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Summer Awards Roundup

CSD faculty and students win awards, grants, and recognition every day. Here's a look at recent awards we know about through Summer 2023. 

Diya Dinesh, a sophomore computer science and robotics major, was a finalist for the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT) Aspirations in Computing Program’s NCWIT Collegiate Award.

AI Major Wins Automated Medical Diagnosis Challenge

by Aaron Aupperlee | Thursday, September 7, 2023

Dongkyun Kim, a junior artificial intelligence major in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, designed the winning deep learning model in a recent competition to accurately classify diseases based on chest X-rays.

CSD Researchers Develop System That Dramatically Speeds Up Server Communication

by Aaron Aupperlee | Thursday, August 17, 2023

Carnegie Mellon University researchers in the School of Computer Science collaborated with colleagues at Intel, Microsoft and New York University to develop a new system for internet servers that changes how CPUs communicate with network interface cards. The system, called Ensō, increases the rate at which servers can service requests by up to 600%.

CMU Hacking Team Wins Seventh DEF CON Capture the Flag Title

by Ryan Noone | Wednesday, August 16, 2023

The winningest team in DEF CON's Capture the Flag (CTF) competition history, Carnegie Mellon University's Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP), was back at it again as the team recently defended its title, earning its seventh victory in the past 11 years.

Obituary: SCS Mourns Loss of Computer Visionary, Entrepreneur Edward Fredkin

by Matthew Wein | Wednesday, August 16, 2023

Fifty years ago, few people, if any, could possibly have foreseen the way artificial intelligence would grip our imaginations and consume the public discourse. But if anyone did, it was probably Edward Fredkin.

Fredkin, one of the most influential computer science theorists and thinkers of his generation who spent part of his career as a distinguished career professor at Carnegie Mellon University, died June 13 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was 88.

CSD Researchers Discover Vulnerability in Large Language Models

by Ryan Noone | Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Generally, chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude and Google Bard won't create offensive content, and hacking them requires effort and ingenuity.

Blelloch Honored With Inaugural SPAA Parallel Computing Award

by Aaron Aupperlee | Friday, July 28, 2023

Guy Blelloch, a professor in the Computer Science Department, received the inaugural Parallel Computing Award at the Association for Computing Machinery’s Symposium on Parallelism in Algorithms and Architectures (ACM SPAA).

DOD Selects Sandholm for Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows

by Aaron Aupperlee | Tuesday, July 25, 2023

The Department of Defense has selected Tuomas Sandholm for the 2023 class of Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellows, the department's flagship single-investigator award for basic research.

Rashmi Vinayak Named Goldsmith Lecturer by IEEE Information Theory Society

by Aaron Aupperlee | Monday, July 3, 2023

The School of Computer Science’s Rashmi Vinayak was named the 2023 Goldsmith Lecturer by the IEEE Information Theory Society.

The Goldsmith Lecturer Program highlights the technical achievements of early-career women and helps build their professional career and recognition. The program contributes to the public visibility of the chosen lecturer and seeks to increase the diversity of IEEE.

CSD Post-Doc Wins Top Dissertation Award

by Aaron Aupperlee | Thursday, June 29, 2023

Sam Westrick, a post-doctoral researcher in Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Science Department, received the John C. Reynolds Doctoral Dissertation Award from the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Programming Languages (ACM SIGPLAN).

Computer Science Professor Named ACM SIGMETRICS Rising Star

by Aaron Aupperlee | Thursday, June 29, 2023

The School of Computer Science's Weina Wang received the 2023 Rising Star Research Award from the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group for the Computer Performance Evaluation Community (ACM SIGMETRIC) for her development of new mathematical tools and algorithms that significantly deepen our understanding of the performance of complex, heterogeneous stochastic systems.

SCS, Meta Researchers Resolve Chronic Memory-Management Problem in Datacenters

Works Wins Best Paper Award at ISCA

by Aaron Aupperlee | Monday, June 26, 2023

A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science and Meta have redesigned operating systems and hardware to drastically improve memory management in datacenters.

As memory capacity increases in datacenters, virtual memory has become a major performance bottleneck. A vast body of prior work relies on the assumption that an operating system can allocate large, physically contiguous memory to reduce the costs associated with that bottleneck. However, the team identified that in reality, memory contiguity is scarce in datacenters.

CMU Programming Team Places Top in the U.S., Second in North America

by Aaron Aupperlee | Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Carnegie Mellon University’s International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) team beat its U.S. competitors and came in second overall at this year’s North America Championship. 

