Department Spotlights

"I want to thank Virginia Tech for being flexible and patient with their veteran students," says Josh Cole, a computer science student veteran. "It is gratifying to know that Virginia Tech is providing resources for their veteran students where they can feel nice and comfortable.”

Virginia Tech serves as one of four universities designated as a research site for NSF's Center for Space, High-Performance, and Resilient Computing (SHREC), a distinction it shares with the University of Pittsburgh, Brigham Young University, and the University of Florida.

As a third-year computer science major, Kuppa's achievements in the field and extensive involvement within Virginia Tech’s engineering community have earned her an Association for Computing Machinery Women (ACM-W) scholarship to attend the International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis, also known as SC Conference.

Steven Roberts, a recent Virginia Tech alumni, has been appointed the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Computing’s fifth Sidney Fernbach Postdoctoral Fellow in the Computing Sciences. "I am excited to pursue my research interests and work with golden class researchers and supercomputers, as well as and finally make the transition from a Ph.D. to a job at a national lab," said Roberts.

Doug Bowman, the Frank J. Maher Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at Virginia Tech, has received the Career Impact Award from the IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR). It is considered the premier international conference for research in mixed and augmented reality.

We invite you to come on Friday, October 15 to see our new dedicated tutoring and teaching assistant spaces, lab spaces, and collaborative learning center. Tours will be led by our computer science student ambassadors. Stick around after your tour for food, swag, and photos!

The Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) of the Association for Computing Machinery has named Stephen Edwards, professor and the associate department head for undergraduate studies in the Department of Computer Science, as the 2021 recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education Award.

In their 18 years at Virginia Tech and the Department of Computer Science, Deborah Tatar and Steve Harrison have performed outstanding research that has inspired and shaped the human-computer interaction field, provided leadership at many levels; and have served the Center for Human-Computer Interaction and Virginia Tech, and the profession admirably.

The Department of Computer Science held its first in-person CS|Source fall career fair since 2019 on September 13, where hundreds of students gathered to speak with the representatives of various tech companies, with hopes to connect with potential employers.

Alumnus and philanthropist Greg Lavender (master's '88, doctorate '93) endowed the first two Ph.D. fellowships in the Department of Computer Science earlier this year to honor his academic mentors, former department heads Richard Nance and Dennis Kafura.

CoStar Group is passionate about connecting with the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. It strives to build partnerships with a variety of student groups, including Association for Women in Computing, Cyber Club, and VT Hacks. They also partner with professors and advisors to ensure they are being a strong partner to the Virginia Tech computer science students.

The Department of Computer Science extends a warm welcome to its new 2021-22 colleagues! With the addition of the 11 new faculty members for the 2021-22 academic year, the department now sits at 70 faculty members at campuses in Blacksburg and the greater Washington, D.C., metro area.

The outdoors, once seen as a place to escape from the digital world has, for some, become an important part of life on the trail, said Scott McCrickard, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science.

The Center for Minorities and People with Disabilities in Information Technology (CMD-IT) has honored Virginia Tech computer science alumna Jamika Burge ('07, doctorate) with the 2021 Richard A. Tapia Achievement Award for Scientific Scholarship, Civic Science and Diversifying Computing.

Roxanne Paul, administrative and program specialist in the Department of Computer Science, and who plays an integral part of the operations of the College of Engineering in the Greater Washington, D.C. metro area, is the recipient of the Virginia Louise “Jenny” Frank Award.