Towards Convergence: Pushing the Boundaries in Computer Science

Computer science has grown at a tremendous pace in recent decades and its impact on day-to-day life has overshadowed that of many mature scientific fields. With advances in both core and applied areas, computer science has not only led to the creation of new inter-disciplinary fields but also the expansion of their traditional boundaries. Recognizing the importance of such partnership, NSF is now promoting a new form of collaboration - convergence. Convergence refers to a systematic and deep integration of various science and technology fields to promote and catalyze new research directions and innovations, as opposed to the ad-hoc collaborations that is widely prevalent. In this talk, I will start with some of the newly emerging research directions in computer science and then discuss my current research in data analytics and smart health. I will demonstrate how this research has brought together previously disparate fields of databases, natural language processing, machine learning, signal processing, computer vision, as well as biology and medicine in order to usher a new ecosystem for data analytics and smart health. I will also present my vision on expanding the boundaries in computer science for both research and education and the steps needed to achieve the vision.