August 31, 2020

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

Thanks to a lot of hard work by a lot of people, we are starting a new academic year back on the campus we love!

And we are off to very good start indeed. So far, we remain at only five new positive cases of COVID-19 since August 1. That’s only a fraction of the cases many other universities are reporting, and well within safe limits. Thanks to our students, faculty and staff for adhering to the protocols for masking, safe distancing, and sanitizing. Keep it up! And students, please remember to use sanitizer when you enter a classroom, and use the wipes to clean your workstation.

In our greeting to the Class of ’24 and transfer students last week, we gave our first year students a lot of advice about what it means to be an engineer; about taking advantage of research, global, and internship experiences; about not being afraid to fail; and about all the resources we have available to help them succeed — despite all the challenges we face this semester because of  COVID-19.

But I would especially like to share with you some advice Paul Funkenbusch, our associate dean of education and new initiatives, passed along to the students, based on a saying I’m sure many of you have heard:

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about.

“This is especially true this year because of COVID-19,” Paul says. And I couldn’t agree more. As Paul notes, there are a lot of things going on in people’s lives right now. That applies to many of the people on our campus — other students, faculty members, advisors, the University staff members who prepare food and keep us stocked with PPE. People are dealing with health issues, financial hardships, struggling to find day care for their children. So, let’s try to keep that in mind as we navigate a challenging academic landscape this fall. It will be easier for everyone, if we do our best to be kind to others in our encounters.

And above all, be kind to yourself. This is always good advice for new students. But this semester, especially, it is good advice for all of us. We’re all learning as we go.

So, as Paul advises: “Cut yourself a little bit of slack. Don’t pound yourself over the head for things that are beyond your control.”

To both new and returning students, and to all members of the Hajim School community, be sure to follow us on social media. Here are the handles and links:

Facebook
Name: Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences: University of Rochester
Handle: @HajimSchool
Link: https://www.facebook.com/HajimSchool

Instagram
Name: UR Engineering and CS
Handle: @ur_engineeringandcs
Link: https://www.instagram.com/ur_engineeringandcs/

In addition to the new NSF Physics Frontier Center grant we talked about two weeks ago, our faculty members have been successful in obtaining other outside funding that illustrates the breadth and depth of research taking place at the Hajim School. Here’s the first in a series taking a closer look at some of these grants and why they are important.

For example, would you hire a campaign manager who can perfectly and efficiently tell you whether a campaign strategy exists under which you will win, but who cannot in any reasonable amount of time give you even a clue as to what that winning strategy is?  Probably not!  That potential chasm between the computational costs of decision problems and search problems is a central focus of a new $365,894 National Science Foundation grant awarded to Lane A. Hemaspaandra, professor of computer science.

The grant seeks to focus the tools, techniques, and general sensibility of structural complexity theory, in which Lane is an expert, on the area of computational social choice, which is a subarea of artificial intelligence concerned with the efficient computation of outcomes of elections and accounting for the ways in which those outcomes can be manipulated.

Talk about a timely topic! We have seen how elections can be attacked simultaneously in multiple ways. So another goal of the project, Lane says in his abstract of this grant, is to better model and study the computational-cost issues in carrying out, and defending against, multiple simultaneous attacks on elections.

The project aims to put computational social choice on a firmer footing as to appropriately studying voting theory with regard to computational costs, and will contribute to improving the body of questions, models, and results in this area.

The grant will pay for a PhD student each of the three years of the project, and also provides Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) funding to pay for four semesters of undergraduate research the first year–either four students working for a semester each, or two students for the entire year. There will also be an opportunity to apply for similar REU funding each of the last two years of the project. As Lane notes in his abstract, the REU will demonstrate to students “the challenge and beauty of computational social choice and how it interacts with structural complexity theory” and “help keep STEM students STEM-interested and bring new undergraduates to STEM.”

Optics alum Michael Caccuitto ’91, now a division chief at the Army Research Office in Durham, NC, passes along this fellowship opportunity for graduate students:

The National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Program is now accepting applications for 2021.  Candidates must be U.S. citizens or U.S nationals, who intend to pursue a doctoral degree in a discipline relevant to the Department of Defense. Applications are due November 2, 2020.

Applications are encouraged from women, persons with disabilities, and minorities, including members of ethnic minority groups. The NDSEG Fellowship lasts for 3 years and pays for full tuition and all mandatory fees; a monthly stipend ($38,400 annually); a $5,000 travel budget over the Fellow’s tenure for professional development; and up to $1,200 a year in health insurance. Read more here.

Hajim students who are pursuing master’s and doctoral degrees can also connect with the Fellowships Office to discuss the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). The NSF GRFP recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported STEM disciplines. The five-year fellowship includes three years of financial support including an annual stipend of $34,000 and a cost of education allowance of $12,000 to the institution. To learn more and begin the application process, connect with the Fellowships Office here.

Have a great week! And, again, PLEASE observe our COVID-19 protocols. Wear those face masks. Keep a safe distance. And use that hand sanitizer.

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman