CS 195/295: Computing Seminar 2024/25

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are two technologies critical to today's connected world and data-driven decision-making. Individually, AI enables predictive insights and automation, while IoT provides the infrastructure for real-time data collection and device control. AIoT combines these two technologies to make devices more intelligent. AIoT enables connected devices to not only collect and transmit data but also analyze that data, make decisions, and take actions autonomously. This powerful combination is driving innovation across industries, transforming the way we interact with the world around us.

In this talk, we'll introduce AIoT concepts using a simple framework called CADA: Collect, Analyze, Decide, Act. CADA simplifies the development and understanding of AIoT solutions by breaking AIoT into four manageable steps:

• Collect – How devices gather data from their environment.
• Analyze – Using AI to process data and provide insights.
• Decide – Turning insights into decisions, either by AI or with human involvement.
• Act – Automating actions based on the decisions made.

We’ll discuss real-world examples of AIoT applications and highlight how the CADA framework empowers organizations to build more responsive, efficient, and intelligent systems.

Join faculty and your fellow students in the Commons Annex for a time of fellowship over board games. Try to get to know a couple of new people!
Light refreshments will be served.

In this talk Jim VanderMey, Cofounder and Chief Innovation Officer at Vervint, will discuss how his faith impacts how he leads and performs work in technology. We will discuss how pride and humility change our approach to our work in tech. How knowing our identity in Christ changes our values and how we operate in the workplace for eternal purposes. We will answer the question of how we reflect the creative nature of God in our everyday work creating tech and businesses and as entrepreneurs. And finally, how we exercise care and hospitality and demonstrate loving our neighbor when we do good and useful work. Some antipatterns of pride, hubris, organizational monocultures and failures to think about the consequences of AI will be discussed showing how our character as Christ followers is extremely relevant to our work in tech, and a platform for excellence that goes against the dominant culture of the IT industry.

Meet with employers looking to hire for internships and full-time opportunities and to explore careers and industries! Visit www.gvsu.edu/careers/wintercf25 to get registered and prepared!

To receive attendance credit, email me the names of three people/companies you talked to within 7 days

In many “Big Data” problems, the data to be analyzed are stored in files; to solve such problems, an input step is used to read the data from a file into an array for processing. This input step has traditionally been performed sequentially, causing the time to perform that step to grow linearly with N, the number of values in the file. This paper explores different ways to reduce the time consumed by the input step, including the use of different file formats, as well as parallel I/O via MPI-IO. To make parallel I/O easier, we have created OO_MPI_IO, a new set of C++ abstractions that hide the complexity of MPI-IO. We also demonstrate how these OO_MPI_IO abstractions can: (i) improve the scalability of data-intensive problem solutions, and (ii) help a developer experience the effects of Amdahl’s and Gustafson’s Laws.

Our recent publication in Nature highlights the often-overlooked influence of software in contemporary science, encompassing governance, licensing, infrastructure, and usability, and the profound technical, legal, and epistemic impacts. By discussing some failures and successes in many areas of current scientific research, we show the need for interdisciplinary approaches to address challenges such as reproducibility, maintenance, and the diverse needs of users, and how software practices fulfill a critical role in these issues.

Bond with other students. Learn new skills. Work on a project. $2000 in prizes. More information and signup here: https://abstractionhackathon.org

Since the public release of ChatGPT in 2022, large language models (LLMs) have gained significant attention. The growing interest in LLMs and generative AI has led to their application in a wide variety of problems and tasks, showcasing their versatility and potential. However, the rise of these models has also brought to light significant concerns regarding stereotypes, social biases, and ethical implications. In this talk, we will delve into an overview of LLMs, defining what they are, providing a brief historical context of their development, and highlighting their increasing influence in today’s technology landscape. Then, we will explore how biases can manifest within AI systems, examining their societal impact and discussing the critical responsibilities that both AI developers and users hold.

Join Pauline Lu and the Women in Computing club at Calvin in hosting some of 8 Atomic Object's developers. We will discuss the challenges and joys of being women in a male-dominated field, as well as broader questions about working at a software consultancy like Atomic Object. Panelists: Lauren Ebels, Kendra Haan, Lydia Cho, Ashley Schleining.

Doing a senior project next year? You should have a project in mind.
Here are this year's ideas

Also, there will be two mid-project reports:

• E. Asuquo, D. Barry - Computational Modeling II (Araujo)
• J. Cesaj, D. Kim, Z.L. Niu - Ask CCEL a Question: Retrieval-augmented generation for CCEL (Plantinga)

Google Developer Groups Networking Event

Bonus event: a networking event with industry professionals. Panel discussion feasturing four industry professionals. Then, one-on-one or small group chats.

To get credit for attending, send me an email with names of professionals you talked with.

Please RSVP to reserve a spot.