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O'Neill Named to NSF's CISE Advisory Committee

Oct 26, 2006 - Claremont, Calif. -

MelissaOneillMelissa O'NeillCLAREMONT, Calif. – Assistant Professor of Computer Science Melissa O'Neill has been named to the advisory committee of the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Computing & Information Science & Engineering (CISE). She will serve a two-year term that began in September.

According to Ran Libeskind-Hadas, acting chair of the Harvey Mudd College Computer Science Department, "Melissa's appointment to the CISE Advisory Committee is a very big honor for her and for the college. Of the 30 members, only two are from undergraduate colleges.

"The group comprises some very influential people, including Vint Cerf ('father of the Internet'), as well as other major leaders from academia and industry. NSF CISE is the primary funding source for academic research in computer science and this group will help CISE shape national priorities for funding in computer science."

According to the NSF:

The National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Computer and Information

Science and Engineering has three goals:

  • To enable the U.S. to uphold a position of world leadership in computing, communications, and information science and engineering
  • To promote understanding of the principles and uses of advanced computing, communications and information systems in service to society
  • To contribute to universal, transparent and affordable participation in an information-based society.

To achieve these, CISE supports investigator initiated research in all areas of computer and information science and engineering, helps develop and maintain cutting-edge national computing and information infrastructure for research and education generally, and contributes to the education and training of the next generation of computer scientists and engineers.

O'Neill's research interests are in the systems area of computer science, in particular, practical aspects of programming languages. She teaches data structures and program development, programming languages, operating systems: design and implementation, and user-interface design.