Students who've Passed the PhD Qualifying Exam

A

Nagi M. Aboulenein

Thesis Title: Efficient Hardware Synchronization in Shared-Memory Multiprocessors
Advisor: J. Goodman
Areas of Interest: computer architecture, shared-memory multiprocessors, synchronization, distributed computing, parallel programming, logic design

Joseph Albert

Thesis Title: Schema and Data Integration in Heterogeneous Multidatabase Systems
Advisor: R. Ramakrishnan
Areas of Interest: heterogeneous multidatabases, database theory

Carolyn F. Allex

Advisor: J. Shavlik
Areas of Interest: computational biology, protein folding, DNA sequencing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, neural networks

Vaishnavi Anjur

Advisor: Yannis Ioannidis
Areas of Interest: databases

Todd M. Austin

Thesis Title: Using Compiler- and Linker-Directed Data Placement to Improve Memory Hierarchy Performance
Advisor: G. Sohi
Areas of Interest: memory system optimization, safe programming, dependence analysis

B

Gareth Bestor

Thesis Title: Geometric Inverse Projection under the Rigidity Constraint
Advisor: C. Dyer
Areas of Interest: artificial intelligence, computer vision, computer graphics, computational geometry

Scott E. Breach

Thesis Title: Multiscalar Processor Design
Advisor: G. Sohi
Areas of Interest: computer architecture and instruction-level parallelism

Douglas C. Burger

Advisor: J. Goodman
Areas of Interest: computer architecture, memory systems, parallel discrete-event simulation, multiprocessor operating systems

C

Satish Chandra

Advisor: J. Larus
Areas of Interest: parallel architectures, programming languages and compilers

Kevin J. Cherkauer

Thesis Title: Selecting Appropriate Training-Example Representations for Machine Learning: Theory and Practice
Advisor: J. Shavlik
Areas of Interest: representations for machine learning, parallel learning approaches, decision trees, genetic algorithms, neural networks, real-world applications

Su-Hui Chiang

Advisor: M. Vernon
Areas of Interest: performance evaluation, multiprocessor scheduling

Trishul M. Chilimbi

Advisor: J. Larus
Areas of Interest: programming languages, compilers and architectures for parallel computing

Ioannis Christou

Advisor: R. Meyer
Areas of Interest: combinatorial optimization and genetic algorithms, parallel processing, artificial intelligence applications

Sun Chung

Thesis Title: Parallel Minimum Spanning Tree Algorithms
Advisor: A. Condon
Areas of Interest: parallel computation, theoretical computer science

Mark Craven

Thesis Title: Extracting Symbolic Representations from Non-symbolic Classifiers
Advisor: J. Shavlik
Areas of Interest: artificial intelligence, machine learning, learning theory, computational biology

D

Manuvir Das

Thesis Title: Partial Evaluation using Dependence Graphs
Advisor: T. Reps
Areas of Interest: partial evaluation, dataflow analysis, program optimization

E

F

Babak Falsafi

Advisor: D. Wood
Areas of Interest: computer architecture, performance modeling

David J. Finton

Thesis Title: Feature Extraction for Reinforcement Learning in Neural Networks
Advisor: Y. Hu
Areas of Interest: machine learning, connectionism, knowledge representation, clustering, robot learning

G

Minos N. Garofalakis

Advisor: Y. Ioannidis
Areas of Interest: query processing in next-generation database systems

H

Amy M. Hauth

Thesis Title: Development of Computational Algorithms and Software to Identify Biological Classes of Repetitive Elements
Advisor: D. Joseph
Areas of Interest: computational biology, analysis of DNA sequences

Susan Hert

Thesis Title: Motion Planning for Multiple Tethered Robots
Advisor: V. Lumelsky
Areas of Interest: computational geometry, computer graphics, motion planning algorithms, computer vision

Jeffrey Horn

Advisor: M. Ferris
Areas of Interest: parallel nonsmooth optimization, computational geometry, convex analysis

Rahmat S. Hyder

Advisor: D. Wood
Areas of Interest: synchronization, shared-memory multiprocessors, computer architecture

