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[CSGC] Join us for Spring Hike on April 18
by Madabushi, Sindhuja 12 Apr '26

12 Apr '26

Hello All, With the end-of-semester exam season coming up, this is the perfect time to take a break, get outside, and refresh yourself a little. Computer Science Graduate Council is excited to invite you all to our spring hike on Saturday, April 18! This will be a great chance to unwind, meet new people, spend time with everyone, enjoy some good food, and have a fun break before finals season gets too hectic. We will start at 10 a.m. by the Food Lion next to Foxridge (801 Hethwood Blvd, Blacksburg, VA 24060) and finish up by Rising Silo. There will be donuts and coffee before we start, and some good appetizers at Rising Silo after, all covered by CSGC. Carpooling details are still being worked out, and we will send those out soon. We hope to see all of you there! Best, Sindhuja Madabushi, Secretary, Computer Science Graduate Council PhD Student in CS@VT (505) 457-7721 msindhuja(a)vt.edu<mailto:msindhuja@vt.edu> | Website<https://sindhujamadabushi.github.io/>

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Fw: FW: Advertising SSACB
by Rumi, Monjura Afrin 10 Apr '26

10 Apr '26

Hello Everyone Please find the following announcement. It sounds like a great opportunity for those who work in computational biology. If you are interested in cancer biology, then you must check it out. Regards Monjura Afrin Rumi Computer Science Virginia Tech ________________________________ From: Monjura Afrin <monjura.afrin(a)gmail.com> Sent: Friday, April 10, 2026 4:17 PM To: Rumi, Monjura Afrin <mrumi(a)vt.edu> Subject: Fwd: FW: Advertising SSACB Regards, Monjura Afrin Rumi ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Hannenhalli, Sridhar (NIH/NCI) [E] <sridhar.hannenhalli(a)nih.gov<mailto:sridhar.hannenhalli@nih.gov>> Date: Fri, 10 Apr 2026 at 14:14 Subject: FW: Advertising SSACB To: monjura.afrin <monjura.afrin(a)gmail.com<mailto:monjura.afrin@gmail.com>> Hi Monjura, Hope you are well. Could you help me circulate the following announcement at your PhD institute? Thank you -Sridhar NCI Spring School on Algorithmic Cancer Biology (SSACB), July 6-10, 2026 Join SSACB: The 4th NCI Spring School on Algorithmic Cancer Biology (SSACB) will take place July 6-10, 2026 at the NIH Bethesda Campus. SSACB aims to bring together a small group of faculty (20-25) with long-standing experience in developing rigorous computational methods with applications to cancer biology along with trainees who are working in related areas. We expect over 100 students and postdoctoral fellows to participate in SSACB. The program is designed to provide a friendly and relaxed atmosphere with many opportunities to connect with other faculty and students. Faculty will give a mix of lectures and tutorials. Panel discussions and networking events will also be held to encourage interactions between faculty and trainees. We invite postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and other trainees to participate in this unique experience. Trainees will have an opportunity to present research via poster sessions and lightning talks. Please register by filling out the form below. The registration deadline is May 15 or until we reach capacity. The registration fee is $250. Government employees and NIH fellows are exempt from the registration fee (but are still required to fill out the registration form). The registration fee covers breakfast, coffee breaks and social events. SSACB Website and Registration: https://ncifrederick.cancer.gov/events/conferences/2026SSACB Current confirmed faculty: Russell Schwartz (Carnegie Mellon University) Dario Ghersi (University of Nebraska) Gregoire Altan Bonnet (NCI - NIH) Jingyi Jessica Li (Fred Hutch Cancer Center) Victoria Popic (Broad Institute) Justin Zook (NIST) Kai Tan (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute) Atul Deshpande (Johns Hopkins University) Wenyi Wang (MD Anderson Cancer Center) Roded Sharan (Tel Aviv University) Peter Van Loo (MD Anderson Cancer Center) Yuichi Shiraishi (National Cancer Center Japan) Uthsav Chitra (Johns Hopkins University) Rachel Karchin (Johns Hopkins University) SSACB Organizing Committee: Mohammed El Kebir (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) Vishaka Gopalan (NCI) Mikhail Kolmogorov (NCI) Salem Malikic (NCI) Teresa Przytycka (NLM) Ben Raphael (Princeton) Cenk Sahinalp (NCI) Mona Singh (Princeton) ----------- Mikhail Kolmogorov, PhD Stadtman Investigator Cancer Data Science Lab, CCR, NCI, NIH Bldg 41, Room A100C

