CRA Honorees

BACS students Jiamin Chen, Peter Chapman, and Virginia Smith have been recognized by the Computing Research Association Outstanding Undergraduate Researchers Award. This is the premier national award for undergraduate researchers in computer science.

Peter was selected as the Runner-Up, and Jiamin Chen and Virginia Smith were selected as Honorable Mentionees.

Congratulations to Jiamin, Peter, and Virginia!

For a list of previous winners, see the Awards page.

Turn On the Server. It’s Cold Inside.

The New York Times has an article about Kamin Whitehouse’s work on data furnaces: Data Furnaces Could Bring Heat to Homes, New York Times, 26 November 2011.

More Articles on Rice Hall Dedication

‘Technologically Inspiring’ Rice Hall is Dedicated, UVa Today, 19 November 2011.

To Innovate, ‘Make Sure the Experts Think You’re Nuts,’ Kamen Tells Engineers, UVa Today, 19 November 2011.

Kamen told his audience of mostly engineering students and professors that one way to make innovation happen is to “make sure the experts in the field think you’re nuts.” He said new ideas should go from “indefensible to indispensible,” and that innovative thinking will lead to many failures but also to new ways to solve society’s most challenging problems, such as clean water and power shortages for two-thirds of the world’s population.

As a boy, he said, he was inspired by the “David and Goliath” story, in which little David defeated the giant Goliath with technology – a slingshot. He encouraged the future engineers to think beyond their own fields. “Become interested in people from different fields, different backgrounds and see what you can do that’s new. You have this little spot of time between eternities to do something amazing – don’t waste it.”

Rice Hall Dedication, NBC 29, 18 November 2011.

Rice Hall Dedication!

Rice Hall, the new home of Computer Science at UVa, was dedicated yesterday, Friday 18 November, with a large celebration.

Celebrity inventor speaks at dedication of UVa’s new science building, Daily Progress, 19 November 2011.

New Alumna Profile: Rachel Miller

Rachel Miller graduated a BACS degree with Highest Distinction in 2009 (ambitious visitors can read her DMP thesis on Drunken Algorithms). She is now a graduate student at MIT working on theory of cryptography.

Do you have any advice for current computer science students?
Find a mentor… Fortunately, there’s an easier way to find a mentor — asking a professor to be one for you. I recommend showing up to office hours of the professors you are fans of and asking them directly. [Read More]