CUCS Resources You can subscribe to the CUCS news mailing list at CS@CU http://lists.cs.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/cucs-news/ NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY VOL.3 NO.1 FALL 2006 CUCS colloquium information is available at http://www.cs.columbia.edu/lectures Columbia Computer Visit the CUCS alumni portal at http://alum.cs.columbia.edu Science Faculty in the National Academies Alfred V. Aho Stephen M. Bellovin Columbia University in the City of New York Department of Computer Science NON-PROFIT ORG. 1214 Amsterdam Avenue U.S. POSTAGE Mailcode: 0401 PAID Zvi Galil Edward H. Shortliffe Joseph F. Traub Vladimir Vapnik New York, NY 10027-7003 NEW YORK, NY PERMIT 4332 At this year’s computer science department Alfred V. Aho is Lawrence Vice President, Director, ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED “Hello Meeting,” members of the faculty Gussman Professor of department head, and member of technical staff. This is the recalled the early days of the department Computer Science and Vice Chair for Undergraduate lab that invented UNIX, C and when the same meeting could be held on Education in the Computer C++. Al was also the General the first floor of Mudd, in the small area that Science Department. He Manager of the Information is now used for making sandwiches in the served as Chair of the Sciences and Technologies Carleton Lounge. Since then, the computer department from 1995 to Research Laboratory at 1997 and in the spring of Bellcore (now Telcordia). science department has grown both in size 2003. He was elected to the Professor Aho is the “A” in and prominence. The faculty now includes U.S. National Academy of AWK, a widely used pattern- six members of the National Academies: Engineering for contributions matching language (you can Al Aho, Steven M. Bellovin, Zvi Galil, Ted to the fields of algorithms think of AWK as the initial and programming tools. Shortliffe, Joe Traub, and Vladimir Vapnik. pure version of perl). “W” is Peter Weinberger and “K” Here is a brief overview of their achievements Professor Aho received his B.A.Sc in Engineering Physics is Brian Kernighan. Al also and contributions. from the University of Toronto wrote the initial versions of and a Ph.D. in Electrical the string pattern-matching Engineering/Computer Science programs egrep and fgrep from Princeton University. that first appeared on UNIX. Prior to his current position at His current research interests Columbia, Professor Aho served include quantum computing, in many capacities at the programming languages, Computing Sciences Research compilers, and algorithms. Center at Bell Labs, such as (continued on next page) CS@CU NEWSLETTER OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY WWW.CS.COLUMBIA.EDU CS@CU FALL 2006 1 Cover Story (continued) Professor Aho has won the and cybersecurity research journals and is the editor Care, while directing an active many countries. IBC studies National Academy of one hundred research papers. These six National IEEE John von Neumann needs. He was also a member of the book “Computational research program in clinical optimal algorithms and Engineering elected Professor His major achievements have Academy members Medal and has received of the information technology Algorithms on Strings.” information systems and computational complexity Vapnik as a new member in been the development of a honorary doctorates from subcommittee of an NRC Although being the Dean of decision support. He spear- for the continuous problems 2006 for “insights into the general theory for minimizing represent the growth the Universities of Helsinki study group on science versus Engineering and Applied headed the formation of a which arise in physical science, fundamental complexities of the expected risk of predictors and prominence of the and Waterloo. He is a terrorism. He was a member Science has taken up most of Stanford graduate degree pro- mathematical finance, learning and for inventing using empirical data, and a Columbia Computer Member of the American of the Internet Architecture his time for the last 12 years, he gram in biomedical informatics engineering and economics. practical and widely applied new type of learning machine Science Department since Academy of Arts and Board from 1996-2002, and reports, with great mirth, that and divided his time between A major focus of his current machine-learning algorithms”. (the Support Vector Machine) its modest beginnings. Sciences and a Fellow of was co-director of the Security he still tries to find the most clinical medicine and biomed- work is quantum computing. that possesses a high level of Professor Vapnik obtained his Undergraduates and the American Association Area of the IETF from 2002 efficient way to solve problems. ical informatics research. He has received numerous Masters Degree in Mathematics generalization ability. These for the Advancement of through 2004. He sits on Professor Shortliffe