For Kathy Tran, choosing to major in computer science (CS) at Georgia Tech was never about narrowing her interests. Drawn to both computing and film, she sought flexibility to explore technical problem-solving alongside creative storytelling. 

That is clearest on the surface, where Shah studied how public statements by businesses and financial institutions shape market behavior. At a deeper level, though, his success was buoyed by support from professors and his mentorship of younger students.

Shah’s ability to connect and invest in others led him to partner with Georgia Tech colleagues and start a financial technology business. He returns to campus this week to officially graduate from Tech, giving us a chance to catch up about his grad school experience and life as an entrepreneur.

Graduate: Agam Shah

Research Interests: Quantitative and computational finance, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, large language models (LLMs)

Education: Ph.D. in Machine Learning, home unit in the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE)

Faculty Advisors: Scheller College of Business Professor Sudheer Chava and School of CSE Associate Professor Chao Zhang

What persuaded you to attend graduate school at Georgia Tech?

Georgia Tech’s dedicated College of Computing strongly appealed to me. I was particularly drawn to the interdisciplinary nature of its machine learning Ph.D. program and the School of Computational Science and Engineering, both of which align well with my research interests. 

What research project(s) from Georgia Tech are you most proud of and why?

I am proud of all 20-plus research papers I have had the opportunity to contribute to at Georgia Tech. However, if I had to choose one, it would be my work on Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) text analysis, which was also highlighted in the news. 

This work is not only well-cited in academic literature, but the language model developed in the paper is also actively used by economists at many of the world’s top central banks, including researchers at the FOMC and the Bank of England. It is also used by leading financial institutions such as BlackRock and Daiwa Securities. Since its release, the model has achieved over 100,000 downloads on Hugging Face. 

What can you tell us more about your startup, ZettaQuant?

 ZettaQuant aims to solve one of the biggest challenges in using LLMs and agents: working effectively with massive underlying datasets. We serve as a layer between raw data and LLMs, helping distill billions of tokens into the relevant context that models can use. 

As a deep-tech startup, we are actively engaging with industry practitioners to better understand how to design and engineer our system to integrate seamlessly with their evolving AI workflows. Given the complexity of the problem we are tackling, particularly in advancing document intelligence systems, we are currently very focused on research and foundational development. 

How did your Georgia Tech education prepare you for starting ZettaQuant?

Not just my education, but my entire experience at Georgia Tech, extending beyond the classroom, prepared me for this journey. I met my co-founders at Georgia Tech, and many of the initial use cases we are exploring at ZettaQuant are built on open-source research I conducted there. 

In addition to research, I mentored more than 300 students through the Vertically Integrated Project “NLP for Financial Markets.” This experience taught me how to manage teams and think about building systems with a long-term vision. 

What advice would you give someone interested in graduate school?

 Most people pursue graduate school after already completing more than 15 years of education. Also, people who are admitted to a top school like Georgia Tech are often already well-positioned to secure strong job opportunities. So, graduate school should provide value beyond what you could learn outside the classroom. 

Before deciding, think carefully about what you hope to gain from graduate school that you cannot otherwise. Once you enroll, take full advantage of the faculty, research labs, networks, and seminars. Many students underutilize these opportunities during their undergraduate and graduate years. 

I would also like to quote the epilogue of my Ph.D. thesis: ‘Advice is abundant; conviction must be your own.’ Build a strong conviction about what you want to achieve from graduate school before committing to it. 

What did you do for fun and relaxation while attending Georgia Tech? Do you still keep up with these now?

 This may sound unconventional, but I spent a significant amount of time mentoring and teaching throughout my Ph.D. Many of my mentees went on to gain admission to top graduate programs. This included two students I mentored for all four years of their undergraduate studies who later joined the ML Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech. They are now teaching and mentoring students, completing a full-circle journey. 

Working with mentees and supporting their growth gives me a strong sense of fulfillment and serves as a form of relaxation. In addition, I enjoy listening to music, especially while coding, and I continue to do that today. 

