Director's Message to UMIACS October 2025

At the end of October, the University of Maryland plans to publicly launch its next capital campaign. One major fundraising priority focuses on raising the university’s reputation as a top tier institution for research and scholarship in artificial intelligence.

We’re pleased to see UMIACS faculty and students actively contributing to this effort. In addition to participating in a recent AI media event, the institute is well represented on a new website that was launched to promote AI at UMD.

I’m impressed with the depth and breadth of our work listed on that site’s “experts” section. From Soheil Feizi’s research in trustworthy and reliable AI, to Heng Huang’s expertise in AI used for health informatics and precision medicine, to the collaboration between Cornelia Fermüller and Irina Muresanu and their use of computer vision software to improve violin pedagogy, our faculty experts continue to bring new knowledge and innovative technology to this ever-expanding discipline.

Some of that new knowledge is highlighted in this month’s newsletter, including a feature story on ongoing work by Jordan Boyd-Graber that is intended to better gauge trust and collaboration between humans and AI.

Jordan is also featured in an engaging Q&A with a reporter from The Baltimore Sun, exploring the concept of AI singularity, a hypothetical point where AI surpasses human intelligence and begins to improve itself at an uncontrollable and irreversible pace.

I also encourage you to check out the interesting Maryland Today Q&A with Philip Resnik, where he discusses the unconventional theory that biases in AI chatbots reflect how large language models learn, rather than being just a simple technical problem.

These recent news stories are but a small fraction of the extensive media coverage showcasing our work in UMIACS, both in AI and the many other scientific disciplines where we excel.

Keep up the great work, everyone, and let me know how UMIACS can assist in your efforts.

Best,

Andrew Childs, Interim UMIACS Director