Videos for: techtalks |
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Computing for the Future of the Planet - Originally given at the Royal Society
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Google Tech Talks
May, 14 2008
ABSTRACT
Digital technology is becoming an indispensable and crucial component of
our lives, society, and environment. A framework for computing in the
context of problems facing the planet will be presented. The framework
has a number of goals: an optimal digital infrastructure, sensing and
optimising with a global world model, reliably predicting and reacting
to our environment, and digital alternatives to physical activities.
This talk will be taped.
Speaker: Andy Hopper
Andy Hopper is Professor of Computer Technology at the University of
Cambridge and Head of the Computer Laboratory. His research interests
include networking, pervasive and sentient computing, and using
computers for assuring the sustainability of the planet. He is a Fellow
of Corpus Christi College.
Andy Hopper has pursued academic and industrial careers in parallel. In
the academic career he has worked in the Computer Laboratory and the
Department of Engineering at Cambridge. In the industrial career he has
worked in senior roles for multinational companies and also co-founded a
dozen spin-outs and start-ups, two of which floated on stock markets. He
is currently chairman of RealVNC, Ubisense and Adventiq, and a director
of Solarflare.
Professor Hopper received the BSc degree from the University of Wales
Swansea (1974) and the PhD degree from the University of Cambridge
(1978). He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (1996) and of
the Royal Society (2006). He was made a CBE for services to the computer
industry (2007). |
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2548
3
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| Time:
58:15 |
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Viewfinder: How to Seamlessly "Flickrize" Google Earth / a collaboration betw...
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Google Tech Talks
April, 14 2008
ABSTRACT
"Viewfinder" is a novel method for users to spatially situate, or "find the pose," of their photographs, and then to view these photographs, along with others, as perfectly aligned overlays in a 3D world model such as Google Earth. Our objective is to provide a straightforward procedure for geo-locating photos of any kind, and our approach is to engage a community of users for a certain amount of human help. We specify that a 10-year-old should be able to find the pose of a photo in less than a minute, and we are convinced that this goal is achievable.
Our work to date, supported by a Google Research Award, was intended to be fast, lean, and focused on a single piece of a larger puzzle: posing and viewing arbitrary photos in pre-existing 3D models (not custom-recorded photos and not model building, though we hope our work will be useful in these areas). In addition to presenting Viewfinder specifics, the larger puzzle itself will be examined.
This talk will be taped.
Speaker: Michael Naimark
Michael Naimark, Viewfinder Project Director
Michael Naimark has made interactive "moviemaps" of Aspen from the street, Paris from the sidewalk, San Francisco from the air, Karlsruhe from the rail, Banff from hiking trails, and stereo-panoramic movies in Jerusalem, Dubrovnik, Angkor, and Timbuktu. His work is an unusual combination of optimism and activism, for example, it currently ranks #1 on Google searches for both VR webcams and camera zapper. Naimark received the World Technology Award for the Arts in 2002 and was the subject of a 20-year retrospective at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in 2005. He currently serves on the Visiting Committee for the MIT Media Lab and on the faculty in the Interactive Media Division of the USC School for Cinematic Arts. For more information, please visit http://www.naimark.net . |
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4999
9
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| Time:
58:30 |
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Cognitive Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation
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Google Tech Talks
February, 28 2008
ABSTRACT
Mindfulness meditation, one type of meditation technique, has been shown to
enhance emotional awareness and psychological flexibility as well as induce
well-being and emotional balance. Scientists have also begun to examine how
meditation may influence brain functions. This talk will examine the
effect of mindfulness meditation practice on the brain systems in which
psychological functions such as attention, emotional reactivity, emotion
regulation, and self-view are instantiated. We will also discuss how
different forms of meditation practices are being studied using
neuroscientific technologies and are being integrated into clinical
practice to address symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress.
Speaker: Philippe Goldin
Philippe is a research
scientist and heads the Clinically Applied Affective Neuroscience group in
the Department of Psychology at Stanford University.
He spent 6 years in India and Nepal studying various languages,
Buddhist philosophy and debate at Namgyal Monastery and the Dialectic
Monastic Institute, and serving as an interpreter for various Tibetan
Buddhist lamas. He then returned to the U.S. to complete a Ph.D. in
Clinical Psychology at Rutgers University. His NIH-funded
clinical research focuses on (a) functional neuroimaging investigations of cognitive-affective mechanisms in adults with anxiety disorders, (b)
comparing the effects of mindfulness meditation and cognitive-behavioral
therapy on brain-behavior correlates of emotional reactivity and regulation, and (c) training children in family and elementary school settings in mindfulness skills to reduce anxiety and enhance compassion, self-esteem and quality of family interactions. |
Views:
17954
75
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| Time:
48:54 |
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QSTP TECHtalks, 23 Jan. 2008
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The Jekyll-and-Hyde Life of the Entrepreneur Professor. QSTP TECHtalk by Dr. Hussein Alnuweiri of Texas A&M University at Qatar, 23 January 2008. |
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543
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| Time:
08:49 |
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"Science and the taboo of psi" with Dean Radin
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Google Tech Talks
January, 16 2008
ABSTRACT
Do telepathy, clairvoyance and other "psi" abilities exist? The majority of the general population believes that they do, and yet fewer than one percent of mainstream academic institutions have any faculty known for their interest in these frequently reported experiences. Why is a topic of enduring and widespread interest met with such resounding silence in academia? The answer is not due to a lack of scientific evidence, or even to a lack of scientific interest, but rather involves a taboo. I will discuss the nature of this taboo, some of the empirical evidence and critical responses, and speculate on the implications.
