The Compiler - News for the CoC Community

Issue 22 | April 2008  View in a Web browser

Picture of the Month

Computation+ Journalism

Anton Kast, chief scientist at Digg, comments during the Journalism 3G – The Future of Technology in the Field symposium held at GVU on February 22-23. More than 200 journalists, academics and executives from around the country came to the inaugural conference, the brainchild of CoC Associate Professor Irfan Essa. Seated to Kast's left is Dr. Cully Clark, Dean of the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia. See more of CoC In Pictures at our Flickr site.

Computation+Journalism

Research News

YTD New Awards

$8,623,391 
(53% decrease from last year)

Proposed Contracts for February 2008

Total

$ Amount

IC

CS

CSE

GVU GTISC
8 2,900,086 42% 53% 5% 0% 0%

Newly Awarded Contracts for February 2008

Sponsor

Value

PI

Co-PIs

Title

North Carolina A&T State University $98,804 Maureen Biggers None Collaboration Between HBCU and RI Universities to Promote African Americans
Siemens Corporate Research $29,000 Jarek Rossignac None Bank of Anatomies
NSF $400,000 Adam Kalai None CAREER: New Approaches to Agnostic Learning
NSF $400,000 Karen Liu None CAREER: Synthesis of Autonomous, Realistic Human Motion
NSF $397,426 Nick Feamster Lee Gray CRI-IAD: Collaborative research Enabling Security and Network Management


Closed Contracts for February 2008

Sponsor

Value

PI

Co-PIs

Title

IRobot Corporation $34,872 James Rehg None Mobility Prediction for UGVs Using On-Line Learning and Vehicle Modeling
Army $25,000 Wenke Lee None ARO Workshop on Research in Botnets
Steelcase Inc. $110,000 Beth Mynatt None In-Space
UNC at Charlotte $109,172 Maureen Biggers None The Stars Alliance: Southeastern Partnership for Diverse Participation
NSF $149,800 Carlton Pu None Cyber Physical Systems: Architecture Study and Research Challenges

Grants/Gifts Received for February 2008

Donor

Amount

PI

Co-PIs

Description of Gift/Donation

Motorola $30,000 Karsten Schwan None CERCS - Mobile and Embedded Virtualization
Google $25,000 Alexander Gray None IC - Sound Classification
GTF $40,000 Mary Jean Harrold None PD - CoC FY08 Advance Prof
Motorola, Inc. $17,000 Umakishore Ramachandran None CS - Cross-Platform Gaming
GTF $10,000 Richard Lipton None Richard Lipton Symposium

GTISC Faculty Step up Their Botnet Hunt

Wenke Lee (PI), Nick Feamster and Jon Giffin, together with Ph.D. candidate David Dagon and co-PIs from Damballa, Support Intelligence LLC, Internet Systems Consortium Inc. and Global Cyber Risk LLC, received a $1 million DHS contract to deploy advanced techniques and systems for the detection, analysis and mitigation of botnets.

