Message from the Dean

Real world impact. It's a buzz phrase, but still certainly a driving concept that inspires major decisions—financial and otherwise—that we make in the college. We built Threads™ so our students could have it, our industry partners demand it, the media writes about it, our advisory board doesn't let us forget that at the end of the day, this is what we are always striving for. It's something faculty members demonstrate with their work. New joint Math/CSS faculty member, Santosh Vempala has arrived at CoC with this kind of spirit front and center—he is starting a think tank in CoC that will apply theoretical approaches to problems of real world significance. I have taught enough undergraduate theory courses to know that it's sometimes difficult to connect the theoretical concepts to practical computing problems, but this center aims to accomplish the task and at the same time allow the college to provide a unique service to the campus and industry serving as yet more proof that "computing is a lens for looking at the world." As newly named Microsoft head and CoC alumnus Craig Mundie said at this year's Microsoft Faculty Summit, there's nothing cool to do anymore that computing isn't part of in a fundamental way.

State of the Institute Address in Klaus Advanced Computing Building

President Clough will give his State of the Institute Address in the Klaus Atrium on Friday, October 27 as part of Georgia Tech's Homecoming weekend.

College of Computing Makes Strong Showing at CRA

The College had a record attendance at the Computing Research Association (CRA) bi-annual meeting of computing research leaders, held June 25-27 in Snowbird, Utah. College of Computing attendees included: Aaron Bobick, IIC chair; Rich DeMillo, CRA board member; Jim Foley, CRA board member; Peter Freeman, former board chair; Richard Fujimoto, professor emeritus and NSF assistant director of CISE; Mary Jean Harrold, CRA board member and former co-chair; and Ellen Zegura, CRA-W. Alumna Annie Anton, (Ph.D.'97) who is a newly-elected board member and CS faculty member at NCSU; and Alumnus Gene Spafford, (Ph.D.'86) who is a CRA board member and CS professor at Purdue, were also in attendance.

Rich DeMillo's proposal to hold an education summit as a way to kick off the new CRA committee on education (CRA-E) was enthusiastically approved by the CRA Board.

Threads™ & Computational Media Get Favorable Mentions

Threads™, our revolutionary approach to CS education, was mentioned by Microsoft's Senior VP of Research Rich Rashid during his plenary address on "The Image of Computing: How do we get the Romance Back?". Threads™ was also cited as an example of how to best prepare students for the flat world by Bobby Schnabel, CS professor, vice provost, and associate vice chancellor for academic and campus technology at the University of Colorado - Boulder.

Mark Guzdial's Media Computation course, as taught at theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago, was discussed in a workshop titled "Alternative Entry Courses that Work," chaired by College of Computing Professor Jim Foley.

Student News

Summer Commencement Moved to New Venue

The Master's and Bachelor ceremony will be held at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum on Friday, August 4, 2006. The ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. and end at 11 a.m. The ceremony is open to the public and no ticket is required.

The Ph.D. ceremony will be held at the Ferst Center for the Arts on Friday, August 4, 2006. The ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m. TICKETS WILL BE REQUIRED FOR THIS EVENT. More details are posted here.

TA Hiring Is Underway for Fall Semester.

For questions, contact Kathy Earwood or Monica Sweat in Student Services.

Division News

IIC Announces New Faculty

Rosa Arriaga joins IIC this fall as a research scientist and lecturer working primarily with Gregory Abowd on questions concerning the intersection of ubiquitous computing and early child development.

Sanjay Chandrasekharan joins Nancy Nersessian's group this fall as a research scientist investigating cognitive practices, particularly computational and behavioral models of how organisms (human and non-human) offload cognition to the world.

Baoli Li joins Ashwin Ram on a collaborative project with Emory University on "Self-Improving Medical Decision Support Agent." Baoli's research focuses on Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval.

GVU News

GVU Fundraising

GVU surpassed their 2006 fundraising record with $515,000, and is halfway toward meeting their 2007 goal of $1M.

