LIT members and friends gathered for a barbecue at Lake Lewisville
on April 9, 2006. |
The Language and Information Technologies research group had the following
accomplishments during Spring 2006:
- Rada Mihalcea was a keynote speaker at the International Conference on
Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing (Cicling) in
Mexico City, where she talked about the research on random walk algorithms
for natural language processing (February 2006).
- Andras Csomai presented his work on automatic construction of
back-of-the-book indexes at the Cicling conference held in Mexico City
(February 2006).
- Ben Leong successfully defended his Masters thesis on generating
pictorial translations for simple texts (March 2006).
- Rada Mihalcea presented her recent work on automatic corpus-based
sentiment analysis (targeting the identification in language of events and
facts that trigger feelings of happiness) at the American Association for
Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) Spring Symposium on Computational
Approaches to Weblogs (March 2006).
The LIT group will have an active summer with the following activities:
- Samer Hassan and Carmen Banea will present a paper on random walk term
weighting for improved text classification at the Human Language
Technology (HLT) workshop on graph algorithms for text processing in New
York City (June 2006).
- Rada Mihalcea will give a tutorial on graph-based algorithms for natural
language processing at the HLT conference in New York City. She will also
co-chair a workshop held in conjunction with the same conference on graph
algorithms for text processing (June 2006).
- Rada Mihalcea will also co-chair a AAAI workshop on "Computational
Aesthetics: Artificial Intelligence Approaches to Beauty and Happiness" to be
held in conjunction with AAAI in Boston (July 2006).
Other achievements include two accepted journal papers (Computational
Intelligence and IEEE Intelligent Systems) that will appear during 2006
on research work on computational humor, two forthcoming book chapters to
appear in the John Benjamins series on Advances in Natural Language
Processing, and two invited talks that Rada Mihalcea will give on the
topic of multilingual semantic processing, in Saarbrucken, Germany, and
in Malaga, Spain. ↑
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Dr. Mohanty Reports on VDCL Research Group |
Valmiki Mukherjee presents papers |
During the current semester, Dr. Saraju P. Mohanty's research group (VLSI Design
and CAD Laboratory, http://www.vdcl.cse.unt.edu) has presented three
papers in IEEE sponsored conferences. Dr. Mohanty presented "Dual-K
Versus Dual-T Technique for Gate Leakage Reduction: A Comparative
Perspective" at the 7th IEEE International Symposium on Quality
Electronic Design (ISQED), San Jose, CA in March 2006. Co-authors were
Ramakrishna Velagapudi and Elias Kougianos.
At the IEEE Region 5 Technology and Science Conference held in April
2006 in San Antonio, TX, Valmiki Mukherjee presented two papers on
behalf of Dr. Mohanty's research group. The first paper, "Optimization
of a 45nm CMOS Voltage Controlled Oscillator using Design of
Experiments," was co authored by Gavarathri Sarivisetti, Elias
Kougianos, Saraju P. Mohanty, Atmaram Palakodety, and Anil Kumar Ale.
The second paper, "Gate Leakage Current Analysis in READ/WRITE/IDLE
States of a SRAM Cell," was co-authored by Valmiki Mukherjee, Saraju P.
Mohanty, Elias Kougianos, Rahul Allawadhi, and Ramakrishna Velagapudi.
Dr. Mohanty is the program chair for the 9th International Conference on
Information Technology (ICIT) 2006, to be held at Bhubaneshwar, India
during December 18-21, 2006. The conference is being co-sponsored by
IEEE North Jersey Section and its proceedings will be published by IEEE
Computer Society press. Everyone is encouraged to submit papers. More
information is available at: http://www.cse.unt.edu/~smohanty/CIT2006/
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Dr. Parberry Named Microsoft MVP and Travels to China |
Dr. Parberry by the Great Wall |
For the third consecutive year, Dr. Ian Parberry has been named a
Microsoft MVP "Most Valuable Professional." Dr. Parberry was saluted by
Microsoft for promoting the spirit of community by helping other people
realize their potential through technology. The NT Daily recognized Dr.
Parberry by publishing this
article on March 22, 2006.
Dr. Parberry was flown by Microsoft to Beijing, China, March 20-25, 2006
to give an invited talk on the SAGE (Simple Academic Game Engine --
http://larc.csci.unt.edu/sage/) project at the Microsoft Research Asia
Theme Workshop 2006. Dr. Parberry said, "Total travel time was around 24
hours, including a 12 hour flight from Chicago to Beijing. Saturday was
a personal day, on which a group of us hired a tour operator who took us
to the Great Wall." ↑
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CSE Department Sponsors RoboCamp 2006 |
RoboCamp will be held at Research Park July 10-14 and at the UNT Dallas
Campus campus July 24-28, 2006. RoboCamp introduces young women in the
9th through 11th grades to robotics, computer science and engineering.
