smart science project recommendations Citizen Science SciStarter Blog 

Smart Science Project Recommendations

By Caroline Nickerson (@CHNickerson) Portions of this post are excerpted from the accompanying podcast episode and from notes shared between the SciStarter team and Kobi Gal’s research team. Smart project recommendations on SciStarter With thousands of citizen science projects listed on SciStarter, a main challenge can be finding the right project for you, one that really suits your needs and your interests. After meeting at a workshop on the Open Science of Learning hosting by CRI, Kobi Gal, a leading expert in human-centered artificial intelligence, and Darlene Cavalier, the founder…

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Artificial Intelligence System Wins at Poker New Technologies 

Artificial Intelligence System Wins at Poker

By Katherine Lindemann Poker isn’t like other games artificial intelligence has mastered, such as chess and go. In poker, each player has different information from the others and, thus, a different perspective on the game. This means poker more closely mirrors the kinds of decisions we make in real life but also presents a huge challenge for AI. Now, an AI system called DeepStack has succeeded in untangling this imperfect information, refining its own strategy to win against professional players at a rate nearly 10 times that of a human…

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New software developed by Carnegie Mellon University helps mobile robots deal efficiently with clutter, whether it is in the back of a refrigerator or on the surface of the moon. New Technologies 

The Human-Robot Virtuous Circle of Creativity

By Norman Rusin @normanrusin Artificial intelligence (AI) has been applied to many tasks, from fighting poaching to preventing illegal logging to separating an Oreo cookie. Although seemingly more mundane, this last task is leading AI researchers to a key path toward creating robots that can help humans in their environment and daily lives, exploring a characteristic of highly developed animals: creativity. And new Carnegie Mellon University software is helping robots get creative. Why Do We (and Robots) Need Creativity? Tina Seelig, who teaches creativity and innovation at the Hasso Plattner…

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With elastic joints and six legs that function like those of a stick insect, Hector is the only walking robot of its kind. (Bielefeld University) Engineering New Technologies 

World’s First Walking Robot Stick Insect

By Kate Stone A research team at Bielefeld University in Germany has taught the only robot of its kind in the world how to walk. Designed to be stick insect-like, the walking robot is called Hector has elastic joints and an ultralight exoskeleton. Hector is the result of an interdisciplinary project at the Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) involving researchers from the fields of computer science, biology, physics, and engineering. The walking robot is equipped with plenty of sensors, enabling it to learn to walk much like a…

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