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Conference Awards

Many congrats to @Enrico Dini đŸ”đŸŸđŸŽ‰đŸŽ‰đŸŽ‰đŸ„‡Enrico reached that outcome after an eclectic professional path: a graduate of Civil Engineering at Pisa University, Enrico has spent his entire career in automation and robotics. In 2004, Enrico envisioned the endless potential of the use of additive manufacturing techniques at architectural scale as a means to affordably reach architectural beauty. Since then, Enrico has dedicated his entire professional career in the pursuit of his passion to 3D print beautiful architecture.

At the Digital Concrete 2018 Conference, several awards will be presented. Award categories include: Best Proceedings Paper, Best Presentation, and Best Poster. Each category will have an award encompassing all entries, and one for students only. The awards will be given at the conference closing on Wednesday, 12 September, before lunch.

In addition, two Pioneering Achievement Awards will be given to two pioneers in the field of digital fabrication with concrete, Prof. Behrokh Khoshnevis and Enrico Dini. Information for the two awardees is seen below.

Prince Charles Says He “Utterly Objects” to The Idea of People Becoming Part Human, Part Machine

From the perspective of critics, there are many reasons to be concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence.

Billionaire inventor Elon Musk — perhaps the world’s most vocal AI antagonist — has warned that the technology could become “an immortal dictator from which we would never escape.”

Several years before his death, Stephen Hawking, the renowned theoretical physicist, said artificial intelligence could bypass biological evolution, leaving humans unable to compete.

MIT’s DON the robot is a master of dexterity

When we think of robots manipulating objects, we tend to think of endless banks of robot arms in some high-tech assembly line, dancing their mechanical dance in perfect synchronization. They grab an object, turn it round a bit, and put it down again, before repeating the action with an identical object time and again. But what if a robot could look at any item, and decide how best to pick it up, and perform tasks with it, all by itself? That’s the aim of DON – a new neural network and robotic hand at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

First truly black solar modules roll off industrial production line

A 2011 invention made by Aalto University’s researchers has proceeded from concept to reality. Just a few years ago the researchers obtained the record efficiency of 22% in the lab for nanostructured solar cells using atomic layer deposition, and now with the help of industrial partners and joint European collaboration, the first prototype modules have been manufactured on an industrial production line.

“Our timing could not have been better” prof. Hele Savin, who led the research, was pleased to tell. Indeed, 2018 is commonly called the “Year of Black Silicon” due to its rapid expansion in the photovoltaic (PV) industry. It has enabled the use of diamond-wire sawing in multicrystalline silicon, which reduces costs and environmental impact. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement as the current used in industry consists of shallow nanostructures that leads to sub-optimal optical properties and requires a separate antireflection coating.

Aalto’s approach consists of using deep needle-like nanostructures to make an optically perfect surface that eliminates the need for the antireflection coatings. Their industrial production, however, was not an easy task. “We were worried that such a fragile structure would not survive the multi-step mass production, because of rough handling by robots or module lamination.”

AI speeds up climate computations

Realistic climate simulations require huge reserves of computational power. An LMU study now shows that new algorithms allow interactions in the atmosphere to be modeled more rapidly without loss of reliability.

Forecasting global and local climates requires the construction and testing of mathematical . Since such models must incorporate a plethora of physical processes and interactions, climate simulations require enormous amounts of . And even the best models inevitably have limitations, since the phenomena involved can never be modeled in sufficient detail. In a project carried out in the context of the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center “Waves to Weather”, Stephan Rasp of the Institute of Theoretical Meteorology at LMU (Director: Professor George Craig) has now looked at the question of whether the application of can improve the efficacy of climate modelling. The study, which was performed in collaboration with Professor Mike Pritchard of the University of California at Irvine und Pierre Gentine of Columbia University in New York, appears in the journal PNAS.

General circulation models typically simulate the global behavior of the atmosphere on grids whose cells have dimensions of around 50 km. Even using state-of-the-art supercomputers the relevant that take place in the atmosphere are simply too complex to be modelled at the necessary level of detail. One prominent example concerns the modelling of clouds which have a crucial influence on climate. They transport heat and moisture, produce precipitation, as well as absorb and reflect solar radiation, for instance. Many clouds extend over distances of only a few hundred meters, much smaller than the grid cells typically used in simulations – and they are highly dynamic. Both features make them extremely difficult to model realistically. Hence today’s models lack at least one vital ingredient, and in this respect, only provide an approximate description of the Earth system.

Samsung opens robotics-focused AI research hub in New York City

Samsung has opened its second U.S. artificial intelligence (AI) research facility (sixth globally), as the Korean electronics giant continues to double down on its investments in transformative technologies.

Samsung announced last year that it was planning a new AI research hub, and in the intervening months it actually opened centers in Canada, the U.K., and Russia, in addition to existing facilities in Seoul (South Korea) and Mountain View, California.

Its latest center, which will focus chiefly on robotics, is located in Chelsea, New York City and was officially opened at a ceremony featuring renowned AI expert Daniel D. Lee, executive vice president of Samsung Research. Lee joined the company a couple of months back and will lead the new AI center.