2009

Might Internet Security Systems--founded in 1994 by then-Georgia Tech sophomore Christopher Klaus in his dorm room, and sold 12 years later to IBM for $1.3 billion--be the most important Atlanta company of the last 20 years? Since ISS' founding, the city has become a hub for the information security industry. Source: TechDrawl.com

A new Georgia Tech initiative is taking on the multidisciplinary challenges involved in creating and running energy efficient data centers. The effort--dubbed Green IT--considers power consumption across the entire “energy stack,” ranging from the power consumed by multi-core platforms, to the board and rack levels, to the entire data center. Source: Manufacturing Business Technology

To help understand and reduce power consumption by data centers, Georgia Tech has launched Green IT. Corralling expertise from the College of Computing, College of Engineering and Office of Information Technology, the consortium is a multidisciplinary effort that looks at how to build large-scale systems that use less power. Source: HPCwire, Scientific Computing

ATLANTA (November 18, 2009) - The biggest challenge in computing today, some experts say, is not processing power, but power consumption. In 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency forecasted that as of 2011, data centers will be responsible for 2 percent of all power consumption in the U.S., and some predictions foresee those levels rising to almost 6 percent by 2020. To help understand and reduce power consumption, the Georgia Institute of Technology has launched Green IT. Source: GT Communications & Marketing

ATLANTA, GA (November 17, 2009) – Technological advances in high-throughput DNA sequencing have opened up the possibility of determining how living things are related by analyzing the ways in which their genes have been rearranged on chromosomes. However, inferring such evolutionary relationships from rearrangement events is computationally intensive on even the most advanced computing systems available today. Source: Office of Communications

ATLANTA, GA (November 16, 2009) – The College of Computing today announced the creation of a new Master of Science in Information Security available online in a distance learning format, a flexible degree option for working information security professionals who want more than industry certification. Georgia Tech is the only university of its class certified by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Department of Homeland Security as a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education that offers the degree in an online format. Source: Office of Communications

ATLANTA – November 11, 2009 – The Georgia Institute of Technology, an emerging leader in high-performance computing research and education, will be showcasing scientific research at the technical edge at next week's SC09, the international conference on high-performance computing, networking, storage and analysis scheduled for Nov. 14-20, 2009, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. Source: Office of Communications

ATLANTA – November 10 2009 – Patrick Traynor and Jonathon Giffin, also an assistant professor in the School of Computer Science, recently received a three-year $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop tools that improve the security of mobile devices and the telecommunications networks on which they operate. These Georgia Tech faculty, together with a team of graduate students, are developing methods of identifying and remotely repairing mobile devices that may be infected with viruses or other malware. Source: Office of Communications

Keith Edwards and Beki Grinter, both associate professors in the School of Interactive Computing, have been named Distinguished Scientists by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Source: Office of Communications

Charlie Brubaker, an August 2009 Ph.D. graduate in Computer Science, has won the College of Computing Doctoral Dissertation Award for his thesis, “Extensions of Principal Component Analysis,” and the College has voted to recommend the work for the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award, which each year recognizes the best CS dissertation in the country. Source: Office of Communications

With a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the College of Computing has launched "Operation Reboot." The program pairs a laid-off IT professional with an existing high school teacher for at least one year, allowing the IT professional to learn the ins and outs of a classroom, and the teacher to get an education in IT. "We will transform these IT workers' identity into that of a computing teacher," said Barbara Ericson, director of computer-science outreach for the College. Source: Computerworld

College of Computing professors Ron Arkin and Tom Conte have been elected to three-year terms on the Boards of Governors for two IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) societies. Arkin will serve on the board for the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT), and Conte was elected to the board of the IEEE Computer Society. Source: Office of Communications

ATLANTA – October 21 2009 – The Georgia Institute of Technology today announced its receipt of a five-year, $12 million Track 2 award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Office of Cyberinfrastructure to lead a partnership of academic, industry and government experts in the development and deployment of an innovative and experimental high-performance computing (HPC) system. Source: Office of Communications

In the October 2009 issue of Verge, an arts and events magazine in Augusta, Ga., Professor Dana Randall of Computer Science says she wants to change the perception of mathematics. Far from simply crunching numbers, Randall talks about her work as solving--even "study[ing] the aesthetics" of--patterns and puzzles. On Oct. 29 in Augusta's Fort Discovery, she will deliver the American Mathematical Society's annual Arnold Ross Lecture, titled "Domino Tilings of the Chessboard: An Introduction to Sampling and Counting." Source: Verge Magazine

Now that the National Science Foundation has awarded Georgia Computes! an additional $1.4 million to extend the program for two years, its directors in the College of Computing say the program's next phase will expand its teacher-education efforts in computer science. Source: AJC.com

