Robot Farmers, Microsoft jobs, Ada Lovelace Day: discover our weekly news about IT & Tech.
Robot Farmers
Google‘s parent company, Alphabet, has presented a prototype for a new line of farming robots to help farmers monitor the health of crops and multiply crop yields.
Consequently, project Mineral consists of swarms of “robot buggies” that go up and down the fields inspecting every plant. They do so on upright pillars, coasting on top of the plants much like harbour container cranes do.
Meanwhile Alphabet’s goal is to accumulate large amounts of data about how crops grow to help the agricultural industry tackle the world’s increasing need for food and the sustainability of growing it.
Microsoft wants to create 1.5M jobs
In addition, Microsoft has made a pledge to create 1.5 million tech jobs in the UK over the next 5 years, with and additional 300,000 depending directly on them.
Called Get Go 2021, the campaign targets people currently in education, those looking into pursuing a career in tech, and those already in tech and wanting to change careers. The initiative is also meant to help those whose jobs have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis and bridge the IT talent gap. It will be based on education and training programs.
The company will also leverage LinkedIn data to anticipate the need for more than 3 million skilled IT workers.
To discover more about Microsoft: A Microsoft Technologies Careers Guide.
Ada Lovelace Day
Born in early 19th-century England, Ada Lovelace was a pioneering mathematician and writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s “Analytical Engine,” a steam-powered calculating machine now regarded as the first fully-automatic mechanical computer.
Although she wrote the first-ever algorithm, Lovelace’s true genius lied in her ability to envision the computer’s potential beyond mere arithmetic calculations. She is hence considered to be the first computer programmer, a “prophet” of the computer age.
This week we celebrated Ada Lovelace Day, reflecting on women’s countless contributions to science, technology engineering and math (STEM) — something we should honestly do every day.
Let this day serve as a reminder of how much work is left to do to ensure equal representation of women in tech.
