Lab Updates

Computer Science Professor Wins Best Paper Award at Symposium on Edge Computing

Associate professor of computer science Felix Xiaozhu Lin and his co-author, Hongyu Miao, a former Ph.D. advisee at Purdue University, won the best paper award at the Seventh ACM/IEEE Symposium on Edge Computing in Seattle last month.

Lin and Miao’s paper, “Towards Out-of-core Neural Networks on Microcontrollers,” addresses constraints imposed by memory size on microcontroller units to run large neural networks. The team demonstrated a technique to enable microcontroller units to run large neural networks with acceptable cost-benefit tradeoffs.

Their findings mean microcontroller units, previously thought unsuitable for many important use cases, can be deployed for these functions, such as analyzing traffic patterns from city cameras, understanding speech in smart homes and smart spaces, and detecting anomalies in manufacturing environments.

Computer Science’s John Stankovic Elected to the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine

John A. “Jack” Stankovic, BP America Professor of computer science at the University of Virginia, has been elected as a member of the Virginia Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine. Stankovic, long known as a visionary and influential leader in computer science education and research, was named to the academy for “foundational contributions to the theory and application of both real-time systems and resource-constrained, distributed systems.”

Stankovic is most recently known for his work in cyber-physical systems, which combine sensors – examples of “resource-constrained, distributed” computing devices – used to collect data about physical things, such as people, cars and the built environment, with computing. Cyber-physical systems benefit people in myriad ways, including making products and infrastructure safer and more efficient, conserving natural resources and improving health care.

In addition to Stankovic’s own research in urban infrastructure and smart health, he was an early advocate for research and education in cyber-physical systems, which build on foundational technologies that he also helped pioneer earlier in his career.

Venkataraman Lakshmi Named President-Elect of the Hydrology Section of The American Geophysical Union

Venkataraman “Venkat” Lakshmi, John L. Newcomb Professor in the Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, has been appointed an OFFICER OF THE AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION. Lakshmi will serve as president-elect of the Hydrology section for a two-year term starting January 1, 2023. 

Collaboration Takes Center Stage at Computer Science Grad Student Group Research Symposium

Once a year, the Computer Science Graduate Student Group comes together to share research and generally get to know each other. In a big, diverse department the CSGSG Research Symposium is an opportunity to network, exchange ideas and deepen the department’s sense of community.

The 2022 symposium, held Oct. 3 in Rice Hall, featured numerous faculty presentations on varying topics and two poster sessions in which graduate students explained their work and took questions from peers and faculty members. Poster slots weren’t just reserved for seasoned researchers honing their speaking skills.

“The goal of this years’ symposium was to be more inclusive of new students, as well as provide all the benefits of a research symposium to more senior students,” said Carl Hildebrandt, a Ph.D. student in Sebastian Elbaum’s lab and part of the LESS Lab, who organized the event.

“We encouraged new students to present posters even on partial ideas, so that they can start collaborating and discussing their ideas with faculty who might be interested in working with them,” Hildebrandt said.

Nearly 30 students took advantage of the opportunity, showcasing research with titles ranging from “An Empirical Study on Readers’ Intuition of the Political Stances in News Headlines” to “Low-power Passive Sensing of On-screen Activities.”

Computer Science Graduate Student Group 2022 Research Symposium Poster Awards

The Computer Science Graduate Student Group held the 2022 Research Symposium Monday, Oct. 3, in Rice Hall. The event included keynote speakers, faculty talks, and two poster sessions in which nearly 30 students presented their research. Awards were given in the categories below.

Congratulations to the winners!

• Best Poster Session 1 – Stephanie Schoch
• Best Poster Session 2 – Josie Lamp
• Best Poster, New Students – Muhammad Shoaib
• Most Promising Research – Trey Woodlief
• Best Poster Presentation – Ingy ElSayed-Aly

$5 Million NSF Grant Will Create Coastal Futures Hub to Engage Urban Communities in Combating Climate Change

The University of Virginia and Norfolk State University have been awarded a $5 million grant as part of the National Science Foundation’s Coastlines and People Hubs for Research and Broadening Participation, or CoPe. A central aim of the NSF-funded program is to build collaboration between researchers and coastal area residents in tackling effects of climate change.

$5 Million NSF Grant to Enable Machine Learning Systems Across the ‘Internet of Things’ and the ‘Internet of Senses’

The Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia has been awarded a large Principles and Practice of Scalable Systems grant from the National Science Foundation for collaborative research.

As the lead institution, UVA will receive $3 million of the total $4,999,995 award. The partner institutions, the University of Pittsburgh and Saint Louis University, will receive $1.8 million and $199,995 respectively.

Aidong Zhang, the William Wulf Faculty Fellow and professor of computer science, biomedical engineering and data science, is the principal investigator on the project, Co-designing Hardware, Software and Algorithms to Enable Extreme-Scale Machine Learning Systems. Zhang leads a team that includes four co-PIs and two senior personnel from the UVA Department of Computer Science.

Contributing for UVA are:

• Kevin Skadron, Harry Douglas Forsyth Professor of Computer Science
• Matt Dwyer, Robert Thomson Distinguished Professor, computer science
• Ashish Venkat, William Wulf Career Enhancement Assistant Professor, computer science
• Brad Campbell, assistant professor, computer science and electrical and computer engineering
• Tianhao Wang (senior personnel), assistant professor, computer science
• Yonghwi Kwon (senior personnel), John Knight Career Enhancement Assistant Professor, computer science

Young Women from Area High Schools Tackle Patient Care Design Challenge

UVA’s School of Engineering, School of Education and Robertson Media Studio partnered with Charlottesville Women in Tech to conduct the 9th annual bio-med tech-girls program.

UVA Computer Science Team Aims to Amplify Data Sharing in Distributed Environment Through Collaborative Learning

The Department of Computer Science at the University of Virginia has been awarded a new Computer and Information Science and Engineering Community Research Infrastructure grant from the National Science Foundation for collaborative research with the University of Pittsburgh.

As the lead institution, UVA will receive $1.12 million of the total $1.6 million award for the project, titled A Scalable Hardware and Software Environment Enabling Secure Multi-party Learning.

Aidong Zhang, the William Wulf Faculty Fellow and professor of computer science, biomedical engineering and data science, is the principal investigator. The UVA team includes Hongning Wang, associate professor of computer science; Ashish Venkat, William Wulf Career Enhancement assistant professor of computer science; Tianhao Wang, assistant professor of computer science; and Mehdi Boukhechba, an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Systems and Environment.

UVA Leader in Computer Science Research, Jack Stankovic, Wins Prestigious IEEE Award

BP America Professor John A. “Jack” Stankovic in the Department of Computer Science is the 2022 recipient of the prestigious IEEE Technical Committee on Cyber-physical Systems Technical Achievement Award.

Stankovic also is director of the Link Lab, a multidisciplinary center for research in cyber-physical systems.

The Technical Achievement Award is among the most prestigious honors for cyber-physical systems researchers. The award recognizes the impact of the recipient’s high-quality research throughout his or her lifetime, and “significant and sustained contributions to the cyber-physical system (CPS) community.”