Monthly Archives: January 2020

The massive amount of processing power generated by computer manufacturers has not yet been able to quench our thirst for speed and computing capacity. In 1947, American computer engineer Howard Aiken said that just six electronic digital computers would satisfy the computing needs of the United States. Others have made similar errant predictions about the amount of computing power that would support our growing technological needs. Of course, Aiken didn't count on the large amounts of data generated by scientific research, the proliferation of personal computers or the emergence of the Internet, which have only fueled our need for more, more and more computing power.

Will we ever have the amount of computing power we need or want? If, as Moore's Law states, the number of transistors on a microprocessor continues to double every 18 months, the year 2020 or 2030 will find the circuits on a microprocessor measured on an atomic scale. And the logical next step will be to create quantum computers, which will harness the power of atoms and molecules to perform memory and processing tasks. Quantum computers have the potential to perform certain calculations significantly faster than any silicon-based computer.

Scientists have already built basic quantum computers that can perform certain calculations; but a practical quantum computer is still years away. In this article, you'll learn what a quantum computer is and just what it'll be used for in the next era of computing.

You don't have to go back too far to find the origins of quantum computing. While computers have been around for the majority of the 20th century, quantum computing was first theorized less than 30 years ago, by a physicist at the Argonne National Laboratory. Paul Benioff is credited with first applying quantum theory to computers in 1981. Benioff theorized about creating a quantum Turing machine. Most digital computers, like the one you are using to read this article, are based on the Turing Theory. Learn what this is in the next section.

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How Quantum Computers Work | HowStuffWorks

As 2019 winds to a close, the journey towards fully realised quantum computing continues: physicists have been able to demonstrate quantum teleportation between two computer chips for the first time.

Put simply, this breakthrough means that information was passed between the chips not by physical electronic connections, but through quantum entanglement by linking two particles across a gap using the principles of quantum physics.

We don't yet understand everything about quantum entanglement (it's the same phenomenon Albert Einstein famously called "spooky action"), but being able to use it to send information between computer chips is significant, even if so far we're confined to a tightly controlled lab environment.

"We were able to demonstrate a high-quality entanglement link across two chips in the lab, where photons on either chip share a single quantum state," explains quantum physicist Dan Llewellynfrom the University of Bristol in the UK.

"Each chip was then fully programmed to perform a range of demonstrations which utilise the entanglement."

Hypothetically, quantum entanglement can work over any distance. Two particles get inextricably linked together, which means looking at one tells us something about the other, wherever it is (in this case, on a separate computer chip).

To achieve their result, the team generated pairs of entangled photons, encoding quantum information in a way that ensured low levels of interference and high levels of accuracy. Up to four qubits the quantum equivalent of classical computing bits were linked together.

"The flagship demonstration was a two-chip teleportation experiment, whereby the individual quantum state of a particle is transmitted across the two chips after a quantum measurement is performed," says Llewellyn.

"This measurement utilises the strange behaviour of quantum physics, which simultaneously collapses the entanglement link and transfers the particle state to another particle already on the receiver chip."

The researchers were then able to run experiments in which the fidelity reached 91 percent as in, almost all the information was accurately transmitted and logged.

Scientists are learning more and more about how quantum entanglement works, but for now it's very hard to control. It's not something you can install inside a laptop: you need a lot of bulky, expensive scientific equipment to get it working.

But the hope is that advances in the lab, such as this one, might one day lead to advances in computing that everyone can take advantage of super-powerful processing power and a next-level internet with built-in hacking protections.

The low data loss and high stability of the teleportation, as well as the high level of control that the scientists were able to get over their experiments, are all promising signs in terms of follow-up research.

It's also a useful study for efforts to get quantum physics working with the silicon chip (Si-chip) tech used in today's computers, and the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) techniques used to make those chips.

"In the future, a single Si-chip integration of quantum photonic devices and classical electronic controls will open the door for fully chip-based CMOS-compatible quantum communication and information processing networks," says quantum physicist Jianwei Wang, from Peking University in China.

The research has been published in Nature Physics.

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Physicists Just Achieved The First-Ever Quantum Teleportation Between Computer Chips - ScienceAlert

Northeastern researchers have used a powerful computer model to probe a puzzling class of copper-based materials that can be turned into superconductors. Their findings offer tantalizing clues for a decades-old mystery, and a step forward for quantum computing.

