Not all hackers are criminals. In fact, ethical hackers – security experts who infiltrate networks and computer systems with authorization from their owners – are increasingly being hired to identify vulnerabilities in cyber security systems, and helping organizations stop cyber crime before the attacks happen.

The need for ethical hackers is rising alongside increasing waves of cyber crime. According to  Accenture’s recent State of Cybersecurity Resilience report, cyber security attacks grew 31% between 2020 and 2021, with organizations receiving 270 attacks in 2021. IBM’s “Cost Of Data Breach Report,” published last year, found that such breaches cost businesses an average of $4.24 million USD, the highest recorded in the report’s 17-year history. 

According to Indeed.com, an ethical hacker’s job consists of three main roles:

• Assessing security: Periodic assessments that include seeking vulnerabilities and suggesting ways to reduce risks
• Threat modeling: Identifying what areas to focus on when securing the system (evolves alongside new applications and circumstances)
• Documentation: Reporting findings with clear, well-written documentation

Ethical Hackers Say Industrial Sector Must Evolve on Cyber Security

One area where ethical hackers are increasingly needed is the industrial sector. As ComputerWeekly reported, a team of ethical hackers from the Netherlands recently won the Pwn2Own international hacker contest for spotting weaknesses in a number of industrial control systems. With the industrial sector currently undergoing a digital revolution, such vulnerabilities could potentially unleash wide-scale security breaches.

The ethical hackers, Daan Keuper and Thijs Alkemade, who won the same contest last year for identifying weaknesses in a widely-used teleconferencing platform, unearthed five vulnerabilities in applications used to manage systems or control communication. What they discovered revealed that the industrial sector’s tradition of separating IT and OT networks is no longer sustainable, since machines and equipment in a digitized industrial controls system will all be connected.

The industry will not easily solve this problem. Much of today’s machines and equipment are old and ill-equipped to handle modern security needs. Moreover, the IT network typically acts as the primary security source. Once breached, the OT network vulnerabilities make it “relatively easy to take over machines, modify processes or bring the whole thing to a standstill – with far-reaching consequences,” Alkemade told ComputerWeekly.

Keuper compared current security strategies to a castle surrounded by a moat, wall, and gates. 

“That works really well if you only have one or two drawbridges, because you can guard them well,” he said. “But in today’s digital networks, you have like a thousand drawbridges. That’s impossible to monitor or secure.” 

What can the industrial sector do to make their networks more secure? According to Alkemade and Keuper, IT and OT network professionals must start working together to better understand security needs. Because IT and OT have conflicting interests, with IT prioritizing confidentiality and OT prioritizing availability, the hackers concluded that this will require the industry’s culture to evolve.

As systems and networks become more connected, cyber crime is guaranteed to get worse. Is your organization aware of all the potential vulnerabilities in its network? Consider hiring ethical hackers or training your technical team to find them.

Supporting IT Departments

Aimed to assist businesses understand the weak points in their cyber security infrastructure, Hacking Your Company: Ethical Solutions to Defeat Cyber Attacks is an eight-course program from IEEE. It is ideal for mid/advanced technical professionals across all industries in IT, computer science, and related fields, as well as executives who need a working knowledge of ethical hacking.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist today to learn more about training your organization using this course program.

Interested in learning more about this topic for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!

Resources

Loohuis, Kim. (31 May 2022). Industrial systems not safe for the future, say Dutch ethical hackers. ComputerWeekly.com.

Indeed Editorial Team. (17 May 2022). How To Become an Ethical Hacker (2022 Guide). Indeed.

(2021). State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2021: How aligning security and the business creates cyber resilience. Accenture.

Engineers spend much of their time learning technical skills. However, they may not be as invested in learning the communication and business knowledge needed to ascend to leadership positions. These skills are becoming especially important as digital transformation is forcing traditional workforces to evolve.

While technical certifications can certainly make an impressive addition to your resume, a mix of technical and non-technical certifications is even better. Consider these insightful tips from IT leaders on how to obtain and make the most of professional certifications, originally published in CIO (magazine).

