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News Archive 2012

  • DRL Dances With Umbrellas The Distributed Robotics Lab (DRL) at CSAIL joined forces with modern dance company Pilobolus for the second time this fall to light up the nighttime sky when the two premiered their latest work, UP: The Umbrella Project at the PopTech Conference.
  • Dennis Awarded IEEE John von Neumann Medal Professor Jack Dennis, a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been named the recipient of the 2013 IEEE John von Neumann Medal. Dennis was honored, “For fundamental abstractions to implement protection in operating systems and for the dataflow programming paradigm.”
  • Miller Develops New Online Learning ToolA new online learning tool developed by Professor and CSAIL Principal Investigator Rob Miller brings "the crowd" into online education.
  • Education Goes MobileProfessor Hal Abelson is looking to increase access to education through a new medium: mobile technology.
  • Joshi Awarded Best Student Paper Prize Dr. Rohit Joshi, a postdoctoral associate in Professor Peter Szolovits’ Clinical Decision Making Group (http://groups.csail.mit.edu/medg/people/psz/home/Pete_MEDG_site/Home.html), has been awarded the best student paper prize at the 2012 American Medical Informatics Association’s Annual Symposium.
  • Sollins Named 2012 AAAS FellowDr. Karen Sollins, a principal research scientist at CSAIL, has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
  • Sibling PowerSiblings Andrew and Jennifer Barry have not only managed to maintain a close friendship into their adult years, but are also both studying robotics at CSAIL.
  • Andrew Howard Launches 2012-2013 Dertouzos Series On Thursday, November 15, CSAIL members enjoyed a virtual trip into space thanks to Dr. Andrew Howard, the first Dertouzos Lecturer of CSAIL’s 2012-2013 series.
  • Engadget Spotlights CSAIL RoboticsEngadget has featured new research from Brian Williams’ Model-based Embedded and Robotics Systems Group at CSAIL, focusing on the group’s work to increase collaboration between robots and humans.
  • Discovery Channel Features MERS Research The Discovery Channel has featured new work from Professor Brian Williams’ Model-based Embedded and Robotics Systems Group at CSAIL on its Daily Planet show.
  • EETimes Names Wireless@MIT A Visionary To WatchEETimes has named the MIT Center for Wireless Networks and Mobile Computing (Wireless@MIT) as one of its 10 electronic visionaries to watch.
  • Zue Awarded Okawa Prize Victor Zue, the Delta Electronics Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and the director of International Relations for CSAIL, has been named the 2012 recipient of the Okawa Prize.
  • CSAIL Team Honored for Printable RobotThis past summer, the African Robotics Network (AFRON) challenged roboticists around the world to design a new class of robot, one that could be easily integrated into classrooms around the world. SEG, a robot designed by CSAIL Director Daniela Rus’ Distributed Robotics Lab, took third prize in the traditional (roaming) category of the competition.
  • Computer Science Students Look to Twitter for Clues on ElectionA new research project by computer science students at MIT and the University of Chicago takes a new look at voter sentiment by analyzing the sentiments of social media users on Twitter.
  • Making Better Sense of Medical RecordsNew research out of CSAIL’s Clinical Decision Making Group should make it easier and more efficient for computers to parse electronic medical records.
  • Epoch Foundation Visits CSAIL During Biennial MIT Trip The Epoch Foundation, an organization of more than a dozen Taiwanese conglomerates, recently made its biennial visit to MIT. During the weeklong visit, representatives of the Foundation came to CSAIL for an afternoon of exploration of some of the latest cutting-edge computer science research underway at the lab.
  • CSAIL Team Selected for DARPA Robotic ChallengeA team of researchers from CSAIL has been selected to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge (DRC).
  • CSAIL & QCRI Announce New Research Collaboration The MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), a member of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), today announced a new joint research program aimed at advancing the field of computer science.
  • Weitzner Honored for Work With Online Privacy CSAIL Principal Research Scientist Daniel Weitzner has been named to the 2012 Newsweek Daily Beast Digital Power Index.
