CS FACULTY RECEIVE MULTIPLE FEDERAL GRANTS

The BYU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences is pleased to announce prestigious grants received by five faculty members in the Department of Computer Science.

The grants were funded by various U.S. government agencies, particularly the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Both organizations are committed to scientific advancement and regularly fund the work of CPMS faculty.

Mike Goodrich received a three-year grant from ONR for his work, entitled “Cognitively Compliant Command for Multi-Robot Teams.” The grant is a partnership between researchers at BYU, Carnegie Melon University and the University of Pittsburgh and includes a possible two-year extension. The group’s research will attempt to improve the way human operators interact with and instruct robots, changing the way robots behave and respond to commands.

Sean Warnick and Daniel Zappala were awarded a one-year ONR grant for their project, entitled “Analysis and Design of Complex Network Environments.” The grant is a collaboration between Warnick’s interdisciplinary IDeA Labs and Zappala’s Internet Research Lab, and will build on the groups’ earlier results studying biological networks and will relate to the fundamental limitations and the effective design of secure and efficient information exchanges on various networks. Zappala was also awarded a three-year NSF grant for his work, entitled “NeTS: Small: Wifi: A Software Toolkit for Wireless Transport Protocols.”

Eric Mercer and Dan Ventura also received individual grants from NSF. Mercer’s award will fund research on his proposal, “Formal Analysis of Multicore Communication APIs and Applications.” Ventura’s project, entitled “Pilot: Art(ificial): Generation of Creative Visual Metaphor for Communicating Intension,” was also awarded funding by NSF. Both grants are three years in duration.

--by Steve Pierce, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences