BYTES DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
TOP PUBLIC UNIVERSITY U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT 2022
A NEWS MAGAZINE | 2021
BRINGING AI EDUCATION TO K-12 STUDENTS
PAGE 14 & 15
Christina Gardner-McCune, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Kristy Boyer, Ph.D. Associate Professor
Also in this issue: STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS
Gloria Katuka is doing her part to make sure younger generations learn computer science.
This year, we are sharing stories from three of our incredible alumni.
PAGE 16
PAGE 22
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR Dear colleagues, alumni and friends, The 2020-2021 academic year was definitely one full of strength and resilience. As we begin a new year, we must look back at our struggles and successes and know we have become stronger as a community. For this edition of our magazine, we are featuring some faculty who are doing incredible work to bring AI to K-12 students. Kristy Boyer, Ph.D., received a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate AI education for middle school students (Page 14). Christina Gardner-McCune, Ph.D., with the AI4K12 Initiative, organized a virtual workshop to help education leaders from across the country create K-12 AI efforts in several states (Page 15). My T. Thai, Ph.D., is also working in the field of AI to improve fairness in the connected world (Page 10). A handful of our students and research assistants are also working in the field of AI. Gloria Katuka, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Boyer’s lab, (Page 16) is featured for the work she is doing to bring AI and computer science to K-12 students. Tania Banerjee, Ph.D., (Page 18) and Yashaswi (Yash) Karnati, a Ph.D. student, (Page 19), are both using AI at the UF Transportation Institute to improve roadways and make them safer. We want to celebrate our faculty for their continued efforts and recent awards and recognitions, including Sumi Helal, Ph.D., who was elected a member of the Academia Europaea (Page 6), Sanjay Ranka, Ph.D., who received an Impact Award from IEEE (Page 6), and Dr. Thai and Prabhat Mishra, Ph.D., who were named IEEE Fellows (Page 7). Our faculty were also the recipients of some major grants that will have a large impact on society, with Christina Boucher, Ph.D., receiving $1.2 million from NSF (Page 9) and Patrick Traynor, Ph.D., receiving $1.7 million from the Department of Homeland Security (Page 11). Even through the challenges, the department and our students had reasons to celebrate this year. The computer engineering graduate program now ranks No. 12 nationwide and the UF Online Bachelor’s program ranks No. 3 (Page 27), according to the U.S. News & World Report. Seven students from CISE received Outstanding Achievement Awards from the UF International Center (Page 19) and three received awards from the UF Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering (Page 21). One student was the first at a Florida university to receive a Google Ph.D. Fellowship (Page 21). We’re proud to announce that Shadow Health, co-founded in 2011 by Benjamin Lok, Ph.D., was recently acquired by Elsevier (Page 12). Shadow Health uses a software that provides a comfortable and safe environment where nurses can practice, make mistakes and learn to improve their conversation skills. Join me in congratulating our faculty and students for their incredible efforts. Thank you for your continued support. Sincerely,
Juan E. Gilbert
Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D. The Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor CISE Department Chair
2
UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
BY T E S 2 021
BY THE NUMBERS THE GRADUATE COMPUTER ENGINEERING PROGRAM RANKS
12 # 1
PERCENTAGE OF WOMEN CURRENTLY ENROLLED
FAC T S & F I G U R E S ..............3 N E W FAC U LT Y .................. 4 FAC U LT Y N E W S ............ 5 -1 3
#
B R I N G I N G A I T O K-1 2.. ..... 1 4 S T U D E N T N E W S ......... 16 -2 1 22% Undergrad 28% Master’s 30% Ph.D.
AMONG PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
IEEE
IN THE STATE OF FLORIDA
ACM
2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools
AAAS
14 FELLOWS
FACULTY
58 47 17 TOTAL FACULTY
C H A I R ’S M E S S AG E ............ 2
TENURE/TENURETRACK FACULTY
NSF CAREER AWARD WINNERS
3,055
515
170
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
MASTER’S STUDENTS
PH.D. STUDENTS
A LU M N I N E W S ................ 2 3 A LU M N I S P O T L I G H T S: Ch u n b o “Ch u ck ” H u a n g.... 2 2 Ch r i s Cra w f o r d ................ 2 4 R h o n d a H o l t .................... 2 5 D E PA R T M E N T N E W S ........ 2 7
Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D. T H E B A N K S FA M I LY PREEMINENCE ENDOWED PROFESSOR & D E PA R T M E N T C H A I R
Tamer Kahveci, Ph.D. C I S E A S S O C I AT E C H A I R O F A C A D E M I C A F FA I R S
Patrick Traynor, Ph.D. C I S E A S S O C I AT E C H A I R FOR RESEARCH
Allison Logan, MA MARKETING & C O M M U N I C AT I O N S P E C I A L I S T MAGA ZINE EDITOR
CISE.UFL.EDU
3
NEW FACULTY
The Department Welcomes
NEW FACU LTY Zhe Jiang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Dr. Jiang’s research focuses on data mining; database, data science and informatics; interpretable AI; and machine learning. His lab’s mission is to design and develop accurate, scalable, and robust AI and machine learning algorithms and tools inspired by interdisciplinary applications (Earth sciences, agriculture, smart cities, biomedicine, and public health). He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Minnesota in 2016 and his B.E. from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). Before coming to UF, he was an assistant professor in the Department of Computer science at the University of Alabama.
Come Work at the University of Florida The UF Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering invites applications for a full-time, nine-month tenure/tenure-track faculty positions at the rank of Assistant Professor. The position focuses on research and teaching at the intersection of computer architecture and machine learning/AI. The successful candidate is expected to have a doctoral degree in computer science, computer engineering or a related field at the time of hiring. The chosen candidate will be a technical lead for developing secure and energy-efficient CPU/GPU/TPU/FPGA-based architectures for AI applications. This includes mentoring of graduate and undergraduate students in this field as well as collaborating with AI researchers across colleges on diverse AI applications ranging from AI/ML for resource-constrained edge devices to AI algorithms for massively parallel computing clusters.
