Latest News

SCS Students Receive Apple AI/ML Fellowships

by Byron Spice | Monday, August 10, 2020

Apple has announced that two Ph.D. students in the School of Computer Science — Graham Gobieski and Xinyi Wang — have received fellowships in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). They're two of a dozen students who earned fellowships through Apple Scholars, a program that supports students in computer science and engineering.

Analysis of Complex Geometric Models Made Simple

Monte Carlo Method Dispenses With Troublesome Meshes

by Byron Spice | Monday, June 29, 2020

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed an efficient new way to quickly analyze complex geometric models by borrowing a computational approach that has made photorealistic animated films possible.

Rapid improvements in sensor technology have generated vast amounts of new geometric information, from scans of ancient architectural sites to the internal organs of humans. But analyzing that mountain of data, whether it's determining if a building is structurally sound or how oxygen flows through the lungs, has become a computational chokepoint.

A Master of Transformations

Bryant Ready for Next Step: Retirement

by Byron Spice | Wednesday, June 24, 2020

When Randy Bryant took the helm of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science in 2004, he quickly realized that SCS, despite its top ranking among computer science schools, had joined its peers in falling a bit behind the research curve.

It was a time when Google and Amazon used thousand-machine server farms to perform unimagined feats and develop new computational methods for solving problems. But academics had yet to embrace the power of big data.

Schwartz Named Head of Computational Biology Department

by Byron Spice | Friday, June 19, 2020

Martial Hebert, dean of Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, has named Russell Schwartz the new head of the Computational Biology Department, effective July 1.

Three SCS Faculty Members Named Wimmer Fellows

by Byron Spice | Monday, June 8, 2020

Three School of Computer Science faculty members — Michael Hilton, Stephanie Rosenthal and Joshua Sunshine — have been named 2020-21 Wimmer Faculty Fellows by the university's Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation.

Carnegie Mellon Tool Automatically Turns Math Into Pictures

Visualizations Poised To Enrich Teaching, Scientific Communication

by Byron Spice | Tuesday, June 2, 2020

Some people look at an equation and see a bunch of numbers and symbols; others see beauty. Thanks to a new tool created at Carnegie Mellon University, anyone can now translate the abstractions of mathematics into beautiful and instructive illustrations.

The tool enables users to create diagrams simply by typing an ordinary mathematical expression and letting the software do the drawing. Unlike a graphing calculator, these expressions aren't limited to basic functions, but can be complex relationships from any area of mathematics.

Recent SCS Grad Will Travel to Austria as Fulbright Grantee

by Heidi Opdyke | Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Vaidehi Srinivas, who recently graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science, will head to Austria as one of seven Carnegie Mellon University students selected as 2020-2021 Fulbright Student Grantees.

Gibbons Will Receive ACM's Kanellakis Award

by Byron Spice | Wednesday, May 20, 2020

The Association for Computing Machinery has announced that Carnegie Mellon University's Phillip Gibbons, professor in the Computer Science and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Departments, will receive the Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award.

Four SCS Faculty Members Named University Professors

by Byron Spice | Friday, May 15, 2020

Four faculty members from the School of Computer Science have been elevated to the rank of University Professor, the highest distinction a faculty member can achieve at Carnegie Mellon University.

"Five Big Ideas in AI" Featured in NSF Video Showcase

CSD's Touretzky Leads National Effort To Define K-12 AI Curriculum

by Byron Spice | Monday, May 4, 2020

A project to develop an artificial intelligence curriculum for grades K-12 headed by David Touretzky, a research professor in the Computer Science Department, will be featured in the National Science Foundation-funded 2020 STEM for All Video Showcase, which will be online May 5–12.

Balcan Receives ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award

by Virginia Alvino Young | Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Maria Florina "Nina" Balcan, an associate professor in the School of Computer Science's Machine Learning and Computer Science Departments, has received the 2019 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Grace Murray Hopper Award for her significant innovations in machine learning and minimally supervised learning.

Rashmi Vinayak Receives Facebook Distributed Systems Research Award

One Of Just Eight Researchers To Receive An Award

by Jenn Landefeld | Thursday, April 2, 2020

Rashmi Vinayak has been awarded a Facebook Research Distributed Systems research award.

