NSF Grant awarded for Dr. Gautam Das and Dr. Nan Zhang

Dr. Nan Zhang
Dr. Gautam Das

Professors Dr. Gautam Das and Dr. Nan Zhang's proposal for reserach on "Data Analytics over Hidden Databases" has been awarded with NSF Grant. The grant amount is $120,001 for the period of 18 months starting from 9/1/2008. Dr. Das is th Principal Investigator and Dr. Zhang is the Co-PI.

Abstract:
Structured hidden databases are widely prevalent on the Web. They provide restricted form-like search interfaces that allow users to execute search queries by specifying desired attribute values of the sought-after tuples, and the system responds by returning a few (e.g., top-k) tuples that satisfy the selection conditions, sorted by a suitable ranking function. Although search interfaces for hidden databases are designed with focused search queries in mind, for certain applications it may be advantageous to infer more aggregated views of the data from the returned results of search queries. Such aggregated information will facilitate learning data distributions or building mining models, which can then be used to power and optimize a multitude of emerging data analytical applications.

This research involves developing effective techniques for performing data analytics, especially sampling, over hidden structured databases via their public interfaces. The outcomes include efficient algorithms for sampling hidden databases with a heterogeneous mix of data types, achievability results for sampling different types of search interfaces, and a prototypical toolset which demonstrates the sampling of real-world hidden databases. The research results of this project have broader impact on the nation’s higher education system and high-tech industries. The ability to pose high-level analytical queries over hidden databases is needed by knowledge workers in a wide variety of corporations, governments, and security agencies. Parts of this project will be integrated into teaching and carried out by students as part of advanced class projects, which will potentially attract motivated students to pursue doctoral degrees.

NEW FACULTY HIRED

Dr. Christoph Csallner

It is with great pleasure that we announce the hiring for Dr. Christoph Csallner as Assistant Professor in the CSE Department. Dr. Csallner is an expert in software engineering and is working on software engineering problems, such as how to find software bugs automatically or how to automatically infer program invariants.

He is an author of several research papers, for which he has received two ACM SIGSOFT Distinguished Paper Awards, one at ISSTA 2006 (the ACM SIGSOFT International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis) and another one at ASE 2007 (the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering). He is a student of Yannis Smaragdakis and has also worked on software engineering issues for Google and Microsoft Research.

The First bigD* Regional Symposium on Data and Information Management

bigD*

The Data Management Group in CSE Department is organizing the first bigD* Regional Symposium on Data and Information Management. The goal of this symposium is to foster the collaborations and interactions among a large number of research groups working on topics related to data and information management, in the universities and research institutes in Texas and nearby states. The name "bigD*" has been chosen as a pun (on BigD! used by the DFW Metroplex) to refer to all these research groups. The star in D* matches all the areas related to Data and Information Management, including Databases, Data Mining, Information Retrieval, Multimedia, Data Visualization, Bioinformatics, and other related areas. The first bigD* regional symposium on data and information management is being hosted by the University of Texas at Arlington, on April 19, 2008. Following this, research institutes in the area will take turn to host this event annually or bi-annually. During the first symposium, an organization meeting is scheduled to take place, for discussions of future plan and the 2nd symposium. Read More. You cas see photos of symposum Here.

Dr. Fillia Makedon received a $500K grant from the National Science Foundation

Dr. Fillia Makedon

Dr. Fillia Makedon has received a $500K grant from the National Science Foundation as the principle investigator to study trustworthy recommendation systems.

Recommendation systems have played a role with increasing importance and prominence in various online systems, particularly ones related to electronic commerce. These systems are used as a means of reducing "information overload" for users by filtering a potentially overwhelming number of options (such as all the products available from a seller) to identify those calculated to be of greatest interest.

This project extends research on collaborative recommendation systems, which base recommendations for an individual on the preferences expressed by other people, by investigating the problem of malicious manipulation of these systems.

Dr. Makedon is the chairperson of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and the director of the Heracleia Human-Centered Computing Lab at UTA. She is collaborating with researchers at the University of California at Davis on this project.

Assistant Professor of Computer Science & Engineering Dr. Chengkai Li has received a $10,000 Research Enhancement Program Grant

Dr. Chengkai Li

University of Texas at Arlington Assistant Professor of Computer Science & Engineering Dr. Chengkai Li has received a $10,000 Research Enhancement Program grant to conduct research on problems associated with mashing up information on the Web.

The goal of this research is to build a system that automatically “mashes up” the Web to construct a database containing records and their relationships discovered from Web pages. The system would allow us to use the Web as the world’s largest database, thus bring the power of database queries to the Web and enable many expressive and powerful applications.

Today’s state-of-art technologies cannot meet the goals in this research, thus the project presents a significant research challenge. Dr. Li plans to develop techniques to automatically extract Web data and discover their relationships, and invent new ways of storing and indexing such information, which is very different from the precise and complete information found in conventional database systems. Dr. Li will also investigate the issues in providing querying and exploration facilities over such information.

By realizing the “mash-up” system and applications, this research has the potential to fundamentally change our ways of using the Web and substantially improve our ability of finding and exploring information. It can enormously benefit many application domains including E-commerce, government information systems, public health, travel planning services, and so on.

1st International Coference On PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments : PETRA 2008

The PETRA Conference brings together different types of technology to address an important social and healthcare issue: as the world's population ages, there is growing interest in solutions for the in- home care of the elderly as well as for the care of people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other disabilities or traumas. PETRA (which means "stone" in Greek) reflects the needs of the domestic environment, or "Oikos" as it was known in ancient Greece, but from a technological perspective. People's living environments are particularly important in an increasingly crowded and complex world where the need for inclusiveness and connectivity with the rest of the world is key. PETRA addresses the fact that, as people grow older, they will increasingly rely on technology to be able to stay in their homes.

