Future Projects for STS

If you've been an avid reader of this blog, you may have noticed that the last few entries have not been about JHU or STS. The reason for this is because the entire department has been working on an outside project which, after 20 months of solid work, is finally coming to a close. So here's a list of the projects that STS is planning to work on for the remainder of 2011:

1. Modeling the Bloomberg School of Public Health: Like we did for the wildly successful Virtual JHU, STS would like to create a Google plug-in of the Bloomberg School of Public Health in downtown Baltimore. This project would likely take about 6 months, depending on the amount of hours the students are able to spend working on it, and assuming no other major projects are given to us.
2. Reducing the size of the Virtual JHU program to make it faster and easier to load: pretty much what it sounds like. In technology, there's always room for improvement.
3. Collegetown Shuttle Tracker: Have you ever used the Collegetown Shuttle? This project would take a 3D Flash PDF to show you where it is using a coordinated GPS tracking system. This would let students follow its path to know exactly where it is and where it makes its stops. This resource would be available for use by all students who use the Collegetown shuttle, including those at other schools. For security purposes we will require a log-in screen that will need a viable college ID to access the tracking page, but we feel that this will go far.
4. Continuation of the STS TechBlog updates.
5. Meeting the needs of those around campus who need our skills, such as:
1. Creating fliers for official campus activities and meetings.
2. Assisting students with technology problems.
3. Writing technical manuals for new freshmen and transfer students.
6. Updating our technology pages to make them more aesthetically pleasing. 
7. Training new employees in STS tasks.

That's pretty much what we do here. If you would like to learn more, feel free to leave a comment.

Human vs. Computer: The Proof at Last

Although man created them, machines have always threatened humanity's superiority, and many movies, such as The Matrix and I, Robot, argue that they will eventually overtake us. After years of uncertainty, humans will now be able to discover if they can continue to develop increasingly sophisticated programs, or if they should enter into technological isolation. And it will be decided on television. From February 14th to 16th, the classic game show Jeopardy will have a new contestant: IBM's artificial intelligence program, nicknamed Watson after IBM's founder, Thomas J. Watson.

Watson is truly a feat of computer engineering, and regardless of whether or not it triumphs over its competitors, it should be appreciated as a historic piece of technological history. First, Watson analyzes the clue, taking into account any colloquial phrases or homo-phonetic hints. It then chooses its answer by running an enormous amount of algorithms at the same time, allowing each to come to an independent answer. The more algorithms that land on the same answer, the more likely it is that the answer is correct. The algorithmic results are then checked against a database. Watson is then able to rephrase his answers as questions, true to the game's format.

The database itself is absolutely huge. Watson's expanse of knowledge is stored on 90 IBM Power 750 servers with a total of 2880 POWER7 processor cores and 16 Terabytes of RAM (16x10^12 bytes). It is an expansion of IBM's long-term project of DeepQA, which is designed to handle hypothesis generation, massive evidence gathering, analysis, and, in this case, scoring. As can be imagined, Watson is a physically huge machine as well, and the "avatar" the public sees on television is only the front-end of a massive expanse of wires and humming, mechanical boxes on another floor.

Watson was first tested in 2006 by IBM's senior manager of Semantic Analysis and Integration department, Dr. David Ferrucci. At that time, it was only able to get about 15% of questions right, and it took much more than the 6-8 seconds the human competitors needed to think of the answer. To build up its knowledge, a team of 15 IBM staff members and faculty and students at eight different Universities fed it 200 million pages of documents, including plays, novels, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and even the Bible. By 2008, Watson's developers thought it was ready to challenge true Jeopardy contestants. That year, IBM contacted Jeopardy's producers, who agreed to have Watson on the show.

However, before Watson could be on the show, he had to train. By February 2010, it was consistently beating former Jeopardy contestants in mock competitions. On January 13, 2011 Watson beat his future competitors, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, in a practice round. Not one of the contestants, human or machine, answered a question wrong. The winner of the three days tournament will win $1 million, second will win $300,000, and third $200,000. Watson's winnings will be donated to charity, while Rutter and Jennings will each donate 50%.

So what's next for Watson after Jeopardy? IBM's researchers believe that Watson and the technology he represents has the power "to revolutionize many industries," including private banking, telephone operating systems, and medicine. Soon, it will be possible to diagnose diseases quickly and confidently, increasing the level of health care around the world. More data means smarter decisions, which means a better planet, they argue. There is no limit to the good Watson and his descendants can do.

Of course, if you're still worried about computers taking over the world, just remember: the documents Watson uses for his information all come from the minds and experiments of humans.

Top Careers in Technology

College is a time to expand outside of your main comfort zone, a time to explore your interests, and a time to explain to your parents why they should pay for you to get this particular degree. While majoring in something does not necessarily mean that you are going into that field directly (for example, physics majors are frequently hired by banking firms on Wall Street to run analyses), there is no question that majoring in a technological major will help you get a technological job. Here are some of the top careers in technology for 2011, some which are more obvious than others.