APPLY NOW AT CISE.UFL.EDU/JOIN-US
4X CISE EMPLOYS FOUR TIMES THE NATIONAL AVERAGE OF BLACK FACULTY MEMBERS AMONG COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAMS. 2019 ASEE DATA
4
TOP
5
CISE RANKS AMONG THE TOP 5 FOR THE MOST WOMEN FACULTY IN COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENTS AT PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES NATIONWIDE. 2019 ASEE DATA
UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
#1 CISE HAS THE HIGHEST AMOUNT OF BLACK WOMEN FACULTY MEMBERS AMONG COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENTS NATIONWIDE. 2019 ASEE DATA
FACULTY NEWS
Dr. Nemo Retires From CISE After Three Decades Richard “Dr. Nemo” Newman, Ph.D., recently retired from the department after more than 34 years. Dr. Nemo came to the University of Florida in 1986. His research areas started in the theory of distributed systems, then shifted to network protocols, distributed collaboration, distributed systems, and security. Throughout his time at CISE, Dr. Nemo mentored many students, including high school students from underrepresented groups, Dutch exchange students, as well as many UF students. He spent time as a faculty coach for the Integrated Product and Process Design (IPPD) program at the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, where he helped students develop software solutions for Raytheon and Disney. “One of the things I enjoyed the most and will miss is working with the IPPD teams,” he said. “I got to know the team members well and have several with whom I have become friends.” In 1996, Dr. Nemo was awarded the UF Superior Accomplishment Award for Faculty Service. He also received the Alpha Phi Omega Distinguished Service Key in 1991. He was the department’s undergraduate coordinator from 2015 until he retired and was the
graduate coordinator at various times. Dr. Nemo helped the department achieve ABET accreditation as a self-study co-author, and introduced graduate courses in computational complexity, distributed systems, computer and network security, as well as undergraduate courses in networks, computer and network security, and cryptology. He also introduced the graduate cybersecurity certificate program. After retiring, he will be working with Terraview PTE, an international startup, on a distributed system for the delivery of precision agriculture information to the viticulture industry. “I have seen the department go through many ups and downs over the years, growing into the world-class department we have today,” Dr. Nemo said. “It has been exciting to see the increase in
diversity amongst the faculty and the students and the development of new areas of strength like cybersecurity, human-centered computing, data science, and AI. CISE gave me the opportunity to work on some very interesting problems with some outstanding faculty and students.” The department is thankful to Dr. Nemo for his dedication to the department and UF, and for his years of service, teaching and research. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU
5
FACULTY NEWS
Helal Elected as a Member of the Academia Europaea Sumi Helal, Ph.D., a professor, was recently elected as a member of the Academia Europaea, the European equivalent to the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Helal’s primary research areas are pervasive and mobile computing, digital health, and the Internet of Things. His other research interests include the domains of disabilities, aging, and smart health and wellbeing. “I am honored to be recognized by my European peers in such a prestigious Academy,” Dr. Helal said. “I’m looking forward to representing the University of Florida and the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering among my European counterparts.” Dr. Helal is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Fellow of the British Institution of Engineering and Technologies. He came to UF in 1998 as an associate professor after working in industrial research and became a full professor in 2004. Dr. Helal was the Finland Distinguished Professor from 2011-2013, a visiting Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bologna, Italy (2014), and chair in Digital Health in Lancaster University, United Kingdom (2017-2020).
Membership into the academy is by invitation only. Invitations are made only after peer group nomination, scrutiny, and confirmation as to the scholarship and eminence of the individual in their chosen field. Election is confirmed by the Council of the Academia. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
Ranka Receives Impact Award from IEEE Technical Committee Sanjay Ranka, Ph.D., a distinguished professor, received the 2020 IEEE Technical Committee on Cloud Computing Impact Award. The award recognizes senior researchers or educators for their significant or distinguished contributions in the field of cloud computing. Dr. Ranka’s research interests include high-performance computing, cloud computing and big data science. The focus of his current research is the development of efficient computational methods and data analysis techniques to model scientific phenomenon. Practical applications of his research are to improve the quality of healthcare and reduce traffic accidents. Dr. Ranka was recently awarded a $2 million grant from the National
6
Science Foundation to develop technology that will monitor high-risk intersections in Gainesville, FL, to make roadways safer. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Minnesota and a B. Tech. in computer science from IIT, Kanpur, India. He has co-authored one book, four monographs, 300-plus journals and refereed conference articles. He is an IEEE Fellow, an AAAS Fellow, and a past member of IFIP Committee on System Modeling and Optimization. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
FACULTY NEWS
Two CISE Professors Named 2021 IEEE Fellows The IEEE has named two professors from the department as 2021 Fellows. Professors Prabhat Mishra, Ph.D., and My T. Thai, Ph.D., were among three Fellows selected from the University of Florida and five selected from the State of Florida this year. Dr. Mishra was elevated to the distinction for his “contributions to system-on-chip validation and design automation of embedded systems.” Dr. Thai was elevated for her “contributions to modeling, design, and optimization of networked systems.” - Allison Logan, Marketing Specialist Prabhat Mishra, Ph.D. Professor and director, Embedded Systems Lab
My T. Thai, Ph.D. Professor and Associate Director, Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World
Dr. Mishra’s research interests include embedded and cyberphysical systems, energyaware computing, formal verification, hardware security and trust, quantum computing, and system-on-chip validation.
Dr. Thai’s research interests include scalable & interpretable machine learning, security & privacy, blockchain, big graph mining, complex network analysis, approximation algorithms and optimization.
Gilbert Receives ACM SIGCHI Social Impact Award Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., The Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and department chair, was recently named a recipient of the 2021 SIGCHI Social Impact Award. Dr. Gilbert was 1 of 3 people chosen to receive the award this year. The Association of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI) is an international community of professionals interested in research, education and the practical application of human-computer interaction. The SIGCHI Awards identify and honor leaders and shapers of the field of humancomputer interaction within SIGCHI. Dr. Gilbert’s work in Advanced Learning Technologies increases access to technology for those with limited educational opportunities, particularly by providing personalized instruction for those in under-resourced schools that might not otherwise be able to afford this type of
engagement. Additionally, his work addresses the use of computer and telecommunication technology by diverse populations. “In my lab, we are proud to do research that makes a positive impact on people’s lives,” he said. “We strive to make the world a better place with the work we do. I’m honored to be recognized by ACM SIGCHI.” Dr. Gilbert is using his research in AI to understand how algorithms might better process admissions applications in ways that serve to increase holistic diversity rather than select for majority dominant groups, as traditional approaches have done. In pilot studies, Dr. Gilbert’s patented AI algorithm for admissions, Applications Quest, has resulted in greater diversity in a fraction of the time it takes the admissions committee while yielding the same academic achievement levels. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU
7
FACULTY NEWS
Gardner-McCune Receives Career Influencer Award Christina Gardner-McCune, Ph.D., an associate professor, recently received the Faculty Career Influencer Award from the University of Florida Career Connections Center (C3). The UF Career Influencer Awards celebrate the collaboration and innovation of C3 partners who have had an exceptional impact on career development and career engagements during the preceding academic year. The awards were presented at the 2020 Career Engagement Summit. The award recognizes a faculty member who has championed the career development of students at the university through collaboration or mentorship. Dr. Gardner-McCune has focused on undergraduate career development for over five years through her teaching, research, and mentorship. Her research focuses on computer science
education and human-centered computing. In Summer 2019, Dr. GardnerMcCune spent time at Google as one of 21 Google Faculty-inResidence Fellows. While there, she focused on learning industryrelevant software engineering and development skills and practices with the goal of identifying and integrating industry practices for software development into the classroom experience for students. Upon returning to UF in Fall 2019, Dr. Gardner-McCune integrated some of those skills and practices into her software engineering course. “As a part of the software engineering course, I aim to give students practical experiences that help them develop professionally,” Dr. GardnerMcCune said. “Prior to Google, I have achieved this through providing students with industrysponsored projects, working with clients to gather requirements, and developing real software to help solve problems for companies, local nonprofits, entrepreneurs, city government, and faculty. Dr. Gardner-McCune, who is the advisor of the Software Engineering Club, said she also held several workshops for student organizations to help participants understand the kind of skills companies are
8
UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
looking for and how they can incrementally develop these skills during their time at UF. She said she also offered students the opportunity to do mock technical interviews, both in-person and online, so that they could practice answering questions on whiteboards and Google docs while verbalizing their thinking. Dr. Gardner-McCune was also appointed as a member of the ACM Education Advisory Committee for a three-year term. Dr. Gardner-McCune will serve on the Ethics in Computing Education task force, which is focused on identifying resources and providing guidance for faculty inside and outside of computing on ethical topics in computer science and other disciplines in which students should be well versed. “I hope to leverage my experiences teaching software engineering, developing K-12 guidelines for AI and ethics, providing cybersecurity outreach, and broadening participation in computing to highlight new areas of ethics that faculty can integrate into their teaching to help prepare students to deal with the wide range of ethical issues they will face in their careers,” Dr. Gardner-McCune said. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
FACULTY NEWS
Boucher Receives $1.2M NSF Grant Christina Boucher, Ph.D., an associate professor, has received a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will give Dr. Boucher and her team the opportunity to develop a set of algorithms and an electronic interface that will allow public health investigators to test and analyze biological samples for antibiotic resistance in rural areas. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) refers to the ability of an organism to stop an antimicrobial (e.g., antibiotic) from working against it. AMR has become a serious threat to public health, as it causes antibiotics to be ineffective. Moreover, according to a 2016 report by the National Academies of Medicine, antimicrobials for livestock account for 80% of the antimicrobials purchased in the U.S. The fear is that this practice leads to bacteria in the guts and on the skin of livestock that become resistant to antibiotics, which are then passed on to humans. One method of controlling AMR outbreaks is real-time identification
of AMR. Advancements in sequencing technology have shrunken the size of the devices used so that they can fit into one hand. But the analysis of the resulting data requires comparing millions or billions of DNA sequences. This analysis has been limited to high-performance computers that have significant memory and disk space, limiting AMR identification in low-resource settings, such as rural areas.
