Picture of the Month

Homecoming '09 a CoC Success

College of Computing students (back row, l to r) Aurel Lazar, Stephen Long, Azhar Bande-Ali, Taylor Wrobel, Abhishek Shroff, (front row, l to r) Joy Buolamwini and Michael Slaughter get ready to compete in the annual Mini 500 tricycle race during Georgia Tech's Homecoming 2009. The College, marking the first time ever an academic unit formally entered the competition, represented itself well, taking third overall in the Student Organizations division (see story below).

Research News 

 Financial Dashboard for September 2009

Newly Awarded Contracts

* Multi-institutional award. Georgia Tech share is $400,000; partners include University of South Carolina and Penn State University
** Multi-institutional award. Georgia Tech share is $780,000; partners include University of Rochester

People@CoC

MacIntyre, Vetter Speak at NVidia GPU Tech Conference

Vempala Talks Algorithms and Star Shapes at MIT

Professor Santosh Vempala (CS) gave an invited talk on Oct. 1 at the MIT Operations Research Center on "Efficient Algorithms for Some NonConvex Families," presenting joint work with CS graduate students Karthekeyan Chandrasekaran and Daniel Dadush, and introducing a new technique for proving isoperimetric inequalities in high dimension. From the abstract: “Star-shaped bodies are an important nonconvex generalization of convex bodies (e.g., linear programming with some violations). We present an efficient algorithm for sampling a given star-shaped body.”

Arkin, Conte Elected to IEEE Society Boards

Professors Ron Arkin (IC) and Tom Conte (CS) have been elected to three-year terms on the Boards of Governors for two IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) societies. Arkin will serve as a governor for the IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT), which addresses such issues as environmental, health and safety implications of technology; engineering ethics and professional responsibility; history of electrotechnology; technical expertise and public policy; peace technology; and social issues related to energy, information technology and telecommunications. Conte will serve a 2010-12 term as governor for the IEEE Computer Society, whose members work in a wide range of computing fields, from artificial intelligence to networking, to software engineering and graphics processing.

Freeman in Demand as Speaker and Adviser

Though he misses being on campus, Emeritus Dean and Professor Peter Freeman has been keeping quite busy. He continues to serve on several advisory boards and to advise the GENI Project Office and was asked to join an international advisory board for the G-Lab Project in Germany and to be an ACM Distinguished Lecturer. In the past year Freeman has given invited keynote speeches in Japan and Greece, as well as several invited talks in the United States and abroad, with more scheduled in 2010. He is serving as co-chair for two international NSF workshops in the next few months (U.S.-Japan in December and Middle East Regional in January). Writing projects and consulting take up the rest of Freeman’s time, but he claims to not be working more than 40-50 hours/week.  As he noted recently to Compiler, “Reports of my retirement are greatly exaggerated.”  For more details and copies of his talks, visit Freeman’s website.

Mynatt on Broadband 2020 Panel

Professor Beth Mynatt (IC) participated at the Broadband 2020 Symposium, held Oct 20 at the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center. The daylong symposium organized by the Georgia Centers for Advanced Telecommunications Technology (GCATT) and the Georgia Tech Broadband Institute (GTBI) aimed to take stock of progress to date toward pervasive broadband connectivity and the steps needed to achieve measurable and world-leading levels of broadband-for-all by the year 2020. At the symposium panel, Mynatt and her co-panelists described the many dimensions of the challenge—technology, services, economics and policy—and addressed the particular needs of the underserved communities. The symposium started with a welcome from Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson and concluded with remarks from Michael Cassidy, president of the Georgia Research Alliance.

Yeung Group Approved to Work on UIUC Petascale Computer

A four-institution collaboration led by P.K. Yeung, adjunct professor in CSE and professor in Aerospace Engineering, is one of 18 groups funded by the National Science Foundation to use the future Blue Waters petascale computer, which is expected to become available at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 2011. The group's scientific focus is in the study of turbulent fluid flows, and simulations of world-record resolution are expected to lead to critical advances relevant to many other fields of science and engineering. Several team members are set to begin work soon with Blue Waters project staff, based at UIUC's National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA), on state-of-the-art code development for massively parallel computers up to the petaflop level.

Vempala Co-Authors Spectral Algorithms Book With MSR’s Kannan

Distinguished Professor Santosh Vempala (CS) has published a new book with renowned scientist Ravindran Kannan, principal researcher for Microsoft Research India. Titled Spectral Algorithms (Now Publishers), the book examines modern applications of spectral methods and novel algorithms for estimating spectral parameters. “Spectral” methods, which are widely used in engineering, applied mathematics and statistics, refer to the use of eigenvalues, eigenvectors, singular values and singular vectors. In addition to studying “sampling on the Y” methods for use in matrix computations, the book also presents recent extensions of spectral methods, from matrices to tensors and their applications, to combinatorial optimization problems. Spectral Algorithms was launched during the Foundations of Computer Science (FOCS) conference, held Oct. 24-27 in Atlanta.

GVU Has Strong Presence at CC09

Many members of the GVU community participated in Creativity & Cognition 2009, held Oct. 27-30 in Berkeley, Calif. The GVU Center was represented by seven accepted papers, eight posters, one art installation and two demos. In fact, those seven papers constituted 20 percent of the overall program, whose broad theme was “Everyday Creativity.” GVU faculty participated in conference organization as part of the Organizing Committee (Ellen Do (IC, Arch)) and Program Committee (Amy Bruckman (IC), Jason Freeman (Arch), Ashok Goel (IC), and Brian Magerko (IC, LCC)). For a full list of the center’s CC09 participation, visit the GVU website.

2009-10 Foley Scholars Honored at Reception

The 2009-10 Foley Scholars are Marshini Chetty and Erika Poole, both human-centered computing Ph.D. candidates in Interactive Computing. The finalists and recipients of the 2009-10 Foley Scholarship were honored at the Foley Scholars Reception & Dinner, sponsored by GVU's industrial partner Google, on Oct. 14 at the Ansley Golf Club. The Foley Scholarship is awarded on a merit basis for overall brilliance and potential impact. Chetty and Poole were selected from an outstanding group of eight finalists that included Betsy DiSalvo, Matt Flagg, Andrea Grimes, Thomas Smyth, Erich Stuntebeck and Sarita Yardi.

Personnel Announcements

Robert "Bobby" Strickland has joined CoC as a Tech Temp in Communications effective 10/26/09. His email address is rstrickl@cc and is located in CCB 140. Welcome Bobby!

G. Florin Constantin has joined CoC as a Post-Doc in CS effective 10/1/09. His email address is florin@cc, phone number is 5-4610 and is located in KACB 2111. Welcome Florin!

General News

Computing Makes Its Mark in GT Homecoming Celebration

The College’s official participation in Oct. 12-17 Homecoming celebration marked a first for Georgia Tech: It was the first time an academic unit produced a team and competed in Homecoming events against other student organizations, according to junior CS major Michael Slaughter, who led the effort. And the College represented itself extremely well, finishing third (out of 25) in the Student Organizations division and earning first place in the Display contest. The CoC “pomp,” constructed in the plaza outside the College of Computing building, was modeled on an actual computer complete with a peripheral drive and monitor. The tissue paper-festooned creation also earned “Most Attractive,” “Most Creative” and “Most Impressive Size” honors, Slaughter said, while the College team took more first place prizes in the Spirit Display, the Photo Scavenger Hunt and the Great Clown Car Act. More than 40 students helped out with the College’s activities, with Slaughter giving special kudos to Taylor Wrobel, Ajai Karthikeyan, Brian Aikens, Mallory Milam and Gabriel Arronte. “Start early, dream big but stay realistic,” Slaughter advised his fellow students for next year. “Focus first and foremost on the greater goal of building community, then winning, and most importantly, having fun!”

