Tenure-Track Faculty Positions in Computer Science

The Department of Computer Science (CS) launched in 2020 a multi-year faculty recruitment and hiring process for 20 tenure-track positions at the Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor levels over and above normal hiring patterns, with preference at early-career appointments. In the first year of the initiative, the department welcomed eight new faculty members. In the second year, the initiative will support at least eight new faculty positions starting in the 20222023 academic year. Destination Vanderbilt-CS is part of the university’s recently launched Destination Vanderbilt, a $100 million university excellence initiative to recruit new faculty. Over the next three years, the university will leverage the investment to recruit approximately 60 faculty who are leaders and rising stars in their fields. All hires who are part of this initiative are over and above the normal faculty hiring rate at the university.

We seek exceptional candidates in broadly defined areas of computer science that enhance our research strengths in areas that align with the following investment and growth priorities of the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering:

1. Cybersecurity and Resilience
2. Autonomous and Intelligent Human-AI-Machine Systems and Urban Environments
3. Computing and AI for Health, Medicine, and Surgery
4. Design of Next Generation Systems, Structures, Materials, and Manufacturing

Our priorities are designed to ensure the strongest positive impact on computer science and cross-disciplinary areas at all six academic departments in the School of Engineering and other colleges and schools across campus. The hiring initiative builds on these strengths and aspires to propel the Vanderbilt CS Department to one of the leading academic programs nationally and beyond. Successful candidates are expected to teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels and to develop and grow vigorous programs of externally funded research.
Ranked #14 nationally, Vanderbilt University is a private, internationally recognized research university located on 330 park-like acres 1.5 miles from downtown Nashville, Tennessee. Its 10 distinct schools share a single cohesive campus that values collaboration. The university enrolls over 13,500 undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, including 36% minority students and over 1,100 international students from 84 countries. The School of Engineering is on a strong upward trajectory in national and international stature and prominence, and has built infrastructure to support a significant expansion in faculty size. In the rankings of graduate engineering programs byU.S. News & World Report, the school ranks in the top 20 private, research-extensive engineering schools. Five-year average T/Tk faculty funding in the formerly combined EECS department is above $800k per year per person. Nearly all junior faculty members hired during the past 15 years have received prestigious young investigator awards, such as NSF CAREER and DARPA CSSG.

With a metro population of over two million people, Nashville’s top industries by employment include trade, transportation and utilities; education and health services; professional and business services; government; and leisure and hospitality. Other industries include manufacturing, financial activities, construction, and information. Long known as a hub for health care and music, Nashville is a technology center with a considerable pool of health care, AI, and defense-related jobs available. In recent years, the city has experienced an influx of major office openings by some of the largest global tech companies and prime Silicon Valley startups.
Vanderbilt University has a strong institutional commitment to recruiting and retaining an academically and culturally diverse community of faculty. Minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, and members of other underrepresented groups, in particular, are encouraged to apply. Vanderbilt is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.

Vanderbilt University has made the safety of our students, faculty and staff, and our surrounding communities a top priority. As part of that commitment, the University recently announced that students, faculty, and staff, are required to be vaccinated against COVID. As a prospective and/or a new employee at Vanderbilt, you will be required to comply with the University’s vaccination protocol.  Effective, August 1, 2021, proof of full vaccination or an approved accommodation will be required before the start of employment in order to work at Vanderbilt University.

Applications should be submitted on-line at: http://apply.interfolio.com/94225

For more information, please visit our web site: http://vu.edu/destination-cs .

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning December 1, 2021 with interviews beginning January 1, 2022. For full consideration, application materials must be received by January 31, 2022.

Of relevance to the AI and Education community are opportunities in the following area:

Autonomous and Intelligent Human-AI-Machine Systems and Urban Environments

The integration of the cyber world with its networks and computing nodes and the physical world with sensors and machines together with people results in new challenges and opportunities for interdisciplinary research driven by computing and artificial intelligence. Our priorities include developing robust and trustworthy autonomous systems as well as designing intelligent and autonomous systems that can work with people in a versatile and natural way.

Areas of interest include:

Autonomous and Intelligent Systems. Autonomy refers to a system’s ability to accomplish goals independently, or with minimal supervision from human operators in environments that are complex and unpredictable. Autonomous systems are increasingly critical to several current and future application domains. We are particularly interested in expanding our efforts in innovative computing technologies that integrate machine learning, control theory and robotics to enable the development of safe and dependable autonomous and intelligent systems.

Trustworthy AI/Machine Learning. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have a huge impact on society and our daily lives. However, such technologies introduce novel risks that can have significant consequences. We are interested in computing solutions to address these challenges by developing the principles, methods, and tools for engineering trustworthy systems with AI/ML. We are interested in safe and secure AI, interpretability and explainability as well as ethics guidelines for trustworthiness and fairness in AI.

Cognitive Science and Human Factors for Human-AI-Machine Systems. The integration of cognitive science, human factors, and AI offers a deep understanding of human cognition and communication that is required to develop the tenets and science for humans interacting with learning-based machines. Important questions include how humans develop internal models for machines that change as they learn and if it is possible to provide evolving AI systems with models of human cognition and decision-making.

Artificial Intelligence in Education and Learning Analytics. AI has emerged as a foundational technology that is profoundly reshaping society. Bringing together the accelerating advances in natural language processing, computer vision, machine learning, simulation and game environments, and multimodal sensing and analysis technologies, AI holds significant transformative potential for improving human learning. We are interested in strengthening and complementing our demonstrated expertise in the learning and cognitive sciences, educational technologies, and multimodal learning analytics to advance learning experiences and outcomes through innovations for teaching, training and learning through the integration of new AI-rich digital platforms.

Computing and Connectivity for Driving City Innovations. In this era of a worldwide pandemic and international calls for social justice, now is the time to provide data-driven and computing solutions to the challenges that cities face. We aim to build on our demonstrated expertise in bringing together scientists and engineers across campuses to collaborate on innovative solutions that improve the quality of life in cities.