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shell Reflections On Being Chair Neural Networks and Golden-Age Comic Books Ben Shneiderman Retires SUPEROES HER of University of Maryland | Fearless Ideas | Departmentcs of Computer Science | Shell Spring 2017 Editor in Chief B.K. Adams learning, databases and augmented and virtual reality. We we planned the department’s 40th anniversary event, with Reflections have recently hired four new assistant professors including Professor Ashok Agrawala leading this effort. In order to Editor at Large Jordan Boyd-Graber, Xiaodi Wu, Leilani Battle, and Abhinav reconnect with our alumni, we created an email list of over Neil Spring on Shrivastava. 1000 successful and talented graduates. We continually up- being date them about what is going on here, learn how we can fur- Managing Editor Chair We have three new chaired professorships funded by Eliza- ther reconnect with our alumni, and continue to help them Todd Holden Dear Colleagues: beth Iribe that have helped us to recruit talented people to in their ventures. Many of our former students come back to Layout Editor and the department. We also have a new prestigious post-doctor- visit. We have continued to host events all over the country Graphic Designer This is my last official letter as chair—the department is on an excellent trajectory and I hope for an even al fellowship founded by Emeritus Professor Vic Basili. with some in New York City, Seattle, Washington D.C. and Gabby Larios greater future. I encourage you all to follow news about the Computer Science Department on our website the Bay Area—places where many alumni live and work. In and social media. UNDERGRADUATE INITIATIVES addition, we launched the Corporate Partners in Computing Photographers As many of you know, the nationwide trend of increasing (CPIC) program with UMIACS, and this has led to increased B.K. Adams I’d like to note a few major changes in the last five years. enrollment in Computer Science has been amplified at Mary- engagement between our faculty and students with local, Mike Morgan land. The number of majors will have increased from 900 national, and international companies. Joanna Nurmis A NEW HOME in 2010 to over 3100 by fall semester of 2017. Unlike most other comparable departments, enrollment in CS at Maryland In one of our largest community and outreach initiatives, Student Staff Writer The department is finally scheduled to move into the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and we opened the Maryland Center for Women in Comput- Sofia Fernadez- Innovation after three decades in our “temporary home,” the A.V. Williams Building. In February of 2014, is not limited. In order to help with this rise in the number of Poyatos I invited Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov to visit the department. In April, they visited for Bitcamp, students, we have hired additional academic advisors (bring- ing (MCWIC) in 2013-14. Jan Plane currently serves as the and during that visit were inspired and eager to support a new space for computer science at Maryland ing the total up to five), and we have recently hired a new center’s director and she is assisted by Kate Atchison, our with extraordinary gifts. This project has brought faculty and staff together, and has been a game changer assistant director for the undergraduate program. This rapid excellent coordinator. They run several programs, perhaps for us all. The Brendan Iribe Center will have inviting open spaces for study and collaboration, welcoming growth in the number of students has been a challenge for the most notable being summer programs for middle and natural light, modern classrooms for active learning, and a cafe! everyone, especially the undergraduate office and Associate high school students and the management of the Building, Chair Professor Alan Sussman. Recruiting, And Inclusion for Diversity (BRAID) program that The new space will be a major recruiting tool for our department. The building will have a major impact has now provided funding to send over 150 students to the on generations of students. With the co-location of the Computer Science Department, the University For our many undergraduates we have created new major Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing. I am of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) and other related faculty and labs, we specializations in data science and cybersecurity, and we also delighted to announce Brendan Iribe’s continued and expect this building to strongly influence the already innovative research being conducted here, especially have added several exciting courses in robotics, virtual reality, kind support for several programs being run out of MCWIC. in the areas of robotics and virtual reality. machine learning, data science, and web development. We have several new scholarships for our outstanding students I would like especially to thank Professor Bill Gasarch, who I would especially like to acknowledge the hard work of our space committee, chaired by Professor Jeff including our newest scholarship named for Randy Baden, has run our summer Research Experience for Undergraduates Hollingsworth and Professor Neil Spring. Our work has been supported by the fundraising efforts of Emer- Ph.D. ‘12. Our CS honors program is thriving thanks to the program with great enthusiasm. We have had 100 students itus Professor Bill Pugh and Stacey Sickels Locke as well as by the communications team of B.K. Adams and work of Professor Neil Spring. Our students have worked on from all over the country participate in this program already. Todd Holden. I would like to acknowledge all of our donors, as well. Their engagement and commitment research with professors, and they have spent time study- We have even invited talented high school students to partic- to the department has been truly inspiring. Our alumni and friends have supplied us with energy for us ing abroad. We continue to sponsor hackathons both inside ipate, as well. to give more than 100 percent to this project every single day. The Iribe Center and the work associated of the department and around campus. They are fantastic with it has received immense support from the State of Maryland as well as our campus administration opportunities for our students to work and collaborate on NEW TECHNOLOGY including President Wallace Loh, Provost Mary Ann Rankin and Dean Jayanth Banavar. For all of their sup- group-defined projects, have fun, and learn something new. I would also like to thank Phil Horvitz, ‘75 for providing us port and best wishes, we are eternally grateful. I would also like to thank Carlo Colella, Ross Stern, and Bill When it is time for our students to look for internships or generous funding towards the Horvitz Research Cluster in the Olen, as well as the team at HDR Architecture including Brian Kowalchuk, Rachel Park, Stephen Waller, and full-time jobs, our two career fairs per year bring over 200 AV Williams datacenter. The cluster consists of four comput- Michael Vinkler. companies on campus and over 3000 participating CS, CE, ing nodes, two storage nodes providing 14.4 terabytes of disk and i-School students. It’s a sight to behold. storage and a 10Gb Ethernet switch. The cluster provides a NEW HIRES AND NEW CHAIRS high-availability virtualization environment to serve the needs A huge step in the department has been the recruitment of talented and brilliant faculty and staff mem- GRADUATE STUDENT INITIATIVES of undergraduate honors students, independent graduate bers. In the last five years we have hired gifted assistant professors including David Van Horn, Zia Khan, For our graduate program, we are so proud to have launched student researchers, and faculty. Tom Goldstein, Michelle Mazurek, Marine Carpuat, David Levin, John Dickerson, Furong Huang, and Max the Maryland Max Planck Ph.D. Program in Computer Sci- Leiserson. We have also hired excellent senior faculty including Andrew Childs, Eytan Ruppin, Daniel Aba- ence. It offers students a singular opportunity to pursue a AWARDS di, and Matthias Zwicker. We welcomed inspiring lecturers including Pedram Sadeghian, Anwar Mamat, Ph.D. degree with faculty from our department and a Max Many of our faculty and graduate students have received and Jason Fillipou. These faculty enable us to offer new courses, and build strength in quantum comput- Planck Institute in Germany. Graduate students are co-ad- numerous awards from the university and outside organiza- ing, cybersecurity, computational (systems) biology, personalized medicine, language processing, machine vised, perform collaborative research and take advantage of tions including Sloan fellowships, CAREER awards, and best the expertise, resources, and culture at both institutions by paper awards. Several of our graduate students have landed shell is a publication of the spending time in both countries. Without Professor Bobby outstanding academic and research positions. Thanks to the Department of Computer Science Bhattacharjee and Professor Peter Druschel, this international efforts of our able and hardworking Associate Chair Professor at the University of Maryland exchange of ideas and research could never have happened. I Jeff Foster, we have also had a steady stream of impressive am grateful to them both. on-and-off campus awards for our students. As for under- contact us graduates, we have nominated several students to the Com- [email protected] puting Research Association (CRA) undergraduate research @umdcs ALUMNI AND OUTREACH INITIATIVES www.cs.umd.edu In 2013, we launched a major alumni outreach initiative as competition. Many of our students have been named finalists 2! Shell Magazine Spring 2017 Shell Magazine Spring 2017 3! or have received honorable mentions. Before they leave for I thank everyone for their hard work in this time of change graduate school several of our undergraduates have received for CS, but especially Professor Emeritus Bill Pugh, who is an NSF Graduate Fellowships, as well.