Recent News & Accomplishments
2019
Senior computer science major Louis-Henri Merino has been named a Fulbright Scholar for the 2019-2020 academic year. He will be studying block chains with Bryan Ford at L'École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) , a research institute and university in Lausanne, Switzerland. After his year abroad, Merino will return to the University of Maryland to earn a Ph.D. in Reliability Engineering from the A. James Clark School of Engineering . As a French speaker, Merino is looking forward to working on his language skills in Lausanne and other French-speaking European cities during his time... read more
Professor Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi has been named as one of 168 John Simon Guggenheim Fellows for 2019 for Applied Mathematics. He is one of thirteen scientists to receive this award and is the first Computer Scientist at the University of Maryland honored in this way. He was named among artists, musicians, filmmakers, art critics, literature scholars and writers. Hajiaghayi will be using his fellowship to continue his work on big graph algorithms and algorithmic game theory. When he received the call about the fellowship, he immediately shared the news with his wife Dr. Arefeh Nasr as well... read more
Soheil Behnezhad Yuan Su have been awarded Google Ph.D. Fellowships for 2019. Soheil Behnezhad is advised by Professor Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi and researches the design and analysis of algorithms. He is particularly interested in algorithms for processing large-scale graphs in parallel/distributed, streaming, and stochastic settings. He is also interested in algorithmic game theory. He has recently published papers in Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA) and and Symposium on Parallelism in Algorthims and Architectures (SPAA). Yuan Su is advised by Professor Andrew Childs. Su's research... read more
For her work on inclusion and diversity in the Department and for co-founding the Inclusion Speaker Series, academic advisor Freddie Salley was awarded the Office of Multi-ethnic Student Education’s (OMSE) Excellent in Service Award for “outstanding contributions to advancing the inclusive excellence of multi-ethnic students on campus.” Salley has been an advisor in the Department for two years. In addition to her other duties—in which she is responsible for assigning undergraduate TAs to courses. While cofounding the Inclusion Speaker Series (with B.K. Adams and Ken Kolkason), she has served... read more
Professor Hanan Samet’s paper (written with students and colleagues) entitled “A New View on News,” has been awarded ACM SIGSPATIAL’s 10-year impact award for 2018. Originally published in 2008, this paper, which describes a system (called NewsStand newsstand.umiacs.umd.edu ) that uses a map query interface to collect, analyze, and gather news stories, has garnered many citations and has been the discussion of many researchers in the academic community. In October 2014, Samet’s work was the subject of a short video produced by the ACM. http://vimeo.com/106352925 NewStand monitors thousands of... read more
Dr. Jan Plane has been awarded the University System of Maryland Board of Regents' Award for Public Service. Plane was awarded for her contribu[tion] to the community through involvement in initiatives such as P-20 programs, clinical practice, professional or non-profit organizations, and public policy." The USM Award will be presented during the full Board of Regents' April meeting. Plane is the Director of the Maryland Center for Women in Computing (MCWIC) and the Associate Director of the Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students, the Honors College programs for cybersecurity (ACES)... read more
Professor Jonathan Katz has been named a Fellow of the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR). Katz is being honored “[f]or broad contributions, especially in public-key encryption and cryptographic protocols, and for dedication to service and education.” The IACR Fellows Program highlights their members who advance the science, technology and practice of cryptology; promote the free exchange of ideas and information about cryptology; encourage the professional skill and integrity of members of the community; and promote their community to a wider scientific community. "... read more
Professor Aravind Srinivasan and Assistant Professor John Dickerson are recipients of 2018 Google Faculty Research Awards. Their projects were two of 158 funded for this year out of 910 proposals from all over the world. Srinivasan and Dickerson’s award covers “tuition for a graduate student and provide[s] both faculty and students the opportunity to work directly with Google researchers and engineers.” Srinivasan and Dickerson will be engaging in research on optimization to tackle the problem, “AI for Efficient and Equitable Organ Allocation Policies.” In the end, their work seeks to lower... read more
Professor Larry Davis has been named a recipient of the 2019 USM Board of Regents' Faculty Award for Excellence in Research/Scholarship/Creative Activities. This award, which is the highest honor presented by the Board of Regents, is for "exemplary faculty members within the University System of Maryland," who demonstrate "exceptional scholarship, researrch or creative activity that extends or depends the bounds of knowledge and/or is recognized as innovations in the nominee's discipline." Davis has been a professor in the Department since 1981, after spending time at the University of Texas... read more
Professor Dinesh Manocha and Dean Amitabh Varshney among presenters
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš of the Czech Republic made a quick stop at the University of Maryland on March 6 to learn about research involving artificial intelligence, robotics, computer vision, and virtual and augmented reality. The prime minister was on a state visit to the U.S., accompanied by his aides and international journalists. The visit was hosted by ISR Director William Regli (CS/ISR) and the university’s Office of International Affairs. Three demonstrations were presented in the Maryland Robotics Center’s Robotics Realization Lab. Professor Rama Chellappa (ECE/CS/UMIACS) and... read more