Beth Mynatt Says Au revoir

GVU Director Beth Mynatt leaves for Georgia Tech Lorraine (GTL) this month, returning December 15. Professor Jim Foley will be interim director for GVU until Beth returns from Europe.

GVU Partners with Industry Leaders

Bosch, one of the world's largest private industrial technology corporations, is currently a GVU affiliate and wants to expand their relationship with the College of Computing. A student internship group is in Pittsburg this summer, and talks of additional Bosch projects are underway.

GVU is also growing its relationship with Siemens Research, a world leader in bringing new scientific knowledge into practical use.

GTISC News

GTISC Goes to National Infragard Conference

GTISC and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are participating in the 2006 InfraGard National Conference on August 22-24. The nation's top security thought leaders from government, law enforcement, and private industry will gather together in Washington D.C. to discuss the latest strategies, technologies, and tools directly shaping the course and nature of our nation's critical infrastructure protection, security, emergency response, and continuity planning. More info about the conference here.

GTISC Schedules Summit & Lecture Series

GITSC Industry Leaders Lecture Series starts in September and will continue bi-monthly throughout the academic year. The next GTISC Summit is scheduled for November—more information to come.

Office of Communications News

CNN Covers Our Road to Grand Challenge

Communications has confirmed CNN documentary coverage of College of Computing and RIM@GT participation in the DARPA Grand Challenge to be held November 2007. Called "The Road to Grand Challenge," CNN will be taping highlights of the process such as purchase of the vehicles used in the competition, and outfitting and testing the technology over the next 18 months.

Threads™ Website Launch

We will be launching the Threads™ Advising website for the new school year in early August. To be used by advisors as well as students, the site includes in-depth exploration of the eight individual combinations of Threads™, and programs of study for the first group of Threads™ students entering this fall.

Development News

New & Potential Partners

The Weather Channel Interactive recently joined CoC's Industrial Partners and new relationships are brewing with Google and Cisco. High-level meetings are scheduled for August.

'Cut Out Hunger' Program Returns Favor to Students with Endowed Scholarship

An endowed scholarship agreement for $25,000 is being made with "Cut Out Hunger" founder Stefany Nelson. Nelson's nonprofit web service that helps families save money on their food bill while helping local food banks benefited from CoC student web developers back in 2003, giving Cut Out Hunger tremendous success and a contract with Good Morning America.

Office of Diverity and Communities News

Introducing the Diversity & Communities Team

As the College of Computing becomes the national standard in promoting diversity and building communities, Maureen Biggers has made some recent additions to her office:

Giselle Martin will focus on strategic recruiting initiatives for College of Computing undergraduate and graduate students. She served as assistant director of admissions at Georgia Tech for five years prior to joining the Office of Diversity & Communities, and received her international relations degree from Agnes Scott College. Giselle is currently completing her master's here at Tech, focusing on women and minorities in STEM disciplines. She is the recipient of the 2005 National Association of College Admission Counseling "Rising Star Award," and a graduate of the 2004 Harvard Summer Institute on College Admission.

Vicki Suggs will be working with student retention initiatives, leadership, community development, scholarship programs, the Intel Opportunity Scholars Program, and the SAIC Scholars Program. Prior to coming to the College, Vicki worked on campus for the Institute Communications and Public Affairs (ICPA) Office; she has served as assistant director of student activities for Howard University, and has several other student development related experiences. Vicki expects to complete her Ph.D. in Higher Education, specifically access and inclusion, in May of 2007. She has been teaching public speaking for Mercer University and will be working with special interest groups within the College.

Alisha Richhart is the new events coordinator for the Office of Diversity & Communities, focusing on student needs, organizing programs and events, and budgeting. Alisha comes to the College from Tech's Undergraduate Admissions Office where she was assistant to the director. Alisha received a degree in communications from Georgia State University.

