My Computer Science and Engineering Department

This NY Times article describes research by Dr Wenyuan Xu and colleages at the University of Michigan into how to maliciously control a phone's accelerometer using sound waves.

In their paper, the researchers describe how they added fake steps to a Fitbit fitness monitor and played a "malicious" music file from the speaker of a smartphone to control the phone’s accelerometer. That allowed them to interfere with software that relies on the smartphone, like an app used to pilot a radio-controlled toy car.

The video below explains their research. The image is taken from their paper.

Dr. Song Wang has received a research grant award from the National Science Foundation for his project entitled "Algorithm Development for Reconstruction of Design Elements". This is an interdisciplinary study between archaeology and computer science to develop and disseminate a program that can identify the full artistic design from fragmented cultural heritage objects. Specifically, it will develop the algorithm to identify the designs of the carved wooden paddles of the Southeastern Woodlands from unearthed pottery sherds. Research also described in USC News: Fingerprints to the past. Image from

Jun Zhou, Haozhou Yu, Karen Smith, Colin Wilder, Hongkai Yu, Song Wang. Identifying designs from incomplete, fragmented cultural heritage objects by curve-pattern matching J. Electron. Imaging. 26(1), 011022 (Jan 05, 2017). doi:10.1117/1.JEI.26.1.011022.

Dr. Marco Valtorta has received an award from the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) to work on the Co-Arg: Cogent Argumentation System with Crowd Elicitation project, lead by George Mason University. This project aims to improve the quality of intelligence analysis reports. Dr. Valtorta's work will develop a probabilistic reasoning component to complement the Wigmorean argument structures used as the main representation in the Co-Arg project. Argument structures will be translated into Bayesian networks, thus uncovering subtleties and complexities, such as evidence-induced dependencies, synergistic effects, and antagonistic effects, which will be resolved by analysts or via crowdsourcing.

Dr. Gabriel Terejanu has received a research award from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)/USDA for his project, "TOXIMAP: Computational Framework for Prediction of Geographical and Temporal Incidence of Mycotoxins in US Crop Fields". This project will develop a general predictive modeling framework for calculating aflatoxin occurrence in US crop fields before harvest, and package this knowledge in a user-friendly predictive web/mobile interface for generating nation-wide and real-time aflatoxin hazard maps. This project has the potential to change certain behaviors in crop management to improve food safety.

Dr. Jason O’Kane and Dr. Jenay Beer have received a grant from the National Science Foundation to help create a Research Experiences for Undergraduates site for Applied Computational Robotics. This work will have significant impact by involving talented undergraduate students from around the southeast in robotics research projects here at USC. This experience will encourage these students to pursue graduate studies and research-oriented industry positions. We are proud of your efforts. Congratulations! Visit reu.cse.sc.edu to learn more and apply to this program.

Each year the Faculty of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) award four Outstanding Senior Awards. This process is never easy given the many excellent and accomplished students in our program. After much deliberation, we have decided that the 2017 Computer Science and Engineering Outstanding Senior Awards go to:

• Computer Engineering Outstanding Senior Award: Conor Campbell
• Computer Engineering SCSPE Award: Rickey Ward
• Computer Science Outstanding Senior Awards: Austin Pahl and Victor Reynolds
• Computer Information Systems Outstanding Senior Award: Caitlin Brock

All awardees will be honored at the USC Awards Day ceremony. In addition, Rickey will be honored at a special awards banquet of the South Carolina Society of Professional Engineers.

