EECS News | ||||||
| ||||||
Other News | ||||||
Cindy Finelli Invited to NAE Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium Cindy Finelli was among 48 faculty members across the country invited to attend the 2016 National Academy of Engineering (NAE) Frontiers of Engineering Education Symposium. She will present her project about A more student-centered electrical engineering classroom through pre-class reading and in-class problem solving, which integrates elements of a flipped classroom. [Full Story] Progress in AI, through collaborative research Guru Banavar, Chief Science Officer and VP for Cognitive Computing at IBM Research, has blogged about IBM's university partnerships to advance cognitive computing, including work at CSE led by Prof. Satinder Singh Baveja to develop the next generation of conversational interface technologies. [Full Story] Despite Flaws, Paperless Voting Machines Remain Widespread in the U.S. This article surveys problems associated with aging and insecure electronic voting systems. It quotes Prof. J. Alex Halderman, a leading researcher in this area, as saying, "Clearly we still have a long way to go to ensure that all Americans have access to a form of voting technology they can trust." [Full Story] Meet the New Director of Michigan Robotics Jessy Grizzle, the Elmer G. Gilbert Distinguished University Professor and Jerry W. and Carol L. Levin Professor of Engineering, has been written about in Wired, his work featured on CNN and The Discovery Channel, and his robot videos viewed around the world even in Michigan Stadium during the football games. He's now the new director of Michigan Robotics. [Full Story] A New Era of Robotics at Michigan A newly approved robotics center promises to consolidate and expand existing robotics research at U-M. With Jessy Grizzle as Director, everyone is excited at the promise the new space offers for increased collaboration and synergy of effort. [Full Story] D'Souzas Make Gift to Support Undergraduate Students in CSE Robin (BSE CS 06) and Priancka D'Souza of New York, New York have recently established the Robin and Priancka D'Souza Family Scholarship to provide need-based support to undergraduate students pursuing a degree in Computer Science and Engineering. [Full Story] Prof. Emerita Lynn Conway to Receive Honorary Degree from University of Victoria Prof. Emerita Lynn Conway will receive an honorary degree from the University of Victoria - the university's highest academic honor - during fall the convocation ceremony on Nov. 9 in the University Centre Farquhar Auditorium. Prof. Conway will be recognized for her pioneering work in VLSI and as a leading activist for transgender rights. [Full Story] Chad Jenkins Receives NSF National Robotics Initiative Grant to Improve Robotic Control in Cluttered Environments Prof. Chad Jenkins has been awarded an NSF National Robotics Initiative grant of $400,000 for his project, Sketching Geometry and Physics Informed Inference for Mobile Robot Manipulation in Cluttered Scenes." Under the grant, Prof. Jenkins will improve the ability of robots to manipulate and interact with objects, such as when assisting people to support their daily activities. [Full Story] A hot new app is hoping to change the way you manage your money This article reports on Clinc, the intelligent personal assistant startup headed by Profs. Jason Mars and Lingjia Tang. At the Finovate conference, Clinc introduced Finie, the planet's most intelligent personal financial assistant that helps everyone talk to their bank accounts in a natural and conversational way to get real-time and instant financial insights. [Full Story] CS KickStart Gives Incoming Freshmen an Introduction to Computer Science CSE was a sponsor of the first-ever CS KickStart, which is a week long summer program that encourages women without prior programming experience to consider studying computer science. This program is free for attendees and gives 20-25 students the opportunity to learn how to code, connect with other students and faculty, and explore potential careers in computer science. The program was founded by CSE PhD student Meghan Clark. [Full Story] EECS Students Row Blue! to Victory The Michigan Mens Rowing team won their 9th consecutive national championship in Gainesville, Georgia, with four EECS students rowing in their toughest category. Their succesful season qualified the team to compete abroad in the Henley Royal Regatta, the most prestigious boat race series in the world, which takes place annually on the River Thames in England. [Full Story] Mark Kushner Receives Plasma Chemistry Award for Lifetime of Achievement Mark Kushner, George I. Haddad Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has been awarded the 2017 Plasma Chemistry Award (PCA) from the International Plasma Chemistry Society (IPCS). The Plasma Chemistry Award is the highest recognition awarded by the IPCS and recognizes a lifetime of achievements in the field of the Plasma Chemistry. [Full Story] ECE Welcomes New Faculty ECE is delighted to welcome these outstanding new faculty members to Michigan. These faculty broaden and deepen ECE's areas of expertise in robotics, ultra low power circuits, nanophotonics, information theory, and many other areas. [Full Story] U-M, Yottabyte partner to accelerate data-intensive research A strategic partnership between the University of Michigan and software company Yottabyte promises to unleash a new wave of data-intensive research by providing a flexible computing cloud for complex computational analyses of sensitive and restricted data. Prof. Eric Michielssen says it will “improve research productivity by reducing the cost and time required to create the individualized, secure computing platforms that are increasingly necessary to support scientific discovery in the age of Big Data.” [Full Story] How big data and algorithms are slashing the cost of fixing Flints water crisis Michigan researchers, including the Michigan Data Science student team, are using new algorithmic and statistical tools to help inform crisis response in Flint. Profs. Jacob Abernethy and Eric Schwartz of the Business School explain how in this article at the Conversation. [Full Story] Paperless voting could fuel 'rigged' election claims This article describes the concern that talk of a potentially "rigged" election could undermine confidence in results. Amongst the issues associated with electronic voting is that many systems do not produce paper backups that could be used for verification, according to Prof. J. Alex Halderman, who is quoted in the article. [Full Story] An experimental policing tool is gaining traction across the country and there are major civil-liberties concerns This article on the use of data for predictive policing points to the possibility that those practices could lead to racial profiling and aggressive policing. It quotes HV Jagadish, Bernard A. Galler Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, on the subject. He suggests that police departments haven't struck the right balance between more efficiently targeting crime and avoiding civil-liberties conflicts. [Full Story] Expert Questions Claim That St. Jude Pacemaker Was Hacked This article reports on the work done by Prof. Kevin Fu and his collaborators, which has called into question the allegations of security flaws in St. Jude Medical's pacemakers and other life-saving medical devices. The claim of security holes was made by short-selling investment research firm Muddy Waters Capital LLC and medical device security firm MedSec Ltd [Full Story] Hacking Healthcare - How Big Data is Driving Big Changes in Medicine The article by CoE writer Gabe Cherry highlights the work being done by Jenna Wiens and her collaborators on using big data to predict which hospital patients are at risk of developing a life-threatening intestinal infection called Clostridium difficile, or C. diff. It also provides context on the big data initiatives taking at UM in general and with respect to healthcare, and across EECS, including work by Prof. Barzan Mozafari on how to improve the design of big data databases. [Full Story] Guarding Presidential Election Vote Integrity Presents a Daunting Task Prof. J. Alex Halderman is quoted in this article regarding election integrity. He points out that any election system must be able to prove that results are accurate in order to dispel concerns about vote rigging. [Full Story] New Concerns About Hacks Into State Voting Systems Prof. J. Alex Halderman was a guest on the Diane Rehm show on August 31, where the conversation included discussion of the security of elections. Click the "Listen" button under the headline to hear the interview; the discussion with Prof. Halderman begins at 20:30. [Full Story] Hacking Report on St. Jude Pacemakers Was Flawed, Researchers Say This article details how a report on cybersecurity vulnerabilities in St. Jude Medicals implantable heart devices released last week by short sellers was flawed and didnt prove the flaws existed, according to a review by University of Michigan researchers including Prof. Kevin Fu. [Full Story] Jasprit Singh: Seeking a Better Life Through Engineering - Even in Retirement Prof. Jasprit Singh has retired after 30 years at the University of Michigan to embark on his second career as president and co-founder of Gurmentor, Inc., a software application company. During his time at Michigan, he experienced the thrill of scientific discovery, enlightening students into the physics and mysteries of electrical engineering, and sharing his belief that technology can enhance healthy and peaceful living. [Full Story] University study finds flaws in criticism of St. Jude cyber security This article reports on the work done by Prof. Kevin Fu and his collaborators, which has called into question the allegations of security flaws in St. Jude Medical's pacemakers and other life-saving medical devices. The claim of security holes was released last week by short-selling investment research firm Muddy Waters Capital LLC and medical device security firm MedSec Ltd. [Full Story] Correlation is Not Causation: Electrical Analysis of St. Jude Implant Shows Normal Pacing This blog post by the Archimedes Center for Medical Device Security provides additional technical detail regarding the claims by Muddy Waters and St. Jude regarding pacemaker/defibrillator security. Prof. Kevin Fu, who heads the Archimedes Center, and his collaborators at Michigan have concluded that those claims are questionable. [Full Story] Holes Found in Report on St. Jude Medical Device Security Michigan researchers including Prof. Kevin Fu have reproduced experiments alleging security flaws in St. Jude Medical's pacemakers and other life-saving medical devices and have concluded that those claims are questionable. The report alleging the security flaws was released last week by short-selling investment research firm Muddy Waters Capital LLC and medical device security firm MedSec Ltd. [Full Story] How Electronic Voting Could Undermine the Election Foreign hackers, domestic hackers, those with physical access to voting machines, and those who attack from afar: this article describes the multiple risks associated with electronic voting and highlights the work of Prof. J. Alex Halderman in making this clear to us. [Full Story] Real holograms are on bank cards, not starships Holograms are more than science fiction, but the real-life technology isnt what people think it is. Most of the technologies calling themselves holographic do not produce actual holograms including the specters of Vargas Llosa, Kimmel, Modi, Tupac, and MJ, which are created via computer-generated images and high-definition video projection. A real hologram is an image that records the diffraction of laser light directed at an object, and was invented in part by EECS professor Emmett Leith in the 1960s. [Full Story] Necmiye Ozay Receives NASA Early Career Faculty Award for Research in Cyber-Physical Systems Prof. Necmiye Ozay, assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was awarded a NASA Early Career Faculty award for her project, "Run-time anomaly detection and mitigation in information-rich cyber-physical systems." Her research will be designed to assist in future missions in space, while being applicable to a wide range of cyber-physical systems. [Full Story] Celebrating a Leader in Control Systems Friends and former students of Prof. Demos Teneketzis celebrated his 65th birthday with a Workshop on Information, Decisions, and Networks in his honor. Throughout the two-day event, this group of accomplished researchers presented on their work spanning the different fields of control theory. Speakers, students and friends came from around the world and represented all corners of industry and academia. [Full Story] Meet DDoSCoin, the Cryptocurrency that Pays When You P0wn This article in the Register reports on the research conducted by CSE alum Eric Wustrow and CSE student Benjamin VanderSloot. They created a proof-of-work project built on cryptocurrency that offers a means to prove participation in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. DDoSCoin allows miners to prove that they have contributed to a distributed denial of service attack against specific target servers. [Full Story] New Cryptocurrency DDoSCoin Incentivizes Users for Participating in DDoS Attacks The article reports on the new research paper by CSE alum Eric Wustrow and CSE student Benjamin VanderSloot. The researchers have put forward the concept of DDoSCoin a cryptocurrency with a malicious proof-of-work. Presented at the Usenix 2016 security conference, the researchers explain the DDoSCoin system which enables miners to select the victim servers by consensus using a proof-of-stake protocol. [Full Story] Toyota Research Institute Partners with U-M on Artificial Intelligence Research focused on artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous driving at the University of Michigan will get a major boost thanks to an initial $22 million commitment from the Toyota Research Institute, TRI CEO Gill Pratt announced recently in an address to U-M faculty. [Full Story] Online voting could be really convenient. But its still probably a terrible idea. This article reports on Internet voting availability in the US. It then examines Estonia's electronic voting system, which has been been hailed by some as a model system for secure electronic voting. Prof. J. Alex Halderman, who was part of a security team that documented failings in the Estonian system, disagrees and is quoted in the article. [Full Story] Algorithms Can be More Fair than Humans In this article in The Conversation, Prof. H. V. Jagadish talks about how algorithms can discriminate, even when their designers don't intend that to happen, but they also can make detecting bias easier. He states, While it is tempting to believe data-driven decisions are unbiased, research and scholarly discussion are beginning to demonstrate that unfairness and discrimination remain. [Full Story] 'The Most Interesting Tech IPO of the Year' was Founded by Alums Michigan Engineering speaks with the founders of Twilio, CS alumni Jeff Lawson, Evan Cooke, and John Wolthuis. The startup, a $1 billion cloud communications company, went public in late June, bringing in $150 million. Quartz called the move the most interesting tech IPO of the year. [Full Story] Peter Honeyman Receives USENIX Test of Time Award Prof. Peter Honeyman and CSE alumnus Niels Provos have received the USENIX Test of Time Award for their paper on privilege separation, a generic approach that lets parts of an application run with different levels of privilege. They share this award with co-author Markus Friedl. The USENIX Test of Time Awards recognizes papers presented at its respective conference from at least 10 years ago that have had a lasting impact on their fields. [Full Story] Several Michigan Papers Presented at 2016 USENIX Security Symposium Five papers authored by CSE researchers were presented at the 2016 USENIX Security Symposium, which took place August 10-12 in Austin, TX, and two papers were presented at WOOT 2016. USENIX Security brings together researchers from both academia and industry interested in the latest advances in the security of computer systems and networks. The symposium is a premier venue for security and privacy research. [Full Story] Prof. Dragomir Radev Honored as ACM Fellow at Annual Awards Banquet Prof. Dragomir Radev was honored as an ACM Fellow at the annual ACM Awards Banquet, which took place June 11th in San Francisco, CA. The ACM Awards honors those whose contributions have impacted our world for the better in countless ways. ACM has recognized 42 of its members for their significant contributions to the development and application of computing in areas from data management and spoken-language processing to robotics and cryptography. [Full Story] Students Seek the Secrets of the Brain in Study Abroad Program Eight undergrad students got the chance to work on cutting edge brain research in Germany this summer through the International Program for the Advancement of Neurotechnology (IPAN). Directed by Prof. Euisik Yoon, the program sent students from around the country to two universities where they experienced a month of in-depth lab work on devices that could help us better understand the brain. [Full Story] Researchers David Adrian and Prof. J. Alex Halderman Receive Pwnie Award for Work on DROWN Attack A research team that includes CSE PhD student David Adrian and Prof. J. Alex Halderman has been awarded the Pwnie Award for Best Cryptographic Attack at the Black Hat conference for their work on the DROWN attack. DROWN allows attackers to break encryption used to protect HTTPS websites and read or steal sensitive communications, including passwords, credit card numbers, trade secrets, or financial data. [Full Story] Solar power plant: $1.4M grant aims to cut costs Nanotechnology could reduce the cost of the most expensive part of a solar thermal power plant by roughly 75 percent. The Department of Energy gave a team of researchers at the University of Illinois, the University of Michigan and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory $1.4 million to develop new solar concentrators. [Full Story] Screen Savers: The World's Smallest Computer The new episode of Screen Savers features Prof. David Blaauw, whose team has developed the world's smallest computer. The Michigan Micro Mote (M3) works as a fully functioning computer on the millimeter scale. [Full Story] CSE-Based Startup Receives Funding to Develop Systems Based on Intelligent Personal Assistant Technology Artificial Intelligence startup Clinc, founded by Profs. Jason Mars and Lingjia Tang along with Research Fellow Michael Laurenzano and CSE graduate student Johann Hauswald, is off and running in downtown Ann Arbor. On August 4, 2016, the company announced a $225,000 National Science Foundation Grant and closure of a $1.2 million round of seed funding. [Full Story] Michigan Solar Car defends national title in sweeping victory Despite nearly-sunless conditions in the final two days, the University of Michigan Solar Car team has successfully defended their decade-long reigning championship winning the 2016 American Solar Challenge for the sixth consecutive time. After two sunless final days of the race, U-M's car, Aurum, ended up the only entree to finish on 100% solar power. [Full Story] Hackers Fool Tesla Autopilot Into Making Obstacles 'Disappear' -- But Don't Panic About Crashes Yet Wenyuan Xu, a visiting professor at CSE from the University of South Carolina, is part of a research team that has developed techniques for sabotaging the sensors for the autopilot in a Tesla. This article in Forbes describes how the research team used three forms of attack to tick the Tesla. [Full Story] Hackers Fool Tesla S's Autopilot to Hide and Spoof Obstacles Wenyuan Xu, a visiting professor at CSE from the University of South Carolina, is part of a research team that has developed techniques for sabotaging the sensors for the autopilot in a Tesla. This article in Wired describes how they simulated an attack from an adjacent car equipped with sensor jamming equipment. [Full Story] Researchers Seek to Help the Disabled with Intelligent Robotic Wheelchair Prof. Ben Kuipers, CSE graduate student Collin Johnson, and researcher Dr. Jong Jin Park have created Vulcan, an intelligent robotic wheelchair. Vulcan learns the spatial structure of the environment it moves through and it uses that knowledge to plan and follow routes from place to place. Robotic wheelchairs will benefit people who need a wheelchair, but are unable to use one because of multiple disabilities. [Full Story] CSE Researchers Win Pwnie Award for Work on DROWN Attack A research team that includes CSE PhD student David Adrian and Prof. J. Alex Halderman has been awarded the Pwnie Award for Best Cryptographic Attack at the BlackHat conference for their work on the DROWN attack. DROWN is a serious vulnerability that affects HTTPS and other services that rely on SSL and TLS, some of the essential cryptographic protocols for Internet security. [Full Story] How to Hack an Election in 7 Minutes This in-depth article in Politico traces the history of "the Princeton group" -- a cadre of security experts, including Michigan's Prof. J. Alex Halderman, who grew out of Andrew Appel and Ed Felton's groups at Princeton and have influenced the conversation on the security of electronic voting. The article concludes with this remark from Halderman regarding the danger posed by state-sponsored cyber attackers: "We sit around all day and write research papers. But these people are full time exploiters. They're the professionals. We're the amateurs." [Full Story] | ||||||