continues honors including election in 1958 at Uzbek State techniques have been used to graduate students alike Science, ACM, Bell Labs, the Department of Homeland solve many pattern recognition is to be closely involved with to the National Academy of University, Samarkand, USSR are fortunate to have and IEEE. He received Security’s Science and Edward H. Shortliffe and regression estimation Rolf A. Scholdager Professor biomedical informatics graduate Engineering in 1985, the and his Ph.D at the Institute such giant shoulders to the Great Teacher Award Technology Advisory Board. problems and have been and Chair of the Department training where he works to Emanuel R. Piore Medal from of Control Sciences in the for 2003 from the Society applied to the problems of stand on. of Biomedical Informatics create a new breed of health IEEE in 1991, selection by Academy of Sciences, Moscow, of Columbia Graduates. dependency estimation, fore- is the Dean of the at Columbia College of professional. His research the Accademia Nazionale dei in 1964. From 1964 to 1990 Zvi Galil casting, and constructing School of Engineering and Physicians and Surgeons. He interests include the broad Lincei in Rome to present he worked at the Institute, intelligent machines. Professor is a Applied Science. He is the is an elected member of the range of issues related to the 1993 Lezione Lincei, and where he became Head of the Steven M. Bellovin Vapnik’s research combines Professor of Computer Science. Julian Clarence Levi Professor Institute of Medicine of the integrated decision-support the 1999 Mayor’s Award for Computer Science Research mathematical analysis of the He was elected to the National of Mathematical Methods National Academy of Sciences. systems, their effective Excellence in Science and Department. He then joined problem of empirical inference Academy of Engineering and Computer Science, and implementation, and the role Technology in New York City. In AT&T Bell Laboratories, Holmdel, After receiving an A.B. in in complex (high dimensional) for contributions to network served as Chairman of the of the Internet in health care. 2001, he received an honorary NJ, as a Consultant, and Applied Mathematics from worlds with philosophical inter- applications and security. Department of Computer Doctorate of Science from the was appointed Professor of Harvard College in 1970, he pretation of such inferences Science from 1989 until July University of Central Florida. Computer Science and Statistics Professor Bellovin joined the moved to Stanford University Joseph F. Traub is the Edwin based on the imperative which 1995. In 2004, Dean Galil at Royal Holloway in 1995. faculty in 2005 after many where he could pursue Howard Armstrong Professor he formulated in 1995: “When was elected to the National years at Bell Labs and AT&T interests in medicine and of Computer Science. Vladimir Vapnik is Professor Professor Vapnik has taught solving a problem of interest, Academy of Engineering for Labs Research, where he was computer science, and was He came to Columbia in of Computer Science at and researched in computer do not solve a more general his contributions to the design an AT&T Fellow. He was first awarded a Ph.D. in Medical 1979 as founding chair Columbia and Fellow at NEC science and theoretical and problem as an intermediate and analysis of algorithms exposed to computers in 10th Information Sciences in of the Computer Science Labs. He is currently at the applied statistics for over thirty step. Try to get the answer and for leadership in computer grade at Stuyvesant High 1975 and an M.D. in 1976. Department. From 1971 Center for Computational years. He has published six that you really need but not a science and engineering. School and has been working Subsequently, he served as to 1979 he was Head of Learning Systems. The monographs and more than more general one.” in the field ever since. He Dean Galil began his studies in Professor of Medicine and of the Computer Science received a BA degree from applied mathematics; he soon Computer Science at Stanford Department at Carnegie Columbia University, and an turned to the emerging field University. In January 2000 Mellon University. He served MS and PhD in Computer of computer science, which he he assumed his new post at as founding Chairman of Science from the University saw as an extension of his Columbia University, where the Computer Science and of North Carolina at Chapel interest in mathematics. His he is also Deputy Vice Telecommunications Board Feature Article Hill. As a graduate student, main research pursuits are President (Columbia University (CSTB) of the National he helped create Netnews; in the design and analysis of Medical Center); Senior Academies from 1986 to 1992 for this, he and his fellow algorithms, computational Associate Dean for Strategic and is again serving as Chair. Professor Shree Nayar Named as 2006 Great Teacher contributors were awarded complexity, and cryptography.