In recent years, the market for direct-to-consumer genetic testing has exploded. The number of people who used at-home DNA tests more than doubled in 2017, most of them in the U.S. About 1 in 25 American adults now know where their ancestors came from, thanks to companies like AncestryDNA and 23andMe. As the tests become…
NIST Tool Enables More Comprehensive Tests on High-risk Software
We entrust our lives to software every time we step aboard a high-tech aircraft or modern car. A long-term research effort guided by two researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their collaborators has developed new tools to make this type of safety-critical software even safer. Augmenting an existing software toolkit, the…
New Software Tool Could Provide Answers to Some of Life’s Most Intriguing Questions
A University of Waterloo researcher has spearheaded the development of a software tool that can provide conclusive answers to some of the world’s most fascinating questions. The tool, which combines supervised machine learning with digital signal processing (ML-DSP), could for the first time make it possible to definitively answer questions such as how many different…
Optimizing Network Software to Advance Scientific Discovery
High-performance computing (HPC)—the use of supercomputers and parallel processing techniques to solve large computational problems—is of great use in the scientific community. For example, scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory rely on HPC to analyze the data they collect at the large-scale experimental facilities on site and to model complex…
New Open-source Software Predicts Impacts of Extreme Events on Grids
A new, free, open-source software reliably predicts how damage from hurricanes, ice storms, earthquakes and other extreme events will restrict power delivery from utility grids. The Severe Contingency Solver for Electric Power Transmission is the only software available—commercially or open-source—that reliably supports analysis of extreme events that cause widespread damage. “The software was designed specifically to…
Bridging the Gap: Using Technology for Real-Time Research Collaboration Across the Globe
Researchers Use Artificial Intelligence to Design Flood Evacuation Plans
Artificial intelligence may soon help transportation agencies and first responders determine the best evacuation routes during floods such as those affecting portions of Missouri and the Midwest, thanks to the work of Missouri S&T researchers. Drs. Suzanna Long and Steve Corns of Missouri S&T’s engineering management and systems engineering department are using a form of AI known…
Artificial Intelligence Sheds New Light on Cell Developmental Dynamics
Computer Program Predicts Risk of Deadly Irregular Heart Beats
Kicking Neural Network Automation Into High Gear
A new area in artificial intelligence involves using algorithms to automatically design machine-learning systems known as neural networks, which are more accurate and efficient than those developed by human engineers. But this so-called neural architecture search (NAS) technique is computationally expensive. A state-of-the-art NAS algorithm recently developed by Google to run on a squad of…
Handling Trillions of Supercomputer Files Just Got Simpler
A new distributed file system for high-performance computing distributed March 14 via the software collaboration site GitHub provides unprecedented performance for creating, updating and managing extreme numbers of files. “We designed DeltaFS to enable the creation of trillions of files,” said Brad Settlemyer, a Los Alamos computer scientist and project leader. Los Alamos National Laboratory…
Data-driven Modeling and AI-based Image Processing to Improve Production
At Hannover Messe 2019, Fraunhofer FIT will present data-driven modeling supporting production planning and optimizing resource utilization. The models help to understand and optimize complex processes, and can be used as predictive tools. In addition, they will demo a system that uses AI-based image processing to monitor and evaluate, in real time, the situation and…
Achieving Greater Efficiency for Fast Data Center Operations
Today’s data centers eat up and waste a good amount of energy responding to user requests as fast as possible, with only a few microseconds delay. A new system by MIT researchers improves the efficiency of high-speed operations by better assigning time-sensitive data processing across central processing unit (CPU) cores and ensuring hardware runs productively.…
Novel Software Offers Possible Reduction in Arrhythmic Heart Disease
The Web Meets Genomics: A DNA Search Engine for Microbes
Using Artificial Intelligence to Save Bees
A beekeeper teamed up with the Signal Processing Laboratory 5 and a group of Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) students to develop an app that counts the number of Varroa mites in beehives. This parasite is one of the two main threats—along with pesticides—to bees’ long-term survival. Knowing the extent of the mites’ infestation…
Computer Program Aids Food Safety Experts With Pathogen Testing
An innovative computer program could be a big help for food safety professionals working to keep production facilities free of food-borne pathogens. Cornell University scientists have developed a computer program, Environmental Monitoring With an Agent-Based Model of Listeria (EnABLe), to simulate the most likely locations in a processing facility where the deadly food-borne pathogen Listeria…
WVU Receives $2.2 Million Software Gift From Petroleum Experts Limited
For more than a decade, geology students at West Virginia University have used the same advanced software used by oil and gas companies worldwide, expanding their marketability for industry jobs. Petroleum Experts Limited has furthered this access with an in-kind gift of its MOVE software, valued at $2.2 million. “Geologists have long struggled to work with ‘big data’ comprised…
Measuring AI’s Ability to Learn Is Difficult
Hardware-Software Co-Design to Make Neural Nets Less Power Hungry
A team led by the University of California San Diego has developed a neuroinspired hardware-software co-design approach that could make neural network training more energy-efficient and faster. Their work could one day make it possible to train neural networks on low-power devices such as smartphones, laptops and embedded devices. The advance is described in a…
FDA Clears Prescription Mobile Software Application to Treat Opioid Use Disorder
Researchers Successfully Train Computers to Identify Animals in Photos
A computer model developed at the University of Wyoming by UW researchers and others has demonstrated remarkable accuracy and efficiency in identifying images of wild animals from camera-trap photographs in North America. The artificial-intelligence breakthrough, detailed in a paper published in the scientific journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, is described as a significant advancement in…
S&T Dam-breach Simulation Software Helping Communities Plan for Emergencies
Two days after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, 70,000 residents in the vicinity of the Guajataca Dam were urged to evacuate as a precaution. Heavy rains were rapidly filling up the island’s 36 dams. Without clearer data, local authorities could only plan for the worst-case scenario. The Guajataca Dam, which holds more than 11 billion…
Advanced Computer Technology and Software Turn Species Identification Interactive
Representing a group of successful biocontrol agents for various pest fruit flies, a parasitic wasp genus remains largely overlooked. While its most recent identification key dates back to 1969, many new species have been added since then. As if to make matters worse, this group of visually identical species most likely contains many species yet…
Open Source Machine Learning Tool Could Help Choose Cancer Drugs
The selection of a first-line chemotherapy drug to treat many types of cancer is often a clear-cut decision governed by standard-of-care protocols, but what drug should be used next if the first one fails? That’s where Georgia Institute of Technology researchers believe their new open source decision support tool could come in. Using machine learning…