Condu t !

DEPA RTM E N T O F C O M PU T ER SC I ENC E

Brown University  //  Vol. 26

REACHING OUTWARD BROWN LAUNCHES A NEW DATA SCIENCE INITIATIVE MOSAIC+ AND BROWN CS DEBUT A NEW PROGRAM TO HELP URM STUDENTS TRANSITION TO STUDYING CS CO-EVOLUTION: COMPUTER SCIENCE AND JOHN SAVAGE’S FIRST 50 YEARS AT BROWN

Notes From The Chair

BY UGUR CETINTEMEL

I’m delighted to share exciting news about the growth of our department. Since last spring, we made a record five new faculty hires: Theo Benson, Kathi Fisler, George Konidaris, Daniel Ritchie, and James Tompkin. These new faculty members significantly strengthen us in a number of strategic areas, including software-defined networking, software and computing education research, robotics, computer vision, graphics, and computational design. Moreover, we’re currently looking to hire multiple faculty members in machine learning. These hires are being done as part of a substantial strategic growth plan for CS that has been approved by the Brown administration in collaboration with our Data Science Initiative. You’ll soon hear more about our growth plan and the associated campaign to fund these new positions. I’m also happy to highlight our junior faculty and their achievements. This past year, George Konidaris received an Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Research award only a few months after his arrival at Brown. Stefanie Tellex won the NASA Early Career Faculty Award. Tim Kraska received a Sloan award, bringing us to a total of seven and giving us an impressive record of winning four years in a row! We’re truly grateful to all of our alums and friends who have supported our UTA endowment campaign. Last fall, we announced our first named UTAs funded by the endowment! As of February, 2017, we’re at ~$7.5M with a $1M challenge gift (from a generous anonymous alum) that will kick in when we get to $9M and get us to our $10M goal. Later in this issue, please read the letter from Norm Meyrowitz ’81, who has been doing a remarkable job leading the campaign, about our current status and how you can help us get to the finish line. Speaking of our alums, Sridhar Ramaswamy PhD ’95, the SVP of Advertising and Commerce at Google, received the first Horace Mann Medal given by Brown to a computer scientist. This is an award given annually to a Brown Graduate School alum who has made significant contributions to their field. We’re proud of Sridhar’s remarkable

2 SPRING 2017

accomplishments in technology and business and their daily impact on so many people worldwide. Our multidisciplinary initiatives are making good progress. Our new Executive Master in Cybersecurity program welcomed its inaugural cohort last October. 28 students from diverse backgrounds and sectors (including technology, retail, law, healthcare, and government) passed through the Van Wickle Gates; for a period of 16 months, they’ll develop a deep understanding of the technological, legal, political, and societal issues surrounding cybersecurity. Our Data Science Initiative (DSI) was also officially launched last fall and its new Master’s program is set to start next fall. DSI will move to its own space in the SciLi later this semester. With the addition of George Konidaris, our robotics group and the Humanity-Centered Robotics Initiative has gained even more momentum, continuing to tackle important technical problems while keeping a close eye on the societal impact of robotics technologies and AI. I’m also happy to report that RI has started taking steps towards establishing itself as an innovation hub. Several companies, including GE and Johnson and Johnson, have already decided to have a significant presence in Providence to leverage local talent and nearby universities. Brown and CS are significant attractions for these companies, with whom we’re hoping to create multi-faceted relationships in research, recruiting and education. I’d like to end with an invitation to join us in celebrating our