Computer Science

Dimitris Diochnos is Senior Personnel at the NSF AI Institute for Research on Trustworthy AI in Weather, Climate, and Coastal Oceanography (AI2ES).  The lead PI in the project is Amy McGovern (OU) and the institute is funded for approximately 20 million dollars over 5 years, in order to make significant advances in foundational and applied AI research.  Dimitris is working on foundational issues related to robustness and reliability of machine learning algorithms that have applications to environmental sciences.  In this one and a half year that the institute is running, Dimitris had two papers in top AI conferences, one of which was based on work done with Conner Flansburg, an undergraduate student at OU, who participated in the REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) of 2021 in terms of the AI2ES institute.  The work of the institute was also presented in the recent AGU (American Geophysical Union) meeting that was held in December of 2021, where Dimitris's work on robust AI was also highlighted --

clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNFu4LXxLqQ
AI2ES Institute: https://www.ai2es.org

Congratulations Jalal Saidi and Khaled Abdelaal!

On behalf of Senior Vice President and Provost André Wright, we are pleased to share that you will receive recognition to honor the hard work and dedication of outstanding graduate students who teach at OU:  

The Provost’s Certificate of Distinction in Teaching.

You represent the top 10 percent of all graduate assistants across campus by student evaluations for courses taught during the Fall 2021 semester.

The amount of pain and suffering we are witnessing and feeling is only a snapshot of a broader social reality. We, and everyone before us, have had a role in arriving at where we are today. As such, it is of paramount importance to step up and take a stance. It is our responsibility and a moral imperative to not stand by and simply witness the events around us. We must collectively find our voice and reject racism and inequality. Silence perpetuates, doubt reinforces, and rationalization of incident after incident only compounds the pain so many in our society continue to endure.

While CRA has a long history of celebrating, promoting, and advocating for inclusivity, we cannot be satisfied with continuing the status quo. We will continue to actively stand against discrimination and hatred. We will find new ways to use our voice in Washington to advocate for policies that address the inequities that exist in our field. We will amplify the efforts of our membership organizations wherever we can to help them improve the spaces they occupy and create an environment that is more welcoming, just, and equitable to all. Only together can we begin to right the long history of wrongs that have led us to this place and time.

We start with acknowledging the issues by talking to those around us and explicitly stating that we stand with them when they stand against discrimination and hatred.

We know that racism:

• Is systemic and institutionalized, was intentionally designed, and established well before the foundation of our nation.
• Continues to oppress people of color around the world – denying basic human rights, denying opportunity, and even more tragically denying many of their very lives.
• Is learned behavior that may be unlearned through education, compassion, empathy, and action.
• Drives a wedge between communities, and in doing so limits the enviable quest for a society steeped in respect.
• The privileged benefit from its existence and must be willing to sacrifice to overcome it.
• Lives in our homes, schools, workplaces, parks, churches, stores, amusement parks, government, law enforcement – it lives in us all to varying degrees.

To stand against it, we:

• Acknowledge the existence of racism within our communities and commit to defeating it.
• Call out and reject rationalization of incidents and distortion of information.
• Educate ourselves and those around us to be better equipped to address racism in its many forms.
• Stand up against the status quo by using our voice and agency.
• Commit to systemic change in laws, policies, procedures, etc.
• Dedicate all necessary resources to create lasting change

In the United States, and throughout many regions around the world, current events have brought attention to the urgent need for equality and respect for all individuals. We have witnessed racism and violence against Black people in the United States and in our communities. Most recently, the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd have re-focused attention to the long-standing racism and injustice that plagues the United States and many other nations. In response, there are worldwide demonstrations and protests. ACM members are directly impacted by these events and we, the volunteer leadership of ACM, are outraged by this all-too familiar pattern of enduring injustice. Black Lives Matter.

This is a hard problem, and we will continue to make change and actively seek ways to take meaningful action. The Diversity and Inclusion Council’s role is to serve as a convener and focal point for these issues within ACM and to serve as a resource for those seeking to effect positive change; the D&I Council does not set policy. We will continue to listen, to learn, to engage and to explore new ways to actively foster diversity and fight against racism. In the immediate aftermath of these most recent events, we commit to the following actions:

• Perform a systematic and complete review of ACM policies and practices that can be shared and communicated throughout ACM’s activities and programs to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Encourage ACM’s Boards/Councils and Committees to nominate and recruit black and underrepresented members of the community for positions within ACM.
• Recommend ACM fund travel grants to support conference attendance for students and scholars from Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions.
• Encourage Special Interest Groups (SIGs) to include sessions and activities at conferences and workshops focused on combating implicit bias and other forms of bias, particularly as applicable to technological development and impacts on creating a more inclusive society.
• Encourage SIGs to further diversify conference organizing committees, persons serving in conference leadership roles, and those invited to serve as plenary/keynote speakers, and to report on their progress.
• Recommend expansion of funding for events that focus on amplifying the scholarship of Black and other groups underrepresented in computing and to broaden the participation of aspiring scholars from these communities in computing—undergraduate and graduate students, and junior researchers and faculty.