December 24, 2024
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Computer Science celebrates achievements as Binghamton University’s largest academic department

President says computer science is one of the two strategic growth programs at Binghamton

After a press conference on campus with Gov. Kathy Hochul about 2025 state budget investments in the Southern Tier, Thomas F. Secunda '77, MA '79, a founding partner of Bloomberg L.P., met with Associate Professor Shiqi Zhang and his students to see a demonstration of the seeing-eye robot dog. After a press conference on campus with Gov. Kathy Hochul about 2025 state budget investments in the Southern Tier, Thomas F. Secunda '77, MA '79, a founding partner of Bloomberg L.P., met with Associate Professor Shiqi Zhang and his students to see a demonstration of the seeing-eye robot dog.
After a press conference on campus with Gov. Kathy Hochul about 2025 state budget investments in the Southern Tier, Thomas F. Secunda '77, MA '79, a founding partner of Bloomberg L.P., met with Associate Professor Shiqi Zhang and his students to see a demonstration of the seeing-eye robot dog. Image Credit: Jonathan Cohen.

The Department of Computer Science at the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science officially has become Binghamton University‘s largest academic department with 40 full-time faculty and 1,463 students, including 697 undergraduate students, 685 master’s students and 81 PhD students.

In his January 2024 State of the University address, Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger announced that computer science is one of the two strategic growth programs at Binghamton.

Student news

ColorStack — a national organization dedicated to increasing the number of Black and Latinx computer science graduates that go on to launch rewarding careers — has founded its newest chapter at Binghamton.

Clay Battle ’25 and Ever Goldin ’25 have advanced to the semifinals of Microsoft’s 2024 Imagine Cup, a global technology competition that celebrates students who are building startups with artificial intelligence at their core. Their company, Roadmap, is an AI-powered productivity coach to help people with ADHD get their tasks done.

Beatrice Arana ’23, MS ’24, was inspired by the other women in the CS Department when pursuing her degrees. As an undergraduate, she served as the director of marketing for the Women in Tech student group.

Srimadhaven Thirumurthy ’23 was among a team of students who helped to develop a better distribution system for Locker Room 345, a nonprofit that gives out clothing donated by Dick’s Sporting Goods to children in need.

Research news

Associate Professor Shiqi Zhang, PhD student David DeFazio and junior Eisuke Hirota are developing a robotic seeing-eye dog to increase accessibility for visually impaired people. After working for about a year, the team managed to develop a unique leash-tugging interface to implement through reinforcement learning.

Professor Kyoung-Don Kang received a $599,084 grant from the National Science Foundation to improve real-time data services that support smart transportation, healthcare, manufacturing and other key functions.

PhD student Satrio Yudhoatmojo and Associate Professor Jeremy Blackburn collaborated with Professor Emiliano De Cristofaro at University College London (now University of California - Riverside) to examine how e-prints are used on the online forums Reddit and 4chan. E-prints are academic research papers uploaded and disseminated without peer review.

Faculty news

Since fall 2023, the CS Department has added six new faculty, including five tenure-track assistant professors:

We also welcomed lecturer Xin Zhang.

Alumni news

Alumnus and Industrial Advisory Board member James Bankoski ’90 was promoted to vice president of engineering at Google in November 2023. Bankoski is a donor to Watson College and the CS Department who recently donated to support CS’s Minor Program and to help Watson students attend the Grace Hopper Conference, the National Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers Conference and the National Society of Black Engineers National Conference.

Alumna Susan Wu ’94, a director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, joined the CS Department’s Industrial Advisory Board in 2023.

Bo Long, PhD ’08, the head of recommendation and foundation AI for monetization at Meta, was the recipient of the 2024 Watson College Recognition Award for Distinguished Alumni.