Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Should an introductory Computer Science course fall within the cadre of General Education Requirements (GEP)—like Math, Science, and English—that are required of all undergrads?

According to a USA Today College article, the answer is yes.

In the article, Computer Science and Electrical Engineering professors Marie desJardins and Penny Rheingans talk about the importance of having, at least, a basic knowledge of how computers work, especially in a world that is quickly evolving in the hands of technology: 

“Inevitably, by the time today’s college students are middle-aged, technology will be unimaginably faster, more powerful and more integrated into our daily lives,” said desJardins, “and the people who understand how it works are the ones who will be helping society to take advantage of it and use it to improve people’s lives.”

For non-technical students who recoil at the thought of taking a computer course, Dr. Rheingans is an example of what can happen when you take a chance. Originally planning to major in the social sciences, says the article, a computer science course during Dr. Rheingans' first semester changed her entire career projection:

“I found computing to be both incredibly frustrating and incredibly addicting,” Rheingans said in an email. “I love the challenge of building something to solve a problem and the satisfaction of figuring out why my creation isn’t working and fixing it.”

Check out the entire article, “The Power of Computing,” to hear more of what professors desJardins and Rheingans have to say about the increasing importance of computer science comprehension. 

Our department is a member of the Computing Research Association, which started in 1972 as a organization of US PhD granting CS departments and has grown to more than 220 North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering, and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia engaging in basic computing research; and affiliated professional societies. The CRA has become an important advocate in the US for research and education for all of the computing disciplines.

One of its useful services is publishing the free Computing Research News (CRN) five times a year. It has short articles on trends, programs, issues, events, and opportunities as well as advertisements for academic and R&D oriented positions. Reading it is a good way to stay informed about computing research and higher education and to find R&D-oriented jobs.

The CRA has announced that the CRN will no longer be published in hard copy and invites people to sign up to receive announcements of the availability of electronic versions. We encourage anyone interested in computing R&D or higher education to subscribe.

NIST will hold a Big Data Workshop 13-14 June 2012 in Gaithersburg to explore key national priority topics in support of the White House Big Data Initiative. The workshop is being held in collaboration with the NSF sponsored Center for Hybrid Multicore Productivity Research, a collaboration between UMBC, Georgia Tech and UCSD.

This first workshop will discuss examples from science, health, disaster management, security, and finance as well as topics in emerging technology areas, including analytics and architectures. Two issues of special interest are identifying the core technologies needed to collect, store, preserve, manage, analyze, and share big data that could be standardized and developing measurements to ensure the accuracy and robustness of big data methods.

The workshop format will be a mixture of sessions, panels, and posters. Session speakers and panel members are by invitation only but all interested parties are encouraged to submit extended abstracts and/or posters.

The workshop is being held at NIST’s Gaithersburg facility and is free, although online pre-registration is required. A preliminary agenda is available which is subject to change as the workshop date approaches.

Photo Courtesy Penny Riordan

That's Todd Marks up there, standing over a banner for Mindgrub Technologies. In 2002, Marks founded the Catonsville-based start-up that specializes in mobile and web development. In fact, you're probably a fan of their work if you've downloaded UMBC's free iPhone application.

According to a Patch.com article, Mindgrub has already outgrown its office space on Frederick Road, which houses the company's 36 full-time employees. The company, which started in Marks' basement, is growing faster than anticipated. Its growth is likely tied to a string of recent successes. Like, at this year's Biz Buzz Awards–sponsored by the Baltimore Business Journal–Mind grub took home first place in the App Creator Category. And, at this year's ADDY Awards, they earned a Gold Addy for their iPhone game TAG: The Mobile Assassination Game.

To learn more about Mindgrub's rapid success, check out the full article: "In Just a Year, Tech Startup Outgrows Frederick Road Space."

Oh, and by the way, they're hiring.

Congratulations to Computer Science Ph.D. student Yasaman Haghpanah, who will be receiving one of three prestigious Dissertation Fellowships from UMBC’s Graduate School to help complete her Ph.D. dissertation this summer.

Originally from Iran, Yasaman began her Ph.D. studies at UMBC in Spring 2009. Her dissertation, entitled “A novel trust and reputation mechanism through behavioral modeling of reviewers,” focuses on trust and reputation modeling for online markets.

“My research interests lie in the broad area of trust and reputation modeling and their effect on various domains such as online markets, supply chain management, auctions, social networks, smart grids, and e-commerce applications,” explains Yasaman. She credits the success of online auction site eBay to its reputation system: “Feedback Forum.” “I have extensively modeled trust and reputation through behavioral modeling of the reviewers using formal probabilistic modeling. My model is general and can be applied to several domains.”

Planning to defend her dissertation in August 2012, Yasaman credits the fellowship with helping her to wrap up her research over the summer. Once she graduates, she will be looking for postdoc positions or work in a research lab. She aspires to one day become a professor.

The UMBC student chapter of the ACM met last week to elect a new slate of officers for the 2012-13 academic year. Outgoing preseident Yasaman Haghpanah officiated the election meeting. Elected were Varish Mulwad as President, Lisa Mathews as Vice-President, Ravendar Bhojwani as Secretary and Prajit Kumar Das as Treasurer.

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society. It provides members with resources that advance computing both as a science and a profession. UMBC's chapter meetings are open to all undergraduate and graduate students of any major.

While you do not need to join ACM to be a part of the local chapter, the annual membership dues for students is only $19, heavily discounted from the non-student rate. See the ACM site for more information on student membership and its benefits.

The ACM UMBC student chapter will continue to organize the weekly hi-tea event in the upcoming year. It will also be working on inviting speakers (from industry and academia) to present on topics such as preparing for a career in the industry to pursuing graduate school. If you have any questions about the UMBC chapter or suggestrions for activities for the coming year, you can send them to the acmofficers at lists.umbc.edu.

Outstanding Achievement in Computer Science
Outstanding academic achievement or service in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Clay Alberty

Laura J. Anzaldi

Madeleine R. Sparling-Sedlak

Nathaniel K. Lam

Menal G. Modha

Lauren J. Won

Outstanding Achievement in Computer Engineering
Outstanding academic achievement or service in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Thomas M. Christovich

Stephen G. Harvey

Kristopher N. Lamont

Linh R. Pham

Adam P. Page

Daniel Park
 

Congratulations to graduating seniors Thomas Christovich and Timothy Burke, who were awarded Student Leadership Awards by the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department. The pair was recognized for this honor at yesterday's Pre-commencement Breakfast & Awards Reception.

A Computer Engineering graduate, Thomas Christovich (pictured left) has been part of UMBC's Amateur Radio Club for four years, first as president (2009-2011), and more recently as treasurer (2011-2012).  "Amateur Radio is a good opportunity to play with electronics and understand a little more about how radio works," says Christovich, who especially enjoyed competing in "good-natured" contests like the School Club Round Up, where the goal is to communicate with as many schools across the country as possible. Christovich was also active in athletics, playing intramural flag football every semester.

After graduation, Christovich is embarking on an across-country road trip with some friends–his "last hurrah" before he starts working full-time in Columbia.They plan to visit landmarks like Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, and Yosemite as they make their way to the West Coast for a stop in San Francisco.

As he says goodbye to UMBC, Christovich's advice to other Computer Engineering graduates is to not be afraid to ask for help. "The Computer Engineering department has some of the most approachable professors I have ever known and they are always willing to help people that ask," he says. His second bit of advice is to get to know your classmates. There's nothing more helpful, he explains, than having a friend help you work through a problem from a different perspective.

A Computer Science graduate, Timothy Burke (pictured right) is a Center for Women in Technology (CWIT) Scholars in Information Technology and Engineering (SITE) Scholar, a tutor in the Computer Science Help Center, and a peer mentor.

"Being involved with the CWIT community was an immeasurable benefit to me during my time at UMBC," says Burke, who transferred to UMBC from CCBC Catonsville and found a network of support within the CWIT community. Through CWIT, Burke volunteered with First Lego League and the USA Science and Engineering Festival. Thanks to relationships fostered by CWIT, Burke  was part of the CSEE Department Promotion and Tenure Committee for the 2010-2011 academic year and participated in interviews for new faculty.

Burke also finds his time as a tutor especially valuable. "I greatly enjoyed my time tutoring other students in the Computer Science Help Center–it was great fun helping others learn and understand what they are studying," he explains. "That experience left a strong impression on me and has given me a desire to teach in the future."

After graduation, Burke will begin a full-time position as a software engineer at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. In the Fall, he will begin pursuing his Ph.D. in Computer Science at UMBC. Studying under Dr. Penny Rheingans, Burke's research will focus on Data Visualization and Human Computer Interaction.

Burke's advice to current Computer Science undergraduates includes the old standbys–like start your assignments sooner and ask for help when you need it–paired with a few specific pearls of wisdom: "Go sit by a lake when faced with obscure error codes," "If a job offer comes and you are told you will be working on 'legacy applications,' do not simply walk away, RUN", "Take a class that is way, way out of the major for a change of pace" (in his case HIST 387: Medicine and Healthcare in China), and "Find a slightly smarter friend to take Algorithms with."

Meet Yu Wang, a graduate student pursuing her Ph.D. in Computer Science. Originally from China, Yu came to UMBC in 2009 to study for her Master's in Computer Science. She's part of UMBC's VANGOGH research lab and the UMBC High Performance Computing Facility (HPCF). Once she graduates, Yu hopes to one day work in a research position at the R&D group of the Weta Digital visual effects studio in Wellington, New Zealand.

Click here to learn more about Yu and to hear what she has to say about UMBC.

Computer Science PhD Dissertation Proposal

Online Unsupervised Coreference Resolution for
Semi-Structured, Heterogeneous Data

Jennifer Alexander Sleeman

1:00pm Tuesday, 22 May 2012, 325b ITE, UMBC

Coreference resolution, determining when an instance represents a real world entity, has been widely researched in multiple domains. Online coreference resolution that supports heterogeneous data is not as well researched though these aspects of coreference resolution are incredibly important. With the complexities of computing environments today, a more flexible coreference resolution algorithm is required to support data that is processed over time rather than all at once. We present an online unsupervised coreference resolution framework for heterogeneous semi-structured data. We describe a two phase clustering model that is both flexible and distributable. We also describe a multi-dimensional attribute model that will support robust schema mappings. As part of this framework we propose a way to perform instance consolidation that will improve recall measures by addressing data spareness. We also outline how our framework will support ’cold start' knowledge base population.

Committee: Professors Tim Finin (chair), Anupam Joshi, Charles Nicholas, Tim Oates, Yun Peng, and Dr. Rafael Alonso (SAIC)