Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) researcher Glenn Fink is working with Wake Forest University professor Errin Fulp to develop a computer security program that models itself after the defensive techniques of ants. The new anti-malware system uses itinerant digital ants to find problems in a large network. When an ant comes across something suspicious, it [...]

Researchers working on the European Union-funded PERPLEXUS project have developed a computing platform inspired by biological systems in which a self-configuring wireless network connects several modules to enable them to operate as a coherent group. PERPLEXUS is based on the ubidule, a purpose-designed module that can take information from the environment, share data wirelessly, and [...]

University of Bath researchers led by professor Peter Hall and Ph.D. candidate Chris Li have developed software that enables a computer to process video of a tree and then generate lifelike computer animations of trees and the movement of branches and leaves in the wind. The program allows users to draw around the tree outline [...]

European researchers, coordinated by the Autonomous University of Barcelona, have developed a cognitive computational system using video cameras and software, which is able to recognize and predict human behavior. Human Expressive Graphic Representation of Motion and their Evaluation in Sequences (HERMES) analyzes human behavior based on three levels of video recording sequences. The information is [...]

A team of international researchers is developing a new way of building computing machinery inspired by chemical processes in living systems. The project, led by the University of Southampton’s Klaus-Peter Zauner, makes use of stable “cells” with a spontaneously forming coating, similar to the walls of human cells, and uses chemistry to process signals like [...]

Kansas State University (KSU) researchers, in collaboration with Princeton University (PU) computer scientists, are developing tools to secure information systems spanning large distances. The research team, led by KSU’s John Hatcliff and PU’s Andrew Appel, received a five-year, $3 million grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The new tools involve creating mathematical [...]

In an article for Xconomy, University of Washington professor Ed Lazowska identifies seven game-changing computer science advancements that emerged over the past decade and speculates on seven others to come in the years ahead. The technologies that came to the fore in the first decade of the 21st century–search, digital media, e-commerce, cloud computing, etc.–are [...]

Cyberattacks are increasing in frequency and sophistication at a time when the U.S. government is struggling to address a shortage of proficient computer security experts. This shortage comes as the Pentagon is trying to staff a new Cyber Command that melds offensive and defensive computer security capabilities while the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [...]

A University of Washington (UW) study indicates that the stereotype of computer scientists as geeks who stay up all night coding and have no social life may be driving women away from careers in computer science. The study found that the stereotype can be invoked just by the appearance of the classroom or work environment. [...]

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researcher Mitchel Resnick and colleagues at the MIT Media Lab have enjoyed great success with Scratch, a computer programming language geared toward children ages eight to 16. Scratch users write code by connecting graphical blocks together. Concurrent with the launch of Scratch two years ago was the rollout of the [...]