Science and Technology

Computer scientists at the University at Buffalo who developed handwriting recognition software systems for the U.S. Postal Service and the U.S. Census Bureau are developing a system to flag suspicious patterns in emergency medical reports and make them available to public-health authorities within days, if not hours.

Seven preeminent, world-class scientists in the fields of genomics, chemistry, biophysics, proteomics and computational biology have been named to the Scientific Advisory Board for the Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics.

University at Buffalo researchers have found an association between bacteria in the sputum of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and exacerbations of the disease, answering a long-standing question about the role of pathogens and COPD flare-ups.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo are combining 21st-century materials and computerized sensors to create a simulator for surgical training with "organs" that feel, smell and respond like living tissue in the human body.

A dramatic statistical correlation between the prevalence of diabetes and air pollution levels has been demonstrated by a University at Buffalo researcher who publishes his observations in the August issue of the journal, Diabetes Care.

A new laboratory with state-of-the-art graphics workstations at the University at Buffalo is providing a rare commodity: a way to bridge the gap between bench science and supercomputing through molecular modeling and bioinformatics tools. The Laboratory for Molecular Visualization and Analysis is one of a handful of such facilities in the nation, providing a critical service to researchers at UB and its affiliated research partners.

More than 800 of the world's leading earthquake specialists, including scientists from the Multidisciplinary Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (MCEER) headquartered at the University at Buffalo, will discuss urban earthquake risks at the Seventh U.S. National Conference on Earthquake Engineering to be held in Boston on July 22-25.

Investigators working to identify the source of the anthrax-containing envelopes that terrorized the American public last fall concluded they were hand-addressed by the same person. Messages penned in Urdu that allegedly belonged to Daniel Pearl's kidnappers were introduced by prosecutors during their trial. Expanding the forensic use of computer processing of handwriting to solve such high-profile criminal cases will be among the topics discussed at the Eighth International Workshop on Frontiers in Handwriting Recognition, sponsored by the University at Buffalo.

Scientists from the University at Buffalo described their work with biological agents and their research in developing methods to counteract them at a National Institutes of Health (NIH) biodefense summit held today at NIH headquarters in Bethesda, Md., to assess the most promising bioterrorism research and set funding priorities.

The Milwaukee Institute of Design will be the first venue to host the traveling version of "Unlimited by Design," a multi-media, hands-on exhibition of well-designed, attractive products and residential interiors created according to the principles of universal design (U/D). The exhibit is a presentation of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (RERC) on Universal Design in the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning.