Advancing Academic & Research Excellence: 2023 Georgia Tech College of Computing Annual Report

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CONTENTS 3 Letter from the Dean 5 News Overview 6 Transforming Tomorrow 8 OMSCS Update 10 College Leadership 11 Key Indicators 12 Beyond Boundaries: Charles Isbell’s Visionary Impact on Computing Education and Inclusivity 15 Constellations Expands CS Ed Outreach 16 From Lab to Life: Researchers Positively Impacting People’s Lives 18 In The News 20 Honoring Those Shaping the Community 22 Innovation and Impact: Celebrating Faculty Achievements 24 A Year of Student Achievement 26 Faculty

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COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

DEAR FRIENDS OF THE COLLEGE OF COMPUTING,

I

t’s been an exciting and transformative year in

Let’s take research. This fiscal year our research

the College of Computing. As you may know, Dean

expenditures are close to $40 million, an increase of

Charles Isbell accepted the position of Provost

20 percent over the previous year. And our research

at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, and

continues to have tremendous real-world impact.

departed in August.

I am serving as Interim Dean while we conduct

Josiah Hester (Interactive Computing) and Celine Lin (Computer Science) are co-leading a $45 million

the search for Charles’ successor. I have taught in

ARPA-H project to build tiny, sense-and-respond

the College of Computing for 24 years, and I’ve seen

implants for treating cancer. The work, once finished,

it grow into the powerhouse it is today. I was here for

has the potential to cut U.S. cancer deaths in half.

the creation of our Schools, and the introduction of the

Wenke Lee (Cybersecurity & Privacy) is co-

Threads undergraduate curriculum. I was a founding

leading a new $20 million NSF AI Institute for artificial

instructor in OMSCS, and the inaugural director of the

intelligence and cybersecurity. He is the third

Scientific Software Engineering Center.

Computing faculty member to head up one of these

In other words, I have a long history with the

$20 million institutes. Ph.D. student Xiang Cheng and

College and a deep investment in its success. As

his advisor, Taesoo Kim (joint in Computer Science and

Interim Dean, and a software engineer at heart, I

Cybersecurity & Privacy), added a feature to Intel’s

am focusing on the “technical debt” that the College

SGX processor chip to increase security for software

accrued during its dramatic growth. In the last five

operating on untrustworthy systems. Their research

years, we have doubled the number of our students,

will go into potentially millions of machines.

dramatically increased our research activities, and added two new schools. Now, we are updating our organization to support this expansion.

On the enrollment side, we passed the threshold of 18,000 students. Our students could fill Madison

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Square Garden. Some of our growth is due to OMSCS, but our undergraduate enrollment has doubled as well. We now have more than 4,600 undergraduates, more than a quarter of the overall Georgia Tech undergraduate population.

Our growth did not come at the expense of our standards, however. U.S. News and World Report ranked us #6 for undergraduate and #8 for graduate education this year ¬- our sixth year in the top 10 in both categories. We have risen in several areas, including Artificial Intelligence (#5), Cybersecurity (#2), and Software Engineering (#3).

Rankings are never a perfect measure, but our consistent run at the top reflects our size, our research, and our growing reputation.

We continue to grow because the world needs our students: there are 40 million unfilled technical jobs worldwide, according to the U.S. Labor Department. You may have heard about layoffs at big tech companies, but other companies and start-ups, not to mention nonprofits and government organizations, are still desperate for talent.

In short, the College of Computing is making a difference, both in our field and in the world more generally. We are building the technologies and providing the education of the future, while also building a stronger, more diverse computing community at the same time. n Ad maiora!

Alessandro (Alex) Orso John P. Imlay Jr. Interim Dean of Computing 4

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

GT Computing 2023 Annual Report The College of Computing’s 2023 Annual Report is an overview of significant news events, milestones, and transformative moments that have helped to shape our institution in the past year. From groundbreaking research breakthroughs to impactful community initiatives, from exceptional student accomplishments to strategic advancements in our academic programs, this report captures the dynamic and vibrant spirit that defines the GT Computing community.

A SIGNIFICANT YEAR FOR GT COMPUTING The biggest story of the past year was the May 1 announcement that Dean Charles Isbell had accepted the provost position at the University of WisconsinMadison. Reaction to the news was swift.

“Not going to lie. This one hurts. Outside of being an outstanding person and leader, Dean Isbell has been an absolutely incredible advocate for our admission and enrollment efforts…,” said Rick Clark, assistant vice provost and executive director of Undergraduate Admission.

