Microsoft news – Page 99

Posted on July 15, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Land O’Lakes and Microsoft form strategic alliance to pioneer new innovations in agriculture and support rural communities

Together the companies aim to build tighter connections between consumers and farmers through innovative new technologies built on Microsoft’s cloud

ARDEN HILLS, Minn., and REDMOND, Wash. — July 15, 2020 — Land O’Lakes Inc. and Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday announced a multiyear strategic alliance to pioneer new innovations in agriculture and enhance the supply chain, expand sustainability practices for farmers and the food system, and close the rural broadband gap. As one of the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperatives with 150 million acres of productive cropland in its network, Land O’Lakes is deeply connected to rural America and has a unique understanding of farmers’ needs and the communities where they and their families live and work. Combined with Microsoft’s trusted cloud technologies and AI capabilities, the companies will deliver solutions that help farmers’ profit potential and adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. farms contribute more than $130 billion to the economy, emphasizing the critical role farmers play in our nation’s food supply. Yet the industry faces challenges that threaten its viability, including climate change, trade issues and an evolving workforce. With the emergence of COVID-19, the industry is increasingly facing production and supply-chain issues, and many farmers are facing new economic challenges for their family-owned businesses.

“Land O’Lakes is one of the most important food suppliers in the U.S., and our nation’s farmers and consumers rely on its ability to rapidly adapt to changing market forces through innovation,” said Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft. “Through our partnership, we will apply the power of Azure and its AI capabilities to help Land O’Lakes solve some of the most pressing challenges facing the industry and bridge the divide between rural and urban communities.”

“As America’s farmers continue to deliver the world’s safest, most affordable food supply, they face an increasing number of obstacles that are beyond their control. The data-based, precision agriculture tools that we are building with Microsoft will provide the edge they need, but unreliable or nonexistent high-speed internet in rural areas keeps these tools out of reach for many. Through this alliance, we will work to address this need and help farmers remain profitable and sustainable,” said Beth Ford, president and CEO of Land O’Lakes, Inc.

Accelerating agriculture innovation

Initially, the companies will focus on developing a connected AgTech platform, built on Microsoft Azure, that will bring together Land O’Lakes’ portfolio of innovative AgTech tools, such as WinField United’s R7^®Suite, Data Silo and Truterra™ Insights Engine under one unified architecture. By standardizing on Azure and harnessing the power of Azure FarmBeats, Land O’Lakes will be able to derive insights that enable intelligent agriculture solutions for farmers to be more productive with their time and resources. This includes early mitigation of plant stress to guide precisely where and when farmers should take action on their field for ideal growth conditions, maximization of yield potential by planting the right seed varieties and nutrients, optimizing fertilizer investments, and ensuring accurate output ratio to meet demand properly, all while lowering the farm carbon footprint.

Built on top of the AgTech platform, the companies will collaborate to advance an aggregator of data with Data Silo, as well as leverage Microsoft Azure and its AI capabilities and insights from WinField United Answer Plot^® test fields, to support more predictable decisions for placement of crop inputs such as seeds and treatments, with the goal of increasing return on investment with the entire acre.

The companies will create a Digital Dairy solution, harnessing the power of edge computing to capture data from farms with poor internet coverage, and the power of AI to provide data-driven insights for dairy producers. This initiative will bring together multiple data streams — including weather, feed management and animal health — from sensors and third-party applications to help dairy producers improve profit potential, adopt conservation practices and reduce waste by feeding livestock only what they need and ensuring milk supply doesn’t go bad in the supply chain. Through the Digital Dairy solution, the companies will enable Traceability throughout the Land O’Lakes supply chain, providing transparency to milk, butter and cheese, ensuring consumer confidence that foods are of the highest quality and sustainably sourced. At a time when the dairy industry is stressed with changing customer demand and supply-chain disruptions, these digital tools will help producers improve efficiencies and profit potential, while helping to ensure food gets to the people who need it most.

Advancing sustainability initiatives

With the challenges of a changing climate, more extreme weather and a growing world population, Land O’Lakes and Microsoft share a commitment to sustainability and natural resources stewardship to help farm fields be both more resilient and productive for generations to come. We can help farmers improve the health and function of their farms’ soils to both produce more food and store greenhouse gas, including carbon. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that agricultural soils could hold up to 10% of human-caused emissions within 25 years. Yet, soils are largely absent from global carbon markets. As a result, farmers lack adequate information and incentives to practice regenerative agriculture to capture and store carbon.

The companies are working together to change that by developing a technology suite to help farmers improve their profit potential and generate new revenue in carbon markets. The new alliance will develop capabilities to quickly and effectively predict the carbon benefits of regenerative practices like no-till, precision nutrient management and planting of cover crops. Combining such capabilities with the real-time transparency from remote sensing and satellite data will make certification of these projects in global carbon markets easier, quicker and less expensive — ultimately maximizing the economic value for farmers.

The companies will explore integrating these new capabilities into the Truterra™ Insights Engine to create a unique soil health platform that can help farmers identify new opportunities to adopt practices to improve the quality and function of their farms’ soils, estimate the natural resource and economic benefits of those new practices, generate soil carbon credits, and connect to soil carbon markets that sell certified credits to buyers.

The platform would help unlock the potential of hundreds of millions of acres of farmland to be an effective carbon removal system and improve soil health and productivity, while providing farmers with the insights they need to make the best decisions for their farms. Markets like these may help Microsoft reach its goal to be carbon negative by 2030 and remove more carbon from the atmosphere than it emitted since its founding by 2050, and help other businesses take advantage of soil carbon credits and the market to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

Connecting rural America

Broadband is essential to fully participate in the modern economy. Unfortunately, more than 18 million Americans, 14 million of whom live in rural communities, don’t have access to broadband connections. Both companies are working to connect rural communities: Microsoft’s Airband Initiative has worked around the country to eliminate the rural broadband gap, and Land O’Lakes’ American Connection Project aims to close the digital divide through action and advocacy.

The companies are launching pilots that will lead to long-term programmatic solutions in rural communities. Combining Microsoft’s Airband program and specific locations within the Land O’Lakes owner network, broadband will be deployed to rural communities along with services including telehealth, educational resources and digital skilling. Both companies are also advocating for policy changes to accelerate the availability of broadband in rural communities, including broadband mapping to fully understand who has and does not have access to broadband, and federal funding in upcoming legislation.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic makes the digital divide even worse for many people. Remote work, education and healthcare are out of reach for people living in rural communities without online access. The companies are answering this immediate need for connectivity by working together to turn on free public Wi-Fi at more than 150+ locations in 19 states using a mix of technologies, including fixed wireless, and supplying internet service providers with the necessary hardware.

Land O’Lakes to transition its IT platforms to Microsoft

Through this agreement, Microsoft becomes Land O’Lakes’ strategic cloud provider, and Land O’Lakes will migrate the majority of the company’s IT infrastructure onto Microsoft Azure. The company has enabled Microsoft 365 and Teams for its workforce, empowering them with next-generation digital experience technology for increased productivity, advanced security, internal collaboration and customer engagement.

About Land O’Lakes Inc.

Land O’Lakes, Inc., one of America’s premier agribusiness and food companies, is a member-owned cooperative with industry-leading operations that span the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods. With 2019 annual sales of $14 billion, Land O’Lakes is one of the nation’s largest cooperatives, ranking 232 on the Fortune 500. Building on a legacy of more than 99 years of operation, Land O’Lakes today operates some of the most respected brands and businesses in agriculture and food production including Land O’Lakes Dairy Foods, Purina Animal Nutrition, WinField United and Truterra, LLC. The company does business in all 50 states and more than 60 countries. Land O’Lakes, Inc. corporate headquarters are located in Arden Hills, Minn.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, rrt@we-worldwide.com

Land O’Lakes Media Relations, Brooke Dillon, (651) 202-1670, BDillon@landolakes.com

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.

Posted on July 15, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Female Founders Competition winners announced

Deeptech — Global Winners : iLoF — Oxford, UK

iLoF uses AI and photonics to build a cloud-based library of disease biomarkers, initially focusing on the biggest epidemic of our time: Alzheimer’s disease.

How does it feel to be a winner of the Female Founders Competition?
It’s an honor to be selected as a winner from such an inspiring and trail-blazing group of women-led deeptech companies from all over the globe. We are immensely excited to be able to join M12, Mayfield and Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures in the fight for increased diversity, and to be able to do our small part in supporting an environment of inclusion, openness and acceptance. As we begin this next phase in our journey with the backing and support of world-renowned investors, we believe we will be able to fast-track the development and deployment of our platform and our vision.

Clockwise from the top left: Mehak Mumtaz, Joana Paiva, and Paula Sampaio pitch iLoF remotely to Tamara Steffens from M12 at the Female Founders Competition Finals Event

How has your offering impacted customers to date?
Using our non-invasive, low-cost and agnostic platform, we are transforming the drug discovery and development process, creating value for customers in a wide range of applications.
In our main focus area, Alzheimer’s disease, we have enabled a promising biotech to validate a new nano-sized therapeutic biomarker. At the same time, we are providing a public hospital with a tool to screen thousands of patients for a clinical trial in a non-invasive and patient-centric way.

