Fall 2019 Technical Writing ENG2575 E270 with Professor Ellis

To: Professor Ellis

From: Alpha Barry

Date: 9/17/19

Object: 500-Word Summary of Bill Nye on “Cultural Identity and Racism”

Throughout the course of the history of America, there have been numerous events occurred that affected the country in good ways as well as bad ways. There have been past major events that include Louisiana Purchase, Manhattan Project, Vietnam War, Assassination of John F. Kennedy, The American Revolution and the Civil War. The past events had a major impact on the country as well as the nation. America is a country with diverse cultures from all part of the world. People that migrate to America have only one purpose that they can find a better life which they have not been blessed by their country before. So, why is racism growing in an unexpected rate? And where did this type of behavior in the people of America begin?

 For instance, the campus racial incident that occurred in Penn State University on November 12, 2016 when a student received unknown group request named as “GroupMe” and it contained racist materials. Amy Guttmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, quickly took action and stated “We are absolutely appalled that earlier today Black freshman students at Penn were added to a racist “GroupMe” account that appears to be based in Oklahoma. The account itself is totally repugnant: it contains violent, racist and thoroughly disgusting images and messages that totally change the mindset of one person to another in different ways (www.jbhe.com). Once an individual has been exposed to racism, his mentality and lifestyle changes accordingly. Even if it is not noticeable but has a major impact on the society as it gets worst. One of the ways racism affects the society is that members of racial and ethnic oppressed groups continue to struggle for equal access and opportunity, there main target is basically minorities and they show hatred towards them. Other than simply getting a job, getting and keeping a house in some states is often a difficult task for those of color. The job of a landlord is to rent out houses to reliable people or families, though a racist landlord could make it difficult for a family of color to find a home. The “Voting Rights Act”, gutted by the Supreme Court, is a good example of a law against racism. Other laws against racism include the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission laws against racial discrimination in employment. Widespread housing discrimination against Americans of color in U.S. neighborhoods is sometimes referred to as a national problem. Racism is still alive in this country which people thought has been ended after the laws against racism was passed, it did not change the people who consider themselves superior as compared to others. “Many people fail to believe that race isn’t a biological category, but an artificial classification of people with no scientifically variable facts,” said Bill Nye, an American science educator and television presenter. Just because of this issue, educational and economic opportunity, political representation, income, health and social mobility of people of color is changing our country which is bad for our future.

All in all, racism is something that should have not happened, and it’s sad that it did. But America has gone through believing in racism to pretty much getting rid of racism. Though it went through many stages, America has progressed in trying to get better and showing everyone that each and every single person is equal, and has the exact same rights as everyone else, it doesn’t matter if you’re White, Black, Asian, etc. We are all the same and have the exact same rights as everyone else.

References

https://answersingenesis.org/racism/bill-nye-agrees-theres-no-such-thing-as-race/

Black Students at Penn Subjected to Racial Hate by an Off-Campus Group

http://onesearch.cuny.edu/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do;jsessionid=2109DDF8F856F7B6869F595F0E167836?tabs=detailsTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=dedupmrg280819357&indx=6&recIds=dedupmrg280819357&recIdxs=5&elementId=5&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=5&query=any%2Ccontains%2CResearching+Race+and+Racism&vl(62438817UI0)=any&dscnt=0&search_scope=everything&scp.scps=scope%3A%28CUNY_BEPRESS%29%2Cscope%3A%28NY%29%2Cscope%3A%28AL%29%2Cprimo_central_multiple_fe&onCampus=true&vid=ny&queryTemp=Researching+Race+and+Racism&institution=NY&tab=default_tab&vl(freeText0)=Researching%20Race%20and%20Racism&group=GUEST&dstmp=1481801222354

TO: Prof. Jason Ellis

FROM: Mai Long Jie

DATE: Sept 17, 2019

SUBJECT: 500-Word Summary of Wallden and Kashefi “Cyber Security in the Quantum Era”

Cyber Security in the quantum era is an article written by Petros Wallden and Elham Kashefi and published in Communications of the ACM journal. The article mainly points out the fast-growing trend of quantum computing. Companies such as Google, IBM, Intel, Alibaba among others are embracing quantum computing. The fast rising of quantum technologies comes with negative effects if associated with the adversaries but turns out to be positive if used by honest parties. The large use of quantum computing increases risks and threats in cyber security. Even though, if the issues are addressed through quantum cyber security, it will be easy to cope with quantum technologies in the future. The article gives detailed research information on quantum cyber security which can be approached from three different views. These views being; Post- quantum, quantumly enhanced and quantumly enabled. Additionally, the myths are addressed as to what people understand about quantum computing and facts are stated to cleat the myths.

Research has been carried out to help in achieving quantum cyber security, and this is divided into three categories; Post-quantum being the first category of the research on quantum cyber security which involves classical computation and classical communication as the resources required from the honest parties. This focuses on the hard problems for the quantum computers, security definitions and proof techniques to counter quantum adversaries. Quantumly enhanced approach uses small quantum device for quantum communication and used by the honest parties. This approach is limited only to the quantum technologies that are currently available. Quantum technologies can be used positively in cyber security research. This is possible if they are included in protocols improving on security as it is not based on any computational assumption. This research is done on QKD (Quantum Key Distribution). Quantumly enabled category stretches to the future expansion of large quantum computers and examines the security and protocols that are enabled on existing quantum computers. This uses approaches such as post-quantum computational secure protocol and having clients interact with the quantum server thus mimicking the quantum channel and avoiding information leakage (Wallden & Kashefi, 2019).

The article gives a good description of quantum computing for easy understanding before going deep into the positive and negative effects of large quantum computers. It persuades people to use quantum technologies for their advantage rather than allow cryptographic attacks threating cyber security. It clearly shows the myths and misconceptions of quantum computing and how people believe that constructing quantum computers will solve anything quickly. Also, it states the reality against the myths stated to help in understanding how quantum computing can affect cyber security if not managed. The article offers explanation on adversaries that need to be addressed to ensure that quantum security is achieved in the future, with both large quantum computers and classical communication networks. The list of all research carried out on quantum cyber security may not be exhausted in the article but it captures well the effects of quantum technologies for cryptographic attacks. Clearly, people have a long way in ensuring quantum cyber security is achieved and putting this research into consideration will greatly help in using quantum computers to improve cyber security.

References

Wallden, P., & Kashefi, E. (2019). Cyber security in the quantum era. Communications Of The ACM, 62(4), 120-120. doi: 10.1145/3241037

           Wang et al. published an article about some of the key technologies of 5G cellular network in IEEE communications magazine, titled “Cellular architecture and key technologies for 5G wireless communication networks”. Major technologies discussed in the articles include a new heterogeneous 5G cellular architecture, some key technologies that can be implemented into 5G to improve performance, and some future challenges.

           The article proposes the next-generation wireless communication technology 5G needs to be constructed in a new type of heterogeneous cellular architecture to achieve maximum, seamless coverage and high mobility. The new architecture will be separate indoor and outdoor access point because of the short-range RF (Radio Frequency) spectra of 5G. Outdoor base stations will be equipped with large antenna arrays. These antennae will connect to wireless access point inside buildings for indoor users. This will solve the short-range and penetration loss through walls issue. Not just stationary wireless communication has issues that need to be addressed, high mobility wireless communication also. According to Wang et al., “High-speed trains can easily reach 350 up to 500km/h, while 4G networks can only support communication scenarios up to 250 km/h” (Wang et al., 2014, p.123). The MFemtocell (Mobile Femtocell) concept, which combines the concepts of mobile relay and femtocell, is proposed to accommodate high mobility uses such as users in vehicles and highspeed trains. Access points can be deployed inside highspeed transportation. Instead of communicating directly to outdoor base stations, devices will be connecting to access points inside of these highspeed transportations.

           Some key technologies have mentioned in the article that can improve the performance and power efficiency of 5G system. They are the following. Massive MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) systems, by adding more antennae to a MIMO system to increase performance, reliability, spectral efficiency, and energy efficiency. SM (Spatial Modulation), a MIMO technique for low-complexity implementation of MIMO system. It can mitigate interchannel interference, interantanna synchronization, and multiple RF chains in conventional MIMO systems. This technique can be used in MIMO system with any number of transmit and receive antennae, even unbalanced MIMO system. CR (Cognitive Radio) network, an innovative software technology to improve the utilization of the RF spectrum. A large portion of the radio spectrum is underutilized most of the time, a CR network can detect, share, and use these spectrums when the system is loaded. Another viable technique that helps mitigate spectrum bottlenecks in RF communication is VLC (Visible Light Communication), which uses LED light as a signal transmitter. It can be implemented using the current lighting infrastructures.

           Many technologies have proposed and discussed in this article, but there are still many challenges needs to be addressed. Such as realistic channel models for 5G wireless systems, reducing signal processing complexity for Massive MIMO, interference management for CR networks, and more importantly, green communications. A tremendous amount of base stations will be deployed in the 5G era because of the short-range signal. Performance is admittedly important, but it also needs to be energy efficient to reduce CO2 emission.

Reference:

Wang, C. X., Haider, F., Gao, X., You, X. H., Yang, Y., Yuan, D., … & Hepsaydir, E. (2014). Cellular architecture and key technologies for 5G wireless communication networks. IEEE communications magazine, 52(2), 122-130.

TO: Prof. Jason W. Ellis

FROM: Julia Shin

DATE: Sept. 17, 2019

SUBJECT: 500-Word Summary of Andrea Zanella’s et al “Internet of Things for Smart Cities”

Andrea Zanella et al discusses the implementation of IoT (Internet of Things) in order to develop a smart city in the article “Internet of Things for Smart Cities” from the IEEE Internet of Things Journal. The concept of the Smart City was created to be more efficient and to provide better services all while reducing costs. The IoT will be the key to turning this concept into a reality. There are, however, some concerns regarding the IoT that may pose as a threat. Despite this, the “Padova Smart City” project provides an example of a possible application of urban IoT network and could act as a catalyst for the whole process. 

One major problem concerning the use of the IoT is its complexity. There are many layers involved in this whole network that must be considered in order to produce the best results. For instance, some key characteristics include its “capability of integrating different technologies with the existing communication infrastructure in order to support a progressive evolution of the IoT” as well as easy accessibility by both the citizens and the authorities (Zanella et al, 2014, p. 25). The different elements of the IoT system will be responsible for protecting these key characteristics. 

There seemed to be a pattern of spotting issue with what is used today. For example, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is not suitable for constrained devices due to its limiting nature. CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol) will combat the issues of HTTP and provide a more reliable service. A HTTP-CoAP intermediary will be the key in allowing transparent communication between the two protocols as well as devices that utilize HTTP. All of this effort, and more, is put into creating a unified system that will work with the devices that exist today while simultaneously working towards the goal. 

In contrast to the intricate details that go into the IoT system, the goals are quite simple. The use of devices like sensors will play an important role to improve services such as smart lighting and monitoring energy consumption. These sensors will be responsible for collecting data that will be stored and processed by the backend servers. For instance, the smart lights will know when to provide light and how much in accordance to the time of day and weather conditions. In the case of the Padova Smart City project, the street lamps were equipped with photometer, temperature, humidity, and benzene sensors. After analyzing the data collected from these sensors over the course of a couple of days, it was observed that generally the light, temperature, and humidity measurements reached saturation levels during the day and dipped back down for the night. Benzene levels also typically decreased during the night as a result of less traffic. 

Realizing the dream of creating a Smart City is no easy task; it is the combination of all these complex systems that make it work. However, the project that took place in Padova, Italy showcases the potential of implementing such a concept. The authors not only acknowledged a lot of the issues that critics may have, but also provided possible solutions. This shows that although the reality of a Smart City may not be perfect yet, it is still worth investing time into. For so long, advancements of technology have caused major environmental problems, but the use of the IoT systems may be what we are all looking for. The future for a Smart City truly looks bright.

References

Zanella, A., Bui, N., Castellani, A., Vangelista, L., & Zorzi, M. (2014). Internet of things for smart cities. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 1(1), 22–32.

To: Jason Ellis

From: Daniel Lawrence

Date 9/17/19

Subject: 500-Word Summary by Wood, Nagpal and Wei “Flight of the Robo-bees”

  Finding an article or news piece of what has been done already is one thing, but what’s more interesting is the news stories on what is to come. The purpose of this memo is to provide readers feedback of this academic journal entry. Members from Harvard University report on their status and hopes for creating a network hive of robotic bees under the article title “Flight of the Robo-bees” in Scientific American. This memo is to discuss How it works, Complications on creating a larger scale of a hive network and mainly their brain behind its creation. 