“Georgia Tech without Charles Isbell is like the Justice League without Superman or the Avengers without Captain America,” said Online Education & OMSCS executive director David Joyner.

Isbell became the Dean of the College in 2019.

His last day at Georgia Tech was July 31.

“Tech is my alma mater, which in Latin means ‘mother of my soul.’ I grew into adulthood—or something close to it— as an undergraduate at Tech and learned how to be a professor here. I have had the joy of helping to work with all of you to build the community in positions of leadership. This community has nurtured my soul, and I will always give back to it any way I can,” said Isbell.

Longtime computer science professor Alex Orso began serving as interim Dean of the College of Computing on Aug. 1.

NEW SCHOOL The number of schools within the College grew this year with the Fall 2022 launch of the new School of Computing Instruction (SCI). SCI, which evolved from the College’s longstanding Division of Computing Instruction, is the College’s fifth school. It focuses on undergraduate computing education, and it is the

Former Dean Charles Isbell (Right); New IC chair Shaowen Bardzell

first of its kind. Research from the School emphasizes pedagogy and explores new scalable learning approaches for teaching computing to all levels. SCI is led by Inaugural Chair Olufisayo Omojokun.

NEW CHAIR The College announced the next chair of the School of Interactive Computing (IC) in February. Shaowen Bardzell took the IC helm on July 1, replacing Ayanna Howard, who left to become the Dean of the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University in 2021.

Bardzell is known for infusing her computing research with ideas from design, social science, and ethics. She comes to Georgia Tech from Penn State

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University, where she served as the professor in charge of humancomputer interaction in the College of Information Sciences and Technology beginning in 2020. Bardzell was a professor at Indiana University-Bloomington from 2008 to 2020.

“Shaowen’s position as our new chair reflects our ongoing commitment to responsible computing. She has a history of bringing a critical lens to computing. As the chair of IC, she will have a platform to share that critical lens and lead us in novel directions for computing research and development,” said Associate Professor Betsy DiSalvo, who served as IC interim chair.

MAJOR RESEARCH AWARD Research and development in cybersecurity was the crux of one of the year’s major research stories. In May, the National Science Foundation announced a $20 million award to create the AI Institute for Artificial Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation.

Wenke Lee, John P. Imlay Jr. chair and professor at the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy, is co-principal investigator for the project, which aims to improve how essential business technologies are protected from evolving cyber threats.

“This NSF AI Institute is a really exciting opportunity because it enables us to explore new ideas and develop novel technical approaches and educational content at the intersection of AI and Cybersecurity,” said Lee. n

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COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

TRANSFORMING TOMORROW With a growing reputation as a leading center for innovative computing education and groundbreaking research, the College is attracting the attention of global companies and philanthropic foundations.

These organizations have invested millions of dollars to support the College’s faculty, students, and programs through scholarships, grants, and endowments. Recent support includes:

An $11 million grant from Schmidt Futures to create one of four software engineering centers within the newly launched Virtual Institute for Scientific Software A $623,790 grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to fund the creation of the Open-Source Program Office at Georgia Tech A $500,000 grant from the Maxwell/ Hanrahan Foundation to strengthen the pipeline for underrepresented minority students seeking degrees and careers in computational media $100,000 in scholarships from the Squarepoint Foundation to support five CS majors with demonstrated financial need to complete their degrees Fellowship funding from JPMorgan to pay tuition for 10 OMSCS students that promote diverse representation in technology An anonymous donor matching contribution dollar-for-dollar, up to $25,000, for the School of Computing Instruction’s Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Scholarship Endowment

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UPDATE

THE REVOLUTION CONTINUES

The Online Master of Science in Computer Science (OMSCS) program continues to meet the needs of its growing student body worldwide. As of April 2023, OMSCS had more than 8,600 alumni and rougly12,000 current students. The College implemented several initiatives this year to support the program’s academic excellence, inclusivity, and alumni success.

