Winners of the second annual Imagine Cup Grants program, part of Microsoft’s YouthSpark initiative, include student startups aiming to eliminate traffic jams and bring cheap, effective ways to diagnose childhood pneumonia.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Dec. 4, 2012 — Traffic jams typically produce little more than frustration, profanity, and CO2. Four years ago, though, they happened to give Christian Brüggeman an idea.
He was sitting in a London Starbucks with a friend and fellow computer science student. As they chatted, they noticed that one street outside was choked with cars while another was practically empty.
They wondered why drivers weren’t taking advantage of every possible route. If cars could be directed along less-congested roads, wouldn’t that prevent back-ups before they began? (more…)
More Than Half of Physicians Show Interest in Using Mobile Devices and Tablets at Work
RESTON, VA, December 3, 2012 – comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released new findings from a study based on data generated by the comScore/Symphony Health Care Professional (HCP) Measurement Solutions offering, which provides insight into the actual online behavior of physicians with regard to health-related categories, and the Physician Mobile Survey, a survey of physicians’ attitudes toward mobile devices and tablets in the workplace. Based on a longitudinal study of a permission-based panel of 1,000 U.S. physicians, the study showed that HCP Content websites such as Medscape.com, which provide content or services catering specifically to physicians, reached the highest percentage of physicians (81 percent) in comparison to other types of health sites. However, Electronic Medical Records sites such as Allscripts.com showed higher engagement as physicians have begun to use these sites to replace paper record-keeping. The study also revealed that although computers are still the most often used device to go online at work by physicians, more than half of physicians expressed interest in using mobile phones and tablets in the workplace. (more…)
Microsoft Research develops biometric monitoring system to help patients complete tuberculosis treatment programs.
BANGALORE, India — Dec. 3, 2012 — Giri Prasad, a 33-year-old tailor who lives in Delhi, first noticed the pain below his ribs. He went to see a doctor, but when it didn’t subside, he traveled to the hospital where he eventually learned he had tuberculosis.
“There were many problems because first and foremost, I am the bread earner for the family,” he says. “If the bread earner falls ill, it is a real problem for those who are dependent on him. Here in the city the biggest problem is that if one falls sick, there is no other person who will come help.” (more…)
Engineers at Yale University have developed a new breed of micro fuel cell that could serve as a long-lasting, low-cost, and eco-friendly power source for portable electronic devices, such as tablet computers, smart phones, and remote sensors. The researchers describe the novel device in a paper published online in the journal Small.(more…)
New Center to Foster Economic Competitiveness in the U.S., Create 500 Jobs Aligned to New Markets for Watson, Smarter Commerce and Social Business Client
COLUMBUS, OHIO – 29 Nov 2012: IBM today announced it will establish a new analytics center in Columbus, Ohio, dedicated to advancing research, development, client services and skills training in the areas of analytics, big data and cognitive computing. The move aims to create 500 new analytics jobs and nurture economic development in the region over the next three years.
Ohio is home to 27 Fortune 500, and 57 Fortune 1,000 companies, as well as a burgeoning technology sector and leading academic institutions. The IBM Client Center for Advanced Analytics will offer a strong foundation for a broad public and private sector collaboration that will include The Ohio State University (Ohio State), JobsOhio, Columbus 2020, ICC, an IBM Premier Partner, and other Columbus-based businesses. (more…)
Researchers from North Carolina State University and the University of Oregon have found a way to exploit cloud-based Web browsers, using them to perform large-scale computing tasks anonymously. The finding has potential ramifications for the security of “cloud browser” services.
At issue are cloud browsers, which create a Web interface in the cloud so that computing is done there rather than on a user’s machine. This is particularly useful for mobile devices, such as smartphones, which have limited computing power.The cloud-computing paradigm pools the computational power and storage of multiple computers, allowing shared resources for multiple users. (more…)
Microsoft launches national campaign to alert Americans to Google’s new pay-to-rank shopping search practices.
REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 28, 2012 — Bing, Microsoft Corp.’s search engine, today is launching a national campaign to highlight Bing’s commitment to honest search results and to help explain to consumers the risks of Google Shopping’s newly announced “pay-to-rank” practice, in which the shopping search results customers see are not true search results such as they see elsewhere on Google; they are actually ads that are ranked, in part, by who pays the most. More information on these practices is available at https://www.scroogled.com.
Instead of showing you the most relevant shopping search results for the latest coffee maker you’re looking to buy mom, Google’s new redesigned shopping vertical now decides what to show you — and how prominently to display what product offers they show — based partially on how much a merchant selling the product has paid Google. Merchants can literally pay to improve their chances to display their product offers higher than others inside of Google’s shopping “search,” even if it’s not necessarily better or cheaper. That’s not right, it’s not transparent, it’s not what you expect from search, and it’s not how we at Bing think search engines should help consumers get the best prices and selection when shopping. Consumers are urged to visit https://www.scroogled.com to learn more about how to avoid getting “Scroogled,” a term used by Bing to describe Google’s new practice that leaves people with fewer choices and potentially higher prices. (more…)
A onetime top 10-ranked “Halo” player, Alex Hebert-Ruiz is now at Microsoft, where she advocates for Xbox LIVE Arcade games when she’s not playing “Halo 4.”
REDMOND, Wash. — Nov. 26, 2012 — Alex Hebert-Ruiz remembers the day she got her start as a gamer.
It was the Christmas she got a Barbie house and her brother got a Nintendo. She was 6, and she was hooked – on her brother’s gift.
“Don’t get me wrong, I loved my Barbie house,” she says, “but beating him at Duck Hunt was one of the great challenges of my young life.” (more…)
