UW-Madison Dept. of Computer Sciences

08/04/2026

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06/04/2026

Congratulations to Ilias Diakonikolas, whose seminal paper "Robust Estimators in High Dimensions without the Computational Intractability" received this year's Gödel Prize.

Published in 2019 in the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) Journal on Computing, the paper helped establish a new research area at the intersection of theoretical computer science, machine learning, and statistics.

The co-authors showed, for the first time, that a broad class of high-dimensional statistical problems can be solved both efficiently and robustly — even when part of the data has been arbitrarily corrupted.

The Gödel Prize is awarded annually by ACM - Association for Computing Machinery SIGACT and the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) and is widely regarded as one of the field’s most prestigious honors.

Learn more about Diakonikolas' "groundbreaking contributions":

https://www.cs.wisc.edu/2026/06/04/ilias-diakonikolas-wins-2026-godel-prize/

05/13/2026

Congratulations to Professor Ilias Diakonikolas, who recently received a 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship for his work in the algorithmic foundations of machine learning and statistics.

“Ilias is the type of researcher who doesn’t merely contribute to a field, but rather repeatedly breaks new ground and shapes the broad direction of research,” says UW-Madison School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences Director Remzi Arpaci-Dusseau.

A central theme of Diakonikolas’ work is the interplay between statistical accuracy, computational efficiency, and robustness: what can be learned from high-dimensional, noisy, or corrupted data, and what fundamental computational barriers stand in the way.

Learn more:
https://www.cs.wisc.edu/2026/04/27/professor-ilias-diakonikolas-wins-2026-guggenheim-fellowship/

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundationion
UW-Madison Department of Statistics

04/14/2026

It’s here: Day of the Badger continues until 5:00 PM on Wednesday, April 15. Help us reach 100 donations to unlock $25,000 more in student funding!

Donors make all the difference. This year, four WACM at UW-Madison officers were able to attend Harvard's WECode Conference thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.

"WACM has been working hard to build a community for women in STEM at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The biggest barrier we face is simply paying for all of it,” says Carol Sze, WACM’s president. “All of the conferences WACM sends members to, all of the lunches we organize with industry and faculty, all of the community events WACM hosts — none of it would be possible without financial support from donors.”

Pay it forward during : https://dayofthebadger.org/campaign/computer-sciences/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dotb26&utm_content=link&utm_source=campus-tactics&campaign=CA1032244

University of Wisconsin Foundation

04/09/2026

Join us for an open house on Saturday, April 11 as part of University of Wisconsin-Madison's 2026 Science Expeditions!

Come find UW-Madison School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences in Morgridge Hall's Orchard Street Lobby Area from 10 AM - 1 PM. Then check out the rest of campus for additional UW-Madison Science Outreach programming!

Members of the public can come explore our home building's public art and student spaces and participate in hands-on activities. Think robot soccer demos, student-led tours, and plenty of STEM fun.

See you there: https://science.wisc.edu/science-expeditions/

04/02/2026

Congratulations to Professor Miron Livny, chief technology officer at the Morgridge Institute for Research, for being named one of this year’s Hilldale Award recipients.

Awarded annually to four faculty members across the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Hilldale Award recognizes contributions to teaching, research and service in the arts and humanities, biological sciences, physical sciences, and social sciences.

Meet the awardees: https://news.wisc.edu/meet-the-winners-of-the-2026-hilldale-awards/

04/01/2026

Congratulations to Xinning He PhDx'30, who was recently named a 2026 Kohler Fellow by the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery.

He's work in human-computer interaction and robotics explores how design can foster socially fluent human-robot coexistence.

Learn more and meet this year's remaining Kohler Fellows:
https://wid.wisc.edu/new-kohler-fellows-advancing-discovery-through-creative-collaboration/

03/30/2026

Each year, the faculty divisions honor four UW–Madison faculty with the Hilldale Award to recognize their contributions to teaching, research and service. Congratulations to our 2026 winners: Ellen Wald, Miron Livny, Jon Pevehouse and Mimmi Fulmer!

Meet each awardee: https://news.wisc.edu/meet-the-winners-of-the-2026-hilldale-awards/

03/19/2026

Next fall’s incoming class at University of Wisconsin-Madison will include a very special Badger: an autonomous, two-armed robot.

Wiscohumanoids, a new student group launched in November, plans to build a humanoid robot from the ground up by September. The club’s 130+ active members say the project offers unique experience they won’t find anywhere else:

“Our theory is, if we can build the [nation’s] first or second humanoid robot, we'll suddenly have one of the most prepared student bodies in the world to go fill this massive billion dollar market that has no talent,” Co-founder Max Schneider told The Daily Cardinal. “I think this is so exciting because we're essentially running as a startup — we're telling people, ‘here's a project with no constraints.’”

The future of robotics: https://www.dailycardinal.com/article/2026/02/uw-humanoid-robotics-club-to-build-human-like-robot-from-scratch

03/18/2026

Most robots are designed to perform practical, if unglamorous, jobs — but not all.

In the People and Robots Laboratory, PhD candidate Amy Koike designs expressive robots that spark joy and human connection. Advised by Professor Bilge Mutlu, her robots take inspiration from animated characters and are programmed to emote.

“I’m interested in how I can stimulate people’s imagination,” Koike explains. “I don’t want my robots replacing human workers. Rather, I want them to be companions that make our lives happier, more joyful.”

Expressive machina: https://www.cs.wisc.edu/2026/03/04/expressive-machina-amy-koike-curious-robots/