Dean's Dispatch: May 6, 2026

Dear GT Computing community, 

The final days of instruction concluded last week, and we are now working on the final push this week through grading and onward to our three Commencement ceremonies. Thanks to all faculty, staff, and students for all your hard work this semester!

We had some great news last week – Time released a list of the 10 most influential software companies in the world for 2026, and two of them are cybersecurity companies founded by College of Computing alumni and faculty! Pindrop was founded by Vijay Balasubramaniyan (Ph.D. CS ‘11), Paul Judge (Ph.D. CS ‘02), and our very own Mustaque Ahamad (SCP). CrowdStrike was founded by Dmitri Alperovich (CS ‘01, MS InfoSec ‘03). Their accomplishments highlight the excellence of our College in education and entrepreneurship -- we are all bursting with pride at this news!

We also held our Spring 2026 Advisory Board meeting on April 23-24. Many thanks to all the faculty, staff, and student participants in this meeting, which was themed "GT Computing at the leading edge of AI Innovation”. Our Advisory Board’s care, support, and engagement mean a lot to all of us in the College. It was especially stimulating to hear of multiple real-world AI trends from our AB members. Their input will inspire many future initiatives in our College.  We welcome their continued engagement and suggestions as we continue to move forward. See below for an animated GIF with our AB members cheering us on!

Thanks to all for the great turnout at the Annual College of Computing Awards ceremony on April 20. It was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our entire community, and to honor this year's award recipients whose names are listed here. See below for a photo of many of the award winners, and congratulations to all! 

As Dean, I have the honor of selecting winners for the following three special awards, which I did after consulting with various leaders in the College, and announced during the ceremony:

1) James D. Lester III Endowment Award -- congratulations to Santosh Vempala on receiving this award!

2) Dean’s Access and Advancement Award -- congratulations to Tamara Pearson on receiving this award!

3) Dean's Award. This award is presented to faculty or staff in the College showing exceptional levels of performance and achievement that align with one of the primary areas of strategic focus of the College.

I find the selection for this award especially challenging given the number of you who contribute to the College in so many ways. Just like last year, I was pleased to announce separate awards in the faculty and staff categories.

First, congratulations to Jason Zwang for receiving the Dean's Award in the staff category!

Second, as you may recall, my focus of last year's Dean's Award for faculty was on those who led our College in AI for 10+ years. This year, my focus was on those who have led the College in teaching large classes. There are many faculty members who have done so, and we are deeply indebted to all of them. It was a pleasure to recognize everyone in the room who taught classes with more than 100, 200, and 300 students. For the award, I decided to select all faculty members who have taught two or more on-campus classes with 300+ students. Congratulations to the following for receiving the Dean's Award in the faculty category: Tom Conte, Beki Grinter, Ronnie Howard, Melinda McDaniel, Keith McGreggor, Aibek Musaev, Kishore Ramachandran, Mark Riedl, Max Roozbahani, Cedric Stallworth, and Clint Zeagler!

Finally, the end of the academic year has brought with it a wave of good news from our community: 

• Santosh Vempala (SCS) has an upcoming article in Nature titled “Evaluating Large Language Models for Accuracy Incentivizes Hallucinations,” with co-authors Adam Taufman, Ofir Nachum and Edwin Zhang, all from OpenAI. A preview of the article is available here. Congratulations on such a significant publication, Santosh, and thank you for your foundational work on understanding the reliability of LLMs!
• Moin Qureshi (SCS) and his fellow researchers recently received a Test of Time Award from the International Symposium for Computer Architecture (ISCA) for their 2007 paper, “Adaptive insertion policies for high-performance caching.” Congratulations, Moin, and thank you for the long impact of your research!
• Cindy Lin (IC) and MS student Tanmaie Kailash won a best paper award at CHI 2026 for their article, “Localized Imaginaries, Global Assets: Sociotechnical Imaginaries and the Assetization of Data Centers in Singapore.” Congratulations to Cindy and Tanmaie, and thank you for your intellectual leadership. 
• A Best Paper Award from the Latin American Theoretical Informatics (LATIN) conference went to David Gillman (Assoc. Prof, Computer Science, New College of Florida – on sabbatical at GT last year), Jacob Platnick (Ph.D. ACO) and Dana Randall (SCS). Congratulations to all, and thank you for your intellectual leadership!
• Alex Adams (IC) and his family were recently featured in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article where Alex talked about his recent invention of an app that turns a smartphone into a fetal heart monitor. Congratulations, Alex, and thank you for research that will have a broad impact on many families!
• Nimisha Roy (SCI) has been appointed by the ACM Education Board leadership to represent ACM on a panel of 24 experts tasked with defining K–20 computer science education in the age of AI. The panel is jointly convened by ACM, CRA, CSTA, and partner organizations. Congratulations, Nimisha, and thank you for sharing your education leadership with the field!
• Naveena Karusala (IC) was interviewed for an article in the Vallejo Times-Herald about the role of AI in therapy, in light of increasing concerns about AI replacing workers in this domain. She was also interviewed by 11Alive about her research on menopause and digital health in urban Pakistan, conducted with MS-HCI student Umme Ammara. Thank you for sharing your expertise and insights with the public, Naveena!
• Jon Lindsay (SCP) wrote an opinion piece about the cyberwar with Iran in the New York Times. Congratulations, Jon, and thank you for shedding light on this important aspect of the ongoing geopolitical conflict!
• Amy Bruckman (IC) and Matthew Gombolay(IC) spoke at a TedX event at the Weber School in Roswell with the theme “Ideas Worth Spreading.” Thank you for sharing your expertise with our local communities (and online communities), Amy and Matthew!
• Mark Riedl (IC) was quoted in an article in The Verge titled, “You’re About to Feel the AI Money Squeeze.” Thank you for sharing your expertise with the public, Mark!
• Peter Swire (SCP) has also been in the media lately. He was quoted in a Scientific American article, “What is Mythos, Anthropic’s unreleased AI model, and how worried should we be?” He was also quoted in the Washington Post in a story titled, “Anthropic CEO Visits White House amid hacking fears over new AI model.” Congratulations, Peter, and thank you for sharing your knowledge with the public!
• Ahmed Saeed (SCS) was interviewed by Radio France International on the topic: "Big data, big cata: enquête sur l'empreinte écologique des data centers" (Big Data, Big Catastrophe: Investigation into the Ecological Footprint of Data Centers). Thank you for contributing to our international reputation, Ahmed!
• Arianna Mastali (Ph.D. IC) has built an enrichment system for the elephants at the Atlanta Zoo. I encourage you to watch this video of the elephants interacting with her creation!

That's all for this dispatch, and it is plenty. Wishing everyone a wonderful week of end-of-semester activities!

Best regards,

Vivek

PS — As a reminder, please feel free to email coc-dean-team@cc.gatech.edu for any matter related to the college. This email address is also included at the bottom of each dispatch.