Department of Computer Science
In the culmination of an academic career spanning nearly 29 years, Professor Alvin ‘Alvy’ R. Lebeck retired from Duke University at the end of September. Lebeck, who holds a primary appointment in the Department of Computer Science and a secondary appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering, is an innovator in computer architecture and systems. Lebeck’s research employs a combination of interdisciplinary and conventional research methods, with a foundation in computer architecture and systems. His… read more about Professor Alvin ‘Alvy’ R. Lebeck Retires After Nearly 29 Years at Duke »
Combining a tool she loves and a topic she cares about, Assistant Professor Monica Agrawal uses computational methodologies to study the multiple scales of human health. read more about Monica Agrawal Uses Computational Methodologies to Study Human Health »
Assistant Professor of the Practice Eric Fouh looks at computer science education though a particularly human angle: emotional self-regulation and the role it plays on learning. read more about Eric Fouh Is Bringing Self-Regulation to Computer Science Education »
Michael Reiter, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Electrical & Computer Engineering, was the recipient of the 2024 Lasting Research Award from the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy (ACM CODASPY). Reiter’s research focuses on computer and communications security, fault-tolerant distributed computing and applied cryptography. The award recognizes his work on “vulnerability detection in systems, applications and machine learning models,… read more about Reiter Recognized for his Work on Computer Security and Privacy »
Duke Computer Science's Theory Group members are honored to have eight papers accepted at the January 2024 ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA) conference, with six of the Duke CS papers co-written by our graduate students. Read a brief summary of one of these papers, "Fair Price Discrimination," below. Imagine a scenario where a seller is selling copies of an item, like tickets to a museum or copies of a computer software. Each buyer can potentially value the item… read more about New Research with Machine Learning Tools Helps Determine "Fair Price Discrimination" »
Duke Computer Science's Theory Group members are honored to have eight papers accepted at the January 2024 ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA) conference, with six of the Duke CS papers co-written by our graduate students. Read a brief summary of one of these papers, "Beyond the Quadratic Time Barrier for Network Unreliability," below. The unreliability of a network, defined as the probability that it disconnects under random (and independent) connection failures,… read more about New Research Goes "Beyond the Quadratic Time Barrier" »
read more about New AI Tool From Duke Researchers Reads EEGs, Could Improve Treatments of Seizures »
Dr. Pardis Emami-Naeini, an expert in security and privacy, usability, and human-computer interaction, has won a 2024 Google AI Research Scholar Program Award in the Privacy category, aimed at supporting early-career academics for her project Designing A Usable Security and Privacy Label “Dictionary” with $60,000 funding awarded. Not only informing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Consumer Reports, and the World Economic Forum in their efforts to design usable and informative security and… read more about Pardis Emami-Naeini Receives Google AI Research Award »
Four Duke CS students received NSF Graduate Research Fellowships: Jonathan Donnelly, who worked with Cynthia Rudin and will pursue a PhD in Machine Learning at Duke. Jabari Kwesi worked with Pardis Emami-Naeini and will pursue a PhD in Human Computer Interaction at Duke. Megan Richards is a recent Duke ECE-CS grad who plans to pursue a PhD in ML. She worked with Mark Sendak at DIHI and Ricardo Henao of Duke ECE. Ruoyu (Roy) Xie worked… read more about 4 Duke CS Students Receive 2024 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships »
Sophomore CS-Chem Major Ayush Jain, Junior Math Major-CS Minor Michelle Si, and Junior Math-CS Major Marie-Hélène Tomé at Duke University, were named 2024 Goldwater Scholars by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation. Based on academic merit and supporting students who show promise of being part of the next generation of research leaders, this is a prestigious national award for undergraduates in mathematics, natural science, and engineering. Congratulations! read more about Duke CS Undergraduates Win Prestigious Goldwater Scholarships »
Ruoxi Chen, Duke CS-Econ Alumnus and Harvard Business School MBA, was recently welcomed to the Chinese-American Planning Council's (CPC's) Board of Directors. In this role, he will collaborate with the CPC team to advance their mission of enhancing the well-being and improving the experience of immigrant communities in New York City. Chen is currently Managing Director and Partner at Warburg Pincus, and also a member of the Board of Directors of Simtra Biopharma Solutions and Sotera Health. Previously, he worked at the… read more about CPC Welcoms Duke CS-Econ Alumnus Ruoxi Chen to Board of Directors »
Cynthia Rudin, Duke CS, ECE, Statistics, and B&B Professor was a member of the National Academies Committee on Facial Recognition Technology. In this new interview, she discusses critical privacy and ethical issues with FRT and explains some of the consensus report’s key recommendations for mitigating potential harms. Read More read more about The Flip Side of Safety is an Attack on Privacy: Rudin on Regulating Face Recognition Technology »
A $10M grant is helping Duke researchers to make computer science more equitable and inclusive for all. Duke CS Professor of the Practice, Dr. Nicki Washington and ECE/CS Professor, Shaundra Daily are leaders of The Alliance for Identity-Inclusive Computing Education (AiiCE), and they're featured in an article and videos that highlight AiiCE's commitment to empower future generations of computer scientists. Learn more about the mission, and view the videos that document it: Unscripted with Unscripted Reels. read more about Creating Inclusivity in Computing: AiiCE Leaders Nicki Washington and Shaundra Daily »
Four Duke CS students were awarded Honorable Mentions from the Computing Research Association (CRA) for Outstanding Undergraduate Research in 2023-2024. Harry Chen's research focuses on theoretically and empirically demonstrating that simple machine learning models are near-optimal on noisy datasets with Cynthia Rudin and Ron Parr. Michelle Qiu works on interdisciplinary natural language processing applications with Cynthia Rudin. Dennis Tang's current… read more about Duke CS Students Win 2024 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Research Awards »
Duke CS PhD Laura Grit is VP, Distinguished Engineer & Technical Advisor to the CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Adam Selipsky. She specializes in the areas of cloud infrastructure efficiency, large scale enterprise migration to the cloud, resiliency in application architecture, and devops productivity. In addition to other initiatives, Laura led: The Amazon.com migration from on-premises data centers to AWS services; The Amazon Women in Engineering affinity group, of which she is now an Executive Sponsor; and The… read more about Duke CS PhD and Amazon Technical Advisor Laura Grit's Nontraditional Career Journey »
Yiran Chen, Duke CS/ ECE Professor and Jungsang Kim, former Duke CS, current ECE/ Physics Professor were elected to the rank of Fellow by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The highest professional distinction recognizing academic inventors, NAI Fellows demonstrate a highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that make a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society. Read More read more about Yiran Chen and Jungsang Kim Named Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors »
Duke Computer Science placed in the top eight percent of >8K students and >500 colleges and universities in the recent National Cyber League (NCL) competition. The NCL competition tested students against practical cybersecurity challenges likely to be faced in the workforce, like identifying hackers from forensic data, penetration testing and auditing vulnerable websites, recovering from ransomware attacks, and more. Explore the National Cyber League (NCL) Fall 2023 Power Rankings. Coached by CS Instructor Alexis… read more about Duke CS Team Finishes in Top 8% at National Cyber League Competition »
Duke Computer Science's Theory Group members are honored to have eight (8) papers accepted at the January 2024 ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA) conference, with six (6) of the Duke CS papers co-written by our graduate students. The premier international conference on algorithms research, SODA will be held in Alexandria, VA, USA, January 7-10, 2024. SODA is cosponsored by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Activity Group on Discrete Mathematics and the Association for Computing… read more about 8 Duke CS Papers Accepted to SODA 2024 »
Duke CS celebrated our first 50 years at our recent anniversary celebration in September 2023 with a program of distinguished talks from industry and academia. Check out videos, photos, an article about departmental history, and more. read more about Duke CS 50th Anniversary »
