Thank You Dr. Sean Arthur

May 18, 2016 laurie

The Department sends its thanks and best wishes to Dr. Sean Arthur! Although Sean transitioned to emeritus status in 2011, he has continued to teach a section of CS 3304, Comparative Languages, every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 8:00 a.m. Most students report that this class has been the highlight of their day (“Isn’t that right, class?!”). But now Sean claims there are just too many fish that need catching, so after more than 30 years as part of the Computer Science Department, he offered his last lecture on Tuesday, May 3. Department Head Cal Ribbens stopped by to congratulate Sean on his many years of service, and to offer the classic Blacksburg token of appreciation, Carol Lee donuts.

Cal Ribbens (left) and Sean Arthur (right)

CS faculty receive 2016 dean’s awards for excellence

May 11, 2016May 11, 2016 laurie

At the nineteenth annual Virginia Tech College of Engineering faculty reception, awards were presented to engineering professors for teaching innovation, research, service, and outreach for 2016.

T. M. Murali of computer science is a recipient of one of the College of Engineering’s research in excellence awards. T. M. ’s overall research goal is founded in computational systems biology – to build phenomenological and predictive models of interaction networks that govern living cells functionality. Most recently, with colleagues, T. M. has developed PathLinker, a network based algorithm that reconstructs signaling pathways. He has been published in top journals such as Bionformatics and Molecular Biology of the Cell. T.M. co-directs the ICTAS Center for Systems Biology of Engineered Tissues and under his leadership the center’s faculty have received grants exceeding $11 million. He is also the associate program director of the Computational Tissue Engineering Interdisciplinary Graduate Education program – a program that was renewed last year based on student accomplishments and overall research productivity.

Chang-Tien Lu of computer science is a College of Engineering faculty fellow recipient, which carries an annual $5,000 account for the next three fiscal years to support his research. He is the Associate Director of the Discovery Analytics Center. In 2015 Chang-Tien was one of 49 researchers in the world to be named Distinguished Scientist by the Association for Computing Machinery. His research on data management is to fulfill emerging requirements for storing, analyzing, and visualizing spatial data. His ongoing projects range from explorations of fundamental access and retrieval issues to practical applications that deal with data analysis and knowledge discovery tasks. These projects have led to the publication of numerous high-quality research papers and the production of innovative prototype systems. They are also helping professionals in many fields to react quickly and make effective decisions in time-sensitive applications. His major contributions include efficient mining algorithms and sophisticated storage structures that can be scaled up to process large scale data, as well as the formalization of spatial patterns and trends. Chang-Tien has published over 112 articles, which have been featured in top rated journals and conference proceedings. According to the Google scholar index, his papers have been cited 2,630 times and have an h-index of 25. He has received 33 grants — 23 he serves as the P.I. for, with funding over $33 million and his share, almost $4 million. Chang-Tien has graduated 6 PhD students and 31 masters’ students and currently supervising 13 PhD students.

One of the college’s certificate of teaching award goes to Tom Martin of electrical and computer engineering. Tom also has courtesy appointments in the School of Architecture and Design and the Department of Computer Science. He is also the associate director of the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology and the co-director of the E-textiles Lab. His research and teaching interests include wearable computing, electronic textiles, and interdisciplinary design teams for pervasive computing. In 2006 he was selected for the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for his research in e-textile-based wearable computing. Over the past few years Tom’s research has lead to the development of the InZone Alert Vest that includes radio sensors that construction workers can wear on or inside vests with connected vehicle technology that allows cars to “talk” to one another, roadside infrastructure, and personal electronics such as mobile phones.

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Alumnus Ryan McMahan receives NSF CAREER Development Award

May 10, 2016 laurie

Dr. Ryan McMahan, CS@VT alum and assistant professor in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and the School of Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communications, recently was awarded a $544,000, five-year grant to pursue a novel approach to workplace training using virtual reality (VR) technologies. The NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program provides support for junior faculty who have demonstrated outstanding research and teaching skills. McMahan graduated with his Ph.D. in computer science in 2011 under the guidance of professor Doug Bowman.

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4th Annual Spring Awards Banquet

May 10, 2016June 21, 2016 laurie

The Department of Computer Science hosted its 4th annual Spring Awards Banquet on Wednesday, April 27 at the Inn at Virginia Tech. A complete list of recognitions and award recipients is below.

