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Dear Badgers -
I hope this note finds you and yours doing well!
It is an exciting time for us here at UW-Madison. We recently held graduation ceremonies for our undergraduate and graduate students and had fun celebrating with them and their families at this momentous time of their lives. We wish them all the best as they transition to their next steps, whether in further schooling or into the workplace, and, most generally, into their new status: as Badger Alumni!
We have been incredibly busy on many fronts, of course. We broke ground on our new School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences (CDIS) building, a $260m privately funded effort, and we are all looking forward to moving across the street into a world-class facility some time in 2025. I must also include: we still have about $7m to raise to complete a generous match provided by John and Tashia Morgridge, so if you know anyone who wishes to participate in this once-in-a-century building project, let us know!
We also have continued our growth, adding new faculty with a broad range of expertise, while our programs continue to increase in size. The CS major remains the biggest major on campus (with over 2200 students); amazingly, it is still the second fastest growing major! The new Data Science major, run jointly between CS and the Statistics department, is the fastest growing major and already has over 1000 students. We also continue to innovate at the graduate level, with new professional programs in Data Science and Data Engineering, both of which are kicking off this fall. Finally, we are also innovating in the classroom, with new classes in Big Data Systems, Computer Vision, and Data Visualization, to name a few.
In this issue, we celebrate the department's rise in US News rankings from 17th to 12th. We also look at a couple of faculty Artificial Intelligence research projects: Efthychios Syfakis's development of an AI tool for re-aging actors and Yong Jae Lee on how to tell if a photo is AI-generated. We have highlighted several alumni this year, faculty and students have been recognized with prestigious awards, and the Center for High Throughput Computing has expanded support of researchers in an innovative and exciting way. You can read a UW-Madison News profile of Professor Loris D'Antoni, who said "grazie to a mentor." Finally, we are happy to announce a fundraising effort to recognize Professor Susan Horwitz in the new CDIS building. Read all about it below!
On a more personal note, it is a time of transition for me. I have been department Chair for four years now, and it is time to move on from this role; we are lucky to have Professor Stephen Wright, a worldwide expert in optimization and all-around wonderful guy, as our next Chair. As for me, after a sabbatical this upcoming year, I am looking forward to rejoining the ranks of our regular faculty, focusing once again on research and teaching. We have accomplished a lot these past four years, despite many challenges, including a global pandemic. It has been an honor to be Chair of such a wonderful department, and I would like to take this moment to thank the many people who helped along the way (you know you you are). Anything that we accomplished, we accomplished together.
Please do stay in touch! We love hearing from alumni and seeing you at events in the Bay Area or elsewhere. It's easy! Just send email to remzi@cs.wisc.edu; one thing I got very good at as Chair is reading, and responding to, emails.
On, Wisconsin!
-Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau
Department Chair
Grace Wahba Professor of Computer Sciences
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