Stephen Hawking Opens New Artificial Intelligence Hub at Cambridge

Professor Stephen Hawking on Wednesday opened a new artificial intelligence research centre at Britain's Cambridge University.

The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) will delve into AI applications ranging from increasingly "smart" smartphones to robot surgeons and "Terminator" style military droids.

Funded by a £10 million (11.2 million-euro, $12.3-million) grant from the Leverhulme Trust, the centre's express aim is to ensure AI is used to benefit humanity.

Opening the new centre, Hawking said it was not possible to predict what might be achieved with AI.

"Perhaps with the tools of this new technological revolution, we will be able to undo some of the damage done to the natural world by the last one -- industrialisation.

"And surely we will aim to finally eradicate disease and poverty. Every aspect of our lives will be transformed.

"In short, success in creating AI could the biggest event in the history of our civilisation," Hawking said.

The centre is a collaboration between the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, and Berkeley, California.

It will bring together researchers from multiple disciplines to work with industry representatives and policymakers on projects ranging from regulation of autonomous weapons to the implications of AI for democracy.

"AI is hugely exciting. Its practical applications can help us to tackle important social problems, as well as easing many tasks in everyday life," said Margaret Boden, a professor of cognitive sciences and consultant to the CFI.

The technology has led to major advances in "the sciences of mind and life", she said, but, misused, also "presents grave dangers".

"CFI aims to pre-empt these dangers, by guiding AI-development in human-friendly ways," she added.

Fears of robots freeing themselves from their creators have inspired a host of films and literature -- "2001: a Space Odyssey" to name but one.

Hawking warned technological developments also posed a risk to our civilisation.

"Alongside the benefits, AI will also bring dangers, like powerful autonomous weapons, or new ways for the few to oppress the many.

"It will bring disruption to our economy. And in the future, AI could develop a will of its own -- a will that is in conflict with ours," he said.

But catastrophic scenarios aside, the development of AI, which allows robots to execute almost all human tasks, directly threatens millions of jobs. So will AI, which has already conquered man in the game of chess, ultimately leave humans on the sidelines?

"We don't need to see AI as replacing us, but can see it as enhancing us: we will be able to make better decisions, on the basis of better evidence and better insights," said Stephen Cave, director of the centre.

"AI will help us to learn about ourselves and our environment -- and could, if managed well, be liberating."

With this in mind, ethics will be one of the key fields of research of the CFI. "It's about how to ensure intelligent artificial systems have goals aligned with human values" and ensure computers don't evolve spontaneously in "new, unwelcome directions", Cave said.

"Before we delegate decisions in important areas, we need to be very sure that the intelligence systems to which we are delegating are sufficiently trustworthy."

Agencies

Dual Festive Bonanza at Orion Mall and Orion East this Deepawali

The Orion Shopping Festival is back, marking the beginning of the festive season inspectacular style. What’s more, this time it’s twice as exciting as both Orion Mall at Brigade Gateway and Orion East Mall celebrate this mega shopping festival, packed with superlative shopping experiences, fantastic prizes for shoppers and grand bumper prizes, all amidst festive gaiety and dazzling décor.

During the much-awaited Orion Shopping Festival, from October 1 to November 1, 2016, customers at Orion Mall, Brigade Gateway, who make purchases of Rs. 4,000 and above can participate in hourly, daily and weekly draws. At Orion East Mall, customers making purchases worth Rs.2,500 and above can participate in these draws. The bumper prize at both malls is a coveted Fiat Abarth Punto cars, while winners of the weekly prize can ride home on a TVS Apache bikes; at Orion East, there are also Apple iPhone 7 being given away during the weekly draws. The daily prizes are delectable Wonder chef hampers. That’s not all — shoppers can win gift vouchers in the hourly draws as well.

