UNM Computer Science

PhD Student Highlight: Mark Olah

CS grad student Mark Olah works in the field of molecular computing under the advisement of Prof. Darko Stefanovic. Mark has been developing computer models of nano-scale molecular walkers. These walkers have legs made of single strands of DNA which attach to and react with complementary strands of DNA that coat a surface. This work is part of a larger effort organized under the NSF Center for Molecular Cybernetics.

James Horey: Fifth in a Row as Convocation Speaker

James Horey will speak at the SOE convocation to be held 10:00 a.m., December 20, 2008. This marks the fifth time in a row a computer science student has been selected to be a speaker—the others were Dennis Paiz-Ramirez, Rory McGuire, Monique Morin and Aaron Clauset. James is graduating with his PhD, and his research interests include programming interfaces, runtime systems, and privacy algorithms for sensor networks. He works with Prof. Arthur (Barney) Maccabe.

Related links: James Horey; SoE Convocation information

Melanie Moses: Co-Author on Science Paper

UNM CS Professor Melanie Moses was a co-author on a paper in the prestigious Science magazine called "Energy Uptake and Allocation During Ontogeny" (subscription required). The article was featured on UNM Today. The paper shows that the food young use to grow always stays proportional to how fast they are growing.

Kurt Ferreira Featured in Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research Article

The Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, a Department of Energy program, published an article discussing the work that CS graduate student Kurt Ferreira, his professor Patrick Bridges and Sandia team leader Ron Brightwell. The work involves "decomposing periodic services into smaller pieces that run more often" to reduce the impact of noise on application performance in large-scale, parallel systems.

ThanhVu Nguyen Receives New Mexico Space Grant Consortium Scholarship

ThanhVu Nguyen is the recipient of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium research scholarship for the Spring 2009 semester. ThanhVu is no stranger to awards: last year he won the NASA New Mexico Space Grant Fellowship. ThanhVu received M.S. and B.S. degrees from Pennsylvania State, and is a PhD student in the department. Department Chair Stephanie Forrest is his advisor.

Congratulations, ThanhVu!

Darko Stefanovic in Scientific American

Darko Stefanovic and his colleagues Joanne Macdonald and Milan N. Stojanovic wrote an article for Scientific American in which they describe their work on MAYA-II, an automaton which uses logic gates made of DNA to play tic-tac-toe. The research holds the promise to create "...nanoscopic machines that could exist in living organisms, sensing conditions and making decisions based on what they sense, then responding with actions such as releasing medicine or killing specific cells."

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