This week, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) unveiled the Endless Frontier Act (EFA).

This newsletter doesn’t usually cover new legislation, much less proposed bills. But EFA is an exception since it seeks to turbocharge American “discovery, creation, and commercialization of critical tech.” By that, the lawmakers mean every technology you read about in this newsletter. 

EFA’s core proposals. There are three principal parts to the proposed bill:

• Restructure the National Science Foundation into the National Science and Technology Foundation (NSTF)
• In the NSTF, stand up a Technology Directorate that receives $100 billion over five years and operates like DARPA
• Hand the Commerce Department $10 billion to invest across 10-15 regional tech hubs over five years

This is great news for U.S. universities and businesses because EFA would pad R&D budgets, establish new scholarships, and create cutting-edge labs and fabrication plants. 

What’s driving the frontier mindset? The private sector overtook Washington in R&D investment four decades ago. EFA’s sponsors want to expand the pool of capital so that all of Washington’s tech priorities are advanced in the U.S.

The other reason for EFA, which its sponsors explicitly call out: China. While Beijing’s bid for tech supremacy is better described as a “slow burn” rather than a “Sputnik moment,” the country’s tech industrial base is now a genuine contender with the U.S. There’s more to come: 

• China plans to invest $1.4 trillion in emerging tech over the next six years. 
• Chinese chipmaker SMIC recently announced a $2 billion investment from state-backed funds. 
• Tencent will spend $70 billion on tech infrastructure over the next five years. 
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“The U.S. needs to pursue with all-of-the-above strategy and intensify efforts,” a person familiar with the legislation said in a recent interview.

As Bill of Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” could tell you, EFA may never see the light of day. But adding $$$ to tech R&D and accelerating the U.S.-China tech decoupling are bipartisan priorities.

In today’s workplace, constant innovation makes it critical for employees to keep up with the latest technologies and applications. Want to excel at your job and lay the groundwork for future promotions?
Check out these five e-courses from LinkedIn Learning, part of the LinkedIn platform. Each course is available for a monthly site membership fee, with no extra costs necessary. I have been a loyal user of both LinkedIn Learning and its predecessor Lynda.com for over ten years and can personally attest to the quality of their educational offerings. So, with instruction on the blockchain, cloud computing, UX, and more, these five courses will help you fast-track yourself for future success!

1. Blockchain Basics
Instructor: Jonathan Reichental, Ph.D.
Do you work in business leadership positions, data science, or IT management? Curious about blockchain technology? This quick one-hour e-course will introduce you to the improvements in security and efficiency that blockchain databases represent. Learn about the history of blockchain technology, practical applications, and risks of blockchain innovation.

2. Learning Cloud Computing: Core Concepts
Instructor: David Linthicum, Deloitte Consulting
Looking to explore the potentialities of cloud computing? Take an hour and 44 minutes to watch this course, which will introduce you to the tools you need to take advantage of cloud computing opportunities. Find out what Saas, laaS, and PaaS are, learn about the data and applications necessary to move to the cloud, and explore the essentials of cloud monitoring, management, and security.

3.) Learning Data Analytics
Instructor: Robin Hunt, developer and educator
This 90-minute course introduces basic concepts to those who work with data, both analysts and non-analysts alike. It begins by defining data analytics and the role of data analysts. Following this, it teaches you how to work with data sets and follow best practices for data analytics projects. Finally, it covers advanced techniques for repurposing, charting, and pivoting data and top shortcut and troubleshooting tips.

4.) Artificial Intelligence Foundations: Machine Learning
Instructor: Doug Rose
As one of the most promising fields in artificial intelligence, machine learning can be beneficial in interpreting and organizing data, programming computers, and even discovering new frontiers in science. This 77-minute course teaches you how to work with data and apply machine learning principles, as well as identify different types of machine learning and machine learning applications.

