COMPUTER SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND shell

JONATHAN CHEN A Year of Growth From Undergrad to CTO Dear Friends, With mixed emotions, we said thank you and farewell to three of our faculty Editor in Chief As scientists, we work towards certainty. B.K. Adams in 2014. Professor Dianne O’Leary But we love surprises. announced her retirement and was named TABLE OF CONTENTS Managing Editor I can think of no better surprise than both an Emerita and a Distinguished Todd Holden the day Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus University Professor. Professor Bonnie Update on Building Dorr also retired and was named an Designer VR declared that he wanted to help our Learn more about The Brendan Iribe Center for department construct a new building. Emerita. Associate Professor Chau-Wen 4 Computer Science and Innovation, and learn 4 Paige Nelson ‘15 This was during a visit to the department Tseng announced his retirement as well. about commitments made to the project. Photographer as our students invited him to be the We are delighted to welcome several new Chester Lam ’15 Grace Hopper keynote speaker at Bitcamp 2014. Less faculty hires. Eytan Ruppin joined us than six months later, he formalized his The conference that brings women computer Staff Writers as Professor and Director of the Center 6 scientists together. Alex BenDebba ‘16 commitment to help with a record-setting for BioInformatics and Computational Kelly Bilodeau ‘17 $31 million donation that establishes Biology (CBCB). Andrew Childs joined 10 Marcus Fedarko ‘18 the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer us an Associate Professor and co-Director CS Welcomes New Faculty Rebecca He ‘17 Science and Innovation. The Center- Ben SanNichols ‘18 of the Quantum Institute for Computer Meet the newest faculty members in the CS which will be prominently placed at the Science (QUICS). Marine Carpuat 8 Department. William Woodruff ‘18 main entrance to campus-will provide an (Natural Language Processing), Tom shell is a publication open, collaborative space to support our Goldstein (Scientific Computing) and of the Department of next-generation teaching and research. Michelle Mazurek (HCI/Cybersecurity) Angjoo Kanazawa Computer Science at the Michael Antonov, Chief Software A creative maker turns computer vision and deep University of Maryland. joined as Assistant Professors. I look 12 Architect of Oculus VR, also donated $4 10 learning PhD student. forward to seeing the fruits of their Contact us: million to CS for new scholarships and to research in the coming years. [email protected]. support the new building for computer science. Elizabeth Iribe, Brendan’s mother, We continue our efforts to improve Jonathan Chen Follow us: added to the generous gifts by endowing diversity in computer science as the A recent graduate and CTO reflects on his @umdcs 12 education. two chairs in Computer Science. department joined the BRAID Initiative, which seeks to increase the number of On the heels of this historic women and people of color who major in Andrew Miller gift, our professors and several CS. alumni have made their own PhD student and Bitcoin expert explores new 16 territories. extremely generous donations I enjoy hearing from each and every towards the building’s one of you and the stories of your estimated $140-$149 million successes and travails provide us all with Research Center Focus 16 price tag. Notably, Emeritus inspiration. Shayan Zadeh, co-founder Learn about the cybersecurity center. Professor Bill Pugh inspired of Zoosk and Gear Zero will be visiting 19 many by his personal gift of campus in April. Many of our alumni are $500,000. Whether through continuing their successes in academia giving, sponsorship, or and industry. Please keep us informed of Jonathan Katz mentoring, I am grateful your good news. A cybersecurity expert, Katz talks about when our alumni honor 20 exciting trends in the field. their connection to us Here’s to a 2015 that continues to provide 24 the sorts of surprises that we like. through continued Aravind Srinivasan involvement through Best wishes, funded scholarships, 24 Learn about our newest ACM fellow. mentoring programs and Samir Khuller visits to the department. Elizabeth Stevinson Iribe Chair of Computer Science Recent Grads 26 Find out where CS PhD grads have landed. 2- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 3 n September of 2014, President Wallace Loh, on January 29, 2015. Once board approved the Provost Mary Ann Rankin, and CMNS Dean contract, HDR architects met with members of I Jaynath Banavar formally announced Brendan the university and the department’s Space and Iribe’s transformative gift of $31 million to the Planning Committee, to begin the process of cre- University to begin construction for a new build- ating an aesthetic for the building. Professor Jeff ing to house the Department Computer Science Hollingsworth and Associate Professor Neil Spring and UMIACS (University of Maryland Institute head this committee. The meeting also marked for Advanced Computing Studies). Iribe, who is the first step to bring Silicon Valley to College cofounder and CEO of Oculus VR, spent time as an Park. HDR is the firm that designed the Physical undergraduate at UMD, and notes that he fondly Sciences Complex, which has been used as a stand remembers his classes in Computer Science, as in for a tech company on HBO’s comedy Veep. well as advice that he received from faculty includ- ing Emeritus Professor Bill Pugh. Another cofound- The lead designer for the building is Brian er of Oculus VR and alumnus of the Computer Kowalchuk(AIA, LEED AP), the Vice President for Science Department, Michael Antonov (’03), gave Design at HDR Architecture. Kowalchuk’s work $4 million dollars for the Iribe Center, and cited his includes the Roslin Institute at the University of computer vision course as one of the most memo- Edinburgh, and a forthcoming Chemistry Building rable of his time at UMD. Before giving these gifts, Project at King’s College London. both men worked with Ms. Stacey Sickles-Locke, Senior Director of Development and Corporate In the coming months, the committee will meet THE BRENDAN Relations and Professor Samir Khuller to endow with campus representatives as well as Kowalchuk a scholarship named after their dear friend and and his team at HDR, as they begin drafting plans alumnus Andrew Reisse (‘03), who passed away in for The Iribe Center. 2013. To read more about the new building, and to add IRIBE CENTER Ms. Elizabeth Iribe, Brendan’s mother, gave $3 your own contribution to the future of Computer million dollars to endow two professorships Science at UMD, please visit: csctr.cs.umd.edu. in Computer Science. In late September 2014, Professor Samir Khuller became the first Elizabeth COMMITMENTS FOR COMPUTER Stevinson Iribe Chair of Computer Science. The Iribe Center Feng Guo Vibha Sazawal and To demonstrate their full support of the construc- Ashok and Radhika Dana Chekis-Gold Vijay Ravindran tion of The Iribe Center, emeritus and current Agrawala Ilse Haim ‘15 Udaya Shankar Acharya Anurag Larry Herman Elaine Shi faculty contributed an unprecedented $733,000 Yiannis Aloimonos Michael and Ben Shneiderman SCIENCE AND to the project. They have also hosted fundraising Aisya Aziz Kimberly Mary Neil Spring events, and met with many alumni to garner sup- Dave Baggett Hicks Aravind Srinivasan port for the building. Following this tremendous Benjamin Bederson Jeff and Petrina and Anupama Joshua Berenhaus Hollingsworth Govindarajan spirit of giving, many other alumni have contribut- W. Rance David Jacobs and Alan Sussman and ed major gifts to the project and to scholarships. Cleveland, III Elizabeth Edlind Linda Moniz INNOVATION: Dr. Roberta Maurice Jacobs Amitabh Varshney The Computer Science Department is still in the Cochran Micah Jayne Sze Wong process of raising funds in order to create Iribe’s David Cohen Jonathan Katz David Wonnacott Craig Stanfill Pete Keleher Marvin Zelkowitz vision of having “The Iribe Center Feel like Silicon Larry Davis and Samir Khuller and Valley just hit College Park.” The cutting-edge re- Joan Weszka Dr. Kalyani Scholarships AN UPDATE search and classroom facility will be home to over Amol Deshpande Chadha Michael Antonov 1900 undergraduate computer science majors, Ramani and Lawrence Koved Nirupama Shashikala Clyde Kruskal Chandrasekaran along with graduate students, postdocs, faculty, Duraiswami Ajoy Mallick Brendan Iribe and staff members. It will have new classrooms, a Howard Elman Jack Minker An Zhu tutoring center, and hacker/maker spaces. Leah Findlater Dana Nau Karen Forsyth Feng Peng and As one of his first acts as Maryland’s new gover- Jeffrey Foster Xin Lei Jon Froehlich Don Perlis nor, Larry Hogan, with the Maryland State Board William Gasarch Bill Pugh of Public Works, approved part of a contract with Shavran and James Reggia HDR Architecture for the design of the center Nivedita Goli 4- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 5

