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UW CSE, UW Oceanography, and Microsoft Research are collaborating to create an 
“Ocean Scientists’ Workbench” in connection with the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative. This work was featured prominently in press coverage of the 2008 Microsoft Research TechFest.
UW oceanographers Debbie Kelley and Mark Stoermer appeared in ComputerWorld. CSE’s Keith Grochow and Microsoft’s Jared Jackson appear in Microsoft’s own coverage of the event. Other coverage in Scientific American, AppScout, and CosmicLog. Read more →
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“A Seattle computer scientist who helped expose how hackers can mess with electronic voting machines is part of a team that has shown how new, wireless cardiac devices implanted in thousands of heart patients also are vulnerable to electronic attack … “[UW CSE’s Yoshi] Kohno and others have shown they can wirelessly extract personal medical information from an implantable cardiac defibrillator as well as reprogram or disrupt the device. The team includes Harvard University cardiologist Dr. William Maisel and Kevin Fu of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, also a computer scientist.”
Additional information here
UW press release here
New York Times here
Wall Street Journal here
Boston Globe here
Science Daily here
University Week here
The Osgood File (CBS Radio) here
Australian Broadcasting Corporation here Read more →
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“‘Our goal is to ask what benefits can we get out of this technology and how can we protect people’s privacy at the same time,’ says Magda Balazinska, the project leader and assistant professor of computer science and engineering at UW. ‘We want to get a handle on the privacy issues that will crop up if these systems become a reality.'” Read more →
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“In the past, I’ve written about natural and built environmental sensors, and wondered whether people should be included among the vital signs of an urban ecosystem. But I’ve skirted most of the privacy issues because I don’t have great answers for you, so I’m happy to see that these researchers, led by Magda Balazinska, are trying to come up with good tech or policy solutions, as they put it, ‘before such systems become commonplace.'” Read more →
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“It’s 2 a.m. Do you know where Evan Welbourne is? …
“While RFID isn’t a household word, the technology behind it has long been a part of the lives of just about every American …
“Now, because the tags can emit individual codes, companies are using them to track specific inventory items, credit cards, and ID badges. Conceivably, sensors could follow people throughout their daily lives.
“But who should track whom? Where, when, and how? And what effect will this constant shadowing have on the trackers and the trackees?
“To get answers, the University of Washington developed the RFID Ecosystem. It is an attempt to ‘create a future world where RFID’s are everywhere,’ says Gaetano Borriello, a professor of computer science. At the moment, 140 antennas that pick up signals and 35 RFID readers that interpret data are monitoring five of the six floors in the university’s Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science and Engineering.”
A description of UW CSE’s RFID Ecosystem project. Read more →
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A KING-5 Television feature on the tradeoff between technology and privacy for RFID. Features interviews with UW CSE faculty members Magda Balazinska and Gaetano Borriello, as well as with on-leave faculty member Chris Diorio, who is the founder, Chairman, and CTO of CSE-spinoff RFID technology company Impinj. Read more →
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A short commentary by CSE professor Ed Lazowska. “[Markoff] simply observed that Seattle is exhibiting some of the entrepreneurial success of Silicon Valley; he described ome of the evidence and explored some of the reasons … We have managed to develop a tech ecosystem here – a feat that has eluded many other regions of the nation. It’s distinctly our own, and it’s pretty remarkable.” Read more →
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“Yoshi Kohno, assistant professor of computer science & engineering, has been awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship, given each year to outstanding young scientists … A total of 118 fellowships were awarded this year in seven fields: chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics and neuroscience … Kohno’s research interests are in computer security, electronic privacy and cryptography. Some of his past studies have investigated security concerns related to electronic voting machines and ways to ensure the security of transactions over the Internet. Other research directions include security and privacy of wireless networks, online anonymity and network forensics. Kohno earned his doctorate at the University of California, San Diego and has been at the UW since 2006.” Read more →
This spreadsheet from the University of Virginia tallies ten years of Computing Research Association “Outstanding Undergraduate” awards. In a nutshell:
- Total students recognized: UW #1, tied with CMU
- Number of winners: UW #1, tied with CMU, Dartmouth, Cornell, and Princeton
- Number of runners up: UW #1, tied with CMU and Harvard
- Number of finalists: UW #2, behind CMU and tied with Harvard
- Number of honorable mentions: UW #2, behind UVa
Go team!
See an excellent blog post by CMU Computer Science Department chair Peter Lee here. Read more →
Read the article here.
“An aging computer – so old that the University of Washington has an early model on display as a museum piece – stands between the Seattle School Board and the changes it wants to make in how the district assigns students to schools …
“The VAX was first sold in 1979, and early models were about as big as two refrigerators. Hank Levy, chairman of the UW’s computer-science and engineering department, was part of the team that designed its operating system. The VAX on display in the lobby of the department’s Paul G. Allen Center was an early model that Levy said at one time ‘ran our entire department …’
“‘It was a great system for its day, but its day is long past,’ Levy said … Although it’s hard to compare computing power of different systems, he also said that, in rough terms, even the later-model VAXes have only about 1/20th the power of an iPhone.” Read more →
“Ocean Scientists’ Workbench” in connection with the NSF Ocean Observatories Initiative. This work was featured prominently in press coverage of the 2008 Microsoft Research TechFest.