Dear colleagues and friends,

We are proud to share with you this summary of some of the news and events that have made the past year memorable. We have welcomed new faculty and celebrated many achievements.

With the addition of five tenure-track faculty (four assistant professors and one associate professor), our department is only growing. This year alone, one of our exceptional faculty was named an IEEE Fellow, another was named an ACM Fellow, and one received an NSF CAREER award. Our students are working harder than ever and have been honored with NCWIT awards and NSF Graduate Research Fellowships.

Our team is working to bring more diversity to computer science by elevating black women in computing through an inspiring broadcast called the Modern Figures Podcast. Our alumni are making an effort to bring more women to computer science and engineering through mentorship and shadowing programs. And our students are making computer science more accessible to the public by sharing their AR/VR projects and displaying interactive exhibits at the Florida Museum of Natural History. I hope you enjoy this newsletter, and I look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D.
The Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor
Chair, Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering