Suresh Marru is a research professor dedicated to advancing science and engineering through AI and cyberinfrastructure. Over the past two decades, he has focused on accelerating and democratizing computational science. His work includes the development of science gateways and the pioneering of the Apache Airavata distributed systems framework.

In his current role as the Director of Georgia Tech's ARTISAN Center, his team is at the forefront of pioneering efforts to integrate AI into diverse scientific domains. His group is dedicated to bridging the gap between theory, experimentation, and computation by fostering open-source integration frameworks. These frameworks automate research processes, optimize complex models, and integrate disparate scientific data with simulation engines.

Collaboration is at the heart of Suresh’s ethos. He has had the privilege of working alongside brilliant scientists and technologists, contributing to groundbreaking research in domains such as geosciences, neuroscience, and molecular dynamics. These collaborations have not only accelerated scientific discovery but have also offered valuable insights into the potential of AI in scientific innovation.

Beyond his professional endeavors, Suresh is deeply passionate about open science and open-source software. He also believes in building synergies between academia and industry. He has played an instrumental role in a series of tech startups. Currently, he serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Folia, a company dedicated to unleashing the power of annotations.

Alenka Zajic is currently the Ken Byers Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She has received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia, in 2001 and 2003, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in 2008. Before joining Georgia Tech as an assistant professor, Zajic was a post-doctoral fellow in the Naval Research Laboratory and visiting faculty in the School of Computer Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Zajic is the recipient of the following awards: IEEE Atlanta Section Outstanding Engineer Award (2019), The Best Poster Award at the IEEE International Conference on RFID (2018), NSF CAREER Award (2017), Best Paper Award at the 49th Annual IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture (2016), the Best Student Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Communications and Electronics (2014), Neal Shepherd Memorial Best Propagation Paper Award (2012), the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Telecommunications (2008), the Best Student Paper Award at the Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (2007), IEEE Outstanding Chapter Award as a Chair of the Atlanta Chapter of the AP/MTT Societies (2016), LexisNexis Dean's Excellence Award (2016), and Richard M. Bass/Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Teacher Award (2016). She was an editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications 2012-2017 and an executive editor for Wiley Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies 2011-2016 .