This Issue: December 8, 1997

NEW HONORS...Congratulations to Jeannette Wing and Ed Clarke, who have been elected as 1998 ACM Fellows. As noted by ACM, they will be among "39 members recognized for their achievements in computer science and information technology, as well as their contributions to further the mission of the ACM." An induction ceremony is scheduled for held Sunday, May 10, 1998, during ACM's Policy 98 conference in Washington, D.C. "ACM Fellows serve as distinguished colleagues to whom the ACM and its members look toward for guidance and leadership as the world of information technology evolves. Their technical contributions reflect the powers of their ability to inspire while their works span all horizons in computer science producing solutions that are useful for people everywhere."

AND ALUMNI HONORS...Andrew Appel (Princeton) and David Notkin (University of Washington), CS alumni, will also be inducted as ACM Fellows for 1998!

IN DEFENSE...
**KEVIN DOWLING successfully tackled "Limbless Locomotion: Learning to Crawl with a Snake Robot" at his robotics oral today. His committee consisted of: Red Whittaker (Chair), Howie Choset, Andrew Moore, Hagen Schempf, and Joel Burdick (Caltech).
**LALITESH KATRAGADDA gathers his thoughts on "Synergy - A Language and Framework for Robot Design" at his Robotics thesis defense on Friday, December 12 at 11:00 am, FRC 100. His committee includes: Red Whittaker (Chair), John Bares, Matt Mason, Tony Stentz, and Robert Ambrose (Lockheed Martin).

LTI PROPOSALS...
**MARSAL GAVALDA served "SOUP-IDIGA: An Empathic Computer System for the Rapid Deployment of Natural Language Understanding Front-Ends and their Dynamic Customization by End-Users" at his LTI thesis proposal. His committee included: Alex Waibel (Chair), Jaime Carbonell, Jill Lehman, Wayne Ward, and Stephanie Seneff (MIT).
**YAN QU offered "A Constraint-Based Model for Cooperative Response Generation in Information Systems" at the December 3 thesis proposal. The committee included: Jaime Carbonell (Co-Chair), Nancy Green (Co-Chair), Lori Levin, Alex Waibel, Barbara Di Eugenio (University of Pittsburgh), and Stephen Beale (NMSU).

SCS HOLIDAY BREAKFAST...Welcome in the holiday season with your SCS friends and colleagues on Friday morning, December 12 from 9:00-11:00 am in Rangos Ballroom 2/3 at the University Center (2nd floor). No need to RSVP, just wake-up, show-up, eat-up and have fun with your SCS pals. Coffee, for the slow to awaken, will be abundant :-)

UNBELIEVABLE...but true. Two of the first employees of the Robotics Institute, Kevin (May 1980) and MaryJo (Jan 1981) Dowling will be leaving for New England at the end of the month. Come say your farewells and thank them for giving the best of their efforts, talents, humor and youth :-) to Robotics/SCS at a reception on Monday, December 15 from 3:00-5:00 pm in Wean 4623.

CAREER SEMINAR...Nevin Heintze and Phil Wadler (both CS alum), Bell Labs/Lucent Technologies, will examine "From AT&T to Lucent: Ringing in the Changes at Bell Labs" on Thursday, December 11 at 12:00 noon, Wean 7220 (over pizza). Appointments on Dec 11/12 can be scheduled through copetas@cs.

BLACK FRIDAYS COMING...
**CS Black Friday is scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, December 17/18.
Dec 17: PS, CS/Theory, AI -- Dec 18: Group Meeting
**Robotics Black Friday takes place on Friday, December 19.
Both groups will meet in Wean 4623.

CALENDAR ALERT...The university will observe the holidays on Wednesday and Thursday, December 24-25 and Wednesday and Thursday, December 31-January 1. Classes and normal business hours will resume Friday, January 2. During the interim weeks, staffing will be greatly reduced, so plan accordingly. December paychecks (full-time employees) will be available on the 23rd.

WORDS FOR THOUGHT:
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9
**AI SEMINAR: Wei-Min Shen, Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California, "Return of the Jedi: Integrated Robots for Soccer Competition", 3:30 pm, Wean 4615A (special room).

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10
**POP SEMINAR: Martin Richards, Cambridge University, "Pattern Matching in a Typeless Language", 3:30 pm, Wean 8220.

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11
**PURE & APPLIED LOGIC COLLOQUIUM: Dick Schlimm, CMU, "Intuitionism: The Philosophy of L.E.J. Brouwer", 3:30 pm (check boards for room).

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