Dr. Ishanu Chattopadhyay won the Young Faculty Award 2020 from the Defense Advance Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for his research on modeling the dynamics of cognitive dissonance. His research uses some new ideas in machine learning to model from data how opinions change over time, and how we can optimally influence these processes. 

The objective of the DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA) program is to identify and engage rising stars in junior research positions, emphasizing those without prior DARPA funding, and expose them to DoD needs and DARPA’s program development process.

The YFA program provides funding, mentoring and industry and DoD contacts to awardees early in their careers so they may develop their research ideas in the context of national security needs. The long term goal of the YFA program is to develop the next generation of academic scientists, engineers, and mathematicians who will focus a significant portion of their career on DoD and National Security issues.

Congrats to Dr. Ishanu Chattodphyay on his award! 

To find out more about Dr. Ishanu Chattodphyay, you can visit his homepage