  • CSAIL Launches New Center To Tackle Future of Wireless and Mobile Technologies MIT today inaugurated a new interdisciplinary center dedicated to developing the next generation of wireless networks and mobile devices. Headquartered at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and known as Wireless@MIT, the Center will be a focal point for wireless research at MIT and will address some of the most important challenges facing the wireless and mobile computing fields.
  • Rivest Named to Cyber Security Hall of Fame Ronald Rivest, the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Computer Science in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been named to the National Cyber Security Hall of Fame.
  • CSAIL Researchers Unveil New Automatic Mapping System A new paper by CSAIL research scientist Maurice Fallon, Professor John Leonard, Professor Seth Teller, and CSAIL graduate students Hordur Johannsson and Jonathan Brookshire details a new method for tracking movement inside a building.
  • CSAIL Members Invited to Yoga ClassesCSAIL members are invited to attend community Yoga on Tuesdays at 5:15 PM in 32-G882.
  • Guttag’s Research Featured in Big Data Book New research by Professor and CSAIL Principal Investigator John Guttag and Professor Collin Stultz into using computer science techniques to predict a patient’s risk of death following a heart attack is featured in famed photographer Rick Smolan’s new book on big data.
  • Lo Named Nash Distinguished Lecturer CSAIL Principal Investigator Andrew Lo has been named a 2012 Nash Distinguished Lecturer by Carnegie Mellon University.
  • CSAIL Research Examines How Smart Phone Apps Track UsersNew research from CSAIL’s Decentralized Information Group (DIG) shows that a majority of applications not only collect user information when the application is in operation, but also when the application is inactive or when the user has turned off his or her smart phone screen.
  • Big Data Lecture Series Kicks Off Tomorrow On Wednesday, September 12, bigdata@CSAIL, CSAIL’s new initiative focused on tackling the challenges presented by this burgeoning field, kicks off its first lecture series with a talk by Google fellows Jeffrey Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat.
  • CSAIL and Dell Join Forces for Innovation in Education Think Tank On Thursday, September 13 at 10am EST CSAIL and Dell are joining forces for a Social Think Tank on Innovation in Education.
  • CSAIL Welcomes New StudentsIncoming graduate students were welcomed to CSAIL last Friday with a new student orientation session and an ice cream social.
  • Researchers Identify Biochemical Functions for Most of the Human Genome New map finds genetic regulatory elements account for 80 percent of our DNA.
  • Goldwasser Named Simons Investigator The Simons Foundation has announced that Shafi Goldwasser, the RSA Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been named a Simons Investigator.
  • Spotlight on Russ TedrakeLearn more about Russ Tedrake's path to the world of robotics in a new MIT News feature.
  • CSAIL Grad Develops ‘Pencil With Potential’ CSAIL graduate Mario Bollini is kick starting a new endeavor called Sprout, a pencil that when planted will sprout into a plant.
  • Bloomberg Businessweek Spotlights MERS Research in Manufacturing In a new video on the future of robotics, Bloomberg Businessweek featured Professor Brian Williams’ Model-based Embedded and Robotic Systems Group (MERS) and their work with developing new methods for robots and humans to work together in efficient and successful ways.
  • EMC Spotlights bigdata@CSAILEMC TV is putting the spotlight on CSAIL’s new initiative bigdata@CSAIL, in a 30-minute piece on the station’s IT Insider show.
  • The wisdom of crowds A new paper out of Associate Professor Manolis Kellis' group shows the wisdom of crowds when it comes to selecting methods for analyzing gene regulatory networks.
  • Sana AudioPulse Wins Mobile Health Challenge A new telemedicine solution called Sana AudioPulse allows healthcare providers around the world to screen for hearing impairment through a simple mobile phone application. The Sana AudioPulse team, which is made up of students from CSAIL, MIT, Harvard, Northeastern and the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Brazil, was recently honored as the winner of the GSMA Mobile Health Challenge.
  • CSAIL Donates 3-D Printer to Weston Middle SchoolCSAIL members recently constructed and donated a new RapMan 3.2 3-D Printer to Weston Middle School.
