When disaster strikes, the federal government and relief agencies often hand out lots of money to victims, to help them pay for food, shelter and relocation. But—as a Government Accounting Office study documented this week in the case of Hurricane Katrina relief—some scammers find ways to game the system, such as by getting money under a variety of fictitious names.

Researchers at Purdue University think that biometric technology could block much of that fraud. They’ve developed a system for recording pictures of the iris of the eyes of everyone who receives disaster relief. The images would be stored in a central database, and applicants would be checked against the database to be sure they haven’t already received money.

The researchers, who are working with an undisclosed manufacturer of biometric systems, are trying to drum up interest in the system from the Department of Homeland...

Scholars in computer science and engineering will collaborate on robotics projects in a new multidisciplinary center at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The Robotics and Intelligent Machines center, dubbed RIM@Georgia Tech, will focus on "personal and everyday robotics," the university said in a press release.

University officials hope creation of the high-visibility center will spur greater collaborations between Georgia Tech and robotics manufactures both in the United States and other nations.

A Defense Department security agency announced last month that computers from the “.edu” domain would be barred from communicating with the agency’s computers. But the agency did an about-face this morning, saying that the change wasn’t worth the hassle.

The Defense Security Service had said that, starting June 1, “.edu” computers “without exception” would be blocked from connecting to its Joint Personnel Adjudication System, Industrial Security Facilities Database, and Defense Clearance and Investigations Index, all of which are used by military personnel-security officials. The agency said the change was in response to Pentagon security rules and advised anyone with a “.edu” address who needed to connect to the databases to get an address ending in “.mil,” “.gov,” or “.com.”

But an agency spokeswoman, Cindy McGovern, said this morning that the agency had rescinded the policy. “It would...

The search engine Ask.com plans a series of television ads starring the former professor who developed the algorithm used by the site.

The researcher, Apostolos Gerasoulis, is executive vice president of technology at Ask.com. Previously he was a mathematics professor at Rutgers University at New Brunswick.

In each spot, Mr. Gerasoulis submits a specific query—like how to survive a bear attack—and discusses how Ask.com identifies pages in response. (Brandweek) 

Like colleges in the U.S., higher-education institutions in China are facing a rising tide of plagiarism by students who copy material from the Web. For example, Yang Yusheng, who teaches U.S. history and culture at China University of Political Science and Law, says that more than a fifth of his students have copied material from the Internet. (The Globe and Mail)

An undergraduate student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham was so horrified by the prevalence of online sexual predators that he took matters into his own hands.

The student, Kevin Cope, started posing online as a 13-year-old girl. When one online coversation steered toward sexual topics and the possibility of a meeting, Mr. Cope reported it to the police.

They assumed the identity of the 13-year-old and continued the conversations. After seven online chats, police arrested a man from Jackson Township, Pa.  (WJAC-TV)

College athletics programs are making increasing use of digital-video technology to help athletes improve their performances -- and to promote athletes to scouts for professional teams. (Daily Press)

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved revisions to the USA Patriot Act, which the Bush administration says is a key tool in its fight against terrorism.

The lawmakers voted, 280 to 138, on Tuesday to approve measures that the Senate passed last week (The Chronicle, March 3), so the bill now heads to President Bush for his signature, which is expected. Both chambers had previously approved a reauthorization of some of the law's provisions that had been set to expire on Friday; that bill also is awaiting the president's signature. The bill approved on Tuesday amends the Patriot Act to permit legal challenges to government demands for materials such as books. It also writes into the law a provision that libraries are not susceptible to a subpoenalike order known as a national-security letter unless the library provides an “electronic communication service.”

But Rep. John Conyers...

The Internet isn't just a part of student life at universities. It's also part of how students deal with death.

Students use the network and resources such as Facebook.com for many purposes, including informing friends and family of someone's death and organizing online tributes. (The Daily Orange)

Universities are struggling to decide how to provide -- and pay for -- broadband connections in student housing. The University of Iowa is coming under criticism for its attempt to crack this nut.

The university has announced that rental prices for its apartments will increase by $18 monthly, to offset the cost of broadband service there. But some students complain that the extra fee isn't worth the extra service. (The Daily Iowan)