College of Computing and Informatics

UNC Charlotte is taking another significant move to stake its claim as a national leader in data analytics.

The Data Science Initiative at UNC Charlotte will convene the Analytics Frontiers Conference on Wednesday, March 30, to address the latest updates in the high-powered use of technology to analyze massive amounts of data generated by consumers and organizations.

UNC Charlotte will host a Women + Video Games Festival Monday through Sunday, Feb. 15-21. Through a series of workshops, lectures, panel discussions and video screenings, the festival will encourage women and girls to explore game design and programming and to promote a creative gaming culture that is inclusive of individuals, regardless of gender, race or creed.

Jing Xiao, professor of computer science in the College of Computing and Informatics, is one of two recipients of the 2016 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Robotics and Automation Society Distinguished Service Award.

The honor recognizes individuals who have performed outstanding services to benefit the advancement of the IEE Robotics and Automation Society.

“This is a very prestigious award in the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society,” said Xiao. “I am truly honored and also humbled to receive it.”

William Ribarsky, Bank of America Endowed Chair in Information Technology in the College of Computing and Informatics, was named chair of the IEEE Computer Society Transactions Operations Committee and member of the society’s Publications Board.

The Charlotte chapter of the Society of Information Management (SIM) has established a $25,000 endowed scholarship to support the College of Computing and Informatics’ Women in Computing Initiative.

Sen. Richard Burr was one of the keynote speakers for this year’s Cyber Security Symposium; he discusses the role of academia in the field of cyber security.

Jing Xiao, professor of computer science in the College of Computing and Informatics, is on the 2015 Robohub listing of “25 Women in Robotics You Need to Know About.”

Xiao’s research spans robotics, haptics and intelligent systems. An IEEE Fellow, Xiao is site director of the U.S. National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Robots and Sensors for Human Wellbeing. During her academic career, she has authored more than 130 publications in journals, books and for major robotics conferences, and she holds one patent.

Speaking to a crowd of more than 500 students, faculty and business people, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) praised UNC Charlotte for providing the educational programs and research to advance cyber protection and combat cyber terrorism.

The senator said cyber terrorism is one of the primary threats to national security, and he noted that the “number one (cyber) security concern” are everyday ploys by cyber terrorists that trick people into opening bogus emails that allow access to confidential information.

Junjie Shan and Jinyue Xia, doctoral students in the College of Computing and Informatics, recently took second place in HackNC 2015 at UNC Chapel Hill. Their creation “CrowdFood” was the second-best overall application at the 24-hour hack-a-thon.

The application was designed to help individuals find food quickly by estimating wait times for restaurants. Xia developed the iOS app that supported collecting and showing real-time user reports, while Shan created the Web app to display the reports. UNC Chapel Hill student Hongkun Ge provided development support.

Eric Saule, an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department in the College of Computing and Informatics, will present the webinar “Toward Machine Oblivious Graph Analysis” at noon, Tuesday, Oct. 6. This event is part of the DataByte lunchtime webinar series sponsored by the National Consortium for Data Science (NCDS).

Saule, who also is an NCDS Fellow, will talk about his work to develop a framework for performing efficient graph analysis regardless of the type of analysis being performed or the computer system used.