Diving Into Computer Science Research

The creative work of mathematicians and computer scientists is everywhere around us. Whether it is designing new more efficient cars or faster planes, sending people into space or predicting the weather, developing new medication or new treatment for patients, preserving the environment or understanding our economy and the financial markets, mathematicians and computer scientists are working hand in hand with engineers, scientists, economists to improve our live and our society.

Below is a description of the First Year Research Groups in Computer Science. You can enter one of these groups next Fall, and start doing real research. We invite you to participate which gives you an opportunity to actively do research side by side with a faculty member. There will be no more than 4 students in one research group.

Research Group 1: Motion Planning
Have you ever wondered how to move a large sofa up a set of stair without scratching the sofa or the stairs? How to make a rescue robot move efficiently in an accident site to locate survivors promptly? How to design digital actors in video games and computer animation that can move without running into obstacles or each other? How to use computers to minimize surgical incisions and speed up patient recovery? How to design better medication by estimating motion of bio- molecules? All of these are just a few examples of motion planning that has been an active research area of computer science. In this group, we will study various motion planning problems and design efficient algorithms for solving them.
(Instructor: L. Han)

Research Group 2: Trading Agents
A trading agent is a computer program that acts on online markets on behalf of one or more clients, trying to satisfy their preferences. The emergence of such agents will have tremendous impact on the way business is conducted in the future. They can book your travel plans, manage your portfolio, handle your online bids/auctions, and even do everyday shopping for you. In the heart of these agents are softwares that apply artificial intelligence techniques to economics and decision making problems. The students in this group will work cooperatively to build their trading agent, design their trading strategies, perform studies in simulated markets and prepare for the official Trading Agent Competition.
(Instructor: P. Xuan)

Research Group 3: Worms, Viruses, and other Nastiness
Viruses are probably the best known and publicized means of attack on computers, but there are many other ways to make the internet an unfriendly place. We will explore the various methods of attacks on computers and networks. We will investigate the technical as well as the sociological and human aspects of this topic.
(Instructor: J. Breecher)

Research Group 4: Artificial Life
The laws that govern physical reality are very simple. And yet very complex phenomena such as galaxies, the weather, red and blue states, and life itself arise out of these simple laws. Where does all that complexity come from? Part of the answer may come from computers, which also (at the most fundamental level) follow simple rules. We can write very simple computer programs that display vast complexity. Can we write programs that go so far as to simulate life? Each student will investigate, implement, and report on specific models of artificial life or similar complex systems.
(Instructor: F. Green)