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Yasha Iravantchi receives Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship
Recognizing Iravantchi’s exceptional achievements and progress, the fellowship will support his ongoing research on privacy-preserving sensing for in-home health monitoring.Divya Ramesh awarded Rackham Barbour Scholarship
Given to high-achieving women from Asian countries, the award recognizes Ramesh’s academic excellence and will support her continued research on algorithmic accountability for socially responsible AI.Xinyue Chen awarded Rackham Barbour Scholarship
Awarded to women of high academic achievement from Asian countries, the Barbour Scholarship will support Chen’s research on the use of AI in human-human communication.Hearing emotion: Redefining mental health monitoring via voice-based mood detection
Researchers at U-M have received a $3.6 million NIH grant to support their development of new digital phenotyping tools to better detect and measure symptoms of bipolar disorder via audio monitoring.Mark Guzdial receives Monroe-Brown Foundation Education Excellence Award
The award recognizes Guzdial’s transformational impact on computer science education at U-M and beyond.NSF funds U-M research on generative AI in STEM education
Prof. Xu Wang of CSE and Prof. Ying Xu of the School of Education have received an NSF award to support their research on teacher-AI collaboration to develop STEM educational resources.NSF funds U-M initiative leveraging AI to teach students essay writing
The $850k grant will support a multidisciplinary initiative to use large language models as writing assistants for students.World Economic Form: November 8, 2023
This smartphone tool helps people with visual disabilities us touchscreens
This video highlights how work led by Profs. Alanson Sample and Anhong Guo can make kiosks, ATMS, and other touchscreen interfaces accessible to individuals with visual disabilities or tremors. Brushlens is a smartphone case that helps users to perceive, locate, and tap buttons and keys on the touch screen menus.2023 CSE Honors Competition highlights outstanding research by grad students
The competition recognizes PhD students in CSE for their excellent research contributions.New Atlas: November 1, 2023
BrushLens tech could make touchscreen displays accessible to everyone
This article highlights BrushLens, a new device could help users with visual impairments, tremors, and spasms to use touchscreens independently.Independent Living: November 1, 2023
Smartphone case workaround
This article highlights BrushLens, a new device could help users with visual impairments, tremors, and spasms to use touchscreens independently.CSE researchers present new findings and tech at UIST 2023
CSE researchers have 2 papers and 4 demos appearing at the conference, covering new tech that improves accessibility, enhances user experience, and helps surgeons-in-training.New phone case provides workaround for inaccessible touchscreens
Touchscreens are everywhere but not built for everyone. A new device could help bridge that gap, helping users access ticket kiosks, restaurant menus and more.Mark Guzdial receives ICER Lasting Impact Award
Prof. Guzdial’s 2012 paper on subgoal-labeled instruction was recognized for its sustained influence on computing educationDhruv Jain receives NIH grant to improve health education for people with sensory disabilities
Prof. Jain and his collaborators in Michigan Medicine will develop best practices to increase health literacy and access to information for patients with disabilities.U-M hosts 2023 Midwest Programming Languages Summit
The Summit brought together researchers interested in programming languages and compilers from across the region to exchange ideas and promote collaboration.Nikola Banovic receives NSF CAREER Award to advance explainable AI
Prof. Banovic aims to use human-AI interaction to explain and justify AI decisions to end users.CSE welcomes new faculty to campus for the 23/24 academic year
Meet the new arrivals.Two EECS PhD students receive Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship
Cameron Haire and Jiale Zhang have been selected as recipients of the prestigious fellowship, which aims to support forward-thinking PhD student research.7th Summer School on Computational Interaction brings together human-computer interaction scholars from around the world
The University of Michigan hosted the seventh annual installment of the summer school, supporting the next generation of HCI researchers through applied skills training and lectures from thought leaders.New apps for visually impaired users provide virtual labels for controls and a way to explore images
With VizLens, users can touch buttons while their phones read out the labels, and Image Explorer provides a workaround for bad or missing alt textDhruv Jain named Google Scholar to design accessible technologies for deaf and hard of hearing people
Jain is working to design next-generation accessible technologies to give DHH people better awareness of their surroundings.Dhruv Jain named ACM SIGCHI VP for Accessibility
Jain will oversee SIGCHI’s efforts to make conferences, publications more accessible.GizChina: May 5, 2023
Future is now – this revolutionary device can transform your body or a desk into a touchscreen
This article reports on SAWSense, a sensor system developed in Prof. Alanson Sample’s lab that allows for touch inputs to be made on a variety of surfaces.New York Times: April 28, 2023
Your Next Fitness Coach Could Be a Robot
Professor Nikola Banovic is quoted on how AI-based fitness programs fail to replicate the social interactions that make training effective.Researchers recognized at CHI for work on human-NLP system to create reading quiz questions
Their paper received an honorable mention for their work in making high-quality quiz questions easier to create.Seven papers by CSE researchers presented at CHI 2023
30 University of Michigan researchers authored and co-authored papers spanning surveillance, virtual reality, algorithmic stigma, assistive technology, and sensing systems.Jane Im earns 2023 Meta Research PhD Fellowship
PhD candidate Jane Im hopes to use the fellowship to advance research into how social media companies can better implement usable privacy controls.Michigan Daily: April 11, 2023
UMich Perspectives: How are we dealing with AI?
In this article, Prof. Nikola Banovic speaks with The Daily on how people connect with computers, and how they use computers to connect with each other.Dhruv Jain earns ACM SIGCHI dissertation award for research on new systems for sound awareness
The award recognizes the most outstanding research contributions from recently graduated PhD students within the HCI community.Dhruv Jain earns dissertation award for work on sound accessibility
Jain’s dissertation investigated the creation and use of several sound awareness systems to better convey information to d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals while using augmented reality and Internet of Things devices.2022 CSE Graduate Student Honors Competition highlights outstanding research
The competition recognizes top research done by PhD students at CSE.Prof. Emily Mower Provost receives NSF grant for research in personalized emotion recognition
The project aims to create new and personalized speech emotion recognition approaches and to use these approaches to investigate how changes in emotion are related to changes in mental health.Detroit Free Press: June 3, 2022
Opinion: We’ve developed a digital education model that works
Prof. Elliot Soloway writes about the U-M Center for Digital Curricula’s Collabirty tools that enable teachers and students to interact and collaborate seamlessly. It is accompanied by free, year-long, standards-aligned curricula for K-5.Making collaborative online document editing accessible to blind users
The CollabAlly extension pulls together visual information in collaborative editing environments and makes them easy to access and navigate with audio cues.Designing more accessible augmented reality for people with visual impairments
Prof. Anhong Guo is supported by the Google Research Scholar Program to devise techniques that enable blind users to access collaborative AR experiences.Jane Im awarded Rackham Barbour Scholarship
The scholarship will support her work on creating safer social computing systems grounded in users’ consent.WDET: March 4, 2022
Tracked and Traced: You are the product, thanks to surveillance capitalism
Prof. Alanson Sample discusses his lab’s work on PrivacyMic, a developing audio technology that protects user privacy by operating outside the normal frequency range for human ears.NSF Grant to add “a teaspoon of computing” to non-CS classes
Teaspoon programming languages can broaden access to computing skills through incorporation in a variety of coursework.Faculty team award for development of widely-used COVID-19 monitoring app
Throughout 2020 and 2021, the app’s questionnaire helped more than 2,500 employers in Michigan meet state requirements.Yasha Iravantchi receives Meta PhD Fellowship
Iravantchi’s research focuses on developing novel and privacy-preserving sensing hardware for more immersive VR/AR.New computational framework to understand aggressive cancer cell behavior
Cancer cell biologists have teamed up with computational scientists and experts in artificial intelligence to focus the power of these fields on understanding and overcoming heterogeneity in cancer.December 2, 2021
Computer Science was always supposed to be taught to everyone, and it wasn’t about getting a job: A historical perspective
A popular blog post by Prof. Mark Guzdial explores the historical roots of computer science education.Outstanding research recognized at Graduate Honors Competition
Five finalists from each CSE lab presented their work at the event’s final round.Wireless electricity and safety: A Q&A with Alanson Sample
How the safety of a wireless charging room stacks up to that of a cell phone.Fast Company: September 20, 2021
This magic room charges your phone as soon as you walk in
Prof. Alanson Sample discusses his new research, which created rooms with wireless electricity, enabling the use of lamps and fans and charging cells phones all without the need for power cords.Communications of the ACM: September 1, 2021
The Role of Computer Science in Elite Higher Education: Seeing the Expert Blind Spot
A CACM blog by Prof. Mark Guzdial discussing the role of CS in preparing elite scientists, engineers, and mathematicians.Science Daily: September 1, 2021
Evolution now accepted by majority of Americans
The level of public acceptance of evolution in the United States is now solidly above the halfway mark, according to a new study co-authored by Prof. Mark Ackerman based on a series of national public opinion surveys conducted over the last 35 years.World Economic Form: September 1, 2021
This entire room has been turned into a giant wireless charger
Researchers including Prof. Alanson Sample have developed a system to safely deliver electricity over the air, a development that could potentially turn entire buildings into wireless charging zones.Will power cords go the way of land lines?
