Summer 2 0 0 2 Alumni News

The end of an era: Prof. Saburo Muroga retires Saburo Muroga grew up in the company, which employed about 442,000, was Namazu, Japan, the son of a gathered there,” he laughingly recalled. “People who career military officer. As a had difficulty with others were sent there.” When he teenager who played the joined the laboratory, it was converted into a research violin, he aspired to be a laboratory devoted to bullet train technology, and many diplomat, a fiction writer, or a of the researchers had come from the country’s top naval musician. What he became and army research labs, which were being dissolved. “At was a giant in the field of that time,” he said, “people at Bell Labs had published a logic design. book on visible speech, analyzed by electrical signals. Saburo Muroga He earned his under- The book was a compilation of research, and I thought graduate degree in electrical this could be used to develop a speech typewriter.” He engineering from University of Tokyo during the applied for a patent and began basic research on voice turbulent days right after World War II. He graduated in recognition. Due to lack of support, he was forced to give 1947 with the desire to do research. up work on the project. Jobs were extremely scarce, and Muroga was lucky to Muroga’s manager left the company to join a land a job in a small laboratory owned by an enormous government agency similar to the American F.C.C., and government-supported national railroad, which used to Muroga followed him there. “But it was a miserable test electrical instruments. “Every strange character in place,” he said. “We had to make laws and prepare data continued on p. 14 Retires after 32 years Thank you, Judy! Zigrida Arbatsky has seen a lot of changes since her After nine years of dedicated service to the department, arrival in CS in 1970 as Professor Muroga’s secretary. alumni, and students, Judy Tolliver has taken a new This was before the arrival of the personal computer; she position as Program Manager with the National Center typed manuscripts and student’s theses, including that for Supercomputing Applications. She became the of Professor David Padua. A terminal hooked to the conduit between the three groups, connecting people, mainframe computer was soon to appear on her desk creating the highly successful Mentor Program, and and with it’s arrival she learned Troff, LaTeX, ED, EX, being a valuable resource. And there was Cyberfest! and Unix. Later when the department switched to PCs, While Tolliver was here, the department has received she switched to the latest software a 56 percent increase in annual fund gifts—a tremendous evolving as it did. She still sign of your support. The maintains her pre-PC skills as department’s endowment has various professors still use the grown from $351,000 to more “classics.” than $8 M, and its first endowed She also helped Prof. Muroga positions were established with with the department’s library. For gifts by private individuals: three students the library was a great scholarships, four fellowships, place to study and had the best two professorships, and two source of CS books, journals, and chairs. And in 2001, we received technical reports not available a $32 M gift for a new building. Zigrida Arbatsky continued on p. 2 see letter on p.2 Judy Tolliver Dear Alumni and Friends, Zigrida, continued from page 1 Working to raise money for the anywhere else Alps, and one of her favorite places Department of Computer Science on campus. is Jackson Hole, Wyoming. has been the best job I’ve ever had. Zigrida said “Exercise makes me feel good,” she Over the nine years that I’ve been that on a commented. coordinator of alumni relations and number of She is moving to New York in development, I’ve met many occasions she July to be near her son. She will not wonderful people who share a found signs of stray too far from computers common interest—to provide the after hours because she will bring a recently best educational experience for the partying. acquired laptop computer with her. next generation of students. Alumni Zigrida Arbatsky During the But first, she said, she must learn and friends across the country have mid-1980s, the how to use it. expressed their loyalty, commitment, depart-ment library became part of and generosity to the department by the university openly sharing their personal library system. She experiences at the university and had to renumber offering their opinions about our and reorder the programs, as well as their thoughts entire collection. In on how we can improve. 1990 when the I sincerely thank all of you who latest addition to have made contributions to the DCL was opened, department, financially and in other she helped move ways. Your support is vital to the the collection to its faculty and students who currently new home. Her walk the halls of DCL and who will happiest memories occupy our new building, Siebel are of working Center. I especially thank those of with students and you who have started new traditions helping them locate material. by endowing funds to ensure that we DCS Library (1990) thrive for generations to come. They in turn It has been a privilege to work for brought her many books, including the best computer science science fiction, books by Stephen University of Illinois department in the world, and King and series, CS Alumni News although I’m moving on as a to “lighten” her reading. She Editors: Judy Tolliver and Kathleen program director for NCSA, I am recollects that her saddest day was in Zanotti happy knowing that many of our 1996 when the collection was moved to the Grainger Library. “Everyone, CS Alumni News is published twice a year. paths will cross again. Deadlines for submissions: March 1 for Again, thank you. especially faculty, enjoyed having the spring issue, October 1 for the winter materials close at hand,” said issue. Sincerely, Zigrida. “Zigrida was easy to work with. All ideas expressed in the CS Alumni News Judy Tolliver are those of the authors or editors and do I learned a lot from her and she not necessarily reflect the official position was a good source of information of the alumni or the Department of for the department. She had a great Computer Science. historical memory and of course Correspondence concerning the she knew exactly what was going CS Alumni News should be sent to on in the department,” according to [email protected] or: Rick Henderson, DCL building supervisor. Editor, Department of Computer Science, 1304 West Springfield Avenue, She plans to continue skiing, Urbana, IL 61801 which she began when she moved Judy Tolliver with Doug Hilmes, here in 1965. Last year she went www.cs.uiuc.edu BS 85, and Prof. Roy Campbell with the Ski Club to the French The University of Illinois is an equal opportunity and affirmative action during Illini Reception (1995). institution.

