March 2026 - Gradstudents - mailman.cs.vt.edu

Call for Nominations: 2026-27 CS Graduate Council
by Moussad, Bernard 06 Apr '26

06 Apr '26

Dear graduate students, On behalf of the CS Graduate Council, I'm excited to announce that it’s time for the election of new officers for the 2026-2027 academic year! Grad Council is a great opportunity to showcase your leadership and dedication to service. For me, serving as president has given me a great opportunity to understand how our department operates from the faculty viewpoint and a chance to speak up on behalf of the grad students I’ve come to know and care for! If you know someone who would make a great CS Grad Counciler, or you yourself are (even vaguely) interested in serving on Grad Council for the next academic year, fill out this form: https://forms.gle/J1ukZ7JUfRNyzNwh6 Nominations will be open for the next two weeks (i.e. submit the nomination form by April 9th, 2026, 11:59 PM EDT). Self nominations are welcome and encouraged! After nominations close, I'll reach out to the nominees to confirm interest in running and ask for a short blurb about why they are interested in running for a position. The various officer roles are listed below: President The President is the head of the GC. The President’s responsibilities include but are not limited to: chairing GC meetings every two weeks; preparing the agenda for GC meetings; governing any committees formed by the GC, including nominating the chairs thereof, assisting with Graduate Recruiting Weekend, and attending departmental meetings. The President is required to have two years remaining in their degree program at the time of election (the term and the following year). Vice President The Vice-President is responsible for keeping the GC operating smoothly, including but not limited to: supporting the President’s handling of the GC affairs; serving as the chair of GC meetings when the President is absent; taking on the role of the President in the event of the President’s departure from the Graduate Council, planning 1-2 events per semester, assisting with Graduate Recruiting Weekend, and attending departmental meetings. The Vice President is required to have two years remaining in their degree program at the time of election (the term and the following year). Treasurer The Treasurer is responsible for fiscal matters, including but not limited to: applying for organizational funding opportunities, e.g. GSBB and CS Departmental funds; regular reporting of the status of the treasury at GC meetings. The Treasurer is expected to attend GC meetings every two weeks, plan 1-2 events per semester, contribute to Graduate Recruiting Weekend, and attend departmental meetings. The Treasurer is required to have one year remaining in their degree program at the time of election (their full term). Secretary The Secretary is responsible for the communications of the GC, including but not limited to: publishing the meeting agenda prior to GC meetings; managing, publishing, archiving, and seeking approval for the meeting minutes; chairing committees related to preparing new governing documents; facilitating communication between the GC and internal and external parties, e.g. the CS graduate student body and the CS faculty. The Secretary is expected to attend GC meetings every two weeks, plan 1-2 events per semester, contribute to Graduate Recruiting Weekend, and attend departmental meetings. The Secretary is required to have one year remaining in their degree program at the time of election (their full term). MEng Representative The MEng Representative is responsible for representing the needs of the MEng students to the GC. The MEng Representative is expected to attend GC meetings every two weeks, represent the interests of the MEng students to the GC, and plan 1 event per semester. The MEng Representative is recommended to have already spent one semester in their degree program. The term for this position is two semesters (Fall 2026 - Spring 2027) Sincerely, Bernie

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Research Assistant Position in VMCVM
by Julien, Christine 27 Mar '26

27 Mar '26

(Sent in bcc to gradstudents(a)cs.vt.edu) CS Grad Students— I colleague in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine shared this position with me thinking it might be of interest and in the area of expertise of many of our students: https://jobs.apply.vt.edu/jobs/research-assistant-computational-pathology-b… The person who contacted me is: Christina Pacholec, DVM, DACVP, PhD pacholec(a)vt.edu Assistant Professor, Clinical Pathology Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine Christine ============= Christine Julien, Professor and Department Head Virginia Tech | Computer Science 3160 Torgersen Hall, 620 Drillfield Drive Blacksburg, VA 24061 (540) 231-9110 | christinejulien(a)vt.edu If you could benefit from an accommodation for a meeting, please email me, and I will do my best to make arrangements. My workday may look different from your workday. Please do not feel obligated to respond or take action outside of your own working hours.

