A Tiny Machine: Infinitesimal Computing Device

In today's world people are always trying to make technology smaller, faster, and more powerful. Electrical and computer engineers at the University of California Santa Barbara have created a nanoscale device that does functional computing. The idea of having nanosized computing came about from a physicist in 1959 who spoke of a future in which tiny machines could carry out large tasks. The device created by engineers uses a dense 3-D circuit that could theoretically fit in the a block no bigger than 50 nanometers. The small devices processes data within a 3-D memory structure . This allows more data to be stored and the data to be processes much quicker. The key to the nanoscale device are meristors. Memristors are circuit elements that change resistance depending on the most recent charges, and the direction of the charges that have flowed through them. By also having logic operation and information storage happen at the same time the need for certain componenets is much less, saving lots of wasted space.

I found this article interesting as I always like to see that the world of technology is getting more and more advanced. To think that there could be operations being done at the nanoscale is crazy to me. I also found the idea that logic operation and information storage were happening at the same time to be particularly interesting. As we learned in class through control flow the logic operation, and information storage typically happen seperately. I wonder how it is possible to have the two happen simulatenously. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161028162049.htm

Ultra-Thin Ferroelectric material for next-generation electronics

Hiorishi Funakubo and other researchers at the Tokyo Institue of Technology have determined ferroelectric properties necessary for halfnium oxide. Halfnium oxide can be split into tiny deposits, meaning that it could be the future of technology. The base of ferroelectric properties are based around the crystal like structure that the element creates. For halfnium oxide researchers knew that an orthorhombic crystal structre would be necessary for halfnium oxide to posess ferroelectric properties. When researching the halfnium oxide the researchers tested for spontaneous polarization and the Curie temperature of compound. The Curie temperature is the temperature at which the compound will stop being ferroelectric because of restructuing of the crystal. The resarchers found that one of the epitaxala films in the compound had a Curie temperature of 450 degrees Celcius. This Curie temperature gives the compound halfnium oxide the potential to be in use for functions of future technology. Ferroelectric materials are unique because their polarization can be reversed by an external electric field. Halnium oxide is unique compared to the other ferroelectric materials tha have been found, because of how small the crystals can be and still posess the properties.

I found this article intersting as in modern day researchers and developers are constantly on the quest to make devices and other computing objects smaller and thinner. When thinking of this I had never thought that it had anything to do with the compounds being used inside the devices. I would always think that the companies simply jsut saved space within the device through efficient design. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161012134011.htm

Robotic Agriculture

In today's agirculture world almost every farmer uses robotics to improve the efficiency of farming. Within the farming culture it is commonly accepted that bigger more powerful machines are better. It is believed that robotics will eventually completely take over the farming industry. The first step to this becoming true is that tractors will become fully automonous. Tractors and farming equipment are at the forefront for development and automonous navigation technology. In fact these carse use similar technologies to those being implemented in the self driving cars. Rather than driving the tractors the operators can simply supervise the machines and have multiple tractors going at once. The robots who do the work will also become much smaller and slower in fact. By making the machines smaller there will be less soil compaction during operation with creates a better growing enviroment for the crops. The smaller machines will inturn created a slower turnover of crop, but studies have shown that having more crops, but slower harvesting is better for the farmer. Being that there will be an advancement in technology the operators will have to be more technology smart. This will mean that the service providers will have to have a stronger sense of the technology they are working with. Although most of these changes have not happend, the technological advancements that already have happend ahve caused a decrease in agricultural jobs. However, these changes are potentiall revloutionary and could be evolutionary.

I found this article important as we can see technological advances in aspects of life. It bring me to think with robotics taking over what will happen to all the people who need these jobs. Will other jobs open up for those who don't have knowledge in computer science?

https://www.computer.org/web/idtechex-emerging-technologies/content?g=54174376&type=article&urlTitle=robotic-agriculture-the-battle-between-the-big-and-the-small-part-1

