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The UT Austin Villa Robotics Team recently won third place at the RoboCup@Home 2017 competition, in the category of Domestic Standard Platform League. The competition was held in Nagoya, Japan. Robocup was originally founded by Japanese researchers to develop robots that could play soccer well enough to eventually defeat world champion players. The idea was playfully implemented in order to fuse robot engineering with artificial intelligence and development. Now the original goal of the competition has expanded to include other areas and goals of robotics.

WNCG Prof. Lili Qiu has been named an IEEE Fellow. She is being recognized for “contributions to wireless network management.” The IEEE Grade of Fellow is conferred by the IEEE Board of Directors upon a person with an outstanding record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The total number selected in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of one-percent of the total voting membership. IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership and is recognized by the technical community as a prestigious honor and an important career achievement.

The mouse. It sits on your desk or swipes under your hand and is limited by the need to be touched. With different computer displays and richer options, a mouse that requires a surface to operate is becoming obsolete. The future needs a controller that can operate in the air with a simple hand movement and control the devices surrounding us. Whether that device is a computer, a game console, a Virtual or Augmented Reality device, or other smart devices such as household appliances.