Since so much of what we do in standards setting is built upon a foundation of a shared understanding and agreement of the meaning of words (no less so than in technical standard setting) that time is well spent reflecting upon the origin of the nouns and verbs of that we use every day. Best practice cannot be discovered, much less promulgated, without its understanding secured with common language.
Title: IEEE P3119 – Standard for the Procurement of Artificial Intelligence and Automated Decision Systems
Scope: The IEEE P3119 standard establishes a uniform set of definitions and a process model for procuring Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automated Decision Systems (ADS). It covers government procurement, in-house development, and hybrid public-private development of AI/ADS. The standard redefines traditional procurement stages—problem definition, planning, solicitation, critical evaluation (e.g., impact assessments), and contract execution—using an IEEE Ethically Aligned Design (EAD) foundation and a participatory approach to address socio-technical and responsible innovation considerations. It focuses on mitigating unique AI risks compared to traditional technologies and applies to commercial AI products and services procured through formal contracts.
Purpose: The purpose of IEEE P3119 is to help government entities, policymakers, and technologists make transparent, accountable, and responsible choices in procuring AI/ADS. It provides a framework to strengthen procurement processes, ensuring due diligence, transparency about risks, and alignment with public interest. The standard aims to minimize AI-related risks (e.g., bias, ethical concerns) while maximizing benefits, complementing existing procurement practices and shaping the market for responsible AI solutions. It supports agencies in critically evaluating AI tools, assessing vendor transparency, and integrating ethical considerations into procurement.
Developmental Timelines:
September 23, 2021: The IEEE Standards Association (SA) Standards Board approved the project and established the IEEE P3119 Working Group. The Project Authorization Request (PAR) was created to define the scope.
2021–Ongoing: Development continues, with no final publication date confirmed in available sources. As of July 18, 2024, the standard was still in progress, focusing on detailed process recommendations.
The standard is being developed as a voluntary socio-technical standard, with plans to test it against existing regulations (e.g., via regulatory sandboxes).
By Whom:
Working Group Chair: Gisele Waters, Ph.D., Director of Service Development and Operations at Design Run Group, co-founder of the AI Procurement Lab, and a human-centered design researcher focused on risk mitigation for vulnerable populations.
Working Group Vice Chair: Cari Miller, co-founder of the AI Procurement Lab and the Center for Inclusive Change, an AI governance leader and risk expert.
IEEE P3119 Working Group: Comprises a global network of IEEE SA volunteers from diverse industries, collaborating to develop standards addressing market needs and societal benefits. The group integrates expertise from government workers, policymakers, and technologists.
Inspiration: The standard was inspired by the AI and Procurement: A Primer report from the New York University Center for Responsible AI.
The IEEE P3119 standard is a collaborative effort to address the unique challenges of AI procurement, emphasizing ethical and responsible innovation for public benefit
Title: IEEE P3120 – Standard for Quantum Computing Architecture
Scope: The IEEE P3120 standard defines a general architecture for quantum computers, focusing on the structure and organization of quantum computing systems. It covers the overall system architecture, including quantum hardware components (e.g., qubits, quantum gates), control systems, interfaces with classical computing systems, and software layers for programming and operation. The standard aims to provide a framework for designing interoperable and scalable quantum computing systems, addressing both hardware and software considerations for quantum and hybrid quantum-classical architectures.
Purpose: The purpose of IEEE P3120 is to establish a standardized framework to guide the design, development, and integration of quantum computing systems. It seeks to ensure consistency, interoperability, and scalability across quantum computing platforms, facilitating innovation and collaboration in the quantum computing ecosystem. By providing clear architectural guidelines, the standard supports developers, researchers, and industry stakeholders in building reliable and efficient quantum computers, bridging the gap between theoretical quantum computing and practical implementation.
Developmental Timelines:
September 21, 2023: The IEEE Standards Association (SA) Standards Board approved the Project Authorization Request (PAR) for P3120, initiating the project under the IEEE Computer Society’s Microprocessor Standards Committee (C/MSC).
