Almut Sophia Koepke is a junior research group leader at the Technical University of Munich and University of Tübingen, focusing on multimodal learning problems integrating sound, vision, and text. Her work bridges foundational research in audio-visual understanding with practical applications in few-shot learning, zero-shot translation, and cross-modal attention mechanisms.
Alexis Battle is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University with appointments in Biomedical Engineering , Computer Science , and Genetic Medicine (secondary). She directs the Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare and serves as Deputy Director of the Data Science and AI Institute . Educated at Stanford University (PhD in Computer Science, 2013), Battle transitioned to academia after leadership roles at Google. Research Focus: Battle’s work bridges genomics and machine learning , emphasizing the impact of genetic variation on human health. Her lab develops tools like Watershed to predict functional effects of rare variants, aiming to enhance rare disease diagnosis. Key themes include non-coding DNA analysis , personalized genomics , and systems biology , with applications in cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders . Publications & Awards: Over 60 peer-reviewed articles in journals like Nature , Science , and Genome Biology , with recent emphasis on single-cell transcriptomics , multiomics integration , and telomere biology . Recipient of the President’s Frontier Award (2022), Microsoft Investigator Fellowship (2019), and Searle Scholar (2016). Scientific Awards: 2022 President’s Frontier Award 2019 Microsoft Investigator Fellowship 2019 Johns Hopkins Discovery Award 2017 Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award 2016 Searle Scholar Advising & Funding: Mentors 11 PhD students, 3 undergraduates, and postdoctoral fellows. Her research is funded by NIH, Searle Scholars, and institutional grants. The Battle Lab collaborates on projects like the GTEx Consortium , focusing on gene regulation and clinical genomics .
Andrew Childs is a Professor at the University of Maryland, affiliated with the Department of Computer Science and the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). He serves as Director of the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation (RQS) and is a Fellow at the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS). His research focuses on quantum algorithms for simulating physical systems, algebraic problems, and quantum walk protocols, with applications in quantum computing and computational complexity. University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS) NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation Childs' research spans quantum simulation, quantum Fourier transform, phase estimation, and Hamiltonian dynamics. He has developed techniques to reduce quantum computational resources for simulating quantum systems and explored limitations of quantum computers through hidden subgroup problems and non-unitary dynamics. His publications cover diverse areas including quantum walk optimization, Hamiltonian simulation methods, and applications to cryptography and condensed matter physics. Recent works address spatial search algorithms, product formulas for commutators, and quantum routing protocols. As an educator, Childs has taught courses on quantum algorithms and information processing at both the University of Maryland and University of Waterloo, with lecture notes and materials spanning multiple years. Contact: amchilds@umd.edu | Office: ATL 3359 | Affiliated with University of Maryland's quantum research institutes.
Nihar B. Shah is an Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University with joint appointments in the Machine Learning and Computer Science departments within the School of Computer Science. His research focuses on developing theoretically grounded algorithms for evaluating scientific work, with applications in peer review, fairness, and human-AI collaboration. His work has impacted over 100,000 research papers and grant evaluations. Education: Ph.D. in EECS, UC Berkeley M.E. in Telecommunications, Indian Institute of Science B.Tech. in Electronics, NIT Karnataka Research Interests: Shah's group investigates the science of evaluation through machine learning, optimization, and large-scale experiments. Key areas include peer review systems, algorithmic fairness, LLM applications in science, and human-AI collaboration frameworks. Research addresses fundamental questions about research validity, funding allocation, and equitable assessment. Publication Trends: Recent work focuses on improving peer review through randomized controlled trials, security against collusion, LLM-based review systems, and bias mitigation. Publications consistently appear in premier venues (NeurIPS, PLOS ONE, AAAI) with growing emphasis on real-world deployments. Awards & Honors: Young Alumnus Medal (IISc 2024) NSF CAREER Award (2020-2025) Google Research Scholar Award (2021) Multiple best paper awards (HCOMP, ICLR) Research Group & Funding: Leads a focused research team with NSF, Google, and JP Morgan support. Alumni hold positions in academia and industry. Current projects involve large-scale evaluations of scientific work and algorithmic fairness.
