The City of Philadelphia has announced that PHLConnectED will continue until July 2023 to provide pre-K–12 families with free internet access and has selected grantees to encourage the development of digital skills among pre-K–12 caregivers. PHLConnectED is the city’s initiative to provide free and reliable internet access and is one of the key priorities for sustaining crucial digital equity programmes of the Philadelphia Digital Equity Plan.
The programme in its third year will focus on two key priorities: continuing to connect Philadelphia pre-K–12 families in need to free internet access through Comcast’s Internet Essentials or a T-Mobile hotspot and providing resources for digital skill-building.
To date, PHLConnectED has enabled more than 21,000 internet connections, facilitating educational opportunities and access to valuable information for students and their families. We encourage families and residents in need of internet access to dial 2-1-1 so we can help them overcome the digital divide
– Jim Kenney, Mayor, City of Philadelphia
In its start in the summer of 2020, PHLConnectED prioritised providing free internet connection for students to engage in online learning during the pandemic. The city recognises that internet connection is crucial for students to participate in their education, regardless of their location.
However, having access to devices and the internet is insufficient. People must understand how to use them. Digital literacy is the ability to use digital technology for living, learning, and working. The epidemic underlined the need for caregivers to possess digital skills in order to assist their pupils in school.
The focus of PHLConnectED’s digital skill-building efforts is on pre-K–12 educators in an effort to close the homework gap and strengthen educational assistance for kids. With this in mind, two grants were launched to fund organisations to help caregivers build their digital skills.
The Caregiver Digital Literacy Initiative Grant required organisations to construct a regular schedule of digital skills sessions for any pre-K–12 caregivers or family members to improve their skills to better support their kids.
The School-Based Caregiver Digital Supports Grant provides funds for school-based programmes that assist caregivers in gaining a better understanding of and proficiency with regularly used digital technologies within the school community.
As dependable communicators and easily accessible resources for caregivers, schools and community-based organisations are essential to the work of PHLConnectED in Philadelphia. The city agreed that schools and community organisations can provide people with the digital literacy skills they need to support their children’s education, communicate with schools, and participate actively in their education.
While Philadelphia has been working on digital equity for more than fifteen years, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated additional resources and a thorough strategic plan. Through working from home, virtual learning, telehealth, and other applications, technology became an integral component of daily life for residents.
In the next five years, the Digital Equity Plan aims to assist Philadelphia to achieve a baseline level of digital equity. Internet access, digital devices, and digital literacy are the three pillars of digital equity.
Philadelphia will continue to promote digital equity as part of its digital equity efforts. Three specific targets that will help the city achieve its objectives are 1) Funding programmes in Philadelphia that promote digital equity, such as PHLConnectED, Digital Navigators, public computing facilities, and digital literacy classes; 2) Engaging with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania regarding Philadelphia’s digital equality needs, particularly in terms of federal funding distribution; and 3) Forming public-private partnerships that encourage businesses and organisations to participate in digital equity and showcasing how bridging the digital divide would benefit the entire city of Philadelphia.
The Ministry of Health recently informed that it has issued more than 14 million electronic COVID-19 vaccine passports to the general public, a month after its official rollout on 15 April. The passport is available on the government’s mobile application, PC COVID-19, which is available on both iOS and Android stores or Digital Health (So suc khoe dien tu) apps. By providing a secure and easy-to-use digital mechanism to verify vaccination statuses, governments can accelerate the re-opening of the economy and build a secure and trusted foundation for further digital healthcare initiatives in the future.
The vaccine passports have 11 fields of information: name, date of birth, nationality, the targeted disease, doses of vaccines received, date of vaccination, lot number of the vaccine batch, type of vaccine, vaccine product received, the vaccine manufacturer, and a code for the certification. The digital passports display all vaccine data in both Vietnamese and English. Data has been encoded into a QR code, which expires after 12 months. Following their expiry, people will be notified, and a new QR code will be created.
According to a government statement, the health ministry has urged relevant authorities and subordinate units to complete updating information regarding 34 more million doses before 1 June to facilitate the issuance of COVID-19 vaccine passports. The ministry had also requested localities to implement vaccine information clarification procedures. Medical staff and police officers in the localities are in charge of the process. As regulated, immunisation facilities must check and verify information on vaccination data. Inaccurate information will be sent to local police officers and the corrected data will be sent back to the Department of Preventive Medicine for a digital signature. The data with a digital signature will be sent to the management system for the issuance of a vaccine passport.
