The Pit Crews Behind DARPA's Robot Race
CNet (06/05/07) Olsen, Stefanie
The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's (DARPA) Urban Challenge, a
$2 million military-sponsored race of autonomous vehicles on city roads,
has attracted 53 teams. On Nov. 3, the teams will race their autonomous
cars, but first the cars will need to pass prequalification site visits,
where the military's research and development department will evaluate each
team's ability to compete. To pass the prequalification round, each team's
vehicle will have to prove its basic navigation skills by driving on a
prescribed course and demonstrate its traffic skills by negotiating a
four-way intersection with two human-driven cars and one other robotic car.
This is the third DARPA robotic vehicle race, and the first to take place
in an urban environment, which attracted more universities, including the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the first time. Kevin Jackson is
the team leader of the only independent team, supported by only one
sponsor. Jackson said that small groups can occasionally do things better
than bigger organizations because their small size forces them to do things
creatively. Instead of using a $10,000 precise global positioning system
like some of the other teams, Jackson is using two $120 GPS units that
could be found in common passenger cars. Jackson said he is just as
interested on the social psychology of driving as much as the physics of
it. "One of the things we're trying to do is to look at other vehicles
driving, evaluate if they appear to be following the driving rules,"
Jackson said. "In the robot world, we can assign a threat level to that
driver or object."
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SIGDA to Celebrate Milestones at 44th Design Automation
Conference (DAC)
Business Wire (06/05/07)
The 44th Design Automation Conference this year will mark two significant
anniversaries for the ACM's Special Interest Group on Design Automation
(SIGDA)--the 20th SIGDA/DAC University Booth and the 10th annual ACM SIGDA
Ph.D. Forum at DAC. The University Booth is a venue for the university
community to demonstrate electronic design automation tools, design
projects, and instructional materials. The Ph.D. Forum, a competitive
poster session for Ph.D. students, is designed to strengthen ties between
academia and industry, and provides students with an opportunity to present
and discuss their dissertation research with people in the EDA community.
The Ph.D. Forum, which has grown steadily since its establishment 10 years
ago, is one of the premier venues for students in EDA to receive feedback
on their research and for the industry to observe academic work. The
SIGDA/DAC University Booth was first established in 1987 to create better
connections between academia and exhibitors at the conference and to
provide opportunities to demonstrate university-developed software. Last
year, the booth had nearly 50 demonstrations from all over the United
States, Canada, Brazil, Japan, Korea, France, Singapore, and Taiwan. Dan
Gajski, a professor of electrical and computer science at the University of
California Irvine, said, "The University Booth has become the intellectual
center of the conference." For more information about DAC, visit
http://www.dac.com/44th/wednesday.aspx
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IU Informatics Security Experts Draw New Weapon in War of
Cyber Crime
Indiana University (06/04/07)
Indiana University School of Informatics researchers professor Markus
Jakobsson and research associate Sukamol Srikwan have launched
www.SecurityCartoon.com, the first cartoon-based approach to
understanding the Internet and the risks faced by typical users. "The
cartoons we have developed obviously are not a textbook approach, not made
for professional journals or geared to an audience of professional
researchers," says Srikwan, who was the graphic designer for the site. "We
wanted this to be accessible to anyone who uses the Internet ... That's why
the cartoon format is perfect--everybody can relate to it." The cartoons
address security issues such as phishing, pharming, malware, spoofing, and
password protection, and go beyond the traditional educational efforts to
instruct what to do and what not to by explaining the reasons behind the
rules, which makes the advice easier to understand, according to Srikwan.
The Security Cartoon Web site was developed using scientific methods by
IU's Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research (CACR) and the Anti-Phishing
Group. "We study the algorithms behind fraud, develop new techniques for
combating it, and we investigate how people react psychologically to
various threats," says Jakobsson, a CACR associate director. Jakobsson
says that an average of about 5 percent of American adults are victims of
identity theft every year, and that the percentage is increasing as
phishing techniques become more advanced.
