William Johnson
Mark Bun
Each year the University of Washington recognizes the top student (of roughly 7,000) in the previous year’s Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior classes as class Medalists.
This year, in a double-header, CSE’s Mark Bun has been named the University of Washington Sophomore Medalist, and CSE’s William Johnson has been named the University of Washington Junior Medalist.
In the past decade, 12 CSE students have been recognized as University of Washington Medalists — an extraordinary record.
Read the University Week article here. Read more →
The UW Daily reports on the impact of stereotypes of the field. “Junior Emma Lynch and senior Justine Sherry … feel that people should not be turned away from the major by inaccurate stereotypes.” Read the article here. Read about the true nature of the field here. Read more →
Barbie has had over 120 careers! What do you think her next job should be? Vote for your favorite, then check back to find out what Barbie will be next.
- Environmentalist
- Surgeon
- Architect
- News Anchor
- Computer Engineer
Get out the vote! http://www.barbie.com/vote/ Read more →
OneBusAway, designed by UW CSE graduate student Brian Ferris with the goal of making public transit more usable, has been named one of three finalists in the “Government, Non-profit or Educational Sector” category of the 2010 Washington Technology Industry Association Industry Achievement Awards. The winner will be announced at the WTIA IAA awards event on March 4. Read more →
Unfortunately, his mug is all you can get without a premium subscription. The article is “New Search Challenges and Opportunities.” Read more →
Using a computer mouse can be extremely challenging if not downright impossible for those with severe mobility impairment. a keyboard’s functionality can easily be augmented or replaced by switch interfaces, speech recognition software, and mouse-driven on-screen keyboards. In contrast, a mouse is difficult to fully and naturally emulate. This can be a killer when it comes to gaming.
Enter the Vocal Joystick: a revolutionary piece of software being developed at the University of Washington, led by UW CSE’s adjunct professor (and EE professor) Jeff Bilmes, and including research with UW CSE’s professor James Landay and grad student Susumu Harada.
“Where traditional voice recognition software hinges upon recognizing discrete words and commands, Vocal Joystick directly translates vowel sounds into cursor movement. Unlike normal speech, vowel sounds (e.g., ‘aaah,’ ‘aaay,’ ‘oooh’) can be sustained as long as the user has air to expel, meaning the user is able to make the cursor move exactly as long as desired.”
Read the full AbleGamers post here. Learn more about the project here. Read more →
NPR’s Wendy Kaufman interviews UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska, among others, on Morning Edition:
“‘What this nation should be investing in is jobs that create other jobs and that’s what technology jobs do,’ says Ed Lazowska, who holds the Bill & Melinda Gates chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington.”
Listen to the broadcast here. Read more →
Every second year, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics provides a ten-year forecast of job growth in all fields of employment. The most recent forecast, released in November 2009 and covering the period 2008-2018, may be found here (pdf). Among the highlights:
- Among the 10 major BLS occupational groups, the “Professional and related” category (which includes computer science occupations) is projected to grow by the largest percentage between now and 2018 — by 16.8%. (The average growth projected across all occupations is 10.1%.)
- Focusing in on the “Professional and related” occupations, of the 8 occupational clusters that are included, “Computer and mathematical” occupations are projected to grow by the largest percentage between now and 2018 — by 22.2%. In other words, “Computer and mathematical” occupations are the fastest growing occupational cluster within the fastest growing major occupational group.
- Looking at all science and engineering occupations — “Computer and mathematical,” “Architecture and engineering,” and “Life, physical, and social science” — computer science occupations are projected to be responsible for nearly 60% of all job growth between now and 2018. The next largest contributor — all fields of Engineering combined — is projected to contribute 13.4% of total growth. All of the life sciences combined: 5.6%. All of the physical sciences combined: 3.1%. In other words, among all occupations in all fields of science and engineering, computer science occupations are projected to account for nearly 60% of all job growth between now and 2018.
Read more →
CNN interviews UW CSE’s Raj Rao:
“In the shimmering fantasy realm of the hit movie ‘Avatar,’ a paraplegic Marine leaves his wheelchair behind and finds his feet in a new virtual world thanks to ‘the link,’ a sophisticated chamber that connects his brain to a surrogate alien, via computer.
“This type of interface is a classic tool in gee-whiz science fiction. But the hard science behind it is even more wow-inducing …
“At the root of all this technology is the 3-pound generator we all carry in our head. It produces electricity at the microvolt level. But the signals are strong enough to move robots, wheelchairs and prosthetic limbs – with the help of an external processor.
“Harnessing that power ‘opens up a whole new paradigm for us as human beings,’ says neuroscientist Rajesh Rao of the University of Washington …”
Read the full article here. Read more →
Seattle Business writes on Seattle’s emergence as a center for mobile applications.
“Says Ed Lazowska, the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, ‘It’s all about software, and we’re the software capital of the world … We’re leaders in systems. We’re leaders in productivity applications. We’re leaders in media. We’re leaders in games. We’re leaders in online retailing and in online services. We’re leaders in cloud computing – essential in the mobile world.'”
Read the full article here. Read more →
