The World's Smallest Camera

The one-square-inch camera that sits snugly on your finger can click two megapixel images and even shoot video. New York firm Hammacher Schlememr, which created the $100 camera, insists the 28-gram device works perfectly, despite being a little bigger than the fingertip.

Hammacher's general manager Fred Berns said: "Although 'The World's Smallest Camera' is only slightly larger than a marble, it takes still images and records video just like much larger cameras." "It comes with a wrist lanyard that keeps it close to hand and enables ease of portability," Berns added, reports the Daily Mail.

The miniature camera, its makers claim, can take JPEG images with a resolution of 1600 x 1200 and comes complete with autofocus. The camera also connects to a computer via a USB cable, just like regular pieces of photography equipment.

AYUSHI JAIN
B.TECH IInd yr

Nokia to Use Microsoft’s OS in their Smartphones

Nokia the world’s leading company in mobile phone market will be using Microsoft‘s OS in their cell phone.Google‘s Android phone has gain tremendous adoption in the last year as its market share has increased from a 6% in 2009 to 24% in 2010. So Nokia is also thinking to launch its new cell phone based on Microsoft’s OS.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer have announced that Nokia will be delivering its first Windows Phone 7  in 2012. Windows 7 will be now Nokia’s principal smartphone strategy. And in addition to this Nokia will be adding bing as its default search engine. Nokia Maps will continue and will be using bing search and Nokia’s application store will be controlled  by Microsoft. So this strategy of Nokia will place Android andiOS into first and second place.


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SHRUTI
IInd yr

Android Ice Cream Sandwich: 10 reasons to be excited!!!

1. Ice Cream Sandwich has a slick and intuitive new design.


Building off the interface launched for tablets earlier this year with Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich introduces a completely new UI for phones and tablets alike (though the change will be more extreme on the phone side, of course, since it's a larger leap).

In short, everything is prettier and more polished. Commands that used to be hidden in menus or layers of menus are now all on-screen; an evolving "action bar" gives you contextual options for wherever you are in the system, and on-screen command buttons allow you to return home, move back, or toggle among applications.

Speaking of app-toggling, multitasking gets a major makeover in Ice Cream Sandwich, with an interactive list that lets you flip through thumbnails of recently used apps. There and throughout the entire system, you can swipe left or right to eliminate an item from the list; the same concept applies on the revamped notifications panel, allowing you to dismiss individual notifications with a single swipe to the side.


2. Ice Cream Sandwich has cool new widgets.
With Ice Cream Sandwich, widgets are resizable and scrollable, similar to what we saw introduced with Honeycomb. That means you can put a live view of your inbox right on your home screen, for example, and then scroll through it without actually having to open the app. You can make the widget as big or as small as you want to fit within your own personalized home screen setup.
New scrollable widgets are included for the calendar, music, social streams, and other system functions. Third-party widgets will also be able to take advantage of the scrollable and resizable features; in fact, plenty of them already do.


3. Ice Cream Sandwich has major photo improvements -- like the ability to take panoramic pictures.

That's right: panoramic pictures. The ICS photo app lets you slowly pan your camera across a large area to capture a gigantic perspective; it then automatically stitches the image together into a single panoramic view. Pretty damn cool.
Aside from that, the photo app now features "zero shutter lag," meaning you can snap photos instantly one after another with no delay (sorry, Apple). It has advanced photo editing built into the camera app, too, so you can tweak your images right then and there.




On the video front, Ice Cream Sandwich offers stabilized zoom and the ability to take full-resolution snapshots while you're recording video.

4. Ice Cream Sandwich lets you unlock your phone with your face.



Yes, you read that correctly. ICS introduces a new face recognition security feature in which you can capture an image of your shiny happy mug, then simply smile into the phone to unlock it in the future. The software recognizes your face and lets you right in. (You can always use a backup PIN or pattern in case you get punched in the mouth or otherwise disfigured.)

5. Ice Cream Sandwich lets you "beam" info from one device to another.
In another futuristic twist, the new ICS OS has a feature Google calls Android Beam. Using Near Field Communication (NFC) technology, the feature allows you to tap the back of your phone to the back of another ICS phone and, in a split second, pass along any type of info from one device to the other.
If you're viewing a Web page, for example, and tap phones with someone else, the page will instantly pull up on their device. You could share an app, a contact, a song, a video, or practically any other type of data in the same way; you could even initiate multiplayer game play with one quick tap.

