Data Science and Computational Thinking [inc Big Data and Internet of Things]

Data points are hard for us to claim and value. We find them difficult to own because we have less control, intimate knowledge and investment in them due to data being intangible, invisible and complex.

According to a recent Forbes article, data storytelling, which involves weaving data and visualizations into a compelling narrative, has become a sought-after skill in the job market. Today’s variety of online tools and resources offer an opportunity to prepare our students to interpret their research in new and creative ways and to effectively communicate data-driven insights.

Abstract
Universities and colleges should consider an institution-wide approach to developing services for managing and curating research data. This paper identifies service areas and includes a framework for institutions to document current research data curation services and responsibilities.

The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) market in recent years is hard to ignore. According to Forbes, the global IoT market will grow from $157 billion to $457 billion between the year 2016 and 2020. The major contributors to the investment include leading industries like manufacturing, logistics, and transportation.

When it comes to sectors that dominate this investment, smart city initiatives and industrial IoT top the chart by owning more than 50 percent of the market. Gartner predicts that more than 65 percent of enterprises will adopt IoT products by the year 2020.

A group of University of Oxford academics have launched the world’s first “blockchain university”, an Oxbridge-style institution that they describe as “Uber for students, Airbnb for academics”.

Woolf University will not have a physical campus and will instead be based around an app that allows academics to advertise their expertise to prospective students, who can in turn select modules to suit their needs and interests. Blockchain, the increasingly popular digital ledger, will be used to regulate contracts and payments and also to record academic achievement.

Computer science education is not a new field. Much of what we know about the pedagogy and content for elementary students comes from Seymour Papert’s research on teaching elementary students to code back in the 1970’s and 80’s. But, as we shift from labs and one-off classrooms to a broad expansion for all students in every classroom K-12, we are seeing changes to how computer science is taught. This means we are working in a rapidly evolving field (insert metaphor of building a plane while flying it). Over time, we have gone from a focus on coding (often in isolation) to a more broad idea of computer science as a whole, and now to the refined idea of computational thinking as a foundational understanding for all students.

This top 10-ranked Online Master of Science in Analytics (OMS Analytics) is a unique and valuable multidisciplinary integration among Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering, College of Computing and Scheller College of Business.

The degree program is the same rigorous curriculum as the campus Analytics program but is more flexible and available for under $10,000. Built for your schedule, OMS Analytics is designed to be completed in one to three years.

Many artificial intelligence researchers expect AI to outsmart humans at all tasks and jobs within decades, enabling a future where we're restricted only by the laws of physics, not the limits of our intelligence. MIT physicist and AI researcher Max Tegmark separates the real opportunities and threats from the myths, describing the concrete steps we should take today to ensure that AI ends up being the best -- rather than worst -- thing to ever happen to humanity.

Abstract
In a collaborative, computationally powerful research environment, data sharing holds tremendous promise. Openly available data sets that are well documented with clear rights statements attached allow secondary users to ask new questions of extant data, leading to new discoveries and increased scientific progress. Open research data increases transparency and makes the results of research replicable and verifiable. Funding agencies, wanting to increase the value of their scientific investments, are pressing researchers to make the results of publicly funded research publicly available. IT companies developing research-based products want to promote their discoveries through reproducible experiments using open research data. Underneath the much-heralded promises of research data sharing, however, lie numerous considerations that impact or hinder research data sharing as a common practice. In this paper we explore some of the topics that institutions and researchers should consider as they encourage and enable research data sharing.

Just as the Internet revolutionized the very idea of information, blockchain seems set to challenge and transform conventional notions of “value.” A lot of the technology’s success, however, depends on businesses’ understanding of its potential and applicability.

Computational Thinking, Design Thinking and Innovation
Computational thinking is defined by Cummins as a process that "encourages students to explore solutions to problems that remain unsolved. (It) inspires innovation and supports problem-solving skills".

Design thinking, as stated by Scholastic, "is a creative problem-solving process that calls for thoughtful solutions to real-world situations.".

Hello and welcome to Teaching, The Chronicle of Higher Education’s newsletter. Today, Dan tells you about a new curricular requirement to help students learn to use data, and Beckie reports on research linking the relevance of coursework with later well-being. She also shares one reader’s thoughts about one pitfall of small classes. And Dan points out some other recent scholarship.

The Canadian government is continuing their experiments with blockchain to see how the new technology can further help the country. The federal government announced that it will pioneer the testing of the Known Traveller Digital Identity system, a new concept that helps to improve the security and flow of travellers across borders. This new program uses biometrics, cryptography and distributed ledger technology to give travellers more control over how and when they share their information with authorities. This can lead to expedited clearance and build more trust and transparency between travellers and authorities as they look to improve risk detection.

March 19 is the first day of IBM Think 2018, the company's flagship conference, where the company will unveil what it claims is the world's smallest computer. They're not kidding: It's literally smaller than a grain of salt. 

But don't let the size fool you: This sucker has the computing power of the x86 chip from 1990. Okay, so that's not great compared to what we have today, but cut it some slack — you need a microscope to see it. 

The computer will cost less than ten cents to manufacture, and will also pack "several hundred thousand transistors," according to the company. These will allow it to "monitor, analyze, communicate, and even act on data."