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All three of Cornell's nominees honored at 2010 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award competition

In the 2010 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award competition, all three of Cornell's nominees were honored!

Christina Brandt received an honorable mention for the Female Award.
Andrew Owens was a finalist for the Male Award.
Di Wang was one of two runner-ups for the Male Award. His citation is here:
http://www.cra.org/Activities/awards/undergrad/2010.wang.html

Congratulations to them all!

The full listing of awardees can be found here:
http://www.cra.org/Activities/awards/undergrad/2010.html

Cornell teams placed 1st, 5th, and 18th at this year's ACM greater New York regional programming contest

Cornell teams placed 1st, 5th, and 18th at this year's ACM greater New York regional programming contest.  The winning team (which beat teams from Columbia, NYU, Princeton, and Yale, among others; 51 teams competed in all) gets to advance to the finals, marking the 4th year in a row that Cornell has been represented at the internationals.

The three teams, all coached by CS senior Haden Lee, were;

1st place: Cornell Big Red Bears
Yun Jiang  [1st year PhD, CS]
Jiaqi Zhai [Unaffiliated/ENGR, sophomore] Jong Hwi Lee [CS/ENG, senior] (one rookie)

5th place: Cornell Big Red Bees
Yu Cheng  [CS/ENG, sophomore]
Supasorn Suwajanakorn [CS/ENG, senior]
Pakawat Phalitnonkiat [Math, senior]
(two rookies)

18th place: Cornell Big Red Beans
Jae Yong Sung [CS/ENG, junior]
Kyu-Young Kim [Unaffiliated/ENG, sophomore] Seok Hyun [CS/ENG, sophomore] (two rookies)

Full standings available at: http://www.acmgnyr.org/year2009/standings.shtml

Congratulations to the Cornell teams!

Jason Rohrer named one of the Best and Brightest by Esquire magazine Date: November 2008

Jason Rohrer '01, CS major, was named one of Esquire Magazine's "Best and brightest 2008" for his work on emotional and artistic video games, and his game "Gravitation" won the Jury Prize at IndieCade 2008. The article describes Jason's innovative games. "By carefully constructing an alternate reality, bit by bit, Rohrer has been able to make the same creative leap that many artists have made in the past. His games start with an emotion, an observation about the poignancy of a certain set of trade-offs inherent to being alive; Rohrer then figures out how to abstract and encode these trade-offs using math and images. This is why Rohrer's games, while sharing a common aesthetic -- often pixelated, retro cute, allusive to video-game hits of the past -- feel so different from one another." Read the full article at Equire's website.

Tanya Gupta '09 receives Merrill Scholars Award Date: March 2009

Tanya Gupta '09 is a recipient of the 2009 Merrill Scholars Award. Merrill Presidential Scholars are graduating Cornell seniors who have demonstrated outstanding scholastic achievement, strong leadership ability, and the potential for contributing to society. Every spring semester, the deans of Cornell's seven undergraduate colleges select scholars representing the top one percent of graduating seniors, for this honor. The Merrill Presidential Scholars Program honors the excellence of Cornell undergraduates, as well as the high school and university faculty members who have contributed to their lives. The university wishes to acknowledge the community of teaching not only for conveying knowledge to students but also for inspiring them.(www.alumni.cornell.edu/merrill/)

CS Major Tal Rusak Wins Prestigious Computing Research Association Award Date: 2009

Tal Rusak '09 has been selected the winner of the Computing Research Association's Outstanding Undergraduate Award (male) 2009. The award includes a cash prize of $1,000 and a plaque. A copy of the announcement as it will appear in the January 2009 issue of Computing Research News will be posted on CRA's website (www.cra.org).

Given the results of this year's CRA competition, Cornell University is now tied for #1, with CMU and MIT, in number of winners of the CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Awards. One male undergraduate and one female undergraduate receive this award among all undergraduates in North America studying any area of computing research.

Cornell's three winners since 1995, the inception of the award, are: Allegra Angus, 2002; Omar Khan, 2003; and Tal Rusak, 2009.

