More than 2,500 family members, friends, and loved ones gathered at Carmichael Arena to celebrate computer science graduates from winter 2022, spring 2023, and summer 2023. With 510 total graduates across all degree programs, the 2023 commencement marked the largest in the department’s history.
Partnering with Anitha Muthukumaran, a researcher from the University of Northern Colorado, and educational accessibility consultant Diane Brauner, students from App Team Carolina developed Bubbly, a free CVI literacy app that aims to improve reading through Roman word bubbling – an educational practice that uses colorful outlines around words to help children with CVI recognize them by shape.
Graduate student Anneliese Brei was awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship for 2023. The fellowship will provide a $37,000 stipend and $12,000 cost of education allowance each year for three years.
Vox’s Phil Edwards set out to understand why greenscreens are still so common in video despite the advancements in AI. Roni Sengupta helps explain the challenges.
Earlier this spring, students from Hillside High School in Durham visited Sitterson Hall to celebrate the completion of a semester-long partnership with UNC Computer Science. Fifteen high school students participated in weekly workshops taught by the UNC CS DEI Ambassadors and dedicated to learning about computer science skills and broadening an interest in the field.
The computer science department, typically a male-dominated field of study, has seen an increase in students identifying as non-binary and female over the past few years. Roughly 30 percent of the graduating students in the computer science department are non-binary or female, compared to only 20 percent in 2015, according to Kris Jordan, a computer science professor, and director of the Computer Science Experience Lab.
The Department of Computer Science held a professional memorial service for Department Founder Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. on March 4, 2023. Brooks was remembered in panel discussions featuring colleagues from throughout his long career in the computing industry and academia.
In Sitterson Hall, a server room has turned into an accessible experience lab for students and faculty. Pitched by Prof. Kris Jordan to the College of Arts and Sciences last October, it has seen over 2,200 visitors in the past six weeks. “The undergraduate experience labs are aiming to be a technical experience accelerator with real world technologies, as well as a community hub and a co-working space,” Jordan said.
Theodore Kim (Ph.D. 2006) received the Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the development of the elastic simulation system Fizt2. First used in Coco (2017), Fizt2 improves speed, robustness, and generality of simulation for both cloth and flesh.
As anticipation and anxiety fuel debates about artificial intelligence, UNC’s AI Project brings together scholars from philosophy, computer science and linguistics to explore its implications.
