In 2005....


UW CSE on cover of Nature (December 2005)

UW CSE faculty member Zoran Popovic, graduate students Keith Grochow and Karen Liu, and collaborators from the Department of Anthropology at Rutgers have the cover article on the December 22 issue of the journal Nature. The article results from a motion capture field study of dance in Jamaica.

Reuters: "Smooth dancers are poetry in emotion"
FOXNews.com: "Men Who Dance Well May Be More Desirable As Mates"
KING5: "Why guys with rhythm get the girls"
New Jersey Star Ledger: "Dance fever: Study shows it's something in the way he moves"
University of Washington: "New study scientifically links dancing to attraction, genetic advantage"

Ph.D. alumna Soha Hassoun in Boston Globe (December 2005)

"On a recent afternoon, Soha Hassoun, who is now teaching that class, lit up a drab cinder-block classroom with her boisterous questions."

A celebration of the life of Jerre D. Noe (December 2005)

On December 14, 250 friends and family members gathered at the Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering on the University of Washington campus to celebrate the life of Jerre Noe. View Dan Lamont's wonderful photographs.

UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus Ed Felten to direct Princeton's new Center for Information Technology Policy (December 2005)

"The Center for Information Technology Policy will bring leading computer scientists and engineers together with economists, sociologists, lawyers and lawmakers to issue recommendations on topics ranging from ensuring the privacy of medical records to creating fair regulations for Internet phone services.

"The University has appointed computer scientist Edward Felten to oversee planning for the center and serve as its first director. Felten, an authority in the area of computer privacy and security, is highly regarded among policy experts for his insights into the broader impacts of computer technology, particularly concerning copyright law. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Computer Science and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs."

2006 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Award Competition Recognizes Four UW CSE Students! (November 2005)

The 2006 Computing Research Association Outstanding Undergraduate Award competition has recognized 34 students from 27 different universities -- including four from UW Computer Science & Engineering. Jenny Yuen was named the female Winner. Jon Su was named a Finalist. Krista Davis and Ben Hindman received Honorable Mention.

"Computer R&D rocks on" ("Recomputing the Future: First of three parts") (EE Times) (November 2005)

"Think computers have become a commodity, like pork bellies, and computer science an old set of solved problems? Think again ... Lazowska is quick to disagree with anyone who says the big problems in computer science have been solved. 'That's baloney ... 'There will be more coming up in the next decade than there was in the last two decades combined.'"

"Computer Science R&D goes begging for funds" ("Recomputing the Future: Second of three parts") (EE Times) (November 2005)

"Government funding for long-term computer science research at U.S. universities has plummeted, leading many to fear the country will lose its leadership in the field that engendered the PC and the Internet.

"Edward D. Lazowska, a past chairman of the Computing Research Association and a CS professor at the University of Washington, blames the current Bush administration for running up the national debt while cutting back on computer R&D, a field with a track record for fueling economic productivity and growth.

"'In 10 years there will be a double whammy. These debts will come due, and we will have downshifted the productivity engine that helps pay them,' Lazowska said. 'The nation has an intellectual as well as a physical infrastructure. If you don't make adequate investments in it, it won't bite you for perhaps five years, but when it does the cost of recovery is enormous ... Will this administration adequately prioritize engineering, science, advanced education and research? I haven't seen signs of that.'"

"Best or worst of times for CS R&D? Studies may say" ("Recomputing the Future: Third of three parts") (EE Times) (November 2005)

"In late September, Bush ordered the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology to take a broad look at federal IT spending. PCAST takes on the job from a separate presidential commission whose charter Bush did not renew.

"'I have great confidence in PCAST, but I don't have confidence in this administration,' said Edward D. Lazowska, a CS professor at the University of Washington, who had a leading role in the committee Bush let dissolve."

Finding Face and Faith in America: a book by UW CSE Bachelors alumnus Ahror Rahmedov (November 2005)

"A true story about the exceptional challenges I faced in my personal life, including the loss of my mother to cancer while young, unjust persecution of my father in a soviet prison, and losing my face to a devastating injury caused by a signal rocket. In this book you'll also read how ordinary, culturally Muslim, people of Uzbekistan live and go about their lives ... You will also learn about how I was discovered by two Americans while I was hopeless in a communist hospital following the massive injury I suffered, how ordinary citizens of the United States helped me recover and rebuild my face in Seattle ..."

Lazowska keynotes first meeting of all European computer science department heads (pdf) (November 2005)

The "European Computer Science Summit" brought together, for the first time, heads of computer science departments throughout Europe and its periphery.

