2020 Class of CIFellows
Alex Ahmed
Primary Affiliation
Northeastern University
Research Title
Envisioning Alternative Technologies with and for Home Care Workers
Research Description
This project explores home care workers’ current working environments and the benefits and risks of digital tools, and seeks to co-create alternative technological solutions that support their needs.
Mentor
Sarah Fox
Host Institution
Carnegie Mellon University
Rika Antonova
Primary Affiliation
KTH, Stockholm
Research Title
Active Learning of Transferable Priors, Kernels and Latent Representations for Robotics
Research Description
The aim is to develop algorithms for learning transferable representations (from simulation or prior experience) that quickly adapt to new environments and handle further challenges, such as deformable object manipulation, continual and lifelong learning.
Mentor
Jeannette Bohg
Host Institution
Stanford University
Evangelos Atlidakis
Primary Affiliation
Columbia University
Research Title
Fuzzing of RESTful Cloud Services
Research Description
The long-term objective of this proposal is to invent new techniques that will allow to test cloud services through their APIs in an automatic, efficient, and learning-based way.
Mentor
Vasileios Kemerlis
Host Institution
Brown University
Ramin Ayanzadeh
Primary Affiliation
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Research Title
Leveraging AI to Improve the Fidelity of NISQ Computers
Research Description
We aim to advance the applicability and reliability of existing and near-term quantum processors in the realm of artificial intelligence.
Mentor
Moinuddin Qureshi
Host Institution
Georgia Institute of Technology
Marshall Ball
Primary Affiliation
Columbia University
Research Title
Towards more Granular Cryptographic Foundations
Research Description
By studying cryptographic security in a more fine-grained settings than is typical, we expect to give a more refined and robust elucidation of when it is feasible to achieve security (and the computational cost involved).
Mentor
Huijia Lin
Host Institution
University of Washington
Suguman Bansal
Primary Affiliation
Rice University
Research Title
Formal reasoning in Reinforcement Learning
Research Description
Our goal is to develop solutions to guarantee a high degree of assurance in RL-enabled policies/controllers for safety-critical applications.
Mentor
Rajeev Alur
Host Institution
University of Pennsylvania
Aline Bessa
Primary Affiliation
New York University
Research Title
Augmenting Datasets for Model Improvement with Cost Constraints
Research Description
Selection of datasets to improve Machine Learning models taking cost constraints into account.
Mentor
Christopher Musco
Host Institution
New York University
Clara Caldeira
Primary Affiliation
University of California, Irvine
Research Title
Technology-mediated Caregiving for Older Adults in Different Cultural Contexts
Research Description
This project will consist of a study of smart home technology for aging in place in the US and Latin America to understand how collected data can be used and how cultural background impacts users’ perspectives and attitudes.
Mentor
Katherine Connelly
Host Institution
Indiana University, Bloomington
Richard Canevez
Primary Affiliation
Pennsylvania State University
Research Title
Escalation and De-escalation in Expressions of Dissent: A Social Informatics Approach
Research Description
The objective of this study is to identify the ICT determinants of de-escalation capacity during expressions of dissent.
Mentor
Jenifer Sunrise Winter
Host Institution
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Marco Carmosino
Primary Affiliation
Simon Fraser University
Research Title
Foundations of Prosocial Desiderata
Research Description
We seek a formal understanding of how normative properties (such as efficiency, privacy, and fairness) can be successfully imposed on algorithms.
Mentor
Mark Bun
Host Institution
Boston University
Kathryn Cunningham
Primary Affiliation
University of Michigan
Research Title
Improving Novice Programmer Self-efficacy with a Purpose-first Programming Learning Environment
Research Description
I will develop a programming learning environment that enables novice programmers to create and understand authentic code quickly, using real-time feedback that scaffolds learners’ ability to connect code with the goals it achieves.
Mentor
Eleanor O’Rourke
Host Institution
Northwestern University
Wenhan Dai
Primary Affiliation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Title
Quantum Communication and Networks
Research Description
I aim to design efficient and robust protocols for quantum information exchange and processing with near-future quantum devices.