One sign of a successful pilot program is when it gets extended beyond its initial timeframe. Another is when it gets additional funding. A third is when it inspires copycats. Georgia Computes!, led since 2006 by the College of Computing, is meeting all criteria. Source: Inside Higher Ed

ATLANTA (October 6, 2009) — Georgia Computes!, a statewide program aimed at expanding the pipeline of computer science students and teachers at all education levels in Georgia, received a $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to extend the program for two more years. Source: Office of Communications

Vishakha Gupta, a Ph.D. student in computer science, has been awarded an doctoral fellowship from Intel Corp. for the 2009-10 academic year. Gupta, whose adviser is Professor Karsten Schwan, works in the Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems (CERCS). Source: Office of Communications

The College of Computing is looking to transform economic lemons into educational lemonade by shifting unemployed technology professionals into teaching careers. Dubbed "Operation Reboot," the program will combine with the Georgia Teacher Alternative Preparation Program and is designed prepare IT professionals to teach high school computer science. It kicked off Sept. 1 with an initial set of 30 technology workers and is expected to operate for the next three years. Source: CampusTechnology.com

A $2.5 million federal grant will enable the College of Computing to transform 30 IT workers into high school computing teachers. "Operation Reboot" program pairs an IT worker with an existing computing teacher. The trainees will co-teach at least two computing classes for one year, allowing them to learn the ins-and-outs of classroom teaching. Source: Associated Press

ATLANTA (September 17, 2009)— Through a recent $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the Georgia Tech College of Computing will mitigate the stress of joblessness for unemployed information technology (IT) professionals over the next three years. Operation Reboot, as the project is aptly titled, will transform an initial set of 30 IT workers in Georgia into high school computing teachers. The initiative began September 1. Source: Office of Communications

Glitch Game Testers, a joint program between the College of Computing and Morehouse College, is helping Atlanta high school students make the connection between the fun of video games and the field of computer science, says Ph.D. student and program lead Betsy DiSalvo. Source: GameSetWatch.com

In many less developed countries, information technology and computer science are not considered “male” domains, according to a report written by Mark Guzdial, professor in Interactive Computing, for the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). In Malaysia, for example, one study showed 52 percent of all CS majors are female, often taught by female department heads reporting to female deans. Source: Generation YES blog

Jarek Rossignac, professor in the School of Interactive Computing, developed Surgem, an interactive geometric modeling environment that allows surgeons to use both hands and natural gestures in 3D to grab, pull, twist and bend a 3D computer representation of a patient's anatomy. Source: Reuters

Two-dimensional maps yield far more promise for bringing geo-tagged augmented reality to mobile phone platforms than does GPS, says Blair MacIntyre, associate professor in Interactive Computing and director of the Augmented Environments Lab. MacIntyre predicts that mobile AR will become much more functional within the next year. Source: CNN.com

Craig Mundie, a two-time alumnus of Georgia Tech, was named one of the world's top 25 "Masters of Innovation" by BusinessWeek magazine, in its 2009 rankings of most innovative companies. Mundie, who's served as Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer in 2006, stepped into some big shoes—many of his duties were formerly handled by Bill Gates. Source: BusinessWeek

In a podcast interview with GovInfoSecurity.com, Howard Schmidt says both government and the private sector have a "shared responsibility" to address cyberthreats through culture change and additional funding, as well as through cooperation with other nations. Schmidt, president of the Information Security Forum, is Professor of the Practice in Computer Science and the Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC). Source: GovInfoSecurity.com

Christopher Klaus, founder of Internet Security Systems and namesake of the Klaus Advanced Computing Building, is featured on the July 26, 2009, episode of Georgia Public Broadcasting's "Georgia's Business." Klaus, now CEO of Kaneva, discusses virtual worlds and "emergent behavior" in online gaming. Source: GPB

Last year the Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC) estimated that 15 percent of online computers are infected with BotNets. The CIA World Fact Book estimates 1.3 billion Internet users worldwide. Taking into account shared, multiple and mobile devices, some have estimated that nearly 200 million devices could be infected, with as many as 150,000 being added each day. Source: DoDBuzz.com

Mobile devices like iPhones are high on the list of emerging cybersecurity threats, but one factor that might keep hackers at bay--for now--is the devices' short life cycle, says Assistant Professor Patrick Traynor of Computer Science, who points out that most users get a new device every two years. Source: Newsmedian Blog

As he works toward an "ethical governor" to manage military robot behavior, Professor Ron Arkin of Interactive Computing admits the technology that would allow a robot to distinguish between combatants and noncombatants does not yet exist, but says there is no fundamental limitation to finding it. "These are for the so-called war after next," he says. Source: h+ magazine

SNARE, or Spatio-temporal Network-level Automatic Reputation Engine, is a new software that separates spam from "ham" (legitimate email) with the same accuracy as traditional filters while putting less strain on the network. Assistant Professor Nick Feamster of Computer Science oversaw its development. Source: MIT Technology Review

