Department Spotlights

"If you can work with computers, you’re set for life. They can have the biggest impact on the world around you," said computer science senior Jared Cooper. Virginia Tech's engineering introduction course freshman year opened Cooper's eyes to the possibilities of computer science.

Danfeng ‘Daphne” Yao, computer science professor and Elizabeth and James E. Turner Jr. '56 Faculty and CACI Fellow, has received the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Lasting Research Award for two decades of pioneering research contributions in enterprise data exposure detection, high-precision vulnerability screening, and anomaly detection.

Hoda Eldardiry, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and faculty at the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, has received an Early Career Science Award from her alma mater, Purdue University.

Kirk Cameron, professor of computer science and associate department head for research and engagement, was recently named a 2021 Computer Science Fellow by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in recognition for extraordinary records of professional accomplishments in technology.

Grady Booch, chief scientist for software engineering at IBM, joined Dave Noller’s software engineering capstone (CS:4704) class on March 15 to share his thoughts on the development of software engineering and software architecture since the dawn of computing.

Our people are our greatest asset and Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science graduates are integral to our program’s talent. CACI's intern program boasts more than 200 interns yearly with Virginia Tech Department of Computer Science undergraduates being the largest single-school pool.

The Association of Computing Machinery at Virginia Tech will host, “Works of Wonder – Student Project Showcase” on March 25 from 1-4 pm. This event showcases nine computer science students’ personal projects or research projects that have expanded beyond their knowledge in the classroom.

For the fall 2020 semester, Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sang Won Lee offered his students (mostly seniors) a rare chance to create an artifact of their choice in his Creative Computing Studio course. Eight diverse projects emerged around the themes of remote liveness and internet art, especially relevant given the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jin-Hee Cho, associate professor and director of the Trustworthy Cyberspace Lab (tClab) in the Department of Computer Science, has received a $285,000 grant from the Army Research Office to investigate for the first time how hypergame theory can be used to mislead an attacker’s belief by deception.

The Innovation Campus Advisory Board includes top executives from Qualcomm, Boeing, KPMG, Northrop Grumman, The Carlyle Group, and Hunch Analytics, along with several tech pioneers. The board will provide valuable perspectives and expertise to Sands and other senior leaders, including Vice President and Executive Director Lance R. Collins who joined Virginia Tech in August.

Daphne Yao and Na Meng of Virginia Tech and Barton Miller of the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been awarded $1.2 million over four years by the National Science Foundation Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace Program for their project entitled “Deployment-quality and Accessible Solutions for Cryptography Code Development.”

“Seemingly innocent insiders can become dangerous due to a number of circumstances including personal relationships and geospatial environments,” said Chang-Tien Lu, a professor in the Department of Computer Science, associate director of the Discovery Analytics Center, and a faculty member in the National Science Foundation- sponsored UrbComp program.

In mid-March, when computer science graduate student Liam Chapin was working to produce prototype examples of every kind of face shield he could find online, he was guided by a philosophy he inherited from his dad. “Add your light to the sum of light,’ which is basically ‘take what you can do and try to leave the world a little better place than you found it.”