HPC in the News
The Ohio Supercomputer Center Statewide Users Group (SUG) Meeting Provides Opportunity to Explain Research
Research projects featuring a wide range of scientific interests, such as electron microscopy, pesticides and polymers, were featured at the first-ever poster session and flash talk competition at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) June 4. The competition was held during the semi-annual meeting of the Statewide Users Group. SUG is a volunteer group comprised of the scientists and engineers who provide OSC’s executive director with program and policy advice and direction “to ensure a productive environment for research.” SUG was instituted in 1986, a year prior to the creation of OSC, to advise administrators and policy makers on their planning and acquisition activities for the Center. “We chose to hold these poster and flash talk competitions in conjunction with SUG so that we could highlight even more of the impressive work that is being done on OSC systems,” said David Hudak, Ph.D., director of supercomputing services. To read more, please visit https://www.osc.edu/press/sug_meeting_provides_opportunity_to_explain_research.
Federal Focus on Big Data
SDSC’s PACE program comes as the administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) last month announced $200 million in funding for new investments in big data research and development projects with the announcement of its Big Data initiative. With support of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and to achieve their goals of leveraging data-intensive tools to aid in the country’s research, defense and economic programs, the White House and the OSTP are bringing together six federal agencies or departments, including Homeland Security, the Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Guided by industry representatives, PACE will lead collaborative and coordinated nationwide education and training efforts to build a competitive workforce in data management and analysis, in part by developing and promoting a new, multi-level curriculum to involve all individuals in the field of predictive analytics. To read more, please visit http://pace.sdsc.edu/node/88.
Extreme Weather in a Changing Climate: Asking the Right Questions
When a deadly heat wave lingers for an especially long time; when a hurricane makes landfall with particular ferocity; or when droughts, winter storms or cold snaps break records, the public is increasingly interested in knowing if human-induced climate change played a role. Attributing individual extreme weather events to a warming climate is difficult work. Even so, scientists have been making an effort in recent years to determine when a connection can be detected. In a new "Perspective" piece published in Nature Climate Change, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Reading argue that many researchers looking for links between the two have been asking the wrong question. The result, according to the authors, is that human-induced climate change hasn't always gotten the blame it deserves. To read more, please visit https://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/perspective/16000/extreme-weather-changing-climate-asking-right-questions.
Caterpillar Expands Relationship with NCSA for Hosting Realistic Simulations
Caterpillar Inc. today announced it will collaborate with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to conduct high-performance computing (HPC) projects focused on more realistic simulations that can lead to improved product designs. Through the expanded partnership, NCSA will host Caterpillar's simulation research on iForge supercomputer over a three-year period. By conducting these simulations in NCSA's HPC environment, Caterpillar will increase its dedicated computing resources, enhancing its product modeling and enabling rapid exploration of large design areas. "The high-performance computing capabilities of today will serve as the industrial workstation of tomorrow," said Gwenne Henricks, Chief Technology Officer and Caterpillar vice president with responsibility for Product Development and Global Technology. To read more, please visit http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/news/story/caterpillar_expands_relationship_with_ncsa_for_hosting_realistic_simulation
XSEDE NEWS FROM PARTNERS AND FRIENDS
ANDREW CHRISTLIEB: TAKING A LARGE-SCALE STEP
Andrew Christlieb (MSU): Taking a Large-Scale Step
Large data is coming up everywhere within science these days. The problem is, the data sets are growing in size faster than our computing technology is growing. Further, the use of computational modeling as a technique to investigate the world around us has become a critical third leg of science, after experimentation and analysis. As a result, computational science has developed into a discipline in its own right. So what is computational science? I like to say, tongue-in-cheek, that it’s when pen and paper are no longer the right way to go; so we bring computing in to help analyze the problem. In short, scientific computing is about developing algorithms to allow us to solve large problems in an efficient, cost-effective way in this crazy new world of multi-core computing. For example, a key data science goal on the biological side would be better care for patients (e.g., personalized medicine). To read more, please visit http://msutoday.msu.edu/360/2015/andrew-christlieb-taking-a-large-scale-step/. .
Ariel Procaccia, Carnegie Mellon University, Wins Computers and Thought Award
The International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) has named Ariel Procaccia, assistant professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, as the recipient of its prestigious Computers and Thought Award for 2015. The award, presented every other year since 1971, recognizes outstanding young scientists in artificial intelligence. The judges cited Procaccia for his contributions to the fields of computational social choice and computational economics, and for efforts to make advanced fair division techniques more widely accessible. Procaccia's studies in artificial intelligence focus on the use of social choice and game theory for resource allocation and collective decision-making. Last year, he launched a website, Spliddit.org, which leverages 70 years of fair division research to provide people with provably fair methods to resolve everyday dilemmas, such as how to split rent, divide goods or apportion credit for a project. The award will be presented at the IJCAI conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 25-31. To read more, please visit http://www.cmu.edu/news/stories/archives/2015/june/procaccia-computers-thought-award.html.
Former Procter and Gamble Executive Brings Savvy to OSC Industry Engagement Efforts
Is there a better way to design production systems that will adapt to the aerodynamics of a peanut during roasting? Or to the size of a baby during diaper design? Or to the likelihood of a detergent bottle being dropped? For the person given these challenges, the answer for each is “yes,” and the means is “powerful computers.” Tom Lange, Procter & Gamble’s top expert on modeling and simulation R&D for more than a decade, now is bringing his business and technology savvy from the retail sector to help drive industrial engagement efforts at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC). “I believe we are a country of makers and innovators; we make things to better our world,” said Lange. “Modeling and simulation (M&S) has helped companies improve what we make and how we make it. “Why should only large companies use these advanced capabilities? M&S using high performance computing has changed science and engineering as much as aviation changed travel – and we are only in the early days of M&S adoption. To read more, please visit https://www.osc.edu/press/former_pg_exec_brings_savvy_to_osc_industry_engagement_efforts.
Call for Papers and Participation
The Vizzie: Visualization Challenge Sponsored by NSF and Popular Science
Submissions Deadline – September 24, 2015
Do you love animating data, creating science apps, or taking macrophotographs? In the Visualization Challenge, sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Popular Science, your handiwork can receive its due glory and win you cash prizes. Contest winners will be announced in February 2016, and will be featured in the March issue of Popular Science, on popsci.com and nsf.gov/news/vizzies. For more information, please visit http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/scivis/.
Upcoming Conferences, Webinars, and Seminars
2015 Unidata Training Workshop
July 20-August 5, 2015 – Boulder, Colorado
The workshop features Unidata's display and analysis packages IDV and AWIPS-II (with GEMPAK), as well as data access and management tools including the Local Data Manager (LDM) and the THREDDS Data Server (TDS). This year's workshop will also include a session on using the Python programming language with Unidata technologies. The workshop will be held July 20 – August 5, 2015. Individual courses last from one to three days. Unidata's training workshops are developed and presented by the software developers and support staff for each package, so you can be sure to get your questions answered. For more information, please visit http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/events/2015TrainingWorkshop/.
University of Illinois Parallel Programming and Optimization with Intel® Xeon Phi™ Coprocessors 101
August 4, 2015 – Urbana, Illinois
This one-day seminar features presentations on the available programming models and best optimization practices for the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors, and on the usage of the Intel software development and diagnostic tools. CDT 101 is a pre-requisite for the hands-on labs (CDT 102). The session will cover:
· Offload and Native: "Hello World" to complex, using MPI>
· Performance Analysis: VTune.
· Case Study: All aspects of tuning in the N-body calculation.
· Optimization I: Strip-mining for vectorization, parallel reduction.
· Optimization II: Loop tiling, thread affinity.
For more information, please visit http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/772?eventId=32813953&calMin=201506&cal=20150624&skinId=9177.
ACM ICER’15
August 9-13, 2015 – Omaha, Nebraska
ICER is an annual international conference sponsored by ACM and its SIGCSE special interest group. The conference is focused specifically on the computing education research discipline – that is, the study of how people come to understand computational processes and devices, and how to improve that understanding. As computation becomes ubiquitous in our world, understanding of computing in order to design, structure, maintain, and utilize these technologies becomes increasingly important – both for the technology professional, but also for the technologically literate citizen. The research study of how the understanding of computation develops, and how to improve that understanding, is critically important for the technology-dependent societies in which we live. Learning: Computing education is naturally concerned with how students make sense of computational processes and devices in formal education, including primary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions. Computing education also goes beyond formal education. For more information, please visit http://icer.hosting.acm.org/.
11th IEEE International Conference on e-Science
August 31-September 4, 2015 – Munich, Germany
The ways scientific research is conducted and its results are taken up are undergoing radical changes as a result of the digital revolution. Researchers in all disciplines are increasingly adopting digital tools, techniques and practices in communities and projects that span multiple disciplines, laboratories, organizations, and national boundaries. The e-Science 2015 conference is designed to bring together leading international and interdisciplinary research communities, developers, and users of e-Science applications and enabling IT technologies. The conference aims to serve as a forum to present recent research advances in e-Science and highlight associated activities worldwide, providing an outlook of challenges and opportunities we will face in the future. e-Science 2015 will follow the previous e-Science conferences in encouraging submissions that explore advances in the application of technology in particular disciplines, covering both data-oriented and compute-oriented approaches, as well as extreme scale approaches and applications. For more information, please visit http://escience2015.mnm-team.org/.
7th Workshop on Interfaces and Architectures for Scientific Data Storage (IASDS 2015)
September 1-4, 2015 – Beijing, China
High-performance computing simulations and large scientific experiments generate tens of terabytes of data, and these data sizes grow each year. Existing systems for storing, managing, and analyzing data are being pushed to their limits by these applications, and new techniques are necessary to enable efficient data processing for future simulations and experiments. The needs of scientific applications have triggered a continuous increase in scale of parallel systems, as demonstrated by the evolution of Top 500. However, the computation scale has not been matched by an increase in I/O scale. For example, in the design of earlier supercomputers the parallel I/O bandwidth was 1GBps for every TFLOP, whereas in the current solutions is 1GBps for every 10TFLOPS. This increased bottleneck makes even more pressing the need to employ the I/O subsystem in the most efficient solution possible. Scalable I/O has been already identified as critical for the PFLOP systems. For more information, please visit http://press3.mcs.anl.gov/iasds15.
SDSC WorDS: Data Science Thinking Workshop
Boot Camp: September 23-24, 2015 – San Diego, California
Hackathon: October 22, 2015 – San Diego, California
Training of big data scientists well-versed to take advantage of big data technologies in their scientific applications is of critical importance to the future of research and knowledge advancement in any field. Workflows provide an ideal environment to combine and teach different steps, tools and techniques for data science while allowing to bring in focus in the context of a particular application domain. We develop learning modules to teach workflow-based thinking to capture the end-to-end process as reusable blocks of knowledge and integrate the tools and technologies used in big data analysis in an intuitive manner. Our workflow-driven driven approach enables us to teach basic concepts in big data analysis and process management. For more information, please visit http://words.sdsc.edu/events.
Research News From Around the World
UT-Related NOvA Neutrino Experiment Recognized by US Department of Energy
A UT-related project exploring the role that neutrinos and dark matter particles can play in the formation of the universe has received a prestigious award from the US Department of Energy. The federal government has recognized the leadership of the NovA neutrino experiment—which includes UT physicists—for exceptional results in completing a project within budget and on schedule, and gave it the DOE Secretary’s Award of Excellence. The NOvA (NuMi Off-Axis electron neutrino Appearance) experiment is based at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, in Batavia, Illinois. It is the flagship experiment of Fermilab and the largest particle physics experiment in the United States. The project, through the use of particle detectors, examines how the abundant subatomic particles known as neutrinos helped in the evolution of the universe, contributing to its mass as much as stars and planets. To read more, please visit http://tntoday.utk.edu/2015/06/24/utrelated-nova-neutrino-experiment-recognized-department-energy/.
Ohio State University Knows What’s On the Surface of a Black Hole?
According to the professor of physics at The Ohio State University, the recently proposed idea that black holes have “firewalls” that destroy all they touch has a loophole. In a paper posted online to the arXiv preprint server, Mathur takes issue with the firewall theory, and proves mathematically that black holes are not necessarily arbiters of doom. In fact, he says the world could be captured by a black hole, and we wouldn’t even notice. More than a decade ago, Mathur used the principles of string theory to show that black holes are actually tangled-up balls of cosmic strings. His “fuzzball theory” helped resolve certain contradictions in how physicists think of black holes. But when a group of researchers recently tried to build on Mathur’s theory, they concluded that the surface of the fuzzball was actually a firewall. According to the firewall theory, the surface of the fuzzball is deadly. To read more, please visit https://news.osu.edu/news/2015/06/16/%E2%80%8Bfuzzyhologram/.
UC San Diego Electrical Engineers Break Power and Distance Barriers for Fiber Optic Communication
Electrical engineers have broken key barriers that limit the distance information can travel in fiber optic cables and still be accurately deciphered by a receiver. Photonics researchers at the University of California, San Diego have increased the maximum power — and therefore distance — at which optical signals can be sent through optical fibers. This advance has the potential to increase the data transmission rates for the fiber optic cables that serve as the backbone of the internet, cable, wireless and landline networks. The research is published in the June 26 issue of the journal Science. The new study presents a solution to a long-standing roadblock to increasing data transmission rates in optical fiber: beyond a threshold power level, additional power increases irreparably distort the information travelling in the fiber optic cable. “Today’s fiber optic systems are a little like quicksand. With quicksand, the more you struggle, the faster you sink. With fiber optics, after a certain point, the more power you add to the signal, the more distortion you get, in effect preventing a longer reach. To read more, please visit http://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/electrical_engineers_break_power_and_distance_barriers_for_fiber_optic_comm.
NERSC is Supernova Hunting with Supercomputers
Type Ia supernovae are famous for their consistency. Ironically, new observations suggest that their origins may not be uniform at all. Using a “roadmap” of theoretical calculations and supercomputer simulations, astronomers observed for the first time a flash of light caused by a supernova slamming into a nearby star, allowing them to determine the stellar system from which the supernova was born. This finding confirms one of two competing theories about the birth of Type Ia supernovae. But taken with other observations, the results imply that there could be two distinct populations of these objects. The details of these findings will appear May 20 in an advance online issue of Nature. In 2010, Kasen predicted a new way to test the origins of supernovae. Using theoretical arguments and simulations run on supercomputers at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), he showed that if a supernova is born in a binary star system, the collision of the debris with the companion star will produce a brief, hot flash of light. The challenge is then to find a Type Ia event shortly after it ignites, and quickly follow it up with ultraviolet telescopes. Using an automated supernova-hunting pipeline—the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF), which uses machine-learning algorithms running on NERSC supercomputers—astronomers did just that. To read further, please visit http://cs.lbl.gov/news-media/news/2015/supernova-hunting-with-supercomputers/.
Educator News, Conferences, and Opportunities
Getting Excited About Engineering with Super-Awesome Sylvia
Mind/Shift
What’s an Arduino? The Arduino is an awesome programmable prototyping platform. It’s a little computer that acts like a brain for robots, sensors, or other machines that connect to the real world. It’s pretty inexpensive, too! For less than the cost of a tank of gas, you can get yourself this little blue open-source brain board and start creating something incredible. With just a little bit of code (that you don’t even have to write), it can do almost any crazy thing you want. Not to mention, Arduino boards now come in all shapes and sizes (some of them are shown above) with tons more processing power, and a variety of inputs and outputs. Only the blue Arduino boards are officially called “Arduino”, offshoot boards like the RedBoard above are called Arduino-compatible. They can do everything an official blue Arduino can do, but look different and are made by someone else. For our experiments, we recommend the Arduino Uno or the Redboard, which are easy to get and simple to use. To read further, please visit http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/12/12/getting-excited-about-engineering-with-super-awesome-sylvia/.
