“The human hand is capable of more delicate movement than comparable organs of any other animal. It can wield a tool or weapon as easily as it can make a subtle gesture. So when a human loses her hand, she’s lost a remarkable implement. Yoky Matsuoka wants to ensure a loss like that isn’t permanent. She runs the Neurobotics Lab at the University of Washington. That’s where she and her staff build robots that function like hands and other human body parts. Jeannie Yandel takes a tour of the lab.”
Featured on the KUOW show Sound Focus on November 12, 2008 (originally broadcast January 15, 2008). Read about it and listen to the show here, or listen to the nine-minute segment below.
[audio:sf20081112.mp3]
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“‘The overall picture for computer science is that both nationally and within the state of Washington, it’s projected as the fastest growing professional occupation between now and 2016,’ wrote Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at UW. ‘With that said, employment is always cyclic …
“‘Major in something you love, and take it seriously,’ Lazowska said. ‘Ten or 15 years down the road, your success will be due to things that the philosophy department teaches just as well as Computer Science & Engineering does: analysis, critical thinking, conflict resolution. If you’re an undergraduate at [UW] for vocational reasons, you’re not taking advantage of what [this] university has to offer …'”
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“As more of our casual lives are spent online, we need to find a middle ground on security and privacy. Not every transaction and gateway needs the digital equivalent of a scowling paramilitary guard demanding to see our papers. Yet most of us aren’t comfortable letting it all hang out online.
“That’s why I’m intrigued by an easy-access control system called Friendbo, which is being developed by a group of students and professors at the University of Washington.
“It started in early 2007 as a classroom research project by Michael Toomim, a mustachioed 28-year-old Ph.D. candidate from Oakland, Calif. Professors saw potential and helped arrange a $50,000 grant from the UW’s tech transfer program. Now Friendbo‘s a company with patents pending that may release its first application, for Facebook, in a few weeks.”
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