As a roboticist and engineer, one of the growing areas I’m most excited about is the advancement of swarm robotics. I love the idea of taking inspiration from biological systems to enhance what autonomous robots can achieve collectively, and re-contextualizing social animal behaviors like flocking, foraging, and transport to create new possibilities for humanity. From … continue reading
I’ve previously written about the “Three T’s” of shifting security left: training, tools, and teamwork. In this blog, we’re going to delve down a level and look at some of the tools needed to shift left, what they do, and where in the software lifecycle they belong. The lifecycle question is important to think about … continue reading
As organizations wake up to the multitude of ways advanced technologies can augment their businesses, developers with relevant skills are becoming ever more valuable. Data is the key to a whole kingdom of opportunity, and when combined with AI and machine learning tools, the bounds of this kingdom are practically limitless. Even for those without … continue reading
Machine learning (ML) and other artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are powerful tools with the potential to transform a wide range of processes for both consumers and companies. Though many of these technologies are still commercially nascent, a number of startups have emerged that provide ML-based software solutions to enterprises. We believe that these “enterprise AI … continue reading
Augmented intelligence is growing as an approach to artificial intelligence, in a way that helps humans complete tasks faster, rather than being replaced by machines entirely. In an IBM report called “AI in 2020: From Experimentation to Adoption,” 45% of respondents from large companies said they have adopted AI, while 29% of small and medium-sized … continue reading
The two major Java releases are often the biggest news for the Java community each year, but this year brings another thing for the Java community to celebrate. This month brings the latest Java release, JDK 14, but in May, the programming language will celebrate its 25th anniversary. The first Java release was on May … continue reading
Open source is arguably the most successful approach to developing and distributing business-critical infrastructure software. By removing all barriers to entry and giving developers absolute freedom, open source allows organizations to take software and implement it across their businesses in a truly seamless and customizable way. This can then lead to exponential adoption growth, which … continue reading
Large legacy enterprises have a data problem. Decades of iterative infrastructure updates via relatively small investments have resulted in information silos scattered across different systems and in different formats. For example, a hospital may have patient records in one location and accounting data in another. All of this data is managed by different teams with … continue reading
Anyone who has run a full marathon knows about “the wall,” also known as the point where runners feel like they can’t go any further. This happens when runners hit the 20-mile mark which for many is the most challenging part of the race––their bodies send signals like muscle cramps and fatigue as a cry … continue reading
There’s a lot to like about behavior-driven development (BDD). When applied in the right way, BDD can narrow communication gaps, inject real-world examples into strategic discussions, and foster a better understanding of the customer. It can help eliminate the many wasteful activities that often hinder software development, such as rework caused by misunderstood or vague … continue reading
The security of edge devices presents both a major challenge and an opportunity for building more modern edge security practices. Edge devices exist outside of the protections that IT data centers provide, according to Patrick Sullivan, the global director of security at Akamai. One of the most prominent concerns is the physical security of the … continue reading
The popularity of edge computing has greatly increased as more industries are adopting IoT devices and are increasing their demand for low-latency processing and real-time, automated decision-making solutions. Both the evolution of technologies surrounding edge computing, such as 5G, and the industry demand for its benefits, such as speed and low latency, have created a … continue reading
Today, a majority of internet users are browsing the web not from their computers, but from a mobile device. According to a 2018 study by Oberlo, 52.2% of global web traffic came from mobile phones, up from just 0.7% in 2009. In the United States, that number is even higher, with 58% of total web … continue reading
Open source has a sustainability problem. A question that’s frequently discussed in the web development community is how to make open-source maintainable. As one of many examples, Henry Zhu, the lead maintainer of Babel, one of the most depended-on projects in the JavaScript ecosystem, until 2017 was working on Babel in his free-time while working … continue reading
Academic data is one of the most underutilized forms of data that exist today. Outside of educational institutions, the only significant use of this data is in enrollment verification, though even that use case is not particularly widespread. And yet, academic data holds massive potential in providing predictive behavioral signals that could directly benefit the … continue reading
Experience is top of mind for companies across many verticals, and for good reason—user experience is expected to replace price and product as the key brand differentiator by next year. Delivering remarkable experiences requires thoughtful experience design (XD)—driven by a human-centric approach to solving problems. When we talk about human-centric approach, we think about design … continue reading
As development teams work to ship code faster and faster, streamlining development workflows is crucial. Developers don’t just write code all day. There are other tasks developers spend time on that may be slowing them down and preventing them from doing the work that adds value to a company. According to ActiveState’s 2019 Open Source … continue reading
When developers contribute, collaborate, or obtain open-source code, they look at how the code will help bolster their other projects as well as ensure they are complying with any open-source licenses. One thing that doesn’t get enough attention is the ethics of that open-source project, according to Heikki Nousiainen, CTO and co-founder at Aiven, an … continue reading
There is no question that open source is the backbone of software today. Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, explained that about 80% of all software written is open-source software. The benefits of using open-source software is immeasurable, but it’s not the code itself that makes open-source software an invaluable resource. According to … continue reading
Over the past few years, as work/life balance has become more of a priority for developers, the notion of a “crunch culture” has been the subject of much discussion. Crunch has been especially prevalent in the game development industry, where game developers have come to accept that crunch is just a part of the job. … continue reading
Software development has changed, moving from monolithic code blocks to a cobbling of open source and services. Delivery has changed, as organizations moved from on-premises servers to the cloud, and end points such as smartphones and all manner of IoT devices have become ubiquitous. How data is distributed and consumed has changed, as containers may … continue reading
The new software development life cycle means working out ways to adapt the SDLC for your machine learning workflow and teams. With data scientists currently spending large chunks of their time on infrastructure and process instead of building models, finding ways to enable the SDLC to work effectively with machine learning is critical for not … continue reading
Software applications have become significantly more complex over the past decade. This bodes well for the creation of new application-based business opportunities and additional customer touchpoints, however increased software complexity also opens the door for more malicious attacks and high-impact data leaks. Ever-nimble and determined threat actors are reinventing their approaches to align with current … continue reading
“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations we can perform without thinking about them.” —Alfred North Whitehead, British mathematician, 1919 Hailed as a truly transformational technology, artificial intelligence (AI) is positioned to disrupt businesses either by enabling new approaches to solving complex problems, or threatening the status quo for whole business sectors or … continue reading
When the GDPR was launched almost a year and a half ago, it forced companies to take a look at their data practices. And though some might say enforcement has been pretty lax so far, it has changed the way companies deal with their data. And it has inspired a new major regulation in the … continue reading
In today’s highly competitive digital world, designing great customer experiences is crucial. If your application or site isn’t pleasant to use, customers will use someone else’s. There are plenty of frameworks and libraries that can help developers design web applications with good UX/CX, one of which is Angular. Prem Khatri, vice president of operations at … continue reading
Developers are tired of switching their focus back and forth between projects, and business folks are tired of waiting for developers to get their projects — but it doesn’t have to be this way. The rise of mobile development is enabling more work to get done on the fly, and the explosion of no-code development … continue reading
Digital transformation is making companies more software-dependent than they’ve ever been. As analog products become digital and manual processes are superseded by their automated or machine-assisted equivalents, organizations are building more apps at the core and edge to compete more effectively. One way of hedging bets in an organization’s favor is using feature flagging to … continue reading
