Director's Message to UMIACS March 2026

Add Andrew's picture here

Artificial intelligence continues to have a profound and far-reaching impact on our lives. From health care and education to autonomous robotics and beyond, AI-infused systems are enhancing efficiency, expanding knowledge, and improving medical diagnostics and patient outcomes.

This month’s feature story highlights a new initiative from the Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society (TRAILS), a coalition of four academic institutions led by the University of Maryland. TRAILS recently unveiled 11 broader impact awards designed to incentivize and engage a diverse range of stakeholders in shaping the future of AI.

Notably, UMIACS was selected to provide administrative and technical support for TRAILS—recognition of our deep expertise in managing large, multi-institutional research initiatives.

This month also showcases important work by Heng Huang, who is leveraging AI and machine learning to rapidly analyze vast datasets—including genomic, biomarker, and cognitive data—to identify early indicators of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

I was especially pleased to see a research profile on one of our newest UMIACS members, Sarah Wiegreffe. Her work explores the inner workings of large language models, with a focus on AI safety, reliability, and giving users more meaningful control over how these systems generate text.

Additional highlights include a collaboration between faculty at UMD and MIT to develop AI-driven “co-authors” that can assist mathematicians in breaking down complex problems and uncovering new insights. Mohammad Hajiaghayi serves as the lead principal investigator on this project.

We are also advancing research on the socio-cultural dimensions of AI. Ph.D. student Maria Isabel Magaña is conducting mixed-methods research to better understand how AI systems both shape, and are shaped by, the communities they impact.

These examples represent just a small sampling of the many ways UMIACS researchers are leading innovation in artificial intelligence.

We look forward to sharing more updates with you in next month’s newsletter. Until then, keep up the great work.

Best,
Andrew Childs
Interim Director, UMIACS