2 CS ALUMNI NEWS From the corner office . . . A year has quickly passed since be essential in maintaining our excellence (see p.7). I started as department head. The The recent rankings from US News and World Report have summer is here; time to slow down brought us good news: we were ranked (again) fifth in the a little and to reflect on what was country along with the College of Engineering. Our peers achieved this year and where we continue to recognize the high quality of our programs. I go from here. always take such rankings with a grain of salt because of the We have had an exceptional many biases that are built into them. However, there are recruiting season this spring, with some useful lessons to be learned. a large number of top candidates The first lesson is that size matters: there is a clear interested in our department. Eight correlation between size and rank. The department plans to Marc Snir outstanding new faculty members continue growing to more than sixty faculty members. This will join us this fall (see p. 11). growth will improve our education with smaller student/ They will strengthen our department in established research faculty ratios and improve our research with critical mass in area and push us into new areas such as information all key research areas. retrieval and human computer interfaces. Many of the Another lesson is that leveraging computer science candidates that turned us down did so because of the lack of research and education activities across the campus is a suitable position for the candidate’s spouse. This is a essential. Computer Science at the UI is excellent not only serious problem for a small place, as two career couples because we have an excellent department, but we also have become the norm. The university has programs in place to great CS-related research and education in other units: first help with spousal hiring, but we must do more and learn and foremost is ECE, but also in Library and Information from the private sector how to handle this issue using job Sciences or Commerce and Business Administration. placement services or other mechanisms. Similarly the relationship between academic departments Hiring is likely to be more modest next year because of and research centers must also be nurtured. The research reduced budgets. The University faces a $40 million centers, such as the CSL, Beckman, or NCSA, fulfill an reduction in the state budget, which will be partly offset by a important role at the university in supporting 10% tuition increase. Academic units have seen their budgets interdisciplinary and applied research. Such centers promote decrease by an average of 6%. Lower cuts have been applied research excellence but they have no educational mission to units like ours “where priorities of research excellence and and do not contribute directly to the disciplinary strength of major instructional responsibilities intersect…” However, the departments. There is the risk of an increased separation tight budgets are likely to be with us for the next few years, between the research mission of the university, which is the and the long-term trend of continued reductions in state focus of the research centers, and the educational mission of support is unlikely to be reversed. the university, which is the focus of the academic depart- This shortfall has been compensated by an increase in ments. I believe that a stronger interaction between academic alternative sources of funding: federal and industrial departments and research centers will benefit both. research funding, tuition, and gifts. I expect this trend to I plan to spend significant time next year on improving continue. A virtuous cycle is at work: our commitment to our interactions with other departments and research excellence enables us to receive funding that supports our centers. I expect that I shall spend much time on the Siebel commitment to excellence. Center, as we are approaching the “climax” of its opening in We are doing very well with federal research funding – Fall 03. We are committed to making this center a unique last year has seen a marked increase in our income from environment for IT research and education – with up-to-date such funds. While many of our faculty members have pervasive computing technology and with heavy fruitful collaborations with industry, I believe that with your involvement of students, faculty, and staff in ensuring that help we can do better in attracting industrial funding. this technology becomes fully integrated in the daily texture Collaborations are important not only because of the of our life. potential revenue; but they also ensure that our research I hope for and expect your help on many of these stays relevant and that we deal with real problems and endeavors. I look forward to meeting many of you during provide practical solutions. my trips, at alumni gatherings, or when you visit the Although tuition has increased, our education is still a campus. I shall have the opportunity to interact more closely good bargain. There are sound social and economic reasons with those of you who serve on our advisory council. I to make high quality education widely available and would like to hear your opinions and get your help in setting affordable, and I wish we could avoid the current inflation in future directions for the department; improving our the cost of education. Unfortunately, this is a broad policy education and better preparing our students for their future issue over which we have little control. careers; improving our interaction with industry; ensuring Our distance learning program continues to be quite that the Siebel Center will provide a unique experience to successful and provides us with a modest, but steady, our students; and finally, ensuring that our department will income. The support of our alumni and friends continues to continue and improve on its proud tradition of excellence. — Marc Snir Summer 2002 3 Academy Award winner speaks on computer vision Steve Sullivan, PhD 96 in around with them. He was immediately attracted to the ECE, was on campus in April graphics and the programming behind them. He received to give a Distinguished his first computer in 1981, a TRS 80 color computer. Lecture entitled “Computer “Computers back then were far more accessible to Vision and the Art of Special someone. You walk up, turn it on, it’s immediately there Effects.” His talk focused on and you can start programming right away,” commented how computer vision Su llivan. He later bought a working TRS 80 at a garage sale. techniques are impacting He never studied graphics in the art sense and but was production of feature films a TA for a CS graphics class. He and his group use such as “Star Wars,” “Pearl science and technology, not pen and ink, to produce their Harbor,” A.I.,” and most rendered images. For example, they used vision recently “Minority Report.” algorithms to generate the Hall of Containment prisoners While a student here at U of I, in “Minority Report.” Steve Sullivan he studied under CS Prof. Nearing the end of his thesis work, he was still Jean Ponce, focusing on undecided about what type of job to look for. He was automatic object modeling, recognition, and surface watching a documentary on how they created the scenes representations. in “Jurassic Park.” Sullivan recognized that they could be In 2002, he received an Academy Award for Technical using computer vision instead of manually doing the Achievement for his team’s first project, the ILM Motion effects. He approached Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and Structure Recovery System (MARS). The system uses with his ideas. They were interested but said that they sophisticated algorithms and user-interface tools to could achieve their end goals with their present provide analysis of the motion of the camera and the techniques; using 20 people to manually create the motion and dimensions of the object in a scene. images. He then approached Rhythm and Hues Studios, Computer vision is the process of recognizing and which had just won a special effects Academy Award for interpreting objects through the analysis of their images. “Babe,” and they were very excited about his ideas. He Sullivan and his computer vision team of five focus on worked there for two years developing 3D and interpreting objects and getting the most information out tracking software. In 1998 he was recruited by ILM and of their images. Instead of using elaborate models, the would later work on “Jurassic Park III” using his team finds better ways to achieve the same effect by computer vision technology. building virtual models that are inserted into the scene. He and Prof. Ponce are interested in a collaboration They figure out the angles of the shot, make changes in that would be mutually beneficial. ILM would supply the lighting so the model looks natural within the frame, and real-world problems or interesting topics for research also keep track of other objects within the scene. They that come up during their projects and Ponce’s group also work with motion capture using the performance of would work on the theory and robust solutions. Sullivan someone as a basis for their graphics character. This said that their group does not have the time to develop process adds finer detail, and the graphics character long-term solutions to their problems but find problem- appears more realistic in the film. specific solutions. With each film the process becomes better. “In some Sullivan commented that since winning the Academy ways its bad because people sort of believe now that you Award he has more freedom and greater input on which can just do anything. The shock value is gone,” says problems need to be worked on. It is difficult to Sullivan with a laugh. “They won’t go see a movie just “convince people who have no technical backgrounds because of the effects. We now have to work harder and that it is worth the risk on their very expensive high- have different criteria. There is some interesting stuff in profile movie on your technology,” he said. “A lot of the ‘Minority Report.’ It’s not a featured piece of the film, but work we see now is more about making something it was interesting from our standpoint and sort of a new appear real than appear spectacular or unreal. The next look. There are some potentially big, groundbreaking big frontier that everyone is waiting for is digital.” things coming up in the future I can’t talk about. Some His advice to students is to take as much math as movies we are just trying to improve the process and in possible. He wishes he had taken more. He can teach new others we are trying to do some very central thing.” staff the details, but they need a solid base of theory to So how did he become interested in computer vision? draw from when working in this area. He said he was He had a few really good teachers in junior high who very pleased that the graphics group is growing and that were excited about computers and brought their own PCs it is a critical component to the work being done in many into school. They encouraged interested students to play areas of industry.

4 CS ALUMNI NEWS Classnotes Kevin Wiggen, BS 94, is chairman of National Laboratory. He is 2000s Xythos, a company he cofounded in responsible for overseeing R&D 1999. Xythos develops standards- activities of nearly 500 computer Richard Bernotas , BS 01, was based file access, sharing, and scientists and mathematicians married to Emily Smith last October. management software. Before that, working on a variety of applications He is employed by Strata Design he was with Oracle and founded its in the defense, energy, and life Technologies in Champaign as a application’s Internet product group. sciences. He lives in Livermore with software designer. his wife, Maria Elizabeth Ong, and Kris Powers , PhD 93, is now their two children, Hunter and Brian Bohl , BS 00, was married last assistant professor at Berry College, Hannah. September to Kym McCarty. He is Mount Berry, Ga. She had been at UI employed at Unified Development, Springfield. Wu-Tung Cheng , PhD 85, was Inc., in St. Louis as a systems named a Fellow by the IEEE for his consultant. Scott Corley, BS 92, and his wife outstanding contributions to design- Melissa welcomed their new for-test (DFT) methodologies for 1990s daughter Catie Clare Corley in system-on-chip designs. He is December 2001. Catie is now famous currently chief scientist and unit Adam Boyko, BS 99, was married worldwide, because her picture is manager for Mentor Graphics last October to Kelly Kieft. He is being used in promotional screen Corporation’s DFT Division. pursuing a PhD in biology at Purdue shots of his latest product, University. AcidImage. You can see AcidImage, Thomas M. Siebel, MS 85, was and Catie, at http://www.red- presented with the UI Presidential Stuart Kienlen, BS 99, married mercury.com. Award and Medallion in recognition Laurie Thacker last February. He is a of his “commitment to excellence in computer analyst with Southwestern Kelvin Sung , PhD 92, is an associate software engineering, computer Bell in St. Louis, Mo. professor in the Department of science research, and graduate Computing and Software Systems at education and to his continuing David Wellinghoff, BS 97, has been University of Washington at Botham. commitment and generosity to his working at Intel for five years as a alma mater.” He received the award software engineer designing 1980s during the fall meeting of the Silicon microprocessors. He recently moved Valley Roundtable. to the broadband products group Kevin McFall, BS 89, completed a and is designing applications and MBA from the John Sperling School Marc Gallo, BS 83, serves as vice drivers for DSL modems of Business at the University of president, Global Digital Strategy Phoenix in March. He is currently and Development Practice at Unisys. Earl Bonovich, BS 96, and his wife director of enterprise application He is working with clients to bring Anne (Estandarte) Bonovich, BS development for the Tribune their businesses to a collaborative- Geology 96, had a baby boy in July Company’s Media Services group commerce model using e-business 2001. They live in Orland Park, Ill. and an events correspondent for the strategy and design services. Tribune’s BlackVoices.com. Previously he was CEO of Sierra Chad Phillips , BS 95, married Jane Atlantic and a lead consulting Geier last November. He is Kent Steffen, BS 89, is president and partner at Pricewaterhouse Coopers. employed by CommWorks, a 3Com CEO of Telution, a company he Company in Rolling Meadows, Ill. cofounded in 1998 after ten years Mark Tebbe, BS 83, stepped down in with Andersen Consulting. Telution January as chairman of Lante, the Theron Tock , MS 94, is founder and provides software for Chicago-based consulting firm he CTO of Neoteris. Before that, he was communications companies and is founded, but will remain with the chief engineer with WebMD, and based in Chicago. company. before that he held positions at Sun, MITRE, and Boeing. Neoteris Steven Ashby , MS 85, PhD 88, has Mark Mahowald, BS 81, is VP, produces instant virtual extranet been named deputy associate multicast and networking products. director for computing applications technologies, for Talarian. Before and research at Lawrence Livermore that, he was president and CEO of WhiteBarn, a software

Summer 2002 5 Traps to avoid 241 new alums development and networking Max Levchin, BS 97, Campus was a buzz with graduates company that was acquired by cofounder and CTO and their family and friends Talarian. He has held senior of PayPal Inc., gave attending the 131st commencement management positions at Lachman the department’s ceremony held May 12 at the Technology Group, Rich Inc., and Distinguished Assembly Hall. Altogether there Reuters. He was also a member of Entrepreneur were 241 CS graduates: 175 the technical staff at Bell Labs. Lecture in April bachelor’s degrees, 59 master’s entitled “Why So degrees (including 15 from the Max Levchin Jeffrey A. Miller, BS 78, is VP of Many Cool Tech Internet program), and seven PhDs. development for PCTEL, a provider Companies Fail: Ten Traps to Avoid As those new alums are walking of soft modems and Internet access When Taking a Neat Idea to out our doors to begin their next technology, based in Milpitas, Calif. Market.” endeavor, new students will be He led SAFCO Technologies’s test Levchin gave reasons for many arriving this fall to begin the cycle and measurement group for three tech company failures, identified over again. There will be about 280 years before its acquisition by traps to avoid when growing a tech freshman and transfer students and Agilent. Before that, he was with company, and explained how PayPal 120 graduate students this fall. Motorola. learned from early mistakes, overcame missteps, and avoided big 1970s pitfalls to become one of the few successful IPOs of 2002. All of our Entrepreneur lectures are archived Fall alum events Michael Borman, BS 77, is president The department will be co-hosting on our Web site. and COO for Blue Martini Software, receptions this fall for area alums at He was recently selected as one an eCRM provider based in San Motorola in Schaumberg, Ill. and world's top 100 innovators under age Mateo, Calif. He assumed this IBM in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. 35 by “Technology Review.” EBay position in October 2001 after a long Department representatives will give announced that it would buy PayPal career at IBM, most recently as VP updates on CS news and happenings. in a stock swap worth $1.5 billion. for worldwide Unix sales. Invitations will be going out this fall.

