为什么要为AI，IoT和ML采购外国人才

人工智能革命已经进行了一段时间，但这并不意味着所有软件研发都属于其中。尽管如此，它还是推动软件行业前进的有趣例子。

使机器学习成为现实的思想和技术是在几十年的时间里发展起来的，并在80年代获得了发展，这是从学术界开始的长期努力。一旦社区开始在比赛中比较其工具，并衡量性能和适用性，就会发生重大发展。

快进到90年代后期，大型软件公司将开始开发技术和基础结构来收集，存储和处理大量数据，然后这些数据可用于训练分类和基于搜索的算法。

随着深层神经网络的加入，在某种程度上，一套基本的学术工具变成了一个工业强国。有针对性的广告，消费者行为分析以及许多其他领域都从该生态系统中受益。数据工程开始将信息转化为实用程序。

加密货币和区块链的出现遵循着类似的道路。从学术工作开始就已经成为重要的里程碑，甚至超越了软件行业。某种程度上矛盾的是，我们现在通常以超专业化为代价来获取自动化推理和复杂软件系统的巨额资金。

技术需要监督，而专门技术则需要专门和高度熟练的资源。没有免费的午餐。在瞬息万变的竞争性市场中，人力资源的可用性是成功完成数据驱动业务的关键，即使运作不当也是如此。

拉丁美洲人才

多种因素的融合，以及时间的精打细算，已使拉丁美洲成为猎头领域的最佳选择。拉丁美洲的大学提供从本科到博士学位的各种软件相关学位，尤其是在巴西，阿根廷和智利。

几十年来，软件行业一直在蓬勃发展，一旦在顶级公司和实验室中建立了自己的职业生涯的研究人员和工程师带回了他们的知识，网络和最佳实践，就滋养了当地人，就形成了适当的软件文化。公司和研究小组。

近年来，软件和工程生态系统出现了前所未有的发展。公共部门和私营部门都已在与软件相关的机构和项目上进行投资，尤其侧重于自动推理，神经科学和软件工程。

在该方程式中加上该地区的便捷汇率，得出的结论是，拉丁美洲已成为寻求专业技能的好地方。

巴西研发

仔细研究一下巴西，我们可以指出圣保罗研究基金会（FAPESP），这是一个公共基金会，其任务是支持高等教育和研究机构中的研究项目。

它在2017年的支出为10.58亿雷亚尔（约合2.83亿美元），其中38％的支出用于支持知识发展，5％的支出用于支持研究基础设施，57％的支出用于支持应用程序驱动的研究-在许多国家在小型企业中或在学术界和工业界共同努力下进行的案例。

他们现在将与IBM一起在圣保罗建立一个AI研究中心，该研究中心将获得2000万美元的投资，这些投资来自可能作为合作伙伴加入该计划的工业和学术组织。

不仅在诸如FAPESP-IBM之类的公共和私人合作场景中，而且在诸如巴西第二大银行Bradesco等大型企业的努力下，该地区的未来发展都是可以预期的。作为一家专注于千禧年的数字银行，Next希望通过投资人工智能来改善风险和信用分析，客户体验以及安全性。

Google于2005年在Belo Horizo​​nte落户，靠近UFMG（米纳斯吉拉斯州的联邦大学），这是世界上最负盛名的信息检索研究实验室之一。它背后的故事值得一讲：由Berthier Ribeiro-Neto领导的一组研究人员于1999年创建了一个名为“ TodoBr”的搜索引擎。随后，该团队成立了一家名为“ Akwan”的初创公司，以将TodoBr商业化。

多年来，阿克旺在没有外部资本的情况下幸存下来。一位Google高管见到了Berthier，并非常喜欢Akwan的建造和运营方式，以至于他说服Eric Sc​​hmidt认为，购买Akwan会比从头开始建设一个业务要好。七个月后，谷歌收购了Akwan，并任命了Berthier为Latam担任工程总监。

阿根廷的AI应用

在阿根廷，软件界在业界和学术界都在不断壮大。2015年，在这里举行了国际人工智能国际联合会议（IJCAI）；在2017年，国际软件工程大会轮到了。

那里设有几个关键实验室，例如布宜诺斯艾利斯大学（UBA）的软件工程基础和工具实验室（LaFHIS），研究人员正在研究软件工程的形式化方法，模型检查，静态和动态分析，和自动测试生成。

