UTCS News

2011

Professor Inderjit Dhillon Receives SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize

May 26, 2011

Professor Inderjit Dhillon Receives SIAM Outstanding Paper Prize Professor Inderjit Dhillon, together with Justin Brickell, Suvrit Sra and Joel Tropp have been selected to receive the award of the 2011 Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Outstanding Paper Prize for their paper entitled, "The Metric Nearness Problem," which appeared in the SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis and Applications (SIMAX). Their paper is one of the three winning papers. ...

2011 UTCS Ph.D. Hooding Ceremony

May 25, 2011

2011 UTCS Ph.D. Hooding Ceremony UTCS honored new Ph.D. graduates at its annual hooding ceremony. Each new graduate received a short testimonial from his or her graduate research advisor. The new doctors were then hooded by UTCS Professor Lorenzo Alvisi. Afterwards, a reception was held for graduates, faculty, friends and family. ...

The Value of a Degree: Median Earnings by Major and Subject Area

May 23, 2011

A recent study of the economic value of several undergraduate degrees by major was recently published by Georgetown University. Engineering graduates ranged fro $55K to $120K, the best of the majors evaluated. Computer and mathematics grads were also rated highly, $50K to $98K. ...

Computer Science Overtakes Accounting as Major With Top Offer Rate for the Class of 2011

May 19, 2011

More than 56 percent of computer science majors who have applied for a job have received an offer making it the major with the highest offer rate from the Class of 2011, according to results of a new survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). ...

One Way to Study the Schizophrenic Brain: Build One

May 16, 2011

Researchers at Yale and the University of Texas used a neural network -- a computer brain -- to test out medical theories of what causes schizophrenia. The result was a computer brain that can't tell the difference between stories about itself and fanciful stories about gangsters, and claims responsibility for terrorist acts. ...

Researchers at U. of Texas and Yale Use Computers to Simulate Schizophrenia

May 9, 2011

Computer simulations of malfunctioning brains may be the key to understanding schizophrenia and other conditions. A research team including computer scientists at the University of Texas at Austin and a professor of psychiatry at Yale have been testing various theories of how schizophrenic brains misfire as they process information. People with schizophrenia often have trouble repeating different stories, for instance, frequently combining elements of separate stories and inserting themselves into the narrative. ...

Good Bytes and Good Luck!

May 6, 2011

Good Bytes & Good Luck The Department of Computer Science congratulates its graduating students of 2011. We wished them “Good Bytes and Good Luck” with a graduation celebration catered by Austin’s own Amy’s Ice Cream. ...

Computer claims responsibility for terrorist bombing

May 6, 2011

In a bid to help understand the way that the human brain malfunctions to cause mental illness scientists have caused a computer system to lose its mind and claim responsibilty for a terrorist bombing. The team at the University of Texas and Yale University, including Professor Risto Miikkulainen and grad student Uli Grasemann, were looking to how the human brain is affected with schizophrenia by simulating a hypothesis that excessive dopamine in the brain can cause “exaggerated salience”, whereby the brain is learning from things it shouldn’t. ...

Scientists Afflict Computers with Schizophrenia to Better Understand the Human Brain

May 5, 2011

AUSTIN, Texas—Computer networks that can’t forget fast enough can show symptoms of a kind of virtual schizophrenia, giving researchers further clues to the inner workings of schizophrenic brains, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Yale University have found. The researchers used a virtual computer model, or “neural network,” to simulate the excessive release of dopamine in the brain. They found that the network recalled memories in a distinctly schizophrenic-like fashion. ...

Drug Design Receives Private Grand Challenge Research Funds

May 4, 2011

Professor Chandrajit Bajaj received a 2011-12 Moncrief Grand Challenge Faculty A Professor Chandrajit Bajaj received a 2011-12 Moncrief Grand Challenge Faculty Award to pursue his project on three-dimensional imaging at the molecular level of therapeutic drug targets. He was among seven University of Texas at Austin researchers selected for the award who are confronting what the scientific community has defined as this century's grand challenges in drug design, environmental sustainability and improved oil recovery. The awards range up to $60,000 for a semester. ...

Professor Mike Walfish Wins Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award

May 3, 2011

Professor Mike Walfish Wins  Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award The Department of Computer Science (UTCS) congratulates Professor Mike Walfish, winner of a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER awards recognize promising young faculty and supports their research with five years of funding. ...

UTCS Congratulates 2011 College of Natural Sciences Undergraduate Research Forum Award and Fellowship Winners!

May 3, 2011

2011 College of Natural Sciences Undergraduate Research Forum On Friday, April 8, 2011, the College of Natural Sciences (CNS) hosted the annual Undergraduate Research Forum. Six UTCS students were recognized by the college for their outstanding posters and presentations and were honored with awards and fellowships. ...

Passing the Baton, Increasing Student Exposure to the Entrepreneurial World

May 3, 2011

Passing the Baton, Increasing Student Exposure to the Entrepreneurial World The Department of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin (UTCS) has embarked on an initiative to bring increased exposure of the entrepreneurial world to our students. ...

Institutional Funds Committed to Complete the Bill & Melinda Gates Computer Science Complex

May 3, 2011

President Powers commits institutional funds to complete the Gates Complex. The Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin (UTCS) is excited to announce that President Powers has committed institutional funds to complete the Bill & Melinda Gates Computer Science Complex. Pending approval by the Board of Regents, this funding will enable the department to finish-out all the floors of both buildings and to start moving in by March 2013. UT’s faculty and students will work and learn in modern, interactive spaces in the Gates Complex including “research clusters,” areas on each floor designed to encourage discussion and collaboration. ...

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University Partner to Promote Student Success

April 20, 2011

A new partnership between researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Harvard University has been created to help improve teaching and learning through educational innovation and technology. ...

The Department of Computer Science Congratulates Students Elected to Phi Beta Kappa

April 18, 2011

The Department of Computer Science congratulates the 22 computer science majors who were recently elected to Phi Beta Kappa at its Spring meeting. Upon joining, they will be inducted into the national honor society at the UT chapter's Spring reception on Sunday, May 8, in the in the Ballroom of the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. ...

The Challenge: Start a Tech Company in 3 Days

April 3, 2011

How many times have you or one of your friends had a really great idea for a tech startup, but never implemented it? Maybe there wasn’t enough money, any access to people with complementary skills, or not enough confidence to get it off the ground. 3-Day Startup (3DS) provides the opportunity to pitch that idea to a panel of potential investors, release a prototypeand build enough momentum to sustain a startup company outside the event. ...

Two Assistant Profs Win CAREER Awards from National Science Foundation

April 1, 2011

AUSTIN, Texas – Biologist Misha Matz and computer scientist Michael Walfish are among six assistant professors at The University of Texas at Austin who received Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards totaling nearly $3 million from the National Science Foundation. The CAREER awards recognize promising young faculty and supports their research with five years of funding. ...

Hack U: Yahoo's 24-hour Programming Contest

March 26, 2011

PhoneSlice, a version of the popular mobile game Fruit Ninja, won Yahoo's UT-Austin Hack U contest. Farhad Abasov, Michael Teng, and Michael Akilian created a proxy server to communicate between two iPhones and the Flash application. One iPhone was used to throw the fruit and the other to slice it. Because of the implementation difficulties involved in communicating between an iPhone and Flash and all of the custom technology that they had to build within the 24-hour period, they won the HackU event and took home new iPads. ...

Tags: Events, FoCS, Yahoo!
Syndicate content