HPC Happenings
Data Management in Times of Disaster
HPCwire
When natural disaster strikes – be it a flood, an earthquake or a tsunami – every second counts. Just as emergency teams must be ready to go in a moment’s notice so must critical data management systems. This important topic, an essential element of civil protection around the world, is the focus of a research paper, recently published in the Geophysical Research Abstracts. Written by a team of German researchers from Leibniz Supercomputing Centre and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, the paper describes a resource-independent data management system for urgent natural disaster computing. Such systems are critical to helping public officials make timely decisions for affected areas, getting care to the injured and reducing casualties. Computer simulations can offer predictive scenarios that further aid this decision making process, the authors assert, but this involves routing the data to the required resource. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/2014/04/04/data-management-times-disaster/.
Qualters Appointed Division Director for ACI at NSF
Ms. Irene Qualters has been appointed to the position of Division Director for the Division of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure (ACI) at the National Science Foundation, effective April 6, 2014. In this role, Irene will lead ACI in its mission to support and coordinate the prototyping, development, acquisition, and provisioning of state-of-the-art cyberinfrastructure resources, tools, and services essential to the advancement and transformation of science and engineering. To read further, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/qualters-appointed-division-director-aci-nsf/.
Microsoft’s Azure Cloud Used to Discover Lost Prime Number with 342K Digits
The Prime Challenge launched by Microsoft Azure in November last year has come to an end with a user registered as PHunterLau being declared the winner. PHunterLau emerged as the winner after discovering a prime number that was over 342,000 digits long. One example of the importance that prime numbers play in business can be found in online shopping. Amongst other things, they are used to create public key cryptography algorithms and it is these algorithms that are used to secure nearly all online data transfers, including email encryption and bank card security. Almost every online purchase that is made will use prime numbers in its security process. To read further, please visit http://insidehpc.com/2014/04/04/azure-cloud-used-discover-lost-prime-number-342k-digits/.
NSF Study: Info Sec Industry Still Struggles to Attract Women
CSO Online
The percentage of women pursuing undergraduate degrees in computer science has declined from about 30 percent in 1990 to 18 percent in 2010, according the most recent U.S. National Science Foundation data. This trend has resulted in women accounting for just 27 percent of computer science professionals, down from 34 percent in 1990, according to the Census Bureau. Meanwhile, only 11 percent of information security professionals are women. Julie Peeler, foundation director of the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium, says the mistaken perception that women cannot excel in math, science, or technology is driving girls away from these fields. To read further, please visit http://www.csoonline.com/article/2134505/security-industry/info-sec-industry-still-struggles-to-attract-women.html.
How Russian Supercomputer Maker RSC Pushed PetaStream to 1.2 Petaflops with Xeon Phi
HPCwire
Russian supercomputer maker RSC Group is pushing the compute density limits to the extreme again. The company has upgraded its PetaStream system, which debuted at the SC13 conference last year, with a new variant of the Xeon Phi X86 coprocessor from Intel. With the upgrade, RSC is able to push the peak theoretical performance of a single rack of the PetaStream system by 20 percent, to 1.2 petaflops. The increase in floating point processing power is made possible by shifting to the top-end Xeon Phi 7120D coprocessor, which Intel quietly delivered in March. RSC says that it is the first of the supercomputer makers to get its hands on this device. To read more, please visit http://www.hpcwire.com/2014/04/03/rsc-pushed-petastream-1-2-petaflops-xeon-phi/.
HASTAC Announces Speakers for 2014 Conference
April 24-27, 2014 - El Ministerio Cultura, Lima, Peru
The Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC) has officially announced the keynote speakers for its 2014 annual conference, Hemispheric Pathways: Critical Makers in International Networks, to be held at the Ministry of Culture of Peru, in Lima, on April 24-27, 2014:
For more information and to register, please visit http://www.hastac.org/news/hastac-announces-speakers-2014-conference.
HPC Call for Participation
IEEE 2014 8th International Symposium on Scientific Workflows and Big Data Science (SWF 2014) – Call for Papers
June 27-July 2 2014 – Alaska
Paper Submission Deadline – April 7, 2014
in conjunction with IEEE BigData 2014
The theme of this year's SWF symposium is "Advances in Workflows addressing the Big Data Challenge", recognizing the big data challenge in scientific workflows. Built upon the successful history of SWF since 2007, this year, we broaden the scope of SWF to include big data oriented workflows, soliciting papers to share the challenges, experiences, and lessons in applying workflow technologies to various data-driven science and engineering problems. For more information, including topics of interest, please visit http://www.cs.uwyo.edu/~lwang7/SWF2014.htm. \\
CALL FOR PAPERS, TUTORIALS, PANELS - INNOV 2014, The Third International Conference on Communications, Computation, Networks and Technologies
October 12-16, 2014 - Nice, France
Submission Deadline – May 16, 2914
The topics suggested by the conference can be discussed in term of concepts, state of the art, research, standards, implementations, running experiments, applications, and industrial case studies. Authors are invited to submit complete unpublished papers, which are not under review in any other conference or journal in the following, but not limited to, topic areas. All tracks are open to both research and industry contributions, in terms of Regular papers, Posters, Work in progress, Technical/marketing/business presentations, Demos, Tutorials, and Panels. Before submission, please check and conform with the Editorial rules http://www.iaria.org/editorialrules.html. Complete conference information can be found at http://www.iaria.org/conferences2014/INNOV14.html.
Call for Abstracts: 30th American Society for Gravitational and Space Research Conference
October 23-26, 2014 – Pasadena, California
Submission Deadline – June 15, 2014
A call for abstracts has been released for the 30th annual American Society for Gravitational and Space Research, or ASGSR, conference and the 28th Symposium on Gravity-Related Phenomena in Space Exploration. Abstracts must be submitted electronically no later than June 15, 2014, using the abstract submittal form and instructions posted on the ASGSR website. All submitted abstracts will be peer reviewed by the conference organizing committee. Student travel assistance of up to $500 is available on a limited basis. Students requesting consideration for travel assistance should check the box on the abstract submittal form. For more information, please visit https://www.asgsr.org/index.php/news/asews-a-announcements/1814-2014-call-for-abstracts-announcement.
Upcoming Conferences, Workshops and Webinars
Integrating Computing and Robotics into Mathematics & CTE to Close the Achievement Gap & Preparing Students for Career and College
April 21, 2014 – Hayward, California
Topics Include:
- Integrating Computing & Robotics into Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Integrated Math I & Career Technical Education
- Developing students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills
- Providing computing education utilizing computer programming in C/C++ interpreter Ch and the Barobo Linkbot
- Implementing new teaching strategies and opportunities for personalized and collaborative learning through hands-on activities
- Adopting common core compliant curricula using computer programing
- Work to close the achievement gap and prepare students to be career and college ready
For more information and to register, please visit http://cstem.ucdavis.edu/teachers-administrators/professional-development/2013-2014/cde-sponsored-training/.
2nd Broadening the Reach CI Workshop
May 6-7, 2014 – Salt Lake City, Utah
Registration is now open for the 2nd Broadening the Reach Workshop.
Please note that this workshop is aimed at campus IT professionals who are responsible for the planning, design and implementation of the campus IT infrastructure in support of research and teaching activities, as well as at those on campus familiar with the research and teaching activities and priorities. For more information, please visit, http://www.universityguesthouse.com/.
Great Plains Network Annual Meeting
May 28-30, 2014 - Kansas City Missouri
The Annual Meeting of the Great Plains Network and Greater Western Library Alliance brings together knowledge and information technology professionals including advanced network and Cyberinfrastructure users, faculty members, researchers, librarians, information technology staff and graduate students from leading universities, and higher education networks.’ For more information, please visit http://www.dce.k-state.edu/conf/great-plains-network/.
World Space Week 2014
October 4-10, 2013
Imagine an entire week of space-themed activities to enhance learning. Join educators and space enthusiasts around the world to celebrate World Space Week. World Space Week is the largest public space event in the world, with over 1,400 events in more than 80 countries. In 2014, World Space Week encourages the use global navigation satellite systems space-themed activities. To learn more about World Space Week, find educational materials, and register your event, visit http://www.worldspaceweek.org.
