Faculty and Staff News

Deborah Goodings to serve on White House task force of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC)

Martha Bushong — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 21:41:07 +0000

Deborah Goodings to serve on White House task force of the National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) Martha Bushong Tue, 03/05/2024 - 16:41

In This Story

Deborah Goodings

Deborah Goodings, associate dean for graduate studies at the College of Engineering and Computing, has been appointed to a task force of the White House National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC). The NIAC has created the Expanding the Workforce for Critical Infrastructure subcommittee in recognition that a skilled workforce is essential to plan, design, build, operate, maintain, and repair the infrastructure that supports the basic functions of American society. The task force will provide recommendations to incentivize workers to enter this critical infrastructure field and to broaden access to training and educational opportunities.

“Engineers and computer scientists are leaders in ensuring resilience and sustainability of existing infrastructure. And they are central in creating a future that depends even more on innovative and secure systems with increased capacity. Achieving the vision, however, depends on taking a holistic approach to the broader health of the ecosystem of our critical infrastructure workforce, said Goodings.

“This workforce is as much about construction crews, infrastructure operators, and maintenance workers as it is about engineers and cybersecurity experts. I am honored to join a group of such distinguished national leaders in workforce development serving America’s needs.”

Goodings’s leadership in engineering higher education and research spans four decades. During that time, she has been a department chair, chaired professor, and associate dean of engineering and computing at George Mason University, a division director at the National Science Foundation, and a professor at the University of Maryland. Her experience and expertise have led to her service to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Academies/National Research Council, and to institutional visiting and review committees both in the United States and Canada.

She has developed programs that enrich the classroom experience of engineers to expand their sense of citizenship and responsibility. These experiences often include emphasis on the non-technical skills that engineers must develop to be successful in their jobs and lives. Her career accomplishments have been recognized with awards from the U.S. Department of the Army; the U.S. National Research Council; the U.S. Universities Council on Geotechnical Engineering Research; Professional Engineers Ontario; and the University of Maryland.

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civil and infrastructure engineering

Faculty and Staff News

Carol McHugh is March Employee of the Month

Colleen Rich — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 19:40:19 +0000

Carol McHugh is March Employee of the Month Colleen Rich Tue, 02/28/2023 - 14:40

Carol McHugh defines what it means to be a well-rounded colleague and leader.

President Washington with March Employee of the Month Carol McHugh. Photo by Cristian Torres/Strategic Communications

McHugh is the academic program assistant for George Mason University’s Bioengineering Department. Her day-to-day responsibilities include providing administrative support for students and faculty, coordinating events, supporting marketing and outreach efforts, and communicating with students and faculty on reminders and updates. Colleagues say her ability to take initiative on multiple tasks while always “bringing a smile to the office” is what makes her a great candidate for this award.

McHugh was also praised for her help with the two-day graduate recruitment open house event hosted by the College of Engineering and Computing. For exceeding expectations and upholding Mason values with positivity and kindness, McHugh has been recognized as the March Employee of the Month.

“To say that Carol has streamlined how our graduate program is administered is an understatement, and her efforts have allowed our doctoral students to finish their degrees in an average of under four years, making our program one of the best performers in this category at Mason,” said Parag Chitnis, associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering. “She is such an integral part of our department that we forget that she is a part-time employee.”

“She supports the administrative business functions of the department by creating brochures, flyers, and newsletters, as well as providing reception services, scheduling appointments and meetings,” said Kim Blackwell, professor and interim department chair. “Ms. McHugh supports our department with a kindness and grace that truly represents the Mason values of students first, acting with integrity, and being part of a team to make sure the job is done.”

“Carol is truly an exceptional and amazing person,” said Shani Ross, an assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering, “She works with integrity and is a great team player, doing her part and jumping in wherever is needed to ensure that the department operations run smoothly.”

Carol McHugh's Employee of the Month ceremony attendees. Photo by Cristian Torres

How you got to Mason:

I worked for a long time at the K-12 school my kids attended, but once they graduated, I knew it was time for a change. Living in Fairfax, I’ve always seen Mason as part of our community, and since I enjoyed working in an educational environment, it was an obvious choice for me to look here.

