A team of researchers has developed a verification method to detect software bugs in surgical robots, ensuring their safety and effectiveness. The method, based on theorem-proving techniques, identified a critical flaw in the control algorithm for a robot assisting skull-base surgery, allowing the development of a new safe algorithm.
Kevin Zollman, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University, has received a $400,000 NSF CAREER Award to investigate the economic factors influencing scientific problem choice and funding incentives. He aims to develop tools for policymakers to evaluate the effectiveness of different incentive systems.
A camera embedded in a rubber-sheathed plastic foam football can record video while in flight, providing a unique ball's-eye view of the field. The researchers developed a computer algorithm that converts raw video into a stable, wide-angle view.
A new open-source tool, Pipeline, helps leaders manage complex collaborative projects by redistributing leadership responsibilities and tasks. It enables leaders to trust certain individuals with more authority while maintaining accountability.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University identified a biological marker, telomere length, that predicts resistance to the common cold in young and midlife adults. Telomeres shorten as people age, but their length also becomes a predictor of disease susceptibility starting at around age 22.
Researchers found that brain regions responsible for making decisions continue to be active even when the conscious brain is distracted, leading to better decision-making. The study suggests that our brains unconsciously process decision information in ways that improve effective problem-solving and decision-making.
A study analyzing data from an international songwriting challenge revealed that common interests or skills do not cause collaborators to seek each other out. Instead, writers in one genre tend to collaborate with those in a less familiar genre. The researchers also found that work balance is crucial for collaboration success.
Leading crowd work researchers propose a research agenda to enhance collaboration, incorporate AI, and create career paths for workers. The plan aims to make crowd work attractive for the best workers and thinkers, reducing exploitation and increasing rewards.
Edmund Clarke, a pioneer in Model Checking, to receive the 2013 Einstein Professorship for strengthening exchanges between Western and Chinese scientists. The program enhances training of future generations of Chinese scientists through lectures, workshops, and interactions.
Researchers developed a grammar-aware password cracker that can bypass security with 10% of dataset cracked exclusively by the team's algorithm. The study highlights the importance of using different parts of speech in passwords, as pronouns are far fewer in number than other words.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University discovered that when one brain area is injured, a 'back-up' team of secondary brain areas immediately activates, replacing the unavailable area and its confederates. This allows individuals to continue functioning after key brain areas have been damaged.
Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute will design, build and deploy mining robots, robotic tools and autonomous technologies for Anglo American PLC. The partnership aims to improve productivity through innovations in processes and technologies, enhancing safety and increasing efficiency in the mining industry.
A method for detecting where people's gazes converge has been developed by Carnegie Mellon researchers, allowing robots to better understand social interactions. The system uses crowdsourcing to provide subjective information about social groups that would otherwise be difficult or impossible for a robot to ascertain.
A new five-tiered testing system, called the Tiered Protocol for Endocrine Disruption (TiPED), can help manufacturers avoid creating products with harmful endocrine disrupting chemicals. The researchers hope that chemists and companies will incorporate these tests at the early stages of product development to create safer products.
A robotic laser system developed by Carnegie Mellon University and CTC uses high-powered lasers to remove coatings from fighter and cargo aircraft. The system promises to reduce labor, waste volume, environmental risk, and overall cost, making it an environmentally superior alternative to traditional methods.
Two Carnegie Mellon teams, Tartan Rescue Team and Team Steel, have been selected to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge, a competition where robots will respond to disaster scenarios in human-engineered environments. The ultimate winning team will receive a $2 million prize and advance robotics development across all fields.
Research by Carnegie Mellon University neuroscientists reveals that autistic adults exhibit poor response reliability in sensory systems, including vision, hearing, and touch. This fundamental neural characteristic may contribute to behavioral changes and social interactions difficulties in autism.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a system that converts speech input into passwords, reducing the risk of fraudsters obtaining voice biometric data. The system uses different mathematical functions to generate hundreds of alphanumeric strings, providing an additional level of security.
A study by Carnegie Mellon University reveals that biogenic particles formed from pine tree emissions are chemically transformed by free radicals, altering their properties and concentrations. This finding can help improve climate and air quality prediction models and enable regulatory agencies to make more effective decisions.
Researchers developed visual data mining software to detect subtle city-specific features in Google Street View images. The software identified unique elements such as cast-iron balconies in Paris and fire escapes in New York City, which can be used for computational geography tasks.
A new tool enables anyone to easily access 13 years of NASA Landsat images, allowing for seamless zooming and time-travel exploration. The enhanced access facilitates discoveries on deforestation, climate change, and environmental policy.
A new study led by Carnegie Mellon University found that mindfulness meditation training decreases loneliness in older adults. The research also showed that the training lowered inflammation levels and altered gene expression, suggesting a promising approach for reducing disease risk in older adults.
A new study by George Loewenstein and Linda Dezsö reveals the pitfalls of personal loans. Borrowers often exhibit self-serving biases when it comes to loans, leading to misunderstandings and negative repercussions. Delinquent loans can cause significant harm to relationships.
Carnegie Mellon's Marcel Just has made significant advancements in understanding how the brain processes information. He will give a keynote lecture on 'Changing Brains for Changing Times' at the Society for Text and Discourse's annual meeting, discussing how cultural and educational influences shape brain capabilities.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute have developed a smart headlight system that reduces glare caused by rain and snow. The system uses a camera to track raindrops and adjusts the light projection accordingly, eliminating 70-80% of visible rain during heavy storms.