How do you plan to use the funding from the Female Founders Competition?
We at iLoF are on a mission to enable a new era of personalized medicine, by helping the industry develop precise and personalized treatments for patients. This investment will be used to fast track our collaboration with one of our industry partners for development of a treatment for Alzheimer’s, while also accelerating our work in two additional verticals: oncology and cardiovascular disease.

What advice do you have for other female founders who are fundraising right now?

1. Find other female founders to share and learn from each other, leverage communities or build your own.

2. Identify female-led startup role models, reach out to them and get them to show you the ropes.

3. Be prepared, understand the process, know your numbers and practice, practice, practice.

4. Brace yourself for rejections and learn to reframe them into learning opportunities.

Follow iLoF on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Posted on July 14, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

How to create clarity in your company’s accessibility journey

We’re often asked what the secret is to our approach to accessibility and inclusion at Microsoft. The simple answer is, we manage it like a business. As with any business, it needs to be actively managed and measured to ensure it continues to grow and stay healthy. To help bring other organizations along, I’d like to dive in a bit deeper into our model in the hopes that you can take what we’ve learned adapt it for your company’s purpose and grow accessibility in a sustainable way that’s integrated into your culture.

Accessibility is a journey. Back in 2016, we realized we needed to evolve our approach to accessibility and so we set out to rebuild our company-wide accessibility program in more systematic way that allowed us to measure progress and set targets. Started by studying best practices in maturity models—the Carnegie Mellon Capability Model and the Level Access Digital Accessibility Maturity Model. The wisdom from these models was discussed by the Microsoft Accessibility Leadership Team who then considered the dimensions and criteria that would work for Microsoft. This led to development of the Accessibility Evolution Model (AEM) which we have been using and improving on for over four years. The use of this model has enabled us to understand year-over-year growth, by division and function, and track progress. To manage accessibility like a business.

The model defines how developed an organization is in addressing a business problem like accessibility and includes a set of structured levels that describe how well the behaviors, practices, and processes of an organization can reliably and sustainably produce desired outcomes.

A graphic illustrating the different types of accessibility evolution models.

The AEM is comprised of eight overarching dimensions by which we assess our accessibility journey. People & Culture, Vision, Strategy and Engagement, Investments, Standards, Training, Support & Tools, Procurement, Product Development Lifecycle, and Sales, Marketing & Communications. We realize that each organization has its own pace and starting point, and you may have your own criteria, but the starting point for building a culture of accessibility and disability inclusion is People.

At Microsoft, we approach inclusion in everything we do and consider disability as a strength. The more you focus and take this approach, the more your culture will improve and evolve. It really starts by hiring people with disabilities and empowering that talent as an integral part of your organization. The mission of Microsoft is to empower every person and every organization to achieve more. So, inclusion of people with disabilities is deeply connected to the core of our company goals. By empowering talent with disabilities, we gain expertise that enables us to build products and services that reflect the diverse needs of our global customers. Our focus on inclusive hiring programs including the Autism Hiring Program is at the core of building a long-term successful organization. Additionally, it’s important that every employee is trained on accessibility and understands why and how to be inclusive using accessibility. We created an ‘Accessibility in Action Badge’ for our employees, 90 minutes of virtual online content to shine a spotlight on how technology can empower everyone. After receiving a lot of positive feedback, we created a similar program for other employers, nonprofits, and consumers to take alongside our employees which launched in May this year. Invest your time to complete the accessibility fundamentals learning path today on Microsoft Learn and consider how similar training could benefit your organization.

The AEM has helped us to understand the maturity of our Product Development Lifecycle. As a technology company, this is imperative, but the same principles apply to every company regardless of what your ‘product’ is. This dimension focuses on how to plan, design, code, build & deploy, test, and receive feedback, to ensure requirements are built into the development lifecycle and that accessibility is a part of the normal engineering processes. While much of this is baked into our formal processes, we also are aware of the need to continue in innovation and creativity within technology. It is important to setup repeatable processes, while also providing flexibility within engineering teams, particularly in design phases. Taking a look at the five levels within the development lifecycle, we explore the reactive mode, whereby teams are learning accessibility, testing, finding and remediating bugs – completely reactive. As we grow in maturity, we begin to see the proactive activities, such as spec reviews with an inclusive lens. This reduces the reactive bug fixes, and allows us to “shift left”, which means moving the accessibility lens and actions upstream into the conceptual and design phases and most importantly listening to user needs. A great and timely example of this is accessibility features in Microsoft Teams including custom backgrounds and live captions. These features stemmed from one of our engineers in the Deaf community who saw an opportunity to improve the product which resulted in features that are now widely used for collaboration. In fact, we saw a 30x increase in captions usage from February to April this year as more and more people leveraged the feature to collaborate globally as a result of the pandemic.

Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to creating a sustainable culture of accessibility. You’ll need to tailor your program to fit the dynamics of your organization to ensure it’s embedded into your DNA and most importantly, part of how you run your business. You’ll need to evolve the model as you mature and learn what factors and dimensions fuel growth. We have a long way to go on our journey but our hope is that by sharing more about our journey and how the Microsoft AEM has helped us mature accessibility at Microsoft, it provides you with a guide and operational model to learn from, and accelerate your journey no matter your starting point.

There is so much more that we want to share that can’t be covered in the span of this blog so we encourage you to check out the resources we’ve made available on Microsoft.com/Accessibility.

Posted on July 14, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Get a closer look at the tech driving gaming innovation forward on Xbox Series X

When we set out to design the Xbox Series X, we aspired to build our most powerful console ever powered by next generation innovation and delivering consistent, sustained performance never before seen in a console with no compromises. To achieve this goal, we knew we needed to analyze each component of the system, to push beyond the limitations in traditional console performance and design. It was critical in the design of the Xbox Series X to ensure we had a superior balance of power, speed and performance while ensuring no component would constrain the creative ambition of the world’s best creators, empowering them to deliver truly transformative next gen gaming experiences not possible in prior console generations.

At the heart of the Xbox Series X is our custom processor leveraging the latest RDNA 2 and Zen 2 architectures from our partners at AMD to deliver a best in class next generation processor delivering more than 12 TFLOPs of GPU power and more than 4 times the CPU processing power of the Xbox One X. Xbox Series X includes the highest memory bandwidth of any next generation console with 16GB of GDDR6 memory, including 10GB of GPU optimized memory at 560 GB/s to keep the processor fed with no bottlenecks. As we analyzed the storage subsystem, it became clear that we had reached the upper limits of traditional hard drive technology and to deliver on our design aspirations, we would need to radically rethink and revolutionize our approach with the Xbox Series X.

Empowering Next Generation Game Design and Creative Vision

Modern games require a significant amount of data to create the realistic worlds and universes that gamers experience. To enable the processor to work at its optimum performance, all of this data must be loaded from storage into memory. The explosion of massive, dynamic open-world environments and living, persistent worlds with increased density and variety has only increased the amount of data required. From environmental mesh data, high polygon character models, high resolution textures, animation data, audio and video source files and more all combine together to deliver the most immersive game play environment for the player.

Despite the ability for modern game engines and middleware to stream game assets into memory off of local storage, level designers are still often required to create narrow pathways, hallways, or elevators to work around the limitations of a traditional hard drive and I/O pipeline. These in-game elements are often used to mask the need to unload the prior zone’s assets from memory while loading in new assets for the next play space. As we discussed developers’ aspirations for their next generation titles and the limitations of current generation technology, this challenge would continue to increase exponentially and further constrain the ambition for truly transformative games. This feedback influenced the design and development of the Xbox Velocity Architecture.

Introducing the Xbox Velocity Architecture

The Xbox Velocity Architecture was designed as the ultimate solution for game asset streaming in the next generation. This radical reinvention of the traditional I/O subsystem directly influenced all aspects of the Xbox Series X design. If our custom designed processor is at the heart of the Xbox Series X, the Xbox Velocity Architecture is the soul. Through a deep integration of hardware and software innovation, the Xbox Velocity Architecture will power next-gen gaming experiences unlike anything you have seen before.

The Xbox Velocity Architecture comprises four major components: our custom NVME SSD, hardware accelerated decompression blocks, a brand new DirectStorage API layer and Sampler Feedback Streaming (SFS).

Let’s dive deep into each component:

