CRA/CCC Computing Research Highlights

Kidney Exchange Algorithm Launches Chain of 10 Transplants

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:12:32 -0400

An algorithm devised by Carnegie Mellon computer scientists launched a long-running chain of live kidney donations that thus far has resulted in 10 patients receiving kidney transplants, with the potential for even more.

IBM Claims Cryptographic Cloud Security Challenge Solved

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:03:57 -0400

Stanford Ph.D. student and IBM researcher Craig Gentry may have taken a big step forward in the solving the problem of data security in cloud computing. In his recently released paper, "Fully homomorphic encryption using ideal lattices", Gentry describes a method which allows processing of encrypted data without knowing its content.

Machine Learning Applied to Indus Script

Thu, 14 May 2009 13:30:54 -0400

The Rosetta Stone allowed 19th century scholars to translate symbols left by an ancient civilization and thus decipher the meaning of Egyptian hieroglyphics. But the symbols found on many other ancient artifacts remain a mystery, including those of a people that inhabited the Indus valley on the present-day border between Pakistan and India. Some experts question whether the symbols represent a language at all, or are merely pictograms that bear no relation to the language spoken by their creators.

Robots that Take Orders From the Brain

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 16:26:30 -0400

At the University of Washington, MacArthur "genius" award-winner Yoky Matsuoka is leading an effort to build robotic hands and other devices that will take commands directly from the human brain — and revolutionizing the opportunities for people with disabilities to function more fully.

Brown Scientists Build Robot That Responds to Human Gestures

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 15:51:04 -0400

Brown University researchers have demonstrated how a robot can follow human gestures in a variety of environments - indoors and outside - without having to adjust for variations in lighting. The achievement is an important step forward in the quest to build fully autonomous robots as partners for human endeavors.

Epidemiologic Model Shows Potential for Wireless Infection Spread and Prevention

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:08:05 -0500

Can a focus on epidemiology help create safer networks? Researchers at Indiana University have created a model based on principles of infectious disease to study how malware might spread through a WiFi network. Indiana University professors Steven Myers and Alex Vespignani, and collaborators Vittoria Colizza and Hao Hu, modeled that the spread of malware on common WiFi networks much as an epidemiologist would model the spread of disease in a population and determined that large “epidemics” of malware can be effectively halted by bringing encryption rates on networks to a given threshold value.

MIT's Sixth Sense

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:03:24 -0500

The Fluid Interfaces research group at MIT has developed a wearable, ultra-portable personal computer. This combination of a webcam, smartphone and a battery powered pico projector can turn any surface into a gesture-controlled touch screen.

Cell Phones with Sensors aid Fitness, Environmental Awareness

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 03:22:56 -0500

Researchers at the University of Washington and Intel have created two new cell phone applications, dubbed UbiFit and UbiGreen, to automatically track workouts and green transportation. The programs display motivational pictures on the phone's background screen that change the more the user works out or uses eco-friendly means of transportation.

Brown University's Michael Black and Alexandru Balan Create Program To Calculate Body Shape

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:14:35 -0500

Imagine you are a police detective trying to identify a suspect wearing a trench coat, baggy pants and a baseball cap pulled low. Or imagine you are a fashion industry executive who wants to market virtual clothing that customers of all shapes and sizes can try online before they purchase. The main obstacle to these and other pursuits is creating a realistic, 3-D body shape — especially when the figure is clothed or obscured.

Zeotrope Searches the Historical Web

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:15:55 -0500

University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering Ph.D. student Eytan Adar and his colleagues at UW and Adobe Systems are grabbing hold and storing historical sites that users can easily search using an intuitive application called Zoetrope. (The Internet Archive has been capturing old versions of Web sites for years, but there is no easy and flexible way to search the archive.)

Algorithm Estimates Geographic Location of Photos

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:59:57 -0500

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have devised the first computerized method that can analyze a single photograph and determine where in the world the image likely was taken. It’s a feat made possible by searching through millions of GPS-tagged images in the Flickr online photo collection.

Turning 2D Images into 3D Models

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 13:16:35 -0500

Many artists spend their lives trying to render three-dimensional reality into a realistic two-dimensional image. Make3D does the opposite: it takes a two-dimensional image and digitally creates a three-dimensional model to give the viewer multiple perspectives of the same image.

New Algorithm Significantly Boosts Routing Efficiency of Networks

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:17:13 -0400

A new algorithm developed by computer scientists from UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering helps answer the question "What's the best way to get from here to there?" -- at least for computer networks.