UMass Boston

Research & Impact

The Department of Computer Science at UMass Boston is home to a vast array of ongoing research projects and faculty who are actively participating in research initiatives.

Research Funding

Digital Marker of Marijuana Intoxication: Measure of Dysfunctional Retinal Gangli

Source of Funds: IMMAD LLC
PI(s): Marc Pomplun
Start Date: 12/15/2018
End Date: 3/31/2019
Amount: $36,798

Supporting U.S.-Based Students to Participate in the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM 2018)

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 6/1/2018
End Date: 5/31/2020
Amount: $1,000

Supporting U.S.-Based Students to Participate in the 2018 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM 2018)

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 6/1/2018
End Date: 5/31/2020
Amount: $24,000

Data-Driven Automatic Interior

Source of Funds: Wayfair LLC
PI(s): Lap-Fai Yu
Start Date: 6/1/2018
End Date: 12/31/2018
Amount: $33,039

EAGER: Advanced Machine Learning Techniques to Discover Disease Subtypes in Cancer

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 7/1/2017
End Date: 6/30/2020
Amount: $149,881

EAGER: Advanced Machine Learning Techniques to Discover Disease Subtypes in Cancer

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 7/1/2017
End Date: 6/30/2019
Amount: $16,000

Additive Manufacturing Simulator (AMS)

Source of Funds: Product Innovation and Engineering
PI(s): Kenneth Fletcher
Start Date: 4/10/2017
End Date: 4/9/2019
Amount: $100,000

NeTS: Small: Collaborative: Towards Privacy-Preserving Autonomous Vehicle

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Xiaohui Liang
Start Date: 9/1/2016
End Date: 8/31/2020
Amount: $135,348

CRII: CHS: Perceptual Data Guided Computational Design

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s):  Marc Pomplun
Start Date: 7/1/2016
End Date: 6/30/2019
Amount: $158,806

Participant Support - CRII: CHS: Perceptual Data Guided Computational Design

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Marc Pomplun
Start Date: 7/1/2016
End Date: 6/30/2019
Amount: $27,900

Novel Approaches for Predicting Fee-Living Physical Activities in Youth

Source of Funds: University of Tennessee
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 6/6/2016
End Date: 3/31/2019
Amount: $442,612

Women in Science: Extension Services for Undergraduate Services/Strategic Plan for Recruitment

Source of Funds: Stevens Institute of Technology
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 1/14/2016
End Date: 1/13/2017
Amount: $8,000

NeTS: Small: New models and techniques for efficient communication in smartphone ad-hoc networks

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Bo Sheng
Start Date: 10/1/2015
End Date: 9/30/2019
Amount: $199,998

NeTS: Small: New models and techniques for efficient communication in smartphone ad-hoc networks

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Bo Sheng
Start Date: 10/1/2015
End Date: 9/30/2019
Amount: $8,000

SaTC: EDU: Capacity Building in Security, Privacy and Trust for Geospatial Applications

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Gabriel Ghinita
Start Date: 9/15/2015
End Date: 8/31/2018
Amount: $237,783

Leveraging Expertise in Neurotechnologies to Study Individual Differences

Source of Funds: University of Florida
PI(s): Matthew Schneps
Start Date: 9/15/2015
End Date: 8/31/2018
Amount: $250,000

EAGER: Harnessing Dependency to Achieve Efficient Resource Management in Scalable Multi-stage Data Processing Systems

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Bo Sheng
Start Date: 9/1/2015
End Date: 12/31/2017
Amount: $124,998

EAGER: Harnessing Dependency to Achieve Efficient Resource Management in Scalable Multi-stage Data Processing Systems

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Bo Sheng
Start Date: 9/1/2015
End Date: 12/31/2017
Amount: $16,000

Software-Defined Privacy-Preserving Network Measurement Instrument

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Gabriel Ghinita
Start Date: 4/1/2015
End Date: 3/31/2019
Amount: $416,574

Towards Context-Sensitive Forecasting

Source of Funds: Ford Motor Company
PI(s): Ming Ouyang
Start Date: 1/1/2015
End Date: 12/31/2015
Amount: $10,000

Advanced Data Mining to Discover Disease Subtypes in Cancer

Source of Funds: Dana Farber Cancer Institute
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 12/1/2014
End Date: 11/30/2016
Amount: $91,000

Computational Assessment of Landing Performance

Source of Funds: Federal Aviation Administration
PI(s): Ming Ouyang
Start Date: 8/1/2014
End Date: 10/31/2015
Amount: $122,476.51

A Prototypical Ontology-supported Intelligent Geospatial Feature Discovery System

