Kavita Bala

Kavita Bala is an accomplished computer scientist, academic, and entrepreneur, currently serving as the Dean of the Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science at Cornell University. Born in 1971 in Bombay, India, she received her Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT, Bombay) in 1992, followed by a Master of Science (S.M.) and a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1999.12

Academic and Professional Career

Bala joined the Cornell Computer Science faculty in 2002 after completing her postdoctoral research in computer graphics at Cornell. She has held various leadership roles, including serving as the chair of the Computer Science Department from 2018 to 2020 before her appointment as Dean. Her research focuses on computer vision and graphics, particularly in areas such as material modeling, realistic rendering, and visual recognition.13

Contributions and Achievements

Bala co-founded GrokStyle, a visual recognition AI company that developed technology for IKEA's augmented reality shopping experience. The company was acquired by Facebook in 2019, and its technology now underpins Facebook's GrokNet visual search capabilities. Bala's research has been recognized with numerous awards, including being named an ACM Fellow in 2019 and receiving the SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award in 2020. She has also contributed to significant academic literature, co-authoring the influential textbook "Advanced Global Illumination" and publishing numerous papers in top-tier conferences and journals.123

Current Focus

Bala's current research interests include the recognition of materials and styles in images, as well as the cultural analysis of fashion trends through image collections. Her work has been showcased in prestigious venues, such as the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, where her project on 3D Mandalas was featured.23

Bala is also actively involved in various professional organizations, serving on boards and committees that promote diversity and excellence in computer science education and research.12