including Mattia Prosperi, Ph.D., an associate professor, Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health and Health Professions and UF College of Medicine; Jaime Ruiz, Ph.D., a CISE associate professor; and Kwang Cheol Jeong, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the Emerging Pathogens Institute.
Dr. Boucher’s research project will overcome the challenge of detection of AMR in rural areas by developing novel algorithms and interfaces for on-site, real-time detection of AMR using portable computing devices such as smartphones and tablets. This will, in turn, lead to a completely portable system for AMR identification, which can be used in areas remote from large data analysis centers.
The outcome of this project will be a real-time portable identification of AMR, which can be used to dramatically increase the efficiency with which healthcare officials can control and monitor outbreaks. In addition, these techniques will help public health officials with identification of viral species, such as COVID-19, which will assist in rapid diagnosis in areas that typically have limited computing and sequencing resources.
A multi-disciplinary team of researchers across UF will be joining Dr. Boucher in her efforts,
Diane Choate Public Relations & Communications Strategist
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU
9
FACULTY NEWS
Exposing the Shortcuts: Improving Fairness of Artificial Intelligence In the Connected World At the Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World, located in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, My T. Thai, Ph.D., a professor and associate director of the Institute, is developing software technologies that can explain how bias can creep into artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms. Her research is helping users who work with AI technology to extract analyses and predictions that are accurate and as close to reality as possible, as opposed to nominal, or worse, prejudiced and unfair. Bias creep occurs when data and its patterns are misread and analyses become tainted. Increasingly, industries and policymakers rely on AI to tackle voluminous and rapid data processing. If the AI learns and informs from a pattern that is incorrectly interpreted, the result could lead to serious errors in decision-making and responseformulation. Language bias can be an especially significant factor in incorrect data interpretation, especially in venues such as career fairs for college students. For example, at a recent UF Department of Electrical & Computer
Engineering career fair, a recruiter advised students to look at the job description carefully and ensure that their CV had certain keywords in it. The language bias in the machine learning program may have trained the AI to take a shortcut and reject a CV that does not contain specific words, even though the student might be eminently qualified for the job. Dr. Thai, funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and working with industry partner Amazon, is currently developing software technologies to help identify and explain where and how bias enters AI algorithms. “Using AI models as ‘black boxes’, without knowing why the model made a particular decision about the data, degrades the trustworthiness of the system,” Dr. Thai said. If the AI begins to use shortcuts, such as discounting any data that is not provided in a specific format designated by the machine learning tools used to train it, bias can begin to creep into the AI technology. “We can use the models we are developing to explain ‘shortcuts
10 UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
learning’ in the machine learning tools used to train the AI,” Dr. Thai said. “Not only will this type of explainable machine learning help AI users improve the fairness of their systems and technologies, it will provide them with a tool for demonstrating transparency in their operations. Without the ability to explain bias in the data or the machine learning tools, there is no transparency, which will limit the usefulness of the results.” Shortcuts learning was initially identified using images and text data, but now Dr. Thai and her students have exposed a new type of shortcuts learning in Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), a novel deep learning technique based on graph data. When Dr. Thai completes her current work, the explainable machine learning code will be available for licensing by companies and organizations. Working with the code to assess AI biases will require employees with basic training in AI. Diane Choate Public Relations & Communications Strategist
FACULTY NEWS
Department of Homeland Security Awards Traynor $1.7M to Secure Cellular Networks Patrick Traynor, Ph.D., the John H. and Mary Lou Dasburg Preeminent Chair in Engineering and a professor, was recently awarded a $1.7 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate. The research and development project, titled “Deploying Defenses for Cellular Networks Using the AWARE Testbed,” will focus on securing mobile networks. Dr. Traynor is also the CISE department’s associate chair for research. The project’s co-PI is Kevin R. B. Butler, Ph.D., a CISE professor. Dr. Butler is also the associate director of the Florida Institute of Cybersecurity (FICS) Research. Together with their team, they will develop testbed prototype solutions for 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE)capable calling devices with a secure distance bounding protocol and fuzzing infrastructure optimized for core LTE protocols. Distance bounding is the process of measuring the distance between two devices. Secure distance bounding prevents someone in the middle from responding early.
“Said plainly, these systems represent the most reliable, most widely available pieces of critical infrastructure ever built,” Dr. Traynor said. “Securing this infrastructure represents a significant challenge. “ The goal of the proposed work is to substantially improve the security of legacy and future cellular systems, specifically with regard to the interception of messages and tracking of users by hostile third parties, such as foreign intelligence. “We hope to create techniques that can make current and future cellular networks more secure for their users,” Dr. Traynor said. The DHS Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) jointly announced the inaugural research and development (R&D) awards for the newly launched Secure and Resilient Mobile Network Infrastructure (SRMNI) project. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
“Adversaries are launching attacks on phone networks that redirect calls so that they pass through network points they control,” Dr. Traynor said. “If we can detect this redirection, that the distance between calls is much further than it should be, we can alert against this kind of attack.” “Fuzzing” is a security term that loosely means injecting random inputs into a program. This is done to test unexpected conditions, which is a good way to determine whether the software is vulnerable. Telephony systems represent the most ubiquitous and trusted communications infrastructure in the world. In both the developed and developing worlds, these networks offer reliable audio connections that allow their subscribers to chat with distant family members, perform important business transactions and even exchange highly sensitive information.
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU 11
FACULTY NEWS
Shadow Health sample image of an LGBTQ family, Jennifer, Vivian and their baby, Eden (left), and maternal health patient, Daanis, in the bed holding her stomach, along with the exam menu and interview guide (right).
Shadow Health, Co-Founded by CISE Professor, is Acquired by Elsevier Shadow Health, a UF Innovate startup, was recently acquired by Elsevier, a leader in research publishing and information analytics. The Gainesville company was cofounded in 2011 by Benjamin Lok, Ph.D., a professor; along with David Massias, CEO, and Aaron Kotranza, Ph.D., (BSCE ’05, Ph.D. CE ’09) CTO, with the goal of teaching nursing students how to communicate effectively by using technology researched and developed at UF. “The acquisition by Elsevier enables the technology, which was started by researchers at UF in 2004, to expand globally,” Dr. Lok said. “It’s exciting that our technology will be improving patient outcomes around
the world. Further, the anticipated expansion of the Shadow Health workforce will greatly impact the Gainesville community and economy by providing great jobs for both talented folks living here as well as recruiting some of the brightest minds to move here to join Shadow Health.” Dr. Lok received the 2019 Innovator of the Year Award from UF Innovate | Tech Licensing for his work on the software used by half of all nursing students in the U.S. and Canada. UF nursing students use the software, which provides a comfortable and safe environment where nurses can practice, make mistakes and learn to improve their conversation skills. An important and intentional feature
12 UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
of the system is the diversity of the virtual patients. “We are the University of Florida, the inventors of Gatorade. It’s in our DNA to be entrepreneurs and innovators,” said Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., The Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and chair of the CISE department. “Dr. Lok’s work with Shadow Health exemplifies this spirit, and we are extremely excited for him and the Gator Nation.”
