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Blog – Page 7930

Rice University’s Early Bird could care less about the worm; it’s looking for megatons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Early Bird is an energy-efficient method for training deep neural networks (DNNs), the form of artificial intelligence (AI) behind self-driving cars, intelligent assistants, facial recognition and dozens more high-tech applications.

Researchers from Rice and Texas A&M University unveiled Early Bird April 29 in a spotlight paper at ICLR 2020, the International Conference on Learning Representations. A study by lead authors Haoran You and Chaojian Li of Rice’s Efficient and Intelligent Computing (EIC) Lab showed Early Bird could use 10.7 times less energy to train a DNN to the same level of accuracy or better than typical training. EIC Lab director Yingyan Lin led the research along with Rice’s Richard Baraniuk and Texas A&M’s Zhangyang Wang.

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NASA has conducted an experiment in Antarctica, which has revealed new evidence that a parallel universe exists, except the rules of physics, are the opposite of ours.

Physicists have been debating among one another since 1952 of the possibility of a multiverse, whereby many universes exist parallel to ours. These universes could have different laws of physics, or even be similar to ours — just with different timelines.

The original theory was proposed by Quantum science pioneer Erwin Schrodinger, and even he admitted that he might have seemed a little crazy when he hosted that lecture. But now a new discovery has pushed scientists to reconsider if his theory is really as far-fetched as they thought it was. A cosmic ray detection experiment in Antarctica found a particle that very well may be from another universe.

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Eight years ago a machine learning algorithm learned to identify a cat —and it stunned the world. A few years later AI could accurately translate languages and take down world champion Go players. Now, machine learning has begun to excel at complex multiplayer video games like Starcraft and Dota 2 and subtle games like poker. AI, it would appear, is improving fast.

But how fast is fast, and what’s driving the pace? While better computer chips are key, AI research organization OpenAI thinks we should measure the pace of improvement of the actual machine learning algorithms too.

In a blog post and paper —authored by OpenAI’s Danny Hernandez and Tom Brown and published on the arXiv, an open repository for pre-print (or not-yet-peer-reviewed) studies—the researchers say they’ve begun tracking a new measure for machine learning efficiency (that is, doing more with less). Using this measure, they show AI has been getting more efficient at a wicked pace.

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SCOTLAND, UNITED KINGDOM – Following a 932-mile journey by river, sea and road, the first of three super grid transformers was delivered by Siemens to the onshore substation at New Deer in North East Scotland for the Moray East offshore windfarm development.

The transformer was moved from the port at Peterhead, Scotland to the substation site by a 230-foot long 20 Axle 350Te Girder Frame transporter with a police escort, due to its size and weight.

Each of the three transformers is around 40 feet in length and weighing in at 270 tonnes.

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Materials scientists aim to engineer intelligence into the fabric of materials or metamaterials for programmable functions. Engineering efforts can vary from passive to active forms to develop programmable metasurfaces using dynamic and arbitrary electromagnetic (EM) wavefields. Such metasurfaces, however, require manual control to switch between functions. In a new study now published on Light: Science & Applications, Qian Ma and an interdisciplinary research team in the State Key Laboratory, Cyberspace Science and Technology, and the Department of Electronics in China engineered a smart metasurface for self-adaptive programmability.

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Two successful trial runs of cycle paths made from recycled plastic waste have paved the way for larger scale projects in the Netherlands and abroad, the developers have said.

KWS, plastic pipe maker Wavin and Total oil said on Thursday that after a 18 months of testing and developing, they now have a design suited for industrial production and that the technology is ready to be launched on the market in the first quarter of 2021.

The first plastic cycle paths, which were built in Zwolle and Giethoorn with local council support, have proved to be able manage excessive water from rain, severe drought and everything in between, the makers said.

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