An Earth and Space Science group is experimenting with 3D display and computer hardware to develop an immersive visualization system optimized for solving geologic problems. The IO components of the system would include:

(1 )Large 3D monitory(s) (> 65”),
(2) Kinect(s),
(3) Interactive pen monitor(s) (.e.g. http://thepandacity.com/ProductMSP19.aspx) and
(4 )Data glove(s) (e.g. http://www.vrealities.com/dg5glove.html ).

Although the project would start with a simple GIS problem set, the ultimate goal of the system would be to move beyond the passive display of spatial-temporal data and emphasize the interactive refinement of complex geologic models. This could also be an opportunity for an advanced student to act as a ‘consultant’ on the project. She or he would experience a real world project with: clients who would view computer programing has a means to an end, exposure to different programing environment (e.g. C#, Python), a venue to use CSE expertise on problems where the answer is not in the back of the book, and have to deal with decisions common to research (e.g. buy a bigger monitor and upgrade an old PC or buy a small monitor and a new PC?).

Past collaborations between geologists with interesting problems and computer scientists have produced interesting results (e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=j9JXtTj0mzE ) in the past and this project has the potential to do likewise.

Now is the optimum time to get involved because the ESS group is just starting to shop for hardware.

If interested, contact Gregg Petrie, gregg@hiker.org. Credit is available.

Shiri Azenkot shiri@cs.washington.edu	Jun 13 (2 days ago)
to dub-students, cs-grads, cs-ugrads, dub, JAMES

Hi everyone,

—
Shiri Azenkot

Write Michael Toomim:  toomim@cs.washington.edu for more information.

Looking for an interested undergrad!

This summer, Prof. James Landay’s group is working on a new way to measure the value of user interfaces and websites — the amount of money it takes to make people stop using them.

Which website is more valuable to people: Facebook or Google search? As yet, no one knows how to measure this.  But we think we can, by combining methods from:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Economics
* DNS hacking
• Mechanical Turk and crowdsourcing

This could be the future of A/B tests, user studies, and internet economics.  For the last decade, websites have become obsessed with their statistics of hits, click-through rates, and their number of users, but how much value do they add to human lives?

Let’s give silicon valley a way to look at the big questions.

The researcher can earn credits, as well as be paid (at a higher rate than mechanical turkers!).

Here’s another one!

Prof. Landay’s group is also creating a new type of social space — something a little like email, and a little  like Facebook. We are taking aspects of socializing in real life (eye contact, body language, vocal expressiveness, standing near someone) and finding ways to represent them online, to make the internet suck less for socializing.

This is both a research project, and a real, live system, that you will be able to help design and contribute to.

Let’s work together to make the internet suck less for socializing.
Write toomim@cs.washington.edu for more information.

I’m looking for some top UW CS students (senior undergrad or grad students) who’d like to participate in this special opportunity this summer (at NO cost to you).
James

We will have a new innovative program this summer on the UW campus: The World Lab Summer Institute.  We will put 10 UW students (strong undergrads and young grad students) together with 10 top students from Tsinghua University in China. Students will work on interdisciplinary teams (designers, technologists, and social scientists) that are also cross-cultural (Chinese and Americans) to make impact on the Environment, Health, or Education. The students will work on 7-week projects (from mid-July to late August) with an optional week in Beijing to show off the demos/videos that are produced. The program will include morning lectures/design exercises (e.g., CSE 440/441 condensed plus design and entrepreneurship lectures), team work the rest of the day, and Friday industry lab tours.  This entire program will be funded by industry at no cost to the students.

—

James A. Landay  刘哲明
Short-Dooley Professor
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
University of Washington
642 Allen Center, Box 352350
Seattle, WA 98195-2350
landay@cs.washington.edu
http://cs.washington.edu/homes/landay/
Co-author of The Design of Sites: Patterns for Creating Winning Web Sites

World Lab Summer Institute

Program Description

There are many urgent problems facing the planet: a degrading environment, a healthcare system in crisis, and educational systems that are inadequately training innovative thinkers to solve the problems of tomorrow. A balanced approach is required to solve these problems: a balance between design and technology, a balance between human-centered and technology-centered approaches, and a balance between different world cultures and ways of thinking. The World Lab is a new research and educational institution that is ideally suited to tackle these grand challenges. The World Lab is sited jointly between two of the world’s leading computing and human-centered design institutions, the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle and Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The World Lab Summer Institute at the University of Washington brings together students from technology, design, social science and business backgrounds, and challenges them to create prototypes for products and services that solve pressing social problems.

Program Curriculum

The seven-week World Lab Summer Institute will be comprised of a set of core courses, an integrated project studio activity, and field trips to leading companies and research labs in the Puget Sound region.

Classes

The World Lab Summer Institute is organized around three core focuses:  1) human-computer interaction (HCI); 2) design; 3) tech-focused entrepreneurship.

