Computer Science Graduate Student Newsletter

1996-06                                     August 15, 1996


Changes in COSC Faculty

The Computer Science Department recruited a new Assistant Professor 
this year.  Dr. D. Sivakumar will be teaching COSC 3340 this Fall.  
Dr. Sivakumar received his BE degree from Anna University, India in 
1990 and his Ph. D. degree from State University of New York at 
Buffalo in 1996.

Professor Sivakumar's areas of interests include Computational 
Complexity Theory and Randomized Computation.  He is also 
interested in Realistic Algorithms and Efficient Heuristics for 
Computational Optimization problems in the areas of VLSI and 
Pattern Recognition.

Dr. Michael W. Fagan, a Research Associate at Rice University's 
Computer Science Department, will be teaching a course in the 
Computer Science Department at UH this Fall.  Professor Fagan 
received his B.S. (E.E., 1977) degree and his Ph. D.(1991) degree 
from Rice University.  He will be teaching COSC 4310: Languages 
and Processors.

Professor Mike Fagan's research interests lie in the design and 
implementation of programming languages. In particular, he is 
interested in improving the programming process for high-level 
languages through the use of advanced type-checking methods. 

A Post-Doctoral researcher, Dr. Nicos Pitsianis, will join the 
Department.  Dr. Pitsianis will be working with Dr. Lennart 
Johnsson and may also teach a course in the Department for the 
Fall semester.  

Pitsianis received his BS degree in Mathematics from Aristotle 
University, Greece, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer 
Science from Cornell University in 1993 and 1996 respectively.  
His research interests include: Numerical and Symbolic Computation 
for Solving Large Scientific Problems, Parallel Processing, Compiler 
Techniques for Optimization, FFT and Wavelet Algorithms, and Program 
Transformation.

Professor Rakesh Verma will be taking a development leave for the 
1996-97 academic year.  He'll be spending his leave at the Centre 
for Research on Informatics of INRIA Lorraine, CNRS, and the 
Universities of Nancy, in Nancy, France. The Centre has 8 research 
groups with over 100 research staff in total.  Dr. Verma will be 
collaborating with CRIN scientists on automatic theorem proving 
term rewriting and AI research. 

Dr. Marek Rusinkiewicz will continue his leave to Microelectronics 
and Computer Technology Corp. (MCC) for the new academic year.  
There is no word on when he will return to teaching at UH.


MS via Distance Education Approved


Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has approved the 
Department's proposal to offer the MS degree in Computer Science 
via Distance Education (Instructional Telecommunication) at North 
Harris Montgomery Community College.  For more information, please 
contact Mrs. Amanda Vaughan (713 743-3364).


Changes in Special Problem Courses

The College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics will soon change the 
grading for Special Problems from letter grades (A-F) to S/U.  This 
change includes all undergraduate and graduate special problem 
courses in the College.  Students taking such a course will receive 
an S or U grade. Letter grade will be given under special 
circumstances. 


Mexican Delegation visited UH

A delegation from the Universidad Autonoma de Nayarit, Mexico 
visited the Department on July 22.  The visitors included Dr. 
Alberto Rivera Dominguez, the Rector of the University, and 
several directors.  

Dr. Stephen Huang met with the team and made a presentation about 
the COSC programs to the visitors.  Professors Cobb and Paris were 
also at the meeting to greet the visitors.  The visiting team also 
toured Dr. Loftin's Virtual Environment Technology Lab.