Monday 31 August 2020

Tech field failed a 25-year challenge to achieve gender equality by 2020

 computer scientist Anita Borg challenged the tech community to a moonshot: equal representation of women in tech by 2020. Twenty-five years later, we’re still far from that goal. In 2018, fewer than 30% of the employees in tech’s biggest companies and 20% of faculty in university computer science departments were women.

On Women’s Equality Day in 2020, it’s appropriate to revisit Borg’s moonshot challenge. Today, awareness of the gender diversity problem in tech has increased, and professional development programs have improved women’s skills and opportunities. But special programs and “fixing women” by improving their skills have not been enough. By and large, the tech field doesn’t need to fix women, it needs to fix itself.

As former head of a national supercomputer centre and a data scientist, I know that cultural change is hard but not impossible. It requires organisations to jobs with a computer science degree and promote material, not symbolic, change. It requires sustained effort and shifts of power to include more diverse players. Intentional strategies to promote openness, ensure equity, diversify leadership and measure success can work. I’ve seen it happen.

I loved math as a kid. I loved finding elegant solutions to abstract problems. I loved learning that Mobius strips have only one side and that there is more than one size of infinity. I was a math major in college and eventually found a home in computer science in graduate school.

Friday 28 August 2020

The Highest Paying Jobs for Computer Science Graduates Revealed

 Are you thinking about going to university to study computer science? Or perhaps you’re already in a computer science career and considering taking a postgraduate degree to increase the amount of money you take home?

Whatever your reasons for wanting to know the highest paying jobs in the sector, you’re in the right place. We’ve done our research and narrowed down the highest paying jobs for computer science graduates. Let’s get started, shall we?

A software development director is responsible for planning and managing the software development process. They not only need to communicate effectively with their team members, but also with difference between computer science and computer engineering and clients. Junior programmers may also be trained by them. Having good attention to detail is important in this role as software development directors need to be able to create detailed analytical reports and evaluations. They will also be required to give presentations to clients.

A DevOps (Development Operations) Engineer is responsible for the creation and maintenance of website platforms. They are expected to determine and repair any issues quickly, and are also often involved in managing system administration and cloud infrastructure. In order to succeed in this role, you’ll need to have a passion for coding, and also the ability to work at speed. Computer science postgraduate courses are recommended for people who want to enter into this career as they will give you a deeper understanding of DevOps tools as well as further education in testing and deployment.

Thursday 27 August 2020

Decades into the internet age, the best voting technology might still be paper Julia Horowitz byline

 Americans will choose their next president by either voting in person, which could expose them to the coronavirus, or by sending a ballot through a postal system that may not be able to deliver them on time.

Is there a better way to conduct elections? Some other countries have tried alternatives, but they're far from perfect.

Since 2005, the small, tech-savvy east European country of Estonia has allowed voters to participate in elections online — a method of voting that's steadily gained in popularity. Last year, more than 40% of voters cast ballots by internet.

The system stands in contrast to the infrastructure in place in the United States, where more than 100 million Americans are preparing to vote in the information technology vs computer science presidential election by filling in a bubble on a paper ballot or using a voting machine.

Places like Estonia show the possibilities for conducting elections in the internet age. Yet experts warn that some technologies carry huge security risks — and even if there were more time to overhaul voting systems, internet voting in the United States should be avoided at all costs.

"If we could build a secure internet, there's many good things that could come out of it — and one of those things would be that we could trust it with our vote," said Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group. "But we haven't."


Wednesday 26 August 2020

North Farmington alumni creates computer science app targeting diversity

 If you look back at the world of computer science 30 years ago, that world was primarily male and white.

Diversity gaps in computer and informational science — as well as other science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields — have existed since the rise of the information age of the early ’90s, and while academic institutions and software companies have made strides to improve representation, there’s still more work to be done.

That’s where Jamie Tucker, a North Farmington High School graduate of 2019 and current Google Student Training in Engineering Program intern, decided to step in. Tucker is a sophomore at Ohio State University studying computer science engineering.

“We all thought of a way to give back to the community,” Tucker said of his 12-week internship experience. “Me and the two other interns, we came up with an interactive educational website directed toward underrepresented communities — Black, Latinx, Native American, etc.

“A lot of kids going into computer science in those communities don’t start learning about computer science until college, and then they’re playing catch-up. We wanted to create a resource for them to learn about software engineering vs computer science at an earlier age.”

According to a 2016 Gallup poll, only 47% of Black students polled said they had classes at school dedicated to teaching computer science, whereas 58% of white students had such classes. Black and Hispanic students were less likely, 58% and 50%, respectively, to use a computer on most days, potentially influencing a lack of confidence in their ability to learn about computer science.

The project is still in the alpha phase of design and development, Tucker said, but fully fleshed out, the web application would provide students with access to lessons on basic coding of conditional statements, looping within coding and real-world applications they may find in the field.


Tuesday 25 August 2020

My virtual internship at Allstate as a software engineer

 I interned virtually at Allstate as a software engineer within their Allstate Dealer Services (ADS) department. How did you get your internship? I got my internship at Allstate when I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration in Orlando last October. The Grace Hopper Celebration is the world’s largest gathering of women in computing. It focuses on commemorating, empowering and encouraging women in technology through a series of conferences and a career fair.

What advice do you have for those beginning the internship process? Network as much as possible and be involved in student organizations. I found many opportunities and support through organizations such as Women in Computer Science (WiCS), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Upsilon Pi Epsilon (UPE).

What projects did you work on? The main project I worked on was a direct-to-consumer product that sells extended vehicle care. My primary focus was on improving the product’s website by adding and redesigning features, fixing bugs and enhancing the overall user experience. Additionally, I worked on a side project with a small group of interns from various departments. We developed an computer science or computer engineering portal for new employees with the hope of eventually implementing this product into the enterprise, which is an organization system for key business processes.  

