Allen School News

Faculty members Stuart Reges and Hélène Martin and students Chris Dentel, Maia Szafer, and Melissa Winstanley are featured in this months UW University Honors Program Departmental Honors Spotlight.

Stuart:  “Students are pleasantly surprised to find that computer science thinking can provide deep insights into mathematics, philosophy, language, culture, literature, and understanding the human condition.”

Hélène:  “We’ve put a lot of work into making our introductory courses both intellectually satisfying and approachable to students of all kinds of different backgrounds. We believe the big ideas they present and the skills they build are great additions to any honor student’s education.”

Chris:  “Even more important is to be able to understand how your field can be used in other emerging and expanding disciplines. The honors section for CSE 143 introduced this to me, and I believe that anyone from any background would enjoy and thrive in this class.”

Maia:  “By teaching students to ask strategic question and reason through the implications of solutions, [computer science] becomes the vehicle through which they develop as critical thinkers and learn to solve problems in a variety of different contexts.”

Melissa:  “The community of peers and teachers that I became a part of beginning in the introductory Honors programming course has been and continues to be instrumental in making my experience at UW fun and exciting.”

Read it here. Read more →

BusinessWeek reports on how research by a team led by UW Computer Science & Engineering professor Yoshi Kohno and UC San Diego professor (and UW CSE alum) Stefan Savage has led engineers at the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) to launch a project to harden automotive command and control systems. The research has shown that it’s possible to compromise critical automotive systems such as braking and engine functions without physical access to the vehicle.

Two paths towards such control are the Bluetooth wireless network used for hands-free use of a mobile phone, and via the telematics systems such as OnStar and (F) SYNC. Attacks via Bluetooth require close proximity to the vehicle, but attacks via telematics systems, which are based on the public switched telephone system and linked cellular mobile phone system, can be executed from anywhere in the world. The Kohno/Savage team has demonstrated that vulnerability by unlocking and starting a standard vehicle from half a continent away.

The SAE project will develop new standards to prevent such attacks, but security is a process, not a product, and the process will be ongoing.

The full text of the article in BusinessWeek is here. We’ve previously reported on the automotive security research here and here. Read more →

Listen to Isilon co-founder Sujal Patel’s remarks at WTIA’s TechNW event today.  A wonderful three-minute vision of our region’s tech future, including a (much appreciated!) shout-out to UW CSE.  GeekWire post and video here.

(Isilon will dedicate a dramatically expanded new facility in Pioneer Square on October 19. ) Read more →

Bus riders in the greater Seattle area rely on OneBusAway, using it more than 50,000 times a week.  OneBusAway was created by UW CSE Ph.D. student Brian Ferris, who graduated this past summer and now works for Google in Zurich.  Ferris built and ran One Bus Away, a collection of phone apps that inform riders when buses are expected to arrive at their stop, using data shared by transit agencies.

UW CSE has continued to run the system since Brian’s graduation.  However, earlier this month, King County Metro did a major restructuring of its network that caused glitches to OneBusAway.  Since it wasn’t clear which agency would pick up the tab for these changes, Brian updated the system himself.

Read Brier Dudley’s post here.

QUICK UPDATE:  On October 12th, the Puget Sound transit agencies announced that an agreement had been reached to keep OneBusAway running. Read more →

Joe Tucci, Chairman and CEO of EMC, will deliver the keynote address at the UW CSE Industrial Affiliates Meeting, at 2:45 p.m. on October 19 in the Microsoft Atrium of the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering.  The talk, part of the UW CSE Distinguished Lecturer Series, is open to the public.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Tucci will dedicate a new Pioneer Square facility for Isilon, a Seattle company co-founded by Sujal Patel and UW CSE alumnus Paul Mikesell that was acquired by EMC in January for $2.4 billion.  The new facility will allow Isilon to more than double its Seattle workforce.

Cloud + Big Data = Massive Change, Massive Opportunity
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
2:45pm, Microsoft Atrium, Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering

The event will be webcast live, and web archived.  Additional information here.

Abstract

Cloud computing is transforming IT, unleashing a wave of disruption in infrastructure, applications and end-user devices unlike anything the industry has experienced before. Ultimately, this disruptive change will enable organizations to deliver IT as a service, dramatically improving efficiency and agility.

At the same time, Big Data is transforming business, government services and research. Data volumes are expected to grow 44 fold over the course of this decade. Locked inside are valuable nuggets of information about the next big innovation, market opportunity or medical miracle.

EMC Chairman & CEO Joe Tucci will outline how organizations are accelerating their journey to cloud computing while adopting ground breaking tools and technologies that are helping to unlock the value of Big Data.

  Read more →

Bill Gates III will deliver the UW Computer Science & Engineering Distinguished Lecture at 3:30 p.m. on October 27 in the Microsoft Atrium of the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering:

The Opportunity Ahead:  A Conversation with Bill Gates
Thursday, October 27, 2011
3:30pm, Microsoft Atrium, Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering
Reception to follow

Although space is limited, the event will be webcast live, and web archived.  Additional information here.

Abstract

Advances in both the quantitative and qualitative aspects of computing offer remarkable opportunities for contributions in every sphere.  Coupled with advances in natural user interfaces and pervasive computing, the next decade could see significant breakthroughs that improve our world, particularly for the poorest two billion people on earth. Read more →

Asa Shinn Mercer, UW's first president

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the University of Washington, established as the Territorial University of Washington in 1861, only 10 years after Seattle was settled and 18 years before Washington became a state.

UW’s founder and first president, Asa Shinn Mercer, blazed the trail for a proud record of UW entrepreneurship and public service (not to mention hair style):  he left his post after only two years, heading east to Massachusetts in 1863 and again in 1865 to recruit more than 100 young women – “The Mercer Girls” – to move to Seattle, funded by donations from eager men.  In recognition of this contribution to civic life, he was elected to the Territorial Legislature.

Learn more here. Read more →

A team of researchers from UW CSE, the UW Center for Communication & Civic Engagement, and Seattle CityClub has launched an improved and expanded version of the Living Voters Guide for the November 2011 election in Washington State. Its purpose is to bring together Washington voters to discuss and explore their positions on both statewide and local ballot measures for 2011. Unlike traditional voters’ guides issued by governments, advocacy groups, and other organizations, it is co-created solely by its participants. It will evolve continuously throughout the election season as Washingtonians from across the state consider the tradeoffs for each measure.

The Living Voters Guide is part of an NSF-sponsored project to investigate socio-computational systems to support public engagement and deliberation.

Check it out here. Read more →

The new Times Higher Education Rankings are out.  UW is ranked 25th in the world, 5th among US public institutions.  (All these rankings are bogus.  We report the good ones and ignore the bad ones.)  Read all about it here. Read more →

The autumn issue of Trend in Engineering – the UW College of Engineering alumni magazine – features multiple CSE stories:

• The NSF Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering, directed by CSE’s Yoky Matsuoka (cover story).
• UW’s 14th MacArthur “Genius” Award winner, CSE’s and EE’s Shwetak Patel.
• Research on wireless heart pumps, by CSE’s and EE’s Josh Smith.
• New members of the Washington State Academy of Sciences, including CSE’s Hank Levy.
• A new Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow, CSE’s and EE’s Shwetak Patel.
• The new Intel Science and Technology Center in Pervasive Computing, led by CSE’s Dieter Fox.