Daniel Pitt, MS 73, PhD 79, will October 14, IBM become the dean of the engineering In Memoriam TBA (October/November), Motorola school at Santa Clara University beginning this July. He was formerly John Mullen, BS 73, died at his a VP with Nortel Networks. home in San Jose, Calif. last June. Mark your calendars for upcoming After graduation, John worked on-campus fall events: 1960s CAC and then attended graduate October 18-20, ACM Reflections/ school at UIUC. After leaving Projections 2002 Tomlinson Holman, BS Communi- Champaign, he worked in the October 26, Homecoming (Illinois cations 68, won a Tech Oscar for areas of network protocols and vs. Indiana) 2001 for “research and systems high-speed communication at integration resulting in the Communication Machinery improvement of motion picture Corporation, Hitachi, and 3Com. loudspeaker systems. For over 20 Contributions may be made to years, Tomlinson Holman has been the American Heart Association. involved in the research and integration of the constant- Matthew Sinise, BS 00, died in directivity, direct radiator bass type April. He graduated with honors of cinema loudspeaker systems.” and had been an employee of Holman, known as the creator of the Bridge Transaction Services in THX sound system, gave a talk in CS Creve Coeur, Mo., and of in 1998. Reuters. Memorials may be made to St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church in Creve Coeur.

6 CS ALUMNI NEWS Blake S. and Shelly Krass J. Robert Neely David E. La Mar Karen K. Palagi Thank you! John H. Lampkin Jeffrey L. Rohrer and Joyce Kim-Rohrer The following graduates and friends Steven T. Lauterburg David Mike Saville of the department have made Steven D. Lawrenz Raymond G. Schmidt generous gifts and donations during David R. Leister Michael D. and Suzette D. Schneider the period September 1, 2000 to Daniel R. Lestourgeon Michael A. Sennett July 13, 2002. David A. Lorber Rebecca R. Smith Dean’s Club ($500 or more) Christopher J. Love Darrell C. Stam Sharad and Rachna Mehrotra Barbera E. and James M. Stern Sally K. and Donald G. Bourdage* William F. Mitchell John R. and Martha N. Thompson Channing B. Brown III* John A. Modry Kai-Wen and Carolyn M. Tu Debra Jo and Ira R. Cohen* Keith Morgan Ronald L. and Elena S. Danielson Aaron C. Ogren Ross M. Erlebacher and Susan B. Silver Sue A. Olson Innovation Fund Michael and Lia Faiman* Gary P. Oswalt Scott H. Fisher Gary J. and Susan Q. Pace established Marc A. Gallo Douglass Stott Parker Jr. Charles W. Gear* Michael P. Peercy and Suzanne C. Kuo The Computer Science Innovation Harvey W. Gendreau Daniel A. Pitt Fund was recently established by Vijay S. Gupta Leon Presser Matt Markus, BS 97, and Ramesh Won Kim John E. Reiter Haridas, BS 96. Each made cash William J. and Carol A. Kubitz Carolyn G. Robins contributions independently and at Tso-Kai and Shuen-Hwa Liu Jeffrey J. Roma practically the same time. It is Douglas B. MacGregor Mitchell Roth quite a coincidence because the Marc S. Martinez and Susan A. Price* Kent D. Siefkes two happened to have been in Barbara M. McCarty Joan K. Slotnick business together, as founders of R. Douglas Rohn Kevin J. Smith PrivacyBank.com, now part of Steven M. Salato Charles E. and Sandra Thompson InfoSpace. We are heartened and Thomas M. and Stacey Siebel* Scott A. Turk encouraged that our alumni are as David W. Sievert Steven K. Turner enthusiastic about our new Cynthia M. Tao and Paolo Aloe Hans J. Van Slooten building as we are. William E. Witnik The Computer Science Sponsors ($100 to 499) Innovation Fund was established Contributors (up to $99) to insure that the Siebel Center will Duane S. Andres and Kiran M. Puri be more than a structure to house Stephen W. and Mary Beth Barth Martin S. Acks people and things. It will be a Michael W. Berry Nicholas Airdo dynamic environment offering the Todd F. Brandt Christopher E. Bautista very best computing and Gary A. Brunell Carl A. and Mary L. Bergstrom educational resources available. Robert L. Budzinski Shawn T. Carolan The fund will go toward its Gordon M. Collons David J. Carr and Anne J. Gray infrastructure, hardware, software, James M. Conrad Steven James Cote support, and all the vital Leslie N. Daley Roger G. Douglas components necessary to propel us Mark S. Delisi Colleen T. Enghauser through the future. Beth M. Dlutowski Gordon L. Fellows Please join us, Matt Markus, Joy L. Dorethy Raymond R. and Barbara P. Gerdes Ramesh Haridas, and others who Timothy A. Fiedler Robert K. Gjertsen Jr. are committed to computer science Daniel L. Friend Carol A and Fred R. Green Jr. education at the U of I, in Donald K. Friesen John D. Halbur supporting this monumental Bradley A. Goodman Thomas P. Hamilton endeavor. Contact us at Dennis G. Grzesiak Chi-Yin H. Hsu [email protected], or fill out the James F. Hart Daniel T. Jackson form on the back of this newsletter, Edward W. Hennessy II Jorg R. Jemelka with your gift, to make an Kurt H. and Dorothy Roy Horton Russell C.and Marlo D. Jones immediate contribution. Jeffrey R. and Eileen M. Jasica Kevin M. Lilly Christopher J. Jenner Dale J. Musick

Summer 2002 7 2001– 2002 Awards Student Awards Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Fellowship: Mumtaz Ahmad

