Computer Science and Engineering - Video

World Wide Access: Accessible Web Design

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Creating an accessible website involves making your information accessible to all visitors, including those with disabilities. Learn the essential elements for designing a site that is perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

Working Together: People with Disabilities and Computer Technology

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Featuring participants in the DO-IT program at the University of Washington, this video demonstrates adaptive technology and computer applications for people with disabilities.

Computing Structural Biology

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

David Baker discusses the progress in predicting the structures of biological macromolecules and interactions and in designing novel macromolecules with new structures and functions. Emphasis is on the key computational challenges to fully transforming structural biology from an experimental to a computational science.

Noun Phrase Coreference Algorithms

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Claire Cardie introduces noun phrase coreference resolution. She also describes the specific supervised and weakly supervised algorithms applied to the problem of noun phrase coreference resolution, presents empirical results on two standard coreference data sets, and discusses the problems encountered in applying each framework to the coreference task.

Accessible Information Technology in Education: Building Toward A Better Future

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Information technology (IT) is used in most educational settings. Students use a variety of IT tools such as email, websites, discussion boards, and courseware. They may use IT to attend school from a distance or as an adjunct to traditional classroom attendance. When these tools are accessible they can significantly reduce the effort required of individuals with disabilities and increase access to education. When they are inaccessible, they can block participation by students and faculty with disabilities. This video presents the voices of students with disabilities and experts in accessible IT as they discuss the importance of ensuring that information technology is accessible in educational settings.

Taking Charge 2: Two Stories of Success and Self-Determination

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In this program produced by the University of Washington, hear testimonials from two successful high school students with disabilities regarding living self-determined lives.

Communicating Engineering & Technology to the General Public

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Engineering professor and radio commentator Bill Hammack discusses the importance of explaining engineering and technology to the general public. He describes his daily public radio series and his goal of enhancing 'engineering awareness.' He explains why we need an 'informed citizenry' -- a technologically literate citizenry -- and the role outreach efforts such as his radio series can play in bringing that about.

Broadband Innovation and the Role of Customer Experience

Wed, 21 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Dr. Bharat Rao, a leader of several strategic research initiatives for the Institute for Technology and Enterprise at Polytechnic University (NY) and an invited faculty member for The Gorden Institute of Tufts University, discusses the opportunities evolving from broadband innovation and how a business enterprise can exploit this technological development. He uses examples to communicate the potential of a positive customer experience and reiterates on how various companies have used this potential effectively for their growth.

The Mobile User

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This three-part program focuses on current initiatives and examines the consequences of The Mobile User, Mobility and Community, and Mobility and Public Policy. Broadcast & Webcast from The Wireless Community & Mobile User Conference in Monterey, California.

CSE477 Capstone Design, Spring 2008- Technology for Low-Income Regions

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Program Description: Capstone courses give students experience solving a substantial problem using concepts that span several topic areas in Computer Science and/or Computer Engineering. Students must work together in teams to define the problem, develop a solution plan, produce and demonstrate an artifact that solves the problem, and present their work using written and oral reports. Cross-disciplinary projects that require interaction with other departments are encouraged.

This year-long capstone design course looks at problems in health care, agriculture, transportation, and education that arise in the developing world and rural regions of the developed world.

Behind the Code with Anders Hejlsberg

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This episode features industry luminary, Anders Hejlsberg. Before coming to Microsoft in 1996 he was well noted for his work as the principal engineer of Turbo Pascal and the chief architect of the Delphi product line. At Microsoft, he was the architect for the Visual J++ development system and the Windows Foundation Classes (WFC). Promoted to Distinguished Engineer in 2000, Anders is the chief designer of the C# programming language and a key participant in the development of Microsoft's .NET Framework. In this show, Anders is joined by a surprise guest.

This episode of 'Behind the Code' is hosted by Barbara Fox - former senior security architect of cryptography and digital rights management for Microsoft.

Podcasting: What's the Big Deal?

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Podcasting has emerged as the current high tech buzz. Many people think it has something to do with iPods, and most people are genuinely amazed to find out about the number and variety of content sources – ranging from the President of the United States and college professors to programmers and pornographers. Several of our guests believe that podcasting will be the 'Next Big Thing.' But, for a trend that has achieved as much publicity in a short time as podcasting, some observers believe there are still relatively few actual listeners and that the hype far exceeds the reality.

Live Music Instruction with New World Symphony and Northwestern University using New High Definition Video Communications from LifeSize

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

New World Symphony and Northwestern University will collaborate live between Miami, Chicago and Philadelphia to demonstrate a masters class or musical instruction. The demo will use the new high definition video communications technology from LifeSize Communications with a high definition call at 1 Mbps (low bandwidth). The plan is for a coach at Northwestern University (Chicago) to link to a fellow student in New World Symphony (Miami) to present a strings instruction session. The Philadelphia location will include presenters Tom Snook, CTO of New World Symphony and Larry Amiot of Northwestern University. There will be a live 3-way multipoint call with the opportunity for the Philadelphia participants to view in high definition and ask questions. LifeSize will also be present to answer questions about the technology and products.

General Session: The Importance of Networking in Technology Convergence

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The region surrounding Philadelphia has experienced a technology renaissance in the past few years. The commitment by academic, civic, and corporate leaders has been evident in the significant growth of Bio-Tech and Bio-Pharmaceutical initiatives and the deployment of technology tools such as the Wireless Philadelphia Project. Mr. Bendis will discuss these topics and the relevance of opening new communication links between industry and academia for the purpose of collaborative research.

Hawaii's High Tech Workforce

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Hawaii is continually making strides to diversify its economy in a variety of directions, including high tech. High tech jobs are considered to be high-quality and high-paying, unlike many jobs in the service and agricultural industries. Yet the challenges are daunting in developing the kind of workforce Hawaii's high tech businesses need to flourish and grow. Join host David Lassner with guests Alex McGehee of Enterprise Honolulu and Mike Rota of the University of Hawaii as they discuss the issues and solutions to matching supply and demand in Hawaii's high tech workforce.

2008 Summer Academy for Advancing Deaf & Hard of Hearing in Computing - Speaker Series

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This program highlights deaf or hard-of-hearing professionals who spoke to University of Washington Summer Academy students about their experience obtaining advanced degrees and pursuing careers in computer science. Each speaker discusses their experiences as deaf or hard-of-hearing people in the computing industry.

There are a variety of computing careers in industry and academia, including those that require skills in animation, games, and robotics. The Summer Academy will specifically explore animation and will provide an opportunity for students to speak with deaf and hard of hearing persons who are already working in various computing fields.

Regulatory Elements in Microbial Genes

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This program showcases an innovative University of Washington student-faculty academic project. The goal of the project was to write software that starts from a single microbial gene of interest, finds a large collection of corresponding genes from multiple microbes, and uses this collection to identify evolutionarily conserved patterns in their DNA regulatory regions.

Multi-robot Exploration

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Efficient exploration of unknown environments is a fundamental problem in multi-robot coordination. As autonomous exploration and map building becomes increasingly robust on single robots, the next challenge is to extend these techniques to large teams of robots. Dieter Fox provides an overview of research into multi-robot exploration and mapping, developed within the CentiBOTS project.

Astronomical Observatory: A Tour From the Kitt Peak National Observatory

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Yale University astronomy professor Charles Bailyn gives a guided tour of the two research telescopes operated by the WIYN Consortium at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The first telescope is a 0.9m aperture telescope built in the 1960s; the second is the WIYN 3.5m new technology telescope commissioned in 1994. The tour emphasizes the ways in which new technology has improved the quality of ground-based telescopes.

Internet2 Fall 2003 Member Meeting - Closing Plenary

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The closing plenary features John Delaney, professor in the School of Oceanography at the University of Washington, speaking on 'The NEPTUNE Regional Cabled Ocean Observatory: Interactive Networks of Remotely Operated Submarine Laboratories.' Additionally, the newest Internet2 Land Speed Record Award will be presented during the plenary.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are computer-based instructional tools that rely on artificial intelligence techniques to generate individualized interactions tailored to a student's learning needs. Cristina Conati discusses how the scope and effectiveness of ITS can be increased by extending the range of features captured in a student model to include domain independent, meta-cognitive skills and affective states.

Google: A Behind-the-Scenes Look

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Search is one of the most important applications used on the Internet and poses interesting challenges in computer science. Providing high-quality search requires understanding across a wide range of computer science disciplines. In this program, Google Fellow Jeff Dean describes some of these challenges, discusses applications Google has developed, and highlights systems they've built, including GFS, a large-scale distributed file system, and MapReduce, a library for automatic parallelization and distribution of large-scale computation. He also shares observations derived from Google's Web data.

Smarter Roads, Smarter Drivers

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

From the type of pavement or lighting, to the weather or that cell phone in your hands, hundreds of factors figure into your safety on the road. Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute is looking at dozens of ways to make highway travel safer.

Stay Safe Online: High Tech Hawai

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The Internet is transforming nearly every aspect of how we live, learn, work and play. At the same time, it provides a new venue for unscrupulous and criminal elements to victimize those who are unaware of or unprotected against the risks. October has been named National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM). High Tech Hawaii will highlight NCSAM by bringing together a panel of distinguished law enforcement professionals and cyber security specialists to discuss the most significant online risks faced by the public and ways you can protect yourself on the Internet.

Bioinformatics: The Search for Non-Coding RNA

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

One of the biggest users of scientific computing cycles in Europe is a bioinformatics application -- genome-wide searches for 'non-coding RNAs' (ncRNAs) routinely monopolize 1000 computers for an entire month. ncRNAs are functional RNA molecules that do not code for proteins. Covariance Models (CMs), statistical models based on probabilistic context-free grammars, are the leading approach to describing ncRNA families and searching for new members. In this colloquia, Larry Ruzzo describes his development of novel algorithms to make CMs faster, which allows genome databases to be scanned in days instead of years, and can greatly facilitate biological discovery.

Behind the Code with Jim Gray

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This episode features Jim Gray. He is a 'Technical Fellow' in the Scalable Servers Research Group (Sky Server, Terra Server) and manager of Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center (BARC). Jim has been called a 'giant' in the fields of database and transaction processing computer systems. In 1998, Jim was awarded the ACM's prestigious A.M. Touring Award.

Before joining Microsoft, Jim worked at Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), Tandem Computers Inc., IBM Corp., AT&T and he is the editor of the 'Performance Handbook for Database and Transaction Processing Systems' as well as co-author of 'Transaction Processing: Concepts and Techniques.' In this interview, Jim is joined by former colleague from DEC and partner on the Terra Server project, Researcher, Tom Barclay.

