Benjamin McKitterick

We have reached a stage now where Moore's Law is more pertinent to digital data than it is to physical hardware. Many of us own a handheld data generator that gathers incredulous amounts of data about our app use, location history, online purchases, searches, work documents, viewing habits, you name it. All of which is analyzed to discover improved usability, trend spots, targeted advertising, behavioural traits, psychology, and much more. Shoshanna Zuboff has coined this “surveillance capitalism” and has revealed that the practice needs many more ethical guidelines. Alongside ethical regulation, data mining techniques can be utilized to improve societal well-being and build a better future.

Take a look at my data analysis of a Switzerland climate data set from Basel.

Robotics is a fascinating multi-disciplinary field that brings together engineering, computing, and AI, to produce novel solutions to challenging issues. It is a discipline that allows you to stretch your creativity and explore ‘out of the box’ ideas. Robots are the missing link between the digital and physical world, cognitive artifacts that could offer a window into our understanding of intelligence.

My interest in robotics stemmed from an early age on an exciting Christmas morning. A robotic arm construction kit was gifted to me and I was immediately drawn in for hours. Fascinated by all the interconnected intricacies: wires, motors, connectors, cogs, I assembled the arm and then deconstructed it multiple times until I knew its in’s and out’s—every nook and cranny. As I grew older, I would go on to disassemble a lot of other objects too—you can imagine my mother was never pleased to see her laptop and other items taken to pieces. Today, I imagine myself working with a team of like-minded inquisitive engineers. To create a real robotic arm, to create the technology of the future... the technology of my imagination.

Artificial intelligence is being adopted globally and tangible benefits of simple AI agents are transforming industry and society. A projected profitable growth in 16 industries across 12 economies is expected to rise by an average of 38% by 2035. From AI assistants and chatbots, to vehicular swarm intelligence and self-driving cars, nobody can question the transformative and impactful role that AI is already having in shaping our futures.

So far, my experience with machine learning has been with both unsupervised and supervised ML algorithms. I have studied and implemented genetic algorithms—using appropriate crossover, mutation, and selection methods—and image recognition and tracking with clustering and classification techniques. Below is an example of a K-Nearest Neighbour algorithm being used to classify a football via relative proximity.