Friday, July 17, 2009

Computer Science Educator/Researcher Leads Associated Press Story

Beth Simon teaches computer science at UC San Diego. But that is just the beginning. She is also pioneering new ways to use technology to engage students during computer science lectures. Some of her work was profiled this week in an Associated Press article by Megan Scott entitled "Classrooms Go High-Tech to Engage Students."

Read more about her cutting-edge technology-meets-education research in Pulse, the alumni magazine of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
The AP article also quoted UC San Diego student Karen Tamayo. I'm trying to track her down now...to take her picture and find about a bit more about what kind of research she is doing with Beth Simon.


UC San Diego Research and National Security


Future military missions will depend on large, networked groups of sensor-equipped vehicles, which can be deployed in extreme conditions with little to no human intervention.

“Inspiration can be taken from biological groups like schools of fish, flocks of birds. These will be multi-robot networks, where each individual senses its environment, communicates with others, processes information gathered and takes local action in response, said Sonia Martinez, an assistant professor the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering.
Martinez outlined her ideas at The La Jolla Conference on Innovation Support for National Security, held last month at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) at UC San Diego. (Read the Jacobs School story here, which was adapted from the Calit2 story by Tiffany Fox)
The conference brought together thought leaders from the U.S. military, the defense industry and local research institutions to identify challenges, threats and solutions in the areas of advanced autonomous robotics and cybersecurity.

Einstein Smiling Robot News roundup

Here is a round up of some of the stories on the Einstein robot that learned to make its own facial expressions, thanks to a mirror, machine learning, and some serious UC San Diego brain power.

LiveScience.com
http://www.livescience.com/technology/090710-robot-expression.html

Popular Science
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/einstein-robot-teachest-itself-smile

TG Daily
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/43157/135/

Wired
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/robotsmile/

Technology Review blog Kristina Grifantini (DK) (B,D,E)
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/editors/23825/?nlid=2173

Technology Review video stream: (DK) (B,D,E)
http://www.technologyreview.com/video/?vid=388

Tehran Times
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=198622

KPBS radio
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/jul/10/ucsd-robot-learns-human-facial-expressions/

CNET Gadget blog: “crave” Einstein bot: E = mc smile
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10286624-1.html

DViCE
http://dvice.com/archives/2009/07/a-robot-that-ca.php

GIZMODO
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/07/robot-einstein-still-learning-to-smile/

gizmag
http://www.gizmag.com/robot-learning-facial-expressions/12218/

Switched
http://www.switched.com/2009/07/12/self-taught-einstein-bot-learns-to-smile-creepily/

MSN 9 News
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/glance/836366/robot-einstein-learns-to-smile

Popular Science video stream
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/einstein-robot-teachest-itself-smile

Engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2009/07/10/einstein-robot-learns-to-smile-teaches-us-how-to-feel/

The Einstein robot video on YouTube had more than 73,000 hits as of Friday July 17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBUtxfUY_w0&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egizmodo%2Ecom%2Eau%2F2009%2F07%2Frobot%2Deinstein%2Dstill%2Dlearning%2Dto%2Dsmile%2F&feature=player_embedded