University of Michigan

HP Labs buddies up with university researchers

Alpha Doggs — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:19:40 -0400

HP Labs has reviewed more than 450 proposals from 200 universities in 28 countries and chosen 41 projects from 34 institutions to receive HP Labs Innovation Awards. Among these, the University of California, San Diego project we just wrote about in which researchers are promoting the idea of using lots of clustered commodity Ethernet switches in such a way that you need a lot fewer 10G Ethernet switches.

Read more

Survey: Google tops in customer satisfaction

Google Subnet — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:54:27 -0400

Google is far and away the most satisfying search experience on the Web, according to the University of Michigan's annual American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). While it had dropped below Yahoo on the index last year, this year's survey shows Google surging ahead of all comers, garnering an unprecedented 86 on a scale of 100 for customer satisfaction.

In the survey, the e-business category also saw huge gains, with satisfaction across the board increasing by 6% to an all-time high of 79.3. Still, Google's rating was surprising. As the study authors say:

Read more

Bank Web sites full of security holes, University of Michigan survey finds

Alpha Doggs — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:08:11 -0400

Three out of four bank Web sites examined by the University of Michigan had at least one security vulnerability that could leave customers' at the mercy of cybercrooks (10 of the Worst Moments in Network Security).

Read more

Chase tornados, don't muss up your hair

Alpha Doggs — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:11:59 -0400

A new Web site lets you chase Tornados without risking life and limb.

The University of Michigan's Tornado Paths site allows visitors to zoom in on cities or step back and look at the United States as a whole to see where twisters hit each day (alas, none had hit in the past 24 hours...not that I was wishing anyone got whacked, just wanted to see what they looked like on the site).

Read more

Sensor microchip uses 30,000-times less power than conventional chips

Layer 8 — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:34:37 -0400

A low-power microchip uses 30,000 times less power in sleep mode and 10 times less in active mode than comparable chips now on the market.

Read more

Putting microchips under lock and key

Alpha Doggs — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:57:22 -0400

Researchers at the University of Michigan and Rice University have come up with a way to crooks from making counterfeit microchips.

Under their scheme, dubbed EPIC (Ending Piracy of Integrated Circuits) each chip would have its own lock and keys, the latter of which would be held by the patent holder. The technique uses established crytography methods and would require what the researchers say is a slight change in the chip design process.

Chip piracy has been on the rise in connection with increased outsourcing of production, which includes transfer of microchip blueprints.

Read more

Knee brace powers cell phones, GPS, prosthetics

Layer 8 — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:41:03 -0500

Researchers have developed an energy-capturing knee brace can generate enough electricity from walking to operate a portable GPS locator, a cell phone, a motorized prosthetic joint or an implanted neurotransmitter.

Read more

Unmanned Flying Fish seaplane makes a splash

Layer 8 — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:07:21 -0500

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and University of Michigan have developed and successfully tested an unmanned seaplane called the Flying Fish that can handle a variety of water-born surveillance duties.

Read more

Researchers look to get rid of chip debugging problems once and for all

Layer 8 — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 09:59:34 -0500

Researchers said today they have developed a chip-debugging program that promises to reduce silicon problem resolution from days to hours while saving potentially millions of dollars.

Read more