Encouraging independence and empowerment in loved ones living with disability
As a carer or loved one of someone with a disability, how can you best support them in gaining independence and empowerment?
Recipe of the Week: It's Easy Being Green Smoothie
Headed to the beach to enjoy this weather? Get the most out of the day by starting with this vitamin-rich smoothie and you’ll have all the energy you need! With spinach, fruit, ice and protein powder, this smoothie will cool down your summer days and keep you in tip top shape. The secret to being green is buying bags of frozen fruit that remove the need for any unnecessary chopping. Feel free to experiment and substitute with your favourite frozen fruit options!
5 Disability advocates you should know
There are so many incredible disability advocates highlighting the challenges faced by people living with disability and the need for accessibility in our society. Here are some of our favourite disability advocates doing fantastic work in sport, comedy, the arts, social media, politics, urban design and more!
How aKin’s robots can provide independence to those living with mobility-limiting disabilities
By talking to people living with spinal cord injuries we've discovered robots can be useful home helpers.
aKin wins grant to build 'limbic scaffolding' for rapid prototyping of intelligent robots.
Thanks to the Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre, aKin will develop a platform to speed up bringing together AI brains and robot bodies.
Start with a billion users in mind
If Liesl Yearsley, CEO of aKin, wants to drive the co-evolution of Artificial Intelligence as society’s companion and a tool to enable positive progress for all. Read the full article here.
The Importance of Being (L)earnest
How can we draw inspiration from how children learn to speak to make artificial intelligence and machine learning better?
Creating conversational AI for everybody
A•kin's Head of AI Design tells us about how her thinking changed once she started designing AI for people with disability.
Research by Alan Blair, Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales
An overview of research from Professor Alan Blair, Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales
The Importance of Being (L)earnest
The benefit of biological inspiration in machine learning and natural language processing.
Why is meal planning important for people with a disability?
Compared to the general population, people living with disabilities can be at a greater risk of developing certain diet-related health conditions. Meal planning can help to develop healthy eating habits.
aKin's vision for human-AI co-evolution
Check out our recent keynote on Personal AI at Creative Innovation in Melbourne.
Limbic scaffolding: bridging the gap between AI and robotics
What would we gain from a robot that has all the perceptual capabilities and dexterity of a human as well as a mind that can make use of those capabilities? Read more.
Robotics adoption matters: combining artificial and natural intelligence
In the last day of the Robotics adoption matters series, Alexander Hadjiivanov discusses the case for AI in human-robot collaboration.
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We Need to Talk About the Power of AI to Manipulate Humans
Our tendency to become emotionally attached to chatbots could be exploited by companies seeking a profit. Liesl Yearsley in Technology review.
Complexity-based speciation and genotype representation for neuroevolution
Joint paper by Alexander Hadjiivanov and Alan Blair. Introduction of a speciation principle for neuroevolution where evolving networks are grouped into species based on the number of hidden neurons, which is indicative of the complexity of the search space.
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Recipe of the Week: Coconut Chickpea Curry
Packed with nutrition, warming and delicious, this curry is a quick and tasty vegan delight. Made from chickpeas, creamy coconut milk, fragrant spices and tangy lime. This recipe ticks all the boxes: budget-friendly, healthy and tasty! Serve with rice, naan or steamed greens.
Epigenetic evolution of deep convolutional models
Winner of the Outstanding Student Paper Award at the 2019 IEEE Congress on Evolutionary Computation
Renowned Aussie Chef, Matt Golinski, on meal plans and healthy eating
Renowned Aussie Chef, Matt Golinski, talks the importance of meal planning, eating healthy and lots of tips about food, grocery shopping and fussy eaters
aKin beats a field of 2,200 applicants for a female founders grant for commercial expansion.
The Boosting Female Founders Initiative will help aKin to scale its Home AI for people living with disability.
