College of Computing and Informatics

An unprecedented partnership of academic and industry organizations at the North Carolina Research Campus is launching a $1.5 million program to engage college students from across the state in a first-of-its-kind education and research endeavor – the Plant Pathways Elucidation Project (P2EP).

Jennifer Weller, an associate professor of bioinformatics and genomics in the College of Computing and Informatics (CCI), is helping Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS)students to fight chestnut blight, an Asian fungus that has killed off billions of American chestnut trees since 1904.
Weller is working with Olympic High School science teachers Jeanne Smith and Erica Putnam through the school’s B-3 Summer Program, which focuses on biotechnology, biodiversity and bioinformatics at Olympic’s School of Biotechnology, Health and Public Administration.

Matthew Johnson, a doctoral student in computer science in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “Exploring the Visualization of Student Behavior in Computer-based Education” at 10 a.m., Tuesday, May 21, in Woodward Hall, Room 338. Tiffany Barnes is the dissertation advisor.

Warren Cole, a professional science master’s degree student in the College of Computing and Informatics Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, has received a summer internship from the Open Science Data Cloud – Partnership for International Research and Education (OSCD-PIRE) project. He will conduct his internship at the internationally acclaimed Beijing Institute of Genomics in Shenzhen, China, considered one of the world’s premiere genome sequencing centers.

Ying Zhu, a doctoral student in computing and information systems in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “Social and Location-based Routing in Delay Tolerant Networks” at 2 p.m., Thursday, May 16, in Woodward Hall, Room 338. Yu Wang is the dissertation advisor.

Yi Shen, a doctoral student in computing and information systems in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “Structural Learning for Large Scale Image Classification” at 11 a.m., Friday, April 12, in Woodward Hall, Room 155. Jianping Fan is the dissertation advisor.

Vijay Kumar, UPS Foundation Professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, will present “Aerial Robot Swarms” at 3 p.m., Friday, March 22, in Woodward Hall, Room 106, as part of the College of Computing and Informatics Distinguished Lecture Series.

Daniel Janies, Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Bioinformatics and Genomics, is an invited speaker at the “Symposium Emerging Infections, Microbial Threats to Health and the Microbiome” being hosted by the National Academy of Sciences Dec. 11-12. 

Jing Xiao, professor of computer science in the College of Computing and Informatics, has been named an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Fellow effective Jan. 1.

She is being recognized for contributions to robot compliant motion and haptic interaction. Xiao’s core work addresses the physical interaction between a machine and objects it manipulates, which impacts the application of robotics and haptics in autonomous assembly operations, tele-operations, virtual prototyping and virtual training of surgical operations.

Yujie Lin, a doctoral student in computing and information systems in the College of Computing and Informatics, will defend “Exploratory Visualization of Graphs Based on Community Structure” at 3:30 p.m., Friday, Dec. 7, in Woodward Hall, Room 338. Jing Yang is the dissertation advisor.