Emerging Technologies

Our researchers are active in emerging areas of scientific discovery—quantum, autonomy, and microbiome sciences, to name but a few—which have the capacity to transform digital communications, pharmaceutical testing, agriculture and the environment, and much more. While AI itself is not new, our work in changing the way AI systems are designed, developed, deployed and governed is expected to reap significant dividends in science and society. Much of this activity takes places in the multiple centers and several large interdisciplinary labs that UMIACS supports.

Director's Message to UMIACS April '24

Whenever I meet with prospective new faculty interested in joining UMIACS, I always discuss the resources available as a member of our institute.

Those resources include assistance with research proposals and post-award management; onboarding of graduate students or postdocs; help in navigating the often-complex procurement process for large-scale equipment purchases; and much more.

At the top of my list is our powerful computing infrastructure and a dedicated tech staff focused on advancing high performance research computing. Those capabilities, and how we’re growing in this area, are featured in this month’s newsletter.

The technical resources we provide—not just in computing power, but in the ability to work with faculty to design, purchase, install and maintain a complex system from the ground up—reminds me of the development of a streamlined rocket ship.

There are multiple individuals involved, all working toward a common goal of providing the best tools needed for our faculty and students to excel in their work. Bravo to our UMIACS tech staff! Your commitment and professionalism does not go unnoticed.

The newsletter also features a story on the five-year anniversary of our move into the Iribe Center. We remain thankful for the private support and state funding that made this building possible.

We also remain committed to growing the vision of the building’s namesake, Brendan Iribe. The 215,000 square foot structure remains a powerhouse in computing education, while also incentivizing interdisciplinary research and innovation that will have an impact on the world.

That idea—research, education and innovation in computing that can change our world—is not exclusive to any one person. There are others that echo that thought, including our valued colleague and friend Rance Cleaveland, who passed away unexpectedly on March 27.

I encourage you to read our remembrance of Rance, who regularly put the mission and success of the organizations he was involved with above his own personal aspirations. His excellent record of teaching, research and service, deep institutional knowledge and positive attitude—no matter how challenging the circumstances—will be deeply missed, but not forgotten.

—Mihai Pop, UMIACS Director
 

Director's Message to UMIACS July '24

Hot enough for you?

If you’ve been in Maryland for much of the summer as I have, you’re acutely aware of the above-normal-temperatures we’re experiencing.

The science behind predicting extreme weather—including overbearing heat that can harm humans, animals and our environment—continues to progress, due in no small part to scientists having new tools based in computing.

This month’s newsletter touches on that topic, with a video overview of research and scholarship by Maria Molina, an assistant professor of oceanic and atmospheric science who is also a member of UMIACS.

Maria uses powerful data science and machine learning tools—some of which are managed by our institute—to solve pressing questions on predicting the volatility of Earth systems.

Her work is important, and I am particularly pleased that she’s collaborating with our machine learning and computational imaging experts—people like Chris Metzler and others—to improve weather and climate forecasts.

It’s not an outlier that UMIACS is involved the Earth sciences. When I started here 20 years ago, we were still active in land cover and land use research involving satellite imagery.

Some of that research has ended, but other UMIACS-based projects continue to address global challenges brought on by changing climatic conditions and weather-related factors.

Rita Colwell has been actively researching environmental conditions that can lead to outbreaks of waterborne diseases like cholera for decades; others, like Vanessa Frias-Martinez, are continuing their groundbreaking work in data science as it relates to predicting human movement patterns during catastrophes caused by severe weather.

Rita is a computational biologist. Vanessa is a data scientist based in the College of Information. But their work, and the work of many others active in the Earth sciences, relies on cutting-edge computing platforms.

I am proud of the work we do in this area. And I’ll continue to support UMIACS faculty, postdocs and students who are intent on using technology to improve the health and sustainability of our planet.

—Mihai Pop, UMIACS Director
 

Director's Message to UMIACS September '24

Welcome back to a busy Fall 2024 semester. A quick glance at this month’s newsletter shows a lot of activity over the summer—successful undergraduate internships, prestigious faculty awards, outstanding academic work by our graduate students and postdocs, and much more.

It never ceases to amaze me what a vibrant research community we have.

Some of the mechanisms that underlie our success are easily seen. This includes our faculty earning recognition from their peers and from professional organizations, or UMIACS researchers receiving significant external funding as a principal investigator or as part of an interdisciplinary team.

Other reasons for our success are more subdued, yet are equally as important.

As we began the semester, I sent an email out that offered thanks to the numerous UMIACS faculty that have volunteered to serve on our APT, steering and merit pay committees. This is important service work that keeps the institute functioning smoothly and helps immensely as we continue to move forward.

On that note, I want to offer a heartfelt “Thank You” to Joseph JaJa, who has dedicated much of his professional career to helping make UMIACS what it is today.

I encourage you to look at this issue's feature story that highlights Joseph’s successful journey at the University of Maryland, and his unwavering service to UMIACS. While officially retired, he still comes to his office in the Iribe Center on a regular basis, maintaining several longtime research collaborations he’s built while also exploring new ones.

Joseph has been an invaluable resource during my time as director of the institute. And he’s also a beacon of positivity to the many people he talks with—fellow faculty, our tech and business staff, and others—as he makes the trek from his office to our kitchen area several times each day for his beloved coffee.

Joseph’s commitment to service is certainly an inspiration to me. The impact that he’s had during his time here—for his students, fellow faculty members, and our staff—is quite large, and will remain that way for many years to come.

