(Message from the Chair continued from page 10) news as it happens, by subscrib- 25 YEARS ing to our mailing list at http:// CS@CU lists.cs.columbia.edu/mailman/ listinfo/cucs-news. We are also experimenting with a depart- mental blog to provide links and comments on topics of general NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AT VOL.1 NO.3 WINTER 2005 interest in computer science (http://columbiacs.blogspot.com). Alumni can find our new portal at http://alum.cs.columbia.edu, where they can look up fellow alumni, see job listings received by the Department and share their current whereabouts and activities. We always look forward to hearing from our former students, faculty and staff. We plan to provide more opportunities to meet other alumni, as well as other alumni-oriented webservices. Please get in touch with me if you have ideas for alumni- related services and events. Regards, and best wishes for 2005. CS Building exterior construction completed, December 1982.

Department of Computer Science Columbia University NON-PROFIT ORG. 1214 Amsterdam Avenue U.S. POSTAGE Mailcode: 0401 PAID New York, NY 10027-7003 NEW YORK, NY PERMIT 4332 At the 25th Anniversary Dinner (from left to right): SEAS Vice Dean Morton B. Friedman; SEAS Dean Zvi Galil, a former chair of the CS Department; Peter Likins, President of the University of ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED Message from the Chair Arizona and former SEAS dean under whose leadership the Department was founded; Professor Henning Schulzrinne; Professor Joseph Traub, the founding Chair of the Department; and keynote Henning those times computer science speaker Robert Kahn, President of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). Schulzrinne, was not yet universally recog- nized as an academic discipline. students, about 160 Masters our broad and deep coverage to Professor The event was highlighted by a students, and 145 undergradu- provide more than just a text- & Chair one-day symposium by current ate majors. The Department’s book education to our students. This fall, the new faculty and alumni, with a research and teaching is For example, our low student- Department of keynote address by Bob Kahn supported by 16 administrative to-faculty ratio allows us to Computer Science at Columbia and a retrospective from the staff and 5 system administra- offer individually supervised University was proud to first department chair, Joe Traub tors. Last year, we conducted research projects, with almost celebrate its 25th anniversary (see pg.7). The article on pg.7 research supported by almost all MS students and many of under the banner “Academic provides more details and links $10 million of external funding. the undergraduates taking part Excellence, Innovative to photos and video recordings. Since 1979, we have graduated in at least one such project during their time at Columbia. Research.” The celebration The Department has now 34 more than 150 PhDs, now began with a dinner with Peter faculty, complemented by an working in most of the major Despite the vastly wider scope Likins, the current President of increasing number of adjunct computer-science-related labora- and reach of computer science the University of Arizona. professors from local research tories and in many universities, as a whole, the Department’s In the late 1970’s, Peter as laboratories teaching advanced both in the United States and faculty and students have provost of Columbia University graduate courses. Unlike most beyond. 1620 undergraduates continued to work together, in was one of the principal individ- other departments, our PhD, have received a Columbia CS research groups, long-term uals who helped create the MS and undergraduate student degree over the years, along collaborations and shorter-term Department. This was a bold populations are of the same with 1206 MS students. We research projects. move for Columbia because in magnitude, with 124 PhD want to continue to leverage (continued on page 10)

CS@CU NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY WWW.CS.COLUMBIA.EDU CS@CU WINTER 2005 1 Featured Project Other News In cooperation with the National Emergency Digital Number Association (NENA), MapInfo and Texas A&M University, two Columbia Computer Science Systems students, Matthew Mintz-Habib and Anshuman Rawat, together with Professor Henning Schulzrinne Group are working on designing and prototyping the next generation of emergency calling (“9-1-1”) for Luca Carloni Stephen Edwards Steven Nowick the United States and beyond. The Digital Systems Professor Luca Carloni joined Professor Stephen Edwards is Professor Steven Nowick is Group includes faculty Columbia University in Fall an Assistant Professor of an Associate Professor of 2004 as an Assistant Professor Computer Science, who joined Computer Science, who joined members Luca Carloni, of Computer Science after the department in 2001. the department in 1993. His Stephen Edwards, completing his PhD in His group works on applying research focuses on the devel- and