This REU site project to be hosted at University of Maryland College Park emphasizes combining theory with practice. The students will benefit from a strong faculty team. Building on the past experience, the project is expected to result in strong undergraduate research leading to successful research/industry careers for the students in the future. Outreach activities with high schools will attract high school students to this research. The site plans to recruit under-represented groups and also students from non-research universities and HBCUs.
The projects proposed not only form cutting-edge theory research but are also relevant to practice and have high impact applications. The projects considered are in applied area of Big Data Analytics, Information Extraction in Natural Language Processing, Fair Division, Pricing over Social Networks, Secure Communication and Public Health. The approach of getting students interested in theory, starting from applied implementation has an added side benefit that it would train students in sharp algorithmic implementation and experimentation skills, which are deemed in high regard by leading Computer Science companies.