Mentor
Donald Towsley
Host Institution
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Sunipa Dev
Primary Affiliation
University of Utah
Research Title
Understanding and Mitigating Societal Biases in Language Processing Models and their Applications
Research Description
The goal of my project is to build comprehensive understanding of stereotypical and socially biased associations in language encoders and
automate their detection, thus enhancing the ability to make language representations and their downstream applications fairer.
Mentor
Kai-Wei Chang
Host Institution
University of California, Los Angeles
Michael Ann DeVito
Primary Affiliation
Northwestern University
Research Title
Folk Theories of Content Moderation in Online Groups: Evaluating the Impact of Moderator Perceptions on Group Policy and Moderation Tool Use
Research Description
By investigating how perceptions of content moderation systems impact moderator decision making and how this, in turn, impacts user behavior, this project will account for the role of folk theories in the emerging space of human-AI collaboration.
Mentor
Jed Brubaker
Host Institution
University of Colorado, Boulder
Yi Ding
Primary Affiliation
University of Chicago
Research Title
Improving System Efficiency and Reliability with Causal Learning
Research Description
This project aims to produce efficient and reliable system outcomes by understanding the underlying structure of the systems via causal inference and machine learning techniques.
Mentor
Michael Carbin
Host Institution
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Houda El Mimouni
Primary Affiliation
Drexel University
Research Title
Mobile Remote Presence to Facilitate Safe University Reopening
Research Description
Using mobile remote presence to facilitate low density classes and to support students and faculty who have immunodeficiencies or other risk factors during COVID19 pandemic
Mentor
Selma Šabanović
Host Institution
Indiana University
Emmanuel Garza
Primary Affiliation
California Institute of Technology
Research Title
Design and Optimization of Nanophotonic Devices via High-Performance Boundary Integral Equation Solvers
Research Description
The aim of this project is to design and deploy a distributed computing framework for the simulation and optimization of nanophotonic devices using fast and high-order accurate boundary integral equation numerical solvers.
Mentor
Constantine Sideris
Host Institution
University of Southern California
Kari George
Primary Affiliation
University of California, Los Angeles
Research Title
Leveraging Doctoral Student Experiences to Inform Faculty Mentoring Practices that Broaden Participation in Computing
Research Description
Using mixed-methods approaches, this project’s three aims will enhance efforts to broaden participation in computing by examining PhD student experiences with peers and faculty, interest in the professoriate, and faculty mentoring and advising practices.
Mentor
Colleen Lewis
Host Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Amir Ghasemianlangroodi
Primary Affiliation
University of Colorado Boulder
Research Title
Sample Size Calculation and Power Analysis in Network-Based Experiments
Research Description
We will provide analytical tools to perform the sample size calculations for network-based experiments.
Mentor
Nicholas Christakis
Host Institution
Yale University
Nikolaos Giannarakis
Primary Affiliation
Princeton University
Research Title
Security and Privacy for Programmable Networks
Research Description
Networks are becoming increasingly programmable; the goal of this research is to identify security and privacy threats that might arise in the context of programmable networks, and to develop techniques to protect current and future network applications.
Mentor
Loris D’Antoni
Host Institution
University Of Wisconsin-Madison
Shiry Ginosar
Primary Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley
Research Title
Toward Rich Perception of Human Motion
Research Description
My goal is to let computers perceive the world richly, as humans do—as a postdoc I will focus on one area where rich perception is essential: detailed human motion.
Mentor
Jitendra Malik
Host Institution
University of California, Berkeley
Ben Greenman
Primary Affiliation
Northeastern University
Research Title
Human Factors for Gradual Typing
Research Description
Build and test methods to study how programmers interact with gradually-typed languages.
Mentor
Shriram Krishnamurthi
Host Institution
Brown University
Biresh Kumar Joardar
Primary Affiliation
Washington State University
Research Title
Machine Learning for Machine Learning
Research Description
Enabling a virtuous cycle of Machine Learning-based hardware design to further empower advances in Machine Learning
Mentor
Krishnendu Chakrabarty
Host Institution
Duke University
Gabriel Kaptchuk
Primary Affiliation
Johns Hopkins University
Research Title
Cryptography with Social Impact
Research Description
I am developing new methods for rooting novel, technical, cryptographic research in the needs of marginalized communities in an effort to bridge the gap between the academic community and the real world.
