IST names Cai, Huang and Lee to lead college’s first academic departments

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) may be one of Penn State’s youngest units, but it has grown significantly since its founding in 1999. The college recently established its first academic departments, a milestone as it continues to mature and innovate in research and education amid rapid technological change. And now, IST has named three permanent department heads to help lead that charge.

“Creating three departments within our college has been one of the most challenging — and important — steps we have taken in our history,” said Andrea Tapia, dean of the College of IST. “Unlike traditional academic units, we are an inherently interdisciplinary college. Our degrees, programs, student services, advising structures, research initiatives and operational support have always been shared, and that shared model is part of our identity and our strength.”

The new departments were designed to provide leadership, mentorship and operational quality without undermining the college’s interdisciplinary culture, according to Tapia.

“It is important that we protect and preserve our culture of collaboration and our ability to move quickly as cutting-edge technology and pedagogical innovators,” she said. “We threaded a very fine needle with this change: Create enough structure to support growth and complexity, while maintaining flexibility, responsiveness and a steadfast commitment to avoiding silos.”

The new department heads will take charge of their units effective July 1, after serving as interim leaders since July 2025.

Department of Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics:

Guoray Cai

“I look forward to contributing to the college’s longstanding vision to improve human relationships with data, information and technology,” said Guoray Cai, associate professor and head of the Department of Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics in the College of IST. “As greater machine intelligence is enabled by the advances of AI, human agency is even more important.”

Cai, who has served as IST’s chair of the faculty council, chair of the promotion and tenure committee and professor-in-charge in the human-computer interaction faculty area, has a vision for the Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics department.

“We will build new strength on human-AI teaming, enterprise AI and AI ethics and literacy,” he said. “We will create a positive impact on the evolution of technologies through human-centered design, responding to the needs of business applications and addressing social challenges.

Department of Informatics and Intelligent Systems:

Sharon Huang

“As department head, my priority is to create the conditions for faculty and students to thrive — through responsible AI and data science, interdisciplinary collaboration and continued growth in programs, research and impact,” said Sharon Huang, David Reese Professor of Information Sciences and Technology and head of the Department of Informatics and Intelligent Systems in the College of IST.

Huang served as IST’s program coordinator for the data sciences major and helped establish Penn State’s first bachelor of science degree in artificial intelligence and is also affiliated with the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. She has a plan for the department's future.

“Our vision is to grow and innovate in artificial intelligence and data science through strong interdisciplinary collaboration and high-quality education,” Huang said. “By advancing responsible AI and data science, impactful research and rigorous academic programs, we seek to enhance the department’s reputation and societal impact.”

Department of Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics:

Dongwon Lee

“This role is an opportunity to help define the structural and intellectual foundations of the department at a formative moment,” said Dongwon Lee, professor and head of the Department of Privacy and Cybersecurity Informatics in the College of IST. “Building on our strengths in secure software systems, adversarial machine learning and privacy engineering, I hope to position the department as a leader in addressing emerging challenges such as generative AI risks, AI-driven attack and defense and resilient cyber infrastructures.

Lee is currently leading a team of students as one of 10 global finalists in the 2026 Amazon Nova AI Challenge. And he serves as the principal investigator of the U.S. National Science Foundation CyberCorps Scholarship for Service program at Penn State, which trains students in AI and cybersecurity skills for careers in national defense. Lee is also affiliated with the Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence

“This department aims to offer rigorous and innovative curricula at the undergraduate and graduate levels — preparing students not only with strong technical foundations but also with the ethical reasoning and interdisciplinary awareness needed to design and govern trustworthy systems,” Lee said. “By tightly coupling research innovation with educational excellence as part of a Research 1 institution’s mission, we can cultivate graduates who are prepared to lead in academia, industry, and public service.”

The search for the new department heads was led by Cindy Brewer, professor and associate dean for faculty affairs in the College of IST. She noted that the leaders are settling into their roles to strengthen IST’s capacity without constraining its creativity.

“The department heads are doing a great job of working directly with their professors and lecturers — running organized faculty meetings, mentoring individuals, celebrating accomplishments and encouraging lots of participation in hiring new colleagues,” Brewer said. “Since we are in the midst of hiring now, they also get the very happy task of calling up junior scholars to offer them a faculty position at Penn State. That may be the best part of the job.”