Recent News & Accomplishments
2023
Many of the leading artificial intelligence companies are already incorporating watermarking tech into their products. Some are simple and easily cropped, like OpenAI’s marking on DALL-E images, but others are more persistent. In August, for instance, Google announced the beta version of SynthID, an imperceptible watermark inserted directly into the pixels of an image. The method avoids degrading or prominently marking the image while allowing AI detection software to authenticate it even after it’s cropped or resized. These “high perturbation” methods of embedding digital watermarks into the... read more
Zhang, an affiliate assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, incorporates his passion for games into his research approach.
Competing to win—whether it’s a video or board game—requires the player to be strategic and see the bigger picture. They need to understand the other players’ positions and strengths in order to be successful. This is how Kaiqing Zhang —a self-described games enthusiast—approaches his research, which lies at the intersection of machine learning, reinforcement learning, game theory, and control theory. “Specifically, I am interested in problems in machine learning when there are multiple learners interacting with each other, and in building theoretical foundations for it,” says Zhang, an... read more
Since its launch in 2015, the student-led event for coding and computing enthusiasts quickly distinguished itself from typical hackathons.
The Hotel at the University of Maryland, conveniently located across Baltimore Ave. from the Brendan Iribe Center for Computer Science and Engineering, transformed into a dynamic hub of innovation and creativity on October 21 and 22, 2023, hosting the 9th annual Technica hackathon. This event, which is the world's largest hackathon for underrepresented genders, brought together tech enthusiasts from across the globe to celebrate and showcase their talents. Since Technica’s inception in 2015 as a free, student-run event for anyone interested in coding and computing—even those without prior... read more
The award recognizes and funds innovative projects that push the boundaries of foundational models and their potential applications.
University of Maryland Assistant Professor of Computer Science Furong Huang received the Microsoft Accelerate Foundation Models Research award for her work titled "Building Foundation Models for Efficient Finetuning or Zero-Shot Learning of Sequential Decision-Making." The award recognizes and funds innovative projects that push the boundaries of foundational models and their potential applications. Winners like Huang can receive up to $20,000 in Azure credits, equipping them with powerful tools to further their research endeavors. "I am deeply honored to receive the Microsoft Accelerate... read more
The platform offers direct chats for streamlined buyer-seller communications on pre-owned items.
Swipe right for yes and left for no. Vyne , an app launched earlier this month by two University of Maryland students, combines this familiar dating app approach with thrifting. The app, exclusively available at UMD, allows students to snap a picture of an item they’d like to sell before potential buyers swipe left or right until they discover items they’d like to purchase. Once they swipe right, they enter a chat with the seller where they can discuss the item and sale. Co-founders Shaurya Saran and Vaughn Hatfield, both junior computer science majors, love to thrift but realized other... read more
Professor Emeritus Ben Shneiderman discusses the role of accountants in the expanding realm of AI with Politico.
In search of ideas for ensuring a safe future with increasingly powerful AI, people have looked to lawmakers, coders, scientists, philosophers and activists. They may be overlooking the most important inspiration of all: Accountants. New polling shared first with DFD finds that a wonky policy idea enjoys surprising popularity among American adults: requiring mandatory safety audits of AI models before they can be released. Audits as a way to control AI don’t literally involve accountants; they’re an evolving idea for how to independently assess the risks of a new system. Like financial audits... read more
The National Science Foundation-funded project aims to develop a device that utilizes living cells to detect scents.
A team of researchers from the University of Maryland is developing a portable device to identify different odors throughout an environment. Funded by a four-year, $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the “nose on a chip” project aims to develop a device that uses living cells to detect scents. According to project leader and mechanical engineering professor Elisabeth Smela , creating an artificial nose is important because scent is one of the five senses that technology has yet to replicate. “On our cellphones we have cameras, we have microphones, we have gyroscopes, we... read more
Google recognizes Distinguished University Professor Dinesh Manocha for his innovative work in robot navigation.
University of Maryland Distinguished University Professor of Computer Science Dinesh Manocha recently received a Google Faculty Award to further his research utilizing large language models (LLMs) for autonomous mobile robot navigation. Manocha's research sits at the vital intersection of human language and robotics. “To make household robots truly indispensable, they must seamlessly comprehend human instructions,” Manocha said. “Large language models can address this need by absorbing vast amounts of data about the logical structures of various environments, particularly domestic settings.”... read more
UMD Robotics has risen to 10th in the US, according to the 2023 rankings on csrankings.org.
University of Maryland Robotics is now ranked #10 in the US by the website csrankings.org . Previously, UMD was ranked #11; this new 2023 ranking means the university has cracked the “top 10.” CSRankings is a metrics-based ranking of top computer science institutions around the world and is popular in the broad CS and AI community. The model identifies institutions and faculty actively engaged in research across various areas of computer science based on the number of publications by faculty that have appeared at the most selective computer science conferences. Csrankings.org has a FAQ page... read more
UMD's Department of Computer Science reflects on five decades of tremendous growth.
Hundreds gathered to commemorate the University of Maryland Department of Computer Science’s 50th anniversary on October 7, 2023. The celebration —filled with reflections, forward-looking discussions and honorary events—showcased the remarkable journey of a department that began with just a handful of faculty members and students in the early ’70s and is now a highly esteemed and top-ranked program. Throughout the day, more than 500 alums, students, faculty and staff members, and distinguished guests attended engaging panel discussions, inspiring keynote sessions and guided tours of the... read more