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COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

PYTHON FUNDAMENTALS SEMINAR

College hosted the OMSCS Women in Tech Seminar. The

To help those that earned their bachelor’s degrees

seminar was a platform for women in the program to

before Python became the standard programming

share their experiences, insights, and challenges in the

language, the College began offering Computing in

tech industry. It showcased the College’s commitment

Python I: Fundamentals and Procedural Programming

to creating an environment that values and encourages

(CS 1301) as a non-credit seminar in Spring 2023. Fifty

diversity, as well as its determination to address the

OMSCS students from around the world are participating

gender gap prevalent in the field.

in the Python fundamentals seminar this semester. They join more than 450 other students enrolled in the online,

POSITIVE ROI

asynchronous course. “We get a lot of OMSCS applicants

The College received positive responses from its survey

who have succeeded in college-level CS courses and

of recent OMSCS alumni. In 2022, more than 2,200

qualify for the program, but that could use a stronger

people from around the world graduated with an OMSCS

foundation in Python to succeed. The seminar provides

degree from Georgia Tech. International students made

that foundation in a more structured, social format,” said

up one third of these new alumni. Women and people

Joyner.

from underrepresented minority groups accounted for nearly 30% of OMSCS graduates last year. As diverse as

INCLUSION AND COMMUNITY

these new alumni are, 95% found OMSCS to be worth the

When Georgia Tech launched OMSCS in Fall 2014, less

investment. “Surveys allow us to measure our growth,

than 11% of students enrolled were women. Since then,

outreach, and any possible gaps we should address.

the percentage of female students has not only grown,

They also allow us to measure the program’s impact,

but doubled. Of the 11,487 OMSCS students enrolled

which informs our vision for the future,” said Ana

in Fall 2022, 22% were women. To promote inclusivity

Rusch, OMSCS associate director of Diversity, Equity,

and foster a sense of community for these students, the

Inclusion, and Student Life. n

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COLLEGE LEADERSHIP Beki Grinter Associate Dean for Faculty Development

Alex Orso, Interim Dean of Computing

Vivek Sarkar Chair of the School of Computer Science

Haesun Park Chair of the School of Computational Science & Engineering

Michael Bailey Founding Chair of the School of Cybersecurity & Privacy

Cedric Stallworth Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence Irfan Issa Senior Associate Dean

Olufisayo Omojokun Founding Chair of the School of Computing Instruction

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Thomas Conte Associate Dean for Research

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

Shaowen Bardzell Chair School of the Interactive Computing

KEY INDICATORS Fall 2023

Rankings

19,195

4,753

Total student enrollment

Undergraduate enrollment

453

13,989

6th

7th

Ph.D. students

Graduate enrollment

overall for undergraduate CS education, U.S. News & World Report 2024 Best Colleges

overall for graduate CS education, U.S. News & World Report 2023-24 Best Graduate Schools

Student Diversity

Research Expenditures

4,620

2,301

Total number of women (24%)

Total Underrepresented Minority (12%)

1,253

667

Undergraduate women (26.7%)

Undergraduate UM (14.2%)

3,367

1,634

Graduate women (23.2%)

Graduate UM (11.2%)

Five Academic Units & 19 Degree Programs School of Computational Science and Engineering School of Computer Science School of Interactive Computing School of Cybersecurity and Privacy School of Computing Instruction

Sponsored expenditures by school through Sept. 2023

All Schools & Centers FY2023 YTD: $36,982,928.72 FY2024 YTD: $11,109,726.31 School of Computer Science FY2023 YTD: $9.969.048.62 FY2024 YTD: $2,621,272.76 School of Interactive Computing FY2023 YTD: $12,592,141.85 FY2024 YTD: $3,076,074.53 School of Comp. Science & Engineering FY2023 YTD: $3,533,037.32 FY2024 YTD: $1,335,866.83 School of Cybersecurity & Privacy FY2023 YTD: $7,691,159.34 FY2024 YTD: $2,493,069.97 School of Computing Instruction FY2023 YTD: $249.60 FY2024 YTD: $5,169.14 cc.gatech.edu

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Beyond Boundaries:

Charles Isbell’s Visionary Impact on Computing Education and Inclusivity

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harles has been a transformative leader in higher education even before becoming a dean,” said Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera.

As a faculty member in 2011, Isbell was crucial in

developing the Online Master of Science in Computer Science program. His machine learning course, co-taught with Brown University’s Michael Littman, was one of five initial courses offered when OMSCS launched in 2014.

“As part of the team that created the Online Masters in CS, he helped transform graduate CS education, dramatically expanding access and reducing cost while maintaining top quality and building community beyond what the traditional program could do,” Cabrera said.

The influence OMSCS had on online education in CS also impacts other fields.

“OMSCS has revolutionized distance learning in computer science and inspired the development of

er, spearheading or significantly contributing to nearly

programs,” said Dean of Engineering Raheem Beyah.

every notable innovation within the College of Comput-

Before OMSCS, Isbell was a driving force behind the

ing. These groundbreaking advancements have extended

College’s Threads program, which began in 2006. The

beyond the College, leaving a lasting impact in various

innovative program, still a key differentiator for the Col-

domains,” said Beyah.

lege more than 15 years later, lets students tailor their

Isbell’s lasting impact on the College is evident

CS degrees with classes related to AI, cybersecurity, or

in his groundbreaking work advancing diversity and

other fields.

inclusivity in computing. As executive associate dean be-

“The development of Threads in the undergraduate

ginning in 2017(?), he initiated programs and policies to

CS curriculum was a pivotal decision toward the future

foster a more inclusive environment in response to the

of Computing,” said Haesun Park, chair of the School of

glaring underrepresentation of minorities and women in

Computational Science and Engineering.

technology.

Highlighting Isbell’s influence beyond the College, the

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“Charles has consistently emerged as a trailblaz-

Georgia Tech’s OMS Analytics and OMS Cybersecurity

These efforts culminated with the launch of the

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering implement-

Constellations Center for Equity in Computing at Georgia

ed the Threads curriculum model.

Tech in 2017. The center’s mission is to ensure that all

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

From OMSCS to Threads to Constellations and beyond, Charles Isbell’s commitment to academic innovation, online education, and computing equity has defined the College and shaped computing at Georgia Tech for two decades.

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Brown University’s Michael Littman and Dean Isbell performing their second musical collaboration, “Means Without a Cluster”, a computer science take on “Smokin Out The Window” by Silk Sonic.

students—especially students of color, women, and others

computing,” said Alex Orso, interim dean of the College of

from underserved communities—have access to quality CS

Computing. “His efforts to broaden participation in comput-

education.

ing not only enriches Georgia Tech’s student body but also

As the founding executive director of Constellations, Isbell was instrumental in creating a strategic partnership to provide CS instruction for Atlanta Public Schools (APS).

industry.”

The College honored Isbell’s unwavering pursuit of

Through this partnership, Constellations fellows have

diversity in computing by establishing student fellowships

taught CS fundamentals to hundreds of high school students

in his name. The Charles L. Isbell Jr. Graduate Fellowships

and provided professional development to scores of teach-

will fund graduate students from underrepresented groups.

ers, administrators, and counselors.

Once fully endowed, the fund will create a cohort of Isbell

The Computer Research Association (CRA) recognized

Fellows each year.

Isbell’s commitment to advancing diversity and equity in com-

Isbell’s mark on Georgia Tech is a testament to the

puting earlier this year by naming him as the 2023 recipient of

power of visionary leadership and its potential to shape

the CRA A. Nico Habermann Award.

an institution and the trajectory of an entire field. “Charles

“For as long as I have known him, Charles has cham-

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pave the way for a more representative and innovative tech

has been a valued leader at Georgia Tech, and there’s no

pioned initiatives to inspire people of color, women, and

question that he will continue to have a global impact,” said

others from underrepresented groups to pursue careers in

Beyah. n

COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

CONSTELLATIONS EXPANDS CS ED OUTREACH Building on a growing reputation for leadership and advocacy, the Constellations Center for Equity in Computing this year undertook several ambitious outreach efforts.

Constellations pushed beyond state lines for the first time in the center’s history by hosting summer camps and professional development workshops in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) in summer 2022.

Much like summer camps hosted by the College in past years, the USVI program provided middleand high-school-age students with weeklong camps focused on robotics, video, game design, music in computing, and more. The program used an innovative live instruction/remote participation model, so live facilitators at Georgia Tech could reach students in multiple USVI locations. Onsite teaching assistants provided the campers with hands-on project support and extended learning opportunities, which helped to maximize the program’s impact.

The Constellations team developed the live/remote model following the pandemic. It successfully supported remote summer camps in partnership with the Jefferson County, Georgia, school district and the Mt. Zion Church in Albany, Georgia.

In the USVI, Constellations hosted in-person professional development workshops for more than two dozen educators, teaching them coding for computers, robots, and circuits. The workshops

provided participating educators with information and resources to integrate into their lesson plans. These resources included educational robots, circuit kits, and additional instructional and research materials.

The summer camps and professional development workshops are part of Constellations’ collaboration with the University of the Virgin Islands and the USVI Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research.