Research Features From Across the Country and Around the World
Top 10 Gigabit Apps
CCCBlog
This is a guest post by Will Barkis, PhD. Will is a Gigabit Evangelist and, until recently, led Mozilla’s gigabit innovation efforts for the past two years as Project Lead and “Gigabit Developer Evangelist” on the Mozilla Ignite Challenge and subsequently as Director of the Gigabit Community Fund. Before Mozilla, he worked on computer & information science & engineering policy at the National Science Foundation for two years, helping launch the US Ignite Initiative with a team at NSF and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and working on a number of tech policy issues. To read further, please visit http://www.cccblog.org/2014/04/01/top-10-gigabit-apps/.
SDSC Establishes Data Science Workflows ‘Center of Excellence’
The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California, San Diego, has formally established a new ‘center of excellence’ to assist researchers in creating workflows to better manage the tremendous amount of data being generated across a wide range of scientific disciplines, from natural sciences to marketing research. Called the WorDS Center (or Workflows for Data Science Center of Excellence), the initiative leverages more than a decade of experience within SDSC’s Scientific Workflow Automation Technologies Laboratory in developing and validating scientific workflows for computational science, data science, and engineering at the intersection of distributed and parallel computing, big data analysis, and reproducible science, while fostering a collaborative working culture. To read further, please visit http://www.sdsc.edu/News%20Items/PR040314_words.html.
TACC Brings City and Regional Planning into 3D
How will the Central Texas region evolve over the next 20 years? A newly developed suite of analytics tools developed in part by the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) is being used to provide a better understanding of the impacts of various development patterns, such as:
Bright Lights, Big Cosmos at PSC
Before there was a Milky Way galaxy, a solar system or planet Earth, the Universe — as if taking a nap after the birth effort of the Big Bang — was wrapped in a blanket of cosmic fog. There were as yet no stars nor galaxies. Cosmologically speaking, it was the Dark Ages. Renyue Center, Princeton University (top) and Hy Trac, Carnegie Mellon University Initially, in that first mysterious microsecond about 13.7 billion years ago, there was light. And then an instant after the Big Bang, as the prevailing cosmological theory is often called, matter was an expanding soup of elementary particles, quarks and gluons and photons, which in turn evolved into a plasma, an ultra-hot swirl of protons, neutrons and electrons — with temperatures too hot for atoms to form. As the plasma cooled and the rapidly growing baby Universe was still very young — around 380,000 years, protons and electrons came together and made neutral hydrogen atoms. To read further, please visit http://psc.edu/science/2012/cosmos/.
Educator News and Opportunities
Adding Coding to the Curriculum
The New York Times
Students worldwide are increasingly familiarizing themselves with coding fundamentals, and proponents say such knowledge feeds into individual students' future career prospects as well as into their countries' economic competitiveness and the technology sector's ability to find qualified employees. Not only does early coding education demystify an intimidating subject, it also contradicts stereotypes of computer scientists as dull, and it demonstrates creativity by showing students it can help them cultivate problem-solving skills and enable them to participate in a world transformed by technology. Codeword’s Roxanne Emadi observes children now routinely use advanced technology, but few are learning how to create it. "Even if it's something simple, like a kid programming a maze or programming a robot, when you can see your work brought to life, that's where light bulbs go off," she says. Britain's nonprofit Raspberry Pi Foundation promotes computer study in schools by offering lesson plans and other resources to educators, and the foundation's Clive Beale says the advantage of this approach is to give students hands-on computer programming experience. "Instead of passively using a tablet or a laptop, it's the first time they've made a computer do something," he notes. A key factor in the recent expansion of coding interest is the availability of programming resources online. To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/world/europe/adding-coding-to-the-curriculum.html.
USC Team Develops Research-Based Educational Games
Campus Technology
Researchers at the University of Southern California's (USC) Game Innovation Lab are developing research-based games for education and social awareness. Referred to as "serious games" or "games for change," the games are designed to educate as well as entertain players. One of the best-known games to come out of the lab is "Darfur Is Dying," a narrative-based simulation that puts players into the shoes of a refugee in a camp in the Sudan so they can better understand the crisis in the region, says Game Innovation Lab director Tracy Fullerton. Some of the lab's games are designed specifically for classrooms, to teach, for example, 12th grade constitutional history. To read further, please visit http://campustechnology.com/articles/2014/03/24/researchers-at-usc-develop-research-based-educational-games.aspx.
