CHI 2008: International Conference Features Leading
Voices on Improving Interaction Between People and Computers
AScribe Newswire (03/05/08)
CHI 2008, sponsored by ACM's Special Interest Group on Computer Human
Interaction (SIGCHI), takes place April 5-10 in Florence, Italy. A
first-time Design Theatre at the conference will enhance the presentations
on video navigation, mobile phones, text-to-speech, mobile learning, Wi-Fi
hotspots, and human robot interactions for the audience. "The conference
will focus on the need to balance the artistry and aesthetics that make the
user experience meaningful with the practical technology applications that
underlie today's computers and electronic devices," says Microsoft
Research's Mary Czerwinski, co-chair of CHI 2008. The conference will
feature hundreds of sessions led by internationally acclaimed experts in
design, education, engineering, management, research, and usability.
"These are the world's leading authorities, who are creating technology
that harmonizes with human capabilities, goals, and social environments,
and improves how users and computers interact by making computers more
compatible with human needs," says CHI 2008 co-chair Arnie Lund, director
of user experience for Microsoft's Mobile Platforms Division. Irene
McAra-McWilliam, head of the School of Design at the Glasgow School of Art,
will be the opening keynote speaker. For more information about SIGCHI, or
to register, visit
http://www.chi2008.org/
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Washington Prepares for Cyber War Games
Washington Post (03/07/08) Krebs, Brian
An upcoming series of cyber war games that includes the participation of
IT experts and incident response teams from 18 federal agencies and about
40 companies will be held by the U.S. government to rate its recovery and
response capabilities. The approximately $6.2 million "Cyber Storm II"
will subject the U.S. IT and communications sector and chemical, pipeline,
and rail transportation industries to mock assaults by nation states,
terrorists, and saboteurs. The war games' planners are tight-lipped on
what kind of attack strategies they will employ, although they mentioned
the planned inclusion of a simulated Internet blackout. "The exercises
really are designed to push the envelope and take your failover and backup
plans and shred them to pieces," says McAfee chief technology evangelist
Carl Banzhof. Organizers say the most fundamental goal of the exercise is
to test the strength of relationships and trust between government
officials and the private sector companies responsible for controlling over
eight-tenths of the country's physical and cyber infrastructure. The
growth of those trust relationships in the two years since the inaugural
Cyber Storm exercise is reflected in participating companies' wide
promotion of their involvement in Cyber Storm II, says Cisco Systems'
Reneaue Railton.
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U.S. Universities Join Saudis in Partnerships
New York Times (03/06/08) P. A19; Lewin, Tamar
The University of Texas at Austin, the University of California, Berkeley,
and Stanford University have entered into a $25 million, five-year
partnership with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
(Kaust), a graduate-level research university under construction in Saudi
Arabia. The new school is scheduled to open next year with a $10 billion
endowment. The mechanical engineering department at UC Berkeley, the
computer science department and Institute for Computational and
Mathematical Engineering at Stanford, and the Institute for Computational
Engineering and Science at the University of Texas will help choose faculty
members and develop curricula for the new university. Despite Saudi
Arabia's massive oil wealth, the country lacks a world-class research
university. Persian Gulf nations have recently started to worry about the
eventual need to switch from an oil-based economy to a knowledge-based
economy, and have begun offering American universities lavish incentives to
bring their expertise to the region. While men and women will be able to
interact freely at the new university, faculty members at American
institutions are concerned about the pitfalls of working in a socially
restrictive society. The agreements contain an exit clause that allows the
universities to leave with no penalty within 30 days, and Peter Glynn,
director of the Stanford institute, says that Kaust understands "that if it
wants to be a world-class, it has to be able to freely attract the best
students and faculty from around the world."
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U.S. Worried that High H-1B Demand May Tempt Some to
'Game' Visa Lottery
Computerworld (03/07/08) Thibodeau, Patrick
The United States is worried that some companies may try to "game" the
random H-1B visa lottery selection process in a desperate attempt to get a
visa, the odds of which may be less than one in three this year. To
prevent such interference, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service is
considering regulations that would penalize any company that attempts to
seek an unfair advantage for its visa petitions in the selection lottery.
