CS@Georgetown Newsletter | Summer 2026
Posted in Newsletters
Chair’s Message
Dear Students, Alumni, and Colleagues,
I continue to be amazed by the accomplishments of our faculty, students, and staff. While there are too many to share in this short letter, I hope that our new weekly newsletter – Computer Science Weekly Bits – keeps you up to date on what we are doing and where we are headed.
Last year I spoke about the need to not only share accomplishments (see below), but to also identify new areas of growth. One area we continue to think deeply about and engage with in new ways is AI. As most of you know, in September the President’s office announced the receipt of a $13.7 million gift from Robert and Allison Bertrand to endow a chair in computer science focused on advancing AI to improve society. This is the largest gift our department has received and we are very excited to use this opportunity to increase our footprint in artificial intelligence. I thank the Bertrands for their generosity and trust as we busily work to bring a socially-conscious, world-class computer scientist to our department.
Our department also worked with other departments in the College of Arts and Sciences to create a new Certificate in AI. Courses supporting this certificate teach students about the science, application, and problem of AI. Now every student in CAS can learn about AI in a holistic way. Along with a growing number of AI courses we offer our computer science majors and minors, we are excited to offer a new Science of AI course for non-majors to learn about the basics of AI. We are also supporting a new interdisciplinary, cross campus (Hilltop and Capitol campuses) Data Science minor for students in the College of Arts and Sciences and in the McCourt School of Public Policy. Finally, we have reimagined our Post-Bac program and have a handful of students who will be joining the redesigned program this fall. I look forward to announcing some of our other new educational initiatives throughout the year.
While we are expanding in different ways, I want to acknowledge that many in our community had a difficult year. There are multiple wars taking place and some of our friends and family live in conflict areas. Immigration laws are constantly changing and have interrupted some of our students’ time on the hilltop – even getting visas to attend conferences is non-trivial. The enterprise of academia is being asked to change in ways that are reducing the breadth and depth of research and eliminating programs that support our most vulnerable populations. But through all this, our community has continued to support each other and find ways to keep important programs and research moving forward. I think a good word that described us this year was – resilient. I thank everyone for coming together when it would have been easier to let things fall apart and divide us. I hope that everyone in our community knows that we will do our best to support you during these complicated times.
Finally, I want to give a special thank you to Professor Sasha Golovnev. He has been an integral part of our community for the last 5-years. We wish him the very best as he moves to his next adventure. He will be missed. We are excited to welcome our newest faculty member, Adrian Vladu to the department. He received his PhD from MIT and is joining us from CNRS (the French National Center for Scientific Research) where he has been working as a Research Scientist.
This letter has gotten long enough. Below you will find some highlights from throughout the year. I look forward to continuing to find ways to strengthen our community and increase the visibility of all the amazing work done in the department.
Lisa
Department Chair, Computer Science
Student Honors and Celebrations
We celebrate the outstanding achievements of our undergraduate and graduate students:
Ruoxing (David) Yang received the Computer Science Award which is presented to the graduating senior pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science who has demonstrated outstanding potential and promise in the field. The CS Award was presented at the College of Arts and Sciences 107th Tropaia ceremony.
Chaitanya Prasad graduated with Computer Science honors.
Henry Deng received the Distinction in Computer Science Award.
Chaitanya Prasad, Junyi Mei, Michael Mullin, Olivia Matlaga, and Sunil Rosen received the Academic Excellence in Computer Science Award.
Victor De Lima, Karthik Gajulapalli, Sam King, Abhishek Purushothama, Ismail Shaheen, and James Trombo won the Department’s Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award for the 2025-26 academic year. Rebecca Ansell and Abhishek Purushothama won the Department’s Outstanding Tutoring Award for the 2025-26 academic year. These Awards recognize those who have significantly enhanced the learning experience of students through their dedication and expertise.
Class of 2026 Graduations
Congratulations to all of our undergraduate and graduate students who graduated this year. A special shout out to our PhD graduates Karthik Gajulapalli, Sidhant Saraogi, Autumn Toney-Wails, Ryan Wails, and Chao Yan.
Faculty News and Promotions
Faculty Promotions
Congratulations to our faculty who were promoted to the rank of Full Professor this year:
Faculty Honors and Awards
Prof. Jeremy Fineman — Received the Provost’s Office 2025 Distinguished Achievement in Research Award for his paper Single-Source Shortest Paths with Negative Real Weights in Õ(mn8/9) Time.
Prof. Elissa Redmiles — Named one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35.
Prof. Nathan Schneider — Named a 2026 Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor
Research Awards
Three Georgetown graduate students, including PhD student Abhishek Purushothama, won an international competition in natural language processing (DISRPT)
A paper co-authored by a research team from the University of Florida, the University of Washington, and Prof. Elissa Redmiles and Prof. Yoshi Kohno received the Best Paper in Social Impact award at the 2025 CSAW Applied Research Competition (ARC).
Georgetown faculty, Prof. Elissa Redmiles and Prof. Yoshi Kohno, were named co-author runners-up for the 2025 Internet Defense Prize at USENIX Security 2025.
Department Highlights and Events
We held a 6-part Distinguished Lecture Series in AI, which brought leading computer science voices in AI to GU to foster dialogue around the methods and technologies being developed and the directions AI is taking.
CS students and faculty enjoyed dinner with Senator Bernie Sanders and Dr. Geoffrey Hinton following their on-campus talk, “AI: The Promise and the Peril”
(
Our security faculty hosted the 3rd DMV Security Workshop to bring together faculty, students, and researchers from the DC area interested in cybersecurity and privacy research.
We continued our CS Faculty Spotlight lecture series with Prof. Micah Sherr, who presented “Recent Advances (and Setbacks) in the Internet Censorship Arms Race.”
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) held their 2025 Tech Prom, featuring GU’s A.I. in Art: Perceptions, Values, & Rights exhibition developed by Prof. Elissa Redmiles and her colleagues and students last year.
Ph.D. students Karthik Gajulapalli, Samuel King, and Sidhant Saraogi had their paper “Online Orthogonal Vectors” (published in SODA’26) invited to Highlights of Algorithms of 2026.
Our student team was named the DC state champion at the 2025 ICPC North America Mid-Atlantic Regional Contest.
Faculty in the Media
Prof. Cal Newport was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered to unpack what today’s AI can, and can’t do
Prof. Elissa Redmiles was one of two interviewees on the Lawfare Daily podcast which discusses consent, AI-generated sexual content, and how technical proposals can prevent misuse.
Department Community and Traditions
We continued many of our longstanding traditions, including the 25th and 26th Semi-Annual GU-CS Graduate Research Presentation Days, the CS Club Fair bagel brunch, CS Career Day and Alumni Happy Hour, weekly Tea Times for faculty and graduate students, weekly CS Colloquiums, our CS Picnic, and our CS graduation celebrations for seniors and graduate students.
Because of the generosity of our alumni and other contributions to the department, we have a study/TA room in St. Mary’s where our students can work and hang out. We are excited to have this space for clubs and others to work together and hang out. Thank you, alum!