—Mihai Pop, UMIACS Director

Director's Message to UMIACS October '24

As we continue working through a busy fall semester, our newsletter is once again filled to the brim with important news updates.

Several of the stories amplify the interdisciplinary, cross-institutional partnerships that define much of our work. One example is Furong Huang and Tom Goldstein collaborating with researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Texas at Austin on autonomy in robotics.

Another is Michael Cummings and Ph.D. student Rana Khalil working with Parkinson’s disease experts at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.

And take a look at the work involving stroke assessment in a clinical setting that Amitabh Varshney is doing with the physician’s assistant program at UMB.

These are bold, innovative ideas that can have an impact on clinical care, medical training, safety in autonomous vehicles, and much more.

Less visible, yet vital to the projects described above, are the numerous people in UMIACS that help bring these ideas to fruition.

Like most faculty, I recognize the important contributions that our graduate students make to advancing research and scholarship on our campus. Sometimes this is easily acknowledged—the graduate student may earn a significant honor or be listed as first author on an academic paper.

Other times it's less obvious, although we all realize the untold hours that our grad students spend doing research, preparing for demos and talks, or presenting their work in poster sessions at academic conferences.

To the 200-plus graduate students that UMIACS currently supports, we say “Thank You.” Your contributions are vital to our success.

And while I have stated unequivocally—multiple times—that the staff support we have in UMIACS is second-to-none, it’s worth acknowledging again that the scientific discoveries we make are inextricably linked to the hard work done by our business, tech and communications staff.

All of the research funding managed by UMIACS requires multiple layers of support. This includes pre-and post-award management, assistance with purchasing, installing and maintaining equipment, and strategic communications that encourage internal and external stakeholders to collaborate with our institute.

It’s a team effort across the board. Our faculty researchers identify and execute bold ideas that will have a broad scientific and societal impact; our excellent staff and talented graduate students provide the bedrock of support to make these ideas happen.

Keep up the good work, everyone!

—Mihai Pop, UMIACS Director

Director's Message to UMIACS May '24

UMIACS recently hosted a trio of visitors tasked with conducting an external review of our institute. The reviewers came from academic units that somewhat mirror UMIACS—high-level, computing-focused groups at universities that require a team effort from faculty, students and staff to excel.

While a written report from our external reviewers has not yet been delivered, I was offered some anecdotal evidence through brief conversations with the committee members and those they spoke with.

UMIACS is doing very well. From our research endeavors to our computational infrastructure to the quality of our business operations and more, we set the bar high for how a top-tier research enterprise should operate.

This should be of little surprise to many members of our community. We collectively work hard, prodding each other in a focused yet professional way to improve our daily operations.

All the reviewers spoke of how impressed they were by our support staff. I may have even sensed a bit of envy from several of their comments!

Is there room for improvement? There is always room for improvement. That’s the purpose of a comprehensive external review—to highlight the good and identify areas that need attention.

But overall, I believe we came through the review process with flying colors. I cannot say enough how proud I am of the work done by each of you.

Thank you. Enjoy a break to recharge when the semester ends. We’ll see some of you over the summer and the rest of you this fall.

—Mihai Pop, UMIACS Director

Director's Message to UMIACS June '24

While the summer months offer a time to rest and recharge for many of us, the ongoing work in UMIACS continues unabated.

We continue to push forward together—making new discoveries, developing novel technologies, building interdisciplinary partnerships, garnering professional accolades, and welcoming new employees.

These topics, and more, are covered in this month’s newsletter. A common theme is that all our success stories involve teamwork.

Even individual awards and accolades—such as our adjunct faculty member and QuICS Fellow Alexey Gorshkov receiving an IEEE award for his groundbreaking work in quantum electronics—recognizes that success is rarely a solitary effort.

To quote Alexey from the article: “I am profoundly grateful to my numerous fantastic collaborators, including students and postdocs, and to my colleagues—all of these people were instrumental to completing the research that led to this award.”

This idea is echoed by Rachel Rudinger in response to her receiving the prestigious NSF CAREER award. “I am fortunate to work with a group of outstanding Ph.D. students here at the University of Maryland, and it is gratifying to be able to support them through an award that could not have materialized without their hard work.”

And Laxman Dhulipala, who was just honored by the ACM with its prestigious Kanellakis award, is quick to point out that the work he was recognized for would not have happened without his teammates. "It’s an incredible honor to have this collaborative work with Guy [Blelloch] and Julian [Shun] recognized by the ACM. They both have taught me a lot through the years,” he said.

I encourage all of you to reflect on the high level of professional camaraderie and collaboration we have in UMIACS. From pooling resources to purchase computing equipment to sharing a cup of coffee to brainstorm new ideas, the age-old concept of “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts” has worked well in UMIACS for decades.

I expect that we will continue our success—as a team—for years to come.

—Mihai Pop, UMIACS Director

Graduate Students

About UMD

The University of Maryland, College Park is the state's flagship university and one of the nation's preeminent public research universities. A global leader in research, entrepreneurship and innovation, the university is home to more than 40,700 students, 14,000 faculty and staff, and nearly 400,000 alumni all dedicated to the pursuit of Fearless Ideas. Located just outside Washington, D.C., UMD discovers and shares new knowledge every day through a renowned research enterprise and programs in academics, the arts and athletics. 

Computing Themes

At the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), we use an interdisciplinary approach and powerful computing resources to address grand challenges that can impact science and society.