What is your favorite Georgia Tech memory?

 If I had to choose one favorite memory, beyond the many exciting late nights in the lab, it would be proposing to my wife on Tech Green at Georgia Tech. She is also a Yellow Jacket, having completed her undergraduate degree here and currently pursuing her Ph.D. Our home truly is a hive of Yellow Jackets. 

Jack Hayley’s path through Georgia Tech’s computational media program centers on exploring how sound and software work together across film, games, and interactive media. 

Between orchestra concerts, magic shows, and yo-yo exhibitions, Li thrives in the limelight. In fact, not much rattles his nerves considering the five years of pressure he endured studying computational neuroscience at Tech.

Before he returns to New York City to continue building brain-interface technologies at Meta, we caught up with Li to learn how he keeps such a cool head at Georgia Tech and beyond.   

Graduate: Chengrui Li

Research Interests: Computational neuroscience, eye-tracking experiments and data analysis, statistical machine learning

Education: Ph.D. in Computational Science and Engineering (CSE)

Faculty Advisor: School of CSE Assistant Professor Anqi Wu

What persuaded you to attend graduate school at Georgia Tech?

My undergraduate was at Sichuan University in China. We knew that the most cutting-edge technology and research were in the United States, so I participated in an undergraduate exchange program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, during my third year. 

I wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience while also becoming very proficient in math and computer science (CS). This led me to apply to the CSE Ph.D. program over others. Georgia Tech’s CS ranking is very high, and the CSE program is very interdisciplinary, which matched my expectations super well. I did attain a solid education in math and CS at Georgia Tech. I also advanced my interest in neuroscience and its application by studying mathematical models and algorithms.

What research project from Georgia Tech are you most proud of?

My variational importance sampling paper is a favorite. That one was based heavily on statistical inference. I spent many hours working through complicated derivation calculations, often half-awake and half-asleep after several late nights. 

This paper confirmed to me, though, that innovative research requires both hard work and inspiration, and that this endeavor can be rewarding. The paper was selected as a top 5% spotlight paper at ICLR 2024, a world-leading conference on artificial intelligence research.

Could you share more about your role as a research scientist at Meta?

I have been working on Meta’s electromyography (EMG) neural band. This next-generation human-computer interaction device connects with and navigates Meta’s AI glasses.

With the neural band, you can use finger gestures to control the display content you see through the glasses, like swiping your thumb to scroll the screen, or writing on your lap as if you had a pen in your hand to send WhatsApp messages.

How did your Georgia Tech education prepare you for this role?

By pursuing my Ph.D., I am more proficient in critical thinking, math, coding, and presentation. During my interview, I demonstrated these skills and provided my publication records. This helped me land an internship, enabled my success in that role, and led to a full-time position. Additionally, my background in computational neuroscience best matched the work on the EMG neural band team at a big tech company.

What advice would you give someone interested in graduate school?

First, be clear whether a bachelor’s or master’s degree meets your work needs, or if you are truly interested in a scientific research topic. This interest should be based on your own passion, not the current trends. Interest is an important factor in deciding to pursue a Ph.D. because you have to like the topic and like it for a long time. A Ph.D. will require you to dive deep into a subject you must be genuinely curious about.

Second, we are in a new era with rapid advances in information technology. Time is an invaluable resource and is shaped by technology. You have to think more about your time, consider where and how you spend it, and embrace ways to use it more efficiently. 

Can you tell us more about your hobbies and how you keep up with them?

I started learning violin when I was five years old, and magic tricks when I was 11. The brain is a supercomputer suitable for functional computation. Our brain is an interface between the objective and subjective, where computation plays a core role in integrating these exact mechanics into interpretations of the world. This realization was one of the important factors that inspired me to pursue my Ph.D. research in computational neuroscience.

Another comparison I’ve learned after playing violin for 23 years is that the cochlea in our inner ear is a fast Fourier Transformer that simultaneously computes the aesthetic of music for us. Performing magic tricks for 17 years taught me that all the occurrences of seemingly low-probability magic phenomena are achieved by either letting it be a certain event or exhausting all possibilities.

