As the art of AI progresses, new forms of AI generation are being created. One example is AI generated art, where you can put in words or a full sentence and an AI will generate an image based of millions of existing google images. Yet while these websites get there data from millions of images, theres still exists AI Bias.
AI Bias is when artificial intelligence has bias to a certain thing depending on its source of information and even its initial purpose. For example, in an art generating AI called DALL-E, when you search words like "family," every example shows relatively white people rather than any POC. This is an example of AI bias, in which the AI has a bias towards white people over minorities.
Biases such as this can be harmful because they can make information less accurate. To prevent this, AI need to be made with the idea to include all perspectives and all kinds of information. In an AI which recognizes people for example, the data given should include people of all genders, ages, and ethnicities to make sure information is completely accurate and unbiased. Going into research with this in mind can prevent bias in the future.
Storytelling in Data
Gia Rizvi / July 26, 2022
While charts of data can seem boring when you first mention it, sometimes looking at beautifully visualized charts can be extremely compelling. They can provide data in unique ways and allow people to get information in faster ways rather than having to read paragraphs or charts of information.
I like this specific graph from Visual Complexity (originally on the website Atlas Obscura) because it’s a very specific graph of an obscure thing and I find it interesting. The graph represents “The Obsessively Detailed Map of American Literature's Most Epic Road Trips.” It’s cool someone put in this much effort for something so specific and especially put in this much detail. It’s also very pleasing to look at, because the map is easy to see and all the trails are nicely color coded. Clicking on different points in the numerous trails also gives the book title, author, location, and line where the location comes from. It must have been very time consuming to create and I find it very impressive.
Bias or Bust?
Gia Rizvi / July 25, 2022
Today in class, we had a Bias or Bust activity in which we had to convince a guest speaker to believe in a specific idea with our own bias as well as the their existing bias. For example, they created a scenario of being a young child who has authority bias in believing that the earth is flat. One team had to defend this ideology and prove that the earth is flat, while my team had to debate against the idea. We had an automatic disadvantage because of the speaker's authority bias for their parents.
To pursuade, my group used articles and images alike. When the speaker was young in the scenario, we used images and visuals to give information that would be easy to understand. Once they were older, my group and the other group used various articles and examples on the internet to prove our point. In one scenario, we had to convince the speaker that America is the best country and they should not study abroad in Australia. For this, we used google searches to show quick answers. We also used specific text in proper articles to give examples and data to prove a point. In one instance, a peer used an article to show the percentage of people, especially foreigners, who experience discrimination in Australia
What was most interesting was that the news we used was researched but still biased. Both groups excluded information which would obviously go against the argument we are trying to make and only pointed out what made us look better and the other group bad. In the attempt to combat someone's bias, we used our own bias to push an idea they might not agree with. In the entire activity, we were essentially using informed bias to convince someone of something.
What is Cybersecurity?
Gia Rizvi / July 22, 2022
Cybersecurity is the information technology field in which protection systems are made for computers and networks against theft, damage, and hacking. This protects hardware, software, and electronic data. As the speaker mentioned, cyber threats can happen in numerous areas. For example, your important information can be stolen when using public wifis because it is not fully secured. Cyber hacking can happen to anyone, so it’s important to recognize these types of risks to prevent it from happening to more people.
While there are many threats, the world is always modernizing, so cybersecurity will advance too. As computers and data become more advanced, then cybersecurity will have to catch up to be able to protect newer technology. But as technology becomes more advanced, hackers will have better machinery to do attacks as well. If cybersecurity can’t immediately catch up, then hackers can use new technology to do more quick and efficient attacks.
Of course, cybersecurity and IT will always be an important field and the future will have a larger demand for them. That means in the future, more people will need to or be expected to go into these IT fields to compensate for the increasing demand. IT jobs and cybersecurity will most likely become more popular in the way practicing medicine is, and become more high paying jobs.
What is Citizen Science?
Gia Rizvi / July 21, 2022
Citizen science is when scientists and researchers collect data using the collaboration of the general public community. Essentially, the public volunteers to help conduct research in a public setting, which includes designing experiments, collecting data, analyzing results, and solving problems as well. Citizen science can help in research being collected quickly and in larger amounts.
The idea of citizen science can be used for a numerous amount of things. It can help in especially research which requires huge amounts of data. For example, if a scientist wanted to know how much litter is around a city, citizen science can allow regular people to take photos of litter in their daily life. With more modern technology, many apps can be created to call the community together to help in citizen science and allow many scientists to proceed in their discoveries at a faster rate.
