In the News
Outstanding Contribution to ACM Award for Joseph Konstan
Joseph Konstan from Computer Science and Engineering earned the 2022 Outstanding Contribution Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for his 25 years of dedicated service and leadership in support of ACM's mission and operation, and the advancement of ACM's research, education, and practitioner communities. Prof. Konstan is also the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Science and Engineering, and is one of four individuals being recognized by ACM for their exemplary service to the computing field. Konstan has been involved in ACM’s activities for over 25 years: participating in, developing, and nurturing new technical areas, serving on key task forces and committees, and leading several of ACM’s major boards and working groups.
New UTC Research Funding for Connected and Automated Vehicles
The University of Minnesota is part of a Regional University Transportation Research Center (UTC) that was recently renewed for funding by the US Department of Transportation (USDOT). The UTC is led by the University of Michigan and includes a team of nine Midwestern research partners which together will receive $15 million over the next 5 years. The UTC is titled Center for Connected and Automated Transportation (CCAT) and is one of 10 regional UTCs that have been funded nationwide. The University of Minnesota team will be led by Zhi-Li Zhang, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, and will include other MnRI researchers, Rajesh Rajamani, Raphael Stern, Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos, and Feng Qian.
Stevie Chancellor Wins Amazon Grant for Machine Learning and Mental Health Project
Stevie Chancellor from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering is the recipient of an Amazon Research Award announced in 2023 for her project titled, “Collaborative and socially translucent task instructions for emotionally heavy and subjective annotation tasks.” Her group will use this grant to improve machine learning techniques relating to mental health data. The team is dedicated to creating collaborative labeling interfaces for machine learning modeling while considering the subjectivity of distressing content. Amazon Research Awards (ARA) provides unrestricted funds and AWS Promotional Credits to academic researchers investigating various research topics in multiple disciplines.
Best Poster Award for Kim Gustafson
Kim Gustafson, a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering was the first-place poster award winner out of the 110 posters presented at the Tenth Annual Minnesota Neuromodulation Symposium, held April 20-21 at the University of Minnesota. Gustafson's poster, titled "Muscle-Powered Standing Exercise Post Spinal Cord Injury", presented her work on an exercise machine for people with spinal cord injury. Kim works with Prof. Will Durfee in Mechanical Engineering.
University of Minnesota Rocket Team wins 30,000-ft category at 2023 Spaceport America Cup
The University of Minnesota Rocket Team launched their rocket nearly 30,000 feet to take first place in one of the most challenging categories at the 2023 Spaceport America Cup. More than 150 teams from countries around the world competed in the planet’s largest intercollegiate rocketry competition that took place in New Mexico from June 19-24. In addition to winning the 30,000 ft Student Researched and Developed (SRAD) Solid category, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities students took home the James Barrowman Award for Flight Dynamics and were named a finalist for the Charles Hoult Award for Modeling & Simulation.
The Rocket Team is student-run and comprises students from across the University's College of Science and Engineering who gain hands-on engineering experience designing, building, testing, and flying high-powered rockets. The team has had many successes in recent years, including winning first place overall at the 2021 Spaceport America Cup.
College of Science and Engineering students on the University of Minnesota Rocket Team launched their fully student-designed and built rocket nearly 30,000 feet to take first place in one of the 2023 Spaceport America Cup’s most challenging categories. Photo credit: University of Minnesota Rocket Team