Department of Computer Science
Editor's note: This article, contributed by Lee Adi, Hayley Barton, Tanner Johnson, Nick Turecky, and Carter Zenke, provides an update on Mobile Citizens, an after-school program developed by Duke students to bring computer science to low-income middle schoolers, which was reported on in a 2017 article in The Chronicle. A sense of ethics and community-oriented service are not graduation requirements for a computer science (CS) degree. But in a world becoming more digital - where… read more about Duke Undergrads Lead Middle Schoolers in Developing Mobile Apps »
Cynthia Rudin and Sudeepa Roy have been awarded a Duke Energy Initiative Grant for their project titled "Enabling Better Energy Decisions Through Better Interpretable Causal Inference Methods for Personalized Treatment Effects." The project's goal is to improve our ability to make policy decisions and understand energy use by making casual inference. read more about Cynthia Rudin and Sudeepa Roy Awarded Duke Energy Initiative Grant »
Co-first authors Seyed Majid Zahedi (G) and Qiuyun Llull, and Benjamin Lee won the HPCA Best Paper Award for a processor allocation framework that uses Amdahl’s Law to apportion resources fairly among data center users. read more about Duke Research Team Wins HPCA Best Paper Award »
Guillermo Sapiro has been elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. He works on theory and applications in computer vision, computer graphics, medical imaging, image analysis and machine learning. Pratt | DukeToday read more about Guillermo Sapiro Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences »
Asa Royal (U), a CS major and student researcher in the Duke Reporters' Lab, uses computer skills to fight the problem of fake news. read more about Asa Royal Fights Misinformation »
Yuan Deng (G) has been awarded a 2018 Google Fellowship for his project titled "Algorithms for Improved Game-Theoretic Solutions.” Google created the PhD Fellowship Program to recognize and support outstanding graduate students doing exceptional research in Computer Science and related disciplines. read more about Yuan Deng Awarded 2018 Google Fellowship »
Pranav Warman, a sophomore double majoring in computer science and biology, has been named a 2018 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program. read more about Pranav Warman Named Goldwater Scholar »
A paper co-authored by Jeff Chase received the USENIX 2018 FAST Test of Time Award. The paper is titled "Designing for Disasters." The award recognizes papers that have had a lasting impact on their field. read more about Jeff Chase receives USENIX 2018 FAST Test of Time Award »
Alvin Lebeck serves as Program Co-Chair for the 24th ACM International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems (ASPLOS 2019). ASPLOS is the premier forum for multidisciplinary systems research spanning computer architecture and hardware, programming languages and compilers, operating systems, and networking. read more about Alvin Lebeck Serves as Program Co-Chair for ASPLOS 2019 »
We welcome Ashlee Long, who joins the department as a staff assistant. read more about Ashlee Long Joins Staff »
Kristin Stephens-Martinez joined Duke’s Computer Science faculty in 2018 as an assistant professor of the practice. Her range of experience includes data science, software engineering, computer networking, human-computer interface, education, and information visualization. ---- Data scientist Kristin Stephens-Martinez's well-ordered mind seeks data of all kinds. She has studied over 4,000 students' wrong answers when they predicted the output of code, collected five-years of her own… read more about New Faculty: Kristin Stephens-Martinez Takes a “Meaning-full” Approach to Data Science »
AiFi, a company founded by CS alumni Steve Gu and Ying Zheng, announces the availability of its checkout-free solution for retailers. read more about AiFi, founded by alums Steve Gu and Ying Zheng, tracks shoppers' behaviors »
As numbers and facts continue to accumulate in today’s world of big data, a growing challenge is how to sift through the reams of data for relevant discoveries. It’s a critical and timely issue because policymakers and scientists base wide-ranging decisions on the results of data analysis. But old methods of data analysis don’t always work well with super-sized data sets. "Big data" needs some big new ideas. Enter Sudeepa Roy, assistant professor of computer science. Roy is a database researcher who is creating new ways… read more about Sudeepa Roy: Making Sense of “Big Data” Databases »
(Pictured, from left: Kilian Weinberger (AAAI 2018 program co-chair), Vince Conitzer, Rachel Freedman, Sheila McIlraith (AAAI 2018 program co-chair) Two patients need a kidney, but only one donor is available: who receives the organ? The question may seem grim, yet it is one that medical professionals face often. In recent years, several countries have begun using algorithms developed by AI experts to match patients and donors. That led Rachel Freedman, who graduated from Duke in 2017, to ask whether patient… read more about AAAI 2018 Student Paper Award Given for paper Co-authored by Conitzer and Freedman »