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Robot Scans Ancient Manuscript in 3-D
Wired News (06/05/07) Blackwell, Amy Hackney
A research team organized by the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies used
a laser scanner mounted on a robot arm to create a digital copy of the
Venetus A, the oldest existing copy of Homer's Iliad. University of
Kentucky researcher Matt Field, who scanned the pages, says the goal was to
create a "virtual book" that shows the Venetus in its natural form, adding,
"It's not often that you see this kind of collaboration between the
humanities and the technical fields." A high-resolution, 3D copy of the
entire 645-page parchment book and a searchable transcription will be made
available online under a Creative Commons license. The last time a
photographic copy of the book was made was in 1901. To scan the book the
researchers used large lights, a motorized cradle, 17 computers, and
wireless Internet access. The scanner's laser was situated about an inch
above the book, rapidly moving back and forth across the book's pages. The
robotic arm knew the exact position of the scanner, and created a precise
map of each page. The data was fed into a CAD program that created an
image of the manuscript page. The next phase of the project is to make the
images readable. The Venetus A is handwritten and contains ligatures and
abbreviations that are beyond the capabilities of most text-recognition
software. To create XML transcriptions of the text, a group of graduate
and undergraduate students studying Greek will work at the Center for
Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. Eventually, the images and the
transcription will be posted online, available to anyone, as part of the
Homer Multitext Project.
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See Behind the Scenes of 'Spider-Man 3' at SIGGRAPH
2007
Business Wire (06/04/07)
SIGGRAPH 2007 has lined up the top artists involved with "Spider-Man 3"
for the 34th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics
and Interactive Techniques. Academy Award-winning senior visual effects
supervisor Scott Stokdyk, digital effects supervisors Ken Hahn and Peter
Nofz, and animation director Spencer Cook will discuss their work for the
movie. "Spider-Man 3" featured fully-articulated, performing CG characters
composed only of dynamically-generated particles and fluids for the first
time. An embodiment of key-framed performance animation, the digital
characters interacted with each other and live-action characters in real
and synthetic environments. "This is just one of many rare opportunities
to experience the behind-the-scenes perspective from Hollywood's industry
experts," says special sessions co-chair Jerome Solomon. "In fact, we have
an amazing line up of talent presenting work in 'Shrek,' 'Spider-Man 3,'
and the Oscar winner, 'Happy Feet.'" Sponsored by ACM, SIGGRAPH 2007 is
scheduled for Aug. 5-9, 2007, at the San Diego Convention Center in San
Diego, Calif. Some 25,000 computer graphics and interactive technology
professionals from around the world are expected to attend SIGGRAPH 2007's
technical and creative programs and exhibition. For more information about
SIGGRAPH, visit
http://www.siggraph.org/s2007/
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Sharing Stories Across the Digital Divide
Swansea University (06/04/07)
Swansea University computer scientists are participating in a
collaborative effort called StoryBank that aims to use new mobile phone
technologies to help villagers in India record and share their stories and
experiences. The StoryBank project is providing people in Budikote, India,
with mobile devices that can be used to make, store, and edit video, sound,
and pictures. Budikote has access to PCs, the Internet, and mobile phones,
but access is limited. Matt Jones, StoryBank project manager at Swansea
University, says, "The people of Budikote have a strong tradition of visual
and oral history, so we were interested in how we could develop digital
technology to enable them to communicate their stories in new ways." A
touch screen was placed in a covered public area in the village and serves
as the digital library for the stories created by the villagers. Stories
can be sent by the villagers to StoryBank using wireless connections in
their mobile devices. "The mobile phone digital story authoring
application we have developed is giving members of this isolated Indian
community a new, lasting record of individual stories, shared experiences,
and history," Jones says. "The digital library will have a wide reach and
should be a useful resource for the whole community." Other partners in
the project include Surrey University, Loughborough University, Queen Mary
University London, and Nottingham Trent University.