The ability of a material to let electricity flow comes from the way electrons within their atoms are arranged. Depending on these arrangements, or configurations, all materials out there are either insulators or conductors of electricity.

But cuprates, a class of mysterious materials that are made from copper oxides, are famous in the scientific community for having somewhat of an identity issue that can make them both insulators and conductors.

Under normal conditions, cuprates are insulators: materials that inhibit the flow of electrons. But with tweaks to their composition, they can transform into the worlds best superconductors.

The finding of this kind of superconductivity in 1986 won its discoverers a Nobel Prize in 1987, and fascinated the scientific community with a world of possibilities for improvements to supercomputing and other crucial technologies.

But with fascination came 30 years of bewilderment: Scientists have not been able to fully decipher the arrangement of electrons that encodes for superconductivity in cuprates.

Mapping the electronic configuration of these materials is arguably one of the toughest challenges in theoretical physics, says Arun Bansil, University Distinguished Professor of physics at Northeastern. And, he says, because superconductivity is a weird phenomenon that only happens at temperatures as low as -300 F (or about as cold as it gets on Uranus), figuring out the mechanisms that make it possible in the first place could help researchers make superconductors that work at room temperature.

Now, a team of researchers that includes Bansil and Robert Markiewicz, a professor of physics at Northeastern, is presenting a new way to model these strange mechanisms that lead to superconductivity in cuprates.

In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team accurately predicted the behavior of electrons as they move to enable superconductivity in a group of cuprates known as yttrium barium copper oxides.

In these cuprates, the study finds, superconductivity emerges from many types of electron configurations. A whopping 26 of them, to be specific.

During this transition phase, the material will in essence become some kind of a soup of different phases, Bansil says. The split personalities of these wonderful materials are being now revealed for the first time.

The physics within cuprate superconductors are intrinsically weird. Markiewicz thinks of that complexity as the classical Indian myth of the blind men and the elephant, which has been a joke for decades among theoretical physicists who study cuprates.

According to the myth, blind men meet an elephant for the first time, and try to understand what the animal is by touching it. But because each of them touches only one part of its bodythe trunk, tail, or legs, for examplethey all have a different (and limited) concept of what an elephant is.

In the beginning, we all looked [at cuprates] in different ways, Markiewicz says. But we knew that, sooner or later, the right way was going to show up.

The mechanisms behind cuprates could also help explain the puzzling physics behind other materials that turn into superconductors at extreme temperatures , Markiewicz says, and revolutionize the way they can be used to enable quantum computing and other technologies that process data at ultra-fast speeds.

Were trying to understand how they come together in the real cuprates that are used in experiments, Markiewicz says.

The challenge of modeling cuprate superconductors comes down to the weird field of quantum mechanics, which studies the behavior and movement of the tiniest bits of matterand the strange physical rules that govern everything at the scale of atoms.

In any given materialsay, the metal in your smartphoneelectrons contained within just the space of a fingertip could amount to the number one followed by 22 zeros, Bansil says. Modeling the physics of such a massive number of electrons has been extremely challenging ever since the field of quantum mechanics was born.

Bansil likes to think of this complexity as butterflies inside a jar flying fast and cleverly to avoid colliding with each other. In a conducting material, electrons also move around. And because of a combination of physical forces, they also avoid each other. Those characteristics are at the core of what makes it hard to model cuprate materials.

The problem with the cuprates is that they are at the border between being a metal and an insulator, and you need a calculation that is so good that it can systematically capture that crossover, Markiewicz says. Our new modeling can capture this behavior.

The team includes researchers from Tulane University, Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland, and Temple University. The researchers are the first to model the electronic states in the cuprates without adding parameters by hand to their computations, which physicists have had to do in the past.

To do that, the researchers modeled the energy of atoms of yttrium barium copper oxides at their lowest levels. Doing that allows researchers to trace electrons as they excite and move around, which in turn helps describe the mechanisms supporting the critical transition into superconductivity.

That transition, known as the pseudogap phase in the material, could be described simply as a door, Bansil says. In an insulator, the structure of the material is like a closed door that lets no one through. If the door is wide openas it would be for a conductorelectrons pass through easily.

But in materials that experience this pseudogap phase, that door would be slightly open. The dynamics of what transforms that door into a really wide open door (or, superconductor) remains a mystery, but the new model captures 26 electron configurations that could do it.

With our ability to now do this first-principles-parameter-free-type of modeling, we are in a position to actually go further, and hopefully begin to understand this pseudogap phase a bit better, Bansil says.

