Tag: machine learning

Categories
Featured Tech Magazine TOP 10 experts' articles

10 Top AI Experts in the UK to Follow Online

Here are 10 of the top AI experts in the UK to follow
With AI evolving so rapidly, it can be hard to keep up with new developments. This list of top AI experts in the UK will help you stay in the know.

With artificial intelligence evolving so rapidly, it can be hard to keep up with new developments, best practices and the industry’s overall state of the art. For this reason, we at Mindquest suggest you this list of top AI experts in the UK that will help you stay in the know and future-proof your career in AI.

You can also read 5 Online Courses to Get You Up-To-Speed with AI and AI expert: Job Description

Need to start a new permanent or freelance assignment? Join Mindquest and get access to our job offers.

Top AI experts in the UK to follow

As the IT environment is constantly evolving, it is crucial, if not necessary, to connect with the brightest minds to keep up with innovation. In other words, the more contacts you get, the more likely you are to solve IT challenges. Therefore, we at Mindquest to provide you with a list of the AI experts in the uk to follow.

Disover A Career in Data Science: Unlocking The Power of Data with AI

Tabitha Goldstaub

Twitter | LinkedIn

To start, Tabitha, board member of Luminate, is the co-founder of CogX, the chair of the UK Government’s AI Council and an advisor for The Alan Turing Institute. She is also the author of How To Talk To Robots: A Girl’s Guide to a Future Dominated by AI.

Rob McCargow

Twitter | LinkedIn

To continue, Rob is the director of AI at PwC UK and a champion for the responsible use of technology and AI. He is also an advisor for the IEEE and the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on AI and a TEDx speaker.

Sarah Porter

Twitter | Linkedin

Then, Sarah is the founder and CEO of InspiredMinds, a global community and strategy group focusing on the use and development of AI for good in line with the UN’s sustainable development goals.

Yarin Gal

Twitter | LinkedIn

Let’s go on with Yarin, an Associate Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Oxford’s Applied and Theoretical Machine Learning Group, helping produce groundbreaking work like this set of Bayesian Deep Learning benchmarks.

Elena Sinel

Twitter | LinkedIn

Elena, on the other hand, is the founder and CEO of Teens in Ai, a global initiative launched at the UN’s 2018 AI for Good Global Summit and that seeks to inspire the next generations of ethical AI researchers and practitioners.

Connect by Mindquest Newsletter

Danilo Rezende

Twitter | LinkedIn

Danilo, then, is a Senior Staff Researcher and lead of the Generative Models and Inference group at DeepMind, London. His research focuses on scalable inference and generative models for decision-making and hard science problems.

In this post, we discuss AI in the workplace with our Chief Digital Officer, Felix Lemaignent.

Allison Gardner

Twitter | LinkedIn

Next, recently MP for Stoke-on-Trent South at UK Parliament, a lecturer and data science apprenticeships program director at Keele University, Dr Allison Gardner is co-founder of Women Leading in AI, which brings together AI and business leaders to discuss the future of AI. 

Edward Grefenstette

Twitter | LinkedIn

Further, Edward is Director of Research for Google DeepMind, he has been a Scientist and RL Area Lead at Facebook AI (FAIR) and an Honorary Professor at the Deciding, Acting, and Reasoning with Knowledge (DARK) Lab at the UCL Centre for AI.

Wendy Hall

Twitter

Then there is Wendy Hall, a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) and a champion for UK AI skills and women in science. She is Chair of the Ada Lovelace Institute and joined the BT Technology Advisory board earlier this year.

Ankur Handa

Twitter | LinkedIn

Last but but not least, Ankur is a Robotics Research Scientist at NVIDIA AI and a Research Scientist at OpenAI working at the intersection of computer vision and control for robotics. He did a post-doc at Cambridge University and has a PhD from Imperial College London.

Do you have any other AI experts in the UK who should be featured in this or future lists? Shoot us an email.

Also discover our articles 10 of the Best Software Developers in the UK to Follow Online

Categories
Press review Tech Magazine

A Ransomware Attack, Self-Taught Robots and Online Abuse: The Week in Tech News

From a critical ransomware attack to tackling online abuse: filter out the media noise with our selection of the top 3 tech news stories of the week.

In the world of IT, real news can easily get mixed with eye-catching headlines and promotional buzz. From a critical ransomware attack to tackling online abuse: filter out the noise with our selection of the top 3 tech news stories of the week.

