#Algorithms
Requests

If you are a user of voice assistants, you have probably experienced misunderstandings, especially if you are a woman or have an accent.  One of the reasons behind misunderstandings is bias in voice biometrics. This is not a problem if you’re a white US male, but for the rest of us, voice-based systems may be biased.

If you use Google Assistant, whether you use the Assistant App, use Google Home, or Google Nest, you can help mitigate bias in voice biometrics by donating your voice records.

In the process, you will be able to explore your data before committing to donate it.
To do so:

1. Download a copy of your Google Assistant records (See detailed instructions)
2. Upload your data to our Data Donation Platform and explore it
3. Decide what exactly you want to share and donate your data!

We will use the donated data to develop design guidelines and construct an evaluation dataset that reflects real-life usage conditions of voice biometrics technology. In addition, you can participate in a follow-up interview to delve into your personal experience with voice assistants and further explore your data.

This project is part of my PhD research and your contribution would be greatly appreciated! Feel free to reach out :)

Hi, I'm a masterstudent at the Open University in the Netherlands. I'm looking for a topic for the master thesis in Computer Science.

I'm interested in IoT in combination wiht sustainability. So I think that there must be a suitable topic in relation with smart cities.

The topic should be technical. On this moment I'm doing research on a topic, so in september 2022 I can start with it.

Veel MKB-ers willen zich uit de crisis innoveren. Internationaal actief worden is kansrijk en vraagt voorbereiding en energie. Amsterdam Trade and Innovate en PIM Noord-Holland (Programma Investeringsgereed Innovatief MKB Noord-Holland) willen ondernemers helpen dit goed en succesvol aan te pakken. Ben jij een MKB-er in de MRA die actief is op de thema's van smartcity? Vul dan de enquête in zodat ons aanbod goed aansluit bij wat jij nodig hebt. Hou onze media in de gaten, in q1 organiseren we onze eerste event gericht op internationalisering.

Open the Blackbox is een oproep van een brede alliantie van Nederlanders
voor meer democratische grip op de machtige technologieën en
organisaties in onze samenleving. Zie hier de visie video zoals gepresenteerd op Smart Humanity 2020.

We zijn op zoek naar verhalen over technologie en organisaties die je zelf hebt meegemaakt. Kleine of grote gebeurtenissen die jouw blik op dit onderwerp hebben veranderd, en waardoor je misschien ook iets nieuws
over jezelf hebt ontdekt. We zoeken dus niet naar verhalen over iemand anders, of geruchten die je via via hebt gehoord. In deze fase van Open the Blackbox gaat het om persoonlijke ervaringen, om feiten en voorvallen die indruk hebben gemaakt op jou.

Heb jij een verhaal voor ons? Heb je een goede tip en liefst zelfs documentatie om het te onderbouwen? Mail ons dan via opentheblackbox@protonmail.com (ook versleutelde berichten). We nemen zo snel mogelijk contact met je op.

Zou je ons willen helpen? Ga dan voor jezelf na of je iets hebt meegemaakt op de volgende gebieden:

• Gebruik van informatie door overheid
• Functioneren van tech bedrijven en geheime diensten
• Dienstverlening en besluitvorming van grote organisaties
• Functioneren van autonome systemen en voertuigen
• Werking van Artificial Intelligence
• Veiligheid van gevoelige persoonlijke informatie
• Fraude, belastingontwijking en oneerlijke concurrentie

Open the Blackbox is een initiatief van Frank van Geffen en Joost van de Loo, en wordt gesponsord door KNVI Beroepsvereniging.

Deelnemers aan de pilot video zijn Martijn van der Veen (Privacy First), Hajo Reijers (Utrecht University en Eindhoven University of Technology), Nancy Zikken (Amsterdam Smart City), Frank van Geffen (KNVI), en Rein Mertens (SAS Nederland).

