IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2012 - 31

Step Three
Try using the software to create your
own game. You might perform a simple
release to friends and then keep changing it or improving it over time. Some
app designers listen to user suggestions
for how they would like to see the game
improved over time-this is a great way
to get ideas for how users might like to
expand your original idea. You can also
do this activity with a friend or family
member, taking turns adding features
and testing.

Questions
1) Did the tutorial help you get a feel for
how the software works? Software
engineers often build tutorials to help
users learn how to use software.

5) What challenges did you
2) How did your original
face in building your
idea for your own
The
game?
game change once
easiest way
6) Do you think it
you tried to build
to try to build a
wo uld be e a sier
it? Why?
or more difficult
3) How long do
computer game is to
to de velop your
you think it
download some of the
game as part of a
would take to
free or shareware
team? W hat are
develop a new
software designed for
the advantages of
piece of word
t e a m w o r k v er s u s
gaming.
p r o c e s si n g o r
working alone?
graphics software?
How many people do
You can also visit Tryyou think it might take to
Engineering.org to explore
work on the engineering team to
other activities and resources to
build this type of software? Why?
explore engineering. Other activities
4) Did you find that it was easier or more
and lessons can be found at www.tryendifficult than you thought to program
gineering.org/lesson.php.
a computer game? Why?

The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
(continued from page 25)

WIE: How will life improve, in say the
next 20 years, as we advance the science of
understanding big data? What are some of
the changes we can expect to see in various markets?
Vailaya: It seems like we have made
tremendous strides in using machines
to solve very complex problems, but in
reality we are barely scratching the surface in AI and big data processing. The
nature and amount of information that
a human or animal brain processes is
still vastly superior to the most sophisticated systems. We are still unable to
build an autonomous navigation system,
whereas navigation is one of the first
aspects animals learn. A fawn is able to
walk, run, and avoid predators within
days of birth. Machines are not yet up to
such tasks.
Predicting the future is an art that
neither humans nor machines have yet
mastered. It was thousands of years
since the invention of the wheel until
we developed powered flight and only
60 odd years since for landing on the

moon. The rate of progress in technology is exponential, both in terms of
computational capacity and the number of people involved in research and
development. Barring any catastrophic
events, my hope is that over the next
20 years, advances in the science of
understanding big data will allow us to
address many complex problems where
technology has been the limitation
thus far.
It will greatly improve productivity
and reduce waste in various markets
such as agriculture and manufacturing.
It will provide much better understanding of complex diseases and effective
cures for some of them. The communication and transportation industries
will also see rapid change, further
reducing national and artificial boundaries. Education will see major changes
as technological advances take remote
teaching and learning to a whole new
level. The world will require fewer
human and natural resources to produce the basic goods that humanity

december 2012

consumes. This will free more people
to pursue their passions and hopefully further speed up the advances in
understanding the science of big data.
WIE: What are your goals for the upcoming year? What would you like most to
accomplish?
Vailaya: I am a researcher at heart. I love
training machines to learn, and I love
learning from machines. It is humbling
how little we understand about so many
things. Using machines to help simplify some of the complexity motivates
me. On the professional front, I will be
focusing in the coming year on growing
Retrevo's offerings beyond consumer
electronics. On the personal front, my
wife and I are eagerly looking forward to
our second child.
These are exciting times in a fast
changing world. The pace of technological
innovations are increasing at a faster pace
year over year. Come join the revolution.
-Nancy Salim

iEEE women in engineering magazine

31
http://www.Engineering.org http://www.tryen http://www.gineering.org/lesson.php
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - December 2012
