This years stories

Multiple steps toward the quantum singularity

Over three days in December, four research groups announced progress on a quantum-supercomputing proposal made two years ago by MIT researchers.In early 2011, a pair of theoretical computer scientists at MIT proposed an optical experiment that would harness the weird laws of quantum mechanics to perform a computation impossible on conventional computers. Commenting at the time, a quantum-supercomputing researcher at Imperial College London said that the experiment “has the potential to take us past what I would like to call the ‘quantum singularity,’ where we do the first thing quantumly that we can’t do on a classical computer.”The experiment involves generating individual photons — particles of light — and synchronizing their passage through a maze of optical components so that…

SCS Alum Wins Oscar for Technical Achievement

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that Drew Olbrich (Carnegie Mellon CS '92) will receive an Academy Award for his role in creating the Light system for computer graphics lighting, which has been used for Shrek, Madagascar and other animated DreamWorks features.Former faculty member Doug James also will receive an award.Olbrich, along with fellow honorees Lawrence Kesteloot and Daniel Wexler, created Light for PDI/DreamWorks, part of DreamWorks Animation, where he worked until 2006. They will be honored at the academy's annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation at The Beverly Hills Hotel Feb. 9.Unlike other Academy Awards to be presented this year, which only recognize achievements of 2012, the Scientific and Technical Awards honor achievements with a…

Carnegie Mellon University’s Gabriela Hug Earns Prestigious National Science Foundation Career Award

Carnegie Mellon University’s Gabriela Hug has received the National Science Foundation Early Career Development Award, its most prestigious award for junior faculty. Hug, an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering andengineering and public policy, was awarded a five year, $400,000 grant to make the electric power grid more secure and flexible. "This grant will help me develop tools to enable a self-managing grid by the means of ubiquitous power flow control. The main goal is to make the transmission grid more flexible so that it can adjust to the increasingly varying power flows caused by variable renewable generation. The resulting grid management scheme will reduce the cost to transition to an efficient and sustainable electric energy supply system," Hug…

Scientists expose new vulnerabilities in the security of personal genetic information

Using only a computer, an Internet connection, and publicly accessible online resources, a team of Whitehead Institute researchers has been able to identify nearly 50 individuals who had submitted personal genetic material as participants in genomic studies. Intent on conducting an exercise in “vulnerability research”—a common practice in the field of information security—the team took a multi-step approach to prove that under certain circumstances, the full names and identities of genomic research participants can be determined, even when their genetic information is held in databases in de-identified form. “This is an important result that points out the potential for breaches of privacy in genomics studies,” says Whitehead Fellow Yaniv Erlich, who led the research team. A description of the group’s…

GlobalNSF supports global research for sustainability

NSF's PIRE program enables international collaborations in research and education to advance scientific solutions to daunting global challenges The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the 12 projects funded in a fourth round of Partnerships for International Research and Education (PIRE) awards. Many of these projects engage scientists in research to develop clean, safe, reliable, affordable energy alternatives, as the need for solutions challenges societies across the globe.The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) today also announced two awards totaling $500,000 through its Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) Science program that will support two NSF PIRE research projects, one in India and one in Mexico.NSF's PIRE program, instituted in 2005, supports innovative, international research and education collaborations…