Seven Tips to Help You Grow Professionally

1. Get certified in areas where your skills are lacking:
   Chief Information Officers (CIOs) at big technology organizations tend to have excellent IT skills but often lack good communications skills. CIOs from customer-facing business to business organizations often have the opposite problem, according to Saurabh Chandra, managing director at Boston Consulting Group. “These technology leaders need to get certified in areas that they lack. While CIOs push their team to get certified, they need to come out of their comfort zones and follow suit,” Chandra said.
2. Establish your own way of learning:
   Rather than going along with professional learning trends, you should establish a personalized list of certifications that you can finish within 18 months, advises Puneesh Lamba, CIO of Shahi Exports, an apparel manufacturing company. “The courses should be shortlisted, keeping in mind both the individual’s interest and the organization’s need,” Lamba said.
3. Obtain certifications that expand knowledge of your industry:
   “If I have to remain in the insurance industry, I have to continuously build on my knowledge base,” said Mayank Bhargava, chief technology and data officer at Pramerica Life Insurance.
4. Make sure the certifications you are obtaining are meaningful:
   Look for certifications that will add real value to your skills, advises Sunil Mehta, senior vice president and area systems director for Central Asia at advertising agency WPP. “Getting certified after attending one to two hours of a local online course doesn’t add true value,” Mehta said.
5. Implement your knowledge:
   “At the end of the day, it is the content, faculty, and case studies of a course that cumulatively open the mind,” said Sourabh Chatterjee, president and head of technology, digital sales, and travel at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. “Without implementing the knowledge thus acquired, a certification will only serve the purpose of self-gratification.”
6. Immerse yourself in projects as if you are a non-manager:
   Sourabh Chatterjee, president and head of technology, digital sales, and travel at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, said he takes a hands-on approach to projects, whether it is coding, designing, process flow, testing, or architecture. “This not only helps me to put into practice what I learned in a certification course but also enables me to stay relevant by getting insights into crucial aspects of a project such as human behavior, technology, content, and motivation,” said Chatterjee.
7. Match your technical certifications with business certifications 50:50:
   “For every AI and data science certification, I also undertake a business certification that helps in enhancing my behavioral and influencing skills, enables me to build a business case for technology, and aids me in transforming the IT department,” said Lamba.

As an engineer, growing your leadership skills is essential. Do you have the skills necessary to take on a leadership role and compete in a constantly evolving job market?

Show You Have What It Takes to Become a Leader

Whether you’re looking to grow within your current organization or find opportunities elsewhere, start preparing for your next move with continuing education courses specifically designed for engineers and other technical professionals.

IEEE Leading Technical Teams is a training program which recognizes the unique challenges that come with leading technical groups and is designed for team leaders, managers, and directors of engineering and technology teams who have been in their role for a minimum of six months. The program equips technical leaders with the tools they need to flourish in their roles, unlock their professional growth and success, and inspire and motivate their teams to greater heights of innovation. IEEE Leading Technical Teams consists of two components:

• A “360° Leadership Practices Inventory” (LPI), which solicits confidential feedback on both the leader’s areas of strength as well as opportunities for improvement from their team members, peers, and managers/supervisors.
• A 6-hour, in-person training session, where attendees receive the results of their LPI, participate in targeted instructor-led exercises, discuss case studies that highlight the unique challenges faced by technical leaders and subsequent solutions and best practices they can apply to their specific situations, learn the “Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership,” and receive valuable peer coaching.

Learn more about IEEE Leading Technical Teams  and how you can enroll for a future session, with in-person and virtual options available. 

IEEE has partnered with Rutgers Business School to offer the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA. Designed specifically for groups of ten or more within an organization, this program operates entirely online. It features topics including business strategy, managing product development, finance, negotiation, managing human capital, intellectual property strategy, and transformational agility.

To learn more about offering the IEEE | Rutgers Online Mini-MBA for your organization in order to help your staff grow into leadership roles, contact an IEEE Account Manager today.

Resources

Singh, Yashvendra. (17 June 2022). 3 certification tips for IT leaders looking to get ahead. CIO.

Blockchain technology is growing at a significant pace. According to Statista, the global blockchain market, valued at US$1.57 billion in 2018, is expected to grow more than a hundred times to US$163 billion by 2027. 

Blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger of transactions that records data in a way that prevents hacking and altering of data by duplicating transactions and dispersing them to “nodes” across the network. With organizations increasingly adopting this revolutionary technology, it is transforming the way they do business.  

What Industries Will Benefit From Blockchain?

According to 15 of Forbes Technology Council members, industries that will benefit the most from blockchain include: 

Law enforcement and security: Currently, it can be difficult for police to know if video evidence is legitimate or altered. With blockchain technology, video evidence is signed and time-stamped in a way that is non-repudiable, so it cannot be altered using deepfake software, which is easily available online. 

Supply chains: The global supply chain is notorious for being difficult to navigate and monitor. This problem often leads to goods being lost or expiring if left out of cold storage. With blockchain technology, these goods can be more easily tracked and monitored using sensors. 

Identity management: By providing a global ID in which organizations will need to obtain consent to use data, blockchain will give ordinary people greater control over their online identity and personal information. 