I also have other hobbies, like yo-yo balls. I enjoy performing all these skills in front of audiences. Performing brings me satisfaction when I see excitement and happiness from the people I entertain. I am very grateful to my parents for their cultivation and encouragement in doing things that bring me fulfillment. They taught me to be curious and explore my interests, to enjoy pastimes, and instilled the habit to not give up my passions. These were not secondary things that distracted me from coursework or Ph.D. research, but rather complementary parts of my life that bring out the best in me.

What is your favorite Georgia Tech memory?

I have a lot. For my research, I debated frequently with Anqi Wu, my advisor. These often went late into the night to defend my stances. These challenged my beliefs and made me a stronger scholar, for which I am grateful to Anqi for her time and patience.  

I also enjoyed performing in the Georgia Tech symphony orchestra with our great conductor, Chaowen Ting. I was involved with the Georgia Tech Chinese Students and Scholars Association, where I showcased magic and yo-yo performances at organization events.

That plan lasted about three years.

“I initially thought I’d just continue in research without a Ph.D.,” Bhaskar said. “My advisor encouraged me to stay, but I wanted to experience industry first.”

In addition to perspective, working outside academia offered Bhaskar clarity. Over time, he found himself drawn back to the kind of deeper, more impactful research he had glimpsed during his graduate studies. Watching colleagues with doctoral degrees tackle complex problems reinforced his decision.

“I realized I missed research,” he said. “And seeing the kind of work Ph.D. graduates were doing motivated me to apply.”

That decision led him to Georgia Tech, where the strength of its cybersecurity and network security research stood out. The program’s interdisciplinary approach was a major draw.

“Some schools are strong in one area,” he said. “Here, there’s collaboration across domains. That was important to me.”

When Bhaskar arrived, the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy had not yet fully taken shape. Research groups, including the Institute for Information Security and Privacy, were already active, but the school's formal structure emerged during his second year.

Working with his advisor, Paul Pearce, Bhaskar shifted his research focus from binary and static analysis to network security, a transition that required both adjustment and curiosity.

“I wanted to move into something with more direct real-world impact,” he said.

This led him to work on censorship measurement, internet security and privacy, areas where technical findings can have global implications. With guidance from Pearce and support from other faculty working in similar areas, he quickly found his footing.

His favorite research project however, was in fact his first. 

In earlier research, unexplained anomalies had appeared in measurement data. At first, the assumption was that they stemmed from geolocation issues. However, after digging deeper, Bhaskar uncovered a different cause: routing changes.

“That discovery showed that routing can significantly affect measurement results,” he said.

What began as a narrow investigation turned into a broader insight. One that reshaped how those measurements could be interpreted.

Along the way, other milestones followed, including his first paper accepted to a top conference.

“That was a big moment,” Bhaskar said.

But beyond publications and research breakthroughs, it’s the day-to-day experience of doctoral life that made the strongest impression.

“The camaraderie stands out the most,” he said. “Especially during deadlines. Everyone is working hard, but you still take time to step away, talk, and support each other.”

That sense of community extended beyond his own lab. Interactions with neighboring groups and researchers in fields like cryptography broadened his perspective and shaped his approach to problems.

“The way different groups think about problems is really valuable,” he said.

Outside the lab, Atlanta played its own role in the experience. From sporting events to concerts, the city offered a balance to the intensity of research.

“There’s a lot to do,” Bhaskar said. “I tried to take advantage of that.”

Now, as he prepares to graduate, the next chapter is already in motion. Bhaskar will move to the West Coast for a post-doctorate security research role at Stanford University, following a summer internship that offers time to reset before the transition.

“Abhi's work is excellent,” said Pearce. “During the course of his Ph.D. he discovered important underlying phenomena that influence how we measure and understand internet censorship and end-to-end network behaviors broadly.” 

“He's an outstanding researcher and community leader, and while his contribution as a student to my group and SCP will be missed, we're excited about what he accomplished and his next steps!”