同样位于UBA的应用人工智能实验室（LIAA）是一个跨学科的环境，它结合了计算神经科学的不同方面，例如人类的复杂性和随机性感知，计算语言学，大文本语料库和源代码中的数据挖掘，交互式对话系统，语音识别和大脑信号的实时分析。

研究人员与Workia一起开发了Eva，后者是一家专门开发基于技术以管理人力资源的产品和服务的公司。Eva是一个虚拟的面试官，他可以通过机器学习和人工智能进行人员选拔面试。

通过虚拟面试，团队可以分析候选人的话语连贯性和七个技术能力，其中包括主动性和领导力。它可以用作第一个分析，是互补的，而且据报道，在十分之八的案例中，该算法正在评估专家面试官的能力。

智利与物联网

智利在物联网（IoT）的开发和采用方面表现出特别丰硕的成果。智利Satelnet公司一直在为其客户提供在该国南部偏远地区开展业务的机会，甚至可以在移动基地上访问在线信息。他们可以通过卫星技术查看和控制远程摄像机或自动运行任何生产过程。

客户可以立即访问从Magallanes浮船，养鱼场或船只中发现的设备收集的信息，以帮助决策。

Satelnet实施了一种解决方案，该解决方案通过传输可靠，结构合理的信息而不受物联网基础设施的影响，而不论其来源的距离和性质如何。几家公司已经跳上智利的物联网旅行车，将其用于自己的流程或为第三方开发解决方案-就像Satelnet，Fujitsu和其他公司一样。

我们可以预期该地区将继续推动软件产业向前发展。它具有研究，开发和采用。汇率使得拥有技能娴熟的资源与美国和海外公司开展业务变得有利可图。

拉丁美洲的资源技术娴熟，价格合理，并且对解决问题和创造力有着敏锐的眼光。这些合作机会成功的关键是沟通和理解。

沟通是关键

外包开始后，需要考虑几件事。首先，您将必须共享有关您的组织，企业文化，愿景，使命以及您对团队的期望的信息。安排会议-安排一些时间让本地团队和远程团队定期面对面聊天。

如果您位于美国，而您的远程团队位于拉坦，则时区应该不是问题。请记住，语言起初可能是一个障碍，由于文化差异，翻译可能会丢失一些内容，但是如果处理得当，随着时间的推移，这会大大改善。

注意可能针对您所在地区或文化的参考，惯用语甚至肢体语言。可能有些变性。您需要确保彼此了解并且在业务上都在同一页面上。

这样做的边际好处不是，您可能会被迫检查通信协议。您可能不仅要共享有关特定于业务的信息的文档，而且还希望共享有关您的流程的文档。

如果这是您第一次与远程团队合作，重要的是要有一种机制来跟踪您的目标，识别可能出现的障碍并明确说明任何特定主题。记录双方讨论和达成的共识非常重要，这样您就可以共享相关信息。否则可能会导致误会和机会浪费。

当某件事可能未得到很好的协调或沟通时，您可能会认为它执行得不好。密切关注这些事件可以帮助您改善整体业务流程，不仅在与远程团队合作时，还可以在本地。这将迫使您检查自己的愿景，目标，公司结构，文化和沟通能力。

当涉及到更普通的协作方面时，请确保双方都有足够的带宽以允许正确的视频和音频传输。如果您是按小时收费或记账，请找到最适合您需求的时间跟踪系统，并确保您的远程团队知道如何使用它。

只要您可以完善和改进您的流程并相互理解，那么开始就很慢。它将在中期得到回报。与您的本地和远程团队一起尝试采用尽可能透明的方法。毋庸置疑，您必须持开放态度。

尝试询问是否了解事情，以及您的机组人员是否可以识别或预见将来出现任何障碍或错过的机会。如果可能，请一起查看需求，数据字典，文档甚至代码。游戏不仅关乎开放性，而且关乎发展以业务为中心的批判性思维框架。

简而言之，请记住，专业人才是成功开展业务的关键，而沟通是成功外包的关键。

不要错过尝试将拉丁美洲资源纳入您的员工的机会。使它们成为管道的一部分。利用文化和知识交流的优势，提高关键领域的吞吐量，改善流程并扩展。

原文题目：Why You Should Source Foreign Talent for AI, IoT and ML

原文：The artificial intelligence revolution has been going on for a while, but that does not mean all of software research and development is part of it. It is, nonetheless, an interesting example of what pushes the software industry forward.