Cisco to Offer Scholarship for Women & Minorities

Cisco Systems, Inc. is starting an "Internet Generations Scholarship" geared toward women and minorities. Each year, two students will receive 5K annually—totaling $40,000 during the two students' matriculation. Cisco hopes to eventually have up to 8 scholars which will be handled through Maureen Biggers' office.

TSO News

Students Get Thin-Client Lab for Fall

College of Computing students will have a new thin-client technology lab in CCB107 this fall. The 20-seat lab will offer three operating systems (Red Hat 4 LINUX, Microsoft Windows 2003, and Sun Solaris 10). Remote login to the thin-client environment will be tested and availability will be announced later this year.

Research Lab Managers Needed

Research lab managers provide first-line support for administering research technology and acting as liaison to the helpdesk and TSO staff. As we gear up for Fall semester with orientation and training sessions, now is a great time to identify a manager if your lab does not currently have someone. Please check the List of Research Labs and send any changes to Randy Carpenter at randy@cc.gatech.edu.

Lab Transitions

The following labs will be removed and replaced between the specified dates:

The Mac Lab (Room 130) will be removed on August 3rd and replaced by the new Cities Lab.
The Baird Lab (Room 107A) will be removed on August 4th and replaced by the new Digital Media and Gaming Lab.
The Digital Media Lab (104A) will be removed on August 8th and replaced by the relocated Infosec Lab (formerly 146).
The Undergraduate Projects Lab (Room 107) is currently being replaced by the new Thin-Client lab.

All new labs will be operational on August 18.


	Issue 4 \| August 2006 Message from the Dean Real world impact. It's a buzz phrase, but still certainly a driving concept that inspires major decisions—financial and otherwise—that we make in the college. We built Threads™ so our students could have it, our industry partners demand it, the media writes about it, our advisory board doesn't let us forget that at the end of the day, this is what we are always striving for. It's something faculty members demonstrate with their work. New joint Math/CSS faculty member, Santosh Vempala has arrived at CoC with this kind of spirit front and center—he is starting a think tank in CoC that will apply theoretical approaches to problems of real world significance. I have taught enough undergraduate theory courses to know that it's sometimes difficult to connect the theoretical concepts to practical computing problems, but this center aims to accomplish the task and at the same time allow the college to provide a unique service to the campus and industry serving as yet more proof that "computing is a lens for looking at the world." As newly named Microsoft head and CoC alumnus Craig Mundie said at this year's Microsoft Faculty Summit, there's nothing cool to do anymore that computing isn't part of in a fundamental way. State of the Institute Address in Klaus Advanced Computing Building President Clough will give his State of the Institute Address in the Klaus Atrium on Friday, October 27 as part of Georgia Tech's Homecoming weekend. College of Computing Makes Strong Showing at CRA The College had a record attendance at the Computing Research Association (CRA) bi-annual meeting of computing research leaders, held June 25-27 in Snowbird, Utah. College of Computing attendees included: Aaron Bobick, IIC chair; Rich DeMillo, CRA board member; Jim Foley, CRA board member; Peter Freeman, former board chair; Richard Fujimoto, professor emeritus and NSF assistant director of CISE; Mary Jean Harrold, CRA board member and former co-chair; and Ellen Zegura, CRA-W. Alumna Annie Anton, (Ph.D.'97) who is a newly-elected board member and CS faculty member at NCSU; and Alumnus Gene Spafford, (Ph.D.'86) who is a CRA board member and CS professor at Purdue, were also in attendance. Rich DeMillo's proposal to hold an education summit as a way to kick off the new CRA committee on education (CRA-E) was enthusiastically approved by the CRA Board. Threads™ & Computational Media Get Favorable Mentions Threads™, our revolutionary approach to CS education, was mentioned by Microsoft's Senior VP of Research Rich Rashid during his plenary address on "The Image of Computing: How do we get the Romance Back?". Threads™ was also cited as an example of how to best prepare students for the flat world by Bobby Schnabel, CS professor, vice provost, and associate vice chancellor for academic and campus technology at the University of Colorado - Boulder. Mark Guzdial's Media Computation course, as taught at theUniversity of Illinois at Chicago, was discussed in a workshop titled "Alternative Entry Courses that Work," chaired by College of Computing Professor Jim Foley. Student News Summer Commencement Moved to New Venue The Master's and Bachelor ceremony will be held at the Alexander Memorial Coliseum on Friday, August 4, 2006. The ceremony will begin at 9 a.m. and end at 11 a.m. The ceremony is open to the public and no ticket is required. The Ph.D. ceremony will be held at the Ferst Center for the Arts on Friday, August 4, 2006. The ceremony will begin at 7 p.m. and end at 8:30 p.m. TICKETS WILL BE REQUIRED FOR THIS EVENT. More details are posted here. TA Hiring Is Underway for Fall Semester. For questions, contact Kathy Earwood or Monica Sweat in Student Services. Division News IIC Announces New Faculty Rosa Arriaga joins IIC this fall as a research scientist and lecturer working primarily with Gregory Abowd on questions concerning the intersection of ubiquitous computing and early child development. Sanjay Chandrasekharan joins Nancy Nersessian's group this fall as a research scientist investigating cognitive practices, particularly computational and behavioral models of how organisms (human and non-human) offload cognition to the world. Baoli Li joins Ashwin Ram on a collaborative project with Emory University on "Self-Improving Medical Decision Support Agent." Baoli's research focuses on Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval. GVU News GVU Fundraising GVU surpassed their 2006 fundraising record with $515,000, and is halfway toward meeting their 2007 goal of $1M. Beth Mynatt Says Au revoir GVU Director Beth Mynatt leaves for Georgia Tech Lorraine (GTL) this month, returning December 15. Professor Jim Foley will be interim director for GVU until Beth returns from Europe. GVU Partners with Industry Leaders Bosch, one of the world's largest private industrial technology corporations, is currently a GVU affiliate and wants to expand their relationship with the College of Computing. A student internship group is in Pittsburg this summer, and talks of additional Bosch projects are underway. GVU is also growing its relationship with Siemens Research, a world leader in bringing new scientific knowledge into practical use. GTISC News GTISC Goes to National Infragard Conference GTISC and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are participating in the 2006 InfraGard National Conference on August 22-24. The nation's top security thought leaders from government, law enforcement, and private industry will gather together in Washington D.C. to discuss the latest strategies, technologies, and tools directly shaping the course and nature of our nation's critical infrastructure protection, security, emergency response, and continuity planning. More info about the conference here. GTISC Schedules Summit & Lecture Series GITSC Industry Leaders Lecture Series starts in September and will continue bi-monthly throughout the academic year. The next GTISC Summit is scheduled for November—more information to come. Office