Recent News & Accomplishments
2018
From the President's Office: August 1, 2018 Dear University of Maryland faculty and staff, I am pleased to announce the appointment of Jeff Hollingsworth as Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) following a competitive search. He will lead the Division of Information Technology with a talented staff of over 300, overseeing the technology strategy, infrastructure, and services that are critical to the University's operations. A longtime member of our faculty, Jeff assumed the role of Interim CIO in June 2017, reporting to our Provost. Since then, he has implemented effectively and... read more
by Sydney Rowan
Professor William Gasarch is the director of the REU program at the University of Maryland. Gasarch received his doctorate in Computer Science from Harvard in 1985. He then became a Full Professor at the University of Maryland in 1998. He is known for his work in computational complexity theory, computability theory, computational learning theory, and Ramsey theory. Professor Gasarch has helped over 45 undergraduates on research projects. He is not mentoring any projects in the computer science REU this summer; instead he is in charge of admissions, setting up activities, and overseeing the... read more
On July 1st 2018, the Department of Computer Science welcomed Soheil Feizi as an assistant professor with specializations in machine learning and statistical inference. He also has an appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). Professor Feizi comes to the Department from Stanford University where he was a post-doctoral research scholar. He received a Ph.D. (2016) and M.Sc. (2010) in computer science with a minor in Mathematics from MIT. Professor Feizi was kind enough to answer a few interview questions as he starts his first full year as a... read more
Greg N. Frederickson (M.S. 1976; Ph.D. 1977) A popular author in the world of recreational mathematics, Greg N. Fredrickson is also an award-winning researcher and professor of computer science at Purdue University. He has spent most of his career working on the analysis of algorithms, with special emphasis on data structures, and graph and network algorithms. He has published four books, and been the recipient of a George Polya Award from the Mathematical Association of America in both 2004 and 2009. Subbarao Kambhampati (M.S. 1985; Ph.D. 1989) A fellow and president (2016-18) of the... read more
Endowed professorship in virtual reality created with private and state support
Dinesh Manocha Joins UMD as the Paul Chrisman Iribe Professor of Computer Science Endowed professorship in virtual reality created with private and state support Dinesh Manocha joined the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science in May 2018 as the inaugural Paul Chrisman Iribe Endowed E-Nnovate Professor. He also holds joint appointments in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “I am truly honored to join the University of Maryland with appointments in two top-ranked departments... read more
Northwestern University has appointed Ph.D. candidate Xiao Wang as an Assistant Professor of computer science starting in the fall semester of 2019. Before joining the computer science faculty at Northwestern, Wang will conduct a joint post-doctoral fellowship with Vinod Vaikuntanathan at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Ran Canetti at Boston University. “I am very fortunate to be able to work with both of them—they are both world-class cryptographers,” Wang says of Vaikuntanathan and Canetti. Wang's thesis adviser is Jonathan Katz, Professor of Computer Science and Director of... read more
For 2017-2018 academic year, two members of Computer Science Department have been awarded Board of Visitors' Awards , and two members have received Computer Math and Natural Science Dean’s Awards. Professor Larry Davis has been awarded The Distinguished Faculty Award Principal Lecturer Jandelyn Plane has been awarded The Board of Visitors’ Creative Educator Award Assistant Professor Dave Levin is the recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching Advisor Alyssa Neuner is the recipient of the Thelma M. Williams Advisor of the Year Award The College celebrated these and other award... read more
Twenty-two years ago, a plucky and friendly Ms. Brenda K. Chick joined the Department of Computer Science as a member of the Chair's office staff. There, she handled everything from keeping the chair's calendar, to answering important phone calls, to handling APT paperwork and other important files. After a few years, she became the Department's Coordinator for Facilities. In that position, she has capably managed large- and small-scale projects--everything from building new rooms, to painting and carpeting A.V. Williams, to managing repairs after flood damage--always ensuring that everything... read more
by Rebecca Copeland, Institute of Systems Research Professor Dana Nau (CS/ISR), Professor Michele Gelfand (Psychology), and Assistant Professor Tom Goldstein (CS) are part of a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI), one of 24 awarded this year by the Department of Defense. MURIs provide funding for up to five years to academic institutions for multidisciplinary basic research, subject to satisfactory research progress and the availability of funds. Together, the 2018 MURIs total $169 million in funding. The Maryland researchers are part of “Innovations in Mean-Field Game... read more
To Our CS Community: Many of you may have seen on social media over the last few days a TA handbook linked to our department. This document was deeply troubling and made generalizations about our female students, in particular, which were offensive and unacceptable. As the chair of the CS department and the dean of the college, we want to make clear that this document is counter to the values of our department, college and university. This document is not an official department statement and we were not aware it existed on our website. Upon learning of the document, it was immediately removed... read more