Software security: By providing “dependency controls that are automatic, tamper-proof, and decentralized,” blockchain will make software far more secure. Offering “in-depth dependency graphs” allows those purchasing the software to know exactly what it contains. 

Media: Blockchain could potentially remodel the rights and ownership of media assets— though current industry standards pose some obstacles to this topic. 

Messaging apps: Blockchain could improve messaging app security by providing a crypto wallet address. This process would allow you to sign into the app without having to use your personal financial information.  

Real Estate: Blockchain could potentially simplify the real estate industry by removing the need for middlemen such as lenders, property managers, and brokers. 

How to Expand Your Blockchain Skills

With distributed ledger technology becoming increasingly popular, many technical professionals are looking to expand their skills to include blockchain. The Q1 2022 Workplace Learning Index, performed by the online learning portal Udemy, found that courses on decentralized blockchain applications were the top lessons among global learners in technology and power skills in 2022, IT Pro reported. Other key findings from the report include: 

• Technical skills in decentralized apps (dApps) and platforms like Binance experienced more than 450% growth in usage compared to the last quarter of 2021. Internationally, interest in learning skills in Openstack Cloud increased by 444%, while FastAPI skills grew by 304%. 
• Lessons for Amazon Web Services Certified DevOps Engineer and Laravel were the two most popular skills in the United Kingdom, with 202% and 168% growth respectively, followed by Cucumber Software (118%), GitHub (108%), Apache Maven (107%). 

Bill O’Shea, Udemy EMEA vice president, told ITPro that there has been a “rapid rise in blockchain upskilling” in Britain, revealing that blockchain “continues to be one of the fastest-growing areas within the employment market.” 

“Learners are being savvy in preparing themselves for further developments and understanding of this area as it continues to dominate,” he said. 

Given the number of industries that blockchain will impact, organizations will likely start recruiting more technical professionals with knowledge of this increasingly popular technology. Is your organization’s workforce prepared for the blockchain revolution? 

Get Practical Guidance on Blockchain Solutions

Developed by experts, A Step-by-Step Approach to Designing Blockchain Solutions recaps the basics of the technology; the expected benefits of a blockchain solution; how a solution would benefit a prospect company; and more.  

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist for more information on this five-course training program or discover it on the IEEE Learning Network (ILN). 

Resources

Forbes Technology Council. (10 June 2022). 15 Industries That Could Significantly Benefit From Blockchain Technology. Forbes. 

Millman, Rene. (26 May 2022). Uptake for blockchain skills courses surges 450% in 2022. ITPro. 

Imagine you are stuck in the aftermath of a hurricane. You need to call for help, but networks are down. Drones suddenly appear over the horizon. Equipped with 5G technology, they form an aerial network that allows you to send texts and look up evacuation information.

Developed by AT&T, these flying “cells on wings,” or COWs, are expected to expand access to larger numbers of people stranded in disaster zones. Using fiber optic tethers, flying COWS connect to trucks on the ground that serve as communication and power bases, according to CNET. So far, they have been tested in rural Missouri in regions that lack network access. 

As climate change spurs more severe weather events, including wildfires, hurricanes, and floods, the flying COWs are increasingly necessary.

“Emergency preparedness and disaster recovery for the carriers has become critically important,” Bob O’Donnell , Technalysis Research analyst, told CNET. “These COWs literally become a lifeline.”

South Korea Gets First-Ever Private 5G Network

As we reported previously, 5G networks are slowly phasing out older ones. Unlike its 4G and 3G predecessors, 5G can carry massive amounts of data at lightning-fast speeds. Combined with cloud computing and artificial intelligence, 5G will serve as a backbone for the Internet of Things, autonomous machines and vehicles, and other emerging technologies.

While rollouts are fraught with delays due to the pandemic, 5G is expected to reach millions of people in the U.S. this year given that telecommunications companies bought millions of dollars worth of highly-coveted mid-band spectrum from the Federal Communications Commission. 

As 5G slowly unfurls across the world, some organizations have decided to build their own private 5G networks. For example, a joint effort between Samsung Electronics and NAVER Cloud will create a 5G private network at NAVER’s headquarters in South Korea this June, which will be used to power mobile robots that will provide services to employees. The project will be the country’s first private 5G network. The robots will operate on NAVER’s cloud platform with 5G technology provided by Samsung. Rather than relying on chips embedded in each individual robot, the robots will process information using the cloud, which will act as a “brain” they all share. 