This episode of 'Behind the Code' is hosted by Barbara Fox - former senior security architect of cryptography and digital rights management for Microsoft.

Pharmaceutical Informatics and the Pathway to Personalized Medicines

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Discover the possibilities in the promising new world of medicines designed for the individual. See how powerful new computing technology could make this level of personalization feasible sooner than you might think.

Digitizing Petroglyphs in Puerto Rico

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A technical team from the University of Kentucky records stone carvings in Puerto Rico using advanced 3D imaging techniques. The ancient petroglyphs are digitized for preservation and further study.

Engineering Education in the 21st Century

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

William A. Wulf, president of the National Academy of Engineering, issued a stern warning to a lecture hall full of engineering professors that the nation is technologically illiterate, engineering students are dropping out and engineering professors have not kept up with teaching techniques or honed their own engineering skills.

Semiconductor-Organic Heterostructures

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Adina Scott of Purdue University explores recent interest into incorporating molecular monolayers into electronic devices for sensing, nanoelectronic, energy conversion and biological applications. Device properties can be modulated using surface chemistry, leading to flexible fabrication schemes and new system functionalities. Examine key challenges related to the fabrication, structural characterization and electrical properties of such systems. Look at results for metal-molecule-silicon devices in which the electronic transport is governed by the interplay between the molecular-electronic properties and silicon bandstructure, enabling novel hybrid organic/semiconductor functionality. Combining these device concepts with optically-, biologically- or electrically-active molecular layers will result in new classes of hybrid devices with the potential for low-cost, highly-integrated systems.

Learning to Map Sentences to Meaning

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Building automated systems that participate effectively in natural language conversations is one of the classic goals of research in artificial intelligence. Machine learning methods hold significant potential for addressing many of the challenges involved with these systems. This talk describes machine learning algorithms for the problem of mapping natural language sentences to representations of their underlying meaning.

Bionic and Bio-ionic Neural Interfaces

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Open your eyes to the latest developments in retinal prosthesis, which could restore vision to patients suffering from diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. Luke Theogarajan of MIT discusses the two leading approaches to retinal prosthesis, a novel bio-ionic neural interface and one that is electrically based, and the hope it holds for researchers and patients alike.

Self-Defending Software: Collaborative Learning for Security

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This University of Washington talk addresses software monoculture, many computers running the same application, which offers benefits for system administrators and users. But, every copy of the application is vulnerable to the same security exploits. The work discussed here by Michael Ernst of MIT enables a monoculture, or application community, to automatically defend itself against previously unknown zero-day exploits by creating patches that defeat those exploits without affecting application functionality.

Practical Analysis Tools for Large-Scale Software

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

UC Berkeley's Manu Sridharan presents two techniques -- refinement-based pointer analysis and thin slicing -- that enable powerful new tools for debugging and understanding large-scale software. His group’s refinement-based pointer analysis is the first to compute precise answers in interactive time, allowing tools to handle previously inscrutable program behaviors interactively. Thin slicing is the first technique to give usable answers to code relevance questions, a long-standing challenge for analysis tools. Sridharan also describes new tools enabled by the two techniques.

Statistical Failure Diagnosis in Software and Systems

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Alice Zheng presents a case study illustrating how statistical machine learning algorithms, along with appropriate system instrumentation, can aid in failure diagnosis. She proposes a statistical software debugging framework that collects information from past successes and failures via fine-grained instrumentation of the program and then analyzes this information to locate suspicious program predicates. Zheng discusses the algorithmic challenges of the approach and demonstrates a bi-clustering algorithm that is effective at simultaneously clustering failed runs and selecting useful predicates.

Market-Making: From Algorithms for Price-Setting to Emergent Market Properties

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

With the dramatic increase in electronic exchanges and automated trading in recent years, it has become important to develop new computational and algorithmic tools for analyzing market properties and designing software agents that participate in market activities. This program presents a Bayesian algorithm that can be used by a market-making agent to continuously post prices and update its beliefs based on the sequence of trades it sees. This algorithm leads to an interesting characterization of the market- maker's exploration-exploitation dilemma as a tradeoff between price discovery and profit-taking. It also allows for the building of richer agent-based models of markets that can be useful both in understanding properties of existing markets and in predicting the impacts of structural changes.

Computational Sciences: The Third Pillar of the Empirical Sciences

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Computational Sciences have had a major impact in the way we gather and produce knowledge in all the realms of the empirical sciences, from astrophysics to particle physics, and from macro-scale engineering projects to micro-analysis of manufacturing processes. It has become the third pillar of the empirical sciences (alongside the more traditional experiments and analysis). Professor of Computational Sciences Rainald Lohner explores the reasons for these developments, and provides an outlook for the future, along with a consideration of the wider philosophical implications this new form of data acquisition is having on the way we perceive the world.

Community Systems: The World Online

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The Web is about you and me. Until now, for the most part, it has denoted a corpus of information that we put online sometime in the past, and the most celebrated Web application is keyword search over this corpus. Sites such as del.icio.us, flickr, MySpace, Slashdot, Wikipedia, Yahoo! Answers, and YouTube, which are driven by user-generated content, are forcing us to rethink the Web -- it is no longer just a static repository of content; it is a medium that connects us to each other. What are the ramifications of this fundamental shift? What are the new challenges in supporting and amplifying this shift?

The Digital Evolution and International Competitiveness

Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Technologies such as nanotechnology transistors and many-core computing are on the horizon. As technology becomes increasingly mainstream, global competitiveness will increase accordingly. Join Intel Corporation’s Chairman of the Board, Craig R. Barrett, as he explores the future of technology and its impact on the global market. In this video from the National Science Foundation, Barrett discusses the type of environment, research and education needed to sustain the excellence and innovation that is required in such a stiff global competition.

An Effective Verification Solution for Modern Microprocessors

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Over the past four decades microprocessors have come to be a vital and inseparable part of the modern world, becoming the digital brain of numerous electronic devices and gadgets that make today's lifestyle possible. However, their computational power comes at a price: the task of verifying a modern microprocessor and guaranteeing correctness of its operation is increasingly challenging, even for most established processor vendors. This talk describes a novel verification framework targeting specifically today's complex microprocessors.

Embedded Links: A Misunderstood and Fundamental Element of Urban-Scale Networks

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Many urban communities have unequal access to Internet resources, presenting a technical challenge of providing a high-speed access infrastructure at an extremely low cost. To address this challenge, a first-of-its-kind, urban-scale wireless mesh network which provides Internet access to 1000's of users spanning multiple square kilometers in an underserved area in Houston, TX has been deployed. However, in this and other urban environments, IEEE 802.11 node interactions are affected by a vast array of factors including topology, channel conditions, modulation rate, packet sizes, and physical layer capture which are addressed in this lecture.

Session 4: Interface of Engineering with Biology and Medicine, Part 1

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Presentations:

Genetic Networks in Theory and Practice

Application of New Technologies to the Search for Genetic Determinants of Disease

Session 4: Interface of Engineering with Biology and Medicine, Part 2

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Presentations:

Building Models to Predict ADME and Toxicity

Microdevices for Biomolecular Detection

Session 1: Nanotechnology, Part 1

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Presentations:

Paradigms of Meso-Fabrication: Beyond the "Top-down" and "Bottom-up"

Nanotechnology Work: The Engineering of System Integration

Session 1: Nanotechnology, Part 2

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Presentations:

Nanotechnology and Industrial Research

Eco-Nano: The Impact of Engineered Nanomaterials on the Environment

Session 2: Wireless - Research Opportunities and Challenges, Part 1

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Presentations:

Spectrally Efficient Communication Over Unreliable Channels

Some New Directions in Wireless Communications

Session 2: Wireless - Research Opportunities and Challenges, Part 2

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Presentations:

QoS and Resource Allocation in Wireless Networks

Mobile Multimedia

Session 3: Natural Disaster Simulation and Mitigation, Part 1

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Presentations:

Coupled Atmosphere-Wave-Ocean Modeling for Tropical Cyclone Prediction

Extreme Floods in Urban Environments

Session 3: Natural Disaster Simulation and Mitigation, Part 2

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Presentations:

Simulations and Observations for Tsunami Detection

Experimental Simulation of Engineering Measures for Earthquake Preparedness

Tobacco Policy Research

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Ellen Hahn, professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Kentucky, and her team are conducting tobacco policy research that’s truly having an impact. Hahn’s efforts resulted in the passage of a smoke-free ordinance in all public buildings within Lexington, Kentucky, one of the first cities to do so. Learn about the importance of such policies and the effects they have on the community.

The Limits of Quantum Computers

Mon, 07 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In the popular imagination, quantum computers would be almost magical devices, able to "solve impossible problems in an instant" by trying exponentially many solutions in parallel. In this program, hear about four results in quantum computing theory that directly challenge this view.

Behind the Code with Peter Spiro

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Don't get a real job until you're 30. This is Technical Fellow Peter Spiro's advice, and something he fell just short of doing. Discover how this forestry student got a job at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and then came to Microsoft to help build the team that drove SQL Server to the huge success it is today.

How do you learn the necessary skills for leading huge projects? Try restaurant work or being in the Peace Corps. Also, never underestimate the power of knowing how to live it up. In this episode, learn how Peter uses his passion and energy to influence technology across Microsoft while empowering talent and growing teams to produce first-rate software.

Reading the Unreadable

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Dr. Brent Seales, professor of computer science at the University of Kentucky, reveals new research that may make it possible to read ancient scrolls and manuscripts that are rolled up and unable to be physically unrolled. By scanning the objects, we may be able to virtually unroll these delicate objects without harming them.

A Firm's Metamorphosis

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

How GENSLER went from a small three-person interior design practice to a leading worldwide architecture, planning and design firm. He discusses the firm's beginnings through a series of stories such as "two cents a square foot more with more value." He encapsulates the milestones of the firm's 42-year history.

The Power of Design

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

A panel discussion that discussed how Gensler is a firm that focuses on group effort and company loyalty instead of individual success. The people at Gensler strive to do something that other firms frequently don't and that is to collaborate. It's not one person with a design vision it's a team effort. Gensler consists of 2,500+ people and has offices in 30 cities with 14 practice areas and more than 2,000 active clients.

Charting a New Course

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

A panel discussion about Gensler's transition from Art Gensler at the helm to a new executive directors' leadership model; how the company doubled in size without compromising its culture; and the importance of diversity to its growth.

