The effects of stuttering extend beyond just speech difficulties
Social robots that interact with humans could be a promising new addition to current treatment tools for people who stutter, according to a recent study looking at how the high-tech helpers might be used in clinics. Unlike apps and AI programs within computers, social robots have a physical presence, making them well suited for interventions…
The core technologies involved in AI are moving at breakneck speed
When we think about the next two decades, two existential questions dominate the conversation among futurists and foresight researchers. The first is whether we can prevent the potentially devastating impacts of climate change. The second is what the relationship between technology, humans, and money might look like after 20 years of advancements in artificial intelligence…
Learning from the pros Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Amplify Your Business, produced by Amplomedia in partnership with Troy Media, will interview professional entrepreneurs who are currently in the trenches growing their businesses. Through insightful conversations, we will be unpacking their common business challenges and identifying the lessons every business owner needs to learn so…
Through engineering, Portia Rayner discovered her calling as an experimenter, innovator and leader
Portia Rayner describes her University of Alberta engineering degree as a seismic “shift in mentality.” At first, she wasn’t at all sure engineering was the right program for her. She had once wanted to be a veterinarian, and later thought chemistry or pharmacology would be a better fit. “You always hear those stories of the…
U of A researchers are harnessing AI to analyze patients’ own cells to create islet cells for transplant
University of Alberta researchers are harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to find a safer, more personalized source of islet cells to treat Type 1 diabetes. The research project, a collaboration between the departments of surgery and computing science, aims to use AI to analyze images to speed up the process and reduce the need for human decision-making…
In honour of International Women’s Day, we celebrate three research-focused clinicians who are improving women’s health
As the world marks International Women’s Day, we celebrate the scientists who are working to improve women’s health. More than 140 researchers are working on women, children’s and perinatal medicine through the Women and Children's Health Research Institute (WCHRI) at the University of Alberta, supported by the Alberta Women’s Health Foundation and the Stollery Children’s Foundation.…
Training robots to guide people through tasks could improve return-to-work evaluations and treatment: U of A researchers
Training robots to guide injured workers through simulated tasks could make return-to-work evaluations and treatment programs more effective and accessible, according to researchers at the University of Alberta. In a review of scientific literature on efforts to use robotics for occupational rehabilitation, the researchers reported that robots with machine learning capabilities have the potential to…
Total automation, capitalist or communist, removes the very purpose of human existence
Since the publication of Fully Automated Luxury Communism in 2018, a manifesto by Aaron Bastani, millennials across Canada and the United States have embraced a new Marxism for the 21st century. This new socialism is based on the concept of a post-scarcity economy that embraces automation, the reduction of working hours and a universal income.…
Ford and Agility Robotics have teamed up to reimagine the package delivery business
If the thought of getting your latest online purchase – particularly large, heavy ones – delivered by a drone makes you feel uneasy, how about having a robot deliver it after arriving in a self-driven car? Autonomous delivery testing isn’t new. In 2017, Ford Motor Co. partnered with Domino's in the U.S. to test self-driving…
Are we prepared for a world full of machines, governing everything in steely alignment with the technocrats’ goals?
The Terminator movies were prediction, not fiction. The proof abounds in China, recently dubbed by CBC as the world’s first digital dictatorship. China has interfaced wireless technology with surveillance cameras and facial recognition software to form Sky Net. And fifth-generation mobile phones, or 5G, are coming to Canada. That means Chinese technology and its usage…