News

September 2022

multicolored geometric shapes
MESSAGE FROM DEAN BALA
Dean Kavita Bala

Dear Bowers CIS community, 


Welcome to the beginning of a new academic year! 

Whether you are new to Ithaca, returning to campus, or have been here through the summer, I hope you find the start of the academic year to be as invigorating and exciting as I do. Personally, I look forward to opportunities for meeting with students, faculty and staff at in-person events throughout the semester. 


As you will see with the highlights below, our community has had a busy summer since we congratulated nearly 1,300 graduates in May. Many of our community members celebrated milestones and Cornell Tech celebrated ten years since winning New York City's competition to build a campus. We announced new partnerships, including with NewYork-Presbyterian to use artificial intelligence to help improve outcomes for people with cardiovascular disease. Additionally, we launched more robust SoNIC and CSMore programs.


We also mourned the loss in July of Juris Hartmanis, Turing Awardee and the first computer science department chair at Cornell. Juris was a visionary researcher, leader, and mentor, and his loss is felt keenly by the community. I will share details via email and in the October newsletter about a Celebration of Life planned for Friday, November 4 to commemorate and recognize Juris and his contributions to the field of Computer Science and Cornell.


Thank you for your individual contributions that make Bowers CIS such a strong community and a rewarding place to study and work.  


Be well and enjoy the start of the new semester!


Kavita Bala

Dean, Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science 

dean@cis.cornell.edu

AROUND THE COLLEGE
AI heart on tablet

Collaboration will advance cardiac health through AI


Employing AI to help improve outcomes for people with cardiovascular disease is the focus of a three-year, $15 million collaboration among Cornell Tech, Bowers CIS, and NewYork-Presbyterian — with physicians from its affiliated medical schools Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons 

Welcome new community members:

  • Julia Aquadro, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Advising, Statistics and Data Science
  • Sage Baker, End User Support, ITSG
  • Brianne Cooley, Faculty Course Support Specialists, Computer Science
  • Carl Cornell, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Advising, Computer Science
  • Lizette DeJesus, Event Coordinator, Computer Science
  • Rebecca Dillon, PhD, Program Manager for Research Initiatives
  • Susan Garry, Administrative Assistance, Computer Science
  • Olivia Howarth, Student Services Assistant, Information Science Graduate Programs
  • Josh Hunt, Administrative Assistant, Information Science
  • Carson Lopez, Program Assistant, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
  • Sara Perkins, Faculty Course Support Specialists, Computer Science
  • Melody Padgett, MS/PhD Program Assistant, Computer Science
  • Laura Schad, Program Manager for Research Initiatives
  • Matthew Toner, Communications Specialist
  • Kexin Quan, Laboratory Technician
  • Patricia Waldron, Science Writer
  • Jess Wilkie, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Advising, Information Science

Six new faculty:


Collage of new faculty

Fall AI seminar series begins


This semester, Bowers CIS will host a weekly conversation on Fridays about the future of AI with their Fall 2022 AI seminar series.


Guest presenters include top industry leaders and groundbreaking researchers who are building the technology and examining its societal, legal, and ethical impacts. 



Novice roboticists find inspiration, community at SoNIC


SoNIC — a weeklong summer workshop hosted by Cornell Bowers CIS’ Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — aims to elevate and inspire underrepresented students to pursue graduate studies in tech fields like computing and information science.


This year, nearly 30 students from universities across the U.S. met at Cornell for a crash course in robotics, ultimately developing “smart canes,” assistive technology for the visually impaired.

CSMore continues growing to meet goal of diversifying tech


CSMore has grown from a three-week class to a rigorous, one-month, in-person program that prepares students for three of the traditional sophomore courses — complete with faculty research talks, a full slate of social activities, and networking opportunities with major companies.


The Office of DEI has organized additional enrichment opportunities throughout the fall and spring semesters, in a follow-up program called CSMore Works.


ACCOLADES

Office of DEI awarded innovation grant, funds Impact Week and Hackathon


Impact Week (Sept. 28 — Oct. 4) encourages people and the university to demonstrate and celebrate the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging through a series of events.

Hackathon details
Woman in glasses

Carla Gomes receives ACM – AAAI Allen Newell Award

Dexter Kozen

Dexter Kozen selected for 2022 Alonzo Church Award

NSF Logo

Volodymyr Kuleshov and  Emma Pierson win NSF early-career awards

Man in glasses

Bharath Hariharan recognized with PAMI Young Researcher Award




  • Nicole Roy a finalist for Cornell's inaugural Excellence in Professional Staff Academic Advising Award


RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

Technology helps self-driving cars learn from own memories



Wei-Lun Chao, Junan Chen, Xiangyu Chen, Carlos Diaz-Ruiz, Bharath Hariharan, Wen Sun, Cheng Perng Phoo, Kilian Weinberger, Yurong You



Robots Can Build Better Teams



Human-robot interactions powerfully influence human-human interactions. Malte Jung explores how robot design can improve group dynamics.


Malte Jung
person scrolling on phone

What a user wants: Scroll smarter not longer


Jon Kleinberg, Manish Raghavan, M.S. ’18, Ph.D. ’21,

AI head with soundwaves

AI that can learn the patterns of human language


Kevin Ellis

tablet in greenhouse

Digital ag systems won’t be plug-and-play — and that’s okay


Gloire Rubambiza, Phoebe Sengers, Hakim Weatherspoon

screenshot of pathways program

New tool allows students to browse alumni academic paths


Mina Chen, René Kizilcec, Fynn Datoo ‘23, Wentao Guo ‘22, Calix Huang, Jay Joo ‘24, Sofia Yoon ‘22



‘Earable’ uses sonar to reconstruct facial expressions



Ke Li, 

François Guimbretière

Cheng Zhang






STUDENT & ALUMNI NEWS
Man in white dress shirt and beard smiling at camera

Manish Raghavan M.S. ’18, Ph.D. ’21 wins ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award


Manish Raghavan, MS ’18, Ph.D. ’21 was awarded the 2021 ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award for "The Societal Impacts of Algorithmic Decision-Making," which makes significant contributions to the understanding of algorithmic decision-making and its societal implications, including foundational results on issues of algorithmic bias and fairness.

Qianqian Wang awarded Google Fellowship


The Google Ph.D. Fellowship Program has selected Qianqian Wang as one of its 2022 fellows. Wang is a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the field of computer science based at Cornell Tech.

Woman smiling looking at camera
MEDIA MENTIONS

People of ACM: Éva Tardos


Éva Tardos discusses her career and research with ACM. 

Eva Tardos

Nature: Teaching robots to touch

Tapomayukh Bhattacharjee discusses how robots have become increasingly adept at interacting with the world around them. But to fulfil their potential, they also need a sense of touch.


TechCrunch: Face-tracking ‘earables,’ analog AI chips and accelerating particle accelerators


Perceptron reviews “earable” which uses sonar to read facial expressions. 

Ke Li, François GuimbretièreCheng Zhang


winking avatar
Have something to share? Win an award? Publish a paper? Let us know.


Linkedin  Facebook  Twitter