In this Future of Everything discussion with Russ Altman, Jelena Vuckovic, professor, electrical engineering, talks about her work building computers that calculate and communicate more with photons than electrons. Photonic devices are more energy efficient and provide a wider spectrum of frequencies for various applications. Vuckovic is using AI to develop new device designs and new materials to make way for photonic devices.
Dr. Jennifer King, Director of Privacy at Stanford's Center for Internet and Society explains the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) which went into effect on Jan 1, 2020 giving residents key rights over some of their private data which is currently collected and commoditized without authorization. Waze, Facebook and Google collect location data through their apps which is sold to advertisers and political organizations
A video of Shelley zipping around the racetrack at 120 mph changed John Alsterda's trajectory from pursuing a doctorate in nuclear engineering to mechanical engineering with Chris Gerdes' Dynamic Design Lab. Alsterda is developing an algorithm designed to teach self-driving cars to anticipate events that might take place, instead of reacting when emergencies occur - just like good human drivers.
According to new estimates from the Global Carbon Project, an initiative led by Stanford University scientist, Rob Jackson, global fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions will reach another record high though the rate of emissions growth is slower than in the previous two years. Researchers warn emissions could keep increasing for a decade or more unless energy, transportation and industry policies change dramatically across the world.
The AI Index, an independent initiative at Stanford's Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Institute (HAI), tracks, collates, and visualizes data relating to artificial intelligence. Its mission is to provide unbiased, rigorous, and comprehensive data for policymakers, researchers, journalists, executives, and the general public to develop a deeper understanding of the complex field of AI. The 2019 edition tracks three times as many data sets as the 2018 edition and introduces two tools to help navigate the data: The Global AI Vibrancy Tool and arXiv Monitor.
Eleven new, early-stage energy research projects at Stanford were funded by the Precourt Institute, TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy and Bits and Watts initiative. Among the projects funded is a study on Environmental justice consequences of transportation choices with Ines Azevedo, PI who presented at the CARS Annual Meeting in November. See the complete list of projects here.
A team of researchers at Stanford and University of Massachusetts Amherst published a paper in Science outlining a new technique that translates a goal, such as to avoid gender or racial bias, into mathematical criteria to allow a machine-learning algorithm to train an AI application to avoid that behavior. “We want to advance AI that respects the values of its human users and justifies the trust we place in autonomous systems,” said Emma Brunskill, an assistant professor of computer science at Stanford and senior author of the paper.
The Stanford Energy Global Council (seen at left), a new group led by Stanford University's Precourt Institute for Energy published its key messages from the first round-table held in August with leaders in the transportation sector. The council will publish a paper on the future of transportation this spring.
Chris Gerdes, co-leader of a team focused on campus makerspaces, draws on his lab's experience building an entire car at Stanford's Product Realization Lab, noting, "You don't really understand something unless you've built it and broken it." Through this experience, Gerdes' team placed high value on community, fostering of creativity and openness as essential to successful makerspaces.
The team from Chris Gerdes’ Dynamic Design Lab are training MARTY, an all-electric, autonomous DeLorean, to use all the friction between the tire and the road to get the vehicle out of harm’s way to handle emergency maneuvers or slippery road surfaces. The MARTYkhana video shows the autonomous control system developed by DDL’s Jon Goh and Tushar Goel applying drifting skills in an intense driving course that only top human drivers can reliably handle.
