UW TechTransfer, the unit that facilitates the commercialization of UW research, has hired Todd Alberstone as director of intellectual property management and Ed Cummings as a licensing officer focused on computing technologies. Both have experience in the local high-tech industry.
“We’re excited to have somebody with Ed’s skills and experience at UW TechTransfer,” said Hank Levy, professor and chair of CSE. “He will play a major role in helping us to move technologies quickly out of the university to… Read more →
Use your cell phone to track down your bus
“It’s a question heard at countless bus stops: ‘Have you seen the number 48 go by?'”
After spending countless rainy nights waiting for his bus to go by, Brian Ferris, a UW CSE grad student, decided to do something about it. Over the past year, he created a tool, OneBusAway, that allows King County bus riders to use a cell phone, iPhone, or computer to keep tabs on their bus. OneBusAway’s website averages 1,000 hits a day, and… Read more →
Skytap one of “10 start-ups to watch in ’09”
UW CSE startup Skytap was identified as one of “10 start-ups to watch in ’09” by NetworkWorld. Skytap offers cloud-based virtual lab solutions that reduce IT costs, accelerate lab provisioning time, and enable global team collaboration via the Web. Skytap was founded by UW CSE faculty members Brian Bershad, Steve Gribble, and Hank Levy, plus UW CSE graduate student Dave Richardson; it was funded by our friends at Madrona Venture Group, Ignition Partners, Bezos Expeditions, and Washington… Read more →
TechFlash: Some tech firms are actually hiring staff in 2009
John Cook’s Venture Blog today discusses some of the bright spots in the local tech hiring scene. UW CSE’s Mark Oskin, co-founder of PetraVM, is highlighted, as well as other CSE Industrial Affiliate partners.
Read the full TechFlash piece here.
A corresponding article in the Puget Sound Business Journal features a photo of the brains behind PetraVM, Moe.… Read more →
There are still jobs out there
UW CSE hosted its Industrial Affiliates Winter Recruiting Fair on January 28th. Proving that there are still jobs out there, twenty companies participated in this event, with opportunities for both interns and full-time positions. The Winter Recruiting Fair is an annual “reduced” version of our main Recruiting Fair, which is held in conjunction with our October Industrial Affiliates meeting. Participation is restricted to UW CSE students and UW CSE Industrial Affiliates Program member companies.… Read more →
“Intel Researchers Demo RF Energy Harvester”
At the recent Rawcon Conference in San Diego, Intel Research Seattle staff member and UW CSE affiliate professor Joshua Smith described the scavenging of 60 microwatts of RF power from a TV tower 4.1 kilometers distant. The power was used to drive a thermometer/hygrometer and its LCD display. The approach harvested enough energy to drive many Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP) applications. A WISP is essentially an RF identification (RFID) tag with a microcontroller on it, according to Smith. … Read more →
“A Tool to Verify Digital Records, Even as Technology Shifts”
A group of UW researchers, led by Batya Friedman, an iSchool professor and CSE adjunct faculty member, will release the first component of a public system to preserve and authenticate digitized materials that document historical events, such as the Rwanda war crimes. Research by CSE Ph.D. students Alexei Czeskis and Karl Koscher and CSE professor Tadayoshi Kohno played a critical role in the technical aspects of the project.
See the full New York Times article here.
[Update Feb.… Read more →
Mark Squillante, Rick Szeliski named ACM Fellows
UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus Mark Squillante (who has spent his career at IBM Research) and UW CSE Affiliate Professor Rick Szeliski (Microsoft Research) were among 44 leading computer scientists named to the 2008 class of Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery. Squillante was recognized “for contributions to the theory and practice of stochastic modeling.” Szeliski was recognized “for contributions to computational photography.”
Thirteen UW CSE faculty members are Fellows of the ACM.… Read more →
New York Times on the marketing of SongSmith
Randall Stross devotes his Digital Domain column in the Business section of the Sunday New York Times to a look at the ham-handed marketing of SongSmith, based on work from Dan Morris and Sumit Basu from Microsoft Research and UW CSE graduate student Ian Simon that generates instrumental accompaniment to match users’ vocal input.
A four-minute video promoting the product has been the target of derision, attracting (at this writing) more than half a million views and several thousand… Read more →
Tags: Ian Simon, Microsoft Research, New York Times, SongSmith
“Microsoft cuts not even a ‘hiccup,’ Seattle tech leaders optimistic”
“As speculation built over the past few weeks about the possibility of Microsoft layoffs, one theory that gained some traction in Seattle’s startup community was that a sizable cutback could actually spur entrepreneurial energy in the region.”
“‘I don’t even think of it as a hiccup to be honest,’ said Lazowska, an adviser to Microsoft who believes the company will keep hiring. ‘I just think this is continual renewal, rather than something catastrophic.'”
Read the full TechFlash article here… Read more →