Industry heavyweights join together in a new venture, forming The University of Texas at Austin Computer Science Department Advisory Council.
Austin, TX. December 2015
With the unprecedented growth that The University of Texas at Austin Computer Science Department (UTCS) has experienced in recent years, and the elevated position that computer science now holds in the modern economy and society, UTCS has formed a new External Advisory Council to solicit the support and guidance of accomplished alumni and key partners from industry.
Among other duties, UTCS Advisory Council Members will be asked to support the exchange of ideas between academia and industry, while advancing the interests of the University and the Department. Members of the Advisory Council have been tapped to serve as advocates for UTCS through the pursuit of key strategic goals that advance the overall strength of the Department.
“As the largest of the top ten computer science departments, UTCS has a unique responsibility to play a leading role in the advancement of computer science not only as a representative of the academic discipline, but as a producer of the next generation research and thought leaders who will shape the technology sector for decades to come,” says Dr. Bruce Porter, Chair of UTCS. “To that end, we have recruited the industry’s leaders, and our most distinguished alumni, to join our Advisory Council. Leaders like SparkCognition’s CEO, Amir Husain, are pillars of this community – individuals who have the capacity to both help shape our vision for UT Computer Science and to serve as champions to bring that vision to fruition.”
“As CEO of an innovation focused Artificial Intelligence company, and a proud alum of UTCS, where Dr. Bruce Porter was my professor, I am committed to supporting and advancing the interests of the department and the university,” said Amir Husain, CEO of SparkCognition. “The Department’s mission of pursuing the very best in both computer science education and research is entirely in line with my own personal interest to further innovation and establish Austin as leading center for AI. I am honored to be joining one of the country’s most distinguished computer science departments.”
Among others, Amir will be joined by such notables as Robert LeBlanc, Senior Vice President, Cloud, IBM, Tara Estlin, Deputy Chief Technologist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Paul Ristroph and Tarun Nimmagadda, Founders & Co-CEOs, MutualMobile; Adriane McFetridge, Vice President, Verifone; Deepak Hathiramani, Founder & Chairman, Vistronix; Gregg Zeitlin, Co-Founder, Senior Managing Director and Partner, Reservoir Capital Group; Sean Scott, Vice President, Shopping Experience, Amazon; Pierre Malko, Founder and CEO, Dante, Inc.; and Gabby Silberman, Executive Director, Technology Strategy, Dell.
About Amir Husain
Amir Husain is a serial entrepreneur and inventor based in Austin, Texas. He is the Founder & CEO of SparkCognition, Inc. an award-winning Machine Learning/AI driven Cognitive Analytics Company, and serves on the Board of Advisors for IBM Watson.
Amir is a prolific inventor with 13 awarded and over 40 pending US patent applications to his credit. In 2013, a low cost computing platform Amir invented was inducted into the collection of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, the world’s largest such institution. His work has also been published in IEEE conferences and in leading tech journals including Network World, Computer World and others. His companies have won numerous awards such as Nokia’s 2015 IoT Open Innovation Challenge, the 2015 Austin Chamber of Commerce A-List, the InnovateApp 2014 competition, the VMWORLD Gold award, Network World’s Hottest Products, CRN’s Innovation award, and PC World’s best product award.
Amir serves as an advisor and board member to IBM Watson, Makerarm, uStudio, Alif Laila Children’s Educational Society and others.
About The University of Texas at Austin Computer Science Department Advisory Council
The UT Computer Science Department’s Advisory Council is an external community of friends and alumni who support, advise, and assist the chair in accomplishing the Department’s academic and societal missions. Advisory Council members will be called on to provide advice and counsel to the Chair and Department on important issues affecting the future of the Department, programs and external affairs; promote the mission by participating in new initiatives that extend our programs to the larger community; and engage and actively support the funding efforts of the Department.
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