Feature engineering is the process of using domain knowledge to extract features from raw data via data mining techniques. These features can be used to improve the performance of machine learning algorithms. Feature engineering can be considered as applied machine learning itself.

We have come a long way since I was a child in the 1960s when all I wanted for Christmas was a slinky and some Rock’Em – Sock’Em Robots. Now imagine we have traveled ten years into the future, and it is Christmas 2031. Alexa has replaced kids’ parents and Santa Claus. Every toy is connected to the Internet and looks like a robot version of the animal it represents. Clean thermonuclear Christmas trees will be providing us with radiant, gamma-ray energy for all our holiday needs. Pogo sticks have also made a comeback, but they are solar-powered and can leap entire city blocks. And while I am busy pretending to be the Ghost of Christmas Future, I thought it would also be fun to ask the Office of the CTO team about their predictions for futuristic, technical toys. So, I posed these two questions: What cool TECHNICAL toy or gadget would you like Santa to bring you this year in 2021? As a participating member of the Office of the CTO, what cool TECHNICAL toy or gadget (that has not yet been invented) would you like Santa to bring you in 10 years from now in 2031? christmas wishlist for the octo team overlay You know what? We just might see I see a sneak preview of some of these magical tech toys of the future in just a few weeks at the CES 2022 conference. In the meantime, take a look at the wish list from all of our Extreme technical gurus: Marcus Burton – Wireless and Cloud Architect Christmas Wish 2021: Is a Tesla Cybertruck an option? I’ll even take a prototype. That will scratch several technology itches at the same time. Think about it…EV, autonomous driving, AI, 5G probably, cloud-connected, mobile-first, and all the best in materials sciences and mechanical engineering applied to trucks. What more could an outdoorsy tech guy want? Christmas Wish 2031: I’m kinda thinking that while everyone else has their brain slurped out in the metaverse (with VR!), I will prefer to go to the actual mountains. But you know, I have a wife and kids, so I have to think about safety. So here’s my wish: a smart personal device that has a full week of battery life (using ultra-thin silicon wafers) with rapid solar charging, LEO satellite connectivity (for sending “eat your heart out” 3D pics to my friends from the “there’s no 6G here” wilderness), and ultra-HD terrain feature maps for modern navigation. Carla Guzzetti – VP, Experience, Messaging & Enablement Christmas Wish 2021: I want this: Meeting Owl Pro – 360-Degree, 1080p HD Smart Video Conference Camera, Microphone, and Speaker Christmas Wish 2031: I want a gadget where we can have virtual meetings without the need for a wearable! Who wants to wear heavy goggles all day? Doug McDonald – Director of Product Management Christmas Wish 2021: As a technologist often looking for a balance between screen time and health and fitness I hope Santa brings me the Aura Strap. The Aura strap adds additional IoT sensory capabilities to compliment your Apple smartwatch. Bioelectrical impedance analysis is the cutting-edge science behind the AURA Strap. This innovation provides a way to truly see how your body changes over the course of a day. Their body composition analysis includes fat, muscle mass, minerals, and hydration; providing personalized insights that improve the results of your workouts, diet, and your lifestyle as a whole. Christmas Wish 2031: Hopefully, this innovation will be here sooner. Still, in the spirit of my first wish from Santa, I also hope to have a service engine warning light for me. The concept is utilizing advancements in biomedical sensory devices to pinpoint potential changes in your physical metrics that may help in seeking medical attention sooner than later if variances in health data occur. I spoke about this concept in the Digital Diagnosis episode of the Inflection Points podcast from the Office of the CTO. Ed Koehler – Principal Engineer Christmas Wish 2021: My answers are short and sweet. I want a nice drone with high-resolution pan, tilt, and zoom (PTZ) cameras. Christmas Wish 2031: In ten years, I want a drone that I can sit inside and fly away! Puneet Sehgal – Business Initiatives Program Manager Christmas Wish 2021: I have always wanted to enjoy the world from a bird’s eye view. Therefore, my wish is for Santa to bring me a good-quality drone camera this year. It is amazing how quickly drones have evolved from commercial /military use to becoming a personal gadget. Christmas Wish 2031: In 2031, I wish Santa could get me a virtual reality (VR) trainer to help me internalize physical motion by looking at a simulation video while sending an electrical impulse to mimic it. It will open endless possibilities, and I could become an ice skater, a karate expert, or a pianist – all in one. Maybe similar research is already being done, but we are far away from something like this maturing for practical use. So, who knows – it’s Santa after all and we are talking 2031! Tim Harrison – Director of Product Marketing, Service Provider Christmas Wish 2021: This year, I would love to extend my audio recording setup and move from a digital 24 channel mixer to a control surface that integrates with my DAW (digital audio workstation) and allows me to use my outboard microphone pre-amps. I’ve been looking at an ICON QCon Pro G2 plus one QCon EX G2 extender to give me direct control over 16 channels at once (I use 16 channels just for my drum