The Techno New Year
We are just ending the second week of the spring semester at Virginia Tech, so I just wanted to say hello in the new year and give you a brief update. At the university I’m teaching two graduate courses–one on security and one on AI, and I’m taking one graduate course, called Interdisciplinary Design Cultures: A Seminar on the Values of Making Things. So it should be an interesting, though very busy, semester.
In addition, I remain committed to exploring, researching, and creating content about technology, society, and meaning. Below are some links to podcasts, an article, and a video I made since my last newsletter. I continue to make most of this content for free, but if you’d like to encourage and support this work, please consider supporting me on Patreon:
I also wanted to mention some recent good news about Virginia Tech. The Master of Information Technology program I teach in just got ranked #3 overall and #1 with veterans: article.
Also, my department, Electrical and Computer Engineering, just got ranked #4, tied with Berkeley, for best global universities for electrical and electronic engineering in the United States: article. Considering that only Princeton, Georgia Tech, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are ahead of us, this is a really big deal for our department.
I am honored and excited to be a part of such great faculty, students, and staff!
YouTube Video
I was happy to get some time over the winter break to work on two things I love: videos and robots. So here’s the a new YouTube video about a cute robot:
TechnoSlipstream Podcast
In TechnoSlipstream podcast episode 34 we examine the creation myth of the digital computer by doing a deep dive into the book Turing’s Cathedral: The Origins of the Digital Universe by George Dyson.
Pseudodragon Newsletter
With ChatGPT dominating the news and AI-hype cycle, I thought I would write something on the intelligence of AI:
Until Next Time
That’s all for now. I hope you are doing well and are off to a great start of your year!
Kendall
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About
Just joining us? Or maybe you’ve forgotten why you signed up? I’m Kendall Giles, a writer, researcher, and drinker of much coffee. Currently I work at Virginia Tech in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering in Falls Church, Virginia. I also teach in the Master of Information Technology Program, teach in the ECE Master of Engineering Program, and am a PhD student in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. I write and speak at the intersection of science, technology, and society, including the TechnoSlipstream podcast and the Pseudodragon Newsletter.