News

By Becky Oskin, originally posted by UC Davis News.

Computer science professor Prem Devanbu was named the winner of the 2021 Outstanding Research Award from the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Software Engineering (ACM SIGSOFT).  The Outstanding Research Award is a lifetime achievement award and one of the highest honors in software engineering. Devanbu was cited for “profoundly changing the way researchers think about software by exploring connections between source code and natural language.”

Aditya Thakur, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, has received an NSF CAREER Award for his proposal, “Provable Patching of Deep Neural Networks.”

The UC Davis Department of Computer Science mourns the passing of its first chair, professor emeritus Richard “Dick” Walters. A visionary in his field, a leader at the university, an exceptional teacher to his students and friend to his colleagues, Walters is remembered by the immeasurable impact he had on the many people he taught, mentored and worked with in more than 50 years at UC Davis.

Computer science assistant professor Julian Panetta creates new shapes for a living. While he’s not literally re-designing the square, he develops computer algorithms that design new shapes and structures with unique mechanical properties and brings them to life with digital fabrication technologies like 3D printing.

Computer science professors Hao Chen and Vladimir Filkov were named Distinguished Members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for their outstanding scientific contributions to the field of computing. Distinguished membership recognizes the top 10% of ACM members with at least 15 years of experience as role models who have gone above and beyond in their service to the field through research, teaching, leadership and/or service.

Computer science faculty members Mohammad Sadoghi and Matt Farrens were recently named senior members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Computer science professor Dipak Ghosal has been named the inaugural Prem Chand Jain Family Presidential Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This new role will provide an opportunity for graduate students within the College of Engineering to expand their entrepreneurial mindset by providing resources to implement their innovative ideas.

Computer science professor Nina Amenta has received a test-of-time award from the peer-reviewed journal Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications for her 2001 paper, “The power crust, union of balls, and the medial axis transformation.” The award honors papers published in the journal that are at least 10 years old and have left a legacy on the field of computational geometry. She and her co-authors will receive certificates and a cash prize, split among them.