Currently sitting on the desk of Governor Jerry Brown is SB 822, the net neutrality bill recently passed by California lawmakers. If signed, it aims to reinstate rules the Federal Communications Commission established in its 2015 Open Internet Order, rules that were repealed in January with the FCC’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order. California is one of 30 states across the U.S. to introduce net neutrality legislation. Meanwhile, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, amicus briefs are being filed for lawsuits targeting the new FCC Order.
UCI News: “UCI joins in launch of new NSF-funded data science and climate initiative”
Investigators from UCI’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering, Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Science, and School of Physical Sciences will work together in a new initiative, funded by the National Science Foundation, to perfect the use of data science in climate studies. The Transdisciplinary Research in Principles of Data Science plus Climate project includes collaborators from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Chicago.
‘Sankofa’ Receives Bronze Medal at 2018 International Serious Play Awards
Computer Science Professor Magda El Zarki and History Professor Pat Seed were thrilled to see their game, “Sankofa,” first on the list of Bronze Medal winners for the 2018 International Serious Play Awards. The awards recognize excellence in serious games designed for use in K-12 or higher education, and “Sankofa” is designed to teach history and anthropology in a fun and engaging way by bringing 19th-century Ghana to life through gameplay.
SoCal Social Analytics Workshop Serves as Catalyst for Multidisciplinary Collaborations
Whether examining tweets to better understand crime levels, or monitoring comments posted on public forums to identify health trends, researchers need methods and tools specifically designed for social media analytics. That is why Computer Science Professor Chen Li decided to organize UCI’s first SoCal Social Analytics Workshop on May 11, 2018. Sponsored by the UCI Data Science Initiative and the UC Institute for Prediction Technology (UCIPT), the goal was to bring together people from different disciplines to exchange ideas regarding social media as a data source.
Senior Spotlight: Graduating Computer Science Major Howard Chen Leaves A Promising Student Security Culture at UCI
This summer, Howard Chen will wear a cap and gown for the first time in his life. The computer science major finished high school at age 16, and with a GED in his back pocket attended Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut for two years before transferring to UC Irvine during the 2017 winter quarter. Now, age 20, Chen will soon say goodbye to UCI, diploma in hand, but not without leaving his mark. Shortly after beginning his Anteater career, Chen founded the Cyber @ UCI club and the first UCI National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) team. Originally under the faculty guidance of Richert Wang, and now Ray Klefstad, Cyber and the CCDC team have continued to grow in size and popularity. Graduating this summer to begin exciting work at a Southern California tech company, Chen leaves behind an evolving student cybersecurity culture here at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences and UCI.
ICS Anteater Athletes Are Driven to Succeed
When Jonathan Young talks about a course, his friends in the Donald Bren School of ICS might think he’s talking about a computer science course, but his teammates would likely assume he’s talking about the golf course. The same is true for Ryan O’Connor. Both Young, a senior majoring in computer science, and O’Connor, a senior majoring in business information management, are members of the men’s golf team — recently crowned “Big West Champs!”
Workshop to Celebrate Vijay Vazirani’s Contributions to Theoretical Computer Science
How does a distinguished professor who has made seminal contributions to the field of theoretical computer science (TCS) celebrate his 60th birthday? If you’re Vijay Vazirani, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science in the Donald Bren School of ICS, you attend a conference workshop held in your honor, organized by some of your former students.
Professor Majumder’s Tech Startup Shines at Segerstrom Center’s Brilliance Event
When Computer Science Professor Aditi Majumder first received the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding for her startup, Summit Technology Laboratory, she had visions of impacting education. She thought STL’s innovative platform for projection-based, multi-user and sharable augmented reality — grown in the Interactive Graphics & Visualization (iGravi) Lab at UCI — would be great in K-12 classrooms. Then her academic passions collided with the realities of the business world.
Alumni Spotlights: ICS Grads Help AutoGravity Revolutionize Digital Car Buying
What do UCI alumni Kevin Mekhitarian, Shary Sajjadi, Justin Turpin and Johnny Zarate all have in common? These four ICS graduates currently work at AutoGravity, the Irvine startup that surpassed 1 million users in November 2017. Founded in 2015 by Andy Hinrichs, Nicholas Stellman and Serge Vartanov, AutoGravity’s car-buying app lets users find a car and dealership and, within minutes, apply for financing and select a lender.
Senior Spotlight: Santiago Martin Powers through UCI and Secures Job at Google
Graduating computer science major Santiago Martin had no trouble transitioning from Orange Coast College to UCI, perhaps because he’s an Orange County native or perhaps because he’s the third in his family to attend UCI. He quickly joined the Power Lifting Club and put his computer science knowledge to good use, developing an iOS strength training app. He’s now ready to transition to something new as he graduates this spring and leaves the OC behind, moving to Seattle to start work at Google.