The vaccine passports are issued free of charge to all citizens, according to officials. Citizens are not required to go through any additional procedures except to check that their data is correct and complete. In case the information is not correct or not available, they must send feedback on the vaccination portal system. The vaccine passports were rolled out on a trial basis in late March for those vaccinated against COVID-19 at Ha Noi’s three major hospitals. Vietnam has so far reached a mutual recognition of vaccine passports with 27 European Union countries and 54 nations and territories.
Earlier this month, ASEAN member countries announced their support for a digital technology convergence to develop a globally-accepted vaccine passport. The Indonesian Health Minister, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said at a press conference that ASEAN will issue a joint statement on its countries’ adoption of health protocol standards. The proposed vaccine passport will adopt an overseas travel passport mechanism utilised by each country’s immigration authority for ascertaining a traveller’s identity. Sadikin also noted that ASEAN health ministers have approved the establishment of an ASEAN Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases (ACPHEED) as a collaborative effort to deal with extraordinary events and future pandemics. The three pillars of ACPHEED are surveillance or detection, response, and risk management, which are supported by three ASEAN representative countries, namely Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia.
The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) recently inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with one of India’s largest telecom operators to help simplify the deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and foster interoperability among devices and applications as per oneM2M (machine to machine) architecture.
IoT adoption has become critical in any organisation’s digital transformation journey. However, in the current deployments, certain operational challenges prevent businesses from taping into the technology’s true potential. Some issues include device network compatibility, over-the-air firmware upgrades, remote device configuration, security vulnerabilities, and implementation in siloes with proprietary protocols.
To address these challenges, C-DOT and the telecom operator have agreed to evaluate applications and devices from various solution providers against oneM2M specifications and offer joint certificates. A government official said that the partnership is an opportunity to “see the oneM2M specifications in action” in a diverse set of sectors and applications, from smart energy to connected cars. C-DOT’s indigenously-developed oneM2M-based Common Services Platform (CCSP) is expected to benefit the IoT industry. The collaboration presents opportunities for device and application providers to deploy their solutions in telecom operators’ networks. The platform will enable application providers to use a robust middleware framework with all necessary underlying common services to deploy a secure oneM2M-compliant solution.
C-DOT is a leading telecommunications research and development organisation that runs under the Ministry of Communications. It carries out advanced research activities in optical communication, wireless technologies, switching and routing, IoT/M2M, artificial intelligence, and advanced security solutions, among others.
Over the years, the automotive, energy, healthcare, smart cities, and logistics industries have ramped up IoT investments. A recent survey showed that the IoT market in India could touch US$ 9.28 billion by 2025, up from US$ 4.98 billion in 2020.
Government agencies are also working together to foster the IoT ecosystem in the country. For instance, earlier this month, C-DOT signed an MoU with the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) to collaborate in areas of telecommunications and information communication technologies (ICT), activities in 4G/5G services, broadband, IoT/M2M, packet core, and computing. As OpenGov Asia reported, the two sides also planned to sign Specific Project Agreements as and when required to enumerate the specific roles and responsibilities.
C-DOT is keen on aligning its indigenous R&D endeavours with C-DAC’s to meet the overarching objectives of national development, an official had stated. Both C-DOT and C-DAC are leaders in their respective areas and the MoU can foster strong cooperation and develop state-of-the-art technologies. The agreement will strengthen and secure national networks, boost seamless connectivity, and deploy advanced tech-based applications to make India self-reliant.
C-DAC is a premier institute for the design, development, and deployment of electronic and ICT technologies and applications for socio-economic advancement. It aims to expand the frontiers of ICT in the country, and evolve technology solutions, architectures, systems, and standards for India-specific problems. It rapidly and effectively spreads digital knowledge by overcoming language barriers through cutting-edge technologies, sharing IT experience and expertise, fostering digital inclusion, and utilising the intellectual property generated by converting it into business opportunities.
Researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) discovered that a deep-learning technology tag, known as Neural-Fly, could assist flying robots known as “drones” in adapting to any weather conditions.
Drones are now flown under controlled conditions, without wind, or by people using software or remote controls. The flying robots have been trained to take off in formation in the open air, although these flights are typically undertaken under perfect conditions.
However, for drones to autonomously perform important but mundane duties, such as package delivery or airlifting injured drivers from traffic accidents, they must be able to adapt to real-time wind conditions.
With this, a team of Caltech engineers has created Neural-Fly, a deep-learning technology that enables drones to adapt to new and unexpected wind conditions in real-time by merely adjusting a few essential parameters. Neural-Fly is discussed in newly published research titled “Neural-Fly Enables Rapid Learning for Agile Flight in Strong Winds” in Science Robotics.
