{"68382":{"#nid":"68382","#data":{"type":"news","title":"UROC Has Best Year to Date","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003EIn 1998, Amy Bruckman started a new initiative in the College of Computing to encourage undergraduates to take part in research: the Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Computing (UROC) Program. Now in its fifth year, UROC has grown dramatically in participation and is recognized as a model undergraduate research program at Tech and elsewhere.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis year\u0027s event on April 16 drew some 28 research projects, the most to date. In addition, \u0026quot;the quality of all of the projects was truly outstanding,\u0026quot; according to UROC co-chair and assistant professor Amy Bruckman, and the competition becomes stiffer each year. The event involves exhibits of students\u0027 projects, while a panel of faculty judges choose winners, and a separate set of winners are picked by popular vote. Microsoft Corporation sponsored the event and generously donated prizes for the student winners. Handspring also donated products for student awards and raffle prizes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUROC is modeled after the UROP program at MIT where Bruckman received her Ph.D. from the Media Lab\u0027s Epistemology and Learning group in 1997. UROC ensures that undergraduate research assistants are able to make meaningful contributions, while enhancing their educational experience. \u0026quot;Whether going on to industry or graduate school, all students should include research as part of their experience at Tech,\u0026quot; Bruckman said. Assistant Professor and UROC co-chair Tucker Balch agreed and added that he is pleased to see a growing cultural appreciation and awareness of the importance of research among CoC students.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFollowing is the list of winner\u0027s from the 2003 UROC Symposium:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJUDGES\u0027 AWARDS\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E1ST PLACE:\u003Cbr \/\u003EBlair Dowling\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026quot;A Stochastic Model for HIV Infection\u0026quot;\u003Cbr \/\u003EAdvisor: Dana Randall\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E 2ND PLACE:\u003Cbr \/\u003ERavi Ruddarraju\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026quot;Fast Multiple Camera Head Pose Tracking\u0026quot;\u003Cbr \/\u003EAdvisor: Irfan Essa\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E 3RD PLACE:\u003Cbr \/\u003EYushi Jing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026quot;Speaker Detection\u0026quot;\u003Cbr \/\u003EAdvisor: Jim Rehg\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E PEOPLE\u0027S CHOICE AWARDS:\u003Cbr \/\u003E221 ballots cast\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E 1ST PLACE:\u003Cbr \/\u003EAkshay Dayal, Jeffrey Tchang, Lili Lili, Shivank Dua, and Umang Dua\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026quot;Biometric Interface using a Galvanic Skin Response System\u0026quot;\u003Cbr \/\u003EAdvisor: Melody Moore\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E 2ND PLACE:\u003Cbr \/\u003EYushi Jing\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026quot;Speaker Detection\u0026quot;\u003Cbr \/\u003EAdvisor: Jim Rehg\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003E 3RD PLACE:\u003Cbr \/\u003EStephen Frowe Ingram and Pravin Bhat\u003Cbr \/\u003E\u0026quot;Volume Analogies\u0026quot;\u003Cbr \/\u003EAdvisor: Greg Turk\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn 1998, Amy Bruckman started a new initiative in the College of Computing to encourage undergraduates to take part in research: the Undergraduate Research Opportunities in Computing (UROC) Program.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"27154","created_gmt":"2011-06-20 17:14:14","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:09:34","author":"Louise Russo","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2003-04-23T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2003-04-23T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}