Quantum computing is a hot topic. The big question is how do we map real-life problems to quantum computers. A new kind of thinking is needed for the creation of quantum software. A successful approach by one of our doctoral researchers Valter Uotila
https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/quantum-technology/new-applications-quantum-computing-sought-hackathons.
We would be welcome new industrial use cases or challenges.
Last week we had project meetings on two of our European machine learning engineering projects IML4E and VesselAI. It was amazingly useful to meet the partners face to face after all the video conferences we have had during covid times. Lots of new ideas, clarity of collaboration, and fun being together. Now there is even more potential for useful work on bringing AI into real use.
Green ICT is not a new concept. However, for many reasons it has recently started attracting increasingly both software researchers, industrial software companies and public sector IT organizations. In particular, since many organizations and industrial sectors have announced their targets to become carbon neutral by 2030 or even sooner, there are clear motives and interests to develop and utilize green ICT. In general, sustainability goals call for green ICT.
So what is actually “green ICT” — and, conversely, what is then perhaps not so “green”? There are many aspects of “green” and, consequently, different definitions emphasizing different features of sustainability. In general, resource consumption (especially energy efficiency) is addressed. In current software systems environments, dependencies on various platforms and infrastructures (networks, data centers) make it complicated to realize the actual net effects. An apparently short piece of source code may actually require a lot more — thus being less “green”.
Nowadays ICT and software are increasingly utilized in most every industrial sector in many different ways. It has even been said that all companies are becoming “software companies”. In many cases, ICT is an enabling technology for “greening”. For example various equipment manufactures can embed software systems into their products to optimize energy consumption. Product development companies can use software tools to analyze the products under development to design-for-green.
Ultimately, a combination of utilizing green ICT for greening could be ideal. In such constellations, the ICT solution itself would not be a “problem” and it would provide solution possibilities to sustainability problems.
For us as software engineering researchers, the aforementioned developments introduce many intriguing research problems and aims:
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Yesterday we launched a MOOC on AI in Society. It is a result of interdisciplinary work involving computer scientists, social scientists, philosophers, law researchers, and cognitive scientists from three universities: the University of Helsinki, Edinburgh, and Paris 1.
The MOOC aims to be an introduction to AI and its impact with a strong emphasis on the intersection between AI and other fields, such as ethics, healthcare, politics, and law. There is a need to understand how AI is changing the landscape of different sectors and the effects it has across societies. With this knowledge, it is possible to understand the potential that AI has.
The MOOC has a modular structure and additional modules e.g. on AI and democracy, robotics, and health are planned to be released later this year.
Students can study at their own pace and schedule, as well as select the optional modules based on their interests. The MOOC is available at https://ai-in-society.mooc.fi/