News Headlines

Bayraktar draws on UNC experience in Turkey earthquake relief
August 25, 2023
After graduating in 2023, computer science alumna Rida Bayraktar traveled to Turkey to teach and mentor children and teens in refugee camps and to improve educational infrastructure with her non-profit organization Pink … Read more

UNC Computer Science introduces 7 new faculty members
August 21, 2023
The Department of Computer Science is excited to announce the addition of several new faculty members in 2023 and 2024. Six faculty members have already begun their work for the Fall 2023 semester, and another will join … Read more

2023 UNC-Intel REU cohort celebrates end of program with research presentations
August 18, 2023
The 2023 UNC-Intel Research Experience for Undergraduate Students wrapped up with a closing ceremony on July 28. The ceremony featured research presentations by each of the participating students and was attended by UNC … Read more

UNC-NLP advances state of the art at ACL 2023
July 30, 2023
The UNC Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning Group presented research at the annual meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) advancing the state of the art in natural language processing … Read more

Kwong joins UNC CS faculty as assistant professor
July 18, 2023
Andrew Kwong joined the department as an assistant professor, having recently completed a doctorate at the University of Michigan. Andrew’s primary research focus is in hardware security at the intersection of software, … Read more

UNC CS shares research, builds connections at WISC 2023
July 12, 2023
Researchers from UNC Computer Science took part in the 2023 Women in Security and Cryptography Workshop in Bochum, Germany, sharing knowledge via a keynote lecture and building professional connections with women from 11 … Read more

Unifying Vision and Language Models with Mohit Bansal [Podcast]
July 3, 2023 | TWIML AI Podcast with Sam Charrington
In a conversation with Professor Mohit Bansal, host Sam Charrington explores the concept of unification in AI models, highlighting the advantages of shared knowledge and efficiency.

Breaking cross-modal boundaries in multimodal AI: Introducing CoDi, composable diffusion for any-to-any generation
July 1, 2023 | Microsoft Research Blog
In a recent paper: “Any-to-Any Generation via Composable Diffusion,” Microsoft Azure Cognitive Service Research and UNC NLP present CoDi, a novel generative model capable of processing and simultaneously generating conte … Read more

UNC CS shares cutting-edge computer vision research at CVPR 2023
June 28, 2023
UNC Computer Science research groups led by Mohit Bansal, Gedas Bertasius, and Marc Niethammer presented several papers and contributed to workshops at CVPR 2023. Here is a roundup of their papers, which used deep learni … Read more

Beyond the Binary: Bayraktar (’23) breaks stereotypes and inspires change
June 21, 2023
While many 2023 grads are preparing for their next steps in industry or academia, Rida Bayraktar is digging deeper into work she started as an undergraduate by bringing STEM education programs and infrastructure to earth … Read more

Supporting the LGBTQ+ Community in Tech
June 13, 2023
June marks the month-long celebration of LGBTQ+ pride and community. UNC CS honors Pride Month and supports LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff by sharing campus, local, and national resources and highlighting the histor … Read more

Eskandarian receives prestigious NSF CAREER Award
June 12, 2023
The National Science Foundation granted Assistant Professor Saba Eskandarian its Faculty Early Career Development Award to study the longstanding challenge of how to combat abuse while safeguarding user privacy on privat … Read more

UNC-Intel REU welcomes 2023 cohort, shaping the future of computer science research
June 8, 2023
UNC CS is excited to welcome the 2023 cohort of the UNC-Intel REU Program, which is designed to foster the next generation of computer science researchers through valuable hands-on experience, industry connections, and a … Read more

UNC Computer Science celebrates more than 500 graduates in largest ever commencement
May 16, 2023
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 prog … Read more

A bubbling innovation for kids with visual impairment
May 9, 2023 | Gillings School of Global Public Health
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 ap … Read more

Brei awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
April 21, 2023
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 t … Read more

VIDEO: Can AI kill the greenscreen? [Assistant Professor Roni Sengupta interviewed]
April 18, 2023 | Vox
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.

UNC CS DEI Ambassadors celebrate partnership with Hillside High School
April 3, 2023
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 … Read more

Computer science department works to close the gender gap
March 28, 2023 | The Daily Tar Heel
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 … Read more

Brooks remembered by colleagues with professional memorial service
March 26, 2023
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 hi … Read more

Sitterson houses collaborative computer science lab space
March 20, 2023 | The Daily Tar Heel
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 th … Read more

Alumnus Kim wins second Academy Award for animation
March 20, 2023
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 improve … Read more

Approaching artificial intelligence through an interdisciplinary lens [Computer science faculty and graduate students contribute to UNC’s AI Project]
March 15, 2023 | UNC College of Arts and Sciences
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.

Researchers from UNC, UC Boulder receive $1.8 million to develop robotic chemistry assistants
February 22, 2023
An interdisciplinary team of researchers including Assistant Professor Daniel Szafir was awarded a $1.8 million NSF grant to aid chemists by using robotics to automate time-consuming tasks in a safe and efficient manner.

Aniket Bera (Ph.D. 2017) works to help AI comprehend human emotions
February 15, 2023 | International Society for Presence Research
Purdue University computer scientist Aniket Bera and others are working to help a variety of robots “better incorporate and understand human behavior and emotion.” While the focus is on the robots’ abilities, the changes … Read more

3D imaging project brings Nepali sacred site to life [CS students partner to develop successful prototype]
January 23, 2023 | UNC College of Arts and Sciences
A religious studies scholar’s annotated digital model will preserve an endangered place while letting others explore it virtually.

Alumna Tanya Amert awarded 2022 ACM SIGBED Paul Caspi Memorial Dissertation Award
January 11, 2023
Alumna Tanya Amert (Ph.D. 2021) was awarded the 2022 ACM SIGBED Paul Caspi Memorial Dissertation Award. The award recognizes outstanding doctoral dissertations that significantly advance the state of the art in the scien … Read more

Tang wins 2023 CRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award, Monroe named Finalist
January 6, 2023
Senior mathematics and computer science major Zineng Tang was named a recipient of the 2023 Computing Research Association (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award. Tang was one of only four winners from colleges … Read more

260 students inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at UNC-Chapel Hill [27 computer science majors]
December 10, 2022 | UNC News
Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s oldest and most honored college honorary society, inducted 260 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students as new members. Less than 1% of all college students qualify for acceptance … Read more

Frederick P. Brooks Jr., Computer Design Innovator, Dies at 91
November 23, 2022 | The New York Times
The New York Times published an obituary for Department Founder Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. “The impact of his work in computer graphics was enormous,” said Patrick Hanrahan, a professor at Stanford University and a fellow … Read more