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DHS Sets its Cyber R&D Goals
Federal Computer Week (06/04/07) Vol. 21, No. 16, P. 56; Robinson, Brian
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that it will fund and
develop potentially groundbreaking cybersecurity software rather than
waiting for the industry to develop the required tools. An announcement
from the DHS' Cyber Security Research and Development Center asks for
industry proposals that, within three years, could create commercial
technologies that will protect against computer security threats. The DHS
published a list of research and development challenges that are considered
to be priorities for neutralizing near-term and long-term threats. Douglas
Maughan, program manager for cybersecurity research at DHS' Science and
Technology Directorate, said that anyone interested in making a proposal is
strongly considered to approach the DHS with their own technology and
transition partners already secured. Purdue University professor Eugene
Spafford, a computer security expert and member of the President's
Information Technology Advisory Committee, said that there are several
worthy areas on the DHS' research agenda, but that the list of research
priorities focuses too much on near-term problems instead of larger
challenges. "This announcement is not trying to grow the enterprise by
looking to what is coming next, at System X problems," Spafford said.
"It's really looking more at fixing what problems exist now." Spafford
said that all of the areas on the list need additional research, but there
are many other research challenges of equal or even greater importance.
Spafford, who also chairs ACM's U.S. Public Policy Committee, added that
agencies such as the National Science Foundation also support important
cybersecurity research, but that they are under-funded, which makes the DHS
programs more important.
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SIUE Earns Robotics Grant
Edwardsville Intelligencer (IL) (06/05/07) Malone, Zhanda
The National Science Foundation recently awarded two Southern Illinois
University Edwardsville associate professors of computer science, Jerry
Weinberg and William Yu, a $150,000 grant to create the "Brain Pack" for
walking robots. The grant, "General Robot Controller for Legged Mobile
Robots with Integrated Open Source Software," will be used to develop the
Brain Pack--a computer backpack for two-, four-, and six-legged robots
designed to be used in teaching science, technology, engineering, and math
(STEM) courses. "The Brain Pack will provide an easy way to program a
computer controller that connects sensors, such as foot-touch sensors, to
give a robot the 'sense' of walking and a color camera to give the robot
'eyesight,'" Weinberg said in a press release. "It will be a general
controller that can be used on any legged robot, providing it with sensors
and computing power that walking robots on the market currently do not
have." Weinberg said that because of the multidisciplinary nature of
robots, they have become a valuable tool for the hands-on application of
concepts learned in STEM courses at K-12 and undergraduate levels, and
while there are easy to use wheeled robots, there are no legged robots with
simple hardware and software. "The Brain Pack will have 'plug-and-play'
sensors with straightforward software modules developed specifically for
use in the classroom," Weinberg said.
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Internet2 Security Honcho: PCs Need Universal
Healthcare
Ars Technica (06/05/07) Fisher, Ken
Internet2 security programs manager Joe St. Sauver, speaking at the
Anti-Phishing Working Group Counter e-Crime Summit, said that government
involvement will eventually be necessary to fight the growing threat of
botnets. St. Sauver said that although most compromised computers are used
for spam and have little threat beyond that of annoyance, those same
compromised machines could be used maliciously to host phishing sites,
launch malware, pirate software, host child pornography, capture local
traffic for passwords and other sensitive information, or even attack
businesses and critical infrastructure. St. Sauver's primary concern is
the lack of responsibility. He said that although the government should
not have to shoulder the responsibility of fixing the problem, if the
government does not, no one else will. "Just as the government has a
responsibility to defend its citizens from conventional military threats or
from terrorism, and to respond in case of natural disasters or widespread
disease, so, too, the time has come for us to recognize that the government
has a compelling national interest in the protection of its citizens and
businesses online, and in the protection of their networks and systems,"
St. Sauver said. "An attack on U.S. networks and systems, whether blatant
or insidious, is an attack on the United States as a whole, and properly
deserves national attention and response." St. Sauver's solution is a
Cyber Center for Disease Control that would focus on both massive-scale
acute emergencies and recurring problems in PC security. St. Sauver said
the Cyber Center would have to provide anonymity to encourage users to
report infestations. He also said the U.S. government should establish a
cabinet-level federal agency for cybersecurity with offices in all major
cities.