Custom NVME SSD: The foundation of the Xbox Velocity Architecture is our custom, 1TB NVME SSD, delivering 2.4 GB/s of raw I/O throughput, more than 40x the throughput of Xbox One. Traditional SSDs used in PCs often reduce performance as thermals increase or while performing drive maintenance. The custom NVME SSD in Xbox Series X is designed for consistent, sustained performance as opposed to peak performance. Developers have a guaranteed level of I/O performance at all times and they can reliably design and optimize their games removing the barriers and constraints they have to work around today. This same level of consistent, sustained performance also applies to the Seagate Expandable Storage Card ensuring you have the exact same gameplay experience regardless of where the game resides.
Hardware Accelerated Decompression: Game packages and assets are compressed to minimize download times and the amount of storage required for each individual game. With hardware accelerated support for both the industry standard LZ decompressor as well as a brand new, proprietary algorithm specifically designed for texture data named BCPack, Xbox Series X provides the best of both worlds for developers to achieve massive savings with no loss in quality or performance. As texture data comprises a significant portion of the total overall size of a game, having a purpose built algorithm optimized for texture data in addition to the general purpose LZ decompressor, both can be used in parallel to reduce the overall size of a game package. Assuming a 2:1 compression ratio, Xbox Series X delivers an effective 4.8 GB/s in I/O performance to the title, approximately 100x the I/O performance in current generation consoles. To deliver similar levels of decompression performance in software would require more than 4 Zen 2 CPU cores.
New DirectStorage API: Standard File I/O APIs were developed more than 30 years ago and are virtually unchanged while storage technology has made significant advancements since then. As we analyzed game data access patterns as well as the latest hardware advancements with SSD technology, we knew we needed to advance the state of the art to put more control in the hands of developers. We added a brand new DirectStorage API to the DirectX family, providing developers with fine grain control of their I/O operations empowering them to establish multiple I/O queues, prioritization and minimizing I/O latency. These direct, low level access APIs ensure developers will be able to take full advantage of the raw I/O performance afforded by the hardware, resulting in virtually eliminating load times or fast travel systems that are just that . . . fast.
Sampler Feedback Streaming (SFS): Sampler Feedback Streaming is a brand-new innovation built on top of all the other advancements of the Xbox Velocity Architecture. Game textures are optimized at differing levels of detail and resolution, called mipmaps, and can be used during rendering based on how close or far away an object is from the player. As an object moves closer to the player, the resolution of the texture must increase to provide the crisp detail and visuals that gamers expect. However, these larger mipmaps require a significant amount of memory compared to the lower resolution mips that can be used if the object is further away in the scene. Today, developers must load an entire mip level in memory even in cases where they may only sample a very small portion of the overall texture. Through specialized hardware added to the Xbox One X, we were able to analyze texture memory usage by the GPU and we discovered that the GPU often accesses less than 1/3 of the texture data required to be loaded in memory. A single scene often includes thousands of different textures resulting in a significant loss in effective memory and I/O bandwidth utilization due to inefficient usage. With this insight, we were able to create and add new capabilities to the Xbox Series X GPU which enables it to only load the sub portions of a mip level into memory, on demand, just in time for when the GPU requires the data. This innovation results in approximately 2.5x the effective I/O throughput and memory usage above and beyond the raw hardware capabilities on average. SFS provides an effective multiplier on available system memory and I/O bandwidth, resulting in significantly more memory and I/O throughput available to make your game richer and more immersive.

Through the massive increase in I/O throughput, hardware accelerated decompression, DirectStorage, and the significant increases in efficiency provided by Sampler Feedback Streaming, the Xbox Velocity Architecture enables the Xbox Series X to deliver effective performance well beyond the raw hardware specs, providing direct, instant, low level access to more than 100GB of game data stored on the SSD just in time for when the game requires it. These innovations will unlock new gameplay experiences and a level of depth and immersion unlike anything you have previously experienced in gaming.

Unlocking Next Generation Experiences

What does this all mean for you as a gamer? As the industry’s most creative developers and middleware companies have begun to explore these new capabilities, we expect significant innovation throughout the next generation as this revolutionary new architecture enables entirely new scenarios never before considered possible in gaming. The Xbox Velocity Architecture provides a new level of performance and capabilities well beyond the raw specifications of the hardware itself. The Xbox Velocity Architecture fundamentally rethinks how a developer can take advantage of the hardware provided by the Xbox Series X. From entirely new rendering techniques to the virtual elimination of loading times, to larger, more dynamic living worlds where, as a gamer, you can choose how you want to explore, we can’t be more excited by the early results we are already seeing. In addition, the Xbox Velocity Architecture has opened even more opportunities and enabled new innovations at the platform level, such as Quick Resume which enables you to instantly resume where you left off across multiple games, improving the overall gaming experience for all gamers on Xbox Series X.

We can’t wait for gamers around the world to get to experience these new, next generation gaming experiences on Xbox Series X this holiday and beyond. For more information on the Xbox Velocity Architecture, check out the video above.

Posted on July 14, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

AnyLogic and Project Bonsai help companies teach machines to solve real-world business problems

Four years ago, I joined the startup Bonsai, which envisioned a new way of training AI agents. The idea was to enable subject matter experts to use their knowledge of a particular problem to teach the AI agent how to make decisions about it, or to create an optimal control policy. Bonsai chose reinforcement learning (RL) as the first AI category to support, as we believed it could enable new use cases for automation and create significant value for future customers.

Before then, reinforcement learning had mostly received attention for teaching AI agents how to play games like Pong and other Atari classics. Then, OpenAI enabled users with a library of example environments that could be used to learn more about RL and increase performance of the latest RL algorithms. Soon thereafter, examples of simple physics-based models were added, either as simple robotic systems or games that took advantage of built-in physics engines. At Bonsai, we accelerated that trend and focused on teaching AI agents how to become more intelligent controllers for advanced control problems where traditional approaches may have shortcomings.