2023–Ongoing: Development is in progress, with no confirmed publication date in available sources. As a standards development project, it involves iterative drafting, review, and consensus-building, typical of IEEE processes, which can span several years.
The standard is being developed as a voluntary standard, with potential for testing and refinement through industry and academic collaboration.
By Whom:
Sponsor: IEEE Computer Society, specifically the Microprocessor Standards Committee (C/MSC), which oversees standards related to microprocessor and computing architectures.
Working Group: The IEEE P3120 Working Group consists of volunteers from academia, industry, and research institutions with expertise in quantum computing, computer architecture, and related fields. Specific chairs or members are not detailed in available sources, but IEEE SA working groups typically include global experts from relevant domains.
Stakeholders: The development involves contributions from quantum computing researchers, hardware manufacturers, software developers, and standardization experts to ensure a comprehensive and practical standard.
The IEEE P3120 standard is a critical step toward formalizing quantum computing architectures, aiming to support the growing quantum technology industry with a robust and interoperable framework.
Disagree with someone and cannot persuade them? Do you need to hide your intransigence or ulterior motive? Then change the basis of discussion by changing the subject with a different definition.
This happens routinely in political discourse and rather frequently in best practice discovery and promulgation in building construction and settlement infrastructure standards[1]. Assuming all parties are negotiating in good faith resolution may lie in agreement on a common understanding of what a satisfying agreement might look like.
Admittedly, a subtle and challenging topic outside our wheelhouse[2] hence the need to improve our organization of this topic starting with today’s colloquium; with follow on sessions every month.
Starting 2025 we will organize our approach to this topic, thus:
Language 100. Survey of linguistic basics for developing codes, standards and regulations. Many vertical incumbents have developed their own style manuals
Language 200. Electrotechnical vocabulary
Language 300. Architectural and Allied trade vocabulary
Language 400. The language of government regulations; the euphemisms of politicians with influence over the built environment
Language 500. Advanced topics such as large language models or spoken dialects such as “High Michigan” — arguably, the standard American dialect where it applies to the standards listed above.
It may not be obvious how profound the choice of words and phrases have on leading practice discovery and promulgation. For example, “What is Gender” determines the number, placement and functionality of sanitary technologies in housing, hospitals and sporting. The United States has a Supreme Court justice that cannot define “woman”
As always, we will respond to public consultation opportunities wherever we can find them. Some organizations are better than this than others.
Today we limit our discussion to language changes in the catalogs of ANSI-accredited standards developers whose titles have the most influence over the interoperability of safety and sustainability technologies that create and sustain the built environment of educational settlements.
Every building construction discipline has its own parlance and terms of art.
This is enough for a one-hour session and, depending upon interest, we will schedule a breakout session outside of our normal “daily” office hours. Use the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.
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Starting 2024 and running into 2025 we will break down this topic further, starting with construction contract language — Lingua Franca 300:
Asset management applies to any organization. As such, understanding its terminology, principles, and outcomes is key to an organization’s success. ISO 55000:2024 provides an overview of #AssetManagement and its expected benefits. @isostandardshttps://t.co/XZsWvJJ8r4
(1) The United States government defines a “Green Building” as a building that has been designed, constructed, and operated in a way that reduces or eliminates negative impacts on the environment and occupants. The government has established various standards and certifications that buildings can achieve to be considered “green.”
The most widely recognized green building certification in the United States is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, which is administered by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). To achieve LEED certification, a building must meet certain standards related to sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.
In addition to the LEED certification, there are other programs and standards that can be used to measure and certify the sustainability of buildings, such as the Green Globes rating system and the Living Building Challenge.
Overall, the goal of green building is to create buildings that are not only environmentally sustainable but also healthier, more comfortable, and more efficient for occupants, while reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. By promoting green building practices, the U.S. government aims to reduce the environmental impact of the built environment and move towards a more sustainable future.
(2) The U.S. Green Building Council is a conformance organization. See the discussion our ABOUT for background on incumbent stakeholders.
