Applied AI Systems Tenure-line Faculty
Application Deadline: November 1st, 2026
The Department of Human-Centered Computing and Social Informatics in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at The Pennsylvania State University invites applications for multiple tenure-line faculty positions in applied AI systems, located in State College, Pennsylvania. The appointments are at the assistant or associate professor rank and begin in August 2027 at the University Park campus. Remote appointments are not permitted for these hires.
We seek outstanding scholars in one of the following two areas. Applicants are invited to address the area that fits their work; there is no expectation that a candidate speaks to both.
Physical AI: We seek scholars who design, build, and/or deploy physical AI systems, particularly edge AI and cyber-physical systems, which can sense, reason, and act in the physical world. Such systems take many forms, including embedded and autonomous systems, robotics, wearables and health-sensing devices, instrumented environments, and the Internet of Things. Examples of relevant expertise include embedded and on-device machine learning, resource-constrained and real-time computation, sensing and actuation, hardware-software co-design, and/or edge-cloud system architecture, demonstrated through working systems that are prototyped, deployed, and/or evaluated in real environments. We are interested in candidates whose systems reach domains such as healthcare, smart homes and buildings, manufacturing, transportation, and public services, and who treat usability and/or sustainability as engineering requirements. Successful candidates will be prepared to build hands-on, project-based curricula in collaboration with industry partners.
Enterprise AI: We seek scholars who study and teach how AI is engineered, integrated, deployed, governed, and/or continuously improved in real organizational contexts. Examples of relevant expertise include generative AI and agentic systems in the enterprise; human-AI collaboration and the redesign of work; AI governance, assurance, and risk; and/or the integration of AI into core business functions such as accounting, finance, human resources, management, marketing, operations, and supply chain. We welcome candidates working at the intersection of information systems and applied AI, including those whose scholarship engages enterprise systems, business processes, digital transformation, and organizational computing. We are especially interested in candidates who build and evaluate AI-enabled systems in partnership with organizations, and who are prepared to develop project-based curricula that prepare students to deploy and govern AI at scale.
We particularly welcome applicants whose research demonstrates interdisciplinary collaboration and addresses significant societal, governmental, or industrial challenges.
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