Lessons Learned from Applying Control Theory to Computing Sytems: A Manifesto for Resource Management Engineering

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Joe Hellerstein summarizes his experience over the last 5 years with applying control theory to resource management solutions in computing systems. His experience at IBM and Microsoft has been that problems of dynamics can often be addressed by using a simple set of techniques based on discrete time, linear, time-invariant.

Training and Reality: Adventures of a Spaceflight Participant

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Space flight is still a very rare and exotic experience which has only recently been opened to "tourists", officially known as spaceflight participants. Charles Simonyi was the fifth of these as the 450th person in space. He will describe the decision process, the eight-month training and the flight itself from the point of view of a knowledgeable civilian, with particular emphasis on the issues of safety, traditions, and health aspects.

Engineering Complex Systems and Complex Systems Engineering

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Many examples of complex networks that have greatly impacted our lives -- such as highways and the Internet -- derive from engineering. How can engineers, who have developed many of the most important complex systems, stay connected with their subsequent development? Complexity and engineering seem at odds -- complex systems are about adaptation, whereas engineering is about purpose. This presentation describes how engineering can benefit from incorporating complex systems tools into its standard tool kit. Northwestern University's Dean of Engineering, Julio Ottino, presents the case that complex systems offer opportunities for paradigm shifts in established research areas and even the creation of new disciplines in engineering.

Behind the Code with Rob Short

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Occasionally the office of the CTO, David Vaskevitch, sits down with some of Microsoft's most influential technical employees to capture their stories. Instead of examining specific technologies, BTC takes a closer look at the person, the career and what it takes to produce world-class software.

Rob Short is an operating system pioneer. He helped Microsoft transition from the 1980s with DOS and 16 bit windows into the 32 bit world with Windows NT in the 1990s. More recently, Rob was part of the team that further enhanced windows to take advantage of the 64 bit processors of the new millennium. Today he is the Vice President overseeing development of windows kernel and virtualization technologies.

This episode of "Behind the Code" is hosted by software architect, Keith Kaplan.

Working with Digital Natives

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

What makes someone a digital native? Are digital natives defined by their generation, or the technology they use? Explore this term, and the differences between those considered digital natives and those considered digital immigrants, as Michael Eisenberg, dean emeritus of the iSchool at the University of Washington, leads a diverse panel in an discussion of these topics.

Information Technology Leadership Learning in Action

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Dick Nolan, professor emeritus of Harvard Business School, and Robert Austin, professor at the Copenhagen Business School, discuss how to train the next generation in IT management: Train today’s leaders to engage digital natives, for whom technology is an essential part of the world. With that being said, is active learning the right approach?

Engaging Digital Natives in Information Technology Learning

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Innovative solutions are needed to ensure a new generation of digital natives is engaged in learning and becoming the future of IT management. In this program, Dick Nolan, professor emeritus of Harvard Business School, Robert Austin, professor at Copenhagen Business School and Shannon O'Donnell, PhD fellow at Copenhagen Business School, come together to discuss the future of digital natives.

Digital Natives: Impacts on Management and Education

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How are the work styles and learning styles of digital natives different from their counterparts? Are they more competitive? How are social networks influencing the way they live and think? Join Michael Eisenberg, dean emeritus of the iSchool at the University of Washington, and a panel of experts as they discuss these topics.

Where Humans and Robots Connect

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A trailblazer in the emerging field of neurobotics, in 2007 Yoky Matsuoka received the MacArthur "genius" award. Now she's transforming our understanding of how the central nervous system coordinates musculoskeletal action. Her latest quest is to build the ultimate prosthetic: a fully functional replica of the human hand, controlled directly by the brain.

Pathways in Computer Science

Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

See the diverse pathways students pursue after receiving Bachelors degrees in computer science or computer engineering. Computer scientists work in a broad range of interesting fields, and an engineering degree is terrific preparation for almost any imaginable future. See profiles of computational biology, improving forest firefighting techniques, making textbook graphics readable to blind students, working in India to connect rural communities through technology, and creating better prosthetic devices for people with disabilities.

Photo Tourism and Photosynth: UW CSE, Microsoft Research, and Microsoft Live Labs Create a Winner

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Photosynth is an amazing new technology, created through a unique collaboration between Microsoft and the University of Washington. The application will change the way you think about digital photos by taking a large collection of photos of a place or object, analyzing them for similarities, and displaying them in a reconstructed 3-dimensional space. The groundbreaking innovation began with Photo Tourism research by UW graduate student, Noah Snavely, UW faculty member Steve Seitz, and Rick Szeliski, Microsoft Research. The new Microsoft Live Labs organization -- dedicated to advancing the state-of-the-art in Internet products and technology -- embraced the Photo Tourism technology and combined it with complementary photo browsing technology created by the team at Seadragon, a Madrona-backed Seattle startup headed by Blaise Aguera y Arcas that had been acquired by Live Labs. A Photo Tourism research presentation, and the rollout of the Photosynth prototype by Live Labs, stole the show at the 2006 SIGGRAPH conference.

Google Ad Systems

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Billions of dollars (and euros and yen, too) flow through Google Ad Systems. In this talk, Narayanan Shivakumar, a Google distinguished entrepreneur and director of Google's Seattle-Kirkland R and D center, gives us a peek under the covers and examines how a combination of auction theory, machine learning and large systems can power successful businesses like Adwords and Adsense.

Massive Parallelism in the TeraOPS Chip

Fri, 05 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Ambric, a Portland semiconductor startup, believes the key to massive parallelism in a high performance programmable chip is to define the right programming model first, then develop silicon architecture and tools to implement that model. In this talk, Mike Butts, Ambric, Inc., talks about Ambric's new chip that harnesses hundreds of 32-bit CPUs and memories in an power-efficient asynchronous system that is sensible to program and delivers up to one teraOPS performance.

Aggregating Imprecise Data in OLAP: Principles and Algorithms

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

T.S. Jayram, IBM Almaden Research Center, presents OLAP, a multi-dimensional data model in which data is analyzed across multiple hierarchical dimension attributes. Jayram considers the problem of aggregating data when there is imprecision in the hierarchy of dimension attributes. Using relevant criteria, he proposes an allocation-based mechanism to handle imprecise records. He also presents efficient algorithms of computing aggregation queries over a probabilistic database.

The UrbanSim Project: Urban Simulation to Inform Public Decision-making

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The process of planning and constructing a new light rail system, expanding a freeway, or modifying zoning and land use plans is often politically charged. The goal in the UrbanSim project is to provide tools for planners, engaged citizens, and other stakeholders to be able to consider different scenarios, and then to evaluate these scenarios by modeling the resulting patterns of urban growth and redevelopment, of transportation usage, and of environmental impacts, over periods of 20- 30 years. Alan Borning, CSE, University of Washington, describes recent work on and applications of the project and gives some demonstrations.

Calculi for Access Control

Mon, 08 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Access control is central to security in computer systems. Over the years, there have been many efforts to explain and to improve access control, sometimes with logical ideas and tools. Martin Abadi, Microsoft Research/UC Santa Cruz, reviews some of that work and its applications. He also explores a new approach based on type systems, specifically on a type system for tracking dependencies.

IR4TD: From PTC to Present

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

A University of Kentucky consortium is developing a new generation of painting technology that is better for the environment and more energy-efficient than current commercial products.

What Would Dr. King Do To Broaden Participation in Science and Computing?

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Computer science professor Andrew Williams of Spelman College explains his ideas to increase minority participation in science and engineering. Williams cites the use of robotics in schools as one way to help reach this goal.

Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Lecturer: Why The Algorithm Might Soon Be The Only Game in Town

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Are our brains cuckoo clocks? Do fish swarm in an algorithmic manner? In this extremely engaging discussion, Bernard Chazelle of Princeton University utilizes such examples, as well as entertaining political and historical references, to show the power of algorithms and the effects of the fast approaching era of algorithms.

Software Transactions: A Programming-Languages Perspective

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

With multicore processors bringing parallel computing to the masses, there is an urgent need to make concurrent programming easier. Software transactions hold great promise for simplifying shared-memory concurrency, and they have received enormous attention from the research community in the last couple years. This talk will provide an overview of work done at the University of Washington to help bring transactions to the next generation of programming languages.

Nucleic Acid Logic Circuits for Programming Biology

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Learn about the design and experimental implementation of DNA-based logic gates and circuits in vitro. For their operation, the gates rely exclusively on sequence recognition and strand displacement reactions. Inputs and outputs are single-stranded nucleic acids and biological nucleic acids such as microRNAs can serve as inputs. The lecture will demonstrate logical AND, OR, and NOT, as well as thresholding and catalytic signal amplification.

Center for Manufacturing

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Get an inside view of the University of Kentucky’s Center for Manufacturing, which works to educate students, research solutions to industry issues and retain the state’s manufacturers.

Behind the Code with Rico Mariani

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

For eighteen years at Microsoft, Rico Mariani’s contagious enthusiasm for technology has inspired countless others to write better and faster code. Most people inside Microsoft know this software architect from his frequent postings on the internal performance tuning alias, and other people know him by reading his blog on MSDN. He often says that being an architect is a teaching gig and his passion for sharing knowledge has established him as an industry expert. Additionally, Rico is responsible for many of the cool features and tools that make programming easier, like value tips.

Internet2: Distance Education

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Suzanne Weaver Smith, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Kentucky, joins with Gregory Davis, mechanical systems lead technologist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and other leaders in the field to introduce students to aerospace engineering through a distance education event. Find out why it is important for students to be immersed in aerospace engineering and how effective an interactive learning experience, which includes activities such as teleconferencing, can be.

Static Analysis of Dynamic Data Structures

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Dynamic allocation and destructive heap updates are fundamental language constructs that allow programmers to implement complex, efficient linked data structures. However, their flexibility makes it difficult for compilers and program analyzers to statically reason about the correct manipulation of such structures. Professor Radu Rugina discusses new heap analysis techniques and their application to error detection, program verification, and compiler transformations. These analyses are based on a novel approach where the compiler uses local reasoning about single heap cells, instead of global reasoning about the entire heap. This approach makes analyses precise enough to handle a large class of heap manipulation algorithms, and lightweight enough to scale to larger programs.

Surface Computing and Computer Vision-Based Human Computer Interaction

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The vision of ubiquitous computing suggests that interactivity will be embedded throughout our physical environment in a wide variety of form factors and modes of use. Andy Wilson, a Microsoft researcher presents a series of projects which exploit sensing technologies such as computer vision to enable a wide variety of fluid, natural interactions situated on walls and tabletop surfaces. For example, PlayAnywhere is a compact tabletop projection-vision system which explores a number of new interactions on everyday surfaces, while TouchLight combines a transparent projection screen material with computer vision techniques. These new form factors have the potential of changing the way we relate to computing, but they also pose a challenge in terms of interaction design because they are so different from today's desktop computing.