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additional funding to send women to the the to women send to funding additional participating universities to find new ways ways new find to universities participating

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told those in attendance to send her an an her send to attendance in those told Intel and Microsoft, the BRAID initiative initiative BRAID the Microsoft, and Intel

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her an email as I sat in front of her,” Khuller Khuller her,” of front in sat I as email an her

industry” gave me the opportunity to communicate communicate to opportunity the me gave skill set,” she said. Junior Safiyah Sadiq Sadiq Safiyah Junior said. she set,” skill in Phoenix, Arizona. Arizona. Phoenix, in

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Shefali Shah commended the celebration celebration the commended Shah Shefali

college all celebrating together!” Senior Senior together!” celebrating all college women in Computer Computer in women

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in graduate school, and young women in in women young and school, graduate in was a banner year for for year banner a was said, “There [at GHC], you had women women had you GHC], [at “There said,

in industry, women in academia, women women academia, in women industry, in as it did in 2014—which 2014—which in did it as with the variety of women present. She She present. women of variety the with

many graduate and undergraduate women women undergraduate and graduate many Junior CS major Sara LeRoy was impressed impressed was LeRoy Sara major CS Junior in Houston, Texas. The Computer Science Science Computer The Texas. Houston, in

Department anticipates sending at least as as least at sending anticipates Department

said. said.

and in 2015, the celebration will be held held be will celebration the 2015, in and sue careers in computing. It is the largest largest the is It computing. in careers sue

gathering of women in tech in the country, country, the in tech in women of gathering

or to learn something completely new,” she she new,” completely something learn to or their academic careers[…]Everyone can at can careers[…]Everyone academic their

tend panels to improve her individual skills skills individual her improve to panels tend - pur to ages all of women encourage to and Science. Women also gather to network network to gather also Women Science.

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opportunities for women in every stage of of stage every in women for opportunities

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strong community that GHC establishes for for establishes GHC that community strong their research, and to learn about the chal the about learn to and research, their - the Association of Women in Computing Computing in Women of Association the

at UMD, Aboli Kumthekar, emphasized the the emphasized Kumthekar, Aboli UMD, at to hear from technology leaders, to share share to leaders, technology from hear to do in computing fields. The GHC brings to brings GHC The fields. computing in do

gether thousands of women in technology technology in women of thousands gether that they shared with one another. Senior Senior another. one with shared they that

Computer Science major and Co-chair for for Co-chair and major Science Computer -

celebrate and honor the work that women women that work the honor and celebrate

mat of the celebration and the experiences experiences the and celebration the of mat Celebration (GHC) is held every October to to October every held is (GHC) Celebration

The women in attendance praised the for the praised attendance in women The - The Anita Borg Institute’s Grace Hopper Hopper Grace Institute’s Borg Anita The GRACE HOPPER GRACE MICHELLE MAZUREK CS DEPARTMENT Assistant Professor Michelle Mazurek returns to the University of Maryland after earning her PhD in Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014. She earned a B.S. in WELCOMES NEW Electrical Engineering from UMD. Her research involves the human factors of Computer Security, and she is interested in collecting data from users to better understand security and the behaviors of users. Mazurek FACULTY is teaching a graduate seminar on Human Factors in Security and Privacy during the Spring 2015 semester. She also has an appointment in the Maryland Cybersecurity Center.

ANDREW CHILDS Associate Professor Andrew Childs (CS, UMIACS) joins us from the University of Waterloo in Canada where he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Combinatorics and Optimization. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Childs is currently the Co- director of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS) at UMD, which “advances research and education in quantum computer science and quantum information theory.” His research focus includes Quantum Systems, Quantum Algorithms, and Quantum Query Complexity. Childs earned his PhD in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2004). In the Fall of 2015, Childs will teach a graduate seminar on quantum information processing. He has just published a paper on Momentum Switches in Quantum Information and Computation.