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Women's Technology Program Graduates First Class
MIT News (06/04/07) Salius, Erin Michael
The first participants in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's
Women's Technology Program (WTP) will graduate from MIT this month. In the
summer of 2002, Alisha Schor, Emily Slutsky, and Kyung Jin Chang, who will
receive their B.S. degrees on June 8, participated in the inaugural session
of WTP, a four-week academic and residential experience where pre-college
female students experience engineering with hands-on classes, labs, and
team-based projects. When entering the program, having just finished their
junior year of high school, the women had difficulty just imagining
themselves as MIT students. Slutsky said the idea of facing the
notoriously rigorous freshman curriculum and adjusting to the high
intellectual expectations was frightening, but that attending WTP made
enrolling at MIT a realistic option by offering an experience similar to
what life is like at the school. "WTP was my first experience within a
challenging, college setting," Slutsky said. WTP was started by
then-senior Doug Ricket to dispel the widespread belief among many young
women that they would not succeed as engineers and computer scientists.
Ricket hired a group of MIT women, including graduate and undergraduate
students, to serve as instructors and residential tutors for the electrical
engineering, computer science, and math courses offered that first summer.
Slutsky said, "WTP is a woman's opportunity to develop, fine-tune, and
cultivate an invaluable confidence in herself."
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File-Sharing Sites Being Subverted for Web Attacks
New Scientist (05/30/07) Inman, Mason
Security experts have observed a new trend in distributed denial of
service (DDoS) attacks, in which criminals use peer-to-peer (P2P) networks
to mount Web attacks. Experts noticed the first such attacks in January
2007. In traditional DDoS attacks, a gang of hijacked PCs are ordered to
overwhelm a target with traffic, but in the case of P2P networks, no
computers need to be commandeered. Instead, criminals can corrupt a
database by posting fake entries that indicate that a popular file can be
found at the address targeted for attack. Thousands of PCs will begin
requesting the song or TV episode from the target computer, causing the
machine to crash under the flood of traffic. Researchers have demonstrated
that anyone with experience in programming could hack into the code of
BitTorrent, a popular file-sharing network. Though some contend that there
are easier methods for instigating similar attacks, others say the issue is
important because of the prominence of P2P networks. In addition, P2P
attacks are more difficult to track down and defend against than
botnet-based DDoS, says Richard Miller of Netcraft.
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NASA Launching to Outer Space Via Cyberspace
Federal Computer Week (05/31/07) Bain, Ben
NASA is using the virtual world Second Life to test its plans for
collaboration that extends to people who do not work in the space industry.
NASA has been holding weekly meetings on Second Life, and this past week
Peter Worden, director of the agency's Ames Research Center, used the
virtual world to give a speech to the International Space Development
Conference in Dallas. "The new technology of virtual life and cyberspace
means we can all participate in the Vision for Space Exploration," said
Worden. NASA is already working in the real world with business leaders,
software programmers, and other non-members of the space community through
its CoLab initiative, and it has plans to build a real-world site for
collaboration in San Francisco. Individuals can use their virtual
construction skills to build models of projects on NASA's island in the
virtual world, but the space agency is also building open-source software
for use on its projects. Regular people also may be able to use the
virtual programs to ride with a rover on Mars in real time via streaming
images and software programs that are able to simulate space travel and the
geography of the destination. "I really do think this is a prototype--if
we do a good job--for the way that other branches of government, other
agencies can adopt the best models from the private sector and from the
nonprofit sector and integrate them," says CoLab co-founder Andrew
Hoppin.
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Rick Rashid: Innovation Pipeline
Government Computer News (06/04/07) Vol. 26, No. 13, Jackson, Joab
In an interview, Microsoft Research senior vice president Rick Rashid
discussed the difficulties of technology transfer, new operating system
developments, and why Microsoft deserves a more cutting-edge reputation for
computer science research. When asked how Microsoft manages to avoid
problems when sending advanced research to the marketplace, a problem that
has plagued the Defense Department, Rashid said that one of his first
objectives at Microsoft Research was to create a team focused on technology
transfer, ensuring effective communication between the product side and
research. Rashid emphasized the importance of basic research, because
while applied research can create a solution for an immediate problem,
basic research creates longevity and ensures that when technology changes,
Microsoft will have already been working in the area. Rashid said that
some of Microsoft's research into operating systems involves the ability to
prove properties of programs, which can be used to see if a program is
properly using application programming interfaces. Part of the reason
Microsoft does not have the reputation for cutting-edge research is because
of allegations that Microsoft simply popularizes innovations others
created. Rashid responds to such allegations by pointing out the
significant number of papers from Microsoft Research published at top
computer science conferences, and notes the innovative work Microsoft is
doing in text and typography, document management, and information sharing
and manipulation.
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Tapia Conference to Focus on Passion, Diversity, and
Innovation
Computing Research News (05/07) Vol. 19, No. 3, P. 2; Martinez-Canales,
Monica
More than 400 students, professors, and researchers will congregate this
fall at the fourth Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing
Conference, to be held Oct. 14-17. The Tapia Conference, held every two
years, was established to create a welcoming and supportive environment for
all participants, but particularly for students from under-represented
groups. This year's theme is "Passion in Computing--Diversity in
Innovation," and the conference will include several features from past
events, including featured talks from experts on their successes and
missteps, a student-focused poster session intended to provide students
with an opportunity for supportive, professional discussion, a full day
dedicated to encouraging students to earn their PhDs, and several
opportunities to network and learn from role models and peers. One new
feature this year will be a robotics competition where teams of students
will have to send programmed robots on "search and rescue" missions in
simulated and physical disaster environments. The Tapia Conference will be
co-located with the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
Conference, which will take place Oct. 17-20. The 2007 Hopper Celebration
is the seventh in a series of conferences focused on the research and
career interests of women in computing. Leading researchers from
industrial, academic, and government communities will present their current
work, and special sessions focusing on the role of women in technology will
be held. This year's Hopper Celebration theme, "I Invent the Future," will
emphasize the impact women have on computing and technology and celebrate
the potential each attendee possesses.
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New Translation Technology to Aid U.S. Forces
Defense News (05/28/07) McMichael, William H.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are testing various
devices that could eventually provide 100 percent accurate, real-time
translations for troops in Arabic speaking countries. Currently, basic
one-way translators are common in Iraq, with over 3,000 such devices
currently deployed, but these devices are only capable of simple
mission-dependent English phrases, have limited vocabularies, and are
unable to translate the Arabic response. The devices the two agencies are
testing are capable of understanding context and translating from Arabic to
English. There are some limitations to each of the devices, including
performance degradation during high-stress situations that would include
shouting and background noise, but the ability to operate in those
situations is not far off. DARPA and NIST would not comment on the
performance of any individual system, but DARPA said each one performs in
the 70 percent to 80 percent accuracy range. DARPA's Jan Walker said the
long-term goal is to create two-way translations across all subjects with
100 percent accuracy, compensating for background noise, dialects, and
accents. Walker said that in the next three to five years, DARPA wants 80
percent to 90 percent accuracy for specific task-related phrases. DARPA
also wants to move away from laptop-based devices in favor of smaller,
hands-free devices, which is a requirement for NIST's next round of
testing, scheduled to begin in July. NIST robotics researcher and project
manager Craig Schlenoff said that developers have free rein in creating the
form of the device, but their use cannot require looking at a laptop or
employing a keyboard.
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Virtual Reality and Higher Education: Another
Perspective
Terra Nova (05/24/07) Lamont, Ian
Aaron Walsh of Boston College's Woods College of Advancing Studies thinks
virtual reality (VR) environments can be useful tools for enhancing
education, and he has constructed such environments for employment in his
online courses. These courses form part of his overarching "Immersive
Education" program to build a standards-based educational platform that
combines 3D/VR and digital media. "Immersive Education gives students a
sense of 'being there' even when attending class in person isn't possible,
practical, or desirable, which in turn provides faculty and remote students
with the ability to connect and communicate in a way that greatly enhances
the learning experience," Walsh explains in an interview. He notes that
the effort to guarantee the support of virtual environments by every
student's hardware has been one of the major challenges of the program.
