Study Finds Sharp Math, Science Skills Help Expand
Economy
Wall Street Journal (03/03/08) P. A2; Murray, Sara
Raising U.S. students' math and science skills to the level of the world's
leaders would increase the gross domestic product by about two-thirds of a
percentage point, concludes an Education Next study. Stanford University
professor and study co-author Eric Hanushek says studies that tie economic
growth to the number of years of education are faulty because a year of
schooling in some countries is not equal to what a student in the United
States learns. The National Governors Association made a similar call
about two decades ago, estimating that sharply improving math and science
skills by 2000 would have boosted GDP two percentage points today and 4.5
percentage points by 2015. "Had we figured out some way to improve our
schools, or do what we could to improve the learning of our students, we
would be a lot better off today," Hanushek says. Although states develop
their own curriculum, math is more likely to be standardized than science.
Some observers believe student performance can be improved by creating
national standards for math and science, but add that classes should not be
based on passing a test.
Click Here to View Full Article
- Web Link May Require Paid Subscription
to the top
Enrollments and Degree Production at US CS Departments
Drop Further in 2006/2007
CRA Bulletin (03/01/08) Vegso, Jay
The number of students choosing computer science and related fields as a
course of study is declining, with the percentage of incoming students
among all degree-granting institutions who indicated they would major in
computer science falling 70 percent between the fall of 2000 and 2005.
Between the 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 academic years, enrollments fell 18
percent. The total number of bachelor's degrees granted by Ph.D.-granting
computer science departments dropped 43 percent to 8,021 between 2003/2004
and 2006/2007. The consistently low numbers in total enrollments and
student interest in computer science as a major indicates that degree
production will continue to fall over the next few years. Still, computer
science enrollment is historically uneven. The National Science Foundation
reports that from 1980 to 1986 undergraduate computer science graduates
quadrupled to more than 42,000, which was followed by a swift decline and
plateau during the 1990s. The economic downturn and slow job growth during
the early 2000s likely contributed to the recent decline in computer
science graduates.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Photo Industry Braces for Another Revolution
CNet (03/03/08) Shankland, Stephen
The exploitation of how computers can use sensor data either within the
camera or on a PC forms the basis of the next photo industry revolution,
which researchers are calling computational photography. One notable
research area is the use of a computer to stitch together multiple photos
into a single composite image of the same scene. MotionDSP software
combines multiple images by exploiting the fact that multiple frames of a
video record the same subject matter, and processing that can generate an
image whose fidelity is superior to that of any individual frame. MIT's
Rob Fergus has been developing software to eliminate blur in photos
distorted by camera shake, examine photos to deduce how the camera shook
when the picture was taken, then facilitate those changes. Another area of
research involves the employment of computational processing to render a
scene in three dimensions, and potential applications of this technology
include not only 3D hologram images, but making the camera capable of
optimizing focus and exposure for each individual shot. Stanford
University researchers have devised a camera that can gauge depth through
the use of hundreds of minuscule lenses over the sensor pixels, while
Refocus Imaging has created a technology that produces data files that can
be processed to focus the camera after the shot has been taken. The
foundation of Refocus Imaging's technology is the light field concept, and
Adobe Systems' Kevin Connor thinks light field technology will be a
built-in component of cameras. Adobe has developed a prototype camera with
a plenoptic lens that can help produce a 3D representation of a scene via
the processing of the subimages captured by the lens' constituent
lenses.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Japan Looks to a Robot Future
Associated Press (03/02/08) Tabuchi, Hiroko
Engineering students at Meiji University in Japan are programming a
rubbery robotic face to respond to different words with different
expressions, including anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise, and
disgust. "To live among people, robots need to handle complex social
tasks," says project leader Junichi Takeno. "Robots will need to work with
emotions, to understand and eventually feel them." In Japan, robots can
make sushi, plant rice and tend paddies, serve as receptionists, vacuum
office hallways, serve tea, feed the elderly, and greet company guests and
tourists in public areas. The need for advanced robotics in Japan is
critical as more than a fifth of the population is already 65 or older, and
the country is counting on robots to replenish the workforce and care for
the elderly. Over the past few years, the Japanese government has funded a
variety of robotics-related projects, and the government estimates that the
industry could surge from about $5.2 billion in 2006 to $26 billion in 2010
and nearly $70 billion by 2025. In addition to financial and technological
advantages, Japanese culture is more accepting of robotic assistants than
other countries, viewing robots as friendly helpers instead of the
rebellious and violent machines often seen in Western science fiction.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
IBM Promises Blazing Fast, Efficient Optical Net
TechNewsWorld (02/28/07) Noyes, Katherine
Transmitting immense files at high speed while consuming very little power
is the goal of a prototype optical network technology from IBM. The
company says the system could enable the wireless transmission of
information at 8 terabits per second using the power of just one 100-watt
light bulb, thus delivering massive volumes of energy-efficient bandwidth
to a broad spectrum of devices and revolutionizing the access, usage, and
exchange of information. The technology bundles optical chips and optical
data buses in one package with standard components, and it complies with
the bandwidth criteria for peta- and exa-flop supercomputing. IBM's
optically enhanced circuit boards (Optocards) use a series of low-loss
polymer optical waveguides to carry light transmitters and receivers, and
the databus built with Optocards uses a large number of high-speed
waveguide channels whose extremely small size allows for incredibly dense
packing. IBM says this breakthrough comes from a program funded by the
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that sought to demonstrate
high-bandwidth chip-to-chip interconnects via polymer waveguides integrated
on a printed circuit board. With this technology, mobile phones could be
equipped for high definition, supercomputers could operate with a much
higher level of energy efficiency, and numerous projects and services
involving the sharing of large data sets could proceed, IBM says.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
US Seeks Terrorists in Web Worlds
BBC News (03/03/08) Vallance, Chris
The U.S. government is performing observational studies on normal behavior
in online worlds in hopes of eventually developing techniques and tools for
uncovering the anomalous activity of terrorist groups. The recent report
that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) sent to
Congress mentions the project, which is codenamed Reynard. The report
describes Reynard as "a seedling effort to study the emerging phenomenon of
social [particularly terrorist] dynamics in virtual worlds and large-scale
online games and their implications for the intelligence community." After
the baseline normative behaviors are identified, Reynard will "then apply
the lessons learned to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting
suspicious behavior and actions in the virtual world." The project is
still in its early stages, and will be for research and not operational
purposes. ODNI did not reveal which online worlds it will study, and
Second Life and World of Warcraft are viewed as not offering the level of
security that would attract terrorists. Experts tracking terrorist groups
say it is only a matter of time before Jihad worlds emerge online for
educating recruits about their techniques.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Wireless Worms Will Follow Influenza's Example
New Scientist (02/26/08) Knight, Will
The outbreak of a wireless computer worm that spreads among portable
devices like a flu epidemic is a possibility, according to a new
mathematical model developed by Imperial College London researcher
Christopher Rhodes and BT researcher Maziar Nekovee. Their model considers
a group of people carrying Bluetooth-enabled smartphones, each of which has
a fixed range for linking to other phones in the crowd. Each member of the
crowd moves in a straight line and at a fixed speed, giving a phone that is
contaminated by a worm a fixed likelihood of infecting other devices while
they are within range. Rhodes and Nekovee's work demonstrates that a
wireless worm could most efficiently proliferate in a crowded environment
and also jump between geographically scattered locations, just like a real
virus. "Knowledge that person-to-person contact, or rather
device-to-device contact, represents a major factor in how a Bluetooth worm
spreads is definitely important," says Symantec Security Response
researcher Eric Chien. He adds that the disablement of non-essential
Bluetooth communications during an outbreak "reduces the contact
occurrences and would be analogous to wearing a surgical mask in areas of
potential infection."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Team-Based E-Learning Turns a New Page
ICT Results (02/26/08)
Collaboration between geographically dispersed student teams is the focus
of a European project that has devised an online platform that combines
e-learning, social networking, and project management components to help
virtual teams fully leverage their practical experience. "Collaborative
learning through teamwork projects need an entire project management
system, but with e-learning functionality built in," says Germany L3S
Research Center researcher Xuan Zhou, who is a member of the COOPER
