Innovating 5G/AI – Where are we now?

By Ikhlaq Sidhu | July 16, 2020

We are now in week 4 of the process of combining concepts from mobile executives, technical leaders, and students.  Special thanks to our most recent guest on Friday, Mostafa Essa, Vodafone’s Distinguished Engineer, who spoke on the intersection of Radio Access Networks, AI, and Data Analytics After just one month, here are a few things…

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective AI

By Shomit Ghose | December 11, 2019

Adapt or Die Name a company anywhere in the world – just one! – that won’t be disrupted by Amazon or Google.  These two companies, along with their fellow votaries of Big Data and machine learning, are today entering every industry, to the competitive peril of businesses large and small.  The healthcare and financial industries…

Healthcare’s Most Impactful AI? The “Non-contact” Kind

By Shomit Ghose | October 15, 2019

The World Health Organization reports that 45% of member states have less than one physician per 1,000 population. With the Kaiser Family Foundation reporting 27 million Americans lacking health coverage in 2017, access to healthcare is not just an issue in the developing world. These numbers help highlight healthcare’s two idealized goals: That healthcare be accessible to…

What We Need Now: Ethical AI

By Shomit Ghose | June 5, 2019

By Shomit Ghose | June 5, 2019 Iron Man vs Terminator Revisited In the landscape of artificial intelligence, we still find ourselves balanced precariously between the twin outcomes of Iron Man and Terminator.  In the former, we adopt technologies to empower our human selves — as with the Marvel comic book character — to overcome our foremost challenges. …

AI and Tax Season – Why AI and Data Does Not Solve Every Problem & Why Systems and Good Architecture Matter More

By Ikhlaq Sidhu | April 23, 2019

A few weeks back, I had the opportunity to visit a tax department for one of the world’s leading global economies. My colleague Alexander Fred-Ojala and I were there to discuss how artificial intelligence and data technologies might fit into their strategic plans. Data X-Lab director Alexander Fred Ojala explaining how AI and Data models…

A Human and AI hybrid approach for complex AI-based Conversational Commerce

By Ikhlaq Sidhu | April 5, 2019

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Manila to tour a new AI and Data firm called AI-Pros.  As you may know, the Philippines has a $27B Business Process Outsourcing industry which includes 900K call center agents. Over the past two decades, it has become a major growth driver for the Philippine economy. On this…

Data-X Poster Session shows breadth of AI projects

By Keith McAleer | December 11, 2018

This semester students had an opportunity to apply the latest data science tools and algorithms to real-life industry problems in our course Applied Data Science with Venture Applications, also known as Data-X (INDENG 135 / 290).  For the first time, students were able to showcase their projects in a poster session event on December 4th at…

Humu is using machine learning to create a happier workplace

By Keith McAleer | November 20, 2018

Wayne Crosby, co-founder and head of product & engineering at Humu, visited the Sutardja Center’s Silicon Valley Innovation Leadership Week executive program to talk about the next industry being revolutionized by artificial intelligence and machine learning: human resources. In Crosby’s view, the HR industry (which he estimates to be about a $400 billion market worldwide)…

Artificial Intelligence and the Rumsfeld Test

By Shomit Ghose | October 10, 2018

“But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” – United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, February 12, 2002 An artificial intelligence strategy is the corporate equivalent of your spleen: everyone has one, but not everyone understands quite what it will accomplish.  There are bold plans afoot everywhere in…

Iron Man vs Terminator: Jobs in the AI Century

By Shomit Ghose | May 17, 2018

The AI Century The natural selection of economics has relentlessly pushed businesses and societies toward maximum efficiency.  It’s the principal force that fuels the start-up business models of today as they redefine and make more efficient the economics of tomorrow.  It’s this drive to maximum efficiency that’s given rise to disruptive, AI-driven business models that…

The Applied EQ Project: EQ-Driven Technology Disruption

May 8, 2018

Written by Ikhlaq Sidhu UC Berkeley and Paris del E’traz, IE Business School. We have identified two types of mindsets that exist in firms today.  One mindset is the traditional one that believes that success is based mostly on building superior products and services and that customers will automatically follow. The other mindset is based on…

What is your data project missing? Here are three must-have elements

April 19, 2018

The other day I was having a discussion with Inder Sidhu, who was speaking in our Engineering Leadership Professional Program.  I wanted to understand his perspective on data and strategy. As you may know, he is a great person to talk to about these things.  He joined Cisco and helped it grow from $1 billion…

Learning Rapid Implementation of AI and Data

April 6, 2018

What’s Golf Got to Do With It? Our ability to deliver on the promises of AI, data, and other digital transformations is key to our national agenda and global security.  Just imagine what would happen if another, less friendly nation educates more people to readily develop these technologies. It’s pretty much the same as losing…

Our Students Can Make Data, AI, & Blockchain Projects Work in Real Life – and So Can You

March 28, 2018

A Focus on Implementation and Rapid Impact A Signal in the Noise  About 2 years ago, I had a thought that it was time to offer a new type of course in the areas of AI/Data, and possibly extensible to the other digital transformations like Blockchain. To create anything of significant value in this area…

Injecting noise: students build tools to protect individual privacy from artificial intelligence

November 15, 2017

(This article has also been translated to Russian here.) Artificial intelligence is giving companies unprecedented insights into our personal information. Can individuals protect their privacy by using applications that add fake data to our online behavior? Recently, the credit-reporting agency EquiFax leaked the social security numbers for almost half of all Americans, causing much anxiety…

Mike Olson is Revolutionizing Big Data with Cloudera

November 12, 2017

This week in the A. Richard Newton Lecture Series, students had the privilege to listen to Mike Olson, co-founder and former CEO of Cloudera. Olson is not only a two-time UC Berkeley dropout, but also an accomplished engineer, sales associate, and entrepreneur. At his time at Cal, Olson studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and…

Beyond the Molecule and Beyond the Device: Machine Learning and the Future of Healthcare

August 21, 2017

“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads. That sucks.” – Jeffrey Hammerbacher, Facebook Hammerbacher’s Lament Are we fated to suffer Hammerbacher’s Lament, with our best minds, and our best data, solely serving the gods of commerce?  What of serving mankind’s existential needs in an area as fundamental…

Why You Should Learn Data-X

May 17, 2017

This semester, The Sutardja Center created a new course, Data-X, which allowed students to team up to tackle technically complex problems. In the course, students identified real-world problems, collected data, and created applications to find solutions. Click on the picture below to check out this year’s Data-X course!   Data-X was taught by Ikhlaq Sidhu…

Engineered Influence: Weak Data, Machine Learning & Behavioral Economics

May 17, 2017

This article is will be published in the 2017 Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology’s annual journal AIR (Applied Innovation Review) in June 2017. You can see the 2016 version here. Shomit Ghose is a UC Berkeley alum and mentor, venture capitalist, and partner at ONSET ventures. Cognitive Irredentists Arise! A dystopian world: sentient machines…

Data-X: An Experimental Course Model that is Working

May 8, 2017

I’d like to start by congratulating all the teams that participated in our first Data-X course this spring. We just watched the final presentations, and it has been a great experience. Three months ago, we were just introducing the basic frameworks. And now, by the end of the semester, the projects have included running code…