kit). Christmas Wish 2031: Ten years from now, I sincerely hope to receive an anti-gravity platform. First, I’ll be old, and climbing stairs will have become more challenging for these creaky old bones. Secondly, who hasn’t hoped for a REAL hoverboard? Once we know what gravity is “made of,” we can start making it easier to manipulate objects on earth and make space more habitable for human physiology. Either that or a puppy. Puppy sitting Divya Balu Pazhayannur – Director of Business Initiatives Christmas Wish 2021: I’m upgrading parts of my house over the holidays and browsing online for kitchen and laundry appliances. If you had told me that I would be spending three hours reading blogs on choosing the right cooktop for me, I would not have believed you. Does it have the right power, is it reliable, is it Wi-Fi enabled, can you talk to it – I’m kidding on that last one. Having said that, I’d love to get the Bosch Benchmark Gas Stovetop. Although I can’t speak to my appliance, its minimalist look has me writing it down on my wish list for Santa. I’ll even offer him some crispy dosas in exchange. Christmas Wish 2031: Apart from flying cars and personal robot assistants, I’d love to get the gift of better connectivity. I miss my family and friends in India, and it would be amazing to engage with them through holographic technology. I imagine it would allow for a much higher level of communication than today’s ‘talking head’ approach. Although do I want my family sitting with me in my living room? Still – I’d like to think a holograph would be just fantastic. Yury Ostrovsky – Sr. Technology Manager Christmas Wish 2021: I believe 2022 will be the year of VR toys. Virtual Reality is already popular, but I believe more applications will be developed in this area. We might see radio waves coming from different sources (Wi-Fi, LTE, 5G, BT, etc.) and visualize propagation in real-time. Christmas Wish 2031: “Prediction is very difficult, especially if it’s about the future” – Niels Bohr Kurt Semba – Principal Architect Christmas Wish 2021: The Crown from Neurosity. It helps you get and stay in a deep focus to improve your work and gaming results. Christmas Wish 2031: A non-evasive health device that can quickly look deep into your body and cells and explain why you are not feeling well today. Jon Filson – Senior Producer, Content Christmas Wish 2021: I want a large rollable TV by LG. In part because I watch a lot of football. And while I have a Smart TV, I still can’t get it to connect to my Bluetooth speaker … so while I love it, I want it to work better, and isn’t that so often the way with tech? But more than that, I don’t like and have never liked that rooms have to be designed around TVs. They are big, which is fine, but they are often in the way, which is less so. They should disappear when not in use. It’s $100,000 so I don’t expect it any time soon. But it’s an idea whose time has come. Christmas Wish 2031: I cheated on this one and asked my 12-year-old son Jack what he would want. It’s the portal gun, from Rick and Morty, a show in which a crazed scientist named Rick takes his grandson Morty on wacky adventures in a multi-verse. That last part is important to me. Kids today are already well into multi-verses, while we adults are just struggling to make one decent Metaverse. The next generation is already way ahead of us digitally speaking, it’s clear. Alexey Reznik – Senior UX Designer Christmas Wish 2021: This awesome toy: DJI Mavic 2 Pro – Drone Quadcopter UAV with Hasselblad Camera 3-Axis Gimbal HDR 4K Video Adjustable Aperture 20MP 1″ CMOS Sensor, up to 48mph, Gray Christmas Wish 2031: Something along these lines: BMW Motorrad VISION NEXT 100 BMW Motorcycle Michael Rash – Distinguished Engineer – Security Christmas Wish 2021: Satechi USB-C Multiport MX Adapter – Dual 4K HDMI. Christmas Wish 2031: A virtual reality headset that actually works. Alena Amir – Senior Content and Communications Manager Christmas Wish 2021: With conversations around VR/AR and the metaverse taking the world by storm, Santa could help out with an Oculus Quest. Purely for research purposes of course! Christmas Wish 2031: The 1985 movie, Back to the Future, was a family favorite and sure we didn’t get it all exactly right by 2015 but hey, it’s almost 2022! About time we get those hoverboards! David Coleman – Director of Wireless Christmas Wish 2021: Well, it looks like drones are the #1 wish item for 2021, and I am no exception. My wife and I just bought a home in the mountains of Blue Ridge, Georgia, where there is an abundance of wildlife. I want a state-of-the-art drone for bear surveillance. Christmas Wish 2031: In ten years, I will be 71 years old, and I hope to be at least semi-retired and savoring the fruits of my long tech career. Even though we are looking to the future, I want a time machine to revisit the past. I would travel back to July 16th, 1969, and watch Apollo 11 liftoff from Cape Kennedy to the moon. I actually did that as a nine-year-old kid. Oh, and I would also travel back to 1966 and play with my Rock’Em – Sock’Em Robots. Rock'em Sock'em Robots To summarize, our peeps in the Office of the CTO all envision Christmas 2031, where the way we interact as a society will have progressed. In 2021, we already have unlimited access to information, so future tech toys might depend less on magical new technologies and more on the kinds of experiences these new technologies can create. And when those experiences can be shared across the globe in real-time, the world gains an opportunity to learn from each other and grow together in ways that would never have been possible.

