First European RISC-V Summit Sees IBM, BSC “Future of Computing” Agreement

Building on its Budget 2021 commitment to launch a seven year $360 million National Quantum Strategy, the Government of Canada recently stood up a public survey website to gather insights on how to implement the plan. The survey covers a comprehensive set of issues including best practices on academic, government and private sector partnerships, talent and workforce challenges and opportunities, mechanisms to ensure equity, diversity, and inclusion, adoption of quantum technologies by Canadian entities, and identification of any significant gaps, barriers, or challenges that could hinder Canadian efforts to become a global leader in quantum technologies.

At the conclusion of 2021, researchers at UNC Charlotte and Duke University Medical Center published results of work done to use transfer learning methods to generate fluence maps for radiation therapy, aimed at providing medical professionals with more capability and information in fighting adrenal cancers. The technique uses a deep transfer learning model trained on a much larger dataset that can be applied to a smaller data set for a specific application.

• The initial model was trained on pancreas treatment plans, then retuned and applied to a smaller set of data points on adrenal cancers. The output of the model generates a fluence map for specific IMRT beam-based treatments for adrenal cancers.
• According to the researchers, this approach is meant to supplement but not replace human expertise in the field and is reliant on human expertise to finetune and improve the AI model.