Author: The Conversation

On August 20 1977, 45 years ago, an extraordinary spacecraft left this planet on a journey like no other. Voyager 2 was going to show us, for the first time, what the outer solar system planets looked like close-up. It was like sending a fly to New York City and asking it to report back. Voyager 1 was launched after Voyager 2, on September 5. Attached to the flank of each Voyager was a Golden Record carrying greetings, sounds, images and music from Earth. The spacecraft were more or less twins, but they had different trajectories and scientific instruments. While both flew…

Technological changes in industry have given rise to contending schools of thought about their impact on work and workers. Automation is rapidly deepening and widening, reaching new areas of work. What’s being produced is also changing. In the automotive manufacturing industry, for example, there is a global shift to vehicles that don’t produce emissions. The ongoing industrial revolution is defined by new work methods, ways of organising production, and advances in technology. At the one extreme is the view that this is the end of work. This argues that the technological changes will lead to mass unemployment through retrenchments. At the other…

For most people who finished school or university even a decade ago, the idea of virtual reality in the classroom probably seems like the stuff of science fiction. But immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality – which all aim to marry the physical and digital worlds – are increasingly being used to bolster teaching and learning. Its proponents argue that immersive technology could be especially useful in low-resource settings. No laboratory equipment at school? Can’t afford pricey field trips? No problem: mobile phones and tablets could take entire labs and libraries into schools and universities. Those opposed…

Water is the most essential resource for life, for both humans and the crops we consume. Around the world, agriculture accounts for 70% of all freshwater use. I study computers and information technology in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute and direct Purdue’s Environmental Networking Technology (ENT) Laboratory, where we tackle sustainability and environmental challenges with interdisciplinary research into the Agricultural Internet of Things, or Ag-IoT. The Internet of Things is a network of objects equipped with sensors so they can receive and transmit data via the internet. Examples include wearable fitness devices, smart home thermostats and self-driving cars. In agriculture, it involves technologies such as wireless underground communications,…

Social media platforms have had some bad press in recent times, largely prompted by the vast extent of their data collection. Now Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has upped the ante. Not content with following every move you make on its apps, Meta has reportedly devised a way to also know everything you do in external websites accessed through its apps. Why is it going to such lengths? And is there a way to avoid this surveillance? ‘Injecting’ code to follow you Meta has a custom in-app browser that operates on Facebook, Instagram and any website you might click through to…

Proctoring software monitors a student’s computer or phone while they write exams. These programs have been around for some time but became ubiquitous during online learning in the pandemic. Proctoria, Respondus and Proctor U, the most popular programs, have enjoyed a 500% increase in usage since the start of COVID-19 and proctoring software is now a US$19 billion global market. Some proctoring programs work by checking that the student has only the test software and no other programs open; others monitor keystrokes. Some use the computer’s camera or cellphone audio to check that the student is working alone. A number of South African…

Nobel laureate economist Richard Thaler famously quipped: People aren’t dumb, the world is hard. Indeed, we routinely encounter problems in our everyday lives that feel complex – from choosing the best electricity plan, to deciding how to effectively spend our money. Australians pay hundreds of millions of dollars each year to comparison websites and consumer-focused groups such as CHOICE to help them make decisions about products and services. But how can we objectively measure how “complex” our decisions really are? Our recently published research offers one potential way to do this, by drawing on concepts from computer and systems science. Why bother measuring complexity? There…

Nattie’s metaverse romance began with anonymous texting. At first “C” would admit only to living in a nearby town. Nattie eventually learned “Clem” was a man with a solitary office job like hers. For Nattie “lived, as it were, in two worlds” – the world of office tedium and an online world where “she did not lack social intercourse.” Texting drew them closer: “annoyances became lighter because she told him, and he sympathized.” Nattie soon realized “she had woven a sort of romance about him who was a friend ‘so near and yet so far’.” Their blossoming relationship almost failed…

Semiconductors are a critical part of almost every modern electronic device, and the vast majority of semiconductors are made in Taiwan. Increasing concerns over the reliance on Taiwan for semiconductors – especially given the tenuous relationship between Taiwan and China – led the U.S. Congress to pass the CHIPS and Science act in late July 2022. The act provides more than US$50 billion in subsidies to boost U.S. semiconductor production and has been widely covered in the news. Trevor Thornton, an electrical engineer who studies semiconductors, explains what these devices are and how they are made. 1. What is a…

As the new Premier League football season gets underway, a few things are certain. There will be goals, drama and excitement, and unfortunately, players will be subjected to vile abuse on social media. My colleagues at the Alan Turing Institute and I have published a report, commissioned by Ofcom, in which we found that seven out of ten Premier League footballers face abuse on Twitter. One in 14 receive abuse every day. These are stark statistics, with huge implications for player welfare. Other analysis has revealed a high rate of online abuse, particularly racist abuse, of footballers that has gone largely unchallenged by football governing organisations. Mental…