Bhumi Pednekar is taking her fitness seriously (Image Credit: Bhumi Pednekar)

With Bollywood safely quarantining at home, the question of maintainingtheir sculpted figures and pristine appearances remains.Without 5-star workout studios, high-end equipment and personal trainers, B-town's stars are left to their own devices to take care of their good looks. Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Malaika Arora and many more celebrities have been sweating it out with at home workouts. Bhumi Pednekar isn't far behind. Better yet, she has the best motivation to get up and get going.

(Also Read:Burn It Out With Mandira Bedi In Her Live Fitness Masterclass)

Bhumi posted a photo of her Apple Watch showing us the impressive number of calories she had burned and her high heart rate while exercising. But if you're wondering what keeps her going even through the drudgery of home fitness, the text she added might be a clue.

At the bottom of the picture, Bhumi wrote, 'dosa and bhaji...toodles' which seems to be her post-workout snack. Now if we too were salivating about delicious dosas and bhajiyas, we're sure we'd make it through our exercise session a whole lot quicker.

She also posted a picture of herselfsmiling in a tank top and shorts. With snacks like that, who wouldn't be smiling, am I right?

Recently, she shared an image of herself on the mat wearing a black sports bra, her hair pulled back and AirPods in her ears, with her only accessory beingher post-exercise glow.

On the occasion of Easter, Bhumi also put her baking skills to the test with a date and walnut cake that looked golden and toasty through the oven door.

While baking, eating and sweating it out, Bhumi certainly knows how to keep herself going during the quarantine.

(Also Read:From Bhumi Pednekar To Ileana D'cruz, Mono Toned Bikinis Are A Beach Day Hit)

Excerpt from:
Bhumi Pednekar Has The Best Motivation For Her Quarantine Workouts - NDTV Swirlster

Stretch those back muscles. Picture: File

By Viwe Ndongeni-Ntlebi 19h ago

Share this article:

Truth: its getting harder to find the motivation to get out of your pyjamas during lockdown, let alone get fit.

As lockdown continues, chances are that many are getting demotivated and starting to fall off their health wagon. But that's not how it should be.

Wellness specialistFulufhelo Siphuma says we all do need exercise as it boosts productivity and alleviates stress when life gets frantic.

She says you will not always be motivated, but you must squeeze in workout time when you can.

So, if you were feeling a little demotivated, get back to your beast mood. Siphuma shares some exercises for how to perfect your workout routine during isolation and sticking to it.

Plank walk with mountain climber

Assume a high plank position, your hands directly under your shoulders and your body straight. Move your right hand to the right, followed by your left. As you do, bring your right knee up toward your chest, then step back about 15cm to the right. Repeat with your left leg. That's 1rep. Continue in this pattern so you're "crawling" to the right for 5 reps. Repeat, this time to the left, for another 5 reps. Do this for 30 seconds.

Targeted muscles : quadriceps and the glutes

Burpee with jump

Stand with your feet slightly beyond shoulder width and your arms hanging naturally by your sides. Push your hips back, bend your knees, and lower your body into a squat until you can place both hands on the floor. Kick your legs back so you're in a push up position. Quickly pull your legs back into a squat and jump. Land and repeat.

Targeted muscles: C hest, arms, front deltoids, thighs, hamstrings, and abs

Rotational lunge

Grab a dumbbell and hold it by its ends just below your chin, step forward with your right leg and slowly lower your body until your front knee is bent at least 90 degrees and your rear knee is a few inches off the floor. As you lunge, rotate your upper body toward the same side as your front leg. Pause, and push yourself back up to the starting position. Repeat for 10 seconds and switch legs.

Targeted muscles: I t strengthens the glutes and legs

Chin up

Grab a chin up bar with a shoulder width underhand grip and hang at arm's length ( you should return to this position, it is known as a dead hang, each time you lower your body back down)

Pull your chest to the bar. Once the top of your chest touches the bar, pause , and then slowly lower your body to a dead hang.

Targeted muscles: Latissimus dorsi and biceps

Go here to read the rest:
Here's how to stay motivated and on top of your fitness routine - IOL

Former World No.1 Naomi Osaka announced the arrival of the WTA next-gen after she clinched her maiden Grand Slam title at the 2018 US Open. The Japanese sensation firmly put herself at the top of the game after winning her second major at the 2019 Australian Open. However, how did her fellow mate Jelena Ostapenkoinspire her?

Osakas victory indicated a change of guard as the tour mainstays were no longer favored to win the major events. The 2-time Grand Slam winner has proved that she has the capability to achieve more in very little time.

Osaka explained that watching Ostapenko win the French Open 2017 inspired all the WTA next-gen star to win the major titles against the veterans.

I think Ostapenko was the first to win a Grand Slam. But honestly, watching her win that motivated me a lot. I think it motivated all of us. I think she was sort of the first push,Osaka said at the 2019 Sheseido WTA Finals Shenzhen.

Then just like watching Serena Williams have a baby and then come back, immediately get to the finals of a Grand Slam, that also motivated me. But, of course, shes the best player, so I shouldnt really compare myself to that. Those were definitely two of the biggest things, she added.

Osaka also revealed that she was not really sure what she was able to sort of bringing to the table in regards to that as she feels that everyone is sort of just doing their own thing because everyone is so different.

Also Read: Naomi Osaka Makes Fun of her Father in a Funny Tik Tok Video

The World No.10 has failed to make the headlines after winning the Australian Open 2019. She could manage to win only 2 titles after the first Grand Slam of the season. It will be interesting to see how the Japanese star performs after the tour resumes.

Read the original here:
Watching Her Win Motivated Me Naomi Osaka Inspired by Jelena Ostapenko - Essentially Sports

Intro

Born in year 1926 in Alabama, the infamous Zig Ziglar is one of the world's most popular and motivational speakers. His real name was Hilary Hinton Ziglar but the man came to be known as Zig Ziglar as his alias which originated from his pet name in elementary school during the 1930s in Mississippi. He went to college in the same state in the city of Jackson and attended university at University of South Carolina.

His humble initiation and even his first job as a salesman never stood in the way of his positivity, the output of which yielded him great fame and prosperity. From being an exceptionally good salesperson, he moved on to becoming a famous author following which he became renowned for being an excellent motivational speaker. His work provides guidelines on self help and positivity, which he implemented into religious beliefs thus concocting his very own philosophies.

Before he died of pneumonia on November 28, 2012, Ziglar altered the minds of many millions of people, including American presidents and many other great leaders of the world during his 40 year long career as a speaker. He journeyed more than five million miles in his efforts to awaken the world and also assisted 500 companies in their work by providing them advice.

Zig Ziglar was born tenth of twelve children to Lila Wescott and John Silas Ziglar in Coffee Country somewhere in southeastern Alabama. Most of his childhood years were spent in Yazoo City of Mississipi where his family moved in 1931 when his father got a job at the Mississippi farm as a manager. At this point in time, young Zig was five years of age and a year later both his father and younger sister passed away; the father of stroke and the sister following suit two days later. Thus with the already prevalent hardships that a family of meager income and many mouths to feed had to face, the family was left in the care of Zig's mother alone whom Ziglar describes in his autobiography as "a remarkable woman" for her toils and the equipment of values and morale that she provided him with.

Perhaps this is what taught Zig to take up his fortunes in his own hands and so after serving the United States Navy during the Second World War as a V-12 in the Navy College Training Program, when he went to University of South Carolina which is located in Columbia, he took up a part time job as a salesperson and sold pots and pans for the WearEver Aluminium Company where he gained skill and tactic and soon excelled greatly in his work.

In 1947, Zig Ziglar moved to Lancester and began selling cooking equipment as a full time job after he dropped out of college. Zig Ziglar also credits P. C. Merrell, a divisional supervisor at WearEver for changing him altogether by believing in him and giving him advice.

Zig Ziglar has provided coaching for making extravagant sales by disclosing the tactic and strategy which he acquired from his experience and intellect. The audiobook, Zig's Secrets of Closing the Sale provides effective methods to make a great sale and is an absolutely brilliant training program. He mentions how his values have stood as foundation for his persuasive abilities. Zig Ziglar has had both audio and video training programs which have eventually landed him on radio programs and television shows. First Baptist Church in Dallas has hosted his Sunday school classes for a long time and these have been aired as well.

One of the world's most eminent sales Trainers, Zig Ziglar decided to assist people to devise effective strategies in order to become successful in their lives both professionally and personally. The name Zig Ziglar thus became identical to certainty, progress and inspiration. The New York Times, The Washington Post, Fortune, Success, The Dallas Morning News and Esquire have all recommended Zig Ziglar for his inspirational speeches. Zig Ziglar has also been promoted in 202/20, 60 Minutes, The Today Show and The Phil Donohue show where he warmed the hearts of many on account of his lively spirit and intelligent uniqueness. "How to Stay Motivated" is his leader and one of his many books and audio and video training programs.

His first book about self assistance was "See You at the Top" which was published in the 1970s which was reprinted many times but never lost its zeal. Ziglar has also contributed to the Congressional record of the United States in his discussion about the American lifestyle. Zig Ziglar Corporation in Dallas holds more than 60 staff members and utilizes full effort to help people realize their mental, physical and spiritual capabilities. Over the last 30 years, Zig Ziglar has gained devoted followers from all over America due to his inspirational work.

Zig Ziglar gains his profound interest in helping other people from the strength of his beliefs in God. His favorite phrase remains to have been about assisting other people to get that which they desire in order to get that which one desires for one's self. Zig Ziglar was a Christian and some of his work seems to notably have subtle messages about God and Christianity.

His words always seemed to be conveyed straight from his heart and amid his messages about honesty, integrity, hard work and virtue, Zig was a comfortably encouraging person. He seemed to make his listener understand that one could do absolutely anything at all. His speeches always ended with 'if you do this, and by you, yes I mean you, I will see you at the top." which naturally gained him respect, love and admiration. He always provoked one to put on a friendly face to the challenges that life throws in one's way.

"See You at the Top" was initially rejected by 30 publishing houses before Ziglar found a publisher who agreed in Louisiana after which it sold more than a quarter million copies and remains in print to date. The many books that he has written (about more than thirty) include ten that have been listed as best sellers and those that have been translated to more than 36 languages all over the world and have been distributed through Ziglar's official website as well as Amazon.com and the infamous Nightingale-Conant. Ziglar has also been a great feature in the enterprise system of America.

In 2001, Zig Ziglar achieved the Silver Buffalo Award from Boy Scouts of America which is the highest award in the United States for services to the youth. National Speakers Association seems to have had an absolutely unequivocal admiration for the man considering that the organization gave Ziglar the Master of Influence Award in 1999 and the Lifetime Member Award and also Cavett Award in 2001. This is further affirmed by the fact that The Council of Peer Award for Excellence Speaker hall of Fame by National Speakers Association was also given to Zig Ziglar as a symbol of unmatched skill in his field.

"The Ziglar Way" continues to have been a way of life for a great number of people after Zig Ziglar retired in 2010 and handed over the company Ziglar Inc. to his son and even after his death. His speeches have impacted the hearts and minds of people for an exceptionally long term and continue to motivate people years later. An unmatched name and figure where inspiration and hard work are concerned and the achiever of excellence in speaking, Zig Ziglar is a true legacy of America

Starting off humbly in Alabama and moving on to Mississippi and then to Lancaster, Zig Ziglar implemented the values that were instilled inside him by his mother in all that which he did and set an example for others. With his great verbal abilities, he helped many people recognize their inner selves and prosper in that which they desired. Zig Ziglar had firm religious and spiritual beliefs and worked by the motto of helping others. He understood the power of vision and the ways to implement your ideas. He never ever let the hope go away in any way, rather positivity was his strongest suit. Ziglar may have passed but he left a legacy, a legacy which gloomed and lit up lives of countless people and left them inspired. His words are so filled up with energy and passion that they gust like wind but fill people's minds with a new innovative energy. He achieved a great number of speaking awards and gained much love and fame before he died in 2012.

Read more from the original source:
Zig Ziglar biography - interesting facts, achievements ...

A giant dream fills your mind every day.That ball in your stomach telling you to want more. But this is immediately followed by the thought:"I've never done anything like that." So you do nothing.You don't act on this dream because you haven't done it before.

Whether you are anentrepreneur looking to kickstart your first business or someone who wants to leverage skills outside of your current role, here is how you make yourself more valuable than any experience ever could.

When I vet out mentees, I seek to understand how much research they have done before reaching out to me--andhow good they are at listening. Because as a mentee, or any business professional, if all you want to do is talk about yourself and your ideas, you're ultimately limiting your potential to learn.

Surround yourself with people who can teach you,then actively listen to their words of advice. Put yourself in the positionwhere you are the least experienced person in the room and soak up every piece of information possible. Engagement is the source of experience and fortune favors those who put themselves out there.

When it comes to learning, don't take yourself for granted. Sure you can learn from books, mentors, and those you admire, but don't forget to learn from yourself along the way. Spend intentional time reflecting on your experiences to extract powerful lessons from the wins and the losses. Use your past to power your sailsforward. The quicker you learn, the faster you will go.

"Every person you meet knows something you don't.Learn from them." -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Humility is a trait that portrays self-confidence.While everyone else is running around preaching how great they are, use humility to stand firmwith unwavering confidence.The important thing to note here is that the most humble person in a room is often the most approachable. This approachability creates thebyproduct of gaining supporters, partners, and knowledge.

Eliminate the need to portray something that you are not. When you speak honestly about your experience, or lack thereof, do so from a humble place and maintain your confidence.Remember, humility listens. When you step into being humble you are more receptive to feedback from others, feedback that could help you take leaps forward. When you respectfully solicit feedback, you boost their internal value while giving yourself insights that would have been glossed over otherwise.

"Humility will open more doors than arrogance ever will."- Zig Ziglar

It no longer matters who has the most experience. What matters is who can gain the knowledge the fastest. If you don't have the experience you want, learn how to get it.This can be creating a network of people to turn to for support, reading blogs and timely articles, ortaking courses. Build a library ofresourcesat your fingertips for reference when needed.

In today's world, you no longer need to know how to do calculus. You simply need to know how to use a calculator.Given the endless amount of resources available today, there are no excuses for lacking the knowledge you need. Those who are willing to go the extra mileand get knee-deep in the situation at handare the ones who will step out ahead.

"It's not the lack of resources that causes failure;it's the lack of resourcefulness." - Tony Robbins

Published on: Apr 16, 2020

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

Read the original:
3 Must-Have Traits to Start Business (Experience is Not One of Them) - Inc.

Do you think money is the secret to happiness in the long run? A lot of people ask me the question, Can money buy you happiness?.

First of all,the answer is no you dont need money to be happy.

This is, after all, a debatable topic by a lot of people and not everyone would answer no BUT

Being a global entrepreneur for over 35 years and knowing many people that have a lot of money along with having done very well for myself, I can tell you that sometimes using big money for buying all kinds of things like homes, boats, and cars can actually make you an unhappy person because you get many more things to deal with and many more areas to add problems in your life.

Wealth is the ability to truly experience life. Henry David Thoreau

So money doesnt necessarily buy you happiness but I will say this lets just think about it

Money could help your family and ultimately provide for the family in many ways which is usually the main and driven factor as to why we work so hard for more money.

You could use it for amazing and relaxing vacations to do and see some awesome things but mostly to reset and enjoy life in these fortunate ways.

And if youre a charitable person, which you should be, and youd like to help nonprofits, that would be a great way to use your money for long-term happiness.

Although, you dont necessarily need money for nonprofits because you can contribute your time.

Helping others and giving back is NOT Money the Secret to Happiness

Learn more aboutwhy entrepreneurs can have the best of both worlds when it comes to happiness And money.

Although money can be helpful, it can also lead to greed and unhappiness.

So youve gotta be very careful.

I like to say if you have money, put it to good use, dont be greedy or you will be unhappy. Kevin Harrington

Overall, put your money to good use by providing for others, for the family, for nonprofits, and participate in a giving back to the community in general.

Zig Ziglar, one of my mentors, said it best that

You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. Zig Ziglar

If you think about money and your life that way in helping other people, youll be happier in the long run.

Ive created a simple, proven process for helping you get there faster.

Get the free step-by-step guide here now!

Here is the original post:
Is Money the Secret to Happiness? - Thrive Global

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact, which COVID-19 has illustrated so well. A recent sampling:

Q-Anon followers have been told that drinking bleach can fight off coronavirus infection. But the FDA says the ingredient chlorine dioxide can cause vomiting and liver failure. Its been linked to two deaths.

Digital repression: Weve had a taste of that given odd behaviors exhibited by the Internet after the traffic load went up 35 percent following during stay-at-home orders. Last year, access to the Internet was restricted in 33 countries that were attempting to control their citizens, The Wall Street Journal reported. The United Nations declared Internet access a human right in 2016.

By early April, the Defense Production Act, which could be used to order masks produced in the U.S., had not been utilized by President Donald Trump, so the crowd-funding Masks For America was launched. Taiwan already had a stockpile of masks, The New York Times said, and all countries should maintain such a cache.

New York State, unable to get federal help for medical supplies, is paying private entities 20 cents for medically protective gloves that normally cost a nickel, $7.50 for 50 cent masks, and a quarter million for portable x-ray machines that cost, at most, $80,000, according to Inequality Media.

A Pew Research poll shows 66 percent of Americans are uncomfortable about voting at public polling places during the pandemic. The obvious solution is to vote by mail, according to conservative opinion writer Jennifer Rubin, writing in the Washington Post. So far, the Trump Administration has indicated support for vote by mail, but Politico reports, only for seniors.

Stay-at-home recommendations have resulted in traffic accidents being halved, The Hill reported. Less travel has also resulted in better air quality in many places.

Over a half million people in the U.S. are homeless, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. They have higher rates of infectious, acute and chronic diseases, made worse by minimal opportunities to wash up. During the pandemic, California has turned to their budget surplus to arrange shelter for their homeless.

Infectious disease expert Dr. James Lawler, in TIME magazine, said there could be 96 million COVID-19 cases in the next couple of months. The potential result is 1.9 million ICU admissions (there are an estimated 95,000 ICU beds in the U.S.), 4.8 million hospitalizations and 480,000 deaths.

Some 14 million jobs could be lost by the end of summer due to the crisis, said the Economic Policy Institute.

The best way to dodge an epidemic via a rapid response is cooperation and trust for scientists and leaders, according to historian and author Yuval Noah Harari. He pointed out that those measures frequently have been overlooked in addressing COVID-19, driving the virus to pandemic status.

Schools out: enhance the days spent with family read-aloud time, suggested TIME magazine. Start with 15 to 20 minutes a day, first with an adult reading aloud, and then the children can take a turn.

Another federal fundraising angle: Economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman said a wealth tax of 2 percent on assets over $50 million and 3 percent on assets above $1 billion would, over 10 years, raise $2.75 trillion. Trumps tax cuts created a loss of $2 trillion, The Progressive reported.

Traffic accidents claim 40,000 lives annually in the U.S. AAA suggested that could be reduced with mandatory ignition interlocks that detect alcohol. While seatbelts and airbags were once optional, AAA pointed out that their life-saving abilities resulted in their becoming mandatory.

Blast from the past: The deadly influenza of 1918 showed up in the spring, and then made a comeback in the fall. Philadelphia was particularly hard-hit, with 759 deaths in one day, connected to a WWI parade attended by 200,000. Within three days of the parade, all hospital beds were full. The city was shut down days later. The response to the flu was further hampered by so many of the citys doctors having gone to war. As well, morgues could not keep up with demands for their services.

And another blast: You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want, said Hilary Hinton Zig Ziglar, 1926-2012, American author, salesman and motivational speaker.

See the original post here:
Western News - The Western News

Encourage Your Staff Positive reinforcement and acknowledgement of accomplishments are key to feeding your team. We dont always take time to celebrate the wins. Its important.

As a part of my series about Lessons From Inspirational Women in STEM and Tech, I had the pleasure of interviewing Krisanne Fieldhouse.

Krisanne has been with Modernizing Medicine for over 13 years with a primary focus on practice management and operations. She currently leads strategic efforts to further develop Modernizing Medicines Practice Management and Analytics solutions to help bring operational improvements to the specialty healthcare markets.

Krisannes prior experiences include managing electronic health records (EHR) implementation teams. She previously served as the product manager of Modernizing Medicine Gastroenterologys, formerly gMed, Practice Management solution. She oversaw the gastroenterology revenue cycle management (RCM) division, which has directly contributed to her current role.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

At10 years old, I clearly remember visiting the ER for a broken wrist. I was enamored with the technology and workflow during my visit and declared to my parents that I wanted to work in a hospital. Apparently my 10 year-old self was right about my career path!

Throughout my career, I have held positions in the hospital setting which were highly operational in nature. Often frustrated with the lack of tools and technology to bring efficiency to process, I was drawn to the product management field to make a positive impact in the industry and ultimately patient care.

I have now been with Modernizing Medicine for over a decade. I am thankful for the opportunity to fulfill my personal desires while working towards the company mission of transforming how healthcare information is created, consumed and utilized to increase practice efficiency and patient outcomes. It blends the best of both worlds on a daily basis medicine and tech and I love it.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began at your company?

In the tech space you have to be agile. Once you combine tech and healthcare, the only constant is change and the ability to pivot quickly and frequently grows exponentially.

Working at Modernizing Medicine, I have been extremely lucky to experience and create many interesting moments. Some of the most memorable ones have occurred during our annual users conference, MOMENTUM, where over 1,000 of our clients gather for a weekend of learning and networking. At our most recent conference, I had a Practice Administrator approach me and sincerely thank my team and I for transforming their office with our Practice Management solution. Since using our solution, theyve decreased workload, redirected efforts and made positive changes to their bottom line.

These are the conversations that remind me that what I am doing is making an impact and motivates me to keep delivering. You have to relish these positive moments and save them and remember them when you have those more um, challenging days, which we all experience.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

Oh, the value of a personal introduction. It may seem as though introductions at the start of a meeting are just common sense, but you know what they say when you assume.

Early in my career, I was brought into a heated meeting regarding an application not supporting workflow. I began pushing the meeting participants hard regarding workflow irregularities to get to the crux of the issue. Following the meeting, I received an email from a new executive who was a participant in the meeting. Oops! I wouldnt have changed the context of discussion, but I perhaps would have tweaked my delivery just a tad.

The lesson? Dont make assumptions. An introduction can and does go a long way.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Timing can be everything.Modernizing Medicinewas founded based on a chance encounter between a patient (who happened to be a tech entrepreneur) and a dermatologist. Daniel Cane, Modernizing Medicines CEO, met Dr. Michael Sherling, the companys Chief Medical and Strategy Officer, during a routine visit. As Dan observed the lack of tech to take notes and Dr. Sherling expressed frustration with the lack of dermatology-specific technology on the market, ideas began to brew. The two continued their discussion about this gap in the market. Modernizing Medicine was founded in February of 2010 and our electronic health record (EHR) system, EMA, was created with the goal of transforming healthcare and truly modernizing medicine.

One of the unique founding principles that still rings true today is having on-staff physicians actively program specific medical knowledge into our software and work alongside our development team. As practicing physicians in their specialties, they know the workflows that their peers need. Its much easier to teach a medical doctor how to code versus teaching a coder how to be a medical doctor.

Think about it from a patient perspective. The process from the office procedures to the clinical exam vary greatly and this changes dramatically depending on specialty. A visit to the dermatologist is much different compared to a visit to the ophthalmologist. One size does not fit all and this applies to technology that doctors use.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

This is definitely the era of the patient and healthcare consumerization will only continue to grow alongside the needs and expectations of patients. Knowing that, an exciting aspect of our teams focus revolves around patient engagement strategies. How do we help equip our clients practices to provide what their patients need and want?

Our goal is to support practices in delivering great patient care and improving the overall patient experience by helping provide them greater access and involvement in their own healthcare.

By expanding engagement tools such as a mobile patient portal, online self-scheduling for appointments, online bill pay and text to pay help place the ability to manage healthcare in the patients hands. Just as we use our smartphones to order a car on demand or reorder household products with the touch of a button, convenience and accessibility for our health will continue to expand.

Ok super. Thank you for all that. Lets now shift to the main focus of our interview. Are you currently satisfied with the status quo regarding women in STEM? What specific changes do you think are needed to change the status quo?

Progress has been made towards the status quo however, I believe there is significant opportunity for improvement. Even though we are seeing more and more women move into leadership positions within the engineering space, the field still remains primarily dominated by men. Strides can be made through early engagement and mentoring programs for young females introducing opportunities in STEM. It needs to start at an early age and remain consistent throughout the education system. Reinforcement is key at home, in the academic setting and from the top down at the company level.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by women in STEM or Tech that arent typically faced by their male counterparts? What would you suggest to address this?

In tech, I see that women have a more difficult time asking for what they truly desire compared to their male counterparts. Whether it be a project they want to work on, a promotion, a pay raise or being more transparent about their familial commitments, there seems to be a hesitancy to ask for what is deserved. I mentor women on my team to gain confidence to ask for what they want and to have substance and the why behind it.

Oprah Winfrey once said, You get in life what you have the courage to ask for. This quote resonates in the workplace as well as in life and serves a gentle reminder to go for what you want.

What are the myths that you would like to dispel about being a woman in STEM or Tech. Can you explain what you mean?

I believe its important to dispel the myth that women in STEM or tech have to be a developer and engineer. Its not necessarily a prerequisite. Its possible to lead teams, manage products, create user experiences and lead agile processes without understanding how to create a single line of code. By using creativity, communication and leadership skills, women can find a place in this environment and thrive.

What are your 5 Leadership Lessons I Learned From My Experience as a Woman in STEM or Tech and why. (Please share a story or example for each.)

Walk the Walk Accept responsibility with your team for both wins and losses. Let them know youre in the boat together. When there is a challenge be willing to roll up your sleeves with the team.

Encourage Your Staff Positive reinforcement and acknowledgement of accomplishments are key to feeding you team. We dont always take time to celebrate the wins. Its important.

Talk Less, Listen More Some of the best solutions are identified by listening. You dont have to have all the answers. Listen to your customers, staff, peers and choose your words wisely.

Lead by Example Be thoughtful of your behavior, others are watching and learning. How better to educate your team than leading by example.

Communicate Your team cant read your mind. Communicate clearly and effectively. Learn how to tailor your communication to drive the results you need.

What advice would you give to other female leaders to help their team to thrive?

Paint the big picture and empower your staff to deliver. Responsibility drives growth.

What advice would you give to other female leaders about the best way to manage a large team?

Inventory yourself. Know your strengths and weaknesses and identify key team members to support you and drive team and company goals. I also recommend operating in transparency. Transparency enables trust. Trust takes a long time to build and minutes to destroy.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Im grateful to my parents who helped me get to where Im at today. My siblings and I were raised to be honest, work hard and respect others, and my parents led by example. I live by these core values and look for them in others both in and out of the workplace.

My father always looked out for people. I distinctly remember him inviting a friend who was struggling and going through some challenging times to our house for a holiday dinner. That one act of kindness turned into many late nights over several months where my father provided his friendly advice and guidance. There never was any judgment or lack of patience, just a desire to help him improve his situation. This left a lasting impact on me, and I believe it contributes in my desire to help people grow.

My parents also instilled the belief that you can do anything you put your mind to and to see challenges as opportunities. The idea of challenges being viewed as opportunities is something that I refer to on a daily basis. We all encounter challenges its about how you react to them. If you look for the opportunity during analysis it leads to constant performance improvement.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

I take pride in growing people in their careers its one of my favorite aspects of the job. I love seeing raw talent and working alongside these individuals to further develop them and help them reach their potential. My personal success has enabled me to directly contribute to the personal and professional growth of team members, peers, family and friends. I find that incredibly rewarding. My hope is that by empowering others, that they will do great things and pay it forward.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

If I could inspire a movement it would be to improve recognition to highlight the importance of teachers in the United States. The influence that teachers hold and their ability to shape young minds is bar none. They have tremendous power to positively impact society. When students lack support in their home life, teachers can have a huge impact and help fill the emotional gaps, making them both inspiring mentors and positive role models. Our education leaders should hold students accountable for success and failure and provide consistency.

Unfortunately, compensation for teachers in the United States doesnt align with the momenumental impact and role they play in shaping our countrys future. I know the lack of pay often discourages those who would be wonderful additions to the education system. Why arent we investing in our best and brightest to shape our future generations?

Can you please give us your favorite Life Lesson Quote? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. Zig Ziglar

Im all about attitude. Great attitude will allow you to identify pathways to success and help you to not get stuck in the weeds. I have found when dealing with challenging situations, keeping a positive attitude will help others find an effective solution. You may have all the talent in the world, but if you have a less than stellar attitude, then you wont get very far.

We are very blessed that prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them

Id enjoy sharing a meal with Simon Sinek. Simon is a leadership guru and motivational speaker who has interesting perspectives on communication and leadership. His delivery and concepts are easy to assimilate and apply. He offers refreshing ideas which I have personally applied with great success. I particularly enjoyed readingLeaders Eat Lastwhich focuses on leadership and human relationships. One of the concepts that resonated with me is that leaders provide cover from above and the people on the ground look after one another. Your team needs to feel safe in their environment to reach the collective goal. Keeping this concept in mind, the idea of were all in this together is a much more actionable thought.

As for our meal, I think I would opt for breakfast seems like a guy who would love a solid plate of French Toast and a mimosa, of course.

The rest is here:
Positive reinforcement and acknowledgement of accomplishments are key to feeding your team With Penny Bauder & Krisanne Fieldhouse - Thrive Global

By Leah Crane

Credit: Luca Petit for QuTech

Quantum computing is heating up. For the first time, quantum computer chips have been operated at a temperature above -272C, or 1 kelvin. That may still seem frigid, but it is just warm enough to potentially enable a huge leap in the capabilities.

Quantum computers are made of quantum bits, or qubits, which can be made in several different ways. One that is receiving attention from some of the fields big players consists of electrons on a silicon chip.

These systems only function at extremely low temperatures below 100 millikelvin, or -273.05C so the qubits have to be stored in powerful refrigerators. The electronics that power them wont run at such low temperatures, and also emit heat that could disrupt the qubits, so they are generally stored outside the refrigerators with each qubit is connected by a wire to its electronic controller.

Eventually, for useful quantum computing, we will need to go to something like a million qubits, and this sort of brute force method, with one wire per qubit, wont work any more, says Menno Veldhorst at QuTech in the Netherlands. It works for two qubits, but not for a million.

Veldhorst and his colleagues, along with another team led by researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia, have now demonstrated that these qubits can be operated at higher temperatures. The latter team showed they were able to control the state of two qubits on a chip at temperatures up to 1.5 kelvin, and Veldhorsts group used two qubits at 1.1 kelvin in what is called a logic gate, which performs the basic operations that make up more complex calculations.

Now that we know the qubits themselves can function at higher temperatures, the next step is incorporating the electronics onto the same chip. I hope that after we have that circuit, it wont be too hard to scale to something with practical applications, says Veldhorst.

Those quantum circuits will be similar in many ways to the circuits we use for traditional computers, so they can be scaled up relatively easily compared with other kinds of quantum computers, he says.

Journal references: Nature, DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2170-7 and DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2171-6

More on these topics:

Originally posted here:

Quantum computer chips demonstrated at the highest temperatures ever - New Scientist News

Can human ingenuity assisted by new and emerging technologies overpower Covid-19? Will faster processing of moreand more relevantdata, analyzed with the right models, yield better insights into mitigating the spread of future pandemics, designing effective treatments, and developing successful vaccines? A number of promising initiatives were announced in recent weeks aiming to enlist data, AI algorithms, supercomputers, and human expertise in the fight with our global predicament.

Supercomputers and quantum computers crunching lots of data are at the core of recent initiatives to ... [+] fight the Coronavirus

The Digital Transformation Institute, a new research consortium established by C3.ai, Microsoft, a number of leading universities, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), announced its first call for proposals for AI techniques to mitigate pandemics. In addition to a total of $5.8 million in cash awards, recipients will be provided by Microsoft and C3.ai with significant cloud computing, supercomputing, data access, and AI software resources and technical support. Thomas M. Siebel, founder and chief executive of C3.ai, told The New York Times I cannot imagine a more important use of AI.

IBM is sharing supercomputing resources, cloud-based data repositories, and AI-driven search tools. The Allen Institute for AI has partnered with leading research groups to prepare and distribute the Covid-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19), a free resource of over 51,000 scholarly articles. Googles Kaggle has launched a series of data science competitions to answer Covid-19 questions posed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The Covid-19 High Performance Computing (HPC) Consortium is providing broad access to over 30 supercomputing systems, representing over 402 petaflops, 105,334 nodes, 3,539,044 CPU cores, 41,286 GPUs, and counting.

These are just few examples of recent efforts combining the power of data with computer power to understand and respond to the Coronavirussuper-fast computers or supercomputers crunching lots and lots of data are at the core of these initiatives. In the future, quantum computers, much faster computers than todays supercomputers, may contribute to the speed by which our responses to pandemics are determined and deployed.

D-Wave Systems, a quantum computing startup, recently announced the immediate availability of free access to its cloud computing service, designed to bring both classical and quantum resources to quickly and precisely solve highly complex problems with up to 10,000 fully connected variables. Joining this initiative are a number of D-Waves partners and customers, including Forschungszentrum Jlich, a German interdisciplinary research center. According to Prof. Dr.KristelMichielsen from the Jlich Supercomputing Centre, the initiative "is promising to accelerate the solution of complex problems in pharmacology and epidemiology, such as those that have arisen in the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis, by means of hybrid workflows from quantum-classical computer simulations. To make efficient use of D-Wave's optimization and AI capabilities, we are integrating the system into our modular HPC environment.

While quantum computing is just emerging as a viable technology, it stands in practice on the shoulders of the many scientists who have solved complex problems for years with high-performance computing (HPC). Peter Rutten, Research Director at IDCs Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies Group, observes that you can probably draw a fairly direct line between using HPC in the cloud to attack the Covid-19 problem to using the initial quantum computing capabilities that exist in the cloud to attack the Covid-19 problem.

Last month, IDC published the results of a survey of 520 IT and business users worldwide and in-depth interviews with current quantum computing end-users.A little less than 75% of respondents reported their organizations as being very interested in quantum computing. 52% of the organizations surveyed have plans to begin experimenting with quantum computing technology in the next 18-24 months and about 10% indicated that their quantum computing technologies are already in the process of being operationalized.

When we asked why are you investing in technology that may not show ROI in the short term, says Rutten, quite a few answeredweve run out of capabilities with our HPC environment, we cannot solve these problems with the HPC infrastructure that we have today. Thats really the jump that a lot of business are making, the jump from HPC to quantum.

The healthcare and life sciences industry was found by the IDC survey to be one of the sectors most interested in quantum computing. Developing and distributing drugs faster, drug discovery, and clinical trial enhancements were some of the key motivations for experimenting with quantum computing, according to Heather West, Senior Research Analyst at IDCs Infrastructure Systems, Platforms and Technologies Group. A pandemic like Covid-19 adds urgency to this interest in a very new technology.

Quantum computing could identify patterns that will allow us to identify something like Covid-19 earlier. We would be ale to work faster to identify compounds, put together a vaccine faster, or determine faster the different ways by which we can slow the transmission, says West. In addition, she thinks the global supply chain is a prime candidate for the use of quantum computers, allowing for the quick identification of patterns of supply and demand and for swift action in response to sudden shortages or surpluses.

Drugs today are discovered on a trial and error basis. It takes five or more years to develop a new drug, at a cost of $1 billion, says Doug Finke, Managing Editor of the Quantum Computing Report. Quantum computers can simulate chemical reactions at the molecular level and quickly narrow down possible candidates for drugs and vaccines from 10,000 compounds to a few dozens. The work can be done in the computer before the petri dish, says Finke. But he cautions that it will take 2-3 years to learn how to use these machines productively.

The IDC survey found that the three biggest challenges for organizations considering the adoption of quantum computing are cost (26%), training resources (22%), and long-term budgets (22%). About a third of respondents expect quantum computing to improve their AI capabilities (32%), accelerate decision making (31%), and increase productivity/efficiency (30%).

Now is the time to start building the vision, the expertise, dedicating teams and resources for quantum computing, says Brian Solis, Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce. The stepping stones to get there are building a center of excellence around AI, he adds, making AI the focal point of the organizations efforts to become more agile and innovative. It forces you to get better data, clean the data, and build expertise and key capabilities around the data. Complement that with a smaller set of resources, a Center of Excellence for quantum computing, says Solis.

The economic consequences of the current global pandemic may reduce in the short-term technology investments by corporations and venture capital firms but we may also see accelerated investments in emerging technologies, particularly those promising to assist in preventing and mitigating future pandemics.

Governments worldwide may show a specific interest, even in the short term, in technology investments. Along the relatively new AI tools (which are all about identifying patterns in large data repositories), quantum computing will probably continue to benefit from public funds. Many governments have established on-going research programs in both areas due mostly to concerns about future national competitiveness and, specifically, cybersecurity capabilities (see here for a comprehensive list of government-funded or supported quantum computing initiatives).

Governments, however, should take into consideration the less-convenient truth that investing only in computer power and speed will not raise the bar high enough to defend us from future pandemics. In the US, for example, the healthcare system is still plagued by antiquated technology infrastructure in which one hospital still cant communicate electronically with another hospital a few miles down the road (and sometimes, as I experienced myself last year, between medical offices located in the same building and belonging to the same healthcare system...).

More important, antiquated and failed privacy protection policies and regulations, currently take control of healthcare data from the hands of the people they are supposed to protect and greatly encumber efforts to use the data for research purposes. Government programs aimed at stopping or overcoming quickly the next pandemic must addressand fixthe regulatory and legal issues of managing data in the 21st century, starting with healthcare.

Read the rest here:

Calling On AI And Quantum Computing To Fight The Coronavirus - Forbes