SAGE: Software for Algebra and Geometry Experimentation

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

SAGE is a University of Washington project whose goal is to create an optimal, free, open source software environment for research and experimentation in algebra, geometry, number theory, cryptography, and related areas. William Stein, a professor with the University of Washington Department of Mathematics started SAGE in 2005 by combining together the very best of existing free software, including: Singular, PARI, GAP, Macaulay2, Maxima, gfan. Next, he created interfaces to non-free software : MAGMA, Maple, Mathematical. From that point, he began to fill in the gaps with new code. Now dozens of developers have joined Stein in working on filling those gaps and making SAGE a polished and high quality piece of free software.

DNA Self-assembly and Computer System Fabrication

Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The migration of circuit fabrication technology from the microscale to the nanoscale has generated a great deal of interest in how the fundamental physical limitations of materials will change the way we engineer computer systems. The changing relationships between performance, defects, and cost have motivated research into so-called disruptive or exotic technologies. Chris Dwyer, from Duke University will present the theory, design, and methods of fabrication for DNA self-assembled nanostructures within the context of circuit fabrication. The advantages of this technology go beyond the simple scaling of device feature sizes (sub-20nm) to enable new modes of computation that are impractical under the constraints of conventional fabrication methods.

Usable Privacy and Security: Protecting People from Online Phishing Scams

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Phishing scams are a kind of semantic attack on computer systems that target the users of computer systems, rather than the system itself. Phishing is estimated to have cost over $3 billion in losses in 2008, with criminals impersonating banks, e-commerce sites, retail sites, and universities to trick people into giving them passwords or credit card information. Phishing attacks have also been used to steal sensitive information from corporations and governments, including the US Department of Defense. This talk will present ongoing research in protecting people from phishing attacks.

Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Lecturer: Declarative Networking: "What" is Next

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Declarative languages allow programmers to say what they want, without worrying over the details of how to achieve it. These kinds of languages revolutionized data management decades ago but have had limited success in other aspects of computing. The story seems to be changing in recent years, however. One new chapter is work that Joe Hellerstein and his colleagues have been pursuing on the design and implementation of declarative languages and runtime systems for network protocol specification. Distributed Systems and Networking appear to be surprisingly natural domains for declarative specifications and they are ripe for a new programming methodology.

The Intentional Domain Workbench

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The complexity of software code is the result of the intermingling of domain knowledge with implementation information. Generative Programming and Domain Specific Languages are known techniques for factoring and reducing the total complexity. The Domain Workbench that Intentional Software Corporation is developing makes the definition, creation, editing, combination, extension, and processing of DSL's more practical. Key features of the Domain Workbench are the uniform representation of multiple interrelated domains, the ability to project the domains in multiple editable notations, and direct access to the domain code by a program generator.

Biomimetic MicroElectric Systems for Restoring Sight to the Blind

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Research by engineering and medical teams holds tremendous promise for people who have lost their sight due to retinitis pigmentosa and other degenerative eye diseases. Within the next several years, artificial vision could help many blind people see again thanks to biomimetic microelectronic systems.

Flying on Air: The Science of Inflatable Wings

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

BIG BLUE is a comprehensive aerospace project experience to design, build and conduct a complex, high altitude experiment to verify the feasibility of inflatable-wing technology for Mars exploration. To date, three successful high-altitude experiments have been completed, along with participation in a student unmanned aerial vehicle competition. From the workforce development perspective, students involved in BIG BLUE join the aerospace workforce while participating in the challenging research-oriented project, which influences their decision to choose and pursue an aerospace career. Two of the University of Kentucky professors overseeing the project, Suzanne Weaver Smith and Jamey Jacob, discuss the programs journey, which comes to an end in 2007 with the final flight of BIG BLUE V.

Back to Nature for the Next Technology Revolution

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Engineering researchers such as Babak Parviz are studying nature on the nanoscale to create the next technology revolution. Imagine using DNA as a template to "grow" electronic devices, or custom designing molecules to build transistors. It could transform our future.

Communicating the Grand Challenges for Engineering to the Public

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In this spirited discussion about the importance of communication, several noteworthy figures such as inventor Ray Kurzweil and former Secretary of Defense William Perry discuss why public awareness of engineering advances is crucial to addressing current and emerging societal issues.

Corporate Innovation Strategies in a Global Economy

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Partnerships between corporations, universities, and government labs are important elements of innovation strategies. Sophie Vandebroek will share examples of Xerox's participation in these types of collaborations, including nano and MEMS technology for printing, software technologies for high-volume personalized applications, computational paradigms for handling billions of pixels efficiently, progress in the area of green technologies such as erasable paper, and smart document technologies.

New Directions in Multiprocessor Synchronization

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Computer architecture is about to undergo, if not another revolution, then a vigorous shaking-up. The major chip manufacturers have, for the time being, simply given up trying to make processors run faster. Instead, they have recently started shipping "multicore" architectures, in which multiple processors (cores) communicate directly through shared hardware caches, providing increased concurrency instead of increased clock speed. As a result, system designers and software engineers can no longer rely on increasing clock speed to hide software bloat. Instead, they must somehow learn to make effective use of increasing parallelism. Transactional memory is a computational model in which threads synchronize by optimistic, lock-free transactions. This synchronization model promises to alleviate many of the problems associated with locking, and there is a growing community of researchers working on both software and hardware support for this approach. In this Distinguished Lecturer Series, Maurice Herlihy, Brown University, surveys the area, with a focus on open research problems.

The Design and Analysis of Simple Algorithms

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Allan Borodin, University of Toronto, addresses the question, "Is it time to make algorithm design more of a computer science?" A basic course in Computer Science undergraduate and graduate programs is "The Design and Analysis of Algorithms" or "Introduction to Algorithms." Looking at such course descriptions, syllabus, and textbooks, one can infer that an organizational theme is often in terms of "basic algorithmic paradigms." Maybe it is just that time does not permit us to illustrate many such paradigms or maybe there are not that many to illustrate. In any case, even though we usually "cover" very few such general techniques in our courses, we rarely if ever try to precisely define such algorithmic concepts and hence cannot rigorously address the question as to their power and limitations. Within the field of Operations Research there have been attempts to formally model and study dynamic programming and branch and bound algorithms but this work has been largely ignored in Computer Science.

PlanetLab: Evolution vs. Intelligent Design in Global Network Infrastructure

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

PlanetLab is a global platform for evaluating and deploying network services. It currently includes nearly 700 nodes, spanning over 335 sites and 35 countries, and hosts over 500 experimental services. In this Distinguished Lecturer Series, Larry Peterson, Princeton University, identifies the requirements PlanetLab addresses, presents the design principles that follow from them, and outlines the resulting PlanetLab architecture. He also briefly discusses some of the lessons learned about building large network systems.

Broadening Computer and Robotics Education and Participation for Women

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Women and other underrepresented groups represent a vast amount of untapped human resource potential needed to fuel both industry and academic research needs. Professor Andrew Williams describes a cohesive, integrated approach to increase the participation and education of women and African Americans using innovative robotics and computer curriculum and competitions. Williams provides several examples, including how the all-women Spelman College's SpelBots RoboCup Four-Legged robot soccer team, and the joint Spelman and Carnegie Mellon University NSF-sponsored project, C.A.R.E., have inspired young girls to pursue education and research in robotics and artificial intelligence.

Rethinking Internet Traffic Management Using Optimization Theory

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Dr. Jennifer Rexford, computer science professor at Princeton University, shares fresh ideas on how to better manage Internet traffic. Recent innovations in optimization theory now make it possible to develop more flexible, efficient protocols to control Internet traffic that satisfy both users and network operators.

St. Anthony Falls Laboratory's Outdoor StreamLab

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The St. Anthony Falls Laboratory's Outdoor StreamLab, a world-class water research center at the University of Minnesota, gives researchers and students the best hands-on experience that can be found anywhere in the world: Using water from the Mississippi River to study everything from water quality to flooding issues. Join Anne Lightbody, Outdoor StreamLab manager, and a group of University of Minnesota students and faculty in a discovery of current water conditions.

University of Minnesota Greenhouse Gas Reduction Study

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Government, organizations and individuals alike are all taking charge to address climate change. Recently, a request from the Minnesota State Legislature led the University of Minnesota to develop concrete steps toward reducing greenhouse emissions by 80 percent less by 2050. Join David Kittelson from the Center for Diesel and Fuel Research and a panel of distinguished speakers as they discuss this plan, its likelihood and the effects of such an initiative.

Behind the Code with Eric Horvitz

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Microsoft is well known for Windows, Office, .NET, Xbox, Zune and other products and technologies. Less discussed, however, is Microsoft Research, a team focused on how computers and technology can make life easier, with an eye toward developing new technologies that can improve all our lives. Eric Horvitz joined Microsoft Research in 1993 and has since formed the Decision Theory and Adaptive Systems group. Discover what possibilities Microsoft Research holds for improving life for all and just what those projects entail.

Beyond Oil: Powering the Future

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Transportation consumes 70 percent of the oil used in our country. But as worldwide demand for oil soars and supplies tighten, how will we keep transportation moving? Current and emerging technologies can quickly convert a wide range of plant matter to transportation biofuels, offering a partial solution and contributing to an increasingly diversified and "greener" energy future.

Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Lecturer Series: Robotic Cars: Challenges and Perspectives

Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

As the US automotive industry is at the brink of collapse, we now face a unique opportunity to "begin more intelligently," as Henry Ford once said. Today's automobile industry is wasteful along many dimensions, such as energy consumption, resource utilization, human comfort, and safety. Sebastian Thrun from Stanford University will talk about innovative ideas for "Car 2.0," which rely heavily on computer science. He will specifically address the topic of robotic cars, discuss his experiences with the DARPA Challenges, and highlight ongoing research on smarter, safer, and more efficient transportation.

Technology for Long-Term Care: Scaling Elder Care to the Next Billion

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Long-term care helps the elderly perform key day-to-day tasks such as eating, personal care and medication. Today, such care is overwhelmingly manual. However, the cost of manual care is unsustainable in the face of demographic trends. Without dramatic breakthroughs in the cost of care, over half of all elders are expected to be without adequate care within a generation.

This talk describes a series of studies performed at Intel (in collaboration with several major partner organizations including the University of Washington) over the past six years towards understanding how technology may substantially reduce the manual burden of care.

