Shamayita Acharya

In the modern world, nothing stays the same for long. We live in a state of constant change; new technologies, new trends and new risks. Yet it’s a commonly held belief that people don’t like change. Which led me to wonder, why do we persist in calling change management initiatives “change management” if people don’t like change. In my experience, I have not found this maxim to be true. Actually, nobody minds change, we evolve and adapt naturally but what we do not like is being forced to change. As such, when we make a choice to change, it is often easy, fast and permanent. To put that into context, change is an external force imposed upon you. For example, if I tell you I want you to change your attitude, you are expected to adapt your patterns of behaviour to comply with my idea of your ‘new and improved attitude’. This is difficult to maintain and conflicts with your innate human need to exercise your own free-will. However, if I ask you to choose your attitude, this places you

It is true that the Industrial Internet of Things will change the world someday. So far, it is the abundance of data that makes the world spin faster. Piled in sometimes unmanageable datasets, big data turned from the Holy Grail into a problem pushing businesses and organizations to make faster decisions in real-time. One way to process data faster and more efficiently is to detect abnormal events, changes or shifts in datasets. Thus, anomaly detection, a technology that relies on Artificial Intelligence to identify abnormal behavior within the pool of collected data, has become one of the main objectives of the Industrial IoT. Anomaly detection refers to the identification of items or events that do not conform to an expected pattern or to other items in a dataset that are usually undetectable by a human expert. Such anomalies can usually be translated into problems such as structural defects, errors or frauds. Examples of potential anomalies A leaking connection pipe that lead

By Lance Eliot, the AI Trends Insider Do you allow your mind to sometimes wander afield of a task at hand?  I’m sure you’ve done so, particularly if your are stopped or otherwise waiting for something or someone to re-instigate your temporarily suspended or on-hold task back into operation or gear.  We often find ourselves faced with idle moments that can be used for additional purposes, even if there’s not much else directly that we are supposed to be doing during those moments. Perhaps you might turn that idle moment into a grand opportunity to discover some new flash of insight about the world, maybe even becoming famous for having thought of the next new equation that solves intractable mathematical problems or you might via an unexpected flash of genius realize how to solve world hunger.  It could happen.  Or, you could refrain from utilizing idle moments and remain, well, idle. You don’t necessarily have to always be on-the-go and your mind might actually relish the idle ti

By AI Trends Staff The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy on June 21 released the National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan: 2019 Update . The updated R&D Plan defines the eight key priority areas for Federal investments in AI R&D. The 2016 R&D Plan laid a critical foundation for U.S. R&D priorities in artificial intelligence, and this latest version refreshes those priorities for the fast-changing AI landscape.  Agencies will use this Plan to guide their R&D activities in AI, consistent with their agencies’ missions. “The first pillar of our national AI strategy, the American AI Initiative , is the prioritization of AI research and development. Today, we will ensure America’s continued leadership in cutting-edge AI R&D by releasing the 2019 update to the National AI R&D Strategic Plan,” said Michael Kratsios, Deputy Assistant to the President for Technology Policy, in a press release. “This coordinated F

In one of our previous posts, we discussed data visualization and the techniques used both in regular projects and in Big Data analysis. However, knowing the plot does not let you go beyond a theoretical understanding of what toll to apply for certain data. With the abundance of techniques, the data visualization world can overwhelm the newcomer. Here we have collected some best data visualization libraries and platforms. Data visualization libraries Though all of the most popular languages in Data Science have built-in functions to create standard plots, building a custom plot usually requires more efforts. To address the necessity to plot versatile formats and types of data. Some of the most effective libraries for popular Data Science languages include the following: R The R language provides numerous opportunities for data visualization — and around 12,500 packages in the CRAN repository of R packages. This means there are packages for practically any data visualization t

Data loss prevention (DLP) software helps protect organizations against the loss, breach, or misuse of sensitive data. In April 2019 alone, 1.34 billion records were breached, which shows how common data breaches are. DLP tools are part of a wider approach that encompasses tools, policies, and processes to protect important information. DLP solutions work by classifying sensitive data, monitoring data at rest, in motion, and in use, and enforcing remediation based on policy violations. Read on to find out why DLP tools are important and seven best practices for implementing DLP at your organization.  Why Use DLP Software? The main reasons for using DLP software are to:   Help achieve compliance with industry-specific regulations protecting sensitive information, including GDPR, HIPPA, and PCI DSS Protect company secrets, intellectual property, and other intangible assets belonging to your organization Secure data residing on cloud systems  Improve visibility over data, in

Customer experience is everything. Recent research has revealed that 90 percent of buyers are willing to pay a premium for better customer experience. The key is understanding what an improved experience actually means for a customer, however. The rise of analytics has positioned companies to achieve closer customer analysis—on a far greater scale than feedback surveys or social media comments. With access to a mix of complex data sets from an array of sources, companies now have better insight into customer behavior, leading to higher sales numbers and better customer service. With that in mind, here are five ways you can use this new emphasis on data to deliver better customer care. 1. Know Your Target Audience Much Better In the past, data collected on customer interactions were primarily drawn from observation and direct engagement. These sources provided some level of insight but were difficult to aggregate—making it a challenge to get a comprehensive view. Today, compan

Connectivity. It’s a word that you hear getting thrown around a lot. As more and more industries experience widespread digitalization, and we rely on mobile devices to conduct even the simplest of daily activities, it becomes clear that there are many opportunities to leverage connectivity to work more efficiently and make smarter decisions. This is where the Internet of Things (IoT) enters the picture. The Internet of Things for railroads The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to objects that have unique identifiers and possess the ability to transfer data over a network in near real-time. Once this data is transmitted, railroads can then leverage data analytics to extract insights from the data to optimize performance and efficiency. What railroads are realizing is that they can make predictions about the future through historical and current data, convey this information in real time, and act on it. Everyday objects can send and receive real-time data to each other, enabled