Reza Shokri is a Dean's Chair Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS), School of Computing. His research lies at the intersection of data privacy, security, and trustworthy machine learning, with a focus on quantifying privacy risks and developing robust, fair, and interpretable models. PhD in Computer Science, EPFL His research interests center on data privacy and trustworthy machine learning , particularly in the context of deep learning and federated systems. He investigates how machine learning models memorize training data, leading to privacy leakage, and designs frameworks to audit and mitigate such risks. His work bridges theoretical guarantees with practical applications, emphasizing the trade-offs among privacy, fairness, robustness, and utility. His recent publications (2023–2025) reveal a strong trend in analyzing privacy in large language models (LLMs), membership inference attacks, federated learning, and fairness. These works are published in top venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CCS, and FAccT, highlighting his leadership in both AI and security communities. Notable scientific awards include: Asian Young Scientist Fellowship (2023) Intel Outstanding Researcher Award (2023) Best Paper Award, ACM FAccT (2023) IEEE S&P Test-of-Time Award (2021) Caspar Bowden Award for Privacy Enhancing Technologies (2018) NUS Presidential Young Professorship (2019–2023) VMware Early Career Faculty Award (2021) He has advised numerous PhD and Master’s students, many of whom have contributed to high-impact publications. He has also received research grants from major industry partners including Meta, Google, Intel, and VMware. He leads the Data Privacy and Trustworthy Machine Learning Lab at NUS and has served on program committees for top conferences such as IEEE S&P, ACM CCS, and FAccT, including co-chairing roles at HotPETs and Shadow PC of IEEE S&P. He has delivered tutorials at ICML and CCS on privacy auditing in machine learning. His lab focuses on developing tools and frameworks—such as the ML Privacy Meter—for assessing and improving the privacy properties of machine learning models, with applications in regulatory compliance and secure AI deployment.
Emma Brunskill is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in Education. She holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT (2009). Her research focuses on reinforcement learning, educational technology, and healthcare applications, aiming to develop AI systems that support human learning and decision-making. Notable projects include AI tutoring systems, policy evaluation methods, and behavior change interventions using large language models. Her work bridges theory and practice, addressing challenges in off-policy evaluation, fairness-aware decision making, and scalable educational tools. Brunskill has contributed to foundational research in reinforcement learning algorithms and their applications in real-world scenarios such as healthcare, education, and human-AI collaboration. She also leads initiatives to improve equity and efficiency in educational technologies through data-driven approaches. Brunskill's research has been supported by grants such as the NSF RI: Small grant for data-efficient reinforcement learning. She actively explores the ethical implications of AI systems, particularly in healthcare and education settings. Her recent work emphasizes leveraging large language models (LLMs) for personalized feedback and simulated training environments, as seen in studies like GPTCoach and LLM-based counselor upskilling.
Prof. Bernt Schiele is a Max Planck Director at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and holds a Professorship at Saarland University. His research focuses on understanding multimodal sensor data, with key areas in computer vision, 3D object recognition, and machine learning. He leads the Computer Vision and Machine Learning group, addressing challenges in sensor fusion, scene understanding, and human activity recognition. Schiele has held academic roles at TU Darmstadt, ETH Zurich, and MIT, and contributes to top journals like IEEE Transactions on PAMI and conferences like ECCV. His work emphasizes robust models, interpretability, and domain adaptation for real-world applications. Education: PhD (1997, Grenoble), MSc (1994 Karlsruhe/1993 Grenoble) Key Positions: MIT (1997-2000), ETH Zurich (1999-2004), TU Darmstadt (2004-2010) Research interests span 3D scene understanding, multimodal sensor processing, and machine learning techniques for large-scale data. His recent work advances robust object detection, explainable AI, and domain-invariant training methods. He also chairs major conferences like ECCV 2018 and co-chairs ICCV 2011. Publications highlight innovations in interpretable vision transformers, certified explanations, and test-time adaptation. Despite no listed awards, his contributions shape foundational areas of computer vision and multimodal AI.
