SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for August 19, 2011
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Using Technology to Support Effective Literacy Instruction
Fri, Aug 19, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Carol McDonald Connor, Ph.D., Florida State University, Florida Center for Reading Research
Talk Title: Using Technology to Support Effective Literacy Instruction
Abstract: Accumulating evidence is revealing that the effect of particular types of reading instructional strategies on studentsâ literacy outcomes depends on the oral language and reading skills they bring to the classroom; called child characteristic X instruction interactions. This means that to conduct effective literacy instruction, teachers need to be able to translate assessment data into meaningful recommendations for instruction. The centerpiece in a series of randomized control field trials in kindergarten through third grade. Assessment-to-instruction (A2i) online software was designed to support teachersâ ability to implement assessment-informed instruction. The software relies on algorithms that use each studentâs vocabulary, word reading, and reading comprehension scores to compute recommended amounts and types of instruction. This presentation will present this technology, the results of the studies, and implications for improving the efficacy of literacy instruction.
Biography: Dr. Connor is an Associate Professor at Florida State University in Developmental Psychology and the Florida Center for Reading Research. Her research examines the links between young childrenâs language and literacy development with the goal of illuminating reasons for the perplexing difficulties children who are atypical and diverse learners have developing basic and advanced literacy skills. Most recently, her research interests have focused on childrenâs learning in the classroom â from preschool through third grade. These studies indicate that the effectiveness of specific instructional activities depends on the language and reading skills children bring with them to school; these child-by-instruction interactions are evident as early as preschool and continue at least through third grade for a number of child language and literacy outcomes. Awarded the Presidentsâ Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE, 2008), the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD, 2009) Early Career Award, and the Richard Snow Award (APA, 2008), she is the principal investigator for studies funded by the US Department of Education, Institute for Education Sciences and the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development. She also conducts research focusing on the language and literacy development of profoundly deaf children including those who use cochlear implants.
Host: Professor Shrikanth Narayanan
Location: Hedco Neurosciences Building (HNB) - 100
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Mary Francis
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GreenDroid: An Architecture for the Dark Silicon Era
Fri, Aug 19, 2011 @ 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Michael B. Taylor, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, San Diego
Talk Title: GreenDroid: An Architecture for the Dark Silicon Era
Abstract: The Dark Silicon Era kicked off with the transition to multicore and will be characterized by a wild chase for seemingly ever-more insane architectural designs. At the heart of this transformation is the utilization wall, which states that, with each new process generation, the percentage of transistors that a chip can switch at full frequency is dropping exponentially due to power constraints. This has led to increasingly larger and larger fractions of a chip's silicon that must remain passive, or dark.
Our research attacks this dark silicon problem directly through a set of energy-saving accelerators, called Conservation Cores, or c-cores. C-cores are a post-multicore approach that constructively uses dark silicon to reduce the energy consumption of an application by 10x or more. To examine the utility of c-cores, we are developing GreenDroid, a multicore chip that targets the Android mobile stack. Our mobile application processor prototype targets a 32-nm process and is comprised of hundreds of automatically generated, specialized, patchable c-cores. These cores target specific Android hotspots, including the kernel. Our preliminary results suggest that we can attain an average 7x improvement in energy efficiency using a modest 7 mm^2 of silicon.
Biography: Michael B. Taylor is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at UC San Diego. His research interests focus around the design of novel computing artifacts. His recent projects include Kremlin, a tool best described as "like gprof, but for parallelization"; GreenDroid, jointly led with Steven Swanson; and SD-VBS, a vision benchmark suite. As a PhD student at MIT, Michael was the lead architect of the 16-core MIT Raw processor, which was later commercialized into the 100-core Tilera chips. Prior to that, he co-authored the first version of the Connectix VirtualPC x86-to-PowerPC translator, and hacked microkernels at Apple. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2009, a PhD from MIT in 2007, and an AB from Dartmouth College in 1996. He has been writing code for 86% of his life.
Host: Professor Timothy M. Pinkston
Location: Hughes Aircraft Electrical Engineering Center (EEB) - 248
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Janice Thompson