Graduate Student Awards

Sanchit Chadha— Outstanding MS Award

Saurav Ghosh — Co-Author w/Naren Ramakrishnan (advisor) and others on Best Paper Award at SDM 2015
Mahdi Nabiyouni — Co-author w/Doug Bowman (advisor) on Best Paper Award at ICAT-EGVE 2015
Xiaokiu Shu —PhD Candidate, Outstanding PhD Award
Zheng Song — 2nd place in ACM Student Research Competition at MobileSoft 2015
Xiaodong Yu—Outstanding GTA Award

Undergraduate Student Awards

Melvin Amos—George Gorsline Award

Julia Binger—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Mary Carome—Junior Scholar Award
Peter Steele — ICPC Programming Team

Lance Chao—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Harrison Fang—Outstanding UTA Award

Matthew Favero—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Luciano Gonzalez—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Sean Goodrich—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Nicholas Greer—Junior Scholar Award

Marina Kiseleva—Undergraduate Service Award

Hangxin Liu—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Stu Harvey — ACM President

Noah Luther—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate, Outstanding Senior

Danh Nguyen—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate
Dustin Pho — ICPC Programming Team

Jayanth Prathipati—Outstanding UTA Award

Benjamin Pruett—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate, Outstanding UTA Award

Jishnu Renugopal—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Steven Roberts—Senior Scholar Award, Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Joseph Sebastian—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Andrew Sorrels—Senior Scholar Award, Phi Beta Kappa Candidate
Peter Steele — ICPC Programming Team

Melanie Trammell—Junior Scholar Award

Mitchell Wagner—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Tandy Walker—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Sebastian Welsh—Phi Beta Kappa Candidate

Joshua Willard—Junior Scholar Award

Eric Williamson—Sophomore Scholar Award

Chris Wu —ICPC Programming Team

CS Ambssadors

Michelle Becerra	Derek Messer
Brian Clarke	Sowmya Ranga
Emily Croeber	Joseph Sebastian
Joe Fletcher	Caroline Stewart
Christie Goddard	James Taylor
Latika Gulati	Jacob Teves
Xack Hinson	Hanna Vess
Marina Kiseleva	Amy Vogrig
Emma Manchester	Victor Weiss

2016 Phi Beta Kappa Inductees

Julia Binger	Benjamin Pruett
Lance Chao	Jishnu Renugopal
Matthew Favero	Steven Roberts
Luciano Gonzalez	Joseph Sebastian
Sean Goodrich	Andrew Sorrels
Hangxin Liu	Mitchell Wagner
Noah Luther	Tandy Walker
Danh Nguyen	Sebastian Welsh

Faculty and Staff Recognitions

Osman Balci — ACM SIGSIM Distinguished Contributions Award
Ing-Ray Chen — 2015 IEEE Communications Society William R. Bennett Prize in Communications Networking
Ginger Clayton —VT Staff Career Achievement Award
Debbie Cole —UOPD Administrative Professional Development Certificate
Barbara Ryder — COE Diversity Committee Award for Contributions to Diversity

Ed Fox — 2016 XCaliber Award

Dennis Kafura — 2016 XCaliber Award

C.T. Lu — 2016 COE Faculty Fellow and ACM Distinguished Scientist

Madhav Marathe — VT Scholar of the Week
T.M. Murali — 2016 COE Dean’s Excellence in Research Award

Barbara Ryder — COE Diversity Committee Award for Contributions to Diversity
Barbara Ryder, Libby Bradford, Greg Farris, Scott McCrickard — 2nd Place NCWIT NEXT Award
Cliff Shaffer — ACM Distinguished Educator
Adrian Sandu — ACM Distinguished Scientist
Anil Vulikanti — VT Scholar of the Week
Layne Watson — IEEE Life Fellow Award

New graduate certificate in data analytics gives students competitive edge in growing field

May 5, 2016 laurie

Beginning fall 2016, graduate students at Virginia Tech will be able to earn a graduate certificate in data analytics to better prepare them for careers in one of the nation’s fastest growing fields.

The 12 credit program — open to students both in Blacksburg and in the National Capital Region — is offered collaboratively by Virginia Tech’s computer science, electrical and computer engineering, and statistics departments and will be administered through the Discovery Analytics Center.

“With increasing demand for deeply technical expertise in data analytics and data science, Virginia Tech wants its students to have an edge when they compete for jobs in this field,” said Chris North, professor of computer science and associate director of the Discovery Analytics Center.

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CS@VT team wins NCWIT’s 2016 NEXT Award

April 28, 2016April 29, 2016 laurie

Virginia Tech’s Department of Computer Science (CS) has been honored with a 2016 National Center for Women and Information Technology Extension Services Transformation (NCWIT NEXT) award in recognition of their progress and continuing commitment to increase the participation of women in STEM education and careers.

