2025 OMSCS Conference Recap
The 2025 OMSCS Conference was held on April 28-29 at the Global Learning Center. As always, the conference featured engaging presentations from OMSCS students and alumni (including a newly added poster session), a Resource Fair, an evening reception, and a campus tour. We were particularly happy to welcome Kathy Pham as our keynote speaker, as well as OMSCS instructor Irfan Essa, who showcased his work with generative AI. OMSCS Executive Director David Joyner kicked off the program with his "State of OMSCS Address", and he closed things out with a tour of Georgia Tech's campus. Additionally, attendees were invited to a Georgia Tech baseball game, dinner, and a tour of the CODA building the day before the conference for a little extra socializing.
Scroll down for more about this year's conference!
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Keynote Address: Kathy Pham
We were thrilled to welcome Kathy Pham (a Double Jacket!) to the conference as our keynote speaker. Kathy—whose current titles include Vice President of AI at Workday, Senior Advisor at Mozilla, and Harvard faculty member—focuses much of her work on ethical computing. She gave a riveting and inspiring presentation about “Building the Uninvented Future”, encouraging computer scientists to stay mindful of those skills that are uniquely human (especially in the age of artificial intelligence); to identify opportunities for interdisciplinary skill-building and collaboration; and to seek out and embrace roles that are brand new, or perhaps haven’t been invented yet.
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Irfan Essa: Art-ificial Intelligence
OMSCS instructor and Google research scientist Irfan Essa gave an engaging presentation about the use of generative artificial intelligence in artistic spaces to create and modify images and videos. His talk was peppered with eye-catching, real-world examples, culminating with his work to bring the classic film The Wizard of Oz to the 160,000-square-foot spherical screen of the Las Vegas Sphere. It was a treat to get a glimpse into this cutting-edge research!
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Other Highlights
Baseball Game & Social
OMSCS alumni Peter Graening and Cherie Lum organized get-togethers for attendees to interact the day before the conference: a Georgia Tech baseball game in the afternoon, and dinner and a CODA building tour in the evening.
Poster Session
Posters were a new presentation format this year. Alongside project demos, posters allowed attendees to converse with presenters in a stop-and-chat environment.
Ethical Computing Panel
OMSCS student Vishrut Goel led a panel titled "Technology with a Conscience: Exploring Ethics in Computing", featuring experts from both Georgia Tech and Emory University.
Engagement Opportunities
Attendees could engage with each other through a fun dicebreaker game, on the conference Slack channel, and—as always—on David Joyner's post-conference campus tour.
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Conference Sponsor
We are immensely grateful to Stryker—one of the world’s leading medical technology companies, and the official sponsor of this year’s conference. Representatives from Stryker participated in the conference Resource Fair and tabled throughout the conference, giving attendees an opportunity to interact with them, learn about their company, and explore potential job opportunities.
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Who Attended?
145 people registered to attend the conference in person, and 89 registered to attend virtually. Below are some insights into who was there!
Affiliation
Specialization
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Global Audience
Many people traveled from different U.S. states to attend the conference in person, and some even traveled from other countries! Notably, 48% of our U.S.-based in-person attendees live outside of Georgia! Check out the maps below to see where people were traveling from.
U.S. State of Residence
Country of Residence
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Feedback
What did attendees think about this year's conference? Check out results from our feedback survey below!
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Impact
As always, the OMSCS Conference succeeds in at least two Strategic Focus Areas detailed in Georgia Tech’s Strategic Plan:
- Connect Globally: The OMSCS Conference attracts people not only from outside Georgia, but also from outside the U.S. Thus, the conference exemplifies our dedication to serving our global student and alumni population and may function as a model for similar globally-focused events.
- Cultivate Well-Being: Attendees associate the OMSCS Conference with words such as “positive experience”, “valuable”, “meaningful”, “connected”, and “fun”. These descriptors have less to do with academics and more to do with mental and emotional health, highlighting the conference’s important role in strengthening the well-being of OMSCS students and alumni.
The 2025 OMSCS Conference was a blast, all the way from the pre-conference social events to David Joyner's post-conference campus tour. We're grateful to everyone who attended (in person or virtually), to everyone who helped bring the event to life, and to our official conference sponsor Stryker.
Until next year!
Quotes from Attendees:
"The conference leaves me feeling refreshed and revived… At [the] OMSCS Conference, I've made friendships that extend beyond the conference. We support each other in our career endeavors and shared mutual interests."
"I enjoyed getting to meet folks from all over the country in the shared experience of the program, especially the women."
"As this [is] an online program, I think this was a very valuable experience to meet other people."