IT Sector Faces Growing Skills Gap
Financial Times Digital Business (11/21/07) P. 3; Twentyman, Jessica
Children aged 14 and 15 have very little interest in entering engineering
and technology fields, reveals a new survey by the Institution of
Engineering and Technology. When teenagers aged 14 and 15 were asked what
they would like to do, teaching, law, and professional sports were the most
popular responses, while engineering and technology were not even ranked in
the top 10. Although children today learn to use computers and technology
earlier and faster than ever before, they have very little interest in
learning how that technology works. Future employees will be more
technologically savvy, but the industry needed to develop such technology
will experience a more crippling skills gap than ever before. Microsoft
Research Cambridge laboratory managing director Andrew Herbert believes the
problem is how IT is being taught in schools. "At best, school kids will
be taught how to send emails and use spreadsheets by a teacher who usually
teaches another subject, and many of them will have taught themselves these
things at home already," Herbert says. "To be passionate about IT, kids
need to be taught by someone who is passionate about IT. How else will
they know about the challenge of writing a faster algorithm or the
complexities of human/computer interaction?" Much of the skills gap could
be filled with educated foreign workers from China and India, but current
U.S. immigration law limits the number of educated workers allowed to enter
the country. Other efforts involve accessing dormant talent pools, such as
women who may have left the industry for maternity leave or a career break
and now feel that they have fallen behind the industry too much to return
to work.
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New Submission Process and Deadlines for SIGGRAPH 2008
Call for Participation
Business Wire (11/20/07)
ACM SIGGRAPH has implemented a few changes to its submission process for
SIGGRAPH 2008 in an attempt to save submitters time, eliminate confusion,
and to allow for the best possible jury evaluation. By breaking down the
borders of the traditional SIGGRAPH program, presenters will benefit from
the opportunity to share work in more thematic submission categories and
the audience will find it easier to navigate the conference, which will
become a more fluid, interdisciplinary event. "We want to close the gap of
separation to highlight the greatest works, innovations, and techniques
across the globe," says Jacquelyn Martino, SIGGRAPH 2008 conference chair
from IBM Research, Watson. "The end result will be a more streamlined and
improved experience for the audience." For example, the single general
submission format now requires submitters to describe their work just once
and propose that it be evaluated for presentation in several different
formats, which simultaneously can be an installation, a performance, and a
talk. The format for the SIGGRAPH Technical Papers will remain the same,
but there are new deadlines for technical papers (Jan. 23, 2008), general
submission (Jan. 30), student volunteers applications (Feb. 24), general
submission materials upload (Feb. 27), and late-breaking work (May 7).
SIGGRAPH 2008 is scheduled for Aug. 11-15, at the Los Angeles Convention
Center in Los Angeles.
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IBM/University Collaboration to Develop Open-Source
Accessibility Tools
Campus Technology (11/20/07) Nagel, David
Assistive technologies that will allow older people to remain productive
members of the rapidly changing workforce are the focus of an IBM Open
Collaborative Research initiative. As part of the project, experts at the
University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine will research technology
work settings, including the development of e-learning tools for older
workers, while researchers from the University of Dundee's School of
Computing in the United Kingdom will develop visualizations and interaction
scenarios. Older people remain a key resource in the workplace, says
Miller School of Medicine professor Sara J. Czaja. "However they need to
have tools available to them to be able to compete in today's technology
driven workplace," Czaja says. As an IBM OCR project, the research will be
made available as open source software code, and the developed intellectual
property will be released to the public or made available royalty-free.
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Lack of Black Tech Professionals Hurts U.S., Bill Gates
Says
InformationWeek (11/20/07) McDougall, Paul
A National Science Foundation study shows that less than 10 percent of
graduates of computer science programs in the U.S. are black, a fact that
contributes to the shortage of technology professionals, says Microsoft
Chairman Bill Gates. "The United States is not turning out from any group
as many of the great engineers as there will be jobs for," says Gates, who
notes that blacks are particularly underrepresented in the tech industry
because high school dropout rates in the black community exceed 50 percent.
"The shallow pool of skills is due, in part, to the lack of minorities
being drawn into technology," says Carl Mack, the executive director of the
National Society of Black Engineers. Microsoft is the top employer of
black engineers according to the NSBE. Microsoft recently announced a
software developer grant to the NSBE that gives its members a three-year
membership in the Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance.
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Carnegie Mellon Algorithm Identifies Top 100 Blogs for
News
Carnegie Mellon News (11/19/07) Spice, Brian; Watzman, Anne
Carnegie Mellon University researchers have developed an algorithm capable
of either detecting contamination in a water supply system or selecting the
blogs best suited to deliver the news. Assistant professor of computer
science and machine learning Carlos Guestrin created a problem-solving
method called the Cascades algorithm to compile a list of the best 100
blogs for finding the biggest news on the Web as early as possible.
Guestrin and his students analyzed 45,000 blogs to compile the list,
checking the time stamps to see where news was posted first. The algorithm
was also used to determine the optimal number and placement of sensors for
detecting the introduction and spread of contaminants in a water supply.
The algorithm ensures near-optimal placement of sensors by adhering to a
property called submodularity, which establishes a diminishing return
associated with adding sensors, and the property of locality, or the idea
that sensors placed far apart almost create independent information.
Guestrin started working on the Cascades algorithm in 2004 to find a way to
balance the cost of collecting information with the need to collect
information early and near the source. The algorithm initially addressed
problems involving sensor networks, such as those used to monitor water
quality, building temperature, and the structural integrity of bridges.
Guestrin and his group are now working on detecting pollution in lakes and
rivers and ensuring the performance quality on citywide Wi-Fi networks.
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12 Spam Research Projects That Might Make a
Difference
Network World (11/20/07) Garretson, Cara
Numerous antispam projects are being conducted to help make email a safer
and more enjoyable process, with some projects aiming to close existing
weaknesses such as image spam and phishing, while others work to prevent
future vulnerabilities. The University of Pennsylvania has released a
research paper that describes how filters can be adjusted to determine if
an inbound message contains image spam, including the use of an algorithm
that can select features for classification based on speed and predictive
power. Princeton University researchers have proposed a detection system
that relies on traditional antispam filtering, but duplicates the
randomization algorithms image spam exploits to look like similar images.
Georgia Tech is using a discriminative classifier learning approach to
image modeling to identify image spam by analyzing images extracted from a
body of spam messages and identifying key image properties. The University
of Cagliari in Italy is using low-level image processing techniques to
recognize content-hiding tricks such as character breaking and character
interference. To fight phishing, Carnegie Mellon University has been
examining why phishing attacks work and has developed an online game
designed to teach Internet users about the dangers and techniques used in
phishing attacks. Dartmouth has suggested using an anonymous credentialing
system that can blacklist misbehaving users without requiring the
involvement of a TTP, and Georgia Tech has proposed having blacklisting
techniques adapt to changes in spam by using a filtering system called
SpamTracker, which tracks email uses based on their sending behavior rather
than their identity. IBM research is investigating combining global and
personal antispam filtering systems. Another project by Carnegie Mellon,
with assistance from the University of California at San Diego, is studying
the underground economy that nourishes credit card fraud, identity theft,
spamming, phishing, online credential theft, and the sale of compromised
hosts.
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IBM Links Researchers, African Students
Associated Press (11/20/07) Bergstein, Brian
Potential business opportunities in Africa have technology companies
looking to strengthen their ties with the continent. For example, Google
has sponsored business-plan competitions in Ghana and Tanzania, but
industry experts say IBM is taking a different approach by offering a
mentoring program for college students. Through the Makocha Minds project,
engineering, math, and computing students at universities in Botswana,
Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania,
and Uganda can regularly keep in contact with top IBM researchers. Two
hundred and fifty researchers are participating in Makocha, which is the
Swahili word for "teachers," and could eventually offer in-person meetings.
Students currently use email or the telephone to ask for advice on
becoming successful or pursuing advanced degrees. "We believe that Africa
is that next emerging opportunity," says Mark Dean, head of IBM's Almaden
Research Center in Silicon Valley and leader of the project. "We need to
be familiar with different cultures and languages and operations in the
African countries."
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Better Computer Chips, Sooner
Technology Review (11/20/07) Greene, Kate
As transistors and chips continue to become smaller and more complex,
hardware bugs continue to become more prevalent. Unfortunately, there is
no quick, efficient way to test for these bugs, and debugging a prototype
can take up to a year. "This is still an unsolved problem," says Carnegie
Mellon University computer engineering professor Rob Rutenbar. Rutenbar
says there is very little scientific literature on debugging silicon. "The
sense that I get is that it's not very well automated," he says. Some
testing methods include attaching the prototype chip to an electric probe
that sends a series of signals through the chip to find errors, but often
the solution creates more problems. University of Michigan researchers
have developed software that not only finds bugs in new chips, but proposes
the best way to fix them. Ideally, engineers would like to be able to test
each individual transistor, but consumer electronic chips will soon have
over a billion transistors, which would make such precise testing
impossible. The Michigan algorithm tests several inputs across a large
portion of the chip and narrows down the field of testing based on the
output errors. The software also uses a similar method to propose
solutions, running a series of simulations to find a design variation that
is the fastest and most cost-effective fix. Rutenbar says one of the
biggest advantages of the Michigan software is that it frequently proposes
solutions that are counterintuitive. In case studies the software was able
to automatically repair about 70 percent of bugs and the researchers claim
that it can reduce the amount of time required to find a particular bug
from weeks to days.
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Report: Internet Data Glut to Be Unmanageable by
2010
TechNewsWorld (11/19/07) Webster, John S.
The Internet information glut could become unmanageable by 2010, concludes
a new Nemertes Research report, which warns that avoiding such data
transfer gridlock could require a $137 billion investment in global
Internet hardware and software. Nemertes Research polled IT executives at
enterprise organizations, equipment vendors, service providers, and
investment firms and found that many firms will not be able to support
demand as early as three years from now, particularly in North America.
"We looked at investments in the Internet at several levels," says Nemertes
analyst Mike Jude. "We asked how much investment will organizations have
to make to close the bandwidth gap in bits transferred per dollar?" An
inadequate infrastructure will also slow down innovation efforts, such as
more efficient online shopping, search engines, and digital video Web
sites, not because user demand will lessen but because the infrastructure
will prevent the growth of more efficient applications. Forrester
Research's Alex Cullen says software developers will need to find ways of
making applications more efficient. "Smarter clients" that reduce
interactivity, such as those found in rich Internet applications, will
allow software to perform at a satisfactory level without consuming
excessive bandwidth, Cullen predicts. The primary culprits behind the data
gridlock are products and services associated with broadband communication
and bandwidth intensive applications such as streaming and interactive
video, peer-to-peer file transfers, music and video downloads, and wireless
devices such as cell phones and PDAs.
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Microsoft's New Multicore-Computing Guru Speaks
Out
Network World (11/19/07) Fontana, John
Supercomputer expert Dan Reed has joined Microsoft Research as director of
scalable and multicore computing. Reed says multicore computing presents a
unique challenge that requires researchers to rethink software development.
"How we develop code that runs in parallel and uses those processors has
implications for a whole new set of developments but also for the existing
software base," Reed says. He says the industry has a once-in-20-year
opportunity to rethink some fundamental aspects in the way processors are
designed and how software is supported. Reed says the scale of data
centers being built for cloud computing is beyond anything that could have
been conceived before, and scalable and multicore computing are among the
most interesting technical problems in computing. "This aggregation of
information and the ability to deliver computing in response to remote
requests is the biggest thing that is happening since the Web," Reed says.
"So, you put these two things together and we are about to realize the
infrastructure to support the computing equivalent of the electronic power
grid." Reed expects to see performance go into "warp drive," not only in
desktop computing but with mobile devices and technologies that rely on
vision and speech recognition and nontraditional interfaces.