“We are currently engaged in a visioning initiative to guide the university into the future, considering how we will prepare our students to solve complex problems, address global issues, and live and work in an increasingly diverse and interdependent world,” said Tim Sands, president of Virginia Tech, in his nomination support letter for the team. “Increasing the participation of women and other underrepresented groups in STEM fields such as computer science will be critical to meeting those challenges.”

The collaborative Virginia Tech CS team tied for second place with University of Texas at Austin and includes members: Libby Bradford, director of undergraduate studies; Greg Farris, academic and career advisor; Scott McCrickard, associate professor; and Barbara Ryder; the J. Byron Maupin Professor of Engineering; and Cathy Brawner, extension services consultant.

Funded by Google, the award program commends past and present extension services for undergraduate programs for excellence in recruiting and retaining women in computing, as having the most significant impact on the long-term goal of increasing the number of women in information technology and other computing-related fields. Awards will be presented at the NCWIT Summit on May 17, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Under Barbara Ryder’s leadership as former CS department head (2008-2015), CS increased the percentage of female CS majors from 4.2 percent in 2007 to 16.7 percent in 2015 and doubled the 2-year average percentage of female CS graduates since 2011 from 5.2 percent to 10.3 percent. In addition, from 2008-2015, the CS faculty has diversified from 10 percent female tenure-track professors to 21 percent. Ryder joined the Virginia Tech community in August 2008 and within one year, the department had established a diversity committee to coordinate and intensify recruiting strategies. “We are commited to diversify our CS student body and faculty,” said Ryder. “By partnering with NCWIT in various recruiting/retention activities with sister CS departments across the country and concerned IT industry representatives, we have been able to achieve progress towards our goal. I am proud of the participation of CS faculty, staff, and students in this effort.”

In November 2009, the program began working with Brawner, who assisted in formulation of goals and metrics for recruitment of female CS students and became an inaugural member of NCWIT Pacesetters. Partnerships were formed three years later with the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and the CoE Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED), to participate in the NCWIT Expanding the Pool grant to support joint recruiting of female students by both departments. Bradford, Leslie Pendleton, ECE director of student services, and Susan Arnold-Christian, associate director of CEED, led the program to broaden institutional participation at Virginia Tech in order to recruit more women in computing disciplines.

As part of their 2015 strategic plan, the department remains committed to addressing issues of diversity in faculty and student body. Through their proactive efforts in strengthening retention practices, especially for female students given the propensity for attrition seen elsewhere, they achieved comparable retention rates for males at 94 percent and females at 93.5 percent. The program seeks to expand with aggressive and realistic goals over the next three years, as outlined as follows:

to strengthen student women’s groups;
to support student travel to diversity in computing conferences;
to promote student self-efficacy through curriculum/pedagogy changes;
and to build a sense of community among female computing students.

Research confirms that self-efficacy of underrepresented groups in computing can be encouraged through experiences in key areas including the opportunity to watch, interact, and learn from viable role models in the field.

Allison Collier and Kara Vaillancourt, both juniors in computer science with minors in meteorology and mathematics respectively, are student ambassadors for CS and attend STEM events throughout the state of Virginia in anticipation of engaging potential students to stimulate pursuit of a computer science education. “Being a part of the department is truly inclusive,” said Vaillancourt. “Last year I spoke 200 high schools students in northern Virginia about studying computer science at Virginia Tech and the positive impact it has had on my life. I also attended an exciting outreach event called Women in Computing Day, put on by the Association for Women in Computing chapter at Virginia Tech, which encourages middle school girls to get involved with technology.” Vaillancourt and Collier each won a National Award for Aspirations in Computing in 2013. As stated by NCWIT, “Award recipients are selected based on their aptitude and aspirations in technology and computing; leadership ability; academic history; and plans for post-secondary education.”

Future plans for the CS department include increasing interaction between their alumni and enrolled students, forming more alliances across the College of Engineering to include the Department of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, and widening their focus to target recruitment of minority students as well as increased percentages of women.

Barbara Ryder (front), Scott McCrickard (left), Greg Farris (middle), Libby Bradford (right)

Dennis Kafura receives XCaliber Award

April 25, 2016 laurie

Dennis Kafura, professor in the Department of Computer Science, has received the university’s 2016 XCaliber Award for an individual making extraordinary contributions to technology enriched active learning.

Established in 1996 by the Office of the Provost, the XCaliber Award is presented annually by Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies to recognize individual faculty members or teams of faculty and staff who integrate technology in teaching and learning. The award celebrates innovative, student-centered approaches.