6. Ice Cream Sandwich has a new browser with tabs and sync.
Android's browser gets a major upgrade with Ice Cream Sandwich, gaining full tab support and native bookmark syncing with your desktop Chrome browser. It also introduces a new built-in page-saving feature, for offline reading, and the ability to quickly toggle between mobile and desktop versions of a website (finally!).

7. Ice Cream Sandwich lets you take screen shots.

Another "finally!" moment: With ICS, Google gives us an easy way to grab screenshots of our devices. All you do is press your device's power and volume-down button simultaneously, and an image of your screen is captured and saved to your storage.

8. Ice Cream Sandwich has a cool "quick response" feature for incoming calls.
Ever get a call and don't feel like answering? Ice Cream Sandwich's new "quick response" system lets you send a canned message right from the incoming call screen to the person trying to reach you. This way, you can let them know why you aren't answering -- telling them "I'm in a meeting and will get back to you later," for example, or "Get out of my life, you annoying twit."

9. Ice Cream Sandwich lets you disable preinstalled apps.
With the exception of Google's Nexus phones, bloatware is an unfortunate reality on many Android devices. Ice Cream Sandwich makes it easier to manage it, though, giving you the option to disable any preinstalled app on your phone. Once disabled, an app's resources won't run and its icon won't appear anywhere in your system.
So long, V CAST.


10. Ice Cream Sandwich has intelligent data controls.
More and more carriers are moving toward tiered data plans for smartphones, and that means we as users have to keep track of how many bits and bytes we're gobbling up. ICS does the work for you: Its new data usage control system lets you monitor your overall data usage and set limits to ensure you'll never get stuck with outrageous overage charges.
The Ice Cream Sandwich data control center shows you total data usage for the system and by individual app so you can see exactly what's burning through your kilobytes. And better yet, if you're on a limited plan, you can tell ICS to keep an eye on things for you: The system can warn you when you reach a certain level of usage, or even stop using 3G/4G data altogether once you hit a predefined limit. You can tell it to limit data usage individually by app, too, giving you an enormous amount of detailed control.





This is the beginning of a major new chapter for Android, and we're just starting to scratch the surface. Stay tuned: Exciting times are ahead.!!! :)


VARSHI GUPTA
CS II Yr

SOLAR BONSAI TREE TO CHARGE GADGETS

Takin cue from the concept of photosynthesis,where trees use solar energy to prepare food for
themselves, French designer Vivien Muller has designed an ELECTREE and finally gave us an
attractive way to use solar power to charge our devices in an eye-catching design that any chic
geek would love to have in their home. It looks like the wait is just about over. Muller is waiting
to get 400 presale orders to begin production of the Electree.


The Electree is shaped like a bonsai tree but will require no crazy pruning and maintenance.
The most you’ll have to do is dust off the solar panels from time to time. The tree has 27 solar
panel “leaves” that charge the Electree’s 13,500mAH battery. You can also stash your devices
under the Electree’s floor to keep things neat, tidy, and clutter-free. The branches and each
module are also rotatable, which apparently allows you to create an “unlimited number of
shapes.”


The Electree will take about 36 hours of sunshine to fully charge its battery. After that, you
can start charging your gadgets through the USB connection. It will charge a device to its full
capacity in only a few hours.


The Electree was inspired by photosynthesis. Muller said he was inspired while observing trees
as their leaves act as natural solar panels and further motivated by math in nature. He said that
while studying fractals, he realized that he could draw a tree by “repeating and transforming
a basic pattern.” The repeating pattern then became a module, and the shape of the Electree
came about.


the tree can power mp3 players,cell phones,tablets and a lot many devices...!!
SUHANI MISHRA 
CS IInd year

New Virkel.F IM Worm Pretends to be MSN Messenger 8 Leak

There is a MSN Messenger 8 Beta running around but you can only get into the beta if you receive an invitation via email. It is not yet in the public beta phase.

There is a so-called security risk in MSN Messenger 8 beta. If you use MSN Messenger 8 beta and receive an IM with a link to a leaked "MSN Messenger 8 Beta" from a friend in your list; then don't open it!

Security firm F-Secure is warning about this new worm that spreads from a fake website, where the author pretends to have a copy of MSN Messenger 8 beta.

The download BETA8WEBINSTALL.EXE from that fake site actually installs a worm that will by turn send instant messages to everyone on the user's MSN list with links to download their "beta". The malware also connects to a bot network.