project. The project's platform delivers a virtual environment that
far-flung teams can use to converse, get in touch with tutors, establish
project workflows, and submit documents. The COOPER platform's flexibility
is facilitated by a method known as Dynamic Process, which is mated with
the WebML modeling language to allow project teams to construct their own,
specially tailored project management system and workflows. The platform
also integrates voice over IP and videoconferencing systems, enabling team
members to speak with one another, conduct virtual meetings, or leave
messages for tutors or other team members. To address the impact
assessment problem inherent in project-based learning, the COOPER project's
research partners are devising tools that follow a system from the Central
Institute for Test Development and the Open University of the Netherlands,
which includes long-term evaluation schemes. COOPER invests project
results with additional value by analyzing and archiving all project output
to compile a "project memory bank" that can be utilized to augment study
programs and for institutions to supply public information about their
curricula and innovative initiatives. Most of the COOPER platform will be
freely downloadable over the Web once the project concludes in March.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Supercomputer Unleashes Virtual 9.0 Megaquake in Pacific
Northwest
University of California, San Diego (02/26/08) Tooby, Paul
Researchers led by San Diego State University seismologist Kim Olsen are
using a supercomputer-powered "virtual earthquake" to create realistic,
three-dimensional simulations that demonstrate the possible impacts of
megathrust events on the Pacific Northwest region. The Sand Diego
Supercomputing Center at UC Sand Diego and the U.S. Geological Survey are
also participating in the study. During a simulation of a rupture
beginning in the north and moving south along the 600-mile Cascadia
Subduction Zone, the ground moved about 1.5 feet per second in Seattle,
nearly six inches per second in Tacoma, Olympia, and Vancouver, and three
inches per second in Portland. Additional simulations, particularly when
earthquakes start in the southern part of the rupture zone, show that the
ground motion under some conditions could be twice as large. The
calculations required first preparing the initial conditions on the SDSC's
DataStar supercomputer and then transferring the resulting information to
the center's Blue Gene Data supercomputer. Olsen says the simulations show
that the area could benefit from an early warning system that would allow
time for protective actions before the worst shaking starts. He hopes the
study will raise awareness of the possibility of a megathrust occurring at
anytime in the Pacific Northwest.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Choice of Robot Companion Depends on Personality
Type
University of Hertfordshire (02/27/08)
University of Hertfordshire researchers say that people with more
extroverted personalities prefer to be in the company of more humanoid
robots, while introverts like to be around mechanical-looking robots.
Hertfordshire's School of Computer Science brought a robot to a nearby
house last year to observe how humans respond to it. "Our research allowed
us to identify two broad demographics of people who have preferences," says
Dr. Mick Walters, who conducted his Ph.D. project on human and robot
interaction. "It seems that there are those who prefer an unobtrusive
robot and then others who want a cheerier presence." Professor Kerstin
Dautenhahn, who headed the team, says the researchers also sought feedback
from people as it developed the People Bots. KASPAR, a humanoid robot
child, will be on display at the Hertfordshire Science and Technology
Research Institute Showcase.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Facial Expression Recognition Software
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (02/25/08)
Artificial intelligence researchers at the Universidad Politecnica de
Madrid have developed an algorithm capable of recognizing facial
expressions in real time and categorizing them as one of six prototype
expressions. The algorithm is able to process a sequence of frontal images
of mocking faces, up to 30 images per second, to recognize a face's
expression. The software can be applied to video sequences in realistic
situations. The system analyzes facial expressions through several boxes,
with each box "attached" to a part of the user's face. The boxes monitor
the person's facial movements until it determines what the facial
expression is by comparing captured information to different people from
the Cohn-Kanade database. The system has a success rate of 89 percent and
can work in adverse conditions where ambient lighting, frontal facial
movements, or camera displacements create major changes in facial
appearance.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Wi-Fi Cloud Hovers Over Salt Lake City
IEEE Spectrum (02/28/08) Hsu, Jeremy
Arizona State University geographer Paul Torrens recently completed the
first Wi-Fi coverage maps of Salt Lake City, an accomplishment that could
help other cities establish municipal Wi-Fi systems by piggybacking on the
residential and business hotspots that already exist in most cities.
