Dean's Dispatch: Sept. 14, 2026
Dear GT Computing community,
I hope everyone’s semester is off to a great start, with three weeks behind us now.
September Events
I would like to offer special thanks to the leaders in our College who have made the case within their respective communities for bringing major external events to Atlanta. You heard earlier about the ACM AI Leadership Summit, held during August 31 – September 2. It was a tremendous success, and I look forward to Georgia Tech’s participation and leadership in the many follow-on activities it has already begun to inspire. Stay tuned for a more detailed summary.
We are also delighted to welcome the CMD-IT/ACM Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing Conference to Atlanta this week. I had the privilege of knowing Richard Tapia as a colleague during my time at Rice University, which makes this occasion especially meaningful to me. It will also be an honor for me to offer a few words of welcome when the main conference begins at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
I hope that you got the chance to watch President Cabrera’s Institute Address on September 3 – if not, it’s available online. It was both inspirational and emotional, and provided a valuable view on what the university has achieved in recent years and how we are situated moving forward.
I also hope that you were able to attend the talk by Nova Ahmed (CS Ph.D. 2010) today on her creation of low-technology solutions for marginalized communities in her home country of Bangladesh. Nova is a leader in computing for good, and I am sure that her audience would have learned a lot from her talk. Many thanks to the OMSCS team for inviting Nova to visit us as part of the ACM Distinguished Speaker Program (see email below for details).
GT Computing legends
Joe and Dottie Putnal, Phil Enslow’s daughter and son-in-law, will visit campus tomorrow on Tuesday. We have scheduled a get-together with Joe and Dottie during 11:00–11:45 a.m. in CCB 346. I encourage faculty and staff to stop by to talk to them, especially those who knew Phil personally. I am sure that they would love to hear your memories of Phil. As many of you are aware, Phil was very much a legend in our College and our preceding School of Information and Computer Science (ICS). He joined ICS in 1975, where he helped build the Georgia Tech's expertise in computer systems, distributed computing, networking, and telecommunications. Phil’s family has established a graduate fellowship in his memory, which is one way in which his legacy will continue in our College.
Speaking of legends, we also have two important retirement celebrations coming up.
David White retired this summer, after 22 years in the College of Computing. David's connection with our College started with his graduating with an MS-HCI degree in 2003. Since then, he has held multiple leadership roles in the College that have spanned Academic Advising, the OMSCS program, and our Graduate Programs. We will celebrate (i.e., toast and roast) David with a lunch get-together during 11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. on September 30, in room 180 of the Dalney Street Building. It will be great to see many of you there, especially those of us who knew David well.
Also, and it's hard to believe that this day is coming soon, Rich DeMillo is officially retiring in December. Rich is a legend who has shaped the computing discipline over a five-decade career during which he has served at the highest levels of industry, government, and academia, with a passion for exploring what needs to change and how we can change it. We will honor him with a day-long celebration on October 21. The program includes a morning panel with distinguished guests who will discuss Rich’s most impactful research accomplishments and his lasting contributions to the College of Computing and Georgia Tech. Rich will also deliver a lecture at 1 p.m. The program will conclude with an opportunity for attendees to share their experiences working with Rich during his long and distinguished career. It’s hard to overstate how much Rich has done to shape our College. During his term as Dean, he launched three schools, seven degree programs, three international programs, and two research centers. And that is just one slice of his remarkable career. See links below for more details. I encourage you to register and attend.
Kudos
Finally, and as always, I have good news to share from our community:
- The NSF has renewed the grant supporting the National AI Institute for Adult Learning and Online Education (AI-ALOE). That means the center has financial support for another five years of research into AI and education. Congratulations to Ashok Goel, the center’s executive director, and to the whole team -- you are doing work that will change lives! My understanding is that only 6 of the 11 AI Institutes up for renewal this year received renewals. And two of the six - AI-ALOE and AI-OPT - are led by Georgia Tech.
- Jim Foley (IC emeritus) was awarded the SIGGRAPH Distinguished Educator Award for 2026. The award recognizes those who have made impactful contributions to computer graphics in educational environments. Jim could not be more deserving, as author of the foundational textbook on the subject (I recall studying from it in graduate school!) and the founder of the Graphics, Visualization, and Usability Center at Tech. Congratulations, Jim, and thank you for your longstanding leadership in the Graphics community, and for all that you have done for the College!
- Kuldeep Meel (CS) and his team, including Jiong Yang (Ph.D. CS), won multiple tracks in the model competition at the 2026 Federated Logic Conference (FLoC) Olympics. The team also won the “Most Competitive Solver over the Last Six Years” award. Congrats to Kuldeep, Jiong, and their teammates, and thank you for putting Georgia Tech ahead of the pack!
- Kishore Ramachandran and his former Ph.D. students – Enrique Saurez, Kirak Hong, Dave Lillethun, and Beate Ottenwälder — received the 10-Year Test of Time Award at the 20th ACM International Conference on Distributed and Event-Based Systems (DEBS 2026) in July. They were recognized for their 2016 paper, Incremental Deployment and Migration of Geo-distributed Situation Awareness Applications in the Fog. Saurez, now a researcher at Microsoft, was the lead author of the paper. Congratulations to all, and thank you for your leadership in the field!
- We profiled two alumni recently, both with interesting stories. Christian Doetsch (CS 2013) is now the Vice President of Technology for VinoBarrel, a company that builds technologically enabled wine dispensers. Russ Holt (BS ICS 1983) rose to the position of Vice President and General Manager of the Systems division at Dell, then left to work for his church (where his tech knowledge is surprisingly relevant). Both are great examples of leveraging computing expertise in domains beyond the tech industry!
- I mentioned our College’s 5K walk/run in my last Dispatch. Today, I want to take a moment to recognize Troy Peace, our Director of Community and Student Engagement, for the hard work he put in organizing a great event. Thank you for your service to our students and the rest of our community, Troy!
That’s all I have for this week. As the semester settles in, I hope all of you are making new connections with your students, your colleagues, and ideas that inspire you. Talk to you soon.
Best regards,
Vivek
Vivek Sarkar
John P. Imlay, Jr. Dean, College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Email address for all matters related to the College: coc-dean-team@cc.gatech.edu