MS Parallel Programming

Microsoft has released an early preview of ParallelFX (Parallel Extensions to the .Net Framework), a set of programming tools designed to help developers approach issues related to coding for parallel environments. ParallelFX contains new APIs to make programming on the .Net Framework simpler and to support documentation and samples. Microsoft's S. "Soma" Somasegar wrote in a blog post that ParallelFX runs on the .Net Framework 3.5 and relies on features available in C# 3.0 and Visual Basic 9.0. ParallelFX also includes imperative data and task parallelism APIs, including parallel "for" and "foreach" loops, to make the transition from sequential to parallel programs simpler, as well as declarative data parallelism in the form of data parallel implementation of LINQ-to-Objects, which allows users to run LINQ queries on multiple processors. A new MSDN center dedicated to concurrent programming was also launched with the ParallelFX release and features a collection of whitepapers, including one that describes the broader vision for parallel computing at Microsoft. "The shift to multi- and many-core processors that is currently underway presents an exciting opportunity for everyone in the software industry," Somasegar writes in his blog. "With an expected increase of 10 to 100 times today's compute power, the opportunities to deliver powerful and immersive new user experiences and business value are just awesome."

Robots in Japan

At the 2007 International Robot Exhibition, Japan's largest robotics convention, several revolutionary robots were on display, showing why Japan is a world leader in service and industrial robotics. One robot, called Simroid for "simulator humanoid," is a human-like robot that dentistry students can practice procedures on. Simroid has realistic skin, eyes, a mouth fitted with replica teeth, and sensors where nerve endings would be to alert the student when he or she is drilling too close to the nerve. Simroid designers are still ironing out several bugs, including a function that allows students to inject anesthetic into the robot's gums. Another robot, called Mr. Cube, uses color sensors and a pair of dexterous hands to solve a Rubik's Cube puzzle. Although Mr. Cube is significantly slower than humans at solving the puzzle, the ability to quickly detect and differentiate between colors is a breakthrough in industrial robotics. Meanwhile, a panda-shaped robot developed by Waseda University uses a Web camera and software to scan a person's face for smiles to help relieve stress by making people laugh. When a hint of a smile is detected the robot joins in the celebration by giggling and wiggling its arms and legs. Japan had more than 370,000 robots in use in 2005, about 40 percent of the global total, or about 32 robots for every 1,000 Japanese manufacturing employees.

Recorded Lectures

The University of California, Berkeley is leading a project called OpenCast that aims to develop free, open source software that would make it easier for professors to podcast their lectures. Officials from more than 30 colleges and other institutions have joined an email list to discuss possible paths for the project. OpenCast aims to streamline the process of recording lectures and allow course audio and PowerPoint slides to be recorded and unloaded automatically. "I want them to focus on teaching and not the technical details," says Cole W. Camplese, director of Education Technology Services at Pennsylvania State University, who has participated in initial OpenCast discussions. OpenCast will be designed to work with iTunes U, a free service from Apple that many colleges already use to post course material, and Sakai, an open source course-management system, and potentially several other services. There are already several companies that sell products with features similar to OpenCast's objectives, but UC Berkeley Learning Systems Group product manager Adam Hochman believes it will be cheaper in the long run to build a system rather than to pay for enough copies of existing software to cover the number of lecturers the school plans to eventually record.

Million Book Project

The Million Book Project, an international effort led by Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, Zhejiang University in China, the Indian Institute of Science in India, and the Library at Alexandria in Egypt has recently completed the digitization of more than 1.5 million books. "Anyone who can get on the Internet now has access to a collection of books the size of a large university library," says Carnegie Mellon computer science professor Raj Reddy. "This project brings us closer to the ideal of the Universal Library: making all published works available to anyone, anytime, in any language." While Google, Microsoft, and the Internet Archive have all launched major book digitization projects, the Million Book Project is the world's largest, university-based, free-access digital library. At least half of the digital books are out of copyright, or were digitized with the permission of the copyright holders, so the complete text are available for free or soon will be. Many of the books, particularly those in Chinese and English, have had their text converted by optical character recognition methods into computer readable text, meaning the books can be searched and eventually reformatted for access by PDAs and other devices. "Digital libraries constitute an essential part of the future of the developing world," says Bibliotheca Alexandrina director Ismail Serageldin. "This requires that we approach conditions governing copyright, digital archiving, and scientific databases with a view to creating two-tier systems of access to information that would allow access to such data from developing countries for a nominal fee or for free." About half of the current collection is still under copyright, and only 10 percent or less of those books can be accessed for free until the copyright holders give permission or copyright laws are amended.

