College of Computing and Informatics

The UNC System Board of Governors has approved UNC Charlotte’s request to offer a Professional Science Master’s (PSM) degree in Data Science and Business Analytics (DSBA) starting in fall 2014.  This groundbreaking curriculum is the result of an unprecedented collaboration between the College of Computing and Informatics and the Belk College of Business, as it links the science and business of data.

University leaders note the curriculum will produce talented graduates to meet the 21st-century demands of business and industry.

Congressman Patrick McHenry (10th District) and Brett Keeter (’99), congressional district director and former UNC Charlotte Alumni Association president, recently visited campus to learn more about UNC Charlotte’s Data Science and Business Analytics initiative.

In addition to meetings with Chancellor Philip L. Dubois and Bob Wilhelm, vice chancellor for economic development and research, McHenry and Keeter observed several project demonstrations related to Big Data at the University’s Charlotte Visualization Center.

Sanjaya Mayadunne, a doctoral student in computing and information systems (business information systems and operations management track), will defend “Competitive Store Closing During an Economic Downturn: A Mathematical Programming Approach” at 12:30 p.m., Thursday, May 1, in the Friday Building, Room 381. Cem Saydam and Monica Johar are the dissertation advisors.

Libin Bai, a doctoral student in software and information systems in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “Stability and Performance of Networked Control Systems” at 3 p.m., Friday, March 14, in Woodward Hall, Room 338. Sheng-Guo Wang and Yongge Wang are the dissertation advisors.

Amar Saric, a doctoral student in computing and information systems in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “An Approach to Reducing Parameter Uncertainty for Robotic Surface Assembly Tasks’ at 12:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 21, in the College of Health and Human Services, Room 436. Jing Xiao is the dissertation advisor.

Microsoft researchers have designed a smart bra that can detect stress, according to an online BBC news article. UNC Charlotte alumna Erin Carroll (Ph.D. ’13, computing and information systems) was the lead on the project during a research internship at Microsoft in summer 2012. She also completed a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University in 2008.

Twitter and Facebook are popular social media tools for communication, and for researchers in the College of Computing and Informatics (CCI) Charlotte Visualization Center, they are providing key insights into consumer behavior.
Eight faculty members from CCI and the Belk College of Business have been looking at social media and what information can be extracted about customer behavior or potential customer behavior, according to William Ribarsky, chair of the Department of Computer Science and director of the Charlotte Visualization Center. 

Amanda Mostafavi, a doctoral student in computer science in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “Personalized Indexing of Music by Emotions” at 9 a.m., Tuesday, Nov. 26, in the College of Health and Human Services, Room 426. Zbigniew Ras is the dissertation advisor.

“Semantic Technologies in IBM Watson” is a new course for UNC Charlotte’s College of Computing and Informatics starting in spring 2014, and the University is one of only three in the country to offer it.
The class, which will cover text analytics with IBM Watson and its business applications, will be taught by Associate Professor Wlodek Zadrozny, who was a core member of the Watson team from 2008-12. 

Ning Zhou, a doctoral student in computing and information systems in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “Hierarchical Learning of Discriminative Features and Classifiers for Large-scale Visual Recognition” at 1 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 26, in the College of Health and Human Services, Room 145. Jianping Fan is the dissertation advisor.