After reading the article published by Scientific American the University went down an interesting path of looking how actual flies operate with their sensory capabilities in hopes of doing something similar with these robotic bees. This aspect posing one of the most significant problems was thought to have been avoided by programing a visual system into the bees brain to map out 3-D map of its environment. Based on the article, the plan for creating the sensory component was concluded to use hardware accelerators that will allow for the bees to complete specific pre-desired task. Including something of this magnitude however may cause issues with the individuals bee miniscule body. It’s evident that the group attempting this invention thinks outside the box based on the different avenues that has been explored for the creation of the brain.

Proceeding forward now realizing the difficulty of effectively programing one robo-bee, the team takes on creating a whole hive or network of bees. The path through this the team choose was to create a programing language thats viable for colonies. One way they choose to do so was to create an impromptu language incorporating something called the Karma system. This kind of system is something thats new to me, apparently it’s best described as the stimuli taken from each individual thats sent to the hive in order to adjust the hive’s behavior.

 “Swarms of small, agile and potentially disposable robots can enable many new applications — pollination, for example, or search and rescue in a disaster scenario — that are not possible with individual robots.” ( Wood, Nagpal and Wei. Mar2013. p60-65). This quote from the report really reenforce the limitless applications for undergoing a project like this. Not only for the purpose rescue in disaster scenarios as was mentioned, in addition these bees could be beneficial in the medical field or transportation in a drastic way. However as of now things for the team are just getting started and those applications may prove to be to much for right now. Progress made on the other hand appears to be moving forward as the team holds an open view on different ways the bees can be effective. 

So far the teams tangible goal for these bees is to pollinate fields based on the report. So for now they are focused on the communication between bees.

This article proved beneficial because it showed that projects as unique as this aren’t stoping however are tackled by members of a university.

References; Wood.R , Nagpal.R , Wei.G. (Mar 2013). Flight of the RoboBees. Scientific American, Vol. 308 Issue 3, p60-65. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.citytech.ezproxy.cuny.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=5a682085-463c-41aa-b27b-f80504de1789%40sessionmgr4007&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#anchor=AN0085941834-17&AN=85941834&db=a9h

TO: PROFESSOR ELLIS

FROM: ALAIN PALMER

DATE: 9/16/19

SUBJECT: Enhancing of robots’ abilities using the Cloud, Neuromorphic Computing, and Big Data Analytics.

In this paper “Design of Cloud Based Robots using Big Data Analytics and Neuromorphic Computing” by Satyanarayana, Kusyk, Chen et al discusses some important things about enhancing robots’ abilities. It explained that it is crucial to know the functions and capabilities of the human brain in order to develop robots that will have the ability to link with its environment. Three main functions that was introduced to assist in the enhancement of robots’ abilities are Neuromorphic Computing, Cloud Robots, and Big data Analytics.

Neuromorphic Computing will play a major roll in this project of enhancing robots’ abilities. Neuromorphic Computing is a very large-scale integrating system which included tens to hundreds of transistors per microchip, this was created to imitate the neuro-biological patterns in the nervous system. There has been an increasing demand in neuromorphic computing for its cognitive and brain like computing. With cognitive computing, optimum memory usage, high-speed performances, and low power consumption gives neuromorphic chips its powerful advantages and is also projected to lead the line in rise of robots in the robot industry.  There is also a Zeroth processor chip that is created to mimic brain behavior to help robot learn through training and feedbacks instead of hard coding to behave human like.

Second is Cloud Robots. This is the idea to utilize cloud computing. Cloud-Based Robots would be driven by a brain centered cloud for robots. This would work in the way where all robots attached to the cloud will share information that each other can retrieved as soon as it is uploaded to the cloud. A proposed system called RoboEarth is just like humans sharing humans sharing information online, instead it is for robots. Robo earth has an online database for its cloud engine and it is called Rapyuta, which is to perform heavy-weight processing in the cloud. RoboEarth and Rapyuta main job is to process information from various sources and put them in a format that the robots can execute.

Third is the Big Data Analytic. Big data Analytic was first used to indicate large data for visualization. Big Data can enhance and evolve the robot’s Sense, Plan, and Act (SPA) cycle. With that being said, it means that the with Big Data, robots will be more advance in their environment and will be able to predict their next move in any complex situation encountered without being commanded to do so. Quoted (i) “descriptive analytics to understand why something happens, (ii) predictive analytics to predict what could happen, and (iii) prescriptive analytics to suggest what a robot should do in a complex environment (Satyanarayana, Kusyk, Chen et al, 2018 p3). This is what I explained in the previous sentence.

