The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recently elevated Philip Klein to Fellow for his work in graph and network algorithms.

Philip, who joined the department in 1989, focuses on algorithms, especially for optimization and for graphs. He is the recipient of the 2007 Philip J. Bray Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Sciences. He created six courses for the department: The Matrix in Computer Science, Computer Science: An Integrated Introduction I and II (with Leslie P. Kaelbling), Design and Analysis of Algorithms, Topics in Advanced Algorithms, Solving Hard Problems in Combinatorial Optimization: Theory and Systems (with Pascal Van Hentenryck ...

This image depicts the deployment of Carleton's work in Los Alamos National Laboratory's Logi-Sims tool. The image presents the effects of hurricane landfall on Florida's south-east shore. The shaded-concentric lines indicate the hurricane's wind speed,

Carleton Coffrin, a Ph.D. student working with Pascal Van Hentenryck, was chosen as one of six finalists in the INFORMS 2010 Doing Good with Good OR Student Paper Competition for his work on “Strategic Planning for Disaster Recovery with Stochastic Last Mile Distribution”, which was presented this year as a paper in the Conference on Integration of Artificial Intelligence and ...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a research grant, in the expected amount of $800,000, to Philip Klein, Claire Mathieu and Ph.D. alum Glencora Borradaile (now Assistant Professor in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University), to develop new algorithms for solving fundamental optimization problems on planar networks. Many optimization problems in networks are considered computationally difficult; some are even difficult to solve approximately. However, problems often become easier when the input network is restricted to be planar, i.e., when it can be drawn on the plane so that no edges ...

Computer scientists from Boston University, Brown University and the University of California, Irvine, will collaborate on a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the anticipated amount of $3 million to investigate "trustworthy interaction in the cloud." The cloud refers to Internet-based outsourced computation (popularly know as cloud computing), whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand.

As one of the most promising emerging concepts in information technology, outsourced computation is transforming how IT is consumed and managed, yielding improved cost efficiencies and delivering flexible, on-demand scalability. However, despite the ...

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a research grant, in the expected amount of $500,000, to Ben Raphael and Eli Upfal to develop robust algorithmic and statistical techniques for the analysis of DNA sequence variants in the context of known and novel gene-gene interactions. These techniques will allow biomedical researchers to identify DNA variants associated with risk for various diseases, including cancer. Algorithms developed in this project will be implemented and released as open-source software for use by the biological and medical community. The project will also support the training of graduate students and undergraduate researchers.

The Department is excited to announce the promotion of Chad Jenkins to Associate Professor with tenure, effective July 1, 2010. “Chad’s promotion recognizes his outstanding research work, innovative teaching, and exemplary service,” said Department Chair Roberto Tamassia.

Chad joined our department in 2004 after completing his Ph.D. at University of Southern California, his M.S. in computer science from Georgia Institute of Technology and his B.S. in computer science and mathematics from Alma College.

Chad was selected as a Sloan Research Fellow in 2009. He is a recipient of a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and ...

Michael Black was recently awarded the 2010 Koenderink Prize for Fundamental Contributions in Computer Vision. The Prize was given at the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) in Hersonissos, Crete for work that has withstood the test of time. Papers from the ECCV 2000 meeting were eligible and Michael and his collaborators Hedvig Kjellstrom (nee Sidenbladh) and David Fleet received the prize for their paper “Stochastic Tracking of 3D Human Figures Using 2D Image Motion.”

As part of the celebration of its 150th anniversary, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iasi, Romania, presented an honorary professorship (Professor Honoris Causa) to alumnus Sorin Istrail. “I am very humbled and honored to receive this recognition,” he said.

Sorin’s alma mater, where he earned a B.S. in computer science in 1975, also was celebrating the centennial of its Alexandru Myller Mathematical Seminar. Sorin helped commemorate the anniversary by participating in the seminar as an invited lecturer, delivering a technical talk titled “Concepts of Mathematical Rigor for Algorithms in De-randomization, Statistical Physics, and Molecular Biology.”

The lecture’s ...

Eli Upfal was recently invited to serve as the Chalmers Jubilee Distinguished Visiting Professor for 2010. Chalmers is a Swedish university of technology in which research and teaching are conducted on a broad front within technology, natural science and architecture.

The Jubilee Distinguished Visiting Professor Chair was created by the Swedish government when Chalmers university celebrated its 150 year anniversary in 1979. To goal of the visiting chair is bring new skills to the University while strengthening international relations.

According to Eli, "I look forward to working on interesting research problems with Devdatt Dubhashi and his students. There are ...

At Brown University's 242nd Commencement exercises on Sunday, May 30, 2010, the Computer Science Department awarded an all-time high of 46 Master of Science degrees. In addition, 48 bachelor’s degrees and eight Ph.Ds were conferred in the department’s 31st year. Chair Roberto Tamassia said, “I offer my sincerest congratulations to those students who received their degrees. It was a pleasure having all of you as part of the computer science `family' here at Brown, and we look forward to watching you succeed”

The graduates are:

A.B. Computer Science: Lawrence Y. Chan, Joost C. deNijs (also ...