Nest Labs, a Palo Alto startup, announced its “Nest Learning Thermostat” today. UW CSE’s Yoky Matsuoka is currently on leave as Vice President for Technology at Nest.
“But probably the most sophisticated feature of the Nest is the artificial intelligence that helps it regulate the temperature to your liking — without your having to engage in complicated setup tasks.
“Included among Nest’s advisors is Stanford AI head and Google researcher Sebastian Thrun, who told Fadell and Rogers that the… Read more →
“Bigger Grants for Athletes Are Discussed”
No problem placating the smaller conferences – you could pay >1,000 athletes out of the President’s salary.
“Emmert said the minimum Academic Progress Rates required for teams to compete in the postseason could be raised to 900 in time for this season’s N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament. It could increase to 930 — essentially corresponding to a 50 percent graduation rate — in two years.” Heavens to Murgatroyd!
Read more from the NY Times here. Even better, read a damning… Read more →
“200 new jobs for Pioneer Square as EMC Isilon moves into new building”
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn reports on the Pioneer Square expansion of EMC Isilon, co-founded by Sujal Patel and UW CSE alumnus Paul Mikesell:
“The 200 new jobs over the next fifteen months signals a big investment in Seattle, said [EMC CEO Joe] Tucci, adding that EMC sees Seattle as a hub for data storage and cloud computing technology, with both Amazon.com and Microsoft as major players, along with Seattle’s excellent talent pool. ‘Bringing Isilon into the EMC family was a… Read more →
“Hacking Cars”
Communications of the ACM reports on UW CSE research concerning the vulnerability to hacking of modern automobiles:
“Researchers Tadayoshi Kohno of the University of Washington and [UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus] Stefan Savage of the University of California at San Diego announced the startling results of a two-year investigation into potential vulnerabilities in modern automotive computer systems …”
Read the article here.… Read more →
UW CSE and the National Center for Women and Information Technology
UW CSE is one of 24 academic programs and corporations that are members of the “NCWIT Pacesetters” program of the National Center for Women and Information Technology – committed to fundamental enhancements in their recruitment and retention of women.
At the Pacesetters Roundtable in Boulder CO on October 23 and 24, here’s what we said:
Here’s our philosophy at the University of Washington:
Yes, including more women in the field is important as a matter of equity.
And yes, it’s… Read more →
CNN interviews Adrien Treuille on video gaming and science
Why are video games the key to modern science? “Video gamers spend tons of time — for many it’s 10,000 hours by age 21 — battling mythic monsters, shooting aliens and rescuing princesses from digital castles.”
To harness these efforts, CMU faculty member (and UW CSE PhD alum) Adrien Treuille created two online games — Foldit and EteRNA — “that put video gamers to work solving epic scientific puzzles.” And the results have been staggering. For example, as reported in… Read more →
The Perfect Party
Recent issues of Seattle Met magazine have included a feature on “The Perfect Party” – a group of five individuals who they’d love to invite for a meal. UW CSE was included early-on in the person of computer security researcher Jake Appelbaum – part of a “Perfect Party” that included Rachel the Pig. In the November issue, it’s UW CSE’s Shwetak Patel – part of a “Perfect Party” that includes Tom Brokaw. (Sorry, Jake!)… Read more →
UW CSE’s Living Voters Guide takes to the road!
The Living Voters Guide is a free and non-partisan forum for civic discourse – a service provided by Seattle City Club and the University of Washington. Even more cool than that, it’s being advertised on the side of buses!
… Read more →
UW CSE Affiliates recruiting
“Invigorating chaos” is the only way to describe it!
Google’s Yin Lu wins the “best costume” award (snatching it from Zillow, the 2010 and 2009 winner – see 2009 photo here … maybe Yin re-used the hair …).
See the list of recruiting companies here. See Bruce Hemingway’s many wonderful photographs here.
On a less upbeat note, Indochino Apparel wins this year’s “shunned because of sexist swag” award. Kudos to multiple students, male and female, for expressing concern. … Read more →
“Better typing while walking, and other cool stuff from UW”
GeekWire reports on the UW CSE Affiliates meeting:
“Maybe this is a commentary on my own bad habits, but WalkType was one my personal favorites among some 70 projects on display last night during an open house and poster session at the department’s annual Industrial Affiliates meeting. The annual Madrona Prize, handed out by Madrona Venture Group, went to UW student Gabe Cohn and the “Humantenna” project, which uses a receiver on the human body to determine a person’s… Read more →