We welcome all of our students and faculty (back) to campus. As we start the new academic year, many exciting things are happening!
New Faculty
CIS welcomes Joel Ramirez to our teaching faculty. Joel did his degree at Stanford, where he taught courses in computer systems and in probability. This semester he will be part of the CIS 2400 and 1100 teaching teams.
Stay tuned for announcements for two additional faculty who will be starting in Fall 2025! Penn continues to build amazing momentum, with more than 25 faculty hires in the past 6 years!
New Spaces and Infrastructure for Data Science and Engineering
Construction on Amy Gutmann Hall is being finalized this semester, with anticipated move-in mid- to late-Fall. This amazing new space (oriented around collaboration and data science) brings new teaching labs, study areas, meeting rooms, classrooms, and more. Among other entities, the Warren Center for Network and Data Science, ASSET Center for Safe, Explainable, and Trustworthy AI, and IDEAS Initiative will be homed here. Amy Gutmann Hall’s launch will also promote connections between data science problems and the experts and trainees in Engineering — please stay tuned for more announcements about new centers.
Penn is also launching a major new initiative called PARCC, the Penn Advanced Research Computing Center, dedicated to providing GPU and CPU resources to the campus. This effort has been guided by a computing committee including Rene Vidal from Penn Engineering. Dr. Ken Chaney joins as the Associate Director of PARCC, and a national search is ongoing for a Senior IT Director.
New Research Centers and Initiatives
ARPA-H has awarded $6.85M to a Penn team led by Rajeev Alur, for Safe and Explainable AI-Enabled Decision Making for Personalized Treatment. This project develops new strategies leveraging artificial intelligence for medicine, providing safety guarantees.
Ben Lee, Benjamin Pierce, Linh Phan, and Vincent Liu form the Penn subteam from Carbon Connect, a new multi-institutional center. This Center is focused on developing new standards and strategies for measuring and improving data center energy consumption — a huge issue in the era of AI. Carbon Connect’s lead is David Brooks of Harvard; other collaborating institutions include CalTech, CMU, Cornell, Ohio State, and Yale.
Sebastian Angel is Co-PI in a multi-institutional center on Learning Directed Operating Systems, led by Aditya Akella and Chris Rossbach at UT Austin. This project leverages Artificial Intelligence to improve the performance, security, and functionality of the entire operating systems stack. Other collaborating institutions include UIUC and Wisconsin-Madison
Zack Ives, Jake Gardner, Yoseph Barash, and Sharath Guntuku are the AI Leads in the AIRFoundry, a new AI-Driven RNA Foundry for discovering, developing, and synthesizing new RNA molecules for therapeutic and biomedical applications. The overall team is led by Daeyeon Li (Penn CBE), and also includes David Issadore (Penn BE), Drew Weissman (Penn Immunology), and Claribel Acevedo-Velez of U Puerto Rico. Drexel University and InfiniFluidics are also collaborating institutions.
A Penn team comprising André DeHon, Jonathan Smith, and Jing Li has is tackling end-to-end systems security through a new $13.5M DARPA project. The team’s expertise spans memory systems, in-processor hardware tagging of data, operating systems, and networking.
Launch of the Bachelor’s Degree in Artificial Intelligence
Fall 2024 marks the launch of Penn’s Raj and Neera Singh Program in Artificial Intelligence, the first Artificial Intelligence Bachelor’s degree in the Ivy League. This program is administered jointly between the CIS and ESE Departments at Penn, and it is directed by George Pappas. At the start of the semester we have 35 students, with many others expressing interest. Numerous new courses are under development or launch, including CIS 2450 (Big Data Analtyics) and ESE 2030 (Linear Algebra with Applications this semester.
Department (and School) Leadership Updates
Joe Devietti (right side in the photo, accepting the Ford Motor Company Award for Faculty Advising) has agreed to extend his term as the CIS Undergraduate Chair through the 2024-25 academic year. Joe has made many invaluable innovations in our undergrad academic programs, infrastructure, and student mentoring and support processes.
After four years as CIS Graduate Group Chair, Mayur Naik is stepping down to focus on his research in Safe AI, neurosymbolic reasoning, and Large Language Models. Mayur has been an incredible advocate and source of support for our students. Under his oversight, the Department completely revamped our PhD requirements to be more flexible and to allow for more early focus on research.
Anindya De, an expert in theoretical computer science, has taken the mantle as our next Grad Chair. Anindya brings a student-first perspective, and he especially hopes to innovate in helping our PhD students develop the skills they need to excel upon graduation.
At the School level, Boon Thau Loo has been promoted to Senior Associate Dean for Education and Global Initiatives. This new role recognizes Penn Engineering (and CIS’) expanded efforts to engage students and alumni internationally, as well as our expanded efforts in online teaching and entrepreneurship.
Finally, also at the School level, George Pappas has taken on the role of Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, where he oversees many efforts revolving around centers, strategic initiatives, commercialization, and more.
These highlights are a small sample of the activities going on across our vibrant campus! Looking forward to an amazing 2024-25 academic year!