Dr. Gregory Gay has received an NSF Research award for his project on Understanding The Role of Software Test Adequacy Criteria in Search-Based Test Generation. This work aims to help improve automated software testing in industry. Abstract Software testing ensures that software is robust and reliable. As testers cannot know what faults exist apriori, dozens of metrics---ranging from the measurement of structural coverage to the detection of synthetic faults---have been proposed to judge test case adequacy. In theory, if such metrics are fulfilled, tests should be adequate at detecting faults. To alleviate the high cost of testing, optimization algorithms can be used to automatically generate test suites. These adequacy metrics are well-suited for guiding automated test creation. However, there is no adequacy metric known to universally correspond to "effective fault detection." Testers are left with a bewildering number of testing options, and there is little guidance on when to use one criterion over another. These metrics are a solid starting point for test case generation. Many faults cannot be detected until the code has been executed. However, merely executing code does not ensure adequate testing. How code is executed is important. It is clear that testers do not yet understand which adequacy metrics actually correspond to a high probability of fault detection, or under what situations these metrics can be applied. Therefore, it is clear that improving automated test generation requires gaining a better understanding of the circumstances where particular metrics are effective, isolating the features of such metrics that correlate to fault detection in such circumstances, and establishing and evaluating guidelines for the use and combination of metrics - perhaps tied to particular system types or domains - that will result in real-world fault detection. Large-scale empirical investigations will be performed into the nature of the relationship between adequacy criteria and the probability of fault detection in order to understand the efficacy and applicability of the criteria that are used to guide test creation. This work will have broader impacts on industrial practices, software engineering education, and - through dissemination to and collaborations with industrial partners and regulatory agencies - public safety and security.

We are proud to announce that Rukia Brooks (CS major) was chosen as an International Game Developers Association (IGDA) Scholar for 2017. As a Scholar she will receive an all-access pass to the Game Developers Conference, a mentor for professional development, studio tours, and other benefits. The Game Developers Conference is a professional development conference for those involved in the games industry. There are talks ranging from the academic study of games in terms of Human Computer Interaction, Sociology, and Psychology. There are talks in fields such as programming and computer science.

The inaugural Black Women in Computing Conference (BWIC) was held on January 6-8, 2017 at Howard University in Washington D.C. The theme of the conference was, “Honoring our past, celebrating our present, and looking into our future.” BWIC provided a venue to discuss, advance, and celebrate the intersectionality of race and gender in computing. The conference committee had the goals of catalyzing community between black women in computing, nurturing personal and professional growth, and discussing salient themes facing the group in society. Speakers ranged from North Carolina State’s Dr. Fay Cobb Payton, to White House representative Lisa Gelobter, to image activist Michaela angela Davis. Karina Liles, a PhD candidate in computer science, and De’Aira Bryant, an undergraduate senior in computer science, attended the conference on behalf of the University of South Carolina’s College of Engineering and Computing. Liles is a graduate student advisor for the Minorities in Computing at USC student group and Bryant is the current president of the group.

"We discussed pivotal issues such as intersectionality, tokenism, and imposter syndrome—many of which I didn’t realize were issues facing the community, but rather just the way life worked for black women in computing. The open and enlightening conversations are ones that I still reflect upon today. For example, I learned that self-care and wellness are just as important as work deadlines. It’s not always worth, “getting degreed to get diabetes and die.

The community of women were extremely honest and inspiring in their experiences. I marveled at the presence of women who looked like me that had taken similar life paths—and had been successful. I am extremely grateful to the department for allowing me to experience this historical conference and gain so much from it. As I look to complete my final semester of undergrad at USC, I could not have asked for a better way to start it."

–De’Aira Bryant

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of South Carolina is seeking applications for multiple, full-time Instructor positions beginning immediately (or Summer/Fall 2017).  Instructors will be required to teach courses in computer science and engineering, which may include computer programming, data structures and algorithms, computer architecture, databases, operating systems, networks, computer security, and software engineering. Duties will also include participation in student engagement activities such as student advising and recruitment.  The position requires a Master’s or PhD degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Computer Information Systems, or a related field. Relevant industrial experience or teaching experience is preferred. Application review begins January 15, 2017 and remains open until the positions are filled. Interested applicants should send a single PDF file that includes: (1) cover letter, (2) resume, (3) concise description of teaching interests, and (4) three letters of reference to Instructor2017@cse.sc.edu. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the College of Engineering and Computing offers B.S. degrees in Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, and Computer Engineering, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science and Computer Engineering, a M.S. degree in Software Engineering, and a Graduate Certificate in Cyber Security Studies. The Department has 21 full-time faculty members, an undergraduate enrollment of 872 students, and a graduate enrollment of 175 students. The University of South Carolina main campus in Columbia, with a diverse student population of 33,772 students, is the state’s flagship university. It was founded in 1801, and is one of the nation’s oldest and most comprehensive public universities. In 2016, Livability.com ranked Columbia, the seat of South Carolina government, as the third best college town. The temperate climate, the family friendly and resurgent city, the proximity to beaches and mountains, and the traditions and beauty of an historic university with forward-leaning benefits and practices, provide for a high quality of life. The University of South Carolina is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Minorities and women are especially encouraged to apply. The University of South Carolina does not discriminate in educational or employment opportunities or decisions for qualified persons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