No More Plastic Legos? Company Searches for 'Sustainable' Material
NBC News
Lego wants kids of the future to continue having fun with its toy building blocks, but not at the expense of the environment. To that end, the Denmark-based Lego Group has announced a plan to find "sustainable" materials to replace the plastic used in its bricks by 2030. The company says it will invest more than $150 million to establish a Lego Sustainable Materials Centre and staff it with more than 100 employees. "Our mission is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow. We believe that our main contribution to this is through the creative play experiences we provide to children," Lego Group owner Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen said in a statement. "The investment announced is a testament to our continued ambition to leave a positive impact on the planet, which future generations will inherit." To read further, please visit http://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/no-more-plastic-legos-company-searches-sustainable-material-n379976.
Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Announces Launch of Academy of Teaching and Learning Graduate School
Launching a major national effort to dramatically improve teacher preparation and to help teaching and learning practices evolve for the 21st century, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation announced the establishment of a new graduate school, the Woodrow Wilson Academy of Teaching and Learning (WW Academy). The WW Academy is designed to transform teacher education as well as school leadership policy and practice nationally by providing competency-based master’s degree programs in teaching and school leadership. In collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the WW Academy will also serve as an incubator and innovation lab, studying what works and why in preparing teachers and education leaders, and offering new ideas and models to meet the needs of 21st century schools. To read further, please visit http://woodrow.org/news/woodrow-academy/.
Implementing Next Generation Science Standards Workshop Sponsored by NSTA
July 9, 2015 – Anaheim, California
July 28, 2015 – Atlantic City, New Jersey
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is bringing about transformative changes in teaching and learning at every level. To make this important transition, it is vital that K–12 teachers of science—including elementary teachers—and school and district leaders have opportunities to participate in professional learning to understand the changes or shifts in the NGSS and to learn how to apply them in the classroom. Strategies are needed for adjusting teaching approaches, making important cross-curricular connections, and assessing student learning. Join NSTA for one of two first-ever summer institutes to help science educators and leaders implement the NGSS. Each event kicks off with a special keynote address from Barbara Morgan, former NASA Astronaut and Distinguished Educator in Residence at Boise State University, then continues with an engaging series of sessions given by NGSS experts and differentiated for two grade bands: elementary and secondary. For more information, please visit https://www.nsta.org/conferences/summer.aspx.
FECS'15 - The 11th International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering
July 27-30, 2015 – Las Vegas, Nevada
You are invited to submit a paper for consideration. All accepted papers will be published in printed conference books/proceedings (ISBN) and will also be made available online. The proceedings will be indexed in science citation databases that track citation frequency/data. In addition, like prior years, extended versions of selected papers (about 35%) of the conference will appear in journals and edited research books (publishers include: Springer, Elsevier, BMC, and others; a list that includes a small subset of such books and journal special issues appear Here); some of these books and journal special issues have already received the top 25% downloads in their respective fields. The conference is composed of a number of tracks, tutorials, sessions, workshops, poster and panel discussions; all of which include educational information. For more information, please visit http://www.world-academy-of-science.org/worldcomp15/ws/conferences/fecs15.
Student Engagement and Opportunities
MInecraft 3D Printing Workshop - Session 2
July 6-10, 2015 – Urbana, Illinois
Minecraft is one of the most popular games in the world! We’ve come up with a class series to teach youth how to use it as design tool.
· Spend several sessions how use Minecraft to do 3D fabrication – scanning, rendering and printing!
· Participate in collaborative design on a custom server in Minecraft - learn how to paint your own imaginary worlds and then modify them on a detailed level
· Print and “live” render large-scale MC build projects in 3D
· Use cool plug-ins like WorldEdit and WorldGuard
· Import yourself into Minecraft to make a statue!
· Use a suite of open source and free development tool kits for 3D (Netfabb, MS Kinect) and Minecraft (Worldpainter, MCEdit, Mineways, WorldEdit, WorldGuard)
For more information, please visit http://cucfablab.org/programs-and-services/camps-and-classes-for-youth/minecraft-3d-printing/.
