“The educators involved argue that beyond filling the shoes of retiring scientists, broadening the range of perspectives can help create better technological solutions for everyone. Indeed, the technologies behind such innovations as the Segway and voice-recognition software were originally created for people with disabilities. ‘Great ideas come from diversity, not from single-mindedness,’ [UW CSE’s Richard] Ladner points out. ‘If you look at bigger companies like IBM and Microsoft, they pride themselves on having diverse workforces. They’re hiring people who are… Read more →
UW CSE and Google’s Chrome browser
Google marked today’s second anniversary of the Chrome browser with a web retrospective: “Back to the future: two years of Google Chrome.”
“Looking back today on Chrome’s second anniversary, it’s amazing to see how much has changed in just a short time. In August 2008, JavaScript was 10 times slower, HTML5 support wasn’t yet an essential feature in modern browsers, and the idea of a sandboxed, multi-process browser was only a research project …”
The “research project” linked… Read more →
“Computer sciences: Not dominated by Dilberts, but still short on women”
Crosscut discusses women in computer science, featuring a number of UW CSE students.
“‘The most important thing is not to take the gains of recent years for granted …,’ said Ed Lazowska, the Bill and Melinda Gates chair in computer science at the University of Washington.”
Read the article here.… Read more →
Scott Saponas — TR-35
UW CSE Ph.D. alum Scott Saponas has been named to this year’s Technology Review TR-35. “Since 1999, the editors of Technology Review have honored the young innovators whose inventions and research we find most exciting; today that collection is the TR35, a list of technologists and scientists, all under the age of 35. Their work –spanning medicine, computing, communications, electronics, nanotechnology, and more — is changing our world.”
“Fingers flicking through the air, T. Scott Saponas is rocking a solo… Read more →
UW budget cuts vs. tuition increases
In a post last December, we provided some “straight talk” regarding the impact of state budget cuts on the University of Washington in general, and on UW Computer Science & Engineering in particular. It was covered in Crosscut and elsewhere.
UW has now issued a short document that puts budget cuts and tuition increases in perspective. A significant shift in financial responsibility from the state to individuals is taking place. The increase in tuition, however, falls far short… Read more →
UW CSE startup Corensic rolls out Jinx
Corensic, a startup founded in 2008 by UW CSE faculty members Luis Ceze and Mark Oskin and backed by Madrona Ventures, the Washington Research Foundation, and Perkins Coie, has rolled out the first release of Jinx, its software quality tool for Linux and Windows that helps developers, testers, and IT organizations improve the reliability of multi-core applications by surfacing hard-to-find concurrency bugs.… Read more →
“Despite Gains, Women Still Underrepresented in Technology Workforce”
UW CSE’s Ed Lazowska is interviewed, and UW CSE alums Karen Liu and Hakim Weatherspoon are profiled, in this article on diversity in the computing field.
“’While there are many reasons for striving to increase the representation of women in our field, the selfish reason is the most compelling one: the quality of the solutions we achieve is enhanced by the diversity of the individuals contributing to these solutions.’ Lazowska added, ‘Computer science is a great field for everyone,… Read more →
Deaf, hard-of-hearing students do first test of sign language by cell phone
UW’s MobileASL team is developing the first device able to transmit American Sign Language over U.S. cellular networks.
The tool is completing its initial field test, which allows the team to see how people use the tool in their daily lives and what obstacles they encounter. Eleven participants — all students in the UW Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Computing — are testing the phones for three weeks. They meet periodically with the research team… Read more →
Foldit in New York Times
A recent article in Nature concerning the protein folding videogame Foldit — a collaboration between UW CSE professor Zoran Popovic, UW Biochemistry professor David Baker, and their students — has stimulated a great deal of coverage in the popular press. A superb article appears in today’s New York Times.
“The Foldit project was inspired by the volunteers who were contributing the downtime on their home computers to power a protein-folding program called Rosetta@home. The computer donors could see the… Read more →
“Teachers Explore how to Integrate Computer Science into K-12 Curriculum at UW Conference”
Xconomy reports on UW’s “CS4HS” workshop for high school teachers — including a great synopsis of the “Careers Panel” featuring UW CSE alums Tam Armstrong (Bungie), Krista Davis (Google), Margaux Eng (Amazon.com), and Crystal Hoyer (Microsoft).
“Figuring out how to entice student, parents, and school districts to embrace and support computer science curricula in public education was a topic at center stage at the University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering CS4HS event last week.”
Read the full… Read more →