Recent News & Accomplishments
2025
University of Maryland computer scientists share research on AI robustness, interpretability and human-AI interaction at the annual International Machine Learning Conference.
Researchers from the University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science are presenting 16 papers at the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML 2025), which will take place from July 13 to 19 in Vancouver, Canada. Many of the participating UMD faculty—including Heng Huang , Dinesh Manocha , Ming Lin , Nirupam Roy , Han Shao , Sarah Wiegreffe , Yaodong Yu and Tianyi Zhou —collaborated with graduate students and external partners on the work being presented. Projects include both foundational machine learning methods and application-driven approaches. The work explores a... read more
Laxman Dhulipala, Justin Olav Wyss-Gallifent, Shaobo Cui, Christina Xu and Christian Nygard recognized for their instructional impact as faculty and teaching assistants in the 2024–25 academic year.
The University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science has announced the recipients of its 2024–25 teaching awards, honoring excellence across tenure-track, professional track and instructional assistant roles. This year’s awardees include Assistant Professor Laxman Dhulipala , Principal Lecturer Justin Olav Wyss-Gallifent , graduate teaching assistant Shaobo Cui , and undergraduate teaching assistants Christina Xu and Christian Nygard . The department presents these awards annually to recognize instructors, teaching assistants and STIC facilitators who make consistent contributions to... read more
CS Ph.D. student Alexander Frolov is honored for his research in zero-knowledge proofs and practical cryptographic systems.
A University of Maryland graduate student specializing in cryptography has been recognized for his outstanding academic achievements and research. Alexander “Sasha” Frolov, a first-year computer science doctoral student working in the Maryland Cybersecurity Center (MC2), has been named a 2025–26 scholar by the Metropolitan Washington Chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation. The $15,000 award honors exceptional graduate students pursuing degrees in science, engineering and biomedical research. Frolov, who previously worked as a software engineer on the... read more
If you've ever used an AI chatbot, you may have noticed something strange. Sometimes, when you ask it to 'try again' or 'think harder,' the answers don't get better, they just get weirder. Now, a team of researchers has discovered why: Generative AI systems can 'overthink' themselves into making mistakes. A collaborative project between the UMD GAMMA Lab (Geometric Algorithms for Modeling, Motion, and Animation) and former GAMMA lab associates and external collaborators recently released a paper on reasoning in large language models. The main results were developed by Soumya Suvra Ghosal and... read more
New Study Finds That UMD Graduates High Numbers of students in quantum science, AI and other STEM Ph.D.s.
The University of Maryland is a top five American producer of doctorates in several technology areas that are key to national security and science-driven innovation, according to a new study. The working paper , released in June by the National Bureau of Economic Research, found that UMD ranked in the top five universities in the number of Ph.D. graduates trained in each of five critical areas from 2000 to 2022: quantum science, artificial intelligence (AI), space technology, networked sensing, and data privacy and cybersecurity. UMD sits alongside the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,... read more
The program aims to prepare industry-ready AI leaders.
The University of Maryland will offer a new Master of Science in artificial intelligence (AI) this fall to teach the fundamentals of this transformative technology while giving students the expertise needed to address important questions about the interaction between AI, people and society. The interdisciplinary program is administered by the Science Academy , in conjunction with the Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland (AIM), and adds to the academy’s existing M.S. programs in applied machine learning, data science, bioinformatics and computational biology, and... read more
Ding aims to align intelligent systems with human intent through multimodal research.
University of Maryland Department of Computer Science Ph.D. student Yuran Ding has been awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship (GRFP), one of the most competitive honors available to graduate students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields in the United States. Advised by Professor Ashok Agrawala , and Dr. Paul Strohmeier (MPI) Ding is among a select group of students nationwide chosen for the 2025 cohort of the GRFP, which offers three years of financial support over a five-year fellowship period. The program is designed to promote... read more
At the University of Maryland Institute for Health Computing (IHC), medical researchers, clinicians, mathematicians, and computational and physical scientists are working together across campuses to tackle urgent medical challenges with advanced technologies. Teams are using ultra-large-scale machine learning to analyze vast quantities of medical imaging and genomics data for signs of Alzheimer’s disease. Others are developing predictive AI models that can alert surgeons one minute before a patient experiences a potentially fatal heart rhythm anomaly. Another group is inventing personalized... read more
Quantum computing expert Andrew Childs named interim director of UMIACS.
Andrew Childs , a professor of computer science, was named interim director of the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS), effective July 1, 2025. Childs is the director of the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation (RQS) and was a co-director of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS) from 2014 to 2024. “Andrew is highly visible within the quantum information community and has a demonstrated reputation for building partnerships in research and education,” said Amitabh Varshney , dean of UMD’s College... read more
UMD and the state of Maryland make a billion-dollar bid to anchor a scientific and commercial revolution.
The Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel opened in secret at the dawn of the Cold War. A gift to the University of Maryland from the aircraft industry titan whose name it bears, the facility was used to develop U.S. military planes and missiles for a looming showdown with the Soviet Union. Long since declassified, it still works with government agencies as well as civilian companies, though it might be best known locally for giving guests a hair-whipping thrill at UMD’s annual open house. Early this year, the 76-year-old facility briefly slipped back into its shadowy security role. University... read more