Rina Diane Caballar

Creating reliably random numbers isn’t as easy as you think, but a new alliance of organizations and individuals is decentralizing randomness for more equitable and trustworthy applications.

Researchers and scientists are constantly finding ways to train artificial intelligence to solve complex problems — from answering phones to driving cars — and they’re increasingly looking to nature for inspiration. Understanding animal behavior, it seems, can help intelligent systems discover optimal solutions.

That’s where ants come in.

The new features came out the same day as a study that found many open-source projects lack a clear way to report security problems.

Software developers are force-multipliers. Yet, instead of spending their time building new products or services, software developers are wasting too much of it on maintaining existing code. CodeLingo, a New Zealand-based startup founded in 2016, aims to change that with an automated tool that finds patterns across the code base and uses those patterns to automate code reviews, code refactoring, and contributor documentation.

Given its subjective nature, is it possible for doctors to verify pain severity? Alexander Niculescu at the Indiana University School of Medicine led a breakthrough study toward developing a first-of-its-kind blood test — an objective measure of pain that could lead to more accurate treatment.

Coffee is bitter, chips are salty, limes are sour, candy is sweet, and chicken broth is umami. These are the five basic tastes you’re familiar with. But how do you recognize each taste, and how do you distinguish one from the other?

Brick is one of the oldest building materials. Even the method of laying bricks—spreading mortar, positioning a brick, and smoothing out excess mortar with a trowel—has remained the same for millennia. Now, one company aims to augment this thousand-year-old tradition through technology. Australian-based construction-technology firm FBR (formerly Fastbrick Robotics) has developed Hadrian X, a bricklaying robot (named after the wall-building Roman emperor) that can do its work without any human intervention.

Sustain-a-city is a VR game imagined by New Zealand–based civil engineering and infrastructure consultancy WSP Opus. Developed in partnership with digital creative agency Method, the game lets players create their own thriving, livable smart city by balancing commercial, infrastructure, energy, and residential components.

The New Zealand–based company RealityVirtual uses the virtual reality experience to re-create ancient Egypt—a feat its founder is accomplishing with only five percent vision.

A UI designer brings together technology and craft: Human Interface Jewellery uses 3D printing to create unique jewelry pieces that tell a story and applaud women working in tech.

Te Wharehou o Waikaremoana, officially called Te Kura Whenua by Tūhoe, includes a welcoming area, dining area, kitchen and café, office space, and retail space. Located in a remote valley within Te Urewera overlooking Lake Waikaremoana (which means “sea of rippling waters”), the building represents the return for Tūhoe to Waikaremoana and Te Urewera, a return to the role of guardianship and occupation, after decades of exclusion by Crown agencies.

Government discussion surrounding refugees oftentimes revolves around costs and quotas; the human element can get lost in the conversation. In order to add a personal touch to refugees' experiences in a new land — as well as to help them gain workplace skills — a social enterprise in New Zealand is making sure they’re known not by the label "refugee," but instead for the talents and know-how they bring to their new home.

"Small talk is not simply talk for talk’s sake—quite the opposite. Small talk is no small feat at all. It’s a significant undertaking driven by the human desire to connect. And for a brief moment in time, engaging in this serendipitous act reminds us that we have more in common with one another than we thought possible. We don’t live a solitary existence; we’re in good company."

For many farmers and those in the agricultural sector, much of their livelihood involves giving up control to the forces of nature: The seasons, the climate patterns, and the precipitation levels are in charge. But what if farmers could take back control with the help of technology — particularly the cloud?

“By chatting with a stranger, you are being seen and acknowledged, and your connection to that one person may remind you of your universal connection to other people.”