Closer to home, Constellations welcomed its second BridgeUP STEM cohort in June. The program provides coding training, code tutorials, and robot programming for young women from underrepresented communities. A key goal was to spark an interest in undergraduate research among the 50 high schoolaged girls and non-binary students who participated in the program.

“Programs like BridgeUP are important because they make real the promise of a more inclusive future. As society moves toward a reliance on technology, those affected by that technology must be included in its development,” said Constellations Senior Director Tamara Pearson.

Another key Constellations initiative this year was the launch of a peer mentoring program that connects school districts across the state. The mentoring program uses pairs educators from established K-12 computer science (CS) programs with their peers from school districts setting up new programs.

The mentoring program is part of an ongoing collaboration with the Georgia Department of Education to expand statewide access to CS education. It also supports the state law requiring that computing be part of the K-12 curriculum in all school districts by the start of the 2024-2025 school year. n cc.gatech.edu

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From Lab to Life: Researchers Positively Impacting People’s Lives

weather forecasting, there is an important difference. Unlike weather, our actions and behavior can change the course of an epidemic,” Prakash said.

School of CSE Ph.D. student Zijie (Jay) Wang is helping people better weather potential financial storms. with a firstof-its-kind tool that revolutionizes how people with rejected loan applications navigate financial setbacks.

GAM Coach is an interactive web-based tool that uses AI and a unique algorithm to offer personalized advice and guidance, empowering individuals to make informed decisions. This level of personalization means GAM Coach generates recourse options that are realistically actionable for individual loan applicants, which can help ensure better future outcomes.

“We can’t assume that developers can make the best decisions for everyone,” Wang said.

“Our goal is to give agency to the end user, so we developed GAM Coach to give people actionable recourse in scenarios like loan applications.”

Helping people is what the College’s research community is all about. From transforming pandemic prevention strategies to promoting financial inclusivity to combating robocalls and beyond, faculty and student researchers are pioneering breakthrough technologies that lead to real solutions for realworld challenges.

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omputing researchers have been active in disease prevention efforts since the start of the pandemic. In Sept. 2022, School of CSE Associate Professor B. Aditya Prakash joined a new effort to transform the science of pandemic prediction and prevention by bridging research methodologies between hard and soft sciences.

Prakash is leading a multidisciplinary, multiorganizational team seeking to prevent disease outbreaks by integrating the study of human behavior with data-driven models. The $1 million National Science Foundation grant aims to develop high-fidelity computational models using novel machine-learning techniques to connect human behavioral knowledge and traditional epidemiological theory and models.

“While epidemic forecasting is compared to

B. Aditya Prakash

Rosa Arriaga (center)

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COLLEGE OF COMPUTING Zijie (Jay) Wang

College researchers are also working to help people with diabetes. School of IC Associate Professor Rosa Arriaga is developing an app for patients with diabetic foot ulcers — a severe complication for more than one-third of people with diabetes.

If left untreated, a diabetic foot ulcer can become infected, leading to amputation. Arriaga aims to prevent this situation by creating an app to detect, track, and report on the condition of ulcers.

Arriaga partnered with researchers and doctors from the Emory School of Medicine and Grady Memorial Hospital to create the app. Their work gained support from the American Diabetes Association, which awarded a grant to the team in January.

Arriaga and her collaborators were among the first recipients of the AI Humanity Seed Grant Program, a collaborative effort between Georgia Tech and Emory University to expand partnerships and leverage artificial intelligence to improve society and quality of life.

Researchers from the School of CP are improving the quality of life for smartphone users by taking on robocalls. Created by alumna Sharbani Pandit (CS Ph.D. 21), RoboHalt uses machine learning and natural language processing to intercept and screen incoming calls for spam. The smartphone-compatible virtual assistant successfully blocked 95% of mass robocalls, 82% of evasive robocalls, and 75% of targeted robocalls in Pandit’s research.

Traditional methods of blocking robocalls use

blocklists, which are ineffective against caller ID spoofing. RoboHalt solves this problem by intercepting the call and randomly asking the caller to hold or continue the conversation. The program asks questions like “Who are you trying to reach?” and “Can you tell me more about it?” to unknown callers and determines if RoboHalt should put the call through.

“A phone call from a number not saved in a contact list would get picked up by the virtual assistant, which would then screen the caller,” Pandit said. “If the caller is a robot and cannot answer the assistant’s questions, the call is terminated. If the caller passes, the call and a screening transcript are forwarded to the user.”

