Yampolskiy Honored with Prestigious “Excellence in Science Education and Outreach Award”

Dr. Roman Yampolskiy

University of Louisville Speed School of Engineering professor Dr. Roman YampolskiyRoman V Yampolskiy has won the prestigious 2019 Kentucky Academy of Science “Excellence in Science Education and Outreach Award.” The 4000-member state-wide academy recognized Yampolskiy at its annual meeting on November 1, 2019 at Berea College.

Yampolskiy was honored for his work in the field of artificial intelligence. Wei Zhang, professor and chair of Computer Science & Engineering, who nominated the professor, said he is not only an excellent teacher and inspirational speaker, but a tireless public promoter and educator about the impact of artificial intelligence and its safety issues. “Dr. Yampolskiy is a stellar example of the Computer Science and Engineering department’s commitments to excellent teaching, scholarship and serving our communities,” said Zhang.

“In addition to teaching, I do a lot of outreach work and dissemination of science,” said Yampolskiy. “It is not always obvious if public talks, interviews, podcasts and social media posts have a significant impact on educating the population in general and student recruitment in particular. Receiving this ‘Excellence in Science Education and Outreach Award’ means that it does,” he said.

Yampolskiy said he is pleased to see the scientific community recognize the importance of his work and its positive impact on the Commonwealth of Kentucky and beyond. Yampolskiy’s book, Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach, has become a foundational text for the new science of AI safety engineering, directly addressing the potentially sinister issues related to our future in the age of intelligent machines. The book seeks to consolidate research aimed at making sure that emerging superintelligence is beneficial to humanity.

The Speed School professor and honoree said he would be remiss if he did not thank his nominators and colleagues Drs. Zhang, Adel Elmaghraby and Adrian Lauf for his award. “Of course, importantly, I also want to thank the Academy,” he said.