Prof. Janeja receives Regents Award for Research Excellence

UMBC's Vandana Janeja in the Information Systems Department was selected as a recipient of the 2024 University System of Maryland Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship or Research, the highest honor that the Board of Regents bestows to recognize exemplary faculty achievement.

Dr. Janeja is a world-renowned expert in data science and artificial intelligence. As a multidisciplinary researcher, her research spans data science, information technology, geoscience, linguistics, and education. After serving as the department chair of Information Systems from 2019 to 2023, Dr. Janeja is currently leading the College of Engineering and Information Technology as the Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development. 

In the last three years, Dr. Janeja was exceptionally productive with one scholarly book on data analytics for cybersecurity, many research articles in prestigious refereed journals, and more than 16.5 million research funding from NSF. Her extramurally funded research projects address a wide range of national priorities such as data science education, research capacity building for earth and environmental sciences, and climate change. She uses novel data and AI-driven methods to advance research and education in these areas. 

Dr. Janeja’s research is incredibly impactful through her multidisciplinary collaboration. One exemplary project is the NSF HDR Institute for Harnessing the data and model revolution in the polar regions (iHARP), which is funded by one of the most prestigious NSF awards. As the director of iHARP, Dr. Janeja leads a team of more than 80 faculty, scientists, postdoctoral researchers, and students from nine institutions, industry, and government agencies to address the most pressing challenges in the Polar region. What sets Dr. Jeneja apart from her peers is her ability to bridge information technology and social sciences to make big societal impacts. In NSF-funded deepfake discernment project, Dr. Jeneja collaborates with linguists to advance the detection of audio deepfakes. Her work exemplifies the need to address the issues of ethics and responsibility in data science and AI. It will greatly improve the effectiveness of deepfake discernment to enhance cybersecurity, prevent financial fraud, and inform legal practice.