The ideas and techniques that brought machine learning into existence were developed over the span of several decades, gaining momentum in the 80s as a long-term endeavor that started in academia. Significant development occurred once the community started comparing its tools in competitions, and measuring performance and applicability.

Fast-forward to the late 90s, and the big software companies would start to develop techniques and infrastructure to gather, store and process huge amounts of data -- data that then could be used to train classification and search-based algorithms.

With the addition of deep neural networks, what was at some point a rudimentary set of academic tools turned into an industrial powerhouse. Targeted advertising, consumer behavior analysis, and many other areas benefited from this ecosystem. Data engineering started turning information into utilities.

The advent of cryptocurrency and blockchain followed a similar path. What started as academic work became an important milestone even well beyond the software industry. What is somehow contradictory is that we are now harvesting the bounty of automated reasoning and complex software systems in general, at the cost of hyperspecialization.

Technology needs supervision, and specialized technologies need specialized and highly skilled resources. There is no such thing as a free lunch. In an ever-changing, competitive market, the availability of human resources is key to the success, if not the proper operation, of your data-driven business.

Latin American Talent

The convergence of several factors, and the chiseling hand of time, have turned Latin America into a sweet spot when it comes to headhunting. Latin American universities offer a wide range of software related degrees, from undergraduate to doctoral, particularly in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

The software industry has been growing strong over the decades, and a proper software culture came into fruition once the researchers and engineers who had built their careers across top-level companies and laboratories brought back knowledge, networking and best practices with them, nourishing the local companies and research groups.

Unprecedented development has taken place in the software and engineering ecosystem in recent years. Both the public and the private sectors have been investing in software-related institutions and projects, with a particular focus on automated reasoning, neuroscience and software engineering.

Adding the region's convenient exchange rates to the equation leads to the conclusion that Latin America has become a good place to look for specialized skills.

R&D in Brazil

Taking a closer look at Brazil, we can point to the São Paulo Research Foundation, or FAPESP, which is a public foundation with the mission to support research projects in higher education and research institutions.

It has seen a disbursement in 2017 of R$1.058 billion (approximately US$283 million) with 38 percent of the disbursement going to supporting advancement of knowledge, 5 percent to supporting research infrastructure, and 57 percent to supporting application-driven research -- in many cases performed in small businesses or in a joint effort by academia and industry.

They are now about to launch an AI research center in São Paulo, together with IBM, that will receive $20 million in investment, coming from both industrial and academic organizations that may join the initiative as partners.

Future development in the area is to be expected, not only in public and private cooperation scenarios such as FAPESP-IBM, but also through the efforts of big players such as Bradesco, the second biggest bank in Brazil, which launched Next. A digital bank focused toward millenials, Next expects to improve risk and credit analysis, customer experience, and security by investing in artificial intelligence.

Google settled in Belo Horizonte back in 2005, close to UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais), one of the world's most prestigious research labs in information retrieval. The story behind it is worth telling: A group of researchers, led by Berthier Ribeiro-Neto, created a search engine in 1999 called "TodoBr." The team later founded a startup called "Akwan" to commercialize TodoBr.

For years, Akwan survived without external capital. A Google executive got to meet Berthier and liked the way Akwan was built and operated so much that he convinced Eric Schmidt that buying Akwan would be better than building an operation from scratch. Seven months later, Google acquired Akwan and made Berthier engineering director for Latam.

Applied AI in Argentina

In Argentina, the software community has been growing strong both in the industry and academia. In 2015, the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) was held there; in 2017, the International Conference on Software Engineering took its turn.

Several key laboratories are located there, such as the Laboratory on Foundations and Tools for Software Engineering (LaFHIS) from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), where researchers are working on formal methods for software engineering, model checking, static and dynamic analysis, and automated tests generation.

