Salman Avestimehr

Salman Avestimehr is a Dean's Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Southern California, where he serves as the inaugural Director of the USC-Amazon Center on Trustworthy AI. He is also Founding Co-Director of Falcon AI Lab, a collaborative research hub between USC, UCI, and Stanford University for AI-driven chip and analog circuit design.

He is also a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of several leading AI initiatives, including FedML (a widely adopted open-source library for federated machine learning); TensorOpera AI (a full-stack agentic AI platform); ChainOpera AI (a decentralized AI infrastructure platform); and Teamily AI (a human-AI social platform for collaborative intelligence).

Dr. Avestimehr received his Ph.D. (2008) and M.S. (2005) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on information theory, distributed and federated machine learning, and trustworthy AI systems. His work has received numerous prestigious recognitions, including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the James L. Massey Research & Teaching Award from the IEEE Information Theory Society, a Joint Paper Award from the IEEE Information Theory and Communication Societies, and a Young Investigator Program award from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. He is also a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the David J. Sakrison Memorial Prize, and multiple best paper awards at leading conferences. Dr. Avestimehr is an IEEE Fellow.