OU CS Programming gets another honor

Congratulations to the CS Programming Team for placing second in the ACM South Central Division Competition! The team placed first last year and proves to be a force to be reckoned with! Congratulations Coach Hougen, Caleb Eggensperger, Braden McDorman, and Allen Smith!

The School of Computer Science is proud of the accomplishment of one of its faculty members: Dr Amy McGovern. Dr McGovern was awarded the 2012 Teaching Scholar Initiative Award for teaching excellence. The Teaching Scholars Initiative is a colloquium under the guidance of the Center for Teaching Excellence. Their mission is to give faculty an outlet to share their experiences in order to improve student learning at OU.
Congratulations Dr McGovern!

In the midst of the mid-terms, a CS student can find himself/herself wonder what made him/her choose this major in the first place.
If you need to be reassured, take a look at this article by Ted Samson in InfoWorld:
In "Demand for software engineers keeps climbing -- and so do the salaries", Samson details how the increased demand for software engineers is behind increasing salaries, with firms often competing to attract the brightest minds. On average, a software engineer can expect to make about $92,000 a year but this number can easily go up to six figures.
We hope this was enough motivation to get you through your midterms!

OUCS's Mark Woehrer wins ALife 13 Best Paper Award

Mark Woehrer at ALife 13

The paper "Sexual Selection, Resource Distribution, and Population Size in Synthetic Sympatric Speciation"(paper) by Mark Woehrer, Dean Hougen, and Ingo Schlupp won the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on the Synthesis and Simulation of Living Systems (ALife).  This is the top honor of the world's premier conference on artificial life.  This paper is based on Dr. Woehrer's doctoral dissertation in Computer Science, conducted under the direction of Profs. Hougen (School of Computer Science) and Schlupp (Department of Biology).

Game Changer Research Aims to Forecast Tornadoes

Dr. Amy McGovern

From an article on Science Nation:


 "Tornadoes claim hundreds of lives and cause billions of dollars in damages in the United States. But the tornado outbreak across the South on April 27, 2011, was startling, even for veteran forecasters such as Greg Carbin at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, Okla.
"Through the 24-hour loop here, almost 200 tornadoes had occurred in that period of time and, unfortunately, over 315 fatalities. Primarily Alabama was hit hardest but also fatalities in Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and Virginia for this event," says Carbin.
As the warning coordination meteorologist at SPC, he would like to see tools that could help predict these killer storms." 



Dr. McGovern and her team of researchers are working to develop the tools necessary to predict these storms.  Read the full story here...

Bradley Pirtle Receives Astronaut Scholarship Award

NORMAN, OKLA. – Apollo astronaut Charlie Duke will present University of Oklahoma (OU) student Bradley Pirtle with a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) during a public presentation and ceremony, September 28, 2011 at 1 p.m. in room 200 of the ExxonMobil Lawrence G. Rawl Engineering Practice Facility at OU. More information can be found here.

Dr. Thulasiraman Begins New "NeTS" NSF Project

Dr. Thulasiraman

Award Date:        August 1, 2011 - July 2014 
Award No.           CNS-1115130     
Proposal No.        CNS-1115130    

Title: 
NeTS: Small: Collaborative Research: Cross Layer Survivability to Cascading Failures in Layered Networks

ABSTRACT:

The objective of this research is to carry out a novel study of network survivability across layers to deal with cascading failures in layered networks. This research will be in the context of IP-over-WDM optical networks, with a focus on multiple failures in the physical (optical) layer and their consequences at the higher layer, namely the IP layer.  Specifically, the broad scope of the project covers i) Survivable logical topology mapping under multiple failures, ii) Logical topology mapping for guaranteed survivability, iii) Logical topology mapping under multiple constraints, and iv) A generalized theory of flows across layers, capacity of survivable logical topologies and related algorithmic challenges.

The intellectual merits of the proposed research lie in developing unifying theories and methodologies that will make significant advances to the understanding of cross-layer survivability issues, and providing the theoretical foundation for future advances in the general area of cross-layer design and optimization.  The research team will build these theories on modern advances in graph theory, mathematical programming and algorithm design. Innovative algorithmic techniques based on advanced data structures and computer algorithms such as approximation techniques will be developed. A generalized theory of cross layer flows that will go well beyond the widely used classical theory of single layer flows will be developed.

Besides the above intellectual merits, the research also has several broader impacts. WDM Optical networks form the critical backbone of all modern communication networks and systems. Modern communication systems consist of multiple physical implementations communicating via layered protocols. As such, a single failure at one layer may lead to cascading failures, i.e., failures at the physical layer lead to failures at the logical layer. Research in this area of cross-layer survivability is still in its infancy. Though IP-Over-WDM networks will provide the context for this research, the theory of cross layer flows and the algorithmic (in particular approximation) techniques that will be developed will have multidisciplinary value spanning several STEM related areas: computer science, electrical engineering, graph theory, mathematical programming, and the emerging area of network science.  Besides extending the frontiers of knowledge in cross layer theory, the research will have significant educational value in training highly skilled researchers for research and development in cutting edge technologies in different areas of information technology. The training program will have a specific focus on training undergraduate students for future leadership in STEM areas.