News Archive Fall 2001

Just The Headlines

The News (headlines with text)

Architecture Students Use New Design Software Date: Friday, December 14,  2001.  Students in a design studio class co-taught by Don Greenberg (CS) and Moreno Piccoletto (ARCH) are using beta versions of Autodesk's Architectural Studio and VIZ 4 programs, innovative design software that when coupled with an internet connection and a videoconferencing system, provide both the design tools and the ability for students to get professional feedback on their work.   Autodesk's Press Release can be accessed at: http://www3.autodesk.com/adsk/item/0,,994015-123112,00.html.

Allegra Angus '02 Wins Top Research Award Date: Thursday, December 13,  2001. 
Allegra Angus '02 is one of only two recipients of the Computing Research Association's Outstanding Undergraduate Award for 2002.  This award recognizes Allegra as the top female computer science undergraduate nationwide. Allegra's independent research, in the application of Kleene algebra to computer programming, was carried out under Professor Dexter Kozen. Allegra also cites Keshav Pingali as an important influence to her education. In addition to recognizing her research, the award acknowledges Allegra's academic performance and her service to the community (see: http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicles/12.13.01/Angus.html). This is a great honor for an exceptional young woman. Congratulations, Allegra!

CS Students Help Build Database to Track Bacteria Date: Thursday, December 6,  2001.  Software that compares the genetic characteristics of bacterial strains to visual images of those characteristics at the molecular level will be used to track food-borne pathogens.  Developed by a team of graduate and undergraduate students in food science, engineering and computer science, the software greatly increases the efficiency and speed with which researchers can identify bacterial strains. The project was initiated by Martin Wiedmann, professor of food science. Computer science students involved in the project are: Michael Chung  '02;  Xiaozheng Zhong '00, MEng '01; David Wang '00, MEng '01; Joe Huang '00, MEng '01; Janet Cheng '01; Mike Bolander '03; and Ernie Ho MEng '01.  This project has been featured in the Spring 2002 Issue of Engineering.  See: http://www.engineering.cornell.edu/engrMagazine/magazine.cfm?issue=SPRING2002&page_number=1&section=feature2

Computational Biology Service Unit Opens Date: Monday, December 3,  2001.  Access to supercomputing power is now available to molecular biology researchers through the Computational Biology Service Unit (CBSU) in Rhodes Hall.  Ron Elber, associate director of the Theory Center and director of the CBSU explains: "CBSU has undertaken the task of making computation accessible to non-computational scientists..." Read more at: http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicles/11.29.01/TC-comp_bio.html.

Cornell SWE Hosts Regional Meeting Date: Thursday, November 29, 2001.  Participants at the regional meeting of the Society for Woman Engineers (SWE), held at Cornell on November 16-18, attended workshops and  lectures, and networked with engineering professionals.  Long-term objectives of SWE are to increase the participation of young women in engineering and to increase diversity among engineering faculty. Cornell's student chapter of SWE, founded in 1972, has recently been recognized, along with the Stanford University chapter, as the Best National Student Section. More information about SWE is available at: http://www.rso.cornell.edu/swe/. For the complete text of a Cornell Chronicle article highlighting the conference see: http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicles/11.29.01/engin_diversity.html.

Visual Studies Program Takes Shape Date: Wednesday, November 28, 2001.  A new concentration in visual studies is taking shape at Cornell, driven by the interests and skills of students and faculty, and with an awareness of the growing prevalence of visual materials in contemporary culture.  The new concentration provides an academic context for an emerging, multidisciplinary field.  According to Marilyn Rivchin, a senior lecturer in the Department of Theatre, Film and Dance, the concentration is intended to meet the needs of students who would build their studies of the visual around established fields of study as far-ranging as film, art history, theater design, and computer imaging.  For more details on this new concentration, see: http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicles/11.15.01/visual_studies.html.

Computer Graphics Research May Aid Low Vision Sufferers Date: Thursday, November 20, 2001.  Web-browser enhancements and hand-held devices that will help people with low vision are the likely outcomes of research being conducted by James Ferwerda PhD '98.  Working with the Minnesota Laboratory for Low-Vision Research, Ferwerda hopes that computer models that simulate how people with low vision see the world will guide the development of image processing and other technologies. The project is also supported by the Cornell Program of Computer Graphics, which is directed by Professor Don Greenberg. A Cornell Chronicle story detailing this research appears at: http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicles/12.13.01/low-vision.html.

Gries and Son Publish JAVA Software Course Date: Thursday, November 8, 2001.  ProgramLive is an interactive “course in a box” that features a multimedia “livetext” CD on JAVA programming. Recently published by John Wiley and Sons, ProgramLive was co-authored by Professor David Gries, former Cornell Computer Science faculty member, currently at University of Georgia, and his son Paul Gries ’93, MEng ’94. Paul Gries is presently teaching at the University of Toronto. ProgramLive provides hands-on programming instruction in an innovative format. Containing more than 250 recorded lectures, music and animations, the self-paced course includes quizzes, homework and projects. For use in introductory college and high school computer science courses, this instructional approach is intended, in part, to address a growing demand for introductory programming instruction. For more information see the ProgramLive website: www.wiley.com/college/gries.

"Cornell Wireless Campus" Initiative Funded Date: Monday, November 5, 2001.  CS faculty members Gun Sirer and Johannes Gehrke, and ECE's Stephen Wicker have received funding from Hewlett-Packard to provide mobile, wireless handheld devices for use by students and the accompanying wireless base stations and servers to support them.  Professor Sirer adds: "This equipment has enabled us to update the core curriculum to address the computing challenges of the new millenium; namely the emergence of ubiquitous computers, wireless connectivity, and mobile, peer-to-peer, ad hoc computing."