This day camp will include seminars and hands-on robotic experiences for
20 young women in both locations.
RoboCamp is the result of a 2005 grant from the Texas Higher Education
Coordinating Board through its Technology Workforce Development program.
This is the second year of a two-year grant. More details and
registration forms are available at http://www.cse.unt.edu/robocamp2006.
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Programming Team to Compete in Budapest |
The UNT Programming Team of Michael Mohler, John Rizzo, and
Jack Lindamood were the top USA team in the Challenge24 online
international programming contest, just as they were in the IBM-sponsored
International Programming Contest (IPC) last year in which they placed
6th in the world. They have qualified to attend the final live round for
Challenge24 in Budapest on April 21-23, 2006, where they will compete
against 29 other teams from around the world.
They are the only U.S. Team to qualify for the final round this year and
are actually the only U.S. team to qualify for the final round in the
entire six year history of this contest. The contest will consist of a
major programming challenge for which the team will have a full 24-hour
period to achieve a solution. They will have no access to outside
assistance or the Internet for the duration of the contest. More details
can be found in this UNT Press Release.
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UNT Team "Well Defined" Places First at SMU Metroplex Programming Competition |
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The UNT Programming Team "Well Defined" defended their title and again
won 1st place at the Southern Methodist University's Metroplex
Programming Competition on Saturday April 8, 2006. The team members are
Robert Burke, John Rizzo, and Jack Lindamood (pictured on right).
The contest included teams from Dallas-Fort Worth area schools including
Southern Methodist University, University of North Texas, Texas
Christian University, University of Texas at Arlington and University of
Texas at Dallas. The first place winners were awarded IPOD Nano MP3
Players by the contest co-sponsor Apple Computer.
Two other UNT teams, CSEagles and Mean Green, also competed placing 5th
and 6th. CSEagles team members are Tyler Cole, Hector Cuellar, and
William Garner. Mean Green team members are Richard Lundberg and Ben
Cloutier. Please congratulate all of these students on their success.
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The Importance of Exit Surveys |
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If you are an undergraduate student, your instructor should ask you to
complete an exit survey for the course. The exit survey has learning
outcomes that students are supposed to have achieved by the end of the
course. You are asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 how well you
achieved these outcomes.
Some instructors have chosen online surveys and others have chosen to
give their students paper exit surveys. Please complete these surveys
as they tell us whether our courses are achieving their learning
outcomes. With your help, our Computer Science and Engineering program
will continue to improve.
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Summer and Fall 2006 Courses |
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CSCE 2410 -- .NET |
A new section of the CSCE 2410 Programming Laboratory will be offered
during the Summer 2006 and Fall 2006 semesters entitled "Introduction to .NET".
This course will cover the fundamentals of the Microsoft .NET
Framework, the C# Language, Distributed and web-base applications
development using ASP.NET and ADO.NET, some DirectX graphics programming
and an introduction to Web Services. Contact David Keathly at
dkeathly@cse.unt.edu for more details.
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CSCE 2410 -- MATLAB |
Dr. Renka plans to teach a new course in MATLAB in the fall: CSCE 2410.003:
Programming Lab, MW 4:00-5:20. This course will be particularly
useful for Computer Engineering students who will need to use MATLAB
in other courses. ↑
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CSCE 3020 -- Communication Theory |
Dr. Akl will teach a new course, CSCE 3020 Fundamentals of Communication
Theory, for the first time ever this summer. It is offered Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 10:00-11:50 am. For more info:
http://www.cse.unt.edu/~rakl/class3020/csce3020.html
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CSCE 3730 -- Reconfigurable Logic |
In Fall 2006, Dr. Hao Li will offer CSCE 3730, Reconfigurable Logic. This is a
required course for Computer Engineering undergrads, but students who are
interested in digital circuit designs, computer-aided designs, and
reconfigurable computing are also invited to take it.
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Computer Engineering Senior Design Sequence to Begin |
The Computer Engineering courses CSCE 4910 and 4915 will be offered for
the first time in the Fall 2006 and Spring 2007 semesters. These are
required courses for all Computer Engineering majors and will bring
together all of the major topics in the program in a capstone
experience.
The courses will focus on team development and overall project
management skills in addition to the application of detailed technical
knowledge to a real-world industry-sponsored design and development
problem. Contact David Keathly at dkeathly@cse.unt.edu for more details.
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More Faculty News |
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Dr. Hao Li received two $5,000 grants each from "UNT Faculty Research
Grant for 2006" and "UNT 2006 Junior Faculty Summer Research
Fellowship."