MARINE CARPUAT TOM GOLDSTEIN Assistant Professor Marine Carpuat comes to the Computer Assistant Professor Tom Goldstein’s research Science Department from the National Research Council interests inhabit the intersection of optimization, Canada. Her main areas of interest include natural language machine learning, distributed computing, and processing and machine translation. Her PhD is from Hong image processing. After completing his PhD in Kong University of Science and Technology (2008) where Applied Mathematics from UCLA in 2006, Goldstein she focused on multilingual Natural Language Processing. was a postdoctoral fellow at both Rice and Stanford She also has an MPhil in Electrical Engineering. Before Universities. He is the recipient of the Richard DiPrima moving to the NRC, Carpuat was a post-doc researcher at Prize. He is currently teaching a graduate seminar on Columbia University Center for Computational Learning Topics in Optimization: Machine Learning and Sparsity during Systems. During the spring semester of 2015, she is teaching the Spring 2015 semester. He taught CMSC250H: Discrete a graduate seminar on Multilingual Processing. Structures during the Fall 2014 semester. 8- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 9 “I went from creating physical things ANGJOO KANAZAWA to creating virtual things.” A VISION OF THE FUTURE

ngjoo Kanazawa had all of the Even though the professor of her that uses visual recognition soft- close to [the project],” she says. A makings of a computer scien- Computer Vision course, Rob ware to help identify a dog’s breed. She explains that for driving, tist as she grew up in Japan. She Fergus, asked her to do summer This project, which resulted in a moves that are relatively easy for was very good at math, and spent research, she turned him down. paper for the European Conference humans-simple lane changes or time creating things: she liked At the time, she thought that it on Computer Vision, highlights moving ahead-are easy, but one to knit and craft. She also loved was better for her to go to indus- some of her interests in deep has to think very carefully while video games, and she found that try and do a summer internship learning and fine-grained clas- developing software for a car. as her interest in all of these things at Goldman Sachs instead. “This sification. Most recently, she has “Being in a car is such a normal easily translated over to making was before the start up wave, and published a paper entitled “Locally thing, that we don’t always think websites. “I went from creat- Goldman was one of the best com- Scale-invariant Convolutional about all of the perception that is ing physical things to creating panies to go to. There was a good Neural Network” with Abihishek involved. Then you realize that no virtual things,” she says. As a high culture there, and people were Sharma and David Jacobs for human will be doing anything,” school student, she decided to nice, but then I realized that every- Deep Learning and Representation she says. There are numerous take AP Computer Science at her one doing really interesting things Learning Workshop for the Neural challenges involved in this process American high school in Japan. there had a PhD,” she recalls. Information and Processing of ensuring that a machine does Systems Foundation in 2014. everything a human would do. But then, she decided to attend After the internship at Goldman NYU and major in politics and Sachs, she was a fourth year Her interests also led her to Google She encourages undergraduates attend law school. Computer Science student, and X during the summer of 2014 to who are interested to do research thought that she had made the work on the self-driving car. in the field because now is fantastic After an internship with the DA’s biggest mistake of her life by not time to be in vision. “It is finally office, Kanazawa had an epipha- doing research. She got a second Kanazawa, of course, worked on starting to work. There are startups ny of sorts. She realized that she chance when she encountered vision. The self-driving car, now that deal with vision and the indus- wouldn’t be able to litigate her Fergus at a colloquium at NYU able to work on highways fairly try is blooming.” way to fixing political systems that introduced senior under- well, had to tackle the problem of quickly, but she know that she graduates and first year graduate surface streets - the roads where Kanazawa has two years before she would be able to build soft- students to research areas, and he drivers encounter pedestrians, bi- completes her degree, and in that ware that could help others. She offered to do research with her. cyclists, and stoplights. The team at time, she will be working on prob- changed her major to computer Kanazawa ended up working with Google X realized that they needed lems related to 3D reconstruction science, and after a semester, she him for her last year, and she read vision experts to solve problems and may be looking into Virtual knew that this was what she was papers on vision and machine using a camera and Kanazawa’s Reality as well. Perhaps by the meant to do. She took a lot of learning. She really connected with talents in computer vision. She time she finishes her degree, some different courses, and found that vision. “It is related to how I per- enjoyed working with team, and of the work that she has done on she really liked machine learning ceive the world,” she says. describes the environment as one self-driving cars will be available to and computer vision, but she had filled with smart, motivated, and the public—making manifest the no interest in going to graduate fter coming to the University talented people. talents she has always had: creating school. Instead, she concentrated A of Maryland, Kanazawa things, doing complex math and on web development projects and began working with Professor “Working on the car [was] very computer science, and helping internships. David Jacobs and she has worked nice, because my motivation was others. on many projects including very strong. I got to go in the car DogSnap-a mobile application and work with it…so I was pretty 10- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 11 A YEAR OF GROWTH he last year of undergradu- There are still other students decision to take a risk and start a ate study can be filled with who decide to refuse the lucra- company. T decisions that are coupled tive job offers that their friends with a great deal of uncertainty. have taken, or forgo more time Chen founded FiscalNote with his At the start of their final year, to study what they love in order good friends Tim Hwang (CEO) JONATHAN CHENsenior computer science majors to work on their own ideas and and Gerald Yao (CSO). Chen and at UMD begin to make difficult start their own companies. In the Hwang met in fourth grade, and choices about what job offers to middle of 2013, a few months together, they met Yao while take, whether or not to attend before the start of his senior year attending sixth grade. All three graduate school, and where as a CS major, Jonathan Chen (BS, men went to Wootton High in the world they want to live. Computer Science, ’14) made the School in Montgomery County, 12- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 13 Maryland. This risk (or plan if such diverse companies as New a small start up to a growth Jacqueline Chen (no relation), a Computer, Math, and you ask Chen) has resulted in Balance, JP Morgan, UVA Law, stage start up. Jonathan Chen sophomore Computer Science Natural Science selected a good deal of early success. In and Aetna. and his colleagues are growing major, worked on front-end Chen to be the graduation the