Tech + Research Workshop
Date: October 23-October 25, 2020
Location: Virtual
REGISTRATION FOR TECH + RESEARCH IS CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR 2020
The Department of Computer Science at the University of Maryland and the Center for Women in Computing are pleased to present the thrid year of Tech + Research: Welcoming Women to Computing Research. This is a research workshop geared towards engaging undergraduate women in computing held in collaboration with Technica. During this workshop, student teams will come together and collaboratively work together to use technology to solve pressing issues. The October 2020 workshop is supported in part by explore CSR.
Technica and Tech + Research will be held virtually in 2020!
Parallel to Technica, the largest all-women and non-binary hackathon in the nation, students will participate in the Research track at Technica The weekend event will bring together computing faculty from institutions across the state of Maryland to serve as mentors on projects in their research areas. Along with providing hands-on research experience in a dynamic hackathon setting, the weekend workshop will include virtual sessions introducing attendees to the basics of computer science research (CSR) and highlight the exciting opportunities that come with pursuing a graduate degree in computer science.
Note: Please be aware that this event involves separate programming from Technica, and the majority of the programming will take place with the Maryland Center for Women in Computing. However, you will have full access to Technica including the Career Fair and Keynote Speakers.
IMPORTANT: YOU MUST REGISTER FOR BOTH TECHNICA AND TECH + RESEARCH
Purpose
This workshop hopes to give undergraduate CS women an opportunity to learn about future computer science research opportunities and to provide hands-on experience engaging in CS research in a hackathon setting. Additionally, we plan for this event to give undergraduate women to meet computing faculty and current graduate students as well as to socialize and collaborate with like-minded peers. By providing a positive intellectual, social, and emotional environment for the participants to meaningfully engage in computing research, we hope to directly address the gender gap that currently exists in CS departments in higher education.
Attendees of this event will not only be expanding on their computer science skills, they will also be given the opportunity to meet and network with many individuals who are a part of the computer science community at the University of Maryland.
Workshop participants will:
- Meet others who share their curiosity and interest in computer science.
- Explore the research experience in computing related domains.
- Work hands-on with researchers.
- Work in a team to tackle a research problem.
- Present their research with their team.
- Broaden understanding of the possibilities of graduate school and the application process.
Surrounding area schools and departments were invited to submit research projects. Projects from the following departments have been submitted:
University of Maryland, College Park
- Department of Computer Science
- Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering
- College of Information Systems
- College of Education
Projects
This software development project will help to develop an online computerized task for a research project to understand brain responses during and after movement. The online study will guide human subjects to perform online computerized cognitive tasks before and after a movement session, and the goal of this project is to create a tool that will generate the 3D images to be used during the online experiment. The starting point for this project will be a set of 3D objects (e.g., tetris objects), and the goal is to use an open source 3D rendering software package to create a software tool that, given user specifications of lighting and rotation, renders images of the 3D objects that will be displayed during the online experiments.
Researchers
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Graduate Student, Department of Kinesiology
Autonomous driving and deep learning are two trending topics today. Can we use deep learning to power autonomous driving and let a vehicle to drive itself via images from a single front-facing camera? This project involves exploring how to set up a deep learning framework, how to collect training data in Unity, how to train a deep neural network, and eventually using the trained network to steer a vehicle on both training and testing routes. Basically the project will build a deep-learning-based system that learns from a large set of simulation data from a driving simulator and attempts to model a system for a safer navigation for autonomous vehicles or driverless cars.
Researchers
Professor, CRA DREU Co-Director, UMD Department of Computer Science
Research Assistant
Graduate Student
“Context, and the informational infrastructure that it requires, should be a significant focus for open data advocates, philanthropic foundations, librarians, researchers, news organizations, and regulators in the future. Our data-driven lives depend on it" (Data Feminism, Chap. 6. "The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves"). Using the tenets articulated by Drs Lauren Klein and Catherine D'Ignazio in their recent book, "Data Feminism," we will work together as an interdisciplinary group to describe the context and provenance of several datasets in an effort to make them useful and reusable to a wider community. As a group we will identify 2-3 datasets to work on during the hackathon, and articulate key areas for description and interrogation that can be applied to these, and most if not all data. Based on this work, we will create a reusable form and suggestions for others to use when publishing, sharing, or depositing their own datasets in journals, on Github, government sites, cultural heritage organizations, and elsewhere.
Researchers
Assistant Professor, College of Information Studies
Professor, Department of English
Graduate Student
Graduate Student
Graduate Student
Graduate Student
Internet censorship is a problem that affects billions of people around the world. Nation-states engage in automated, in-network censorship of their citizens, and citizens frequently are not told what is blocked or why. In this project, students will analyze very large open source datasets from tools that monitor the occurrence of network censorship. Students will determine where around the world network censorship is occurring, what content is censored, and when. The goal of this project is to have a mechanism to detect new censorship events as they happen. Students will also be encouraged to ask their own research questions about the data. Examples include: are censorship events correlated with political events at the same time? How long do censorship events usually last (and how does that change between regions of the world?) and are there patterns to what data is censored?
Researchers
Assistant Professor, UMD Department of Computer Science
Graduate Student, UMD Department of Computer Science
The quality of photographs from smartphone cameras has reached levels that were reserved for professional equipment just a few years ago. Smartphones produce sharp, high resolution images without graininess, and they provide special modes for nighttime or portrait photography that lead to almost professional quality pictures. In this project we will explore the AI-based processing techniques that have made this possible. We will use Google Colaboratory to investigate fundamental concepts in image processing with deep neural networks. Participants will also gain hands-on experience in building their own AI techniques for improving photographic image quality.
Researchers
Acting Chair, Reginald Allan Hahne Endowed E-nnovate Professorship, UMD Department of Computer Science
Graduate Student, UMD Department of Computer Science
In a "phishing" attack, an adversary pretends to be someone else in an effort to get a user to divulge sensitive information like their credit card number, login information, or more. These are some of the most prevalent attacks on the Internet today, and they put users at risk of having their identity, information, and money stolen. Surprisingly, not much is known about how phishers make their websites and change them over time. The goal of this project will be to analyze a dataset we have collected of many (potentially) malicious websites that we crawled hourly for weeks. The project group will write software to track how a website evolves over time, and to compare different phishing websites to one another. Group members will be encouraged to ask their own research questions, like: Are there different patterns across different malicious websites? Which ones always stayed the same? Which changed once, but permanently? Which changed for a shorter period of time, then changed again?
Researchers
Assistant Professor, UMD Department of Computer Science
Graduate Student, UMD Department of Computer Science
COVID is causing boundary collapse for many of us -- our homes are now also our schools, our workplaces, our social event spaces, our caretaking spaces, and much more. This boundary collapse is accelerated by technology, such as video meetings or course proctoring tools. In this project, you will design, field, and analyze a survey examining specific privacy concerns related to this boundary collapse: what new privacy concerns do people have? What coping strategies are they using? Have they experienced any adverse consequences? Do different groups of people have different concerns?
Researchers
Associate Professor, UMD Department of Computer Science
Graduate Student, UMD Department of Computer Science
For veterans who have a condition that may affect cognition (for example impairment or an acquired brain injury), voice technology may have the added benefit of allowing them to maintain their independence and autonomy longer by tailoring their home to fit their needs, or achieve optimal person-environment fit. However, the efficacy of voice interfaces with this specific population has not been adequately studied. In this study we hope to engage the population and find a suitable low cost solution for their needs.
Researchers
Faculty Program Director, Universities at Shady Grove
There is a growing interest in technologies designed to foster ‘aging in place’ in today’s world. Imagine growing older in a familiar place, with a variety of technology supporting your lifestyle, health & safety at any and every age! ‘Aging in Place’ technologies range from health-monitoring wearables to motion sensors that remind you of daily activities. Nowadays many researchers and developers are taking an interest in designing technology for people with dementia. While the advancements in this domain are impressive, the acceptance & adoption rates of these technologies remain quite low. This is partly due to the lack of employing a user-centric approach while designing technologies meant particularly for people with dementia. Join us as we immerse ourselves in designing to address these technological challenges! Your design contributions and evaluation ideas will aid important and real research that is currently being conducted by UMD researchers. We are looking for fresh perspectives and creative minds. No prior experience with design or technology is required!
Researchers
Assistant Professor UMD College of Information Studies
Graduate Student
Graduate Student
Graduate Student
Independent Researcher
Independent Researcher
Independent Researcher
This project will develop a Virtual Try-on App that can estimate a 3D model of a human body and its outfit directly from a few photographs with little human interaction. Our current system can capture the global shape and geometry of the clothing, and extract the physical and geometric properties of cloth. Unlike previous methods using full 3D information (i.e. depth, multi-view images, or 3D scanned geometry), our approach can achieve garment recovery from a set of single-view images by using physical, statistical, and geometric priors and physics-based cloth simulation for Virtual Try-on of customized apparel to improve the user's online shopping experience.
Researchers
Chair, Professor, CRA DREU Co-Director UMD Department of Computer Science
Graduate Student
Geo-localization refers to the identification of the actual geographic location of an image. It has real-world applications such as navigation, image-tagging, target-tracking etc. The problem of geo-localization has generated considerable interest in the availability of ground-level geo-tagged imagery with databases like GoogleMaps and Bing Maps. In the traditional approaches, the geo-location of a query image is obtained by trying to find similar images from the data set. However, geo-tagged data is not uniformly available as public image databases mostly have images of popular locations. A recent approach to the geo-location problem found in literature is to predict the location of an image by finding its matching reference images from some other views and this technique is called Cross-View based Image Localization. It involves trying to predict the location of a street view image that is passed as a query by predicting the corresponding satellite view images from the aerial view database. In this project, participants will learn about the research that goes on behind building such a system. More information here: https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.06515 .
Researchers
Assistant Professor, UMD Department of Computer Science
Graduate Student
Graduate Student
Schedule of Events
| Thursday | 10/22/2020 | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 7:00pm-8:00pm | Student Kick-off and Introductions | Virtual (Zoom) |
| Friday | 10/23/2020 | Location |
| 10:00am-12:00pm | Bootcamp #1 | Virtual (Zoom) |
| 12:00pm-12:45pm | Lunch | Virtual (Zoom) - Optional |
| 12:45pm-1:00pm | Graduate Student Panel | Virtual (Zoom) |
| 1:00pm-3:00pm | Bootcamp #2 | Virtual (Zoom) |
| 3:00pm-3:30pm | Break | Virtual (Zoom) - Optional |
| 3:30pm-5:30pm | Project Work Time | Virtual (Zoom) |
|
Saturday |
10/24/2020 | Location |
|
Sunday - COMING SOON |
10/25/2020 | Location |
Register to Attend
Who Can Attend?
We welcome women undergraduates from all colleges and universities to apply. Current master's students considering a PhD program may apply and will be considered on a case by case basis. Applications are currently closed for Fall 2020.
Registration Process and Fees
All participants will experience this workshop remotely through the Zoom virtual platform.
All gear (water bottle, pens, stickers) will be shipped to your personal address. Students will be responsible for their own meals but are welcome to share the lunch space via Zoom.
REMEMBER: YOU MUST REGISTER FOR BOTH TECHNICA & TECH + RESEARCH
Register for the Tech + Research Workshop by filling out the following form:
REGISTRATION FOR TECH + RESEARCH
Register for the Technica here:
Participant Information
Logistical Information for Attendees
Tech Requirements and Access
More information coming soon.
General Information
All students participating in the research workshop must join the Zoom meeting by 10am on Friday morning. We have an important bootcamp event to prepare you for the research projects. If you cannot make it by this time, you need to let us know immediately.
You will not be working on your own idea or hack during Technica. During Technica, you will be working with your research team on a specific project you selected as an interest.
You will be assigned your research group the week before Technica. Each team will have their own Slack channel to communicate. Researchers may send out a small amount of pre-reading to help you prepare for the project.
Spread the Word
View the Technica Flyer Here
View the Tech + Research Flyer Here.
Follow MCWIC and The Iribe Initiative on social media!
Questions about the registration process, workshop, or logistical information can be sent to mcwic@cs.umd.edu
Questions about Technica can be addressed to hello@gotechnica.org
About Technica
On October 24th-25th, the University of Maryland will host Technica, the sixth annual hackathon. Technica is the largest all-women and non-binary hackathon in the world. In the span of 24 hours, Technica gives our participants the opportunity to create new applications, websites or hardware projects.
Technica is not a typical hackathon—it serves as a place where the brightest thinkers in the country can come together to collaborate and share their innovative ideas. Our focus is on providing a welcoming, engaging and creative environment to support women in tech culture. We pride ourselves in helping both beginners and experienced hackers explore technology and develop their skills.
Over the duration of 24 hours, women and non-binary people are immersed in tech culture and encouraged to exercise their imagination to create interesting and innovative hacks.
Technica 2020's theme is “Expand Your Horizons”. We want to challenge our hackers to step out of their comfort zone and try something new, whether that's exploring a new technology, tinkering with hardware hacks, or coding for the very first time! This year we're introducing our beginners and hardware tracks, designed for hackers looking for extra support or interested in trying their hand at electronics. At Technica, we want our hackers to learn, grow, and meet new people, so join us at Technica 2020 to #ExpandYourHorizons!
All participants attending Tech + Research must also register for Technica. Register here.
