The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA)’s research portfolio has increasingly become more transdisciplinary, with a focus on cybersecurity, brain health, engineering, biomed education, sustainability, business, public health and policy.

These areas of research have been further fueled by focused faculty cluster hires in areas including cloud computing, cybersecurity, brain health, analytics and data science, and most recently, artificial intelligence (AI).

This past year, UTSA embarked on a cluster hiring in AI and hired seven researchers in the fields of construction science, information systems and cyber security, electrical and computer engineering, and computer science. Dr. Dhireesha Kudithipudi was recruited to lead and coordinate UTSA’s efforts in AI initiatives across colleges and departments as the Director of the UTSA AI Consortium.

Dr. Kudithipudi is also the Robert F. McDermott Chair in Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering with a courtesy appointment in the department of computer science at UTSA. She most recently served as professor, graduate program chair, director of the Neuromorphic AI Lab and the director of the Center for Human-Aware AI in the Department of Computer Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

To kick-off this expansion of AI on campus, a committee of faculty and research stakeholders have organized an inaugural AI Summit. Open to all AI researchers and aspiring AI scientists in academia, industry and government, participants across the region are invited to discover emerging AI technologies, transdisciplinary use-cases for AI, and its impact on society

Organizing Committee:

• Robert Clark,D., Medicine/ Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics, UT Health SA
• Amanda Fernandez, D., Assistant Professor, Computer Science, UTSA
• Edward Golob, D., Professor, Psychology, UTSA
• Yanmin Gong, D., Assistant Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering, UTSA
• Max Kilger, D. Director of Data Analytics Program/Associate Professor in Practice, UTSA
• Dhireesha Kudithipudi, Ph.D., Professor, Robert F McDermott Endowed Chair/Director of AI Consortium, UTSA
• Christopher Mentzer, MS, Assistant Director R&D, Southwest Research Institute
• Amina Qutub, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering, UTSA
• Jianhua Ruan, Professor, Computer Science, UTSA

Meredith Zozus, Ph.D., CCDM, Bioinformatics, UT Health SA