Recent News & Accomplishments
2021
An estimated 42 million sex workers drive more than $180 million in business annually worldwide. They often rely on the internet to do their job, but keeping their private and professional identities separate online is a critical safety challenge. Sex workers—and other vulnerable groups such as trans people and intimate partner abuse survivors—face higher rates of stalking, harassment, and assault. Yet little research has been conducted on how to improve digital security tools with these users in mind. A multi-institutional team of digital security analysts recently published a paper... read more
University of Maryland researchers are developing a novel algorithm that significantly improves the virtual reality (VR) experience by redirecting users to avoid colliding with physical objects. The project is led by third-year computer science doctoral student Niall Luke Williams , a researcher in the Geometric Algorithms for Modeling, Motion, and Animation (GAMMA) lab. His advisers are Distinguished University Professor Dinesh Manocha and assistant research professor Aniket Bera , both of whom hold appointments in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. “... read more
A University of Maryland expert in wireless networking and mobile computing has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) award to expand Wi-Fi infrastructure in regional urban greenspaces.
Nirupam Roy , an assistant professor of computer science with an appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), is the principal investigator of the $150K award . He is partnering on the project with the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission ’s (M-NCPPC) Department of Parks and Recreation . His team includes Jennifer Roberts , an associate professor of kinesiology; Elizabeth Bonsignore , an assistant research scientist in the College of Information Studies (iSchool); Naomi Sachs , an assistant professor in the Department of Plant... read more
University of Maryland researchers won a Distinguished Paper Award for their work uncovering a unique form of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that can be used to censor internet access. DDoS attacks are an advanced form of traditional denial-of-service attacks, wherein a perpetrator tries to make a machine or network unavailable to legitimate users by flooding it with superfluous requests. The DDoS attacks are different in that they can flood a network from multiple sources, making it difficult to stop the cyberattack by simply blocking one source. The UMD team used an artificial... read more
Aravind Srinivasan, a Distinguished University Professor of computer science, has been selected to receive a 2021 Distinguished Career Award from the Washington Academy of Sciences . Since 1940, the academy has recognized scientists in the Washington, D.C., region for their scientific achievements and leadership. The Distinguished Career Award is the organization’s highest honor, acknowledging scientists and scholars who have a significant impact on their respective fields of study. Srinivasan was cited by the academy for his distinguished contributions to algorithms, probabilistic methods,... read more
Two University of Maryland graduate students in the Computational Linguistics and Information Processing (CLIP) Lab are a part of the latest cohort of Computing Innovation (CI) Fellows , a prestigious postdoctoral research program managed by the Computing Research Association. Denis Peskov (left in photo) and Kianté Brantley (right) will join 67 other graduate students nationwide in receiving a CI Fellows award—a two-year paid postdoctoral computing position. Supported by the National Science Foundation, the CI Fellows program aids recent and soon-to-be Ph.D. computing graduates whose job... read more
Moses Namara (B.S. ’16, computer science) makes MIT Technology Review’s ‘35 Innovators Under 35’ for his work cofounding Black in AI Academic Program.
Born and raised in Kampala, Uganda, Moses Namara (B.S. ’16, computer science ) came to Maryland to explore the field of computer science. Computers fascinated him since childhood and taking foundational computer science classes in high school further cemented his interest. Through his education and research experiences, Namara says he has been a “huge” recipient of other people’s help—including professors, co-workers and friends. “We live to help each other, to better each other in different ways. If different people hadn’t stood up to help me on my journey, I don’t think I would be here now... read more
Computer science alumna Monica Zhu paired up with rising junior Mohammed Kabir last year and provided him with valuable guidance on coursework and internships.
Mentorship goes both ways—that’s what Yue “Monica” Zhu (B.S. ’15, computer science ) learned from her experiences mentoring a student at her alma mater through the University of Maryland’s Iribe Initiative for Inclusion and Diversity in Computer Science (I4C). “Talking with students gives us mentors a fresh perspective,” Zhu said. “Students ignite our minds on, ‘Wow, that was why I fell in love and chose this career path in the first place.’ The students I’ve worked with through the I4C mentoring program are driven, curious and eager to get their careers in tech started.” Since graduating in... read more
Eight new full-time tenured/tenure-track faculty members—three who began their appointments this year and five more who will start in 2022—have joined the Department of Computer Science with joint appointments in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). “The department is delighted to welcome our new faculty members. Their tremendous amount of knowledge and expertise in critical research areas will provide a huge boost to the educational and research capacity of our department. We are excited to support them in their work,” said Department Chair Matthias... read more
Jamshed Khan , a third-year computer science doctoral student, recently received the Ian Lawson Van Toch Memorial Award for Outstanding Student Paper at the 2021 Conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) and European Conference on Computational Biology (ECCB) . ISMB is the flagship meeting of the International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB). The event is co-located with ECCB and has grown to become the world’s largest bioinformatics and computational biology conference. The conference was held virtually July 25–30 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The award... read more