More and more researchers are examining how to bring ethics into the world of robot behavior, but humans might also need ethical "programming" when it comes to robot interactions. "Is it okay to kick a robot dog but tell your kids not to do that with a normal dog? How do you tell your children about the difference?" said Professor Henrik Christensen, director of the Robotics & Intelligent Machines (RIM) Center at Georgia Tech. Source: Wired.com

Over the past 40 years, the Internet has become part of society's fundamental infrastructure, but for it to continue meeting its obligations, major improvements are needed in security, accessibility, predictability and reliability, concluded a Computing Community Consortium group led by Professor Ellen Zegura, chair of Computer Science. Source: Office of Communications

Mobile devices can help patients with diabetes monitor their health in multiple ways, from logging glucose readings to snapping photos of meals. "By being almost always with you, anytime you had a question or concern or surprise, the device was available for capturing those concerns," said Professor Beth Mynatt, director of the GVU Center. Mynatt led a study that examined how people used the devices to improve their personal health care monitoring. Source: MobileActive.org

For location-specific applications of augmented reality to go mainstream, they will need mountains of data, either from users themselves or from geo-tagged databases. "Ideally they'd want to hook in with the same database that Google Maps, or Garmin, or TomTom uses," said Associate Professor Blair MacIntyre, director of the Augmented Environments Lab. Source: San Francisco Chronicle

"MDG Actors," a web application that crawls the Internet in real time to search for the latest information on the United Nations' eight Millennium Development Goals, was the only U.S. category winner in July's Imagine Cup finals in Cairo, Egypt. Source: Office of Communications

Nick Diakopoulos and Stephen Voida, both recent Ph.D. graduates of the College of Computing, have been named Computing Innovation Fellows by the Computing Research Association (CRA) and the Computing Community Consortium (CCC). Source: Office of Communications

Blair MacIntyre, associate professor of Interactive Computing, has been awarded a Professor-Partnership by NVidia and will be a featured speaker at the company's Research Summit this fall in San Jose, Calif. Source: Office of Communications

Professors Hongyuan Zha (Computational Science and Engineering) and Karsten Schwan (Computer Science) have won HP Labs Innovation Research Program (IRP) awards, the company announced in June. Source: Office of Communications

As the computing power of mobile phones increases--and competition begins to winnow down the variety of operating systems--they will become more and more attractive to hackers. Now is the time to begin shoring up defenses, say assistant professors Jon Giffin and Patrick Traynor of Computer Science. Source: 11Alive

The future of augmented reality, which now is finding its way into consumer applications on mobile device platforms, may lie not in people's phones but in some kind of wearable technology like special glasses or even contact lenses, says Associate Professor Blair MacIntyre of Interactive Computing. Source: The New York Times

Alexander Gray, assistant professor in Computational Science and Engineering, has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for his project, "Scalable Machine Learning for Astrostatistics." Source: Office of Communications

In a Q&A-style interview, Professor Ron Arkin of Interactive Computing talks about his work with the U.S. Army to develop autonomous robots for military use. Arkin explains the "ethical adaptor," modeled on human feelings of guilt, that theoretically would allow the machine to make ethical decisions in the heat of battle. Source: CNET News

Team Curious, a Georgia Tech pairing of a College of Computing alumna and a mechanical engineering student, is getting worldwide recognition after winning the MashUp category of the 2009 Imagine Cup competition, sponsored by Microsoft Corp. Team Curious is the only U.S. group to receive first place honors in one of the nine invitational categories. Winners were announced July 7. Source: Office of Communications

Now is the time to begin defending voice over IP before hackers and thieves go after its vulnerabilities just as they've done with Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). "There is no reason to believe the bad guys will not exploit this," says Professor Mustaque Ahamad, director of the Georgia Tech Information Security Center. Source: Government Computer News

In CNET's daily podcast, Professor Ron Arkin of Interactive Computing talks about his work with the U.S. Army exploring the use of autonomous robots on the battlefield. Arkin says a robot theoretically could fight more ethically--at least in terms of avoiding civilian casualties--than a human soldier because it would not experience the desire for revenge. Host: CNET News

Petascale Computing: Algorithms and Applications, written by Professor David Bader of Computational Science and Engineering, would be especially useful to center directors and program managers planning long-term hardware and software needs, says an HPCwire reviewer. Source: HPCwire.com

Associate Professor Blair MacIntyre of Interactive Computing talks about his 18 years of working in the field of augmented reality and various applications for the technology. Host: TacticalTransparency.com

The Aware Home, a research initiative based in the College of Computing, is not science fiction--it's a real-life laboratory where assistive technologies for groups like the elderly and special-needs children are tested in an actual home environment. Source: CNN

