“Just imagine you’re blind and trying to go online at an internet cafe in Paris. Until now, unless you had $1,000 worth of software installed, it was just about impossible. But in recent weeks hundreds of blind people found their worlds opening up online with help from a web-based program called WebAnywhere.
The program was created by Jeffrey Bigham, a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering Department. He knew that many applications were moving… Read more →
“Team Pastry-Powered T(o)uring Machine” tackles the STP
Read the article here.
The 2008 Seattle-To-Portland bicycle tour featured the largest-ever gathering of UW CSE bicycling jerseys. The jerseys — for the “Pastry-Powered T(o)uring Machine” bicycle club, were created by UW CSE alumna Lauren Bricker. The theme for the design of the shirts is UW CSE’s infamous “Steam-Powered Turing Machine” mural.… Read more →
“Computer Science Enrollments: The Real News” (Computing Community Consortium blog)
Read the article here.
CSE’s Ed Lazowska writes, “I regularly get contacted by reporters who read the CRA ‘Taulbee Survey’ and inquire about the current state of computer science undergraduate enrollments. Here’s what I said last night to the most recent reporter who inquired …”
Re-posts with comments:
Quantum Pontiff
Computing Research Policy Blog… Read more →
“Trying to give robots a human touch: UW scientist believes biology key to better-working machine” (Seattle PI)
Read the article here.
“Yoky Matsuoka, professor of computer sciences and engineering at the University of Washington and a 2007 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius’ award, wants robots to function more like human beings. Her lab at the UW – full of mechanical hands, fingers and arm parts – looks like a repair shop for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator.”… Read more →
“Project makes web more accessible to blind” (KGO San Francisco)
Read the article here.
UW CSE Ph.D. student Jeff Bigham describes the WebInSight project on KGO TV San Francisco.… Read more →
“Playing the Science Game” (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Read the article here.
“Could the person who finds the cure for cancer be a gamer? The creators of an online game that allows players to help scientists design new proteins with therapeutic properties hope so.” The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses UW’s Foldit game.… Read more →
UW’s Oren Etzioni, Farecast, in Wired (pdf)
“In 2001, Oren Etzioni was on a plane chatting up his seat mates when he realized they had all paid less for their tickets than he did. ‘I thought, ‘don’t get mad, get even,” he says. So he came home to his computer lab at the University of Washington, got his hands on some fare data, and plugged it into a few basic prediction algorithms. He wanted to see if they could reliably foresee changes in ticket prices. It worked:… Read more →
“Gates Retires from Daily Role at Microsoft” (NPR)
Read the article here.
“Forty years ago, while an eighth-grader at the private Lakeside School in Seattle, Gates was introduced to his first computer. He was immediately smitten, as was fellow student Paul Allen.
“The two became fast friends, says Ed Lazowska, who holds the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington.
“‘They did the scheduling for Lakeside School – there are rumors they and their friends got into the classes… Read more →
“Online service lets blind surf the Internet from any computer, anywhere” (UW News)
Read the article here.
“WebAnywhere, launched today, lets blind and visually impaired people surf the Web on the go. The tool, developed at the University of Washington, turns screen-reading into an Internet service that reads aloud Web text on any computer with speakers or headphone connections.”… Read more →
“Washington: All Geared Up To Fight The Last War” (Xconomy)
Read the article here.
CSE’s Ed Lazowska in Xconomy: “By now you’ve seen the 2008 Milken Institute “State Technology and Science Index.” Washington ranks fifth, behind Massachusetts, Maryland, Colorado, and California. Not too shabby? Let’s take a look under the covers.”… Read more →