Allen School News

UW CSE will host a half-day Xconomy forum on March 29th.  Titled “What’s Your Breakthrough Idea?,” the event will feature Lee Hood, Nathan Myhrvold, and UW CSE’s Steve Seitz and Dan Weld, among others.  Read all about it here. Read more →

UW CSE’s Dave Bacon has the cover article in this month’s Communications of the ACM.

“It is impossible to imagine today’s technological world without algorithms: sorting, searching, calculating, and simulating are being used everywhere to make our everyday lives better. But what are the benefits of the more philosophical endeavor of studying the notion of an algorithm through the perspective of the physical laws of the universe? This simple idea, that we desire an understanding of the algorithm based upon physics seems, upon first reflection, to be nothing more than mere plumbing in the basement of computer science. That is, until one realizes that the pipes of the universe do not seem to behave like the standard components out of which we build a computer, but instead obey the counterintuitive laws of quantum theory. And, even more astoundingly, when one puts these quantum parts together, one gets a notion of the algorithm—the quantum algorithm—whose computational power appears to be fundamentally more efficient at carrying out certain tasks than algorithms written for today’s, nonquantum, computers. Could this possibly be true: that there is a more fundamental notion of algorithmic efficiency for computers built from quantum components? And, if this is true, what exactly is the power of these quantum algorithms?”

Read the full article here.  Read Dave’s Quantum Pontiff blog here. Read more →

Five months ago, Peter Lee took a leave of absence as Head of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University to begin a stint at DARPA as the Director of the new Transformational Convergence Technology Office (DARPA/TCTO).  TCTO is re-establishing basic research programs in a broad range of rapidly emerging computing-enabled technology areas such as social media, synthetic biology, high-performance computing, and networking, as well as employing a diverse range of innovation strategies including broad community programs, competitions/challenges, and crowd sourcing.

Peter spoke on DARPA and TCTO at the University of Washington on February 2.  The talk is inspiring and informative.  Watch the streaming video here. Read more →

A New York Times article describes a new initiative by Microsoft and the National Science Foundation to assist scientists in utilizing cloud services to manage and analyze the tsunami of data that characterizes modern sensor-based science.

UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska is quoted in the article:   “Simplicity of use is one Microsoft goal.  So far, programming modern cloud systems for full efficiency has been difficult.  The company is trying to overcome this difficulty in creating a variety of software tools for scientists, said Ed Lazowska, a University of Washington computer scientist who works closely with the Microsoft researchers.  Dr. Lazowska said the explosion of data being collected by scientists had transformed the needs of the typical scientific research program …”

New York Times article here.  NSF announcement here.  Blog post by Microsoft’s Dan Reed here.  UW eScience Institute here. Read more →

UW CSE Ph.D. student Jon Froehlich was one of five students profiled in the University of Washington’s “Report to Contributors.”  Jon, who works with UW CSE professors James Landay and Shwetak Patel on HCI problems related to environmental concerns, is the recipient of a Microsoft Research Graduate Fellowship.

Read Jon’s profile here.  The full “Report to Contributors” is here. Read more →

Today Google announced a new program of “Focused Research Awards” in four key areas of computer science.

Among the awards was a $1.5 million commitment to UW CSE professor Gaetano Borriello for his work  involving the use of mobile phones as data collection devices for public health and environment monitoring.

In a separate initiative, Google has committed $1 million to support computer vision and computer graphics research in the UW CSE Graphics and Imaging Laboratory, led by Professors Steve Seitz, Brian Curless, and Zoran Popovic.

Borriello spent a sabbatical year at Google’s Seattle office with three of his graduate students developing Open Data Kit (ODK), an open-source modular data collection toolkit targeting the advanced features of Android phones. ODK has already been deployed on four continents and is proving to be a versatile tool for community health workers and forest services.  Jane Goodall is an ODK advocate — see “Speaking for the Forests” here.

UW CSE’s Graphics and Imaging Laboratory focuses on very large scale 3D modeling and rendering from photos, interactive simulations and games, and realistic computer animation.

Many top technology companies provide research support to UW CSE.  In the past three years, for example, Microsoft has provided more than $5 million in research support to the University of Washington, the majority to CSE.  Intel Labs Seattle is another extremely strong research partner.  These partnerships are essential to our success as a top program in the field.

See a New York Times blog post on the Google Focused Research Awards initiative here.  See an Xconomy post here.  See a Seattle Times article here.  See a TechFlash post here. Read more →

A New York Times feature on sensor-based computing, featuring extensive commentary by UW CSE affiliate professor and Intel Labs Seattle engineer Josh Smith, as well as UW CSE collaborator and UCLA professor Deborah Estrin.

“… technology’s virtuous cycle of smaller, faster and cheaper has reached the point that experts say sensors may soon be powerful enough to be the equivalent of tiny computers. Some ambitious sensor research projects provide a glimpse of where things are headed …

“Microchip-equipped sensors can be designed to monitor and measure not only motion, but also temperature, chemical contamination or biological changes. The applications for sensor-based computing, experts say, include buildings that manage their own energy use, bridges that sense motion and metal fatigue to tell engineers they need repairs, cars that track traffic patterns and report potholes, and fruit and vegetable shipments that tell grocers when they ripen and begin to spoil …

“Power consumption has long been the Achilles’ heel of sensor-based computing … But the power barrier, [Josh] Smith says, is rapidly eroding. Advances in sensor chips are delivering predictable, rapid progress in the amount of data processing that can be done per unit of energy. That, he said, expands the potential data workloads that sensors can handle and the distance over which they can communicate — without batteries.

“At Intel, Mr. Smith is doing sensor research that builds on commercial RFID technology (for remote identification) and adds an accelerometer and a programmable chip — in a package measured in millimeters. Its power, he explains, can come from either a radio-frequency reader, as in RFID, or the ambient radio power from television, FM radio and WiFi networks. (For the latter, Intel is developing ‘power-harvesting circuits,’ he adds.)”

Read the full article here. Read more →

“If you missed the Robotics Industry Forum presentation by UW CSE’s Dieter Fox (and Director of Intel Labs Seattle) last week, you missed what may have been the most humorous and provocative session of the week.  He predicts that low-cost sensors will be commercially available in 2010 that will enable affordable robots that can operate in unstructured environments like your home and safely share space with humans.”

Fox also talked about the trend of algorithms replacing mechanics in robotics.

Read the complete Robotics Online post here. Read more →

Tapan Parikh

Loren Carpenter

The “Diamond Awards” recognize outstanding University of Washington College of Engineering alumni in five categories.

This year, UW CSE M.S. alumnus Loren Carpenter was recognized in the “Entrepreneurial Excellence” category.  Anyone delighted by animated films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Cars, or amazed, thrilled, or fascinated by Jurassic Park, Titanic, and The Matrix, can thank Loren Carpenter. This internationally recognized pioneer in computer graphics has exerted game-changing impact on the entire film industry and other digital media.

Also this year, UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus Tapan Parikh was recognized in the “Early Career” category.  Tapan Parikh is transforming the world’s poorest areas by harnessing and translating technology. Since his UW graduate school days, Parikh has worked in both rural India and Guatemala to address problems that hinder the open market. Working collaboratively with communities, he designs, evaluates, and deploys appropriate information systems that support sustainable economic development.

Read more about Loren, Tapan, and the other Diamond Award recipients here.  The 2010 Diamond Awards will be presented at a ceremony on May 7. Read more →

This month, KING-TV is spotlighting some extraordinary Northwest mentors making a real difference in the community.  Evening Magazine profiles UW CSE’s Yoky Matsuoka.

Read more →