Category: Event

The Spring 2024 Grace Series ended its run with Dr. Bhavani Thuraisingham, UT Dallas Founders Chair Professor of Computer Science and the Founding Executive Director of the Cyber Security Research and Education Institute (CSI) at UT Dallas.

Coincidentally, Dr. Thuraisingham was also the first speaker for the Grace Series when it began in the fall of 2015. The Grace Series honors the contributions of real-life women and men in science with the goal of inspiring and encouraging more of them to pursue STEM careers.

Tell us about yourself! What is your story?

My name is Mansi Patel, and I am an undergraduate senior majoring in software engineering at UT Dallas, as well as a software engineering Fast Track student. After graduation, I plan to pursue a master’s degree in software engineering at the university. I am from the Dallas-Fort Worth area and have been a Texas resident my entire life! I enjoy painting, watching movies, and spending time with friends and family in my free time.

The third installment of the Spring 2024 Grace Series featured data scientist (and proud UT Dallas Computer Science alum) Dr. Maryam Imani, who spoke about “Navigating the Data Science Journey: Insights and Inspirations.”

Dr. Imani earned her PhD in Computer Science at UT Dallas in 2020. During her doctoral studies, Dr. Imani was primarily involved in the Big Data Analytics Lab, working with UT Dallas CS professors Latifur Khan and Bhavani Thuraisingham, focusing her research on areas such as natural language processing (NLP), applied machine learning, and big data.

Every semester, the UT Dallas Computer Science department hosts a lecture series called the Grace Series, with the goal of to inspire and empower everyone in computer science and all forms of STEM. The Grace Series honors the contributions of women in science with the goal of inspiring and encouraging more women to pursue STEM careers.

The Grace Series honors the contributions of real-life women in science with the goal of inspiring and encouraging more of them to pursue STEM careers. The Grace Series introduced its second speaker, Chief Technology Officer & SVP for Catalyst Corporate Credit Union, Diana Hennel. Ms. Hennel currently serves as Chief Technology Officer for Catalyst Corporate Credit Union.  She prides herself on building strong teams and delivering innovative, industry-changing software.  Over the course of her thirty-year career, her teams have modernized the check processing industry, streamlined financial operations for the National Bank of Singapore, and experimented with cryptocurrency for credit unions.  She was recently recognized as one of Dallas’ leading women in technology for her innovative work in bringing digital products to market.  Outside of work, she lives in Frisco with her husband of twenty years and her identical twin boys.  Diana is heavily involved in her community, including serving as a board member of High Tech High Heels, an organization dedicated to growing women in STEM.  

For over eight years, the Grace Series has provided a platform for sharing experiences, knowledge, and inspiration. The Grace Series recognizes accomplishments of a diverse group of people from the computing field through empowering talks that aim to foster a sense of community, with a special focus on women in technology. These talks are intended to offer fresh perspectives and different approaches for women to navigate the technology field, whether in academia or industry. Since its inception, 41 speakers have given talks.

The UT Dallas CS Department hosted Computational Geometry Week (CG Week), a premier international forum for advances in computational geometry and its many applications, from June 12-15, 2023. CG Week combines a number of events, most notably the 39th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2023), the associated Media Exposition (CG:ME), workshops, and the Young Researchers Forum (CG:YRF). The conference provided a platform for researchers, scientists, and engineers in academics and industry to present their current findings in the emerging areas of computational geometry and its many applications.

Via Dallas Innovates | Written by Quincy Preston— On the hunt for a resourceful, cost-effective solution to your company’s tech challenges or project pileup? Or maybe you need a product prototype. UTDesign Capstone is now open for company project applications for Fall 2023. But hurry—the window of opportunity closes soon.
Check out these past projects. One of them is bound to spark an idea for yours.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has quickly become one of the most impactful innovations in recent times, with its uses ranging from self-driving vehicles and virtual helpers to predictive analytics and medical diagnoses. Over the years, HackAI, hosted by the UT Dallas AI Society (AIS), has capitalized on the popularity of artificial intelligence with HackAI, a 24-hour hackathon featuring AI-related material. The hackathon aims to provide learning and competition opportunities and connect attendees to professionals who can further guide them in their AI journey. HackAI strives to demystify this specialized niche in computer science and bring it forward to students through an AI-related hackathon.

Earlier this month, the UT Dallas Cyber Security Research and Education Institute (CSI), in conjunction with the UT Dallas Computer Science Department, virtually conducted its 12th Annual Texas Security Awareness Week (TexSAW 2023). Each year, TexSAW has brought together cybersecurity, computer science, and software engineering students from across Texas who are interested in pursuing careers in computer security and expanding their knowledge in cybersecurity. The event provides students with the opportunity to socialize and network with students from other universities in Texas who share a common interest in cybersecurity. Because the contest was virtual this year, participation was registered and advertised on ctftime.org and gained not only nationwide but also worldwide attention.