For media inquiries, please contact Mike Woeste at m.woeste@northeastern.edu or 617-373-5718.

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Superconductor or not? They're exploring the identity crisis of this weird quantum material. - News@Northeastern

It is eagerly awaited! The "Forteza" report, named after its rapporteur, Paula Forteza, Member of Parliament for La Rpublique en Marche (political party of actual President Emmanuel Macron), should finally be officially revealed on January 9th. The three rapporteurs are Paula Forteza, Member of Parliament for French Latin America and the Caribbean, Jean-Paul Herteman, former CEO of Safran, and Iordanis Kerenidis, researcher at the CNRS. Announced last April, this report was initially due at the end of August, then in November, then... No doubt the complex agenda, between the social movements in France, and the active participation of the MP in the Parisian election campaign of Cdric Villani, mathematician and dissident of La Rpublique en Marche... had to be shaken up. In any case, it is thus finally on January 9th that this report entitled "Quantum: the technological shift that France will not miss", will be unveiled.

"Entrusted by the Prime Minister in April 2019, the mission on quantum technologies ends with the submission of the report by the three rapporteurs Paula Forteza, Jean-Paul Herteman, and Iordanis Kerenidis. Fifty proposals and recommendations are thus detailed in order to strengthen France's role and international position on these complex but highly strategic technologies. The in-depth work carried out over the last few months, fueled by numerous consultations with scientific experts in the field, has led the rapporteurs to the conclusion that France's success in this field will be achieved by making quantum technologies more accessible and more attractive. This is one of the sine qua non conditions for the success of the French strategy", explains the French National Congress in the invitation to the official presentation ceremony of the report.

The presentation, by the three rapporteurs, will be made in the presence of the ministers for the army, the economy and finance, and higher education and research. The presence of the Minister of the Armed Forces, as well as the co-signature of the report by the former president of Safran, already indicates that military applications will be one of the main areas of proposals, and possibly of funding. Just as is the case in the United States, China or Russia.

Of course, the report will go into detail about the role of research, and of the CNRS, in advances in quantum computing and communication. Of course, the excellent work of French researchers, in collaboration with their European peers, will be highlighted. And of course, France's excellence in these fields will be explained. France is a pioneer in this field, but the important questions are precisely what the next steps will be. The National Congress indicates that this report will present 50 "proposals and recommendations". Are we to conclude that it will be just a list of proposals? Or will we know how to move from advice to action?

These are our pending questions:

- The United States is announcing an investment of USD 1.2 billion, China perhaps USD 10 billion, Great Britain about 1 billion euros, while Amazon's R&D budget alone is USD 18 billion... how can a country like France position itself regarding the scale of these investments? To sum up, is the amount of funds allocated to this research and development in line with the ambitions?

- Mastering quantum technologies are becoming a geopolitical issue between the United States and China. Should Europe master its own technologies so as not to depend on these two major powers? On the other hand, is this not the return of a quantum "Plan calcul from the 60s? How can we avoid repeating the same mistakes?

- Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Managing Director of DigitalEurope recently wrote that Europe risks being deprived of the use of quantum technologies if it does not develop them itself. Christophe Jurzcak, the head of Quantonation, stated that it is not certain that France will have access to quantum technologies if it does not develop them itself. Is this realistic? Do we have the ressources?

- French companies currently invest very little in research in the field of quantum computing. With the exception of Airbus, the main feedback that we know of is in Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany, etc. Should we also help companies to embrace these technologies, or should we only finance research and development on the part of universities and business creators? Is there a support component for companies? So that technologies are not simply developed in France and sold elsewhere, but that France is the leading market for local developments.

See you on January 9th on Decideo for more details and our objective analysis of the content of this document.

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January 9th: France will unveil its quantum strategy. What can we expect from this report? - Quantaneo, the Quantum Computing Source

New Delhi, The average time -frame of tech disruption in our lives has significantly diminished and things are changing at a rapid scale around us. In a span of few years, gadgets like MP3 players, compact digital cameras, scanners, CDs, fax machines and several others have disappeared.

On the other hand, new-age technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), content streaming, automation, robotics and 5G are not only here to stay but are growing in leaps and bounds to make our lives better.

Let us go through 5 tech trends that will explode in the decade that has just begun.