Behind the Code with Patrick Dussud

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Learn where variables go when they are no longer used as Microsoft Technical Fellow Patrick Dussud shares his programming work. Dussud has spent his career implementing “garbage collection,” a form of automatic memory management, in various programming languages and systems.

The User at the Center of it All

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Researchers at IBM discuss their projects. Current projects include designing voice, handwriting, and gesture recognition software.

Handwriting Recognition - the conveniences of handwriting recognition and how computing researchers are designing programs to understand the diversity of user handwriting.

Voice Recognition - offering the user and efficient interaction with the computer regardless of language. Current research involves programs designed to treat all languages equally thus opening the door for millions of users.

Gesture Recognition - the process of training the computer to understand gestures, encouraging people to naturally interact and communicate ideas and opening up current limitations imposed by current software and hardware.

UBIT Research Program: Technology for All

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Universal Benefit from Information Technology is a University of Washington program researching innovative approaches to provide access to, and use of, information technology. The research is especially relevant on a university campus which serves the needs of a diverse student population which needs access to desktop applications, web sites, and mobile devices. The u b i t research projects integrate information science, human-computer interaction, and computer science disciplines.

Keynote by William Gates Sr. and Panel: “Around the World with EWB”

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Keynote address by William Gates, Sr.: "Sustaining Engineering and Global Health"

Panel discussion: "Around the World with EWB"

Engineers Without Borders is an international nonprofit organization that partners with disadvantaged communities worldwide to improve their quality of life through environmentally sustainable, equitable and economical engineering projects.

In the conference's keynote address, William Gates Sr., Co-Chair of the Bill & William Gates Foundation, presents “Sustaining Engineering and Global Health.”He discusses efforts that the Gates Foundation is currently making to help fund engineering and health projects throughout the world. Following the keynote address, learn how Puget Sound students and professional engineers are implementing development projects “Around the World.”. The University of Washington’s Donee Alexander, a Ph.D. student in Civil and Environmental Engineering, discusses a recent project by the UW student chapter to improve water supply and cook stoves in Yanayo, Bolivia. The Seattle University student chapter of EWB and Puget Sound professional chapter also present their groups' recent initiatives in Thailand and Ethiopia.

Engineers Without Borders: Engineering with Soul

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Bernard Amadei, professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, shares his passion to partner with disadvantaged communities to improve their quality of life through Engineers Without Borders. Engineers Without Borders is an international nonprofit organization that drives environmentally sustainable, equitable and economical engineering projects in disadvantaged communities worldwide while developing responsible engineers and engineering students. The central belief of the organization is "to build a better world, one community at a time."

Explore a Career in Paper Science Engineering

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

How would you like to have most of your tuition paid for? And upon graduation know that you will have a job with a starting salary around $58,000 ? Then explore the PSE program at the University of Washington. This program applies natural products chemistry, chemical processing, and material science to the many uses of natural products and fiber based materials, including paper and biofuels manufacturing. The program also offers several grants to students and currently has 100% job placement.

A Day in the Life: Erin, Kiera, Crystal

Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Computer programming stereotypes are no longer valid as an increasing number of women gain jobs in the software industry. From Seattle to San Francisco, join Kiera Henning, Crystal Hoyer and Erin Earl, all CSE graduate students at the University of Washington as they describe their career paths and work experiences with industry leaders like Google, Amazon and Microsoft.

Computational Prediction of RNA Motifs in Bacteria

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Recent surprising experimental discoveries have revealed complex and unexpected roles for RNA molecules in most living organisms. Computational tools for the discovery of protein and DNA sequence elements have been actively studied for decades, but RNA molecules evolve in different ways, making the problems of discovering and searching for them very challenging. In this talk, Martin Tompa and Larry Ruzzo, CSE, University of Washington, outline computational tools they have developed for these problems and describe preliminary results from their systematic searches for novel RNA elements in the genomes of hundreds of bacteria.

Achieving Channel Capacity Against Malicious Errors

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Venkatesan Guruswami describes recent work that gives an encoding scheme that attains an information-theoretic limit -- for any desired eps greater than zero, it enables recovery of a message as long as at least k(1+eps) packets are received intact. The location of the correct packets and the errors on the remaining packets can be picked adversarially by the channel. This achieves the optimal trade-off (called "capacity") between redundancy and error-resilience for a malicious noise model where the channel can corrupt the transmitted symbols arbitrarily subject to a bound on the total number of errors. Guruswami also introduces and motivates the problem of list decoding, and then gives a peek into the algebraic ideas and constructions that lead to the above result.

Behind the Code with Rebecca Norlander

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The computer world is often dominated by men, leaving little room for women. Despite this obstacle, Rebecca Norlander, a technical strategist for Microsoft, has made a name for herself. Learn about struggles in this field that are unique to women and the lessons she has learned from those challenges.

Building Secure Systems from Buggy Code with Information Flow Control

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The intensity of today’s computer security resembles an arms race: the bad guys constantly find new ways to break in and being safe requires ceaseless efforts to stay one step ahead to cut off avenues of attack. But this strategy is risky and expensive. Nikolai Zeldovich of Stanford University examines the use of information flow control to build secure systems out of buggy code and ways to reduce or even eliminate security vulnerabilities.

Securing the Web with Decentralized Information Flow Control

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This talk discusses how to secure both today's web sites and tomorrow's web computing platforms with a new OS technique called Decentralized Information Flow Control (DIFC). A DIFC system tracks the flow of secret data as it is copied from file to file and communicated from process to process. DIFC provides better security than standard OSes because it allows developers to concentrate security-critical code in small, audit-friendly declassifiers, which remain small and contained even as the overall system balloons with new features.

Some Hotter Topics in Information and Physical Security

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The entire technology world – not just IT – is constantly changing. Recent changes force a reexamination of assumptions about information security made only a brief time ago. Emerging technologies, once emerged, turn out to be a bit scary. Perhaps that's because the law of unintended consequences operates strongly at the bleeding edge, where tools end up cutting both ways. Many talk about "grand challenges in information security", while foolishly implementing things that are supposed to represent data but somehow end up being executable. At the moment, the most sophisticated measurements of security are things like bug counts, and do not address tradeoffs in managing security processes. Attacks which were thought to be impractical or uneconomical are now possible as a result of everything becoming smaller, faster, more sensitive, always connected, mobile, ubiquitous and cheap. Seiden’s talk lays out the landscape using stories and examples, and try to persuade you of the benefits of rethinking some of those assumptions to make your systems a bit more future-resistant.

An Introduction to Venture Capital

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Securing financing is a critical step for most startup companies in the progression from an initial idea to a fully staffed company shipping real products. For an entrepreneur starting a company, having a clear understanding of potential financing mechanisms can be just as important as knowledge of the technology and market opportunities. This program provides an overview of startup financing in general and venture capital in particular, addressing issues and questions including: What options are available for financing a startup, and what are their pros and cons? What do venture capitalists look for in a startup company? What are the expected success rates? What should entrepreneurs look for in a venture firm?

The End of Alchemy Empirical Software Security Assurance

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

For more than a decade, scientists, visionaries and pundits have put forth a multitude of methodologies for building secure software, but what techniques deliver real results? Examine software security assurance as it is practiced today in this video from the University of Washington’s Computer Science and Engineering department. Hear in-depth interviews with leading enterprises such as Adobe, EMC, Google, Microsoft, QUALCOMM, Wells Fargo and Depository Trust Clearing Corporation. The lessons these leaders have learned can be applied in order to build a new effort from scratch or to expand the reach of existing security capabilities. Speakers also present a set of benchmarks for developing and growing an enterprise-wide software security initiative, including but not limited to integration into the software development lifecycle.

REVEAL

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

REVEAL: Reconstruction, Enhancement, Visualization, and Ergonomic Assessment for Laparoscopy. The goal of this work is to develop and test new technologies that will break down the barriers that block more surgeons from attaining and continuing to practice (without injury or pain) high levels of skill in MIS. This project will develop new technology by concentrating on three major research thrusts: Smart Image, Configurable Display, and Ergonomic Assessment.

Behind the Code with Catharine van Ingen

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT

What do global warming, a scientific instrument weighing about 4500 tons and bill collection have in common? The once Berkeley 'hippie chick' turned Software Architect Catharine van Ingen.

Catharine has a wealth of experience in hardware, including work with the Alpha machine and MIPS processor teams, and in industrial-strength software for algorithms used to manage water flows, logging data from particle accelerator detectors, and buying Mickey Mouse watches over the Internet.

On Behind the Code discover how Catharine:
Grew in her career within the developing storage industry.
Met and worked with technical legends, such as Gordon Bell and Jim Gray.
Navigates the challenges of managing outsource projects.
Drives changes in products despite obstacles.
Is making an impact helping scientists to collaborate.

Get ready to laugh, learn, and catch a glimpse into the career of one of the leading technologists at Microsoft.

Bridges to the Future, Part III: Standing Strong

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

When the I-35W Bridge collapsed in Minneapolis last August, the nation watched in confusion. Since then, the future of America’s bridges and roads has been hotly debated. Join Linda Figg, President and CEO of Figg Engineering Group, and a group of distinguished panelists in a discussion of state-of-the-art technology and how it can be used to improve dams, buildings, roads and more.

Discovering Fluid Power

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In this University of Minnesota video, scholars and professionals from all fields and institutions across the nation come together to discuss fluid power. What is fluid power? Where is it used? How will hydraulics and pneumatics be applied in new and transformational ways? Kim Stelson, professor and director at the center for Compact and Efficient Fluid Power at the University of Minnesota, leads the panel in a discussion that answers these questions and more through its stunning array of visuals and the insights of its many narrators: researchers, educators, students and leaders in the hydraulics and pneumatics industries.

Introduction to Venture Capital

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Securing financing is a critical step for most startup companies as they progress from an initial idea to a fully-staffed company shipping real products. For an entrepreneur starting a company, having a clear understanding of potential financing mechanisms can be just as important as knowledge of the technology and market opportunities. Examine startup financing in general and venture capital in particular in this video from the University of Washington’s Computer Science and Engineering Department.

Content-Preserving Warps for Video Stabilization and Wide-Angle Imaging

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Content-preserving warps allow video editors to deform images while preserving the shape and appearance of salient image content. Aseem Agarwala of Adobe describes how variants of this method can be applied in surprising ways. Content-preserving warps can improve video stabilization, transforming shaky hand-held camera work and into smooth motion video. Examine a challenging case: modifying a video shot while walking through a 3D scene so that it resembles the "tracking shots" used in films, where rail-mounted cameras are carefully pushed along ideal paths. Another problem is minimizing perceptual distortion in wide-angle images. Large field-of-view images are easy to capture with wide-angle lenses or by stitching panoramas, but the images typically look distorted; straight lines in the scene may be curved, and objects stretched or squashed. The goal is to project the visual content defined across a large field-of-view into a distortion-free image.

