UW-Madison Dept. of Computer Sciences

04/14/2026

It’s here: Day of the Badger continues until 5:00 PM on Wednesday, April 15. Help us reach 100 donations to unlock $25,000 more in student funding!

Donors make all the difference. This year, four WACM at UW-Madison officers were able to attend Harvard's WECode Conference thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.

"WACM has been working hard to build a community for women in STEM at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The biggest barrier we face is simply paying for all of it,” says Carol Sze, WACM’s president. “All of the conferences WACM sends members to, all of the lunches we organize with industry and faculty, all of the community events WACM hosts — none of it would be possible without financial support from donors.”

Pay it forward during : https://dayofthebadger.org/campaign/computer-sciences/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dotb26&utm_content=link&utm_source=campus-tactics&campaign=CA1032244

University of Wisconsin Foundation

04/09/2026

Join us for an open house on Saturday, April 11 as part of University of Wisconsin-Madison's 2026 Science Expeditions!

Come find UW-Madison School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences in Morgridge Hall's Orchard Street Lobby Area from 10 AM - 1 PM. Then check out the rest of campus for additional UW-Madison Science Outreach programming!

Members of the public can come explore our home building's public art and student spaces and participate in hands-on activities. Think robot soccer demos, student-led tours, and plenty of STEM fun.

See you there: https://science.wisc.edu/science-expeditions/

04/02/2026

Congratulations to Professor Miron Livny, chief technology officer at the Morgridge Institute for Research, for being named one of this year’s Hilldale Award recipients.

Awarded annually to four faculty members across the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Hilldale Award recognizes contributions to teaching, research and service in the arts and humanities, biological sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences.

Meet the awardees: https://news.wisc.edu/meet-the-winners-of-the-2026-hilldale-awards/

04/01/2026

Congratulations to Xinning He PhDx'30, who was recently named a 2026 Kohler Fellow by the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.

He's work in human-computer interaction and robotics explores how design can foster socially fluent human-robot coexistence.

Learn more and meet this year's remaining Kohler Fellows:
https://wid.wisc.edu/new-kohler-fellows-advancing-discovery-through-creative-collaboration/

03/30/2026

Each year, the faculty divisions honor four UW–Madison faculty with the Hilldale Award to recognize their contributions to teaching, research and service. Congratulations to our 2026 winners: Ellen Wald, Miron Livny, Jon Pevehouse and Mimmi Fulmer!

Meet each awardee: https://news.wisc.edu/meet-the-winners-of-the-2026-hilldale-awards/

03/19/2026

Next fall’s incoming class at University of Wisconsin-Madison will include a very special Badger: an autonomous, two-armed robot.

Wiscohumanoids, a new student group launched in November, plans to build a humanoid robot from the ground up by September. The club’s 130+ active members say the project offers unique experience they won’t find anywhere else:

“Our theory is, if we can build the [nation’s] first or second humanoid robot, we'll suddenly have one of the most prepared student bodies in the world to go fill this massive billion dollar market that has no talent,” Co-founder Max Schneider told The Daily Cardinal. “I think this is so exciting because we're essentially running as a startup — we're telling people, ‘here's a project with no constraints.’”

The future of robotics: https://www.dailycardinal.com/article/2026/02/uw-humanoid-robotics-club-to-build-human-like-robot-from-scratch

03/18/2026

Most robots are designed to perform practical, if unglamorous, jobs — but not all.

In the People and Robots Laboratory, PhD candidate Amy Koike designs expressive robots that spark joy and human connection. Advised by Professor Bilge Mutlu, her robots take inspiration from animated characters and are programmed to emote.

“I’m interested in how I can stimulate people’s imagination,” Koike explains. “I don’t want my robots replacing human workers. Rather, I want them to be companions that make our lives happier, more joyful.”

Expressive machina: https://www.cs.wisc.edu/2026/03/04/expressive-machina-amy-koike-curious-robots/

03/17/2026

Where is AI today? More importantly, where is it headed?

That’s what experts, legislators, and AI researchers recently gathered to discuss at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

During the inaugural AI Meets Society (AIMS) Symposium co-hosted by the Wisconsin AI Safety Initiative and UW-Madison School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences, speakers shared their thoughts with over 150 attendees.

“I see [AI] as something that we can’t step back from,” said Anaya Mandal, one of the organizers. “It has a lot of capacity to do a lot of good. I also think it has the capacity to do a lot of bad — dual use.”

Inside the symposium:

150 experts, legislators, and practitioners convened at Morgridge Hall for the inaugural AI Meets Society (AIMS) Symposium.

03/16/2026

ICYMI: Professor Suman Banerjee’s new entrepreneurship course is an Epic success.

During the course’s first meeting, alumna Judy Faulkner — founder and CEO of Epic Systems — stopped by to tell students about the business decisions that made her Forbes’ “most powerful woman in healthcare.”

In short: “Winners focus on the customers. Losers focus on the winners.”

More sage advice for burgeoning business leaders:

When students filed into the lecture hall for the first session of a new entrepreneurship course in the Computer Sciences department, the energy felt different from a typical class. This wasn't a syllabus review or a technical deep dive. Instead, it was a fireside chat with one of the most consequen...

03/13/2026

“I always knew I wanted to build my own startup,” says Siddarth Singh. “Business felt like something I could learn through experience, but technology felt foundational.”

A degree in computer science offered that foundation. Now, as president of Transcend UW and a serial participant in the department’s CS NEST accelerator program (co-hosted with gener8tor), Singh is building on it — one startup at a time.

Inside Singh’s entrepreneurial path: https://www.cs.wisc.edu/2026/02/12/siddharth-singh-x27-builds-startups-and-community-through-code/

03/13/2026

Students, we're conducting our first-ever Student Voice Survey in Morgridge Hall this spring, and we want to hear from YOU!

Take our Student Survey for a chance to win gift cards and UW swag.

Survey link in the bio. Survey will run through March 27.