Since the early 1990's, the Cornell CS department has developed one of the leading AI groups in the world, as can be seen by our record of awards, press mentions, and other recognition. Yet, our relatively small size makes for a collaborative and cooperative environment within which a broad set of research groups flourish. Terminology notes: a "CS field member" is a Cornell faculty member who can serve as the official PhD advisor (in Cornell lingo, "Special Committee chair") of Cornell CS PhD students. This new Center aims to unify programs and curricula in data science with an initial emphasis on questions grounded in data that are generated by human activity, including computational social science (e.g., sociology and government), the economics/computer science interface, the aspects of digital agriculture in the production and management of agriculture, digital platforms supporting urban infrastructure (e.g., the sharing economy), and as a theme that is cross-cutting in many of these areas, the corresponding issues of privacy, security, and fairness; more generally, the Center will enhance other programmatic areas associated with data science in an entrepreneurial and opportunistic fashion.

CS Assistant Professor Alexander Sasha Rush has successfully moved the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) to an entirely online environment. From today, all content for the ICLR 2020 Virtual Conference is available in open-access for anyone across the world to learn from. A public archive of the virtual conference site is now available for everyone to explore the 2020 conference proceedings, and to get a sense of the virtual conference portal and its flow. The registered participants site remains available. Organising the 8th international conference on learning representations (ICLR 2020) was highly challenging, but ultimately, highly rewarding for our organising committees.

The following exchange is part of an ongoing CS News series in which Cornell Computer Science faculty share some details about their research initiatives and teaching practice. For this session, we speak with assistant professor Immanuel Trummer. Immanuel, can you please give readers a sense of your current research projects and also share a few representative publications on these topics? My research is about efficiency in data processing. That can be efficiency on the system's side, when trying to reduce computational overheads while processing large data sets.

Cornell CS Ph.D., Daniela L. Rus '93, who was supervised by IBM Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics, John Hopcroft, has been named to Donald J. Trump's President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST). The council provides advice to the White House on topics critical to U.S. security and the economy, including policy recommendations on the future of work, American leadership in science and technology, and the support of U.S. research and development. PCAST operates under the aegis of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), which was established in law in 1976. However, the council has existed more informally going back to Franklin Roosevelt's Science Advisory Board in 1933. "I'm grateful to be able to add my perspective as a computer scientist to this group at a time when so many issues involving AI and other aspects of computing raise important scientific and policy questions for the nation and the world," says Rus. Rus is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and the deputy dean of research for the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing.

Serge Belongie, member of the Computer Science department and Associate Dean at Cornell Tech, has been named Andrew H. and Ann R. Tisch Professor. In response to his investiture as an endowed chair, which began on April 1st, Belongie says "I wish I had the words to express my gratitude for this remarkable honor." In his capacity as Associate Dean at Cornell Tech, Belongie is "busy with coronavirus pandemic-related planning for Fall semester course offerings." As professor, he is working on "growing our cross-campus research efforts in Mixed Reality." The latter initiative "gathers efforts from across Cornell's campuses that relate to augmented and virtual reality, and their core disciplines of computer vision, computer graphics, and human-computer interaction."

Cornell CS majors Sam Brickman, Jordyn Goldzweig, and Alisa Lai have created a web-based initiative--Quarantine Buddy--to address the need for connection in the time of physical distancing. The founders note: "We are passionate about connecting and empowering people as we all go through this uncertain and difficult time together. We want to connect people of all ages from all around the globe to bring the world together. Our machine learning algorithm strategically ranks and outputs the best possible quarantine buddy for you based on your background and what you are looking for." "We noticed that people were feeling more socially isolated more than ever right now, and we wanted to build something to help people where people are still feeling connected to one another while still social distancing," said Brickman.

As the university has shifted to virtual instruction in the wake of Covid-19, CS Professor Emeritus David Gries and Senior Lecturer Michael Clarkson '10 have transformed their approach to teaching CS 2110 Object-Oriented Programming and Data Structures. As an indication of their successful transition, a student in the class posted to Reddit "I appreciate that they listened to student feedback and changed things, and explained all of their decisions. That kind of communication and transparency should be a model for the rest of the school." So that others, beyond the classroom and in other classrooms, can benefit from a glimpse of their model, CS News inquired about what steps they have taken. In redesigning the course, we have emphasized learning and compassion over grades and logistics.