“Samsung’s private 5G network plays the role of a neural network that connects the robots and the cloud, enabling the cloud to control and support tens of thousands of robots in real-time and allowing them to be smarter together,” states Samsung in a news release. “In addition, advanced technologies such as digital twin, 3D/HD mapping and AI are applied to help robots learn to find their way inside the building by creating a virtual space that replicates the real world.”

To start, 40 robots will deliver packages, coffee, and lunch to employees in the building. While the robots are currently limited to three floors, the project is expected to expand to the building’s full 36 floors. 

Private 5G networks like these represent a new frontier in telecommunications. As 5G rollouts continue to expand, 5G will eventually dominate networks worldwide.

Are You Ready to Meet Consumer Demand for Higher Communication Speeds?

The next generation of wireless network technology is here, and it’s vital to understand how to deliver on the 5G vision while meeting consumer demand for higher communication speeds. 

Interested in training your team with 5G Networks, a three-course program from IEEE and Nokia? Connect with an IEEE Content Specialist today.

For individual access, visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN)!

Resources

Press release. (2 June 2022). Samsung Electronics Collaborates With NAVER Cloud To Launch Korea’s First Private 5G Network. Samsung Newsroom.

Shankland, Stephen. (2 June 2022). These Drones Could Bring You 5G Networking After a Hurricane. CNET.

Most of us can only dream of playing professional sports. However, augmented reality (AR) could soon turn these dreams into reality — that is, a virtual one.

This fall, the National Football League (NFL) will release its first officially licensed game for virtual reality platforms, ESPN reported. The “NFL PRO ERA” game will give players the ability to experience — in virtual reality — what it is like to play pro football. Using a special AR headset, players will be able to experience the game on a virtual field. 

The game, which will be available on Meta Quest and PlayStation VR, and licensed by the NFL Players Association, will turn NFL fans into virtual NFL quarterbacks, giving them the ability to try to make plays they have seen real-life NFL quarterbacks make on television. 

“When we think about this experience, you’re finally immersing yourself as the professional athlete for the first time ever and seeing it in a way that you’ve never seen it,” Troy Jones, co-founder of StatusPRO, the company that is developing the game, told ESPN. “It is the future, and we look at it as the new era of gaming and the next step in the way people will consume sports.”

How AR Gaming Will Improve Cognitive and Mental Health

The impact of AR gaming will be felt beyond entertainment. According to CNET, one area where it is already having an impact is on exergaming, a type of gaming that incorporates physical movement. Exergaming has been around for a while — with well-known brands like DanceDance Revolution, which made its debut in 1999. Researchers are looking into how to take the technology a step further by combining it with AR. 

For example, the Pacific Brain Health Center’s “FitBrain” program aims to boost the mental function of seniors by merging cognitive exercises and physical exercise through stationary bikes and treadmills combined with 2D tablets or 3D VR headsets.

“Physical exercise is probably one if not the most well-validated interventions to improve both general health and also brain health or brain function or both,” Dr. David A. Merrill, an adult and geriatric psychiatrist and director of the Brain Health Center, told CNET.

Technological Advancements in AR Will Create a More Realistic, Immersive Experience

While AR has been around since the 1990s, the technology has become much more advanced in recent years. Improvements include features that allow players to better interact with the virtual environment. According to CNN Business, researchers at Salzburg University developed an AR mask that players can breathe into, allowing them to blow out candles, blow up balloons, and more in a virtual world. Meanwhile, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University equipped an Oculus Quest 2 headset with ultrasonic transducers that produce ultrasonic energy, which points at a wearer’s mouth in order to generate unique sensations, such as the feeling of wind on your lips, PC Gamer reported. 

These AR advancements are only the beginning. With the rollout of 5G networks across the world – a development that will allow for faster internet speeds and the transferring of enormous amounts of data necessary to support advanced AR gaming – it is only a matter of time before AR gaming becomes widespread. 

Practical Applications of Virtual and Augmented Reality in Business and Society

One aspect of video gaming that makes it unique is that it has always been driven by the desire for maximum fun, not the need to solve a specific real-world problem. This has driven both the development and commercialization of new technologies.

Enroll in Practical Applications of Virtual and Augmented Reality in Business and Society: The Case of Gaming on the IEEE Learning Network to discover the impact of video games as a $160 billion USD industry on the evolution of real world intelligent and immersive realities. 

In this online course, we’ll review the history and relevance of gaming, explore what makes gaming unique, show how gaming has impacted the development of multiple technologies that are fundamental to immersive reality, discuss unexpected use cases, and more!

Resources

Rice, Andrea. (17 May 2022). VR Exercise Games Could Offer Hope for Delaying Dementia. CNET.

Corrigan, Hope. (9 May 2022). Scientists add mouth haptics to VR, complete with spiders. PC Gamer.

Rothstein, Michael. (20 April 2022). NFL-licensed virtual reality game set for fall release. ESPN.

This mask makes breathing in virtual reality more realistic. CNN Business. 

For the first time, autonomous vehicles (AVs) are now being tested on the streets of Austin, Texas and Miami, Florida, without drivers at the wheel. Designed by Argo AI, the vehicles are also being tested in Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Detroit, Michigan, and Palo Alto, California, as well as the German cities of Hamburg and Munich. 

These tests are only the beginning. The company, whose autonomy platform uses lidar, sensors, and mapping software, is partnering with both ride-sharing service Lyft and Walmart’s delivery service to provide driverless taxi rides and autonomous grocery delivery.

Despite many advancements in AV technology, the road ahead remains uncertain. To replace human drivers, these vehicles need to be able to intuitively navigate roads and make split decisions the same way humans do. Current systems are still far from reaching this level of autonomy. However, some recent research breakthroughs may help engineers understand how to overcome this challenge.

Overly Conservative Decision Making Can Make AVs Easy to Fool

To make autonomous vehicles safer, engineers have traditionally designed them to be overly cautious. However, recent research from the University of California suggests this is part of the problem.

Since AVs cannot tell the difference between an object that makes its way onto a roadway by accident and an object placed on a roadside intentionally to provoke a physical denial-of-service attack, they can easily be tricked into making a wrong decision. For example, coming to a sudden stop in the middle of the road could potentially cause an accident. 

Ironically, this problem is a result of engineers designing AV planning modules to operate with “an abundance of caution,” the study’s lead author, Ziwen Wan, a Ph.D. student in computer science at UC Irvine, explained to the UC newsroom.

“But our testing has found that the software can err on the side of being overly conservative,” Wan said, “and this can lead to a car becoming a traffic obstruction, or worse.”

New Machine Learning Technique Helps AVs Maintain Steady Flow at Intersections

Another obstacle for autonomous systems is knowing how to move together in busy intersections. A team of researchers from MIT recently discovered a machine learning technique that can help fleets of AVs navigate signalized intersections in a way that allows traffic to continue flowing uninterrupted, while at the same time making traveling faster and more fuel efficient. 

Rather than relying on typical mathematical models to navigate complex intersections, the researchers turned to deep reinforcement learning, a model-free method that uses trial-and-error, in which the control algorithm learns to make a sequence of decisions, and is rewarded when it makes the right one. They refined this training further by using another technique known as reward shaping, in which they give the system some domain knowledge it would not be able to learn by itself. Using this method, the vehicle would be penalized if it stopped when it wasn’t supposed to brake. This helps the vehicle understand how to balance competing speed requirements that allow it to both improve travel time and reduce emissions.

Using simulations, the researchers found that if every vehicle on the road is autonomous, their control system could reduce fuel consumption by 18 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent, while increasing travel speeds by 20 percent. 

These research findings are just the start. With every advancement in AV technology, engineers are one step closer to creating a world in which traveling is easier, faster, and safer. 

Preparing for Roadways of the Future

Learn about the latest developments in AV technology with training in foundational and practical applications through the IEEE Guide to Autonomous Vehicle Technology. Created by leading experts in the field, this online seven-course training program explores the latest strategies and business-critical research on autonomous, connected, and intelligent vehicle technologies

Connect with an IEEE Content Specialist today to learn more about purchasing the program for your organization.

Interested in purchasing the program for yourself? Access it now through the IEEE Learning Network (ILN)!

Resources

Bradbury, Rosie. (31 May 2022). There are now fully driverless cars with no human behind the wheel for safety on the roads of Miami and Austin. Business Insider.

Bell, Brian. (26 May 2022). Autonomous vehicles can be tricked into dangerous driving behavior. University of California.

Zewe, Adam. (17 May 2022). On the road to cleaner, greener, and faster driving. MIT News.

Utah and Connecticut recently joined a growing number of U.S. states – including California, Colorado, and Virginia — passing data privacy laws. These regulations give citizens greater control over their data and empower them to hold organizations that violate the rules accountable. A number of federal governments, including the European Union, China, Brazil, have also passed similar laws.

While the U.S. does not currently have a federal data privacy law, federal regulators are still taking action. The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission recently settled a suit against Twitter over allegations that it misled people over how their phone numbers and email addresses would be used, slapping the social media company with a $150 million USD fine.

Meanwhile, a recent ruling in a $650 million USD class action lawsuit against Facebook found it violated the Illinois’ 2008 biometric privacy law over its handling of facial recognition data. As a result, the social media giant must pay over 1.4 million residents up to $397 USD.