Source of Funds: George Mason University
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 7/27/2014
End Date: 7/26/2015
Amount: $61,521

Computational Framework for Characterizing Protein Conformational Landscapes

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Nurit Haspel
Start Date: 7/1/2014
End Date: 6/30/2018
Amount: $320,000

Computational Framework for Characterizing Protein Conformational Landscapes

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Nurit Haspel
Start Date: 7/1/2014
End Date: 6/30/2018
Amount: $320,000

Dyslexia Research

Source of Funds: Good Samaritan, Inc.
PI(s): Matthew Schneps
Start Date: 
6/1/2014
End Date: 5/31/2016
Amount: $150,000

Video Categorization Using Spatio-Temporal Pattern Features w/ Ensemble Learning

Source of Funds: TCL Research America
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 
6/1/2014
End Date: 8/31/2020
Amount: $87,500

Analysis of the Wet Chemistry Data from the Phoenix Mission

Source of Funds: National Aero and Space Administration
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 6/1/2013
End Date: 5/31/2016
Amount: $305,268

A Prototypical Ontology-supported Intelligent Geospatial Feature Discovery System

Source of Funds: George Mason University
PI(s): Wei Ding
Start Date: 9/2/2012
End Date: 7/26/2015
Amount: $59,752

Investigating a Framework for STEM-Reading to Support Secondary School Students

Source of Funds: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
PI(s): Marc Pomplun
Start Date: 9/1/2011
End Date: 8/31/2014
Amount: $9,000

Privacy Enhanced Secure Data Provenance

Source of Funds: Purdue University
PI(s): Ghinita Gabriel
Start Date: 8/1/2011
End Date: 7/31/2016
Amount: $186,500

A Generic and Extensible Model Transformation Framework (the 16th phase)

Source of Funds: Ogis International, Inc.
PI(s): Junichi Suzuki
Start Date: 10/1/2009
End Date: 3/31/2015
Amount: $10,000

NeTS: Small: Target Monitoring with Low-Cost Sensor Networks

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s):  Duc Tran
Start Date: September 01, 2011
End Date: August 31, 2014
Amount: $383,887

Developing Novel Computational Methods for Investigating Protein Dynamics Using a Multi-Scale Approach

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s):  Nurit Haspel
Start Date: September 01, 2011
End Date: August 31, 2014
Amount: $249,774

Electronics for Education Grant

Source of Funds:  Enterasys, a Siemens Enterprise Communications Company
PI(s):  Bill Campbell, Ron Cheung, Duc Tran
Start Date: April 04, 2011
Amount: $40,000

Consortium on Anytime-Anywhere-Anyway (AAA) Transportation Information

Source of Funds: UMass President's 2010 Science & Technology (S&T) Initiatives
Co-PI(s):  Wei Ding
Start Date: December 01, 2010
End Date: November 30, 2011
Amount: $100,000

Establishment of the Northeast Coastal Watershed Geospatial Data Network

Source of Funds: Department of Energy
Co-PI(s):  Wei Ding
Start Date: September 15, 2010
End Date: September 15, 2011
Amount: $291,600

Outreach: Crater Seeker for Mars and Beyond

Source of Funds: Supplemental Outreach Awards for ROSES Investigators (OUTREACH) Program
Co-PI(s):  Wei Ding
Start Date: September 01, 2010
End Date: August 31, 2014
Amount: $80,000

Towards Rational Design of Amyloid-based Peptides to Self-assemble into Ordered Nano- or Micro-structures with Distinct Morphology

Source of Funds: UMass Boston Proposal Preparation Grant
PI(s):  Nurit Haspel
Start Date: July 01, 2010
End Date: December 31, 2011
Amount: $10,000

Identification and Characterization of Biologically Active Metabolic Fragments of Pituitary Hormones: Has an Entire Area of Cell Signaling Been Missed?

Source of Funds: UMass Boston Healey Grant
Co-PI(s):  Nurit Haspel
Start Date: July 01, 2010
End Date: June 30, 2011
Amount: $12,000

The Remapping of Visual-Perceptual Space by Saccadic Adaptation

Source of Funds: National Institute of Health
PI(s):  Marc Pomplun
Start Date: April 01, 2010
End Date: March 31, 2012
Amount: $279,645

Automatic Detection of Sub-Kilometer Craters in High Resolution Planetary Images

Source of Funds: NASA
Co-PI(s):  Wei Ding
Start Date: September 01, 2009
End Date: August 31, 2012
Amount: $285,163

Common Sense: Quantitative Reasoning in the Undergraduate Curriculum

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
Co-PI(s):  Ethan Bolker
Start Date: January 05, 2009
End Date: December 30, 2010
Amount: $190,813

