Nirupam Roy Promoted to Associate Professor

The University of Maryland’s Department of Computer Science has announced the promotion of Nirupam Roy to associate professor. His promotion took effect in the summer of 2025 and reflects his record of research, teaching and service in the department.

Department Chair Matthias Zwicker said the promotion reflects the department’s ongoing commitment to advancing computer science research. 

“Professor Roy’s promotion highlights his impactful research in wireless networking, mobile computing, communication and sensing,” said Zwicker, who holds the Elizabeth Iribe Chair for Innovation and the Phillip H. and Catherine C. Horvitz Professorship. “His work reflects the department’s commitment to advancing research that addresses real-world challenges in computing.”

Roy, who joined the UMD faculty after earning his doctorate in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2018, said the promotion represents an important milestone in his career.

“I’m deeply humbled and energized by this promotion, a landmark in my academic journey,” Roy said. “It reflects the collective work of my students, collaborators and mentors, and the supportive environment at UMD. It renews our lab’s commitment to advancing physical intelligence and challenges us to aim even higher in scholarship and impact.”

At UMD, Roy directs the Intelligent Communication, Sensing and Mobile Systems (iCoSMoS) Lab. His research focuses on combining machine intelligence with physical perception, enabling systems that utilize multiple sensing modalities to make informed decisions and operate effectively in complex environments.

“My lab is integrating physical perception into machine intelligence, giving AI grounded senses so it can understand and act in the real world,” Roy said.

His group is developing methods to enhance foundation language models with auditory perception, enabling machines to identify speakers and locate sound sources. The goal is to make interactions between humans and machines more natural and intuitive. Another project focuses on embedded AI devices that monitor the radio spectrum. These devices can help machines communicate across congested airwaves, function in areas without GPS and detect suspicious transmissions.

Other research aims to fuse vision, acoustics and radio into a single multimodal sensing engine. Roy said the approach enables robotic manipulators to detect materials or objects in front of them, helping autonomous underwater vehicles operate in areas where light and GPS signals are not available.

“Together, these efforts advance physical intelligence that is embedded, embodied and everywhere,” Roy said.

Roy’s work has been widely published in leading academic conferences, including ICML, ICASSP, MobiCom, MobiSys, SIGCOMM, NSDI, ICNP, SenSys, USENIX Security and NDSS. His projects have produced patented techniques and influenced startup ventures focused on acoustic perception and security.

His research has been recognized with awards at major conferences, as well as the National Science Foundation CAREER Award and a Meta Research Award. A range of federal agencies and industry sponsors have supported his work. Graduate students from his lab have also received recognition, including the Cyber-Physical Systems Rising Star Award, the N2Women Young Researcher Fellowship and the Marconi Society Paul Baran Young Scholar Award. Alumni of the lab have gone on to faculty positions at institutions such as Rice University and research roles at companies like Apple.

—Story by Samuel Malede Zewdu, CS Communications