Applications for H-1B visas for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1,
will be accepted starting April 1. Last year, the U.S. received 123,480
visa petitions, more than double the 65,000 available, and more requests
are expected this year. One possible penalty from the USCIS will be the
rejection of all visa petitions from a company if multiple petitions are
filed for the same individual, and companies may also be penalized if they
try to get their applications approved under the H-1B cap of 20,000 visas
that are reserved for advanced-degree holders.
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Optical Scan Voting Works in Ohio
Government Computer News (03/05/08) Jackson, William
Cuyahoga County, Ohio's new optical-scan voting system functioned without
major complaints during the state's primary election on March 4. Although
the county had replaced its touch-screen machines due to security and
accuracy concerns, a research team from the universities of Maryland,
Rochester, and Michigan warned that the optical-scan system has a greater
risk of voter error than the touch-screen system. The researchers said
that paper ballots are susceptible to stray marks and voter errors that can
make them impossible for the optical scanners to read correctly. The
Cuyahoga County Board of Elections says the optical-scan system should be
easy to use, but that common ballot problems can occur when people vote for
too many candidates in one race or when they cast their ballots in the
wrong precinct. Voters can also request replacement ballots if they
realize they made a mistake. The election board has not released figures
on uncounted or miscounted ballots yet, but according to the Cleveland
Plain Dealer, voters at the polls were more concerned about privacy. Most
marked ballots were handled by poll workers and placed in ballot boxes
without sleeves to hide them from view, and although some poll workers said
not to fold ballots, some voters were advised to fold them to protect their
privacy.
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Rookie Robot Joins Crew of Space Shuttle
USA Today (03/07/08) P. 8A; Watson, Traci
The space shuttle Endeavor will be carrying a crew of seven astronauts and
a robot when it launches on Tuesday. The robot, called Dextre, has two
arms, each with seven joints that allow the limbs to flex and twist. Each
hand has pincers to grip objects and built-in socket wrenches. Dextre,
which will be able to manipulate objects ranging in size from a phone book
to a phone booth, will be the most advanced robot to ever venture into
space. Dextre will be assembled in space and placed on the International
Space Station, where it will start work in 2009. Eventually, it will be
able to perform tasks that would be dangerous for astronauts to do. The
$210 million robot has been in development for 10 years and has a working
life expectancy of 15 years. Dextre will be able to replace nearly 140
parts of the station, such as batteries and circuit boxes, thanks to a
sense of touch that enables the robot to "feel" when more pressure needs to
be applied. Dextre can be operated by either Mission Control or by the
crew on the space station.
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DIY Robotics: The Rise of Open Source Hardware
Wired News (03/05/08) Singel, Ryan
Robotics enthusiasts and do-it-yourselfers are utilizing a new generation
of open source hardware platforms and rapid fabrication tools such as laser
cutters to quickly create new hardware devices. Inventor Pablos Holman,
for example, helped build Hackerbot, a robot that finds passwords on Wi-Fi
networks and then seeks out the insecure user to show them the intercepted
password. Hardware-hacking is one of the major themes at this year's
O'Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference, where Holman plans to expand
attendees' notions of what is possible in hardware hacking with his session
titled "Hackers Built My Motorcycle." Make magazine editor Phillip Torrone
says the market for open source hardware such as diagrams and self-assembly
kits could expand 10 times within a year. Unlike open source software, the
business model is fairly simple for open source hardware, with vendors
polishing diagrams and documentation, selling parts in kits, and letting
customers assemble the final product. Robotics programming is also going
open source. Stanford University robotics researcher Steve Cousins, for
example, has launched a company that plans to make 10 robots running open
source code and make them available to researchers around the country in an
effort to make home robots capable of mopping, emptying the dishwasher, and
fetching beverages.