Bronze Tablet: Michael D. Bond, Joanna M. Francis, Joshua Michaels Neal K. Groothuis, Mark A. Miller, Jeffrey A. Stoller, Hughes Award and David L. Zanter

Roy J. Carver Fellowships: Lee Baugh, Kirill Mechitov, Jason O’Kane, Donald Schmidt, and Sameer Sundresh Nicole Pakiz with Bill Dunn Dunn Scholarship Sara & Louis Cohen Scholarship: Alan Perez-Rathke Mary Pacold Deere & Spyglass Scholarships Crow, Chizek & Co. LLP Outstanding Student Scholarship: John Thomas Piller Mavis Memorial Fund Scholarship: Kai Chen

John Deere Scholarship: Mary E. Pacold Outstanding Teaching Assistant: Anthony Hursh

Dunn Systems Scholarships: Michael A. Munie and John R. Pasta Awards: Benjamin A. Miller and Joseph Nicole J. Pakiz L. Orndorff

Henry Ford II Scholar Award: Svetlana Lazebnik W. J. Poppelbaum Memorial Award: Christopher J. Hughes 4.0 Senior: Michael A. Gorczowski Siebel Scholars: Bhaskar Borthakur, Albert Chu, Hui C.W. Gear Award — Outstanding Graduate Award: Xue Fang, James W. Jackson, and Ryan Szypowski Liu Daniel L. Slotnick Award: John Lloyd Wright Outstanding Undergraduate Award: Joseph M. Kelley James N. Snyder Awards: Matt W. Hansen and Graduate College Fellowship for Underrepresented Geoffrey Levine Minority Students: Kenton McHenry Spyglass Scholarships: Mary E. Pacold, Jessica Schoen, Franz Hohn & J.P. Nash Scholarships: Matthew Ahrens Gergana S. Slavova, Qihua (Lily) Yang, and Kelly W. and Hormozd Gahvari Yeh

Michael Hughes Software Engineering Awards: Alan SURGE Fellowships: Naomi Caldwell and Kenton Bailey, Freidrich Carillo, Joshua M. Michaels, Charlie McHenry Pikscher, Paul Stankus, Edmund White, and Sean Liu Xu Verizon Fellowship: Can Zheng

ILLIAC Fellowships: Lee Baugh, Kirill Mechitov, and William & Ruth Witt Scholarship: Martha N. Teklu Jungmin So Warren William Young Award: Shawn T. Lindberg Illinois Distinguished Fellowship: Jungmin So

Knights of St. Pat: Irene Fusman and Nicole J. Pakiz

David J. Kuck Outstanding Thesis Awards: Vanish Talwar (MS) and Xiangmin M. Jiao (PhD) James Jackson Duncan H. Lawrie Award: Irene Fusman Siebel Scholar Jungmin So ILLIAC Fellowship C. L. & Jane W-S. Liu Award: Svetlana Lazebnik Martha Teklu Witt Scholarship

8 CS ALUMNI NEWS Faculty and Staff Awards Pair receive major

Department Staff Awards: Barbara Armstrong and campus awards Chuck Thompson Professor Michael Heath was C. W. Gear Award for Faculty: Vikram Adve presented with the Campus Award for Excellence in Graduate and Chancellor’s Distinguished Staff (Finalist): Barb Cicone Professional Teaching. He was nominated for the commitment to Campus Award for Excellence in Guiding Under- education and enthusiasm that he graduate Research (Honorable Mention): Dan Roth carries with him throughout his day. Mike Heath Prof. Heath teaches classes in numerical analysis, a rather unexciting subject for many, but for his students he brings a dry sense of humor and the ability to explain difficult material in an understandable way. His Four receive Willets expectations of himself and his students are very high. Professors Jeff Erickson, David Kriegman, Dan Roth, and He is always prepared and undertakes his teaching Josep Torrellas were chosen by the College of responsibilities seriously. His students remarked that Engineering to received a Willett Faculty Scholar Award. he has an animated and lively lecture style, is an The award is for faculty members who are in a relatively excellent speaker, and highly motivating. His early stages of their careers and are excelling in their commitment to education extends beyond the contributions to the university. Each will receive money classroom to his roles as a graduate research mentor, that can be used to help support their research for at as an author, as the director of the Computational least the next three years. In addition, they will each Science and Engineering program, and as the director receive a salary supplement of $2,000 per year. Twenty of the Center for Simulation of Advanced Rockets. awards were given to college faculty members for the first time this year. Jason Zych, lecturer in computer science, received the 2002 Campus Award for Excellence in Ong wins alumni honors Undergraduate Teaching for his dedication, empathy, talented Peng T. Ong, MS 88, received the College of teaching and development and Engineering’s Alumni Award for Distinguished Service revision of course materials. Zych at their convocation held in April. He received the award Jason Zych has received numerous department for his vision and leadership in building Interwoven into and college awards. He has been named to the the world’s leading provider of enterprise-class content Incomplete List of Teachers Rated Excellent by their infrastructure software. He is founder of the company, Students. Students have commented that he which he started in 1995 and took public in 1999. encourages them to make connections between the After successfully launching Interwoven’s TeamSite, class material and their work experiences; his lectures he stepped down as CEO, served as chairman of the are quick, clear, and to the point; he has the ability board until January 2002, and is now chairman emeritus. through his questions to lead students to discover When he finds the time, Ong is an angel investor in new answers; and he regularly uses real-world problems as enterprises. His advice is sought by many aspiring part of his materials. Zych consistently incorporates technology entrepreneurs. He currently splits his time the latest in teaching technologies to his lectures, between Asia and the to help nurture experimenting and redefining them to fit his purpose technology start-ups and to foster collaborative business and to enhance the student experience. opportunities between the two regions. He is also working on his next company. A previous article on Peng Ong appeared in the winter 1999 issue. It is also available at: www.cs.uiuc.edu/ news/alumni/w99/ong.html.

Summer 2002 9 Faculty notes DCL historical marker Kevin C. Chang, Sariel Har-Peled, and Yizhou Yu “Early Computers received NSF CAREER Awards designed to recognize Combining the administrative the most outstanding and promising young scientists and and computer experience of engineers. Louis N. Ridenour, the mathematical ability of John Hart became editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions of Abraham H. Taub, and the Computer Graphics. He is also editor-in-chief of ACM electrical engineering background of Ralph E. Computing Surveys. Meagher, in 1952 the Digital Computer Laboratory Dan Reed gave the NSF CISE distinguished lecture, developed ILLIAC I. The first “Advanced Computational Infrastructure and Research digital computer built and Computing Infrastructure for the 21st Century: Time to owned entirely by an ILLIAC Marker educational institution. It Go Long and Go Deep.” weighed five tons and contained 2,800 vacuum tubes. The ILLIAC series continued with Dan Roth was made a Fellow at the UI Center of ILLIAC II, a transistorized computer, and culminated in the mid- Advanced Studies. 1960s with the ILLIAC IV supercomputer, the largest and fastest in the world.” The marker is located at the west doors of DCL. The 57 Josep Torrellas received the Best Paper Award in the bronze markers, each weighing 75 pounds and mounted on Fifth Workshop on Multithreaded Execution, an 8-foot pole sunk several feet into concrete, have been Architecture, and Compilation, December 2001, for the appearing throughout campus since last summer. These paper “Prefetching in an Intelligent Memory Architecture initial markers honor faculty members for whom buildings Using a Helper Thread” coauthored by Y. Solihin and are named and others whose achievements have changed J. Lee. He was also reappointed as Vice-Chairman of the their discipline. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Technical Committee on Computer Architecture (TCCA), where he is also a member of its Advisory Board. Security Center launched

In February 2001, the Center for Advanced Research in CS website’s designer Information Security (CARIS) was formed in the Department of Computer Science and is headed by pens new book Professor Roy Campbell. Already designated by the NSA as a Center of Excellence in Information Assurance, the The new CS website, department will team up with Savoy-based Argus www.cs.uiuc.edu, owes its Systems Group, a producer of Internet security look and feel to designer Luke applications best known for its PitBull software. The Wroblewski, BFA Graphic focus of the interdisciplinary center’s research will be on Design 98, BFA Art History 99, next generation infrastructure security technologies. MFA Interface Design. CS website design Initial research efforts will focus on operating system Wroblewski heads interface and new media design in security, wireless security, and products relating to PKI NCSA’s communications group as well as runs his own and Smart Card systems. CARIS will operate on existing company, LukeW Interface Designs (lukew.com). He can funding for security research and bootstrap itself from now add “Author” to his business card. His book, Site- there. It is hoped that working with the private sector will Seeing: A Visual Approach to Web Usability (John Wiley & enable faster transition of products from the research lab Sons, 2002), is now available nationwide. Unlike most to the market. Said Campbell, “CARIS is a locus for books about Web usability, it emphasizes the visual people to get together and discuss how to approach communication techniques that contribute to Web security. The government’s producing a lot of different usability, including visual organization principles, and programs in security and usually the funding is in creating a unified look and feel or personality for a specific areas and attached to trying to develop research website. CS alums will recognize some of the to the point where it’s actually transferred into industry. screenshots used as examples in the book, from the CS By having a center, we can affect that.” website. For more information see www.caris.uiuc.edu.

10 CS ALUMNI NEWS New faculty for fall Eight new faculty members will join the department this and derandomization, optimization, and approximation fall, bringing the total number to 43; 14 professors, 11 algorithms. associates, and 18 assistants. Their research areas include real-time, OS and storage, and formal methods and new Grigore Rosu, assistant professor, areas including information retrieval and human received his PhD from University of computer interfaces. at San Diego in 2000. His research interests are in the areas of Brian P. Bailey, assistant professor, software: design, semantics and received his PhD from University of implementation of programming and Minnesota in 2002. His research is in specification languages; automated the areas of multimedia design tools, software engineering and formal authoring, systems; user interface Grigore Rosu methods; automated reasoning about design, human-computer interaction; computer systems, applications of logics, theorem ubiquitous computing, social interfaces, proving; and algorithms, (co)algebra, category theory. and application of Internet technology. Brian Bailey He developed DEMAIS, a multimedia Chengxiang Zhai , assistant professor, design tool, that enables a designer to rapidly sketch received his PhD from Carnegie behavioral design ideas and then transform them into a Mellon University in 2002. His working example for clients and team members. research interests are in developing algorithms for text information Marco Caccamo, assistant professor, management, including retrieval, received his PhD in 1998 from Scuola filtering, classification, Superiore S. Anna in Pisa, Italy. Since summarization, and mining of text. his graduation, he worked for Retis Changxiang Zhai He is also interested in statistical Lab at his alma mater and has been a natural language processing and its application in text visiting scholar at CS several times. classification and text mining. His major research areas are in real- time and embedded systems, Yuanyuan Zhou, assistant professor, Marco Caccomo dynamic scheduling, and real-time received her PhD from Princeton support for multimedia. He has been working with Lui University in 2000. She was scientist Sha on a project focusing on wireless sensor networking. with NEC Research Institute and is currently director of AnHai Doan, assistant professor, StorageNetworks, a NEC spin-off. received his PhD from the University Her research interests include of Washington in 2002. His research operating systems, file systems, and centers on databases and artificial Yuanyuan Zhou storage systems, computer intelligence, with an emphasis on architecture, system support for databases, architecture applying and extending machine support for systems, distributed systems, and parallel learning techniques to address data systems. integration over the Internet and across AnHai Doan enterprises. This includes scheme Craig B. Zillies, assistant matching, object identification across multiple sources, professor, received his PhD from schema evolution, user interaction, learning with University of Wisconsin at structured data, and text mining. Madison in 2002. His research interests include computer Edgar A. Ramos, assistant professor, architecture, micro-architecture, received his PhD from UIUC in optimizing compilers, profiling 1995. He has been a research mechanisms, and dynamic associate at the Max-Planck-Institute Craig Zilles optimization systems. fur Informatic since 1998. His research interests include combinatorial and computational geometry, randomized algorithms Edgar Ramos

Summer 2002 11 e-Fuzion: Reinventing education

Picture yourself in a large classroom where the instructor streamlined program that has been kept small, simple, is lecturing, slides are projected onto a screen, and you and can be scaled to work with an individual, small are taking copious notes. Sound familiar? How about if group, or a class of 200. The power in the program is the the lecturer is adding notes and graphics to the slides as she roams the room holding a wireless tablet? Meanwhile, you are adding your own comments to these annotated slides on your computer to be saved for later. Two undergraduates, David Pan (CS) and Patrick Bristow (ECE), are making this scenario a reality with their e-Fuzion software application. It all began last fall when the pair were freshmen taking CS 225. They both had come from a South Carolina magnet school where exceptionally small classes were the norm. They wondered how they could make 225 into a small-class experience for students. In September they began developing the application using C++ that would allow the instructor to use custom graphics tools and to cut and paste material from slide to slide, taking less classroom time. By November they had switched to C#, based on Microsoft’s .NET initiative, with platform independence in mind. Meanwhile, CS lecturer Chad Peiper was looking for a better way to communicate and interact with students. He had been using a graphics tablet to Student’s view of e-Fuzion. Areas include: instructor’s slides and notes (B), allow pen-based, projected drawing. The three student’s clipboard (A), student notes (C), and class chat space (D). joined forces and piloted the software in CS 300 last spring semester and CS 311 this summer. The most use of vector graphics rather than raster graphics, which notable change in the classroom scenario was offering has been known to reduce file sizes by as much as 99% Peiper the freedom to move about the room using a from previous semesters which used NetMeeting wireless tablet, allowing him to more directly engage his Whiteboard. The smaller size means quick loading students. during class and that each student can archive the lecture One of the features of the program allows the teaching along with their notes for later reference. Thirty of the assistant (TA) to answer questions posted in the chat students are using pen-based Fujitsu LifeBook computers. space during class. Questions come from students who Pan and Bristow are now experimenting with 802.11a might be reticent about speaking up in class or who don’t wireless networking, which gives them greater want to interrupt the flow with a small question. If a bandwidth capability than the 802.11b standard. The trio number of students ask the same question, the TA sends are also working with NCSA to use the software on the a note to the instructor indicating the problem and the Access Grid, which supports large-scale synchronous lecture flow can be immediately modified to take this distributed training on over 100 nodes worldwide. e- into account. Another feature is the ability to poll Fuzion will be the first pedagogical technology to ever be students during class, which helps the instructor to cohesively designed and tailored for use on the Access immediately gauge if the material is hitting the mark. Grid. For more information, see: www.e-fuzion.com. “Students are more encouraged to participate. The technology helps break the ice because there is already communication going on. With so many learning styles, e-Fuzion allows all students to participate in class, whether it be raising their hand or using the chat space for a question,” noted Peiper. Most applications of this type are aimed at the corporate environment and are too large and complex for the classroom. e-Fuzion, on the other hand, is a Chad Peiper, David Pan, and Patrick Bristow

12 CS ALUMNI NEWS Crowds take CS challenge at EOH

The 82nd annual Engineering Open House provided creates dance steps computer science students with an opportunity to for it in real time. showcase projects displaying originality, humor, and Players dance on a high-tech know how. This year's theme, Free Your Mind, stage following the encouraged participants to think outside the box. steps and are scored Student projects drew grade, high school and college on how well they students as well as visitors from the community and match the steps and across the state eager to participate in the experience or music. The exhibit to view and ask questions about the technology won the unofficial displayed within DCL. audience award and 1st Place, Just for Fun Sounds and Visions, blended was often cited as a the best of SIGGraph and SIGMusic through computer- favorite. generated with original music and sound Visitors could test effects. For one visually stunning entry, “Velouria,” the all their skills first- student used subdivision surface modeling and hours of hand at many of the rendering to create a futuristic animated story. The exhibits. They could music sets the dark, rich tones of the storyline. play with 1st Place, Original Undergraduate Research, SIGArt, SIGMobile’s uses the resources of artificial intelligence to create LaserBots, which Semanta, which interacts with users through natural used a PDA with a English language, learns from conversations and visual wireless link to input, and manipulates its environment through a These feet are made for dancing move a robot robotic arm. around an arena 1st Place, The Programmers Liberation Organization, and fire on the opponent, or they could use all their created Campus Rumble, a video game that presented gaming skills on the souped-up ACM’s Gamecube or try the classic battle between engineering and liberal arts their hand at SIGSoft’s Guns and Butter, an Internet- students. The two groups battled it out on a 3D version based multiplayer economic and military strategy using of campus. a BOA framework. 2nd Place, Free Your Mind MacWarriers’ 3DOSX, is a Other exhibits included SIGMil’s Directed file system browser that utilizes three dimensions to Electromagnetic Pulse Cannon, which was designed to view directory hierarchies. It test the feasibility of executing an attack to cripple supports a full range of file electronic devices; SIGNet’s Emersion, a networked system actions, such as presentation program for the UNIX family of operating copying, creating new systems, which presented a series of slides from current folders, and ejecting disks. photos of EOH; SIGOps’s SOS ’02, which is an The group provides a free educational operating system that presents examples of copy of their browser for operating system functions and implementations. downloading from their WinDevils’ Advanced SmartHome uses a home’s home page. existing AC power circuitry to provide a networked 3rd Place, Original system for such Undergraduate Research — functions as High Dynamic Range Image lighting and Apprentice MacWarrior Editing/Capture. The climate control dynamic range of an image is and monitoring. the contrast of all represented intensities in an image. For more The SIGGraph image editor will work with the low information on dynamic range of the image while preserving the high ACM and their dynamic range. activities, see: How can an engineer learn to dance? The answer www.acm.uiuc.edu. could be found at the Digital Dancer exhibit courtesy of Join us for SIGArch. Using advanced digital signal processing EOH 2003, technology, the Digital Dancer takes arbitrary music and March 14-15.

