"Senior Tenure Track Faculty (Open Rank, Joint Appointment) - AI Interdisciplinary Institute"

Job Details

The Artificial Intelligence Interdisciplinary Institute at Maryland - AIM (aim.umd.edu) - is hiring 40 faculty over the next several years, including 30 tenured and tenure-track faculty and 10 professional track faculty across all colleges at the University of Maryland.

Building on five outstanding hires made last year, this search is focused exclusively on candidates at the rank of Associate Professor or Full Professor. Candidates need not already have one of these ranks, but should have a record commensurate with an initial appointment at Associate or Full Professor.

ABOUT AIM

Launched in Spring 2024, AIM’s vision is to create a future where AI serves humanity and society by taking a broadly interdisciplinary approach to its development. We work across all twelve colleges on campus in research, education, community building, and external engagements to realize this vision. We imagine a world where technologists, humanists, social scientists, and others all contribute to a positive AI future, and where all students on campus have the opportunity to build their own AI expertise, regardless of their future career path. Community is extremely important to us at AIM, and we aspire toward UMD’s Values (umd.edu/about/mission).

AIM is a collaborative hub for AI, supporting faculty research, offering innovative and experiential learning opportunities and new degree programs, and focusing on responsible and ethical AI technology to advance the public good across industry, government and society. Against the backdrop of accelerating AI development–including generative AI–across an increasingly wide range of human activities, AIM recognizes that successful models of AI research and education must involve expertise from a wide range of disciplines, including (but not limited to) computer science, engineering, humanistic, and social scientific approaches, as well as experts in other disciplines where AI is on the cutting edge. Including these - and other - disciplines in the development of AI will ensure that this technology is developed in a way that supports people and society.

As a member of AIM, applicants will join and help further our mission of defining and engaging in interdisciplinary AI research and education across all of the UMD College Park campus, and in building a thriving and inclusive AI community. Located just outside Washington, D.C., the University of Maryland is consistently ranked in the top 15 among U.S.-based institutions for AI-related research and education. In the past five years, faculty at UMD have collectively published over 1300 papers, been awarded over $160M in AI-related research grants, and involved in over 15 UMD-based AI-related centers; just last year, we taught over 17k student credit hours of AI-related courses.

EXPECTATIONS OF CANDIDATES

Strong candidates will be considered in all areas of AI, particularly those whose research foci align with two of AIM’s four pillars: accessibility and learning. We interpret these pillars broadly, with accessibility including at least disability, aging, neurodiversity and mental health; and with learning covering education, cognitive and neuroscience, and broadly the creation, dissemination and acquisition of knowledge across people, teams, and organizations. AIM seeks to advance research in AI building on computational foundations (e.g., in speech, language, robotics, multimodality, or advanced computing for AI) as well as strong humanistic or social scientific approaches to AI.

Our research pillars also include sustainability (including climate, food security, agriculture, aquaculture, and their civic, public health and business impacts) and social justice (including race, gender, digital inequality, policy, and social and historical relations of power). We are especially looking for candidates that are interested in cross-disciplinary collaboration as well as actively participating in a strong community of AI-related scholars.

• Faculty are expected to contribute to AIM’s mission to pursue a truly interdisciplinary future for Artificial Intelligence, through both research and education.
• Faculty should pursue research related to AI that meaningfully crosses discipline boundaries, and are expected to take advantage of the many interdisciplinary collaborations possible at UMD.
• Faculty should expect to teach approximately half their courses in AI-related courses that further AIM’s mission: these could be discipline-specific courses (AI-for-X), cross-campus general education courses, courses that support one of our degree programs (B.A., B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in AI), experiential learning courses related to AI, or others.
• Faculty will engage in service in AIM, commensurate with rank, that further AIM’s goals. This service will be in lieu of an equivalent amount of departmental service.

AIM recognizes that interdisciplinary work is challenging to conduct, and oftentimes risky because it may be at odds with the usual promotion and tenure requirements of individual departments. AIM will work closely with new hires, and the chairs and deans in their tenure home, to craft a memorandum of understanding detailing expectations for promotion and tenure that align with the interdisciplinary nature of these roles so as to best support our new faculty.

Successful applicants will have a primary appointment and tenure home either within any department on campus and will hold a joint appointment in AIM. Split appointments involving multiple departments are possible as well, especially for more senior candidates.

Questions for the faculty recruitment committee may be sent to aim@umd.edu.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Ph.D. or equivalent in-hand at the time of joining the University.
• Strong demonstrated interest in research, student mentoring, teaching, and service to the broader scientific community.
• Strong demonstrated interest in interdisciplinary AI research in one of AIM’s four topic areas highlighted above, with preference for AIM's learning and accessibility pillars.

REQUIRED DOCUMENTS

1. Cover Letter
   Letters should outline your interest in the position, including a statement of which department would be a best-fit tenure home for you. A complete list of academic departments and programs at UMD is available (umd.edu/academic-departments-and-programs).
2. Curriculum Vitae
   Complete CV including a list of publications and/or creative work.
3. Research Statements
   -A brief summary (300 words max) of your major research accomplishments.
   AND
   - A summary (1800 words max) of your ongoing and future research goals.
4. Teaching and Mentoring Statement
   Statement should include a summary of teaching interests (please think broadly and include teaching interests both within your home discipline as well as potential interdisciplinary teaching), experience, and mentoring experience.
5. Published Works
   List of three publications, creative work, or other scholarly artifacts that demonstrate your prior research experience in AI as it relates to one of AIM’s four topic areas.
6. Professional References
   List of three people who can provide letters of reference on your behalf. We will only request letters of reference for candidates who are selected for final interviews.

BACKGROUND

Founded in 1856, University of Maryland, College Park is the state's flagship institution with a 1,250-acre campus. Our proximity to Washington, D.C., grants access to the nation's legislative, executive, and judicial centers of power, as well as business and technology leaders, federal departments and agencies, and a myriad of research entities, embassies, think tanks, cultural centers, and non-profit organizations that is unparalleled. Synergistic opportunities for our faculty and students abound and are virtually limitless in the nation's capital and surrounding areas.

AIM is committed to building a faculty pre-eminent in its mission of research, education, and service to the community: we strive to create an inclusive environment where every member of our community feels that they belong and are empowered to reach their full potential. Additional information about resources available to faculty at UMD can be found at advance.umd.edu/resources. Information about the university’s work and family policies can be found at go.umd.edu/workfamily. UMD is committed to fostering a family-friendly community that builds a strong sense of belonging through programs such as TerrapinSTRONG (terrapinstrong.umd.edu).