IFDS director Maryam Fazel received the 2025 Farkas Prize from the INFORMS Optimization Society. The Farkas Prize is an annual award honoring a mid-career researcher for outstanding, career-spanning contributions to the field of optimization. Fazel was recognized for her foundational work in optimization and pioneering contributions to data science and artificial intelligence." INFORMS citation
The Institute for Foundations of Data Science (IFDS) brought AI and machine learning experts from across the nation to the University of Washington to discuss and explore the mathematical, statistical, and algorithmic underpinnings of modern AI systems. The IFDS Workshop on Theoretical Foundations of Applied AI was held in August 2025 at the Bill & Melinda Gates Center for Computer Science & Engineering on the UW campus.
A big thank you to the workshop co-organizers: Zaid Harchaoui (UWash), Kevin Jamieson (UWash), Robert Nowak (UWisc), and Maryam Fazel (UWash).
This workshop brings together a diverse group of theoreticians and applied researchers to explore the theoretical underpinnings behind the successes and limitations of modern AI.
Ilias Diakonikolas, Sheldon B. Lubar professor of Computer Sciences, received the 2024 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Grace Murray Hopper Award, one of the highest honors for young researchers in computing.
In an op-ed for Fortune magazine, Rebecca Willett, IFDS executive committee member, and Henry Hoffmann discuss how federal research cuts threaten to devastate America’s innovation and dominance in artificial intelligence.
This event is a collaboration between the IFDS at UW-Madison and the Data Science Center at Brigham Young University (BYU), a key partner of the UW IFDS.
Ying Fan, a former IFDS Wisc RA advised by Kangwook Lee, has been selected as a 2024 Rising Star in Machine Learning. The award recognizes her outstanding achievements and potential in advancing the field of machine learning. She was invited to deliver a talk at the Rising Star in Machine Learning series, held on December 5 and 6 at the University of Maryland, College Park.
UChicago and UW-Madison are part of a new AI Institute for the SkAI that has foundational components stemming from IFDS research
IFDS PI Rebecca Willett was the recipient of the SIAM Activity Group on Data Science Career Prize at the 2024 SIAM Conference on Mathematics of Data Science (MDS24).