These legal actions are only the beginning. According to CPO Magazine, legislators in at least 27 states in the U.S. have introduced data privacy bills in the last several months.

“By 2024, it’s likely that almost every state will have its own version passed into law,” writes Bill Tolson, Vice President of Global Compliance & eDiscovery at Archive360, in CPO Magazine. “This is getting little to no attention in the business world, and yet it requires serious effort to ensure compliance. Businesses getting prepared now are barely ahead of the curve; those that put it off till the laws hit the market will have to scramble to keep up.”

Data Privacy Professionals Are In High Demand

Data privacy professionals are quickly becoming some of the most in-demand technical professionals in the world today. A recent report from the recruitment company TRU Staffing Partners found a 30% increase in open data privacy jobs, due to a combination of the rise in remote work and the recent proliferation of data privacy laws. In addition to there not being enough data privacy professionals, the report also found a shortage of professionals with the right qualifications. According to CPO Magazine, some key findings from the report include:

• Qualified data privacy professionals have a competitive advantage in the current job market. Whereas it generally took up to six weeks for someone with the right qualifications to get hired after submitting their resume in 2019, it took roughly one week on average in 2021.
• Data privacy professionals typically have a minimum of two job offers at a time. When they are actively looking for a job, this increases to three.
• Privacy professionals have seen a 22% growth in pay (earning about $20,000 – $30,000 USD more in general annually for the same positions). Similar increases are anticipated by 2023.
• About 75% of these positions are in corporations, 20% are in consulting and software companies, and 5% are in the legal industry.

As more governments pass regulations and organizations seek to fill their knowledge gap, now is the perfect time for technical professionals to learn the ins-and-outs of data privacy.

Growing Your Data Privacy Skills

As privacy grows in importance, the need for technical professionals to possess strong knowledge in the area also grows.

Protecting Privacy in the Digital Age, brought to you by IEEE Educational Activities in collaboration with IEEE Digital Privacy, is a four-course program that provides a framework on how to operationalize privacy in an organizational context, how to make it usable for end users, and how to address emerging technical challenges to protecting digital privacy. Connect with an IEEE Content Specialist today to learn how to get access to this program for your organization. Interested in access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN).

Ethical transparency is critical to an organization’s success and it must be included in digital environments. Successful digital environments require rigorous ethical standards that incorporate honesty, impartiality, protection, security, and privacy.

AI Standards: Roadmap for Ethical and Responsible Digital Environments provides instructions for a comprehensive approach to creating ethical and responsible digital ecosystems. Contact an IEEE Content Specialist to learn more about how this program can benefit your organization. Interested in getting access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!

Resources

Bensinger, Greg. (30 May 2022). How Illinois Is Winning in the Fight Against Big Tech. New York Times. 

Casale, Elizabeth; Collum, Christopher; Shreve, James; Sosnicki, Luke. (27 May 2022). Utah and Connecticut enact comprehensive data privacy laws. thompsoncoburn.com. 

Gordon, Marcy. (25 May 2022). Twitter to pay $150M penalty over privacy of users’ data. ABC News.

Sauer, Megan. (25 May 2022). Some Facebook users are receiving $397 checks over data privacy violations—and these tech companies could be next. CNBC. 

Tolson, Bill. (20 May 2022). Data Privacy Conundrum: When Different States Play by Different Rules. CPO Magazine. 

Ikeda, Scott. (9 May 2022). Data Privacy Jobs Report Shows Demand for Privacy Pros at Record High Thanks to Complex Regulatory Requirements, Mass Migration to Cloud Services. CPO Magazine. 

Big data is creating exciting new opportunities for artificial intelligence (AI). According to Arvind Krishna, Chairman and Chief CEO of IBM, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced each day. To analyze, distribute, and make use of this data, many organizations are combining AI with hybrid cloud technology.

“The economic opportunity behind these technologies is enormous, given that business is only about 10 percent of the way to realizing A.I.’s full potential,” writes Krishna in Inc.com. “Fortunately, we are making steady progress, with the number of organizations poised to integrate A.I. into their business processes and workflows growing rapidly. A recent IBM study showed that more than a third of the companies surveyed were using some form of A.I. to save time and streamline operations.”

