Greg Durrett is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at University of Texas at Austin, leading the TAUR Lab (Text Analysis, Understanding, and Reasoning ). His research focuses on advancing Large Language Models (LLMs) for knowledge-intensive tasks in medical information processing scientific discovery legal reasoning . He received his B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics from MIT (2010) and Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley (2016). His work develops techniques to train LLMs with new capabilities augment models for reliability assess model outputs improve reasoning frameworks . His 15 most recent publications (2021-2025) span knowledge propagation in LLMs chain-of-thought reasoning code generation benchmarks multi-modal reasoning fact verification discourse analysis . Scientific honors include NSF CAREER Award (2024) NSF grants (2018, 2024) Bloomberg Data Science Grant (2017) Facebook Fellowship (2014) Best Paper Finalist (EMNLP 2013) . Teaching: CS388: Natural Language Processing (graduate) CS371N: NLP (undergraduate) High school NLP module .
Tanzeem Choudhury is a Professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, specializing in Information Sciences. She co-founded HealthRhythms Inc. and directs the People-Aware Computing lab, focusing on machine learning for human activity and social network analysis. Her work pioneered the 'Reality Mining' field, leveraging mobile sensors to model social interactions. Choudhury holds a Ph.D. from MIT's Media Lab and B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester. Her research spans wearable tech, mental health interventions, and ubiquitous computing. Notable projects include affective touch wearables for anxiety reduction, stress detection systems (e.g., StressSense), and the BeWell app for well-being monitoring. Choudhury has been recognized as an ACM Fellow and SIGCHI Academy member, with impactful contributions to healthcare technology and sensor-based behavioral analysis. Current lab initiatives include developing closed-loop interventions for mental health, equity-driven sensing systems, and exploring AI integration in psychotherapy. She advises PhD students on topics like digital biomarkers, burnout detection in healthcare workers, and smartphone-based mental health assessment. Education: Ph.D. in Media Arts & Sciences (MIT), M.S. (MIT Media Lab), B.S. in Electrical Engineering (University of Rochester) Lab Team: Includes PhD candidates (Dan Adler, Yiran Zhao) and researchers focusing on health AI, wearable devices, and clinical applications. Major Awards: ACM Fellowship (2020), SIGCHI Academy (2018), Best Paper Awards at Ubicomp and MobileHCI conferences. Key Projects: OptoBeat (skin-tone calibrated blood oxygen sensor), EmotionCheck (anxiety intervention), and Affective Touch devices.
Hanjie Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rice University, affiliated with the Ken Kennedy Institute. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and a Master's from the University of Science and Technology of China. Her research focuses on Natural Language Processing, Interpretable Machine Learning, and Trustworthy AI, emphasizing model explainability, alignment with human needs, and applications in healthcare, sports, and medicine. She has advised numerous students and led initiatives in AI ethics and education. Education: Ph.D. (Computer Science, UVA 2023), M.Sc. (USTC 2018), B.Sc. (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics 2015). Awards include the Outstanding Doctoral Student Award (UVA 2023) and John A. Stankovic Research Award (UVA 2023). She has organized workshops like BlackboxNLP and served on program committees for ACL, NAACL, and EMNLP. Her recent work includes developing benchmarks like SPORTU for multimodal LLMs, evaluating medical question-answering systems, and advancing methods for robust rationale evaluation (RORA). She teaches courses on Natural Language Processing and Trustworthy NLP, emphasizing pedagogical innovation recognized by teaching awards at UVA. Research collaborations include internships at Microsoft Research, IBM, and the Allen Institute for AI. She mentors students in SURF programs and advocates for diversity in tech, serving as a mentor in UVA's CSGSG Council.
Tal Malkin is a Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, directing the Cryptography Lab and serving as inaugural chair of the Cybersecurity Center at Columbia's Data Science Institute. She holds a Ph.D. from MIT (2000), joined Columbia after AT&T Labs research experience, and focuses on cryptography, security, complexity theory with applications in secure computation, zero-knowledge proofs, and privacy-preserving systems . Education: B.S. in Math and Computer Science, Bar-Ilan University M.S. in Computer Science, Weizmann Institute of Science Ph.D. in Computer Science, MIT (2000) Research Interests: Malkin's work spans foundational and applied cryptography, including homomorphic encryption, lattice-based protocols, attribute-based encryption, and tamper-resilient systems . She explores intersections with machine learning and information theory , addressing challenges in multi-party computation , public-key encryption , and side-channel resistance . Scientific Contributions: Her publications include breakthroughs in non-malleable codes , secure computation , and privacy-preserving databases . Notable works involve continual leakage resilience , optimally-fair coin tossing , and garbled circuits for efficient cryptographic protocols. Awards & Grants: Recipient of the NSF CAREER award, IBM and Google faculty research awards, and the IACR Fellow designation. Her research is funded by NSF, NSA, DHS, NYSIA, IARPA, and industry partnerships with Google, IBM, Mitsubishi, and NEC. Professional Leadership: Former conference chairs at CRYPTO 2021 , CCS 2017 , and CT-RSA conferences. Active in program committees for over 20 leading cryptography and security events, including FOCS , Eurocrypt , and Real World Crypto . Advising: Supervised numerous Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers, including Marshall Ball , Chengyu Lin , and Negev Shekhel Nosatzki . Her lab has mentored graduates like Ghada Almashaqbeh (2019) and Fernando Krell (2016), focusing on decentralized networks , secure learning , and cryptographic primitives .
Osbert Bastani is an Associate Professor at the Department of Computer and Information Science, University of Pennsylvania, leading the trustml@Penn research group. He is affiliated with the ASSET , PRECISE , and PRiML centers, and the PLClub research group. His research focuses on Trustworthy Neurosymbolic Systems , Synthesizing Neurosymbolic Programs , and Machine Learning for Programmer Productivity , with applications in verification, fairness, and human-AI collaboration. He received the NSF CAREER Award in 2023. His recent publications (2024-2025) emphasize AI Safety , LLM Robustness , and Algorithmic Fairness , including work on adversarial robustness, conformal prediction, and program synthesis. Students he has advised include Sagnik Anupam, Stephen Mell, Jason Ma, Shuo Li, and others. Awards: NSF CAREER Award (2023)
Daniel Krutz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Software Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) , with a secondary appointment as Courtesy Associate Professor at the University of Florida's Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering. He directs the AWARE Lab , focusing on Autonomous Systems, Warfare Applications, and Software Engineering , supported by $6M+ in federal grants from NSF, NSA, DOD, and AFRL. His research spans AI/ML, Self-Adaptive Systems, Decision Support Systems, and Accessibility in Computing Education . He holds a PhD from Nova Southeastern University and has taught courses including Software Engineering Freshman Seminar and Capstone Research Project . He is an NSF CAREER Award recipient (2022) and former AFRL Fellow (2018). Educations: BS, St. John Fisher College MS, Rochester Institute of Technology PhD, Nova Southeastern University Labs: AWARE Lab (Autonomy, Warfare, and Engineering) Awards: NSF CAREER Award (2022) AFRL Research Faculty Fellowship (2018) Teaching: Undergraduate/Graduate courses in software engineering, accessibility, and AI/ML Research Interests: Focus on experiential learning in computing education, neuroevolutionary algorithms, and AI ethics. Recent projects address empathy-building interventions for inclusive software development and context-aware decision support systems . Grants & Funding: Over $6M secured since 2018 from NSF, DOD, and NSA for projects in AI/ML, cybersecurity, and adaptive systems. Current work explores AI-driven stock trading frameworks and accessibility education modules.
Bobak Mortazavi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Texas A&M University. His research focuses on medical analytics, machine learning, wearable sensors, and cyber-physical systems. He leads interdisciplinary projects in healthcare technology, including AI-driven diagnostics and predictive modeling for cardiovascular diseases. He has received notable awards such as the Best Demonstration Award at IEEE EMBS 2012 and the Best Paper Award at the Fourth International Conference on Data Analytics 2015. His work bridges machine learning with clinical applications, emphasizing practical solutions for healthcare challenges. Recent research includes developing AI tools for aortic stenosis detection, electrolyte estimation via ECG, and real-time patient monitoring systems. He collaborates with industry and academic partners to advance telemedicine and wearable health technologies. Key contributions include the SMART-LV project for smartphone-based cardiac diagnostics and the ArterialNet framework for blood pressure reconstruction using wearable sensors. His work is published in top journals like IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics and Elsevier's Pervasive and Mobile Computing.
