hello world

To finish out our trip we entered the world of digitalization to discuss machine learning, data analytics, blockchain, and crypto. Our first lecturer was Dr. Trihinas, a professor at UNIC. I found his lecture incredibly informative, and there were three main ideas that I took away. In the beginning of his presentation he built the foundation of the importance of data analytics through statements about several companies: Uber is the largest taxi service without owning any taxis; Airbnb is the largest accommodation service without owning any real estate; Netflix is the largest streaming platform without owning any videos; and so on. I hadn’t thought about this seemingly obvious idea before, so I appreciated his presentation of this evidence. Past this, I was particularly interested in his explanation of large-language models and their conceptual operation. He discussed the two main development stages (training and testing) for machine learning models, and something that really stuck with me was the balance between underfitting and overfitting a data set. Initially I was under the impression that supplying an infinite amount of data to a machine learning model would be most beneficial, but through his–again seemingly obvious–explanation of how this essentially means the machine learns to memorize rather than understand, I can see how this is actually damaging. A final takeaway I had also stems from this idea of the model’s capabilities and the fact that the model can only make estimates given the probability of an answer. In high school I discovered that ChatGPT is very poor at solving more advanced math problems and would often give several different answers for the same question when prompted multiple times. Dr. Trihinas provided reasoning for this in his lecture as he explained how the models generate predictive answers and not concrete facts.

As for the second lecture, given by CEO Polemitis, we discussed blockchain and crypto currency. I will admit I was hesitant about my interest in this presentation, but it was surprisingly intriguing and informative. I thought he gave a very comprehensive, logical, and clear explanation for the relevance of blockchain given the current global trends. He began by establishing the world’s movement towards centralized databases and their administration by a single person or small body of people. The example he largely used was taxis: before Uber, someone could be on bad terms with one taxi driver and simply hail the next, but with the centralized structure of Uber, a flagged profile means 80% of all taxi drivers will no longer accept that person as a customer. This logic follows with many other aspects of society, and as it relates to communication it begs the questions of who owns the means of modern/digital communication and how this control impacts communication. He clarified how, while in the physical world land is both privately and publicly owned, in the digital world data is always privately owned. This raises an argument for blockchain as it allows for the communal ownership of digital property and avoids the concentration of power in a small group of people’s hands.

Following the lectures, we were given quite a bit of free time before our farewell dinner. During this time, I went to the Northern side of Nicosia with another student where we wandered some of the streets and came across an incredible courtyard where we ate lunch. Within the courtyard was a small tower above an unmarked grave with a Mosque in it. The whole area was filled with small shops and lots of vibrant color, and we spent a bit of time diving into the different shops and admiring the crafts. We, of course, also saw many many cats during this venture through the city, and on the way back we stopped at a grocery store so I could pick up some food for my travels tomorrow. In the final hour of our time, we got ready for our final dinner and left for bus.

Thanks for following along!