Adobe Campus Leader Program
Adobe has announced that it is looking to support teacher-leadership through its Adobe Campus Leaders program. This program is for educators who foster creativity in their classrooms using Adobe solutions. Educators who are accepted into this program will become connected with a global community of educators and will collaborate to bring fresh ideas and new ways of teaching the creative process and creative expression to their students and colleagues. Teachers who use Adobe solutions in their classroom and who want to inspire others on the school campus are invited to apply to be an Adobe Campus Leader at http://edex.adobe.com/campus-leader.
Vote Now! -- CSTA Board of Directors 2014
Deadline – May 5, 2014
On behalf of Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), Deborah Seehorn (nominations@csta.acm.org) invites you to vote in the CSTA Board of Directors 2014. We are using an online election system to tabulate our votes. You can only vote once and your voting choices will remain anonymous. If you have questions or feedback about this election, please contact Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) at nominations@csta.acm.org, or contact electionbuddy.com by replying to this email. Do not forward this email unless you want someone else to vote on your behalf. To vote, please click on the following link: https://electionbuddy.com/vote/key/Q53N-F8BU-ECDG-J25G
Applications Open for Tapestry Workshops
July 29-31, 2014 – Irvine, California
Please consider applying if you are interested in the following:
•Attracting more and diverse students into your high school Computer Science classes
•Influencing the perceptions of students, parents, guidance counselors, administrators, and other teachers on the importance of your courses and the opportunities they provide
•Engaging your students in the exciting and rewarding field of computing
More information and application information can be found at http://www.cs.virginia.edu/tapestry/application/.
Student Engagement and Opportunities
Teen Uses CS Skills to Find Way for Government to Save Millions
A middle school student who used computer science to develop a hundred million dollar cost savings plan for the government was featured in an article on CNN.com, “Teen to government: Change your typeface, save millions.” Suvir Mirchandani, 14, was thinking of ways to cut waste and save money at his middle school. He noticed there had been a movement to recycle and use double-sided printing, but what about the ink (which is expensive) on all those pages. Interested in applying computer science to promote environmental sustainability, Suvir decided he was going to figure out if there was a better way to minimize the constant flurry of paper and ink. So Suvir decided to focus his project on finding ways to cut down on the costly liquid. To read further, please visit http://www.cccblog.org/2014/03/28/teen-uses-cs-skills-to-discover-way-for-government-to-save-millions/.
German Miniature Railway Wunderland an Engineering Marvel for All Ages
Miniatur Wunderland (German for miniature wonderland) is a model railway attraction in Hamburg, Germany, and one of the largest of its kind in the world, built by the twins Gerrit and Frederik Braun. As of January 2011, the railway consists of 12,000 metres (39,370 ft) of track in HO scale, divided into seven sections: Harz, the fictitious city of Knuffingen, the Alps and Austria, Hamburg, America, Scandinavia, and Switzerland. Of the 6,400 square metres (68,889 sq ft) of floorspace, the model takes 1,150 m2 (12,378 sq ft).[1] By 2020, the exhibit is expected to have reached its final construction phase, including at least a total of ten new sections in a model area of over 2,300 m2 (24,757 sq ft).[1] The next section covering an airport opened in May 2011. The exhibit includes 890 trains made up of over 11,000 carriages, 300,000 lights, 215,000 trees, and 200,000 human figurines. To view this marvel, please visit https://www.youtube.com/embed/ACkmg3Y64_s?rel=0.
How One College Went From 10% Female Computer Science Majors to 40%
Quartz
In 2006, former ACM president Maria Klawe was appointed Harvey Mudd College president and immediately helped changed the computer science department to try to encourage more female students to enroll in computer science classes. First, the course previously called "Introduction to programming in Java," was renamed "Creative approaches to problem solving in science and engineering using Python." The professors also divided the class into groups to separate those with no coding experience from those with some coding experience. As a result, Harvey Mudd's introductory computer science course almost immediately went from being the most despised required course to the favorite, according to Klawe. Professors also took students to the annual Grace Hopper Conference, which bills itself as a celebration of women in technology. To read further, please visit http://qz.com/192071/how-one-college-went-from-10-female-computer-science-majors-to-40/.
