Department News

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Prof. Song-Qing Chen Receives NSF CAREER Award

Prof. Chen received the National Science Foundation's CAREER award for his project entitled "Intern et Resource Management to Deliver High Quality Live and On-demand Streaming for Wireless Clients." The award is for $450K for five years.

Summer 2008 MS CS Extended Online Offerings

These courses are delivered using the Network EducationWare (NEW) software, which provides the instructor's voice, slides, annotation, and (optionally) video image, on Windows or Linux computers.

NEW also records the class so that students can attend over the Internet with a time delay. Usually the time delay is hours or days; however in Summer 2008 we are offering another option. Seven courses will be offered from their recordings. Students who take these courses will be mentored by the same faculty member who originally taught the recorded course, and will be expected to submit the same assignments as posted in the original syllabus. The schedule for completing assignments will be defined at the beginning of the course and will be subject to the same conditions as the classroom course (for example treatment of late submissions).

The courses are listed below. Please note that at most ten students will be registered in each course and registration is subject to the professor's approval. The drop period for these courses is 48 hours.

To register, contact the faculty member by email for approval and then the Office of Continuing and Professional Education at 703-993-2109 for administrative processing.

Departmental Merger is Finalized

The merger of the Departments of Computer Science and of Information and Software Engineering is final. The new department name will be the George Mason University Department of Computer Science. The new department will have 38 tenured or tenure-track faculty and four instructors. The official date for the merger is January 2008; but the two departments already operate as one in most aspects.

The new department does research and teaching in a wide range of computer science and information systems areas, including: algorithms and theory of computational; artificial intelligence: computer vision; databases; graphics; image processing; computer languages; software engineering; security; systems; networking; parallel and distributed computing; robotics; data mining; information systems; and computer science education. The department will offer a PhD in Computer Science, a PhD in Information Technology, an MS in Computer Science, an MS in Information Systems, an MS in Software Engineering, an MS in Information Security and Assurance, a BS in Computer Science, and several BS degrees in Applied Computer Science joint with various fields.

Five New Faculty Join the Department

The joint recruitment efforts of the merged CS and ISE departments have resulted in five new faculty joining the department. Fei Li, Angelos Stavrou, and Sam Malek have joined the department as assistant professors. Ricci Heishman and Daniel Fleck have joined the department as instructors.

Fei Li specializes in online and approximation algorithms and theory. Sam Malek specializes in software architecture, design, deployment, and engineering. Angelos Stavrou specializes in security and reliability in large, distributed, and peer-to-peer systems. Ricci Heishman is Assistant Dean in Computer Science and Information Technology at Northern Virginia Community College and specializes in human computer interaction. Daniel Fleck is from SRA International and specializes in software engineering.

GMU Robotics Club Wins National Robot Competition

"Big Foot", a humanoid robot designed and built by PhD student Keith Sullivan, placed first in the Humanoid Division of the Trinity College Firefighting Robotics Competition. The two other GMU robots, "George" (by Joel Chenette) and "Blue Bot" (by Brian Davidson) each qualified in their respective divisions.

The Trinity College Firefighting Robotics Competition is an annual national competition for autonomous robots. Each robot must wander through a "house" of four rooms, discover a candle, put it out, and ideally find its way back to its home base. The GMU Robotics Club has fielded entries for four years. This year GMU entered three robots: "George" is a lego tank-style robot which puts out the candle with a squirt of water; "Blue Bot" is a custom-built two- wheeled robot which puts out the candle with a high-speed fan; and "Big Foot" is a humanoid robot which walks and cartwheels through the maze and snuffs out the candle by hand.

Congratulations to Keith, Joel, and Brian!

ISE and CS Department Merger Approved by the GMU Board of Visitors

The GMU Board of Visitors has approved the merger of the Departments of Computer Science and of Information and Software Engineering. The new department name will be the George Mason University Department of Computer Science.

The new department will have 38 tenured or tenure-track faculty and four instructors.

New Faculty Position in Information Security Available Starting Fall 2007

The Department of Computer Science (CS) and the Department of Information and Software Engineering (ISE) at George Mason University invite applications for a new tenure-track position in Information Security at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning Fall 2007. The two departments reside in the Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering. More details are available here.

Summer 2007 MS CS Extended Online Offerings

The GMU Department of Computer Science offers courses leading to the MSCS degree through an innovative online approach that allows students to attend courses either in the classroom or over the Internet. These courses are delivered using the Network EducationWare (NEW) software, which provides the instructor's voice, slides, annotation, and (optionally) video image, on Windows or Linux computers.

NEW also records the class so that students can attend over the Internet with a time delay. Usually the time delay is hours or days; however in Summer 2007 we are offering another option. Seven courses that were recorded in the last two years will be offered from their recordings. Students who take these courses will be mentored by the same faculty member who originally taught the recorded course, and will be expected to submit the same assignments as posted in the original syllabus. The courses are listed below. Please note that at most ten students will be registered in each course and registration is subject to the professor's approval.

To register, contact the faculty member by email for approval and then the Office of Continuing and Professional Education at 703-993-2109 for administrative processing.

Two Faculty Positions Available Starting Fall 2007

The Department of Computer Science (CS) and the Department of Information and Software Engineering (ISE) at George Mason University invite applications for two tenure-track positions at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning Fall 2007. The two departments reside in the Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering. More details are available here.