CSE a Major Presence at SIAM PP08

The biannual SIAM Conference on Parallel Processing for Scientific Computing was held March 12-14 in Atlanta.
Associate Professor David Bader (Computational Science and Engineering) co-chaired with Ashok Srinivasan (Florida State) the Minisymposium on High Performance Computing on the Cell Processor, and co-chaired with Jeremy Kepner (MIT LL), the Minisymposium on HPC on Large Graphs.
Jeffrey Vetter (CSE, ORNL), Rupack Biswas (NASA), and Lenny Oliker (LBL) co-chaired three Minisymposia on Revolutionary Technologies for Acceleration of Emerging Petascale Applications (Cell, GPUs and FPGAs).
David Bader gave the following talks:
"Irregular Algorithms on the Cell Broadband Engine"
"Accelerators, Cell Broadband Engine, Graphics Processors, and FPGA"
"Parallel Algorithms for Small-World Network Analysis and Partitioning"
"Accelerating Combinatorial Scientific Computing with the Cell Broadband Engine Processor''
Assistant Professor Richard Vuduc (CSE) gave the following talks:
"Automated Data Structure Transformations for Sparse Matrix Kernels,” with James W. Demmel and Katherine Yelick, UC Berkeley
"Sparse Matrix Kernels Tuned for Multicore Platforms"
Jeffrey Vetter gave the following talk:
"Tightly-Coupled Heterogeneous Computing - Deus Ex Machina?"
Several CSE graduate students gave poster presentations, including:
"Financial Modeling on the Cell Broadband Engine," by Virat Agarwal and David A. Bader; Lurng-Kuo Liu and Michael Perrone, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
"FFTC: Fastest Fourier Transform on the IBM Cell Broadband Engine," by Virat Agarwal and David A. Bader
"Parallel Random Number Generation on the Cell Broadband Engine," by Aparna Chandramowlishwaran, Virat Agarwal, and David A. Bader
"Real-Time Fault Diagnosis and Failure Prognosis of Aircraft Systems on the Cell Broadband Engine," by Seunghwa Kang, David A. Bader, Abhinav Saxena, and George Vachtsevanos
"CellBuzz Project: Multimedia and Data Compression Library Optimization for the Cell Broadband Engine," Seunghwa Kang and David A. Bader, Sulabh Patel, Electronic Arts, Inc.
"SNAP: A Parallel Graph Framework for Large-Scale Network Analysis," by Kamesh Madduri and David A. Bader
"GTFold: A Scalable Code for RNA Secondary Structure Prediction," by Amrita Mathuriya, David A. Bader, Christine E. Heitsch and Stephen Harvey

GVU at CHI 08 -- Edwards and LeDantec Win Best Paper

Many members of the GVU community are participating in CHI 2008, April 5-10 in Florence, Italy. Eight papers by GVU affiliates have been accepted by CHI, considered the premier conference on human factors in computing systems. The 2008 conference focuses on the balance between art and science, design and research, practical motivation, and the process that leads the way to innovative excellence. Organizers of the event, the 26th CHI conference, expect nearly 2000 attendees.
"Designs on Dignity: Perceptions of Technology Among the Homeless," by Chris LeDantec and Keith Edwards, was named Best Paper. Andrea Grimes' and Richard Harper's (Microsoft Research) paper also was nominated for the Best Paper.
The following papers also have been accepted:
"MAHI : Investigation of Social Scaffolding for Reflective Thinking in Diabetes Management," Lena Mamykina, Elizabeth Mynatt, Patricia R. Davidson (Saint Claires Hospital) and Daniel Greenblatt (Motorola Research and GVU alum)
"Re-Placing Faith: Reconsidering the Secular-Religious Use Divide in the United States and Kenya," Susan Wyche, Paul Aoki and Beki Grinter
"The Buzz: Supporting User Tailorability in Awareness Applications," James Eagan and John Stasko
"Automatic Whiteout++: Correcting Mini-QWERTY Typing Errors Using Keypress Timing," James Clawson, Kent Lyons, Alex Rudnick, Robert A. Iannucci Jr. and Thad Starner
"CareLog: A Selective Archiving Tool for Behavior Management in Schools," Gillian R. Hayes, Lamar M. Gardere, Gregory D. Abowd and Khai N. Truong
"Sesame: Informing User Security Decisions with System Visualization," Jennifer Stoll, Craig S. Tashman, W. Keith Edwards and Kyle Spafford
"TALC: Using Desktop Graffiti to Fight Software Vulnerability," Kandha Sankarpandian, Travis Little and W. Keith Edwards.



People@CoC


Gregory Abowd Elected to CHI Academy

School of Interactive Computing Distinguished Professor Gregory Abowd will join the Computer Human Interaction Academy, an honorary group of scientists who are leading and shaping the study of HCI, at the CHI 2008 conference in Florence, Italy, in April. “[ Abowd 's] mathematical background is evident in the rigorous analysis that is the basis of his many research papers, and his work has led the way in demonstrating how ubicomp can solve real problems in our everyday lives,” according to the Academy's website.