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Fw: Share Your Feedback on Tuition and Fees increase
by Melendez Maita, Diego 25 Mar '26

25 Mar '26

Submit your comments to the Board of Visitors about tuition increases coming up. Make your voice be heard! Energy-efficient warm regards, Diego Meléndez-Maita ________________________________ From: Graduate and Professional Student Senate <gpss-resc(a)vt.edu> Sent: Wednesday, March 25, 2026 10:01:10 AM Subject: [GPSS] Share Your Feedback on Tuition and Fees increase Hello GPSS Senator, Of all the things we've asked you for this year, this might be the most important! The Board of Visitors is considering a tuition increase from 0% to 2.9% and a fee increase from $0 to $160 for the next year. (so, "Zero increase" is on the table!) The Board of Visitors will vote on April 14 to set final numbers. The proposal is attached to this email. Please share your feedback with them. Two options to comment: 1. Written comment: Submit by April 6 using this link<https://bov.vt.edu/Submit-a-comment>. 2. Speak at the public hearing (more impactful!) * Sign up<https://bov.vt.edu/Register-To-Speak> for a 3-minute slot by tomorrow, March 26. * The hearing is virtual and livestreamed on Zoom on April 2, 1:30–2:30 pm. * Note: you will not be allowed to speak on anything other than the proposed tuition and fee increase, and professional behavior is expected. Guidelines<https://bov.vt.edu/?file=Guidelines&handler=OpenFile> Tips for your comment: 1. State your position: * "I urge the Board to consider a 0% increase." * "I request keeping the increase minimal." 2. Explain why: * Financial burden on grad students * Maintaining affordability and accessibility for all students 3. Share your experience: * Briefly describe how tuition and/or fee increases will or have affected you personally. 4. Thank the Board for the opportunity to share feedback! Please take a few minutes from your busy schedules to either submit a written comment or sign up to speak, as every comment matters and can help ensure affordability for the grad students. Regards, Pooja P.S. The GPSS Research Symposium is happening today in the GLC. Visit to support your fellow graduate students and discover their work! GPSS Executive Board [cid:71dccaef-305f-4f82-b6e2-49df84a97110] President | Pooja Bhagawat Vice President | Gyang Chung Director of Communications | Taylor Peele Director of Advocacy | Mohammed El Kihal Director of Events | Brian Chan Director of Programs | Megan Grey Director of Finance | Kelsey Jennings Advisor | Lauren Surface www.gpss.vt.edu<http://www.gpss.vt.edu/> | gpss(a)vt.edu<mailto:gpss@vt.edu> | Instagram: @VTGPSS<https://www.instagram.com/vtgpss/> | Give to GPSS<https://giving.adv.vt.edu/gift?fund=821092&desc=Grad%20Prof%20Student%20Sen…>

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Call for Participants: Try a New AI-Assisted Movie Booking Experience
by Lee, Sangwook 25 Mar '26

25 Mar '26

Try a New AI-Assisted Movie Booking Experience Echo Lab at Virginia Tech is recruiting participants for a remote research study on a new AI-assisted movie-booking interface. This study explores a new kind of task-oriented AI system that goes beyond simple step-by-step automation. Instead of only following commands, the interface is designed to support decision making during movie booking by helping users compare options, navigate tradeoffs, and interact with the booking interface in a more guided way. If you are interested in trying out a new kind of human-AI interaction for online decision-making tasks, we would love to hear from you. Compensation $30 for completing the full study session Study format * Remote session via Zoom * Approximately 90 minutes * Screen sharing and screen recording during the session * Optional webcam recording Who can participate You may be eligible if you: * Are 18 years or older * Have prior experience purchasing movie tickets online (website or mobile app) * Have access to a personal laptop or desktop computer * Have a working microphone and speakers or headphones * Can join a Zoom call from your computer What you will do Participants will complete one remote study session that includes: * A short tutorial * Movie-booking tasks across four rounds * Short surveys * A brief interview How to sign up Please book a time slot here: https://outlook.office.com/book/MAESTROUserStudy@VirginiaTech.onmicrosoft.c… After booking, you will receive a link to complete the consent form and screening survey before your session. Questions? Contact: Sangwook Lee sangwooklee(a)vt.edu 540-250-8969 -- Sangwook Lee Ph.D. student, Virginia Tech CS Email : sangwooklee(a)vt.edu<mailto:sangwooklee@vt.edu> leesang627(a)gmail.com<mailto:leesang627@gmail.com> Phone : (540) 250-8969 +82-010-4523-6682 Homepage: https://sangwooklee.info/