New research from Carnegie Mellon University reveals parents are 52% less likely to develop a cold than non-parents when exposed to a common cold virus. The study found that parenthood has a positive effect on health, with parents experiencing reduced risk of illness regardless of the number of children they have.
Red Whittaker, a pioneer in mobile autonomous robotics, has been awarded the 2012 IEEE Simon Ramo Medal. He has developed over 60 robots that can work in challenging environments, including contaminated nuclear plants, abandoned mines, and active volcanoes.
Tiramisu Transit LLC, a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff, has received Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I funding to commercialize its smartphone application enabling real-time bus schedule and seating information. The team plans to identify sustainable business models for crowd-sourced transit systems.
A research team led by Carnegie Mellon University has identified a major source of the US math achievement gap: inadequate knowledge of fractions and division. Fifth graders' understanding of these concepts predicted high school students' algebra knowledge and overall math achievement after controlling for other factors.
A new study reveals that kinship categories across languages reflect general principles of communication, including a trade-off between simplicity and informativeness. The study found that languages use only a handful of the vast number of logically possible kinship categories, with English and Mandarin Chinese using two and four terms...
Researchers found that our brains use valence perception to guide decision-making, influencing our choices and behavior. The study's findings can be used to improve consumer marketing decisions and increase user engagement on online platforms.
Distributed sensemaking enables people to tap into the collective knowledge of others to better understand and organize online information. By analyzing digital knowledge maps, researchers found that users can save time and improve their work when they build upon previously created maps.
Carnegie Mellon and McGill researchers argue that current research ethics frameworks fail to prevent biased evidence in phase IV drug trials. They propose policy options to expand FDA review authority and empower oversight systems to detect scientific bias.
Touché, a new sensing technique, monitors capacitive signals across a broad range of frequencies to detect complex touch events and recognize body configurations. This enables objects to sense how they are being touched, enhancing everyday interactions.
The Livehoods project uses foursquare check-ins to map a city's neighborhoods, reflecting both geography and the people who frequent them. Researchers found diverse communities within neighborhoods, shedding light on urban dynamics.
Luis von Ahn is being recognized for his pioneering work on crowdsourcing and human computation. His research has enabled humans and computers to solve complex problems together, with applications in image recognition and computer security.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and AT&T found that a vibrating steering wheel reduces driver distraction by 4-9% compared to traditional GPS systems. The study suggests personalizing sensory feedback based on age may improve driver performance and safety.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered how dendritic cells exchange information during their coordinated assault on invading pathogens. The team used a new pH-biosensor to visualize the mechanism behind antigen transfer in the immune system, revealing an active endocytic process.
Chronic psychological stress is associated with a loss of ability to regulate inflammatory response, promoting disease development. Inflammation plays a key role in various diseases like cardiovascular and autoimmune disorders.
A recent study published in PLOS Medicine argues that the use of cash incentives to promote healthy behaviors may not be as problematic as previously thought. The authors suggest that when incentives are used to encourage people to engage in activities they are already familiar with and likely to benefit from, ethical concerns may be m...
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon and Stanford are expanding the EteRNA project with a $1 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, allowing them to test thousands of RNA designs each month. The online game has identified talented players who can generate important scientific insights.
Researchers found that politically sensitive terms, such as Falun Gong and human rights activists, were frequently deleted from messages at varying rates based on current events or geography. High deletion rates were observed in certain provinces, particularly Tibet, where up to 53% of locally generated microblogs were deleted.
Researchers used brain imaging and computer modeling to show how the brain's white matter tracts are altered in autism, affecting brain function and behavior. The findings give scientists clear targets for developing intervention and treatment therapies.
A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University has identified the neural mechanisms behind selecting what to visually attend to. They found that different regions in the brain communicate through white matter connections, allowing individuals to filter out irrelevant information.
A study at Carnegie Mellon University found that Twitter users rate only 36% of tweets as worthwhile, while 39% elicit no strong opinion. The researchers identified nine lessons for improving tweet content, including keeping it short and providing context.
Ziv Bar-Joseph, a Carnegie Mellon University professor, has received the Overton Prize for his outstanding contributions to computational biology. He has made significant breakthroughs in gene regulatory networks and their applications to cancer cells.
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered that manganese completely protects against Shiga toxicosis in animal models. The findings suggest that manganese could be a promising treatment for neutralizing the effects of Shiga toxin in humans, offering an affordable solution to this deadly infection.
A study published in the Journal of Behavioral Decision Making found that people tend to overestimate their willingness to engage in embarrassing public performances. However, inducing immediate emotions can help reduce this illusion of courage. The research has practical implications for understanding human behavior and decision-making.
A multidisciplinary team at Carnegie Mellon University will develop software to enable doctors to diagnose diseases using a patient's DNA sequence. The project aims to create a tool that can analyze the vast amount of information in the human genome and identify disease susceptibility and treatment responsiveness.
Manuela Veloso, a prominent AI and robotics researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, has been named an Einstein Chair Professor by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. As an Einstein Chair Professor, Veloso will present lectures on symbiotic autonomy, a concept she pioneered, which enables robots to proactively ask for help from humans.