Monday 24 August 2020

Big Data For Telecommunications And Media & Entertainment

 The Big Data For Telecommunications And Media & Entertainment Market has grown rapidly and contributes significantly to the global economy in terms of sales, growth rate, market share, and size. The Big Data For Telecommunications And Media & Entertainment Market Report is a comprehensive research document that provides readers with valuable information to help understand the fundamentals of the Big Data For Telecommunications And Media & Entertainment report. The report provides details on business strategies, market requirements, players dominating the market, and a futuristic perspective of the market.

The report will be updated with the latest economic scenario and market size in relation to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The report covers the growth prospects as well as current and futuristic sales estimates in a what do computer engineers do scenario. The report also covers changing market trends and dynamics due to the pandemic and provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of the crisis on the overall market.

Friday 7 August 2020

Demonstration Plant Engineering Update

 Developer of clean technologies for the mining, refining and recycling of rare earths, is very pleased to provide an update on engineering and development activities for the demonstration plant at St-Bruno, Quebec.

Geomega has now received from Hatch Ltd (“Hatch”) process flow diagrams, equipment list, utilities, stream tables and a heat and mass balance for the process that was developed by Dr. Pouya Hajiani, Geomega’s Chief Technology Officer. Several modifications and improvements were made on the process, which will be undergoing several demonstration test runs using the Corporation’s pilot unit at its facilities in computer science vs computer engineering salary, Quebec. The test runs of the updated process will also be used to collect data on emissions for permitting purposes. The modifications and improvements include a simplification of several units of operation, validation of various parameters for equipment selection and by-product recovery. The pilot test runs are all expected to take place during the month of August while other in-house engineering activities are continuing.

“We are very pleased with the results received and the improved process for rare earths recycling from permanent magnets.” said Kiril Mugerman, President & CEO of Geomega. “The pilot test runs will provide demonstration to Geomega of the modifications that were done over the last 7 months and will support the Corporation in performing the next phase of engineering work, which will then allow us to proceed  with vendor selection and equipment ordering. Although we have encountered delays both in engineering and in general due to the COVID-19 pandemic, our project is advancing well. We are continuing discussions with potential suppliers and construction partners and will provide additional information when available. As North America appears to be establishing domestic permanent magnet production in North America, we believe the timing of our development of our demonstration plant at St-Bruno, Quebec is right and Geomega is looking forward to being part of the global circular economy for rare earths.” Added Mr. Mugerman.


Thursday 6 August 2020

CynergisTek Partners with Awake Security to Identify Adversaries in Healthcare Networks

CynergisTek, Inc. (NYSE AMERICAN: CTEK), a leader in information security, privacy, and compliance, today announced it has partnered with Awake Security to offer CynergisTek’s customer base of more than 1,000 healthcare organizations a new compromise assessment. The assessment combines human expertise in digital forensics and incident response, threat intelligence, as well as Awake’s network detection and response technology that hunts for attacker behaviors and provides forensics across networks to enable autonomous responses.

“As America’s hospitals scrambled to respond to the pandemic, the entire threat landscape and the associated attack surface completely changed, placing America’s hospitals squarely in the cross hairs for adversarial activity. New vulnerabilities from computer science and engineering combined with an increased network footprint due to work-from-home employees and we have a perfect storm for increased cyber attacks. 

This partnership allows us to identify adversarial activity including reconnaissance in its early stages allowing organizations to re-baseline their security posture as they return to normal operations,” said Ben Denkers, SVP of Security and Privacy Services at CynergisTek. “We’re excited to partner with Awake Security and bring a unique offering to our clients which leverages autonomous threat hunting and network forensic technology to identify any malicious behavior in healthcare organizations during this time of upheaval.”


Wednesday 5 August 2020

Engineering team wins top prize in entrepreneur program for flex heal product

A team of four College of Engineering students, one College of Earth and Mineral Sciences student and one engineering faculty member recently won the top prize in the Ben Franklin (BF) TechCelerator @ State College program. 

Jia Zhu, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics; Michael Dexheimer, graduate student in engineering science and mechanics; Shangbin Liu, undergraduate student in mechanical engineering; Kairui Tang, undergraduate student in mechanical engineering; Ning Yi, graduate student in materials science and engineering; and Larry how hard is computer science, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, were awarded first place for their flex heal product — a stretchable bandage for advanced wound healing and health monitoring.   

The BF TechCelerator @ State College program partners with Invent Penn State to host the 10-week business startup program for emerging tech-entrepreneurs from Penn State and the surrounding community. The program is designed for individuals or teams who are considering advancing a tech-business idea into a tech startup. At the end of the 10-week program, participants present their business ideas to a panel of local professionals and potential investors. Winning teams receive up to $10,000 to help launch their businesses.  

Tuesday 4 August 2020

Karlsruhe, a leader in discipline of Computer Science

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is a member of the TU9 German Institutes of Technology, which represents the largest and most prestigious engineering and technology specialist universities in the country.

Created in 2009 when the University of Karlsruhe merged with the Karlsruhe Research Center, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; German: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is among the leading technical universities in Germany and Europe and established the first German faculty for computer science in 1972.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is a member of the computer engineering salary German Institutes of Technology, which represents the largest and most prestigious engineering and technology specialist universities in the country. It employees about 9,300 people and hosts some 25,000 students. As part of the German Universities Excellence Initiative, KIT was one of three universities which were awarded excellence status in 2006. In the following “German Excellence Strategy”, KIT was awarded as one of eleven “Excellence Universities” in 2019.