Arts & Sciences Council recognized four Trinity College of Arts & Sciences faculty members on Oct. 1 for outstanding teaching. The Council’s annual teaching awards celebrate faculty who challenge and support their students, create engaging and inclusive learning environments, and help students connect their coursework to questions beyond the classroom. This year’s honorees represent Computer Science, the Writing and Rhetoric Program, Sociology and Chemistry. Brandon Fain… read more about Arts & Sciences Council Honors Four Faculty for Excellence in Teaching »
Duke leaders and faculty showcased the university’s expertise and explored future collaborations with India during Jitin Prasada's visit. read more about Duke Welcomes India’s Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology to Explore Partnership »
The winners of the 2026 World Laureates Foundation Prize (WLF Prize) were announced in Shanghai on Thursday, with a total of 11 scientists honored, the most in the award's history, following the introduction of a new prize category.Established in 2021, the WLF Prize is an international science award recognizing exceptional individuals in the fields of computer science, mathematics, life science or medicine.Ingrid Daubechies of Duke University won the 2026 WLF Prize in Computer Science or Mathematics for her major… read more about Duke Math Professor Ingrid Daubechies Won 2026 World Laureates Foundation Prize in Computer Science and Mathematics »
Few people pursue a Ph.D. or a research position so they can chair an academic department someday. Many faculty end up in the department chair role because they are asked to do so, or out of a shared sense that it’s “their turn.” To complicate matters, the skills that help chairs succeed as researchers and teachers may not be the same ones that will help them run a department. In the best of circumstances, faculty navigate these learning curves to become successful, even “joyful” chairs. To learn more about this… read more about What’s It Like to Be a Department Chair? Takeaways From a Candid Conversation »
Duke computer scientists and engineers will lead a new $24-million US Army research hub focused on developing technologies to detect, disrupt, and seize control of unmanned aerial systems (UAS).Funded through a six-year cooperative agreement from the Army Research Office, the hub will operate as the Inducing Cyber and Physical Effects in Unmanned Aerial Systems via Cyber-Electromagnetic Convergence (ICE-CEM) center. read more about US Army Taps Duke to Lead $24M Drone Defense Research Hub »
Duke University has received a $24 million award from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Army Research Office (DEVCOM ARO) to develop the foundational science required to engineer and build systems to counter unmanned aerial attacks. The six-year cooperative agreement establishes the Inducing Cyber and Physical Effects in Unmanned Aerial Systems via Cyber-Electromagnetic Convergence (ICE-CEM) center, bringing together experts from seven leading academic institutions and Lockheed Martin to give the U.S.… read more about Duke to Lead Anti-Drone Research Center for U.S. Army »
Kristin Stephens-Martinez is an Associate Professor of the Practice in Computer Science at Duke University. She studies how students learn and engage in computing courses and uses classroom data to improve teaching, assessment, and student support. Her interest in grading policies comes from balancing two goals: creating systems that help students learn and building processes that instructors can realistically sustain in large courses. She writes about teaching and computing education on her blog and hosts The CS-Ed… read more about Duke's Kristin Stephens-Martinez Balances Flexibility for Students With a Sustainable Grading Workflow »
Alberto Bartesaghi, professor of Computer Science, Biochemistry and Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received a five-year, $2.3 million Maximizing Investigators' Research Award (MIRA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) to develop new computational methods that reveal the three-dimensional structures of proteins in their natural cellular environment. Proteins are the molecular machines that carry out nearly every function in living cells. Understanding their structures is essential… read more about Bartesaghi Receives $2.3 Million NIH MIRA Award to Advance High-Resolution Imaging of Proteins Inside Cells »
It started with a computer screen left open at the right time.Adriane Fresh, Assistant Research Professor at Duke’s Social Science Research Institute, had been talking with colleague Nick Eubank, Associate Research Professor at the same institute, about a collection of documents she had spent years gathering: port books from sixteenth and seventeenth century England. These handwritten ledgers recorded the ships, cargoes, taxes, and merchants that moved through English ports during one of the most turbulent economic periods… read more about Trinity Students, Scholars Are Teaching Computers to Read Four-Hundred-Year-Old Handwriting »
Research co-authored by Michael Reiter, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received the 2026 Test of Time Award from the USENIX Security Symposium. The award, which honors research whose lasting influence and importance have become evident in the years since publication, recognizes the 2016 paper “Stealing Machine Learning Models via Prediction APIs.” The study helped establish model extraction — copying an AI system’s decision-making without access… read more about Award-Winning Research from Michael Reiter Reveals Security Risks to Publicly Accessible Machine-learning Models »
