Service to the Third World Using IT

The mission of the Social Entrepreneur Center is to promote the use of technology for social issues by creating sustainable enterprises. This will be achieved by

(i) creating an undergraduate major (and minors linked to existing majors) in social entrepreneurship well integrated with information and technology education,

(ii) fostering an internship program where students can add value to a company, an NGO (non-governmental organization), or a non-profit organization within US or in a foreign country by leveraging technology,

One of the most basic yet powerful tools in all of medicine is the simple microscope. It is the first tool of evaluation for skin diseases, ear aches, and sore throats, as well as being central to diagnosis of blood diseases. However, only the discerning eye of a trained physician can filter images and provide effective diagnoses and treatment recommendations. We propose to link high-resolution microscopic imaging with clinical expertise through microscopy-enabled cell phones.

In Malaysia around 40,000 people suffer from stroke every year. At least one-fourth of stroke survivors experience aphasia, a communication impairment that varies considerably across patients but most involves some form of deficit in language comprehension. Language rehabilitation, especially when it is intense (8-10 hours/week for 12 weeks) and it starts early (after the patient's medical condition has stabilized, often within 24 to 48 hours after the stroke, preferably in acute-care hospitals), has been shown to be beneficial in

The burden of infectious diseases is very high in developing countries. World-wide, nearly 1 million die annually from malaria, 2.9 million from enteric (intestinal) infections, 4.3 million from respiratory infections, and 5 million from AIDS and tuberculosis. Unfortunately, most methods for diagnosing these diseases are invasive, labor intensive, and sometimes inadequate. Furthermore, they require laboratory equipment and infrastructure that are not typically found in remote/resource-limited areas. Thus,

We will select appropriate principles of good coding practice for open source software, with the goal of detecting certain classes of common security flaws. We will express these principles as properties in a temporal logic that can be model-checked effectively. A report explaining the selection will be provided. In parallel, we will develop model-checking tools. These tools will be capable of analyzing open source software to check whether it satisfies properties specified in a temporal logic.

The next explosive growth of Internet will come from connecting to billions (or even trillions) of cheap, low power sensors, effectors, and smart devices. In all these scenarios, the transformative benefits from connecting to the Internet happen when such telemetric systems are mobile and/or on our persons, children, pets, etc. The unstated assumption of this vision is that there will be wireless transceivers suitable for connecting to small, cheap, ubiquitous devices, which are battery powered and can operate unattended for weeks, months, or years.