Brown CS Blog

"What we're finding is that any kind of computational challenge that is sufficiently well defined, we can build a machine that can do better. We can build machines that are optimized to that one task, and people are not optimized to one task,” says professor Michael Littman of Brown University’s …

"What Apple is doing," says Professor Anna Lysyanskaya of Brown University's Department of Computer Science, "is conflating the two things because people's attention spans are limited." Interviewed by both the San Francisco Chronicle and Yahoo News today, she provides some of her most pointed comments to date on Apple's refusal to comply with …

"It's been a fantastic journey," says Professor Andy van Dam of Brown University's Computer Science Department, "to see computer graphics evolve from an arcane technology accessible to a handful of specialists to completely integral to the world's daily consumption and production of information, communication, entertainment and, increasingly, education."Andy sat down with …

Two student teams will be representing Brown University on March 12 at Microsoft Headquarters in Washington for the 2016 Build the Shield competition. Build the Shield is a national level hacking contest that combines hands-on hacking with real-life scenarios. It's geared toward anyone with a passion for protecting and securing the powers …

Last week, following his efforts to help formulate a cybersecurity agenda for the 2016 G7 Conference, Professor John Savage of Brown University's Department of Computer Science (Brown CS) addressed the Boston Global Forum (BGF) in an online dialogue moderated by former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. In his remarks ("A G7 Cybersecurity …

Bootstrap is a computer science literacy curriculum used by 10,000 students in 17 states and five countries whose founders include two Brown CS faculty members, Kathi Fisler (adjunct) and Shriram Krishnamurthi. It's just announced a new partnership to increase the reach of K-12 CS education by providing educators with new ways to teach the subject to students who have historically been underserved.By …

Genetically engineered immune cells, reusable rockets, and self-driving cars have some excellent company this year: robots that learn tasks and share that knowledge with the cloud so other robots can benefit from it. MIT Technology Review has just released its Ten Breakthrough Technologies 2016, and recent work from Brown CS Professor Stefanie Tellex …

For more CS News and CS Blog articles about the Yurt, please click here."Today has been inspiring," comments Michael Villasenor of the New York Times. Joined by Sydney Levin (also of the New York Times) and Theodore Bogosian, visiting assistant professor of the practice in Brown University's Cogut Center for the Humanities, he spoke …

"The outcome of the case," says Tim Edgar, a senior fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, "is going to be hugely important for the balance between privacy and security.”He's referring to Apple's recent refusal to comply with the FBI's request for access to the phone owned by …

 Questions of privacy, encryption, and government surveillance are typically complicated, often not well understood by the general public, and almost always politically fraught. Apple's recent refusal to comply with the FBI's request for the access owned by one of the perpetrators of last year's massacre in San Bernardino is a …