PLO group readies for campus rumble

Summer 2002 13 Muroga, continued from page 1 for making laws. We bought a lot of different radio Japan, on the other hand, had only three or four receivers on the market and compared their reception. computers, all built by older Japanese people who based This was boring work and could have been done by their designs on what they read in technical journals. anyone.” So he left to join NTT, a communications They built them, but they didn’t use them, Muroga colossus, which employed about 169,000 people. With a pointed out, because no one knew how to write research lab of about 1,000 researchers, it was the largest programs. He was a hero in the sense of having been an in Asia at that time. It was at actual user of a computer. NTT that Muroga, influenced “Every week, I went to NEC by Claude E. Shannon’s to teach the basic concepts of landmark book, began his computer science,” he said, work in information theory. “starting with binary It did not go unnoticed by numbers. I had a small class, Muroga that this particular attended by the best young book, The Mathematical engineers, one of whom later Theory of Communication, was became vice president of NEC published by the University in charge of software.” That of Illinois Press. was Yukio Mizuno. Muroga’s Having reread Shannon’s popularity grew. His phone work several times, Muroga was ringing every five sensed that something was minutes. He was asked to seriously wrong. At the core give lectures and write of Shannon’s theory was the articles. He was becoming too concept of channel capacity busy, and by that time he had and that this capacity was Saburo Muroga, as a visiting researcher from NTT in a young family to tend. difficult if not impossible to 1954, with Dave Muller and ILLIAC I. A Japanese invention calculate. Muroga thought called the Parametron, a new otherwise, solving the problem and publishing his ideas type of logic gate consisting of an inductor, capacitor, and in the Physical Society Journal in Japan. This immediately resistor, had just begun appearing in Japanese computers. garnered Muroga some measure of fame. An alternative to the unreliable early transistors, many Muroga decided to spend a summer, supported by a people were excited about the Parametron, including Fulbright grant, at the famous MIT, so he left Yokohama Muroga’s manager at NTT. But Muroga found the on a 13-day voyage by cargo ship to San Francisco and a Parametron to be too slow and declared the technology 3-day train trip to Boston, drinking Coca Cola for the first was hopeless. This led to friction, corporate politics were time. He was hired as a research assistant by Robert M. insurmountable, so he decided to take a break by leaving Fano, who was renowned for his work in information Japan for a few years. theory and was the first director of Project MAC (now the In 1960, Muroga joined IBM Research in Yorktown Laboratory of Computer Science). Heights, N.Y. Labeled as unpatriotic, he was the first of a Muroga visited Illinois for the first time to meet with perceived Japanese brain drain. During the same year, Professor Dave Muller, who had developed a new error Leo Esaki, the 1973 physics Nobel Prize laureate, left correcting code which ran during transmission. “I noticed Sony to join IBM. After several years at IBM, Muroga then,” said Muroga, “a big difference between Illinois embarked on a career in academia where he could teach and MIT in terms of professors’ attitudes toward and conduct research in logic design; finding his true calling. students. Illinois professors were nicer, they spent more By this time, in 1964, Muroga had gotten to know time with students, and advisers were more accessible.” many people at Illinois, so it was a natural place to come. Because of his visa restrictions, Muroga had to return to He intended to stay for three years and return to Japan. “I Japan in the fall. This time he took a passenger ship, but it wasn’t sure I could survive in this country,” he recalled. still took 13 days. “But this place was really nice and comfortable, like a When Muroga arrived back in Japan, he was a paradise. I ended out staying 38 years. Because of the computer celebrity—the first Japanese scientist ever to strong support of the department, I had really good use a big computer, the ILLIAC. “At that time,” he noted, research partners, students, and visiting scholars.” Many “there were only a half dozen computers in the U.S., and of these visiting scholars came from Japan, and Muroga only the ILLIAC was available for education. Illinois was became a sort of ambassador between Japanese and on the frontier of education with the latest technology.” American computer scientists.

14 CS ALUMNI NEWS Muroga’s research flourished at Illinois. In Japan, he academia. “The success of my students has been most had developed a new type of design theory called rewarding,” he said, referring to them as his threshold logic, which formed the basis of his landmark brainchildren. His weekly lunches with his graduate book, published in 1971 by John Wiley. The book, long students and visitors are a thirty-year tradition. A out-of-print and fetching high prices in the used book workaholic, Muroga once read a dissertation while market, is currently enjoying resurgence among neural standing in line at Disneyland. He keeps current with the network researchers whose ideas essentially extend the latest technologies by reading countless articles, which notion of threshold logic. A threshold logic circuit, which has been good for both his teaching and his investments. is characterized by inequalities, is a departure from Muroga’s name will live on in the department in the traditional logic design theory, i.e., switching theory. In form of two endowed positions named in his honor. threshold logic, traditional Boolean-algebraic gates, such Former Dell executive Doug MacGregor, MS 80, as AND gate, and different types of gates, such as NAND established the Faiman and Muroga Professorship, now gate, are treated as unified by inequalities. Muroga held by Professor Marc Snir, and former Toshiba devised a way to minimize the number of logic gates in a executive Shigenori Matsushita, MS 63, established the threshold logic network and came up with the important Muroga Fellowship, which will be awarded for the first concept of integer programming logic design. This time next fall. introduced, for the first time, the concept of an absolute During his retirement, Muroga plans to finish minimization of the number of gates or connections in a supervising his remaining PhD students and to revise his logic network into switching theory. Extending this VLSI system design book, which was published twenty notion, with his student, Hung-Chi Lai, parallel adders years ago. Opera and Japanese history occupy his leisure were designed with a minimum number of NOR gates, time. Anyone who has been in his office in DCL knows no matter how many bit positions the adders have, thus that he likes to collect things, in this case, mountains of solving a problem known to be difficult. Another logic technical papers and journals. At home, he collects items minimization method that Muroga and visiting scholar of a different sort: Japanese antiques, art glass, Yahiko Kambayashi developed is the transduction engravings, and glass paperweights. Muroga has two method, which was adopted as the de facto industry sons and two daughters. (One son, Eisuke Muroga, is also standard by major CAD companies including IBM, an Illinois educated computer scientist, BS 80, PhD 90.) Synopsis, Cadence, and Mentor Graphics. His wife, Yoko, has put in countless hours of volunteer In addition to his research, Muroga is known for the work in the local schools and taught calligraphy at the mentoring of his graduate students, many who have gone university. They live in Urbana. on to extremely successful careers in industry and Yes, I want to help computer science!

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Summer 2002 15 It seemed like forever that there was a hole in the ground. Now the building is taking shape with beams rapidly filling the sky and a roof over head. It is being filled in with floors, ductwork, and concrete blocks. What will we fill it with? See p. 7. Watch the timelapse construction video at: www.cs.uiuc.edu

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