The Web Scene » Computing

New Computing Tool Could Lead to Better Crops and Pesticides, Say Researchers

sparky3887 — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:54:27 +0000

Researchers from Imperial College London (ICL) and Syngenta have developed a computational tool that uses machine learning to find complex patterns in data about the behavior of plants. The use of machine learning means agricultural researchers will be able to analyze plant biology in minutes, even if they lack certain information about the inner workings of plants. With previous mathematical modeling tools, finding nuggets of information could take months or even years. “We believe our computing tool will revolutionize agricultural research by making the process much faster than is currently possible using conventional techniques,” says ICL professor Stephen Muggleton. “We hope that our new technology will ultimately help farmers to produce hardier, longer lasting, and more nutritious crops.” The researchers are currently testing a prototype of the tool, which will help agricultural scientists predict how genes inside plants will react to different chemicals or environmental conditions. For one project, the tool will be used to analyze how different genes affect the way a tomato’s flesh hardens and tastes, and the findings could lead to new tomato strains that are tastier, or redden earlier and soften later to prevent them from spoiling when they are transported to market.

View Full Article

For More Information:http://www.cpccci.com

What’s Next for High-Performance Computing?

sparky3887 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:08:40 +0000

The fusion of high-performance computing (HPC) and high-performance data (HPD) could potentially result in the generation of robust systems that are at least one order of magnitude faster than anything the HPC community currently uses for certain applications, says San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) interim director Michael Norman. Last November, SDSC announced plans to construct Gordon, a data-intensive supercomputer that is expected to read latency-bound files at 10 times the speed and efficiency of current HPC systems with the help of flash memory solid state drives. Ultimately, Gordon will possess 245 teraflops of total compute power, 64 TB of digital random access memory, and 256 TB of flash memory. Gordon also will assist in the integration of HPC and HPD because it is designed for data-intensive predictive science as well as data-mining applications.
View Full Article
For More Information Visit: http://www.cpccci.com

A Deluge of Data Shapes a New Era in Computing

sparky3887 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:36:24 +0000

Some weeks before his disappearance at sea almost three years ago, Microsoft researcher Jim Gray delivered a speech in which he argued that computing was transforming scientific practice into a “fourth paradigm” era incarnated as a vast flood of observational data that threatens to inundate researchers. Gray contended that the only way to deal with this deluge is to build a new generation of scientific computing tools for the purpose of managing, visualizing, and analyzing the data surge. In the wake of this revelation, Gray’s colleagues at Microsoft Research have published a collection of essays written by researchers at Microsoft and elsewhere that, among other things, document a new generation of scientific tools that increasingly meld sensor and computer technology and are able to capture vast volumes of data. “The advent of inexpensive high-bandwidth sensors is transforming every field from data-poor to data-rich,” says University of Washington eScience Institute director Edward Lazowska. Meanwhile, Jeannette M. Wing with the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Computer and Information Science and Engineering Directorate, says the fourth paradigm shift is supporting a growing perspective of computer science known as computational thinking, in which scientists are being pressured to share all scientific data as a result of the data boom and the plunging cost of computing and communications. This concept dovetails with the emergent trend of cloud computing, which is espoused by companies convinced that the Internet-driven shift is toward centralized computing facilities. Science Commons director John Wilbanks writes in his chapter that “data is not sweeping away the old reality. Data is simply placing a set of burdens on the methods and the social habits we use to deal with and communicate our empiricism and our theory.”

View Full Article

For More Information Visit: http://www.cpccci.com

University of Toronto Physicists Lay the Groundwork for Cooler, Faster Computing

sparky3887 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:34:44 +0000

Researchers at the University of Toronto (UT) have discovered new behaviors of light that could lead to faster optical information processing and compact computers that do not overheat. UT’s Sajeev John and Xun Ma were attempting to study optical switching as part of an effort to develop an all-optical micro-transistor. Their research led to the discovery of a new dynamic switching mechanism. “This discovery can enable photonic computers that are more than a hundred times faster than their electronic counterparts, without heat dissipation issues and other bottlenecks currently faced by electronic computing,” Ma says. The new mechanism manipulates atoms, or quantum dots, using lasers. The quantum dots can control other streams of optical pulses, creating the possibility of optical information processing. The new mechanism can perform logic operations over multiple frequency channels in trillionths of a second at microwatt power, or about one millionth of the power required by a household light bulb. John says the new mechanism would significantly surpass the performance of current electronic transistors.\

View Full Article

For More Information Visit: http://www.cpccci.com

Researchers Make Significant Advances in Molecular Computing

sparky3887 — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:41:16 +0000

The fundamental limits of molecular computing have been defined by researchers at the University of Kent, which published their findings in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface. The research also discusses how fast molecular computers can perform a computation, which must be addressed in order to design machines that use components of organisms to run calculations inside living cells. The metabolic rate or the ability to process energy would determine the speed of bio-molecular computers, says Kent’s Dominique Chu. “One of our main findings is that a molecular computer has to balance a trade-off between the speed with which a computation is performed and the accuracy of the result,” Chu says. “However, a molecular computer can increase both the speed and reliability of a computation by increasing the energy it invests in the computation.” He says this energy could be derived from food sources. Moreover, he believes the findings have the potential to be of practical importance for computing in general.

View Full Article

For More Information Visit: http://www.cpccci.com

Assoc Prof Tai Xue-Cheng Wins 8th Feng Kang Prize in Scientific Computing in China

sparky3887 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:44:31 +0000

Tai Xue-Cheng, a specialist in numerical analysis and computational mathematics at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), has been named the winner of the 8th Feng Kang Prize in Scientific Computing. Tai, a professor in NTU’s School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, has developed mathematical models for restoring images that have been degraded due to wear and tear to their original look. His models have been used for magnetic resonance imaging medical-image processing and other medical and industrial applications as well. “It is a surprise and also an honor for me to receive this prestigious award for computational mathematics,” Tai says. “This encourages me to continue to strive for excellence in my research and to seek solutions for challenging scientific problems.” The award is dedicated to the memory of Feng Kang, a Chinese pioneer in computational mathematics. The award seeks to bring attention to Chinese mathematicians who have made significant contributions in numerical linear algebra, computer-aided geometric design, and numerical partial differential equations and scientific computing.

View Full Article

For More Information Visit: http://www.cpccci.com

ACM, IEEE-CS Honor Pioneer of Grid Computing

sparky3887 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:00:45 +0000

ACM and the IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) have named Francine Berman the winner of the inaugural Ken Kennedy Award. Established this year, the award, named for the high-performance computing expert who founded Rice University’s computer science program, honors individuals who have made significant contributions in programmability and productivity in computing, as well as in community service or mentoring. ACM and IEEE-CS sought to recognize Berman’s “influential leadership in the design, development, and deployment of national-scale cyberinfrastructure.” Berman, currently vice president for research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, headed the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure when it developed a national-scale grid and created an integrated package of software to support large-scale domain applications. Berman is co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Task Force on Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, and has served on key advisory boards for the U.S. National Science Foundation, the National Academies, the National Institutes of Health, and other groups. Berman was a founding member and a co-chair of the Computing Research Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research, and currently serves on the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology Board of Trustees. ACM and IEEE-CS will present the 2009 Kennedy Award to Berman at the SC09 Conference, which takes place Nov. 14-20, in Portland, Oregon.

View Full Article

For More Information:http://www.cpccci.com

Computing Project Combats Card Counting

sparky3887 — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:32:15 +0000

A cost-effective computer system for identifying card counters and detecting dealer errors has been developed by a recent graduate of the University of Dundee. The Blackjack tracking system makes use of algorithms that employ methods such as contour analysis, template, and feature matching to recognize each card as it is dealt. “Computer vision was one of the options when it came to choosing subjects for our final year, and when it came to our final project, I started to think about combining what I was learning with something I was interested in,” says Dundee graduate Kris Zutis. A live feed of a game is captured by stereo cameras, which track the game as it progresses, monitor the cards along with the player, and track the betting patterns. The algorithms analyze the correlation between the player’s betting patterns and the game card count to determine that a player is card counting and alert the casino staff. Zutis is scheduled to present a research paper on the computer vision system at the International Conference on Computer Vision Systems in Liege, Belgium. “My system needs work to be commercially viable, but the potential has been demonstrated, and hopefully appearing at the event will help generate some interest in helping me to develop it further,” he says.

View Full Article

For More Information:http://www.cpccci.com

School of Computing Develops a New Tool for Household Multimedia Resources Sharing

sparky3887 — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:00:16 +0000

Computing researchers at the Polytechnic University of Madrid have collaborated with the private companies iSOCO and Telefonica I+D to develop software for sharing personal multimedia resources among households connected to a telephone network. The tool, called UPnPGrid, would enable a family to send a photo of their children playing football from a PC in the home to relatives. The recipients would be able to see the photo instantly on a TV screen, but other relatives online at the time throughout the house also would be able to access the photo. UPnPGrid offers some privacy because senders can determine the recipients of the information and data. With its distributed open software architecture, UPnPGrid is able to facilitate real-time image, video, and audio file sharing between networked devices, regardless of the manufacturer, operating system, or programming language. UPnPGrid also could be deployed on content services support networks for operators such as Telefonica. The partners continue to develop new software functions, and expect to complete their work in June 2010.

View Full Article

For More Information:http://www.cpccci.com

A Report From the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing

sparky3887 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:25:48 +0000

The 1,600 attendees at the ninth Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference, which took place in Tucson, Ariz., from Sept. 30-Oct. 3, are evidence that gender equality in computer science could be right around the corner, writes Harvey Mudd College professor Christine Alvarado. Many high-profile women were invited to speak at the conference, including Google vice president Megan Smith and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor Fran Berman. College-level finalists from the ACM student research contest demonstrated their original projects at the conference. An Amazon.com booth encouraged students to compete in a coding contest to see who would be christened a “Ninja Coder.” Female students wore shirts emblazoned with the words “I code like a girl, and I’m proud of it!” The conference also organized two dance parties for participants and hundreds attended.

View Full Article

For More Information:http://www.cpccci.com