Missy Cummings presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland about the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence (AI). read more about Missy Cummings Presents at Davos »
Cynthia Rudin writes about scrapping secret proprietary algorithms in decisions about bail, sentencing, and parole in favor of transparent machine-learning algorithms such as CORELS. read more about Rudin Uses Machine-Learning Algorithm to Predict Re-Arrest »
A core principle of computer architecture for fast computing is the principle of locality. Adopting a similar principle for DNA computing, John Reif and students Hieu Bui, Shalin Shah, Reem Mokhtar, Tianqi Song, and Sudhanshu Garg show that a significant improvement in computing time is possible by using the principle of locality. read more about Reif and Students Research DNA Computing Time Using Locality »
Debmalya Panigrahi has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for a project entitled "CAREER: New Directions in Graph Algorithms." Total funding will be $515,998 over 5 years. The award will support Panigrahi's research into fundamental problems in graph algorithms seeking generic solutions for core algorithmic challenges in modern networks: efficiency at scale, uncertainty and impreciseness of network requirements, and correlation effects. This is NSF's most prestigious… read more about Panigrahi Receives NSF CAREER Award »
The Washington Post reports on a new AP Computer Science course that Owen Astrachan was instrumental in developing. The course was created in an effort to broaden the demographic base of students in computer science. read more about Washington Post Features Astrachan's work on New AP Course »
Anna Lowegard, a CBB student in the Donald Lab, was recently awarded a PhRMA predoctoral fellowship in informatics. Informatics awards support career development of scientists engaged in research that significantly integrates state-of-the-art information technology developed with advanced biological, chemical, and pharmacological sciences. read more about Lowegard receives PhRMA Fellowship »
The Department welcomes Kristin Stephens-Martinez, who has joined CS as an Assistant Professor of the Practice of Computer Science read more about Stephen-Martinez Joins Faculty »
Sophomore Carter Zenke (U) and senior Tanner Johnson (U) created the Mobile Citizens after-school program in Durham to broaden participation in computer science. In the program, middle schoolers develop their own apps. read more about Duke Students Bring Computer Science to Middle Schoolers »
Duke hosted the 2017 annual ACM Regional Programming Contest on November 11. There were six Duke teams. The Duke team Wing placed highest, taking 4th place overall out of 171 teams. Wing team members were Liang Lyu, Yunhao Qing, and Yikai Wu. ---- It started with stars. At the 2017 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Mid-Atlantic Regional Programming Contest, participants were asked to write code to reorganize the stars on the U.S. flag to make the… read more about Duke Hosted ACM Programming Contest 2017 »
David Kotz (G '91) has been appointed interim provost at Dartmouth. read more about Alum Update: Kost »
The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses the early successes and challenges of The Duke Technology Scholars Project (DTech), a career-training program that seeks to increase gender diversity in the technology industry. read more about DTech Experiences Successes and Challenges »
Eddy Cue (AB ’86), Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services met with Duke Technology (DTech) Scholars in an effort to inspire more Duke women undergrads to choose careers in computer science and electrical & computer engineering. Duke Today article read more about CS Alum and Apple Innovator Eddy Cue Meets with DTech Scholars »
Graduate student awards for 2016-17 were presented at the annual departmental meeting. (Pictured from left: DGS Landon Cox, Abe Frandsen, Pulkit Misra, Chair Pankaj Agarwal.) Outstanding PhD Dissertation Hieu Bui Advisor: John Reif Localized DNA Computation Outstanding Prelim Exam Pulkit Misra Advisor: Alvin Lebeck Enabling Lightweight Transactions with Precision Time Yuan Deng Advisor: Vincent Conitzer Disarmament Games… read more about Grad Student Awards 2016-17 »
CS welcomes Georgia Tse (U '17), who has joined the department as a Program Coordinator. read more about CS Welcomes Tse »
We welcome Samuel Kamau, who has joined CS as the Administrative Manager. read more about Kamau joins CS »
Eddy Cue, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, will give a special talk at Duke on September 29 at 3:30 pm. The title of his talk is “The Tech Life.” Eddy oversees Apple’s industry-leading content stores including the iTunes Store and Apple Music, as well as Apple Pay, Siri, Maps, iAd, Apple’s innovative iCloud services, and Apple’s productivity and creativity apps. A Duke alumnus, Eddy earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics from Duke in 1986. He joined Apple in 1989. He’… read more about Apple's Cue, Duke CS/Econ Alum to Speak at Duke »