Room-size charging system powers lights, phones, laptops without wiresLess nosy smart speakers
Technology could capture household information without recording speech.
Three CSE papers at CHI 2021 recognized with honorable mentions
The papers dealt with issues of accessibility, privacy, and consent in technology.
Twilio: April 24, 2021
University of Michigan Combines Tech and Twilio to Support a Continuous Learning Environment for Thousands of Low-income Students
The University of Michigan Center for Digital Curricula, co-directed by Thurnau Prof. Elliot Soloway, uses Twilio Voice to allow students and teachers to communicate in real-time while completing assignments and to bridge the gap in distance learning and in-class learning.How CS is changing education
Embedding coding into high school history class; building eBooks to broaden participation in computing; and rolling out digital tools for collaborative K-5 learning. Michigan researchers are taking on the big challenges to integrating computing into everyone’s education.
Incoming faculty Anhong Guo named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Science
This distinction recognizes young researchers with exceptional promise who are having an impact on the world.
Josh Meyer has built the software that your kids and teachers need
From his days as an online poker playing undergrad to his current role as a technology developer, Josh has discovered a passion – and built a platform – for online learning.
2020 CSE Graduate Student Honors Competition highlights outstanding research
The competition recognizes the research done by PhD students at CSE and the final competition is the culmination of a process that narrows a field of entrants to a handful of finalists.
CSE researchers report over $11M in research grants last quarter
The awards were distributed to 18 different primary investigators.
University of Michigan: September 23, 2020
COVID-19 app built at U-M helps businesses stay open
A COVID-19 symptom checklist web app developed by students in classes taught by Profs. Sugih Jamin and Elliot Soloway is helping more than 2,500 Michigan employers meet state requirements to screen employees before they enter the workplace each day.How a COVID-19 app built at U-Michigan is helping businesses stay open
New real-time employer dashboards provide “live-feed of data” as employees report their symptoms while also safeguarding users’ data privacy.
Teaching CS in history class
Computing is a tool for getting things done. Let’s teach it that way.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: September 14, 2020
Study: Pa. benefits screening tool may be telling potential applicants they don’t qualify
A study by two University of Michigan researchers found errors in a Pennsylvania public benefits screening tool that could have wrongly told people they were not eligible for benefits, when in fact they were.Roadmap for teachers: U-M free online learning platform paves the way
K-5 teachers and students throughout Michigan are building thriving learning communities online by using free deeply-digital, standards-aligned curricula and platform developed by the U-M Center for Digital Curricula.
WWJ News Radio: September 14, 2020
Customizable Curricula Available from U-M Center
Prof. Elliot Soloway is interviewed on WWJ radio about the customizable digital curricula available from his Center for Digital Curricula. Over 20,000 students in Michigan are using the platform this Fall.Communications of the ACM: September 8, 2020
3 Proposals to Change How We Teach Computing In Order to Reduce Inequality
Online instruction is here, whether we’re ready or not. Prof. Mark Guzdial offers three proposals for reducing inequality in computing education amid these radical changes to teaching.Students lead the way on State of Michigan web application to help curb the spread of COVID-19
“I don’t think any of us expected a global pandemic at the end of our senior year, let alone being able to work on an application that helps address it.”
Web app, dashboard from U-M to inform Michiganders’ return to work
The web tools will help state officials identify potential hotspots as they reopen Michigan to business.
Research on human biases in AI learning earns best student paper award
The project, which received a best paper award, demonstrated that a certain bias in humans who train intelligent agents significantly reduced the effectiveness of the training.
How predictive modeling could help us reopen more safely
Graphical online simulation could spur more targeted COVID-19 protection measures.
Faculty Profile: Emily Mower Provost
Mower Provost talks about getting awards, doing industry research, understanding human behavior – and Star Wars.
K-12 online learning platform sees big rise in use
Daily webinars available for teachers interested in exploring the free customizable tools.