Torrens' maps show that private businesses and homes already cover Salt
Lake City in a dense Wi-Fi cloud that could provide the foundation for
integrated citywide wireless coverage without a massive investment in new
infrastructure. More than 175 U.S. cities have already tried to establish
citywide or partial systems, but few have succeeded in providing the
coverage they promised. Using GPS, Torrens mapped 1,739 unique access
points in Salt Lake City from 500,000 data samples. The information shows
access points clustering around dense areas of houses and offices, as well
as around the dorms at the University of Utah. Still, converting the
city's wireless access points into an integrated network presents security
and privacy challenges. Computer scientists at Cambridge and MIT have
developed one possible solution. Using "tunnels," guests entering a public
Internet gateway would be routed through the host's network to their own
home IP address and back, which would slow access speeds but ensure that
users sign onto the network as themselves.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
$1.8 Million Grant to Expand IU School of Education
Professor's Immersive Learning Project Worldwide
Indiana University (02/25/08)
The Indiana University School of Education has been awarded a three-year,
$1.8 million grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
to expand the reach of professor Sasha Barab's Quest Atlantis project,
which offers students between the ages of 9 and 12 a 3D multiuser immersive
learning environment. Barab's system allows players to employ tactics they
might also use in commercial games on lessons from educational research on
learning and motivation, and travel to virtual destinations to conduct
educational activities, where they can communicate with other users and
mentors and construct virtual personas. Quest Atlantis is currently used
in the United States, China, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Malaysia,
Turkey, and Singapore, and at the end of three years Barab expects tens of
thousands of people worldwide to be using the environment, compared to
5,000 now. Barab says in an interview that the MacArthur grant "allows us
... to kind of enter that game, to bring up the quality of our software, to
bring up the quality of our storylines, and then ultimately to show to the
commercial industry that you can actually develop a space that will not be
used by five or 600 because no budget's going to allow that, but by 30 to
40,000 kids worldwide." He points out that Quest Atlantis does not operate
separately from the educator, and that the teacher's role is to collect
data and make decisions on how to function in virtual environments. Barab
says that Quest Atlantis' expansion to many more students throughout the
world can help facilitate a transformation in learning acquisition
techniques, so that children can "become critical creators, not just simply
consumers of information that they're taught not to question."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Researchers Hack 'Tamper-Proof' PIN Terminals
ZDNet UK (02/26/08) Espiner, Tom
Cambridge University researchers have successfully hacked the Ingenico
i3300 and Dione Xtreme PIN terminals, which are widely used in Britain and
are touted as tamper-proof. Cambridge's Saar Drimer and Steven Murdoch say
the devices' anti-tampering measures can be bypassed by tapping the line of
the PIN Entry Device/smartcard interface, where the data is unencrypted,
using conductors linked to a logic board with a field programmable gate
array through a thin wire. The Ingenico device features a user-accessible
compartment to insert SIM cards that is not designed with tamper-proofing
in mind. The researchers employed a paper clip as a conductor, which they
inserted into the serial data line through a hole in the PCB and thus were
able to capture both the PIN and card details. They also drilled into the
Dione Xtreme from the rear without being detected, and tapped the data
through the insertion of a 4-centimeter needle into a flat ribbon connector
socket. Both terminals were certified by Visa as secure, but the
researchers found that neither device complied with security standards.
"What this shows is that PIN entry devices in the U.K. are very insecure,"
says Cambridge professor Ross Anderson. "What's more, the [device]
certification process is completely defective."