  • Jackson’s ‘Dark Machines’ Exhibit on Display at MIT MuseumA new exhibit of Daniel Jackson’s photographs called “Dark Machines: Inside MIT’s Laboratories” is now on display at the MIT Museum.
  • Sir Tim Berners-Lee Honored in Olympics Opening CeremonySir Tim Berners-Lee was honored during the Opening Ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics Friday for his work in developing the World Wide Web.
  • New Aircraft Capable of Fast, Accurate and Repeatable Flight Associate Professor Russ Tedrake and his research group recently unveiled a video of a new computer-controlled aircraft that is able to accurately perform knife-edge turns, rolling 90 degrees to dart through an opening narrower than the aircraft’s wingspan.
  • First MITx Leadership Gift Presented in Honor of WardMIT alumnus Philippe Laffont has made the first individual leadership gift in support of MITx, MIT’s new online learning initiative. The Philippe & Ana Luisa Laffont Family Foundation contributed $1 million to honor Stephen A. Ward (SB ’66 and SM ’69 in electrical engineering; PhD ’74 in computer science from MIT), Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, who was Laffont’s thesis advisor at MIT.
  • Zue Honored with IEEE Speech and Audio Processing Award Victor Zue, the Delta Electronics Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been named the recipient of the IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award.
  • ‘Seraph’ wins Best Robot Actor Award At the 2012 Robot Film Festival, Seraph won the Best Robot Actor Award.
  • Berger Named ISCB Fellow Bonnie Berger, a professor of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science at MIT and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been named a 2012 Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB).
  • EVO-DesignOpt Researchers Win Best Paper Award Members of the CSAIL Evolutionary Design and Optimization Group (EVO-DesignOpt) were honored with the best paper award at the 2012 EvoPAR track of the Evo-Applications conference.
  • Matusik Named DARPA Young Faculty Award Winner Wojciech Matusik, an associate professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been named a recipient of the 2012 DARPA Young Faculty Award.
  • 'Seraph' Featured in Robot Film Festival Seraph, a modern dance piece featuring quad-rotors from CSAIL Director Daniela Rus' research group and dancers from the modern dance company Pilobolus, has been selected as a featured film in the upcoming Robot Film Festival, taking place next Saturday, July 14 in New York City.
  • Corbato Named Computer History Museum Fellow Fernando J. Corbato, a professor emeritus in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been honored by the Computer History Museum as a 2012 Fellow.
  • Leonard’s Work Featured on Bloomberg TV Bloomberg TV featured the work of John Leonard, a professor of Mechanical and Ocean Engineering in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering and a principal investigator at CSAIL, in a new piece focused on the future of robotics.
  • Shavit Wins Dijkstra Prize in Distributed ComputingNir Shavit, a professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been awarded the 2012 Edsger W. Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing.
  • Brooks’ New Company Changes Name to Rethink Robotics, Inc. Heartland Robotics, the latest robotics company from former CSAIL Director Rodney Brooks, has announced that it is changing its name to Rethink Robotics, Inc.
  • All Things Big and Small: The Brain’s Discerning Taste for SizeResearchers at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) and the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences have discovered that the brain organizes objects based on their physical size, with a specific region of the brain reserved for recognizing large objects and another reserved for small objects. Their findings, to be published in the June 21 issue of Neuron, could have major implications for fields like robotics, and could lead to a greater understanding of how the brain organizes and maps information.
  • Arvind Honored with Harry H. Goode Memorial AwardArvind, the Johnson Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been named the recipient of the IEEE Computer Society’s Harry H. Goode Memorial Award.
  • Enabling Better Human-Robot Coordination Julie Shah, the Boeing Career Development Assistant Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and a principal investigator at CSAIL, is looking to enable more human-robot coordination on the factory floor.
  • Celebrating CSAIL’s GraduatesOn Friday, June 8th, the Institute will hold its 146th commencement ceremony. We here at CSAIL would like to join the speaker, Salman Khan, in wishing our graduates luck on the next leg of their journey. The CSAIL students matriculating in both Masters and PhD programs are listed below; congratulations, and best wishes for an exciting future!