Mentor
Ran Canetti
Host Institution
Boston University
Vera Khovanskaya
Primary Affiliation
Cornell University
Research Title
Data Expertise in Worker Advocacy
Cloud Data Management BrainDB
Research Description
The goal of this project is to understand the role of data-intensive methods in worker advocacy efforts and to identify best practices for advocating with worker data while sustaining trust and democratic participation within advocacy organizations.
Mentor
Lilly Irani
Host Institution
University of California, San Diego
Rafal Kocielnik
Primary Affiliation
University of Washington
Research Title
Informing Human-AI Interaction with User-Centered Metrics
Research Description
Proposed research aims to develop user-centered approaches for better communicating AI capabilities and limitations by use of informative examples.
Mentor
Anima Anandkumar
Host Institution
California Institute of Technology
Deepak Kumar
Primary Affiliation
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Research Title
Incorporating User Experiences to Improve Automated Detection of Toxic Content Online
Research Description
I will be building tools and investigating techniques to help mitigate the effects of hate and harassment online.
Mentor
Zakir Durumeric
Host Institution
Stanford University
Taisa Kushner
Primary Affiliation
University of Colorado Boulder
Research Title
Personalized Modeling & Decisions Under Uncertainty for Medical Cyber Physical Systems
Research Description
This project seeks to understand how we can identify and overcome hidden biases and uncertainty in both datasets and models developed using those datasets, to design robust and safe medical decision support systems.
Mentor
Peter Jacobs
Host Institution
Oregon Health and Sciences University
Qi Lei
Primary Affiliation
University of Texas at Austin
Research Title
On Understanding Few-Shot Learning, Provably
Research Description
We aim to provide principles for provable few-shot learning via learning shared representations, or self-supervised learning, with fixed features or fine-tuning, to reduce extra data annotations.
Mentor
Jason Lee
Host Institution
Princeton University
Szu-Yu Liu
Primary Affiliation
Indiana University Bloomington
Research Title
From Data to Knowledge: Environmental Sensing and Data Narration
Research Description
In this project, we investigate embodied and (multi-)sensory data narration models to increase environmental awareness, public participation, and to turn data into actionable knowledge.
Mentor
Paul Dourish
Host Institution
University of California, Irvine
Byron Lowens
Primary Affiliation
Clemson University
Research Title
An Exploration of Privacy Risk and Concerns For Emerging IOT Medical Devices Among Marginalized Populations
Research Description
Using a human-centered approach, this research will explore privacy risk and concerns posed by the adoption of wearable and inbody medical devices among marginalized populations.
Mentor
Florian Schaub
Host Institution
University of Michigan
Nicholas Lytle
Primary Affiliation
North Carolina State University
Research Title
Techniques for Adapting Student Programming Assignments to Promote Collaboration and Scaffold Learning during Remote Instruction
Research Description
This fellowship will focus on techniques for modifying assignments for remote instruction and collaborative learning, methods to automate support for students while completing objectives and means of informing teachers on student progress.
Mentor
Kristy Boyer
Host Institution
University of Florida
Naja Mack
Primary Affiliation
University of Florida
Research Title
Investigating the Effectiveness of a Coding Bootcamp Preparation Program for African-American At-Risk Youth
Research Description
This project investigates the potential of a coding bootcamp preparation program aimed to increase the at-risk students’ capacity needed for completing a coding bootcamp and pursuing a computing career.
Mentor
Kinnis Gosha
Host Institution
Morehouse College
Lara Martin
Primary Affiliation
Georgia Institute of Technology
Research Title
What Stories Can Teach AI about the World
Research Description
By adding models of relationships between story characters to our existing story generation systems, we can appropriately extrapolate future events.
Mentor
Chris Callison-Burch
Host Institution
University of Pennsylvania
David Narváez
Primary Affiliation
Rochester Institute of Technology
Research Title
Search versus Decision in AI
Research Description
This project will investigate the potential chasm between search problems and decision problems, especially regarding its implications in artificial intelligence.
Mentor
Lane A. Hemaspaandra
Host Institution
University of Rochester
Sabrina Neuman
Primary Affiliation
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Research Title
Automatic Generation of Hardware Accelerators for Robot Motion Planning
Research Description
Applying computer architecture insights to the robotics domain, I develop a design methodology to exploit high-level information about robot morphology to automatically generate hardware accelerators for motion planning optimized for the target robot.
