People@CoC
Edwards to Serve as GVU Acting Director Following Mynatt Departure
Effective Feb. 1, Beth Mynatt (IC) will step down as GVU director to serve as executive director for Georgia Tech’s new Institute for People and Technology, and GVU Associate Director Keith Edwards (IC) will be promoted to acting director. Edwards brings to the GVU community expertise in diverse areas: He is an internationally recognized expert in human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing and collaborative systems. An ACM Distinguished Scientist, Edwards is the author of two books and more than 120 scientific papers and patents; he serves on Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Advisory Board, and he recently was technical program chair of the CHI 2010 conference, the premier conference in the field of human-computer interaction.
“I am excited about Keith's ability to build on GVU's successes, and his commitment to continue GVU's interdisciplinary mission,” said College of Computing Dean Zvi Galil in announcing the change. “I want to also thank Beth for her substantial contributions to GVU over the last five and a half years. She has led the center through a period of sustained growth and increasing partnerships, both on campus and off.”
Bader Guest Co-Edits Special Issue of IEEE TPDS
David Bader (CSE) co-guest-edited a special issue of IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems that focuses on high performance computing with accelerators. Published as the January 2011 issue, it covers a range of accelerator issues that highlight how high performance computing can be used effectively to break down computational barriers in challenging applications. This issue also contains a collection of papers that explore the hardware accelerator design space.
Randall Chair of the Program Committee for the ACM/SIAM SODA
Dana Randall (CS) chaired the program committee for the ACM/SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), held in San Francisco, Jan. 23-25. SODA, one of the major annual theoretical computer science conferences, focuses on research topics related to efficient algorithms and data structures for discrete problems. Researchers presented 135 papers out of more than 500 submissions.
Vazirani Searches for Digital Equilibrium Theory at MIT, UCLA
Vijay Vazirani (CS) delivered a talk, “Extending General Equilibrium Theory to the Digital Economy” at MIT on Dec. 7, 2010, and at UCLA on Jan. 10. 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.
ARC Student Fellowships Awarded for Spring 2011
The Algorithms & Randomness Center (ARC) recently announced the winners of its fellowships for Spring 2011. The recipients, mentors and their proposed projects include:
• Abhishek Banerjee (CS): "Efficient Cryptographic Pseudorandom Generators." Mentor Chris Peikert (CS).
• Anand Louis (CS): "Towards a Spectral Algorithm for Small-Set Expansion and Graph Multi-Partitioning." Mentors Santosh Vempala (CS), Prasad Raghavendra (CS) and Prasad Tetali (CS & Math).
• Ricardo Restrepo (Math): "Spatial Mixing: Refinements and Applications." Mentor Prasad Tetali.
• Linji Yang (CS): "Analysis of the Hard-Core Model on Square Lattices Beyond the Tree Uniqueness Threshold." Mentor Eric Vigoda (CS).
This year's winners were selected by a committee including chair Prasad Tetali, Vladimir Koltchinskii (Math), Milena Mihail (CS), Sasha Boldyreva (CS), Bill Cook (ISyE) and Ton Dieker (ISyE). For more information, visit the ARC website.
Randall Chairs AMS Committee at 2011 Joint Mathematics Meeting
Dana Randall (CS) chaired the AMS Program Committee for the Joint Mathematics Meeting, held Jan. 6-9 in New Orleans. The Joint Mathematics Meeting, the largest annual mathematics meeting in the world, features some of the leading scientific publishers, computer hardware and software manufacturers, health and lifestyle companies, companies offering mathematics enrichment products, and professional organizations. The AMS (American Mathematics Society) committee chooses the invited plenary speakers for the meeting, which is a comprehensive scientific program geared toward mathematicians of all ages and levels of expertise.
Bader Speaks as Invited Panelist at NSF Workshop on HPC
David Bader (CSE) served as an invited panelist at the National Science Foundation’s "Community Input on the Future of High Performance Computing" workshop, held Dec. 3, 2010, in Arlington, Va. Bader was joined by fellow panelists Raquell Holmes from the Center for Cell Analysis and Modeling at the University Connecticut Health Center, David Lifka from Cornell, and Daniel Reed from Microsoft. The workshop addressed broader engagement and workforce development in high performance computing.
Mynatt Receives 2011 Cancer Research Award
Outgoing GVU Director Beth Mynatt (IC) has been selected by the Georgia Cancer Coalition to be among the 12 recipients of a 2011 Cancer Research Award, together with another Georgia Tech faculty member, Ali Adibi of the School of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Mynatt will receive $50,000 to support a collaborative effort among Georgia Tech, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the Georgia Department of Community Health, Morehouse School of Medicine and IBM to develop a distributed model of the pediatrics system in Georgia. The goal is to better understand how care processes, information and resources flow through the system.
GVU, CoC Communications Take Home CASE D-III Awards
The GVU 2010 Annual Report received an Award of Excellence from the 2011 Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District III Awards Program and is among the finalists for CASE D-III Grand Award. Also, the Office of Communications received a Special Merit award for its undergraduate recruitment publication, “From Application to Graduation: Mapping the Path to Your Future." The finalists will be recognized and Grand Award winners announced at the 2011 CASE District III Conference, to be held Feb 20-23 in New Orleans.
Vempala Lectures at India's Top CS Theory Conference
Santosh Vempala (CS) gave a plenary lecture at Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS), India's flagship theory conference. FSTTCS is a forum for presenting original results in foundational aspects of computer science and software technology. Vempala’s lecture, titled “Recent Progress and Open Problems in Algorithmic Convex Geometry,” includes algorithms for sampling, optimization, integration, rounding and learning, as well as mathematical tools such as isoperimetric and concentration inequalities.
CoC Well Represented at Consumer Electronics Show
Russ Clark (CS) and graduate students Maribeth Gandy (IC) and Jeff Wilson (CS), along with Brian Davidson of the Interactive Media Technology Center and Matt Sanders of the Research Network Operations Center highlighted Georgia Tech's augmented reality research at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow, held Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas. In the Alcatel Lucent booth, Gandy and Clark helped show off the "Virtual Tour Guide" application built using Georgia Tech's Argon browser and 4G/IMS services. In the Verizon booth Wilson and Gandy helped show the "Video Portal" research project that explores the next step in video conferencing, integrating augmented reality concepts.
Christensen Organizing Top 2011 Robotics Conferences
Robotics & Intelligent Machines (RIM) Center director Henrik Christensen (IC) is helping to organize two of the world’s top robotics conferences in 2011. Christensen is serving as general chair for the 20th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (Ro-Man 2011), to be held in Atlanta from July 31 to Aug. 3, and Ayanna Howard (IC) is serving as chair for local arrangements for the conference. Christensen, along with Stanford’s Oussama Khatib, is serving as general co-chair for the 15th International Symposium on Robotics Research (ISRR 2011), to be held Aug. 28 to Sept. 1 in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Personnel Announcements
Scott Gilliland has joined CoC as a Temporary Research Scientist I in IC effective 11/22/10. His email address is scott.gilliland@gatech.edu and is located in TSRB 240. Welcome Scott!
Magdalena (Magda) Slawinska has joined CoC as a Research Scientist I in CS (CERCS) effective 11/24/10. Her email address is mslawins@cc, phone number is 4-6831 and is located in KACB 3226. Welcome Magda!
Alex Goldstein has joined CoC as a Program Manager in IC (RIM Center) effective 12/1/10. His email address is alex.goldstein@cc, phone number is 5-8548 and is located in CCB 219. Welcome Alex!
Mariya Ishteva has joined CoC as a Post-Doc in CSE effective 1/15/11. Her email address is mishteva@cc and is located in KACB 1336. Welcome Mariya!
Santosh Vempala has been awarded an honorary courtesy appointment by the school of ISYE here at GT. Congratulations Santosh!
Nyree Pugh is now the Purchasing Associate in the Financial Services department of the College. Congratulations Nyree!
Constantinos Mannouris' last day at CoC was 1/7/11. Best wishes, Constantinos!
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