Georgia Tech held on to its No. 8 ranking among the world's engineering and information technology universities, according to a list published by U.S. News & World Report on June 18. The rankings are based on data from the THE-QS World University Rankings. Source: U.S. News & World Report

Though there’s not yet a commercially available mobile phone that will play it, Associate Professor Blair MacIntyre’s zombie-filled first-person shooter game run off the NVidia Tegra platform already is drawing rave reviews. Source: Gizmodo

Incoming Ph.D. student (and Georgia Tech bachelor’s and master’s graduate) Casey Fiesler has received a 2009 Burton Award for an article she published in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law. Source: Office of Communications

Though many years in the future, military robots programmed to act ethically could be even more ethical in battlefield situations than soldiers, since machines would not fall prey to the desire for revenge. On the flip side, neither would they feel sympathy or empathy, says Professor Ron Arkin of Interactive Computing. Source: New Scientist

One of the original pioneers of augmented reality discusses the potential he sees in smart phones to mediate meaningful AR experiences. Source: UgoTrade.com

Cybersecurity experts weigh in on the June 10 Capitol Hill testimony delivered by Professor Sy Goodman, joint with the Computer Science and the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, who warned of a possible “tsunami of insecurity.” Source: NextGov.com

Whatever part the U.S. Strategic Command will play in securing U.S. networks, cyber threats from foreign governments are "keeping a lot of people awake at night," says Professor Mustaque Ahamad, director of the Georgia Tech Information Security Center. Source: Omaha World-Herald

As part of his June 10 testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives' Science and Technology Committee and Research and Science Education Subcommittee, Professor Sy Goodman, joint with Computer Science and the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, said one threat is a dearth of cybersecurity professors who can train tomorrow's security specialists. Source: GovInfoSecurity.com

Assistant Professor Patrick Traynor of Computer Science advises users to remain vigilant against new and emerging cybersecurity threats, particularly those directed toward mobile devices, for which effective protection measures have not yet been devised. Source: SC Magazine

Despite the cybersecurity warnings to Congress of Professor Sy Goodman, joint with Computer Science and the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Washington should not legislate what gets taught about IT security, according to a Cornell professor. Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

A two-person Computing and mechanical engineering team has been selected as a finalist in the 2009 Imagine Cup, the global contest sponsored by Microsoft in which student teams from around the world create applications that address the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. Source: Office of Communications

On June 10, Professor Sy Goodman, joint with the School of Computer Science and the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, briefed the U.S. House of Representatives' Science and Technology Committee and Research and Science Education Subcommittee during its hearing on "Cyber Security R&D." Source: Office of Communications

A mobile video kiosk designed and created by Georgia Tech students and faculty is traveling around Liberia, giving traumatized residents of the war-torn country an opportunity to have their stories heard and recorded for posterity. Source: CNN

Santosh Vempala, a professor at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, is the father of a course called Computing for Good that turned students loose last year on solving social, medical and business problems here and around the world. Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

At the Georgia Institute of Technology, a three-year-old program in "computational journalism" helps computer-science majors study how journalists gather, organize and utilize information, then take these workflows and see how technology can make the processes easier. Source: Time

Supercomputing is on the cusp of a new era, offering researchers processing power never seen before. Professor David Bader has been heavily involved in promoting awareness of petascale computing. “First and foremost, this is a scale of system that has not been seen before,” he says. Source: Genome Technology

Computing Professor Mustaque Ahamad, director of Georgia Tech’s Information Security Center (GTISC), is heartened by President Barack Obama’s plan to focus on internet security and says the initiative could mean good things for Atlanta. Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution

Robotics Professor Henrik Christensen and other researchers from around the country descended on Washington to meet with a group of lawmakers to present a “Robotics Roadmap” for the 21st century. Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Robotics professor Ronald Arkin is in the first stages of developing an “ethical governor,” a package of software and hardware that tells robots when and what to fire. His book on the subject, Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots, comes out this month. Source: Discovery Channel

Computing Ph.D. student Gallagher Pryor is part of the team at AccelerEyes, which has been chosen as a finalist in the Business Launch Competitions sponsored by the Georgia Research Alliance/Technology Association of Georgia. AccelerEyes makes software that allows ordinary computers to do powerful visual computing. Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle

Associate Professor Amy Bruckman of the School for Interactive Computing is serving as program committee chair for the 2009 International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (WikiSym) to be held in October in Orlando, Florida. Source: Office of Communications

Professor Tom Conte of the School of Computer Science has been named editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Architecture and Code Optimization (TACO). Conte’s term began April 16 and will last three years. Source: Office of Communications

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has named Assistant Professor Rich Vuduc of the Computational Science and Engineering Division to a highly selective computer science research study group.

