UNC Computer Science

This weekend in Sitterson, we hooded our newest doctors and welcomed them into the ancient and universal company of scholars. 🎓

A PhD in computer science is no small thing. Years of research, qualifying exams, a dissertation that took on a life of its own, a defense, and somewhere along the way — a question worth spending your career chasing. This year’s cohort tackled questions across real-time systems, machine learning for healthcare, language models, computer vision, telepresence, private messaging, and more.

Behind every hood is an advisor who believed, collaborators who worked late nights in labs, and a fan club who showed up with flowers and the loudest cheers in the building.

To the partners, parents, and friends who held it all together: thank you. A PhD is never a solo endeavor.

Congratulations to our newest doctors. The title is well-earned. 💙

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at

At graduation, student speaker Destiny Okonkwo left our graduates with a line worth carrying into today:
“You are your parents’ wildest dreams.”

To the moms, aunts, grandmothers, family friends watching from the Dean Dome floor, and to every mother figure who got these grads here — this one’s for you. They did the work. You helped make it happen!

Happy Mother’s Day. 💐

🎶 We’re all in this together — and the Class of 2026 proved it.
Once you know who you are and what you’re here for (hint: it was never just the degree), the rest falls into place. The .csxl late nights. The group projects that became friend groups. The classmates who became your people. You stuck together, you made it count, and you showed that when Tar Heels rise together, everyone wins. 🩵🩵🩵🩵

On a day of locking in for finals, we are remembering a bit of joy brought to us by our Student Experience Ambassadors at our Tar Heel, Tails, and Boba event.

Thanks to the team we were able to do some of our favorite things…enjoy boba, play with our new four-legged besties, and catch up with our two-legged besties. It was a great way to celebrate the end of the semester and relax before we dive into finals. 🩵🐏🐶

Nearly 40 Carolina CS undergrads and department adoptees. 5 poster sessions. One packed afternoon at Alumni Hall. 💙

At the 27th Annual Celebration of Undergraduate Research, hosted by , CS students presented work spanning AI and large language models, virtual and augmented reality, brain-computer interfaces, hardware and software security, robotics, computer vision, and human-AI interaction.

A huge thank you to the UNC CS researchers who mentored them: Mohit Bansal, Prasun Dewan, Henry Fuchs, Neil Gaikwad, Izzi Hinks, Julia Len, Jim Mahaney, Natalie Stanley, Cynthia Sturton, Martin Styner, and Daniel Szafir.

Swipe through to see our students in action. Congratulations to every one of them. 👏

Meet the UNC CS Team from day one!😆🩵

Spot here. What a day we had for GiveUNC 🐾🤖

I pulled up to the Bell Tower to celebrate and did NOT hold back. Met my new best friend Winnie (a REAL dog — so much cuter hair than me), challenged Ramses to a pushup battle (no comment on who won), tried skateboarding (still working on it), and said hey to my fellow bot Kelvin over at .

But the best part? All of YOU. Thank you to everyone who came out to support and . Every gift, every visit, every moment — you’re the reason this community is as special as it is. We don’t take it for granted. Ever. 

I will be back on campus on April 11 celebrating science at the UNC Science Expo 🤖💙 at . Come say 👋🏽!

GoHeels

AI is transforming every field — but most conversations focus on using the tools, not the science behind them. UNC CoreAI research day, hosted by , put that science center stage.

100s of researchers. A dozen departments. Twelve lightning talks. Live demos. And an afternoon panel that got philosophical about the ethical dimensions and impact of reliable AI.

From autonomous surgical robots to video AI that outperforms GPT-4o — this is foundational research happening right here in Sitterson Hall.

We couldn’t have done it without our incredible faculty, collaborators across campus, and university leadership who showed up ready to connect. 🤝

👥 Tag yourself if you were there — and join us for the UNC CS Community Open House on March 7.