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Researchers Develop Emotional Intelligence for
Computerized Tutors
University of Massachusetts Amherst (03/04/08)
University of Massachusetts, Amherst researchers are developing
interactive computerized tutors capable of sensing a student's emotional
and motivational state while presenting information designed to appeal to a
person's intellectual curiosity. The computer uses special sensors to
monitor body language, attention, and other indicators to determine when a
student becomes frustrated or bored. Professor Beverly Woolf says the
emotion sensors help scientists respond to how people actually learn.
"Sensors allow the computer to identify students who pay attention and
those too tired or bored to learn," Woolf says. "Using these cues, the
computer provides individualized instruction." The system includes a
camera that views facial expressions. Woolf says certain expressions on a
student's face or how they tilt or hold their head are strong indicators of
the level of interest in what they are doing. A posture-sensing device
built into a chair measures the amount of fidgeting, stillness, and other
indicators of interest and concentration. Meanwhile, the computer mouse is
built with a pressure-sensor to tell how hard the user is pushing down.
During a learning session, the computer analyzes information from the
sensors and adjusts how it presents subject material, which could mean
halting the program and offering an alternative activity to stimulate
interest or revisiting material that the student previously failed to
master.
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Model Predicts Chance of Software Flaws
IDG News Service (03/06/08) Kirk, Jeremy
German university researchers have developed a new model that can predict
programming errors in software. Companies will be able to use the model to
isolate parts of their code for testing. The model is designed to analyze
the version history, bug reports, and source code of an application. The
model also examines communications among developers, such as their email,
instant message conversations, and discussions on forums. "We try to mine
these sources and find out if there are certain patterns and behaviors of
the developers that correlate with defects," says Kim Herzig, a researcher
at the Universitat des Saarlandes in Saarbrucken. The model will not
reveal a specific number or location of defects, but will suggest that
there is a 70 percent chance that a section of code has a defect.
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Intel Offers a Glimpse at its Technologies of the
Future
CNet (03/06/08) Cooper, Charles
At a recent Intel open house at its Berkeley, Calif.-based research lab
company executives emphasized a vision of a tech landscape increasingly
occupied by products that include sensors and situational awareness, or
inference capability. Intel started an experiment last year to measure air
pollution in Ghana's capital of Accra by attaching sensors to taxicabs,
which sent back information on pollution levels across the city. The
project was so successful that starting this spring San Francisco will
equip street sweepers with similar data collectors. Another project
features a software tool that runs inside the Web browser and can help
nonexperts assemble mashups on the fly while they surf the Internet. Using
a PC, users can copy and paste data from one Web page to another to write
widgets. Intel also displayed a software security project called Proteus
that compares how viruses behave in the virtual and biological worlds.
Intel researchers believe that making each computing platform in an IT
setup sufficiently different will prevent viruses from spreading. Intel is
currently working on algorithms that would automatically configure those
differences within an IT department. Lastly, Intel showed off its rural
connectivity platform, a low-cost way of providing roughly 10
megabits-per-second connectivity to remote areas. The platform needs a
clear line of sight to work, but when there are no obstructions the
wireless, long-distance nodes can connect every 60 miles.
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Microsoft Invites Researchers to Tinker With
'Singularity' OS
TechNewsWorld (03/05/08) Adhikari, Richard
Microsoft recently released a research development kit for Singularity, an
operating system research project focused on constructing dependable
systems. Singularity is written in Sing#, an extension of C# that provides
verifiable, first-class support for operating system communication
primitives and strong support for systems programming and code factoring,
according to Singularity developers Galen C. Hunt and James R. Larus. They
say the research project aimed to extend programming languages and develop
new techniques for specifying and verifying program behavior. Singularity,
a free but not open source program, achieves its strong performance by
reinventing the environment code it executes in, the developers say.
Singularity processes start empty and only add features as needed, unlike
current language runtimes that come with large libraries and expressive,
dynamic language features that can cause massive overhead. Singularity
uses type-safe languages and an abstract instruction set to create what the
researchers call Software Isolated Processes. The researchers say SIPs
"provide the strong isolation guarantees of operating system processes,"
such as isolated object space, separate garbage collectors, and separate
runtimes, without the overhead caused by software-enforced protection
domains.