However, for artificial intelligence programs to work effectively, organizations need to successfully manage their data. According to Andrew P. Ayres, a Senior Specialist with HPE’s Enterprise Services practice in the United Kingdom, writing in CIO, you can achieve this by:

• making “data-centric AI” and “AI-centric data” part of your data management strategy, and metadata and “data fabric” the foundational elements of this strategy
• establishing policy requirements that include minimum AI data quality to prevent “bias, mislabeling, or irrelevance”
• determining the right “formats, tools, and metrics for AI-centric data” early on so you don’t have to develop new techniques as your AI evolves
• ensuring that the data, algorithms, and people within your AI supply chain are diverse in an effort to stay in line with your ethical values
• appointing or hiring the right experts internally and externally to oversee data management, who are capable of developing effective processes and deployments for your AI 

How to Choose an AI Program That Works Best For Your Employees

As you develop your AI program, keep in mind that while AI can augment your organization in terms of speed and efficiency, it is not necessarily a substitute for human intelligence. 

While AI is good at analyzing data and recognizing patterns, it still has a tendency to miss important context that humans easily spot. This can have potentially devastating consequences if, for example, an AI makes a critical error when analyzing medical documentation. As such, you need to consider how to make your AI work with your human employees in the most effective way possible. 

According to experts from Boston Consulting Group, writing in Fortune, organizations can do this by following the following principles:

• Know your options in terms of how you can combine humans with AI: Depending on your organization’s unique needs, do you need your AI to act as an illuminator, recommender, decider, or automator? Knowing the difference can help you choose the best AI system for your organization, whether it’s an AI that can make predictions or one that can help you automate operations remotely. 
• Create a decision tree: A decision tree constitutes the questions you will ask in a sequence to help you clearly understand your objectives (goals), context (resources in terms of data), and outcomes (results in terms of deploying AI vs employees). This will help you determine what type of AI system (illuminator, recommender, decider, or automator) you need.
• Continuously assess and revise your human-AI combinations: Your needs for an AI program may evolve overtime and, as such, so will its relationship to your employees. For this reason it’s important to return to the decision tree occasionally to determine if you need to revise your model.

Knowing how to manage your organization’s data and determining the right AI program are important steps. However, you also need to ensure that your employees are equipped to work with this increasingly complex technology. 

Bringing Ethics to the Forefront at Your Organization

An online five-course program, AI Standards: Roadmap for Ethical and Responsible Digital Environments, provides instructions for a comprehensive approach to creating ethical and responsible digital ecosystems. 

Contact an IEEE Content Specialist to learn more about how this program can help your organization create responsible artificial intelligence systems.

Interested in getting access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!

Resources

Krishna, Arvind. (18 May 2022). Why Artificial Intelligence Creates an Unprecedented Era of Opportunity in the Near Future. Inc. 

Candelon, Francois, Ding, Bowen, Gombeaud, Matthieu. (6 May 2022). Getting the balance right: 3 keys to perfecting the human-A.I. combination for your business. Fortune.

Ayres, Andrew P. (29 April 2022). Don’t Fear Artificial Intelligence; Embrace it Through Data Governance. CIO.

The finite element analysis (FEA) is leading to major breakthroughs in nanotechnology, and having a huge impact on a number of industries spanning electronics, material science, quantum science, engineering, and biotechnology, AZO Nano reported. 

Simulations based on FEA, a complex mathematical technique, is giving engineers valuable insight into the mysterious mechanical properties of polymer nanocomposites used as filler in polymer manufacturing and processing. These properties offer a revolutionary alternative to conventional polymer composites, including enhanced abrasion resistance, less shrinkage, and residual stress, as well as advanced thermal, electrical, and optical properties.  

Nanomaterials are much smaller than traditional materials, and are therefore typically not as effective. As such, it is crucial for engineers to understand how the materials will react under stress in order to improve their design. While FEA is just one technique used to test these designs, its unique abilities provide significant insight into their properties. 

What is FEA?

As we previously reported, FEA is based on the finite element method (FEM), a technique that can help solve highly complex math equations. A simple way to understand FEM is to look at it as separating a large problem into a series of smaller ones (“finite elements”), making the overall problem easier to see. FEA is the mathematical equations behind FEM that is applied to create a simulation. The simulation breaks down the entire model into smaller elements within a mesh, which engineers use to test how the different elements of a design interact and perform under simulated stressors. 

There are many benefits of using FEA. For one, its insight into how the various elements of a design are interacting in minute detail provide enhanced accuracy of structural analysis. Furthermore, FEA allows engineers to create virtual simulations thereby reducing the need for physical prototypes and testing in order to save time and money.

How Are Engineers Using FEA for Advancing Nanotechnology?

Using FEA, researchers have discovered that high interfacial stress can cause the nanofiber or matrix in the material to come apart. They were able to control the properties which improve the strength of the interface to generate the best stress transfer. They discovered that the accumulation of stress concentrations at the interface between the fiber and the matrix can reveal the effective matrix-to-nanofiber stress transfer. Additionally, engineers can use FEA to simulate the composition of nanocomposites and nanotubes in the polymer, which would strengthen their mechanical properties by organizing thousands of nanotubes in a specific pattern.