The issue is that the direct and specific effect of various wind conditions on aircraft dynamics, performance, and stability cannot be accurately characterised as a simple mathematical model.
– Soon-Jo Chung, Bren Professor of Aerospace and Control and Dynamical Systems and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Research Scientist
Chung added that they employ a combined approach of deep learning and adaptive control that enables the aircraft to learn from past experiences and adapt to new conditions on the fly, with stability and robustness guarantees, as opposed to attempting to qualify and quantify each effect of the turbulent and unpredictable wind conditions they frequently encounter when flying.
Neural-Fly was evaluated at Caltech’s Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST) utilising its Real Weather Wind Tunnel, a 10-foot-by-10-foot array of more than 1,200 tiny computer-controlled fans that enables engineers to mimic everything from a mild breeze to a gale.
Numerous models derived from fluid mechanics are available to researchers but getting the appropriate model quality and tweaking that model for each vehicle, wind condition, and operating mode is difficult.
Existing machine learning methods, on the other hand, demand massive amounts of data for training, but cannot match the flying performance attained by classical physics-based methods. Adapting a complete deep neural network in real-time is a monumental, if not impossible, undertaking.
According to the researchers, Neural-Fly addresses these challenges by utilising a technique known as separation, which requires only a few parameters of the neural network to be altered in real-time. This is accomplished using their innovative meta-learning technique, which pre-trains the neural network so that only these critical parameters need to be changed in order to successfully capture the changing environment.
After only 12 minutes of flying data, autonomous quadrotor drones outfitted with Neural-Fly learn how to respond to severe winds so well that their performance improves dramatically as judged by their ability to precisely follow a flight route.
When compared to drones equipped with current state-of-the-art adaptive control algorithms that identify and respond to aerodynamic effects but lack deep neural networks, the error rate following that flight path is between 2.5 to 4 times lower.
Landing may appear more difficult than flight, however, Neural-Fly can learn in real-time, unlike previous systems. As a result, it can react on the fly to wind variations and does not require post-processing.
In-flight tests were done outside of the CAST facility; Neural-Fly functioned just as well as it did in the wind tunnel. Additionally, the researchers showed that flight data collected by one drone can be transferred to another, establishing a knowledge pool for autonomous cars.
The drones were outfitted with a typical, off-the-shelf flight control computer utilised by the drone research and enthusiast communities. Neural-Fly was built into an onboard Raspberry Pi 4 computer, which is the size of a credit card and costs roughly $20.
Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, and a Finnish industrial machinery company have signed a global exclusive cooperation agreement on the delivery of SwirlFlow® agitation technology for the Bauxite and Alumina sector outside of China.
The combination of the companies’ leading expertise in their respective fields will allow the parties to create the strongest offering to the market for the use of this technology in the refinery precipitation tanks.
The Director of Light Metals at the industrial machinery company stated that sustainability is a top priority for the firm. In addition to their own investments to develop technology for sustainable alumina processing, they announced their cooperation with CSIRO. This partnership will allow the firm to meet its customers’ growing demands such as lower capital installation, reduced spare parts costs and an increase in precipitation tank availability.
CSIRO’s leading technology in SwirlFlow® agitation has been pioneered at a tier-one refinery precipitation tanks, leading to significantly reduced maintenance costs and improved operational time between descaling events stated that the Research Program Director for Processing at CSIRO.
In the minerals processing industry, large mixing tanks are utilised to provide a variety of continuous hydrometallurgical processes including leaching (digestion), precipitation, adsorption, oxidation, tailings washing and neutralisation. Usually, single or multiple impellers with vertical baffles inside these tanks are utilised for mixing and to create suspensions of solid materials.
Traditional long-shaft agitators are expensive and difficult to clean during maintenance shutdowns. They may also bog in solids that settle on the bottom of the tank. These issues result in losses of production as well as high maintenance costs.
The technology has significantly lower capital and operating costs compared to traditional agitation systems, cutting installation costs by up to a third. It incorporates a short shaft and a novel impeller design to create a tornado-like vortex flow. As it integrates a short shaft, the technology does not bog in settled solids and is easier to clean. This reduces downtime and maintenance costs. Furthermore, it can achieve the same mixing performance as traditional agitators with lower power consumption, further reducing operating costs.
The technology has been deployed at the Queensland Alumina refinery in Australia and is being evaluated for other alumina refineries in Australia and overseas. In addition, it is also being tested for leaching applications in iron ore, gold, and uranium plants.
The technology has been designed for slurry tanks:
The capital cost of the technology is around 50% less than traditional technologies and, similarly, the maintenance costs are also much lower, in part due to the lower wear rates than for the impellers used in traditional systems.
Conversion to the technology is both a major capital cost saving and provides long-term operating advantages including a significantly lower tank scaling rate. This means that the tank can stay operational for much longer, increasing production and reducing costs.
The Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS) has revamped its Enhanced Mediation Promotion Scheme (EMPS) and SG IP FAST Programme as the country reopens its economy and improves its position as a worldwide innovation and IP hub. This action helps more enterprises protect their IPs in a post-Covid recovery situation. The Revised Enhanced Mediation Promotion Scheme (REMPS) would provide firms with additional funding for disputes involving both Singapore and foreign intellectual property rights.
The REMPS encourages parties in IPOS proceedings to choose mediation by funding the process so that more can experience mediation as an attractive option to resolve their disputes amicably.
– Mark Lim stated as the Chief Legal Counsel/Director, Hearings and Mediation of IPOS
This is also part of SIPS 2030, in which they hope to expand international IP dispute resolution in Singapore by encouraging more corporations and individual IP owners to use the comprehensive array of IP dispute resolution services they provide.
Over the previous three years, the number of cases sent to IPOS has more than doubled. Enterprises are viewing mediation as an appealing conflict resolution alternative for intellectual property issues, citing speed and cost-effectiveness as major factors.
The enhanced financing available in REMPS for disputes involving Singapore and foreign IP rights will provide more assistance to businesses, particularly when cross-jurisdictional conflicts are involved. The REMPS provides firms with a 17% boost in funding or up to SG$ 14,000 for disputes involving Singapore and overseas IP rights.
Parties will get up to SG$ 10,000 for disputes involving exclusively Singapore IP rights while they can recover up to 80% of a mediation-related lawyer/agent fees and disbursements from the financing. If just one party decides to apply for financing, the only applicant for REMPS may claim up to S$3,000 for every mediation case.
Apart from REMPS, businesses can also look forward to more support when resolving IP disputes in Singapore through SG IP FAST Programme. Sharmine Wu, Director of Patents, Design and Plant Varieties, IOS said that as the economy improves, they anticipate that more businesses will be able to bring their ideas to market faster and harness intellectual property for growth.
We launched SG IP FAST in 2020 to expedite IP protection for businesses and help them use IP to thrive despite the pandemic. This update is part of the Singapore IP Strategy [SIPS 2030] to enhance Singapore’s position as a global IA/IP hub.
– Sharmaine Wu, Director of Patents, Designs and Plant Varieties, IPOS
IP filings with IPOS have climbed by 33% in the last five years, indicating a consistent increase in innovation. IPOS received over 14,600 patent applications in 2021. With the increased volume of IP filings, IPOS has reduced its acceleration programmes to provide a competitive advantage to more businesses as global economies reopen.
The SG IP FAST programme will be extended until April 2024, with a doubled annual ceiling of 120 patent applications, while the 12 Months File-to-Grant programme will be discontinued, allowing more businesses to acquire their patent in as little as 6 months or 9 months with SG IP FAST. The period for requesting acceleration for related trademark or registered design applications under SG IP FAST has also been increased from one to twelve months, giving applicants more time to develop their IP portfolio and growth strategy.
IPOS is always creating new solutions to better serve the quickly changing demands of its communities through technology across all its companies. It is critical that the government implement and protect these inventions as rapidly and effectively as possible using SG IP FAST and REMPS.
The Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) and the Indian Institute of Technology of Delhi (IIT- Delhi) announced they will jointly design a curriculum for schools that include robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science. The curriculum is for grades 9 to 12 in schools affiliated with the CISCE board.
IIT-Delhi’s technology innovation hub, I-Hub Foundation for Cobotics (IHFC), and CISCE signed a memorandum to carry out the project. According to a report by the government’s AI portal, IHFC would help CISCE cut the syllabus to “reinforce 21st-century skills” and achieve targets set out in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Moreover, officials stated that they plan to upgrade the current STEM courses in line with NEP 2020.
A representative from IHFC stressed the need to strengthen the country’s capacity to master emerging technologies. As IHFC develops the curriculum, it will reflect the principles of experiential learning and aspects of theory. IHFC could play an important role in carrying out the project in about 2,700 schools affiliated with CISCE by providing guidance and technical expertise. Prime aspects of the project’s vision, according to the project director of IHFC, are nurturing teamwork, innovation, and knowledge to bridge the gaps between young engineering students and potential future robot enthusiasts.
To bolster the rate of digital literacy in the country, state governments have been urged to offer courses and initiatives in AI and other emerging technologies. Earlier this year, the Indian Institute of Technology of Madras (IIT-Madras)’s Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBC-DSAI) invited students for the national-level ‘Summer Internships 2022’ programme. The goal was to help students gain hands-on experience working on cutting-edge discoveries, with some of the country’s leading experts in data science and AI.
In March, IIT-Madras announced an 18-month web-enabled, user-oriented Master of Technology (MTech) programme in Industrial AI. The course was released in collaboration with a private player to upskill working professionals and encourage the use of AI to address industrial problems. The programme used labs and included theoretical courses in fundamental mathematical techniques required to understand data science algorithms, time series analyses, multivariate data analyses, machine learning, deep learning, and reinforcement learning. Applied courses described the implementation of AI solutions for industrial problems in a case study format. Put together, these courses provided strong theoretical foundations and useful application perspectives.
Furthermore, in April, the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister announced a 240-hour course on AI for students from Grade 8 scheduled for July. The decision regarding the commencement of the course was taken during the state cabinet’s two days brainstorming session held in Pachmarhi. The course will initially be unveiled in 53 schools, but more are expected to be added to the list later on, as OpenGov Asia reported. The government also said it would provide 40 computers to each of the selected schools.
Apart from education, the government is using AI in several fields, including managing traffic flows, improving digital exchange systems, and quickening criminal investigation processes. In the industry, AI is being deployed for several operations like inventory tracking and management, data sharing and perception, enhanced customer experience, improved hiring processes, data mining, and optimisation. The AI market in India is expected to grow at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.2% and reach US$7.8 billion in total revenues by 2025.
UniSA is one of three universities and 23 industry partners tasked with building a sovereign space industry for Australia, involving rockets and launch facilities, rapid satellite manufacturing, communication technologies and integrated sensing systems. The University will, thus, play a major role in the AU$ 180m national space manufacturing hub announced recently.
iLAUNCH hub, supported through the Trailblazer Universities Program, is led by the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). Together with the Australian National University (ANU) and UniSA, the hub and its industry partners will drive the commercialisation of space research in Australia.
The Federal Government has committed AU$ 50 million from its Trailblazer Universities Program and the remainder will come from cash and in-kind from the three universities and industry partners. UniSA Industry Associate Professor Colin Hall will lead the South Australian node, hosting three core projects involving five industry partners, valued at AU$ 20 million over four years.
Teaming up with manufacturing specialists and Defence Science Technology Group (DSTG), UniSA will develop the next generation of 3D printed materials to build compact optical systems for satellites. This research will result in a ‘satellite selfie stick,’ improving ground observation and communications with earth, Assoc Prof Hall said.
A Port Adelaide firm will also set up a 3D print facility with UniSA for lightweight satellite components, using the latest electron beam melting technology deployed to print turbine blades for jet aircraft.
Working closely with a leading Australian Defence and Space company, UniSA will also manufacture laser mirrors and filters that can handle high-powered lasers, reducing Australia’s reliance on overseas suppliers, and speeding up manufacturing time.
All projects will be supported by CSIRO through additional funding. It is estimated that the new hub will generate more than $3.65 billion in economic benefits across Australia through the creation of thousands of space engineering jobs.
The project will support university staff in commercialising their research and strengthen collaborations with industry, both of which are necessary to build a sovereign space capability in Australia. “It is a wonderful opportunity for us, and our industry partners, to commercialise technology to grow Australia’s space manufacturing capability,” Assoc Prof Hall said.
Together with USQ and ANU, UniSA we will cement Australia’s reputation as a major player on the global space stage. The UniSA Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Enterprise, says being part of the USQ-led space manufacturing hub is a natural alignment for UniSA. She noted that UniSA works closely with the Australian Space Agency, headquartered in Adelaide; they initiated the SmartSatCRC, and are at the forefront of new satellite technology being developed, which will dovetail nicely with the Trailblazer Universities Program.
About the Associate Professor Colin Hall
On 24 November 2021, the Australian Prime Minister announced an investment of AU$ 242.7 million to support select universities to boost prioritised research and development and drive commercialisation outcomes with industry partners from 2021-22 until 2025-26. This includes a total of AU$ 30 million for participating universities to partner with CSIRO and access specialist equipment to supercharge their research translation and commercialisation capabilities.
The Trailblazer Universities Program will comprise a select group of universities with dedicated investment to accelerate Australia’s innovation agenda at-speed and at-scale. Participating universities will demonstrate:
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