Speaking about the Orion Shopping Festival, Vishal Mirchandani, CEO- Retail and Commercial, Brigade Enterprises Ltd. says, “This is the fifth edition of the Orion Shopping Festival at Orion Mall, Brigade Gateway, and we’re also unveiling it at Orion East Mall. The Shopping Festival gets better with every year as you can see from the line-up of amazing prizes that we’re offering. Besides the fantastic shopping, we want to create a wonderful festive atmosphere for our customers.”

Brigade Gateway Campus lit up splendidly for the Deepawali seasons. Certainly, the festive decorations take the Orion Shopping Festival to another level for shoppers, it introduces a whole new festive shopping experience to customers at Orion East Mall, a destination that redefines the concept of the neighbourhood mall. Cutting edge innovation and fine aesthetics combine to create fantastic festive effect sat both malls – from huge lamps to sparkling elephants, Canopy lights cover the facades and light spark fountains scattered across the campus make for a beautiful sight. A gorgeous setting, great shopping and grand prizes – it’s the perfect way to herald the festive season. So, come join the celebrations. 

National Instruments Further Enhances LabView 2016; Holds NI Days in Bengaluru

National Instruments NI, a provider of platform-based testing systems that enable engineers and scientists, has further enhanced its LabView 2016 system design software. NI also held once again its NI Days in Bengaluru.

NI says it empowers engineers to simplify development and effectively integrate software from the ecosystem into their systems.

The latest version of LabView introduces new channel wires to simplify complex communication between parallel sections of code. Available on both desktop and real-time versions of LabView, the channel wire method helps improve code readability and reduces development time. 

An official from NI says: “The new channel wires in LabView 2016 enable us to develop applications even faster by making architectures that are more transferable across domains.

Latest version of LabView features 500+ new supported instruments, five new 64-bit add-ons, supports improved Python integration “With channel wires, we can set up sophisticated software architectural patterns that natively have multiple sources, without having to create and maintain considerable amounts of custom software in the background.” 

Much of the success that LabView users have had relies on the openness of both the product itself and the ecosystem that supports it. NI says LabView 2016 continues this trend with enhanced interoperability with Python and third-party devices. 

This openness, combined with several new enhancements, “helps users continue to improve productivity by streamlining code development and deployment”, says NI.

NI Days at Bengaluru

NI, the provider of systems that enable engineers and scientists to solve the world’s greatest engineering challenges, today successfully hosted the 13th edition of NIDays – an annual conference on graphical system design – in Bangalore. The event was attended by over 500 engineers, scientists, and experts from Industry and Academia who discussed the trends, opportunities and challenges that lie in the future of connected systems.

At the seminar, NI India launched the latest version of its flagship product, LabVIEW 2016, with enhancements in acquiring, processing and managing data from remote data acquisition systems. NIDays offered 21 technical sessions and tutorials along with a wide range of products and application demonstrations. Speakers and exhibitors from various industries joined the event. The diverse set of panellists shared their ideas on trends in communication systems, embedded electronics, security and automated test systems that address the challenges and opportunities for the next generation of connected systems.

Addressing the media at the event, Jayaram Pillai, Managing Director – IndRAA, National Instruments, said, “Over the last 18 years in India, we have built a strong ecosystem of partners, proficient developers and successful customers and this ecosystem has enabled our customers to innovate. It’s inspiring to see the amount of innovation and true technological advancements at this year’s NIDays. The continuous dedication and leadership I’ve seen from the engineering community is awe-inspiring and I’m excited for the future of engineering.”

Commenting on the success of the event, Ajit Gokhale, Senior VP Global Marketing, National Instruments, said, "As the world becomes more and more connected, the immense amount of data available today provides the engineers and scientists with a wide variety of insights, but getting the right insight can be a challenge! We continue to help our customers stay ahead of the curve through our platform-based approach and cutting-edge technology advances in application areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT) or the development of 5G networks by creating tools that help engineers solve real world challenges, accurately, efficiently and rapidly.” 

NI’s tools have proven to be instrumental in the success of a lot of Indian customers and their applications. This year, NI added various new products to the list of these toolsaimed at accelerating the productivity of engineers and researchers working in the areas of IoT, 5G, industrial automation, etc. Some of these tools enable applications that previously seemed too ambitious because of their complexities.

The new range of products launched at the event includes:

·         High-performance PXI instrumentation for processing and sensing at the edge

·         MIMO Application Framework which provides wireless researchers with a fully open reference solution to accelerate 5G prototyping

·         Early access technology platform for TSN which delivers mechanisms to create distributed, synchronized, hard real-time systems over standard Ethernet

·         NI Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) Simulator which helps drive down the cost of test for customers

·         Software-centric NI PXI Digital Pattern Instrument used by semiconductor characterization and production test engineers to drive down the cost of their tests and ensure product quality

To accelerate engineering skills development in India, NI also hosted its annual Engineering Impact Awards 2016 aimed at recognizing the most innovative projects based on NI software and hardware and NIYANTRA awards 2016 recognizing the best graphical system design created by budding engineering students.

ENGINEERING IMPACT AWARDS

NI’s annual technical application contest – Engineering Impact Awards, enabled NI customers to showcase innovative projects based on NI software and hardware. The contest this year had a total of 40 teams and the winners got a chance to participate in the Global Engineering Impact Awards held in Austin annually during NIWeek.

This year, Captronics won in the 'Application of the Year' and 'NI Alliance Partner of the year' categories. They developed an application to determine the location of a bullet on a target system using NI cRIO. National Aerospace Laboratories won in the 'Systems Category' for their design and development of structural health monitoring system comprising of SyncVIEW, DiagnoseVIEW, QuickVIEW for aircraft composite structures. Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad won in the 'Academic Category' for developing a closed loop control of three phase inverter voltage using NI LabVIEW FPGA and cRIO.

NIYANTRA AWARDS

In order to foster the spirit of innovation in engineering students and expose them to the essence of experiential education through a contest, NI hosted its annual student design contest NIYantra 2016. This contest, held over a period of six months, helped the undergraduate engineers design their project ideas and convert them into working models using NI hardware and software. 

This year, NIYantra 2016 witnessed submissions from more than 950+ teams, out of which 18 teams made it to the finals. The results of the competition were announced at NIDays 2016. Sri Eshwar College of Engineering won the NIYANTRA 2016 awards for creating an innovative path detector designed for visually challenged. Teams from Vivekanand Education Society's Institute Of Technology and K.J. Somaiya College of Engineering were the runners-up. The team from Kumaraguru College of Technology was also recognized for their efforts.

IGI Airport & Infosys Pune Among India’s Smartest Buildings for 2016

Honeywell has announced Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport and Infosys’ SDB 10 and 11 buildings in Pune as India’s smartest buildings at the Network 18 and Honeywell Smart Building Awards for 2016.

Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State in the Ministry of Urban Development and minister of state in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, was Honeywell’s chief guest at the function and felicitated the winners. Addressing the building owners, he said, “I deeply value this effort to drive building smartness in our cities. I encourage all building owners across India to contribute in the 100 Smart Cities initiative by making their buildings smarter.”

Ten other buildings in New Delhi, Mohali, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Ahmedabad and Kancheepuram were named the smartest buildings in their market segments, which included hotels, hospitals, schools, retail, airport, commercial multi-tenant offices, single-tenant offices, residential facilities and public sector buildings. The building applicants were evaluated using the scoring criteria from the Honeywell Smart Building Score, a first-of-its-kind global tool to measure building smartness.

The IGI airport scored a perfect 100 in the safe and productive parameters, as well as a 93 in the green parameter. The Infosys Pune SDB 10 and 11 buildings made it to the winning platform with a score of 97 in the safe parameter. The assets at the Infosys buildings also scored high on elements such as cyber security, data analytics and cloud capability. IGI airport and the Infosys SDB Pune buildings also captured the awards for Smartest Large (>= 10 MMPA) Airport Building and Smartest Single Occupant Private Office Buildings in India, respectively.

“It is encouraging to see the interest and competitive spirit among the builder community and facility managers. The number of applications we received strengthens our commitment to make more and more buildings green, safe, and productive,” said Vikas Chadha, president of Honeywell India.

““It is our privilege to partner with Honeywell in creating a property that awards and showcases the best smart building practices fundamental to Smart Cities that are Safer, Greener and Productive. As a prominent and responsible media group, we remain committed to educating consumers and empowering investors. Our association with this initiative is another step in the direction of growing awareness around Smarter Buildings making Smarter Cities,” said Shereen Bhan, managing editor, CNBC-TV18.

The scores were validated by KPMG and affirmed by an eminent jury composed of India’s leading authorities on energy efficiency, safety, security, and productivity in buildings. Jury members included:

·         Gigo Joseph, former CEO, Smart City Kochi

·         Kamlesh Bajaj, founder and CEO, DSCI and previously  founder and director, CERT-In

·         Sudhir Krishna, former secretary, Ministry of Urban Development

·         Sangeeta Gupta, director, IT and Smart Initiatives, TERI University

·         Sanjiv Mital, CEO, National Institute for Smart Government (NASSCOM affiliated)

·        Pankaj Dharkar, president, Fire & Security Association of India

The national winners across the thirteen building verticals were:

·         Smartest Buildings –Indira Gandhi International Airport and Infosys SDB, Pune (Overall joint winners)

·         4 Star Hotels: Ginger Hotels, Wakad (Pune)

·         5 Star Hotels: ITC Maurya, New Delhi

·         Educational Buildings: Indian School Of Business, Mohali

·         Hospitals: Apollo Hospital, Ahmedabad

·         Industrial Buildings: Hyundai Motor India, Kancheepuram

·         Large Airports: Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi

·         Mid-sized Airports: Chandigarh Airport

·         Multi-Tenant Private Offices: DLF Infinity, Gurgaon

·         Public Services Buildings: Metro Bhawan, New Delhi

·         Residential Buildings: DLF Magnolias, Gurgaon

·         Retail Buildings: DLF Mall Of India, Noida

·         Single Occupant Private Offices: Infosys SDB, Pune

The Honeywell Smart Building Score can help buildings with low scores by pinpointing the solutions that will drive optimal return on investment, making them greener, safer, and more productive for their occupants.

It is well established that green buildings enjoy an edge in terms of incentives. They are cost-effective, and developers enjoy government subsidies while consumers pay less for electricity and water. Buildings scoring low on green can choose the most relevant options for their needs from among a range of solutions available in the market to help become energy efficient, environment friendly, and cost-effective.

On the safety front, it is a myth that installing precautionary fire alarm systems for life-threatening instances is expensive. It is, in fact, less expensive than installing air conditioning. Buildings that score low on safety have a plethora of security solutions available today, to address the unique security requirements of all buildings, be it a small ATM cabin or a sprawling commercial or industrial facility.

The Honeywell Smart Building Score can similarly point out specific productivity gaps. As important as uninterrupted connectivity is to the productivity of the building occupants, so is indoor air and water quality. Knowing what technology asset group has scored low can provide clear insight to facility managers to improve building and people productivity.

Honeywell launched the Honeywell Smart Building Score in India in June 2015, and the tool was subsequently launched in the United States, China and the Middle East. Among the tool’s measures:

·         The Green asset group measures the environmentally sustainable components of a building. It includes a building’s use of energy sources, utility sources, temperature control, energy control, and utility control, all of which impact carbon emissions, a facility’s environmental footprint, and utility costs for the building occupant or user.

·         The Safe asset group measures the safeguards for the building, its occupants, users and owners. It includes people, vehicle and material security, fire safety, gas safety, worker safety, and disaster response systems

·         The Productive asset group measures enhanced comfort and productivity for users and owners. It includes technologies that help boost productivity include indoor air and water quality sensors, people, vehicle and material circulation, personalization, connectivity, and energy quality.

