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Grant Supports Emerging Data Analysis Field
An emerging research field known as data and visual analytics is helping sift through mountains of information to find and put together individual pieces of a picture. Enormous amounts of data are being generated in health care, computational biology, homeland security and other areas, but analyzing these massive and unstructured data sets has proven difficult. The Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, has received a five-year grant to lead and coordinate a new initiative that will develop foundational research in massive data analysis and visual analytics. A research team will investigate ways to improve the visual analytics of massive data sets through machine learning, numerical algorithms and optimization, computational statistics and information visualization. The US$3 million grant establishes Georgia Tech as the leading academic research institution for all national Foundations of Data and Visual Analytics (FODAVA) research efforts. Read more
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Technology Giants Join Forces for Cloud Computing Research
Three major technology companies are joining forces with three research teams to develop an open source test bed for cloud-computing research, which will enable globally distributed computers to serve as a base for transmitting various services. Hewlett-Packard, Intel and Yahoo have linked with The Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. Each unit will operate a cloud-computing research facility, mostly based on hardware from HP and Intel. Research is geared towards several computing issues, including automatic research allocation, monitoring and management. Leaders of the initiative say the test beds will allow the researchers to gain a greater understanding of how computer systems function in a cloud environment and experiment with this technology on a larger scale. Read more
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African Governments Adopt Computers and Phones in Education
The governments of Zambia, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana and South Africa have turned to mobile phones and computers to mitigate the effects of the teacher shortage in Africa, developing ICT projects involving mobile-phone messaging and computer-generated classrooms to be used in both primary and secondary schools. Over 200 primary schools will benefit from Tanzania's program, which will launch in October, according to the country’s education minister. The Zambian Ministry of Education is fielding a similar program to promote e-learning and ensure that ICT is integrated into the Zambian education system. Initiated by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), such e-learning programs are part of a consolidated plan of action aimed at enhancing knowledge sharing through the application, adaptation and usage of ICT in education. The program will equip approximately 16,000 African schools with computers and Internet connections by 2015. Read more
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Supercomputer Demo Puts Focus on Fusion as Untapped Energy Source
With a focus on how fusion may hold the key to a fresh, untapped energy source for the world, Cray Inc., a leader in global supercomputers, revealed the details of the biggest fusion energy simulation on a Cray XT4™ supercomputer. Researchers at the University of California-Irvine (UCI), USA, gathered the power of the Cray device to model electron transport for an original fusion reactor in order to examine the scientific and technological benefits of fusion energy. Researchers believe that fusion—the power source of the stars and sun—may be used to create a cleaner energy source, without dangerous emissions. UCI researchers call the simulation of electron turbulent transport in fusion unprecedented, and say that advances in high performance computing are key to advancing the science associated with identifying and developing alternative energy sources. Read more
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IEEE Educational Activities Launches New Academic Portal
The IEEE Educational Activities Department is pleased to announce the launch of their latest portal, Accreditation.org. This online resource, developed as a joint effort by IEEE and IBM, will provide the general worldwide public with a comprehensive tool to search for accredited academic programs in the fields of engineering, engineering technology and computing. It will also serve as a valuable one-stop resource to practitioners of engineering, technology and computing; students, teachers and administrators of education programs in these fields; and decision makers in government, industrial and private organizations who are interested in finding out more information on accreditation topics. Accreditation.org is poised to serve as the ultimate resource on engineering, engineering technology and computing education accreditation. Visit Accreditation.org
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Grid Computing Conference
The Ninth IEEE/ACM Conference on Grid Computing (GRID) is an annual international meeting that brings together a community of researchers, developers, practitioners and users involved with grid technology. The objective of the meeting is to serve as both the premier venue for presenting foremost research results in the area and as a forum for introducing and exploring new concepts. GRID 2008 will take place 29 September – 1 October in Tsukuba, Japan. Advanced registration is open until 1 September 2008; discounted rates are available for IEEE members. Visit the GRID 2008 Web site
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New Cloud Computing Antivirus System Developed
Thanks to a new cloud computing approach to malicious software detection developed at the University of Michigan, USA, antivirus software on your personal computer could become a thing of the past. Traditional antivirus software is installed on millions of individual computers around the world but, according to researchers, antivirus software from popular vendors is increasingly ineffective. Named CloudAV, the new approach moves antivirus functionality into the network cloud and off personal computers. Cloud computing refers to applications and services provided through the Internet and the new program analyzes suspicious files using multiple antivirus and behavioral detection programs simultaneously. In additional to traditional business applications, researchers see promising opportunities in applying CloudAV to cell phones and other mobile devices that are not robust enough to carry powerful antivirus software. Read more
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Free Software Helps Embedded Design Shift to High-Performance
Just as embedded design moves from limited-resource to high-performance systems, a wide variety of open-source software has started to gain a foothold in the industry. The switch to high-performance systems comes with complex applications that may require new software functions, such as high-speed networking, wireless communications, interactive graphics and data encryption. According to experts, developers can save thousands of man-hours in development costs by integrating freely downloadable operating systems, libraries and components with their application-specific custom software. Read more
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Quantum Computers Move One Step Closer to Reality
Thanks to new research being conducted at the University of Surrey, England, complex computer encryption codes could be solved significantly faster than expected. The work being conducted brings the concept of a workable quantum computer one step closer, proving for the first time that it is possible to make these computers in silicon rather than a vacuum, which has been the focus of previous research. Quantum computing has the potential to fix problems that would normally take millions of years to solve. For these quantum computers to work, atoms need to be kept fixed in space, allowing them to move in an undisturbed oscillating wave motion. Previous research has only succeeded in creating some building blocks for a quantum computer by using atoms suspended in a vacuum. Using atoms trapped in a silicon crystal, the research team showed that the quantum waves oscillate long enough for a computer operation, representing a significant step forward in quantum computing research. Read more
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Study in Computing Energy Efficiency Gets Green Light
A new three-year project using the GreenLight instrument at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), USA, will test the energy efficiency of a computing system under real-world conditions, according to university experts, who say that energy efficient computing is not merely a matter of equipment, but how a system is configured and used. The GreenLight system uses sensors in a controlled data center environment to collect information about humidity levels in the room and the energy consumption of the computing equipment, according to experts, who say the project is receiving US$2 million from the National Science Foundation. The data should be useful in finding ways to minimize the power needed to run computers, to find novel cooling sources and to develop software that optimizes the power use strategies for different computing processes. Read more
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Disk Encryption Cannot Prevent New Type of Data Theft
For people hoping to protect sensitive data on their laptops, disk encryption may not be enough, according to security researchers who shared a report on the dangers of a cold-boot attack at a Usenix Security Conference. During this type of theft, an attacker can remove power to a computer while it is in sleep mode, then bring the power back to install a destructive operating system from a USB drive or iPod that can copy the RAM contents. Even if the power is turned off, the RAM data is still available for several minutes after the power is gone, giving an attacker plenty of time to steal the data. Read more
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Call for Papers: High-Performance Reconfigurable Computing Workshop
The 2008 International Workshop on High-Performance Reconfigurable Computing Technology and Applications (HPRCTA 2008), sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society, is being held 16 November 2008 in Austin, Texas, USA. The goal of this workshop is to provide a forum for academic researchers and industry to discuss the latest trends and developments in the field. HPRCTA 2008 will aim to set a research agenda for the upcoming years on the use of FPGA technology in high-performance computing. Abstracts should be submitted by 15 September; final papers are due 1 November. For a list of acceptable papers topics, please visit the conference Web site
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