Recent News & Accomplishments
2024
The Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS) has announced its second round of seed funding, jumpstarting a series of interdisciplinary projects that align with the institute’s vision of advancing artificial intelligence (AI) systems that benefit all of society. The five grants announced today—totaling $685,000—will support efforts to improve AI-generated health information, enhance safety and trust in autonomous vehicles, address education disparities driven by race and location, examine AI-generated social media used during a pandemic or natural disaster, and build new... read more
The CyberCorps Scholarship for Service grant focuses on workforce development and expanding opportunities for students in cybersecurity.
The University of Maryland's Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students (ACES) program has renewed its CyberCorps Scholarship for Service (SFS) grant, securing nearly $5 million in funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The grant renewal, extending through April 2029, seeks to close gaps in the federal cybersecurity workforce by advancing education and workforce development initiatives. The CyberCorps SFS program funds cybersecurity education at universities across the U.S. Scholarship recipients commit to working for federal, state, local or government organizations after... read more
The Mokhtarzada Hatchery program offers students mentorship and connects them with entrepreneurs to refine their business ideas and gain practical experience.
The University of Maryland's Department of Computer Science organized its annual Fall Mokhtarzada Hatchery kick-off event on Thursday, September 12, 2024 , introducing students to the resources and opportunities available through the startup incubator. Held at the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering , the event featured presentations about the program with Haroon (B.A. ’01, economics) and Zeki Mokhtarzada (B.S. ’01, computer science) and Arthur AI Founder and CEO Adam Wenchel (B.S. ’99, computer science), offering students a chance to learn how the Hatchery can support... read more
Concern about leaving devastated family members behind. The joy of raising a kitten. Thoughts of enemies who might gloat that they’d “won.” Those were some of the motivations that more than 16,000 Reddit users in September 2020 said had deterred them from taking their own lives. Other things that kept commenters from the edge included religion (both faith and fears), and profound wishes to understand their place in the universe. Still others expressed a desire to see how “Game of Thrones” would end or wrote about the power of a random hug from someone they barely knew—or even the lure of... read more
Briakou was recognized by the Association for Machine Translation in the Americas for her Ph.D. dissertation on improving translation understanding across languages.
Eleftheria Briakou (Ph.D. ’23, computer science) recently received the Best Thesis Award from the Association for Machine Translation in the Americas (AMTA). Now a research scientist at Google, Briakou was recognized for her dissertation, "Detecting Fine-Grained Semantic Divergences to Improve Translation Understanding Across Languages," which was commended for its innovative approach and significant contributions to machine translation. Briakou’s advisor, Associate Professor Marine Carpuat , guided her work, which addresses key challenges in translation by developing methods to automatically... read more
Holden, among eight honorees, was recognized for his leadership in labor rights and service to the university community.
Todd Holden , senior digital services developer at the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science, has been awarded the Governor’s Citation for Outstanding Service. The recognition, presented by Maryland Governor Wes Moore , acknowledges Holden’s work in both his professional capacity at the university and his leadership role within the state’s labor unions. The award was presented during a recent labor relations roundtable in Landover, Maryland. Holden has been a staff member of UMD since 2011, beginning his career as an IT web specialist. He transitioned into the role of... read more
Computer science undergraduates played key roles as UMD reached the semifinals.
Students from the University of Maryland's Department of Computer Science recently advanced to the semifinals of the 2024 RoboSub competition held in Irvine, California. The international competition, hosted annually, challenges student teams to design, build and program autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) capable of completing complex tasks that simulate real-world underwater scenarios. The UMD Robotics team , consisting of 16 members from various departments, included computer science majors Ishaan Ghosh (B.S. '26, computer science), Brant Jiang (B.S. '25, computer science) and Harshita... read more
Maria Molina , an assistant professor of atmospheric and oceanic science, and Chris Metzler , an assistant professor of computer science, are developing novel AI-based approaches to help address systemic inequities and improve the lives of populations that are vulnerable to extreme weather events. Their work, supported by an $814K award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), will help both experts and non-experts better contextualize uncertainty and inequity in predicting extreme weather and threatening climate conditions. For example, the researchers say, Black populations are often... read more
The Pittsburgh native gained hands-on experience with software development projects at the Institute of Defense Analysis and now envisions a future in the sector.
Hayden Earlewine , a junior at the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science, spent his summer navigating the intricate and often obscure world of the defense industry. As a summer associate at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), Earlewine was introduced to the intersection of national security and technology—a field few undergraduates get to explore. However, unlike many of his peers, his path to this experience was anything but conventional. His journey into computer science began with limited exposure and resources, making his entry into the defense industry all the... read more
Researchers study AI-generated information and human perception bias with a $150K seed grant from TRAILS.
Perception bias is a cognitive bias that occurs when we subconsciously draw conclusions based on what we expect to see or experience. It has been studied extensively, particularly as it relates to health information, the workplace environment, and even social gatherings. But what is the relationship between human-based perception bias, and information that is generated by artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms? Researchers from the Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS) are exploring this topic, conducting a series of studies to determine the level of bias that users... read more