Apple Seeks Greater Racial Diversity
BBC News
Apple says it wants to boost the ethnic diversity of the emoji used in text-messaging apps, which currently include dozens of faces that appear to be Caucasian while having no black symbols and only two Asian-like symbols. A basic emoji list has been devised and maintained by the nonprofit Unicode Consortium since 2010, to ensure that different devices and mobile carriers can share a basic series. "Our emoji characters are based on the Unicode standard, which is necessary for them to be displayed properly across many platforms," says Apple's Katie Cotton. "There needs to be more diversity in the emoji character set, and we have been working closely with the Unicode Consortium in an effort to update the standard." To read further, please visit http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-26749867.
Japanese Language Inspires Student to Develop Unique Computer Game
University of Derby
University of Derby student Jitesh Rawal has designed Koe, a role-playing game that teaches users the Japanese language within the context of entertaining game play. Koe, which means "voice" in Japanese, teaches Japanese as players use various items throughout the game. "All items are basically Japanese words that are initially taught using communicative language-teaching techniques, basically 'learning by doing,'" Rawal says. Japanese culture is at the heart of the game, which begins in a Japanese airport, but quickly moves into a fantasy world of two-headed dragons and purple octopuses. The Japanese words from various sources that gamers receive are to be used as moves in battle. To read further, please visit http://phys.org/news/2014-03-japanese-language-student-unique-game.html.
NASA Exploration Design Challenge
Submission Deadline – June 30, 2014
Students from Kindergarten through 12th grade will have the opportunity to play a unique role in the future of human spaceflight through participation in NASA's Exploration Design Challenge, or EDC. NASA EDC invites students around the world to think and act like scientists in order to overcome one of the major hurdles of deep space long-duration exploration -- the dangers associated with space radiation. Students taking part in the challenge will discover how to plan and design improved radiation shielding aboard the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, currently being developed by NASA, Lockheed Martin and other partners to carry astronauts to space, venturing farther than humans have ever gone before. For more information and to register online, visit http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/spacelife/explorationdesign/overview/index.html.
Concept Paper Solicitation: ISS Post-Grad Innovation Awards in Space Life and Physical Science Research
Submission Deadline - July 10, 2014.
NASA's Space Life and Physical Sciences Office and the International Space Station Program Office are seeking hypothesis-driven research concept papers that use the International Space Station as a microgravity platform in the space life and physical sciences disciplines. Concept papers should describe ground-based research that can be enhanced by flying in a microgravity environment on the space station. Concept papers selected will have the opportunity to submit a full flight proposal based on the merit of the research presented. NASA anticipates selecting 10 submissions to receive monetary awards. Selected awardees will be invited to submit full proposals on their research, which may result in one flight opportunity for student researchers. Graduate students and post-doctoral fellows from all categories of U.S. institutions who have never conducted or been involved in space research are eligible to submit papers. Student research and scientists from EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) jurisdiction institutions are specifically encouraged to participate. For more information, please visit https://nspires.nasaprs.com/external/solicitations/summary.do?method=init&solId={3C132DBD-9B4F-C54F-8C0C-2D63E4693E43}&path=open.
The World’s First 3D Printed Kayak
By Jim Smith, Grass Roots Engineering
I have completed construction of a completely 3D printed, customized Kayak. The Kayak measures 16ft 8in [5.08m] long and cost around $500 to make. It is made of ABS plastic, machine screws, brass threaded inserts and a little bit of silicone caulk. That’s it. And it floats. And I can Kayak around in it. In order to print such large, solid sections of Kayak, I had to modify my home-built, large scale 3D printer to print the parts inside a heated chamber so they would not warp or crack. To read more and view the construction process, please visit http://www.grassrootsengineering.com/blog/2014/03/18/worlds-first-3d-printed-kayak/.