New Book by Prof. Wechsler

Prof. Wechsler has just authored the book titled Reliable Face Recognition Methods. It is about applied modern pattern recognition using biometrics/face recognition as test beds.

New Graduate Courses on Computer Games Technology to be offered in Spring 2007

The CS Department will be offering two new courses on Computer Games Technology in the Spring 2007 semester. Prof. Jim Chen will be teaching CS 662 (Computer Graphics and Games Technologies) which focuses on 3D graphics game technologies and programming. Prof. Mark Pullen will be teaching CS 758 (Networked Virtual Environments) which focuses on the theory and practice of distributed simulation via networks using highly realistic graphic environments. CS758 will be delivered online as part of the online MSCS. Students interested in taking these courses should contact Professors Chen and Pullen for more information.

Two Ph.D. Students Defend Dissertations

Congratulations to Liviu Panait and Wei Zhang who successfully defended their Ph.D. dissertations recently. Liviu (advisor: Prof. Sean Luke) will be joining Google, and Wei (advisor: Prof. Jana Kosecka) joins Siemens Corporate Research Lab.

Songqing Chen Wins NSF CSR Award

Prof. Chen's proposal is entitled System Research on Media Streaming to Heterogeneous Mobile Devices. The award is in the amount of $180,685 for the period 09/15/2006 through 08/31/2008. The project aims to provide solutions to critical issues for delivering streaming media to pervasive and heterogeneous mobile devices, under resource constraints at both the streaming sender and the receiver sides.

Jim Chen Wins NSF MRI Award

Prof Chen's proposal is entitled Acquisition of a Virtual Reality Testbed for Research and Teaching in Visualization, Simulation, and Edutainment. The award is in the amount of $131,616 for the period 8/15/2006 through 7/31/2008. The research areas that will benefit from the proposed infrastructure include graphics and VR related projects on edutainment, surgery simulation, virtual environment construction, and data visualization. This new funding will also jump-start Prof. Chen's new initiative on virtual environment construction through video images.

Ph.D. Seminar Courses being offered in Fall semester

The following four Ph.D. seminar courses are being offered this Fall.

CS 803 Topics in Evolutionary Computation - Prof. Dejong
CS 803 Topics in Information Hiding - Prof. Duric
CS 803 Topics in Sensor Networks and Mobile Ad hoc Systems - Prof Simon
CS 895 Topics in Autonomic Computing - Prof. Menasce

Students in the MS (CS) programs can also take these courses with the permission of the instructor

New Books by Prof. Chen and Prof. Dejong

Prof. Chen has just authored a new book "Foundations of 3D Graphics Programming Using JOGL and Java3D" and Prof. Dejong has just authored "Evolutionary Computation - A Unified Approach".

New BS in Applied Computer Science

The Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Computer Science (BS ACS) has been created for those students who want and need the knowledge and expertise of computer science to work in one of the many disciplines that require advanced computing techniques. These fields do not merely "use" computing but create new and interesting problems for the computer scientist.

CS PhD Program Ranked 60th by US News and World Report

According to the most recent US News and World Report [PDF] rankings, our program ranks #60. This initial ranking is good news for the relatively new program. The CS PhD program is jointly administered by GMU's Computer Science and Information and Software Engineering departments, which will merge this coming year.

CS and ISE Departments Merging

Over the course of the 2006-2007 academic year, the GMU Computer Science Department and the GMU Department of Information and Software Engineering will merge. The ISE department faculty have research programs in databases, software engineering, data mining, machine learning, security, and information systems. The merger is expected to significantly enhance GMU's graduate and undergraduate programs in computer science and information systems, and also the national research standing of both departments.

Jyh-Ming Lien Joins the Department

Lien will join the department in Spring 2007. His research interests include computational geometry, computer graphics, and robotics. Lien's home page at the Department of Computer Science, Texas A&M, lists his publications in approximate convex decomposition, simulating group behaviors, and motion planning. Welcome to the faculty, Jyh-Ming!

2006 Outstanding Student and Faculty Awards

Outstanding Graduate Students Liviu Panait (IT&E Award), Wei Zhang, and Shen-Shyang Ho.

Outstanding Graduate Students (Academic) Eli Viertel, Jared Hepp, Thong Ngo, Belaben Patel, Manjusha Gadamsetty, and Mashhood Ishaque.

Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistants Anh Vo and Thomas Hogarty.

Outstanding Undergraduate Students Christopher Vo (IT&E Award), Carl Bohman, Tyler White, James Quinn (also winner of outstanding Undergraduate Peer Advisor), Carl Nasal, Mong Ngo Le, and Jennifer Krolick

Outstanding Faculty Members Kenneth De Jong (Research), Hakan Aydın (Teaching), and Clifford Clausen (Adjunct)

Hakan Aydın Wins NSF CAREER Award

Prof. Aydin's proposal is entitled A Holistic Energy Management Framework for Real-Time Embedded Systems. The award is in the amount of $400,000 for the period 6/1/2006 through 5/31/2011.

Dr. Aydın joined GMU Computer Science Department in 2001, after receiving a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include Real-Time Systems, Power-Aware Computing and Fault Tolerance. He has served on the program committees of various international conferences/workshops in real-time and power-aware systems.

From the NSF CAREER Web page: "The Faculty Early Career Development(CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of the early career-development activities of those teacher-scholars who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization."