Photo by Lara Swimmer University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering and Electrical Engineering Computer Engineering and the UW Experimental Computer Engineering Lab (ExCEL) Fall 2010 Computer Engineering at UW Departments of Computer Science & Engineering (CSE) and Electrical Engineering (EE) Three years ago, the UW Departments of Computer Science & Engineering and Electrical Engineering created an initiative — the UW Experimental Computer Engineering Lab (ExCEL) — to facilitate broad collaboration between the departments along the computer engineering boundary. Key to this initiative was our intention to make six new joint hires in computer engineering. We are very excited at our progress; here we announce our third joint computer engineering hire: in early 2011, Josh Smith, currently at Intel Research, will join our two departments. Josh, who works in wireless sensing systems and robotics, will complement our previous ExCEL hires Shwetak Patel (whose research includes sensors and ubiquitous computing) and Georg Seelig (whose research focuses on synthetic biology), along with numerous other computer engineers in the two departments. We are intending to continue to grow the program with more hires over the next few years. Areas of interest include nanotechnology, implantable and biologically interfaced devices, synthetic molecular engineering, VLSI, embedded systems, sensor systems, parallel computing, network systems, and technology for the developing world. We highlight here the work of our new hires as well as some of the ongoing computer engineering research at the University of Washington. Henry M. Levy Leung Tsang Chairman and Wissner-Slivka Chair Chairman Computer Science & Engineering Electrical Engineering Highlights of Current Computer Engineering Research at the University of Washington Recent Hires Shwetak Patel, Assistant Professor (CSE/EE); Georg Seelig, Assistant Professor (EE/CSE); Joshua R. Smith, Associate Professor (CSE/EE) Sensing and Energy Sustainability Shwetak Patel, Assistant Professor (CSE/EE) Battery-Free Micropower Sensing Brian Otis, Assistant Professor (EE); Joshua R. Smith, Associate Professor (CSE/EE) Synthetic Biology Eric Klavins, Associate Professor (EE); Georg Seelig, Assistant Professor (CSE/EE) Sensorimotor Neural Engineering Yoky Matsuoka, Associate Professor (CSE); Raj Rao, Associate Professor (CSE) Low Power Analog/RFIC Research Brian Otis, Assistant Professor (EE); Chris Rudell, Associate Professor (EE) Next-Generation Reconfigurable Hardware Carl Ebeling, Professor (CSE); Scott Hauck, Professor (EE) Engineered Self-Assembly Karl Bohringer, Professor (EE); Eric Klavins, Associate Professor (EE); Babak Parviz, Associate Professor (EE) Technology for the Developing World Richard Anderson, Professor (CSE); Gaetano Borriello, Professor (CSE) Security and Privacy for Emerging Technologies Tadayoshi Kohno, Assistant Professor (CSE); Radha Poovendran, Associate Professor (EE) Deterministic Execution for Multicore Systems Luis Ceze, Assistant Professor (CSE); Susan Eggers, Professor (CSE); Steve Gribble, Associate Professor (CSE); Dan Grossman, Associate Professor (CSE); Mark Oskin, Professor (CSE) Recent Hires in Computer Engineering Shwetak Patel, Assistant Professor, was the first faculty member to join the Experimental Computer Engineering Lab (ExCEL) in 2008. His general research interests are in the areas of human- computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, and user interface software and technology. He is particularly interested in developing easy-to-deploy sensing technologies and approaches for location and activity recognition applications. He is also interested in exploring novel interaction techniques for mobile devices, mobile sensing systems, and low power wireless sensor technologies. Patel’s most recent research has been in building a new class of low-cost and easy-to- deploy sensing systems for the home, called infrastructure mediated sensing, which leverages existing utility infrastructures in a home to support whole-house sensing. In 2009, Patel was honored by Technology Review as a TR35 recipient. He received his PhD in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2008 and BS in Computer Science in 2003. Georg Seelig, Assistant Professor, joined the CSE and EE faculty in Spring 2009, as part of ExCEL. Seelig received his Diploma in Physics from the University of Basel in 1999 and his PhD in Theoretical Physics from the University of Geneva in 2003. Prior to joining UW, he held a postdoc in synthetic biology at Caltech. In 2007, he received a Career Award at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Seelig is interested in understanding how biological organisms process information using complex biochemical networks and