Nine CSE graduate students recognized by NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program
The nine students represent a broad range of research areas in the department.
Michigan News: February 11, 2020
‘Alexa, let’s chat!’: U-M among 10 student teams worldwide advancing conversational AI
The U-M Alexa Prize Socialbot Grand Challenge team have made it to the semi-finals.Michigan team competes in Amazon challenge to make AI more engaging
The team of twelve students is one of ten worldwide working to give Amazon’s Alexa more human-like conversational skills.
Learning the computational mindset – education researchers give perspective
The authors argue that modern children already think with computation after being shaped by the prolific digital tools that fill their lives
Communications of the ACM: October 18, 2019
If We Want Women to Persist in Computing, Teach Them Programming – At Any Age
Prof. Mark Guzdial writes about the need for early education if retention of women in CS is a goal.DARPA Award for more responsive AI that combines human and machine
The goal of Lasecki’s proposal is to create methods for making AI systems more robust and flexible.
Guzdial receives SIGCSE outstanding educator award
Guzdial is a leading expert in the field of computing education, and was one of its earliest researchers.
‘Air traffic control’ for driverless cars could speed up deployment
Human-generated responses could remotely assist autonomous vehicles decision’s during times of uncertainty.
Transforming tools for some into a language for all
The efforts of computing education researcher Mark Guzdial span the challenges facing a young field
CSE welcomes 9 new faculty
Get to know the new arrivals.Paper award for training computer vision systems more accurately
PhD student Jean Young Song offers an improved solution to the problem of image segmentation.
Study maps careers of CS PhDs using decades of data
The researchers identified movement between industry, academia, and government work, tracked the growth of important organizations, and built predictive models for career transitions and employer retention.
Computer science and business school students team up to create “intention” skill for Alexa
Inspired by a class on managing professional relationships, five recent University of Michigan graduates are developing an app that would mesh with Alexa to help nudge people when they’re out of sync with what they want.
“Stitching” together a web user from scattered, messy data
Even though we interact with different web services in different ways, there are clues in the data that can indicate trends and identify a unique profile.
Igor Markov named a top Quora writer for fifth year in a row
He has answered over 3800 questions on the Q&A site, with over 41 million views.
Mark Ackerman receives European CSCW Lifetime Achievement award
Prof. Ackerman recognized quite early how social context could harness computing technologies for the development of systems in expertise finding and sharing, as well as in collaborative information access.
Codeon is the intelligent assistant for software developers
With Codeon, developers can request help by speaking their requests aloud within the context of their Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
Kurator Will Help You Curate Your Personal Digital Content
Kurator is a hybrid intelligence system leveraging mixed-expertise crowds to help families curate their personal digital content, including videos and photos.
Movie design for specific target audiences
Researchers are working to design a successful movie that will attract the interest of a targeted demographic by leveraging user ratings, reviews, and product characteristics.
CHORUS: The Crowd-Powered Conversational Assistant
Researchers have developed a crowd-powered conversational assistant, Chorus, and deployed it to see how users and workers would interact together when mediated by the system.
Social interaction patterns provide clues to real life changes
The identified changes in social media behavior may point to real events and changes, some of which can benefit from intervention.
Sang Won Lee receives Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for research into facilitating collaboration for creative and artistic tasks
Lee investigates how we can coordinate collaboration among users and crowd workers, especially for complex tasks that require creativity.
Sang Won Lee receives award for Best Student Composition at the International Computer Music Conference
This performance is an outcome coming from his interdisciplinary research work, Live Writing, which transforms asynchronous written communication into a real-time experience in the context of programming, writing and performing arts.
Collecting data to better identify bipolar disorder
Prof. Emily Mower Provost is collaborating to develop new technologies that provide individuals with insight into how the disease changes over time.
Walter Lasecki and collaborators win Best Paper at W4A
The paper explores how automated speech recognition and crowd-sourced human correction and generation of transcripts can be traded off to improve accuracy and latency.
Emily Mower Provost Receives Oscar Stern Award for Research in Emotion Expression and Perception
The proposed work investigates computational methodologies to differentiate emotion perception patterns of healthy controls and individuals with Major Depressive Disorder or Bipolar Disorder.
Patrick O’Keefe awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
“I am confident we can do better than the ubiquitous keyboard and mouse paradigm, and I intend to find out how,” said O’Keefe.