Full podcast episode:

🔊 Subscribe to the podcast

Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT

Ransomware attack: the new oil disrupting the old one

One of the most echoed statements about data is that it is the new oil. Regardless of whether you agree or not with this comparison ; you will surely find it ironic to see how much the decryption of data, this “new” oil, can end up affecting the old one. 

Last Friday, Colonial Pipeline, one of the largest oi pipeline operators in the United States, experienced a ransomware cyberattack that pushed it to shut down its IT systems. Linked to the DarkSide hacking group, the breach happened on the business side of the company’s IT infrastructure but affected its nationwide operations. 

Although it is thought the motivations behind the attack were economic and not of sabotage, the incident reignites fears of the dangers hackers pose to a country’s critical infrastructure. Oil prices have gone up due to the supply disruption, with people all over the US piling up fuel reserves. The issue might not be fixed until the end of the week.

ZDNet

Self-taught robots

The idea of programming AI systems to teach themselves has been gaining major traction in recent years. Flexible software that is able to learn through experience makes a lot of sense. But our current capabilities in this regard might not be as far-reaching as we think.

A group of Amsterdam-based researchers built a simple robot and tried to make it learn how to move through trial and error. Made of independent units chained together into a train-like structure ; the robot used a series of inflating pumps to propel itself at a top speed of two millimetres per second. 

Unfortunately, while the autonomous learning system managed to effectively move, maintain a stable pace and follow a circular track, the robot encountered a few real-world problems that threw all its calculations off. A good reminder of how easily a variable not accounted for can disrupt machine learning algorithms.

Ars Technica

Tackling tech-enabled abuse

The tech boom caused by the pandemic has brought along some troubling side effects. An increase in online abuse is one of them. With the number of tech abuse cases requiring specialised assistance having grown by 97% over the last year.

All around the world, domestic abusers use both legitimate online tools and so-called stalkware to harass, control and monitor their partners. Suffice it to say, this kind of behaviour usually predates or accompanies other forms of abuse, from physical to psychological. 

That’s why the Barclays-backed non-profit Refuge has launched a site to help abuse victims protect themselves from tech-enabled domestic abuse. RefugeTechSafety.org has been built with the help of survivors and provides educational and actionable resources in multiple languages. 

Computer Weekly

Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.

Categories
Press review Tech Magazine

Weekly News: One Algorithm to Save the World

Weekly News: One Algorithm to Save the World
Software development has been accelarated by the pandemic, and that's great news for technologists. Weekly news about one algorithm to save the world.

Software development has been accelarated by the pandemic, and that’s great news for technologists. Weekly news and one algorithm to save the world.

🔊 Subscribe to the podcast

Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.

Also discover our article: IT Pros: How to Work On Remote in the Post-Pandemic World

Preparing for the next time around with an algorithm

So, was it a pangolin or not? 

At this point, the scientific community can more or less confidently say that the coronavirus that is wrecking havoc across the globe came originally from bats. But they are not so sure about which animal acted as the intermediary host.  

Identifying animal species that might become the source of the next pandemic is one of the main pillars of our strategy to future-proof our public health. It is, however, not an easy task, as the potential lines of investigation are just too many and new virus strains can be quite unpredictable. Well, it turns out AI can help with that too. 

A group of British researchers have built a computer algorithm that allows them to predict which animals are most susceptible to new coronavirus infections. The results of the algorithm were somewhat alarming, as many more mammals were identified as potential hosts when compared to previous studies based on screenings.

But hey — information is power. Better to know where to look for the next time around. 

BBC

How to develop software remotely

Software development has been accelarated by the pandemic, and that’s great news for technologists. But IT leaders have to juggle the rise in demand with other, more uncomfortable consequences of Covid-19. 

Not considered essential employees for the most part, software developers are largely working from home these days. As it is happening with other locked-down professional; coders and integrators are dealing with challenging situations, having to coordinate family duties with work assignments and falling victim to the isolation and the lack of direct contact. 

This of course, impacts overall team performance. Which is why development team leaders are coming up with new ways to work and support their teams. While there is no single best approach to the problem; a few common patterns emerge when interviewing some of these managers. 

These include greater, more frequent communication between team members. But also visibility over the current status of projects via collaboration tools like Slack and a profound revision of existing workflows. Fostering socialising among peers is also key.

Computer Weekly

The low-code explosion

According to a new forecast by Gartner, the need for more agile and decentralised software development brought about by the pandemic will continue to boost low-code adoption in the coming months.