College Launches ‘Shining Star’ Employee Recognition Program

To recognize and reward superlative performance and achievement by staff employees, in October the College launched the Shining Star initiative, designed by Team MUM. Each quarter, nominations will be solicited from one of four groups—peers, administrators, faculty/students, and supervisors—and submitted to a selection committee composed of representatives from the College, each school/division, and Team MUM. That committee will then vote on a quarterly Shining Star based on consistent performance criteria. Each quarter’s winner will receive a monetary reward of $50 and a paid day off. “Too often our staff provide us top-notch support with little or no recognition,” interim Dean Jim Foley wrote in his announcement of the program. “Let’s work together to make the Shining Star initiative the catalyst of change in those oversights.” More information on Shining Star is available on the College intranet.

GVU On Display at FutureMedia Conference

The GVU Center was heavily involved in the FutureMedia Conference, held Oct. 15 at the Hotel Palomar in Midtown Atlanta. The unprecedented conference called on academics, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and industry leaders to explore what comes next in digital, social and multimedia. GVU's involvement started at the morning panel, where Director Beth Mynatt (IC) presented her views on the nascent state of digital media. The panel discussion was followed by a lunch keynote delivered by GVU alumnus Krishna Bharat, now distinguished research scientist and principal scientist at Google and the creator of Google News. The afternoon program was filled with GVU’s annual research showcase where faculty and students presented more than 100 research projects to conference visitors.

Fall 2009 GameFest Doubles Attendance Record

The Georgia Tech Association for Computing Machinery (GTACM) and SIGgame groups held their semesterly GameFest party and tournament, Oct. 24-25 in the Klaus Building. Event attendance ballooned to more than 500 attendees, including 250-plus tournament participants—nearly double the attendance of the Spring 2009 GameFest. The most popular tournament was Team Fortress 2, with 10 six-person teams participating. Other tournaments included Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare, Counter-Strike Source, DotA Allstars and Starcraft: Brood War on PC; Halo 3 on Xbox 360; and Super Smash Brothers Brawl on Wii. More than $1,500 in prizes, funded by tournament fees, was awarded to the tournament winners. GTACM and SIGgame held the event in coordination with the Residence Hall Association and Student Government Association.

College Hosts Board Members at Yellow Jackets’ Homecoming Game

Interim Dean Jim Foley, his wife, Marylou, and Senior Director of Development Mary Alice Isele hosted several members of the Dean’s Advisory Board in the College of Computing box on Oct. 17 for Georgia Tech’s 28-23 Homecoming victory against Virginia Tech. In addition to board members, two CoC school chairs, Aaron Bobick (IC) and Richard Fujimoto (CSE), were there to cheer on the Yellow Jackets. Board members also got a surprise visit from Georgia Tech President Bud Peterson and his wife, Val, just before halftime. Peterson met each board member individually and thanked them all for their support of the College. Tim Saponas, who also has a degree from University of Colorado (where Peterson served as chancellor before coming to Georgia Tech earlier this year), told the president he was especially grateful for the work Peterson has done at both of his alma maters. The president responded with a laugh that Saponas must have been an especially happy man in 1990 when the two schools shared the college football national championship. Below are the board members who attended the game:

• Joe Bankoff (Woodruff Arts Center) and wife Lisa
• Keith Cooley (Oversight Systems) and wife Peg
• Stephen Fleming (Georgia Tech)
• Jim Lester (Aflac) and wife Faye
• David McCoy (Gartner)
• Said Mohammadioun (TechOperators) and wife Diane
• Tom Noonan (IBM Internet Security Systems)
• Tim Saponas (Intel Corp.) and son
• Alan Warren (Google) and dad Roger
  

TSO Offers New Web Support Services

The Technology Services Organization recently purchased SSL certificate hosting services for the cc.gatech.edu domain. With this service, websites hosted on College-managed servers can now generate and use an SSL certificate that will be trusted by most browsers. Even better: there is no additional cost to the site owner. If you are interested in a CoC SSL certificate, please contact helpdesk@cc.

Also, a new web resource is available for building research group and lab Web pages. It’s a content management system based on the popular Drupal technology. Thanks to research community volunteers, the site continues to thrive and be enhanced, and visitors can now use the following prefix to reference the sites: https://research.cc.gatech.edu. This Web resource is provided for College researchers only and is not intended for class usage. If you are interested in using this new resource, please contact Randy Carpenter.