Department of Computer Science Announces 11 Faculty Promotions

The University of Maryland Department of Computer Science announced 11 faculty promotions, recognizing faculty members whose work spans artificial intelligence, systems, computational biology, human-computer interaction, security, programming languages, computer vision and computer science education.

The promotions, effective July 1, 2026, include four faculty members promoted to professor, five to associate professor, one to principal lecturer and one to senior lecturer. The faculty members teach and conduct research in areas that support the department’s academic programs and research activity.

“Our promoted faculty have made significant contributions towards building one of the nation’s leading computer science programs through influential research, dedicated teaching and mentorship,” said Department Chair Matthias Zwicker, who holds the Elizabeth Iribe Chair for Innovation and the Phillip H. and Catherine C. Horvitz Professorship. “They are advancing fields such as artificial intelligence, systems and theory while helping educate more than 3,500 undergraduate majors and 600 graduate students. I couldn't be more proud of the achievements of our colleagues.”

Promoted to Professor

Abhinav Bhatele, who has appointments in the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) and Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM), has been promoted to professor. His research focuses on systems and networks, including parallel computing, large-scale data analytics, programming models, runtimes, network design and simulation, machine learning for parallel systems, and performance modeling and optimization. Bhatele received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2010.

Marine Carpuat, who has appointments in UMIACS and AIM, has been promoted to professor. Her research focuses on natural language processing and machine translation, with an emphasis on AI systems that support cross-language communication. Her work examines multilingual AI and the technical and human challenges of using translation tools in real-world settings. Carpuat received her Ph.D. in computer science from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2008.

Michelle Mazurek, director of the Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2), has been promoted to professor. She has an appointment in UMIACS and affiliations with the Human-Computer Interaction Lab and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE). Her research focuses on human-centered computer security, including security and privacy decision-making, secure software development and end-user security practices. Mazurek received her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014.

Rob Patro has been promoted to professor. He has appointments in UMIACS, ECE and the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology. His research focuses on computational genomics, including algorithms and data structures for processing, organizing, indexing and querying high-throughput genomics data. He develops software tools for analyzing large-scale biological datasets. Patro received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Maryland in 2012 and his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Maryland in 2006.

Promoted to Associate Professor

Leonidas Lampropoulos, who has an appointment in UMIACS, has been promoted to associate professor. His research uses programming-language abstractions to make software and specifications easier to write, debug and reason about. His work focuses on random testing, formal verification and methods for improving software reliability and correctness. Lampropoulos received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Pennsylvania in 2018.

Zhicheng Liu, who has an appointment in AIM, has been promoted to associate professor. His research focuses on human-computer interaction, data visualization, graphics, virtual and augmented reality, and machine learning. He directs the Human Data Interaction Group, which develops human-centered systems for interactive data analysis and data-driven visual communication. Liu received his Ph.D. in human-centered computing from Georgia Tech in 2012.

Christopher Metzler has been promoted to associate professor. He has appointments in UMIACS, AIM and ECE. His research develops systems and algorithms for computational imaging and sensing, machine learning and wireless communications. His work combines machine learning with imaging and signal processing to study how machines capture and interpret visual and sensory data. Metzler received his Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from Rice University in 2019.

Huaishu Peng, who has appointments in UMIACS and AIM, has been promoted to associate professor. His research explores human-computer interaction, design and fabrication, virtual and augmented reality, and assistive technology. His work focuses on digital and physical interactions that make computing more tangible and accessible. Peng received his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 2019.

Rachel Rudinger has been promoted to associate professor. She has appointments in UMIACS and AIM. Her research focuses on natural language processing, including language understanding, computational semantics, commonsense reasoning, and fairness and social bias in AI systems. Her work examines how language technologies understand meaning and operate in real-world settings. Rudinger received her Ph.D. in computer science from Johns Hopkins University in 2019.

Promoted to Principal Lecturer

Mohammad Nayeem Teli, who has an appointment in AIM, has been promoted to principal lecturer. His research focuses on computer vision and machine perception, machine learning and data science. His work centers on systems that use those methods to address computing challenges. Teli received his Ph.D. in computer science from Colorado State University in 2013.

Promoted to Senior Lecturer

Stevens Miller has been promoted to senior lecturer. His interests include computer graphics, especially procedural modeling for the run-time creation of three-dimensional environments for computer games. His earlier work examined segmented architecture machines for computing large synthetic images. Miller received his M.S. from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1988.

—Story by Samuel Malede Zewdu, CS Communications