Low-code platforms let non-IT experts develop solutions without requiring hardcore coding and technical skills. Something which, of course, is very advantageous in a time of rapid digital transformation and overclocked IT departments. 

Gartner estimates that 41% of all employees outside IT; the so-called business technologists; are customising or building digital solutions to accelerate their projects and integrate workflows. 

The firm predicts that half of all the demand for low-code applications will come from business users by the end of 2025. 

Information Age

Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT

Categories
Press review Tech Magazine

Weekly News: Robot Butlers and Virtual Influencers

Weekly News: Robot Butlers and Virtual Influencers
Robot Butlers and Virtual Influencers, Tech´s flashy new toys, A new logistics network, and Microsoft cloud comes to retail... Discover our weekly tech news.

Robot Butlers and Virtual Influencers – Tech´s flashy new toys, A new logistics network, and Microsoft cloud comes to retail… Discover our weekly tech news.

Robot Butlers and Virtual Influencers – Listen to the podcast version

A friendly reminder that you can now enjoy our weekly updates in podcast version.

🔊 Subscribe to the podcast

🔊 Listen to the episode

Check out more of our interviews from our podcast episodes.

Tech´s flashy new toys

CES; the world´s biggest technology show; is at full throttle since Monday, having changed its traditional Las Vegas setting for virtual presentations due to the pandemic.

The event is known for its outlandish new tech concepts and products. A way for consumer brands to show off and set the agenda for the upcoming year. And, although most of these technology predictions don´t end up panning out, there is always something to learn from them. 

These year´s big reveals include a robot butler that can both serve you dinner and wash the dishes afterwards. A smart pet portal that lets your cat in and out while keeping other neighbourhood animals out, and Reah Keem — LG’s new virtual influencer with around 6,000 followers on Instagram.

The Telegraph

A new logistics network

From ‘cloud kitchens’ that centralise all meal orders for a given area of the city, to more ubiquitous and smaller warehouses closer to the delivery location. The logistics infrastructure is changing. 

The pandemic has given e-commerce firms a boom, creating the need to update existing delivery networks to be able to keep up with demand. Furthermore, expected delivery times are narrowing, with costumers now being accustomed to delivery windows of less than 30 minutes. 

All in all, this new wave of e-commerce developments is quietly reshaping our cities in a time where their streets are mostly transited by delivery vans and bicycles. This expansion, experts say, is comparable to the laying of fibre-optic cable 20 years ago, and its effects will be long lasting.

Financial Times

Microsoft cloud comes to retail

Following the release of its cloud service for the healthcare market, Microsoft has made available on preview its second vertical cloud, this time around for the retail industry. 

The offering combines services and features from Azure, Microsoft and Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform to help the company’s retail customers provide an end-to-end shopper journey. 

Microsoft also announced new features for its Dynamics 365 Commerce, its app providing back-office, in-store, call centre and e-commerce solutions. The app will now offer both in-built B2C and B2B commerce on a single platform. 

Learn more about Microsoft Technologies Careers Overview

ZDNet

Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT

Categories
Press review Tech Magazine

Weekly News: Translating Cat Meows

Weekly News: Translating Cat Meows
Translating Cat Meows; what the EU could do about emissions; Quantum moves ahead; and an anti-poaching cloud cover... Discover our Weekly News.

Translating Cat Meows; what the EU could do about emissions; Quantum moves ahead; and an anti-poaching cloud cover… Discover our Weekly News.

Translating Cat Meows: Do you speak cat?

What did the cat just say? 

According to research, cats do not share a common language. Every cat is unique and tailors its meows to its owner (a.k.a. human servant). And, just like it happens with people, some cats are chattier than others.

Well, a former Amazon Alexa developer has created an app that leverages AI and machine learning to translate those meows into human language. 

MeowTalk already has 13 phrases in its vocabulary, including “Feed me!” and “Leave me alone.” 

You can bet you’ll be hearing the first one a lot more. 

BBC

What the EU could do about emissions

The use of renewable energies and other traditional approaches to curbing emissions are no longer enough if the EU wants to meet its 2050 climate-neutrality target. 

Enter technology.

From large-scale, data-powered simulations of the Earth’s climate to green data centers, there are plenty of emerging technology initiatives underway for which EU funding could be a game-changer.

The folks at Politico have compiled a shortlist for you to bring up over dinner. 