Also challenging has been the delivery of learning content within the
virtual environment, an approach that Walsh learned is not necessarily the
best fit for education, when simply opening a browser window when needed
would suffice. "Doing this allowed us to incorporate Web pages,
interactive Flash content, Quicktime VR and videos, and a wide assortment
of rich learning materials into our online classes that wouldn't have been
possible otherwise," he explains. Walsh says VR can be especially helpful
for students who have problems expressing themselves in the real world,
although he observes that other students favor the traditional live
interaction of real-world classrooms. Especially concerning to Walsh is
VR's potential for addiction; he warns that "immersive illness" could
become a serious social problem over the next 10 years or so, as technology
and immersive activities advance and virtual worlds attain even more
realism and mainstream acceptance.
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Param Leap
Frontline (India) (05/07) Vol. 24, No. 9, Parthasarathy, Anand
The Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Pune, India,
has made India a supercomputer player with its Param series of
supercomputers, which rank on the global "Top 500" list of the world's most
powerful computing platforms. In May 2003, the Param Padma fell short of
the list with a computing power of 1 trillion mathematical operations per
second. To boost the Param system's performance, the C-DAC looked to grid
computing to get back on the list. The emerging network, called Garuda,
links 15 powerful computers to the 1 teraflop machine housed in the C-DAC's
National Param Supercomputing Facility in Bangalore. The newest addition
to Param supercomputing is Param Sarita, which is designed to address the
booming market for multimedia applications such as video-on-demand and
interactive TV. The Computational Atmospheric Sciences (CAS) team at C-DAC
is also using the new line of supercomputers for atmospheric and
environmental science applications. The CAS team recently designed a "Real
Time Weather System," a Web-based, fully automatic system that handles the
complete weather forecasting cycle, including data acquisition, initial
processing, model simulation, and intelligent post processing. The system
can easily be adapted to handle data from a variety of sources and
numerical weather prediction models, which could be useful to weather
forecasters, atmospheric researchers, policy makers, and the aviation, oil,
transport, and sports entertainment industries.
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A New Interview With Peter Denning on the Great
Principles of Computing
Ubiquity (06/11/07) Vol. 8, No. 22,
Naval Postgraduate School professor and former ACM President Peter J.
Denning's contention that computing is a science is based on his findings
that it satisfies every accepted criterion of a science: It possesses an
organized body of knowledge, a performance history of non-obvious
discoveries, an experimental technique to test theorems, and an openness to
any theorem being counterfeited. Denning traces much resistance to this
notion to the argument that true science deals with natural as opposed to
manmade things as well as the argument that the short, generational
lifespan of computing technologies further disqualifies computing's
eligibility as a science, but Denning does not accept this. "I know from
my own experience that computing technologies exploit many fundamental
principles that have been in play for two generations and will still be
[in] play in two more," he says. Denning notes that the favored
storytelling approaches to explaining computing have backfired:
Spotlighting programming as a fundamental intellectual skill has caused
many people to view programming and computer science as one and the same;
highlighting abstraction as the computing field's quintessential mechanism
does nothing to promote computing's uniqueness, since abstraction is common
in many other disciplines; and telling narratives about computing
innovations reinforces the connection between computing and transient
technologies. According to Denning, what is needed is a different kind of
communication, given computing's relevance to all kinds of people besides
the technologically savvy. "We have to find ways to discuss computing so
that our listeners can see their own struggles in the stories and then see
how computing can help them," he says. Denning is engaged in the Great
Principles of Computing Project to make the discussion of computing more
reflective of the field's fundamental principles through a new
"principles-oriented language" that reverses the traditional definition of
computation as a tool for computers.
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