Latest News

Two Alumni With SCS Ties Earn Fulbrights

by Heidi Opdyke | Thursday, June 3, 2021

Two alumni with ties to the School of Computer Science were among the eight from Carnegie Mellon University recently awarded grants through the Fulbright U.S. Student Program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Amazon Names Five Graduate Research Fellows as Part of New SCS Collaboration

by Aaron Aupperlee | Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Five Carnegie Mellon University students with ties to the School of Computer Science were selected for the inaugural Amazon Graduate Research Fellows Program.

Amazon and CMU established the program to further the company's commitment to supporting promising researchers across academia. In recent years, the company has collaborated with several major universities to help amplify the work being done by master's and Ph.D. students.

The five fellows are Nil-Jana Akpinar, Natalia Lombardi de Oliveria, Divyansh Kaushik, Emre Yolcu and Minji Yoon.

Nina Balcan Honored With Cadence Design Systems Professorship

by Aaron Aupperlee | Thursday, May 20, 2021

Maria Florina "Nina" Balcan recently received the inaugural Cadence Design Systems Chair in Computer Science for the impact her work has had in her departments and across Carnegie Mellon University.

SCS Alum Wins Top SIGMOD Dissertation Award

by Aaron Aupperlee | Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Huanchen Zhang, who earned his Ph.D. from the School of Computer Science in 2020, has won the 2021 ACM SIGMOD Jim Gray Dissertation Award, which recognizes the previous year's best dissertation in the database field.

CMU Research Forms Basis for Automatic Database Tuning Service

SCS Alums, Faculty Found OtterTune

by Aaron Aupperlee | Wednesday, May 12, 2021

A School of Computer Science grad student's dissertation has been transformed into a service aimed at improving the databases that power popular websites.

OtterTune, a play on the once ubiquitous Auto-Tune, uses machine learning to automatically optimize databases, improving performance and efficiency and potentially saving companies time and money. Users could see faster loading times and improved services with a database humming along in the background.

Research by CMU, Twitter Could Improve Cache Efficiency by 60%

Team Wins Top Paper Award at USENIX NSDI Conference

by Aaron Aupperlee | Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Research from Carnegie Mellon University may soon help Twitter run faster and more efficiently.

Juncheng Yang, a Ph.D. candidate in computer science, and Rashmi Vinayak, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department, worked with Yao Yue from Twitter to develop Segcache to make better use of DRAM cache.

Three SCS Faculty Selected for Provost's Inclusive Teaching Fellowships

by Aaron Aupperlee | Friday, May 7, 2021

Three School of Computer Science faculty members will participate in the 2021-2022 Provost's Inclusive Teaching Fellowship program in the university's Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence and Educational Innovation.

The program works with a small cohort of faculty to integrate inclusive teaching practices in their classes. The fellows work closely with the Eberly Center to redesign their courses.

SCS Doctoral Students Selected for Facebook Fellowships

by Aaron Aupperlee | Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Two Ph.D. candidates in the School of Computer Science received Facebook Fellowships to support their ongoing research. Now in its 10th year, the fellowship program supports research on important computer science and engineering topics, such as computer vision, programming languages, computational social science and more.

Prithvi Okade Awarded Krulcik Scholarship

by Matthew Wein | Wednesday, May 5, 2021

Prithvi Okade is a pretty familiar face around the School of Computer Science. Some know her as the head teaching assistant for 15-112, Fundamentals of Programming. Some recognize her from the SCS tours they took as prospective students. And to some she was the orientation counselor who helped them get acclimated in their first semesters on campus.

SCS Grad, Nurse Team Up To Fix Broken Primary Care System

by Elizabeth Speed | Monday, May 3, 2021

Neil Batlivala has blended his expertise in computer science with his interest in medicine to help design a platform that allows doctors to concentrate on their patients.

Batlivala, who earned his bachelor's degree in computer science with a minor in computational biology in 2014, collaborated with nurse Cassie Choi to found Pair Team, a health-tech startup that frees doctors to focus on patient conversations.

CMU Students Among Top Computer Programmers in North American Collegiate Competition

by Aaron Aupperlee | Friday, April 30, 2021

Three Carnegie Mellon University students will compete against some of the best computer programmers in North America this summer as part of the International Collegiate Programming Competition.

Duolingo Named to Time Magazine's List of 100 Most Influential Companies

by Aaron Aupperlee | Thursday, April 29, 2021

Duolingo's little green owl found itself among prestigious company this week when Time Magazine named the Carnegie Mellon University spinoff and Pittsburgh startup to its list of the 100 most influential companies for 2021.

