Dr. Nora Ayanian
Assistant Professor and Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair
Department of Computer Science
University of Southern California
Nora Ayanian is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and director of the Automatic Coordination of Teams Lab. She received the Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining USC, Ayanian was a postdoctoral associate at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). Ayanian studies and develops end-to-end solutions for coordinating teams of robots, combining automation and artificial intelligence to create autonomous collaboration and control. These solutions take very high level specifications, such as simple multi-touch input from a tablet, and provide automated code delivery to all robots in the team. Her solutions are broadly applicable across all aspects of multi-robot systems and mobile sensor networks, including manufacturing, warehousing, environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, and emergency response.
Ayanian was named as one of the MIT Technology Review’s 2016 Innovators Under 35 (TR35) as “Visionary”. In 2016 she also received the NSF CAREER award, the Okawa Foundation Research Grant, and, with her coauthors, best paper in the robotics track at the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling. She has also been honored as one of mic.com’s inaugural Mic 50, and as one of IEEE Intelligent Systems “AI’s 10 to Watch”. Her research has most recently been covered by USA Today, Discovery Channel Canada, Tech Insider UK, and other media outlets. She has also been recognized for her mentorship with the 2015 Hanna Reisler Mentorship Award and was named in 2014 to the NerdWallet 40 under 40 Professors who Inspire.