1. Quantum computing

The team at Google AI has achieved sort of "quantum supremacy" with developing such chip -- a new 54-qubit processor named "Sycamore" that is comprised of fast, high-fidelity quantum logic gates in order to perform the benchmark testing. Not just Google but several tech giants like Microsoft, IBM and Intel have joined the race to build a scalable quantum computer. IBM recently unveiled its quantum computer with 53 qubits.

The current bits in computers store information as either 1 or 0, thus limiting the potential to make sense when faced with gigantic volumes of data. If all goes well, Microsoft is also confident about having one such scalable super machine within the next five years.

"We are looking at a five-year time-frame to build a quantum computer and what we need are roughly 100-200 good qubits with a low-error rate," Krysta Svore, Principal Research Manager, Microsoft Quantum Computing, told IANS recently. Microsoft has also partnered with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee to conduct lectures on quantum computing for a full semester.

2. Self-driving 'electric' cars

The global revenues from "connected" cars -- the precursor to fully-autonomous or self-driving cars -- are growing at an annual rate of 27.5 per cent and are expected to touch $21 billion by 2020.

Tesla helped create that market and remains an industry leader. The Elon Musk-run company surprised Wall Street by registering a profitable third quarter last year with a total revenue of $6.3 billion riding on sales of its Model S, Model X and Model 3 electric cars. Tesla expected to deliver between 360,000 and 400,000 vehicles in 2019, representing 45-65 per cent growth.

Other automobile companies who will join Tesla in the next decade are Audi e-Tron Sportback; BMW iX3; Ford Mustang Mach-E; Mercedes EQC 400 4Matic; Porsche's Taycan 4S; Volvo XC40 Recharge and Byton M-Byte SUV, to name a few.

India is also planning to replace a significant portion of its conventional internal combustion engine fleet by electric vehicles in the next one decade, particularly to reduce pollution and also to create jobs through manufacturing of such vehicles.

3. 5G-connected homes

With 75 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices expected to be in place by 2025, the world is at the cusp of experiencing a technology that will change the way live today. Being able to download a full-length HD movie in seconds and share your wow-moments with friends -- that's just the beginning. Commercial 5G networks are starting to go live across the world.

With 5G commercial networks being switched on, the first use cases are enhanced mobile broadband, which will bring better experiences for smartphone users with 100 times faster data and fixed wireless access, providing fiber speeds without fiber to homes.

5G Services have already begun in the US, South Korea and some European countries, including Switzerland, Finland and the UK. CSPs in Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Spain, Sweden, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have announced plans to accelerate 5G network building through 2020.

4. Voice as a new interface

Voice is slowly becoming the new human-compute interface and the Indian masses -- be it a 3-year-old toddler or a 95-year-old grandpa -- are finally going to leverage voice to interact with the devices and digitally control their lives. Alexa, Google Home, Siri and others are changing the way we speak with devices and the next decade will see digital assistants becoming all-pervasive. Soon, you will be talking to your refrigerator, electric bulbs, washing machine, microwave, coffee machine and what not.

According to Adam Berns, Director of Business Development, Alexa Voice Service (AVS) at Amazon, India is now ready for voice as a core experience."Voice today is powering several devices -- PCs, wearables, smartphones, car accessories and smart home devices -- helping people streamline their lives. I firmly believe voice is the next interface with computing and Amazon with its Alexa offerings is here to change the world," Berns told IANS in a recent interview.

5. Internet TV 24/7

An over-the-top (OTT) viewer in India is spending approximately 70 minutes a day on video streaming platforms, with a consumption frequency of 12.5 times a week, according to a recent Eros Now-KPMG report. In India, the Internet video traffic is projected to reach 13.5 Exabytes (EB) per month by 2022 -- up from 1.5 EB a month in 2017 -- with video contributing 77 per cent of all Internet traffic by 2022.

"Unlike the common thought that urbanites are watching more content online, 65 per cent video consumption is coming from the rural parts of the country thanks to cheap data plans, especially from Reliance Jio, and affordable smartphones. Those who cannot afford to buy a smart, connected TV are now streaming OTT content on phones," TV Ramachandran, President, Broadband India Forum (BIF) told IANS.

There are currently more than 32 online content and video streaming platforms in the country and the market is expected to hit $5 billion by 2023, according to the global management-consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Within no time, you will see Indians throwing set-top boxes into dustbins as data becomes further cheap and Internet TV takes over our drawing rooms completely.