Algorithm could enable visible light based imaging for medical devices

In recent times MIT researchers have created a technique for retrieving information from light that has been scattered due to interactions with the enviroment. These techniques could be used in medical imaging systems. This would allow information to be carried through visible light which would help computer systems work in fog or rain. The light would also carry more information that xrays or ultrasound waves. Researchers at MIT did an experiment. They shot a laser beam through a tissue phantom, a material designed to mimic the human tissue. By shooting the laser beam through the skin the light was scattered. This scattering of light was captured by camera which could record the time of the light's arrival. This is similar to how an xray works, except there isn't enough interaction between the tissue and waves so X-rays are unable to detect different types of tissue or bleeding.  Researchers are attempting to use light forms that are less powerful than laser beams so that they will not damage the human tissue. This new system that the researchers have created rely on pulsed laser that emit short bursts of light and a speed camera that distinguishes the time at which the light is recieved. To determine data the system will determine the changes in time when the light is recieved and how much the light has been scattered. With this information the algorithm that the researchers have created translated the information from the scattered light and cosiders the information for each pixel on a sucessive frame. With this it will create a model, and the final model will deduce the pattern of light most likely to have produced the sequence of measurements.

This advancement in the transmition of information is quite interesting as I thought that pulling information from light was quite unique. I never thought that light could ever be translated to code.

http://news.mit.edu/2016/all-photons-imaging-algorithm-0929

Cyclomatic Complexity

This article is about a scale known or level of a software known as the cyclomatic complexity. The cyclomatic complexity makes predicitons abou software components and predicts the defect rate of a software. The cyclomatic complexity makes these predictions by heavily examining the control flow of the software. A high cc level would mean that the code has a high defect density. This cyclomatic complexity has helped technology gain a starting point for maintenance of their softwares. The scientists who use the cyclomatic complexity not only use the scale to determine the number of defects, but also the potential outliers which may cause the code to go wrong. With this informations coders are able to remove specific code related risks and defects which are otherwise hard to idenitfy.

This aritcle is relevant to our class as we are learning about control flow. With control flow we can all recognie as coders that their are many different ways to compute the same code. I thought it was cool that there was something to deternmine which type of code would have more defects or outliers compared to another version. I also thought that this cyclomatic complexity was intersitng as it simply predicted issues or defects. Why not just run the program with predicted issues to see if acutally causes issues.

https://www.computer.org/web/software-technologies/content?g=5954967&type=article&urlTitle=cyclomatic-complexity-40-years-later

Image:https://www.tutorialspoint.com/software_engineering/images/cyclomatic_complexity.png

Coding Isn't Just for Coders Anymore

Coding is becoming more and more prominent in the world today. It is not only evident in the world of tech today, but it is spreading to other divisions such as finance, manufacturing, and healthcare. In fact it is predicted that the need for coding skills is growing at a rate 25% faster than jobs that need labor skills. Technology in the modern era is becoming more and more accesible, and with that comes the need for more and more tech oriented jobs. It was estimated that in 2015 26 million coding jobs were on the market. With this information it is suggested that not enough college students are gettting a head start in computer science in high school to meet the demands of the growing technology market.

I found this article quite interesting as I did not have any coding experience before starting this class. In fact I did not have any interest in computer science until this semester. The fact that coding is becoming more and more prevalent is something that I can see myself. It is clear that more and more labor jobs are being taken over by machines, and for machines to work someone needs to code the programs. Although, I got a late start to coding I am glad I am gainning the knowledge now than never.

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-06-08/coding-isnt-just-for-coders-anymore

Technology Providing a Voice for Hospitilized Patients

There are currently thousands of patients in hospitals around the US who are unable to communicate to their nurses or caretakers. These patients are alert and well, but the systems that are used for communication are simply just inefficient and difficult to use. A new application for tables called "Speak for Myself" has been created to help those in need. Rebecca Kozalinski, developed the program after conducting a study also named "Speak for Myself". The study showed that it was clear there were issues of misinterpretations and misunderstanding between patients and their nurses. This would lead to issues in care as the pateients would not be treated properly. The application "Speak for Myself" shows a graphic of the human body and gives the user a scale from 1-10 for level of pain. The user can simply select where the pain is and define the level of pain. The user can also input notes by typing in phrases and helping produces sentences with shortcuts. While the user is entering information about his or her issue, "Speak for Myself" is already predecting possible treatments for the patient. This application has been put into real hospitals and has already proven to imporve the treatments of patients. An example is of "Speak for Myself" in use is that one patient had reported he still had unattended to pain in the back of his throat. With the help of the program the patient was able to recieve the proper treatment and the pain was relieved.

It is important to see that technology is still being improved to help out those who need it. It was clear that there is already a program or system for patients to comunicate with nurses, but to see that people are still trying to improve these systems with technology is something I think is important. I believe that as time goes on it is important to update systems and protcools, esepcially for hospital protocools, as it is important that we do everything we can with technology to improve healthcare.