The NSF’s CISE Directorate signed a memorandum of understanding with Microsoft in February 2010, facilitating free access to the Windows Azure cloud computing platform for select research teams. Today, CISE and Microsoft are announcing 13 cloud computing research projects funded for the next two years through this partnership.  The objective is “to make simple yet powerful tools readily available to researchers to extract insights [throughout science] by mining and combining diverse data sets.” From the official NSF press release: Microsoft will provide the 13 cloud computing research projects identified by NSF through its rigorous peer review process with access to Windows Azure–a cloud computing platform that provides on-demand computing and storage to […]

Presidents, performers, athletes, public servants — and now “Philliebot”? That’s right — a one-armed, three-wheeled robot that can control the speed and direction of its “pitches” will enter the ranks of preeminence today when it throws out the ceremonial first pitch before a Phillies-Brewers baseball game at 1:05pm EDT. It will be the highlight of a series of activities that are part of Philadelphia’s Science Day at the Ballpark. The robot was designed by engineering students Jordan Brindza and Jamie Gewirtz at the University of Pennsylvania’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Laboratory. From yesterday’s Philadelphia Inquirer: You might think PhillieBot does the same thing as those machines that spit out baseballs at […]