J. Zico Kolter is a Professor and Director of the Machine Learning Department at the School of Computer Science , Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on advancing deep learning algorithms to enhance their robustness, safety, and understanding of data impact on model functionality. Current Courses: 15-780 Graduate Artificial Intelligence (Spring 2024), 10-714 Deep Learning Systems Former Courses: 15-688 Practical Data Science, 15-780 Graduate Artificial Intelligence (Spring 2017), 15-884 Computational Methods for the Smart Grid He has led tutorials on Implicit Layers (NeurIPS 2020) and Adversarial Robustness (NeurIPS 2018), along with educational resources like a linear algebra refresher.
Zhun Deng is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research bridges machine learning, statistics, and theoretical computer science, focusing on rigorous frameworks for responsible AI systems. He previously held postdoctoral positions at Columbia University and completed his Ph.D. at Harvard's Theory of Computation group under Cynthia Dwork. Ph.D. in Computer Science, Harvard University (2022) B.Sc. in Mathematics, Chu Kochen Honors College, Zhejiang University His research spans theoretical foundations of machine learning, including: Quantile-based risk control and conformal prediction Fairness guarantees in algorithmic decision-making Uncertainty quantification for LLMs Copyright frameworks for generative AI Physics-informed hybrid models Multi-agent reinforcement learning with constraints Recent work analyzes LLM alignment through distribution-free methods (ICML 2025), explores performativity challenges (ICML 2025), and develops calibration techniques (ICLR 2024). Collaborations include research interns from Stanford, MIT, and NYU. Students in his group include: Ruomeng Ding (Ph.D., UNC) Xiaowei Yin (Ph.D., UNC) Kaicheng Zhang (Ph.D., UNC)
Professor Andrew Murray is a leading academic in Law with expertise in New Media and Technology Law. He holds the position of Professor of Law at the LSE Law School and directs the LSE Law, Society and Technology Group. His research focuses on digital rights, AI ethics, and regulatory frameworks for emerging technologies. Murray has held roles including Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and advisor to the Saudi Arabian government on e-commerce law. He has advised parliamentary committees, including the House of Lords Communications Committee on digital regulation, and delivered the prestigious TMC Asser Lecture on AI and human agency. Education: LL.B. Hons from Edinburgh University (1994), followed by academic roles at Stirling University and LSE since 2000. Professional memberships include the Society of Computers and Law (SCL) and the Higher Education Academy (HEA). He has been a visiting professor at Amsterdam Law and Technology Institute and Sciences Po Paris. Research interests span cyberspace regulation, AI governance, and the intersection of technology with human rights. Key publications include Human Rights in the Digital Age (2004) and The Regulation of Cyberspace (2007). Awards include recognition as an Independent Expert in Nominet UK dispute resolution (2001–2008) and a 2024 Leibniz Prize reviewer. Advocacy includes contributions to EU e-commerce directives and UK surveillance law debates. His work emphasizes balancing innovation with legal accountability in digital spaces.
Huaxiu Yao is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, holding a joint appointment in the School of Data Science and Society and the Department of Computer Science (College of Arts & Sciences). His research focuses on building reliable large-scale AI models (foundation models) with applications in healthcare, robotics, genomics, and transportation. He leads the AIMING Lab, which explores adaptive intelligence through alignment, interaction, and learning. Education: Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University (2021), Postdoctoral Scholar at Stanford University (hosted by Chelsea Finn). Research Interests: Generalizable AI agents, preference alignment, out-of-distribution generalization, embodied AI, and multimodal reasoning. Key applications include biomedicine, robotics, and vision-language systems. Notable Awards: KDD Best Paper Award (2024), Amazon Research Awards (2025), TMLR Outstanding Paper Award (2024). Advising & Labs: Recruits Ph.D. and intern students. Leads the AIMING Lab, affiliated with UNC NLP Group. Organizes workshops on foundation models (ICML 2024) and trustworthy AI systems. Publications: Over 40 peer-reviewed papers, including top venues like ICLR, NeurIPS, and ICML. Focuses on AI alignment, multimodal systems, and domain generalization.
