Artur Dubrawski will receive the Alumni Research Professorship of Computer Science and Carleton Kingsford will receive the Herbert A. Simon Professorship of Computer Science in a virtual ceremony at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 4.

The usual ceremonies for these and other new professorships were delayed last year by the pandemic and have now been modified as virtual events.

Dubrawski joined the Robotics Institute's Auton Lab in 2003, where he works on a range of applied artificial intelligence endeavors. In 2006, he was named director of the lab, where he had been a Fulbright Scholar in 1995-96. Prior to joining CMU, he was involved in several entrepreneurial efforts, including founding a company for integrating and deploying computerized control systems. He also served as chief technology officer for Aethon, developers of an autonomous hospital delivery robot called Tug.

Dubrawski's projects in the Auton Lab have included using artificial intelligence to improve the maintenance of military aircraft, monitoring food safety, developing ad-tracking software used to combat sex trafficking, providing predictive analytics at the bedside of the critically ill, and the ongoing development of automated trauma care in the field.

Kingsford, who joined the Computational Biology Department in 2012, applies machine learning and algorithm design to solving key data analysis problems in computational systems biology and genomics.

He and his group have developed new algorithmic techniques for biological challenges such as quantifying gene expression, detecting genomic mutations, predicting protein function, reconstructing ancient biological pathways and improving genome assembly. He and his collaborators have written several widely used bioinformatics analysis software packages, especially in the area of gene expression. The computational approaches his group has created are used around the world in industrial and academic labs working in areas such as cancer, drug development and basic biology.

Kingsford earned his Ph.D. in computer science at Princeton University in 2005 and was a postdoctoral fellow and assistant professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, before joining CMU.

RSVPs are required today for anyone who wants to attend the virtual event tomorrow.