Schools with two winners are Berkeley, Dartmouth, North Carolina State, Princeton, and U Washington.

Co-Op Program Awards Date: 2008

In 2008, CS students were honored with awards for their demonstrated leadership, initiative, and innovation in the Co-op Program. Andrew Hurrell received Distinguished Honor. Joseph Dao, Charles Xeller, Sujith Vidanapathirana and Peter Yu were recognized as Exemplary Student Ambassadors.

Graduation Awards 2008 Date: May 25, 2008
On May 25, 2008, CS students were honored with awards for their dedication amid the Computer Science Class of 2008 Graduation Ceremony. Eric Frackleton and Aaron Sidford were awarded the Jonathan E. Marx Senior prize, awarded annually for demonstrated leadership, service, and extra-curricular activity. Tyler Steele was the recipient of the Alan S. Marx Memorial Prize for Excellence Supporting Undergraduate Education for his years of dedicated service as a TA and course consultant. David Golland was awarded the Computer Science Prize for Academic Excellence, given by the CS faculty.

CS Majors win Honorable Mention in the Computing Research Association Awards Program Date: Nov. 29, 2007

Kareem Amin '08, Tyler Steele '08, and Siu Yu Cherie Kwan '08, received Honorable Mentions at the Computing Research Association's 2008 Outstanding Undergraduate Awards Program. The Selection Committee, headed by Dick Waters, of Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, chose students based on their outstanding research potential in an area of computing. The nominees must attend a North American college or university, and went through a rigorous nomination process. Many of the Finalists and Honorable Mentions made significant contributions to more than one research project, several were authors or coauthors on multiple papers, and some had produced software artifacts that are in widespread use. A number have been involved in successful summer research or internship programs, many have been teaching assistants, mentors, and have had significant involvement in community volunteer efforts. A cash prize of $1,000 was awarded to the male and female winners. A small number of other outstanding candidates were recognized as Runners-Up and Finalists. Nominees whose work is considered to be exemplary were recognized with Honorable Mentions.

Cornell Team Wins ACM Contest Date: Nov. 6, 2007

At the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Greater New York Programming Contest on November 4th, three teams from Cornell placed in the top twenty. In the ACM competitions, teams of three students are supplied with computers loaded with several programming languages and asked to write programs to solve a series of problems. The winner is the team that correctly solves the most problems in the shortest time. The first place team included Anand Bhaskar, CS '08. CS undergraduate Vincent Chan, '09, participated in the team that placed 11th. Computer Science majors Vivek Maharajh, '09, and Vaibhav Goel, '10 were part of the team that placed 16th in the regional contest. Team members are chosen through competition on campus that is open to all students and not limited to computer science majors. This year, 48 teams participated in the Greater New York Contest. The winning team members Hooyeon Lee, Anand Bhaskar, and Dustin Tseng will compete against over 80 teams at the world finals. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov07/ACMcontest07.ws.html

Cornell has one of the Top Six Cars in the Darpa Urban Challenge Date: Nov. 3, 2007
On November 3, students met in Victorville, California for the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge, an event where vehicles are tested for their ability to navigate in an urban setting using artificial intelligence. Six university-affiliated teams designed cars that were able to navigate streets, obey traffic laws, and merge and avoid other vehicles. Cornell's team, which included CS majors Frank-Robert Kline '09 and Jason Catlin '08, designed the "Skynet," a converted Chevy Tahoe, which became one of 11 vehicles selected to complete three simulated military-supply missions in an urban setting for final testing. It is expected that vehicles such as the Skynet and others that participated in the testing will provide a framework for future research in the development of technology that can be applied to military vehicles. http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Nov07/DarpaUrban.final.ws.html

Graduation Awards 2007 Date: May 27, 2007
On May 27, 2007, CS students were honored with awards for their dedication amid the Computer Science Class of 2007 Graduation Ceremony. Rafael Frongillo and Andrew Salamatov were awarded the Jonathan E. Marx Senior prize, awarded annually for demonstrated leadership, service, and extra-curricular activity. Zachary Scherr was the recipient of the Alan S. Marx Memorial Prize for Excellence Supporting Undergraduate Education for his years of dedicated service as a TA and course consultant. The Computer Science Prize for Academic Excellence, given by the CS faculty, was also awarded to Zachary Scherr.

