Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Congratulations to our Computer Science and Electrical Engineering undergraduate students who have recently been selected as Undergraduate Research Award (URA) Scholars. The URA provides undergraduates with up to $1,500 to fund their original research projects. The work is done in conjunction with a faculty mentor, and is then presented at UMBC's  Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) in April. This year, these students and their faculty advisors will be recognized at URCAD on Wednesday, April 25 at noon in the University Center, Room 312.

David Eisen
Computer Engineering, Senior
Faculty Advisor: Fow-Sen Choa

David’s research focuses on the study of cultured neuron inhibition and excitation via optical stimuli from mid-IR (MIR) quantum cascade lasers (QCL).

“It was very exciting news to hear my URA proposal was accepted. This is my first research experience and proposal, so I believe this award will give me the confidence to pursue other opportunities in the future. The URA will give me a hands-on learning experience in the field of photonics research by working alongside Professor Choa as well as graduate students. Not only does this look good on a resume, but it gives me a chance to really get a taste for what real world challenges and rewards await after graduation.”

Julian Field
Computer Engineering, Junior
Faculty Advisor: Tinoosh Mohsenin

Julian will be doing research in UMBC's Energy Efficient and High Performance Computing Lab. His task will be the development and mapping of a many-core processor for the purpose of performing ultrasound imaging applications. Many cores on the processor will improve performance and reduce the running time of the processes. The processor will be designed using the Verilog hardware description language (HDL) and will be implemented by programming the design into a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Using an FPGA not only reduces the cost of the design, but it also speeds up implementation.

"I felt very honored to receive the award, and I believe that it is going to help me in several ways. It allows me to get paid for doing research in a field that fascinates me and in which I hope to work in the future. Besides the obvious financial benefit, the award adds weight to my research when I list it on my resume, and this should be of great value when I apply to graduate school and for Computer Engineering jobs and internships in the future."

Thomas A Hervey
Information Systems/ Geography, Sophomore
Aneep Bindra
Computer Science, Sophomore
Zachary Hullihen
Computer Science, Junior
Faculty Advisor: Marc Olano 

"Lights, Camera, Motion, Action: The Dance Application of Microsoft's Kinect and Intelligent Stage Lighting."

"Receiving this award has given me a stronger incentive to work my hardest and apply myself beyond [the] academic realm. This award will be beneficial because it will provide necessary funds for unusual but necessary research tools. I look forward to strengthening my presentation skills at URCAD next year as well as refining my organizational skills through planned documentation and procedures during the actual experimentation. The award overall certainly creates a sense of confidence within the research community. I find it likely that students that are not active in research will hear about the award and benefits through their friends' experiences, and current URA scholars will continue research through new projects." -Thomas A. Hervey

Alex Morrow
Computer Science, Sophomore
Faculty Advisor: Marie desJardins

"Quantitative Evaluation of Dimension Reduction for Visualization and Analysis."

Alex’s research branches off of his current research on visualization and analysis techniques to facilitate user understanding of the uncertainty associated with statistical models that have been learned from data. Alex will analyze and evaluate dimension reduction methods. Using a set of quantitative metrics compiled by his research advisors Dr. Marie desJardins and Dr. Penny Rheingans, Alex will compare the performance of several dimension reduction techniques in a number of different application domains.

Adam Page
Computer Engineering / Math
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tinoosh Mohsenin

Adam’s research involves designing an energy efficient and high performance error correction Low Density Parity Check Decoder circuit for IEEE 802.11ad standard, the next generation of Wireless Local Arena Network (WLAN). The design will include an efficient architecture for the decoder using Verilog coding and VLSI implementation.

“I am both honored and excited to receive this award. I know the URA will give me the opportunity to apply knowledge I have gained from all of my courses into a real world application.”

Don’t forget to meet our URA scholars at URCAD next Wednesday, April 25 at noon in the University Center, Room 312.

Masters Thesis Defense

Heart Disease Prediction: A Data Mining Approach

Soma Das

2:00pm Monday, 23 April 2012, ITE 201B

Data mining is a field of computer science that combines statistical analysis and machine learning to detect hard-to-discern patterns from large amounts of data. It employs different algorithms to learn different patterns from training or experience and apply it to classify, predict or identify patterns. The healthcare environment is very information rich. There is a wealth of clinical data available within the healthcare systems. Also due to recent advancement of genomic research vast amount of genetic data are also available. Effective analysis tools are needed to discover hidden relationships and trends in these data. These tools are necessary to correctly diagnose people at risk of disease based on the derived knowledge from the data.

We used data mining techniques to evaluate the interaction between traditional risk factors and gene variants such as Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) towards Coronary Heart Disease (CHD) susceptibility in a prospective study of older population aged 65 and older. In our thesis we asked two questions whether we can predict CHD at birth or adding genetic information to traditional risk factors predict CHD better than traditional risk factors alone.We also analyzed two popular machine learning algorithms to determine the most efficient method on medical datasets mining. The evaluation is based on a set of performance metrics. We also applied a clustering method to identify different subgroups present in the selected datasets.

We chose eight traditional risk factors of CHD and 23 SNPs that had previously been reported to be associated with CHD. We then tested the association of these SNPs with CHD in cardiovascular Health Study (CHS). Based on previous studies, we pre specified a risk allele for each of 23 SNPs. We assigned coding values for homozygote, heterozygote, and the no risk homozygote SNPs and then combined these with traditional risk factors for each individual before feeding it to machine learning algorithms. We evaluated different classification algorithms using 10 fold cross validation test.

Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves (ROC) were plotted separately based on traditional risk factors alone and traditional risk factors plus SNPs. The increase in the Area Under Curve (AUC) was statistically significant for Whites and suggestive of improved CHD prediction for African American. We also found out that using only SNPs predicts CHD a little bit better than random guessing for only whites. The results gained from analysis suggest Naïve Bayes to be the best classifier for the given domain.

This study demonstrates the concept of using multiple SNPs as independent risk factors and indicates that it can improve prediction of incident CHD. Adding SNPs to traditional risk factors did not improve the prediction model dramatically as we expected but it was statistically significant.

Committee:

• Dr. Michael Grasso (co-chair)
• Dr. Anupam Joshi
• Dr. Yelena Yesha

EE Graduate Seminar

From Proton to Image: A Signal Processing Aspect of MRI

Albert Kir
PhD (EE) Student, CSEE Dept/UMBC

11:30am-12:45pm Friday, 20 April 2012, ITE 237

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is routinely used in clinical setting for its great diagnosis and prognosis ability, and is a heavily studied research area across multiple disciplines. MRI has its tie with signal and imaging processing community since it stemmed from the study of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). The technique of Fourier imaging makes MRI possible through manipulation of the NMR signals. The issue of imaging speed has always been at the heart of functional MRI (fMRI) and interventional imaging, where a high image frame rate is required or preferable. In the past decade, partly owing to the advance in imaging hardware, a wide range of image reconstruction algorithms have been developed to accelerate the image acquisition process. There has been SENSE, SMASH, GRAPPA, and many of their variations in the parallel imaging category from the early days to the current K-T techniques based on compressive sensing (CS). In this talk, the basic imaging principle for MRI will first be presented, and then a discussion of the first parallel imaging technique, SENSE, will be given. Lastly, the use of K-T FOCUSS on fMRI will be demonstrated.

Albert Kir received the BS degree in Computer Engineering n 2005 and the MSEE degree in 2009 from UMBC. He is currently a PhD (EE) student at UMBC. Mr. Kirs current research interest includes optimization of rapid imaging techniques for structural and functional images for MRI.

Host: Prof. Joel M. Morris

Photo courtesy www.retrieverweekly.com

Left: Computer Engineering Alumnus Delali Dzirasa speaks with a student during the Raymond V. Haysbert, Sr. Entrepreneurship Lecture back in March.

The Retriever Weekly talked to UMBC alumnus Delali Dzirasa (CE, '04) about what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur. Dzirasa, the founder of Fearless Solutions, LLC–a team of software engineers and web developers that help clients solve problems through Data Visualization, Web Application Development, Software Engineering, and Rapid Prototyping–knows from experience. Here's what he had to say:

" Dzirasa of Fearless Solutions told stories of how he used to run a barbershop when he lived on the UMBC campus to make money.

"I am a serial starter of things," he said. "My advice for you is to believe in yourself… Never give up and hold onto your vision." "

Check out the full article HERE.

Photo Courtesy UMBC.edu

Whether you're running behind on credits, or just can't fathom three months without studying, it's always smart to take advantage of summer session courses. This May through August, the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE) Department is offering a selection of Undergraduate and Graduate courses in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, and Electrical Engineering. Check out the following list to see if there's a match for you. Don't forget to apply by MAY 28.

UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

Computer Science

CMSC 104
Problem Solving and Computer Programming (3)
T, TH 9 a.m. –12:10 p.m.
Ryan Bergeron
Session 1, 8 Week

CMSC 203
Discrete Structures (3)
T, TH 9 a.m. –12:20 p.m.
Yatish Kumar Joshi
Session 1, 8 Week

CMSC 451
Automata Theory and Formal Languages (3)
T, TH 6—9:10 p.m.
Jon Squire
Session 1, 6 Week

CMSC 455
Numerical Computations (3)
M, W 6—9:10 p.m.
Jon Squire
Session 1, 6 Week

GRADUATE COURSES

Cybersecurity

CYBR 623
Cybersecurity Law and Policy (3)
M,W 6—8:45 p.m.
Session 1, 6 Week

Electrical Engineering

ENEE 699
Mathematics and MATLAB Fundamentals for Engineers (1)
W 4:30—7 p.m.
Donald Gantzer
Session 1, 6 week

For more information, stop by the CSEE Department (ITE 325) to pick up a Summer Session catalog, or visit the website for course listings in all disciples.

Don't forget to apply by MAY 28.

What should be in the curriculum for a computer science undergraduate program in the next decade? What knowledge and skills should every CS major learn? What learning objectives should we set? How can we ensure that the field remains focused on the disciplinary core while embracing an outward-looking view that actively seeks to work with and integrate into other disciplines such as Biology, Engineering, linguistics and Sociology.

About every ten years the ACM and IEEE Computer Society jointly sponsor the development of a Computing Curricula volume on Computer Science. Their joint task force has just released a Strawman draft of the the CS2013 report and invites comments from a diverse audience with the goal of broadening participation in computer science. The report seeks to be international in scope and to offer curricular and pedagogical guidance applicable to a wide range of institutions.

Photo Courtesy jhu.edu

Computer Science and Computer Engineering students interested in becoming part of the renowned Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab are in luck. The lab is currently seeking interns for this summer.

Located in Laurel, Maryland, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory works on over 600 programs focused on protecting homeland security and advancing the nation’s goals in research and space science, says the lab’s website. Boasting a staff of 4,700, the lab has an annual funding level of nearly $980 million.

Interns will help develop a prototype immersive, distributed, web-application with the goal of putting together an entire virtual environment. The project will require skills like archival data structures, visualization tools, and distributed access.

Interns should have programming knowledge in Java, C++, and C#/00 Programming languages: Java Script, AJAX. In addition, interns should have experience with Apache, Tomcat, Glassfish, or similar web application servers.

For a complete job description and a full list of requirements, and for information about how to apply, click here.

Photo Courtesy g4tv.com

Computer Science alumnus Joshua Barczak (B.S. ’03, M.S. ’06) will be a featured speaker at this year’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD).

Now a Senior Graphics Engineer at the Maryland-based game development studio Firaxis Games, Joshua studied computer graphics at UMBC and carried out research under professors Dr. Marie desJardins and Dr. Marc Olano before graduating with his Master's degree in Computer Science in 2006.

At Firaxis, Joshua’s first game credit was for Sid Meier’s Civilization V video game. For the game, Joshua worked on implementing the rendering framework which drives the diplomacy screens. He also put together a procedural ice-floe generator. “If you’re playing the game and happen to go close enough to the poles, you’ll notice that each and every ice chunk is unique,” writes Joshua on his website.

Joshua will speak on Wednesday, April 25 at 12:00 p.m. in the University Center 312. After Joshua's talk, come chat with him about what it's like to work in the video game industry in the Information Technology/ Engineering (ITE) Building 325B from 3:00-3:50 p.m.

For more information about Joshua’s game development experience, check out his bio on UMBC’s Office of Undergraduate Education website.

Joshua Barczak (CMSC, B.S. '03, M.S. '06)
Senior Graphics Engineer, Firaxis Games
 

We've starting to see advertisements for a new kind of position: privacy engineer.

If you've seen the classic movie, The Graduate, you'll remember the conversation that recent college graduate Benjamin Braddock has with a friend of his father, who says "I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. … Are you listening? … Plastics.". Today, 45 years later, that one word might be Privacy.

Our lives are increasingly being lived online through social media systems, cloud based services, smart phones and other ubiquitous computing and sensing devices. Your smart phone, it's common to hear, knows more about you than your spouse or Mom. Data about us is being collected minute by minute, aggregated, integrated, analyzed, bought and sold.  At the same time, we have develped powerful new datamining and machine learning techniques that, together with parallel computing, can  extract surprising amounts of information and knowledge from the data. 

This data can be put to good uses, such as providing you with better services, but can also result in a loss of privacy. Businesses and other organizations want to avoid a backlash in which they lose customers concerned about their privacy. We've seen recent ads for privacy engineers, such as these from Apple , Google and Intel. This is just a sample, many more exist, although the job title may be different.