Link:

5 tech that will explode in your life this decade - ETCIO.com

With a new decade just beginning, we thought it was a good time to take a look at what tech trends will gain momentum and the small caps dabbling in them.

Australian tech executives that Stockhead spoke to believe the tech scene in 202o will be similar to last year, with technologies such as quantum computing and blockchain dominating the news.

Quantum computers are far faster than ordinary computers, offering potential solutions to complex computation, cryptography and simulation problems.

Today theyre very noisy, prone to errors and temperature sensitive.

The only ASX stock involved in this space, Archer Materials (ASX:AXE), is working on a quantum computer thats mobile and functional at room temperatures.

Narayan Iyer, Asia-Pacific head of markets at Cognizant, admits you wont be able to own one just yet. But 2020 will see more research and development work into the technology.

This is something else thats been hyped up for years. The CSIRO recently told us AI is a $315 billion industryand Stephen Schwarzman, head of private equity group Blackstone,said in September AI had Amazon-like growth potential.

Tech executives, such as Sean Girvin from cloud computing firm Rackspace, admit it is a long way off from wide-scale adoption due to the last mile problem. Even then, it will still need a human factor in decisionmaking.

However, it will eventually become common place. Joe Petro, chief technology officer at Nuance Communications, suggests though that the industry needs stricter regulation.

On the ASX there are more than two dozen small caps in this space but they tend to focus on specific sectors or problems. For example, 2019s winner, Resonance Health (ASX:RHT), has an AI product that detects iron concentrations in the liver.

Most people probably associate blockchain with cryptocurrency. In fact, bitcoin is actually owned by more Australians than hybrid cars.

But the underlying distributed ledger technology has more uses beyond just cryptocurrency. Research firm Gartner thinks it will take off mid-decade.

Blockchain Australia board member Karen Cohen told Stockhead the best use would be the need for public records that can be trusted being definitive and unchangeable.

One company Stockhead spoke to previously, AgUnity, is using a blockchain solution to prevent farmers in developing countries being cheated.

Andrew Filev, CEO of project management software Wrike, reckons this will be the decade where e-learning platforms take off.

By 2025, 45 per cent of white-collar employees will have used an e-learning platform to improve their job skills or explore new careers, he says.

Filev also believes e-working (remote working) will be viewed as a remedy to urban congestion rather than a way to attract employees.

He noted the Japanese government was encouraging residents of Tokyo to do this during the 2020 Olympic Games.

And by 2025, Filev predicts e-working will be encouraged or incentivised in up to 30 per cent of cities with populations above 5 million people.

There are a handful of ed-techs on the ASX including 3P Learning (ASX:3PL), Retech Technology (ASX:RTE), ReadCloud (ASX:RCL) and Schrole (ASX:SCL).

Australia will need 100,000 more tech workers by 2024. And its not just because people are entering the field but those already in the field are not keeping up to date or specific enough for particular roles.

Australian Computer Society president Yohan Ramasundaras suggestion is to elevate our tech heroes to the status of our sporting greats.

iCollege (ASX:ICT) is one small cap trying to take advantage both of a skills shortage and e-learning.

Managing director Ash Katta told Stockhead even if someone had a tech degree they may need a few months training in something specific, like blockchain, for a particular role.

Having a Master of IT will give you the ground level understanding but it doesnt give you the specific skill set for an employer, he explained.

iColleges short courses are aimed at this demographic.

But Mike Featherstone, managing director of US-listed education play Pluralsight, thinks companies will have to play a role.

Its the onus of CIOs to ensure their talent is equipped with the right skills to keep up with the increasing pace of emerging and evolving technology, he said.

This coming year is an opportunity for organisations to equip themselves with the right tools and teams to evolve with technology.

Read More:

Full-scale AI is still a long way off and it wont completely eliminate humans

What the heck is quantum computing and is it worth investing in?

Aussies own more bitcoin than hybrid cars but blockchain wont be bigger than the internet

EdTech on the ASX: Its an emerging thing

Why Australia needs to elevate our tech heroes to the status of our sporting greats

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5 tech trends well see more of in 2020 & the small caps that are front and centre - Stockhead

According to The Washington Post, the Trump administration has floated a proposal that would limit high-tech exports to China.

Under the proposal, artificial intelligence (AI), robots, quantum computing, image recognition and self-driving tech would all be prohibited from being exported to China. This would include the tech that drives smartphone assistants, such as Siri.

