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Faculty

Professor Vijay Chidambaram Creates Free Resource for Aspiring Computer Science Professors

Professor Vijay Chidambaram leaning against the GDC stairway smiling. A slanted orange overlay with text reads, 'The CS Assistant Professor Handbook: Essential know-how for new and aspiring computer science professors by Vijay Chidambaram'

11/15/2023 - Academia can be opaque from the outside to folks who wonder what being a professor is like. This can be a hurdle for aspiring graduate students, who are interested in the role, but are anxious about all the different things that are required as a professor. Vijay Chidambaram, Professor of Computer Science at UT Austin, has authored a book, "The CS Assistant Professor Handbook: Essential know-how for new and aspiring computer science professors", to tackle this challenge.

Unlocking the Power of Bilevel Optimization: BOME

A night view of a city scene with multiple highway overpasses overlapping.

11/08/2023 - In mathematical optimization, a new approach is emerging, promising to transform how we tackle intricate challenges across various domains. Consider the complexity of bilevel optimization, a problem that has confounded experts in machine learning, engineering, and other fields. Recent advances are providing new insights into this intricate landscape, presenting a streamlined technique that has the potential to significantly enhance our ability to navigate these complex problems.

Isil Dillig Named Texas 10 Award Winner

Photograph credit - Jeff Wilson

05/02/2023 - UT Computer Science Isil Dillig has been named one of the Texas 10 award winners for 2023 by the Alcalde. The Texas 10 award is an annual recognition given to ten outstanding UT Austin faculty members who have made significant contributions to their respective fields. Dillig's selection for the Texas 10 award is a well-deserved recognition of her contributions to the field of computer science and her dedication to teaching and mentoring.

Brain Activity Decoder Can Reveal Stories in People’s Minds

Alex Huth (left), Shailee Jain (center) and Jerry Tang (right) prepare to collect brain activity data in the Biomedical Imaging Center at The University of Texas at Austin. The researchers trained their semantic decoder on dozens of hours of brain activity data from participants, collected in an fMRI scanner. Photo Credit: Nolan Zunk/University of Texas at Austin.

05/01/2023 - The work relies in part on a transformer model, similar to the ones that power ChatGPTA new artificial intelligence system called a semantic decoder can translate a person’s brain activity — while listening to a story or silently imagining telling a story — into a continuous stream of text. The system developed by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin might help people who are mentally conscious yet unable to physically speak, such as those debilitated by strokes, to communicate intelligibly again.

Greg Durrett Awarded Sloan Fellowships

UT Computer Science Assistant Professor Greg Durrett

02/17/2023 - ​The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation announced today the early-career researchers across the U.S. and Canada who are recipients of the 2023 Sloan Research Fellowship, including UT Computer Science Assistant Professor Greg Durrett. ​Based on a "candidate's research accomplishments, creativity, and potential to become a leader in their field," independent panels composed of senior scholars select 126 recipients every year out of more than a thousand who are nominated by fellow scientists.

AAAI Selects UT Professor of Computer Science as a Fellow

UT Computer Science Professor Risto Miikkulainen

02/16/2023 - The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) has selected Risto Miikkulainen as one of 11 fellows for 2023. Founded in 1990, AAAI's Fellows Program seeks to highlight the individuals who contribute greatly to the field of AI. Miikkulainen was honored for "significant contributions to neuroevolution techniques and applications."

Pingali Receives Prestigious Parallel Computing Award

UT Computer Science Professor Keshav Pingali

02/06/2023 - The IEEE Computer Society has selected Keshav Pingali to receive the 2023 IEEE CS Charles Babbage Award for his "contributions to high-performance compilers and graph computing." At The University of Texas at Austin, Pingali is the W.A. "Tex" Moncrief Chair of Grid and Distributed Computing and a professor in the Department of Computer Science and core faculty in the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences.