Recent News & Accomplishments
2022
If you’ve ever done a Google search or chatted with Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa, you have seen natural language processing (NLP) at work. This form of artificial intelligence (AI) teaches machines human language, allowing them to interpret and generate text in much the same way a person would. While NLP models can convincingly mimic human language, they may also reflect human biases toward various social groups. With the goal of minimizing harm and enabling more equitable language in AI, University of Maryland computer science graduate student Yang “Trista” Cao (pictured left), and... read more
A team of researchers from the University of Maryland has received a best paper award for their work to make visual question answering (VQA) systems more effective for people with visual impairments. “ What’s Different between Visual Question Answering for Machine ‘Understanding’ Versus for Accessibility?” aims to improve VQA systems by nudging them toward a more human-centric model where the goal is to answer questions that are likely to be useful to potential blind and visually impaired users, as opposed to questions written to test how well a machine “understands” images. The paper was... read more
The UMD team presented a total of four papers at the 2022 International Conference on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) held from October 29–November 2, 2022, in Bend, Oregon, USA.
Researchers at the University of Maryland recently received recognition for their innovative work on developing a set of rapid prototyping techniques to fabricate high-resolution, flexible circuits on demand using a fiber laser engraver. Out of the 63 demos, the UMD team—co-led by Zeyu Yan and Anup Sathya , along with Sahra Yusuf, Jyh-Ming Lien, and assistant professor Huaishu Peng —received the “People’s Choice Best Demo Award” for their paper titled Fibercuit: Prototyping High-Resolution Flexible and Kirigami Circuits with a Fiber Laser Engraver at the 2022 International Conference on User... read more
New rankings published by The Chronicle of Higher Education and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.
New rankings published in October 2022 place the University of Maryland in the Top 4 for most bachelor’s degrees awarded in computer and information sciences and support services overall and to minority groups. UMD ranks No. 4 overall (No. 2 among non-online programs) for conferring the most bachelor’s degrees in computer and information sciences and support services, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education . UMD conferred 1,188 degrees between July 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020, and 345 were conferred to women (29%). UMD ranks No. 3 overall (No. 1 among non-online programs) for the total... read more
For 30 years, Nada Golmie (Ph.D. ’02, computer science) has made her mark as an innovator and problem-solver at NIST
As a young girl growing up and looking ahead to her future, Nada Golmie (Ph.D. ’02, computer science) was certain of one thing—she was curious and had many interests and there was a lot to learn. “Growing up I had good role models, I was told that I could do whatever I wanted in my career,” Golmie explained. “Women in my family were teachers, lawyers, doctors, so to me that was what you were supposed to do, regardless of gender—the sky’s the limit, just find what you want to do and do it.” Golmie did just that. A computer scientist and engineer who has spent nearly three decades at the... read more
Student-run organization Hack4Impact-UMD partners with nonprofits to develop products that help communities across the country.
When University of Maryland senior computer science major Surabi Ramamurthy helped design a website for her cultural community to use as a medium to bring people together, she realized that her growing interest in computer science could be used to do good. So, when Ramamurthy later came to UMD, she wondered if there was a way she could merge her passions productively. She found the answer when her mentor and friend Simin Li (B.S. ’21, computer science) told her about a new club she was co-founding — the UMD chapter of Hack4Impact , a national organization dedicated to empowering students to... read more
The University of Maryland Center for Machine Learning has selected six winners for its Rising Stars in Machine Learning program—the largest cohort yet. Now in its fourth year, the program aims to support researchers from underrepresented groups as they pursue new scientific discoveries and academic opportunities. The winners each receive a $1,000 honorarium and the opportunity to present their research at the center’s distinguished seminar series this fall. “We had a record number of 35 applicants, and with so many having impressive backgrounds and research, it was too difficult to select... read more
International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems October 23-27, 2022 Kyoto International Conference Center, Japan
The IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) brings together robotics experts from across the globe for presentations, workshops, and forums. IROS is a premier flagship academic conference in robotics. The theme for this year is “Embodied AI for Symbiotic Society.” A total of 15 papers will be presented by MRC faculty and researchers. MRC IROS 2022 papers: 1. “ Inverse Reinforcement Learning with Hybrid-Weight Trust-Region Optimization and Curriculum Learning for Autonomous Maneuvering ”, Yu Shen, Weizi Li, and Ming C. Lin 2. “... read more
The 2022 International Conference on computer vision will be held in person and online from October 23 to October 27, in Tel Aviv, Israel.
University of Maryland researchers will present 14 papers at the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV 2022), to be held from October 23 to October 27, 2022. ECCV is one of the top-tier and most prestigious conferences for computer vision researchers to present and discuss their work. The conference will be held in a hybrid format with virtual and in-person sessions at the Tel Aviv Convention Center, Israel. The UMD researchers will showcase their strong presence at the international conference with 14 papers in the area of computer vision, machine learning, and graphics. List of... read more
There are numerous applications to help blind users surf the web, yet there are few tools to help them design the visual layout of a web page, and those available are challenging to operate independently. Researchers at the University of Maryland are increasing accessibility in this area by developing a novel device that lets blind users create a web layout with their hands. With TangibleGrid, blind designers snap and resize brackets representing visual elements—like a text box or video—to a physical baseboard. The baseboard senses the brackets’ type, size, and location; verbalizes the... read more