NSF DOCTORAL CONSORTIUM STUDENT-AUTHOR TRAVEL SCHOLARSHIPS

We expect NSF funding to support a number of graduate student authors to participate in PETRA'08. Funding will be made available of up to $1500 per student to cover his or her expenses. Women and minorities are encouraged to apply. It is expected that the student's institution will cover the remaining expenses.

To apply, a student must be attending a US institution and must be author of a submitted paper to PETRA and submit the completed application form, attach a letter of support from his/her advisor, and a resume.

The deadline for this is May 20, 2008. All students awarded of such a travel award will be named PETRA-SCHOLARS and their names will become part of the conference proceedings.

8th Annual High School Robot Programming Contest Lets Students Show Off Their Skills At UTA

Little yellow robots buzzed around the Nedderman Hall atrium at the University of Texas at Arlington on Saturday, February 9th, 2008. The robots were programmed and built by high school students to compete in the High School Robot Programming Contest, RoPro, sponsored by the Computer Science and Engineering Department at UTA (CSE@UTA). Twenty-two teams from nine area high schools competed in this annual outreach and recruiting event. New teams competed in the speed-based beginning maze competition where the robot does not know the course beforehand. More experienced teams competed in the advanced maze competition where “virtual” walls, made of colored tape on the floor, had to be treated just like the wooden walls and in the object finding competition where robots must locate, identify and the move colored golf balls within the maze.

The twenty-two participating teams came from high schools including Arlington, Sam Houston, and James Bowie from Arlington ISD, the Science and Engineering Magnet and the Talented and Gifted Magnet from Dallas ISD, DeSoto High School from DeSoto ISD, Granbury High School from Granbury ISD, a Texas charter school, and area home schools. Every Lego robot was programmed by the students to work autonomously in its event. Once started, the robot was under its own control following the instructions programmed into it. No remote controls here! Read More.

Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad becomes a Fellow of the IEEE

Dr. Ishfaq Ahmad

Dec 21, University of Texas at Arlington Professor of Computer Science & Engineering Ishfaq Ahmad has been elevated to the rank of Fellow of the Institute of Electrical & Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Dr. Ahmad, who had been a Senior Member of the organization, was recognized for his contributions to scheduling techniques in parallel and distributed computing systems.

Recognition as a Fellow by the IEEE signifies an individual's accomplishments that have contributed importantly to the advancement or application of engineering, science and technology, bringing the realization of significant value to society. Awards presented to individuals conducting work outside the normal areas of electronics are unusual. Read More.

$265K Department of Justice Grant for Personnel Locator Research

Dr. Gergely Zaruba
Dr. Manfred Huber
Dr. Farhad
Kamangar
Mr. David Levine

Nov 1, The CommTech Program in the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Department of Justice, has awarded researchers in the Computer Science & Engineering Department a $264,879 grant to develop a mesh network based solution to identify and locate strategic personnel within a secure area such as a police precinct.

Assistant Professor Gergely Zaruba is the principal investigator on the project; he will be assisted by Drs. Manfred Huber and Farhad Kamangar and Mr. David Levine. Titled "PLR: Mesh-networked, Two-way Personnel Locator Radios and Relays," the project involves the development of a software and hardware system needed to accurately track a number of individuals as they move about an established area.

"As a research exercise, we developed and have a patent pending on a similar solution," said Dr. Zaruba. "Our efforts for the National Institutes of Justice will build on the earlier work to create the tags identifying essential personnel and the software analyzing the many signals within the network to distinguish specific individuals."

The "essential personnel" he refers to could include team leaders, directors and other senior officials, police officers and in the second part of the project, first-responders such as emergency medical technicians and search-and-rescue personnel. "This is an important technology to help save lives of our nation’s emergency personnel," said Dr. Richard Billo, College of Engineering associate dean for research. "For example, if an officer or firefighter becomes trapped in a building, others will know the exact location and will be better prepared to take immediate action."

Although this grant is for a one-year period, Dr. Zaruba expects an additional one-year extension grant around the same amount to expand the personnel locator network to other NIJ applications.

$900,000 NSF Grant For Technology To Study American Sign Language

Dr. Vassilis Athitsos

Oct 29, Assistant Professor Vassilis Athitsos and his collaborators have been awarded a three-year, $900,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop new technology for learning American Sign Language (ASL). The research will focus on designing novel computer vision and machine learning methods for automatic sign recognition. The project is titled "Large Lexicon Gesture Representation, Recognition, and Retrieval." It is led by Professors Stan Sclaroff and Carol Neidle at Boston University, and Professor Vassilis Athitsos at UT Arlington.

In current ASL dictionaries, signs are typically organized according to their English translation, and a user cannot look up a sign without knowing in advance the meaning of that sign. A key goal of the project is to develop methods that would allow users to demonstrate signs in front of a camera and have a computer look up the meaning of those signs based on their visual properties. The BU and UTA researchers also hope to develop a way to perform "keyword-based" searches for American Sign Language, by identifying occurrences of specific signs in large video databases of ASL literature. Read More

Professor Sajal Das wins IEEE Engineer of the Year Award

Dr. Sajal Das

Oct 14, Dr. Sajal Das was awarded the "IEEE Engineer of the Year Award" by the IEEE Ft. Worth Section during the Metrocom 2007 Conference held in Arlington. This award recognizes the recipient's leadership and technical contributions in engineering, community and societal activities.