Director's Message to UMIACS

As we start a new semester, I want to briefly look at our past to help plan for our future.

UMIACS was founded in 1984 as focal point for interdisciplinary research based in computer science. We’re often viewed as pioneers in areas like computer vision, computational linguistics and human-computer interaction.

Our strength in other areas—computational biology, cybersecurity, spatial data structures and parallel computing to name but a few—is also highly regarded.

In the past 10 years we’ve also made significant progress in emerging areas like microbiome research, autonomous robotics, virtual and augmented reality, and quantum information science.

For these new areas of discovery to flourish—as well as other scientific breakthroughs—will require significant external funding, institutional support and talented people.

This is where UMIACS excels. We’re committed to securing and managing the financial resources needed, providing physical spaces and cutting-edge technology, and recruiting the very best in talent. These efforts are highlighted in our latest newsletter.

One story looks at the latest University of Maryland Advances in quantum. We’re proud that UMIACS provides significant technical and administrative support to two of the major research groups featured in the article: the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute in Robust Quantum Simulation, and the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science.

The newsletter also highlights the exemplary work of Petra Zapf, a consummate professional who helps secure and manage more than $25 million in external funding that flows through UMIACS each year. I encourage you to read the profile on Petra that includes praise from UMIACS faculty and administrators.

Regarding our strength in scientific knowledge, please welcome me in joining our newest faculty who start this fall—associate professor Jia-Bin Huang, and assistant professors Pablo Paredes Castro, Bahar Asgari, Laxman Dhulipala, and Tianyi Zhou.

These talented faculty researchers represent the future of UMIACS. They join our more seasoned faculty, who in my opinion, represent the very best that the University of Maryland has to offer.

We should be proud of our work up to this point. I look forward to UMIACS advancing the science, scholarship and innovation for many of the new discoveries that lay ahead.

Mihai Pop, UMIACS Director