“Dynamics of Online Scam Hosting Infrastructure,” a paper by computer science graduate student Maria Konte, Assistant Professor Nick Feamster and Jaeyeon Jung at Intel Research, won the Best Paper Award at the Passive and Active Measurement Conference (PAM). The paper, which studies the infrastructure that scammers use to host phishing and scam attacks on the Internet, was presented April 3 at the conference in Seoul, Korea.

Senior research scientist Rosa Arriaga of Interactive Computing talks about a survey tool that makes it easier for pediatricians to screen all patients for signs of autism. Arriaga and interactive computing Professor Gregory Abowd partnered in developing the tool. Source: WSB Atlanta

A growing reliance in Africa on cell phones may come at a cost because African nations generally have poor cyber security in place, says Seymour Goodman, a professor of computing and international affairs and co-director of the Georgia Tech Information Security Center. Source: Scientific American

The unmanned bombers that often cause unintended civilian casualties in Pakistan are a step toward an even more lethal generation of robotic hunters-killers that operate with little or no human control. Robotics expert Ronald Arkin says, “The trend is clear: Warfare will continue and autonomous robots will ultimately be deployed in its conduct.” Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Lots of college students want to change the world. Roger Pincombe just might have found a way to do it—one bargain at a time. Pincombe, a junior computer science major, took first prize in the individual category of the 2009 InVenture Prize @ Georgia Tech, a competition designed by Institute faculty to foster student inventors and entrepreneurs.

Computing alumna Julie Kientz has built a high-tech tool that takes photos and video, creates an online diary and family newsletters and tracks a child's developmental milestones. Faculty Gregory Abowd and Rosa Arriaga co-authored a paper about it with Kientz for this week’s Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Source: ScienceDaily

Interactive computing student Susan Wyche has developed the Sun Dial phone application, which uses imagery and audible alerts to notify Muslim users when to perform the daily prayers, known as salat. Source: Discover

Georgia Tech is one of 14 universities involved in a six-year, $30 million, U.S. Department of Homeland Security center to create methods and tools to analyze and manage vast amounts of information for all mission areas of homeland security. Led by Purdue and Rutgers universities, the new Center of Excellence in Command, Control and Interoperability will help develop new methods to prepare for, prevent and respond to natural and manmade disasters. Source: Purdue University

Computing Ph.D. candidate Susan Wyche thought it was high time for technology to help people improve their spiritual lives, since it has done so much to support their professional and personal lives. She and her research team have developed an application for mobile phones that alerts Muslims when it is time for one of their five daily prayers. Source: EurekAlert!

A tricky computer virus that has infected an estimated 9 million to 15 million computers has created a dangerous network of corrupt machine. "We've got some bad guys out there who are extremely sophisticated," said Professor Merrick Furst.  Source: identitytheftsecrets.com

Some worry that users of  Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are becoming obsessive or addicted, but Professor Amy Bruckman says social networking sites help people find support they need. "The more we all increase our social networks, the more sources of support we have," Bruckman said. Source: Fox 5

The April 1 “deadline” for the Conficker virus has passed, but computer security expert Jon Giffin warns that the danger has not. “The malicious activity may come tonight or days, weeks or months from now," he said. Source: WXIA Atlanta

Roger Pincombe won the $5,000 individual award for DialPrice, which allows shoppers to compare prices by entering a product code number into any phone. Georgia Tech also will provide free patent filings by its Office of Technology Licensing (a $20,000 value) and a paid summer internship. Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution

Computer security expert Jon Giffin appeared on the Atlanta NBC affiliate morning news show to talk about the Conficker worm, a computer virus or "bot" that can infect a computer and hijack it for possible criminal purposes. Giffin also took part in a live online chat. Source: 11Alive

Computer science is taking on a public-service bent at the College of Computing, where students and faculty in a new program called Computing for Good are using code to combat societal problems like homelessness and the spread of HIV. Source: Chronicle of Higher Education

High performance computing expert David Bader answers questions about how multicore and parallel computing is speeding up everything from 3G cell phone apps, to desktop office tools, Web browsers, media players and Web services. Source: Dr. Dobb's Portal

James Rehg and Tucker Balch of Georgia Tech are using their expertise to design automated computer vision systems to track films of animals in nature–namely, lion teams hunting–in order to recognize and classify the behavior of each individual. Source:  ASU News

Robotics expert Ronald Arkin says wars are inevitable and so is the use of autonomous robot soldiers. "The pressure of an increasing battlefield tempo is forcing autonomy further and further toward the point of robots making that final, lethal decision," Arkin said. Source: McClatchy

Somewhere out there, a clever hacker is spreading a sophisticated computer worm called Conficker. "There are a huge number of machines that might be able to be controlled by people other than the owners of those machines," said Professor Merrick Furst. Source: ABC News

Roboticist Ronald Arkin notes a dramatic drop in costs of building robots for his research: Making a bot now costs around $1,000 per unit, rather than $30,000. Source: Scientific American

A blog has honored Interactive Computing Professor Amy Bruckman on Ada Lovelace Day, an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Bruckman researches social media and on-line communities, among other things. Source: Women in Science

At last week's Atlanta Secureworld Expo, Professors Sy Goodman and Mustaque Ahamad spoke about security issues surrounding information technology including walware, botnets, cyber warfare, threats to VoIP and mobile devices and the evolving cyber crime economy. Source: Atlanta Web Examiner

In this podcast, researcher Ron Arkin answers questions on the rise of military robots, the role of robots in society, medical robots and legal responsibilities. Source: Robots

Will autonomous robot soldiers take over human armies? Militaries will probably not replace humans entirely with robots, said robotics Professor Ronald Arkin. Instead, robots will operate and fight alongside humans in specialized roles. Source: LiveScience

Computing Ph.D. student Frank Park is one of four owners of ImagineAir, a thriving air taxi business founded in Atlanta in 2005. The other three owners are GT alumni. Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle

Robotics Professor Ronald Arkin warns against using machines to take care of children and the elderly. “Simply turning our grandparents over to teams of robots abrogates our society's responsibility to each other and encourages a loss of touch with reality for this already mentally and physically challenged population," he said. Source: Associated Press

Researchers hoping to create robots that can coach, motivate and monitor people could look to recent research by interactive computing doctoral student Ja-Young Sung on how some humans develop personal relationships with their Roombas. Source: Washington Post

Despite great progress recently, scientists say there are still significant obstacles to creating a robot with human intelligence. "It is almost impossible to predict when machines will become as clever as humans," says robotics Professor Ronald Arkin. Source: Artipot

Matthew Wolf, a research scientist in the Center for Experimental Research in Computer Systems (CERCS), has won a 2009 Leadership in Academia Award. The Intel Academic Community, a group of more than 1,000 faculty and researchers around the world, gives out the award. Source: Intel Software Network

Interactive computing Professor Thad Starner will help kick off the 36th annual Meeting of the Research Council on Mathematics Learning at Berry College Thursday with a discussion on assistive technology for the deaf. Source: Rome News Tribune

Ajai Karthikeyan hopes the next Facebook emerges out of a Georgia Tech dorm room. The 19-year-old computing major has launched the "Young Entrepreneurs Society" to help students transform ideas into businesses. Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle

A project led by interactive computing Professor Michael Best and Monrovia-based project manager John Etherton, a computing alumnus, provides technology to give more Liberians a voice in the country’s Truth and Reconciliation process after a devastating civil war. Source: World Bank

The Computing Research Association (CRA) has honored Computing alumnus Eugene Spafford with its 2009 Distinguished Service Award. Spafford, a noted expert in information security, received a master’s degree in 1981 and a Ph.D. in 1986. Source: CRA

As more people bring personal technology to work—most often smartphones—malicious code writers are targeting these weak points of entry. In its 2009 Cyber Threat Report, the Georgia Tech Information Security Center said botnets could move from the desktop to the smartphone within the year. Source: Washington Post

Interactive Computing Professors Bruce Walker and Tucker Balch are researching ways to use sound to convey information. The Accessible Aquarium Project, one of the innovative projects going on, translates the movement of fish into music. Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution

Facebook, an online social networking Web site, angered many of its users this week when it changed its policy for keeping the content its users removed.  Amy Bruckman, associate professor of interactive computing, says online content ownership and privacy is an old issue for tools like Facebook and Google. Source: Atlanta Journal Constitution

Researchers led by computer science Ph.D. student David Dagon have assembled a model, globally mapping out vulnerabilities and attacks that occurred between August 2008 and January 2009 because of a crippling cybersecurity weakness . Source: Forbes

Kevin Huang, a grad student in interactive computing, has designed a glove with five vibrating motors that helps beginners develop muscle memory while learning to play the piano. Source: AP, NPR, Forbes, Fox, MSNBC, Washington Post and other media

Mark Guzdial has been developing first-year computer science curricula for students in majors other than CS and says the key is to establish the proper context and to use computing as a "lens" through which to view other disciplines. Source: Computerworld New Zealand

The modeling and simulation industry has great growth potential but faces formidable political and educational challenges. Professor Richard Fujimoto, Chair of the Computational Science and Engineering Division, said one is a steady decline of students entering computer science since the dot-com bubble burst nearly a decade ago. Source: Dailypress.com

Computing alumnus Alexander Stoytchev, now an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Iowa State, and his students are trying to figure out how a robot can learn what children learn over the first two years of their lives. Source: Science Daily