I

R. Bruce Irvin

Thesis Title: Performance Tools for High-Level Parallel Programming Languages
Advisor: B. Miller
Areas of Interest: parallel systems, parallel programming languages, operating systems, computer vision

J

K

Navin Kabra

Advisor: D. DeWitt
Areas of Interest: extensible database query optimization; query optimization in (parallel) geographic information systems

Alain Kagi

Advisor: J. Goodman
Areas of Interest: computer architecture, parallel processing, performance evaluation

Karen L. Karavanic

Advisor: B. Miller
Areas of Interest: operating systems, performance tools for parallel programming environments

Krishna Kunchithapadam

Thesis Title: Performance-based Application Steering
Advisor: B. Miller
Areas of Interest: operating systems, performance tools

Steven Kurlander

Thesis Title: Optimal Interprocedural Register Allocation
Advisor: C. Fischer
Areas of Interest: compiler optimizations, computer architecture

L

Alvin R. Lebeck

Thesis Title: Tools and Techniques for Memory System Design and Analysis
Advisor: D. Wood
Areas of Interest: computer architecture, parallel systems, performance tools

M

Mark L. McAuliffe

Thesis Title: Clustering Mechanisms for Object-Oriented Database Systems
Advisors: M. Carey and M. Solomon
Areas of Interest: database systems, operating systems, distributed systems

Brian Morgan

Advisor: C. Dyer
Areas of Interest: computer vision, visualization

Andreas Moshovos

Advisor: G. Sohi
Areas of Interest: Architectures and compilation techniques for exploiting instruction level parallelism, VLSI design and operating systems

Shubhendu S. Mukherjee

Advisor: M. Hill
Areas of Interest: network interface, coherence protocol, irregular application, cache simulation

Jussi Myllymaki

Advisor: M. Livny
Areas of Interest: database management systems and tertiary storage

N

Biswadeep Nag

Advisor: D. DeWitt
Areas of Interest: High-performance parallel database systems, object-oriented databases, database benchmarking

Tia Newhall

Advisor: B. Miller
Areas of Interest: operating systems, performance tools

O

Robert T. Olsen

Advisor: L. Landweber
Areas of Interest: resource management in high-capacity wide-area networks, fast packet switching architectures, distributed operating systems

P

Subbarao Palacharla

Advisor: J. Smith
Areas of Interest: computer architecture

Jignesh M. Patel

Advisor: D. DeWitt
Areas of Interest: geographic information systems, parallel database systems and multi-dimensional databases

Harish Patil

Thesis Title: Concurrent Run-time Monitoring Using Shadow Processing
Advisor: C. Fischer
Areas of Interest: compilers, run-time analysis, code optimization

Dionisios N. Pnevmatikatos

Thesis Title: Guarded Execution for ILP Processors
Advisor: G. Sohi
Areas of Interest: computer architecture, compilers, networks

Viswanath Poosala

Advisor: Y. Ioannidis
Areas of Interest: databases

James Pruyne

Advisor: M. Livny
Areas of Interest: performance modeling, distributed computing

Q

R

Viresh Ratnakar

Advisor: M. Livny
Areas of Interest: image and video compression, compression of scientific data, multimedia applications

Steven K. Reinhardt

Thesis Title: Mechanisms for Distributed Shared Memory
Advisor: D. Wood
Areas of Interest: memory systems, multiprocessor architecture, operating systems

Daniel Reznik

Advisor: V. Lumelsky
Areas of Interest: robotics, artificial intelligence

Bradley Richards

Thesis Title: Memory Systems for Parallel Programming
Advisor: J. Larus
Areas of Interest: programming languages, memory systems, multiprocessor architecture

Bradley Rubin

Thesis Title: Information Retrieval Using a Combined Object-Oriented Database/File-System
Advisor: J. Naughton
Areas of Interest: object-oriented databases, information retrieval

S

Eric Schnarr

Advisor: J. Larus
Areas of Interest: description languages for instruction-set architectures

Ioannis Schoinas

Advisor: M. Hill
Areas of Interest: parallel systems, computer architecture, operating systems

Steven M. Seitz

Advisor: C. Dyer
Areas of Interest: visual motion analysis, computer vision, character animation control, physically-based animation, computer graphics

Praveen Seshadri

Advisor: R. Ramakrishnan
Areas of Interest: database query optimization, database support for ordered data and new data types, query processing in extensible and heterogenous systems

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John C. Shafer

Advisor: J. Naughton
Areas of Interest: database mining, parallel systems, object-oriented databases, machine learning

Uri Shaft

Advisor: R. Ramakrishnan
Areas of Interest: image databases, computer graphics

Marc Shapiro

Advisor: S. Horwitz
Areas of Interest: programming languages, pointer analysis

Ambuj Shatdal

Advisor: J. Naughton
Areas of Interest: high-performance database systems

Michael Siff

Advisor: T. Reps
Areas of Interest: modern programming languages, software reverse engineering, logic and types, theoretical computer science

James Skrentny

Thesis Title: Esthetics and Human-Computer Interaction
Advisor: L. Uhr
Areas of Interest: human-computer interaction, computer mediated interaction, user interfaces, artificial intelligence, and time arts

Bryan So

Thesis Title: A Knowledge-based Operating System
Advisor: L. Travis
Areas of Interest: expert systems, intelligent help systems, human-computer interaction

Ramakrishnan Srikant

Advisor: J. Naughton
Areas of Interest: object-oriented databases, data mining

Prakash Sundaresan

Advisor: M. Carey
Areas of Interest: massive parallelism, query processing and utilities in very large database systems, performance analysis

Scott Swanson

Advisor: L. Travis
Areas of Interest: natural language processing, neural networks, artificial intelligence

Peter Sweeney

Thesis Title: Compile-time Analysis and Optimizations that Improve the Performance of Data-Placement Programs Executing on Scalable Multiprocessors
Advisor: J. Larus
Areas of Interest: multiprocessors, compilers, programming environments

T

Ariel Tamches

Advisor: B. Miller
Areas of Interest: performance tools, parallel and distributed operating systems

Athanassios K. Tsiolis

Thesis Title: Request Scheduling in a Multimedia Storage Server
Advisor: M. Vernon
Areas of Interest: modeling and performance analysis of computer systems, request scheduling on multimedia storage servers

U

Ayse Unat

Thesis Title: Motion Understanding in Multi-resolution Framework
Advisor: L. Uhr
Areas of Interest: computer vision, human vision, artificial intelligence

V

Shivakumar Venkataraman

Thesis Title: Global Memory Management for Multi-Server Database Systems
Advisor: J. Naughton
Areas of Interest: Distributed and parallel database systems

T. N. Vijaykumar

Advisor: G. Sohi
Areas of Interest: Instruction Level Parallelism, Multiscalar Architecture, Compiling for Multiscalar Architecture and Performance issues of Multiscalar Architecture

Guhan Viswanathan

Advisor: J. Larus
Areas of Interest: programming languages, compilers, parallel programming

W

John Watrous

Advisor: E. Bach
Areas of Interest: quantum computation

Andrew Whitsitt

Advisor: L. Travis
Areas of Interest: machine learning, case-based reasoning, artificial intelligence

X

Y

Liang-Yin Yu

Advisor: C. Dyer
Areas of Interest: computer vision

Jie-Bing Yu

Advisor: D. DeWitt
Areas of Interest: spatial databases, parallel databases, tertiary storage support for database systems

Z

Armand Zakarian

Thesis Title: Nonlinear Jacobi and Epsilon Relaxation Methods for Parallel Network Optimization Advisor: R. Meyer
Areas of Interest: network algorithms, parallel optimization

Matthew Zeidenberg

Thesis Title: Learning Visual and Temporal Concepts and Lexical Semantics
Advisor: L. Uhr
Areas of Interest: artificial intelligence, neural networks, machine learning, computational linguistics

Tian Zhang

Advisor: R. Ramakrishnan
Areas of Interest: data mining: clustering and trending analysis for very large databases