If you think about the range of products this potentially implicates, thats massive. This is either the opening of a big negotiation with the industry and the public or a bit of a cry for help in scoping these regulations, R. David Edelman, the director of the Project on Technology, the Economy, & National Security at MIT, told The Washington Post.

At the very least, the administration seems intent on extending the restrictions to those countries that are already subject to U.S. arms embargoes, including China.

Needless to say, industry experts are not happy with the proposal. In a separate report by The Washington Post, individuals with the National Venture Capital Association expressed concern about how effective these proposed restrictions would be, versus the damage they would cause.

Almost everything is using AI in one way or another, said Jeff Farrah, NVCAs general counsel. So then is everything subject to export controls?

Farrah continued: Theres not a lot of faith from people in the industry that the government will get this right.

Continue reading here:

US Government Looks To Restrict Exports Of AI, Quantum Computing And Self-Driving Tech - WebProNews

When academics, think tanks and future prognosticators speak of the 4th Industrial Revolution, they refer to the disruptive technologies of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things, 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing and other emerging technologies.

Everyone could easily imagine a world where we would all need to know how to program AI, or be fluent (or at least literate) in several programming languages. And for us, inquiries for courses and/or experts in data analytics or blockchain technology keep increasing. Hence, get technical would seem to be the way forward. But heres the surprisewe surveyed articles that appeared in Forbes, Inc.Com, LinkedIn and so on, and it is not quite true that only technical skills would be needed.

Indeed, they all say, the vast majority of skills needed for the future are soft skills.

The basic, common argument goes that with automation set to dominate most of our lives and take over rote tasks, humans would be left to provide, well, the human touch. For example, the diagnosis of diseases could soon be done more accurately by machines or robotsmuch like Baymax in the animated movie Big Hero 6, where a simple scan can pinpoint exactly what and where an ailment would be.

But the health care protocol and comfort for the patient, the reasoning goes, would still be best delivered by fellow humans.

Here are the four soft skill areas commonly cited by the articles we compiled:

1. Critical thinking and design thinking. The ability to synthesize, see linkages, distinguish macro from micro, will be an essential skill for the future. So is the ability to design an interface or interaction from the users point of view, to always empathize with how anyone would access your service or use your product.

2. Emotional intelligence. This refers to the persons ability to be aware of, control and express their own emotions as well as being aware of the emotions of others. You exhibit high emotional intelligence if you have empathy, integrity and work well with others. This would include being adaptable and flexible, depending on the individual with whom youre interacting.

3. Creativity. This means you are constantly thinking of new products or enhanced services, or ways of working with or harnessing technologies for your business, and even new ways of thinking about any situation.

4. Communication and collaboration. In a world full of data, to extract meaning from them and communicate this effectively, then written, verbal and interpersonal skills would be necessary. Working with teams would also be crucial as most tasks would be collaborative.

The Inquirer Academy, in this new decade, and as a response to this imminent challenge, is offering a new course called Essential Skills for the Future, which is a six-day interactive program to prepare professionals for disruptive technology. It will equip participants with an understanding and practical applications of critical thinking, problem-solving, creativity, emotional intelligence, collaboration and business communicationthe skills needed to succeed in the future.

It will be on March 12, 13, 19, 20, 26 and 27, 2020, and will be held at the Inquirer Academy. INQ

The Inquirer Academy is at 4168 Don Chino Roces Avenue corner Ponte Street, Makati City. For more information about the workshops or if you would like to add your input on the article, please email [emailprotected], call (02) 8834-1557, (02) 8771-2715 or (0945) 2158935 and look for Jerald Miguel or Karl Paz, or visit http://www.inquireracademy.com

The author is the executive director of the Inquirer Academy.

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Prepare yourself for the 4th industrial revolution - INQUIRER.net

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Not all technology stocks beat the market last year. Indeed, internet stocks lagged behind the major indexes. But underperformance can also present attractive buying opportunities.

To take a look, we asked two veteran internet analystsMark Mahaney of RBC Capital Markets and Colin Sebastian of Bairdfor their top picks for 2020.

Mahaney believes that the internet stocks relative underperformance sets up the sector for strong multiyear returns. The First Trust Dow Jones Internet Index fund (ticker: FDN), which tracks the performance of the Dow Jones Internet Composite index, rose 19% last year, versus the S&P 500 indexs total return of 32% and the Nasdaq Composites 37% gain.

The sectors valuation is reasonable, he says. The median forward enterprise-value-to-Ebitda ratio for large-cap internet names remains around 12, near where it was at the end of 2018.