Bits on Our Mind Annual Research Conference Showcases Student Projects Date: Feb. 28, 2007

The Cornell Computer Science department hosted the annual research conference on February 28th, 2007 in the Duffield Atrium. Bits On Our Minds (BOOM) is an annual research conference that showcases student efforts and creativity in digital technology and applications. Participation is open to all Cornell students, and attendance includes a diverse group from the greater Cornell community as well as many visitors. The February 28th event began with an opening ceremony. Afterward, visitors circulated the Duffield Atrium to view projects and interactive displays. The project displays tables filled the entire Duffield atrium, which was packed with local residents, grade school students, and Cornell students, faculty, and staff. Cornell Undergraduates presented projects in the areas of gaming and entertainment, engineering, robotics and hardward, database and information, artificial intelligence, education, and biological sciences. Four awards were presented at the closing ceremony of BOOM. Award recipients were chosen by event sponsors, popular vote, and faculty committee selection. Joseph Nelson received the Where's the BOOM faculty committee award for his Media, Art, and Graphics project. Event sponsor Credit Suisse awarded the group Nathan Ward, Spencer Topel, and Kevin Ernste for their project Sound sculpture: timbre and movement. Event sponsor Cisco awarded Sarah Bates and Adrian Wong for their amEbot: an Amorphous Robot project. The People's choice award went to the Cornell Ranger, designed by Matthew Haberland, Megan Berry, Stephane Constantin, Andrew Mui, Hsiang wei Lee, Avtar Khalsa, Alexis Collins, Yingyi Tan, and Pranav Bhounsule. Project details are available at the BOOM website: http://web3.cs.cornell.edu/boomsubmission/ The event was covered by News 10 now, and the article is available at: http://www.news10now.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=96765

CS Department now offers a Minor in Game Design; CIS Game Design Courses enhance Undergraduate Software Design Experience Date: Feb. 2007

Software design experience is available to Cornell Undergraduates through Computing and Information Science courses and The Game Design Minor. The introductory courses Computing and Information Science (CIS) 300 and CIS 400 offer an overview of game theory and game industry. These courses introduce 3D and networked technology. The courses challenge students to complete a project using their knowledge of engineering design and theory. In addition to design courses, the Computer Science Department offers a minor in the area of design. The Game Design minor was introduced in Fall 2006 and is available to any Cornell undergraduate student. It offers experience in software development and interdisciplinary teamwork. Courses for the minor include areas such as computer graphics, animation, artificial intelligence and the psychology of media and human-computer interaction. For more information: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Feb07/GDIAC.ws.html

CS Students to compete in ACM International Programming Contest Date: Jan. 2007

Three Cornell students will compete in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) International Collegiate Programming Contest, March 12-16, at Tokyo Disneyland Resort in Maihama, Japan. The competition includes 88 teams from universities around the world. The students placed second in the Greater New York Regional Association ACM contest, Oct. 29, in Garden City, N.Y., allowing them to compete in the International Contest. Computer Science undergraduate Anand Bhaskar '08 joined CS alum Nitin Gupta '03 and Cornell student Michael Cheng in the Regional ACM Programming Contest. With Lars Backstrom '04 as team coach, the group placed second by solving eight of the nine problems presented. The other two Cornell teams placed third and fifth in the regional contest. These Cornell student teams included Michael Cheng, Hooyeon Lee, Yisong Yue, Vivek Maharajh, Ymir Vigfusson, Dustin Lee Harber, and Changxi Cheng, with Lars Backstrom as coach. For more information: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Jan07/ACM07.ws.html

Cornell Undergraduates win CRA Honorable Mention Date: Dec. 2006

Several Cornell Computer Science students received Honorable Mention in the 2007 CRA Undergraduate Award. The Computing Research Association rewards undergraduate students nationwide based on a demonstrated excellence in research. The award is for students who engage in quality research in computing, present an excellent academic research, and participate in community service. Winners receive a cash prize sponsored by Microsoft Research. Runners-Up, Finalists, and Honorable Mentions are given to students who have exemplary work. The Cornell Computer Science Department nominated Kelly Conway and Evan Herbst for the CRA awards. Kelly and Evan received Honorable Mention in the female and male categories, respectively. Kelly's portfolio included a letter of recommendation from Professor Michael Spivey for her work in his Language Action Perception Dynamics Laboratory, using an eye-tracker to assess visual and linguistic data. Kelly researched Human and Algorithmic Performance on Text Classification Tasks with CS Professor Thorsten Joachims. Evan Herbst also conducted research for Professor Joachims. He extended Professor Joachim's structure-learning software package with Support Vector Machines to map a set of vectors to a structure that describes the input as a whole. This was applied to Hidden Markov Models, and the software is very successful at correctly assigning vectors to large data sets. Evan also developed a computer model for finding Signal Peptides, which are proteins distinguished by special sequences. Both students received nominations from the Department chair of Computer Science, Eva Tardos, in addition to letters from several Professors. The Winners and Runners-Up are listed at the Computing Research Association website.
For more information: http://www.cra.org/Activities/awards/undergrad/2007.html

Cornell Computer Game Design Showcase Date: Dec. 5, 2006

The Cornell Computing and Information Science digital games showcase on December 5th attracted hundreds of game enthusiasts to Upson Hall. The Cornell Game Design Initiative presented the event, which hosted teams of undergraduate and graduate student programmers who produced games while enrolled in CIS300 or CIS400. This semester's event also included projects from CS212 and INFO 640. Over 200 Cornell students, staff, and local school children attended the showcase to play computer games and meet the Cornell students. The showcase featured games produced by teams of student artists, musicians, and programmers. The game Spellcrafter, produced by Michael Arsers, Ben Kalb, Danny Beer, and Amber Secrest, prompted the gamer to combine elements and shapes to cast spells against an opponent. The Experimental Game Play group included Chelsea Howe, Elliot Pinkus, and Brendan Lavendar. They collaborated to produce 5 different games including the board game Bambolini and a musical tone reproduction challenge. Some of the games provided instruction as well. Guardin the Garden included instructions to secure a garden against pests, Quarter Qard Revolution provided Engineering safety training, and Kaedyo included artistic design information. Other games were structured as real time action games where the main player must defeat multiple opponents. Killer robots attacked the gamer in Munchkins. In Zombies vs Humans the first person human player launched attacks against scores of zombies. In Alpha Strain the hero had to position the henchman to block enemies. Formation Flyer, another type of combat game, was produced by Computer Science majors John Berges, Eric del Priore, Durham Goode, and Ben Sprattler. This game incorporated simple artistic style with flying formations and traditional combat methods. All games from the showcase are posted to the GDIAC website following the event. The games were produced by students enrolled in Computer Game Design courses offered through Computing and Information Science. The courses CIS300 and CIS400 are offered in the Spring 2007 semester, and will be followed by a digital showcase in May 2007. For more information: http://gdiac.cis.cornell.edu/

Cornell takes on the Microsoft College Puzzle Challenge Date: Nov. 14, 2006

Cornell undergraduates and graduate students competed in the Microsoft College Puzzle Challenge on November 11th. The puzzle-solving competition took place at nine schools across the US and Canada, namely: Columbia, Cornell, MIT, Stanford, UIUC, University of Michigan, University of Texas at Austin, University of Toronto and University of Washington. Cornell had four teams in the top 20 (out of more than 200 teams total). The best Cornell team placed second overall, and was one of only two teams to solve all the puzzles including the meta-puzzle. That team was the Ph.Demons, consisting of 4 CS Ph.D students: David Martin, Jonathan Moon, Ian Kash and Lucja Kot. For more information: http://collegepuzzlechallenge.com

