Automated writing tutor assists, outperforms human experts

NEWTOWN, Pa., Aug 18, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE)

"Twenty four districts have decided to use MY Access! this school year after teachers, directors and administrators from across the state saw a marked improvement in student performance.

"... students write an essay based on a teacher's assignment, and submit it to the Web-based system. The program instantly analyzes over 350 semantic, syntactic, and discourse characteristics, and scores the students on focus and meaning, organization, content and development, language use and style, mechanics and conventions, and overall writing proficiency."

The program, called MyAccess, "...instantly scores the essays on a scale of one to six. This provides immediate feedback to students, and saves teachers valuable grading time so they can focus on personalized, targeted student instruction instead. Students are engaged and motivated by immediate remedial instruction. And teachers say MY Access! scores are more accurate than expert human scorers, giving educators the time and confidence to focus on one-on-one instruction instead of paper-grading."

"Students are engaged and motivated by immediate remedial instruction. And teachers say MY Access! scores are more accurate than expert human scorers, giving educators the time and confidence to focus on one-on-one instruction instead of paper-grading. That's the kind of help teachers in Utah's schools need to assist them in managing large classrooms, many of which have up to 40 students."

MIT Helps Computers Think Like Humans

Information Week MIT Model Helps Computers Think Like Humans

"The researchers' algorithm lets computers use multiple approaches to examine data, much like the way humans size up the world."

"In a development that will extend the eternal quest of creating computers that think like humans, two researchers working at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a model that helps computers recognize patterns in the same way as humans do.

The two researchers, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences Josh Tenenbaum and recent MIT PhD recipient Charles Kemp, produced a broad algorithm that examines several different approaches of looking at data that is similar to the way humans typically size up different situations."

Computer program gains ground in "go" competition

American Go Association "In a historic achievement, the MoGo computer program defeated Myungwan Kim 8P Thursday by 1.5 points in a 9-stone game. “It played really well,” said Kim, who estimated MoGo’s current strength at “two or maybe three dan,” though he noted that the program – which used 800 processors, at 4.7 Ghz, 15 Teraflops on borrowed supercomputers – “made some 5-dan moves,” like those in the lower right-hand corner, where Moyogo took advantage of a mistake by Kim to get an early lead. “I can’t tell you how amazing this is,” David Doshay -- the SlugGo programmer who suggested the match -- told the E-Journal after the game."

Could RFID and satellites help fight kidnappers?

Scientific American Blog: "The use of microchips to track people (such as those embedded in hospital wristbands) and products (those uncomfortable tags on clothing that have to be cut off prior to wearing) has come under fire from civil rights groups who claim that big corporations are using this technology as a tool for spying. But what about when these tags are embedded in people themselves, rather than the things they wear?"

"That's what Mexican security firm Xega SA, which sells technology for tracking people, wants to do, particularly in cases when people are held for ransom. For about $3,700, the company will implant a chip the size of a grain of rice (it costs another $1,800 per year for monitoring), reports the Telegraph. Although it is unclear where the chip is likely to be implanted in a person's body its customers carry with them a panic button that can be pressed if a person feels he or she is in danger. A transmitter then sends signals via satellite to pinpoint the location of a person in distress, reports Reuters.

How RFID Tags Could Be Used to Track Unsuspecting People

Scientific American. Radio-frequency identi­fication (RFID) tags are embedded in a growing number of personal items and identity documents.Because the tags were designed to be powerful tracking devices and they typically incorporate little security, people wearing or carrying them are vulnerable to surreptitious surveillance and profiling..."

"If you live in a state bordering Canada or Mexico, you may soon be given an opportunity to carry a very high tech item: a remotely readable driver’s license. Designed to identify U.S. citizens as they approach the nation’s borders, the cards are being promoted by the Department of Homeland Security as a way to save time and simplify border crossings. But if you care about your safety and privacy as much as convenience, you might want to think twice before signing up."

RFID--A Key to Automating Everything: Scientific American

"Thirteen years ago, in an article for Scientific American, the late Mark Weiser, then my colleague at Xerox PARC, outlined his bold vision of “ubiquitous computing”: small computers would be embedded in everyday objects all around us and, using wireless connections, would respond to our presence, desires and needs without being actively manipulated. This network of mobile and fixed devices would do things for us automatically and so invisibly that we would notice only their effects. Weiser called such systems “calm technology,” because they would make it easier for us to focus on our work and other activities, instead of demanding that we interact with and control them, as the typical PC does today.

"Today systems based on radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology are helping to move Weiser’s vision closer to reality. These systems consist of tags (small silicon chips that contain identifying data and sometimes other information) and of readers that automatically receive and decode that data.

'Frankenrobot' Has Biological Brain

Discovery News "Meet Gordon, probably the world's first robot to be controlled exclusively by living brain tissue.

"Stitched together from cultured rat neurons, Gordon's primitive grey matter was designed at the University of Reading by scientists who unveiled the neuron-powered machine on Wednesday.

"Their groundbreaking experiments explore the vanishing boundary between natural and artificial intelligence, and could shed light on the fundamental building blocks of memory and learning, one of the lead researchers said."