People@CoC
CoC Faculty & Student Win Several 2011 Institute-Wide Awards
College faculty and students will cart home several Institute awards this spring. Ashwin Ram (IC) will pick up the 2011 Class of 1934 Outstanding Innovative Use of Education Technology, and Barbara Ericson (CoC) and Mark Guzdial (IC) jointly received the 2011 Faculty Outstanding Service Award. An associate professor, Ram earned the Class of 1934 award, which recognizes a faculty member who has developed and instituted innovative techniques to improve the learning environment and the learning process, for his work on OpenStudy. Ericson (director of CS outreach) and Guzdial (professor) received their joint award for work the two have done to promote computing education in the state through Georgia Computes!
Also, Henrik Christensen (IC) will receive the Outstanding Achievement in Research Innovation Award for his work in robotics; Christensen, KUKA Chair of Robotics, is director of the Robotics & Intelligent Machines (RIM) Center. Also, Hyesoon Kim (CS) and Karen Liu (IC) both won Sigma Xi Young Faculty Awards. Kim, an assistant professor, was recognized for her papers on developing a software system to help parallel programming. Also an assistant professor, Liu was recognized for her paper that describes a new approach to designing feedback controllers for physically simulated virtual humans.
Finally, recent Ph.D. graduate Chris Wotjan earned the Sigma Xi Award for
Best Ph.D. Thesis Award for his work, "Animating Physical Phenomena with Embedded Surface Meshes." Wotjan's advisor was Greg Turk (IC).
The 2011 Faculty-Staff Honors Luncheon will be held Tuesday, April 19, in the Student Center Ballroom, while the Sigma Xi Awards Banquet will be held Thursday, April 14.
Four Faculty Receive Tenure and/or Promoted in 2011
The College submitted four faculty names for tenure and/or promotion this year, and all four were approved. Announced by Dean Zvi Galil on March 25, the names include:
• Alex Gray (CSE): promoted to associate professor with tenure.
• Nick Feamster (CS): promoted to associate professor with tenure.
• Guy Lebanon (CSE): promoted to associate professor with tenure.
• Ashok Goel (IC): promoted to full professor.
Advisor Cathy Dunnahoo Named Shining Star
Cathy Dunnahoo (CoC), Academic Advisor II, was named the Q2 Shining Star. Her nominator wrote that she "is always willing to offer guidance to faculty, staff and students alike. Nominated for her outstanding initiative, exemplary performance, personal attributes and customer service, Cathy takes the extra steps necessary to serve those who seek her guidance, even in busy times. She embodies a 'CIRCLE' of values--Commitment, Integrity, Responsiveness, Community, Loyalty and Excellence--and is, indeed, a Shining Star." The Compiler asked Dunnahoo a few questions about herself and the job she does so well.
• Where are you from? A small town in Alabama that no one has heard of.
• How long have you worked at CoC? 16 years in CoC and 29 years at Tech this summer (I started as a baby).
• What's your favorite part of your job? Working with students—we have the best!
• What's your secret to keeping a great work attitude? Everyone's job contributes to the whole; take pride in it and always do your best.
Team M.U.M. is now accepting nominations for the Q3 Shining Star; this quarter any faculty member (i.e., professors, post docs, academic professional and researchers) or student in a Computing major can nominate one eligible staff member. For more information or to nominate a Shining Star, visit the College intranet (must access from within CoC network or via VPN).
Zegura, Best, Grinter Co-Organizing ICTD 2012 @ Georgia Tech
Ellen Zegura (CS) and Michael Best (IC) are serving as general conference co-chairs for the fifth IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD 2012), to be held at Georgia Tech, March 12-16, 2012. ICTD provides an international forum for scholarly researchers exploring the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in social, political and economic development. The conference program and accepted papers will reflect and deepen the multidisciplinary nature of ICTD research, with anticipated representation from anthropology, computer science, communication, design, economics, electrical engineering, geography, information science, political science, public health, sociology and so on. Beki Grinter (IC) is serving as a program committee chair. ICTD 2012 has just issued a call for papers; submission deadline is July 22.
Vazirani Continues Digital Equilibrium Search at CalTech
Vijay Vazirani (CS) delivered a talk, "Extending General Equilibrium Theory to the Digital Economy," at CalTech on March 25, as part of the university's Rigorous Systems Research Group seminar series. The talk discussed how a new pricing model needs to be developed for digital goods. General equilibrium theory, which Vazirani called the "undisputed crown jewel of mathematical economics" over the past century, does not apply to digital goods; once produced, a digital good can be reproduced at (essentially) zero cost, thus making its supply infinite. Vazirani's talk was based on a joint paper with Kamal Jain of Microsoft Research.
Chetty Wins Best Paper Award at CHI 2011
Ph.D candidate Marshini Chetty, advised by Beki Grinter (IC), will receive a Best Paper Award at CHI 2011, to be held May 7-12 in Vancouver, Canada. Chetty's paper, "Why is My Internet Slow?: Making Network Speeds Visible," describes a field trial of a home broadband management tool. The paper's findings could help Internet policy makers, Internet service providers and designers understand home user needs for checking and managing broadband speed.