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A New Model to Simulate Forest Growth
Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (11/17/07)
The Universidad Politecnica de Madrid School of Computing Algorithm
Engineering Group has developed Vorest, a simulator model for the evolution
of a forest. Vorest is a forestry engineering research aid that allows
researchers to examine what impact the space trees take up has on forest
development. Vorest bases its simulation process on the fact that any tree
is surrounded by an influence region of variable size that determines the
future growth of the tree. Vorest automatically calculates the influence
regions and offers a wide range of option for deciding how growth should be
simulated based on the region. The simulation provides two types of visual
representations. The first models the influence regions of each tree at
any point during their lifespan. The second visual output generates a
detailed representation of what the tree might really look like in its
natural environment, including a detailed 3D scene of what the forest
really looks like. Users can manipulate the scene using textures to
improve soil appearance or by configuring the SkyBox representation, which
produces a basic but effective 3D background effect. Forest simulation
models are used by forest managers and forestry researchers to describe the
dynamics of a forest, including changes the forest or tree may experience
during its lifetime. The models also help predict the long-term effects a
forestry management intervention is likely to have on timber production and
the future condition of the forest.
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Virtual Eve: First in Human Computer Interaction
Massey University (11/16/07)
Massey University researchers have developed Eve, a near-human virtual
teacher that is capable of altering its performance based on the reactions
of its audience. Eve is an intelligent or affective tutoring system that
is capable of adapting to the emotional state of real people. The
researchers say their teaching system, dubbed "Easy with Eve," is the first
of its type. Lead Eve developer Dr. Hossein Sarrafzadeh says the
researchers wanted to create a virtual teacher capable of reading and
understanding body language and facial expressions to ensure that it has
the attention of students. "With the rising demand for long-distance
learning and online tutoring, a computer program capable of detecting human
emotions may become a critical teaching tool," Sarrafzadeh says. To enable
the software to tell if students are frustrated, angry, confused, or bored,
the researchers observed children and their interactions with teachers and
captured thousands of images of facial expressions, gestures, and body
movements. The researchers then developed facial recognition and body
movement recognition programs, including a program to monitor heart rate
and skin resistance through a mouse. The system uses a network of computer
sensors, primarily embedded devices, to detect student emotion and other
significant bio-signals.
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Microsoft to Translate Word Docs for the Blind
Reuters (11/13/07) Channing, Rory
Microsoft is working with the DAISY digital talking books consortium to
develop a downloadable plug-in that the blind and otherwise print-disabled
could use to turn Word documents into digital audio or other formats. They
plan to offer the tool for free in early 2008. Documents based on Open XML
would be translated into DAISY XML and then processed into other formats.
Microsoft would like to see more public-sector organizations use Open XML,
the default file-saving format in Microsoft Office 2007, but the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) turned it down as an
international standard in September. The company has time to address the
concerns that ISO members have about the open nature of the document format
before the group's next meeting in February. DAISY (Digital Accessible
Information System) is a nonprofit based in Zurich, Switzerland, devoted to
assisting in the transition from analog to digital talking books.
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Female IT Pros Push for Flexible Workplaces
Computerworld Australia (11/14/07) Pauli, Darren
At the recent Females in Information Technology and Telecommunications
event in Sydney, senior IT professionals from Optus and IT services firm
ASI urged more than 70 female colleagues to pursue flexibility in the
workplace. ASI director Maree Lowe emphasized that top-level management
needs to endorse flexibility and a work-life balanced lifestyle to attract
women to IT. Optus senior manager Narelle Clark says inflexible workplaces
lose employees when career expectations conflict with external
responsibilities such as family commitments. "Tele-working is difficult to
manage but its success comes down to staff results; inflexibility should
not be tolerated," Clark says. Red Rock Consulting's Dianne Phelan says
flexibility is the most important cultural value of the workplace.
"Management has to be flexible so part-time staff can work earlier or
later, or work from home if it is feasible, otherwise business just loses
staff," Phelan says. "There has been a mind-shift in the last few years,
more so in the big IT companies, towards flexibility." Phelan says the
stereotypical belief that IT involves "long hard hours of mathematics" has
contributed to the industry's inability to recruit people into IT. Tauri
Consulting's Belinda Leatham says pushing for flexibility is a difficult
process in organizations that have an impersonal culture. "If it works in
the business, you should only ask once; but have a business case and start
a trail with staff who will work from home and not taint the idea because
they stop producing results," says Leatham.
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Cambridge Struggles to Find Computer Students
Guardian Unlimited (UK) (11/12/07) Shepherd, Jessica
Cambridge University recently acknowledged that since the start of the
decade applications to study computer science have dropped dramatically.
In 2000, 500 students applied, but last year only 210 students applied.
