Joseph Tuzo graduated from UMBC this past May with a B.S. in Computer Science. His research projects included analyzing the dynamics of simulated roadway traffic in order to reduce commute times, and work with UMBC's MAPLE Lab on the Playing to Program (P2P) Project. To learn more about Joseph's research pursuits, read his research profile.

Ruling limits use of statistical reasoning in legal arguments

A UK judge in murder trial ruled that Bayes' Theorem and similar statistical analyses can no longer be used to argue for the soundness of evidence in such trials. The Guardian has the story, A formula for justice.

"It's not often that the quiet world of mathematics is rocked by a murder case. But last summer saw a trial that sent academics into a tailspin, and has since swollen into a fevered clash between science and the law.
    At its heart, this is a story about chance. And it begins with a convicted killer, "T", who took his case to the court of appeal in 2010. Among the evidence against him was a shoeprint from a pair of Nike trainers, which seemed to match a pair found at his home. While appeals often unmask shaky evidence, this was different. This time, a mathematical formula was thrown out of court. The footwear expert made what the judge believed were poor calculations about the likelihood of the match, compounded by a bad explanation of how he reached his opinion. The conviction was quashed.
    But more importantly, as far as mathematicians are concerned, the judge also ruled against using similar statistical analysis in the courts in future. It's not the first time that judges have shown hostility to using formulae. But the real worry, say forensic experts, is that the ruling could lead to miscarriages of justice."

A group of UK academics, statisticians, forensic scientists and lawyers have been formed to try to address the problem bad statistical arguments in the courts. "We want to do what people failed to do in the past, which is really get the legal profession and statisticians and probability guys understanding each other's language."

Bayesian networks have become widely used in computing and information systems to model and reason about uncertainty and as prt of the foundation for artificial intelligence, machine learning and data mining.

Ruling limits use of statistical reasoning in legal arguments

A UK judge in murder trial ruled that Bayes' Theorem and similar statistical analyses can no longer be used to argue for the soundness of evidence in such trials. The Guardian has the story, A formula for justice.

"It's not often that the quiet world of mathematics is rocked by a murder case. But last summer saw a trial that sent academics into a tailspin, and has since swollen into a fevered clash between science and the law.
    At its heart, this is a story about chance. And it begins with a convicted killer, "T", who took his case to the court of appeal in 2010. Among the evidence against him was a shoeprint from a pair of Nike trainers, which seemed to match a pair found at his home. While appeals often unmask shaky evidence, this was different. This time, a mathematical formula was thrown out of court. The footwear expert made what the judge believed were poor calculations about the likelihood of the match, compounded by a bad explanation of how he reached his opinion. The conviction was quashed.
    But more importantly, as far as mathematicians are concerned, the judge also ruled against using similar statistical analysis in the courts in future. It's not the first time that judges have shown hostility to using formulae. But the real worry, say forensic experts, is that the ruling could lead to miscarriages of justice."

A group of UK academics, statisticians, forensic scientists and lawyers have been formed to try to address the problem bad statistical arguments in the courts. "We want to do what people failed to do in the past, which is really get the legal profession and statisticians and probability guys understanding each other's language."

Bayesian networks have become widely used in computing and information systems to model and reason about uncertainty and as prt of the foundation for artificial intelligence, machine learning and data mining.

This year, October 7 has been designated as Ada Lovelace Day, a day to honor Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace. She is widely regarded as the first computer programmer for her work with Charles Babbage who developed an early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine.

ReadWriteWeb commemorated the day with a story on the Women Who Made Google Plus and profiled twenty-two of the  Googlers:

"Launched on June 28th and just opened to the public at large late last month, Google Plus is a feature-rich social network with variable privacy and sharing settings at the core of its experience. Who were the women involved in building such a big, important technology? We asked, on Google Plus, and were told about twenty two of them profiled below. They are an incredibly accomplished group of people and a great source of inspiration for young women interested in science and technology – or for anyone else who could use some powerful role models. You should share this list of women with the girls in your life, though, that's what Ada Lovelace Day is all about."

You can visit their public G+ profiles and see more about who they are and what they do. The article points out that the 22 profiled are just some of the women who helped to build and launch this new and successful application.  

Many former UMBC students work at Google or have done internships there.  If you are interested in either, you can explore the opportunities at Google's pages for internships and jobs.

If you are interested in machne learning you might check out the  American Meteorological Society  Wind Power Prediction Contest.  It is sponsored by the AMS Committee on AI Applications to Environmental Science, Energy, and Probability and Statistics.  The goal is to compare various statistical learning techniques to predict wind power production. This contest considers a wind farm consisting of 53 turbines located in northern Colorado. The objective is to forecast the wind power for the wind farm (sum of the power from the 53 turbines). The inputs are forecast variables from several Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models, both from the National Center for Environmental Prediction and NCAR's high resolution WRF forecast. Training data are currently available on the download site, and the test data will be available in November.

