Narayanan selected as new chair of computer science and software engineering

N. Hari Narayanan, John H. and Gail Watson professor, has been named chair of Auburn University’s Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering. His appointment begins Aug. 16. 

Hari Narayanan

“I am honored to be selected as chair of such an exceptional department in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering,” Narayanan said. “My goals are to ensure the highest quality education for every student and to raise the department’s academic stature and research profile within the college, the state and the nation.”

Narayanan joined the Auburn faculty in 1996 following a career at the Advanced Research Laboratory at Hitachi, Stanford University’s Knowledge Systems Laboratory, the EduTech Institute and the Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Computing. He earned master’s degrees in automation and computer science from the Indian Institute of Science and the University of Rochester, respectively, and a doctorate in computer and information science from the Ohio State University. Narayanan also holds a certificate in leadership, management and communication from George Washington University.

His research interests include applied artificial intelligence, cognitive science, human-computer interaction and learning sciences and technologies. Narayanan established Auburn’s Intelligent and Interactive Systems Laboratory and has served as its director since 1997.

For his research endeavors, Narayanan won the Auburn Engineering Research Award for Excellence as a junior faculty member in 2001 and again as a senior faculty member in 2005. He was also selected to fill the John H. and Gail Watson professorship in 2011.

“Dr. Narayanan has developed outstanding credentials in research and teaching over two decades of service to the College of Engineering,” said Christopher B. Roberts, dean of the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering. “His appointment puts a proven innovator at the helm to build on the department’s continued growth and implement our vision for the future.”

Narayanan succeeds Kai Chang, who served as department chair over the past decade.

“I want to express my sincere gratitude to Kai for his unwavering service and commitment to the advancement of the department, and to the college as well,” Roberts said. “I wish him the best as he returns to the faculty and resumes his innovative classroom and research roles.”