Read the article here.
CSE’s Ed Lazowska in the Chronicle of Higher Education. Read more →
Mikhail Manyak: 1988-2008
Read the article here.
Mikhail Manyak, 20, a University of Washington Computer Engineering student, died Sunday after suffering a massive allergic reaction to medications prescribed following oral surgery. Read more →
“If You Have a Problem, Ask Everyone”
Read the article here.
“This year, researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the University of Washington began recruiting computer gamers to an online competition, named Foldit, aimed at unraveling one of the knottiest problems of biology: how proteins fold.” Read more →
“Google Forging Connections with University of Washington, but Still Has a Ways To Go”
Read the article here.
“Lazowska’s department has 150-plus alumni working for Google – many based at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA, but an increasing number in Kirkland and Seattle. ‘We have dozens of undergraduate students doing summer internships at Google, many graduate students carrying out their research at Google, and two faculty members spending the year there on sabbatical [Gaetano Borriello and Steve Gribble],’ says Lazowska. And Brian Bershad, director of Google’s Seattle site, is a UW computer science professor on leave …
“While Google’s latest efforts are highly welcomed, it will probably take some time for the search company to become as deeply established in the community. ‘Despite all this, Microsoft is [still] the University of Washington’s #1 corporate partner,’ explains Lazowska.” Read more →
UW’s Oren Etzioni, Farecast, in Wired (pdf)
“In 2001, Oren Etzioni was on a plane chatting up his seat mates when he realized they had all paid less for their tickets than he did. ‘I thought, ‘don’t get mad, get even,” he says. So he came home to his computer lab at the University of Washington, got his hands on some fare data, and plugged it into a few basic prediction algorithms. He wanted to see if they could reliably foresee changes in ticket prices. It worked: Not only did the algorithms accurately anticipate when fares would go up or down, they gave reasonable estimates of what the new prices would be.
“Etzioni’s prediction model has grown far more complex since then, and the company he founded in 2003, Farecast, now tracks information on 175 billion fares originating at 79 US airports. The database knows when airline prices are going to change and has uncovered a host of other secrets about air travel.”
Full article here; page on Farecast here (pdf). Read more →
“Playing the Science Game” (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Read the article here.
“Could the person who finds the cure for cancer be a gamer? The creators of an online game that allows players to help scientists design new proteins with therapeutic properties hope so.” The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses UW’s Foldit game. Read more →
“Project makes web more accessible to blind” (KGO San Francisco)
Read the article here.
UW CSE Ph.D. student Jeff Bigham describes the WebInSight project on KGO TV San Francisco. Read more →
“Trying to give robots a human touch: UW scientist believes biology key to better-working machine” (Seattle PI)
Read the article here.
“Yoky Matsuoka, professor of computer sciences and engineering at the University of Washington and a 2007 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’ award, wants robots to function more like human beings. Her lab at the UW – full of mechanical hands, fingers and arm parts – looks like a repair shop for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator.” Read more →
“Computer Science Enrollments: The Real News” (Computing Community Consortium blog)
Read the article here.
CSE’s Ed Lazowska writes, “I regularly get contacted by reporters who read the CRA ‘Taulbee Survey’ and inquire about the current state of computer science undergraduate enrollments. Here’s what I said last night to the most recent reporter who inquired …”
Re-posts with comments:
Quantum Pontiff
Computing Research Policy Blog Read more →
CSE’s Susumu Harada recognized by NISH
Read the article here (Microsoft Word).
Harada was recognized for his “‘Hands-Free Voice-Driven Drawing and Diagram Creation Method for People with Motor Impairments,’ a voice activated speech recognition technology that allows the user to create diagrams and drawings on the computer. This technology successfully bridges the gap that has existed between voice activated technology for dictation and hands free control of the computer. It also serves as a low cost method of drawing and designing via the computer. Harada was mentored by Dr. Jacob Wobbrock, a previous first place award winner in the National Scholar Award program.” Read more →