Tuesday, September 20, 2011

BBC article - Google+ opens social network to everyone

This is an interesting article on the BBC News Technology page about Google+ social networking.

Google+ opens social network to everyone - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14985494 - 20 September 2011

"Google+ is being opened up for anyone to join after two-and-a-half months in closed testing.

The search firm's latest foray into social networking was initially offered to journalists and people working in technology related fields.

However, members' ability to invite friends meant its user base quickly grew to tens of millions."

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

INCOSE UK Bristol Event 28th September

An interesting event takes place on 28th September at University of the West of England. The title is 'The Rise and Fall of the Systems Engineering Lifecycle'. The event is organised by INCOSE - International Council on Systems Engineering.

Booking is online at - http://www.incoseonline.org.uk/EventBooking/AutoBooking/MainPage.aspx?CatID=Events&EventID=198

Details of the event are :-

"The Bristol Local Group Presents
'The Rise and Fall of the Systems Engineering Lifecycle'
Kicking off the new Bristol Local Group season, this event will examine how the nature of systems engineering changes across development lifecycles, how organisational roles and responsibilities adapt to suit, and what happens when there are mismatches between them. This interactive workshop will include an examination of the following questions:

•What tends to get missed in commonly used lifecycles?
•Where is the Systems Engineering focus and how does it shift?
•What information flows and networking between stakeholders and organisations is necessary and how is this encouraged?

Date: 28th September – 6.30pm for 7pm till 9pm
Location: Room 1N05, University of the West of England (UWE), Frenchay Campus, Bristol

NON-MEMBERS WELCOME."

Also an INCOSE conference takes place at Warwick in November, details are available at - http://www.incoseonline.org.uk/EventBooking/ASEC2011/General_Information.aspx?CatID=Events

"Annual Systems Engineering Conference (ASEC) 2011
9th-10th November 2011
Scarman Training and Conference Centre, University of Warwick, CV4 7AL

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'Doing Systems Engineering well'
The UK's premier Systems Engineering event will address key contemporary themes for a wide audience, and provide an excellent forum for networking, sharing experience and advancing the discipline."

Wednesday, September 07, 2011

Stanford University - Free computer science courses, new teaching technology reinvent online education

This is a very useful educational resource provided for free by Stanford University Professors. The courses are - Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Databases.

The article that explains this is at - http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/august/online-computer-science-081611.html - Free computer science courses, new teaching technology reinvent online education - Stanford Report, August 16, 2011.

Below is part of the article, and those interested can click on the link above for the whole article.

"Stanford Engineering professors are setting out to add a new level of interactivity to online education by offering three of the university's most popular computer science classes for free.

Morgan Quigley

Computer Science professor Andrew Ng uses tablet-recording technology he developed to instantly display notes for his interactive video lecture.
BY JAMIE BECKETT

Stanford Engineering professors are offering three of the school’s most popular computer science courses for free online this fall, and at the same time launching an experiment that could transform the way online education is delivered.

The professors are taking technologies designed to enhance learning for Stanford students and extending them to a broad online audience. They are delivering lectures as short, interactive video clips that allow students to progress at their own pace through course materials. They are offering live quizzes with instant feedback. And they are testing new technologies that allow students to rank questions that should be posed to the instructors.

The professors also hope to extend the benefits of Stanford-style education to those who lack access.

“Both in the United States and elsewhere, many people simply do not have access to a high-quality education. By putting out this initial set of courses, we hope to teach some of the latest computing technologies to anyone who wants to learn it – for free,” said Andrew Ng, an associate professor of computer science who is teaching a new online machine learning course.

The three courses – Machine Learning, Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Databases – cover material that forms the basis of some of the most prevalent technologies today, from online shopping to web search and robotics."