Cutting-Edge Specializations in Computer Science
By IEEE Computer Society Team on
Are you searching for the most advanced specializations in technology happening right now?
Technology is moving at an extremely fast pace, with innovations being discovered and implemented all the time.
While some computer science fields have been slowly growing, others have made a fast-breaking and significant impact in our world in the last few years, quickly becoming the forerunners of tech.
Below is a list of these cutting-edge specializations that are rapidly growing and changing our world and how they are doing it.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence, or AI, studies and creates machines that can perform tasks that require intelligence and reasoning skills.
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Creating Smarter Vehicles
Artificial intelligence takes the lead in increasing the collective intelligence and abilities of machines in the current world.
It has brought us to the age of autonomous driving, with companies like Tesla helping drivers navigate, steer, park, and avoid crashes. Tesla’s self-driving feature takes input data coming from its cameras and sensors and uses deep neural networks to determine future actions the vehicle should take in different scenarios.
Increasing Security With Computer Vision
Computer vision has evolved to detect and label objects with greater accuracy than ever before. This technology has been used in surveillance cameras to increase the safety of workers to property owners by detecting fire, intruders, and vehicles to capture suspicious activity.
It has also innovated the personal security system, with companies like Arlo supplying security cameras that can determine the difference between humans, packages, vehicles, and animals in their videos. This has allowed automated alerts to be sent directly to a user’s phone.
Human-Computer Interface
Human-computer interaction (HCI) is the study of how humans and computers interact and how it can be better designed for seamless communication between humankind and machines.
A More Connected World
HCI has grown into using other ways of communicating with computers other than touch. For example, there has been a progression in hand-gesture technology, to use hands to command machines to do something, such as being able to follow you with a camera.
Wearables have also boomed in the last few years, freeing us more and more from our devices as well, including smartwatches and wearable keyboards.Data Science
Data science is the field of analyzing big data with models and algorithms to identify patterns so it can be used to create business or organizational solutions.
Becoming More Data Driven
Because of the advancements in data science, we have moved into a data-driven world where businesses use data to determine what their next moves are.
Netflix uses data-driven patterns to determine what new content to curate. Other organizations like The Center of Inclusive Growth use it to save lives by letting the data determine who needs the most aid during a crisis situation and where they can deliver help quickly.High-Performance Computing
High-performance computing (HPC) is the act of combining computational power to get higher performance speed, usually to solve higher-complexity problems.
Advancing Research
One of the beneficiaries of high-performance computing is the genome analysis industry. Companies like AstraZeneca can now run 51 billion statistical tests in under 24 hours using AWS HPC features. This allowed the company to get analytical data results faster for their study on the effects of genetic mutation.
Accelerating Visual Effects Processing
Animated movies and those with a large number of visual effects demand high computational power that could not be served without HPC. Advancements in HPC have reduced cost and increased workflow efficiency to allow movies to release at faster rates as well. It also allows computers to run animation software that can automatically create characters and 3D models to help speed up the process.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity is the field of computer science that defends machines from harmful attacks.
Securing the Cloud
As more businesses move to the cloud, so does cybersecurity in its mission of securing data and access. The question of how to secure all the large amounts of data in the cloud is left to cyber security, which companies like Microsoft and Amazon have solved.
The progress of cybersecurity has allowed people like us to benefit from cloud services without all of our data leaking to malicious entities.
Zero Trust
A popular trend in cybersecurity includes Zero Trust policies which state that no computer system or user will be trusted and systems will operate on a “least privilege” model.
Where to Learn More
Keep Up With the Latest News
Technology is constantly changing. So, to keep up with the latest cutting-edge specializations, here are some resources you can check out:
- Read technology magazines written by tech professionals
- Keep up with the latest research
- Follow tech blogs like the IEEE Computer Society Blog
Conferences
Technical conferences are another great way to get a breadth of knowledge with industry professionals and participate in workshops. Some conferences that are helpful include:
Wrapping It Up
Computer science is a rapidly changing field, always improving with each iteration. These are just a few of the most cutting-edge specializations changing the world.
To keep up with these pioneering fields and the latest tech news, check out the IEEE Computer Society blog.