Speaker: Dean Radin
Dean Radin is a researcher and author in the field of parapsychology. He is Senior Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and four-time former President of the Parapsychological Association. He holds an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a masters degree in electrical engineering and a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has worked at AT&T Bell Labs and GTE Labs, mainly on human factors of advanced telecommunications products and services, and held appointments at Princeton University, Edinburgh University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, SRI International, Interval Research Corporation, and Boundary Institute. At these facilities he was engaged in basic research on exceptional human capacities, principally psi phenomena. |
Views:
20625
165
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| Time:
01:34:57 |
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Getting C++ Threads Right
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Google Tech Talks
December, 12 2007
ABSTRACT
The advent of multicore processors has generated profound debate on the merits of writing parallel programs with threads and locks. Nonetheless, for many application domains, this remains the standard paradigm for writing parallel programs, and at the moment, there is no apparent universal replacement. And it is the focus of this talk.
Somewhat surprisingly, there are a number of often subtle, but generally fixable, industry-wide problems with current approaches to threads programming. We'll focus on probably the most widely used environments, consisting of C or C++ with a standard threads library. Problems span the spectrum from system libraries through language implementations through supporting hardware. They get in the way both in that they often make it difficult to write 100% reliable multi-threaded software, and in that they confuse even the basics of the programming model, thus making it hard to teach. A surprising number of "experts" do not understand the basic rules. Arguably, these problems really need to be addressed to even allow a meaningful comparison to other parallel programming approaches.
Since solutions to these problems generally require a coordinated industry effort, we helped to persuade the C++ standards committee to address them by pursuing a coherent approach to threads in the next C++ standard. The talk will outline some of the proposed solutions, and give an update on this effort.
Speaker: Hans Boehm
Hans Boehm is a member of the advanced architecture group at HP Labs. He has worked on many aspects of programming language design and implementation, including garbage collection and concurrency, and he was HP's representative to the effort to redesign Java's memory model. He is a past Chair of ACM SIGPLAN, and is an ACM Distinguished Scientist. |
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22033
40
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| Time:
01:10:16 |
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Electricity from Orbit: The case for R & D
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Google Tech Talks
December, 5 2007
ABSTRACT
Cost-effective space solar power (SSP) -- the beaming abundant high-intensity solar power from space though atmospheric windows at laser or microwave frequencies for electric power at the surface -- could be a breakthrough technology for large-scale power generation, highly flexible power distribution and sustainable carbon-neutral base load for Earth; a goal comparable, but much closer to engineering maturity, to that of controlled thermonuclear fusion. Apart from much higher than the surface mean solar flux, continuous sunlight in space avoids otherwise cost-pacing massive storage and transmission of intermittent terrestrial solar and windpower to match electric demand curves. Access to space cost reductions will likely be driven by economies of scale from commercialization. But SSP would be markedly accelerated by experiments feasible now, some employing ISS, including orbital mirrors and microwave and and laser beaming in space.
The just-released report on SSP by the National Security Space Office (available at http://www.nss.org/settlement/ssp/library/nsso.htm) concludes that "it would be in the US Government's and the nation's interest to sponsor an immediate proof-of-concept demonstration project and a formally funded, follow-on architecture study conducted in full collaboration with industry and willing international partners." For example, I will describe our proposed demo of wireless power transmission from geosynchronous orbit (GEO) using diode laser transmitters in space and surface PV module receivers employing a self-deploying single launch one metric tonne satellite payload. Because diffractive beam spreading requires large antennas at microwave frequencies, it would be virtually impossible to launch microwave beamers large enough for efficient space-to-Earth power transfer without expensive multiple launches and in-space assembly. This limitation is overcome with the laser-based system proposed here although commercial SSP power stations might well utilize microwave beaming down the road.
This experiment would demonstrate continuous electric power transfer from orbit orders of magnitude greater than anything done before, perhaps powering a remote village off the grid in the developing world. With near term and "on the shelf" components and early launch opportunities like NASA's Geo QuickRide, piggybacks on communication satellite launches, and the ISS as testbed, near term experiments could accelerate SSP from paper studies to a real alternate energy option in as little as a three to five year time frame at relatively modest cost.
Speaker: Marty Hoffert
Martin I. Hoffert is Professor Emeritus of Physics and former Chair of the Department of Applied Science at New York University. His academic background includes a B.S. (1960) in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; M.S. (1964) and Ph.D. (1967) from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now the Polytechnic Institute of New York) in Astronautics; and a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies, M.A.L.S. (1969) from the New School for Social Research where he did graduate work in sociology and economics.
He has been on the research staff of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, General Applied Science Laboratories, Advanced Technology Laboratories, Riverside Research Institute and National Academy of Sciences Senior Resident Research Associate at the NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Prof. Hoffert has published broadly in fluid mechanics, plasma physics, atmospheric science, oceanography, planetary atmospheres, environmental science, solar and winds energy conversion and space solar power. His work in geophysics aimed at development of theoretical models of atmospheres and oceans to address environmental issues, including the ocean/climate model first employed by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to assess global warming from different scenarios of fossil fuel use. His early model of the evolving CO2 greenhouse in Mars' atmosphere is also of interest today -- providing both an explanation of Mars' riverbed-like
channels f... |
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6005
20
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| Time:
54:23 |
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Polyworld: Using Evolution to Design Artificial Intelligence
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Google Tech Talks
November, 8 2007
ABSTRACT
This presentation is about a potential shortcut to artificial intelligence by trading mind-design for world-design using artificial evolution. Evolutionary algorithms are a pump for turning CPU cycles into brain designs. With exponentially increasing CPU cycles while our understanding of intelligence is almost a flat-line, the evolutionary route to AI is a centerpiece of most Kurzweilian singularity scenarios. This talk introduces the Polyworld artificial life simulator as well as results from our ongoing attempt to evolve artificial intelligence and further the Singularity.
Polyworld is the brain child of Apple Computer Distinguished Scientist Larry Yaeger, who remains the primary developer of Polyworld:
http://www.beanblossom.in.us/larryy/Polyworld.html
Speaker: Virgil Griffith
Virgil Griffith is a first year graduate student in Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology. On weekdays he studies evolution, computational neuroscience, and artificial life. He did computer security work until his first year of university when his work got him sued for sedition and espionage. He then decided that security was probably not safest field to be in and he turned his life to science. |
Views:
35658
145
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| Time:
01:06:38 |
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Git
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Google Tech Talks
October, 12 2007
ABSTRACT
When you have hundreds of people simultaneously patching 25000 files of the Linux Kernel in sometimes conflicting ways, you might need some scheme or plan to sort all that out before you can build your next kernel and reboot. The Linux team uses "git" for their source code repository management, a homegrown solution that is optimized for highly distributed development, working with huge sets of files, merging independent work at multiple levels, and seeing who broke what. ( has also since been notably adopted by the Cairo, x.org, and Wine teams, and is being transitioned to by the Mozilla codebase.)
In my talk, I describe what "git"; is and isn't, and why you should use it instead of CVS, Subversion, SVK, Arch, Darcs, Mercurial, Monotone, Bazaar, and just about every other repository manager. I'll also walk though the basic concepts so that the manpages might start making sense. If I have time, I'll even do a live walkthrough, where you can watch how fast I make typos.
Speaker: Randal Schwartz |
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23548
47
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| Time:
59:47 |
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sex on the internet, the realities of porn, sexual privacy,
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Google Tech Talks
October, 12 2007
ABSTRACT
Speaker: Violet Blue
Violet Blue is the best-selling, award-winning author and
editor of twenty books on sex and sexuality, all currently in print, a
number of which have been translated into several languages; she has
contributed to a number of nonfiction anthologies. Violet is a sex
educator who lectures at UC's and community teaching institutions, and
writes about erotica, pornography, sexual pleasure and health for
major publications and blogs. She is a professional sex blogger and
femmebot; an author at Metroblogging San Francisco (Metblogs); a
correspondent for Geek Entertainment Television; she is on the Gawker
Media payroll as girl friday contibutor and editor at Fleshbot; in
January 2007, Violet was named a Forbes Web Celeb 25. She is a San
Francisco native and human blog. Violet is the sex columnist for the
San Francisco Chronicle with a weekly column titled Open Source Sex,
and has a podcast of the same name that frequents iTunes' top ten. |
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759
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| Time:
01:00:37 |
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Pimp my Genome! The Mainstreaming of Digital Genetic...
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Google Tech Talks
May 3, 2007
ABSTRACT
DNA is a programming language for living cells. The cell's basic operating system, or genome, directs functions like growth and reproduction, energy utilization, and the production of useful compounds like ethanol or penicillin. With genetic engineering, new functions can be added to cells or broken metabolic pathways repaired. Until recently, genetic engineering has required the DNA molecule itself to be physically manipulated, a tedious and expensive process. Now, automatic DNA synthesis permits virtually any DNA code to be made from scratch, opening up genetic engineering to anyone with a computer and a credit card. The capabilities of this new synthetic... |
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1669
10
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| Time:
59:41 |
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Joomla tuts
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how to add content |
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