last thirty-six months, while and maturing right along with development and designed the speaker. After excitedly most of his peers have been The FiscalNote team’s first the company. In a short period company’s website. “Interning taking a selfie with his settling into apartment living, summer together took place in of time, he has had to learn how at FiscalNote was really mean- audience, he encouraged learning about company culture, a Motel 6 in Sunnyvale, CA while to lead a team of developers, ingful because my work was a fellow graduates to em- or finding research advisors, working with a start-up accel- work with his cofounders to direct contribution to the com- brace creativity and take Chen’s decisions and life have erator. Before they left for the make big decisions, and handle pany, and I got to see my designs risks: “Don’t be afraid to revolved around his position as west coast, the team participat- the growing pains associated actually being implemented,” she be creative and tackle the a co-founder and Chief Technical ed in the first annual FISH Bowl with a rapidly expanding com- says. “I also had this amazing impossible. Even if you Officer of a rapidly expanding Entrepreneur competition for pany. This next year will be one flexibility and was able to work in don’t think that you’re good company that was named as one new and emerging companies, filled with change as the com- and learn about a wide variety of enough.” He stopped his of the top-10 startups of 2014 hosted by the CS Department. pany plans on growing to 100 fields from web development, to speech to thank his team, who by CNN, and has been featured They came in second place. While employees, and will need to add product design, to marketing.” were still working, as they in The Economist. In February on the west coast, Chen and his to the engineering team. had been since the company of 2015, Chen, Hwang, and co-founders spent hundreds As Jonathan Chen set about put- started. Yao were named as a part of of hours programming, honing ting his engineering team togeth- “Washington’s Top entrepreneurs their ideas, and structuring their fter they settled in to their er initially, he was able to reflect under 40.” organization. Their relentless first offices in Bethesda, on the importance of certain CS ell before he was the work paid off. By late August, the FiscalNote team was classes he had taken as an un- CTO for a company working. During this period, the A dergrad and why strong funda- that could process FiscalNote takes unstructured the three friends had secured working long days and evenings W company moved from Bethesda and unorganized legislative, reg- $1.2 million in investments from to develop the company further. mental skills in programming are information large amounts of to Gallery Place, Washington ulatory, and judicial open gov- Mark Cuban, New Enterprise There were still a few things left important in the field. “At UMD, a data on bills that pass or fail, and DC and they added a location ernment data-from both federal Associates, Jerry Yang, and First for Chen to do at UMD. He still top school in CS in America, we predict with an accuracy of 94%- in New York. The Washington and state sources-and sets to Round Capital Dorm Room Fund. had two semesters left of his take our education for granted. 95% of how a legislator will vote DC office is not going to be able organize, aggregate, and under- But rather than stay in Silicon Computer Science degree, and What we learn is important, and on a given issue, he was trying to to sustain the planned growth stand it. As a result, their clients, Valley with thousands of other he was determined to finish. He we learn that there’s a differ- come up with the next big idea. and new hires. Eventually, they’ll ranging from lobbyist firms, to start-ups, they returned from knew that he had no choice but ence between Computer Science “By sophomore year, I knew that need a new space for new em- law schools and law firms, to California to settle in Bethesda, to work full time on his company and just coding.” He mentioned I wanted to do something—helm ployees, and the cofounders will businesses with government af- Maryland to open their first of- while taking senior-level CS class- that when he started looking a company in some way.” Chen have to learn how to manage fairs divisions, are able to better fices. FiscalNote grew from three es. He also had to worry about for software engineers that always knew that he wanted to their time and their employees’ understand trends and patterns to thirty-seven employees who finding good people he could he thought of Introduction to be an entrepreneur. He tried time even better. contained in this enormous work in areas including Software work with. Systems (CMSC216), and Discrete creating a Craigslist for books, amount of information. “[Our cli- Engineering and Data Science Structures (CMSC250) as courses something that he says many Chen will adapt to the inevitable ents] want to seriously track and as well as Product, Business Chen found that he needed to that were fundamental to his people try. He joined the Hinman change and he will continue to understand how government Development, Marketing, and hire engineers to help him devel- education. He thinks that making CEO program, and he worked on push his technical team to build affects them,” says Chen. The Policy. op his code base as well as front- it through CMSC216 makes UMD medical devices. He tried many efficient code and be the best three friends decided to work end software. One of FiscalNote’s CS students better than “half of different ideas and most of them computer scientists they can, on data that is free to the public, As of February 2015, FiscalNote first employees and friends the developers out there.” He did not work out. “I wanted to do all the while working, growing, but clean and organize it, making has offices in Washington DC, to help Chen with this task says that professors and instruc- something so badly that even if maturing with his good friends it easier for people to use and and New York City, and they was Dan Maglasang, a fellow tors at UMD taught him that I failed,” he says, “I did not give and cofounders. Jonathan, Tim, interpret. Their clients include have gone through two more Computer Science major at UMD. almost anyone can push code, up, and I didn’t care about failing. and Gerald enjoy working with rounds of funding— Maglasang is now the lead Front but that it is not easy to make ef- I just kept going and going and each other and seeing where this Series A in November End Engineer for the company, ficient code. He believes that his going.” company born at the end of their 2014, for $7 million and he has helped put together time in the department helped college careers will take them. ( led by Visionnaire a strong technical group. Now, him to mature into a computer This desire to push forward “Working with Jonathan has been Ventures), and Series B sixteen people comprise the scientist. helped get him and his team a great rollercoaster, because in January 2015 for $10 technical team that includes through Series A funding, which we had that initial trust. We’ve million (led by RenRen, software engineers, data scien- As he finished the major with took six months. He admits that always been friends,” says Tim also called ‘China’s tists, and UX designers, some of an impressive GPA, Chen hired spent time worrying that the Hwang, “plus, he’s so much fun Facebook’). The com- whom are UMD CS alumni. He developers, data scientists, and funding might fall through, but to work with.” pany has shifted from also hired interns from UMD. interns. Then the College of he knew that he had to keep

14- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 15 CRYPTOCURRENCIES, RELIABLE STORAGE, AND ANDREW MILLER By William Woodruff ‘18 Cryptocurrencies (think Bitcoin) in cryptocurrencies was usurping cryptocurrency. Operating through are a relatively new and disruptive his graduate studies in CS at the a decentralized computer network form of decentralized payment University of Central Florida, Miller of hard-working peers known as in tune with the online world’s made the decision to send a “cold ‘miners’ and acting on a cumulative love for anonymity and indepen- call email and a draft of the paper” transaction log known as the ‘block- dence. For Andrew Miller, a PhD to Professor Johnathan Katz at chain,’ Bitcoin is resilient, scalable, student in Computer Science at UMD. Much to Miller’s surprise, and, above all else, anonymous. It the University of Maryland, they Katz offered to fund him, setting has a market capitalization of nearly are also a solution to a problem into motion the very beginnings of $4 billion, fueling interest and that has frustrated users and pro- the Permacoin project. adoptions from banks, governments, grammers alike for decades: that of and even corporations looking to permanent, reliable storage. In order To understand Miller’s vision, it is appeal to a new and vibrant online earnings stratification. Because majority network share required to relations is completely different. to address this problem, Miller has important to first understand how economy. The future of cryptocur- the high-end ASIC arrays required manipulate the blockchain. While Whereas Bitcoin makes it easy worked alongside researchers from cryptocurrencies-particularly rencies in commerce, both online to effectively mine on the Bitcoin the Ghash consortium did not abuse for miners to band together and Maryland, Cornell, and Microsoft Bitcoin-operate on a transaction- and offline, is looking bright. network can cost tens of thousands this temporary power, its very ability create trusted pools, Permacoin to develop Permacoin, a Bitcoin al level. Over the past five years, of dollars, the majority of Bitcoin’s to do so underlies the surprising creates a so-called ‘web of distrust’ inspired crypto- Bitcoin does, payouts go to those who have the vulnerability of Bitcoin. Despite between clients by tying payouts currency with the “I WAS LISTENING TO [A STORY] ABOUT WIKILEAKS ON however, have resources to have already paid for a their strengths in cryptography and to each user’s cryptographically ability to store and NPR WHILE READING THE FREE HAVEN ANONYMOUS drawbacks. Due to head start, exacerbating an oligarchy decentralization, today’s cryptocur- secure ‘private key.’ As Miller puts distribute real-world the intensive nature among miners. rencies are by no means infallible, it, Permacoin “sows the seeds of information within [PAPER COLLECTION] FROM THE FIRST CYPHERPUNK ERA,” of the hashing cal- and indeed possess network-crip- distrust to prevent [pools] from its network. culations it uses to Worst of all is the so-called ‘51% pling flaws. forming,” which allows “whoever cryptocurrency has gone from a generate value, the Bitcoin network attack,’ which affects every currently is doing the actual mining work to Miller vividly remembers the virtually unknown topic speculated is heavily supplanted by so-called popular cryptocurrency. The Bitcoin This is where Permacoin comes in. steal the [Permacoin] reward in a first time he heard of Bitcoin. “I about on mailing lists and forums by ‘botnets,’ or large networks of network’s design encourages clients With the flaws of Bitcoin and the way that [the client] couldn’t get was listening to [a story] about self-described ‘cypherpunks,’ to one personal computers being controlled to band together into “mining other major cryptocurrencies in legally incriminating evidence or Wikileaks on NPR while reading of intense public interest, culminat- remotely by malware for their pools” for increased payouts. mind, Miller worked with Ari Juels even necessarily be able to detect the Free Haven anonymous [paper ing in successes like Bitcoin which computational resources. This has Additionally, the network does not of Cornell Tech, Elaine Shi of UMD, [the theft].” collection] from the first cypher- have become household names. But had two negative effects: a history of enforce a central authority respon- Bryan Parno of Microsoft, and punk era,” he recalls. “I’d never for all their popularity and public criminal usage that Bitcoin has had sible for maintaining the state of the Jonathan Katz to adapt the existing With respect to earnings stratifi- really thought about cryptography interest, not many people under- difficulty shaking, and uncalculat- transaction chain. Therefore, any system into one both more secure cation on other cryptocurrency before, […] but I remember having stand the complexities associated ed electrical costs absorbed by the pool of miners that manages to ac- and more useful. networks, “the [...] problem is large the thought that this [technology] with cryptocurrencies, much less owners of infected computers. The cumulate a majority of the network’s mining coalitions. It’s one thing could be used for money.” After their vulnerabilities and flaws. efficacy of these botnets has been hashrate could, in theory, change Right off the bat, Permacoin’s design if there’s people at the top of the originally searching for anonymous partially alleviated by the creation of the public ledger by maliciously fixes a number of problems endemic pyramid who invest [...] to mine TOR money, Miller encountered the Created in 2008 and open- efficient application-specific inte- modifying transactions. Although to Bitcoin and other common cryp- faster, but more often than not Bitcoin community and immediately sourced online by a mysterious grated circuits (ASICs) to aid in the this vulnerability has not been tocurrencies. Although Permacoin’s hosted mining companies with became fascinated by the concept of programmer by the pseudonym hashing process. However, this de- exploited yet, a large pool known as current iteration uses the same shareholders are essentially offering cryptocurrency in general. When he Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin is the velopment has revealed yet another ‘Ghash.io’ did, for a few brief hours family of hashing algorithms (SHA) a service,” says Miller. Permacoin realized that his newfound interest world’s first, and most successful, significant flaw in Bitcoin’s design: in June 2014, manage to gain the as Bitcoin, its approach to peer solves this, and the thorny ‘51% 16- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 17 attack,’ as no rational miner would Although Permacoin uses the SHA itself, as the Bitcoin network does entrust a pool with their aforemen- family in its SOP just like Bitcoin, not reward its members for storing tioned private key and “risk theft it differs in that it uses files instead the records that are so vital to legit- of their coins.” This also reduces of semi-arbitrary sequences as the imate commerce. By tightly inte- the already diminished efficacy of basis for its computational difficulty, grating storage into the Permacoin cryptocurrency botnets, as their and therefore value. As a result, a mining process, Miller hopes to operators can no longer count on computer’s ability to mine effectively “lower the marginal cost” of best public mining pools being available depends not just on its computa- practices. and trustworthy. tional power but also on its ability to rapidly seek and retrieve files Miller’s Permacoin is a brilliant and These improvements make from its storage medium, a further unique development away from the Permacoin appealing enough as “barrier to outsource ability.” With interchangeable cryptocurrencies an alternative cryptocurrency on Permacoin, any files can be used, of today. It eliminates the problems its own, but are just the beginning allowing the network to operate in of uneven payout distribution and of the network’s capabilities and a second capacity as a peer-to-peer vulnerabilities, like the 51% attack potential. As Miller sees it, the rise file sharing system while simultane- that have plagued Bitcoin and its of cryptocurrency isn’t just an online ously incentivizing the data archival brethren, all while putting the com- economic phenomenon. It is a great process by making real-world data putational weight normally wasted opportunity to leverage the massive “part of the mining process.” Miller by cryptocurrencies to good use for combined resources of miners sees this as a solution to the thorny archiving and record keeping. As worldwide for low-cost information problem of data preservation, since Miller notes, Permacoin is the next sharing, and Permacoin does just it resiliently distributes the dataset logical step in the “full decentraliza- that. and incentivizes the very process tion” of data, a step that could be key through cryptocurrency payouts. to the future of both the growing Apart from the aforementioned cryptocurrency economy and the improvements, Permacoin’s diver- So, where is Permacoin going in growing trend towards freedom of gence from ordinary cryptocurren- the future? As part of his research, information as perpetuated by the cies also appears on the so-called Miller has used it to distribute open Internet. ‘scratch-off puzzle’ (SOP) level, or data sets like Project Gutenberg, in the difficult tasks that crypto- which is famous for archiving and Miller is co-teaching a graduate currencies challenge their networks making public tens of thousands level course on cryptocurrencies, with for payouts. of cultural works. He also sees CMSC818I, along with one of his Permacoin as a way to integrate research advisors Professor Elaine good record keeping with the Shi. The course will cover popular process of mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, as well as their secure implementation, implications, and impact.

18- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 RESEARCH CENTER FOCUS: THE MARYLAND CYBERSECURITY CENTER

Immediate threats—your compromised email While experts in computer science and computer password, a hacked credit card database, or a engineering who understand the technical website made exactly to replicate your favorite aspects of security (both software and hardware) retailer’s—are of concern to researchers and lead MC2, the center very much engages in inter- graduate students in the Maryland Cybersecurity disciplinary work. MC2 houses academics special- Center (also known as MC2). However, these izing in education, business, economics, public threats, while troublesome, are not necessarily policy, criminology, and information studies. the subjects of their research. Instead, according Affiliates of the center collaborate to research to Jonathan Katz, Professor of Computer Science ways that ensure the future stability and security of and the Director of MC2, the research focus is computing systems that people need for banking, quite different and it has to be more forward- shopping, communicating, as well as security for looking. “We look for the next event—five to ten their health records and information storage. years out—that could impact the security of your personal information,” he says. CS Professors and To try to predict the next wave of cybersecurity Researchers at MC2 threats, Katz and the researchers of MC2 consider both technical and non-technical ways to keep our Cryptography information secure. Professors and researchers Jonathan Katz, Professor and Director from the Computer Science Department mostly Elaine Shi, Assistant Professor focus on the technical facets of cybersecurity Programming-Language and including cryptography, programming-language Software Security and software security, and network and system Jeff Foster, Professor security. In the area of cryptography, research Michael Hicks, Professor includes both theoretical and more applied Atif Memon, Associate Professor methods of approaching security. In program- Bill Pugh, Professor Emeritus ming-language and software security, research David Van Horn, Assistant Professor involves developing techniques to support the creation of reliable and secure software, and Network and Systems Security programming languages with security properties. Bill Arbaugh, Associate Professor Emeritus In network and systems security, research Bobby Bhattacharjee, Professor encompasses ways to secure network protocols, Dave Levin, Assistant Research Scientist develop secure (and perhaps anonymous) com- Michelle Mazurek, Assistant Professor munication, and study network attacks. Neil Spring, Associate Professor

Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 19 JONATHAN KATZ THE FUTURE OF CYBERSECURITY Thanks to invention of yellow dry-erase paint, one cloud services (think Google or Dropbox). Others is able to map a small part of the complex scientific outsource large computations to cloud services, and work on cryptography and computer security that there is an inherent assumption that no one will look Professor Jonathan Katz (CS and UMIACS) engages at or change the information that a user entrusts in on a daily basis. A large wall in his office is covered with a cloud service. Katz and his colleagues at MC2 in algorithms and formulae, the result of his own do not take the safety of information for granted. efforts, his work with colleagues, and his research Instead, they play devil’s advocate. “How do you with graduate and undergraduate students. The secure that [information],” Katz asks, “if you don’t work on the wall also only represents a part of his fully trust the cloud service?” He also mentions that work at the university. Katz is a world-renowned users of these services need a way to ensure that their computer scientist who is co-author of Introduction information has not been altered by the cloud service to Modern Cryptography (with Yehuda Lindell, now itself, a malicious attacker, or software or a disk error. in its second edition), and he is also an editor of the Journal of Cryptology. Since October 2013, he has At the same time, if users are doing a set of compu- been the Director of the Maryland Cybersecurity tations using a cloud service, they need to trust that Center (MC2). The Daily Record named him as one data is being used correctly, and the answers coming of “50 Influential Marylanders” for 2014, and in to them from the cloud service are correct. “You January 2015, he received a Humboldt award for his could redo the computation to verify it,” he adds, “but continued outstanding contributions to the field. then you didn’t gain anything from pushing the com- putation to the cloud in the first place.” Katz praises Katz speaks candidly and compellingly on a variety researchers at MC2 who are working on efficient of topics in computer security and he highlights techniques to verify computation in the cloud that three (of several) exciting areas of cutting-edge allow the services to give a proof that they have done technical work that occurs at MC2: Cloud security the correct computation on information provided. and privacy, BitCoin, and Program Obfuscation. This includes collaborative work that computer scientists Because users do not want their cloud services to be from Systems Security, Programming Languages, able to read or examine data that they have stored, and Cryptography must engage in to ensure safety there are privacy issues to consider as well. “In some and protection of information. He also discusses cases, there might be legal reasons why a cloud the qualities of a good cybersecurity student and service cannot have access to information stored professional. there,” Katz says. For him the main question is “How can you store and operate on data in the cloud while still ensuring privacy?” In order to On Cloud Security and begin to solve this problem, Katz explains that experts from several different technical areas need to work together to begin to solve these Privacy types of problems. “Cryptography, Systems Security, and Programming Language Over the last two to three years, many people techniques are important for giving people have come to outsource storage completely to easier ways to use the various technologies.” 20- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 21 programming languages. You need net- On BitCoin… Program Obfuscation working for secure connections, you will need secure databases, and you’ll need to and electronic (security through make sure that users are able to access data securely—these things are all part of cyber- currencies in obscurity) security.” He adds that the notion of privacy is also a part of cybersecurity, but because general Very recently, there has been a break- it is at the edge of a very technical aspect through on program obfuscation tech- of security, things may seem a bit more Although a non-academic niques (a way to deliberately create code complicated. “You might give Facebook proposal (Satoshi Nakomoto’s that is difficult for people to understand). your information, but you don’t want BitCoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Researchers are trying to understand them to publish it online. If they choose Cash System) emerged to and come up with efficient ways to create do a study, you want them to be able to fascinate people on the subject, program obfuscation. “This has been anonymize it sufficiently. This is also a part Katz explains that the research going on industry for years, but in an ad of cybersecurity.” community has been working hoc way. But now [because of work going on electronic cash systems for on at MC2] there is a provable way to Katz believes that most people have a clear twenty-five years. However, to do program obfuscation, and this a very understanding of cybersecurity and what him, what is truly exciting about exciting direction of research.” it means, but in order for a student to be the BitCoin protocol is that this talented in the field, he or she must have a burst of interest was the result of hacking mentality. This does not include a non-academic proposal. The On Cybersecurity breaking into systems for the sake of anonymous paper “caught fire” breaking into them, but a desire to under- and got people interested in an and Educating stand how things work, understand what is electronic cash system that then going on in a given system, and determine had an impact on the marketplace. Undergraduates in what, if anything, could go wrong. An ideal “And since the paper came out, cybersecurity expert can determine the people are trying to understand ways that a system can be exploited, figure the security properties it actually Cybersecurity out how to defend against any exploits, and

