Computers

Analysis and Comment (9)

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A world-first in qubits has brought quantum computers a step closer. ffejery

Computing 1-0-1: quantum information in an atom’s core

By Andrea Morello

You’ve heard of quantum computers – they harness the power of atoms and molecules to perform memory and processing tasks; they exist in labs but are still a long way off in practical terms. But maybe they…
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Founder of PC manufacturer Dell, Michael Dell, has announced that the company will go private in a $24.4 billion deal — the biggest leveraged buyout since the GFC. AAP

All’s well that ends Dell: going private won’t save struggling PC maker

By David Glance, University of Western Australia

Dell’s decision to sell itself to CEO Michael Dell and technology investment firm Silver Lake has sent analysts into a frenzy of deconstruction to try and make sense of what it actually means. Shareholders…
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The idea of a machine being creative goes back to the earliest days of computing. Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Pablo eCasso? In search of the first computer masterpiece

By Jon McCormack, Monash University

For much of his adult life, painter and scholar Harold Cohen has been working in collaboration with a computer to make visual art. Cohen has worked almost continuously on this creative artificial intelligence…
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A crowd can be a lot to handle, even when they’re happy. Dean Lewins/AAP

Computing the chances of Olympic crowd chaos

By Angelika Kneidl, Technical University of Munich

Handling crowds on major events is a huge challenge for organisers, and the Olympics Organising Committee will be dealing with some of the biggest crowds there are. Simulating such crowds could be one…
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Advanced computational skills are required for day-to-day work in most areas of modern science. kodomut

How to teach science and computing in the age of big data

By Tara Murphy and James Curran

Earlier this week, Senator Chris Evans announced A$5 million worth of science communication grants for 63 projects as part of the Unlocking Australia’s Potential program. We were successful in getting…
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According to some, computer intelligence is on course to match human intelligence by 2045. Sybren A. Stüvel

Person or computer: could you pass the Turing Test?

By Jonathan Borwein (Jon), University of Newcastle and David H. Bailey, The Conversation

As mentioned already on this site and others, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of famed British mathematician Alan Turing. The outline of his remarkable life and sad ending has by now…
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Anything could happen if we don’t teach machines to be “good”. KennethMoyle

Rise of the machines: how computers could control our lives

By Toby Walsh, NICTA

Predicting the future is a risky business. If it wasn’t, we’d all be very wealthy by now. The Danish physicist Neils Bohr famously opined: “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future…
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Momentum is gathering behind calls to pardon the father of computer science. BinaryApe

Calls for a posthumous pardon … but who was Alan Turing?

By Graham Farr, Monash University

You may have read the British Government is being petitioned to grant a posthumous pardon to one of the world’s greatest mathematicians and most successful codebreakers, Alan Turing. You may also have…

Research Briefs (6)

Babies show computers how to learn

University of California, Berkeley

Research into the cognition of babies and small children may help scientists program computers to think and learn more like…

Participants (22)