Jessica Lee Wins Prestigious Goldwater Scholarship

by Byron Spice | Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Jessica Lee, a junior majoring in computer science, is one of four Carnegie Mellon University students selected to receive a 2020 Barry Goldwater Scholarship, which is awarded to sophomores and juniors who show promise as leaders in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics.

CS Academy Provides Free Coding Curriculum, Aiding Transition to Online Learning

by Virginia Alvino Young | Monday, March 30, 2020

"Remote learning takes more energy than I expected," said Daryl Detrick, who teaches high schoolers how to code in New Jersey, and, like thousands of his peers, is working from home due to the novel coronavirus. But CMU CS Academy is easing his transition to the virtual classroom. CS Academy is a free, online, interactive computer science curriculum that includes teacher training and online technical support.

Keenan Crane Receives NSF CAREER Award

Research Will Help Software Users Make Use of 3D Data

by Byron Spice | Thursday, March 19, 2020

Keenan Crane, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department and Robotics Institute, has been awarded a four-year, $519,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award for young faculty members.

Seneca Valley Team Wins Second Annual High School Programming Contest

by Byron Spice | Monday, March 9, 2020

A team from Seneca Valley High School took top honors in the second annual Carnegie Mellon University High School Programming Contest, hosted by the School of Computer Science on Saturday, March 7.

CSD's Vinayak Wins NSF CAREER Award

Research Aims To Improve Efficiency of Large-Scale Data Centers

by Byron Spice | Wednesday, March 4, 2020

Rashmi Vinayak, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department, has won a five-year, $650,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious award for young faculty members.

Jaime Carbonell Pioneered Use of Computers for Translation

Distinguished Professor Founded CMU's Language Technologies Institute

by Byron Spice | Friday, February 28, 2020

Jaime Carbonell foresaw a world where people could freely communicate with each other, no matter what language they spoke. He knew that making this dream a reality would require automation, so he spent his career building machines that could understand human language.

Shah Earns NSF CAREER Award

by Virginia Alvino Young | Friday, February 21, 2020

Nihar Shah, an assistant professor in the School of Computer Science's Machine Learning and Computer Science Departments, has received a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, the organization's most prestigious award for young faculty members.

Kolter, Gkioulekas Named Sloan Research Fellows

Zico Kolter, an associate professor in the Computer Science Department (CSD), and Ioannis Gkioulekas, an assistant professor in the Robotics Institute, are among 126 early career researchers to receive 2020 Sloan Research Fellowships.

Ranysha Ware Awarded Prize for Work on Internet Fairness

by Virginia Alvino Young | Friday, February 7, 2020

Ranysha Ware, a Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon University’s Computer Science Department, has received a 2020 Applied Networking Research Prize (ANRP) from the Internet Engineering Task Force. She is being recognized for her work on congestion control fairness.

Hebert Installed as SCS Dean

by Susie Cribbs | Thursday, January 30, 2020

It's fitting that the installation of School of Computer Science Dean Martial Hebert would begin with a musical intro from Carnegie Mellon University's robot bagpiper, McBlare. After all, Hebert spent his career at the Robotics Institute until taking the helm of SCS this past August.

Four SCS Students Named Facebook Fellows

by Byron Spice | Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Four Ph.D. candidates in the School of Computer Science are among 36 outstanding students in computer science and engineering from 16 universities who have been named 2020 recipients of the Facebook Fellowship Program.

Harlene Samra Earns Inaugural Krulcik Scholarship

by Susie Cribbs | Monday, December 23, 2019

School of Computer Science junior Harlene Samra has so many doubts about whether she belongs in SCS that she's slapped an "imposter" sticker on her laptop. After all, when other people are pulling all-nighters, she's keeping a healthy sleep schedule. She binges TV shows. She works all weekend on assignments that might take someone else all of two hours.

Kolter’s Team Wins First Place on Kaggle Competition with Over 2700 Teams

by Roberto Iriondo | Wednesday, December 18, 2019

The team of researchers was composed of Zico Kolter, Shaojie Bai, Devin Wilmott, Mordechai Kornbluth, and Jonathan Mailoa, who won a Kaggle competition onPredicting Molecular Properties this past September.

Shaojie Bai, a doctoral student with the Machine Learning Department and team member, said the team completed the project during an internship at the Bosch Center for AI (BCAI).