Recent News & Accomplishments
2017
Ph.D. students Milod Kazerounian and Elissa Redmiles have been named as National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellows for 2017. Kazerounian's advisor is Professor Jeff Foster, and Redmiles' advisor is Assistant Professor Michelle Mazurek. Two undergraduates computer science majors have been named NSF Graduate Research Fellows as well: Katherine Cordwell, who is a double major with mathematics, and Jonathan San Miguel who is a double majoring with physics. Congratulations to all! read more
Each year the University System of Maryland (USM) awards faculty members for excellence and their contributions to the university community. This year, one of the recipients for excellence in mentoring is Associate Professor of Computer Science, Neil Spring. According to USM, the awards represent "the highest honor presented by the board to exemplary faculty members. Presented in four categories, the awards honor excellence in teaching, public service, mentoring, innovation, and a combined category of research, scholarship and creative activity." Doctoral student Ramakrishna Padmanabhan... read more
Endowed professorship in virtual reality created with private and state support
Matthias Zwicker joined the University of Maryland Department of Computer Science and the university’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) in March 2017 as the Reginald Allan Hahne Endowed E-Nnovate Professor in Computer Science. “I am very excited to be at a major university with lots of great students and where research in graphics with virtual and augmented reality is on the cutting edge,” Zwicker said. “This area of study is not a traditional area of computer science, but the connection with Brendan Iribe and the building makes it very exciting, and I am happy to be here... read more
On February 24, 2017, Assistant Professor Michelle Mazurek gave the keynote address for the ACM Capital Region Celebration of Women in Computing (CAPWIC) 2017 held at Georgetown University. Mazurek’s talk was entitled Expanding Usable Security Beyond End Users . This yearly celebration “brings together women at the high school, undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels to promote the recruitment, retention, and progression of women in computing fields.” The conference also includes several technical talks as well as opportunities for women in computer science to interact and network. read more
Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi, the Jack and Rita Minker Professor of Computer Science, has been awarded an ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) award for 2017 . Over the last five years he has coached five teams of talented students who have advanced to the World Finals. Hajiaghayi will be presented with the award at the ACM-ICPC World Finals Opening Ceremony on Monday, May 22nd in Rapid City, South Dakota. "Congratulations to Mohammad and all of the students who have been in the teams the last few years. They are indeed fortunate to have had Mohammad as the coach," said Samir... read more
In early March of 2017, Professor Mike Hicks and Assistant Professor Michelle Mazurek were granted a Google Research Award for 2016 in the area of Security . Assistant Professor Jon Froehlich and Affiliate Assistant Professor Leah Findlater (Assistant Professor of the I-School) have been awarded a Google Faculty Award as well in the area of Physical Interfaces and Immersive Experiences. The Google grants cover tuition for a graduate student and give faculty and students the opportunity to work directly with Google researchers and engineers. According to the Google research blog, they received... read more
Assistant Professor Jon Froehlich, who also has an appointment in the university’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), is the recipient of a five-year National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. His work, A Tangible-Graphical Approach to Engage Young Children in Wearable Design , enables children as young as five to be able to interact with technology through physical objects to learn concepts from programming to design to data science. Children are able to manipulate and arrange objects to perform tasks (such as arranging tiles to create... read more
Barna Saha, Ph.D '11 was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Career Award for 2017. Samir Khuller, Elizabeth Stevinson Iribe Chair of Computer Science, served as her advisor. Saha is currently a professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Information and Computer Science . Her specialties include theoretical computer science and data management. In an interview published by UMass Amherst, Saha explained that she will be working on what problems can be solved by computers in a reasonable amount of time. Please read UMass Amherst's Press Release on Saha's award. read more
PhD student Elissa Redmiles has been named a Facebook Fellow for 2017. She joins twelve other fellows this year. The fellowship was started six years ago “to encourage and support promising doctoral students engaged in innovative and relevant research across computer science and engineering.” Redmiles’ advisor is Assistant Professor Michelle Mazurek of Computer Science and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. “This year we received over 800 applications from promising PhD students,” said Rebekkah Hogan, Fellowship Program Manager. “The 2017 Fellows represent... read more
Assistant Professor Jon Froehlich and Assistant Professor Tom Goldstein named Sloan Fellows for 2017
On February 21st 2017, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation named its newest class of Sloan Research Fellows. This year, the Computer Science Department has the distinct honor of having two members of this year’s class of fellows: Assistant Professor Jon Froehlich and Assistant Professor Tom Goldstein. read more