In our Sunday newsletter, we, as editors, reflect on the past seven days. We do this on the initiative of our cartoonist Albert Jan Rasker. He chooses a subject, draws a picture, and we take it from there.
Of course, there is a common ground – it’s called Innovation Origins. We not only combine a wide range of topics, but we always know how to connect them to real-life issues and the needs of our future. That’s why you can’t only find in-depth knowledge about health-related issues but also about our energy challenges, deep-tech industrial developments, and the latest findings from academia. And indeed, for all those topics, artificial intelligence is never far away. On the contrary, finding stories without a prominent role for AI is getting harder and harder.
We chuckled a bit about Albert Jan’s choice for this week. He clearly represents the non-carnival part of our country. While in our Eindhoven-based headquarters, everyone is only focused on dressing up for the annual party, our cartoonist (who is from “above the rivers”) chose new Dutch research showing how to significantly reduce the time it takes to see if an antidepressant is working as the topic-of-the-week. Even while preparing for tonight’s pub visit, we can acknowledge the importance of this research.
Carnival
So it’s carnival, the annual 3-day celebration where everyone gets to shake off all their worries for a while. Music and human emotions play an essential role. Not exactly a place where artificial intelligence can play a role, you might think. And yet, Danny Bloks and Erdinc Sacan, two ICT teachers at Fontys University of Applied Science, have tried just that. “To spark discussion about the role of AI in our lives.” Read about their effort here.
Still, we understand there’s more in life than a carnival party. Today, Feb. 11, is also International Women and Girls in Academia Day. Attention to this theme is much needed because women are severely underrepresented in scientific positions. Even worse, the higher the job level, the more skewed the ratio of women to men. With unchanged policies, it will take many decades for this to change. That’s why we are happy to offer you this overview of the developments around women in academia. Read it here.
Here you can read what else caught our eye this week:
- There’s no escaping this form of discrimination in the digital and AI era… Because we’re all aging: column Victoria Bruno.
- NASA launches climate satellite with Dutch aerosol instrument
- Cardiologist Hareld Kemps: ‘Heart failure is a growing problem in the Netherlands, technology is indispensable in finding a solution’
- Nuclear fusion breakthrough: European scientists achieve record energy generation
- Circular buildings: the technology is there, but now we need the revenue model
- Aviation psychologist Jenny Eaglestone: ‘Mental well-being is understudied in our sector’
- John Bloebaum, innovation manager at the police force: ‘Use of technology in underworld is very normal’
- Infant’s gaze teaches AI the nuances of language acquisition
- “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants” – ASML’s new brand video
- A marriage between academia and entrepreneurship in Amsterdam: “Making it attractive for researchers to build a company from their work”
Enjoy your week!
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