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Winter 2013 Significant Newsletter of the School of Computer Science BITS Department School of Computer Science

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Winter 2013 Significant Newsletter of the School of Computer Science BITS Department School of Computer Science University of Massachusetts Amherst Winter 2013 Significant Newsletter of the School of Computer Science BITS Department School of Computer Science his past December 11th, the UMass Amherst Fac- will be the intellectual focal point for broad interdisci- ulty Senate officially ushered in a new era, voting to plinary activities in research, teaching, and outreach that Tapprove the transformation of the Department of engage UMass Amherst community members across the Computer Science into the School of Computer Science. campus, building upon the CS faculty’s nationally promi- This change signals the recognition by the University of nent research activities and its already-strong connections Massachusetts Amherst both of the excellence of the com- to other campus academic units in research, teaching, and puter science faculty as well as the increasingly central service. role that computer science plays within the University of With this initiative, UMass Amherst joins other major Massachusetts, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and universities across the nation that have capitalized on the the nation. growing understanding of the centrality of computing Schoolhood is an endorsement of our vision for the by undertaking different kinds of organizational innova- future of computing and computational thinking at the tions. Schoolhood supports a more effective engagement University of Massachusetts Amherst. In this vision, between computer science and other fields, allowing an faculty with interests and expertise in computing in a very expanded mission/footprint for computing, offering new broad spectrum of disciplines across the campus come to- educational programs, and forming broader and stronger gether to define and develop new and expanded research, interdisciplinary research connections. educational programs, and collaborations. The School continued on page 2 s we each move through the physical The promise world, and interact in the digital world, Aour activities leave digital traces. When and pitfalls of these traces are combined with the traces of others, they form valuable data sources that can private data be used to advance scientific understanding and improve our lives. But these digital traces also contain sensitive personal information whose misuse could cause significant harm. Govern- ment regulations can sometimes limit the ability News of institutions to collect and use information Shenoy: IEEE Fellow 4 about us, but they often lag far behind current data usage practices. Technological approaches Edwina Rissland Retires 5 to privacy, developed by computer scientists Riseman and Hanson and statisticians, are an increasingly important Scholarship 9 means for ensuring data is adequately protected. Associate Professor Gerome Miklau’s re- search into data privacy enables large-scale Awards data analysis that is safe for individuals. One of Gerome Miklau McCallum: his main goals is to develop methods for extract- Chancellor’s Award 3 ing useful aggregate facts about a group without disclosing sensitive information about the individuals in the group. For example, his research could enable doctors Alums to use a collection of medical records to investigate the correlation between obesity Alum Focus: and diabetes, without revealing the particular medical details of any single indi- vidual. It could allow urban planners to study a database of employees’ commuting Amy McGovern 10 patterns without revealing the exact home or work location of any individual. Recent Ph.D. Grads 12 continued on page 4 Alum Social 14 Significant Bits Winter 2013 From the Chair am delighted to be able to an- as case-based reasoning, which explored how artificial intel- nounce that we are now the School ligence could be used to support lawyers in developing legal I of Computer Science. This is more cases. In addition to her research, Edwina served two terms than just a name change; it reflects as a program director at the National Science Foundation, the broad footprint that computing where she won praise for her dedication and hard work. now has on campus (and worldwide) Although now retired, Emerita Professor Rissland plans to as well as newly increased flexibility continue to provide leadership in the case-based reasoning and independence in shaping our community. We thank her for her contributions and hope she future. Plans for becoming a school enjoys her retirement. have been ongoing for the past Let me end this letter with news about a newly created four years. The Strategic Directions graduate scholarship to recognize the contributions of Ed Committee, under the guidance of Riseman, who passed away in 2007, and Al Hanson, who Rick Adrion, James Allan, Emery retired in 2008. As many of you know, Ed and Al co-directed Lori A. Clarke Berger, Bruce Croft, Jim Kurose, Lee one of the major research laboratories in computer vision. Osterweil, and Prashant Shenoy, have been developing plans Emeritus Professor Hanson continues to pursue research in that reflect this increased role. Computer Science at UMass computer vision and robotics, especially focusing on assis- Amherst is extremely interdisciplinary. Faculty in Computer tive living. Computer vision continues to be a major research Science are engaged in research with every other college and area for our school, building upon work in machine learn- school on campus and these interactions are continuing to ing, robotics, and computer graphics. Graduate scholarships, grow. To complement our BS degree, several years ago we in- such as the Ed Riseman and Al Hanson Graduate Scholar- troduced a BA degree, which has fewer requirements so that ship, help us attract strong graduate students to our Ph.D. students can combine the study of computing with studies in program. In a recent review of university graduate programs, other disciplines. As I reported in my last letter, we now have it was clear that UMass does not provide as many scholar- a professional master’s program. And, as part of the vision ships for graduate students as most comparable universi- for the new school, we are exploring developing an Infor- ties. With tightening state budgets, increased funding for matics Program that would offer degrees in more applied scholarships is going to have to come from contributions. In and specialized areas of computing, such as data analytics, the last several years, we (really you!) have successfully en- health informatics, and multimedia. The new school is still dowed four graduate student scholarships in honor of Robin part of the College of Natural Sciences, and we continue to Popplestone, Paul Utgoff, Victor Lesser, and Dave Stemple, report to Dean Goodwin, who has been very supportive of as well as continued support for undergraduate scholar- computer science and our increased independence. A cele- ships. Please consider contributing to one of our scholarship bration of our new status is currently being planned for programs. Fall 2013—watch for an announcement. At the end of this fall semester, we saw the departure of two faculty members. Kevin Fu resigned to join the faculty at the University of Michigan. Kevin is a very visible and re- We’re on Facebook and LinkedIn spected researcher in computer security. With two small chil- Keep up-to-date on the school’s latest dren, he and his wife wanted to be closer to their families. We wish them the best and expect to continue to hear great events and announcements. Join us on things about Kevin’s research. As reported elsewhere in this Facebook (group name: UMASS CS) and newsletter, Edwina Rissland retired after thirty-three years as LinkedIn (group name: a faculty member at UMass Amherst. Edwina was one of the initial founders and a leading researcher in the area known UMass Amherst Computer Science) SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE – – cont. from page 1 greater control of our destiny, through greater control over the hiring of new faculty members and teaching We have already embarked on new degree programs, assistants. This newfound ability to guarantee continued including a Bachelor of Arts and a professional Master’s growth for the CS faculty and student body will help us Degree. Schoolhood will make it easier for us to offer cope with the increasing demands for computer science programs that cross traditional departmental boundaries. courses as our undergraduate enrollment continues to Also in the planning stage is an Informatics program that grow by leaps and bounds. In addition to maintaining will help meet the demands for computing across a variety and building our strength in core areas of computer sci- of disciplines. Potential concentrations within the Infor- ence, we will continue to hire faculty that cross disciplin- matics degree will include Data Analysis (“big data”), ary boundaries. Multimedia, and Health Informatics. We view schoolhood as one more milestone on our Schoolhood also brings with it a number of immedi- path, and look forward to exciting developments in the ate, practical benefits that will make it possible for us to years to come. realize our vision. It means that we will now have much 2 Significant Bits Winter 2013 Awards McCallum Allan and Joyce honored with receive CNS Chancellor’s Award Awards uring the UMass Amherst Faculty t the College of Natural Sci- DConvocation held in September, Aences (CNS) State of the College Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy event held in September, Dean Steve presented Professor Andrew Mc- Goodwin announced that Profes- Callum with the 2012 Chancellor’s sor James Allan is a recipient of the Award
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