This summary is to highlight the attempt to cover cloud computing, big data analytics, and neuromorphic computing to enhance the control architecture of robotics. In short, to use a very advanced cloud systems to operate robots and decrease the use of the command center.

References

H. Markram, “Understanding the brain: Organizational and scientific

challenges,” From Physics to Daily Life, pp. 179–190, 2014.

S. Furber, “Large-scale neuromorphic computing systems,” Journal of

Neural Engineering, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. 1–14, 2016.

D. Monroe, “Neuromorphic computing gets ready for the (really) big

time,” Comm. of the ACM Mag., vol. 57, no. 6, pp. 13–15, 2014.

W. Zhao and et al., “Nanotube devices-based crossbar architecture:

toward neuromorphic computing,” Nanotechnology, vol. 21, no. 17, pp.

175–202, 2010.

TO: Professor Ellis

FROM: Devina Budhan

DATE: September 17, 2019

SUBJECT: 500-Word Summary of Margot Douaihy’s “Facing the Future: Harnessing the Power of Facial Detection and Facial Recognition in Pro AV”

            “Facing the Future: Harnessing the Power of Facial Detection and Facial Recognition in Pro AV,” by Margot Douaihy discusses biometric AI (artificial intelligence) technology in terms of facial recognition and detection as well as its security and privacy. In today’s world we rely a lot on AI such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant and more. However, facial recognition and detection has been the newest and steady growing tech of AI starting from 2017 when smartphones started implementing this feature as a password. I will explain further the difference between facial recognition and detection as well as the legality of it in terms of security and privacy.

            Facial detection is software that can detect a human face by using AV (audio/video). Facial recognition uses a data base to match faces that facial detection picks up by analyzing patterns and features on a person’s face. The senior director of marketing for ELAN, a company for home security system, states that detection is nothing more than what detects human faces in AV whereas recognition takes it a step further to identify whose face is who. Both recognition and detection work hand in hand because without one you are unable to find the other.

However, the senior technical account manager of Samsung SDS America, Joseph Warner, has a different view of facial recognition and detection. According to him, “The Samsung Nexshop analytics solution doesn’t use facial recognition. We use PII-compliant facial analysis…” (Douaihy, 2019, pg. 6). In other words, PII (personally identifiable information) uses an algorithm that analyzes facial features and assigns the person a code such as “male” or “female” without really identifying who they are. Going back to the company ELAN, they believe by using facial recognition and detection, they can personalize the control experience. For example, an employee at a bar or restaurant will have their own profile that gives them access to certain features provided by their manager to help better accommodate their customers without risking others getting into their profiles hence facial recognition.

On the other hand, this brings up the issue of security and privacy. Warner, from Samsung SDS America, made it clear that people’s information collected from the Nexshop sensor is not specific and is actually anonymized when information is collected. Instead of specifically labeling who they are, each feature of that person is given an identification number where it still remains anonymous and safe. Many people are not happy with being recorded or having any kind of picture taken but, in this day, and age, especially in big business everyone is being recorded all the time. However, to compromise with the privacy issue, big corporations tend to have their workforce sign off on a policy that states it will protect their identity by data retention.

Margot Douaihy’s “Facing the Future: Harnessing the Power of Facial Detection and Facial Recognition in Pro AV,” focuses on how biometric AI technology has grown and along with that growth so does the issue of security and privacy. The article explains how AI of facial recognition and detection can put a person’s information out there but at the same time I disagree and believe that this new form of AI can be quite efficient. Yes, it may be costly at first but once the system has all the information it needs in terms of facial features and patterns, it can help speed up the processes of punching a timecard or having someone steal your information. It also negates the notion of passwords in which this day and age a lot of people have issues with because they forget it and constantly have to reset before it locks them out and then turns into a bigger mess. AI in terms of facial recognition and detection is still fairly new in present day, however I believe it will be a breakthrough in the near future once it is perfected in terms of security and privacy.  

Reference:

Doaihy, M. (2019). Facing the Future: Harnessing the Power of Facial Detection and Facial Recognition in Pro AV. TWICE: This Week in Consumer Electronics, 34(13), 6-7