Recent News & Accomplishments
2025
The program ranks No. 9 among the country’s public institutions and 16th overall, climbing a notch from last year.
The University of Maryland’s computer science graduate program ranks No. 9 among the country’s public institutions in the 2026 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.” The program ranks 16th overall, climbing a notch from last year. UMD also ranks high in three computer science specialties: Artificial intelligence at No. 12 (No. 8 among publics) Programming language at No. 19 (No. 11 among publics) Systems at No. 20 (No. 11 among publics) "We're proud to see the University of Maryland's outstanding graduate programs receive the recognition they deserve across a broad... read more
For Howard Elman , research is a collaborative experience—one that can produce scientific discoveries that are far greater than the sum of their parts. A professor of computer science with an appointment in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), Elman has spent the past 40 years working with researchers around the world on complex problems like developing faster code for studying fluid dynamics and reactive flows. Reflecting on his career as he prepares to retire from the University of Maryland at the end of June, Elman says it is these types of... read more
Two computer science majors have been awarded 2025 scholarships by the Barry Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation , which encourages students to pursue advanced study and research careers in the sciences, engineering and mathematics. Over the last 16 years, UMD’s nominations yielded 53 scholarships—second in the nation only to Stanford. UMD’s 2025 Goldwater Scholars are: Harikesh Kailad , sophomore computer science and mathematics double major Luiz Mata Lopez , junior computer science and mathematics double major They are among 441 Goldwater Scholars selected from 1,... read more
The two-year $1.3M project will support data systems research for tactical military networks.
University of Maryland Department of Computer Science Assistant Professor Alan Zaoxing Liu has received a $1.3 million research award from the U.S. Department of Defense through the Army Contracting Command to support his project on “Approximation-First Telemetry for Resource Efficient Situational Awareness in Tactical Networks.” With this research award, Liu aims to collaborate with the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) to generate new ideas and technologies in dynamic data processing systems. The two-year project will focus on developing computing systems that efficiently process large-scale... read more
Tech companies are racing to build the best artificial intelligence (AI) models, but amid the intense competition, safety issues—like user privacy and biased data—often take a back seat. Ramping up government regulation is one way to address these concerns, but regulators have struggled to keep up with the rapid pace of AI development. Recognizing the urgency of the issue, a team of University of Maryland researchers is developing a system that motivates tech companies to compete not only on capability, but on responsibility as well. The UMD team has proposed the first-ever auction-based AI... read more
CS majors Harshita Kalbhor and Grace Cai reflect on leadership, mentorship and building a more inclusive community in STEM.
On any given evening in the University of Maryland’s engineering labs, the hum of 3D printers and the glow of soldering irons signal another round of preparations for the next big robotics competition. But this year, something new is powering the workbench energy behind Robotics at Maryland (R@M): a historic shift in leadership. For the first time since its founding in 2008, the student-run underwater robotics team is being led by a woman president and vice president, with more women stepping into executive roles than ever before—an achievement timed fittingly with Women’s History Month and... read more
The multidisciplinary research uses virtual and mixed reality to teach lightning safety through an interactive game that brings storms to life.
In most situations, University of Maryland scientist Guangyang Fang would advise you not to walk into a lightning strike. But now, he’s encouraging everyone to dive right into a thunderstorm – in virtual reality, that is. Fang has recently released “Faraday Lightning Safety”, a mixed-reality game now available for free at the Meta Store. The game demonstrates how the Faraday cage effect – the phenomenon where an enclosed conductive structure shields its interior from external electric fields by redistributing charges and blocking electromagnetic waves – protects people from lightning during a... read more
Research and innovation combining wearable technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) could soon revolutionize how we engage with the world—creating smarter, more intuitive systems that not only understand their environment, but are able to respond to said environment in real time. Yang Bai, a fifth-year computer science doctoral student at the University of Maryland, is active in this area, developing micro-robotic systems and advanced wearable devices that are based on sensing technologies. Her research, which consistently pushes the boundaries of what’s possible, could have a big impact... read more
UMD researchers aim to boost precision and usability in long-read RNA sequencing with new NIH-funded open-source tools.
In the ever-evolving world of computational biology, one of the greatest challenges has always been deriving knowledge and insight from the massive amount of both DNA (double helix) and RNA (single helix) data through which scientists must sift. For example, for those that remember, it took almost 13 years (1990–2003) to sequence and assemble the first near-complete draft of the human genome. New advances in biotechnology, along with concordant computational advances, have dramatically shortened the timeline for such analyses, with a process known as “long-read sequencing”—equate it to... read more
Agarwal finds success in competitive programming in cybersecurity and blockchain tracks.
Vitthal Agarwal , a freshman double majoring in computer science and mathematics at the University of Maryland, has quickly established himself in the hackathon circuit. The international student has competed in several high-profile events, securing first-place finishes in the blockchain category at HackMIT and the cybersecurity track at Hacklytics 2025. Agarwal and his team, which included students from Georgia Tech, developed "Phisherman," a cybersecurity training platform that uses artificial intelligence to simulate phishing attacks. Built with React, Next.js, Python and Flask, the... read more