News

Computer scientist Brent Waters of The University of Texas at Austin has been selected as a 2019 Simons Investigator in Theoretical Computer Science by the Simons Foundation, for his work in cryptography and computer security.

Computer scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have taught an artificial intelligence agent how to do something that usually only humans can do—take a few quick glimpses around and infer its whole environment, a skill necessary for the development of effective search-and-rescue robots that one day can improve the effectiveness of dangerous missions.

Peter Stone, a professor of computer science at The University of Texas at Austin, has won the Minnie Stevens Piper Teaching Award, which celebrates outstanding postsecondary teaching.

University of Texas at Austin computer science professor Kristen Grauman was elected a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), a lifetime honor.

Before she was winning awards at UT Austin, computer science sophomore Chineye Emeghara was teaching herself to code in high school with resources she discovered online. Later, on a trip to Nigeria, where her mother lived before immigrating to the U.S., she realized that she could apply her interest in technology to improve the lives of others.

In a New York Times article and on the Bay Area airwaves, University of Texas at Austin computer scientists are speaking out about the increasing demand for classes – and how the department, which is top-ten ranked, is coping with the challenge.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society, has named computer scientist Peter Stone and two other University of Texas at Austin faculty members as fellows. This year's AAAS fellows – members of the College of Natural Sciences, the Cockrell School of Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts – will be inducted at a February ceremony during the AAAS Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Professor Lili Qiu in the Department of Computer Science has been named an ACM Fellow by the Association for Computing Machinery.

Students at The University of Texas at Austin have a new tool to help them become better informed as voters. BeVote is a free cellphone app designed exclusively for UT students that provides accurate, nonpartisan information and was programmed by UT students.

The University of Texas at Austin is making plans to bring its top-ranked computer science graduate program to students and professionals beyond campus through a new online master's degree program. Pending final approval by UT System and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the university will partner with online learning provider edX to make UT's Top 10 computer science master's degree available to students around the world, affordably and on their own schedule.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, Yale University and Texas State University have been awarded $5 million by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as part of a program designed to spark the next wave of semiconductor innovation and circuit design in the U.S.

In honor of National Video Game Day (Sept. 12), we sat down with Dr. Paul Toprac, who leads the Games and Mobile Media Application (GAMMA) program at the University of Texas at Austin, to discuss the positives, negatives, misconceptions and future of gaming technology.

In the same way that barcodes on your groceries help stores know what's in your cart, DNA barcodes help biologists attach genetic labels to biological molecules to do their own tracking during research, including of how a cancerous tumor evolves, how organs develop or which drug candidates actually work. Unfortunately with current methods, many DNA barcodes have a reliability problem much worse than your corner grocer's. They contain errors about 10 percent of the time, making interpreting data tricky and limiting the kinds of experiments that can be reliably done.

Jacob Van Geffen started coding early. He loved the feeling of creating something from scratch. Before he came to The University of Texas at Austin, he knew that he wanted others to be able to experience that feeling as well. He was passionate about making programming easier and more accessible for all people.

Tuesday marks the 50^th anniversary of "2001: A Space Odyssey." The groundbreaking science-fiction film earned an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and appears on several of the American Film Institute's Top 100 lists. But what many remember best about the movie is HAL 9000, the murderous artificial intelligence aboard the spaceship that has been ranked cinema's 13^th best villain.