Naresh R. Shanbhag is the Jack Kilby Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He serves as Director of the Systems on Nanoscale Information fabriCs (SONIC) Center and held the D.J. Gandhi Distinguished Visiting Professorship at IIT Mumbai from 2015-2020. Previously, he was a visiting faculty member at National Taiwan University (2007) and Stanford University (2014). Dr. Shanbhag received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota (1993) in Electrical Engineering. From 1993 to 1995, he worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories as the lead chip architect for AT&T's 51.84 Mb/s transceiver chips over twisted-pair wiring for Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)-LAN and very high-speed digital subscriber line (VDSL) chip-sets. His research focuses on the design of energy-efficient machine learning, communications, and signal processing systems on resource-constrained embedded platforms. He explores fundamental trade-offs between energy efficiency, latency and accuracy of decision-making systems implemented in nanoscale technologies, with applications to computer vision, biomedicine, automatic target recognition, and imaging. His work spans four primary focus areas: Resource-efficient Machine Learning for the Edge, In-memory Computing (IMC), Energy-efficient High Data Rate Communications, and Shannon-inspired Statistical Error Compensation (SEC). Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong emphasis on in-memory computing architectures (SRAM, MRAM, RRAM) for machine learning acceleration. His work consistently addresses energy-accuracy trade-offs, with increasing attention to security aspects of hardware implementations and applications to MIMO signal processing and edge AI systems. His research demonstrates a progression from theoretical foundations to practical silicon implementations. 2024 Semiconductor Research Corporation Innovation Award 2018 Semiconductor Industry Association/Semiconductor Research Corporation University Researcher Award 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems Best Paper Award 2006 IEEE Fellow 1996 National Science Foundation CAREER Award Professor Shanbhag has mentored over 50 graduate students who now work at leading technology companies including Qualcomm, Amazon, Nvidia, Intel, and Apple. His research has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation, DARPA, AFRL, Semiconductor Research Corporation, Texas Instruments, Sandia National Laboratories, and industry partners including IBM, GlobalFoundries, and Intel Corporation. He led the Alternative Computational Models research theme (2006-2012) and was the founding Director of the SONIC Center (2013-2017), a 5-year multi-university center funded by DARPA and SRC. Currently, he leads research themes in the SRC and DARPA funded JUMP 2.0 Program's Center for Co-Design of Cognitive Systems and the Center for Ubiquitous Connectivity, and in the NSF IUCRC Center for Advanced Semiconductor Chips with Accelerated Performance (ASAP). As Director of the Systems on Nanoscale Information fabriCs (SONIC) Center, Professor Shanbhag leads a multidisciplinary team exploring novel computing paradigms for the nanoscale era. His group has benchmarked an extensive collection of in-memory computing and digital accelerator IC designs, maintaining a publicly available IMC benchmarking repository of metrics extracted from published IC prototypes. His research philosophy integrates concepts from information theory, statistical signal processing, detection and estimation, VLSI architectures, and digital and analog integrated circuits to develop energy-efficient systems from algorithms to silicon implementations.
Raphael Hauser is an Associate Professor in Numerical Mathematics at the University of Oxford's Mathematical Institute, Director of Graduate Studies - Teaching, and Tanaka Fellow in Applied Mathematics at Pembroke College. His affiliations include membership in the Data Science, Numerical Analysis, and Mathematical and Computational Finance research groups, as well as a fellowship at the Alan Turing Institute. Education: PhD in Operations Research, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA Dipl. Math. ETH, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Switzerland Research interests span data science, numerical optimisation, medical imaging, distributed computing, and applied probability/statistics. His work integrates mathematical rigor with practical applications, particularly in optimization algorithms, machine learning theory, and medical imaging technology. Publications focus on optimization theory, stochastic processes, medical imaging systems, and computational finance, with recurring themes in non-convex optimization guarantees, PCA variants, and X-ray tomography innovations. Awards: Oxford University Teaching Award (2007) SIAM Optimization Prize (2005) SIAM Student Paper Prize (2000) Advising includes 15+ DPhil students and 40+ MSc students, with projects in optimization, finance, imaging, and machine learning. Current postdocs and students are affiliated with the Alan Turing Institute and industrial partners like Siemens and Macquarie Group. He leads teams in the Mathematical Institute's research groups and collaborates with the Alan Turing Institute on large-scale data science initiatives.
Kostas Bekris is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University, specializing in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. His research focuses on motion planning, autonomous manipulation, and robot control, with notable contributions to tensegrity robotics, perception-driven systems, and large-scale package handling. He leads a team conducting groundbreaking work in robotics, supported by grants from NSF, NASA, and industry collaborators like ExxonMobil. His group emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, combining machine learning, topological methods, and differentiable physics modeling to advance robot capabilities in complex environments. Education details are not explicitly stated in the provided texts, but his academic career has included significant mentorship of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers. Key projects involve vision-driven manipulation pipelines, obstacle detection systems (PROBE), and resilient robot designs inspired by biological structures. He has been recognized for his work through prestigious awards including the NASA Early Career Grant and multiple NSF grants, as well as team achievements in robotics competitions like the Amazon Picking Challenge. Research interests span robotics subfields such as: Autonomous manipulation in cluttered environments Learning-based control for dynamic systems Topological data analysis for motion reasoning Tensegrity and soft robotics architectures Sim-to-real transfer in robotic tasks His team's work has produced open-source software tools and datasets, advancing benchmarks in manipulation and perception. Recent articles emphasize scalable solutions for industrial automation and robust navigation strategies in unstructured settings. Scientific achievements include: Development of PROBE for proprioceptive obstacle detection Advances in differentiable physics engines for tensegrity systems NSF-funded projects on robotic rearrangement and modular morphologies Advising contributions span over a decade, with current advisees focusing on topics like non-prehensile manipulation and large-scale storage optimization. Collaborations with industry (e.g., ExxonMobil) and academic partners (Yale University) reflect his commitment to applied robotics research. Labs and teams under his leadership include the Rutgers CS Robotics Group, contributing to projects like the ARIAC challenge platform and packing/industrial automation systems. Future work targets improved robot resilience in disaster scenarios and enhanced human-robot collaboration paradigms.
Dr. Aditya Joshi is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He specializes in Natural Language Processing (NLP), with a focus on sarcasm detection, dialectal NLP, and ethical AI applications in public health and cybersecurity. He joined UNSW in 2023 following industry roles at SEEK, Notiv, and Fractal Analytics, where he developed NLP systems for recommendation engines and meeting analytics. His research has garnered over 3,000 citations (h-index 26) and secured $3.1M in grants, including Defence Trailblazer and Google exploreCSR awards. Education: Joint PhD (2018) from IIT Bombay (India) and Monash University (Australia); MTech in CSE (2011) from IIT Bombay. Research Interests: Making NLP models robust for non-native English speakers and the LGBTI+ community, algorithmic enhancements to transformers, and applications in public health, cybersecurity, and societal issues. His work spans epidemic intelligence (collaborations with EPIWATCH and IFCYBER), cybersecurity tools like AuditNet, and inclusive AI initiatives such as queer-inclusive workshops funded by Google. He designed UNSW's new NLP course (COMP6713) and co-authored a Wiley textbook on NLP. Notable grants include the A$1.4M 'Comprehensive Defence Data Platform' (Lead CI) and A$92K Google exploreCSR grant for benchmarking dialectal sentiment. His awards include the Best PhD Thesis from IITB-Monash and Best Paper accolades at FAccT 2023 and MoMM 2020. He supervises projects on kernel-based attention reformulation, prompt-based sarcasm detection, and multilingual small-scale LLMs. His service roles include Executive Committee Member at ALTA and arXiv moderator for computational linguistics.
Holger Fröning is a full professor at Heidelberg University’s Institute of Computer Engineering (ZITI), where he leads the Hardware and Artificial Intelligence (HAWAII) Lab. His research focuses on embedded machine learning , high-performance computing , and hardware-software co-design , with emphasis on resource efficiency, power optimization, and emerging architectures like analog , photonic , and resistive memory systems. He has held leadership roles including Managing Director of ZITI (2023–present) and Dean of Studies for Computer Science (2019–2022) , and has collaborated with institutions such as NVIDIA Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Graz University of Technology. Research Trends : His recent publications explore Bayesian neural networks , green machine learning , analog computing noise mitigation , and GPU/FPGA optimization . Articles highlight photonic computing for AI , memory-efficient training , and hardware-aware DNN compression . Scientific Awards : 2025 HiPEAC Paper Award (Nature Computational Science) 2014 Google Faculty Research Award Multiple Best Paper Awards (IPDPS, ICPP, ECML-PKDD workshops) Leadership & Service : Organized workshops (WEML, ITEM, F4HD), chaired tracks at EuroPar and ISC, and served on program committees for ICPR, ECAI, and FPL. Education & Affiliations : PhD and MSc from University of Mannheim (2007/2001). Sponsors include DFG, FWF, FFG, NVIDIA, SAP, and XILINX.
Salim ROSTAMI is an Associate Professor at the IÉSEG School of Management in France, specializing in Operations Management. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Mathematics Sciences from KU Leuven (2019) and a Master’s in Engineering from KU Leuven (2013), alongside a Bachelor’s in Industrial Engineering from Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (2012). His research focuses on scheduling under uncertainty, project planning, combinatorial optimization, and healthcare logistics. Notable achievements include the 2016 2nd Best Conference Paper Award from the University of Valencia. Education: Ph.D., Economics and Mathematics Sciences, Operations Management, KU Leuven, Belgium (2019) Master, Engineering, Operations Research, KU Leuven, Belgium (2013) Bachelor, Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran (2012) His work spans stochastic resource-constrained project scheduling, sequential testing of systems, and chemotherapy appointment scheduling. He has published widely in journals like the European Journal of Operational Research and Flexible Services and Manufacturing Journal. Teaching roles include courses on operations management and project management across undergraduate and graduate programs. Awards: 2016: 2nd Best Conference Paper Award, University of Valencia His research emphasizes practical applications in healthcare and project management, leveraging dynamic programming and metaheuristic algorithms. Collaborations include work with institutions like École des Mines de Saint-Étienne and KU Leuven.
Linyi Li is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University (SFU), leading the Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (TAI) Lab. His research focuses on certifiably trustworthy deep learning systems, combining machine learning and computer security. He holds a PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and a B.Eng. from Tsinghua University. Affiliations: Simon Fraser University, TAI Lab Education: PhD in Computer Science, UIUC, 2023 B.Eng (Cum Laude), Tsinghua University, 2018 His research interests include deep learning , trustworthy machine learning , large language models , and software engineering . He emphasizes rigorous certification of robustness, fairness, and numerical reliability in AI systems. Recent work includes the InfiBench benchmark for evaluating code LLMs and advancements in neural network verification. Recent Research Trends: His publications span certified robustness, fairness guarantees, and scalable verification techniques for deep learning models. He also explores scientific evaluation of foundation models and adversarial defense mechanisms. Awards: Rising Stars in Data Science AdvML Rising Star Award Wing Kai Cheng Fellowship Finalist: Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship (2022) Winner: VNN-COMP'23 Competition (Team α, β-CROWN) Advising & Grants: As a PI, he oversees the TAI Lab's research. Though no specific grants are listed, his work is funded through competitive awards and university resources. Labs/Teams: Leads the TAI Lab at SFU, focusing on foundational and applied research in trustworthy AI.
Carlos Cinelli is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Washington, where he conducts research at the intersection of causal inference, statistical methodology, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. He is also a data science fellow at the eScience Institute and affiliate faculty of the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences, demonstrating his interdisciplinary approach to causal methodology. Dr. Cinelli received his Ph.D. in Statistics from the University of California, Los Angeles, advised by Chad Hazlett and Judea Pearl, two prominent figures in causal inference. His research focuses on developing new causal and statistical methods for transparent and robust causal claims in empirical sciences, with particular attention to challenges faced by social and health scientists. His work spans theoretical developments in causal identification, sensitivity analysis frameworks, and practical software implementations that enable researchers to assess the robustness of their causal conclusions. Cinelli's research program addresses fundamental questions about how unobserved confounding affects causal estimates and develops tools to quantify how sensitive findings are to potential violations of causal assumptions. His work on omitted variable bias frameworks has been particularly influential across multiple disciplines. Through his publications, Cinelli has established himself as a leading researcher in causal inference methodology, with papers appearing in top journals across statistics, machine learning, epidemiology, and social sciences. His work demonstrates both theoretical rigor and practical relevance, often accompanied by open-source software implementations that make his methods accessible to applied researchers. Best paper award at SBE 2024 in Econometrics Royalty Research Fund (RRF) Award recipient NSF/MMS research support As an advisor, Cinelli has successfully guided PhD students like Nick Irons to dissertation completion. He actively seeks new students with strong interests in causal inference. His research is supported by multiple funding sources including the National Science Foundation and the University of Washington's Royalty Research Fund. Cinelli contributes to the academic community through editorial work for the Journal of Causal Inference and by developing widely used software packages like sensemakr for sensitivity analysis.