Come watch the"Tower of Lights" Display at the Theophilus Tower on the UI main campus, July 10, 9:00 - 10:00 PM.
TowerLights is a project of the UI branch of the Association for Computing Machinery - ACM - a club for students in Computer Science and related fields. It involves placing Light Emitting Diodes (LED's) in the front-facing rooms of the Theophilus Tower, and turning them on and off in sync with music. The result is a unique visual experience! The hardware and software have been developed from scratch by ACM students. The individual performances have been put together by artistic students from across campus. TowerLights was started by a group of dedicated Computer Science alumni, and was first presented for Homecoming in 2010. We did a show for Vandal Friday this past spring, and we hope to do another one for homecoming this fall.
Monday, July 9, 2012
Monday, April 30, 2012
Communication and Swarm Dynamics
CS Colloquium
Date: Tuesday 5/01/2012,
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker this week is Joshua Rubini, CS, UI
The talk is titled: Building the Matrix: Comparing Methods of Communication and Swarm Structure Dynamics in Evolved Autonomous Swarms
Abstract:
Current research shows that for many problems, fully autonomous agents with the ability to pass messages to individuals in a local neighborhood are capable of being evolved to solve a diverse range of problems. However, this contrasts with many instances of natural evolution in which hierarchical control systems are found, particularly among more complex organisms such as many mammal and bird species. The "fully distributed swarm" suffers from three distinct problems: time-critical event handling, information staleness, and/or complex data mining, particularly in complex, dynamic problem spaces. This research attempts to show whether hierarchical communication and control structures can help overcome these problems.
Date: Tuesday 5/01/2012,
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker this week is Joshua Rubini, CS, UI
The talk is titled: Building the Matrix: Comparing Methods of Communication and Swarm Structure Dynamics in Evolved Autonomous Swarms
Abstract:
Current research shows that for many problems, fully autonomous agents with the ability to pass messages to individuals in a local neighborhood are capable of being evolved to solve a diverse range of problems. However, this contrasts with many instances of natural evolution in which hierarchical control systems are found, particularly among more complex organisms such as many mammal and bird species. The "fully distributed swarm" suffers from three distinct problems: time-critical event handling, information staleness, and/or complex data mining, particularly in complex, dynamic problem spaces. This research attempts to show whether hierarchical communication and control structures can help overcome these problems.
Monday, April 23, 2012
How Many Viruses are there in a Pig?
CS Colloquium Series,
Date: Tuesday 4/24/2012,
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker this week is James Foster, IBEST, UI
The talk is titled: How many viruses are there in a pig: new inferential statistics for metagenomic data
Abstract: It is now possible to get samples of DNA from every DNA-bearing entity in a given environmental sample. Clustering and string processing algorithms analyze millions to billions of small DNA sequences to determine how many different "species" were present in the original sample, and in what abundances. But there are two confounding factors in the data: the number of sequences is too small (!) for clustering to be completely reliable; and current statistical techniques are purely descriptive, and the sampling power is so weak (!) that descriptions of a sample do not fully reflect the structure of the populations in the original environment. In this talk, I present the results of a study we did to determine how the bacteria-eating virus in pig guts respond to antibiotic treatments. This requires a clustering analysis of large shotgun metagenomics datasets and new statistical techniques to interpret those data - and I promise to describe what all that means.
Date: Tuesday 4/24/2012,
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker this week is James Foster, IBEST, UI
The talk is titled: How many viruses are there in a pig: new inferential statistics for metagenomic data
Abstract: It is now possible to get samples of DNA from every DNA-bearing entity in a given environmental sample. Clustering and string processing algorithms analyze millions to billions of small DNA sequences to determine how many different "species" were present in the original sample, and in what abundances. But there are two confounding factors in the data: the number of sequences is too small (!) for clustering to be completely reliable; and current statistical techniques are purely descriptive, and the sampling power is so weak (!) that descriptions of a sample do not fully reflect the structure of the populations in the original environment. In this talk, I present the results of a study we did to determine how the bacteria-eating virus in pig guts respond to antibiotic treatments. This requires a clustering analysis of large shotgun metagenomics datasets and new statistical techniques to interpret those data - and I promise to describe what all that means.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Large Model Prediction of Full Scale Performance
CS Colloquium
Date: Tuesday 4/17/2012
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker this week is Alan R. Griffitts, NSWCCD Acoustic Research Detachment Site Director
The talk is titled: Large Model Prediction of Full Scale Performance
Abstract: The NSWCCD Acoustic Research Detachment (ARD), in Bayview, ID, is the Navy's premier acoustic research test facility. Large Scale Submarine models are utilized to support acoustic testing, with test results providing accurate full scale performance predictions. This talk will identify the advantages, challenges, and efficiencies that come from large scale model testing performed at the ARD.
