E-UpdateDec2008

This e-newsletter is sent out on a regular basis, highlighting some of the latest news and events, and sharing profiles of people and research at DCS.

The department is pleased to announce its third-annual Research in Action (RIA) showcase, which will be taking place on Tuesday, March 24. Representatives from industry and the general public come to DCS to experience cutting-edge computer science research from across our range of research groups. Past projects have included a new analysis tool for blogs, networking with tiny buffers, a pressure-based pen display, and software that visualizes and analyzes protein-protein interaction networks, enabling insights into the proteins that play key roles in diseases such as cancer. More information on RIA can be found here.

On November 20, the department celebrated the 2007-2008 undergraduate award winners. Pictured above, the students in attendance were recognized for their very impressive scholarship and research efforts. See a full listing of the recipients and their awards here.

In other award news, Ryan Lilien (pictured at right) of the Computational Biology group received a Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Grant, a program that was developed to "explore bold and largely unproven ways to improve global health." Ryan was given the award to support his work on treating disease, as he attempts to computationally model mutations of pathogens with the overall aim of reducing drug resistance. The information found can be used to guide drug development and optimization. More information on Ryan's work can be found here.

Last but not least, this December, two DCS undergraduate students were honored by the Computing Research Association (CRA)'s Outstanding Undergraduate Awards, which recognize the very best computer science students in North America. Denis Pankratov and Hao Yu (Alex) Cheng were awarded Honorable Mentions in this year's competition for demonstrating excellence in the field. Find more DCS awards news here.

To provide our students and faculty with the best academic environments to spur their education and research, the Department of Computer Science relies on private and corporate gifts to supplement university and government funding. Past gifts to DCS have been directed towards scholarships, lab equipment and the Computer Science Departmental Trust. Gifts to the Trust are designated to the areas of greatest need, such as supporting learning opportunities. Individuals and corporations who wish to give to DCS can do so online; the appropriate information and links are found here.

CSC491: Computer Science Capstone Course - Building Software for Real Users

This semester, Greg Wilson's CSC491 class worked on individual software projects. Undergraduate students Justin Foong, Vladimir Markin and Teren Teh worked on Ubiquity, a Mozilla Labs experiment that connected the Web with language in an attempt to find new user interfaces, making it quicker and easier to do common Web tasks. Foong, Markin and Teh worked on getting Thunderbird, Mozilla's e-mail client to work with Ubiquity as an extension. More information on the Ubiquity project can be found here. Descriptions of all of this fall's CSC491 projects can be found here.