Kafura was a member of the university task force that defined learning objectives in the Pathways General Education area of Quantitative and Computational Thinking. As a result of these new objectives, he created and now teaches CS 1014, an Introduction to Computational Thinking course.

The course provides students with a perspective on the core ideas of computation and the methodology central to the practice of computing. Kafura’s teaching methodology centers around hands-on approaches and student engagement.

Students are actively engaged in setting the parameters of their data sets, posing the questions, and developing the program to answer their questions. To encourage collaboration, students are assigned cohorts of five to six students in which class participation and activities are completed.

CS 1014 is offered as an introductory course open to all majors. After just two offerings of the course in Fall 2014 and Spring 2015, student feedback showed student engagement was successful.

Kafura received his bachelor’s degree from the University of San Francisco and his master’s and doctorate degrees from Purdue University.

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Ed Fox receives XCaliber Award

April 25, 2016April 28, 2016 laurie

Edward A. Fox, professor in the Department of Computer Science, has received the university’s 2016 XCaliber Award for making extraordinary contributions to technology enriched active learning.

Established in 1996 by the Office of the Provost, the XCaliber Award is present annually by Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies to recognize individual faculty members or teams of faculty and staff who integrate technology in teaching and learning. The award celebrates innovative, student-centered approaches.

Fox received the award in recognition for his work in developing and enhancing two new computer science courses, CS 4984, Computational Linguistics and CS 5604, Informational Retrieval.

The Computational Linguistics course gives students the opportunity to engage in active learning about how to work with large collections of text. Students engage in problem based learning with the challenge of analyzing content collections automatically, extracting key information, and generating easily readable summaries of important events.

The Information Retrieval course requires graduate students to analyze, index, store, search, retrieve, process, and present information and documents using fully automatic systems.

Both courses are focused on student engagement and mastery of the material. The objectives of the courses provide students with skills that are in great demand.

Fox led the campus to join the Cloudera Academic Partnership in 2015, providing the university with educational resources and support provided by this leading company in the area.

He received his bachelor’s degree from M.I.T. and his master’s degree and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University.

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Dennis Kafura’s Computational Thinking course part of the new Pathways to General Education curriculum

April 25, 2016 laurie

The implementation plan for Virginia Tech’s new general education curriculum, Pathways to General Education, was approved after a vote Monday at University Council. The implementation plan maps out how the new curriculum, which was approved in April 2015 to replace the current Curriculum for Liberal Education, will be phased in at the university.

Pathways to General Education will go into effect for new students entering in fall 2018. In the meantime, with the passage of the implementation plan, faculty will soon be able to propose courses, minors, and alternative pathways for approval. An official call for proposals will go out through Virginia Tech News. Reviews will begin in fall 2016, with some courses beginning as pilots in 2017.

Over the past couple of years, faculty have begun piloting courses that will meet the new Pathways to General Education requirements. Dennis Kafura, CS@VT professor, piloted a computational thinking course, which will expose students from a variety of disciplines to this way of solving problems. “Personally, I had little experience teaching a general education course – let alone developing one – and my career-long teaching was strongly oriented toward a traditional lecture model,” Kafura said. “However, the ‘computational thinking’ course came to include active learning, peer learning, problem-based learning, and a dash of flipping the classroom.”

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Ginger Clayton receives Staff Career Achievement Award

April 25, 2016 laurie

Virginia Clayton, retired business manager in the Department of Computer Science, has received the university’s 2015 Staff Career Achievement Award. Clayton retired from the university in August 2015 after 30 years of service.

Created in 2011 to recognize retiring staff members, the Staff Career Achievement Award is presented annually to as many as five individuals who have distinguished themselves through exemplary performance and service during their university careers. Nominees must have worked a minimum of 10 years at Virginia Tech. Each recipient is awarded $1,000 cash prize.

As business manager for the Department of Computer Science, Clayton used her fiscal expertise to help navigate budget cuts, pay back departmental loans, initiate and design the faculty grant incentives program, as well as to pass both external and internal audits successfully.
The grant incentives program rewards faculty members who received larger research grants, with incentive awards of increasing magnitude for larger grants. As a result, research funding saw an increase from $20 million to $43.4 million in six years. Clayton’s fiscal and facilities responsibilities directly related to her support in an increasingly high caliber of faculty and graduate student research.

Clayton was considered the “go to” person in the department, as well as in the College of Engineering, among other business managers on campus, and the Office of Special Projects. She was known for her ability to solve problems without hesitation.

Alongside her work within the Department of Computer Science, she also served on the Total Quality Management Team and Steering Committee for University Research for more than two years. Clayton was also a member of the Virginia Society of Research Administrators.

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Ginger Clayton