ELSEVIER ACQUIRES SHADOW HEALTH, A LEADING PROVIDER OF BEST-IN-CLASS HEALTHCARE SIMULATIONS Acquisition enhances Elsevier’s extensive digital education and
FACULTY NEWS
clinical practice offerings for healthcare practitioners during a time of continued growth in telehealth Elsevier, a global leader in research publishing and information analytics, and part of RELX, has acquired Shadow Health, a Florida-based developer of virtual simulations in nursing and healthcare education. Shadow Health’s Digital Clinical Experiences train and prepare nurses and healthcare practitioners for clinical settings. Its cutting-edge simulations, powered by Shadow Health’s Conversation Engine, enable learners to practice and apply their clinical reasoning skills through life-like interactions with a diverse range of virtual patients. Engaging in conversation-based learning, students gain confidence by practicing the skills they need to care for patients in a safe and standardized environment. The addition of Shadow Health enhances Elsevier’s extensive portfolio of digital health solutions at a time when experts are calling for improved communication skills from healthcare providers and nursing students. According to a study conducted by Harvard Medical Institutions, poor communication has been shown to be one of the main drivers of preventable medical errors, contributing to more than 30 percent of medical malpractice claims involving patient harm. COVID-19 has further compounded this issue in both ICU and telehealth settings as healthcare practitioners come under increasing pressure.
David Massias, co-founder and CEO of Shadow Health, said: “The global pandemic has brought the need for virtual simulations in nursing and healthcare education into sharp focus. What is clear is that when we invest in better training for nurses, we’ll see better outcomes for patients. Shadow Health’s Digital Clinical Experiences allow learners to develop their clinical judgment and communication skills by interviewing, examining, and treating virtual patients. I’m very proud of everyone at Shadow Health. They have a heart for healthcare – for patients and their
“It’s exciting that our technology will be improving patient outcomes around the world.” - Benjamin Lok, Ph.D.
families – and work tirelessly to serve our customers better. Now, together with Elsevier, we’re excited to work as one team to accelerate global health, one patient and one nurse at a time.” As a global leader in nursing and health education, Elsevier works with healthcare educators to prepare students for successful careers in medicine, nursing and health professions and to provide world-class content and innovative learning tools and analytics that improve educational outcomes and help prepare students for healthcare practice.
Jan Herzhoff, president of Global Health Markets at Elsevier, said: “Clinical settings are often highpressure environments. At Elsevier, we are proud to be a trusted partner for nurses around the world throughout their careers from education to practice. The safe, engaging learning environment Shadow Health provides will further support nurses and healthcare professionals in their important work to improve patient outcomes.” Currently, Shadow Health products are used in more than 900 institutions across North America. Founded in Gainesville, FL, in 2011, Shadow Health was originally a UF Innovate startup, a University of Florida program established to foster innovative businesses. The acquisition follows Elsevier’s recent launch of Transition to Practice in the U.S., an immersive online learning platform that supports new nurses to build skills and confidence as they transition from academia to professional clinical practice. Brent Gordon, managing director and general manager, nursing and health education, at Elsevier, said: “I am excited to welcome the Shadow Health team to Elsevier and look forward to supporting the needs of our customers while advancing our shared purpose of improving learning outcomes and practice readiness for future health professionals.” This press release was originally published on the Elsevier website.
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU 13
FEATURED FACULTY
Boyer Receives NSF Grant to Study Effects of Introducing AI Education to Middle School Students Kristy Boyer, Ph.D., an associate professor, recently received a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to investigate artificial intelligence (AI) education for middle school students. This project, a collaboration between Dr. Boyer and Maya Israel, Ph.D., an associate professor in the UF College of Education, will shed light on the emerging field of AI education within the context of computer science and conversational applications for the K-12 population. “We hope to further the community’s understanding of how kids can learn to design and build artificial intelligence,” Dr. Boyer said. “One of the most important kinds of artificial intelligence right now is the kind that has conversations with human beings. We see it all over in our daily lives.” In this project, 210 middle school students from diverse, underserved schools with limited access to AI and computer science will engage in
two-week summer camps to learn computer science. Researchers will investigate in what ways the experience can foster students’ long-term interest in computing and STEM-related fields. Participants will focus on learning to design and develop speech-based conversational systems. “You’ve used these anytime you say 'hey Siri' or 'hey Alexa' or 'hey Google.' That is a speech-based conversational system,” Dr. Boyer said. “It’s speech-based because you’re talking to it as opposed to some other conversation systems where you have to type. It’s called a conversational system because it goes back and forth the way people would go back and forth in a natural conversation.” There are no costs or requirements for students to participate, only that they show an interest in computer science. The camps will be held each summer over four years, with the hope of previous participants
14 UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
returning in later years to create even more sophisticated projects and act as mentors for new participants. The camp curriculum will be guided by interest development: first, students express interest; then, the projects are intended to deepen that interest during the camp. Researchers will measure students’ level of interest over time, especially those that might not otherwise have developed an interest in STEM if they had not had the opportunity. Dr. Boyer and Dr. Israel will be working with the summer camp participants, along with students from Dr. Boyer’s lab, the LearnDialogue Group, and Dr. Israel’s lab, the Creative Technology Research Lab. A handful of undergraduate students from UF, who will undergo extensive training and technical preparation, will also be hired as camp counselors. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
FEATURED FACULTY FACULTY NEWS
Gardner-McCune & AI4K12 Initiative Expand Access to K-12 AI Education One State at a Time A two-day virtual workshop in late January organized by the AI4K12 Initiative helped education leaders from across the country create new K-12 artificial intelligence (AI) efforts in several states. The workshop sessions were co-facilitated by Christina Gardner-McCune, Ph.D., an associate professor, and Leigh Ann DeLyser, the executive director of CSforALL, an organization committed to expanding K-12 computer science education. Leaders in computer science education from 27 states and three districts/territories met to develop plans for introducing AI into their curricula. Participants included officials from state education departments, school district representatives, practicing K-12 teachers, university researchers, and staff from educational nonprofit organizations. “Most K-12 teachers aren’t yet familiar with AI and are eager to learn about it themselves,” said Dr. Gardner-McCune. “As they become comfortable with the AI through new professional development opportunities resulting from their state’s planning activities at the
workshop, they’ll be better able to introduce AI to their students.” The workshop provided participants with opportunities for collaborative visioning, self-assessment, and goal setting. It sparked new initiatives in several states. Some are already updating their computing education standards to include AI, creating new AI courses, and providing opportunities for teachers to become AI-fluent. AI4K12 is developing national guidelines for teaching AI in elementary and secondary schools as a joint project of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA), with funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. GardnerMcCune leads the initiative along with David Touretzky, Ph.D., from Carnegie Mellon University and Deborah Seehorn of the CSTA. Dr. Gardner-McCune will also be collaborating with Dr. Touretzky and Bryan Cox, from the Georgia
Department of Education, on another NSF project titled, “AI4GA – Developing Artificial Intelligence Competencies, Career Awareness, and Interest in Georgia Middle School Teachers and Students.” AI4GA (pronounced AI for Georgia) provides a model for states and districts to expand access to AI education in K-12 Schools. “As our society’s use of artificial intelligence increases, the roles it plays, and can play, can sometimes be invisible,” Dr. Gardner-McCune said. “Our goals with the AI4K12 Initiative and the AI4GA project are to increase students’ awareness of how AI is used in their everyday lives and increase their knowledge of how AI works. Most importantly, we aim to empower students to responsibly use and evaluate AI and to solve problems that are important to them.” Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU 15
FEATURED STUDENT
HOW DID YOUR JOURNEY TO THE U.S. SHAPE THE PERSON YOU’VE BECOME TODAY?