Eric Wong is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania, affiliated with the ASSET Center and leading the Brachio Lab. His research focuses on robust and reliable machine learning, including model debugging, adversarial robustness, and explainable AI. He holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), advised by J. Zico Kolter, and completed a postdoc with Aleksander Madry. His work bridges theory and practice, addressing challenges in model interpretability, safety, and scalability. Teaching includes CIS 5200 (Machine Learning), CIS 3333 (Mathematics for Machine Learning), and a specialized course on debugging ML pipelines. Notable contributions include the FIX Benchmark for interpretable features and defenses against LLM jailbreaking attacks. He received an Amazon Research Award in 2024 and has published extensively in top conferences like ICML, NeurIPS, and ICLR. Affiliations: University of Pennsylvania (CIS), ASSET Center, Brachio Lab Education: PhD in Machine Learning (CMU), Postdoc at MIT Key Projects: FIX Benchmark, DOLPHIN framework, SmoothLLM defense Awards: Amazon Research Award (2024) Lab Focus: Safe AI, model debugging, neurosymbolic learning
Sarah Dean is an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at Cornell University, affiliated with the College of Engineering. Her research focuses on the interplay of machine learning, optimization, and dynamics in real-world systems, particularly in control theory, recommendation systems, and ethical AI. Education: PhD in EECS, University of California, Berkeley (2021) Postdoctoral Research, University of Washington (2021-2022) Research Interests: Data-driven control systems, reinforcement learning, recommendation systems, user dynamics, algorithmic fairness, and the societal impacts of AI. She emphasizes foundational understanding of how learning systems interact with human and social processes. Recent Work Trends: Her articles explore topics like bilinear system identification, user participation dynamics in recommendation platforms, and ethical considerations in AI development. Recent work includes harm mitigation strategies and mathematical modeling of AI-human feedback loops. Awards: AI2050 Early Career Fellow (2024) Best Paper at ICML 2018 (Delayed Impact of Fair Machine Learning) Best Student Paper in Imaging Systems (OSA Congress 2018) Advising & Labs: Advises over 15 graduate and undergraduate students. Leads research on interactive ML systems, with contributions to projects like the 'MSGD' repository for streaming data learning. Active in the GEESE group, promoting socially responsible computing.
Florian Tramèr is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, leading research at the intersection of machine learning security, privacy, and AI safety. His work focuses on identifying and mitigating security vulnerabilities in machine learning systems, particularly in large language models and other AI systems. Tramèr's primary research interests include adversarial machine learning, membership inference attacks, privacy-preserving AI, and the security implications of large language models. His work has significantly advanced our understanding of how machine learning models memorize training data, how this memorization creates privacy risks, and how to evaluate the robustness of machine learning systems against various attacks. His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on practical security challenges in deployed AI systems, including data extraction from language models, adversarial attacks against generative AI, and developing more rigorous evaluation methodologies for machine learning security. Tramèr's research has been published in top venues including ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML, and IEEE Security & Privacy. Tramèr is actively collaborating with leading researchers in the field including Nicholas Carlini, Matthew Jagielski, and Javier Rando, contributing to important initiatives like the International AI Safety Report. His work bridges theoretical security concepts with practical implications for real-world AI deployment.
Xiangyu Zhang is the Samuel D. Conte Professor of Computer Science at Purdue University. He specializes in AI security, software analysis, and cyber forensics, with a focus on detecting vulnerabilities in traditional software and AI systems. His research includes dynamic slicing, program profiling, and securing AI models against backdoors. He has led projects funded by DARPA, IARPA, NSF, and industry, securing over $13 million in grants. He has mentored 30+ PhD students and postdocs, many of whom hold academic positions or industry roles. His work has been recognized with awards like the ACM SIGPLAN Distinguished Dissertation Award and NSF Career Award. Education: PhD, Computer Science, University of Arizona (2006) MS & BS, Computer Science, University of Science and Technology of China (2000 & 1998) Research Interests: AI Security: backdoor detection, adversarial attacks, model integrity Program Analysis: dynamic slicing, static/dynamic debugging Cyber Forensics: log analysis, attack investigation Software Reliability: fault localization, vulnerability detection Key Projects: DARPA V-SPELLS: domain-specific program analysis IARPA TrojAI: AI backdoor detection competitions NSF-funded research on model debugging and co-reasoning of software/NL artifacts Awards & Recognition: Top performer in IARPA TrojAI competitions (13/18 rounds) ACM SIGPLAN Distinguished Dissertation Award (2006) NSF Career Award (2009) Ranked 8th globally in systems research productivity (2024) Career Contributions: Secured over $13M in research funding Guided 25 PhDs and 8 postdocs Published 89+ top-tier papers (2014–2024)