Mentor
Vijay Janapa Reddi
Host Institution
Harvard University
Tan Nguyen
Primary Affiliation
Rice University
Research Title
Predicting the Drug-Target Binding Affinity for Drug Repurposing with Drug-Structure-Aware Graph Neural Networks
Research Description
In this project, I propose to develop a new class of drug-structure-aware graph neural networks for predicting the drug-target binding affinity to study how the old drugs work on new targets as a treatment for COVID-19 and future pandemic diseases.
Mentor
Stan Osher
Host Institution
University of California, Los Angeles
Marziyeh Nourian
Primary Affiliation
North Carolina State University
Research Title
Hardware-software Co-design for High-Performance Data Transformation
Research Description
Enhancing processing of the data transformation applications by developing a programming model and software-and hardware-based optimization techniques so as to increase the efficiency of complex and large-scale tasks.
Mentor
Andrew Chien
Host Institution
University of Chicago
Ellen Novoseller
Primary Affiliation
California Institute of Technology
Research Title
Human-in-the-loop Robotic Manipulation of Deformable Objects
Research Description
This work in assistive robotics will develop learning frameworks for manipulating deformable objects such as fabric and wires, while personalizing robot behavior to different people’s preferences.
Mentor
Ken Goldberg
Host Institution
University of California, Berkeley
Michael O'Neill
Primary Affiliation
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Title
Practical Algorithms for Smooth Nonconvex Optimization with Complexity Guarantees
Research Description
This project aims to bridge the gap between theoretical guarantees and practical performance for algorithms with worst case complexity results in smooth nonconvex optimization.
Mentor
Frank Curtis
Host Institution
Lehigh University
Zoe Paraskevopoulou
Primary Affiliation
Princeton University
Research Title
WebAssembly as Platform for Safe and Secure Language Interoperability
Research Description
We envision WebAssembly as a compilation target for a diverse set of source languages that provides strong safety and security guarantees by targeting the CHERI ISA.
Mentor
Amal Ahmed
Host Institution
Northeastern University
Beatrice Perez
Primary Affiliation
University College London
Research Title
Exploring and Securing Smart Environments
Research Description
During the fellowship I will develop a prototype for a privacy preserving system that identifies, integrates, and connects smart devices within a home.
Mentor
David Kotz
Host Institution
Dartmouth College
Brianna Posadas
Primary Affiliation
University of Florida
Research Title
Using Participation Design to Develop an Affordable and Flexible Robotic Assistive Technology for Agriculture
Research Description
In this project I will conduct a systematic review of participatory designs in agricultural engineering and study how to use participatory design to develop an affordable and flexible robotic assistive technology.
Mentor
Kim Niewolny
Host Institution
Virginia Tech
Marlen Promann
Primary Affiliation
Purdue University
Research Title
Conceptualizing Data Work to Enhance the Future of Work in the USA
Research Description
An in-depth qualitative case study on how engineers work with data.
Mentor
James Howison
Host Institution
University of Texas, Austin
Gokul Subramanian Ravi
Primary Affiliation
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Research Title
Architecting Classical Control for Near-term Quantum Systems
Research Description
Advance our ability to exploit the special, yet limited, potential of quantum computing by adopting a hybrid model which leverages both quantum and classical computation.
Mentor
Frederic Chong
Host Institution
University of Chicago
Ibrahim Sabek
Primary Affiliation
University of Minnesota
Research Title
ML-based Storage and Query Execution in DBMS
Research Description
I will explore the applicability of building machine learned solutions for two core database components; the storage manager and the query executor.
Mentor
Michael Cafarella
Host Institution
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Soheil Salehi Mobarakeh
Primary Affiliation
University of Central Florida
Research Title
SHIELD: Secure Hardware for IoT using Emerging-devices against side-channeL Deep-learning attacks
Research Description
This proposal aims to devise novel and effective approaches for securing Internet of Things (IoT) hardware against cutting edge Deep learning-based Power Side-channel Attacks (DeePSAs) using emerging devices.
