Following a growing trend to spin commercial companies off from their academic roots, MIT and the University of Cambridge have incorporated the Communications Research Network (CRN), which was begun two years ago. With the new structure, corporations will be solicited to join as founding members, which will cost them about $180,000 per year for three […]

With nearly four students vying for every available spot in China’s universities, cheating on entrance exams is rampant. As technology has entered the equation for cheaters, so has it become a tool for proctors trying to defeat the cheaters. Video cameras and cell-phone blocking have become common in Chinese testing centers. Students intent on cheating, […]

Organizers of a telemedicine program run by Stanford University hope the technology can save the vision of infants born with Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), a condition that affects 80,000 babies each year and blinds about 600 of them. Evaluation by a qualified doctor is key to diagnosing the condition and treating it properly, which can […]

A team of academic and industry researchers has demonstrated a speed of 500 gigahertz for a silicon-based computer chip they developed. The team included individuals from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Korea University in South Korea, and IBM. To reach 500 gigahertz, which is about 250 times faster than many chips used today, the researchers […]

Stanford University has launched a new research center to study earth and environmental sciences. The Center for Computational Earth and Environmental Science (CEES) includes a new computing facility and an interdisciplinary research program designed to address geoscience research, including topics such as climate change, earthquake detection, oil exploration, and global warming. Jerry Harris, director of […]

Blackboard, one of the leading providers of course management systems to higher education, is working on an online course assessment application for colleges and universities. Assessment is becoming increasingly important for accreditation and for accountability, and most observers see online evaluations as the best option. Online assessment currently takes a number of forms, from loosely […]

Following a string of computer breaches at Ohio University, school officials have suspended two IT supervisors–the director of communications network services, and the manager of Internet and systems. The university has suffered five separate incidents since March 2005, including a recent episode that may have compromised as many as 173,000 Social Security numbers. About two […]

In unrelated incidents, two universities said personal information on students had been compromised. At Western Illinois University, officials said a server that contained between 200,000 and 240,000 Social Security or credit card numbers for current and former students may have been accessed by a hacker. The school attempted to notify affected individuals before publicly announcing […]

Students who want to take part in an ethical hacking program at the University of Abertay in Scotland will be required to pass a background check to weed out those who might apply the skills learned in the program to malicious ends. University officials will work with the Home Office and a Scottish disclosure service […]

Sally Brown, pro vice chancellor for assessment, learning, and teaching at Leeds Metropolitan University in the United Kingdom, believes that the age of technology has not only made cheating easy but has also engendered a sense among today’s students that there is nothing wrong with copying and pasting someone else’s work into your own. Many […]