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Gizmorama - October 21, 2015
Good Morning,
I don't know about this. It seems that MIT has created a new computer system that can do many things that humans can do, only faster. That can't be good, right?
Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.
Until Next Time,
Erin
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*-- MIT system outperforms human intution with algorithms --*
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is testing a new computer system aimed at finding patterns in data sets faster than human beings.
Researchers at MIT designed a Data Science Machine that searches for patterns in data sets, such as a database of promotional sale dates and weekly profits.
While computers can do many things faster than humans, human input is still required to choose what to look for in a large data set -- to find meaning in patterns, not just the patterns themselves. MIT researchers hope to automate that, too.
In three competitions, the Data Science Machine competed against 906 human teams and outperformed 615. The teams worked on their predictive algorithms for months while the Machine was able to compute its predictions in two to 12 hours.
To conduct analyses, the Machine looks at correlations between data tables using numerical identifiers. It then continually updates these identifiers as it continues to import data. As the identifiers add up, the Machine carries out various mathematical operations such as averages and sums and attempts to find trends in the data.
Max Kanter, an MIT student whose thesis served as the foundation for the Machine, says the device could be "a natural complement to human intelligence" and expedite the process of analyzing data. Kanter worked with his advisor Kalyan Veeramachaneni to prep the thesis for presentation next week at the IEEE International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics.
Veeramachaneni said the machine could be a crucial asset in finding what components of a data set should be analyzed in order to draw conclusions.
For example, although MIT records student performance on online courses, it does not record statistics that could predict a student's likelihood to drop out. The Machine could identify variables such as how long it takes a student to get started on an assignment as well as how much time the student is active in the course and thereby infer the likelihood of course dropout.
Harvard University computer science professor Margo Seltzer said the project is "one of those unbelievable projects" seeking to solve real-world problems through a new approach. She further said the technology will "become the standard quickly -- very quickly."
*-- Can a crystal ward off climate change? --*
STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Carbon-absorbing crystals probably won't stave off global warming, but they could help put a dent in carbon emissions.
Carbon capturing technologies are mostly too expensive, but a new discovery could change that.
Scientists in Sweden have developed a new type of synthetic crystal with carbon-capturing micropores. Researchers say the crystal can capture carbon dioxide more efficiently than similar materials, even in the presence of water.
Researchers have previously experimented with CO2 capturing materials as a potential tool against global warming, but the co-absorption of water inhibits the process. For these materials to work, gas must first be dehumidified. The added expense makes that technology unrealistic.
But scientists at the Stockholm University developed a microporous coppersilicate crystal with separate CO2 and H2O uptake locations. The crystal absorbs both carbon and water, but its CO2 absorption is unaffected.
And because the crystal was synthesized hydrothermally, the material remains stable even after its H2O absorption. Similar materials degrade as they take up water.
The new material is detailed in the journal Science.
"As far as I know this is the first material that captures CO2 in an efficient way in the presence of humidity," Osamu Terasaki, a material scientists and chemistry professor at Stockholm, said in a press release. "In other cases there is competition between water and carbon dioxide and water usually wins. This material adsorbs both, but the CO2 uptake is enormous."
The material could potentially be used to create filters on the top of smokestacks that prevent CO2 from escaping into the atmosphere -- though there aren't specific plans for application in place.
"CO2 is always produced with moisture, and now we can capture CO2 from humid gases. Combined with other systems that are being developed, the waste carbon can be used for new valuable compounds," Terasaki said. "People are working very hard and I think we will be able to do this within five years. The most difficult part is to capture carbon dioxide, and we have a solution for that now."
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