Mentor
Houman Homayoun
Host Institution
University of California, Davis
Sebastian Schuster
Primary Affiliation
Stanford University
Research Title
Evaluating and Improving Pragmatic Reasoning by Neural Language Models
Research Description
The goal of this project is to evaluate and improve natural language processing systems in their pragmatic abilities, i.e., to infer meanings beyond what is literally said.
Mentor
Tal Linzen
Host Institution
New York University
Amirbehshad Shahrasbi
Primary Affiliation
Carnegie Mellon University
Research Title
Error-correction and Computation
Research Description
I will study and analyze algorithmic approaches in several error-correction/coding problems.
Mentor
Madhu Sudan
Host Institution
Harvard University
Abigale Stangl
Primary Affiliation
University of Texas at Austin
Research Title
Safeguarding Private Visual Information
Research Description
My research centers on the development of automated visual description and interpretation services to safeguards against disclosure of private visual information, and empower people who are blind to safely and independently learn about their surroundings.
Mentor
Leah Findlater
Host Institution
University of Washington
Minka Stoyanova
Primary Affiliation
City University of Hong Kong
Research Title
Activating Urban Space through Interactive and Augmented Reality Interfaces
Research Description
This research in the growing field of ubiquitous computing focuses on how human-computer interaction (HCI) in the context of locative media can be used for creative community building and education in urban contexts.
Mentor
Reece Auguiste
Host Institution
University of Colorado Boulder
Morgan Turner
Primary Affiliation
Brown University
Research Title
Developing Visualizations for Exploring Fossil Skeletal Morphology in the Context of Living Animal Motion Data
Research Description
This project will create a new scientific, data-driven workflow for applying experimentally collected motion datasets to fossil skeletons, analyzing variance, and visualizing uncertainty.
Mentor
Daniel Keefe
Host Institution
University of Minnesota
Yu-Chun Yen
Primary Affiliation
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Research Title
An Interactive Visualization Tool for Scaffolding Online Design CrItique for Creative Education
Research Description
This research project aims to design a pedagogical tool that promotes student contributions to virtual design critique while maintaining instructors’ ability to manage and monitor the class discussions.
Mentor
Steven Dow
Host Institution
University of California, San Diego
Justin Yim
Primary Affiliation
University of California, Berkeley
Research Title
Legged Locomotion In Underbrush
Research Description
We will develop proprioceptive sensing algorithms for reasoning about distributed contacts across a robot’s body and develop control strategies using these contact estimates to move in clutter like underbrush while avoiding tangling or tumbling.
Mentor
Aaron Johnson
Host Institution
Carnegie Mellon University
Kianoosh Yousefi
Primary Affiliation
University of Delaware
Research Title
Multiscale Modeling of Hurricane Boundary-layer Flows
Research Description
In this project, large-eddy and direct numerical simulation techniques are employed to examine the structure of the turbulence in hurricane boundary-layer flows in order to provide comprehensive knowledge on hurricanes.
Mentor
Marco Giometto
Host Institution
Columbia University
Alisa Yurovsky
Primary Affiliation
Stony Brook University
Research Title
Precise Compartment Deconvolution and Weight Estimation of Mixed Tissue Samples
Research Description
Working toward the goal of advancing personalized medicine, I will focus on the development and validation of a new algorithm for compartment deconvolution that can uncover true profiles of individual tissue samples.
Mentor
Richard Moffitt
Host Institution
Stony Brook University School of Medicine
Yixue Zhao
Primary Affiliation
University of Southern California
Research Title
Improving Natural Language Feedback Quality
Research Description
The proposed project aims to improve the quality of peer reviews by identifying review anomalies and providing tools to guide discussions during the review process.
Mentor
Yuriy Brun
Host Institution
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Pengfei Zheng
Primary Affiliation
Duke University
Research Title
AI Assisted Approaches for Learning AI Models at Massive Scale
Research Description
AI assisted resource allocation and scheduling methods to deliver performant and efficient distributed learning at massive scale.
Mentor
Aditya Akella
Host Institution
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Tara Zimmerman
Primary Affiliation
University of North Texas
Research Title
Social Noise & Its Influence on Social Media Information Behavior
Research Description
I will examine how Social Noise impacts human information behavior on social media in multiple contexts, including COVID-19 and verified cases of misinformation.
Mentor
Kenneth Fleischmann
Host Institution
University of Texas, Austin