Stories from afar

Madis Lemsalu, third year ATLAS student, is in POSTECH university, South Korea. It is a high-ranking university similar to the UT in its goal of creating global citizens. His programme is called Creative IT Engineering, during which they write a PGS (Personal Growth Statement)… hmm, that sounds familiar.

Madis has enjoyed his semester abroad so far. His electives are oriented around the fascinating new fields of artificial intelligence (A.I.) and blockchain technologies, and his personal pursuit topic lines up nicely with his chosen study path. He will produce a series of educative videos explaining the technologies of A.I. and blockchain. The idea stems from the increasing societal prevalence and integration of these digital technologies in to our lives; but importantly it addresses questions of how they will affect us and how can we be involved.

I asked Madis if he could give a simple explanation of these complex technologies, given the vision of the personal pursuit. After a chuckle and a pause:
“The goal in machine learning is to teach computers to learn from data and extract patterns in order to make predictions. Detecting and modelling patterns in data is what gives computers the ability to ‘think like humans’. Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence that enables computers to learn without being explicitly programmed.”
“Blockchain on the other hand, is a shared ledger through which digital records can be stored, viewed, and updated by multiple users through a decentralised network. However, once a change has been committed, it is practically impossible to remove it.

Madis is confident that the fusion of both A.I. and blockchain is a powerful partnership. It provides us invaluable opportunities in tackling our society’s challenges but there is also a thread of danger woven in that must not be overlooked. Anyone who’s studied History 101 know that power, either through technology or capital, concentrated in the hands of a minority, usually festers and leads to unrest.

The leaders in the field are not in congruence about a prediction on the future relationship of A.I. with humanity. What is certain however, is that the needs of humanity as a whole need to be reflected in the intelligence, and not just the needs of those with more clout. Already there are examples of A.I. being utilised by nations. South Korea has employed automated sentries to guard its border. The Dutch use A.I. in their agriculture industry, making it highly efficient and productive. This type of action whether good or bad forces other countries to either catch up or get left behind. A.I. is becoming ever more intertwined with our lives and its impact is already quite substantial. Therefore, it is crucial that the development of this technology and its integration should align with the will of the people. This alignment can be achieved as more of those entering the workforce are comfortable with using the technology. Technology is a central language of the future and those who are literate can discuss the important ethical questions in its integration.

Learning about machine learning and blockchain was an auto-didactic process for Madis, having started back in first year. There were not many resources nor much information available to him in ATLAS so he taught himself from material and videos online. There are indeed some informative videos out there providing tutorials on working with A.I., which is a good sign because it means the culture is there. However, these videos are quite long and relatively inaccessible unless you have a good base in programming.

Madis’ solution to this is to create short, visual, intuitive videos on how machine learning and blockchain technologies work, and how to use them. Madis aims to democratise these topics to everyone, thus providing an opportunity for anybody seeking to explore the emerging field to do so.
A quote by Elon Musk fits nicely here:“Our goal should be to make sure the advent of artificial intelligence is symbiotic with humanity”.

If you’re interested, you can check out the first two videos on his channel here.


University College Twente offers a unique bachelor’s programme, Technology, Liberal, Arts and Sciences, to top students. Visit the University College Twente website for more information about the college and Technology, Liberal, Arts and Sciences website for more information about the bachelor program. Or visit us during the open day, a student-for-a-day or an insight-day.

Cúán Caffrey
Writer, Class of 2020
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