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Issue 46 | November 2010 View in a Web browser

Picture of the Month

CoC Feels the Love from CNN

Beginning in mid-September, the GVU Center and CoC started to make guest appearances on global news pioneer (and Atlanta neighbor) CNN a regular occurrence. As of Oct. 29, a dozen GVU researchers, most from within CoC, had been highlighted on the cable channel, including Thad Starner and his musical glove (Sept. 17); Beth Mynatt, Jiten Chhabra and the useable health kiosk (Sept. 22); Chhabra and useable health, part 2 (Sept. 29); Blair MacIntyre, Alex Hill and the Argon augmented reality browser (Sept. 29); Eugene Medynskiy and "Salud!" (Sept. 30); Ashwin Ram and OpenStudy (Oct. 1); Carl DiSalvo and his "growbot garden" (Oct. 7); Blair MacIntyre, Maribeth Gandy and augmented reality games (Oct. 7); Parag Chordia and his singing iPhone app (Oct. 14); Charlie Kemp and assistive robots (Oct. 15); Clint Zeagler and wearable computing (Oct. 19); and Karen Liu and virtual characters with super-realistic movement (Oct. 28). FutureMedia Fest Executive Director Renu Kulkarni also stopped by for a chat on Oct. 8.


Research News 

Financial Dashboard for September 2010

2011 YTD New Awards

$17,317,929

Proposed Contracts for September 2010

Total

$ Amount

IC

CS

CSE

RIM

18

$11,376,651

4.5%

50.5%

29%

16%


Newly Awarded Contracts for September 2010

Sponsor

Value

PI

Co-PIs

Title

NSF $695,485 Mark Riedl Michael Nitsche Assistive Artificial Intelligence to Support Creative Filmmaking
NSF $400,000 George Biros None Collaborative Research: CDI Type II: Ultra-High Resolution Dynamic Earth
NSF $455,768 Jim Rehg None Temporal Causality for Video Event Analysis
NSF $250,000 George Biros None Software for Boundary and Volume Integral Equation Solvers on M...
NSF $999,997* Jim Rehg Tucker Balch Collaborative Research: Automating the Large Scale Measurement of Insect Behavior
NSF $299,898 Ashwin Ram None Eager: Authoring Games AIs by Demonstration for Real-Time Games
NSF $9,999,370** Jim Rehg Gregory Abowd, Agata Rozga, Mark Clements Collaborative Research: Computational Behavioral Science: Modeling, Analysis
NSF $299,998 Mike Stilman None Planning Navigation Among Movable Obstacles
NSF $380,000 Santosh Pande Nate Clark A Programming Model for Distributed Data Fusion using Statist...
NSF $106,659 Milos Prvulovic Alenka Zajic Understanding and Mitigation of Electromagnetic Data Leakage
NSF $93,582 Nick Feamster None TC: Workshop on Real-World Cyber Security Data for Research
Boeing $142,810 Henrik Christensen None Kuka Omni Move AGV Conversion
NSF $200,000 Nick Feamster Wenke Lee FIA: Collaborative Research: Architecting for Innovation
Raytheon $64,675 Nick Feamster Russ Clark Geni Open Flow Campus Buildout
Grammatech $1,695,887 Wenke Lee None IARPA's BAA Stonesoup
Sandia National Labs $50,000 Wenke Lee None Sandia National Labs
Army $144,000 Mark Riedl None Scenario Adaptation for Accelerated Continuous Learning

Grants/Gifts Received for September 2010

Sponsor

Value

PI

Co-PIs

Title

Humana $100,000 Beth Mynatt (GVU Partnership) None Health & Wellness Info Tech
Intel $45,000 Hyesoon Kim Hsien-Hsin Lee Thread Scheduling Algorithms
Intel $25,000 Nick Feamster None Implementation and Evaluation of Flexible, Programmable Networking Devices

* denotes multi-institutional award; GT share is $784,948; partners include Arizona State University

** denotes multi-institutional award; GT share is $3,249,548; partners include Boston University, Carnegie Mellon University, MIT, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Southern California

People@CoC

Randall Named to IMA Board of Governors

Dana Randall (CS) has been appointed to a four-year term on the Board of Governors of the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), based at the University of Minnesota. The primary mission of the IMA is to increase the impact of mathematics by fostering research of a truly interdisciplinary nature, linking mathematics of the highest caliber and important scientific and technological problems from other disciplines and industry. Randall attended her first board meeting in October.