Sham Kakade is the Rampell Family Professor of Computer Science and Professor of Statistics at Harvard University, co-director of the Kempner Institute. His research focuses on advancing artificial general intelligence through foundational work in reinforcement learning, large-scale learning systems, and autonomous agent architectures. He earned his PhD in 2003 from the Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit at University College London. His work emphasizes scalable optimization algorithms, distributed systems for foundation models, and understanding emergent capabilities in neural architectures. Research interests include full-stack training pipelines for foundation models, mathematical principles of large-scale learning systems, and bridging language models with embodied intelligence. He advises prospective students with backgrounds in applied deep learning or theoretical computer science, offering access to the Kempner Institute's computational resources. He serves on committees for the ACM Prize in Computing and Sloan Research Fellowships, co-organizes the Simons Symposium on Theoretical Machine Learning, and chaired COLT 2011. His lab works at the intersection of theory and practice, addressing challenges in AI's societal impact and technical scalability. Labs/Teams: Co-directs the Kempner Institute, fostering collaborations between AI researchers and social scientists. Active in Harvard's SEAS community.
Steven Jackson is a Professor of Information Science and Science and Technology Studies at Cornell University's Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, with additional graduate field appointments in Communication and Public Affairs. Since July 2023, he has served as Vice-Provost for Academic Innovation at Cornell, and previously held leadership positions as Chair of Information Science and Dean of William Keeton House. His work bridges academic research with significant institutional leadership in higher education innovation. Dr. Jackson's research focuses on critical intersections of technology, society, and the environment, with three primary strands: technology ethics, law and policy; maintenance, repair and sustainability; and technology, inequality and global development. His work draws from American pragmatism, political economy, and science and technology studies, integrating methods from sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and media studies. He is particularly interested in how computing practices meet social and material worlds, with implications for infrastructure, collaboration, sustainability, and cultural practice. His recent publications reveal a strong emphasis on repair as both theoretical concept and practical methodology, exploring 'ordinary hope' as a framework for technological engagement and examining unmaking as a necessary counterpart to design. The research spans diverse geographical contexts from the global North to South, addressing caste dynamics in computing, digital authoritarianism, and infrastructure challenges in developing contexts. Dr. Jackson has received significant recognition including an NSF CAREER award and more than twenty paper awards at leading computing and information science venues. His research has been supported by major organizations including the U.S. National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Ford Foundation, Sloan Foundation, World Bank, Intel Research, Atkinson Center for Sustainability, and the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council. As an advisor, Dr. Jackson has mentored numerous graduate students who have gone on to prominent positions at institutions worldwide. He currently advises Jen Liu, Amy Cheatle, Daniel Mwesigwa, Johan Michalove, and Ritik Batra, while his former students include Palashi Vaghela (Assistant Professor at Simon Fraser University), Samir Passi (Responsible AI Researcher at Microsoft), Maggie Jack (Assistant Professor at NYU), and Ranjit Singh (Senior Researcher at Data and Society). Dr. Jackson convenes the Computing On Earth Lab, an experimental collaboration bringing together social scientists, humanists, artists, and engineers to rethink the material and planetary foundations of computing. The lab reflects his commitment to interdisciplinary approaches that address computing's environmental impacts and sustainability challenges.
Hauke Smidt is a Personal Professor at Wageningen University & Research, affiliated with the Molecular Ecology group within the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences. His research focuses on microbial ecology, particularly gut microbiota dynamics, antibiotic resistance, environmental microbiology, and the One Health framework. Smidt has supervised over 50 PhD students and contributed to 519 publications, including studies on microbiome resilience, fermented food impacts, and bioremediation strategies. Education and affiliations include leadership roles in projects addressing antimicrobial resistance, pig health, and drinking water microbiology. His work spans collaborations across Europe and Asia, with notable contributions to understanding microbial community responses to environmental stressors and dietary interventions. Smidt is actively involved in public outreach, as seen in media contributions discussing microbiome research and health benefits. Key projects include aquifer treatment for drinking water, microbiome simulation models, and combating plant pathogens. His awards and recognition are not explicitly listed, but his extensive publication record and project leadership highlight significant academic impact.
