Euronews recently featured an article on SideSwipe, a new sensor technology developed by Chen Zhao and Matt Reynolds that enables smartphones to recognize hand gestures. As Matt Reynolds explains in the article:
“‘If you think about a radar on an aircraft or a boat or something like that … you have a transmitter that is sending energy out into the environment and it is being reflected by objects nearby … what we do is use a machine learning algorithm to… Read more →
NY Times: “What Cloud Computing Means to Your Job”
An interesting New York Times article by Quentin Hardy, quoting UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska:
“‘Technology shapes styles of work,’ said Ed Lazowska, who holds a chair in computer science and engineering at the University of Washington. ‘One critical advantage of the cloud is that sharing becomes dramatically easier.’ He foresees more collaboration and outsourcing of work, and more specialization into whatever a worker, team or company does well.”
[The quote he liked better but that didn’t fit the eventual article,… Read more →
UW CSE hearts UNC CS
UW CSE Ph.D. alum Kevin Jeffay – chair of the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – is in Seattle raising money for his department.
Kevin is in a hurry, noting the potential impact on alumni loyalty of the impending change of UNC’s motto from “Lux libertas” to “Accredited until early 2015” (or, if one is to believe Google Latin, “Adprobatum usque mane MMXV”).
Hank “Ever-Helpful” Levy got things off to… Read more →
Thanks for dessert, Microsoft!
(And the lunch was really good too!)
Many thanks to our Microsoft recruiter, Becky Tucker!… Read more →
The New York Times spends another 36 hours in Seattle
They spent it in some very odd ways (they should have asked Nick Wingfield, who lives here, or John Markoff, who visits often), but hey, any press is better than no press.
“Seattle is in boom mode, and for visitors that means creative restaurants, a vibrant nightlife scene, and stunning art.”
Read more here.… Read more →
ACM Distinguished Paper Award to CSE’s René Just, Darioush Jalali, Michael Ernst
René Just, Darioush Jalali, and Michael Ernst of UW CSE have won an ACM Distinguished Paper award for their paper “Are Mutants a Valid Substitute for Real Faults in Software Testing?”
Both practitioners and researchers need to evaluate the quality of test suites – for example, researchers want to know whether a new testing technique improves a test suite. The true measure of a test suite’s quality is how many real faults it detects. The set… Read more →
Rev. Jesse Jackson @ UW, December 2, 6:30 p.m., Kane Hall 130
The Reverend Jesse Jackson will speak in Kane Hall 130 on Tuesday December 2 from 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Rev. Jackson is visiting Seattle to speak with technology firms about their diversity efforts. He has made a special request that CSE community members attend his lecture.
Registration is required. Further information here.… Read more →
UW CSE featured in article on gender diversity efforts at the University of Maryland
“Maryland is one of 15 universities participating in the Building Recruiting And Inclusion for Diversity (BRAID) initiative led by the Anita Borg Institute and Harvey Mudd College.
“Harvey Mudd College, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Washington have already seen success at increasing female participation in their computer science departments …
“At UW, Ed Lazowska is now the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering and once served as the computer science department chair. Lazowska agrees… Read more →
Paul G. Allen tackles Ebola with 10,000 ODK-equipped smartphones
Philanthropist Paul G. Allen announced today that he and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation will ship more than 10,000 specially programmed smartphones to West Africa to enhance data collection and identify aid needs. Additionally, Mr. Allen is providing a grant to NetHope to further connectivity throughout Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. This initiative is part of Mr. Allen’s $100 million commitment to tackle the Ebola crisis.
The smartphones will enable government workers and humanitarian aid volunteers to gather reliable… Read more →
Crosscut on UW’s Shwetak Patel: “Seattle genius tackles energy, healthcare and the future of computing”
Crosscut writes
“For every variation in sound, pressure, temperature or electromagnetic wave, Shwetak Patel sees an opportunity. He is the master of white noise, the enemy of inefficiency. He made a name for himself with ElectriSense, a home energy monitor that reads noise to tell you how much electricity is used by each lightbulb and appliance in real time. But ElectriSense is only the beginning; there are no limits to what he and his lab might achieve.
“What drives Patel… Read more →