March 23, 2022

It's still unofficial how many teams from each region will advance, but our team that came in 2nd place will probably go to the North American Championships in late May to compete against the top teams in the US and Canada (there are some really, really good teams there!). Sadly, only 1 team per school can go, so even if they allow a 3rd team from our region, we cannot send both of our top teams... which is heartbreaking given how close the two teams were (only 2 mins!).
BYU Computer Science teams claimed both 2nd and 3rd place in the regional programming competition. Our team in 3rd place was only 2 minutes behind our team in 2nd! We had two really strong teams. You can see the full results (now finalized) here: https://rmc21.kattis.com/standings
March 14, 2022
Friday, April 1st at 1-2:00pm, Summit Room 3346 TMCB
Advisor: Dan Ventura
Reed Perkins MS Thesis Defense
March 04, 2022

"Their short animated film, “Stowaway” was nominated for a student Emmy for Best Animation, and the winner will be announced next month at the College Television Awards." from https://www.ldsliving.com/this-short-film-directed-written-and-produced-by-latter-day-saints-was-just-nominated-for-a-college-emmy/s/10461
Students from the BYU Animation Program received 4 of the 16 nominations, more than any other school.
March 03, 2022

Register for FREE viewing at PEERYFILMS.BYU.EDU! Thursday, March 10th Reynolds Auditorium HBLL & Friday, March 11th, Varsity Theater WSC
February 28, 2022
Wednesday, March 16th at 12-2:00pm, on Zoom
Meeting ID: 974 5563 5628
Meeting Passcode: 128976
Advisor: Yui-Kai Ng
Joseph Bills MS Thesis Defense
February 14, 2022
Wednesday, March 2nd at 3-4:30pm, Summit Room 3346 TMCB
Advisor: Dan Ventura
Robert Morain MS Thesis Defense/PhD Qualification
February 04, 2022
Wednesday, February 9th at 1pm, Summit Room 3346 TMCB
Advisor: Chris Archibald
MS Thesis Proposal for Jamison Moody
January 27, 2022
Wednesday, February 2nd at 2pm, Summit Room 3346 TMCB
Advisor: David Wingate
MS Thesis Proposal for Josh Robinson
January 19, 2022
Thursday, January 27th at 3pm, Summit Room 3346 TMCB
Advisor: Kevin Seppi
MS Thesis Proposal for Courtni Byun
December 13, 2021
Friday December 17 at 11:00 a.m., 2222 TMCB
Advisor: Sean Warnick
MS Thesis Proposal for Neal Munson
December 06, 2021

Before joining the BYU CS department, Steve worked for 10 years at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where he was the Manager of Machine Translation (MT) and Translation Systems. Prior to working at the Church, he presided over the Brazil São Paulo South Mission with his wife Marianna. Before the mission, he worked for 17 years at Microsoft Research as a Principal Researcher and manager of the MT Group and for 11 years at IBM, including at the TJ Watson Research Center, focusing on natural language processing (NLP).
We are excited to have Dr. Steve Richardson join the faculty.
November 17, 2021
Wednesday, November 17th at 3pm, Summit Room 3346 TMCB
Advisor: Jacob Crandall
MS Thesis Proposal Abstract for Michael Richards
November 08, 2021

If counselors could predict which kids are most likely to commit suicide, they could save lives. Researchers from Brigham Young University, Johns Hopkins and Harvard have come up with an algorithm that predicts suicidal thoughts and behavior among adolescents. Their findings could lead to more effective measures to prevent suicide. (From https://ksltv.com/476011/byu-researchers-create-algorithm-to-predict-suicidal-thoughts-in-adolescents/)
“I’ve had close friends that have had suicides in their family. For me, it’s kind of personal that way,” said BYU computer science professor Quinn Snell. “Our lab had been looking at suicidality and suicide ideation for quite a little while.” (Quote from https://ksltv.com/476011/byu-researchers-create-algorithm-to-predict-suicidal-thoughts-in-adolescents/)
November 04, 2021
Friday, November 19th at 1pm, 3350 TMCB
Advisor: Nancy Fulda
MS Thesis Defense for Berkeley Andrus
October 20, 2021

Brett Decker received a BS in Computer Science from Brigham Young University in 2012. He then was hired full-time at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)---he first started working for SNL as a student intern in 2010. As part of SNL’s Critical Skills Master’s Program, Brett obtained a MS in Computer Science from Brown University in 2015. At SNL, Brett has been a software engineer, architect, and lead on various secure embedded and PC software systems. Brett came to BYU in Fall 2019.
I have a lot of hobbies, though I'm not good at all of them: reading, gardening, basketball, racquetball, board game design, piano, banjo & anything my kids are interested in.
October 11, 2021
Thursday, October 21st at 3pm, Conference Room
Advisor: Casey Deccio
MS Thesis Defense for Alden Hilton
October 06, 2021
Thursday, October 21st at 3pm
Advisor: Jacob Crandall
MS Thesis Defense for Tim Whiting
September 11, 2021

Dr Eric Mercer was the 2021 Amazon Research Awards recipient in AUTOMATED REASONING.
Mercer wins coveted Amazon Science Award
September 08, 2021
Monday September 13th at 2pm
Advisor: Mark Clement
MS Thesis Defense for Brandon Bingham
July 23, 2021

Friday July 30 at 10am
Advisor: Mark Clement
MS Thesis Defense for Eric Burdett
June 19, 2021

David is a recent graduate of the University of California Santa Barbara in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department. His research interests are centered on multiagent systems, game theory, distributed optimization, mechanism design, and security, however, he’s genuinely open to new domains of thinking which may challenge his assumptions or deepen his appreciation of current understanding. Alongside his academic pursuits, he has been able to work in industry for Applied Invention and MIT Lincoln Laboratories, allowing him to apply theory to several industries, including agriculture, national defense, travel, security, and aerospace. He has also been a leading member of Achilles Heel Technologies, a startup company applying systems theory to the security of critical infrastructures.
In his spare time, David enjoys watching and playing sports – really anything that’s active and strategic. He’s excited to be here at BYU with his wife, Kalisha, and his four children: Rose, Harvey, Elaine, and Walter.
June 15, 2021
Thursday, July 8th at 11:00am, 3350 TMCB
Advisor: Kevin Seppi
MS Thesis Defense for Roland Laboulaye
June 08, 2021

Wednesday, June 23 at 11:00am
Advisor: Jonathan Sillito
MS thesis defense for Matt Pope
May 19, 2021
Wednesday, June 9th at 4:00pm
Advisor: Daniel Zappala
MS Thesis Defense for Torstein Collett
May 05, 2021

Watch Ryan Gabriel's devotional, Healing Racism Through Jesus Christ, and learn more about how we can "work hard to heal the painful legacies of racism that we inherited."
"To pretend race is not important does not show compassion for the experiences of others who, by virtue of their experiences with racism, know that it is. Christ does not ask us to ignore or wish away another's pain but to know it and touch it." -Ryan Gabriel, assistant professor of sociology
April 30, 2021
Tuesday, May 25th at 1:00pm
Advisor: David Wingate
MS thesis defense for Sterling Suggs
April 01, 2021

Porter is extremely excited to be joining the faculty at BYU. His main area of research is Artificial Intelligence, where he tries to help machines learn a little bit more like humans. He received a PhD from Penn State studying machine learning and data mining, and BS in Statistics from BYU.
We are excited to have Dr Porter Jenkins join the BYU Computer Science Faculty.
March 18, 2021
Friday, March 26th at 11am
Advisor: Casey Deccio
MS thesis defense for Jacob Davis
March 11, 2021
Wednesday, March 31st at 3:00pm
Advisor: Parris Egbert
PhD dissertation defense for Sean Flynn
February 18, 2021
Welcome to the CS Department's second edition of Threads, a student-driven publication of "thread" papers describing the evolution of various ideas in computer science. The topics for these papers were chosen by the students in CS 611, the only required course for our Ph.D. students, who then researched and wrote the papers making up the publication. Our hope in sharing them with you is that they will give you a glimpse of the kinds of ideas these advanced students are engaging, expose you to the stories behind the evolution of a number of great ideas in computer science, and inspire rich technical conversations throughout the department. Enjoy!
This is a student driven publication (that is to say, even the editor was another student TAing the class) of "thread" papers from the (mostly Ph.D.) students in CS 611 last semester describing the evolution of an idea in computer science that they are interested in.