With the goal to improve the world by creating an equitable, sustainable future for all, researchers at Cornell Bowers CIS work at the interface where computing and information technology transforms science and policy across engineering, medicine, science, society, and the arts.
An interdisciplinary research team led by Carla Gomes, the Ronald C. and Antonia V. Nielsen Professor of Computing and Information Science, has developed Deep Reasoning Networks (DRNets), which combine deep learning – even using a relatively small amount of data – with an understanding of the subject’s boundaries and rules, known as “constraint reasoning.”
SoNIC – a weeklong summer workshop hosted by Cornell Bowers CIS’ Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – aims to elevate and inspire underrepresented students to pursue graduate studies in tech fields like computing and information science. This year, nearly 30 students from universities across the U.S. met up at Cornell for a crash course in robotics, ultimately developing “smart canes,” assistive technology for the visually impaired.
An autonomous vehicle is able to navigate city streets and other less-busy environments by recognizing pedestrians, other vehicles and potential obstacles through artificial intelligence. Unfortunately, artificial neural networks have no memory of the past and are in a constant state of seeing the world for the first time – no matter how many times they’ve driven down a particular road before.
Researchers are developing new technology to help overcome this limitation by providing the car with the ability to create “memories” of previous experiences and use them in future navigation.
- AI, Machine Learning, and Statistics
- Security, Privacy, and Policy
- Visual Computing, Robotics, Human-Computer Interaction
- Computational Sustainability
- Computational Social Science
- The Initiative For Cryptocurrencies & Contracts (IC3)
- Digital Agriculture
AI, Machine Learning, and Statistics
As a leader in the growing field of artificial intelligence (AI), Cornell is leveraging its interdisciplinary research across the Ithaca campus, as well as with Cornell Tech and Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City, to bring AI, machine learning, and data science to bear in areas and applications including: sustainable agriculture; improved urban design and infrastructure; and personalized, precision medicine and health.
To meet the growing needs of these and other practical domains, the work is informing tech development related to recommender systems; chat bots; Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency; augmented reality; and scientific discovery in physics, biology and materials—among many other direct applications.
In November 2021, led by Dean Kavita Bala, the university launched the Cornell AI Initiative to deepen opportunities in the development and application of AI within the field, and across AI-related, and AI-influenced fields.
Security, Privacy, and Policy
Cornell is home to one of the largest and most prolific groups of computer security researchers in the world.
Working with applied and academic partners around the globe, these scientists are helping define a foundation for the future of cybersecurity by designing the technologies, policies, and processes that address security and privacy vulnerabilities at all levels—from the individual and household, to the corporate and global—to establish safer and more efficient computing systems.
Visual Computing, Robotics, Human-Computer Interaction
An early pioneer in the field of computer graphics, Cornell is a leader in the fields of visual computing and in human computer interaction.
Cornell Bowers CIS researchers, designers, and builders are developing the core technologies of virtual and augmented reality and are reimagining the ways that computers and robots can enhance human health, functional ability, and well-being; create greater access and equity; and improve computer interactions.
Collaborations with Cornell Tech and Weill Cornell Medicine are creating opportunities for novel research at the intersection of technology, health applications, and human interactions.
Computational Sustainability
Computational sustainability brings together AI techniques and computational methods to address some of the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges.
Created at Cornell more than a decade ago, the field has inspired the interest and investment of nearly every major science funder, and spawned a national and international consortium of researchers (CompSusNet) who design sustainable solutions related to climate, conservation, biodiversity loss, renewable energy, and global food security.
Computational Social Science
Cornell Bowers CIS researchers are designing new capabilities for the social platforms that connect everyone, focusing on enhancing the integrity and quality of the resulting interactions, and leveraging the voluminous data generated by these systems to understand the effects of social media on human behaviors and interactions at population scale.
Predominantly pioneered at Cornell, the field thrives on the interdisciplinary spirit and collaborative practices that serve as the hallmarks of the college. As the field expands to incorporate institutions and investigators around the world, Cornell Bowers CIS remains at the forefront in innovating approaches to examine the human experience in new ways.
The Initiative For Cryptocurrencies & Contracts (IC3)
An area of signature strength brings together experts from cryptography, distributed systems, programming languages, game theory, and system security to make cryptocurrencies a safe, secure, and productive part of everyday life.
Researchers are establishing the scientific foundation for efficient, scalable solutions to the issues of cost, reliability, performance, transparency, and confidentiality that must be addressed to realize these goals.
Digital Agriculture
Cornell Bowers CIS researchers are spearheading the Cornell Initiative for Digital Agriculture (CIDA)—a campus- wide effort to harness the power of data and digital-sensing technologies to re-envision how food is produced, processed, and distributed, and to improve food access, security, and communal health throughout the world.
The new Center for Research on Programmable Plant Systems—funded by a five-year, $25 million National Science Foundation grant—will develop technologies connected to the internet and the cloud to listen to and learn how plants sense and respond to their environments.
The information these systems gather will help researchers better understand how to manage nutrients and water, for example, and how microbes work with plants to help them grow.