Honeywell is positioned with the broadest technology solutions portfolio that serve buildings to support India’s 100 Smart Cities vision, and is already working on several significant projects, including Bhubaneshwar in Odisha, Aurangabad in Maharashtra, Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, and an 11-city project in a large central state.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor & Uber Join to Offer Vehicle Buying Solutions

Toyota Kirloskar Motor announced a partnership with Uber, the ride-hailing app to offer end-to-end vehicle buying solutions for driver partners operating on the Uber platform. Through this partnership Toyota’s Financial arm, Toyota Financial Services India Ltd. (TFSIN) will provide 90% on-road funding on Etios and Livamodels for first time drivers, further reinforcing its association with Uber ensuring best-in-class products are easily affordable to first time buyers.  The 90% on-road funding scheme encompasses a complete package of vehicle cost, accessories, service packages, registration road tax and insurance. The scheme will be applicable till the end of this year till December 2016.  With this initiative the world class product of Toyota will easily be affordable for the Uber Driver Partners which will further add to the growth of the mobility business.

The unique scheme, which has been rolled out across all dealerships across the country, will provide best-in-class service standards with priority processing for Uber drivers. Etios has been very successful in the people mover segment where vehicles are preferred only for their quality, durability and reliability, a testimony to its build quality and strength.  The excellent overall ownership cost value proposition compared to other vehicles makes it most economical and well appreciated by customers.

The Indian ride-hailing market is burgeoning with growth in smartphone and internet users using ride-sharing services for daily commute. As per reports, India’s ride-sharing market is expected to be around $7 billion by 2020.

Toyota Kirloskar Motor has collaborated with Uber offering major support to first time drivers on the Uber Platform through this scheme. This initiative will further boost this market in India with the best on road funding scheme which will ensure that customers can easily buy Toyota products which have set a safety benchmark in the industry.

Speaking on the tie-up, N. Raja, Director & Senior Vice President (Sales and Marketing), Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd said, “Toyota Kirloskar Motor is pleased to announce this tie up with Uber, we believe the 90% on road funding scheme will lead to a positive growth in the ride-sharing market. This initiative is another step closer to changing the dynamics of mobility needs of an average Indian and we are glad to be part of it. Fleet operators across India today have understood the value proposition of Etios. Etios and Liva have set a safety benchmark in the industry standardizing dual airbags and Anti-Lock Braking System (ABS) with Electronic Brake-force Distribution (EBD) across all grades.”

Tomohei Matsushita, MD and CEO, Toyota Financial Services India Ltd. “TFSIN is committed to support Toyota customers in India. Uber being an important partner, we are delighted to support the tie-up and are willing to deliver best-in-class products and services to Uber.”

Speaking on this partnership, Uber India President, Amit Jain said, “ Toyota vehicles are among the most popular cars on the Uber platform worldwide. We are proud to partner with Toyota India to boost grassroots entrepreneurship.”

The scheme will be applicable till December 2016, across India.

Abof Brings SKULT India’s Athleisure Fashion Brand By Shahid Kapoor

abof has announced the launch of India’s first athleisure fashion brand, SKULT, exclusively on its portal. This brand is in partnership with actor Shahid Kapoor, who has built an iconic reputation amongst India’s youth through movies such as Udta Punjab, Haider, and Jab We Met. SKULT, built on the principle of ‘Fashion meets functionality and Design meets Innovation’, is an evolvedstyle of athleisure which draws inspiration from all around the world but adapted for Indian sensibilities and body types.

