Computer Science

Deirdre Newman The wait is over. The dream of the university's Department of Information and Computer Science to become a full-fledged school was realized Monday when the Board of Regents approved the change. UC Irvine officials reserved comment until they could work out some final details of the arrangement. Debra Richardson, chair of the school, did say the move will elevate the new school's visibility and enhance its recruitment efforts.

Editor's note:  This corrects an earlier version. UC Irvine students can now study the complexities and intricacies in the design of computer games, the latest major in computer science to be offered at the university, officials said Friday. It’s also a skill that’s incredibly marketable, given the number of computer game manufacturers in town, professors and faculty said. By a 24-0 vote, the university’s Academic Senate approved the new major Thursday.

UC Irvine's information and computer science graduate program moved up five places to No. 29 in the most recent U.S. News & World Report academic rankings. The rankings highlight the country's academically excellent graduate programs and are based on surveys in which scholars rate schools' reputations for scholarship, curriculum and the quality of faculty and graduate students. "We take this improvement in rankings to heart," said Debra Richardson, department chairwoman.

Bristol offramp from San Diego Freeway reopens The Bristol Avenue offramp from the northbound San Diego Freeway reopened Tuesday, four months ahead of schedule. The new Avenue of the Arts offramp is expected to open soon. The southbound Costa Mesa Freeway to the northbound San Diego Freeway connector, which was reduced from two lanes to one, will return to full capacity by Thanksgiving. The closures were necessary to allow for construction that will eventually improve the traffic flow at one of the 10 busiest interchanges in the nation.

Marisa O'Neil An anonymous donor has given $20 million to the School of Information and Computer Science, matching the largest single contribution ever to the university. The gift will create 10 endowed faculty positions -- the most ever from one contribution -- in the nationally ranked school, UCI officials said Tuesday. It will cover information technology research including software, hardware, bioinformatics and data analysis. "This is a great day for [the School of Information and Computer Science]

Deepa Bharath The university's Institute for Genomics and Bioinformatics has been awarded four grants totaling nearly $7 million bringing the total money it has raised since its inception about two years ago to $15 million, officials said on Friday. Pierre Baldi, a computer scientist, and Wesley Hatfield, a microbiologist, founded the institute about 15 months ago. The institute's goals are closely linked with the U.S. Human Genome Project started 13 years ago by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health.

Bill McManus Born: July 20, 1982 Height: 5-foot-8 Weight: 155 Sport: Soccer Pos: Fullback Year: Sophomore High school: Fountain Valley Coach: Laird Hayes Major: Computer Science Favorite food: Orange chicken Favorite movie: "Dumb and Dumber" Best athletic moment: Sunset League Champions in 2000 Athlete of the Week IX: He supplyied consistent play and showed leadership by...

What's up with majoring in computer science theses days? I'll tell you what's up: It's conformity, it's a trend, it's stylin', everybody's doing it; you should too. Hop onto the bandwagon. As the new millennium commences, pursuing a college major that deals with computer technology has become a fad. "When I was your age, I had to walk seven miles to school uphill both ways." Yup, those were the good ol' days when college meant a place of diversified learning.

"It's an exciting time for us. Some schools had to make improvements of only a few points but made huge jumps. This is very good news." -- Dave Brooks, Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustee, on the latest statewide test results "This is not meant to be a money-making operation for the city. Red-light runners cause the most injury collisions, and numbers show that these cameras, over a two-year period, will bring down red light-related accidents by 40%."

Editor's note:  This corrects an earlier version. UC Irvine students can now study the complexities and intricacies in the design of computer games, the latest major in computer science to be offered at the university, officials said Friday. It’s also a skill that’s incredibly marketable, given the number of computer game manufacturers in town, professors and faculty said. By a 24-0 vote, the university’s Academic Senate approved the new major Thursday.

Hundreds of international artists and digerati will converge at the UC Irvine Claire Trevor School of the Arts from Dec. 12 to 15 for DAC 09, the Digital Art and Culture conference organized by Simon Penny, UCI Studio Art and Engineering professor and conference director. This is the first time that the international conference, founded in 1998, will take place on the West Coast. The international interdisciplinary conference series involves a variety of fields, including media studies, media art, hyper-textual literature, computer science, cognitive science and human-computer interaction.

UC IRVINE — Donald Bren was already in celebration mode when he visited campus Wednesday for the dedication of a new building in his name. The night before, the Irvine Co. chairman had stayed up late watching UCI's baseball team defeat Arizona State University, and he told the crowd that cheering the team on had resulted in his hoarse voice. "I don't usually sound like 'The Godfather,' " he said, moments before donning a UCI baseball cap and shouting, "Go 'Eaters!" With UCI still reeling from Tuesday's come-from-behind victory, the campus celebrated another milestone Wednesday morning, as administrators and guests gathered to officially dedicate Donald Bren Hall.

Zuzanna Siwy, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at UC Irvine, has won a $45,000 fellowship to research artificial systems over the next three years. A UCI professor since 2005, the native of Poland is one of 116 scientists nationwide to receive the Sloan Research Fellowship this year. The awards, intended to enhance the careers of young faculty members, are given in seven categories: chemistry, computational and evolutionary molecular biology, computer science, economics, mathematics, neuroscience and physics.

In a concert that combines ballet, modern dance, live music, video and other disciplines, faculty and students from the dance department in UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts will present "UCI Dance Visions 2006" Feb. 9 to 12 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. "Dance Visions" will premiere and reprise works by the university's distinguished dance faculty and guest choreographers. A show highlight will be the world premier of "The Masque of the Red Death," a one-act multimedia production conceived by director of dance Donald McKayle.

Lindsay Sandham In its 26th year, the annual Youth Expo is older than any of its participants. Originally started by the Orange County 4-H council, the expo has grown to include the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of Orange County, as well as area students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Youth Expo Director Joan Hamill said all of the event's content is by, for and about kids -- meaning everything on display was created by children. The expo begins today at the Orange County Fairgrounds.

UCI professors share in research cash prizes Four UC Irvine faculty projects will share the first Nicholas Foundation Prize for Cross-Disciplinary Research, a spokesman for the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology announced late last week. The Institute, also known as Calit2, awarded $285,000 to four proposals by UCI professors and staff, each of which involves some kind of multidisciplinary research. Prizes of $80,000 went to Bill Tomlinson, assistant professor of informatics and drama, and F. Lynn Carpenter, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, who are collaborating on an interactive exhibit known as the EcoRaft; to Steven C. Cramer, assistant professor of neurology, and Cristina Lopes, assistant professor of informatics, who are developing a communication system for spinal cord-injured patients; and to Kenneth J. Shea, professor of chemistry, and Abraham Lee, professor of biomedical engineering.

"It's an exciting time for us. Some schools had to make improvements of only a few points but made huge jumps. This is very good news." -- Dave Brooks, Newport-Mesa Unified School District trustee, on the latest statewide test results "This is not meant to be a money-making operation for the city. Red-light runners cause the most injury collisions, and numbers show that these cameras, over a two-year period, will bring down red light-related accidents by 40%."

Marisa O'Neil An anonymous donor has given $20 million to the School of Information and Computer Science, matching the largest single contribution ever to the university. The gift will create 10 endowed faculty positions -- the most ever from one contribution -- in the nationally ranked school, UCI officials said Tuesday. It will cover information technology research including software, hardware, bioinformatics and data analysis. "This is a great day for [the School of Information and Computer Science]