On February 27 and 28, 2006, Dr. Hao Li attended the Computing and
Research Association (CRA) Academic Careers Workshop in Washington, D.C.
Several established faculties and funding agencies gave talks in this
workshop. The focus for junior faculties was how to build a successful
academic career, including conducting high-profile research, mentoring
students, teaching, and applying for grants. Dr. Li said this
conference would be beneficial for Ph.D. students who want to pursue
academic careers as well.
Dr. Krishna Kavi, IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitor and Chair
of the UNT CSE Department, was invited to present "Billion Transistor
Chips-How to Garner the Silicon Real-Estate for Improved Performance?"
on April 3, 2006. This research seminar was sponsored by the University
of Alabama at Huntsville's IEEE Computer Society, the UAH Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the UAH Chapter of Eta Kappa
Nu. Dr. Kavi gave this same presentation at Auburn University on April
5.
At the ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, Dr. Ian
Parberry presented "The Art and Science of Game Programming" at the
SIGSCE (Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) conference
held in Houston March 1-5, 2006. Dr. Parberry was also on a panel
session "Digital Gaming as a Vehicle for Learning" during the
conference.
Dr. Parberry presented "The Art and Science of Game Programming" at a
Graduate Seminar on March 13, 2006 for the Department of Computer
Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dr. Parberry
discussed the role of game programming classes in the computer science
curriculum and some recent research topics related to game development.
Dr. Steve Tate presented "A Group Signature Scheme with Signature
Claiming and Variable Linkability," co-authored with Ph.D. student He
Ge, at the 25th IEEE International Performance, Computing, and
Communications Conference (IPCCC) and the Workshop on Information
Assurance held April 9-12, 2006 in Phoenix, AZ.
Dr. Tate also co-authored another paper with He Ge, who presented
"Efficient Authenticated Key-Exchange for Devices with a Trusted
Manager" at the IEEE International Conference on Information Technology:
New Generations held April 9-12, 2006 in Las Vegas, NV.
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Student News |
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Outstanding CSE Students to be Recognized at UNT Honors Day |
Congratulations to these CSE students who will be
recognized for their accomplishments
on Honors Day, Friday, April 21, 2006: (LtoR)
Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Computer Science — Jack Lindamood
Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Computer Engineering — Mitra Mahdavian
Outstanding Ph.D. Student in Computer Science — Brian Harrington
Outstanding Master's Student in Computer Engineering — Cheryl-Annette Kincaid
Outstanding Master's Student in Computer Science — Courtney Corley
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Courtney Corley will graduate with his M.S. in Computer Science this May
and enter the Computer Science Ph.D. program this summer. Courtney
is an active researcher in the computational epidemiology
research laboratory (CERL) and frequently collaborates with Rada
Mihalcea in natural language processing. He has also been a Teaching
Fellow with the department for the last two semesters teaching Program
Development (CSCE 1020) and Computer Science II (CSCE 1040). Recently
he traveled to the Rand Corporation in Santa Monica to present a poster
on graph-based data-mining, to ICEID 2006 in Atlanta, GA where he gave a
talk on evaluating human-papilloma virus vaccination strategies, and to
Rutgers University in New Jersey to make a presentation on viruses and
computer scientists at a data-mining tutorial. On a lighter note, in
his off-time, Courtney enjoys playing computer games and reading.
As an undergraduate, Brian Harrington started working under Dr. Swigger
and Dr. Brazile in the Collaborative Systems Lab. He continued working
on this project for about four years while completing his B.S. and M.S.
degrees in Computer Science. Currently, he is working in the Materials
Informatics Lab on an interdisciplinary project helping material
scientists manage their data. Brian hopes to graduate in December 2006
or May 2007.
Cheryl-Annette Kincaid has really enjoyed her time here at UNT. In
2003, she received her B.S. in Computer Science, and she plans to
graduate with an M.S. in Computer Engineering in August of this year.
She has also worked with groups in the Laboratory for Recreation
Computing (LARC), the Computational Epidemiology Research Laboratory
(CERL), and the Computer Privacy and Security (CoPS) Lab. Outside
school, Cheryl enjoys reading, beadwork, astronomy, music, working with
people, playing games, and spending time in the great outdoors.
Jack Lindamood will graduate with a B.S. in Computer Science this May.
He has been very active with the ACM programming team on campus where
his team has tied for second place at the most recent ACM regionals,
placed first two years in a row at the SMU Metroplex Programming
Contest, and qualified as the only U.S. team to attend the finals for
the 24 hour programming contest held in Budapest, Hungary. After
graduation Jack will pursue a doctoral degree in Computer Science at the
University of Texas at Dallas. During the summer between semesters, he
will work for Verisign in California.