The job of a privacy engineer doesn't yet have a well defined consensus description, but the focus is on designing an organization's information privacy policy and helping to ensure that it is accurately described and enforced.  High level tasks include (i) protecting data from unauthorized access, use or disclosure (ii) providing users with appropriate tools to both understand and control what information is collected and how it is shared and used; and (iii) recognizing how the data can be usefully mined without revealing private information.

What courses can a UMBC undergraduate take to prepare for positions like these? After getting a good grounding in the required computer science or computer engineering courses, undergrads can take classes in the fundamentals of security (CMSC 426 and CMSC 487), information assurance (CMSC 444), and cryptography (CMSC 443), take a course in databases (CMSC 461),  datamining and machine learning (CMSC 478) and/or visualization (CMSC 436), and perhaps mobile computing (CMSC 628). Interested students should also look for special topics course, like Security and Privacy in a Mobile Social World which is being offered this semester.  We also have several research labs that work in privacy-related areas, including the Cyber Defense, Coral, Ebiquity, Diadic and Maple labs.

On Monday, April 16, a panel discussion, colloquium, and lecture make up this year's three-part CRA-W Distinguished Lecture Series. Sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research (CRA-W), UMBC’s Center for Women in Technology (CWIT), UMBC’s Computer Science and Electrical Engineering (CSEE) Department, UMBC’s Information Systems (IS) Department, the Graduate School at UMBC, and WISE and ADVANCE at UMBC,  the lecture series approaches topics ranging from how to succeed in graduate school to computing challenges.

10:00 A.M., Room 310, University Center

The Panel Discussion, entitled "Graduate School: Before, During, and After" features a panel of UMBC graduate students and academic professionals who will talk about common issues facing prospective graduate students. Questions like "Should I go to graduate school?" "Should I choose an M.S. or Ph.D.?" and "What jobs will be open to me after graduate school?" will be tackled.

Dr. Ellen Zegura, Professor and Chair of the School of Computer Science at Georgia Tech and Dr. Jeffrey Forbes, a Duke University professor of Computer Science currently on leave with the National Science Foundation as a Program Director for the Education and Workforce Program in the Division of Computer and Network Systems, Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, will be part of the panel. Mr. James MacGlashan, a Ph.D. candidate within the CSEE Department and Ms. Alyson Young, a Human-Centered Computing (HCC) Ph.D. Student will join them for the discussion.

1:00 – 2:00 P.M., Information Technology/Engineering (ITE) Building 325B

The Computer Science and Information Systems Joint Colloquium will feature a talk by Dr. Ellen Zegura entitled "Computing in Cirrus Clouds: The Challenge of Intermittent Connectivity."

Abstract
Mobile devices are increasingly relied on for services that go beyond simple connectivity and require more complex processing. Improved connectivity options for mobile devices have enabled applications that transcend an individual device's capabilities by making use of remote processing and storage.

The primary approach in wide use today to enable such remote processing makes use of cloud computing resources to offload the "heavy lifting" that may be required in some mobile applications to specially designated servers or server clusters. In reality, a mobile device often encounters, albeit intermittently, many entities capable of lending computational resources. We call these alternative settings "cirrus clouds". In this talk I will discuss the unique challenges posed by intermittent connectivity and describe some early progress on managing such a setting.

4:00 – 5:00 P.M., Albin O. Kuhn Library Gallery

The CRA-W Distinguished Lecture will feature a talk by Dr. Ellen Zegura entitled "Computing for Good: Experiences in Humanitarian Computing."

Abstract
Almost four years ago, I was involved in the creation of Computing for Good (C4G), a Georgia Tech College of Computing initiative centered around using computing to help solve pressing societal problems. The primary activity of C4G has been a project-based course taught once per year and taken by seniors (satisfying the capstone requirement) and masters-level graduate students.  Projects with life beyond one semester are frequently taken up by master's students as MS projects.

Over the last year, I have had the opportunity to work closely with the Carter Center and their Mental Health Program in Liberia. With students in the C4G fall 2010 course, my experiences have included technology consulting, technology training, technology integration, and technology invention. I have also had the chance to observe first hand a set of additional country-wide challenges where computing might play a role.  In this talk, I will describe my experiences and highlight additional opportunities for computationalists.

Dr. Ellen Zegura
Professor and Chair School of Computer Science
College of Computing, Georgia Tech
 

Light refreshments will follow both the Panel Discussion and the Computer Science and Information Systems Joint Colloquium. A reception will follow the CRA-W Distinguished Lecture.

Click HERE to download the event flyer.