ASU School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence

From wearable devices to electronic records, the health care system is generating more data than ever. But much of it remains fragmented and underused.

In SCAI, Bing Si, an associate professor of industrial engineering, is working to change that.

Using artificial intelligence and systems engineering, Si is designing tools that turn complex health data into actionable insights for clinicians. Her work spans everything from automating sleep apnea diagnosis to identifying hidden cardiovascular risks in teens, helping providers catch problems earlier and make more informed decisions.

Rather than focusing on individual data points, Si’s research looks at the bigger picture: how information flows through the health care system and how it can be used more effectively.

The goal is better systems, better decisions and ultimately, better patient outcomes.

Read more:
https://news.engineering.asu.edu/2026/05/solving-health-cares-growing-data-problem/

What happens when data is accurate but still misleading? At the fourth annual Douglas C. Montgomery Distinguished Lecture, Purdue University’s Yuehwern Yih challenged students and faculty members in SCAI to rethink how data is used in complex systems.

From health care to humanitarian aid, Yih highlighted how gaps between digital records and real-world conditions can lead to flawed decisions, even when the data appears reliable.

Her message: Better outcomes don’t always require more data, but rather better system design and a deeper understanding of how data is collected, interpreted and applied.

ASU Regents Professor and global systems engineering pioneer Douglas C. Montgomery created the lecture series to bring leading experts to ASU, explore the most pressing challenges in industrial engineering and inspire the next generation of problem-solvers.

Read more:
https://news.engineering.asu.edu/2026/05/lecture-asks-what-happens-when-data-tells-the-wrong-story/

And that’s a wrap!! Congrats to our amazing graduate students and their families 🎉

On stage now:

Convocation speaker: Abhirup Vijay Gunakar

“Courage is not the absence of fear. It is the conquest of fear,” he says.

At ASU, he found that adversity creates strength and encouraged fellow grads to prepare to be leaders.

Almost time!! Where’s Sparky?

What can universities really learn from student data and at what cost?

In the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of , Rakibul Hasan, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering, has been awarded a 2026 National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award for work that tackles this question head-on. His research demonstrates how seemingly harmless data can reveal deeply personal insights when analyzed with artificial intelligence.

Now, he’s developing new methods and tools to help universities understand those risks, protect sensitive information and make better decisions about how data is used.

As institutions look for better ways to support students, Hasan’s work is helping ensure data is used as a force for good without compromising privacy.

Read more about the CAREER Award:
https://news.engineering.asu.edu/2026/05/the-fight-to-protect-student-data-in-the-age-of-ai/

See Rakibul Hasan on the Lab Coat Optional with host Pete Zrioka:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjBCR7FMqfY

Cyber threats aren’t slowing down, and they’re no longer just coming from human actors.

Artificial intelligence, or AI, systems are already capable of discovering software vulnerabilities and generating exploits at a speed and scale that traditional defenses can’t match. That shift raises an urgent question: How do we secure systems when the attackers operate autonomously?

A new, first-of-its-kind conference led by Yan Shosh*taishvili and Adam Doupé, both assistant professors of computer science and engineering in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of , is tackling that challenge head-on. This October at the Conference of Synthetic Security Research, or SynSec, experts across industry and academia will converge in Scottsdale, Arizona, to explore what happens when AI becomes part of the research process itself, designing experiments, identifying weaknesses and accelerating discovery.

The goal isn’t to replace human researchers, but to help them keep pace with a rapidly evolving threat landscape.

Read more:
https://news.engineering.asu.edu/2026/05/when-hackers-are-no-longer-human/

Today is National Space Day! 🚀 Mars is one of the most thoroughly mapped worlds beyond Earth, but understanding it is another challenge entirely.

In , computer science doctoral student Mirali Purohit is helping change that. Working in the Kerner Lab, she developed an artificial intelligence, or AI, model trained on 12 million images of the Red Planet. It brings together data from multiple sensors to help scientists analyze Mars at planetary scale.

Instead of studying small slices of data at a time, researchers can now begin to see patterns across the entire planet, revealing new insights into its geological history and the possibility of past water or life.

The team plans to make both the model and its dataset publicly available, expanding access to planetary science tools worldwide.

As we celebrate National Space Day, this work highlights how AI is opening new frontiers in how we explore and understand our universe.

Read more:
https://news.asu.edu/20260430-science-and-technology-12-million-images-later-mars-starts-make-sense

Computer science master’s student Naman Ahuja is turning heads AND turning complex text into something far more usable — reliable, decision-ready tables.

This spring, Ahuja earned an IBM Infrastructure Master’s Fellowship for his AI research, which focuses on helping systems extract information from dense documents and build accurate tables step by step. It’s a critical challenge in AI, where outputs can look polished but miss key details.

His approach improves accuracy and traceability — especially important in fields like health care, where data extraction is still often done manually.

As Assistant Professor Vivek Gupta puts it, “Naman’s work really captures what we’re trying to do… build AI systems people can trust in real-world settings. The IBM fellowship is well-deserved.”

From graduate research to industry impact, Ahuja is a standout example of where AI innovation is headed. Next stop: Amazon 🚀

Read more:
https://news.asu.edu/20260430-sun-devil-community-computer-science-grad-earns-ibm-fellowship-ai-research

Celebrating the impact of our outstanding graduates 🎓 This spring, SCAI graduate Bhavana Reddy Pasula is leaving her mark on a technology recognized as one of TIME’s Best Inventions of the Year. As part of the SolarSPELL team — co-founded by Associate Professor Laura Hosman in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society — Bhavana used data science to help expand access to critical educational resources in communities around the world, all without internet connectivity.

Through her studies, including coursework with SCAI Assistant Professor Chris Bryan, she developed a passion for using data not just to analyze, but to tell human-centered stories and drive meaningful change.

It’s one thing to graduate with technical skills. It’s another to apply them to a globally recognized innovation improving lives at scale. That’s the kind of impact our SCAI students are making every day.

Read more:
https://news.asu.edu/20260428-sun-devil-community-from-grad-student-to-time-recognized-global-impact

Doctoral Student Spotlight 🎓 student Manan Roy Choudhury, mentored by Vivek Gupta, is helping answer a big question: Can we trust AI in high-stakes domains like law?

The recent paper, “Better Call CLAUSE,” co-authored by Manan and presented at EACL 2026 last month in Morocco, introduces a novel benchmark to test how well large language models reason about legal contracts. By inserting subtle discrepancies into thousands of real-world agreements, the research reveals a key issue — today’s AI systems often miss critical errors and struggle to explain them.

This matters because even minor oversights in legal documents can lead to significant financial or legal consequences. Manan’s work provides a much-needed framework to rigorously evaluate, and ultimately improve, the reliability of AI systems used in these sensitive contexts.

Excited to see this impactful work gaining international recognition!

Read the paper:
https://aclanthology.org/2026.findings-eacl.305/