how such networks can be engineered to program cellular behavior. The focus of his research is the identification of systematic design rules for the de novo construction of biological control circuits with DNA and RNA components. His approach integrates the design of molecular circuitry in the test tube and in the cell with the investigation of existing biological pathways like the microRNA pathway. Such engineered circuits and circuit elements are being applied to problems in disease diagnostics and therapy. Joshua R. Smith, Associate Professor, joins the CSE and EE departments in February 2011. He has been with nearby Intel Labs Seattle, collaborating with many UW students and faculty, from 2004-2010. He holds PhD and S.M. degrees from MIT, an M.A. in Physics from Cambridge University, and B.A. degrees in Computer Science and Philosophy from Williams College. Smith is interested in all aspects of sensor systems, including creating novel sensor systems, powering them wirelessly, and using them in applications such as robotics, ubiquitous computing, and human-computer interaction. Previously, he co-invented an electric field sensing system for suppressing unsafe airbag firing that is included in every Honda car. At Intel, he has led research projects in the areas of wireless power and robotics. Sensing and Energy Sustainability Shwetak Patel In an effort to contribute to the nation’s goal of reducing our overall energy use, researchers at UW’s Computer Science & Engineering department are applying their expertise in sensing, embedded systems, and human-computer interaction in creating solutions to help better inform consumers of their energy use and encourage more sustainable activities. Over the last few years, Dr. Patel and his research lab have been developing the next generation smart grid technology for the home. Reducing the use of energy and water is one way homeowners can do their part to decrease pollution and slow global warming. Monitoring utility demand has not been easy or affordable for the general public or utilities until now. Patel and his team have developed sensor systems that allow on-line monitoring of water, electricity, and gas use by recognizing the unique ‘signature’ given off by every faucet, toilet, appliance and electronic device in the home. Using this system, residents can track their electricity and water consumption, and, for instance, take advantage of off-peak power rates. That data can also be fed back to the consumers to help them better understand their own consumption. At the heart of the team’s utility monitoring system is a novel pattern recognition technology that, once calibrated, can identify individual components of a home’s plumbing or electrical system. The beauty of the system is that the homeowner only needs to install one pressure sensor, usually at the outside hose faucet or water heater drain valve. The entire home’s water usage can then be tracked down to the use of each fixture. The signal recognition software is smart enough to distinguish between two or more simultaneous events, such as two different faucets Hydrosense sensor being turned on at the same time. Similar technology has been developed to monitor electrical systems. As with the water sensor, a single sensor plugged into a conventional wall outlet will detect a variety of electrical events throughout the home, each of which has its own unique electrical noise signal. Machine learning techniques allow the monitoring system to distinguish between each light switch, home appliance or electronic device. Battery-Free Micropower Sensing Brian Otis and Joshua R. Smith The power consumption of microelectronic devices has recently crossed a threshold: wireless sensing systems can now power themselves by harvesting energy from ambient sources such as broadcast TV towers or by using RFID readers as wireless power sources. Realizing the promise of this new low-power, battery-free regime requires a combination of low-power circuit design and power harvesting. The collaboration of Professors Otis and Smith brings these two perspectives together to create exciting new capabilities. Professor Smith and students began exploring RFID-powered sensors with their Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform (WISP). WISP is a platform for sensing and computation that is powered and read by long range UHF RFID readers. They built the first accelerometer sensing system to be wirelessly powered and read by UHF radio waves, which propagate long distances. Beyond sensing applications, security researchers are using WISP to implement cryptographic protocols that cannot be implemented in standard RFID tags. The first workshop on WISP was held in Berkeley, CA in 2009, and in 2011 Springer will publish a collection of WISP-related