The CMU team finished behind the University of Waterloo but bested top U.S. schools including MIT; the University of California, Berkeley; and Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford universities. A total of 51 schools participated in the May 29 competition in Orlando, Florida. 

Spring 2023 Awards Roundup

by Compiled by Susie Cribbs | Wednesday, May 31, 2023

SCS faculty and students win awards, grants and recognition every day. Here's a look — neither exhaustive nor abbreviated — at who won what this semester. Keep an eye out at the end of the summer and during the fall semester for updates. Spot a glaring omission? Email the SCS News team with details.*

The Dean's Business Office also maintains a sortable archive of major faculty honors on the Faculty Awards website.

Three SCS Researchers Named AI2050 Early Career Fellows

by Kayla Papakie | Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Three School of Computer Science researchers were named to the inaugural cohort of Schmidt Futures' AI2050 Early Career Fellowship to pursue ambitious research in artificial intelligence.

CMU Researcher Uses ChatGPT To Execute Computer Tasks

Large Language Models Can Solve Computer Tasks Using Keyboard, Mouse Actions

by Aaron Aupperlee | Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Research spearheaded by Carnegie Mellon University shows that AI systems such as ChatGPT and Midjourney, known best for generating text, code or images, can also handle repetitive tasks.

Xing Named Institute of Mathematical Statistics Fellow

by Adam Kohlhaas | Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Eric Xing, a professor in the Machine Learning Department, Computer Science Department and Language Technologies Institute, has been named a 2023 Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS) fellow. 

Putting Money Where a Community's Mouths Are

CMU Spin-Out Implements Digital Community Currency in Sharpsburg

by Byron Spice | Wednesday, May 10, 2023

When you sidle into Dancing Gnome, a brewpub on Sharpsburg's Main Street, and order a glass of its renowned Lustra pale ale, founder Andrew Witchey is happy to accept payment in cash, credit or Sharpsburg Bucks.

Carnegie Mellon Leads NSF AI Institute for Societal Decision Making

$20M Collaboration Brings Together AI Researchers, Social Scientists To Develop Tools for Societal Challenges

by Aaron Aupperlee | Thursday, May 4, 2023

Artificial intelligence tools have increasingly aided emergency managers, public health officials and other professionals tasked with making critical and timely decisions that directly impact society. During disasters, AI can help efficiently direct and allocate resources. Likewise, AI tools help public health officials, community workers and clinics better target interventions to improve health outcomes.

Cranor, Stehlik Named University Professors

by Christa Cardone and Kristen Bayley | Friday, April 28, 2023

School of Computer Science faculty members Lorrie Faith Cranor and Mark Stehlik have been elevated to the rank of University Professor, the highest distinction a faculty member can receive at Carnegie Mellon University.

SCS Faculty Honored at Carnegie Mellon's Celebration of Education

by Susie Cribbs | Friday, April 28, 2023

School of Computer Science faculty members took home top accolades when Carnegie Mellon University honored faculty, staff and students at its annual Celebration of Education Awards on Thursday, April 27. The annual event recognizes the accomplishments of those who exemplify the university's standards of excellence in education and honors their outstanding contributions to the university and their devotion to and effectiveness in teaching. 

SCS Honors Faculty and Staff at Founders Day

by Kayla Papakie | Thursday, April 13, 2023

Each year, the School of Computer Science holds a special day to reflect on its recent achievements while celebrating the legacies of Allen Newell (TPR'57), Herbert A. Simon (H'90) and Alan Perlis (S'42), who are considered the founders of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.

Decoding the Internet of Things

Remember that Coke machine in Wean?

The era of smart devices, otherwise known as the Internet of Things (IoT), all began with humble origins: a vending machine in the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science. In the early 1980s, David Nichols, a computer science graduate student now working at Microsoft, enjoyed having a Coca Cola from the vending machine in the department.

CMU Team Wins PETs Prize

by Adam Kohlhaas | Thursday, April 6, 2023

As personal and private information are increasingly digitized and shared, privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs) have become fundamental for protecting an individual's privacy while still allowing for the benefits of modern technology and data analysis. A team of Carnegie Mellon University researchers recently won the PETs Prize Challenge for their work to preserve privacy during pandemic forecasting. 

SCS Faculty Receive More Than $4.5M in NSF CAREER Awards

by Kayla Papakie | Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Eight Carnegie Mellon University researchers in the School of Computer Science recently earned Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) awards from the National Science Foundation totaling more than $4.5 million. The awards are the foundation's most prestigious for young faculty researchers.

Wenting Zheng