Jerre D. Noe, 1923-2005 (November 2005)

Jerre D. Noe, first chair of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, passed away on the evening of November 12, 2005 after a brief battle with mesothelioma (a rare and aggressive form of cancer). He was 82. Jerre was recruited to UW from SRI in 1968, and retired in 1989. His contributions were essential to our character and to our success. We will miss him.

Memorial service announcement (December 14, 2005, 5 p.m.) (pdf)

"Jerre D. Noe, 1923-2005: He led UW's first computer program -- Head of team that made electronic banking a reality" (Seattle PI) (November 2005)

"When Noe was picked to lead the university's first computer science group in 1968, it was little more than a dozen electrical engineering graduate students looking for someone to teach them. He transformed it into one of the country's top computer science programs by sticking to two principles: Always hire the smartest people in the room and encourage them to work collaboratively, said Ed Lazowska, who holds the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the UW."

"UW computer-science pioneer Jerre Noe dies at 82" (Seattle Times) (November 2005)

"Jerre D. Noe helped build the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington. He was a key figure in early efforts to computerize banking. His research won national attention and awards. But career demands didn't keep Professor Noe from cultivating a rich personal life, one filled with music, sailing, skiing and travel. He did it all, friends say, and did it with passion. Professor Noe died Saturday, six weeks after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer. He was 82."

"Jerre D. Noe" (Associated Press / New York Times) (November 2005)

"Jerre D. Noe, a banking computerization pioneer who became the first chairman of the University of Washington Department of Computer Science & Engineering, died Saturday. He was 82."

"Jerre Noe, University of Washington computer pioneer, dead at 82" (Tri-City Herald) (November 2005)

"'He was temperamentally wonderful,' Edward D. Lazowska, who headed the computer department in the 1990s, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 'He's a person who takes no credit for himself and gives it to others.'

"'The collegiality that he started was very important, not just among the faculty but between faculty and students and staff,' Hellmut Golde, who followed Noe as chairman and retired in 1992, told The Seattle Times."

"Memorial service set for Jerre Noe" (University Week) (December 2005)

"'His skill was in gathering talented people and managing them so they could succeed, personally and professionally,' said his son Russ, who teaches in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. 'That same talent is what I believe helped make the UW Department of Computer Science & Engineering one of the top in the world.'"

Tom Anderson, Dan Weld elected ACM Fellows (November 2005)

CSE Professors Tom Anderson and Dan Weld have been elected Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery, joining 10 other active or emeritus UW CSE faculty members.

ACM is widely recognized as the premier organization for computing professionals worldwide. ACM has approximately 82,000 members, roughly 500 of whom hold Fellow rank. Congratulations to Tom and Dan on this substantial recognition.

"At Least It's Not Mississippi" (Seattle PI) (November 2005)

"University of Washington computer science professor Ed Lazowska isn't one to hold back his opinions. And that certainly was the case Thursday at the department's annual Industrial Affiliates Meeting. Even though Lazowska was moderating a panel discussion about venture capital, that didn't deter him from lambasting what he believes is a lack of support for higher education in the state ..."

"UW seeks new neck to wear tie" (Seattle Times) (November 2005)

"David Notkin must be getting tired of wearing a necktie. The University of Washington professor is stepping down as chairman of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering after nearly five years and 39 professional occasions requiring a tie, as recorded at his Web site."

UW CSE Industrial Affiliates Meeting in "John Cook's Venture Blog," Seattle PI (November 2005)

"I spent a good chunk of the day at the University of Washington's Industrial Affiliates Meeting. The event showcased some of the cutting edge technological research in the UW's Computer Science %amp; Engineering department, from an analysis of spyware on the Web to computer graphics that track the movement of crowds.

"The evening activities featured a panel of seven Seattle area venture capitalists who talked about their favorite startups, coming trends and the impact of global competition. Plenty of good stuff, with master moderator Ed Lazowska leading the discussion."

"Ladner Recognized with Presidential Award" (Computing Research News) (November 2005)

"Ladner, who is well known for his work in computer science theory, was recognized for his long-time support of women and people with disabilities in computer science."

CSE's Tom Anderson wins Mark Weiser Award (October 2005)

UW CSE professor Tom Anderson has been honored as the fifth recipient of the Mark Weiser Award -- the second year in a row that a UW CSE faculty member has won the top international award in the operating systems field.

