PARC Innovations Update (2007 #1)

This is the archive entry for our e-mail newsletter, PARC Innovations Update. [subscribe]

• People: Pioneering PARC scientist wins Franklin Institute Bower Award for Achievement in Science
• Spotlight: Information Foraging Theory and the ultimate resource for understanding human behavior on the web
• In the Marketplace: Powerset and PARC join forces to develop breakthrough consumer search engine
• On the Road: “Mining for Gold” by helping companies automate standardized processes
• PARC In the News: virtual web; rival Google; LCD edge; Solar America; more

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People: Pioneering PARC scientist wins Franklin Institute Bower Award for Achievement in Science

Joining a list of past honorees including Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, and Jane Goodall, PARC Senior Research Fellow Stuart Card recently won a Franklin Institute award for his “contributions to the fields of human-centered computing, measuring how people use machines, our relationship with information, and integrating machines effortlessly into our lives.” According to the Franklin Institute committee, Stu’s contributions “have been as key to the electronic revolution as parallel advances in electrical engineering.”

Spotlight: Information Foraging Theory and the ultimate resource for understanding human behavior on the web

PARC’s “digital Darwin” Peter Pirolli recently released his fundamental book, Information Foraging Theory: Adaptive Interaction with Information (Oxford University Press, March 2007). Comparing the way humans search for information to the way animals forage for food, this theory helps predict and analyze human behavior on the web. Usability guru Jakob Nielsen describes Pirolli’s book as “… the ultimate source if you want to understand why the Web works the way it does and why users behave the way they do. Probably the most important book ever published about Web design (even though it’s not about Web design).”

In the Marketplace: Powerset and PARC join forces to develop breakthrough consumer search engine

Natural language search company Powerset, Inc., and PARC signed a licensing and collaboration agreement to develop and commercialize natural language technology for a breakthrough consumer search engine. The agreement between Powerset and PARC includes technology and patent licenses, as well as long-term research collaboration. PARC plans to enable Powerset to bring unprecedented consumer search capabilities to market, leveraging more than three decades of PARC’s formative scientific research and technology refinement in natural language understanding.

On the Road: “Mining for Gold” by helping companies automate standardized processes

Many manufacturers envision implementing automation systems that provide real-time production control and enable mass customization. At the recent World Batch Forum conference in Baltimore, Maryland, PARC shared lessons learned from applying a model-based software approach to real-time planning, scheduling, and control in high-speed, parallel production-printing systems. By applying these insights and expertise to batch manufacturing, which involves similar processes, PARC envisions helping other companies significantly boost their bottom line.

PARC In the News

Coming Virtual Web — Business Week
a chance to rival Google — NY Times
an edge on LCDs — EE Times
DOE funding under the Solar America Initiative — U.S. Dept. of Energy
corporate push into virtual worlds — Information Week
erasable, reusable paper — International Herald Tribune