Brown CS Blog

Weeks after Apple's refusal to unlock the iPhone of an accused perpetrator of the 2015 San Bernardino massacre, public debate about surveillance, privacy, and encryption continues. As solutions are proposed, faculty members from Brown University's Department of Computer Science (Brown CS) have been repeatedly asked for comment. This time, MIT Technology Review has sought …

In her latest commentary on Apple's recent struggles with the FBI, Professor Anna Lysyanskaya of Brown University's Computer Science Department (Brown CS) takes an unusual position: iPhone security is flawed, and the legal battle could have been avoided. "In order to call a product or consumer device secure, even its maker shouldn't be able to …

"Gov. Gina Raimondo's new initiative [CS4RI, announced on Monday] is a step in exactly the right direction," writes Professor Shriram Krishnamurthi of Brown University's Computer Science Department (Brown CS) in today's Providence Journal. "Rhode Island is strong in computing thanks to our universities and companies, and we are well poised to become …

"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 …