Brown CS Blog

In trying times, perhaps one of the most substantial contributions that academics can offer is to use their position of unbiased knowledge to propose reasoned solutions to global crises. In the wake of recent atrocities in Brussels, Timothy Edgar, a senior fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, has done just that, recommending in Lawfare that …

A detailed recent news item in Bloomberg by Adam Satariano and Chris Strohm dissects the ongoing Apple/FBI controversy that arose from the court order to unlock an iPhone used by one of the accused perpetrators of the San Bernardino massacre. Initially, they find, the Obama administration and Apple shared a certain amount of common ground, …

This past weekend, team Brown Secure (composed of Brown University students Luke Camery, Nicholas Curcio, Sarah McNeil, and Dayton Williams, all juniors, and coached by Brown CS Professor John Savage) attended the third annual Atlantic Council Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge. The event features teams from across the country and is designed to give students a …

The robots return! Rhode Island Robot Block Party will take place on Saturday, April 9, 2016, from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Pizzitola Sports Center (235 Hope Street). Rhode Island Robot Block Party, an expo founded by the Rhode Island Students of the Future in partnership with the Humanity Centered Robotics …

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 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 …

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 …