Sun. Aug 9th, 2020

Month: July 2020

Intel, Georgia Tech, and MIT code similarity project could address tech shortages

By Grace 1 week ago

The machine inferred code similarity system has recorded scores that are at times 40 times more accurate than other existing systems, according to Intel.

Image: Intel

In the era of digital transformation, more companies are looking to leverage automation to streamline their business models and enhance efficiencies. At the same time, many companies are struggling to onboard the talent to fulfill their operational objectives. The tech talent shortage has been widely discussed over the past few years.

Must-read developer content

In 2017, it was estimated that there would be as many as 1 million developer positions left unfilled by 2020, according to
Gartner

. At the time, more than 80% of representatives on the TechRepublic CIO Jury reported difficulties finding necessary tech talent at their organizations. The coronavirus pandemic has even highlighted the risks associated with scant programmer talent; namely COBOL programmers to assist with older mainframe systems.

SEE:

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Ford Bronco reservations surpass 150,000 – TechCrunch

By Grace 1 week ago

The reception to Bronco 2021 — Ford’s flagship series of 4×4 vehicles that were revealed earlier this month — surpassed expectations of the company’s most optimistic initial projections, CEO Jim Hackett said in an earnings call Thursday. 

More than 150,000 customers have plunked down $100 to reserve a spot to order one of the vehicles, according to Ford. 

“We think this family of vehicles has big upside potential in the growing off-road category and this is a category with a leading OEM has not been seriously challenged until now,” Hackett said.

These are, of course, mere reservations, not actual orders. The deposits are refundable. Now, Ford is focused on the due diligence required to determine how many of these reservations will be converted to orders as it lay outs its manufacturing strategy for the brand.

The Ford Bronco 2 and Bronco 4 will be built at Michigan Assembly Plant in

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Amazon Web Services (AWS): A cheat sheet

By Grace 1 week ago

This comprehensive guide about AWS covers the expansive cloud services offered by Amazon, common use cases and technical limitations, and what to know when adopting this technology.

Image: iStockphoto/zakokor

The rise of cloud computing provides businesses the ability to quickly provision computing resources without the costly and laborious task of building data centers, and without the costs of running servers with underutilized capacity due to variable workloads.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) was the first large vendor of easily affordable cloud infrastructure and services, and remains the single largest player in the cloud computing market. For startups, this low barrier to entry has enabled the rise of popular photo sharing services such as imgur, while established companies like Netflix have transitioned their workloads to AWS to decrease the complexity of their deployment while reducing costs.

This guide to AWS is both an easily digestible introduction to Amazon’s cloud ecosystem, as

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Zoom fatigue by the numbers: A new poll looks at video conferencing engagement

By Grace 1 week ago

Many companies are relying on video tools to enable remote collaboration and communication. However, a new poll shows that many aren’t paying attention.

Image: iStock/nensuria

Due to the coronavirus, organizations have been forced to shift from the traditional office to the digital workforce on short notice. The transition to telecommuting has had mixed results for organizations. Regular daily and weekly stand-up meetings have been replaced with scheduling blocks filled with video conferences and virtual whiteboard collaboration sessions.

It’s often difficult to fully replicate the feel and collaboration of an in-person meeting on a limited video conferencing platform. This has led to a type of virtual meeting burnout commonly referred to as “Zoom fatigue.” A recent anonymous poll takes a closer look at video conferencing participation, engagement, and more.

Recently, on Blind, a popular anonymous network for professionals, a user-submitted poll was curated to gauge general engagement on video calls.

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The 20 most popular work-from-home jobs and what they pay

By Grace 1 week ago

Remote work becomes essential to the new normal, and for those who want it to be their normal, 7 of the 20 are in the tech world.

Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto

As more employers realize the benefits to pandemic-induced remote work, more employees realize they’d like to continue—or begin—remote work, which has grown more than 159% since 2005. Because of the crisis, 51% of employed Americans transitioned to remote work. Flexjobs compiled a list of the top 20 most common remote titles, as well as the average expected salary for each; of the 20, seven are tech-related: engineer, program manager, consultant, project manager, web developer, data analyst, UX/UI designer.

The coronavirus affected jobs across many industries, with many nonessential positions eliminated; earlier this month, the unemployment rate in the US was 4.8 million. Fortunately, many in the tech industry were able to transition with more ease than most. Despite 25 million

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How to build a quantum workforce

By Grace 1 week ago

Quantum computing requires an interdisciplinary approach and commitment to teach the principles at a young age, according to a panel of industry experts this week.

Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto

As innovation continues to accelerate, quantum computing has become an increasingly important technology that aims to solve complex problems that today’s supercomputers cannot. Industry experts say quantum has strong potential across multiple industry sectors, including pharma, energy, finance, logistics, manufacturing, and materials.

The top five highest-funded startups in the space have raised about $630 million, comprising about 60% of external funding, according to Lux Research.

The growth means companies are looking to hire applicants for quantum computing jobs and that the country needs to build a quantum workforce. Efforts are underway; earlier this month, more than 5,000 students around the world applied to IBM’s Qiskit Global Summer School for future quantum software developers.

And the National Science Foundation and White House

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