August 7, 2024
SCI is pleased to welcome a new chair of the Department of Computer Science (CS), Adriana Kovashka! Beginning in the Fall 2024 term, Kovashka will bring her wisdom and expertise to the department, innovating areas like education, research, and mentorship. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and media studies at Pomona College in 2008 and a PhD in CS at the University of Texas at Austin in 2014, Kovashka joined Pitt’s CS department in 2015.
Her research lies in computer vision, machine learning, and natural language processing, examining how pairs of visual and text data are used to train computers in computer vision methods. Kovashka is interested in using these models to make technology more accessible for users.
“I am interested in ensuring computer vision models can be usable and perform correctly for diverse users, like those from different countries and that speak different languages,” said Kovashka. “I also enrich the information available for computer vision tasks with modalities beyond language, like audio, depth, and touch.”
Kovashka is passionate about providing guidance and mentorship for students in the department. As the new CS chair, Kovashka plans to be open to new ideas that will enhance the department’s research and academic environments.
“I want to expand the guidance and mentoring we provide to our graduate students, including peer mentoring and mentoring-topic-based workshop sessions,” said Kovashka. “I also strive to find creative mechanisms to ensure we maintain top-notch courses, including keeping undergraduate electives and graduate courses up-to-date with cutting edge computational techniques, while also providing sufficient scaffolding.”
Kovashka is eager to begin this new chapter in her SCI journey.
“I’m looking forward to learning how to align the department’s initiatives to the broader goals of the university, in a way that is beneficial to both and that makes our faculty’s, students’ and staff’s work feel meaningful and fulfilling,” said Kovashka.
Please join us in welcoming Kovashka as the new chair of the Department of Computer Science!