UCLA Computer Science Department

The Computer Science Department is pleased to welcome Jennifer Wortman Vaughan as a new member of our faculty. She will join us in the fall of 2010 after spending a year as a Computing Innovation Fellow at Harvard University.

Jenn’s research interests are in machine learning, computational economics, social network theory, and algorithms, which she studies using techniques from theoretical computer science. Many of her favorite problems have involved developing new models of learning, or examining old models from a new perspective.

Professor Deborah Estrin has been honored with a 2009 election to the National Academy of Engineering for her "pioneering design and application of heterogeneous wireless sensing systems for environmental monitoring." Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy memberships honor those who have made outstanding contributions to engineering research, practice, or education, and to the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology.

The 30 March 2009 issue of The New Yorker Magazine features a six-page article on Chris Ferguson, Leonard Kleinrock's doctoral student, who graduated in 1999. Chris is now a world-class poker champion who has won more than seven million dollars and is often featured on televised poker events. The article not only discusses Chris's growing-up years, his time at UCLA, and his subsequent career as a professional poker player, it also addresses such things as the legality of Internet gambling. Included in the article are many quotes from Kleinrock regarding Chris's brilliance and creativity as a Ph.D. student. Additionally, the article touches on Kleinrock's role in the birth of the Internet.

The March 2009 issue of Los Angeles Magazine features an article on Professor Leonard Kleinrock. Called "Feature Shock," the article is essentially the result of a lengthy interview with Len, who discusses the history behind today's Internet, his own personal history, and what he envisions for our future in cyberspace.

January 2009. Lockheed Martin has recently joined the Computer Science Department's Industrial Affiliate Program. This brings the number of affiliate member organizations to eighteen.

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2007 sales of $41.9 billion.

The Chronicle of Higher Education has ranked the UCLA CS department #10 in computer science for 2007 in terms of faculty productivity. The ranking index examines a total of 217,254 faculty members nationwide.

Faculty members can be judged on as many as five factors, depending on the most important variables in the given discipline: books published, journal publications, citations of journal articles, federal-grant dollars awarded, and honors and awards.

Ranking for computer science in 2007 (from #1 to #10) is as follows: Rice, Stanford, U. of California Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon,* Princeton, Carnegie Mellon,* U. of Pennsylvania, MIT, Caltech, U. of California Los Angeles.

(* An institution may appear more than once if the discipline is related to more than one department.)

The July 2008 issue of "Vanity Fair" features a 22-page spread entitled "An Oral History of the Internet. How the Web Was Won." This article contains many excellent photos and insightful comments from Professor Leonard Kleinrock and alumnus Vint Cerf, as well as from a multitude of other key players in the creation of the Arpanet and the further development and commercialization of today's Internet.

June 2008. Computer Science Department research scientist, Giovanni Pau, was interviewed this month by BBC's Digital Planet. In this interview, Giovanni describes how he and Professor Mario Gerla have created a car-based mesh networking system that allows web connectivity, video conferencing and the opportunity to map each vehicle’s whereabouts in real time on an interactive map.

BBC's "Digital Planet" interviewed Professor Amit Sahai in May 2008 regarding his work on "functional encryption" (joint research with UCLA alumnus Brent Waters) . Functional encryption is an innovative cryptography method that one day could have an impact on how data is encrypted, stored and decrypted.

The Spring 2008 issue of "UCLA Engineer" features an overview of the current research efforts being headed up by CSD's Jason Cong and Tony Chan (joint appointment with Math and Bioengineering). The article, "UCLA Scientists Working to Create Smaller, Faster Integrated Circuits," describes their research team and the demonstrated improvements to integrated circuits achieved by creating new computer-aided design software based on better mathematical algorithms. Professors Cong and Chan have been collaborating for nearly a decade on the design of integrated circuits.

Professor Amit Sahai's research in cryptography has recently been featured in both the Daily Bruin (24 April 08) and the UCLA Newsroom (17 April 08). This work, conducted with co-researchers Brent Waters of SRI International and Jonathan Katz of University of Maryland, concerns a mathematical system -- known as functional encryption -- that will not only help simplify the encryption of data in servers, but will also allow access to the data in an intuitive way, making it much easier for programmers to secure sensitive information and much harder for hackers to gain access to it. As Professor Sahai succinctly puts it: "We want to change the rules of the game on hackers and even out the playing field."

The UCLA Office of Intellectual Property publication, "UCLA Invents -- Driving Innovations to Market" (Vol II, 2007), features xPilot, a recently developed and copyrighted cutting-edge electronic-design-automation software developed by Professor Jason Cong and his VLSI CAD laboratory as a response to industry's ever-increasing demand for faster and more complex chips. The xPilot system enables designers to use C/C++ specifications for chip design, and has been licensed by AutoESL Design Technologies, Inc., for commercialization.

A January 2008 issue of NewScientistTech magazine features an article entitled "Wi-Fi music polling device takes heat off the DJ." This article discusses the "Smart Party" technology developed by CS graduate student Kevin Eustice and advisor Dr. Peter Reiher. The Smart Party system relies on people carrying Wi--Fi-enabled music-playing devices; it polls the musical preferences of party-goers and creates a playlist for the gathering that will appeal to everyone. This new technology was recently revealed at the Consumer Communications and Networking Conference recently held in Las Vegas, NV.

The 19 December on-line issue of Technology Review (published by MIT) featured the work of Professor Demetri Terzopoulos and his former graduate student Dr. Wei Shao (now at Google). The story by science and technology journalist Duncan Graham-Rowe, entitled "Virtual Extras," describes how the "autonomous pedestrians" software created by Shao and Terzopoulos simulates lifelike animations of large-scale human activity -- in part by giving each member of a digital crowd its own personality and cognitive abilities that generate complex, rational behaviors. In a virtual reconstruction of the original Pennsylvania Station in New York City, the software simulated visually realistic pedestrian activity that included well over 1000 commuters, tourists, buskers, and law-enforcement officers going about their business.