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Some amazing feature engineering knowledge.

Junior Unity Developer | East London | Up to £30K The Client: an award-winning startup in East London which aims to inspire every student to discover the fun in coding and creating. It combines apps, wireless hardware blocks and bespoke education content to teach students to unleash their creative potential. The Role: responsible for developing interactive digital and real world experiences on mobile and desktop initiative, creativity and ownership be part of a highly international team of motivated and talented people on a mission to be key players in the future of education Responsibilities Collaborate with the Product team including designers and other developers to build amazing products Contribute to the Tech team by sharing your knowledge with the team and applying your experience Deliver high quality and well-structured code Design, architect and implement features Take an active part in feature creation and design Maintain and optimise new and existing features Highly collaborative, share knowledge and help colleagues passionate for interactive development and proven ability to build products and experiences Enjoy developing excellent cross-platform apps including iOS and Android using Unity with C# proficient with C# with a deep understanding of OO paradigms and best practices (including SOLID principles) extended knowledge of Unity to create both 2D and 3D games Have a bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or equivalent Excellent teamwork skills, flexibility, and ability to handle multiple tasks Location: London, UK Salary 25,000.00 – GBP30,000.00 Per Annum Job Level: Associate Start Date: Immediately Education Level: Bachelor’s Degree Industry: Consumer Goods & Services Function: IT, Development & Engineering

How much is it worth to catch more bugs early in your product release process? Depending on where you are in your release process, you might be writing unit or systems tests. But, you need to run end-to-end tests to prove behavior, and quality engineers require a high degree of skill to write end-to-end tests successfully. What would you say if a single validation engine could help you ensure data integrity, functional integrity, and graphical integrity in your web and mobile applications? And, as a result, catch more bugs earlier in your release process? Catch Bugs or Die Let’s start with the dirty truth: all software has bugs. Your desire to create bug-free code conflicts with the reality that you often lack the tools to uncover all the bugs until someone finds them way late in the product delivery process. Like, say, the customer. surprised 1184889 1280 With all the potential failure modes you design for – and then test against – you begin to realize that not all failure modes are created equal. You might even have your own triage list: Security & penetration Data integrity and consistency Functional integrity and consistency So, where does graphical integrity and consistency fit on your list? For many of your peers, graphical integrity might not even show up on their list. They might consider graphical integrity as managing cosmetic issues. Not a big deal. Lots of us don’t have reliable tools to validate graphical integrity. We rely on our initial unit tests, systems tests, and end-to-end tests to uncover graphical issues – and we think that they’re solved once they’re caught. Realistically, though, any application evolution process introduces changes that can introduce bugs – including graphical bugs. But, who has an automation system to do visual validation with a high degree of accuracy? Tradeoffs In End-to-End Testing Your web and mobile apps behave at several levels. The level that matters to your users, though, happens at the user interface on the browser or the device. Your server code, database code, and UI code turns into this representation of visual elements with some kind of visual cursor that moves across a plane (or keyboard equivalent) to settle on different elements. The end-to-end test exercises all the levels of your code, and you can use it to validate the integrity of your code. code 2434271 1280 So, why don’t people think to run more of these end-to-end tests? You know the answers. First, end-to-end tests run more slowly. Page rendering takes time – your test code needs to manipulate the browser or your mobile app, execute an HTTP request, receive an HTTP response, and render the received HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Even if you run tests in parallel, they’re slower than unit or system tests. Second, it takes a lot of effort to write good end-to-end tests. Your tests must exercise the application properly. You develop data and logic pre-conditions for each test so it can be run independently of others. And, you build test automation. Third, you need two kinds of automation. You need a controller that allows you to control your app by entering data and clicking buttons in the user interface. And, most importantly, you need a validation engine that can capture your output conditions and match those with the ones a user would expect. You can choose among many controllers for browsers or mobile devices. Still, why do your peers still write code that effectively spot-checks the DOM? Why not use a visual validation engine that can catch more bugs? Visual AI For Code Integrity You have peers who continue to rely on coded assertions to spot-check the DOM. Then you have the 288 of your peers who did something different: they participated in the Applitools Visual AI Rockstar Hackathon. And they got to experience first-hand the value of Visual AI for building and maintaining end-to-end tests. As I wrote previously, we gave participants five different test cases, asked them to write conventional tests for those cases, and then to write test cases using Applitools