Gov. Inslee to sign bill that counts computer science for high school math, science credit

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Washington high schools will now allow computer science classes to count as a math or science requirement toward high school graduation. Today at Seattle’s Rainier Beach High School, Washington Governor Jay Insee will sign bill HB 1472, which “provides initiatives to improve and expand access to computer science education.” He will be joined by Microsoft’s General… Read More…

Heralded UW computer science professor scores $6.75M for GraphLab, looking to make better online recommendations

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It was a major coup last summer when The University of Washington hooked computer science professor Carlos Guestrin, a leading data scientist and expert in machine learning. What wasn’t widely known at the time was that the Guestrin-led open source project, an ambitious undertaking known as GraphLab.org, would soon sprout into its very own startup. But that’s… Read More…

Nathan Myhrvold to Microsoft alumni: ‘We participated in one of the most beneficial revolutions in human history’

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For nearly one hour, Nathan Myhrvold stood in front of members of the Microsoft Alumni Network and talked strictly about Modernist Cuisine — the epic, five-volume cookbook-to-end-all-cookbooks, featuring recipes engineered in a stainless-steel suburban lab, and photographs shot in a carefully lighted studio, created in collaboration with Myhrvold, co-founder of Intellectual Ventures and one of the technology… Read More…

Washington bill could make CSE classes count for math, science credit

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A new bill in the Washington State Legislature may allow computer science classes to count as a math or science requirement toward high school graduation. Currently, Washington high schoolers who take a computer science class don’t receive a math or science credit. HB 1472 would enable this and “provide initiatives to improve and expand access to computer science… Read More…

Code.org video featuring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and other coding geeks goes viral

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Code.org, the non-profit created by entrepreneurs Ali and Hadi Partovi, has struck a nerve with its video about the importance of computer science education. The video, which was released earlier this week, has already been viewed more than five million times. (across various platforms). Of course, it didn’t hurt that the video — directed by Lesley… Read More…

New computing institute on UW campus will focus on big data problems

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The University of Washington is already a budding hub for computer science. Now, with some help from a national laboratory, the Seattle campus will become even more of a CS powerhouse. The UW and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have formed the Northwest Institute for Advanced Computing. Researchers there will jointly focus on developing solutions related… Read More…

Microsoft Research hires Carnegie Mellon leader as head of international labs

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Microsoft Research today named noted computer scientist Jeannette Wing, the two-time head of Carnegie Mellon’s computer science department, to the position of vice president in charge of Microsoft Research International, overseeing the company’s research labs in India, England and China. It’s a newly created position for Microsoft. Wing will report to Rick Rashid, the company’s chief… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Kevin Wang is putting computer scientists into high schools

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Microsoft employee Kevin Wang is a rare person in the computer science industry. He graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in electrical engineering and computer science, then studied education at Harvard and became a teacher in the Bay Area, building and teaching a computer science curriculum for grades 7 through 12. In 2009, that… Read More…

Love and marriage: How the UW is making bets on the brains of ‘big data’ and ‘machine learning’

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Computer science is very much a discipline that revolves around numbers. But it was something a little less mathematical that led to the University of Washington strengthening its computer science department in recent months: Love, marriage and friendship. In no fewer than three separate situations, the UW’s computer science department was able to attract world-class… Read More…

Geek of the Week: Melissa Winstanley, UW computer science standout

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Melissa Winstanley didn’t set out to be a computer scientist, but she has become a remarkable one — and she’s just getting started. The 22-year-old recent graduate of the University of Washington’s Computer Science & Engineering program is the winner of the 2012 UW President’s Medal, an honor given each year to the student with… Read More…