News and Events

Recent News & Accomplishments

 2026

Image of human with robot.  (28582)
A glass wall can look like an open path to a robot. Reflections and transparency can fool its sensors, leaving it with a faulty map—and a route that could end in a collision. University of Maryland computer science doctoral student Naitri Rajyaguru and collaborators are helping robots recognize those barriers using information ordinary cameras miss: the polarization of light. Their work earned two honors at workshops associated with the 2026 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), held Sept. 27–Oct. 1 in Pittsburgh. In all, UMD’s Perception and Robotics...  read more
Photo of Eric Gilerson  (28579)
Eric Gilerson’s single-author paper explores a method for performing exact arithmetic within language models.
When asked to multiply two numbers, a language model may predict the answer based on patterns in its training data rather than perform the calculation directly. University of Maryland undergraduate Eric Gilerson is investigating a way to change that. Gilerson, a junior computer science major, has had a single-author paper accepted for a poster presentation at the 2026 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems , known as NeurIPS. He will present his findings in Sydney, Australia, in December. The conference brings together researchers in artificial intelligence and machine learning...  read more
Image of Yafan Huang (28565)
Huang develops methods to reduce data demands and address hardware errors in scientific computing and artificial intelligence systems.
As scientific facilities and artificial intelligence systems process growing amounts of data, researchers must contend not only with computing speed but also with the cost of moving and storing information and the possibility of hardware errors affecting results. Yafan Huang , who joined the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science as an assistant professor in fall 2026, studies those challenges through high-performance computing, or HPC. “I am very excited to join the Department of Computer Science,” Huang said. “UMD has a strong tradition in high-performance computing,...  read more
Descriptive Image (28559)
The four-year initiative will use AI and automation to support remotely accessible biomanufacturing experiments, with Liu co-leading the lab's data and AI systems.
Biomanufacturing underpins products ranging from vaccines to cancer therapies, but developing those products can require experiments that are time-consuming, costly and difficult to reproduce. A new University of Maryland-led project is bringing together artificial intelligence, robotics and real-time biological measurements to examine how those experiments can be designed and carried out differently. UMD Department of Computer Science Assistant Professor Alan Zaoxing Liu is a co-principal investigator on the Collaborative for the Realization of Autonomous Biomanufacturing (CRAB) Lab, a four-...  read more
Descriptive Image (28555)
The projects aim to predict hospital readmissions in high-risk heart failure patients and establish reliable methods for evaluating the safety and performance of AI-enabled medical imaging systems.
University of Maryland computer scientist Heng Huang is part of two new federally funded projects aimed at improving the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare: a four-year, $1.2 million award to develop a wearable device that predicts hospital readmission in high-risk heart failure patients and a $750,000 contract to create a platform for evaluating AI-enabled medical imaging systems. “AI has so much potential to help us address human health problems, and developing these kinds of real-world tools is one important way forward,” said Huang, the Brendan Iribe Endowed Professor of...  read more
Descriptive Image (28553)
Watch someone pour almonds into a bowl, and the action is easy to follow: a container moves, tilts and releases its contents. Teaching a robot to do the same can require costly demonstrations specifying how its joints and gripper should move. University of Maryland researchers have developed an artificial intelligence model that learns from videos how hands, tools and objects move and then uses those patterns to help robots perform tasks. Called μ₀, or Mu Zero, it is a type of AI called a world model, which predicts how a scene will change during an activity. Given an image and an instruction...  read more
Descriptive Image (28548)
The Fall 2026 event brought 1,169 students together with representatives from 59 employers seeking candidates for internships and full-time positions.
The University of Maryland Department of Computer Science brought 1,169 students and representatives from 59 employers together at its Fall 2026 Career and Internship Fair on Sept. 28. Held at the Adele H. Stamp Student Union, the event gave students direct access to recruiters seeking candidates for internships and full-time positions in computer science and related fields. For students, the fair offered a chance to speak directly with employers and better understand how their coursework and experiences translate to the workplace. Senior Sofia Santiago , who is pursuing a double degree in...  read more
Descriptive Image (28546)
Jared Wolinsky (B.S. ’09, computer science) credits his University of Maryland education and the QUEST Honors Program for preparing him for his current role as group vice president of software engineering at SiriusXM.
He started tinkering with computers in elementary school. Using an old IBM machine his grandfather passed down to his family, Wolinsky learned Visual Basic—an early programming language developed by Microsoft for Windows. At first, he built apps to play pranks on his friends through AOL’s messaging platform. “I had a little mischievous streak at the time,” he said, laughing. “It was never anything nefarious—just doing the things that would sound fun for a middle schooler.” But his love for coding grew into something bigger. He sought resources to develop his skills and found like-minded...  read more
Descriptive Image (28544)
Computing Catalyst’s annual event brought students together with campus organizations, UMD programs and industry representatives at Hornbake Plaza.
About 400 students gathered at Hornbake Plaza on Sept. 25 for Computing Catalyst’s annual Tech Block Party, where they connected with student organizations, UMD programs and technology companies. The images below capture scenes from the event and the connections students made throughout the afternoon. Previous Next —Portrait Article by Samuel Malede Zewdu, CS Communications figure img { border: 2px solid #e8e9ea; width:100%; height:auto; } figcaption { font-size: .8em; text-transform: uppercase; text-align: center; font-weight: bold; border-top: 3px double #fed31e; border-bottom: 3px double #...  read more
Descriptive Image (28543)
Philip Resnik and Rebecca Resnik used computer-assisted analysis to examine more than 16,000 personal accounts describing reasons people choose to continue living.
What can thousands of personal stories tell us about the reasons people keep going during their darkest moments? University of Maryland computational linguist Philip Resnik and clinical psychologist Rebecca Resnik recently joined CBS News correspondent Natalie Brand to discuss new research examining that question. Philip Resnik, who is also an affiliate professor in the Department of Computer Science, is the lead author of the forthcoming Scientific Reports paper “16,648 Reasons to Live Instead of Dying by Suicide: Insights from a Computer-Assisted Content Analysis.” A professor of...  read more

Featured Videos

When Transfer Learning Meets Deep Learning

Professor Qiang Yang, Hong Kong University
November 27, 2017

Video

Cryptographic Perspectives on the Future of Privacy

Jonathan Katz, Department of Computer Science, University of Maryland
September 06, 2017

An Expanding and Expansive View of Computing

Jim Kurose, National Science Foundation
January 30, 2017

Video

Data, Predictions and Decisions in Support of People and Society

Eric Horvitz, Technical Fellow and Director at Microsoft
October 24, 2016