Faculty News and Opportunities
2015 eXploration Habitat (X-Hab) Academic Innovation Challenge
Proposal Deadline – April 30, 3014
In a continuing effort to engage and retain students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and provide a real-world challenge, exposing students to the engineering and design processes, the Advanced Exploration Systems Habitation Systems Deep Space Habitat Project team has begun accepting applications for the 2015 eXploration Habitat, or X-Hab Challenge. Proposals will be accepted from university faculty who are U.S. citizens and currently teach an Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology accredited engineering senior or graduate design, industrial design or architecture curriculum at an accredited university in the U.S. Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and other minority serving educational institutions are particularly encouraged to apply. Proposals from women, members of underrepresented minorities groups and persons with disabilities also are highly encouraged. For more information about the challenge, please visit http://spacegrant.org/xhab/.
New Science and Engineering Indicators for K-12 Stem Education
This Dear Colleague Letter is to announce that the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Education and Human Resources is interested in research and development activities around K-12 Indicators that address issues of monitoring “schooling” rather than “schools.” In 2013 the National Research Council released the report Monitoring Progress Toward Successful K-12 Education: A Nation Advancing? calling for a national indicator system that could be used by both policymakers and practitioners to improve STEM education. The report lists 14 Indicators that, if measured regularly, could catalyze such improvement. The indicators can be found at: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=13509. While there are measures of some of these 14 indicators, others are far more complex and difficult and there are not valid and reliable measures for them. The purpose of this DCL is to invite EAGER proposals to conduct exploratory work in its early stages on untested but potentially transformative research ideas of approaches necessary to move forward to design and develop measures of one or more of these indicators for use in monitoring and improving the STEM education system. Proposers should consult the NSF Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide for guidance on how to submit an EAGER proposal http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/policydocs/pappguide/nsf14001/gpg_2.jsp#IID2.
Investing in the Future Through the Graduate Research Fellowship Program
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced this year's recipients of Graduate Research Fellowships (GRF). The graduate students awarded the GRF in 2014 represent a diverse group of scientific disciplines and come from all states and the District of Columbia, as well as commonwealths and territories of the United States. They are also a diverse group of individuals. Among the 2,000 awardees, 1,069 are women, 382 are from underrepresented minority groups, 55 are persons with disabilities, and 37 are veterans. The Fellows in the 2014 class come from 442 baccalaureate institutions, 58 more than in 2010, when the program first began awarding 2,000 fellowships each year. To read further, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=130974&WT.mc_id=USNSF_51&WT.mc_ev=click.
On the Lighter Side – Computational News You Can Use
Here's How The World's Most Brilliant People Scheduled Their Days
Alas, there are but 24 hours in a day. And when you have a seemingly insurmountable load of work, it can be a quite a challenge to even know where to start. But remember that history's most legendary figures -- from Beethoven to Beyonce -- had just as little (or just as much) time as you have. Using the book Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey, RJ Andrews at Info We Trust designed some enlightening visualizations of how history's most creative and influential figures structured their days. Unfortunately, there is no common prescription for the perfect schedule, and each person had a very different set of rituals. To read further, please visit http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/29/brilliant-people-schedules_n_5055953.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular.
A New Facebook Lab Is Intent on Delivering Internet Access by Drone
The New York Times
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced the creation of the Facebook Connectivity Lab, which intends to make it possible to broadcast Internet access to Earth from solar-powered drones and other "connectivity aircraft." "We want to think about new ways of connectivity that dramatically reduce the cost," notes lab engineering director Yael Maguire. The effort's first phase is Facebook's acquisition of Ascenta, a U.K. firm that helped develop an unmanned solar-powered drone. The new lab is part of Zuckerberg's Internet.org project to make the Web accessible to 66 percent of the global population that currently lack such access. To read further, please visit http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/technology/a-new-facebook-lab-is-intent-on-delivering-internet-access-by-drone.html?_r=0.
The Curious Nature of Sharing Cascades on Facebook
MIT Technology Review
Although the bulk of content on Facebook is shared only a few times, some can be reshared millions of times, and researchers at Stanford University, Cornell University, and Facebook have demonstrated that various traits of a cascade can be accurately predicted and applied to making successful assessments about cascades' future behavior once they have begun. An analysis of how photos were shared on Facebook over a four-week period following their first upload revealed which people or nodes reshared each photo and at what time, permitting precise reconstruction of the networks through which the reshares transpired. To read further, please visit http://www.technologyreview.com/view/525821/the-curious-nature-of-sharing-cascades-on-facebook/.
