Location
Javits Lecture Center, Room 102
Event Description

All are welcome to attend. Attendance and filling out the sign-in sheet is only required for those currently enrolled in CSE 600.

We will have four different sessions:

(1) Hong Qin, Professor (2:30pm - 2:50pm)
Title: Visual Computing and Virtual Environments

(2) Xiaojun Bi, Assistant Professor (2:50pm - 3:10pm)
Title: Principles, Algorithms, and Interfaces of Touchscreen Text Entry Systems
Abstract: Text entry is one of the most basic, common and important tasks on Post-PC computing devices such as smartphones and tablets. However, entering text on a touchscreen keyboard is inherently error-prone and challenging, because of the imprecision of finger touch and small key sizes. In this talk, I will introduce how I and my collaborators have been working to address this challenge. First of all, we have derived mathematical models and principles for designing the modern smart touchscreen keyboard, which is able to correct and predict the words a user intends to enter based on the noisy and incomplete spatial signals from touch input, and the knowledge from language models. Applying rigorous mathematical optimization methods, we have designed a keyboard that is able to correct 70% of user’s erroneous input and save 37% of keystrokes. Second, to allow users to gesture words while holding a device in two hands, we have designed and implemented the bimanual gesture keyboard, extending the gesture typing paradigm from one finger to multiple fingers. Third, we explored the optimality space for keyboard layout design. Our effort led to new layouts more efficient and accurate than Qwerty. We also investigated how to improve the learnability of the optimized layouts. From these innovations, we hope to provide users efficient, intelligent, and natural text entry experiences on various touchscreen devices.

(3) Michalis Polychronakis, Assistant Professor (3:10pm - 3:30pm)
Title: Improving our Digital Security and Privacy
Abstract: Overview of the research in the areas of cyber security and privacy that takes place at Stony Brook University.
Bio: Michalis Polychronakis is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stony Brook University. He received the B.Sc.(’03), M.Sc. (’05), and Ph.D. (’09) degrees in Computer Science from the University of Crete, Greece, while working as a research assistant in the Distributed Computing Systems Lab at FORTH-ICS. Before joining Stony Brook, he was an Associate Research Scientist at Columbia University.
His main research interests are in the areas of network and system security, network monitoring and measurement, and online privacy.

(4) Romeil Sandhu, Assistant Professor (3:30pm - 3:50pm)
Title: Faculty Research Overview of Bioinformatics
Abstract: In this talk, we will briefly provide an overview of on-going faculty research in bioinformatics at Stony Brook University. This will include topics in theoretical computer science, networks, control theory, multi-scale modeling, machine learning and scalable data management as they pertain to biological applications. This talk will be geared towards Masters and Ph.D. students who interested in pursuing research opportunities in traditional areas of computer science with a biological emphasis.
Bio: Romeil Sandhu is currently an Assistant Professor at Stony Brook with appointments in Bioinformatics, Computer Science, and Applied Mathematics & Statistics Departments. He first received his B.S., M.S., Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Electrical Engineering in 2006, 2009, and 2011 respectively. Prior to his academic position at Stony Brook, he formed a startup providing government services based off his thesis work with a successful exit. His current research interest spans a variety of interdisciplinary research areas that includes complex networks, computer vision, mathematical oncology, shape analysis, systems biology, contagion dynamics, and machine learning with a common underlying interest lying on the intersection of geometry, statistics, and control.

Event Title
CSE 600: Faculty Overview Talk