Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst

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Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, UMass Amherst

The Manning College of Information & Computer Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

06/17/2026

When you call an Uber, the platform must make decisions in real-time without knowing future demand, traffic conditions, or driver availability.

Recent PhD graduate Ali Zeynali '26 explored ways to improve decision-making processes for large-scale services like ride-hailing networks, video streaming platforms, and cloud computing services in his dissertation “Online Sequential Decision Making for Resource Allocation.”

The work can help improve the efficiency, quality, and sustainability of these vast systems, making them not only effective on average but also robust and trustworthy when faced with unexpected challenges.

Zeynali will join Databricks as a Machine Learning Engineer. Congratulations!

06/15/2026

Congratulations to the eight members of the Class of 2026 named recipients of this year's Manning CICS Outstanding Undergraduate Achievement Awards, the college’s highest honor for undergraduates.

This year’s honorees — Muhammad Zaeem Chaudhary, Sarang Kale, Archimedes Li, Larry Liu, Om Mehta, Shiven Umeshbhai Patel, Aaron Tian, and Lucy Zhang — have distinguished themselves through exceptional academic achievement, research, leadership, community service, and a commitment to computing for the common good.

From advancing AI accessibility and sustainable computing to mentoring fellow students, leading campus organizations, strengthening the CICS community, and pursuing research across algorithms, robotics, cybersecurity, and human-centered technology, these students reflect the best of Manning CICS.

Read more about the awardees: https://brnw.ch/21x3mlw

06/12/2026

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly being used in education—but evaluating how well they work requires interacting with real or simulated students.

In his dissertation, “Towards Realistic Simulated Students: Aligning Language Models with Student Knowledge and Behavior,” recent PhD graduate Alex Scarlatos '26 examines how to make large language models (LLMs) better at simulating student behavior for use in training educational AI systems.

Congratulations on this milestone, Alex!

06/11/2026

Congratulations to Distinguished Professor Holly Yanco on being elected a Member-at-Large of the ACM - Association for Computing Machinery Council!

Beginning July 1, Yanco will serve a four-year term on ACM’s governing body, helping guide the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society.

“Computing continues to rapidly evolve, especially with recent advancements in AI, and our community needs to proactively determine how we want to shape the future together,” Yanco said. “I am honored to have been elected as a Member-at-Large of the ACM Council and look forward to helping ACM lead a global dialogue about the development, evaluation, and societal integration of computing technologies for the benefit of all.”

Yanco, who joined in 2025, has studied artificial intelligence, robotics, and human-robot interaction for more than 25 years. She is jointly appointed in the Riccio College of Engineering, UMass Amherst and is a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

06/08/2026

Meet Duc Nghiem ’27, a student and research assistant in the Wireless and Sensor Systems Laboratory at UMass Amherst.

He explores how to reduce the cost of expensive camera systems by implementing machine learning models on older, solar-powered smartphones.

Through hands-on research and collaboration, Duc has found opportunities at UMass to grow both technically and personally while balancing academics, research, and community.

Have something exciting you’re working on in a lab, internship, club, or personal project? Fill out the Student Spotlight form and we may feature you: https://brnw.ch/21x3bq6 🌟

06/03/2026

From healthcare to finance, organizations across industries depend on sensitive data to make important decisions.

Recent PhD graduate Cecilia Ferrando researches differential privacy, a mathematical framework that enables decision-makers to learn from data while protecting individual privacy. She defended her dissertation, “Differentially Private Statistical Learning: Uncertainty Estimation and Utility Preservation,” which develops practical methods for privacy-preserving machine learning.

Ferrando will join LinkedIn as a Senior Machine Learning Engineer on its Core AI team. Congratulations, Cecilia!

06/01/2026

What if smartphones, smartwatches, and headphones could use ultrasound to enhance interactivity, privacy, and accessible health monitoring?

Recent PhD graduate Shirui (Charles) Cao recently defended his dissertation “Ultrasonic Sensing Systems: From Hardware Design to Interactive and Physiological Applications.” His work demonstrated that better hardware, software, and machine learning can enable these everyday devices to detect movement, recognize whispered or silent speech, and even sense signals like blood flow in the body.

Congratulations on this milestone!

05/31/2026

Computing jumped off the screen and into the real world earlier this month!

Students in Assistant Professor Donghyun Kim’s “CICS 256: Make: A Hands-on Introduction to Physical Computing” brought their final projects to life during a showcase at the Physical Computing Makerspace.

Across 14 teams, students applied a semester of hands-on learning in electronic components and circuits, embedded programming, product design, and rapid prototyping to invent, design, and build practical hardware projects that sense and respond to the world around them.

05/26/2026

Ready for the next step? Level up your career with our online or hybrid MS in computer science, offering the same academic rigor and high quality that you would find on campus.

Join us tomorrow at 10 a.m. ET to learn how our flexible programs can fit your goals and schedule! Registration is required.

Register today to secure your spot.
https://brnw.ch/21x2PRf

Address

140 Governors Drive
Amherst, MA
01003

Telephone

+14135452744

Website

http://www.cics.umass.edu/

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