Five startup companies from Carnegie Mellon University’s Quality of Life Technology Foundry (QoLT) will be exhibiting their products at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, the world’s largest and best-known technology trade show, from Jan. 10-13.

Robotics Institute PhD student Heather Knight was listed by Forbes magazine in its "30 Under 30" special report on tomorrow's brightest stars. Former student Stuart Anderson was included in the Technology list. The magazine identified 30 top disrupters under age 30 in 12 different fields. Knight was among those chosen in the Science category. Former student Stuart Anderson was included in the Technology list.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences has named Manuela Veloso, the Herbert A. Simon Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, as an Einstein Chair Professor for 2012. She is one of 20 prominent international scientists so honored. As an Einstein Chair Professor, Veloso will present a lecture at the University of Science and Technology of China, a national research university in Hefei, China, and at another Chinese university.

Toy robots and other gadgets operated with infrared (IR) remote controls can gain new capabilities — and perhaps some intelligence — by use of a device called Brainlink that enables a Bluetooth link with an Android-based smartphone or a laptop computer. The device, developed by Carnegie Mellon University spin-off BirdBrain Technologies, with assistance from the Robotics Institute's CREATE Lab, makes it possible to control a robot, such as WowWee’s popular Robosapien toy, using a computer or Android smartphone.

With the help of GigaPan Time Machine, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Bruce and Astrid McWilliams Center for Cosmology have discovered what caused the rapid growth of early supermassive black holes. GigaPan Time Machine, developed by the Robotics Institute’s CREATE Lab, aided astrophysicists Tiziana Di Matteo and Rupert Croft in analyzing MassiveBlack, a recreation of the first billion years after the Big Bang and the largest cosmological simulation to date.

Computers can mimic the human ability to find visually similar images, such as photographs of a fountain in summer and in winter, or a photograph and a painting of the same cathedral, by using a technique that analyzes the uniqueness of images, say researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science. The research team found that its surprisingly simple technique performed well on a number of visual tasks that normally stump computers, including matching sketches of automobiles with photographs of cars.

Carnegie Mellon University has released an Android version of Tiramisu, the smartphone application that enables transit riders in Allegheny County to share real-time information about bus schedules and seating. It is available for download at the Android Market. The original iPhone version of Tiramisu was released this summer. Thus far, users have recorded more than 10,000 trips on the Port Authority of Allegheny County transit system.

The Robotics Institute’s GigaPan Time Machine project has released eight new data sets, including a 24-hour observation of the sun by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft. Like previous Time Machines, the dynamic imagery can be explored interactively across both time and space. Read Scientific American’s story.

Astrobotic Technology's Red Rover made Popular Science's annual list of the Best of What's New, announced in the magazine's December issue. The magazine noted that the team, headed by the Robotics Institute's William "Red" Whittaker, took the lead this year over 26 competitors in the race to win the $20 million Google Lunar X Prize.

Don Wildman, host of the Travel Channel series “Off Limits,” interacted with Manuela Veloso, professor of computer science, and the CoBot robot on the series’ recent Pittsburgh episode.