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TODAY!!!: Entrepreneurship and Computing Seminar Series: Kevin Minnick: Wednesday, March. 25
by Kantarcioglu, Murat 25 Mar '26

25 Mar '26

Dear All, As part of the CS/Root Entrepreneurship and Computing Seminar Series, we are pleased to host a talk by Kevin Minnick, an alumnus of Virginia Tech CS. We invite you to attend if you are interested in startups or in learning how research can be effectively translated into practice. Please find the details below, along with the attached seminar announcement. Seminar Title: A fireside chat with Kevin Minnick on building technology companies Date and Time: TODAY: Wednesday, March. 25, 2026, 2:00pm-3:00pm. Location: 1100 Torgersen Bio: Kevin Minnick is a product and engineering leader with over 25 years of experience building and scaling technology companies. His entrepreneurship story began right here at Virginia Tech. As a senior computer science student in the late 1990s, Kevin co-founded an email hosting company that he grew into a nationally recognized platform, ultimately leading to a successful acquisition by Rackspace Hosting in 2007. His career spans startups, high-growth companies, and enterprise product leadership. Kevin currently lives in Blacksburg and serves as a Technical Advisor to Active Capital, a venture fund based in San Antonio, TX. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and completed the Texas Executive Education program in General Management at UT Austin’s McCombs School of Business. With two successful acquisitions, experience scaling from startup to enterprise, and deep roots in the Virginia Tech community, Kevin offers a unique perspective on the full lifecycle of building technology companies. Best Regards, Murat ==================================== Murat Kantarcioglu, Ph.D. Professor, and CCI Faculty Fellow Virginia Tech, Department of Computer Science www.kantarcioglu.net ====================================

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CHCI Student Research Symposium: Call for Submissions
by Zier, Debbie 24 Mar '26

24 Mar '26

Hello all, The Center for Human-Computer Interaction's annual Student Research Symposium will happen on April 24th! We are happy to announce that CHCI will award the Best Student Presentation Award of $250 in research funds! You or your team can submit a poster, demonstration, video, or 3D model by April 11th, including posters, demos, videos, and art installations already proposed and/or accepted for other events. We will also have food, refreshments, and the chance to win prizes. Learn more and sign up here: 2026 CHCI Student Symposium Registration – Fill in form<https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=hGiVYK0Q-kCGPU8yweOjerM…> Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks for your time! Joanne Wang PhD Student, Computer Science Virginia Tech CHCI Student Council Vice President Human-Computer Interaction, Machine Learning Email<mailto:qidiwang@vt.edu> | LinkedIn<http://linkedin.com/in/qidi-wang>

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2026 Google PhD Fellowship Awards Nominations: Due April 6, 2026
by Bhattacharya, Debswapna 23 Mar '26

23 Mar '26

Dear All, Welcome to the 2026 Google PhD Fellowship awards nomination for computer science graduate students! Google PhD Fellowships directly support graduate students as they pursue their PhD. Fellowships support promising PhD candidates of all backgrounds who seek to influence the future of technology. More information about the research areas and the application process can be found at: https://research.google/programs-and-events/phd-fellowship/ Please submit your nominations on or before April 6, 2026 at https://forms.gle/Pm13UuvcVGfCo23x8 (only accessible using your VT account) Based on an internal selection process, we will identify the final slate of up to four nominees who will be invited to submit their final nominations to Google. Thank you, Debswapna Bhattacharya & Jin-Hee Cho Honorifics Subcommittee of the Graduate Program Committee

