinkedIn, and his two co-writers. Readers of his book (based on a popular podcast of the same name) will need to look past the stomach-churning clichs with which he implores would-be tech moguls to Shoot for the Moon or Get in the trenches. When he delves into the stories of his fellow entrepreneurs, by contrast, Mr Hoffman adeptly draws out the essence of their strategies.

Kevin Systrom, for instance, launched a photo-sharing app that grew exponentially by reducing its features rather than, as you might expect, expanding them: within ten weeks it had 1m users. The company, later named Instagram, was sold to Facebook for more than $1bn when it had just 13 employees. (Mr Hoffman duly advocates blitzscaling, or doing whatever is necessary to get big quickly.) Often a founders narrative is a mix of myth and pabulum, but beneath those are usually bold decisions that swayed the companys fate. The book illuminates the critical, often eccentric insights that have in some cases led to warp-speed success.

The implications of these technology and business trends for economic growth and the advancement of knowledge are Michael Bhaskars theme in Human Frontiers. He enters the debate over the great stagnation: the idea that innovation is becoming harder because the most graspable advances have been made. According to this provocative thesisa much gloomier one than Mr Azharsresearch is growing costlier and its findings less dramatic. Much of todays innovation aims to deepen understanding of existing science rather than exploring fresh terrain.

Mr Bhaskar used to be a writer for Google DeepMind, a top corporate AI laboratory, and he fluently explains the stakes of the debate, and the way the limits of knowledge have expanded in episodes ranging from the scientific revolution to the upheavals of AI. Yet, maddeningly, he declines to answer the question he poses. Our ideas, he writes bathetically, will either rapidly shrink from the frontier or continue charging towards it. Exponential or bust, in other words.

Cynics may snigger at the hype around tech firms. But exponential-age companies often enjoy the last laugh, whether in Amazons routing of Sears, Netflixs besting of Blockbuster, Apples defeat of Tower Records or Instagrams kibosh of Kodak. In each case, the upstarts were better at co-opting digital tools and applying them creatively. These books make a convincing case that something extraordinary is taking place in business and society. But they are far from the end of the conversation.

This article appeared in the Books & arts section of the print edition under the headline "The ascent of the machine"

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Two new books explore the impact of accelerating technology - The Economist

Back in 2018, Microsoft reached an agreement with the Army on a $479 million contract to make HoloLens mixed reality technology available. This past May, the Army reached an expanded deal with the tech giant to supply customized HoloLens augmented reality headsets for thousands of U.S. service members to the tune of $22 billion,Bloomberg reported. Microsoft said at the time that the devices would be manufactured in the United States.

The company, in June of this year, laid out how the program would work.

The devices, using what is called the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), will allow soldiers to see through smoke and around corners, use holographic imagery for training, and have 3D terrain maps projected onto their field of vision at the click of a button, a Microsoft blog post said. The Army plans to start equipping soldiers with the headsets in September, and leaders say the devices will fundamentally change how they operate and what they can do.

However, the arrival of the HoloLens, described by the company as an Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), will be delayed.

The Army made the official announcement.

The Army decided to shift the IVAS Operational Test and fielding to a date later in FY22. The Army is fully committed to its partnership with Microsoft to advance specific technologies to meet operational requirements and maximize warfighter impact, the press release said.

The Army conducted an Adversarial Electronic Warfare and Cybersecurity Test in September 2021 and plans to execute testing regularly throughout FY22. This decision allows the Army and Industry team to continue to enhance the IVAS technology platform ensuring Soldiers achieve overmatch in Multi-Domain Operations. The Army intends to continue developing and fielding this revolutionary, first-of-its-kind technology in FY22.

Reuters reported this week that the deployment of the devices will now take place a year later than planned, in 2022. After claiming that they would be deployed by the end of the 2021 fiscal year, which ended in September, the Army now puts the date in September 2022.

Jane's had reported earlier that the Army had postponed plans to field Microsofts HoloLens 2 augmented reality (AR) system to soldiers while it matures the technology.

As Task and Purpose reported at the time, some Microsoft employees were less than thrilled with the Army deal when it was first announced.

The employees stated that they do not want to become war profiteers, or participate in the Armys ability to cause harm and violence. But CEO Satya Nadella stood by the deal at the time. He told CNN that we made a principled decision that were not going to withhold technology from institutions that we have elected in democracies to protect the freedoms we enjoy.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist, and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Image: Reuters

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What's Holding Up the Army's Deal for HoloLens Technology? - The National Interest

In this section, we assume that there are 1000 nodes in the network (i.e., 1000 agents in the entire system). One of the agents (let it be Agent 1) holds the technological lead in the new advanced technology, which means, it has already possessed some knowledge and experience of T3. Naturally, Agent 1 will adopt T3 earlier than the other agents and act as the leader in the network. Other 999 agents are thus the followers in the network. Each agent makes technology adoption decisions with the optimization model introduced in the previous section, and each agent also adopts the moving window limited foresight decision scheme with the same foresight of 50years, which follows previous literature33. The decision horizon is 100years. Other initial parameters for all the agents are the same (as shown in Table S1 in the Supplementary Methods), except that for Agent 1, (overline{x}_{3}^{0} = 50). The settings of the parameters initial values also follow previous researches29. The simulation settings are deliberately simplified so that we can observe more transparently how the new advanced technology diffuses from the leader to the followers in the network with different topological structures. It should be noted that, in our model, each technology essentially represents a cluster of related technologies with the infrastructure being in the center. The diffusion of a cluster of new technology can span up to a century . It takes even a longer time to evaluate the climate impact of a new technology. Therefore, we set the simulation time to 100years.

Figure1 shows how T3 is adopted by the leader (Agent 1) and the followers (other agents) individually in the reference scenario when all the agents make decisions independently without exchanging any information or knowledge with each other, i.e., theres no technological spillover among agents. Since the leader holds the technological lead in the new advanced technology T3, it adopts T3 around the year 2020, while the followers adopt T3 around the year 2080 (when the share of T3 reaches 10%). How the new advanced technology T3 is adopted in the entire system is also shown in Fig.1. Due to the fact that the followers take up the overwhelming majority number of all the agents, T3s adoption in the entire system seems the same as the followers, which is around the year 2080.

Reference scenario in Simulation. Lines in the figure represent how the shares of T3 change over time for the leader and the followers individually(top panel), and in the entire system(bottom panel).

The no-spillover scenario can also be viewed as the investment failure scenario, since the followers cannot acquire the knowledge of the new technology from the leader and continue to use the old technology until the new technology becomes cost-effective for them. In the following simulations, we assume that the technological spillover effect exists among the agents. We will investigate how T3 diffuses from the leader to the followers when the technological spillover network is a regular lattice, a random network, or a scale-free network, respectively.

In a globally coupled network, all nodes are connected with each other, as illustrated in the left panel of Fig.2, taking a network with 10 nodes as an example.

Illustration of three typical regular lattices.

Since all the 1000 agents in the network are connected with each other, every follower agent acquires the same information at each time t, and thus makes the same technology adoption decisions. Figure3 shows how T3 is adopted by the leader and the followers individually and in the entire system. Compared with the results in the reference scenario, T3 is adopted 30years earlier by the followers and in the entire system in the globally coupled network.

Adoption of T3 in the globally coupled network. Lines in the figure represent how the shares of T3 change over time.

Figure4 illustrates the agents in the network who adopt T3 at different times (as shown in Fig.4a), agents who do not adopt T3 are removed from the figures) and the number of agents that adopt T3 at different times (as shown in Fig.4b)). To make the description clearer, agents who adopt T3 at time t are named active agents at time t. The leader is highlighted with a star-shaped node, while the followers are represented with dot nodes. The edges among the nodes are shown with grey lines in the figures, which represent the connections among agents. As we can observe in Fig.4, in the early stage (20002010), no agent adopts T3; from the year 2020 to 2040, only the leader adopts T3; after the year 2050, all the followers start to adopt T3. This is because, in a globally coupled network, all the followers are connected to the leader and with each other. Therefore, they adopt the new advanced technology at the same time.

Active agents and the number of active agents in the globally coupled network. Sub-figure(a) presentsactive agents at different times, and sub-figure(b) plots thenumber of active agents at different times. In sub-figure (a), the star-shaped node represents the leader, the black dot nodes represent the followers, and the grey lines represent the edges that connect the agents.

In a nearest-neighbor coupled network, each node only connects with its K neighbor nodes (K/2 neighbor nodes on each side), as illustrated in the middle panel of Fig.2, taking 10 nodes and K=4 as an example.

In our simulation, we let K=100, which means each agent connects with its 100 neighbor agents (50 neighbor agents on each side). Figure5 shows how T3 is adopted by each individual agent and in the entire system. The followers adopt T3 gradually since they acquire the knowledge of the new advanced technology at different times. The earliest and the latest adoption of T3 for the followers are around the years 2050 and 2080. There is an adoption time lag of 30years among the followers. In the entire system, T3 is adopted around the year 2060, 20years earlier compared with the results in the reference scenario.

Adoption of T3 in the nearest-neighbor coupled network. Lines in the figure represent how the shares of T3 change over time.

Figure6 illustrates the active agents at different times (as shown in Fig.6a) and the number of active agents that changes over time (as shown in Fig.6b) in the nearest-neighbor coupled network. The star-shaped node also represents the leader, and the dot nodes also represent the followers. As we can observe, in 2050, not many followers adopt T3. After that, more and more followers start to adopt T3 and the number of active agents keeps increasing. After the year 2080, T3 is adopted by all the agents. This is because, in a nearest-neighbor coupled network, each agent connects with its neighbor nodes. Followers can only acquire the knowledge of T3 gradually from its neighbors. As a result, the number of active agents also increases gradually.

Active agents and the number of active agents in the nearest-neighbor coupled network. Sub-figure(a) presentsactive agents at different times, and sub-figure(b) plotsthe number of active agents at different times. In sub-figure (a), the star-shaped node represents the leader, the black dot nodes represent the followers, and the grey lines represent the edges that connect the agents.

In a star coupled network, there is one node that occupies the center of the star and all the other nodes only connect with the center node, as illustrated in the right panel of Fig.2, taking 10 nodes as an example.

In our simulation, Agent 1 has the technological lead, therefore, it is assumed intuitively to be the center node, and all the followers connect with and only with it. As a matter of fact, since all the followers are identical and only connect with the leader, they also acquire the same knowledge at each time t, and thereby make the same technology adoption decisions as well. Figure7 shows how T3 is adopted by the leader and the followers individually and in the entire system. Compared with the results in the reference scenario, T3 is adopted 30years earlier by the followers and in the entire system.

Adoption of T3 in the star coupled network. Lines in the figure represent how the shares of T3 change over time.

Figure8 illustrates the active agents at different times and the number of active agents that changes over time in the star coupled network. From the year 2020 to 2040, only the leader adopts T3. After the year 2050, all the followers start to adopt T3. This is because, in a star coupled network, the followers only connect to the leader and can acquire the knowledge of T3 directly from the leader. Therefore, similar to the globally coupled scenario, they adopt T3 quickly and at the same time.

Active agents and the number of active agents in the star coupled network. Sub-figure(a) presentsactive agents at different times, and sub-figure(b) plots thenumber of active agents at different times. In sub-figure (a), the star-shaped node represents the leader, the black dot nodes represent the followers, and the grey lines represent the edges that connect the agents.

In this subsection, we will run simulations under the assumption that the technological spillover network among all the 1000 agents is a random network. We follow the study conducted by Erds and Rnyi to construct the ER random graph (G_{N,p}^{ER}), where each pair of nodes is assumed to be connected with a probability p35. To capture its dynamics, we also assume that the static random networks among all the nodes are different at different times.

According to the random graph theory, suppose that there are N nodes in a network, there is a critical probability (p_{c} = 1/N). Also, when (p ge {text{ln}}left( N right)/N), almost any graph in the ensemble (G_{N,p}^{ER}) is totally connected35,36. Therefore, in our research, we will run different simulations with the connecting probability p equals to 0.001, 0.01, and 0.1, respectively. We will explore how the new advanced technology diffuses in the randomly connected networks in the following three scenarios: (a) when the connecting probability is comparatively low; (b) when there exists a giant component in the network; and (c) when the random network is always connected.

Figure9 shows how T3 is adopted by each individual agent (sub-figures (a), (b) and (c), in which the dashed line represents the leader and the solid lines represent the followers) and in the entire system (sub-figure (d)) when the connecting probability (p) varies. When (p = 0.001), the followers adopt T3 around the years 2060 to 2080. When (p = 0.1), the followers generally adopt T3 earlier, around the years 2050 to 2060. In the entire system, when p increases from the 0.001 to 0.1, the adoption of T3 is advanced from the year 2080 to the year 2060.

Adoption of T3 with different connecting probabilities. Lines in the figure represent how the shares of T3 change over time.

Figure10 shows the active agents at different times (here we present the active agents in 2050 and 2070 as illustrations) and how the number of active agents changes over time when (p) varies. Likewise, the star-shaped node represents the leader, the black dot nodes represent the followers, and the grey lines represent the edges that connect the agents. As we can observe, when (p = 0.001), in 2050, only the leader adopts T3; in 2070, only one follower starts to adopt T3. When (p = 0.01), in 2050, several followers adopt T3; in 2070, more followers adopt T3. When (p = 0.1), in 2050, about 90 followers start to adopt T3; in 2070, all followers adopt T3. Note that, in the figure, there are independent dot nodes (without the connection to any other nodes). This is because, in our simulation, the random network structure varies at each time t. Previous connected nodes may not be connected currently, but they have already acquired the knowledge of T3 through previous connections. From Fig.10b), we can conclude that, the higher the connecting probability is, the faster the number of active agents increases, that is, the earlier the followers adopt the new advanced technology T3.

Active agents and the number of active agents in the random networks. Sub-figure(a) presentsactive agents at different times,and sub-figure (b) plots thenumber of active agents at different times. In sub-figure (a), the star-shaped node represents the leader, the black dot nodes represent the followers, and the grey lines represent the edges that connect the agents.

In a word, as the connecting probability (p) increases, more and more followers tend to initiate their adoption of the new advanced technology earlier. It is in accordance with our intuition that with a larger connecting probability, more follower agents could be topologically connected with the leader agent, and they can benefit from the technological spillover effect more straightforwardly.

In this subsection, we will run simulations under the assumption that the technological spillover network among all 1000 agents is a BA scale-free network. The ER random graph neglects two most important features of the network in the real world: growth and preferential attachment37.

Following the approach proposed by Albert and Barabsi, we construct the scale-free network with the following rules38:

Initially, there exists a connected network with (m_{0}) nodes. We assume that there are (m_{0} = 10) nodes connecting with each other randomly in the initial network, including the leader Agent 1. The remaining 990 nodes are pending to be added to the network. In each iteration, we add a new node with m edges that link the new node to m present nodes in the system. m should be less than (m_{0}), and we let m=5.

When choosing the nodes to which the new node connects, the probability of the new node connecting with a present node i in each iteration is computed with the following equation:

$$begin{array}{*{20}c} {p_{i} = frac{{k_{i} }}{{mathop sum nolimits_{j} k_{j} }},} \ end{array}$$

(8)

where, (k_{i}) is the degree of present node i, (mathop sum limits_{j} k_{j}) represents the sum of the degrees of all present nodes. Figure11 shows the power-law degree distribution of the BA scale-free network we constructed.

The power-law degree distribution of the constructed scale-free network.

Figure12 presents how T3 is adopted by individual agents and in the entire system. As we can observe, the followers adoption time of T3 ranges from the year 2050 to the year 2080. In the entire system, T3 is adopted around the year 2070, only 10years earlier compared with what suggested in the reference scenario.

Adoption of T3 in the scale-free network. Lines in the figure represent how the shares of T3 change over time.

Figure13 illustrates the active agents at different times and how the number of active agents changes over time in a scale-free network. As we can see, from the year 2020 to 2040, only the leader adopts T3; from the year 2050 to 2070, more and more followers start to adopt T3; and after the year 2080, all the followers adopt T3. This is because, in the scale-free network, most edges are connected to some nodes, i.e., a large number of agents are connected to only some agents, while the other agents are only connected to few agents. Those followers that link directly with the leader will adopt T3 earlier than the followers that are moredistant from the leader.

Active agents and the number of active agents in the scale-free network. Sub-figure(a) presentsactive agents at different times, and sub-figure(b) plots thenumber of active agents at different times. In sub-figure (a), the star-shaped node represents the leader, the black dot nodes represent the followers, and the grey lines represent the edges that connect the agents.

With the discussion above, we can draw the conclusion that, the topological structure of the technological spillover network among agents plays a crucial part in the adoption and diffusion of the new advanced technology among agents and in the entire system. Some network topological structures favor the adoption and diffusion of the new technology (e.g., the globally coupled network), while others may cause adoption time lags among the follower agents (e.g., the random network and the scale-free network), and therefore delay the adoption of the new technology in the entire system. The implication of our simulation is that, in the real world, the network topological structure among decision entities might be complex. It is crucial for the social planner to take into consideration of the network structure when evaluating the diffusion process of an innovation.

In the next section, we will discuss the implication of our research further. We will examine whether different network topological structures influence the effectiveness of a carbon emission constraint policy.

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The impact of network topological structures on systematic technology adoption and carbon emission reduction | Scientific Reports - Nature.com

The current school system was not designed with modern technology in mind. In a column published in The Guardian in 2017, British journalist George Monbiot noted that todays schools and universities were established for the needs of a factory workforce in the 19th and 20th century industrial eras. Needless to say, many experts feel that schools today are not designed to generate the type of creativity and innovation required in a workforce for the 21st century and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (also referred to as Industry 4.0).

To combat this discrepancy, many government agencies deployed global strategies to bring digital skills into education, but implementation looked set to stretch over several years.

Then 2020 arrived, and the pandemic changed everything. As industries continued to push their digitisation efforts forward, education lagged behind. However, education especially higher education is yet another industry sector that should embrace digital transformation, because it could greatly reap the benefits of Industry 4.0.

With a focus on accessing services and content digitally, institutions will have to evolve their wireless communication infrastructure to offer high-performing services to allow students, academic staff, researchers and operations teams to function more productively.

However, some of these new services and operational applications have highlighted some limitations in traditional WiFi networks, which include reliability, security, predictable performance, coverage, multi-user capacity and mobility.

To keep pace with new demands and get the most from their networks, higher education will have to design and deploy a holistic and integrated wireless infrastructure that includes private and public mobile networks, complemented by WiFi, Ethernet CAT cables and passive optical local area networks (POL). As these respective technologies have different capabilities, they will support different use cases and applications.

By adopting state of the art network infrastructure, colleges and universities will be able to better serve the changing needs of students, academic staff and researchers.

Private wireless networks, based on 4.9G/LTE (the latest generation of 4G cellular broadband) and eventually 5G standards, can make it easier and more cost-effective for higher education institutions to accelerate their digital transformation and support a wider set of industrial and mission-critical services and operational capabilities.

Students and faculty members need affordable high-speed internet for accessing e-learning and digital productivity tools on their mobile devices on and off campus. With private wireless, classrooms and auditoriums can be equipped with services such as smart boards, smart podiums or smart lighting that require connectivity for data sharing and control. Remote learning can even be enriched with augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) classrooms and laboratories, accessed from anywhere in the world.

Additionally, there are many network-enabled opportunities to make higher-education campuses safer and more liveable for students, teachers, operations staff and visitors. Think, for example, of deploying drone- or robot-based surveillance cameras, smoke sensors, fever detection with thermal cameras, emergency call buttons, and push-to-talk or push-to-video group communication applications. Universities could even use connected digital billboards to spread information and emergency announcements.

Educational institutions can also use private networks to secure point-of-sale terminals to support ticket sales, food and beverage services, concerts and events. These capabilities can further be complemented with drone- or autonomous vehicle-based delivery services.

Even campus operations and facility management could be transformed through building automation, environmental control systems, and data from Internet of Things (IoT) sensors that manage on-premises infrastructure, water and power. Reliable broadband coverage and connectivity can also help institutions develop new campus-wide logistics systems using automated guided vehicles (AGVs).

Its clear that Industry 4.0 is no longer a visionary term for future innovation

This is just glimpse into some of the many use cases that private wireless networks can help institutions achieve.

Beyond the classroom, academic research and education can bolster a region or a countrys innovation, economic competitiveness and growth. Therefore, advanced research and education (R&E) networks are key assets for both educational institutions and industries. When leveraged, high performance, private wireless networks and edge computing platforms can enable living labs for researching, developing, testing and demonstrating new 5G- and IoT-based applications, business models and use cases for real-world scenarios bringing education into the everyday digital transformation of industries.

These capabilities will boost industry-academia collaboration and eventually, enable critical sectors like energy, healthcare and first responders to reach new levels of efficiency and productivity.

Recently, several universities and research institutions around the world have launched 4.9G/LTE and 5G initiatives on their campuses or announced collaboration projects with industry and public sector partners.

Here is a sampling of a few:

Instead of having schools that cater to 19th century factory workers, its time for them to prepare today for tomorrows digital workforce.

Its clear that Industry 4.0 is no longer a visionary term for future innovation. These changes can be implemented at institutions around the world right now with private wireless, and education is the next vertical to see this shift toward Industry 4.0 unfold.

You might also like: 3 pathways to blended learning success

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How Industry 4.0 is transforming higher education - Education Technology

Mr. Jang-Hwa Leu, the Director General of Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs Taiwan, indicated that the semiconductor and ICT advantage of Taiwan is impregnable in the world. To keep the lead, intellectual property (IP) protection becomes vital. "5G is setting off a new industrial revolution the key to be standing on firm ground is to control the latest innovation and IP," said Mr. Leu.

Under the theme of "Maximising 5G IP value in Taiwan" and co-organized by Business Next, IPBC Taiwan 2021 presents in-depth speeches and discussions about IP and patent protection strategy as well as the value of 5G. The morning session includes senior executives and experts from Nissan Motor, Ericsson, Micron Technology, ARM, Intel, Nokia, and more. Apart from the critical 5G patents, the speakers also shared their insights toward the development of 6G.

Dr. Jen-Ming Wu, Director at the Next Generation Communications Research Center of Hon Hai Research Institute, kicked off the afternoon session with "Innovation Trend and IP Strategy of 5G", suggested that "The fourth generation of mobile communications changed our daily lives, while the fifth generation is changing our society as a whole."

Followed by Jerry Hsu, President at 5G Industry Innovation and Development Alliance, he illustrated the mass applications of combining 5G with AI and big data. "So charging royalty is getting more and more sophisticated," supported by Dr. Jen-Ming Wu, "We have to be very careful while deploying IP and patent strategies."

"In addition to self-developed patents, the concept of building a patent platform has gradually become a trend," stated Sarina Lin, VP of MediaTek Inc. With the help of Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), many Taiwanese enterprises join forces to establish an IP Bank.

For example, HTC has been introducing AR/VR and AI to healthcare, education, and entertainment. Chia Te Lu, the VP, Head of Business Development, and General Counsel of HTC, indicated that "Patents are useful assets when enterprises cooperate and negotiate with other organizations."

Similarly, Billie Chen, Associate General Counsel and Chief IP Counsel of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) mentioned, "As the champion of patent application in Taiwan for five continuous years, researchers at TSMC not only develop their own technologies but proactively collaborate with others."

"Acer has built a solid patent strategy based on both vertical and horizontal development opportunities," said Lydia Wu, General Counsel of Acer. "We always reserve the most important patents."

Dr. Shiaw-Shian Yu, Executive VP and Executive Operating Officer of ITRI, concluded the event with ITRI's 2030 Technology Strategy & Roadmap. "Cross-field collaboration matters," said Dr. Shiaw-Shian Yu, "If we can integrate patents owned by Taiwanese companies, we will see an exponential growth of impacts to the world!"

SOURCE BUSINESS NEXT MEDIA

https://en.bnext.com.tw/page/founder

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5G Intellectual Property Makes Best with Patent Platform and Technology Investment - PRNewswire

Last year, Eva Sage-Gavin, a managing director responsible for global talent at Accenture, and Kelly Monahan, an organizational behaviourist, addressed a room of C-suite executives who wanted a peek into the future. Specifically, they wanted to know what companies needed to do to prepare for work in the coming years.

The pair bluntly told their audience to automate and digitize their operations. Some months after that meeting, they followed up their message by publishing a research project that underscored the imperative need for companies to become digitally fluent.

That message is something those in education, training or at the beginning of their careers should pay close attention to. Workers need to arm themselves with technical skills if they want economic stability and prosperity, and in particular, if they want to obtain what are called opportunity jobs.

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Opportunity jobs are the opposite of gig work. Opportunity jobs offer aspirants a chance to make a steady and high- income livelihood and insulate themselves against future shocks in the labour market.

Technical skills, especially those that include operational analyses, sciences, programming and systems evaluation provide clear pathways to these opportunity jobs, wrote Ms. Sage-Gavin and Dr. Monahan. Technical skills were always important, but the sense of urgency of obtaining them has never been more critical.

As the pandemic recedes and Canada enters a recovery phase, it will have to play catch-up in terms of skills performance.

In the 2021 Global Skills Index report from online course platform Coursera, Canada was ranked 55th globally in terms of competency for business, technology, and data science skills. For its study, the company said it analyzed performance data of more than 77 million learners enrolled on their platform, looking at factors such as the number of students enrolled in each course, grades, and even how long learners spent on assignments.

In worldwide standings, Canada trails far behind leaders Switzerland, Luxembourg and Norway in digital-economy skills such as operating systems, cloud computing, and mathematics. Ironically, despite the stability of its banking system, Canada lagged in finance skills. It also underperformed in several different comparisons of financial-sector competitiveness.

Once a top-10 country in the world in mathematics education, Canada has seen its ranking and math scores drop over the past 15 years, according to Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The Coursera report lays out the skillsets needed for entry-level and mid-level jobs in the post-pandemic labour markets, organized across three main groupings. The company also notes (though perhaps self-interestedly) that many employees may be overlooking the opportunity to obtain these skills online. According to the report, 75 per cent of active learners spend less than three hours per week on the coursework to advance their careers.

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These were the top trending skills in North America:

The future of work will demand that people develop their skills and learn new ones throughout their careers. According to job portal Indeed, health care, trade, hospitality, and information technology (IT) are industries with the most in-demand careers in Canada.

Some of the job opportunities that are presently emerging in Canada are construction estimator, software engineer, web developer, financial adviser, home health aide, industrial electrician, medical technologist, nursing assistant, occupational therapist, pharmacist, physical therapy aide, statistician, truck driver and pipefitter.

Companies giving back to their communities isnt just altruism its smart business sense Tokenism has no place in building relationships with communities, consumers or employees, writes COBS Bread CEO Aaron Gillespie in the Globes Leadership Lab.

Can this marketing managers rsum help him land an executive role in another industry? A reader asks about how to get himself out of a job rut.

A promised raise was revoked. What are my options? In this weeks NinetoFive advice column, a reader asks about whether a company is allowed to announce changes to pay structure, and then retract the changes.

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Leadership Lab is a series where executives, experts and writers share their views and advice about the world of work. You can find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.

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Technology or trades may be the key to the Canadian job market in 2022 - The Globe and Mail

Photograph: Shutterstock

Papa Johns said on Friday that it has promoted Max Wetzel to chief commercial officer in an expanded role that effectively integrates its marketing, menu innovation, customer experience, North America restaurant operations, technology and insights teams.

Wetzel, who has been Papa Johns chief commercial and marketing officer since 2019, was given the expanded role that adds North America operations, technology and insights to his responsibilities.

The goal, CEO Rob Lynch said in a statement, is to integrate its commercial and marketing functions more tightly with technology and operations. Over the past two years, Papa Johns has fully transformed itself from a turnaround story to an innovation-driven growth business with enormous development whitespace, Lynch said.

Over the same period, the pandemic has accelerated changes in consumer behavior and expectations that were taking hold prior to 2020.

By integrating the operations, technology and marketing more closely, Lynch said, well be better positioned to take on bold, transformative projects that are enabled by our technology, growing first-party data capabilities and a company-wide innovation culture.

Wetzel has helped launch some of the innovations that have driven Papa Johns sales in recent years, including its Epic Stuffed Crust and Papadias. He helped grow Papa Rewards loyalty program and launched a marketing campaign for Shaq-a-roni, the company said.

Papa Johns and its franchisees operate more than 5,500 locations in 49 countries. The company is based in Louisville, Ky., and Atlanta.

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Papa Johns is integrating marketing, operations and technology - Restaurant Business Online

2021-10-15

A leading expert and researcher at Microsoft Research who studies the intersection of technology and society has joined Georgetown as a visiting distinguished professor, accelerating a university-wide initiative on technology, ethics, governance and public policy.

danah boyd will help drive cross-campus collaboration among interdisciplinary faculty members as part of Georgetown's new Center for Digital Ethics and Tech & Society Initiative, a network of centers across the university that shape technology's impact on ethics and policy for the public good. boyd will host lectures and seminars and teach a spring course that examines evidence-based policymaking and data.

An internationally recognized authority on technology and society, boyd is a partner researcher at Microsoft Research, an advanced research laboratory where she studies how technology and society interact, with a focus on how structural inequalities are reconfigured through technology. boyd is also the founder of Data & Society, an independent research institute, and author of It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. Most recently, boyd has been conducting an ethnographic study of the 2020 U.S. Census to understand how data is made legitimate; findings from this study will be published in an upcoming book.

"danah boyd is an internationally renowned leader in the interface between emerging technologies and their effects on society," says Robert M. Groves, provost of Georgetown University. "Her participation in classes and meetings with faculty and students will make us better. Further, her experience in building new organizations will be useful as we launch the Center for Digital Ethics."

boyd's work will support Georgetown's newly launched Center for Digital Ethics, a central hub for digital ethical research and innovation within the university's Tech & Society Initiative. boyd's own multi-faceted background, research and experience will help catalyze connections between scholars and practitioners focused on the intersection of technology and policy, says Paul Ohm, chair of the Tech & Society Initiative's Steering Committee and a professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center.

"danah boyd is exactly the kind of world-class thinker and doer we need to help scholars and practitioners address some of the world's most pressing issues, from privacy and surveillance to speech and democracy to racial justice and civil rights," he said. "I am so thrilled she will be serving as a distinguished visiting professor this year to help us lay a strong foundation for the future of our Center for Digital Ethics and Tech & Society Initiative."

In boyd's first few days at Georgetown, we Zoomed with her to learn what fuels her interest in technology and society, why she was drawn to Georgetown, and why it's more important than ever to study technology and policy with an ethical lens.

I was a kid who was on the internet early, in 1993, when the world wide web was not yet a thing. It was exciting that this beeping, ridiculous-sounding thing attached to a telephone could connect you to people around the world. I remember thinking, wow, computers can be made up of people! For me, technology was connected with sociology from the beginning.

My entire career has been about moving between layers of technical infrastructures, human practices and social structures.

I studied computer science as an undergraduate to build the technical systems that were so empowering to me as a young person. In graduate school, I started visualizing networks of people that formed online, first as traces from Usenet and email and then the networks that formed on social media start-ups like Friendster and MySpace. I then turned to understand how peopleand especially teenagersengaged with social media. After graduate school, I went to Microsoft Research where I began studying the "big data" phenomenon and went deeper into my studies of privacy. In 2013, I founded a research institute, Data & Society, to collaborate with more people trying to make sense of sociotechnical issues. For the past few years, I've researched how the 2020 U.S. Census sought to produce democracy's data infrastructure, one of most significant pieces of data that's produced in this country.

I'm a researcher through and through, curious to the core, fascinated by different methods and ways of seeing the world. That's what gets me up every day. A former undergraduate advisor once told me that as researchers, we have the luxury and privilege of doing research, and we have a responsibility to profess and communicate what we learn in order to give back. I want to learn and keep gifting knowledge to help others unlock puzzles they are struggling with.

As a scholar, I've done a terrible job of staying in a single discipline or staying focused on a single topic. That's also one of the reasons why I'm excited to come to Georgetown. There are so many interesting, curious, smart and informed people who approach scholarship from different perspectives. I'm excited to work with passionate students and learn from different members of the Georgetown community. Coming to Georgetown is like letting a kid in a candy store.

I've known and admired Georgetown faculty across different disciplines for years. The Law Center has the largest ecosystem of privacy legal scholars out there. The computer science department includes experts in differential privacy. There are multiple centers that approach sociotechnical issues with a civil rights, racial justice and/or social justice perspective. There are Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholars who understand government and how to think about policy. I'm excited to work with all of these different scholars and researchers, and help create bridges if possible.

Georgetown's backyard is the federal government. There's such a need for a more robust conversation about the relationship between ethics, policy and technologyand so I'm excited that this is something that the faculty are excited to come together to address. Plus, frankly, I'm excited to work with so many scholars who are committed to a healthier, more just social world through their research.

I think many different disciplines are starting to recognize that technology is part of society, and it always has been. Technology is not a separate thing. Technology is affecting every sector, every industry, every organization's structure. Technology has also been integrated into democratic governance for forever. Grappling with the relationship between the government and different kinds of innovation is central to be able to address large-scale challenges.

The key to thinking about ethics in this moment is to resist the idea that technology is neutral and apolitical and separate. Technology is entangled with our social values and commitments; it's entangled with power, and therefore, ethics is an inherent part of the conversation whether or not you've chosen to ignore it. Ethics isn't a checklist but a way of seeing the world.

The governance of technology happens at every level, from design to policy. The choices that people make in how they design, build, use and govern technology close out different possible futures. As such, these are choices shaped by ethical commitments. We must all be more conscientious about how we move through this world and how we build and leverage the tools available to us. When you shape people and practices, you shape outcomes. Georgetown is deeply committed to helping students grapple with values, ethics and morality with an eye toward building a more just world. As such, I'm excited that Georgetown is investing in a Center for Digital Ethics and the Tech & Society Initiative more generally.

Editor's Note: danah boyd legally changed her name to all lower-case. She shares more about this decision on her website.

This press release was produced by Georgetown University.The views expressed here are the author's own.

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Georgetown University: Title: Leading Technology And Society Researcher Joins Georgetown For The Year To Fuel Cross-Campus Innovation - Patch.com

New Program to Scale Multifamily and Commercial Building Climate Solutions

October 15, 2021

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced $9.5 million to establish the Empire Technology Prize program, an ambitious new corporate challenge aimed at advancing building decarbonization across New York State. The funding will support a qualified program administrator to manage the program and provide seed money for the competition which will attract, incorporate, and scale building climate solutions from around the world to achieve carbon-neutrality in existing multifamily buildings at least eight stories high or commercial buildings at least 15 stories high. This announcement supports the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act) nation-leading goal calling for an 85 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

"Buildings are the leading cause of greenhouse gas emissions in New York State, and we need to ramp up tangible solutions that decarbonize buildings faster to fight climate change," Governor Hochul said. "Through this initiative, we are creating the bridge between innovative solutions and multifamily and commercial building owners who can benefit from those solutions to chart a more sustainable, low carbon future."

Administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the Empire Technology Prize program is designed to be both a business accelerator and a prize program by combining business support with monetary awards to advance low carbon retrofit approaches.

NYSERDA is currently accepting applications for the program administrator who will be awarded up to $1.7 million through 2024 to engage industry partners in a competitive corporate challenge to facilitate the deployment of carbon emission reducing technologies. NYSERDA is dedicating an additional $7.8 million for prizes under the program, with the program administrator expected to grow the prize pool by leveraging private sector partnerships and investments.

NYSERDA President and CEO Doreen M. Harris said, "This program will connect industry professionals with innovators to ensure usable, sustainable solutions are developed and have a pathway to market. We are focused on engaging private industry to lead market change, decarbonize commercial and multifamily buildings and create a greener, cleaner future that benefits all New Yorkers."

NYSERDA will accept applications through November 17, 2021 from qualified single organizations or teams of organizations to be the program administrator, co-develop and manage the Empire Technology Prize program. A scoring committee will evaluate the proposals based on the applicant's past track record of creating successful corporate challenges with activities including global recruitment, industry-focused convening, business acceleration support, strategic partnership facilitation, and leveraging private dollars. The prize program itself will launch in 2022.

Senator Kevin Parker said, "As Chair of the Senate Energy and Telecommunications Committee, I applaud NYSERDA and the Governor's office for making the Empire Technology Prize program a reality. I stand eager to continue working with NYSERDA to promote initiatives that advance New York's progressive energy and jobs agenda."

Assemblymember Michael Cusick said, "Building decarbonization is one of the most crucial components in achieving our statewide energy and environmental goals. The Empire Technology Prize Program will be a creative and effective tool for decarbonizing some of our states worst greenhouse gas emitting buildings and this program will make a significant impact in our efforts to reduce emissions."

This program builds on the market insight gathered through the successful Empire Building Challenge, announced in September 2020, a public-private partnership to spur economic growth in New York through solutions to decarbonize tall commercial and multifamily buildings in conjunction with some of the world's largest real estate holders, manufacturers, technology experts, and entrepreneurs.

