The IT Futures Summit had a panel on disruptive technologies, a presentation by an IBM researcher, an a presentation by Mark Nuefville of Spokane Falls College on the NAO robot, an update on the WA IT Program marketing plan/action taken, the IT Jeopardy game, and more… This was an informative, interactive, and fun event. Look for it next year in May 2017.

The IT Jeopardy game took place on the second day of the event.  In true Jeopardy fashion, the game featured 50 questions with three daily doubles and a final Jeopardy question.

Meet our IT Jeopardy Champions from left to right:

• Lhoucine Zerrouki, Renton Technical College, Computer Science
• Stefan Rijnhart, Lower Columbia College, Computer Science
• Jack Sande, Clark College, Networking Technology
• Tim Culler, Renton Technical College, Computer Science
• Stani Meredith, Seattle Central College, Mobile Product Development
• Melissa DeHaan, Columbia Basin College, Computer Science
• Adam Coleman, Clark College, Computer Technology
• Maricel Medina-Mora, Bellevue College, Information Systems (Programming)
• Ken Hang, Green River College, Information Technology (Programming)

To say this team dominated is an understatement. Everyone get ready for IT Jeopardy: 2017 as it will be an epic match-up!

The following are available to all WA State IT Program CTC faculty from the Summit:

• The IT Jeopardy PPT, Question Grid and Final Jeopardy Question
• Dr. Yunyao Li, IBM’s Almaden Research Center SystemT: An Algebraic Approach to Declarative Information Extraction
• NAO presentation by Mark Neufville of Spokane Falls College
• The Vanity Fair AI Questionnaire and Results
• One of the best quotes from our panelists, Juan Ulloa, EagleView Technologies, on the ethics of AI and the Robotic Rules of Isaac Asimov.

“There is a catch-22 in Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics.  There is a scenario where ethicists have discussed where a robot might be forced to break one or more its laws.  Imagine two-self driving vehicles going towards each other on Highway 101.  Now imagine that the vehicles are just about to cross each other and a large object from the mountains falls right in front of one of them.

To the right of that vehicle there is a cliff, so the vehicle has only two choices: 1.  Allow the collision with the large object to happen, which would prove fatal for the passenger of the car, or 2.  swerve towards the oncoming car, which would be fatal to the passenger of the oncoming vehicle.

What do you think should happen?  Now imagine that one of the cars is transporting children.  Should it respond differently?

Since we are talking about self-driving vehicles (cars), the outcome of this accident would have been pre-determined before the accident happened.  So, ultimately, vehicles (cars) will have to have a method to decide which life is more important and it will mirror the ethics and empathy of those who programmed the vehicles.”

• Also, don’t forget to listen to the Center’s podcast series, WAInfoTechTalks.org.  We now have 11 episodes that explore with our IT industry guests:
  • Robotics/Automation
  • Hacking/Security
  • Entertainment and Technology
  • Web Development/Design/UX
  • Big Data (Our latest episodes – Listen to the three part podcast on Big Data)