The Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Data Communications announced earlier this summer that a paper by Brown CS Professor Theophilus A. Benson won their 2022 Test of Time Award. The paper, “Network traffic characteristics of data centers in the wild,” was written by Theophilus, Aditya Akella of UT Austin, and David A. Maltz of Microsoft Research. Bestowed annually, the award recognizes 10- to 12-year-old papers published in sponsored or co-sponsored conferences that remain relevant and valuable in the present.
This Friday, Professor Michael Littman of Brown CS won the John McCarthy Award from the International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization (IJCAI). The award, which is the top research honor in AI for mid-career scientists, recognizes researchers who have consistently made significant and influential contributions to the field.
In conferring the award, IJCAI cited Michael’s role in developing reinforcement learning and AI planning in partially observable systems, as well as his work in formalized state abstractions.
The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) announced in late June that Professor Carsten Eickhoff has been elected Treasurer of their Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval (SIGIR) for the 2022-2025 term. Carsten, who heads the AI Lab at Brown’s Center for Biomedical Informatics and holds a courtesy appointment with Brown CS, began his role July 1.
Brown University’s Department of Computer Science (Brown CS) is pleased to announce that four of its faculty members — Ugur Çetintemel, Michael Littman, Carsten Eickhoff, and James Tompkin — received named chairs at the May, 2022 meeting of the Corporation of Brown University. James is the John E. Savage Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Michael is the University Professor of Computer Science, and Ugur is the Khosrowshahi University Professor of Computer Science. Carsten, who has a courtesy appointment with Brown CS, was appointed the Manning Assistant Professor of Medical Science.
Last month, MongoDB announced a new feature called “Queryable Encryption” that it says is a major step forward in the realm of data security. This feature will make MongoDB, which was co-founded by Brown CS alum Eliot Horowitz, the first company to enable users to search a database while the data itself remains encrypted, preventing malicious parties from accessing it.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced recently that Professor Michael Littman of Brown CS will join as their division director for information and intelligent systems for the next two years. While retaining his role at Brown, Michael will oversee AI-related research funding and coordinate AI efforts between government agencies in his new role.
Five Brown CS students and alums, Jessica Dai, Arman Maesumi, Shane Parr, Seiji Shaw, and Benjamin Spiegel, received NSF Graduate Research Fellowships last month for their research in computer science. The fellowship program, which is the oldest of its kind, recognizes and supports graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and math who show significant potential for future contributions to their field.
Brown CS alums Shira Abramovich, Jessica Dai, and Hal Triedman are three of thirteen students chosen for the inaugural 2022 design and technology program of the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE).
