Around the Department
Research Open House Highlights Innovation
On January 18, the CSE department hosted its first annual Research Open House, during which faculty, students and industry representatives celebrated the innovative work at CSE. The event included group presentations, posters, open labs and numerous hands-on demos to highlight the many ways CSE faculty and students solve important real-world problems.
The day kicked off with keynote speaker Tom Ristenpart, who graduated from CSE in 2010. Now an associate professor at Cornell University, Ristenpart is working with NYC Family Justice Centers to help people being victimized by their partners. Sometimes abusers don’t need violence to traumatize their victims.
“Technology is being used quite often in these contexts,” says Ristenpart. “People send harassing text messages, use GPS devices to track people’s cars and many other things. We put together a group of interdisciplinary researchers to better understand the role of technology.”
Ristenpart’s team interviewed victims and took steps to alleviate the abuse: identifying offending tech companies and getting their software tossed from app stores; working with legislators and the Federal Trade Commission; and giving caseworkers new tools to help victims.
This acute focus on problem solving was on display throughout the event. Doctoral students presented their work on programming languages and software engineering; visual computing; artificial intelligence (AI); systems and networking; cybersecurity and cryptography; and databases.
Following the formal presentations, guests were invited to attend an extensive poster session and visit open labs throughout the building. Students showed posters and demos on healthcare robotics, using LIDAR-equipped drones to detect Maya ruins, making software more user-friendly and many other topics.
Along with the posters, the event’s six sponsors (AppFolio, Intuit, Lytx, Marvell Semiconductor, Teradata and Viasat) held industry information sessions, offering valuable career information for students and other attendees.
The day ended with a reception and award ceremony, during which the poster competition winners were announced. Leon Li won the Research Prize, for excellence in scientific innovation, and Shravan Narayan was the runner-up. Soroush Ghodrati received the Unicorn Prize, for research most likely to be prized by industry, and Po-Ya Hsu was the runner up.
CSE Represents at oSTEM Conference
CSE assistant professor Arun Kumar and director of student affairs Patrick Mallon recently joined 10 UC San Diego Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (oSTEM) chapter members at the oSTEM National Conference 2018 in Houston, Texas.
A nonprofit professional society, oSTEM helps the LGBTQ+ STEM community succeed — personally, academically and professionally. It’s the first inclusive organization serving STEM students, as well as professionals identifying as LGBTQ+.
Kumar and Mallon hosted a booth highlighting CSE and other STEM-based graduate programs at UC San Diego. Visitors were particularly interested in pursuing graduate degrees in computer science and related fields. Data science is becoming a new draw for students, regardless of their major. Kumar also emphasized CSE’s and UC San Diego’s efforts to promote diversity.
The conference opened with a keynote talk from Annise Parker, the former mayor of Houston and the first LGBTQ+ mayor of a top 10 city in the United States. It also featured an array of topics, including the effects of AI on the LGBTQ+ community; how machine learning models transfer discriminatory data into their predictions; being queer and South Asian in the U.S.; and dealing with family ostracism during the holidays.
UC San Diego undergraduate Michelle Holland won the undergraduate poster competition for her research on antibiotic resistance.
“This research is important to me because antibiotic resistance is an ongoing issue in hospitals globally and will get worse without significant policy change,” Holland says. “The work I do is about finding new ways of using the antibiotics we have to combat the evolution of antibiotic resistance.”
For Holland, the conference was a safe space to communicate openly with people who share similar, intersectional identities.
“I often feel a sense of imposter syndrome in both STEM and the LGBTQ+ community,” she says. “Attending the oSTEM conference reaffirmed that I do belong.”
Next year, Kumar hopes for a larger, university-wide effort to give students more resources for graduate programs in STEM. He also wants to encourage other faculty and staff, including allies, to go to the oSTEM event.
The Next Stage in Healthcare Robotics
New health care innovations can translate into longer lifespans. But as the population ages, how will we care for our parents and grandparents as they celebrate 80, 100 or even 110 years?
“The number of people in the world aged 60 and older is expected to double by 2050 and triple by 2100,” says professor Henrik Christensen, director of the Contextual Robotics Institute and Qualcomm Chancellor’s Chair of Robot Systems. “What roles will robotics, autonomy and real-time contextual awareness play in empowering this rapidly aging population to maintain independence?”
To answer these questions, CSE sponsored its fifth annual Contextual Robotics Institute Forum on November 8. Scientists from MIT, Stanford University, the University of Pennsylvania, Emory University, UC San Diego and several companies presented their work, discussing robots that perform surgery, aid cognition, augment sensory or physical reductions, and provide rehabilitation and other therapies. In addition to highlighting these and other applications, panels dove into the policy issues that accompany any new technology.
“Twenty percent of the world’s population has a physical, cognitive or sensory impairment, and also want to live independently — robots can help address this need,” said professor Laurel Riek, who directs UC San Diego’s Healthcare Robotics Lab. “Robots can also support caregivers and the clinical workforce, who are both overloaded and experience high rates of injury, illness and burnout themselves.”
Presenters included a who’s who of clinical robotics. Cynthia Breazeal from MIT’s Media Lab spoke about her research on social robots and emotional engagement. Santiago Horgan, who directs UC San Diego School of Medicine’s Center for the Future of Surgery, shared his vision for robotics in the clinic. Cory Kidd, chief executive of Catalia Health, showed how his company uses robotic interfaces to engage patients.
The forum also featured a technology showcase, which featured hands-on demos for an affordable smart wheelchair, autonomous vehicles and other devices. The technology is moving fast and sharing information is a critical part of the process.
“As we continue to grow and diversify the robotics ecosystem in Southern California,” notes Christensen, “getting together to tackle the big issues is an important part of our work.”