  • 6.141 Students Showcase Robotics Skills Students in 6.141, Robotics: Science and Systems I recently wrapped up the semester with an afternoon full of robotics demonstrations.
  • MIT CSAIL & Intel Join State of Massachusetts to Tackle Big DataThe Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT today announced a major new initiative called bigdata@CSAIL to tackle the challenges of the burgeoning field known as “big data” -- data collections that are too big, growing too fast, or are too complex for existing information technology systems to handle. The announcement was made at an MIT event attended by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who simultaneously announced a new statewide initiative to establish Massachusetts as a hub of big data research.
  • Daskalakis Wins Microsoft Faculty FellowshipConstantinos Daskalakis, X-Window Consortium Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been named a 2012 Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow.
  • Rus Named CSAIL DirectorDaniela Rus, a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has been named the next director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), effective May 23.
  • Tedrake Receives Tenure The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has announced that Russ Tedrake has been promoted to the role of associate professor with tenure, effective July 1, 2012.
  • Turing Award Winner Valiant Speaks at CSAIL Turing Award winner and Harvard University Professor Leslie Valiant spoke at CSAIL last week as part of the lab’s Dertouzos Lecturer Series.
  • Liskov Elected to National Academy of SciencesBarbara Liskov, an Institute Professor at MIT and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), an honor recognizing distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.
  • Faster Fourier Transform Named One of World’s Most Important Emerging TechnologiesThe sparse Fourier transform, a new algorithm developed by Professors and CSAIL Principal Investigators Piotr Indyk and Dina Katabi, along with CSAIL graduate students Haitham Hassanieh and Eric Price, has been named to MIT Technology Review's 2012 list of the world's most important emerging technologies.
  • Agarwal to Serve as First President of EdXHarvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) today announced EdX, a transformational new partnership in online education. Through EdX, the two institutions will collaborate to enhance campus-based teaching and learning and build a global community of online learners.
  • Abelson Honored as Outstanding Educator Hal Abelson has been honored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) with the Karl V. Karlstom Outstanding Educator Award for his contributions to computer science education.
  • Agarwal's Dreams for Online EducationMIT News profiled Professor Anant Agarwal's vision for online education.
  • Three CSAIL Members Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences CSAIL Principal Investigators Arvind, Bonnie Berger and Frans Kaashoek have been elected as new members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
  • Lo Named as One of ‘Most Influential People’ by TimeAndrew Lo, the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been named one of 2012’s “The 100 Most Influential People in the World” by Time magazine.
  • Lynch Named Athena LecturerThe Association for Computing Machinery’s Council on Women in Computing (ACM-W) today named Nancy Lynch, the NEC professor of software science and engineering at MIT and a principal investigator at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), as the 2012-2013 Athena Lecturer.
  • Spotlight on Manolis KellisAssociate Professor Manolis Kellis, a principal investigator at CSAIL, is tackling the biological problem of understanding human disease with computer science.
  • Solar-Lezama Working on New NSF Project to Improve Computer Programming Assistant Professor Armando Solar-Lezama, a principal investigator at CSAIL, will join the University of Pennsylvania and seven other research institutions in a new National Science Foundation (NSF) project to make computer programming faster, easier and more intuitive.
  • Increasing On-Chip Computer CommunicationTo solve the problem posed by the fact that computer chips are no longer getting faster, Li-Shiuan Peh, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has proposed a new method for increasing the efficiency and computational power of computer chips.
  • MIT CSAIL Project Could Transform Robotic Design and ProductionThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is leading an ambitious new project to reinvent how robots are produced and designed. Funded by a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the project will aim to develop a desktop technology that would make it possible for the average person to design, customize and print a specialized robot in a matter of hours.
  • CSAIL Scientists, Mass State Police to Tackle Problem of Roadside Collisions Between Drivers and Police VehiclesA team of researchers at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), in collaboration with the Massachusetts State Police and BAE Systems, has announced a new project to combat the problem of roadside collisions.