SPOTLIGHT: GLORIA KATUKA Gloria Katuka first saw a laptop when she was 12 years old, a moment she has never forgotten on her journey to becoming a computer scientist. Years later, Katuka has spent her time finding ways to bring computer science to K-12 students, even founding InTECHgrate, a nonprofit that provides after-school programs to bring computer science, information technology, and STEAM education to middle and high school students. Katuka is a first-year Ph.D. student in the department. She came to the U.S. from Zaria, Nigeria, as an international boarding student when she was a freshman in high school. Her brothers, Joe and Daniel, were already living here and her host family, the Bergins, became instrumental in her life and a strong
support system. “My host parents both graduated from the University of Florida, so I have been exposed to the UF community from the moment I got to the U.S., beginning with attending games as a high school sophomore,” Katuka said. “It is safe to say that the UF culture was ingrained in me from the moment I stepped off the plane.” Katuka is a double Gator, earning both her bachelor’s degree in Information Systems and master’s degree in Information Systems and Operations Management from the Warrington College of Business. She is the vice president of the Black Graduate Student Organization. Katuka took some time to share her story.
16 UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
From the moment I arrived, I was surrounded by my host family, my brothers, and my Montverde, FL, family, who have helped me navigate being away from my home and become acclimated to a new home and a new family. Initially, living in the dorms and having roommates that were from other sides of the world exposed me to the importance of diversity. Additionally, dorm life for four years taught me how to co-exist and build relationships with students from different countries, cultures and backgrounds. The entire experience ultimately allowed me to become a better version of myself. My host family has been a huge part of my journey, as well. They went from being my host family to my true family. They taught me that family goes beyond blood and what matters in a family is love. Growing up in Nigeria with seven older brothers and being the only girl, I had always wanted a sister. My host family made it possible for me to have that younger sister. She motivates me to be a better sister so that she can have a young female role model. Although everything that I have mentioned was a huge blessing, it was continuously difficult to shake off the feeling of losing touch with the rest of my biological family. After my dad passed suddenly, I felt a stronger need to connect with my mother. As I reflect, especially during Women’s History month, I am reminded of
FEATURED STUDENT
all the strong women in my life. They have guided, supported, and inspired me to accomplish my goals and reach my dreams. I feel very lucky and beyond blessed to have my mom, my host mom, and all the “bonus” moms I have gained over the years. A girl can never have too many moms or women in her life. WHAT FIRST MADE YOU INTERESTED IN BECOMING A COMPUTER SCIENTIST? I was 12 years old when I saw a laptop for the first time. I was mesmerized and curious about how it functioned and how humans could interact with it. At that point, I kept trying to put myself in positions that allowed me to be around computers. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO PURSUE YOUR PH.D. IN HUMAN-CENTERED COMPUTING (HCC) AT UF CISE? To be honest, there wasn’t a specific moment. I think it was a seed that grew into a tree for me, and the seed was planted by my advisor, Dr. Kristy Boyer. I met her over two years ago when I was a combined degree student in Information Systems and Operations Management (ISOM) at the Warrington College of Business. I was pitching an idea for an afterschool program in Gainesville that would teach high school students how to code. I needed help with the curriculum and was hoping to engage a professor from the CISE department with expertise in this area. I recall her mentioning the HCC program briefly, but at that time I was focused on getting my master’s and getting a job. I guess that was when the seed was planted.
A year later, she offered me a research assistant job in her lab, where I spent my second year of the master’s program. During the year, that seed became fertilized, not only by an amazing project but by a wonderful group of people that I interacted with daily in the lab. The lab reflects Dr. Boyer’s intentional actions toward creating a diverse and inclusive environment for her students. Being in such an intensive and inspiring work environment made the seed blossom and grow even more. This led to my increased interest in not only the human-computer interaction field but in continuing to work with the brilliant and amazing people in our lab. CAN YOU TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE RESEARCH YOU ARE DOING WITH CO-CREATIVE DIALOGUE SYSTEMS? A dialogue system, also referred to as conversational apps or conversational agents such as Alexa or Siri, is a system that communicates with users through text or speech. A co-creative dialogue system is a dialogue system that interacts with a human within a co-creative domain or on co-creative tasks. The conversation between the human and agent is aimed at fostering creativity as well as collaboration. To do so, we developed a method for analyzing human-to-human collaborative dialogue to predict the student’s satisfaction with their technological partner. The findings from the collaborative dialogue analysis would
help us better design co-creative AI (CAI) to be an effective partner for students as they co-create. So far, we have applied this method of analyzing human-to-human collaborative dialogue to middle school and high school datasets to predict peer satisfaction; and to an undergraduate dataset to predict women’s stress. We reported our findings at two conferences and a journal. Both conference papers have been recently accepted for publication and we are awaiting notifications for the journal article. WHAT IS SOME ADVICE YOU HAVE FOR STUDENTS CONSIDERING A FUTURE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE? I think the most challenging part of pursuing a career in computer science is that it can seem very intimidating, especially for women. With the IT industry still heavily male-dominated, my advice to women is to take it upon ourselves to make the changes we want to see. We need to stop waiting for the world to change for us. Take that step and be the change. If you need help, seek out people currently in the field and talk to them. Don’t decide to give up on pursuing a career without talking to three to five people in the various areas in CS. The area is so broad that I strongly believe that every interested person can find a place to grow and succeed. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist Read the full article on our website.
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU 17
STUDENT NEWS
Using Big Data and AI to Improve Safety These days, road networks in our cities contain a variety of smart and connected infrastructure which generate an abundance of Big Data. This data can be processed to improve the flow of traffic and safety for both vehicles and pedestrians. At the University of Florida Transportation Institute (UFTI), transportation and computer science engineers are working on a Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) grant-funded project which is using Big Data and AI to improve safety and operations at road intersections. The project is titled “Smart Intersection Lab: Using Big Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence for Analyzing Video, LIDAR, and ATSPM Data to Determine Traffic Behavior on Intersections to Improve Operations and Safety.” Tania Banerjee, Ph.D., is one of the researchers on this project. She is a research assistant scientist working with Sanjay Ranka, Ph.D., a CISE distinguished professor and one of the principal investigators. Dr. Banerjee has been tasked with creating a system that will gather and process data generated from videos and detectors at traffic
intersections. She is locating where possible incidents are likely to occur. “My role in this project is to build a system to collect and process traffic videos, detector activations, and apply data analytics on the vehicle and pedestrian trajectories generated by processing videos from fisheye cameras installed at traffic intersections,” she said. “As a result, we have been able to detect and analyze instances of anomalous behaviors and near misses at the intersection.” Dr. Banerjee is also using the data to compute safety metrics such as post encroachment time (PET) and time to collision (TTC). PET is the difference in time between a vehicle leaving an area and another vehicle entering that same area. TTC is the time required for two vehicles to collide if they continue on their respective paths at their current speeds.
The trajectories that are captured on video are clustered into major movement patterns. These clusters help to detect anomalies such as when vehicles are driving in the wrong lane and conducting a lane change within the intersection. By analyzing these intersection videos, Dr. Banerjee and the research team can also aggregate counts of vehicles by lanes and approaches. These may be used as input to the Highway Capacity Software for computing The area in red is a near-miss hot spot identified by the delay and for the Dr. Banerjee’s software.
18 UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
Tania Banerjee, Ph.D.
intersection’s level of service analysis. By combining the paths of a moving object (vehicle or pedestrian) along with the traffic signal status (red, green, yellow light) at an intersection, the researchers are also able to detect if the movement of the object within the intersection is permitted to move or stop. “In other words, we detect all cases of red-light violations for vehicles, and pedestrians stepping onto a crosswalk at a no-walk signal,” Dr. Banerjee said. The research project is expected to generate an end-to-end video collection and processing software, which will collect and process videos from the fisheye cameras installed on traffic lights at intersections. The software will be tested at intersections for realtime monitoring and the generation of safety and performance metrics. The researchers expect that traffic engineers will benefit from this software because it will readily assist them in monitoring and analyzing intersections. UF Transportation Institute
STUDENT NEWS
Using Machine Learning Techniques To Help Mitigate Traffic Congestion Urban traffic control is one of the most important and challenging issues facing cities. Increases in the volume of traffic have significant impacts on congestion and consequently on the amount of time that travelers spend on the road. Furthermore, traffic signal control timing does not change in real-time based on changes in traffic patterns or crashes/incidents. Therefore, addressing these challenges requires a thorough data-driven modeling of traffic patterns not only at intersections but on streets and in the overall network. Yashaswi (Yash) Karnati, a Ph.D. student, is working with transportation engineers at the University of Florida Transportation Institute (UFTI) to develop a machine-learning-based system that uses sensing data. The data is fused to develop real-time algorithms for signal retiming for intersections and corridors to reflect changes in demand patterns and incident detection for alleviating traffic backups and secondary crashes. The work is funded by the National Science Foundation and the Florida Department of Transportation under the title of “Machine Learning Algorithms for Improved Network Traffic Signal Policy Optimization.”
“We are developing algorithms, software, and systems that leverage multimodal data for real-time incident detection, queue length estimation, imputing turning movement counts, signal timing optimization, and more,” Karnati said.
Yashaswi (Yash) Karnati
However, one of the key challenges is that algorithms developed on simulators fail to generalize in real-world scenarios. Karnati, who is advised by Sanjay Ranka, Ph.D., a CISE distinguished professor, is working to ensure reality is effectively captured. “My research also focuses on improving the fidelity of simulations by using real-world data to fine-tune the parameters of the simulation,” he said. “By incorporating different techniques from domain adaptation and system identification, I’m focusing on closing the simulation to reality gap so that these algorithms can be used in practice.” UF Transportation Institute
7 International Students Receive Outstanding Achievement Awards Seven students from the CISE department were the recipients of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the UF International Center. The winners – Kiana Alikhademi, Mahsan Nourani, Meghana Reddy Voladri, Subodha Charles, Tianwei Xie, Wins Goyal and Yue Wang – were among 15 students from the Herbert
Wertheim College of Engineering to receive the award. The International Student Achievement Awards Ceremony was initiated to highlight the accomplishments of international students at the University of Florida. The awards recognize outstanding contributions of
international students to promote and foster continued involvement and outstanding achievement in the college, university, and community. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist Read more about the awardees on our website.
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU 19
STUDENT NEWS
Ph.D. Student is First at Florida University To Receive the Google Ph.D. Fellowship Brendan David-John, a Ph.D. student, was recently named a Google Ph.D. Fellowship recipient under the area of Human-Computer Interaction. According to the list of recipients from the fellowship’s inception, David-John is the first student from any Florida university to receive the fellowship. David-John’s research area is at the intersection of applied perception and computer graphics, using eye tracking to record and understand human behavior with a focus on augmented and virtual reality (AR/ VR). More recently, his focus has been related to eye tracking in the context of privacy and security and working to establish methods to protect users from privacy risks prior to eye tracking becoming a mainstream technology. He is part of the Jain Lab and is advised by Eakta Jain, Ph.D., a CISE associate professor. “Receiving this fellowship allows me the freedom to focus most of my time on innovative research in a newly emerging field. Our lab is at the forefront of research in privacy and security in eye tracking, and this fellowship enables our work without the need to seek funding from external or internal grants,” David-John said. “Additionally, the fellowship provides me direct mentorship from industry experts at Google that will enable me to grow as a researcher and accomplish groundbreaking work within the eyetracking and AR/VR communities.”
“Without finding that opportunity, I may not have seen the side of Computer Science (CS) that is used to further our understanding of human perception and create technology to learn from and help people,” he said. “I may not have even pursued graduate school without seeing how exciting and rewarding CS research is. Based on this experience, it has become a goal of mine to discover and mentor indigenous students in computing who may be in a similar situation; and further increase indigenous representation in STEM and CS fields.” Brendan David-John
David-John is from Salamanca, N.Y., which is located on the Allegany Reservation of the Seneca Nation of Indians. He hopes to increase the representation of Native Americans in STEM and higher education, specifically in computing. He is a member of the American Indian Science & Engineering Society (AISES) and has been a Sequoyah Fellow since 2013. He said AISES played a pivotal role in his path to eye-tracking research, beginning with early recruitment from his high school by the Rochester Institute of Technology and student members of their AISES chapter. Later, a faculty mentor in AISES suggested he apply for a National Science Foundation-sponsored REU program, which introduced him to eye-tracking research and built connections getting him to where he is today.
20 UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
David-John was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow from 2017 to 2020. “Brendan is an asset to our team, and this fellowship is well-deserved,” Dr. Jain said. “His thesis focuses on what security and privacy vulnerabilities are created for the public when they are being eye tracked 24/7. We are one of the first groups looking at these issues and working toward solutions.” Google Ph.D. Fellowships directly support graduate students as they pursue their Ph.D., as well as connect them to a Google Research Mentor. The Google Ph.D. Fellowship Program was created to recognize outstanding graduate students doing exceptional and innovative research in areas relevant to computer science and related fields. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
STUDENT AWARDS
2020-2021 Awards for the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering The Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Awards recognize faculty, staff, and students receiving UF and/or college awards in the 2020-2021 academic year and celebrate together the excellence of Gator Engineering and the fundamental values of our college. Congratulations to the following award winners from the CISE department.
OUTSTANDING GATOR ENGINEERING M.S. SCHOLAR
OUTSTANDING GATOR ENGINEERING FOUR-YEAR SCHOLAR
ATTRIBUTES OF A GATOR ENGINEER STUDENT AWARDEES: LEADERSHIP
Rahul Wahi Major: Computer Science
Alexis Dougherty Major: Computer Science
Andrew Sowinski Major: Computer Engineering
2020-2021 CISE Scholarship & Award Recipients The department congratulates the following award and scholarship winners. These students were selected by the awards committee because they have outstanding records of academic performance as well as significant contributions to society.
