Rice University computer scientists have demonstrated artificial intelligence (AI) software that runs on commodity processors and trains deep neural networks 15 times faster than platforms based on graphics processors.

“The cost of training is the actual bottleneck in AI,” said Anshumali Shrivastava, an assistant professor of computer science at Rice’s Brown School of Engineering. “Companies are spending millions of dollars a week just to train and fine-tune their AI workloads.”

Shrivastava and collaborators from Rice and Intel will present research that addresses that bottleneck April 8 at the machine learning systems conference MLSys.

Deep neural networ...

The weather often plays a role in our daily plans. You might put on a light jacket when the forecast calls for a cool breeze or delay your travel plans because of an impending storm. NASA engineers use weather data to inform their plans, too, which is why they’re analyzing the conditions millions of miles away on Mars.

The Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) system aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover first powered on for 30 minutes Feb. 19, approximately one day after the rover touched down on the Red Planet...

Energy balance includes modulation of dopamine reward signaling. Since the discovery of leptin in the 1990s, researchers have wondered, how does leptin, a hormone made by body fat, suppress appetite? Despite tremendous gains in the intervening three decades, many questions still remain. Now, a new study in mice describes novel neurocircuitry between midbrain structures that control feeding behaviors that are under modulatory control by leptin.

John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry, said of the findings, “Omrani and colleagues shed light on how, in non-obese animals, leptin puts the brakes on overeating.”

Leptin acts as a critical link between the body and the brain, providing information a...

Such see-through devices could potentially be integrated in glass, in flexible displays and in smart contact lenses, bringing to life futuristic devices that seem like the product of science fiction. For several decades, researchers have sought a new class of electronics based on semiconducting oxides, whose optical transparency could enable these fully-transparent electronics.

Oxide-based devices could also find use in powerelectronics and communication technology, reducing the carbon footprint of our utility networks.

A RMIT-led team has now introduced ultrathin beta-tellurite to the tw...