Dean's Dispatch – September 1, 2026

Dear GT Computing community,

Welcome to Week 2 of the Fall 2026 semester! I hope everyone is enjoying the energy of the new academic year and looking forward to a well-deserved respite over the Labor Day weekend. Speaking of energy, I was delighted to see so many of you at the annual College of Computing 5K Community Walk/Run last Saturday morning. Congratulations to the winners and to everyone who participated. A special thank-you to the staff members who helped make it all possible: Natasha Carter, Ann Claycombe, Paul Fowler, Anitra Hill, Mechelle Kitchings, Anthony McCoy, Tiana Person, Kelly Rockwell, Danyelle Story, and LaJuana Whitner-Bason. I would also like to thank our student volunteers: Tolani Adedipe, Ronnie Currie, Jonathan Gil, Hanxiang Hao, and Donald Williams. Your hard work and dedication were essential to making the event safe, welcoming, and enjoyable for everyone.

 

The ACM AI Leadership Summit also kicked off on Sunday with the Doctoral Symposium for Future Leaders, followed by an evening reception hosted by Georgia Tech on the Coda rooftop. It was wonderful to see so many students and faculty colleagues from institutions around the world come together for this special event. It was equally heartwarming to see our own faculty, students, and staff serve as gracious hosts and help create an experience I am sure will be memorable for everyone who attended. On the staff side, I especially thank Shelli Hatcher, Vanessa Thraen, Ladonna Cherry, and Tonya Peoples for all their hard work behind the scenes in preparing for the reception and making it such a tremendous success.

 

We are now on Day 2 of the Summit, with several sessions already concluded on topics ranging from Rethinking the Future of AI and AI and Scientific Discovery to AI Governance and AI and the Creative Arts. The Summit has been a stimulating and energizing experience thus far, bringing together a wide range of perspectives on some of the most consequential questions surrounding AI today. I will share a more complete reflection on the Summit in next week’s dispatch, including the breadth of participation and the many leadership roles our College faculty and students have taken on throughout the event.

 

I would like to focus the rest of this dispatch on all the good news from our community, including items that I couldn’t fit in last week:

  • We’ve recently published two staff profiles, and I recommend that you take a look at both. In Mary Helen Hayes’s profile, the director of research operations for SCP, she discusses her organization, her knack for unifying people, and the MBA she’s pursuing. In a separate profile, Gwendolyn Kearney, faculty support coordinator for IC, discusses meeting grant deadlines and her love of Georgia. Mary Helen and Gwen, thanks for your hard work and community spirit! As I have said multiple times, the dedication of our College staff is a key part of what enables all our accomplishments, and I look forward to highlighting more staff profiles in the future.
  • I would also like to share a leadership change in Computational Science and Engineering: Polo Chau is succeeding Edmond Chow as associate chair. Thank you for your outstanding service, Edmond, and many thanks to Polo for stepping into this important leadership role for CSE, our College, and our Institute!
  • Another announcement is that Nimisha Roy (SCI) has been named the director of online undergraduate initiatives, a new role created to advance online undergraduate programs and broaden access to computing at Tech. Congratulations, Nimisha, and thank you for your leadership in this vital area!
  • Moin Qureshi (SCS) received the ISCA Influential Paper Award, which honors a standout paper from the ISCA Conference held 18-22 years earlier. This is Moin’s third Test of Time award in three years, spanning three leading conferences in the Computer Architecture area — 2024 (MICRO), 2025 (DSN), and 2026 (ISCA). Congratulations, Moin, and thank you for your lasting influence!
  • Pedro Guillermo Feijóo-García (SCI) was selected by Fulbright Colombia to moderate the closing panel of the Fulbright Reimagined Summit 2026: AI Horizons: Learning Pathways for Tomorrow. He moderated the closing discussion, "From Adopters to Architects: Professions of Tomorrow,” in recognition of his research on human-AI interaction and the hidden curriculum in engineering and computer science education. Congratulations, Pedro, and thank you for sharing your work with an international audience!
  • Alan Ritter and Wei Xu (IC) have won a $997,565 NSF Future CoRe grant for their proposal, “Robust and Responsible Reasoning for Privacy-Preserving Geolocation.” The CoRe award supports foundational research across computing, engineering, and the information sciences. Congratulations, Alan and Wei, and thank you for your excellence in research!
  • James Hays, Alan Ritter, and Wei Xu (IC) have won a new $100,000 Sony Faculty Innovation Award to advance Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Culture, Knowledge, and Context-Adaptive Translation. Congratulations to Alan, Wei, and James, and thanks for your leadership in industry partnerships!
  • A team of nine Georgia Tech members won the annual Capture the Flag competition at DEF CON in Las Vegas. In fact, the first-, second-, and third-place teams all included Tech members. Congratulations to all our participants, students and mentors alike, on this outstanding achievement. Thank you for representing Georgia Tech with such skill, teamwork, and competitive spirit!
  • A team of nine Georgia Tech members won the annual Capture the Flag competition at DEF CON in Las Vegas. Congratulations to everyone, students and mentors alike, and thank you for your excellent work and competitive spirit
  • Finally, we have recently received a bumper crop of media attention, which is great for our external visibility and serves as evidence of our thought leadership. Many thanks to everyone who shared their expertise with the public: 
    • AI powers new tool to test social media impact on teens, Munmun De Choudhury, 11 Alive July 1.
    • GA Tech students build app to solve FIFA ticket price problem: Fox 5, July 1.
    • Georgia Tech signals next phase of AI in learning with new role, David Joyner, Atlanta Business Chronicle, July 7.
    • Records raise questions about Georgia’s Largest Data Center and its Water Use, Ahmed Saeed (CS), Atlanta News First, July 13.
    • What is open-source AI? A software engineering researcher explains: Jeffrey Young, (CRNCH), Yahoo News UK, July 23.  
    • In This Costa Rican Forest, Monkeys Come Face to Face with AI, Jacob Abernethy, July 28. Jacob is not mentioned by name in the story but was part of the team that created the technology. 
    • Georgia Tech Alumnus Wins ‘The 1% Club’ $100,000 Grand Prize, Alumnus Alan Huegenard, GT News Center, July 31. 
    • AI Tool Aims to Catch Teen Mental Health Crises: Atlanta News First (syndicated nationally), Munmun De Choudhury (IC) Aug. 1. 
    • Expert Says Georgia Water System Attack Highlights Critical Security Deficiencies, Saman Zonouz, Georgia Recorder, Aug. 4. 
    • Georgia Water Systems Were Hacked. Were Microcomputers the Way In? Saman Zonouz (SCP) AJC, Aug. 5. 
    • Georgia Tech Professors turn to AI tutors and Rethink Traditional Assignments, David Joyner, CBS Atlanta, August 20. 

That's all for this dispatch. Hope you have a great week and a relaxing Labor Day weekend.

Best regards,

 

Vivek

Vivek Sarkar
John P. Imlay, Jr. Dean, College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
EA: Cynthia Bryant, cebryant@cc.gatech.edu, 404-385-5661

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