Kleinberg featured in NY Times Article 'Computing 2016: What Won't Be Possible?' Date: Oct . 31, 2006

CS Professor Jon Kleinberg was quoted in a recent NY Times article regarding his computing research on social networks. The article discusses the increasing trend of scientists using computer algorithms to understand dynamic processes. In social science, dynamic algorithms are used to understand email patterns, community sites, and purchasing trends. Jon Kleinberg mentions that social networks have been the focus of scientific study for decades. However, with the introduction of social networks on the Internet, behavior can be tracked and measured on a large scale. Kleinberg describes the "revolution in measurement" and briefly explains the development of social networking research. For more information: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/science/31essa.html?ex=1319950800&en=64e41f3ff96acb9d&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg speaks at Cornell Date: Oct. 30, 2006

Jeffrey Katzenberg presented in Statler Auditorium at Cornell on October 30th. He encouraged students to explore the lastest graphics and software during their undergraduate study at Cornell. This enables students to keep up with the latest trends in animation, which is a valuable talent for employment at graphics companies like Dreamworks. Technology is rapidly changing, and Dreamworks uses the latest techniques to produce each Shrek film. The characters exhibit visible clothing and texture differences between Shrek One and the sequel. The Statler auditorium presentation of the seven minute preview of Shrek the Third illustrated this trend of constant innovation. In addition to giving career advice and addressing technology trends at the presentation, Jeffrey Katzenberg also provided anecdotes about his career in computer animation. For more information: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Oct06/Katzenberg.dea.html

Cornell students among top ranked teams in ACM Programming Contest Date: Oct. 29, 2006

Cornell teams take 3 of the top 5 rankings in the ACM Regional Collegiate Programming Contest in Garden City, NY. Cornell teams placed 2nd, 3rd, and 5th out of the fifty eight teams participating in this year's challenge. The contest required participants to write programs for eight problem sets. Program challenges included formatting characters and strings, computing the weighted sum of triangular numbers, and calculating combinations for a locked safe. The two teams with top scores on these problem sets proceed to the final round of competition. Members of the second place team were Cornell students Nitin Gupta, Anand Bhaskar, and Michael Cheng. Other participating Cornell students included Hooyeon Lee, Yisong Yue, and Vivek Maharajh, who placed third in the competition. The contest participants placing fifth were Cornellians Ymir Vigfusson, Dustin Lee Harber, and Changxi Zheng.  PhD student Lars Backstrom coached all three teams in this year's challenge. For more information: http://www.acmgnyr.org/

NSF grant funds Cornell Program to build 'critical mass' of women in science, engineering Date: Sept. 25, 2006

The National Science Foundation has awarded a $3.3 million dollar grant to promote women in leadership positions in engineering and the sciences. Cornell will use the grant to focus on recruiting, retaining, and increasing the number of females in faculty positions in specific departments. The project's goal is to increase the number of women faculty to 20 percent in the next five years, affecting half of the 51 engineering and science departments at Cornell. The grant will also fund a center called ACCEL, which will lead four initiatives based on their mission of Advancing Cornell's Commitment to Excellence and Leadership. The Climate Initiative will focus on building awareness of gender issues in department cultures. The Recruiting Initiative seeks to increase the number of female applications, interviews, and offers for faculty positions, while the Women Power Tools Initiative focuses on current faculty to provide women with the resources and information to more easily move into leadership positions. Monitoring and Evaluation is the final initiative, which will track the effectiveness of the policies. The grant is primarily for the engineering and sciences at Cornell, but program leaders desire to see a "ripple effect" inducing an enhancement of the lives and careers of men and women throughout Cornell University . For more information: http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept06/NSFtransformation.ws.html


Jon Kleinberg in NYTimes article, "Researchers Yearn to Use AOL Logs, but They Hesitate" Date: August 23, 2006

