Rice University Computer Science

05/28/2026

Quantum computers with completely different hardware, learning together. Sounds like a stretch. Rice University Computer Science researchers made it work and tested it on real IBM quantum hardware.

See more here: https://bit.ly/4uBNr03

Quantum federated learning is becoming increasingly important as qu...

05/27/2026

Graduate students and postdocs: the deadline to register for the poster session and apply for travel grants for the Crossroads of AI & Society Workshop is this Friday, May 29.

Travel grants of up to $500 are available, with priority given to poster presenters.

The workshop takes place July 15-16, 2026 in Paris, France. Registration is FREE.

Learn more and register at aaforml.com/2026

05/26/2026

Robots that help in surgery, respond in emergencies and make daily life easier. The researchers at Rice University Computer Science are not waiting for the future to figure this out.

They are building it now, with NASA 30 miles away and the Texas Medical Center right next door.

Watch the video. Subscribe for more.
https://bit.ly/3Q0aKl0

In the field of Robotics & Physical AI, Rice University Computer Sc...

05/21/2026

What happens when computer scientists, economists and social scientists sit down together to talk about AI? That's exactly what this workshop is designed to find out.

Registration is open for the Crossroads of AI & Society Workshop, a two-day event hosted by Rice University at the Global Paris Center, July 15-16, 2026 in Paris, France.

The workshop brings together researchers across computer science, economics and the social sciences to explore how AI systems are designed, deployed and governed. Sessions will cover fairness, privacy and incentives, with invited speakers from MIT, UC Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, Yale, Caltech, Georgia Tech and more.

Graduate students and postdocs: there is a poster session open to you, and a limited number of $500 travel grants are available with priority given to poster presenters.

Key deadlines:
Poster session and travel grant applications: May 29
General registration: June 12

Registration is FREE. See the full speaker lineup and organizer team in the comments, and learn more at aaforml.com/2026

05/19/2026

It's not just what you know. It's what you do with it.

Nearly 300 engineering and computing graduates participated in an induction ceremony for the Order of the Engineer and The Pledge of the Computing Professional. They received a stainless steel ring or a pin spelling "honor" in binary as a reminder of their commitment to ethical practice and service to society.

Computer Science and Business major Trisha Chinnimeni said it perfectly: "It's about what you do with what you learn."

In computer science, we have enormous power. The algorithms we write. The systems we design. The data we collect and how we use it. These decisions shape how information flows through the world, whose voices get amplified, what gets automated, who benefits and who gets left behind.

We're in a moment of rapid technological change. That means the work our graduates do next will matter more than ever. Every line of code carries choices. Every design decision has consequences. And every one of our students is leaving Rice understanding that technical excellence and ethical responsibility go hand in hand.

This is what computer science is really about. Not just solving problems, but solving them in ways that respect people. Not just building systems that work, but systems that work for everyone.

Our graduates are committing to that. They understand that what you learn in computer science is a tool. What you do with it is everything.

Read the full story: https://bit.ly/3RPZwjr

Nearly 300 graduates of the George R. Brown School of Engineering and Computing took part in the induction ceremony for the Order of the Engineer and The Pledge of the Computing Professional.

05/13/2026

Matthew Hendricks has joined the Rice Computer Science department as our new Executive Administrator. He brings deep experience in higher education operations, and we wasted no time making him feel at home.

Welcome to the team, Matthew.

Read more about Matthew: https://bit.ly/4fjZryh

05/11/2026

Big news from the Department of Computer Science at Rice University.
Three of our faculty have been promoted, effective July 1, 2026.

Congratulations to:
Vicente Ordónez-Román, promoted to Full Professor
Konstantinos Mamouras, promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure
Rodrigo Ferreira, promoted to Associate Teaching Professor

These three represent the kind of faculty that make Rice Computer Science what it is: researchers pushing boundaries, teachers who genuinely care and scholars thinking carefully about where technology is taking us.

We are so proud of each of them.

05/06/2026

Registration is now open for the Crossroads of AI & Society Workshop, hosted by Rice University's Global Paris Center in Paris, July 15-16, 2026.

This two-day workshop brings together researchers and practitioners from computer science, economics and operations to explore how AI intersects with some of the most pressing questions of our time: incentives, privacy and fairness.

Here's what you need to know:
- Interdisciplinary speaker lineup across CS, operations and economics
- Poster session open to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers
- Limited travel grants available
- Registration is free. Deadline: June 12
- Poster and travel grant applications due: May 29

Learn more and register:
https://bit.ly/4tozBN0

05/04/2026

Happy May the 4th!

You probably know it as Star Wars Day, but there's a legit computer science connection hiding in the pun.

"May the Fourth be with you" plays off of Star Wars iconic line, "May the Force be with you." But Forth is also a real programming language, and the name is no coincidence.

Chuck Moore designed it in the late 1960s as what he called "fourth generation" software, a step beyond the programming languages of the time. He originally spelled it FOURTH, but the operating system he was working on only allowed five-character file names, so the "U" got cut.

So: May the FORTH be with you.

The language is still running today, including in spaceflight applications and embedded systems that interact directly with hardware. A programming language from the 1960s, still doing its job on spacecraft.

The Force is strong with this one.

04/30/2026

Algorithms. Pandemics. Biosecurity. Genomics. Not your average Computer Science research portfolio, and that's exactly the point.

Congrats to Associate Professor Todd Treangen, one of two Rice faculty honored with the Provost's Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievement, which recognizes exceptional contributions in research, scholarship or creative works over the last five years.

Since launching the Treangen Lab in 2018, Todd and his team have built open-source computational tools to identify microbial pathogens, track genome variation and study microbial communities across environments. Their work is actively funded by the CDC, NIH and NSF.

That's the kind of work we love to shout about. Well done, Todd!

Read more here: https://bit.ly/4mMwvkj