Badger Bytes Fall 2020 CS Newsletter

NOTE FROM THE CHAIR

Hello from Madison, Wisconsin! What an unusual Fall we have had and continue to have. We do hope you are doing well and staying both safe and sane despite world events.

The Fall semester has been not much different than Spring, alas, when COVID first hit. CS classes are generally being run in a "remote" mode, using a blend of different techniques to try to ensure a high level of educational quality while keeping students, faculty, and staff safe. Indeed, this is one of the strange benefits of COVID -- we have learned that we can provide quality instruction in this mode and will likely able to expand educational offerings in the future as a result.

In this issue, we have a number of great stories to share, which I hope you have the time to read and enjoy. We have profiles of some of our great new faculty -- Sharon Li, an expert in deep learning, and Yea-Seul Kim, a leader in human-computer interaction and data visualization. How lucky we are to have them join us; we look forward to the research and teaching innovations they will bring to us in the coming years.

We also share stories from L&S magazine with you. The first is about Miron Livny and his breakthroughs in distributed computing. The second is about CDIS, the new School that CS is housed within. Despite everything, campus is buzzing about computing and data, and our School of Computer, Data, & Information Sciences is right in the center of that excitement. Steve Wright's leadership role at the Institute for the Foundations of Data Science and its continued NSF funding are a part of that buzz - read about it below.

We've been working to share stories about our wonderful undergraduates with the world. As such, we've included terrific videos of some of our undergraduates; check them out! One thing that never fails to impress and inspire me is the passion, drive, and thoughtfulness of our youngest students.

Finally, we share a story about Professor Mark Hill, who, after many years of exemplary service to the department, campus, and beyond, is retiring to move on to the next stages of his career and life. We celebrate his great contributions, thank him for his time with us, and wish him well in his next pursuits.

Please do reach out and say hello if you have a chance. I'm always happy to hear from you all!

-Remzi

Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau, Chair

Computer Sciences Department

VISIT OUR WEBSITE

PROFESSOR MARK D. HILL RETIRES AFTER 32 YEARS AT UW-MADISON

We celebrate the retirement of Professor Mark Hill - and we will miss him terribly! Read all about Mark's career, including some fun links -for example, you can read "The Academic Genealogy of Mark Donald Hill." Enjoy the story!

Story Link

WELCOME TO NEW ASSISTANT PROFESSOR SHARON LI

The CS Department warmly welcomes Assistant Professor Sharon Li. Li was awarded the Forbes 30-under 30 Science award last year and comes to UW-Madison from a postdoc at Cornell. Li is from Lanzhou, China, famous for a special kind of noodle - which she was surprised to find here in Madison! Li studies deep learning and its applications and will continue to pursue this research at UW.

More about Sharon Li here.

WELCOME TO NEW ASSISTANT PROFESSOR YEA-SEUL KIM

We are proud to welcome Assistant Professor Yea-Seul Kim to the CS Department. Kim recently finished her PhD at the University of Washington and moved to Madison sight unseen (due to COVID)! She is teaching data visualization this semester and will continue to research visualization, human interaction, and data science.

More about Yea-Seul Kim here.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHTS, STUDENT VOICES

Meet five CS undergrads! In the videos at the link, they talk about their very different pathways through the CS major – from an internship involving creating smart ear tags for cows, to developing technology for communicating through hair extensions, the common ground between the rowing team and studying computer science, transferring to UW-Madison for a liberal arts education, and participating in the ICPC programming contest (which went to the world finals for the 19th year running!). Enjoy!

Student Spotlights, Student Voices Videos

MIRON LIVNY FEATURED IN L&S MAGAZINE

CS Professor Miron Livny is a big believer in the power of sharing. He has developed ways to harness massive amounts of computing, transforming the process of scientific discovery. Read all about it in his profile in the latest College of Letters & Science magazine.

L&S: Miron Livny, a community of computers

STEVE WRIGHT HEADS UW-MADISON CONTINGENT OF IFDS

UW–Madison will continue fundamental data science research under the leadership of CS Professor Steve Wright. The Institute for the Foundations of Data Science (IFDS) - with partners at the University of Washington, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the University of Chicago - is being funded by a $12.5 million Phase II grant from NSF’s Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science (TRIPODS) program.

Read the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery story here

CDIS IN THE NEWS

CS plays a key role in the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences. In this article about CDIS in the L&S magazine, CS Chair Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau says of CS's role in CDIS, "We want to build and maintain a strong, positive, inclusive culture. We cannot rest until all people have access to the education and research opportunities available within our department.”

Link to CDIS: Wisconsin in the Information Age

GIVE TO THE COMPUTER SCIENCES DEPARTMENT

1210 W. Dayton

Madison, WI 53706

communications@cs.wisc.edu