Bill Gates calls it that “big squiggle” in the middle of the Gates Center for Computer Science. We call it the Helix. It turns out that we all have a lot to learn about the Gates Center and the new Hillman Center for Future-Generation Technologies, and it’s been fun so far.

By Jason Togyer

After more than five years of planning, design and construction, many faculty and staff of the School of Computer Science moved into their new offices in the Gates Center for Computer Science and the Hillman Center for Future-Generation Technologies, just before the fall semester began.

Collaborative Web sites offer researchers a new opportunity to study how people work together

Pittsburgh’s Bossa Nova Robotics takes the fun factor of high technology very seriously

The Lane Center for Computational Biology becomes SCS’s newest academic unit following a summer marked by several research milestones

InterACT helps change science fiction into science fact

Faculty, staff and students have made the big move to the Gates and Hillman centers—and may yet learn to love the Helix.

For 20 years, the Master of Software Engineering Program has produced professionals who make an impact in their companies and the world.

Here are some of the named spaces inside the new Gates and Hillman centers, along with the identity of their namesakes or principal donors, where appropriate.

Sara Kiesler is the university’s Hillman Professor of Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction. She came to Carnegie Mellon in 1979 as a professor in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences and conducted some of the first scientific studies of computer-mediated communication and the Internet.

The Randy Pausch Memorial Bridge—a physical connection between the School of Computer Science’s new building and the School of Drama’s home—was dedicated during Homecoming.

Data-storage developers and data-mining researchers are in an arms race, Fritz Knabe (CS’91,’95) says. Each time it seems that disc technology has reached its limits, someone comes up with something new.

Even if your Web site has a bad user interface, you’ll only make it worse by being inconsistent from page to page. It’s just one of the tips that Yu Shan Chuang offers clients whom she’s consulting on Web-based applications ranging from email to highly technical engineering tasks.

Photos from recent alumni events in Seattle and San Francisco.

Hop over and take a look at Pogopalooza.

Reunion marks quarter-century of Andrew ... Platzer named to PopSci “Brilliant 10” list ... Project explores low-cost electric commuter cars ... New lab offers better access to open-source software ... Nokia boosts effort to teach literacy in India ... Robotics grad student wins first QinetiQ fellowship