Ndongi Named First Shining Star for 2010-11

Elizabeth Ndongi
Elizabeth Ndongi (CS), administrative assistant for the Algorithms & Randomness Center (ARC) and ThinkTank, has been named the CoC Shining Star for the first quarter of 2010-11. Ndongi's nominator said she "has shown outstanding initiative, especially in acquiring new skills and finding solutions to unexpected problems." Part of her job is to maintain ARC's website, and she "immediately took the initiative to find out how she could get trained to do this, and has taken classes and learned from other staff members." Ndongi "is always an eager learner, which is a sign of great initiative." The Compiler asked Ndongi a few questions about herself and the job she does so well.

• Where are you from? Kenya.

• How long have you worked at CoC? Six years.

• What's your favorite part of your job? I enjoy working with students and organizing.

• What's your secret to keeping a great work attitude? Come to work with an open mind and always focus on positive results.

Team M.U.M. is now accepting nominations for the Q2 Shining Star; this quarter any staff employee may nominate a peer staff member. For more information or to nominate a Shining Star, visit the College intranet (must access from within CoC network or via VPN).

Bruckman Delivers Keynote on Wikipedia at Library IT Conference

Amy Bruckman (IC) delivered the opening keynote address at the Library IT Association’s (LITA) National Forum, held Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 in Atlanta. Bruckman’s address, “How Wikipedia Really Works, and What this Means for the Nature of ‘Truth,’” sought to “explain the inner workings of Wikipedia, and argue that this it is not just a curiosity but a paradigm shift—one that challenges our basic understanding of the nature of ‘truth.’”

ARC Researcher Receives MIT Award for Best Doctoral Thesis

Jinwoo Shin, a postdoctoral researcher in the Algorithms & Randomness Center & ThinkTank (ARC), has been awarded the George M. Sprowls Award by MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Each year, the Sprowls Award is given by the MIT department for the best doctoral thesis in computer science. Shin’s thesis, "Efficient Distributed Medium Access Algorithm," describes using medium access control (MAC) algorithms in designing a high-performance communication network architecture. Shin received his B.S. degree from Seoul National University, Korea, in 2001 with double majors in mathematics and computer science. In 2010, he received his Ph. D. degree in mathematics from MIT.

Biros Team a Finalist for Supercomputing's Gordon Bell Prize

A team led by George Biros (CSE) is a finalist for the ACM Gordon Bell Prize, which goes annually to the world’s fastest supercomputing application. Biros’ team presented a high-fidelity numerical simulation of blood flow by directly resolving the interactions of 200 million deformable red blood cells flowing in plasma. The simulation amounted to 90 billion unknowns in space. In terms of the number of cells, the team improved the state-of-the art by several orders of magnitude; the previous largest simulation, at the same physical fidelity as ours, resolved the flow of 14,000 cells. Biros’ team included Georgia Tech students and colleagues Abtin Rahimian, Ilya Lashuk, Aparna Chandramowlishwaran, Dhairya Malhotra, Logan Moon, Aashay Shringarpure, Jeffrey Vetter and Rich Vuduc, as well as Shravan Veerapaneni (New York University), Rahul Sampath (Oak Ridge National Labs) and Denis Zorin (NYU). Named for supercomputing pioneer Gordon Bell, the award will be given at the SC10 conference in New Orleans, Nov. 13-19.

Bader Co-Chairs NSF Workshop on Accelerator-Enhanced Systems

David Bader (CSE) co-chaired the National Science Foundation (NSF) Workshop on Accelerators for Data-Intensive Applications, held Oct. 13-14 in Arlington, Va. The workshop’s objectives were to examine the opportunities enabled by accelerator augmented computational capability and determine the steps necessary to ensure that application developers are prepared to take advantage of such resources as they come on line. Bader’s co-chair was Viktor Prasanna of the University of Southern California.

Ammar Receives IEEE Technical Committee’s Outstanding Service Award

Mostafa Ammar (CS) has received the Outstanding Service Award from the IEEE Technical Committee on Computer Communications (TCCC), established to recognize individuals with outstanding service contributions to the TCCC community. Part of the IEEE Communications Society, the TCCC sponsors papers, discussions and standards on all aspects of computer-communication systems. Ammar received the award while attending the IEEE Computer Communications Workshop , held Oct. 25-27 in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., where he delivered the keynote address, ”Living in the WAM Continuum: Unified Design and Operation of Wireless and Mobile Networks.”

Vazirani Shines Algorithmic Light on ‘Invisible Hand’ at UWash

Vijay Vazirani (CS) delivered an invited talk at the University of Washington on Oct. 5 titled “The ‘Invisible Hand of the Market’: Algorithmic Ratification and the Digital Economy.” His lecture explored how modern complexity theory and algorithms can support mathematical ratification of economic market equilibrium. A compelling new issue, Vazirani said, is extending this deep understanding of markets to the digital economy. The talk was webcast on the university’s UWTV service, and archived video is available here.

