The morning session at Thursday’s Washington Innovation Summit focused on “big data.” It began with a keynote by Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith – a rousing call for greater focus on computer science education. UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska then introduced the “big data” topic. Lazowska then emceed a panel with Christian Chabot (CEO, Tableau Software), Mike Fridgen (CEO, UW CSE startup Decide.com), Cameron Myhrvold (Founding Partner, Ignition Partners), and UW CSE alum Ruben Ortega (Engineering Director, Google). This was followed by short presentations by UW CSE professor Shwetak Patel (on the smart home), PNNL’s Carl Imhoff (on the smart grid), and Sage Bionetworks’ Mike Kellen (on smart discovery), and a Q&A session moderated by Lazowska. Isilon’s Bill Richter then introduced the Information Technology Coalition.
Washington Governor-elect Jay Inslee and President of the Washington DC – based Information Technology & Innovation Foundation Rob Atkinson provided luncheon keynotes. A panel discussion on regional competitiveness was followed by a panel discussion on education and workforce issues featuring UW CSE Chair Hank Levy and UW CSE alum (and UW Regent) Jeremy Jaech.
“Online price changes are driven by software that enables retailers to react to competitors in real time and make personalized pitches to consumers based on their browsing and purchase histories. Complex algorithms calculate factors such as inventory levels, how many sellers are carrying a product, how long it’s been on the market and when a new model is expected …
“The good news is that consumers have a growing number of weapons in their digital arsenal …
“Decide, the cutting-edge site founded last year by [UW CSE professor Oren] Etzioni, helps cost-conscious consumers make sense of price changes using the same data-driven analytics that retailers use to predict consumer behavior. The site analyzes millions of reviews, blogs, articles, news releases and pricing trends, then recommends whether to buy or wait …
“‘Often consumers are the target of big data and of data mining, and what we’re doing is we’re leveling the playing field,’ Etzioni said. ‘We’re trying to make data be your friend rather than a weapon that’s used against you.'”
Tom Daniel – UW professor of Biology and of Computer Science & Engineering, and Director of UW’s NSF Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE), has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Tom joins CSE’s Susan Eggers and Ed Lazowska as AAAS Fellows.
UW CSE Ph.D. alum Wen-Hann Wang and UW CSE professor David Wetherall have been named to the 2013 class of Fellows of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Wen-Hann, Vice President of Intel’s Software and Solutions Group, was recognized “for contributions to multi-level cache hierarchy and multiprocessor systems.”
David, an expert in computer networking, was recognized “for contributions to the design of flexible, robust, and secure networks.”
David Pogue’s PBS NOVA Science NOW featured the work of UW CSE Ph.D. alum Adrien Treuille – now a faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University – as the final segment of the episode “What Will the Future Be Like?”
Watch this terrific 12-minute PBS NOVA Science NOW segment!
There’s lot of other great Computer Science content in the full 52-minute show – watch the entire show here.
(Last month, UW CSE professor Yoshi Kohn and his students were featured by Pogue – information here. Work on Foldit – the topic of Pogue’s interview with Adrien Treuille, continues in UW CSE’s Center for Game Science; the Director of the Center for Game Science, Seth Cooper, won the 2011 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award for work related to Foldit.) Read more →
“Every Black Friday, retailers lure shoppers in the cold, predawn hours to wait in long lines with the promise of one-day-only deals that can’t be beat. And every year, shoppers ask themselves, Is this really worth it?’
“The answer, it turns out, often is, ‘No.’
“An analysis by pricing research firm Decide Inc. and The Wall Street Journal of this year’s most-touted Black Friday deals found that many of the bargains advertised as ‘doorbusters’ were available at lower prices at other times of the year—sometimes even at the same retailer.”
Jeannette Wing – head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University and former Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation for Computer and Information Science and Engineering – will move to Seattle on January 1 as Microsoft’s Vice President and Head of Microsoft Research International, reporting to Chief Research Officer Rick Rashid.
Congratulations to MSR, and warm welcome to Jeannette!
In 2010, with leadership from Congressman Vernon Ehlers and Congressman Jared Polis, the US House of Representatives endorsed the week of Grace Hopper’s birthday (December 9, 1906) as Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) to recognize the critical role of computing in today’s society and the imperative to bolster computer science education at all levels. UW CSE is an active participant!
Join us for an Open House on Saturday December 8 from 1:00-3:30. Participate in hands-on activities and research lab visits to find out what computer science is all about! UW Computer Science & Engineering students, faculty and academic advisors along with representatives from local technology companies will introduce you to the broad range of problems computer science can address. (250 students are already registered as of today!)
Participate in the UW/TEALS Programming Competition on Saturday December 15 from 8:30-2:30. Can you code? Do you want to build up your programming skills? Come discover the fun of speed and accuracy programming by competing! Students compete in teams of 1-3 members. Each team brings 1 computer (1 mouse, 1 monitor, 1 keyboard max) with the team’s choice of development tools (IDE/compiler/programming language) already installed. Students get three hours to complete as many of the supplied programming problems as they can. In the mean time, teachers will have their monthly CSTA meeting.
On Tuesday, Stanford economist Susan Athey delivered the third UW CSE Distinguished Lecture of the year, “Game Theory Meets Machine Learning: Designing Auction-Based Markets for Online Advertising,” co-sponsored with the Department of Economics.
Previous talks in this year’s CSE Distinguished Lecture Series: Maria Klawe (President of Harvey Mudd College) and Brad Smith (Microsoft General Counsel and Executive Vice President).
Next talk in the series: MIT professor Regina Barzilay, January 8.
Information on the talk, and video archive, here. Bruce Hemingway photographs of the event here. Read more →
The morning session at Thursday’s Washington Innovation Summit focused on “big data.” It began with a keynote by Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith – a rousing call for greater focus on computer science education. UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska then introduced the “big data” topic. Lazowska then emceed a panel with Christian Chabot (CEO, Tableau Software), Mike Fridgen (CEO, UW CSE startup Decide.com), Cameron Myhrvold (Founding Partner, Ignition Partners), and UW CSE alum Ruben Ortega (Engineering Director, Google). This was followed by short presentations by UW CSE professor Shwetak Patel (on the smart home), PNNL’s Carl Imhoff (on the smart grid), and Sage Bionetworks’ Mike Kellen (on smart discovery), and a Q&A session moderated by Lazowska. Isilon’s Bill Richter then introduced the Information Technology Coalition.