Best day on the job:

I look forward to the days our department sponsors events–from being part of the event planning team to the satisfaction of seeing months of hard work come together in a successful event. In addition, our department is a bit spread out between Fairfax and SciTech [campuses] so these events bring faculty members and students together, and it’s nice to visit and catch up with everyone.

What do you like best about working at Mason:

My department! The Bioengineering Department is like a family where everyone helps and supports each other. Even through the pandemic, we held virtual happy hours. I have felt welcome and valued since my first day on the job and feel privileged to support the department. I find the research done by the faculty and students to be fascinating so I enjoy hearing about the work they are doing.

What do you like to do when you’re not working:

For the last several years, I’ve enjoyed gardening. I have a community garden plot in Fairfax and have grown a wide variety of vegetables. I’ve always enjoyed exploring and traveling as well. As a spouse of a retired foreign service officer, I got the chance to live in several different countries and to travel to many others. Next on the list is Arizona and Oman where my children are currently living and working.

Topics

Employee of the Month

Faculty and Staff News

In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Harry Van Trees

Tama Moni — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 18:41:54 +0000

In Memoriam: Professor Emeritus Harry Van Trees Tama Moni Wed, 01/18/2023 - 13:41

Professor Emeritus Harry Van Trees

Harry Van Trees, a distinguished and award-winning researcher, textbook author, member of the National Academy of Engineering, and George Mason University Professor of Information Technology and Electrical and Systems Engineering passed away on December 29, 2022.

Van Trees was born in Kansas City on June 27, 1930. He went on to graduate first in his class from West Point and earned an Sc.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after a stint in the army. He joined the MIT Electrical Engineering Department, where he studied signal processing. He made significant contributions to detection and estimation theory, optimum array processing, and Bayesian estimation of random processes. He is regarded as a founder of the detection and estimation theory body of knowledge. His impressive CV may be found here.

Later in his career, he would go on to be the founding director of Mason's Center of Excellence in Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence (C3I). George Mason University Professor Emeritus Alexander Levis noted, “His vision for such a center was inspired by his brief service as Air Force Chief Scientist and then as the first Assistant Secretary at DoD for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence. He recognized that rapidly evolving information technology would change fundamentally Command and Control and that both basic and applied research were very much needed. Indeed, thirty-five years later, Command and Control has now been recognized as a defining pillar of national security.”

Others on the Mason campus also paid tribute to his lasting legacy. “Harry Van Trees was a brilliant engineer, educator, mentor, and colleague who had a remarkable life and career in academia, government, and industry,” added Kristine Bell, Affiliate Associate Professor in the Mason Statistics Department. “His books on Detection and Estimation Theory and Array Processing have educated so many engineers and inspired so many important research findings in the last 45 years. There is no doubt that our world would look different without his contributions. I was so privileged to have worked with him. He was a wonderful man who cared deeply for his family, but also for his colleagues, and his community. I will miss him tremendously.”

According to his official obituary, his passing was unexpected but fortunately, although in the hospital, he was able to spend his last week with Diane, his beloved wife of 69 years, and his six surviving children, Stephen, Mark, Katie, Tricia, Harry, and Julia. 

Topics

professor emeritus

College of Engineering and Computing

Obituary

Faculty and Staff News

Mason launches TTIP Thematic Initiative to grow multidisciplinary teams of diverse faculty

Colleen Rich — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 15:56:39 +0000

Mason launches TTIP Thematic Initiative to grow multidisciplinary teams of diverse faculty Colleen Rich Mon, 04/12/2021 - 11:56

In This Story

Siddhartha Sikdar

Christopher A. Carr

Sanmay Das

When Christopher Carr learned about George Mason University’s initiative to hire clusters of faculty around a singular theme, he saw an opportunity to take on a social justice challenge from an unexpected position.

Carr, the College of Engineering and Computing’s chief diversity officer, had an idea for a Social Justice, Engineering, and Computing proposal centered on technology’s impact on historically marginalized communities—a decidedly political focus for a team that would work closely with engineers.

