Stem in Current Events Information Technology

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Math and Information Technology

The algorithm proved itself by competing against human crime analysts. In the first phase of the test, human analysts were given a map of the entire police district every day for 117 days. They were asked to indicate where crimes were most likely to occur within a specified 12-hour period.The crime-fighting algorithm managed to predict the locations of crimes more than twice as often as the human analysts. In the real-world application of the study, police officers were dispatched on random days to patrol areas selected by either the human analysts or the algorithm. The test was blind, meaning neither the patrol officers nor their commanders knew whether their orders came from a human analyst or the computer algorithm. As in the first phase of the study, the mathematical algorithm resulted in the reduction of more than twice as many crimes as the human analysts. In ad- dition to lowering crime, the study suggested that the use of the predictive mathematical algorithm could save Los Angeles $9 million per year in court, victim, and societal costs. Researchers at theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago have stretched the boundary of what a predictive mathematical algorithm can do by creating one that can interpret what you intended to do and taking its own corrective action. For example, stroke patients of- ten have to struggle against their own bodies to complete certain tasks.The algorithmdeveloped inChicago seeks to overcome that problem by analyzing a person’s actions and determining their intention.The study hopes that the algorithm can power what it dubs a “psychic robot,” or a machine that helps complete a task calculated to be the original owner’s intent. In the case of the stroke patient, this could translate into a prosthetic that helps reduce or eliminate shakes or tremors if a patient is intending to