Politico

Quantum moves ahead

Several of the world’s leading research institutions and tech companies have been working on their own take on quantum computing for a while now.

One of the key differences between the various approaches out there is what is used as the basis of the computer’s qubits, the basic units of information on which quantum computers operate.   

While technology juggernauts like IBM and Intel had traditionally opted for using tiny superconducting loops as qubits, the use of trapped-ion systems remained marginal. 

Now that is changing. Ion traps have gained traction, which is good for competition.

Nature

An anti-poaching cloud cover

The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has revealed how its collaboration with Google Cloud is helping protect endangered species from poachers.

Beyond developing custom machine learning models to identify and track threatened animals across the globe, ZSL used a network of acoustic sensors to listen for gunshots in a nature reserve in Cameroon. 

The organisation then used the data collected to generate insights on poacher activity, revealing key details like what time of day poachers tend to be more active and where. 

ZSL hopes to evolve these insights into a monitoring system that is able to provide alerts in real time.  

ComputerWeekly

🔊 Subscribe to our podcast

Check out our interviews from our podcast episodes.

Join our community and find your next job or expert in IT

Categories
Growing your career: permanent & freelance IT Consultants

5 Online Courses to Get You Up-To-Speed with AI in 2023

Here are five online courses to get you started with the AI skills IT professionals so need to stay on top of their career game

Spoiler alert: Artificial Intelligence is the future of work. Or at least part of it. This is not to say that everyone will become an AI engineer. But in just a few years from now, a large part of job positions will require or reward AI skills that help employees be more efficient and dedicate themselves to higher-level tasks. Especially in areas like IT, where human error can have dire consequences. So what online AI courses are best to get you up-to-speed with this booming discipline?

AI has experienced a major explosion in popularity in recent years, becoming one of the fastest-growing roles in job markets across the world. Indeed, just at the beginning of the 2020, a LinkedIn report identified AI-related skills as the fourth most in-demand skills group among employers. And that was before the pandemic set in.

Since then, Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a compelling choice for students and professionals who want to keep up with innovation and trends. Analytics Insight points out very good reasons to study AI in 2023.

Bottom line: believe the hype. It’s about time you put on your AI boots if you still haven’t done so. Here are five courses to get you started that touch upon some of today’s core AI skills.

Find your next assignment on our freelance and permanent IT recruitment platform, or join Mindquest so you don’t miss out on any job opportunity!

1. Online AI courses : the basics

Artificial Intelligence

Firstly, how comfortable would you feel explaining to someone the difference between AI, machine learning and deep learning? What comes to mind when you hear the words ‘neural network’?

If you are not quite sure, start with the fundamentals. This Coursera course by IBM provides a good introductory overview of artificial intelligence and its many aspects:

2. One of the most popular online AI courses : Python

Python

Python is to AI what English is to Shakespeare’s plays. Thus, this nimble yet powerful language is one of the most popular among programmers and engineers, and, if you haven’t gotten around it already, well – you should.

This course on Udemy kicks off with a Python crash course and then gets into its data science and machine learning applications, covering the most widely used Python libraries and tools for AI (NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib…):

Need tips on how to find a job in IT? Check out our IT job hunting guide.

3. Machine learning

Machine Learning

In essence, machine learning is the use of algorithms to process data, learn from it and then act according to these learnings. Machine learning allows computers to autonomously learn and improve processes and assessments through experience, without being explicitly programmed beforehand. It’s pretty much ubiquitous these days –from your phone’s predictive keyboard to web searches.

This course by Stanford is a good starting point:

4. TensorFlow, neural networks and deep learning

TensorFlow

Moreover, developed by Google Brain Team, TensorFlow is an open-source library for numerical computation with powerful AI capabilities. TensorFlow is Python-friendly and is currently one of the most in-demand AI skills.   

This video offers a great hands-on introduction to building neural networks with TensorFlow:

The course requires previous Python literacy, so you should not jump into it before learning the language.   

5. Natural Language Processing (NPL)

Natural Language Processing (NPL)

Last but not least, NPL is a branch of artificial intelligence that focuses on analyzing, understanding and producing human language. It is an integral technology to many everyday features of the digital economy, from autocorrects to chatbots.

This Codecademy course provides a practical and project-based introduction to NPL:

Are you looking for IT mission opportunities in the Tech and IT sectors on a freelance or permanent basis? Mindquest can help you find your next IT mission opportunity. Find your next mission by browsing our freelance and permanent vacancies available on our digital recruitment platform.