Steven Nowick. Electrical Engineering and compiler technology to opment of asynchronous and The existing 911 system has Unlike the traditional telephone Computer Science at UC problems in embedded system mixed-timing digital systems. Re-Engineering evolved slowly since its begin- version, this system can Berkeley. Luca also holds design. The long-term goal is Asynchronous circuits are nings in the 1970s, often still easily migrate call handling a Laureate in Electrical to simplify the task of creating those which have no global using the same technology. should the primary call center Engineering from the such systems by supplying clock. Unlike synchronous the Nation’s For example, information about be overloaded or disrupted. University of Bologna, Italy, tools that raise the level of systems, which are governed the caller is limited to eight or Longer term, still photos and and a MS in Engineering from abstraction presented to by centralized control, asyn- 9-1-1 System ten digit phone numbers which live bidirectional video, e.g., UC Berkeley. His research a designer. Recent projects chronous chips are fine-grained are then used to look up the from camera phones, can interests include design include the first open-source concurrent distributed sys- street address of the caller allow emergency personnel to technologies for electronic compiler for the Esterel real- tems: composed of separate based on telephone company better assess the nature and systems, embedded systems time language able to produce hardware ‘objects’, which subscriber data. severity of the incident, as design, computer architecture both hardware and software operate at their own rates, and The proliferation of cell phones well as to provide pre-arrival and engineering, and combina- from the same specification, which coordinate and synchro- and, most recently, voice-over- first-aid instruction. torial optimization. In particular, domain-specific languages and nize through local channel IP (VoIP) technology is stretch- The project is funded by a Luca is interested in deriving compilers for device drivers communication. There has ing the ability of the system grant from the National new design methods for high and hardware/software-inter- been a recent resurgence of to keep up. For example, Telecommunications and performance integrated circuits faces, and program analysis interest in industry and acade- despite investment of billions Information Administration and for distributed embedded for pointer analysis mia in asynchronous design as of dollars, only about 30% (NTIA) and the Center for systems based on rigorous and incremental automata- a modular and scalable design of the nation can currently Advanced Telecommunication mathematical reasoning. based program verification. style, as synchronous design- receive caller location from Technology (CATT). During his PhD studies, ers confront formidable mobile phones, leading to Luca has developed the theory http://www.cs.columbia.edu/ challenges of managing chip delays in dispatching emer- http://www.cs.columbia.edu/IRT/sos of latency-insensitive design ~sedwards design complexity, high-speed gency assistance. For VoIP, and the companion design clock distribution, and power the old structure relying on methodology for integrated dissipation. Professor Nowick’s mapping telephone numbers circuits. This is a correct-by- research is supported by 2 to locations fails completely. construction approach that medium-sized NSF ITR grants handles latency’s increasing for $2.5 million (joint with This has led a number of impact on nanometer technolo- Profs. Peter Beerel at USC and organizations to work together gies and facilitates the reuse Kenneth Shepard at Columbia to design and prototype a next- of intellectual-property cores EE Department). His main generation, packet-based infra- for building complex systems- research projects include: CAD SIPc receives call structure that is slated to slowly on-chip, thereby reducing tools for the synthesis and replace the existing analog, the number of costly iterations optimization of asynchronous circuit-switched system over in the design process. The systems, high-speed asynchro- the next decade. The new concept of latency-insensitive nous pipelines, interface system relies on the Session design is now under close circuits for mixed-timing Initiation Protocol (SIP) for call investigation by major semi- domains, and design issues signaling, carrying end system conductor companies for the in embedded systems. location information for sta- design of the next generation tionary, nomadic and mobile integrated circuits. http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~nowick callers. VoIP phones learn their location through network http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~luca configuration protocols such as DHCP. The caller location is then used to locate the appro- priate emergency call center for the area and to display the caller’s location on a map at GeoLynx displays location the call taker’s work station.