UNDERGRADUATE
GRADUATE
Marty and Heather Abbott Scholarship Olivia Jaques-Baker • Robin Fintz Cottmeyer Family Scholarship Samuel Marrero • Lily Maloney • Lauren Newman Blake Thacker Matthew Martin Memolo Memorial Scholarship Drew Gill • Allison Wu • Jacob Mass • Rohil Tuli Gartner Group Information Technology Fund Zachery Utt • Sabrina Snider • Joshua Dargan • Pablo Estrada • Jack Wittmayer • Emily Pilley • Isabella Rodriguez Cruz • Prerana Arora • Caijun Qin • Gregory Garrett
•
L3Harris Corporation Communication Graduate Fellowship Julia Woodward • Joseph Isaac • Brendan DavidJohn • Kyle Shih-Huang Lo • Jeremy Block • Diandra Prioleau Gartner Group Graduate Fellowship Haibo Wang • Pan He • Dinh Trung Truc Nguyen • Pedro Garcia • Hadi Abdullah • Heng Yao • Zhixin Pan • Kiana Alikhademi • Mashan Nourani • Sarah Brown • Yashaswi Karnati • Armisha Roberts • Nanjie Rao • Seyedeh Hoda Shajari • Nikita Soni
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU 21
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
ALU M N I SP O T L I G H T : C H U N B O “ C H UC K ” H UANG Growing up in China, Chunbo “Chuck” Huang, Ph.D., (Ph.D. CE ’00), founder and CEO of Citcon, didn’t know that one day he would become a computer scientist. After he won the national level high school math and physics Olympiad competitions, he received an offer from Tsinghua University to attend and pick any major.
be an exciting field for me to study.”
“Although I didn’t know much about computers or programming at that time, I read many newspaper articles about the fast-changing world of computer technology,” he said. “I figured out computer science would
“There are many exciting computer science fields like database, AI, and networking that I wanted to further study,” he said. “All of the world’s leading researchers/experts in those fields are at UF and other U.S.-based universities.”
In 1996, after earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Tsinghua, Dr. Huang looked to the University of Florida as the perfect place to pursue his Ph.D. in computer science. In fact, he would later become the first member of his family to earn a Ph.D. degree.
Dr. Huang decided not to pursue an academic career, and instead joined a startup called Vitria Technology in the San Francisco bay area. He would continue to move through technology companies throughout his career, spending
22 UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
time working for PayPal, eBay and Visa. Eventually, his path would lead him to start his own business, Citcon, a technology company to build payment infrastructures for mobile wallets around the world. His idea for Citcon came to him while he was traveling through China in 2015. QR-based wallets such as Alipay and WeChat Pay were quite popular. He said the QR-based wallet apps in the U.S. like PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and squareCash, have the same amount of popularity as their counterparts in China. More specifically, they have 10 times the consumer base than Apple Pay and Google Pay. He said U.S.-based payment companies were only focusing on enabling merchants to use Apple Pay and not use those QRbased wallet apps. “I thought it was a great opportunity for me to start a company to solve that problem for the merchants,” Dr. Huang said. Since Citcon started operation in 2016, it has raised around $20 million in venture funding and grew its team to more than 60 people in five offices globally. It signed more than 30 mobile wallet partners including PayPal, Venmo,
ALUMNI AWARDS
Klarna, Alipay, and WeChat Pay, and deployed payment solutions to over 3,000 business clients, processing $600 million in payments per year. Throughout all his successes, Dr. Huang looks back fondly at his time at CISE and the valuable lessons he learned. Specifically, he said he learned that you must find and define a problem you want to solve. He’s been able to incorporate this lesson throughout his career. “Creating a startup business plan and writing a Ph.D. research proposal shared some similarities: 1. Define a real problem, 2. Propose a novel, feasible, and non-trivial solution, 3. Seek venture capital money or research grants, and 4. Lead the team to deliver the results (product or publications),” Dr. Huang said. “Business needs more hard work after that because you need to sell the product and generate profits and financial returns for its investors. The researchers have more freedom and they can move on to the next interesting problems. That is the fun part of being a researcher/professor.” While working toward his Ph.D., Dr. Huang said he met many new friends and even his wife Liu W. Huang (MS CE ’99). “I had a great experience at UF,” he said. “I learned a lot.” For future Gators, he offered this: “Computer science is a fast-changing field. Learn as much as you can in school, but don’t stop. Keep learning new things after you leave school.” Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
Alumni Honored at Gator100 The Gator100 recognizes and celebrates the 100 fastest-growing Gator-owned or Gator-led businesses in the world each year.
No. 25: LeadingAgile, LLC – Mike Cottmeyer (BSCE ‘90) Mike Cottmeyer, CEO of LeadingAgile, LLC, serves as his company’s resident champion of core agile values and principles. He is a thought leader and industry disrupter in the field of enterprisefocused agile transformation. Cottmeyer has given back to the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering by serving as the Entrepreneur in Residence from May 2016 to the present. In this role, he works with college faculty and student entrepreneurs to help them become more innovative and successful in starting, operating, and managing companies. Cottmeyer holds many certifications, including Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Project Management Professional (PMP), PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), and DSDM Certified Agile Project Leader (DSDM APL).
Support the CISE Department Making a commitment and giving back to the department can make a tremendous difference to our faculty, staff and students. There are a variety of ways in which to make an impact including improving infrastructure, student scholarships, professorships, or endowed chairs. For more information on making a gift, please contact: Sarah Johnson Senior Director of Development Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, 330 Weil Hall P.O. Box 116595 Gainesville, FL 32611 sjohnson@eng.ufl.edu | 352-392-6795
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU 23
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Chris Crawford, Ph.D. Chris Crawford, Ph.D., may have taken a different path in life had a storm not fried his computer. “It was literally a lightning strike that propelled me into computer science,” said Dr. Crawford (HCC Ph.D. ’17), an assistant professor at the University of Alabama Department of Computer Science. The computer was a gift from his aunt when he was in sixth or seventh grade. It worked quite well, until one night the computer essentially got struck by lightning and the power supply was blown out. “I came from a blue-collar family,” he said. “So, the idea of fixing this computer or paying a bunch of money to get a new one … that wasn’t going to happen.” Dr. Crawford had to fix the computer himself and says this was the catalyst that made him interested in computer science. After receiving a telescope as a Christmas gift from his parents, Dr. Crawford’s father gave him a book on astrology hoping it would pique his interest in science. But eventually, his father saw his interest in computers and found a way to get him another working computer. With a new computer and access to the Internet, Dr. Crawford was able to explore the online gaming community where he learned about fixing bugs and patching software.
“That’s when I kind of became familiar with coding,” he said. “I thought, ‘OK, there’s something else behind the scenes making all of this work.’ And these people, on this platform, they knew how to fix these bugs. And I thought, ‘Well, how do you do it?’” Growing up in rural Alabama, Dr. Crawford didn’t have the opportunity to learn much about computer science because the public schools he attended were some of the poorest in the country. As part of his current research, Dr. Crawford is given the opportunity to expose K-12 students in Alabama to coding and technology. “Even though it was bad that my computer broke, it was probably the best thing that ever happened because it forced me to try to figure out what was going on inside,” he said. “Years later, we’re deconstructing computers and getting kids to put them back together because that’s actually tangible learning. It’s helping them figure out exactly how these devices work, which raises curiosity about computational thinking and interest in STEM.” Thinking back on his journey, Dr. Crawford recalled some of the
24 UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
mentors who helped him along the way. A major influence was Monica Anderson, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Alabama. While pursuing his undergraduate degree, Dr. Crawford ended up doing undergraduate research in Dr. Anderson’s lab. When it came time for him to consider graduate school, one of the people she suggested working with was Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., who was teaching at Clemson University at the time. “Dr. Gilbert was very influential and really showed me the landscape of what it means to be a Ph.D. in computer science and also, in particular, what it meant to be a faculty member in computer science,” said Dr. Crawford, who recently received a CAREER Award from the National Science Continue reading on page 26.
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Rhonda Holt “It was a time-sharing system,” she said. “You had to wait until certain times of the day when that computer system would become available to researchers to do other things.”
Growing up in Gainesville, FL, Rhonda Holt, the chief technology officer at the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), assumed she would be pursuing aerospace as a profession. The space program was gearing up in Florida, and like many people, she had grown up watching space shuttle take-offs. But, after graduating from high school and before starting college in the fall, Holt (BSCS ’86) got a summer job that would change the course of her life. It was an experience unlike any other. Holt was working at the UF Department of Agriculture for Dr. Thomas Ashley, an entomologist. He was gathering data about a parasite attacking cornfields in Florida, and Holt was tasked with entering every line of that data into a database on the computer. But it wasn’t just any computer. It was the computer that was used to run the University.
Holt had to wait for her turn on a terminal and then had to wait until Dr. Ashley’s time slot. It took some time to get on the system because of all the other processing and other researchers using the system. “We’d sit there, and it would count down, and you’d wait and wait and wait and then finally you could get in,” she said. “Once I got in, I had this giant stack of paper Dr. Ashley had given me,” she said. It was her job to digitize all of that data, and it was her first significant exposure to a computer. Most people don’t find joy in computers when they have spent time doing data entry. But Holt was different. “I was kind of exposed to this computer system, and I liked it. I enjoyed it. Then I kind of said, ‘Maybe I should be studying computer science, instead of [aerospace]. I fell for computers at that point,” Holt recalled.
bachelor’s in computer science was almost inevitable. She had grown up in Gainesville and around the University. It had been there in her life during her formative years. “I’ve been a card-carrying Gator my entire life,” she said. “I have roots in Gainesville, so I spend time there, and I have a lot of opportunities to go back to campus. Even though I’m far away, it’s still a presence in my life.” Ending up at PBS was also inevitable for Holt. “When you think about how there are influential people in your life, there are also influential institutions in your life. Places that have a huge impact on who you are, how you think, what you’ve been exposed to over the course of your life. I have extremely early memories of public broadcasting,” she said. She had been watching PBS since she was a child. Throughout her life, at different stages along the way, it had been one of those constants. She had been shaped as a young child and even now in some way by what she had learned from public broadcasting. “How could I not at some point in time in my career work for PBS and support the organization whose mission is extremely important, I think, to our society,” she said. “It
For Holt, attending UF to earn her Continue reading on page 26.
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU 25
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
Continued from page 24: ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Chris Crawford, Ph.D. Foundation (NSF). CAREER awards are the NSF’s most prestigious award for junior faculty and are designed to help provide a foundation for a lifetime of scientific leadership. The awards are given to an outstanding scientist who exemplifies the role of teacher-scholars through research, education and the integration of education and research. When Dr. Gilbert became a faculty member at UF, it was an easy decision for Dr. Crawford to go to Gainesville. The prospect of coming to UF was also very appealing because of the university’s reputation. Once he arrived, the motivation to do research changed for the better. “It was a different level of motivation to kind of prove to the world that
we belonged alongside some of the greatest alumni that had walked through those halls,” said Dr. Crawford. “It was very motivating to be at Florida. When we did create things that were novel, we had the ability to showcase them to the world.” While at UF, Dr. Crawford worked on human-computer interfacing, specifically brain-computer interfacing and how to move machines with your brain. He specifically focused on flying drones with your brain. “There are a few labs doing that kind of research, but we were the first, to my knowledge, to actually build systems and host public demonstrations around multi-party experiences that involved brain-
computer interfacing and robotics,” he said. Today, as a faculty member, Dr. Crawford is hoping to provide his students with the same tools for success he had. On an immediate level, he looks forward to the day when his students are the ones publishing papers, doing interviews and winning awards. On a broader level, he hopes to change the face of computer science with the next generation. “I’m excited about really teaching kids about being curious around science and math, and being innovators and being computational thinkers,” he said. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
Continued from page 25: ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: Rhonda Holt has been extremely important and personal to me in my own growth and development and evolution as a human being.” Holt was very fortunate to have some great mentors along her journey. She gives all credit to her parents for her upbringing. And the great people she has encountered throughout her career. Holt said the greatest value in her story is that it’s important for everyone, no matter what situation you find yourself in or what stage of your career, to have a mentor. It’s important to have people that can observe you closely and provide you with feedback.
“Probably the most influential piece of information that I’ve ever gotten from any of these mentors is the gift of feedback,” she said. “That is more important than anything because that’s like having headlights into what you’re doing really well and what you need to improve upon.” Holt is particularly passionate about STEM and about seeing more underrepresented groups in engineering. Most of her contributions to UF are related to STEM, and more specifically computer science. Holt is a member of the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering Dean’s Advisory Board,
26 UF | DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCE & ENGINEERING
of the UF Foundation’s Executive Board of Directors, and of the Machen Florida Opportunity Scholars Leadership Council. She hopes to inspire the next generation to delve into STEM fields and hopefully make a positive impact on society. “When I first got into college and selected a major, it was all about having the opportunity to make the world better in some real tangible way,” Holt said. “I’ve always thought that the study of engineering gave you a physical way of impacting and improving the society around you.” Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
DEPARTMENT NEWS
UF ONLINE BACHELOR’S PROGRAM RANKED NO. 3 IN THE COUNTRY The University of Florida continues to rise in national recognition for its online undergraduate programs. Released earlier this year, the U.S. News & World Report 2021 now ranks UF Online No. 3 in the country for best online bachelor’s programs. With these new rankings, UF Online rises another spot from 2020’s No. 4 national ranking. UF Online’s ascension can be attributed to the hard work of UF faculty and staff, delivering engaging and robust academic programs for students around the world. Notably, with these 2021 rankings, UF now sits at No. 1 across all elite Association of American Universities (AAU) institutions, delivering the best online AAU bachelor’s program in the country. “The University of Florida is showing the world and its peer
research institutions what a modern research university is capable of when it embraces new forms of undergraduate learning pathways, all while remaining true to its ideals and commitments to academic excellence,” said Evangeline Cummings, assistant provost and director of UF Online. Among the 2021 rankings, UF Online also earns the No. 2 rank nationally for the best online bachelor’s program for veterans. This recognition is based on both UF Online’s academic quality and success in enrolling and financially supporting veterans, active duty, reserve, and other military-affiliated students. Designated a yellow ribbon school, UF offers a variety of military support services, including the UF Collegiate Veterans Success Center,
Office of Student Veteran Success, and Collegiate Veterans Society. Via UF Online, these military-affiliated Gators can succeed wherever their orders take them. UF Online
Computer Engineering Graduate Program Jumps Four Spots to Rank in Top 15 Nationwide The CISE department continues to climb in 2022 rankings released earlier this year. The CISE computer engineering graduate program has risen to No. 12 among public universities nationwide and is No. 1 in the State of Florida, according to the 2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Graduate Schools. Last year, the computer engineering graduate program was ranked No. 16 among public universities.
“The improvement in the computer engineering graduate degree ranking is a testament to the quality improvements we have made in CISE,” said Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D., The Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and department chair. “Our faculty have worked to recruit the best talent into our graduate programs and now the community
is recognizing our effort to recruit, train and graduate the best.” The computer engineering degree offers a broad, flexible approach in mastering both computer software and hardware. The department offers both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in computer engineering. Allison Logan Marketing Specialist
← TABLE OF CONTENTS | CISE.UFL.EDU 27
P. O . B O X 1 1 6 1 2 0 GAINESVILLE, FL 32611 W W W.C I S E .U F L . E D U
/
@UFCISE
@ U F_ C I S E
MALACHOWSKY HALL FOR DATA SCIENCE & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY A 263,000-square-foot academic building located in the heart of UF’s main campus will connect students and researchers from across disciplines and create a hub for advances in computing, communication and cyber-technologies with the potential for profound societal impact. Visit cise.ufl.edu to learn more and view a live feed of construction.