School of Computing December 2025 Newsletter
Achievements
As the holidays approach, there is more good news to share.
Dr. Roy, Dr. Dutta, and Dr. Kreidl worked with SoC M.S. student Hafiz Kakar on the paper, "Energy-Efficient Cryptographic Optimization for Narrowband IoT Security: Integrating Blockchain and EP-CuMAC with ECM-SHA256", which was accepted in Elsevier’s Internet of Things journal. https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/internet-of-things
Dr. Dutta and Dr. Ghosh worked with SoC Ph.D. student Iliya Kulbaka and SoC undergraduate student Ian Dahlin on the paper, "TopoRec: Point Cloud Recognition Using Topological Data Analysis", which was accepted at the IEEE/CVF Winter Conference on Applications of Computer Vision (WACV 2026). https://wacv.thecvf.com/
The NestforAwhile 2025 AI-Augmented Coding Challenge was hosted from November 15–16. Eight teams, with a total of 24 students, leveraged AI tools to tackle two complex coding problems. With assistance from professionals, industry partners, and faculty, the teams presented their findings and reflections.
UPE Scholarship Recipients
Graduate Student
Jacob Aaron Tanchak has been awarded a UPE Scholarship Award ($1,000).
Undergraduate Student
Shirley Chen has been awarded a UPE Scholarship Award ($1,000).
School of Computing Symposium
The School of Computing Symposium featured poster presentations and four oral presentations. The School of Computing congratulates all Symposium participants and thanks our community partners who served as judges.
Oral Presentation Award Winners
Faculty/Staff Choice: GDM-PiNet: Physics-informed Deep Reinforcement Learning for Efficient Robotic Gas Distribution Mapping
Authors: Iliya Kulbaka
Advisor: Dr. Ayan Dutta
Computing Advisory Board’s Choice: Multimodal Learning Using Electrocardiograms and Lung Acoustic Recordings for Pulmonary Disease Classification
Authors: Kushul Reddy Palakala, Rama Krishna Prasad Vuppala, Ben Interlichia
Advisor: Dr. Xudong Liu
Poster Presentation Award Winners
Faculty/Staff Choice: Dwell Time Estimation Using Periodic Image Captures and Deep Learning
Authors: John Butoto
Advisor: Dr. Xudong Liu
Computing Advisory Board’s Choice: Voice-Based Phishing Detection Using Machine Learning and Deep Neural Networks
Authors: Ros Maria Edathil Francis Stanly
Advisor: Dr. Zornitza Prodanoff
Audience Choice: 3D Made Easy: MeldrLang, Simplified Blender Scripting
Authors: Phil Wigner, Antonio Morales, John De Los Angeles
Advisor: Dr. Indika Kahanda