Engineering & Technology
Building artificial intelligence for social good
Artificial intelligence is one of the most disruptive technologies nowadays and as such is considered both an opportunity and a threat to society. On the one hand, it could make us vulnerable as we trust machines to make more and more decisions that so far have been reserved for humans. On the other hand, it has the potential to revolutionise […]
Taking inspiration from nature for a new generation of quiet aerofoils
Constant exposure to noise is an increasing problem in developed countries, with impacts not only on industry but also our health. Key culprits often accused of creating noise include airports and wind farms. Professor Phil Joseph from University of Southampton is heading up a team of scientists focused on reducing noise pollution through the development of new aerofoil design. The […]
Evading the rise of ransomware
Ransomware, malicious software that takes users’ files “hostage” and demands payment from users to get back their files, has become a popular income stream for cybercriminals. While not all ransomware attacks are effective money earners, they often cause immense disruption for key services such as the healthcare industry. In the case of ransomware, prevention is often better than cure, and […]
A needle in a haystack – the future of big data
Dr Yang Feng is Associate Professor of Statistics at Columbia University. His research aims to structure, into a useful form, the voluminous data available from many areas of science, humanity, industry and governments, like social networks, the study of the genome, understanding economics or finance and health sciences. Using network modelling, he has focused on novel ways of detecting “communities” more […]
Fossilising fossil fuels with green alternatives
Green Biologics are a renewable chemicals company who are not only changing the face of renewable chemicals, but are changing the world while they are at it. Dr Liz Jenkinson is one of the lead researchers at the company, and it is her work that is providing the answer to the question: is there an alternative to fossil fuels? Her […]
Biases from Big Data: the prejudiced computer
Big Data and Machine Learning seem to be the modern buzzword answers for every problem. Areas such as healthcare, fraud prevention and sales are just a few of the places that are thought to benefit from self-learning and improving machines that can be trained on huge datasets. However, how carefully do we scrutinise these algorithms and investigate possible biases that […]