Press

A lot has changed since 1994. Back then, if you asked people what autism was, most would scratch their heads and respond, “You mean like that character in the movie Rain Man?” Ask the question in 2013 and you’re likely to find that many more Americans have not only heard of autism, but may be…

Though I spent almost my entire professional life at SRI, given a researcher’s necessary preoccupations it took effort to learn what was happening across this diverse place of intrinsic creativity. This became more apparent when I began compiling an account of that creativity, some of which turned out to alter the world. SRI’s new timeline of…

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in American men, killing nearly 30,000 per year. In 2004, I attended a conference where one of the nation’s leading researchers in the field declared that the gold-standard test for this disease was not successful at identifying dangerous invasive tumors. That triggered my interest in how to…

Anyone who has used a handheld video camera knows how hard it is to keep steady. A mild cough can turn footage from a kid’s soccer game into an amusement park ride. Now imagine mounting that camera onto a police cruiser or a 20,000-foot-high unmanned aircraft. These scenarios often result in distorted video that is…

Smart phones are everywhere these days, and they’ve certainly made our lives easier in so many ways, from connecting with friends and family to sharing the latest information with colleagues. As the business use of employee-owned smartphones and tablets proliferates, IT departments are struggling to implement secure and cost-effective policies that facilitate productivity while protecting…

From high school basketball games to sophisticated military operations, a strong perimeter is the first line of defense.  The challenge for commercial security is strengthening the perimeter without affecting business. Access control is a high priority for secure infrastructures such as nuclear power plants, corporate offices, universities, and financial buildings. The faster security can accurately…

SRI researchers published a series of studies that examine whether technology is effective and how it helps. Our findings show that technology can increase students’ understanding of math concepts, but only as part of a more comprehensive learning approach—one that also includes curricular content and teacher professional development.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of speaking at SXSW. My session on “commercialization secrets at SRI” was over-subscribed, with a few hundred attending, and many being turned away. This was a pleasant surprise, given the time of the talk was 9:30am on a Saturday morning! Anthony Ha of TechCrunch was a superb interviewer, and for…

Silicon Valley Robotics (SVR) recently held its first Investor Breakfast at SRI headquarters in Menlo Park, with kudos from attending investors and the 10 participating early-stage companies. Part of SVR’s mission is to help nurture early-stage robotics companies in the greater Silicon Valley area. Both a growing list of start-up robotics companies in the Bay Area…

Discussion Thread 2: How Can We Encourage Greater Engagement of Students in Middle-skill STEM fields? Our research has found that workforce educators face students who are diverse in preparation, background, and goals, and so engaging such a diverse group poses a constant challenge. In our work, we have found: Students crave opportunities to try out…

Discussion Thread 3: What Are Some of the Innovative Directions That Can Support Workforce Training? In our study, we have found a few different types of innovation: Industry offering internships with relevant community college courses right on the factory floor, where students work 3 days and study 2 days and see the relevance of what…

Located in Puerto Rico, the William E. Gordon telescope at the site is the world’s largest, most sensitive single-dish radio telescope.