gHacks technology news » stanford http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:56:41 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 The Open Courseware Movement Offers Free Education Online http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/29/the-open-courseware-movement-offers-free-education-online/ http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/29/the-open-courseware-movement-offers-free-education-online/#comments Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:31:36 +0000 Melanie http://www.ghacks.net/?p=13972 Not everyone takes a college class just for the credit toward their degree, there are actually a lot of people who love taking classes just to learn something new, because they are bored, or because they wish to prepare themselves a little better for future classes. Among these people there are those with no money to put toward school, who don’t have a car, or want to take a class at 1 AM. Whatever the reason, the Open CourseWare Movement has helped thousands of people who are interested in taking classes online take them for free. Because of the Open CourseWare Movement, students can take classes online without enrolling to a school or paying anything. Those wishing to take a class can do so immediately without waiting to hear back from some advisor or waiting for the bursar’s office to approve a payment.

The Open CourseWare Movement allows students to find courses online that fit their needs. Because of the large amount of schools currently serving free online classes, students can choose from literally thousands of courses. These aren’t just your every day, run of the mill colleges either! Universities such as MIT, Yale, and Stanford are among those that offer free courses online. Even colleges and universities in different countries such as Japan, Israel, and Spain are participating in the program. Because of this, many courses are offered in languages other than English.

For a college to qualify for the Open CourseWare program, they must offer at least 10 courses free online. The courses must contain everything a student needs, including the reading material (students who use this don’t have to pay for books) for it to be a part of the program. Whether it’s a class taken for fun or to learn something new, it’s a good idea for students to look for classes from universities known particularly for that course or major. This helps ensure that the student will get the best education they can. Different courses are taught in different ways. Many courses have video lectures, just audio, or just course transcripts. It’s important for those looking to take a class through the Open CourseWare program to look for classes that fit their needs such as a video class for those who learn better visually than by reading.

The goal of the Open CourseWare Movement is to get as many colleges and universities to participate as possible so that more people are given the chance to learn online. There are many ways that those who’ve benefited from the Open CourseWare Movement can help such as donating, passing on the word, or just taking a course to better themselves. It is usually a good idea to open a search engine and search for “open courseware” to find universities and colleges that offer these free courses.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2009/06/29/the-open-courseware-movement-offers-free-education-online/feed/ 7 Computer Trainer http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/21/computer-trainer/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/21/computer-trainer/#comments Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:01:02 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=7151 Stanford School of Engineering started their Stanford Engineering Everywhere program which provides full computer science courses on a newly created website. This is not only useful to computer trainers but everyone who is interested in computer science in general.

The available courses are divided into three categories which are Introduction to Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Linear Systems and Optimization. Of those courses the Computer Science courses are aimed at beginners while the other two categories provide access to advanced courses.

Courses are made up of an introduction, the actual lessons, handouts, assignments, exams and software. The actual lessons are available as videos which can be watched online and as html / pdf transcripts that can be downloaded to the computer.

The video lessons require Microsoft Silverlight which has to be installed to be able to view them. Below is the list of available courses:

Introduction to Computer Science

  • Programming Methodology CS106A
  • Programming Abstractions CS106B
  • Programming Paradigms CS107

Artificial Intelligence

  • Introduction to Robotics CS223A
  • Natural Language Processing CS224N
  • Machine Learning CS229

Linear Systems and Optimization

  • The Fourier Transform and its Applications EE261
  • Introduction to Linear Dynamical Systems EE263
  • Convex Optimization I EE364A
  • Convex Optimization II EE364B

The lessons can also be viewed at Youtube, iTunes, Vyew or downloaded as wmv or mp4 torrents. There is unfortunately no complete package download of all the lessons and pdf documents. The mp4 torrents have a size of about 650 to 700 Megabytes while the wmv torrents a size of roughly 150 Megabytes.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/09/21/computer-trainer/feed/ 1 Convert 2D Images into 3D Images http://www.ghacks.net/2008/02/28/convert-2d-images-into-3d-images/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/02/28/convert-2d-images-into-3d-images/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:46:32 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2008/02/28/convert-2d-images-into-3d-images/ Make 3D is a wonderful piece of code from the University of Stanford that transforms a normal 2D image into a 3D image. While the results are not true 3D images they are still very impressive. I tested the script with two images that I took last summer, one from the North Sea [link] and one from my trip to Berlin showing Berlin Cathedral [link].

No user input at all other than selecting an image from Flickr or your computer and tagging it is required. The script is transforming the image automatically one after the other. You receive a message about your queue position and will receive an email once the transformation finishes.

Users can then zoom in and out of the image, turn, move forward, backward and up and down using the cursor keys. Adobe Shockwave is required for the script to work.

north sea

How does it work ?

Our software uses a breakthrough technology in machine learning. It estimates depths from the single image by using our monocular vision algorithm, developed in 2005. It captures a variety of monocular cues and learns the relations between different parts of the image using a machine learning technique called Markov Random Field (MRF). Our algorithm first divides the image into small patches and analyzes them at multiple scales to estimate each of the patches’ 3-d location and 3-d orientation. More details could be found here.

Feel free to share your images.

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