Picture of the Month

C4Z: Computing for Zvi

Incoming John P. Imlay Jr. Dean of Computing Zvi Galil (center) and Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson (left) share a laugh with School of Interactive Computing Chair Aaron Bobick during a welcome reception held in Galil's honor, April 21 in the Klaus Building. On July 1, Galil will take the helm as the College's third dean (see news item below).

Research News 

Financial Dashboard for March 2010

Newly Awarded Contracts for March 2010

People@CoC

Zvi Galil Announced as 3rd College of Computing Dean

On April 9, Georgia Tech announced that Zvi Galil would become the third dean of the College of Computing, effective July 1. Two weeks later, Galil made his first visit to campus as the incoming John P. Imlay Dean of Computing, attending a reception in the Klaus Building on April 21, delivering the Thomas E. Noonan Distinguished Lecture on April 22 and participating in the CoC Advisory Board meeting, April 23.

“This is my fourth visit to Georgia Tech, and it will be my last—the next time, I come to stay,” Galil told his audience at the reception, which was attended by institute President Bud Peterson, Provost Gary Schuster, search committee and School of Electrical & Computer Engineering Chair Gary May, interim Dean Jim Foley and former Dean Peter Freeman.

In his Noonan Lecture in TSRB Auditorium, Galil discussed his vision for the field of computing, both in the world and at Georgia Tech. Video of his lecture is archived here.

Vempala Shares ‘The Joy of PCA’ in Talks at Top CS Schools

Distinguished Professor Santosh Vempala (CS) has given three invited talks in recent months on “The Joy of PCA (Principal Component Analysis).” PCA is one of the most widely used techniques to handle large data, and Vempala’s talk focused on a few algorithmic problems where the performance of PCA is provably (near)-optimal, and no other method is known to have similar guarantees. Vempala delivered the lecture at MIT (Feb. 23), Princeton (march 2) and Carnegie Mellon (April 23).

UROC Hands Out Hardware at Research Symposium 2010

Five students walked away winners from the 2010 Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Computing (UROC) Research Symposium, held April 19 in the CCB Commons. Below is the list of winners and their projects:
Judges' Awards
• First Place ($750): Antonio Blanca, "Walking on Catalan Spaces" and "Algorithms Simulator" (advisor: Prasad Tetali)
• Second Place ($300): Sanjeet Hajarnis, "iQuest - Location Based Gaming" (advisor: Mark Riedl)
• Third Place ($100): Joshua Moore, "Extensions of a System for Robot Affordance Prediction" (advisor: Jim Rehg)
People's Choice Awards ($50 each)
• First Place: Sanjeet Hajarnis, "iQuest - Location Based Gaming"
• Second Place (tie): Mansi Sharma, "Community Mosaic: Finding Ways to Eat More Healthfully in a Low-Income African American Community" (advisors: Beki Grinter & Andrea Grimes); and Brian Stebar II, "Ad Hoc Symbiotic Traffic Simulation" (advisors: Richard Fujimoto & Michael Hunter)
Judges for this year’s symposium were professors Rosa Arriaga, Nick Feamster, Hyesoon Kim, Kristin Vadas Marsicano, Ashwin Ram, Spencer Rugaber and Tony Tang.

Ram Shares Thoughts on ‘Rebooting University’ During Panel at Emory

Associate Professor Ashwin Ram (IC) was a panelist at Emory University’s “Knowledge Futures” spring forum, held April 26 at Emory’s Goizueta Business School. Ram spoke during the panel titled “Rebooting the University: Disruptions in Models of Learning and Open Forums.” From the panel description: “Few institutions have been in existence since the Renaissance, and most of them are universities. The way in which universities have created and shared knowledge over the centuries has remained relatively static until now. Now we have the opportunity to ask ourselves: Is this the best way to teach, learn and research? How will these processes change in the near future?”

Essa Co-Edits IEEE Journal on Graphics

Professor Irfan Essa (IC) has begun co-editing a journal, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, for IEEE. The 30-year-old journal, published six times a year, “bridges theory and practice in computer graphics.” The journal is available through the IEEE Digital Library.

Brewster Named Spring ‘Shining Star’

Felicia Auzla Brewster, administrative assistant in the Office of Outreach, Enrollment and Community, has been named the CoC Shining Star for January­March 2010. A CoC employee since 2007, Brewster supports Barb Ericson, director of CS outreach for the College. In her nomination of Brewster, Ericson wrote, “Everyone who deals with Felicia comments on her cheerful and professional manner. She has to deal with our contacts with the Girl Scouts, Cool Girls, YWCA, as well as high school teachers and undergraduate student helpers. She keeps a positive attitude even when problems arise and works to find solutions that make everyone happy.”

Shining Star is the College’s recognition program for staff employees. Nominations are open for the next quarter’s winner; from now until March 31, faculty and students can nominate deserving staff for the award. To nominate, just visit the College intranet.

General News

Board of Regents Pays Visit to GVU

Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson and his wife Val hosted the Board of Regents and their spouses at the GVU Center on April 20. During the visit, the Regents were given a tour with demonstrations from GVU researchers in the areas of augmented reality, education, health and wellness informatics, and wearable computing and brain computer interfaces. The tour was concluded by a short speech from Peterson and dinner in the TSRB Banquet Hall.

College Honors Its Own at 19th Annual Awards Celebration

Interim Dean Jim Foley presided over the 19th Annual College of Computing Awards Celebration, held April 20 in the Klaus Atrium. A total of 39 students, faculty and staff walked away with awards for which they were either nominated by their professors and peers or specifically selected by Foley for an award. Professor Haesun Park (CSE) received the Dean’s Award, the highest honor the College bestows, and Assistant Dean Cedric Stallworth and CS Outreach Director Barb Ericson shared the Freeman Award for their work in the Office of Outreach, Enrollment and Community.

Three special guests were also in attendance. Ken Schmidt, director of academic relations at Yahoo!, was in attendance to acknowledge three new undergraduate awards funded through grants from the company. Campus Community Partnership Foundation board member R.K. Sehgal helped Foley present a new award to be given to students from the Computing For Good course, and Lockheed-Martin Aeronautics Director of Engineering Karen Albrecht helped present a new award for teaching excellence to its inaugural winner, Assistant Professor Alex Gray (CSE).

For a full list of award winners, visit the College website.

Record Number of Visitors to GVU Research Showcase

The GVU Research Showcase, held April 16, had a record number of visitors. GVU faculty and students had an opportunity to present their research to more than 300 people from peer academic institutions and industry. There was certainly a lot to showcase on the second and third floors of TSRB, which buzzed with more than 90 exhibits of GVU research projects on display.

Compiler Packs Up Suntan Lotion, Beach Towels, Good Book

This edition of Compiler will be the last until Sept. 1. All newsbytes and suggestions should be mailed to the Office of Communications or to Mike Terrazas.