Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing

 

I am constantly amazed at how time is both fast and slow at once. It’s been 20 years since Thanksgiving, but here we are after about six hours and we’re already coming up on the midpoint of our Spring semester. Things are moving even faster than usual, and our usual is positively speedy. 

Our faculty, teaching assistants, and students continue to find new ways to teach and learn remotely. The Institute is extremely interested in capturing these innovations, both to share best practices and to plan for the future. If you’d like to hear more, or to share stories of your own, the Institute has an extensive schedule of listening sessions planned. Each session is limited to 15 people, so if you attend your voice would be heard.

Speaking of sharing and listening, some of you may also be interested in attending an ACM virtual panel coming up titled, “Valuing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in our Computing Community.” These issues are growing in importance across our field, and it is valuable to hear opinions from outside of our own community.

Returning to our more local community, several members of our faculty have been in the spotlight lately:

• Amy Bruckman (IC) was interviewed by the Washington Post for a story about the behavior of online mobs.
• Melody Jackson (IC) spoke to Wired about using technology to talk to dogs when you are quarantined away from your pets.
• Zvi Galil (CS) was named one of the top 10 influential computer scientists today by Academic Influence.

 Please join me in congratulating Amy, Melody, and Zvi, and in thanking them for raising the public reputation of our community.

Finally, I am pleased to note that we have a search committee for the first chair of the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy:

• Committe Chair: Mark Riedl, Associate Professor (CoC)
• Paul Pearce, Assistant Professor (CoC)
• Nadiya Kostyuk, Assistant Professor (IAC)
• Brendan Saltaformaggio, Assistant Professor (CoE)
• Deven Desai, Associate Professor (Scheller)  
• Sasha Boldyreva, Professor (CoC)
• Mustaque Ahamad, Professor (CoC)
• Milton Mueller, Professor (IAC)
• Adam Stulberg, INTA Chair and Professor (IAC)
• Tom Kurfess, Professor (CoE) 
• Lee Lerner, Research Faculty (GTRI) 
• Staff Representative: Kenya Payton, Asst. to the SCP Chair (CoC)
• Development: Brad Hastings, Senior Director (CoC)
• Office of HR support: Michelle Meadors
• Office of Dean Admin support: Alicia Richhart

Many thanks to everyone listed above for their help in choosing a leader for this new school and for the college.

So, there we go. If I don’t see you, have a good week. We’ve been working remotely for nearly a year now(!), and I continue to be impressed by our collective ability to work through it all. We’ve learned a lot, and those lessons will continue to serve us in the better days to come. 

More later.