Open source standards development is characterized by very open exchange, collaborative participation, rapid prototyping, transparency and meritocracy. The Python programming language is a high-level, interpreted language that is widely used for general-purpose programming. Python is known for its readability, simplicity, and ease of use, making it a popular choice for beginners and experienced developers alike. Python has a large and active community of developers, which has led to the creation of a vast ecosystem of libraries, frameworks, and tools that can be used for a wide range of applications. These include web development, scientific computing, data analysis, machine learning, and more.
Another important aspect of Python is its versatility. It can be used on a wide range of platforms, including Windows, macOS, Linux, and even mobile devices. Python is also compatible with many other programming languages and can be integrated with other tools and technologies, making it a powerful tool for software development. Overall, the simplicity, readability, versatility, and large community support of Python make it a valuable programming language to learn for anyone interested in software development including building automation.
As open source software, anyone may suggest an improvement to Python(3.X) starting at the link below:
Python can be used to control building automation systems. Building automation systems are typically used to control various systems within a building, such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, security, and more. Python can be used to control these systems by interacting with the control systems through the building’s network or other interfaces.
There are several Python libraries available that can be used for building automation, including PyVISA, which is used to communicate with instrumentation and control systems, and PyModbus, which is used to communicate with Modbus devices commonly used in building automation systems. Python can also be used to develop custom applications and scripts to automate building systems, such as scheduling temperature setpoints, turning on and off lights, and adjusting ventilation systems based on occupancy or other variables. Overall, Python’s flexibility and versatility make it well-suited for use in building automation systems.
Transportation Research Institute Driver Interface Group
Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
Abstract. Research problem: Readability equations are widely used to compute how well readers will be able to understand written materials. Those equations were usually developed for nontechnical materials, namely, textbooks for elementary, middle, and high schools. This study examines to what extent computerized readability predictions are consistent for highly technical material – selected Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and International Standards Organization (ISO) Recommended Practices and Standards relating to driver interfaces. Literature review: A review of original sources of readability equations revealed a lack of specific criteria in counting various punctuation and text elements, leading to inconsistent readability scores. Few studies on the reliability of readability equations have identified this problem, and even fewer have systematically investigated the extent of the problem and the reasons why it occurs. Research questions:
(1) Do the most commonly used equations give identical readability scores?
(2) How do the scores for each readability equation vary with readability tools?
(3) If there are differences between readability tools, why do they occur?
(4) How does the score vary with the length of passage examined?
ICYMI. The OED has recently been updated with: new words, phrases and senses added more than 1,000 entries revised new audio files and pronunciation transcriptions from Northern England and North-Eastern England and more!
Julia is a programming language that has gained popularity in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and scientific computing for several reasons.
High Performance: Julia is designed to be a high-performance language, often compared to languages like C and Fortran. It achieves this performance through just-in-time (JIT) compilation, allowing it to execute code at speeds close to statically compiled languages. This makes Julia well-suited for computationally intensive AI tasks such as numerical simulations and deep learning.
Ease of Use: Julia is designed with a clean and expressive syntax that is easy to read and write. It feels similar to other high-level languages like Python, making it accessible to developers with a background in Python or other scripting languages.
Multiple Dispatch: Julia’s multiple dispatch system allows functions to be specialized on the types of all their arguments, leading to more generic and efficient code. This feature is particularly useful when dealing with complex data types and polymorphic behavior, which is common in AI and scientific computing.
Rich Ecosystem: Julia has a growing ecosystem of packages and libraries for AI and scientific computing. Libraries like Flux.jl for deep learning, MLJ.jl for machine learning, and DifferentialEquations.jl for solving differential equations make it a powerful choice for AI researchers and practitioners.
Interoperability: Julia offers excellent interoperability with other languages, such as Python, C, and Fortran. This means you can leverage existing code written in these languages and seamlessly integrate it into your Julia AI projects.
Open Source: Julia is an open-source language, which means it is freely available and has an active community of developers and users. This makes it easy to find resources, documentation, and community support for your AI projects.
Parallel and Distributed Computing: Julia has built-in support for parallel and distributed computing, making it well-suited for tasks that require scaling across multiple cores or distributed computing clusters. This is beneficial for large-scale AI projects and simulations.
Interactive Development: Julia’s REPL (Read-Eval-Print Loop) and notebook support make it an excellent choice for interactive data analysis and experimentation, which are common in AI research and development.
While Julia has many advantages for AI applications, it’s important to note that its popularity and ecosystem continue to grow, so some specialized AI libraries or tools may still be more mature in other languages like Python. Therefore, the choice of programming language should also consider the specific requirements and constraints of your AI project, as well as the availability of libraries and expertise in your development team.
ABSTRACT. Many optimization problems in power transmission networks can be formulated as polynomial problems with complex variables. A polynomial optimization problem with complex variables consists in optimizing a real-valued polynomial whose variables and coefficients are complex numbers subject to some complex polynomial equality or inequality constraints. These problems are usually directly expressed with real variables. In this work, we propose a Julia module allowing the representation of polynomial problems in their original complex formulation. This module is applied to power system optimization and its generic design enables the description of several variants of power system problems. Results for the Optimal Power Flow in Alternating Current problem and for the Preventive-Security Constrained Optimal Power Flow problem are presented.
“Eco-friendly”, “Green”, “Bio”… Companies are increasingly using those tags as a signal to consumers of their environmental awareness. Yet also on the rise is a public concern about potential corporate lies in this subject, a phenomena labelled as “greenwashing”.
According to IESE professor Pascual Berrone, “many companies highlight one green positive aspect of their product or service, and hide the true impact that its production has on the environment”. With more and more NGO’s act as public watchdogs, “the consequences of getting caught can be, in terms of reputation but also economically, severe”, he says.
Ernest Renan (1823-1892) was a French philosopher, historian, and scholar of religion. He is best known for his work on nationalism and the relationship between language, culture, and identity. The language of technology– and the catalog of codes, standards, guidelines, recommended practices and government regulations rest upon a common understanding of how things can and should work separately. The essay is widely cited:
In our domain we routinely see technical agreement and disagreement among stakeholders resolved, or left unresolved because of definitions — even when discussion is conducted in English. We keep the topic of language (Tamil (மொழி) — since it is one of the most widely spoken languages on earth) on our aperiodic Language colloquia. See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.
English and French are the two most prominent diplomatic languages, especially in historical and international contexts. They have long been the primary languages of diplomacy due to their widespread use in international organizations and historical influence.
English: Dominates in modern diplomacy, international law, and global organizations. It is the working language in many international forums, including the United Nations, NATO, and the Commonwealth of Nations.
French: Traditionally known as the “language of diplomacy,” French was the dominant diplomatic language until the 20th century. It remains a significant language in international relations, particularly within the United Nations, the European Union, and many African nations.
While other languages like Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and Chinese are also used in diplomatic contexts and are official languages of the United Nations, English and French are the most universally recognized and utilized in diplomatic settings.
“The Tower of Babel” 1563 | Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Widely accepted definitions (sometimes “terms of art”) are critical in building codes because they ensure clarity, consistency, and precision in communication among architects, engineers, contractors, and regulators. Ambiguity or misinterpretation of terms like “load-bearing capacity,” “fire resistance,” “egress” or “grounding and bonding” could lead to design flaws, construction errors, or inadequate safety measures, risking lives and property.
“Standardized” definitions — by nature unstable — create a shared language that transcends local practices or jargon, enabling uniform application and enforcement across jurisdictions. Today at the usual hour we explore the nature and the status of the operational language that supports our raison d’êtreof making educational settlements safer, simpler, lower-cost and longer-lasting.
New update alert! The 2022 update to the Trademark Assignment Dataset is now available online. Find 1.29 million trademark assignments, involving 2.28 million unique trademark properties issued by the USPTO between March 1952 and January 2023: https://t.co/njrDAbSpwBpic.twitter.com/GkAXrHoQ9T