Biomedical Engineering: Biomedical engineers work alongside doctors to provide life-saving technology, such as artificial hearts, prosthetic limbs, diabetes meters and medication, and asthma inhalers. Thanks to the work of doctors and these scientists, people around the world can enjoy a higher quality of life, as well as a longer one. It just so happens that Johns Hopkins has one of the best BME programs in the world, so if you're not yet in college and interested in BME, check this out: http://www.bme.jhu.edu/academics/applications.htm

Computer Software Engineers: As you can imagine, computer software engineers write code for a variety of reasons: making iPhone apps, video games, and military applications, debugging programs already written, and launching new software.  Many of these engineers are finding work in Google and Facebook, which are constantly expanding and growing. Eventually, every field will need to know coding, but these guys blow them all out of the water.

Atmospheric Scientists: Speaking of water, if weather fascinates you, then consider a career as an atmospheric scientist, more commonly known as a meteorologist.  Some atmospheric scientists work at the Weather Channel, daily updating the public about weather, others study how to better predict the strength of hurricanes, and still others study odd weather patterns.Especially as global temperature begins to climb, climatologists are going to be in high demand, especially at the National Weather Service.

Civil Engineers: Civil engineers are able to leave their marks on society for years after they finish a project, so long as they build them right! They can work for the government or for a private company, which makes this one of the most versatile careers. Some even go overseas to build major projects in the Middle East, India, and China! Although some say that the job is stressful because of all the paperwork, the growth prospect is great.

Security Engineers: With more and more people using the Internet, the risk for identity theft is increasing. Security engineers write software that keeps your computer and files safe from hackers, manages interconnecting databases, and safeguards data transfers. They are constantly updating their systems to stay ahead of crime, and the job growth is projected at 15% over the next few years.

These are only five of the thousands of jobs that exist in a number of varied fields, and it's true that there are many jobs that will be available in 10 years that don't even exist now. If you remember to follow your passion, a career opportunity will present itself out of the major you choose.

The Verizon iPhone vs. iPhone 5

Photo credit: http://www.tipb.com/verizon-iphone/

On January 8, 2007, thousands lined up outside of Apple stores around the globe in the hope of purchasing the first iPhone. The highly anticipated mini-computer was easily the most exciting development in modern technology since the iPod. Today, a little more than four years from that cold winter morning, Americans anxiously await the unveiling of the newest addition to the iPhone dynasty: the Verizon iPhone 4. Although not yet available for purchase, the Verizon iPhone will be available for pre-order on February 3 to AT&T iPhone owners, and released on February 10th, 2011.

While every iPhone comes with standard features such as Wifi and 3G connectivity, a video and still frame camera, a portable media player, and the ability to make a call and surf the web at the same time, the Verizon iPhone comes with a few features unique to it. Just a few are a high definition video camera, a message indicator light, a longer battery life, a unified email storage system, built-in GPS, and iChat. Plus you get the benefit of better coverage, at least in the Northeast region of the United States, including Baltimore. One of the biggest complaints about AT&T’s coverage in this region is the iPhone tends to drop calls after only a few minutes. Unfortunately, an owner of the Verizon iPhone will not be able to use the iPhone overseas, and he won’t be able to use the web and make a call at the same time. He’ll also have to deal with Verizon’s notoriously less friendly customer service center if he has problems.

Overall, Verizon thinks it’s ready to handle the addition of the iPhone on its network. When AT&T began to cover the iPhone, the network became slow and congested due to call volume, but Verizon has learned from AT&T’s mistakes and adapted.  The price is $199 for the 16GB version and $299 for the 32GB. The actual data plans prices vary, and some AT&T customers looking to switch to Verizon may have to pay early-termination fees. But no matter what the price, the Verizon iPhone is sure to make a tidal wave in the technology pool.

Don’t expect Apple and AT&T to just roll over and cede the field to Verizon. In July 2011 the AT&T network is going to launch the iPhone 5, which is the most feature-stacked version yet, including the Verizon iPhone 4. The iPhone 5 will have new additions such as face-recognition security features, video chat, and custom SMS tones, in addition to its new physical appearance with a slim 9.3 mm width and scratch-proof, shatter-proof screen.  The camera, video recorder, and audio will all be in high definition, and the battery will last for 7 hours of talk time on the 4G network. The biggest turn-off for this device is the AT&T network attachment, but in this case, the features might outweigh the occasional dropped call, especially if the user is more prone to texting than talking.

With the constant flow of new Android and “smart phones” on the market today, the biggest fish is now in civil war against itself. Hopefully the other fish, such as the HTC Evo and the Blackberry Torch, have enough force behind them to stay in the water.