Trinity College of Arts & Sciences is increasing its support for early-stage interdisciplinary research efforts with new funding for four faculty-led research initiatives designed to foster collaboration across the social sciences, natural sciences and arts & humanities. The projects — spanning biodiversity, statistics, mental health, philosophy, cultural heritage and data science — came out of a competitive call for proposals launched last year. Two initiatives, Causality at Duke and BioTA: Biodiversity… read more about Trinity Funds Four New Faculty-Led Research Initiatives »
This summer, 260 undergraduate and graduate students joined research teams through Duke’s +Programs, exploring questions ranging from AI ethics to climate change, documentary storytelling and public history. Along the way, they discovered new interests, built confidence and learned what collaborative research is really like. read more about Trinity Departments Support a Summer of Discovery Through Collaboration »
In this podcast episode, Kristin Stephens-Martinez discusses semi-flipped teaching with guest Diane Horton from the University of Toronto and co-host of In the Loop, a podcast for computer science undergraduates. read more about Duke Computer Scientist Kristin Stephens-Martinez Explores Semi-Flipped Teaching on CS-Ed Podcast »
We invited Duke University faculty to reflect on the Declaration through the lens of their own discipline. Each contributor responded to a common prompt: “250 years later, how does your field help us understand, advance or challenge the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence?” By Jian Pei, Arthur S. Pearse Distinguished Professor of Computer Science Two hundred fifty years after the Declaration of Independence, computer science has never been more powerful… read more about The Declaration at 250: Computer Scientist Jian Pei Reflects on Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness »
A research team co-led by Alberto Bartesaghi, associate professor of Computer Science, Biochemistry, and Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been selected to join the Collaborative Research Network (CRN), an international, multidisciplinary, multi-institutional network working to address high-priority research questions about Parkinson's disease, through a $9 million grant awarded by Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP), in partnership with The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s… read more about Duke’s Research Team Joins Global Network to Unravel the Complexity of Parkinson’s Disease »
ACM has named Nicki Washington the recipient of the 2025 ACM Frances E. Allen Award for Outstanding Mentoring, one of the computing field’s highest honors for mentorship and leadership. The biennial award recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional mentoring while advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in computing. Named for pioneering computer scientist Frances Allen — the first woman to receive the ACM A.M. Turing Award — the award honors leaders whose mentorship has reshaped the field itself. … read more about Nicki Washington Receives ACM Frances E. Allen Award for Outstanding Mentoring »
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently announced the election of 120 members and 25 international members "in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research."Two Duke faculty join the ranks of this prestigious organization:Robert Calderbank is Charles S. Sydnor Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and professor of mathematics at Trinity College of Arts & Sciences. He is also a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Pratt School of… read more about Robert Calderbank Elected to The National Academy of Sciences »
Josh Alms is a senior from Long Island, New York, double majoring in Statistical Science and Computer Science with a minor in German. During his time at Duke, he worked in several applied research settings and wrote about sports for The Duke Chronicle. He enjoys traveling —especially his time studying abroad in the Duke in Berlin Program — as well as reading fantasy novels and hiking. After graduation, he will work in Washington, D.C., as a consultant. As commencement approaches, we asked Alms to reflect on his time at… read more about Josh Alms '26: Rediscovering Sports and Scholarship at Duke »
Taylor Moorehead is a senior from Woodstock, Maryland, double majoring in Computer Science and Economics with a minor in Mathematics. In addition to serving as a Trinity Ambassador, she serves as an executive member of Duke Quantitative Finance, social chair of The Cube Entrepreneurship, LLC, and as a tour guide for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. For the past two summers, she worked as a quantitative trader intern in Chicago and Austin. In her free time, she enjoys playing spikeball and attending Duke basketball… read more about Taylor Moorehead '26: A Small Decision That Defined a Duke Experience »
Sarah Wu is a senior from San Diego, California, double majoring in Statistical Science and Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. At Duke, she developed a strong interest in statistics and teaching through her work as a teaching assistant for courses including Introduction to Calculus II and Introduction to Data Science. After graduation, Wu will pursue a Ph.D. in Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. As graduation approaches, we asked Wu to reflect on her time at Duke, the experiences… read more about Sarah Wu '26: Discovering a Love for Challenge and Teaching at Duke »
What if coordinated AI interventions could heal the internet’s civility problem? A team led by Jun Yang, the Knut Schmidt Nielsen Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, received an honorable mention from the Laude Moonshots competition, along with a $100,000 grant to develop an AI-powered system for improving civic discourse on social media. Yang’s team brings together a multidisciplinary group of Duke faculty. Christopher Bail, Professor of Sociology, and Alexander Volfovsky,… read more about Duke Team Receives $100,000 Laude Moonshots Award to Make Social Media More Civil »
Caitlin Tuttle is a senior double majoring in Statistical Science and Computer Science with a minor in Cultural Anthropology. In addition to serving as a Trinity Ambassador, she is a SPIRE Fellow — a program that helped her build a strong sense of community on campus by supporting students who have historically faced barriers to access, inclusion, or opportunity in STEM. Tuttle is interested in using statistical analysis to address humanitarian challenges. Through the Data+ program, she conducted research examining how… read more about Caitlin Tuttle '26: From Data+ to Humanitarian Impact »
One of Felix Zhu’s most memorable moments at Duke happened early on. During his first year, Zhu and his band, Weekend Therapy, performed for the last day of classes celebration (LDOC), opening for Cafuné, one of his favorite artists. Standing on that stage felt like a high point, even as a first-year student. “It was a huge milestone for me and my bandmates and a huge personal achievement to be on the big stage,” he says. That moment captures something central about Zhu’s four years at Duke: a… read more about Felix Zhu '26 Found His Rhythm on Stage and in the Classroom »
Students in Duke’s Natural Language Processing course are getting hands-on experience with cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools thanks to a teaching grant from Thinking Machines Lab, an AI research company focused on making advanced AI systems more accessible to researchers and students, to Assistant Professor of Computer Science Bhuwan Dhingra. The grant is part of the company’s Tinker Research and Teaching Grants program, which provides funding and computing credits to universities using its platform to train… read more about New Grant Funds Hands-On Experience with Large Language Models at Duke »
If you care about shaping the future of medicine, climate, art, policy, business or justice, Computer Science already has a place for you. You don’t have to arrive fluent in code. What you do need is a willingness to wrestle with complex ideas and a desire to understand how intelligent systems are transforming the world. For many students, especially those coming from outside of STEM, the first CS course can feel like learning a foreign language, which is natural — and temporary. Programming is often the… read more about Computer Science is About Shaping the Future, Not Just Writing Code »
Yasa Baig, ’22, has been awarded a PD Soros Fellowship in support of a Ph.D. in bioengineering at Stanford, joining 20 other Duke recipients of the award. Born in India and raised in Massachusetts, Baig earned a B.S. in physics and computer science at Duke where he was a recipient of the Goldwater Scholarship and was an A.B. Duke Scholar. As a Marshall Scholar, Baig went on to complete a master’s degree in physics and another in mathematics at the University of Cambridge. At Stanford, Baig… read more about Trinity Alumnus Yasa Baig Wins Soros Fellowship for Graduate Study »
"What matters is finding your people, the ones who inspire you, ground you and remind you it’s okay to follow a different beat," said senior Lilian Fan. (Photo courtesy of Fan) Lilian Fan was drawn to Duke not by rankings or undergraduate research or even basketball. She came because of a frequency.Encouraged by her high school music teacher to explore colleges with student-run radio, Fan’s research kept circling back to WXDU. After an online deep dive into North Carolina, she liked what… read more about Lilian Fan '26: Traveling to the Beat of a Different Drum »
Meta’s Superintelligence Labs launched its first generative AI model, called Muse Spark, earlier this week. It is currently available through the Meta AI app, but the company plans to integrate Muse Spark across all of its platforms—including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp—in the coming weeks.Handing over this kind of data to any AI tool is a risky decision, even if users are able to generate personalized advice. “Usage of these models can be really tricky,” says Monica Agrawal, an assistant professor at Duke University… read more about Duke's Monica Agrawal Cautions Against Sharing Health Data With AI »
Jian Pei, an Arthur S. Pearse Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, has been selected to receive the 2026 PAKDD Distinguished Research Contributions Award. The Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining (PAKDD) is a prestigious and highly selective conference that includes high-profile keynote and invited talks as well as peer-reviewed full research papers. Pei will present his research, Data Mining in the Age of AI: What Endures, What Changes, and What Matters Next, in… read more about Duke Computer Science Professor Jian Pei Receives PAKDD Distinguished Research Award »
Ten63 Therapeutics, a biotechnology company with strong Duke University roots, has secured major new investment to advance its artificial intelligence-driven approach to drug discovery. The company recently announced a strategic financing round that brings its total funding to more than $45 million, with support from major investors including the Gates Foundation and the Chugai Venture Fund. Ten63 was founded by Duke professor Bruce Donald and his former Ph.D. students, Marcel Frenkel (now CEO) and Mark Hallen (now CTO… read more about Duke-Founded AI Drug Discovery Company Secures Major New Funding »