Latest News

Von Ahn Named National Academy of Inventors Fellow

by Byron Spice | Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Luis von Ahn, a consulting professor in Carnegie Mellon University's Computer Science Department and co-founder and CEO of the language-learning platform Duolingo, is among 175 academic inventors elected as 2020 fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI).

Sandholm Wins AAAI Engelmore Award

by Byron Spice | Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Tuomas Sandholm, the Angel Jordan University Professor of Computer Science, has received the 2021 Robert S. Engelmore Memorial Lecture Award from the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) for his AI research and service to the AI community.

Cranor, Touretzky Named 2020 AAAS Fellows

by Byron Spice | Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Lorrie Cranor and David S. Touretzky, both faculty members in the School of Computer Science, are among almost 500 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to be named 2020 AAAS fellows.

World's Fastest Open-Source Intrusion Detection Arrives

by Daniel Tkacik | Monday, November 16, 2020

Intrusion-detection systems are the invisible intelligence agencies in computer networks. They scan every packet of data passed through the network, looking for signs of any one of the tens of thousands of cyberattack styles they recognize.

As internet speeds increase, data volumes grow. To keep up, intrusion-detection systems have morphed into giant racks and stacks of servers, driving up energy costs for organizations that rely on them.

Fragkiadaki Wins Air Force Young Investigator Award

by Byron Spice | Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Katerina Fragkiadaki, an assistant professor in the Machine Learning Department, is one of 36 scientists and engineers nationwide — and one of just two from Carnegie Mellon University — to receive funding this year through the Air Force's Young Investigator Research Program (YIP).

SCS Celebrates New Professorships

Faloutsos, Harchol-Balter, Sycara Honored During Virtual Event

by Byron Spice | Thursday, October 22, 2020

A trio of distinguished School of Computer Science faculty members — Christos Faloutsos, Mor Harchol-Balter and Katia Sycara — formally received professorships during a virtual celebration on Thursday, Oct. 22.

"The onset of the pandemic forced us to delay and modify the usual ceremonies that accompany these professorships, but our appreciation for the academic excellence and service to the school of these three faculty members is in no way diminished," said SCS Dean Martial Hebert.

Five SCS Seniors Named ACS Scholars

by Byron Spice | Monday, October 19, 2020

Five School of Computer Science seniors have been selected as Andrew Carnegie Society Scholars for 2021. The award recognizes their academic excellence; volunteerism; leadership; and involvement in student organizations, athletics or the arts.

Sandholm Named Among Top 100 Entrepreneurs

by Byron Spice | Wednesday, October 14, 2020

Goldman Sachs has named Tuomas Sandholm, the Angel Jordan University Professor of Computer Science, one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2020.

Sandholm was cited for his role as founder, president and CEO of Strategy Robot Inc., a Carnegie Mellon University spinoff that applies game theory, artificial intelligence and optimization to military, war gaming, force design, portfolio planning, course-of-action creation, security, intelligence, cybersecurity, world stability and policy challenges.

CMU Scientists Solve 90-Year-Old Geometry Problem

Math Puzzle Resolved by Translating It Into Satisfiability Problem

by Byron Spice | Wednesday, September 30, 2020

Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists and mathematicians have resolved the last, stubborn piece of Keller's conjecture, a geometry problem that scientists have puzzled over for 90 years.

By structuring the puzzle as what computer scientists call a satisfiability problem, the researchers put the problem to rest with four months of frenzied computer programming and just 30 minutes of computation using a cluster of computers.

Five SCS Students Named 2021 Siebel Scholars

by Byron Spice | Monday, September 28, 2020

The Siebel Scholars Foundation has announced that SCS graduate students Brandon Bohrer, Rogerio Bonatti, Megan Hofmann, Hsiao-Yu Fish Tung and Lijun Yu are among the recipients of the 2021 Siebel Scholars award.

Bugless Code

by Daniel Tkacik | Thursday, August 27, 2020

Not long ago, people using Microsoft Word would check for spelling errors by specifically telling the software to run “Spell Check.” The check took a few seconds to do, and users could then go in and fix their typos. Nowadays, Spell Check runs automatically as users write — as I write this story.

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.