With a vision of developing an AI toolchain that enables engineers to add intelligence to their existing and future systems, we started to take a broader view of what might be possible. This goes back to the question: What is a controller? Is a supply chain or any other business process a controller? If so, could we make these controllers more intelligent?

I found a simulation model of the Beer Distribution Game on AnyLogic’s cloud platform and connected it to our deep reinforcement learning service to see if we could teach an AI agent to learn a successful control policy for one of the standard models taught in business school when supply chains are covered. It worked! It easily beat our co-workers when playing the game in real time and enabled our sales team to sign our first supply chain customer.

Fast forward to May 2020. After being acquired by Microsoft in 2018, Bonsai recently launched as a fully integrated Azure service at Microsoft’s Build developers conference. Over the past two years, we have continued to invest in our partnership with AnyLogic, and have learned more about how to use multi-method models with a deep reinforcement learning service such as ours.

If you’re not familiar with RL, it’s based on the idea of framing problems as a Markov decision process in which an AI agent learns a control policy to always pick the best possible action for a given state of the system. Ideally this system is somewhat random and dynamic, which makes a reward-based learning approach superior compared with other traditional control theories. More details can be found here.

Let’s look at an example: Activity Based Costing Analysis (ABCA)

A simplistic factory floor model where cost associated with product processing is calculated and analyzed using activity-based costing (ABC). Each incoming product seizes some resources, is processed by a machine, conveyed, and releases the resources. Cost accumulated by a product is broken down into several categories for analysis and optimization.

In this case, we’re training an AI agent to learn a policy for choosing factory floor parameters with the goal of optimizing product cost. State is defined as the product arrival rate, the number of resources and their utilization, idle and busy costs, as well as process time, and the speed of the conveyor belt. Action is defined as setting the number of resources, process time and the speed to the conveyor. The goal is to reduce cost per product while maintaining a high overall throughput. Users need to describe these parameters to the AI agent using machine teaching, then upload the simulation model and start training. The AI agent will start by initially picking random values for the action, then assess if the changed state is getting closer to the defined goal. Based on this assessment, the agent will adjust actions and over time will reach the goals defined by the user. Depending on problem complexity, the agent may require anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions of these iterations. Once the goal has been reached, the AI agent has learned to always choose the best possible parameters for any given state of the production process. Enterprises could use a customized version of this simulation model in connection with the Project Bonsai service to optimize their factory floor processes.

The Project Bonsai preview is now available. To get started, you can either access it directly or request engagement from an expert through this form. The model used in this example and more information can be found on the AnyLogic website.

To learn more, please join AnyLogic and our Microsoft team for a live webinar on July 28 showcasing how you can bring deep reinforcement learning to practical business applications in a series of concise and easy-to-follow steps. In this webinar, we’ll demonstrate how an AnyLogic model can be transformed into an RL-ready model and used as the training environment (simulator) in Project Bonsai.

Related:

Posted on July 14, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

AnyLogic and Project Bonsai help companies teach machines to solve real-world business problems

Let’s look at an example: Activity Based Costing Analysis (ABCA)

Related:

Posted on July 14, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

A powerful laptop with an innovative modular design has been released by Kano

A two-in-one laptop that lets people pull out and click in new parts as they progress has been released worldwide.

The Kano PC is a two-in-one device that is designed to open up technology, reduce the number of devices thrown away, and empower children and adults to learn at their own pace.

According to UK government figures from 2015, schools spend more than £900m a year on education technology, while the UN has found that computers and IT produce 3.5 million tons of electronic waste globally every year. In the US, schools spend an estimated $3.6 billion on new computers that could simply be repaired.

The Kano PC is transparent, so people can see how it operates; its status lights reveal the data flow within; key parts can be disconnected and replaced with new ones, increasing the lifetime of the device.

It runs Windows 10, is more durable, powerful and faster than many rival computers, and at $299.99 it’s often cheaper, too.

Alex Klein, Co-founder and Chief Executive of Kano, said: “Our goal is to create affordable, powerful computers that demystify technology. This is great news for schools that need to upgrade and repair their laptops, for economies in recovery, and for those at home, in need of new and well-designed tools.“

Kano is also releasing a camera, headphones and mouse for the PC that can be built and easily repaired with new parts. These come with creative software projects, suggested when users of the Kano PC click on the Windows 10 Start Menu. Computer science combines with imagery, geometry and music to bring disparate disciplines together. Tutorial videos on topics such as coding, design and 3D modelling come loaded inside the device, and a special curriculum is being made for teachers. The PC runs a suite of Windows 10 apps, such as How Computers Work, Kano Code and Make Art.

