Hello my Badger Friends!

What an odd time we are living through! I do hope that despite everything, you have been healthy and as happy as possible, and that things continue to improve for you wherever you are.

On campus, we are looking forward to fall and hopefully a more usual kind of year. Alas, the news seems to change day by day. In the meanwhile, we are both planning for as much in-person instruction as is safe, while also putting contingencies in place. One thing is certain: we do miss seeing our students, and hope we can find more ways to connect with them regardless of
circumstance.

I have some exciting news to share about a new buildling for the School of
Computer Data & Information Sciences (CDIS): ground will be broken in early
2023! As I mentioned last time, the building will house all three CDIS departments (CS, the iSchool, and Statistics), as well as some colleagues from Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, and will serve as a key part of an emerging "tech corridor" on campus (near the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery, Biotechnology, Chemistry, and Engineering). We will share more plans and news as the project progresses.

In this issue, we have some great stories to share with you. CS has reached
a huge milestone: 2,022 majors, making us the largest major on campus (by far). Michael Ferris has been working on a project to give everyone access to COVID-19 vaccines. Paul Barford has created and taught a course on ethics in computer science. We have two stories to share about Suman Banerjee, who has received an award to design augmented reality headsets to help first responders and is part of a new NSF AI institute. Finally, CS Instructor Amber Field has designed and taught the first CS Capstone course for undergraduates. You can read about these innovative projects at the link below. Finally, we'll have four new faculty members join us this fall; you can read about them in the next issue.

We hope you are doing well and look forward to being able to reconnect in person sometime soon. Take care! And please reach out at any time; I'm always happy to hear from our wonderful alumni.

Remzi

Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau
Chair
Computer Sciences reaches 2,022 majors
CS now has the largest number of majors on campus: 2,022! That's 800% growth since 2011. Read about how CS has worked hard on accessibility and providing a welcoming environment to all students.
Michael Ferris working to give everyone fair access to COVID-19 vaccines
Michael Ferris and his colleague Corey Jackson of the UW-Madison Information School are developing a vaccine fairness recommendation engine that aims to fill in the "missing step between mathematics and the reality."
New course developed by Paul Barford explores ethics and computer science
Paul Barford has developed and taught for the first time a course whose aim is to teach students about the ways in which technology and the Internet can cause harm. In this article you'll hear from Barford, TA Camila Hernandez-Flowerman, and students in the class about the importance of tackling challenging ethical issues in computer science.

Capstone course connects undergraduates with companies for hands-on software development
CS Instructor Amber Field is working hard to give CS undergraduates real-world experience before they finish their degrees. Students in the new Capstone course worked with local tech companies to come up with software solutions to specific problems. Read about their innovative projects at the link below.

Suman Banerjee to develop augmented reality (AR) devices for first responders and improve edge computing with new AI institute
CS Professor Suman Banerjee is involved in two new ventures. One is funded by NIST and aims to help first responders make informed split second decisions through the use of augmented reality headsets. The other is the NSF-funded institute Athena, whose goal is to train a diverse workforce of edge computing and networking leaders driven to maintain ethics and fairness in AI. 


School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences (CDIS)
The School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences (CDIS) has a new website! See plans for the new building and read about other CDIS efforts at the link below.
Learn more at cdis.wisc.edu
1210 W. Dayton | Madison, Wisconsin 53706