Programming with Pictures

Programming with Pictures: "many computer science departments are a quarter century behind on adapting their instructional methods for the purpose of attracting and retaining students, continuing to teach the gateway course to the field — introductory programming — just as they did 25 years ago."

We can fix this!

'Smart' Cars as Efficient as Hybrids

Discovery Channel News Technology The future of traffic control & fuel savings: "So-called 'intelligent' cars fitted with sensors to predict traffic flows can deliver the same fuel efficiency as vaunted hybrid vehicles, according to a study published on Wednesday.

"... 'Intelligent' cars are conventional vehicles... fitted with telematics.

These are sensors and receivers that work in a network, swapping information about the traffic ahead in order to speed up the car or slow it down so that the ride is smooth and avoids the stop-start phenomenon that so drains fuel."

'Guessing' robots navigate faster

New Scientist Tech 'Guessing' robots navigate faster: "Robots that use educated guesswork to build maps of their surroundings are being tested by US researchers. The approach could let them navigate more easily through complex environments such as unfamiliar buildings, the researchers claim."

"Robot Internet Mashup"

Open Source Robotics Makes Debut

"In collaboration with Rich Legrand, president of Austin-based robotics parts manufacturer Charmed Labs, Nourbakhsh wants to take DIY robotics to the next level, by offering the public an entire suite of tools to build their own droids from parts readily available at a hardware store—no soldering or programming required."

"The heart of Nourbakhsh's project, dubbed the Telepresence Robot Kit (TeRK), is the Qwerk, a box just over five inches square and an inch thick. Into this tiny, Linux-powered frame Legrand and his team of engineers have packed a 200 megahertz ARM processor—the same chip that runs Nokia N-Series Smartphones and the Nintendo DS—32 megabytes of SDRAM and eight megabytes of flash memory. It can connect to the outside world via WiFi, USB 2.0, 16 servo controllers and a host of other inputs and outputs."

Can Animals and Robots Be Self-Aware?

Newsweek Can Animals and Robots Be Self-Aware?: "It's called metacognition—the ability to think about your thoughts, to engage in self-reflection, to introspect. It was long thought to be not just something that we have more of or do better than machines or animals, but that we have and they lack. To know what you know is not only the mark of a skilled game-show contestant who is quick (but not too quick) on the buzzer, but also of consciousness, the last stand for human exceptionalism. Now, however, this claim is on the rocks as both animals and machines show signs that they can engage in self-reflection."

Computer Science Takes Steps to Bring Women to the Fold

New York Times Computer Science Takes Steps to Bring Women to the Fold: "Like others in the field, Dr. Cuny speaks almost lyrically about the intellectual challenge of applying the study of cognition and the tools of computation to medicine, ecology, law, chemistry — virtually any kind of human endeavor.

“The use of computers in modern life is totally ubiquitous,” said Barbara G. Ryder, a professor of computer science at Rutgers University. “So there are niches all over for people who understand what the technology can do and also for people who want to advance the technology."

"Faulty software" or "human error"?

Note an interesting contrast in reporting. Both stories report on the failure in 2006 of the Mars Global Surveyor, but the first (SPACE.com) says that faulty software doomed Mars spacecraft; while the second (CNN.com) reports that "...human error triggered a cascade of events" leading to its loss.