Green Computing & Higher Education: The New "3 R's" -- Reduce Your Carbon Footprint, Reuse & Recycle

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The proliferation of new computing devices reaches every area of campus service to support instruction, facilities, and student life. Many campuses are looking to CIOs to conserve energy and to promote more sustainable solutions in labs and data centers. This R2N program focuses on issues, earth-friendly policies, and ways that CIOs may contribute to a more sustainable, earth-friendly future.

Hardness Amplification by Repetition

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Does computing k times as many functions require k times the computational effort? In this talk, we discuss a few scenarios in which variants of this question have been studied. This talk will examine hardness of approximation, communication complexity and spherical cubes.

Computer Science & Engineering Distinguished Lecturer Series: Closing the Innovation Gap

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Innovation drives economic growth, our quality of life and is the only hope of addressing the major challenges we face. But America, a cornerstone of innovation throughout the world, has become increasingly short-sighted. By taking innovation for granted we threaten not only our own strength, but the overall global economy. Judy Estrin, technology and business pioneer and author of the new book Closing the Innovation Gap, will talk about how it is essential to reignite sustainable innovation in business, education and government and what is required of business and national leaders to revive organizational, national and global Innovation Ecosystems.

The Application of Platform-Based Design to Embedded Electronics and Synthetic Biological Systems

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Platform-Based Design is a design methodology within Computer Aided Design which at its core promotes the separation of functionality from implementation. Rigorous and formal applications of PBD have been shown to be very useful in the design of embedded electronic systems. This work has manifested itself in the development of the Polis, Metropolis, and Metro II design environments at UC Berkeley. PBD's true power lies in its ability to cross into new application areas. This talk will outline PBD techniques as they relate to both embedded electronics and synthetic biology.

A Genetic Toolkit for the Synthesis and Assembly of Materials for Electronics and Energy

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

MIT professor Angela Belcher talks about her research using nature and energy sources to grow inexpensive nanomaterials. The new, environmentally friendly materials would self-assemble and contain other desirable properties.

Learning Hierarchical, Nonparametric Models for Visual Scenes

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Computer vision systems use image features to detect and categorize objects in visual scenes. In this University of Washington program, learn about Erik Sudderth MIT/UC Berkeley research that explores hierarchical models using contextual and geometric relationships for more effective learning from large, partially labeled image databases.

Computational Textiles and the Democratization of Ubiquitous Computing

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The blossoming research field of e-textiles integrates computation with fabric. E-textile researchers weave, solder and sew electronics into cloth to build soft, flexible and washable computational devices. E-textiles is a young discipline, and developments in the field have been relegated almost exclusively to research labs in industry and academia. In this University of Washington program, learn about advancements that make e-textiles accessible to new audiences that are helping to democratize ubiquitous computing and integrate electronic hardware with cloth.

Stream Programming: Luring Programmers into the Multicore Era

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

As the computer industry has moved to multicore processors, the historic trend of exponential performance improvements will now depend on ordinary programmers and their ability to parallelize their code. However, most programmers are already overwhelmed by the complexity of modern software and are unwilling to expend extra effort on parallelization. Hence, for programmers to embrace a parallel abstraction, it must come with new capabilities that simplify application development and lure programmers into changing their ways. Learn more in this University of Washington program presented by William Thies of MIT.

Voyagers and Voyeurs: Supporting Collaborative Information Visualization

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Interactive visualizations leverage human visual processing and cognition to increase the scale of information with which we can effectively work. However, most visualization research to date focuses on a single-user model, overlooking the social nature of visual media. Visualizations are used not only to explore and analyze, but to communicate findings. People may disagree on how to interpret data and contribute contextual knowledge that deepens understanding. Furthermore, some data sets are so large that thorough exploration by a single person is unlikely. Jeffrey Heer from the University of California, Berkeley, presents a number of novel visualization techniques in this University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering program.

Network Coded Wireless Architecture

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Wireless is becoming the preferred mode of network access. The performance of wireless networks in practice, however, is hampered due to the harsh characteristics of the wireless medium: its shared broadcast nature, interference, and high error rate. Traditionally, network designers have viewed these characteristics as problematic, and tried to work around them. This talk will show how we can turn these challenges into opportunities that we exploit to significantly improve performance.

Computer Science Research for Global Development

Mon, 23 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

On the same planet where there are 1.4 billion Internet users, a far less fortunate 1.4 billion people survive below the World Bank’s definition of the poverty line. The same technology that has transformed our lives - the lives of the wealthiest people on the planet - also remains out of reach and irrelevant for the poorest. This talk introduces the Technology for Emerging Markets group at Microsoft Research India, where an interdisciplinary team of researchers explores solutions in the context of agriculture, education, healthcare, microfinance, and other domains of development.

Object Recognition with Deformable Models

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The problem of detecting and localizing objects in images has important applications in a variety of areas, including robotics, image retrieval and medical image analysis. Deformable models represent objects as deformed versions of an ideal template. While this approach provides an elegant framework for object recognition, it also leads to difficult computational problems. The first part of this University of Washington program describes efficient algorithms that have been developed for finding objects in images using different types of deformable models. In the second part, Pedro Felzenszwalb of the University of Chicago considers the specific problem of detecting objects from generic categories such as people and cars in realistic scenes.

Computational Biology: Comparing Vertebrate Genomes

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

There are currently 17 vertebrate genomes, ranging from primates to fishes, for which we know nearly their entire DNA sequences, and this number will increase rapidly. Comparing these genome sequences has emerged as one of the most important areas of computational biology. One way to predict functional portions of the human genome, for example, is to search among related genomes for sequences that appear to be remarkably similar due to selective pressure. Martin Tompa discusses and demonstrates some of the methods and tools for such an approach, as well as some of the challenges and unsolved problems.

Enhancing Creativity Through Toolkits

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Interface toolkits in ordinary application areas let average programmers rapidly develop software resembling other standard applications. In contrast, toolkits for novel and perhaps unfamiliar application areas enhance the creativity of these programmers. By removing low-level implementation burdens and supplying appropriate building blocks, toolkits give people a "language" to think about these new interfaces, which in turn allows them to concentrate on creative designs. This means that programmers can rapidly generate and test new ideas, replicate and refine ideas presented by others, and create demonstrations for others to try.

Traffic Matrix Inference and Anomaly Detection in Large IP Networks

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Albert Greenberg of Microsoft describes progress in IP network traffic matrix inference, arguably one of the most important technical problems in the engineering and management of large-scale IP networks. Greenberg discusses tomo-gravity (how to compute accurate traffic matrices for large ISPs in seconds), and anomography (how to accurately detect anomalies, at network-level, for large ISPs in seconds). The methods rely only on ubiquitously available link load and configuration data.

Designing Appropriate Computing Technologies for the Rural Developing World

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Tapan Parikh describes his experiences developing CAM - a toolkit for mobile phone data collection - in the rural developing world. Designing technologies for an unfamiliar context requires understanding the needs and capabilities of potential users. Drawing from the results of an extended participatory design study conducted with microfinance group members in rural India (many of whom are semi-literate or illiterate), he outlines a set of user interface design guidelines for accessibility to such users. The results of this study are used to motivate the design of the CAM toolkit, which includes support for paper-based interaction; multimedia input and output; and disconnected operation. Parikh discusses possible topics for future work and his long-term research vision.

Bill Gates Unplugged: On Software, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Giving Back

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

University of Washington President Mark Emmert and the department of Computer Science and Engineering host Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for the final stop of his six-university tour, as Gates transitions from Microsoft to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Virtual Private Machines: A Resource Abstraction for Multicore Computer Systems

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The computer industry is undergoing a momentous transformation. General-purpose computing is moving from desktops to diverse devices such as smart phones, digital entertainment centers and data center servers. At the same time, high-performance semiconductor manufacturers have shifted their focus from large monolithic processor designs to distributed multicore architectures. Learn more about architectures, multicore hardware, resource efficiency, and operating system policies in this University of Washington program with guest speaker Kyle Nesbit from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Stochastic Optimal Control in Biology and Engineering

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Control under uncertainty is a fundamental problem relevant to biology as well as engineering. Optimality models have explained numerous details of biological movements. Indeed optimal control and optimal (i.e. Bayesian) estimation are becoming the framework of choice for studying sensorimotor function. However most demonstrations of optimality are limited to relatively simple behaviors. In more complex and interesting behaviors we still lack the algorithms to compute what is optimal. Continued progress requires more efficient algorithms for stochastic optimal control. In this University of Washington program, Emanuel Todorov, of MIT and UCSD, presents a new problem formulation that greatly simplifies the construction of optimal control laws, and yields original algorithms.

A Theory of Similarity Functions for Learning and Clustering

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Machine learning has become a highly successful discipline with applications in many different areas of computer science. A critical advance that has spurred this success has been the development of learning methods using a special type of similarity functions known as kernel functions. These methods have proven very useful in practice for dealing with many different kinds of data and they also have a solid theoretical foundation. In this University of Washington program, Maria-Florina Balcan of Carnegie Mellon University describes the theory that provides new and simpler explanations.

Dynamics of Real-World Networks

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Emergence of the web and cyberspace gave rise to detailed traces of human social activity. This offers great opportunities to analyze and model behaviors of millions of people. Take, for example, an examination of planetary scale dynamics of a full Microsoft Instant Messenger network that contains 240 million people, with more than 255 billion exchanged messages per month (4.5TB of data), which makes it the largest social network analyzed to date. In this University of Washington program, guest speaker Jure Leskovec of Carnegie Mellon University, focuses on two aspects of the dynamics of large real-world networks -- dynamics of information diffusion and cascading behavior in networks, and dynamics of the structure of time evolving networks.

Bringing Sensing to the Masses: Infrastructure Mediated Sensing

Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The use of sensing systems in the home has the potential to impact various research areas such as chronic care management, aging in place, and sustainability. But such sensing systems can also affect our daily lives. Shwetak Patel of the Georgia Institute of Technology developed what he calls infrastructure mediated sensing, or IMS. In this video, explore the possibilities of IMS, the challenges it faces and how it may enable our homes to sense our activities as well as assist in home maintenance.

Behind the Code with Terry Crowley

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It is hard to imagine a time when the Internet wasn’t a part of our lives, but it has only been a little over a decade since the Internet became so widespread. Terry Crowley, a technical fellow and director of development for Microsoft Office, played an integral role in the early history and evolution of the Internet. Join us as he shares his reflections on the Internet, the origins and evolution of FrontPage, experiences in Office and his expectations for where this technology may lead us.

Coarse-to-Fine Natural Language Processing

Fri, 22 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

State-of-the-art NLP models are anything but compact. Syntactic parsers have huge grammars, machine translation systems have huge transfer tables, and so on across a range of tasks. With such complexity come two challenges. First, how can we learn highly complex models? Second, how can we efficiently infer optimal structures within them? Syntactic parsing, acoustic modeling for speech recognition, and machine translation issues are all discussed in this talk.

WISELI: FORWARD with Institutional Transformation

Thu, 17 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This third documentary in a series of three provides an overview of WISELI, an NSF-funded ADVANCE project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Outcomes of several WISELI initiatives are presented, along with discussions of the changes seen at UW-Madison since the project began. The program concludes with WISELI's future plans, including efforts to disseminate initiatives from the project's first five years.

Production Company: Eclipse Multimedia Productions, Madison WI

Powerset and Natural Language Search

Thu, 17 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Central to the concept of natural language search is that users express queries in natural language with the system responses respecting the linguistic information in the query. Architecture centered on natural language, linguistic and lexical knowledge translates directly into improved capabilities and experiences for end users. This creates both challenges and opportunities. Powerset is a startup company that is tackling these challenges in an attempt to bring natural language search to the world.

Multiprocessor Architectures for Programmability

Thu, 17 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Luis Ceze believes the main problem confronting computer architects today is designing computer systems that help simplify parallel programming. Ceze presents two powerful computer architecture primitives that help with this. Together, these two techniques offer promising directions in the critical area of novel multiprocessor architectures for programmability.

Robust Design of Arithmetic Units for Error Tolerant Applications

Thu, 17 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Josephine Ammer discusses designing robust arithmetic units for new semiconductors and wireless communications. As semiconductor technology is scaled, process variation becomes an ever-increasing problem. Designs incur a larger penalty to guarantee operation at the worst-case process corner. Many applications (wireless communication, audio and video signal processing, graphics, data mining, etc.) can tolerate certain levels of errors. The key challenge is ensuring those errors cause small changes in the final system output.

Bridges to the Future, Part I: The Smart Grid

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In 1940, 10 percent of energy consumption in America was used to produce electricity. That number has now increased to 40 percent. As Americans become increasingly dependent on electricity, what is being done to make the nation’s electrical grid more resilient and nimble? Join Jerry Beilinson, deputy editor of Popular Mechanics, as he discusses the future of electrical grids and the implications they have for the safety of the future.

Learning to Program DNA

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Ongoing improvements in DNA sequencing and DNA synthesis technologies are making genetic material (physical DNA molecules) and genetic information (DNA sequence data) interconvertible. For example, researchers have demonstrated the construction of DNA molecules up to 7,700,000 base pairs, a length that is long enough to encode all known viruses, most important bacteria, and almost the entire genome of S. cerevisiae (baker's yeast).

Modeling, Analysis and Optimization of On-chip Communication Architectures

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Traditionally, design space exploration for Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) has focused on the computational aspects of the problem at hand. However, as the number of processing elements on a single chip and their performance continue to increase, the design of the communication architecture plays a central role in defining the area, performance and energy consumption of the overall system. Furthermore, the global interconnects cause unpredictable delays and high power consumption. To mitigate these kinds of effects, the network-on-chip (NoC) communication architectures have emerged recently as a promising alternative to the classical bus-based and point-to-point communication architectures.

Apprenticeship Learning for Robotic Control

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Research into robotics is nothing new, but have we hit a point in robotics development at which we can teach robots instead of merely create them? Pieter Abbeel of Stanford University discusses apprenticeship learning techniques that have opened a door of possibilities for robotics, enabling a quadruped robot to traverse challenging terrain and a helicopter to perform difficult aerobatics.

Bridges on the Brink

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The tragedy of the I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis alerted many to the urgent need to better monitor and maintain thousands of bridges across the U.S. For decades, engineers have been studying these bridges and calculating their risk of failure, yet many proposed solutions have not been adopted. This presentation examines what engineers know about our at-risk bridges; what they are hoping to learn from the I-35W collapse; and how cutting-edge technologies, some already in the testing stages, may provide answers for how to monitor and maintain the long list of bridges deemed structurally deficient.

Measuring the Accuracy of Distributed Algorithms on Multi-Robot Systems

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Distributed algorithms running on multi-robot systems rely on ad-hoc networks to relay messages throughout the group. The propagation speed of these messages is large, but not infinite, and problems in algorithm execution can arise when the robot speed is a large fraction of the message propagation speed. In this work, we focus on measuring the accuracy of multi-robot distributed algorithms.

Distinguished Lecturer Series: Jeff Dean - Research Challenges Inspired by Large-Scale Computing at Google

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This lecture gives some background information on Google's existing hardware and software infrastructure and will examine what works well and what does not, and some areas where interesting unsolved research problems are highlighted. The problems span a wide range of topics, including processor design, distributed systems, machine learning, information retrieval, text processing and many other areas. This talk is meant to cover a sampling of interesting problems/areas, not a comprehensive treatise.

The Mashup of Virtual Worlds and Learning: Steps Toward a Platform Independent Solution

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

With the advent of virtual worlds, new dimensions of collaboration, peer review, indexing and archiving can be reached. These persistent environments could be ancient cities complete with AI animals and avatars, or a model of the human circulatory system backed by a sophisticated simulation operating on a cloud of computers pushing results into virtual world client "viewers." Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists, unearths the possibilities that these worlds hold for building a wide range of learning experiences.

Help, I Can't Stop Learning

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

It’s an addiction, some might say, while others think of it as recreational. In any case, video games have become a dominant force in our modern society. From gory battles between unnatural forces to adventures with mystical creatures, video games are full of imagination and provide edge-of-your-seat action. But can video games be educational as well? Sid Meier, director of creative development at Firaxis, shares his vision of finding fun in history, economics, politics and culture through the world of gaming.

Light, Agile and Flexible

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Heavy, clumsy and inflexible collaboration technologies are becoming a thing of the past. Even so, collaborative technologies have not been easily adopted by educators of all types, from K-12 to military training. Today's lightweight applications can do a lot more and do it more easily than their ponderous progenitors. Stephen Downes, senior researcher at the National Research Council, will look at how Web 2.0 applications and social and collaborative technologies can support learning and guide institutions in leveraging their capabilities.

Distinguished Lecturer Series: David Ditzel - A 25 Year Perspective on Binary Translation: What Worked, What Didn't

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Binary Translation is a technique that continues to grow in acceptance. It has been used for moving customer applications across systems which would otherwise be binary incompatible. Early examples include Hunter Systems XDOS and Digital Equipment's FX132, to Transitive Technologies current use by Apple Computer to help move customer applications from PowerPC to Intel processors. Binary translation techniques will become increasingly common in the future as a way to introduce new techniques in computer architecture while proving backwards binary compatibility.

Intelligence in Wikipedia

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Berners-Lee's vision of the Semantic Web is hindered by a chicken-and-egg problem, which can be best solved by a bootstrapping method: creating enough structured data to motivate the development of applications. UW CSE believes that autonomously Semantifying Wikipedia is the best way to bootstrap. They choose Wikipedia as an initial data source, because it is comprehensive, high-quality, not too large, and contains enough manually-derived structure to bootstrap an autonomous, self-supervised process. This talk will present their success to date in this endeavor.

Microsoft's Parallel Computing Platform: Applied Research in a Product Setting

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The goal of Microsoft's Parallel Computing Platform (PCP) team is to enable the shift to modern, multi- and manycore hardware, by providing a runtime, programming models, libraries, and tools that make it easy for developers to construct correct, efficient, maintainable, and scalable programs through the use of parallelism. In doing so, tens of years of industry research has been combined and applied in a myriad of ways. This talk examines PCP's current progress, explicitly relating it to specific research of the past and present, in addition to surveying future efforts and possible research opportunities.

Open Data Kit: Open Source Mobile Data Collection

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Get ahead of the technology curve with Gaetano Borriello, Computer Science and Engineering professor at the University of Washington. Borriello reveals the latest data collection tool, Open Data Kit, a customizable mobile device that its creators hope will bring current research directly into the hands of citizen scientists, and public health and environmental communities. Supported by Google, ODK is sure to push information horizons in new directions.

The Impact of Multicore Architectures on Software: Disaster or Opportunity?

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

How much information can you fit on a single microchip? Senior manager Michael Hind of the Programming Technologies Department at IBM Research reveals the most up-to-date changes in computer chip memory capacity, clock frequency and software optimization in this video from the University of Washington's Computer Science and Engineering Colloquium Series. Multiple processor cores on every chip will both challenge and revolutionize the industry.

Cybersecurity: The First Pacific Rim Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The First Pacific Rim Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition—or "Geeks Under Attack!"— tested students’ ability to protect enterprise network and business information systems. Hosted by Microsoft and organized by Barbara Endicott-Popovsky, Director of the Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity at the University of Washington Information School, PRCCDC offered a challenging proving ground for nine teams of rising cybersecurity professionals. The documentary was funded by a generous gift from Microsoft.

Deduplication Storage System

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

This talk gives an overview of the latest disruptive technology in the storage systems industry called deduplication storage system. Disk-based deduplication storage has emerged as the new-generation storage system for enterprise data protection to replace tape libraries.

Overcoming Security Challenges in Emerging Technologies

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Emerging technologies have the potential to greatly improve the quality of our lives. Without the appropriate checks and balances, however, these emerging technologies have the potential to also compromise our digital (and physical) security and privacy. A key goal of the UW CSE Computer Security Lab is to help us achieve the best of both worlds: the wonderful promises offered by the new technologies without the associated security and privacy risks. This talk will examine several strands of our research, focusing first on our recent work with wireless implantable medical devices.

How to Get the Most Out of a Startup

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Glenn Kelman, Redfin CEO and Plumtree Software founder, talks to computer science undergraduates about how to evaluate, interview at and negotiate with startups and also how to think about some day starting a company of their own. Kelman gives tips for dealing with startups going into recruiting season.

Digital Simplicity through Activity-Based Computing

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Recent advances in small, inexpensive sensors, low-power processing, machine learning and mobile-user interfaces have enabled applications that use on-body sensing to infer people's activities throughout everyday life. The Digital Simplicity project brings this technology into our everyday lives and simplifies our high-level, long-lived activities. Target activities include supporting the elderly’s health and independence, motivating individuals to get fit and reducing a family’s environmental footprint. Explore these applications as well as the underlying sensing, inference and design tools required to bring Digital Simplicity to everyday life.

Towards a Simpler Internet

Tue, 04 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT

While the Internet has proven to be an astounding triumph of engineering, it continues to face huge technical problems. This talk will argue that many of these problems stem from the complexity of the Internet's protocol stack. Although the Internet is often easy to use, in the presence of faults, misconfigurations, attacks, and resource contention, the Internet's behavior can be very difficult to model or even understand. The research agenda at UW has been to develop a suite of protocols to radically simplify the Internet's observable behavior, to yield a more robust, securable, and efficient system. The lecture will give examples from interdomain routing, denial-of-service protection, congestion control, and wireless media access.

Behind the Code with Mohsen Agsen

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

A rolling stone gathers no moss. What it does gather, however, is a great deal of experience. During his long career at Microsoft, Mohsen Agsen has been actively avoiding gathering moss. LAN manager, MCS, bCentral, Exchange, Visual Studio and ... oh yes ... games too. These are just a few of the products and technologies that Mohsen has been involved in. At each step along the way, he's built and maintained a reputation for being a strategic thinker and technical leader.

During this episode, we discuss with Mohsen some of the challenges that Microsoft has faced in the past, and learn how not just Microsoft, but the industry in general can deal with the challenges of today.

Uncommon Sense & Innovation

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Dr. William Brody, president of Johns Hopkins University presents his lecture, "Uncommon Sense and Innovation." Brody is the 13th president of Johns Hopkins University. With his extensive education in electrical engineering and medicine, Brody knows the importance of discovery and innovation in science. With that in mind, he discusses the role of reasoning and problem solving in the real world and emphasizes how to apply it to science.

Building a Modern Library

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

When CSUMB was founded in 1994, the initial intent was to create a virtual library, full of electronic content that students could access from anywhere. While that view of information delivery assumed that traditional information resources would disappear or significantly diminish, print publications and other physical media such as DVDs have, in fact, increased annually over the past decade. Fortunately, it didn't take long for CSUMB to determine that, particularly for students, a library is just as much about learning spaces as learning resources. This feature highlights the construction of a new and true university library that has been given high priority by the CSUMB community, the California State University (CSU) system, and the state.

Research in Educational Technology: Expanding Educational Possibilities

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The goal of the Educational Technology Group is to enhance education through novel deployments of computing technology. This includes improving the classroom experience by creating tools that allow greater flexibility in presentation and promote interaction, as well as extending the reach of education through different mechanisms for distance education. This program surveys a collection of projects the group has undertaken, including Tutored Video Instruction, Classroom Presenter, ConferenceXP, and Digital Study Hall. Learn about the challenges and future directions, including integrating a heterogeneous collection of devices to support active learning in the classroom, enhancing Tutored Video Instruction with greater support for facilitation, and creating an interactive environment in distance learning. Of particular interest are international course deployments and applications of educational technology to improve education in the developing world.

Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Lecturer Series: The Web the Way You Want It

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The decentralized architecture of the web was designed from the outset to create an environment where content producers and consumers could come together without the need for everyone to use the same server and client. To participate in the web revolution, users only needed to subscribe to the basic architecture of a web of content delivered via HTTP and addressable via URLs. Given this architecture, specialized browsers have always existed to a greater or lesser degree alongside mainstream web browsers. This talk will highlight specialized browsers in the context of accessibility; for use in mobile environments, or for use by persons with specific needs. As we evolve from the purely presentational web to a more data-oriented web, such specialized tools become center-stage with respect to providing optimal information access to the end-user. The talk will conclude with a brief overview of where such web technologies are headed and what this means to the future of making web content accessible to all.

Internet Evolution and Some Challenges for the Early 21st Century

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Although the Internet has been around for 35 years in concept and 25 years since roll out, there are still many capabilities that could improve its utility. Broadcast models of operation; dealing with mobility and multi-homing, coping with persistent connections, accommodating strong end/end authentication, expanding the address space, dealing with multilingual domain names, implementing DNSSEC, supporting an interplanetary extension of the Internet, adding more security to all layers and a host of other features. These topics will be explored in this talk.

Part 1 - Privacy: Reconciling Reality

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Hear a discussion about new federal and state laws meant to protect our privacy. What are the laws designed to achieve? How do they impact the general public, researchers, system managers and private organizations? In this program by The Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity at the University of Washington, learn strategies and tools under development to enhance information privacy and protection.

Part 2 - At Odds: Victims Rights vs. Free Speech

Tue, 12 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Examine the muddy crossroads where online anonymous free speech can morph into harmful, targeted crimes of hate in this program by The Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity at the University of Washington. State Attorney General Rob McKenna introduces this moderated discussion on how two tenets of the American consciousness –- a deeply held belief in the value of laissez-faire economics and in the first amendment –- collide with real-life victims of Internet crime.

Computer Security Awareness Video Contest

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The EDUCAUSE/Internet 2 Computer and Network Security Task Force, in cooperation with ResearchChannel, is conducting its second annual contest in search of short computer security awareness videos developed by college students for college students. The contest is sponsored by the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). Winners will receive cash prizes and the videos will be featured on the Security Task Force Web site (www.educause.edu/security). For submission details, entrants can go to the Video Contest website linked below.

Computer Science: Past, Present and Future

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Computing research has made remarkable advances, but there's much more to be accomplished. The next ten years of advances should be even more significant, and even more interesting, than the past ten. The National Science Foundation has created the Computing Community Consortium to engage computing researchers in an ongoing process of visioning -- of imagining what we might contribute to the world, in terms that we and the world might both appreciate. This process is just beginning. In this program, Ed Lazowska reviews the progress the field has made and presents a number of "grand challenge" problems we should be prepared to tackle in the coming decade.

The Desktop: Frontiers in Systems Research

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Desktop software, in the form of Web browsers, browser features and operating system distributions, are a growing area of engineering activity at Google. Brad Chen of Google, Inc. offers a look at Native Client as an example project in the space. Native Client is an open-source research technology for running x86 native code in Web applications, with the goal of maintaining the browser neutrality, OS portability and safety that people expect from Web apps. It supports performance-oriented features generally absent from Web application programming environments, such as thread support, instruction set extensions such as SSE and use of compiler intrinsics and hand-coded assembler. Google combines these properties in an open architecture designed to leverage existing Web standards and to encourage community review and third-party tools. Overall, Google's desktop efforts seek to enable new Web applications, improve end-user experience and enable a more flexible balance between client and server computing. Google has open sourced many desktop efforts, in part to encourage collaboration and independent innovation.

Behind the Code with Richard Ward

Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Just as artists embody a diverse set of talents and interests, computer engineers also use a diverse set of experiences for inspiration in their work. Richard Ward does just that for Microsoft. Bringing his eclectic background and interests, Ward uses this diversity for his own art of programming within the Windows Core Architecture team. Learn about which experiences Ward finds most useful as he builds out the core infrastructure components of what will, one day, be running on the vast majority of the world’s computers.

Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Lecturer Series: Cooking in Silico: Understanding Heat Transfer in the Modern Kitchen

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

During the last decade, haute cuisine has undergone a scientific revolution. Leading chefs have taken an interest in the science of cooking and in scientific tools found more commonly in research laboratories. Centrifuges, freeze dryers, digitally-controlled water baths and liquid-nitrogen filled Dewar flasks are just a few examples of technologies that have transformed the modernist kitchen. The computer remains an underutilized tool for exploring the hows and whys of cooking. In this talk at the University of Washington, Nathan Myhrvold and Chris Young of Intellectual Ventures show how computationally intense heat-transfer calculations can reveal the subtle factors that influence the success or failure of a cook's efforts in the kitchen. Explore the virtues of computational cooking, and watch novel techniques and creations made possible when science informs the culinary arts.

Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Lecturer Series: Return to the Final Frontier

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Spaceflight participant and former Microsoft software developer Charles Simonyi compares his first and second spaceflights as part of the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Lecturer Series. He’s observed encouraging maturity in manned space technologies, as well as valuable lessons from his experiences in space. Simonyi also shares video of his return from orbit in a Soyuz capsule.

Unifying Logical and Statistical AI

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Intelligent agents must be able to handle the complexity and uncertainty of the real world. Logical AI has focused mainly on the former and statistical AI on the latter. Markov logic combines the two by attaching weights to first-order formulas and viewing them as templates for features of Markov networks. Markov logic has been successfully applied to problems in information extraction, robot mapping, social networks and others, and is the basis of the open-source Alchemy system.

Image Segmentation using Spectral Rounding

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This lecture presents a new image segmentation algorithm, Spectral Rounding (SR), and a fast solver used for segmenting 2D images. The second issue addressed is fast algorithms for finding the associated eigenvectors and solving related linear systems.

Computer Science and Engineering Distinguished Lecturer Series: Interactive Machine Learning

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Machine learning offers the promise of assisting users to create new tools simply by demonstrating the desired outcome. The tool "Image Processing with Crayons" was built for creating classifiers for image-based problems. The tool empowers a much larger class of people who can create image-based interactive techniques. However, observations of people using Crayons have pointed out several challenges in the way machine learning algorithms are designed. People do not behave in statistically uniform distributions and more importantly their interaction with the learning algorithm distorts their behavior in specific ways. The lessons we have learned will be discussed along with new directions for machine learning algorithms that might learn faster in the face of user behavior.

Our Infrastructures - Online and Vulnerable? Part 2 of 3

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

This program includes a presentation by Mark Hadley, a research scientist with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory focusing on cybersecurity and the protection of critical infrastructure systems. He outlines the historical reasons for the vulnerability of networked digital control systems, and the technical requirements for better securing them. It also includes a presentation by Kevin Desouza, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Information School at the University of Washington and the director of the Institute for National Security Education and Research, an inter-disciplinary university-wide initiative. He speaks about the intelligence perspective on critical infrastructure protection, and the need for effective frameworks governing the gathering and use of intelligence.

This program is presented by The Center for Information Assurance and Cybersecurity at the University of Washington Information School and sponsored by UW Institute for National Security Education and Research and The UW Master of Strategic Planning for Critical Infrastructures online graduate program, with additional support fro The Information School, The Pacific Northwest Center for Global Security, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Our Infrastructures - Online and Vulnerable? Part 3 of 3

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Part Three is a presentation by Dan Ryan, J.D., professor of systems management at National Defense University and an expert on information assurance and cyberlaw. He spoke about the highly varied legal issues -- many of them new -- that could flow from attacks on critical infrastructures via networked control systems, and how the existing legal system might or might not respond to those issues.