The contest consists of two parts: (1) a day-ahead forecasting contest and (2) a short-term (one-, two-, and three-hour) contest. Participants are welcome to enter either or both parts of the contests. The AMS welcome entries from professionals to students, but registration is required by November 15. Entrants names will be kept blind – they must register an abstract to present a poster at AMS, then winners will be notified of an invitation to present a talk at the January AMS Annual Meeting in Atlanta. The AMS expects to solicit prize money, which will be announced on the website at a later time.

Cybersecurity Guest Lecture

An Evening With General Michael Hayden, USAF (Ret.)

6:00-8:00pm Thursday, 27 Oct. 2011
Room 102, Information Technology and Engineering

UMBC is proud to announce this opportunity for students and faculty to meet with General Hayden to hear his perspectives and discuss current issues regarding cybersecurity. The evening is sponsored by Next Century Corporation.

Former NSA and CIA director General Michael Hayden will discuss the evolution of technology from World War II to the present and outline the challenges this evolution presents to national security organizations. He will address the timely issues of cybersecurity and cyberwarfare, stress the role of education in preparing the intelligence community workforce to deal with cyber concerns, and share anecdotal stories of his time as Director of both the CIA and NSA in meeting these challenges facing the nation. General Hayden is happy to answer questions and make this an engaging, informative, and interactive evening.

Refreshments will be furnished by Next Century Corporation.

RSVP REQUIRED: Space is limited, with preference given to graduate CYBR, CSEE, and IS students and faculty. Please RSVP to Allison Jones (Sorry, you need javascript to view this email address. ) by October 25th if you plan to attend.

General Michael Hayden, USAF (Ret.), served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency and was the nation’s first Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence. He retired from the CIA in February 2009, and is now a Principal in the Chertoff Group, a security consultancy co-founded by former Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff. General Hayden also serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at George Mason University School of Public Policy and in an advisory capacity to several organizations focused on national security.

General Hayden retired from a distinguished thirty-nine year career in the United States Air Force on July 1, 2008. In addition to his senior intelligence community assignments, he served as Commander of the Air Intelligence Agency, Director of the Joint Command and Control Warfare Center, and Chief of the Central Security Service.

General Hayden graduated from Duquesne University with a Bachelor’s degree in history in 1967 and a Master’s degree in modern American history in 1969.

Do you know the right programming languages? Depending on your objective, the most important one to know might be Java, Python, PhP, C, or even Haskell.

IEEE Spectrum has a short article on The Top 10 Programming Languages that is based on data from David Welton's Programming Languages Popularity site which "attempts to collect a variety of data about the relative popularity of programming languages"

Do you know the right programming languages? Depending on your objective, the most important one to know might be Java, Python, PhP, C, or even Haskell.

IEEE Spectrum has a short article on The Top 10 Programming Languages that is based on data from David Welton's Programming Languages Popularity site which "attempts to collect a variety of data about the relative popularity of programming languages"

Photo Courtesy Jim Wilson/The New York Times

According to a New York Times article Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO of Apple, died on Wednesday of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 56.

Mr. Jobs’ death occurred just one day after the release of the highly anticipated iPhone 4S.

On August 24, 2011, Mr. Jobs resigned as CEO of Apple Inc. because of his illness. “I have always said that if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s C.E.O., I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come,” said Jobs in a letter released by the company.

An obituary on Apple’s website reads: “Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.”

To read about Mr. Jobs’ life and his work developing what is now the largest technology company in the world, see the full New York Times   article.

Got Linux? If you've ever wanted to try Linux but didn't know where to start, bring your computer to the Linux Installfest this Friday.

The UMBC Linux Users Group will hold a Linux Install Fest from 10:30am to 4:30pm on Friday 7 October on Main Street in the Commons. Experts from the Linux Users Group will help you install a free copy of Linux on your computer as a multi-boot operating system on your computer. They can help you to ensure that your hardware, including wireless, fingerprint reader, and webcam, is working. At the Fall 2011 installfest, they will be installing Ubuntu version 11.04. If you would like assistance installing a different release or distribution, bring install media.

If you are bringing a laptop, bring the AC adapter or charger. If you are bringing a desktop, then bring power cables, a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, too. If you will be dual-booting with Windows, please defragment your C: drive before attending the installfest. This increases the maximum size of your Linux partition. Finally, back up your data. The LUG will make all attempts to keep your data intact, but there's always the slim chance that something will go wrong.  See the LUG site for more information.