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Showing posts from January, 2016

What we can learn from BBC?

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Author: Martha Arbayani Zaidan Some articles about politics by some mass media (including mainstream media) may be bias (or even very bias) from different point of view. However, they tend to deliver quality technological articles for the purpose of marketing, educating people or just to simply introduce the state-of-the-art technological advancement to community. For example, one of my favourite media, British Broadcasting Corporation  (BBC), always produces beautiful science and technology articles. This media is able to write very high standard articles in the above fields where many readers can really understand and digest well those articles. The BBC sometimes also makes an effort to produce an attractive explanation about a topic through a visual descriptor (e.g. figure, chart, table) and/or an animation. These attractive methods certainly have boosted the number of audience from a wide variety of background. Let take a look for one specific example in technological artic

Is there any simple explanation of Artificial Intelligence to "Common People"?

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Author: Martha Arbayani Zaidan We have heard many times Artificial Intelligence (AI) term. But what is it precisely? As a researcher in machine learning and control systems, I found it is hard getting good explanation about this where "common people" could really digest. What I meant by "common people" is the people who do not really have the deep background in engineering and technology or a small kid. If we search that term in Google, the top list would be from Wikipedia. If my small kid read the article, I believe she won't be able to understand. For example, when Wikipedia stated the goal of AI: "The central problems (or goals) of AI research include reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, natural language processing (communication), perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects." [1].  If some "common people" try to understand it through pictures, when they search Artificial Intelligence term, the Google will show some

How the smoke haze in Indonesia affects the resident's life expectancy?

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Author: Martha Arbayani Zaidan In 2015, forest fires took place across Indonesian region, especially, in the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, causing from illegal slash-and-burn practices, which then spread quickly in the dry season. Pollutants Standards Index (PSI) readings exceeded 2,000 at the forest fire epicentres in those affected islands [1]. The indices used to measure air quality in the regions usually measure Particulate Matter 10 (PM 10), whereas European standard uses PM 2.5.  Particulate Matter ( PM 2.5)  also known as fine particles, is  tiny particles or droplets in the air that are two and one half microns or less in width [2]. This is normally used as  an air pollutant indicator that is a concern for people's health when levels in air are high. PM 10 concentration across Indonesia and Malaysia [3] The view of Masjid Agung An-Nur Pekanbaru, Riau, Indonesia during smoke haze 2015 It was reported that there were some people died as a direct consequent of