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IT Industry Faces Unprecedented Shortage of Women
Gateway (03/05/08) Climenhaga, Natalie
A widespread shortage of IT graduates has companies scrambling to find
employees, but the overall shortage of employees, and the declining number
of computer science students, is being overshadowed by how few women are
entering the field. Gail Powley, vice chair of Women and Scholarship in
Engineering, Science and Technology (WISEST) at the University of Alberta,
says that 20 years ago, 30 percent to 40 percent of computer science
students were women, but now those numbers have been cut in half.
University of Alberta computer science professor Eleni Stroulia says two
correlated phenomena are happening in North America. First, there is a
general decline in undergraduate enrollment. Meanwhile, the number of
women studying the subject is dropping even faster, widening the gender
gap. Stroulia says the growing gender imparity is a problem because
different perspectives are an important factor in making good decisions,
and as more women leave the IT industry, the field becomes increasingly
uniform. No one is sure why computer science programs are not attracting
more women, Stroulia says, but part of it may be because IT is perceived as
a geeky subject, or that women want to make an impact in society and are
turned off by the idea of sitting in front of a computer all day. Stroulia
stresses that there are numerous opportunities to mix interests in other
areas with computing science. She says that more women involved in
technology should be featured in the media, noting that criminology
programs got a significant boost when the CSI series became popular.
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Balancing Computing Power and Storage Demands Is the Goal
of Virginia Tech CAREER Project
Virginia Tech News (03/05/08) Daniilidi, Christina
Virginia Tech computer science professor Ali R. Butt has received a
$400,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National
Science Foundation. Butt's CAREER research objective is to address the
widening performance gap between computing power and storage technology,
particularly in high-performance computing environments. Modern scientific
computations often require information analysis from multiple devices, such
as measurements from temperature and humidity sensors distributed over a
wide area for climate monitoring and forecasting. Such complex
applications require powerful computing resources and involve managing an
increasingly large amount of data. "Soon computing systems will have the
capability of processing a petabyte--or 1,000 terabytes--per second," Butt
says. "Unfortunately, this is not matched by a corresponding improvement
in the input/output systems that enable the processors to interact with
external devices, such as disks and networks." Butt is attempting to
develop a data storage framework that meets the demands of modern
high-performance computing environments by employing a Scalable
Hierarchical Framework.
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Mobile Grids Nurture Virtual Organizations
ICT Results (03/04/08)
European researchers have demonstrated how grid technology can be used to
share a common information space for emergencies and routine business
needs, granting access to both mobile and fixed collaborators. During an
emergency, for example, establishing efficient communications between
responders is critical to managing an effective response. The European
Union-funded Akogrimo project aims to develop a grid that would allow for
easy communication between different organizations. Akogrimo is designed
to link organizations and individuals, including the use of mobile devices,
and can accommodate either virtual organizations that are set up in advance
or emergency organizations that are created on short notice. Akogrimo can
accept many different devices, including fixed workstations or Pads, and
can also track people switching from one device to another without a lapse
in communication. Akogrimo could allow diagnostic techniques usually only
available in hospitals to be brought to a patient through the grid, or give
service technicians access to tools and expert advice wherever they go.
Akogrimo could also be used for everyday purposes, such as allowing
students to share gathered information on field trips.
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Prototype File-Sharing Technology Combines Fiber Optics,
Green Computing
Network World (03/04/08) Bednarz, Ann
IBM researchers say new optical network technology under development could
deliver bandwidth to devices ranging from cell phones to supercomputers at
speeds of 8 terabits per second while using only 100 watts of power. The
technology integrates optical chips and optical databuses in a single
package with standard components to create optically-enabled circuit
boards, or "Optocards," that use polymer optical waveguides to conduct
light between transmitters and receivers. IBM says that each waveguide
channel is smaller than a human hair, and the Optocards are densely packed
on the databus to create an integrated optical module, or "Optochip." IBM
also developed a parallel optical transceiver module with 24 transmitters
and 24 receivers that each operate at 12.5 Gigabit/sec. IBM says the new
optical technology could save significant amounts of power in
supercomputers. For example, over a 100-meter long link optical technology
consumes 100 times less power than modern electrical interconnects and
saves 10 times the power of current commercial optical modules. IBM says
the new technology could be used to download and send high-definition
videos, allow medical personnel to exchange large images for real-time
analysis, and provide greater bandwidth for data interconnects that will
enhance massively parallel supercomputers.
