Category: Reading

Latest Read: The New Normal in IT

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date September 9, 2023

The New Normal in IT: How the Global Pandemic Changed Information Technology Forever by Gregory S. Smith. Gregory is CIO for the American Kidney Fund and previously served in the same role for Pew Charitable Trusts and the World Wildlife Fund.

He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and a former adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University. The New Normal in IT is part of Wiley’s CIO Series.

The pandemic certainly changed everything. The information technology industry was no exception. The downstream impacts placed tremendous pressure on IT teams to maintain service delivery as the world went home and Zoom entered our lexicon.

Reflecting upon this move away from the office, how have IT leaders communicated the change necessary now and moving forward? Change is indeed hard.

We all witnessed the fundamental shift regarding remote work. From optional to mandatory over the next 18 months. How many organizations scrambled like mad to secure and deploy to every employee a laptop?

Can you recall the immediate infrastructure upgrades stood up in weeks versus months? IT faced many critical challenges starting in March 2020. Yet, our IT infrastructure teams kept delivering in those early weeks in order to keep their organization alive and employees functioning.

Tags cloud, cybersecurity, Information Technology, mobile, pandemic, The New Normal in IT

Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Machine Learning: The New AI

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date September 5, 2023

Machine Learning: The New AI by Ethem Alpaydin. A Fulbright scholar, Ethem holds a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. He has held visiting research positions at University of California, Berkeley, and MIT.

Ethem is delivering an exceptional overview of machine learning. If you want to understand the foundations of machine learning without any programming details, this is the perfect book. The math and statistics are delivered at a conceptual level. Anyone can follow along. He provides a solid foundation addressing algorithms, artificial intelligence, and neural networks. Again for anyone interested, this book is not technical. You will not be overwhelmed, but rather inspired to learn.

Today, Machine Learning (ML) certainly is the most popular subset of artificial intelligence. With ML certainly now a core AI service, we can more easily understand the growing range of ML apps we use everyday.

This includes product recommendations to voice recognition. Spread across just seven chapters, readers will come to understand ML, Statistics and Data Analytics. However chapter four: Neural Networks and Deep Learning is a strong delivery of ML’s core services. This is perhaps the most important chapter for readers new to ML. Ethem provides the much needed context that the foundations were first tested in 1946. This helps set a level playing field in following onto neural networks and the core of deep learning.

Tags algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Ethem Alpaydin, machine learning, neural networks

3D Printing Artificial Intelligence Education Reading Technology

Latest Read: HBR’s 10 Must Reads on AI, Analytics, and the New Machine Age

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date September 2, 2023

HBR’s 10 Must Reads on AI, Analytics, and the New Machine Age by Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Review has selected 10 articles focusing on intelligence machines and why your strategy cannot ignore their impact.

Published in January 2019 these article certainly provide insights to the new machine age. Each article is presented with three ideas: Problem, Causes, and Solutions.

This very new class of intelligent machines are indeed revolutionizing business through data. Sensors now embedded can gather and transmit data. So, data analytics and machine learning are uniting to provide organizations powerful, data driven insights not possible even ten years ago. The cornerstone of these technologies is miniaturization and supply chain manufacturing costs.

When Organizations and smart machines are correctly brought together, teams will being hiring, not firing. The data outcomes will release new levels of productivity in a much shorter timespan. organizational Leaders will see the big idea new machines provide. As a result, leadership must rethink strategy, managing people, and introducing new services.
The downstream impact: Drone deployments will need retooling of current services into the cloud via mobile apps. Just wait until drones mature and move into commercial spaces. This is a far cry from perceived military only use for drones.

Tags 3D printing, analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Drones, Innovation, machine learning

Education Reading

Latest Read: Raising Lazarus

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date August 30, 2023

Raising Lazarus: Hope, Justice, and the Future of America’s Overdose Crisis by Beth Macy. Beth holds a master’s degree from Hollins University. Her book Dopesick was shortlisted for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction.

Beth is a former reporter for The Roanoke Times from 1989 to 2014 writing extensively about the opioid crisis in Appalachia. Beth has written op-eds for The New York Times. She was awarded the 2010 Nieman Fellowship for Journalism by Harvard University.

From the moment I finished reading Dopesick my attention was drawn to the coming realize of this follow up book. Beth continues addressing the opioid crisis in America. In fact, Beth’s work remains simply R E Q U I R E D reading as this crisis continues devastating our country.

Raising Lazarus certainly moves beyond the Virginia coal mines found in Dopesick. This new book illustrates how America confronted the opioid crisis as COVID locked down the country.

Furthermore, this success is at the grassroots level, not from local or state politicians. There is an overwhelming sadness to read how so many died as pandemic restrictions that shut down critical treatment options.

Tags Beth Macy, opioid crisis, Raising Lazarus, Sackler

Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: The Digital Mindset

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date August 26, 2023

The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI by Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley.

Paul Leona rdi, Ph.D., is Department Chair and Professor of Technology Management at UC Santa Barbara. He holds a MA from University of Colorado at Boulder and a Ph.D. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

Tsedal Neeley is Professor of Business Administration and Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Research Strategy at the Harvard Business School. She received her Ph.D. from Stanford University in Management Science and Engineering.

Above all, this book is a great primer addressing well developed digital technologies: algorithms, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning. Their lessons served include today’s society has become well adjusted to web technologies. Markets and industries are in fact well versed with these technologies. Users must be fully aware that AI is just the next evolution to the way workflows are expected.

As long time collaborators, Paul and Tsedal outline their ‘digital mindset’ across three areas: Collaboration, Computation, and Change. By adopting all three, users can in fact achieve a digital mindset. This includes perspectives that will lead to developing new digital skills. In addition, their message for Leaders is to adopt all three approaches. In leading their organizations, they will prepare current staff for a successful future as digital transformations continue to accelerate.

Tags algorithms, Artificial Intelligence, Paul Leonardi, The Digital Mindset, Tsedal Neeley