Jieyu Zhao is an Assistant Professor in the Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC), part of the Viterbi School of Engineering. She holds a Ph.D. from UCLA and was a NSF Computing Innovation Fellow at the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on fairness in machine learning and NLP, particularly addressing biases in AI systems and promoting ethical AI practices. Education: Ph.D. in Computer Science (UCLA, 2021), Postdoc at University of Maryland (2022-2023), and multiple research internships at Microsoft Research, Google Research, and AI2. She also completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia. Research interests include bias detection and mitigation in NLP models, trustworthy AI, and social responsibility in technology. Her work has been recognized with awards such as the EMNLP Best Long Paper Award (2017), Microsoft PhD Fellowship (2020), and EECS Rising Star (2021). She has delivered talks at conferences like NeurIPS, EMNLP, and USC Law School, and serves on committees including AAAI workflow chair. Her lab explores topics like alignment of LLMs, fairness in sequential decision-making, and ethical model interventions. She actively participates in initiatives promoting diversity and inclusion in AI, such as the UN-WOMEN Beijing panel on gender equality. Awards: 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics (2025), Capital One Research Award (2024), Microsoft PhD Fellowship (2020) Grants: NSF Computing Innovation Fellowship, USC Viterbi funding Labs/Teams: Leads the USC Lab focused on trustworthy AI and ethical NLP
Matthias Hein is a Professor at the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Tübingen. His research focuses on Machine Learning , Adversarial Robustness , and Out-of-Distribution Detection , with applications in computer vision and medical imaging. He has received notable recognition including the Best Paper Honorable Mention Prize at ICLR 2021 and Outstanding Paper Award at CVPR 2021. His work includes developing benchmarks like RobustBench and Spurious ImageNet , and frameworks such as Sparse-RS and DIG-IN . His recent publications emphasize adversarial robustness across multiple domains (vision, text), counterfactual explanations for classifiers, and improved OOD detection methods . Collaborators include prominent researchers like Francesco Croce, Julian Bitterwolf, and Alexander Meinke. Scientific Awards : Best Paper Honorable Mention (ICLR 2021) CVPR 2021 Outstanding Paper Award Key Research Areas : Adversarial Robustness Vision-Language Models Medical Imaging AI Neural Network Calibration
Fei Fang is an Associate Professor in the Software and Societal Systems Department at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) , where she explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and multi-agent systems . Her work integrates machine learning with game theory to address challenges in security , sustainability , and mobility , aligning with the AI for Social Good mission. Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Southern California (2016) B.Eng. in Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University (2011) Recent research focuses on reinforcement learning , large language models (LLMs) , and human-AI collaboration . Her team’s work has been recognized with 15+ awards across prestigious venues like IAAI, AAAI, and IJCAI. Notable accolades include the 2023 Allen Newell Award , 2022 Sloan Fellowship , and NSF CAREER Award (2021) . She actively contributes to educational initiatives , including teaching "Demystifying AI for Everyone" at CMU, and has sought part-time teaching assistants for course development. Her research spans 15+ domains , including AI ethics , cyber defense , traffic optimization , and public health .
WANG Ye is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the School of Computing, National University of Singapore (NUS). He holds a PhD in Information Technology from Tampere University of Technology, Finland, and has been a tenured faculty member at NUS since 2002, following his industry research role at Nokia Research Center. He is the director of the Sound and Music Computing Lab at NUS, leading cutting-edge research in AI-driven music and health technologies. PhD, Information Technology, Tampere University of Technology, Finland (2002) MSc, Telecommunications, Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany (1993) BSc, Telecommunications, South China University of Technology, China (1983) His research is centered on Sound and Music Computing for Human Health and Potential (SMC4HHP) , with a focus on eHealth, eLearning, mobile/wearable computing, and music information retrieval. His work spans AI for stroke rehabilitation, language learning through singing, singing voice synthesis, and automatic music transcription. He has pioneered systems like SLIONS (language learning via karaoke), CocoLyricist (AI co-creation for stroke recovery), and SinTechSVS (expressive singing voice synthesis). The latest articles highlight a strong trend in AI-driven music and health technologies , particularly in controllable lyric generation, singing voice synthesis, automatic pronunciation assessment, and multimodal music transcription. The research increasingly integrates large language models, explainable AI, fairness, and real-world deployment, reflecting a shift from theoretical exploration to practical, human-centered applications in healthcare and education. Dr. Wang has received numerous scientific honors, including: Best Paper Awards at ACM MM, ISMIR, IEEE ISM, and CHI First Prize, Asia Pacific Assistive, Rehabilitative, and Therapeutic Technologies Challenge (2015) Faculty Teaching Excellence Award, NUS School of Computing (2024) Top Paper Award, ACM Multimedia 2022 AI in Medicine Collaborative Grant for CocoLyricist project He has supervised over 11 PhD and 20 MComp students and is currently guiding six PhD candidates. His grants come from MOE, NRF, A*STAR, Nokia, and Smule. He has served as General Chair of ISMIR2017 and TPC Co-Chair of ICOT2017, and is on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Multimedia and Journal of New Music Research. He has also developed and taught the first course on Sound and Music Computing in Singapore. Dr. Wang leads the Sound and Music Computing Lab (SMC Lab) , a multidisciplinary team exploring the synergy of music computing, AI, mobile technology, and cloud systems for health and education. The lab actively collaborates with medical institutions such as NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, and is currently working on projects in AI-supported language learning, stroke rehabilitation, and intelligent music interfaces.
