Game 1: WON decisively. http://cloud0.csail.mit.edu/khet/game.php?id=37

Game 2: draw against last tournament's winner on time, we were up many many points: http://cloud0.csail.mit.edu/khet/game.php?id=39

Game 3: draw - up many points, but couldn't finish in 200 moves: http://cloud0.csail.mit.edu/khet/game.php?id=45

Game 4: WIN!: http://cloud0.csail.mit.edu/khet/game.php?id=56

Game 5: repetition tie with us up: http://cloud0.csail.mit.edu/khet/game.php?id=57

Game 6: win due to opponent forfeit: http://cloud0.csail.mit.edu/khet/game.php?id=71

Game 7: repetition draw: http://cloud0.csail.mit.edu/khet/game.php?id=75

Standings: http://cloud0.csail.mit.edu/khet_final/wwwkhet_final/standing.html

Congrats to CSAIL start-up Locu on their recent acquisition! http://www.csail.mit.edu/node/2081

Secure Multi-Party Computation

Sometimes Research at Google chooses to assume corporeal form and walk among you, seeming to all the world like a regular human, and partaking of your food, especially bear claws. Yesterday we did just that, visiting MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (http://www.csail.mit.edu/) as a member of MIT’s Industry Affiliates Program (http://www.csail.mit.edu/csailspotlights/feature5).

We listened to several interesting speakers, including MIT Prof. Andrew Lo, who reminded us of Secure Multi-Party Computation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_multi-party_computation). He described its relevance to financial markets, but began with a simple example to explain the problem.

Imagine you want to determine the average salary of a room full of people, none of whom wants their individual salary to be revealed to anyone. How would you do it? See if you can come up with an answer before reading on...

Here’s one solution: have the first person add his salary to a random number of his choosing -- positive or negative, and of any magnitude. The result might be $4,669,201 or –$1000 -- it depends on the secret random number he chose. That sum is passed to the second person, who chooses a new random number to add to her salary, and then adds that sum to the first. Accumulate the results throughout the entire room. Now you have a sum of a bunch of salaries and a bunch of random numbers.

Then go through the room again, having every person subtract the random number they chose earlier from the total. Once everyone is finished, the remainder will be the sum of all salaries. Divide by the number of people in the room and now you know the average salary of the group, without revealing the salary of any individual.

This method has many applications in cryptography. It can be used to reveal an aggregate truth while keeping personal information private. We dwelled on this and other ideas while eating MIT’s bear claws. It was a good meeting.

http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/papers/katabi-analogicfs.pdf is my assigned reading for Thursday, and I have to answer questions about it (http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/6.824/questions.html?q=q23). grump

+CSAIL MIT researchers work to build #robots’ awareness of their own limitations. http://mitne.ws/16htX0y 

(Illustration: Allegra Boverman and Christine Daniloff/MIT)

CSAIL researchers develop new mapping system: http://www.csail.mit.edu/node/1810

+CSAIL MIT researchers have developed a new algorithm that can accurately measure the heart rates of people depicted in ordinary digital video by analyzing imperceptibly small head movements that accompany the rush of blood caused by the heart’s contractions. More: http://mitne.ws/11plxE5 #health   #medicine  

Next up on the Big Data Seminar Series: Eric Horvitz, Distinguished Scientist & Co-Director, Microsoft Research.  Wednesday, February 13, 4:00 - 5:30 PM ET.  Location: MIT CSAIL, Stata Center, Bldg 32, Kiva Conference Room, 4th Floor, G449. Also livecast on the web at: http://webcast.amps.ms.mit.edu/f/CSAIL/2012-2013/Big_Data/

New MIT big data initiative aims "to develop a new generation of technologies to store, manage, analyze, share, and understand the huge quantities of data we are now collecting.”

Only 2 weeks left to vote for the CSAIL SXSW panel proposal! Vote now before time runs out! http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/18849

CSAIL members elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences: http://www.csail.mit.edu/node/1738

Check out Sprout: a new project from CSAIL grad Mario Bollini: http://www.csail.mit.edu/node/1796

A look at origami engineering and the work of CSAIL Director Daniela Rus and Professor Erik Demaine: http://www.csail.mit.edu/node/1865

EMC TV talks big data with CSAIL's Sam Madden: http://www.csail.mit.edu/node/1789

Congratulations to the team from +CSAIL MIT  and +Cornell University, including Intel S&TC for Big Data co-director +Sam Madden (CSAIL). Their paper, "StatusQuo: Making Familiar Abstractions Perform Using Program Analysis," was just named Best Paper at CIDR 2013. You can read more about the StatusQuo project here.

CSAIL team selected to compete in DARPA Robotics Challenge: http://www.csail.mit.edu/node/1818

"Wi-Vi" system developed at +CSAIL MIT could have possible uses in disaster recovery, personal safety and #gaming . Find out how it works: http://mitne.ws/128u9f9 (Illustration: Christine Daniloff/MIT)