Virginia Tech Professor Naren Ramakrishnan Elected to VASEM for AI Research

Ramakrishnan, a University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and director of the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, is among seven Virginia Tech faculty members elected to the academy this year. The others are Luiz DaSilva, Stefan Duma, Carla Finkielstein, Lee Learman, Robin McCarley, and John Rossmeisl.

His research combines artificial intelligence, data science, forecasting, computational epidemiology, and urban analytics to understand complex systems and anticipate emerging events. A recurring theme is using data to better understand human behavior, public health, and societal change at population scale, contributing both to methods and to understanding ethical and societal issues.

Ramakrishnan developed EMBERS, a 24/7 forecasting system sponsored by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity that uses open-source data to anticipate disease outbreaks, civil unrest, and election outcomes. He is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

He leads AI and machine learning efforts for the Institute for Advanced Computing and has helped establish interdisciplinary programs connecting data science to public health, urban systems, and other societal challenges. He also helped lead Virginia Tech's 2025 Virginia AI Summit, organized by VASEM to examine AI's opportunities and challenges for the state.

In Northern Virginia, Ramakrishnan has led the creation of several interdisciplinary initiatives, including a National Science Foundation-funded urban computing graduate certificate program that trains students in using data science and machine learning to study urban populations. With the new inductees, Virginia Tech's total VASEM membership now stands at 32.