News
SCI Film Festival Winners Announced
We are excited to announce the winners of the first SCI Film Festival. All eight submissions were incredibly well-done and insightful, and we are proud of the work and creativity that each student put into their video.
First place winner: "Homebound" by Caela Go
Argo AI CEO and Co-Founder Delivers Keynote Speech for SCI Virtual Graduation Ceremony
On Sunday, May 17, SCI held a virtual recognition ceremony to celebrate the achievements of more than 360 undergraduate and graduate students who have completed degrees this academic year. Recognizing the unique challenges graduates faced this semester in the wake of COVID-19, SCI Dean Paul Cohen said in his graduation address, “I admire all of our students. It’s not easy to earn degrees from our program.
Assistant Professor Discusses how the Work of Computer Scientists is Keeping us Connected During COVID-19 Pandemic
Amy Babay, assistant professor, was recently featured on PittWire to discuss her work and how computer scientists have been able to meeting the increased technological needs of society due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
PhD Student Wins First Place in University-Wide Three Minute Thesis Competition
J. Stephanie Rose, a PhD student in Information Science with a concentration in Telecommunications, recently won first place in Pitt’s Three-Minute Thesis competition for her thesis titled, “Telecommunications Policy, Regulation, and Enforcement: A 20 Year Retrospective of FCC Adjudication.”
“I still can’t believe I actually won and I am super re-energized to keep working on my dissertation,” said Rose of her win.
Please join us in congratulating Rose!
SCI Represented in Three Recent Accelerator Grants from Pitt Cyber
Projects by SCI faculty and one PhD student were selected as part of he Pitt Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security’s 2020 Accelerator Grants. These grants provide support for projects that aim to establish or reinforce Pitt and Pitt Cyber as places of distinction and excellence in cyber studies and practice.
Associate Professor Interviewed by WTEA
Kostas Pelechrinis, associate professor, was interviewed by WTAE to discuss how Google data is showing that people in Allegheny County are practicing social distancing and what that could mean for the spread of COVID-19.
Professor Martin Weiss Interviewed in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Excerpt from Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s In response to COVID-19 — and shift to remote work, school — tech services firms change policies:
To help make sure no one misses a video conference call from their boss or a timed virtual test from their teacher, Comcast moved last week to offer free internet service for low income individuals and to give all of its customers two extra months of unlimited data for no additional charge.
SCI PhD student joins N2Women as Board Member
Kuheli Sai, a PhD student in the Department of Informatics and Networked Systems, has been named to the Board of N2Women (Networking Networking Women). Sai, working with Professor David Tipper in the LERSAIS lab, is interested in blockchain security, IoT and network traffic anomaly detection, healthcare data security, critical infrastructure security, and applied ML.
SCI Professor Recipient of 2020 Provost’s Doctoral Mentoring Award
Dr. Diane Litman, professor, was recently acknowledged by Pitt as a recipient of the Provost’s Award for Excellence in Doctoral Mentoring. Litman has been recognized for her “ability to see the potential in students and encourage them to explore difficult problems and establish independence in their careers.” She is applauded for mentoring students who have “accomplished careers as faculty members, data scientists and software engineers…[adding] to the distinction of the University of Pittsburgh.”
Meet SCI’s New Faculty: Joseph Yurko
Name: Joseph Yurko
Title: Teaching Assistant Professor
What are your research interest?
I am interested in applying Bayesian models to optimize complex systems in the presence of uncertainty.
Meet SCI’s New Faculty: Lingfei Wu
Name: Lingfei Wu
Title: Assistant Professor
Department: Informations and Networked Systems; Information Culture and Data Stewardship
What are your research interest?
I am a computational social scientist interested in understanding the geometry of thinking and applying it to design the future of research, education, and employment in the knowledge economy.
SCI Hosts 6th Annual SheInnovates Hackathon
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette recently wrote an article about SCI’s 6th annual SheInnovates hackathon titled, “Marshmallows and mobile apps: Pitt’s 36-hour hackathon encourages women in tech.” The article discusses the event and describes specific design exercises that were part of the hackathon. The mission of SheInnovates is to help close the gender gap in the tech industry by encouraging women to engage their tech passions and form a greater sense of community.
Meet SCI’s New Faculty: Erin Walker
Name: Erin Walker
Title: Associate Professor
Department: Computer Science
Meet SCI’s New Faculty: Xulong Tang
Name: Xulong Tang
Title: Assistant Professor
Department: Computer Science
What are your research interest?
My research interests lie in the fields of high-performance computing and parallel computer architectures and systems. In particular, I am interested in effective and efficient system support/optimization for complicated real-world applications (e.g., deep learning, graph analytics, and scientific applications)
SCI Professor Martin Weiss Featured in Post-Gazette Story About 5G
Martin Weiss, SCI Professor, was recently featured in a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story titled, “AT&T brought 5G to Pittsburgh, but you might not have noticed … yet.” The article discusses AT&T’s roll out of its fifth-generation network in Pittsburgh, which happened in December.
To read the full story, click here.