Christopher Carr

“Many times engineers will say, ‘We're not political; we're not involved in social issues. We solve infrastructural and technical and mechanical problems,’” said Carr. “But when we’re looking at the impact of technology and who it may be harming, these infrastructural and technical and mechanical problems are political and social.”

Challenging traditional ways of thinking is exactly the point of the TTIP Faculty Thematic Hiring Initiative—Mason’s new action to promote multidisciplinary education, research and collaboration in computing. The initiative is part of the university’s effort to support Virginia’s Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP), the plan to ensure that Amazon and the state’s tech sector have a strong and sustainable talent pipeline. As Virginia’s largest and most diverse public university, and its largest producer of tech talent, Mason figures prominently in the performance-based plan, which calls for 25,000 additional graduates in computer science, computer engineering and software engineering over the next 20 years.

“The TTIP program has provided a great opportunity for Mason to increase faculty diversity and focus them on critical national issues.” said Provost Mark Ginsberg. “The initiative is a creative way to support Virginia’s TTIP program’s charge. It will help to bring down barriers as it relates to the faculty and the selected themes. It’s a bold move designed to make a big impact.”

Last fall, faculty teams were invited to submit proposals describing thematic hiring opportunities. The decision committee evaluated 14 proposals for innovation and timeliness, alignment with Mason strengths, recruiting plans and hiring strategies.

Three proposals emerged as the top selections—the Computational Systems Biomedicine theme, led by Bioengineering’s Siddhartha Sikdar and Juan Cebral; Carr’s Social Justice, Engineering and Computing proposal; and Computer Science professor Sanmay Das’s AI, Society, and Public Policy proposal, which eventually merged with the Social Justice proposal to form an even more powerful unified theme of AI, Social Justice, and Public Policy.

Proposal teams comprise Computer Science, Statistics and Information Science and Technology faculty from the proposed School of Computing who teamed up with faculty colleagues in other academic departments, colleges and schools.

“We had many ideas with great potential, but the committee agreed that the themes selected have the potential to focus and advance research in critical areas of national importance,” said Aurali Dade, interim vice president of research and the decision committee chair.

Sanmay Das

For the AI, Social Justice, and Public Policy proposal team, the multidisciplinary focus will give Mason an entree into the national discussions around artificial intelligence (AI) and technology. Algorithms are wielding increasing power, often without safeguards or government regulations. The proposal reflects the growing concern that unconscious bias may be creeping into systems that affect areas such as mortgage approval, credit scores and hiring practices, often with destructive outcomes for affected communities.

For Das, this cluster hire will focus on interrupting systemic bias and will also identify ways to use AI to embed “fairness, accountability and transparency” into algorithmic decision making.

“We want to approach this from a broader perspective and go beyond technical definitions of fairness and really think about how algorithms can contribute to justice,” said Das.

The Computational Systems Biomedicine team is focused on the opportunities of data integration.

“Our health care system is very fragmented,” said Sikdar. “We have specialists who care for patients, and there is a lot of data and knowledge that is available, not only about these individual patients and their underlying conditions, but also the environment where they live, their communities and their socio-economic status.”

Sikdar says the goal is to utilize this broad knowledge base to deliver “precision medicine.”

“Everyone now recognizes that you can’t just treat the symptoms,” said Sikdar. “You have to take a more holistic view so that we can personalize treatments and care coordination for the individual.”

Recruited faculty will use computational methods to leverage Mason’s strengths to engage with medical, industrial and federal collaborators in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan region.

“Mason already has significant strengths in computing, systems biology, bioengineering, epidemiology and health informatics,” Sikdar said. “What we are missing is what we call ‘system integrators,’ people who have the methodological expertise to bridge these gaps.”

Siddhartha Sikdar

Each team will recruit up to four tenure-line faculty over the next three years, and the allocated funds will be dedicated to faculty salaries, start-up packages and other infrastructure needs. Faculty recruited under this program may start their appointments at Mason in spring 2022 or fall 2023.

Sikdar’s team will hire four tenured/tenure-track faculty who will form a cluster between five participating departments/schools: Bioengineering, Systems Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, and Statistics.

