Recent News & Accomplishments
2022
Break Through Tech DC at UMD facilitates its first Sprinternship™ program with 15 companies and 58 undergraduates.
When Veda Singireddy began her first year as a computer science major at the University of Maryland in fall 2021, she wasn’t sure what her path forward would be. But after completing Break Through Tech’s Sprinternship™ program in January 2022, she entered the spring semester with a new outlook on her studies—and a summer internship offer. Launched at UMD in March 2021 to propel more students who identify as women and non-binary into tech careers, Break Through Tech facilitated its first Sprinternship program over winter break. First- and second-year computing students spent three weeks... read more
Dave Baggett’s eclectic adventures as a computer scientist and entrepreneur
Back in second grade when other kids were messing around with the usual toys and games, Dave Baggett (B.S. '92, computer science and linguistics) discovered something way better—his mom’s computer. “The tantalizing prospect to me at age seven was this computer was like an infinite box of toys,” Baggett recalled. “Back then, when you got a toy, it was a physical object you had to go buy. I was intrigued by the prospect that I could actually make my own. I was fascinated with every aspect of computers and computing.” Baggett is still finding treasures in that infinite box of toys. In his 20s,... read more
A University of Maryland expert in machine learning has received a prestigious award from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to advance artificial intelligence agents that can seamlessly interact with humans and perform various tasks with minimal supervision. Assistant Professor of Computer Science Soheil Feizi is one of 32 recipients nationwide to be named a Young Investigator for 2022. The highly competitive program—there were 220 applicants vying for this year’s award—supports tenure-track academic researchers whose scientific pursuits show outstanding promise in fundamental areas. Feizi,... read more
The University of Maryland has joined 83 other academic institutions in a new initiative to increase the nation’s capabilities in cybersecurity education and workforce development. The Academic Engagement Network— announced by the U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM) on January 6, 2022—supports and enhances CYBERCOM’s forward-looking efforts involving the U.S. cyber workforce, applied cyber research, applied analytics and other strategic issues. The network consists of 69 universities, 13 community colleges, nine minority serving institutions, four military service academies, and four military war... read more
Jack and Rita G. Minker Professor Mohammad Taghi Hajiaghayi has been selected as the new Editor-in-Chief of Algorithmica , a Springer-Nature journal. Algorithmica is the oldest existing international journal dedicated to algorithms. The journal publishes theoretical papers on algorithms that address problems arising in practical areas, and experimental papers of general appeal for practical importance. In addition to the regular theoretical and experimental papers on Algorithms, the journal features two special sections: Application Experience which focuses on publishing findings obtained... read more
He was specifically recognized for his contributions to cryptographic protocol design and cryptography education.
University of Maryland Computer Science Professor Jonathan Katz is being honored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for his wide-ranging and significant contributions to the fields of cryptography and information security. Katz is among 71 researchers worldwide named ACM Fellows for 2021 —an honor reserved for the organization’s top 1% of its membership each year. This latest cohort of Fellows represents universities, corporations and research centers in Belgium, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy and the United States. In making the announcement, ACM President... read more
She specializes in affective computing—the study and development of intelligent systems that can understand, interpret and respond to human emotions and behavior.
A University of Maryland doctoral student in the Department of Computer Science has been awarded funding from Adobe Research to continue her work in improving deep learning algorithms that can interpret human emotions. Trisha Mittal , a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate advised by Distinguished University Professor Dinesh Manocha , is one on only 10 graduate students worldwide to be named a 2022 Adobe Research Fellow. The prestigious program recognizes outstanding graduate students conducting exceptional research in areas of computer science that are important to Adobe. Each recipient receives a $... read more
Senior Naveen Raman was recently named 2022 Churchill Scholar. The scholarship offers full funding to pursue a one-year master’s degree at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom
This article is republished from CMNS Raman, a computer science and mathematics double major, began working with UMD computer science faculty members in 2018. Since then, he has authored or co-authored seven conference papers on topics at the intersection of computer science, economics and social good. The Churchill Scholarship will allow Raman to work with Jon Crowcroft, the Marconi Professor of Communications Systems in the University of Cambridge Computer Lab, on his M.Phil. in computer science. He plans to focus on the fairness of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML)... read more
Graduate student Nitin Sanket was recently announced as the winner of the Drones 2021 PhD Thesis Award. The award is intended to be granted to a Ph.D. student who has produced a highly anticipated academic thesis that shows great potential. Sanket’s dissertation, “ Active Vision Based Embodied-AI Design for Nano-UAV Autonomy ,” introduces concepts used to develop a novel framework for algorithmic sensorimotor design of multirotor vehicles. Sanket’s research focuses on four methods that achieve activeness on an aerial robot. “I am honored to receive the award and excited to see all the doors a... read more
Researchers from the University of Maryland recently received a best paper award for their work in developing an algorithm that helps combat adversarial attacks on machine learning models involving real-time sequential decision-making systems. “Who is the Strongest Enemy? Towards Optimal and Efficient Evasion Attacks in Deep RL ,” explores how to tackle evasion attacks in reinforcement learning (RL), wherein machine learning models are trained to make a sequence of decisions. This type of adversarial attack—where data is (imperceptibly) perturbed to evade detection or to be classified as... read more