Fujimoto Gives Keynote Address at SIMUTools

Professor Richard Fujimoto of CSE gave a keynote talk at the SIMUTools conference in Marseille (March 3-7) on his transportation system simulation project: Ad Hoc Distributed Simulations. SIMUTools is the first International Conference on Simulation Tools and Techniques for Communications, Networks and Systems. Visit site.

Goodman Briefs Lawmakers on Secure Cyberspace

Over the last month, Professor Seymour (Sy) Goodman of the School of Computer Science has given four invited briefings on Capitol Hill on the subject of building a safer and more secure cyberspace. Three briefings -- given jointly with Tony Rutkowski, vice president of Verisign and a member of the GTISC Advisory Board, and Steve Lukasik, first chief scientist of the FCC -- were facilitated by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and presented to staff members and congressmen with the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees and to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Goodman also has been invited to give testimony in April to the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities.

Ashwin Ram Speaks at ICT

Associate Professor Ashwin Ram of the School of Interactive Computing gave an invited talk titled "Case-Based Reasoning for Game AI" at the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) at the University of Southern California on March 28. Game Artificial Intelligence is an effort to take computer games beyond scripted interactions, however complex, into the arena of truly interactive systems that are responsive, adaptive, and intelligent. ICT is a leader in games research.

Vijay Vazirani Presents at DARPA Workshop

Professor Vijay Vazirani of the School of Computer Science attended a DARPA Information Science and Technology workshop on “Games of National Importance,” March 19-20 in Ann Arbor, Mich., and gave a talk on "Computational Issues in Markets and Games."

Maureen Biggers Presents Paper at CS Education Symposium

Senior Research Scientist Maureen Biggers, director of the IC Diversity Research Lab, presented a paper at the 39th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, held March 12-15 in Portland, Ore. Bigger's paper, titled "Student Perceptions of Computer Science: A Retention Study Comparing Graduating Seniors vs. CS Leavers," looked at undergraduate retention in computer science at Georgia Tech. The paper was co-authored by psychology graduate Anne Brauer (BS December 2007)and Tuba Yilmaz, a first-year Ph.D. student in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering. It prompted quite a bit of positive feedback, Biggers said, and an invitation for her to replicate the research on a national level.

Personnel Announcements

Michael Terrazas joined CoC as Assistant Director of Communications in the Office of Communications effective 3/27/08. His email address is mterraza@cc; his phone number is 5-7225; and his office is in CCB 131.
James Fedd joined CoC as a Tech Temp in IC effective 3/20/08. His email address is jfedd@cc; and his phone number is 4-4666.
Christina Pearson returned to CoC as Director of Development in CS effective 3/26/08. Her email address is cpearson@cc; her phone number is 5-4546; and her office is in KACB 3412.
Julie Williams has been promoted to Administrative Manager I assisting Merrick Furst effective 2/27/08. Her email address is juliew@cc; her new phone number is 5-2835; and her new office is in CCB 164A.
Eden Chandler was hired permanently as a Computer Services Specialist III in TSO effective 3/5/08. His email address is edochan3@cc.
Aron Cosby's last day at CoC was 3/19/08.
Shanita Williams' last day at CoC was 3/24/08.
Tony Gallego's last day at CoC is 4/4/08.
Francine Lyken's last day at CoC is 4/11/08.


General News


GVU Center Hosts 2nd Annual Turner VIP Showcase

GVU hosted nearly 100 Turner executives at the 2nd Annual Turner VIP Showcase on March 25. Designed to facilitate discussions among Turner leaders and GVU faculty and students, the showcase focused on innovative areas of human-centered, technology-driven research, including gaming and entertainment.
Attendees represented a cross-section of executives including Scott Teissler, CTO at Turner Broadcasting; Mitch Gelman, senior vice president of CNN.com; and David Payne, general manager of CNN.com.  Also attending were executives representing TBS/TNT, TBS International, GameTap, CNN, CNN International, Cartoon Network, Turner Broadcasting, and Turner Entertainment Networks.
Guests were joined by a Spanish CNN TV crew who interviewed a student from the showcase and expressed interest in covering more GVU research in the future.