As Kano’s PC runs Windows 10, privacy and family safety tools come as standard, enabling families to have full transparency into how the computer is being used.

The company has worked with thousands of people worldwide as it developed the PC, and a year case study at three Tower Hamlets Schools in London showed large improvements in students’ creative confidence and computing capabilities. The tools have empowered Syrian refugees and low-income communities in the US, where the product is also launching today.

The Kano PC is now available for order on the Kano website and at Microsoft Stores online.

Its release comes as the company announces a new partnership with Microsoft.

“The Education sector is undergoing massive change enabled by technology, and our collaboration with Kano is truly advancing the vision of “technology for all,” said Jordan Chrysafidis, General Manager, Worldwide Education Device Sales, Microsoft. “Together we are delivering high quality, accessible and affordable Windows based devices, combined with customized curriculum that teaches design, coding, 3d modelling and more, that enables Kano users to become digital creators.”

The Kano PC: in pictures

Posted on July 14, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft study: Online civility improved in APAC during COVID-19, declined in Latin America

Teens and adults in the Asia-Pacific region reported an uptick in online civility and more respectful digital interactions during the COVID-19 global pandemic, results from a new Microsoft research study show. Meanwhile, respondents in Latin America said online civility worsened, punctuated by an increase in the spread of false or misleading information.

Nearly one-third (31%) of respondents in nine APAC geographies said online civility improved in the COVID-19 stay-at-home environment, a 5-percentage-points increase compared to the worldwide reading of 26%. A total of 32 geographies¹ were included in this year’s study, which was conducted in April and May. Across other regions, participants in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, and the combined grouping of North American and Western European countries^,2 said online civility improved by smaller percentages: 30%, 17% and 20%, respectively.

Meanwhile, in Latin America, 31% said online civility declined during the crisis, topping the worldwide reading of 22% by 9-percentage points. APAC, Central and Eastern Europe, and the combined North American and Western European block, posted “worsening” percentages of 22%, 28% and 17%. (Additional details shown in the chart below.)

Worldwide (52%) and regionally, a majority of respondents said online civility was unchanged by COVID-19. Regional “unchanged” percentages break down as follows:
• APAC: 47%
• Central and Eastern Europe: 55%
• Latin America: 39%
• North America and Western Europe: 63%

Overall, results underscore that despite anecdotal reports of declining online civility during COVID-19, the global picture is more nuanced.

Five years of digital civility research

The findings come from the latest study, Civility, Safety and Interaction Online – 2020, which polled teens aged 13-17 and adults aged 18-74 about their exposure to 21 different online risks across four categories: behavioral; sexual; reputational; and personal/intrusive.³ This research builds on similar studies about digital civility that Microsoft has conducted in each of the last four years when fewer countries were included.

A total of 16,051 individuals participated in this year’s poll, and we’ve surveyed more than 58,000 people on these topics since the start of this work. Full results, including the release of the latest Microsoft Digital Civility Index (DCI), will be made available on international Safer Internet Day 2021 on February 9. The DCI is a measure of the tone and tenor of online interactions as reported by consumers in all surveyed locales. Last year, the index stood at its lowest level since the research began, indicating a high level of perceived online incivility.

Of the 26% of global respondents who thought online civility improved in April and May during COVID-19, people helping other people and a sense of “we’re all in this together” were the primary reasons behind their responses. More than two-thirds (67%) said they saw people helping others and 60% said they had a greater sense of “we’re all in this together.” Meanwhile, in APAC, nearly three-quarters of positive respondents (70%) saw people helping others, and the second most highly rated reply was people being more encouraging to one another (66%). Other positive responses in the APAC region included a greater sense of community, people coming together to deal with the crisis, and people reconnecting online with family and friends.

In Latin America (70%) and globally (67%), an “increased spread of false or misleading information” was the primary reason given by those who thought online civility had faltered during the pandemic. Other standout “worsening” responses in Latin America included “people taking out their frustrations online” and “people being less tolerant.” (Check out our factsheet on helping young people to identify misinformation and hate speech, and read about what Microsoft is doing to combat COVID-19 misinformation more broadly.)

Seven geographies added in 2020

Given the toll the global crisis was taking on people around the world both online and off, we added some special questions to this year’s study to explore the perceived impact of COVID-19 on online interactions in this fifth milestone installment of our research. That’s also why we added (or re-added) seven geographies to the 2020 study: Australia, Denmark, Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan and Thailand. (The first Microsoft Digital Civility Index reading for each of these geographies, bar Australia, will be made available on Safer Internet Day 2021. Australia’s 2020 index will be the first reading since Year Two of the study.)

And, while more of the world starts to re-open following what was truly an unprecedented event in most of our lifetimes, many of us are still working and learning from home, and practicing social distancing. These circumstances underscore the need for safer, healthier and more respectful interactions both online and off. We only need to look to last year’s research to recall what people hoped for in this new decade of the 2020s. Respondents in 25 countries said they wanted “respect,” “safety,” “freedom,” “civility” and “kindness” to define online interactions in the 2020s, and they added a few predictions for some more sensitive scenarios. A third of all respondents said they expect fewer women to be sexually harassed online, fewer teens to be bullied and online political discussions to become more constructive in the new decade.

Embrace the Digital Civility Challenge

To get back on track and help realize some of those uplifting 2020s predictions, we continue to point to our Digital Civility Challenge: four common-sense principles to help engender compassion, empathy and kindness. Everyone can commit to the challenge actions and pledge to adopt positive online habits and practices. Those actions are: Live the Golden Rule; respect differences; pause before replying; and stand up for yourself and others. Learn more about the challenge here, and visit our website and resources page for additional advice and guidance for tackling almost any online safety issue.

¹Countries polled in 2020 were: Argentina, Australia*, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark*, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia*, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Philippines*, Poland, Russia, Sweden*, Singapore, Spain*, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand*, Turkey, U.K., U.S., Vietnam
*Indicates country was added (or re-added) to the study in 2020

²Regional groupings are as follows:
• APAC (9) – Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam
• CEE (3) – Hungary, Poland, Russia
• Latam (6) – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru
• NA + WE (12) – Canada, U.S., Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, U.K.

³The definiton of the four categories are as follows:
Reputational – “Doxing” and damage to personal or professional reputations
Behavioral – Being treated meanly; experiencing trolling, online harassment or bullying; encountering hate
speech and microaggressions
Sexual – Sending or receiving unwanted sexting messages and making sexual solicitations; receiving unwanted
sexual attention and being a victim of sextortion or non-consensual pornography (aka “revenge porn”)
Personal/intrusive – Being the target of unwanted contact, experiencing discrimination, swatting, misogyny, exposure to
extremist content/recruiting, or falling victim to hoaxes, scams or fraud

Posted on July 13, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Partner of the Year Awards announced ahead of Inspire 2020

Inspire is Microsoft’s premier annual event to celebrate partners and announce key news — an essential experience for anyone interested in growing their business and strengthening connections in this extraordinary time. And this year, it’s free and entirely digital. Learn more about the event, speakers and agenda on the Microsoft Inspire site, and join us here July 21-22.

Posted on July 13, 2020 by sick skills — Leave a comment

Microsoft announces 2020 Partner of the Year Awards winners and finalists

Partners recognized for innovative solutions and making more possible for customers worldwide

REDMOND, Wash. — July 13, 2020 — Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced the winners and finalists of the 2020 Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards. The annual awards recognize Microsoft partners demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. Award winners and finalists from around the world will be recognized at the first-ever digital Microsoft Inspire, July 21-22, 2020.

This year, Microsoft acknowledged partners in 49 categories celebrating each of the solution areas, industries and sectors globally in which Microsoft technologies are used. Microsoft introduced ten new categories this year, including the first-ever Community Response Award, which recognizes partners that have made a great difference, providing innovative and unique services or solutions to help solve problems for our customers and community during these unprecedented times.

The finalists and winners for all Microsoft Partner of the Year Awards were selected from more than 3,300 nominations collected from more than 100 different countries worldwide based on their commitment to customers, their solution’s impact on the market and exemplary use of Microsoft technologies.

“It is an honor to recognize the winners and finalists of the Microsoft 2020 Partner of the Year Awards,” said Gavriella Schuster, corporate vice president, One Commercial Partner, Microsoft. “These partners go above and beyond, delivering timely solutions that solve the complex challenges that businesses around the world face — from communicating and collaborating virtually to helping customers realize their full potential with Azure cloud services, and beyond. I am proud to honor and congratulate each winner and finalist.”

Additional details on the Microsoft 2020 Partner of the Year Awards are available in a Microsoft Partner Network blog by Gavriella Schuster: https://blogs.partner.microsoft.com/mpn/congratulations-to-the-2020-microsoft-partner-of-the-year-awards-winners-and-finalists/.

The complete list of categories, winners and finalists, including the Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Award winners for 2020, is available at https://aka.ms/POTYA_WinnersFinalist_List. For more information visit https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire/awards.

About Microsoft Inspire

Microsoft Inspire provides Microsoft’s partner community with access to key marketing and business strategies, leadership, and information regarding specific customer solutions designed to help partners succeed in the marketplace. Microsoft Inspire provides partners with informative learning opportunities covering sales, marketing, services and technology. More information can be found at https://partner.microsoft.com/en-us/inspire.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777, rrt@we-worldwide.com.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://news.microsoft.com. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.