Date: Tuesday 4/17/2012
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker this week is Alan R. Griffitts, NSWCCD Acoustic Research Detachment Site Director
The talk is titled: Large Model Prediction of Full Scale Performance
Abstract: The NSWCCD Acoustic Research Detachment (ARD), in Bayview, ID, is the Navy's premier acoustic research test facility. Large Scale Submarine models are utilized to support acoustic testing, with test results providing accurate full scale performance predictions. This talk will identify the advantages, challenges, and efficiencies that come from large scale model testing performed at the ARD.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Defining Attacker Behavior Patterns in an Information System
CS Colloquium
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker is Mark Rounds
The talk is titled: Defining Attacker Behavior Patterns in the Context of an Information System
Abstract:
Information systems are becoming pervasive in our everyday life. Anyone who is online must deal with consequence that such systems are prone to malicious attack. In our attempt to safeguard our systems, determination of the value of security is measures critical and is an area currently undergoing scrutiny by many researchers. There has been much research and development work done on the various technological security tools but there has been less work on the human side. One method to determine the actions and the intent of attackers in this environment is to simulate interactions between an information system, its users and a population of attackers. Initial simulation results suggest that the marginal value of additional security may be positive or negative as can the time rate of change of system value. Models created with this in mind have shown some predictive value but are based on some strong assumptions. The goals of this research are to support or refute some of these assumptions to make a more predictive model.
Monday, March 26, 2012
Formal Specification-Based Testing with Buchi-Automata
CS Colloquium
Date: Tuesday 3/27/2012
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker this week is Li Tan, WSU
The talk is titled: Formal Specification-Based Testing with Buchi-Automata
Abstract:
Buchi automata have been widely used for specifying linear temporal properties of reactive systems and they are also instrumental for designing efficient model-checking algorithms. In this talk I will present our work that extends specification-based testing to Buchi automata. A key question in specification-based testing is how to measure the quality (relevancy) of test cases with respect to system specification. I will discuss two state coverage metrics for measuring how well a test suite covers a Buchi-automaton-based requirement. Compared with previous work on specification-based testing with temporal logics which are based on the syntactical structure of a temporal logic specification, our new approach emphasizes on testing the semantics relevancy of the specification with respect to the system under test. The new approach improves the effectiveness of specification-based testing with temporal logics, as demonstrated by our experimental results. I will also discuss a model-checking-assisted test generation algorithm that improves the efficiency of test generation.
Date: Tuesday 3/27/2012
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker this week is Li Tan, WSU
The talk is titled: Formal Specification-Based Testing with Buchi-Automata
Abstract:
Buchi automata have been widely used for specifying linear temporal properties of reactive systems and they are also instrumental for designing efficient model-checking algorithms. In this talk I will present our work that extends specification-based testing to Buchi automata. A key question in specification-based testing is how to measure the quality (relevancy) of test cases with respect to system specification. I will discuss two state coverage metrics for measuring how well a test suite covers a Buchi-automaton-based requirement. Compared with previous work on specification-based testing with temporal logics which are based on the syntactical structure of a temporal logic specification, our new approach emphasizes on testing the semantics relevancy of the specification with respect to the system under test. The new approach improves the effectiveness of specification-based testing with temporal logics, as demonstrated by our experimental results. I will also discuss a model-checking-assisted test generation algorithm that improves the efficiency of test generation.
