October 2023 - Gradstudents - mailman.cs.vt.edu

Jie Bu's Ph.D. defense [Feb 9 at 4 pm]
by Anuj Karpatne 02 Dec '24

02 Dec '24

Hello everyone, You are cordially invited to the final defense of PhD student Jie Bu on Thursday, Feb 9 at 4 pm. Zoom Link: https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/5142223333 Title: Achieving More with Less: Learning Generalizable Neural Networks With Less Labeled Data and Computational Overheads Committee: Dr. Anuj Karpatne (advisor) Dr. Adrian Sandu Dr. Ismini Lourentzou Dr. Naren Ramakrishnan Dr. Anish Arora (from Ohio State University) Abstract: Recent advancements in deep learning have demonstrated its incredible ability to learn generalizable patterns and relationships automatically from data in a number of mainstream applications. However, the generalization power of deep learning methods largely comes at the costs of working with very large datasets and using highly compute-intensive models. Many applications cannot afford these costs needed to ensure generalizability of deep learning models. For instance, obtaining labeled data can be costly in scientific applications, and using large models may not be feasible in resource-constrained environments involving portable devices. This thesis aims to improve efficiency in machine learning by exploring different ways to learn generalizable neural networks that require less labeled data and computational resources. We demonstrate that using physics supervision in scientific problems can reduce the need for labeled data, thereby improving data efficiency without compromising model generalizability. Additionally, we investigate the potential of transfer learning powered by transformers in scientific applications as a promising direction for further improving data efficiency through domain adaptation. On the computational efficiency side, we present two efforts for increasing parameter efficiency of neural networks through novel architectures and structured network pruning. Thanks, -Anuj ------------------- Anuj Karpatne Assistant Professor Computer Science, Virginia Tech https://people.cs.vt.edu/karpatne/

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Muskan Gupta's Thesis exam
by Sang Won Lee 02 May '24

02 May '24

Hi, You are cordially invited to Muskan Gupta's thesis exam. I've included the details below. Sang Won Lee *When/Where* 8/31/2023 (Thursday) 1 PM-3 PM The Gilbert Place Room 3211 *Committee* Sang Won Lee (Chair) Eugenia Rho Scott McCrickard *Title*: Understanding Social Media Users' Perceptions of Trigger and Content Warnings *Abstract*: Exposure to distressing content on social media poses risks to users' mental well-being, leading to the use of trigger warnings (TW) and content warnings (CW). However, there is limited insight into user preferences and the factors affecting these warnings' effectiveness. This study addressed this gap through qualitative interviews with 15 participants. Findings revealed generally positive user perceptions of warnings, which provide protection from distressing content, create safe spaces for sharing sensitive experiences, and avoid such content in public spaces. However, understanding when, what, and how to use warnings varied among users, leading to complex decision-making. Factors influencing warning effectiveness included their separation from content, length, awareness, consistency, context, severity, reasoning, creator's intent, and audience knowledge. Participants stressed the need for enhanced education on warnings and triggers in social media. The study produced design recommendations, including personalized filtering, platform guidelines, specificity, nudging creators, interventions against excessive scrolling, accessibility improvements, and community feedback mechanisms. Participants also suggested post-trigger support measures. The study uncovers challenges in balancing warnings with user engagement, specificity, and personalization while avoiding the creation of filter bubbles. While the study spanned various platforms, future research should focus on specific platforms to address limitations like recruitment bias and broad scope. Future directions include incentivizing warning use, implementing nudges and interventions, and improving post-trigger support, as well as investigating audio triggers and quantitative studies for refined TW/CW design to promote a trauma-informed social media environment.

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Ashrith Reddy Thukkaraju's Master Thesis Final Defense (11/6/2023)
by Cho, Jin-Hee 31 Oct '23

31 Oct '23

Dear CS graduate students and faculty members, You are invited to Ashrith Reddy Thukkaraju's Master Thesis Final Defense. Thesis Title: Interdependent Mission Impact Assessment of an IoT System with Hypergame-Theoretic Attack-Defense Behavior Modeling Date and Time: 11:30 AM, November 6th Place: Zoom(https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/2333217238) Thesis Abstract: Mission impact assessment (MIA) research has been explored to evaluate the performance and effectiveness of a mission system, such as enterprise networks with organizational missions and military or tactical mission teams with assigned missions. The key components in such mission systems, including assets, services, tasks, vulnerability, attacks, and defenses, are interdependent, and their impacts are interwoven. However, the current state-of-the-art MIA approaches have less studied such interdependencies. In addition, they have not modeled strategic attack-defense interactions under partial observability. In this work, we propose a novel MIA framework that assesses measures of performance (MoP) or measures of effectiveness (MoE) based on the service requirements (e.g., correctness or timeliness) of a given mission system based on full and comprehensive modeling and simulation of the key system components and their interdependencies. Particularly, we model intelligent attack-defense strategy selections based on hypergame theory, which allows considering uncertainty in estimating each player's hypergame expected utility (HEU) for its best strategy selection. As the case study, we consider an Internet-of-Things (IoT)-based mission system aiming to accurately and timely detect an object, given stringent accuracy and time constraints for successful mission completion. Via extensive simulation experiments, we validate the quality of the proposed MIA tool in its inference accuracy of the mission performance under a wide range of different environmental settings hindering the mission performance assessment and attack-defense interactions. Our results prove that the developed MIA framework shows a sufficiently high inference accuracy (e.g., 80%) even with a small portion of the training dataset (e.g., 20-50%). We also found the MIA can better assess the system's mission performance when attackers exhibit clearer patterns to take more strategic actions using hypergame theory. Thank you! Best, Jin-Hee

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Fwd: 2% Graduate Compensation Memo
by Cal Ribbens 30 Oct '23

30 Oct '23

CS Gradstudents, There are probably more details in the attached than you care to read through. But for those of you on an assistantship, this is just to confirm that GRA and GTA stipends will increase effective December 10. Thanks for all you do to help the department succeed! Dr. Ribbens -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: 2% Graduate Compensation Memo Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 19:09:18 +0000 From: Bonsall, Diane <dbonsall(a)vt.edu> On behalf of Ken Miller, Vice President for Finance and University Treasurer, please find attached the Graduate Compensation memo. *Diane Bonsall* Executive Assistant to the Vice President for Finance and University Treasurer and to the Assistant Vice President and Associate Treasurer 220 Gilbert Street, Suite 5100 Blacksburg, VA 24061 dbonsall(a)vt.edu <mailto:dbonsall@vt.edu> | 540-231-2977

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Participant Needed for Augmented Reality (AR) Research Study
by Shakiba Davari 27 Oct '23

27 Oct '23

*(NOTE:* If you receive this email on a list-serve, to protect your own confidentiality and refrain from spamming the list-serve, please make sure you “*Do not Reply All*” to this email.) You are invited to participate in a user study conducted by the 3D Interaction group. *Location:* Gilbert Place, Room 3212, 220 Gilbert Street, Blacksburg, VA 24060. *Title:* IRB #23-879: Exploring the Design of Context-Aware Augmented Reality Interfaces for Document Navigation *Purpose:* This study explores the user experience and performance of various AR interfaces in different contexts. *Inclusion Criteria: * Participation in this study is open to English speaker adults who are: 1) aged *at least* *18 years*. 2) able to understand *spoken and written English* and can carry on a conversation in English. 3) capable of *standing up, walking, and performing hand gestures* independently. 4) have (perfect or corrected) *normal vision* (eyeglasses are supported). *Key Information: * · The research study will take approximately *120 minutes* to complete. · Participants who complete the session will receive a $15 compensation for their time. · You will be asked to wear a Microsoft HoloLens 2 AR device to experience and provide your feedback on various AR user interfaces. · The study tasks involve using hand gestures to interact with virtual documents that are placed in the real world around you and have conversations with virtual avatars while seated or walking in an indoor space. · Participation in this study is confidential, completely voluntary, and will not impact your grades or academic performance in any way. · Participation in this study will not result in any significant benefits. However, the participants will get the chance to interact with state-of-the-art AR equipment and experience futuristic methods of interacting with digital content. This project is supervised by Professor Doug Bowman and has been approved, as required, by the Virginia Tech Institutional Review Board under protocol #23-879. For more information, please review the consent form document, attached to this email, which describes in detail the experimental purpose and procedures, benefits, and risks of your participation. Participation in this study is on a first-come, first-serve basis. Should you need more information or have any questions or concerns regarding this study, *please contact Shakiba Davari** (sdavari(a)vt.edu <sdavari(a)vt.edu>).* *Cheers,* *Shakiba Davari* *Ph.D. Student, **3D-Interaction Group, **Computer Science**, * *Virginia Tech* *Pronoun: She/her * *E-mail <sdavari(a)vt.edu> | Website <https://sites.google.com/vt.edu/sdavari>| 3DI-Lab <https://research.cs.vt.edu/3di/> *

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CRA Annual Survey for Students
by Mayo, Trey 27 Oct '23

27 Oct '23

Dear Student, The Computing Research Association (CRA) is interested in career development among students in computing fields. To that end, I encourage you to complete their survey, which will take about 25 minutes to complete. Your contribution to this research helps us understand factors related to academic retention and persistence. In exchange for your time, you will be given the opportunity to enter a raffle to win one of ten $20.00(USD) Amazon gift cards! If you are interested in completing the survey, please follow the link below: https://cerp.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9vFybdrfLKUkVcq/?id=vt_cs Note that if you completed a survey for CRA in the past, you may have been contacted directly by CRA. If you have already completed this survey, please disregard this message. Many thanks! ============================================================== Trey Mayo, Ed.D. Director of Graduate Programs Virginia Tech | Department of Computer Science Torgersen Hall Suite 3210 620 Drillfield Drive (MC 0106) | Blacksburg, VA 24061 (540) 231-0780 | treymayo(a)vt.edu<mailto:treymayo@vt.edu> | http://cs.vt.edu<http://cs.vt.edu/>

