Led by Duke University, Athena is a multi-university and trans-disciplinary AI center including seven academic institutions (Duke, Yale, Wisconsin, Michigan, Princeton, MIT, and N.C. A&T State University); and five industry collaborators, AT&T, Microsoft, Motorola Solutions, EdgeMicro and 5NINES.
Who We Are
Leadership Team
Yiran Chen, Principal Investigator
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Experience: Director of NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Alternative and Sustainable Intelligent Computing (ASIC) and co-Director of the Duke Center for Evolutionary Intelligence (DCEI)
Jeffrey L. Krolik, Managing Director
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Experience: Program Manager in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Strategic Technology Office

Suman Banerjee, Networking Thrust Lead
Professor of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin
Experience: Founding director of the WiNGS laboratory and in leading multiple large-scale wireless systems projects under National Science Foundation's GENI, US-Ignite, ICN-WEN, and MLWiNS programs, with expertise in edge computing, wireless systems, and smart-city deployments

Lin Zhong, Computer Systems Thrust Lead
Professor of Computer Science, Yale University
Experience: Director of Efficient Computing Lab at Yale
Hai "Helen" Li, AI Foundations Thrust Lead
Clare Boothe Luce Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Experience: Founding director of the Duke Center for Evolutionary Intelligence (DCEI), and co-director of NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center for Alternative and Sustainable Intelligent Computing (ASIC)
Miroslav Pajic, Services and Applications Thrust Lead
Dickinson Family Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Experience: Director of the Cyber-Physical Systems Lab (CPSL) at Duke, specializing in design and analysis of cyber-physical systems with varying levels of autonomy and human interaction
Shaundra Daily, Education and Workforce Development Lead
Cue Family Professor of the Practice in Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Experience: Director of the Diversity in Tech Lab, specializing in developing curricula and technology to broaden participation in STEM fields

Daniel Limbrick, Broader Participation Lead
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina A&T State University
Experience: Director of the Automated Design for Emerging Processing Technologies (ADEPT) laboratory, specializing in the design, verification, and testing of secure and reliable microelectronic systems, and faculty co-sponsor for the SAE Autodrive Challenge
Participants
David Atienza Alonso
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the Embedded Systems Laboratory (ESL) at EPFL, Switzerland
Abhishek Bhattacharjee
Associate Professor of Computer Science, Yale University
Igal Bilik
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Lawrence Carin
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Krishnendu Chakrabarty
Fulton Professor of Microelectronics, Arizona State University
Tingjun Chen
Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Jeff Derby
Adjunct Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Nita A. Farahany
Robinson O. Everett Distinguished Professor of Law, Duke University
Neil Gong
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Maria Gorlatova
Nortel Networks Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Song Han
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Wenjun Hu
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Yale University
John C Kelly
Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina A&T State University
Anurag Khandelwal
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Yale University
Younghyun Kim
Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Bhuvana Krishnaswamy
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Bruce Maggs
Pelham Wilder Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Duke University
Morley Mao
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Michael Kendrick Reiter
James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Rajashi Runton
Athena Program Coordinator, Duke University
Olga Russakovsky
Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Princeton University
Ulf Schlichtmann
Professor of Electronic Design Automation, Technical University of Munich
Leandros Tassiulas
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Yale University
Alicia Nicki Washington
Cue Family Professor of the Practice of Computer Science, Duke University
Lisa Wu Wills
Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University
Partners
- 5Nines
- AT&T
- Microsoft
- Motorola Solutions
- Town of Cary, NC
Supported by the NSF National AI Research Institute