Buildings are responsible for one third of the economy-wide greenhouse gas emissions in New York State, and many of the more than six million buildings across the State were constructed before the energy code and are not designed to be energy efficient. Through NYSERDA and utility programs, over $6.8 billion is being invested to decarbonize buildings across the State. By improving energy efficiency in buildings and including onsite storage, renewables, and electric vehicle charging equipment, the State will reduce carbon pollution and achieve the ambitious target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion Btus by 2025, the equivalent of powering 1.8 million homes. Energy efficiency accounts for 75 percent of the clean energy jobs across New York and the state's ambitious plan to reduce carbon pollution will result in an additional $1.8 billion in societal and environmental benefits.

The Empire Technology Prize program is supported through NYSERDA's Innovation program which helps early-stage companies with technical assistance and business development resources through entrepreneurial support, and manufacturing scale-up. NYSERDA has invested more than $28 million in entrepreneurial support programs since 2009, supporting nearly 349 companies and generating more than 1,140 jobs. More than $780 million in private investments and $200 million in project finance capital have been leveraged while helping bring more than 440 new and improved clean energy products to market, including LED lighting systems, home appliances, longer-lasting batteries, and more efficient heating-and-cooling systems.

Funding for this initiative is through the State's 10-year, $5.3 billion Clean Energy Fund. More information about this funding is available on NYSERDA's website.

New York State's nation-leading climate agenda is the most aggressive climate and clean energy initiative in the nation, calling for an orderly and just transition to clean energy that creates jobs and continues fostering a green economy as New York State recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. Enshrined into law through the Climate Leadership andCommunity Protection Act, New York is on a path to achieveits mandated goal of a zero-emission electricity sector by 2040, including 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030, and to reach economy wide carbon neutrality. It builds on New York's unprecedented investments to ramp-up clean energy including over $21 billion in 91 large-scale renewable projects across the state, $6.8 billion to reduce buildings emissions, $1.8 billion to scale up solar, more than $1 billion for clean transportation initiatives, and over $1.2 billion in NY Green Bank commitments. Combined, these investments are supporting more than 150,000 jobs in New York's clean energy sector in 2019, a 2,100 percent growth in the distributed solar sector since 2011 and a commitment to develop 9,000 megawatts of offshore wind by 2035. Under the Climate Act, New York will build on this progress and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent from 1990 levels by 2050, whileensuring that at least 35 percent with a goal of 40percent of the benefits of clean energy investments are directedto disadvantaged communities, and advanceprogress towards the state's 2025 energy efficiency target of reducing on-site energy consumption by 185 trillion BTUs of end-use energy savings.

Last Updated: 10/15/2021

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Governor Hochul Announces $9.5 Million to Establish the Empire Technology Prize Program and Advance Building Decarbonization in New York State -...

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and the California Air Resources Board (CARB) filed a motion on Wednesday to intervene in support of South Coast Air Quality Management Districts (Air District) rule requiring warehouses to reduce emissions fromheavy sources of on-road pollution that visit those warehouses.

The Air Districts rule regulates these indirect sources by requiring owners and operators of some of the largest warehouses in the state to take direct action to mitigate their emissions. This will reduce air pollution in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire, help California meet state and federal air quality standards, improve the health of our communities, and promote environmental justice.

Last month, the California Trucking Association filed a lawsuit challenging the rule as outside the scope of the Air Districts authority,pre-empted by federal law, and an unlawful tax.In defending the rule, Attorney General Bonta and CARB expect to argue that these claims are meritless and thatstate and federal law supports the Air Districts authority to adopt the Indirect Source Rule.

California has long been a pioneer in the fight againstclimate change and the Air Districtsrule limiting warehouse pollution is no exception,said Bonta.The fact is: environmental justice and economic development are not mutually exclusive. There is no binary choice here. The Air DistrictsIndirect Source Rule will have tremendous benefits for those communities hardest hit by pollution, at a relatively low cost to industry.

This is an environmental justice and public health issue,said CARB Chair Liane M. Randolph.The communities around these huge warehouse facilities have suffered for years from the effects of businesses and freight haulers who have all but ignored the community impacts of their enterprises. This Indirect Source Rule simply requires them to be much better neighbors. The rule is also part and parcel of local clean air plans developed under Assembly Bill 617 with CARB and South Coast staff, local residents, local businesses and other stakeholders to clean the air in and around these high-traffic routes and locations.

In recent years, the proliferation of e-commerce and rising consumer expectations of rapid shipping have contributed to a boom in warehouse development, particularly in Los Angeles and the Inland Empire.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend, as consumers have shifted away from in-person retail shopping. Unfortunately, the distribution of warehouse facilities and resulting pollution has occurred primarily in low-income communities and communities of color.

Once a new warehouse is built, the facilities and their associatedactivities, such as truck traffic,can cause a variety of negative impacts affecting public health. For example, diesel trucks visiting warehouses are substantial sources of nitrogen oxide a primary precursor to smog formation that has been linked to respiratory problems like asthma, bronchitis, and lung irritation and diesel particulate matter a contributor to cancer, heart disease, respiratory illnesses, and premature death.

The Air Districts Indirect Source Rule requires existing and new warehouse facilities larger than 100,000 square feet to select from a menu of emissions-reducing activities, such as purchasing zero-emission vehicles, installingair filtration systems in nearby residences, and constructing rooftop solar panels.

A copy of the motion is availablehere.

Originally posted here:

Oakland Native Serves in Navys Silent Service of Submarine Technology - Post News Group