What Industries Are Benefiting From This Research?

The aerospace sector is using FEA to model and test the effectiveness of polymer nanocomposites-based structures. FEA is also used by the manufacturing sector to simulate the necessary properties of polymer nanocomposites for use in packaging and coating applications.

Engineers are also using FEA to make breakthroughs in the field of photonics. Examples include using FEA to analyze four-wave mixing of topological edge plasmons in graphene metasurfaces; to demonstrate a feasible way to control light on integrated photonics and free-space metasurfaces; and to develop advancements in surface-emitting semiconductor lasers and optical lenses. Learn more about how photonics researchers are using FEA to advance their field.

Problem-Solving Applications with Photonic Devices

Providing a comprehensive and up-to-date account of FEM in photonics devices, with an emphasis on practical, problem-solving applications and real-world examples, Finite Element Method for Photonics is a five course-program from IEEE. Created by Dr. Agrawal, learners will gain an understanding of how mathematical concepts translate to computer code finite element-based methods after completing this program.

Connect with an IEEE Content Specialist today to learn how to get access in order to train your organization.

Interested in the course program for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN).

Resources

Ahsan, Muhammad Adeel (27 April 2022). Finite Element Analysis of Polymer Nanocomposites. AZO Nano.

Digital transformation isn’t only a process of adopting new technological tools – it is a series of changes that will impact every facet of your organization. As such, it’s important for organizations to anticipate the impact digital transformation will have across their departments, employees, and customers.

“Organization leaders need to look at why they want to transform their business,” states Michael Henry, CTO of Singapore Sports Hub and an expert in Experience Driven Transformation, Workforce Strategy and Customer Experience, in Forbes. “They need to be able to link what they’re doing to an experience improvement. Will this change the experience for our workforce? Will it change the experience of how we interact with our customers or sell products? It’s crucial to anchor all that you’re doing to experience and get away from defaulting to technology as something ‘we use’ to something ‘that enables’—forget about using technology just for the sake of using technology.”

How to Leverage the “Business Model Canvas” for Digital Transformation

Before your organization ventures off on its digital transformation journey, first take the time to map out the various aspects of your business. This will give you a good starting point for understanding the ripple effect digital transformation will have across each. 

Start by focusing on your business model and the objectives you are trying to achieve, recommends Benjamin Mueller, professor for digital business at the University of Bremen and an associate researcher at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Below is a summary of four steps he suggests, originally published in Harvard Business Review.

Map out your organization’s business model:

Determine the nine key elements of your business model. These include: 1) Key partners, 2) Key activities, 3) Key resources, 4) Value propositions, 5) Customer relationships, 6) Channels, 7) Customer segments, 8) Cost structure, and 9) Revenue streams. 

Identifying these elements will create a canvas of your business model that will help you understand how these different areas overlap. It will also help you understand how digital transformation in one area of your business will impact the rest.

Identify and experiment with digital transformation opportunities:

Now that you have pinpointed the key elements of your business model, you can start identifying the main areas you need to pay attention to, then slowly introduce necessary digital transformations, carefully experimenting and examining the “ripple effects” of these changes as you move forward. Rather than focusing on the process of your digital transformation, focus instead on the goal. 

Make the necessary transformations:

During this step, it’s not only important to determine the changes you need to make, but to also anticipate the impact they will have on the various elements in your map. For example, you may find that training your employees is just as important as choosing the best technical applications for achieving your goals. 

Ensure you have reached your objective:

Digital transformation is not one effort, but rather, a series of efforts that work across your organization. For this reason, staying focused on the business model will help you achieve your overall objective throughout all the various processes. “In other words, rather than focusing on technology, the focus should be on what you can do now that you could not do before,” writes Mueller. 

Are you ready to meet your digital transformation objectives? Be sure to consider these steps and understand your goals before you start.

Starting Your Digital Transformation Journey

It’s important to prepare for your organization’s digital transformation journey beforehand. Check out Digital Transformation: Moving Toward a Digital Society, a five-course program from IEEE that provides the background knowledge needed to smartly implement digital tools into organizations.

Contact an IEEE Account Specialist to get organizational access, or check it out for yourself on the IEEE Learning Network.

Resources

Henry, Michael. (12 May 2022). Why Your Company’s Digital Transformation Needs To Be Experience-Driven. Forbes.

Mueller, Benjamin. (27 April 2022). How to Map Out Your Digital Transformation. Harvard Business Review.