David Pynadath, Ph.D. joined Rice University November 2024 as the Ken Kennedy Institute's Executive Director for Research Initiatives. Dr. Pynadath comes to Rice from the Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), a DoD University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) sponsored by the US Army at the University of Southern California. Since 2014, he has been Director for Social Simulation Research at ICT. He has also been a research assistant professor at USC’s Department of Computer Science where he taught classes in Applied Machine Learning and Data Mining and Foundations of AI. He completed his undergraduate degrees at MIT and his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Pynadath has extensive research in computing, AI, human-machine teaming, and social simulation with a proven track record of funding from federal funding agencies.

Dr. Pynadath will support the Responsible AI and Computing research efforts of the Ken Kennedy Institute. His activities will consist of identifying and supporting research funding, including developing proposals, in line with the interests and ambitions of the Institute’s members; building internal and external collaborations with state and federal agencies, industry, foundations, philanthropic entities, universities, the Texas Medical Center and other relevant organizations; and supporting the member, community, and outreach activities of the Ken Kennedy Institute.