Princeton Computer Science

The Workers' Algorithm Observatory is a cross-institutional collective led by researchers at Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy and Pennsylvania State University. They build tools to empower workers to investigate black-box algorithmic systems: https://wao.cs.princeton.edu

As part of a $131.5 mil settlement between DoorDash and the NYC government, the WAO will develop software that allows DoorDash workers to share their earnings data with the NYC Dept of Consumer and Worker Protection.

https://www.nyc.gov/site/dca/news/065-26/mayor-mamdani-wins-record-131-5-million-doordash-delivery-workers

WAO - The Workers' Algorithm Observatory The WAO researches and audits work algorithms to empower workers. Companies increasingly rely on opaque, black-box algorithms to determine pay, scheduling, and access to work, while the data needed to understand and challenge these systems remains out of reach for workers and organizers. To address....

Congratulations to graduate students Chris Cai, Peter Halmos, Nicolaas Kaashoek, Stephen Newman and Anchengcheng Zhou on being named 2027 Siebel Scholars! 🎉

Now in its 26th year, the Siebel Scholars Program awards fellowships to students based on academic achievement and leadership. The 72 distinguished fellows of the Class of 2027 join a worldwide network of more than 2,000 fellowship alumni.

https://bit.ly/4xW81Jv

Abhishek Bhattacharjee has joined the Princeton University faculty as a professor of computer science.

Bhattacharjee is an expert in computer architecture, operating systems and neurotechnology. His research focuses on designing computer systems that harness the efficiency of emerging hardware without sacrificing ease of programmability for software developers.

His work has influenced the hardware and operating systems that make up modern data centers and AI infrastructure. More recently, he has applied this expertise to building tiny computing devices that are implanted in the brain. These brain-computer interfaces, critical to basic neuroscience research, are increasingly being used to develop therapies for neurological disorders like stroke, Parkinson’s and epilepsy.

https://bit.ly/3T7v5GK

Congratulations to Princeton alum Pranav Gokhale on winning the 2026 Distinguished Early Career Award at IEEE Quantum Week!

The award, given by the IEEE Quantum Technical Community, is presented annually to an early career researcher who has outstanding contributions to the field of quantum computing and engineering.

Gokhale graduated from Princeton University in 2015 with a BSE in computer science. He is now the CTO of Infleqtion, a company delivering neutral atom solutions for quantum computing, networking, sensing, and security. He earned a doctorate in computer science from the University of Chicago.

Infleqtion’s Pranav Gokhale Receives 2026 IEEE QTC Early Career Award IEEE QTC has named Infleqtion CTO and co-founder Pranav Gokhale a recipient of its 2026 Distinguished Early Career Award.

Petabytes of bodycam footage are collected by police departments across the country every year. Most of this footage is discarded after 90 days and never reviewed.

Increasingly, departments are using AI to analyze these unwatched hours of video. But new research by Olga Russakovsky and her team has found that in 1 out of 4 cases even the most accurate AI models can't identify basic details.

For a typical computer vision task, 77% accuracy would be a decent result, said Jihoon Chung, a doctoral student in computer science and co-first author on the paper. For identifying dog breeds, for example, perfect accuracy isn’t expected. “But for this specific high-stakes task, even if we get 95% accuracy, that’s still not good enough to be deployed in the real world,” he said.

https://bit.ly/4xIWL3P

Congratulations to the 11 computer science faculty members recognized by Princeton Engineering for their outstanding teaching!

🏅Robert Dondero
🏅Aarti Gupta
🏅Manoel Horta Ribeiro
🏅Zachary Kincaid
🏅Pravesh K Kothari
🏅Lydia Liu
🏅Margaret Martonosi
🏅Pedro Paredes
🏅Olga Troyanskaya
🏅Dave Walker
🏅Ellen Zhong

Princeton Engineering - Faculty commended for outstanding teaching Dean Andrew Houck is proud to recognize the following faculty for their outstanding teaching during the Spring 2026 semester, as determined by overall

Police departments are increasingly using AI tools to review and analyze bodycam footage. But new research from Princeton University shows that in 1 out of 4 cases AI models can’t identify basic details, like whether an officer handcuffed someone.

To test the accuracy of current AI models, researchers created a computer-vision benchmark with 185 hours of public footage from police departments across the country. The benchmark shows that the most accurate models correctly identified what was happening in a one-minute video about 77% of the time. The least accurate were correct 11% of the time.

Accurate AI review would be very useful for police departments, since most lack the resources to analyze the petabytes of footage collected by officers every year. But a high degree of accuracy is essential.

“If this system fails, even 1 in 20 cases, then people will always question its accuracy and question whether it’s actually helping,” said Max Gonzalez Saez-Diez, a former master's student in computer science and co-first author on the paper.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/4xIWL3P

Princeton has established a new academic unit, Data and Intelligent Systems (DaIS), to help accelerate the pace of discovery in artificial intelligence and data science and to support transformative research and teaching across disciplines: https://bit.ly/3SCuLQ3

Congratulations to Isaac Badipe, a computer science major, on winning the George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize! 🏆

The prize is awarded to members of the junior class in recognition of exceptional academic achievement during their sophomore year.

Badipe, second from the right, is from London. In addition to studying computer science, he is also pursuing minors in mathematics and linguistics. He was previously a recipient of the Shapiro Prize for Academic Excellence for outstanding work during his freshman year.

https://www.princeton.edu/news/2026/08/30/undergraduate-prizes-awarded-seven-students-academic-achievement

Congratulations to Christopher Moretti on being appointed chief reader for the Advanced Placement computer science exam!

Advanced Placement (AP) courses give high school students the opportunity to do college-level work and earn college credit. Tens of thousands of students take the AP computer science exam every year. As chief reader, Moretti will help develop the exam and provide guidance on grading. He has served as an AP exam reader for the past 12 years.

Moretti joined Princeton University as a teaching faculty member in 2010. He has developed and taught multiple computer science courses and won several teaching awards from Princeton Engineering. He holds a doctorate in computer science from the University of Notre Dame.