Visual AI. For each submission, we checked the conditions each test writer covered, as well as the failing output behaviors each test-writer caught. As a refresher, we chose five cases that one might encounter in any application: Comparing two web pages Data-driven verification of a function Sorting a table Testing a bar chart Handling dynamic web content For these test cases, we discovered that the typical engineer writing conventional tests to spot-check the DOM spent the bulk of their time writing assertion code. Unfortunately, the typical spot-check assertions missed failure modes. The typical submission got about 65% coverage. Alternatively, the engineers who wrote the tests that provided the highest coverage spent about 50% more time writing tests. However, when using Visual AI for visual validation, two good things happened. First, everyone spent way less time writing test code. The typical engineer went from 7 hours of coding tests and assertions to about 1.2 hours of coding tests and Visual AI. Second, the average test coverage jumped from 65% to 95%. So, simultaneously, engineers took less time and got more coverage. Visual AI Helps You Catch More Bugs When you find more bugs, more quickly, with less effort, that’s significant to your quality engineering efforts. You’re able to validate data, functional, and graphical by focusing on the end-to-end test cases you run. You spend less time thinking about and maintaining all the assertion code checking the result of each test case. Using Visual AI makes you more effective? How much more effective? Based on the data we reviewed – you catch 45% of your bugs earlier in your release process (and, importantly, before they reach customers). VisualAI Impact 45MoreBugs With Title We have previously written about some of the other benefits that engineers get when using Visual AI, including: 5.8x Faster Test Creation – Authoring new tests is vital especially for new features during a release cycle. Less time authoring means more time managing quality. Read more. 5.9x More Test Code Efficient – Like your team’s feature code, test code efficiency means you write less code, yet provide far more coverage. Sounds impossible, right? It’s not. Read More. 3.8x Improvement In Test Stability – Code-based frameworks rely on brittle locators and labels that break routinely. This maintenance kills your release velocity and reduces coverage. What you need is self-maintaining and self-healing code that eliminates most of the maintenance. It sounds amazing and it is! Read More. By comparing and contrasting the top participants – the prize winners – with the average engineer who participated in the Hackathon, we learned how Visual AI helped the average engineer greatly – and the top engineers become much more efficient. VisualAI Impact VisualAI Impact 45MoreBugs GranPrize Compare With Title The bottom line with Visual AI — you will catch more bugs earlier than you do today. VisualAI Impact 45MoreBugs GranPrize Quote More About The Applitools Visual AI Rockstar Hackathon Applitools ran the Applitools Visual AI Rockstar Hackathon in November 2019. Any engineer could participate, and 3,000 did so from around the world. 288 people actually completed the Hackathon and submitted code. Their submissions became the basis for this article. You can read the full report we wrote: The Impact of Visual AI on Test Automation. In creating the report, we looked at three groups of quality engineers including: All 288 Submitters – This includes any quality engineer that successfully completed the hackathon project. While over 3,000 quality engineers signed-up to participate, this group of 288 people is the foundation for the report and amounted to 3,168 hours, or 80 weeks, or 1.5 years of quality engineering data. Top 100 Winners – To gather the data and engage the community, we created the Visual AI Rockstar Hackathon. The top 100 quality engineers who secured the highest point total for their ability to provide test coverage on all use cases and successfully catch potential bugs won over $40,000 in prizes. Grand Prize Winners – This group of 10 quality engineers scored the highest representing the gold standard of test automation effort. By comparing and contrasting the time, effort, and effectiveness of these groups, we were able to draw some interesting conclusions about the value of Visual AI in speeding test-writing, increasing test coverage, increasing test code stability, and reducing test maintenance costs. What’s Next? You now know five of the core benefits we calculate from engineers who use Visual AI. Spend less time writing tests Write fewer lines of test code Maintain fewer lines of test code Your test code remains much more stable Catch more bugs So, what’s stopping you from trying out Visual AI for your application delivery process? Applitools lets you set up a free Applitools account and start using Visual AI on your own. You can download the white paper and read about how Visual AI improved the efficiency of your peers. And, you can check out the Applitools tutorials to see how Applitools might help your preferred test framework and work with your favorite test programming language.

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Every day you read about the amazing breakthroughs in how the newest applications of machine learning are changing the world. Often this reporting glosses over the fact that a huge amount of data munging and feature engineering must be done before any of these fancy models can be used. In this course, you will learn how to do just that. You will work with Stack Overflow Developers survey, and historic US presidential inauguration addresses, to understand how best to preprocess and engineer features from categorical, continuous, and unstructured data. This course will give you hands-on experience on how to prepare any data for your own machine learning models. 1