2 CS@CU WINTER 2005 CS@CU WINTER 2005 11 Other News Featured Awards & Lectures

inability to automatically at low computational cost; it in databases, information Luis Gravano access the hidden web (also has provided dramatic speed- retrieval, and related fields. Nieh wins Sigma Xi Young Investigator Award known as the “deep web”). ups over previously known Professor Gravano has obtained Receives Tenure The hidden web contains algorithms, sometimes as much Professor Jason Nieh Nieh, Nobel laureate Murray nition and $5,000, alternates substantial funding for his Gell-Mann, and renowned between the physical sci- petabytes of unindexed online as a ten-fold improvement. For research from sources such as gave the seventh annual The data lying behind proprietary example, the system QProber, Canadian scientist and broad- ences, including engineering Microsoft Research, the Young Investigator caster David Suzuki were and , and the life Computer interfaces; research that facili- developed by Professor Gravano National Science Foundation, tates online access of this and his team, is the most scala- Lecture on “Let’s Get the three invited speakers at sciences, including social sci- Science and Lucent Technologies. He Virtual: The New Wave the annual meeting. The Young ences. It recognizes scientific large, and for the most part ble and efficient state-of-the art has participated in many large Department untapped, repository of data text database classification strat- in Computing” at the Investigator Lecture is given achievement by individuals scale multi-PI (and often multi- each year by the winner of the within 10 years of earning their is extremely will have tremendous impact egy in the literature. His work disciplinary) grants. These 2004 Sigma Xi Annual on both the commercial and fuses theoretical results with a Sigma Xi Young Investigator highest graduate degree. Nieh happy to include an NSF DLI2-Phase2 Meeting in November. Award. The award, which is the first Luis Gravano announce the personal world. Professor systems approach, a methodolo- project on personalized medical Gravano has done pioneering gy that yields sound and scalable Jason Nieh includes a certificate of recog- to receive this national award. that, in May digital libraries where his work on automatic classifica- results. This approach has led research involved access to dis- 2004, Professor Luis tion by topic of hidden web to an impressive publication tributed, heterogeneous data- sites and on automatic extrac- record in extremely selective Gravano was awarded bases, along with an NSF Digital received his PhD under Zvi Study joined the four speakers tion of content summaries to conferences and journals. tenure at Columbia. Government Grant also involving Special Theory Day held at Columbia Galil and is a Senior Research for the panel, and Professor facilitate automatic database Since coming to Columbia in research into access to hetero- Scientist in the Computer Mihalis Yannakakis of the Professor Gravano is a leader selection. This aspect of his September 1997, Professor geneous databases. He has Theory Day was started in Science Department. The audi- Columbia Computer Science in the field of web search, work provides techniques for Gravano has received several recently collaborated with 1982 by Dean Zvi Galil (then a ence then heard talks by four department moderated the an interdisciplinary area sitting accessing unstructured data honors in recognition of natural language researchers member of the Computer world leaders in theoretical discussion. The panel had a at the intersection of database behind the hidden web. He his excellence. He received an at Columbia on a large scale Science faculty at Columbia) computer science: Professor lively discussion on topics systems and information also contributed to more tradi- NSF CAREER Award, was project where he is looking at and has grown to become a Richard Karp of UC Berkeley ranging from the role of CS retrieval. His early work on tional database problems by appointed as Associate Editor efficient search of summarized much-anticipated event among spoke about “Current theory in the undergraduate database selection exploits showing how top-k techniques of ACM Transactions and of resources, providing the ability New York area theorists. Challenges in Computational curriculum to the future status statistical summaries of data- from information retrieval ACM Transactions on Database for up-to-date, incremental Genomics: Haplotyping,” of the P versus NP question. bases to allow a metasearcher can be extended to database On May 14, 2004, a special Systems on Information provision of summarized news. Professor Shafi Goldwasser to select the most relevant querying and in developing Theory Day was held in All Theory Day participants Systems, and was selected of MIT spoke about “Proving databases to search for a techniques to create structured Professor Gravano has graduated Altschul Auditorium at enjoyed a complimentary lunch to co-chair both the WebDB Zvi Galil query. It has been widely used three PhD students: Nicolas Columbia to mark both the Hard-Core Predicates using data from unstructured data, 2004 International Workshop in the Faculty House and and cited within the database Bruno (now at Microsoft 25th anniversary of the List Decoding,” Professor received a stylish “Theory populating online databases. and the 13th ACM Conference and digital library communities. Research), Panagiotis Ipeirotis The Columbia/IBM CS department at Columbia Prabhakar Raghavan of Lions” T-shirt. More importantly, Professor Gravano’s research is on Information and Knowledge (now at NYU), and Eugene Research/NYU Theory and the 250th anniversary Stanford University and Verity attendees