Blase Ur is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Chicago, leading the UChicago SUPERgroup (Security, Usability, & Privacy Education & Research group). His research focuses on data-driven methods to improve online security, privacy, and usability of complex systems. He holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon University and an AB from Harvard University. Education: PhD in Societal Computing, Carnegie Mellon University (2016) AB in Computer Science, Harvard University Research Interests: Blase's work spans computer security, privacy, HCI, and ethical AI. He develops tools like password meters, privacy transparency systems, and IoT security solutions. His SUPERgroup emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration, with projects addressing data-driven decision-making and usability challenges in AI and IoT. Articles Trends: Recent work includes studies on ad transparency systems, user perceptions of privacy in AI, and barriers to passwordless authentication. Research often combines empirical user studies with technical implementations to bridge gaps between security mechanisms and user needs. Awards: NSF CAREER Award (2021) Quantrell Award for Teaching (2021) SIGCHI Outstanding Dissertation Award (2018) Advising & Grants: Advisor to PhD students like Kevin Bryson. Secured grants from NSF, Mozilla, and Meta. Active in outreach to broaden CS participation, including K-12 programs. Labs & Teams: Co-director of the SUPERgroup and affiliated with the Systems Group and CERES Center for Unstoppable Computing at UChicago.
Alane Suhr is an Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley's Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) department and a member of the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research Lab (BAIR). Her research focuses on natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and computer vision, emphasizing systems that interact with humans through language. She designs models and datasets for language grounding (e.g., NLVR) and develops algorithms for learning through interaction. Education: PhD in Computer Science, Cornell University (2022), advised by Yoav Artzi Bachelor's in Computer Science and Engineering, Ohio State University (2016), with a Linguistics minor Research Interests: Interactive systems for collaborative language use (e.g., CerealBar) Language grounding in multimodal contexts Embodied agents and reinforcement learning Generalization in NLP and the role of language in learning Key Contributions: Developed the NLVR dataset for visual reasoning with natural language Pioneered work on SWE-Gym for training software engineering agents Contributed to research on language models' sensitivity and commonsense reasoning Awards: ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award (2022) Outstanding Paper Awards at ACL 2023 and EMNLP 2021 Professional Activities: Organized workshops at ICML, NeurIPS, and ACL on topics like agents, generalization, and theory of mind Active in academic outreach and conference speaking (e.g., ICML, NeurIPS, CVPR) Labs/Teams: Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab SWE-Gym research group
Roberto Martin-Martin is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin, where he leads the Robot Interactive Intelligence (RobIN) Lab. His research bridges robotics, computer vision, and machine learning to enable robots to operate autonomously in human-centric environments like homes and offices. Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Stanford Vision and Learning Lab working with Fei-Fei Li and Silvio Savarese, and an AI Researcher at Salesforce AI. Education: Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Robotics from Technische Universität Berlin (TUB), advised by Professor Oliver Brock B.Sc. from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Dr. Martin-Martin's research focuses on developing AI algorithms that combine reinforcement learning and imitation learning with advanced planning and control to address core challenges in robot perception. His work spans mobile and whole-body manipulation, dexterous and contact-rich interactions, and long-horizon tasks in unstructured environments. He takes inspiration from human cognition through psychology and cognitive science to develop solutions for skills ranging from simple pick-and-place operations to complex tasks like cooking and furniture assembly. His recent publications demonstrate a strong trend toward enabling robots to learn from human demonstrations, particularly through video, and to safely adapt these demonstrations to their own morphology. There's significant emphasis on mobile manipulation, bimanual tasks, and developing hardware that supports robust robot learning through trial and error. His work shows increasing integration of large language models and vision-language models to enhance robot understanding and task execution. Scientific Awards: RSS Pioneer (2020) Winner of Amazon Picking Challenge (2015) RSS Best Systems Paper Award (2016) ICRA Best Paper Award IROS Best Mechanism Award Amazon Faculty Award AAAI Young Faculty IJCAI Early Faculty Nominated for Best Paper at IROS (2014, 2017) Dr. Martin-Martin advises PhD students including Arpit Bahety, who is working on mobile manipulation and learning. He serves as Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Mobile Manipulation and is a co-founder of QueerInRobotics. His research is supported by industry partnerships and academic funding sources that enable his lab to develop both hardware and software innovations in robotics. He directs the Robot Interactive Intelligence (RobIN) Lab at UT Austin, which takes a holistic approach to robot intelligence, developing both the hardware (like the BaRiFlex gripper) and software frameworks necessary for robots to learn from interaction. The lab's research addresses the full pipeline from perception to action, with particular emphasis on learning from human demonstrations, safe exploration, and adapting to novel objects and environments.
Mark Riedl is a Professor in the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing and Associate Director of the Georgia Tech Machine Learning Center (ML@GT). His research focuses on human-centered artificial intelligence, emphasizing the development of AI technologies that naturally interact with humans. Key areas include story understanding/generation, computational creativity, explainable AI, and ensuring AI safety. He holds affiliations with the GVU Center, Institute for People and Technology (IPaT), and Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM). His work is supported by NSF, DARPA, ONR, and industry partners like Google and Meta. Notable awards include the DARPA Young Faculty Award and NSF CAREER Award, plus three Pulitzer Prizes (collaborative with Roko M. Bask). Riedl's recent projects include STORY2GAME (AI-driven game design) and ethical AI frameworks addressing transparency and accountability. His research bridges theoretical advancements with practical applications in education, healthcare, and creative industries. Research interests span AI ethics, narrative systems, and AI's societal impact. He explores how AI can be made more transparent through explainable mechanisms while maintaining creativity and safety. Collaborations with Roko Bask on futuristic culinary trends have produced influential works. His labs and teams focus on interdisciplinary approaches, combining computer science with social sciences to shape responsible AI development. Key grants and projects include NSF-funded initiatives on AI in education and DARPA-supported work on AI safety. His contributions to explainable AI challenge traditional XAI paradigms, advocating for human-centered approaches that prioritize user understanding and ethical implications. Current efforts emphasize adapting LLMs for world modeling and enhancing RL agents with causal reasoning capabilities.
Alexei A. Efros is a Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) at UC Berkeley, where he holds the Howard Friesen Professorship and is affiliated with the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab. He previously served on the faculty at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oxford. His research spans data-driven computer vision, self-supervised learning, computational photography, and applications to computer graphics and robotics. His research interests include: Data-Driven Computer Vision Self-Supervised and Unsupervised Learning Generative Models and Image Synthesis Visual Representation Learning Applications in Robotics and Human-Computer Interaction Intersections with Human Vision and the Humanities The recent publications highlight a strong trend toward self-supervised learning, visual reasoning, and generative modeling, particularly diffusion models and 3D scene understanding. His work increasingly bridges computer vision with language, robotics, and cognitive science, emphasizing interpretability and real-world applicability. There is a clear focus on leveraging unlabeled data and developing methods for robust, generalizable AI systems. His scientific awards and recognitions include: Berkeley Fellowship Google Fellowship Soros Fellowship NSF Fellowship SIGGRAPH Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award Facebook Fellowship Adobe Fellowship CMU School of Computer Science Distinguished Dissertation Award ACM Doctoral Dissertation Honorable Mention Alexei Efros has advised numerous PhD students and postdocs, many of whom have gone on to faculty positions at top institutions including CMU, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, NYU, and Georgia Tech. His lab has received research funding from major tech companies and federal agencies, though specific grants are not detailed in the text. He teaches core computer vision and machine learning courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels at UC Berkeley. His research group is highly active, with ongoing projects in 3D perception, generative modeling, and vision-language systems. He leads a vibrant research lab at UC Berkeley, part of the BAIR consortium, collaborating with leading researchers such as Jitendra Malik, Trevor Darrell, Pieter Abbeel, and Angjoo Kanazawa. His lab fosters strong interdisciplinary connections with institutions worldwide, including Oxford, INRIA, and École Normale Supérieure.
