Computer science and technology

UC Berkeley joins edXUC Berkeley joins Harvard and MIT not-for-profit online-learning collaborative; edX broadens free course offerings into public health, computer science and solid-state chemistry; opens registration

Research update: Chips with self-assembling rectanglesNew technique allows production of complex microchip structures in one self-assembling step.

Berger named ISCB fellowApplied mathematics, computer science professor honored for contributions in computational biology and bioinformatics.

Searching genomic data fasterBiologists’ capacity for generating genomic data is increasing more rapidly than computing power. A new algorithm will help them keep up.

IEEE honors MIT milestones in computing and navigationWorld’s first real-time digital computer and electronic navigation system are commemorated in Boston.

Communication scheme makes popular applications ‘gracefully mobile’New MIT software keeps tens of thousands of people logged into remote computers from mobile devices, but the underlying technology could improve a host of other programs.

New technique allows simulation of noncrystalline materialsMultidisciplinary team develops mathematical approach that could help in simulating materials for solar cells and LEDs.

Aircraft engineered with failure in mind may last longerNew design approach tailors planes to fly in the face of likely failures.

System improves automated monitoring of security camerasNew approach uses mathematics to reach a compromise between accuracy, speed.

MIT, Intel unveil new initiatives addressing ‘big data’An Intel research center based at MIT will be the cornerstone of a new research project dubbed ‘bigdata@CSAIL.’

Daskalakis wins Microsoft Faculty Fellowship

L. Rafael Reif selected as MIT’s 17th presidentAs provost since 2005, the president-elect has inspired innovation and played a critical role in the financial stewardship of the Institute.

The elusive capacity of networksCalculating the total capacity of a data network is a notoriously difficult problem, but information theorists are beginning to make some headway.

Thwarting the cleverest attackersSavvy hackers can steal a computer’s secrets by timing its data storage transactions or measuring its power use. New research shows how to stop them.

Abelson honored as outstanding educatorWins ACM's Karl V. Karlstom Award

MITx: What the students thinkFrom Buenos Aires to Honolulu to Montreal, a virtual community grows up around the online initiative’s prototype course.

Gauging seizures’ severitySimple wrist sensors let neurologists collect better data about patients with epilepsy — and could alert patients that they need to seek medical care.

Algorithmic incentivesA new twist on pioneering work done by MIT cryptographers almost 30 years ago could lead to better ways of structuring contracts.

Lynch named Athena LecturerProfessor honored for advances in distributed systems that enable dependable Internet and wireless network applications.

13 faculty members elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Getting to the root of geneticsManolis Kellis uses computational techniques to decipher human disease.

Chips as mini InternetsThe data-routing techniques that undergird the Internet could increase the efficiency of multicore chips while lowering their power requirements.

Seeing the music in natureFrom spider webs to tangled proteins, Markus Buehler finds the connections between mathematics, molecules and materials.

Testing unbuilt chipsA new software-simulation system promises much more accurate evaluation of promising — but potentially fault-ridden — multicore-chip designs.

Introduction to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science now available in OCW Scholar format6.01SC is the fourth of seven courses OCW will publish this spring specifically to meet the needs of independent learners.