got a chance to His more recent research characterized by rigorous experi- Management. He has served Agichtein (now also at Day is a semi-annual of Columbia University. spoke about “Finding hear from some of the most addresses a critical limitation mental design to validate results, on the program committee Information in Networks,”and Microsoft Research). More than 280 attendees interesting and influential of current web search, the demonstrating accurate results of over 20 leading conferences daylong conference Professor Peter Shor of MIT came from as far as Israel, people in theoretical computer which brings together spoke about “Quantum Error Germany, California and science today. Correction and Fault Tolerant researchers in the New Greece to participate in this Quantum Computation.” (Message from the Chair science, computer security, the theory of latency-insensitive develop fundamental computa- York Metropolitan area special event. The day opened Bookmark for a day of interaction, with presenting The day ended with a panel http://www.cs.columbia.edu/theory/ continued from page 1) machine learning, natural design and the companion tional models for physical for links to upcoming Theory Days! a plaque to Dean Galil “in discussion on “The Future of As computer science and its language processing, network design methodology for inte- simulation, computer animation, discussion, and recognition of his initiation and Computer Science Theory.” products become an integral systems and software systems. grated circuits. This is a correct- and geometric modeling. One talks about computer continued support of Theory Professor Avi Wigderson of part of most human activities, Last fall, we were delighted to by-construction approach that of his recent contributions has science theory. Day over the years.” Moti the Institute for Advanced we have now completed our be able to add two new faculty handles the increasing impact been CHARMS (Conforming “renovation” of our academic to strengthen core research of latency on nanometer tech- Hierarchical Adaptive Refinement house. Prof. Al Aho describes areas in the Department, com- nologies and facilitates the MethodS), a general, broadly- (pg.4) how we see the future puter engineering as well as reuse of intellectual-property applicable framework for of undergraduate education computer vision and graphics. cores for building complex sys- adaptive physical simulations. Yannakakis gives Milner Lecture and how we can best educate Prof. Luca Carloni joined us tems-on-chip, thereby reducing Computer simulations built on students to succeed is charac- after graduating from the the number of costly iterations top of CHARMS are efficient Professor Mihalis and original theoretical work and Computer Science (LICS) in the design process. The because they can allocate com- terized by a need to have mar- University of California at Yannakakis gave the which has a perceived signifi- which were held in Turku, ketable skills and practice-based Berkeley, with research inter- concept of latency-insensitive pute power where it is most cance for practical computing.” Finland. Yannakakis, who is insight, as well as to master ests in the fields of design design is now under close needed. Researchers are adopt- ninth annual Milner In July, Yannakakis gave a joint the Percy K. and Vida L. W. the foundations of computer technologies for electronic sys- investigation by major semi- ing CHARMS for simulations Lecture at the University invited lecture on “Testing, Hudson Professor of Computer science that will keep students tems design methodologies for conductor companies for the spanning several domains such of Edinburgh in May. Optimization, and Games” at Science, joined Columbia current throughout their techni- the deployment of embedded design of the next generation as the special-effects industry, the 31st EATCS International January 2004 after a year at The Milner Lecture is given cal careers. We had earlier software on heterogeneous integrated circuits. environmental, automotive, and Colloquium on Automata, Stanford University and each year “by someone from revised We had earlier revised and distributed platforms, com- Prof. Eitan Grinspun was previ- materials engineering, as well Languages and Programming more than twenty years at outside the University who our Master’s program to focus puter architecture, integrated ously a postdoctoral fellow at the as computer aided surgery. (ICALP) and the Twentieth Bell Labs Research. has done or is doing excellent on advanced topics and allow circuits, and combinatorial Courant Institute, New York You can keep abreast with Mihalis Yannakakis IEEE Symposium on Logic specialization in tracks including optimization. During his PhD University, after graduating Columbia Computer Science foundations of computer research, Luca has developed from Caltech. He strives to (continued on page 12)

10 CS@CU WINTER 2005 CS@CU WINTER 2005 3 Featured Program Other News