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NLP Invited Talk: Dr. Yu Zhang, Texas A&M, Tuesday, 4/14/26, 11 am - 12:15 pm
by Wang, Xuan 10 Apr '26

10 Apr '26

Hi everyone, I am teaching the NLP course in CS@VT this semester. We welcome you to join us for a series of invited talks from external speakers. The first speaker is Dr. Yu Zhang from CS at Texas A&M. Time: Tuesday, 4/14/26, 11 am - 12:15 pm Location: https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/8682759193 Below please find the talk information: Title: Assisting Scientific Research with Structure-Aware Large Language Models Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are powerful yet prone to hallucinations and are limited in handling complex reasoning for knowledge-intensive tasks. In this talk, I will present our work on augmenting LLMs with structured knowledge to support scientific research at multiple stages. First, I will discuss methods for answering researchers’ queries, including chain-of-thought reasoning and reinforcement learning over scientific knowledge graphs, which enable LLMs to perform multi-hop, cross-domain reasoning with improved factuality. Next, I will describe multi-task LLM pre-training techniques, including mixture-of-experts and instruction tuning, that enhance scientific information retrieval tasks such as patient-to-article retrieval and paper-reviewer matching by better aligning LLMs with domain-specific knowledge. Finally, I will present approaches for long-horizon reasoning and peer review, including long-chain-of-thought distillation for synthesizing deep research trajectories and tool-integrated agentic frameworks for generating evidence-grounded, high-quality reviews. Together, these methods demonstrate the potential of structure-aware LLMs to accelerate literature discovery, support research planning, and improve the quality of scientific feedback. Bio: Yu Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under Prof. Jiawei Han, and his B.Sc. from Peking University. His research focuses on natural language processing and data mining with structured knowledge, as well as their applications in scientific literature analysis. Yu is the ACM SIGKDD Dissertation Award Runner-Up, recipient of the UIUC Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and has received Best Paper at WSDM 2025 and Best Poster Honorable Mention at WWW 2018. He has published over 50 papers in leading conferences and journals, delivered 9 conference tutorials, and served as (Senior) Area Chair for venues including ACL, EMNLP, NeurIPS, and KDD. Thanks, Xuan -------- Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science Sanghani Center for AI and Data Analytics Virginia Tech

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Fw: VTURCS Judges Needed
by Moussad, Bernard 08 Apr '26

08 Apr '26

Hey folks, The CS Department is looking for senior graduate students who would be interested in judging VTURCS (VT Undergraduate Research in Computer Science)! This is a great opportunity to be involved in the department and help support young researchers. If you would be interested in helping, please sign-up HERE<https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=hGiVYK0Q-kCGPU8ywe…>! VTURCS is Monday, April 27, 5:30 - 8:00pm at the Inn at Virginia Tech. Sincerely, Bernard Moussad PhD student CS@VT Phone: 256-668-7571 Website: Bernym12.github.io<https://bernym12.github.io/> ________________________________ From: Zier, Debbie <debzi5(a)vt.edu> Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2026 11:27:24 AM To: Faculty <faculty(a)cs.vt.edu>; Moussad, Bernard <bernardm(a)vt.edu> Subject: VTURCS Judges Needed Reminder, we are still looking for VTURCS judges, both faculty and senior graduate students. We've had 5 sign-ups so far, thank you!! VTURCS is Monday, April 27, 5:30 - 8:00pm at the Inn at Virginia Tech. We do ask that you commit for the entirety of the event. We are counting on plenty of judges to get all posters judged and prizes awarded in a timely manner. Event timeline: * 5:30pm, judges meeting with dinner available * 6:00 - 7:30pm, poster presentations and judging * 7:45pm - awards presentation Please sign-up HERE<https://forms.cloud.microsoft/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=hGiVYK0Q-kCGPU8ywe…> Thank you ________________________ Debbie Zier Administrative Assistant and Office Manager Department of Computer Science (0106) 3160E Torgersen Hall 620 Drillfield Drive Blacksburg, VA 24061 541-231-1369