3-Day Robotics and 3D Printing Workshops at the University of Illinois
Session 1: June 29-July 1, 2015 – Urbana, Illinois
Session 2: July 13-15, 2015 – Urbana, Illinois
Session 3: August 3-5, 2015 – Urbana, Illinois
Join the Illinois Maker Lab & Makers UIUC this summer for some ‘making’ fun as you learn about 3D modeling, 3D printing, and programming Arduinos to make custom remote-controlled cars. These 3-Day workshops are for high school students Gr. 9-12 (incoming high school freshmen are welcome) hosted at the MakerLab and put on by MakersUIUC. MakersUIUC is a student run organization at the University of Illinois that gives students the opportunity to pursue creative projects that explore innovative ways to design and develop products. A team from MakersUIUC , with experts in electronics and 3D modeling will work with MakerLab guru’s to put on this workshop. Who can attend: Workshops are for high school students in grades 9-12 and college students. To clarify, incoming high school freshmen are welcome. For more information, please visit http://makerlab.illinois.edu/summer/.
The Mozilla Fellowship for Science Begins This Fall
Application Deadline – August 14, 2015
The Mozilla Fellowships for Science present a unique opportunity for researchers who want to influence the future of open science and data sharing within their communities. We're looking for researchers with a passion for open source and data sharing, already working to shift research practice to be more collaborative, iterative and open. Fellows will spend 10 months starting September 2015 as community catalysts at their institutions, mentoring the next generation of open data practitioners and researchers and building lasting change in the global open science community. Throughout their fellowship year, chosen fellows will receive training and support from Mozilla to hone their skills around open source and data sharing. They will also craft code, curriculum and other learning resources that help their local communities learn open data practices, and teach forward to their peers. For more information, please visit https://www.mozillascience.org/fellows.
SDSU’s Aztec Science Camp
July 13-17, 2015 – San Diego, California
July 20-24, 2015 – San Diego. California
What is this science camp all about? It is five days of science discovery and exploration. You will investigate subjects from rocks to robots and have fun new adventures every day.
To find out about the exciting activities that you can have at Aztec Science Camp, click one of the age ranges. For more information, please visit http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/CRMSE/aztec_science_camp/kids.html.
Summer Camps at the Fleet!
July 13-17, 2015 – San Diego, California
July 20-24, 2015 – San Diego. California
The Fleet still has spots open in our summer science camps but they’re going fast! Camp topics include space exploration, chemistry, computer programming, Maker projects and more. Half- and full-day camps available starting at Pre-K and extending through 8th grade. Details are available on the website at http://www.rhfleet.org/events/summer-camps. To register, call Client Services at (619) 238-1233 ext. 806 or sign up at https://tickets.rhfleet.org/searchEventsSummary.aro?sum=Summer+Camps.
ChemExpo 2015
October 24, 205 – San Diego, California
11:00am-3:00pm
“Chemistry Colors Our World!” It’s Free! It’s Fun! It’s Educational! In collaboration with San Diego Miramar College Chemistry Faculty and the San Diego Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the event will celebrate National Chemistry Week (NCW) by hosting the CHEM EXPO at San Diego Miramar College, The event is open to anyone interested in chemistry and is open to all ages. For more information, please visit http://sdsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/ChemExpo2015_Oct2015.pdf.
Computational Science News of Interest
Samsung’s Security Failures Leave 600 Million Android Users Vulnerable to Simple Keyboard Hack
ExtremeTech
New research from NowSecure indicates a critical flaw in Samsung handsets that’s left an estimated 600 million devices vulnerable to simple man-in-the-middle-style hacks. This isn’t the first time Samsung’s poor security practices have been in the news this year, but this mobile flaw dwarfs the Smart TV encryption issues we covered this spring. The problem, however, has the same root cause — nonexistent encryption practices and poor security measures. In this case, Samsung shipped its own version of SwiftKey, an Android keyboard. SwiftKey’s developers have stated that the bug is not present in their own version of the code, meaning Samsung is responsible for creating and distributing the flaw. SwiftKey’s update process runs invisibly in the background, but it’s run at the System User permission level. That’s just one step away from root access and it gives the process permission to bypass security checks and safeguards that might otherwise prevent its operation. To read more, please visit http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/208529-samsungs-security-failures-leave-600-million-android-users-vulnerable-to-simple-keyboard-hack.