A Generic and Extensible Model Transformation Framework

Source of Funds: OGIS International, Inc.
PI(s):  Jun Suzuki
Start Date: October 01, 2007
End Date: September 30, 2008
Amount: $20,000

A General Model for Saccadic Selectivity in Visual Search

 Source of Funds: National Eye Institute
PI(s):  Marc Pomplun
Start Date: September 01, 2007
End Date: August 31, 2009
Amount: $207,810

A Biologically-inspired Autonomic Architecture for Self-Managing Wireless Sensor Networks

Source of Funds: UMass Boston Proposal Preparation Grant
PI(s):  Jun Suzuki
Start Date: April 01, 2007
End Date: March 31, 2008
Amount: $6,754

A Generic and Extensible Model Transformation Framework

Source of Funds: OGIS International, Inc.
PI(s):  Jun Suzuki
Start Date: October 01, 2006
End Date: September 30, 2007
Amount: $25,000 

CSR-PDOS: A Scalable and Self-Organizing System Architecture for Fast and Efficient Information Retrieval in Large-Scale Decentralized Networks

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s):  Duc Tran
Start Date: September 01, 2006
End Date: August 31, 2009
Amount: $225,000 

A Software Plug-and-Play Framework for Next Generation Power Delivery Systems

Source of Funds: Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry
PI(s):  Jun Suzuki
Start Date: June 01, 2006
End Date: March 31, 2007
Amount: $47,571 

Support for Doctoral Students

 Source of Funds: Vertica Corporation
Recipient(s): UMass Boston Computer Science Department
Date: June 01, 2006
Funding Amount: $165,000 

A Generic and Extensible Model Transformation Framework

 Source of Funds: OGIS International, Inc.
PI(s):  Jun Suzuki
Start Date: April 01, 2005
End Date: September 30, 2005
Amount: $20,000 

SEI(BIO)+II: Metadata-Rich Image Databases for Biodiversity 

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s):  Robert Morris
Start Date: October 01, 2004
End Date: September 30, 2007
Amount: $300,000

A Generic and Extensible Model Transformation Framework 

Source of Funds: OGIS International, Inc.
PI(s):  Jun Suzuki
Start Date: September 01, 2004
End Date: March 31, 2005
Amount: $10,000 

DBI Electronic Field Guides: Building Partnerships and Informatics Tools for Species Identification and Biodiversity Monitoring

 Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s):  Robert Morris
Start Date: September 01, 2004
End Date: August 31, 2007
Amount: $1,090,000

Graduate Assistantships in Areas of National Need 

Source of Funds: Department of Education
PI(s):  Peter Fejer
Start Date: August 15, 2004
End Date: August 15, 2009
Amount: $413,880

Developing a New Infrastructure for Dynamic Access to Multi-institutional Biodiversity Data

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
Co-PI(s):  Robert Morris
Start Date: February 01, 2004
End Date: April 30, 2007
Amount: $202,209

Model-Driven Development of Autonomous Adaptive Network Applications

 Source of Funds: Electric Power Development Co., Ltd., Japan
Recipient(s):  Jun Suzuki
Date: January 01, 2004
Amount: $13,000

Collaborative Research: Development of New Digital Library Applications in the Context of a Basic Ontology for Biosystematics Information Using the Literature of Entomology

Source of Funds: The American Museum of Natural History
PI(s):  Robert Morris
Start Date: December 01, 2003
End Date: November 30, 2006
Amount: $110,060

Implementation of EyeLink Programming Interfaces to Presentation and E-Prime Applications

Source of Funds: SR Research, Toronto, Canada
PI(s):  Marc Pomplun
Start Date: August 01, 2003
End Date: August 31, 2004
Amount: $13,200

 Electronic Field Guides for Auditory Neuroscience

 Source of Funds: Boston University
PI(s):  Robert Morris
Start Date: January 01, 2002
End Date: August 31, 2006
Amount: $173,242

Biodiversity Data Discovery and Integration 

Source of Funds: Information Technology Research Grant (ITR)
PI(s):  Robert Morris
Start Date: September 01, 2001
End Date: August 31, 2004
Amount: $498,862

 Electronic Field Guide: Leveraging Biodiversity Data with the web and Mobile Tools 

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s): Robert Morris
Start Date: September 01, 2001
End Date: July 31, 2004
Amount: $621,910 

The Isolation Testing Project 

Source of Funds: National Science Foundation
PI(s):  Elizabeth O'Neil, Patrick O'Neil
Start Date: September 01, 1997
End Date: August 31, 2004
Amount: $360,000

Computer Science Research Groups

Computational Biology Group (CBG)

Director(s): Nurit Haspel

The computational biology group focuses on the development of novel algorithms and the application of state-of-the-art existing methodologies to solve various key problems in molecular biology, nanobiology and biochemistry. We combine biophysical and biochemical principles with algorithmic techniques, aiming to better understand protein structure and dynamics. Current research topics include modeling conformational changes in proteins, design of novel nano-structures, modeling protein-protein interactions and understanding protein folding and docking.

Data Mining Group (DMG)

Director(s): Dan Simovici

Vast amounts of data are being gathered at a very rapid rate in various fields, such as, high energy particle physics, astronomy, astrophysics, and bioinformatics. The need for efficient and high quality algorithms to mine these datasets for hidden patterns has pushed the frontiers of research in machine learning and data mining.

The Data Mining Group (DMG) at UMass Boston is investigating novel ways of exploring large datasets using diverse techniques, such as, mathematical programming, information theoretic methods, Bayesian models, and statistical and neural net based learning.

Database Applied Research Group (DARG)

Director(s): Elizabeth O'Neil , Patrick O'Neil (Emeritus)

DARG seeks to develop advances in database technology that support commercially viable database internal and application improvements. Recent research topics include devising benchmarks and improving designs for data warehousing, isolation testing to provide guarantees of correctness at lower isolation levels, concurrency control algorithms, and bit-sliced indexes and arithmetic. A student from our group was involved with us in a prototype product named C-Store that has since been used as the basis of an industry startup named Vertica.

Distributed Software Systems Group (DSSG)

Director(s): Jun Suzuki

DSSG carries out fundamental and applied research in the area of distributed software systems. Its long-term research goal is to make distributed software systems more autonomous, scalable, adaptive, survivable and easier to develop. DSSG's research efforts address the research issues that cross the boundaries among distributed computing, software engineering and artificial intelligence.

High Performance Computing Group

Director(s): Ming Ouyang

The focus is to parallelize data analysis algorithms, statistical computation, and bioinformatics applications using Nvidia GPUs, AVX instructions, and Intel Xeon Phi processors.

Knowledge Discovery Laboratory (KDLab)

Director(s): Wei Ding

Knowledge Discovery Laboratory aims at the development of data analysis and data management techniques with applications to challenging problems in geosciences, astronomy, environmental sciences. Areas of research include mining discriminating patterns, discovering interesting regions of arbitrary shape and granularity, designing new classification algorithms, and developing scalable algorithms to cope with large real-world datasets.

Mobile Security and Privacy Research Lab (MobSP)

Director(s): Xiaohui Liang

Our research interests include security and privacy for mobile devices, smartphones, and IoT devices. We are currently working on security and privacy issues related to health care, smartphones, and personal voice assistance. 

Network Information Systems Laboratory (NISLab)

Director(s): Duc Tran

NISLab's primary mission is to perform cutting-edge research in emerging areas of computer networks and distributed systems, particularly in support of information systems that can scale with both network size and data size. NISLab also provides hands-on educational resources to students who are interested in advanced network technologies, and engages in multidisciplinary R&D collaborations with other academic units at UMass as well as other institutions and industries in the Boston area.

Services Computing Laboratory (SCLab)

Director: Kenneth K. Fletcher

Services Computing Laboratory (SCLab) focuses on developing methods and algorithms services selection and recommendation. Specifically, SCLab focuses on capturing and including users’ evolving preferences in machine/deep learning algorithms to improve accuracy of services selection and recommendation. Areas of research include exploring user temporal and contextual preferences from sequential actions, detecting fake likers in social media network, and improving recommendation accuracy with Knowledge Graphs.

Software Verification Laboratory

Director(s): Tiago Cogumbreiro

The aim of the Software Verification Laboratory is improve the programmer's productivity, by developing tools and techniques that localize bugs, and enforce the correctness of systems. Our main focus is on verifying scientific codes, in the domain of High Performance Computing. We employ the fields of programming languages, formal methods, concurrency theory, and statistical machine learning to improve the correctness of software.

Visual Attention Laboratory (VALab)

Director(s): Marc Pomplun

VALab studies the attentional mechanisms underlying human vision and is particularly interested in investigating how attention is controlled for efficient performance of visual tasks. The main research paradigms are eye-movement recording and computational modeling. The findings resulting from this research are applied to the construction of computer vision systems and human-computer interfaces. More specifically, there are three main areas of research that the lab focuses on: Studying Human Eye Movements, Computational Modeling of Cognitive and Perceptual Processes, and Developing Gaze-Controlled Human-Computer Interfaces.