Future of the Web

Tim Berners-Lee says the Internet will look drastically different five years from now and that it should be scientifically studied to track that evolution and development. Along with colleagues from the Web Science Research Initiative, Berners-Lee has been touring universities to encourage the adoption of Web science courses, emphasizing the challenges that the increasingly social Web presents. The growing amount of personal information on the Web creates several issues regarding where it comes from, who is allowed to access it, and who owns it. These questions are even more important when examining the possibility of online medical records and how to allow doctors to access the information while keeping it protected and hidden from employers and identity thieves. "It's about building systems and understanding where data is coming from," Berners-Lee says. He says that in the future people will no longer be entering personal information into individual social networks, but everyone will have a single profile that compiles all of the information related to them in one social network. "You will have something which is an application which is consistent for looking at different aspects of people," he says. "It [will use] your role as their friend for putting together a very powerful, all-encompassing view of them" online.

New Programming Models

Intel senior fellow Justin R. Rattner believes, after being largely ignored by the market, the time has come for parallel and distributed processing. Rattner says microprocessor speeds will only be capable of modest growth, as power conservation has become such an important issue. The inability to improve microprocessor speed will give rise to multicore and many-core processors, which will require a new generation of programming tools. "Given the rudimentary state of parallel software, the investment across the entire computing industry will be very large," Rattner says. "Retraining existing programmers and educating a new generation of developers coming out of school is another formidable challenge. It will take years, if not decades, to reach the point where virtually all programmers assume the default programming model is parallel rather than serial." Rattner predicts that in five years all new software will be written for multicore processors, though a lot of existing software such as work processors will not need to be rewritten. Rattner says hundreds of universities worldwide are reintroducing parallel programming in their curricula, and Intel and other companies are working on funding programs to restart academic research in parallel programming and architectures.

Asians, Facebook & MySpace

A new study from Northwestern University found that college students' choice of social networking sites is often related to their race, ethnicity, and parental education. The study found that white students generally chose Facebook, Hispanic students prefer MySpace, and Asian and Asian-American students are least likely to use MySpace. African American students did not show a statistically significant preference toward a particular social networking site. Asian and Asian-American students were most likely to use Xanga, though a significant amount do use Facebook. The education level of the students' parents also correlates with social networking choices. Students with parents who finished college are significantly more likely to use Facebook, while MySpace users are more likely to have parents that have less than a high school education. Students who live at home with their parents are less likely to use a social networking site than students who live by themselves, with a roommate, or at school. Additionally, women were found more likely to engage in person-to-person online communication than men. The findings of the study contradict the common belief that social networking sites are being used to expand students social and cultural experiences and suggest social networking sites actually create a two-tier social system. "In a two-tier system, some college students cultivate lots of networks and social capital while others benefit considerably less from this important part of the college experience," says author of the study Eszter Hargittai. The study appears in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.

Is Computer Science Dying?

