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Urban computing program provides Ph.D. students with valuable skills to address problems faced by cities

Posted on March 26, 2018 at 5:20 pm.

UrbComp Ph.D. students, left to right top, Nikhil Muralidhar and Gloria Kang; bottom, Stacey Clifton and Davon Woodard

As increasing numbers of people move to cities and become more wired and networked, Ph.D. students across various academic disciplines at Virginia Tech are joining together to focus on how data science can help them find solutions to urban problems. Click here to learn more about these students and their research.

DAC Student Spotlight: Xuchao Zhang

Posted on March 20, 2018 at 8:06 pm.

DAC Ph.D. student, Xuchao Zhang

In the era of data explosion, noise and corruption in real-world data caused by accidental outliers, transmission loss, or even adversarial data attacks is inevitable and often results in incorrect data labeling. For example, a negative review in the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) could be mislabeled as positive or an image of a panda might be mislabeled as a gibbon.

Xuchao Zhang, a Ph.D. student in computer science, is focused on solving the problem of mislabeling.

DAC Student Spotlight: Elaheh Raisi

Posted on March 14, 2018 at 3:56 pm.

DAC Ph.D. student, Elaheh Raisi

Elaheh Raisi’s enthusiasm for math dates back to high school. So it was not surprising when Raisi chose applied mathematics as her major at the Amirkabir University of Technology -Tehran Polytechnic.

“I realized early on that mathematics is essential for many practical sciences,” said Raisi. “My aim was to gain a strong knowledge of mathematics that I could use in problem solving.”

During her freshman year Raisi concentrated on mathematics and programming-related courses but after taking some computer science classes, she developed an interest in artificial intelligence. She earned a master’s degree in artificial intelligence at the Science and Research branch of the Islamic Azad University.

DAC Student Spotlight: Jonathan Baker

Posted on March 9, 2018 at 12:08 am.

Jonathan Baker, DAC Ph.D. student

Jonathan Baker earned a master’s degree in computational and applied math at Rice University in Houston, Texas, in 2015.

When Mark Embree, one of his professors at Rice, returned to his alma mater in Blacksburg to lead the Computational Modeling and Data Analytics program in the College of Science Academy of Integrated Science, Baker did not hesitate to follow him.

“Once I decided that I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in math,” he said. “I knew the only professor I wanted to continue down that path with was Mark Embree.”

DAC Student Spotlight: Subhodip Biswas

Posted on March 1, 2018 at 5:34 pm.

Screenshot of LCPS map on the crowdsourcing website Biswas created.

Subhodip Biswas, DAC Ph.D. student

The omnipresent activity of school redistricting is driving Ph.D, student Subhodip Biswas’s research at the Discovery Analytics Center.

“Through blogs and news articles, I became aware that school redistricting happens in some US public school systems almost every year,” said Biswas, who earned a bachelor ‘s degree in electronics and telecommunication engineering from Jadavpur University in India in 2014. “It was fascinating to learn how numerous considerations go into designing new school zones.”

B. Aditya Prakash receives prestigious NSF CAREER Award

Posted on February 27, 2018 at 10:14 pm.

B. Aditya Prakash, assistant professor in The Department of Computer Science has received the prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation to find data-driven network strategies to enhance national security and public health. Click here to read ore about Aditya’s award.

DAC Student Spotlight: Jeff Robertson

Posted on February 20, 2018 at 5:01 pm.

DAC M.S. student Jeff Roberston

Jeff Robertson grew up in Blacksburg and is the fifth Hokie in his family. “So, it was not difficult for me to choose Virginia Tech,” he said.

Working towards a master’s degree in computer science applications, Robertson’s current research is part of the Fun GCAT project in collaboration with the Biocomplexity Institute of Virginia Tech.

Within that larger program, his focus is on developing a new tool that can efficiently index and search massive biological data sets.

Edward Fox receives Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award

Posted on February 5, 2018 at 7:39 pm.

Edward Fox, Professor of Computer Science

Marquis Who’s Who, the world’s premier publisher of biographical profiles, has presented Edward Fox with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award, in recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who’s Who community.

In an announcement, the organization said, “An accomplished listee, Dr. Fox celebrates many years’ experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who’s Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.”

Congratulations to DAC graduates!

Posted on January 22, 2018 at 9:00 am.

Ed Fox (left) with Yinlin Chen (right).

Ian Crandell (left) with Scotland Leman (right).

Virginia Tech graduates celebrating their achievements this fall included seven Ph.D. students at the Discovery Analytics Center.

Edward Fox named 2017 ACM Fellow

Posted on January 19, 2018 at 8:53 pm.

Edward Fox, Professor in the Department of Computer Science and DAC faculty member, has been named a 2017 Association for Computing Machinery Fellow for his contributions to information retrieval and digital libraries. Click here to learn more about about his history of service at ACM.