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Ten years of CRA “Outstanding Undergraduate” awards

This spreadsheet from the University of Virginia tallies ten years of Computing Research Association “Outstanding Undergraduate” awards. In a nutshell:

  • Total students recognized: UW #1, tied with CMU
  • Number of winners: UW #1, tied with CMU, Dartmouth, Cornell, and Princeton
  • Number of runners up: UW #1, tied with CMU and Harvard
  • Number of finalists: UW #2, behind CMU and tied with Harvard
  • Number of honorable mentions: UW #2, behind UVa

Go team!

See an excellent blog post by CMU Computer Science Department chair Peter Lee here. Read more →

“‘Dinosaur’ computer stalls Seattle schools’ plans” (Seattle Times)

Read the article here.

“An aging computer – so old that the University of Washington has an early model on display as a museum piece – stands between the Seattle School Board and the changes it wants to make in how the district assigns students to schools …

“The VAX was first sold in 1979, and early models were about as big as two refrigerators. Hank Levy, chairman of the UW’s computer-science and engineering department, was part of the team that designed its operating system. The VAX on display in the lobby of the department’s Paul G. Allen Center was an early model that Levy said at one time ‘ran our entire department …’

“‘It was a great system for its day, but its day is long past,’ Levy said … Although it’s hard to compare computing power of different systems, he also said that, in rough terms, even the later-model VAXes have only about 1/20th the power of an iPhone.” Read more →

“Academic Cluster Computing Initiative” (YouTube video)

Read the article here.

A terrific Google video describing the Academic Cluster Computing Initiative launched by Google, IBM, and NSF based on work done by Google and UW Computer Science & Engineering. UW CSE alumnus and Google engineer Christophe Bisciglia is featured, along with various UW CSE faculty and students. Read more →

UW RFID research on KIRO TV 7

Magda Balazinska and Evan Welbourne are interviewed in this KIRO TV 7 report on RFID and privacy.

Article here. Read more →

DUB dominates CHI (University Week)

Read the article here.

“Members of the UW’s Design:Use:Build (DUB) Center for Human-Computer Interaction and Design swept the top conference in their field, which explores the interface between human and machine. UW researchers nabbed three out of seven Best Paper Awards selected from more than 700 submissions to this April’s CHI 2008 meeting. Not only that – they had 16 papers accepted, more than any other university.” Read more →

“CRA A. Nico Habermann Award 2008 presented to Richard E. Ladner”

Read the article here.

This award honors the late A. Nico Habermann, who headed NSF’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate and who was deeply committed to increasing the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in computing research. Ladner, Boeing Professor of Computer Science & Engineering at UW, is recognized for his lifelong, strong and persistent advocacy on behalf of people with disabilities in the computing community. Read more →

“Recap of what was cool, not so cool in tech world in 2007” (Seattle Times)

Read the article here.

“With New Year’s Eve a week away, our thoughts turn to bubbles and the year that was … We asked a panel of technology party guests to review a list of 25 events, trends and products that made the scene in 2007 and rate them on a scale of ‘forget about it’ (1) to ‘game-changer’ (5) …”

UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska is quoted throughout. Read more →

“Google and the Wisdom of Clouds” (Business Week)

Read the article here.

UW CSE alumnus Christophe Bisciglia is profiled in a Business Week cover story.

“What recruits needed, Bisciglia eventually decided, was advanced training. So one autumn day a year ago, when he ran into Google CEO Eric E. Schmidt between meetings, he floated an idea. He would use his 20% time, the allotment Googlers have for independent projects, to launch a course. It would introduce students at his alma mater, the University of Washington, to programming at the scale of a cloud. Call it Google 101. Schmidt liked the plan. Over the following months, Bisciglia’s Google 101 would evolve and grow. It would eventually lead to an ambitious partnership with IBM, announced in October, to plug universities around the world into Google-like computing clouds …

“How was Bisciglia going to give students access to this machine? The easiest option would have been to plug his class directly into the Google computer. But the company wasn’t about to let students loose in a machine loaded with proprietary software, brimming with personal data, and running a $10.6 billion business. So Bisciglia shopped for an affordable cluster of 40 computers. He placed the order, then set about figuring out how to pay for the servers. While the vendor was wiring the computers together, Bisciglia alerted a couple of Google managers that a bill was coming. Then he ‘kind of sent the expense report up the chain, and no one said no.’ … (“If you’re interested in someone who strictly follows the rules, Christophe’s not your guy,’ says Lazowska.”

MSNBC
Seattle Times

Don’t miss the BusinessWeek / CHINA cover! Read more →

“Stefan Saroiu, Phisher King”

Read the article here.

UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus Stefan Saroiu, a faculty member in computer science at the University of Toronto, is one of three young faculty members featured on the University of Toronto home page.

“We all know now that the 20th century’s most influential innovation – electronic communications by way of your computer – has given rise to a whole new breed of criminals. They are the computer hackers who find nefarious ways to use information technology to rob you. Thankfully,computer scientists like Stefan Saroiu are preparing to do battle with these IT pickpockets.”

Click the home page image to read the article, or go directly here. Read more →

“CU sells campus bathroom’s naming rights for $25K” (Boulder Daily Camera)

Read the article here.

UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus John Bennett, Director of the University of Colorado’s Alliance for Technology, Learning and Society (ATLAS) Institute, sells naming rights to a bathroom in the ATLAS building for $25K. Why didn’t we think of that???

Don’t miss the video! Read more →

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