Neelam Bhavnani
cs IInd year

REMEMBERING : STEVE JOBS

Synopsis
Steve Jobs was born February 24, 1955, to two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave him up for adoption. Smart but directionless, Jobs experimented with different pursuits before starting Apple Computers with Stephen Wozniak in the Jobs' family garage. Apple's revolutionary products, which include the iPod, iPhone and iPad, are now seen as dictating the evolution of modern technology.


Early Life
Steven Paul Jobs was born on February 24, 1955, to Joanne Simpson and Abdulfattah "John" Jandali, two University of Wisconsin graduate students who gave their unnamed son up for adoption. His father, Abdulfattah Jandali, was a Syrian political science professor and his mother, Joanne Simpson, worked as a speech therapist. Shortly after Steve was placed for adoption, his biological parents married and had another child, Mona Simpson. It was not until Jobs was 27 that he was able to uncover information on his biological parents.
As an infant, Steven was adopted by Clara and Paul Jobs and named Steven Paul Jobs. Clara worked as an accountant and Paul was a Coast Guard veteran and machinist. The family lived in Mountain View within California's Silicon Valley. As a boy, Jobs and his father would work on electronics in the family garage. Paul would show his son how to take apart and reconstruct electronics, a hobby which instilled confidence, tenacity, and mechanical prowess in young Jobs.
While Jobs has always been an intelligent and innovative thinker, his youth was riddled with frustrations over formal schooling. In elementary school he was a prankster whose fourth grade teacher needed to bribe him to study. Jobs tested so well, however, that administrators wanted to skip him ahead to high school—a proposal his parents declined.
After he did enroll in high school, Jobs spent his free time at Hewlett-Packard. It was there that he befriended computer club guru Steve Wozniak. Wozniak was a brilliant computer engineer, and the two developed great respect for one another.

Apple Computers

After high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Lacking direction, he dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes. Jobs later recounted how one course in calligraphy developed his love of typography.
In 1974, Jobs took a position as a video game designer with Atari. Several months later he left Atari to find spiritual enlightenment in India, traveling the continent and experimenting with psychedelic drugs. In 1976, when Jobs was just 21, he and Wozniak started Apple Computers. The duo started in the Jobs family garage, and funded their entrepreneurial venture after Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus and Wozniak sold his beloved scientific calculator.
Jobs and Wozniak are credited with revolutionizing the computer industry by democratizing the technology and making the machines smaller, cheaper, intuitive, and accessible to everyday consumers. The two conceived a series of user-friendly personal computers that they initially marketed for $666.66 each. Their first model, the Apple I, earned them $774,000. Three years after the release of their second model, the Apple II, sales increased 700 percent to $139 million dollars. In 1980, Apple Computer became a publically traded company with a market value of $1.2 billion on the very first day of trading. Jobs looked to marketing expert John Scully of Pepsi-Cola to help fill the role of Apple's President.
Departure from Apple
However, the next several products from Apple suffered significant design flaws resulting in recalls and consumer disappointment. IBM suddenly surpassed Apple sales, and Apple had to compete with an IBM/PC dominated business world. In 1984 Apple released the Macintosh, marketing the computer as a piece of a counter culture lifestyle: romantic, youthful, creative. But despite positive sales and performance superior to IBM's PCs, the Macintosh was still not IBM compatible. Scully believed Jobs was hurting Apple, and executives began to phase him out.
In 1985, Jobs resigned as Apple's CEO to begin a new hardware and software company called NeXT, Inc. The following year Jobs purchased an animation company from George lucas which later became Pixar Animation Studios. Believing in Pixar's potential, Jobs initially invested $50 million of his own money into the company. Pixar Studios went on to produce wildly popular animation films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles. Pixar's films have netted $4 billion. The studio merged with Walt Disney in 2006, making Steve Jobs Disney's largest shareholder.
Reinventing Apple
Despite Pixar's success, NeXT, Inc. floundered in its attempts to sell its specialized operating system to mainstream America. Apple eventually bought the company in 1997 for $429 million. That same year, Jobs returned to his post as Apple's CEO.
Much like Steve Jobs instigated Apple's success in the 1970s, he is credited with revitalizing the company in the 1990s. With a new management team, altered stock options, and a self-imposed annual salary of $1 a year, Jobs put Apple back on track. His ingenious products such as the iMac, effective branding campaigns, and stylish designs caught the attention of consumers once again.