Mizan Rahman knows there’s much that academia and industry can learn from each other.

He’s living proof of it.

The 52-year-old entrepreneur will receive his Ph.D. in human-centered computing (HCC) as he walks across the stage on Thursday at Georgia Tech’s Spring 2026 Ph.D. Commencement.

When Rahman was accepted into the HCC Ph.D. program, he’d already founded three successful tech startups and was an angel investor in numerous others. He also earned a master’s in computational science and engineering from Georgia Tech in 2013.

Rahman took on the challenge of a Ph.D. because he’s always been in pursuit of a holistic view of technology. One perspective he said he needed to understand was that of the end user.

“I’d already done computer science and computational science and engineering, so I wanted to look at the human dimension, the user’s perspectives, and society,” Rahman said. “You’ve got to build technology that fits into our human dynamics.”

Rahman’s journey began as an undergraduate in chemical engineering at Miami Dade College and Florida Atlantic University. He switched to computer science after his roommate, also a CS major, showed him some programming he had been working on.

“I couldn’t sleep after that,” Rahman said. “I was writing software all night. I loved solving problems through technology.”

Early Success

Rahman invented BayBuilder, a strategic sourcing automation technology, in 1999. The software was adopted by major Fortune 500 companies. Rahman estimates it has saved these companies $1 billion in procurement spending.

Baybuilder was acquired by a NASDAQ-listed firm in 2001, and he was ready to start his next company.

“I’ve been an entrepreneur as far back as I can remember,” Rahman said. “I was born with it. If I saw something that didn’t exist, I created it.”

After relocating to Atlanta, Rahman founded a new company, M2SYS Technology. Governments around the world used the company’s innovative identity technology to automate processes and deliver efficient services to citizens. M2SYS also worked with the CDC to treat HIV in Haiti and Zambia, as well as many U.S. hospitals, including Grady Memorial in Atlanta, to protect patients from fraud and receiving the wrong treatment.

Rahman’s most recent startup, CloudApper AI, introduced a new system architecture that generates secure software requiring minimal ongoing maintenance. His non-biased algorithm, which he created during his Ph.D. for CloudApper, is now used by major companies to streamline automated resume analysis and candidate scoring.

Living in Two Worlds

Rahman began his Ph.D. in 2021, but he kept his new venture to himself and his family. He didn’t tell his employees he was pursuing a Ph.D., and he didn’t disclose his industry background to his fellow doctoral students.

“I kept the other side of me far away,” he said. “The people who knew, they knew, but I purposefully didn’t discuss my outside activities and experience. I wanted to fit in, and I think I was able to do that.”

When Rahman was at his company, he was a CEO and entrepreneur, and when he was at Georgia Tech, he was a researcher. But what he was learning as a researcher began to change how he perceived his business. 

“I wanted to be a researcher and think like a researcher and not just always think about sales and marketing,” he said. “I started bringing in more ideas about how the user should be thought of in our products. I’m sure they were wondering why I was emphasizing that so much, but it was because I was applying what I was learning in my Ph.D. 

“Now I’ve been on both sides, I want to be connected to both in the future, applying research principles and practices in product development and innovation.”

Building Community Through Makerspaces

When it came time for Rahman to choose a subject for his dissertation, he returned to his roots and looked for ways technology can support young entrepreneurs and their startups. That’s when he began conducting research in makerspaces.

“I wanted to find out how we can bring innovation to a scale where anybody can participate,” he said. “I saw this happening in makerspaces where regular people learn, collaborate, and build products and companies from scratch. I saw that the community at large is facing a sustainability crisis.”

Rahman argued in his dissertation that makerspaces can play a significant role in local innovation. When people struggle to survive, it disrupts communities in numerous ways.

Rahman details four studies conducted over three-and-a-half years that show how socio-technical factors drive organizational sustainability in makerspaces and how AI tools can foster an innovative culture within them.

“The compelling thing about his research is that he shows that people come to makerspaces for the tools, but they stay for the people,” said Rosa Arriaga, associate professor and Rahman’s advisor.

