UVM Computer Science had a fantastic year in 2023-2024. Several faculty members received major research awards, including two CAREER Awards, a Fulbright Award, an ACM SIGEVO Impact Award, and a UVM University Scholar Award. Our students have experienced the TAPIA conference, received NSF Fellowships, and created the inaugural UVM Hackathon. As a community we continue to be leaders in research and education in Computer and Data Science in diverse and fascinating areas including data privacy, soft robotics, and applications of machine learning and AI in medicine and earth sciences. I hope you will read on to learn more.
Christian Skalka
Professor and Chairperson
Department of Computer Science
Joe Near and Nick Cheney Receive NSF CAREER Awards
Computer Science Assistant Professors Joe Near and Nick Cheney received National Science Foundation CAREER Awards this past year. The honorees join over 30 other CAREER grant winners at the University of Vermont (UVM) from the last 20 years.
Josh Bongard recognized with 2024 University Scholar Award
Professor and Graduate Student Advisor Josh Bongard was recently announced as a recipient of a 2024 University Scholar Award in Basic and Applied Sciences. The University Scholars Awards, presented annually, honor and recognize distinguished UVM faculty members for sustained excellence in research, creative and scholarly activities. The award is co-sponsored by the Provost and the Graduate College. The award recipients are selected by a faculty committee based upon nominations submitted by UVM colleagues.
For his groundbreaking research at the nexus of machine learning theory and its practical application, Assistant Professor Safwan Wshah was recently recognized with a prestigious Fulbright Award. “My primary mission is to advance the field by improving the adaptability and generalization of existing methods,” Wshah said, “with the ultimate goal of enabling high-quality, effective solutions to a wide range of real-world problems.”
The 2023 Computer Science Fair took over the Grand Maple Ballroom again this December with over 100 individuals and teams vying for the top prize in each of the 8 categories. Projects this year range from whimsical game design to counter cyberterrorism to measuring soil moisture content.
CS Students attend the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference
With generous support and facilitation from the Computer Science department, CEMS Career Readiness Coordinator Holly Fosher was able to bring 5 undergraduate students and one Ph.D. student to the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference in Grapevine, Texas this fall. At Tapia, the students were able to attend three days of educational and networking experiences, including workshops and a career fair with hundreds of recruiters from Fortune 500 companies, national laboratories, and universities. Most importantly, computing students were able to meet others from across the country to build bonds and learn from each other through their experiences during dinners, affinity spaces, and interactive sessions.
The Code to a Better Textbook
Senior lecturer Clayton Cafiero did not set out to write a textbook when preparing his weekly lesson plans during his first semester as a senior lecturer in Computer Science, teaching the popular “Introduction to Programming” course (CS 1210). However, less than 12 months later, Cafiero received the first shipment of his self-published book, “An Introduction to Programming and Computer Science with Python.” Cafiero’s unique journey from self-taught coder to senior lecturer helped to shape his approach to the text, crafting a book that is as accessible as it is comprehensive.
Each year SIGEVO (Special Interest Group on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation), a special interest group of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), selects one to three papers presented at the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) held 10 years prior to receive their prestigious Impact Award— recognizing a paper whose findings are both frequently cited and considered seminal in the field of genetic and evolutionary computation. This year, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Nick Cheney along with his colleagues received the lone recognition for their 2013 paper, “Unshackling evolution: Evolving soft robots with multiple materials and a powerful generative encoding.”
Participants in UVM's first annual Hackathon joined forces with their peers to create teams of two to six people and take on one of four programming challenges. The problems included Bus Signage, Programming Language Learning Tool, Outdoors App, and Phishing Emails Prevention. Organized by CS Crew, SWiCS and sponsored by the Computer Science Department, OnLogic, and UVM MOVE, the Hackathon teams worked from 9 am to 4:30 pm on a recent Saturday in April with assistance from mentors from Beta Technologies (Jayce Slesar, UVM '22), OnLogic (Jacob Bennett), Coinbase (Anika Hamby, UVM '23), and RTX (Delaney Sullivan, UVM '21).
Computer Science Senior Lecturer Lisa Dion was recognized for her ongoing commitment to helping young girls enter the world of computer science with confidence and skill through the Girls Who Code program, providing programming lessons on Saturday mornings for girls from 6th to 12th grade. Since its founding, the program has expanded to include UVM coding students as educators, helping young girls accomplish long-term computer coding projects.
Piper Welch — a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science was recently awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship. Currently working with Josh Bongard’s team of computer scientists who are designing and building “Xenobots,” the world’s first self-replication living robots, Welch uses supercomputers at the Vermont Advanced Computer Core to design and evolve swarms of xenobots.
Now is the perfect time to join UVM Connect — your online portal to stay in touch with CEMS friends, colleagues, mentors, and community. The site recently introduced a new design and content refresh designed to make your interactions with our Catamount community more seamless and engaging than ever before. Be sure to join the Science, Technology, Engineering & Math group!