Mitra Mahdavian is a junior in Computer Engineering, with a minor in
Math. She plans to graduate in Spring 2007. She hopes to get a Ph.D. to
help teach future generations. Mitra works on campus at the general
access computer lab in Chilton Hall and she is active in many student
organizations on campus. She has been an officer of the IEEE Computer
Society and the UNT Amnesty International Chapter, and she is currently
an officer in the Committee for International Peace and PARSIAN (Persian
Cultural Society). She is also a recipient of the Multicultural
Scholastic Award and a member of the Honors College. In addition, Mitra
is an ambassador for the College of Engineering in the CSEagles program,
which strives to increase the number of female students studying
engineering here at UNT. One of her greatest accomplishments is a black
belt in Karate. Mitra also enjoys reading, spending time with her
friends, and watching movies. ↑
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CSE Department Thanks Teaching Assistants |
On March 24, the CSE Department had a pizza party to thank the Teaching Assistants for their work during the spring
semester.
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CSE Graduate Student Presents Paper at 2006 Spam Conference |
By Srikanth Palla
Phishing is a form of online identity theft. Phishers devise counterfeit
websites and try to trick the consumers into divulging their financial
information like bank account numbers and social security numbers. They
use emails as a primary medium to communicate with the consumers. Most
current spam filters concentrate on the content of the email and label
spam emails as BULK. They expect the recipient to make a decision on the
authenticity of the source. There are two problems with this approach.
First, it's very difficult for non technical, unsophisticated user to
verify the authenticity of the email's source. Second, most phishers
obfuscate their email content to bypass the spam filters.
Recently we presented our paper titled, "Detecting Phishing in Emails,"
at the 2006 Spam Conference held at MIT in March. A majority of the
solutions proposed for phishing to date have been a kind of back-end
solutions. A fellow researcher proposed a solution at 2006 Spam
Conference, based on a database of tokens extracted from the purported
phishing websites. They claim that there exists a pattern for every
phisher. They try to identify these patterns in any new phishing
websites, and if present, they label it as phishing. This sounds like a
good back-end solution, but it does not suffice for real time detection.
We need real time solutions. Phishing attacks should be restricted
before they cause any damage. We need to warn the users before they open
their emails. We based our solution on the trustworthiness of the relays
participating in the relaying of the emails. In a sense, we examine the
header of the email rather than the content. We further classify
phishers into serial phishers, prospective phishers, recent phishers and
suspects based on their phishing intensity and fraudulency value.
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CSEagle Applications Now Being Accepted |
Applications for the 2006-2007 CSEagle Ambassadors will be accepted beginning
April 3, 2006. Applications must be received no later than May 5, 2006. The
program includes a $1,000 scholarship and is open to women enrolled in
Computer Science and Computer Engineering at the graduate or undergraduate
level. More details can be found at http://www.cse.unt.edu/CSEagles.
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College of Engineering News |
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Glenn Jensen is New CENG Career Center Advisor |
In a collaborative effort with the College of Engineering, Glenn Jensen,
Career Advisor in the Career Center, will meet with students in Research
Park C-211 on Tuesday & Wednesday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Wednesday
afternoon 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Students can schedule an appointment or just
walk in during office hours to receive individual career advising on a
variety of career development topics.
The purpose of the Career Center's presence is to ensure that our
students are well prepared in marketing their knowledge, skills and
abilities, which not only increases their chance of obtaining
experiential learning experiences, but also employment and graduate
school admission upon graduation.
In addition to individualized advising the Career Center facilitates
several seminars throughout the semester at no charge for students and
alumni to attend and the topics are as follows:
- Resume Writing
- Cover Letter Writing Interviewing
- How to Work a Job Fair Job
- Search Strategies
- Networking Negotiating
- Portfolio Development
Any of these seminars are also available to the CENG faculty
in the form of classroom presentations. Most topics can be covered in
one hour or less.
The unique partnership with the College of Engineering and the UNT
Career Center allows the students and faculty at the College of
Engineering's Research Park Campus access to the same quality career
services that are available on the UNT Denton Campus.
If you are interested in scheduling an appointment or having Glenn
present a seminar to your student organization or class, please contact
our office at 940-565-2105.
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The CSE Student Email Newsletter was assembled and produced by
Genene Murphy and Don Retzlaff. It is a publication of the
UNT Computer Science and Engineering Department. Contact the department
at newsletter@cse.unt.edu.
http://www.cse.unt.edu UNT
Computer Science and Engineering Department - April 2006
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Dr. Akl is scheduled to teach CSCE 5540 Introduction to Sensor Networks this fall.
It is offered Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:00-5:20 pm. For more information, visit