The Applied Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (LIAA), also at UBA, is an interdisciplinary environment, which combines different aspects from computational neuroscience -- such as complexity and randomness perception in humans, computational linguistics, data mining in big text corpus and source code, interactive dialogue systems, speech recognition, and real-time analysis of brain signals.

The researchers developed Eva alongside Workia, a company that specializes in developing products and services based on technology for the management of human resources. Eva is a virtual interviewer who, through machine learning and artificial intelligence, can carry out personnel selection interviews.

The virtual interview allows the team to analyze the discursive coherence of a candidate and seven technical competences, among them proactivity and leadership. It can be used as a first analysis, it is complementary, and it has been reported that in eight out of 10 cases, the algorithm is evaluating competencies as an expert interviewer.

Chile and the IoT

Chile has shown to be particularly fruitful in the development and adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT). The Chilean company Satelnet has been making it possible for its clients to run operations in remote locations in the south of the country, and to access online information even on mobile bases. They can view and control remote cameras or run any production process automatically through satellite technology.

Customers can have immediate access to the information that is being gathered from the equipment found in in Magallanes pontoons, fish farms, or boats, in order to aid decision-making.

Satelnet implemented a solution that benefits from the IoT infrastructure by transferring reliable, well-structured information, regardless of the distance and nature of its source. Several companies have been hopping onto the IoT wagon in Chile, implementing it for their own processes or developing solutions for third parties -- as is the case with Satelnet, Fujitsu and others.

We can expect the region to keep pushing the software industry forward. It has the research, the development and the adoption. The exchange rate makes it profitable for highly skilled resources to initiate business with companies in the U.S. and overseas.

Latin-American resources are highly skilled, affordable, and tend to have a keen eye for problem solving and creativity. Key to the success of these collaboration opportunities is communication and understanding.

Communication Is Key

Once outsourcing begins, there are several things to take into account. First, you will have to share information about your organization, your corporate culture, your vision, your mission, and what you expect from your team. Plan your meetings -- try to find some time for your local and your remote teams to chat face-to-face on a regular basis.

If you are located in the U.S. and your remote team is in Latam, the time zone should not be an issue. Remember that language can be a barrier at first, that some things may be lost in translation and due to cultural differences, but with a good disposition this will improve greatly over time.

Pay attention to references, idioms, and even body language that could be specific to your region or culture. Some denaturalization may be in order. You need to make sure that you both understand each other and are on the same page when it comes to business.

The not-so-marginal benefit of this is that you may be forced to review your communication protocol. You may want to share documentation not only about the business-specific information, but also about your processes.

If this is your first time with a remote team, it is important to have a mechanism to keep track of your goals, identify any obstacles that may arise, and allow clarification of any particular topic. It is essential to keep a record of what has been discussed and agreed upon on each side, so that you then can share relevant information. Failing to do so can lead to misunderstandings and wasted opportunities.

You may be tempted to think that something was poorly executed when it may have been poorly coordinated or communicated. Keeping an eye on those incidents can help you improve your overall business processes, not only when working with a remote team, but also locally. It will force you to review your vision, your goals, your corporate structure, culture and communication capabilities.

When it comes to the more mundane aspects of collaboration, make sure that you have enough bandwidth on both sides to allow for proper video and audio transmission. If you are being charged or are bookkeeping on a per-hour basis, find the time-tracking system that best suits your needs, and make sure that your remote team knows how to use it.

It is not a big deal to have a slow start, as long as you can refine and improve your processes and understanding of each other. It will pay off in the midterm. Try to have an approach that is as transparent as possible, both with your local and remote teams. It goes without saying that you must be open to questions.

Try to ask if things are understood and if your crew can identify or foresee any obstacle or missed opportunity in the future. Review the requirements, data dictionaries, documentation and even code together, if possible. The game is not only about being open, but also about developing a critical and business-focused frame of thought.

In a nutshell, keep in mind that specialized manpower is key to running a successful business, and communication is key to outsourcing successfully.

Do not miss the opportunity to try and incorporate Latin American resources into your staff. Make them part of the pipeline. Take advantage of the cultural and knowledge exchange, increase your throughput in critical domains, improve your processes, and expand.

原文作者：Mariano Cerrutti

原文地址：https://www.technewsworld.com/story/85869.html

翻译人：田冠宇