We are proud to welcome of a general method for adap- New Faculty Professor Eitan Grinspun to tive physical simulation, also the Columbia Vision and at Caltech, in 2003. While Professor Graphics Center. Professor at Caltech, he received an Eitan Grinspun’s focus on the NVIDIA fellowship in 2001, and mathematical foundations of was chosen as an Everhart Grinspun computer animation and Distinguished Graduate Lecturer The New Undergraduate joins scientific computing comple- in 2003. Following graduation Computer ments our strengths in the he joined the Courant Institute CS I: Intro to CS & Programming in Java CS II: Intro to Computer Science Science @ areas of graphics, vision, inter- of Mathematical Sciences Computer Science Program faces, learning, and robotics. at New York University as a Eitan Grinspun Columbia research scientist. He serves University Professor Grinspun is interested at Columbia University in representations of physical on various program committees Brings focus on mathe- systems on a computer. including the ACM/Eurographics matical foundations This includes modeling the Symposium on Geometry Processing and the ACM of computer animation geometry (shape) as well as mechanics (behavior) of Siggraph/Eurographics everyday objects such as light Symposium on Computer bulbs, straw hats, air bags Animation. His research, pub- lished in both the engineering Al Aho, The department spent the pre- • Contemporary skills as well as tissues such as the and graphics literature, covers vious two academic years give students the ability to human brain. Such physical Vice Chair for a diverse agenda spanning planning and designing the apply today’s information simulations have applications Undergraduate simulation, discrete differential new program. It was felt that technology immediately. ranging from video games and geometry, geometric modeling, Education in an era in which computers, These skills also provide special effects to engineering subdivision surfaces, parallel networks, software, and digital students with a store design, medical training, architectures for interactive information are pervading of practical knowledge and computer-aided surgery. simulation applications, and society an integrated curricu- on which to build new He is particularly interested in streaming computation using In the fall of 2004, the Computer Science lum was needed to prepare competencies. elegant, efficient mathematical representations of such sys- graphics hardware. Department at Columbia University Columbia students for a rapidly • Fundamental concepts tems, thus explaining his focus evolving world in which expo- give students the ability to launched a new undergraduate program on adaptive computation nential advances in information understand the basic princi- in Computer Science. and on discrete models. technology are continuously ples and ideas underpinning transforming every area of computers, networks, Adaptive computation is human endeavor. and information. Concepts using computational resources The new program provides explain the how and why of where they are most needed. students with three comple- the technology and provide For example, in the simulation mentary kinds of knowledge: insights into its opportunities of an inflating air bag (right), contemporary information and limitations. Concepts the computer can allocate technology skills, fundamental also provide a foundation more variables (shows as red concepts of computer science, for understanding the new dots) at the positions where and most importantly algorith- technologies as Computer wrinkles are likely to form. mic problem-solving capabilities Science evolves. Discrete models refers to that can be applied to virtually • Algorithmic problem-solving simple, elegant descriptions any field. These three kinds of capabilities give students of physical systems drawn knowledge were advocated for the ability to apply their from first-principles in a all graduates (not just CS grad- skills and concepts to design “discrete world” consisting uates) of four-year colleges solutions in complex inter- of points, lines, and triangles. and universities in the National disciplinary situations arising For example, a straw hat may Research Council report, in scientific, engineering, be represented as a collection “Being Fluent with Information and business applications. of triangles (a mesh) and the Technology”, National Academy These capabilities allow bending of the hat may be Press, 1999. (I was a member students to create and computed from the angles of the committee that created implement new technologies formed by adjacent triangles. this report.) to meet the challenges of Eitan Grinspun completed the future applications. Engineering Science program at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1997, a Masters in Science for his work on Asynchronous VLSI at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 2000, and a PhD for his development

4 CS@CU WINTER 2005 CS@CU WINTER 2005 9 News & Awards

Knowledge Management (CIKM Communication On-Line”. Ravi Ramamoorthi and Shih- Department News 2004), as well as Co-Chair of Fu Chang (EE) won a three- Vishal Misra, Dan Rubenstein, the WebDB 2004 workshop. year grant from the National Nick Maxemchuk (EE) and Discrete Mathematics Al Aho was appointed to the Science Foundation CyberTrust To ny Jebara was Program Chair Predrag Jelenkovic (EE) won Advisory Board of the program titled “Restore the Foundations for the International Conference an NSF award for their project Computer and Information Trustworthiness of Digital Scientific Computing on Development and Learning “Funneling Impulses in Sensor Sciences Directorate of the Photographs: Blind Detection of at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, networks”. Systems National Science Foundation. Digital Photograph Tampering”. California, October 20-22 2004, Computational Linear Algebra Shree Nayar, Vlad Branzoi, Ricardo Baratto, Shaya Potter, http://www.icdl.cc. Henning Schulzrinne served and Terry Boult (Univ. of CS III: Advanced Programming CS IV: Data Structures & Algorithms Artificial Intelligence Gong Su, and Jason Nieh as co-chair for ACM Multimedia Colorado) received the Best Computer Science Theory received the 2004 ACM To ny Jebara won a National 2004, held at Columbia Paper Award at the 2004 MobiCom Best Student Paper Science Foundation grant University in October 2004. Applications Award for their paper titled: through the KDD Program for IEEE Conference on Computer