Summer 2002

SCS NEWS HIGHLIGHTS

SCS PH.D. PROGRAM RANKED NUMBER ONE BY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT
U.S. News & World report ranked Carnegie Mellon's computer science doctoral program number one in the 2002 report of America's Best Graduate Schools. Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science tied for the first place with MIT, Stanford, and the University of California at Berkeley.

Dean Jim Morris stated, "We're actually in a different dimension from other computer science groups that are embedded in engineering. We look at computer science as a holistic field that encompasses technology and how it affects society. We've never lost track of the fact that the computer is just a new element in a rich, evolving society."

SCS also achieved high marks in three specialty areas of computer science including artificial intelligence (2nd), systems (2nd) and theory (6th).

For more information about the rankings visit .http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/grad/rankings/rankindex.htm

CARNEGIE MELLON WEST COAST CAMPUS ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS TO MASTER'S PROGRAM FOR FALL 2002
Applications for the Master of Science degree in Information Technology (MSIT) are now being accepted for classes scheduled to begin this fall at Carnegie Mellon West campus located in Moffett Field, Calif. Students may choose to complete either the software engineering track or the e-business technology track. The degree can be can be completed on a full or part-time basis. The programs are unique because they are based on a new education approach called the Story-Centered Curriculum developed by Roger Schank, Chief Education Officer of Carnegie Mellon West. The Story-Centered Curriculum incorporates a mentored learning-by-doing apprenticeship style of curriculum. To learn more about the education programs and read Schank's white paper on story-centered curriculum go to http://west.cmu.edu.

NEW SUSTAINABLE COMPUTING CONSORTIUM AIMS FOR RELIABLE SOFTWARE
Researchers at the Heinz School and the School of Computer Science have joined a group of major companies and federal agencies to create the Sustainable Computing Consortium (SCC), aimed at securing the nation's computing infrastructure and improving the reliability of information technology systems. The SCC will study a broad range of software dependability issues beyond the usual engineering focus to include economics, market issues, law and regulation, risk management and other non-technological factors.

--The director of the SCC is William Guttman, distinguished service professor of economics and technology at the Heinz School. Co-directors are William L. Scherlis, principal research scientist, Institute for Software Research International in SCS, and Ashish Arora, associate professor of economics and public policy at the Heinz School.

--Founding members of the SCC include, AIG, Alcoa, AMD, Caterpillar, Cisco, CMP Media LLC, Confluence, Federal Express, Fisher Scientific, General Atlantic Partners, General Motors, Hunton & Williams, Key Bank, Mellon Financial Corp., Merck, Microsoft, NASA, Oracle, Pfizer, Priceline, Raytheon, Red Siren, Reed Smith, Tata Consulting Services and UPMC Health System. The SCC is also featured in the May 20 issue of InformationWeek. A "preview" of the article is offered in "Consortium Looks For A Long-Term Solution" at: http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020517S0006.
(Courtesy of Carnegie Mellon's 8 1/2 x 11)

SCS EXPERTS COLLABORATE WITH INTERNATIONAL PRIVACY ALLIANCE
Researchers at the School of Computer Science (SCS) are collaborating with The International Security, Trust and Privacy Alliance (ISTPA) to enhance the ISTPA's new Privacy Framework, which will be the basis for developing products and services that support current and evolving privacy regulations and business policies in domestic and international arenas. The ISTPA (www.istpa.org) is a global association of companies, institutions and technology providers working to clarify and resolve security, trust and privacy issues. SCS researchers will also work with the ISTPA to develop a Digital Privacy Handbook, which will serve as an online research reference for privacy management.

"We're collaborating with Carnegie Mellon to leverage its multidisciplinary expertise in policy, computer science, business and software engineering while assuring a neutral, independent and unbiased approach to this critical, highly contested and politically charged domain," said ISTPA Executive Director Kevin O'Neil.