of Communications News CNN Covers Our Road to Grand Challenge Communications has confirmed CNN documentary coverage of College of Computing and RIM@GT participation in the DARPA Grand Challenge to be held November 2007. Called "The Road to Grand Challenge," CNN will be taping highlights of the process such as purchase of the vehicles used in the competition, and outfitting and testing the technology over the next 18 months. Threads™ Website Launch We will be launching the Threads™ Advising website for the new school year in early August. To be used by advisors as well as students, the site includes in-depth exploration of the eight individual combinations of Threads™, and programs of study for the first group of Threads™ students entering this fall. Development News New & Potential Partners The Weather Channel Interactive recently joined CoC's Industrial Partners and new relationships are brewing with Google and Cisco. High-level meetings are scheduled for August. 'Cut Out Hunger' Program Returns Favor to Students with Endowed Scholarship An endowed scholarship agreement for $25,000 is being made with "Cut Out Hunger" founder Stefany Nelson. Nelson's nonprofit web service that helps families save money on their food bill while helping local food banks benefited from CoC student web developers back in 2003, giving Cut Out Hunger tremendous success and a contract with Good Morning America. Office of Diverity and Communities News Introducing the Diversity & Communities Team As the College of Computing becomes the national standard in promoting diversity and building communities, Maureen Biggers has made some recent additions to her office: Giselle Martin will focus on strategic recruiting initiatives for College of Computing undergraduate and graduate students. She served as assistant director of admissions at Georgia Tech for five years prior to joining the Office of Diversity & Communities, and received her international relations degree from Agnes Scott College. Giselle is currently completing her master's here at Tech, focusing on women and minorities in STEM disciplines. She is the recipient of the 2005 National Association of College Admission Counseling "Rising Star Award," and a graduate of the 2004 Harvard Summer Institute on College Admission. Vicki Suggs will be working with student retention initiatives, leadership, community development, scholarship programs, the Intel Opportunity Scholars Program, and the SAIC Scholars Program. Prior to coming to the College, Vicki worked on campus for the Institute Communications and Public Affairs (ICPA) Office; she has served as assistant director of student activities for Howard University, and has several other student development related experiences. Vicki expects to complete her Ph.D. in Higher Education, specifically access and inclusion, in May of 2007. She has been teaching public speaking for Mercer University and will be working with special interest groups within the College. Alisha Richhart is the new events coordinator for the Office of Diversity & Communities, focusing on student needs, organizing programs and events, and budgeting. Alisha comes to the College from Tech's Undergraduate Admissions Office where she was assistant to the director. Alisha received a degree in communications from Georgia State University. Cisco to Offer Scholarship for Women & Minorities Cisco Systems, Inc. is starting an "Internet Generations Scholarship" geared toward women and minorities. Each year, two students will receive 5K annually—totaling $40,000 during the two students' matriculation. Cisco hopes to eventually have up to 8 scholars which will be handled through Maureen Biggers' office. TSO News Students Get Thin-Client Lab for Fall College of Computing students will have a new thin-client technology lab in CCB107 this fall. The 20-seat lab will offer three operating systems (Red Hat 4 LINUX, Microsoft Windows 2003, and Sun Solaris 10). Remote login to the thin-client environment will be tested and availability will be announced later this year. Research Lab Managers Needed Research lab managers provide first-line support for administering research technology and acting as liaison to the helpdesk and TSO staff. As we gear up for Fall semester with orientation and training sessions, now is a great time to identify a manager if your lab does not currently have someone. Please check the List of Research Labs and send any changes to Randy Carpenter at randy@cc.gatech.edu. Lab Transitions The following labs will be removed and replaced between the specified dates: The Mac Lab (Room 130) will be removed on August 3rd and replaced by the new Cities Lab. The Baird Lab (Room 107A) will be removed on August 4th and replaced by the new Digital Media and Gaming Lab. The Digital Media Lab (104A) will be removed on August 8th and replaced by the relocated Infosec Lab (formerly 146). The Undergraduate Projects Lab (Room 107) is currently being replaced by the new Thin-Client lab. All new labs will be operational on August 18.	August 4 Summer Commencement August 7-8 RIM@GT Faculty Retreat August 18 New Student Orientation August 21 Fall Classes Start August 23 Robotics Lecture Series Begins (biweekly) August 28 GVU Welcome Reception August 31 GVU Brown Bag 250 Number of students starting Threads™ this fall. $2M Amount granted to Mark Guzdial from NSF for Broadening Participation in Computing 33% Portion of accepted papers from the United States submitted by the CoC at this year's ACM International Computing Education Workshop This month various groups at CoC are pursuing partnerships with the following companies: · Bank of America · Bosch · Google · Microsoft · Siemens · The Weather Channel Interactive (TWCi)
The Compiler is a publication of the Office of Communications; content is determined by the staff Communications Council, under the editorial direction of Joy Weaks. All content ©2006 The College of Computing at Georgia Tech Contact Communications View The Compiler Online View Past Issues