5.) Getting Started In User Experience
Instructor: Chris Nodder
Want to improve the customer experience on your e-commerce website or web interface? This 41-minute micro-course introduces you to the elements of user experience (UX) – including design, research, strategy, development, interactive and visual design, content, accessibility, localization, and data science. Learn about various UX career paths, the practical skills required by employers, and typical job profiles.

Here are the steps to set yourself up with LinkedIn Learning:

1. Go to the LinkedIn Home Pag
   
2. If you are not a LinkedIn member, click on the “Join Now” button in the upper-right of the screen, and set up your membership.
   
3. If you are a member, sign in, and on the Account & Settings page, click the yellow “Upgrade” button to bring up the premium account options.
   
4. Click the “Sign Up” button for the premium level to which you want to upgrade.

You can now bring your old whiteboards into the 21stcentury with Rocketbook Beacons. These four restickable, reusable Beacons convert your writing surface into a smartboard by integrating with popular cloud services in the free Rocketbook app. 

Brainstorm the next great mission with your crew, capture and share your ideas, and then take your Beacons with you to your next adventure. The Beacons Go-Pack is $15.
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• Set of 4 Beacons
• 2.5-inch triangles
• Fluorescent orange
• Restickable Yupo adhesive 
• Wash with soap and water
• Free Go-Pack carry case

Rocketbook Beacons allow you to capture, organize, and broadcast important notes, diagrams, and big ideas on any whiteboard or wall surface in real-time. Just four restickable "beacons" for any sized surface and one smartphone app that connects with many of the popular cloud services you already use.
Using Beacons involves four easy steps:

1. Place the four Beacon quadra-triangles in each corner of a whiteboard or your preferred writing area. Do your best to make it straight, but it doesn’t have to be perfect. Now document your ideas and discussions on the whiteboard the way you usually would.
2. Got an iPhone or Android? Use the free Rocketbook app to configure popular cloud services as your scan destinations. Rocketbook has partnered with some of your favorite services, such as Evernote, One Note, Dropbox, and Google Drive. You can also use regular email if you wish.
3. For crucial missions with scattered participants, you can stream your whiteboard in real-time. Switch to “Snapcast” mode, share the unique URL, and collaborate with your team anywhere in the world. Your private, real-time page is updated every time you scan your whiteboard. Or prop your phone facing your whiteboard and set the app to auto-scan every 5 seconds. 
4. Is your next mission destined for a different whiteboard? No problem. Peel the Beacons off of the board and prepare for your next voyage. Beacons have a space-aged micro-suction surface that can not only be reused over and over but even cleaned with soap and water.

If you haven’t heard, universities around the world are offering their courses online for free (or at least partially free). These courses are collectively called MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses.

In the past six years or so, over 800 universitieshave created more than 10,000 of these MOOCs. The people at Class Centralhave been keeping track of these MOOCs ever since they rose to prominence.

In the past four months alone, 190 universities have announced 600 such free online courses. Class Central has compiled a list of them and categorized them according to the following subjects: Computer Science, Mathematics, Programming, Data Science, Humanities, Social Sciences, Education & Teaching, Health & Medicine, Business, Personal Development, Engineering, Art & Design, and finally Science.

If you have trouble figuring out how to signup for Coursera courses for free, don’t worry — here’s an article on how to do that,too.
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Many of these are completely self-paced, so you can start taking them at your convenience. Here is the list of courses.

Ever since the beginning of the artificial intelligence (AI) boom in the early 2010s, there’s been a corresponding drought in talented AI developers and researchers. The way to fix this is to educate more of them, and last week, MIT announced a $1 billion initiativeto do exactly that: it will establish a new college of computing to train the next generation of machine learning mavens. 

Importantly, the college isn’t just about training AI skills. Instead, it will focus on what MIT president L. Rafael Reif calls “the bilinguals of the future.” By that, he means students in fields like biology, chemistry, physics, politics, history, and linguistics who also know how to apply machine learning to these disciplines.

Two-thirds of the planned $1 billion commitment has been raised so far, with $350 million coming from Stephen A. Schwarzman, CEO of the private equity firm Blackstone. The new college will be named after Schwarzman, and it will include 50 new faculty positions, half of which will focus solely on computer science, while the rest are jointly appointed by the college and other MIT departments. The college is scheduled to open in September 2019, and its new building is planned to be completed in 2022. 

MIT is also angling the college as an ethically minded enterprise; one of its stated aims is to research “ethical considerations relevant to computing and AI.” It’s a frequent criticism of contemporary AI efforts that researchers sometimes ignore the history and lessons of the fields they are trying to “disrupt.” More collaboration should help. 
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“As computing reshapes our world, MIT intends to help make sure it does so for the good of all,” said Reif in a press statement. “The MIT Schwarzman College of Computing will constitute both a global center for computing research and education and an intellectual foundry for powerful new AI tools. Just as important, the College will equip students and researchers in any discipline to use computing and AI to advance their disciplines and vice-versa, as well as to think critically about the human impact of their work.”

Thirty years ago, it was a big deal when schools got their first computers. Today, it's a big deal when students get their own laptops.

According to Thomas Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, “In 14 years it'll be a big deal when students learn from robot teachers over the Internet.”

It's not just because the technology will be that sophisticated, Frey says, but because the company responsible for it will be the largest of its kind.

"I've been predicting that by 2030 the largest company on the Internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven't heard of yet," Frey said.

Frey's prediction comes amid a boom in artificial intelligence research. Google is developing DeepMind; a complex piece of machine-learning software and IBM is developing Watson-powered robots.

"Nobody has quite cracked the code for the future of education," Frey contends.

His vision for 2030 includes a massively enhanced version of today's open online courses – the kind of instruction you may find with Khan Academy, Coursera, or MIT OpenCourseWare. Only, the instructors won't be humans beamed through videos. They'll be bots, and they'll be smart enough to personalize each lesson plan to the student sitting in front of the screen.

Frey suspects that a new kind of efficiency will allow students to learn at much faster rates than if they had to compete with 19 other students for the teacher's attention. Students will breeze through their material at four or 10 times the speed, completing an undergraduate education in less than half a year.

"It learns what your proclivities are, it learns what your idiosyncrasies are," Frey explains. "It learns what your interests are, your reference points. And it figures out how to teach you in a faster way over time."

He uses the example of Google's DeepMindlearning to play the Atari video game "Breakout." Not only did it quickly pick up on the rules, but within a half hour it figured out a way to achieve incredibly high scores – all with little human input.

Machine learning will accelerate similarly in the education space, Frey says. Online bots will pick up on a student's strengths and weaknesses and use a series of algorithms to tailor the lessons accordingly. Research suggeststhis personalized method is among the most effective at raising kids' overall achievement.
Frey doesn't go so far as to argue education bots will replace traditional schooling outright. He sees them more as a supplement or a kind of tutor. If a child struggles with algebra, a bot may be able to offer some help during homework time or over the weekend.

It's up for debate whether AI can master the subtleties of language, thought, and reason all within the next 14 years. One of the most significant hurdles for machine learning is grasping social interactions. Many AI systems today are still less capable cognitively than a 6-year-old.

Frey trusts 14 years isn't too generous a timeline for the technology to ramp up, given how quickly technology innovation builds on itself. The Internet was beginning to enter a lot of people's homes 14 years ago. But by 2007 people were already surfing the Web on their iPhones, and today the Internet is almost omnipresent in daily life.
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Frey predicts that artificial intelligence will have the same trajectory in the education space. By 2030, DeepMind's ability to master "Breakout" could seem as quaint as dial-up modems do today, and what seemed like a massive library of online content in 2016 could look to future students like a skimpy collection that hardly does anything.

Last Monday was the first day that French schoolchildren under 15 could not use their cellphones at any point during the school day, thanks to a new nationwide law.

The ban, passed in July following a campaign pledge made by French President Emmanuel Macron, will affect elementary and junior high schools across the country as they return from the summer break.

The new law, which went into effect on August 5, bans all types of cellphones, as well as tablets and smartwatches.

While a ban on cellphones during class hours was already in place since 2010, the new law extends to breaks and mealtimes.

Schools are free to choose themselves if they implement the ban for students over 15. There are also some exceptions to the prohibition, such as for students with disabilities.

Under the new law, students have to turn their phones off during the day or put them in lockers. Schools will independently deal with the logistics of how students will be kept away from their phones.

The law was introduced amid fears that students were becoming too dependent on and distracted by their smartphones.
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Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer in June hailed the legislation as "a law for the 21st century," and said it would improve discipline among France's 12 million schoolchildren.

It's not a secret that Microsoft hasn't been winning the hearts and minds of consumers lately.
Killing off products like the Groove Music service, Microsoft Band fitness tracker, and Windows Phone have left many questioning whether Microsoft's grand plan is to focus on business users and leave consumers to its competitors.

But at the company's recent Inspire conference, Microsoft execs told their partners that Redmond isn't giving up on consumers.

Yusuf Mehdi – whose new title as of June 2018 became corporate vice president of Modern Life and Devices – led a session at the partner show in Las Vegas, Nev., where he outlined the company's vision for what officials plan to christen "Modern Life Services."

"Modern Life” and "Gaming" are the two new additions to Microsoft's core digital solution areas that its sales force and its partners are meant to target in fiscal 2019 and beyond. The others, which Microsoft announced a year ago at Inspire, are “Modern Workplace,” “Business Applications,” “Applications and Infrastructure,” and “Data and AI.”

In teeing up his presentation, Mehdi acknowledged that "in the last couple of years, we've lost a little of that magic with consumers," according to attendees who asked not to be named.

Most consumer companies are laser-focused on one thing, Mehdi said. Amazon is focused on shopping; Spotify, on music; Netflix, on movies. Microsoft's core value proposition is productivity, he said. The company's job is to try to make productivity sexier.

Microsoft is targeting so-called "professional consumers" with these services, Mehdi said. These are people who already know how to use technology but need to figure out how to use it better to make them more productive. The goal of these services will be to give users back time and help them focus on what matters to them.

Microsoft officials believe because the company already "owns the work calendar with Outlook," that it has a foothold in working to blur the line between consumer and commercial activities.

What, exactly, will qualify as a Modern Life Service? Mostly they will be apps, services, and features that Microsoft already makes available or soon will in Windows, Outlook, and PowerPoint, but which officials will attempt to position as well suited to the needs of professional consumers on Windows PCs, iPhones, and Android phones.
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One example is the Microsoft "Your Phone" app, which Microsoft execs first showed off at the Build 2018 developer conference earlier this year. Your Phone on Windows 10 will allow users to respond to text messages on their Windows desktops, as well as drag and drop photos from their desktops and send them via their phones without actually having to access the phones. Microsoft believes that by not having to interrupt their workflow, users will save time and be more productive.

It's fun when I get to include an article on my former firm. Recently, Ernst & Young LLP (EY) announced it is launching a new program to collaborate with universities and usher in the digital workforce. This program, Day One Ready, prepares students for today's real business world and connects them to potential internship opportunities. It is the newest element of the Tax practice's proprietary upskilling initiative designed to create the workforce of the future and to help EY meet the demand for digitally skilled talent. This program is an expansion of a successful pilot cooperative curriculum with the University of Dayton in Ohio.

"Our approach to staying ahead of disruption will create jobs for people in many ways," said Martin Fiore, partner, Ernst & Young LLP, and EY Americas Tax Talent Leader. "We are driving the development of the right skills for those jobs by working collaboratively with academic institutions and modifying learning at all ages and levels to develop a total workforce with the needed capabilities for the future."

The courses offered by EY to associated universities include: Lean Six Sigma; Robotics Process Automation; Excel Power Modeling; Data Analytics and Visualization; Autonomous Systems; Coding; and Mindfulness to enhance the ability for students to innovate in the future. The new curriculum is taught by a combination of university faculty, EY trainers and guest lecturers who deliver mini-courses on the most in-demand skills for future professionals, mainly consultants.

Other elements of EY's dedication to the future of work include: collaboration with more universities in 2018; changes to recruiting targets with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) backgrounds; coursework for current employees to develop capabilities for the future; and executive-level training for digital certification. Among the upskilling programs to help current EY professionals deliver new skills and work more effectively with clients, the latest is Elite Skills Week. This week-long session of courses is held at the innovative Q Center in Chicago to develop five of the Day One Ready skills critical to the workforce of the future.
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Fiore explained the change of focus on recruiting and training: "The future will be governed by predictive analytics, algorithms and artificial intelligence. Our strategy is to shift the workforce, adjust hiring and evolve learning programs with technology-enabled processes, chatbots, and critical thinking. Our curriculum is far from static and will gradually include more advanced learning that helps our people to understand, use and innovate our services with each generation of digital disruptors. We will continue to have new and exciting job opportunities and are willing to help develop people to bring the right skills."

While blockchain adoption remains slow, industries including finance, manufacturing, and healthcare are exploring the developing technology's potential to create business advantages like reduced operational costs, faster transaction speeds, and more secure records.

An estimated 1,520 blockchain startup companies are now looking for workers, along with a number of corporations like IBM and Microsoft. As the market continues to grow, more lucrative career options will open up for those who are skilled in the various blockchain technologies.

Here are six of the best blockchain jobs on the horizon, according to the report.

1. Blockchain Project Manager.Companies are interested in developing blockchain solutions and will need to communicate their needs to a blockchain development firm. Project managers will be required to manage and facilitate these projects, especially as companies take on more clients. The project manager will be responsible for translating the company's needs into technical language, and the blockchain developers' needs into plain English. They are also tasked with planning and supervising the execution of the blockchain project.

2. Blockchain Developer.Blockchain developers may have the strongest career opportunities in the industry right now. Before companies can use blockchain to improve efficiency and speed, developers will need to create the necessary platforms and programs. Required skills for blockchain developers include Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, .NET, MVC, AJAX, SQL, C, C++, C#, Javascript, Node.js, JQuery, SOAP, REST, FTP, HTML, XML, XSLT, XCOD, Neural-networks, Regression, Agile Scrum, and MYSQL.

3. Blockchain Quality Engineer.A blockchain quality engineer is responsible for all areas of quality in the development environment, including automation frameworks and tests, manual testing, and dashboards. This professional is typically responsible for planning and delivery of complex blockchain projects, as well as developing, applying, and maintaining QA automated test standards.

4. Blockchain Legal Consultant/Attorney. Many attorneys working in tech have reported getting more calls from potential clients seeking advice about how to structure and govern cyber currency Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) as well as on the issues they may face as they launch blockchain and fintech projects. The need for legal professionals to guide these projects will only grow as the technology matures.

5. Blockchain Designer. Companies will need designers to create websites that inform customers what they offer in the blockchain space. For example, a recent job posting for a user interface (UI) designer wanted a professional who could create a UI design with Sketch, PS, and Figma that would work in both mobile and web applications. These professionals should also have excellent communications skills, and be able to work with content, operations, and marketing teams.
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6. Blockchain Engineer.This year, there were 14 open jobs for every one blockchain developer or engineer. These professionals are responsible for creating and implementing digital solutions for companies using the blockchain. Engineers must study the blockchain tech needs of their company and create the applications to meet those needs. They should be skilled in Java, Hyperledger Fabric, Ripple, Solidity, Python, Bitcoin, Oracle Identity, and access management solutions.