Tag: Government

Blockchain and Roadblocks

While the rest of the world seems disillusioned by cryptocurrencies, all in the red after the frenzy of the last months of 2017, it seems that Bitcoin found an improbable adopter in the people of Venezuela. But first, let’s take a look at the troubled history of Venezuela’s fiat currency. The current fiat currency of… Read more Blockchain and Roadblocks

Montreal, Canada - The new AI super-cluster

For many people, this blog’s title might seem bold or crazy, but many key players in Montreal’s rapidly growing artificial-intelligence sector are working hard on transforming the city into a Silicon Valley of AI. Yes, you read it right, Montreal… For those who are already lost, I’m talking about Montreal, a city located in the… Read more Montreal, Canada - The new AI super-cluster

Will tech replace nurses?

This spring I took part in a multidisciplinary course at Aalto University focusing on innovating in elderly care. For one week, each of us shadowed a nurse making house calls. This was an eye-opening experience for me, revealing how alone many elderly people are in Finland, as fewer younger people today take care of their… Read more Will tech replace nurses?

Where is the Line Between Cybercrime and Cyberwar?

On April 27, 2007, Estonia began relocating the “Bronze Soldier of Tallin”, a Soviet-era monument commemorating Soviet soldiers killed while liberating Tallin from Nazi occupation, from its original location to an Estonian military cemetery. The Russian government strongly condemned plans for moving the statue. Beginning that same day, Estonia experienced a widespread and coordinated cyberattack… Read more Where is the Line Between Cybercrime and Cyberwar?

Big Data Mining in Medicine

One of the main themes of last Friday’s lecture was big data and its impact across numerous different industries. In today’s blog post, I’d like to focus on how big data and the associated process’ impact on the healthcare industry. A phrase commonly interchanged with big data is data mining. In an article by Jennifer… Read more Big Data Mining in Medicine

The Internet of Battlefield Things

At this point, it feels like every industry is attempting to coin their own Internet of Things (IoT) spinoff to address the unique challenges they face: the Internet of Aircraft Things, the Internet of Space Things, and the Internet of Mining Things among others. The U.S Army, which recognized the potential impacts of IoT on… Read more The Internet of Battlefield Things

The Blockchain Revolution

Last week, Carl Eschenbach (Sequoia, ex-VMware) and Jeff Welser (IBM) talked about the upcoming blockchain technology and how it is slowly changing business and economy. According to Harvard Business Review, “Blockchain will do for the financial system what internet did for media” (https://hbr.org/2017/03/the-blockchain-will-do-to-banks-and-law-firms-what-the-internet-did-to-media) and so I decided to go deeper into the topic and explore… Read more The Blockchain Revolution

How Cloud Services are Spurring Innovation

In building a software product or application, a major challenge was to gain access to the tools and resources to build applications as personal projects, games, to address community needs, etc. Cloud service providers, such as Salesforce’s Heroku, provides a free tier service with enough computational power to effectively test the product with over a couple… Read more How Cloud Services are Spurring Innovation

Impacts and Sustainability of Open Governments

Open data and open source innovation for governments have been increasing in recent years and therefore is currently an important subject of discussion. Last week, Chris Cruz, the Deputy Director & Deputy State Chief Information Officer of California, gave a speech on the utilization of technology in the state of California. He especially emphasised the… Read more Impacts and Sustainability of Open Governments

Leveraging Centralized Data to Benefit Residents

California’s Deputy CIO, Chris Cruz, provided an illuminating account of the State of California’s efforts to modernize its IT systems and attract innovators to the public sector. One area that he discussed was the state’s efforts to reduce unnecessary waste (ex. eliminating separate servers for each state board, commission, or department by centralizing data storage… Read more Leveraging Centralized Data to Benefit Residents