Ben jij een ondernemer en is het voor jou ook lastig om tot samenwerking met gemeentes te komen? Vind je de (inkoop)procedures ook complex? Denk je ook dat Tenderned makkelijker en duidelijker zou kunnen zijn? En heb je hier ideeën over? Dan zoekt de Gemeente Amsterdam jou! Met jouw hulp kunnen wij aan de slag om dit te veranderen.

Waarom dit platform?

De Gemeente Amsterdam werkt, samen met partners uit de regio, aan een platform voor innovatieve ondernemers met nieuwe business opportunities bij overheden. Voor de grote uitdagingen van de stad (bv mobiliteit, klimaatneutraal) zijn innovatieve oplossingen hard nodig. De gemeente kan dit niet alleen en zoekt partijen met goede ideeën en producten.

We horen vaak van kleinere ondernemingen dat het, door complexe procedures en ingewikkelde platforms, niet makkelijk is om tot een samenwerking met de gemeente te komen. Het nieuwe platform, https://www.innovatiepartners.nl, heeft als doel om het voor beide kanten makkelijker, eenvoudiger en duidelijker te maken.

Beta zoekt feedback

Onlangs is de beta versie gelanceerd. Voor nu nog even met 1 project maar er komen binnenkort nieuwe projecten bij. Het komende jaar gaan we verder en jouw feedback helpt ons!

Wat vind jij goed aan het platform? Waar zie jij ruimte voor verbetering? Heb je nog andere goede ideeën wat we met dit platform zouden kunnen bereiken? We horen graag van je! Je kunt je reactie achterlaten in dit feedback formulier.

🙏🙏🙏

(PS: dit keer wel met een link die werkt 😄)

Do you know a great example of high density living environments built within the last 30 years? Share your knowledge and contribute to the creation of an open repository via Crowd Creation. To be truly exemplary, the area should include a mixture of functions (at least some of them high-rise) where the physical fabric retains a human scale at street level despite the high density.

You may wonder who's asking for and compiling this information: the Chair of Spatial Urban Transformation at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences is committed to building an open-access repository. Sharing best practices across the globe is becoming increasingly vital, especially as many of our western cities are on the eve of unprecedented densification. As a humble thank you for helping to guide this societal challenge, they've allotted 12 rewards for contributors. Click here to submit a project.

Societal Context
Like many of our Western cities, Amsterdam is on the brink of intensive urban densification. The metropolitan area of Amsterdam plans to add 100,000 new dwellings, mostly within the existing urban fabric. Compact studio apartments and new situational typologies of high-rises are part of the program, which will increase the densification even further. How are we to retain a human scale in these new high-density environments, especially at the street level where our social fabric is shaped? This calls for a new array of examples and precedent studies of successful existing "Great High Density Environments." What are their design properties and how are they programmed? How do they succeed in retaining a human scale?

Amsterdam - Image Courtesy of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
Sensing Streetscapes Project

These questions are central to the Sensing Streetscapes Project initiated by the Chair of Spatial Urban Transformation at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS). In a consortium of spatial design offices and clients of large scale projects, action research is explored along three lines. First, building on the classic works of Allan Jacobs, Jan Gehl and the like, six of the most-used reference locations for these new environments are deconstructed by research through design. Second, neuro-architectural technologies (eye-trackers) are deployed to uncover the visual impact of the applied design principles: What are the patterns? Do these design solutions indeed mitigate the high density and intensity to a human scale on the level of the streetscape? Finally, an algorithm is developed to trace the most suitable best practices via AI. That’s where you come in.

Cassilis Road, London - Image Courtesy of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

Repository of Great Examples by Crowd Creation
Some high profile examples of great high density environments are well known, like in Vancouver, Toronto, London, Manchester, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Manhattan. Yet what lesser-known examples of Great High Density Living Environments are out there for us to learn from? Share your knowledge and contribute to the creation of an open repository via Crowd Creation.

