News
Five College of Computing students won poster session awards at the 2012 Georgia Tech Research & Innovation Conference (GTRIC) on Tuesday, Feb. 7.
The robotics industry is in a major growth mode but companies are having trouble finding high quality employees. Henrik Christensen (Interactive Computing) discusses what individuals need to break into the booming robotics field. Source: Today's Engineer
Google has launched a new program devoted to fostering discussions among leaders in the science and technology industries. Blair McIntyre (Interactive Computing) discusses the new project, “Solve for X,” and the issues faced by programs like it. Source: Tech News World
What would happen if robots were a part of your everyday life at school and beyond? Henrik Christen (Interactive Computing) takes that projection a step further when he argues, “If we make conscious robots, they would want to have rights and they probably should.” Source: Forbes
Did you know that Twitter is full of inane, boring tweets that nobody wants to read? It’s true, according to research conducted by Kurt Luther (Interactive Computing). Source: TIME
Twitter has been celebrated for its ubiquity and impact on world events from natural disaster recovery to political uprisings. But researchers, including Kurt Luther (Interactive Computing), found that useful postings are few and far between. Source: Computerworld UK
A lot can be said in 140 characters but, according to new research, conducted by Kurt Luther (Interactive Computing) a quarter of people aren't paying attention to most of it. Source: Fox Business
While some of your tweets might be of utmost importance to you, most people could not care less, according to a study from Kurt Luther (Interactive Computing) and researchers at MIT and Carnegie Mellon. Source: PC Magazine
Account holders admit only a third of the tweets they receive are of any interest, the rest are either actively disliked or forgotten almost immediately. They particular hate too many hashtags, being told where someone is every time they go out and lots of moaning and complaining, the study, by Kurt Luther (Interactive Computing) and other researchers, found. Source: The Telegraph
Two Georgia Tech students were recently named by Forbes as top 30 influencers under the age of 30. Digital Media grad student Chris DeLeon was honored in entertainment. Human-Centered Computing Ph.D. candidate Eugene Medynskiy was tabbed in technology.
Richard DeMillo (Computer Science) was featured at Authors@Google discussing themes from his new book, Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities. Source: Google
Kurt Luther (Interactive Computing), in collaboration with researchers from Carnegie Mellon and MIT, conducted a data-driven study that examined 43,000 responses to Tweets in order to find precisely what people like - and loathe - about microblog posts. Source: The Atlantic
With people at the root of new online security problems, it's nearly inevitable that a company with which you do business is capable of being hacked. Mustaque Ahamad (Computer Science) discusses how you can protect yourself from financial damage even if your information is hacked. Source: Main Street
Richard DeMillo (Computer Science) discusses his new book, Abelard to Apple: The Fate of American Colleges and Universities, in this on-air radio interview. Source: LA Talk Radio
Flashpoint's San Francisco gathering on Thursday offered a window into how ambitious techies’ visions become reality. Director Merrick Furst (Computer Science) says the program functions “to address uncertainties and risks in the startup phase.” Source: Mashable
Richard DeMillo (Computer Science) comments on MIT’s decision to grant credentials to online students and the potential impact it could have on higher education. Source: New American
Has the Internet made us greener? A study by Vytautas Valancius (Computer Science) says splitting data centers into a dispersed network might save energy in other ways. Source: The Kansas City Star
After years of existing only in fiction, robots are now beginning to find a place in real-world. Andrea Thomaz (Interactive Computing), along with two other robotics pioneers, discusses how her findings are shaping the future of robotics. Source: The Kavli Foundation
Russell J. Clark (Computer Science) is working on a project to enhance situational awareness for first responders. His work combines projects in building sensors and instrumentation with novel user interfaces such as mobile augmented reality. Source: Forbes
HPCwire has selected David Bader (CompSci & Eng) as one of their ‘People to Watch’ for 2012, a list comprised of an elite group of community leaders. A lead scientist in the DARPA Ubiquitous High Performance Computing (UHPC) program, his research is supported through highly competitive research awards. Source: HPCwire
A startup company based on technology developed at Georgia Tech offers a solution to the growing challenge of telephone security, and is quickly gaining traction from investors, financial services companies and the security industry
Ron Arkin (Interactive Computing) believes robot soldiers could be programmed to behave more ethically than soldiers in live combat, but a far easier task would be designing drones that behave themselves better than celebrity-chasing photographers. Source: The Guardian
A flotilla of 15 startups from Atlanta presented their ideas in New York on Jan. 18 as part of the Flashpoint accelerator program's first series of demo days. Flashpoint Director Merrick Furst (Computer Science) says the program helps entrepreneurs develop their concepts beyond their startup phase. Source: Xconomy.com
If robots one day are to relieve us of such household chores as laundry or doing the dishes, they must be engineered to be as safe and reliable as refrigerators, says Ron Arkin (Interactive Computing). Source: Economic Times
Ellen Yi-Luen Do (Interactive Computing) says advanced eye-tracking technology could provide new ways to communicate for people with diseases or disabilities that severely hamper their ability to speak or write, like scientist Stephen Hawking. Source: TechNewsWorld
A project directed by James Rehg (Interactive Computing) on automating insect behavior calls for tagging individual members of an ant colony. Ph.D. student Andy Quitmeyer put together an entertaining video on how best to accomplish this delicate task. Source: io9.com
Flashpoint, Georgia Tech's startup accelerator program, had its first Demo Day on Jan. 10. The newly launched incubator, directed by Merrick Furst (Computer Science), is especially interested in investing in early-stage startups in the technology, medical device and biotech industries. Source: TechCrunch
Rich DeMillo (Computer Science) says prospective students and their parents need to go beyond the organized campus tour when shopping for colleges: Talk to students and teachers, don't be fooled by fancy dorms or high-profile sports teams, and even check out schools' financial health before laying down that deposit. Source: Forbes.com
Pindrop, an information security startup dedicated to phone security founded by Vijay Balasubramaniyan and Mustaque Ahamad (Computer Science), has drawn the interest--and the financial support--of the venture capitalist firm Andreesen Horowitz (subscription required). Source: Atlanta Business Chronicle
Is the Internet running out of real estate? A paper co-written by David Dagon (Computer Science) explains how the Web's domain-name service relies on a dwindling number of IP addresses to assign "space" in the virtual world. Source: New Legal Review
Software that lets users know which companies are tracking their online habits is taking off. "Many privacy-conscious people take issue with someone tracking their online activities without their consent," says Mustaque Ahamad (Computer Science), director of the GT Information Security Center. Source: AJC.com
Can "bounded reality" enable autonomous robot soldiers to act more ethically than humans while caught up in the fog of war? Ron Arkin (Interactive Computing) believes the answer is yes (video story). Source: Al Jazeera English
Augmented reality--and the universe of applications it makes possible--is transitioning from the research lab to the real world, says Blair MacIntyre (Interactive Computing). What AR needs, he says, is a lot of talented developers to keep pushing it forward (video story). Source: BBC News
"The real power of computer science is a new kind of literacy," says Mark Guzdial (Interactive Computing). "When we learn to program, we gain yet another way to understand the world and talk about it." Guzdial's Georgia Computes! program has been teaching that literacy to Georgia K-12 teachers and students for five years. Source: NBC News
For all their software smarts, robots remain clumsy at manipulating real-world objects. By making robots not only strategize chess moves but actually move the pieces, says competition organizer Mike Stilman (Interactive Computing), new perspective could be gained on the machines' physical limitations. Source: New Scientist