News In and Around CSD

Carnegie Mellon's hacking team, the Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP), won its seventh straight capture the flag competition last week at the annual Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) conference hosted by New York University. The contest consisted of 15 qualifying teams from the United States and Canada, while the qualifying round leading up to the final event drew 2,454 teams... Read More

A new technology developed by Carnegie Mellon University and Disney Research could enable smartwatches to automatically recognize what objects users are touching — for instance, whether the wearer is using a laptop, operating a saw, or riding a motorcycle — creating new opportunities for context-aware apps.
The technique, called EM-Sense, takes advantage of the body's natural electrical conductivity to detect whether a person is touching an electrical or electromechanical device and, based on the... Read More

Today, the National Science Foundation announced the funding of four regional Big Data Innovation Hubs. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, Mellon College of Science, Heinz College and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC), a joint effort between CMU and the University of... Read More

The great American road trip is a time-honored way to spend a summer vacation. During the last two weeks of July 1995, Dean Pomerleau (CS’92) and Todd Jochem (CS’93,’96) of CMU’s Robotics Institute packed their gear into a 1990 Pontiac Trans Sport minivan and took an epic, 2,850-mile journey from Pittsburgh to San Diego.
Along the way, they visited Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Hoover Dam, checked out tourist traps such as “Prairie Dog Town,” and collected plastic Burger King figurines from the then-new Disney animated feature “Pocahontas.” In Los Angeles, they even met “Tonight... Read More

Carnegie Mellon women in computing are furthering innovation across the globe, as evidenced when they joined with women technologists from around the globe at the annual Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing Conference, Oct. 14–16 in Houston.
CMU’s Herbert A. Simon University Professor of Computer Science Manuela Veloso, who personifies this year's theme, "Our Time to Lead," gave a... Read More
Carnegie Mellon faculty members Manuela Veloso, Marlene Behrman and Lenore Blum will share their insights on computer science research with undergraduate women at the OurCS workshop Oct. 24–25.
Chandra Dhandapani, senior vice president and divisional chief information officer for the Financial Services Division of... Read More

Even when Carnegie Mellon computer scientists look back, they're still looking forward.
So when faculty, students and alumni gather Oct. 23–24 for CS Fifty — the 50th anniversary of the Computer Science Department — expect visions of the future of computing to be as common as reminiscences.
Anita Jones, a former director of Defense Research and Engineering, and... Read More
The Siebel Scholars Foundation has named six Carnegie Mellon University graduate students to the 2016 class of Siebel Scholars, including one in the field of energy science, which is newly added to the program this year.
Matt Wytock was named as a scholar in energy science, while John Dickerson, Rohit Girdhar, Po-Yao Huang, Jeffrey Rzeszotarski and Xun Zheng were honored as exceptional students in computer science.
The Siebel Scholars program recognizes the most talented students at the world's leading graduate... Read More

Carnegie Mellon University's TechBridgeWorld research group today announced the release of open source software that can help educators of children with hearing disabilities create video dictionaries of sign languages and use games that encourage vocalization by children learning to speak.
The software, produced in collaboration with the Mathru Educational Trust for the Blind in Bangalore, India, is particularly suited for use in underdeveloped... Read More
Pittsburgh magazine’s annual listing of the 50 Most Powerful People includes CMU President Subra Suresh and SCS Dean Andrew Moore. Luis von Ahn, associate professor of computer science, and John Bares, a civil engineering alumnus, former director of the National Robotics Engineering Center and now director of the Uber Advanced Technology Center, are among 15 “... Read More
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