Misha Ivkov Earns Stehlik Scholarship

by Aaron Aupperlee | Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Misha Ivkov's hands shook during his first college computer science exam. Carnegie Mellon University was a bit overwhelming, much different from high school.

But Ivkov got through that first exam — after that, everything was fine, he said — and the soon-to-graduate computer science major went from fearing college during his first weeks to relishing his classes and helping other students find the same experience.

"I really enjoyed taking all these classes, so I wanted to be sure other students did too," Ivkov said. "I wanted students to succeed."

SCS Remembers Adobe Founder and Ph.D. Alum Charles Geschke

by Aaron Aupperlee | Tuesday, April 27, 2021

A creator of software that revolutionized the way people collaborate, Charles M. Geschke left his mark on Carnegie Mellon University long after earning his degree.

"Chuck" Geschke, who received a Ph.D. in computer science from CMU in 1973 and continued to give back to the university throughout his life, died Friday, April 16, at 81.

Algorithm Uses Online Ads To Identify Human Traffickers

by Aaron Aupperlee | Thursday, April 22, 2021

Ads peddling the victims of human trafficking hide among millions of escort listings online. While identifying similar ads could be the key to taking down a human trafficking organization, the sheer volume of listings — with new ones added each day — makes the task a daunting one for law enforcement.

Mani Revists AI Grand Challenges in New Article

by Aaron Aupperlee | Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Chess turned out to be an easy one. Translating speech in near real-time is mostly done. The accident-avoiding car? Maybe halfway there.

SCS Faculty Awarded Five Grants Through Google's Inaugural Research Scholar Program

by Aaron Aupperlee | Friday, April 9, 2021

Six Carnegie Mellon University faculty members, including five affiliated with the School of Computer Science, received grants through Google's inaugural Research Scholar Program. The program provides up to $60,000 to support the research efforts of early career professors.

SCS Juniors Named Goldwater Recipients

by Aaron Aupperlee | Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Two School of Computer Science students received the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship for 2021.

Arvind Mahankali and Jinhyung Park were among four Carnegie Mellon University students granted the scholarship, which is awarded to sophomores and juniors who show promise as leaders in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics.

Blelloch Receives 2021 Babbage Award

by Aaron Aupperlee | Tuesday, March 30, 2021

The IEEE Computer Society has honored Guy Blelloch with the 2021 Charles Babbage Award for his contributions to parallel programming, parallel algorithms and the interface between them.

Woodruff Earns Award for Teaching Excellence

by Aaron Aupperlee | Monday, March 29, 2021

To adjust to teaching virtually during the pandemic, David Woodruff let his students set the pace. That meant sticking around on Zoom for an extra 20 minutes at the end of lectures. It meant longer office hours — two hours instead of one. And it meant cutting one lecture from his courses to slow the pace.

SCS Grad Student Cracks Mars Rover Code

by Michael Henninger | Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Down here on Earth, nearly 130 million miles from Mars, Adithya Balaji eagerly watched high-definition video of Perseverance and its successful descent onto the red planet. From his desk in Raleigh, North Carolina, Balaji took note of the rover's parachute and its peculiar orange and white pattern. He thought it was likely functional, perhaps for aligning cameras. Within the pattern, however, lay hidden a call for humanity to continue to push out toward the unknown.

SCS Faculty Among Team That Earns MURI Award

by Daniel Tkacik | Monday, March 8, 2021

School of Computer Science faculty members Lujo Bauer and Matt Fredrikson are part of a research team that won a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) Award.

CMU Remembers Computer Science Visionary Howard Wactlar

by Michael Henninger | Friday, March 5, 2021

Carnegie Mellon University lost a remarkable visionary this week with the death of Howard Wactlar, who pioneered computing on campus for nearly half a century while advancing the nation's research agenda through his work with the federal government.

SCS Names First Assistant Dean for Entrepreneurship Initiatives

by Matthew Wein | Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Katharine "Kit" Needham has been named the School of Computer Science's inaugural assistant dean for entrepreneurship initiatives.

Peet Named Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Experience

by Matthew Wein | Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Veronica Peet has been named the School of Computer Science's first assistant dean for undergraduate experience.

Peet joined SCS nearly two years ago as a senior academic advisor to first-year students, working with Tom Cortina, then the assistant dean for undergraduate education. Her new position emerged from departmental restructuring that saw Cortina elevated to associate dean for undergraduate programs.