The foundation course for the World Lab is: Introductory HCI: User Interface Design, Prototyping, and Evaluation, taught by Professor James Landay

Supplementary lectures in Design and Entrepreneurship will be given by a team of other University of Washington faculty members.

Students are assigned homework and reading as with any course. All classes are held on the University of Washington campus.

Integrative Studio

Students are divided into teams of 4-5, with a balance of Chinese and US students, as well as students from different academic disciplines. Each team works independently to develop a working prototype with demonstrable social impact.

Throughout the process student teams work closely with academic advisors from the university. This prototype is the final project by which student performance will be judged. Chinese students will present their work to an audience of academics, government officials, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and their peers upon returning to China. The final presentation will be held at Yuanfen~Flow, an incubator space in the 798 art district in Beijing.

World Lab Field Trips

Students also make bi-weekly visits to nearby companies or research labs to speak with leading tech innovators and business leaders.

Program Accommodation

Chinese students will stay in UW dorms and eat meals at UW dining halls. Card access to university buildings will be provided for the duration of the program.

Program Dates

July 9^th – August 22^nd, 2012, with optional 1 week prologue in Beijing in late August or early September

Program Requirements

10 – 15 students from China; 7 – 10 students from University of Washington
3:2 ratio of tech to design/social science students
Background in computer science, software engineering, design, or social science.
Preference to Graduate and PhD students, exceptional undergraduates will also be considered.

Program Advisors

James Landay, Professor of Computer Science, University of Washington
Yuanchun Shi, Professor of Computer Science, Tsinghua University
Ying-Qing Xu, Professor of Information Art and Design, Tsinghua University
Zhiyong Fu, Professor of Information Art and Design, Tsinghua University
Tad Hirsch, Assistant Professor of Design, University of Washington
Axel Roesler, Associate Professor of Design, University of Washington
David Ben Kay, Director of Yuanfen~Flow, Former Legal Counsel for Microsoft Asia
Nicholas Young, Co-Founder and Director of East West Coalition

Hello,

I am a PhD student in the UW CSE department.  My Advisor Aram Harrow and I are interested in hiring an undergraduate for the Summer to work on a full-time undergraduate research (REU) on searching for hard instances of isomorphism problems.  We have funding available for the whole Summer and publication opportunities should be possible if the project is successful.

In isomorphism problems, we are concerned with determining whether two combinatorial or algebraic structures are essentially the same.  Such problems have proved resistant to the development of efficient algorithms despite evidence that they are not NP-hard such as a lack of hard instances.

In this project, we plan to search for hard instances of the group isomorphism problem by exhaustively checking all groups up to a certain order.  The project will therefore involve programming and also some group theory.  Depending on how the code performs on a single core, it may be necessary to parallelize the code or port it to run on a cluster.  The results should be publishable if the project is successful.  Additional technical details are available here: http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/aram/misc/search-iso.pdf

Please contact us at aram@cs.washington.edu or djr@cs.washington.edu for more information or if you are interested in working with us this Summer.

Thanks,
David Rosenbaum

CCC Blog has posted a new item, “CS URGE: A Resource for Undergraduates.”

You may view the latest post at:
http://www.cccblog.org/2012/05/21/cs-urge-a-resource-for-undergraduates/

Excerpt
————

The Computing Community Consortium (CCC) has developed a new website
for undergraduates seeking summer research opportunities as well as
advice and tips on applying for graduate school. The website is called
CS URGE (CS Undergraduate Research and Graduate Education), and the
URL is http://cra.org/ccc/csurge (more following the link)…

————

Read the full post at:
http://www.cccblog.org/2012/05/21/cs-urge-a-resource-for-undergraduates/

Hey everyone,

Research Night is a great opportunity for you to get involved in undergrad research. If you’re still looking for something to do this summer, why not come check out the cool research projects you could be working on here at the university? If you’re looking to start doing research in the fall, here’s your chance to find out what’s going down.

We’re going to be holding research night tomorrow, May 22, from 4pm – 6:30pm.

The event will start in EEB125 with a talk given by a faculty speaker at 4pm and then an undergrad research panel at 4:30pm.

This will be followed by a poster session in the CSE Atrium at 5pm.

Hope to see you there!

Interested in working on projects like openie.cs.washington.edu and revminer.cs.washington.edu this summer?

We have a project for you.  Looking for someone energetic, independent, with strong programming skills for a paid summer RA.  Should have finished CSE 332 or 326.

Please send resume, unofficial transcript, and a note about what you’re looking for to me. (Contact information linked on name below)

Oren Etzioni: http://www.cs.washington.edu/people/faculty/etzioni

Hey everyone, we’re holding spring undergrad research night in a few weeks on  Tuesday, May 22nd at 4:30pm and we need about 5 undergrads with research experience to talk and field questions for other undergrads who are potentially interested in doing research.

If you’re interested in helping out, please reply. We’ll need you for about 30 minutes during the actual event.