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Fujitsu to use ‘world’s fastest supercomputer’ for tsunami prediction

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Fujitsu, in partnership with other companies and academic institutions, has developed a computing system that will enable the prediction of tsunamis – massive, sudden floods caused by turbulence at sea. 

The International Research Institute of Disaster Science at Tohoku University, the Earthquake Research Institute at the University of Tokyo, and Fujitsu Laboratories have developed an artificial intelligence model that will empower disaster management teams with the ability to predict tsunami flooding in coastal areas in near real-time.

The system harnessed the computational power of what is claimed to be “the world’s fastest supercomputer”, Fugaku, jointly developed by Riken and Fujitsu. [Read more…] about Fujitsu to use ‘world’s fastest supercomputer’ for tsunami prediction

Computer love: Scientist develops ‘couple simulation’ systems to help with mate selection

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In your quest for true love and that elusive happily ever after, are you waiting for the “right” person to come along, or do you find yourself going for the cutest guy or girl in the room, hoping things will work out? Do you leave your options open, hoping to “trade-up” at the next opportunity, or do you invest in your relationship with an eye on the cost-benefits analysis?

For something so fundamental to our existence, mate selection remains one of humanity’s most enduring mysteries. It’s been the topic of intense psychological research for decades, spawning myriad hypotheses of why we choose whom we choose.

“Mate choice is really complicated, especially in humans,” said Dan Conroy-Beam, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at UC Santa Barbara, and author of a paper(link is external) in the journal Personality and Social Psychology Review. “And there have been a lot of people who have proposed abstract ideas about how it might happen.” [Read more…] about Computer love: Scientist develops ‘couple simulation’ systems to help with mate selection

Bioplastics in the sustainability dilemma

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Plastics made from crops such as maize or sugarcane instead of fossil fuels are generally considered sustainable. One reason is that plants bind CO2, which compensates for the carbon released into the atmosphere when plastics are disposed.

However, there is a catch: With increasing demand for raw materials for bioplastic production, the areas under cultivation may not be sufficient. As a result, natural vegetation is often converted to agricultural land and forests are cut down. This in turn releases large amounts of CO2.

The assumption that more bioplastics does not necessarily lead to more climate protection has now been confirmed by researchers at the University of Bonn (Germany) in a new study. [Read more…] about Bioplastics in the sustainability dilemma

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Experts call for more pragmatic approach to higher education teaching

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Millions of students around the world could benefit if their educators adopted a more flexible and practical approach, say Swansea University experts.

After analysing the techniques current being used in higher education, the researchers are calling for a pragmatic and evidence-based approach instead.

Professor Phil Newton, director of learning and teaching at of Swansea University Medical School, said: “Higher education is how we train those who carry out important professional roles in our society. There are now more than 200 million students in HE worldwide and this number is likely to double again over the next decade. [Read more…] about Experts call for more pragmatic approach to higher education teaching

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    New review says the ineffective 'learning styles' theory persists in educationA new review by Swansea University reveals there is widespread belief, around the world, in a teaching method that is not only ineffective but may actually be harmful to learners. For decades educators have been advised to match their teaching to the supposed 'learning styles' of students. There are more…
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  • Five key factors for improving team learning in distance education
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    Five key factors for improving team learning in distance educationDistance studying and working is on the rise and, especially now with the constant threat of lockdown, learning how to master it more pressing than ever. A team of researchers from the Research Group in Education and ICT (EDUL@B) at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), led by Montse Guitert, has conducted…
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Research team of mathematicians suggested a new decision making algorithm

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A research team from RUDN University developed an algorithm to help large groups of people make optimal decisions in a short time.

They confirmed the efficiency of their model using the example of the market at which the outbreak of COVID-19 began. The model helped the administration and sellers agree on closing the market and reach a consensus about the sums of compensations in just three steps.

Decision theory is a field of mathematics that studies the patterns of decision making and strategy selection. In the terms of mathematics, decision making is an optimization task with multiple criteria. [Read more…] about Research team of mathematicians suggested a new decision making algorithm

The role of the Sun in the spread of viral respiratory diseases

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Why do most viral epidemics spread cyclically in autumn and winter in the globe’s temperate regions?

According to an interdisciplinary team of researchers of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, the University of Milan, the Lombardy regional agency for the environment and the Don Gnocchi Foundation, the answer is intimately related to our Sun: their theoretical model shows that both the prevalence and evolution of epidemics are strongly correlated with the amount of daily solar irradiation that hits a given location on the Earth at a given time of the year.

The work of the Italian team was recently published in the iScience journal. [Read more…] about The role of the Sun in the spread of viral respiratory diseases

Forecasting elections with a model of infectious diseases

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Forecasting elections is a high-stakes problem. Politicians and voters alike are often desperate to know the outcome of a close race, but providing them with incomplete or inaccurate predictions can be misleading.

And election forecasting is already an innately challenging endeavor – the modeling process is rife with uncertainty, incomplete information, and subjective choices, all of which must be deftly handled.

Political pundits and researchers have implemented a number of successful approaches for forecasting election outcomes, with varying degrees of transparency and complexity. However, election forecasts can be difficult to interpret and may leave many questions unanswered after close races unfold. [Read more…] about Forecasting elections with a model of infectious diseases

Where were Jupiter and Saturn born?

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New work led by Carnegie’s Matt Clement reveals the likely original locations of Saturn and Jupiter.

These findings refine our understanding of the forces that determined our Solar System’s unusual architecture, including the ejection of an additional planet between Saturn and Uranus, ensuring that only small, rocky planets, like Earth, formed inward of Jupiter.

In its youth, our Sun was surrounded by a rotating disk of gas and dust from which the planets were born. The orbits of early formed planets were thought to be initially close-packed and circular, but gravitational interactions between the larger objects perturbed the arrangement and caused the baby giant planets to rapidly reshuffle, creating the configuration we see today. [Read more…] about Where were Jupiter and Saturn born?

New deep learning models: Fewer neurons, more intelligence

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Artificial intelligence has arrived in our everyday lives – from search engines to self-driving cars. This has to do with the enormous computing power that has become available in recent years. 

But new results from AI research now show that simpler, smaller neural networks can be used to solve certain tasks even better, more efficiently, and more reliably than ever before.

An international research team from TU Wien (Vienna), IST Austria and MIT (USA) has developed a new artificial intelligence system based on the brains of tiny animals, such as threadworms. [Read more…] about New deep learning models: Fewer neurons, more intelligence

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  • Applying artificial intelligence to science education
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    Applying artificial intelligence to science educationA new review published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching highlights the potential of machine learning – a subset of artificial intelligence – in science education. Although the authors initiated their review before the Covid-19 outbreak, the pandemic highlights the need to examine cutting-edge digital technologies as we re-think…
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Smart cruise control steers drivers toward better decisions

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Vehicle manufacturers offer smart features such as lane and braking assist to aid drivers in hazardous situations when human reflexes may not be fast enough. But most options only provide immediate benefits to a single vehicle.

What if, like a murmuration of starlings, our cars and trucks moved cooperatively on the road in response to each vehicle’s environmental sensors, reacting as a group to lessen traffic jams and protect the humans inside?

This question forms the basis of Kuilin Zhang’s National Science Foundation CAREER Award research. Zhang, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Michigan Technological University, has published “A distributionally robust stochastic optimization-based model predictive control with distributionally robust chance constraints for cooperative adaptive cruise control under uncertain traffic conditions” in the journal Transportation Research Part B: Methodological. [Read more…] about Smart cruise control steers drivers toward better decisions