"Executives responsible for implementing a privacy policy face the challenge of converting lofty principles into cost-effective operations," said Carnegie Mellon computer scientist Robert Thibadeau, who co-chairs the ISTPA Framework Working Group. "Lawmakers drafting privacy legislation need to understand what is technically feasible and what is manageable in terms of regulatory enforcement. IT managers need to understand how to develop appropriate technical architectures and select tools that will meet business policy and process requirements. The Digital Privacy Handbook project is essential to those wrestling with these challenges."
(Courtesy of Carnegie Mellon's 8 1/2 x 11)

SCS ROBOCUP TEAM WINS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Alumna and associate professor Manuela Veloso's (CS '89, '92) autonomous robotic soccer team CMPack'02, defeated rUNSWift of the University of New South Wales, Australia to capture the Sony 4-Legged Robot League World Championship at RoboCup 2002, held June 19-25 in Fukuoka, Japan. The CMPack'02 team included Veloso, doctoral students Scott Lenser (Team Leader), Doug Vail, Ashley Stroupe and Maayan Roth and computer science undergraduate Sonia Chernova. CMPack'02 defeated rUNSWift 2-1 in penalty kicks after regulation play ended in a 3-3 tie.

In the Small-Sized League, CMDragons '02 posted a 3-1 mark in round-robin play before losing in the quarterfinals to Roobots of Australia by the score of 3-0. Cornell University won the Small-Sized League World Championship. CMDragons'02 team included Veloso, Robotics Institute post-doctoral fellow Brett Browning, doctoral students James Bruce and Michael Bowling, computer science undergraduates Dinesh Govindaraju and Jennifer Lin and mechanical engineering undergraduate Cathy Chang.

For complete competition results and information about RoboCup visit http://www.robocup2002.org/.

SCS OFFERS TWO NEW GRADUATE PROGRAMS
The Center for Automated Learning and Discovery (CALD) will begin offering a new Ph.D. in Computational and Statistical Learning (formerly called Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining or KDD) beginning fall 2002. The introduction of the Ph.D. in KDD also leads to the simultaneous 'termination' of the Master's program in KDD. In addition, the Master of Science in Computer Science will be offered by the computer science department as a fifth year scholars program for undergraduates. For further information about the CSL program visit http://www.cald.cs.cmu.edu/phd/index.html.

NEW ROBOTICS COURSE FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS OFFERED AT CARNEGIE MELLON WEST THIS SUMMER
Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with NASA's Ames Research Center and the National Hispanic University at San Jose, California, will offer a new robotic summer program for high school seniors called Robotic Autonomy. The program will be held from July 1 to August 16 in Building 17 at Carnegie Mellon West in Moffett Field, Calif.

The thirty high-school seniors enrolled in the seven-week college-level course will build, program and operate their own vision-based, mobile robots while they learn about the electronics, mechanics and computer science of robotic systems. The program will culminate with an autonomous robot contest in August. After the course is completed, graduates will not only earn 12 units of Carnegie Mellon university credit, transferable to any college or university, but also take their robots home for more experimentation. Each robot is worth more than $1,000.

The class will be taught by assistant professor of robotics, Illah Nourbakhsh. Nourbakhsh is co-founder of the institute's Toy Robots Initiative and conducts research in electric wheelchair sensing devices, robot learning, theoretical robot architecture, believable robot personality, visual navigation and robot locomotion. The Robotic Autonomy program is the first outreach program to be offered at Carnegie Mellon West.

To learn more about the Robotic Autonomy program visit
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~rasc/

Awards and Accolades

--MANUEL BLUM, Dr. Bruce J. Nelson Professor of Computer Science, has been elected to The National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors to be accorded to a scientist or engineer. Blum is one of 72 new members chosen this year, in recognition of their "distinguished and continuing achievements in original research." The NAS is dedicated to the "furtherance of science and technology", and advises the federal government on scientific and technical matters that "pervade national policy and executive decisions." Blum is the seventh member from Carnegie Mellon to be inducted into the academy. Previous inductees include John R. Anderson, Stephen Fienberg, James McClelland, Dana Scott, Robert Griffiths, and Lincoln Wolfenstein. To read the complete press release visit http://news.cs.cmu.edu/Releases/demo/93.html.