The Weiser Award was established in 2001 by ACM's Special Interest Group on Operating Systems. Recipients, who must have begun their careers no earlier than 20 years prior to nomination, are selected based upon "contributions that are highly creative, innovative, and possibly high-risk, in keeping with the visionary spirit of Mark Weiser." Weiser was a computing visionary recognized for his research accomplishments during his career at Xerox PARC. The foremost proselyte of Ubiquitous Computing, Weiser was claimed by cancer in 1999 at the age of 46.

Anderson received his Bachelors degree from Harvard in 1983 and his Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1991. He began his faculty career at UC Berkeley, where he received tenure in 1996. In 1997 he returned to UW as a faculty member.

Previous recipients of the Weiser Award are Frans Kaashoek (MIT), Mendel Rosenblum (Stanford), Mike Burrows (Google), and Brian Bershad (UW). Bershad received his Ph.D. from UW in 1990 and returned as a faculty member in 1993, after three years on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University.

"U.S. cybersecurity due for FEMA-like calamity?" (c|net news.com) (October 2005)

"'DHS has an appropriately large focus on weapons of mass destruction but an inappropriately small focus on critical infrastructure protection, and particularly on cybersecurity,' Lazowska said ... '[we are] applying Band-Aids, rather than developing the inherently more secure information technology that our nation requires.'"

"The Sky Really Is Falling" (CIO Magazine) (October 2005)

CIO Magazine interviews CSE's Ed Lazowska regarding Cyber Security: A Crisis of Prioritization, a report of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), which he co-chaired:

"Lazowska doesn't pull any punches when discussing the Bush administration's approach to the issue. 'In my opinion,' he says, 'this administration does not value science, engineering, advanced education and research as much as it should -- as much as the future health of the nation requires.' As a result, he says, the private sector -- and CIOs in particular -- won't be able to buy the products that they need to truly be secure unless they demand more from their government ..."

See also the editorial Entire spread as pdf here.

San Francisco Chronicle profiles UW CSE alumnus Brad Fitzpatrick (September 2005)

"LiveJournal grew out of one 18-year-old's frustration with Web journaling. Now Brad Fitzpatrick is on top of a blog revolution."

"College divide threatens to keep the poor in poverty" (Seattle PI) (September 2005)

"Washington state is one of the leading suppliers of new-economy jobs in software, biotechnology, telecommunications and other sectors, said Ed Lazowska, who holds the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington. But Washington ranks a lowly 49th out of 50 states in the proportion of its 18- to 24-year-olds enrolled in public four-year institutions, Lazowska added. 'The state's economy is creating these jobs,' Lazowska said, 'and they are going to other people's kids.'"

Venkat Guruswami wins CSE's 3rd Packard Fellowship (September 2005)

CSE professor Venkat Guruswami has been recognized as a winner of a 2005 Packard Fellowship for Science & Engineering. The Packard Fellowship is one of the most prestigious awards for young faculty in all of science and engineering -- only 16 are awarded each year. Venkat joins CSE professors Raj Rao and Chris Diorio as Packard Fellowship recipients.

Richard Ladner featured by "Campaign UW" (September 2005)

Richard Ladner, Boeing Professor of Computer Science & Engineering, is extensively featured in the Fall 2005 "Campaign UW" publication. Quoting from Campaign Chair Bill Gates Sr.'s column:

"This past May, as I sat in Reagan National Airport waiting for a flight back to Seattle, a distinguished-looking fellow walked up and introduced and introduced himself as Richard Ladner, UW professor of computer science and engineering. He was there, I learned, because he had just received a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. In our airport conversation, I learned enough about his work with the blind to want to know more. So we scheduled to meet a few weeks later -- what developed into a fascinating introduction to the Tactile Graphics Project."

UW CSE startup Teranode raises $9.5 million in VC funding (Seattle PI) (September 2005)

"Teranode ... makes software that helps scientists better design and automate laboratory experiments. Its products have been used by Pfizer, AsraZeneca and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center." The company was founded by UW CSE faculty member Larry Arnstein and several partners.

Economist ranks UW among worlds top 20 universities (September 2005)

"This survey will argue that the most significant development in higher education is the emergence of a super-league of global universities. This is revolutionary in the sense that these institutions regard the whole world as their stage, but also evolutionary in that they are still wedded to the ideal of a community of scholars who combine teaching with research."

"A Techie, Absolutely, and More" (NY Times) (August 2005)

"Ken Michelson, a computer science major at the University of Washington, is entering medical school at Columbia University in New York this month. Mr. Michelson caught the computing bug early, starting to program simple games and puzzles as a 9-year-old.

