Applications are now Open for USC ORAI: An Interdisciplinary
PhD Certificate Program at the Frontier of AI for Decision-Making
TL;DR: Interested in a PhD at the Frontier of AI for Decision-Making? Then apply now to join either the PhD Program in Industrial & Systems Engineering or the PhD Program in Computer Science at the University of Southern California. In your application, indicate your interest in the ORAI PhD Program.
More Information:
Sponsored by an NSF National Research Traineeship grant, the ORAI interdisciplinary PhD certificate program in Operations Research (OR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the University of Southern California aims to train students in doing research at the interface of the two fields and integrating techniques from the two disciplines. Among other skills, students will be trained to:
- understand, apply, and extend cutting-edge methods that synergize the strengths of machine learning and discrete optimization techniques
- design responsible (robust, interpretable, private, and fair) AI and ML systems using OR techniques, and
- use AI and OR to solve decision-making problems informed by data, including data that may be scarce, biased, noisy, or subject to distribution shifts.
ORAI engages and trains students in research, possible deployment, and commercialization of technologies that integrate OR and AI. Examples of research questions that students will work on are: Is it possible to create differentially private optimization algorithms? Can we leverage OR tools to create interpretable AI and ML models under distribution shifts? Can we improve the state of the art in decision-aware learning?
ORAI is the first graduate interdisciplinary program between AI and OR in the world. It builds on the unique strengths of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, numerous USC centers, including the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS), METRANS, and CREATE.
All USC PhD students who want to conduct interdisciplinary research in AI and OR as part of their dissertation may join the ORAI program. Most of our students have Industrial & Systems Engineering or Computer Science as their home department so make sure to apply to either of these programs by the December 15 deadline! There are no citizenship requirements for trainees, so students from all countries are welcome.
At USC, all students who are admitted to our PhD programs are guaranteed at least 4 years of funding provided they make good progress in their studies. Students who are US citizens, nationals, or permanent residents are additionally eligible for the prestigious ORAI program fellowships.
The ORAI PhD Certificate is awarded for completing, among other things:
- interdisciplinary research in OR and AI
- 3 out of 4 newly launched courses at the interface of OR and AI
- a seminar course about the science, application, and collaborative approaches of ORAI, including workshops on ethics and entrepreneurship.
For more information on the program, see https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/usc-nrt-orai/. For specific questions, please reach out to me.
Kind Regards,
Phebe
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Phebe Vayanos
Andrew and Erna Viterbi Early Career Chair in Engineering
Associate Professor of Industrial & Systems Engineering and of Computer Science
Co-Director | Center for Artificial Intelligence in Society (CAIS) |
www.cais.usc.eduCo-Director | Operations Research and Artificial Intelligence Program (ORAI) |
https://sites.google.com/usc.edu/usc-nrt-orai/University of Southern California | Viterbi School of Engineering
University Park Campus | Office OHE 310L
phebe.vayanos@usc.eduhttps://sites.google.com/usc.edu/phebevayanos/------------------------------