Recent News & Accomplishments
2016
The Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland is pleased to announce that Suman Banerjee (PhD, ’03) has been named the Alumnus of the Year for 2016 . Banerjee is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is the Director of Wisconsin Wireless NetworkinG Systems (WiNGS) Laboratory. The lab focuses its research on networking and distributed systems with a primary focus on wireless and mobile networking. He began his academic career in 2003 as an Assistant Professor in the same department. He has recently... read more
On February 3, 2016, Eytan Ruppin, Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology , published " Genome-scale study reveals reduced metabolic adaptability in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease " in Nature Communications . He collaborated on this work with members of Steno Diabetes Center, Tel Aviv University, Institute of Clinical Physiology, CNR Pisa, Italy, and University of Helsinki. The collaborators' work charts liver metabolic activity and functionality in NAFLD. Individuals with Non-alcocholic fatty liver... read more
Gerardo I. Simari (PhD ’10) is one of ten young scientists researching in the area of Artificial Intelligence who have been named to IEEE Intelligent Systems' “AI’s 10 to Watch” list for 2016 . All nominees for this award have earned their PhDs within the last five years. According to IEEE, this recognition identifies and celebrates contributions that those on the list have already made to the field of Artificial Intelligence so early in their careers. Simari credits his work with his advisor in the Department of Computer Science, V.S. Subrahmanian (Professor and Director of the Lab for... read more
After graduating from the University of Maryland with a B.S. in Computer Science in 2001, Rob Kniaz went on to work at Intel as a Market Development Manager. He then moved on to Google as a Product Manager before eventually moving to Europe to help the company with New Business Development across the region, wehre he focused on OpenSocial and Google Docs Visualizations. After his time with Google, he went on to Fidelity Ventures, a European venture capital firm. After spending some time at Fidelity Ventures, Kniaz went on to found Hoxton Ventures , an early stage technology venture captial... read more
Ben Shneiderman, professor of Computer Science and founder of the Human Computer Interaction Lab , has published a new book with Oxford University Press entitled The New ABCs of Research . The book was reviewed in Nature on January 21st 2016 by Professor Rick Rylance of the University of London. Rylance praised Shneiderman's book for its call for researchers to be more collaborative and interdisciplinary in nature. Ryland especially praises the book for it's "shrewd and timely account" of the efficacy of research partnerships. He further praises Shneiderman's various strengths in this... read more
Professor Jonathan Katz, who is also the Director of the Maryland CyberSecurity Center , was interviewed on the The Cyber Wire Daily Podcast , on January 20th, 2016. Senior Media Producer Dave Bittner spoke with Katz about security and authentication and how users can protect themselves and their data. Katz talked about about two-factor authentication (in which a system requires not only a password, but another means to identify the user--such as a text message to a mobile device) to protect user information from possible attackers. He talked about the primacy of passwords, and encouraged... read more
Professor Aravind Srinivasan (CS, UMIACS, and AMSC) has been recognized as a 2016 Distinguished Alumnus Awardee of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras . This award was established in 1993 to recognize myriad accomplishments of IIT Madras' alumni. Srinivasan, who earned his B.Tech from IIT Madras in 1989, is one of twelve distinguished alumni who have been recognized for this honor this year. He will receive the award in April of this year. “The Indian Institute of Technologies have produced a very large and impressive number of scientists, engineers, and other people who are leading... read more
Professor Atif Memon recently published an article entitled Colluding Apps: Tomorrow’s Mobile Malware Threat in the November/December issue of IEEE Security and Privacy . He published this work with Ali Anwar, a student in his junior year from the Science Magnet Program at Montgomery Blair High School in Takoma Park, MD. Memon’s and Anwar’s work addresses the malicious nature of some of the applications that people have on their mobile devices, and how that personal information can be taken and transmitted without a user’s knowledge. They examine Android, a very popular operating system for... read more
2015
After graduating from the University of Maryland in 1996 with a degree in Computer Science, Sujal Patel moved to the Pacfic Northwest to work for Real Networks in Seattle. In 2001, he went on to found Isilon, a hardware and software company that sold clustered file systems for digital content and other data. He served as CTO originally, and then went on to serve the company as CEO from 2007 until EMC Sytems acquired the company. Patel remained with EMC until 2012. Recently, Patel was named Strategic Director at the Madrona Venture Group, a venture capital firm in Seattle. The Madrona Venture... read more
On December 17, 2015, The Computing Research Association (CRA) announced the 2016 Outstanding Undergraduate Research award winners. Computer Science Seniors Andrea Bajcsy and Frank Cangialosi both received Honorable Mentions for their research. Bajcsy, a Brendan Iribe Scholarship recipient, works with Professor Yiannis Aloimonos in Computer Vision and Robotics, and Cangialosi, a Gannon-Della Torre Scholarship recipient, works with Research Scientist Dave Levin in Computer Networks, Security, and Measurement . *** In a time when most of their peers are headed to industry to work for large... read more