Riedl, Li Present on Game Story Generation at AIIDE 2010

Ph.D. student Boyang Li and Mark Riedl (both IC) presented a paper on story generation for games at the 2010 Conference on AI and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE) 2010. At the same conference, Riedl and his students demoed the AI in their mobile alternate reality gaming platform, weQuest. Finally, Riedl chaired a panel on game AI education. NEED MORE

Zegura Launches C4G Liberia Project with Visit to Africa

Ellen Zegura (CS) visited the West African nation of Liberia, Oct. 18-25, to conduct a technology assessment related to a new Computing for Good project in conjunction with The Carter Center. The center has launched a program aimed at improving mental health care and infrastructure in Liberia, which is still dealing with the aftermath of a brutal, 23-year civil war. Zegura spent time in the capital of Monrovia and two other counties to visit health clinics, speak with a number of Liberian and international officials, and touch base with both Carter Center personnel in-country and representatives of other non-governmental organizations. Two groups from Zegura's Fall 2010 C4G class are working on this project.

Ram to Speak in TAG 2010 Legislative Roundtable

Ashwin Ram (IC) will participate in a roundtable discussion hosted by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG) titled "Exploring a Strategic Vision for Georgia: The Role of Science and Technology in Georgia's Future,” Nov. 16 in the GTRI Conference Center. TAG’s annual Legislative Roundtable brings together state legislators, business leaders and Georgia Tech faculty, and this year's event will focus on developing a state-wide strategic plan, emphasizing the role of science and technology in Georgia. Panelists will discuss the strategic future of health information technology, energy and the environment, education, and logistics and transportation. To register, visit the TAG website.

Carpenter, Smith Named TSO Interim Co-Directors

Following the departure of Mike Luttrell as TSO’s interim director, the College will aunch a search for a new, permanent TSO director at the end of the year. Effective Oct. 1, Randy Carpenter and Uwanna Smith were appointed interim co-directors until a new director is named. Carpenter will direct the Operations group (network, critical servers and information security) and continue to direct the Research Program Support group. Uwanna will direct the Facilities group (CCB, KACB and TSRB building support) and continue to direct the Enterprise Systems Support group (Web, instruction and Help Desk services). In their roles as co-directors, the two will report directly to Dean Zvi Galil. Ron Arkin, associate dean for research & space planning, and Charles Isbell, associate dean for academic affairs, will act as points of contacts on the dean's behalf.

Personnel Announcements

Momotaz Begum has joined CoC as a Post-Doc in IC effective 10/12/10. Her email address is mbegum@cc, and is located in CCB 260. Welcome Momotaz!

Christina Pearson’s last day at CoC is 10/29/10.

 

General News

Georgia Computes! Cited in Report on Success of NSF BPC Alliances

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) produced a report in June, “Telling the Stories of the BPC Alliances: How One NSF Program is Changing the Face of Computing,” that had high praise for the College’s own Georgia Computes! program. The report tells the success stories of 11 initiatives funded under the NSF’s Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program; Georgia Computes!, under principal investigator Mark Guzdial (IC), is one of just two BPC “alliances” focused on ramping up computing education and outreach across an entire U.S. state (the other is based in Massachusetts). Says the report: "Virtually every BPC Alliance works with the Georgia Computes! PI and many have adopted his methodology of teaching computing in context." Click here to read the full AAAS report.

 

GVU Hosts Grace Hopper Field 2010 Trip
On Oct. 1, the GVU Center held a special research showcase for a field trip of more than 350 HCI attendees from the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, held in Atlanta Sept. 28 to Oct. 2. Some 90 HCI and HCC research projects were on display and visibly sparked interest among the visiting undergraduates in the School of Interactive Computing.

