The S&P 500 Index is a metric gauging the market performance of 500 large US companies. It acts as a great proxy for understanding the market overall. I found data (as of 19/1/23) on the ~500 companies that constitute the S&P 500. This is a snapshot of the data: S&P 500 Companies These are the…… Continue reading S&P 500 Companies Data Analysis

I found data on startups that I decided to analyse and visualise. A snapshot of the data, ranked descendingly by total funding, is produced below. Startup Data Other columns not displayed include number of funding rounds, founding date, and the dates of first and last funding. There are 66,368 startups in the data that includes…… Continue reading Startup Data Analysis

Stuxnet was the first malware attacking Industrial Control Systems (ICSs). This cyberweapon was designed to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program by affecting the centrifuges used to enrich Uranium. Stuxnet can infect Windows 2000 up to Windows 7. The malware’s main target was a system composed of Siemens SIMATIC WinCC, PCS7, and Programming Language Controllers (PLCs) that…… Continue reading Stuxnet- Hacking Industrial Systems

Shimon1, a battle-rapping robot, interacts with human rappers in real-time by responding with AI-generated raps, voices, and gestures, taking the human’s raps as input. The system involves analysis of the human’s audio and lyrics, generation of lyrics accordingly, censorship, rhyme-based filtering of the lyrics, conversion of the text to rhythm and voice, and synchronisation of…… Continue reading System for Human-Robot Rap Battles

I analysed the 2019 World Happiness Report data to explore the importance of factors that contribute to self-reported happiness. This is what the ranked data looks like. I’ve added a column indicating the attribute most important for the happiness score. The numbers in the metric columns quantify the extent to which that factor affects the…… Continue reading World Happiness Report Data Analysis

A fundamental property of the mind is the ability to mentally represent the world in order to simulate possible effects of behaviour.1 This occurs in three steps. First, sensory stimuli is converted into neural patterns. Then, they are re-constructed using different symbols, creating a meaning-embodying representation of the world. Finally, mental plans are converted into…… Continue reading Nature and Characteristics of Consciousness

Neuroaesthetics is a field that explores the underlying cognitive neuroscience of aesthetic experiences. Human brains have intrinsic features that make us observe and value beauty. Aesthetic features often influence people’s affective responses and behaviour. They affect which products consumers purchase, how humans respond to build and natural environments, and our attitudes towards and opinions of…… Continue reading Cognitive Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experiences

Increasing incidences of data breaches have led to more stolen identities on dark net markets. This has driven down the prices of various forms of personal identity online. Here is how the number of personal breaches has changed over the years. Number of breached records (US) by year Advent of the internet has led to…… Continue reading Evolution of Online Identity Theft

What people spend money on has changed over time. Trends in percentages of total personal consumption expenditure (PCE) spent in certain categories from 1980-2018 are plotted below1. Percentage of total spent in that category vs the year Though expenditure on clothing and food has declined, spending on entertainment and medical services has increased. Below is…… Continue reading Changes in Expenditure on Entertainment

Compounding human-made music with AI compositions widens artistic ideation. The AI Song Contest1 participants explored this idea with varying techniques. All teams used AI to generate lyrics and melodies, and more than half created vocals with AI. Teams almost always generated lyrics using AI because high-performing models like GPT-2 along with a fine-tuning script were…… Continue reading Co-Creating Music with AI