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 GRACE HOPPER The Anita Borg Institute’s Grace Hopper The women in attendance praised the for- Celebration (GHC) is held every October to mat of the celebration and the experiences celebrate and honor the work that women - Computer Science major and Co-chair for gether thousands of women in technology that they shared with one another. Senior todo hear in computing from technology fields. The leaders, GHC bringsto share to at UMD, Aboli Kumthekar, emphasized the their research, and to learn about the chal- strongthe Association community of Women that GHC in establishes Computing for lenges that women encounter in Computer opportunities for women in every stage of and interview for jobs, to see old friends, women. “Grace Hopper is full of different - andScience. to encourage Women also women gather of allto networkages to pur - tend panels to improve her individual skills ortheir to learnacademic something careers[…]Everyone completely new,” can she at gathering of women in tech in the country, andsue careersin 2015, in the computing.