Analog computers were a hot idea — in the 1950s! But I find this intriguing because I’ve come around to the position that a lot of our human “intelligence” is the result of acquiring and using probabilistic models. So supporting this in hardware might be a big win, especially for low-cost, low-power devices. It will also support lots of other common tasks in social computing, image processing and language technology.

Technology review has a short article, A New Kind of Microchip, on computer chip being developed by Lyric Semiconductor that process signals representing probabilities rather than digital bits.

“A computer chip that performs calculations using probabilities, instead of binary logic, could accelerate everything from online banking systems to the flash memory in smart phones and other gadgets. … And because that kind of math is at the core of many products, there are many potential applications. “To take one example, Amazon’s recommendations to you are based on probability,” says Vigoda. “Any time you buy [from] them, the fraud check on your credit card is also probability [based], and when they e-mail your confirmation, it passes through a spam filter that also uses probability.”

All those examples involve comparing different data to find the most likely fit. Implementing the math needed to do this is simpler with a chip that works with probabilities, says Vigoda, allowing smaller chips to do the same job at a faster rate. A processor that dramatically speeds up such probability-based calculations could find all kinds of uses.”

Lyric’s chip is called LEC and is 30 times smaller in size than current digital error correction technology according to Wired. Although small it yields “a Pentium’s worth of computation,” according to Lyric CEO Vigoda. His 2003 dissertation at MIT was on a related topic, Analog Logic: Continuous-Time Analog Circuits for Statistical Signal Processing.

Ivan and I working on the Flat Tuesdays logo in Flat Tuesdays.

For the past twenty years, UMBC has had a large number of student majoring in information technology. Our Computer Science and Information Systems programs are among the largest on campus and newer ones like Computer Engineering and Bioinformatics are growing.

Last week I had a chance to look at the latest information from the Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, which is available from NSF’s WebCASPAR site. Data from the IPEDS Completions Survey shows that UMBC is fourth among U.S. research universities in the production of IT degrees and certificates.

In this analysis, I averaged the numbers from the two most recent years available — 2007 and 2008. Here are the top ten in terms of total production in the Carnegie classification categories RU/VH and RU/H.

In this group, UMBC also ranks #2, #21 and #31 for undergraduate, MS and PhD degree production, respectively. Here’s a graph of the top 50 — click through for a larger version.

Looking at all schools shows the University of Phoenix generates the most IT grads, with an average of 3318 students over 2007 and 2008! Here are the top 15 schools of any type.

Currently bobbing our heads to - Can I Kick It? by A Tribe Called Quest

People are still getting used to the new myUMBC and finding things we've missed, so we spent most of the day fixing problems and answering questions.  We do have a few updates though:

• What's New - We've put together a short guide of many of the new features of myUMBC.  It is by no means complete, but should be enough to show you places you might want to explore.  Check it out
• Admin Tools - While you may not see all of them because of your role, myUMBC contains references to hundreds of resources throughout the UMBC web and beyond.  To help us manage the chaos, we're constantly creating and refining custom tools.  You may never see these tools, but they're vital for us to be able to keep track of what shows where and to whom.
• Bug fixes and tweaks
• Custom background colors should be seen more consistently throughout myUMBC.
• Fixing broken and missing links from topic pages.
• Tons of typos and text tweaks.
• Something New - We're in the early planning stages of a way for you to "follow" content in myUMBC, so you're kept up to date on any changes or comments.  This feature would also allow you to follow a group without having to become a member.   Stay tuned.

- Collier

commonvision website development

2007