In response to the growing demand for video game designers throughout Texas, The University of Texas at Austin is launching a new gaming curriculum, The University of Texas Game Development and Design Program. The program is a partnership between the departments of Arts and Entertainment Technologies (AET) and Computer Science (CS) intended for undergraduates with career interests in the gaming industry.

Texas is home to almost 20,000 video game specific jobs, second to California, with 10 percent growth expected during the next eight years.

Quantum computers are sophisticated machines that harness the strange laws of quantum physics to solve particular kinds of problems. These machines have been “trending” for quite some time now with popular media calling them “supercomputers” or “supermachines” and implying that they have the power to basically answer any and all currently unsolvable problems. These is, however, a misconception.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society, has named computer scientist Peter Stone and two other University of Texas at Austin faculty members as fellows. This year’s AAAS fellows – members of the College of Natural Sciences, the Cockrell School of Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts – will be inducted at a February ceremony during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Lili Qiu, Texas Computer Science Professor, was recently named an Association for Computer Machinery (ACM) fellow. Each year the ACM recognizes the top one percent of ACM members for their accomplishments in computing and information technology, as well as their service to the computing community.

When we think of robots, we envision the future. Intelligent mobile robots that can answer questions, give directions, complete tasks, and walk us through an ever-changing world—these robots could one day make more static technologies like Alexa, Siri, and GoogleHome look outdated.

Texas alumnus Farnam Jahanian became Carnegie Mellon University’s new president this past month on October 26th. He is a nationally recognized computer scientist, successful entrepreneur, and leader in higher education.

Jahanian received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin. He is currently a fellow of a number of prestigious academic groups including the Association for Computing Machinery, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Students at The University of Texas at Austin have a new tool to help them become better informed as voters. BeVote is a free cellphone app designed exclusively for UT students that provides accurate, nonpartisan information and was programmed by UT students.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, Yale University and Texas State University have been awarded $5 million by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of a program designed to spark the next wave of semiconductor innovation and circuit design in the U.S.

Shih-Yun Lo, Shiqi Zhang, and Peter Stone are recipients of the 2018 Best Robotics Track Paper Award at the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS). They received this award for their research on planning efficiently for task-level navigation in robots.

Their group, led by Texas Computer Science professor Peter Stone, includes Shih-Yun Lo, a Texas Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering, and Shiqi Zhang, a former Texas postdoc student and current Assistant Professor at SUNY Binghamton.

Texas Computer science professor Kristen Grauman is the recipient of the 2018 J.K. Aggarwal Prize from the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR) for her contributions to the field of image matching and retrieval.