"His computer science training, Mr. Michelson said, will also be useful in medicine, especially 'in the way you learn to attack and break down complex problems.'

"Edward D. Lazowska, a professor at the University of Washington, points to students like Mr. Michelson as computer science success stories. The real value of the discipline, Mr. Lazowska said, is less in acquiring a skill with technology tools - the usual definition of computer literacy - than in teaching students to manage complexity; to navigate and assess information; to master modeling and abstraction; and to think analytically in terms of algorithms, or step-by-step procedures.

"Educating the engineers who design and build computers and software will remain important, Mr. Lazowska emphasized, 'but we need to be educating everyone else, too.'

"For Kira Lehtomaki, it was the advance of digital technology into animation that pulled her toward computing. Ms. Lehtomaki, a 23-year-old post-graduate researcher at the University of Washington's animation research labs, says she recalls wanting to be an animator after being enthralled by 'Sleeping Beauty' as a 3-year-old. Growing up, she drew constantly, and even took a summer job at Disneyland as 'cookie artist' - painting designs and Mickey Mouse faces in frosting - because that job allowed her to spend a couple of days observing animators at Disney's studio in Burbank, Calif.

"As hand-drawn animation gave way to computer-generated animation, Ms. Lehtomaki took up computer graphics in college. 'These two worlds of art and computing are really merging, and, if anything, they will blend even more,' she said."

(Before majoring in CSE at the University of Washington, Ken and Kira each attended Kamiak High School in Mulkiteo, WA.)

Washington Monthly ranks UW 14th among all American universities, public and private (August 2005)

"The first question we asked was, what does America need from its universities? From this starting point, we came up with three central criteria: Universities should be engines of social mobility, they should produce the academic minds and scientific research that advance knowledge and drive economic growth, and they should inculcate and encourage an ethic of service. We designed our evaluation system accordingly."
Methodology here.

UW undergraduate Computer Engineering again in US News top ten (August 2005)

The 2006 edition of US News "America's Best Colleges" again ranks UW CSE's undergraduate Computer Engineering program among the top ten in the nation, along with MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Berkeley, Illinois, Michigan, Texas, Georgia Tech, and Cornell. Complete US News undergraduate engineering rankings here.

"IT jobs call stateside" (Seattle Times) (August 2005)

The Seattle Times profiles CSE's David Notkin, and discusses computer science as a career.

"What computers really do is enhance what we can do mentally, Notkin says, in the way the industrial revolution expanded the range of physical things we could do. And the field is so new it has hardly touched its promise. There's still a lot of exciting stuff to do ...

"And he has a really cool Moses-like beard."

"Fireside Chat": Bill Gates, Ray Ozzie, Ed Lazowska (July 2005)

CSE's Ed Lazowska interviews Bill Gates and Ray Ozzie at the 2005 Microsoft Financial Analyst Meeting. (New York Times story here.)

"Software Notebook: State job market heats up" (Seattle PI) (July 2005)

The Seattle PI interviews CSE's Matt Burkhart and Ed Lazowska. "'This year was much more like 1999 and the spring of 2000 than anything else in recent memory,' said UW computer science professor Ed Lazowska. He said many students graduating from the program received multiple job offers or transferred directly from internships into permanent positions ... 'It's a great field, it's incredibly creative,' he said, 'and there are jobs out the wazoo.'"

"Educating Designers" (WSA NewsBytes) (July 2005)

"UW Computer Science & Engineering is ranked among the top ten programs in the nation, along with Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Stanford, Illinois, Cornell, Texas, Princeton, Caltech and Wisconsin. With an award-winning undergraduate program and a comprehensive graduate program at this research institution, it's not hard to see why.

"What does this mean to Washington's students and the local software industry? A supply of cutting-edge ideas and people that help drive our region forward."

WSA NewsBytes profiles UW CSE.

UW CSE startup Hamlet rebrands as Farecast (Seattle PI) (July 2005)

"Hamlet Inc., an online travel company founded by Oren Etzioni, a University of Washington computer science professor, today is introducing a new name, Web site and venture capital backer. The Seattle company, now known as Farecast, plans to announce $7 million in a second round of funding led by Greylock Partners. Existing investors, including Madrona Venture Group and WRF Capital, also participated."

Lazowska on cyber security in Federal Computing Week (July 2005)

"Former PITAC co-chairman Ed Lazowska said he hopes that the R&D memo and recent activity within the Homeland Security Department will make cybersecurity a bigger focus ... 'The fact that the new director is willing to consider wholesale reorganization is an exceedingly positive sign,' he said. 'Today, nail clippers. Tomorrow, cybersecurity.'"

UW CSE, Impinj, Hamlet featured in PSBJ article on Madrona Venture Group (July 2005)

"Over the last 10 years, Madrona has forged strong alliances with Fortune 500 companies and top-notch research institutions such as the University of Washington's computer science and engineering department." (Puget Sound Business Journal)

"How Secure is Federal 'Cybersecurity'?" (FOXNews.com) (July 2005)

FOXNews.com interviews PITAC Co-Chair and CSE faculty member Ed Lazowska: "'We are applying Band-aids,' Lazowska said, noting that gaping holes in Internet security put many public and private information systems and critical infrastructure at risk. 'We need to think about new designs rather than these patches.'"

David Salesin's work featured in Nature (July 2005)

"The audience was impressed when David Salesin, a computer scientist at the University of Washington, presented the interactive visual tools that he is developing for Microsoft. Salesin showed software that can construct realistic-looking aerial photographs from maps after being trained with a few real photo/map combinations. He also had programs that could blend different faces, and automatically turn random objects into 'Escher tiles': these are shapes that can be rotated to fill a space without leaving any gaps."

CSE's Ed Lazowska receives 2005 Computing Research Association Distinguished Service Award (June 2005)

Lazowska was recognized at the ACM Awards Banquet in San Francisco on June 11, 2005, where Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn received the Turing Award for their invention of TCP/IP.

"Computer Science & Engineering at the Cutting Edge" (Northwest Science & Technology) (June 2005)

Northwest Science & Technology surveys computer science research in the Pacific Northwest, including UW CSE, Intel Research Seattle, Microsoft Research, and more. "Mix of top companies and labs make the northwest an R&D powerhouse."

CSE senior Casey Huggins on NPR (June 2005)

"The job market looks pretty good this spring for graduating college seniors."

Eric Schmidt, Ed Lazowska on KUOW (May 2005)

"We're working on making sure we get the very best and brightest, and this is one of the three or four universities where we find them. So my first and foremost message is 'thank you,' and, ah, we'll take your siblings ... your children ... we have a long term view of this issue ... we know where you are!"

"Google CEO praises Kirkland location's local talent" (Seattle Times) (May 2005)

Seattle Times report of a presentation by Google CEO Eric Schmidt at the Technology Alliance annual luncheon, moderated by Ed Lazowska. "But the competition Schmidt and Lazowska mostly discussed yesterday is around the global supply of engineering talent. Schmidt echoed the alliance's concerns about U.S. investment in the industry's future, saying the government 'is doing stupid things' like cutting basic science research funding."

"Google chief sees Microsoft as no competition, yet" (Seattle PI) (May 2005)

Seattle PI report of presentations at the Technology Alliance luncheon and at UW CSE by Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "'There's kind of this novelty, this aura, around Google,' said Ben Hindman, a 21-year-old UW computer engineering student who attended the event."

Computer Engineering senior Constantinos Papadopoulos in UW Daily (May 2005)

Constantinos, a member of the UW table tennis club, competed on the national team in his native Cyprus.


Richard Ladner wins Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (May 2005)

CSE Professor Richard Ladner is a recipient of this year's Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM), recognizing particularly his work with women and with the deaf and/or blind communities.

Richard was one of 7 "individual" recipients. There were 5 "institutional" recipients. All were honored by President George W. Bush and Presidential Science Advisor John Marburger at the White House today.

In recent years, former UW Dean of Engineering Denice Denton and the Computing Research Association Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research have been similarly honored.

National Science Foundation press release here.

Rick Cox, Tapan Parikh win Intel Foundation Ph.D. Fellowships (May 2005)

UW CSE Ph.D. students Rick Cox and Tapan Parikh have been named recipients of Intel Foundation Ph.D. Fellowships.

Cox's fellowship research will focus on systems support for new application usage models that can more directly provide security and robustness, advised by Prof. Steve Gribble.

Parikh's fellowship research will focus on designing accessible, inclusive technologies -- user interfaces and computing devices that span traditional boundaries of education, economy, geography, and language -- advised by Profs. Ed Lazowska and David Notkin.

Lazowska on IT innovation on KUOW "Weekday" (May 2005)

"The genesis of almost all of this is the federally-funded university research program ... In my view, and many people's view, the federal government today is walking away from this role."

"An Endless Frontier Postponed" (Science) (pdf) (May 2005)

An invited editorial in the May 6 issue of Science, authored by Ed Lazowska and Dave Patterson.

"At a time when global competitors are gaining the capacity and commitment to challenge U.S. high-tech leadership, this changed landscape threatens to derail the extraordinarily productive interplay of academia, government, and industry in IT. Given the importance of IT in enabling the new economy and in opening new areas of scientific discovery, we simply cannot afford to cede leadership. Where will the next generation of groundbreaking innovations in IT arise? Where will the Turing Awardees 30 years hence reside? Given current trends, the answers to both questions will likely be 'not in the United States.'"

Oren Etzioni in Seattle PI (May 2005)

"Oren Etzioni could be considered a godfather of search. [He] co-developed MetaCrawler in 1995. Now the University of Washington professor is working on a search engine that learns as it goes and gives direct answers to users' questions."

Former UW graduate student Greg Linden is also profiled in this article, as is Singingfish, co-founded by UW CSE friends and alumni including John DeRosa, Eric Rehm, and Michael Behlke. UW Ph.D. alumnus Brian Pinkerton, creator of WebCrawler, is not ...

Hank Levy on 64-bit computing -- "It's in the PI" (April 2005)

"Hank Levy, a University of Washington computer science professor who started researching operating system structures for 64-bit computers more than a decade ago, said he is happy to see Microsoft coming out with a 64-bit version of Windows that can be adopted widely. But he said it could have happened much sooner. 'I would have liked to have seen it in 1995,' Levy said. 'The dominance of Microsoft and Intel on the desktop, and the lack of an x86-compatible 64-bit CPU, has basically held back the widespread adoption of 64 bits.'"

Spring, Mahajan, Wetherall, and Anderson win 2005 William R. Bennett Prize (April 2005)

CSE Ph.D. students Neil Spring (now a faculty member at the University of Maryland) and Ratul Mahajan and faculty members David Wetherall and Tom Anderson have won the 2005 William R. Bennett Prize, given annually to the best original paper published in IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, for their paper "Measuring ISP Topologies with Rocketfuel." The paper was forwarded to ACM/IEEE TON as a "Best Paper" from the 2002 ACM SIGCOMM Conference.

UW CSE Ph.D. alumnus Stefan Savage profiled in San Diego Union-Tribune (April 2005)

"People to watch: Stefan Savage ... 'The job of a professor is a combination of storytelling, cat herding and panhandling.'"

CSE senior Jenny Yuen wins 2005 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship (April 2005)

The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship was established to honor the legacy of Anita Borg and her efforts to encourage women to pursue careers in computer science and technology. The award is a $10,000 scholarship for outstanding female undergraduate and graduate students completing their degrees in computer science and related fields.

CSE senior Jenny Yuen is one of ten recipients in 2005 (from among 115 applicants). Congratulations Jenny!

CSE's Ed Lazowska receives 2005 Computing Research Association Distinguished Service Award (April 2005)

"Ed Lazowska is widely recognized for his incredible effectiveness, unbridled enthusiasm, and overwhelming energy. He has furthered the computing research agenda in so many ways ..."

"Pentagon Redirects Its Research Dollars" (NY Times) (pdf) (April 2005)

"'Virtually every aspect of information technology upon which we rely today bears the stamp of federally sponsored university research,' said Ed Lazowska, a computer scientist at the University of Washington and co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee. 'The federal government is walking away from this role, killing the goose that laid the golden egg.'"

Tom Anderson headlines IEEE Computer (April 2005)

(pdf)

"Most current Internet research involves either empirical measurement studies or incremental modifications that can be deployed without major architectural changes. Easy access to virtual testbeds could foster a renaissance in applied architectural research that extends beyond these incrementally deployable designs."

Stefan Savage, Tessa Lau and Nick Kushmerick -- UW CSE Ph.D. alums -- featured in Technology Review (April 2005)

Two of the four articles in the April Technology Review's "Synopsis: Information Technology" feature ("New publications, experiments, and breakthroughs -- and what they mean") focus on work by UW CSE Ph.D. alumni.

Stefan Savage, now a faculty member at UCSD, along with UCSD's Ishwar Ramani, are featured for their SyncScan technique which allows dramatically faster handoffs in WiFi networks.

Tessa Lau, now a research staff member at IBM, and Nick Kushmerick, now a lecturer at University College Dublin, are featured for their machine learning algorithm that automatically keeps track of tasks and which emails are associated with them.

Lazowska on mentoring on Eric Liu's "The Power of Voice" on KUOW (March 2005)

"How do you unlock someone's capacity for discovery? This week's guest has answered those questions throughout a brilliant career as student and teacher. Ed Lazowska is the Bill & Melinda Gates Chair of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, and former head of the UW's world-renowned computer science department."

"Intel Goes to School" (Computerworld) (March 2005)

Computerworld profiles the four Intel lablets. "Each Intel lablet has a specific focus. At Berkeley, the focus is on what Intel calls 'extremely networked systems,' and the lab is developing operating systems and programming tools for wireless sensor networks ... The focus of the Cambridge lab is on highly distributed applications ... Intel's lab at the University of Washington is developing what researchers call the System for Human Activity Recognition and Prediction, or SHARP, which is designed to predict human activity by observing the objects a person touches and the context in which they are used ... The Carnegie Mellon Intel lablet is investigating software for widely distributed storage systems."

Gartner recognizes UW CSE startups Impinj, Teranode (pdf) (March 2005)

Gartner recognizes 7 startups in its "Cool Vendors in Emerging Trends and Technologies, 2005." Two of these are UW CSE startups Impinj and Teranode.

Lazowska on cyber security in Information Week (March 2005)

"The President's IT Advisory Committee on Friday released the results of a report criticizing the country's IT infrastructure as highly vulnerable to attack by terrorists and cybercriminals ...

"'The IT infrastructure is highly vulnerable to premeditated attacks with potentially catastrophic effects,' committee co-chairs Marc Benioff and Edward Lazowska wrote in a Feb. 28 letter to President Bush. This infrastructure includes the public Internet as well as power grids, air-traffic-control systems, financial systems, and military and intelligence systems, they add."

PITAC report here.

Lazowska on cyber security in New York Times (March 2005)

"A report released Friday by a panel of computer experts criticizes the federal government, saying that its financing of research on computer network security is inadequate and that it is making a mistake by focusing on classified research that is inaccessible to the commercial sector ...

"'The federal government is largely failing in its responsibility to protect the nation from cyberthreats,' said Edward D. Lazowska, co-chairman of the panel. 'The Department of Homeland Security simply doesn't 'get' cybersecurity. They are allocating less than 2 percent of their science and technology budget to cyber security, and only a small proportion of this is forward-looking.'"

PITAC report here.

Brett Newlin, Computer Engineering senior, profiled in Husky Rowing News (March 2005)

(pdf; see p. 4)

"We all know that athletes who row are taller, stronger, and smarter than athletes who choose other sports, but sometimes an oarsman comes along who surprises even us. Consider Brett Newlin. At six feet nine inches tall and 240 pounds, he is bigger than either standout Husky basketball forward Mike Jensen, or Supersonic enforcer Danny Fortson. And as a Dean's List student in Computer Engineering, one of the University's most demanding and rigorous disciplines, he defines the scholar-athlete concept."

Seattle PI spyware article quotes Gribble, Levy (March 2005)

"No one knows for sure how many computers are infected, although it is 'frighteningly high,' Gribble said ... 'This is the reality of living on an open Internet. You now need anti-virus software, anti-spyware software, anti-spam software, and you need firewalls as well,' said Hank Levy, another UW computer science professor."

CSE graduate students Jonathan Ko, Benson Limketkai profiled in UW Daily (March 2005)

"'Working with robots is a love-hate relationship,' [Limketkai] said."

"'You run into unexpected things,' Ko said of his work. 'I had no idea this graph theory I had learned could be useful ...'"

Ph.D. alumnus Ray Greenlaw's The Fastest Hike available at amazon.com (March 2005)

"This true adventure story tells of an ordinary man from Savannah, Georgia, who dreamed up an extraordinary challenge and attempted to set a speed record for hiking the 2,659-mile Pacific Crest Trail through the high and dangerous mountains of California, Oregon, and Washington. Re-live this flatlander's epic battles with dehydration, food shortages, snowy high-altitude passes, river fords, and wildlife. Get to know the amazing people who befriended him along the way, as he rediscovers the United States."

Author (and hiker!) Ray Greenlaw is Dean of the School of Computing at Armstrong Atlantic State University. He received his Ph.D. from UW CSE in 1988.

Borriello article leads CACM special issue on "The Disappearing Computer" (March 2005)

(pdf)

The article, "Delivering Real-World Ubiquitous Location Systems," begins: "To be widely accepted, location-aware computing must be as effortless, familiar, and rewarding as searching the Web. There are many challenges to this quest, but recent progress has demonstrated accurate location estimation using available wireless networking."

"In Depth: Education -- Private gifts from businesses make ends meet" (Puget Sound Business Journal) (February 2005)

The Puget Sound Business Journal discusses business support for higher education, focusing on UW Computer Science & Engineering.

"Lazowska said the successful fund-raising drive to replace the crumbling building shows how much the business community understands the importance of the program -- the jobs it creates and the innovations it sparks."

Venkat Guruswami and Mark Oskin win CSE's 13th and 14th Sloan Research Fellowships (February 2005)

CSE faculty members Venkat Guruswami and Mark Oskin have been named winners of 2005 Sloan Research Fellowships. Sloan Research Fellowships are intended to enhance the careers of the very best young faculty members in specified fields of science. Currently a total of 116 fellowships are awarded annually in seven fields: chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience, and physics.

Guruswami and Oskin are CSE's 13th and 14th Sloan recipients: Steve Gribble and David Wetherall received Sloans in 2004, Pedro Domingos and Zoran Popovic in 2003, Steve Seitz in 2002, Raj Rao and Dan Suciu in 2001, Brian Curless and Chris Diorio in 2000, Alon Halevy in 1999, David Salesin in 1995, and Tom Anderson in 1994.

Denice Denton profiled in San Jose Mercury News (February 2005)

"'Working for Denice, we always felt we were on a roll, accomplishing something, achieving success,' said Ed Lazowska ... 'She knows what the right things to do are, and she has the backbone to do them.'"

Portland Oregonian profiles UW and CSE (February 2005)

"The state's economic and technology payoffs from UW's research emphasis, however, are without peer in the Northwest. A recent visit to the computer science and engineering program, ranked among the top 10 in the nation, showed why."

CSE's Tactile Graphics Project profiled by AP (February 2005)

"Students with the brains for science, computers and engineering also need the eyes for those fields. Technical careers are largely inaccessible to the blind, according to researchers on the University of Washington's Tactile Graphics Project, which grapples with the problem of translating the complex graphics used to teach technical subjects for people who read with their hands."

CSE's Alon Halevy in NY Times (February 2005)

"Dr. Halevy is working on what he calls semantic e-mail, which provides some structure to the originating e-mail to make it easier for the software on the recipient's side to understand it and assign a priority."

"Re-booting design at UW" (Daily Journal of Commerce) (February 2005)

The Paul G. Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering is selected as the AIA Project of the Month.

"Jury Comments: 'This building would influence a right-brain person to consider taking up computer science!'"

UW CSE Ph.D. alumna Gail Murphy wins inaugural Dahl-Nygaard Prize (February 2005)

UW CSE Ph.D. alumna Gail Murphy, now a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, has been honored with the first annual Dahl-Nygaard Prize, named for Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard, whose foundational work on object-oriented programming, made concrete in the Simula language, is one of the most important inventions in software engineering.

In honoring Murphy, the selection committee wrote "Gail Murphy has shown promising potential as a young researcher by proposing innovative ideas and by proving that these are conceptually sound and realistically implementable. She focuses her research and teaching on software engineering, and she has made contributions to understanding and reducing the problems associated with evolving large software systems. Like Dahl and Nygaard, Murphy challenges students to look at new things, be it aspects or performance measurement, with a disciplined questioning eye. She encourages the development of sound theories backed with the practice of prototype implementations in preparing a new generation of researchers."

Winter 2005 Most Significant Bits available (January 2005)

The Winter 2005 issue of CSE's newsletter, Most Significant Bits, is now available. Feature articles include the Wissner-Slivka Endowed Chair installation ceremony, the Tactile Graphics project, the Computer Engineering wireless sensor network capstone project, and the Industrial Affiliates Meeting. If you don't receive your hard copy by early February, send email to msb@cs.washington.edu.

UW "Video Based Document Tracking" in Technology Research News (January 2005)

"With the notion of the paperless office fading into history, researchers from the University of Washington are working to more closely integrate the paper world -- still on the rise -- with the world of electronic data." The work -- by Jiwon Kim, Steve Seitz, and Maneesh Agrawala -- was presented at UIST '04 in October.

Prof. Richard Ladner's "Tactile Graphics Project" featured in discoveruw (January 2005)

"The Tactile Graphics Project ... is combining the efforts of UW's Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Information School and DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) to increase availability of resources to blind students ... Their goal is to enable K-12, college, undergrad, and graduate students who are blind to have full access to mathematics, engineering and science."