Allen School News

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 →

UW CSE’s Shwetak Patel is developing a system to make it easier for individuals and companies monitor “home” activity by using strategically placed sensors on air, water, gas, and electrical infrastructure.  Patel expects his approach, which he calls infrastructure-mediated sensing (IMS), to be more cost effective and less labor intensive than other activity-sensing platforms.

“IMS uses a single sensor in a strategic place to measure pressure signals in air vents and waterlines as well as electrical signals in power lines.  Machine-learning technologies correlate physical events such as turning on a light, flushing a toilet, or opening a door with different signals.  According to Patel, the primary goal of IMS is to reduce the economic, aesthetic, installation, and maintenance barriers to home monitoring by reducing the cost and complexity of deploying and maintaining and activity-sensing infrastructure.  Patel said that in large volumes the water, pressure, and power sensors will cost as little as $50 each.”

Read the Computing Now article here. Read more →

University Week reports on the work of UW CSE’s Shwetak Patel.

“Most of the technology that will be installed as part of the UW smart grid demonstration project is commercially available. But UW engineers developing the next generation of smart-grid technologies will use data from the pilot project to advance their research.

“UW CSE’s Shwetak Patel is developing easily installed devices that measure consumption in real time down to the level of a single outlet. The device uses electrical noise to measure how much power is being used by everything from your coffee maker to your TiVo.  A growing number of gadgets can measure electricity consumption. What is unique about Patel’s system is it consists of a single, low-cost device that can be stuck on the outside of a residential fuse box and record electrical activity throughout the home — no electrician required. ”

Read the complete UWeek article here.  Read more about the research here. Read more →

Kiplinger ranks the top values in public education.  The University of Washington is #7.   Read all about it here. Read more →

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UW CSE’s winter recruiting fair is a madhouse!  More photographs here.  See previous post here. Read more →

Brett Allen

UW CSE Ph.D. alumni Brett Allen and Per Christensen each have been selected to receive Scientific and Technical Academy Awards (“Oscars”) from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Brett (Ph.D. 2005, advised by Brian Curless and Zoran Popovic) was part of a four-man team at San Francisco’s Industrial Light & Magic that won for the development of the Imocap, a way for capturing actors’ movements to create realistic computer-animated characters.  Imocap uses sensor-studded suits and custom software to allow performance capture on movie sets, rather than in motion-capture studios.  The system generated Davy Jones and other human-crustacean hybrids in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”

Per (Ph.D. 1995, advised by David Salesin Tony DeRose), of Pixar’s Seattle office, is one of two people honored for developing a faster and more realistic way to create shading for complex scenes.  The technique is incorporated in Pixar’s RenderMan software, used in dozens of movies ranging from Terminator II to WALL-E.  (UW CSE alumnus Loren Carpenter received an Oscar in 1992 for the original development of RenderMan.)

Per Christensen

Current UW CSE graphics, imaging, and animation research is described here.  TechFlash post here. Read more →