By Lance Eliot, the AI Trends Insider Hop on, hop off, hop on, hop off, and repeat until you reach your destination. Here in Southern California, a key local transit entity is called MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority) and provides mass transit options for commuters from throughout Los Angeles county. You’ve got light rail, heavy rail, buses, and the like. Of the nearly one hundred MTA stations used by commuters to get access into the transit system, it turns out that only a few of those stations directly intersect with a second line. This means that you need to hop onto one train, hop off at another station, wait for the next right train, hop on, and maybe then arrive at the final station you were intending to reach. It seems likely you’ll need to make at least two or three such stops and switches, in reality, due to the lack of stations being interconnected with multiple lines. You might say that it’s no big deal and shrug it off as just part of the mass transit system structur

Virtual reality or VR refers to using computer technology for creating a simulated environment. Virtual reality places the user inside experience, and instead of watching on a screen, the users get immersed and can carry out interactions with the 3D world. Through virtual reality, many senses are simulated, including the sense of vision, hearing, touch and even smell. Here, the computer is transformed into a gatekeeper for the artificial world. Difference Between Virtual and Augmented Reality The concepts of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) differ on the following three major factors- Differentiating Factor Virtual Reality Augmented Reality Immersion In the case of virtual reality, it generates a completely computer-generated world, i.e. everything seen by the user is due to artificial recreation, and the user begins to lose contact with the real environment Augmented reality enhances the reality by addition of digital information to it, and th

As a species, we're in the midst of the 4th Industrial Revolution. Also known as Industry 4.0, this particular revolution is built upon automation and data exchange. Industry 3.0 gave us computerization. Industry 4.0 is taking that foundation to a whole new level. Industries across the globe are beginning to embrace IoT. How can manufacturing make their way into Industry 4.0 and embrace IoT? The Rise of the Smart Factory Two decades ago, robotic automation was considered the wave of the future. Digital tools are becoming commonplace in the industry, from warehouse management software to robotic assemblers, but these advancements, for the most part, stood alone. The smart factory uses IoT to bring everything together, creating a massive network of devices that can talk to one another, collecting information and sending it back to the hub, removing the need for manual data collection. Sensors can monitor equipment through every step of the production process and can analyze the

After months of speculation, Facebook has revealed its Libra blockchain and the Libra coin to the world. The highly-anticipated cryptocurrency ran into immediate opposition in Europe and the United States. The French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said it was “out of question” that Libra would “become a sovereign currency”. Meanwhile, Markus Ferber, a German member of the European Parliament, said that Libra has the potential to become a “shadow bank” and that regulators should be on high alert. In addition, both Democrats and Republicans raised their concerns with Representative Patrick McHenry, the senior Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, calling for a hearing on the initiative. It was to be expected that when the social media giant, who has seen numerous scandals in 2018, would launch a cryptocurrency, there would be opposition. Many people, organisations and governments no longer trust Facebook with the social media data, let alone with their financial data.

Given the popularity of our post on connecting MongoDB SSL with Self-Signed Certificates in Node.js, we decided to write a tutorial on connecting MongoDB with Ruby. In this blog, we’ll show you how to connect to a MongoDB server configured with self-signed certificates for SSL using both the Ruby MongoDB driver and the popular Object-Document-Mapper (ODM) mongoid. ScaleGrid currently uses self-signed certificates for SSL when creating nodes for a new cluster. Additionally, we also provide you with the option of purchasing your own SSL certificates and configuring them on the MongoDB server, and you can email support@scalegrid.io to learn more about this offer. Connecting to a Replica Set Using Ruby MongoDB Driver We will use the latest stable Ruby MongoDB driver version 2.8 for this example. The 2.5.x versions of the driver have a known bug that inhibit them from working with ScaleGrid deployments. The Ruby version used in both the examples below is 2.6.3. The connection option

Diversity in the workplace is something that all tech companies should strive for. When appropriately embraced in the tech sector, diversity has been shown to increase financial performance, increase employee retention, foster innovation, and help teams to develop better products. For example, data marketing teams that have equitable hiring practices in regards to gender exemplify this. While the benefits of a diverse workplace can help any company thrive, figuring out how exactly to increase diversity in tech workplaces can be a challenge. However, employing a diverse team is not impossible, and the rewards make diversification efforts well worth it. Diversity Is Less Common Than You Might Think Though the tech industry is far more diverse today than it has been in the past, diversity still remains an issue across the sector. Even if those heading tech companies don’t engage in outright racism by fostering a hostile work environment towards people of color or discouraging the hi

By Chuck Brooks, Global Thought Leader in Cybersecurity and Emerging Tech On June 24, an upcoming conference will explore the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sectors. AI World Government will gather leaders across government, industry and academia to discuss the challenges and potential solutions of AI in automating our expanding digital world. The event is described as “a comprehensive three-day forum to educate and inform public sector agencies on the strategic and tactical benefits of deploying AI and cognitive technologies.” The topic of AI is garnering attention in government and industry. Research and consulting firm Gartner describes AI as a “technology that appears to emulate human performance typically by learning, coming to its own conclusions, appearing to understand complex content, engaging in natural dialogs with people, enhancing human cognitive performance or replacing people on execution of non-routine tasks.” AI can be a game-changer f