College of Computing and Informatics

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.

Carla Bendezu, a computer science major in the College of Computing and Informatics, was recognized for her leadership and commitment to underrepresented students in area schools. For her work, she received the Outstanding Corps Student from STARS (Students in Technology, Academia, Research and Service).

Scott Heggen, a Ph.D. student in the College of Computing and Informatics, received a national Presidential Service Award presented by Citizen Schools.  

Ayman Hajja, a Ph.D. student in computing and information systems in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “Object-driven and Temporal Action Rules Mining” at 11 a.m., Thursday, Nov. 7, in the College of Health and Human Services, Room 426. Zbigniew Ras is the dissertation advisor.

Master’s student Khalia Braswell made the most of an invitation from a friend to participate in the 2013 Focus 100 Global Mobile Hackathon – she turned it into a winning effort.
Braswell, pursing a graduate degree in the College of Computing and Informatics Department of Software and Information Systems, was invited by a friend who attends Clemson University to join her team.

Andrea Nickel, a doctoral student in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “Designing Better Exergames: Application of Flow Concepts and the FITT Principle to Full Body Exertion Games and Flexible Challenge Systems” at 1:45 p.m., Monday, Oct. 28, in Woodward Hall, Room 338. Tiffany Barnes is the dissertation advisor.

Khaldoon Dhou, a doctoral student in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “Toward Better Understanding of Users’ Perception in Tag Clouds: Size Judgment and Comparison” at 11 a.m., Monday, Nov. 4, in the Student Union, Room 340C. Mirsad Hadzikadic is the dissertation advisor.

Emmanuel Bello-Ogunu, a doctoral student in the College of Computing and Informatics (CCI), is the 2013-14 recipient of a Google United Negro College Fund  (UNCF) Scholarship. This $10,000 award, funded in part by the UNCF, is presented annually to a select group of African American students pursuing a computer science/engineering degree.