In order to frame the search, a list of desired characteristics:

• Residential environment in an inner city area
• Built within the last 30 years – or about to be 'opened' soon
• Built for High Density with some high-rise buildings
• Success in creating a human scale at eye-level on the street
• Some level of mixed functions, green design, etc. - anything that increases the livability of the environment

Click here to submit a project.

Hardman Street, Manchester - Image Courtesy of Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences

You are, of course, allowed to offer one of your own projects as an example. The deadline for submissions is January 29th, 2021 and as a modest gesture of thanks for helping address this societal challenge, 12 rewards are available to contributors. Out of the projects that fit the characteristics, consortium members will select the contributors who delivered either multiple great examples, surprisingly interesting examples, or in-depth descriptions and pictures. 12 entrants will be randomly selected to be rewarded:

• 2 will receive personalized book selections on this topic (favorites of the Chair)
• 6 will receive an Amazon gift card with a value of €50
• 4 will receive a ticket to the Media Architecture Biennale 2021
• Winners will be notified personally

Visit the results at https://sensingstreetscapes.com. The website will remain open afterwards, so feel free to keep sending your examples!

MozFest is a unique hybrid: part art, tech and society convening, part maker festival, and the premiere gathering for activists in diverse global movements fighting for a more humane digital world.
That’s why I’m excited to invite you and your community to participate in the first-ever virtual MozFest! Details and submission page here: mzl.la/proposals2021
Anyone can submit a session – you don’t need any particular expertise, just a great project or idea and the desire to collaborate and learn from festival participants. Submit your session idea today! Deadline is November 23: mzl.la/proposals2021

Do you wish to live in a world where everything you do is being monitored by the government like the world described by George Orwell in his novel 1984 or how about be sent to jail before even committing a crime like in the movie and novel Minority Report? I think not then what kind of world do you want to live in? It is a fact that smart technologies are here and governments usage of them is an inevitable future and if we wish for them to use these technologies responsibly then we must first ourselves must know how they should be used. Come be part of a fun virtual session where I will help you reflect a bit on what you desire from your city and in turn, you help me a design master student with his graduation thesis. To participate you can fill this form: https://form.jotform.com/200902554050039 and for the information, you reach out to me

At Oddity.ai, we make video surveillance smart by recognizing violence, real-time. When violence occurs under the eye of the camera, an alert to the surveillance staff is being sent, so they can act accordingly. In the contemporary camera surveillance environment, a LOT is being missed, which we counter by applying our smart deep-learning algorithm.

We have demonstrated the effectiveness of our solution during a pilot in Eindhoven (Living Lab Stratumseind). Currently, we are still monitoring that location, with great results. We also accurately detected several fights which were missed by the surveillance staff (!)

When implemented, fights can be deescalated in an early stage, and perhaps even prevented.

We are now searching for a customer (police/municipality/Living Lab/etc.) that implements our solution in the surveillance room. It is already market-ready and privacy-compliant.

Oddity.ai is a university spinoff (Utrecht University) with three co-founders and two employees. We are based in Utrecht, but flexible to implement anywhere in The Netherlands. Please contact me (Thomas Alflen, co-founder and director of Oddity.ai) if you would like to know more!

Google, ML6 and SensorTeam are joining forces and are looking for your help

We have started a proof of concept to recognize sound by expanding our cutting edge wireless sensor-technology with AI based audio analysis models from ML6.

SensorTeam’s IoT SoundSensor™ is an extremely accurate and cheap sound sensor which is solar powered, LoRaWAN compliant and LTE-M ready. This plug-and-play outdoor sensor runs autonomously anywhere in the world.

Sound recognition from regular ambient noise can be interesting for many reasons:

- Smart maintenance and Industry application
- Social noise disturbances from festivals, events or terrasses
- Public safety: gunshots, explosives, angry crowds
- Noise impact of airplanes, trains or highways
- Indoor noise solutions (office, security)
- Your idea here ;)

Interested in our technology or a mutually beneficial collaboration with Google/ML6 and SensorTeam? Do you have a relevant use case for our technology? Please contact us by sending an email to info@sensorteam.io.

Do you care deeply about democracy and the freedom of individual citizens to access unbiased information? Do you want to help analyze and understand disinformation campaigns around the European Election?

The Amsterdam Working Group on Disinformation is looking for volunteers with experience in one or more of the following skills:
Python, JavaScript, Data Analysis, Web Development.

We are a volunteer-based collective based in Amsterdam’s A Lab committed to assisting the general public in better understanding the threat disinformation poses to civil participation in democratic processes.

Our data processing team is seeking contributors who are willing to participate in the data analysis process that supports investigative journalism and shed light on the spread of disinformation in Europe.

If you have a minimum of one day a week, would like to work with an amazing group of journalists, researchers, anthropologists, data scientists, and creatives in a very inspiring environment, then please contact Árpád Gerecsey, arpad@a-lab.nl

Digi.Bio is a biotech startup with big dreams. We are looking for a young and ambitious team to join us in our mission to reprogram biology. We have three internship positions open:
- Design
- Engineering
- Business/Finance
Read more about the vacancies and sign up:
Design - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSr4CPTDRgoYJUDEhB-LlkJDOLQwHP98MXtFfohO2-PKooJbR3p1UtVUAq1knykfMHEaAYiQA6BpRtR/pub

Engineering: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRokue8ippDJzu6g5ZWnUQ99jQLGuwtwOd9TuvJJRAt1UquNuT-bMmLv2yPUoRcLajulstZWcGmlHGg/pub

Business/Finance: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRO9xE7gMRQ-cGiMSg8oZ9wZPoHJj42KOw8IVY9p3GcTok88z9MjZ0NvuTebKPfHpB7JQBg6A6ERtpr/pub

NEMO Kennislink verzorgt dit jaar een NEMO City Lab evenement tijdens het Inscience festival in Nijmegen. https://www.insciencefestival.nl/. Jaarthema van Inscience 2018 is AI. Inscience is een kwalitatief hoogstaand festival met (inter) nationale gasten en sprekers.

We zoeken experts - bij voorkeur op het gebied van AI in de stad – die willen deelnemen in onze activiteiten. Dat kan zijn als spreker in onze mini colleges of expert bij verschillende interactieve discussie formats. NEMO City Lab is laagdrempelig, speels en gericht op het betrekken van burgers bij stedelijke vraagstukken.

Inscience 2017 aftermovie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBEhnDOjtss

Wat we vragen
Je gaat als expert onder begeleiding van ons team met bezoekers van het festival in gesprek over AI in de stad. Dat gebeurt op zaterdag 10 en zondag 11 november. Het programma duurt 4 uur en loopt naar verwachting van van 12 – 16 uur. Je bent niet 4 uur continue bezig, er is voldoende ruimte voor pauzes.

Wat we bieden
Wij voorzien je van lunch, koffie en thee. Je krijgt een festival pas waarmee je toegang hebt tot het festival. We bieden geen gages, wel een klein bedankje, reiskosten vergoeding en mocht het nodig zijn kunnen wij overnachting in Nijmegen voorzien.
Verder zorgen wij voor vermelding van alle deelnemers en hun organisaties in promotie uitingen en reportages.

Heb je interesse? Stuur dan vóór 8 okt. een mail o.v.v. Expert AI Inscience naar Giovanni Stijnen: Stijnen@e-nemo.nl

Wat is NEMO City Lab: bekijk hier een sfeerimpressie van een eerdere editie.
https://www.nemokennislink.nl/pagina/nemo-city-lab-x-roef/

Hello, this is Tomo Kihara, design student graduating from TU Delft.
I am looking for play-testers for my graduation project: Escape the Smart City
It is an escape-room style game where participants have to escape from smart AI surveillance in the city.

It is on September 24, Monday 16:00 - 17:30 at Waag (Niewmarkt 4), 10 minutes from Amsterdam Central.

If interested please contact me.
I work a lot with urban playful intervention and check my other stuff here : www.tomokihara.com