A Note from Leonidas Deligiannidis

glass building with green space and city buildings surrounding it

A Note from Leonidas Deligiannidis, Interim Dean, Wentworth School of Computing and Data Science 

Dear Friends,

As the 2023-2024 academic year draws to a close, I am delighted to share the following highlights from the School of Computing and Data Science.

The Applied Mathematics program hosted its first reunion in October. Graduates, professors, and friends gathered in the CEIS Lobby to reminisce and share updates. If you haven’t had a chance, you can view photos of the event on the Wentworth Flickr channel.

Two Applied Mathematics alumni, Eli Sanderson ’21 and AJ Liberatore ’21, collaborated with Associate Professor Rachel Maitra on research that she presented at the esteemed Loops ’24 International Conference on Quantum Gravity. Sanderson is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Wentworth, and Liberatore excels as a data scientist at the MITRE Corporation.

Faculty expertise was on display at conferences and workshops and in publications, covering topics from cybersecurity to DNA:

  • Assistant Professor of Computer Science Abdullah Al Farooq presented his research on conflict resolution in smart building devices at the 2023 IEEE 47th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), in Torino, Italy. He was also invited to NSF-funded faculty development workshops in Atlanta, GA, and Auburn, AL. The workshops provided lecture and lab materials for developing courses around cybersecurity and machine learning and cutting-edge software techniques. Professor Al Farooq applied for and was granted a sabbatical for the upcoming academic year to further his research.
  • Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics Gabe Cunningham published two articles: “Chiral Polytopes Whose Smallest Regular Cover Is a Polytope,” published in the Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A, and “Finite 3-Orbit Polyhedral in Ordinary Space, II,” published in the Boletin de la Sociedad Matematica Mexicana.
  • Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics Abby Pekoske Fulton gave talks at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, Institute for Computational and Experimental Research in Mathematics at Brown University, and Banff International Research Station for Mathematical Innovation. At the Joint Mathematics Meetings, Professor Fulton discussed how organelles move and behave during interphase of mitosis.
  • Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics Qranfal Youssef submitted the article “From Mathematical Foundations to Artificial Intelligence: Evolution of Nuclear Medicine Imaging” to ICAIA2024; it was accepted to be published in the conference proceedings Algorithms for Intelligent Systems book series published by Springer.

Computing and Data Science continued to forge next-generation partnerships locally and abroad:

  • Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics Abby Pekoske Fulton was invited to speak at the Girls Talk Math summer day camp at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. This is a funded day camp for woman-identifying students in the surrounding Worcester area to introduce them to STEM topics. Professor Fulton gave campers an introduction to knot theory and DNA knots.
  • Wentworth has signed an MOU with Maharaja Surajmal Institute of Technology (MSIT) in New Delhi, India. Together with MSIT, the School of Computing and Data Science organized the first International Conference of Artificial Intelligence and Applications (ICAIA2024). Associate Professor Qranfal Youssef headed the Wentworth delegation and presented on the evolution of nuclear medicine imaging.

Finally, we are thrilled to share that Assistant Professor of Applied Mathematics Abby Pekoske Fulton has been named a MAA Project NExT Fellow, a professional development program for new or recent Ph.D.s in the mathematical sciences. Professor Fulton’s track record in the classroom together with her promising scholarship made her an excellent candidate. The collaborative nature of Project NExT provides an excellent opportunity for her to move to the next level in her career.

I am thrilled to be leading the School of Computing and Data Science while Dean Suresh-Menon completes her doctoral studies. I am looking forward to another exciting year as we welcome a new class of exceptional students in the fall. Congratulations to all of our 2024 graduates!

Warmly,

Leonidas Deligiannidis, Ph.D.