We are happy to announce that two CSE ACM student teams placed first and second at the College of Charleston location for the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) southeast regional competition. In the photo above, from left to right: Viraj Patel, Thomas Panetti, Jeremy Day, Tori McQuinn, Eduardo Romero, Noel Raley and Dylan Madisetti.

USC News has published an article, Can't hack this, describing SC Cyber, a statewide cybersecurity initiative led by USC, funded by a $1.5 million grant from the state Department of Commerce and announced by Gov. Nikki Haley in February.

Csilla Farkas, associate professor in computer science and engineering, has long understood the need for cybersecurity to protect against such attacks. Hired in 2000, she has led the development of cybersecurity education at the University of South Carolina and serves as director of the university’s Center for Information Assurance Engineering. The center is a National Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance and Cyber Defense Education (an achievement first earned in 2010 and bestowed jointly by the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security); it earned the same designation for research in 2014.

Dr. Jenay Beer is part of a team, lead by Nursing professor Karen McDonnell , which has been awarded a two-year grant to study ways to improve the survival rates of lung cancer patients. The grant is funded by the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation and will allow for the creation of a statewide network that will survey existing support systems and identify gaps in patient coverage in the state. Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in S.C. and is also the leading cause of cancer deaths. More information on the official announcement.

We are proud to announce that Nathaniel Stone and Theodore Stone, both undergraduates, won the first prize in the undergraduate category of the Student Research Competition at ACM MobiCom 2016. Their research poster is titled "Assessing Header Impacts in Soccer with Smartball". It represents one of the many possible Internet of Things applications that Computer Science researchers are investigating. You can click on their poster on the right to see a larger view.

Dr. Gabriel Terejanu is part of a group of researchers that have received a $2M NSF grant for the creation of a "Center for a Sustainable Water, Energy, and Food Nexus (SusWEF)". The other investigators on the project are Nelson Cardona-Martinez (UPR), Juan Lopez-Garriga (UPR), Maria Curet-Arana (UPR), and Andreas Heyden (USC). Non-technical Description The project addresses the food-energy-water nexus for agriculture in the collaborating jurisdictions (PR and SC). Experimental and computation methods will be combined to better understand biomass deconstruction, the use of lignin for soil improvement, and to develop separation technologies for water treatment. The anticipated outcomes will lead to more sustainable agricultural practices, improved energy efficiency and soil and water quality. A comprehensive suite of education and outreach activities will provide training for K-12 teachers, research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students, and mentoring for early career faculty. These programs will recruit underrepresented minorities and women and broaden their participation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields. Technical Description This project will support complementary, collaborative research between the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez (UPR) and the University of South Carolina Columbia (USC) to address fundamental issues in biomass deconstruction, catalysis, lignin, and membranes separation technology for engineering improved agricultural sustainability. UPR will perform bottom-up design of nanostructured catalysts for targeted transformation of biomass waste into value added chemicals as well as the study of soil amendment using lignin. USC will focus on the development of advanced composites and membranes to remove contaminants of emerging concern from irrigation water.

Our Computational Biology Research lab, headed by Dr. Valafar, has been awarded a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS)/NIH for their project entitled "South Carolina IDeA Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (SC INBRE) Bioinformatics."