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FW: Graduate Student International Conference Travel Fellowship – Now Open
by Dr. Eli Tilevich 18 Mar '26

18 Mar '26

From: COE Research & Innovation <coeresearch(a)vt.edu> Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2026 9:34 AM To: coefaculty-g(a)vt.edu Cc: Sanderlin, Nicole <npsander(a)vt.edu> Subject: FW: Graduate Student International Conference Travel Fellowship – Now Open Sending on behalf of Global Engineering, Engagement & Research (GEER). Please share with your students and contact Nicole Sanderlin with questions. Have a great day! The College of Engineering is pleased to announce the Graduate Student International Conference Travel Fellowship, designed to support graduate students presenting their research or creative scholarship at international conferences and professional meetings. This fellowship provides up to $1,200 in travel support per award, subject to the availability of funds, for eligible travel taking place between April 1 and June 30, 2026. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, and students must apply at least 30 days prior to their travel. Students may apply here: https://eng.vt.edu/international-programs/student-resources-for-internation… Eligibility Requirements: Applicants must: * Be a currently enrolled graduate student in the College of Engineering * Be the presenting author or presenter of the research or creative work * Have received official confirmation that their work has been accepted for presentation prior to applying Important Details: * Travel support will be provided in advance as a fellowship to help offset eligible expenses such as conference registration, transportation, and lodging (please note that food expenses are not eligible). * Only one student per accepted presentation may receive funding. * Students are eligible to receive this support once per academic year. Application Requirements: Applicants must submit documentation confirming acceptance of their work (e.g., acceptance email or official letter from the conference organizer listing the student as presenter or author). Applications without proof of acceptance will not be reviewed. Post-Travel Requirements: Within two weeks after the conference, recipients must provide documentation confirming their participation (such as a conference program, certificate of presentation/attendance, or similar proof). Recipients may also be asked to submit itemized receipts for approved travel expenses. Please note that receipts must be issued in the recipient’s name. Failure to provide required documentation may result in repayment of fellowship funds. If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Nicole Sanderlin, Director of Global Engagement, at npsander(a)vt.edu <mailto:npsander@vt.edu> . We encourage graduate students to take advantage of this opportunity to share their work with an international audience. Best regards, Nicole Sanderlin, Ph.D. Director of Global Engagement Virginia Tech College of Engineering Phone: +1 (540) 231-1755 Web: <https://eng.vt.edu/international-programs.html> https://eng.vt.edu/international-programs.html Email: <mailto:npsander@vt.edu> npsander(a)vt.edu 3046 Torgersen Hall, 620 Drillfield Drive (0217) Blacksburg, VA, 24061-1050 USA Fulbright Scholar Liaison – Ask me about <https://fulbrightscholars.org/> Fulbright!

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Entrepreneurship and Computing Seminar Series: Kevin Minnick: Wednesday, March. 25
by Kantarcioglu, Murat 18 Mar '26

18 Mar '26

Dear All, As part of the CS/Root Entrepreneurship and Computing Seminar Series, we are pleased to host a talk by Kevin Minnick, an alumnus of Virginia Tech CS. We invite you to attend if you are interested in startups or in learning how research can be effectively translated into practice. Please find the details below, along with the attached seminar announcement. Seminar Title: A fireside chat with Kevin Minnick on building technology companies Date and Time: Wednesday, March. 25, 2026, 2:00pm-3:00pm. Location: 1100 Torgersen Bio: Kevin Minnick is a product and engineering leader with over 25 years of experience building and scaling technology companies. His entrepreneurship story began right here at Virginia Tech. As a senior computer science student in the late 1990s, Kevin co-founded an email hosting company that he grew into a nationally recognized platform, ultimately leading to a successful acquisition by Rackspace Hosting in 2007. His career spans startups, high-growth companies, and enterprise product leadership. Kevin currently lives in Blacksburg and serves as a Technical Advisor to Active Capital, a venture fund based in San Antonio, TX. He holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Virginia Tech and completed the Texas Executive Education program in General Management at UT Austin’s McCombs School of Business. With two successful acquisitions, experience scaling from startup to enterprise, and deep roots in the Virginia Tech community, Kevin offers a unique perspective on the full lifecycle of building technology companies. Best Regards, Murat ==================================== Murat Kantarcioglu, Ph.D. Professor, and CCI Faculty Fellow Virginia Tech, Department of Computer Science www.kantarcioglu.net ====================================

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Tung Le's Final PhD Defense, 10:00 AM, Friday, March 20
by Thang Hoang 18 Mar '26

18 Mar '26

Good morning, I am pleased to invite you to Tung Le’s final PhD defense. The details are as follows. *Date:* Friday, March 20, 2026 *Time:* 10:00 AM EDT *Location:* Gilbert Place 3001 *Zoom:* https://virginiatech.zoom.us/my/thanghoang?pwd=OG5xUVFwb0tZSVByNXFjcEVFL1hx… *Committee:* Prof. Rouzbeh Behnia (USF), Prof. Lenwood Heath (VT), Prof. Thang Hoang (Chair), Prof. Wenjing Lou (VT), and Prof. Danfeng (Daphne) Yao (VT) *Title:* *Trustworthy, Privacy-Preserving and Functional Data Outsourcing Systems* *Abstract:* Data outsourcing systems, e.g., Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud, etc., have become essential in our daily lives. They can reduce the storage burden on user devices, which have limited storage capacity. Also, they serve as backup places for user data to prevent data loss due to hardware failures. However, attacks on storage servers have exposed user data, threatening user privacy and the reputation of corporations. The goal of this dissertation is to develop and implement trustworthy, privacy-preserving, and functional data outsourcing systems. The contributions consist of two pieces. First, we designed and implemented a Proof of Retrievability scheme named Porla, an efficient technique allowing the user to audit their data to ensure its intactness. Our work features an optimal audit-proof size and low end-to-end audit latency in comparison with prior work. Second, we developed a series of new searchable encryption techniques achieving high security guarantees and performance in various threat and system models. In particular, we start by designing new schemes for multi-user searchable encryption, MAPLE and MUSES, using state-of-the-art cryptographic tools and emerging distributed computation algorithms. Our MAPLE and MUSES offer high security guarantees while optimizing search complexity in terms of computation and communication costs. However, they rely on distributed computation for secure search, which incur expensive deployment and maintenance cost. Therefore, we turn our direction to deal with the security and performance issues in public-key searchable encryption (PKSE) and hybrid searchable encryption (HSE), which can support multi-user settings in practice more naturally, such as email and messaging systems. To this end, we design Hermes, which simultaneous resolves many open problems in PKSE/HSE settings including: preventing keyword-guessing attacks, achieving user-efficient epoch-based forward privacy, and optimizing server computation cost for keyword search. Finally, we observe that mitigating pattern leakages in PKSE/HSE has remained an open and unexplored research problem. Applying differential privacy (DP) is potential as it achieves single-round search and small user-side storage, but the state-of-the-art work using DP still suffers from significant overhead to be applicable for practical applications. Our final work FROST devises a new approach for applying DP in encrypted search, showing a significant advance in terms of performance and communication cost. All the aspects addressed in this dissertation are essential for building practical encrypted data outsourcing systems that achieve both high performance and strong security guarantees. *Publications from the dissertation to be covered in the defense:* - Tung Le and Thang Hoang, *Hermes: Efficient and Secure Multi-Writer Encrypted Database*, in IEEE S&P 2025 - Tung Le, Rouzbeh Behnia, Jorge Guajardo, and Thang Hoang, *MUSES: Efficient Multi-User Searchable Encrypted Database*, in USENIX Security 2024 - Tung Le and Thang Hoang, *MAPLE: A Metadata-Hiding Policy-Controllable Encrypted Search Platform with Minimal Trust*, in PETS 2023 - Tung Le, Pengzhi Huang, Attila A. Yavuz, Elaine Shi, and Thang Hoang, *Efficient Dynamic Proof of Retrievability for Cold Storage*, in NDSS 2023 Best, Thang -- Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Virginia Tech https://thanghoang.github.io

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