Is Window 10 Free? Yes, and No. An Explainer
TechSpot
Microsoft is set to release Windows 10 on July 29th and users of current versions of the operating system will get an upgrade free of charge. That's what Microsoft has made abundantly clear since last January when it presented key consumer features of the new OS including Cortana, Project Spartan (now Microsoft Edge), DirectX 12, and Hololens, which seemingly runs some version of Windows 10. So where's the confusion? Since that announcement, Microsoft has sent mixed signals (more than once) and speculation has built on top of that about who gets the free upgrade and who doesn't, if Insiders get a free pass or not. Here's a brief overview of the different upgrade paths to Windows 10 that explains it all... Microsoft is giving Insiders a free upgrade path to the final release of the OS. To read more, please visit http://www.techspot.com/article/1002-windows-10-free-or-not-explained/.
NASA to Use Holographic Glasses on Space Station
BloomBerg
When SpaceX's resupply craft blasts off to the International Space Station on Sunday, a key part of Microsoft's future strategy will be riding along. Two pairs of HoloLens augmented reality glasses are hitching a lift to the station. NASA has opted to use the devices, which overlay holograms on top of real objects, for astronaut training and tasks in space. Called Project Sidekick, it's part of a larger partnership between HoloLens and NASA, which also said in January that it will use the devices for its Mars Rover program. One part of the project involves a Skype app that lets someone on the ground who has a view of what a crewmember sees draw annotations that astronauts can view through their headsets while competing complex tasks. In January, Microsoft used the app to show a couple of hundred reporters how to repair a lightswitch mounted on a wall, using illustrations. Conceivably, it will be used for fixing or installing complicated bits of the station, which could formerly be done only with written and spoken instructions. The other application involves training in space without aid from back home. To read further, please visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-25/nasa-to-use-hololens-on-space-station.
Social Media
A Race to Identify Twitter Bots
USC
Many people get their news from social media, which is one of the main reasons why the spread of misinformation within these channels is a risk. The growing popularity of social media raises all sorts of questions about online security. According to a recent Twitter SEC filing, approximately 8.5 percent of all users on Twitter are bots, or fake accounts used to produce automated posts. While some of these accounts have commercial purposes, others are influence bots used to generate opinions about a certain topic. Concerned by the future potential of fake social media accounts, DARPA’s Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMIC) program held a four-week challenge this February, where several teams competed to identify a set of influence bots on Twitter. A USC team composed of faculty and graduate students received first place for accuracy and second place for timing. Aram Galstyan, a research associate professor at the USC Viterbi Department of Computer Science and project leader at the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI), led the victorious Trojans. Bots represent a threat to society, according to experts. To read further, please visit http://www.isi.edu/news/story/553748.
Facebook Fails to Improve Diversity Despite Rapid Hiring
TechCrunch
Facebook’s team is still dominated by white and Asian men. Diversity improved only slightly despite Facebook adding 2897 employees this year, according to its new demographic report. The 10,082-person company has only 1% more women from a year ago despite a 40% increase in headcount over a year and a half. And the company made no quantifiable progress growing its percentage of non-Asian ethnic minorities across the whole company or in its tech jobs. The biggest area of progress was that Facebook’s non-tech employee percentage of women grew from 47% to 52%. Any other gains were limited to a 1% increase in the female or Hispanic demographic. The company has launched several initiatives to improve diversity. The most noticable is its diverse slate approach, which aims to “present hiring managers…with at least one qualified candidate who is a member of an underrepresented group to fill any open role.” It’s also expanded Facebook University, which offers internships to high-potential college freshman from underrepresented groups, and a more rigorous training program for managing biases against minorities. To read further, please visit http://techcrunch.com/2015/06/25/pipeline-leads-to-a-hole-in-the-bucket/.