AiiCE The Alliance for Identity-Inclusive Computing Education (AiiCE) is a national partnership that aims to disrupt the norms that currently exist in computing education, while developing equitable environments for historically underrepresented groups. Duke CS graduate student Jabari Kwesi and undergraduate student Kiara de Lande actively and creatively participate in AiiCE efforts to cultivate identity-inclusive environments within computing education. Accomplishments Affirming that he's privileged to work as an AiiCE… read more about Duke CS Students Make a Difference by Improving Systemic Inequities in Computing Education »
Duke CS won second place in the Bell Labs Prize 2023 competition, which recognizes game-changing innovations. The Duke CS team — Cynthia Rudin, Margo Seltzer (Department of Computer Science, University of British Columbia), plus Duke PhD students Chudi Zhong and Jiachang Liu — received the award for their entry "A New Frontier for Trustworthy AI: Interpretable ML Algorithms that Produce All Good Models.” This is breakthrough research in interpretable ML, which includes powerful… read more about Duke CS Wins Second Place in Bell Labs 2023 Prize Competition »
Duke CS undergrads Harry Chen, Allan Guo, Eric Song, and Gaurav Parikh (now PhD student) won the American Statistical Association (ASA) Data Challenge Expo this year! Coached by Cynthia Rudin and Lesia Semenova, the students' paper on Cannabis and Crime provided a Causal Analysis of the Impact of Legalization on Crime. They presented their work at the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSM) in August. Congratulations! read more about Duke CS Team Wins ASA Data Challenge Expo 2023 »
In recognition of her teaching excellence and dedication to pedagogical equity, Earl D. McLean, Jr. Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Cynthia Rudin received the prestigious 2022-2023 David and Janet Vaughan Brooks Teaching Award from Duke University's Trinity College. Professor and Chair of Duke Computer Science Jian Pei stated that "Professor Rudin's devotion to education, expertise, and innovative approach stand as a true inspiration. This remarkable achievement is a testament to her… read more about Cynthia Rudin Receives Brooks Teaching Award »
Danfeng Zhang is a new associate research professor of Computer Science. Joining Duke from Penn State, Zhang’s research focuses on programming languages and on techniques that identify and correct potentially damaging software vulnerabilities. Can you tell us about your current research projects and expertise? My first research project is on data privacy. With cloud computing and big data, personal data is at risk of exposure and abuse by third parties. When you use an app, you have to… read more about How Studying Programming Languages Can Make Software Error-Free and Secure »
Lisa Mogensen, Duke CS-Econ Alumna and Fuqua MBA, was named CFO of RiskOptics (formerly Reciprocity), a company that develops and manages information security risk and compliance. In this role, Mogensen directs all financial matters with the goal of continuing to grow RiskOptics’ customer base and revenue. Mogensen has extensive financial and operating management experience with tech companies like TheStreet, Return Path, Valiant, 4C Insights, and more in SaaS, data analytics, AI, and Crypto. read more about RiskOptics Names Duke CS-Econ Alumna Lisa Mogensen as CFO »
Professor Jian Pei has been named chair of Duke Computer Science, effective July 1, 2023. Dr. Pei is Arthur S. Pearse Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Duke, and also Professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, and Electrical and Computer Engineering. Pei assumes the CS department chair role from outgoing chair Jun Yang, who said "With his exceptional qualifications, vision, and collegiality, I am confident that Jian will excel as the next leader of our department." Yang was commended… read more about Jian Pei Named Chair of Duke Computer Science »
Congratulations to Sydney Hunt, Duke CS-ECE '23 on being selected from more than 7,000 applicants to become a 2023 Knight-Hennessy scholar! Hunt will pursue a PhD in EE at Stanford University. read more about Duke CS-ECE grad Sydney Hunt Receives Knight-Hennessy Scholarship »
Duke CS '94 alumnus Clay Goldwein is Senior Vice President of National Security and Justice at CGI Federal. During his long-time role as a defense and national security consultant at CGI Federal, he has helped various government agencies and federal customers realize their IT, cloud, cybersecurity, and digital capabilities. The recipient of two US patents during, Goldwein is a highly accomplished digital transformation executive who oversees a wide range of technical domains and modernization projects for federal, state,… read more about Duke CS Major Clay Goldwein is Sr. VP of National Security and Justice at CGI Federal »