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Gesture-Driven Computers
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft (02/08) Chojecki, Paul; Hardzeyeu, Valiantsin
At the CeBit conference in Hannover, Germany, Fraunhofer Institute
researchers will present new human-computer interfaces that demonstrate how
computers can be operated by gesturing or pointing a finger. The iPoint
Presenter uses a series of cameras to observe a person standing in front of
a projection screen. When users start moving their hands, the computer
reacts without being touched. Users can point to buttons or use gestures
to manipulate virtual objects. Multipointing interaction enables users to
issue commands using multiple fingers for tasks such as rotating,
enlarging, or minimizing objects. Fraunhofer scientist Paul Chojecki says
the iPoint Presenter is unique because it is entirely contact-free, making
it ideal for use in an operating theater or during a presentation in a
large auditorium. Meanwhile, researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for
Digital Media Technology (IDMT) are teaching computers to understand human
gestures and are developing a method for automatically recognizing
different hand signals. "Our work is based on optical pattern
recognition," says IDMT project manager Valiantsin Hardzeyeu. "This
technique mimics the way in which humans see things." A prototype
containing an intelligent camera connected to a computer running IDMT
pattern recognition software will be at the conference where it will record
and analyze visitors' gestures, converting the hand signals into machine
commands.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
An Upstart Web Catalog Challenges an Academic-Library
Giant
Chronicle of Higher Education (02/22/08) Vol. 54, No. 24, P. A11; Foster,
Andrea L.
Aaron Swartz's Open Library project, a free online book catalog that
anyone can update, could challenge the subscription-based WorldCat, the
world's largest bibliographic database. Many academic librarians are wary
of the Open Library project because it will allow nonlibrarians to catalog
books. However, others say the Open Library could make their collections
more visible on the Web. "It really provides the potential for libraries
to leap forward in terms of working with electronic books and collections
of electronic books," says Oregon State University emerging technologies
and services director Jeremy A. Frumkin. Swartz, only 21, already has
helped write the popular RSS Web tool and helped build Reddit, a Web site
that lets users rank news and other electronic content. "I saw all these
great books locked up in the stacks of libraries," Swartz says. "But
nobody ever found out about them, because they didn't have a spot on the
Web, and people weren't browsing the stacks anymore." Open Library will go
live in early March with records on 20 million books. The goal is to
create a comprehensive Web page about any book ever published. Each book
page will include basic information such as the author, title, and
publisher, as well as links to the nearest library with a copy. There will
also be links to related books, user review areas, and places to buy the
book online. Following the Wikipedia model, the pages can be created or
updated by anyone.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top
Computing Curricula for the 21st Century
IEEE Distributed Systems Online (02/08) Vol. 9, No. 2, Kornecki, Andrew J.
As the role of software and computing grows in all areas of technology and
human endeavor, it is vital that engineers are trained to understand
systems holistically and take into account software, hardware, and their
mutual interaction, writes Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University computer
science professor Andrew J. Kornecki. The majority of computing-education
programs emphasize theoretical foundations and programming skills, while
placing little if any concentration on practical facets of
hardware-software interactions and the real-time dependable-systems
development methods that the industry demands. Therefore, software
engineering practices should be incorporated into undergraduate computing
programs, and complement the education of conventional computer science
courses. Modern computing must involve the comprehension of complex
real-world interactions and systems integration; the enforcement of
engineering discipline when developing, verifying, and validating complex
software-intensive systems; and understanding the real world's
multidisciplinary demeanor by mixing disciplines that include control,
electrical, computer, and software engineering. The close interconnections
between hardware and software must be reflected in modern SE curricula, and
Edsger Dijikstra wrote that computer specialists have to apply a more
systems-based approach that stresses the system's functionality as a whole
and the interrelation of its constituent elements. The argument that SE
conventions and strategies may need to be applied to the hardware domain is
supported by rapid technological advancements in areas that include
microelectronics, and it is critical that software developers achieve an
understanding of the fundamental real-time concepts of timing, concurrency,
interprocess communication, resource sharing, hardware-interrupt handling,
and external-device interfaces.
Click Here to View Full Article
to the top