NEWS HEADLINES Fall 2005

NEWS ARCHIVE Fall 2005

Just The Headlines

Gates Gives $25 Mill for CIS Building Date: January 31, 2006
Medynskiy '06 Is CRA Finalist Date: November 31, 2005
GDIAC Fall '05 Showcase Date: November 16, 2005
Halpern Elected AAAS Fellow Date: November 7, 2005

NSF Grants $2 Million for Cybertools Research Date: October 17, 2005
Cornell Computer Science Celebrates 40th! Date: October 7 , 2005

Kleinberg Named MacArthur Fellow Date: September 20, 2005
BOOM 2006 Date Announced Date: September 14, 2005
Search Committee Includes CS Faculty, Alum Date: September 13, 2005

CU Profs Earn Teaching Kudos Date: August 3, 2005

Graduation Awards 2005 Date: Thursday, June 2, 2005

The News (headlines with text)

Gates Gives $25 Mill for CIS Building Date: January 31, 2006 A $25 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will support the construction of a new building to house Cornell's Faculty of Computing and Information Science (CIS). The building, which will be named William H. Gates Hall, will be central to a planned information campus, encompassing the academic and research activities of several programs and disciplines at Cornell. Robert Constable, dean of CIS, remarked that the Gates' gift will "foster the sweeping integration of computing and information science into every field of study on campus and further facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration." For more on the plans for Gates Hall and the new information campus read the recent story in the Cornell Chronicle: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan06/GatesCIS.ws.html.

Medynskiy '06 is CRA Finalist Date: November 31, 2005 The Computing Research Association (CRA) has named Eugene Medynskiy CS '06 a 2006 Outstanding Undergraduate Award finalist. The award recognizes computer science undergraduates in US and Canadian Universities who "show outstanding potential in an area of computing research". Eugene was nominated for the award by the CS faculty. His research is cross-disciplinary; at Cornell he has collaborated with Dan Huttenlocher and Jon Kleinberg CS, Phoebe Sengers S&TS, Geri Gay COMM, and Michael Macy SOC. Eugene has worked with Cornell's Human-Computer Interaction Group since his freshman year, and his work with HCI earned him the 2005 BOOM Student Spotlight (www.cis.cornell.edu/boom/2005/studentspotlight.htm).

GDIAC Fall '05 Showcase Date: November 16, 2005 The Game Design Initiative at Cornell (GDIAC) will present Fall '05 projects in a showcase to be held on December 6, 2005. Seventeen game development and research projects can be viewed (and played) in Upson 315/319 from 3-6 pm.

Halpern Elected AAAS Fellow Date: November 7, 2005 Professor Joe Halpern has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), an international organization that "seeks to advance science and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people. In addition to publishing Science and other science-related publications, hosting scientific conferences and meetings, and helping scientists advance their careers, AAAS undertakes numerous programs and activities that promote science to the public and monitor issues which affect the scientific community." Halpern joins six other CS faculty who have been similarly recognized for their contributions to science.

NSF Grants $2M for Cybertools Research Date: October 17, 2005 An interdisciplinary group of computer scientists and social scientists at Cornell will develop “cybertools” for social sciences research. Using the Internet Archive as the primary source of data, these tools will extract and analyze information to research the diffusion of innovation via the web. CS Professors William Arms , Dan Huttenlocher and Jon Kleinberg are taking part in this endeavor. Huttenlocher delivered a cybertools presentation to the National Science Foundation earlier this summer. Professor Geri Gay, CIS, is also involved, and Professor Michael W. Macy , sociology department chair, is the project's principal investigator. For more information on the Institute of Social Sciences theme project, of which this effort is a part, see: socialsciences.cornell.edu/0508/networks_desc.html#description.

Cornell Computer Science Celebrates 40th! Date: October 7, 2005. A 40th Anniversary Symposium was held by the Department of Computer Science, brinign eleven distinguished alumni to Duffield Hall to speak on all things CS, ranging from algorithms to databases to web searches. Nearly 250 alumni, faculty, and research staff attended the two-day event, celebrating forty years of leadership in education and research. Speaker biographies and a list of the talks are posted at: www.cs.cornell.edu/Events/40years/index.htm.

Kleinberg Named MacArthur Fellow Date: September 20, 2005. Professor Jon Kleinberg '93 is the recipient of a 2005 MacArthur Fellowship, recognizing his work in algorithm analysis and network theory. CS department chair, Charles Van Loan, remarked that Kleinberg is among those computer scientists who are "advancing the state of 'network science' with inventive ideas and techniques." Kleinberg earned SM (1994) and PhD (1996) degrees from MIT , and conducted his early work on search algorithms for the internet while at IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, with which he has maintained a connection as a member of the Visiting Faculty. Reflecting on his experience as a CS undergraduate, Kleinberg remarked that "one thing I benefited from considerably was Cornell's ongoing tradition of trying to involve undergraduates in research very early". Kleinberg has been a member of the CS faculty since 1996 and is the co-author with Professor Eva Tardos of a new text, "Algorithm Design". More about Kleinberg's achievement appeared in the Cornell Chronicle (http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept05/KleinbergMacArthur.bpf.html) as well as in today's Cornell Daily Sun (http://www.cornelldailysun.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/09/21/4330fcc48c97a).

BOOM 2006 Date Announced Date: September 14, 2005. BOOM 2006, the annual student showcase of digital technology and applications will be held in the atrium of Duffield Hall on March 8, 2006. Entries for the BOOM '06 logo contest are being sought. Here are some details; e-mail boom@cs.cornell.edu if you have questions.

Presidential Search Committee Includes CS Faculty, Alum Date: Sept. 13, 2005. The search committee formed to nominate a successor to former Cornell President Jeffrey S. Lehman includes two familiar faces: Professor Juris Hartmanis, CS, and Douglas Mitarotonda, '02, MEng '03. Mitarotonda, currently a PhD student in Economics, is a student-elected member of the Cornell Board of Trustees. Hartmanis, the founding chairman of the department of computer science at Cornell is the Walter R. Read Professor Emeritus in Engineering, and the senior associate dean for computing and information science. Search Committee updates can be found at: www.cornell.edu/presidentsearch/ .

CU Profs Earn Teaching Kudos Date: August 3, 2005. CS professors Jai Shanmugasundaram and Joe Halpern were honored with 2005 College of Engineering Teaching Awards. Professor Shanmugasundaram, who joined the CS faculty in 2001, teaches database courses. Professor Halpern often teaches CS 280, a course required for the CS major.

Graduation Awards 2005 Date: June 2, 2005 Senior awards were presented as part of the Computer Science class of 2005 commencement ceremony on Hoy Field on Sunday, May 29, 2005. Eric Tsu '05 and Radha Narayan '05 were the recipients of the Jonathan E. Marx Senior Prize, awarded annually for demonstrated leadership, service, and extra-curricular activity. The Alan S. Marx Memorial Prize for Excellence Supporting Undergraduate Education was awarded to Radha Narayan '05, recognizing her efforts as a consultant and TA for CS 100. The Computer Science Prize for Academic Excellence, given by the CS faculty, was awarded to Paul Shafer '05 .

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Last updated September 14, 2005. For more information email us: ugrad@cs.cornell.edu.