News
SCI and Dietrich Announce Joint Data Science Major Beginning Fall 2021
This fall, current and incoming Pitt students can begin pursuing a joint Data Science major between the School of Computing and Information and the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. Sixty-one credits in courses across several departments will prepare students to enter the burgeoning field of data science with the necessary competencies drawn from statistics, mathematics, and computer and information science.
SCI Faculty Members Receive Pitt Seed Grant Funding
SCI faculty members Ahmed Ibrahim, Leona Mitchell, Matt Burton, and Hassan Karimi have been chosen to receive funding as part of the 2021 Pitt Seed Grant program. The program, now in its fourth year, provides startup funding to transformative projects that support the goals of Pitt’s strategic plan. Their projects are:
The Pitt Cyber Range
Ahmed Ibrahim, Teaching Assistant Professor
Malihe Alikhani Receives Best Theme Paper Award
SCI Assistant Professor Malihe Alikhani recently received the best theme paper award at the Joint Conference of the 59th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics and the 11th International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing (ACL-IJCNLP 2021). Her paper, titled "Including Signed Languages in Natural Language Processing," calls on the NLP community to include signed languages as a research area with high social and scientific impact.
Constantinos Costa, Panos Chrysanthis, and Collaborators Receive Best Industry and Application Paper Award
A team led by Visiting Lecturer Constantinos Costa and SCI Professor Panos K. Chrysanthis received the Best Industry and Application Paper Award at the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management (MDM 2021) for their paper entitled "A Context, Location and Preference-Aware System for Safe Pedestrian Mobility."
Panos Chrysanthis, Constantinos Costa, and Collaborators Receive Best Demo Award at IEEE MDM 2021 Conference
A team led by SCI Professor Panos K. Chrysanthis and Visiting Lecturer Constantinos Costa received the Best Demo Award at the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management (MDM 2021) for their work entitled "HealthDist: A Context, Location and Preference-Aware System for Safe Navigation."
The team consisted of:
Rakan Alseghayer Receives Awards at IEEE MDM 2021 Conference
SCI PhD student Rakan Alseghayer received the Diversity and Inclusion Award and the People's Choice of Best Pitch Video Award at the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Mobile Data Management (MDM 2021) for his work entitled "Racoon: Rapid Contact Tracing of Moving Objects Using Smart Indexes."
Incoming SCI Student Olivia Terry Receives Nordenberg Scholarship
The University of Pittsburgh has announced its 2021 Nordenberg Leadership Scholars—five exceptional Pennsylvania high school seniors who have demonstrated excellent leadership skills, innovative thinking, intellectual curiosity and community involvement. Nordenberg Scholars are awarded full-tuition scholarships to attend Pitt and participate in the program.
Named in honor of Chancellor Emeritus Mark A. Nordenberg, the program provides students with opportunities for continued academic achievement, leadership development, civic engagement and professional experiences.
Kamil Akhuseyinoglu and Peter Brusilovsky Win Best Paper at Conference
SCI PhD student Kamil Akhuseyinoglu and Professor Peter Brusilovsky recently won the Best Paper Award at the Association for Computer Machinery (ACM)'s 29th Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP). Their paper, titled "Data-Driven Modeling of Learners' Individual Differences for Predicting Engagement and Success in Online Learning," proposes a new model for exploring how individual differences relate to student performance.
Xiaowei Jia Leads Study on Machine Learning Methods That Could Improve Environmental Predictions
Machine learning algorithms do a lot for us every day—send unwanted email to our spam folder, warn us if our car is about to back into something, and give us recommendations on what TV show to watch next. Now, we are increasingly using these same algorithms to make environmental predictions for us.
Jacob Biehl and Rosta Farzan Get Award to Create a Digital Ambassadors Program
SCI faculty Dr. Jacob Biehl (ICDS) and Dr. Rosta Farzan (DINS) have been awarded a grant by the R.K. Mellon Foundation to develop, implement, and evaluate a digital ambassador program for youth in the Hill District neighborhood. The project aims to empower youth to lead their communities’ access to and embrace of technology and to gain 21st century, transferable skills leading to employment and STEM diversity.
SCI Faculty Members Join the Pitt Disinformation Lab
SCI faculty members Malihe Alikhani, Dmitriy Babichenko, Adriana Kovashka, Prashant Krishnamurthy, and Yu-Ru Lin have joined the Pitt Disinformation Lab (PDL), which was recently launched by the Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security. The PDL aims to develop counter-measures against disinformation by creating a new, community-centered system of malign influence warning, understanding, and response.
Pitt Students Mentor High School Girls for Local App Development Challenge
Ariana Sutanto’s high school didn’t offer extensive opportunities for students to get involved in computer science, especially those part of minorities traditionally underrepresented in the field. When she heard of an opportunity to mentor local high school girls developing an app, she knew she had to participate.
“This is something that I personally wish I had gotten to do in high school,” the sophomore computer science major says. “There was no focus on increasing diversity within computer science, so I thought this challenge was really unique and I wanted to be a part of it.”
Rob A. Rutenbar Earns Distinguished Professor Honor
Rob A. Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for research at the University of Pittsburgh, has been appointed to the rank of Distinguished Professor in the School of Computing and Information, and Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Swanson School of Engineering.
Eleanor Mattern Interviewed about Year of Data and Society in Pittwire
This past academic year, the Year of Engagement taught us the value of staying connected during difficult times and the importance of collaboration. As that campaign culminates, the University of Pittsburgh Office of the Provost has announced that the 2021-22 academic year will be the Year of Data and Society.
SCI to Open Space at 130 N. Bellefield by Fall 2022
The School of Computing and Information community can soon expect a new space that reflects the school’s vision and tremendous growth over the past three years. As SCI expands to the fifth floor of 130 N. Bellefield, right across the street from the Information Sciences Building, students, faculty, and staff will continue to collaborate through research and education to solve the most pressing societal problems in the post-pandemic world.