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Computing faculty Nick Feamster and Constantine Dovrolis are on the steering committee and are developing tools for the site.-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->Working Toward Broadband Transparency<br />Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools, was announced yesterday at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C. Computing faculty Nick Feamster and Constantine Dovrolis are on the steering committee.<br />M-Lab was announced during a panel discussion on “Broadband Transparency: Network Research, Empowered Users, and Sound Policy.” The platform, which promises “Tools for Users, an Open Platform for Researchers and Better Open Data for Everyone,” can be found at http://www.measurementlab.net/.<br />Initially three tools will be available, running on three servers at one location, and they will be able to support only a limited number of simultaneous users. M-Lab organizers say the program will expand quickly, however, and promise a total of 36 servers to be deployed across 12 locations early in 2009.<br />Feamster and computing Professor Mostafa Ammar are developing a tool for the site. Nano will help users automatically detect discrimination/neutrality violations in their access ISPs. Dovrolis is working on DiffProbe, a tool that tries to detect if an Internet access provider is classifying certain kinds of traffic as "low priority," providing it with an inferior level of service. Both Nano and DiffProbe will be available on the M-Lab site soon.<br />M-Lab was founded by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google Inc. and academic researchers.<br />Working Toward Broadband Transparency<br />Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools, was announced yesterday at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C. Computing faculty Nick Feamster and Constantine Dovrolis are on the steering committee.<br />M-Lab was announced during a panel discussion on “Broadband Transparency: Network Research, Empowered Users, and Sound Policy.” The platform, which promises “Tools for Users, an Open Platform for Researchers and Better Open Data for Everyone,” can be found at http://www.measurementlab.net/.<br />Initially three tools will be available, running on three servers at one location, and they will be able to support only a limited number of simultaneous users. M-Lab organizers say the program will expand quickly, however, and promise a total of 36 servers to be deployed across 12 locations early in 2009.<br />Feamster and computing Professor Mostafa Ammar are developing a tool for the site. Nano will help users automatically detect discrimination/neutrality violations in their access ISPs. Dovrolis is working on DiffProbe, a tool that tries to detect if an Internet access provider is classifying certain kinds of traffic as "low priority," providing it with an inferior level of service. Both Nano and DiffProbe will be available on the M-Lab site soon.<br />M-Lab was founded by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google Inc. and academic researchers.<br />Working Toward Broadband Transparency<br />Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools, was announced yesterday at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C. Computing faculty Nick Feamster and Constantine Dovrolis are on the steering committee.<br />M-Lab was announced during a panel discussion on “Broadband Transparency: Network Research, Empowered Users, and Sound Policy.” The platform, which promises “Tools for Users, an Open Platform for Researchers and Better Open Data for Everyone,” can be found at http://www.measurementlab.net/.<br />Initially three tools will be available, running on three servers at one location, and they will be able to support only a limited number of simultaneous users. M-Lab organizers say the program will expand quickly, however, and promise a total of 36 servers to be deployed across 12 locations early in 2009.<br />Feamster and computing Professor Mostafa Ammar are developing a tool for the site. Nano will help users automatically detect discrimination/neutrality violations in their access ISPs. Dovrolis is working on DiffProbe, a tool that tries to detect if an Internet access provider is classifying certain kinds of traffic as "low priority," providing it with an inferior level of service. Both Nano and DiffProbe will be available on the M-Lab site soon.<br />M-Lab was founded by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google Inc. and academic researchers.<br />Working Toward Broadband Transparency<br />Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools, was announced yesterday at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C. Computing faculty Nick Feamster and Constantine Dovrolis are on the steering committee.<br />M-Lab was announced during a panel discussion on “Broadband Transparency: Network Research, Empowered Users, and Sound Policy.” The platform, which promises “Tools for Users, an Open Platform for Researchers and Better Open Data for Everyone,” can be found at http://www.measurementlab.net/.<br />Initially three tools will be available, running on three servers at one location, and they will be able to support only a limited number of simultaneous users. M-Lab organizers say the program will expand quickly, however, and promise a total of 36 servers to be deployed across 12 locations early in 2009.<br />Feamster and computing Professor Mostafa Ammar are developing a tool for the site. Nano will help users automatically detect discrimination/neutrality violations in their access ISPs. Dovrolis is working on DiffProbe, a tool that tries to detect if an Internet access provider is classifying certain kinds of traffic as "low priority," providing it with an inferior level of service. Both Nano and DiffProbe will be available on the M-Lab site soon.<br />M-Lab was founded by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google Inc. and academic researchers.<br />Working Toward Broadband Transparency<br />Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools, was announced yesterday at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C. Computing faculty Nick Feamster and Constantine Dovrolis are on the steering committee.<br />M-Lab was announced during a panel discussion on “Broadband Transparency: Network Research, Empowered Users, and Sound Policy.” The platform, which promises “Tools for Users, an Open Platform for Researchers and Better Open Data for Everyone,” can be found at http://www.measurementlab.net/.<br />Initially three tools will be available, running on three servers at one location, and they will be able to support only a limited number of simultaneous users. M-Lab organizers say the program will expand quickly, however, and promise a total of 36 servers to be deployed across 12 locations early in 2009.<br />Feamster and computing Professor Mostafa Ammar are developing a tool for the site. Nano will help users automatically detect discrimination/neutrality violations in their access ISPs. Dovrolis is working on DiffProbe, a tool that tries to detect if an Internet access provider is classifying certain kinds of traffic as "low priority," providing it with an inferior level of service. Both Nano and DiffProbe will be available on the M-Lab site soon.<br />M-Lab was founded by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google Inc. and academic researchers.<br />Working Toward Broadband Transparency<br />Measurement Lab (M-Lab), an open platform for researchers to deploy Internet measurement tools, was announced yesterday at the New America Foundation in Washington D.C. Computing faculty Nick Feamster and Constantine Dovrolis are on the steering committee.<br />M-Lab was announced during a panel discussion on “Broadband Transparency: Network Research, Empowered Users, and Sound Policy.” The platform, which promises “Tools for Users, an Open Platform for Researchers and Better Open Data for Everyone,” can be found at http://www.measurementlab.net/.<br />Initially three tools will be available, running on three servers at one location, and they will be able to support only a limited number of simultaneous users. M-Lab organizers say the program will expand quickly, however, and promise a total of 36 servers to be deployed across 12 locations early in 2009.<br />Feamster and computing Professor Mostafa Ammar are developing a tool for the site. Nano will help users automatically detect discrimination/neutrality violations in their access ISPs. Dovrolis is working on DiffProbe, a tool that tries to detect if an Internet access provider is classifying certain kinds of traffic as "low priority," providing it with an inferior level of service. Both Nano and DiffProbe will be available on the M-Lab site soon.<br />M-Lab was founded by the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, the PlanetLab Consortium, Google Inc. and academic researchers.<br />

