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Colloquium Talk with Michael Kearns: The Ethical Algorithm

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Julia Corso • 0 Comments

Dr. Michael Kearns, of UPENN and co-author of The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design, will give a virtual colloquium talk on Friday, March 12 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM. Dr. Kearns is known for his work in the fields of machine learning, algorithmic game theory, and computational social science.

See below for more information about Dr. Kearns and the links for the event.

Abstract: Many recent mainstream media articles and popular books have raised alarms over antisocial algorithmic behavior, especially regarding machine learning and artificial intelligence. The concerns include leaks of sensitive personal data by predictive models, algorithmic discrimination as a side effect of machine learning, and inscrutable decisions made by complex models. While standard and legitimate responses to these phenomena include calls for stronger and better laws and regulations, researchers in machine learning, statistics, and related areas are also working on designing better-behaved algorithms. An explosion of recent research in areas such as differential privacy, algorithmic fairness, and algorithmic game theory is forging a new science of socially aware algorithm design. Kearns will survey these developments and attempt to place them in a broader societal context. This talk is based on the book The Ethical Algorithm, co-authored with Aaron Roth (Oxford University Press).

Speaker Bio: Michael Kearns is a professor in the Computer and Information Science Department and the National Center Chair at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has secondary appointments in the departments of Economics, Statistics, and Operations, Information and Decisions (OID) in the Wharton School. He is the Founding Director of the Warren Center for Network and Data Sciences, founded and directed the Networked and Social Systems Engineering (NETS) Program at Penn. He is also a faculty affiliate in the Applied Math and Computational Science graduate program of the university. Outside of Penn, he is affiliated with the Santa Fe Institute as an external faculty member and, since June 2020, he started a role at Amazon as part of their Scholars Program, focusing on algorithmic fairness, privacy, machine learning, and related topics within Amazon Web Services (AWS). He has extensive research experience in quantitative and algorithmic trading on wall street, working with several large financial institutes, including Lehman Brothers, BOA, SAC Capital, and Morgan Stanley. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Alan Turing Institute and of the Market Surveillance Advisory Group of FINRA. He is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), and the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory.

Zoom Meeting (ID: 977 8863 9845 / Password: 277574)
https://tcnj.zoom.us/j/97788639845?pwd=eTd1cVhUamlVN2ZQWUZiazQ5RVFLdz09
YouTube Live Stream
https://youtu.be/suuHqXOfJn4

Spring 2021 Internship Information Sessions

Posted on February 26, 2021 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

Spring 2021

REMINDER: All CS Majors are required to attend one internship information session before they can apply for internship (CSC 399) for credit.

Be sure to check Dr. Papamichail’s website and come prepared with any additional questions you might have.

Wednesday, March 3 (6:00 – 6:45 PM)
Tuesday, March 16 (7:00 – 7:45 PM)

Zoom session link: https://tcnj.zoom.us/j/98358115019?pwd=eFFqVzB3Smw3TzlWN3E4V1BtMkI0Zz09

Hold the Date!: Michael Kearns to Give Colloquium Talk

Posted on February 24, 2021 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

Michael Kearns talk

Hold the date! Dr. Michael Kearns, of UPENN and co-author of The Ethical Algorithm: The Science of Socially Aware Algorithm Design, will give a virtual colloquium talk on Friday, March 12 from 12:30 – 1:30 PM. Dr. Kearns is know for his work in the fields of machine learning, algorithmic game theory, and computational social science. A full biography and abstract will be available in the coming weeks.

Call for Spring 2021 CS Student Volunteer Representatives

Posted on February 9, 2021 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

The Computer Science Department is once again looking for CS majors to help with upcoming Department and School of Science recruiting events and activities, all of which will be conducted virtually this semester. Department faculty are also looking for volunteers who would be interested in writing letters to our accepted students this spring; some of you may have even been recipients of these letters in the past!

Please complete the following Qualtrics survey if you are interested in helping with any of these events or activities: https://tcnj.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6lBGO5rNlz7czJA

You can email cs@tcnj.edu if you need any more information or need to share updated availability later in the semester.

Dean’s List: Fall 2020

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

Congratulations to our 82 CS majors who made the Dean’s List for Fall 2020!

Dean's List:

CS Junior’s Poster Accepted to the 2021 SIGCSE ACM Student Research Conference

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

Congratulations to CS Major Luke Kurlandski (Class of 2022) on his poster’s acceptance to the ACM Student Research Competition at the 2021 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium!

Luke’s poster on CABPortal, entitled “Evaluating ML Recommender Systems Without Interactions Data”, will be presented at the March 2021 virtual conference. CABPortal (Collaborating Across Boundaries Portal) is a web application that promotes collaboration between researchers in different academic disciplines. An effective recommendation system would be beneficial for the site, but CABPortal does not have a history of user behavior to train a recommender engine on. This semester, Luke researched a strategy to develop, test, and evaluate an ML-based (machine learning-based) recommendation system for CABPortal by using synthetically-generated artificial training data. This poster is based on work done with Dr. Pulimood, through mentored research and partially funded through Dr. Pulimood’s Barbara Meyers Pelson grant and NSF Award #191486.

For more information on the SIGCSE Technical Symposium, see: https://sigcse2021.sigcse.org/

CS Alumna Donation Will Support Scholarship for Grace Hopper Celebration Attendee

Posted on December 3, 2020 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

Computer Science Department alumna Jennifer Gandolfo (Class of 1997) has generously donated to the CS Department to support a scholarship for a woman CS major to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration.

The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is an annual fall event at which women in tech (including some of CS @ TCNJ’s very own students and faculty) gather to participate in professional development workshops and technical seminars, network with peers in the industry, and attend the career fair. While the GHC is typically held in-person, this year’s event was held virtually, and was attended by Dr. Pulimood and CS Majors Adeena Ahmed and Hana Memon.

Gandolfo’s donation will fund travel and conference expenses for one woman CS major to attend the event.

Thank you again to Jennifer for her generous donation and support of students in the CS @ TCNJ program!

Photos below are from previous years’ Grace Hopper Celebration events attended by CS Majors.

: CS alumna Brittany Reedman (Class of 2018, right) received a Facebook scholarship to attend GHC 2017

: CS alumna Sophie Goldberg (Class of 2020) was selected as a CRA-W GHC Research Scholar at the 2017 event

: CS alums Shm Almeda and Maddie Febinger (both Class of 2020) presented their research paperat the student poster sessions at GHC 2019

: CS alumna Ananya Srinivasan (Class of 2018, second from right) received a scholarship from Pivotal Ventures (an organization created by Melinda Gates for aiding women in advancing their careers) to attend GHC 2017

Celebration of Computing: December 2, 2020

Posted on November 30, 2020 by Ann Zsilavetz • 0 Comments

This year’s Celebration of Computing presentations will be live streamed on YouTube.

Streaming links have been shared with students via mailing lists.
Please contact cs@tcnj.edu if you have any questions about the schedule.

Student Presentations: 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM

Students who are taking CSC 099 and CSC 199 were assigned a poster to review. Please use the Qualtrics Survey link provided by your instructor to submit your response. Please note that you must identify yourself in the survey (in the appropriate survey field) in order for your review to be counted toward your course requirements.