Athleisure is a huge trend globally. It is a completely new genre of fashion being introduced by abof to Indian millennials in its continued efforts to be a differentiated player in a market cluttered with discounts. In athleisure, clothes are designed to be sturdy to withstand vigorous routines, yet they are trendy and versatile to be worn everywhere. The fashion needs of millennials have changed in last one decade where comfort wear has permeated in routine life. Youth in India today wants to dress down in everyday wear which is casual yet chic. Identifying the void in Indian wardrobes and taking the idea forward, abof.com has taken this street-wear hybrid trend to next level with the launch of SKULT which stands for Shahid + Cult. SKULT’s athleisure collection is unconventional, highly voguish, yet easy to carry and more importantly reminds consumer something about Shahid’s personality in each of its piece.

The atypical ‘Athleisure’ collection by Skult has been designed in-house by abof and has taken more than a year to work on this brand and its products. Commenting on his idea of SKULT, Shahid said, “Skult is about free styling. Skult is about fashion and functionality. Skult is about being yourself wherever you are. It's about apparel that's an extension of your body. That allows you to express yourself with no restrictions or rules. Sometimes clothes that are cool feel too restricting. This line sets you free. Own style. Don't let style restrict you”.

The collection of SKULT is absolutely enthralling with never before seen silhouettes and designs. SKULT is crafted to suit all occasions - work, casual or social.  There is no other brand in India that offers anything even remotely close to the range of SKULT. The collection has strong emphasis on black, grey, nude and monochromatic tones. The offbeat, yet trendy brand has a wide variety of merchandise for men in its launch season with over 250 options, which includes internationally trending categories like meggings and shackets. Apart from bringing these never-heard-before categories in India, even the regular categories have intricate detailing - like thumb holes, drop shoulder jackets, scoop hem tees, long line tees with drawcord - which makes the collection really stand out. SKULT has used high-performance yet very lightweight fabrics - cotton viscose, slub jersey, grindles, melanges, snow heather, terry, lycra denim, cotton satin, and popcorn knit – with the single-minded objective to make it really comfortable. The line also consists of 50 key pieces under ‘SKULT SIGNATURE’ where each piece has been crafted by the actor himself.

“Shahid is a youth icon who is admired for his style. We are extremely excited to partner with him in creating India’s first athleisure fashion brand which combines the actor’s love for ‘fun and comfortable’ dressing", said Kedar Apshankar, Deputy CEO,abof.com. “Athleisure is the new age clothing and we believe that comfort twined with hi-class fashion will take SKULT to great heights. The collection is exceptionally promising and refreshingly on-point. I am confident that this brand and its collection will be embraced by millennials and replace a large part of regular clothes in their wardrobes”, he added.

Heavy Duty Concreel HD Cement Now From JSW Cement

With its unceasing efforts in expanding its horizons and giving something new and beneficial to the society, JSW Cement, one of India’s leading cement has added to its foray, a superior quality product called as Concreel HD -One Cement Six Strengths. It is an environmental friendly green product. JSW Cement launched this cement earlier in Cochin City

 ‘Concreel HD’, a unique cement specially designed for all your concrete based construction requirements. Concreel HD provides exceptional early and final strength along with quick setting thus making it ideal for strength bearing applications such as beams, columns, slabs and foundations.

Speaking on the occasion Parth Jindal, MD- JSW Cement Ltd said,”JSW Cement has come a long way right from its inception till date. Exploring opportunities and expanding its market size, today, we are proud to be introducing this product to the south market which is a highly opportunistic region for us to step up our growth. With this investment, we hope to achieve another milestone to the progress of JSW Cement in the cement industry.”

A result of world class manufacturing process, Concreel HD is an environmentally friendly product with improved chemical resistance and superior cohesion, thereby providing more durability and increased safety to your structure. Therefore, Concreel HD is the perfect solution to all your concrete based construction needs.

JSW Cement has been doing very well in the South and to add to its excellence JSW Cement has launched the Concreel HD cement which will help the company to add more to its turnover which will in turn help the company to grow leading to its expansion and diversification.

Few advantages of Concreel HD are-

ü  High early strength

ü  Most Durable

ü  Quick Setting

ü  Resistant to chemical attack

ü  Superior cohesion
ü  Green product