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SDSU Research: Better Sensors for Detecting Odors and
Toxic Gases
South Dakota State University (02/28/08)
South Dakota State University researchers are trying to mimic the way
humans and animals detect odors. SDSU professor David Galipeau says the
research could lead to improved sensors for use in homeland security,
medical diagnosis, and applications such as measuring the odor from
livestock operations. "Right now human or biological olfaction and taste
are far superior to the artificial methods," Galipeau says. "There's a lot
of interest in those areas because of applications in defense and homeland
security." He says a new theory argues that smell is based on what is
called "inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy," which could lead to
significant improvements in technological smelling. "Tunneling" involves a
phenomenon of quantum mechanics that was discovered only in the past
century, Galipeau says, which involves electrons passing through a barrier,
which if made from certain molecules, will result in certain energy levels
and vibrations. Inelastic electronic tunneling spectroscopy involves
reading and interpreting the spectra of vibrations produced by these
collisions and recording voltage responses.
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The Cyborg Animal Spies Hatching in the Lab
New Scientist (03/06/08)No. 2646, P. 40; Marshall, Jessica
Cyborg animals remote-controlled by implants are being developed by
scientists for the purpose of surveillance and reconnaissance. The Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency's Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical
Systems (HI-MEMS) project focuses on the cybernetic augmentation of winged
insects, whose aerodynamic skills are unparalleled. The goal of the
project is to implant the minute control systems within the host during the
pupa stage, so that by the time the insect has completed metamorphosis the
connections between the devices and the host's neural or muscular tissues
are seamless and stable. HI-MEMS researchers have created extremely thin
neural probes from flexible plastic and doped them with metal to complete
the electrical connections. Although progress has been impressive, the
ultimate challenge is to miniaturize the implants so that there is no
outward sign of the insect's enhancement. Another research area being
explored revolves around finding a way to run the systems by drawing energy
from the insects themselves. Guiding the insect spies to a target is a
problem that has yet to be addressed, with radio control and GPS signals
among the tools under investigation. The animal world is being tapped for
such applications because animals' sensory abilities are far superior to
artificial sensors, while the concealment of cybernetic systems within the
host's body offers perfect camouflage.
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Science 2.0
Science (03/07/08) Vol. 319, No. 5868, P. 1349; Shneiderman, Ben
The transformation of social systems by technological advances is giving
rise to complex issues that call for a rethinking of traditional scientific
methods in order to study them effectively, writes University of Maryland
computer science professor Ben Shneiderman, who labels this new breed of
scientific disciplines "Science 2.0." The design challenges of secure
voting, energy sustainability, global environmental protection, and
international development are just some of the goals that cannot be met
without Science 2.0, he says. Traditional scientific tools and methods
such as hypothesis testing and predictive models are still a requirement of
Science 2.0, but laboratory conditions are not an adequate venue for
studying Science 2.0 challenges because controlled experiments fail to
capture the rich context of Web 2.0 collaboration, according to
Shneiderman. Issues that are the focus of leading Science 2.0 researchers
include trust, responsibility, empathy, and privacy; defining, measuring,
and predicting how these variables will interact so that scientific
discovery, engineering innovation, education, and e-commerce can be
expedited is the great challenge for the next four centuries, Shneiderman
maintains. He notes that practitioners of Science 2.0-based research are
embracing observational and case study techniques as they compile
quantitative and qualitative data to build support for their theories about
whether empathy is increased by trust and whether responsibility is upheld
by privacy. "Advancing Science 2.0 will require a shift in priorities to
promote integrative thinking that combines computer science know-how with
social science sensitivity," Shneiderman writes. "Science 2.0 researchers
who develop innovative theories, hypothesis testing based on case study
research methods, and new predictive models are likely to lead the way."
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