Monday, March 19, 2012
A Hybrid Model for Very High-Level Threads
CS Colloquium
Date: Tuesday 3/20/2012
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker this week is Jafar Al-Gharaibeh
The talk is titled: A Hybrid Model for Very High-Level Threads
Abstract:
Languages with multiple paradigms or other special-purpose features often are implemented in ways that make true concurrency difficult in the virtual machine or runtime system. Several popular languages feature a global interpreter lock that limits them to pseudo-concurrency. This talk presents lessons learned in developing true concurrency for a goal-directed, object-oriented language called Unicon. Parts of the work were anticipated, such as switching to thread-safe C library functions, while other parts were a surprise, such as eliminating race conditions in self-modifying virtual machine instructions.
Date: Tuesday 3/20/2012
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speaker this week is Jafar Al-Gharaibeh
The talk is titled: A Hybrid Model for Very High-Level Threads
Abstract:
Languages with multiple paradigms or other special-purpose features often are implemented in ways that make true concurrency difficult in the virtual machine or runtime system. Several popular languages feature a global interpreter lock that limits them to pseudo-concurrency. This talk presents lessons learned in developing true concurrency for a goal-directed, object-oriented language called Unicon. Parts of the work were anticipated, such as switching to thread-safe C library functions, while other parts were a surprise, such as eliminating race conditions in self-modifying virtual machine instructions.
Monday, March 5, 2012
Evolutionary Computation and Biology
CS Colloquium, March 6, 2012
Where: EP 122
When: March 6, 3:30 - 4:20 PM
Speaker: Dr. Robert Heckendorn
Title: How Can Problem Structure Analysis from Evolutionary Computation be Applied to Biological Problems?
Abstract: In Biology, understanding the interaction of genes with other genes and their environment is critical to understanding how organisms function and evolve. In Computer Science, understanding the "structure" of a problem representation is critical to understanding how to effectively solve an optimization problem using evolutionary computation. While these two problems are very similar, there are some severe practical differences in these two fields. In this talk I will discuss my effort to adapt the analysis techniques found Evolutionary Computation to the needs of biologists. I will discuss some specific algorithms under development in collaboration with researchers at BEACON Center for Evolution in Action at Michigan State and give some examples from real biological problems. (BEACON is an NSF Center for the study of Evolution in Action).
Monday, February 27, 2012
Fukushima, LENDIT and Cultural Relationships
CS Colloquium
When: Tuesday, 2/28/2012, 3:30 - 4:20 PM
Where: EP 122
Speaker: Akira Tokuhiro, Prof. of Mechanical Engineering, UIdaho
When: Tuesday, 2/28/2012, 3:30 - 4:20 PM
Where: EP 122
Speaker: Akira Tokuhiro, Prof. of Mechanical Engineering, UIdaho
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
CS Colloquium: Computational Bioinformatics
Date: Today, Tuesday 2/21/2012,
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
Speaker: Rob Lyon, Director of IBEST Computational Resource Core
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
Speaker: Rob Lyon, Director of IBEST Computational Resource Core
Title: High Performance Computing in Bioinformatics, or Should I take the Porche or the Station Wagon?
Bioinformatics, the study and application of computer science to biological questions, has rapidly expanded over the last few years. Next generation sequencing is now capable of producing petabytes of data so powerful tools and enormous amounts of computational power are needed to process the data. Unfortunately, bioinformatics tools and applications are lagging years behind the hardware and many tools have never been designed to take advantage of computing in a parallel environment.
We will also discuss areas within bioinformatics where computer scientists with a deep understanding of parallel computing, data processing and performance optimization at a hardware and software level can make significant contributions to the field.
Bioinformatics, the study and application of computer science to biological questions, has rapidly expanded over the last few years. Next generation sequencing is now capable of producing petabytes of data so powerful tools and enormous amounts of computational power are needed to process the data. Unfortunately, bioinformatics tools and applications are lagging years behind the hardware and many tools have never been designed to take advantage of computing in a parallel environment.