“He has plenty of work from his ethnographic research that shows that a makerspace can have all the tech and resources, but if there isn’t cohesion among the people, there’s a problem.”

It Takes a Village

Rahman is the first to admit that it’s not possible for one man to run a company while pursuing a Ph.D. He needed a community. This starts with his family. His wife, Mohu Sultana, now serves as interim CEO of M2SYS and has supported Rahman throughout his Ph.D. research.

The Georgia Tech community has been part of Rahman’s life in some way since he started his career. 

Sultana holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Tech, and their daughter, Malisha Rahman, is graduating this week with a bachelor’s in economics and international affairs. Malisha Rahman has also been accepted into the HCC program and will begin her Ph.D. in the fall. 

Rahman said that any student who wants to create a tech startup will have an advantage from access to Georgia Tech’s network.

“The Georgia Tech startup community is fantastic,” he said. “There is a tremendous amount of knowledge here, and the research community can help shape the next big thing. We have CREATE-X, a place where you can find mentorship from faculty who started in industry. You’ll learn things I wish I knew before I started.”

“From my seat, I can feel the energy. I see the momentum. We're all about growth and change,” said VivekSarkar, dean and John P. Imlay Jr. Chair of the College of Computing. 

“But those are just words. What's really behind the words is all the hard work put in by all of you.Today's celebration is for the entire College, all of you, and all your hard work.”

Students, faculty, and staff from the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) were among those recognized at the celebration. Their accomplishments reflected a year dedicated to excellence in research, teaching, and service. School of CSE award recipients included:

• Grace Kim, M.S. computer science (CS) student: Donald V. Jackson Fellowship
• Sri Ranganathan Palaniappan, M.S. CS student: Donald V. Jackson Fellowship
• Ethan Yang, M.S. CSE student: Marshall D. Williamson Fellowship
• Alumnus Austin Wright (Ph.D. ML-CSE 2025): Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award
• Arlene Washington-Capers, school administrative officer: 25 Years of Service Acknowledgment

Two lecturers in the School of Computing Instruction with ties to the School of CSE received awards at the celebration.

Max Mahdi Roozbahani received a Dean’s Award, which went to instructors who taught class sizes over 350 students this year. A Class of 2019 CSE alumnus, Roozbahani teaches CSE 6242: Data and Visual Analytics.

Nimisha Roy received the Monica Sweat Outstanding Lecturer in External Engagement Award. She earned her Ph.D. in CSE in 2021. 

Professor Polo Chau advises Kim, Palaniappan, and Wright, and recommended them for their awards. 

Chau is an associate director of Georgia Tech’s M.S. Analytics program, which won the UPS George D. Smith Prize at the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). The award recognizes excellence in preparing students to become practitioners of operations research and analytics.

For Kim, the Jackson Fellowship was the latest achievement in a year decorated with accolades. She was one of two School of CSE students to receive the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program award (GRFP). Kim was also selected for a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Research award.

Ph.D. student Abir Haque was CSE’s second NSF GRFP awardee, receiving the grant to advance research in scientific computing. Advised by School of CSE Professor and Associate Chair Edmond Chow, Haque additionally received a Department of Energy (DOE) Computational Science Graduate Fellowship.

Chow was appointed to several leadership roles this year in the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM). The organization selected Chow as vice president for programs. SIAM also named him as co-chair of next year’s Conference on Computational Science and Engineering. 

NSF presented the CAREER award to two CSE faculty. Assistant Professor Yunan Luo received a grant to build artificial intelligence models to study understudied proteins in biology. 

Elizabeth Qian is an assistant professor in the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering with a joint appointment in the School of CSE. Her NSF CAREER award will support research developing machine learning methods that learn from multi-fidelity data.

Researchers from the School of CSE were finalists for the 2025 Gordon Bell Prize. Assistant Professor Spencer Bryngelson led a team that included Ph.D. students Ben Wilfong and Anand Radhakrishnan, Research Staff member Dan Vickers, and alumnus Henry Le Berre (CS 2025). 