Pancreatic Cancer
In 2003, Jobs discovered he had a neuroendocrine tumor, a rare but operable form of pancreatic cancer. Instead of immediately opting for surgery, Jobs chose to alter his pescovegetarian diet while weighing Eastern treatment options. For nine months Jobs postponed surgery, making Apple's board of directors nervous. Executives feared that shareholders would pull their stocks if word got out that their CEO was ill. But in the end, Job's confidentiality took precedence over shareholder disclosure. In 2004, he had a successful surgery to remove the pancreatic tumor. True to form, in subsequent years Jobs disclosed little about his health.
Recent Innovations
Apple introduced such revolutionary products as the Macbook Air, iPod, and iPhone, all of which have dictated the evolution of modern technology. Almost immediately after Apple releases a new product, competitors scramble to produce comparable technologies. In 2007, Apple's quarterly reports were the company's most impressive statistics to date. Stocks were worth a record-breaking $199.99 a share, and the company boasted a staggering $1.58 billion dollar profit, an $18 billion dollar surplus in the bank, and zero debt.
In 2008, iTunes became the second biggest music retailer in America-second only to Wal-Mart. Half of Apple's current revenue comes from iTunes and iPod sales, with 200 million iPods sold and six billion songs downloaded. For these reasons, Apple has been rated No. 1 in America's Most Admired Companies, and No. 1 amongst Fortune 500 companies for returns to shareholders.

Personal Life
Early in 2009, reports circulated about Jobs' weight loss, some predicting his health issues had returned, which included a liver transplant. Jobs had responded to these concerns by stating he was dealing with a hormone imbalance. After nearly a year out of the spotlight, Steve Jobs delivered a keynote address at an invite-only Apple event September 9, 2009.
In respect to his personal life, Steve Jobs remained a private man who rarely discloses information about his family. What is known is Jobs fathered a daughter with girlfriend Chrisann Brennan when he was 23. Jobs denied paternity of his daughter Lisa in court documents, claiming he was sterile. Jobs did not initiate a relationship with his daughter until she was 7 but, when she was a teenager, she came to live with her father.
In the early 1990s, Jobs met Laurene Powell at Stanford business school, where Powell was an MBA student. They married on March 18, 1991, and lived together in Palo Alto, California, with their three children.
Final Years
On October 5, 2011, Apple Inc. announced that co-founder Steve Jobs had died. He was 56 years old at the time of his death.
published by 
SHRUTI GUPTA
IIND YR

CRYPTOGRAPHY:
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties
communication in the presence of third parties.Cryptology prior to the modern age was almost synonymous with encryption, the conversion of information from a readable state to apparent nonsense. The sender retained the ability to decrypt the information and therefore avoid unwanted persons being able to read it.
Applications of cryptography include ATM cards, computer passwords, and electronic commerce.
There are many tools available online to encrypt or decrypt data like Cryptool.
Even our social communities use the method of encryption to save passwords.
Encryption is also done in several ways to avoid any chance of leakage of data.It includes:
                            a.Ciphers
                       b.Coding Methods
                            c.Analysis Tool
CIPHER:
A cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption -- a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure.
For example "GOOD DOG" can be encrypted as "PLLX XLP" where "L" substitutes for "O", "P" for "G", and "X" for "D" in the message. Transposition of the letters "GOOD DOG" can result in "DGOGDOO". These simple ciphers and examples are easy to crack, even without plaintext-ciphertext pairs.
Modern encryption methods can be divided by two criteria: by type of key used, and by type of input data.
By type of key used ciphers are divided into:
Symmetric key algorithms (Private-key cryptography), where the same key is used for encryption and decryption, and
Asymmetric key algorithms (Public-key cryptography), where two different keys are used for encryption and decryption.
CODING METHODS:
Codes are used to transform data into a format, which is more convenient for the target application. One of the most common codes is the bar code, which can be optically scanned.
It includes:
ASCII
Bacon
Barcode generator
Base64
Code39
Huffman
Morse code
ANALYSIS TOOL OR CRYPTANALYSIS:
The goal of cryptanalysis is gaining knowledge of the encrypted text without the key.
A distinction is made for different attack scenarios:
 
