News

September 2022

Dear Bowers CIS community, 

Welcome to the beginning of a new academic year! 

Whether you are new to Ithaca, returning to campus, or have been here through the summer, I hope you find the start of the academic year to be as invigorating and exciting as I do. Personally, I look forward to opportunities for meeting with students, faculty and staff at in-person events throughout the semester. 

As you will see with the highlights below, our community has had a busy summer since we congratulated nearly 1,300 graduates in May. Many of our community members celebrated milestones and Cornell Tech celebrated ten years since winning New York City's competition to build a campus. We announced new partnerships, including with NewYork-Presbyterian to use artificial intelligence to help improve outcomes for people with cardiovascular disease. Additionally, we launched more robust SoNIC and CSMore programs.

We also mourned the loss in July of Juris Hartmanis, Turing Awardee and the first computer science department chair at Cornell. Juris was a visionary researcher, leader, and mentor, and his loss is felt keenly by the community. I will share details via email and in the October newsletter about a Celebration of Life planned for Friday, November 4 to commemorate and recognize Juris and his contributions to the field of Computer Science and Cornell.

Thank you for your individual contributions that make Bowers CIS such a strong community and a rewarding place to study and work.  

Be well and enjoy the start of the new semester!

Kavita Bala

Dean, Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science 

dean@cis.cornell.edu

• Julia Aquadro, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Advising, Statistics and Data Science
• Sage Baker, End User Support, ITSG
• Brianne Cooley, Faculty Course Support Specialists, Computer Science
• Carl Cornell, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Advising, Computer Science
• Lizette DeJesus, Event Coordinator, Computer Science
• Rebecca Dillon, PhD, Program Manager for Research Initiatives
• Susan Garry, Administrative Assistance, Computer Science
• Olivia Howarth, Student Services Assistant, Information Science Graduate Programs
• Josh Hunt, Administrative Assistant, Information Science
• Carson Lopez, Program Assistant, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• Sara Perkins, Faculty Course Support Specialists, Computer Science
• Melody Padgett, MS/PhD Program Assistant, Computer Science
• Laura Schad, Program Manager for Research Initiatives
• Matthew Toner, Communications Specialist
• Kexin Quan, Laboratory Technician
• Patricia Waldron, Science Writer
• Jess Wilkie, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Advising, Information Science

• Larry Blume named Interim Associate Dean for Education

• Nate Foster named Interim Associate Dean for Research 

• Joe Guinness named Director of Undergraduate Studies for Biometry and Statistics and Statistical Science majors

Novice roboticists find inspiration, community at SoNIC

SoNIC — a weeklong summer workshop hosted by Cornell Bowers CIS’ Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — aims to elevate and inspire underrepresented students to pursue graduate studies in tech fields like computing and information science.

This year, nearly 30 students from universities across the U.S. met at Cornell for a crash course in robotics, ultimately developing “smart canes,” assistive technology for the visually impaired.

CSMore continues growing to meet goal of diversifying tech

CSMore has grown from a three-week class to a rigorous, one-month, in-person program that prepares students for three of the traditional sophomore courses — complete with faculty research talks, a full slate of social activities, and networking opportunities with major companies.

The Office of DEI has organized additional enrichment opportunities throughout the fall and spring semesters, in a follow-up program called CSMore Works.

Carla Gomes receives ACM – AAAI Allen Newell Award

Dexter Kozen selected for 2022 Alonzo Church Award

Volodymyr Kuleshov and  Emma Pierson win NSF early-career awards

Bharath Hariharan recognized with PAMI Young Researcher Award

• Kavita Bala presents keynote to thousands of attendees at CVPR

• David Bindel named director of Simons Collaboration to advance fusion energy science

• Michael Clarkson's OCaml YouTube channel reaches 250,000 views

• Nicole Roy a finalist for Cornell's inaugural Excellence in Professional Staff Academic Advising Award

• Hakim Weatherspoon receives Faculty Award for Excellence in Research, Teaching, and Service through Diversity

• Inaugural grants announced from strategic partnership with LinkedIn

• David Matteson receives Academic Venture Fund grant to promote sustainable growth of low- and middle-income countries

• Tom Ristenpart, Nicola Dell, and Janet X. Chen explore how trauma may inform tech design to the benefit of all users

• AI reveals scale of eelgrass vulnerability to warming, disease (Carla Gomes, Brendan Rappazzo, M.Eng. ’18)

• Harnessing machine learning to analyze quantum material (Geoff Pleiss, M.S. ’18, Ph.D. ’20; Kilian Weinberger; Jordan Venderley, M.S. ’17, Ph.D. ’19)

• Marginalized students suffer penalties from procrastination (Sunil Sabnis '22, René Kizilcec)