A gradual fall-off in the number of people applying to earn degrees in computer science since the implosion of the first dot-com bubble has fostered a perception that the field is expiring, but David Chisnall questions this assertion. The idea that computer science is dying is muddled by the fact that few people know what truly constitutes computer science, with most people viewing it as a vocational course that focuses on programming. "A computer scientist may not fabricate her own ICs, and may not write her own compiler and operating system ... But the computer scientist definitely will understand what's happening in the compiler, operating system, and CPU when a program is compiled and run," Chisnall writes. From his perspective, computer science lies at the convergence of mathematics, engineering, and psychology, and the third discipline is critical to the instruction of computers by humans. Psychology plays a part not only in human/computer interaction, but also in the development and assessment of computer intelligence, according to Chisnall. He maintains that a lot of unhappiness with computer science stems from the mistaken assumption that computer science graduates will also be expert programmers, and notes that a lot of people appear to confuse computer science and software engineering. Chisnall points out that "computer science is first and foremost a branch of applied mathematics, so a computer scientist should be expected to understand the principles of mathematical reasoning" However, he notes that computer science has the added distinction of its concentration on efficiency and concurrent thinking at different levels of abstraction.

Mobile Internet World 2007

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) director Tim Berners-Lee, speaking on the opening day of Mobile Internet World, said the mobile Internet needs to be a full and complete version of the Internet with open standards and free of central control. "It's very important to keep the Web universal as we merge the Internet with mobile," Berners-Lee said during his speech titled "Escaping the Walled Garden: Growing the Mobile Web With Open Standards." The "walled garden" refers to today's cable TV and cellular data networks that require consumers to use devices authorized by the carrier and restrict access to approved content and services. Internet subscribers using an ISP can access independent movies on any site, Berners-Lee said, but consumers using a cable TV company acting as an ISP may find such sites blocked because the cable company wants subscribers to choose pay-per-view movies. The W3C launched the Mobile Web Initiative two years ago to create standards that facilitate access to the Web through handheld devices over wireless connections. "An open platform means using standards," Berners-Lee said. "The mobile Internet must use the same standards as the Internet. When you erect a wall around a garden, we know now all the flowers bloom outside the wall, not inside."

Google Supports Android

The Open Handset Alliance (OHA) has made the Android software development kit available for the new Android platform, and Google has announced it will sponsor a $10 million developer's challenge. "We believe that the Android platform offers developers a unique opportunity to create truly innovative mobile software," says Google's Andy Rubin. "We're challenging developers to stretch their imaginations and skills to leverage the full capabilities of this new platform and to create something amazing." Cash prizes ranging from $25,000 to $275,000 will be awarded to developers whose applications are picked by a panel of judges. Android is a mobile platform built on the Linux 2.6 kernel that offers an operating system, libraries, a multimedia user interface, and phone applications. Android's application model allows developers to extend, replace, and reuse existing software components to create integrated mobile services. The challenge is divided into two periods, with Challenge I accepting programs through March 3, 2008, and Challenge II launching after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008. Judging will be done by a panel of technology and mobile experts chosen from OHA member organizations and the industry as a whole. Awards will be given to developers whose applications utilize all that the Android platform offers in order to provide customers with compelling experiences, Google says. Developers will retain all intellectual property and all other rights to their applications.

Asians Better in Math

American students, even in low-performing states such as Mississippi and Alabama, perform better on math and science tests than students in most foreign countries, including Italy and Norway, concludes a new American Institutes of Research study. However, American students in even the best performing states such as Massachusetts are significantly outperformed by students in Asian countries such as Singapore and South Korea. "In this case, the bad news trumps the good because our Asian economic competitors are winning the race to prepare students in math and science," says the study's author and chief scientist Gary W. Phillips. The study compared standardized test scores of eight-grade students in all 50 states with those of their peers in 45 countries. Gage Kingsbury, a director at the Northwest Evaluation Group, which administered testing in 1,500 school districts, praised the study's methodology, but says it is difficult to compare scores internationally because in many countries children do not start school at the same age and often not every child attends the eight grade. Kingsbury says such differences mean it would be a mistake to infer too much about the relative success of the education system across the states and nations examined in the study. Education Sector co-director Thomas Toch says the real value of the study is that it provides a high-level perspective of the nation's education system. "It shows we're not doing as badly as some say," says Toch.

Giggling Robot

Toddlers treated a sophisticated, giggling robot much the same way they did each other during the first long-term study of interaction between kids and robots. Javier Movellan at the University of California San Diego led the project, which involved placing a two-foot-tall robot in a classroom of a dozen toddlers between the age of 18 months and two years. The QRIO robot, developed by Sony, used sensors to stay in the middle of the classroom and avoid bumping into the children, and was initially programmed to giggle when its head was touched, occasionally sit down, and lie down when its batteries died. The way the toddlers touched QRIO on the arms and hands, and gave more attention and care, including hugs, to the robot compared to an inanimate control robot, was viewed as signs of bonding. The researchers also say the quality of the interactions increased over several months, as the toddlers helped QRIO up when it fell, and covered up the robot with a blanket and said "night, night" when its batteries ran out. Although the study shows that kids will bond with robots over a long period of time, Movellan says it is too early to say the same about older children and adults. "This study opens the possibility for classroom applications," says Takayuki Kanda of the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute in Japan, adding that it could help autistic children.

Lecture Search Engine

MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) researchers have developed a lecture search engine that could help students find a specific section of a video recording of a lecture. "Our goal is to develop a speech and language technology that will help educators provide structure to these video recordings, so it's easier for students to access the material," says James Glass, head of the CSAIL Spoken Language Systems Group and principal research scientist. More than 200 MIT lectures are currently available online. Most users are international students who access the lectures through MIT's OpenCourseWare OCW initiative. Searching through the lectures for specific topics is a difficult process, partially because there is no easy way to scan audio like there is with text files. The lecture search engine solves this problem by first creating lecture transcripts using speech recognition software. A major challenge in this process is that the lectures frequently contain technical terms that the software cannot recognize, so the researchers use textbooks, lecture notes, and abstracts to identify key terms and submit them to the computer. Once the transcript is finished, a language processing program divides the transcripts into sections by topic. Sections of text are compared to each other to determine the number of overlapping words between each section. Each word is weighted so the repetition of key words is more important than non-key words. Glass and MIT associate professor Regina Barzilay hope to add a lecture summarization feature to the language processing system, and to get users more involved in the project by adding a Wikipedia-like function that would allow users to correct errors in the lecture transcripts and to add notes.

Video Games to Teach Skills

IBM has developed a video game called Innov8 designed to teach graduate students a combination of business and IT skills through a three-dimensional gaming experience. IBM is offering the program for free to more than 2,000 universities worldwide. Similar to how pilots use flight simulators to learn to fly airplanes, information technology management students can learn from business simulations and problems, says IBM's Sandy Carter. "You get 80 percent greater retention when someone does a task versus reading about it," Carter says. "The concept is to get students to experience the task in a fun way." The game's main character, named Logan, receives assignments to solve business problems from the company's CEO. The first task involves improving operations at a call center with long call times and poor documentation. "The fun part is you are a character," Carter says. "You click on a video and learn about how to do things. You can click on posters and the posters come alive." Pace University associate professor of information systems Jim Lawler, who was involved in the Innov8 pilot program, says the game is more like a tool with a lot of intelligence behind it, and that a video game should appeal to today's generation. "It brings the course into the 21st century," Lawler says. "Enrollment is lower in computer science and information systems nationally. This is what schools have to do, integrate these kind of games and tools."

Research on Wikipedia

About half of the content on Wikipedia comes from only one-tenth of 1 percent of its 75,000 contributors, according to the latest installment of a study from University of Minnesota researchers. And edits are quickly fixed, as the research reveals that less than one-half percent (0.0037) of typical viewing is likely to involve a damaged article. Although encounters with vandalism increased over time, there was a break in June 2006, which the researchers believe is the result of the increased use of anti-vandalism bots. "Our research suggests vandalism on Wikipedia is a relatively small problem today," says computer science and engineering professor Loren Terveen. "But continued research is needed to contain that damage in the future." ACM's Group 2007 Conference published the paper, "Creating, Destroying and Restoring Value in Wikipedia," in its proceedings on Nov. 4.

Studying

Studying is effective memory recall. Effective memory recall is effective note-taking. "The palest ink is better than the most retentive memory -- Li Po (one of the best Chinese poets)"