On the Cutting Edge Technologies [2022 edition]
We asked the Edge Team what up-and-coming technologies they are excited about and here are the results!
Last year, we hosted a weekly series, “On the cutting Edge”, where we took turns discussing exciting topics in edge computing, software engineering, data science, and machine learning. For 2022, we decided to poll the Edge team and find out what up and coming technologies the team is excited about.
The topics the Edge team are the most excited about can broadly be categorized into 4 categories:
- Computer Vision and the Integration of ML and Graphics
- Biomedical Applications (Wearables/Sensors/Neuroscience)
- The Rust Programming Language
- Dedicated ML Hardware in Consumer Tech
Computer Vision & the Integration of Machine Learning and Graphics
“There is so much new technology to be excited about. I am especially excited at the intersection of ML and graphics. It feels like we are going through a Cambrian explosion of inventions at that intersection, with a new groundbreaking paper coming out every day.”
“One cool publication from Descartes Labs recently used CV on land satellite imagery to create the most comprehensive database of solar energy assets globally. I think this is really cool because, combined with weather models, this will help improve predictions for renewable energy power outputs without being reliant on numerous electrical utilities reporting data.” Check out this blog post by the lead author of the study.
“Geometry nodes! (or more broadly, the accelerating integration of algorithms/ML with content creation). It’s amazing to see what people are able to do at this intersection as the tools improve.”
Biomedical Applications (Wearables/Sensors/Neuroscience)
“Wearable devices with biomedical and other kinds of sensors. Excited because it helps a lot of people improve their health in a passive way.”
“The opportunities to make actionable health insights combining longitudinal data from digital devices (i.e. wearable sensors) with predictive modeling. The progress in this field over the last few years is truly amazing, and we are just scratching the surface on what we can do with this technology. Hopefully make people healthier and happier!”
“Transformers and unsupervised brain models.” Check out this review of 2021 unsupervised brain models!
The Rust Programming Language
“I’m excited about the Rust programming language. It is a pleasure to develop in for me, providing a strong static type system with no runtime garbage collector. The result is a language that prevents many classes of bugs at compile time, scales well to projects small and very large, and is as performant as C/C++. I’m also excited by tools such as CIRCT, MLIR, and XLA/JAX, in particular — a broader vision to expand what LLVM and GCC did for software compiler technologies to general heterogeneous hardware accelerator systems. There are great opportunities to unlock more hardware power (like the neat custom ML chips everyone is building today) to serve the accelerating needs of ML and data science.”
“Rust — and especially Rust for embedded programming. Low level “bare metal” programming can be dangerous. Rust has a rich type system that allows the developer to enforce many invariants at compile time and with zero runtime cost. Its ownership model prevents entire classes of bugs related to memory safety and race conditions that have plagued the history of computing.”
Dedicated ML Hardware in Consumer Tech
“I’m excited about the increasing prevalence of dedicated ML hardware in consumer technology (e.g. Nvidia’s Tensor cores, Apple’s Neural Engine). The power, and especially the efficiency, of this hardware will unlock new possibilities and make ML/AI even more prevalent in our day-to-day lives.”
What technologies are you most excited about going into 2022? We want to know! Leave us a comment or drop us an email at info@edgeanalytics.io!
Edge Analytics is a consulting company that specializes in data science, machine learning, and algorithm development both on the edge and in the cloud. We partner with our clients, who range from Fortune 500 companies to innovative startups, to turn their ideas into reality. Have a hard problem in mind? Get in touch at info@edgeanalytics.io.
