Dear colleagues, alumni and friends,

The world around us is everchanging, and at the University of Florida, that means constant innovation. With another academic year coming to an end, I wanted to share some incredible stories of research and accomplishments that came out of our department this spring.

Here at the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering (CISE), we’re striving to be at the forefront of AI. Over the past few months, our researchers have accumulated grants that will help to expand their research in AI. Kristy E. Boyer, Ph.D., and co-principal investigator Mehmet Celepkolu, Ph.D., are using a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to explore how to integrate AI learning into middle school science through natural language processing. Another team of researchers led by Jaime Ruiz, Ph.D., will work to augment human cognition by providing task guidance through augmented reality headset technology in extreme environments under a $2.8 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Our faculty are also working to improve healthcare with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and National Institute on Aging. Baba C. Vemuri, Ph.D., will be using this $1.39 million grant to resolve the limitations of MRI for the purpose of differential diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Dementia with Lewy body, Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease.

The hardworking faculty in CISE are not the only ones growing their research. One graduate student, Tyler Hanks, recently received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, which will help him expand his research at the intersection of applied category theory, machine learning and scientific computing. Another, Armisha Roberts, received the Meta Ph.D. Fellowship, which she plans to use for her research on understanding how users detect change within a 3D auditory environment.

Alumni from CISE know how important it is to make positive changes in the world, even after they’ve earned their degrees. Drew Gill (BSCS ’22), who graduated this spring, worked to create an app, complete with customizable search features, that makes parking on the University of Florida campus easier to navigate. Chris Malachowsky (BSCE ’80), co-founder of NVIDIA Corp. who is a leading force behind the university’s initiative to become “America’s AI University,” was named an honoree in UF’s prestigious Academy of Golden Gators. His investments are transforming courses across campus by incorporating AI training in curricula to prepare students to use cutting-edge technology in their chosen fields.

We look forward to supporting our faculty, students and alumni as they work toward a better future, and we anticipate this next year will be even better than the last.

Sincerely,

Juan E. Gilbert, Ph.D.
The Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor
CISE Department Chair