--ACM's Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction (SIGCHI)
Awards Committee has announced the election of SARA KIESLER to the CHI Academy, "one of the highest recognitions for outstanding leadership in the field of human-computer interaction." Members of the CHI Academy are among "the principal leaders of the field, whose efforts have shaped the disciplines and led the research in human-computer interaction." Dan Siewiorek, head of the HCI Institute said, "This is a well deserved recognition. Sara is a leader in our field and I value her advice in guiding HCII." Sara is joined this year by fellow electees, William Buxton, John Carroll, Doug Engelbart, Thomas Landauer, and Lucy Suchman. Additional information on the SIGCHI awards are available on their website at http://sigchi.org/documents/awards.html

--KATIA SYCARA, principal research scientist, Robotics Institute, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) for her "significant contributions to case-based reasoning, autonomous agents, and multiagent systems." Sycara will be inducted at the Fellows Dinner on July 30 during the 2002 AAAI conference in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Sycara joins other SCS inducted Fellows Jaime Carbonell, Takeo Kanade, Matt Mason, Tom Mitchell, Raj Reddy, Chuck Thorpe and William "Red" Whittaker. SYCARA also received the 2002 ACM/SIGART Autonomous Agents Research Award "for her influential research activities in multiple subareas of agent research including agent architectures, middle agents, and multi-agent negotiation". She will be recognized at the First International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents & MultiAgent Systems (AAMAS'02), July 17-19, in Bologna, Italy.

--NEIL HEFFERNAN, HCII post-doctoral fellow, has been selected as a 2002-2003 National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow for his project, "A Comparison of Student Learning Under Multiple Conditions: Classroom instruction, one-on-one human tutoring, and different types of computer tutoring." The fellowships are designed, "To promote scholarly inquiry and discussion concerning the ends and means of education, in all its forms, in the United States and abroad." Heffernan will receive a $50,000 award for one year. The award is designed, "to assist early career scholars to fund salary replacement and research expenses for their research during the fellowship period." Only 29 fellows were selected from a "competitive pool of more than 200 scholars of education at the postdoctoral level." In its 17th year of existence, the Fellowship Program's alumni are considered "many of the strongest education researchers in the field today."
--HOWIE CHOSET , assistant professor of mechanical engineering, robotics and electrical and computer engineering, has been chosen as one of the world's 100 Top Young Innovators by MIT's Technology Review Magazine

--SEBASTIAN THRUN is the recipient of the FINMECCANICA CHAIR
for 2002-2005. The chair, a three-year appointment, established in 1989, recognizes "promising teaching and research potential in junior faculty members". Sebastian joins past School of Computer Science awardees: Hui Zhang, Manuela Veloso, Guy Blelloch, and our first recipient, Roberto Bisiani. Thurn conducts research in the fields of artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics. For further information on his research visit his website at http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~thrun/

--LARRY WASSERMAN, Statistics and CALD Professor was awarded the 2002 Centre de recherches mathematiques de Montreal - Statistical Society of Canada (CRM-SSC) Prize for his original contributions to statistical theory and his development of Bayesian methodology.

--SCS GRADUATE STUDENTS AWARDED IBM PH.D. FELLOWSHIPS
Graduate students NIKHIL BANSAL (CS), STAVROS HARIZOPOULOS (CS) and LU LUO (ISRI), have been awarded the prestigious IBM Ph.D. Fellowships for 2002-2003. These competitive awards recognize "outstanding research and technical excellence in areas of interest to IBM" and provide a stipend, tuition, and fees, in addition to an opportunity to pursue technical careers in IBM's Research Division or
development laboratories. Nikhil also received the fellowship for 2001-02.

Research Awards

--AILAMAKI AND HARCHOL-BALTER RECIEVE NSF CAREER AWARDS
Anastassia Ailamaki and Mor Harchol-Balter have each been awarded a National Science Foundation CAREER Award. This prestigious program recognizes and supports the early career development of young faculty members, "…most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century." CAREER recipients are selected on the basis of creative career development plans that build a firm foundation for a lifetime of integrated contributions to research and education. Ailamaki's research focuses on "Bridging Databases and Computer Architecture: Optimizing DBMS for Deep Memory Hierarchies", while Harchol-Balter explores "The Impact of Resource Scheduling on Improving Server Performance."
(SCS Today, March 14, 2002)