CoC Takes Homecoming Top Prize in Independent Division

For the second year in a row, the College not only competed but conquered in Georgia Tech’s Homecoming competition, Oct. 3-9. CoC finished first overall in the Independent division behind the efforts of 75 formal student volunteers and many others who lent a helping hand. The College participated in 14 events, according to Homecoming co-chair and senior Michael Slaughter, taking top prize in 10 of them: Powderpuff Cheerleading, Drownproofing, Homecoming Carnival, Waffle Eating, Dizzy Jump, Reck a Window, Chalking, Banner, Homecoming Display and Talent.
It’s been reported that, beginning last year, the College was the first academic unit to compete in Homecoming. But according to research scientist Greg Eisenhauer, CoC’s groundbreaking achievement dates back to its infancy in 1991. Says Eisenhauer, who was a second-year Ph.D. student at the time: “In 1991, our Homecoming opponent was North Carolina and the theme was the Renaissance. The CoC float was a replica of a Macintosh computer screen. It featured an image of the Mona Lisa, a 3D model of the space shuttle and a bit of motion: a Tar Heel logo being moved repeatedly into a trash can (accomplished via two rollers, a strip of carpet and a rotisserie motor). This thing was about 10 feet square, made of 2x4s, chicken wire and tissue paper. A couple of undergrads with climbing experience (names forgotten, but they had their own ropes) hauled it into place over the main door of CoC. On the ground in front of the screen there was a full-sized model of Buzz standing in front of a keyboard and ‘mouse.’ The mouse moved (courtesy of another rotisserie motor) and was actually a 12-inch-long, fur-covered mouse wearing a rat cap (as Tech freshmen traditionally wore).”

To view images of the CoC Homecoming 2010 display, visit the College's Flickr stream.

GVU Opens Its Doors for FutureMedia Fest 2010

The GVU Center held its Fall Research Showcase, covering two floors of the Tech Square Research Building, on Oct. 6 to coincide with FutureMedia Fest 2010. The center demonstrated more than 100 current projects under active research, exposing FutureMedia visitors, GVU industry partners and the Georgia Tech community to emerging work in fields including animation and graphics, augmented reality, assistive technologies, brain computer interfaces, collaborative work, digital media, gaming, health and wellness, HCI, HRI, learning, music technology, social computing, tangible media, and wearable computing. The showcase provided a venue for FutureMedia attendees to see and discuss state-of-the-art technologies being developed by Georgia Tech students, faculty and researchers.

Introducing the 2010 Foley Scholars: Betsy DiSalvo & Maithilee Kunda

Ph.D. students Betsy DiSalvo and Maithilee Kunda (both IC) have been named the 2010 Foley Scholars by an external committee of GVU Center board members, alumni and donors. Foley Scholars are selected from a pool of applicants on a merit basis for overall brilliance and potential impact. Also among the finalists were Elsa Eiriksdottir, Andrea Grimes Parker, Kurt Luther, Eugene Medynskiy, Thomas Smyth and Lana Yarosh. Both the winners and finalists were honored at the Foley Scholars Reception & Dinner, co-hosted by GVU's longtime industry partner Steelcase, on Oct. 6 at the Ansley Golf Club.

New TSO Help Desk Hours of Operation

Effective Monday, Nov. 1, the TSO Help Desk hours of operation changed to 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (previously its hours were 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.). Due reduced staffing levels and the challenge of providing coverage (especially during employee absences), TSO reviewed its hours of operation for the CCB Help Desk. The analysis revealed that less than 1.5 percent of Help Desk requests were received between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. TSO is able to make this change due to improvements in operational efficiency gained through the decentralization of Help Desk personnel in KACB (Jimmy Kriigel) and TSRB (Eden Chandler), as well as online, self-service resources such as the password reset form, how-tos and FAQs. The new hours will allow the TSO Help Desk staff to better serve the community through continued development of new desktop and instructional lab technologies. The Help Desk staff will keep their current work schedules and will be available from 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. if assistance is needed.

GT Visual Voicemail Service Delivers Voicemails to Email Box

The Georgia Tech Office of Information Technology offers a Visual Voicemail service that allows users to have voicemails delivered to their email, as well as manage their voicemail through a web-based visual interface. The service can be accessed directly from within the campus network (or remotely via VPN) by clicking here, or it can be reached through BuzzPort (click on the “Employee” tab and then click “Visual Voicemail”). Once at the login page, just enter your 10-digit Georgia Tech phone number under “Mailbox,” then your code for accessing your voicemail in the “Passcode” field. After entering an email address under the “Settings” tab, the service will deliver voicemails in .wav format to the email address specified. Once logged in, the service also allows you to manage your voicemail box visually. For questions or more information, contact OIT’s Telecom Customer Care line at 404-894-7173 (option 3).

TSO to Host Nov. 8 Brownbag on GT Computer Policies

On Monday, Nov. 8, from noon to 12:45 p.m., TSO will host a brownbag session on Georgia Tech computer usage policies. All CoC employees and students are invited to attend the brownbag, which will cover what constitutes acceptable personal use of GT computer equipment and where the applicable policies can be located. The event will be held in Klaus 1116E; for more information, contact the TSO Help Desk at 404-894-7065 or helpdesk@cc.gatech.edu.

Women@CC to Host Career-Minded Events in November

On Thursday, Nov. 11, Women@CC will host the UPE Interview Fair from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Klaus Atrium. The event is an opportunity for students to talk to interns about their experiences in different companies. Women@CC also is holding Professional Help Day on Thursday, Nov. 18, to help students improve their resumes, interview techniques and other important career skills. Other monthly Women@CC events include cookbook nights, movie night and much more. Please contact Candis Pham for questions or information about participating in any of these events.

New Graduate Review Web Application Released

TSO and the CoC Office of Graduate Programs have collaborated to create and release a new Ph.D. Review System called GRAD.CC, an overdue replacement for the legacy GOATS system. The system went live in October 2010. Instructions on how to access and use the system have been emailed to faculty and Ph.D. students, as well as posted on the TSO Support site. If you have problems using the system, please contact the TSO Help Desk; constructive feedback on the service can be sent to the Office of Graduate Programs.

KACB Power Outage Scheduled for Weekend of Jan. 8-9, 2011

There will be a two-day power outage in KACB during the weekend of Saturday, Jan. 8, and Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. The work involves preventive maintenance of the KACB main electrical switchgear, a safety practice the campus Facilities group follows for all buildings every five years. Work will begin at 7 a.m. each day and complete at 5 p.m. During this outage, all power to building outlets and lights for all rooms will be generally unstable and at times unavailable. The power outage will affect the TSO Core Critical Data Center for 12 hours on Saturday, Jan. 8, during which all core critical services will be unavailable (e.g. DNS, Active Directory, LDAP, home directories, etc., and the main web sites for CoC, CS, CSE and IC). The lack of these core critical services will cause all other computing servers, services, desktops, web sites, etc., on the CoC network to become generally unstable. This will include systems in CCB and TSRB. TSO will be on site Saturday evening, Jan. 8, to make sure services are restored. Details, including exact times, will be communicated in the next reminder broadcast. If this outage will cause undue hardship, please let TSO know and they will try to help find a workaround, if possible.

VMware Campus Software Contract In Limbo

Georgia Tech has a campuswide site license for VMware products that will expire on Friday, Nov. 12, and to date the Institute has not negotiated a new contract with VMware. If a new contract or extension is not in place by Nov. 12, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) will remove all VMware products from the OIT software distribution site. VMware products registered before Nov. 12 will continue to be licensed and eligible for software updates (patches), however they will not be eligible for point upgrades (e.g., upgrade from v7.1 to v7.2). Anyone planning to install VMware site licensed products must register the serial number of the system, download the software and install prior to Nov. 12. The key points to remember are:
1. The software can only legally be installed on systems whose serial numbers have been registered prior to Nov. 12, 2010.
2. The software must be installed before Nov. 12.
3. After Nov. 12, all software will continue to work and be eligible for updates but not upgrades.
4. All this may change pending a new contract or a contract extension.


 

CoC In the News

To help Compiler readers stay informed of the latest media coverage of the College of Computing, we will share the month's headlines from the CoC website. Below are links to all headlines from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31, 2010 (most recent headlines at the top).


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November 1-19
Phase I Registration for Spring 2011
Georgia Tech

November 3
CERCS Weekly Seminar
Klaus 1116W

November 6
Elementary Student Workshop - LEGO NXT robots or Scratch
CCB 345

November 6
Graduate CoC Picnic
Main Pavilion, Piedmont Park

November 7
Girl Scout Workshop - Pleo and Scribbler robots
CCB 345

November 7
November College of Computing Application Workshop
CCB 345

November 8
ARC Colloquium: Laszlo Vegho
Klaus 1116W

November 9
GTES Speaker Session: Lance Weatherby
Klaus 1116

November 10
CERCS Weekly Seminar
Klaus 1116W

November 13-19
SC10
New Orleans, La.

November 17
CERCS Weekly Seminar
Klaus 1116W

November 19
Teacher Workshop: AP Prep
CCB 345

November 22
ARC Colloquium: Atri Rudra
Klaus 1116W

November 24
CERCS Weekly Seminar
Klaus 1116W

November 25-26
School Holiday
Georgia Tech

1st

Overall CoC finish in Homecoming's Independent Division (which the College now has won two years running)

 

4th

Ranking of GT computer science graduates by employers, according to The Wall Street Journal

 

10,077

Number of people worldwide as of Oct. 29 using OpenStudy, the 'Match.com for online learning' according to co-founder Ashwin Ram


Industry Outreach

This month various groups at CoC are pursuing partnerships with the following companies:

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Electronic Arts

Intel

ThoughtWorks

Hewlett Packard

LexisNexis

Google

Facebook

Yahoo!

Norfolk Southern Group