Computer Science Professor Jon Kleinberg has been featured in an article about privacy issues regarding the release of user information by search website AOL in July 2006. The article expresses the challenge of the academic community in obtaining research data about online behavior. AOL released search logs of over 650,000 AOL users for use by academic researches such as Professor Kleinberg, who develops algorithms for searching and understanding the structure of the Web. Many academic researchers including Professor Kleinberg decided against using the data because of internet privacy issues, although some researchers would like access to this kind of data in anonymized form. For more information: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/23/technology/23search.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Jon Kleinberg receives 2006 Rolf Nevanlinna Prize Date: August 22, 2006

Professor Jon Kleinberg was presented with The Nevalinna Prize at the International Congress of Mathematics by king Juan Carlos of Spain . The International Mathematical Union selects a recipient every four years in recognition of outstanding contributions in mathematical aspects of information sciences. This award recognizes Jon Kleinberg's contributions to the mathematical theory of the global computing environment. His mathematical work has impacted Web search engines, Internet routing, Web sociology, and discrete optimization. Specific areas of research include discovering short chains in extensive social networks, modeling data stream bursts, modeling community growth in social networks, and contributing to mathematical theory of clustering. At the International Congress, Margaret Wright, chair of the Rolf Nevanlinna Prize Committee, elaborated on the accomplishments of the 2006 Prize recipient, recognizing Jon Kleinberg's "dazzling and unmatched" breadth of interests, sense of strategy, and mathematical ability. For more information: http://www.mathunion.org/medals/2006/

Rich Caruana receives NSF grant Date: July 28, 2006

The National Science Foundation awarded a $ 987,334.00 grant to CS Professor Rich Caruana and his colleagues at the Lab of Ornithology and in Cornell Statistics Department. The proposal is titled "SEI+II:Ecological Discovery & Inference: Tools for Data-driven Exploration and Testing of Observational Data." The project seeks to provide better analytical tools for ecology management. Researchers studying ecological systems must manage a species across a large geographic region, managing hundreds of environmental factors to provide results under short time deadlines. The project seeks to join data mining and machine learning tools with statistical methods, enabling scientists to extract more relevant information from large data sets. This results of this project will be beneficial to a wide range of individuals engaged in environmental monitoring, including biologists, conservation agencies, land-use planners, logging companies, and even the millions of bird watchers scattered nationwide. This grant funding new data mining techniques allowing statistical inferences about environmental variables, was awarded through the Information Integration Program of the National Science Foundation, who provides federal funding to academic institutions for science and engineering research. For more information: http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0612031

Kavita Bala receives the James and Mary Tien Excellence in Teaching Award Date: Spring 2006

The James and Mary Tien Excellence in Teaching Award has been presented to Computer Science Associate Professor Kavita Bala by the Cornell College of Engineering. Kavita Bala has taught a number of graphics courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Bala's research includes scalable graphics for high-complexity scenes, feature-based graphics, real-time global illumination, and image-based rendering and texturing. For more information: http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~kb/

Tardos receives 2006 George B. Dantzig Prize Date: June 30 , 2006 Department of Computer Science chair and professor, Eva Tardos, received the 2006 George B. Dantzig Prize. The prize, established in 1979, is awarded every three years jointly by the Mathematical Programing Society (MPS) and SIAM for original research, which by its originality, breadth and scope, is having a major impact on the field of mathematical programming. The prize will be awarded at the SIAM Annual Meeting to be held July 10-14, 2006, at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information: http://www.mathprog.org/prz/dantzig.htm

Graduation Awards 2006 Date: June 1, 2006 Senior awards were presented as part of the Computer Science class of 2006 commencement ceremony on Hoy Field on Sunday, May 28, 2006. Aaron Kimball '06 and Lisa Minich '06 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 Ari Rabkin '06, recognizing his efforts as a TA for COMS 414 . The Computer Science Prize for Academic Excellence, given by the CS Faculty, was awarded to Gregory Bowman '06 and Kevin Canini '06. A Special Prize for Outstanding Leadership was awarded to Paul B. Lorah '06 for his commitment to the ACSU and the Department of Computer Science.

 

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