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[Sysreading] There is no system reading group today
by Na Meng 26 Oct '23

26 Oct '23

Hi all, Sorry for this late note: Due to the VT game day today, we feel that it can be difficult for students and faculty members to park on campus and attend the system reading group meeting originally scheduled for today. Therefore, we just decided to cancel it. Our presenter Wenjia Song, who signed up for today's presentation, will get her talk rescheduled to some date next semester. Cheers, Na -- *Na Meng, Associate Professor* Virginia Tech | Computer Science (0902) Gilbert Place, Suite 4311A 220 Gilbert Street, Blacksburg, VA 24060 (540) 231-5492 | nm8247(a)vt.edu

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Blacksburg Graduate Programs Office Operations - 10/26/23
by Mayo, Trey 26 Oct '23

26 Oct '23

The Blacksburg Graduate Programs Office will be closed today, Thursday, October 26th due to the football game on campus this evening. Our staff will be working remotely and available via phone and email to address your needs. We will return to the office on Friday, October 27th. Thanks and GO HOKIES! ============================================================== Trey Mayo, Ed.D. Director of Graduate Programs Virginia Tech | Department of Computer Science Torgersen Hall Suite 3210 620 Drillfield Drive (MC 0106) | Blacksburg, VA 24061 (540) 231-0780 | treymayo(a)vt.edu<mailto:treymayo@vt.edu> | http://cs.vt.edu<http://cs.vt.edu/>

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CS graduate seminar this Friday, October 27, 2:30PM, Torgersen 3100
by Calvin Ribbens 25 Oct '23

25 Oct '23

We have a great opportunity this week to hear from a multidisciplinary team that has been working for several years on the grand challenge problem of antibiotic resistance. Amy Pruden (Civil & Environmental Engineering), Lenny Heath (CS), and Liqing Zhang (CS) will describe both the science and engineering challenges posed by this problem, and the computer science research challenges and breakthroughs that can help meet these challenges. Seminar abstract <https://website.cs.vt.edu/research/Seminars/Pruden-Heath-Zhang.html>. Please join us for a great example of research at the intersection of computer science and civil/environmental engineering. In person attendance is strongly encouraged. For those that need Zoom <https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/89995088537?pwd=NCtqMlNBTEV0Q3QvOENVR2FXRDNa…>, that option should be available as well. Dr. Ribbens

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CS|Source: Weekly Announcements and Professional Opportunities
by Watson, Joan 25 Oct '23

25 Oct '23

[cid:641013bb-550e-42ee-b214-6466fff6b0ba] "Hokies Bleed Maroon" Blood Drive Event October 30, 31 & November 1 The American Red Cross, in collaboration with the VT Corps of Cadets, is hosting a blood drive event on October 30, 31, and November 1. Blood donors of all blood types are urgently needed, as the U.S. currently faces a blood shortage. Please see the attached flyer for more information and event details. CS Graduate Students are invited to apply! The Ph.D. program at the Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management at VT is designed as a 4-year program to support students to develop the knowledge and the research skills to address the critical challenges and problems faced by hospitality and tourism businesses. This program offers a Ph.D. in business with a concentration in hospitality and tourism management. (See attached flyer for more information.) CS Undergraduates (majors + minors): Employer Panel (1): Preparing to be a Professional Thursday, November 2, 2023 | 5:30-7:00 PM 2150 Torgersen Hall (Enrollment limited to 250 seats) Registration Required: Click HERE<https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=hGiVYK0Q-kCGPU8yweOjeon…> to register Join representatives from Peraton, CoStar, and Geico for a lively panel discussion about making the transition from student to intern/employee. Learn about best practices for securing an internship and communicating your professionalism. Gain a better understanding of employers' expectations regarding professionalism and why it is important to understand aspects of "workplace culture." Contact Joan for more information (jmwatson(a)vt.edu<mailto:%20jmwatson@vt.edu>). Employer Panel (2): Ask Us Anything! Wednesday, November 15, 2023 | 5:30-7:00 PM 1100 Torgersen Hall (Enrollment limited to 80 seats) Registration Required: Click HERE<https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=hGiVYK0Q-kCGPU8yweOjeon…> to register. Are you wondering... * Are internships really that important? * How can I be more competitive for internships? * What are some best practices for interviewing? * What should my resume look like? * What are the best ways to market myself to potential employers? * What sorts of things are employers looking for? * What is a day in the life of a professional in your company look like? Come prepared with these questions and more to ask representatives from Bloomberg, CGI Federal, CapTech, Peraton, and CoStar. Contact Joan for more information (jmwatson(a)vt.edu<mailto:%20jmwatson@vt.edu>). *************** Joan Monahan Watson, Ph.D. Director of Administrative Operations Department of Computer Science Virginia Tech 1180C Torgersen Hall 620 Drillfield Drive Blacksburg, VA 24061 Phone: 540.231.8874 Email: jmwatson(a)vt.edu<mailto:jmwatson@vt.edu>

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