arc news

In this warm September edition of ARC Reads we continue to share the latest tech and business articles that have piqued our interest

What We're Reading This Month

Brain-computer interfaces tap AI to enable a man with ALS to speak - Brain-computer interfaces are a ground breaking technology that can help paralyzed people regain functions they’ve lost, like moving a hand. These devices record signals from the brain and decipher the user’s intended action, bypassing damaged or degraded nerves that would normally transmit those brain signals to control muscles. Check out the full article here.‍

How next-gen data analytics is changing American football - Every year, shortly after the Super Bowl, America’s best college football players head to Indianapolis. It’s a rite of spring, like the migration of birds. Their destination is the Combine, a weeklong event where National Football League teams evaluate the talent to determine whom they’ll select during the upcoming NFL draft. In a convention center ballroom not far from the stadium, another “combine” is taking place. Here the marquee event is not the 40-yard dash but the six-minute research presentation. The competitors are not sports stars but data scientists who’ve come for the final round of the Big Data Bowl. Launched by the NFL in2018, this competition challenges teams of researchers to apply analytics and AI tools to football data.

To Make Your Pitches More Engaging, Appeal to Multiple Learning Styles -When idea pitches fail to resonate, it doesn’t always have to do with the merit of the idea, your presentation style, or charisma; the problem could stem from a deeper disengagement in your organization. To make pitches more appealing and increase the chances of ideas resonating, the author recommends engaging three main learning styles that maybe in your audience: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Drawing from his experience at Disney, the author uses examples of successful presentations in each style and gives tips on engaging each. Find out how!

Tom Brady on the Art of Leading Teammates- When our society talks about leaders, we focus on formal roles, such as the CEO. This view under values the role of informal leaders—team members who influence outcomes by the tone they set, how they conduct themselves, and how they interact with their peers. Their job title doesn’t include the word “manager,” but they play an outsize role in how teams perform. In this article, NFL great Tom Brady and Nitin Nohria, of Harvard Business School, present a set of principles that people in any realm can apply to help teams successfully work together toward common goals.

‍The cool technologies that could protect cities from dangerous heat - It’s time to brace for record-breaking heat. Last year was the hottest on record and 2024 is shaping up to be even more extreme, with the mercury soaring close to 50 °C on days in Nevada, Egypt and Australia. June marked the 13th month in a row of chart-topping temperatures globally. And four consecutive days in July were the hottest in recorded history for the entire planet. So scientists are working hard to develop innovative ways to cool cities.