Dean's Dispatch: May 28, 2026

Dear GT Computing Community, 

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day Weekend. It feels like summer has truly begun now that we are past Commencement and already at the end of May. 

Commencement

It was a delight to attend our three Commencement ceremonies for Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Ph.D. graduates. The joy and pride on the faces of our graduates were matched only by those of the families and friends who supported them along the way. I especially enjoyed meeting many of them during the Dean’s Send-Off Celebration for New Alumni.

As noted in the Provost’s recent message of gratitude, Georgia Tech awarded 7,129 degrees during the Spring 2026 commencement exercises. I am proud to share that the College of Computing directly contributed more than 36% of these degrees (858 BSCS, 543 On-campus MS, 1,182 Online MS, and 26 PhD). In addition, we contributed to 53 CM and 173 CE interdisciplinary degrees in partnership with other colleges, representing another 3% of the Institute’s total degrees awarded. I experienced the scale of this achievement firsthand while having the privilege of shaking the hand of every B.S. and M.S. graduate from our College during the Commencement ceremonies!

I would like to add my gratitude to that expressed by the Provost. Contributing to well over a third of Georgia Tech’s degrees reflects years of extraordinary dedication and teamwork by our faculty, staff, and students serving in TA roles. It is a remarkable accomplishment and a well-deserved point of pride for our College.

Speaking of teamwork, I am especially proud of the staff members who have organized the College of Computing Master’s Commencement ceremony each semester since Fall 2024. This spring marked the fourth ceremony organized by our College, and everything ran flawlessly. Please see below for a couple of photos taken after the ceremony, and be sure to thank the staff members featured in the group photo for their outstanding work!

New Endowed Professorship

As I have shared before, one of my key goals as Dean is to increase the number of endowed chairs and professorships in our College. I would like to thank Jason Zwang, our College’s Senior Director of Development, and his entire team, for their outstanding efforts in advancing this important priority.

As announced earlier, we secured a significant gift from our distinguished alumnus, Githesh Ramamurthy (M.S. ICS 1983). This generous donation is establishing a new endowment that will eventually support two professorships in AI. Mark Riedl (IC) is the recipient of the first professorship, while the second will be awarded in the coming years.

I am now pleased to announce that we have secured another generous gift from JPMorgan Chase to establish the JPMorgan Chase Endowed Career Development Professorship. This new endowed fund will support pre-tenure faculty members, with preference given to those whose work advances AI research at the intersection of technology and finance. As with other term professorships for pre-tenure faculty in our College, this award will rotate among faculty members every two or three years. I am deeply grateful to everyone at JPMorgan Chase who helped make this gift possible, including Manuela Veloso and Tucker Balch, who strongly advocated for our College within their organization.

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Vassilis Zikas (SCP) has been named the inaugural recipient of the JPMorgan Chase Endowed Career Development Professorship. Vassilis is an internationally recognized scholar whose groundbreaking contributions span blockchain protocols, cryptoeconomics, and decentralized finance. Vassilis, congratulations on this well-deserved recognition and on your outstanding intellectual leadership!

Kudos

Finally, we have amazing news from our community, as always: 

• Santosh Vempala (CS) was named Regents’ Professor, which is the highest honor USG has for faculty. Srinivas Aluru(CSE) also had his Regents’ Professorship renewed. Congratulations to both for the decades of truly impressive work that they have done to earn this well-deserved title!
• The 4th annual OMSCS Conference took place on May 11–12 at the Global Learning Center. With approximately 150 in-person attendees and 60 virtual participants, the conference brought together students, alumni, faculty, and staff to share their work, exchange ideas, and strengthen connections across the OMSCS community. Highlights included a keynote address by Barbara Oakley; a fireside chat featuring David Joyner and myself; a panel focused on women in OMSCS; a faculty research showcase; and a virtual TA meet-and-greet. Congratulations to the organizers on reinforcing our strong commitment to supporting our OMS students and alumni as valued and fully engaged members of the College of Computing community! Check out the full conference program, as well as photos from the event.
• Ahmed Saeed (CS) has received an NSF CAREER Award for his proposal, “Integrated Load and Resource Management for High-Utilization Data Centers.” The NSF CAREER Award is the most prestigious award the NSF gives to early-career investigators. Congratulations, Ahmed, and thank you for your intellectual leadership!
• Ahmed Saeed (CS) and Josiah Hester (IC) wrote an editorial for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the need for clear information and careful planning to integrate data centers into the Georgia grid. Thank you for addressing an incredibly important issue using your technical expertise!
• NBC News ran a story featuring an AI hackathon held at Georgia Tech, discussing the effects of AI on computing majors’ prospects, and concluding that AI still needs humans to work. Fisayo Omojokun (SCI) provided the big picture for the piece. Likewise, CNN did a story on college graduates facing careers in the tech industry, also with an interview with Fisayo. The story concluded that computing graduates who are well-educated and adaptable, i.e., our graduates :), will still have impressive careers! Thanks to all who were involved in both stories— the demise of the computing major is vastly exaggerated, and this is an important message to share with the public and one that we will continue to reinforce!
• The MS-HCI program has received the 2026 Board of Regents Teaching Award for Department or Program. Congratulations to Dick Henneman (IC), MS-HCI director,  and to Carrie Bruce, assistant director, for your tireless work to offer the best program possible! Whenever I meet an MS-HCI graduate in an alumni meetup, I am impressed by the passion that they have for their experience at Georgia Tech and their close bond among students in their​ MS-HCI cohort.

Hope you have a good rest of the week, and enjoy the current quiet spell on campus. 

Best regards,

Vivek

Ahmed Saeed and Josiah Hester in the AJC: https://www.ajc.com/opinion/2026/05/georgias-data-center-boom-requires-a-strategy-not-just-hoping-for-the-best/  

NBC News on the computing major: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3NGtWZTGGg  

CNN on the computing major: https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/19/world/video/graduates-lynda-kinkade-dnt-fst-051902a-seg1-cnni-world-fast  

MS-HCI received 2026 Teaching Award: https://www.cc.gatech.edu/news/mshci-receives-board-regents-award-best-department-or-program 

Email address for all matters related to the college: coc-dean-team@cc.gatech.edu