We will also discuss areas within bioinformatics where computer scientists with a deep understanding of parallel computing, data processing and performance optimization at a hardware and software level can make significant contributions to the field.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Strategic Use of Fear and Anger in Crisis Decision Makiing
CS Colloquium
Tuesday 2/14/2012,
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speakers this week are Lisa Carlson (Political Science, UI) and Raymond Dacey (Business, UI)
The title of the joint presentation is: The Strategic Use of Fear and Anger in Crisis Decision Making
Abstract:
Researchers have advanced various claims about the effects of emotions, particularly the effects of fear and anger, on decision making behavior. The purpose of this research is to provide a formal assessment of the effectiveness of the strategic use fear and anger in the context of a well-specified basic International Relations crisis decision problem. The formalization is motivated by the experimental work of Lerner and Keltner (2000, 2001) who found that fearful decision makers are risk averting across frames and make pessimistic risk assessments, and that angry decision makers are risk seeking across frames and make optimistic risk assessments. The analysis presented here employs the basic International Relations crisis decision problem to compare the behavior of the decision maker in a fearful state and an angry state, respectively, to the behavior of the decision maker in an emotionally neutral state. The analysis shows when the emotions of fear and anger do and do not have the desired strategic effects. The analysis also shows that the strategic use of fear and anger can have effects that are both counterintuitive and counterproductive.
Time: 3:30-4:20pm
Location: Room EP 122
The speakers this week are Lisa Carlson (Political Science, UI) and Raymond Dacey (Business, UI)
The title of the joint presentation is: The Strategic Use of Fear and Anger in Crisis Decision Making
Abstract:
Researchers have advanced various claims about the effects of emotions, particularly the effects of fear and anger, on decision making behavior. The purpose of this research is to provide a formal assessment of the effectiveness of the strategic use fear and anger in the context of a well-specified basic International Relations crisis decision problem. The formalization is motivated by the experimental work of Lerner and Keltner (2000, 2001) who found that fearful decision makers are risk averting across frames and make pessimistic risk assessments, and that angry decision makers are risk seeking across frames and make optimistic risk assessments. The analysis presented here employs the basic International Relations crisis decision problem to compare the behavior of the decision maker in a fearful state and an angry state, respectively, to the behavior of the decision maker in an emotionally neutral state. The analysis shows when the emotions of fear and anger do and do not have the desired strategic effects. The analysis also shows that the strategic use of fear and anger can have effects that are both counterintuitive and counterproductive.
Friday, February 3, 2012
Visualizing Software Ecosystems as Living Cities
CS Colloquium, Feb 7, 2012, 3:30 PM, EP 122. Speaker: Prof. Clinton Jeffery
Visualizing Software Ecosystems as Living Cities
Abstract:
The tribe of software developers have been slow in coming to the promised land of software visualization, so tantalizing and obvious since its inception in the early 1980's. Although many researchers were persuaded early on that visualization would someday revolutionize difficult tasks in debugging and software maintenance, most software visualizations have been too abstract or depicted information that was easy to obtain but not directly useful. Over the past decade however, several research groups have visualized the evolution of large software systems using progressively more sophisticated "city" metaphors, mapping information about software components onto familiar architectural features such as buildings and roads. This metaphor has been applied to relatively static or slowly-changing information, such as examining months or years of changes in a software repository.
This "software design" talk presents a survey of existing work on visualizing software as cities, and then introduces a "living city" metaphor, in which a set of programs written by a set of authors is visualized as a city populated by dynamic entities such as users, data structures, threads of execution, and bugs. The "living city" does not exist and implementing it will not be easy. The talk will include a discussion of what will be needed, both in terms of open research problems and existing and needed software tools.
Abstract:
The tribe of software developers have been slow in coming to the promised land of software visualization, so tantalizing and obvious since its inception in the early 1980's. Although many researchers were persuaded early on that visualization would someday revolutionize difficult tasks in debugging and software maintenance, most software visualizations have been too abstract or depicted information that was easy to obtain but not directly useful. Over the past decade however, several research groups have visualized the evolution of large software systems using progressively more sophisticated "city" metaphors, mapping information about software components onto familiar architectural features such as buildings and roads. This metaphor has been applied to relatively static or slowly-changing information, such as examining months or years of changes in a software repository.
This "software design" talk presents a survey of existing work on visualizing software as cities, and then introduces a "living city" metaphor, in which a set of programs written by a set of authors is visualized as a city populated by dynamic entities such as users, data structures, threads of execution, and bugs. The "living city" does not exist and implementing it will not be easy. The talk will include a discussion of what will be needed, both in terms of open research problems and existing and needed software tools.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Sandia National Labs Summer Institute in California
A week-long, cross disciplinary program for 20 top graduate students at the Sandia California Site. August 5-12, 2012. Topic of discission: Cyber Security Technology, Policy, Law, and Planning for an Uncertain Future. This is a great opportunity to get connected in the information security community.
For details go to:
http://www.sandia.gov/careers/students_postdocs/summer_institute/
Spring Job and Internship Fair
February 8, 2012, 2:00 - 6:00 PM, at the Student Union Building (SUB) Ballroom. Go here for details:
https://uidaho-csm.symplicity.com/events/students.php?mode=list&cf=Spring_12careerf
Friday, January 27, 2012
Next Generation Transportation Systems
What: CS Colloquium
When: Jan 31, 3:30-4:20 PM
Connected Vehicles: Next Generation Transportation System
Prof. Ahmed Abdel-Rahim of the UI Civil Engineering Department will provide an overview of the U.S. Department of Transportation's connected-vehicle program and its potential safety, mobility, and environmental applications focusing on the role of Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) networks in facilitating vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication. The presentation will also include a discussion of the reliability, security, and survivability of the proposed connected-vehicle communication architecture and identify research needs in this area.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Need guest speakers CS seminar class
We need guest speakers for the CS seminar classes, Contemporary Issues in Computer Science, CS 401/501. This class meets Tuesdays, 3:30-4:20 PM on the Moscow campus. We would like to help students meet and hear from working computing professionals, who can share their real-world experiences. If you're interested and available, please contact CS Chair Greg Donohoe, gdonohoe@uidaho.edu.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
ITC Software Alliance Conference
Attention Software Professionals and Soon-to-be Professionals
Save the date for this year’s develop.idaho conference!
The Idaho Technology Council Software Alliance is proud to announce the second
annual develop.idaho conference on April 3, 2012 at the Boise Centre Convention Center’s Summit Room. Sponsored by Perkins Coie, this year’s theme is “Software: Imagine the Possibilities.” This year’s event will highlight the different areas of the Idaho economy where software plays a major role. This is the premier conference in Idaho for developers, designers, entrepreneurs and
students who want to be plugged in to the Idaho software industry.
develop.idaho 2012 will feature influential software professionals to talk about their views on how software is being used to create companies, generate revenue and develop new markets. The speakers will also talk about the surprising solutions software has provided to companies and industries not normally known for software. Lastly, they will give us their insights on trends that will affect software professionals in the upcoming years.
News flash! Tech Cocktail Boise is back! Tech Cocktail, a national media company focused on celebrating entrepreneurs, emerging technology and innovations, will be hosting this year’s Startup Innovation Showcase. After the develop.idaho 2012 conference, join us for the evening mixer that will feature early-stage startups from Idaho, allowing them to promote their companies and let the attendees get an up close and personal view of these companies and their technologists.
develop.idaho 2012 – Presented by Perkins Coie
April 3, 2012 – 1pm-5:30pm
Location: Boise Centre Convention Center’s Summit Room
Tech Cocktail Boise – Presented by Perkins Coie
April 3, 2012 – 6pm-9pm
Location: Liquid in Bodo
Visit us at www.developidaho.org or follow us on Twitter
@developidaho for event news and updates
Real-time Control Projects Needed
Prof. Paul Oman's class, Supervisory Control and Critical Infrastructure, is looking for projects for students to work on. Past projects include lab and home monitoring networks, temperature or volume controls, RFID sensor networks, Bluetooth and Zigbee network experimentation, model airplane controls, etc. The student(s) would work for you, under your direction, throughout the semester.
If you have a project in mind, please contact Paul: oman@uidaho.edu
CS Colloquium Jan 24, 2012, 3:30-4:20 PM
Location: Engineering Physics Building EP 122
Speaker: Prof. Axel Krings
The Information Revolution and its Impact on Computer and Information Ethics
Abstract:
This talk is based on "Computer an Information Ethics" of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Topics discussed include historical milestones, computers in the workplace, computer crime, privacy and anonymity, intellectual property, professional responsibility, and the impacts of globalization. Many examples are shown, ranging from threats to democracy to our very existence.
Abstract:
This talk is based on "Computer an Information Ethics" of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Topics discussed include historical milestones, computers in the workplace, computer crime, privacy and anonymity, intellectual property, professional responsibility, and the impacts of globalization. Many examples are shown, ranging from threats to democracy to our very existence.
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