Recent News & Accomplishments
2026
His research examines how generative models can produce coherent, structured, and controllable narratives and content across scenes, characters, and diverse media formats.
A short video clip may capture a moment, but building a full narrative with consistent characters and dialogue remains a challenge for artificial intelligence systems. At the University of Maryland, one doctoral student is working to extend those capabilities by focusing on story-driven content across scenes. Taewon Kang , a Ph.D. student in the Department of Computer Science, studies generative artificial intelligence with a focus on controllable and multimodal generation. Advised by Distinguished University Professor Ming C. Lin , Kang explores how diffusion-based models integrate visual... read more
The third-place finish secures the South Division title and advances the team to the World Finals in Dubai.
A student team from the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science earned a silver medal at the 2026 North America Championship of the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) , held March 22 at the University of Central Florida. The team placed third overall among 52 qualifying teams from universities across the United States and Canada, securing the North America South Division title and advancing to the World Finals , scheduled for November 15- 20, 2026, in Dubai. Representing UMD were graduate student Danny Mittal and undergraduate students Sujay Konda and Austin... read more
The partnership aims to develop standards and tools to evaluate safety, reliability and long-term performance of AI-driven health technologies.
Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled medical devices are advancing at an unprecedented pace—from software that helps interpret medical images to detect cancerous growths or identify biomarkers for specific diseases to algorithms that analyze ECGs for potentially fatal heart arrhythmias—unlocking new opportunities for care while also raising regulatory questions about how to evaluate safety and performance over time. The University of Maryland’s College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences (CMNS) is launching a new research collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s... read more
The award honors alumni whose work and achievements have made a significant difference in their communities and fields.
David Mount , a professor of computer science at the University of Maryland, was named a recipient of the 2026 Distinguished Science Alumni Award from Purdue University. Mount earned his doctorate in computer science from Purdue in 1983 after completing both his undergraduate and graduate studies there. The award honors alumni whose work and achievements have made a significant difference in their communities and fields. “It’s a great honor to be recognized by my alma mater,” Mount said. “This award is given once each year, and to receive that recognition is very meaningful to me.” Mount said... read more
Symposium at the University of Maryland highlighted advances in microbiome engineering and data-driven research.
More than 120 researchers convened at the University of Maryland on Friday, March 20, for the 10th annual Mid-Atlantic Microbiome Meet-up. The one-day symposium, held at the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering, brought together a diverse community of microbiome scientists from across the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond, spanning academia, government and industry. This year’s theme, “ Engineering and Analytics in Microbiome Research ,” underscored the growing importance of quantitative methods, high-throughput sequencing technologies, and systems-level modeling in... read more
Inside the University of Maryland lab, researchers design small, interactive devices that explore how people engage with technology through physical experience.
At the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science, the Small Artifacts Lab , or SMART Lab, focuses on designing and studying technology as physical objects. Led by Assistant Professor of Computer Science Huaishu Peng , the lab develops compact, intelligent devices that emphasize touch, interaction and real-world use. Researchers examine how these artifacts are created and how their physical form can shape the way people engage with technology. Among them is Ph.D. student Zeyu Yan , whose research explores how hardware design can be rethought to address electronic waste. His work... read more
Mohammad Hajiaghayi leads DARPA-backed GENIUS initiative at UMD to develop AI systems that can reason alongside mathematicians and advance complex problem-solving.
The University of Maryland will lead a new cross-institutional research effort designed to dramatically accelerate mathematical discovery by combining advanced artificial intelligence (AI) with deep human expertise in computer science and mathematics. As mathematicians tackle increasingly complex questions—from cybersecurity to algorithm design used to verify software in aerospace, healthcare, and autonomous vehicles—researchers aim to develop AI systems that can reason strategically alongside human experts, helping address problems whose scale and complexity have long limited progress. To... read more
A UMD postdoctoral researcher explores how cryptography and machine learning can work together to enable secure AI systems trained on encrypted data.
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence depends on access to vast amounts of data—much of it deeply sensitive. From medical records to financial histories, these datasets fuel powerful machine learning models while raising a fundamental challenge: how to train AI systems without exposing the underlying information. Natalie Lang , a postdoctoral associate at the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) and the Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2), is working to solve that problem. “My goal for this postdoc is to move the needle on privacy and security in... read more
In collaboration with Adobe, CS Ph.D. student Sonal Kumar advances audio timestamp captioning to improve how AI understands speech and complex sounds.
From voice assistants answering questions to automated captions appearing on videos, artificial intelligence increasingly relies on audio to interact with people. Yet many systems still struggle to interpret sound the way humans do, especially when speech includes different accents or when multiple sounds occur at once. At the University of Maryland, Ph.D. student Sonal Kumar is working to address those challenges through timestamped audio captioning —an emerging approach that helps AI understand not only what it hears, but also when sounds occur. Advised by Professors Ramani Duraiswami and... read more
Admitted applicants attend the annual CS Visit Day, meeting faculty, exploring labs and connecting with graduate students at the Brendan Iribe Center.
The Department of Computer Science held its annual Graduate Visit Day on March 13, 2026, welcoming admitted prospective Ph.D. students to the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering. The event gave visitors the chance to meet faculty members, speak with current graduate students and learn more about the department’s research environment before making final enrollment decisions. The University of Maryland’s graduate computer science program is consistently ranked among the top programs in the United States. According to U.S. News & World Report, the program is ranked No... read more