Ciphertext-Only:
Only the encrypted text is known. 
Probable Plaintext:
The encrypted text is known and one can assume that the message contained follows a certain pattern. 
Known Plaintext:
An encrypted text and its plaintext is known. The goal is to determine the key from the text. 
Chosen Plaintext:
One can freely choose a text that is to be encrypted and subsequently has access to the resulting encrypted text. 
Chosen Ciphertext:
One can temporarily generate the decrypted text from an assortment of corresponding encrypted text of one's own choice. 
EXAMPLE:
Try a ciphertext-only attack against this cipher by performing a frequency analysis. 
URKAG QZODK BFMPA OGYQZ FFTQD QEGXF IUXXN QETAI ZUZMZ QIEGN IUZPA IFTQF UFXQA RFTQD QEGXF UZSIU ZPAIO AZFMU ZENAF TFTQZ MYQAR FTQAD USUZM XPAOG YQZFM ZPFTQ QZODK BFUAZ WQKGE QPFTQ GEMSQ ARWQK EUEEG BBADF QPNKF IAEBQ OUMXU OAZEO XUOWU ZSFTQ UOAZE TAIWQ KMXXA IEKAG FAEFA DQMOA BKARF TQWQK GEQPR DAYMD QEGXF UZSIU ZPAIU ZFAMZ UZFQD ZMXEF ADMSQ URKAG FTQZQ ZODKB FMZAF TQDPA OGYQZ FIUFT FTQEM YQQZO DKBFU AZYQF TAPFT QUOAZ UZEQD FWQKU EMOFU HQIUF TUZFT QWQKQ ZFDKP UMXAS NAJFT UEUET QXBRG XQEBQ OUMXX KIUFT YADQO AYBXQ JWQKE 
Hint: The most frequently used character in English is "E". Determine the offset of the most frequently reoccurring character and "E".
For example, the character "G" is the most frequently used character in a text. "G" is the 7th character of the alphabet, "E" the 5th. 7 - 5 = 2.  The key is 2.
OTHERS:
AES(Advanced Encrpytion Standard)
Password Check
Password Generator
Matrix Screensaver
Taxman
Hashes
 
SALONI BHATIA
CS II YR

World's cheapest tablet launched

India's finally got its much hyped ultra-low-cost tablet, Aakash. The government is buying the first units of the device for Rs 2250 each from a British company which is assembling the devices in India. They will initially be given to students for free in a pilot run of 100,000 units. 


"The rich have access to the digital world, the poor and ordinary have been excluded. Aakashwill end that digital divide," Telecoms and Education Minister Kapil Sibal said. 


The tablet runs on Android 2.2 (Froyo) and comes with a 7-inch resistive touch screen with 800x480 resolution and weighs 350 gram. The tablet has a 256 MB of RAM, a 32 GB expandable memory slot and two USB ports. 


The tablet comes with a 12-month replacement warranty and supports formats like DOC, DOCX, PDF and PPTX etc. Aakash has standard 3.5 mm headphones jack. 


The tablet has a 2100mAh battery which can reportedly last for 2-3 hours depending on the usage. The device is also said to be completely made in India, as according to a review, a sticker at the back emphasises the fact. Aakash also reportedly packs some pre-loaded apps, however, lacks the Android Market Place. 


DataWind, the British-based company that developed the tablet, said the cost would drop when mass production begins. The tablet will be commercially available from November for Rs 2999. The commercial version of the tablet would have no duty waivers or subsidy, as in the government's version and come with added features like an inbuilt cellular modem and SIM to access internet. 


Initial reactions to the Aakash were mixed, with the mainly middle-class technology students saying it needed refinement but was a good option for the poor. 





Ankita Pande
CS -3rd year

THE GLASSES THAT CAN FIND ANYTHING

You know the feeling. Call it a senior moment, absent-mindedness or a sign of what a busy active brain you have. We’ve all asked ourselves that irritating question: “Where on earth did I leave my car keys?”


Now a team of Japanese scientists claim to have come up with the answer. And the secretive artificial intelligence project codenamed Smart Goggle does not stop at elusive keys. With Yasuo Kuniyoshi’s invention balanced on your nose, nothing – be it the remote control, mobile phone or iPod – should ever go missing again.
Simply tell the glasses what you are looking for and it will play into your eye a video of the last few seconds you saw that item.


Built on to the glasses is a tiny camera which makes a constant record of everything the wearer sees: the tiny display inside the glasses identifies what is being scanned and a small readout instantly announces what the computer thinks the object probably is. For some things that look different from a range of angles, however, the glasses offer only a “best guess” – they are better at identifying a guitar and a chair than a coathanger or battery.


The hardware itself is not extraordinary: what has taken Professor Kuniyoshi several years to perfect is the computer algorithm that allows the goggles to know immediately what they are seeing. It is, he says, a problem that has always vexed the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence.


But working in a team with Tatsuya Harada, one of Japan’s masters of the science of “fuzzy logic”, Mr Kuniyoshi believes he has cracked the problem. Behind the goggles is possibly the world’s most advanced object recognition software and a computer that can learn the identity of new objects within seconds.
So if the user wanders round the house for about an hour telling the goggles the name of everything from that coathanger to the kitchen sink, they will remember. Then if, at some point in the future, you ask them where you last saw a particular item, they will play the appropriate footage.
Professor Kuniyoshi has even greater ambitions for his software, ambitions that owe a lot to the visual display of the Terminator of science fiction. He describes his goggles as the ultimate connection between the real world and the cyber world and believes that they could eventually be loaded with vast quantities of data from the internet.
With that database installed, the glasses might actually know much more about what the wearer is seeing than the wearer himself – species of animal, technical specifications of vehicles and electronics, or even the identity of people. In a demonstration, the professor showed how the user might, for example, gaze at a selection of unknown flowers and the glasses would say which were begonias, which were ferns and which were pansies.


Although the experimental model, shown exclusively to The Timesyesterday, is still too bulky for daily use, the team at the Tokyo University School of Information Science and Technology are confident that it can soon be miniaturised. It could even, they suggest, be small enough to look little different from a normal pair of glasses.

SUHANI MISHRA

CSE - II Yr

The HTC Thunderbolt

HTC Android smartphones including the Evo 3D, the Evo 4G, and the Thunderbolt contain a flaw that gives Internet-connected apps installed on the devices access to personal information such as text message data, location info, e-mail addresses, and phone numbers, according to a trio of security researchers.



Researcher Artem Russakovskii says that he, Justin Case, and Trevor Eckhart have discovered a vulnerability involving logging tools that HTC recently installed on the devices during a software update.
Such tools, Russakovskii writes, might normally be used for remote analysis of problems on a device, among other things. But the problem here is that, because of this purportedly misguided update, "any app on affected devices that requests a single android.permission.INTERNET (which is normal for any app that connects to the Web or shows ads)" can, Russakovskii says, get access to:
"the list of user accounts, including email addresses...
last known network and GPS locations and a limited previous history of locations
phone numbers from the phone log
SMS data, including phone numbers and encoded text (not sure yet if it's possible to decode it, but very likely)
system logs (both kernel/dmesg and app/logcat), which includes everything your running apps do and is likely to include email addresses, phone numbers, and other private info"
For now, the only way for users to address the issue is to wait for a fix from HTC or to jailbreak the phone and remove the logging tools, according to Russakovskii. He advises owners of the devices to be especially vigilant about downloading suspicious apps.
Russakovskii says the trio contacted HTC about the problem on September 24, waited five business days, and then went public when they hadn't heard back. "As far as we know, HTC is now looking into the issue, but no statement has been issued yet," he writes.
Vulnerable devices, according to Russakovskii, might also include the Evo Shift 4G, the MyTouch 4G Slide, the upcoming Vigor, some Sensations, and "most likely others."
"It's like leaving your keys under the mat and expecting nobody who finds them to unlock the door," Russakovskii says.

GHAZAL AHUJA
III rd year
CSE

Supercomputer Performs Laser Cancer Surgery:

Lonestar, a supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) recently performed a laser cancer surgery on a dog without the intervention of a surgeon. The operation was done in Houston without the intervention of a human surgeon while the Lonestar supercomputer, a Dell Linux Cluster with 5,840 processors, was in Austin.

The treatment was developed collaboratively by computational experts from UT-Austin, cyberinfrastructure specialists and systems from TACC, and leading technologists from the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Using precise lasers, state-of-the-art thermal imaging technology, and advanced computational methods, dynamic, data-driven treatments are being pursued as a minimally invasive alternative to the standard treatment of cancer.

The procedure was the culmination of three years of research and development into the algorithms, computer codes, imaging technology, and cyberinfrastructure that would allow a supercomputer in Austin to perform a minimally invasive laser treatment on a canine in Houston, without the intervention of a surgeon. The scientists took a collective breath.

“We had a fifteen minute window in which a million things had to go right for this treatment to be successful,” explained David Fuentes, a post-doctoral student at The University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES), and the central developer of the project. “There had to be no flaw, no silly bug, everything had to go perfectly. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, you add the complexity of a living animal. This is a pretty formidable problem.”

The technology is just in the early experimental stage, but it looks promising. It’s a long process before these protocols are made robust and have wide-spread use in human subjects. But this is a step along a path that will be followed.

Neelam Bhavnani

CS 2nd year