Brian Bershad at the Paul Allen Center
TechFlash reporter John Cook writes about the Seattle Startup Weekend held at Google‘s Fremont engineering office last weekend, and quotes UW CSE professor and graduate (PhD ’90) Brian Bershad, currently on leave to serve as site manager at the Fremont facility.
We are trying to be good neighbors. We don’t want to stomp on people. We don’t want to go raiding people of their employees. We want people to feel like they can come to us and talk openly about what they are doing and feel safe.
Cook says that Microsoft— which co-sponsored the event– has been working to rehabilitate their image with the start-up community after mis-steps led to a poor image in the ’80s and ’90s.
Read the full article here. Read more →
Six months after Linden Rhoads took the reins as Vice Provost at UW Tech Transfer, Xconomy Seattle reporter Luke Timmerman has done a two-part interview with her to find out what’s been accomplished so far and what lies on the road ahead.
UW CSE professor Ed Lazowska had this to say about the Rhoads era at Tech Transfer:
There’s been a dramatic change since Linden’s arrival. The tech transfer officers are crawling all over our building working with students and faculty. An Entrepreneur-in-Residence program has been started. Janis Machala, an incredibly experienced and well-connected startup “coach” who many of our previous startups have worked with, has been brought on-staff. It’s like night and day.
Read part 1 and part 2 of the full article. Read more →
An op-ed by UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska and Sun Microsystems’ Bob Sproull appears today on the website of Scientists and Engineers for America. They write:
“Congress is now debating the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Included in this package is over 10 billion dollars for science facilities, research, and instrumentation.
“The reason for this inclusion is simple: today’s research is tomorrow’s infrastructure.
“When our nation faces immediate challenges, the feasible solutions depend upon the ideas, resources, and designs that are “on the shelf,” ready to deploy …
“Increasingly, information technology is the cornerstone of America’s infrastructure. Today’s information technology research is a cornerstone of tomorrow’s infrastructure.”
Read the full editorial here. A set of white papers describing the role of computing research in meeting the challenges of the 21st century is available here. Read more →
Jeff Dean, 1996 UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering — one of the highest honors accorded to engineers. Jeff was one of 65 individuals — 12 in the Computer Science & Engineering section — elected to membership in the 2009 class, announced on February 6.
Jeff began his career at DEC WRL, and moved to Google in 1999. At Google, Jeff and MIT EECS Ph.D. alumnus Sanjay Ghemawat — also elected to NAE this year — led the conception, design, and implementation of much of Google’s revolutionary computing infrastructure. Jeff was elected to NAE “for contributions to the science and engineering of large-scale distributed computer systems.”
Also elected in the NAE class of 2009 — both in the Bioengineering section — were UW Dean of Engineering Matt O’Donnell, and former UW Electrical Engineering professor and current UW Bioengineering affiliate professor David Auth. Read more →
Former UW whizzes Brian Ma, 22, a graduate of Computer Science & Engineering and Electrical Engineering, and Hsu Ken Ooi, 25, a graduate of Mathematics and Statistics, are launching Eggsprout with the help of CSE’s Oren Etzioni. The Bellevue startup is planning to transform the way people find jobs online.
Read the TechFlash article here.
Read the Techvibes entry here.
Read the Cheezhead article here.
Read more →
UW TechTransfer, the unit that facilitates the commercialization of UW research, has hired Todd Alberstone as director of intellectual property management and Ed Cummings as a licensing officer focused on computing technologies. Both have experience in the local high-tech industry.
“We’re excited to have somebody with Ed’s skills and experience at UW TechTransfer,” said Hank Levy, professor and chair of CSE. “He will play a major role in helping us to move technologies quickly out of the university to where they can have impact in the community.”
Read the full University Week article here. Read more →
“It’s a question heard at countless bus stops: ‘Have you seen the number 48 go by?'”
After spending countless rainy nights waiting for his bus to go by, Brian Ferris, a UW CSE grad student, decided to do something about it. Over the past year, he created a tool, OneBusAway, that allows King County bus riders to use a cell phone, iPhone, or computer to keep tabs on their bus. OneBusAway’s website averages 1,000 hits a day, and the system has processed over 20,000 automated calls since June. Ferris programs the site in his spare time and is gradually adding more features. For Ferris, he says this project fits with his philosophy of using technology to support social causes, and it’s a chance to create something that people like to use.
Read the University Week article here. Read more →
UW CSE startup Skytap was identified as one of “10 start-ups to watch in ’09” by NetworkWorld. Skytap offers cloud-based virtual lab solutions that reduce IT costs, accelerate lab provisioning time, and enable global team collaboration via the Web. Skytap was founded by UW CSE faculty members Brian Bershad, Steve Gribble, and Hank Levy, plus UW CSE graduate student Dave Richardson; it was funded by our friends at Madrona Venture Group, Ignition Partners, Bezos Expeditions, and Washington Research Foundation Capital. Read more →
John Cook’s Venture Blog today discusses some of the bright spots in the local tech hiring scene. UW CSE’s Mark Oskin, co-founder of PetraVM, is highlighted, as well as other CSE Industrial Affiliate partners.
Read the full TechFlash piece here.
A corresponding article in the Puget Sound Business Journal features a photo of the brains behind PetraVM, Moe. Read more →
UW CSE hosted its Industrial Affiliates Winter Recruiting Fair on January 28th. Proving that there are still jobs out there, twenty companies participated in this event, with opportunities for both interns and full-time positions. The Winter Recruiting Fair is an annual “reduced” version of our main Recruiting Fair, which is held in conjunction with our October Industrial Affiliates meeting. Participation is restricted to UW CSE students and UW CSE Industrial Affiliates Program member companies. Read more →