Sebastian Scherer is an Associate Research Professor at the Robotics Institute (RI), Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), where he leads cutting-edge research in autonomous aerial systems and robotics. His work focuses on enabling unmanned rotorcraft to operate safely and efficiently in cluttered, low-altitude, and extreme environments. Education: Ph.D. in Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University (2010) MS in Robotics, Carnegie Mellon University (2007) BS in Computer Science (Minor in Robotics), Carnegie Mellon University (2004) His research interests span robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, SLAM, visual-inertial odometry, energy infrastructure, and public policy . He has made seminal contributions to UAV autonomy, including the first obstacle avoidance for micro aerial vehicles in natural environments (2008) and the first automatic landing zone detection and landing on a full-size helicopter (2010). His recent publications (2023–2025) demonstrate a strong focus on resilient autonomy, multi-robot exploration, foundation models for robotics, and large-scale dataset development. His team has released key datasets like TartanGround , BETTY , and SubT-MRS , and simulation tools like Pegasus Simulator , indicating a systems-level approach to advancing real-world autonomy. The research trends emphasize self-supervised learning, robust perception, risk-aware planning, and multi-modal fusion for off-road and urban environments. Scientific Awards: Popular Science Best of What's New 2010 Award AIAA@Infotech Best Paper Runner-up Award (2010) Siebel Scholar Dr. Scherer has advised numerous students and leads a vibrant research group focused on high-impact robotics applications. He has secured significant grants related to UAV autonomy, energy infrastructure, and urban air mobility. His lab develops experimental infrastructure such as AIrTonomy for testing next-generation autonomous aerial vehicles. He is actively involved in advancing SLAM and localization in extreme environments, notably through participation in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. His team develops large-scale datasets and benchmarking frameworks to push the boundaries of robustness and generalization in mobile robotics.
Peter Henderson is an Assistant Professor at Princeton University with joint appointments in the Department of Computer Science and the School of Public and International Affairs. He is affiliated with the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP), Princeton Language and Intelligence Initiative (PLI), Center for Statistics and Machine Learning (CSML), and Program in Law & Public Policy (PLAW). J.D./Ph.D., Stanford University, 2023 M.Sc., McGill University and Montréal Institute for Learning Algorithms Henderson's research focuses on the critical intersection of artificial intelligence and law, with particular emphasis on AI safety, methods to improve reasoning in foundation models, interdisciplinary approaches to law and AI, and AI governance. His work spans language-grounded reinforcement learning, alignment techniques, strategic decision-making in legal contexts, and public interest artificial intelligence. He investigates how legal frameworks can guide the development of AI systems that benefit society while addressing potential harms. Henderson's recent publications reveal a strong trajectory toward addressing the safety, governance, and legal implications of foundation models. His work combines rigorous technical AI research with deep legal analysis, particularly examining how intellectual property law interacts with AI development, regulatory pathways that balance innovation with harm prevention, and the role of law in shaping responsible AI deployment. A significant thread throughout his research is the development of better evaluation methodologies for AI systems, especially in critical domains like law. SEAS Excellence in Teaching Award (2025) Henderson leads the Princeton Law+Language, AI, & Society (POLARIS) Lab, where he advises students and researchers working at the intersection of AI and legal studies. His research has been supported through collaborations with government agencies, including work with the IRS on audit selection algorithms. His findings have informed practical applications in government efficiency and equity, as well as legal system improvements. Henderson runs the POLARIS Lab at Princeton, which focuses on developing AI systems that work for the public interest, particularly in legal contexts. His team develops sequential decision-making systems for government efficiency, foundation models capable of reasoning about law, and improved safety evaluation frameworks for AI systems. The lab maintains strong connections with legal practitioners and policymakers to ensure research has real-world impact.
Virginia Smith is the Leonardo Associate Professor of Machine Learning at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and undergraduate degrees from the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on developing efficient, privacy-preserving machine learning systems, particularly in federated learning, distributed optimization, and resource-constrained settings. Key areas include federated learning frameworks like CoCoA and Ditto, unlearning algorithms, and privacy amplification techniques. Smith's work bridges theory and practice, addressing challenges such as data heterogeneity, fairness, and robustness. She has led initiatives like the LEAF benchmark for federated learning and has contributed to open-source tools for scalable ML systems. Her awards include the Sloan Research Fellowship, Samsung AI Researcher of the Year (2023), and an NSF CAREER Award. She is actively involved in curriculum development, teaching courses on federated learning and large-scale ML at CMU. Her research group explores cutting-edge topics like federated optimization with sparse communication, unlearning in LLMs, and secure ML pipelines. Collaborations span academia and industry, with applications in healthcare, IoT systems, and AI safety. Smith serves as Program Chair for ICML 2025 and frequently contributes to workshops on federated learning and trustworthy AI.
