Research

The faculty at NIU are actively involved in a number of research projects, and students, both undergraduate and graduate, are encouraged to get involved. Specific focus areas in the department include Data Science and Analysis, Graphics and Visualization, and Scientific Computing.

Data Science and Analytics

Current demand in the broad field of data science continues to grow, and there are a number of challenges we face, ranging for processing raw data, managing existing data, understanding the data, and using the data. Machine learning is an important tool to use patterns in information, but there is significant work in obtaining and processing the original data. As computational analyses become a staple of science, reproducibility is an important concern to ensure that we can reexamine and extend past work.

Professor Alhoori's DATA Lab

Graphics and Visualization

As the amount of data continues to grow, it is important to have techniques and tools to make sense of that data. Visualization can be extremely useful in distilling large amounts of information into visual forms, but there are many challenges in faithfully representing the data. At NIU, we are exploring technologies like large-scale displays, augmented and virtual reality, and improved graphics techniques to address this need.

High-Performance Computing

The department has expertise in high performance computing and is involved in campus initiatives like the Center for Research and Computing and Data. In addition, faculty work with colleagues across campus to address problems that combine domain science with computing challenges. The department also has a strong relationship with Argonne National Laboratory, which is at the forefront of exascale computing. NIU Computer Science students have done summer internships at ANL.