ETC student project, Team Osiris and the Plaid Parliment of Pwning are happy to announce the launch of PicoCTF, an online computer security competition for 6th - 12th grade school students.

With the game - Toaster Wars, the first of ten of days of competition saw more than 900 teams of students enjoying the new perspective of computer science education.

Toaster Wars has four levels with distinguished problem difficulty. Starting with advanced math, pattern recognition, and logic to ending with complex hacking scenario problems crafted by the CMU Hacking team or, Plaid Parliament of Pwning.

As the competition started at 10 am EST April 26, 2012, many middle and high students are already learning lots about computer science and security. Visit the picocft web site to see out how well they are doing on the scoreboard.

During the semester, students often send request for people to stop by and test their projects. This past Friday, an email was sent asking for people wanting to test the Oculus Rift, and if we were unfamiliar with the Oculus, the we could watch the following video:

Not being that much of a tech person, but knowing the importance of when a tech person gets excited about the new technology, I had to go see this new VR headset. While waiting for demo, I was speaking with new ETC faculty member Dave Culyba, who told me he wanted to test the Oculus Rift, since the technology hadn't changed in many years. Dave explained that when he was a TA for Building Virtual Worlds, BVW, he had to order the same models to replace the headsets that were originally purchased for the course 10 years earlier.

The ETC recently received its Oculus Rift as part of being a Kickstarter contributor and some of the students are pitching a project for the fall term developing games for the VR headset. We also may be using the headset in the BVW class. I can't wait to see what the ETC students make for this latest technology.

I think this lady gives an excellent review!

Carnegie Mellon's website often features stories about happening on campus or alumni who are doing great work. This month, the health and wellness features a story on Interbot's latest venture, Popchilla.

The iPad app in this video was developed for a MicroSpark-funded project to explore the use of our interactive robot, Popchilla, as an autism therapy tool. The iPad app was designed to let users guide Popchilla through a variety of activities that help children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) practice their social referencing skills. The activities in the app were selected through suggestions and feedback from therapists and parents of children with ASD, and focus on recognizing emotions, responding to directives, social play, and verbalization. The robot and iPad app were used in a nine week pilot program with the Autism Center of Pittsburgh in the fall of 2010.

Carnegie Mellon Today, a magazine that connects the global university community, alumni, faculty, students, parents and friends did a story on ETC student Josephine Tsay and her path that brought her to the ETC.

To read the story, go to Carnegie Mellon Today.

Jesse Schell, Distinguished Professor of the Practice, is interviewed on episode 5 of Boing Boing's newest podcast, Tell Me Something I Don't Know. It's an interview podcast featuring artists, writers, filmmakers, and other creative people discussing their work, ideas, and the reality/business side of how they do what they do.