Margaret Hamilton

     This Tuesday, President Obama awarded Margaret Hamilton a Presidential Medal of Freedom; the highest civilian honor in the US. Hamilton, now 80 years old, was awarded for her incredible accomplishments in working on space mission Apollo 11 that landed the first man on the moon.

     Hamilton began studying math at Earlham College and subsequently took a programming job at MIT, where she found her passion for Computer Science. She initially assisted with a missile defense system, until MIT received the request to begin work on software for the Apollo 11 mission. She then focused her team on creating programs that would alert the astronauts if the computer processors became overloaded, and to respond to this situation by prioritizing different tasks in an attempt to sustain functionality of the aircraft in crisis and, ideally, save those on-board. This software came in quite handy when the alarm sounded minutes before landing. Instead of aborting the mission completely at the sound of the alarm, the software prioritized the most critical tasks and the astronauts were able to safely land the vessel. As the President eloquently stated when bestowing this award upon her, "Our astronauts didn't have much time, but thankfully they had Margaret Hamilton."

     While Hamilton was largely recognized for her work making this space mission possible, she went on to make other revolutionary software that has enabled the use of technology as we know it. For example, she and her team at MIT went on to write code that created the framework for the first portable computer. Hamilton represents one of many women during this time that have often previously been forgotten in their contributions to Computer Science, as they were regularly labelled as "number crunchers" rather than software engineers.

Sources:
- https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2016/11/22/her-mission-was-space-and-software-and-now-she-has-presidential-medal-freedom/fr6Lzx4DPjY4HvKF0ufvhN/story.html

- http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38076123

New Language for Programming Efficient Simulations

    In a collaboration between MIT, Adobe, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Toronto, Texas A&M, and the University of Texas, researchers have developed a new programming language that improves the way simulation programs are designed. This new language, named Simit, is designed to cut the length of code required to produce a simulation while sustaining the desired level of complexity. In the graphics community, a persistent problem is finding balance between complexity and efficiency. For instance, in a research program that models a ball bouncing against obstacles, this trade-off might mean that instead of an advanced collision response algorithm, a simple reciprocal velocity model is implemented. While the collision response algorithm may make the simulation more complex and realistic, using simple reciprocal velocity will allow the simulation to run at a faster speed.

     These researchers are attempting to make this compromising issue nonexistent by only requiring the programmer to lay out the "translation between the graphical description of the system and the matrix description" once, and then allowing them to use the "language of linear algebra" to program the simulation further. In this way, Simit only reads instructions from linear algebra to the language of graphs instead of complex graphs to matrices and vice versa. (1)

     Another major challenge when looking at graphics programming is that each computer handles it differently. One model may run the simulation at unacceptably slow speeds, while another computer may run it at a perfect 60fps. Additionally, the simulation may have to be written in different languages to accommodate different systems. By creating a language specifically meant for graphics, Simit reduces this extra work when moving between systems. When Simit-run simulations were tested against the same simulation in different languages, Simit consistently performed better than its opponent - in fact, between 4 and 20 times as fast.

Sources:
1. https://www.eecs.mit.edu/news-events/media/user-friendly-language-programming-efficient-simulations
Images:
1. https://fossbytes.com/simit-new-programming-language-fast-computer-simulations/

Monitoring the Progression Parkinson's Disease with Computer Software

     Parkinson's disease is a very serious, incurable medical condition that affects a persons motor skills. It typically begins with a tremor, stiffness, and slow movement of the hands, and may progress to very serious disability and dementia. Though there is currently no cure for Parkinson's, early detection can lead to a better chance of stalling the symptoms with early drug and therapy treatment.

     Researchers at MIT have designed software that can help detect these symptoms early on, and can even monitor the progression of the disease as the person uses their device from day to day. These symptoms have been difficult to measure quantitatively, which makes it more difficult for doctors to accurately treat their patients without close, lengthy observation. The software works by measuring the time taken to press and release a key- which for an average healthy individual is usually consistently around 100 milliseconds- and analyzes that data to decide if the user is taking an abnormal amount of time pressing the keys or has a large fluctuation in times. This, in theory, may indicate stiffness or slow movement of hands which are key signs of Parkinson's. More often than not, this software would be used on already-diagnosed individuals to monitor the progression of their disease. If the data seems to indicate a fluctuation of symptoms, doctors may be able to use this information to adjust treatment plans. The software was tested with both healthy individuals (the control group) and those with an early stage of Parkinson's. The results showed that, as hypothesized, the healthy individuals were consistent with time taken to press a key while those with Parkinson's had varied data.

     4 million people worldwide suffer from this disease, which means that this new method of early detection is incredibly sought after and vital to improving the quality of life for so many. With quantitative data available to neurologists treating Parkinson's patients, they may be able to more accurately treat their symptoms and collect research that may lead to an improved medication or even a cure.


Sources:
- https://www.eecs.mit.edu/news-events/media/monitoring-parkinsons-symptoms-home
- http://www.orionpharma.co.uk/Products-and-Services-Orion/Parkinsons-disease/10-facts-about-Parkinsons-disease/

Images:
- https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4e/Computer_keyboard.png
- https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmCXvIUfDI-2NCAU2SztGKCT3VQhH7-8YeeX5TQG7uyWTf8tdmoGIlvB1qyEGpF_KWWmTWQVIhw2qXl1n5WCjYofCup7Pr8LbbJ2rzKTBUHDJtqJppSQ1CbgAMp1M-l3hg1wqOW-OucLY/s1600/parkinson.png

Facial Recognition Technology

     From unlocking your tech devices to automagically accessing your account on an ATM, facial recognition technology is becoming more and more prevalent by the day. Many tech companies are looking for ways to substitute the common written or typed character password with a more intuitive and personal form of identification. I looked at one of these methods in a previous blog post about fingerprint scanning (you can see more about this here). 

    Facial recognition as an alternative to character passwords is certainly the most common use in every-day life, but this technology is also used heavily in law enforcement. For instance, video capturing technology may be used to record the faces of those involved in criminal acts. Stills can be taken from the video, which can then be resized and interpreted as a 3D model of their physical features. Computer algorithms are used to determine many different quantitative aspects of the 3D model, such as distance between a persons eyes, the length of their nose, the shape of their facial features, and so many more. The more aspects taken into consideration means better accuracy when identifying the person in question. Once these calculations are run, the computer can compare this data with existing points in the system and ultimately decide whether an arbitrary closeness threshold is met. 

      This form of technology is not without its downfalls. Many consider it to be an invasion of privacy, as there is the possibility that the data collected could be used without the consent of the person photographed. The tech news site WeLiveSecurity reports that in a recent study, it was shown that around 75% of US consumers would not visit a store that openly used facial recognition technology for marketing purposes. This data shows that while facial recognition technology is making great leaps in innovation, the views of the general public may limit its use due to privacy concerns.

Sources

- http://www.welivesecurity.com/2015/08/24/facial-recognition-technology-work/

- http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/facial-recognition2.htm

- http://tinyurl.com/zgqocz9