The AI cluster will hire four faculty specializing in fairness, accountability and transparency in AI (Departments of Computer Science and Computational and Data Sciences); social justice, and the governance of AI and big data (Schar School of Policy and Government); the intersection of technology with historically marginalized communities (Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution), and the ethics of AI (Department of Philosophy in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences).

For Sikdar, diverse perspectives will be a critical part of the new team’s approach.

“We want many different ways to think about the problems. Disciplinary diversity is critical, and it is also important to recruit from underrepresented groups,” said Sikdar. “We know there are significant disparities in health that need to be factored into a systems medicine model. We need people with lived experiences who are not only motivated to address those gaps, but also have the right expertise to do it.”

Topics

Campus News

Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)

Faculty and Staff News

Artificial Intelligence

diversity

Ana Lopez offers insights into her work at Mason Engineering

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 17:33:58 +0000

Ana Lopez offers insights into her work at Mason Engineering Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 01/27/2021 - 12:33

An interview with Ana Lopez, a staff senator and administrative assistant with the Volgenau School of Engineering Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations, was featured in a recent Mason Senate Staff newsletter. Here are her views on several important topics:

Role: I provide support to the director of advancement as well as to the VSE advisory board and alumni development board. I coordinate events and meetings, manage the office budget and provide stewardship to our donors. One of the most rewarding aspects is the awarding of scholarships to students. This past semester we awarded around $100,000 in scholarships.

What’s new: Recently, I assisted with the Mechanical Engineering Alumni Match Challenge to raise funds for the mechanical engineering student capstone projects fund and to establish a scholarship. I also work to increase the number of alumni who give and share the message that it matters not how much they give but the impact they can have by showing annual support.

For homecoming, student involvement and alumni relations will host virtual events from Feb. 5-14. They’re designed with alumni, students, faculty, and staff in mind.

Mason journey: I started at Mason in May 2016 as the administrative assistant in the Office of the Dean in VSE. A year later, a position became available in the Office of Advancement and Alumni Relations. The journey has been quite rewarding knowing that our office is making a difference in the lives of our students and engaging alumni. It’s a tremendous source of pride for Volgenau that Mason is the leading producer of tech talent in Virginia.

COVID-19 transition: At the start of the pandemic, I helped pivot our department to remote work and ensured everyone had the resources to successfully telework. We created a student emergency fund that alumni, faculty, and staff have generously supported to help many engineering students through this difficult time. To further engage our alumni, we hosted virtual happy hours and games. We also hosted our signature event, “Whiskey, Widgets, and Wonks,” virtually. This is typically a reception that includes a whiskey tasting from KO Distillery, which is owned by a VSE alumnus, and lots of robots and engineering projects that are interactive, informative, and fun. For this year, we had the whiskey delivered to the participants’ homes and shared videos and presentations from our faculty.

Best thing about working at Mason: The people – staff, faculty, and students. I have had the great fortune of meeting a lot of wonderful and interesting people, and I treasure all these connections. In particular, the students have a special place in my heart. They are driven, smart, and want to make a positive change in their communities.

Why serve on the Staff Senate: Over the last few years, I have developed a deep appreciation of the work my fellow staff members do. They are often the unsung heroes of Mason. I feel that in these times of crisis, there will be important and hard decisions that the leadership will be making that will affect the classified staff. Therefore, I felt it is important for me to represent and advocate for my fellow staff members. Classified staff is the foundation upon which the university stands and I am proud to be their representative and advocate.

At the end of the day: I am proud to work at Mason and to represent our amazing staff. Mason is doing a wonderful service in the community by providing wonderful opportunities for its students. I look forward to making a positive difference in the lives of my colleagues.

Courtesy of the Mason Staff Senate newsletter

Posted: January 14, 2021

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Faculty and Staff News

Volgenau School of Engineering

Staff Senate

Advisor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering wins academic advising award

Anonymous — Mon, 11 Jan 2021 16:12:31 +0000

Advisor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering wins academic advising award Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 01/11/2021 - 11:12

Topics

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Academic Advising

Volgenau School of Engineering

Faculty and Staff News

Smriti Kansal Patwardhan

Photo credit:

Courtesy photo

One of the rewards of being an academic advisor is helping students through difficult times and then watching them flourish afterward, says Smriti Kansal Patwardhan, an academic advisor and coordinator for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).

For instance, when an international student came to talk to Patwardhan a few years ago, she was homesick, hadn’t connected with anyone, and felt all alone, says Patwardhan, MS Electrical Engineering ’04. “Engineering is hard enough, and she was trying to manage all these emotions on top of her studies.”

She found the young woman a study group and a student organization with members from her home country. “I helped her adjust through that first year, and she blossomed and graduated with honors.”

Patwardhan is known among Mason Engineering students and faculty for her willingness to go the extra mile in all aspects of her job, and for those efforts, she was awarded the 2020 Jade Barricelli Spirit of Academic Advising Excellence Award, a peer-nominated academic advising award.

In 2016, she was named the V. Ann Lewis Academic Advisor of the Year, an award given to an advisor nominated by students.

Patwardhan didn’t plan on becoming an advisor. In fact, she didn’t have an advisor when she was an undergraduate earning a bachelor of engineering in electronics in India.

After graduation, she worked as an engineer in India then came to Mason to earn her master’s degree. She started to pursue a PhD while working as a research faculty member, but after her first child was born in 2006, she decided to take a break from work.

Then in 2012, the ECE department asked her to come back as an advisor. “It was all a new experience for me. I had no clue of what to do and what not to do,” she says.

She got input and guidance from faculty and peers and quickly excelled in her new role.

Now she conducts the orientations of all the new ECE students, hosts prospective student visits for the department, and advises several groups including Honors College students, those in special international programs, and anyone who can’t find a faculty advisor.

She works closely with the department’s faculty who are advising other ECE students. “All 600 undergraduate students can come to me whenever they want.”

In addition, Patwardhan reviews course evaluations, works on the department’s undergraduate curriculum committee, helps with class scheduling, and coordinates the publication of the department’s newsletter.

Her technical knowledge often comes in handy. “My engineering background helps. I tell students, ‘I am an engineer. Don’t take these courses together, because I know this will make it too hard for you to be successful.’ And they listen to me.

“When people bring in transfer credits, I know what makes sense to count and what doesn’t make sense.”

The hardest part of her job is not being able to help everyone and making tough decisions. There are so many challenges our students go through––health problems, financial problems, family problems. I want to do everything I possibly can to make school easier for my students.”

Monson Hayes, chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, says, “She is a remarkable advisor who is committed to being the most effective advisor that she can be. Her approach to advising is one of compassion and understanding, and she is keenly aware of the struggles and difficulties a student may face, both academically and personally. She is a great listener. She is never judgmental, and she is an extremely effective communicator.”

ECE Associate Chair Pelin Kurtay, agrees, “Smriti is an indispensable asset to our faculty advisors and plays a tremendous role in the success of our students. Her knowledge about policies and university resources, coupled with her background in engineering, means she can quickly provide students with access to the support they need, bring a swift resolution to their issues, and provide a personalized plan that best meets their individual needs.”

Patwardhan is passionate about her job. “I love it,” she says. “I am an engineer helping future engineers.”

Mason Engineering cybersecurity expert receives prestigious award for his research

Nanci Hellmich — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 15:28:22 +0000

Mason Engineering cybersecurity expert receives prestigious award for his research Nanci Hellmich Wed, 12/02/2020 - 10:28

Cybersecurity researcher Sushil Jajodia received the 2020 W. Wallace McDowell Award from the IEEE Computer Science Society.

Mason Engineering cybersecurity researcher Sushil Jajodia received the 2020 W. Wallace McDowell Award from the IEEE Computer Science Society for his contributions to the scientific and engineering principles that enable effective adaptive cyber defense.

The McDowell Award is given to individuals for outstanding recent theoretical, design, educational, practical, or other similar innovative contribution that falls within the scope of IEEE CS interest.

Jajodia, a university professor with the Volgenau School of Engineering and the founding director of Center for Secure Information Systems, researches information secrecy, privacy, integrity, and availability problems in military, civil, and commercial sectors.

Today’s cyber defenses are largely static, Jajodia says. As a result, adversaries can systematically probe our networks, pre-plan their attacks, and ultimately persist for long times inside compromised networks and hosts.

“In response to this situation, we developed methods that make them less homogeneous and less predictable. Our research combined machine learning, behavioral science, operations research, control theory, and game theory for deciding where, when, and how to employ available options in dynamic, adversarial environments,” he says.

“We are all very proud of Dr. Jajodia for his many contributions to the cybersecurity field. It is wonderful to see his efforts so aptly recognized by the IEEE,” says Art Pyster, associate dean for research at the Volgenau School of Engineering.

In the video announcement of the award, the IEEE Computer Society, says, Jajodia “is widely recognized as an international leader and researcher and has a highly distinguished record of technical contributions to security and privacy.”

Jajodia will be honored at a ceremony in 2021. A video about the award is available here.

Exploring the path to a PhD in computer science

Nanci Hellmich — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 18:20:35 +0000

Exploring the path to a PhD in computer science Nanci Hellmich Tue, 10/27/2020 - 14:20

Brittany Johnson, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, is the co-organizer of a virtual computer science event, 2020-2021 CS PhD Recruiting, on November 6.

Computer science students sometimes don’t consider getting a PhD in the field because they aren’t aware of all the opportunities it will open up for them, says Brittany Johnson, an assistant professor in Mason Engineering’s Department of Computer Science.

To spotlight those advantages, she helped organize a virtual event, 2020-2021 CS PhD Recruiting, on Friday, November 6, beginning at 9 a.m. “We are going to focus on the power of a PhD program,” Johnson says.

Faculty members from different universities and panelists with PhDs in a variety of careers, including software engineers at Google and Google Research, will share their expertise and experiences.

Panelists will discuss the pay, benefits, and expectations of doctoral programs. “Students should view the PhD as an apprenticeship that opens many career paths,” Johnson says. “If you are interested and think this is a path for you, you should apply.

“We realize that the PhD application process can be daunting, especially when students face inordinate stress and uncertainty, so we’ll show you how to do it,” she says.

More than 100 students have already signed up for the event.

Cybersecurity expert creates app to help voters locate ballot drop boxes

Nanci Hellmich — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 18:15:57 +0000

Cybersecurity expert creates app to help voters locate ballot drop boxes Nanci Hellmich Thu, 10/22/2020 - 14:15

“I worked on this project in my spare time. It was the perfect opportunity to combine my passion for programming with my desire to use information technology for social good.”

— Max Albanese, associate professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology

Max Albanese, an associate professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology, drops off his mail-in ballot. He created an app, MyBallotBox to help voters locate mail-in drop-box locations. It's available from Apple in its app store.

Mason Engineering cybersecurity researcher Massimiliano (Max) Albanese studies the minds and methods of cybercriminals to develop better ways to defend computer systems.

But during his free time this summer, he turned his attention to a different problem—the need for people to know where to locate drop-off boxes for mail-in ballots.

“In August, I came up with the idea of creating a free app to help people locate drop-off boxes in their area,” says Albanese, an associate professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology.

“I collected drop-box location data from official sources and developed the app, called myBallotBox, which is available from Apple in its app store,” Albanese says.

So far, he has gathered information from 32 states and the District of Columbia, and more data is being added every day. “We are in the middle of a pandemic, and people don’t want to go into a polling place to vote,” he says.

Plus, some people don’t trust the post office to deliver the ballots in time to be counted, so they would like to drop them off at a secure location instead, he says. “It was this set of unprecedented circumstances that prompted me to take this initiative.

The data is also available through a web interface that voters can access through this link. Users can find detailed information about ballot drop-off locations by simply selecting their state from a drop-down menu and then clicking on markers on the map.

“I worked on this project in my spare time,” he says. “It was the perfect opportunity to combine my passion for programming with my desire to use information technology for social good.”

New chair of the Department of Computer Science plans to increase its reach

Nanci Hellmich — Thu, 06 Aug 2020 17:17:17 +0000

New chair of the Department of Computer Science plans to increase its reach Nanci Hellmich Thu, 08/06/2020 - 13:17

“The department already has a great reputation. It has a lot of talented people. It’s a collegial department with a shared sense of purpose. My overall vision is to take the department to the next level of greatness.”