Nersessian to Receive Inaugural Suppes Prize in Philosophy of Science
Nancy Nersessian (IC) has been named by the American Philosophical Society (APS) as the recipient of the first Patrick Suppes Prize in Philosophy of Science. This prestigious prize recognizes outstanding work in philosophy, psychology or neuroscience, and history of science. Nersessian received the award for her work in philosophy of science. Her research focuses on creativity, innovation and conceptual change in science and interdisciplinary engineering research.
Christensen Receives Engelberger Award for Contributions to Robotics
Henrik Christensen (IC) received the 2011 Engelberger Robotics Award for Education, considered the world's top honor in the field of robotics, at a ceremony held by the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), March 22 in Chicago. Christensen earned the award for his leadership in the international robotics industry, and the award ceremony was held in conjunction with the 42nd International Symposium on Robotics and Automate 2011. Bestowed by RIA, the award is named after Joseph Engelberger, founder of Unimation Inc. and widely known as the "father of robotics." It carries an honorarium of $5,000.
Riedl to Present Papers at ICCC, SIGGRAPH
Mark Riedl (IC) will present two papers at the 2nd International Conference on Computational Creativity (ICCC) in Mexico City, April 27-29. The first paper, co-written with Brian O'Neill, is titled "Simulating the Everyday Creativity of Readers," and the second, co-written with Alexander Zook and Brian Magerko, is titled "Understanding Human Creativity for Computational Play." The purpose of the ICCC is to facilitate the exchange of ideas on the topic of computational creativity in a cross-disciplinary setting. Riedl also will present a paper, titled "Evaluating Enjoyment within Alternate Reality Games," at the SIGGRAPH Sandbox Game Conference, where only 12 percent of submitted papers are accepted.
Ram to Deliver Keynote at the 11th SCAI in Norway
Ashwin Ram (IC) will deliver a keynote address at the 11th Scandinavian Conference on Artificial Intelligence (SCAI), to be held May 24-26 in Trondheim, Norway. SCAI aims to display the state of the art within AI research, as well as provide a venue where AI-related industry and academia can meet, exchange ideas and connect. Ram's keynote is titled "User-Generated AI for Interactive Digital Entertainment."
Goodman Writes About African Cyber Security
Sy Goodman (CS) and Andrew Harris published an article, "The Coming African Tsunami of Information Insecurity," in the December 2010 issue of Communications of the ACM (subscription required for full text). The article addresses the little-talked-about subject of the vulnerability created by increasing the use of information and communication technologies without also increasing the laws and organizations needed to protect the security of these technologies. This vulnerability is exemplified in the African population, due to its criminally attractive large number of users, but condemningly small number of security-savvy users.
Goel Co-Chairs NSF Workshop on Computation & Design
Ashok Goel (IC) co-chaired an NSF workshop on "Computational Methods and Tools for Biologically Inspired Design," March 20 in Palo Alto, Calif. The workshop's goal was to plan a potential NSF program on computational methods and tools in biologically inspired design. Expected outputs include a report to NSF and an edited volume on the topic.
Stasko to Speak on Assessing Returns on Federal Research Funding
John Stasko (IC) will give a presentation at the Measuring the Impacts of Federal Investments in Research workshop in Washington, April 18-19. The workshop's goal is to identify analytical and data needs and opportunities in assessing the returns to federal research funding across a wide range of fields and government missions. Stasko also will participate on a panel devoted to "Emerging Metrics and Models for Assessing Research Impacts."
Workshop on Free and Open Internet Communications a Success
The Georgia Tech Information Security Center (GTISC) held an NSF-sponsored workshop on "Free and Open Communications on the Internet" (FOCI), Feb. 24-25 in the Klaus Building. The workshop featured open discussions and presentations on the current state of censorship, as well as the issues related to anti-censorship. The event's featured speaker was Roger Dingledine, leader of the Tor Project, who delivered the lecture, "Tor and the Censorship Arms Race: Lessons Learned." In attendance were free speech and human rights activists from all over the world.
Riedl Keynote Speaker at the 2011 AAAI Spring Symposium
Mark Riedl (IC) will give a keynote speech for the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Spring Symposium, held at Stanford University from March 21-23. The topic Riedl will address is "Help Me Help You: Bridging the Gaps in Human-Agent Collaboration." He also will speak on procedural content generation in games at the East Coast Game Conference in North Carolina, April 13-14.
Mynatt Joins MSR Advisory Board
Beth Mynatt (IC) has joined the Microsoft Research Technical Advisory Board. This board advises all of Microsoft's U.S. research laboratories, including the labs in Redmond (Wash.), Silicon Valley (Calif.) and New England (Cambridge, Mass.). The other board members are Ed Lazowska (University of Washington), Dave Patterson (UC Berkeley) and Greg Morrisett (Harvard).
Personnel Announcements
Brendan Streich has joined CoC as the Director of Communications effective 3/1/11. His email address is bstreich@cc, phone number is 4-7253 and is located in CCB 139. Welcome Brendan!
Brian Schrank has joined CoC as a Temporary Research Scientist I in IC & LCC effective 2/14/11. His email address is bschrank@gatech.edu. Welcome Brian!
Young Sung Son has joined CoC as a Visiting Research Scientist II in IC effective 3/14/11. Email address is Young.Son@cc.gatech.edu and is located in TSRB. Welcome Young Sung!
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