One of Mahaneys top picks is Google-parent Alphabet (GOOGL). He cites the companys leadership in using artificial intelligence to improve its search and ad platforms. Whoever has the most data wins, he says. Because of [Googles] machine learning, the ads are becoming more relevant.

The analyst has a $1,500 price target for the stock and an Outperform rating. He estimates that Alphabet will spend $51 billion in research and development and capital expenditure for fiscal 2019. This high level of investment spending is a positive sign that the company is bullish on its long-term growth trends, he says.

Sebastian is also positive on Alphabet, with an Outperform rating. He predicts that both its cloud-computing businesses and YouTube will finally become large enough to move the needle for the internet giant this year. The companys recently increased pace of stock buybacks will probably boost the share price, he says.

Amazon.com (AMZN) is his top large-cap idea. Sebastian expects that the e-commerce behemoths profitability will improve during the second half of the year, and he sees big growth opportunities in businesses like cloud-computing, shipping logistics, and advertising.

Outside of the major internet companies, the two analysts have some other interesting ideas. Mahaney thinks that Uber Technologies (UBER) is currently the most dislocated stock, and one that could provide the most upside at current prices. He says that investor sentiment on Uber has become too negative, with the stock down 30% from its initial-public-offering price.

Ride-hailing is actually a very good business, he says, noting how the Uber Rides segments revenue grew roughly 20% in its most recent reported quarter. Mahaney thinks that Ubers profit margin could rise at a much faster rate than investors expect. The companys current predicament reminds him of where Facebook (FB) was a year ago when its growth rate slowed and it was wrestling with data-privacy troubles. Facebook shares rebounded and ultimately rose 57% in 2019.

Theres a lot of dislocation and fear in the stock, Mahaney says. If [Uber management] can continue to reduce losses and maintain healthy revenue growth rates, I think the Uber shares can materially go up higher.

Sebastian likes mobile-videogame publisher Zynga (ZNGA), pointing to its compelling game pipeline and current game franchises.

In October, the company reported better-than-expected September-quarter earnings results, achieving its best quarterly revenue number in its history. At the time, CEO Frank Gibeau told Barrons that he did not see any large negative impact from the recently released Apple Arcade gaming service.

Zynga has done a good job creating a portfolio of [internet enabled] live services, Sebastian says. It means that, with scale, it will lead to more profitability and more visibility.

Longer term, the analyst is also excited about further advances in artificial intelligence and computing that could spur new waves of growth for technology companies in the new decade.

Real machine learning is possible in the years ahead, where computers thoughtfully and intelligently solve problems, he says. Within the grasp of the next 10 years, Id say quantum computing is very exciting because it will massively increase computational capability.

Sebastian thinks that over time quantum computing may be able to achieve breakthroughs in medical research and other data-intensive applications. Quantum is a new paradigm of computer processing where bits of information can hold multiple values, versus the 0 and 1 binary values of traditional computing.

Despite their optimism, both Mahaney and Sebastian acknowledged that regulatory scrutiny of Big Tech is a risk this year. Government agencies have been investigating the major internet companies competition practices.

But regulators bark will probably be bigger than their bite, Sebastian says, and the likely bigger risk is management distraction, versus actual regulatory action or legislation.

He says the new decade will bring a new Roaring 20s for technology, similar to the 1920s for the U.S. economy. Investors should bet on companies that can benefit from innovations.

Write to Tae Kim at tae.kim@barrons.com

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Internet Stocks Picked to Take Off in 2020 - Barron's

By Atam Dhawan

As our civilization evolves, so do our expectations of technology. Together, they demonstrate how dramatic advances in robots, nanotechnology-enabled sensors and high-powered computing will continue to change and evolve our society. Importantly, many of these technologies, including smart robots, point-of-care devices and machine intelligence, will empower individuals to enjoy their lives more purposefully.

Here is my list of new goalposts for the next decade in three spheres: health care, environmental sustainability and technology-assisted living.

Healthcare:

Sustainable Environment:

Technology-Assisted Living:

Atam Dhawan is the senior vice provost for research at NJIT, a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering and an inventor. With several issued patents, some commercialized, Dhawan was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors in 2015 for his work on point-of-care technologies in health care. He serves as the chair of the National Institutes of Healths point-of-care research network.

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The 2020s: An NJIT researcher gives us a glimpse at the future of technology - NJ.com