eSchool NewsU.S. eighth-graders scored above the international average for computer and information literacy in the 2018 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS), yet were found to have difficulty cultivating critical 21st-century employability skills. Peggy G. Carr of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics' said, "Today's eighth-graders were raised in a world in which computers and smartphones are commonplace, but the majority of […]

Ohio State NewsOhio State University (OSU) researchers found an innate design flaw in mobile apps that work with Bluetooth-enabled devices that make them susceptible to hacking. OSU's Zhiqiang Lin said the vulnerability is rooted in how Bluetooth Low Energy devices talk to the mobile apps that govern them. The devices communicate with apps by broadcasting a universally unique identifier (UUID), which enables apps on users' phones to recognize the Bluetooth device. The UUID also is embedded […]

The New York TimesArtificial intelligence reflects prejudices inherent in the information it is trained on, potentially bringing old attitudes into new technology. For example, Google's BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers), a universal language model, is fed massive amounts of digitized text likely encompassing centuries of biases, leading it to consider computer programming an exclusively male profession, and giving women little credit. Computer scientist Robert Munro […]

The Wall Street JournalThe newly-opened Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, CA, incorporates technologies to try to make the facility more friendly and welcoming to patients. The facility provides patients an intuitive keypad for entertainment options, as well as to adjust temperature, lighting, and window blinds from bed. Stanford Health Care’s Eric Yablonka said technologies underlying the user interface were combined to enhance the patient/caregiver experience. Innovations include a […]

The Washington PostFor several months, robotics company Nuro has been field-testing delivery via autonomous vehicles (AV) in Houston, with robotic Priuses transporting groceries to restaurants and suburban residences, mapping the city with sensors as they go. Human drivers and co-drivers currently ride in the vehicles to monitor their operation, take over in case of unexpected obstacles, and help to improve the vehicle's software. Nuro is competing with companies such as Amazon, Alphabet-owned […]