GIS permeates those parts of our lives that are often overlooked by the general population, and this is just one of the many aspects that UMBC’s GIS graduate program addresses in its instruction. In this week’s Industry Roundup, we take a look at how Canada is working to create accessible maps for the deaf and hearing impaired communities by adding sign language to them. We also take a look at the impact of data recording blockchains, 3 women pioneers in bio being honored for their contributions, and a controversial concept in AI – manufacturing artificial people.
Industry Roundup is brought to you by UMBC’s Division of Professional Studies, offering a broad array of professionally-focused master’s degree and certificate programs that address industry needs while anticipating future opportunities.
Accessible Maps Using Sign Language
Canada has created maps with sign language, making them more accessible for people in the deaf and and hearing impaired community. Standardizing the maps is a difficult task given the vast amount of regional dialects. They standardized them using American and Maritime Sign Language. Now, members of the hearing impaired community can communicate with each other in the world of cartography and geography.
The Impact of Blockchain
There’s interest buzzing in the cyberworld about blockchain and its impact on everyone. How much will blockchain technology affect you personally? Only time will tell. What is blockchain? Put very simply, blockchain is a way of recording data.
3 Women in Bio Honored for their pioneering contributions in the bio field.
The first annual HERStory Gala created an engaging buzz as many gathered to share in the accomplishments of three pioneering Women in Bio. These women have made great impacts in their field and shared their inspiring stories of their journeys in the bio field.
The New Challenge of Defining What It Means to be Alive
Will we one day manufacture artificial people? What would this world look like? Is this a dangerous concept to be brought to reality? We might not be too far off from such a world. In fact, in 2016, a team from Synthetic Genomics created JCVI-syn3.0, a life form whose genome consisted of 473 genes.