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Research oppotunity
by Meng, Na 06 Apr '26

06 Apr '26

Hi all, I’m Na Meng, an associate professor in the Computer Science department of Virginia Tech. Recently, we established collaboration with a software company to evaluate various large language models (LLMs) in a scalable way. Based on your experience with online LLM services so far, which LLM do you think works best? Do paid LLM services truly deliver value commensurate with the cost? How can we verify that we are receiving the level of service promised, and detect when service quality degrades? What LLMs are good at solving which type of problems? Additionally, do newer versions of LLMs consistently outperform their predecessors? In this project, we will explore these questions by empirically evaluating the latency and outputs of LLMs over time. This work involves several real-world challenges, which we will address collaboratively. We will be also working closely with Prof. Ying Zhang (cc’ed) from Wake Forest University, in the entire investigation process. What will you gain from this project? We have got API access to a wide range of LLMs, enabling hands-on experimentation with dozens of models. You will gain practical experience in AI programming and LLM benchmarking, as well as research experience through collaboration with our team. This includes designing experiments, analyzing results, and contributing to solving a challenging problem. If all goes well, we aim to complete the project within one year and publish a high-quality research paper. At present, we don’t have GRA funding for this project. However, if we secure external funding, the student involved will receive financial support. What are we looking for? * The student should be physically in Blacksburg, in the PhD or Master program of our CS department. * The student is expected to have strong programming skills and problem-solving skills. * The student is expected to have enthusiasm for research and a willingness to commit time an effort to coding, experimentation, and publication within a one-year timeline. If you are interested, please email me your resume within this week. My email is nm8247(a)vt.edu. In the email, it will be helpful if you can also share research/coding experience related to LLMs. Thanks a lot! Cheers, Na Get Outlook for Mac <https://aka.ms/GetOutlookForMac>

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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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Subjects needed for Virtual Reality Research Study
by Gazzillo, Nick 03 Apr '26

03 Apr '26

Hello, The PrivateEye research group at Virginia Tech is inviting you to participate in a research study using eye-tracking and virtual reality technology. Our team is investigating novel interfaces to visualize eye-tracking data in virtual reality. Participants will be compensated $10 for participation in this study. Participants in the study will come to the PrivateEye lab space (room 3214) in Gilbert Place (220 Gilbert Street, Blacksburg, VA) on the Virginia Tech campus. Participants will be asked to wear a virtual-reality headset and play VR games both standing and seated. The entire experimental session will take up to 60 minutes. Participants need to be proficient in reading and writing in English, at least 18 years old, have normal vision (contact lenses are fine, glasses are not supported). Participation will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. Participants’ involvement in the study will not impact their employment, grades, or academic performance in any way. We have attached the consent form document for the study, which describes in detail the experimental purpose and procedures, benefits, and risks of your participation. If you would like to participate, please email Nick Gazzillo (nickg13(a)vt.edu<mailto:gnramirezsaffy@vt.edu>) to coordinate scheduling a study session. Once received, you will be contacted by the investigator to schedule a session. The project is supervised by Dr. Brendan David-John from Computer Science. This experiment has been approved, as required, by the Virginia Tech Institutional Review Board under protocol number 24-279. Thank you for your time, Nick Gazzillo (nickg13(a)vt.edu<mailto:nickg13@vt.edu>) Dr. Brendan David-John (bmdj(a)vt.edu<mailto:bmdj@vt.edu>)

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FW: Could you please share this announcement?
by Kinder, Sharon 03 Apr '26

03 Apr '26

From: Graduate and Professional Student Senate <gpss-resc(a)vt.edu> Sent: Friday, April 3, 2026 10:49 AM Subject: Could you please share this announcement? Hello Graduate Program Administrator, Happy Friday! Could you please share these announcements with the graduate students in your department? 1. Coping with Stress from Global Events: Check-In & Connect * Many students are feeling the weight of ongoing global events and are carrying a heavy emotional burden. For many, it is affecting families, friends, and making it hard to focus, rest, or feel at ease. To offer a space of support, GPSS, in collaboration with Student Affairs, is hosting a breakfast where students can come together, share their experiences, find comfort, and seek support. * This event is intended for students from the countries affected by wars, as well as for everyone who may be experiencing a sense of unrest because of the current global events. * We have invited the top leaders from Student Affairs who oversee student well-being, so students can request any support they may need: * Frances Keene (VP, Student Affairs) * Meaghan Davidson (Dean of Students) * Lauren Oliver (Director, Cranwell International Center) * Zackary Cockrum (Embedded Counselor, Grad School) * Neha (Hokie Wellness) * Format: Coffee, Breakfast and Chat * When: Thursday, 9th April, 9 am to 10:30 am * Where: GLC Room F & Zoom (https://virginiatech.zoom.us/j/85288760430) * RSVP: https://forms.cloud.microsoft/r/2d5R0aDcYG * Submit your questions via GPSS Anonymous form on https://gpss.vt.edu<https://gpss.vt.edu/> or using RSVP form [cid:image001.jpg@01DCC35B.7DC62490] 2. We hosted three amazing events, and the presentation slides shared by our speakers are fantastic resources to understand basics of fundamental rights, what to do during a police stop, interaction with ICE, immigration guidelines and changes, travel policies, risks, and precautions, etc. They include valuable information for both international and domestic students along with the contacts of the speakers. Please share these with all students so everyone can benefit! * Know your rights and responsibilities with VT Police Dept * Know your rights and responsibilities with an Immigration Lawyer * International Travel webinar with Tax Compliance, Grad Finance, Cranwell, Global Safety and Risk Management, etc. Thank you for your continued support! Regards, Pooja GPSS Executive Board [cid:image002.png@01DCC35B.7DC62490] 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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FW: Summer employment opportunities
by Kinder, Sharon 02 Apr '26

02 Apr '26

From: Waller, Tremayne <trwaller(a)vt.edu> Sent: Thursday, April 2, 2026 10:12 AM To: COE Grad Coordinators <coe-grad-coordinators-g(a)vt.edu> Subject: FW: Summer employment opportunities Please feel free to share with students. Trey From: Middleton, Abigail <amiddleton(a)vt.edu<mailto:amiddleton@vt.edu>> Sent: Thursday, April 2, 2026 8:12 AM To: CEED Team <ceed-personnel-g(a)vt.edu<mailto:ceed-personnel-g@vt.edu>> Subject: Summer employment opportunities Hi Everyone, I created a flyer highlighting our most needed positions. I would appreciate it if you could share with those who might be interested. Thanks so much! Abigail Abigail Middleton Assistant Director, Precollege Outreach and Recruitment Center for Engineering Excellence and Discovery (CEED) Virginia Tech | College of Engineering (540) 231-7337 amiddleton(a)vt.edu<mailto:amiddleton@vt.edu> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CEED Personnel" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ceed-personnel-g+unsubscribe(a)vt.edu<mailto:ceed-personnel-g+unsubscribe@vt.edu>. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/vt.edu/d/msgid/ceed-personnel-g/SA0PR05MB89260E…<https://groups.google.com/a/vt.edu/d/msgid/ceed-personnel-g/SA0PR05MB89260E…>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "COE Grad Coordinators" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coe-grad-coordinators-g+unsubscribe(a)vt.edu<mailto:coe-grad-coordinators-g+unsubscribe@vt.edu>. To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/vt.edu/d/msgid/coe-grad-coordinators-g/BY3PR05M…<https://groups.google.com/a/vt.edu/d/msgid/coe-grad-coordinators-g/BY3PR05M…>. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/a/vt.edu/d/optout.

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[CSGC] Join us for a coffee hour!
by Madabushi, Sindhuja 02 Apr '26

02 Apr '26

Hello everyone, Come join us for a Computer Science Grad Council Coffee Hour today, April 2 2026 at 1:00pm in Gilbert 4001. There will be coffee, snacks, and plenty of time to unwind, chat with fellow students, and enjoy a short break in the middle of the day. We hope to see you there! Best, — Sindhuja Madabushi, Secretary, Computer Science Graduate Council PhD Student in CS@VT (505) 457-7721 msindhuja(a)vt.edu<mailto:msindhuja@vt.edu> | Website<https://sindhujamadabushi.github.io/>

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