Credit Suisse First Boston Sponsors BOOM '02 Date: Friday, November 2, 2001.  CSFB of Manhattan announced this week that they would become the sponsor of this year's science and technology fair.  BOOM features over 40 student projects covering a vast array of technologies and research topics.  For more information see: http: www.cs.cornell.edu/boom

Digital Libraries Group to Move to Collegetown Date: Friday, November 2, 2001.  In May of next year the Digital Libraries Group will move to a satellite location at 301 College Avenue.  The move represents an expansion of Cornell's efforts in Computer and Information Science.

Cornell Team Wins ACM Regional Contest Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2001.  Student teams from Cornell took first and tenth place in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Greater New York Regional Programming Contest held at Nassau County Community College in Garden City, NY on October 28, 2001. On the first place team were Jeff Hoy MEng, and Lars Backstrom '04, and Michael Conner '04.  The tenth place team included three undergrads: Bill Barksdale ('05), Frances Spaulding ('03) and Jacob Hoffman-Andrews ('03).  Teams were coached by PhD students David Kempe and Martin Pal.

Vetsikas Places Third in International Competition Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2001. CS PhD student Ioannis Vetsikas placed third in the International Trading Competition held in conjunction with the 2001 ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce.  The competition, an on-line market game, simulates a travel shopping scenario, with each entrant playing the role of travel agent for a number of clients.  Congratulations, Ioannis!  More details about the competition can be found at: http://auction2.eecs.umich.edu/game.html.

CS 513 Section (Spring 2002) Rescheduled Date: Tuesday, October 23, 2001. Previously scheduled to conflict with the meeting time of another CS course, the section for CS 513 (System Security) will be held instead on Monday evenings at 7:30-9:30.  This change should be reflected in the online roster by the end of this week.  Please refer to that source for the most up-to-date course information:  http://www.cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/RSS2/

Digital Library Software To Be Developed at Cornell Date: Thursday, October 18, 2001. Cornell's Digital Science Library Group will receive NSF funding to develop "portals" to provide online access to source materials in science.  Intended for use by educators and students from kindergarten through college, the National Science Digital Library will make previously hard to find materials more readily available.  William Arms, CS faculty member, will be heading the project.  For more details, read the complete Chronicle article at: http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicles/10.18.01/online_sci_library.html.

CS 414 Moves to Kaufman Auditorium Date: Monday, September 17, 2001. Effective this Thursday, September 20,  the 10:10-11:25 am CS 414 lecture will meet in the Kaufman Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall, instead of  in 146 Morrison. 

Undergrads Win Computational Biology Scholarship Date: Friday, September 7, 2001. Ben Mathew '03,  a CS major in the College of Engineering, and Vlad Muste, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, are the joint recipients of a computational biology scholarship grant.  Given by Joseph R. ('60) and Dr. Pauline Degenfelder ('61), this special grant was awarded with the assistance of Professor Ron Elber, leader of the computational biology group at Cornell.  

Wireless Network Grows at Cornell  Date: Friday, August 24, 2001.  Wireless networking on campus will become available this fall, eventually expanding from sites initially established by the NOMAD project (see "Laptops, in-class browsing studied" ) to 120 campus sites.  CIT's RedRover will enable laptop users with a wireless card installed to connect to the internet without plugging in.  A list of the sites and the details about subscribing to the free service are available at: http://www.cit.cornell.edu/redrover/.

Virtual Reality Learning Space   Date: Friday, August 24, 2001.  The Cornell Theory Center, Cornell researchers and undergrads, and local high school students are collaborating on efforts to develop SciCentr, a Virtual Reality Science Museum.  Via the internet, visitors to the museum can observe, among other things, protein folding in action and representations of other phenomenon that are either impossible or too costly to observe in the real world. Information about SciCentr and all of CTC's informal science outreach programs is available at http://www.scicentr.org. 

Graduation 2001 Awards Date: Monday, June 25, 2001. Jonathan Marx Senior Prizes were awarded to Joseph R. Aliperti and Joseph Robert Polastre.  These prizes recognize outgoing and energetic students who are community minded. The Alan Marx Teaching Award was given to Brandon Roy Bray '01, for excellence in the support of undergraduate teaching.  The Marx senior awards are provided in memory of Jonathan Marx '85 and his father Alan Marx, JD '61. 

The Computer Science Prize for Academic Excellence was given to Richard Ryan Williams. This award is given annually at graduation and recognizes a student who has achieved excellence in academics, promise in the area of research (typically, published work), and a commitment to the field of Computer Science in terms of teaching and/or other leadership activities.

2000-2001 Consulting Awards  Date: June 18, 2001.  At the department's annual award ceremony on May 9th, eight undergrads were recognized for their outstanding contributions as course consultants and undergrad TAs. These students provide an invaluable service to both the teaching staff and the students enrolled in computer science courses. The 2000-2001 award winners are Brandon Bray '01 (CS 312), Young Cho '01 (CS 100), Bobby Chow '01 (CS 100), Rob Cronin '01 (CS 314), Ben Mathew '03 (CS 100), Doug Mitarotonda '02 (CS 100), Joe Polastre '01 (CS 280 and 482), and Praveen Rajasethupathy '03 (CS 100).

| top |

Last updated February 11, 2003. For more information email us at ugrad@cs.cornell.edu .