— David Rosenblum, new chair of the Department of Computer Science

David Rosenblum, the new chair of the Department of Computer Science (CS), has several priorities including helping launch the new School of Computing and building CS's relationship with Amazon.

All the pieces are in place to increase the bandwidth of Mason Engineering’s Department of Computer Science (CS), says David Rosenblum, the new chair.

“The department already has a great reputation. It has a lot of talented people. It’s a collegial department with a shared sense of purpose,” says Rosenblum. “My overall vision is to take the department to the next level of greatness.”

He says CS is well-positioned for growth with Amazon HQ2 coming into the Northern Virginia area and funding coming from the state through the Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP), which seeks to increase the number of Virginia graduates from computer science, computer engineering, and software engineering programs at both the undergraduate and master’s levels.

For his new position, Rosenblum will draw from his diverse background in industry, academia, and research. Before arriving at Mason, he was dean of the School of Computing at the National University of Singapore. He has held industry positions, including being a member of the technical staff at AT&T Bell Labs, as well as academic positions at the University of California, Irvine, and University College London.

Rosenblum’s research interests span many problems in software engineering, distributed systems, and ubiquitous computing, and his current research focuses on uncertainty in software testing and trustworthy machine learning. He has received several awards for his research and service.

“I’ve had the opportunity to work on a variety of research problems from many areas of computer science, which has allowed me to publish frequently outside my home area of software engineering,” he says. “But any success I’ve enjoyed as a researcher has come from working with talented PhD students and long-time collaborators.”

At Mason, he hopes to spend one day a week continuing his research, but his top priority will be his duties as chair. His three priorities for the department include:

Shepherding the new School of Computing effort. The school will provide a wide array of computing and related courses to students from all backgrounds and at all levels. “We have a large and diverse faculty that will make us well-positioned for this effort,” he says. “And the department is continuing to grow, with a dozen new faculty recruited for the fall 2020 semester.”
Making the most of the relationship with Amazon. “I want to go beyond the usual ideas of getting students internships and jobs to find deeper levels of engagement with Amazon, like a research center or institute where they would be an equal partner with us addressing both technological and non-technological problems relevant to their business, such as the economic and ethical issues stemming from the widespread use of drones and robots in the automation of work.”
Building more bridges with schools and colleges across Mason. “I want to explore the possibility of new interdisciplinary educational and research collaborations. The department has been very successful at this already, but I would like to see it broadened so that we work with units beyond our traditional cognate disciplines in science and engineering,” he says. For example, computer scientists could work with social scientists on programs looking at human behavioral problems in cybersecurity.

Students who major in computer science have a big world of opportunities awaiting them, he says. “If students don’t want to major in computing, they should consider a minor, which would be worthwhile for careers in many different fields.”

“In my view, computing is central to every other discipline and every aspect of business and society. The opportunities are endless for us to interact with other areas—humanities, health care, business, and others.

Sanjeev Setia, professor and associate dean for computing programs and initiatives for the Volgenau School of Engineering, says, “Interdisciplinary collaboration in research and education is a key component of the department's vision and strategic plan for the future, and we are thrilled to have been able to attract someone with David’s stature to be the chair of the department.”

Rosenblum is glad to be back at a university in the United States where department heads and faculty have “a strong culture of shared governance. In the United Kingdom, department heads and deans tend to work more autonomously, which allows them to get things done quickly sometimes, but which also makes faculty feel that they don’t have a voice in major decisions.”

As chair, Rosenblum plans to have a weekly open-door hour—or open-webcam hour during COVID-19—where faculty can talk one-on-one with him about whatever they want.

“I try to be transparent with people,” he says. “I try to be constructive and celebrate excellence in people. I try to be a consensus builder and not rule by fiat. It’s important that faculty feel their views are heard, considered, and respected.”

“Interdisciplinary collaboration in research and education is a key component of the department's vision and strategic plan for the future, and we are thrilled to have been able to attract someone with David’s stature to be the chair of the department.”

— Sanjeev Setia, professor and associate dean for computing programs and initiatives for the Volgenau School of Engineering,