Journalism 3G: The Future of Technology in the Field

Approximately 200 journalists, computer scientists, bloggers and others converged on GVU February 22-24, for Journalism 3G: The Future of Technology in the Field. The first annual symposium on computation and journalism, Journalism 3G was hosted by GVU and organized by Professor Irfan Essa and Ph.D student Nick Diakopoulos, who designed and teach a computational journalism course in the School of Interactive Computing.
The goal of the symposium was to bring together experienced technologists and journalists from academia and media to talk about how technology and innovation can be readily transferred. Keynote speakers were Krishna Bharat, creator of Google News; Michael Skolar from the Center for Innovation in Journalism at American Public Media; and Elizabeth Spiers, media columnist for Fast Company and founding editor of Gawker.com.

ICE Hosts AP Bowl

The Institute for Computing Education is hosting an AP Bowl, a chance for high school students to practice taking the Advanced Placement exam in computer sciences, on April 19. Barbara Ericson, director of computer outreach at the School of Interactive Computing, estimates that 60 high school students will take the practice exam.

Relay for Life Weekend: April 11-13

Relay For Life, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, is an event designed to bring together those who have been touched by cancer and to help raise money and awareness needed to eliminate cancer as a major health issue. CoC student leaders (headed by Jennifer Whitlow) have put together a team and are participating in the kick-off for this event April 11 at the SAC Fields. All are welcome to join and help with this cause. For more information or to sign up, please visit this page or contact Jennifer Whitlow ( jennifer.whitlow@gatech.edu ).

Tech Beautification Day: April 5th

Tech Beautification Day (TBD) was started in 1998 as a day of service where students can give back to their campus by participating in a day of general cleanup, landscaping, and bringing together the Georgia Tech community as a whole.
The College of Computing has put together a team to help make our campus more beautiful. For more information or to sign up, please visit http://www.gttbd.org/index.php . To be part of the CoC team, please choose the project that names Candis Pham as project coordinator.


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All content © 2007 The College of Computing at Georgia Tech
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April 2
2008 GT Symposium on Computing Systems and Technologies
KACB 1116E and 1116W
vcal ical

April 3
CERCS IAB Meeting and Alumni Day
KACB 1116
vcal ical

April 3
CSE Seminar
Dr. Guy Lebanon
KACB 1456
vcal ical

April 3
UCouncil: Town Hall
KACB 1116
vcal ical

April 4
CERCS IAB Meeting
Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center
vcal ical

April 7
Computing Expo
KACB Atrium and 1116
vcal ical

April 14
ARC Colloquium
Anup Rao
KACB 1116E
vcal ical

April 15
GTISC Industry Leaders Seminar
KACB 1116E, Atrium Level
vcal ical

April 16
2008 UROC Research Symposium
KACB Atrium and 1116E
vcal ical

April 19
AP CS Bowl Competition
TBD
vcal ical

Apr. 22
17th Annual CoC Honors and Awards Ceremony
KACB
vcal ical

April 25
Spring Semester Ends

Apr. 27
Lipton Theory Symposium
KACB
vcal ical

April 28-May 2
Finals Week

April 30
CoC Quarterly Staff Luncheon and Meeting
TSRB Rooms 132-133
vcal ical

May 3
Spring Commencement
vcal ical

 

9th

National ranking given by U.S. News and World Report to CoC's doctoral program in Computer Science

$84,000

Highest starting salary offer made to a Georgia Tech computer science graduate, according to the Spring 2007 commencement survey

59

Number of students enrolled in the 10-week CoC study abroad program beginning May 7 at the Facultat d'Informatica de Barcelona in Spain

Industry Outreach

This month, various groups at CoC are pursuing partnerships whith the following companies:

Cisco Systems, Inc.
Creative Commons Corp.
Dell Computer Corp.
GCI Group
Google
Humana
Interface
LogicBlox
Microsoft
Motorola
Nikon
Minnesota Public Radio
Motorola
Turner
Telcordia Technologies
Texas Instruments
Yahoo