  • Berger Presents NIH’s Margaret Pittman Lecture The National Institutes of Health (NIH) bestowed the honor of asking Professor Bonnie Berger to give the annual Margaret Pittman Lecture as part of the Institutes’ Wednesday Afternoon Lecture Series.
  • Kaelbling Named MacVicar Faculty Fellow Leslie Pack Kaelbling, the Panasonic Professor of Computer Science and Engineering and a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been named a 2012 MacVicar Faculty Fellow.
  • Agarwal to Lead MIT's Open Learning EnterpriseProfessor Anant Agarwal has been named director of a new unit of MIT created to advance MIT’s online-learning initiative.
  • Wong Speaks on Importance of Pursuing Passions Earlier this month, MIT alumna Andrea Wong chronicled her journey from MIT undergraduate to President of International Production for Sony Pictures Television as part of CSAIL’s Dertouzos Lecturer Series.
  • NSF Honors Aaronson with Alan T. Waterman AwardThe National Science Foundation (NSF) has named Professor Scott Aaronson, a principal investigator at CSAIL, as one of two recipients of this year’s Alan T. Waterman Award.
  • CSAIL Faculty Offering Summer CoursesThis summer, three CSAIL faculty members are teaching courses as part of MIT's Professional Education program.
  • First 'MITx' course starts March 5The first course to be offered through MITx, 6.002x: Circuits and Electronics, starts Monday, March 5.
  • Liskov named to National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame has named Professor Barbara Liskov as one of its 2012 inductees.
  • New CSAIL Research Could Help Secure the Cloud Researchers from the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) aim to develop a new system that would help the cloud identify and recover from an attack almost instantaneously.
  • Matusik Named Sloan Research FellowThe Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has named Associate Professor Wojciech Matusik a Sloan Research Fellow for 2012.
  • Kearns Speaks on Social Computation Research Professor Michael Kearns detailed six years of his experiments in social computation last week when he came to CSAIL to speak as part of the annual Dertouzos Lecturer Series.
  • New Navigation System Allows Robots to Explore Alone A new system developed by researchers at CSAIL could one day allow robots to navigate uncertain environments without input from humans.
  • 'MITx' Enrollment UnderwayEnrollment is now underway for the first course to be offered through MIT’s new online learning initiative, MITx.
  • Dennis Selected for ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame Professor Emeritus Jack Dennis, a principal investigator at CSAIL, has been inducted into the Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Operating Systems (SIGOPS) Hall of Fame.
  • New Multicore Seminar Series Announced Announcing a new CSAIL Multicore Software Seminar Series - a forum for researchers and developers interested in software for multicore machines.
  • CSAIL Student Invention Featured on Discovery Channel Stephan Boyer, an undergraduate student at CSAIL, has been featured on the Discovery Channel riding the electric, self-balancing unicycle he created at MIT.
  • A Taste of Computer ScienceResearchers at CSAIL are sampling the world of taste testing.
  • Learn More About CSAIL's StudentsEver wondered about CSAIL's students and what inspires them to undertake such challenging and exciting computer science research?
  • Agarwal Dreams Big CSAIL Director Anant Agarwal is focused on designing the computer chips, and the super computers, of the future.
  • Katabi and Indyk Develop Groundbreaking Algorithm MIT CSAIL Principal Investigators Dina Katabi and Piotr Indyk have developed a new algorithm that improves on the fast Fourier transform (FFT).
  • CSAIL Olympics UnderwayCSAIL’s own version of the Olympics kicks off this afternoon at 4:30 pm in the G9 lounge.
  • Golland's Journey to MIT CSAIL Principal Investigator Polina Golland’s interest in MIT was cultivated early, according to a new MIT News article chronicling her work.
  • CSAIL students named ‘Computer Science Rockstars’ The PhenomList has showcased several CSAIL students as “MIT Computer Science Rockstars”.
  • CSAIL Student Designs Self-Balancing UnicycleCSAIL undergraduate student Stephan Boyer can often be seen zooming around campus on a partially self-balancing electric unicycle he built called the “Bullet.”

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