PhD students Weibin Zhao and Fundamentals of Computer Systems “MobiDesk: Mobile Virtual the project “Correspondence Vision and Pattern Recognition Ashutosh Dutta served as local CVPR) for their paper titled Vision & Graphics Desktop Computing”.The in Learning via Permutation ( arrangements and finance chairs. MobiCom PC Chairs noted that Algorithms”. “Programmable Imaging using Probability & Statistics paper was also the highest a Digital Micromirror Array”. Sal Stolfo won an NSF award Gail Kaiser and Angelos for his project “Email Mining rated paper of the conference. Jason Nieh received the 2004 Keromytis jointly were Toolkit Supporting Law Distinguished Faculty Teaching Steve Feiner served as general awarded a “Microsoft Enforcement Forensic Analyses”. chair for ACM UIST 2004 Research Trustworthy Award, given annually to recog- The new program has a core The first course, COMS In the junior year students In addition, there is an (User Interface Software and Computing Curriculum” grant nize excellence in teaching in Sal Stolfo won 3 DHS awards Computer Science curriculum W1004, has been designed select one of five tracks Advanced Track in which a Technology), held in Santa Fe of $50K, one of 10 “winners”. the School of Engineering and for his projects “Developing that is taken in the first two for students with little or in which they then learn an student can study one of Applied Science at Columbia Collaborative Profiles of and a half years to provide the no programming background important field of computer these tracks at an accelerated in October 2004. Tal Malkin, Jason Nieh, and University. Attackers: A Longitudinal basic skills and concepts making it easy for high school science close to its technical level. Admission to the Dan Rubenstein received Steve Feiner gave the keynote Study”, “A New Generation of underlying modern Computer students of all backgrounds frontiers. Each track has a Advanced Track is by invitation 2004 IBM Faculty Awards. talk for ACM VRST 2004 (Virtual Jason Nieh, Gail Kaiser, and Collaborative Cross-domain Science. The core courses are to enter and study Computer set of required courses, of the faculty. Reality Software and Nieh also received a 2004 Angelos Keromytis won a Science. If a student has taken Security Technologies: • CS I: Intro to CS and breadth courses, and a large See “ACADEMICS” under the Technology), held in Hong IBM SUR Award. highly competitive 2004 ITR AP CS in Java in high school Worminator” and “Real-time Programming in Java selection of elective courses. departmental website Kong in November 2004. Award from the National and gotten a 4 or 5, the Tal Malkin received $70K Malicious Code Detection (COMS W1004) The tracks are http://www.cs.columbia.edu or Science Foundation for their student can go directly into Luis Gravano was Program from the NY Software Industry in Network Traffic: The PAYL • Foundations - for students the SEAS Bulletin for the project titled “Secure Remote • CS II: Intro to Computer the second course, COMS Co-Chair for the 13th ACM Association for two projects Payload Anomaly Detector”. wishing to pursue graduate details of the new program. Computing Services”. Science W1007, and on successful Conference on Information and on “Securing Financial work in theory, security, or (COMS W1007 or W1009) completion of COMS W1007 The intermingling of skills, scientific computing concepts, and algorithmic • CS III: Advanced Programming also get credit for COMS problem-solving capabilities (COMS W3157) W1004. The first two courses • Systems - for students pervades the entire program, Ta run Kapoor writes “I started Day was spent in Nara for the for the past few years. He is (COMS W1004 and 1007) are interested in the design and • CS IV: Data Structures starting with the first course. Alumni News my own company this year. Japanese National Treasure funded by an NSF Trusted taught in Java. The second two implementation of hardware and Algorithms Students quickly discover The company is called Pangean Show at the State Museum and Computing award, several courses (COMS W3157 and and/or software systems (COMS W3137 or W3139) that computer science is full Regina Barzilay (PhD 2003), Technologies and we specialize also to see the traditional New industrial awards and gifts, and COMS W3137) are taught in • Artificial Intelligence - for of deep, interesting, and Assistant Professor at MIT, in enterprise-based VoIP soft- Ye ar’s activities. It was quite a two NSF IA Education awards. • Discrete Mathematics C/C++. In this way, Columbia students interested in machine won a National Science ware solutions. Our web address tour—exciting and exhausting.” For more information, see (COMS W3203) computer science students learning, robotics, or systems important ideas that can be applied to many different Foundation CAREER Award. is www.pangeantech.com”. www.cs.sunysb.edu/~ezk/. • Scientific Computing become fluent in more than capable of “human-like” Jonathan Rosenberg one programming language. intelligence fields. Many senior-level Sara Calafell (BA 2001) writes Based on his numerous out- (PhD 2001) became Director Hua Zhong (MS 2001) worked (COMS W3210) courses such as Programming “I’m doing well here at McGill. standing achievements in of VoIP Service Provider in Andiamo Systems on Storage • Computational Linear Algebra • Applications - for students Languages and Translators Not a whole lot of news though. research, teaching, and service, Architecture at Cisco and was Networks, which was then (COMS W3251) interested in the design and (COMS W4115) and Operating I’m in Montreal, working on my implementation of interactive Jim Kurose (PhD 1984) was featured on the cover of acquired by Cisco Systems in • Computer Science Theory