Professors say that unless recruiting efforts improve it will be difficult
to sustain a quality department. To boost application numbers the
department is launching a publicity campaign to attract students, including
building a Web site to dispel myths about computer science. Professors
blame the dwindling applications on the "geeky" image of computer science
and the misconception that all graduate jobs are based in China and India.
"We don't portray ourselves to potential applicants in a contemporary way,"
says professor Andy Hopper, head of Cambridge's computer laboratory. "We
don't show that computer science knowledge can help solve some of the
world's global problems." In the United Kingdom in general, computer
science applications fell 42 percent between 2001 and 2004 and rose only
0.1 percent in 2007. The British Computer Society's Mike Rodd describes
the national picture as "of great concern," adding that there are more
vacancies in England than ever before. Dr. Paul Garrett, course admissions
tutor at University of Southampton, where computer science applications
rose 20 percent in November, the biggest increase in five years, says the
program's success is due to integrating electronics into computer
science.
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U.S. Control of Internet Remains Issue
Associated Press (11/16/07) Astor, Michael
The Internet Governance Forum concluded its annual conference in Brazil on
Nov. 15, no closer to any change in the United States' control over the
Internet. Many countries have called for an end to U.S. control over
domains, with Russian representatives calling on the U.N. to take steps to
put Internet governance in the hands of the international community.
Brazilian officials are pushing to make ICANN completely independent of the
U.S. government. However, ICANN supporters say that U.S. control is
necessary to keep the Internet stable during a time of growth, preventing a
country from censoring Web sites. "I think (there are) a small number of
countries that are very agitated and almost don't care what the facts are,"
says former ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf. "It's a very small vocal group
bothered by this issue. ICANN has existed for eight years and done a great
job with its plans for internationalization." ICANN is taking steps toward
appeasing the international community, testing the use of domain names in
other languages and replacing Cerf with the organization's first chairman
from outside the United States. The forum, which has no decision-making
authority, will meet again next year in New Delhi, India.
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Columbus Police Go Virtual
Government Computer News (11/08/07) Hickey, Kathleen
Ohio University in Athens will develop virtual technology for the Columbus
Police Department that will help improve the effectiveness of officers who
are involved in emergency response operations. Researchers in the
university's Telecommunications and Game Research and Immersive Design
(GRID) Lab will develop interactive models of 30 buildings and sites in
Columbus that would be likely targets for terrorist attacks or other
violent incidents. First responders in the field will be able to use
wireless laptop PCs to access the models and related data. They will be
able to view immersive video of the sites from every angle, control the
real-world scenes at different speeds, and even track the positions of key
entities if GPS satellite links are not available using inertial guidance
systems. Video-game technology will be incorporated into the software,
enabling users of the virtual-reality system to move images around as if
they were avatars. The GRID team will also provide a backup server and
train officers and staff on the virtual-reality system. The project will
be paid for with a $702,000 federal grant, and the police department
expects to have the technology fully operational by 2009.
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Software Group Gets Online Textbooks to the Developing
World
Chronicle of Higher Education (11/16/07) Vol. 54, No. 12, P. A28; Foster,
Andrea L.
The Global Text Project, an initiative to generate and freely circulate
1,000 original textbook titles online to students in developing nations, is
the brainchild of University of Denver professor Donald J. McCubbrey and
interim head of the University of Georgia's department of management
information systems Richard T. Watson. Volunteer professionals and
professors are recruited to write at least one chapter without compensation
through the use of wikis; a scholar reviews each chapter and the chapters
are then organized into an online textbook. Watson says the Global Text
Project distinguishes itself from other wiki efforts by giving scholars
editorial control of the product, and by assembling complete books rather
than smaller units of learning content. The project's creators are relying
on students to suggest to editors ways to improve the text and include
locally applicable information as well as help translate texts and promote
the books globally. Once sufficient numbers of books are online, McCubbrey
hopes the project's continued expansion will be financed by sponsors. "It
might be worthwhile for some companies because of the exposure and the good
will," he says. Watson notes that the Global Text Project is planning to
publish books in Spanish, Arabic, English, and Chinese. He also says
publishers could perhaps contribute old textbooks to the project in return
for tax incentives.
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