Rishab Jain, a 13-year-old boy from Oregon, has been named America’s Top Young Scientist for his pancreatic cancer deep learning system invention. As part of the 2018 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, the seventh-grade student created an algorithm to make pancreatic cancer treatment more effective by using artificial intelligence (AI) to locate and track the pancreas in real-time during MRI radiotherapy.

Rishab started working on the project in 2017 when he learned that pancreatic cancer is devastating and fast-growing. “At the same time, I was also doing artificial intelligence programming so I wondered if I could combine my knowledge in both areas,” Jain said.

The boy tested his algorithm using images of the human digestive system, and found it could correctly detect the pancreas with a 98.9 percent success rate. He received a $25,000 prize for his innovation, competing alongside nine other finalists at the 3M Innovation Center in St. Paul, MN.

Source: Young Scientist Lab

A Congressional Committee has released a report titled “The Rise of the Machines,” and called for the federal government to continue to educate itself about AI, increase the expenditures of R&D funds, help set the agenda for public debate, and, where appropriate, define the role of AI in the future of the nation.

The committee includes Will Hurd, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on IT, and Robin Kelly, its ranking member. As AI technology continues to advance, its progress has the potential to reshape the nation’s economic growth and welfare. It is critical the federal government build upon, and increase, its capacity to understand, develop, and manage the risks associated with this technology’s increased use, the report said.

Source: White Paper

Elon Musk is back in business! Tesla has announced a “mid-range” Model 3 – the cheapest version yet of its newest electric car. The new option offers 260 miles of range on a single charge and starts at $45,000. In a recent tweet, Musk said that the car would be sold via Tesla’s “super simple new order page,” with estimated delivery of six to 10 weeks.

Musk had promised two basic versions when he launched the car back in July 2017: the “long-range” car offering 310 miles of range and the “standard battery” Model 3, with 220 miles of range. So the new mid-level version is still not the (latter) $35,000 base model, which is now likely to keep you waiting until 2019.

Source: The Verge

Quantum computers are faster at some things than classical ones. A team of researchers from IBM, the University of Waterloo, and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has proved it! They believe quantum computing is not just a flashy new alternative to the “classical” computers that are our smartphones, laptops, cloud servers, high performance computers, and mainframes.

Quantum computing will advance by the joint scientific research of physicists, material scientists, mathematicians, computer scientists and work in other disciplines and engineering. The mathematics underlying quantum computing is ultimately as important as the shiny cryostats we construct to hold our quantum devices, the team explains in a blog post.

Source: IBM