Department of Computer Science, UMD

"Combining wearables and AI could revolutionize how we engage with the world—creating systems that sense and respond in real time," says #umdcs Ph.D. student Yang Bai. Her work enables real-time sensing through wearable devices. Read more: go.umd.edu/Bai3-2025

???? Funded by The National Institutes of Health, the University of Maryland and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers are advancing long-read RNA sequencing with #oarfish —an open-source tool to improve gene activity analysis and disease research. Led by Robert Patro, the team aims to scale accuracy and access. ?? Read more: https://go.umd.edu/RNA

?? Join the Google Developer Student Clubs for a Cybersecurity Workshop on 3/27! ?? IRB 0318 ?? 5–6 PM

?? Department of Computer Science, UMD alumni—you’re invited! ?? Join us on Saturday, April 12, for brunch, reconnecting with faculty & friends, exploring student innovation at Bitcamp, and celebrating our new Alumni Hall of Fame display! ?? 10:30 AM Brendan Iribe Center ?? 12:30 PM Reckord Armory Register now: go.umd.edu/AlumniBrunch

?? ?? #UMD freshman Vitthal Agarwal, who has competed in major hackathons across the country, earned top honors at HackMIT and Hacklytics 2025. His team’s project, “Phisherman,” uses AI to simulate phishing attacks and train employees in cybersecurity. Read more: go.umd.edu/Vitthal-Agarwal

Can emojis do more than just ?? spice up our texts? University of Maryland researchers think so. Their latest study explores how ChatGPT can analyze emojis to boost machine learning & NLP models—offering a scalable alternative to human annotation. Read more: go.umd.edu/Emoji

?? The Future of AI: Key Recommendations from the Computing Research Association (CRA) ?? In February 2025, the The Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program National Coordination Office (NCO) released a Request for Information (RFI) on the development of a national AI Action Plan to help sustain and enhance America's AI leadership. A remarkable 8,755 responses were submitted, including from leading tech companies like OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic — as well as Computing Research Association (CRA), together with its subcommittees the Computing Community Consortium (CCC) and CRA-Industry (CRA-I). CRA’s response offers valuable recommendations that would foster AI innovation and ensure the U.S. remains a global leader. ?? Read CRA’s full response to the AI Action Plan RFI here: https://lnkd.in/gbW5WKHt #ArtificialIntelligence #AIDevelopment #Innovation #TechPolicy #AIActionPlan #CRA #Research #AIWorkforce #HumanCenteredAI

?? Entrepreneurship isn’t linear. CS alum Jonathan Chen shares insights from building FiscalNote and Nitra, Inc., securing investment, and landing funding from Mark Cuban at #UMDCS’s Mokhtarzada Hatchery Speaker Series. Read more: go.umd.edu/ChenQandA

?????? Assistant Professor Kaiqing Zhang has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award to advance how autonomous AI agents—like self-driving cars and robots—learn and collaborate in real-world settings. His $540K project explores multi-agent learning under uncertainty. Read more: go.umd.edu/Zhang3-2025

????????Prospective grad students are touring University of Maryland CS labs, including the Vision Lab, Perception & Robotics Group, QuICS, and more—getting a firsthand look at cutting-edge research! #GradVisitDay