Systems (COMS W4118) PhD in Computer Science at appointed as a Distinguished Voice-on-the-Net Magazine. February 2004. He is now multimedia applications have semester-long projects McGill studying computational (COMS W3261) Professor of Computer Science a software engineer at Cisco • Vision and Graphics - for in which students work in biology. Canada is great—I’m Montek Singh (PhD 2001) is • Fundamentals of by the UMass Board of Trustees working on storage virtualization students interested in how small teams to create and even starting to play hockey!” now an Assistant Professor of Computer Systems during their November 10, 2004 making extensive use of what visual information is captured, implement innovative new meeting: http://www.cs.umass. CS at UNC Chapel-Hill and just he learned in operating systems (CSEE W3827) languages and systems of Ravi Gadhia (MS 2003) lives won an IBM Faculty Fellowship. manipulated, experienced in the Bay Area and works as a edu/csinfo/announce/kurose_ courses at Columbia. • Probability and Statistics their own design. Through distinguished.html Xin Wang (PhD 2001), currently (IEOR W4150 or SIEO W3600) such projects students can software engineer for a stealth- Michelle Zhou (PhD 1999) in the CSE department at exercise their own creativity mode startup company in the David Lee (PhD 1985) writes received the IUI 2005 (Int. and learn valuable project area of thin client computing. “I was traveling in the past two SUNY Buffalo, received a Conf. On Intelligent User management, teamwork, and In his free time, he is renovat- weeks and just returned to National Science Foundation Interfaces) Outstanding Paper communications skills. ing a fixer-upper house and Columbus... I was invited to give CAREER award. Award for “A Graph-Matching planning as many vacations as a talk at OPODIS04 in Grenoble Erez Zadok (PhD 2001), now Approach to Dynamic Media In short, the new Computer possible—next up, Vietnam where I also visited HP. I spent Assistant Professor at Allocation in Intelligent Science program has been in January 2005. Columbians more than a week in Beijing for Stony Brook University, has Multimedia Interfaces” by designed to educate Columbia are welcome to contact him at ACM Sigcomm 05 and other been working in the area Michelle X. Zhou, Zhen Wen, students to become leaders [email protected]. business needs. The New Year’s of Information Assurance (IA) and Vikram Aggarwal. in the new Information Age.

8 CS@CU WINTER 2005 CS@CU WINTER 2005 5 Feature Article

College, Columbia College, is the equivalent of an Oscar Departmental Retrospective Barnard, General Studies and or a Pulitzer Prize. To celebrate the Graduate School. Jonathan the new building, a convocation Joseph outstanding senior faculty, Gross served as Vice-Chair. was held in 1983. There were Tr aub which required that the Among his responsibilities talks by distinguished leaders in existing non-tenured faculty were creation of the curricula computing and Herbert Simon CS 25th had to be asked to leave. and oversight of the various received an honorary doctorate. The following people, who are Bachelor’s programs. In 1979 Columbia University now all senior faculty joined the Obtaining funds was crucial was fairly late in starting a Anniversary Department in the early years: to building Departmental Computer Science Department. Before the establishment Peter Allen, Steven Feiner, Zvi research. In the first year IBM The Department felt it was Galil, Gail Kaiser, John Kender, of the Computer Science gave the Department a six important to demonstrate to Kathy McKeown, Sal Stolfo, hundred thousand dollar gift. the University the centrality Celebration! Department in 1979, Henryk Wozniakowski, and Pivotal to giving the Department of the discipline. One of the there were computer Ye chiam Yemini. a big push was a very large ways this was accomplished science efforts in the Much had to be accomplished contract from DARPA, the was through the “Columbia Mathematical Statistics in the creation of the new Defense Advanced Research University Lectures in Computer Projects Agency. DARPA Science”. The distinguished Department in Arts and department. Peter Likins was marvelously supportive at all The festivities opened That evening we enjoyed Friday, October 22nd, 2004 Part IV: PhD Alumni Speakers I Sciences, and in the times. Here are some of the with a dinner reception another reception, with a Session Chair: Professor Gail Kaiser Electrical Engineering things we had to do. chance for attendees to see Part I: Opening Remarks, Department in the The faculty had to be built the evening of Thursday posters and demos of current Retrospective & Introduction, Dannie Durand School of Engineering. almost from scratch. One of October 21 with Peter department research. Keynote Address Evaluating Genome Evolution the characteristics of computer David Kurlander In the academic year 1978-79 Likins, President of the Our celebration was capped Opening Remarks science, as opposed to many Trials and Tribulations Bringing Peter Likins, the Dean of the University of Arizona, off on Saturday with a “family Professor Henning Schulzrinne other disciplines, is that there Dean Zvi Galil Research to Product School of Engineering (now and friends” barbeque. Even are many more available reminiscing about the President of the University though the temperatures were Retrospective & Introduction James Kurose positions than absolutely top trials and joy of starting of Arizona) persuaded the uncharacteristically chilly that Professor Joseph Traub From Queues to QoS to Querying people to fill them. It was the CS department during Sensors: What I Learned at Columbia University to eliminate both final day, the department’s Keynote Address true at Carnegie in 1971; it’s 25 Years Ago Finds New and these efforts and to create a his tenure as Dean of alumni, students, friends, and Dr. Bob Kahn, President, Corporation true today. That is healthy Continuing Application Every Day Computer Science Department. the Engineering School. faculty celebrated with great for National Research Initiatives for the discipline but makes it The creation of the new cheer and warm regards for a David Lee difficult for faculty recruiting. Friday began with an opening Department was strongly sup- department that has grown Part II: Faculty from the Life at Columbia and Beyond For every appointment, address by Robert Kahn, ported by Columbia’s central in stature, and has become an Department speak the new Department had to CS Building construction ongoing, February 1982. President of the Corporation Part V: PhD Alumni Speakers II administration. integral and important part Session Chair: compete with top academic for National Research monies had been critical to the and diverse speakers included of life at Columbia University. Professor Kathleen McKeown Session Chair: Professor Steven Feiner At the time I headed the departments and top research Initiatives, who was Director Computer Science Department building of the “big three”: sociologist Sherry Turkle, Mihalis Yanakakis Daniel Miranker labs. Nonetheless, superb new of DARPA’s Information See http://www.cs.columbia.edu/25th/ Carnegie-Mellon, MIT and computer animation pioneer Testing, Optimization and Games Metric-Space Database Management at Carnegie Mellon University, faculty were hired. Processing Techniques Office for more information and videos from universally ranked together Stanford. Bob Kahn, then the John Whitney, and Douglas to Support Molecular Biology At the same time there was (IPTO) and was responsible the celebration! Rocco Servedio with Stanford and MIT as one Director of DARPA’s Information Hofstadter, author of the huge student demand for for significant funding of our Influences of Variables in Decision Trees Cecile Paris of the premier departments Processing Techniques Office, Pulitzer Prize winning book, From New York to Sydney, from courses. Two thousand stu- department’s research in our Ravi Ramamoorthi in the world. Peter approached decided to give major funding “Goedel, Escher, Bach”. Language Technology to Multi- dents took courses in the first formative years. Dr. Kahn was Computer Graphics at Columbia me to be the founding chair to two more Departments, The lectures always drew disciplinary Research year, 2600 the next year, and introduced by Joseph Traub, of the new department at Berkeley and Columbia. The large audiences. Jason Nieh 4200 a few years later. There the inaugural Chairman of the Michael Reed Columbia. I agreed to come DARPA funding was crucial to In 1984 the Department was Secure Remote Computing Services were as many as 200 students department. Lead Character Modeling for under certain conditions which the Department’s early years. five years old. It had twenty per course. We were trying to The rest of the day was Julia Hirschberg Feature Animation included a new building for the In addition to providing funds four faculty positions (Peter Recognizing Emotional Speech hire the top young PhDs and framed by technical talks from Department, thirteen faculty for research staff, research Likins’ limit of thirteen had Part VI: Undergraduate & yet they had to teach classes of five current faculty members positions, and a teaching load equipment, and PhD students, long been passed). The PhD Part III: Lunch Speaker Masters Alumni Speakers 200 students. The Department who have recently joined the competitive with leading it provided funds for equipment program had 60 students and started to hire lecturers to help department, followed by a Introduced by Session Chair: Professor Peter Allen computer science departments and staffing of a computer there were 6 to 7 million dol- Professor Yechiam Yemini with teaching, especially for dozen former PhD, MS and Joshua Bloch at private universities. facility. Furthermore, it gave lars a year in outside support. Don Ferguson the beginning courses. We the Department a vital connec- undergraduate students Has it Really Been 25 Years? Likins agreed to all requests A state-wide competition led The Convergence of Web Services, hired lecturers who loved to tion to the Arpanet. who returned home to share Seth Haberman to Columbia’s designation as Grid Service and Business Process and I came to Columbia teach and who interacted well their life and professional What I Learned at Columbia As I mentioned earlier, there the New York State Center for Management University on July 1, 1979. The with undergraduates. experiences, some from as new Department had four was a University commitment Computers and Information Christy Lauridsen The Department started far away as Australia, others tenured professors (Theodore to give the Department a new Systems. IBM gave a generous University Technology Transfer Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD from California and Texas. Baskow, Jonathan Gross, building. The boutique firm gift of 4 million dollars in Wilfredo Marrero programs. It taught computer Stephen Unger and myself). of Kliment and Halsband was money and equipment. The Brutus: A Model Checker for science to all of Columbia The decision was made to chosen as architects. The first stage in the building of the Security Protocols University so there were recruit the best possible new building won the AIA Honors Computer Science Department majors from the Engineering Dean Zvi Galil PhDs, as well as a few Award, which, for an architect, had been completed.

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