The team achieved the largest computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation to date, exceeding the current record by a factor of 20. The group simulated interacting plumes of 33 rocket thrusters inspired by the SpaceX Super Heavy booster.

Bryngelson advises Melody Lee, an undergraduate student who was one of three Georgia Tech students to receive a Barry Goldwater Scholarship this year. She received the award to continue research at the intersection of quantum computing and CFD.

Assistant Professor Qi Tang received the DOE Early Career Research Award. He is the first-ever faculty member from CSE and the College of Computing to receive the award. 

The $875,000 award will support Tang for five years as he researches particle data processing and compression, with applications in fusion, accelerator, and nuclear physics.

Tang was also selected as a Summer Early Career Scholar of Digital Futures at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.

Bryngelson and Tang were selected as collaborators for three DOE Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP IV) Centers. The program leverages the academic community to advance science-based modeling and simulation. 

One of Tang’s students, Alex de Magalhaes, received a SPARK Award scholarship from the Georgia Tech Strategic Energy Institute. The award recognizes outstanding student engagement in energy research.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded prestigious R01 grants to three CSE faculty, each valued at $1.2 million. 

Assistant Professor Anqi Wu is using the grant to study multi-animal social behavior using advanced representation learning and reinforcement learning. 

NIH awarded a grant to Assistant Professor Kai Wang and Professor B. Aditya Prakash to build an AI framework to efficiently treat patients diagnosed with diabetes and other chronic diseases.

Prakash advises M.S. student Sudarshan Anand, who claimed two awards at the 2025 International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics. First, Anand was the champion of the conference’s data challenge competition. Then, the conference selected him as a Young Professional NextGen Scholar. 

Assistant Professor Victor Fung won a 2025 Google Scholar Program award. He received the award in the Applied Science category for multi-modal scientific agents for in silico materials discovery and inverse design. The Research Scholar Program provided up to $60,000 to early-career professors to support advancement of their research.

This year, the College of Computing selected School of CSE Professor Rich Vuduc as director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Scientific Software Engineering (CSSE). The center was formed in 2022 from an $11 million investment from Schmidt Sciences. Georgia Tech was one of four universities that Schmidt Sciences selected to host a center. 

CSSE develops custom software tools and best practices to meet scientists' needs. Overall, this approach accelerates the pace and quality of scientific discovery.

Vuduc advised alumnus Elizabeth Hong (CS 2025), who received a Fulbright U.S.-Korea Presidential STEM Initiative Award. Designed to promote academic and cultural exchange, the award provided graduating college seniors and graduate students funding to pursue independent research projects in Korea on STEM topics of their choice.

Vuduc advises Ph.D. student Max Hawkins, who was selected for the OMSCS Pre-Doctoral Fellowship program. 

The program provided Hawkins support to design and teach a one-credit, pass/fail/audit seminar course. Hawkins taught Computing at Scale: The Design, Operation, and Societal Impacts of Data Centers in Fall 2025 and a research course in Spring 2026.

Hawkins also received a $3,000 scholarship through the 7X24 Exchange Atlanta Scholarship Program. He was one of three scholarship recipients awarded to students in the greater Atlanta area with research interests in the data center industry.

Vuduc advises Team Phoenix, Georgia Tech’s student cluster competition team. Team Phoenix placed first among USA participants and sixth internationally at SC25’s IndySCC competition (30 total teams, 12 USA and 18 international). The team was graded on optimizing techniques and running industry standard benchmarks on supercomputers. 

The team included computer science undergraduate students Alexander Ichtovkin, Alex Kim, Aiden Lambert, Sahil Samar, Seth Yiming Shi, and Venkata Sai Aditya Reddy Devarapalli. Graduate students Charles Lindsey and Jay Saraha mentored the team coached by Research Scientists Jeff Valdez, Aaron Jezghani, and Will Powell.

