Jay Pujara

Jay Pujara is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Southern California (USC), affiliated with the Viterbi School of Engineering and the Information Sciences Institute (ISI). He directs the Center on Knowledge Graphs and leads research in artificial intelligence, specializing in knowledge graph construction, scalable machine learning, and probabilistic models.

Education: PhD in Computer Science (University of Maryland, 2016), MS and BS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University (2005 and 2004), with minors in Robotics, Mathematical Sciences, and Logic & Computation.

Research Interests: His work focuses on probabilistic models for dynamic data, knowledge graph construction, entity resolution, and applications in NLP and social network analysis. He emphasizes scalable algorithms and real-world impact in domains like finance, climate science, and healthcare.

Awards: Includes the SWSA Ten-Year Award (2023), Best Paper Awards at IUI 2019 and ISWC 2013, and grants totaling over $9M from DARPA, NSF, and industry partners.

Grants & Mentorship: Principal Investigator on projects like "Artificial Domain-Understanding and Collaborative Agency" (DARPA) and "Explainable and Robust AI Agents" (NSF). Mentored over 50 students in PhD, MS, and undergraduate programs, focusing on knowledge graphs, NLP, and machine learning.

Labs & Teams: Leads ISI’s Knowledge Graph and Neurosymbolic AI teams, coordinating the Open Knowledge Network (OKN) and tools like KGTK. Active in academic service, including roles on PhD admissions committees and ISI’s Space Management Committee.