Also helping out people at home, School of CS researchers are working to help pet owners worried about sick or elderly animals. Assistant Professor Ashutosh Dhekne and his research students presented PetTrack in July 2022 at a leading workshop on body-centric computing systems.

The approach uses wireless ultra-wideband (UWB) radio sensors and accelerometers to give an accurate, real-time indoor location of a cat, dog, or other domestic pet. It can also tell if a pet is on the move, standing, sitting, or lying down, regardless of objects or walls, the block cameras and GPS. “Overall, the idea is to connect better with your pet. You can detect changing behaviors and interact with your pet using location-aware robotic toys,” Dhekne said. n

Ashutosh Dhekne

Sharbani Pandit

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IN THE NEWS

Journalists from leading national newspapers, magazines, and online media outlets regularly seek out GT Computing faculty and student voices to provide expert insight, analysis, and credibility for their audiences. Below are 10 top media stories from the past year highlighting the College community.

“ What is AI Really About? Conquering the Last Leg of the AI Arms Race” — ZDNet, Sept. 27, 2023 [https://www.zdnet.com/article/what-is-artificial-general-intelligence-reallyabout-conquering-the-last-leg-of-the-ai-arms-race/]

At Last, You Can Play Tennis with a Robot – Mashable, June 15, 2023 [https://mashable.com/video/robot-tennis-esther]

Leaked Google Memo Warns that Big Tech Could Lose AI Race to the Little Guys – NBC News, May 9, 2023 [https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/leaked-google-engineer-memowarns-big-tech-lose-ai-race-little-guys-rcna83146]

Roblox Is Bringing Generative AI to Its Gaming Universe – Wired, Feb. 17, 2023 [https://www.wired.com/story/roblox-generative-ai-gaming-universe/]

Can ChatGPT Recommend Movies? A Film Buff Put It to the Test – Wall Street Journal, Feb. 15, 2023 [https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-chatgpt-recommend-movies-afilm-buff-put-it-to-the-test-5e7e6516?mod=life_work_lead_story]

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COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

Artificial Intelligence Is Dreaming Up a Very White World – Slate, Feb. 8, 2023 [https://slate.com/technology/2023/02/ dalle2-stable-diffusion-ai-art-race-bias.html]

Big Tech was moving cautiously on AI. Then came ChatGPT – Washington Post, Feb. 3, 2023 [https://www.washingtonpost.com/ technology/2023/01/27/chatgpt-google-meta/]

Designing Assignments in the ChatGPT Era – Insider Higher Ed, Jan. 20, 2023 [https://www.insidehighered.com/ news/2023/01/31/chatgpt-sparks-debate-how-design-student-assignments-now]

Is the Artificial Intelligence in M3GAN a Real Threat?

– Inverse, Jan. 16, 2023 [https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/ m3gan-artificial-intelligence-realities]

AI Is Probably Using Your Images and It’s Not Easy to Opt Out – Vice Motherboard, Sept. 26, 2022 [https://www.vice.com/en/article/3ad58k/ ai-is-probably-using-your-images-and-its-not-easy-to-opt-out]

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Honoring Those Shaping the Community Each year, the College’s honors alumni, faculty, and friends who have contributed and have made a lasting impact on the field of computing and on the College community. The College of Computing Hall of Fame added five new members to its ranks this year. They are:

David Aucsmith (ICS MS 84) is a senior principal research scientist and an affiliate professor at the University of Washington. He is also the chief research scientist at Darklight AI, a cybersecurity company. Aucsmith has served as the senior director for Microsoft’s Institutes for Advanced Technology in Governments, and as Intel’s chief security architect. He holds 34 patents and has written two historical fiction novels.

M. Brian Blake (EE 94) is the president of Georgia State University. He has served as executive vice president of academic affairs and provost at both George Washington and Drexel Universities. He was the dean of the graduate school and vice provost at the University of Miami, associate dean for research at Notre Dame and chair of computer science at Georgetown University.

Philip Harrison “Phil” Enslow, a professor of computer science, passed away last year. He was a pioneer in telecommunications and credited with having the first IP router at Georgia Tech in his lab. He served on a senior faculty board that helped Dean Peter Freeman establish the College of Computing.

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COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

Youssef Khalidi (ICS MS 85, Ph.D. 89) is a member of the team that conceived and built Microsoft Azure, which is one of the biggest hyperscale public clouds in the world. He has served in several engineering, architectural, product management, and operational leadership roles with Azure over the years. He is a member of the President’s Advisory Board and previously served on the College’s Advisory Board. He holds more than 50 patents in distributed systems, networking, and computer hardware.