achieves,” he says. BitCoin’s then be able to repair those same exploits. During the fall semester of 2014, Katz security properties are quite “Security is thinking about the consequenc- taught future security experts to think unknown, and according to him es—what happens when someone does more carefully about security through “We don’t yet have a handle on not use a system in an expected way,” he his 400-level Cryptography class taught whether or not it is secure, or how explains. to talk about security for a distrib- at UMD, and a Coursera seminar on the uted electronic currency, or what same subject, for which 35,000 students “Security is thinking about kind of model [of security] even registered. makes sense to talk about when ALUMNI RECEIVE dealing with distributed electron- Katz defines Cybersecurity as that which the consequences—what ic currency, or how the protocol relates to techniques for preventing un- might be modified to give other authorized access of computer systems SLOAN FELLOWSHIP happens when someone properties that it currently doesn’t and data. This can include nearly every Mike Schatz, PhD (’10) and Cole Trapnell, PhD (’10), are have.” He mentions that several discipline in Computer Science. Whether 2015 recipients of Sloan Fellowships for Computational does not use a system in an people in MC2 and elsewhere are students are interested in Theory, Systems, and Evolutionary Molecular Biology. Shatz is currently an working on these problems to pose Programming Languages, HCI, or Associate Professor of Genomics at the Cold Spring Harbor different alternatives to BitCoin. Databases, security ties all of these areas Laboratory in New York. Trapnell is currently an Assistant expected way,” One of these alternatives is together. “You might be interested in the Professor of Genome Sciences the University of Washington, Permacoin, a project he is working mathematical part of security, designing School of Medicine. Both Shatz and Trapnell were advised by on with Andrew Miller, a PhD secure access control for an operating Steven Salzberg. student. system, or writing software with secure 22- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 23 ARAVIND SRINIVASAN NAMED ACM FELLOW Professor Aravind Srinivasan (CS, UMIACS, He also works on the growing confluence and AMSC) is now a 2014 Association for of algorithms, networks, and randomness Computing Machinery fellow. ACM chose in fields including the social Web, learning, Srinivasan and forty-six other computer public health, biology, and energy. He has scientists from universities, industry, and published more than 100 papers in these research labs for their significant contribu- areas, in journals including Nature, Journal of tions to computing research and develop- the ACM, IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking, ment. The new fellows have been recognized and the SIAM Journal on Computing. for their achievements which are “driving innovation and sustaining economic develop- After completing his B.Tech in Computer ment around the world.” Science from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Srinivasan earned both his M.S. “I feel an enormous sense of gratitude and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Cornell for several people and institutions: our University in 1993. He became a Joint own UMD, its faculty, staff and students; Postdoctoral fellow for the Institute for family and friends; and several colleagues, Advanced Study at Princeton (which he later educators, and mentors,” Srinivasan said joined), as well as a postdoctoral fellow for when asked about the award. DIMACS (Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science) at Srinivasan’s new award adds to an impres- Rutgers University. After earning tenure at sive list. He is also a fellow of AAAS (American the School of Computing, National University Association for the Advancement of Science), of Singapore, he moved to Bell Laboratories IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics before finally joining the CS Department at Engineers), and he holds three patents. He the University of Maryland as an Associate currently serves as the Vice Chair of the IEEE Professor in 2001. He became a full professor Technical Committee on the Mathematical in the Computer Science Department in 2006. Foundations of Computing, and he is the Editor-in-Chief of the ACM Transactions on Srinivasan joins Professors Vic Basili, Larry Algorithms (TALG). Davis, Ray Miller, Jack Minker, Dana Nau, Dianne O’Leary, Hanan Samet, and Ben “Aravind Srinivasan is brilliant and I am so Shneiderman as an ACM Fellow. glad that we were able to recruit him to the University of Maryland,” said Professor Samir Khuller, Elizabeth Stevinson Iribe Chair of Computer Science. “His thinking and insights in randomization are simply unparalleled, ABOUT THE ACM and he has both developed and applied a lot of the techniques in the field, to very practical FELLOWS PROGRAM: problems. His work is both foundational and practical at the same time.” The ACM Fellows Program, initiated in 1993, celebrates the exceptional contribu- In addition to teaching graduate and under- tions of the leading members in the com- graduate courses in theoretical computer puting field. ACM will formally recognize the science, Srinivasan does research in the area 2014 Fellows at its annual Awards Banquet of randomized algorithms, networking, social in June 2015 in San Francisco. networks, and combinatorial optimization.

24- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 25 Postdocs Junhui Li, Postdoc with Philip Sinead Williamson, Postdoc with Dan Goldwasser, Postdoc with Hal Resnik and Hal Daumé III, Soochow Hal Daumé III, University of Texas at Daumé III, Purdue University. University. Austin. ACADEMIC PLACEMENTS Seung Geol Choi, Postdoc with Morteza Monemizadeh, Postdoc Tom Yeh, Postdoc with Larry Davis, Jonathan Katz, U.S. Naval Academy with Mohammed Hajiaghayi, Charles David Jacobs, and Ben Bederson, The department has had the pleasure of granting PhDs to some of the brightest and most innovative Bert Huang, Postdoc with Lise University, Czech Republic. University of Colorado, Boulder. Getoor, Virginia Tech. Smaranda Muresan, Postdoc with Vassilis Zikas, Postdoc with Jonathan students in the country. Many of our alumni have gone on to work in academic departments, research Yan Huang, Postdoc with Jonathan Philip Resnik, Columbia University. Katz, ETH, Zurich. labs, government agencies, and industries all over the world. In this edition of shell, we are highlighting Katz, Indiana University. Dominique Schroeder, Postdoc with Hong-Sheng Zhou, Postdoc those alumni and former postdocs over the last several years who have been appointed as professors in Stanley Kok, Postdoc with Lise Jonathan Katz, Saarland University, with Jonathan Katz, Virginia Computer Science or another field. Getoor, Singapore U of Technology Germany. Commonwealth University. and Design Keep us informed about your news at www.cs.umd.edu/community/alumni. PhD PLACEMENTS 2014 PhDs Gerardo Simari, PhD (’10), Rob Patro, PhD (’12), Stonybrook Nizar Habash, PhD (’03), New York Universidad Nacional Del Sur in Bahia University, Computer Science We are pleased to announce the placements of our PhD students for 2014. As they are University, Abu Dhabi, Computer Blanca, Argentina, Department of Department. Science Department. Computer Science and Engineering. Advisor: Carl Kingsford. settling in to their new lives, we wish them success, and look forward to hearing about Advisor: Bonnie Dorr. Advisor: V.S. Subrahmanian. Shivrubramani Krishnamoorthy, their accomplishments. Julian Mestre, PhD (’07), University Il-Chul Yoon, PhD (’10), State PhD (’13), Amrita University, India. of Sydney, School of Information University of New York, Korea, Advisor: Ashook Agrawala. Adam Groce, PhD (‘14), Visiting Asst. Prof., Reed College, Portland, OR Technology. Department of Computer Science, Adam Groce, PhD (’14), Reed Advisor: Samir Khuller. Advisors: Alan Sussman, Atif Memon, College, Department of Mathematics. Megan Monroe, PhD (‘14), IBM, Cambridge, MA Tsz-Chiu Au, PhD (’08), Ulsan and Adam Porter. Advisor: Jonathan Katz. National Institute of Science and Ryan Farrell, PhD (’11), Brigham Mike Lam, PhD (’14), James Madison Jiarong Jiang, PhD (‘14),Two Sigma Investment LLC, New York, NY Technology, South Korea, School of Young University, Computer Science University, Department of Computer Electrical and Computer Engineering. Department. Science. Alex Quinn, PhD (‘14), Asst. Prof., Electrical Advisor: Dana Nau. Advisor: Larry Davis. Advisor: Jeff Hollingsworth and Computer Engineering, Purdue Univ. Adam Lopez, PhD (’08), University of Jian Li, PhD (’11), Tsinghua University, Alex Quinn, PhD (’14), Purdue Institution for Interdisciplinary University, Department of Electrical Edinburgh, School of Informatics. Kan Leung Cheng, PhD (‘14), Google, Mountain View, CA Advisor: Philip Resnick. Information Science. and Computer Engineering. Yuening Hu, PhD (‘14), Yahoo Labs, Sunnyvale, CA Abinav Gupta, PhD (’09), Carnegie Advisors: Amol Despande and Samir Advisor: Ben Bederson. Khuller. Ke Zhai, PhD (’14), Yahoo! Labs, Sunnyvale, CA Melon University, School of Master’s Degree Students Computer Science. (Maria) Vanina Martinez, PhD (’11), Maryam Farboodi, MS (’06), (PhD in Advisor: Larry Davis. Universidad Nacional Del Sur in Bahia Economics at University of Chicago), Azarakhsh Malekian, PhD (‘09), Blanca, Argentina, Department of Department of Economics, Princeton University of Toronto, Rotman School Computer Science and Engineering. University. of Management. Advisor: V.S. Subrahmanian. Advisor: Amol Deshpade Advisor: Samir Khuller. Barna Saha, PhD (’11), University of Mustafa Bilgic, PhD (’10) Illinois Massachusetts Amherst, School of Bachelor’s Degree Students Ashwin Kayyoor, PhD (’14), Symantec Research Labs, Culver City, CA Institute of Technology, Department Computer Science Noah Smith, BS (’01), (PhD Johns of Computer Science. Advisor: Lise Advisor: Samir Khuller . Hopkins University), Department of Ronald Alford, PhD (‘14), U.S. Naval Research Lab, Washington, DC Getoor. Paulo Shakarian, PhD (’11), United Computer Science and Engineering, Sujal Bista, PhD (‘14), Research Associate, UMIACS, UMCP Sandro Fouche, PhD (’10), States Military Academy, West Point, University of Washington. Peter Fontana, PhD (‘14), NIST, Gaithersburg, MD Department of Electrical Engineering Towson University, Computer and Svetlana Yarosh, BS (’05), (PhD Michael Lam, PhD (‘14), Asst. Prof., James Madison Univ, Harrisonburg, VA Information Science. and Computer Science. George Institute for Technology), Yuancheng Luo, PhD (‘14), Visisonics, College Park, MD Advisor: Adam Porter. Advisor: V.S. Subrahmanian. Department of Computer Science, Hassan Sayyadi, PhD (‘14), Comcast Cable, Washington, DC Sorelle Friedler, PhD (‘10) Haverford Ben Langmead, PhD (’12), Johns University of Minnesota. College, Department of Computer Hopkins University, Department of Katrina LaCurts, BS (’08), (PhD MIT), Douglas Summers-Stay, PhD (‘14), Army Research Lab, Frederick, MD Science. Computer Science. Lecturer, Department of Electrical Jared Sylvester, PhD (’14), Booz Allen Hamilton, Annapolis Junction, MD Advisor: Dave Mount. Advisor: Steven Salzberg. Engineering and Computer Science. Gleneesha Williams, PhD (‘14), Dept. of Defense, Ft. Meade, MD Mike Schatz, PhD (’10) Cold Spring Jaehwan Lee, PhD (’12), Korea Derrick Wood, PhD (‘14), Postdoc, Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD Harbor Laboratory, Simons Center Aerospace University, College of for Quantitative Biology. Engineering. Arijit Biswas, PhD (‘14), Xerox Resesarch Centre India, Bangalore Advisor: Steven Salzberg. Advisor: Alan Sussman. Rajesh Chitnis, PhD (‘14), Postdoc, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel 26- Shell Magazine Spring 2015 Shell Magazine Spring 2015- 27 UMD Department of Computer Science A.V. Williams Building College Park, MD 20742

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