My Favorite HTML Tutorial
Gia Rizvi / July 21, 2022
This video shows how to add special characters in HTML. I like this tutorial because it is simple in showing how to add the special characters. The creator screen records themself while typing the code, and even shows how it would look on a saved website. Enjoy :)
Interview with Jeff Fouts in IT Girls Tech Scavenger Hunt!
Gia Rizvi / July 20, 2022
Associate Director of Career Services and Data Analytics shares what his job entails
Today, the IT Girls participated in a tech scavenger hunt, making us go around campus in groups of 3 and interview a variety of staff. One specific person my group and I interviewed was Jeff Fouts. He manages career service and data analytics, which entails managing the jobs students go into and even helping them find said jobs, internships, etc. He also helps with resumes, cover letters, interviews, and more.
One very interesting thing he found during his work was that there is actually a larger amount of women enrolled in the Syracuse University ischool at the moment compared to men. Not only that, but many of their starting salaries once they go into a career have shown to be higher as of now, by up to 7 thousand dollars. With an increase of women already in the ischool, he advises the IT Girls that IT and data related fields can be in just about anything, and it’s a very important field to get into and recognize.
Because his job requires managing data, he knows this information because his job even requires checking what career students go into after they graduate. This is how data is involved in his job. Not only can he use data to find where students are getting jobs, when, and how, but it can also be used to understand how well he and his faculty is doing in aiding these students. He also uses numerous technologies on a daily basis in his work. The most notable ones he uses are by the names of Handshake, LinkedIn, and Excel. Handshake is a program used by all of the university, and it allows him to easily manage data and put it into an Excel spreadsheet.
Teachable Machines
Gia Rizvi / July 19, 2022
Understanding Machine Learning through a modern, simplified website
Today, we were set into groups of two or three to understand machine learning using a website called “Teachable Machines.” We were allowed to make our machines do anything, such as recognize the difference between a cat or a dog, facial expressions, or even colors.
Our group created a teachable machine which would be useful to teachers in the classroom if it was ever perfected. We chose three classes and uploaded about 800 images to each of all three group members so that the teachable machine can recognize and work with more than one person or one face. The three classes were labeled “writing,” “phone,” and “spacing out.”
The point of the teachable machine was to see if the machine could recognize when a person looks distracted, as if they are “spacing out,” or typing on their phone rather than writing and being engaged in class. The spacing out class worked if the person was looking anywhere but the main camera, and without holding anything up. The writing one was a little faulty, because it only worked well if the notebook was held up in the air which is not how people normally write. For the most part, the phone class worked well even if it was not fully being held up in front of the camera.
It was really interesting to see how quickly a machine can learn to recognize something even with a decently limited amount of information. Our machine still got the point across even if it didn’t always work 100% correctly. Machines and artificial intelligence like this can quickly adapt and be used for a large amount of things. For example, it could be used to recognize different species of animal in the wild if a researcher or expert cannot get close enough or discretely enough to check themselves. AI can recognize patterns in species and also connect similarities between different ones.
La'Naia Jones appointed as Chief of Intelligence for the CIA
Gia Rizvi / July 19, 2022
An empowering example of women in IT
LaNaia Jones is a grand example of the accomplishments and contributions women can now bring to the modern world. Growing up in Anne Arundel County, Maryland and spending a majority of her career in IT, Jones is an empowering woman of color rising in a rapidly evolving society.
As of 2018, she was appointed to work as the Deputy Chief Information Officer for the CIA. Using her academic career and experience based in the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and the University of Maryland University College, she has worked multiple jobs and done significant work in her field. Her role in the CIA is of large significance, due to the increasing need for advancements in technology and support in national security missions.
While she now works as the CIO, she has made numerous contributions in her work in IT in the past as well. She served as the Chief of Transformation and Transition in the Department of Defense. She also provides IT implementation into fields such as network communications, utility hosting, physical/virtual desktops and other wireless functions. Jones also served as the Chief of Utility Cloud for a DoD organization
Her full IT career and experience spans over a large number of years. She has worked in numerous places in her career, including in collaboration with EUCOM, AFRICOM, and CENTCOM. She also worked from 2005-2009 as a Technical Lead for an IT service provider located in Japan. From 2009-2017, after working for the Japanese company and prior to her appointment as the CIO, Jones worked as a Technical Director for another service provider. This career allowed her to collaborate with Asian and Middle Eastern theaters and work in modernizing the DoD IT landscape by creating new technologies into infrastructures