<!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> Professors Nick Feamster and Constantine Dovrolis are developing tools for Measurement Lab (M-Lab), a new open group of distributed servers meant to make research into Internet speeds, latency, jitter and BitTorrent-blocking easier. M-Lab is a creation of Google, New America, PlanetLab and academia. Source: Arstechnica,Wired

Interactive Computing Professor Jarek Rossignac and his graduate students have developed software that enables pediatric cardiac surgeons to create and manipulate a 3D model of a patient's actual heart to explore and test surgical options on a computer. Source: ACM Queue

Barack Obama is the first president to have a BlackBerry, and it is making security officials nervous. Computing Professor Patrick Traynor said the vast majority of commercial communications devices cannot be made completely secure. Source: NPR

Interactive computing Professor Gregory Abowd is one of 44 scientists to be named as a 2008 ACM Fellow. Abowd was recognized for his contributions to ubiquitous computing research, especially applications for education, home and health. Source: ACM

“I don’t know why people aren’t more afraid of these programs,” said Merrick L. Furst, a scientist at the College of Computing. “This is like having a mole in your organization that can ... send out any information it finds on machines it infects.” Source: New York Times

Professor Beth Mynatt, director of the GVU Center, has been named to the CHI Academy. According to SIGCHI (Special Interest Group in Computer Human Interaction), the CHI Academy honors "individuals who have made substantial contributions to the field of human-computer interaction.” (Source: ACM)

Most students like to play video games, but Computational Media students Holden Link, Cory Johnson and Ian Guthridge have built and are selling their own. Their game, Audiball, was launched during the first week of Xbox Community Games in November. (Source: Georgia Tech Communications and Marketing)

Jason Ardell and Tim Dorr, who both graduated in 2005 with a B.S. in computer science, have developed a service called Feedscrub that continually learns how to filter news feeds based on the user’s reading habits. Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle

For Facebook and other social networks, "the struggle...is to find ways to create an environment that encourages truly meaningful dialogue," says Amy Bruckman, an Associate Professor at the College of Computing. Source: Time.com

Interactive computing Professor Thad Starner says sign-language recognition software is about 20 years behind speech recognition software. Starner’s group has developed sign-language recognition software for children, using sensor-laden gloves to track hand movements. Source: ABC News and MIT Technology Review

Many girls who watched the 1970s television show “The Bionic Woman” dreamed of being the technologically enhanced heroine. Robotics Professor Ayanna Howard dreamed of building her. Source: Diverse: Issues in Education

Ph.D. candidates Christina Gardner and Tamara Clegg in the School of Interactive Computing have cooked up Kitchen Science Investigators, a novel curriculum that uses baking and kitchen staples such as yeast and eggs to help kids get excited about chemistry. Source: New York Times

Interactive Computing Professor Irfan Essa says computational journalism, which brings technologists and journalists together to create new computing tools that further the traditional aims of journalism, may even spawn a new kind of participant in the public conversation. Source: Miller-McCune