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Ed Husic's AI centre of excellence to focus on ethical, humanist AI
The Labor party's $3 million pledge for a new artificial intelligence centre of excellence that will aim to make Australia a hub of "ethical" AI development
Local pioneer lands Silicon Valley and Westpac backing for human AI at aKin
Read the Financial Review article about Liesl Yearsley. A pioneering entrepreneur who sold her AI business to IBM has bagged funding from Silicon Valley investors and Westpac's Reinventure fund.
aKin wins Outstanding Paper Award at CEC 2019
Chief Research Officer, Alexander Hadjiivanov, beat hundreds of students with his paper on evolutionary computation.
Recipe of the week: Shakshuka Eggs
This warming breakfast is healthy and hearty enough to keep you cozy through this rainy weather. This dish is made of fresh eggs baked in a rich tomato sauce and is budget friendly at less than $5 a serve. Easily make this dish gluten-free by using gluten-free bread or leaving out the toast altogether.
Interview with aKin’s Chief Product Officer Erika Whillas on human-centred design
What is human-centred design and how can it make artificial intelligence more inclusive?
aKin wins significant space agency grant for ‘AI crew for Space’.
The Australian Space Agency has awarded aKin a grant to build helper and inspector robots, and an AI habitat manager.
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Innovator Series: Liesl Capper Yearsley
Welcome to our series that showcases some of Australia’s innovators, movers and shakers in and around ICT.
Top tips for bringing sensory sensitive eaters to the table
Food sensory sensitivities are very common in young people, especially those with autism or other disabilities. Incorporating new foods into their diet allows a variety of health and social benefits.
What is Autism Spectrum Disorder?
Early signs are : does you child turn to their name? Do they make less eye contact than others? Do they seem to be in their own world? If they are walking, do you have a lot of photos of the back of their head?
Using models of the brain's neural adaptability to develop smarter AI
A•kin's chief research officer explores how AI could model the flexibility of the human brain.
What is assistive technology? How can you get it?
Read more about assistive technology. What is assistive technology, how can you get it, are you able to fund it in your NDIS plan and more.
Liesl Yearsley’s, CEO and founder of aKin | Overview of research
Overview of research by Liesl Yearsley, founder and CEO of aKin and CEO/Founder of three previous successful companies.
An emotionally intelligent AI could support astronauts on a trip to Mars
aKin's work with NASA's JPL on emotionally intelligent embodied AI and the future of Akin's AI research has been featured in MIT Technology Review! Read the article here.
CEO Liesl Yearsley at the Singularity University Summit
Video of aKin CEO, Liesl Yearsley, speaking at the SingularityU Australia Summit.
Transitioning to independent living for people with a disability
Moving out of the family home can be a challenging time for a person with a disability and their family members. So how do we navigate this new adventure successfully and make sure that the person you love is safe, healthy and happy..
Forbes: LG And aKin To develop AI home helpers for families living with disability
aKin is focusing on taking things one stage further by creating a more empathetic, goal-orientated home AI system that will be initially targeted towards caregivers living with disabled family members.
Tech firms move to put ethical guard rail around AI
a·kin CEO, Liesl Yearsley, quoted in Wired
What's the link between diet and ASD symptoms?
What does the research say about different diets and autism symptoms?
Continuous adaptive learning for neural networks
This study presents a biologically plausible method (based on the operation of the mammalian retina) which can convert raw input continuously into a form that is suitable for both the training and deployment stages of neural networks.
Recipe of the week: Easy Leftovers Fritatta
Use last night’s leftovers to make the perfect healthy frittata! This gluten-free dish is made from fresh eggs and leftover meat and veggies, making it a great option for a light lunch or picnic. This frittata is very budget-friendly so you can feel good about saving money and reducing food waste.
Recipe of the week: Quick Chicken Stir-Fry
The perfect healthy recipe to ease the midweek madness. This stir-fry is made with fresh veggies, tender chicken and a honey, soy and garlic sauce. This recipe uses quick rice to help get dinner on the table at lightning speed, but if you prefer to make your rice from scratch, see our recipe “Cooking Rice From Scratch”.