Alumni Ziyi (Francis) Yin (Ph.D. CSE-CSE 2024), Rafael Orozco (Ph.D. CSE-CSE 2024), Mathias Louboutin (Ph.D. CS-CSE 2020), and Professor Felix Herrmann received an honorable mention for the Best Paper of 2024 from the journal Geophysics. The award, presented in 2025, recognized the group’s work on WISE: a full-waveform variational inference via subsurface extensions.

Georgia Tech approved both of CSE’s promotion cases this year. Elizabeth Cherry will be promoted to full professor. Srijan Kumar will be promoted to associate professor with tenure. 

This week, Time Magazine named CrowdStrike and Pindrop Security among the 10 Most Influential Software Companies of 2026.

CrowdStrike and Pindrop appear on TIME’s new list alongside some of the world’s best-known computing companies, including Adobe, Microsoft, and Palantir. Released on April 27 as part of the outlet’s TIME100 Companies: Industry Leaders series, this recognition underscores their rising influence.

“It’s exciting to see that two out of the ten companies on this list were founded by alumni and faculty from the College of Computing. We are bursting with pride,” said Vivek Sarkar, John P. Imlay Jr. Dean of Computing. “This recognition reflects the strength of our academic and research programs, as well as the impact of our commitment to fostering a vibrant entrepreneurial ecosystem.

"It also highlights how we are empowering our students and faculty to translate bold, innovative ideas into successful ventures. Looking ahead, we will further integrate entrepreneurial thinking with the computational and AI foundations embedded throughout our curriculum.”

Their inclusion on TIME’s list this year is especially notable because both CrowdStrike and Pindrop address the growing cybersecurity threat landscape, including deepfakes.

[RELATED: USNWR Ranks GT Computing No. 2 for Undergraduate Cybersecurity]

GT Computing alumnus Vijay Balasubramaniyan (PhD CS 2011) co-founded Pindrop in 2011 with his doctoral advisor, Mustaque Ahamad, and Georgia Tech alumnus Paul Judge (PhD CS 2002). It commercialized his doctoral research to help call centers determine whether callers are legitimate.

The company has also developed a deepfake protection product and recently raised $100 million in capital funding to expand its deepfake video detection business. During this expansion, the company developed Pindrop Pulse, which TIME named one of the Best Inventions of 2025.

“Identity, consent, and accountability are society’s contracts. Deepfakes erode all three,” Balasubramaniyan told TIME.

Pindrop technology can confirm participants' identities in audio/video conference calls within a few seconds.

“Vijay’s Ph.D. research was of the highest quality, and the Pindrop paper was published in one of the top-tier security conferences,” said Ahamad, Regents' Entrepreneur and interim chair of the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy.

“However, because of his work experience before coming to Georgia Tech, he also focused on the real-world relevance of his research, which led to the launch of Pindrop Security. He is a great example of impactful research that students conduct in our laboratories.”

Like Pindrop, CrowdStrike was founded to counter emerging digital threats and has evolved to combat growing AI-powered security challenges. Dmitri Alperovitch (CS 2001, MS InfoSec 2003) co-founded the company and served as chief technology officer at its 2012 launch.

Alperovitch, recently inducted into the College of Computing Hall of Fame, played a pivotal role in securing more than $150 million in capital investments for the company, helping pave the way for CrowdStrike to become one of the world’s leading cybersecurity companies. In fact, its client list includes nearly 60% of Fortune 500 companies.

“What appealed to me in cybersecurity is that you are never really done,” Alperovitch said during a recent campus fireside chat with students.

“As long as there are human beings out there that want to do you harm, there are always security problems to solve.”

Asked about the founding of CrowdStrike, Alperovitch described investigating a 2010 breach at Google by a nation-state actor as a pivotal moment for him.

“The industry refused to acknowledge this was a widespread problem, and that realization led me to start CrowdStrike,” he said. “You no longer just have to be better than your competitors. You must stay proactive and vigilant.”

Alperovitch is the co-founder and chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator and the bestselling author of World on the Brink: How America Can Beat China in the Race for the 21st Century.