The Honorable Beverly Seay is the southeast regional director of the National Security Innovation Network.

She recently served as director of the College’s Advisory Board. Previously, Seay was a senior executive working on modeling and simulation in the defense industry senior executive. She has been named Businesswoman of the Year by i4 magazine and the Orlando Business Journal, and in 2021 she was inducted into the Mid-Florida Business Hall of Fame. In 2022, she received the Women in Defense Service to the Flag Award.

Along with inducting new Hall of Fame members, the College also recognized four mid-career alumni with the Rising Star Award. Earning the award this year are:

Candace Mitchell Harris (CS 11) is building the future of haircare. Her company, MYAVANA, uses an AI algorithm to analyze hair type and texture. It then makes personalized haircare recommendations.

Henry Shi (CS MS 18) is the co-founder and chief operating officer of Super, a mobile commerce and financial technology company. Under his leadership, Super has grown to more than 30 million users and exceeded $1 billion in sales.

Vivian Chu (Robotics Ph.D. 17) is co-founder and chief technology officer of Diligent Robotics. Chu has more than a decade of experience as a roboticist and specializes in human-robot interaction.

Kyle Woumn (CS 16) is vice president of product and engineering at Overflow.

Woumn was honored on the AFROTECH Future 50 list, which recognizes 50 rising titans in the tech industry.

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INNOVATION AND IMPACT: CELEBRATING FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS

Looking back at the past year, we celebrate the achievements and contributions of the College’s faculty community.

Their groundbreaking research, impactful publications, and exceptional teaching are pushing the boundaries of knowledge forward and inspiring their students and peers.

Early-Career Accolades Six College faculty earned National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Awards. This prestigious award supports early-career faculty who have the potential to serve as research and educational role models. Each recipient receives approximately $500,000 over five years to support their research initiatives.

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School of IC Assistant Professor Judy Hoffman

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creates computer vision AI that can quickly and safely adapt to new environments and circumstances. n

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COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

School of IC Assistant Professor Zsolt Kira creates more robust open-world machine learning models that can automatically and continuously update with new knowledge without human intervention.

School of CSE Assistant Professor Srijan Kumar combats online misinformation by empowering people to detect and counter deceptive or misleading social media content.

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designs database systems for analyzing unstructured data, including photos, videos, or podcasts, using deep learning models to discover previously unseen connections and insights.

School of CP Assistant Professor Paul Pearce investigates the reliability, repeatability, and efficiency of current and new techniques used in active internet measurement.

School of CS Assistant Professor Joy Arulraj

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School of CS Assistant Professor Ashutosh

Dhekne explores ultra-wideband radio (UWB) technology. He expects it will enable the development of infinitely scalable indoor navigation systems and advanced intrusion detection systems without cameras or GPS.

ZEGURA HONORED WITH INSTITUTE AWARD School of CS Regents’ Professor Ellen Zegura, an integral member of the College for more than 30 years, received Georgia Tech’s Class of 1934 Distinguished Professor Award in April. The recognition reflects Zegura’s passion for new challenges and dedication to teaching, which are hallmarks of her career at Georgia Tech.

AN ACCOMPLISHED CAREER The Association for Computing Machinery named School of IC Regents’ Professor John Stasko as one of its 57 new ACM Fellows earlier this year.

The fellowship underscores Stasko’s career of outstanding accomplishments in data and information visualization and human-computer interaction.

UNDERSTANDING THE BRAIN Anqi Wu, an assistant professor in the School of CSE, was selected for the 2023 cohort of the Sloan Research Fellowship for early-career researchers.

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funds the fellowships. The funding supports Wu’s lab and her efforts to develop integrated data analysis tools to provide a systematic and comprehensive understanding of neural mechanisms and biological functions and push the boundaries of computational models for neuroscience.

TRIPLE PLAY School of CS Professor Moinuddin Qureshi earned three awards recently. He was named the winner of the 2022 ACM SIGARCH Maurice Wilkes Award for his contributions to the computer architecture community. Qureshi was also named a 2022 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellow and a 2023 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow. The ACM and IEEE recognized him for contributing to memory hierarchy design and scalable

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Jay Wang

Azra Ismail

Nova Ahmed

Jeff Mao and Tyler Ma

Daniel Carr

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COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

A YEAR OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

From first-year CS majors to defending Ph.D. candidates, GT Computing students are helping to advance the Institute’s reputation as a hub for research talent and entrepreneurial innovation. Students are taking on real-world challenges and getting real-world results that exemplify Georgia Tech’s spirit of service and progress.

RECOGNIZING AI ACHIEVEMENTS

EMPOWERING VICTIMS

Apple Research named GT Computing Ph.D. student

A GT Computing alumna and her peers developed

Jay Wang as a recipient of the 2023 Apple Scholars in

a groundbreaking app to support victims of sexual

AI/ML Ph.D. Fellowship in March. The honor recognizes

harassment in Bangladesh. The app provides a safe

Wang’s research success in making AI and ML systems

platform for victims to share their experiences, access

more transparent and accessible. The collaboration

legal information, and seek help. The innovative

with Apple will amplify the real-world applicability

solution empowers individuals to stand up against

of Wang’s research. “It is a tremendous privilege

harassment and helps facilitate justice for victims. “I

to be awarded this fellowship. I am excited about

am proud to find out that I am not alone – I am one of

collaborating with researchers at Apple,” said Wang.

many who want to make positive changes,” said Nova

Ahmed (CS Ph.D. 10), a professor at North South HONORING SOCIAL IMPACT

University in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Forbes named Azra Ismail (Ph.D. HCC 23) to its 30 Under 30 list for Social Impact in Asia. The

EARNING TOP PRIZE

accolade recognizes her ongoing efforts to promote

A pair of roommates won Georgia Tech’s InVenture

entrepreneurship and innovation among India’s

Prize competition. CS majors Jeff Mao and Tyler

disadvantaged youth. Ismail has helped more than

Ma developed a web-based platform that may help

300,000 youths in six states become better equipped

millions of online sellers save time and money.

for an increasingly competitive job market through

Along with $20,000, the duo earned a spot in Tech’s

nonprofit maker spaces she co-founded. “We’re not just

Startup Launch program, giving them access to

creating young people who are ready for the future of

entrepreneurial coaching and potential venture capital

work, but who can become the ones who are shaping it,”

opportunities.

said Ismail, an assistant professor at Emory University.

ALUM’S GAME ‘SLIDES’ INTO FESTIVAL AWARD TAKING CLIMATE ACTION

New alumni Daniel Carr (CS 23) won the Best

More than 110 computing students acted this year to

Student Game award at the Independent Game Festival

fight climate change and environmental injustice. The

(IGF) in San Francisco for his adventure game Slider.

students are members of 10 climate action teams in

The game emerged from a competition in November

Tech’s Vertically Integrated Projects program. The

2021. Carr developed it further with the help of the

teams work to address climate and environmental

student-run Video Game Development Club housed

concerns that align with sustainable development

in the College. Carr’s game was among six finalists

goals adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015.

selected from over 600 IGF entries.

By applying their skills and knowledge, these students contribute to real-world solutions to some of the world’s most pressing issues.

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NEW Faculty

School of Computational Science & Engineering

School of Cybersecurity & Privacy

Postdoctoral Fellow Yibo Hu

Research Scientist I-LT Animesh Chhotaray

Assistant Professor Raphael Pestourie

Assistant Professor Ryan Shandler

Assistant Professor Kai Wang

Assistant Professor Michael Specter

Assistant Professor Helen Xu

Postdoctoral Fellow Yizhuo Zhai

School of Computer Science

School of Interactive Computing

Professor Vijay Ganesh

School Chair/Professor Shaowen Bardzell

School of Computing Instruction

Research Scientist II Heidi Biggs

Adjunct Instructor Changlai Du

Postdoctoral Fellow Minje Choi

Lecturer Pedro Guillermo Garcia Feijoo

Assistant Professor Kartik Goyal

Lecturer Aaron Hillegass Lecturer Abrahim Ladha

Adjunct Professor Charles Isbell Postdoctoral Fellow Yaman Sangar Associate Professor Honghui Shi (not pictured) Assistant Professor Ya Yang Xiong (not pictured)

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COLLEGE OF COMPUTING

Assistant Professor Yalong Yang Assistant Professor Bo Zhu College of Computing Research Associate II-LT Bryan Cox

Research Associate II Nicholas Lytle

Senior Research Engineer Robin Fievet

Professor of the Practice Katarzyna Kinga Rachwal

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Georgia Institute of Technology College of Computing 801 Atlantic Drive Atlanta, GA 30332-3000

Email: cc.gatech.edu